r/whowouldwin • u/7thSonOfSons • Mar 16 '18
Special Character Scramble IX Semi-Finals: Exploration of the Collective Origin
The Character Scramble is a bloodmatch tournament where people compete to analyze unique matchups and scenarios and write the best story they can. At the beginning, everyone submits characters that meet the guidelines, then those characters are randomized and distributed evenly. From then on, each week there's a new writing prompt for everyone to follow. At the end of the week, everyone votes for who they think should advance, until we have our winner at the end. The winner at the end of the tournament gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next scramble, along with a sweet custom flair as their reward. The current theme is based on the mobile game Fate: Grand Order, and the current tier is anywhere from 2/10 to 8/10 DCEU Wonder Woman, using only feats from her standalone movie
Without further ado, here we go!
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[Pairings and Road to Redemption]()
The Semi-Final Round will be the following matches: /u/CalicoLime VS /u/TheMightyBox72 and /u/GlowingNipples VS /u/Voeltz
Well, it was coming to an end. All your trials and tribulations, all your triumphs and conquests, now reaching their apex. The organization your team has found themselves working for is ready to come clean. Ready to admit what this was all about: retrieving the Holy Grail. An omnipotent wish granting artifact, lost to time and space. But while you were off sun tanning and playing around in pirate days, they were doing REAL work: locating that precious goblet. Now there was only one issue, and that was finding an artifact that resonated with the grail.
Which was, apparently, more difficult than one would think. Sure there was 'The Sword of a Sun God' and 'The Spear of the All-Father', but you weren't exactly equipped to handle something on that scale. No, no, instead they'd be sending you somewhere far less dangerous, at the cost of being far more difficult to explain. And before you had a chance to argue, you were whisked back to the past, with the express direction of "Recovering the Relic"...
The Garden, Cradle of Humanity
And as your team comes to, they surrounded by the most magnificent sights and sounds. Whenever you are is breathtakingly beautiful, every tree, every blade of grass, every gust of wind so crisp and clear you'd swear it was the first. The world around you is so vibrantly alive, megaflaura and megafauna passing you by without fear or care of where you'd come from. This was a paradise, well and truly.
And as you make your way through the woods and forest, you'll notice a distinct lacking. No buildings, no walls, no... people. You were well and truly alone. Until you reached a massive clearing centered around an immense apple tree, bearing only a single golden apple. And it is here you meet your opponents, others who seek this "artifact". But the moment you pick that apple, everything changes. It is as if the world has turned against you. Wicked storms blow in seemingly from nowhere. Those same plants and animals that had seemed so idyllic a moment before were now doing everything in their power to kill you! The world was falling apart around you, and the only way to get out was to deal with the other treasure hunters. Better hurry, time is most definitely not on your side!
Normal Rules
Who Art Thou: Look at all these obscure characters in the scramble! Give a brief summary of your characters in your post. Be sure to mention things like powers, personality, weaknesses, just stuff that the average reader should know before reading.
Crit Happens: The Scramble is a game, and in the end the player always wins the game. This time the player is you, champ! That means that when your write your story, your team always comes out victorious. Even if the odds of you winning are 1 in 100, explain those odds in the analysis and then show us that 1 miracle run.
Unfamiliar Arms: Characters are assumed to be at the same power level they started the tournament at at all times. To clarify, this means you would not be able to loot Wonder Woman of her lasso if you beat her in a previous round, or otherwise gain a competitive advantage based on anything that happened in a previous round. This is to aid your opponent in research of your character.
Thou Art My Master: Such powerful servants and such fragile masters, how could the master hope to survive? Well, they had better, at all costs. If the master dies, all their servants go with them. So like it or not, your servants might have to put in the extra work to protect the master. But those command seals on their hand are a powerful tool...
Due Date: March 24th: Get it done you scrublords.
Round Specific Rules
Round Goal: A Single Apple: That's all it takes. All you need is to procure that apple, beat the other team, and you're done. Nothing too wild except...
The World's First Treasure: It would seem every single thing, living or otherwise, is hellbent on making sure neither your, nor the enemy, team makes it out of here with that apple. Anything that could inhibit you, will inhibit you.
No Survivors: In the beginning of time, it is kill or be killed. There's no way out of this place without killing the entire enemy team. Or letting The World itself kill them for you. How tragic.
Flavor Rules
A New World: Everything in this singularity is so clean and wholesome and fresh, untainted by time or outside influence. Is it much the same as your team knows it, or is it more akin to an alien world?
The Butterfly Effect: They say every time a butterfly flaps its wings, an angel gets its wings. Or something. With such a long gap between the present and this singularity, there's no way to tell what kind of effect your tampering is going to have on history... does it effect history?
One Last Job: This is your teams last mission together before you go on to claim the Holy Grail. What will they wish for, I wonder? And how does this fact influence their comaraderie (if there's even any left)?
2
u/CalicoLime Mar 20 '18 edited Mar 25 '18
Round 5, Part 2 : Everything Goes to Hell
Kill them. The voice kept repeating. Turning up the music didn’t help, these words were being broadcast straight into his soul. You like games, right? Think of this like those Reaper Games you enjoyed so much. Kill everyone you see, grab the Grail, and you win! Lose and….well, you know.
In his head, Neku could see Demigra, an image of himself struggling to take control of his own body.
“You’re just pissed that Chronoa got away last time you had me jump them. This close to your grand revenge and it gets snatched away because you can control your lips.” Neku said, face to face with his captor.
“You’d do well to remember who you’re speaking to, boy. I could erase you by barely moving a muscle.”
“Then do it! Oh, wait, you can’t! You’re too busy wasting away in the Crack of Time. All that power and no way to use it.”
Demigra was silent. “You’ll regret those words. Now, isn’t it about time you got back to your mission? That other group is getting close to the Apple. Stop them until Chronoa and her bunch can get there. I assume you used the power of the Wormhole to bring them to Eden?”
“Not like I had a choice. They’re on their way now. Promise not to cry when Chronoa breaks your little tiara there.”
Demigra faded away from Neku’s mental image. He was glad he was gone, but was less than happy about being alone again. Trapped in your own mind. Just, kind of, floating in the ether while some goon controls your body like a puppeteer who just bought his first marionette. Demigra could brag all he wanted about being “all powerful” and all that noise, but he sucked at being Neku Sakuraba. He used the same 3 Pins, and even then didn’t use them to their full potential, and stood still too much. If he’d made rookie mistakes like that, the Reaper Games would’ve lopped off his head a long time ago.
“Look, he’s moving!” the blue-haired girl pointed up at Neku as he got to his feet. She’d only noticed him when she’d looked down at the base of the tree, and she’d only done that to see how big the acorns from a tree like this would be. They were no larger than normal, which was a pretty big letdown. She pocketed them all the same.
“Oh Jesus, anybody else hear that? I think it’s coming from his headphones. It sounds like a seagull being bludgeoned to death with a bagpipe.” The girl in striped leggings described the sound vibrantly. Her companions all paused and listened. It actually did sound a little like a seagull.
“Options?” The marshal asked.
“Well,” the archer reached for his bow, nocking an arrow, “Normally I just do this.” THWIT The arrow left the bow, planting itself in the ground in front of Neku. The archer called out to him, a hand cupped to his mouth. “Hey guy! You got anything to do with this Grail War thing, or are you just hanging out in the Garden of Eden?”
The disgusted look was back on the girl in leggings face as she looked at the archer. The kitten didn’t look amused either.
“What? Being direct never hurt.”
The question was answered with a streak of lightning that screamed through the space between the archer and the girl.
“Ok, it never hurts when WE’RE direct.” The archer corrected.
“Good grief…” the girl said, tossing the kitten over her shoulder. She leaned over and began taking off her leggings, ranting all the while. “I’m gonna cut those stupid headphones off of this nerd, then I’m going to kick Danzo in his fucking balls for making me go through all of this.” After both of the stockings had been removed, she held them to her sides. A flash of light and the striped stockings in each of her hands had become blades. “Let’s get this over with.”
"You're just going to cut him up, Stocking?" The archer asked.
"Unless you want to miss another shot with your limp arrows." Stocking answered.
"Hey," the archer started, "my arrows aren't limp."
The blue haired angel started to laugh and drew a massive spiked club from behind her back. No one had seen where she was keeping that thing. Frankly, no one wanted to know. "I'll back you up. We'll show them what a pair of angels are capable of."
The archer readied another arrow. "Well, if anyone else has any jokes to make at my expense, go ahead and get them in now."
"I've got one for ya Hawkeye, but I'll save it for afterwards." The marshal patted the archer on the shoulder, turning to face Neku with the others. "Strength of the Bear!"
The marshal dug his fists into the earth. With his amplified strength, he tore a chunk of the ground upwards, hoisting it over his head. A grunt of exertion and quick movement of his arms saw the massive hunk tossed at Neku. If New Texas life had taught him anything, a subtle start to a battle only ended with you taking a shot to the chest from a laser revolver.
A beam of light leapt forth from Neku’s hand, splitting the thrown earth in two. Sod and bits of rock littered the impromptu battlefield like rain. Despite the marshal’s attack being disrupted, he didn’t look upset. In fact, the attack had exactly its intended result. Stocking and the bat-wielding blue hair had closed distance, both appearing in front of Neku ready to strike. Their attacks were in sync and vicious, the pair of swords and spiked bat both driving themselves into the meat of Neku’s body.
Or they would have, if the strikes had actually made contact. Neku was a few paces away, his back to both of them. He turned quickly, a blade of yellow light extending from his right arm at the elbow. He used the momentum from his turn and swung at Stocking first, who managed to get her swords in front of the strike before it tore her in half. Her and Neku’s blades quaked as they pressed them against each other. Despite concentrating to keep herself from getting sliced up, Stocking still found the time to berate her teammates.
“Any of you window lickers want to help?!” She shouted, bringing a foot up into Neku’s stomach to create distance. She stepped back, swinging her swords down to her sides.
Without taking his eyes from Stocking, Neku adjusted his upper body to dodge the three arrows Hawkeye had fired at him. This didn’t make the archer feel any better about that “limp arrow” comment earlier.
“Dokuro, rough him up a little bit so I hit him. I’m not sure I can take it if he keeps ducking them.” “On it!” Dokuro gave a quick thumb up and dashed forward at Neku, spiked club gripped parallel to her body as she did. “ She began to spin as she ran, slowly at first, but gaining speed using the momentum of her weapon she’d extended in front of her. The fact she could keep moving in a straight line was made more impressive with how much speed she’d built up. Unfortunately, moving in that straight line made it easy to see where she was going to end up. Neku interlocked his arms, laying on across the small of the other and blocked the strike. The yellow light that had clashed against Stocking’s blades now wrapped itself around Neku’s arm, preventing it from being torn to shreds from its clash with Dokuro’s weapon.
Neku’s feet dug into the ground from the force of Dokuro’s strike, sinking further as she pressed forward. In his mind, he watched the fight unfolding like it was a scene from an anime. “The archer is gonna take his shot now…” he mumbled, almost disinterested. If he didn’t get his body back, he wasn’t going to have to worry about taking an arrow to the calf. If he did, well, a couple sips off of his Healing Drink would fix it. THWIT “There it is”. He heard two thuds and “his” head turned down to “his” leg. Three arrows had burrowed their way into the back of “his” left leg. “Oh, one more than I thought. Guy’s a good shot.”
Hawkeye, satisfied with landing a shot in this fight, smirked when Stocking looked his way. He wanted to say something snarky, but decided it’d only add fuel to the fire.
“Speed of the Puma!” Bravestarr was a blur of yellow and white as he crashed into Neku, knocking him free of his clash with Dokuro. He slammed Neku into the base of the large tree, keeping his arm across Neku’s neck.
“We don’t mean you any harm, friend. We’re only here to find an artifact and le – “the lawman was cut short by a ball of flame that his Speed of the Puma allowed him to dodge.
As Neku’s feet hit the ground and he stood straight, a set of five loud speakers appeared behind him, a large one in the center and two small ones to either side. The sound emanating from Neku’s handphones blared from the speakers. The sound was incredible.
Hawkeye tried to speak, but couldn’t find his voice. Which was a shame, because he had a good one-liner.
Hawkeye, Stocking, Dokuro and Bravestarr were all immobilized; locked in place, fruitlessly trying to block the sound from their ears. Dokuro had found a little comfort using the acorns she’d stashed, but it still felt like a construction crew was bringing down the house inside of her head.
Through the music, Hawkeye managed to pick up something else. A crash and the scraping of metal; five large impacts rocked the ground until the music stopped abruptly. The archer opened his eyes, trying to shake the repetitive tones of Neku’s music from his mind. Four massive walls had surrounded the tree and Neku, doing a decent job of turning down the jams to an acceptable level. A voice filled the air.
“Delaney, you, Chrollo and Josuke hang back, take care of any wounded. Emmett, you and Littlepip, keep your eyes on him, if he gets out of the wall, open fire. Mako, Guts, Deluge, Saya, get in there and keep him pinned down. Remember, this is Neku we’re dealing with. Try not to kill him, just take the mask.” A particularly small girl was directing traffic from the top of a nearby hill.
“Who’s the shorty?” Hawkeye asked, his ears still ringing.
“The person who’s about to keep you from getting killed!” Chronoa called back.
“How did you even hear me?”
“You’re yelling.”
Oh right. The music. “Sorry about that!”