Character Scramble Season 18 Round 1B: Tempest Without, Crisis Within

[u/GuyOfEvil]

This round covers matches 9-16 in the bracket which can be found Here, check to see if you're in before you write

---

Round 1B is finished and the thread is locked! Please use this form to vote. Voting ends 48 hours after it began, at midnight on the 22nd. You MUST vote if you are competing!

The Character Scramble is a long-running writing prompt tournament in which participants submit characters from fiction to a specified tier and guideline. After the submission period ends, the submitted characters are "scrambled" and randomly distributed to each writer, forming their team for the season. Writers will then be entered into a single-elimination bracket, where they write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Victors are decided based on reader votes; in other words, if you want people to vote for you, write some good content. The winner by votes of each match-up moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion, who gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next Scramble!

The theme of Character Scramble 18 is Secret Wars. Round prompts will be based on scenarios and setpieces from the original Secret Wars comic, as well as some other classic Marvel stories and scenarios, but will primarily be flavored by each participant being placed on one of two massive teams that will battle it out for supremacy.

---

Hub Post

Rosters

Join the email list!

Join the Character Scramble Discord!

---

Round 1B: Tempest Without, Crisis Within

Your team now finds themselves on Battleworld proper, and figures their first order of business is... What was that noise?!

It doesn't take much scouting to figure out the sound was from a lightning bolt which just split a mountain in half. A storm is coming, furious enough to tear a mortal man limb from limb in an instant. Its lightning is enough to split the world asunder, its wind mighty enough to move mountains. Even your powerful warriors would be brought low by its awesome fury. They had better make sure that doesn't happen.

Without much looking, you're able to find a shelter which might do. There's just one problem. Some other people found it too, and for reasons which may be physical, mental, spiritual, or economic, it just isn't big enough for the both of you. However you figure out who's going to get the shelter and who isn't, you'd better figure it out fast...

Because brother, it's starting to rain.

---

Round Rules:

• All The Hurricanes On Earth For A Thousand Years Rolled Into One: There is a storm, and for one reason or another, your characters absolutely cannot be caught in it. Maybe it's like I describe in the prompt, a world rending storm to end all storms, or maybe they just got a perm and can't get it wet. Either way, your team had better not find themselves in it.

• Far More Dangerous However, Is The Man Within: Whether your opponent is on your Superteam or not, whatever place you find to hunker down cannot have both you and them inside of it. Regardless of how you settle the disagreement, the round should end with them out, and you in.

---

Normal Rules:

• The Third In A Twelve Part Crossover Series: Although the Guest Pool on the roster only includes unscrambled characters, you will, at all times, be allowed to write any characters in your pool as guests for the round, including characters on other people's teams. Full lists of characters on Team Secret and Team Wars can be found... on those links.

• The Marvel Way: It's a comic book, the good guys always win out in the end, or if your team is the bad guys, they'll get to win out in the end, just this once. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!

• In an All-New All-Different Costume: You are absolutely encouraged to write your characters gaining or losing equipment/abilities/injuries/sanity. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes and vice versa.

• Amazing! Astonishing! Uncanny!: Give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. Be sure to mention things like powers, personality, history, just stuff that the average reader should know before reading.

---

Round 1B will run from 1/26/24 to 2/19/24. 11:59 CST.

Character limit is 5 full length Reddit comments, or 50k characters.

While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

[u/Proletlariet]

She wasn't cute anymore.

The new Kumoko stood taller than Gura. A humanoid torso plugged into a monster with drooling fangs big enough to bite off her head.

---

Kumoko

Sinister Spider Conspirator

---

She scuttled closer. The little grey frog boy trembled behind Gura's ankle. Kiara slumped against her side. She couldn't run.

"Why are you doing this?" Gura demanded.

"They made me small and unobtrusive so I could stay behind the scenes and manage schedules and run errands and make everything work for all those wonderful smart people without getting in their way. It's all so unambitious. I mean, if you're born to be exceptional then are you really? And if you aren't, you aren't? So I'm a spider? So what? Did anybody ever think if I might want to work magic? Or write in a diary? Or hold somebody's hand? Or wear a pretty dress? Or flirt with the cute pastry chef in the palace kitchen? Or turn a stupid doorknob without using my whole body!?!"

In her ten eyes burned the madness of the aggrieved.

"But my friends and I have been working really hard to fix that. We're going to start a war. And then all that will matter is how strong and clever you are. I'm very clever. And now, I feel very strong too."

"Conjuration: Deathscythe."

A wicked looking weapon appeared in Kumoko's human hands. She turned it over lovingly.

The blade whipped out. A wall of computer banks slid apart as though hot butter.

"I've always wanted to use that spell. I'm so glad I finally have the hands for it. I really do feel grateful to you, if that helps."

The scythe fell like a guillotine.

[u/Proletlariet → u/Proletlariet]

As the grey tempest built and built all the world's sound and colour crumbled. Wherever the fell wind blew solid matter flecked like ash. People sheltered behind walls that grew thinner every second. Doom and the Captain's capes were in tatters. In the cockpit of Enkidu alarms blared nonstop. System failure after failure. The armour peeled, groaned, and finally with a "Pop" the front panel came loose and blew away.

But still Viral fought on.

He wasn't really thinking now. Not more than one word: 'Mine' and it was all bound up in Captain Underpants. Years of shame and guilt and dissatisfaction had found their home inside one man and Viral was going to tear it all out even if it killed him.

Judging by the burning of his skin as it too flaked apart, it really would.

Doom and Underpants were just standing there watching the storm and talking. Actually talking. As if there was anything to say to each other beyond a vow to kill.

"...you are certain you can stop it?"

"No. But I'm gonna try. Please make sure everyone stays clear."

They were ignoring him. "Combat Fodder." Fine. He was. But Doom was no better than him. People like Viral got the job done. People like Viral--

"DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!"

He brought his half-dissolved sword down right on his gleaming dome. He'd cleave him in half. It'd be over. One more mission under his belt.

Viral's sword froze.

Doom turned. Eyes enraged. Gauntlet glowing hot from the strain of his telekinetic grip.

"You have destroyed more of my city than he has, dog, and now he is our only hope to save it."

Viral was torn free of the cockpit.

"I have no use for a tool as crude as you. Perish."

The city swelled beneath him. He was flying. Up. Over the edge. And down. Down.

The mechanism that kept Heliopolis afloat generated a strong constant updraft. He was falling. But he'd keep falling. Possibly forever. Or at least until somebody fished him up.

There were worse things that could happen to him.

A shadow grew. Viral looked up and saw his own ravaged mech following him over the city's edge. Its bulk was much too great for the updraft and so it grew closer and closer.

It swallowed him into its gaping cockpit. And they fell together. Down into the waiting Nile.

[u/Proletlariet → u/Proletlariet]

Gura wasn't really sure how she got the trident up in time. Call it blind adrenaline.

As befitting for an artefact of the great Lordgenome himself it held. The scythe clanged off.

"What!?" Kumoko raised her scythe again. "Enchantment: Corrosion."

CLANG!

"Enchantment: Rot."

CLANG!

"Poison Touch! Annihilate! Death Touch! Weapon Scourge! Rust Devil! Armour Breaker! Spirit Negate! Shatterpoint! Die! Die! Die! Die!"

Again. Again. Again. Gura lost her footing under the sheet weight of blows and nearly lost her grip as well. One end of the trident dipped, and the scytheblade slid off and severed the strap of Gura's backpack.

It spilled over, and out plopped the slumbering form of the Bloop she'd spared back on the beach. It shook itself awake and looked up.

In the split instant before Kumoko could swing again Gura lashed out her foot and punted Bloop across the lap into the Combine-O-Tron.

What emerged what perhaps more uncanny than Kumoko. Its head remained the exact same size but now it had a big muscular man's body the same height as the pale giant. It blinked owlishly.

"I'll eat you if you pull this lady into the thing you're standing in!"

The Bloop's expression betrayed its thoughts. Something to the effect of 'Oh boy!'

Its bulging biceps hooked Kumoko under the elbows.

"No!! Let go!"

It dragged her writhing and screaming back into the sparking chamber.

Gura lunged and in the nick of time she flipped the lever to 'reverse' before something really, really messy happened.

The Combine-O-Tron flared as its stored genetic sample was extract painfully from its two occupants. Kumoko let out a piercing wail that rapidly dipped in volume as she reduced in size.

"No! You can't take this from me, you can't!" She scuttled desperately across the floor--only for a sturdy specimen jar to tumble off a shelf and trap her.

The grey frog boy flashed Gura a big thumbs up from where he stood between the beakers.

"Teamwork!"

[u/Proletlariet → u/Proletlariet]

He had to do it. He was the only one who could.

Doom's armour was strong but he couldn't grow it back.

Cap's skin was tough as leather chaps and he healed a lot quicker. Not quick enough to counteract the Monochrome storm. His skin was raw, and his bones felt brittle.

He broke through into the eye of the storm in screaming agony. But he smiled and trumpetted his "Tra la laa!" because he was here so everything had to be okay.

The man in the middle of it all was so pale you could hardly see him.

It wasn't as much a moving fight as a fight that defied movement. The combatants flickered between poses every quarter second. Like a chess match. Or a film with too many frames clipped out.

Divine Power: Thousand Dragons Under Heaven

Black slithery things erupted from his back and snaked for Captain Underpants, biting, gnashing, drooling for his flesh.

Don't Get Your Serpents In A Bunch

Cap pulled off a tight loop de loop, then suddenly corkscrewed. The single minded snakeheads knotted themselves together trying to match his movements, pulling so taut that several simply burst.

Divine Power: White Wall

The storm solidified into a rock-solid thing barring the Captain's path. In the first millisecond he touched it he could tell that it would strip him to the bone.

Use Your Head

So he presented the thickest, toughest part of himself first: his skull.

Captain Underpants lowered his head and charged through, shattering the wall to bits even as the brief contact flayed at him.

Divine Power: Blood Spear

They were finally face to face now properly. The pale man's expression did not budge. But he assumed a fighting stance and in his hands there sprouted a long fluid polearm. Looking into its liquid surface was like gazing into mirror glass with no reflection.

He thrust, and the air ignited with the friction.

If You're Clappy And You Know It, Catch That Spear

He couldn't even see the point. Faster than any missile. Faster than any bullet. And he was dead tired.

He moved on pure intuition.

His blistered hands clapped together and he caught it less than a hair away from his heart. Motion caught up with action. All that suddenly halted energy nearly bucked his arms off--but he held fast.

The pale man lowered the spear.

"Very well. You have earned the right. We'll speak a while."

---

Hei Long Tian

Heaven Itself.

---

"I am the Three Enclosures of the universe. I am the thousand thousand stars that light the sky. The Twenty-Eight Mansions of the cosmos are my summer palaces and Great Tai Wei Yuan at the heart of all things my throne. The forces of Yin and Yang, Light and Darkness, Law and Chaos, Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, Steel, are all but courtiers in my hall. All that Heaven birthed is my subject. All that man created is beneath me. Who are you who would oppose me?"

Captain Underpants considered that.

"I'm Captain Underpants," he said, "I save the day."

"They will not be grateful to you." Tian said. "Your kind created them, and yet they will not even respect what you are. They are ingrates. Prodigal children. Given the chance they will surpass and kill you. Is this no concern?"

Captain Underpants remembered the contorted angry faces of the crowds as they cheered on Doom and welcomed his death. He certainly didn't like it. But the thought had never crossed his mind to stop.

"I don't think it matters really."

"I am beyond your strength. If you attempt to fight me, even if you win, you will be weak enough that they will tear you apart and you will never save another life. Will you still face me?"

"Yes."

Tian seemed for a moment to look through him.

"I see." He said. He sounded almost surprised. "You are more like a god in spirit than a man."

"What do you mean?" Asked Captain Underpants.

"Raiden thunders. It is his nature. I smite men for their hubris. It is my nature. You 'save the day.' For that is yours unshakably. You could no more commit a selfish deed than water could flow upstream. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Said Captain Underpants.

"And does that frighten you?"

He thought about that.

"No." He decided. "I'm a hero. Someone has to be."

Tian nodded.

"That is enough. In truth, I won't last long here. But the most instructive punishments are often what might have been."

Bit by bit Tian's body faded. His own Monochrome ate away at the god's unstable host.

"Make sure they remember, strange little god."

The tempest died.

[u/Proletlariet → u/Proletlariet]

Epilogue

They met in the lab below the university. Cap with his bruised head and battered body. Doom surreptitiously replacing his armour piece by piece with a gleaming fresh set. But no Viral.

Gura didn't want to ask.

The grey frog had reverted to a boy, and then, startled, assumed the form of a muscled red giant with two extra arms when Doom approached them.

Gura put a hand on his arm. "Hey, easy, that's my friend with him there."

He relaxed. But not much.

"Who are you that would invade Doom's privacy?" Doom asked. He didn't sound particularly interested. Gura guessed he'd had a long day too.

"The name's Ben. But I'm four arms to you, tinhead. And I'm here to get my friend back."

---

Ben 10

Superhero with the power of decidedly more than 10 different aliens.

---

"The godling? Take him." Doom waved a hand dismissively. "That research was a dead end."

Something hissed. The man on the operating table seemed to inflate, a healthy godly glow restored. He flexed free of his restraints and then fell over groaning.

---

Hercules

Zeus's #1 son. Greatest hero of Ancient Greece.

---

"Where-- What?"

Ben caught and steadied him. "What did you do to him, tinhead?"

"Nothing irreversible. With his divine essence reinfused he will return to good health."

"I'll show you irreversible…"

"By all means. Try."

Kiara appeared, still tottering a bit but face set firm. "Boys. Stop it! We have a city to rebuild here, Doom. No starting fights."

It made Gura giggle to see Doom actually look sheepish. "I apologise your highness. I will tolerate their presence until this armistice is over."

Your highness! And he really meant it! Gura wished she got that kind of respect back home.

Captain Underpants raised a hand like he was in school. "If you don't mind, just who are you fellows? That was a great trick, turning into a big monster."

"You like that, I've got about 9 more where that came from!" Ben grinned. "We're what you might call superheroes."

"Superheroes!?" As beat up as he was Cap's eyes still gleamed like a great big kid.

"I'm with a group called the Secret Warriors. We're gonna help humanity crawl out of their caves again."

"Hah!" Doom snorted. Kiara shot him a meaningful look.

"We've actually had our eye on you." Ben scratched the back of his head. "Call this a pretty good impression. You'll hear from us again. Count on it." He flashed a big salute, slung Hercules over his shoulder, and bounded away through the hole in the lab's ceiling.

"We owe the Princess thanks as well." Doom said. "To think, such a plot beneath my very beak. Unacceptable."

"Sis.." Kiara took Gura's hand. "If there's anything I can do for you, let me know. You don't have to tell me why you ran away. As long as you stay safe."

"Um.." Gura kicked the ground. "There's two things. Actually. First I'm gonna need your key."

Kiara looked like she wanted to say something. But then she sighed. "You're too stubborn to say no." She removed it from around her neck. It was a brilliant red feather quill. It shimmered as Gura stuffed it into her now one-strapped bag. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

"And what of your second request?" Asked Doom.

"Don't freak out."

Gura picked up the jar in which they'd trapped Kumoko and before anyone could stop her, tossed it into the Combine-O-Tron.

The room was silent. Even Kumoko didn't try to run. Or stop the attendant Doombots from hurriedly shackling her.

"Why?" She asked.

"You said you were miserable like that. I think you should go to jail for tryin' to kill me and all, but your body shouldn't be a prison too."

She just shook her head and stared at Gura the entire time she was led away. "You're insane. Absolutely insane."

"Yeah, well.. Someone's gotta be."