Grrl Power #1065 – Knife to meet you!
Hey, +50XP for Arianna.
Tactically, this is a poor reaction. But the dude did try and burn her into ash, so… it’s hard to really blame her. She’s not a soldier, even if she goes jogging with them in the mornings. That said, her aim was pretty on point. She went for center mass, but the guy managed to spin out of the way. Also, he is wearing some fairly serious looking body armor, so she should have aimed at his face. She’s just not ready to stalk the streets at night, dispensing justice from the shadows.
By the way, Varia is still holding onto her leg below the frame there, which is why Arianna can hold on to the glowing embers of the doorframe without losing her skin.
As far as the flashbang guy in the background, we don’t know how well equipped the fodder soldiers are, but it’s a safe bet that any helmet that is “flashbang resistant” is less effective if said flashbang goes off six inches from your foot than from ten feet away. Mostly though, the guy is regretting not strapping on his back of the knee armor.
The July Vote Incentive is up! This is an unusual incentive because it started life as a panel from the comic. A few people thought it was a good pose to turn into a nude version, and I agreed. It was originally intended to be a stopgap pinup while I finished the one I’d started on for this month, but I got caught up in shiny skin and various bits of anatomy and alternate outfits so I’ll just leave this one as the July incentive. The advantage being that I have a head start on next month’s so… maybe it won’t be late?
Be sure to enjoy the alternate outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
That’s still rather impressive. A kitchen knife isn’t really balanced to be thrown like that. And chucking it that hard to essentially destroy a knee joint from ten yards away implies a fair bit of training.
Arianna grew up in family of circus performers?
I’ve got a few kitchen knifes you could chuck that way, but they’re extra heavy professional knives. (Think I’d go for my Chinese meat cleaver, it’s got great balance, too.) Those cheap sets are generally so light that even somebody who was good at knife throwing would be lucky to cause superficial wounds on somebody wearing heavy clothing.
Kind of surprised you’d even have a knife set in a break room, those are for serious cooking, you don’t need them for warming up lunches. But I suppose they’re set up for people to cook their own meals if they’re on call.
Me either (chuck; including full-metal Chinese and Japanese cleavers), but none of them is crippled like that one.
Useless for any purpose the latter are! (Yoda out)
Those cheap sets are barely useful for cutting food. and usually only have 1 that would be useful for throwing.
then again they may actually have a decent set.
I’d be surprised if the building DIDN’T have a full kitchen. They’re expecting members to be on call and staying in the building for extended periods. They’re also valued enough that they pay them a frankly absurd amount of money. A few nice amenities like a full kitchen is great in case Dabbler ever needs to make late night cookies, or if a bunch of Arc-Swat members want to watch Dabbler make late night cookies.
I don’t know why you’d be surprised that they have a full kitchen. Archon HQ is effectively a military base that vaguely resembles an office building. What military base wouldn’t have a kitchen?
And besides that, paramedics and fire fighters get full kitchens. I’d assume police do to since they have similar hours and requirements (in terms of being on call and ready to move at a moments notice). ARC-SWAT isn’t all that far off of emergency services.
Depends on the locale, I think.
I’m going to say a number of police jurisdictions don’t have a full service kitchen as they push officers to eat at a place in their beat. One, so the folks in the community can see them more, and two, makes it faster for them to have a meal break, then go back on the beat.
I pretty hardcore when it comes to cooking. I cook everything from scratch. I wouldn’t bat an eye at a knife set like that in a break room. If it didn’t exist I’d bring a set. If no stove I’d bring in a counter top induction stove.
I think we’ve seen cookies in that kitchen before.
I came here to post this. Dabbler’s cookies bring all the boys and girls to the kitchen.
Anybody notices how the knife seems to stick to her finger in panel 3? I can’t imagine a way to “hold/balance” a knife or anything of about that shape & size without a certain power, be it “magnetic” or “sticky”.
So… Varia? Or does Arianna have a power?
I think it’s more that she’s flipping it, going from holding the handle to holding the blade for throwing.
*whistles quietly in the kitchen*
She ran away from the circus to become a lawyer.
are you really trying to say that legal proceedings are not a circus?
:)
She’s a practioner of the Impalement arts.
She probably also juggles.
well she didn’t exactly DESTROY the knee, she got it in the joint from behind…
A: Most armor doesn’t protect the back of the knee because it impedes mobility to a substantial degree, even soft or articulated hard armor.
B: any soft armor flexible enough to allow full mobility behind the knee might not be thick enough to stop a sharpened projectile.
All attorneys are able to throw knives of any sort with alarming intensity. This is a scientific fact.
[citation needed]
Science doesn’t really do “facts”, for scientific method only falsifies. So such an assertion is actually quite worrying.
Was Arianna an attorney? I thought she was in PR.
No really, it’s a key part of the bar exam.
She is both a “lawyer and public relations manager“.
1) She’s both an attorney and the PR head.
2) I’m making a joke when I said it’s scientific fact. I’m an attorney and I’m saying we are all expects as knife-throwing for the lulz. Trust me. I’m hilarious.
3) Watch brichin’s link. It’s similarly hilarious. Studio C. The same people who made the Scott Sterling clips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9jXYOH2c0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY2nVQNlUB8
That hasn’t escaped my attention. I read it as a full spectrum claim, for “alarming” comes in various forms and kinds. I point you to the well-known precedent set by Dunning-Kruger. Therefore, that is not the problem. Your defense is even more worrying. You’re asking quite a lot of me, as a lawyer, specifically one not in my employ.
Thanks for the reference, Torabi.
So what you’re saying is that lawyers, particularly those not in your employ, are perhaps dangerous? One might say that they are metaphorically skilled at throwing (metaphorical) knives?
Cutting retorts, at least.
The solution is obvious. Hire me as your attorney, and I will use my expert knife-throwing skills to destroy your enemies.
Particularly stunning effect in combination with her bunny ears.
I am actually quite surprised she not only knows how to throw knives but did it rather well. Oh and if you at first don’t succeed, you still have an entire block of knives there Arianna, oh and plus the block itself!
The Army teaches some crazy stuff (non-combat related) to the Green Berets, to allow them to operate politically. Public Relations training is definitely available within the military. My head-canon is now going to be that she was a Sargent before retirement from combat duty.
I now want the next page to be like in Watchman when The Comedian picked up and threw practically the entire set of knives and Ozymandias avoided all of them, but this time the fire guy avoids them and the guy on the floor receives them in all his limbs.
Next panel, guy on floor whimpering “whyyyyyyyyyyyyy…………”
:)
Guess the pyromaniac is luckier than his friend, who is now blind,deaf and maimed .
Maybe, maybe not. In turning to see what happened to his buddy, he’s just presented his back to Arianna and Varia, which isn’t the smartest tactic he could have chosen.
The backs of the knees are hard to armor, but the worst in that regard is the armpit. That’s why they were both key targets for anybody attacking an armored knight. At worst you might find a bit of chain in your way. (Always had that problem with fictional armor; The only version I ever saw that made sense was Shirow Masamune’s, “landmates”, where you were puppeting robot arms, and the legs had puppeted lower portions, with your legs entirely within the “thigh” of the armor.
Even hitting the guy is pretty good, she must be putting in some practice.
Anyway, going to be a bit awkward for Varia to stand up, since if she lets go of Ariana for even a moment they could both end up toast.
I didn’t think of that “How do we get Varia up so she can actually participate in the battle?”
Only thing I can think of is for Arianna to do the ‘combat strip’ and take off some clothing so that Varia can do the ‘climb up her body while keeping hold of exposed skin’.
Or she just bends down and gives Varia a hand in getting up?
No. What you are suggesting is completely impossible to do. I mean I’m all for comic book logic, but that stretches the bounds of believability. Grabbing her hand? Really?
No… The only solution is for both women to start stripping off all their clothes, CLEARLY.
:)
I approve of this plan.
Of course. And there is no time for unbuttoning, just tear the clothes off. There is no way you can argument against my flawless logic.
Hand holding? In the office?! You…you sicko! I am all for low key events like Arianna stripping off to indulge in Klingon mating rituals with Suzy News but hand holding? That just goes way too far for me.
OR Arianna could, you know… lean down and offer Varia a hand? I know, crazy idea, but hey, might work.
Hand.
Duh.
Varia has two hands. She reaches up, Arianna reaches down, they clasp hands.
Problem solved.
She can just take Varia’s other hand and help her to her feet. But, yeah, this is Grrl Power, so probably the gratuitous stripping thing.
I wonder if Peggy has been giving her lessons.
Arianna: I have never gotten used to the recoil on those things. Can I try hitting the target with, uh, this knife?
Peggy: Sure, have at it, but hitting a target that far away with a thrown weapon will be really hard. Wow! A bullseye with a thrown knife! Try that again to make sure it is not a fluke.
Peggy: Wow, 10 bullseyes in a row, lets see…oh right. Using pictures of Maxima for target practice. Yeah, yeah that…that explains a lot. You err have a bit of repressed anger eh?
*Mental note, don’t piss off Arianna*
I like thinking Seneca would be providing knife lessons.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-861-exemplarum-showus-offus/
Possibly some while Peggy was on medical related leave offworld.
Well she aimed for the Fire supervillain but luckily for him there was a henchman close. Those are like magnets for any attack against more important antagonists.
And bypassing armour is why the stiletto was created, to slip effortless between plates and through the chainmail links.
And she has potentially two in her hair bun…..
So my question is why havnt the fire surpressent systems turned on yet?
So, how many bad guys in your book are at the same time:
– smart enough to plan and execute this attack
– capable of cutting all outside connection of the Archon HQ.
– dumb enough to not neutralize the fire suppression when they bring a pyrokinetic
?
I’m guess, based on https://www.kataan.org/evil-overlord/, …. most of them?
*nostalgia induced flashbacks to the 90’s*
I’d guess they’ve been disabled, but the kind I know of can’t really be disabled like that without manually sabotaging each one or else altering the laws of physics in the area.
The fire suppression systems I know can be disabled by killing the water supply to the system, but that usually results in the alarm going off anyway when it detects low water pressure in the system. I guess you could go around and disable each trigger, but that takes more time.
Well if you close the valve while its Under Pressure, it will remain under pressure just like a garden hose. You need to release the pressure somehow which is why you turn on your faucets after you shut off the water. Water still comes out when you do that from the residual pressure in the system. It falls off pretty quickly after you open the system.
Exactly, closing the valve in a normal system doesn’t change the pressure until some of the water is released, as the fire suppression normally has no flow and is isolated from the rest of the water in the building. Partly for redundancy, partly because that water tends to sit and get nasty for years.
Someplace like Achon though, it would be trivial to add a small constant flow meter that verifies the supply line is still connected. Maybe use it to feed the pool on the roof, or water the landscaping.
The FPS would operate on a fail->activate system where a loss of signal from any sensor would open a relay, rather than close it, to activate the system. A constant signal is required for the FPS not to activate, requiring the sensor system to have some deductive intelligence to stop false positives from activating the system. Probably multiple sensors in the same area that could be compared to identify an equipment failure.
No real way to disable a system which only activates when it is disabled.
The FPS would also be multi-level, primary from mains water, secondary from stored tankage (oh look there is a pool on the roof), tertiary pressurised foam dispensors. Never rely on just one system. Some areas would be on separate systems, like Halon systems for electronics areas rather than water or foam.
Yeah you might take out one system but then an alternative just steps in and takes over.
Sprinklers act on a manual trigger. There is a plastic thread holding the sprinklers closed. The plastic is made to melt at a set temperature and only loss of water pressure would disable it. As for the alarms themselves, cutting the power supply and both phonelines, or transmitters, at the same time would do it.
Yeah, the clock is probably ticking on the sprinklers. Even if Lava Guy’s fire blast is localized to just Ari and the door frame, the rising hot air generated will eventually set off the trigger in the sprinkler. There will be a valve to shut off the sprinkler system for maintenance but the bad guys will have had to infiltrate the building’s service spaces to shut it off. There is a usually a sensor that triggers on the drop in pressure when the sprinklers activate. I would think that the bad guys would want the sprinklers to stay active. You don’t invade a building unless there is something inside that you want. Better to keep the building intact until you retrieve that thing.
Was probably disabled alongside the most of the automated alarms and the wifi, the only reason the alarms were sounded in the first place was because Leon noticed ALL of the Wifi was down. And that’s definitely “Sound the Alarms” emergency worthy.
Most fire suppression systems are designed -not- to be disabled by loss of power or electronically. The only thing you could POSSIBLY silence is the alarm.
They’re nothing more than pressurized pipes that’re kept from blowing their contents all over a room by a temperature-sensitive plug.
Once a certain temperature is reached, that plug is going soft or break outright and letting as much pressurized water out. There’s nothing electronic about them to disable.
Internet was down, maybe other devices too.
I imagine someone will notice this later and just seconds after that ALL the sprinklers (not just the one that was heated) turn on. It will turn on on the most inconvenient moment.
Inconvenient for whom? Certainly not the viewers…
That system might have been zapped at the same time as the internet/computer and alarm systems, by the invaders.
It’s a web enabled fire suppression system and the WiFi is down. If that sounds unrealistically foolish, consider that IRL there are many instances of hackers successfully attacking water treatment centers, or the power grid. WTF are utilities hooked up to the internet? Probably for the same reason that HQ have WiFi enabled fire suppression.
If you’re talking to the water treatment event I think you’re talking about, it’s because they wanted the system to be accessible via intranet, rather than have a central control panel in an operations center.
Problem is, they also allowed the computers that hooked into that intranet to connect to the internet all the time, rather than be isolated until such time as updates are needed.
Ouch!
That’s gonna leave a scar…
It’s a sure bet his adventuring career is over.
“I used to be a terrorist, till I took a kitchen knife to the knee.”
You know the phrase “took an arrow to the knee” actually was an euphemism for “got married, and had kids”?
“And then one day our 2-year-old randomly tagged me in the knee with a kitchen knife. Heh, rambunctious fellow.”
Well, my four year old broke my nose once, pretty bad. Game of leap frog, he went up instead of forward.
So, yeah, the tykes can mess you up pretty bad if you’re not on your guard.
When my little one was of a certain size, he was known for doing a running headbutt to the nards. I can neither confirm nor deny tumors that I once set my brother-in-law as an unsuspecting demonstration model
that…. is oddly appropriate.
I refuse to believe you.
No, I don’t want to see proof.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/took-arrow-knee-ma
Don’t the bible and law have some very specific things to say about killing.
Yes, but it is fuzzier on kneecaps
At the same time, the big fire-power remains a clear and present danger who has already shown a willingness to use lethal force, during an organized, planned invasion of a military compound. The use of lethal force in response is justified in civil criminal law, UCMJ and court precedent.
“I understood that reference.”
I was an adventurer myself until I took a knife to knee.
Did we just learn that Arianna is Telekinetic? In panel 3, she’s either not touching the knife at all, or just with one finger.
In that frame she just released the knife notice her fingers are at the balance point of the knife rather than the handle? Clearly she’s had training. If that knife went clear though his knee he’s going to need microsurgery just to be able to walk on it again, there’s a ligament that connects the thigh bone to the shin bone that’s just been cut. I tore the similar one in my right shoulder many years ago and it pops out of joint often… that’s bad enough but putting it back in is very painful. Arianna should of had 2 knives while the fire guy was watching the first one she could of launched the second one he couldn’t of dodged.
This whole move is actually very impressive. She’s off balance and doesn’t want to move her feet so Varia doesn’t lose contact. So she leans into the counter while holding on to the doorframe with her right hand, grabs the knife out of the block left-handed, tosses it to her right hand while switching to a left-handed grip on the doorframe to lean out and make her (really hard) throw right-handed.
Seems like she’s had quite a bit of practice at some things, but probably needs some remedial work on squelching her knee-jerk “OH MY GOD YOU SUPERS ARE SUCH FUCKING *CHILDREN*, WHO’S SCREWING AROUND AND SET OFF THE ALARMS?!” reaction.
You can find the balance point with the blade flat on your finger, but I want to see someone do it with the blade being vertical, unless you “clamp” it a little between the finger joints, but to me it rather looks like the blade sticks to her finger.
(Also, “could of” -> “could’ve” or “could have” – sorry, it’s a pet peeve of mine.)
I think she just released it, but in the style of throwing a dart, not a throwing knife.
Some people have interesting hobbies, I guess hers is knife throwing. And hmm, while nothing resembling an expert. That does look like a one flip throw. Don’t believe the movies people, it’s dang near impossible to actually kill with a thrown knife.
What? It is very easy to kill with a thrown knife!
Throw knife at opponent. Pick up knife. Stab opponent until they stop screaming. Easy!
Agreed. Self defence experts teach to disregard the possibility of a throw knife (unless the wielder is an expert) as they aren’t accurate, are way more likely to not strike point first, and are way more likely to be flesh wounds than decisive wounds. Was just ina buddy’s backyard practicing this skill, on a stationary target I could make the knife stick in 3ish times in 10 from 10 feet away. I don’t have knife training but am a lifelong athlete for whatever that’s worth (not much.)
If you are ever attacked by someone with a knife but no specialized training, running is a solid option if you think you can out run your assailant.
So henchman Redshirt is ‘assisting’ Pyroklies. =~_^=
Yes, but now they’re both looking the wrong way- “sitting ducks”, I call them.
After the recent episode of Ms. Marvel where she has a hilarious fail at trying to throw a knife, I too have to echo the surprise that Arianna of all people knows how to do it.
She’s a lawyer; she’s an expert at sticking it to the other team.
She is more impressive that most people notice; she grabbed the knife with her left hand, and tossed it to her right, WHICH CAUGHT THE BLADE WITH A SINGLE FINGER, and then tossed it so it flipped and hit her target, with enough force to penetrate the front of his knee, which would have been armored. It was flipping as it passed the guy who tried to flame her, so he wasn’t the target.
Moral of this: whenever someone tries to flame you, have a sharp response ready.
ARCSWAT uses throwing knives to slice bagels?
Sounds reasonable for a workplace with ninjas.
I did not expect that comment.
ALWAYS expect ninjas!
You may think it’s unlikely that your colleagues are undercovered ninjas but isn’t that what a real ninja would want you to think?
technically, ninjas use farm implements for the most part
Ninjas use whatever tool is most likely to succeed while remaining unnoticed/ignored.
The only way to get a perfect schmear.
I just love that your company has joined us in the forum. See you & RoJaws at the monthly BBQ.
No, you won’t. ;)
My apologies for the slight on your professionalism, I misspoke. The customary separate trays of meats and side dishes will be supplemented with some extras as an apology, before the contents all mysteriously vanish as usual.
Those are Glen’s bagel-cutting knives so they have a double purpose, as do all ninja cooking and household implements.
Don’t even ask what can be done with the corn-on-the-cob holders. Brrrr. Stuff of nightmares.
Ooo the knee…. Having broken mine twice, I know that the journey of pain is just beginning. At best his options are to drag himself along the ground to get out of the main combat. He will NOT be getting up. He will NOT be putting ANY weight on that. Even dragging it along is going to be massively painful. And he will effectively out of any action for at least 6 months. But since this attack is not likely to be as successful as the initial plan was expecting, he’ll have plenty of time to recover in a very secure room. Best he just lie there….and reconsider his life choices.
As for armoring the back of the knee (or inside the elbow, or under the arms) … at best you can put Kevlar with some loss of full range. But Kevlar will still be pierced by blade points. There has been many attempts at hinged overlapping plates, plate curtains, etc. In general those are subject to failure and locking up. Sci-fi armor not withstanding. Special effects can make anything look like it works. I’ll been in historical re-enactment groups doing armored combat. The only option really for those weak spots is to never let your opponent have a shot at them.
The same one twice or left then right?
Same one, twice. Needless to say I walk with a cane. And I got lucky.
I wonder how Max would react to this attack on the HQ in her absence?!?
With a LOT of violence!
“Thank you for the report Major. So, let’s see. Repairing the telephone and Internet connections, repairing the hallway outside the kitchen, including replacing the door-frame, repairing the sprinkler system, replacing the roof cameras. We should upgrade those cameras to prevent them being bypassed like that. Good work Major. Thank you.”
You know, the way it’s drawn Arianna appears to have low level metal-kinesis. She grabs the knife, passes it to her other hand, touches it with one finger, and then trows it fast enough to be deadly, leaving Bad Guy #1 just enough time to react. It’s also a high level of awareness and competence for an office professional during a surprise attack.
I know it’s a limitation of the medium and story requirements, but worth pointing out.
Yeah, I can only see this as feasible if she rolled a crit, secretly has a hobby of knife throwing, or just discovered a super power. I like the third option least. Seems like an ass pull. Jmo
We know her Varia-power is fire related, but not what it actually is. Maybe it covers all forms of weapons, and the pyrotechnic aspect is a byproduct.
Varia’s power doesnt give Arianna any special powers at all.
It just makes Arianna immune to whatever power Varia has, which in this case is fire- and heat-based attacks.
Even if Varia for some reason had ‘fire/heat-based attacks AND weapon usage’ for some reason, it would not make Arianna an expert knife-thrower.
Technically, Varia is on fire. She does not have to have attacks with it (other than the intimidation factor of seeing a burning person come at you to give you a warm hug)
You are of course correct, I was misremembering the scene at the dance club where Varia displays multiple powers. In my head there were multiple powered-up individuals in the same panel because the ‘donors’ were also surrounded in elemental auras, but it is in fact a montage of pairing with 3 different dancers.
So the throw was all Arianna, no power boost of any kind. She’s even more badass than I thought.
I never thought that I would have a hobby in common with a fictional lawyer, but here we are.
So Arainna isn’t a Super? That strike seemed so unlikely to me that I thought this was a power reveal, showing she is telekinetic or maybe has ridiculous luck. Maybe not as impressive as some of the others in sheer power, but that knife throw shouldn’t have worked.
Speaking from experience, you actually can throw a kitchen knife accurately. I used to do it as a hobby. It just takes a lot of practice and you have to be very familiar with the knife in question. Funny thing is, my first thought when she pegged the guy’s knee is that the distance between her targets is actually about right for how the knife would spin to impale the guy instead of bouncing off of him handle first.
You know what they say about one-in-a-million chances.
They succeed nine times out of ten. But only if they are exactly one in a million. One in nine hundred ninety nine thousand and nine hundredn and ninenty nine won’t cut it.
Arianna has some Domino level shizz goin on here.
Grabbed by Varia just in time to not be fried.
Slinging a knife like Bullseye.
Impressive, maybe she is a Luck Super.
Speaking from experience, it IS possible to throw a kitchen knife accurately. Granted, you have to have practiced a lot with the knife in question, and gauge the distance correctly (because of the unbalanced spin), and I’m not sure about the amount of force it would require to go through someone’s knee like that. That said, funny enough, my first thought upon seeing the throw was that the distance between her two targets looked about right for the pointy part to still hit correctly instead of bouncing off the handle.
Maybe our favorite lawyer has the same hobby as me? Throwing non-throwing knives at practice targets for stress relief?
I can throw a knife, so that it can hit point first, every time. No flipping involved.
Nice. I never did get the hang of preventing it from spinning, so I just learned how to space it so that it would be at the correct rotation from various distances.
I can throw a regular nail so that it lands point first. and deep enough to stick in a dart board
Whoops, sorry. I thought that my previous post failed to submit. Sorry for the double post!
While +1 for the secondary hit… rather obvious she didn’t attend Maxima’s lesson about looking at what’s behind your target before using ranged weaponry…
Who says Pyro was her primary target?
Dave B’s comment.
Also, the rest of Max’s speech included the possibility of a miss hitting another target. I’d say she did just fine.
… Ok, what exactly is her skill set? I can give points for freak natural talent but I find it a bit odd that nothing of this nature was mentioned. Please tell me she’s weapons trained like the rest of them. That would be a great “surprise mother f*****!” moment to drop on them.
I mean, it’s worth pointing out that she very much did miss her intended target. Pyroboy is no worse for wear, and I’m pretty sure Arianna didn’t aim for a mook’s knee. I think it might be less that Arianna is super-skilled, and more that the mook is super-unlucky.
It could also be that little miss blue-hair didn’t want the knife throw to be completely wasted, and is now an active participant in this fight.
That might have been a mistake on the part of Arianna… sure, she is fireproof… who says that it all Lava Guy is armed with? Even if she had hit him center mass… if he is wearing kevlar, that knife isn’t going to do much.
Better thing to do would have been to get Varia up and then both of them retreat to a more defensible point.
Kevlar cuts almost like normal cloth, similar to heavy plastic canvas. Knives, arrows, spears, etc. go through it almost unimpeded. Bullets & other blunt projectiles can’t break the fibers, so the entire cloth stretches and absorbs the energy as a distributed network. Really fast & heavy bullets can overwhelm the localized strength of kevlar at the point of impact, or multiple hits eventually break the fibers down enough to penetrate, often by heating them to the melting point.
Anyway, you can cut & shape kevlar with scissors and sew it like a heavy cloth.
Eh, it’s a bit tougher than that, I’ve done a bit of work with it. Normal scissors hardly cut it, because the blades tend to lever apart; We had specially constructed scissors for cutting it.
It’s not that steel won’t cut it, it just takes a lot more work to cut a given amount of it than normal textiles, and tends to dull ones that aren’t specially coated. You can drive a pointy needle or blade through, though, because it spreads the weave rather than cutting. But even doing that tends to absorb impact, because of the energy needed to accomplish it.
A thrown knife hitting kevlar would still wound you, but it would be a shallow puncture wound, typically.
Dave! I’m about 2/3rds the way through the first Tamer:Enhancer. Great read, thank you.
Love the incredulous hand gesture on mr burnyguy in the first panel
No such thing as effective back of the knee armor that is not the fully contained, fully articulated, powered armor suit kind which is way too expensive for standard grunt issue. Joints will always be week points because of articulated movement, even with Ironman’s sophisticated powered armor suits.
D-Diego?! (I know she doesn’t really have knife magic but a boy can dream xD)
I know that in a real life, and/or in person event the guy 5hat just got knifed would hsve my horror and sympathy. But in the context of a comic book scene their exclamation is funny as hell.
That is incredibly impressive! I heard a lot (unfairly, I hasten to add) about back-stabbing lawyers, Arianna heard it enough times and made it literal.
It’s understandable if she is a bit edgy about that.
Dagger throw!
Ariana is clearly a rogue!
And she got the bonus damage for a rear attack.
I would make some knife puns but that wouldn’t be very knife.
You’ve got some cutting edge humor there.
No it didn’t really cut it TBH. I can be sharper than that.
Someone might respond with a cutting remark.
I would guess that someone is more likely to respond with ninja, who may be wielding bladed weaponry.
And to quote the MC for the series, “Always. Expect. Ninjas.”
but it would be on point. given some other things it might even be considered edgy.
only if they got a proper handle on it, and found the meat of the argument.
I suspect the argument would be both edged and blunt, while the meat of it had a sharp tang.
Let’s not mince our words, any way you slice it, it’s a dicey situation. Stilettos hope for the best as someone brings down the axe.
I disappointed that the antipunster has not left a barb of disapproval.
I expect she’s having to cut expenses and bludgeon the hell out of her budget.
Hope she didn’t lose her edge.
Maybe it takes more to drive her over the edge these days.
perhaps she has conceded to your sharp wit. we shall have to get her some more cookies.
Well, Arianna definitely never *cuts* corners no matter what does does. And she’s person with *sharp* sense of what she can achieve given current assets. She’s quick as a *slash* when it comes to assessing her situation. Hahaha.
In all seriousness, that guy in the back got pretty nasty wound there, though I think he’s in *stable* condition.
Reminds of the trope they weren’t always a……..
Am I wrong to be most impressed by the fodder guy medical diagnostic skills.. especially when suffering from such an injury most would be unable to logically think but he can accuratly describe the position of the blade in his body while still suffering from the results of the flash bang on the side.
If he is interested they should seriously consider him on some medical team even if just for triage purposes.
He is amazingly calm, considering the circumstances. Maybe his senses are just so overwhelmed that he can’t process the pain.
When I was hit with a truck I could only tell the people scraping me from the street about the broken hip, which felt like the upper end of the femur. I didn’t know about the mid-femur break, the tib-fib breaks, or the gigantic hole blown out of my lower leg. Seriously there are limits on the brain’s ability to process pain, probably as a survival trait. The knee damage didn’t show up until I recovered enough to start walking.
So yeah. Two things: First she wouldn’t be able to see him nor he her. The reason is there would be an ungodly amount of extremely toxic smoke. That hallway is filled with synthetics that should be turning into an all consuming black cloud of toxic death. We shouldn’t be able to see the guy, let alone the guy down the all, if we have surface combustion already. That means the fire is already freely burning, converting available oxygen into CO, CO2, and tons of particulates, and all of that is going right into Ariana’s lungs and eyes. Most super hero comics never take into account smoke inhalation with their fire powers.
Two: the other reason we shouldn’t see anything is there should be either a general or localized fire suppression system going off. If it’s electronic friendly, it’d be a CO2 or Xenon or possible a foam system. If not, it’d be just a simple water suppression system. Regardless, it’d be going off. Modern, expensive fire suppression systems can even tell how big the fire is and release water or foam respectively without soaking everything. These systems are NOT easy to disable. In old buildings you might turn a valve to shut off flow, but in anything modern there is an alarm on that valve that connected to a hard line that’s connected to a fire department that will send them rolling whenever it’s turned off without them being notified. If it’s a government building, there’s going to be a call to dispatch immediately.
This isn’t the average American Home, filled with synthetics.
Odds are that the carpets are wool, the walls are reinforced walls with plaster and paint on the outside.
If a building is to be inhabited by supers, you might want to take into account the occasional loss of control or temper tantrum.
And the ventilation system has to be amazing too, if only because of Sydney’s fondness for heinously spicy food.
Ari to Pyro: “Want to see what I can do with a paring knife at close range?”
Unless you’re very well trained, throwing a knife at your enemy just means that now your enemy also has a knife.
Case in point- (pun totally intended)
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-08-15
One of my favorite moments from the strip, as well as the moment I accepted what a badass Tagon is. He handled the aftermath of the fork incident equally well.
Does Arianna has skills. Because throwing knifes effectively is a hard thing to learn and they are an extremely a short range weapon. Ten feet is the ideal range for a thrown knife and even then a moderate amount of clothing can prevent or reduce penetration, twenty feet is max range unless thrown by a supe’ like Max. Just about every knife throwing scene in the movies is absolute BS.
And, heck, at short range if you don’t know what you’re doing, they’re a threat to you, too. When I was learning, I had a combat knife spin an extra half turn, hit the target just right, and come back at me. Planted itself right in my shin bone, and stuck there. Talk about embarrassing!
And the award for worst day at work ever goes to that guy.
Arianna may not have super powers but she does have some weapon’s skill. She also gets points for having the presence of mind to fight back. She may not be an actual asset, but she can take care of herself.
any and all members of a team are an asset. Even if it’s just as a distraction.
I laughed way to much at this…..