That's where things might get interesting. The other side has some significant master-planners too, some of whom have resources similar to Chiaki's. So it becomes a chess game.

And of course, the way to take out someone who can see any attack coming is to use an attack that cannot be avoided even if it is anticipated, like rendering a square mile around her to absolute zero or something. So of course, the LL needs to avoid leaving Chiaki unsupported where there's nobody who could shield her from those kind of "inevitable" assaults.




What I'm suggesting is that for every power trying to shield the heroes and disadvantage the villains there'll be a demon lord or malefic elder entity trying the reverse. That might lead to some very personal multi-dimensional clashes - the Ausgardian Oldman is likely to get physical, for example - but some for some others it will be a much more cerebral and subtle excercise. The sum effect is likely to be what happens when there's a schoolyard fight and the combatants friends each stop the other boys' friends from pitching in and affecting the brawl.

Of course, what happens after is that on a micro-scale (the superhero/supervillain fight on Earth) a clear winner would be just enough to then tip the balance in a bigger battle on a cosmic scale. A benevolent entity could use an unopposed, unencumbered LL to tip the big fight. A malevolent power might similarly promote some archvillain to start murdering usually-indestructible conceptual opponents. In that way, the result of the mortal combat is the tipping point of the larger one, just as some minor skirmish in some mountain pass somewhere can alter the outcome of a whole war.







That's a likely strategy, and there may well be "first minute", "first hour", and maybe "first day" plans for deployment. But they need to be flexible, since nobody is quite sure what attacks will come in what order.

Another clear and present problem is the opening up of dimensional portals to places like the Negativity Zone, releasing massive anti-energy, or the plane of corposant fire, releasing infinite energy. There are both villains and a couple of heroes who can do these things. There are also some non-standard manifestations of Parodyverse power like the Jarvis Cosmic and the Gah! force that remain beyond standard energy-manipulation technologies and abilities and that may be directed against "standard" energy-shifters and generators. The counter there comes from anticipating and preventing such force-deploymen, i.e stopping Peter von Doom from generating his portal or getting Al B.-tech or Shoggoth-goo there in time to counter it.

In the kind of all-out fight we're talking about there are hundreds of ways for enemies to clash and quite a few that would be narratively interesting. For once we don't have the "Superman is so powerful that nothing can realistically challenge him" problem.




There are a bunch of heroes who could theoretically unship that kind of power. Kerry can cause solar flares, for example, and Donar's weather control could doubtless destroy a fair portion of a continent. The enemy has some omega-class power types too whose neutralisation will surely be a priority. And that's not even counting what Dancer could do if she ever stopped being nice - which she will at midnight.




There are quite a few villains who wouldn't be averse to sacrificing a city to take down a major opponent, even under normal circumstances.

One resource that the villains might well use but the heroes are unlikely to is necromancy requiring half a billion deaths. Be sure that the gruesome witch-types that Danny encountered in the most recent chapter and some others like the Necromancer General will be happy to see city-wide death tolls because of the raw material that frees up.




What Lisa, Faite, and a few others might percieve is that the Dreaming Celestial has basically turned off the PV's resets. His programming seems to include tidying away the toys when he's finished with them.

With his Celestian Space Robot logic and capacity he has considered and eliminated every get-out method he can, having spent millenia calculating them.




That's part of the operation. The other parts after intel are getting a route to attack and a means of delivering the kill; all the while fending of an enemy who is trying to do the same thing to Chiaki and other good-guy intelligence resources.

Another of those borderline-deity entities that stoops to play in mundane reality is Mad Wendy, now Lord of the Nightmare Realm (she's an omega-class psychic reality manipulator with Mxyzptlk-type powers occupying the ecological niche of Frightmare, the PV's former version of Dr Strange's Nightmare). She's also a spooky little girl of about the same apparent age as Faite. She, and the Mxyzptlk-like Eddie the Imp are likely to pitch in to "cheat" against the heroes in their distinctive ways (Mad Wendy is a bit more Tim Burton's Alice and Eddie is more evil-Mork). I expect that the pair of them will slap right into white hats like Lisa and Faite.







And vice versa.







The baddies have their Council of Archvillains to co-ordinate them. That now includes tactical geniuses such as Silence of the Lambs-style manipulator Blackbird, master strategist the Word of Logos, and deep schemer Baroness von Zemo. The Hooded Hood appears to be ensuring that they co-operate.

So it's going to be close. The heroes are really facing some difficult odds; which is what a dramatic story requires - easy wins don't require heroism.







The changed priorities about the need to save collatoral lives will also trouble many of the heroes.







Noted. But remember that the imperative has ruled out suicide or assisting others with suicide.