Porcupunk Rock

**"Porcupunk Rock"** is the eighth episode of the first season of *Power Players*. It premiered on October 12, 2019, on Cartoon Network.

## Synopsis

Madcap turns to Axel and his team for help after a sonic upgrade to Porcupunk threatens to bring down the house.

## Plot

The episode begins in Madcap’s lair where Madcap has just finished installing an upgrade for Porcupunk. Porcupunk asks Madcap what’s the upgrade is, and Madcap says that he has added in supersonic spikes to give him unmatched destructive powers. Porcupunk is happy about the upgrade, but he reveals to Madcap he has other plans to destruct something with his powers before he lets out an evil laugh.

In Axel’s room, Galileo is recording himself from Axel’s cellphone camera as he arrogantly talks about himself while Axel reads his comic book and ignoring his monologue. After Galileo finishes his monologue, he asks Axel to turn off the phone camera but realizes that Axel wasn’t listening to him the entire time. Axel reveals to Galileo he has been listening to him rehearsing his monologue over nineteen times already, but Galileo wants his monologue to be perfect for his presentation video on his fan blog. Sarge Charge questions why Galileo would want to make a video of himself talking to the camera and publish it online for people to see when the Power Players are supposed to be covert and not revealing their secret as living toys to the world. Galileo assures to Sarge that the viewers would think that it’s a camera trick and the toys being able to talk on camera is just pretending. When Galileo starts doing his twentieth take, it is very clear to everyone that his monologue is starting to get annoying and the toys all start covering their ears so they don’t have to hear it again and again.

Back in Madcap’s lair, Orangutank asks Madcap why Porcupunk is still there when he’s supposed to go to the Monkey Toys hours ago. Madcap, having enough of Porcupunk delaying himself, demands him to go to Axel’s house immediately, but much to both Orangutank’s and Dynamo’s surprises, Porcupunk tells Madcap to wait for a few minutes. Porcupunk blasts some of his supersonic spikes into the air and they form an electric guitar. Porcupunk delightfully strums his new guitar and before Madcap knew it. Porcupunk starts playing his guitar instead of leaving for his mission. Madcap tries to stop Porcupunk to focus on his task in hands, but Porcupunk blasts the tremor from his guitar at him, rebelling his orders. Madcap demands his other henchmen to try to stop Porcupunk too, but Porcupunk manages to defeat Orangutank, Dynamo, Princess Sugar Salt, and Ice Crusher with his new powers and shoots energy soundwaves from his guitar at them and several nearby dormant toy robots, causing the toys who are affected by the soundwaves to dance uncontrollably and shout like they're at a rock and roll concert. With Madcap being outnumbered against Porcupunk and his army, he leaves the lair to get to Axel’s house to get help from his worst enemies.

Back in Axel’s room, the Power Players were all forced to listen to Galileo rehearsing his monologue again. Bobbie Blobby tries to tell Galileo that his last rehearsal for his first line is perfect enough, but Galileo wants to rehearse it again, which causes Bearbarian to reach his breaking point and he is about to angrily smash Galileo with his World Breaker hammer to keep him quiet. Axel immediately transforms into Action Axel, and he tries to calm down the angry Bearbarian to keep him from attacking Galileo. But just then, the Power Players all see Madcap arriving from the bedroom windows. The heroes are all ready to fight Madcap, but their intruder cries out that he’s not here to fight them, rather he needs their help. The Power Players, at first, thought it was a trap, but when Porcupunk's music starts vibrating the room, they start to question him. Madcap tells the Power Players that the shockwave from Porcupunk’s music happened since he started playing it with his Minergy-boosted spikes that he has installed for him. Slobot alerts to his friends that the amplitude of the tremors is increasing at that moment and the city is at risk. And with Madcap’s henchmen being turned against him, the Power Players all have no other option but to help Madcap before Porcupunk could literally bring down the city.

When the Power Players and Madcap get to the lair, they see that Porcupunk has held a rock concert to his fans. The toys sneak down to the floor of the lair to grab the guitar away from Porcupunk, but Porcupunk notices the seven toys and forms a forcefield around him. The Power Players all notice the forcefield and ask Madcap for some insider information. Madcap explains to the toys that the forcefield is fortified and their blast won’t impact it. Action Axel, having an idea, asks Madcap if he could power-boost him with the remaining Minergy he has left and he agrees with his plan. Madcap tosses Action Axel towards Porcupunk and he power-boosts him with the leftover Minergy, allowing Action Axel to strikes his Power Sword to the forcefield surrounding Porcupunk and breaks it.

Without any protection from the heroes and Madcap, Porcupunk is ready to fight them with his guitar. However, Galileo tricks Porcupunk into having an interview with him for his fan blog and the Power Players are his biggest fans. Porcupunk falls for the trickery and allows the Power Players to dance with him on stage as well as being interviewed by Galileo, unaware that the Power Players are sneakily walking to him to grab his guitar. Porcupunk asks Galileo what does he want him to play for the viewers, and Galileo suggests to do an encore. This signifies the Power Players and Madcap to all pounce to Porcupunk to grab the guitar, but Porcupunk figures out that it’s a trick and attacks the Power Players by blasting out large soundwaves at them, causing everyone, except himself and Action Axel, to get blown off the stage. Action Axel is able to resist himself from being blown away from the soundwaves that he manages to grab the guitar away from Porcupunk and smashes it, causing Porcupunk's supersonic spikes to disappear. But while Porcupunk is defeated, he is impressed at how Action Axel is able to beat him at his rock concert.

Madcap thanks the Power Players for saving both him and the city, but he then demands them to leave his lair. Galileo is confused by Madcap’s sudden change of demeanor, and Madcap reminds the Power Players that he’s still their enemy despite working together and demands them to get out. The Power Players all leave the lair through the warehouse’s ventilation system anyway, knowing that Madcap has already been punished enough since he indirectly destroyed his own headquarters because of Porcupunk’s powers.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Axel Mulligan/Action Axel
* Galileo
* Bearbarian
* Sarge Charge
* Masko
* Bobbie Blobby
* Madcap
* Porcupunk

### Minor characters

* Orangutank
* Ice Crusher
* Princess Sugar Salt
* Dynamo
* Slobot
* Sentient toy robots
* Civilians

## Trivia

* In the United States, this marks the first time an episode made its television premiere on Cartoon Network instead of being released first on the official Cartoon Network website.
* This is the first appearance of Ice Crusher. He would later appear as an antagonist in "Iced Out".
* The Power Sword activation sequence is very different in this episode.
* Porcupunk's powers in this episode are similar to Guitar Villain's from *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir*, another ZAG Heroez series. And just like Guitar Villain, Porcupunk's power source is from his guitar.
* Galileo breaks the fourth wall by saying, "Oh! He gets a close-up?" when the camera zooms into Madcap's face after Action Axel asks Madcap to power-boost him.
* This is the first episode in which it didn't begin in either the Monkey Toys or Axel's room. Instead, it begins in Madcap's lair.
* This is the third time when a character's name is mentioned in the title. The other two are "Attack of Thermometron 9000" and "The Dynamo Dynamic".

## References

**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