Rolly-Polly Deathmatch #11: The Penultimate Battle for Penultimate Destiny - City of Heroes Forums

The Widowed · 06-14-2008, 04:42 PM

This is a multiple choice poll!
Please limit yourself to no more than three votes for three candidates.
(Yes, Grae, this means you.

)

The long battle had finally ended. The Galactic Empire had received a most telling warning, under no uncertain terms, that the Delta Quadrant was the dominion of the Borg, and no other civilization could intrude unchallenged.

Inside Borg Cube 17 of 46, the walls of the vessel seemed alive with cybernetic whines and mechanical clacks as the remnants of the depleted and battle-damaged crew attended to the Cube's functions, functions placed under great demand as the assimilation of the ISD Impervious and her Imperial personnel continued.

The Borg Commander could no longer feel emotion, but he would smile with triumphant contentment if he could. Instead, he coordinated his crew impassively. "Report."

"Assimilation of the Star Destroyer Impervious is 89.7% complete," an attending Borg Engineer answered. "Assimilation of the Star Destroyer's surviving crew is 71.1% complete. Short-range scans reveal 168 lifeforms of Species 5618 unassimilated aboard the Star Destroyer."

The Borg Commander was not content with partial success, nor was the Collective. "Continue with the assimilation."

"Complying."

Without warning, an unearthly wave of vibrations rolled through the bowels of the Borg Cube. Electromagnetic arcs crossed among the Cube's many internal supports as one orb of black nothingness opened...then another...and another....

"Alert!" the engineer called across the platform to where the Commander stood. "Three space-time anomalies have manifested within the perimeters of this vessel. Correction: Four space-time anomalies...six space-time anomalies...."

The Borg Commander shifted through his entire assortment of visual modes as he rose and surveyed the expansive deck below. "Locate and identify the cause of the space-time anomalies."

The engineer tapped into a nearby neuronode, searching the Cube's countless sensors for an answer. "The source of the anomalies cannot be found. The space-time anomalies appear to be wormholes, transpatial and transchronological in nature, no more than two meters in width and no more than 83.77 megajoules in magnitude."

"Assign designations to the wormholes in order of manifestation."

"Complying. Alert! Eight space-time anomalies...."

The second Borg Engineer on the bridge chimed in with a warning as well. "Alert. Four lifeforms of an unidentified species have emerged from Wormholes 7, 8, 9 and 10 on Deck 17."

The Borg Commander and his engineers proceeded to the edge of the bridge platform, looking below to Deck 17. The reptilian humanoids drew an assortment of primitive melee weapons and glanced about their new surroundings warily.

"Dude," barked the orange-clad humanoid, readying a nunchaku in both hands, "I get the feeling we're not in the Shredder's hacienda anymore...."

"Look sharp, gang," grimaced their blue-clad leader, bringing a well-honed katana into each of his hands as he laid eyes on the Borg Commander and the engineers five decks up. "We're being watched."

The Commander's orders were predictable. "Assimilate the intruders."

More warnings sounded from the Borg Engineers.

"Alert! One lifeform of Species 5618 has emerged from Wormhole 5."

"Alert! Two lifeforms of unidentified species have emerged from Wormholes 11 and 12. Lifeforms appear to be large animals adapted for survival in polar climates...."

Somewhere in the belly of the Cube, Captain Malcolm Reynolds frowned and drew two stunt pistols on seeing two massive, white-furred beasts bellowing with primal rage as a score of cyborgs began to converge on them.

"Well, this sure the hell ain't right. And the locals sure as hell ain't the Alliance...."

"Alert!" sounded Engineer 8 of 10. "Two moving forms detected emerging together from Wormhole 1. Forms possess no biological signatures, no bioelectic signatures, no electromagnetics. Unknown form of negative energy detected."

Turning on his heels, Mal faced down another wormhole which loomed and crackled scarcely fifty yards from where he stood. The din of heavy hooves alighting on unyielding alloy pealed well before the mounted newcomer rode in through the wormhole. The horseman's steed greeted Mal with a great, resounding noise which was less a neigh and more an infernal scream. But Mal could not make eye contact with the axe-brandishing rider, for no head was there to be found.

Without warning, the engineers began to call their warnings together as a biocybernetic chorus.

"Alert! Intruder emerging from Wormhole 13 on Deck 11. Electromagnetic scan indicates that the intruder is robotic in nature yet is encased in a living epidermal layer mimicking the appearance of Species 5618...."

"Alert! Two lifeforms emerging from Wormhole 2. Lifeform 2-1 is an altered form of Species 5618...wings appear to be organic and functional...multiple types of unknown energy signatures detected. Lifeform 2-2 is of unknown species. Both lifeforms possess aerial capability...."

"...One lifeform emerging from Wormhole 6 in proximity to forward energy core. Error: multiple mismatches detected in Lifeform 6-1's genetic coding and biosignatures. Multiple bioforms of Species 5618 detected...one lifeform...error. Unable to identify intruder."

"...One lifeform emerging from Wormhole 4 on Deck 7. Lifeform 7-1 is of Species 5618 yet appears to command intensified manifestations of photonic energy resonating in the green visual range...."

"...One lifeform emerging from Wormhole 3 in proximity to Distribution Node 5. Lifeform 3-1 is a variant of Species 5618, unusually large in size. Unknown form of energy detected in Lifeform 3-1...."

"Borg Soldier 11 of 12 disabled."

Distribution Node 5 trembled beneath the impact as a hapless Borg Soldier's midsection was crushed between the distribution node and the mighty intruder's titanic fist. Two more Borg converged on the intruder but were struck aside with a powerful swat, a swat which easily overmatched their personal defensive shields.

"You robopunks wanna assimilate me, huh?" the intruder snapped with a growing, defiant anger. "Well, you'd better bring a lot more to the table than this! Otherwise, you won't have even the slightest chance of stopping the Juggernaut!"

"Alert! Lifeform 2-1 has opened multiple space-time wormholes through unknown means. Multiple lifeforms of multiple unknown species emerging...."

The shotgun rocked in the T-800's hands, pumping a load of .00 buckshot into the thorax of the charging minotaur. No sooner had the minotaur collapsed in a shower of blood and torn sinew than two more minotaurs stomped forth with greatswords leveled to greet the Terminator.

Insightfully, the Terminator analyzed the scene and came to its analysis. Ignoring the minotaurs, the Terminator fired on the horse and rider which rose into the sterile oxygen-heavy air behind the growing horde. But the acquired target was nothing more than a displaced image, and the buckshot rang off the distant hull of the Borg Cube as a sorcerous blast shook the plated floor, stripping layers of blood-weeping skin from the robotics beneath and toppling the T-800 from its footing.

"Foolish golem!" lambasted the circling horseman, spreading his wings and wreathing his hands with arcane fire as his steed descended on the suppine Terminator. "No one attacks the person of Venger and escapes with his life...."

"In brightest day, in blackest night..."

A great emerald blast struck from behind, sending Venger and his demonic horse scattering past the Terminator. Descending from the heights of the Borg Cube, Hal Jordan clenched his fist and readied his ring, which shone with a sharp, rising green radiance. "...no evil shall escape my sight!"

Yet so focused was the Green Lantern on his dark, mystic foe that he failed to notice the steely fingers prying up a large piece of the floor. But when the T-800 hurled the sundered floor panels and struck him squarely in the abdomen, he noticed.

"No problemo," the Terminator blurted mirthlessly, levelling his shotgun on the fallen figure of Hal Jordan as it approached. "New objective: terminate the Green Lantern...."

"Wanton destroyer of man!"

The lurching patchwork man hefted the T-800 aloft and slammed him headfirst through the floor, ignoring the near-miss of the shotgun blast as Adam Frankenstein leaped downward, pursuing his quarry. "A machine so intent on ending the sacrity of life! And men call me abomination?"

Following the will of the Collective, the Borg massed and began their counterattack against the intruders. And for once, the Borg Commander began to feel a glint of forgotten emotion. And that emotion was a twinge of desperation.

"Assimilate. Assimilate. Assimilate all of them!"

...

You know what? That's waaay too much flavor text as it is. Screw the rest. The short form is that everybody shows up and they all fight. Don't worry about the why and wherefore of it; a big fight breaks out on the battle-torn Borg Cube, and There Can Be Only One. Unless we get another tie. Simple, huh?

Here. Have a thousand words.

The Widowed · 06-14-2008, 04:48 PM

No, it's not anywhere near finished. I'll finish it later...maybe.

Is that enough introduction for you?

(Damn...where the hell am I going to squeeze Leonardo in?)

The Widowed · 06-14-2008, 04:50 PM

Deathmatch caveats:

• The Borg won their battle with the Star Destroyer, but victory came at a toll. The Borg are currently at approximately 30% manpower on this Cube, with another 40% aboard the ruined Star Destroyer, assimilating the surviving Imperials; reinforcements may be beaming over from the Star Destroyer at any time. The Borg Cube's shields are currently inoperative, power has been cut to 50% and the life support systems (optimally oxygenated for the Borg's physiological functions) are stable.

• The Borg may assimilate any living defeated combatants, but the assimilated combatants may not be immediately ready to return to the fight.

•• For fairly obvious reasons, the Terminator may be difficult to assimilate (requiring direct access to the Terminator's brain chip), and the Headless Horseman's lifeless, decapitated body may not be assimilated at all.

•• The Horseman's horse and Venger's shadow steed are beyond assimilation as well, even if Venger himself is not.

•• The Borg do not recognize magic and will reject it; assimilating Juggernaut will diminish Juggernaut's power greatly, and an assimilated Venger may not cast spells or use enchanted items (including the Black Orb) at all.

•• Assimilating Hal Jordan will strip him of the will and the morality needed to wield the Green Lantern power ring, reducing him to just another Borged-out human serving the Collective. The ring is of no use to the cold-hearted Borg and their soulless Collective.

• Assume that most of the Borg are utility Borg and Voyager-quality goons, with a Commander and a few dozen soldiers thrown into the mix for good measure.

• Aside from physiological needs and the need to act quickly before the Borg assimilate more reinforcements or Venger recharges his spells and/or summons more minions, there is no time limit on the battle. If Malcolm Reynolds can only defeat the Juggernaut by playing cat-and-mouse with Juggie for days inside the Borg Cube, then that's how Mal goes to work.

• Tricking or manipulating combatants into defeating other combatants is fair game, as long as such a feat is feasible; for example, the polar bear and the wampa lack anything beyond the most primal forms of communication, so they would not be even remotely able to beguile or persuade the Ninja Turtles into removing the Juggernaut from the board. Venger and a Charm Person spell or two, on the other hand, could do it quite easily.

• All weapons are fair game for the victors. For example, if Malcolm Reynolds somehow kills or defeats the Headless Horseman, Malcolm Reynolds can get his hands on the Horseman's axe and saber. Unfortunately, no combatant who finds magic an alien concept may wield magical artifacts, and the Green Lantern ring will not operate for any other would-be wielder; keep this in mind when somebody goes to topple Venger or Hal Jordan.

• The Headless Horseman, Venger and Juggernaut are all Magic Origin (to put it in CoX-speak).

• Malcolm Reynolds and the Terminator are familiar with high technology and can readily adapt to their surroundings--or take advantage of them--in the Borg Cube. Through the ultratech power of the Green Lantern ring, Hal Jordan may commandeer the odd piece of Borg technology as well.

• Frankenstein's Monster--a product of divinely empowered yet morally corrupted science--has a superhuman learning capacity and may be able to wield magic and high tech equally well, though not nearly as proficiently as the aforementioned "natives" to either paradigm.

• Frankenstein's Monster was imbued with life through the powers of chemistry and electricity...and electrical energy is present on the Borg Cube, allowing him to discover an unfamiliar ability denied him in his original pre-Edison Victorian world. As suggested in Promethean: The Created, one or two video games and a few Frankenstein-related movies, Frankenstein's Monster may recover from wounds, regrow lost tissues and augment his own mind and body through contact with electricity.

• Venger does not have any magic items from the six kids (or their damnable unicorn), but he still has the Black Orb which he wrested from Damodar in Rolly-Polly Deathmatch #2. He also possesses any small magic items he had in the Dungeons & Dragons cartoons--at least, the ones which he didn't lose because of those meddling kids--but large magic items (such as the dragon-summoning cauldron in the Night of No Tomorrow episode) are beyond the capabilities of his Summon Object spells.

• The wampa and the polar bear (sans cubs) are allies, harboring a primal, grudging respect for each other's abilities after fighting each other to a standstill in Rolly-Polly Deathmatch #9. They are otherwise unremarkable for a wampa and a polar bear: driven by instinct, possessed of primal fury and vast physical strength and fortitude but lacking sentience and human-level intellect. The wampa's a wee little bit smart, though. But really...a wampa and a polar bear. Allies. What more do you really need from these two?

• After their victory over the Ultraman Space Patrol, the individuals from the Green Lantern Corps dispersed and returned to their duties. Hal Jordan alone was taken on a space-time jump to the Borg Cube, and no other members of the Corps know where he went. Hal Jordan retains his normal powers and capabilities and is not currently in any "supercharged" state.

• The Green Lantern power ring is still unable to directly affect anything which sports the color yellow, a color which will instantly nullify the ring's powers on contact. Fortunately, Hal Jordan can find ways around this limitation, including the manipulation of non-yellow surroundings to his advantage.

• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles include the usual foursome--Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello. No allies or enemies made the space-time jump with them...no Casey Jones, no Bebop and Rocksteady, no Shredder. Each Turtle wields his signature weapon(s) as well as a small number of shuriken for dealing with ranged or aerial enemies. Thrown shuriken may be recovered if any Turtle can get to them. As they have recently made a foolish tactical decision which allowed the Shredder and his Foot ninjas to kidnap Master Splinter and April O'Neal, the Turtles are pretty ticked off right now; think less "playful Turtles from the TV cartoon" and more "mean-spirited Turtles from the comic books".

• Malcolm Reynolds has acquired a second stunt pistol, Han Solo's blast pistol and a virtually limitless number of bullets for his slugthrowing stunt pistols...hollow points, armor piercing, frangible rounds, you name it. That should even Mal's odds a bit. He still has his usual talents and knowledges, of course. Unfortunately, no other crew members from the Serenity were able to join him on the space-time jump.

• The T-800 had just finished saving John Connor from the T-1000 when the space-time wormhole struck. As a result, the T-800 has a shotgun with one box of buckshot and one box of slugs as well as a small 40mm grenade launcher with three concussive grenades. The Terminator is savvy enough to save the grenades for larger enemies or massed enemies and will not use them against single man-sized targets (unless the target is the last enemy on the Borg Cube, in which case anything goes). Hence, the Terminator's ammunition is not unlimited and it will need to acquire other weapons if it plans on terminating every enemy aboard the Borg Cube.

•• The T-800 may jack into a captured Borg weapon and wield it. This will require the removal of the epidermis from one hand, both hands or the torso (depending on the size and properties of the Borg weapon), and weapons torn from Borg interceptors may contain nanoprobes which could place the T-800 at (very low) risk of assimilation.

• Removed from John Connor's presence and placed in unfamiliar enemy territory, the Terminator has reverted to its original programming, by which killing is permissible if it serves the Terminator's objectives.

• The Juggernaut has returned to his villainous ways after his triumph over Doomsday and his separation from the X-Men, but the full power of Cyttorak has not yet returned to him. His force field is gone, but all other aspects of his power are intact. Drunk on his renewed superhuman might, his overconfidence has consumed his wit and his intellect, and clever enemies can set any number of traps and ruses to ensnare him. The Ruby of Cyttorak did not make the space-time jump with him...which is fortunate. The last thing this Deathmatch needs is a Jugger-fied Headless Horseman galloping around....

• The Headless Horseman is undead, of course...and a rather potent variety of undead. As with any revenant, mortal wounds mean nothing to him. Nothing less than the fullscale destruction of his body will bring about his second and final death, though launching him into space or finding a way to gate him back to Hell may work as well. Dismemberment may still cripple him. Fullscale destruction and dismemberment will affect his horse just as they affect him.

•• The Horseman and his horse made the space-time jump, but his skull did not come with them. There will be no "easy way out" of defeating the Horseman by finding his skull and bringing it back to him, as the skull is on another world entirely. Even if Venger had a Legend Lore spell to tell him "Give the Horseman back his head," he lacks familiarity with the skull itself and hence cannot summon it with Recall Object or any similar spells short of Limited Wish or Wish...and Venger doesn't have any Limited Wish or Wish spells. (If he did, his merry jaunts with the six kids and their precious magic items would have been a lot shorter.)

• The Headless Horseman hails from Colonial America--well, before he went to Hell and back again--and comes armed with a horseman's axe and a Hessian cavalry saber. Trampling enemies with his undead horse is fair game, too. The Horseman is not limited to these weapons, of course; as demonstrated in Sleepy Hollow, if the Horseman has to throw a freakin' fencepost and impale someone with it in order to get at their head, he will do it.

•• And he's not too good to kill someone through means besides decapitation before removing and claiming the slain victim's head, either. Unfortunately for him, those means do not include Borg weaponry or Han Solo's blaster. As a former Hessian mercenary, the Horseman knows enough about firearms to aim and fire Mal's stunt pistol, but cartridge ammunition was a little ahead of his time and he will be unable to reload the pistol after it runs empty. It's a six-shooter, not a musket.

• Though the Horseman lacks a head, he currently has the head of Dracula (who was slain--at least temporarily--in Rolly-Polly Deathmatch #1) and may temporarily graft Dracula's head to his neck stump and use it as a temporary head if indeed a head is needed for any purpose.

•• The Horseman may use heads harvested from living or semi-living combatants in a similar fashion, but he lacks the technological empathy to use alternate forms of vision or other hypertech abilities found in Borg heads. As noted before, grafting a Borg head has no risk of assimilating the Horseman, and the Horseman will remain "silent" to the Collective.

•• His Hellforged axe can decapitate a T-800 (and kill it) with two good hacks, but the T-800's head is useless to him.

•• The Horseman's saber is more graceful than the axe and can be wielded with greater finesse, but the saber lacks the brunt needed to behead anything larger or more solid than a man. The horseman's axe is the Horseman's best--if not only--chance of beheading the T-800, Juggernaut, Frankenstein's Monster, the wampa or the polar bear.

•• Decapitating Juggernaut will be equally challenging, but Juggernaut's head will not confer any of Cyttorak's power to the Horseman.

•• The heads of Juggernaut, Frankenstein's Monster, the wampa and the polar bear are too large for the Horseman's neck and will not remain grafted longer than a few seconds before falling off.

•• Grafting Hal Jordan's head will not trick the Green Lantern ring into accepting the Horseman as its wielder (and the Horseman is far too evil for the power ring to accept anyway).

•• Grafting Venger's head will not grant the Horseman spellcasting capability, but the Horseman may use any of Venger's magic items (including the Black Orb).

•• Grafting a Ninja Turtle's head will grant the Horseman some skill with the Turtles' martial arts, as Master Splinter taught them. Be afraid.

• The horses--Venger's shadow steed and the Headless Horseman's undead horse--may be ridden by other combatants (except for the wampa and the polar bear) yet are ultimately subject to the wills of their supernatural masters. If Malcolm Reynolds punches Venger in the head and rides off on the shadow steed, he has until Venger comes back to his senses and calls for the steed to return before Mal loses his ride.

•• Juggernaut and Frankenstein's Monster are too large for either horse to carry without great effort. Neither horse may gallop under the weight of either such rider, and the shadow steed will be unable to fly.

That's it. Kill kill kill!

Gold Rush · 06-14-2008, 05:15 PM

::: Regains Composure:::

God wins!

( I can't believe I hadda use the "God" card...sheesh!)

The Widowed · 06-14-2008, 05:32 PM

Very funny. What are you, a religious convert or something?

suburbanhell · 06-14-2008, 05:42 PM

Venger.

Nerfed · 06-14-2008, 06:04 PM

Awesome concept. I can't even begin to get into the level of detail you two have already put into the combat analysis, so I'm just gonna pick my 3 and explain why they'll outlast the rest.

Top of the list: Green Lantern. Its a technology so far advanced that it may as well be magic. As such, it will equally confound opponents of mystic, natural, or technological might. If half of the combatants focused their attention on nothing but taking Hal Jordan out of the fight, he would be hard pressed to maintain his concentration. As it is, there's so much chaos going on that he'll probably look for fellow "good guys" to help out and have watch his back. Likely candidates will be the Ninja Turtles (not at all strange compared to some of his allies in the GL Corps), Mal (because he and Hal are kindred spirits of a sort, plus he's the only normal-looking human running around), and probably the polar bear (keep it around for the damage it can do, plus he'd recognize it from his own world and would likely try to save it).
Juggernaut, because --force field or not-- he's the Juggernaut, bitch! He's confronted god-like entities such as Thor, God of Thunder (the prince of Asgard, wielder of mighty Mjolnir), Nightmare (who absorbed the whole of Juggy's essence, yet his own hatred kept kept him walk and even fighting mad when he was nothing but a skeletal presence) and Cytorrak himself (confronted within Cain Marko's own mind or some other spiritual plane, and he stood up to and defeated his own source of power). Plus, now that he knows the key to achieving and maintaining his full power, very few beings will have the power to defeat him or trick him into defeat. There's very few present that will pose a challenge to Juggernaut, and only one that has any real chance of stopping him.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds, because he's a survivor, damn it. He'll duck and cover and take potshots here and there as needed, but largely he'll stay out of the way while the monsters take each other out. He's also the most likely to form an alliance, and though he's not a big fan of authority figures, the GL Corps is new to him... seeing the funny human throwing energy fields around in a non-lethal way has got to be less disconcerting that seeing headless men, cyborgs looking to assimilate every lifeform they come across, humanoid turtle people with ninja weapons, furry arctic beasts, and so on. With him and GL watching each others' backs, Mal will be able to ride things out to the end.

Gold Rush · 06-14-2008, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Widowed

Very funny. What are you, a religious convert or something?

Only in a "DC Comics" sense when you bring such "utter chaos" into something.

Just seems initially ridiculous, so I put in something that would match.

But on a related note, I am surprised only ONE Green Lantern made it through, although many were hyping him up to be the "Uber" Green Lantern (although he is).

And you can vote for your TOP THREE choices, Burbs, not just one.

Gold Rush · 06-14-2008, 06:09 PM

And just for the record, again, knowing what I know, Ultraman would so totally own much of this battle.

That is all.

(Although, I know, the "people" have spoken. Too late. Nader was to blame for losing the democratic vote and other untruths. Blah!)

The Widowed · 06-14-2008, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suburbanhell

Venger.

Details, damn it.

Also, I momentarily forgot that Green Lantern rings are a form of hypertechnology. Hal Jordan has been added to the "may use high tech" note with Mal and the T-800. Thanks, Nerfy.

Quote: