{The story is not exactly very original
Bob: Uh oh. (We the writers like the movie Tron too much) Mike: Hey, I watched that! Well, 5 minutes of it. It was on Fox and I got sick of waiting through the 10 commercials they play every 5 minutes... but we hope it is a good story nonetheless. Any feedback, praises or critiques are gladly welcomed. E-mail at p9720655@sp.edu.sg (that's Silencer)
Crow: Someone silence this fic. or p9720882@sp.edu.sg (that's The Sentinel).
Tom: Sentinel...good name for a Quake clan!
Do give us a chance, though. This is our first time at such a grand thing.
Crow: (To Megabyte) Hey, these guys write
the way you talk! Thanks!} [P.S. All the Reboot characters used are creations from Mainframe Inc.
Megabyte: REBOOT characters?
All real-life products and their names Crow: And with names like that, they can have them. No infringements intended]
Mike: Or LIKELY. I mean, every fic writer
usually has a little copyright thing, and that's right and everything, but
what paranoid company would sue a penniless person who wrote a little story
with their characters in it? Fidei Defensor
Crow: Well the TITLE is kind of cool. (By Silencer & The Sentinel) Prologue Mainframe
Megabyte: It's MEGAFRAME. Why can't anyone
ever get it right? "What's happening?" Matrix yelled over the increasing rumble as he tries to balance himself against the tremors.
Tom: Someone sent all the "you CAN make
$10 000 in a day!" e-mail letters they could find to the User's mailbox!
It's gonna blow!!! Moving forward carefully, Bob focuses his eyes in concentration towards the source of the rumbling. There! An apartment storage tower began to slowly crumble
Crow: Right onto Bob, who was too busy
squinting to notice. and disintegrate before his very eyes, completely disappearing before the structure next to it succumbs to the same effects.
Crow: Hey, cool! Bob already knew what he was seeing and, from his experience, it wasn't a very memorable one. Bob: A building vaporizing before my eyes isn't memorable?! He had barely escaped it before and, now, he has to face it again.
Crow: It looked like his premature balding
was here to stay. A detached portion of his mind somehow hoped that this is all a hallucination. But,
Megabyte: The narcotics had worn off hours
ago so this was no chance that this was just a heroin hangover. unfortunately, it is too real to be one. "What's happening, Bob?" Matrix asked, more quietly this time. Mike: Not too bright, is he? I mean, the buildings are crumbling, the ground is shaking, and he just stands around asking questions? He, too, had seen the structure disappear.
Mike: Either that or his eye was malfunctioning
again. "The system's shutting down. Mainframe's dying.
Megabyte: AUGH! MY CITY!!! Guess what? We're all going to be erased with it."
Mike: No! It was all Bob could do not to laugh. Tom: (as Bob) Ha ha! My world is about to end and I'm going to die! Whee, what fun! Cycles had he spent as a defender, no, Guardian of Mainframe, repeatedly repelling against all of Megabyte's attacks,
Megabyte: It was a fluke! now once and for all vanquished from Mainframe, and this has to happen.
Megabyte: I'll be back. My fans won't let
me disappear like that. A system shutdown. And he couldn't do anything about it.
Crow: Except tell Matrix what he REALLY
thought of him. (As Bob) Oh Matrix...I've always loved you... "I've been through this before. The only way out is through the Net port but it's already been shut down." "Then I guess there's nothing we can do now." Matrix sighed as he searched for a suitable spot to sit down on. "Might as well enjoy the view."
Crow: Whoa, whoa, whoa! THIS isn't the
angst filled, trying to portray himself as a do-it-my-way,
I'm-a-tough-bad-ass-that-you-don't-want-to-mess-with personality of Matrix
that we've all come to know and...well, hate. Silently, they both watch the collapsing structures approach them. Both were lost in the same thought: Mike: Did I leave the iron on? Game Over. Crow: Please insert 50 cents. They were both wrong. NetDrome Internet Gaming Inc., Server Headquarters Bob: Gaming? "Hey! What the.....?!
Crow: (guy) Who stole my copy of "Bill
Gate's Secret Diary 95'"? Hell, we've got an emergency here!" the on-duty sysop yelled to a group of support technicians trading plans for the upcoming weekend.
Crow: We've run out of nacho's and Jolt
cola! "What now?" one the techs, a burly muscular man appropriately named Skinner grumbled back.
Mike: (Skinner) This had better not be
about your cat Ralph. "Oh, man! Not another heat sink failure!" another tech, a thinner one, moaned. Bob: I WARNED them not to pour that cesium down the sink-but did they listen? Noooooo... The MP-3 had one of the its numerous heat sinks malfunction two weeks ago, resulting in several melted ROM chips due to a heat buildup that was not properly dissipating.
(Everyone hears a muted sniffle. All turn to
Bob who tries to hide it.) The MP-3 was notorious for heat buildups, even in heavily air-conditioned environments, if any of its heat sinks malfunctions and this one had forced the techs to spend nearly five continuous hours searching for the problem.
Megabyte: Five HOURS?! That's ridiculous!
But the MP-3 is one of the few really affordable and easily maintained mainframe servers around that is actually the fastest.
Megabyte: I say, the way the tense keeps
on skipping around is most annoying. "Hang on. I'm checking." the sysop's hands flew towards his keyboards Crow: (as sysop) AHHH! My hands! They're detaching themselves from my wrists and trying to fly to my keyboard! Oh for the love of God, someone help me! AHHUUUGGGHH! and began to work on it. On his terminal screen, a light was furiously blinking Mike: (as sysop) Yes! I got the highest pinball score! Whoo whoo whoo! on the 'System Status Panel'. However, the panel only indicates the presence of a problem and its location. Not the exact nature of the problem.
Tom: What? Well, geez, why the hell not?
To find that, the sysop
Mike: (to Megabyte) You know, with all
these sysop lackeys running around, you'd have thought they'd have spotted
you as a virus by now. has to run a diagnostic subprogram which shows the current status of the mainframe (whether its on-line or off-line) All: Off. , all the jobs being processed
Tom: Lesse...calculate world's mass,
de-fragment system... and a list of all the technical problems, if any.
Crow: Yes. Bob. Normally, the latter should be empty. However, there was one entry this time.
SYSTEM FAULT/MALFUNCTIONS Fault Location Type #1 Sector 31 Unknown Malfunction/
Bob: Well, there goes Al's...again. System Failure (Error Code #112) "Holy.....!
Tom: Allow me to fill in that line... The MP-3's shutting down! We've got a system crash! Everybody get back to your stations! Now!" Tom: We're having a Quake tournament! the sysop roared at the techs, who froze for a second before dashing back to their workstations. "Skinner, get the DART team down here.
Mike: (sysop) We've got a picture of Howard
Stern to tape to the dartboard! Pronto! Hal! You and Belford! Get the Memory Core Dump/Recovery procedures running! I'm dialing Mr. Williams!" Tom: (Hal) I can't do that Dave... the sysop reached for the phone and pushed the direct line button to Mike: Little Ceasers. the night-shift supervisor, whose office was above them. As he waited for a response, he turned around and
Crow: Everyone died, the fic finished,
the end. Stared through a glass panel at a black boxy machine that dominated most of the room next door Tom: Hey, they have a Playstation! which has a sign above it which states "MP-3 Mainframe Server". His only thought for the moment was that this was going to be a long night. Mike: But thanks to years of staying up late on the net looking for decent chatrooms, he was used to it. Chapter II Arlington Heights (A month later......) Waiting sucks,
Tom: So does a lot of other stuff if you
think about it. This fic, that stupid "Fly" song, pizza with olives on it...
Dexter Rivers Tom: Rivers. DEXTER Rivers. thought as he glanced up at the clock above for the nth time, only to see the minute hand with ticking ever so slowly to reach the 40th minute of 11 o'clock.
Megabyte: Why not just say eleven forty?
God, the next time I have to wait like this, I'll build me a time machine, Tom: And then, I'll discover a cure for cancer! he fired off a parting shot Megabyte: And killed the innocent bystander next to him. Heh heh. before concentrating back on his PC.
Mike: (Dexter) Okay...only 5 minutes till
this new issue of "PC Gamer" finishes downloading! It's the Laura Croft swimsuit
edition! Ooohh... Rivers was a high-school student majoring in two fields,
Tom: Paper airplane design and Doom! computers & gaming, thought not necessarily in that order. His height was barely average for a person 21 years of age. Megabyte: So is he above or below average? His rather average body build makes him look like as if he was an easy target to pick on. However, it was through this impression that Rivers was able to hide his numerous hidden skills. Tom: He had an Uzi. His rather quiet and polite demeanor hides his skill in the martial arts Goju-Kai Karate, a skill he learned for a time Megabyte: Oh, he knows martial arts, my how CONVENIENT. before deciding that green belt was good enough for him. His inability to talk shop with the rest of the gaming community in his school disguises the basic fact that he is simply among the best Net gamers out there. Crow: I'm beginning to see what you mean about the tense... A devoted programmer, his knowledge extends way back from the basic assembly language to as far as C programming, which he is slowly learning the ropes.
(Bob and Megabyte look at each other and both
go "BASIC?" then snicker.) But Rivers' biggest love and forte lies in the fine art of computer gaming, Bob: He's a-gamer? with Net gaming being his chief specialty. Known simply as Verge on the Net, Bob: What? trophies and other awards, won on numerous Net gaming competitions decorated the shelf in his room in which he says serves as a monument or shrine to him. Bob: WHAT?! Whether it is a fast-paced multiplayer racing game, action-packed, frag-fest action games or strategic thought-required strategy games, The Verge has already been acknowledged as 'simply the best'.
Bob: Augh! That man is EVIL! EVIL!!!
NULLIFIER!!! And now, Rivers patiently waits to begin his new conquest, the NetDrome gaming service.
Bob: Oh yeah, you would do that, WOULDN'T
you, you scumbag! Boasting of a new server that exceeds that processing capabilities-it is capable of handling over 30 players on the same game without any processing penalty- Mike: Except the 2 million-dollar price tag. and transmission speeds of other service providers, NetDrome was set to become the top contender for the best Internet gaming service provider.
(Crow, being a regular Quake player, is drooling
a bit at this.) Then, about a month ago, NetDrome Inc. sent out an e-mail to all of its registered members, including Rivers, stating that its has to delay its opening due to an 'unforeseeable technical malfunction' Megabyte: Called Hexadecimal... to its main mainframe server. Then, Rivers receives another e-mail from NetDrome Inc. stating that
Megabyte: A virus named Megabyte had taken
it over, everything was hopeless, and all should just bow down to him. they will be reopening tonight at midnight and it will be a free service for a whole week as a 'fair compensation' for its earlier delay. Excellent, Rivers had thought.
Crow: (As Wayne from Wayne's world) Zang!
Christmas in June.
Tom: Fall in Summer! It nicely coincides with his mid-term break. (Megabyte shudders again at the annoying tense problems.) Now, the wait was driving him insane. He glanced up Crow: And snapped, deciding to kill all his friends. and saw the clock face finally displaying 11:59. Crow: Damn. Alright, then, he muttered as he began the log-on procedures.
Megabyte: Let me get this right-this fellow
is trying to log on at the EXACT moment the free time is allowed so he can
get the maximum amount of playing time? Downtown Mainframe Megabyte: MEGAframe. "Carefully! To the right a bit. No! The right! Your right! Yes!
Crow: Yes...oh YES! Now, slowly, let it down. Watch your head! Yes!
Crow: Oh YEE- Good work, everyone."
Mike: Not a WORD, Crow! Dot backed up several steps Bob: You were talking about DOT?! (glares at Crow, then considers what was just said and tries to surreptitiously re-read those lines.) as she inspects the final article that completes the restoration & refurbishment of her personal pride & joy-
Mike: Her new-LASERTAG CENTER! Dot's Diner.
Mike: Awww. After all, being the new Command. Com doesn't mean she has to give up her favorite task-managing her establishment. It merely Megabyte: Will drive her completely random. increases the workload. Megabyte: Well, that too. Command.Com. Never in her entire life cycle would she ever expect to finally become Mainframe's mayor. Bob: Even though everyone else had figured it out by the 3rd season. Maybe it's her natural ability to lead. After learning about Megabyte's demise, she
Crow: Cried for days, realizing that he
was the only one she ever REALLY loved and- had been so relieved that her only thought at that moment was that she could finally run her business in peace. Megabyte: (semi-hurt) Oh *thanks*. Then came the system crash. The prospect of facing deletion and wasn't able to stop it or escape from had, for the first time, truly frightened her.
Tom: Okaaaayyy...lets just re-read that...
Suddenly, something undefined happened.
Some sort of energy portal opened up and pulled nearly all of the inhabitants
of Mike: I thought it was undefined? After that, everything became a blank... Mike: (Bill Gates) When I woke up, I learned that I had just bought out Apple. DAMN that felt good! Then, about two hours ago, they were suddenly reanimated back into Mainframe
Bob: Is that two hours User or Mainframe
time? albeit a partially demolished one. There was no sign of Phong, who was somehow left behind. Mike: Wha-how could they leave behind their command .com? No sign of Hexadecimal or Lost Angles for that matter.
Megabyte: Ey-yes!!! In all, a totally deserted Mainframe.
Crow: Except for a bunch of ravenous
web-creatures that came and snapped everyone's spines and sucked out their
eyeballs. With Phong assumed erased and no one else to take charge of them, the remaining binomes began to look up to her for guidance. Megabyte: Considering their size they'd look up to her ANYWAY. Dot, being the natural task manager and realizing the importance of rebuilding Mainframe to their survival, Tom: Well DUH they need somewhere to LIVE. took up the responsibility. Now, with over 80% of Mainframe restored and the rest proceeding slowly, she never regretted the decision.
Crow: Except on those lonely, dark nights
where she sobbed over her lost dream of becoming a strip-tease dan- A loud report to her left distracted her. Mike: Why would someone shout out a report? As she turns her head, she could easily see the flashes of light reflecting on some the high structures. That must be Bob clearing out all the energy tears that initially filled Mainframe with Enzo...
Mike: Oh God, a whole system filled with
Enzo? no, Matrix, she corrected herself.
All: AUGH! Dot gave a theatrical sigh as she thought about how much she missed her old Enzo.
Megabyte: Who would miss HIM? But, like they say, c'est la vie. All: What? That's the way life is. All: Oh. Besides, its better to have Enzo back, no matter how different, than to lose him forever.
Crow: Well, MAIM would argue that. With that issue settled, Dot concentrated back on her work.
Tom: (as Dot) Now, lesse...what was the
password again? Gumball...goofy...gardener... Sector 16 (formerly Lost Angles), Mainframe
Megabyte: It was never sector 16...they're
just making this up as they go along! "Alright, listen up. This is the last one; though I think it's also the biggest one.
Mike: (looking over at Megabyte) Hey, are
you aware that your eyes glow in the dark? Neat... Make it quick and smooth, and we'll grab a cold one at Dot's after this. Bob: Hey, Dot's doesn't serve alcohol. On the house. Okay?" Matrix rallied out to the crew of binomes helping Bob and him in neutralizing the energy tears. Mike: (sarcastically) Ah yes, there's nothing like free booze to lift the moral of a crew. Immediately, loud cheers and other similar exclamations greeted his words.
Mike: Oh-I guess it really does. They deserved to be happy. 190 tears neutralized and what kind of tears. Tom: How about you tell us? The temporary system crash had caused numerous short-circuits, resulting in the energy tears that were more powerful and dangerous than they had ever encountered.
Mike: Geez, in fics everything is bigger
than real life. Fortunately, Bob came up with a working solution to the problem,
Bob: Don't I always? though it was an arduous one, indeed.
Tom: Ardu what? Simply, each tear is to be surrounded with several semi-conductor boards, Tom: Whatever THOSE are. trapping the tear in a giant box, before letting Bob in to finish the job with Glitch.
Crow: But WHICH job? (breathy Bob voice)
Oh-oh GLITCH! As it easy as it sounds, that was the hardest part,
Crow: Since the radiation from the Web
had left Bob with little hormones and- as these tears tend to ricochet around in the box when trapped.
Bob: Pervert! Furthermore, when Bob is neutralizing the tears with his Glitch, it's guaranteed to result in neutrons exploding out from the spherical tears. Bob: (looking up from his chokehold on Crow) That wasn't the best of crafted scientific explanations. A slight carelessness, a misstep or a loose corner and disaster will strike. Megabyte: Let it strike. Oh please let it strike. But, so far, they've been on the job without any major incidents. (Megabyte sighs.) This should be the last one and, hopefully, no accidents will result from this one, too.
Megabyte: (sarcastically) Oh yes, hopefully.
"Alright, then. Let's move!" The entire crew immediately moved broke rank and began to deploy into their practiced and proper formation- Megabyte: Until a gamecube landed and nullified them all. four binomes carrying each board and surrounding the tear from each of the four corners. Matrix, in a battered ABC, Megabyte: Hey! He stole one of my ABC's-AGAIN. carried the fifth board by cable to cover the box from the top. Cautiously, they advanced forward. Then, something happened. Mike: It'd be nice to know what... The sky suddenly turned darker and burst with static activity. Mike: Thanks! Everyone, including Matrix, looked up to see what the disturbance was.
Tom: Why WOULDN'T he have looked up? For a picosecond, one question filled all their thoughts. Mike: Where's the beef?
Another picosecond later, it was answered.
Megabyte: That's "Incoming game", not "game entering." I do wish they'd get the little details right. Immediately, a game cube burst through the file lock and began to slowly descend towards them.
Megabyte: Yes! Lose the game! Die!
Dieeeee...(stops up after he's aware of all the looks) Yes? Matrix continued to stare at the cube. Tom: (Matrix) "Wow. It's purple." It's been, what?, he tried to recall. Two, three hours since he last remembered entering a game. A vid-window suddenly opened beside him. It was a Bob.
Megabyte: *A* Bob? What, is he some sort
of species? "Matrix, any inhabitants in these sector?" Bob asked curtly before Matrix could say anything first. He sounded very urgent. Mike: You would too if you were trapped in a box and had REALLY had to go... "No. The resettlement is to begin only after we clear out all the tears." "Good." Bob sounded relieved. Crow: And just think of what THAT means. (snicker) "Alright. We're going to backspace out of here. Let the User nullify this sector.
Tom: (Bob) Yes. Let it die! See if I care.
Neither of us is in any shape to challenge him anyway. I know I'm not."
Megabyte: Were you EVER? "Roger, that. I'm out of here." Matrix closed the vid-window down and turned his ABC around. Bob and the rest will backspace in another APC.
Bob: Time to make fun of the misspelled
acronym! Matrix drove on for another nanosecond before shoving on the brakes. Basic!, he muttered. Mike: Yes you are! Turning his ABC around, he looked for the item of interest and, seeing it still there, opened a vid-window to Bob. "Bob! The tear! The cube's heading for it!" In the pandemonium to backspace out, the tear somehow slipped out of their minds. Mike: Okay, HOW? I mean, it's a pretty big thing... Matrix looked at the tear again and realized it was too late to do anything. The cube had already swallowed it up. Arlington Heights Tom: The scene of a tragic massacre as 50 thousand were killed in a freak maple syrup accident. "Alllrighteee, then!" Rivers exclaimed to himself, paraphrasing Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura II, Mike: Oh God no... when he saw the words 'LOADING' on his screen. Logging on, he found out to his dismay that there was no one else logged-on. Megabyte: Well of course not, you're the first person THERE you fool.
Naturally patient, Rivers decided to play
Suddenly, something went wrong.
Mike: Horribly wrong. The loading screen became garbled and turned white.
Tom: (Rivers) Oh my God, it's GONNA
BLOOOOWWWWW!!! He looked at his K56 modem and saw that all the indicators had lighted up. Immediately, everything around him went bright white. So bright he gasped out from the pain in his eyes and used his arm to shield them. Crow: He's having a near death experience! Then, everything went blank. Crow: (Film noir voice) The next thing he knew, he was in an alley with an empty bottle in his pocket, a train ticket to Vienna in his hand, and a hangover the size of a barn. Sector 16, Mainframe "Warning! General Protection Error. Game aborted." the voice sang out again as the cube began to ascend back up. Megabyte: That's game *corruption*! "Huh? What's going on?" Matrix wondered aloud as shove his ABC forward towards the affected sector. Megabyte: A question he frequently asks himself. What lay before him surprised him.
Mike: Doesn't everything? The entire sector was totally untouched, instead of being nullified when the User wins. It was all normal and restored, except for a form lying in the area where the tear used to be.
Landing down carefully, he got immediately and proceeded briskly towards the form.
Megabyte: Got what? It was a...sprite! All: (monotone) Wow. Matrix immediately opened a vid-window and dialed to the CGI Dispatch Office. "Dispatch, this is Matrix.
Tom: (Bond voice) Enzo Matrix. Send a recovery unit down here. We have a damaged sprite, probably critical. Tell Medlab what to expect." Mike: Dear God, this is starting to sound like an episode of "ER". he said immediately to the O binome on the vid-window. "Yes, sir." the dispatch binome acknowledged. Crow: (teenage voice) You want fries with that? "Sir, we've picked up reports of that indicated a game landed down just now. Is it true, sir?".
Megabyte: Even *I* didn't make my binomes
suck up to me THAT much... "Yeah. But something went wrong. Mike: Windows 95. I'll give details later. Just get that unit down here A.S.A.P."
Crow: Which stands for-As Soon As I Pe-
he closed the window and turned to face the unconscious sprite. It was a male sprite, probably a game sprite like AndrAIa but sucked out of the game by the tear. His age was tough to guess. But he looked roughly the same age as Matrix himself. Strange, though. His hands showed damage but they were bleeding red energy, not blue.
Mike: Oh for-that's BLOOD, not energy.
They never get it right. He was also weirdly dressed, nothing classifiable or remotely identifiable. Mike: Well, except for the "Quake rocks" T-shirt he was wearing. But he decided to put that aside for the moment as he heard Bob's APC Bob: ABC. That's ABC for User's sake! and the recovery unit arrive at the same time. He would never know for that moment that this strange sprite would affect their lives and change Mainframe forever.
Megabyte: (dryly) And he would never guess
how little we care. @.. 2.. 3.. 4.. 5.. 6..
(In the Satellite of Love, they're waiting for the Mads to call. Mike, who is apparently feeling propreital today and acting as the ship's spokesperson is talking to Megabyte.) Mike: Well, I've got to say Mr.Byte, you're actually pretty decent compared to some of the guest Mads we've had. I mean, maybe you make us bow down to you more than usual but other than that you're okay. Megabyte: (Inspecting his nails) Why thank you Michael. And you're quite a charming and unusually reasonable victim. Unlike Bob here. (Bob is sulking in a corner. He sniffles and moves his chair closer to the wall.) Mike: Well, you have to learn to live with these things, I always say. Megabyte: Indeed. Do your friends also share this view? Mike: Tom seems okay with it. And Crow- (Crow runs by with a hammer screaming "Viva La Revolution! Oh hi Mike! Guardian boy! Megabyte!" He zooms off.) Mike: Well, Crow's happy. Bob: *I'm* not. Megabyte: We're well aware of that Bob. Crow: (running by again) Yeah Bob, ask us if we care! (Tom hovers in and stops) Tom: Oh, uh-YOU'RE still here. Megabyte: (Who mildly dislikes Tom for some reason. He vaguely senses that Servo has an ego almost as big as his) Yes I am Mr. Servo. I'm sorry, do you have a PROBLEM with that? Tom: (nervously) Aha! No! No no! Really! Delighted to have you here! Uh gee, I just remembered that I have to go and sort my issues of PC Gamer...bye! (Zooms off.) (The Mads light flashes. Megabyte looks relieved and punches it.) Brain Guy: Well hello Mr. Byte. So sorry about the mix-up. Really. Megabyte: (snapping) Never mind that, just get me out of here before the fic starts again! Brain Guy: (Sighing) Ah, very well- (He's just about to pop MB back over when a blast of turbulence rocks Pearl's van. The Observer falls to the ground. A large book falls off the shelf. We hear an "OW!" from below. The Observer crawls back up with a huge bump on his head.) Brain Guy: (weakly) Heh heh...we appear to have hit some turbulence...oh dear, I can't feel my head anymore...good night. (He slumps to the ground, unconscious. Bobo comes up.) Megabyte: ACK! He isn't DEAD, is he?! I'll NEVER get out of here, I swear... Bobo: Well, THAT knocked him right out. Nyope, he ain't dead. Just unconscious. Looks like you're stuck there for a while. Megabyte: WHAT?! Oh get Pearl! Bobo: She took too much Tylenol. Fast asleep. Besides, she can't get you out of there yet. Sorry. I have some good news-we repaired the electric system! Wait-that means you HAVE to go in. Megabyte: Oh no. (On the Hexfield, Pearl shoves away Bobo, tossing a bottle of Tylenol into the garbage.) Pearl: I must be getting immune to those things-whew. Oh hey, what are you doing over THERE? Megabyte: I'll explain later. *Please* just wake up the Observer. Pearl: Okay. This'll get him. Works every time. (She picks him up and WHAMS him across the face with a book.) Brain Guy: H-huh? Wha? Pearl: Stop blabbering and snap over MB. Brain Guy: (dazed) Oh, right. (Does so.) Pearl: By the way Nelson and friends, we're still waiting for the rest of the fic, so that'll have to be a later episode. I'm going to lie down again. Bobo, refill my ice bucket! Ciao... (She and Bobo leave. Megabyte turns to the Observer and says in a falsely innocent voice: ) Megabyte: Oh Observerrrrr... Brain Guy: (testily) Yes? (MB unsheathes his claws and starts to hum.) Brain Guy: Uh oh- (Megabyte snarls and leaps at the Observer and we hear the Brain Guy's shrieks of pain. Switching to a view of Mike, Bob and the Bots inside the SOL, Mike, Tom and Bob look faintly nauseous. Crow is cheering.) Crow: WOO HOO! ALRIGHT! KICK HIS BUTT! GO VIRUS, GO VIRUS! Bob: Ewww... Mike: Gee, I've always felt a bit bitter against that Brain guy but...owch. You gotta feel sorry for him. (They pause) All: Almost. (They all laugh cheerfully. We hear the Observer scream "OW! OWOWOWOWOW...")
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