Tron: Deliverance

<PLAY?>

Paige was really starting to doubt whether Jet was actually a User. Either that, or acting illogically and erratically was a User trait that she had heretofore never heard about.

Their team had split up to begin the mission to get Beck back, and Paige had the distinct honor of having Jet to work with for her side of the plan.

She, Mara, Gem and Jet had returned to Mara's garage to link up with the Jolly tricksters. The more...volatile.... arm of the uprising in Argon.

While Paige would have preferred to be with the group that was tasked to capture Beck, she had to concede that using the Jolly Tricksters to cause a distraction in the city would be effective. But the chances of the plan going awry were much greater if she wasn't there to reign in the chaos that the tricksters tended to cause.

They sent Tron, Sam, Quorra, Brace and Reeve to physically capture Beck while Allen-One, Thalia and Zed stayed behind at the hideout to prepare the depurposing machine.

This left Paige casting wary glances at Gem and Jet. Though she believed that they were both on her side, standing in a room with an ISO and a User would be enough to rattle just about any program, let alone a former commander in CLU's army.

The three of them waited in a back room in the garage while the tricksters gathered. It would likely be another half hour or so before they all made it. This was the hardest part of missions like this. The waiting, the watching. It certainly wasn't her style.

Jet looked to Paige, his expression unsettlingly cheerful and open. "Does your disc feel any different with the new software on if? I didn't really notice much change but well, I haven't had a disc all my life"

Paige drew her disc and twirled it between her hands.

"No, it doesn't feel any different. Which is quite surprising. Ive had false memories added to my disc before and it was pretty painful. But this time, I didn't feel a thing when the data patches settled". Alan-One had liked Jet's idea to put protective measures on their discs to prevent Dyson or any of CLU's forces from discovering more than they should about the Users on the Grid. But Paige had advised them not to make the protective measures so obvious. If Dyson found a program with a disc that wouldn't open, well that program would either be dead or subjected to enough pain to give up the password to the disc. It would only make a program look exponentially more guilty to have such a measure in place. Alan-One had come up with a solution. Adding a couple layers of memory files on top of the password protected shielding. It wouldn't stand up under extreme scrutiny. But it would pass light inspection and would ultimately protect what they knew if they got derezzed.

Jet blinked, and Gem, who had been staring impassively at the wall perked at Paige's comment.

"False memories?" The white-haired ISO asked.

Paige shifted, recalling the creeping burning pain of the grid bug inside her code "Yes, one of my former coworkers, commander Pavel, tried to frame me for treason. He had another program plant false memories into my disc using an altered grid bug"

Jet looked awed and slightly concerned, Gem looked absolutely disgusted.

"Pavel" She hissed, a sudden fire in her eyes. Jet patted the ISO's shoulder sympathetically and gave Paige an encouraging smile.

"Well the good news is you won't have to worry about that guy anymore. My dad took care of him"

Paige raised a curious eyebrow.

Gem answered the unspoken query "Alan-One derezzed General Pavel in Tron City"

Paige's head shot back in surprise. She called up her memory files the older User, reviewing them critically. Even though he looked almost exactly like Tron, he didn't seem terribly dangerous. Unlike the program he had written, Alan-One was calm and mild-tempered. He had been incredibly considerate when adjusting Paige's code, only looking at the lines he needed to adjust and even speaking to her in calm tones as he worked. It had eased her discomfort with having someone come near her memory files again. To think he had personally beaten Pavel.