Tournament - Hawkins A.V. Club (Stranger Things) vs. G'mork

[JohnnyChany]

 

 

 

“Your friends are here Dustin,”  Ms. Henderson called out.

Before young Dustin could open his bedroom door, his two friends, Mike Wheeler and Lucas Sinclair, busted through. Dustin’s Star Wars figures and remote control robot fell from their perched shelf.

“What’s up guys?” asked Dustin. “We literally just got back.”

“You tell us,” replied Mike. “You called last night and said you found something really awesome in New York and had to show us.”

“Oh yeah.” Dustin rummaged through his backpack and glanced back up at his friends. “Before I show you it, I have to tell you how I got it.”

Mike and Lucas listened intently.

“So my last night in New York I talked my mom into letting me go see that movie Lucas won’t shut up about,” said Dustin.

“Weird Science?” Lucas blurted with excitement.

“That’s the one. She didn’t want to go so I had to find a theatre close to the hotel. It took me a little while but then there it was, some old fashioned theatre in the middle of New York City.”

Lucas beamed with pride. “Wasn’t that movie amazing?”

Dustin shrugged. “It wasn’t terrible. It was way too derivative. Frankenstein for teenage boys, I think they could have done it better.”

“What?” Lucas replied in disbelief.

“I think Lucas just liked it so much because he has a crush on Kelly LeBrock,” Mike guessed.

Lucas turned his expression of bewilderment toward Mike. “And you don’t?”

“I mean she is pretty,” Mike stammered.

“Pretty?” Lucas repeated.

“That was another thing I didn’t like, they have what is essentially a genie and they do nothing cool with her,” said Dustin.

“You’re missing the point,” Lucas insisted. “Even if you take the magic out, these two teenage boys put their heads together and started to make something really cool. Just think of the possibilities of what we could create if we put our minds together. Easily something way better than that ham radio tower you are so proud of.”

Dustin got defensive. “Cerebro is a monument to scientific ingenuity.”

“For what purpose? You use it to sing “Neverending Story” with your girlfriend in Utah.”

Mike raised his arms and positioned himself between his two friends. “Guys! Guys! How did we even get into this argument. Dustin, what did you find in New York?”

“Right The theatre was almost empty, so after the movie I started chatting with the projectionist, some old guy named Nick. We talked about movies, and then we talked about incredible things we have seen in our lives…”

“Dustin, please tell me you didn’t tell him about us,” said Mike

 “Of course I did,” answered Dustin. “I told him about us, and El, and the Demogorgon, and the Mind Flayer…”

Mike’s eyes widened with disbelief. “What the hell, man! What if he tells the government, We could get in a lot of trouble,”

Dustin waved his hand dismissively. “Nick won’t tell the government. And, even if he did no one will believe some crazy old movie projectionist,”

 

 “Still seems like a weird conversation to have with somebody you just met,” commented Lucas.

“Well, I will have you know that Nick happened to love my stories. So much so that he gave me a present to show his gratitude.” Dustin lifted up his backpack He reached inside and procured a golden ticket with a magic eye symbol emblazoned in the middle.

Mike furrowed his brow. “He gave you a fancy movie ticket?”

“No. He gave me the ticket given to him as a boy by Harry Houdini,” Dustin corrected. “It’s a magic ticket. Nick says it has a mind of its own. Look..” Dustin wiggled the ticket, nothing extraordinary happened. He could feel the disappointment radiating from his friends. “Just a second.” Suddenly, golden sparkles and small flashes of electricity emanated from the ticket.

“Is it some kind of electronic ticket?” Lucas wondered.

Dustin flipped the ticket to reveal both sides. “Do you see a circuit board anywhere? I told you it’s a magic ticket.”

“What do you  do with a magic ticket?”

“Well you...I mean I can...well… I don’t know but it looks cool and it’s a magic ticket from freakin’ Harry Houdini and you guys should be more excited about it,” Dusin insisted.

“I guess,” said Lucas.

“Maybe you should destroy it,” Mike suggested.

“What!?! Why would I do that?” Dustin yelped.

“Do you remember the last cool thing you found that you were so excited to show us? It turned out to be a baby demogorgon,” said Mike.

Dustin stood with his mouth open for a moment. “How can you even compare those two things? This ticket didn’t come from Hawkins Lab. It came from a cool guy in New York who met Harry Houdini.”

“Regardless, it’s not as cool as you made it out to be,” said Lucas.

“Unbelievable. I thought you guys would be alot more enthusiastic about this.” Dustin turned his attention specifically to Lucas. “You were so amazed by some pseudo science magic from a movie. News flash Lucas you can’t find a way to get a super model to jump out of a computer screen, no more than I can get wizards and monsters to jump out of my tv screen. But, this, here, this is a legitimate magical artifact and you have no reaction.”

“To be fair we have all seen some crazy things the last few years.” Mike looked down at his watch. “Dustin, I gotta go, I need to go…”

“Call Eleven, of course,” Lucas sighed. “God forbid a few days go by without that.”

 

Later in the evening, lightning filled the night sky and it began to rain. Inside the Henderson household, Dustin sat on his couch, still simmering over his earlier interaction with Lucas and Mike. He looked over Houdini’s ticket. It sparkled in his hand, and he regarded it with a mix of adoration and confusion at Mike and Lucas’s lack of appreciation for the object. He placed it on the armrest of the couch and picked up his walkie talkie. He considered calling Mike to ask how Eleven was doing and if he had got a chance to talk to Will as well. Eleven had left with the Byers family to go house hunting during the last week of summer. Will’s mom was determined to move out of Hawkins. Dustin secretly hoped they would fail, and be forced to stay. He held the walkie to his mouth, but then he stopped himself. Dustin decided he did not want to talk to Mike anymore that day and instead wanted to think about someone who always made him feel happy and appreciated, his long distance girlfriend, Suzie. Dustin walked over to his VHS collection and picked out Suzie’s favorite movie, The Never Ending Story. Dustin popped the movie in the VCR and laid down on his couch to watch it. He did not make it far into the movie before the jet lag from his flight caught up with him. He fell asleep on the couch.The golden ticket by Dustin’s feet sparked more intensely than it had ever done before and a soft glow radiated from it. 

 

“DUSTIN!! DUSTIN!! DO YOU COPY? WE HAVE A CODE RED! REPEAT WE HAVE A CODE RED!!”

The shouts from his walkie talkie woke Dustin up from his slumber and he sprang to his feet to grab the walkie talkie.

“This is Dustin.”

“Dustin, I need you to meet Mike and me on Weathertop,” said Lucas.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it the upside down?”

“I don’t know.”

Dustin quickly ran out of his house and hopped on his bike. The rain had stopped, but the thunder and lightning were now louder and more continuous. Dustin pedaled as hard as he could to get to the highest point in Hawkins, Weathertop. As he biked through the town, Dustin was confused by what his eyes were seeing. It was Hawkins, but there was something different about it that he could not quite identify.

When Dustin arrived at the hilltop, Lucas and Mike were already there standing with their bikes. Dustin followed their gaze to a large beam of light shining down in the distance.

“When the storm started acting crazy, I went outside and saw that beam,” Lucas explained. “I couldn’t tell exactly where it was coming from so that's why we came up here so that we could see all of Hawkins.”

Mike’s face was a pale shade of white.

“Mike, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” said Dustin.

“Not a ghost, but I’m pretty sure I saw Falcor. Maybe even Rockbiter, but definitely Falcor flying in the sky while I was biking up here,” stated Mike.

“Falcor? The luck dragon from Neverending Story? Are you sure?” asked Lucas. “You didn’t say anything when we got here.”

“I’m still processing,” Mike admitted.

“So you’re saying the creatures from the movie, the Never Ending Story, are invading from the upside down?”

“I was just watching that movie before I fell asleep.” said Dustin.

 “So they didn’t come from the upside down? Did they come from your tv? Did the storm bring them to life?”  Lucas theorized. “Is Weird Science actually a real thing? Dustin, do you have any action figures of Falcor that could have been hit by lightning?”

Realization washed over Dustin’s face. “The ticket?”

“That golden ticket?” asked Mike.

“When Nick was given that ticket by Houdini, Houdini told him it was a passport to another world. My stories about the gate are what originally reminded Nick of it,” said Dustin.

“You’re just telling us this now?” screamed Mike.

“I didn’t want to freak you guys out, or have you assume it was dangerous,” said Dustin.

“Dustin! Look around, that thing is dangerous!”

“Man! This is bad. If Falcor is here from Fantasia do you think other characters are too?” Lucas wondered. “Like Bastian or the Nothing or….” Lucas stared up into the sky as lightning danced across it like a ballet stage. His eyes then returned to the ray of light in the distance. “That must be the home of…”

“The child-like empress,” Dustin interjected. He built up his resolve. “Guys, we can do this. We know the story. All we have to do is get there and give her a name.”

“The only place we should go to is back to your house to get that ticket,” said Mike.

“We can’t go back there. If my mom discovers that I warped reality I’ll be grounded forever. I’m telling you we can do this. We have figured out more difficult campaigns before,” Dustin insisted.

“Have you forgotten. We are missing two of our party members,” replied Mike. “Who knows what will be out there.”

“I vote we go back to Dustin’s house,” said Lucas.

“Majority rules. Let’s get going,” announced Mike.

Dustin relented and the three boys jumped back on their bikes and headed back home. On their way through the forested area on the outskirts of town, Dustin suddenly stopped.

“Do you guys hear that?” he asked.

A voice rumbled through the trees. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?”

 “Someone needs help.”

The boys wandered through the forest. Lucas was the first one to see the origin of the voice, He froze with fear. In the distance, green eyes and large white teeth pierced through the darkness. A low growl discharged from a mountain of black fur. It was the large wolf, it was G’Mork.

“Come closer, boys. Come closer,” G’Mork beckoned.

Mike, Lucas, and Dustin did not move.

“I am weakened by my neverending hunt.” G’mork breathed heavily and then raised his voice. “Come closer so that I may devour you and regain my strength to track down the one who can stop the Nothing.”

“Is Atreyu here too?” Dustin wondered.

G’mork’s eyes widened. “How do you know that name?”

“Run! Run! Run!” Mike shouted.

The boys ran back to their bikes. G’Mork slowly rose to his feet. His failure to capture Atreyu in Fantasia had led him to starvation. Starvation he was willing to give into. Until now. These strange boys had given him new purpose. They knew who Atreyu was. The hunt was on.

 

VISUAL TIMELINE/REFERENCES:

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Hawkins A.V. Club (Stranger Things)
Read more about Hawkins A.V. Club (Stranger Things) at Wikipedia
Official Site: Netflix Links: Wikipedia

G'mork
Read more about G'mork at Wikipedia
Official Site: Warner Brothers Links: Wikipedia Villain of the Day suite101.com

[Fox]

Another fabulous match in the Sci-Fi vs. Fantasy tournament. 

The dialogue is crisp and and provides a wealth of descriptive detail without resorting to text blocks of exposition.  It probably helps that I'm very familiar with all the characters involved.  Also, nice shout-out to 'The Last Action Hero'.

I have to go with the Hawkins AV Club on this.  However, I expect the adventure to have some close calls before it's through. In the end, they will manage to save the Child-Like Empress and the Universe from The Nothing.

A creative and well written set-up for these characters from different genres.   Thanks!

[SSJRuss]

I pretty much agree with what Fox said, great match and really well written. I haven't seen much of Stranger Things, but the characters feel spot on. I like how you incorporate Neverending Story, one of my favorite fantasy movies of all time, into the match. I almost used G'mork myself if not for him getting killed in his movie so easily.

I'm not sure what these kids can do against G'mork, so unless someone has a few points to make I'm giving the win to him.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Member : 5 Stars
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Match Judge : 4 Stars x 2

FPA Calculation:
7 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 9 Total Votes
( (7 * 5) + (2 * 4) + (0 * 3) + (0 * 2) + (0 * 1) ) = 43 Total Stars Score
43 / 9 = 4.78 Total Rating

MATCH SCORE
Hawkins A.V. Club (Stranger Things): 1
G'mork: 4