The Odd Alliance
Onslaught (MU)
Vulcan (MU)
New Son (MM)
The Ray (DR)
Blink (note: Scroll down for 616) (MR)
VS
Heroes of the New Age
Martian Manhunter (DU)
Replicant (DU)
Psylocke (Telekinesis) (MM)
Zauriel (MR)
The Atom (Ray Palmer) (MR)
Prep-Time:
So the Odd Alliance appears. There could instantly be some strife due to Vulan's hatred of Xavier, but remember, he kinda moved beyond that at the end of Deadly Genesis due to all the bad things Xavier's had to face or do, and he's moved well into cosmic territory by now, so I don't see it as a problem. Onslaught will recognize Vulcan and I'd assume he'd recognize his brashness and such and so, offer to stand aside to allow Vulcan to lead (though sure to play his own game if necessary). New Son and Blink will already be with Onslaught and they will agree to work with Vulcan as long as it works to their benefit, and seeing that this is a war, Vulcan will likely embrace it so I don't really see any issues. The question though, is what would a hero like Ray do among these psychopaths? I think he'd be hesitant at first, but not knowing much about these people he won't necessarilly know how bad some of them can be. Now, since Onslaught can't use his powers during prep-time, he will come to Ray in his friendly Xavier persona (like in Fantastic Four 415 or so) and he will pursuade Ray that he is on his side and that, together, they need to learn what they can about their opponants. I see Ray being hesitant, but Xavier's never had a problem making people open up and soon I see Ray sharing what he knows. I'd imagine that in Ray's mind, he thinks it's he, Xavier, New Son, and Blink as a good unit and Vulcan as the renegade. He doesn't really know his team well though, and he'll likely be let down come the battle, but until then, Xavier can get what he needs from him.
So from Ray, Onslaught will learn all about Martian Manhunter, Zauriel, the Atom, and Replicant. He's been around long enough to easily know the three heroes (maybe a little less on Zauriel, but it should be enough), and I do believe that he and Replicant were in the same story with Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters right after Infinite Crisis. And that leaves Psylocke, who Xavier is very familiar with. Now, he will expect to prepare for Psylocke with telepathy and the crimson danw powers, instead of telekinesis, so that'll be a bit of a problem, but one easily fixed while in the field. He will share all of this with the rest of the team and they will then be able to prepare.
Now, while Onslaught can shield the team's minds from Martian Manhunter and (supposedly) Psylocke, the two telepaths could also shield their team from Onslaught, and so they feel that they are the two main threats. And so it will be tasked to Blink to dispose of Psylocke while Vulcan tackles Martian Manhunter. He claims he can take the alien on his own, but Onslaught plans on this not being the case and really only sees Vulcan as a distraction. His main purpose upon battling Martian Manhunter is to block the energies to the brain that controls his telepathy (it doesn't matter that it's an alien brain, as he isn't reading it, just feeling the energy and stopping it). Vulcan had once shut down Rachel Grey's telepathy in this way, even while she still had the Phoenix upgrade before losing it in Kingbreaker. Onslaught wonders if Vulcan can stop such power, but even if he can't, it should be enough for Onslaught to find his way inside to finish the job.
Other plans for Replicant, Zauriel, and Atom are made and soon they are ready for the next day's challenge. Ray sticks with Onslaught, in Xavier's guise, and they all prepare for the coming battle.
As for the HotNA, I don't forsee any problems of them working together. I don't know Replicant well enough to know if he'd cause a problem but even if he did, I don't see it lasting long. Most of this team know each other already, and Psylocke will fit in just fine. And so they begin their planning stage. Psylocke will recognize Onslaught as their biggest problem and explain him in detail. She'll have heard of Blink but has never met the girl. But from the time period this Psylocke comes from, Blink is dead and was very timid when she was alive, so she'll expect her to be just a timid teleporter and that's it. And that's if she even remembers or even knew anything about her. As for New Sun and Vulcan, both would be complete blanks, as both came around after this version of Psylocke. Ray would be an open book to everyone due to most knowing him.
Therefor, the team can plan for Ray, Onslaught, and Blink (tenatively), but two of the more powerful members, Vulcan and New Sun, are complete blanks... and that's dangerous for them. I'd imagine they'd have similar plans as the Odd Alliance, and that is to remove the telepath first so that they may then learn about Vulcan and New Sun through Martian Manhunter's telepathy. And they'd go from there on the unknowns. Until Onslaught is defeated, however, they would plan for distractionary measures to reach their first goal, as well as finding ways to get the unknowns to use their powers as to study them.
The Battle Begins
Now, the time for battle comes and all are inside of the Savage Land. After shielding everyone's minds, Onslaught performs a quick telepathic scan that tells him that there are not any other humans in the vacinity, which also tells him that their foes are being telepathically shielded by Martian Manhunter. Not being able to find them mentally, it falls to Ray and Blink to quickly begin covering the area, searching them out. Onslaught, Vulcan, and New Sun stay back for the time being.
HotNA begin their search with Zauriel taking to the skies to get an idea of the terrain. He mentally relays what he sees to the rest of the team through Martian Manhunter. His eyes will then spy a pink flash of light, and then another, and he will have found Blink. Not knowing that she is alone, Martian Manhunter calls for a distraction. Utilizing his and Psylocke's telepathy, they give a slight nudge and guide a pack of dinosaurs toward the apearing and reapparing lights, until there is a small stampeed. They following close behind carefully trying to remain unseen, but asside from one more flash, there is no one around to study. Zauriel sees one flash in the far distance and they make the assumption that this was Blink's fleeing back to camp, and so they feel they know where they are.
Blink vs Zauriel
Relaying that there was nothing but a stampeed, Vulcan recognizes the signs of herding beasts, as he's done so in the Shi'ar throneworld as show, and so they now know the general area of their opponants. Searching the area, a winged speck can be seen flying low and coming near and they know that they have been spotted.
Vulcan - "Blink, ground him!"
And just as quickly as it was stated, Blink is gone. Appearing above Zauriel, in the fraction of a second, she 'blinks' Zauriel's wings right off of him and then his armor as well. She vanishes as the angel falls, but then the angel is blinked away as well and HotNA is left shocked at the sudden attack that took all of two or three seconds. Back where the Odd Alliance are, Zauriel and Blink appear, Zauriel without his armor, a bloody stain where his wings once were. Recognizing his position he lets loose a sonic scream, blowing a few back but just as soon as he starts Blink blinks the angel to pieces, killing him without remorse. (she had done this once during the Necrosha: the Gathering one shot... so it's within character). You'll note that Ray was still scouting at this point and Blink's powers leave little mess for him to recognize. So for now, he does not know what just happened, though I'm sure he's figured out by Zauriel's scream that something's gone wrong.
Odd Alliance vs Heroes of the New Age
This was a quick removal of a scout and opponant, but something Vulcan's brash command did was 1) give away their location through Martian Manhunter's link to Zauriel and 2) reveal Blink fully to HotNA. Enranged, HotNA comes, their plan ready. Seeing himself better for the task of leadership, Onslaught quickly calls for Ray, who arrives, and sends him to find the others. He questions about Zauriel but Onslaught forces the issue of them finding their opponants if they are to save as many as possible. Ray does as he is told and in his lightening form quickly finds their location and returns. Upon seeing this Onslaught has Blink teleport everyone directly to them for the surprise attack. Having just witnessed Blink's powers, HotNA is a little more prepared than they should have been so a quick defeat isn't possible. Onslaught quickly unleashes a massive surge of telekinesis to unsteady them but it is met and matched by Psylocke, Replicant, and Martian Manhunter, and thus, their first strike is nullified.
Vulcan, seeing Martian Manhunter, attacks his foe, as Blink goes after Psylocke as planned. Having seen Blink's attack on Zauriel, and seeing her vanish now, Psylocke turns just as the pink light appears behind her and with a slash of her sword, Blink is left deeply wounded and removed from the playing field. However, with Blink's distraction and Vulcan's claiming Manhunter's attention, their telekinetic wave lessons and Onslaught easily increases and blows the rest of the HotNA team through the forest, against trees, etc. (note: while ubers can't attack regulars unless previously attacked, do note that Zauriel's scream and Psylocke's telekinesis block were attacks, thus, I feel give way for this assault, as vague as the assault is). With this opening salvo, the people begin to find their targets. Vulcan and Martian Manhunter take to the skies. Manhunter being essensial to the plan to take down Onslaught, the rest of the team is forced to find new strategy.
The Ray vs Psylocke
Replicant quickly assault Onslaught, and with Atom nowhere to be seen and Martian Manhunter busy, the Ray targets Psylocke. He flies to her quickly in his light form, and upon seeing him she dodges. She is quick, but not as quick as Ray, who turns into his energy form, allowing her kicks and sword to pass right through him. She then targets him again, but there is nothing there as she attacks it, a light illusion, and from behind he zaps her with a nonlethal force that simply renders her unconscious. She falls to the ground, and while she is an enemy, he is aware that she isn't a bad person, and so he picks her up and quickly runs off to hide her as to keep her from becoming hurt by the others who are obviously less inclined to care about a person's life.
New Son & Onslaught vs Replicant & the Atom
As this all takes place, New Sun has opted to stand back for a moment. All opponants are spoken for save the missing Atom, and since he cannot feel the kinetic flow of the little one's movements, he begins to survey all those around him. Vulcan and the Martian Manhunter are locked in battle covering the vastness of the Savage Land. He watches as the Ray drags Psylocke to safety, but having defeated her, New Sun allows him his nobility. This leaves only Replicant, who is now assaulting Onslaught with an inferno and a blizzard, attempting to freeze and fry the armor housing Charles Xavier, forcing it to explode. However, Onslaught's armor is mostly mental, and while he feels this assault, it takes more than contraction to destroy what his mind creates. Bolts of lightening reign down upon Onslaught and the mighty terror, without his mental powers is thrown to the ground wit a cry of agony, but just as quickly, he reaches up his hand and Replicant reaches for his own head, a surging pain of restriction surging through his neck. New Sun is aware that Onslaught is using his telekinesis to crush his foe, but then another cry of pain from Onslaught releases Replicant, though no cause for this sudden pain can be seen.
It is now that New Sun realizes the assault, and seeing the window of his need, he approaches at an amazing speed. Onslaught's mental powers ******ed, his armor begins to faulter, and upon seeing this moment of weekness, Replicant prepares his attack, but suddenly the world glows blue, and then a popping of his eyes fills his mind with rage and pain. A slight tingling of his body, similar to that of his eyes, is the last thing he remembers before the last of his outer skin destructs. The shock to his system knocks him the ground, and while his mind is filled with the pain and rage, his body can take no more and he finally succumbs to the pain. (Note: while he looks funky, I could'nt find anything in any bio saying Replicant wasn't still human, so I went with that. If he isn't human then I ask the reader to use your imagination on how New Sun could use his powers to kill him at this moment).
New Sun then turns to Onslaught, who is on his knees. Without his mental powers to find his assailant, due to Manhunter's blocking Atom's mind, the Atom had assault without prevention. He shrunk to such a size to find his way through the interesting, yet, intricate fabric of Onslaught's armor. While Onslaught had felt Replicant's assaults, his armor did protect him, and thus, is protected Atom as well. And as he finally made his way through the armor to the body of Xavier, he entered the man's ear and began whaling on his eardrumb. And now, he grows only a fraction of an inch, but enough to pop a few things, and thus, the tiniest of heroes fells the mightest mind. Xavier falls over, unconscious.
The Atom departs Xavier's ear, but as he begins to grow suddenly he stops, the kinetic energy necessary for the moment sucked dry, and suddenly a blue glow covers him. New Sun had felt the kinetic flow of his movemetn and knew the moment he had exited Xavier's ear. And now that slight blue hugh gives him away, and with a snap of his fingers, there's a slight pop of blue, ending the life of Ray Palmer.
New Sun - "And then there was one."
Vulcan vs. Martian Manhunter
The battle between these two has been drawn out. I chose to allow it to be seen by others instead of described because I felt it would be lengthy and tedious. Here's some things to keep in mind. First, Vulcan is able to cut off a person's telepathy by manipulating the energy of the brain, as seen in X-Men: Deadly Genesis. Being that Manhunter is alien and powerful, I didn't know whether or not he could do this fully as he did with Rachel Grey, so I had him doing it to cut him off, but not entirely. There were no mental assaults, or challenge to Onslaught keeping everyone's minds clear, but Manhunter was still able to shield his team. I'd imagine, however, that by trying to keep his team safe he distracted himself a bit. With the mental aspect taken care of, Manhunter also has his heat vision, but Vulcan, as an Omega Level energy manipulator, can manipulate this easily, firing it back into Manhunter's eyes and whatnot. The massive amounts of energy that Vulcan can use would hurt Manhunter, but his healing and shapeshift and form altering can protect him from much of that. And many other attacks on both sides can wound, but not take out the other.
So now comes the final moments. Onslaught is defeated, clearing up Manhunter's mind, but Manhunter's team is also defeated, leaving him alone. I'd imagine that he'd intensify his assault on Vulcan, if for no other reason than to try and find a moment to escape and collect himself, perhaps regroup with any surviving members of his team. Now, Vulcan is not one to ask for help, but being so evenly matched with this beast, a thought will come to mind. As he fights, he feels out and finds the energies of the Ray. Manipulating it beyond Ray's control, the Ray becomes the inwilling pawn of Vulcan, who is, if nothing else, a bully. Vulcan keeps Manhunter busy, keeping his telepathy at bay, and suddenly a yellow burst of heat and energy flies through the air, directed by Vulcan and flies right through Vulcan's head, round about the ears. This stuns and stops the alien, and in this moment of pause Vulcan unleashes a tramendous amount of energy, frying the Manhunter from mars to the very core of his being. His mind damaged, his body mangled, and his team defeated, the manhunter falls from the sky and thuds to the ground.
The Ray, now in control of hiimself again, rushes to Martian Manhunter's side, but he is gone. The rage in the hero's heart becomes overwhelming as he takes to the sky to assault the mutant who had taken advantage of him and who killed his friend, but it matters not. All vanish, the match finished.
Winner - The Odd Alliance
