#I can very much get behind Tron tormenting Dyson like this for the rest of time

[what-bot]

Beck glanced over to his companions to see how they were taking…whatever that just was. People in the crowd were already speculating. Who was that? What happened to his face? Dyson knew him? Where’d he come from?

Mara was nodding to herself. “I can get behind that.”

Beck elbowed her. Tron could probably hear her with those monitor senses of his. “Don’t encourage him!” He pointedly frowned at the wall Tron had just vanished from. It was like he’d just melted into the background. But it was entirely possible he was still lurking somewhere, seeing if he could make good on his threat.

Zed stared into space, and shuddered. “‘He’s not that scary’, you said. ‘He’s a harmless old guy. Just talk to him, he’s friendly.’”

“I didn’t say he was harmless. Just that you shouldn’t be intimidated by him.”

“As long as I don’t beat you up, apparently.”

“Even then, he knows you. He probably won’t take your eyes.”

“Probably?!”

“He just really hates this specific guy. And Clu.”

Up on the stage, Dyson hissed something into his communicator. Probably along the lines of “Find him!”

“We’d better get out of here before they start searching.”

“Agreed. He’s nasty.” Mara threw one last scowl up at the program before they left. She’d been doing that a lot today. He’d managed to weasel his way into sounding almost reasonable, but she’d hated him from the beginning. “If it were me, I’d just kill him.”

Beck groaned. “Not you, too!”

*****

Even though Beck still had to finish his shift, he somehow made it to the hideout first. Beck made sure he was dramatically pondering the window-screen after he spotted Tron riding up. He’d considered cataloguing when he walked in, to further turn the tables, but he only half-understood Tron’s filing system and didn’t want to mess anything up.

Tron returned with a spring in his step. Beck didn’t know what the monitor was doing for all that time, and he didn’t want to.

“You must be proud of yourself,” Beck quipped.

Tron chuckled quietly, and clapped him on the shoulder. “You know, you taught me something today, Beck.”

“Which is?”

“I can only kill him once. But I can scare him for the rest of our runtimes, and that’s much more fun. You’re right, this way is better. Thank you.”

That wasn’t really what Beck was going for, but at least it was progress. Kind of. “Anytime.”

*****

This progress seemed to be holding, mostly, as Beck discovered during a planning session.

Mara and Zed leaned forward eagerly as Tron explained Beck’s infiltration route, and everyone else’s role. “Once you’re outside the barracks, I’ll find Dyson, and-“

Beck whipped out the spray bottle he’d been keeping on hand just in case. The other two gaped in disbelief that he would threaten to spray the great Tron with water. Mara cringed, and Zed gave a strangled gasp. “Dude, what are you doing? You’re insane!”

Tron threw his most sullen glare in response. Beck did not flinch.

“As I was saying, I will find Dyson and incapacitate him.” He stressed the word ‘incapacitate.’ Like he was being so well-behaved, he promised he wouldn’t turn up covered in energy and pretend his disc just slipped.

Beck continued aiming. “Define ‘incapacitate.’”

Tron thought about it for entirely too long. When Mara looked about to offer a suggestion, Beck flicked the bottle in her direction and she backed down.

He sighed. “How about, he still has to be able to walk when you’re done with him.”

“And have all his extremities, I assume,” Tron grumbled.

Beck hadn’t even thought of that. “Obviously.”

“Not even his hands? He tortures people with-“ He relented when Beck raised his eyebrows and readied his finger on the trigger. “Okay, fine. All.”

“Deal.”

Zed breathed a sigh of relief when Beck put down the spray bottle. “Oh, thank the users. I thought he was gonna start chasing you for a second there.”

Just before Beck shook on it, he remembered something else and pulled back. “And leave his eyes alone.”

Given his earlier threat, Beck expected Tron to protest, but to his surprise, he said “Relax, I won’t actually take his eyes. That’s too obvious. No, I’ll do something else if it comes to that.” He trailed off, apparently daydreaming about that ‘something else’.

Beck very much hoped he didn’t have any more mortal enemies they had to worry about.

Beck: What would you say to Dyson if he were in front of you right now?

Tron: I’d say ‘which of these would you prefer to be killed with?’

Beck: Tron!

Tron: And then I’d kill him with the other one.

Beck: TRON!