The Battle
My strategy:
The battlefield is a huge city, so it will take Khell's reg-level guys a long time to find mine -- unless Cable telepathically locates my team and teleports them there. (Death Wolverine can teleport himself there, but he still won't be able to catch my team's scent from the other side of the city.) I also expect Cable will be telepathically maintaining communications among Khell's team. So that means my number one priority is to take Cable down. My strategy is to take the fight to Khell's ubers right from the start, and take them out fast. After that, they'll be plenty of time to deal with his lower level guys.
One key asset my team has is that both my ubers have high-level superspeed. Remember that while Silver Surfer has great flight speed, we've ruled he doesn't have combat superspeed the way guys like Superman and Martian Manhunter do. He can't throw attacks as quickly as them, he can't react to attacks as quickly as them, and he can't perform other actions as quickly as them. As for Cable, in previous weeks Khell and I have argued back and forth about whether he has superspeed, and I'm not going to waste a lot of time rehashing that here. I will reiterate one point, which is that Khell himself admitted his only evidence that Cable had superspeed was the fight with Lightmaster, a fight in which Cable actually got hit several times before teleporting Lightmaster to the moon. The only attack he blocked was the one where Lightmaster was flying back from the moon, where Cable new which direction he was coming from and roughly when the attack would occur. Maybe there's more than one way to interpret that fight, but at the very least we can say that Cable's superspeed isn't nearly as well established as Superman's or Martian Manhunter's. So suffice it to say I think my ubers will get the first actions.
Martian Manhunter and Blink vs. Cable
As soon as the battle starts, Martian Manhunter telepathically scans the battlefield for Cable. [Even if Cable can shield his mind so thoroughly that other telepaths can't find him -- which I'm not so sure he can -- he will still start the battle with shields down because of the "no uber powers in prep-time" rule.] The Martian telepathically transmits the exact coordinates to Blink, who immediately teleports the two of them to Cable.
The instant they appear J'onn goes on the offensive, blasting Cable with a shot of his Martian vision and following it up with a superspeed barrage of punches from his suddenly extra-massive fists.
Martian Manhunter immediately hits Cable with a shot of Martian vision and starts pounding him. Of course even if he's fast enough to catch Cable before the mutant gets his shield's up, Cable will start regenerating the damage right away. But force and speed of J'onn's attack is certainly enough to occupy Cable's attention for the fraction of a second it takes Blink to hit him with a teleportational spear -- a spear that teleports the techno-organic half of his body right off him. Just as soon as she throws the spear, Blink blinks herself the hell out of there -- she knows that if Cable does withstand her attack, then sticking around for his counter strike would be suicide.
[Note that Blink has teleported parts of objects away before. One instance I remember is when she teleported away portions of Holocaust's armor/life-support suit during the Age of Apocalypse, and my eXiles Blink is the same character except at a later point in her history, so she's even more experienced. Also note that my team is willing to be pretty ruthless with Cable, since he's a high-level regenerator.]
At precisely that moment, Martian Manhunter hits Cable with a psychic bolt. As strong as J'onn's telepathy is, Cable's may be stronger -- but it's hard to focus on shielding his mind when his body is literally being torn in two. Cable screams in pain from the simultaneous assault on mind and body. Barely holding himself together, he instinctively reaches out with his telekinesis, drawing in pieces of metal from all around and knitting himself back together. His healing powers are working overtime just to keep him conscious long enough to rebuild himself. After taking that kind of damage Cable knows that until he's in no condition to withstand another sustained superspeed barrage from Martian Manhunter, and teleports himself to some distant corner of the battlefield to give himself time to recover.
As he arrives Cable telepathically scans his surroundings and confirms that his adversaries are nowhere nearby. And he's already starting to feel his strength returning. His foes may have gotten the drop on him once, but not again. He prepares to teleport back into the fray against Martian Manhunter, knowing this time he'll be the one launching the surprise attack.
But then, Cable freezes. His synapses are overloading, courtesy of Psylocke. The mutant ninja is inside his brain wearing Atom's shrinking suit, and she's jamming her synapse-frying psychic katanna directly into the very heart of Cable's central nervous system. Blink's teleporting away of Cable's techno-organic half, while a legitimate attempt to take him down, was also cover for this second line of attack as she teleported Psylocke inside. With his neurons all overloaded, Cable can't even think, much less counterattack. Perhaps his healing power would restore him to consciousness once Psylocke pulls the katanna out, but as long as she keeps it held in place his brain is non-functional and he's out of the game. This obviously means Psylocke can't leave to participate in the other battles either, but that's a trade off my team is happy to take.
A few notes:
- I know Atom's powers are now internalized, but I made sure to specify in the Transactions thread that I wanted Atom with the shrinking-power suit.
- Even adding the shrinking power to Psylocke's power set, she's certainly no more than a good medium. For comparison, Atom 1 Million has shrinking and extreme duplication, at the Ray (Ray Palmer) has shrinking and the Ray's energy powers, but both are still mediums.
- Blink once teleported grains of sand into every part of Hyperion's body, so simply teleporting Psylocke in while 'porting part of Cable's mass away should be no problem.
- Psylocke didn't show up on Cable's telepathic scan because she has total immunity to telepathy. Perhaps he could have located her shrunken self by feeling around telekinetically inside his own body, but he'd have no reason to do this. The only opponent he'd expect to be attacking him from the inside would be the Atom, who of course would have shown up on his telepathic scan.
- Cable's telepathic shields won't protect him from Psylocke's attack, since it's not a telepathic attack. She used to have telepathy and a "psychic knife" that disrupted people's minds, but now she has telekinesis and a katanna made of telekinetic energy that disrupts people's brains. In other words, she's attacking his brain physically with TK. Telepathic defenses won't stop it, and his telekinetic forcefield won't block an attack that orginates inside him. And as soon as the katanna hits his brain it will shut him down, so he doesn't get the chance to telekinetically undo the damage.
Silver Surfer vs. Superman
Where were Superman and Silver Surfer during all this? At the outset of the battle they took to the air above the city, and as soon as they saw each other the fight was on. Superman uses his speed to keep moving too fast for Surfer to get a bead on him. [Again, Surfer doesn't have Superman-like superspeed reflexes according to our ruling.] So while Kal-El zips in and out battering Surfer's silver body with punches, the Surfer's energy blasts keep missing the mark.
[Note that Superman will know a lot about this version of Silver Surfer and how he fights, since this was the Surfer who appeared in the pages of eXiles and with whom Blink is quite familiar. So it's not surprising that Superman has come up with a battle-plan tailor made for exploiting Surfer's weaknesses. Surfer, in contrast, doesn't know much about Superman, since he and his teammates are all Marvel characters (except one Wildstorm). Anyway, this version of the Surfer tends to use a straightforward approach of blasting people with cosmic energy or cutting them apart with his razor sharp board. He's not one to rely on the more subtle uses of the Power Cosmic like 616 Silver Surfer. That predictability makes him that much easier for Superman to plan for.]
Still, Silver Surfer doesn't go down easily, and as the fight continues it strays into the upper atmosphere and then into space itself. Since the brute force approach clearly isn't working, desperation forces Surfer to adjust his tactics. Using his control of electromagnetic energy, he sends out a burst of blinding light in all directions. For a fraction of a second, Superman can't see his opponent (and can't hear him either, since there's no sound in space). But Clark keeps moving, to avoid letting the Surfer get in a free shot, and his sight quickly clears. Seeing Surfer right in front of him, he charges towards him and throws a haymaker . . . which hits nothing but empty space. Surfer had used his energy manipulation to bend light and make his image appear a few meters away from his actual location -- a decoy image meant to position his opponent for a perfectly timed attack. Superman doesn't even have time to realize he's been duped before the Surfer's razor sharp surfboard slams into him at high velocity and impales him straight through the chest.
[Note: I may be being too generous here. Surfer at times has been taken out with physical blows, such as when he was knocked out cold by Lunatik (a Lobo parody). Thor has KOed him as well, and in the JLA/Avengers crossover we saw that Superman is stronger than Thor. (Normally I mostly discount intercompany crossovers, but I recall from our previous discussions that that one has been claimed to be part of continuity at least for DC -- well, at least for pre-Infinite Crisis DC, I guess.) Even if Superman can't knock him out, I'm taking a big leap by having Surfer use his powers in creative ways like making himself invisible. This version of Surfer never did anything like that -- he was more like a berzerker version of the Surfer. (This despite the fact that he was supposed to be an astrophysicist. This guy wasn't pulling any sciency tricks like Dr. Doom did with the power cosmic.) But anyway, I didn't want to take any chance of being accused of not giving Khell's ubers enough credit.]
Silver Surfer vs. Martian Manhunter and Blink
Once Cable had left the scene of their fight and not returned, Martian Manhunter figures Psylocke must have done her job. So he telepathically links up with Cable to see if he needs help with the Silver Surfer. Had he been a moment quicker he might have been able to join the battle and turn the tide, but unfortunately he only just establishes the mind link in time to see Superman run-through with his opponent's silver surfboard.
[Again, I'm probably being too generous to Khell's team here. The way I wrote it Martian Manhunter's attack on Cable was a fairly quick thing, whereas the Surfer vs. Superman fight dragged on for a while. So probably J'onn would have time to join in and double team Surfer, in which case I think together my ubers could overwhelm him. But like I said, I'd rather err on the side of favoring Khell's guys than be called out for underwriting them.]
Though agonized with rage and grief at the loss of the teammate he deeply respected, J'onn knows he can't lose site of the matter at hand. As the only two ubers left standing, he doesn't need to be the mind reader he is to know that the Silver Surfer is coming for him. He telepathically summons Blink back to his side. During prep-time the mutant had warned him of just how dangerous Surfer is. But she also told him how the Surfer was inexperienced when it came to facing teleporters, as this was by his own admission a "rare gift" in his universe. They had agreed that if it became necessary J'onn would telepathically take direct control of her mind, to allow him to trigger her teleportational powers at his much faster rate of thought. As Surfer comes streaking downward through the air, a portal opens ahead and to the side of him. Faster than he can react, a shapeshifting arm streches through the portal and closelines him right off his board. As the Surfer falls, another portal snaps open in the path of his board, teleporting the high-speed razor sharp projectile directly behind him. Surfer's silvery skin makes a sickening crunch as the board imbeds in his back. And just like that the Martian Manhunter is on him, his massive fists swinging at superspeed to pound the wounded body of his foe. Sufer's once strong will crumbles under the assault, and the Martian Manhunter rips into his mind with telepathic fury.
Seldom has J'onn ever let himself go like this, but he knows he faces a man who has murdered whole planets, whose victims are far too many to count. And while J'onn cannont name those many billions whose lives the Surfer snuffed out, there is one whose name he knows all too well. There is one who J'onn saw die through the man's own eyes, whose passing he felt in the core of his being.
His name was Kal-El.
As he lets loose on the Silver Surfer with all his might, J'onn vows that that name will be the last.
Martian Manhunter vs. the rest
Once the ubers are out of the way, J'onn should be able to finish off everyone else with relative easy. He can transform his body into stone or something to avoid letting Iceman attack his moisture, and then smash his icy body to bits. Or he could just psi-blast him, since even in his ice form body Bobby isn't immune to telepathy. [With Psylocke having briefed him during prep-time, J'onn is well prepared for anything Iceman can do.]
Death Wolverine and Midnighter are likewise easily disposed of, using telepathy and such if necessary but probably just pounding them out with his far, far greater strength and speed. J'onn is just way out of their league.
One Final Note:
It may seem that I totally ignored Khell's lower level characters for most of my writeup. But the point is that I've deliberately structured my strategy so as to give his regulars and medium nothing to do. They really aren't a physical match for my ubers, so they're going to avoid those fights lest they be swiftly destroyed. They aren't going to be able to find Psylocke, because she's already been miniaturized during prep-time. Sure, they can go after the Atom, but he's irrelevant to my strategy anyway after he's given the shrinking suit to Psylocke in prep-time. As for Blink, I had her teleport in for one quick surprise attack on Cable and then teleport away. She teleported back to help Martian Manhunter at the end, but in between her only job is to avoid the other team's mediums/regulars. In a city the size of Tokyo, that should be beyond easy. She can just keep teleporting from one neighborhood to the next. Wolverine's senses are good, but he's not going to smell someone on the other side of the city. In the very unlikely event that she happens to teleport into a place near enough for him to get her scent (or that he happens to teleport in near her), she will probably have moved on to the next location before he gets to her. Tokyo (or any major metropolis) is just a freaking huge place in which to hide out if all you want is not to be found. My team also has a day of prep-time to figure out ways to disguise her scent.
One more thing: I want to remind everyone that it's in the official rules that you should vote based on strategy and such, not just based on which team looks better on paper. If I sent my lower levels to fight Khell's I think his probably have the advantage. Likewise if I had my ubers face off against his one-on-one, I think his may have the edge (although my guys' speed would at least make it competitive). But that's exactly why I don't do that. Instead I'm having my team use teamwork, with the lower levels working with the ubers to take out the opposing ubers, while leaving his lower level guys without much to do until my ubers are ready to turn their attention to them. With this sort of teamwork in place, I do think my guys have the edge. His team won't be able to pull off the same level of teamwork, partly because I made sure to take out the telepath who I'd expect to be coordinating their efforts, and partly because they all have drastically different temperments. His version of Silver Surfer is extremely evil, and Death Wolverine is also a villain, but he's pairing them with good guys like Iceman and Cable. (Cable was actually one of the guys fighting against Death Wolverine in the comics.) This is not a recipe for harmonious teamwork.
