CHAPTER 15 — FAMILIA

THE GRID - FIRST TRONCYCLE

GENERAL'S CARRIER SHIP – ARGON

"CONTAMINATION. CHAOS. YOUR FRIENDS. THIS IS WHAT ISOS LEAVE BEHIND"

"I DON'T THINK I AM DESIGNED TO PLAY MUSIC, IT'S NOT IN MY PROGRAMMING"

"WE JUST WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE...I CAN TRUST YOU, CAN'T I?"

Breaking the myriad of traumatic memories, the sound of the phrase "Major" by one of the rookie soldiers, oblivious to the replay of memories in his superior's head for the Nth time since several TronCycles, woke her from the memory reel. At a first glance, her deceptively beautiful face and perfect body fabricate the persona of a damsel-in-distress, but her skills and experience narrate the other story altogether. If the confessions of the derezzed and serving army sentries are to believe, she held the number one position in the Game Arena for a record number of ten tournaments, the first and only record in the history of the Arena and the Grid. To break that record is to have a total kill count of 600 people or more as she boasts of 500, a record that one could only dream of while getting defeated and derezzed at the double-digit figures itself in the Arena Leaderboards.

Displaying her calm and composed demeanor, one which she sculpted herself in the making, she listened to the rookie's message and cleared her mind before setting her foot out of her cabin. Taking heavy steps with controlled breath and a cold heart, she entered General's cabin.

As her entry is about to get noticed, the General, in his elongated yet silent stature, waited to connect to his not-so-favorite Commander via the Korinthian Stream, avoiding any distraction he can till then. As the AV connection started, the Commander waited with bated breath as the General took no time welcoming his boy:

- My boy, did I disturb your tricycle?

- (sneering) Not at all, General. I was waiting for your call.

- And tell what? Those rats tingled your balls and robbed you naked?

- Our men tried their best but those fugitives are smart. I will capture them myself, sire, I give my word.

- I'll give you two free pieces of advice, son. First, get those whores and cucks outta your house, and second, learn to stick your dick out for once.

- (gritting his teeth) I roam this city once in a while, sir. Even my soldiers envy my alertness.

- If that's the case, did you send them here for a vacation!!

- I don't understand, why would I?

- Explain this then!!(displays the Recognizer's footage)

- I…I…I can explain this.

- Enough!! I ain't your daddy to wipe off your ass every time you fuck something up, you understand?

- (hanging head in shame) Yes, General.

- (pointing towards Major) You know why you are in Purgos and Paige is here, Pavel?

- Because she is your daughter and acts innocent as fuck.

- It's because your balls are with the whores you entertain every 137mTC. Just because your dumpster fire Purgos remained unscathed along several TCs doesn't mean you're User level-strong, brat. It means that you are a pig who's fit to roll in that turd swamp, and your verbal diarrhea doesn't change that fact, asshole!

- (Hanging head down in shame and silence)

- I didn't call you to see your shitty face, so heads up. I need you beside me within the next 400mTC.

- (Partially agreeing) Sure, sir.

- Show your "alertness" here, you won't be able to show it next time if you fail.

- Yes, General.

- Have some balls of steel, Pavel. You hate Paige, don't you? You want her gone, drag those cowards up by their asses to me here.

- (Low tone voice) Got it, Master.

The General's steps trailed all the way from the mini-podium facing the display screen of the Korinthian Connection to his comfortable seat, a throne for those below him, preceding the voice emanating from his welcome greeting towards Paige. Making her comfortable to face and stand in front of him, he lay seated on his throne in a regal manner, befitting his newfound and past sense of authority, although the question of its moral sustenance is still the same.

Settling his anger toward Pavel into an affectionate fatherly love toward Paige, the General then briefed the situation to her, wisely filling in the gaps left from the conversation instead of the routinely documented narration of events. This privilege of informal talk laced with change in tonality is only reserved for Paige in their rapport, the very precious thing even Pavel wanted from him, the same way siblings fight over who gets the gift first.

- What are the stats of losses in the Argon attack?

- I'm afraid, Sir. Zero survivors and no witnesses on the masked invaders' identities.

- Grind the Basics into submission and find out. Let the whole Argon watch as their so-called "leader" gets crushed in my hands (arms glowing dimly).

- Rest assured, Sir, the leader of their cowardly pack will be at your feet in no time.

- And Paige, regarding Pavel, I just want what's best for my children. Had I wished him to die, I would've left him to rot in that garbage land. You get it, right?

- Yes, Sir. Absolutely.

- Go with General, Paige. You don't need to bother with "Sir" at each line.

- Sure, Si…General.

- That suits you better. Now, where was I?

- My favorite part of the story, you were saying.

- Yes, right. Did I tell you who the runners are?

- No, General.

- They had cyan-light ribbons on them, I was informed. Guess who wears them?

- (Gulping in restlessness) Users?

- ISOs too, my dear. Those same ISOs that took everything from you.

- They are gone many TronCycles ago, General, if the history holds right.

- Good argument, but these two sprung up from nowhere. We don't know anything except our Recogs had a few good snaps of the couple. Have a look.

Looking at the picture, Paige couldn't care less about the man in the front seat, but her eyes irresistibly locked themselves on the one in the back, the female "ISO" as per the General. The sight of her took Paige's mind into one of her recurring nightmares "C.L.U DID THIS TO US. THE PIURGE IS REAL, PAIGE". Nevertheless, she was able to control her barrage of emotions and continue the discourse.

- I don't remember seeing these traitors anytime, General. Give me the order.

- That's the spirit, my love. Wish he had some of that courage in his body. You know the task, bring them to me before Pavel and make me proud.

- Your wish is my command, General. I'll be right on it.

- And Paige, last thing.

- Yes, General.

- You know my name, use it. General is for people outside of our family.

- Pardon me for reminding your instructions, General. To fulfill my purpose, your command is what I need to follow. Correct me if I am wrong.

- (Chuckling) My girl is always right, isn't she? Do as you wish, sorry, my "command".

THE GRID – FIRST TRONCYCLE

FLYNN'S HIDEOUT

In the cooler, breezy interiors of the ever-morphing abode of Flynn, he is the only one sweating in anxiety and concern. His ever-growing protective desire towards his son and the last ISO ever in the Grid made him oblivious to his commendable progress in restoring his den to its former glory. Unlike the hanging wires and blasted proportions of the interiors which welcomed Flynn's crawling comeback, this new appearance is unfinished yet impressive morphed greatly from its Zen-like shelter to a cloudier, techno-punkish version of Zeus' Club. Had he regained at least half percentile of his original power levels, he could've wiped out the enemy forces in a matter of seconds, unless it is someone as powerful as C.L.U or himself. However, it's a miracle in the first place that he has regained more than a quarter of his innate strength solely through YOGA SADHANA and not at all consuming any solid and liquid diets, a rarity in the rapidly modernizing and softening User World.

Regardless of the lingering amount of depression and ambiguity of the outcome, Kevin went on to continue his SADHANA, scouring the Grid in his astral vision for the couple, re-enacting the sequence of events that occurred from their crash landing to the Grid to their present accident. Little did Kevin know the methodology of astral vision which surprisingly made him track Sam and Quorra'a activities, partially helping him in tracking them down, but he had a son to find rather than the mysterious power he had right now. To put it in simple terms, astral vision works based on the User wielding that ability, which relies heavily on the User's relationship with the target to be tracked. In other terms, as the User's DNA is encoded into binary code the moment they enter the Grid, the User and the target's DNA encoding must be positively matched with each other and obviously, this ability works inside the Grid boundaries only.

As the astral vision worked its newfound magic into the realm of the Grid, it is limited to the visions of Sam and his present predicament being that he is trapped inside what is possibly a Roadster with an anonymous female rider, who may have captured them for hidden agenda, and Quorra lying unconscious and mostly unscathed, unlike Sam. Just as Kevin was trying to decode any important and useful clues through those visuals, Sam blacks out and eliminates Kevin's chances for tracing them out. This abrupt blackout knocks Kevin from his YOGA position, breaking his connection to the CELESTIAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

Kevin then delivered numerous consecutive attempts in a row to connect back to consciousness but to no avail. SADHANA requires a lot of inner peace and mental detachment from the sorrows and negative thoughts of the heart, which Kevin cannot possibly maintain at this point, given the visions he had about his son just now. After several attempts, pitying his frantic and futile attempts, the SEA OF CONSCIOUSNESS came to the rescue:

- GREETINGS, FLYNN. I SEE YOU HAVE DISPLAYED TREMENDOUS PROGRESS IN YOUR SPIRITUAL ENDEAVOR.

- At what cost? Just to see my son and Quorra get beaten very badly and, most obviously, kidnapped by a stranger.

- YOU ARE THE FOUNDER, FLYNN. WHY DON'T YOU SAVE THEM KNOWING WHERE THEY ARE?

- Stop messing with me, dude! You know my limits.

- IT IS YOU WHO IS IN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH. YOU HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO, THOUGH.

- Cut some slack, SeaGod! I'm risking my family sitting here, helpless like hell. So do something to get my powers back right now!

- SEAGOD? IS THIS THE WAY USERS TRY TO DEVELOP ATTACHMENTS FOR THE THINGS THEY CARE ABOUT?

- Come to the point, Man!

- HARD WORK AND PATIENCE ARE THE ONLY MEANS TO ACHIEVING A GOAL, FLYNN.

- I don't have the second one, especially after knowing he's in danger.

- SANATANA DHARMA ADVISES HUMANS TO FOLLOW THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL DHARMIC SIDDHANTHA ON RESULT: "PERFORM YOUR DUTY BUT DO NOT HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS OF THE FRUITS".

- Basically, sit back and watch, huh?

- YOU ARE FOLLOWING YOUR DHARMA RIGHTEOUSLY, USER, DO NOT LET YOUR EMOTIONS UNDO YOUR PROGRESS. CONTROL OVER THE HEART LEADS TO DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE HELPS TO CONTROL POWER. CONTROLLED POWER HELPS ACHIEVE PEAK USER POTENTIAL. THE FATE OF THE GRID, INCLUDING YOUR FAMILY, LIES IN YOUR PEAK POTENTIAL, FLYNN. USE YOUR MIND AND BODY WISELY.

- So deep, man! Thank you so much.

- MAY DHARMA DEFEND YOU, FLYNN.