2x07 - NullZilla

Written by: Susan Turner
Story by: Susan Turner
New voice for Slash: Scott MacNeil replaces Phil Hayes

[Note: The software being used by the people at ReBoot has improved. When the characters talk, their heads and entire bodies move more than before. Also, objects in the distance are out of focus, like a real camera.]

This is the beginning of a five-part story:

1. "Nullzilla"
2. "Gigabyte"
3. "Trust No One"
4. "Web World Wars"
5. "To Mend and Defend"

Synopsis
A mysterious black fractal creature comes out of the Web and attacks Hexadecimal. The Nulls in Mainframe surround her, forming Nullzilla. Our heroes have to form a giant robot to battle it.

Story
[It starts out with "Next, on ReBoot"]

The story opens on the streets of Lost Angles - a blasted, wasted city inhabited by Nulls (slug-like creatures, each with white markings on a single dominant color). In the distance, Hexadecimal is in her lair, having recovered from "Painted Windows". To Scuzzy and Mike the TV, she is showing off her Looking Glass, which is displaying images of the Supercomputer (the blue skyscrapers on an orange sea, as seen in the opening sequence). "If only Megabyte knew how easy it is to find. But you known what they say: He got the smarts, but I got the power." She becomes bored of gloating, and demands that Mike entertain her. He displays a clip of "The Bride of FrankenBinome". HD demands something else, so Mike shows an opera. But when the fat lady sings, her high note cracks Scuzzy's dome and shatters the Looking Glass. A web of nasty looking tentacles is visible behind it - some of them reach out and grab Hex.

Hack and Slash are babysitting Nibbles, the Null. The two bumbling henchmen appear to have had an IQ upgrade; they are speaking in coherent sentences now. Meanwhile, back in the lab, Dot, Bob and Phong are trying procedure number 9508 in an attempt to turn the nulls back into sprites. The idea is that the defeated player's parameters are stored somewhere in a saved game.

On the other side of the Looking Glass, a circular opening forms, and something black and menacing comes though it. It has more tentacles than an octopus, and at the end of each arm are more smaller arms, like a fractal drawing. It crosses over into Mainframe and takes over Hexadecimal, turning her completely black (with a nasty looking tongue). The nulls, Frisket, and AndrAIa all react when Hex is taken over. The Mainframers follow the nulls to Lost Angles. There they meet up with the media sprite and verminous familiar (Mike and Scuzzy) who, along with Hack and Slash, are fleeing the Null monster: Nullzilla.

Back in the Principal Office, Phong explains that the nulls are isolating Hex, protecting Mainframe from whatever it was that came through her Looking Glass (and it wasn't Alice). Even though nulls drain energy, Hex has transfinite power limits. They will have to contain her. Phong has prepared for just such an emergency. He goes to a door, and says "F.A.B." [The rest of this episode is very much like Gerry Anderson's "Thunderbirds Are Go" puppet animation show.]

Inside a wood panelled office (with pictures of the main players on the wall) Bob is wearing a suit that looks like a black beetle, Dot is a lady bug, Enzo is a grasshopper ["Ah, Grasshopper" says the Ancient One], Frisket is a hornet, and Mike is a gnat. They go through color coded tunnels and speak the magic words to activate their vehicles. "Black Beetle Turbo Pincher Force", "Ladybird Accellerator Spotted Carapace Force", "Grasshopper Sig Pulse Hopping Force", "Woof Woof Woof Woof" (Hornet Force), "Gnat's Slightly Annoyed High-Pitched Buzzing Force". They have to get the vehicles up to speed and then form a giant robot, using the phrase "Reboot Robot Entomologizing Force". [The end result is like Voltran, Dynaman, and countless other mighty morphing power robots.]

The inhabitants of Mainframe are in a panic, shown as a faded-color scene of binomes running around in front of a rear-screen projection of Nullzilla. The giant creature is just about to knock the 8-ball off of Bob's apartment building, when the giant robot shows up. [During this scene, the background music is exactly like a cheezy tune from a 1960's Sci-Fi action show.] Bob tries a sucker punch, which knocks Nullzilla on top of the the apartment, smashing it. "Oh, no. I've just redecorated."

Phong tells them to use the Destructo-Matic weapon. Bob's body language is visible as the giant robot pats its pockets looking for the 'Matic, then changes to Dot's pose as her voice says "Phong, we haven't got a Destructo- Matic". Back in the PO's basement, the mighty weapon is still in its case. While waiting for AndrAIa to fly the 'Matic to them, the team fights the monster in the form of Rockem Sockem Robots (trying to knock its block off) and World Wrestling Foundation pro wrestling (jumping up and down on the opponent). The Destructo-Matic disperses the nulls (smashing a clown). This leaves a weakened Hexadecimal back in her normal form. Whatever caused the problem is gone.

Megabyte's pet null, Nibbles, returns to its crib. MB says, "there you are, Father". [What does this mean? And why did Hexadecimal say "he got all the brains, but I got all the power? Where these two viruses created at the same time? Answers in the next episode!] The web crawler bursts through the roof of the Silicon Tor, swings down and turns MB into a black creature.

Scenes from next week: A large viral sprite having a combination of both Megabyte's and Hexadecimal's colors and markings says, "I am become Gigabyte, destroyer of systems!"

References
* Bride of FrankenBinome - the pronounciation of the assistant's name (Eye-gor instead of Ee-gor) and the "abnormal"
brain are references to Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".
* Opera - the background for the opera looks very much like an old episode of "Bugs Bunny".
* black creature, sharp teeth, long tongue - very much like when Peter Parker got taken over in the Spiderman cartoon.
* Nullzilla - a reference to Godzilla (especially when the hysterical citizens cast shadows on the buildings) and to Netscape's mascot Mozilla.
* Alice - in the book "Alice in Wonderland", she gets there by falling through a Looking Glass (a mirror).
* Transfinite - going beyond or surpassing any finite number, group or magnitude.
* F.A.B. - phrase used on "Thunderbirds Are Go" instead of "A-OK". Short for "fabulous", otherwise means absolutely nothing,
according to the creators, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
* Grasshopper - reference to the old "Kung Fu" TV series. The Ancient One (whom Phong sounds like) used this term when
addressing his student.
* giant robot - the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers derived from the English translation of Dynaman, which in turn was based
on the Japanese shows "Dinosaur Task Force Zyuranger", "Five-Star Task Force Dairanger", and "Ninja Task Force Kakuranger".
MMPR includes some of the original Japanese monster footage, which is just as silly as the Nullzilla fight.

Did You Notice?
* The book for Nibbles is ABC of Fairytales by M Conley.
* Mike got up onto Hack's back awful quickly.
* Phong's desk blotter has a game of Hangman, answer is "ReBoot".
* Enzo makes a Bruce Lee noise ("Ee-yaow") when he enters as Grasshopper.
* The Destructo-Matic is in a case that says: "IN CASE OF GIANT NULL MONSTER THREATENING CITY - BREAK GLASS".
* Megabyte refered to the Null as "Father".