r/whowouldwin • u/OddDirective • Oct 18 '22
Event Character Scramble 16 Round 2: Rockin' Rockin'
Round 2: Rockin’ Rockin’
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DAY 4
The mission the Game Master gives this week is simple and also quite complex. “Topple the ruler of the A-East arena. You have three hours. Fail, and face erasure.” They aren’t being so forthcoming with information on what that means, so that’s a challenge your Players will have to overcome. Another hurdle is actually gaining access; there’s something in the way of getting in the actual arena, be it knowledge on the target or a situation set up by the Game Master preventing access to the arena. This leads into a scramble to get the multiple things needed to resolve this, but with some outside assistance (hint: your Reaper), your team could get past it quicker than others.
(Some examples of obstacles and situations preventing access: Separate clues to the identity of the ruler or what is meant by ‘the arena’, a techie that needs specific items to go on with the scheduled show tonight, a gourmand Support Reaper manning the barrier to the way in that needs ingredients, a Resident Evil-style lock puzzle, a heist-type setup for a specific back entrance, or having to cure certain people of Noise infestation so they can open the doors.)
Whatever way they get through it, the team reaches the inside of the arena to face off against the ruler of the arena- and their target meets them on stage. It’s a battle under the lights, and the amps are turned all the way to 11. It’s time to play!
The enemy team can factor into this in a couple ways- obviously, if a member of the enemy team is the ruler of A-East, that’s one way to do it, but they could be individuals keeping you from obtaining the things you need to get in, or they could be a rival team trying to take down the boss before your team can. Whatever the case, they’re going up against you at some point in this round, so prepare to face off!
Scramble Rules
Let ‘Em Know Who You Are: Every participant this season received four characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief introduction and summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting.
This World Ends With You: Your writeup will depict a scenario where your team succeeds. Even if your team has a one in a million chance of overcoming the odds, show what they’d need to do to come out on top against the challenge in front of them!
Everybody Has Their Own World: Writers are allowed to make changes to their characters in their narrative to fit their story, such as allowing power stealers to gain more powers, teaching martial artists new techniques, or having characters gradually grow in strength between rounds. However, you are not beholden to following what your opponent is doing. When facing another team, you are only required to write their characters as they were submitted. This is to help with ease of research, and make things more fun for both sides.
Round Rules
Setting: This round’s original setting is A-East, in particular a music venue or other performance arena, which in the original games is in a more seedy area. The main thrust of the setting is a showy place for a ‘boss fight’, so any location with a stage would work excellently. With regards to getting there, however, there is a possibility your Players would have to search far and wide, in other locations around the city. If you can’t conceive of it another way, think of it like a fetch quest.
Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. Your Players must enter into an arena of some description or renown, and defeat a single enemy there. That being said, there is a multi-part obstacle keeping them from getting in, which the Players and Reaper have to resolve on the way. After overcoming this, the team enters into the arena and faces off against the enemy or enemies there. The enemy team must oppose them at some point, but it can be during the multi-part obstacle and/or at the arena.
Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 6 posts, or 60k characters. While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be automatically disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.
Due Date: Writeups will be due at 11:59 PM CST on Monday, October 31st. That’s about two weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and voting will go up for a few days afterwards.
Flavor Suggestions
peaceful day: Your Players participated in at least one other day before this, though they didn’t run into any trouble in terms of teams opposing them. Or maybe they did! Whatever happened that day is up to you, and you can describe it if you want; just be mindful of the space you’re working with and that you need to complete the round.
The One Star: Your team’s goal is to defeat one specific enemy- in the original game, it was a bat Noise boss fight, and another monster certainly would fit the description. That being said, there is also the option of making it a member of the enemy team, either a Player or their Reaper, which of course seems sensible. There’s also a third option of making it a different character entirely. Who or what the ruler is is totally up to you.
Kill the Itch: While the mission doesn’t specify lethality, this might be the first time your team has fought directly against the enemy team members, and erasure can be introduced by having to erase the other Players on the enemy side. How would your team react to them being the cause of others’ nonexistence- or would they try to take them down nonlethally? Would they not even fight the enemy team, for fear of erasing them? Or, alternatively, would they be a bit too enthusiastic about eliminating the competition?
2
u/Proletlariet Oct 26 '22
“You could’ve told me too.” 21 prodded. “What the hell was the point of lying to us? What kind of guy is he anyway?”
“I didn’t tell you so you wouldn’t waste time with those kinds of stupid questions.” Hob grunted. “Look, just sit down and shut up. Karai’s good for her word and Shredder knows what he’s doing. I bought us a way out. Be happy.”
“Yeah, by selling our friend to ninjas.”
Friend. It made Hob want to laugh. They’d barely known the bastard more than a day. They didn’t know what his agenda was.
Then why did he feel responsible for him?
“He’s better off with them than us.” Hob said, sounding more defensive than he hoped. “Shredder’s part of the same weird Assassin club. He can talk him through the stuff he’s going through.”
“Dude!” 21 grabbed Hob by the collar, and gave him a shake. “He’s gotta be messed up as is after learning that everyone he’s ever known is dead. Do you seriously think betrayal is gonna make him feel better?”
“Paws off!” Hob broke 21’s grip with a shove. “I’ve got nothing to feel guilty about. If you think---”
The ninjas bristled, reaching in unison for their swords. Something seemed off about their movements. Stiff. Hob’s nose twitched. He could almost swear he heard something.
21 put up his palms in a show of peace. “Ah, hey guys. I wasn’t gonna start anything. Even if he’s being an absolute douche.” He shot a pointed sideeye at Hob.
21 sidled up to one of the two ninjas guarding the hall to the throne room. “Hey listen buddy, I’m worried about my friend Edward. He went in to see your boss. Hench to hench, you just mind letting me in for a sec to check on him?”
21 made to slip by them, but the two crossed their blades in front of him. They moved like mirrors of each other in perfect sync. Hob heard the strange sound again---a voice.
“Hey. Psst.” He pulled 21 aside. “That’s not a person.” He whispered under his breath.
“So now you’re fucking racist?”
“No you idiot I mean the ninjas are robots.” He hissed. “They don’t smell like people, and I hear someone giving a command every time they move. Blink if you get it.”
21 blinked.
“You were right, okay? Something’s fishy. We gotta get Edward out of there.” Hob spoke in hushed tones making sure to move his mouth as little as possible in case their observer could read lips. “If I can hear them giving orders, the one controlling them is probably in this room. I’m gonna get their attention and figure out where they’re at. Then I’m gonna tell you where to sic ‘em and you better act fast.”
21 blinked again.
“You can quit that.”
Hob strode around the room passing each of the robots. Their eyes swivelled to track him. When he reached the final one he suddenly stopped, turned, and pulled his gun. It was the fastest draw he’d ever made---hundredth of a second, easy. Eat your heart out Munden.
“Boo!” He told it.
He squeezed the trigger. His gun discharged a bullet right into its eye.
Hob heard a muffled yelp from behind a heavy tapestry.
“There!” Hob pointed.
Even with half a face, the robot was starting to move. Its friends were up and at ‘em too. Their mechanical fingers blurred to the swords at their sides, inhumanly dextrous and impossibly quick. His life depended on 21 being even quicker.
The fat man’s knives flashed. He slashed apart the tapestry and was pushing through before it hit the ground. The fallen fabric revealed a secret alcove filled with banks of monitors. A little girl in a mechanic’s jumpsuit sat in front of them gripping a remote. She looked up and saw 21 considerable bulk looming over her. He reached out for her.
“AHHH!! A WEIRDO!” She cried. “No! Stop!”
Six swords froze to a halt an inch from Hob’s throat. He swallowed dryly.
“No not you!” The girl barked into the remote. “Help me! I don’t wanna be on a milk carton!”
The robots resumed their halted attack.
Before Hob could become cat shish-ka-bob, 21 snatched the remote out of her hands. “Stop!” He ordered. The robots froze again---their swords were actually pricking his skin.
He realised with annoyance that fear had made all of his fur had bunch up. It’d take an hour of tongue work to slick it all back down.
“Couldja make ‘em back off already?” He snapped.
“Uh.. lower your weapons?” 21 tried. The robots obeyed.
The girl pounded her fists against his leg. “Give it back! Give it back! I built that so it’s mine!”
“Who’re you supposed to be?” Hob asked.
She puffed out her chest.
“I’m Shredder’s very own mechanic!”
Tita Russell
Occupation: 12 Year Old Mechanic
Crimes: Aren’t you a little too young to be welding?
21 handed Hob the remote, which he pocketed.
“Alright let’s get going.”
“Hold it!” Tita demanded. From seemingly nowhere she produced an entire rotary minigun. “Mister Shredder told me to keep out intruders. I’m not gonna let you leave this room!”
The heavy weapon spun up with a threatening roar of machinery.
“Take this! My Super Vulcan Cannon!”
SHING!
21’s blades flashed again. The autocannon fell apart like a diced pineapple.
“Guh?” Tita blinked. “Huh?”
She stared in abject misery at the pieces of her gun.
“UWAAAAH!” She sobbed.
21 and Hob looked at each other awkwardly.
“You uh..” Hob started.
“Yeah…” 21 agreed.
They turned to leave.
For the first minute of the fight, they merely circled each other.
Guan Yu with his long handled blade held the clear advantage over Edward’s knives, but he’d pay for his weapon’s reach with a greater commitment to each strike.
At least, Edward thought so until he saw Guan Yu first moved.
He took just a single step into the thrust. The motion was so casual that Edward scarcely guessed at an attack until the frosted blade was whistling for his head at speed enough to cross half a league in half a minute.
Edward jerked his head to the left. The polearm impacted the wall behind him near enough to Edward’s ear to leave it ringing.
Such monstrous speed! Edward would need to end this quickly before he could recover. Just one good stab in the---
Guan Yu twisted the handle so his blade’s edge aligned with Edward’s neck. Then with a jerk he dragged it sharply to the side.
Instinct alone spared Edward’s head. He fell into a crouch and rolled under the weapon’s arc. Somehow he found the sense to rise and rake Guan Yu’s stomach as he passed. He felt a greater resistance than flesh and fabric ought, but the blade proved sharp and it tore a disembowelling cut across his broad belly.
As Edward stood, he saw the wall of the arena over his opponent’s shoulder. where Guan Yu’s thrust had struck, there was a crater big enough to fit his head. A long straight scar in the concrete extended from it. Guan Yu had dragged his blade through stone as if it were butter.
Edward shuddered. This was no man, but a fearsome god of war. A fortunate thing he’d scored a fatal blow this soon. If he had to contest against that power for an extended bout he’d be as good as dead.
Guan Yu touched his stomach. His fingers came up wet.
“You have drawn first blood, assassin. There was a time when such worthy sport would have excited me.”
Edward’s heart jumped to his throat. Was this juggernaut invincible to boot?
Guan Yu turned to face him. He tore away his slit shirt. Underneath he wore an armour chestpiece made of leather sown with pleated iron bands: a wonder he’d managed to reach his flesh at all.
“Aye, sport is it?” Edward scoffed, annoyed. “Not much sport when you’ve come better protected and with ten times my reach.”
Guan Yu tilted his chin. “You speak of dishonour. And yet the hidden blades you wield were forged for unsuspecting throats.”
“They aren’t mine. I only borrowed them.”
Edward darted in low, which prompted Guan Yu to aim his blade defensively. Edward weaved around it like a boxer and planted his foot down on the back of the polearm, forcing it to the ground under his weight. He rose while thrusting his palm heel dagger up under Guan Yu’s chin.
His dagger tasted blood, but again the killing strike evaded him. At the last second Guan Yu turned his head aside so that the blade only speared his cheek.
“Dog!”
Guan Yu’s muscles flexed. He heaved his weapon upwards as Edward still stood on it. In an instant, his foothold had become a springboard. The force flipped him bodily into the air. Before gravity could take hold, Guan Yu whipped the polearm around and swung with such swiftness to cleave the air like a ship’s wake through water.
Edward would have landed in two halves had he not been enough of an acrobat to twist about midair. Instead, it sliced a ragged strip of flesh from his shoulder.
Edward landed catlike on his feet. Blood from his shoulder soaked through his sleeve. The pain of the raw red flesh hissed like water on hot iron. He sucked in an involuntary gasp.
Guan Yu made no noise. He stood resolute, heedless of the hole in his face.
“No man takes up arms without reason, and yet you act disdainful of your weapon’s legacy.” Guan Yu spat. “My Frost Fair Blade has chipped and dulled with age. When I still fought at my Oath Brothers’ sides, it would not have marred your flesh with such an unclean wound.” He indicated Edward’s torn shoulder. “And yet I have not forgotten the day I pledged it, newly forged, to uphold the Imperial Peace of Han against those callous rebels who would sacrifice order for ambition.”
“If it was anything like the empires I know, then they had the right idea.” Edward retorted. “What good’s a peace where some can take and take and tell those of us with nothing that we dream above our station?”
“Hah! There is your pride!”