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@freedomwriter76 Ok! I’ll do it whenever I have time.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@keilah-h. Great! I’m excited for it! 😀
Ok, I hope this’ll work. Here’s the whole thing!
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@keilah-h. Ack. It’s not working. 🙁
@freedomwriter76 Really? So sorry, next time I get a chance I’ll try to redo it.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@keilah-h. Not your fault! Take your time! 😀
@freedomwriter76
This is likely not going to work, given my luck with this document these past few days, but if it does tell me what you think!
file:///C:/Users/JAHEL/Documents/My%20stories/What%20If–Star%20Wars-Tron%20combination%20(pdf%20file).pdf
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
Ok, so linking it kept not working. I had to copy and paste literally the whole thing, so….. here we go, hope this works.
Space.
Time.
Reality.
It’s more than a linear path. It’s a prism of endless possibility.
I will be your guide while we ponder the question….
WHAT IF?
The Grid.
A digital frontier.
What if there was more than one?
What if, in another galaxy, I had created another?
What if the Empire had, like Clu, rectified it for their own purposes?
And what if, like me, some unsuspecting character had found it?
—Sam Flynn
The sound of speeders split the air. “After them!” an Imperial soldier shouted.
Clone Force 99 easily outsmarted their pursuers, heading for the Imperial base in the distance. Their target was there: databases which held important information. They were there to collect needed data for their most recent client, and if possible delete their own files.
“Have we lost them?” Echo asked, looking over his shoulder.
“I think so.” Hunter pulled his speeder to a halt and dismounted it. “Tech, do your thing.”
Tech got off his own speeder and began trying to hack the door in front of them. “I have it…now.” he said.
The door swung open. “That’s…a big door.” Wrecker pointed out, saying what they all were thinking.
Tech turned on the light on his goggles. It shined a path down the hallway, toward a camera at the end. “We’ll have to take that out.” he said.
“No problem.” Omega grabbed a laser pointer from Hunter’s belt and shined it at the camera. “Some of the cadets back on Kamino taught me how to temporarily disable cameras. They meant it as a prank, but I guess it’s useful here.”
Sure enough, no one disturbed them as they snuck toward the server room, where they’d find their quarry.
“This’ll take a few minutes.” said Echo, crouching down to insert his data-spike right “hand” into one of the ports. “But I’ll have all that we need, and I’ll be able to erase any trace of us from the Imperial database.”
He was halfway finished when a security guard passing the server room noticed shapes moving inside. “Hey!” he called. “What are you doing? Who are you?”
“Time to go.” Wrecker pulled Echo away.
“I wasn’t able to get our files out of the system,” the cyborg clone protested.
“Do you have the ones we need?” Hunter asked. “Right now those are more important.”
Echo nodded, and the five clones ran through the forest of servers, looking for a way out.
They found one…but it was up to the roof of the building. They were basically cornered. “Nowhere to run.” said the security guard.
Echo smiled slyly—and stepped backward over the edge!
“What’re you doing?” Hunter snapped as his brother fell. But Echo seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He grabbed onto one of the speeders they’d left with his one good hand and hoisted himself onto it, coming around for the others.
The speeder wasn’t made for five—or even four and a kid. It lurched dangerously, especially with its pilot having only one hand to control it with. “Set us down over there.” said Hunter, pointing to an open door in the next building.
“I know you’re in there!” came the distant voice of the security guard.
“Tech, stop fiddling with that keyboard and shut the door!” Hunter shouted as Tech busied himself with the control panel in the room.
“I’m trying!” Tech retorted, hitting a key. It shut the door—but made something behind them start to glow ominously.
“Uh…what’s that?” Wrecker turned his head to look at it right before it shot a beam of light.
The five of them suddenly found themselves in a completely different room than they’d been in before.
“What—what just happened?” Echo asked, looking around.
A loud droning caught their attention, and the five raced out the door. A starship of some sort was above them.
It was unlike any ship they’d seen before, looking more like two columns and a connecting bar than anything else.
Suddenly the ground lowered beneath them, leaving the Bad Batch stuck on a narrow platform. The strange ship lowered to their level.
Black-armored soldiers walked out and grabbed the clones. “These programs don’t have discs!” one shouted to another. “Take them!”
“Programs?” Hunter said, struggling against the soldiers’ grip as they led him into the vessel they’d come in. “We’re not programs! We’re clones!”
The ship took off, taking them with it. Tech was fascinated. “How is this possible?” he asked, straining his neck to look out the window. “This world—the black and lights—all of it!”
“I’ve heard rumors.” Omega said. “But I didn’t think this was real. They actually did it.”
“Did what?” Hunter asked, but the thud of the ship landing drowned out the reply.
Another of the black-armored creatures inspected them. “Take these ones to the games.” he said. “And this one…” He stared down at Omega, the smallest of the five. “This one gets taken to our leader.”
“Let go of me!” Omega shouted as the soldiers grabbed her and led her away.
“Hey! She comes with us.” Hunter hissed, trying to force his own way out of the guards’ grip. But they held fast, and took him out of the others’ sight into an empty room.
At least, it looked empty. But it wasn’t.
Four creatures stepped out of the shadows; they looked human in all respects, but there was something different about them. They were programs. One held one finger to the sky. A light glowed from it. Hunter cocked his head, curious.
The four all aimed their finger-lights at him—and somehow sawed off his armor!
“Hey, hey! What’re you doing?” Hunter snapped at them. But as the pieces of his clone armor hit the floor, he found he was wearing a black bodysuit much like the one he’d been wearing before, except it seemed to be made of a different material.
“Huh.” Hunter looked down at his arm. The programs began attaching something else to his suit. When he looked down, he saw they’d put on lights of some sort. The lights blinked on, mostly a silvery color. Some of the smaller ones were a deep purple, including a stylized “99” on his chest.
“You will receive an Identity Disc.” said a voice—possibly one of the programs’? “Everything you see or learn will be imprinted onto this disc.”
Hunter felt a jolt as the disc was fastened to his back, but it only lasted a second. He looked around as the programs stepped back from where he was. “What am I supposed to do now?” he asked one.
The program smiled at him, but it was hard to tell if it was a reassuring smile or an ominous one. “Survive.”
Hunter stepped forward as a door opened in front of him. Survive. I’m good at that, he thought.
He looked around and noticed the others—all except Omega. They had light-suits and discs too. Tech’s lights were green, Echo’s lights were blue, and Wrecker’s almost blood-red.
Tech noticed Hunter and tried to talk to him, but there was glass or some transparent material between each clone, blocking out his words. They were on some sort of elevator, and it was rising.
As the elevator rose to its destination, Hunter could hear programs chanting. Their words were unclear for a minute, but soon he could make them out: “Disc wars! Disc wars!”
Disc wars? he thought. Then he looked around.
Programs were using their identity discs to fight, throwing them like Frisbees. Even some clones wearing light-suits were in the battles.
One program missed his target. The clone battling him threw his disc, hitting the program square in the chest. The crowd cheered as the program’s body shattered into tiny, glass-like pieces.
“9901 versus 0503,” said a voice. Hunter looked up at where it’d come from. Was it talking about him?
It turned out it was. A program was brought into the same disc field. He looked vicious.
“You want to fight?” Hunter tried to imitate some of Wrecker’s bold confidence. “Give me all you got!”
The program swung his disc and let it go. It sailed past, missing Hunter’s head by centimeters and bouncing back to its owner.
Hunter answered it with a swipe of his own, but the program blocked it by raising his disc as if it were a shield.
“You’re pretty tough.” Hunter told the program. “But I think I’m tougher!” He threw his disc so it skimmed the floor around his enemy. The program took a step onto the cracked spot, snarling.
He fell through and shattered when he hit the ground.
Hunter looked down through the hole the program had left. Could I survive a fall like that? he thought.
“Combatant 9901, victory.” said the announcer voice. “9901 versus 7521.”
“Yeah, I’m out of here, long fall or not.” Hunter leaped through the hole in the floor when he noticed his next opponent, who looked like he’d even be able to beat Wrecker. He hit another of the disc war playing fields, which broke his fall somewhat and allowed him to take it in two jumps. But as he landed on the ground, he realized something was off about it.
It looked like a bigger disc-fighting battleground. Suddenly the whole arena was quiet. Echo, who had just beaten an enemy in a disc field just above, looked down and tried to tell Hunter something.
“9901 versus 9904,” announced the voice. The crowd cheered, even louder than earlier.
9904? Hunter had heard that number before. But where?
Then a familiar voice behind him hissed, “We meet again, don’t we?”
Hunter turned around.
It was Crosshair.
“I knew it would come to this someday,” Crosshair said. He took out his own disc and ignited it—but it wasn’t a single disc. It was two.
“Come on, is that even legal?” Hunter attempted to split his own disc, but he only had one. He swung it around and threw it anyway.
Crosshair blocked Hunter’s disc with one hand and threw his other one. Hunter narrowly turned to the side and dodged—had he not, the disc would’ve slashed his head off. He grabbed his own disc back and blocked his opponent’s other one.
“Gravity reversal engaged,” said the computerized announcer, totally random. Crosshair looked up and jumped just as the world seemed to flip upside down. Hunter wasn’t fast enough and slammed into the floor—or rather, the ceiling. He found himself getting dizzy as he looked out at his surroundings.
Crosshair seemed unfazed. He raised one of his discs and was about to stab it into Hunter’s chest when the computer proclaimed, “Gravity reversal disabled.”
The two clones fell back to the ground. Neither had scored a hit yet—both were just too good at dodging each other’s blows.
But Hunter was new to this game, and Crosshair clearly had some sort of experience. He avoided his enemy’s strikes easily, and he finally got in one of his own. One of his discs sliced Hunter in the arm after bouncing off of the wall and coming back around.
“Ow!” Hunter hissed, dropping his disc for a second.
One second was all Crosshair needed. He knocked Hunter’s disc aside and put one of his own to the other clone’s neck. “Yield.” he sneered.
“Derezz him! Derezz him!” the crowd shouted.
Hunter could see no choice but to surrender. If he moved or tried to continue fighting, Crosshair’s disc would plunge into his neck. “I yield,” he snarled, “but this isn’t over.”
“Oh, it’s not.” Crosshair jerked Hunter to his feet and led him out of the arena. “Someone’s been looking for you, and I intend to bring you to him.”
Crosshair and two program guards led Hunter and the rest of the Bad Batch to a room high above the arena. An Imperial officer was waiting for them. His light-suit was weird—it was the same as a typical Republic-Imperial uniform, but in black and with lights attached to the front and back.
He turned around as they approached. “I’ve been looking for you four,” he said, his mouth curving into a sneer. “And where’s the little one?”
“I thought she was with you.” said one of the guards.
“Well, she’s not,” the officer snapped, “so someone isn’t doing their job.”
The guard looked sheepish.
“What do you want from us, Rampart?” Hunter hissed. “You’ve been hunting us for a while.”
“Admiral Rampart,” the Imperial corrected. He paced around the captured clones. “And yes, I’ve been searching for you for a long time. You see, having only one of the legendary Clone Force 99 in the Empire’s ranks just won’t do. And I know you’ve taken out your inhibitor chips, not like those ordinary ones—what do you call them? ‘Regs?’ But you don’t need them. I’m offering you a chance to join, willingly, like your brother did.” He nodded to Crosshair, who’d walked over to the corner of the room and stood silently in the shadows.
“We’ll never join you!” Wrecker shouted, still trying to pull his hands out of his restraints.
“Let us go.” Echo’s voice was firm.
Rampart smirked. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He nodded to one of the guards. “Take them back down.”
“What? No! I can’t go through that again!” Tech shouted as they dragged him and the others out. Hunter noticed a fresh wound in his cheek, presumably from a disc he hadn’t dodged in time.
“Oh, I’m not challenging you four to a disc battle.” said Rampart. “The game has changed, clones.”
The four soon saw exactly what he’d meant by “changing the game.”
They were taken to a large flat space, not like the disc war arenas. A program, rather than the computerized voice, was the announcer here.
Rampart, Crosshair, and two troopers (not clones) were on one team. The clones of the Bad Batch were on the other.
The program announcer brought them each a baton of some sort. “What do we do with it?” Wrecker asked. He waved it in the air like it was a wand.
The announcer gave him a dubious look. “I’ll give you a clue: Not that.”
“Show them how it’s done,” Rampart told his team. They stood in a line, ran, and jumped, pulling the batons apart. Vehicles—light-motorcycles of some sort—appeared below them and sped forward as they hit the ground.
Tech was completely in love with this concept when he saw it. “That’s…absolutely amazing,” he sighed, totally forgetting his former reluctance.
“No time for that, Tech!” Echo shouted, running past him.
All four of them ran and finally leaped, activating their Lightcycles.
Is this a race of some sort? Hunter thought. But as he looked around, he realized it couldn’t be. The space was too wide.
The opposing team’s Lightcycles all had a ribbon of light streaming from their backs. It was hard to tell what it was for—until Echo figured it out, quite by accident.
Having only one hand, he had trouble controlling his Lightcycle. It swerved rather wildly at first, but he eventually got a hold of it—until he tried to turn to avoid one of the light-ribbons.
Kaboom! His Lightcycle exploded, sending him flying.
“Echo!” Hunter shouted.
“Are you all right?” Tech asked.
“I’m fine,” said Echo, trapped in a cage-like light-tunnel, “but it looks like I’m out of the game.”
“We need to try to do that to them,” Hunter told Tech and Wrecker. “Find the switch to activate the light-ribbons.”
“They’re more like light-walls,” Wrecker pointed out.
“Light-walls, then.” Hunter corrected.
“Found it!” Tech called as his Lightcycle activated a green light-wall the same color as the lights on his clothes.
“Try to trap them using the walls. They’ll get confused and crash.” Hunter told the others.
Wrecker sped right up to one of the enemy Lightcycles. “Hey,” he said, and then punched the trooper driving it. The Lightcycle spun out of control and crashed into one of its own team’s light-walls.
“Or we could do that.” Tech decided. Suddenly, his Lightcycle went down—underneath the floor!
Hunter looked down at where his brother had gone. Tech’s Lightcycle was still being chased by two of the enemy’s. There’s a second level, he realized.
He looked back and saw that there was still a Lightcycle chasing him. “Try and get me,” he growled, speeding up. His Lightcycle reached a ramp and zipped down it.
Together, Hunter and Tech managed to destroy another of the opposing Lightcycles, but Rampart and Crosshair were both still after them. The two Imperials were good.
Wrecker finally discovered the lower level and joined his brothers, but he didn’t last long down there.
Rampart removed his disc from his back and slashed it into the side of Wrecker’s Lightcycle. The big clone’s weight overbalanced his now-damaged vehicle, and it skidded to the side and crashed. Another light-tunnel went up, its occupant contained.
“It’s just us now,” Hunter called to Tech.
Then Crosshair slammed his Lightcycle into Tech’s. For a minute, Tech’s Lightcycle wobbled, then flipped, knocking its rider off, and skidded across the floor, turning back into a baton.
Hunter grabbed it and raced over to get it back to his brother, but before he could, a disc flew from behind and slashed it in two. The baton shattered to pieces like the dead programs had.
Crosshair’s disc returned to his hand. “He always talked too much,” he muttered to himself as he left Tech lying trapped on the ground behind him.
Hunter whipped his Lightcycle around to pursue Crosshair’s. But as soon as he was close, the former Bad Batch member turned sharply. Hunter was far too close to stop.
His Lightcycle exploded with a crash, and he found himself thrown in the air. He landed with a thud and rolled across the floor for a second, but no light-prison caught him.
Which wasn’t necessarily good. Crosshair and Rampart could now make easy prey of him—or even run him over with their Lightcycles. But before they did, something else came to the rescue.
A large vehicle crashed through the arena wall, blasting holes through the light-walls and light-prisons and knocking the two Lightcycles aside. “What the….” Hunter looked up at it. Whoever was driving wasn’t doing it well.
The vehicle drove past the other clones and picked up each one, then came around for him. A door on the side opened, revealing its driver: a helmeted program with white lights. “Get in,” the program said. Its voice seemed female, and familiar, but it was hard to place due to the helmet.
“What?” Hunter asked, confused.
“Just get in!” said the program as she noticed the two Imperials starting to get up.
Hunter leaped into the vehicle just as Crosshair and Rampart activated their Lightcycles. He looked back toward them as the vehicle sped back out of the hole it’d left from its dramatic entrance.
Crosshair and Rampart both stopped their Lightcycles at the edge of the jagged tear in the arena wall.
They looked furious.
“Why aren’t they following us?” Wrecker asked the driving program, looking back at their enemies behind them.
“I think their bikes won’t work on this terrain,” Tech explained. “The wheels are smooth for quick movements in the arena, not rough for traction in rocky areas like these.”
Echo wasn’t in the mood for chatter. He only wanted to know who his rescuer was. “Who are you?” he asked suspiciously.
The program turned off her helmet. She wasn’t a program.
“Omega?” Hunter stared at his little sister, puzzled. “What—How do you know to drive this thing?”
“Easy!” Omega smiled. “I drove simulators something like this back on Kamino all the time.”
“I’ll take over if you want.” Tech offered. Omega let him drive and took the seat next to Hunter.
“How did you escape?” he asked her. “I saw the guards taking you away.”
“I slipped away when they weren’t looking,” she explained, and grinned mischievously. “They didn’t think to cover the small exits when they took me to get this.” She gestured to her program suit. “I found this vehicle where they’d left it—I think it’s called a Runner—and drove back to come get you.”
“How’d you know we were in the Lightcycle arena?” asked Hunter.
Omega shrugged. “I didn’t. I just found a wall and blasted through it. Then I saw you and the others on the bikes and decided to help.”
Tech turned his head toward them as he stopped the vehicle. “Sorry to interrupt, but where are we going?” he asked. “I’ve driven us far enough away from the arena that the Empire, or whatever they are here, can’t follow us.”
“There’s a building nearby.” Omega looked around. “I drove through here on my way to rescue you.”
Sure enough, the clones found the abandoned structure. It was dark inside, but the lights on their suits gave them a small amount of illumination.
“This doesn’t look like it was built by anyone from our world.” Tech said as he looked around. He flicked on the small searchlight on his goggles.
“Nor does it seem like an alien’s work.” Echo felt the doorway with his hand.
“At least I can fit through the doorway.” Wrecker pointed out as he walked in. “That tells something.”
“That the residents of this building were likely normal-sized?” Tech guessed. “The largest they could be is slightly taller than you, basing on the sizes of the objects surrounding us.”
“This is obviously made for humans, or at least something very similar. Maybe programs lived here at one point.” Hunter studied the ceiling above him, or at least what he could see of it.
“I found a control panel.” said Omega. “Tech, see if you can activate it.”
“Wasn’t it Tech and a control panel that got us into this mess in the first place?” stated Echo.
“Are you blaming me?” Tech countered. “You’re the one who launched yourself off the side of a building, if I remember right. You’re the one who took too long and got us in trouble!”
“All right, all right! Stop.” Hunter pushed his brothers apart, trying to avoid a fight. “Why don’t you both turn it on or something?”
The two clones complied and set to work finding how to connect the power source. As soon as they got it, the screen flared on, casting light on their faces.
“Looks like security footage.” said Echo. “This screen shows programs. This place was a house, or maybe an office.”
“What’s that one?” Hunter pointed to one of the squares in the split screen. It showed a man talking to…a Republic official?
Tech hit a few keys. “It says this was the first day the camera was turned on.” He read the words some program had added below the screen. “Sam Flynn made an agreement with this ‘Republic’,” he read. “Hopefully it’ll be a good one. After all, I’m going to protect it.”
“I wonder who’s writing.” mused Omega, climbing onto a discarded box so she could see better.
“I think I’ll get to that.” After typing in a few chunks of code, Tech was able to get more writing on the screen.
“He said that his name was Dyson, and he was named after a friend of his father.” He scrolled down a bit. “A human programmer called Kevin Flynn had created a computer world, called the Grid, for himself. His son, Sam Flynn, wanted to make Grids like his for others, so he built one for the Republic.”
“What he didn’t know was that the Republic would become the Empire,” Hunter muttered.
“No one did,” Omega pointed out to him.
Tech ignored them both. “Dyson’s father, Tron, and his brother, Rinzler, were in charge of protecting the original Grid. His responsibility was this one.”
“What happened to him?” Wrecker asked, looking around as if he expected a program to walk out of the shadows.
“It doesn’t say. The last thing Dyson wrote was this: ‘The Republic has supposedly fallen, or so I’ve heard from other programs. This new Empire is rumored to be dangerous, but my job is to protect the Grid. And if the Empire wants it, they’ll have to go through me first!’”
“That’s it?” Hunter asked, confused.
“Sounds like they killed him. I’m not surprised.” said Echo.
“Let’s see.” Tech opened the security camera screen again and put in a few numbers. A new screen turned on.
A program with white and blue lights, presumably the one called Dyson, stood with his disc ignited. “You will never take the Grid,” he yelled. “I’ll defeat your Empire or die trying!”
As program, clone, and Imperial trooper attacked, he fended them off. Then, suddenly, a disc sawed off his arm, hitting with more accuracy than any of the others’ had. It flew back to its helmeted, orange-lighted owner, who shoved his own soldiers aside and went in for the kill.
Dyson fought back, but he lost in the end. His enemy raised his disc high and stabbed it into the program’s chest. As Dyson’s body fell to glassy pixels, his disc clattered to the ground. The Imperial soldier who killed him picked the disc up and affixed it to his own back, along with his first. He spoke for the first time, his speech betraying his identity.
“The Grid’s defender is dead.” Crosshair’s distinctive voice carried clearly, despite his wearing a helmet. He looked around at his troops. “His domain belongs to us.”
“That was…sad.” Omega’s voice broke the silence.
Even after the recording was over, the five clones of the Bad Batch were speechless for a minute.
“It might as well have been our fault.” Hunter hissed, staring intently at the screen.
“But it wasn’t.” Tech reminded him. “It was the Empire’s.”
Both knew what he could’ve said, but didn’t: Stop blaming yourself for everything he did.
“So he’s dead, then.” Wrecker whispered. “No help there.”
“Yes,” said Echo. “But take a look at the date on this.” He pointed to the numbers Tech had entered. “That’s before we returned to Kamino. He couldn’t have been here and there at the same time. He must’ve left somehow.” He hit a few keys. “There must be an answer in here somewhere…Here it is! This is how we’ll get out of here.”
He widened one of the security footage screens. On it, a squad of clones standing in what looked like a tunnel of light connected their discs together and raised them toward the top of the screen. A brighter light flashed, and when it faded, the clones were gone.
“It looks like they had to put their discs together in order to unlock a portal of some kind.” Tech stared closely at the screen.
“Which means it should work with ours.” Hunter took his disc off his back and ran his finger over the edge.
“I guess it was a good thing I didn’t have the time to delete our profiles.” Echo mused. He scrolled the screen down. “Oh, no.”
“What?” Hunter reattached his disc and shoved Echo aside to see what was wrong. He read off the comment a clone had left: “The gateway will only open when all of the squad’s discs are used. I was alone, and had to tag along with another squad—others can go through if it’s already being opened.” He looked at the others. “We’re missing a member. We can’t escape.”
“We could, actually.” Tech pointed out. “We’d just have to steal Crosshair’s disc.”
“That’s…a good idea.” Wrecker decided. “I volunteer!”
“No. It’ll have to be me.” Hunter took out his Lightcycle baton and stepped toward the entrance. “I’m going.” He leaped and activated it.
“Hunter, wait!” Omega shouted, but he ignored her as his Lightcycle sped back toward the city.
Surely there must be someone in this city who can help us fight the Empire, Hunter thought as he drove his Lightcycle back the way they’d come. He avoided the arena and the rough terrain the Runner had driven through—the Imperials would probably look for him there. Instead, he found a road leading from the abandoned building to the city.
Dyson probably used this road a lot, he realized, thinking of the dead program the clones had “met” through the security cameras. And the programmer, too—Flynn, was it?
As he entered the city, he noticed Imperial guards standing at street corners. Once, they grabbed a few unsuspecting programs and threw them to the ground. He turned his bike around and drove in a different direction before they could see him.
Part of him wanted to go back and help the programs who were being terrorized, but he knew it’d end bad for both them and him. No, he thought, the best way to help the programs is to make the Empire leave them alone.
Hunter turned off his Lightcycle when he encountered a crowd of programs and weaved through the throng on foot. He was so focused on thinking he nearly crashed into a program wearing white.
“Are you lost?” she asked.
“I…am, as a matter of fact.” Hunter admitted. He had no idea where he was, and he also had no idea who to trust. “I’m looking for access to the Imperial base.”
The program smiled. “Follow me.”
She led him toward an elevator. Is this a trick? he thought, but he took the risk and stepped in.
When it reached its destination, he walked out into a restaurant of some kind. Electronic music blared from one corner, and programs were sitting at booths, enjoying drinks. It reminded Hunter of the diner that he and the others had used as a home base for a while.
A program that was probably the owner of the establishment walked out from behind the counter. “I see you’ve brought a new visitor,” he said to the female program. “What’s he asking for?”
“I need the way into the Imperial base.” Hunter stated plainly. “There’s one here, right? My…my brother’s being held there.”
“Hmm…That’s a tall order, even for me.” the program confessed. He led Hunter into his office and shut the door. “This is a talk best held…privately. You say your brother is there?”
“I need his disc.” Hunter decided not to give too much information, just in case this program wasn’t trustworthy after all.
“Ah,” the program said. “Because he’s part of your squad, and you need all of the discs. I know all about that.” He paced the length of the room. “To get in, you should probably change the light pattern on your suit—and you’ll need to wear a helmet. To disguise your identity and voice.”
Like Omega did, Hunter thought.
The program continued. “You’ll need an entrance key—every Imperial soldier has one. Fortunately, they’re easy to steal. Or, you know, you could just have your brother let you in if he can.”
“That’s not likely,” muttered Hunter, imagining Crosshair letting the Bad Batch into the Imperial outpost—that would never happen.
“I suppose…Oh dear,” the program whispered, looking beyond him. “Looks like you might get that key easily after all.”
“What?” Hunter turned around to see Imperial soldiers shoving their way into the eating area below. Startled programs fled in different directions. One of them yelled inaudible words and brought out his disc, but the troopers killed him quickly.
“Do you have a back door?” Hunter asked. “Or some escape route?” He really wasn’t in the mood for a disc war right now.
The program nodded. “That way.” He pointed toward a door.
Hunter ran through before the Imperials spotted him, but it wasn’t long before he stopped. Programs loyal to the Empire patrolled the doorway to another elevator—and they’d noticed him! Had the owner program’s suggestion been a trap?
He turned his disc on and stabbed it toward one of the programs, who blocked it. It looked like he’d get a disc war anyway.
Great, Hunter thought. These programs have probably been disc fighting their whole lives. They’ll make short work of me.
He tried again to slice through one program’s defenses. But the enemy dodged his strike and readied his own disc.
Then a white-edged disc slashed through the program and killed him, and a metal object stabbed through another’s chest.
Omega and Echo appeared from behind the fallen programs, their discs on. “We thought you needed a little help,” Echo shouted over the shattering noise of another program bring killed.
“One of you always seem to show up when I’m in trouble.” Hunter replied.
“It’s what siblings do.” said Omega. “And Echo just taught me how to throw my disc the right way—I couldn’t wait to use it!”
“Tech and Wrecker are….somewhere.” Echo looked around, searching for the other two. “Probably guarding the elevator from the inside.”
Omega thought this was funny. “Tech and Wrecker, valiant guardians of the elevator!” She giggled.
“Don’t get distracted,” Hunter warned, slicing another program. More of them had come in from somewhere. It was as if the programs were trying to tire the three clones out, then finish them off.
One program slashed a disc a light-wall’s width from Hunter’s neck. Startled, he tore thoughtlessly at whatever had nearly decapitated him. Pixels fell to the ground, and only then did he snap out of it and realize he’d killed his foe.
Suddenly, a scream rang out from next to him.
“Omega! What’s going on—” Hunter turned around just in time to see his sister fall to the ground in front of one of the remaining programs. Red soaked into her sleeve; the program must’ve slashed her there.
Echo attacked, but the program threw him aside. Hunter threw his disc as well, but this stronger enemy deflected it with his own. Then, suddenly, the lights went out.
They blinked back on to show Tech with one hand on his disc and the other to the ground as if he’d just landed from a high height, pixels surrounding him. In the dim light, he looked fierce.
“About time you showed up!” Echo told Tech as the other clone stood and turned off his disc. “We were about to be killed!”
Hunter knelt beside Omega’s still form. “She’s alive,” he said, “but injured. We need to get out of here.” He picked up his unconscious sister and followed Tech as he led him and Echo back to where he’d come from.
Wrecker stood there, obviously exhausted but waiting patiently. “What’s wrong? What happened to her?” he asked as he noticed Omega in Hunter’s arms.
“Disc slash.” Echo explained. “But the rest of us are fine.”
“We figured out how to get to the portal.” Tech pointed to a train-like vehicle as the elevator lowered toward the ground.
“But we don’t have—” Hunter started to protest, but Tech silenced him.
“He’ll come to us, once he knows where we are.” he said.
The vehicle—called a solar sailor—slowly moved toward its destination, the five clones watching from the top.
Tech and Echo had taken Omega’s disc off her back and were discussing how to use it to heal her wound.
“Wouldn’t that only work on programs?” Wrecker asked.
“I read it could work on clones, too. If you had paid attention, maybe you would’ve seen it too.” said Echo.
Wrecker didn’t argue with that and instead busied himself with studying the solar sailor’s railing.
“Got it!” Tech fastened Omega’s disc onto the young clone’s back, and within a few minutes pixels were knitting over the wound, leaving a faint, blocky line under the tear in her sleeve.
“Great job. Now she’ll be half-program for the rest of her life.” Echo muttered sarcastically.
“Very funny.” Tech said as he rolled his eyes. “In our world the pixelly look will disappear and leave a small scar. She’ll be back to normal as soon as she wakes up.”
Hunter had been pacing back and forth behind them, before he decided to walk to the front of the solar sailor and watch for Imperials looking for them.
He saw no sign of them, but the portal glowed dimly in the distance. Their only hope of escape. He wondered if it would close, and how long it would take before it did.
A voice behind him almost startled him, but he was glad to hear it. “What are you looking at?”
Omega was awake. She walked over to sit down next to her brother. “It looks a little like a sunrise,” she commented, talking about the portal. “Some of the clones I met would talk about this place. I never thought I’d actually go there one day.”
“Neither would I.” Hunter admitted. “I never thought I’d visit a place which isn’t actually in our galaxy.”
“It’s weird, right?” Omega said, smiling. “I wonder if there are other worlds like this one.”
“I’m sure there are,” Hunter told her, but before he could say any more, he noticed the light from the portal had dimmed even more. He looked up and noticed the solar sailor was moving into a large ship. The Imperial emblem adorned its side.
Hunter stood up. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not driving this thing.” Echo replied. “It looks like we’ve changed course—I don’t think we’re supposed to be going this way.”
“Looks like you were right, Tech.” said Hunter. “Crosshair and the other Imperials did come looking for us.”
The five clones snuck out of the solar sailor to look for their wayward brother.
“He’s over there.” Echo pointed to where Crosshair and two Imperial troopers were herding some programs away from the solar sailor. “Now how to get his disc without him alerting the other Imperials……”
“Remember, he has two, unlike us.” Hunter pointed out. “He can still attack us with his other one.”
“I’ll do it.” said Omega. “I’m small enough to get by him without him or the others noticing.”
“Don’t.” Echo held her back with his mechanical hand. “He’ll likely call for reinforcements, and those two which are next to him will kill or capture you even before that.”
“Wait a second…” Tech interrupted Echo before the cyborg clone could say any more. “What are they doing?” He pointed to the Imperial soldiers.
“They’re not just escorting those programs out of the ship.” Hunter agreed. “They’re taking them somewhere.”
The five clones followed the Imperials and their program prisoners, careful to stay a safe distance away. As they got closer, they could hear voices.
“Move it, programs!” snapped one trooper. From his voice, it was clear he wasn’t a clone. “The Emperor isn’t going to be happy with you when he learns that you wouldn’t comply.”
The programs, resigned to their fate, kept walking. They soon joined a crowd of their kind being forced into some kind of device. Nearby, others marched out—but they were wearing armor like the clones and other troopers’, and were moving out voluntarily rather than being prodded.
“They’re turning them into soldiers.” Hunter realized. “To use on our world.”
“And I think I know who came up with the idea.” Echo looked toward where all of the programs were gathering. Admiral Rampart stood in front of them on a platform, looking as if he were about to give a speech. At some point in time, Crosshair had left from herding the programs and had joined his superior officer on the platform.
“Citizens of the Grid!” Rampart shouted, pacing back and forth. “You have been conscripted to serve the Empire.”
The programs answered back in one voice, but it was hard to hear what they were saying.
Wrecker snarled. “If he wants our galaxy, he’ll have to go through us first.”
“The Empire already has control over our galaxy,” Tech reminded him.
Wrecker shrugged. “I guess they do. Well then, if he wants our corner of it, he’ll have to go through us!”
“Will you two quit it?” Echo hissed. “At any moment, Crosshair or Rampart could notice us. With all those soldier programs down there, we’d be dead in seconds.”
Hunter held up his hand to silence them all. “What’s that noise?” he asked.
Omega looked around. “I hear it too.” she said. “What is it?”
Echo looked down. “This thing’s moving.”
As the Imperial ship slowly traveled toward the portal, the five clones were planning their attack.
“Here’s the plan.” Hunter explained. “Wrecker, Omega, and I will get up there.” He pointed to the bridge of the ship. “Hopefully, we can disable it or at least keep the pilots occupied. Meanwhile, Tech and Echo will be our getaway drivers. They’ll find us a suitable ride out of here.”
“I had to do that last time,” Echo complained. Nobody listened.
Tech had a different question. “How are we going to get the disc?”
“That’s what I’m doing.” Hunter explained. “We’re the ones Rampart’s after—and he’ll likely send Crosshair after us once he learns we’re up in the bridge. If things go according to plan, while Wrecker and Omega fight off the crew of this ship, I’ll be battling Crosshair, and I’ll take one of his discs and attach it to my own. Hopefully I’ll escape before he notices what he’s missing.”
Tech nodded. “It depends on a lot of things we can’t control, but it just might work.”
He and Echo raced back toward the solar sailor to look for a shuttle they could use to escape in. Hunter watched them leave, then turned to the other two. “All right, Wrecker, once we get to the bridge, do your thing.” he said.
“I get to blow it up?!” he asked, his mouth curving into a trigger-happy grin. “I haven’t gotten to explode anything yet!”
“Looks like now’s your chance,” Omega told him as they walked toward an elevator.
The three readied their discs, preparing for programs, other clones, or Imperial troopers to ambush them. But as the elevator came to a stop and opened, all they found was a few very confused program technicians.
Most ran. The few that fought regretted it.
“Where are the explosives?” Wrecker looked around, trying to find a weapon—any weapon!—that he could use to wreak havoc upon the Empire and their things.
“Just pull wires and wait for it to overload.” Hunter suggested, still holding his activated disc.
Wrecker pulled the top off of a control panel and tore into it like a predator ripping into his prey. Moments later, the lights went out. Emergency lights flickered on and cast a dim glow onto the ship’s bridge.
The Imperial soldiers have definitely been alerted now, Hunter thought. Now for phase two of the plan.
Sure enough, a group of programs and troopers charged onto the bridge. “Halt, programs!” one shouted.
“We’re not programs,” Hunter growled as he and his siblings activated their discs for another battle. “We’re clones.”
As they fought, another of the Empire’s soldiers stepped into the skirmish. “I should’ve known you’d cause this kind of trouble,” he snarled, bringing out his twin discs.
Hunter had been waiting for him. “Hello again, Crosshair.” He shoved through the conflict to reach his brother-turned-enemy.
“What do you want?” Crosshair snapped, slicing at him with one of his discs. “I know you have no use for this ship. Or its occupants.”
“No.” Hunter dodged the disc as he spoke, stepping back toward one of the windows. “What I need is your disc.”
“And you think I’ll just give it to you?” Crosshair looked amused. “Then you’re not as clever as everyone thinks you are.”
“I don’t need you to give it to me—” Hunter darted away as his brother lunged again. “—I just need to take it.”
Crosshair looked down and realized he was cornered with his back to the window, which had been broken by one of his more violent disc swipes. He raised his disc, but Hunter was faster for once. He thrust his own disc forward, and Crosshair instinctively staggered back to avoid it but slipped off the edge, a howl of fury escaping from him before he hit a ledge a few yards below.
He’d dropped his discs as he fell. One clattered to the ledge alongside him, but Hunter managed to grab the other before it fell too far for him to reach.
“I’ve got it!” he shouted to the other clones. “Now to get out of here.”
“How are we going to do that?” Omega asked.
Hunter looked around for something they could use to escape. He opened a door and found a pair of winglike parachutes. “We’ll use these.”
Wrecker looked down through the window that Crosshair had fallen through. “Oh no…No, that’s kind of high. I’m good.”
“It’s the only way out,” Hunter told him. “The Empire knows we’re here. They’ll have blocked the elevator, and wherever else they think we’ll be. So, we’re going to give them a bit of a surprise.”
Wrecker still screamed louder than even he would’ve thought possible when the three leaped off the edge.
Meanwhile, Tech and Echo were looking for a ride out.
“This one looks big enough to fit all of us.” Echo inspected a shuttle. “Kind of resembles the Marauder, doesn’t it?” He walked around it and almost ran into an unsuspecting program guard.
“Hey! What—” The guard didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence before Echo whacked the side of his head.
As soon as the program was unconscious, Echo began fiddling with his disc.
“What are you doing?” Tech looked over curiously.
“Erasing his memory of us. When he wakes up, he’ll assume he knocked his head on something or walked into the ship’s wing by accident.” Echo explained.
Tech nodded, understanding, and was about to say more when a prolonged scream cut him off.
“And there’s the rest of the party,” quipped Echo as Wrecker, Hunter, and Omega half-landed, half-crashed into the floor near the ship, wearing wing-parachutes.
“Never let me do that again,” Wrecker groaned, his voice hoarse. (He was the source of the screaming.)
“I’ve got the disc.” Hunter held up the orange disc he’d taken from Crosshair. He nodded at the ship. “That our way out?”
“It is…if I can figure out how to fly it.” Tech climbed into the ship’s cockpit.
“Well, you’d better figure it out fast!” Hunter looked around as he entered, making sure there weren’t any Imperial soldiers around to notice them.
Tech chuckled. “I’m kidding. This flies just like our ship back home.” He flicked a few switches, and the vehicle turned on. Its lights blinked on, the same green as his.
He raised it into the black sky, heading for the portal and away from the Empire.
For the first few minutes of the ride, the Bad Batch weren’t bothered by any ships, much less Imperial ones. That changed, however.
“We’ve got company!” Hunter warned as a few bullets struck the back of their escape ship. He turned to look at the rear window to see five small jet-like vehicles with orange lights chasing them. Rampart and Crosshair were clearly identifiable as the two in the lead.
“Wrecker, get rid of them!” Tech shouted as he hit one of the buttons on the dashboard.
“Oh, this I can do!” Wrecker shouted as his seat swiveled to face backwards. He was now in control of the two back guns. “Take that! And that!”
He shot one of the light-jets, but the remaining four flew out of the way.
Tech maneuvered the ship to the right to avoid a few lasers. Meanwhile, Echo was feeling for something on the dashboard. “I think it’s here…Got it!” He pulled a lever, and a pair of light-walls appeared from the back of the ship. One of the attacking jets was smashed against the wall. The three surviving ones swerved again, avoiding both the light-wall and Wrecker’s continued shooting.
Suddenly, a barrage of laser beams struck the side of the ship, cutting streaks into the cockpit’s windows.
“The gun’s jammed!” Wrecker yelled from the back. “They hit it!”
Hunter restrained himself from muttering something that wasn’t particularly nice. “I’m out of ideas—you guys got any?” he asked.
“Actually, yes.” Tech took one hand off of the steering levers and gestured to the shuttle’s wing. “Wings in an atmosphere can only tilt so much before they lose their lift. Those ships’ engines might stall if we can get them to follow us up.”
“So you’re going to what now—”Echo’s sentence was cut off when Tech veered the ship upwards sharply. The clones were jerked back into their seats.
Two of the light-jets didn’t follow them, but the other did. Its engine was slowly cutting out, and finally it fell down and cut off its chase.
The Bad Batch’s shuttle was stalling, too. It curved into a spin as it fell, Tech and Echo trying to regain control of it. As Tech finally turned its nose up to avoid crashing into the sea below them, he hit the trigger on the steering mechanism, blasting the enemy light-jet in front of them.
“Did you hit it?” Wrecker asked.
“Sure did!” Omega replied. Wrecker cheered.
Now, Crosshair and Rampart were the only ones chasing them. They’d wisely not followed their prey up, instead flying below and waiting for them to come down.
One of the light-jets flew forward, close to them. It was Crosshair’s, his gaze locked on them from under his helmet.
Omega put her hand to the glass and whispered something. Hunter couldn’t hear her, and he wasn’t sure if Crosshair had either, but the jet swerved away, turning off its light-wall.
“What’d you say?” Echo asked.
“Just listen.” Omega gestured to the ship’s radio.
“Crosshair, take the shot!!” Rampart’s voice screamed through it. “What are you doing?”
“No.” Crosshair hissed in reply. “I fight for the Republic!”
Behind the shuttle, Crosshair’s light-jet flew sideways abruptly and smashed into Rampart’s. The jets both exploded, sending their riders toward the sea.
Omega gasped when she saw it. “Wait, I didn’t tell him to—”
“No time to mourn. We’re here.” Tech landed the beat-up shuttle on a landing pad next to the portal. The clones raced up the steps to the center of the building.
“We have all of the discs, right?” Hunter asked. The other clones nodded. He found the control panel to turn the portal on and hit the switch.
A vertical tunnel of light appeared, hexagonal shapes shooting upward within it. Echo stuck his droid arm into a panel, making the portal glow brighter. “It’s calibrated to send us right back where we were.” he said.
“W-wait…You mean back to the Imperial facility?” Wrecker asked.
Echo gave him a look. “Do you want me to change it?”
“Preferably.” said Tech.
Echo sighed and started working on it.
“Hunter?” Omega’s gaze was fixed on the doorway. “Look.”
Hunter turned around to see Rampart step in. The Imperial was soaked, and limping, but his disc was ignited.
“If I can’t turn you to my side…I guess I’ll just have to kill you.” Rampart snarled.
“Try me.” Hunter took out his own disc.
Rampart leaped (a bit awkwardly) and slammed Hunter to the ground. His disc caught the side of the clone’s cheek, slicing a jagged wound.
“Why do you have two……Ah. I see what you were going at.” Rampart disconnected Crosshair’s disc from Hunter’s back with one hand while pinning down his opponent’s disc arm with the other. “You need all of your squad’s discs, don’t you?” He tossed the orange disc to the floor behind him. “You can’t get to it now. Move another inch and I’ll—aaagghh!” He staggered back and fell to his knees, an orange disc jutting from his side.
“Back away from him.” Crosshair’s voice came from the doorway. He held his second disc—the one that’d been tossed aside—in his hand, ready to throw it.
Rampart’s teeth were gritted in pain. “So you’re on their side now?”
“They’re my siblings.” Crosshair hissed. “You turned me against them.” He turned to Hunter and held out the disc he had in his hand. “You needed this?”
“You’re not…coming?” Hunter asked as he took it.
“I’ll follow you. Go on.” Crosshair nodded to where the others had already gotten to the edge of the portal, waiting for their brothers to join them.
Hunter ran to the others. “You guys okay?”
“Did I just see what I think I saw?” Wrecker asked. “He gave you his disc?”
“No time to ask questions!” Hunter shouted. “He can’t hold Rampart off forever. Hand me your discs.”
Echo held out his first, and Tech and Wrecker followed suit. Hunter attached their discs to his and Crosshair’s, then held it high above his head in the center of the portal. The light pulsed brighter. “Get in!” he shouted. The others came to stand right next to him, Omega clinging tightly to his side. But there were only four of them there.
“Where’s…” Hunter asked, but then he saw.
Crosshair blocked a disc swipe from Rampart and ran for the portal, but his enemy’s disc caught his leg, making him stumble to the ground, still far from his intended destination. He looked up at his siblings, knowing he’d never get to them in time, and raised his hand in a salute.
Hunter saluted back, seconds before the light flashed and everything went dark for him.
The Bad Batch awoke on a field near their starship, the Marauder. Hunter raised his head up first, wondering what had happened and how.
Was that…I wasn’t dreaming, was I? he thought, looking down at the black clothes he was wearing. He looked around. The disc slashes on Tech’s cheek and Omega’s arm were still there; he reached up to touch the wound Rampart had given him when they fought. That was still there too.
Wrecker groaned and sat up. “What…what happened?”
“It appears Echo’s calculations managed to teleport us near our shuttle.” Tech explained.
Omega looked around. “Where’s Crosshair?”
“He didn’t join us,” Hunter told her.
“He is likely dead,” said Tech, “if he did not reach us in time.”
Omega buried her face in Wrecker’s shoulder, softly sobbing. He put his arm around her.
Echo was fingering the data card he had around his neck. “What’s this?” he asked. “We all have one.”
Hunter looked at it. He had two, one with silver and purple lines on it and one with orange. Tech’s had green lines, Omega’s had white, Wrecker’s had red, and Echo’s had blue. “I think…these are our discs.” he said. “If we ever come back to that world, we’ll need them.”
“Which we will.” said Echo. “We’ll keep fighting for our world for now…but someday we’ll return to the Grid.”
He stepped onto their starship’s stairs and watched, smiling slightly, as the others also boarded, ready for another adventure.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
I guess just copy and paste it into your own word processor or something?? I mean like as long as you don’t claim it as yours or anything I don’t mind someone else having the entirety of the story.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
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@keilah-h. Awesome! I’ll read it whenever I get plenty of time and I’ll let you know what I think! 😀
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@keilah-h. It sounds awesome! I love it! Now, granted, I don’t understand a lot of it because I am most definitely not a Star Wars girl, but I love it anyhow! XD
And Crosshair sacrificing himself…*sobs* So beautiful….I love the theme of sacrifice. *sobs*
@freedomwriter76 Actually, most of the story in there was from Tron, the characters are really the majority of the Star Wars content in there! I’m glad you liked it!
And yes, sacrifice…A common theme for the end of Crosshair’s character arc in my stories, no matter the story. (The version of him your characters met in the Character Castle is from a different AU than this one.) In the Star Wars tv shows he appears in, he’s kinda selfish and actually ends up becoming a villain character like you see in the first parts of the story early on in the canon storyline. Later, the show does hint at his actually caring about his siblings, despite his acting like he doesn’t, so I usually expand on that in my fanfics. Thus, he usually either dies saving them or someone else, or nearly dies but gets a second chance, depending on the point of the story.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
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@keilah-h. Ohhhh…..well, I know absolutely nothing about Tron, so. XD Yeah! It’s really good!
Ahhh….I see. Based on what I read and what you said, Crosshair sounds like a character (in your Fanfics, at least!) that I would totally love. 😉
The author of a series I read used to have a short story writing contest. The short stories were fanfic. I entered one or two times. I also got one of my stories posted on the website, not during the contest. It was a lot of fun and definitely started my interest in writing.
She might still do the contest. I’ve aged out so I haven’t kept up with it.
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@sunny421. Aww, cool! That sounds like a lot of fun! Writing fanfictions sparked my writing journey as well! I think it has for many authors, lol. XD
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