Grrl Power #224 – Mach-a-bye baby
Harem has virtually no cooldown between ports. She just needs enough time to orient herself, but “virtually” isn’t none, especially to a speedster. She’ll eventually tire from repeated teleports. It’s about as stressful as sprinting, so she can only do it for 25-30 seconds continuously. Still, that’s a lot of teleporting for her. I had meant to show off the martial art she’s been working on that utilizes her teleporting, but she’s been running so much support that this page is the closest she’s come to combat so far. I need to decide if that’s a vital thing to have happen in this battle or if I can lose it for page count considerations. I’d like to show it and it’s only one page, maybe a double, but this is page 24 of the fight, basically an entire comic book worth already. Seeing as how this is their first big fight I don’t see anything wrong with that but I feel like I can be critical about what’s necessary to show off in this battle and what can be saved for the next one.
U. Kaya Yavuz, (AKA Greenstrider in the comments) supplied Silent Shadow as you know, though everyone including him seems to enjoy his ARCverse nickname Mach the Knife. Greenstrider said Mach can do the vibrate till you phase thing, but there’s so much you can do with super speed powers I thought it would be effective if he just sped up enough to get friction involved and burn off the ribbons. Good things they were designed for towing asteroids in the cold of space and not uh… lavaburgs. In a lava flow. Obviously it didn’t do much good for him since Harem was on the case. Really the point of this page was to show Sydney being useful and also to show that Arc-SWAT doesn’t rely on concussions to keep people out till they’re in the paddy wagon. Even minor concussions are dangerous and and it’s difficult to predict how long someone will be out from one, or what state they’ll be in when they come to. I’m tempted to say Harem’s hypospray uses M99, same as Dexter, since it’s extremely powerful and just as importantly, the antidote is nearly instantaneous, but reading up on it, it sounds so dangerous that I imagine Arc-SWAT would have something less risky. Still if they’re being constantly monitored by the wristband, maybe it’s a reasonable use case.
If you voted for Fred Perry’s NSFW game on Offbeatr, then you probably already got an email saying the project has gone live, and then another update 12 hours later saying it’s already been funded. If this if your first time hearing of the project there’s still plenty of time to get in on it, and there’s always the stretch goals. It also tells me you guys are my kind of people and has helped me make up my mind about something that might happen during the fight. :)
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There are loads of anaesthetics out there, and M99 is used only for veterinary purposes in most countries. Just say it’s an Archon-only approved military-grade product, think up a name/history later. For now, all we need to know is that it keeps these folks down.
And ouch, Harem. Not having much luck today even with your teleporting speed. Atomic wedgie pain reaction, Sydney-smashed nose, and now sliced arm.
Karma is a bitch.
Yup, very much so.
…& almost always in heat.
I just hope no one named Karma read that comment (or at least took it personally).
Poor girl! No wonder she grew up with a personality disorder. Having parents named “Dictionary” or “Encyclopaedia” and them choosing to call their daughter “Karma”. Were they punishing her for something she had done to them in a previous life? Perhaps being an ancestor, who changed the family name?
Each person reacts differently to anesthetic. I need more to put me out than my sister for example. So I can see them with a bunch of elephant tranquilizer to put down someone like Mach here or someone like Anvil. Weight, metabolism, toughness, drug use, these all play a factor you have to figure in with each dose.
I don’t think the actual strength of the anesthetic matters for most super human heavy weights, I don’t see injection type anesthetics as viable for cases like anvil and concrete woman. So they probably have other means of… retrieval.
Speedsters already have a much tougher metabolism and can speed them up. Unless the drug reacts so fast they cannot to metabolize them faster. I would expect the average Super to have different, accelerated, powerful metabolisms than the average Joe or Jane anyway.
not really, it would take effect faster than an ordinary human also, because of how the cells process EVERYTHING faster than an ordinary human… therefore, a “standard” dose once injected would whack them out REALLY REALLY fast, but again, due to their metabolism, it would end up burning thru that dose REALLY REALLY quickly AS WELL, thus you have to have either a higher dose than a normal human sized dose, or a stronger than normal sedative that will last a lot longer than the other drug for the same sized dose.
for example if his body processes the same amount of drug that will cause a standard human to be knocked out cold for 5 hours (300 minutes), in say six minutes (50 times speed) then they would have to either inject the drug every 6 minutes for the five hours needed, or get a drug that would send a normal human to la-la-land for 15000 minutes (250 hours = almost 10.5 DAYS!!!) in order to keep him out of it for the same 5 hour time limit with only ONE dose… either way, you are talking extremes of medical safety (Huge number of normal sized doses vs one massive dose), and anything that can be used to help keep the detainee safe during that period is very much welcome, such as the automated heart-rate and respiration monitor. i’ll take a bet that even though it CAN inject those things, it will only actually DO SO under the specific authorization from a medical representative that keys in the by-pass for an instance-specific safety lock out. this will prevent an accidental overdose if it were just an automated, timed release “dumb” mechanism that can’t really understand what the sensors are telling it. and if it is a “smart” system, it will be able to monitor the person and upon showing signs of recovery, it can alert the medical team and await a response to inject either drug or antidote, to taze him, or to do nothing and let them come out of it… I’m not exactly sure what the long-term effects of multiple tazers in a short period of time would be, but I’ll bet that the watch is set up to monitor and report continuously, and to first taze the guy while waiting on authorization if he comes out of it too fast for the medics to react, then once it gets the command (after medics determine if it’s OK to dose him again) it drugs him up, and then it goes back to monitoring…
I think I see Mr. Nose Boop on the bottom right of the carpet of shame.
The trio Math took down and Halo’s first bad guy are in sight. LeePOC is hanging around. Plus the one Anvil hugged to sleep. I think that empties the restaurant.
Looks like mouth-hurt laser-eye guy has a black bag over his head.
Blast reflective I bet. And there was another one sandbagged earlier. He’s off-panel but I’m sure he’s bagged as well. And notice how many have mittens covering their hands. Probably the same material. Shadow Warrior (Halo’s victim) could focus weapon forms around his hand. So Heavenly Sword will be getting a pair as well.
heh i had a good laugh at sydney being on clean up duty with the villians bodies
It keeps her from being ‘helpful’ in the middle of the melee. Sydney is just not the type to stand around. Laying out the mooks like prize fish on a bed of ice is a perfect job for her.
I hope she does not get tempted to stack them in one big pile, and then pose on top of it, for a photo-op. That would not go down very well.
Sydney, I can see you are tempted. No! Bad girl! No scooby snax if you do.
Stand at the end of the row and take a picture. Or stitch together a series with her behind every one of the mooks in victory poses. At least until Maxima catches her.
The idea of Halo taking a photo with each in the row has me picturing the Firefly blooper reel funeral gag pulled by Nathan Fillion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmU-Bmk4Wrk
Epic! I love Firefly and this is just 1 of the MANY reasons.
She should really suggest this.
Maxima would be tempted.
Tempted, as a former nerd, possibly. As a senior military officer? Not a cat in hell’s chance. She will have seen the horrendous repercussions for US and UK forces who have done similar things, with captured POWs and corpses.
It plays incredibly badly to the media, and international community, and can cause an intense backlash of reprisals. Both politically, from allies, and militarily, from enemies. She would not want to bring Archon into disrepute.
Which is why Sydney won’t be doing it. Getting fired the same day you got hired looks bad on a resume.
One of my old bosses once had a trainee like that.
Freshly started, he’d wanted to take her along to a project-meeting at a customer’s.
She lasted half a mile.
Halo, as the untrained newbie, is helping out triage. At triage. With the triage. Whatever!
Sydney is not actually conducting the triage herself. Portering, whist not putting down the profession, does not require extensive medical training. Provided they are properly supervised by a qualified individual. Which is clearly the case here.
This is an emergency situation, where the team is cut off from external medical support. It is entirely appropriate for any responsible person to assist, in such circumstances. Which, ditzy though she can be at other times, she has shown that she is capable of sensible behaviour and self-control too.
add in to that that lot of these guys dont damage all that easy this is exactly what Sydney should be doing.
Sorry but your comment doesn’t make sense to me. I understand it’s about Sydney, but can’t comprehend “sensible behavior and self control.” Those words, are they English? Do they actually have a meaning in relation to Sydney? ^_~
She has got a driving licence. She qualified as a scuba diver. She is running her own business, and with the opportunistic world-wide plug she made for it, it will certainly thrive. Yea, I think she qualifies. Other quirkiness notwithstanding. If I felt a bout of near-death experience coming on, I would trust her to do the right things. Even if some of her actions may be undignified and unconventional.
That business is probably not going to thrive, not unless there is super villain insurance.
There will be insurance company board-rooms around the world, even as this fight is going on, figuring how quickly they can get their first super-destruction policies on the market. It will be a lucrative business. Once they can get a grip on the risks involved.
Getting the business insurance of one of the most high-profile heroes in the world? They will be falling over themselves trying to get her to sign up. Even if the place got trashed monthly, the publicity value they got, for being her insurers, would repay the losses countless times over.
The insurance executives will be going nuts thinking of the business opportunities. The salesmen will be going nuts identifying potential customers and selling policies. The actuaries and other statisticians will be going absolutely nuts trying to figure out the risks and costs involved. I do not envy those actuaries.
Let’s see. Speedy can pull a Flash-style vibrate to escape. Harem sticking her tongue out at Speedy and zapping him in the same microsecond. Speedy got in one good swipe the lullaby time. SYDNEY! Helping pick up the trash. Both her victims ready for pickup. Busy strip. Lots of fun details.
So this is lightstorm?
I doubt it. Hopefully Dave is saving it for a big finish.
This is triage. As trainee medical porter Schoville is finding out.
I think Lightstorm was the code name for general arming. She had to get Peggy set up first, then she went to arm the rest of ARCSwat and provided them with the camera glasses, so I’m assuming everything after Peggy was Lightstorm.
Possible. Everyone + me is thinking is thinking some form of attack. But it is the very next thing Harem did. I think we need to ask DaveB. If can answer without a spoiler.
He is on holiday. The only question he is likely to be answering is “would you like to have that here, or sent up to your room sir?”
More power to him. We will just have to wait.
It would make sense for something called lightstorm to be about supporting ARC-Light.
Using code words and phrases is best done by just using random terms with no relation to what action follows. Lightstorm may mean “start hauling gear and get the team equipped”. Which does not involve lights or storms. Of course you change codes at times as well. That’s one of the things a team does. Practice sessions with Max throwing out codes while everyone is being kept distracted or otherwise pressured. Say playing dodgeball.
the way i see it, the term means just what it says… to the outside observer there is a bunch of light popping into existence all over the place, possibly distracting the enemy, ie. “a storm of light”… during the time that she’s vorping all over the place getting the team geared up. rather than tell her “go get the gear and give it to all the team members, then act as spotter for Peggy and yourself.” they had a pre-arranged code for that… “operation lightstorm” a hell of a lot easier to say in a short period of time, so it is less likely to be interrupted during the saying of said message, it has a predetermined effect, and, it is also less likely to be misunderstood in the heat of battle.
light storm would make more sense as her teleporting in and dropping a butt-load of flash bangs or other disorienting ordinance on a large group of foes giving them a massive tactical advantage.
giving the heroes the advantage i mean
woot first to comment
also how did he avoid burning himself when he vibrated? because shouldn’t the friction affect his cloths?
Secondairy powers.
A speedster always has friction resistance, or else he’d burn up as soon as he started moving fast
Which must, presumably, affect his clothes too? Otherwise they surely would have ignited too. Unless he was simply using sharp edges on his outfit to cut through the restraints?
Actually, re-examining the picture, we can clearly see that the bonds are burning. But his outfit is not.
Mmm. Makes me wonder about the legality of scientific examination of his outfit, to find out how he does that. A normal citizen should be safe from that. But he was using the property in conjunction with committing illegal acts (attempting to evade arrest being just one). So, perhaps a case could be made.
Although no precedent is springing to mind. The only ones that are, have specific legislation covering them. Such as being able to access digital data, if the computers are believed to contain information specific to the conduct of a crime.
So a moral case is clear (although there are moral arguments against it too). But, not necessarily a legal one.
Well yes, his secondairy powers logicly have to protect his clothes to.
Otherwise those would also burn up, or rip up, as soon as he went fast (air pressure is a powerfull thing)
Which is how Mr ‘I’m so invulnerable I can stop a sword with my eyeball’ managed to afford his level of invulnerability when the campaign started. He took it WITHOUT secondary powers to keep the point cost down.
I would suspect that, regardless of the legislation involved, his clothes are off-limits for scientific examination.
Not quite following your line of argument there?
I am not a lawyer. I could be wrong. I believe that the personal effects of a criminal who has been arrested remain their legal property. As the law stands now, the police would not have the legal right to whisk away someone’s clothing for testing.
The police do have that right, in a number of instances. For instance forensic examination to see if a weapon has been discharged by the wearer. To check for blood or other forensic evidence.
It is just a matter of whether conducting scientific tests to determine the properties of clothing could be justified by an existing law.
I suspect that there is not. So, if they wanted to, they might have to either find a pretext, from one of the examples above, for instance. But, then if the tests they ran were not in accordance with the excuse, which they would not be, then they could be digging a hole for themselves.
Alternatively they may simply openly approach a judge and ask for a ruling. Something along these lines maybe:
“The prisoner is capable of vibrating materials until they burn, or break off. Including restraints more powerful than can be manufactured by mundane means. However, we note that the prisoner’s clothes are unaffected by his power. With the court’s permission, and on the grounds of ensuring public safety, and preventing the prisoner evading justice, we wish to study the clothes and see if we can replicate the process.
Should you permit it, we may be able to use the method, to protect the restraints, that we need to bind him with. Currently our only option is to keep him sedated, or he will easily escape. There would be serious risk for his physical and mental well being if we had to maintain that indefinitely.”
Still with the caveat that I am not a legal expert and could be getting this stuff all wrong…
In the US we have Constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The police do -not- have the right to take away your stuff or to poke around looking just because they want to.
There are rather strict rules about gathering evidence. They can’t just run whatever tests they like on whatever they want. There has to be a credible reason to believe there is evidence to find, and they are only allowed to do tests that would provide them with that evidence.
Asking a judge to set aside the 4th Amendment to the Constitution on the grounds of public safety or the health and well being of a prisoner is unlikely to fly. Even if a judge were crazy enough to do so, the ruling would be immediately challenged and booted to a higher court.
Only protected if they have money or connections. The US Constitution really doesn’t exist for most anymore.
You’re sort of right, here- the police don’t have those rights, but departments of corrections do. This is a fine, but important, distinction. If they could manage to hold him long enough to get him to trial, or if he were tried in absentia and found guilty, then his clothes could reasonably be confiscated. I’m not at all certain that his clothes could then be experimented upon without either his consent or a court order, but, from what I’ve seen, it’s not at all beyond the limits of probability.
So….
Joe super-villain commits a crime, while clothed. Which sets of clothes merit special attention?
A) clothes morph into a 10 story tall battle suit equipped with hundreds of independently tracking missiles. Well, it used to have the missiles, and the city used to have sky-scrapers….
B) Clothes morph into a 2 story tall powered suit, which was used to carry the bank vault.
C) Clothes function as body armor, camouflage, and stealth (invisibility), and the stealth was used to get past the bank guards.
D) Clothes double a body Armor
E) Clothes are 100% cotton and bear the image of the 4th horseman.
I’d say A-C in the above all merit special attention to the clothes, as they were used as tools in the commission of crimes, and may qualify as restricted, military grade equipment, if the time were taken to determine if they merited such classification.
//Torrenal
Actually, while incarcerated, he would not be allowed to wear any of them; the government would issue a uniform for him to wear. Now, whether he (or his relatives if he does not get to leave while still alive) gets back any of them, upon his leaving the corrections facility, is another question altogether. A-C will almost definitely be confiscated by the state as tools used in the commission of a crime; they turned over to some government lab to see if the technology could be adapted for military or law-enforcement use. He may be required to justify the return of the body armour. The shirt will get returned.
His clothes are sandpaper, except someone replaced the paper with a tungsten mesh.
but does that make him fire proof
Beat ya to it ;)
Maybe just like Heatwave prevents her own clothes from catching fire: superpowers.
next time :D
I think it was John Byrne’s take on the Superman-character wherein I 1st heard of the “Electro-Chemical Aura”-trope, to explain why:
– massive battle-damage doesn’t leave heros naked.
– costumes are tightly form-fitting, or else they take damage (I’m looking at Kal-El’s cape, here)
He’s using the ground like sand paper – wearing through his bonds from the outside in.
damm lagg
Claiming the first post explicitly is generally frowned upon anyway. You probably saved yourself from the flames by being slow to post.
Don’t worry about page numbers for our sake DaveB
I’d love to see Harem in an actual fight, would be very interesting
Oh yes, more pages is fun. :-)
By the way if you want to update hourly we would enjoy that too. :-P :-)
Let’s see if I can get up to M-W-F updates before I promise anything else. :)
Dave, I was just having a little fun, but hey more is better. :-)
So long as the astounding quality does not slip. I would much prefer 1 or 2 excellent pages a week over 5 crappy pages in the same week. I encourage DaveB to do what seems reasonable to him. Try to avoid over-promising and then under-delivering.
True.
Has anyone else suggested that Harem have a go at Uzumaki Naruto Rendan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foimRx1yo3k
Great now he’s hiding under his drawing table. Somebody bring the Scooby Snaks, we need to lure him out before Monday.
Rule #1 “Always be nice to the author!”
He/She is the only source of new material and some are very emotionally fragile (not Dave B of course).
All in one medical tricorder and stunner. Nice toy.
*starts writing a note*
“Dear Santa…”
“Hey person I don’t like, I have this really cool watch for you”
Ok, gonna stop you right there. Why do you want a bracelet that administers high powered sedatives? Lol
why not? mellow me out during a long, boring ride.
The pair of items (gun-like applicator and bracelet) makes a very good alternative to shooting somebody.
But you do not need to turn on the tranquillise option. So it would make an exceptionally useful portable medical scanner. Invaluable in an emergency. But also handy for an immediate check-up, if suffering chest pain.
Or if conducting something extremely stressful. Such as competing in a marathon. I saw a guy died at the conclusion of a half-marathon in the last week or so. My basic fitness level is ok, but not great. So such a gadget would be very useful to me.
There are already hearthmonitors like that that don’t come with tazer and tranq shot
*sigh* Gadgets are only exciting if they do lots of stuff!
Unless it is something really really cool, like being able to fly. And even then, you really want to hope that it has some secondary utility.
Like a snack compartment?
https://tinyurl.com/ow47dv3
you just want some fool to see the shiny and steal it with the stun / drug resetting to active so the thief goes down and you turn him over to police.
Although the combat role is an interesting concept, I would have little practical need for one. But my community is often cut off during the winter. Usually to a lesser degree, where there is some access, by one route or another. However we learn to be self-sufficient, just in case.
There is an upper limit to how useful pain-killers can be. But, if there was a device which could emulate a trained anaesthetist, for emergency use, then it would have a place next to my first-aid kit, for that option alone. Although the rest of the functionality would have already put it there without that feature.
Ain’t that the truth!
I know 6 people deathly afraid of flying who’ll give you $250 each for one… and if the trank is child-safe about 200 million parents world-wide…
and another 400 million fellow passengers of the above mentioned adorable tots…
and another few hundred thousand lawyers that would be salivating at the thought of one of them malfunctioning and killing the person wearing it, and or the plane actually crashing and that person dies because they were unable to escape from said plane, and or the families of someone ELSE that died because they were assisting in getting the wearer of the device out of the plane instead of getting out alone… yeah, i see SOOO many ways that would backfire. let alone the date-rapes and kidnappings that the device would allow. nope. not for a million dollars would i want those around.
Only people on Santa’s “Nice” list are allowed them. The List is made for a reason!
For the tricorder, a $10M prize was announced for development of a fully functional medical tricorder. See this site for details. Just add a good stunner to it and hey presto, Yorp has his Christmas gift!
Now I don’t know that much about tranqualizers, but I’m pritty sure they are all dangerous, in that a little to much can kill someone
Built-in monitoring and antidote injector makes it as safe a reasonably possible.
remember these are to be used on super powered criminals you have to do something like this to stop brake out attempts. espeshaly since say something like a brick braking out of a veical in transit can case a bad accident and cost lives.
dont want to be in the potently dangues super stun watch? dont brake the law
You are very right to query that. A plain automatic system would be unethically dangerous. But, assuming that all the functions are controlled by a suitable medical program then it becomes feasible. However, if the AI on the bracelets is inadequate, then such would be incredibly dangerous. It takes years worth of training to qualify as an anaesthetist.
But, subject to both robust programming and only being used when qualified medical personnel are monitoring patients, I think the basic concept is great. We know Harem to be a very broadly skilled individual, so, from this situation, we can clearly see that she has combat medical training. Plus, one hopes, qualification as an anaesthetist.
In which case this are simply the same kind of precautions, that are available in prisons and mental institutions, where dangerous individuals need to be sedated. Except it has been made portable, and suitable for use on the battlefield.
“but I’m not fast in bed baby” Mack is off to his happy place. Panel 8
RE: Rubbing the non injured arm:
Yes, I’m pritty sure that does actually work. I’m asuming that for all the other Harem copys the sliced arm would feel like phantom pain, and if you put some pressure on it, it sould atleast distract from the pain.
I just realized both Harems we can see are holding their ‘injured’ arm. The one actually hurt is likely wherever the first aid station is located.
Well if you look at the knife when he cut her, only the very tip has some blood on it. So it’s probably a rather superficial wound.
Still a little bandage around it wouldn’t hurt
Plugging leaks is always a good idea. Lets someone check that is is just minor.
Those shallow cuts can hurt worse as everyone who ever got a paper-cut can tell you. Although I will say the sharper the blade the lesser the pain and secondary damage.
That’s not entirely true.
While a knife can be sharp enough that you won’t notice the cut, or hurts less, that doesn’t keep the pain away.
As soon as your brain notices that you have been cut (like if you look at your hand 5 minutes after getting cut), the pain will come
I’m not going to get into physical vs perceived pain because that’s a big time sink. But usually not feeling damage is part of the fight/flight response. What I was referring to is that a dull blade will tear and rip flesh while a sharp one will slice it. More damage = more pain. Experience speaking here.
Just as well. You would only end up flogging yourself, if you did. If only metaphorically.
it could also be a physical feed back that this is not the body with the injury. help her head lock down exactly witch right arm is in pain
How is it the non-injured arm? The blow appears to hit a few inches up from the elbow on the RIGHT forearm. …and she’s rubbing the right arm…
Right arm. Wrong body.
Yeah, FINALLY noticed that on the 4th look…
These scenes are good. Normally in comics, they skip the hauling off of the mooks and other important stuff in favor of another Escher Girl double spread. It’s nice to see you work it in. And keep the action going.
Something I’m curious about is if Harem unteleported the copy with the sliced arm, and then reteleported after it would’ve healed would she still have a bleeding cut or would the copy heal while its gone.
I think that its been stated that copies are in “stasis” while not materialised. So the cut would still be unhealed no matter how long spent unteleported.
If I understand Dave’s comments,unteleporting acts like a time-stop. When she came back nothing about her would be altered. So she would still be hurt. For a serious accident it would hold her until Harem could get to major help.
If it does act as a time stop, that brings up a serious question on aging. Could she unteleport one copy in rotation and reduce her aging by twenty percent?
It goes further than that.
Each time she teleports, she’s presumably a fraction of a second ‘between locations’, and thus already in stasis.
So she’s already aging slower than without teleporting
It does raise a question though, do all copys age at the same speed?
Sounds right but I’m not sure. Harem is one person with five bodies. Do the bodies age separately or in sync? It a game master’s call in this case and that’s Dave. Myself I say each body ages independently so one stored for a year comes out a year younger than the rest.
Simple. Give her a mechanical watch (and a digital one, because TEST EVERYTHING!) and then un-teleport for a period of 1 minute.
Check to see if watch(es) is(/are) accurate.
We know that to be the case. It is my contention that Harem is potentially immortal. Provided she opts to keep a young version of herself in permanent storage. Any time she needs to replace one of her bodies (be it due to fatal injury, or death by some age-related disease), she need merely ensure that she copies it from that young body, rather than one of the wrinkly ones.
It would mean permanently reducing the number of bodies she has out at one time though. So if her capacity is actually six bodies, she may already be using that tactic. If not, she would have to contend herself with just the five. Which she might not be willing to do. Given that she feels having less than her normal number is like having an arm tied behind her back and wearing an eye-patch.
Of course, that assumes that bodies can be replaced. If Harem has an absolute five-body limit then all she could do is slow down the inevitable. It makes an interesting dilemma. Would you take advantage of the fun of being in multiple places? Or would you opt to live for, up to, five times the normal life-span?*
* Ignoring the possibility of accidental death.
Unfortunately, that would require pretty extensive forethought, and deep dedication, neither of which appear to be Daphne’s forte… For all the things she’s learned and accomplished, she’s more of a “live in the moment” gal
At the rate with which she adds new bodies, given in her bio, it’s conceivable that in a few years she would have six bodies. My theory is that she can produce a new body whenever her teleport capacity/limit increases to the point she can teleport that body’s weight. That would be consistent with her having to “un-teleport” one body to carry more weight.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that she’s about 120lbs. At the time she produced her 5th body, her teleport weight limit would be 600 lbs. When it increase to a limit of 720 lbs, she might be able to produce that 6th body. Right now it’s somewhere between the two, I’d have to look up how old she was when she got the 5th body to figure out how much she could potentially teleport now. Makes sense to me anyway.
So she’s actually leveling up her carry max, and in effect, that allows her to have more bodys out?
Now THAT is an interesting thought.
It does fit, we know that her body is counted in the max weight she can carry
There aren’t enough hours in a day to do all I wish I could, so I would probably keep two bodies out, and save the others to ensure I survive until the singularity (at which point I will become an immortal android, downloading my mind into a new shell whenever I feel like it).
Question is: can the other bodies force a ‘storage’ of one or more of the other bodies? and thusly bring them back again?
If a body suffers an injury causing unconsciousness (amongst other injuries), does it remain ‘active’ or does it automatically *vorp* into storage? or can one of the other bodies do that? sort of like each one has an override remote control on each other
Would knocking one out knock them all out as it is just one consciousness?
No her consciousness is evenly distributed. The others would keep right on going. And probably focus on whoever KOed one of her.
Now that’s open for debate. As I see it, if one body were knocked out with, say, the good ole stand by chloroform, then only the one body would be rendered unconscious, while the others would probably feel the vertigo and nausea. However, if one were attacked with a high-voltage stun gun/tazer for instance, then it would be quite possible for all 5 to be knocked out from shock reaction. For some that don’t realize it, stun guns and tazers are quite different as s-g’s operate at contact range while a tazer fires mini-darts trailing wires and obviously are used at a distance.
Harem calling the speedster Zippy, real likely gonna be his joke-name at Archon.
I don’t think he got to announce himself. Zippy may become his official name. Embarrasing.
At least she didn’t add “Pinhead” to it.
Gabba Gabba Hey!
I was actually referring to the comic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_the_Pinhead
But the main character was based on that famous freak.
If she did, he’d probably try (& fail) to connect it with the Clive Barker “Hellraiser”-version of “Pinhead”.
I thought we decided Mach the Knife would be his Archon name? =)
We did. But Leon gets the final say. And he has shown a preference for rude puns.
that’s not zippy, George and Bungle aren’t with him
(very old children’s television program here in the UK)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62SnbNizIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgG2SfhMxw8
and yes that hippo is gay
Well he did have a guys hand shoved up his bottom, for the whole show. Not much job satisfaction, if he was not.
Very old??? It says it is from 1991. I guess that makes me ancient. :-(
It’s older than that, remember watching it in the 80’s (along with “Sooty and Sweep” and the original “Basil Brush”)
Okay I Wikipediaed it. From 1972 to 1992, that doesn’t make me feel so bad. :-)
Is it just me or is Halo proudly delivering her second baddie there for their capture comp? Should be LeePOC for sure.
No, I don’t think it’s him.
LeePOC has something around his wrists, this guy does not
i think it is him he has the same belts over his chest maby they removed the wrist gards to put on stun watch/make shour he did not have an extra weapon there?
But those are his pants and shirt(?). It makes sense that they would remove his – I guess those are vambraces – before giving him a monitor. His outfit confuses me.
At max zoom, I think I see his claws. I wouldn’t bet money, but I’m fairly confident it’s Lee.
To be fair they guys are luck they still have shirts.
“Hey, no oggling the bad guys. There are plenty of hot guys on our side”
Yeah that’s supposed to be him, minus the vambraces.
He’s getting hung out to try and paraded around a bit first by Syd, it seems. After al, he’s her second ‘kill’, as in defeated baddie. To be honest, if I were Syd, I’d have probably added a few good ‘puny god’ smashes on both the shadow guy and Lee; especially the shadow guy.
Anvil already called her on kicking Shadow Boxer when he was down. Sydney isn’t trained yet, but the others are keeping her from straying into unprofessional behavior.
While reading the comments, I found myself humming “Mach-a-bye baby, in the tree tops”… curse you, DaveB!
I like how Archon is still nice enough to put the crooks on the soft grass, instead of the hard concrete
That’s for Harem’s comfort. Easier on her knees while she’s medicating and tagging this lot.
or maybe they are just keeping them out of the way of the traffic that will soon be there as cops and ambulances and maybe news crews tern up
I thought it was a roll of carpet, and they were laying them out preparatory to rolling them up.
Easier to sling under an osprey that way.
That is so mean. I like it.
The Derelict by Abney Park last verse:
We wrapped them all in a mainsail tight,
With twice ten turns of hawser’s bight.
And we heaved ’em over and out of sight,
With a yo-heave-ho and a fare-ye-well,
A sudden plunge in a sullen swell.
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell–
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
Airship Pirates is better in my mind… but either way, they are an awesome band, too bad i was always working a party on Saturday nights whenever they had their concerts at SteamCon up here in Bellevue, WA. so i always missed seeing them live…
I stumbled on some of their stuff just a couple years ago. Their recent albums are a lot smoother than their early work. But even like some of the pre-steampunk songs. Hush and Stigmata Martyr eg. The new live album is a blast.
well that’s done for sure and the guys are piling up hehe
I somehow doubt that argument will help him.
I didn’t realize that Harem had actually connected with an attack in panel five at first. It took me a couple readings of the whole page to understand why Mach was taking a dive in panel seven. I was wondering for a while if Peggy had shot him.
Yea, panel 7 had me flummoxed for a bit. ‘Is somebody invisibly grabbing the knife? Maybe some kind of telekinesis?’ Then noticed the sleepy eyes. And, looking back at the two previous panels, managed to draw the lines between the dots.
One perk of comics, over movies. You can easily glance back at the preceding action, to piece together anything which does not jump out at once. Something that is a lot harder to do in a cinema. Unless you are extremely influential. They do not hand out silver screen remote controls to just any customer.
Which is why I just wait for the disks…
I kinda wanna hand out remote controls to an entire theater and record what happens now.
I don’t want to be anywhere near there. That would start a riot.
I kinda like not always seeing everything in movies.
Those subtle hints are great to discover the second time you watch it.
Well, we will put shared pain of knife wounds* on the list of disadvantages of having a mind link… Right behind improbable injury combos.
*Note that injured Harem is not the one saying that it smarts.
Sudden and/or unexpected sensations can throw off which Harem body displays the reaction, or cause a pain chain reaction.
Vogue was the one who burst out laughing in response to Sydney’s comments in the ballroom, while all Harems reacted to the atomic wedgie.
I can think of a WAY worse thing about a mental link.
Try going to to bathroom
Especially when you forget which one is in the bathroom. Even more so when the one in the bathroom isn’t the one that needs to go…
I don’t think that’s how it works, seeing as how all 5 can be doing different things under normal circumstances.
But if they get distracted…
A “what if” just for what if’s sake.
What if Harem3 (Blondie) has a particularly strong orgasm while Daphne (Harem1) is in a briefing with the General and Max…
Well I doubt she’s able to filter out that kind of stimulus overload.
She’ll probably be smart enough to plan around that though. Question is did she learn to do so from experience, or did she realize in time
But just what was Daphne doing, to cause Blondie to have an orgasm?
just some math
A nit to pick:
Speedster or not, that is the wrong grip to hold a knife in in panel five. Maybe, maybe he was concentrating more on speed than on good technique, but we already know he is good with knives, so proper grip should be basically automatic for him.
I am happy to be corrected by one of the numerous readers with proper combat training. But, as ever, I am quite happy to dive in on any subject…
That grip looks like one adopted to ensure deep penetration through flesh. The but of the knife is firmly braced against his palm. With the two fingers simply serving to keep the blade aligned. This speaks of someone confident that they will be able to place the blow in exactly the right spot (in this case to avoid the sternum or rib bones). Something a super-speeder knife fighter would be well practiced at.
He would not be used to an opponent parrying or blocking him. So need not maintain a firm grip. Then his priority just becomes killing with the first blow. Rather than having to do a series of cuts, and waiting for the opponent to slowly bleed to death. A very tedious option for a super-speeder.
By being able to put the whole weight of his arm, and thereby body, behind a blow, due to it being strongly braced, he can do just that. Possibly he was simply positioning it, in the ideal spot, then intending to drive it home by moving towards her, at super speed. Just as well Harem vorped, when she did.
I count four fingers on this side of the knife. The index does look a bit out of place, but I am not sure about the grip. I am not trained in knife fighting, so…
Inigo Montoya! The six fingered man. I know somebody who needs to kill him!
Initially I thought he was holding the knife between fore- and middle-fingers – a strange and horribly weak technique. Now, I think there simply wasn’t enough room on the knife to draw the fingers correctly
correction: Gypsy’s right – there are definitely 4 fingers on this side of the blade – it’s the thumb that looks off, sitting unnaturally high on the hilt (like he’s holding it with his thumbnail)
It is an incredibly weak grip, and not at all correct. Normally, as I understand it, a knife’s blade should be roughly in line with the rows of knuckles, so as to allow it to function as an extension of a person’s arm. If he were throwing the knife, this would be different, but the grip is not right for that either.
Stabbing with a knife normally tries to use the sharpness of the knife to cut through the flesh, not on the amount of power behind the motion. If a person is using one of the more offensively oriented knife styles, they will generally use the knife in something like a classic switchblade grip. If they are using a defensive style, they’d use an underhanded grip, to let the blade protect their arm.
Seriously. Go to the kitchen. Chop up an apple. That’s roughly how you’d hold a knife in a knife fight.
P.S. No, I’m not an experienced knife fighter. I simply have far too much time on my hands, and access to far too many combat manuals.
What about that SF knife that has a dent beside the blade for the thumb so our soldiers in WWII would hold it right? As I recall, that was so the blade would go between the ribs.
Case V-42 used by the First Special Service force. I read some would round off the tip so it would be easier to pull out if the missed and hit a rib.
That was the origin of the kriss blade – the waves were incredibly difficult to produce using then-current production techniques, but in combat, the blade would wobble-slide between ribs and get to the tender bits contained within, then slide back out.
I’ve heard people describe the so-called “blood groove” in similar terms – that it would allow for easier insertion/removal, but in that case, it’s more about weight conservation without reducing tensile strength (similar to how an I-beam can support just as much weight as a solid one of the same dimensions)
Oh, I missed the fact that the thumb is showing. Just didn’t look closely enough – now it appears to be an awkward grip rather than a bad one.
I have had some minimal training on knife fighting. You hold a knife very much like you hold a sword, for essentially the same reasons. So my comment is really just an extension of the whole thread on sword grips. You may be thinking of a punch dagger, which is designed to be held the way you describe, but the hilt and pommel of a punch dagger are designed very differently than a standard knife (see Google images). Regular knives cannot reliably be used like punch daggers and vice versa.
It looks to be just a little awkwardly drawn, with panel 6 showing a much better grip.
Its possible though, that Mach was interrupted whilst flipping the blade from the underhand grip he was trapped in to an overhand one, and he took a swing while he hadn’t quite finished readjusting his fingers.
In a face-to-face knife fight, stabbing is generally avoided unless you have an opening in the right place. Too much risk of your blade snagging or getting wedged on something and being disarmed or pulled out of position, giving your opponent an opening.
Stacking the baddies in a row. Doesn’t that make it easier for a prepared villain to get his minions back too?
True. But they are patients first (being sedated) and prisoners second. Ease of access for medical personnel always takes precedence over security concerns, in life-or-death situations. There is only the one trained medic present. She needs to make the care as easy as possible.
If I were a bad guy with a gun hiding in the bushes I would see this arrangement as bunch of easy targets just standing around waiting to be shot (minus the one in the bubble). I assume that villains know how to shoot guns as well as anyone else, but we rarely see bad guys using them effectively against the heroes.
“Prepared” and this lot don’t seem to be acquainted. Heavenly Sword seems to have been the closest thing to a leader they had and she’s about to join the Lawn Napper’s Guild. It’s every fool for himself mostly. And the results show it.
Also easier for the Big Bad present to get rid of possible leaks. Imagine one of HS’s slices right down the middle, most of these dudes and babes would probably be gone instantly.
It’s the basic dark-side realization of ‘Nobody gets left behind’.
You mean the old “Nobody gets left alive”?
*holds up paw*
I’m Nobody. Thanks for the exemption. I’ll just be on my way.
Go ahead kill one of my clones, see if I care.
I don’t think the prisoners are in any danger. When the fight wraps the mastermind will just close his notebook and walk away. Nobody sees him (us included) none of the prisoners saw him. And the people who did recruit them are long gone and ID-wise never were there.
Rolling out the green ‘Swatted’ mat.
Couldn’t Harem just dematerialize the clone and reform it to clear it of the damage? Or does that cause the unique personality to also rewrite itself?
Dematerialisation simply places the body into storage. When it comes out, it remains in exactly the same state as it went in. Just as hungry or thirsty. Wounds still bleeding.
It is why her clothes and tattoos remain unique on each body.
Also, she doesn’t have 5 unique personalities. She has 5 unique demeanors which she maintains for her own amusement. If she wanted to do freaky quintuplets, she could do that too.
Yeah, rubbing the unwounded copy arm should definitely help. Especially since the other four can do so and NOT exacerbate the wound. If I were her, I’d be scratching, not merely rubbing.
Also, I I were her, I’d put the wounded one away until I could get it looked at right. By someone who wouldn’t flinch from touching the wound While holding an instrument, because of sensory bleedover. Self-care of that nature would probably be one of her weak points.
She should be able to teleport to the doctor’s office in HQ, and have it looked at.
+1
I’m assuming that since any unteleported body is in stasis, triage of herself goes WAY down the list. Below dealing with the janitors stubbed toe.
After this action, she could be on 4 bodies for an hour plus while all the more critical cases are dealt with.
Of course, since she can’t heft whole bodies, she could well go first, and get taken care of Before any other cases arrive.
I have to disagree, I am afraid. On two grounds. Firstly a military organisation will prioritise keeping critical personnel in the front line. Especially during an intense engagement, where they are outnumbered.
The second consideration stems from the fact the super-doc is way too valuable a resource to risk, in battle. As far as we know, she is their only means of accelerated recovery. If we see her near a fire-fight, in anything less than a saving the world scenario, the powers that be at Archon need their heads examining.
So what she needs to do is ensure that there is somebody to provide triage, and first aid, to the casualties. At the moment that is Harem. And one of her bodies is inured. Given the fact that she is also committed to ammo supply and sighting for Peggy, as well as the opportunistic direct attacks, we see above, means that she has little wiggle room to also provide medical care.
Getting Harem’s injured body back up and running is the single most useful thing the doc can be doing, until the casualties start arriving in the emergency room.
The ARC Light team is safely concealed and would be ideal for an aid station for SWAT. A quick check, a pressure bandage and back to the salt mines. Heatwave may need something more through but hopefully she doesn’t have to leave the area. I suspect we’ll see her again as Round Two gets started.
Considering there are fliers on both sides taking casualties to ARClight would just give away their position. First aid and HQ should be in different areas to protect both.
And shield generators should be inside the shields they project; but we all know that’s usually not the case. XD
That’s just crazy talk.
Speaking on ethical and legal grounds, I agree with SisterGypsy. You should never have military or espionage facilities embedded within hospitals or emergency care sites. It simply makes them a target for military attack.
Whereas, enlightened self-interest, not wishing to endanger allies being treated, or to harm the medic(s) who will treat you if you are injured, should act as a deterrent to attacking a purely humanitarian aid facility.
Consider the long-term repercussions for using a doctor conducting a ‘vaccination program’ to gather intelligence for the Bin Laden raid. It has put that doctors life in jeopardy. Likewise any medical personnel involved in genuine programs, in that region and elsewhere in the world. Plus there has been a marked drop off in vaccination rates.
Successful though the attack was, in killing Bin Laden, the casualty figures from the operation are still mounting to this day, every time there is a fatality, that could have been prevented by vaccination.
Medical staff must be neutral. Otherwise like you say too many die for nothing.
When placing unconscious persons on the ground, is flat on their face considered safe? It looks like they could suffocate if placed wrong. Back when the Russians gassed a theater full of people to disable the hostage takers many of the people died not due to the gas, but to being placed on their backs by police. Their body’s natural reflexes were disabled and they choked when their tongues slid back and blocked their throats.
Aren’t they facing sideways, like you would be in the proper recovery position? Face-down would prevent them from breathing properly in the first place.
At least one is face-down. That said, I happen to know that when people simply pass out, they fall forwards. I suspect they’ll live.
They have two Harem forms and Halo monitoring them. Anyone starts choking or the drug monitors go off, they’ll have help right there. And the heavy hitters for Arc SWAT are still active, so anyone trying to ‘rescue’ their buddies is more likely to join them for nap time. And no Story Hour for bad boys and girls.
Well, Harem (and other cut people) better hope that dagger was not… “tampered” with. Being scratched with a poisoned dagger can still be quite nasty.
Poisoned, cursed, laced with damaging nanites…
Lets hope Archon thinks of checking for all that and more.
It’s the same stuff they use in Star Trek for the off-button hypospray.
I think we need a clarification of how Sydney is moving her shield around. It has appeared as a mobile sphere/bubble in the air. On the ground it might also be a sphere but if so, does not physically harm any ground it cuts through. It does appear to lock itself in place on the ground (as demonstrated by Max punching it, zapping it, and nuking it). Can Syd make it a mobile dome that stops at ground level, or does she need to turn it off and reform it in a new place as needed?
Halo already showed that she can fly with the shield active, so she doesn’t need to switch it on repeatedly for it to move.
It does appear to lock itself in place on the ground (as demonstrated by Max punching it, zapping it, and nuking it).
Not quite correct. It isn’t locked on a location. It is centered on Sydney. As long as she doesn’t move, it doesn’t move. Since it stops all external force from attacks Sydney doesn’t move.
Except that she CAN also move around with the bubble staying in place
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1138
So presumably, it’s all up to Sydney’s mental commands. Stay in place, or lock on Sydney.
If she’d lock on Sydney she can move around with the bubble, but she could also absorb impacts with it (since Sydney doesn’t move, since she doesn’t get hit, the shield also stays in place)
It could be centered on the orb, with Sydney moving around that.
The thing holding it in place is Sydney’s hand. The shield takes the hit, but doesn’t transmit the force back, so Sydney doesn’t move, so the shield doesn’t move. As for how it moves, my opinion is that if it isn’t free to move,like in the air, then it essentially flickers on and off. This wouldn’t necessarily damage the ground, as we haven’t seen the field actually penetrate anything during formation.
Great work on the webcomic, Dave. Just wanted to post a thanks for mentioning Fred’s game both in the voting and now the funding stages. Your signal boost letting folks know about it brought in at least a hundred additional votes which helped it to go live.
Thank you, from the community, for the feedback. And thanks to everyone who voted too. Well worth it, as we can tell Fred is gifted. For that matter even if only from the quality of the current vote incentive, and the fact that DaveB raves about him.
I had an idea for a scene which I avoided posting so as to not step on Dave’s toes. But now that he’s moved past the point where it would fit in I guess I can described it.
It starts where the last page leaves off: Dabbler has just rendered HS unconscious and says “Well that’s two for me, finally.” Unseen behind her is one of the “bricks” moving in to take his shot at her when out of the blue Sydney drops down from the sky, shield on, and hammers him chest deep in to the ground like he was a nail. Syd smugly looks at Dabs and says “Three.” before flying off to find her next target.
Hahaha, that would have been SO Sydney!
This could be hazardous. Unless the shield/flyball combo compensates for sudden changes in speed, about a tenth of a second after the outside of the shield hits him at 200mph Sydney’s momentum will make her hit the inside of the shield at 200mph. I suggest doing some preliminary tests at slower speeds to test out this maneuver. On the plus side, if the inertial dampers do work, ARC has a new mobile battering ram.
Considering the hits she took at the firing range without being thrown across it I think it has inertial dampeners, then again keeping an outside force from moving her could be done in a way that wouldn’t work to help her slow down quickly (but would let her burrow through things without harm).
At the test site, Sydney was hiding behind that steel block with her shield extended to cover it. But Maxima gave it some hard punches during the interview. So Sydney’s field has some absorption ability but we don’t know the limit.
Yeah, my guess is that it’s less of a “barrier”-type, & more of a “Kinetic Energy Sponge”-type of shield. Which might even explain why Syd “leveled-up” after absorbing the Maxima-blast. All that kinetic energy may turn out to be how Sydney earns the energy needed to upgrade both the magnitude & variety of her Orb-based powers.
nah, i’ll bet that the act that CAUSED the “level-up” scenario, was actually when she had the epiphany about the “safety catch” on her PPO… BUT since the demo was still in progress, the orbs were/are smart enough to know that stopping the action to “instantly” apply said upgrade could be contraindicated when self-defense actions are needed, so it DIDN’T do it right at that exact time, but only when Sydney came out of her mental def-con 4 state, and back to her “normal”, calmer, state of mind, did the orbs commence with the upgrade process…
+1
This needs to be made canon.
Time to test if one of the orbs has healing powers!
Ahem! Medical experiment on non-consensual prisoners is in violation of so many laws and treaties it is hard to tell whether Sydney would be tried in the United States or the Hague, under military or civilian jurisdictions. At the very least she would have the shortest career record for Archon.
And that is without the possibility of her turning some of them into frogs!
Wait that’s the english translation of Den Haag? Damn
Actually the full name is ‘s-Gravenhage, but I don’t expect english people to even try that :P
A literal translation would be “The count’s hedge”
That would be ‘The Hague’
I did not know that. interesting, thanks.
No worries – she can test whether it heals the bruise on her face.
Dude, sorry to burst your bubble, but since when has this kind of violation stopped anybody really?
The last century and this century alone have ’nuff good/bad examples for it.
I have difficulty of thinking of any good examples. As long as the words ‘non-consensual’ are involved. There are numerous bad examples though, so in that regard you are spot on. Where they are conducted by Americans & their allies, they seem to get away with it. If conducted by others, they tend to get tried as war criminals. However I was merely speaking as to the moral and legal position, rather than how fairly it is enforced.
The corruption within our society, which causes such disparity of justice, should be stamped out, not tolerated, or accepted as the norm. Every single instance should be investigated, and the individuals involved be put on trial. If they have not died of old age yet. The organisations and countries which conducted and benefited from the programs should be forced to make restitution to the survivors and/or the beneficiaries of their estates.
*sigh*
But, yea, you are right. It ain’t going to happen. We are a long way off having an enlightened or just society. I keep hoping though.
Mind you, super heroes should play by the rules, rather than run with the herd. Somebody needs to set the moral example.
Yep, I concur on the society problem wholeheartedly.
We could have solved so many problems by now, if people actually wanted to.
But we’re still too selfish, lazy, careless, scared and outright stupid (do i need to continue?),
else we could have grown up over hunger, want, need, greed, the need to control people.
Alone the homeless people in each ‘civilized’ country would be a piece of cake if we actually tried.
To quote a certain Captain Jean-Luc Picard:
“A lot has changed in the past 300 years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We’ve eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We’ve grown out of our infancy.”
“The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself… to enrich yourself. Enjoy it.”
Those who get tried for “War Crimes” are simply the ones who lost the war
Or, if you are talking about Harem, go for it.
;-)
With Mach loosing his knife I just realized that him even throwing something would be nasty.
Let’s hope Karma is on the ball and the knife falls point first into his foot
Time for DaveB to introduce a neutral super-babe named Karma, with a bit of a wicket sense of humor and an O’Neill-ish habit of bullshitting….
Meh, gonna put one of those in my superhero novels.
XD
Curious thing to note – Sydney’s tentacle starts *outside* the force bubble and is not connected to either the ball or the bubble. I suspect once Sydney registers this new facet of one of her powers an all new round of power stunt attempts will occur.
The ability to make her powers manifest at a distance from herself is quite useful even if it proves to be a very short range. Sending her illusion double to the other side of a wall so she can see how to direct the tentacle for example.
“Sending her illusion double to the other side of a wall”
So basically what you are saying is that she is going to use it to sneak a peek in the men’s locker room.
Exactly.
And when she feels like it, she might use it to walk up to some hostile gunman and laugh at them when they shoot at her
Just make sure she’s between 2 of the villains – so the shots fired will take out one-or-more of their own.
Math was doing the same thing just now, when he ducked & allowed “Mr.Heat Beam Eyes” to fell another baddie behind him.
Snake Pliskin… Escape from L.A. in the ending few scenes, he does just that.
…& the guys, in turn, will have an unrestricted view of just exactly how extreme a reaction she will have to whatever she sees in there…
“Oh, Sydney? Sweetie? You know that we don’t spend all our lives here in the showers, right?
Sooner-or-later, we’ll be seeing you…
…face-to-face…
…& we’ll be remembering this moment when we do…
…you see where I’m going with this, Sweetie…?
I’m just thinkin’, here, is this really the way you want to be interacting with us?”
She’s already thought of doing that, but Peggy suggested that it wouldn’t be a good idea for her first day on the job.
The size of the gap is consistent with previous use, where the tentacle emanated from the orb. But, even now, note that it starts immediately beyond the force field. Ie. that may well be the limit of it’s point of origin range.
Which I have always taken as being no more than allowable by artistic licence. Ie it might look odd touching, so it is drawn with a slight gap. If so, she would not be able to project it beyond a door.
Think of it like a power grid, in a community. If you want to send out a power line, you can build it directly from the power station. Or you can hook it up to buildings, on the far edge of the community, which already have power, and, with suitable boosting, extend the power lines from there. But you can’t leave a gap.
If you were to draw a power line it might appear to have gaps. But that is artistic licence and/or optical illusion (in the case of photographs).
Of course it is possible that Halo can materialise it at great distance, as you say. I am just pointing out the currently implied limitation. It is worth bearing in mind that the PPO follows the same rules as the Lighthook. DaveB has confirmed that it can operate through the orb in just the same manner.
Note, that your idea is very much merit worthy. I am merely pointing out restrictions which DaveB might have in mind. The fewer Sydney has, the more powerful she becomes. Which makes long-term writing for her that much harder. In that vein, consider the following:
If you examine the Telepresence Orb, you will see that it has an inner orb, at it’s centre. It is that which travels out to serve as the point of origin of Halo’s telepresence image. Possibly the inner orb is an illusion in itself and/or an intangible energy projection and/or capable of phasing through solid objects.
In which case, although the mechanics would operate slightly differently, the effect would be much the same. Sydney would be able to see what is happening on the far side of the wall, but by sending the mini-orb through the wall, rather than having it appear on the other side.
However it may be Dave’s intent, that it is a physical object, which cannot pass through solid barriers, unless there is a gap small enough for it to fit. In which case Halo would need to send the inner orb off to find an open door, or possibly to smash through a window
Of course, if she can do the latter, then Sydney suddenly has yet another means of punching bad guys. But this time, at a considerable distance! But, yet again, it comes down to intent. The inner orb might be light enough that it could not pack enough force to hurt much.
But, if it is physical, it may be able to push buttons. Lovely shiny red buttons. They have to be pushed! Mind you, that is what the tentacle is for, so she will find a way, somehow.
Mabye a shape-able physical object, like some sort of goo, that could seep through small cracks or a small hole in a wall…
In the future, Sydney is going to be a big draw as a celebrity/panelist at various comics conventions. One crowd pleaser power stunt could be a combo of activating the shield orb as a sphere then extending multiple light-hook legs up and outward from it. Result: classic Jonny Quest style walking eyeball. With the telepresence orb she could probably be on two panels at the same time. (Then again so could Harem)
Daphne would do great at the cosplay event. She could be all DC female villains at the same time, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Livewire, Cheetah.
Xuriel would keep taking first prize for best hall costume just by showing up as herself. Although the number of fanboys walking into walls and even over balconies might get her banned as a health hazard. And that would be without the succubi effects.
Maybe do a training session as a vote incentive?
The age old battle of speedster vs. teleporter, with a duplicating twist.
Hmm not bad, sure it was the end to a pretty cool character but at least it was a satisfying end. I would have liked to see Math go against him for the good old fashioned super speed vs super reflexes fight.
Interesting Fact: Yes, the space is considered cold. But, you can be really burned in it. Why? It’s vacuum. Is it not? Yea, it is. But stars burn. They really motherfucking burn. The amount of UV, X and gamma radiation at distances in the habitable area and bellow it’s enormous. If you have something to protect you like a moon, a planet or an asteroid, it’s cool. Freezing cool by the way. But if you are the shield… you are fucked. So, ropes made to tie asteroids… may have that in consideration.
Not really, a rope is pritty thin, and so it doesn’t catch a whole lot of radiation.
And they radiate heat OUT way faster than they absorb it. That’s why asteroids are so cold, even though rock is very good at holding heat.
So it hardly warms up. Also UV and gamma don’t transmit temprature. Only IR does that.
As for humans without a suit: At extreme tempratures, your body can’t tell the difference between hot and cold. Your flesh will burn from the cold (frostburn is a very real thing.)
Without any surrounding air (to aid in heat regulation via convection), you’re pretty much dealing with an insulating “vacuum flask”-situation, with radiation as the only way to disperse heat. Most of the radiant heat that you absorb will stay with you, & cook you.