for sudo_run_clu: Execute Program

[tonyf_ingstark]

It was a whim, really. The old arcade up on the market probably would have escaped his notice if not for the tiny details a little semi-automatic research flagged up. The place had been closed for years, but still drawing power from the city grid. Far more power, actually, than could be accounted for, unless something or somebody was living or

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[sudo_run_clu]

From his position, Clu could look out over almost all of Tron City and it pleased him. Clean and symmetrical, efficient and elegant; it was nearly perfect. He would wipe away the last few pockets of resistance and then present Flynn with his completed work; surely, his Creator would understand then.

The first ping made him blink in surprise; the second made his jaw drop. As the little alerts began to rain down across his programming, he was storming down to the ground level, determined to discover the source of this intrusion. These were coming from the outside world...but would could that possibly mean? Had 'Alan' discovered the Grid? Flynn had spoken of him often years ago...Clu had to get to the arcade; he could feel something clawing its way through the very base coding, and he made him ache in sympathy for the Grid

[tonyf_ingstark]

Tony blinked, painfully slow. Fingertips clawed roughly over a smooth cold surface, the same one pressed hard against his cheek. No, that wasn't right- he was flat out on the ground, aching, head swimming in the way only hard alcohol could cut him loose from physical reality.
It was the kick to his shoulder that woke him to the gravity of the situation. That was no relayed synaptic response- certainly not like any other he'd experienced before while online. He was physically present in a way he'd never been able to achieve before.
Too dazed and mildly awed by the experience to really register the demand, Tony didn't even attempt to respond. Instead, he ran his fingertips over the floor, marvelling at the intensity of the sensation.

[sudo_run_clu]

Clu's lips curled into a deep scowl at the perceived insult and he bent to haul the intruder up by grabbing a fistful of his jacket and forcing him to face him as he barked, "User! Identify!"

[tonyf_ingstark]

Tony's vision slid back into focus just too slowly to avoid being dragged up by his suit jacket- and suddenly he found himself face to face with the stranger.

There was someone else in the system- and a quick glance at his surroundings suggested there was much, much more. He wet his lips because for some reason they felt oddly dry, as if he'd been unconscious for days.

"Stark. Tony Stark."

[sudo_run_clu]

He let him go and began to pace around this strange User with his hands tucked behind his back, examining him suspiciously.

"How did you get here, Stark Tony Stark? How did you find this place?"

This User did not feel like Flynn; Flynn fit the Grid utterly, and this man? The system bent around him somehow, as if he were keeping it away.

[tonyf_ingstark]

Extremis was still running the search, seeking out the limits of the system he'd infiltrated. He could feel it spooling data, stacking and sorting, preparing to analyse- and that wasn't right. Extremis worked as fast as thought, but not here.

"No. Not- just Stark. What is this place? Some kind of visual interface?"

If Tony realised he was ignoring the questions, it didn't show on his face. His eyes followed the strangely dressed man intently- a construct, perhaps, like Jarvis. Once Extremis was finished scanning the perameters of the system, he'd focus his attention on the apparently interactive component interrogating him.

"I'm just taking a look. Be out of your hair in no time."

[sudo_run_clu]

The Programmer was bristling with anger now -- how could this User have come here without any knowledge of the System? Bringing a foreign code in here with him that was running rampant through his perfectly ordered code. He turned and put his hand on the wall, sending the command for the security program to clamp down on this 'Extremis' and hold it for questioning.

"You are in The Grid, Stark," he said, spitting the name like it was something filthy as he crowded into Tony's space, glaring at him, "Now. What is 'Extremis'?"

[tonyf_ingstark]

"Oh, no. No no. Extremis stays with me."

His mind raced with possibilities, most of them nonsensical and quickly abandoned. He was speaking with a representative of the system he'd infiltrated- some kind of graphical- no, constructed virtual reality representation of it--

"Am I being pinged? My god, I am. This is what your system thinks that should feel like? Who on earth made a system this sophisticated, back in the..."

He paused, head tilted to the side. Extremis took a little time to provide the answer. Irritating.

"...80s. 1987. July. What are you, anyway?"

[sudo_run_clu]

There was a rumble and crash outside, and sounds of shouting -- the security programs were chasing and pushing this 'Extremis' closer to them, and Clu was swiftly losing his patience.

"I am Clu, the Programmer of the Grid, and you and your pet virus are intruders here. How did you get into the Grid without using the portal? Do you know Kevin Flynn?" He pulled the disc off of his back, and it sizzled to life in his hand threateningly.

[tonyf_ingstark]

Tony's eyes narrowed, his body tensing.
"I know of Kevin Flynn," he replied carefully, watching the disc hum with energy. Dangerous.

"...Yes. I know Kevin Flynn. And you can put that away. I'm not going to hurt you. Nor's- Extremis is- well, it's the name of a kind of... augmented memory core. I set it on a kind of whois command when I got in here, it's not- we're just exploring."

[sudo_run_clu]

His nostrils flared, pupils dilated, and he tensed at the acknowledgement of Kevin Flynn -- plenty of repressed feelings of anger and bitterness for someone as observant as Tony to pick up on.

Clu stepped even further into Tony's space, close enough for him to growl in a low voice, "You will call off your virus, Stark." He let the unspoken threat linger in the air before turning on his heel to storm out of the arcade, clearly expecting the User to follow.

He narrowed his eyes as he took in the size of the virus for the first time.

[tonyf_ingstark]

Tony objected to the Programmer's tone- but remembering the spinning disc and noting the tightness of his expression he said nothing and followed him out instead. Extremis had been a virus, when he'd injected it and let it reprogram his mind- but now it was like another sense, like a seperate internal harddrive, inextricably linked with the one nature had given him.

He wasn't expecting to see it manifest here.

The Grid had perceived it as a virus- and in the virtual reality interface Extremis was very physically real. Fluid but sharp, a many-tendrilled three-dimensional oilspill, a tangle of tree roots, golden, blindingly bright. Beautifully complex, drawing in on itself from all directions, condensing towards its core and moving towards them.
Too late, he realised that to the Programmer, it would appear like it was here to confront him, possibly violently. In actuality, the program was simply fulfilling its task. Seeking out information. Spooling it internally. Returning to the processor. He spread his arms.

[sudo_run_clu]

Clu watched Stark's reactions closely -- how he interacted with the foreign virus. And when the first tendril reached out to interface with its User, Clu's hand shot out to catch it in a tight grip. He intended to get a reading on the Extremis' primary function but the coding...was like nothing he'd ever seen before and it burned as he tried to read it. The Programmer pulled his hand back with a hiss, glaring at Stark.

"What code is that?!"

[tonyf_ingstark]

"Mine," he said simply, watching the visual representation seep back under his skin, tendrils wrapping around his arms and sinking into his flesh like wires. Veins, perhaps.

And then suddenly the mass of light was gone, dissolved into a slight glow under the surface of Tony's skin. Unseen under his suit the underarmour flashed over his body as if restaking a claim, and Tony wondered not for the first time just whose perceptions of the raw code the system was using to generate the world around them.

Flynn, Extremis provided softly, that familiar touch at the back of his mind back up to speed, running countless analysises on a secondary track. Images of the man streamed through his mind- a man whose carbon copy was standing right in front of him.

"It's yours," he mused, trying not to dwell to much on why the Extremis hadn't presented itself as his twin. "The Grid. This whole- it's Flynn's. Yours."

[sudo_run_clu]

Clu's jaw tightened as his face was finally recognized, and his grip flexed on the still humming identity disk. He stepped close to Stark again, growling.

"I am not Kevin Flynn. I am the Codified Likeness Utility; the Programmer -- I will make it perfect."

He said the words tensely -- if they were all he could say. Which was true; he was defined by his primary function.

[tonyf_ingstark]

Tony raised his hands in surrender, open-palmed and unthreatening.

"Okay, okay. Flynn chose his own likeness to represent what you do. That's all I meant. You're like his avatar, then."