Tron: Deliverance

BOSS FIGHT <FINAL ENCOUNTER>

Beck stood on a nearby roof. Encom 786 in hand. Crouched and ready for the signal.

Then, two light cycles roared to life on the ground level. Zed's green lined cycle cut clean lines around Tesler. Zooming past friendly combatants with ease. Tron and Sam Flynn lunged out of the way. The ISO's doing the same as Mara's yellow light wall cut between them and Tesler.

The General's arm bounced against the light wall. He had to charge the arm with an extra pulse of energy to punch through and grab at Mara. He missed as she circled around for another pass. Tesler chased them, arms making chaotic lines of orange as he tried to unseat the two mechanics and get a clear line on his other opponents. With one more pass, Mara ducked a swipe and tightened the circle of multilayered light walls.

"Now or never Beck!" He just barely heard Zed's voice over the roar of the cycle.

Beck cracked the baton, using the edge of the roof as a very small runway. Then yanked up on the cycle as he jumped. He cleared the edge of the layered light walls, with just a nano to see Tesler's shocked face before he fell.

The General's arms were too tangled up in the mess of light walls to stop the falling cycle. Beck jumped clear right before impact. Watching with a sparking edge of glee as Tesler took the light cycle full in the chest, flying backward and smashing into the light wall behind him. An impressively large shatter pattern cracking up and down the length of the wall.

Beck didn't have long to congratulate himself as orange light poured out from behind the cycle. Tesler unleashed another hot pulse of energy, blasting the cycle and nearest light wall into cubes. Beck stumbled back a few steps from the force of it.

The Renegade stared down at the pile of blue cubes that used to be the Encom 786 "Mara's gonna be so mad" he sighed. Just behind the carnage that used to be the vintage light bike, Tesler got to one knee. His lines still burning with energy. Not good.

Beck bolted for Tesler, hoping that the General wouldn't have enough energy to use another pulse like that in such a short amount of time. Just as Tesler managed to stand, Beck jumped, with nothing but a wrench in his hand, he hopped onto Tesler's shoulder and swung around so he was positioned for a head lock. He planted the screwdriver on the modified arm and felt an odd mix of vehicle and program code ping his mechanic functions. He opened the interface and flicked through the code with wild intensity.

"Renegade!" Tesler roared. He started to thrash. He clamped an arm down on Beck's shoulder and wrenched him off. Beck only managed to cough when his back made contact with the ground. Tesler's hand pinning him.

He grit his teeth and slapped the wrench between two of the energy coils on the arm, jacking back into the vehicle code. He felt burning hot energy leak into his chest, overloading his processes, shatter lines creeping across his torso. Ripping and burning their way through.

He smirked.

It hurt, but it was middling in comparison to what being repurposed felt like. He kept flipping through the modified code, cutting lines and overwriting others as he went. So close.

Tesler gripped him around the chest, lifted, then slammed him back down. The impact rattled up and down his frame. His already compromised face plate cracked further, sparking as it lost integrity.

"I knew you weren't Tron" The General gloated. With one hand he ripped off the remains of the face plate, shattering the helmet entirely. For the first time in a long time, Beck stared at Tesler face to face.

"As expected. I have no idea who you are" Tesler scoffed "Just some nobody who thought he could pretend to be a hero"

"See that's what you never seemed to understand Tesler. I never needed to be Tron to beat you"

He cut the last line of code, the arm holding him down started to heat up. Critical failures screamed into Beck's head from his link with the vehicle code.

"I'm Beck. And Bodhi the mechanic sends his regards"

Tesler must have gotten the same error messages because his eyes widened in alarm. Every light line on his body brightening in overload.

"What? What did you do?!"

"I'm a mechanic General. I'm fixing what you broke"

Tesler stumbled back another step, even his eyes were glowing orange now. He screamed, a wordless staticky scream. A bright flash of light and pulse of energy smacked Beck in the chest and knocked him back. The last few light walls still standing crumbled.

When the light faded Beck stared down at what remained of Tesler. He hadn't derezzed. But both his arms had dropped into cubes. And the code around his chest was fractured and corrupted. It was a nasty wound. But his light lines flickered from orange to an indecisive gray.

Beck wasn't finished. Energy pulsed in his head. Pain signals flashing up and down his body. And his vision still flickered red at the edges. Rage, hot and familiar curled around his processes. He stared down at Tesler. 

He could end it now. The general had caused so much pain, cost the Grid so many lives. His hand brushed his disc as the flickering red invaded further and a voice that sounded like his own whispered at the back of his head. To end the cycle. To finish what he had started when he decided to fight the Occupation.

He clenched his hand into a fist and let it drop back to his side.

He wasn't Ronin anymore. And he could prove it.

He knelt and nudged Tesler onto his side. Just because he didn't want to derezz him didn't mean he had to be gentle. He grabbed the disc off his back and jacked the wrench into it. After a few nanos of scrolling he found the connections between program code and vehicle code. They were all severed. Tesler no longer had access to his modifications anymore. They were destroyed and all that remained were massive holes in most of his processes.

"He's down" Beck called, looking up to see a crowd staring at him. He'd been so focused on fighting Tesler he hadn't realized just how many programs remained in the square. Mods and common programs clogged the space. It seemed like Alan-One had firewalled the remainder of the pathogenically controlled programs. There were no more orange lines in sight.

Thudding feet accompanied Zed and Mara as they ran up to him. Mara tackled him in a hug, Zed taking his other side. 

"It worked! It actually worked!" Mara squealed.

"You got him! It cost us the Encom 786 which is probably gonna make Able really mad. But hey! You got him!" Zed cheered.

"See dad! I told you dropping a cycle on someone's head was a good move! Instant KO" Jet's voice rose above the growing noise in the square. Shouts and cheers grew in volume as it seemed to set into everyone's process that Tesler was down. Likely for several cycles by the looks of his disc.

Tron ghosted up to Tesler, staring down at him with his classic blank scowl.

"Got any constructive criticism Tron?" Beck asked, relief and a bit of glee at his victory starting to rise to the surface.

"You put him down without derezzing him. I can't say I have criticism if you managed that" Tron stated evenly.

Beck finally let a real smile show.

The fight with Tesler was finally decided.