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evecolourshock · 10 days

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Inspired by this compilation of Beck about to/in the middle of beating the shit out of cops...

Beck knows, somewhere in the back of his mind, that picking a fight with authority is a bad idea. Especially now.

But damnit, there's no one here to hold him back, and it is so glitching tempting to just start punching. He might be in the middle of a bar full of red-circuited soldiers - former soldiers? Given Clu's demise due to a badly maintained lightjet Beck totally had nothing to do with? But Pavel is right there and he reckons he could break at least the guy's nose before the others pull him off or take him down.

He hears the rumbling before he sees the Program, and half the bar very deliberately Does Not Flee from Rinzler. Beck stays where he is, mostly out of spite.

The rest is morbid fascination at this point. Anyone who knew Tron even half as well as Beck does can see the remains of the Monitor in the Enforcer, and Rinzler's more Program than monster now his master's gone. On a whim, Beck orders a drink he knows Tron enjoyed from the increasingly nervous bar staff, and slides it over when Rinzler gets close enough to notice it.

He gets a helmet tilt, and looks back calmly. Rinzler seems to shrug, and sits next to him, a slot opening up in the bottom of his helmet so he can drink.

Beck gets the unfortunately hilarious mental image of Rinzler using one of those ridiculous-looking curly straws to sip at his drink, and has to bury a snort in his own glass. Rinzler makes a questioning sound at him, and he waves a hand. "Nothing, it's fine. Just a funny but stupid thought."

He gets what's obviously an eye-roll he's been on the receiving end of enough times for it to have no effect, and Rinzler returns to his drink and relatively companionable silence.

There's a joke in there somewhere, two parts of a Program's legacy hanging out in a bar.

Chatter starts up again, and unfortunately so does Pavel. Beck doesn't even want to know why the Commander starts approaching him - he's been sending minions up all night because ordering drinks is beneath him, and Rinzler is literally sitting right there and clearly doesn't want to be bothered - but Beck just sighs and drops his forehead onto the smooth bartop.

"If there was ever a face that needs punching, it's that one." He grumbles, and gets the distinctive sound of Rinzler choking on his drink and trying not to laugh. "It's not fair - I'm gonna get banned from Mara's paint stash if I get in another bar fight, but he keeps on encroaching on me and just- look at him! Look how smug he is - at that stupid expression making him look like what processes he has have been halved. He's begging to have it wiped off his face."

Rinzler is definitely laughing, clapping Beck on the back once and spooking almost every Program in the room. Beck turns his head so he can see Rinzler better, noting in his peripheries Pavel's sort of. Stopped. And looks more perplexed than usual. "He derezzed a Bit just because he could, you know? He'd barged into the garage, threatened us, and when our Bit started to tell him off slashed his disc clean through it."

Rinzler makes a kind of humming sound, eyeing Pavel more keenly.

"I know, I know, should be thankful it was the Bit and not one of us, but. We liked that Bit. And getting a replacement... even if we could, it wouldn't be right, you know? Wouldn't be our Bit, and that's not fair to the new one."

Rinzler ruffles his hair. It's weird, but familiar at the same time.

"If he starts a fight with me, can you tell - or, not tell. Write, ping, or whatever. Let Mara know I neither started it nor threw the first punch? Self-restraint, and I promise to only break his nose a little. And maybe his jaw if he doesn't shut up."

Rinzler calmly stands up, unfolds - and yep, Beck was right so Zed can suck a Gridbug, Rinzler is Tron's height when he actually stands up and isn't compressing his own code - and puts himself between Pavel and Beck. Considering he's the only Program Beck respects enough to not try and fight around anyway, it's probably a good move in helping keep Beck still in his coworkers' good databanks.

"That works too."

In one of the clearest, most elegant dismissals Beck's seen, Rinzler simply spins Pavel around and shoves him back at the table the Commander claimed, serenely taking his seat next to Beck again.

"Thanks." Beck rests his head against Rinzler's shoulder for a nano or so, and gets Rinzler's arm slung across his shoulders. It's nice - Tron used to do that too, when he felt safe enough to relax and show affection.

Pavel hisses something, because he apparently can't leave well enough alone, and Beck goes eerily still with rage.

"Did you hear, Mechanic?" The Commander jeers after Beck's lack of reaction. "I said-"

"I heard." Beck borrows his vocal tone from Tron. Deceptively light, promising extreme violence. "And next time you insult Rinzler I'm going to break the tables with your face."

It's the first time he's laid out explicitly what he's going to do, after such a comment gets thrown in his direction. He can handle being called an easy charge point, it even used to have a degree of truth to it, but he will not allow an insult to a friend to go unchallenged. Especially not the Program he used to look up to, his mentor and the closest he had to a Creator, who molded him into who he is now.

Pavel looks at him oddly, thrown off-guard. "Which tables?"

"All of them." Rinzler puts a hand on his shoulder, and Beck laces his fingers with the Enforcer's for a moment before brushing it off. "No." He murmurs. "Not after what he said about you, or what he's implying about us. He doesn't get away with that this time."

Rinzler gently turns Beck to face him, trying to calm him down. Beck chuckles softly despite the fury simmering under his skin. It's such a role reversal. "I know, vengeance won't solve anything, even if it feels good in the short run." He recites back teasingly.

Rinzler makes a pleased sound, and-

Beck swears those orange circuits flicker white. Doubly so that the tetromino winks out - the stealth suit's true appearance, visible for a moment. His eyes sharpen, but his attention is drawn away almost as fast when Pavel approaches again.

"You reckon you can beat me, Mechanic?" Pavel taunts, and Beck shrugs.

"I've fought better warriors than you. And worse enemies." Tron, repeatedly through training. Tesler. Paige. Dyson once, though he was lucky to survive.

And Cyrus. The only Program he's fought to derez before. He barely survived that one too, Cyrus himself a formidable opponent and the bombs he favoured equipped with a deadman switch - if Cyrus was derezzed, they went off, and Beck hadn't quite got far enough away to escape the blast.

Pavel's certainly above average, and unpredictable, but... the ones Beck's won against were in leagues of their own.

"I could beat anyone in this room. Including that bloatware Enforcer you're palling around with, Mechanic." Pavel laughs, looks away, and tries to follow it up with a hit he thinks Beck isn't expecting.

The disc halts inches from his face, Pavel's wrist creaking under his hand. Beck raises an eyebrow at the stunned Commander, stepping smoothly around so he can grab the other by the back of his armour and flip him through the table on his left.

The solid veneer shatters, and so does a good portion of Pavel's cheek.

"I told you - insult Rinzler again, and I'll break the tables with your face." Beck tells him calmly - like Tron would. Getting angry means your opponent's in your head and can play you if they choose to. Being calm... you're in control, and your opponent's unsettled.

Rinzler makes a laughing sound, raspy and crackling but unmistakeable, and Beck smiles.

Unfortunately, as he knows, Pavel doesn't know when to leave well enough alone, and Beck has to reacquaint the Commander with the floor. It becomes... a bit of a blur after that.

Later, Beck will appreciate the irony in Rinzler having to pull him off a battered, beaten Pavel, will groan good-naturedly at the repair tab he's accumulated (five tables, three chairs, and a window), will pull the kicked-Bit look on Mara and bring the time he's banned from the paints drastically down from a full millicycle to five work-cycles because he didn't start this fight (just decisively finished it).

Right now, Beck only barely avoids outing himself as the Renegade, because he's got too much pent-up anger to use that economical yet showy style distinctive to the persona. He's all but wholly focused on punching Pavel through the nearest hard surface - most of the time, it's the floor. "You. Do. Not. In. Sult. My. Friends." Beck seethes, accentuating each syllable with a punch to Pavel's face.

He can hear Rinzler's growl thrumming behind him, dimly through the haze of every satisfying thud of his fist, but the Program in his peripheries has white circuits and Beck honestly can't tell if he's hallucinating or not. Wouldn't be the first time, but usually it's The Eyebrow Of Disapproval in a reflective surface before he does something ill-advised.

He's hauled up by the scruff of his suit, still very much trying to batter Pavel - lands a kick against the Commander's dock when Pavel staggers away, and he swears he did not mean to send Pavel toppling through the front window. Those are a pain to replace, and he didn't want to inflict that on the staff. Once Pavel's out of sight he stops thrashing, dangling in someone's grip dejectedly, and hears a crackling rough sigh.

Rinzler drops him in a booth, checking him over for injuries. Beck winces - he'll be feeling the damage to his shoulder for a while - but looks up at Rinzler with big sad eyes. "He insulted you. Twice."

Rinzler flicks his nose.

"Ow." Beck pouts. "Come on, he deserved it." Rinzler's circuits are still white, the tetromino absent, but Beck doesn't dare hope. He's also being stared at in a very familiar judgemental way, and-

Beck cracks. "He doesn't get to do that, okay? Doesn't get to- he's not glitching superior to anyone. I get it, shouldn't have let him get in my head, but- he doesn't get to say that and not find out what the floor tastes like. Not to- not to you. Not to any of my friends, but especially not to you."

Beck is not going to apologise for something he is absolutely going to do again if he feels the need to.

The stare-off continues a little longer, glossy black to exhausted brown, and then that sleek helmet folds away.

"Thank you." Beck hears, pulled into a hug, and his arms wrap around his mentor's shoulders. They're shaking - or maybe he is, or maybe both of them are. "Well done, Renegade."

Beck smiles - ow, he'll be feeling the split lip for a while as well - and tucks his head into the neck of the Program who taught him. "Any time."

"You're still grounded for fighting though. I taught you to hit better than that."

"Oh, come on!"

#beck did not sabotage clu's jet. he just... didn't repair it properly. did not expect it to fully blow up with clu on it though.#tronfic #beck fights everyone. fighty boi. this is why tron likes him.#is it rinzler? is it tron? who knows! maybe a secret third thing.#ambiguous-ish ending

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