Author: covar

Champions (8): Ms. Marvel, Hulk (Totally Awesome), Vision (Viv), Spider-Man (Miles), Nova

Red Hood and the Outlaws (9): Red Hood, Artemis, Bizarro, Arsenal, Starfire

The Red Hood stands in front of his his peculiar companions, pulls out twin MACs, and commands “Well, I guess we know what to do here.” He raises his arms, and starts running and shooting.

Amadeus Cho, the Totally Awesome Hulk, swoops in front of the oncoming projectiles, shielding his team. As the bullets bounce off his chest. He bends down and picks up one of the bullets, “Rubber?”

Ms Marvel, surprised by the initial aggression, calls out to her compatriots, “That’s what this is!?! We’re just going to shoot first and ask questions later? FINE… EMBIGGEN!” As she grows her legs taller and fists larger, she reaches out and begins smashing the man with the guns.

Bizarro leaps into the fray seeing his new friend, the Red Hood buried under a fist. “YOU NO AM HURT RED HE!” he shouts, lifting the fist and throwing its owner across the coliseum. He looks up to engage the remainder of the team to find himself eating a faceful of webbing.

Spider-Man, trying to pull the behemoth in a red cape towards him, ends up launching himself towards the other team. Ever the improvist, he chatters, “Alley Oop!” and swings into Red Hood’s chest kicking the man off his feet.

As Spider-Man starts swinging around the monster for another pass, his webbing is cut short by Artemis’s ax. She stands ready to strike again as Spider-Man somersaults to his feet. As the ax come down, he leaps out of the way, though strangely, his Spider-Sense doesn’t stop buzzing. As he reaches the apex of his bound, WHABAM! He’s pelted with an energy blast, emanating from Starfire, floating just above. As he reaches the ground with a soft thud, he’s blasted again.

Starfire pulls up for a third blast when she’s speared by the human rocket, Nova exclaiming, “That’s my friend, lady!” Starfire punches down with both fists to shake her assailant. The force is much greater than Nova anticipated. His blast fails and he falls begins falling, unprotected to the ground.

Halfway through the decent, Viv Visions swoops in to grab her new compatriot to gently set him on the ground. As she lowers her altitude, she shares with her team, “I have nothing in my databanks in regards to any of these…” PAFF She’s cut short by a blast produced by an exploding arrow. Arsenal fires another towards the android and she phases out of the way. Her evasion backfires somewhat, as she drops Nova. Amid the hail of oncoming arrows, she loses track of her imperilled and he plummets to the the ground.  Determined, Vision  jets towards the archer and punches him square in the jaw. Before she can scan Arsenal to determine the efficacy of her attack she’s pushed back by a torrent of fire.

Using his fire breath to escape Spider-Man’s webbing, Bizzaro sees Artemis sparring with the Hulk. With lightning speed he strikes, only to whiff as she zips past, around him. Stumbling past his target, Bizarro is unprepared for the force of the titanic green fist of the Hulk.

As Bizarro is reeling back, Artemis charges in and slashes hard into the Hulk’s chest. Astonished that the weapon was able to push through his durable skin, Hulk whimpers, snarls, and lashes out. Artemis jumps over the first fist, sidesteps the second, has the third bounce off her ax, and as she tries to retaliate, notices the ax stops, mid swing. The Hulk, holding the handle, pulls its bearer towards him and violently flings her off.

Gloating his immediate victory, the Hulk fails to notice as Starfire flies overhead. Lifting the musclebound mammoth and tossing him into the air,  she begins an incredible amount of energy. The blasts, much larger and stronger than those she used earlier, continue to increase their intensity. As the Hulk lands, with a loud, “KRA-THOOM” she blasts directly into the crater with all her might. Hulk lifts his head and groans before his it falls. His eyes roll back in his head, and close. Falling gracefully behind him, and landing just beside, is an exhausted and power spent Starfire.

Leaping over the fallen Starfire and Hulk, Red Hood resumes fire upon Ms. Marvel. Even with her elasticity and enbiggened form, the bullets hurt. She bashes down at him with her left fist. “Fool me once,” Red Hood whispers to himself as he dodges the attack. Ms. Marvel strikes down with her other hand, the Red Hood evades the attack once more. Ms. Marvel brings down the left again, and as Red Hood sees the hand coming down, he springs off of rising right thumb and up and flips in air to land a kick square on her nose. As She’s stumbling back, Bizarro soars in and grabs her by the back of her collar, flying her into the, pillowy side of the stadium. Despite the cloudy substance, whatever the force that keeps them in the stadium knocked her out.

Rushing to Ms. Marvel’s aid, Vision’s daughter glides over and catches the eye of Bizarro. Viv pauses for moment to process the speed and strength shown by the crystalline faced man. As she confirms Ms. Marvel’s vitals are still functioning with a quick scan and just as Bizarro takes off after her, Viv wheels around back towards the rest of the fray. Bizarro is far too speedy for Viv to outrun, and precisely as she calculated, he catches up to her just before she can get to the remainder of the battle. Viv’s battlefield observation and analysis, showed that this creature thinks little about what is behind his target and he barrels, careening through the phased form of a Vision, accidentally landing an intense blow onto his teammate, Artemis.

The dust of impact settles with Spider-Man and Vision side by side, to watch Red Hood saunter up next to and enraged Bizarro. Bizarro take off after the Vision again. As the two dart around the stadium, Bizarro mindlessly trying to catch the inanimate robot, Red Hood opens fire on Spider-Man. He dodges, naturally, and spins into an attack of his own. Much to his surprise, the Red Hood is able to step back and avoid the kick. Even with his spider speed, strength, and spider sense, he finds it difficult to land one solid strike. The combat training and willpower of his opponent being too much to overcome, he fires a webline up to Bizarro and take off. It might not do much good, but at least he’s a foe that can be punched.

WINNER: Red Hood and the Outlaws

GotG (8): Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot

Detective Comics (9): Batwoman, Orphan, Spoiler, Clayface, Batwing

The battle preparation of Kate Kane is immediately evident as she checks her teammates. Looking across the battlefield, she observes what appear to be… aliens, a tree, a shampoo model, and… a raccoon with a gun? This unit has faced monsters before, it wasn’t easy, but together, there’s few problems that they haven’t been able to overcome.

It’s Batwing who first breaks the awkward silence, “So, how we doing this?”

Batwoman thinks with a quickness and tactical genius that can only come from years of training and study. She reflects on all her years of combat and purses out, “Clayface, you take the tree, make some axes maybe, cut it down. Orphan and Spoiler, you’re on the two green ones, be careful, they look tough and we don’t know their capabilities. Try to stay on the defensive until you’ve got them figured out. Batwing, you…” She’s cut off.

“I’ll take the normal looking dude, I’m not about to fight a raccoon, watch out for his gun?!” He jets off to battle.

Meanwhile, Star-Lord stares down quizzically as the other team has their meeting. “You know, the redhead is kind of hot, I think, she’s kind of far away, maybe I should go after her?” he jogs off towards his objective.

Drax screams, “BATTLE!” and pulls out two alarmingly large knives. And takes off, full sprint.

Groot mumbles, “I am Groot.” and picks up the Rocket, placing him on his shoulder as he lumbers into the fray.

Gamora rolls her eyes and mutters to herself, “how did I get mixed up in all of this?” as she chases after her cohorts, most assuredly knowing that she’ll be saving at least one of them in a very short manner of time.

The ten clash in the middle of the arena full fury. Batwing reaches his target first, flying two fists first at Star-Lord’s abdomen. Just before landing his attack, Groot extends his long wooden arms to swat Batwing away. Batwing adjusts and turns up, which is perfect for Rocket. He’s been working with Groot long enough to know how this end. He takes aim at the giant metal bat and get ready to shoot.

PTANG! A red, metal bat flies into Rocket’s tiny Raccoon hands and he drops his gun.

“Oh, HELL NO!” Rocket dives off of his timbered friend to attack and jumps onto Batwoman’s face. “Take this! And this! And THAT!” His tiny fists antagonizing.

“Get off me raccoon!” Batwoman grabs the alien and flings him.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?!” Rocket pounces again, but Batwoman is slightly less surprised this time. She’s able to sidestep the lunge, but underestimates the recovery speed, and Rocket makes a sharp turn from the ground to scurry up Batwoman.

As Batwoman is frantically trying to fight the cosmic rodent, Clayface arrives at Groot, stops and forms up giant axes to chop down Groot. Groot reaches out to stop the blades, his wooden finger cracking as axes come down. Clayface roars and turns one arm into a spiked wrecking ball. He smashes into center mass and Groot get knocked down.

“Hey! That tree’s a friend of mine!” Star-Lord whips out his element guns and sets to fire. The flames erupt onto Clayface, forcing him to retreat a step in retaliation.

Drax arrives a moment after screaming, “Mine too!” He drives his knives into Clayface’s chest. The knives get sucked in, then forearms, up to his shoulder’s, and Drax become fully engulfed within Clayface.

“Great! Half our work is done!” Spoiler calls to Orphan. “Want to double up on the other green one?”

Not that there would have been a response, but Gamora doesn’t leave it open for on anyway, “One of you, two of you, all five of you. It doesn’t matter. I’m the Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe.” She draws a sword and stabs at Spoiler.

Orphan is able to kick the blade away inches away from it’s target and coldly replies, “No.” She strikes out at Gamora testing her abilities. Gamora is able to counter ever blow. Spoiler decides that she needs to tip the scales and fires her grappling gun. The cable ensnares Gamora for the briefest of moments, but it’s an eternity to Orphan. She makes the most of the opening and kicks the center of gamora’s chest. A normal person would buckle over, unable to breath. If she’s kicked a little bit harder, a normal person would never be able to breath again. Gamora staggers back slightly, cuts through the cable with her sword, and charges. Cassandra’s lips form the faintest of smiles as she realizes this is a foe with whom she does not have to hold back.

Seeing her friend dive into a frenzy, Spoiler decides to turn her attention elsewhere. She scans the battle and see Clayface recoiling from fire while looking… like he ate something funny? And she sees they regular guy holding the flame thrower. She springs into action, casting a line off of the tree person as it picks itself up and swings a kick into Star-Lord. The attack forces him several feet back and he lands on his side.

“Flamethrowers? Not very original!” Stephanie Brown taunts as she digs through her utility belt for the perfect follow up weapon.

“Element Gun!” Star Lord retorts, setting his weapons to wind and blowing her away. He rolls over and pops up. He dashes back towards Clayface when Batwoman, still frantically engaged in a bizarre mele with Rocket stumbles into him. Knocking him over again. “Quit screwing around Rocket, let’s get Drax out of that mud monster!” He pulls Rocket off of Batwoman.

“Thanks,” she smiles, “but I don’t need your help.” She punches Peter Quill in the head and drops like a rock. She turns her attention back to Rocket but he’s wandered off, nowhere to be found. She see Batwing swooping in up ahead and Bat-Ropes to him, landing on top of Groot. “Let’s see what we can do here.” She pulls a couple of Bat-Knuckles out of her belt and goes to town trying to damage his barky exterior while dodging around his attempts to defend himself while Batwing flies in and out doing the same.

Forgoing his personal vendetta against Batwoman, and bereft his own gun, Rocket grabs the two Element Guns and cranks the setting, “Let’s give this a shot” He blasts out water onto Clayface.

Clayface laughs at first, “That tickles!” But his snicker soon turns to concern. “Hey Cut that out!”

“Shuddup and MAKE ME!” Rocket doubles down, his plan seeming to work. Clayface can only take on so much of the water, unable to escape it, he washes out into a pile of mud on the ground.

As the mud heap begins to dwindle, Clayface’s ability to hold form dwindling, Drax bursts through, exploding the last vestiges of Clayface’s human appearance. He sees the two attacking Groot, and he spring into to action. “The tree is under MY protection!”

“I don’t think he needs it!” Batwing frantically offers, just moments before Groot is able to reach up and grab him. Groot throws the armor to the ground and stomps over him. His feet begin to grown around, and then into the dirt. Batwing is trapped under the weight of a tree, with the pressure of his root system pulling down. It takes moments for his mechanical systems to fail and leave him trapped underneath.

Noticing the new threat, Batwoman hops off and takes the fight to Drax. After a few punches and kicks she can’t help but say aloud, “You’re stronger than Bane.”

“I don’t know who Bane is, but I assure you, he could not defeat me.”

“I said you’re stronger, and you don’t have to worry about him defeating you, you have to worry about ME.” She Bat-Rops his feet and pulls him down.

She throws an adhesive bomb down on his chest, SPLURCH, a thick glue covers his torso and Batwoman takes off after the captor of Batwing.

She’s intercepted halfway there by her old friend, Rocket. “You thought I was just gonna give up on us? I thought we had something special! Hahaha!” he taunts just before firing the element gun’s “Earth” feature all around her, encasing her in a closed off, rocky prison.

A quick scan allows him to find Gamora, holding off both Spoiler and Orphan. Given time, who knows how it’d end up, but after Rocket frees Drax and the two join the fight, they’re just too much to handle, even for our world’s greatest fighter.

WINNER: Guardians of the Galaxy

Avengers (1): Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Vision, Wasp

Freedom Fighters (16): Uncle Sam, Doll Man, Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, The Ray

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters peer of to their colorfully clad rivals. Uncle Sam addresses his team, “I realize that one may look like he’s on our side, but for all we know, he’s secretly been a Nazi since the 1940’s and he’s been kind of laying low and sabotaged the Nazi’s in the 40’s so that he could gain the trust of the superheros from his Earth and now that it’s been, what, almost 75 years now, and no, NOW, he’s deciding that in like, a month or two, he’s going to take over the country!”

The rest of the Freedom fighters stare at him, confused, until from the lowest of heights, Dollman pipes up, “That might be the single dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard, but I don’t care, I guess, let’s go win the fight!” Turning to face his opponents he realizes that they maybe spent too much time elaborating on a dumb idea, as Iron Man has already taken to the skies and has begun pelting the Freedom Fighters with repulsor blasts.

The first blast hits Dollman’s  tiny frame square in the chest. As he’s rocketed off, a cocky Tony Stark gloats, “targeting computer, little man!”

The Ray, avenging his friend, swings his arms towards the flying armor and prepares to strike when suddenly, out of nowhere, he’s zapped by the astonishing Wasp! He turns to find his foe and is zapped again, and again, and again! Twirling around, looking for his agressor, he’s left defenseless as an Arrow flies in and fells him.

The Human Bomb friends with Dollman for years, uses his keen sight to spot the wasp and grab hold of her mid air with his right hand. As he shakes off the glove of his left to use his kinetic powers, the Vision swoops in, grabs the Wasp, and punches the Human Bomb. knocking him out cold.

The Wasp, released from Vision’s grip, angles high and grows to full size as she get the drop on Phantom Lady. Phantom Lady activates her Black Light Bands and turns herself invisible and intangible. Standing targetless, the Wasp shrinks back down to bug size and takes a lap around the arena to check the other fallen Freedom Fighters and make sure they’re down for the count.

Using her advantage to get close, Phantom Lady streaks across the stadium to the archer that shot the Ray. She looks up into the sky and positions herself just right. She turns visible and whistles at Hawkeye. On instinct he notches and arrow and lets it fly. The shaft passes straight through the phantom form and finds itself bouncing off the back of Iron Man’s armor. Phantom Lady winks at the confused Hawkeye and steps down on his toe, as he naturally bends over, she hits him hard with an uppercut. “Well, at least we got one of them.” she sighs, and goes to investigate the armor that she’s going to have to try to put down.

Iron Man’s sensors pick up more than just the visible light spectrum, and his stealthy adversary does not go quite as unnoticed as she’d hoped for. Iron Man blasts out a repulsor, it moves unaffected though its target, another, and another, to no avail. Preoccupied with the spectral beauty, he misses Uncle Sam, having grown to a height reaching the flying Avenger. Rolling up his titanic sleeves, he swats Iron Man out of the sky and onto the ground.

Captain America jumps onto the mammoth, “I see the stars and stripes, but I’ve seen others hide behind them before too!” Uncle Sam grows even larger, even more powerful, and punches down. Cap takes the brunt of the attack with his shield, and rolls up the Uncle Sam’s wrist to start climbing the giant. Cap socks him in the face and the two tumble back, landing on old shellhead, who had just started to get up. Phantom Lady sees the collision and giggles, “I guess we’ve got too!” and she starts rushing towards Captain America, to defend her field leader.

The Vision swoops in to intercept, but Phantom Lady phases to rush through. She’s stunned as she jams into the robot at full speed and falls at an immediate halt.

“You are not the only one with density manipulating powers, and phase shifting. Though I am the only one who can read a frequency and match it. A noble effort.  And with a twist he takes after Captain Rogers, who’s battling back and forth in a star spangled repartee with Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam is too strong, and somehow, only getting stronger with each of Captain America’s attacks. Captain America is too fast, and his shield is too tough for Uncle Sam to damage his adversary at all. The Wasp watches in awe for just a moment until she see the Vision float into view attack Uncle Sam at eye level, and Iron Man recouped to starts shooting repulsors at his midsection, while Cap jumps and attacks the legs. The Wasp swoops in and starts shocking Uncle Sam at his core. And while he’s fueled by Captain America’s resolve, he’s getting nothing from the Vision and little from the Wasp, with even less from Iron Man and eventually he starts to shrink until he’s back to his normal human height, taking punches from three directions. Cap connects with a vicious hay-maker and Uncle Sam falls. Softly smiling and thinking to himself, “Go get ‘em son, you’ve earned it.”

WINNER: Avengers