Eleven vs Max



Eleven vs Max is a What-if? episode of Death Battle by Stargayzer. It features Eleven of Stranger Things and Max of Life is Strange.

Description
''Life is Strange vs Stranger Things! Two small-town superheroines with reality-bending powers cross paths - but whose power is truly the strangest? Will Max be flipped upside-down, or is Eleven out of time?''

Interlude
''Superman was born a Kryptonian. Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider. Luke Skywalker grew into his Jedi lineage. Harry Potter trained at Hogwartz. For every extraordinary power, an extraordinary backstory explains just where that power came from…''

''Except for a couple, who just say ‘fuck it!’ and develop those powers for no reason. We call those the ‘Elsa’s’ of the world.''

''Like Eleven, the psychokinetic result of MKUltra, or Max, the time-winding photographer from Arcadia Bay. While these two aren’t much of fighters, it’s our job to analyze their powers, smarts and skills to determine who would win a death battle!''

Max
(Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV8SRAxeghQ )

Born in Arcadia Bay, Max Caulfield returned to her hometown as a young woman to attend her dream university of Blackwell Academy and pursue her true passion: photography. What she wasn’t expecting, however, was the amount of mystery, drama and… straight weird shit that would go on as she returned.

Ending up getting caught on the trail of a serial murderer and his cohorts, Max has two powers she relies on - her best friend and potential lover, Chloe Price, and her ability to rewind time.

Yes, early into her semester, Max finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses her best friend getting shot and killed; yet in doing so, found out that she had the inexplicable power to rewind time.

Rewind
Max’s rewinding powers seem to be inconsistent. As a general rule of thumb, holding out her hand lets Max rewind time backwards for roughly thirty seconds prior to when she started. Holding it any longer than this seems to give Max a headache that causes her to stop then and there - however, there are instances where her powers go far beyond just this quota.

For example, when her classmate and friend Kate attempted suicide by jumping off the roof of the dorms, Max’s rewind seemed to freeze time entirely - while allowing her to move independent of the freeze. This allowed Max to climb all the way to the rooftop of the dorm before she unfroze time to try and talk Kate down.

There are instances when Max’s powers don’t work, however. Freezing time for as long as she had seems to have had enough of a drain on Max that she couldn’t rewind if Kate did jump from the roof; similarly, using her powers too deeply gives her nosebleeds and migraines, sometimes leading to her fainting if used liberally. In a later episode, Max is drugged with a kind of sleeping agent that makes her mind too foggy to use her powers and save her best friend - this would at least imply that Max has to be level-headed and clearly thinking in order to use her powers.

Max’s rewind does have seem to work consistently in at least one fashion, however; if Max’s life is in danger, then time around her will come to a complete standstill long enough to let her use her powers to rewind back to before she was threatened. This power allows Max to save herself from situations she may not have been able to react to quickly enough to use her rewind in the first place.

Max is somewhat able to teleport using her rewind as well, as she can move to a physical location before rewinding whomever she is with. She uses this technique to bust open the lock of a door, setting off an alarm before going into that door and rewinding back before she had broken it; then simply unlocking it from the inside, essentially having teleported herself within.

In addition, Max does not seem to need to lift her palm to rewind time - it’s simply a physical way of expressing that she is doing so.

Polarewind
Max has a second way of time travelling that allows her to visit far more distance parts of the past. If a physical photograph exists of a time Max wants to visit, she can transfer her consciousness seemingly through the photo to return to that timeframe albeit in what her body would have been at the time. The only limitation that seems to take place on this skill is that she herself must be in the photograph. For example, Max used a photo of herself at 12-years-old and was still able to travel through it - however, she is unable to travel back to a party she had taken multiple photos at because she herself was not pictured in any of those photos, not until she got a picture she herself was depicted in.

While this does transport Max’s consciousness across the photos, it is heavily implied that a previous Max is still left in the past timeline to deal with the consequences. When Max uses a photograph to escape from the dark room, she later meets a version of herself in a nightmare who chastises her for ‘leaving other Max’s behind,’ such as a version of herself that couldn’t escape the dark room and was thus killed.

It should be noted that while Max can return to certain parts of the past, she seems confined within the area that those photos took place. When she rewinded back to Chloe’s house at age 12, she couldn’t leave the house itself. So no, she couldn’t just rewind back to when her opponent was a baby and kill them, sicko. Unless she was taking the picture in the hospital her opponent was born in.

Overall
Over all, what Max lacks in offensive power, she easily makes up for in defense. Her time travel powers keep her safe from being caught off-guard and allows her to predict her opponents moves, something she makes good use of when instructing David Madsen on how to fight off her attacker.

Despite that, however, Max has no real astonishing feats that give her more strength, speed or agility than the average 5’5, 18-year-old woman. Overuse of her powers can weaken her significantly, but she still has no trouble taking desperate measures to defend herself and can make surprisingly clever use of her environment.

“My powers might not last… but we will, forever.”

Eleven
(Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2OcL_0gtM )

In a little town called Hawkins, Indiana, everything was awfully normal. That was, until one day, when Will Byers disappeared roughly at the same time that a young girl was found stumbling around the woods. This young girl - named only ‘Eleven’ at the time - was the labrat of MKUltra, an unethical experiment trying to tap into amazing psychic powers she seemed to inexplicably control. How did she get these powers? Was she born with them? Was it the copious amounts of LSD her mother was subjected to while pregnant? I don’t know. Neither do you.

What we do know, however, is that these powers make her a one-girl army.

Telekineses
The main use for Eleven’s powers is her telekinesis - the ability to move things with her mind. Early in her youth, she couldn’t use this power to crush a soda can without becoming fatigued. But as MKUltra trained her, she learned quickly just how great her powers can be. Arguably the greatest feat Eleven’s telekinesis has pulled off is flipping an entire van full of MKUltra soldiers over her head. As she performed this feat while on the back of a moving bicycle, under intense pressure and a shrinking time limit, it can be assumed Eleven’s powers are not limited to the clarity of her mind.

While she has used her telekinesis to shut doors and move inanimate objects, however, Eleven has proven that she can also use it to affect people. Like her boyfriend Mike, who attempted to jump off of a large ravine only for Eleven to catch him mid-air and float him back to safety - all while being out of sight and a steady distance away. She can also affect people’s insides, as seen when she squeezed a bully’s bladder to scare him off.

Internal damaging
Undoubtedly Eleven’s greatest feat regarding her powers, however, is her ability to affect the human mind. Being chased by her captors as they attempted to bring Eleven back into captivity, she quickly turned around and crushed all of their brains until an entire squad of soldiers working for MKUltra dropped dead on the spot. In training, she’s used her powers to snap necks before, and when coming into contact with the Demogorgon, was able to concentrate her power into trapping it, destroying it, and removing it to a different dimension entirely.

With this all in mind, however, Eleven’s powers have strict and immediate consequences on her health. While before, using her powers even a little bit would give her a nosebleed, she seems to have gotten better control of it over time - regardless, too much stress will cause her to lash out with enough force to shatter all the windows within her own home with a single telekinetic flare. Likewise, using her powers too much can cause her to collapse entirely if abused.

While Eleven commonly raises her hands in tangent with using her powers, it seems to be something she does for visual purposes rather than practical.

In combination with her telekinesis, Eleven had a set of related powers that albeit perhaps not useful in battle, make her difficult to pull the wool over. She can find out information about someone simply by coming into contact with a personal belonging of that person; visit an unending void through desensitization that allows her to peer into alternate dimensions; and seemingly teleport when put through overstrain on her powers, although this seems largely involuntary and is only done once to take her to and from the Upside Down.

Overall
Thanks to her telekinetic powers, Eleven is a glass cannon. While her powers allow her to easily dispatch several enemies at once and lift large objects, she herself is subject to them and can only use them so much before they start to turn on her. Likewise, taking her powers away, her physique is the same as any ordinary young girl, meaning anyone who could somehow break through her offense could easily defeat her.

Making it through that offense is what will prove tricky for anyone wanting to fight her, however - at the end of the day, underestimating this small child very well may be your last mistake.

“Friends don’t lie.”

Prologue
The combatants are set - let’s end this debate once and for all!

It’s time for a death battle!

FIGHT!
The crack of lightning shed the littlest bit of a peak into the darkness of a gloomy forest. Each tree, barren of leaves and swaying in the hard winds as rain poured down from the skies. A thin layer of water streamed down the side of a nearby road, barely paved and unmarked; and parked off to the side was a rusty, brown pick-up truck.

“Are you sure we took a right turn?” Max Caulfield asked to her partner in crime, Chloe Price, a blue-haired punk of twenty years of age holding a map up, her cellphone next to her flashing ‘NO SIGNAL’ over a digital map. “Okay… so… don’t freak out…” Chloe murmured. Max’s brow dropped.

“But we MIGHT be in Indiana…”

“What?!” Max’s eyes lit up. “You said you wouldn’t freak out!” Chloe whined, but Max threw her head back into her chair. “Chloeee!...” She groaned, but Chloe merely shrugged it off. “Look, it’s fine, dude. Just give me a sec to figure out this fuckin’ thing.” Sighing, Max pouted as she turned to her side, dropping her chin on her hand and glancing out the window into the nearby, eerie forest. “Hella spooky…” She thought to herself. But a good chance of a photo-op.

“It looks like the rain is passing… I’m going to go take some pictures.” Max announced. “Knock yourself out.” Chloe suggested without looking up. “Mm.” Max merely grunted in reply, swinging her door wide open and hopping out.

---

“Snap!” Filling in for the absence of lightning as the last rain drops fell from trees, Max’s camera lit up the dark as she let another photo print out. She fanned it out, the image developing, then deciding if she’d keep it or not… and this one was lucky. So she slipped it into her bag, her attention glancing to the truck barely in view by now… one more, and she’ll head back.

First, Max looked left to right. Then, she held up her camera, turning it so it faced her, and put on her best ‘scared’ face. “Snap!”

Quickly, she grabbed the printed photo and fanned it out, the image soon clearing! It wasn’t her best selfie, admittedly, but it worked. Except for one thing… the child, seemingly behind her in the photo. “Is that…?”

“Destroy it.” Another voice demanded. This one, young, but firm. Jolting around, Max’s heart picked up the pace as she looked on to… an odd sight, to say the least. A nearly bald, little girl, wearing a long yellow shirt that came down to her knees and past. “What…?” Max murmured. “A kid?”

“H-hey-hey! Are you lost?...” Max asked. “Where’s your parents…?”

“Destroy it!” The girl - Eleven - merely demanded another time. Now that she was closer, Max could see her eyes were deep, blood red; and with a single lift of her palm, felt her entire body throw itself backward under the power of some unseen force, slamming her into a tree as she slid down onto her legs. “Gah! W-what the fuck?!” She sputtered, her vision gone blurry. “N-no! Leave me alone!” Max yelled back.

Eleven’s eyes darted to the ground beneath her. By simply stretching her palms, a whole collection of small rocks hovered around her, then sliding up into the air. “I’m sorry.” She whimpered, her eyes tired and worn.

Max blinked, her lip trembling, totally unsure of what was going on.

“...so am I.” She whispered.

FIGHT!

The first volley of rocks flew towards Max like bullets cutting through the air. Obviously, she had no idea how or what was happening - maybe this was just a nightmare and her real self was fainted out in the middle of the woods. But she wasn’t about to take that chance.

Throwing her entire body forward, she barely rolled out of the way, a single stone grazing past her back as she threw her hand to the ground, the rocks slamming into the tree behind her and falling uselessly to the ground. “Hey!” Max called out, but the kid seemed unlistening. She knew she’d have to get closer.

So she’d try. She’d charge forward, only to feel her feet slip out from underneath her. Kicking at the air uselessly, she glanced up and saw that girl, with the same vicious look in her eyes, her hand extended… so she WAS the one doing this. But… how?

She wouldn’t get an answer. “GAH!” Max would grunt as Eleven cast her back against the ground. No time to waste! Max quickly began to push herself up again… only for that same, weird force to push backward against her again, this time straight cart-wheeling her across the forest floor until her head slammed painfully into the same tree as before, Max’s body sliding back upside-down. “Uggghh!...”

Clenching her fists, Max stood right back up, undeterred as she grit her teeth, glaring fiercely at this… weird… psychic child. Just as quickly, though, her eyes would widen as she stood up straight.

With a new collection of rocks at her control, the ones Eleven had hovering by her were significantly larger; a small collection of rocks, and one, pillow sized boulder. “Just end…” She muttered, before casting her arm forward as all her arsenal of rocks cast forward at once. “Please.”

“Hmf!” Max grunted, running forward to meet those stones halfway. The first whizzed by; barely, she ducked under, rolling forward again and shielding her face as two more grazed past her, one landing straight in her gut and knocking her back onto her behind. “Ugh!” She hissed, but eyes opened wide as the boulder approached. Time to show her some powers of her own.

Raising her hand, Max shut her eyes as she honed in on that exact rock’s placement in her mind; and with a horrible, sucking-like sound as if air was being brought into a vacuum, the world around her came to a standstill. The rocks froze in mid-air. Eleven’s entire body was turned still. But Max stood up.

First, she paused to take a breath. But then, she ran forward, wrapping her arms around that massive boulder and pulling it from it’s fixed position in time. The thing felt like it weighed two hundred pounds, but with all her strength, Max heaved it in a circle before letting it go, the boulder freezing in mid-air once again after she had dropped it.

And then… with a pant, she closed her hand back together. Time resumed.

“...what?” Eleven blinked, the woman in front of her seemingly teleporting closer - and her own projectile coming her way! “No!” She breathed, both hands ready to stop the boulder but only able to slow it’s descent as it barrelled into her, knocking her right off her feet and spinning her backwards. “Umf!...” She grunted.

Now’s her chance! Max already was charging forward, clearing some of that space before Eleven could get back up. But already, the boulder was floating again, launching off of Eleven’s body into the air far above the trees as she stood herself back up.

“Stop!” Max called out to her, drawing Eleven’s attention fast as her hands lifted again. “No!” Reaching her, Max instantly grabbed both the little girl’s wrists, pulling her from the ground and into the air. “Let go.” Eleven demanded, wriggling her wrists and kicking her feet as Max struggled to contain her. “Please! Just listen to m-”

“Let me GO!”

Though her hands were tied, Max was hit by what felt like a suckerpunch straight to her gut, like her own insides were being damaged. “NGghht!” She grunted, but refused to let Eleven go. It was no use. “You can’t win…” Eleven merely warned before something wracked Max’s mind - like a headache, but ten times as fearsome. “NGGAAhhh!” She squealed, finally dropping Eleven as she stepped backwards, clutching her head. It felt like fire burned inside her very skull. But that didn’t stop Eleven from capitalizing on it.

Throwing her hand forward again, a branch came to her side, something she directed forward to smack Max straight in the stomach a second time before plucking her feet off the ground, making the photographer trip just so Eleven could meet her on the floor with a kick to her chin.

“Gah! Sstop! Stop…” Max whined, but the combo wasn’t finished; Eleven merely turned around, hand raised again as the boulder from above finally came back down. She caught it in mid-air, stalling it’s fall so it wasn’t quite lethal, just so she could slam it right back down over Max’s head.

“GAH!” Max cried out, her vision blurry, nose-bleeding as she crumpled on the floor. “Give up.” Eleven whispered. But she wouldn’t. Instead, Max’s hand lifted, and time crawled backward - except this time, Max was ready. She stood herself up, releasing her grip on time itself just in time to be standing when the boulder fell - snagging it out of the air and haphazardly tossing it right toward Eleven.

Eleven was ready, albeit surprised; “H-huh?” She gasped, but caught the rock, casting it aside easily yet giving Max the chance she needed. “Gah!” Max grunted as she charged forward, shutting her eyes blindly as she threw out both hands and shoved Eleven forward. The little girl was taken by surprise, casting onto her back as she skid across the floor of the forest as Max stumbled forward.

“For both our sakes, please…” Max regained her balance as Eleven stood up. “Just… listen…”

But Eleven wouldn’t. And Max already was stunned in fright as she watched the little girl look up, eyes red as blood as that very thing ran from her nostril. Her hand rose by her side, and to her left, a massive tree as tall as a building so it seemed began to shake in place.

“No…” Max warned. “D-don’t!”

Seeing no better option, she ran forward, hand outreached to try and stop Eleven only to find herself being thrown back, smacking into another hard treetrunk as she watched in horror. The tree Eleven had her hold on ripped straight from the ground, roots and everything…

And to make matters worse, Eleven’s brow furled, the blood down to her chin now as she clearly was concentrating hard. But to her credit… the tree cracked at the seams, until finally, it burst into well over a hundred pieces, leaving a select few jagged pieces of hard wood floating in the air before they’d turn to face Max.

“Please!” Max whimpered, but there was no changing her mind now. The volley of wooden spears flew towards her with barely any time to react. Still, Max did her best, slowing time as she shifted herself from harm’s way of the first approaching splinter - but the second drove straight past her, even catching her jacket and tearing a hole as it flew into the woods. The third would not be so easily dodgeable.

“GAH!” Max would cry out as the wooden splinter stabbed straight into her knee, forcing her down on one leg, just for a fourth to drive directly into her shoulder, spearing through her clothes as blood spurt through the gaps. “NNggghtt…” She whined, falling onto one hand before she crumpled to the ground, tucking her legs to her chest. But it was no use. A fourth spike speared into her back as she cried out in pain.

“I’m sorry.” Eleven whispered another time. But it was time to end things. Raising her hand again, Max was pulled off the ground, dragged like a ragdoll upwards as the last spike pierced her straight through the gut. “GGggah…” Max whined, tears running down her cheeks now. Eleven’s brow dropped. This had gone on for too long.

“Forgive me.” She sighed, lowering her head as she glared deeply into Max. And from there, a piercing pain would enter Max’s mind.

“NGGHT!... N-no… p-please!” Max cried out, feeling as if her skull had been cracked open as blood began to slowly drip from her eyes. Her entire psyche felt like it was falling apart as she was dropped from the sky, moments from death…

...and then, the earth went silent.

The world as Max knew around her went grayscale. Everything - except herself - lost it’s color, everything coming to a dead standstill except for herself. Every part of her body felt like it was sore, and that lingering pain lasted in her head. But she could move… and she had time.

Her hand went straight to her camera bag. After a frantic search through her things, she found her Polaroid, not even an hour old yet; but this was her saving grace. Holding the photo up to her eyes, she focused as deeply as she ever had on anything before…

…a deafening drone takes over the battlefield as the entirety of time begins to unravel. Rocks fly back into the earth, splinters of trees reform into a proper trunk before digging back into the ground as Eleven and Max both were driven through a reversed version of their fight, start to finish, speeding up rapidly as all of reality seemed to burn up in a red flare…

...

“Snap!”

Eleven’s head jerked backwards at the sound and sudden light, her eyes scanning the forest grounds for whatever could have made the noise. “Camera.” She thought. That sounded like a camera… and she can’t afford to have her picture taken. She stayed at the ready, knowing she’d have to find that picture - no, whoever had SEEN her - and destroy them. She can’t risk letting the facility know she’s out here. She can’t risk letting Papa know where she’s escaped to.

A deathly quiet settles over the forest as the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her mind began to question things. Was it just a bolt of lightning, perhaps?...

So on-guard, she didn’t even notice the looming shadow behind her, wielding the thick branch of a tree-limb and rearing it behind their back like a baseball bat.

‘SWOOSH!’ With zero time to react, Eleven would be clubbed upside the head.

“CRACK!” K.O!.

Launched off her feet, Eleven was sent flying, knocked unconscious in an instant as she flew face-first into the dirt of the forest floor, the sound of a branch being dropped coming from behind as her attacker stepped out of the shadows.

Nose-bleeding, but eyes sharp, Max revealed herself. With a deep sigh, she hit her own forehead.

…

“C’mooon, you fucking thing, how do I-”

Chloe would jolt backwards as her car door was thrust open, blinking as Max slid into her seat now carrying… what looked like the corpse of a child.

“Whoa-WHOA-WHAT the FUCK?!” Chloe gasped.

“Hospital.” Max blankly stated, with an a thousand mile stare into the road ahead. “What?!”

“Now!”

With no more questions, Chloe’s truck pulled onto the road, and the three were off.

…

As her eyes began to open, slowly, the image of bright, white lights shining from above greeted Eleven as she awoke. Instantly, she snapped awake, taking in her new surroundings. She wasn’t in the forest anymore… and who was this strange, brown-haired woman waiting on her?!

“Hey! Hey...” Max quickly put up her hands, calming the girl down. “Look! I don’t want to hurt you.”

Eleven’s nerves calmed, although she wasn’t any less suspicious. “Where…?”

“We, uh… found you in the forest.” Another voice spoke up, belonging to another stranger, this one with blue hair. Eleven’s eyes shrunk. “So we brought you here. You’ve been out for a minute. Got any parents?”

“...” Eleven hesitated. Well… this was certainly a hit to her escape plan. Shaking her head, she sat back, crossing her arms. Max rubbed the back of her head nervously. “That’s… okay! We’ll get you someplace soon, then…” Shooting Chloe a glance that read ‘are we ready to raise a child?’

All three voices went silent afterwards, though, all eyes shooting to the door as the sound of gunfire and screams overtook the hall. Jumping out of her seat, Chloe ran to the bedside, putting up her arms to defend the child as Max held her hand up in preparation - and Eleven, meanwhile, was already out of bed and standing on two feet.

A suited man walked through the door, accompanied by other men and women in formal dress. “Hello again, Eleven…” The suited man asked as he reloaded his pistol. “Are these your friends?”

Epilogue
Well! At least nobody got hurt. For now.

What this battle eventually boiled down to was a battle between offense and defense - Eleven’s powers are unmatched by anything Max could throw at her, having the ability to keep Max at a distance and plenty busy. But while Eleven shined in offense, she just had no answer to Max’s power; time travel. With Max’s time-stopping ability keeping her alive, she could survive anything Eleven threw at her and manipulate time long enough to get close and land that one good hit she’d need. Remember, even with her psychic powers, she’s still a child.

Now, it can easily be argued that Max’s time-stop when she’s in mortal danger is just a game-play mechanic, considering it happens in several other instances of the game not related to her - and considering that, Max still wins because only one instance has been shown of her powers not working reliably, and it’s when she was injected with an anesthesia that rendered her unconscious in mere seconds. While Eleven can attack the mind, she hasn't been shown to be able to confuse it, leaving Max with plenty of time to react and freeze time before she could get the kill.

An argument can also be made for a stalemate, as Eleven can’t kill Max, but Max has no weapons with which to easily subdue Eleven… but this comes down to a matter of brute strength. If she needed to, Max could hurt a child. I just don’t think she would want to!

Finally, one could say that Eleven wins in certain timelines of this fight because for Max to travel back in time through Polarewind means she’s leaving a version of herself in the past that would implicitly have been killed - so in a way, Eleven does win in that specific outcome. However, the same Max that she’s fighting against would have transported her consciousness to a different reality, meaning it’s a different Max entirely that Eleven would have killed and thus the Max that started their fight would have ended it on a different Eleven. Time travel is weird!

Looks like in this battle, Eleven learned to BRANCH out.

…anyway.

The winner is Max.