| “ | I come from the net. Through systems, peoples, and cities, to this place: Mainframe. My format, Guardian: to Mend and Defend. To protect my new found friends, their hopes and dreams, To defend them from their enemies. | „ |
| ~ Bob |
Bob is the main protagonist in the CGI television series ReBoot.
He is a Guardian from the supercomputer who protects Mainframe from internal and external threats.
He has a Keytool named Glitch that he wears on his left wrist. It is a device capable of becoming most objects, projecting energy shields and can be used as a communication device. It can also hear its Guardian from great distances and can interface with other software.
The Guardian motto is to "mend and defend" and Bob takes great pride in doing just that, trying his best to keep the threats at bay.
He is voiced by Michael Benyaer in the first two seasons and by Ian James Corlett in the third and fourth seasons who also voiced Cheetor in Beast Wars: Transformers and Beast Machines: Transformers.
Personality[]
Bob on his Zipboard
During the beginning of the series, Bob was a laid-back, impulsive hero who took things as they came and never planned anything. However, after his terrible experience in the web, Bob became less cocky and more cautious as the series progressed.
He has great respect for all his friends including Dot Matrix who is the opposite of Bob but eventually formed a romantic relationship with him, Dot's brother, Enzo, who admires Bob and sees him as his hero and Phong, the secretary of the Mainframe Principal office and whom Bob goes to for advice.
Early Life[]
While training as a cadet in the Super Computer, Bob helped arrest Mouse. She was trying to hack into the system. The two formed a friendship that has lasted through the years. Bob doesn't exactly trust Mouse, but he likes her.
Bob serves under Turbo and was trained by Dixon Green. His roommate at the Guardian Academy was Cardon. Even as a Cadet, Bob was fairly unique among Guardians as he was in favor of non-violent alternatives to dealing with Viruses rather than executing nefarious being. Bob believed it wasn't their fault and that a User made them this way.
While talking to his partner, an upgrading Killabyte broke free and dealt Dixon a fatal wound. Bob was heartbroken at the loss of Dixon. Her Key Tool Glitch joined with Bob. Bob came to Mainframe chasing the virus Gigabyte that killed Dixon. When he arrived in what remained of Mainframe's Twin City, he was utterly shocked to see all the surrounding chaos and devastation. This is when Bob meets Dot Matrix. She was in shock over the loss of the city and her father and initially blamed him for all the destruction.
Guardian of Mainframe[]
Bob decided to stay in Mainframe and protect the city from the new viruses, Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Megabyte quickly took control of Giedi Prime sector, while Hexadecimal took the island of Lost Angles as her home. Bob himself took residence in Eight-Ball Apartments in Kits Sector, on the top floor. His apartment has everything from a picture of the Super Computer captioned with the phrase "Home, Sweet, Home," to an assembly-line style shower, to a very annoying talking television, Mike the TV. After his arrival, Bob grew very close to Dot Matrix. Bob also gradually trained Enzo Matrix on how to fight in Game Cubes, though Dot discouraged Enzo from following him into Games.
Bob was somewhat naive about living in a small system. Megabyte tried to trick Bob into stabilizing a tear into a portal to the Super Computer. In an attempt to persuade Bob, Megabyte prevented him from aiding a sub-sector in winning a Game, causing it to be nullified. Bob tried to take care of the situation alone, but eventually learned he could not, because Mainframers always stick together and help each other out. (The Tearing)
The Mainframers discovered that Bob was immune to viral bugs when Hexadecimal's Medusa Bug began infecting the city, and his Guardian code was strong enough to protect him. The rest of the city was turned to stone until he figured out how to restore them. (The Medusa Bug)
Bob assisted Phong and Dot in installing a system upgrade. Megabyte had teamed with Hexadecimal to create a fake upgrade with Megabyte inside. He gained access to the Core Control Chamber and started to erase the city. Bob tried to fight Megabyte but Glitch lost power. They were forced to abandon the chamber and find other weapons. (Infected)
Hexadecimal was infected by a baby Web Creature that came to Mainframe through her Looking Glass. The cities' nulls covered her to protect the city, forming a monster named Nullzilla. To stop the monster, Phong had a Giant Robot that Bob, Dot, Enzo, Frisket, and Mike the TV piloted to fight the monster. Bob felt ridiculous in their battle costumes.
The Web Creature bonded with Megabyte next and forced him to merge with Hexadecimal, reforming the super virus Gigabyte. Bob found himself outmatched by this powerful virus. By overpowering him they managed to split Gigabyte into the three individuals.
Dot Matrix went missing on Level 31 and Bob went searching for her. Mouse was also on the trail. They eventually found the Web Creature, grown to a large monster. Turbo and the Guardians activated an explosive to destroy the Web Creature, but it would also destroy the entire city. Bob quickly got the bomb into the sky, and it exploded over the city. The Web Creature flew to the massive tear the bomb had made and turned it into a portal to the Web.
Bob helped Phong fortify Mainframe and fight off the Web. They formed an alliance with Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Megabyte built the hardware to close the Web Portal, Phong downloaded the software to run it, and Hexadecimal powered the device. Mouse hacked the Web and erased Mainframe's location. In case something would happen to Bob, he gave an upgrade to Enzo. Bob downloaded version 1 Guardian code to Enzo's icon, making him a cadet, and charged him with the defense of Mainframe.
Megabyte betrayed Bob as the end of the war neared. When the hardware was ready to close the portal, Megabyte attacked Bob and crushed Glitch. Then he threw Bob into a missile and shot it into the Web. Then he activated the hardware and closed the portal, stranding Bob in the Web.
It was not revealed at the time, but when Megabyte crushed Glitch, some of Bob's Guardian code was transferred into the virus.
Rescue[]
While in the Web, Bob's uniform degraded. He encountered a group of degraded sprites called the Web Riders. They took Bob in and taught him how to survive in the Web. They herded the Web Creatures for their own purposes.
Bob quickly learned the squeak language of the Web Riders. During Bob's time in the Web, his hair grew long and lost some of its shiny luster. Silver spots which later turned to Web scars also appeared on his head and neck. Bob created a mask out of Web Creature scales for protection against the Web's environment. It was later said that he took the form of Interface.
The next year, Enzo who had now grown up during his time in the games to become the tough renegade Matrix and his friend AndrAIa were lost on the Net during the Viral Wars. They met up with The Crimson Binome and the pirates of the Saucy Mare. They teamed up with the surfer Ray Tracer and entered the Web to search for Bob. He was eventually found much to their delight and they celebrated.
They took the Saucy Mare to Mainframe's web address to return home. When they arrived the location was protected by several traps laid by Mouse. The ship was nearly destroyed. The Web Riders and Ray Tracer went outside the ship to protect it. They became separated from the ship by a massive shield and began pushing the ship toward the tear marking Mainframe's location. Bob and Glitch came up with a very unorthodox idea. In order to save themselves and return to Mainframe, Bob downloaded Glitch into himself. His uniform turned shiny silver with gold highlights. He removed the ship's Web Shields and formed a portal to their home.
When they returned to Mainframe they found the city all but destroyed by the Viral Wars. Bob and Matrix inspected the remains of Megabyte's Silicon Tor and realized Hexadecimal destroyed the tower and a battle began between the two viruses. Afterward, Megabyte attacked the Principal Office and took control of the city.
They soon ran into Hack and Slash. The pair took Bob and Matrix to Dot. She and Mouse were leading the Mainframe rebellion. Dot was relieved to have Bob back but was overwhelmed to have her little brother returned as well. Megabyte found out about Bob's return and realized the city was back on the Net. He used the captive Phong to explode the Sub-Sphere, preparing to turn the new tear into a portal.
Before they could attack, Bob was kidnapped by Hexadecimal. She was more insane than ever, due to the damage that had inflicted her mask. Bob managed to treat the damage to her mask and in thanks, she returned him to Dot.
Megabyte had been defeated, but the system had been so damaged by the wars that it began shutting down. Bob suggested that they allow it to crash and hope the User would begin a restart. Although they many didn't like the idea they allowed a Game Cube to damage the city further and cause it to crash.
As the system began to crash, Bob begged Phong to give an icon to Hexadecimal. He knew that she would not be restored with the rest of the system if she was not registered with the Principal Office. Phong finally agreed, though thinking this decision was "absolute and utter madness".
The User restored the system and the city came back online and everyone in the city was saved. Dot told Bob to never leave her again, and he said he wouldn't. They finally had a passionate kiss as the city came to life around them. Suddenly they heard someone yell for Bob, he turned and was flattened by the kid version of Enzo, a system copy of the original. They named him Little Enzo.
The Net War[]
Bob helped Mainframe fight off the virus Daemon and the Guardians. When she found out that he was joined with Glitch she named him her messenger because he was the only guardian left that could create portals since all the key tools left the Guardians because of Daemon's infection.
The Guardian Armada invaded Mainframe at the beginning of the War. Bob couldn't stand to see his fellow Guardians deleted so he tried to contain their ships, one by one, in file locks. Bob convinced Hexadecimal to help them, and she expelled the entire Armada from Mainframe, and Mouse resealed the system. The effort drained Hex enough to make her vulnerable, a virus scan from the User turned her into a sprite.
When Matrix captured Turbo, Bob used what little guardian he had to partially cure his old friend. He and Dot then learned that Daemon seeks to bring unity to the Net and needs Bob to create portals to the closed or offline systems to infect
Bob fell ill during the war. Phong performed a complete compile on Bob and found that the merge with Glitch didn't work. Glitch was damaged and now Bob is breaking down. Phong also tells Bob that the continued use of his Glitch powers will result in total fragmentation. Bob makes Phong swear to not tell Dot. Bob was also no longer capable of rebooting, but it is unclear if this is a result of his partial Web degradation, his merging with Glitch, or both.
During one of his talks with Turbo, he disagreed to destroy Daemon, believing he could reprogram her but Turbo insisted that the entire Net was at stake.
Daemon eventually breached Mainframe's defenses. She was overjoyed to meet her messenger. Daemon noticed Hexadecimal next to Bob and called her an abomination, a disgrace to viruses. Bob defended Hex and Daemon disregarded his anger, and infected the entire city. Hexadecimal asked for forgiveness and Daemon threw her into a wall.
Daemon took Bob to the portal generator and forced him to form portals to any offline system so she could infect the entire net. Each effort to form a portal degraded Bob further.
Little Enzo and Matrix found a cure, the pure Guardian code in Matrix's icon. They used it to cure AndrAIa, Hexadecimal, and Phong. Hexadecimal went to the Core to get more firepower to fight Daemon.
When Daemon's infection of the entire Net was finished, Bob collapsed at the steps of the Principal Office. Hexadecimal appeared, fully viral again, and attack Daemon. The two super viruses battled, destroying sections of the city, but never hurt each other.
Daemon reached the end of her life, announced the word is 'Cron', and decompiled. Everyone infected began counting down to their own deletion. Bob explained to Dot that a Cron Virus is programmed to create a total crash. Hexadecimal grabbed Bob and began dancing insanely. Bob explained to her they were all going to die. Hex demanded they stop it. Welman Matrix told her they had a cure and a virus could distribute it, but Phong realized that it would cause the virus total fragmentation. Hexadecimal decided to do it to save Bob, her final words were, "Bob, I have always loved you, Dot take care of him, and be happy." She then left and saved the entire Net.
Bob collapsed and Dot began to cry, asking him not to leave her again. Dot then asked Bob to marry her. Bob accepted and she leaned it to kiss him. A portal appeared in front of them and Ray Tracer stepped out, with a second Bob.
The Return[]
With the second Bob in Mainframe, the real one couldn't stand it. Some people started thinking that the first Bob was the copy and the new one was the real Bob. To make things worse, Dot refused to let the first Bob into Games due to his illness.
Bob finally decided to try and separate from Glitch. He tried several teleportation machines to separate them but nothing worked. Finally, he came up with the idea to use a portal. When Gigabyte was separated back into Megabyte and Hexadecimal they used a portal and split it. He decided to do the same thing. The action backfired: the portal imploded when it tried to split in two. Bob was left immobile, encased in a hard black covering that nothing could penetrate. He was rushed to the Super Computer.
Soon after Bob was taken to the Super Computer, the second Bob proposed to Dot, and she accepted. They prepared for their wedding while Bob remained in treatment. Nothing they tried could penetrate it. Bob had a strange dream where he says a massive Glitch while wondering if he was the copy. All the Key Tools returned and went into Bob.
The wedding began, and, in the Super Computer, Bob's body began to glow. The Key Tools returned through small black portals and used energy beams to save Bob. He was returned to normal, in his degraded Web uniform, and Glitch was upgraded. Bob's code didn't match what they had on file.
He quickly went to the Wedding and crashed it. Bob was told to leave and Glitch went to the second Bob. It then pulled some code from him and returned to the first Bob, giving the code to him. The first Bob returned to his original look, and the second Bob turned into Megabyte. They battled, destroying the wedding, and then Megabyte shape-shifted into a binome and snuck away. He was now a Trojan Horse virus.
Dot came up with a plan to trap Megabyte with a fake Gateway Command. Megabyte took the bait and Bob, Matrix, AndrAIa, Frisket, and a team of CPU's were able to capture Megabyte. Back at the Principal Office, Bob performed a scan of Megabyte and found there was nothing there: it was an alias. Matrix deleted the alias and Bob quickly informed Dot in the War Room that Megabyte must be in the War Room with her. Megabyte attacked everyone, some got out, others were infected. He locked down the building and informed everyone he wasn't there to conquer Mainframe or the Super Computer, but for revenge. He said to prepare themselves for the hunt.
Comic (Non-Canon)[]
Bob helped the binomes and Sprites evacuate Mainframe and attended Little Enzo's graduation ceremony in the Super Computer. However, Turbo saw Bob's views towards Viruses as a weakness, calling him a virus sympathizer, saying that if he had just deleted Megabyte when he had the chance instead of letting him go all the time none of this would have happened. Bob took this advice to heart, along with Little Enzo's speech, and he single-handedly went to Mainframe to delete Megabyte once and for all. Turbo called him back as the Code Masters had come up with a device to delete all of the viruses. Later after the Code Masters destroyed all of the viruses in the Net, Dot and Bob went to a cheap chapel for a quickie marriage from Mike the TV.
ReBoot: The Guardian Code[]
In the new series, Bob was restored along with Dot and Enzo when an outside user and guardian named Parker (codenamed Googz) booted up an old Mainframe computer found in room 0.
Bob then teams up with three new upgraded guardians Googz, Vector and Enigma who he bumps into in Baudway, outside Dot's Diner. They explain that they are guardians from outside the net and have the same objective as Bob to protect Mainframe.
He is also shocked to hear that Megabyte is back and causing more trouble in Mainframe.
They fight Megabyte who has teamed up with a restored Hexadecimal and his evil sentinels. But suddenly a game dropped by a user called "Escape from Alcatraz" comes down and Bob, Googz, and Vector enter. They succeed in beating the user by Googz and Vector remembering a tactic outside the net on how to win and Mainframe is restored. Bob then congratulates his new friends who promise him that they will carry out the mission of all guardians: To Mend and Defend. (Mainframe Mayhem)
Quotes[]
| “ | Glitch... | „ |
| ~ Bob when he gives his Glitch a command |
| “ | This is bad, this is very bad | „ |
| ~ Bob |
| “ | I don't think so! | „ |
| ~ Bob |
| “ | Stay Frosty! | „ |
| ~ Bob |