How to counter an opponent with super speed.

Just as the title says, how does one usually counter an opponent who has Super-Speed? I am trying to script a battle around this.

The degree of speed this opponent has is similar to the Flash, and Kamen Rider Kabuto, as in moving so fast, the world around may as well be still. Assume there is no limit to running duration

So how will you the readers attempt to counter it?

Also unrelated, here is a basis for the main character's group's power that i am using. You don't have to bother with this, its just filler trivia....

1) The MC: Ability to destroy/deconstruct materials and to create other stuff, but can only do one or the other and will cook himself alive with residue heat if uses ability too many time. MC has split personality issues, using each ability will cause him the switch personality, with the destroyer being too meek to break stuff, and the creator being too violent and rash to make anything, and will probably only create axes and its many variants to throw them at the offending party.

2) Lancer: A Kamen Kider Kabuto expy, except is a girl, and minus the Ace and arrogant personality, thus probably not as strong as the real deal but i digress. Can match the opponent speed for speed but is less experienced of the two. Also, she has a muscular frame, thus you would not want to be punched by her.

3) Big guy: His ability is pyrokinesis, and to store and release heat energy in objects he touch violently. However he must remain contact with object at all times, which leads to him using a stick to fight. A bit too scrawny to be the big guy but still, he is the tallest and is the senior of the group.

4) Smart Guy. Too hot-blooded to think strategically most of the time, but he is the only one with a PHD (in Molecular Physics and Materials Engineering). Has an energy revolver and MOAR DAKKA(Never enuff') in a briefcase. However, to access the briefcase's different flavors of DAKKA, he need to input access codes manually, in the heat of a fight. He can't remember all 666 of them.

edited 28th Nov '15 5:48:09 PM by Wasdxz

A "barrier" type ability would be my first thought - something like an aura that affects the victim as soon as they get within range, and gets stronger the closer they get.

Invisibility/smokescreen. Speed won't help you if you can't see the target, and going faster is liable to force the speedster into an error.

Along the lines of invisibility, hidden traps could also severely hinder attempts at using super-speed. Perhaps the villain could have robots that burrow underground, or drones that can set up electrical fields at a moment's notice.

Semi-intangibility. Super speed won't necessarily help if the opponent can remain unharmed in a gaseous or mud-like form, that the hero will either slip through completely, or get stuck within.

A combination of a few previous concepts, maybe a villain who can summon thousands of small creatures to cover the entire battleground. All of these creatures would be dangerous on their own, perhaps containing a venom which harms on contact.

Time-stop, 'nuff said.

You just reminded me that I desperately need to watch Kabuto. So many Kamen Rider installments left for me to get through...but I digress.

I've also got a speedster in a story I've been working on, and it does give him a lot of advantages. But here's the trick: he's fast as long as he has something to move on. Fling him into the air — or even a few feet off solid ground — and he's got nothing to give him propulsion. I guess technically a speedster could still manage by way of moving their limbs super-fast for some kind of sneaky attack (I'd bet the Flash did something like that somewhere along the line in the comics), but the main idea is simple: limit a speedster's field of movement or his ability to move, and it'll make for an uphill battle.

Caltrops, extra gravity, walls, and chasms could make for a bad time. Same goes for ice, assuming the speedster isn't going so fast that they just blow right past/through it. If we're talking about running on land, then anything that'll cause a slip-up and crash is going to cause a bit of second-guessing. Also, there's the matter of how durable your speedster is; even with a good bit of muscle, I wonder if that's enough to protect from the extreme forces it could have on the body. That could probably be mitigated if you've got some sort of Speed Force — and by the sound of things, you do — but you could impose a hard limit on that so that the speedster has to manage it like a fuel source. So for example, too much high-speed action could force the speedster to run out of Speed Force, and any subsequent use after crossing that threshold = damage to the body.

It's not required to make that change, but speaking personally? It's something that works for me and my speedster, and makes fights a little less one-sided. I've always kind of seen super speed as a Story-Breaker Power if put in the right hands, so it should be used carefully. But of course, YMMV.

Mines and similar traps. It depends on how much prerequisite powers you give him-but unless he's also able to turn extremely quickly (and not be killed by the overwhelming G-Force), dodging mines won't be his forte.

edited 28th Nov '15 10:01:08 PM by Protagonist506

Go to Ludicrous Speed.

Best way? Some kind of temporal field that stops whoever enters it. Since distance traveled is speed x time, if time is 0, distance is 0. Regular time-stop may not be useful if the speeder can get to the user before it's deployed.

In my universe, there are mooks with super speed (and Required Secondary Powers ^note ability to shift inertia/momentum on a dime, absorb heat energy to counter friction, made of energy, self-propulsion). They're fast enough to be nearly lightspeed, and some are even beyond lightspeed (hell, their leader travels at infinite distance per second at full power. Yes, it's an instant Game Over if you don't trap him with the stuff below once he decides to fight).

Their main weaknesses are basically temporal fields. There's two variants of them- the first immediately stops any enemy that enters them in suspended animation and position, the second one is kinda like a speed limit, anything entering the radius is forced to move at or slower than a certain speed.

They also have another weakness called the "Speed Trap". Kinda like a radius weapon similar to the temporal field, except anything that moves into the radius at a high speed is one-shotted immediately (it reacts immediately).

Funnily enough, the mooks with super speed aren't the ones to worry about. The ones with an Always Accurate Attack that hits past armor (long story short, it creates an explosion inside the enemy) are the ones to worry about.

edited 29th Nov '15 10:37:12 PM by ironcommando

Ludicrous Speed !? We've never gone that fast before! I don't know if the ship can take it!

Also, Iron Commando, looking at your setting, you may want to try watching Kamen Rider Kabuto, as all the enemies down to the mook also have super speed. Its great for looking for inspirations in choreographing fights in super speed.

edited 29th Nov '15 5:16:09 AM by Wasdxz

Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress

Okay, but here is the problem, the opponent moves at a speed where time seems to slow to a halt, beyond human reaction time, where everyone is so zeta slow compared to him, with him being the only one (other than the lancer) can react and move in the environment.

So... How to counter an opponent with time control?

Humans don't really do random, they tend to be repetitive, so if the opponent can spot a sequence/tell in where and when they will move (similar to the scene in the back alley of 'Wolverine') they can toss something in their path . Anything solid will hurt, no matter how small, if they are moving fast enough.

A mundane example is pistol bullet v rifle bullet A 9mm parabellum weighs 7.45 grams A 5.56mm bullet weighs 4 grams BUT travels about 3 times as fast, and thus causes more damage.

If the Super is moving at 1000m second (a shade under Mach 3 at 3600kph/2237mph) then hitting a US quarter at 5.67 grams is going to do some damage!

A British 10p is 6.5 grams, a pound coin 9.5g. A £2 or a 50c coin are whopping 12g - ie 3 rifle bullets.

A swung weapon, such as a bat, will do considerably more damage, obviously, but likely severely injure the wielder. I would imagine a sword would go straight through!

I like this solution over the super-counter, because it makes Supers vulnerable to normal people.

edited 29th Nov '15 9:27:22 AM by Last_Hussar

Throw a banana peel on the ground. . .that was not a joke, mess with his ability to gain traction and he would be unable to walk much less run at hyper speed.

depending on if he has the correct set of secondary powers even fighting him on loose dirt or gavel would be enough to give him traction issues. If he has a correct set of powers then you need to use some kind of lubricant, even water could work if you consider how cars skid out on wet roads.

as for how any of your four named characters could use this: 1)MC: create some kind of slippery surface, say cover a road with Teflon. say have personality B: deconstruct some non stick pans and have personality A use the matter to make non stick roads with the Teflon. WARNING!: Teflon is made with fluorine, yes, the Yandere element! so watch out if you deconstruct it to far. 2)Lancer: being as fast but maybe stronger she has the best odds of a direct fight. If your foe wants to avoid her then she can act to guide him into an area that he can not fight in. 3)Big guy: well I don't see how he can help here. Fire power only works if you can hit with it, assuming you want him dead. You could use him like a claymore mine, say lift up a swerer grate, heat it up until it explodes and hopefully have that hot metal go toward the speedster, again though, only if you want him dead. 4)smart guy: assuming he has some ice bullets or some other way to make terrain slicker at a distant he could be very good in this fight as he can coat large areas of the battle field in slickness to stop the speedster. Most importantly, he could cover the flanks so that the speedster does not run down a city block and come up behind them in a half second without running into a patch of slickness.

hope that helps.

edited 29th Nov '15 1:02:46 PM by dragonkingofthestars

One word.

Wire.

So far, no one has mentioned the obvious: Precognition. I dont care how fast he is, if I know what he is about to do before he has decided to do it, he's mine.

In the 1990 TV series The Flash, the Trickster dumped a bunch of marbles or ball bearings behind him when he made his escape. The Flash ended up basically running in place while the marbles caused a lot of collateral damage, since they were being kicked out from beneath his boots with the speed of bullets.

In another episode with the Trickster, he dumped a barrel of glue on the street, trapping Flash like a roach motel.

edited 29th Nov '15 5:15:20 PM by pwiegle

There was a story I read about on an examples page (I don't remember what) where the opposite happens. A super-speedster defeats a precog, because even if the precog can see the future, they still can't react fast enough to it.

Depends on how far the Precog could see. make a hell of a movie scene - two people with different powers that make them an even match. Everything in super slow mo for the speedster, and lots of ghost images of where the speedster is going to be for the precog - like when you draw round a hand , then draw round that and so on.

These are a lot of great ideas!

Some other thoughts:

1. Remove the flooring. Say you're on an airship; the superspeed character probably can't get off it without killing themselves if you drop it. (barring super-arm-flapping or something)

2. Rising platform/ship thing. If you get it high enough before they notice/are able to respond, they won't be able to get off.

3. Distractions (though maybe that doesn't count ). Messing with their head. Threaten them with something far away that they can't reach in time (I guess, like again, a hostage on a plane or something...).

4. Have the fight somewhere they would cause too much damage by running fast. If the fight took place in a highly populated area (like a shopping mall or something), depending on the rules of your story's world, the force of the super-speed character running by might be enough to kill some people or severely hurt them. (Might not work with some villains if it's a super-speed super-villain, but a Villain with Good Publicity would struggle)

5. A mental freak-out power. If the super-speed character can't think straight, they won't be able to do much.

6. Require super-precision for something that requires deep thought. Like maybe a ticking bomb that must be defused but can't be moved; if the super-speedster's brain works faster though, it wouldn't really work...

7. All routes of escape blocked by DEATH (like a giant pool of lava falling on them or something... I guess it's ridiculous, but do it right and it'll fall under Rule of Cool (or Rule of Funny, alternatively))

8. Blinding light (kind of like smoke mentioned earlier)

9. Things you HAVE to wait for or cause massive damage (If you're not for massive damage, you're not going to jump across subway tracks while a subway's going by)

10. Phobias. If the character's terrified of snakes, have some snakes.

11. Invisible barriers. SMACK!

12. Piercing sound. Of course, since sound is vibrations, you could counter this by having them run super-fast away from the vibrations. But if it's constant, it still might be enough to stop them? Maybe?

Hope this helps!

edited 1st Dec '15 7:40:29 PM by MIBuddy

Alternative idea.

Make it rain or generate substantially large particles in the air.

If the super speedster doesn't have Required Secondary Powers, they'll have to move slow or else the raindrops will be like bullets if he collides into them.

Adding to that, just splashing the surroundings with handfuls of powder (or salt) will do a lot of damage.

The problem with super-speed: If you hit something and you're still moving super-fast, doesn't matter how fast your healing is: Quick healing won't heal being a bloody smear on the wall. Trip the speedster, and the ground'll do all the killing.