TWO VERSUS TWO MINI-TOURNAMENT Match 3

[Joe Prevost]

Real Version

ESTRECCA'S CHALLENGE #1.

TWO VERSUS TWO MINI-TOURNAMENT

Premise: Sponsor, the mysterious entity who summoned the members of YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME from their respective universes, has now managed to bring from a possible future another group of pawns sworn to his service, THE HEAVY METAL PEOPLE.

Sponsor, believing that the combined power of his champions -present and future- is enough to defeat any other group in the League, has openly challenged his peers to prove him wrong. A few have already stated a willingness to put the young upstart in his place with their own teams.

Challenged: Whoever wants to fight my present team in combination with the 'future' team I've designed. I'm willing to fight up to four matches/eight teams as part of this challenge.

The Heavy Metal People: This is the 'future' team that will be partnering with my current guys for these challenge fights.

Megatron (Transformers) 7 + Tactigon (6).
R. Daneel Olivaw (Foundation) 8 + Cosmic Cube (10), Sage's Cybershades (4), Thinking Cap (4), Ghost's Battlesuit (4) & Accelerator Unit (8).
R2-D2 (Star Wars) 1 + Megas XL (8) & Borg Nanoprobes (3).
Super 17 (DBZ) 9 + Cosmic Converter Belt (5) & Adamantium Cuirass (4).
Ultron (Marvel) 8 + Motherbox (10), Globe Of Ultimate Knowledge (7) & Nanogenes (7).
Vision (Marvel) 7 + Zodiac Key (5) & Lucy Liu-Bot Girlfriend (4) w/ Moguera (8).

Battlefield: The DCverse world of Biot, homeworld of the Manhunters. NPCs include the Cyborg Superman, about a zillion Manhunters and several Green Lanterns who have been declared MIA and that are used as batteries by the locals.

When? The different matches would happen during the final week of the current Knockout Tournament.

Victory Conditions: For the challenged parties, all works as normal. In my case, I get 0.5 credits per match won. In other words, if I win only one of the matches, I get 0 credits; if I win two or three, I get 1 credit; and I have to win all four, to get my 2 extra credits.

Minor notes about the tournament challenge matches:

*At least some people know, but I'll be using Ultron as leader of the Phalanx in the more recent form shown during the Annihilation: Conquest event. Meaning that his base form is larger than normal, but lacks the adamantium armour present in most of his previous incarnations.

*The items of my robotic team have been integrated in the characters whenever possible.

*Finally, to avoid overlap with the Knockout Final, we'll be having the challenge matches AFTER the KO final match. Match 1 on Thursday, Match 2 on Friday and so on. Hope this is relatively convenient for everyone.

Okay.

CHALLENGE SCHEDULE

MATCH 1 - Thursday

Captain Morgan, The Arbiter & Holacik + druiler001 & skullboy001

MATCH 2 - Friday

Darth Drizzle + Randy Mandy

MATCH 3 - Saturday

WyldCard4 + The MunchKING

MATCH 4 - Sunday

KJS1982 & fudgekp + Tusk

If the days are inconvenient for you, try to persuade other teams to exchange match days for you before Wednesday.

And that's that. Good luck, everyone.

[Joe Prevost]

No time for fancy strat writing.

Daneel shuts down his audio, puts Manchester Black's telepathy in Ignore and wills two things to happen through the Cosmic Cube:

1) He puts the Masks (both Manchester Black and the one in MunchKING's team) in Obelix and Aragorn's faces. Hilarity will ensue.

2) He wishes to become one with the universe, like Thanos. First thing he does, his power source is relocated to the safest random point he can locate with his new cosmic awareness within ten light years of Biot. If he manages to get to this point, he will do the same thing I described in the match against Holacik and the 001s.

Super 17 protects Daneel from anything that comes his way, be it physical attackers, energy blasts or folks who teleport in.

Ultron orders the Motherbox to counter the enemy Motherbox (by jamming/blocking its boomtubes with other boomtubes and such) and, if feasible, to follow the usual commands; releases the nanovirus cloud to handle attacking Manhunters; and blasts the now Mask-less Manchester Black (detecting him with his Motherbox enhanced sensors) with maximum firepower. He also will counter Henshaw's cyber-hacking with his own and take over mechanic or biological allies who are compromised by Henshaw or Smith. If the opportunity arises, he'll take over Jenny Wakeman.

Megatron cuts loose against the toons, using both his own weapons and the Tactigon in max firepower/disintegrator beam mode. He starts with Batduck. R2-D2 with Megas and MOGUERA do the same thing. Megas begins with a thunderclap and continues with every weapon it has. Primary Megas target is Yosemite Sam. Primary MOGUERA target is Jenny Wakeman.

The Vision teleports in front of Daneel to stop possible intangible attacks against Olivaw, then teleports behind Arion, still intangible, and tries to kill him using all the tools at his disposal, starting with the rematerialization of limbs inside Arion's skull and going up from there.

Miss Martian protects the fleshlings from possible attacks by Wyld/Munch superfast folks and if she detects with her passive TP that no such thing is going to happen, she goes straight for Isis-Taylor, using telepathy to prevent Gift use and all her other abilities to compensate Isis' edge in strength. When the curse clone is spawned, it will join the fight until Isis is taken down for good.

Giselle makes some rain to trigger Miss Martian's curse, then starts transforming toons into harmless stuff. Initial target is Munch's Mask.

Rand says "screw subtle" and starts blasting Arion with staff-augmented balefire with one hand, while a similar attack is projected from the other and used against the toons (excluding Zelda who is knocked out with air).

Bender tells his ring AI to target with extreme prejudice any enemies moving at speeds above the sound barrier. Shielding, amping and protection against psionics are his next orders.

Dumbledore goes with the Nightcrawler routine, for want of a better idea. He makes himself invisible with Disillusionment and gives his glasses the power to see through invisibility if he gets the chance.

Agatha uses the Tactigon and her ray gun to blast all enemies in range while cackling like the mad genius she is. Duck Dodgers and Gadget as primary objectives.

Obelix and Aragorn, now 100% more masked, start doing insane stuff with Henshaw and the Luggage as targets. More details when I actually have the time to write them down.

Common sense disclaimer and contingencies applies.

Priority list.

Manchester Black.
Cyborg.
Arion.
Taylor.
The Mask.
Jenny Wakeman.
Smith.
Batduck.
The Luggage.
The rest of the toons

[Joe Prevost]

Hank Henshaw will join forces with his local version, who is in command of Biot and the Manhunters. Using the internet data to reveal to his other self that Ultron is about to release the Nano-Genes and take control, whether Henshaw agrees or not. This will very likely piss Henshaw off, and the two join in an attack on everyone in the enemy team, there are enough Manhunters for everyone to be suddenly dealing with this attack. The Manhunters will be sure to area effect everywhere, hopefully taking out the less durable/hidden members of the team.

My Henshaw will attack Miss Martian, locating organs with x-ray vision and dropping metal into them. Local Henshaw (who had GL Rings all throughout the Biot adventure) will trap Ultron with his rings (to prevent Nano-Gene escape) and blast him/try to take control of Ultron until he is dead or controlled.

The Henshaws will also be taking control of enemy machines, including Moguera and R2-D2 and his Godzilla fighting mech.

Manchester Black will be taking over Daneel's mind. A mind controller backed by the Mask (which should give him the ability to chase him if he flees) with the Three Laws on his side should break through anything Daneel or other telepaths can do. He will then bring up the fairly obvious point that some of the non-human members of Daneel's team all have a dangerous history with humanity, and the Cosmic Cube will then be used to wipe out all that is not human on the other teams. He will naturally use that fact that he is in control to enable the Manhunters, friendly toons, and Henshaws (as well as anyone else I want left) to survive.

Out:
Megatron
R. Daneel Olivaw (controlled)
R2-D2
Ultron
Vision
Bender

Black will of course mass duplicate and his clones will attack with their all, providing a massive telepathic front of resistance and conquest, backed up by telekinetic destruction of everything they can find. These will be sure to keep the above busy before Daneel destroys them.

Arion will unleash the power of the Wand of Watoomb to send an area effect mystical dumping blast at the enemy team directly. This will hopefully take out the likes of Rand, given his invisibility. This should strike before my team is within the area he effects.

Arion will then go into a highly defense role, countering enemy attacks with dumping, absorbing magic, and shields. He will also be sure to send mystic energy at Taylor to amp him.

Agent Smith will be using the Motherbox to counter Ultron's Boom Tubes (with Hank giving the first order if for some reason you think he needs to) and general protect himself. If possible, he will use the Motherbox to detect Rand (via chemicals in the air around him if possible) and open a Boom Tube to fire on him. The Motherbox will be supplied with an ACME smell detector, the two will increase each others powers, making it trivial to detect and destroy Rand with the Colt.

The Mask will be tasked with the ever annoying Giselle Villard. He will teleport over there with a rag of chloroform stretched out in front of him, covering her nose. Both are bullet timers, the Mask can't be hurt or really slowed down (and all the other outrageous things it can tank) so she's out cold and spirited away by the Mask before she can bring up her shields and spells.

Jenny Wakeman will be on defense against physical attacks. She's an extreme ten point character with full on speed and energy attacks, she will be able to fight off pretty much anything sent directly at us. She's invulnerable, and will be taking on Super 17 if no other invasion force shows up.

Joan Taylor will show us all the true value of teamwork. ACME will be providing a giant, flushing, toilet full of toon based machine cording water. Taylor will be happy to send this water inside the openings of all surviving enemy robots, and the lungs of everyone else. Once this is over he will start precoging and item stealing the most dangerous enemies. All of this should be protected by an activated Amulet of Isis, if KJS is right about it coming pre-working. While he does this he joins hands with Arion, giving him the full precog and detection abilities to better defend his teams.

Yosemite Sam and most of his items will be going after Agatha. The Luggage will be heading after Dumbledore, while the rest as well as Duck Vader and Gadget will be heading after the wielder of the Tactigon. With the added powers of the Manhunters and a Mask Clone, she should be down without too much trouble.

Darkwing Duck will be handling Obelix with his sleep gas gun. He too will be backed up by the Manhunter army and a Mask clone of Black's.

BatDuck, Duck Dodgers, and Princess Zelda will be heading for Aragorn, who will likely shout insults and be easily defeated by this trio.

Step II

Maskchester Black will start mass mind control for the enemy team, killing them quickly, as will all of his clones.

Arion and Joan Taylor will join hands and search out any hidden enemies that went undiscovered by sonar. The two will join powers and can pretty much defeat anything around with their combo of Taylor's Gift, Arion's experience, and Watoomb's power. Ripping off items and dumping anyone left.

Hank Henshaw and Local Henshaw will do battle with any remaining powers on the field, with Local Henshaw keeping the enemy busy while Hank Henshaw dumps metal into organs he finds with x-ray vision, while invisible and intangible.

Agent Smith will give himself Doomsday hurting weapons and go to town, shooting everything he can find.

If Everything Goes to Hell

One of the clones will sit outside of the Pool Ship in Space. He will return to kill everyone assuming my team loses.

This clone will also provide any required telepathic defense during the battle, if possible and needed.

Furthermore, another clone will take control of the Lost Lanterns and lead them in if things look grim for my team, with Henshaw promising them freedom (the guy has a freaking Cosmic Cube now, no need for living batteries) if they help with the fight.


Note 1:
John/Joan is using his basic abilities here. Ripped items more times than I can count, same with detecting things. He interfaces directly with reality as shown in Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth, so he should find everything easily.

Note 2:
In general no one will do more than defend themselves and try to get passed enemies they aren't tasked with handling.

Note 3:
Everyone will use their full powers and abilities in battle be they natural or item based, everyone will react as best they can to any attempt at a surprise move, with Manchester Black Clone, Manhunter, Arion, Jenny Wakemen, Joan Taylor, Hank Henshaw, Jenny Wakeman, and finally Agent Smith joining in if anyone has considerable trouble with an enemy unless another order is given in the strategy.

Note 4:
John, Arion, and Manchester Black have all shown the ability to handle several actions at once. None of them will have trouble with there assignments.

Note 5:
John resisted Walker, Manchester Black is a top telepath, Arion has telepathic abilities of his own (I still believe that he hasn't lost them) and Black is defending his team anyway.

Note 6:
Everyone will engage in realistic movement. No one is just going to run across the ground because I said charge when I obviously meant that they fly or any other cute stuff.

Note 7:
Everyone will keep moving and try to keep the enemy team from clumping together to defend itself or gather for an attack.

Note 8:
Hank will attempt to create a New Henshaw around the Rat Talisman with magic if we have time. This New Henshaw will bond take over the technology control and Biot control duties and send out avatars to fight.

Note 9:
Arion will dump anyone who can't be killed or controlled.

Note 10:
Once everyone they are tasked with taking down is done, everyone will join in to take out enemy characters.

Arion will use TK and dumping.
Manchester Black will kill with telekinesis.
John Taylor will disarm, depower and knock out with the Isis powers.
Hank Henshaw will kill by releasing shards of himself into people.
Agent Smith will kill with Doomsday cutting lasers.
Everyone else will do their things.

Note 11:
Just in case it wasn't obvious from my earlier section, Hank Henshaw will only be intangible when not striking his enemies.

Also Hank Henshaw will attempt to lodge tendrils inside of his enemies while invisible and intangible and detach them, turning them tangible.

Lucy Liu is mostly kept in reserve. Partly because of my twisting space around in knots with boom tubes, partly because she probably breaks in the water. If she doesn't she is used in the endgame as another threat.

Note 12:
If any Henshaw is about to be killed or dumped he transfers himself to the Pool Ship and creates a new body for himself as best he can and keeps up the fight. Creating a new body and sending out both avatars and New Henshaw to fight.

Note 13:
Henshaw will use technopathy for all items he wields. Turning invisible and intangible at will when he doesn't have to be tangible to attack.

Note 14:
Arion will use TK and Henshaw his tendril drop to counter any attempt at physical attack. They will have a massive advantage with the protection of the Motherbox's Boom Tubes, once Ultron is down.

[The MunchKING]

See we totally win. Vote for us everyone!!

[WyldCard4]

Speed of this guy's reaction time vs the man who can quick draw Superman? He doesn't have the Accelerator if he's fast enough to ignore Black before he's in.

Super 17 isn't stopping Black.

The Ultron Genes are countered perfectly, as is Ultron.

Miss Martian is taken out by a tactic Estrecca acknowledged as viable in a past match.

Giselle isn't defending herself against the Mask before she's KO'd.

Bender is fighting the Cosmic Cube+Maskchester Black clone.

Dumbledore is either killed by telekinesis or the Luggage.

Agatha will have trouble with TK kill and the toon army.

Obelix and Aragorn are toast without the Mask, which they are so not getting.

[mailedbypostman1]

Estrecca fights Munch and Wyld?













Sorry guys, I think you're going down.

[The MunchKING]

Originally Posted by mailedbypostman1

Estrecca fights Munch and Wyld?

No no no... he fights our TEAMS. If I was fighting I'd have butchered his whole team before Black could fire up the ol' Nuerons.

[Holacik]

I don't think that the Cube is strong enough to make a character one with the Universe.

[Estrecca]

Originally Posted by Holacik

I don't think that the Cube is strong enough to make a character one with the Universe.

It is.

Give me a couple hours and I should have access to the relevant scans. And believe me. They are worth the price of admission.

[Holacik]

Originally Posted by Estrecca

It is.

Give me a couple hours and I should have access to the relevant scans. And believe me. They are worth the price of admission.

Okay but with the Gauntlet Thanos still had to beat Eternity to become one with everything and it still left his body Vulnerable (which is why he lost the Gauntlet)

[Estrecca]

Originally Posted by Holacik

Okay but with the Gauntlet Thanos still had to beat Eternity to become one with everything and it still left his body Vulnerable (which is why he lost the Gauntlet)

This happened during Thanos' first apparitions, when he was the dictator of Titan and planned to make a galactic empire, with Earth as his first conquest. He wasn't quite as cosmic as he would be later and the only cosmics who show up during that arc are Kronos (who gets captured by Thanos with the Cube) and Death (who does nothing at all).

Nonetheless...




Since he only had the power of the Cube backing him here, it is possible (likely, even) that this still leaves 'Thanos the God' a good ways below Eternity and the other abstracts, but the facts cannot be denied. Thanos used the Cube to become a godlike disembodied entity with the power to alter reality and time at will.

EDIT: Going away for a while. I'll hopefully be back in time to make an adequate answer for Wyld/Munch's strat, but I really wanted to clear the issue with the Cosmic Cube before leaving.

[Holacik]

Originally Posted by Estrecca

but I really wanted to clear the issue with the Cosmic Cube before leaving.

You have, good job.

[The MunchKING]

I don't know much about Black, Wyld told me that his telepathy couldn't be Ignored, especially not that easily...

[WyldCard4]

There is a difference between Thanos, who's been increasingly experienced with increasing his own power for thousands of years, and Daneel. Daneel is powerful, but far less experienced with such items.

Also, I'd like to see why tuning Black out would work, his feats for beating the mental resistance of the likes of Mongal and Metallo and Bizzarro are well known, and at least strongly argue for the ability to make Daneel hear him.
Edit:

Originally Posted by The MunchKING

I don't know much about Black, Wyld told me that his telepathy couldn't be Ignored, especially not that easily...

Unless Estrecca has a very good reason for why Daneel couldn't even hear him, when Black's tore through multiple highly resistant (and normally downright immune) people before, it shouldn't work.

[Estrecca]

Regarding Manchester Black and superspeed.

As a prelude to that reply which is coming, but is taking longer than initially expected... I'd like to say a word or three about Manchester Black.

The guy appears in something like half a dozen issues and his one physical confrontation with Superman happens in Action Comics 775 (they don't actually have a fight in Ending Battle, which is what drives Manchester Black to suicide) when the Elite team fights him in one of the moons of Jupiter.





That is the initial phase of the fight and it shows Superman experiencing Black's telekinetic brainpinch. What it doesn't show is Superman being particularly speedy here. Black sucker punches him into the mountain with his TK, Menagerie manages to tag Superman with his claws and then a giant rock summoned by Hat's magical hat is used to crush Superman again.

When Superman emerges from beneath the magic rock, there is nothing to suggest that he is going particularly fast. Moreover, Manchester Black's lighter is unlit in one pannel, but lit when Clark starts bleeding through the nose. To me, this scene doesn't suggest at all the ability to operate in Kryptonian thought speeds...

Particularly because when Superman decides to stop screwing around and takes off the kid gloves, we have this...



...Manchester Black being completely unable to detect the approach of Superman to grab the largish fellow who was floating right next to MB.

In short.

Superman gets hit first by a sucker punch. Then, gets a brainpinch after being smacked with a magical attack and he doesn't seem to be going very fast. And when he gets serious, he utterly and completely blitzes Manchester Black. Seeing this, I now think that MB is a top level psychic with some sick range game, but that there is no evidence to claim that he has superhuman thought speed.

EDIT: At least not to any significant degree. I think that a 9 would be a fairer price for the character, considering what I've recently heard about him.