Grrl Power #569 – Gore tunnel loop hole
Sciona must talk a good game. That or she was a lot nicer before she got most of her head chopped off. Also we don’t know how long any of these people have known Sciona, who seems to have been around for a while. At least longer than a regular human anyway.
She is exploiting a property of the field here, which is that it kills anything that passes through it. The field is a pipe, not a solid volume of energy, since non-living material can’t pass through it, it would knock the artifacts out when activated. So presumably you could achieve the same result by sticking your arm down a snake’s throat and wearing it like an opera glove, or by taping hamsters up and down both sides of your arm. Normally the whole vault is shielded against teleportation and portals, so Opal for instance couldn’t reach in there, but whatever Sciona did to slip her blood portal in through the cracks disrupted the teleportation wards, which is how Deus et al got in.
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Nice boss…..
“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”
+1
Since he could survive a explosion powerfull enough to crack open the Vault door (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2638), chances are he will regeneration from this too.
At the very least he seems to have no “vital organs”.
That may be why he is on the team. If you chop an earthworm in two you get… two halves of a dead earthworm, despite the urban myth, to the contrary. But maybe Wyrmil is a draconic relative that can survive such levels of abuse. Perhaps even being the origin of the myth, due to wyrm and worm being homophones?
But even ‘being able to regenerate from being chopped in half’ still has a big leap to ‘being able to regenerate from being dead’. Although we do have ways to artificially return people to life, if they have just died, under the right circumstances. Whether there may be analogous means, for Wyrmil’s species, is another matter.
Sciona has just put her arm through the place where we would expect heart and lungs in a human. And if his species is lacking vital organs, like that, then CPR-like techniques will not work.
Perhaps Wyrm’s take the “best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” to a literal degree and have their heart in their lower torso?
Or maybe he is just dead, and Sciona is not bothered. But she will need more ‘volunteers’, to get the other artefacts.
Best case scenaryo: Wormy face can… recober at some extend at some pase. Idealy, enough to be tortured for each of every artifact.
But I think that Deus has his own plans. And so every one with an eye on the loot. For expalme. Wat about undead people? Do dey count as living for the sencond shield and dead for the first one? It would be a pain if it is otherwise.
The point here is something… simple. The “anaylator” field is non pircing. It might have a few centimiters of penetration. But Sciona hand has not been afected by it. So, it is a lot more easy to surpas.
The first thing is: Does the penetration of the killing shield ignore non living matter?
If not so: just punt a ring on the cealing and floor.
If so: What counts as living?
…
Im gona stop now. I got carried away. Sorry. XD
He was the one talking immortality earlier if I recall, so I expect he’s some kind of immortal, and I expect the field to dead what passes through it, but if he doesn’t fully pass through it, he may still be able to regenerate.
That said, Sciona is going to have a REAL hard time finding people to work with after this unless she plans on teamwipe besides herself, because otherwise her rep will be in the gutter as worst partner ever and no one will want to work with her. So either they’re all dead, or the epimorph is more powerful than any teamwork could be for her.
well there is one less artifact to get now so the amount of volunteers is going down with each one.
Sciona, the criminal master-mind who figured out how to run a pyramid scheme, that never ends up with more participants than the model can sustain.
R.e. worms.
Last time I researched it, I read that the end with the head survives (if there is enough of it)
It depends where you cut them. If it is literally in half, as I indicated, you will most likely kill the earthworm. But you are right that it is possible for the head part to survive, and the further down the body you cut it, the more likely it is to do so.
Much like with humans, once you avoid chopping the major organs off.
Hydras, meanwhile, will really multiply when you cut them. I mean Hydra oligactis for example … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28genus%29
“Ah-ha-ha! Mine is an evil laugh!”
Looks like Sciona suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome. (No, I’m not going to link you to TV Tropes. You’re welcome.)
Hmmm…Now that I think about it, it seems that Dues is playing a lot like Lex Luthor as a contrast to Sciona being more like Dr. Doom. Luthor is likely to have the information necessary to preserve his own resources but wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice an underling to preserve his own status quo, whereas Doom WILL sacrifice anything & anybody (except himself) as a matter of course.
This scene is playing out what would likely happen if those two got into a situation like this. Perish forbid if either Doom & Luthor team up for the same goal as much as if Dues & Sciona decided to to do the same.
Sciona seems to me to be more like Mr. Sinister than Dr. Doom. :)
At this point, I feel like her team would just kill her right here out of fear of being betrayed.
Except the only other person on her team in the room is Cthillia, who also wants/needs the Epimorph she just Kano-grabbed. Will Sciona immediately teleport out, leaving everyone else to rot or will she actually honor whatever arrangement she has? (probably not)
Umm… You’ve miscounted. The male vampire on her team is also there (he’s the one on the floor, complaining about the heat, upon arrival). Deus indicates he’s still present by his remark about the book.
That was Gunnie, the female vamp, we saw her de-hooded after they placed the jacks
Either way, the team will not be following her after this. Why would they?
Because they are evil and as long as it doesn’t happen to them, why do they care?
Out of the fear that the same will happen to them. Cooter was an outsider (specifically a monster-hunter) so your counter holds fine with him. But Wyrmil is a core member of the team, just like Cthillia, the Vampires and Dr Chuckles. If Sciona is willing to kill him, then she is showing no regard for the team, and they are all at risk.
Of course if Wyrmil gets better, then that is a different matter. The dude should have re-rolled when he found out that he had a bad power. Cthillia chose to go with the Cycplops power-set. Wyrmil should have realised that he would go through a world of pain picking the Wolverine power.
I’ve had some who were worst.
Ow even if i can live through that I doubt it would feel even remotely ok.
Maybe he’s formed from a host of worms (perhaps arranged around a human skeleton?) organised by or into a single consciousness? There were cases in ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ stories where this occurred around the skeletons of dead sorcerors…
Does that mean that Vance would be his nemesis?
Although I have joked, to that effect, in the past:
“Spiders are just about the only small carnivore that does not feed on earthworms.“
And the alarm system for when the wards go down can’ t send out an alert because it runs on the same system as all the other alarms.
I hope for his sake he has a regeneration factor. Because otherwise he’s ded.
Or not. I don’t care. Dude’s clearly a villain.
regenerative abilities cannot trigger if the flesh has been rendered necrotic or petrified either of which seems to be the case here, both effects would completely negate ones ability to regenerate, necrosis because it would counter the regenerative ability by actually not harming the body just decaying it and the petrification because you cannot regenerate stone unless your an earth elemental.
Non living material that passes though the field is destroyed so if he can regenerate all of the parts that have passed though the field and died he will be able to survive because they will be completely removed and regrow when he is pulled back through. That said it seems he was brought along just to be used as a field bypass.
Given the earlier comment of him being able to survive organs being liquefied. I think he has some sort of powerful regeneration ability but I guess we will see.
That depends ENTIRELY on the nature of the regeneration, and the whim of the person writing it. These are superpowers: they already defy any sort of real-world logic. There’s no reason why a body with necrotized flesh wouldn’t simply treat that as any other sort of damage and start regenerating from the portions that aren’t necrotic.
If you notice, he didn’t pass completely through the field, just his front half. If his back half can regenerate him, then he’s good.
If he does do that, when Sydney catches up, and needs to defend herself, will she be able to resist chopping him in half? Out of scientific curiosity.
Well, considering none of her powers are of the choppy-variety and he probably wouldn’t appreciate it…
With a 16 ton strength, and its remarkable dexterity, I am sure the tentacle could make effective use of a sword, axe or a larger improvised chopping device.
the tube shape ruins cutting effect leaving it a bludgeon weapon
I was not suggesting using the tentacle, like a truncheon. Rather just holding a sword by its hilt, an axe by its handle or the length of the non-cutting side of a guillotine.
Human hands are blunt, but they have no difficulty using tools to inflict slicing damage. The tentacle is way more flexible, strong and precisely controllable than any human hand.
Touche’, she is not limited to merely using her powers along… I was falling into the classic “everything looks like a nail” mindset that supers are notorious for.
Well, putting aside for the moment the fact that Wyrmil’s chest has taken literal “Blow Through Damage (as it would be called by the GURPS system),” his face & forehead have also entered the field. Which means that his frontal lobes have also died. I think only the likes of Marvel’s Madcap or DC’s Deadpool have enough regeneration power to recover from that. Even so, either one of them would probably be missing at least some memories…Even if the brain heals completely, the neural pathways would have to be re-established from scratch, but only the memories that were stored in that area.
Eh Wolverine survived reentry and was able to fully regrow from a few parts that managed to survive due to his adamantium skeleton. His memories were as intact and they were before the impact.
Given his name I would say Wyrmil will have a flatworm like regenerative ability being able to completely regrow from even a small part.
The movie explanation, that he could regenerate from a bullet going through his head, but that he would loose any memories that were destroyed, is more credible. Fifth Element pulls off the trick of bringing back ‘a survivor’ from just a hand. But she was unique, in having memories, due to the fact that her DNA was vastly more complicated than human DNA.
Allowing for a couple of plausible hypothesis for how she pulled it off. One being that her DNA gave her such advanced instincts that she could emulate an experienced adult mind, complete with specific language knowledge. With the other being that her memories get laid down in her DNA.
Either being plausible for ‘the supreme being’ who is destined to champion all life against the ultimate evil. Such a degree of complexity, in the most advanced life in the universe is a credible concept.
Being able to do the same with a random mutation that, on the face of it, just gives powerful regeneration? Mmm, sense of disbelief problems with that one.
I have always felt that the correct explanation for the comic-book Wolverine’s sketchy memories is the result of a ridiculous number of concussions being applied to his brain and his healing factor fixing said concussions – and to hell with any memory that isn’t absolutely essential to survival in his noodle.
As I understood it, Leeloo’s DNA was essentially the DNA of all life intertwined (which makes her humanity and hair colour a bit odd but let’s ignore that for now) and the language she spoke was the instinctive language of all living things.
Other things, like her knowledge of where to find the priest, however, were clearly something that could only be ascertained through hardcoded memories as they would not remain the same across lifetimes.
With the number of duplicate instincts her everything DNA would have given her, though, she would logically have a fair bit that could be overwritten thusly. A few important memories hardcoded as instinct and overwritten each lifetime doesn’t seem too far beyond the realm of plausibility, though it’s hardly my scientific area of expertise.
To be fair, his brain is encased in the adamantium skull (which makes me concerned with the number of fatal-looking head-shots he receives when they should just bounce off and leave a shiny patch in his face.)
Blood can cover the shiny, so I am OK with that. Although if he gets hit a lot, on different occasions, then odds would dictate that a number of them would expose the metal.
Whilst, if he is hit by a burst from a machine-gun, he should get the full-on terminator look!
Actually, it’s worse than that. Wolverine once regenerated himself entirely, memories, adamantium skeleton, and everything, from a single drop of blood. Though, admittedly, that had more to do with that drop landing on the Crystal of Ultimate Vision (Uncanny X-Men Annual #11).
This is throwing ‘the real world’ into comics, but I always wanted to know where the extra mass (and the energy to grow it) came from when a regenerator-type came back from a massive injury or dismemberment. If you chopped someone’s arm off, what’s to stop that ‘I can make matter out of thin air’ force from just regrowing into just two more copies of whatever you are fighting? Is there some core ‘master cell’ somewhere that will enable replacing missing bits, but not if the removed body part does not include it?
Well, if you are just bothered about the mass, do not forget that a large part of what makes up our bodies is obtained from the air we breathe. OK there are other essential parts that come from elsewhere, but if all you worry about is ‘where does the extra mass come from’, then air provides the solution. The super power then just has to do a bit of work on turning that into the necessary fleshy bits.
Which would require a vast amount of energy, in some cases. But you did not stipulate that as being a concern. ;-)
Wolverine has to eat a lot of food to fuel his regeneration. He doesn’t get the mass from anywhere else (like extra-dimensional sources) like some regeneratives might.If Logan had been on the verge of starvation before getting injured, he regenerates more slowly than usual; If he has to regenerate a lot of damage, he’s quite hungry afterward. He does have to have a lot of proteins for the basic “building blocks” to regenerate.
That though would not explain the extreme example HiEv described above.
Btw Deadpool is Marvel’s.
But you don’t want him to remember the last few minutes. Otherwise, how do you get him to do this again and again without a fight?
Grab him before he has finished regenerating enough to do anything. All he needs to be is alive, to be shoved into the field.
It was indicated he has no organs: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2638
That would kind of shield him from dying from that.
Well, technically, Sciona just speculates that he may survive the blast. How he may be able to do that is not stipulated. You are right that one possible option is that he has no vital organs, so would survive that way. But there are numerous other ways that supers can survive an explosion (e.g. being invulnerable, or highly resistant to damage, having a forcefield stronger than the blast, going intangible, or having the ability to be squashed flat, like Mr Amorphous).
What we see above does eliminate various of the options though, so elevating the chance that the ‘no vital organs’ solution is right.
Although there is still the ‘Sciona just killed him and does not care’ possibility. Although, if that is the case, it does create issues for how she will get any other artefacts. Which she did seem to be very keen on, a moment ago.
Maybe whatever Epimorph will do to her will allow her to bypass further fields without a sacrifice. Deus indicated we should expect boost in power. And as Vehemence showed us, you can overcome surprisingly many problems if you have “power to burn”.
Both extremely good points.
Well, Cooter fulfilled his role as “Designated Casualty,” time for — Wyrml, I believe — to achieve greatness as “Acceptable Losses.”
(Note to self: check Who’s Who before posting, not after)
I’m thinking, more like “Designated Casualty #1”.
Making Wyrmil, of course, “Designated Casualty #2”.
One wonders how many others of Sciona’s group fall into the same general category and just don;t know it yet. This is probably why she doesn’t have any friends. ;)
Oh wait a second, How is Wrym’s shoulder belt passing through the field? There’s no way that it’s considered living material, else they would just loop the strap around an arm or something.
Unless of course there’s a special clause for “living material that is wearing non-living material will enable the non-living material to pass through”
Good eye. That final panel should probably have Sciona reaching through the back of Wyrmil’s head and mouth.
To me, this raises a possibly interesting question: could Sciona just reach through the fields herself if she wanted? The field would likely kill her orc-body, but maybe that would not include her elf half head, and she might be able to continue to move by using blood magic on the orc body.
It could be that the field includes “organic” as if it were “living,” since organics are at least once-living material. So if the shoulder strap is made of leather, it would probably lose its organic potential to be revived with true Life. This would also affect undead, such as vampires, by destroying the living blood in their bodies & turn them into a true, inanimate corpse.
Hey, I think this would actually qualify for an official No-Prize if DaveB was writing for Marvel. The No-Prize isn’t simply pointing out a mistake in logic or physics, but it must also include a logical explanation for why that “mistake” happened the way it did.
:D
Obviously the best answer is that it’s not a shoulder belt, it’s a belt-like organic construct that he’s wearing for some reason.
Or it’s part of him that just looks like a belt, a la D&D doppelgängers…
then why wouldn’t it change in the same dieing pattern the rest of him?
Agreed.
Way better than ‘the author did not think of that detail’. Which he occasionally claims to do, but that is clearly just him being humble. Or making deliberate mistakes, so that we do not suspect that he is actually chronicling real events, from a parallel Earth.
As a supernatural, Wyrmil may well be an alien. In which case living organic equipment may be readily available.
In which case either it is too expensive, and Wyrmil was the cheaper option to use, or he looked at her funny once, so she is just disposing of him. With the intent of getting out her box of living organic gloves afterwards.
If that is the way of things though, Cthillia may be a bit alarmed, given how pissed off the boss seemed to be with her, just now.
“… living organic equipment may be readily available.”
That may well be…In the GURPS Ultra Tech sourcebook, working with bio-engineering can make tools (even computers!), clothing, housing, pretty much everything, that has been grown rather than built. Such items can even heal themselves if given time.
So he could have avoided this fate simply by putting on a shirt? Sciona planned this well to make sure she had a minion who likes to walk around topless…
It’s my or her eyes changed the moment she took the dagger?
me*
seen edge-on they look blue-grey. straight-on it’s more silver-grey. (it’s the angle, not the dagger)
Good eye (pun intended), in noticing that detail. As Yamof said it could just be the angle though, or because we look at the eye filtered through the barrier, but it just as well could be a colorshift due to the artifact.
Compare the first panel with the last – the eyes look pretty similar to me. The remaining panels, we are seeing her eyes at an angle, so we’re seeing more of her sclera than her pupil and iris.
Granted, the pupil is significantly more contracted in the final panel, showing more of the iris.
Agreed. We had a good close-up of Sciona’s eyes, on the previous page, and they seem much the same. Obviously her look is a lot more intense, and there is a bright special effect going on right in front of her. So what variability there may be could easily be accounted for by that. We do see characters having a bit of reflected light from nearby special effects (most normally Halo’s orbs, but also including other things).
Cthilla? You’re up next.
Maybe not. Sciona got what she wanted & Wyrmil won’t be needing what he wanted anymore. If Cthilla isn’t after anything else, then she’s safe…for now.
If it is fully charged-up Sciona could use it (presumably to upgrade herself, given the various hints we have had) and pass it to Cthillia to keep. It should not be too hard for someone who can kill with her gaze, to charge up a mere 99 lives.
“No, I’m supposed to kill the bus driver.”
Am I the only one hoping to see that Deus is after the Winslow?
To get the Winslow, you’ll have to be insane, suicidial or dumb. It’s as useful as a well shaken bottle of nitroglycerine. And as we all know, Deus is none of the above. Well, at least not suicidial or dumb…
What is the Winslow, I am unfamiliar.
A (sentient?) indestructible creature from Phil Foglio’s imagination.
The Winslow
HEAD OF N.A.S.A. We have just verified that communications have been sent from two alien fleets, approaching the Earth from opposite directions. Each is made up of a vast armada of different types of vessels. One fleet is transmitting “Release the Wensow, or have your planet destroyed!”
The other is sending “The Wenslow must worshiped in situ. Do not move him, or your planet will be destroyed!”
PRESIDENT OBAMA: When will they arrive?
HEAD OF N.A.S.A.: They are travelling at sub-light speed. We estimate late 2017 to early 2018, at current rates of declaration.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK that will be the next POTUS dealing with their arrival. Any suggestions on how to prepare for this?
HEAD OF N.A.S.A. (camera pulls back to reveal that he is wearing his underpants on his head, and has a pencil in each ear): Build a really big wall?
“declaration” = “deceleration”
Is the Winslow in here? I didnt see it… One would think a sentient, immortal, invulnerable cartoon lizard plushie would stand out.
Hi!
Lizard, not donkey.
You think The Winslow cares what you call Him?
Take care, your words would be heresy on over 1500 planets!
And gospel on 2000, but was talking about The Winslow Himself, not the NonBelievers
The Winslow’s word of wisdom must be studied, for any true scriptural interpretation.
No one with a brain would store the Winslow in here. It’s totally indestructible (it survives Big Bangs) and easily bored. It would play with the other contents and eventually force it’s way out of what was left of the vault.
Remember, the only time we’ve seem it restrained was with a force field which was specifically designed to contain it, which was rated at impenetrable, and that rating was convincing enough that a Hugh number of species rioted, in part, because no one could figure out who removed it and how (turns out it was pulled into hyperspace, which kills all species unless they’re shielded against it; the Winslow seemed to find it fun).
??? I checked that before posting! The spell checker changed it during posting? That should read:
No one with a brain would store the Winslow in here. It’s totally indestructible (it survives Big Bangs) and easily bored. It would play with the other contents and eventually force it’s way out of what was left of the vault.
Remember, the only time we’ve seen it restrained was with a force field which was specifically designed to contain it, which was rated at impenetrable, and that rating was convincing enough that a huge number of species rioted, in part, because no one could figure out who removed it and how (turns out it was pulled into hyperspace, which kills all species unless they’re shielded against it; the Winslow seemed to find it fun).
spell chexker doesn’t fix my garbling; like it didn’t fix you’re second “it’s”.
:)
I doubt Wyrmil will die from that. Each artifact is in a separate field and that trick won’t work a second time if he’s dead.
Or the knife is the Epimorph that Sciona is after and the rest are screwed. Most likely this because it’s not the Regenator, the Scalpel or the book, they were already shown last Monday.
The Mask would probably survive contact with the field, as he breaks ever conceivable law of reality on a regular basis, but I doubt Sciona is crazy enough to wear it
It has already been said the knife is the epimorph. I wondered about the other artifacts they were after as well for the same reason, they probably can’t use this body anymore since it is now no longer living. The vampires disintegrate on death so they can’t be used for this, however they might use dr. Chuckles to get the book.
I guess people work as well as pumpkins for my theory…
Why go to all the trouble of carrying a heavy pumpkin there, when using an unsuspecting ally works just as well?
Because I’m not a psychopath.
Yeah, but I bet Deus would use a pumpkin if he wanted to go down this route.
is it just me or is Wyrmil missing his tongue in the final panel?
Minions-R-Us is gonna get peeved
Sciona is totally gonna lose her security deposit.
Makes one wonder if Deus would be either impressed or disgusted by what Sciona did….!?
I’m thinking disgusted, that she wasted a valuable resource instead of using a more cheap and dispensable one.
Minions ARE disposable, that’s why you have them
And let me guess, this is her in a GOOD day!
Alright, that’s one artifact down. How does she intend to get the rest? I doubt the rest of her “team” are going to line up for the same treatment.
She forgot to say “Kali ma… Kali ma… Kali ma, shakthi deh!” or at least say “FATALITY!”
sounds like a very complicated spell, which was probably just as complicated to piggy-back, complicated by the fact that Deus could not know exactly when Sciona would cast it.
but he still had a shopping cart ready to go.
Deus is just going to have a glove made out of living skin, or a living flesh portal, probably something his company engineered.
Heavenly Sword is my bet for Deus’s solution. The ability to sheathe weapons in energy is easily as likely to work as a Sciona’s minion bypass. Sheathe her arm in energy, and the field won’t be able to touch her. Reach in grab what you want, extend the sheath over it, and pull it out. Seriously, is there anything more Deus than that? Simple, elegant, and gallingly smug.
Opal. Since the anti-portal measures have been disabled.
My thoughts:
Option 1: Have opal open a portal under the item and drop it out.
Option 2: cut the pedestal making the item.
Either way, Deus’s minions will appreciate him more after this.
Actually, I just had an even easier idea…
At this point, shouldn’t Sciona’s crew be seriously reconsidering their affiliation with her? That’s two betrayals in a row, and while Cooter was scum, Wyrmil is one of them. She gave no warning and just used him in a really callous manner. She already takes blood from one of the vampires in the group. Don’t tell me Cthillia et al are martyrs for their cause.
That said, if Wyrmil can survive and is going to regenerate from this, then what Sciona did would actually make more sense. It’s said that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, after all. And Wyrmil IS WORMY…
I came here just to say she effectively used a wormhole.
Gods, Dave, this was planned. You deserve hell for that pun.
*Groooan*
Wow, I did say that wormholes were the obvious way to go. But Dave has found an utterly awesome subversion† of that!
† Or should that be ‘perversion’? :-D
*takes hat off*
I had a pun going on “Some have greatness thrust upon them, others have greatness pulled through them.” But yours is much better. I tip my hat, sir.
…Wouldn’t that more accurately be a “Wyrmil hole?…
Also, following the Sciona vs. Vale topic from last update, I had a crazy idea last night. “Crazy” as in “Don’t take this seriously.” ;-)
Pixel has laser claws and has pink hair. Vale has pink hair. Maybe Vale has serious cutting laser powers? :-D Sciona would have to be defeated by dismemberment, decapitation, and her head getting diced. For all we know, Pixel’s and Vale’s laser powers could even share a common origin. And while Pixel’s claws failed to defeat Sciona, Vale’s laser edge has a different shape and could get the job done.
Normally the idea of same power origins would seem a major stretch but, since Pixel herself isn’t a super, she’s clearly in possession of a rare form of super were virus. Presumably one where the light manipulation powers pass on.
Add to that that Vale’s unusually small for a super and you might just be onto something.
Clever association and credible.
Just to point out the downsides (without over emphasising them):
1. Dave does have a preponderance of characters with pink (or pinkish) hair. Only one of which also goes grrrooowwwl.
2. Sciona totally whupped Pixels butt, stripped her naked and hung her from the ceiling. This despite Archon training. (Although Vale may have better, after all Math did).
3. Sciona was able to win even with Pixel having the advantage of approaching by surprise, whilst stealthed and invisible. (The team were scouting potential enemy locations, but Sciona did not know they were coming, well not until her wards detected Pixel).
I do think you have a good idea mind. Especially as there are a couple of things to weigh the odds in favour of your idea:
A. We have more than once seen Vale ‘appearing out of the shadows’. Something that would be very easy to do with panther-like stealth and inherent invisibility!
B. Pixel did manage to lop part of Sciona’s anatomy off, before falling.
Remember guys, Sciona commented that Wyrmil could essentially survive being turned into paste by explosives.
So, this betrayal is probably not lethal, just fucked up.
She hinted he could survive the blast of an explosion big enough to destroy the vault door, a blast that would destroy the internal organs of the rest of them but not his. That could just mean he is very sturdy or have different organs.
Besides, it is the field that killed him on touch, not the big gaping hole that Sciona punched through him.
It was left unclear as to whether his organs would remain in tact or if he could simply survive them not doing so.
An this is why minions should say as far away from lethal force fields as possible while the Boss is around, after all, Minions are disposable….
Panel two; “It was at this moment Wyrmil knew he had fucked up.”
I’m waiting for Wyrmil to shout she should have given him some warning, as his face grows back, while Deus walks over to a wall switch and turns off the fields. After all, they need a way of being able to add new artifacts.
I approve this – except it should involve a keypad, a mystical symbol, and a body part of something no good person would kill (say, a unicorn’s hoof).
I should note that I am *not* in favor of removing any body part from any member of the equine family. This was a hypothetical answer presented as a mental exercise.
::twitches his long silky ears nervously::
Heh. Your first part is good enough that it should be hidden in spoiler text. ;-)
The latter part I think would result in too many readers frothing at the mouth and complaining that it is implausible! So that gets my approval, given that Deus doing that would be hilarious, and funny wins.
Heh! I wouldn’t put it past Dues to already know where that switch is & how to use it. Then he tells Sciona that her way was a bit barbaric, but no less effective.
OK I think Cthillia may be doubting Sciona’s agreement to ‘share the Epimorph’. Unless she gets first use. But then she will be wondering if Sciona planned that all along, to use Cthillia as a guinea pig.
Mind you, there is the Lazarus Scalpel to consider. If that allows Wyrmil to be raised from the dead, then Sciona’s allies might be OK with it.
Barring the problem that the Lazarus Scalpel is still behind its protective field. So that means someone else will need to be killed, in order to retrieve it…
This is like the opening to The Dark Knight. Everyone has a job to do on the team and they get killed right after they perform it. Though in this case they get killed TO perform it.
I wonder when Sciona is going to explain how she got those scars.
Just a guess, but maybe she was taking management training classes
+1
All I can say is she better succeed, because no one will want to work with/for/near her after this. Even Doom treats his underlings better.
As in Doctor Doom? Well, almost all of his minions are robot copies of himself…
Nah, Dr. Doom has numerous minions that aren’t robots. He even employs scientists & engineers at the top of their fields to perform work based from his own plans. He promises them “the highest conceivable reward” if they successfully completes the work, If they succeed, Doom fulfills that promise by allowing them to serve him longer, rather than dying because he doesn’t tolerate failure.
Remember folks, tuck in your fingers when pushing semi-dispensable teammates through flesh-rending barriers. We wouldn’t want any work-related accidents, after all. Which brings another question out: If there was some kind of super-minions guild complete with workers’ comp for injuries…if you regenerate…are you eligible? :D
He could probably file a sexual harrassment grievance for “inappropriate touching”.
Really, didn’t any of these people ask why their part of the plan just kinda stopped halfway thru the hiest? I’ll bet every one of them fell for the “pull my finger” gag multiple times as an adult.
So now I’m wondering two things.
A> How is Deus going to succeszfully “shop” – is he gonna sacrifice one of his beauties?
2> Has Sciona ever received a “World’s Best Boss” coffee cup ftom her adoring subordinates?
Sciona either did research on the field that I am not sure how she obtained, or got lucky: if it hadn’t been interrupted by the obstacle of living flesh to make her pipe, but instead remained contiguous passing through it entirely, she’d have at best just lost her arm, and potentially her own life.
I get the impression that she either was involved in making this vault or has talked to people who have.
Sciona used to be a member on the Council. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that she was already aware of the vault & its contents.
My guess is that her traitor vampire cohort has the plans to the vault, being a Council Chair.
With allies like that, who needs enemies?
If you think about it Sciona is actually quite a warm and fuzzy sentimentalist. Clearly the easiest solution would to have brought a bunch of big bunnies (in a suitably ruggedised box, to survive the arrival conditions). Grab bunny and treat it the way she just did with Wyrmil.
No risk of mutiny, for abusing her team, and nothing that would stop her technique from working (given a sufficiently big bunny), as the security measure does not stipulate sentient life.
But no, Sciona has decided not to harm innocent life! Rather she has sacrificed a heartless monster. Possibly literally, if he is lacking in vital organs, and is able to regenerate back to life, as has been speculated above.
And the traps that did require sentient life (or at least someone who looked more threatening than a bunny), Sciona sourced a person who was so objectionable that even monsters were repulsed by him!
This hypothesis brought to you by PETM.
Go on, pet ’em, Sciona won’t bite.
I think Wyrmil isn’t dead (yet) so Sciona is able to grab through him. A bunny would be dead nearly instantious.
Fair argument. He may indeed take longer to die (given his supernatural toughness) than a mere one hit point bunny. It would be problematic if her meat shield died before Sciona finished the grabbing.
Also it’s never wise to harm bunnies. Doomguy could find out about it.
He certainly has a nervous system.
Seems that Sciona follows Lord Xykon’s philosophy “Sacrificing minions,.is there any problem it CAN’T solve?”
+1
Hmmm, did The Mask of Loki change expression in the last panel?
Its eyes do seem bigger. But that may be a facet of the close-up, making everything a bit larger, even in the background.
Or it could be because it has leaned forwards eagerly?
Considered the simple close-up explanation, but we are talking about the Mask of Loki here… :D
Amused Mask of Loki is amused…
Someones gonna need a whole lot of moisturizer…
Hmmm. Is it me or are the “explanations” getting sloppier and sloppier? It seems stupid that the field would be blocked by living material… because then you just shove living material above and below (use lobes of a cactus: portable, still alive when you break the lobe off, and come in handy large pieces) and hey presto, field blocked. If the field has a high diffraction angle, then you would need a tunnel of cactus… but needing to use Wyrmil’s chest as a tunnel seems stupid on Sciona’s part if all she needed was a tunnel of living material. Catch-22: maybe there is something about Wyrmil we don’t know… like maybe in terms of “living” material he is a much stronger source of interference to the field, and thus he is one of the FEW living materials you could use to make a tunnel… but right now we know nothing about Wyrmil, so the field loophole comes off as a “hollywood” loophole (i.e. no grounding in reality: just some weak explanation as to why it works).
Also sloppy on the Wyrmil belt passing through the field. So much for non-living material not passing through.
I hope Wyrmil’s face & chest are left behind INSIDE the field… because now that those bits are non-living, they can’t pass back out…
I hope Wyrmil can regrow his face… which is NOT something I would expect, since he does have a scar on the now-dead portion of his face… suggesting his regenerative capabilities are sub-optimal. Wyrmil being able to survive a massive explosion just indicates he’s very explosion resistant… also Wyrmil was very fire/heat resistant (he didn’t need a suit to protect him from the aftermath of the Cooter-explosion). I guess we’ll find out how dead-face-and-chest resistant he is…
Sounds like something of a sore point, for you?
While the field does seem relatively easily bypassed don’t forget that it is just one of many defensive systems that had to be overtaken. And Sciona had lots of time and intel to work with before she came here, and a willingness to sacrifice the lives of others.
Actually we do know one key fact. Which gives us a strong clue that it is pertinent. And you even mentioned it, in passing. The fact that he is so tough.
Whilst I cannot claim to have spotted the relevance myself, his remarkable toughness* does give an extremely plausible reason for why he (and his individual body cells) are not instantly killed. Thus allowing a tunnel for Sciona’s hand to go through. If she is quick. Wyrmil is resistant, but falls short of Achilles, so will die. Just not as fast as lesser mortals.
The belt we can either take as being a trivial continuity error (your points are valid) or we can look for a plausible explanation. Not that exposition has been offered. However if we accept the premise of what she has done, we could argue that Sciona specifically made sure that his equipment could pass through the field. We do, at least, know this has all been carefully planned in advance.
Meaning that it would have to be living organic in nature. Something that is fairly common in science fiction (Farscape giving a really big example). Wyrmil may be an alien with access to such or, if not, Sciona could have pulled strings to get that, from one of various different alien factions operating on Earth.
Looking at it in even more depth, she is an inventor. I bet she will have experimented thoroughly until she found a workable solution (we know she has the full specs of this vault from the vampire traitors):
Protocol: insert a tube of Sciona’s blood through object and pass it through a replicated death-field.
Test subjects (and result): Lab rat (fail), cactus (fail), Cat (fail), Cow (fail), Living organic glove (fail), Living organic glove made out of cloned regenerating pink panther (partial success), Living organic glove made out of cloned regenerating Wyrmil (sufficient success to progress to next test or, if rushed, move to field trials**).
The belt may be finest Wyrmil living leather!
* Tank armour is only inches thick. And you can only put so much thicker before the tank gets too heavy to move. So a lot of technology has been developed to make it even tougher. Now think about that vault door, which was easily five feet thick. And made out of super-technologically advanced armour, many generations more advanced than anything developed on Earth.
Yet Wyrmil could survive an explosion that would destroy a vault door with those properties.
** Using a full-body Wyrmil glove, rather than a thin clone meat one, would be safer for Sciona, if Archon’s meddling interrupted the graduated testing program.
Just because we haven’t been giving ten pages of Smelly Shelly Cooper drivel explaining every damn detail, does not make the explanation ‘sloppy’, besides, that’s simply how they (Sci-fright and companies) understand it, and you don’t need to fully understand how something works to have a work-around (or, in this case, work-through)
We know that Maxima has a brother.
Final panel.
Does Maxima have a long-lost sister?
Now that you mention it, I can see the similarity.