JLAvengers League: Tommy vs. Schornforce

[Sean Whitmore]

Welcome to the semi-finals of the 2007 JLAvengers League! The League is a large-scale series of battles—a tournament—where posters draft teams and pit their teams against that of other posters, and you vote to decide who wins. When voting, please consider the strategies the players have written, rather than just the team's roster.

Each match takes place in a different locale from the Marvel or DC Universe. The teams begin 100 yards away from each other. Each character is depicted as they were in the JLA/Avengers mini series (with few exceptions), and the characters have to act in character (meaning that the heroes cannot kill if they aren't normally wont to do so)

If you have any questions about the strategies, please feel free to post these questions here, and the players will answer. The match will last twenty-four hours. After that time period, the player with the largest number of votes wins.

NOTE - For your vote to count, you must have a post count of no lower than fifty.

Tommy: Zatanna, Sersi, Darkseid, Spawn, Kang, Plastic Man, Mantis

Schornforce: Martian Manhunter, Dr. Doom, Impulse, Agent Smith, Circe, Absorbing Man, Songbird

[Sean Whitmore]

Tommy's strategy:

Golly I am facing a tough team.

My entire team will start off with Kang levitating them far off the ground, and inside his force field. This will be backed up by Sersi who can also levitate my entire team and has a force field. He will start pulling in his past and future selves in the tens, hundreds, thousands, basically as many as needed. All those Kangs will stat bombarding the arena with their vast array of weapons. Then he will instruct his mini-growing men to deliver growth pollen to each member of my team turning them into super strong, super durable giants.

Darkseid’s opening move will be to use the Omega Effect to teleport Martian Manhunter inside one of the building’s foundations. This should have the effect of merging all his atoms with the atoms composing the building unless he happens to be phased at the time. Something which would effectively separate him down to his component atoms. Should this plan fail Darkseid will start Omega Effecting specific parts of MM’s body (Eyes, hands, ect…) while when ever MM gets close to my team using the teleport function to send him back to the opposite side of battle. Eventually nothing will be left of him. Also Darkseid will block MM’s telepathy.

Zatanna will say “Peek gnikool ereht!” (indicating a point on the horizon) which will force the opposing team to all fight with their heads turned in an awkward position.

Now Plastic Man could already turn into a giant so the growth pollen would make him capable of massive growth. He will leap down from a hole in Kang’s force field and expand, expand, expand until he covers the entire battle field. (He could cover a significant portion with out the growth pollen too). His goal is not to crush the opposing team, in fact the opposing team has several ways of getting through him, his goal is that now the battle is literally taking place on my turf. This means that Schornforce’s team is constantly having to fend off attacks from random boxing gloves and other maniacal constructions. This will also make it extremely difficult for Bart Allen to run as Plastic Man will start making all sorts of thin barriers out of him self at foot level.

One of the Kangs will pop in behind Cerci and send her an hour into the future.

Sersi will deal with Dr. Doom by turning him into a house cat. She will also constantly turn the Absorbing Man back into a normal guy no matter what he absorbs.

Giant Mantis will hop down through a hole and will kick Agent Smith into the nearest building which should knock him out. Now Mantis is extremely fast herself, and she also has the ability to regenerate from injuries quickly coupled with her now giant powers she will start attacking Songbird’s constructs. Specifically any force fields that she is protecting herself with. She will be joined in this by giant (flying) Spawn. Between the two of them they should be able to overcome her force fields.

With the battle field clear except for Impulse and possibly the Absorbing Man (if he picked up Impulse’s speed), Sersi will levitate Mantis up into the air, and the Kangs will cover the entire arena in a massive anti-matter screen. They will pull it tighter and tighter until all the knocked out/speedster opponents are now in a tiny little prison bubble.

[Sean Whitmore]

Schornforce's strategy:

Phase 1: This happens simultaneously as soon as we appear.

J’onn puts a telepathic suggestion in Zatanna’s head. If she tries a spell, she is compelled to say, “Annataz eb tnelis lla elttab!”
J’onn now turns invisible and phases into the ground as he picks a hangar far away from the opposition (while still in the allowable battlefield). He telepathically transmits the locale to my team. He then shields my team from telepathic attacks/mind-reading as he speeds toward the hangar.

Absorbing Man absorbs Impulse’s speed force energy. He’s now superfast and may possibly affect other’s speeds. He zips away out of sight, but looks for Darkseid’s omega beams/effect. If Darkseid fired it, Absorbing Man moves at superspeed to intercept and absorb the beams’ power.

Circe and Doom teleport everyone (except Absorbing Man) to the hangar. If both of them performing a teleportation spell for five people is considered a ‘major spell,’ then Circe grabs Songbird and teleports them (two people shouldn’t be major) to the chosen location. Doom grabs Absorbing Man and teleports via his tech. Bart moves quicker than the eye to the location.

Phase 2:

If no Omega beams/effect have been released, Absorby speeds around trying to draw fire. His main goal is to distract and hamper the opponents as much as possible. However, if Absorby got Omega beamed, then he goes to work. He fires Omega Beams towards Sersi, then Spawn, Mantis, etc. He’d basically try and take out as many of our opponents’ heavy hitters as possible, except Darkseid, of course.

Bart sends his scouts to aid Absorby (if needed). They’re only to observe and annoy the other team-- not to fight. If they’re in any danger, they timehop to safety to the beginning of the match away from where the teams appear and timehop back to a different place at the same time they timehopped away to pick up where they left off.

Inside the hangar, Doom starts work on whatever aircraft is/are inside. Songbird creates constructs of anything Doom needs. Agent Smith helps out wherever needed. Circe magickally raises a powerful forcefield around the hangar. Bart monitors his scouts who occasionally timehop in to report back with information. J’onn is still defending the team from telepathic attacks/probing. If any telepathic threats are neutralized by Absorbing Man, then J’onn scans the minds of any remaining opposition to help determine weaknesses.

Phase 3:

Once the Doomplane(s) are completed, they're sent out (Circe can control what goes in and out of the field easily). Songbird creates constructs of more Doomplanes, if she can. Martian Manhunter shapeshifts into a Doomplane as well, but stays in the hangar to continue telepathic defense, probing, and/or attacks as needed. Doom and Smith teleport near the opposition, but out of sight. Smith keeps lookout while Doom controls the Doomplane(s). Songbird commands her construct Doomplane(s) to follow Doom’s controls as well. The planes attack with advanced Doom-created weaponry. Absorbing Man is to attack the opposing team as well (if he’s speed force energy, he tries to steal their speed and/or hurl things at superspeed towards them).

The Impulse Scouts now stay around the battlefield but out of range of the battle and take turns reporting back to the hangar with any information on the battle progress.

Circe now works on transformations (particularly if Sersi was taken out). She transforms any enemies she can into harmless goldfish. Darkseid, Spawn, and Plastic Man may be immune, so the Doomplane(s) and Absorby would target them as much as possible. Once the time is right, Doom leaves his planes on auto attack and joins the battle directly. Smith distracts Darkseid while Doom begins to infuse his armor with mystical absorbing energies. His goal is to absorb Darkseid’s power (or part of it).

Phase 4:

If we’ve been successful so far, Circe now works to transform any creatures (except for anyone on either team) that may be on the airfield into large, dangerous creatures under her control. She sets them after our adversaries. J’onn is doing his best to telepathically hinder anyone remaining on our opposing team. Songbird creates more constructs as needed. If all’s gone well, with our superior numbers and absorbed Omega beams/effect (Absorby) and possible siphoned New God power (Doom), we should after a long, brutal battle, finally defeat our EXCEEDINGLY tough opposition.

Contingencies:

If Impulse ever goes into shock, Circe transforms him into a werebeast under her control. She then forces him to join in the thick of battle.

If Doom fails in his attempt to siphon Darkseid’s power, J’onn flies into battle. He's taken on Darkseid one-on-one before and looks like a jet, so he has an element of surprise. Circe magically tries to weaken Darkseid. Songbird sends her constructs after Spawn and Impulse zips away to deal with Plas.

[Mike Smash!]

I'll post questions as they occur to me. Can Kang just pull random versions of himself out of time and just order them around? What if they're busy? What if they're in the midde of something important, like fighting the Avengers? What if they don't want to be ordered around by their older/younger self? All I know is that I'd be annoyed if suddenly I got yanked into a fight by another self who just started bossing me around/

Has he ever done anything like this before?

Could the Martian Manhunter simply phase if he was teleported into a solid object and as a shapeshifter who is naturally sort of a pile of goo shaped like a person, wouldn't he be able to regorw anything Darkseid pulls off of him?

I'm not sure I understand what is happening here:

Then he will instruct his mini-growing men to deliver growth pollen to each member of my team turning them into super strong, super durable giants.

[Tommy]

I'll post questions as they occur to me. Can Kang just pull random versions of himself out of time and just order them around? What if they're busy? What if they're in the midde of something important, like fighting the Avengers? What if they don't want to be ordered around by their older/younger self? All I know is that I'd be annoyed if suddenly I got yanked into a fight by another self who just started bossing me around/

Has he ever done anything like this before?

That has happened in the case of Iron Lad. But for the most part whenever Kang has pulled older or younger versions of himself out of the time stream they all work together since they are all Kang. The reason Iron Lad rebelled was because he was far too young and lacked the life experiences to appreciate Kang’s perspective.

If Kang sticks to pulling versions of himself close to his present, then they will all work together since they all want to win, and they will respond to his summons since if they would ever need to pull the same trick, then they would need the others to come.

Could the Martian Manhunter simply phase if he was teleported into a solid object and as a shapeshifter who is naturally sort of a pile of goo shaped like a person, wouldn't he be able to regorw anything Darkseid pulls off of him?

DC physics don’t follow the regular universe physics at all. However, being a solid teleported into another solid should still be devastating. It is the same amount of mass, but in an area half as small. I’m not sure, but I don’t think he could phase starting from a jumbled state where all of his atoms are solidly mixed in with another object’s atoms. I’m not sure he could survive the initial shock of it.

However I do know that it has in the past taken time for him to regenerate significant portions of his body and he has had to consume large amounts of mass to do it. So should he survive the initial teleportation, Darkseid jst has to whittle him away faster than he can regenerate.

I'm not sure I understand what is happening here:

In order to create the Growing Men Kang conquered the dimension of Kosmos. It is the same place that Pym Particles come from. His growth pollen (which he used to make the Growing Men grow) is basically Pym Particles that he can use to make things into giants.

What he is doing is have the Mini-Growing Men (which he made when he was a teenager) take his growth pollen to all of his teammates. This will increase their size to about Giant-Man’s height with the accompanying strength and durability.

[Joe Acro]

Wow. I don't like either opening move.

On the one hand, there's Kang summoning other versions of himself and Darkseid pinpointing his Omega Effect. The former seems somewhat shady to me regarding the rules and the latter just doesn't seem probable.

On the other hand, there's Martian Manhunter instantly implanting a suggestion that would likely take at least a few minutes and Absorbing Man absorbing the Speed Force, which I wouldn't count as an energy for him to absorb.

I have no clue which way to vote.

[Mike Smash!]

On the other hand, there's Martian Manhunter instantly implanting a suggestion that would likely take at least a few minutes and Absorbing Man absorbing the Speed Force, which I wouldn't count as an energy for him to absorb.

Would it really take a couple minutes? All he'd have to do is to zap her brain in such a way that when he think she's saying one thing, he's saying another. Given J'Onn's power and skill, I don't think it's that big of a feat.

Now Absorbing Man taking the Omega Effect on the chest and absorbing it instead of being vaporized. That's a feat.

[Froggy]

Wow. I don't like either opening move.

On the one hand, there's Kang summoning other versions of himself and Darkseid pinpointing his Omega Effect. The former seems somewhat shady to me regarding the rules and the latter just doesn't seem probable.

On the other hand, there's Martian Manhunter instantly implanting a suggestion that would likely take at least a few minutes and Absorbing Man absorbing the Speed Force, which I wouldn't count as an energy for him to absorb.
I have no clue which way to vote.

that was a bit odd, good try but a bit of a reach

[Schornforce]

Great strat, Tommy. I was sweating bullets trying to think of a way to combat your way tough team.

To answer concerns/questions:

J'onn isn't doing anything overly difficult in the opening move. It's basically the equivalent of a strong hypnotic suggestion. Given J'onn's power and skill, it shouldn't take long at all. It's not violating Zatanna or messing with her memory-- just a strong, implanted suggestion. I don't see why it would possibly take long. Zatanna's not the strongest willed individual on Tommy's team.

As for Absorby, I know it's a bit of a stretch, but he can absorb energy. He's done so in the past. It's a toss up as speed force (which registers in little lightning arcs off Bart's body) and omega beams/effect don't exist in the Marvel Universe. I say it's worth a shot. It's totally up to the voters whether or not it'd work, as again, it can't be proven or disproven-- other than the fact Creel has absorbed and become energies in the past.

Also, a question of Kang's timehopping-- we're only allowed to timehop within the allowed area, right? Kang can't go anywhere else to pull himself from the timestream, right? Is his growth powder part of his usual arsenal? I admit, I'm not all that familiar with Kang.

[Joe Acro]

I'm voting for Schornforce simply because I feel that Tommy may be bending the rules a bit with his use of Kang. Multiple Kangs coming from out of battle? Teleporting Circe an hour into the future to neutralize her temporarily?

It seems shady.