Grrl Power #1063 – Olé olé, olé olé…
Happy 4th of July. Enjoy the fireworks…
If you’re a henchman participating in an assault on a base of superheroes, you gotta figure there are some pretty good benefits and/or pay. Also there’s probably an extensive briefing beforehand, depending on how disposable the henchmen are, and how serious the organization is about success. I mean, it depends on what their goals are, really. But there’s only so much preparation you can do, and the briefing probably isn’t going to cover all possible encounters, especially stuff like “an IT guy’s girlfriend who it so happens can hack reality.” Body armor and IR goggles aren’t really going to help you with that anyway. Your best bet is to incapacitate as many people as possible to limit responses.
Honestly if I was going to assault a super base, my opening move would probably be knockout gas in the HVAC. Knock ’em down before they know they’re being swung on. Maybe someone from the red team here suggested that, but learned that Archon has detectors in the system that would trigger alarms and lock it down. Basically, I’d want to win as many fights as possible before even entering the building. It’s a question of their resources and prep time vs your own, and how expandable your resources are. Not sure what the average henchman mindset is, really, but they can’t all be thinking they’re going to come out of an assault like this unscathed. Well, maybe they’ve got some invincibility cocktail coursing through their veins. That is to say, a cocktail that makes them think they’re invincible. The Grrl-verse is still hard at work on super soldier serums.
The June Vote Incentive is still up. I got overambitious with the new one and it’s not finished yet, but I’m working on a stopgap pic that should be up soon…ish. In the meantime, there’s still a nude version of Sydney (and guest) over at the Patreon version.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Well, that’s an ouchie.
…how is her hair still perfect? It should be crisping already – imagine if ARC has a super lawyer too?
That is the big twist to GP – almost everyone is already a super but no one noticed :P
Not sure it’s so much a twist any more so much as the obvious result of the genetics Deus was lecturing Max about. That dormant gene had only been activated in a fraction of the population at this point…
Yeah, it already being present in most people is the only way the spread of supers could be as fast as Deus predicted. Which would more or less mean that he’s able to have so many supers in part because he knows how to trigger the gene and how to determine who will still be loyal after their superpower gene is activated.
If it’s anything like the triggering process in Wormverse, that last bit would probably be pretty key. And also would explain Arianna getting triggered right here.
To be clear, I’m not saying she is getting triggered here. It feels like her getting triggered from this would have ripples in the story big enough that I feel like Dave would want to go elsewhere. It’s more likely that this is the fraction of a second where she’s had her chance to put her hands up in reaction to the heat but has not yet had the opportunity to start blistering.
Doubt she is a super or suzie news would have been a lot more injured…. or Ariana would have been a lot less injured.
Unless her superpower is just ‘fireproof.’
What if her superpower is being “powerproof”.
Have we ever seen Arianna affected by powers, any power?
That would explain why she don’t get public, as a power is not that great on the field, sure, you can’t be hurt by powers, but you can still be shot, and probably punched and kicked. That would be a also great power to keep secret for an emergency, if they meet, for example a mind controller.
She was affected by Vehemence’s power.
Also Maxima’s punches on Sydney’s shield were hurting her eardrums.
Also she was scared by Sydney’s projection of herself.
I grant you the first one (beside I think Dave changed the last panel, now the flames seems to affect her, at least a little, so my theory is wrong) But the other two would not prove a thing.
Being immune to power would not mean being immune to the ‘conseguences’ of powers (i.e heatwave flame would not hurt, but a fire started from them would, and if a superstrong character throw a boulder to you, you are not immune) and Sydney’s are not – strictly speaking- ‘powers’, no more than Dabbler’s weapons.
In other words if there was a Grrlpower rpg Maxima abilities would have the source “powers” while Sydney’s orbs would have the source “n-tech” or something. Vehemce’s abilities could be powers, then again his abilities seems related to Dabbler’s succubus abilities, but using vilence rather than lust, so they could be, I dunno, magic?
Good arguments on the Maxima and Sydney ones.
With the argument you made about the Vehemence one, he’s been described multiple times within the comic as a super, rather than as a Malumi (which would be closer to what Dabbler is, but for violence instead of sex). If you’d like I can get the links to where he’s been described as a super.
Any good PR person in her position uses fire retardant hair gel, obviously.
I’m sure all the ARC ladies have had Krona do a hack to give them perpetually-perfect hair.
Why wouldn’t that be you’re first thought if you had a reality-hacker on the team?
In case anyone forgot that Arianna is *not* part of the military side of the base. I hope Heatwave can jump in quickly to block that fire, and doctor Frost has the skills to mend burns
I can’t imagine the government super team doesn’t have a single person who can’t heal serious injuries with super-effectiveness.
Dr. Frost is the psychiatrist. Doctor Chevy is the GP with healing powers.
Doctor Frost is a psychiatrist. Doctor Chevy is the GP with healing powers.
I am hoping that Achilles tackles Arianna clear of the flames, then stands up to confront the flame-thrower.
Achilles: Hey what’s with the alarm? Oh, is that all? Didn’t you read the sign? This is a no smoking area! [ Starts punching the guy ]
Achilles wouldn’t do that. Not enough taunting. Not enough merciless taunting. Probably Heatwave standing in front of her. That or our newest recruit that everyone takes for granite.
Pretty sure varia was seen two posts ago
“You call that a flame? You’re doing it all wrong.”
“10 times the heat of the surface of the sun? If it was 500 times you’d have an advantage, but 10 times? I don’t even feel it.”
But that’s all combining the little sayan teasing with Achilles’ abilities, he can do that.
But it would be more “Can you do more than making pretty lights? Wait, i’ll get my marshmellows, then you can be useful for once.”
Achilles wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t want to lose another marshmallow. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-176-pose-dramatically-much/
what’s the point of an emergency door shut if any random can just open the door normally right after?
how unprepared can Arianna be to not take cover when an alarm rings?
this is a superhero building! for an alarm to ring, something massive must be going on! don’t go look when someone make noise as a civilian!
Next page is a flash forward to an OSHA representative having a very long discussion with Arianna.
I’ve got nothing for Arianna, but I’m pretty sure the guy that tossed the grenade threw it in as the door was auto-closing. In the previous page, it still had around a body width left to close. In today’s page, there was roughly a head width and palm width, respectively, and while it may seem to be slow to close thanks to dialogue, I imagine most of the events of the last two pages are meant to be happening within roughly ten seconds or less of Leon hitting the alarm.
The grenade got in just before the door closed.
Krona simply lifehacked its location.
Arianna is not member of the response teams, she is not trained to deal with hostilities.
Archon HQ is the equivalent of a police office with at least one swat team geared up and ready to go at a moment’s notice at all time. I imagine they are about as likely to have regular drills about being attacked by a hostile paramilitary force as is the typical police office.
Mr firehead clearly has not thought things through. If the goal is to cause mayhem a couple of bombs would get the job done better and with less risk. If it is to steal things then he hit the wrong target. Archon is not going to store that ‘alien-tech’ in a vault in their HQ for the same reason that police forces do not keep their evidence lockers in relatively accessibly offices. And if they are after information, it would be send in a burglar and a hacker or two during office hours when nobody blinks twice at seeing people (at least in the publicly accessible spaces) that they do not know. Getting past that security door is a bit tricky, but after that it is a simple matter of finding a relatively unsecured computer, or dropping a keystroke logger on somebody’s desk (for wireless keyboards) or attach something to a cable (for wired keyboards). Once that is in place it is simply slowly getting deeper on the network without the resident IT specialists noticing.
Safe and quiet, if a bit slow, not spectacular fistfights, fires and explosions everywhere. Also, not as likely to have an angry superpowered group kicking down the door with instructions to ‘arrest but do not worry if you have to kill
. Our resident demon can yank their soul from hell long enough for a thorough investigation’
It *was* closing. Jerk just rolled it in just before it shut all the way.
Civilians who are not trained in such things generally do not react in anything remotely close to a smart way to such situations. Ariana is smart and good at her job. That said? PR specialists are RARELY trained to handle open combat situations. Archon may or may not be an exception to that rule. We haven’t see Ariana do anything but PR, so we don’t know if she is trained or equipped for such. Even if she isn’t? I bet that SOMETHING is in place to protect the ‘squishies’ in just such a situation. Any military that wants to survive lives for planning, especially contingency planning. Archon strikes me as a reasonably competent military organization, so, they will have plans. Will said plans work? That is another question entirely.
All in all? No matter what, Ariana is a civilian and I bet fire guy just made a SERIOUS mistake on targeting her. The team may not like her, but she IS part of the team.
I am betting this won’t end well for fire guy.
Pretty sure the team likes her. She’s the reason they get treated as celebrities, the reason they don’t have to worry about getting ripped a new one by the media… hell, she’s Halo’s single greatest ally. Math is a walking #metoo waiting to happen. Even Maxima… let’s face it, Maxima has said a number of things that Ariana’s had to spin.
That being said, I’m TERRIFIED for her. This is something straight out of 90s “X-treme!!!” comics.
I think the team are okay with Ariana. She does her job competently and she’s friendly enough – I do think she’s going to be fast tracked into combat training after recovery. And have emergency doors installed for her protection. I think this will bring her deeper into the team and more accepted.
Now’s the time to find out her secret superpower is just being one of those people who is either A) always super cold and wants the heater on all the time (and therefore this is a nice warming up for her) or B) just prefers to be warm. Either situation leads to her being a heatsink and she never knew. Or this awakens some sort of dormant supergene for that purpose like Deus was talking about.
But seriously, Ari, why are you going out of your room during a panic alarm?
Is now the time to release Vehemence for a good fight? It took Max to fight him to a standstill last time…
are you saying she needs one of these?
https://lilicloth.com/products/yes-i-am-cold-casual-sweatshirt?variant=13770868
Ari’s door was not emergency shut
If Arianna were to die, she’ll haunt that fire guy and sue him for all he’s got. If she survives (and I *really* hope she does because I like her a lot), she’ll sue him for even more.
I am expecting this to reveal she has powers, allowing her to survive, but is not combat inclined.
I suspect the same thing. Arianna is too good a character to be lost like this.
Besides, fire guy better hope she isn’t hurt. I can’t imagine what Max would do to him if she is.
Or heatwave makes the flames go around her instead of at her and she (Brooke) absorbs the fire. Then blasts the guy back.
i mean i’d be surprised if thats not the case, it was pretty blatant that she should die here otherwise
Why would Arianna come out into open to check? Drills should have made it clear you lock in & hunker down for all non combative personnel.
Apparently because she’s stupid.
Apparently she’s not the only one (read Erianaiel‘s post above to figure out who else is stupid)
I’m thinking she just got caught out in the open when the attack started. I’ve assisted with armed intruder drills. In a modest sized facility there is always someone coming and going. People get caught out in the open. As a mid to low level administrator I had to occasionally come in and interact with the 11-7 (night) shift. It’s not really that surprising that Arianna might be out and about, especially if she has an on-site residence. It’s also not that surprising that she wouldn’t be at her peak at that time of day. Armed intruder drills, aggression management training and the like serve to mitigate risk but they can’t eliminate it.
There are two things that civilians do well in combat. The main one is “die.” The other one is “the unexpected.” Very rarely, their actions are so unexpected that civilians beat the soldiers… but mainly they just die.
Honestly, Arianna should have been smarter than this. “I am working in the superhero HQ, there is an alarm. Should I head to the emergency shelter, or should I go and demand clarification as a completely powerless and untrained manager”
I have worked in corporate America for a long time. option 2 will be the majority choice. I’d wager that even in the military a significant number of managerial types would respond the same way.
I was going to argue it’d be terrible writing to not have shown she was like this before, but maybe he has. Arianna obviously considers herself mommy to a bunch of immature brats. This is why real armies rely on military discipline rather than a PR mommy to maintain order. Nobody knows how to react in a real emergency because everybody thinks it’s great fun to generate fake emergencies, and since nobody faces any real consequences for their actions, this sort of stupidity is inevitable. That said, I very much doubt anyone in THIS comic will ever suggest that the reason she’s injured or dead is because of their lack of professional discipline, and if they do everyone else, especially her, will cluster around them and say, “Oh noes! Don’t feel bad about that! This isn’t your/our fault! The bad man did it!”
If you go back to the press conference she uses a ‘fido-behave’ clicker on dabbler. also, the ‘she’s got you figured’ exchanges at Sydney’s recruitment suggest it. and the evil laughter over spreadsheets?
when Sydney discovered how big her paychecks were they send in a specialist to help Sydney adjust. that’s a positive part of that paternal behavior. then there’s the whole conference thing. I’ve only ever even heard of such things at IEPs. Its taken me years to accept that such things almost never happen outside of school.
“Arianna obviously considers herself mommy to a bunch of immature brats”
… I mean, she’s not wrong. Halo, Harem, Dabbler, Math… even Max, their commanding officer, is an HR nightmare on multiple fronts.
And cue Heatwave in 3, 2, 1…
Hiro or Achilles would be good choices too. Hiro tackles her back into the room she was in and Achilles goes confronts the flame-brain.
Hiro: Stay down in here. Call the sick bay and see what you should do. Unfortunately, I don’t think the site-to-site transporter is working yet. [ Heads out to find other foes to fight ]
Achilles: Hey, didn’t you read the sign? This is a no-smoking area. [ Gets close and starts punching the guy ]
I’m betting on Varia, if only because I’m dying to know what power manifests when she links with Arianna. Pretty sure they already know, but we haven’t seen it yet.
Oh dear… it would be good time to learn that Arianna has some latent superpowers. Because this looks… unfortunate for her.
Latent?
Where did they say she didn’t have powers already?
Am I the only one who remembers her LITERALLLY flaming passion for the legal system?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-227-arianna-uses-spin/
She’s probably always had some minor pyrokinetic abilities she just doesn’t use them.
(Yes, yes, I know, it was just comedic effect)
Just because she can breathe fire as a lawyer doesn’t make it a super power… Unless she can also consume it…
I’m reminded of at least a couple of authors who’ve had works that lampshaded dragons breathing fire nicely, explaining that they can’t actually *breathe* it themselves, but they can effectively launch flame attacks from their mouths in some fashion or other. (Exact mechanics differ per story.)
maybe if she’s hit by flame she just becomes more agile and poised?
y’know, grace under fire.
Brilliant, I love puns!
You are obviously a lady of class and culture.
indeed. I’m surprised someone has not expressed their burning crusade on puns.
We take a lot of heat for the jokes, but I still think it’s a gas.
I am tempted to make a lawyer joke, but the resident lawyer would then return fire.
Arianna: Sure, I don’t have all the abilities of my siblings, but as a daughter of Surtur, I am still fire-proof. That suit cost over $2000. You will be paying to replace it. Too bad there is no room to grow in this hallway.
Well yeah, she probably is a demi-god, descended of Ariadne and Dionysus, probably pretty invulnerable.
The name Arianna is derived from the Greek name Ariadne and means “Most Holy”.
Thanos probably had the right idea for how to attach a supes’ HQ.
Step 1: Just throw all the missiles you can find at it.
Step 2: Deploy someone with a sieve.
The Mandarin?
Endgame. I always wondered from the clips where that battle happened… it happened in the ruins of the base where the time machine was built. that’s how many missiles were used. nobody has a car to drive home in after that fight.
Having someone who can instantly make any grenades either duds or have them bounce back at the thrower is a handy person to have on your team.
I just read a story where someone made a magical force wall to block bullet sand THEN discovered that if she angled it properly, grenades and such bounced back at the enemies who threw them. The marines she was working with hadn’t thought she was all that special UNTIL that moment. Now, ANYONE who disrespects her will be lucky if they wind up in the hospital.
In real life, grenades have a DISTRESSING tendency to bounce off things like branches, walls or doors and land WAY too close for comfort. or so I have been told by combat veterans.
There is a reason that Murphy’s Law of Combat #2 exists. ‘After the pin has been pulled, Mr Grenade is no longer your friend!’
That sounds like an interesting story. What was it called?
Second the query.
The story was ‘The Aquaria Incident’. It is available on Amazon kindle and a few other places.
Niall Teasdale writes a series called ‘Death’s Handmaiden’. The series has LOTS of erotic scenes involving similar genders, so a turn off for anyone who doesn’t like those. I skip over a lot of that myself, but the REST of the story more than makes up for it to me. Magic, school messes and terrorists getting their butts handed to them in job lots! What is not to love?
The main character of the series is named Nava, AKA Death’s Handmaiden, and she could give Maxima a run for her money in sheer badass scary.
Could you tell me that story? Seriously asking.
Mr.Grenade was never your friend, the only thing keeping him from blowing you apart was a stuck-up version of a Slinky.
I mean I figure the ARC-Swat building would have 24h security. The biggest question being why the internet access being completely cut didn’t set the alarm off automatically unless specifically told not to by an accredited administrator.
Also where are the guards around the wider security envelope around the building that haven’t checked in for a while?
And I definitely can fault the invaders if they didn’t include enormous margins and extra resources to account for encountering unexpected and even unprecedented superpowers. And I can fault ARC for not having security tight while most of their firepower is away and thus missing from their security profile.
I am very good at faulting!
Perhaps one of the attackers was a super with cyber powers, and was taking down all automated systems, until a human response he couldn’t manipulate triggered hard wired alarms and doors? I mean, that would explain why they could even get past the parking lot without security knowing they were there.
Well the system did go “ping” and alerted Leon, and we all know the machine that goes “ping” is very important.
also the red blinky lights!
I suspect a huge amount of resources have gone into this attack. 10 internet bucks says future pages expound on this.
Arianna is looking like she might need to reread her OSHA manual. I assume that unless she ends up being a supe, she is almost certainly supposed to be hiding somewhere or otherwise running away.
Yeah, I have to agree this was a Darwin’s Facepalm from Arianna. I don’t think she even tried internal comms to see if they were working.
She probably did try the intercoms first, which is why she came out in person to get answers
She was in the open before the alarm. We see her and Varia outside Leon’s office. The alarm and violence were separated by a few seconds, she’s literally not had time to respond.
I get pantless thirsty Krona is distracting but damn.
It’s the wee hours of the morning, a great time to achieve surprise. Sleepy and disoriented + is a civilian + used to Sydney shenanigans = plenty of room for reasonable adults to do a stupid.
This is where we find out that the person on her team who fought Maxima to a standstill was Arianna, not Dabbler…
Well, I have read a series of stories about a lawyer who could choose to grow to 6’7″ and get super tough (essentially fire-proof), especially if she was mad. Could that happen here?
without Sydney present to make comment. that would make Sydney angry. you would not like an angry Sydney.
This would be a fantastic plot twist actually, Arianna can whoop the rest of the team but just really prefers spreadsheets to fighting.
This is where we find out that the person who fought Maxima to a standstill was Arianna, not Dabbler…
It is because there can be a lot of reasons for it. It is likely the OpFor had found ways to disable the automatic alarms. A lot of computer security systems are like this, where they will do what they can to block out and avoid problems, but also inform an administrator if something unusual is going on, It is ultimately up to the admin to be the one to take action (And program those systems in the first place).
As far as we know, Leon is Archon’s only IT. If that’s the case, having a warm body in that loop is bad news for any time Leon goes to sleep, has to use the bathroom, goes to eat, gets some nookie…
Actually, even if he isn’t the only IT, having Leon be in that loop is bad for their security system unless it’s a case of every Archon IT administrator has the ability to see that same monitor and hit that same alarm, it’s just that the guy Dave has actually made character models of just happens to magically be the one IT admin to do it.
In big buildings most hvac is just a local recirculation across cold coils. Whether that coil is cold from chilled water running to a central plant or refrigerant running to a rooftop unit is irrelevant. In the winter the heating is just the air running through an electric heater in that same unit. Assuming it’s not like mall of America which has enough people and equipment they run cooling even in the middle of winter.
I work in a data center, the majority of my job is hvac.
Wasn’t there some inference by Maxima that Arianna has superpowers, only they’re not more important to the team than her PR management skills?
Or am I remembering that wrong?
Second panel top half,reminds me of these guys:
https://www.yojoe.com/images/resize/w/MAX/imagestore/105/80384.jpg
and this:
https://www.yojoe.com/images/resize/w/MAX/imagestore/105/80385.jpg
This is where we find out that she has a power “Absolute Authority” Where she basically makes all of them her underlings through cognitive suggestion.
She is still burned but enslaves the invading force to her will.
Hmm, all the side stuff. Y’know, I can’t recall seeing Arianna getting so much as a scratch, maybe a dirt smudge or a torn cuff. But that’s it. Hmm.
That’s because the only ‘action’ she’s been involved in was with Suzie News
Knockout gas isn’t as simple as the movies make out, as individual tolerances vary too widely. That’s why there are doctors whose whole job is administering anaesthetic. Remember that theatre siege in Moscow a few years ago? The Russian government pumped in gas and over 170 people died.
Well, that’s assuming these guys are wanting to keep people alice. At which point, you should probably just flood the place with Carbon Monoxide and be done with it.
so far no one has used knockout gas. that was clearly some type of flashbang- probably nonexplosive. anything throwing large amounts of tiny shrapnel does NOT go in a server room if you expect to get anything useful out of the computer system afterwards. its amazing how useless a battery back-up on your work comp (or a functional battery in you work laptop is)… when the switches do not have a battery backup.
as usual I didn’t read the authors note. ok, based on some things I’ve heard, (you would not believe how paranoid Gov network hardware is!) Archon would have more than one HVAC system, isolated from each other. in fact Leon and Krona need to get out of the room with the server posthaste as I’d trigger the displacement style fire suppression system in a few seconds- make it really hard for intruders to access the hardware. its not impossible, but most people on earth do not carry spare oxygen around with them. intruders are in the building, that means that even after they are, ejected, shown the door, tossed out, and expelled. it is going to be several busy days if not weeks before thing go back to normal. as this raid could be a big flashy thing to lure everyone into a sense of victory, while the walls, ceilings, floors, and showers (gotta pay for this raid somehow) have eyes and ears.
The reality hacking GF can take care of a lot of problems her & Leon would face.
Are Leon and Krona in the server room? I thought they were in Leon’s office. While he can access the servers from there most of the time, I’d imagine that alarm he just hit cut off his access to anything sensitive and also triggered some kind of sequence to further secure their servers.
It can’t be the server room because it had easy acess through a ‘glass’ door in the open area of the building. It has to be Leon’s office.
I’ve been to Government department server rooms(sorry, do not ask me where, only ‘somewhere in northern Europe’) and not only was there card locks, and alarms if the door was open for more than a few seconds, but the door was ‘bomb shelter’ door solid. Small arms fire would not have broken through. At least not with the first magazine…
There’s Emergency-shutdown buttons on the walls, in case there’s a UPS issue, there’s Halon or no-halon type gas systems with ’emergency-delay’ buttons(press it and it delays the release for 30 seconds. Press it without the system being triggered and the alarm goes off).
The latest one even had a separate 4G nano-node in the ceiling, because outside signals could not reach the room.
No, it wasn’t police or military. They just decided that it was easier to put in the solid door and reinforcement when the building was put up, than do it later, if someone decided that they needed improved security.
In movies and TV is simple and easy to knock people out without killing them. In real life? It is anything but simple or easy.
Is this where we learn Arianna is actually a super?
Possibly and as part of her lawyer Powers she is virtually immune to Hellfire and lesser forms of flame
It’s a well known fact that all lawyers must know how to think and act like supervillains but that does not necessairily make them evil.
She doesn’t have to be evil in order to have resistance to hellfire. Her work environment alone with cause her to need to build up a tolerance in order to function on a level of dealing with supers.
I’m not saying that she’s evil but her work environment necessitates that order to work on the superhero super villain level she has to have some resistance to Supernatural effects such as Hellfire and other flames.
I’m fireproof against internet flame wars. Does that count?
This explains so much.
:)
This is one thought on my mind. Not everyone with powers is in the combat teams. The charter ARC works under says you can live a normal life or even use your powers in civilian work. Just no vigilantism.
So she could/can have a power that simply has not come up yet.
She got dinged up fist fighting the reporter. So no invulnerability. But nothing says she can’t be fire or energy resistant. We do not see her actually taking damage here. All we have is her yelling. No way to know if that is surprise or pain yet.
I do want to comment that some management types do write off alarms and drills as “someone else’s problem”. My boss at my old job was annoyed when an alarm went off. Carbon monoxide detector, he smashed it open to shut it up. Then called the other office to complain about the thing and his headache. It took more minutes of being berated for him to Exit the damn building. Where his headache began to clear.
I used to work in a building marked all over with those fire safety diamonds with the numbers 4, 4, 3. I think there was a note in the note section as well, but that was a bit less memorable because all of the buildings on the campus had 4, 4, 3 as their numbers, but only some had notes and they weren’t the same notes. I’m pretty sure the W with a line through it was a different building. It’s possible the note was ACID, I can’t remember for sure. Thinking about one of the special things in the building of which I was aware, it should have been ACID.
We had regular evacuations, with a mandated drill in any month that didn’t have an actual evacuation. I seem to recall there was one of those evacuations in which some manager or other refused to leave his office and was fired over it. Most of the time it was only new people who didn’t respond appropriately to evacuation alerts.
To be clear, when I said “regular evacuations”, I didn’t mean drills. We only tended to have drills around 3-5 times a year. We could tell after the fact whether it was real or not, because the fire department didn’t show up for drills. If I’m recalling correctly, the evacuation the manager was fired over was the first evacuation that month and it was late in the month – the day before they were planning on doing a drill. We found out about that a couple days later, as they decided to just shift the drill they planned to the start of the next month, and they told us about it then as something of a no notice safety briefing.
I don’t think there is any need for an Ass Pull. This is written by a good storyteller, suspect he’s got something better planned.
Knock out gas isn’t really a thing. I mean, there are gasses that can knock you out, but it takes a while, and it doesn’t really work unless it’s a significant portion of the air you’re breathing. To quickly do that with HVAC you’d be shoving more than enough of the stuff through the ac to make the ducts explode. Also you’d be generating a very noticeable wind as the air shifts around in response to the arrival of other gasses… And there’s just way too many other issues for using it as a stealth tactic. You’re better off just doing it the way the invasion force is doing it.
A nerve gas can knock out the nervous system pretty quickly but the fatality rate is pretty high even in mild doses. It really depends on what their plans are it makes no sense if they are just attacking for the sake of it.
I also find it hard to believe the HVAC wouldn’t have tamper detection systems. Seems to me a facility like that would have the HVAC behind some very high security that sounds an alarm if you even so much as look at it the wrong way.
Oof. That’s no good. If you have a facility, you make sure *everyone* knows the evac/emergency response procedures. Actual response varies by power level and security clearance, obviously. Even the Cupps girls should know that when THAT alarm goes off, it is time to GTFO.
Or duck and cover.
I could imagine for the Cupps staff, and possibly most of the rest of the building for that matter, the emergency response for an invasion is shelter in place. Actually, thinking about it more, I’m not sure when you’d want a GTFO plan for an invasion unless you’re already in hostile territory. If invaders are in the building, they probably got there from outside the building. If you GTFO, you may be running into the invader’s hands. Shelter in place doesn’t work if it seems like one could lose the building to the hostile forces but that doesn’t feel like a likely scenario to me here.
The actual HQ is a separate side of the building from the civilian stuff like the restaurants, I imagine there’s a set of hardened doors that cuts off access if an alarm goes off.
Alright everyone, taking bets on what is going to happen to/with Arianna:
* She’s burned to a crisp, Archon will have to hire a new PR lady;
* It’s not real fire, just an illusion to intimidate or set up some other ability;
* One of the on-base supers (Heatwave?) saves Arianna before she is hurt to much;
* Arianna is a super and after tanking the fire proceeds to sweep all invading forces by herself.
She has her hand up in a sort of gesture, not the fingers-together-palm-out instinctive protective or ‘stay back’ position, and what’s that blue teardrop shaped thing beside her head ? it wasn’t in the first panel we see her in. Perhaps our alien friends gave her a personal shield generator ?
The blue teardrop is the comically-oversized sweat droplet often used in comics and animation to indicate the person thinking “oh shit” or other similar issues.
That blue ‘teardrop’ shape is a sweat drop. Classic Manga, really.
If she can take the fire her clothes will be burned off and she will have to fight naked. If I know Dave right it will be followed by a shower scene where she washes off the spot. Keep doing what you do best Dave.
Or:
* It isn’t really Arianna, it’s someone else with an illusion disguise testing these guys willingness to go lethal on civilians caught in crossfire to determine an appropriate RoE. Remember how Sydney met Achilles and Mr Stretchy in the first place? I could see Achilles more than willing to put on an Arianna face to get some intel on opponent’s RoE.
Failing that:
* It is Arianna, she is severely burned with 2nd/3rd degree burns across her whole body, and is scarred physically and mentally by the trauma… until Dabbler gets back and uses super tech to regrow her skin or something and everyone forgets the incident.
My money’s on illusion. It’s clearly enveloping her, but it doesn’t seem to be having any effect on her clothes.
I’m thinking he has more control over fire than Heatwave has and she’s not in the fire but surrounded by it although it would make sense they she is a minor super herself. As far as her coming out to raise hell it’s because the only true “adult” in the group (aside of Hiro) is on a “diplomatic mission” and hates to be interrupted by normal foolishness.
Twenty internet bucks on “rescued by b team, patched up off camera, ultimately only significant because it sets up a joke down the road.”
I have to wonder about the mindset of the mind set of the people invading the base. I’m sure there are fanatics who are willing to die for the cause, and idiots who think they can get away with it, but after Maxima’s demonstration I can’t believe there aren’t people who would think down the road and know that even if they won this fight, they’d pay for it big time down the road.
But maybe those people took a hard pass on this movement, and all that were left were the idiots and the fanatics. neither of which are the most effective fighters.
I’d guess the backers of this invasion have enough inside intel to know that Maxima’s out of the country right now.
hm, what are those two little rods sticking out of Ariannas hair in the last panel? They weren’t there when she stuck her head out the doorway. Is she not quite … human?
Check again, those are her chopsticks she stores in her hair-bun, they have always been there (and they are even in the Who’s Who list)
She’s got hair sticks tucked into her bun.
This is where we discover Arianna is secretly invulnerable or something. R-right?
I think that we would have noticed by now if Adrianna was a super.
She doesn’t possess the distinctive physical indication.
Maybe that’s simulated psionic fire that hurts like a sunuvabitch but is physically harmless.
Okay, using the flasher-banger is one thing, but deliberately burning someone alive? Nope, any possible restraint from ARC-Defenders are now void and any captives left in enough pieces to be interrogated would be an accident (talk about ‘justifiable homicide’)
Whenever we had an alarm at work, the daystaff workers were supposed to immediately lock their doors, however they didn’t have radios and most often only knew something was happening when a dozen officers came down the hallway, this was not entirely a bad thing since it kept them from coming out to gawk and become very unreliable witnesses.
They did have ‘panic buttons’ on their person and/or in their offices which seemed to get ‘accidentally’ pushed on a daily if not hourly basis, but every response was treated as if it were a real one, we seldom had ‘exercises’, we didn’t need them.
Back when I was in the Army, we had just finished transporting a patient to the base hospital when the alarms went off. About half the staff started looking around trying to figure out what was going on, all the old salts including my lead started yelling for everyone to sit down and shut up, then they started securing the doors and I was told off to move the rig to block the bay doors.
The alarm was for an escaped psych patient who had beaten a nurse. Two of nurses (males) and a P.A. (also male) took him down. All three were Vietnam vets, and most of the salts were combat vets as well. They got the patient down while a R.P.N. sedated him, all of them including the female R.P.N. had to get stitches and x-rays afterward. And one nurses station and a med cabinet were basically destroyed. Along with several treatment rooms and a lot of equipment including a portable x-ray machine and several ultrasound machines.
Afterward, EVERYONE including us ambulance drivers/medics had to go through retraining as to what the various alarm codes meant.
As a noobie psychologist I did one of my practicums at a state psychiatric hospital. They stuffed me in an empty office, mostly to keep me out of the way. One day I plopped down in my chair which rocked back and my head smacked the panic button. The embarrassment of have everyone coming running to check on me kept me hyper aware of such things for the rest of my career. At the facility where I spent most of my career, the staff were fairly well trained. Those who weren’t responding to the incident usually went into crowd control mode with the other residents. As with Oldarmourer, it was a high acuity environment so there was plenty of practice.
If its just a case of neutralising a superhero base Id just nuke the place from the inside and call it a day.Any organisation that collects people with random but extremely powerful abilitys like they are trading cards isnt worth trying to take out directly as its almost impossible to counter everything.Its generally best to just inflict as much impossible to cover up damage as possible and let the press have field day-with any luck if you used a powerful enough warhead you mightve even taken out a few hard to replace supers too.
As for Arianna Im betting shell be 300% fine.Theres never been much in the way of stakes in this series so i doubt any named characters will be dying any time soon-its more interesting to working out how death gets cheated this time.Since Kronas about maybe another undo button like with Sydney when she was about to die?
Probably played up for drama and an excuse for the ARCON unit to go full HAM on the OPFOR until Dabbler gets back and fixes her with SuperTech(tm) at which point everyone forgets about it and it never comes up again.
Pretty much.The A team isnt here but the B team still has an absurd level of power and almost as wide a range of abilitys (I say this because between Dabbler Maxima and Sydney alone theres like a justice league range of powers but the rest of Archon has a buttload of members which almost adds up to a similar amount of powers to the “big 3” alone).
As much as I like the webcomic it really falls short on suspense in situations like this.
Is it failing at providing suspense if it never intended to? While it’s a comic about superheroes, it’s not necessarily a superhero comic.
It’s all going to boil down to what the goal is. Clearly they do not simply want to destroy the Archon HQ, or they would have already done so (probably would have required more than one tactical nuke, in sequence, but as long as Max is not in residence, that would do to destroy the physical plant and most of the inhabitants), so they must want something or someone inside it. I suspect the trigger was knowing that Max, and possibly Sydney, were on the other side of the planet, which might be JUST far enough away…
Yeah. I can’t imagine that they’re stupid enough to think that there’s anything there for them to steal.
If it’s to free Vehemence, odds are that he’s somewhere else entirely. And he’d probably object since he knows that several of the main team can take him out… permanently… without too much bother. He’s happy to brawl with them, not to be nuked by them.
If it’s to get hold of Dabbler’s tech(she’s got some nice stuff, even a railgun that can take out satellites), she has demonstrated that her stuff is hers alone, and can’t be used by anyone else.
Their databases is better stolen by slow infiltration and hacking.
It’s not to prove that they have the strongest supers, so fear them, because the A team is on the other side of the world.
The only thing I can think of is that this is pure terrorism, and the target is the Civilians in the building.
They could be in it for the reputation damage. “Archon’s not so tough, their HQ was raided and they couldn’t do a thing.”
It’s possible they could be doing it for the chops, but that’s one boast nobody sane would ever be making. I mean, you might as well vandalize a cop car and post the video on Youtube. Oh, wait, that’s been done. Multiple times.
I began browsing the archives.
These are the same guys that were holding Concretia and threatening to kill Sydney.
They probably want both revenge, Concretia back, and to ‘set an example’
Bad dude: “I make fire”
Heatwave: “I control it”
Sydney: “I eat it”
Sydney;”…and, after a good bowl of Grakz, I defecate it too!….”
One thing I learned early on in military vis civilians, is that the more responsible for dictating safety and emergency rules they are the least ready they are for any actual event.
Policy makers and HR personnel are notorious for being first casualties. I have real stories with real bodies involved that are still classified because it would embarrass powerful people. Though using them as object lessons would do…have done…everyone a favor. Politics should never get anywhere near emergency procedure. Not even in review.
Not class, twice on ft dix we did major responses. UN kept getting in way. Trying to get control or delay us. Our company physically stomped them and threw them to mp squad to process as potential actives. We didn’t know it was exercises, neither did they, but they still insisted on trying to control their Lil Area as a kingdom. Rule 1 was do not get in way of flying teams. Rule 2 if you ignored #1 hope your personal insurance is up to date, because ours will not cover criminal behavior and stupidity . A lot of the UN folks stomped in passing ended up deported vs prosecuted. Go figure. By our third duty cycle as flying team, we discovered the secret scoreboard. Very dark humor. Supposedly these were trained personnel or those in charge of emergency training slash enforcement of same. In the fucking way every single time.
Has to be a trope for that.
There are many tropes for such.
Unfortunately, no one EVER learns. Historical accounts boggle the mind. I read a story about a messenger from soem Tribune in Rome who walked into a Gael village to ‘discuss’ things (being conquered by Rome) with the residents. The legion commanders protested, he told them to shut up and went on his own. Not even a token escort. To show his bravery or something. They never found ALL of his body. They DID find… um… pieces.
So no. Civilians (especially political ones!) in the WRONG place at the WRONG time doing the WRONG thing is nothing new.
If I had krona’s powerset to alter reality, I’d totally change all those bad guy’s armor to world of warcraft style bikini armor regardless of their gender.
Last comic I suggested pink tutus for the armour and pink dildos for their weapons, still want to see that.
If Arianna just straight up died here, I would actually be pretty impressed. Seriously raise the stakes in an instant. I don’t think that’ll happen, but if it did I would admire the guts in killing off a major character with no warning.
I’m like 40% on believing Dave might actually do that, given that this comic is dedicated to bucking superhero tropes. She’d be a hard character to replace, would definitely miss her. I can easily see her being taken out and promptly resurrected/healed though.
Burnt and singed Arianna…! Who wants to see that???
I prefer my lawyers well done, not rare.
And it turns out her superpower is fire resistance, she just never had an incident to find out about it before.