- The Power Team as they make their way through Tech City disguised as monks.
Power and his team travel to Tech City, seeking to gain access to the Cyber Web and information about Project New Order. Tech City seems to be one of the few places Dread has not obliterated and razed to the ground, but it is crawling with biomechs. The team enter in disguise, wearing gunny sack,monk likes robes over their uniforms and hoods which obscure their identity while chanting 'Blessed be the Neon'.
As expected, the team eventually have to ask for directions to their target, one Mindsinger, who can get them access to the Cyber Web. Enter, Zone Boy, the modern equivelent of your local junkie/dealer who attempts to sell them mind drugs. Power declines but asks instead whether he can take them to Mindsinger. Zone Boy agrees.
Mindsinger turns out to be a woman who is willing to provide Power access to information from the Cyber Web in exchange for the appropriate payment. While they haggle,Zone Boy slips off to a nearby 'TeleLink' booth and contacts Dread. Suspecting that Power's intention must be to infiltrate the Cyber Web,Dread dispatches Blastarr. But he also has other plans. Making use of Zone Boy's addiction to 'neuro charges' he offers to give Zone Boy all the 'neuro charges' he wishes to have in exchange for a little work for Dread.
Power decides to 'jack into' the Web himself, deciding that it would be a quicker means of obtaining the data Mindsinger has stolen from troopers who have 'jacked' into the Web and overrules Hawk's reservations. As soon as Power is hooked into the Web, Blastarr and troops arrive. Hawk immediately orders Mindsinger to release Power but she can't unless he's ready to come out - pulling him out will risk 'flatlining'[killing] him. Exasperated, Hawk orders Mindsinger to pull him out as soon as it's safe and heads off with the rest of the team to tackle Blastarr.
Inside the Web, Power begins to access the information about Project New Order by touching the floating icons each representing the different phases of New Order. But there is another presence in the Web, Dread has entered the Cyber Web and Power and him begin battle in CyberSpace. And to ensure that Power cannot escape with the information, Dread has dispatched Zone Boy to prevent Mindsinger or anyone else from letting Power out of the Web. Holding Mindsinger at gun point, and despite her protests of 'flatlining him' - Zone Boy twists the dials on the machine to full power.
The battle in the Web is proving one sided as Power struggles to understand why he is unable to fight back. Dread gloats, and informs Power that he has altered the balance in the Web through Overmind, and if Power dies in the Web, the shock will also kill his real body.
Outside, Hawk notices that Blastarr is seems to be stalling, but can't figure out why.Getting fed-up, Pilot suggests a means to break the stalemate, but introducing an EMP [Electro Magnetic Pulse] which will disrupt the power supply to the area. Unfortunately, this means it will deactivate their suits as well and shut off power to the Cyber Web. Hawk agrees and after one failed attempt, Pilot finally pulls it off and Blastarr and the troopers are temporarily deactivated as Tech City falls into darkness.
Power meanwhile is gradually getting to grips with using his mind to control the Web and his will power reaches it's height when Dread attempts to break Power by creating illusions of his team-mates, dead and by conjuring up memories of how Power failed to save his father. Summoning up all his mental will, Power overwhelms Dread with his own choice of illusions, the broken, dark world he has created - the reality of his New World, and Dread's true self, Lyman Taggart, who tells Dread that Power is right - that his world is an aberration. Shocked, horrified and unable to deal with the truth, Dread retreats from the Web.At the same time,Pilot's plan deactivates the Web and Power re-enters reality, in time to rescue Mindsinger from Zone Boy.
A duly satisfied customer, Power pays off Mindsinger and departs Tech City with the data he has obtained from the Web. But at Volcania, Dread mulls over the images he has confronted, and is chastised by Overmind for being weak. Despite his vow to see his dream achieved,it seems as though perhaps Power has found a chink in his armour.
Comment
Entertaining and fun. This episode combined ideas about how the Internet, Cyberspace and Virtual Reality would work in the future and has proven to be startlingly accurate in it's predictions. Not an excessive amount of robot blasting and the sets and atmosphere were well designed to give a feel of a Tech City. Charming use of a distinctive lingo by Mindsinger and Zone Boy - amongst other things,'jacking in', 'flatlining' and 'you pross?'[Read: You process?].
Drugs seem to still exist in the future, albeit in a more sophisticated form of 'Mind Drugs'. The willingness of Dread to exploit Zone Boy's addiction to Neuro Charges at the same time his disgust showcases again, how he sees humans as weakened by their physical needs.
Watch out for...
Inexplicable Oddities..
