3x13 - Megaframe

Written by: Katherine Lawrence
Story by: Gavin Blair, Dan DiDio, Katherine Lawrence, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson

This is the first part of a four-part story: "The Viral Wars"

* 3.4.1 "Megaframe"
* 3.4.2 "Showdown"
* 3.4.3 "System Crash"
* 3.4.4 "End Prog"

Synopsis
Our heroes return to Mainframe, but it has been devastated. Hexadecimal and Megabyte have gotten out of the firewall and taken over. Bob and Matrix go looking for Dot, Phong and the others.

Story
A portal forms above the sea, and the pirate's ship "Saucy Mare" pops out. Bob is saddened by the sight: the buildings of Wall Street sector are smoking ruins. AndrAIa leans on Matrix for support. Every sector has been destroyed.

AndrAIa works on fixing the ship while Bob and Matrix go investigating. In sector G-Prime, the top of Megabyte's red Silicon Tor has been broken off. Bob-Glitch repairs several small tears with beams of light from his hands. They figure that Hex must have gotten free, and blown it apart from the inside. Flames burst out from the base of the Tor (which is intact in this flashback) and Hexadecimal flys out. She has broken loose from Megabytes restraining collar, and is mightily upset. She raises her hands, and unleashes two fireballs. They blow the top off the Tor [which is seen falling from five different camera angles]. The next fireball goes up into the firewall, overloading it. Matrix walks over to a burned-out firewall generator. They notice that Hex had reinforcements; tracks from a horde of Nulls. A single multicolored slug joins up with a vast carpet of the beasties. Hex's demented cackle warns Hack and Slash that they are in big trouble; she blows them to bits, then has her army of Nulls develop a pseudopod and smite Megabyte's tanks out of the sky. (The Nulls swarm over the Armored Binome Carrier, then it is gone.) The two men head for what's left of the Principal Office. In it, a viral Binome is informing his superior, Megabyte, that Bob is back. This delights MB, since implies that Mainframe is back on the Net. He declares that it is time to leave.

Strands of barbed wire surround the Principal Office; watch towers and flying ABCs maintain the perimeter. Matrix is spotted, he fires back at the searchlight, but that causes the air-raid siren to go off. Matrix knocks down an ABC with his Gun, then gets knocked off his zipboard. A second ABC has him in its sights, but the green guy is saved by Bob projecting a force field. With one hand, Bob-Glitch wipes out the ABC, then stabilizes a small tear into a portal. The "rebel scum" jump through the portal and end up ... elsewhere in Mainframe.

The two Guardians are closer to the Principal Office, and see that Megabyte has set up residence there. The big blue virus shows up in a superstrech limousine. He has his army of ABCs fire on the Principal Office. The PO gets hit from several sides and pieces come flying off. Bob and Matrix find a piece of the PO. Bob's question, "Can it get any worse?" is interrupted by a voice commanding them to "reach for the sky". They both turn, and see Hack and Slash. The two bumbling henchmen look a lot worse for wear.

Meanwhile, Herr Doktor is tightening bolts with an air gun and eating a sandwich when Megabyte shows up. He tells "Mein Grossen Biter" that they need the Mainframe codes to generate a portal to the Net. MB says it is time to talk to "the head".

Matrix pulls his Gun and aims at Hack and Slash, but Bob reminds him that they weren't that bad. They recognize Bob's voice, and start fawning all over him. Matrix is introduced (he's Enzo), then all four go to see Dot.

Dot is in command of the rebel forces. They are in a warehouse, a big empty room lit by bare lights. Specky is getting intelligence reports for her when the door opens. Guards on the wall aim there guns at the intrusion, but is is only Hack and Slash. Dot turns when they tell her they brought a surprise. Matrix steps forward; she blinks at him in puzzlement. Him calling her Sis is enough for her to recognize him. Bob turns out to be preoccupied; Mouse has latched onto the guy, giving him a great big kiss. Dot says "welcome home" but seems distracted; Bob wants to hug but she wants to shake. Bob asks about Phong. The battle has come to the PO's main control room. The inner defenses have failed, Phong suggests evacuation. The order goes out, "Evacuation code 9713". A hidden door appears, all leave but Phong, who plans on buying time for the others. He commands Hack and Slash to be Dot's bodyguards. They disappear down the tunnel just before Megabyte knocks down the main door.

In Megabyte's new headquarters, "the head" turns out to be Phong, minus his body. It's been kept alive, floating in liquid. Megabyte politely asks for the codes, and when Phong refuses, orders the extraction device to be used. The frankenbinome throws the switch, Phong is bombarded by electricity and a decoder board (same as the one used in "Identity Crisis") lights up. It pulls the information out of Phong; sixteen sets of seven bits.

Dot is sitting alone in a room, with a tear running down her cheek. Mouse strolls in and demands to know what's bugging her. It's not the kiss Mouse gave, Dot feels she let Bob down when she stopped believing in him and gave up hope. Mouse tells her to go to him.

Herr Doktor gets the eighth character of the code out of Phong's brain and that completes Phase 1. The ball floating above the Principal Office shatters, and a tear rises out of the hollow. It is visible on the Saucy Mare (where AndrAIa has a "bad feeling about this") and on the ground (where Bob knows Phong has to be alive for them to have gotten the codes.)

Bob states that they don't have much time, then disappears in thin air. He reappears in Hex's Lair. The flying red woman complains that she was so bored with Bob gone, but now it is going to be interesting. (Fade to black with maniacal laughter.)

References
* Rebel Scum - Said of Han's strike team caught in the shield generator in "Return of the Jedi".
* 89 is the ASCII code for "Y", 65 for "A", and 33 for "!". The first 8 characters of the secret code is "YADDAYAD".
* "I've got a bad feeling about this" - said twice in each of the three Star Wars movies (once by Han Solo, once by someone else).

Did You Notice?
* Megabyte's limo has red vinyl seats.
* Hack (the red one) has a blue icon; Slash (the blue one) has a red icon.
* When H + S say "Dot, look. We brought you a surprise", the computer monitors on the table are NOT running a screensaver.