Tron Expansion - 02 - Wasteland
#2 of Tron
The Grids... A new digital frontier. It was a new way to picture clusters of information moving through a vast network of computers... but beneath the surface, just what did that data look like? Motorcycles? Jets? Trains? Were the circuits like freeways? It was an attempt to recapture a digital miracle, but did it awaken a nightmare instead?After the virus VICE has visted the system of EDEN (Enhanced Digital ENvironment) we see what system he came from.
This is set in a non-canon universe where a network of Tron grid systems has been established and networked, each system maintained by an anonymous volunteer user. A few people who weren't supposed to got their hands on incomplete code and cobbled together their own systems.
This is a re-release as an individual chapter.
Tron - Expansion Chapter 2 (Wasteland)
A deep resounding thunder echoed across the turbulent skies, black and silver clouds ripping through one another in a seemingly endless tempest. From the darkness would come flashes of teal lightning, flooding the clouds with momentary color and glistening across the rugged landscape beneath. Enigma lacked the refinement, the grace of a true TRON system. There was no dividing line between the silicon colored slate of the outlands and the refinement of a structured, ordered city. It was a vast wasteland. For many cycles Enigma had been a mystery to its own programs. They had been created in a desolate wasteland, plentiful with only the bare essentials to keep them alive. They had been few in number in an impossibly vast environment. Then the objects had started to arrive...
They seemed like forgotten relics from another place; vast obsidian buildings ribbed with light, sleek lightcycles to span the system in a fraction of the time. The programs had started to become more complex, glimmering with the lines of light the mysterious relics boasted. Rivers of glowing energy poured through the system, running through sharply cut gullies before cascading down cliff faces as waterfalls did in the real world. But the system was not devoid of creation.
The lightning was growing more intense, the bolts arcing out of the sky to strike several towers that rose like obelisks from the ground. The raw energy surged through them, the lines of the towers coming to life. Orange, yellow, red, purple. There was no pattern, no reason, no order... there only was the system, a true Enigma just as it was named. The storms were a dangerous but exhilarating time. The rivers ran to their banks, the lightning struck at random. It had the power to create and destroy. From the chaos of the storms came new programs... and those that had inhabited the system before set out to find them, to welcome them to their new life. One by one countless glowing white boats set out to drift along the rivers like canals, carrying the programs down the datastream.
The rivers flowed in all directions, most being fed by the great lake in the center of the system. The lake radiated light into the endless night. It was around this lake that the strongest signs of a city had taken root. Numerous towers had been clustered together, some towers had even been uprooted and merged horizontally into the others to create more complex buildings. The rough silicon ground had been etched away to create long roads that ringed the lake before radiating out in all directions. Custom lightcycles with thick tread moved along the roads, gleaming in countless colors.
The system was wild, unrefined... but there was an undeniable flow to it. The programs were ever productive, mining the raw elements of the system to create more and more complex tools. The rivers passed through collectors, feeding more stable energy to the population. Their existence was hard at times, but they knew their duty... They had been denied perfection so it was their job to find it, steal it, build it. They all waited for any opportunity to live up to their destiny... and it seemed another opportunity was fast approaching. A low tone began moving through the system, a pulsing sound that was growing slowly faster. Across Enigma the programs came to a stop, the sound falling upon their ears like the call of angels. A solar sailor was approaching the system... Another chance for the programs to claim their destiny.
The growl of lightcycles came at once as they all snapped to life, every single one heading northwest towards the port. The programs without cycles watched in awe and envy as those that did headed toward the adventure... and then the felt the reverberation of powerful engines vibrating through them into the very ground itself as a massive object passed overhead, radiating orange light. The craft was an incomplete construct, damaged code for a Recognizer... but it was enough to fly. The massive L shaped craft zoomed high above the system, heedlessly moving beneath the thundering clouds above. Nothing would keep it from the port.
Like a buzzing swarm the lightcycles and recognizer advanced, heading toward the pinnacle of creation of Enigma, the port. On the very edge of the system, built into the outer perimeter itself was a long enclosed tunnel through which a fiber optic line passed. It had been spliced into the network by the system's creator himself, integrated so seamlessly that solar sailors would utilize the path to get to their destination faster... unaware that they were passing through a trap. Without realizing, programs and data on the solar sailors left the abyss of the network to graze along the outside of Enigma, just close enough to be boarded by programs.
Those riding the lightcycles raced down the slope toward the port, crossing the narrow bridges that led to the walkway along the outer edge of the port. The air hummed with the power of the Recognizer as it too arrived, ready for anything that might face them. Programs leapt off the lightcycles, moving toward the obscured doorways into the port... but something was different, something was off. The tone that had indicated the arrival of the solar sailor was slowing, coming to a stop... No solar sailor ever stopped in Enigma. It was not an official system, it did not appear on the network. The programs raised their arms, ready to fight off any potential intruder.
The port began glimmering with green light, the seams shimmering for a moment before it came to life. One by one all the hatches began opening along the entire stretch of the port... and then the roof began sliding open. Panel by panel, rectangles receding in opposing direction. One entire side of the hexagonal tunnel was opening up into the air. The solar sailor inside had come to a stop, the sails tucking around the craft itself. The sailor itself was loaded down with cargo; compartment after compartment full of crates of data, barrels of exotic energy, components and aspects of another system. Standing on the bow of the sailor was a single program, his feet placed wide, his sleek black body glistening with jagged green lines of energy. On his back was a pristine ring of black pulsing with a green semicircle. Vice opened his eyes slowly with a grin.
"Get ready to unload... I have found the way to paradise." Vice called out triumphantly, a grin crossing his lips. The programs that had gathered moved toward the solar sailor at once, moving around the compartments to gather the data and get it back to the city. One program turned, raising his head toward the Recognizer. He began signaling and the craft moved over the solar sailor, preparing to lift entire compartments and take them back to the system center. Vice leapt off of the sailor, moving along the port. As he passed one of the sorters he reached out and pulled a data baton from his hip without asking. The virus began running before he leapt off of the platform, pulling the baton apart. As he fell through the air, light spilled out of the baton to form into one of Enigma's rugged light cycles. The tired hit the slope of the ground and dug in, throwing chunks of silicon in its wake before the cycle sped upwards, heading toward the system center at an accelerated pace.
Everything felt so different to Vice as he moved along the road, sensing his entire existence in a new way. He could feel the lightcycle humming against his groin, stimulating him. He could 'feel' the wind against him, he could appreciate the colors of Enigma so much more. Everything felt... more. He had gained a new level of existence in Eden. He had succeeded... and he would continue to succeed. The lightcycle sparked as it dropped down into one of the etched roads, moving along more even terrain. Vice thought of Eden, of the refined roads. It was everything their user wanted for them. Vice leaned forward, wanting to get to his destination as quickly as possible.
In the time that the programs had gone to investigate the solar sailor, the streets around the lake had filled with those left behind. They ran around anxiously and excitedly, unfamiliar with the steady tone that had come, not knowing what to expect when the Recognizer had descended below their field of view. Murmurs and questions flew back and forth, everyone surmising what was going on... but their voices fell into silence slowly as another program approached. While countless boats roamed the rivers of the system, only one boat moved in the lake itself. A singular program sat in the center of a vast white and silver boat, riding on the neon white lake of energy. The boat maneuvered on its own toward shore, allowing the occupant to sit still.
"Proxy..." came the whispers of the programs, watching the boat come to the shore. It slid to the very edge, coming to a stop, the bow stretching over onto the solid ground. The boat's occupant stood slowly, his solid white robes falling serenely around the program. He stepped off the boat and as his feet touched the ground; his white robes glimmered before bright orange circuit lines snapped on, a bright orange circle illuminating his chest. Proxy's robes even included a white hood, pulled over his head, dark brown hair hanging down over his face where the robes did not reach. He walked along the street silently, aware all the other programs were in awe of his presence. He slowly lifted his head, gazing along the road. The other programs followed suit, wondering what he was looking at.
A moment later their questions were answered as a green light cycle sped toward them. Proxy stood in the center of the road, watching wordlessly. Vice gazed up, shocked by his own fortune. He slowed down, pulling to the side of the road before he climbed off. He looked to Proxy in wonder for a moment before he approached. Even with all he had experienced, all he had seen... Vice had reverence for Proxy and all he stood for. Vice came to a stop before Proxy before kneeling down.
"I... I have succeeded in my destiny. I bring-" Vice was stopped as Proxy raised his hand.
"Vice... Viral Information Collection Engine." Proxy said, "The user knows you have returned... and not empty handed. He eagerly awaits the information you return with, to give us all the gifts we were denied." Proxy said slowly. Vice nodded softly.
"I bring the secrets of light jets, of roads, of new buildings... but most importantly I bring the upgrade of our own base code." Vice said softly, "I... wish to present this to the user right away, so that he can consider granting it to all of our people." Vice said. Proxy looked at Vice for a moment before he lowered his head. The orange on his robes shimmered for a moment before becoming jet black. After a long moment they returned to their normal orange.
"Come with me." Proxy said, turning. He returned to his boat, stepping onto it. Vice rose back to his feet, following after Proxy. He hesitantly climbed onto the boat as Proxy sat down. Vice barely had a chance to get settled before the boat pulled back, moving across the lake toward the center. Vice looked around at the energy and then back at Proxy who had lowered his hood. His feathered brown hair seemed to shift on the wind. It was a most unusual color for the programs of Enigma, but Proxy was unique. "You said an upgrade to our base code?" Proxy asked more conversationally.
"Yes... I have been to a real Tron system, I have touched the code we were intended to have... I have brought it back." Vice said, reaching behind his back. He withdrew his identity disc, offering it to Proxy to examine... although a strange thought was moving through his mind. Vice looked at Proxy, wondering how such a unique program would react to the pleasure he knew, the pleasure he was bringing the entire system. Proxy took the disc, looking at it carefully. He passed his hand over the center and the hologram of the code appeared. Vice's own code was written in green, though there were several elements that were glimmering in blue... The construct obtained in Eden.
"Many programs were derezzed to obtain information like this... Lost to the void of the network, deleted by security of the systems... But you have succeeded?" Proxy asked softly. Vice grinned.
"The security of Eden are loyal to me. They will allow me to send anything I want back here... They make no record of it; they don't stand in my way. They are loyal to our user and our goals. There is so much I can get from there." Vice murmured.
"You are going back then?" Proxy asked.
"Yes, but I am eager to see if the user will accept this upgrade. I want to bring these gifts to our kind... even if our user cannot visit us." Vice said softly.
"He will." Proxy asserted, "One day... we will find the information to build the portal, and then at last our user can come to us... be with us... teach us." Proxy said. Vice nodded gently. Proxy closed his eyes slowly. The boat came to a stop as it rested in the center of the lake. Once more Proxy's robes were lined in black. "I will relay your request to the user." Proxy murmured, his voice echoing softly. Suddenly Proxy's eyes opened, entirely black and yet radiating a strange light.
"So many files... so many updates... the perfection." A different voice came out of Proxy's lips, a voice that all of those in Enigma had come to accept as the word of the User that could not touch their world directly. "Initiating System Upgrade." he said, his voice carrying out over the lake. The wind in the system began to pick up, the clouds rolling over themselves as they began to get pushed out of sight. Above the clouds was a serene indigo sky, distant points of light glimmering steadily. Vice looked around across the lake, noticing all of the programs coming to a stop in anticipation. A sudden harmonic tone pierced the air before there was a bright flash in the sky, a ball of orange light hurtling down toward the lake. Vice's eyes grew wider as he grabbed onto the side of the boat. Proxy sat as he was, unmoving.
Like a deadly comet the ball of light hurtled toward the center of the lake where Proxy's boat had come to a stop... but as suddenly as it had appeared, in came to a stop. Vice gazed up at the orb sent by his creator, hanging in the air like sun... For a moment it hovered elusively before it burst into a thousand lines, angles, pixels, sprites. The light washed out over the system in a wave, then another. The orb then lowered slowly, fading from sight as it passed through where the boat rested. Vice looked around in confusion before the boat began to gently shake. The energy rippled, the colors warping and shifting in the vast lake. Something was changing, something was coming.
Proxy's boat suddenly shifted as if it had run aground, but it was ground that had come to the boat. Slowly the craft was lifted out of the lake by a growing mass, a new island forming in the very center. It formed out of pure energy, turning into a transparent, smoky black glass. The island slowly rotated as it rose, lifting Proxy and Vice up and around, their eyes gazing outward at the shores of the lake. The round island soon came to a stop, though four points of light illuminated with a glowing orange. Lines crossed the island from point to point until they met, turning into a opaque black square.
The points of light continued to glimmer before they lasers erupted upward for a moment before they began angling in, focusing on a single point, the lines creating a perfect pyramid around Proxy and Vice. The walls of the pyramid began filling in with the same smoky black glass, etched lines of circuitry crossing over the surface as it formed. Another pulse of sound filled the system, dropping in pitch until no one could hear it anymore, only feel it. Wave after wave of orange light washed out from the center of the island, spilling over the shore, cascading through the buildings. The energy spilled into the streets that had been so painstakingly mined out of the outlands, filling them like the many rivers of the system... but as the energy flowed, it left something new in its wake... glistening obsidian roads lined with pulsing white lights guiding the way.
Across the entire system the rugged roads were becoming as refined and perfect as those in the Tron system. On the shore the air shimmered as an extraordinarily large black tower appeared, then another. The towers flickered, lights coming on as power was directed in. Vice turned, noticing movement in the sky. The incomplete Recognizer was bringing data from the solar sailor, carrying the heavy burden with its one intact leg. As the craft drifted through the sky it began to change and grow. A glimmering wire frame image stretched out from the incomplete data before the rest of the craft rezzed into being. The lights flickered for a moment before becoming a neutral white.
"It's amazing..." Proxy whispered in his own voice, watching the changes. Vice turned, watching as light began to glitter behind Proxy's back, the sparks of light coalescing into a white identity disc. Proxy paused in confusion before his expression changed into one of profound surprise.
"Updating programs." Proxy said in the voice of the user before adding an 'Oh...' of his own. Vice watched in delight, although he felt something new. There had been so many new sensations since he went to Eden. He had no idea that the ones he were feeling were pride or lust. Vice moved, climbing onto all fours. He began to advance toward Proxy slowly, his fingers stretching into sharp black claws, the toes on his feet doing the same. His green light began to glow brighter.
"This is what being a real program is like Proxy... It's amazing. Let me show it to you." Vice murmured.
"I don't under-" Proxy was interrupted as Vice put a clawed finger to his lips. Vice grinned slowly, his teeth looking far sharper than they had before. Vice came down to rest on his knees, straddling Proxy's legs to hold him in place. His free hand moved to open Proxy's robes, revealing the white bodysuit beneath. Slowly the black and green clawed hand caressed along the smooth, supple white outfit to Proxy's groin. Vice's grin grew more menacing before his claws moved, piercing through the white fabric. It shimmered for a moment before derezzing, revealing Proxy's new manhood.
"I'll teach you all you need to know." Vice said, curling his fingers around Proxy's shaft. He began to squeeze the manhood from base to tip and back again, massaging it gently before the hand began gliding up and down. Proxy gasped and moaned in surprise, overwhelmed by sensation. He was no longer paying attention to the new buildings forming, the bridges appearing in arches over the rivers... although the city's layout was still haphazard. It lacked the insight of a user that could see the system, although Proxy couldn't guess what the user would do if he could see what was going on now.
"Show me... Please." Proxy begged, watching Vice in the awe he had only given his creator before. Vice worked at Proxy's shaft harder, pumping his head up and down with growing intensity. His other hand moved, caressing Proxy's face before he ran the claws down Proxy's chest. The clothing under Proxy's robes derezzed, leaving bare flesh... flesh that could actually feel. The claws sent chills through Proxy. He began to lift his hips up and down, thrusting his shaft into Vice's hand. Vice grinned, knowing Proxy was ready. He leaned down slowly, his hot lips coming to the tip of the program's mouth. They slowly parted, the warm and wet interior so welcoming that Proxy couldn't resist thrusting his shaft in.
Vice took inch after inch, sucking and slurping, his eyes drifting shut. He felt so good, so primal. He wasn't just bringing Proxy pleasure, he was... infecting him with lust, all without actually infecting him. It was an intoxicating feeling of power, a new form of pleasure. Vice shuddered in delight, the jagged lines of energy on his body pulsing brightly before they shifted, sliding around as Vice's body began to shift. He was slowly gaining muscle, his pecs jutting out a bit more, his arms gaining more definition. The fabric on his groin pulled back, letting the virus' long manly shaft emerge.
Proxy was not an idiot. This upgrade was too impossible to ignore, and the pleasure he had been given had to be returned. He moved around beneath Vice, flexing and contorting until his lips came to Vice's cock. Proxy ran his tongue across the tip, taking in Vice's flavor. Vice groaned in delight, a clawed hand grabbing Proxy's head, shoving the program's head into his own groin. Soon both the program and virus were sucking each other off, their heads bobbing back and forth eagerly.
All throughout the system the changes had taken shape. Lightcycles raced along the new roads faster than ever before. Programs moved into the new buildings to discover their purpose and function. An armada of complete Recognizers were forming along a vast landing pad that had been created next to the port... and every program in Enigma was starting to feel new sensations, new emotions, every bit of reality that programs in true Tron systems had been granted by their first creator.
"So good..." Proxy moaned around Vice's shaft, feeling the pleasure building quickly toward crescendo. He felt everything becoming hotter, faster, better... but he had no idea what to expect. Vice bobbed his head up and down with the intensity of a wild animal, bucking his hips into Proxy's mouth almost as wildly. Vice had no hesitations, wanting nothing more than to feel that pleasure again. As the two embraced, Vice's clawed hands caressed over Proxy's body before they found their destinations; one hand began to massage and fondle Proxy's balls while the other played with one of his nipples, twisting and tugging at the sensitive nub.
The pleasure was too great, Proxy couldn't resist. He gasped and howled in delight, arching his back as he sprayed his load into Vice's mouth. Vice gulped it down greedily, feeling strengthened and nourished by every drop. He shivered and then moaned before he came as well, spraying his cum into Proxy's mouth... but the spray continued for a long moment, the volume quite surprising. Proxy tried to swallow it all but soon some was leaking out of the corners of his mouth. Vice slowly pulled off of Proxy's shaft, licking it clean, leaning his head down to gaze between their abdomens to where Proxy had his head buried in Vice's groin. It was quite the sight. Vice grinned in pride once more.
Ever so slowly Proxy pulled off of Vice's cock. He breathed slowly, his chest rising and falling as he processed more new sensations. Proxy suddenly let out a soft moan, his mouth opening wider. As Vice watched, the voice of the User began to change gently. The teeth called so arbitrarily canine by the humans became longer, sharper. The tips of Proxy's feathered brown hair began to become a gentle orange color. His shaft throbbed and then began to grow, and as it did Vice felt fangs of pleasure in his own.
Vice let out his own moan, grabbing his shaft. It pulsed and throbbed, stretching longer... inch by inch. His balls grew larger as well, reinforcing his lusts, his hungers, his drives. Vice realized a new aspect of himself. He was a virus, he had to spread himself. Vice crouched down before Proxy, looking at him. Proxy looked to Vice with an almost instinctual need, not sure whether to look at the virus' cock or face.
"Did that feel good?" Vice whispered, reaching over to caress Proxy's cheek.
"Very... very good. Do we get to do it again?" Proxy asked. Vice chuckled gently.
"In time... But we both have a lot of work to do. You have to help the system through these updates. There is a lot of new information to process... and you have to tell the User just how much closer he has brought us to the ideal he seeks." Vice said.
"Of course." Proxy said eagerly.
"I will return to Eden... While I'm gone, feel free to share the pleasure I showed you with those you see fit. I'm sure in time they will all learn how wonderful it is, this new part of their life." Vice said, standing up. He closed his eyes and the jagged lines on his body shifted, moving around into the ordered, neat lines of a program. The fabric closed back over his groin, though the bulge was more distinct now. He turned and moved for the corner of the pyramid, the seams of the building absent to allow ways in and out of the structure.
As Vice emerged he could see that the island had continued to adjust and change, becoming ever more elaborate. Orange code was appearing on the pyramid walls, scrolling along. Some of it Vice could make out, the rest was alien to him. Proxy had been given a temple, a place to commune with the user... and Vice had defiled it with the pleasure he found. Vice liked this feeling of Pride almost as much as the one he felt with those he played with.
Vice moved towards the shore of the island, stepping onto the outer edge. Several boats rezzed into existence, allowing programs to come and go from the island. Vice quickly climbed into one, heading back toward the Shoreline, wondering what pleasure he could find next.