DTL Season 5-Week 10 (Set 1)

[DTL Commish]

The rules:
This is one of four threads containing matches.
Due to the holiday, these threads will be in use for 9 days. Days 1-4 (Jan 26 - Jan 29) are strictly setup time for owners to plead their cases, tell us their team’s strategies, breakdown the match ups, and do whatever else they can/want to do to try and convince you that their team would pull out a victory. Please, let the owners do this on their own with no help.

On Day 5 (Jan 30) I will post and tell everyone that voting may begin. Any votes cast before I open voting will not count. Look over the matchups and read the strategies, and take into consideration how in-character each character is. Afterwards, use your best judgment to decide who you think has the best chance to win the match. (Note: The length of a writeup the discretion of the owner. Do not punish owners just for having a shorter writeup.)

To vote, post the team names you think will prevail in each match. Remember to vote for all matches or your vote will not count! The teams with the highest vote total at the end of the 10th day (Feb 3) will get a W while the other will get an L. (Equal votes will result in a tie.)

The battleground for this week is: The Arctic Fortress Of Solitude

X*
The Super Skrull (MM)
Ronan (MM)
Devil Slayer (MR)
Darkstar (MR)
Batman (One Million) (MR)

VS.

Last Chancers*
Wolverine (MR)
Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) (MR)
Wild Child (MR)
Husk (MR)
Cosmic Boy (DR)

_______________________________

The Authorititans
Aztek (DM)--intangibility, superstrength, superspeed, energy manipulation, high-tech armor, flight
Sebastian Faust (DM)--mage, can absorb souls and gain their owners' power
Starman/Jack Knight (DR)--flight, moderate martial arts skill, energy manipulation
Anarky (DR)--tech genius, martial arts genius, master strategist
Midnighter (DR)--martial arts expert, can predict outcomes of battles

VS.

Team Alpha Wolf Squadron
Kang (MM) - genius, high-tech armour
Aquaman (DM) - super strength, endurance, speed etc. Also telepathy and a magic hand
Black Panther (MR) - super strength, endurance, speed etc. Also genius and various other tech resources
Animal Man (DR) - copy the powers of any animal
Karate Kid (DR) - master martial artist

[XFanTim]

Last Chancers lineup is wrong.

EDIT: Fixed it myself.

[Aristotle]

But kind of interesting to see how people will vote that match, heh?

[XFanTim]

I've corrected the Last Chancers lineup (before they were listed with the same lineup as X). They don't have any mediums on their roster, so I just gave them all regs.

[Aristotle]

Aw, man, I was hoping to see how people would have voted in that match.

[Aristotle]

Prep-Time

With a few temporary new faces, the Authorititans materialize in the Arctic Fortress of Solitude. After some quick introductions, and some warmth generated by the cosmic staff, the team prepares to lay down strategy.

“First order of business here, folks,” reasons Anarky, “are the two big guns. Kang and Aquaman, the latter of which most of us will be familiar with, are our top two targets. Aztek, you go for Kang. You don't want to get in close, because he's got some sort of mysteriously high-tech armor, so either take him out from range, or go ghost and phase into his circuits.”

“Faust, you're on Aquaman. Your magic should be able to keep him at bay, even if you can't take him out on your own.”

“Midnighter, you'll take the Karate Kid. No matter how good he is, he can't beat the ability to predict the future.”

“Starman, take out Black Panther. He's too much for me to handle on my own, and your cosmic staff should deal with him nicely.”

“I'll handle Animal Man.” Under his breath, inaudibly, he adds, “Don't know how, but I'm gonna do it.”

“As always, I'll rig you up some psi-blockers from the tech I've got on me, to protect us from Aquaman's telepathy. Spend the rest of this time familiarizing yourselves with this fortress, and meet back here at battle time.”

Battle-Time

Aztek vs. Kang
At the starting gun, Aztek burns across the Fortress to where Anarky's heads-up display tells him the opposing team is. Just as he gets close, Aquaman leaps from around a corner on a collision course with his former teammate. Aztek quickly goes intangible and slips past the king of the seas. He arrives in viewing distance of his target, and going tangible again, blasts Kang with the full force of his energy attack. As Kang staggers backward, Aztek goes intangible again, phasing into Kang's armor and phasing in and out in various locations until the entire circuitry is rendered useless. Kang continues to put up a fight, tying Aztek down for a few more moments...

Sebastian Faust vs. Aquaman
Infuriated by the humiliating ease with which Aztek slipped past him, Aquaman casts out with his telepathy, looking for his assigned target, Sebastian Faust. He doesn't find him, but he does find a pocket of dead telepathic space where something should be—and he goes with his gut feeling that it's Faust. Carefully stalking the corridors of his friend and teammate's fortress, Aquaman comes closer and closer to his prey, until he's right on top of him. He charges, silently—and Faust whirls, blasting Aquaman with magical energy. The superhero leaps back to his feet, and the battle is joined...

Starman vs. Black Panther
Starman cruises through the Fortress of Solitude, keeping a sharp eye out for the Black Panther. Eventually, he spots him in one of Superman's many museum exhibits, and unloads a barrage of blasts from the cosmic staff on T'challa. The leader of Wakanda turns and hurls a series of knives up at his flying adversary, but Starman dodges them. Again, he pours more and more energy from the cosmic staff into Black Panther. The Panther is, in many ways, helpless, as his ranged arsenal is limited, and his armor can only take so much punishment, and it's starting to reach the breakpoint. Eventually, Starman wears the armor down, and the sheer force of blasts from his cosmic staff brings the Panther down.

Anarky vs. Animal Man
Anarky knows where Animal Man's going to be: Superman's zoo. He's ready. He stands at one end of the hall, boom-tube projector in hand. Soon enough, Animal Man appears at the other end. The morphogenetic field crackles around him as he taps into the powers and abilities of some of the strangest creatures ever to walk the earth.

Suddenly, Animal Man notices that something's wrong. All the animals are in one cage. And they're very, very angry about that. They're fighting. Their rage seeps into Animal Man, and he glares at Anarky, the only man who can be responsible for this outrage. Calling on the speed of an otherwordly predatory beast, he charges forth—BOOM! A boom tube appears right in front of him, and he's instantaneously transported into the same cage as all the animals—the exact same way Anarky got them into a cage together in the first place.

“Enjoy yourselves,” Lonnie mutters.

Midnighter vs. Karate Kid
There's only one way this fight can go down, and that's because Midnighter has already pre-selected which outcome he's going for, before the fight even started.

“You're good, Daniel-San, but good don't mean a thing when I can see it coming,” Midnighter jeers. “I've already seen every possible outcome to this fight in my mind, and the one I liked best--”he slams his fist through Karate Kid's chest--“was that one.”

Midnighter stands over the corpse of Karate Kid, wipes the sweat of his upper lip, and saunters away.

Aquaman vs. Sebastian Faust, part 2
...Faust is losing. He's a powerful mage, but not enough to deal with Aquaman's superstrength, his telepathic assaults, and his magic hand. As Aquaman bears down on him, he realizes he has only one option: his most terrible power.

But no. He won't use that. Not on Aquaman. The rest of the team will have to be responsible—a vicious blow to the back of Aquaman's head fells the hero. Aztek floats to the top of the chamber as Aquaman struggles back to his feet. At the far end of the room, Anarky and Midnighter amble around the corners, cracking their knuckles.

Desperately wracking his brain for options, Aquaman is interrupted by twin energy blast attacks from Aztek and Starman. With added pressure from a reinvigorated Faust, and a martial beatdown from Anarky and Midnighter, he quickly succumbs.

As Aquaman descends into unconsciousness, he hears Anarky snarl, “Thought you'd just beat up on the temp? Not how it works on this squad, Aquaman. We're all Authorititans here.”

*A quick note: that last fight doesn't need to end with the full-team beatdown. Faust could just gobble Aquaman's soul. Or Aztek could put the hurt on him. Even Starman would have a pretty decent shot at him, because of flight. I just thought the team effort thing was a nice touch for the ending.

[DTL Commish]

Voting may now begin.

[AnnoyingSilence]

chancers
authorians

[Nightwing.]

X vs Last Chancers - With a tech savvy Batman One Million and 2 Mediums on his team X would take this one
The Authorititans vs Team Alpha Wolf Squadron

[Aristotle]

X vs. Last Chancers

[XFanTim]

X wins on the basis of a significantly more powerful lineup.

I had a few issues with Ari's writeup. As I understand it Aquaman's hand can cancel out magic, so I think he'd beat Faust pretty easily. Black Panther is a strategic genius who with prep-time has given the entire Fantastic Four trouble. I'd think he would have come up with a better strategy against Starman. Also, Karate Kid is one of the best martial artists in all of comics (some people say the best). Maybe Midnighter would beat him, but not with one punch. Plus, I know Midnighter can predict what people are going to do, but how could he predict futuristic alien martial arts techniques he's never seen or heard of before? (In practice, Karate Kid does things like kick and karate chop people most of the time, but at least in principle I think he's supposed to know every martial art in the galaxy. Sort of like how Batman knows every martial art on earth, even though for some reason he never beats anyone with a shin choke or a flying armbar.)

Anyway, I'm sure Ari didn't worry too much about that stuff since Harl probably isn't going to show up this week. I know I allowed my team some quick wins against Who for the same reason. I'll edit it my official vote tomorrow, but unless Harl manages to post something more convincing I vote for the Authorititans.

EDIT: Since Harl basically just confirmed he's not going to have a writeup, my vote goes to the Authorititans. A writeup with a few flaws is definitely better than no writeup.

[Aristotle]

My writeup definitely could have been better. I've had a lot on my plate lately, but I figured a deficient writeup was better than none at all.

Specifically, regarding your concerns: Aquaman's hand can cancel out magic, which is why I had Faust losing. However, Faust is a reasonably powerful magician, and I don't think Aquaman's hand just overpowers all magic on a whim. That would make him a mighty powerful med.

Black Panther can strategize all he wants, but if he can't touch Starman, his options are very limited.

Karate Kid is the best martial artist in the DCU, and certainly one of the best in comics. And Midnighter has not been to the future of the DCU. But there's never been any indication that his implants relied upon empirical data. He's predicted outcomes of fights against opponents that neither he nor Bendix ever encountered before.

[Harlekin]

I won't be rebutting, but I'll mention this: Karate Kid has faced Midnighter before, the version on Ahura's team. As I recall, I had him beat Midnighter then by using techniques exclusively from the future and by taking a reactive approach, rather than proactive.

He's certainly not going down with one punch.

[Aristotle]

1) I should have written that differently. It was intended to be, like many of the matchups I write, beginning in medias res, with a clear implication that the fight had been in progress for some time. I failed to provide that implication, however.
2) Midnighter has sufficient superstrength to kill Karate Kid, if he has the opportunity. And his implants give him the opportunity.
3) Midnighter's implants can still read the way Karate Kid moves.
4) How does one win a fight by always playing defense, and never offense?

[Harlekin]

How I wrote it last time:

2. Karate Kid vs. Midnighter
Of course, Midnight and the Karate Kid aren’t sitting still during that time. Midnighter would be taunting the Karate Kid about his name, and then brag some about his prediction-abilities. Thing is, Midnighter can’t predict something he doesn’t know. Val knows martial arts techniques so different, so alien, that Midnighter couldn’t even come up with them in his dreams. You can’t predict a fight when you’ve only got half the stats. Midnighter’s ‘combat computer’ can go through millions of strategies, but the Karate Kid is master of about a billion.

That makes this an interesting match. Midnighter has a few enhancements, but the Karate Kid has taken super strength and laughed at it. Speed-wise, they’re about equal, Val also being capable to focus his chi to simulate a measure of enhanced speed. Now, this fight might take ages, but the Karate Kid has a natural advantage, knowing every martial art there is to know in the 31st century.

His ability to sense the weakness in any object might be impaired here, since Midnighter can simply ignore pain. That doesn’t mean however that Midnighter’s body can resist the devastating attacks from the Kid. He might be able to switch off his pain receptors, and fight a little longer, but his body will still have to take the hurt. He might not feel the bones in his arm broken into a dozen pieces, but the arm will still be useless for a while.

Like the Black Panther/Wolverine fight, this will take one hell of a long time, but eventually the Kid’s going to pull out the full arsenal. After all, it’s not like Midnighter will be skewing lethal tactics. When Val figures out Midnighter has a healing factor to boot, he’s definitely going to pull out the stops. After this fight, both their bodies will be broken and beaten. No victor, a tie, as both lose unconsciousness. The returning Panther will put the broken Midnighter in another cell, using the mansion’s tech to ensure Midnighter stays unconscious.

[wiegeabo]

X
The Authorititans

X's lineups should take this. They may have a bit of a problem with Ghost Rider, but Devil Slayer could probably pull something out if nothing else.

I had a couple of (already addressed) issues with Ari's writeup. It's a shame Harl couldn't get one in, this would have likely been a close match.

[wiegeabo]

Double Post

[LadyVader]

X
The Authorititans

[Khellendros]

Authoritians

X

Just to be different.

[Harlekin]

X gets my vote.

[DTL Commish]

Voting is over.
Final Results:

X 7
Last Chancers 0

The Authorititans 6
Team Alpha Wolf Squadron 0