Grrl Power #226 – Hexectomy
I realized a problem with this page after I had nearly finished coloring it. It results from me having knowledge the characters don’t. Maxima prefers to keep the combat non-lethal… but if Hex didn’t have that shield, which Max didn’t know about but I did, at a minimum Hex would have suffered burns and possibly some exploded organs. Maybe Max thought Hex would Zig Zag more, which she might well have done if she didn’t have a shield, but even if we say panel two is heavily foreshortened, that Pwee Bomb went off pretty close to her.
<– Check out the Patreon campaign for the comic, where if I get enough support I might decide to check out whether or not the Surface Pro 3 is any good as a mobile art platform. Well, Patreon support plus cashing in all my ad monies so far. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that it has potential, but there are a number of critical patches it needs before it’s viable, like right handed artists like myself can accidentally brush the home button while drawing causing the art program to close. I really don’t see how it’s possible they missed that when testing the device, unless they just never had an artist test it, or they only had one guy in all of Microsoft test it and he was a lefty. There doesn’t seem to be any other devices on the horizon that have any potential as a mobile art tablet. iPads are no good cause they’re not pressure sensitive. Even if you get one of those Wacom styluses that fake pressure sensitivity, the iPad doesn’t run any of the programs I use to make the comic. There are some others that seemed to have potential like the ThinkPad Yoga, but Lenovo makes it so difficult to get straight answers about the optional stylus that I have little confidence they’d even support it post launch with patches, unlike the SP3. The Wacom ones are probably the best from a pure art standpoint but they start at over $2000 which is just gross. If anyone knows of a good mobile art solution, feel free to share it, and I don’t mean a screen you can draw on that you have to attach to a laptop, I mean a self contained tablet with pressure sensitivity that will run Windows 8.1 (or at least Win7) and Manga Studio/Paint Tool SAI.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
One thing people seem to be forgetting: squirrels have claws, and look where it landed
I wasn’t aware of how nasty their claws can be, but I had noticed the squirrel had impacted on BARE SKIN, possibly with claws extended.
Squirrels… They always look so innocent.
Then the scamming starts…
https://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2004/10/29/neighborhoodHazardorWhyTheCopsWontPatrolBriceStreet.html
%*#!&^ autocorrect – scamming -> screaming
I wonder what it makes of scramming? You know, as in how you shut down a nuclear reactor?
Well, squirrels are amongst the nastiest pool sharks ever. Never get into a billiards game with a squirrel. You will regret it! :D
You beat me to it; that tale was my first thought as well. There is a reason you do not want to be on the wrong side of a fight with SG.
When I was a young Soldier, doing trash cleanup in base housing, I was chased into, and then out of my hmmwv (along with my Sergeant) by an equally pissed and ninja-like squirrel. Tree rats are NOT to be fucked with, but shot on sight.
Squirrels: They’re up to something!
https://www.exiern.com/2008/04/03/all-squirrel/
Cruel cruel man… I have just recovered from the giggle fest / attack reading of the Evil Death Squirrel .. I thought they looked so cute when I visited the U.S . may have to change my opinion :P
Myndflame made fun of evil squirrels in an ad they made for a friend finder ap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGqTMv5DmaU
I had a pet squirrel in my youth. The claws are sharp but don’t go deep because squirrels are so light. They can run up your leg with no more than a few pinpricks. Just don’t grab them, they will rip up your hands.
Yes squirrels’ claws are always extended and sharp. I got one to partially climb up my leg. I was wearing heavy jeans then so it didn’t hurt much. However on bare skin, especially the more sensitive stomach area will leave marks and hurt when the squirrel immediately scrambles off! They are fast and long term survivors in all the years they or their kind have been around.
That could easily be a yell of pain.
Don’t think it has anything to do with claws. She might just be freaked out by squirrels. There not everyone’s fuzzy friend.
Something people need to understand about squirrels: they have nasty claws, and look where it landed
Great minds think alike.
And I was not even one of them!
*sobs*
Great minds think for themselves.
They do but they also of reach similar conclusions.
except for Yorp
Beware the squirrels, they plot to dominate the world.
+1
Except the red ones. They are cute and lovely.
Anyone who watches Monsters vs. Aliens, the TV series, can tell you that!
Yes, our “furry friends” rule the earth as Sqweeb found out in his researches. But humans disabused him of that notion. However we saw otherwise. I knew it! Don’t hurt squirrels. One day you shall disappear.
In the mean time I have no qualms with squirrels.
I for one, welcome our squirrely overlords.
Sellout! COLLABORATOR!!
survivor
If it helps you to sleep better on the bones of your former fellow humans, then sleep well, traitor!
For the Tablet.
Most Tablets can be used in both directions you only have to turn it around and adjust some settings in the drivers.
For the Page.
Maybe Hex/Budget did rise her shield preventably, because she knew Maxima could shoot things, from the press conference.
How did she even see the SQUIRREL! in panel 6? She is looking straight ahead and its above/below her legs and right around even with her torso. Second question, did she remember to keep firing her buddy’s to slow her down or are they on automatic?
I speak from some painful experience. When you are busy flying through the air with no control, you focus on the oddest details. I can still picture the face of the kid driving the car behind the one I hit as went over the roof. And that was decades ago. Hex will probably be twitchy around squirrels for a while.
Remember we see one frame. Hex is tumbling as she tries to avoid the crash.
Cue Squirrels In My Pants.
You’re welcome. :?)
“That girl has some serious squirrels in her pants.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKG_O0Ei_o&feature=kp
Puts me in mind of the Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16fG1sDagU
A squirrel that can make a sailor blush. Perhaps I have been misjudging them. Only the best can do that.
No, that was Sister Bertha’s confession.
YES! Another Phineas and Ferb fan!
Can’t watch that :(
For those who can’t view the post above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OID7gA8fcaw
Used to have a pair of jeans like hers (recognize the symbol on her pockets)
I have a Lenovo laptop, so I know plenty about the stylus.
It is pressure sensitive (I can detect at least 5 levels) and overrides all other touch (that is, if the stylus is near or on the screen, your hand touching the screen won’t be detected). The screen itself is not pressure sensitive, only the pen.
Second, the pen has 3 buttons. The tip is one. On the side, there is a second button that can be pressed to make the tip act like a right click (it can be accidentally pressed, but that is easy enough to avoid, and it is not hard to position your hand to press it). Opposite the tip is a third button: an eraser. In most cases, it acts just like the tip (except it’s not pressure sensitive), but when using any drawing tool, it will act as the eraser, so you don’t have to click on “eraser” to change the tip–just flip the stylus over.
Last, the stylus is battery-powered, but you can’t take it apart. Nor does it have a notification for when the battery is low, but when it runs out it simply stops working. I haven’t used it enough to know how long that is, but I’m guessing the battery life is around 3 hours. Don’t worry, though. The battery charges by electromagnetic induction (or some other non-touch method). Whenever the stylus is in its slot on your tablet, it is charging, even if the laptop isn’t. It charges pretty fast, too, since about 5 minutes of charging is good for around half an hour, I think (it’s been a while since it ran out and I went right back to using it after charging a short bit).
That said, I’m not marketing for or against the tablet. I’m just a college student who bought one for engineering. (Also, if you need an image of the stylus, just search “lenovo stylus” on Google Images. Mine is the fourth image.)
Google results are personalised. Yours are likely to be different to other folks, as you clearly will have made related searches in the past. To me, the 1st and 5th look identical to the 4th, for example.
Be very wary if saying “odd, my search turned up a heck of a lot of hard core porn, for that term”. Because everyone else might reply “nope, none on my results”.
Sounds like an N-Trig pen, which is unfortunate but since that’s what the SP3 uses I suppose it’s not a deal killer. My concern with those is the 256 levels of pressure, vs wacom styluses which have usually 1024 or 2048 levels.
That 8-bit pressure thing might not be that bad if the sensitivity curve can be tweaked to your liking. Though I’m certainly no expert as the last time I actively used anything like that was back in 91 or 92, possibly 93… I spent a week working the floor at a computer expo, hawking a fantastic thing called the Momenta Pentop Computer.
In many ways it was a fantastic piece of engineering. One of the more interesting things was that the stylus had a copper tip that was designed to emulate the feeling of using a pencil on paper. It also meant that the tip would wear down with use and you would be forced to replace it now and then. As I remember it the wear from a day of demonstrating the Momenta was significant, and we changed them every evening if not more often.
Another thing that wasn’t optimal about the momenta was the program situation, as in nothing at all but the Momenta GUI (whatever it was called) or Windows for Pen-Computing (which was Windows 3 or 3.1 with some basic pen support added). Using a third party Windows based program was not an entirely positive experience… Not even close… Not even after a week of training and another week of demonstrating it did I feel it was a good solution. Surprisingly enough Momenta took a nosedive and less than a year later was declared bankrupt, having gobbled up 40 million dollar in three years.
Sorry for the senior moment there… Lets get back to the Surface Pro 3…
On the first page of comments CitizenGoon posted a link that you may have missed. It points to a post by Gabe (somewhat related to an obscure little site called Penny Arcade), who actually got to have some input on the future of input on the Surface Pro 3. (I like that sentence!)
Well it’s better you read all about it over at https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro-3-update
Very cool link, thanks. Personally I question if 8bit sensitivity is enough, but thanks to Gabe and MS the machine’s not totally worthless as an art tablet anymore!
Ummmm…which organs would Max have exploded? Because there aren’t too many that you can have explode that won’t kill you?
That said, judging from the picture, and Max’s comment, I would have guess that Max had used her shot to create a flashbang, not an actual explosion. If she can explode her shots at will, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have her firing shots that aren’t capable of producing more than a lot of light and sound. A flash shot would have blinded and disoriented Hex, but probably not done any serious damage to her. And anybody who is flying while blind and disoriented would almost certainly hit something. If they’re lucky, it’s a nice soft tree. If not…well, asphalt has ended many a flier’s life.
By contrast, if the shot HAD been intended as dangerous, it would have done damage to Hex. If you look at the first and second panels, that shield would not cover Hex’s head from the blast. Attenuated it, yes. But it would not have protected her head, as the propagation of the blast would have resulted in quite a bit of heat flowing around the shield, and impacting on Hex’s outer extremities. Her core would have been safe (mostly), but the rest of her….
Just for the record, if you plan on running explosions in the future, it might be a good idea to remember that air and water act a lot alike when moving around like that. If there is something blocking a sudden rush of air, the air will go around, but it will try to push back into the undisturbed area as quickly as possible.
Also, I love Max’s comment about Hex being “Budget Halo.”
On this subject…
If you look at the shield itself (which is oddly shaped – it should have been circular or HEXagonal), it’s blast cracked; NOT point-of-impact cracked!
It’s square because she’s using only 4 of her lights to generate it while 2 are still tied up keeping her aloft.
If Max shot the equivalent of a FlashBang grenade, then the only organs that could rupture really would be eardrums and some temporarily seared retinas.
It pushed her through a tree, unless she over-corrected in trying to fly away from it.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
She’s hovering in the air, unless her jets correct nearly instantly, even the slightest push can shove her off course, unless she adjusts the vector of her flight… things… to compensate. The fact that she was panicking and blinded means that she was unable to take control over the flight apparatus, and you get what you see here.
It wouldn’t take much in the way of force to knock a hovering target out of the air, particularly when you reorient the force counteracting gravity, giving you 9.81 Ms^2 in a whole new vector, now acting in conjunction with gravity rather than against it.
Max’s flashbang was nice!
DISCLAIMER:
Technically, nuclear weapons are oversized flashbangs, 95% of their energy released as sound waves and a bright flash. A really, really, really, really powerful sound wave and flash. Teller-Uram Products LTD is not responsible for product misuse that can lead to unusual side effects including but not limited to radiation fallout, conflagration, extreme winds, electromagnetic pulses, earthquakes, hemispherical landmass dislocations, tidal waves, stratospheric disruption, global dimming and 1000-foot lizards with bad breath. All liability burdens the end user.
Product not recommended for use by civilizations less than a million years old.
As to the tablet thing…I know most people miss this, but about 10% of the population are left-handed (although almost everybody writes with their right hand). For some unknown reason, a disproportionate number of these people tend to migrate towards professions such as artists, actors, and politicians, which demand a high degree of creativity and sensitivity. Why this should be, I do not know–I’m right handed, as is my brother, and nobody ever accused us of being less than massively creative. Disturbing, sometimes, but still creative.
One side of the brain is dedicated more to logical thought. The other to emotional. I imagine artists tend to draw on the emotional side more. Likewise the right hand is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. So I can see a distinct correlation between being a mutant leftie (or not) and the likelihood of being an artist.
The whole “left” and “right” brained thing has been debunked.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130814190513.htm
Mmm, sort of. I grant that what I said implied that folks can be left brained or right brained, which is what that article is debunking. But that was not quite what I was actually saying. As that article concedes the two halves of the brain do have different functionality. So language predominates in one side, but not the other.
My line of reasoning was purely speculative. But it may well hold up to scrutiny, despite that article. We can take it from that research that personality is not linked to the right or left halves. But art is not personality. It goes a lot deeper than just that. I think a dedicated study would need to research that aspect.
We know, for instance, that artists tend to have some unusual brain connections, akin to being on the autistic scale. Not directly due to the two halves of the brain, but how they and the other parts of the brain, are interconnected.
But, as regards the two hemispheres, we understand that brain damage to one half of the brain can completely disable some human capabilities, yet leave others unharmed. Have a look at this fascinating TED lecture, given by a neurosurgeon.
Who had the dubious advantage of living through half her brain ceasing to function. Harsh to live through it, but it gives a unique insight into the issue. And it can give us some hints to the artistic aspect.
The brain is remarkably flexible.
If you lose brain structures at a young enough age, the brain is almost always capable of adapting, and another part of the brain can take over the missing function.
Another fun fact about the brain that most people get wrong:
The brian will continue developing until you die. Alot of people, for some reason, think that that stops when you stop growing. But even storing new memorys involves laying new connections between braincells (and new braincells)
Yeah, but, see, here’s the thing: if that were the case, then you would see very few artists or authors who were right-handed, and very few musicians who were left-handed. But in truth, that’s not necessarily the case.
My own theory is that it has something to do with analysis–I’ve met lots of people who have the eye-hand and fine motor skills to be artists, but only a very, very, very few who can catch those little bits of wisdom that the rest of us miss. I think that’s why artists tend to have somewhat autistic tendencies–they need them, or else they simply integrate the tropes, patterns, and cliches in our lives too quickly to think about them. How many people think about the damage caused by super-hero combat, for instance? But it would be just as real, did superheroes exist, as anything else about them.
I once told a woman I was tutoring on writing that writing fiction is the supreme act of arrogance for the human race: we presume, as writers of fiction, that we have seen something that six or seven BILLION humans have not, and that we and we alone can communicate it to the rest of the world. The same must surely hold true for art, music, and dance–those who first create it are assuming a level of wisdom and intellect that is almost impossible to prove. The really good ones, who have noticed something about us that we have not, make it big…but you notice that there’s always a dedication (usually to a spouse) at the front of every novel, for all of those who put up with the author while they were writing it.
Don’t know about artists or dancers, but even the most original musicians ‘find’ their music in dreams (plenty of times have woken up with, in some cases, a full song that have not heard any where else, and believe Keith Richards has been quoted as saying the same thing happened to him at least once: woke up with a brand new song in his ears and had to quickly write down the notes/cords/whatevers)
Yep, dreams are a powerful source of inspiration. Once we fully understand dreams and dreaming, we will know humanity, life and the universe much better, than we do today.
Maybe, but are you sure we want to?
Well said.
Oh, look. Hiro lost his shirt again.
Macho martial arts 101.
I sort of like the idea that in this universe Cosmetic Uniform Battle Damage happens to the gentlemen, rather than the ladies.
Sexual discrimination! I demand redress. Err, undress. When we do not have a patron involved, obviously.
Depends on if they approve/agree: look at the last two panels, Hex is an in inch away from costume malfunction
What? Compared to Wonder Woman or Super Woman Hex’s basically in a Turtleneck and a wintercoat.
Super Woman? Who is that? You’ve got the most famous of the “cleavage window” girls in Power Girl, who has the dubious distinction of being the subject of an artists experiment in exactly what they could get past the censors, which caused her breasts to expand to outrageous levels of basketballness. Yes, basketballness is a word! It’s just as descriptive as saying “She has GGGs.”
See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GettingCrapPastTheRadar for examples. The TVTropes entry for Power Girl claims that her expanding boobs is an urban legend, but I doubt that claim. I collected Power Girl in the 80s and as a young man I was rather well aware of exactly how much the artists focused on her boobs, as well as putting her in just about any situation which could possibly justify her being in a spread eagle pose.
And then you have the distaff counterpart to Superman in Supergirl. Who has had a number of costumes ranging from the demure to the rather racy. Especially when you consider the effects of flight on a skirt, and particularly the landing.
I’ve never heard of a Super Woman.
“Power Girl” – new one on me.
Super Girl/Super Woman – never was much of a fan of Super Man (liked the movies mind), so a female twist on it did not really do anything for me. The one movie I saw with the female version was quite enjoyable, from what little I can remember of it. However, it never gripped me enough to want to see another.
Only been one Super Girl movie so far (in which she almost got extremely intimate with a mirror)
Wasn’t “Super Woman” the name Wonder Woman used in an alternate world? And Power Girl has always been ‘Super Cleavage’ (and, at one stage, an alternate worlds version of Super Girl, not sure if that still stands with the “New 52” crapshit over all past histories)
Lol… I’ve got to admit I’ve never read a comic about any of these, since I only read online comics. I just picked two heroines I had seen often enough on DeviantArt to remember thei lack of clothes.
I’m sure DaveB will address the situation.
Technically he’s still wearing the entire shirt
There’s just not much left of it
Almost worse than Captain Kirk.
@DaveB concerning your search of tablets, there’s a company which did a kickstarter on pressure sensitive stylus, which are compatible with windows / android / ipad tablets, (instead of just ipad like the wacom intuos creative stylus). – maybe that can help you :) (they’ll begin shipment of those stylus during july – so maybe you’ll be able to get some reviews on this one once people start to get it :))
https://hex3.co/products/yufu
Some “Super heroes,” you got there! Max shoots a explosive blast that could have horribly burned and caused organ bursting to poor Hex. You got the rest of them cheap shooting the others that might be blind. And a floozy tellaporter drugging everyone. And don’t even get me started on Sidney, that nut should be in a padded room!
In a fight there are no rules. If you go in thinking you’ll fight fairly, you’ve already lost.
And as a wise rat once said: The first rule of being a Ninja is to do no harm. Unless you mean to do harm. Then do lots of harm!
Isn’t what the rate said a rule?
Besides I refuse to take advice from vermin.
Yes, what Splinter said was a rule. Besides, it’s true. When you’re in a situation where you have to cause harm, cause a lot of harm and end it quickly. To do otherwise is folly since you’re opponent is going to do it to you.
But he also taught them to show mercy and compassion to the enemy as well.
True, but mercy and compassion is something for after the battle is over. Big difference between doing as much damage as possible in a fight to end it, and choosing not to kill a defenseless person after the fight is won.
Arc-SWAT is a police (and/or military, I’m a bit unclear on their exact status) organization. This means that there are indeed rules that they have to follow. Rules for engagement, rules for using deadly force, and rules for accepting surrender, to just name a few.
Their rule book is probably hundreds of pages long and the subject of repeated testing for the members of the team. Which is just one reason why Sydney, who isn’t even an official member of the team, was ordered to stay in her force field. If she is harmed in this fight (which has already happened), especially when Maxima could have ordered her to force field up and fly away to safety, there could be a substantial liability. Fortunately, I don’t see Sydney as being much of a complainer/litigator.
There are still rules in a fight. You never heard of the rules of war, the conduct becoming of a solder, the integrity of battle?
with how the villians refused to stay down against weaker non lethal attacks max probably thought its time to render unconsious rather then just knocked down.in battle one should use any opening they can get
Yes they are heroes. if they weren’t they would be literally killing their opponents, in just the same way that the villains are trying to kill them. Or did you forget about the guy who tried to gut Sydney with hi shadow knives or the muscle man that punched Anvil several times as hard as he could?
Did you want the heroes to hold hands with the villains and give them a time out?
Said muscle man’s attacks did absolutely nothing to Anvil. Same as Hex’s attack did virtually nothing to Max. Can’t hold it ageist them if no actual harm was done.
By that logic, someone walking into a school and opening fire at a bunch of kids with an assault rifle should be allowed to just walk away if he didn’t happen to hit anyone. “No actual harm was done”, after all.
The first guy trying to punch Anvil had full intent to kill or cripple her with those attacks. The guy who went after Sydney intended to murder her. Intent matters just as much as outcome.
That it should.
Unfortunately, if there isn’t a corpse to show, the defense can easily get the offender out of the worst accusations by simply seeding doubt about the offenders intends.
On the other hand if there is a corpse, if there was intend or not doesn’t really matter anymore and you are likely to get a serious sentence not matter what your defense does argue with.
The core of the problem is:
1. You seldom really surely know.
2. The label of “murderer” has a weight attached that gives a case an entire different scope while making purely logical facts based judgements very hard if not impossible.
Law, is but an “f” short of “flaw” after all – simply the currently know best way to go about it.
Intent is pretty much meaningless if you don’t actually deliver.
This is the superhero genre, and it sounds like you’re forgetting many conventional rules don’t apply in the genre. The only time serious injuries happen is when you’re doing dark superhero (which this is obviously Nt) or when its dramatically appropriate.
The blast seemed more of a concussive area shot, which is why Hex’s shield cracked instead of being penetrated at a single point. Since Max warned the others, the implication is that it was mostly a flash bang with a concussive punch to it. No flash fried Hex as a result. Also since she was in the air, the concussive blast would have done what’s commonly called knockback more than any direct damage.
Think about baseballs, the impact that can send them flying at 50+ mph has got to be immense, but because the ball doesn’t stay in that spot very long the damage it takes from the impact is rather minimal. The majority of the force from the hit is directly translated into momentum. That’s what happened to Hex, her body was pushed away from the impact. She of course thankfully had a relatively ‘soft’ landing.
They’re fighting guys who can take some heavy blows or are bloody hard to hit, which has already been demonstrated. So they’re taking advantage of the momentum to hopefully take them out fast. The faster the enemy goes down, the less injury he potentially ends up suffering from.
Harem is taking them out quickly and efficiently. Not poison, just some kind of knockout serum. Nothing wrong with that, so long as there aren’t side effects of course. Also, I would hardly call Harem a floozy. I haven’t seen any signs that directly implies she’s the type who goes for man after man. Now Dabbler on the other hand … yeah, she could be considered more of a floozy.
Sydney is the comic relief, so she has to be a bit of a loon compared to the rest. Locked up? Ha! Hardly.
I know people who make her seem sedate and calm who live in MY personal area. And they function in day to day society, perhaps in uncomfortable ways, but they function. The ones that get locked up are the ones that are a danger to themselves or others. If they’re way crazy, but mostly harmless, they get therapy and medication. There ARE folks here who understand EXACTLY what Sydney goes through because THEY go through it as well. Even if what she demonstrates is exaggerated to a degree, the problem IS a genuine one.
As to Harem, yes she does tease the guys but I don’t see any real indication that she’s man-crazy or anything that would put her into floozy category. She seems to like her beefcake just as much as the next girl does. If you recall the comic where she was mass stripping the guys, all the girls who saw it were drooling. Dabbler however is more active in teasing the guys, but that’s partially due to her nature. Had to add that about Harem not being a floozy.
I’d say Dabbler is more interested in teasing Maxima than any guy (although I won’t deny that she’ll pass on any opportunity that arises).
You sound suspiciously like a ……villian…..
Hmmmm……..
*rubs chin thoughtfully, with paw*
Mmm. Possibly. But here? Naa. Probably just got out of the wrong side of bed.
*Hides his black,demonically spiked battle armor and cloak*
Unlike Adamas I am glad to be recognized as a supervillain. We get 10% off coffee and donuts at the Legion of Doom snack bar and amazing deals from ACME. Just know how to read ancient Sumerian or you’ll get a Wile E Coyote situation each time. Many advantages to being a supervillain.
Why be one or the other when you can be neither/both?
If you are a villain sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki6-BmrWgmE&list=UUHCph-_jLba_9atyCZJPLQQ
You just made me destroy an entire planet!
YOU MONSTER!
You mean the “Rouge,” in my name didn’t give you a hint?
Very good Trollage
As a fellow nut, I take strong and serious objection to that comment. Being easy to distract is NOT the same thing as being clinically insane, and it should never be treated as such. Believe me–I’ve seen both, and there is a HUGE difference.
Whlindsa … that is exactly why I brought that point up. I know there are a number who post here that suffer from ADHD or other similar issues. I’m included in that list. We can function, even if that functioning is at times awkward or problematic, we can still function.
Its the ones that are deemed a danger to themselves or others that get locked up. The “harmless” ones (including me) get to avoid seeing the padded rooms.
How is Sidney not a danger to herself and others? She throws people around by there tongs, and flares her energy tenticale everywhere(Danger to others.). and nearly blinds herself with weapons grade spicy ramen(herself.)!
Another super villain retires, probably gonna become a politician after this.
Actually I see her more as an intern for some legal firm. But yeah … she doesn’t seem like she’s cut out for villainy.
Maybe its me, but so far I think of the villains who’ve received airtime, I’m liking her the best. Also, if anyone noticed it, her “orbs” are technological in nature. Right before she attacked Max, she made a comment to that effect. “Buster Buddies(tm) Reconfigure!” Which means if she made them herself … she’s gotta be rather smart. The fact she used the trademark reference implies there might be other versions of them, larger, small, different designs …
Good point, though the trademark thing could also just be a comic joke
Could be just a joke, it could also be the fact that Dave has plans for some of these villains to return in time. Either having been instructed(via beatings) about how much “safer” the good side is(especially to the wallet) or because they realized(in Hex’s case) that this was just a Stupid Idea(tm) and trying to do this again will result in more problems than its worth.
We’ll find out in time I guess.
Now now, This bomb could have been more CONCUSSIVE force than straight up explosion. It was bright, loud, disorienting, sounds like a home made flash bang to me. She was just too close and got knocked sideways from the force of being so near a GIANT flashbang.
Instead of saying that Maxima had foreknowledge of Hex’s shield, just say that Maxima has experience fighting with supers. She expects them to have defenses, and her attacks are based on that expectation.
or Budget Halo used her sparkles to make a shield as Max was aiming at her, and so Max compensated for that before she shot.
I like that, she did have time to react to Max pointing at her in the last comic.
The SP3 has an option to turn off the home button buried in the menus. Penny Arcade did a review of it.
I have a surface pro 2…and I’m not an artist (I use the stylus for OneNote and PDF markup), but I don’t see how the “home button” (by which I assume you mean the start button on the bezel?) would be any more/less a concern for a righty or lefty.
The whole tablet can be rotated in any orientation you like. So just put the button on the side where your drawing hand is not.
Or…as TRMoles said…turn it off.
Don’t know what problems there are with patches, but M$ will get them fixed…eventually… ;-) (I love my SP2, but seriously don’t hold your breath for fixes. They come, but not always as quickly as hoped.)
Way more mobile than a Clintiq or Wacom and now comes in multiple CPU flavors too.
I’m gonna assume it counts as a “kill” if you get the other guy to up and quit. Go Maxima! Do NOT let Halo beat you in the charts, or she will NEVER EVER let you hear the end of it.
EVER.
Disabling an enemy counts as a kill in the ranks yes
Where’s “really big standing there in orange boxers man”? It’s been a while since his epic appearance. I miss him.
Do you mean the big guy that Anvil hit second, after Nose Boob man? I think he is at the end of a trench he dug in the parking lot when he hit the ground. As he regains consciousness, he gets a very stiff clothesline by the Lighthook™, then picked up and dropped off in the line of the other “under arrest” bad guys, wondering why attacking this group seemed like such a good idea at first.
Actually, I kinda pity Hex quite a bit.
With a similar power to Syd, and the fact that Syd got revealed on TV with her powers will make Hex a Budget-Halo / Halo-Copy forever, even if she might have been first to get her powers.
It’s called the Power of Marketing.
And now even getting insulted by Max; that tops it.
I’m kinda feeling sorry for her too…she even went through the trouble of registering with the trademark office…and she’ll still get called a copycat.
A pity indead.
1. She doesn’t make much of a difference to begin with.
2. She kept hovering there whilst being essentially ignored.
3. Was labelled “Budget Halo”.
4. Halo is a trainee on her first day, yet outshone Hex by far, lowering her even further.
5. She was sent flying with a flash-bang dspite having deployed a feeble shield for herself.
6. It look like she is going to be defeated by a skirrel.
The image of simply not cutting it is certain to stick.
I have a feeling Budget Halo is going to become a meme. Whether she likes it or not.
+1
Here’s to wishing for a long-term presence by budget halo, by that name. :)
I wonder if Dave planned on calling her that, or if it’s something he picked up after reading previous comments.
That definitely came from the comments.
well i’m never calling budget Halo Hex she’s not cool enough or creepy enough for that name
Panel 7…. Who’s idea was this anyway? Do the attackers even know why they are there? Hum…
This is a huge bit of foreshadowing!
Bite from a squirrel mutated by all the super power energies around here, Hex? You could use a new power. (-;
Also, whose idea was it? Can we get a flashback someday about it? (-;
Only if we actually meet the One In Command, and they brag about how they got all these mooks to do a mass suicide (wait, is Jim Jones still alive? or that David Cornass guy from Waco?)
I think you meant David Koresh?
Somebody convinced these people to drink the Joker Juice®, which apparently is starting to wear off. It makes people extremely susceptible to crazy suggestions that they would not normally consider. Things like attacking a large group of superhuman police while they are sitting down for dinner.
My brother uses the $2000 Wacom version of the Surface Pro 3 (not sure the model #) and has nothing but good things to say about it.
That’s the ideal choice but the price is pretty ridiculous.
Now I’m curious about all the different configurations of Hex’s sparkles. Looks like hovering uses at least two (for balance), while propulsion and speed requires more (four or six, depending on required force). lasers can take two, four, or six while sheilds seem to need a minimum of four. Or can they be asymmetrical? Like two for hover, three for shield, and one for laser? That would one-up Halo that can only do two things at a time.
Well, I thought that would be “flash bomb” shot, with a little shock wave, but still not that big on damage. If she hadn’t had the shield she would be KO. and probably be throuwn with a little more strenght, but Max could catch her if she wanted. The shield actully took more damage since it was making a static resistance then if she had just been thrown by the shock wave. So didn’t end badly in the end.
As of this moment I’m more interested in the fights Hiro’s been in, he seems to be your basic super man but he still looks pretty messed up.
He is strong, but not invulnerabubble
The ones he fought are sleeping on the lawn. Unable to appreciate Nurse Harem’s kicky(stet) boots and short skirt.
The melee guys will usually take more hits than the ranged people.
I have a cintiq (old one) at work for photography work and design purposes and it’s true they are expensive (3000€) but I have it since 2008, and i never had any problem with it. I looked into the surface and the new cintiq since I’ll have to get a second one and the cintiq seems far better to me. And it can handle lefty and righty without problems.
Oh my atheist god! Who cares if the person attempting to murder you gets burned or shot? If someone tries to kill you you kill them right back!
Dying was not on the cards. It was more like a tickle. Maxima had shown to the world that nothing short of a nuke is going to even give her a nose bleed. Plus she has been fending off non-stop fireball and lightning attacks from dozens of villains, for the duration of the battle so far.
Ok, Hex may be a dark villain, and have been trying in all earnest to get the kill. But neither we, nor Maxima, can prove anything more than an attempt to cause a distraction. Which does not, of itself, carry the death penalty.
I know, it is a bit frustrating, when used to a kill or be killed film making industry. But Dave is trying to emulate cops in the real world. Just with super powers added. Which brings in an extra level of complexity.
But it does actually make things more interesting. There will be situations where Maxima would love to frazzle somebody to a crisp, but she will just have to suck it up and behave professionally.
Just as well for the people of the ARCverse that she considers herself a public servant.
“Trying to emulate cops in the real world.” If you shoot at a cop, then yes, it’s expected that they would shoot back. If someone goes to a mall and starts shooting at civilians, I would hope that the authorities would shoot him. I would especially hope so if I were one of the civilians they were shooting at.
And you need not tell me about “police brutality.” I work in mental health, and I know how trigger happy cops can be (which is part of the reason why tasers are being phased out in Oregon). I understand about least restrictive to most restrictive.
But here are the facts: Hex assaulted Maxima with a deadly weapon. Maxima responded with like force. If Hex is injured or is killed as a result, then that’s a natural consequence of her actions. It has the added benefit of making sure she doesn’t attack someone else.
It’s funny you should bring up film industry stuff. I see more often in comics, movies, and such, an attitude of “killing is wrong no matter the circumstance.” As I mentioned above, if a cop has to pull a gun in the line of duty to protect himself, his fellow officers, or the public, then I hope he will!
Cops are required to justify the force they use, by judging the danger posed. No civilians are in sight or under attack, so that argument is irrelevant. Maxima was hit by a sustained attack which did precisely zero damage. Nor is there any indication that anything Hex can do is capable of harming her. Therefore she was not using a deadly weapon. So using lethal force in response would be inappropriate.
The appropriate analogy, to a real life situation, would not be a gunman firing at a police officer, it would be somebody shining a flash-light at them. Because that is the level of risk posed to Maxima. If you feel that police in your area would shoot to kill because of someone shining a light on them, I will be sure to avoid vacationing there.
As regards to when police officers are under genuinely deadly attack, then yes, clearly they have the right to defend themselves. Likewise, if in this situation, Hex had been targeting civilians with her power, then Maxima would have been fully justified in using force.
However if she has two options, one being non-lethal and the other lethal, but which are equally likely to succeed, then she would be obliged to choose the non-lethal one. Only if the non-lethal option is not as effective as the lethal, and posed a significantly greater risk of failing to halt the attack, would it be appropriate to go for the kill.
Meh, I have to disagree. Hex didn’t shoot at Maxima with her “reconfigured Buster Buddies” because she knew that there was no chance it would hurt her. She shot at Maxima hoping to harm her or kill her. She deserves no leniency based on a misconceived notion of the lethality of her attack, any more than a criminal in a shoot-out with police in Kevlar deserve any leniency from return fire just because they are firing .25 pistols, the rounds from which have been known to bounce off of the forehead of a surgeon who was able to complete his surgery after the idiot with the gun was subdued.
Thank you, Oberon. You summed up my thoughts quite succinctly.
We saw Hex’s buster buddies burning through the asphalt in a previous page. Just because she failed to hurt Maxima doesn’t mean she didn’t attempt to. And just because she stopped attacking Maxima doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have attempted to harm someone else. Maxima literally met force with like force, and it worked just fine.
It’s ironic I’m defending Maxima’s actions here, where as before I was criticizing her scare tactics. I’d prefer to relate to the philosophy and words of President Theodore Roosevelt: “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”
While Maxima fails at speaking softly (her show of force at the press conference was completely out of line), she knows how to wield her big stick. Hex’s injuries appear to be mostly superficial, assuming the squirrel doesn’t cause further injury.
And Oregon is a fine place to visit. The cops are a bit trigger-happy, especially in Portland, but as far as I know nobody has been shot for shining a flashlight at an officer (though I’ll admit I haven’t looked it up). There have been a few cases where excessive force was used. One such one, which my coworkers and I scoffed at, was of a man who was cutting and stabbing himself in a park. The officer that responded shot the man dead.
The reason that I and my coworkers criticized this case is because we’re all too familiar with self-injurious behavior, and we know how to deal with it. Good news is that our agency will be opening lines of communication with the police, and there’s currently some reform going on to address said issues.
But hey, if you’re ever in the Willamette Valley, stop by the capital. I’ll buy you a drink ;-).
Be happy to, if I ever do. Although I’ll leave my flash-light at home, just in case.
I think we would need to agree to disagree at that point. Do be aware however, that you are advocating granting law-enforcement officers the right to carry out on-the-spot executions, based on their own judgement. Because that is what it would amount to.
My argument supported the right to self-defence, and the defence of others. You are granting police the ability to carry out capital punishment, based on the criminals intent, rather than their known level of threat. Especially worrying when advocating it for people who pose zero threat.
I will create a straw man example, and leave it for you to demolish, if you choose. But will not pursue it further, as there would be diminishing returns for any counter-argument, on my behalf. Police, deciding to exploit your newly-granted rights, plan a series of sting operations.
They set up criminals in a situation where they have a fake weapon to hand (or the criminal’s own, which police ensure that an accomplice has rendered harmless), and then conduct a deliberately provocative raid.
In each case waiting until the criminal demonstrates clear intent to use the weapon, they then shoot him. If the criminal is not killed immediately, then they just cut his throat, or otherwise finish him off. Even if he throws down the weapon, and begs for his life, or flees.
There could be no repercussions, for the operation. The cops used their right to execute a criminal, based on that individual’s intent to kill. To ensure that the message, that they have the right to execute, is carried to the rest of the populace, they might allow the individual to flee into public areas, before conducting the execution. This would pose no threat to the citizens, as the criminal would be unarmed.
So again, no charges, for endangering the public could be filed. And the event could be captured on live TV, to ensure that the public know that the policy, they enacted, is being properly enforced.
No, Yorp, I never “agree to disagree” unless the person I’m debating with has actually made a reasonable argument. And you have not.
I’m not talking about capitol punishment. I’m talking about serving and protecting. Hex attacked Maxima, Maxima shot back. That’s what happened in the comic, and she was completely justified in her actions.
If someone shoots at a cop, then I’d hope the police would shoot back. That’s just common sense.
An execution would be if they subdued said the aggressive perpetrator, and after they had him handcuffed, then shot him in the back of the head. That’s what an execution would be.
Neither me nor Oberon are empowering or endorsing police to perform executions. That’s not at all what we’re suggesting. But what we are trying to communicate here is that lethal force is a necessary force that, if needed, should be employed by an officer of the law either for self-preservation, protection of a fellow officer, or protection of the public.
Your straw man doesn’t apply here at all, because you’ve changed too many variables. Hex wasn’t given fake weapons, but she did use deadly force against Maxima. Just because she failed to hurt Maxima doesn’t mean she didn’t attempt to. Just because she fled doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have attacked someone else.
Coincidentally, the straw man you used did happen in Oregon. The FBI caught a terrorist by setting him up with a van full of explosives. The van, including all the explosives in it, were real. There was enough payload in there to murder hundreds of innocent civilians. The van was parked in… I think it was Pioneer Square. The suspected terrorist was given a phone, and told that if he dialed a specific number, the bombs would go off.
He dialed that number, twice. He was immediately arrested.
A completely different case than the shooting that occurred at the Clackamas Town Center mall. It was during the Christmas season last year, and I was literally there a day before the shooting, and it shook me hard. If I had been there, then I would hope that if I were under fire, that someone, anyone, would shoot the gunman. Protecting the innocent takes precedent over making an arrest.
And yes, if I had been there, and if I had a weapon myself, then you better believe I’d draw and fire in self-defense.
I think you guys are missing something very essential:
What Hex wanted to achieve using her orbs only matters to the court which has to decide a sentence for her.
In this situation, all that matters is to contain Hex, using deadly force only when required to prevent serious harm and not just because she doesn’t deserve mercy.
This is one of the main distinction between heroes and vigilantes, is it not ?
You’re right, Blue Thunder. (May I call you that?) All that matters is containing Hex, and Maxima did just that. She contained her. Maxima didn’t need to contact the court and ask permission to use her pew-pew finger, because that would be dumb.
I’m not missing anything at all.
Hex fired at Maxima. She was attacking her. Maxima didn’t need a court to tell her that she was attacked. Maxima responded with like force. Hex was contained as a result.
And the difference between vigilantism and justice is this: authority. Police are granted authorities that regular civilians do not have. All I’ll comment on is that this is something I’m very familiar with.
That alias of mine is almost ancient, and I usually only go by Blue, but it stuck and you are very welcome to call me thus. :-)
I am sorry my comment from before irked you. I simply wanted to express that being allowed to use deadly force, having witnessed murderous intend and actions not deserving mercy, and actually sentencing somebody to death if normally avoidable, are three different things that must not get mixed unless you want all kinds of law violations, self-justice and the resulting blood-fests.
As for the authority: Maxime and her team clearly have it.
As for the being familiar with the distinction: I hope, and not just for your sake, that it sounds way more serious than it is.
+1
The mixing up of different issues is precisely why the previous discussion was going nowhere. Unless willing to examine the component parts of the situation separately it is impossible to establish a moral principle.
Once you have agreed the basic principles of “is X justifiable in an uncomplicated perfect example?” and the same with Y and Z, in their own circumstances, then you can turn to addressing the more complex real-world issues where the various elements overlap.
But if mixing them all up and using arguments that are only valid in one context, to support an unrelated moral issue, then it becomes pointless. Rather like science, unless you can isolate the key thing you wish to examine, you cannot control the variables, in order to find the truth.
Minimum effective response. Prisoners are high value items in a situation like this. Also why kill? Max is a professional. This bunch has not yet shown itself as a credible threat. Popgun plasma beams, no tactics, muscle instead of brains. Sheer numbers is all that’s keeping them in the fight.
You show me someone bringing back the dead, turning citizens into bombs, or spontaneously changing blood into tapioca pudding and I’ll show you a threat Maxima is treating with lethal force.
Why yes, Hex, tell us, whose idea was it to attack a team of elite supers?
I will give you some clues.
A magical sword attempted to kill him earlier, drawn by it’s arcane power, to attack the greatest threat.
We just saw him moving fast, to stop his minion from saying too much.
Hex was terrified, to find her overlord sinking his claws into her flesh.
Um, yeah. Have you been sampling stuff from Harem’s med kit again?
Yorp, I love you so much.
Aww, thanks. *blushes*
Yorp, your riddles don’t make sense.
Oh, wait, do you mean the squirrel!? I KNEW IT!
Where did he move fast though?
When it landed on her in the last panel
If there is someone behind the attack and said person isn’t a complete idiot, she wouldn’t know.
Someone must have somehow got her onboard with this plan. She should know something about how it all happened.
And this is why the truly intelligent evil mastermind always uses a few layers of disposable minions. That way when Hex and friends inevitably get captured, all they have to reveal to the authorities is the description of someone who was a one-time throwaway, similar to a holding company which disguises the activities of the companies they own.
you know you could explain it that since Budget Halo (she’s not cool enough to be called Hex) has suckier versions of Halo’s powers Max assumed she had a shield and hit her with the equivalent force of her punch figuring she could take it
or not i mean Max was a soldier killing in combat not exactly somthing she’d lose sleep over
Except, Maxi is no longer an active soldier, she is a police officer
Archon is part of the militairy
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/962
She’s a soldier cop
I believe the proper term is military police officer but same difference.
The terminology is blurred, because different countries apply them in different ways. But generally speaking “military police officers” role is to police military personnel. The term most commonly used for forces which police civilian populations is “gendarme”.
Vocabulary +1
Thanks for that link! I had brought up the Posse Comitatus issue previously, but I didn’t recall that it had been covered already “in universe.” I might have to do some reading to ensure myself that the assertion that it doesn’t apply to a new military organization just because it isn’t specifically included by name actually holds water. That appears to be just too easy of an “out” for a government who may want to use the military against its own citizenry, which is the exact reason Posse Comitatus exists in the first place.
It is our assumption that various laws would have had to have been passed to form a new branch of the military, finance it, etc. And that could have included constitutional amendments, if necessary.
So if the comatose opossum would, in it’s present state, in the real world, preclude it then, in the ARCverse, it has been modified to make Archon a specific exclusion to the principle.
When a concussion bomb goes off in your face, you ‘re prolly rendered deaf as a post; possibly permanently. Those lil’ hairs in your ears don’t like to be messed with.
Squirrels are bad news. Not only do they scratch, they also bite. One lunch hour, a bud of mine was feeding them peanuts from his hand and one accidentally laid his finger open to the bone with its teeth. Those choppers are designed to crack nuts, guys, so never let one get in your pants.
In general, supers have an entirely unexplained and unexamined power to detect defenses and not hit people who can’t take a hit. You don’t generally see Superman going *poke* not hurt *poke harder* still not hurt *jab* still not hurt *okay, punch* still not hurt *haymaker time*.
That’s because most writers are lazy and DaveB is not lazy (he realized straight away that Maxi was using knowledge she should not have been privy to, and was at least making an attempt to explain it)
SQUIRREL!
Shh! Don’t tell Yorp!
I’d have gone with “shock and ow”, myself.
Hex might regret objecting to being called “Budget Halo” as her new unofficial moniker will likely be “Wanna-Be Squirrel Girl”.
Oddly, in spite of the “six floating things” setup, her powerset marks Hex more as “bargain bin Maxima.” A variable amount of power to be spent between propulsion, offense, and shielding sounds VERY familiar.
Her powers are akin to a stripped down version of Halo’s suite with a power pool system similar to a budget version of Max’s. Add to that various cosmetic details like glasses, a ponytail, and biggish forelocks… and budget Halo.
@DaveB
I don’t think that Maxima’s behavior is really a problem here, as there are three different ways to explain it:
1.)Budget Halo was using her shield off-camera earlier, and Maxima noticed.
2.)The “Pwee Bomb” is the superpower equivalent of a flash-bang grenade; it makes lots of light and noise, but no heat and (relatively) little concussion. It’ll mess you up good, but it isn’t likely to kill you, especially if you have super powers and can dodge/block it.
3.)There’s a time gap of a few seconds between the first and second panels. Maxima was aiming for a near-miss and expecting Budget Halo to dodge, but she chose to block instead. Because, ya know, shield. And quite possibly also because she felt the need to prove her super chops after getting written off so casually.
1) Very possibly
2) Makes senses except for the fact it cracks the shield.
3) This is the most likely scenario either on it own or in combination with number 1.
Just read Dave’s comments. It’s gotta be three.
1) Possible, but not good writing.
You don’t typically see a character introduce a new capability “off panel” and then have that new power reacted to by people “on panel.”
Yeah… No.
DaveBis doing twice-weekly scripts, plus all the work to turn the stories into a finished product. There are bound to be slip-ups at times. In such instances, we need to allow him the flexibility to patch it up in whatever way is best for the long-term story. In this case, I don’t see that is a problem anyhow.
There are various options, and each is reasonable, in one way or another. So it is probably just best to skip over the issue. I see no long-term ramifications, from taking that route. And, in that way, each reader can decide, in their own mind’s eye, what actually happened.
The important thing is that DaveBhas indicated that it was not Maxima’s intent to kill Hex. Plus we should always remember that there are things going on, in the story, that he is aware of, which could impact actions and appearances. In ways that might be giving clues to the characters, but which he does not want to show to us, until the time comes for a suitable reveal.
Not that I would advocate deliberately concealing major things, that the protagonists would be aware of. That is something that bugs me from the murder-mystery genre. But minor stuff, which gives them subconscious clues, is not unreasonable.
In short, it is probably best to leave DaveB the flexibility to handle this how he wants, rather than forcing his hand too much.
I agree with Yorp on this. Off-panel introduction of new facts is not a big deal when the facts in question do not impact the plot in any long-term way.
+1
I wonder if any of these “villains” will realize the error of their ways after a good ass-whooping and decide to change teams? Would Archon even be willing to recruit from a group who attacked them? (And after any necessary jail time?) … And I suppose of they were willing to switch teams afterwards, what exactly was their motivation to attack in the first place anyway? Maybe a super villain who has the power of “strong suggestion” if not straight up mind control? Or has that already been debunked as “not possible in the Halo-verse”?
Mind control is still on the table. Given Dabbler’s basic succubus attraction,other forms are very probable.
Mind control is actually even more possible after this page – Hex’s last comment there (okay, second last, before AAAAHHH!) was about not knowing what she was even there for. Maybe a lot of the villains there don’t either?
That’s my current WAG. Subject to change and swearing myself blind I never wrote that.
IMHO, there are just too many actions throughout the fight that are indicative of people not under the influence of direct mind control to make it a viable option. Suggestion, maybe; outright mind control, though… I just don’t see it.
Agreed. I took it as a why did we ever think this was a good idea moment, that at least incidentally made her ask a very relevant question.
Yes, probably someone who can seed ideas or something, inception like (not per se excecution, but the result)
And than one day you wake up and facepalm yourself, wondering where you even got that stupid idea (like after you smash into a tree filled with squirrels
They were all under the Imperius Curse! (TM). Look out for any suspicious persons wearing capes and waving little pointy sticks.
Have you been peeking at my wardrobe? I thought I had closed that closet door.
If I was Hex, I’d straight up go join Archon right this instant.
1) By the reactions of Hiro and Mr. Amorphous, I’m guessing they’ve had some training and/or experience with flash bang situations, possibly even with Maxima providing the boom.
2) Looks like Hex has gained a bit of wisdom in the past few minutes, but it might have been even smarter of her to ask those questions before agreeing to the mission. Although after her reaction to Maxima’s comment, I was half expecting Hex to attack Halo to prove she’s not a knockoff.
1a) or, they at least listened to the instructions from their leader: “watch out for the flash” – means get ready/finish what you are doing, “Cover NOW!” – means just what it said
2a) that is still a possability: “Damn rodent! Now, where is this ‘Halo’ chick? I’ll show her ‘budget’!”
She gets focused on Halo, someone else is gonna smack her silly(ier). Since Halo is now officially on aggro duty, everyone will be watching around Halo for mooks trying to kill her. And putting their distracted butts in traction.
And/or Halo has a chance to play Super Monkey Ball.
If Hex gets close. Right now I think Halo is hesitant to use even the Lighthook at any more than minimum grab and hold or that smack she gave LeePOC. She knows how much damage she might do and is taking Max’s advice to stay on defense until Archon can start training her.
I think Operation Draw Aggro will be a bit more proactive than just hiding behind her shield.
Charging around yelling “Leroy Jenkins”? Putting a shoulder into someone while flying. Using the Lighthook to trip, entangle or otherwise mess up someone’s big entry. Plus being Sydney, doing things that will make us simultaneously laugh and flinch in sympathy for her victim.