Gigabyte

ReBoot Character
Gigabyte Destroyer of Systems
Format	Super Virus
First Appearance	Gigabyte
Hobby	Absorbing Energy
Catchphrase	"I am become Gigabyte, Destroyer of Systems!!"
Voice Actor	Blu Mankuma
List of ReBoot Characters.

"I am become Gigabyte, destroyer of systems!" -Gigabyte

For the episode of the same name, see Gigabyte (episode)

Birth

Gigabyte is a class 5 energy absorbing Super Virus created from the virus Killabyte. Killabyte was captured in the Super Computer and was scheduled for deletion, but just before the procedure, he received a viral upgrade from the User that programmed him. The upgrade skipped a generation, and Killabyte quickly grew several sizes larger and gained the following abilities: flight, portal-forming, trans-finite power reserves, and the power to drain energy from anything it touched with its new elongated claws. At this point, the new virus began calling himself Gigabyte, Destroyer of Systems. (What's Love Got To Do With It?)

Just after Gigabyte's viral upgrade, he was caught in a Gateway Command originating from Mainframe's Twin City, which pulled him there. When he arrived, he unwittingly overloaded the gateway, causing an explosion which destroyed the entire city. The explosion nullified everyone in the Twin City and split Gigabyte in two, creating two new viruses: Megabyte and Hexadecimal.

Rebirth

Gigabyte was briefly reformed when a Web Creature infected Megabyte and forced him to merge with Hex again in a bid to reach the Net, forming the super virus Gigabyte. Once Bob identified what Gigabyte was, he initiated a Net-wide alert stating that there was a powerful new Super Virus and calling for any assistance. Mainframe had never previously encountered any threat of the sort. At first, Bob tried to see if the merger had created a benign Virus.

After realizing this virus was far from 'benign', Bob fought Gigabyte and tried to keep him from getting any more power. He was effortlessly tossed aside by the virus. At first, there seemed to be no logic to his actions, until Phong correctly surmised that his transformation left him very weak because Hexadecimal had previously been all but drained of power by the nulls. Knowing Gigabyte would seek out the largest sources of energy, Phong quickly powered down the city, leaving Glitch Mainframe's biggest energy source, apart from the System Operating Core. Bob lured Gigabyte to Floating Point Park while the rest of the Sprites prepared to put Bob's plan to stop the virus into effect.

Bob was still no match for the virus' brute strength, but fortunately, he was backed up by Hack and Slash. The two robots' combined strength was enough to actually put up a fight against the virus, but their luck ran out when Hack accidentally got too close and was drained of energy by Gigabyte. Enraged by this, Slash idiotically sent Gigabyte reeling with a punch that sent him straight back to Mainframe. With Hack's energy, Gigabyte was able to fly and used that power to tap into the Principal Office's shields, forcing Phong to power them down before the virus became too powerful to stop. The Mainframers kept stalling for time to keep Gigabyte from reaching the Core.

Together with Mouse and Dot, Bob eventually caught and defeated Gigabyte in a tear and, using Glitch, formed it into a portal which managed to split him back into Megabyte, Hexadecimal, and the Web-Creature, destroying Gigabyte for the second time, and reforming his components.

Personality

Gigabyte's personality was a perfect balance between Hexadecimal and Megabyte, as he possesses both incredible power and a cold machine-like intelligence. He has none of the extreme character flaws present in the two viruses that made him up; he's neither joyfully insane like Hex nor greedy like Megabyte, only insatiably hungry for energy. This makes the Super Virus very dangerous not because of personality but sheer power. He has a deep interest in energy and constantly refers to his opponents‘ and/or victims', such as speaking to Bob about Glitch's energy and then of Bob's and Dot's own. His exact motive for feasting on energy is not made clear.

Abilities

Gigabyte can fly, form portals, drain the energy from any Sprite, Binome, Key Tool, Robot, Animal, Tear, energy barrier, or powered equipment it touches and has trans-finite power reserves. Because of his energy-absorbing abilities, Gigabyte cannot be harmed by energy-based weaponry, including that of a Key Tool like Glitch. However, he is not invincible to all forms of attack; he can be directly impeded by physical assaults or weapons such as Mouse's katana, but even these do not leave any lasting injury. Should Gigabyte sustain heavy damage, he can easily repair himself in nanoseconds.

References

• His name is a reference to a unit of computer memory.
• His catchphrase is a reference to the line "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita.
  • The line was famously quoted by an American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, upon witnessing Trinity, the world's first nuclear test.
• Gigabyte was termed a Super Virus in the book, The Art of ReBoot, by Dave Roberts, Gavin Blair, Brendan McCarthy, and Scott Lee.
• Bob later tried to use the same method he used to split up Gigabyte to separate himself from Glitch in Life's a Glitch. However, it went horribly wrong for him.
• It appears that both Gigabyte and his two halves Megabyte and Hexadecimal possess separate personalities with no knowledge of the others' existence.
• During Gigabyte's second chronological period of existence, he had several tendrils reminiscent of Web Creatures jutting out from his back, due to a Web Creature having possessed Megabyte just prior to the merge and thus becoming part of the Virus combination.
• After the Web War, Hexadecimal underwent several physical and mental changes since splitting from Gigabyte, even at one point being a Sprite, and Gigabyte's return became impossible after Hex's demise in the Net War. Megabyte also suffered several changes since splitting from Gigabyte after he was sent to the Web, which gave him Trojan Horse virus powers and a different, partially web-degraded look.