DTL Season 5-Week 2 (Set 2)

[DTL Commish]

The rules:
This is one of four threads containing matches.
The threads will be in use for 7 days. Days 1-3 (Friday-Sunday) 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 from you, the fan.

Debates will open to everyone on Day 4 (Monday) once I post that they are open. On Day 6 (Wednesday) I will post and tell everyone that voting may begin. Only after doing so will voting start. Any votes cast before I open voting will not count.

Look over the matchups and read the owners 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 up. (Note: The length of a writeup is up to 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 each match up or your vote will not count! The teams with the highest vote total at the end of the 7th day (Thursday) will get a W while the other will get an L. (Equal votes will result in a tie.)

The battleground for this week is: New York Populated (Marvel)

In Jesus' Name
Firestorm (Stein) (DU)
Thanos (MU)
Mimic (Exiles) (MM)
Forge (Ultimate) (MR)
Iron Spidey (MR)
VS.

The Deadly Dozen
Magneto (MU)
Doomsday-Brainiac (DU)
Malice (MM)
Darkchylde (MR)
Tempo (MR)
_______________________________

Fantomex
Orion (DU)
Union (DU)
Johnny Sorrow (DM)
Wolverine (MR)
Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) (MR)

VS.

Chaos & Order
Adam Warlock (MU) - Superhuman strength, speed, durability, healing. Flight. Cosmic energy manipulation. Possesses the Soul Gem.
Nimrod (MU) - Mutant hunting sentinel from the future. Super adaptation, weapons, sensors, self-repair.
Scarlet Witch (MM) - Probability alteration and spell casting.
Forge (MR) - Ability to build anything limited only by his imagination.
Fate (Jared Stevens) (DR) - Super strength, durability. Mutant right arm. Immunity to magic.

 

[wiegeabo]

Prep-Time


When the members of Chaos & Order appear together in a New York apartment, they will work together, except for one small problem...

Nimrod: "Mutant: Forge, detected. Mutant: Scarlet Witch, detected. Threat levels: moderate.

Fate: "Yeah, that doesn't sound good," he says while looking for a beer in the fridge.

Nimrod: "Assessment: Termination."

Fate: "Yep, I was right," he says as he pops the top off a bottle.

Adam, knowing the group was brought together for a reason, steps between Nimrod and his targets. "Before any action is taken, we need to find out why we are here."

Nimrod: "Alien: Unknown. Threat level: Unknown. Scanning...super powers detected. Interference with termination protocol. Threat level: Serious. Assessment: Termination."

Warlock: "Unlikely." Both Adam and Nimrod charge their hands with energy.

Fate steps up next to Adam. "Don't try it tincan, it wasn't meant to be."

Wanda, ready for a fight, speaks up. "What are you talking about?"

Fate points to his eye. "I can see people's futures. Well, at least their fates. And by looking at the lot of you, I know that we're supposed to be fightin' another bunch of sharp dressers."

Forge, his arm turned into a blaster, ready to fight the sentinel, chimes in. "You hear that Nimrod. You're not here to terminate us. I know you can listen to reason and process beyond your programming. So listen to what they are saying."

That's when images are projected from Nimrod's eyes. Images and descriptions of their opponents. Mutant: Wolverine indentified. Unknown targets included in data stream."

Forge: "Ghost Rider?"

Fate: "Ghost, huh. Magic guy?"

Forge: "Yes."

Fate shrugs. "He's mine."

Forge: "You're assuming we're supposed to fight each other."

Warlock: "I've seen been involved with weirder things." The others look at him. "Trust me."

The group doesn't recognize the others, but Sorrow's description of killing anyone who sees his face is rather ominous.

Nimrod: "Reassessing situation. Target priorities shifted. Opposing team are now priority targets. Will work with current group until priority targets eliminated."

Wanda: "Well that is very reassuring."

Forge: "Right, so, that's all sorted out. Time to plan?"

Adam nods his head in agreement. "We plan."

 

[wiegeabo]

Battle-Time

The biggest problem both teams will face is Nimrod and Johnny Sorrow because neither will care about the civilians. But, there's no way either team is going to let them hurt the people. Luckily for Chaos & Order, Nimrod is going to be kept busy in the air by his uber opponents. On the other hand, someone is going to have to stay with Sorrow to prevent him from killing the innocent. The best choice for this is Wolverine who'll slice him up the second he takes off his mask and goes tangible. (Heck, Wolverine could probably come back from being killed by Sorrow since he's been reduced to bones before.) And even then Logan's not a great choice since Johnny can teleport (but he might keep that to himself).


As the ubers approach each other in the air, Nimrod can teleport behind Orion and Union and hit them from behind with blasts. The moment of surprise can give Warlock the time to slam into Orion and take the fight away from the people. Meanwhile, Nimrod and Union fight. Not having any information on him, Nimrod may take most of the damage in the beginning. But with a few scans and adaptations, Nimrod will soon be able to give as good as he gets and force a real fight with Union.

Fate is the logical choice to take on Ghost Rider. Why? Because Ghost Rider's magical attacks will have no effect of Fate. And Ghost Rider can really only be stopped with magical attacks, which is exactly what Fate can dish out using his arm and his dagger/ankhs. And Fate has no problem putting his knife into GR to take him out of the fight. And even if Ghost Rider is traveling with Logan and Sorrow (to help keep Sorrow in check), Fate can force him away as Wanda and Forge split the other off.

Wanda is the perfect choice for going after Logan and Sorrow. Not only does she know Logan enough to fight him, her hex bolts can keep him from being an effective fighter. And she may even be able to use her probability altering bolts on Sorrow. Just how vulnerable would Sorrow be if he suddenly became tangible even with his mask on? Forge would probably be able to take him out with his arm canon.

I also have little doubt that, in 24 hours, Forge could whip up a dimensional scanner/blocker from parts found in Radio Shack that could force Sorrow into his own dimension, or bring him fully into this one so he can be stopped by conventional means. It is his mutant power, after all. To build whatever he needs.

Too much?

Ok, how about Forge being able to build a portable reflective barrier (think reflective force field) that he could raise at the right time. Say, just when Johnny is about to remove his mask to kill Forge after being led away from the civilians. Forge presses the button, springing the trap, and Sorrow looks at his own reflection, instantly knocking himself out of the fight.

Even Wanda's powers won't stop Logan, but Fate can intervene to save her. His mutant arm alone can grow and smash into Wolverine, pinning him against the wall. And even if Logan could slash his way through the arm, it would just keep healing. Even if Logan can keep going despite facing three opponents (which he could), they just need to keep the pressure on him until the ubers arrive.

Speaking of the ubers...

Warlock and Orion could easily stalemate. They are both powerful beings that can take a huge beating and blast each other while flying. Of course Orion would use his harness to fly, and if Adam can damage that, it puts Orion on the ground and at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, Nimrod will continuously adapt to Union. Even if Union severely damages Nimrod to the point that he's incapacitated and goes to help Orion, Nimrod can still repair himself and rejoin the fight. And if Nimrod's scanners tell him that Union gets his power from the crystal in his chest, he'll have the weakness he'll need to end the fight and assist Warlock.


Even after all this time, Wolverine may still be fighting. Heck, even with all Wanda and Forge know about him, Logan may have actually stopped them all (because he's the goddamned Wolverine!). But there's no way he'll be able to hold up against Adam and Nimrod (especially Nimrod).


Eventually, Chaos & Order will win this match. Even if it's through pure perseverance.

 

[XFanTim]

Magneto -- controls metals and electromagnetism
Doomsday-Brainiac -- super strength/speed/durability, adaptation, genius intellect
Malice -- invisibility, forcefields
Darkchylde -- teleportational portals, minor sorcery
Tempo -- manipulates time, flight
[The above descriptions are what's disclosed to the opposing team -- for more details, follow the links.]

I'm going to keep it kind of brief this week since I'm running late. First a couple notes on our teams, since it affects the writeup to follow.

The Teams

My team is five villains -- well, technically three villains and two heroes (Invisible Woman, Magik) with their "evil" sides in control. But they're not about to be ditching the dark side after spending the whole day of prep-time hanging out with Magneto and Brainiac. My point is my team will be willing to be ruthless, and not give a damn if innocent bystanders get hurt in the process. Darkchylde might be the most reluctant, but even as Magik her teammates sometimes had to stop her from losing control and killing an enemy -- and there's no moderating influence for her on my team.

Now, let's look at the opposing team. AS has four heroes and a guy who killed half the universe. Not a recipe for harmonious teamwork.

Not only that, but my team knows that Spidey, Firestorm, and Forge are heroes, so we know that we can use their concern for the innocent bystanders against them. And the battlefield is populated with millions of bystanders.

The Battle
In a city the size of New York, it would take them a while to find us even if Malice couldn't make my team invisible. So my team takes the opportunity to dictate the terms of our meeting. Magneto comandeers every frequency of TV or radio and broadcasts a message across the city. "Meet us in Times Square or we start killing civilians!"

Of course Thanos thinks it would be stupid to go charging straight into an obvious trap, but the rest of the team doesn't see how they have any choice. They Magneto doesn't care about non-mutant lives -- clearly, he isn't bluffing.

As AS's team flies/swings/whatever into Times Square, they see Magneto's face appear on the big screen. "Too late!" At that same moment they hear an explosion, and see flames soaring into the sky from the upper levels of the Rockefeller Center, a few blocks away. (By not actually striking at Times Square itself, my team was able to insure not only that they know where AS's team would be, but also which direction they'd be coming from.)

Spidey vs. Malice

Spidey swings in the direction of the explosion, while Firestorm and Mimic fly there, with Mimic carrying Forge. (Thanos is hanging back because he's not stupid . . . or a hero.) Suddenly, Spiderman's spider sense starts tingling like mad. In mid swing, he shoots another web to change directions -- and it collides with an inivisble barrier before connecting. Unable to stop his swing, Spidey slams into a web of metal wires which spans the entire street, and which, until seconds ago, was concealed by Malice. The metal wires are linked directly into the city's power grid, with high voltage differences between the strands. The electrical shock fries Spidey's suit and stuns him. A blow from an invisible forcefield knocks him cold and sends him tumbling toward the ground.

(Of course the web was set up by Magneto, an uber, but I feel that this is legit since it was entirely Malice who caused Spidey to hit it. It's analogous to an uber giving a med a weapon. Besides, I could have had him slam into an invisible forcefield for similar effect -- the electrified web was just for style points.)

Firestorm vs. Magneto and Tempo
Mimic doubles back to catch the falling Spidey before he can suffer further injury, and he and Forge engage Malice. Meanwhile, Firestorm flies towards the Rockefeller building -- and two his horror, sees several people tumbling from the observation deck at the Top of the Rock -- 70 stories up. Hastily, he transmutes part of the building wall into a large elastic sheet and peels it back to catch the falling individuals. As he does so, Magneto swoops down and launches a dozen shards of jagged metal straight for him, but Firestorm transmutes them into flower petals.

Next Magneto rips a hunk of metal from the building and molds it into a massive fist, sending it hurling towards Firestorm. Firestorm tries to transmute it, but his reaction is strangely slow, and the fist hits, slamming him straight through the side of the building. One of the "innocent people" Firestorm saved was none other than Tempo, masquerading as an ordinary human. (She can fly, so there was no danger in throwing her off a building.) Firestorm didn't recognize her out of costume, and she used her time altering powers to slow him.

Magneto administers the coup de grace. In preparation for the fight, he'd magnetically weakened the heavy steel beams which support the building. Now he blows them out completely, dropping the entire 70-story 30 Rock building right on Firestorm's head. Still reeling from Magneto's blow and with Tempo slowing him, he doesn't even have a chance to phase. (Thus, Magneto destroys both Firestorm and the NBC headquarters, dooming a hero and the show Heroes in one fell swoop.)

Thanos vs. Magneto, Doomsday-Brainiac, Darkchylde and Tempo
Thanos has been observing the fight from the rooftop of a nearby building. He feels disgusted that Firestorm's effort to save a bunch of random bystanders left him open to attack. Thanos now joins the fight in a way that will demonstrate. he isn't so foolishly sentimental -- a massive energy blast against Magneto that also incinerates the very bystanders Firestorm wished to save. Magneto's shield allows him and Tempo to weather the attack . . . but just barely. They can't take much more of this.

Fortunately, they won't have to. Darkchylde and Doomsday were waiting for Thanos to make an appearance. Now Darkchylde opens a portal right over Thanos's head, and Doomsday drops down on top of him. Doomsday is far faster than Thanos who has never demonstrated anything close to Superman-level speed. With Tempo joining in to slow Thanos down, Doomsday lands, oh, let's say a million superstrong punches on Thanos' face. For comparison, Thor has managed to draw blood from Thanos with a few blows (it was Warrior Madness Thor, but still, he's no stronger than Doomsday). By the time Thanos manages an energy blast knocking Doomsday away, he's a bloody mess.

Now Magneto goes on the offensive. An electromagnetic pulse fries any tech Thanos may be carrying. (Magneto's blacked out the planet with a single EMP, so I doubt even Thanos's tech can stand against that.) Then a blast of Magnetic force sends the still-reeling Thanos tumbling backwards through one of Darkchylde's portals, and Magneto flies right through after. Their destination -- the surface of the sun. (Magik/Darkchylde doesn't really have a range limit -- she's done interplanetary portals before.) The sun, of course, is a massive ball of plasma -- so hot that its atoms have been stripped of their electrons, turning them into electrically charged ions. As such, it's very susceptible to magnetic fields. Which is why Thanos now finds himself engulfed in a massive solar flare. Between this and the injuries he suffered from Doomsday, even the uber-durable Thanos should be out for a while. Magneto doubles back through the portal, leaving the unconscious Thanos to tumble into the sun.

Mimic and Forge vs Malice
Mimic tries to blast Malice with an optic blast, but she deflects it with a forcefield. Forge chucks a magnesium flash-grenade at her, blinding her. (Invisible forcefields can't block light.) But she doesn't need to see to take him out. Malice produces a hundred razor-sharp invisible spikes pointing in every direction -- one of which impales Forge. Mimic is saved by turning to metal. He tries to fire another optic blast against her, but by now she's gone invisible.

The End
Well, basically Mimic is screwed once my ubers show up. Can Mimic copy non-mutants? I'm pretty sure the answer is no or he would have just copied Hyperion when the Exiles fought him. Anyway, Magneto knows the basics on Mimic's power -- the Mimic of the mainstream Marvel Universe was briefly an X-Man. Magneto was affiliated with the X-Men at a later date (when he was temporarily reformed), and so would have read all their files on the Mimic. He knows to hold back himself, Tempo, and Darkchylde (the three mutants on my team), and just send in Doomsday. Optic blasts aren't stopping him, and even with Mimic in metal form, Doomsday rips his head right off his shoulders.

[Even if Mimic could copy non-mutants, he can't copy Doomsday since it would mean raising his own weightclass from medium to uber.]

The Deadly Dozen win

 

[AnnoyingSilence]

In Jesus' Name
Thanos
Firestorm
Mimic
Forge
Iron Spidey


The Deadly Dozen
Magneto -- controls metals and electromagnetism
Doomsday-Brainiac -- super strength/speed/durability, adaptation, genius intellect
Malice -- invisibility, forcefields
Darkchylde -- teleportational portals, minor sorcery
Tempo -- manipulates time, flight

Location: New York(Populated) Marvel

Battle​

​

Entering the field, Thanos: (Telepathically)we are all telepathically linked now... see what you can into each other-

Out loud, Thanos: so that we may better beat our opponent...

Looking at Firestorm, Forge: Thanos...

Thanos: I've aready linked your minds so that you can make something as your thinking of it... Try it out.

Forming Forges' nulifying gun, Firestorm: Thats... Amazing...

Spidey: Me next!

Mimic: Give the gun to me... I think I may have a good use for it.

Spidey: Hey, hey, Hey! I want uuuuuuuuuhhhhh... A-

-, Thanos: Make his suit titanium fiber and his limbs titanium as well.

As his siut changes from copper and gold into silver and navy blue, Spidey: The whole titanium idea was a great idea.. The best I had heard in my whole life... But Silver and Freaking Navy BLUE!?... sweeeeet.

Forge: Your suit is also equipped with better scanners.. If Magneto even flies-

Spidey: Yea, I can see him now... Well, the shape of the earths magnetic spectrum that hes affecting anyway...

Thanos: I feel my sticking with all of you will hamper my abilities so go your own way and know only that we don't fight each other...

Fight​

​

 

[XFanTim]

Sorry I'm running behind guys -- I should be able to get my writeup up sometime tonight.

Edit: make that sometime this evening.

 

[AnnoyingSilence]

Flying over NYC, INJ(excluding Thanos) can already see and hear where The DD are, but have different plans.. Instead of attacking first, they'll count attack suprisingly.
As DD/B readies DarkChylde, Forge creates a wrist band that will teleport his team away.

gotta work... see ya

 

[X]

Everyone's ****in' late this week.

 

[XFanTim]

Yeah, I'd feel worse about it if AS had done much of anything yet. Mine'll be up in a few minutes.

 

[X]

Ah, okay.

 

[wiegeabo]

Whew, got a battle up. Not my best, but it's something.

 

[XFanTim]

Mines up. I was a little rushed at the end, but you get the idea.

To reiterate the main points:
- AS's team has a brilliant strategist who's also uber powerful (Thanos), but he's the one guy the rest of his team would never be willing to follow
- My team, in contrast, would be willing to work together, and would beat Thanos with teamwork.
- The rest of his team faces the handicap of fighting in a heavily populated environment. It's a handicap since they care about protecting the civilians, but my team doesn't. (For instance, Firestorm couldn't phase while using his transmutation powers to help save the civilians. He can't use both at once -- so says Tropico.)
- Plus, my team knows the opposition is a bunch of namby-pamby do-gooders, so we're definitely going to exploit it.

 

[DTL Commish]

Writeups are closed

 

[AnnoyingSilence]

your moms closed

 

[AnnoyingSilence]

yea, well, my team would have glued together better if Genis-vel x2 was in.

but w/e, i should expect to lose when i don't get so spend more than a 1/2 half a day on it

 

[XFanTim]

So it's debate time now, right? I already made most of my points, and AS didn't give me much to respond to, but...

Flying over NYC, INJ(excluding Thanos) can already see and hear where The DD are, but have different plans.. Instead of attacking first, they'll count attack suprisingly.
As DD/B readies DarkChylde, Forge creates a wrist band that will teleport his team away.

They can find my team in as crowded a place as NY, even though Malice can make us all invisible? I guess he's counting on Forge's "scanners" to do it, but I'm not sure Forge could really find a way to see past her invisibility. That smacks a little too much of just assuming a tech guy can invent a way to neutralize any power, which is pushing it for someone who's supposedly reg-level.

AS could have had his team use mini-Cerebro units to detect the mutant members of my team, although he didn't think of it. That said, I'm pretty sure Magneto has managed to conceal himself from the X-Men before -- he was leader of the New Mutants for a while, so he's highly familiar with X-Men tech, as is Darkchylde/Magik. And anyway, my team can keep moving around thanks to Darkchylde's teleportation, so tracking them down might not be such a quick process. (Much like trying to find Nightcrawler in X2, which I know is non-canonical, but I think it'd play out similarly in the comics. Only, Nightcrawler has a relatively-short limit to how far he can port, and Magik doesn't, so that makes a difference. Plus if it came down to it, she can have most of the team hide out in another dimension until they're ready to attack.)

As for Forge creating a portable teleporter, I'm not sure I buy that either. Teleportation is fairly advanced tech in the Marvel Universe, mostly limited to aliens and people from the future. Does Iron Man have a portable teleporter in his suit? Not so far as I know. Does the Fantastic Four have teleportational tech? If so, what's with them having to fly places in the Fantasticar? Even if Stark or Richards can invent a teleporter (and maybe they have at some point, I don't know), they certainly went a good portion of their existence without one, which indicates they probably couldn't invent one in a day. (Remember, our teams only have a day to prep.) And Forge is not a better inventor than Tony or Reed, even though it is his mutant power.

More to the point, if Forge could invent a teleporter, the X-Men wouldn't need the Blackbird.

This may be moot because Thanos has teleportational tech, but still, AS himself had Thanos going off and doing his own thing rather than assisting the rest of the team.

Honestly, I'd find it more plausible to just have Thanos upgrade everyone's tech, but that's not how AS chose to write it.

 

[XFanTim]

your moms closed

On the contrary, the DTL Commish's mom is open for business, 24-7.

Thus concludes my effort at debate.

 

[DTL Commish]

Voting may now begin.

 

[XFanTim]

I vote for Chaos&Order. Pretty decent job, even if understandably short because there was no opposition. A few minor quibbles -- I'm not sure Fate would have that easy a time with Ghost Rider. Blatantly magical attacks like the penance stare wouldn't work, but GR could presumably still hit him with super-strong punches or whip him with his chain. I don't really know Fate well enough to know how he'd stand up to that.

The other thing is I don't think you gave one of your own characters enough credit -- namely Adam Warlock. With the Soul Gem, he has a number of attacks that neither Orion nor Wolverine could stop -- karmic blasts, soul-stealing, etc. He's not likely to "stalemate" with them.

 

[LadyVader]

Chaos and order

Nimrod sounds kinda like HK47. He (or it) was one of the first characters I ever had.

Deadly Dozen - You're right Tim. A team of heroes under Thanos. I don't think so.

 

[wiegeabo]

Deadly Dozen

Tim's writeup has some pretty cool ideas, especially going up against some potential powerhouses. I just wish I could have given AS more time to get a writeup in.

 

[Harlekin]

Deadly Dozen
Chaos & Order

No real opposition for either, sadly.

 

[Nightwing]

Deadly Dozen
Chaos & Order

these battles couldve been great if the opponents had managed to fight back but im guessing for AS life got in the way and for Fantomex he clearly has lost the way to the DTL threads or something

 

[Who?]

Deadly Dozen
Chaos & Order

 

[Khellendros]

Oh yeah, forgot to vote. HMMM this is sure-golly a tough one. Pffft.

DD
C&O
FTW