Grrl Power #494 – Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty… well, she’s short anyway
Krona’s in that weird category where she has quite a bit of power, but it has to be applied. It’s not raw power like Maxima, and for Krona to do anything more than hit snooze on a bladder, she has learn its properties and how to edit them. This implies, at least for her, that the universe operates on more of an object oriented model. It’s far easier to edit an existing property than it is to create things from whole cloth. Making more of something extant falls somewhere in between.
And Pixel sort of raises more questions about the nature of supers than she answers, but at least it explains why she’s pushing seven feet and the extra real estate. Tracts of land wise. Yeah, I think about stuff like that. I didn’t just draw her with big boobs for no reason. There was a reason.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :) Seriously. I dare you.
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Huh didn’t see that coming but it makes total sense.
It does explain rather neatly why she’s the only female lycanthrope who’s bust got larger not only in general, but relative to her human form proportions. It’s the superpowers-make-you-closer-to-being-conventionally-attractive effect being applied to the form where she’s both humanoid and has powers.
…Hopefully it only applies to her hybrid form.
I have to agree with Sydney on the power ranking….
Super glassy glass cannon though.
Grrlpower can smash that glass ceiling.
You can be as squishy as you like when you can change the very fabric of the reality around you.
Krona: “Predictive glasses says someone is going to try to hurt me. BIP. BIP. BIP. Funny, now they are trying to hurt themselves instead. Oh, look, they succeeded. Cleanup on aisle four!”
===
So, did she use her reality warping powers to create her predictive goggles? If she can create what are essentially magical artifacts (except not ‘powered’ by magic and so immune to things like the manikin trap) then that’s just another layer of power on top of an already potent power set.
…and for another thing, these 3 by themselves, are a huge power house.
Krona inside Halo shield with the ability of refreshing air supply his basically a humongous powerful team, and you add on the outside a super regenerating were able to cut thru (perhaps) everything…
Talk about big punches in small packages!!!!
The lolipop guild is full of surprises.
Beware the exploding Tootsie Pops. And Shwartz Ring Pops.
Always expect Ninja Pops.
Pop!
Don’t forget Snap and Crackle!!
Augh! That was my tooth! I just found Charlie Browns Rock!
You’re very early for Trick or Treating this year…
It might have been an old peanut butter taffy. What year is this Halloween candy from? 2008! O.o
If there’s an ambush waiting, they look well prepared. Especially since Sydney is the master of confusion….
BADGERS!
Krona using her reality hacking powers to upgrade & update anything Technology suggests that one of her most useful activities would be hanging out in Dabbler’s lab (with Dabbler) for a dozen or two hours every week. Nearly anything that Dabbler has already invented, or any ideas she has for new inventions, can be upgraded &/or otherwise realized by bypassing inconvenient Realities.
Anything that Dabbler can explain to Krona, Krona can hack. Anything that is beyond Krona’s understanding/intellectual capacity, she can hack herself a few more IQ points until she can understand it. If she can bootstrap herself the equivalent of 5 IQ points per week, at the end of a single year she would have an IQ equivalent of over 300, at the least. Even 2 points per week and she would be well over 200, assuming a base IQ of 100+.
And why stop with hacking her own IQ upward? She can gradually bump up the IQ of Dabbler, every team member, of all humanity, cleanse disease at the gene pool level.
Cold fusion. Warp drive. Advanced superconductors. Antimatter reactors. Nanotechnology. Quantum computers. True artificial intelligence. Etc., etc. All within reach.
Even at the “trivial” levels, zero-emission engines, 99% efficient solar panels, monomolecular filaments … just dizzying lists without end.
Personally I would love to boost my intelligence. But see the problems and perils I mention below.
the problem is that if you use Krona to hack reality to make a gadget, you are them dependant on her to produce more of said gadget. I doubt she would be willing to hack things the exact same way every time.
Then you get into the Superhero problem. Most heroes could probably do more overall good if they used their powers for something other than fighting supervillains. but a) is it really fair on the super? and b) who would then be fighting the villians that hero is the only one who can fight?
The point wasn’t Krona becoming a production factory of gadgets.
She can hack shortcuts for research. The final products can be made to work …. then reverse-engineered. That’s why the barrel of exposition I posted on Dabbler, Dabbler’s lab and hacking extra IQ points into herself & others.
@Yorp — we all change every day. Today we are no longer the same person we were yesterday. Hacking a shortcut in increments every few days still bootstraps you into becoming more of who you are supposed to become after today. It’s merely a matter of degree and speed of progress … Krona could boost her own IQ, and Dabbler’s etc., unquestionably. The example I used above is just one time frame. Be it a month or ten years, IQ could be boosted by 20 points or 100 … the end result is still a super-genius IQ of 180, 200 or 250+. And that doesn’t make a person not themself, just a higher degree of potential for who they already are.
No different than reality hacking yourself or someone else to not need to pee, or no longer have a genetic defect that makes you vulnerable to cancer. Or go all matrix on it and hack yourself a helicopter pilot’s license (and the skills to hold it) or martial arts training, etc.
It. Is. ALL. Reality. Hacking.
The limitation which Dave has indicated Krona has is being unable to modify things that she does not understand.. Just like her display showed her the grenades with ‘armed’/’disarmed’ we can envisage that people will have a range of memory options from very poor to very good.
The only trouble is that you make a trade off, at the upper extremes. It requires repurposing extra parts of the brain, and specialising them to the particular things that are being memorised. A well studied example of this is the London Taxi Cab driver. Due to the years of study required, for ‘the Test’, the memory parts of their brain are much better developed than in average people.
More to the point you can actually see the physical changes that get made, when you do brain scans. Trouble is that it is specialised in remembering the layout of London. So although they have one of the best example of memory, it is not just changing the flag to ‘very good memory’. It is changing it to ‘very good at remembering [insert speciality subject of choice].
Of course there are techniques for remembering general things well. But even if Krona manages to do that, she is dedicating a lot of brain matter to remembering stuff. Which cannot also be used for the other things you are expecting her to do.
And as for ‘figuring out things better’ again her settings will, at best, show what area of competance each person might have. For instance most geniuses are only really good at one thing (it was actually what the word originally meant), as opposed to being incredibly good at everything, as we might suppose.
For instance Mozart was notable, even amongst geniuses, in that he was a savant at both music and mathematics. But that is cheating as it is the same part of the brain used for both. So his was particularly well developed for the various things necessary to create great music. Others are good artists, or good scientists.
So Krona would not be able to look at a setting with ‘IQ number’. It will indicate what potential an individual ha, for cognative reasoning, and whether it is specialised or not. Which, like mathematics, is hardwired in. Whilst you could (with Krona’s abilities) copy the brains of geniuses in various areas (e.g. art, mathematics, engineering, music, scientific research), she wil; find that some of those may not be compatible with the others.
One part of the brain may be used in two different ways. So which does Krona want to choose, she cannot have It both ways. Just like some athletes bodies are optimised for sprinting, others for jumping and different ones for weight lifting, there is no one optimal body type that is better than everybody else in every athletic field. Likewise with brains.
Mind you there was one bloke who’s brain was optimised for all of the things I listed above. But he is dead, so she cannot check his settings. Not unless she finds a way of examining the past.
However you did miss the most important point, if Krona did manage to find and copy Leonardo Da Vinci’s brain, and alter hers to match, then she would cease to be Krona, she would be Leonardo Da Vinci.
Are you sure that she wants to cease to exist?
We’re honestly not sure how much she can alter free will. Her ability to alter reality seems to be based on the difficulty of the variables involved. I’d assume altering free will would be sort of like making calculations with Graham’s number…. using an abacus.
A calculated point. Add half a point with point five of a point and you get a nice round point.
A light scratch from those claws could be really hair-raising…
A laser cut would be cauterizing. I don’t think it would stimulate hair growth. To the contrary.
Depends on the power level of the laser. If high enough, like weapon grade, it would flash heat the water in your body and make a rather messy steam explosion.
On the other hand, it could be hair-RAZING! lol
(Yes, I know how pathetic it is to laugh at my own joke. Don’t you judge me!)
“Raps gavel” Guilty as charged
and thus, the electric chair was born of a bad pun…
…which is also technically a hair-raising experience. But it would take Mad Science to make it hare-raising!
It would need Mad Science…Katrina can do that.
But what about the unintended side-effects?
*examines memory*
Did I see a cute goggle-wearing girl, hanging around, just before that hurricane hit?
Are you volunteering your waggy tail for this one? ”Hey, PIXEL, we have a VOLUNTEER!”
I am not so bold as to risk becoming bald.
But likely, you’d be a golden brown…
Damn, I didn’t know Bernie Sanders was a Were-chihuahua!
I noticed that Sydney did NOT try to smack Pixels claws back at herself like she did at the restaurant. Lucky for the group she still has SOME self restraint left. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1331
Pixel didn’t make any paradoxical claims implying that her claws both can and can’t cut through her skin.
Nor is she trying to kill people, more to the point.
Err, no pun intended.
The paradoxical claim made was that the guy had two powers: A skin nothing could pierce, and claws that could cut anything. Turns out the claws trumped the skin.
You don’t exploit weaknesses of your allies outside of training/horseplay. Sydney might be attention-challenged, but she’s not dumb enough to be a teamkiller with hostiles nearby.
Even so, being “a lightsaber in a world of butter” got me to remembering Superman’s “world of cardboard” speech. After all, I think that’s a reference DaveB made on purpose.
…Didn’t you?…
;)
Or the “man of steel, woman of Kleenex” essay…
One of my favorites…
“… and lastly, blow the top of her head off.”
Loved that essay.
A deadly attack against Pixel would be an itching cantrip.
So Kronachrome was responsible for Kat’s flea-bath? o_O
ITYM ‘hair-RAZING’…
Laser claws still aren’t going to help a lot with stealthily checking out something. But very cool.
I get the feeling she,s planning on slicing into the door to let them in. Not completely stealthy but probably akin to using a glass cutter on a window.
Stealthier than using C-4 to take the door off its hinges…
Insert MythBusters quote here
‘I ignore your reality and substitute my own’, seems to be appropriate here, somehow.
I was thinking more “When in doubt, C4”
Failure is always an option.
But preferably when not pawling C4.
Door BUSTED. Pixel was busted too a few pages back.
Depends on how much noise they make when they cut through stuff. If they are not to loud then they could be very useful at opening locks and making peepholes. (silently dispatching guards when on loan to ARCdark)
Would they then go SNICKT?
They go snickersnack. Or would that be Snickers-Snack see as Snickers is a Mars brand?
Oh. Oh, that was good.
But I don’t see her galumping at any point in the future. It’s just not dignified.
That is the scientific term used for leopard locomotion.
She is a were-jaguar!
And in 20 years a were-jaguar-cougar.
I thought it was to do with real estate cheetahs?
On the plus side, picking the lock on a door is easy when you can merely cut the lock right out of the door.
Ahh, that could give you such a warm glow inside, after all ‘the easiest way to a man’s heart, is through his stomach’.
…Cause you don’t have to deal with that pesky rib-cage thing?
Picard beams a little urine out of his bladder every time he tugs on his jacket. It’s the Picard Maneuver.
So can Krona keep hitting bladder-snooze? Does she ever have to eat or pee or sleep?
Depends on if she is decreasing pee volume, increasing bladder capacity, or just adjusting the ‘need to go!’ signal trigger threshold. (I.e. Turn off the ‘75% full’ alert, but leave the ‘95%’ and ‘overflowing’ alerts)
Of more interest to Sydeny, especially this week (hers, not ours) would be if Krona could put a ‘hold’ order on the lady bits, so that she would not need to take the pill.
How about hacking Sidney’s ADD so that she no longer needs Adderall to be able to function.
Trust me, that may not be such a good thing. A lot of the time, people with ADD are able to make associations of different data in a fraction o the time that most other people can. Random variables can click faster than most could possibly imagine. And yes, I speak from personal experience.
ADD may just be humanity being part-evolved, to a more flexible way of observing the world and thinking about it. So your proposed change might find itself implemented by upgrading Sydney’s DNA to the more evolved form.
Sydney Scoville Jr, the mother of Homo Superior.
It would depend on the reason for her ADHD. ADHD is a set of symptoms, not a diagnosis. You have to determine what the underlying cause is for the ADHD before you can treat it. You give Ritalin to somebody who is acting out for psychological, behavioural reasons, but with normal brain chemistry, you are just going to make the situation worse. So, if Krona gets it wrong, she could make Sydney’s ADHD worse!
My thinking is that 200 ml of super-spicy urine just fell out of the sky a hundred meters away.
Raccoon: I felt the Earth … move … under my feet. I feel the sky come tumbling down, What the?! [ Looks around to find out why he just got wet. ] Stupid birds!
Nah, no matter what I eat, it doesn’t affect that. Warm pee comes exclusively from infused drinks, which we have no reason to believe Sydney has consumed in the last 48 hours.
What, and take away the power of the “Super ADHD brain“?
Are you TRYING to get everyone killed? They’d have never beaten Vehemence/Kevin without it!
+1
Technically many mental illness’ are not “illness” as such they are traits, that simply have become undesirable in society, making it harder to work in a society.
I’ve read that ADD could originally be from vigilance to avoid dangers around us, but having evolved to a point where keeping attention on any one thing becomes difficult, however if you dont need to be able to focus on one single thing, but need to be a bit scattered to manage things. Well who knows.
Point is mental illness are seen as such because they hinder functions, most people have traits of one or another form of mental illness, but if they’ve learned to live with it and it doesn’t hinder their lives it isn’t considered an illness.
Somehow I think that increasing difficulty of variables is a limitation on Krona. Otherwise, she’s essentially god.
So I’m assuming that ‘hitting the snooze button’ on needing to pee is an easy set of variables to manipulate…. removing the need to pee entirely is significantly more difficult. And even continually hitting snooze might increase the variable with each push of the snooze button.
And she probably practiced plenty. It’s an actual snooze button when you are just waking up in the morning.
In Krona’s case though she can put the world on pause, rather than tell her alarm clock to remind her later.
PLEEEEEEASE tell me we’ll see a lot more of Krona in the future, she’s great! Also Pixel’s name makes sense now, and I wonder if she is better at slicing and dicing than the Pew Pew orb.
Not a bad comparison, but i think the PPO is more “Death Star” than “lightsabre”
I think that in itself is a nice comparison between the PPO and Pixel’s laserclaws. Claws are for close range and precision. PPO is when you want something sliced and exploded from a distance.
Brings to mind a comedy routine I saw about the origin of the flamethrower. Might have been Williams, I don’t recall.
“I’d really like to set that thing on fire. But it’s waaaay over there…” etc.
Google is my friend. It was Carlin.
I hope sydney doesn’t accidentally upgrade her PPO to death star level and then aim down. (cue dragon ball fight scenes)
Sydney and her opponent both acting extremely constipated and growling at each other for 20 minutes? I fail to see the connection. :-)
I wonder if she uses them to peel fruit.
Jaguars are carnivores.
But people are omnivores, and she is only part jaguar.
Mmm, interesting. When in animal form, clearly she is not, she is pure jaguar. And, as such, is an obligate carnivore. But her hybrid form does have some human traits, such as bipedalism, and speech. No reason why her digestive system has to be pure carnivore (although the teeth would rather support the supposition).
I hope that DaveB does not give lycanthropes the ability to talk, when in animal form. At best it should be learnt, like a power stunt. And then it would be more convincing if it was difficult, as the animal form would lack key anatomical features that are necessary for human speech.
Critique: Krona’s facial expression in the first panel looks weird, like she’s REALLY rolling her eyes in disgust.
Technically, Krona’s explanation makes every werecreature on the planet a super- which explains the werewolf in the ’20’s ’30’s era fashion with a tommy gun in a previous update.
Also, I wonder what Krona’s source of power is. Her goggles? We know she’s not a mage or super per se as per her not having “the most common superpower” like Sydney. So, like Sydney, the source of her powers must be external.
No it doesn’t, for once she says that it is unique. For another laser claws are clearly not something that is normal for a were.
So, she’s a were-super-jaguar, not a super were-jaguar?
Does this mean that animals can be supers in Grrliverse?
Apparently, which leads to some interesting possibilities….
Never heard of Krypto?
But Krypto was with DC, not DaveB.
Not quite. What makes Pixel uniquely a super and other werecreatures not are the laserclaws, which from context it seems she only has in her were form.
Magic is not seen as a superpower (I think), or at least it does not give people the perfect physique that supers have. And while it is said that Krona’s ability is different from regular magic, which is why she has her own seat at the council, it still seems magic-adjacent. If it was an item granting her these abilities than she wouldn’t have been given a seat at the council but she would be grouped with other artifact users (which I think was implied to be the mages part too).
I might be projecting my own assumptions about the nature of both magic and Krona’s abilities on this though so I might be very wrong.
No, this sounds the most correct given what clues and information we have.
Clarkes law-Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We have Sydney, Krona, and arguably Max, who was enhanced by that geode. The question is, who is leaving these surprises laying around and why…
Ahh, I see you are of the intelligent super design faction.
His name is McGuffin. He takes a bite out of magic.
She has laser claws in her hybrid *and* animal form.
Which makes me really hope the laser claws can be turned off, because can you imagine the damage a laser-clawed animal would do just walking across the floor?
Oh that is it, go ahead and give the luposlipaphobics nightmares!
You had to reach quite a ways beyond The Far Side for that one, didn’t you?
;)
What animal form? o_O
Re-read panel 2. “But only in her hybrid and animal forms.”
So it is an acknowledged fact that Pixel has a full animal form, as well as the hybrid form she’s using here.
Astute point.
Which makes it likely that all the lycanthropes have the three forms too. Whilst Pixel is clearly not the safest were to draw conclusions from, for obvious reasons, if she were an exception, in that regard, the comment would probably have drawn attention to that. As it was, it was said routinely, so I think it is a safe bet.
But, not having seen it yet, we do not know if the animal form:
• Is a typical example of a normal animal of the type (e.g. wolf or non-pink jaguar)
• Is, alternatively, an imposing, likely supernatural one, with significantly more combat capability than a normal member of the animal species.
• can be customised (like the hair and fur can be), so one were might opt for an unobtrusive scouting form (a good option for Katrina, using a bunny) whereas another might go for the combat and maneuverability advantages of a huge quadrupedal form (probably best for Clover, as the honey badger would stand out, due to not being native and, despite its reputation, is not actually a significant threat, in superhuman terms).
• can be altered every time the were transforms. Perhaps this may only be developed by a lycanthrope who practices customising the forms a lot. Like a super creating a power stunt. (a very good option for Pixel, as she could do with a camouflaged normal-sized jaguar form, for scouting, as well as a combat one, optimised to make use of the laser claws).
• has the same intelligence as in the human or hybrid forms. In the majority of werewolf stories they do not. In fact the animal can often take over completely. Either in the sense of ‘animal instincts’ ruling the character’s decisions or, even more worryingly, having a completely different identity. Much like someone with multiple personalities.
In the latter case, sometimes there might be flash-backs, especially if the beast was hunting or violent. Other times though there will be no memories, and if there are no physical clues, the individual may not even be aware that they have transformed.
Given that the hybrid forms clearly have full intelligence, I think it more likely that the animal forms do likewise. Especially as this is a super-hero comic, rather than a horror one. But it will be interesting to see, none the less, if the mind is transformed, along with the body.
If we’re going to base it on something like White Wolf, lycanthropes might have 5 forms.
Homid – human form
Glabro – near-human form (human with some animalistic/superhuman features)
Crinos – Full were-form
Hispo – near wolf (or whatever) form (giant version of Lupus form)
Lupus – wolf form (or animal form for non-werewolves)
They also have those that are born as wolves that change into men (or women) too…Making the “animal form” their most natural form.
Then again, I still would want to see one of the weres found in Kindred of the East…The were-dragon. Yeah, DRAGON!
Let us not forget the dogs who can transform into wolves
*smiles nicely, showing all teeth*
Oh… OK. I misunderstood what the update revealed. So Pixel is NOT JUST a werecreature BUT ALSO a super AS WELL. Got it. :-)
I’ll still make the case of magic counting as a superpower enough to invoke the Most Common Superpower trope. Cases in point: Gwen and Elsbeth (Gault’s apprentice). https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2338
I agree that Krona is not a mage but a “pseudo-mage” (for lack of a better term) but as such my mage/super distinction stands, particularly where it’s like Sydney being a “pseudo-super”.
I wonder if Krona could hack the orbs to level her up a bunch and max out the skill tree. If she can access them it seems like a simple enough thing to make numbers go up. Maybe she could even figure out what the extra two do.
There is a lot of mysterious factors about the orbs, so even if Krona knew enough about them, she might not be able to alter them
“for Krona to do anything more than hit snooze on a bladder, she has learn its properties and how to edit them”
So for Krona to hack the orbs she’d have to first understand how they work, so no console commands yet :-/ (why yes, I have been playing Bethesda games recently, why do you ask?).
I’ll point out he never says she DOESN’T know more about the orbs. So it is, actually, possible Krona can edit the orbs.
Not to mention the orbs weren’t detectable by Gwen when she scanned Sydney before the orb reveal, and Dabbler didn’t get anything off them either. If Krona’s power is magic-based, she may not be able to do anything related to the orb’s functions.
To be fair, Gwen is a self-admitted novice. Dabbler probably just has a bit more experience than her, since she sin’t a magic specialist. Elsbeth, for example, might not, but Master Gault might be able to detect something ( or already know WTF the orbs are)
Good points.
I’m still of the belief that the reason Halo’s orbs can’t be scanned is because they’re not based on this universe, and if that’s true, I would think that they can’t be altered by Krona either – if she can only affect stuff in this universe. I also think there’s at least SOME relationship between the orbs and whatever is behind Krona’s powers.
*nods*
Very plausible. Other options are still viable, but your argument does hold extra-dimensional fluid-like substances.
She might be able to hack in labels or a progress bar for the orbs.
Just an instruction book would help…
All of those superior alien races peppered throughout the universe, it’s just like them to be slobs & leave their trash laying about everywhere…
And with no instruction booklets? Remember what happened to the Krell on Forbidden Planet? They didn’t leave any instructions on the use of their machine & it killed them all off…PLUS it killed most of the first Earth Expedition to explore the planet!
My own theory is that they were left for someone of a particular personality type to find. Sydney falls into that category.
Seems like Sydney and Krona are the path to been Besties
I think after this “adventure” they should all go to someplace together and bond over short/small breasted issues they have in common. And woe betide any male who makes a stupid remark or sleazy come on.
So then what about normal come-ons? Which are, you know, the vast majority?
Er, “besties”…or “beasties?”
Oh wait! Sydney would have to be turned into a were for that…
Ooops. Sorry. Thought you were talking about Pixel & Syd.
Two contenders, final panel. Krona wins at the moment.
Mind you Xochitil, with the right gestalt, could beat even that. Given she could replicate Krona’s power and several billion other possible ones, with other gestalts. Just ensure to use precognition to ensure she has the right one for any given need.
I don’t think she could replicate Krona’s powers. Krona is doing magic. We’ve not seen any indication that supers can do any kind of magic.
Krona is unique. She is altering reality directly. That is bypassing the unconscious and specific abilities granted by super powers and cuts out the trappings needed by magic to enact changes.
But if you look at the range of powers in the super genre, as a source of inspiration for the billions of possible powers Xochitil can have, you will find many that replicate magic and magic-like abilities.
And, more appropriately, those which allow direct manipulation of reality. Specifically amongst gods or those with god-like powers. Including those who are specifically stipulated to be nothing more than supers with immense power. You can even find them outside the genre, such as with Q from Star Trek.
Similarly, reality alteration does appear on the list of possible super powers in relevant ropleplaying games. Likewise precognition.
Question: could Krona alter the reality inside Sydney’s shield from outside?
We don’t know based off current knowledge, leaning towards no personally as we know it should be able to block magic, at least it blocked Vehemence’s anger aura and that was probably magic given info points towards tantric energy being magic and vehemic energy being a counterpart to that.
Of course, the answer is obviously still a “maybe”, Krona’s magic is noted to be unusual so it could do something weird to cheat around the shield somehow.
And by the same logic, her magic can’t pierce outside of the shield if she’s in it.
Curses, there goes our plan for a co-op.
Unless she could hack the reality that her reality hacking can’t pierce the shield… We need to go deeper
It is possible that the shield blocks what Sydney wants it to block/thinks it should. It may have blocked the Anger Aura because she hoped it would, or because it was a negative effect. We don’t actually know how it blocks what it blocks, or how it chooses what to block…Or if it can be upgraded, of course.
Really, sneaky but effective writing…With the level up tree thing going on, Dave B has a perfect excuse to change anything and everything about the orbs, whenever he wants, without making a big deal of it. “Oh, the PPO is shooting blue freeze beams now? Yeah, I grabbed the transmuter labeled ‘Frosty Doom’…I was hoping it would start shooting ice cream, but no luck”
In Grrlverse time she’s only been at this for four days. I’m pretty sure Max is planning on testing her powers fully, but that pesky real world is messing things up…
DaveB has already stated that he has all of the orbs & all of their functions already mapped out; after all, he already has Sydney’s Skill Tree plotted, it’s just a matter of revealing which “slots” do which functions. He’s just putting all of us on the “wait & see” list, right along with Sydney & everyone else in the comic.
That would need testing, or more examples of what Krona’s powers can and cannot do.
Sydney’s shield does stop super powers of varied types from working, even including teleportation. Plus it stops the magic-like powers that Kevin uses (be they super or magical in nature. So it may stop Krona’s if they operate using similar underlying principles.
Or her powers may be completely unrelated and use capabilities that the orb creators never envisaged nor could block. Or both orbs and Krona’s power could be connected, in some way. But that could end up with either result. For instance the orbs may have been created to counter reality hacking. Or they might be sister powers, utilising the same source, in different ways, but able to affect each other by that means.
And that takes me back to a question I’ve asked before, did they find the powers, or did the powers find them? A more unlikely pair of super humans as your likely to ever see…
Of course, it’s possible she gets a form of magic, but we’re not sure how her power works with magic, for supers it produces something related from what we know, but how precisely related it has to be is unknown. We know it didn’t give her a related power when interacting with someone who had a different type of superpower, and we know it was different as the cosmetic effects weren’t present. Plus, she was from a different universe, Varia actually got a power that allowed for travel between universes which was used to help said superhero try and get back to her own universe. For related powers she can do anything from get opposites (ice powers from Heatwave) to compatibility stuff (being able to be teleported by Harem) to seemingly unrelated things (electrified body from super adrenaline).
So yes, while theoretically a form of reality warping or magic is available, it’s questionable at best, even if we assume it’d give a power similar to what Krona has that could be something as simple as superhuman hacking ability to something that is just compatibility like Krona being able to much more easily understand and alter her to something near totally unrelated like illusion generation.
So Pixel will be pawey to have, if confronting a villain or organisation with the ability to detect supers. Halo might pass, provided she had no powers activated, as she is not herself a super. But Pixel, in human form, could also infiltrate their defences. Yet still be able to go all “grrrr” if things go pear-shaped.
DaveB just broke his own rules. Pixel is a super with an actual secret identity.
Archon does already conduct covert operations. For example testing the bank security with Mr Amorphous and Achilles using magical disguises. Likewise their intelligence arms doubtless need to use cover identities As do regular police, such as with undercover work.
We even have X as an example of one that is completely concealed.
The rules are just there for regular policing and military operations. Where there is an operational need to keep an identity secret they are entitled to do so. Until the decision is made to lift the Veil (hopefully in a controlled manner) that will, of necessity, require that Pixel’s were form be either kept secret or be explained a a super-power. Easy enough to follow the Dabbler precedent, if the latter becomes necessary.
Obviously, given that she works in an intelligence arm, Archon are unlikely to do a press briefing about either her existence or detailing her powers. Pixel is not a cop, she is a spy. Secrecy is part of that job.
That’s not a secret identity: Superman is a secret identity, Pixel Panther is not
Deadly attack against Pixel in her were form…. itching powder…
Her Nemesis is Doctor Circus and his troops of trained fleas :-)
I see a missed opportunity. If it was laser teeth instead of laser claws Pixil could have been a Light-Saber-Toothed Leopard.
+1
$like++;
Great until she bites her tongue.
Do YOU want lightsabers in your mouth?
Be careful about your turns of phrase, if you ever get an invite to a Twilight Council session.
Wouldn’t want someone to shove their Schwartz (ie; Space Balls) down my throat either…
I’m suddenly reminded of the idea I had for a Transformer fan-character whose alt-mode was a mechanical sabretooth tiger, and her alt-mode used the teeth as electrified daggers.
” didn’t just draw her with big boobs for no reason. There was a reason. The reason was to see big boobs — the excuse about it will be posted as soon as I can remember”
Boobs. Good enough reason. ^_^
Super boobs is a good enough reason for me…
Hey, DaveB has to justify his time & effort in his research with Boob Physics somehow, doesn’t he?
;)
Alright, I’m calling it, how’d a Sidereal Exalt get here?
God, she’s even got blue hair.
Creative power use is the best power.
Fan of the Green Lantern, are you?
More of a fan of the Queen of Escalation: Skitter.
So we know there is extra real estate, thinking, and a reason but what order did they come in?
Krona’s hacking people without asking permission. To her allies. A step up from clothes altering and its early days yet. I think eventually she’s going do something Sydney thinks is NOT cool. Hopefully not actually to Sydney. All because of some offhand comment Sydney made to inspire her.
Still as long as everyone is making wishlists for what Krona’s power can do…
Hmmm, so this would be at the tippy top of the upper end of her abilities cause it involves both duplication and creating biology from scratch but I wonder if she can study Dabbler’s physiology and see if it is enough like a human’s to help designing an extra set of arms, more importantly hands, for Sydney. Though I guess the hands and the link to her brain are the only important bits. Might be easier to hide just hands in her clothes too.
Long term challenging project for the distant future.
An unnecessarily complex route, that may not yield the desired result. Simpler just to hack Halo’s orbs and remove the ‘can only use two powers at once limitation’.
Then hack Sydney’s brain to allow her to fully control more than two powers at once.
Then re-name her as, once you start to change people’s brains, they cease to be the person they were before. Unethical, as you say, if done without concent. And needing careful consideration, even with it.
She may hack THIS reality but those orbs could be from a different server. They have completely defied any ability to sense them save what they choose to show to people. (don’t emit light but both people and camera’s can see them or at least the illusion they choose to show) The orbs may just be projections for interface and the thing projecting them is in some other dimension linked to Sydney now.
Basically I think whoever made them (individual or whole species) had high enough understanding to replicate what Krona does or block it. Probably by simple dint of the fact that she couldn’t get a lock on them with her sensory tools in the first place.
All plausible.
Mind you there are similarities between the two phenomenon, that folks have pointed out before. E.g. the number of interfaces, the colour associations, their apparently unique natures and the fact that both defy classification, such as being ‘super’ or ‘magic’. So they may actually be connected.
Maybe she’s a descendant of an ancient race like the D’ni or just bumbled into a store of their knowledge and crafts who are related to the beings who made Sydney’s “tools”. I like the idea. Should make for some fun storylines in the future.
Especially since if two such examples of their craft are both found on earth then it may have been their colony planet or at least had a fort of somekind on it making for fun possible future discoveries of more of their tech/magic. (Dark Sydney!)
Or the Orbs are simply not from this reality/universe, and Krona can only hack things within this universe. It would be like being good at hacking PCs, but you’re trying to hack a combustible engine in a car.
That was sort of what the first sentence was about. Though I didn’t have anything like the combustible engine example. Now that you bring it up I would think it would be more like hacking an operating system filled with programs written in languages you’ve never even heard of on a machine that doesn’t use binary. (? kinda out of my field)
Supposed to be “different” operating system. (also written in a language you’ve never heard of, etc… )
I’m not sure “just removing the limitation” would be that simple..
Word-of-God is that Krona must learn the details to do complicated things.
That sounds suspiciously like computer-programming: changing a config value (thong elasticity) or parameter (haircolour) is a snap, but anything else requires study.
Since Dabbler suggested the orbs are likely connected directly to Sydney’s “alvuchia zhovaleh”, who knows what kind of study that would entail?
Dabbler didn’t say they were connected directly to Sydney’s “alvuchia zhovaleh” she said the orbs connection to her WAS “alvuchia zhovaleh”. Where “alvuchia zhovaleh” describes what Dabbler thinks is the nature of the type of connection she shares with them. Study would probably involve Krona taking whatever readings she can while Sydney attempts various feats of control over the orbs.
And my comment on the previous comic is just getting more and more applicable. Link: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2378/comment-page-1#comment-497326
And repost, with a minor update:
Villain 1: “How’d you have time to get away?”
Villain 2: “The heroes had a loud
argumentdiscussion across the street before coming in.”Villain 1: “With who?”
Villain 2: “Well, Halo…”
Villain 1 (interrupts): “Got it.”
A very practical point, and well made.
Yet you seem to miss the fact that our heroes include someone who can both predict the future and alter reality. Should Krona feel it necessary, she can check to see if their talk is impinging on their operational effectiveness and alter reality to stop that from being a problem. Having a limitless choice of how. For example:
• Make sound cease to propagate out from their immediate area
• Alter the villains’ minds so that suspicious behaviour does not register
• Change the sound so that it travels slowly enough, or goes via an extra-dimensional route, to only arrive after the villains are in custody
• Have a radio in the warehouse play music which exactly interferes with the incoming sound waves to neutralise any reconcilable sound.
• Alter the light and sound coming from their location to appear to be some cats.
• Change the villains’ image and sound processing brain centres to make the street look and sound empty.
So far she has demonstrated the ability to predict the most likely conversation coming up as long as its in the “very near future” or basically the next thing about to be said. Probably only useful for someone who thinks quickly enough to take full advantage of that sliver of extra time to plan their response.
Dave has clearly gone to some trouble to put soft limits on her so she’s fun but not horrendously overpowered. Like a gadgeteer she has huge potential for growth and so to keep her power reigned in a bit for the story I think Dave has introduced her earlier in her development then the near deity levels she may attain later. I think severe limits on how much she can screw with time and or probability are a part of that.
However she may have already cloaked them both visually and sound wise just as a normal precaution from her own experience as an operative. Her power needs intelligence to be used effectively so she can probably muddle though being useful without being a Time Lord. (yet)
Yup, Dave does build in sensible balancing limits. But, until we learn what they are, it is fun to speculate on the variety of options that are open. Like how I speculated that Sydney might be able to poke the Moon, with her tentacle. Unlikely but, until we get a scene, or comment, where something is ‘out of reach’, then the possibility remains open.
And who knows, just like Dabber’s gun is designed to shoot satellites, in orbit, Halo’s tentacle orb might have been built with repositioning such, in mind. Or lifting loads to and from moons and other nearby stellar objects.
Likewise Krona might have the full deity package, and her constraints might be political ones, where her peers might put limits on the tinkering she is permitted to do. Or it may be down to her own whims, much like Dabbler. Depending on her personality, that could actually be interesting, for the story (much like Q in Star Trek). But with her being friendly, that is less likely.
Plus Dave’s comments do tend to point more towards the limited powers you suggest. So, whilst I agree, I will still explore the fun, if less likely, options too.
Well, oddly, today’s comic doesn’t add anything to the on going Rule 34 “Vote incentive” mini fanfic.
The LAST handie you will ever get!
Could hack a longer orgasm?
EKrona might extend male bodyparts?
Or prolong mutual orgasms.
Mmm.
*looks underneath racial bonnet*
OK, it looks like the default orgasm conditions are set pretty high. It is just as easy to tweak the racial setting, as the individual one. Lets just change it to ‘always on’, and see how that goes.
If the comic Bloomin’ Fairies is any indication, self-perpetuating orgasms probably don’t go very well…
Death by exhaustion and fluid loss?
Wondering about panel 3. Was Krona really using predictive text, or has she spent enough time around Sydney to guess what her next question is most likely to be? Which could invoke Clarke’s law as could we tell the difference?
I was wondering whether “predictive text” was actually snark for “it’s so obvious” ?
Or it might have been a combination of both in that the predictive text learns from factors around Krona and gets better through exposure. So being longer near Sydney she gets better at predicting what Sydney might ask.
I think predicting what Sydney will do will never be an exact science. Especially physical reactions as Harem can attest.
Sounds likely.
Well she pointed directly at her goggles when she said that, which at least implies that she has some kind of Google Glass / heads-up display type thing going on with them.
Team Runt by themselves (Halo, Pixel, Krona) constitute a nasty super team: Pixel is DPS, Krona is buffs/debuffs and utility (probably a lot more), and Halo is tank plus senses plus some significant offensive ability. Krona and Halo have nearly matching shirts, we just need something similar for Pixel.
At least something similar that stretches, or DaveB is going to lose his PG-13 rating here…
This isn’t about the currently posted comic but …
Does Dave know that the Forum button at the top doesn’t work? The Grrl Power forum is now at
https://community.910cmx.com/index.php?/forum/24-grrl-power/
Pixel should run this:
foreach(Object item in Earth.Children)
{
if(item.Material.GetType() == typeof(Blooddrinkersteel)&&Item.Container != null && item.Container.Form == Forms.Humanoid)
{
Trace.WriteLine(“Manequin found at ” + item.Location.Long +”/” item.Locaation.Lang);
item.Material = CardBoard;
}
Shouldn’t that be Kronachrome? o_O
I’m liking Krona more the more I see of her. And I think she pairs well with Sydney. Is there a term for shipping two characters without the romantic part, because I’m totally shipping Sydney and Krona for BFF.
‘Sismance’ is the equivalent to the equally inane ‘bromance’. Personally I will stick with ‘friendship’. If it is particularly intense, or has any notable tone to it (such as if they only associate when officially working together) then that can be qualified accordingly.
The proper term (danger, TVTropes link) is .
Well, I done borked that up good, maybe: Heterosexual Life Partners.
I thought the ‘.’ was intended to signify the danger of clicking on TV Tropes. :-P
It’s an oddly or poorly named trope, as ‘heterosexual life partners’ could easily refer to a married man and woman who were both heterosexual.
And by defining sexual preference, in the title, it also implies a sexual relationship. Which neither friendship nor bromance do. In fact you have to define ‘friends with benefits’ to bring it in for the former, and the latter is specifically defined as lacking a sexual element.
Of course that is assuming the original comment of “shipping two characters without the romantic part” is being used as a euphemism for there being no sex involved. Whereas if it is intended to mean sex without any emotional attachment, then that would not require becoming ‘life partners’.
But, with or without such a commitment they could be any combination of genders and sexual identities, provided they still fancied sex with each other.
That was indeed intended to mean there was no sex or dating each other involved but them just being very close friends. I wouldn’t mind if there was a romantic/sexual aspect between them though, but so far it seems Sydney isn’t into that.
Two things regarding Krona:
1) Two pages back (492), panel 1 the transparent goggles don’t show Krona’s hair they presumably cover; panel 2 they do. I only noticed because the blue tuft sticking out looked like a blue, superfluous nosepiece on her goggles.
2) Shouldn’t her goggles shift the colour of her eyes and hair if they’re seen through the yellow tinted material? I mean, technically it should, but I don’t wear tinted glasses, so it’s not like I could check. I’d understand if you’re doing this because it’s more convenient to draw or genre convention or something.
Normally manufactured goggles have predictable characteristics. Those which may have been created (or altered) by hacking reality can have properties which defy normal universal laws.
Here’s a big question about krona though – can she hack reality to give people powers? were forms? vampirism? or take those abilities away? can she age people? de-age?
Basically, can she hack PEOPLE / BEINGS beyond the superficial? (coloring, clothes, bladder fulness, etc)?
She learns about things and makes better premade “tools” and “sensors” with which she learns more that she can use to make better tools and sensors so with enough time to make all the little connections and leaps in knowledge I suppose there are few barriers, other than time, to what she can do to things based mostly in whatever dimensions she can affect.
We have seen nothing which would prohibit that.
Provided of course that super powers appear within the same ‘database’ that Krona hacks. Possibly super powers (and lycanthropy) themselves are analogous to things like hacks ,bugs and viruses. Some of which may be detectable, within the code, others of which might reside externally to it, and only be visible by any changes they effect within it.
Hrm, I wonder if Krona can hack herself to speed read, have eidetic memory, an direct internet connection to her brain. Then she’d be able to know enough about everything to hack everything. Problem solving the power gamer way!
Once she tests it on someone else with a similar brain.
Yea, plus changing how you think yourself is very tricky. Take the speed reading as an example. Beyond a certain point, the faster you read at the less of the material you retain. To improve that you have to make the brain both process information faster, cataloguing it for access, on demand, later.
So it is more than just storing the raw information, such as might be implied by granting eidetic memory. It is no use having information if you cannot recall it, in a useful form, when you need it.
However the human brain is already vastly complicated and very good at what it does. So how can you make it work better? Bearing in mind that Krona is actually having to stipulate what changes need to be made. And if she can do that by simply saying “make me think better” then what is it which is interpreting that and enacting it? Does she employ an AI that is smarter than her, to make her smarter?
And, as mentioned before, if you tinker with your own cognition, especially when having to improve how you process information (as outlined already) then the resulting being will not be you anymore. How we think is integral to who we are.
Whilst we all gradually change the way that we think, over time, it is within certain boundaries and at a controlled rate. Jumping from one state to a much more advanced one looses that connection completely, in my opinion.
True but if your powers development, and therefore your ability to defend yourself against a universe of weird crud, depends on research, understanding, and then holding all that in your head so you can rework you tools and build new ones I would think having a perfect memory, a large memory capacity, and the ability to fill that memory quickly when need would be considered a survival necessity. (after testing, long term testing, on another “volunteer” or 50 to see if this has adverse affects [like rapidly aging said brains or preventing proper sleep])
She could use her abilities in tandem with an knowledge of alien tech/computers/A.I. (seems to be enough them floating around someones gotta crack) to create a better A.I. to help her store and process information but she would become more and more dependent on something that could be more vulnerable to hacking or destruction and just plain become its own being someday and rebel.
Yup rebelling ‘volunteers’ will be the problem with that model. Especially as the ones which have survived, to the point where they are capable of rebelling, will be a lot smarter than you! And I doubt they will want to keep around either the person who subjected them to those experiments or a dangerous rival.
What about time perception? I take a trip to fantasy land for about half an hour and find out I’ve only been gone five minutes. Overclocking your perception of time sounds like a good, organic way to increase your IQ.
It can certainly give you thinking time, in a crisis. That is part of what adrenaline does, in its own limited way. Mind you, being able to review your entire life’s experiences, in a moment, in order to find a solution to your life-or-death situation, is not that limited. :-D
I would assume the drawback is later every event has a direct and horrible consequence. Halo just got a snooze alarm for 30 minutes so that’s 30 minutes of buildup which could blow entirely at that second the 30 minutes ends.
The exploding blood doll could have been all the explosions that were going to happen in the ammo combined exponentially into one. So if we don’t have a bathroom break within 30 minutes then an hour of trying to hold it hits…
Here I thought she was going to ask her to hack her nicer periods (given the past “hit so hard she flipped” )
Hacking reality seems to be borderline reality manipulation. I hope it doesn’t come with the same issues.
Did Pixel gained a few pounds between pages? She seems a bit more plumb.
Laser claws are freaking cool! I don’t care what anybody else says.
No, panel four is simply perspective
Hacking reality IS reality manipulation. She changes hairstyles, swaps underwear, flicks settings on devices. How would that not be manipulating reality?
Of course this is a world where magic is real and magic is pretty much cheating reality.
But she hasn’t break the laws of physics heavily or recreate the entire reality to her whims a la Scarlet Witch in House of M. Yet…
Thankfully. Witch never could handle her powers, as they were semi-automatic, and she didn’t always intend to use them when she did. Pixel, on the other hand, is always focusing and has to know what she’s doing before she can do it…Pixel is thus significantly more limited, but also more focused. The difference between a massive laser and a surgical one. Both can be as strong…But one is more focused, and easier to aim.
Well she did used to live in a world with no super powers, aliens or magic. But that was boring. So she hacked DaveB‘s mind, got him to create an interesting world, she then made it real, and took up residence.
Hi Krona. Room for one more?
Every change is a manipulation. What you are describing is a Reality Warper.
This might by my programmer background talking, but to me being a Reality Hacker implies that you aren’t able to go beyond the capabilities of the thing you are hacking, but you can change change some of the properties of things.
I dunno, hackers have plenty of tools to change the nature of a program completely. A computer normally only used to send and receive emails, can become part of a bot-net, to conduct attacks on other computers and companies. Whilst the microphone and webcam are set to turn on, without their warning lights, so that the hacker can listen in for financial information, record blackmail of anything illicit going on, or make indecent images or tapes.
Where you are right is that it could only do the latter with the appropriate devices attached. But if physically at the location, the hacker can link up whatever they have to hand. Likewise Pixel will be able to make use of other things in the area, even if the object of interest might lack some element that she is unable to materialise, out of thin air.
Mind you, if it is only a matter of complexity, then she should still be able to create brick walls, bridge a gap with a steel girder or make a hot-air balloon, if wanting to fly out of danger. Those are all simple things, that she could have studied the properties of and still be able to easily recall them in a crisis.
Changing the nature of a program, sure, if you can get to the sourcecode you can add all kinds of stuff or remove restrictions normally inside the program.
Turning an email account into a spambot just means that it is sending emails in large quantities. Turning the microphone or webcam on without warning light just means the warning light was turned off, nothing special.
Hacking a computer doesn’t suddenly allow it to grow wheels and drive away though. The hacker having a bluetooth dongle with them doesn’t let them connect to a bluetooth device if there is no slot in the computer to put it into.
Krona appears to manipulate reality, she changes things that are there. So far I have not seen any evidence that she can pull steel girders out of thin air to create a bridge, or grow wings to fly away from danger. Can she make a bridge across a canyon if wood and girders are available, probably if she knows how to assemble them correctly.
That is how she differs from a reality warper. A reality warper sees a canyon to get across and just reshapes the landscape to have the land itself form a bride, bypassing the need for available materials.
I just hope DaveB soon gives more explanation to Krona’s abilities because people’s ideas (my own included) are all over the place.
*wags tail, all over the place*
Well, Pixel’s bell grew three sizes that day. Seriously. Look at today’s installment and compare with the last few pages (the immediate previous page is not obvious, but further back and the size change is dramatic).
So, I’m blaming Krona. Because transforming into were-form has no effect on the clothing and items one is wearing or otherwise in contact with.
Unless it is the bell which grants her super power/lycanthropy. Pixel is the artefact expert, after all.
Come on Sydney time to stop spazzing out and get your orbs hacked so the upgrade screen is in english instead of alien/mystic mumbo jumbo!
Or ask Krona to hack a goldfish into a Bablefish and pop it in your ear.
Sydney: Predictable unpredictability.
Collateral Sydney…
It actually took me a few to figure out panel four: at first, it looked (to me) that Pixel Panther had a jewel on her middle claw (thought initially maybe it was one of them ‘ring-watches’), but closerer inspection and it’s actually a trick illusion and it’s her fingernail and the pointing to her neck-tuft
Have actually been able to ‘hack’ the bowels: hold off long enough and it completely goes away, no idea where it goes but not only the need goes away but the reason for the ‘movement’ as well
You know what’s going to keep Sydney up tonight?
1) Pixel is a super.
2) Supers do not have body hair.
3) Pixel, as a super… is covered in body hair (well, fur anyway)
Easy answer. A super’s physique represents something like the ideal body. Being a were-super Pixel’s were form is the ideal were body. Being hairless, at least when the base animal has fur, does not fit the ideal body type.
Or even more simple. Supers have hair (and eyebrows), thus some hair types are exempt from the hairless body idea, and fur is the same for were supers.
+1
If Krona can hack reality,is there anything else she CAN’T do???
I’m guessing that she can’t remove her own hacking power. Because Paradox.
I tend to agree, it would be a safety function to keep her from accidentally killing herself…
How about retroactively granting herself reality hacking ability, in the first place?
I have given up on asking questions at this point. Time to move on!
No, never give up on questions
WHY???
Is it just me or is Sydneys’s neck suddenly very thin?
I think Krona has engaged bobble-head mode for herself and Sydney.
My issue with the artwork is that in panel 1 Krona looks like she is either about to sneeze or just woke up. It may just be Dave trying to draw her to look like she is reading the inside of her goggles.
And another thing to add to the ‘I’ll fix this for the book’ file. The black strap of whatever is under her shirt is not black in the second to last panel. (maybe she accidentally hacked the color of her underwear)
Don’t worry Dave, we love all the other artwork!
Mind you, Sydney aught to quit whilst she is a bobblehead, next Krona might start experimenting with pinheads.
Pixel has a vested interest to ensure that Maxima stays in power, in Archon. Given her ‘there will be no whisking away’ policy, as regards supers being taken to secret laboratories, against their will.
We can deduce that the Council have got a reasonable understanding of the nature of lycanthropy. We know that they study such things and have been aware of weres for thousands of years. Whilst this does not necessarily equate to them having comprehensive knowledge, we do know that they know enough to customise the Veil to accommodate them.
Plus they were clearly a lot more comfortable with how the lycanthropy virus works, in explaining it, than Archon have been about the nature of supers. Or the Council, for that matter.
Pixel therefore provides several avenues of investigation, which could give insight into how super powers work. The two principle branches being via magic and genetics. For instance if super powers are intrinsic to DNA, then they can find what parts of Pixel’s genome are expressed in each form.
If the Council have done a good enough job of isolating the normal changes that are down to lycanthropy alone, those aspects can be eliminated from the investigation. Whatever differences remain would hopefully be the super DNA.
Of course, if it were that simple, then mundane science would have probably cracked it by now. However it may provide a clue that would not otherwise be available. Likewise a parallel investigation, into the magical differences (using similar methodology), may be able to establish (or rule out) magic as being linked to super powers.
With Krona’s power, making yourself a short nerdy type is probably for the best. Nobody will realize you’ve already restructured the future to make yourself nigh-impervious without even a shield.