Countdown

**"Countdown"** is the twenty-eighth episode of the first season of *Power Players*. It first premiered on January 31, 2020, on the official Cartoon Network website and it later premiered on March 22, 2020, on TV on Cartoon Network.

## Synopsis

Axel has to clean up the living room in time for his uncle's dinner party, but trying to do too much at once leaves him stuck as a toy with Orangutank on the loose and less than an hour until the guests arrive.

## Plot

The episode opens in Axel's room where Axel is cleaning it up with the help from Masko. After he finishes placing a box on a shelf, Axel, enthusiastically, is about to transform into Action Axel so he could have fun with his teammates, but Sarge Charge stops him before he could transform when the toy sees Uncle Andrew is coming upstairs and he is about to get into the room. The Power Players all hide in the closet to avoid being seen and Axel opens his bedroom door to let his uncle in. Once inside, Andrew is impressed by how very clean Axel's room is, but he added that there's still a mess in the house and reminds his nephew that he's hosting his monthly antique toy-collectors' meeting later that day. He then gives Axel a piece of advice that "a job half done is as good as none" before leaving to get to his toy shop to get ready for his meeting and asks Axel to clean up the fort that is downstairs. Axel becomes confused after his uncle leaves the room since he didn't remember building a fort downstairs so he comes down to the living room. But before he gets down the staircase, he notices the fort being built so he transforms into Action Axel to investigate who is responsible for the mess.

Much to Action Axel's surprise, it is actually Orangutank who arrived at his house to turn his living room into his "jungle" by building the fort out of various items in the living room to mark his territory. But during the fight between Orangutank and Action Axel, the cyborg gorilla toy has picked up Action Axel and threw him into the wall near the staircase, causing Action Axel to slam his back against the wall which lead to his toy mode becoming malfunctioned because of the collision. He tries to call Slobot to alert his friends that he needs help in the living room, only to realize that his communicator has glitched out. Knowing something is definitely wrong with him, Action Axel painfully walks upstairs to get to his room while Orangutank continues constructing his fort.

Once Action Axel enters the room, he explains to his teammates what happened to his suit and Slobot runs a diagnostic for it. He also warns his teammates that Orangutank is downstairs and they must get rid of him before Andrew get back upstairs soon after his meeting. After he explains to his teammates the situation, he suddenly gets shocked by static electricity from his suit which worries everyone. He asks Slobot how severe it is, but the toy robot said that it is inconclusive and he will need time to found the solution to his problem. The Power Players suggests that they should take care of Orangutank while Slobot takes care of Action Axel, but the latter decides to help them anyway.

At the staircase, the Power Players, except Slobot who's still in Axel's room to look for the solution for Action Axel's malfunctioning suit, realized that they are too late since Orangutank is about to finish building his fort. Sarge suggests they should split into two teams: Alpha Squad would clean the living room while Bravo Squad fight Orangutank. Action Axel likes the idea and asks Bobbie Blobby and Bearbarian to take care of Orangutank while Sarge, Galileo, and Masko clean up the mess, much to both Sarge's and Galileo's displeasures. While Bobbie and Bearbarian fight Orangutank, Slobot arrives downstairs and asks Action Axel to try to transform back into his human form. Action Axel thought he was crazy and he must fight Orangutank first, but Bobbie assures to him that she and Bearbarian can handle Orangutank on their own while Action Axel figures out the solution for his problem. Action Axel pushes the button on the back of his helmet but he didn't transform back into human form, which Slobot is able to identify the problem before going to researching mode to figure out the solution. Nearby, Galileo and Sarge are trying to place the books back into the shelves, but Galileo pulls a book from the bottom of the pile which causes the books that are on top to fall down.

At Andrew's workshop where the meeting is about to start, everyone all heard the commotion from upstairs and Andrew starts to get suspicious of what's going in the living room. Back upstairs, Action Axel warns everyone that they must avoid causing too much ruckus since the toy shop is located right under them so he asks Galileo to keep Andrew distracted at his toy shop long enough while the Power Players deal with Orangutank. Back at the toy shop, Andrew is about to go upstairs to check on his nephew while his guests are taking pictures of the toy robot. Unbeknownst to everyone, Galileo is already downstairs and before Andrew is about to open the door to head upstairs, he hears a toy train being turned on and running on its track. He is about to turn the train off, but it still moves on its own because Galileo is secretly riding on it and keeps the train going. Back upstairs, Masko notices that Action Axel, Bobbie, and Bearbarian are all having trouble dealing with Orangutank and he asks Sarge if they should help them. Sarge declines to help them since it's not what Action Axel told them to do and they should instead stick to his plan. Back down at the toy shop, the toy train is able to stop running and Andrew examines it while wondering how it's running on its own, before coming into the conclusion that it is somehow able to come to life.

Back in the living room, the Power Players are all unable to take care of their situation and Galileo tells them that he is only able to distract Andrew for only two minutes. With their problem getting worse and worse, Action Axel knows that they won't be able to fix it in under two minutes since Orangutank really wants to live at his house and he fears that once his uncle found out what happened in the living room, he is definitely gonna kick him out of the house while he stuck in toy mode. Sarge, wanting to help, suggests that they should split up again, but he, Bobbie, and Masko all argue over whether or not they should stick to Sarge's plan again since his plan isn't working for them. Eventually, Action Axel realizes the situation of their teamwork problem, remembering his uncle's advice earlier about "a job half done is as good as none" and instead of half-doing things all at once, they should all do the whole thing one at a time. Following Andrew's advice, the Power Players are all able to work together as a team to defeat Orangutank and kick him out of the house easily without any more problems. The toys then start cleaning up the living room Orangutank made and they manage to put everything back to normal in time. But before they could celebrate their victory, they all heard Andrew coming so the toys all head upstairs to Axel's room before he could see them.

With Andrew heading up to Axel's room to check on him, the toys all know that they have one more problem to deal with since Action Axel is still stuck in toy mode. Eventually, Slobot figures out the solution to Action Axel's problem and tells him that his Power Bandz are overheated because of the collision earlier so he pulls out a small handheld fan to cool down Action Axel. After a few seconds, Action Axel transforms back into his human form, just in time for his uncle to open the bedroom door and sees him trying to act like nothing happened. Andrew thanks Axel for cleaning up the living room before they both head back downstairs. Along the way, Andrew told his nephew what happened at the toy shop as if a number of his antique toys have suddenly sprung to life. Axel, pretending to be surprised, tells his uncle that living toys are not possible and the two head to the toy shop for the meeting.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* Axel Mulligan/Action Axel
* Bearbarian
* Masko
* Bobbie Blobby
* Slobot
* Galileo
* Sarge Charge
* Orangutank

### Minor Characters

* Uncle Andrew
* Craig (background)
* Civilians

## Trivia

* The episode takes place after "Sarge in Charge" since the Power Players are aware that Bobbie knows what Orangutank is saying and she, at one point, translates his garblings to her teammates.
* At the beginning of the episode, the Power Players all hide inside Axel's closet so they won't be spotted by Andrew because the latter is completely unaware that Axel had accidentally released them out of the Toy Box back in "Unboxing Part 1".
* This episode revealed that Andrew hosts a monthly antique toy-collectors' meeting at his workshop.
* In this episode, Sarge is able to beat Masko at one wrestling match despite he lose to him in the webisodes "A Titan Showdown" and a flashback of "Masko".
* Andrew almost realized that there're living toys in his house since he noticed a toy train running on its own, though he's unaware it is Galileo who made the toy train run to keep him distracted from going upstairs.
* Throughout the episode, Bearbarian has dropped World Breaker a total of four times.

### Errors

* According to the Cartoon Network description, it is said that Axel "has to clean up the living room [before the guests arrive] for his uncle's dinner party". However, this never happens in the episode. Instead, Andrew is actually hosting an antique toy-collectors' meeting and the guests have already arrived while the Power Players fight Orangutank.
* At the beginning of the episode, Andrew said that he is hosting his "monthly antique toy-collectors' meeting tonight". However, the meeting wasn't held at night in the episode and it happened a few minutes later while the Power Players fight Orangutank in the living room.
* It's unknown how Slobot is able to get downstairs by himself since he would have fallen off because he has wheels at his base instead of feet.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/power-players/listings/
2. ↑ https://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/power-players/countdown-episode.html

**Future episodes**
*Saving Madcap* • *Impactful!* • *A Noise in the Night* • *When It Itches...* • *Broken* • *What is Happening to Uncle Andrew?* • *Seek!* • *Triple Game* • *Sergeant Lacharge* • *The All-New All Beautiful Power Players* • *Night Operation* • *A Good Spirit* • *No Pot* • *Pyrant Park* • *The Load* • *The Kings of the Jungle* • *Bad Track* • *The Funniest* • *A Maxi Villain - Part 1* • *A Maxi Villain - Part 2*

**Future specials**
A Maxi Villain