Access Denied

Access Denied

Season
Team Up!

Episode
5

Air date
*Unknown*

Writer
*Unknown*

Director
*Unknown*

**"Access Denied"** is the fifth episode of the "Team Up!" series.

Plot
Continuing their portal journey in search of home, Catboy, An Yu, Armadylan and Newton Star land in a world entirely controlled by PAMA – a sinister "thinking machine" determined to command everyone and everything with redstone mind control chips. Forced on the run to avoid capture and assimilation, Catboy must work with a new ally to defeat the corrupted computer and free the population it has enslaved.

Characters
**Main Characters**
* Catboy
* An Yu
* Newton Star
* Armadylan
* Harper
* PAMA
* Mind-Controlled Citizens

**Minor Characters**
* Harry

**Mentioned Characters**
* Owlette
* Gekko

Synopsis
The episode begins with Catboy, An Yu, Newton and Armadylan going through numerous portals in the Portal Network, unsuccessfully trying to find the portal to leads back to their home. After an adventure to a world full of fire and obsidian, the gang returns to the network, and Newton catches on fire. Catboy helps him out. It is shown that Newton is constantly writing in a book, where he coins that world "Fire World".
An Yu tires of the repeated failures and argues with the others, saying that they are not making any progress. Armadylan wishes that those who built the Portal Network left some signs or guideposts. An Yu becomes frustrated and suggests going through an Owl portal, thinking that Owls must mean smart people who will help them get home. She complains that Catboy has been leading the group every time and wants to leave on her own. Catboy gets frustrated by her actions, and An Yu runs off by herself. Catboy, Newton, and Armadylan also goes through the portal and arrive in a mesa biome with no apparent sign of any Owls.
After arriving in the mesa, Newton continues to write in his book, which he claims to be "a book he picked up back in the White Pumpkin's place." The trio spots a road made out of sand on the ground, which is a sign of civilization. Catboy finds An Yu observing the strange zombie herself. They surprisingly find that the zombies in this world do not burn in the day. After An Yu attempts to fight the zombie, they discover that the zombie is much stronger, faster, and deadlier than a regular one and has a mysterious device on the back of its head, which also makes its eyes red. The zombie overpowers An Yu, and Catboy helps her.
An Yu and Catboy defeat the zombie, only to be confronted by a group of more red-eyed boosted zombies. The zombies do not attack them, however, and instead leads them to their village, Crown Mesa. Following the zombies, the four arrive at the village, and Armadylan attempts to rip off the mysterious device on the back of the zombies' heads, only to find it irremovable. A sign nearby indicates that Crown Mesa holds a population of over a thousand people, but it appears strangely empty and seemingly abandoned. Chickens and zombies in the village all have the devices that make them stronger on the back of their heads.
They see a townsperson in the village, but the person keeps ignoring them. It turns out that he also has a mysterious device on the back of his head similar to the zombies. Catboy notices that there is no water in the wells. He suddenly sees a mysterious woman, who is the only person with no device on the back of their head, run into a house. The said person is surprised to see that the four do not have red eyes and tells them not to hurt any of the citizens of Crown Mesa. However, she immediately runs off after a group of townspeople enter the house and surround the four, telling them that they are not from the place and try to take them away. Catboy tries to escapes from them, but fails and got knocked out.
The group is taken to PAMA (Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent), a computer who has been making everything in this world "useful," or efficient, by "chipping" and mind-controlling the world's population through chips, which are the mysterious devices they saw earlier. PAMA realizes that Catboy's group is not from its world. Catboy tells PAMA that they entered this world through a portal or not. Either way, PAMA will be interested in other worlds and plan to send its mind-controlled people through to other worlds and make all worlds "useful."
To retrieve more information about portals, PAMA threatens to install chips into Newton and An Yu and make them "useful;" however, it promises to delay it if Catboy can tell it how to enter other worlds. Catboy refuses to cooperate with it.Then, PAMA decides to get more information and makes Newton and An Yu "useful." It also tries to make Catboy and Armadylan "useful," but Catboy confuses PAMA by telling it a paradox, a self-contradictory statement. The computer glitches while trying to process it, giving Catboy and Armadylan time to escape. The mysterious person from before shows up, and it is revealed that she is the creator of PAMA. Catboy and Armadylan escape from PAMA's mind-controlled puppets with assistance from her.
The stranger leads the two away and distracts the mind-controlled monsters, buying them time to get to her secret lab. After jumping into a cave, Catboy and Armadylan discover that PAMA's mind-control chips can be deactivated with water, which means that they can free An Yu and Newton by pushing them into water.
Catboy and Armadylan head to the secret lab, while Armadylan deems the woman "intriguing" and shows a little interest in her. The mysterious woman suddenly shows up, much to Armadylan's surprise. She introduces herself as Harper and tells the two that she designed PAMA to automate things, but it went out of control and started making everything "useful." It is revealed that Harper is an Old Builder and has helped build the Portal Network. However, she destroyed the exit portal back to the Network in her world so that PAMA cannot expand into other worlds. That is why PAMA is interested in catching Harper, because she knows how to build an exit portal.
The group arrives at the secret lab, where Harper uses buckets of water to defend them from PAMA's forces. However, the trio is tracked down by PAMA before she can finish. Mind-controlled An Yu, Newton, and several spiders break into the lab, attacking them. Catboy has to un-chip either Newton or An Yu by pushing them into the water. Catboy un-chips Newton and faces his fear of water. Before he can un-chip An Yu, however,An Yu captures Harper and leaves. Before being taken, Harper tells Catboy to find her Mind-Control Headset.
Exploring Harper's lab, Catboy, Armadylan, and Newton find explosions in a chest and discover the Mind-Control Headset created by Harper, and Catboy uses it to remotely control mobs chipped by PAMA to get to Harper. Catboy tries to save Harper through the controlled mob, but Harper is captured again by more mind-controlled townspeople. Before being captured, Harper tells Catboy the location of PAMA's power source, the  red Heart, which he must remove in order to shut down the computer before it gains access to other worlds. Harper states that Catboy and his friends are their only hope, and PAMA's forces locate the headset. PAMA starts trying to make Catboy's headset "useful," and Catboy pulls it off before it explodes. Knowing that Harper put all her trust in them, Catboy, Armadylan, and Newton take water and head out to destroy PAMA before it takes over all other worlds.
Catboy's gang find the entrance to PAMA's Control Core, where the Red Heart is located. However, many mind-controlled mobs are patrolling nearby, and Catboy has to clear a path using the explosions he found in Harper's secret laboratory. Catboy uses Super Cat Speed to clear a path and finds that PAMA's chipped forces have started to build an exit portal already. Figuring he must deactivate PAMA immediately, Catboy enters PAMA's Core.
In the Control Core, PAMA senses Catboy's presence and starts taunting him, telling Catboy that his plan to deactivate it is futile. Catboy finds three Spires that power the Red Heart and disable them by pouring water to wash away the electricity. PAMA deploys mind-controlled zombies and spiders to stop him; although they are strengthened by the mind-control chips, Catboy is able to fend them off by knocking them over the edge of the Control Core's platform. After disabling the first two Spires, PAMA sends a mind-controlled Harper to confront Catboy and attempts to trick him into using his final water bucket on Harper. Having only one water bucket left, Catboy cannot use it on Harper while there is still 1 Spire left. He disables the final Spire by pouring water and later frees Harper by pushing her into the same water.
Knowing that its Heart is now vulnerable, PAMA tries to hide/protect the Red Heart while sending mind-controlled An Yu after Catboy. An Yu tries to damage Catboy's morale by reminding him how he has failed to lead the gang home. However, Catboy is successful in reaching the Heart. Using An Yu to punch Catboy, PAMA forces Catboy to dangle off his friend. It attempts to destroy them both, but it has underestimated An Yu's willpowers. An Yu resists and gives Catboy the time to rip the heart out. As a final struggle, PAMA tries to sweet-talk Catboy and convince him/her to save it. However, Catboy insists to rip the heart out, he successfully removes the Red Heart and deactivates PAMA.
With PAMA defeated, Catboy, An Yu, Newton and Armadylan, along with Harper, return to Crown Mesa. The townspeople, however, despise Harper for creating PAMA. Catboy defends Harper and convince the townspeople that she would help them with reconstruction of the mess PAMA left.
The group lights the exit portal PAMA built and return to the Portal Network. Harper reveals the existence of a Portal Atlas, which the Old Builders have designed to help navigate the Portal Network and reveal the way the Order can go home. It turns out that she does not have this Atlas, but she knows where to find the rest of the Old Builders and ask them for the Atlas. They use the Red heart as a power source, and one of the portals opens up into a very long stairway leading to the Old Builders' Atlas and their way home.

Trivia* Harper makes her first appearance.