When a wayward young script named Quorra offers Jet Bradley and his best friend Sam Flynn a once-in-a-lifetime chance to enter the Digital World, they begin living a double life that radically alters their perception of reality.
Season 1: 10 Episodes
S1E1 “The Legend of Sam Flynn” | 81m | The graffiti tag “1982 Forever” begins to appear all over Valley High. Sam is accused of the vandalism. To clear his name he enlists the help of a delinquent artist named Beth Wilder.
S1E2 “The Perfect Score” | 42m | When he gets dragged into an elaborate cheating scheme by Sam’s new friend Beth, Jet decides to take matters into his own hands.
S1E3 “Separate Ways” | 52m | Going through his mother’s old things, Jet discovers an old journal and photo-album that chronicles the last six years of his mother’s tenure at ENCOM and the reason for her departure.
S1E4 “Blast From The Past” | 81m | Lora returns from Washington and reunites with Flynn. Flynn suspects someone found his old server. Quorra’s message leads Sam and Jet to Walter Gibbs’s old home.
S1E5 “Grey Thief” | 81m | When Sam is famed for hacking Valley High’s mainframe, Jet joins forces with Beth Wilder to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Jet is getting messages from a secret admirer.
S1E6 “White Throne, v1” | 81m | Kevin and Lora’s investigation leads them to Eva and Annie, employees of FCon Industries and Elfwood Studios. Alan catches Sam and Jet breaking into ENCOM. Chaos ensues.
S1E7 “Teller's Gambit” | 46m | Are Quorra’s programmer and Jet’s secret admirer the same person? A suspicious Sam tries to figure out Teller’s intentions before Jet and their secret is exposed.
S1E8 “Thorne In My Side” | 45m | J.D Thorne sends [his programs] Tek and Odorus after Quorra before she can escape the old server. Sam is trapped on the Game Grid by the ICP after Jet goes missing with Teller. Alan gets an S.O.S page from Jet.
S1E9 “White Throne, v2” | 45m | Young Intern and Star programmer, Eva Popoff begins tracking unusual activity in the FCon server and happens across Thorne's plans to sell company data on the black market.
S1E10 “Sweetness, Are You Listening?” | 81m | It turns out Sam was worried about the wrong blonde. Jet comes to terms with his feelings for Beth. Eva and Annie are offered a job at ENCOM. Quorra finally meets the legendary Tron.
Subroutine - [23/30] - T (PG-13) - Jet Bradley lived in a world of computers, his entire life was built around them. But the idea of conscious, living programs lurking within a computer system isn't a reality he can comprehend. Not even when he finds himself smack in the middle of it. An alternate canon fusion of the TRON 2.0 and LEGACY universes.
Subroutine - [23/30] - T (PG-13) - Jet Bradley lived in a world of computers, his entire life was built around them. But the idea of conscious, living programs lurking within a computer system isn't a reality he can comprehend. Not even when he finds himself smack in the middle of it. An alternate canon fusion of the TRON 2.0 and LEGACY universes.
First Clean Up (8.21.2018 -11.28.2018)
Second Clean Up (3.30.26 -4.30.26)
Last Update (7.28.19)
Subroutine has officially been republished on SQWA and proofread on FFNet a second time since 2018.
Fragmentation I [4/4] - PG-13 - AU. Subroutine 'verse. More fragmented pieces of narrative from the "Subroutine Universe". Tales span from Edward Dillinger, Walter Gibbs, Mercury, and Jethro Bradley.
Fragmentation II [10/10] - PG-13 - AU. Subroutine 'verse. Progress demands that the sacrifice of others is necessary. The victims, of course, have no say in the matter. Unless you're a User, that is.
Fragmentation III [3/3] - PG-13 - AU. Subroutine 'verse. More fragments of the Subroutine short story series, focusing primarily on Mercury, Quorra, Jet Bradley, and Sam Flynn.
Fragmentation IV [6/6] - PG-13 - AU. Subroutine 'verse. Five Times Someone Told Jet Bradley they loved him, and One Time He Didn't Think It Was Just Sentiment. Following Jet from October 1988 to November 2009.
[sneak peek of the third chapter before the end of the story. It’s a work-in-progress so it might not even make the final cut of the chapter.]
“It won’t be long now. Soon we’ll reach the portal, and your family will return to the analog world.” Quorra was all smiles.
“Provided we don’t get shot out of the sky, that’s definitely a possibility,” Jet’s tone was tactful, but his eyes expressed something else entirely. Not a desire to stay. No, Jet certainly made it clear he didn’t want to stay in the system even after liberation. Disillusionment, muted and hollowed, was the closest definition she could think of.
“You’re disappointed in Flynn,” she threw a line out into the dark, recounting the mood shift in Jet when they reunited with the Flynns.
A beat, then Jet looked away from the console, his expression questioning. “What?”
“You’re not happy to see Flynn,” Quorra rephrased. “You wish, maybe, we hadn’t found him?”
“What? No. God, no. That’s not it,” He said once his brain caught up with him.
“Then what’s bothering you? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Un-complicate it, please,” Quorra’s tone was hardly demanding, but Jet also caught the underlying caginess in her voice. She really was Mercury’s sister program.
“Look, it’s not about Flynn, not really,” Jet sighed. “It’s a good thing we found him. I’m glad my friend has his father back. Flynn coming back–it’s a good thing for everyone.”
“But…?” Quorra waited for him to continue.
“I’m just not looking forward to the storm. It’s gonna kick up. When he went missing, it’s like everything just froze up, crashed, without him there,” Jet said. “The world revolved around Flynn, and everyone got sucked into this black hole I’m not sure we ever got out of.”
Quorra’s brow furrowed. “You were jealous of the attention Flynn being gone received compared to yourself?”
“No!”
“You couldn’t have been any older than a small sprite then, at least, by User reckoning,” Quorra started counting backward with her fingers.
“For your information, I was seven when he went missing, so yeah, I was pretty young,” Jet remarked.
“So, if you’re not jealous, then what are you?”
“Afraid, I guess,” He said. “It took a long time to get used to him not being there, y’know? I got comfortable with the misery that came with the disappearance. But I think I was the only one.”
“How could you be used to misery? Didn’t you want him to come back?”
“Yes. Yes, more than anything, I want Uncle Flynn to come back with us.”
“Then what’s the issue?”
“It’s the time. Twenty-one years, you can get used to anything, even misery. You just…” He exhaled, “lose track. I don’t want to keep track again.”
“So don’t.”
“It’s not that simple. Losing track, it–” He shrugged. “It helped me cope. Still helps me.”
“That’s a terrible way to live.” Quorra looked disheartened.
Jet smiled contemptuously. “But it is a way.”
“Flynn wasn’t your father.”
“He wasn’t. But, like I said, this really isn’t about Flynn. It’s more like his affect,” He said. When Quorra continued to stare in confusion, he tried another approach. “Look, how did you feel when your ‘mother’ turned on you and the other ISOs? What was the first impression?”
Quorra looked thoughtful when she said, “Heartbreak?”
“Okay,” He said. “Our wildly different situations aside, imagine you’re seven years old, your father tells you your godfather has gone missing, and in seven months your entire life changes. Your ship isn’t there anymore because it’s out to sea looking for a man overboard. Pretty soon that ship doesn’t come back either. Little by little, there’s a growing feeling of inadequacy as your world gets smaller and smaller until nothing is certain anymore.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ve lived a splintered life, Quorra. I was born when my parents’ careers were at a high note, and neither of them was expecting me. I was the wrench in the gears, but they took it in stride, y’know. They raised me as best they could, but I’ve always felt displaced. I lived between two homes, and I don’t know how to explain this to you, but they were different sides of the world I live in. It was a constant upheaval. Neither of them wanted to let go of their careers, but I had them both with me.”
“So, you can imagine, when Flynn disappears, my parents are super determined to find him. They move heaven and earth to find him. They do their best to make sure Sam is alright–his grandparents make sure he gets therapy. Me? I rarely see my dad. I can’t go to my mother. My friend can’t deal with me. I have no extended family. My uncle is probably dead. I’m home alone, I sleep alone. I don’t know how to handle what I’m feeling, so nothing comes out right.”
“But, your parents, they didn’t mean for that to happen, I’m sure.”
“Sure, they probably didn’t,” He shrugged. “But the damage was done. I felt invisible, like a ghost. If I disappeared into some alternate timeline, would anyone really miss me? No, because Sam is there to take my place.” Jet sighed. “Look, my parents always tell me they tried their best, and I’m old enough to know they did. I know they love me. But, truth be told, I think I was too close to them. So they couldn’t see the issues beyond the surface problems, which was me being angry. I’ve never been able to shake that feeling of inadequacy. Even when my father stepped down from his job and stopped actively looking for my uncle, I could never feel comfortable. I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was waiting for the moment where I just fell out of sight, out of mind.”
“Jet…”
“What I’m saying here is that my parents were my world, but I wasn’t really theirs. That was Flynn. That was Sam. I’m the ghost in the machine.”
“But that can change, can’t it? It won’t be the same as last time.”
“No, it won’t, I’m not a kid anymore. By necessity, things are different,” Jet said, wiping his face. “Like I said, I’m glad Sam’s got his father back. Everyone gets what they want because Kevin Flynn comes back.”
“And you?”
“I have to change. This helplessness has informed every single facet of my life since Flynn disappeared,” he said. “And the only way that’ll happen is if I put some distance between myself and the people I love.”
The only way to describe the look on Quorra’s face was pity, but Jet didn’t care. “I love ‘em to death, I wanna be with them, I do. But, I can’t do that. Not until I can deal with not being important. That can’t happen if I’m with them.”
"The Grid's a game space, not a system, genius. And anyway, that's impossible. I'd sooner believe we got bombed with chloroform," Jet huffed, turning in a half-circle. The crowd had moved toward the other end of the street, their eyes were still on them, watching them like a pair of aliens. Feeling petty, Jet stuck his tongue out at them, they flinched.
"Last I checked, chloroform didn't come in lasers, so how would you explain this place? We can't possibly be experiencing a shared dream," Sam argued.
"Well, who says it's a shared dream? I could still be in my bed sleeping, talking to my subconscious, which has taken the convenient form of my friend," Jethro answered.
"Who says this is your dream if we're going with that argument?" Sam shot back, in no mood to humor Jet's denial.
"Because, if this was your dream you wouldn't know about Uncle Flynn's secret basement," Jet returned.
Sam opened his mouth then closed it again. Jet had him there.
