Thursday, July 15, 2010

TEAM Vs. Beckerman's Backyardigan's: Beeyatches

TEAM is Unicron, The Presence, The Beyonder, Voltron, God Emperor Leto II, Superman, Superboy, Thor, Thunderstrike, Ultra Man, Fortress Maximus, Mike Sroka (w a blue lightsaber & mandalorian armor) in an AT-RT, Laura Sroka (w/ a blue lightsaber & a mithril vest) in an AT-RT, Space Ghost, Jan, Jace, Blip, Seraph, Luke Skywalker & R2-D2 in an A-Wing, Jango Fett & (young) Boba Fett in Slave 1, Lando Calrissean, Nien Numb, & C-3PO in The Millennium Falcon, & Zombie Jet Li.

Beckerman's Backyardigan's: Beeyatches are Ego The Living Planet, Mogo, The One Above All, The Living Tribunal, Ranx the Sentient City, Darth Vader in a Z-95 Headhunter, Yendar Platis in a Z-95 Headhunter, Doomsday, Dark Phoenix, Magog (w/ a green lantern ring), Orion, Red Hulk, Fafnir, & Boba Fett in a Z-95 Headhunter.


Alright, I know that this is The AL Finals and that many of you are probably getting sick of me starting matches this way, but once The One Above All comes in to contact with The Presence and The Living Tribunal crosses paths with The Beyonder, the entire Universe comes to a screeching halt and everything as we know it is destroyed at the speed of light. Now this all powerful show of powerfullness would be pretty amazing to most people, but to this all-powerful Watcher it amounted to not much more than a show of fireworks (did I mention that I hate fireworks). No worries though everybody, I know that you people at home wanted a match and I your friendly neighborhood Watcher will provide one for your reading pleasure (we can’t all be above fireworks). The match will of course not include the likes of The Presence, The Beyonder, The One Above All, & The Living Tribunal who could not be revived so arbitrarily. The other thing that could not be put together so quickly (I mean the match is already late) is The Play-Off Planet. What was once The FFL’s perfect little planet for all things play-off is nothing more than a charred rock free-floating in space (don’t worry The Play-Off Planet will be perfectly reformed for next week’s Universe Bowl). Most of the competitors on both of these teams are more than comfortable in the vacuum of space, but those that are not have been placed upon the newly formed Fortress Ranx. Fortress Ranx is what happened when Fortress Maximus and Ranx the Sentient City where thrust together and made stuck by the enormous explosion caused by the deaths of the unkillable characters that began this match. This inadvertently supplied the 2 teams with a base of operations to attack from. Mike, Laura, Seraph, & Zombie Jet Li are all positioned on The Fortress Maximus side of the metal monstrosity, while Red Hulk, Doomsday (not that Doomsday can‘t survive in space), and Fafnir are on The Ranx side. The only non-space worthy character not on this floating amalgam is The God Emperor Leto II, who is somehow by himself on the biological surface of his enemy Ego. While The God Emperor rips up the landscape, and does what he can to single-handedly “change the face” of Ego, Space Ghost and his trio of tools fly over to Ego to see if they can possibly lend a hand to their Kwisatz Haderach teammate. Once they get close, Ego strengthens his gravitational pull and begins to suck the foursome into his atmosphere. Jan, Jace, & Blip are killed quickly by this action, but Space Ghost is able to fight thru the pull. His suit provides enough protection for him to make it onto the planet’s surface where he rendezvous’ with The God Emperor. The God Emperor issues his decree privately to Space Ghost and Space Ghost follows his orders without question. Space Ghost begins wreaking as much havoc as possible in order to draw attention away from The God Emperor while Leto finds an area that is primarily sand and burrows into it. Leto II has no illusions that even he can create enough physical damage to single-handedly destroy an entire living planet, but Leto sees the mental path to victory. he burrows into an area of protection deep within the rock and dirt of the planet and then establishes a mental link between himself and Ego. Once Leto has control of he mind of his opponent he fuses Ego’s thoughts with his own and sends them both into a trance that neither of them will awaken from. This instantly put the planet into a dormant state that in essence kills them both along with everything on the planet. Ranx uses his yellow lantern ring to melt Fortress Maximus off of him, but Mike & Laura in their AT-RTs, Seraph, & Zombie Jet Li are able to escape onto Ranx before Fortress Maximus is destroyed completely. Thor briefly lands on the surface of Ranx to put Mojinir thru the face of his old Asgardian rival Fafnir, but then returns to his TEAMmates in the space battle. Thunderstrike tries to imitate his Thor brethren by attacking Orion with his hammer by his same name, but he is not so successful. Orion grabs the arm of Thunderstrike before Thunderstrike can deliver the blow and then cracks his neck with his own god-like strength. Doomsday & Rulk leap off of the surface of Ranx into the vacuum of space to do battle with Superboy and Ultra Man, while Magog flies in fast toward Superman. Magog believes that with the added power of his green lantern ring he will finally have what it takes to defeat Superman in one on one combat but he finds that his skills still come up short as Superman mows thru the green energy being projected by Magog’s ring and uses his Heat Vision to melt the anti-hero into goo. Superboy may have the same powers as Superman, but TEAM finds out fast that you cannot send a Superboy to do a Superman’s job as Doomsday makes short work of the underdeveloped Kal El with a neck-breaking fist to the jaw of Superboy. Ultra Man comes up short as well against Rulk as the Red Hulk fights thru the ranged attacks of Ultra Man and then overpowers him with a series of back-breaking, yet well-placed punches. Yendar Platis is unable to shake The Millennium Falcon in his Z-95 Headhunter and gets blasted apart. He is able to pod-eject from the ship and land on his teammate Ranx. Luke and his father Vader become locked in an intense dog-fight that is amazingly exciting to watch as they battle each other in ships that both make up for their lack of power with speed. (old)Boba Fett instantly recognizes his ship Slave 1 and takes advantage of how well he knows the vessel. He has no idea at first that it is his own father piloting the ship but after a couple of minutes of engaging Jango, he begins to recognize the flying style of the man that showed him the ropes. Boba Fett knows that Jango’s skills were more than just noteworthy, but he also knows that his own skills have surpassed anything his father could once do. Boba Fett takes advantage of how well he knows Slave 1 and begins to target the ship in its one weak spot (even I couldn’t figure out what it was, but Boba Fett sure knew). Slave 1 is blow apart, despite Boba Fett not having nearly as durable or powerful of a ship to do it with. The Young Boba Fett is killed in the explosion, but Jango manages to fly away from the wreckage with his jet pack and land safely on Ranx. Unicron transforms into his robot form and begins to move toward Mogo. The battle that has had FFL nerds talking since before this year’s draft began begins with a vengeance as Unicron breaks thru the green aura of Mogo and begins furiously pounding on the planet with his immense fists. Mogo begins taking damage like he has never experienced before in his existence but he then focuses his power on Unicron and decides to fight this battle on a more molecular level. Unicron continues to pound on the green lantern planet with all of his might but the enormous Transformer soon realizes that with every thrust of his fists his metal body is deteriorating all the more rapidly. The power of the industrial sized green lantern ring has caused metal that has withstood the most intense elements for countless millennia to all of the sudden rust and melt away to mere particles until there is nothing left of Unicron. Voltron forms together and draws it’s sword to ready for battle, but all 5 parts of The Far Universes Voltron are unable to compete with the power of the cosmic phoenix force that Dark Phoenix unleashes on the cosmic gestalt. In the blink of an eye, the power of The Phoenix Force completely consumes and destroys Voltron. Boba Fett flies up to dog-fight with The Millennium Falcon next but is not able to take it out so easily. The 2 ships race around space in a pitched battle. Boba actually gets in behind the Falcon and begins to lock on but then realizes that he has been caught in a trap as Luke swings by in a pre-planned move by him and Lando and blows Boba’s Z-95 apart. Luke then uses The Falcon as cover to swing back into his own dog-fight and take out Vader’s Z-95 as well. Both Vader and Fett are able to eject back to Ranx, but this marks the end of The Backyardigan star fleet. Seraph leads Jango Fett, Mike & Laura against The Ranx-bound ejectees, and Zombie Jet Li follows behind in all of his grossness. Mike and Laura valiantly attack in all of their armored-lightsabered-AT-RTedness while Boba Fett and Jango Fett reluctantly square off. Zombie Jet Li attempts to join the fight (or have dinner) but the only damage he inflicts is a pair of sore fists for Orion and Red Hulk when they both decide to punch thru his head. Jango and Boba’s fighting styles are so similar that neither of them ever gain a true upper hand in their fight. The 2 of them are so torn apart by what they are doing that Jango doesn’t even bother with a comment about his young son dying in the Slave 1 explosion. Boba seems to gain the upper hand, probably due to the fact that he knows everything that Jango knows plus what he learned after his father’s untimely death, which is probably why Boba is able to finish off his father with a perfectly placed blaster bolt to the neck. Darth Vader becomes locked in a melee battle with Seraph while Yendar Platis manages to force push both of The AT-RTs over. Mike and Laura both hit the emergency release on the vehicles and jump into action. Master Platis rushes the Srokas and takes out Laura, he then cuts off Mike’s lightsaber-wielding hand and knocks him to the ground, but Mike is able to put poison dart from the left arm of his Mandalorian armor into the throat of Yendar Platis just before Vader puts his crimson lightsaber thru Mike’s helmet. Vader then returns to his battle with Seraph where he is able to put just enough of a force choke on Seraph to distract him while he kills The Oracle’s protector with a lightsaber head shot. All the remaining Backyardigans, except for Mogo of course regroup back on Ranx while Superman, Thor, land along with the occupants of The A-Wing and The Millennium Falcon land on the very edge of Ranx in order to put together a plan of attack. TEAM knows that they don’t have much time to discuss a plan of action now that they are on enemy territory, but they quickly decide that they are going to have to first take out Mogo and then take out Ranx and it’s inhabitants. They come to the conclusion that if they are going to defeat this team than they will need as much power as they can fighting the threat on Ranx and will have to send just one of them off to fight Mogo. Superman looks at his TEAMmates and says: “I think we all know who this is a job for”. With that being said, Superman rockets off on his own to go and attempt the job that there is maybe only one person in all of Fantasy Fantasy who could possibly do it on his own. Thor and Luke realize that they cannot worry about whether or not Superman has what it takes to take out Mogo, because they have their own battle to fight. Boba Fett disappears down into the depths of the floating yellow lantern city in what even his teammates view as an act of cowardice, but Boba Fett doesn’t do anything without having a plan in mind and it is known by me that he had a secret meeting with Head Coach Hannibal of Crete before the match where he was given special orders for him alone. Superman flies at an incalculable speed toward Mogo who uses his planetary green lantern powers to blast him back. Mogo does this 3 more times, but Superman continually keeps on coming. The fifth time around Superman refuses to be even slowed by the intense power being projected at him as The Man of Steel rockets thru the attacks, defenses, & auras of Mogo and rockets right thru the middle of the planet coming out the other side. Superman repeats this amazing feat three more times before Mogo’s life force is extinguished. Superman then races back to Ranx to aid his TEAMmates who are already locked in battle with what remains of The Backyardigans. Lando and Nien Numb get behind some metal crates and lay down a suppressing blaster fire as cover for their TEAMmates while C-3PO act annoying behind them. R2-D2 is as brave as ever, but it does not stop him from being turned into sheet metal by Rulk’s oversized foot. Thor manages to avenge Thunderstrike by putting Mojinir into the chest of Orion, and then gets the upper hand over Red Hulk by hitting him in the knee with Mojinir to throw him off guard and then get him in a choke hold that ends with the breaking of Rulk’s neck. Thor moves against Doomsday next, who catches the god of thunder under the chin with an upper cut that knocks his head clean off. Luke is doing what he can with his force powers to contain the Phoenix Force powers of Dark Phoenix, but he is about to lose his hold when his TEAMmate Superman arrives to save the day. In one fluent motion Superman grabs a hold of his old rival Doomsday and launches him into Dark Phoenix. The 2 Backyardigans hit each other with such force that they are both sent miles off of The Sentient City and are caught in a fatal explosion caused by the mixing of their own intense life-forces. Superman is feeling hopeful having killed 2 such powerful opponents so quickly, but Vader takes advantage of the situation and puts a force choke on Superman. Superman fights thru this but Vader struggles with every bit of the force he can muster. It is uncertain if there has ever lived a Jedi or Sith who had enough force power to choke The Man of Steel to death, even after he is exhausted from such intense ordeals, but Vader manages to make it happen as he refuses to release his force grip on The Last Son of Krypton until Superman’s neck is completely collapsed. “NOOOOOOO”!! Luke screams as he sees his most powerful and well-respected TEAMmate killed. Luke ignites his lightsaber and attacks his father wit a vengeance typically reserved only for Sith Lords. Luke swings his lightsaber frantically until his weakened father can no longer parry the attacks with his own lightsaber. Luke manages to take off the head of Vader, but as he does this, Ranx begins going into turmoil and activating any form of defense it has. Lando looks at Luke and yells: “Skywalker! We’ve got to get out of here. Our only chance is to blow this rock up from The Falcon”. Lando, Luke, Nien Numb, & 3-PO rush back toward the other side of Ranx and hop into The Falcon. Luke notices that his A-Wing is completely gone which he finds strange, even though he did not have plans to jump in it right now with R2 gone. Luke takes Han’s typical seat while Lando takes Chewie’s co-pilot chair and Nien Numb and C-3PO sit in the 2 chairs behind them. Luke and Lando decide that they are going to have to fly into the center of Ranx and blow it up from the middle, just like they did with the last 2 Death Stars. Ranx attacks with a plethora of yellow energy attacks as well as conventional weapons systems but Luke is able to evade every blast. Nien Numb and Lando map out a possible breaking point in Ranx’s defenses and fly in to try and begin their attack run, but as they get close Ranx suddenly blows to pieces with such an intense blast that The Millennium Falcon is completely destroyed along with the Sentient City. Boba Fett, who is now parsecs away in Luke’s stolen A-Wing enacted the contingency plan laid out by Coach Hannibal and it worked. Win at all cost was their motto, even if it meant sacrificing some of our most powerful characters. Boba Fett takes a sigh of relief as he heads back home as the only survivor of this AL Championship: Time to prepare for The Universe Bowl.
BECKERMAN’S BACKYARDIGAN’S: BEEYATCHES ARE VICTORIOUS AND ARE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

2 comments:

Solobeck said...

Ed- Finally-after three long years. . . Cap off to you!

Josh- Awesomely written match! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!

My assistant roster coach- you know who you are- Shout out for your scholarly advice!

Nick-Look forward to meeting your team in the not too distant future; not my doppleganger though.

Josh the Commish said...

Hermione Granger was given the magic lamp.