Tron Legacy the Junior Novel - Alice Alfonsi [11]
Those walls of light are lethal, Sam realized.
Another Sentry tried the same trick on Sam. But seeing a ramp to his side, he cleverly swerved down it.
Clu took the corkscrew ramp at high speed. The yellow program tried the same maneuver, but he crashed and shattered. Sam’s team was falling apart!
On the lower level, Sam felt a thump. The first Sentry had found a ramp, too, and came down right beside Sam. Another Sentry closed in from the rear. They were trying to sandwich Sam between them.
As the Sentries tried to squeeze Sam, he aimed for another ramp ahead. Just like on the freeway back in his own world.
Sam shot forward, losing the Sentries. But then he noticed another Sentry closing in on the aqua program.
Sam tried to help the young program. He zoomed off a grid line, and his Light Cycle shot into the air. Aiming his back wheel, the Sentry crashed into the wall of light left behind. Smash!
The aqua bike surged forward! Sam had saved his teammate!
He hit a corkscrew ramp. Two more Sentries appeared and tried to cut him off. But Sam outsmarted them, and they smashed into one another!
Now Sam was catching up with the aqua program.
“We’ve got to work together!” he called out.
The aqua program nodded.
“Okay, follow me,” Sam said.
Racing forward, Sam caught up with another Sentry. Aqua moved to flank their foe, but the Sentry bumped Aqua and he spun out.
Aqua’s Light Cycle shattered like glass, but the program was thrown safely clear. Proud that he survived, Aqua raised his arms in triumph.
Clu saw that the young program was off his Light Cycle. revving his own cycle, Clu shot down a ramp and struck the teenager head-on. The kid instantly derezzed.
No! Sam thought. But he barely had time to react. Clu had skidded into a full circle and revved his engine. A moment later he shot forward, bearing down again—this time on Sam.
Above the whine of the Light Cycle’s power processors, Sam could hear the audience cheering.
I’m the last one left, Sam realized. It’s him or me now!
Sam kicked his Light Cycle up to full speed and took aim. With the crowd cheering and shouting, Sam made a final, suicidal charge at Clu.
Clu raised his disc for the deathblow.
Sam freed his own disc, its deadly sharp edge gleaming in the blue-black light.
Something else was gleaming, too. Out of the corner of his eye Sam saw a vehicle burst out of a hidden ramp. He recognized it immediately.
“A Light Runner,” Sam whispered in awe. It was the bonus vehicle from the final level of the Tron game.
The Light Runner had a razor-sharp nose that cut through the grid as it moved, splintering it. Behind the Light Runner, a path of rock-hard crystals created a deadly wake.
Sam watched the Light Runner cut right in front of Clu’s cycle. Clu tried to swerve, but it was too late. His cycle struck the runner’s crystal wall and exploded into spiky shards. Clu bounced helplessly across the grid, with bits of his armor breaking off as he flew.
The crowd gasped.
The Light Runner circled Sam and halted beside him. A hatch opened.
“Get in,” a voice told Sam.
Sam didn’t know what to do. He looked inside the hatch and saw a driver behind the controls. But he couldn’t see through the driver’s dark visor.
“Get in…now,” the driver insisted.
With no better choices, Sam collapsed his Light Cycle back into a baton. He leaped into the Light Runner’s cabin and settled down beside the driver. The hatch closed, and the vehicle made a 360-degree turn.
Across the grid, Clu got back on his feet as the rectifier settled to the ground beside him. Jarvis walked down the ramp.
“Flynn lives,” Clu told his second, his voice full of barely contained fury—and worry. “It has begun.”
Jarvis waved a thin hand, gesturing for the pursuit cycles to get moving. With a thundering roar, the black cycles raced after the Light Runner.
INSIDE THE LIGHT RUNNER, Sam’s breathing returned to normal. Turning, he faced the masked driver. “I had Clu right where I wanted him,” he complained.
“Clearly,” the voice replied.