Null

From The ReBoot Wiki

Nulls are slug-like creatures of limited intelligence who drain energy, sometimes from Sprites, to survive. Their bodies are squishing, they come in any color imaginable, and all have white stripes. Nulls make squeaking and grunting noises, they are rarely quiet, making loud screaching noises when frightened. They are easily scared and run from things that startle them, however Nulls cannot be hurt by physical force or weapons fire, they can only be contained.

Individual nulls are of no real threat but large gatherings and swarms of them are extremely lethal as they can easily overwhelm a city's defences. Nulls are dangerous for most to directly touch because of their energy-draining nature. In a frenzy state they can corrode any unprotected surface.

Nulls are created by Game Cubes. When the User wins a Game, any Sprites and Binomes caught inside are destroyed and reduced to Null state. This process is referred to as "nullified". A Game can nullify any person, regardless of their format. (The Tearing)

Hexadecimal has a great deal of control over nulls, possibly due to her origin. Like Megabyte she also looked upon the null of Welman Matrix as a father-figure. Hexadecimal would occasionally use nulls to attack others, causing the cities many nulls to swarm in mass numbers, overwhelming entire armies.

All Nulls will avoid Game Cubes regardless of what is holding them in the area. Hexadecimal's power over the nulls is powerful, but it is not enough to keep the little creatures in place when a Cube is dropping on them. This appears to be the only area where she can't maintain control of them. Nulls will disolve any containment box holding them in a Cubes path so that they may get away. Their running from Game Cubes is most likely a fear of what happened to them when they were nullified.

It is also possible to be nullified by powerful energy surges like explosions. When Welman Matrix tested his Gateway Command in the Twin City it brought in Gigabyte by accident. The machine overloaded causing the entire system's destruction. The Twin City's sprite population were all transformed into nulls. (What's Love Got To Do With It?)

Nulls exist in every system on the Net. They appear to be the only creature that exists in every single system since Game Cubes can nullify anyone, regardless of their format.

For the most part, inhabitants of a system regard Nulls as pests or vermin, although it has been shown some keep them as small pets. The only Null known to have a name was Nibbles. (The Quick and the Fed)

In Mainframe, Nulls are normally found hiding in Level 31 or Lost Angles. Sometimes when people go to the ruins the nulls there will swarm to an individual's energy. (Racing the Clock)

In the Damaged System most of the city's populace were nullified from lost Games and they roamed the ruined streets freely. (Icons)

On the known Net, no null has ever recompiled back into the Sprite or Binome it used to be. Phong and Dot have tried many times to restore their lost friends and family. Although Mainframe has made great strides in research every attempt so far has failed. Bob came up with a theory that every Game contains a record of its past. It's called a Saved Game. A sprite could possibly be recompiled if it encountered the Game that nullified it and the Game is won. All Nulls avoid Game Cubes though, and so this theory is unproven.

Hexadecimal was attacked and infected by a Web Creature. The nulls sensed her distress. Every null in the city flocked to Lost Angles and swarmed into Hexadecimal's Lair. They completely covered her to protect Mainframe from the creature. The mass formation of nulls was named Nullzilla by Mike the TV. Hexadecimal's attempts to break free caused Nullzilla to leave Lost Angles and attack the city. Bob, Dot, Enzo, Frisket, Mike, and AndrAIa used a Giant Robot to dispatch the null monster. (Nullzilla)

During the Viral Wars, Hexadecimal was imprisoned by Megabyte after she was severely injured by a Game Cube when the Hardware exploded. She later escaped her brother's control and began decimating Ghetty Prime purely for pleasure. Megabyte had already lost the Silicon Tor and send Hack and Slash with an escort of ABCs to salvage the sector, they failed. Nulls played a role in the war by crippling the production facilities that manufacture ABCs. With the plants obliterated, the virals couldn’t build anymore, Megabyte's fleet was reduced to just 39 carriers.

During the Net War, Hexadecimal used her powers to expel the Guardian Armada from Mainframe. The effort drained her powers and the User activated a viral scan. It began trying to change her into a sprite. Hex summound a mass of nulls to protect herself from the scan. The null cocoon worked for a while but when a Game Cube landed in the area the nulls fled and Hex was turned into a sprite. (Cross Nodes)

The only power Hexadecimal retained was her control over nulls. She used it to help Dot bring back her father, Welman Matrix. Hex had several nulls form a human shaped body with the null of Welman/Nibbles as the head. She wasn't able to restore his original Sprite body, but he was able to speak and think again. Dot wanted to embrace her father but he warned not to, as the nulls were still dangerous to touch. (What's Love Got To Do With It?)

Hexadecimal eventually left Mainframe to cure the Net of Daemon's infection. She left a gift of some of her powers in Little Enzo's icon. Once she was gone Welman's new body collapsed and he lost the ability to speak or think, returning to his Nibbles persona. (Sacrifice)

Welman's presence in Mainframe had confirmed something Phong and Dot had long suspected. A null retains the exact code of the Sprite it used to be. Hue Branch and his tech boys invented a cylindrical portable device that samples and downloads Game codes. The device could build up a library of Games, then use codes on nulls contained in the lab. It is unknown if this would be successful, but its a chance that they may be able to recompile people nullified by the Games they collect. However Dot pointed out that her father wasn't nullified by a Game. Phong admitted he was still no closer to restoring the Twin City Sprites. Nevertheless they brought the device into the Rocky The Rabid Raccoon Game and downloaded its code. (Life's a Glitch)

When Dot was getting married, Little Enzo wanted Welman/Nibbles to attend. When he opened the nulls cage Nibbles jumped into Little Enzo's hand and the viral power travelled from his icon into Nibbles, permanently giving him back the power of speech and thought. Although this did not recreate his original body, he could finally be with his family again. Phong quickly constructed a robot suit for Welman so he could walk around touch things as a normal person. The suit also corrected Welman's current speech impediment restoring his original voice. (Null Bot of the Bride)

Hue Branch and the Tech Boys developed a Game Sampler to download codes from a Game Cube. The theory is that the codes could be used in a lab to attempt to restore nullified sprites. The device is to be placed next to a Game Cubes outer wall from inside the Game. Once activated the device attaches several tubes to the outer wall of the Cube and begins to slowly download the codes for that individual Game. So far, the sampler has only been used once, and it is unknown if it produced any success in the lab. (Life's a Glitch)

[edit] Contradiction

Although it is stated that Nulls cannot be hurt by physical force, Megabyte did squeeze Nibbles once. The green null flashed purple and screeched in pain. (The Quick and the Fed)

[edit] References

• The name Null has multiple meanings in computer programming.
• Typically Null means a special object reference used to signify that a pointer intentionally does not point to, or refer to, an object.