In the last episode of ReBoot, we started the Daemon Rising 4-part saga with a bang. An invasion from the guardians controlled by the supervirus Daemon caused Mainframe to be back on the net. Despite Daemon’s best efforts to capture Bob, she would end up with Mike the TV instead. Matrix whined and moaned a lot about Enzo and Bob, while Dot is getting memories of the destruction of the twin city. Hexadecimal’s P.I.D icon began to change her, causing the nulls to cover her. And among the pile of nulls is Wellman Matrix, the father of Dot, Matrix, and Enzo. What else could happen? Let’s waste no more time by getting into part 2 of Daemon Rising.
We open the episode to… Mike the TV singing a gospel tune about the greatness of the word. I gotta admit, that is a helluva way to start this episode. After this stunning performance, preparing some sort of bombs as Matrix and AndrAIa head toward her base. Back in Mainframe, the group are busy trying to activate firewalls to other systems to keep them free from Daemon’s wrath. We learn that Daemon has infected all of the pathways, but not every system, though she has been able to infect the supercomputer. Despite having controlled guardians, she doesn’t have the ability to use portals to access systems.
Dot and Bob head to the null cocoon with Hex inside, in hopes of being able to communicate with Wellman Matrix. This takes us to a flashback of Wellman preparing a speech to unveil his invention of a portal that will allow access to other systems, a thought that seemed foreign at the time, as those in Mainframe once believed they were the only system in cyberspace. Despite Dot’s support, Wellman’s nerves are obvious, and he hopes that she’ll be by his side at the unveiling. A request that will soon be his last.
Back in the principal office, Enzo is being watched over by Hack and Slash, as they watch a really bad re-inactment of the original Enzo’s defeat. Despite the defeat of Megabyte, Hack is still very paranoid about the mention of their former leader. However, Enzo is more concerned about the fact that since Matrix has accomplished so much, it means that he’s accomplished it all too, and deserves more respect. So, he changes his outfit and calls himself “Little Matrix”.
Matrix and AndrAIa confront one of the controlled guardians, and try to learn more about the word of Daemon. This doesn’t go well as the guardian deletes herself, releasing one of the egg shaped devices in her death. Daemon is still after Bob, but is interested in having Matrix and AndrAIa hear the word. The guardians manage to lure the two into a trap, and block them from exiting the system. Speaking of Bob, he’s starting to fade fast, as his energy is causing him to literally fade from existence.
As Dot tries to talk with the null pile, a game cube drops in the sector. And to make things worse, Enzo, Hack, and Slash try to run to the cube, but are stopped by Mouse. Bob’s also too weak to move as the cube falls right on top of them. The game is a parody of the Mummy films with the user being a Brendan Fraser lookalike. Bob’s weakened state makes him unable to reboot, so Dot has to do this on her own. And to make matters worse, if the duo don’t exit the game in time, Matrix and AndrAIa will be unable to return to Mainframe.
Despite Dot’s best attempts to stop the user, he uses a relic that turns her old. But before the user wins, a mummified Hexadecimal saves Dot. The game leaves, and all of a sudden…
Hex has been turned into a sprite? This means that Hex has been stripped of her powers, which means that she can’t teleport the weakened Bob to the portal room. Hex drives the sapped Bob to the principal office, but he’s completely drained. Matrix and AndrAIa however try to fight back the guardians in exo suits while they wait for the portal.
However, they’re greeted by a now fully infected Turbo (who we last saw infected, but fighting the control of Daemon back in “The Episode With No Name”). However, that doesn’t stop the two from fighting nonetheless. Turbo tries to coax Matrix into accepting the word, just as a portal is opened. AndrAIa knocks Matrix and Turbo into the portal, as she ends up trapped.
AndrAIa is taken to Daemon, but before she can attack the supervirus, Daemon easily infects her. The episode ends as Daemon activates the net-wide infection, causing 92% of the net to be infected.
“Cross Nodes” is definitely an episode that can best be described as “to make matters worse”. Everything that can go wrong for our heroes does go wrong. AndrAIa gets captured, Hex loses her powers, Bob appears to be dying, and through all of it, Daemon’s control of the entire net seems to be becoming a reality. It’s definitely looking bleak. This episode delivers in the action department, as well as some really random humor spots, and all the while does a great job in building up the situation as this four part saga continues.
One thing I like about these more recent episodes is that games are finally once again being implemented into the stories. However, while season 3 did a lot of this too, it feels like most of the games now are less creative ideas, and more just parodies of other games, or most notably, movies released at the time season 4 was aired, which does make the episodes feel a little dated. Especially since The Mummy kind of went on to be a rather forgotten franchise, or at least how I see it.
With two episodes left in this four part story, what else can go wrong for our heroes, and will Daemon get full control of the net? We’ll find out soon in part 3 of the Daemon Rising saga.