ReBoot

Season 4 cliff-hanger:

Any show that ends on a cliff-hanger always leaves a lingering sense of intrigue.  People naturally wonder what is going to happen, and who doesn't like gabbing with their friends by the water cooler about who they think killed who, or how the story would/should/could end.  Such is also true with the Reboot finale.  Could they have conveniently picked a more dramatic place to stop the series? Simple answer: yes, they could have.  Imagine if they stopped the show right after Daemon's hour glass ran out and her infection across the entire net became complete.   That sure would get a few riots out of the masses.  The "would've/should've/could've's" that you are about to read are going to come from two perspectives: the part of me that is a comic book writer, who feels and thinks what a good story should entail... then we have the obsessive kid who worked at a grocery store and would nag his mother to tape the show if he had to miss it for work.   This would be the part of me that is a reboot fan. 

To begin with, where did the series end? Anyone who only saw it once would probably be able to answer.  Inside of the principle office, Megabyte had recently revealed himself in the form of Frisket.  He quickly infected the few CPU's in the war room, along with the recently reformed Welman.  All scattered throughout the building and unable to gain access to Megabyte's location are AndrAIa, Mouse, Dot, Bob and Matrix... oh, and Phong and Enzo are being held captive (Can't say this is new for Phong.) 

Then suddenly, over the principle office intercoms and via vid window to the entire system, Megabyte makes his declaration of intention.  It is here that we find that more than just Megabyte's powers and form have changed... All his ambitions and objectives have changed as well! Megaframe? Viral dawn? Hell with that, this is about good old fashioned revenge! In a glorious "Kill Bill" meets "Count of Monte' Cristo" style, Megabyte promises to carry out his vengeance upon all of mainframe and that's where we left off. 

Beginning with Megabyte, his suave charm and manners seem to have survived the web intact, however his desire to corrupt and conquer all must have been squashed.  Surviving the web couldn't  have been an easy feat for the virus.  If it were, he would have no doubt returned to Mainframe much sooner and would have resumed his crusade of conquest across the net. 

One frequent error that I have witnessed among many other writers is that they show the aftermath of the hunt with Megabyte being portrayed as a tyrannical figure who has enslaved the whole city.  This is the Megabyte that we've known for season's 1-3, but I feel that people fail to grasp that Megabyte has indeed changed since his stint in the web.  Perhaps it's because we've only had two episodes of seeing him in this new form, so many just aren't used to his new style of function, and it's nothing I can criticize people too harshly for.  Megabyte is nefariously lovable! But the character's ambitions and motivations have moved forward, and we need to move with him. 

So how exactly would Megabyte go forward with this hunt of his? Most people simply imagine him literally hunting down each and every single character and deleting them one by one.  I hardly agree with this vision.  Megabyte is far too intelligent to do something so mundane.  Truly, what would be far more impressive would not be simple deletion, but utter destruction.  Megabyte knows all of the protagonists intimately well, therefore he would more readily use his knowledge of the characters; their weaknesses and greatest fears... not to mention their affection to his own advantage.  Here's how I envisioned things working out. 

• 1) Megabyte wouldn't immediately come after the rest of the cast. He would wait it out until a game fell, and some of the crew would have to run off to defend it. While gone, he would expel those remaining in the principle office outside into the city with his viral troops, leaving them to fend for themselves. So, curious question here: Why doesn't Megabyte immediately pursue the main characters, especially after a big speech like that? Simple. The main characters were separated from each other in groups of 2 or 3 at the end of the series... Therefore, when they reunite there'll naturally be apprehension among them and feelings of paranoia. If megabyte allows them to be on their own for at least about one episode, their cohesion and cooperation as a group is going to suffer, and that would be satisfying for the virus.
• 2) After the game is won, the cast would reunite to find that Megabyte has cut power to the city, and the principle office shields make re-entry impossible. Now it truly is like a hunt, and the cast has to survive the city without power, putting up with the occasional comedic binome... and of course, the ever recurring fear that anyone they could be dealing with could be Megabyte.
• 3) Mouse would probably be one of the first to suffer Megabyte's wrath. She's much too useful to the team to really be left with them for long. Given enough time, she would be able to hack into the principal office and get the team back inside, and this is not what Megabyte wants. What revenge would be fitting for Mouse? She was, after all, the one who changed the address of the portal and trapped Megabyte in the web. I think that the gang would eventually try to hack their way in, and megabyte knows this. He of course, would let them think they were hacking in. Once Mouse lowers the shields, he would just capture her and re-seal the principle office before anyone else could come inside. I see Megabyte calming Mouse, reassuring her that he has no intention of deletion. He would tell her that he, after all, wasn't extended the same courtesy, and that he would never delete her unless she asked for it. Enter Welman Matrix with the Gateway command. It'll be angled so it looks like a swimming pool, and the address targeted is the web... Mouse will be continuously lowered into it, and brought back up... an effective means of torture that will cause much degradation to her appearance, and remains to be seen if it'll break her spirit.
• 4) The next logical attack Megabyte would make would be on AndrAIa. The reasons for this are just too plentiful to ignore: both Matrix and Bob have successfully warded off, if not defeated Megabyte on their own in physical combat. Even with his new powers, I do not believe Megabyte feels confident that he could successfully defeat these two if they were together, so tearing them apart would be his best bet, and AndrAIa is the perfect way to do that. Without her, Matrix will be too heart broken to listen, or trust in Bob. I'm taking it a bit on the creative side here with AndrAIa's demise, but I want to find out which Matrix loves more: his girlfriend, or his hatred for Viruses. I see Megabyte finally revealing himself to the group, attacking them while they rest at camp. Amidst the fray, one of his tentacles tags AndrAIa's icon, changing its colour to the viral purple and green, and Megabyte vanishes. AndrAIa, as we all know, can't be infected by Megabyte, as she is a game sprite, but the cast will be wondering what he has done to her, and matrix will be very suspicious of her... even going to the point of wondering if it's really the girl he loves. Of course this'll put a lot of strain on their relationship. Eventually they come to the possible conclusion that Megabyte has downloaded a back-up of himself onto AndrAIa's icon (much like she did with Enzo when they first met) and that Megabyte could manifest himself at anytime through her. Matrix and the others decide that it would be the best for her to leave, despite her promises that she would never hurt any of them... Though she does seem to understand, and Matrix escorts her away from the group... she asks him for one last goodbye kiss, but he's reluctant to give it to her, afraid she might turn into Megabyte. As he walks away from her, he hears a feral roar... turns and fires... his bullet passes through an alias of Megabyte... and hits the shocked AndrAIa, deleting her. Megabyte will reveal himself, explaining that he did nothing more to AndrAIa than simply change the colours of her icon. The sprite underneath was always the same. He'll muse how it's true that you always hurt the ones you love, and will scold Matrix for not having more faith in his loved one than what he showed. Matrix will of course, lash out at Megabyte with full brute strength, only to find it was another alias. Psychotic Breakdown, anyone? Two lovebirds, one stone.

I know there are many characters left: Hack, Slash, Enzo, Bob, Dot, and Phong.  Don't worry.  I just have to run in to work.  I'll resume this later.  Some notes before I do go, though.  I am aware this is a bit darker than the usual episode of Reboot.  Don't worry, if I were to write the rest of the hunt, I would be sure to include the usual Reboot humour and other references.  It's just that this summary is only being written from Megabyte's point of view, so of course it's going to be diabolical and rather heartless.  And it's not as though I imagine him to come out the victor, though I'm not explicitly against it.  I do not expect the heroes to just sit still while Megabyte picks them off one or two at a time.  Dot is just as brilliant a strategist as he, and if I were writing it from her side of the story instead of his, it would look like Megabyte was just as helpless.  Well, must be off for now.  Later!