Gathering Dark

**"Gathering Dark"** is the eleventh episode of the first season of *Power Players*. It premiered on October 26, 2019, on Cartoon Network.

## Synopsis

Axel must help Bearbarian overcome his secret fear of the dark to stop Dynamo from stealing his ride.

## Plot

The episode begins in Axel's room where Zoe is studying in the room while Axel and Luka are playing with their toy robots. During their playtime, Luka tosses a shoe at Axel, and Axel hits it with his pillow, but he accidentally causes the shoe to land near Zoe and knocks a cookie she's holding off her hand. While Axel searches for the cookie that's landing in Luka's toy box, he found Arakneo, a non-sentient toy spider, and shows him to Luka. Feeling very afraid of the toy spider, Luka immediately grabs his stuff and leaves the house. Zoe decides to leave the house too, allowing Axel to be alone with his Power Players teammates. Slobot announces to the team that he has finished the upgrades of the Bearbarian's Monster Jeep the teddy bear has requested to him. When Masko questions the lack of a different appearance of the Jeep, Slobot advises to him not to any sudden movements, loud screams, or fearful facial expressions, because he has installed a new defense system for the Jeep to defend itself from any potential threats. Masko unwittingly demonstrates the defense system when he talks to the Jeep, and the Jeep latches Masko inside its "mouth". But while the Power Players are impressed by the Jeep's upgrade, Sarge Charge warns everyone that they must keep it a secret from Madcap to prevent him from stealing the Jeep to use it against the Power Players.

But immediately before Sarge could finish his warning, Dynamo suddenly arrives out of the blue, much to everyone's surprise. Axel and Bobbie Blobby both ask why Dynamo shows up suddenly, and the villain reveals to the team that it's Galileo's fault; he posted a selfie of himself on social media to shows his team's "new super-weapon", which causes Madcap to caught wind and immediately send Dynamo to Axel's house. Axel transforms into Action Axel, and the Power Players all get onto the communication monitor to prepare fighting with Dynamo to prevent him from stealing the Jeep. Dynamo, however, has his own trick in his sleeves by causing a power outage in Axel's room and since it's nighttime outside, the room is now dark. Dynamo is about to grab the Monster Jeep, but his plan backfires when the power outage causes the Jeep's defense protocol mode to be switched to be merciless predator mode.

Now with the Monster Jeep becoming a literal monstrous predator, it now chases after everyone in the room, especially Dynamo. Worst, Bearbarian doesn't request Slobot to make a remote to shut down the Jeep to prevent it from going even more haywire. And unbeknownst to the Power Players, Bearbarian is afraid of the dark and he's too scared to come out of his closet lair to help protect his friends from the Monster Jeep and defeat Dynamo. Slobot suggests to Action Axel to throw his Power Sword to distract the Monster Jeep, and the Power Players all make a run to the closet to hide with Bearbarian. Bearbarian reveals to everyone that he's afraid of the dark and it's the reason why he can't come out of the closet to help his teammates fight off both Dynamo and the Monster Jeep. While hiding, Slobot suggests that since the Monster Jeep is a literal monster, the Power Players should find something to feed it and it will send its security protocols into sleep mode to stop attacking the team.

The Power Players all safely get out of the closet and set up a trap in the center of the room. Bobbie uses her mecha-suit to create a fence out of clay while Action Axel and Masko both brought in a cookie and moldy doughnut as baits for the Monster Jeep. Bearbarian suggests he should volunteer himself as another bait to lure the Monster Jeep to the foods, but Action Axel explains to him that he doesn't have to prove anything to them since everyone in the team all has their own fears. Immediately after the team reveals their fears to Bearbarian, Galileo arrives and said that he had lured the Monster Jeep to them. The Monster Jeep is about to attack the team, but it stops when it smells the cookie and doughnut nearby and it's about to eat them. However, Dynamo ruins the Power Players' plan by destroying the baits and wants the Jeep to surrender. Now no longer a threat to the Power Players since the Jeep is now angry at Dynamo for stealing the food, it allows the team to get onto it as it's ready to attack the villain.

But before the Monster Jeep can get to the shelf near Axel's bed where Dynamo is, the villain uses his magnetic power and levitates the Jeep away from him. Slobot arrives and attacks Dynamo with a wrench to make him let go of the Jeep, allowing Dynamo to get distracted and the Power Players get enough time to defeat him. While Bearbarian and Action Axel get onto the Jeep, the other toys created a clay ramp which causes the Monster Jeep to send flying towards Dynamo and captures him into its mouth. The Jeep spits Dynamo out of the window, which causes the powers in the house to go back on.

Later when the toys and Axel are cleaning up the mess they made while fighting against both Dynamo and the Monster Jeep, Bearbarian reveals to everyone that he's the one who has put Arakneo in Luka's toy box so he could scare the boy into leaving the house and Bearbarian could check out the upgraded Monster Jeep. Axel tells Bearbarian that since Luka loves teddy bears, he should let him play with Bearbarian as a way to say sorry to him, but Bearbarian goes against it. When Galileo asks how they would be able to clean up the room as fast as possible, Bearbarian grabs his World Breaker and smashes it to the floor, knocking every item up and the Monster Jeep helps clean up the mess rapidly.

## Characters

### Major Characters

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

### Minor Characters

* Luka
* Zoe
* Madcap (mentioned)
* Uncle Andrew (mentioned)

## Trivia

* This episode takes place entirely in Axel's room.
* When Zoe is asking Axel if he's too old to play with his toy robot, the math book she's holding is about Calculus 1 and the cover has the year "2018" on it. This indicates that the series takes place in around 2018 or later.
* When Sarge warns everyone to keep the upgraded Monster Jeep a secret from Madcap, Galileo can be seen texting on his cellphone about the Jeep before Dynamo shows up.
* Bearbarian's fear of the dark was first hinted in "All Trick No Treat".
* This episode reveals some of the characters' worst fears:
	+ Luka is afraid of spiders whether it's fake or not.
	+ Masko is afraid of heights. His fear was first hinted in "Access Denied" when the Power Players are accidentally teleported out of the house and are falling from the sky.
	+ Slobot doesn't like lasers, which is the reason why none of his inventions have any laser feature on them yet.
	+ Bobbie doesn't like pigeons and finds they weird her out.
	+ Axel doesn't like the barbershop.
	+ And Sarge is afraid of clowns and finds them creepy.
* Galileo is currently the only Power Player whose worst fear isn't known yet.
* This episode reveals that Luka likes teddy bears.

### Errors

* On the communication monitor, there's a glass of water and a plate with two cookies. But during the scene when Axel asks, "What now?" to Dynamo, the glass and the plate both disappear. It later disappears for the rest of the episode after Dynamo causes a power outage of the house.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/cartoon-network-scares-up-special-october-toons/

**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