Fic: The Ghost in the Shell (DCU/Tron Legacy, Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, R)
Happy New Year!
Title: The Ghost in the Shell
Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon
Rating: R for language.
Word count: 1.180
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine.
A/N: A big thanks to reginalibintia. You are the best! *huge hug*
Warnings: Jason's dirty mouth. Spoilers for Tron Legacy...sorta. Title from the manga/anime Ghost in the Shell. (Bruce wanted her to be his ghost in the shell, didn't he?)
Summary: Jason was the best Arena fighter and then he met the Ghost.
Jason has a lot of free time now that he’s in prison. Time is all he has actually. One hour outside, half an hour for food and half an hour for a shower. He takes all his time to eat, but he’s out of the shower in five minutes. Some days even less than five minutes.
He reads a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies about dead people he really doesn’t care about, but he’ll read any book he can find if that means he will get away from that damn place even in his fantasy.
So he’s absolutely, one hundred percent, fucking glad when the director of the prison applies for Internet 3.0. Sure, it’s still a trial program, but he makes sure to be one of the twenty lucky sons of bitches to go inside The Grid. To be one of the twenty he had to bribe a few guards and give the location of one of his hideouts, but it was worth it. He will get one hour inside. One hour away from the damn four walls of his cell.
What Jason doesn’t expect is how fast time goes when you’re in The Grid. One nanosecond in the real world is eight hours in The Grid. So Jason now lives a double life. In one life he’s a prisoner and in his second life he’s a famous Arena athlete. Years with Batman had given him reflexes beyond the average and in the Arena, you might be strong but you are dead if you’re not fast enough.
Of course in the beginning, like most newbie’s, he was more interested in finding a woman and giving her the best virtual fuck of her lifetime. That got old really fast. Then he tried to hang out with the ‘downloader’s’, but they were the kind of people Tim Drake would hang out with so Jason left them as fast as he found them. He even tried role playing for a little while; again that was something Drake would do.
Jason doesn’t think about them now days. The first couple of weeks all he could think of were Dick and the new Robin. The one that got shot. Good. The little bastard deserves it. Drake was bad enough, but a new kid? Well, okay. Jason might think about the new kid when he’s in the Arena. Maybe that’s why he’s so good; he has motivation.
Every ten minutes a voice informs him the time he has. It’s so easy to lose track of time and the last thing Jason wants is to lose his privilege. Maybe for the first time in his life he’s behaving, inside and outside the Grid. He stops giving trouble to the guards his first week in the program. All twenty of them actually.
He has to admit it; Bruce did it again. He’s not wearing his Batman costume, but he has the prisoners in his pocket. Jason doesn’t know if he hates him or loves him a bit more for his new found freedom so he likes to think that he hates Bruce a little less. He’s surprised that Bruce is not watching his creation, but if the words on the streets are correct, Bruce is doing a lot more than promoting Internet 3.0 around the globe.
It’s his fifth week in The Grid when he hears rumors about a ‘Ghost’ that appears when users and programs need it. Jason knows that Bruce is playing Batman to Asia and he also knows that as good as Bruce is with computers he likes his fists a little more. That leaves him one name and his lips turn into a small smile.
Well, big brother put him behind the bars, but Jason might have a second chance with his little brother after all.
For the first time in the last five weeks Jason begins to break rules. Nothing fancy at the start; he doesn’t want to lose his one hour of freedom. So he’s doing a little exploring around The Grid, talking to people and programs, paying attention to ‘weird’ stuff.
It takes him three more weeks to find this ‘Ghost’. Three weeks is an eternity to The Grid and he feels like crying. He’s not sure avatars can cry, but if they could he would be crying. But not for the reason he would believe. Apparently, he’s fast in the Arena, but he’s not so fast when it comes to rogue programs that are against users.
That area of The Grid he doesn’t know and he was snooping around without telling anyone where he was going. People got lost in The Grid. People got lost in The Grid and no one ever heard of them. He had to give it to Bruce; he made a virtual micrograph of Gotham City.
And when Jason was ready to face the fact that this was probably the last time people heard of him, the Ghost appears with acrobatics that could make Dick blush from shame and run to hide deep in a cave. Jason has seen Drake fight and this…’Ghost’ is not Drake. He’s a better fighter than Drake and he’s sure that if he went one on one with this dude, he’d be history.
“Um...thank you,” he says when the last program is shattered to little bluish pieces all around his feet.
The Ghost says nothing and Jason takes some time to observe…it. He’s not so sure that he’s talking to a user. He hasn’t seen any user move the way the Ghost does. Hell, he’s the best Arena fighter and he’s smart enough not to go against five programs. Two or three he can manage, but five?
“You’d better head back,” the Ghost says and the voice is the electronic voice of a machine, yet it sounds familiar. “This area is not cleared for the users.”
“Yeah, well, yeah,” Jason open his helmet and offers his hand to the ghost. “I’m Jason.”
He doesn’t say that he was looking for it because he wasn’t looking for the Ghost; he was looking for Drake.
The Ghost doesn’t take his hand and after a few seconds it nods from the direction of the center. The message is clear and loud to Jason. He puts his helmet back on and for the first time he wishes to had a light cycle, but people like him don’t have that option.
Stupid prison policy!
“Who are you?” He asks because he almost died and he would like to know if he has to look for a person when he’s out of the prison or start worry about Big Brother.
When the Ghost says something but turns it back and walks away from him, Jason does the same.
“Take care, little bird.”
Jason stops. He’s not sure if he heard that or if he imagines it, but when he turns his head the Ghost is nowhere to be seen.
Only now Jason knows that she’s not a program and that she’s still looking out for him and that makes him feel better.
“You too, Barbara. You too.”
Title: The Ghost in the Shell
Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon
Rating: R for language.
Word count: 1.180
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine.
A/N: A big thanks to reginalibintia. You are the best! *huge hug*
Warnings: Jason's dirty mouth. Spoilers for Tron Legacy...sorta. Title from the manga/anime Ghost in the Shell. (Bruce wanted her to be his ghost in the shell, didn't he?)
Summary: Jason was the best Arena fighter and then he met the Ghost.
Jason has a lot of free time now that he’s in prison. Time is all he has actually. One hour outside, half an hour for food and half an hour for a shower. He takes all his time to eat, but he’s out of the shower in five minutes. Some days even less than five minutes.
He reads a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies about dead people he really doesn’t care about, but he’ll read any book he can find if that means he will get away from that damn place even in his fantasy.
So he’s absolutely, one hundred percent, fucking glad when the director of the prison applies for Internet 3.0. Sure, it’s still a trial program, but he makes sure to be one of the twenty lucky sons of bitches to go inside The Grid. To be one of the twenty he had to bribe a few guards and give the location of one of his hideouts, but it was worth it. He will get one hour inside. One hour away from the damn four walls of his cell.
What Jason doesn’t expect is how fast time goes when you’re in The Grid. One nanosecond in the real world is eight hours in The Grid. So Jason now lives a double life. In one life he’s a prisoner and in his second life he’s a famous Arena athlete. Years with Batman had given him reflexes beyond the average and in the Arena, you might be strong but you are dead if you’re not fast enough.
Of course in the beginning, like most newbie’s, he was more interested in finding a woman and giving her the best virtual fuck of her lifetime. That got old really fast. Then he tried to hang out with the ‘downloader’s’, but they were the kind of people Tim Drake would hang out with so Jason left them as fast as he found them. He even tried role playing for a little while; again that was something Drake would do.
Jason doesn’t think about them now days. The first couple of weeks all he could think of were Dick and the new Robin. The one that got shot. Good. The little bastard deserves it. Drake was bad enough, but a new kid? Well, okay. Jason might think about the new kid when he’s in the Arena. Maybe that’s why he’s so good; he has motivation.
Every ten minutes a voice informs him the time he has. It’s so easy to lose track of time and the last thing Jason wants is to lose his privilege. Maybe for the first time in his life he’s behaving, inside and outside the Grid. He stops giving trouble to the guards his first week in the program. All twenty of them actually.
He has to admit it; Bruce did it again. He’s not wearing his Batman costume, but he has the prisoners in his pocket. Jason doesn’t know if he hates him or loves him a bit more for his new found freedom so he likes to think that he hates Bruce a little less. He’s surprised that Bruce is not watching his creation, but if the words on the streets are correct, Bruce is doing a lot more than promoting Internet 3.0 around the globe.
It’s his fifth week in The Grid when he hears rumors about a ‘Ghost’ that appears when users and programs need it. Jason knows that Bruce is playing Batman to Asia and he also knows that as good as Bruce is with computers he likes his fists a little more. That leaves him one name and his lips turn into a small smile.
Well, big brother put him behind the bars, but Jason might have a second chance with his little brother after all.
For the first time in the last five weeks Jason begins to break rules. Nothing fancy at the start; he doesn’t want to lose his one hour of freedom. So he’s doing a little exploring around The Grid, talking to people and programs, paying attention to ‘weird’ stuff.
It takes him three more weeks to find this ‘Ghost’. Three weeks is an eternity to The Grid and he feels like crying. He’s not sure avatars can cry, but if they could he would be crying. But not for the reason he would believe. Apparently, he’s fast in the Arena, but he’s not so fast when it comes to rogue programs that are against users.
That area of The Grid he doesn’t know and he was snooping around without telling anyone where he was going. People got lost in The Grid. People got lost in The Grid and no one ever heard of them. He had to give it to Bruce; he made a virtual micrograph of Gotham City.
And when Jason was ready to face the fact that this was probably the last time people heard of him, the Ghost appears with acrobatics that could make Dick blush from shame and run to hide deep in a cave. Jason has seen Drake fight and this…’Ghost’ is not Drake. He’s a better fighter than Drake and he’s sure that if he went one on one with this dude, he’d be history.
“Um...thank you,” he says when the last program is shattered to little bluish pieces all around his feet.
The Ghost says nothing and Jason takes some time to observe…it. He’s not so sure that he’s talking to a user. He hasn’t seen any user move the way the Ghost does. Hell, he’s the best Arena fighter and he’s smart enough not to go against five programs. Two or three he can manage, but five?
“You’d better head back,” the Ghost says and the voice is the electronic voice of a machine, yet it sounds familiar. “This area is not cleared for the users.”
“Yeah, well, yeah,” Jason open his helmet and offers his hand to the ghost. “I’m Jason.”
He doesn’t say that he was looking for it because he wasn’t looking for the Ghost; he was looking for Drake.
The Ghost doesn’t take his hand and after a few seconds it nods from the direction of the center. The message is clear and loud to Jason. He puts his helmet back on and for the first time he wishes to had a light cycle, but people like him don’t have that option.
Stupid prison policy!
“Who are you?” He asks because he almost died and he would like to know if he has to look for a person when he’s out of the prison or start worry about Big Brother.
When the Ghost says something but turns it back and walks away from him, Jason does the same.
“Take care, little bird.”
Jason stops. He’s not sure if he heard that or if he imagines it, but when he turns his head the Ghost is nowhere to be seen.
Only now Jason knows that she’s not a program and that she’s still looking out for him and that makes him feel better.
“You too, Barbara. You too.”