Grrl Power #632 – The peg-legginator
Whoops, just realized I drew Harem firing left handed. Oh well. I won’t tell the boss if you don’t.
Seriously, that railgun would have like a +10 piercing in a D20 system. It’s one of those weapons that has so much penetration it actually does less damage than a comparable lead bullet because the projectile itself rips through everything before it has a chance to expand or disintegrate. It just ignores intervening armor, or engine blocks, hospitals, or whatever the target is hiding behind. On the other hand, it is moving so fast it’s dragging a bladestorm of supersonic wind behind it. It’s like having a fragmentation grenade go off inside the wound tract. If she hits someone in the torso with the thing, it basically ejects their head, limbs, and genitals in every direction.
Remember, Dabbler’s adventuring days basically makes her akin to a Diablo character. She has tens of thousands of kills under her belt, so she doesn’t consider limbing an enemy who can regenerate anyway antisocial behavior. At least she knows not to do it in front of a news crew.
The team went into this fight with instructions to bring Sciona in dead or alive, but with a strong preference for alive. Like don’t kill her unless her hand is hovering over the history eraser button. Turning her over to The Council would, as she points out, be a death sentence anyway, but at least a death sentence with some semblance of due process.
It’s probably nice to have a lot of bullet resistant teammates. It’s far less stressful to be able to shoot into a melee without worrying about friendly fire. It’s doubtful a 9mm round would do anything to Sciona while she’s jacked up on Super Juice, but you never know. Maybe hitting her in the eye would hurt. Or if you shot her right in an incisor. Ack! Can you imagine? Even if you were invulnerable, I think that would still give you a terminal case of the willies.
Edit: Yes, this is a little hypocritical of Max, considering she limbed Vehemence. Her reaction has more to do with just being surprised at her opponent suddenly coming apart in front of her.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I’m actually sort of surprised that Sciona is able to take a ‘MFPunch’ from Maxima and only suffer a broken nose, given Sciona’s current ‘invulnerability’ status from her blood syringe cocktail, but Dabbler’s railgun blasted straight through her leg and removed it. Now I’m wondering how well Maxima would do if hit with Dabbler’s railgun (I don’t have to wonder about Achilles since we’ve already seen that it doesn’t even scratch him).
Don’t forget that, although near the top of the scale, Dave’s blog/comments indicated that Maxima was still pulling her punch. Plus Dabbler’s opinion, in the final panel above, corroborates that Max could have liquefied Sciona’s head.
So (assuming Dabbler’s estimate is right), if Maxima went all out she is at least as powerful as Dabbler’s rail gun (and possibly more again, if not hugely so).
Therefore I think Maxima would be in serious trouble anytime her dial is set to ‘offence heavy’ (or, more significantly ‘defence light’), should she get hit by Dabbler’s rail gun. But, if she had ‘defence heavy’, I think Maxima would be able to shrug it off.
In between though, on a balanced setting, I think I would advise Maxima to duck. It is not the kind of thing to guess about.
We also don’t know what the actual duration of Sciona’s power boost is, nor how it’s affected by time. It could be that it doesn’t last long and loses effectiveness as time passes so Sciona’s not as tough as she was a few minutes ago.
It doesn’t really matter how long Sciona’s powerup lasts if her blood just got all over the delicate magic circle she was very obviously trying to keep clean a couple pages ago. What if that sets off the base’s self-destruct that everyone’s ignoring Sydney about? At minimum, that would ruin the whole portal-opening scheme.
I was thinking of the relative damage between Max’s punch and Dabbler’s gun.
Somehow I think the blood didnt get on the portal blood lines, it got on the ‘self destruct’ blood lines instead.
Which will end up erasing the portal blood lines, I’d wager.
Doesnt change that SOMETHING is coming through the portal. But now maybe that something won’t be controllable by Sciona.
It can’t have been TOO long since she took the cocktail – she used it to give herself some time to stall the supers, which does imply that the cocktail would have lasted at least as long as was necessary. Since it’s been more than a minute, we can figure she was using the word ‘minute’ more figuratively, which also means that the cocktail would have been designed to give her more than a single ‘minute’ as well.
Yorp, he actually said she’s only hit that strong for 3 people who havent been completely destroyed by the punch, which is probably meaning Vehemence as one of them. And we know that she was NOT holding back with Vehemence.
I’m just saying that it’s surprising that Dabbler’s railgun was able to do what Maxima’s strongest punch did not do.
same force+smaller impact area=more damage?
The smaller surface area increases the joules per square inch
For info only, the full quote:
I can see where you are coming from, given that the other was likely to have been the archvillain in bandages (going by the prevailing fan theory). However we did not hear that onomatopoeia in the Vehemence fight (but I am not contesting that would be obligatory, although it is worth mentioning). The key bit though is we know that there is one person who can take it without even blinking, and that is Achilles.
It is very likely that Maxima’s sparring and testing with him will have (gradually and carefully) gone up to the top of her attack capability. Which would make the list ‘mummy wrapping dude’, ‘Achilles’ and ‘Sciona’. But not including Deus.
Don’t forget that, at the point where Maxima would have wanted to do that attack, Deus was hurting Maxima so badly that she could not divert her power pool safely.
So clever lateral thinking. And possibly right. But not definitively so.
Vehemence, not Deus. Deus doesn’t hurt Maxima. Deus helps Maxima, as he helps all people except evil warlords.
She was using most of her power in strength in the BEGINNING with Vehemence and only changed later on when the power balance started shifting against her. Remember , when she punched him after Peggy shot him and he wound up destroying an entire constuction site? :)
Railguns are *really* powerful.
They can be, the one I made failed to launch a golf ball 15 feet.
Given the low ferrous content of a typical golf ball, that’s actually really impressive. ;)
So, if switching to a ball-bearing, of golf-ball size, the advice is to duck?
Reminds me of this: Duck! “Yes?”
Lol.
Also there might be difference between piercing damage and blunt damage. I might be getting to game mechanicy here :)
The comic has referenced D&D type things more than once (Dabbler is part Doppleganger, drow originated in D&D – albeit based off dark elves of legends and Dabbler’s spell selection seems heavily D&D wizard oriented). So such speculation may have merit.
The railgun goes through tanks and mountains. In the first demosntration, they used Achilles as Backstop!
But at the same time it does not deal a lot of damage.
And as that attack was aimed at the leg rather then the head, the killing chance was way lower. You should only die from a legwound if you do not get immediate medical attention.
The biggest factor in gunshot wounds isn’t usually the injury itself (unless it takes out your nervous system directly (ref. Headshot)
It’s the shock of the injury. Only if you survive that do you get to bleed out.
Losing a limb like that would definitely be a cause for shock.
To be fair, Sciona’s lost a lot more than a leg before. I think it’s safe for Dabbler to assume that anyone who can survive the loss of everything from the molars down can be expected to survive a dissolved calf with reasonably timely medical attention.
Lol. Yea.
That’s only true if it’s a leg wound that just hits muscle tissue and misses the major arteries in the legs.
What we have here is a complete amputation, That’s a lot more dangerous. Really, there isn’t a place on the human body where you can safely shoot someone with no risk of causing serious harm.
Just as well Sciona is Alari, rather than human.
Max might be slightly surprised/concerned because unlike Harem’s bullets, Dabbler’s supergun might be something that could have actually injured Max if Dabbler hit her by mistake.
Agreed, that will certainly be a contributing factor. I think the primary one though is that Maxima has shown an extreme tendency to protect people.
1) Maxima was most insistent that ‘there will be no whisking away’, when Sydney expressed concern that she might be subject to rendition and testing. Her dialogue, emotions and body language showing that this was an extreme moral point for her.
2) Going to lengths to first establish a rapport with Sydney, then (twice) give her talks on how to take care with her power, to avoid a Gwen Stacey-like incident and, most importantly, to have consideration for both the general public and the combatants.
3) Giving orders that the mob attacking them, at the diner, be taken down with non-lethal options, where possible. Even under circumstances where clearly lethal force was being used against the team. So they had every right to retaliate in kind. Yet they managed to avoid killing even a single enemy, thanks to that decision.
4) I expect folks may consider that using her energy blast on Sciona, at the bridge, to be an exception to this pattern. However they will be ignoring the fact that Maxima considered the people on the bridge to be under imminent threat of attack by Sciona (and I will continue to maintain that her past history very strongly justifies that opinion).
In that case Maxima’s protective instincts were to save the lives of the people on the bridge, and there was no practical way to negotiate a surrender with Sciona (who was much closer to the bridge than Maxima).
5) Maxima has been ramping up the attacks, gradually, on Sciona, each time they have met, to avoid accidentally overdoing it and killing her. Not easy to judge, with the vast discrepancies in power. Plus extremely risky versus an opponent as vicious and deadly as Sciona.
So Max is trying (perhaps overly hard) to be a good cop, and not kill unless unavoidable. But I agree that the possibility of having been killed by friendly fire will have crossed Maxima’s mind, and will not have helped her mood. However her dialogue still indicates that her concern is over proper protocol (given no hint of complaint about personal safety).
Going only from canon, we know that she will kill in an instant to get something she wants. She “killed” (he got better, but she had zero idea that would happen) Cooter to gain access to the vault. She “killed” Wormy (he got better, but she had zero idea that would happen) to get access to some artifact. And she “killed” Cooter/Wormy again*, and it’s likely they will get better, to get the Brane Ripper. But we have never seen her just kill someone, and especially a bunch of innocent civilians, just for some momentary advantage in combat or escaping. So arguing that Maxima’s state of mind was justified based on the canon facts is a losing argument. It is possible that Sciona is a known mass-murderer of innocents, and if this is the case then the author has failed to provide us with some fairly important details about the character. But you don’t get to excuse poor writing with poor writing, that’s a circular argument.
* You’d think she might have been just a little more curious about Cooter and his possession of the Brane Ripper during her second dismemberment of him. He has a fairly distinctive body type and appearance, and the simple fact of his possession of the Brane Ripper should have evoked at least the curiosity about how he got the artifact, and who was this guy anyway assuming she didn’t recognize him. What I’m saying is that regardless of whether she recognized Cooter as being the sap she used to gain access to the Vault or not, the situation should have sparked at least some curiosity in Sciona.
Please tally up the number of encounters where we have seen Sciona or her minons. In one column put a check mark if she tried to kill people. In the other put one if she did not.
Sciona has tried to kill people with alarming regularity.
So you quote three instances of Sciona killing for something she wants (omitting various others mind), yet consider that ‘wanting to escape’ is in a different category? It is something she wanted. Why would she behave any differently, in that instance, to her previous encounters?
She wanted to get revenge on the council, so tried to kill a room full of politicians. Maybe some bad, maybe some good. She did not care. Sciona tried to kill them all. We know that because Sydney and the rest of the team were quite happily targeted along with every one else. Sciona was not discriminating, in any way.
Then she wanted blood, so kidnapped a bunch of folks and drained them. We have nothing to indicate they were anything other than innocent (supernatural) civilians. Then the same with Pixel. Then Sydney. As per the pattern you pointed out she wanted something (to gain control of the orbs).
Then, on getting a second chance, decided to try and kill the whole team! She already had their blood, so what was the excuse this time? Sciona wanted to get away, and killing them helped? Or she just felt like it? Or the blood vanished and she wanted to collect it again? Still stuff she wants, either way.
Then we get to the scenes with the three events you described. Same pattern.
Invade Deus’s office, what does she try to do? Kill Vale. Yup, she sure wanted that artifact. She was willing to kill anybody who got in her way! Kind of like at the bridge scene. She had her toy and wanted to use it. But was being pursued. Practically every encounter her response to anything getting in her way is to kill.
That is a massive list of priors, all showing somebody with zero regard for human (or supernatural) life! And it started with attempting a massacre, so there is no escalation, in terms of the number of victims!
Oh, hey, I’ve got one! Remember that time Sciona flew near a bridge with a bunch of innocent civilians on it and didn’t hurt a single hair on any of their heads? I remember, I remember! I also remember that it was Maxima who decided to break out the heavy firepower next to all those civilians and placed them all in danger because of her rash actions. So if anyone in this comic should be judged based on their actions for killing or endangering innocents, that would be Maxima.
Once again, we have never seen Sciona just kill someone, and especially not a bunch of innocent civilians, just for some momentary advantage in combat or escaping. So arguing that Maxima’s state of mind was justified based on the canon facts is a losing argument.
Bringing combatants into the picture is a highly flawed rebuttal, because many people tend to have a completely different view of killing civilians as opposed to combatants. Plenty of comic book characters, heroes and villains alike, are downright ruthless towards combatants and yet would rather die than harm a civilian. I’m not suggesting that Sciona holds that mindset, just that we have zero evidence about her on which to judge that she does not hold that mind set.
I also remember that Sciona *changed course to the bridge* and only left it be *after* she thought it was already serving as a distraction.
+1
Sciona is a teleporter. She had no need to divert towards the bridge, if her intent was to escape. She could have just teleported, to her base, as she demonstrated very shortly thereafter. Therefore her diversion had a purpose.
The balance of probability is that she intended to attack the bridge, as a diversion. Because she is viscous, nasty and likes killing, even when it is not necessary. Which her priors point to.
For example Sciona planned her vault incursion in great detail and could have used a pot plant, or animal, to overcome the death field. Instead she tried to kill Wyrmil. Likewise Sciona could just as easily have fed the bomb-potion to an animal, instead she chose to use Cooter.
The politicians were not combatants. The faerie was not a combatant (she took no part in the fighting and looked incapable of doing so). The were bunny was not a combatant (she was an innocent human, there as a guest, who had recently been infected with contaminated lycanthrope blood).
We have no evidence that the drow, strung up by his feet, was a combatant. Likewise the other individual in the same state. Cooter was not a combatant (he was an ally). Wyrmil was not a combatant (he was an ally too).
Sciona did not try to kill a bunch of non-combatant politicians, until she tried to kill them. Sciona did not try to kill (or drain the blood of) Sydney, until she tried to kill/drain her (on a whim, this was not pre-planned).
Priors do not need to exactly match the circumstances, to be taken into consideration. They just need to give to inform the officer about the character of the person and their likely behaviour. Sciona’s priors show that she is a psychopathic murderer, who tries to kill people in practically every encounter she has with anybody! Civilian or otherwise.
Sciona callously pre-planned the murder of Cooter, purely to gain access to the vault. This is worse (legally and morally) than acting in the heat of the moment.
Sciona may have planned to use Wyrmil, from the outset, to get through the death field. However this seems unlikely as she was after various artefacts and there was only one Wyrmil.
So either his attempted murder was just as it appeared to be, a malicious whim, to take out her anger with Deus, on Wyrmil, or it was another callous premeditated murder (with more presumably planned too, one per artefact she wanted to get).
Combine this repeated pattern of trying to kill anyone INCLUDING various innocent civilians (despite your assertions to the contrary) is more than enough to warrant believing the people on the bridge were in imminent danger.
Maxima’s shot was a football field’s length away from the bridge, so your characterisation of it being ‘next to’ the civilians is untrue.
Here’s one possible reason: The writer is a hack writer. Her teleportation was invented on the spot, without any consideration for continuity.
Being kind, I’ll offer up an alternative: Teleporting is in some way “more expensive” than flying, and therefore isn’t done trivially. This is why she didn’t just teleport to Deus’ office, didn’t just teleport away from Deus’ office, didn’t just teleport to Cooter, and then didn’t just teleport to her Evil Overlord Hideout™. You can’t be intercepted in flight if you can teleport instead, after all.
Note that neither reason makes Sciona’s veering away from pursuit in any way sinister, and still doesn’t provide Maxima with any excuses for opening fire and endangering the same civilians she claimed she was only trying to protect against a non-threat.
That it was invented on the spot is impossible, because we already saw it in use before, in the vault. And for why she didn’t: well, take a look at what Sciona’s done. I’m not sure she’s got all that much wisdom re: using her powers.
Sciona wasn’t just veering from pursuit – she was effectively on a spree killing (Wyrmil, Cooter twice, multiple Fey at a sigil), and was diverting towards a bunch of people whose endangerment she clearly believed would allow her to escape.
Also, it is plausible that she may need to conserve power if her teleport is derived from a blood sample.
Teleporting was indeed an invention. The Vault was accessed via a portal, which remained open so that Sydney could hilariously fall into it, get covered in blood, and have her pussy “warmed up” by Dabbler. It also required a blood magic ritual which was said to take at least hours if not days or weeks.
Do you see the portal Sciona left behind when she teleported away, that Maxima and the rest of Archon could just follow her through trivially?
Did you see the lengthy blood magic ritual Scion had to go through in order to teleport away?
Those were rhetorical question, because you know that the answers are “No” and “no.” Scioa’s teleportation was just as much as an authorial ass-pull as was “ka-pants” and every other “Hey, looky here at my convenient new power!” ability that IGetStronger pulled out of that orifice during the Battle at the Steak House™.
So, if you were raiding a very heavily guarded vault, you would not secure your escape route before committing yourself to going into the most secure area?
Remember that the Twilight Council did figure out that they had made a mistake. Sciona had no way of telling how long that would take. Therefore, even if she was confident that she could overcome all the defences, with time (cutting through doors with her blood laser and so on), she needed to make sure that there was a way of getting out quickly, if the Council were actually on the ball.
Further her teleportation appears to be linked to her Alari body, by virtue of the fact that it had none of the trappings of her magic. Namely no blood runes, vials or sacrifice. We have not seen Sciona demonstrate any other abilities, without such, other than her wing powers (which are clearly associated with her body).
As such, if this deduction holds true, Sciona would not be able to use that ability until she had restored her body. Meaning that if the response team arrived quicker than she planned, Sciona would be trapped. Unless she created her exit blood portal, before proceeding.
Once she had restored her body though, she regained her racial powers, amongst which was teleportation.
Folks have proposed many mechanisms for why Sciona did not, later, just teleport straight from Deus’s office. I am happy with my favourite one though. Namely that Sciona is a member of a winged species, and had been deprived of flight for a long time. So was simply enjoying the sensation again.
Of course people are welcome to stick to whatever explanation they feel. And if the only ones you feel comfortable with is ‘bad writing’, well, if that makes you happy, go ahead. The rest of us do not have to buy that though.
What I would do is irrelevant. What Sciona would do or could do is relevant, but it needs to be justified within the canon to avoid that not-so-fresh ass-pull feeling.
‘Teleporting’ in, as I have already described (but you just don’t seem to be capable of following along with), was a very lengthy process. If teleporting out is a trivial thing, then all it would take is a sideways mention from any of the vault robbers about their getaway plan that doesn’t involve the obvious method of simply returning using the same portal that they used to get there in the first place. Why bother with a second getaway plan when you have an open portal that you spent days or weeks casting and appears to be a perfectly functional two-way travel device? The Archon folks certainly knew that they could just step through, even if they were worried about the potential for traps on the other side. Hell, they could just let Achilles step through with the same sort of beacon that Sydney suggested they attached to a rock and toss through, and everyone seemed to think that was an obvious and good idea, but apparently the author did not want Archon using the portal for whatever reason and so they didn’t. An easier way to handle the whole affair would be for Sciona to have simply closed the portal after she left using it, leaving a locked door mystery for the heroes to solve. But that didn’t happen either. And now we’re apparently being shown-not-told that any stray blood on a portal spell is a bad thing for the portal spell (although neither Cooter’s nor Virmys blood had any effect at all on the vault portal), so closing the portal should have been a fairly quick and simple task.
Teleporting out, on the other hand, was quite fast as we saw. But first, it used her wings, and thus was not an option heading in. Second, we’ve only seen her teleport herself. There were others to teleport in. As for the portal: “a doorway, gate, or other entrance, especially a large and elaborate one.”
In short, two-way. Which might have been necessary as setting it up (and with her teleport out, she might well have forgotten to shut it off – we have seen that she’s not too bright about actually using her powers), or it could have been a bluff to convince the others they’d be returning with her. Possibly both. And since she powers things with blood magic, I highly doubt that shutting the portal off is something she could do without actually accessing it. Which, since leaving, she didn’t.
It is complete speculation that her course change had anything to do with the bridge or the civilians, and wasn’t completely about her discovery that she was being pursued.
Sciona kills practically every time she is in proximity to people. She needs to be exterminated.
Except that Sciona outright referred to “Stupid heroes, always getting distracted by innocent bystan…” She made crystal clear with that comment that the conclusion that she was intending to attack the bridge was correct.
If you honestly believe she wasn’t going to attack the bridge, then I have the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, and a Pyramid to sell you.
:-D
+1, +1, +1
You will note, I hope, that Sciona said that only after Maxima managed to endanger a bunch of civilians by breaking out the heavy weaponry in close proximity to them. We also know, because she did it immediately afterwards, that Maxima was perfectly capable of pouring her power into flight speed and tackling Sciona in mid-flight. But that’s not the “let’s keep this between the supers and not go shooting off death beams in proximity to civilians” route that our little (well, big, but whatever) golden murder-goddess chose to take at first, was it?
Nope, you’ll have to dig a whole lot deeper to try to justify Maxima’s actions than that.
Whilst Sciona was diverting towards the bridge, she was a threat to the civilians, and needed to be stopped. Maxima may or may not have considered the blast sufficient to kill her. But she was fully entitled, under the real-life rules of engagement, of the US military, to kill Sciona, under those circumstances.
Once Sciona had fled the bridge, that threat was no longer an issue, so Maxima could revert to trying to take her alive.
Something she expressed momentary regret for, after Sciona teleported away.
Do note that flying, prior to this, along with her gloating, about heroes failings, was clearly enjoyable to Sciona. Hence this remains consistent with my hypothesis that Sciona chose to do such because she enjoyed it.
But limited uses per day, the power being taxing, and so on, can also explain this, so they remain valid options too.
However, regarding the point of contention, there was little or no digging required. Just a desire to look for a reasonable rationale, rather than to dismiss everything as ‘bad writing’.
You did read the first major super battle, right? The one with Death Toll and Vehemence? The collateral damage from a full superpowered fight that close to a bridge would be catastrophic, of the “all civilians die” variety. And we saw that it took Maxima a little while to catch up to Sciona – more than enough for both to spout a few lines, and the like. And she caught up after Sciona slowed down in the forest. So we don’t know if Maxima even had a chance to catch up in time to save the bridge – and their fight likely would have destroyed it.
That is a hilariously circular argument.
“Maxima destroyed the bridge, thus proving that a supers battle at a bridge is bad for bridges and civilians.”
Again, Maxima proved that she was perfectly capable of simply tackling Sciona in mid-flight and keeping the bridge and the civilians out of the matter entirely. Sciona certainly hadn’t voiced any intent to do anything at all to the bridge or the civilians, and there was more than ample panel space for her to be shown going “Ah, ha! Innocents for me to use to cover my escape. Excellent!” Hell, if she had even just gone “Ah, ha!” and turned towards the bridge we would not be having this conversation. And again, there was plenty of space in those panels for the author to ‘show not tell in the notes under the comic’ us what her intent was. But despite there being almost empty panels between showing Sciona realizing that Maxima was following her and showing Maxima blasting away heedless of the potential danger to those same innocents, that didn’t happen.
No, the argument is a PREVIOUS fight demonstrated that it would be catastrophic. Thus proving that a full fight there would be bad.
And you are neglecting one thing: she did not prove that she could tackle Sciona *IN TIME TO SAVE THE PEOPLE ON IT* from Sciona. Given their total speeds, and distances, and the time it took Max to catch up with Sciona, she probably COULD NOT get to Sciona *IN TIME*. At all, yes. But in time is what matters.
Will Sciona regenerate a new leg or will her leg regenerate a new Sciona? Or both? Sciona you magnificent bastard! You planned for this to happen!
:-D
Option three:
Sciona’s inadvertent sacrifice has been accepted by the dark powers, and something else will regenerate from her blood/leg instead!
“Someday I hope you make something of yourself.” … her mother would be SO proud.
But seriously, why are members of ARC still shooting bullets if *certain members* of the team have access to railgun tech; why is Dabbler hogging all the cool tech for herself?!… I’m sure there is a reason, but it seems like something that needs to be made explicit (cultural contamination, galactic law (real or not), Dabbler’s self-centered nature?).
Well Dabbler made it explicit that she will not share her toys. She never elaborated on her reasons, but there again nobody has asked her why.
Whatever her reasons though, it matters not how cool it would be, with Dabbler having an absolute rule.
Plus just imagine Sydney armed with a weapon capable of punching a hole through a mountain!
With a range enough to go up into space (or the nearest city). Sydney has not even managed to convince the range master that she is fit to have her gun in an assembled state yet. Let alone carry anything with ammo in it.
Uh, Yorpie? Considering the PPO, I’d say that Halo already *IS* armed with a weapon capable of punching through a mountain (considering how it “likebuttah”-ed the testing tank at the demo)!
Sydney is the kind of super that you can give a weapon to make them less dangerous.
As in “It gives them a option besides their power”.
Powers. And yes, definitely Sydney would be less dangerous with a firearm (that only shoots in one direction at any given time) than with her current “Orb that is a Gatling gun!”
I would disagree, because Sydney can see the targets which could be affected by the Gatling gun blast (it was a series of small fireballs). Likewise the tank-melting beam was only affecting enough material to destroy that one tank. We did not see the mountain being chopped open too.
Yet we did with Dabbler’s rail gun. It literally went right through it! And it is designed to shoot satellites out of orbit, so it has a huge range.
Maxima’s talk about ‘being aware of what is beyond your target’ combined with such a destructive long range attack, means no human could use it safely (not knowing what is on the other side of the mountain).
Dabbler can though, because she could memorise the map, so would know where towns and villages were, in the area. And could calculate her shot to exit the mountain at a safe location (say the side of a cliff), where it would be extremely unlikely to kill anyone.
Or, more likely, tweak the strength of the beam to just be strong enough to cut through the target (we do not see daylight, or other hints of a blast through above). That is something Dabbler can easily do. And it is almost certainly precisely controlled via her cybernetic implant, so Dabbler can fine tune it, for every shot.
She can see that Sciona can survive being thrown through two meters of concrete. But can’t just set it to cut through a similar amount. She has to adjust it for the size of the target (in this case a leg) and guestimate how much energy that can soak up.
Underdo it and the attack is ineffective. Overdo it and she could be cutting through the wall and into the ammunition and explosives store in the next room!
But all moot, as Dabbler has no intentions of letting others use her toys. And she gets too bored to make multiple copies of such, in any event. So she is not going to lend out her only railgun.
If the laws of the Haloverse (Capeverse?) applied, it’s Verne Tech, which only works for the Verne in question. And Dabbler is a cross between Verne and Merlin types.
I think in the Grrl verse it’s regular tech, just very advanced (maybe even advanced for the galaxy at large too).
For the same reason why characters in a Hero System game can’t just use the techonmancer’s gadgets whenever they feel like it…
You wanna use the gadget all the time, you gotta pay the points for the power. :D
As Dabbler explained to Sydney, the Galactic Federation (or whatever interstellar community exists) has laws that state there shall be no sharing tech with inferior lifeforms, and Dabbler tends to follow the interstellar rules more closely than the international Earthly ones. That’s why her guns teleport back to her lab if she drops them. She’s set it up so she CAN’T hand them out to her allies.
“I’m sure there is a reason, but it seems like something that needs to be made explicit (cultural contamination, galactic law (real or not), Dabbler’s self-centered nature?).”
She did. Back at the Press Conference.
If she could clone herself that way then every time she cut herself shaving her legs, or to cast a blood magic spell, every cell would (or at least could) become a new Sciona. So I’m going to go with the body will grow a new leg, and the leg will just give it up and be a lump of dead meat.
But hey, she has a lot of spell components pumping out of that stump, so she’d better make use of them fast!
Agreed.
An important factor though is that Sciona does not naturally regenerate (otherwise she would have just grown a new body, rather than having to be grafted to the orc). Plus she specifically referenced troll blood, when she was regenerating. So that power only works when Sciona has chugged down her regeneration potion.
Plus we know that there are side effects (presumably mild for one type of power, rather than the nasty effects from a mixed batch). So it is unlikely that Sciona would be regenerating all the time, in her daily life. Rather it would be reserved for when she has an injury bad enough to justify suffering whatever side effect may be involved.
How does Dabbler even know about the portal?
Also it’s been a lot longer then a minute at this point, so you might want to edit the timetable for the portal being finished.
Presumably they can see it, off-shot. In all likelihood this was the chamber that Sciona was working in, given that she heard the explosions, as the team closed in on her, and then broke through a wall/door to counter-attack.
But we should not discount the fact that Dabbler can cheat in many ways. Not least of which she can read minds (recall her knowing General Faulk’s fantasy about green girls?), so could have easily picked up on the primary concern in Sciona’s mind. In which case she has simply omitted to mention learning that (although this dialogue does count as passing on that vital information, if that is the case).
I was under the impression that she couldn’t so much read minds as read desire in a very specific way… part of her “porn sense”; since Sciona’s concern likely wasn’t related to sex, no mental vibe reading.
Most of Dabbler’s powers are heavily biased towards her obsession. But that does not prevent her using powers in more diverse ways, when needed. Note how her cleaning spell adds makeup (but still cleans). Likewise her ‘incite orgasm’ spell can also be used to help to prevent hypothermia.
> her ‘incite orgasm’ spell
You know, it would be really easy to weaponize something like that….
The US army definitely tried.
Shadowrun did it decades ago.
Seriously, there’s a mass-stun spell called Orgy.
If they were in the room the portal was being made in Maxima could just superspeed steal the sword.
And no Dabbler can’t read mind’s, she has porno sense.
From Dabbler’s cast list entry (currently accessible on the Wiki only):
Porno sense allows Dabbler to sense when people are feeling aroused, and is likely part of her racial mechanism for absorbing tantric energy (you have to be able to sense something to feed off it). So she could tell where X was, despite being invisible. But she could not tell what X looked like. merely where she was.
Yet she could tell that General Faulk was thinking about his fantasy girl. And visualising her face, body and even her hair and skin colour. Nothing about being able to sense arousal implies that you can tell what someone is seeing “in their mind’s eye”. But psionics (mental powers) certainly do include that capability.
Moreover one of Dabbler’s various parents (she had three) was a doppleganger. They have two distinctive traits. One of which is to shapechange. This we know Dabbler has not inherited, as she uses illusions and only pretends to assume her ‘battleform’ by shapechanging. However the other power is ESP. The ability to read minds.
The fact that Dabbler’s cast list confirms that she has psionics, and that she demonstrated being able to read the general’s mind means I have no doubt that Dabbler has that power.
Of course, like all her abilities, it is probably extremely focused on sexual matters. So she may not be able to use it for other purposes. However that would be more due to a lack of inclination to learn such uses, rather than any inherent limitation.
Yes, she could. But do not forget that Maxima is not Super Man. She does not have super speed all the time. Max has to lower her defence, if she wants to go up to bullet-time type speed.
Even before Sciona’s latest upgrade (of eight super powers, most of which we have not even observed yet), she was fast enough to land blows on Maxima, with her wings. And powerfully enough that they drew blood!
Now Sciona is tougher, probably stronger, faster and so on too. So where previously she could only make light cuts, she may well be able to take off Maxima’s head now! Unless Maxima keeps her defence up real high, any time she is within range of Sciona’s wing attacks.
Plus Sciona was able to teleport faster than Maxima could counter attack (again before this latest boost). So Maxima cannot guarantee that even going into bullet time will allow her to evade Sciona’s attacks.
Maybe she can. So your suggestion is a good one. But it also has risks, which Maxima has to weigh carefully. She is unlikely to expose herself to death recklessly. Do note that the only time Maxima was able to land an effective blow was when Sciona was blinded and Sydney took Maxima’s place. So that Max could safely shift her powers around, and land a super strong blow, whilst Sciona was blindsided.
It seemed like Dabbler’s glamour just turns her into a specific person’s dream girl. All she does is choose the victim/lucky winner and cast the spell. She doesn’t know who she’ll look like until the spell takes effect.
However, not being able to read minds doesn’t necessarily stop her from putting extra visual modes in her cybernetic eye to see through walls, among other out-of-this-world tricks. Her whole schtick is being crazy-prepared.
I will admit that is plausible. Dabbler was saying ‘I did not know that humans came in green’ (paraphrasing). However there are various points supporting my contention, which I outline above.
So I would not dismiss your take, as it may be right. But the additional points supporting mine leave me feeling comfortable sticking with my interpretation, with a high degree of confidence.
Also, the simplest solution:
There’s probably a hole in the wall to the portal room (assuming the portal isn’t in this room) from one of the many times Sciona has flown through the wall/been punched through it. After all, as Maxima explained at the restaurant, “This is a super fight. Stuff is going to get broken.”
That’s a damn good question, and one which is probably best not investigated too closely. As I’ve said before, the art here is good, but the writing not so much.
The simplest answer to that question is, the Arc team knows that Sciona took the brane ripper, and the team knows what it can do. Even without knowing which room might hold a portal getting carved open, (and I think it is actually a different room from where this fight is happening), they can be quite sure that Sciona’s purpose here in this lair is to do that thing.
Plus we have not seen all of the room they are currently in. The portal is very likely there, or in plain sight, from there.
They know that it can cause a minor distraction by allowing some hentai-tentacles to drop into our world. Anything other than that and they are just guessing, or have knowledge which they gained without any exposition at all. Neither option is a good one, story telling wise.
We have had exposition that all the items in the vault were the property of the Twilight Council, and they have tasked Archon with recovering them. Further we saw the end of the briefing that Maxima gave to the teams, before setting out. Clearly more had been covered previously.
Further they knew specifically that the Brane Ripper was in Wyrmcoot’s tentacles, and that he was on the run with it, whilst they were still in the presence of several council members.
As such it is very likely that the team are fully aware of its properties. There is no logical reason for the Twilight Council to have withheld such vital information from Archon.
So only exposition complaining ‘why have we not got any information about these items?’ should lead us to think that the team are ignorant as to the general capabilities of the items.
We have had people complaining, in the past, that Dave details scenes overly and should not bog down the story with exposition. So he has been working to keep such to a minimum. It is my opinion that he has provided enough here that we have not been kept in the dark as to what is going on.
The characters know some stuff that we do not (for example who is in the Delta team), but this is not something we need to know, at this time.
And your basis for that conclusion is?
We saw Sydney being provided exhaustive information on every topic she asked about. Plus a lot of things were volunteered. For example warning Sydney that a lot of the supernaturals are real monsters, not cuddly ones, like Mr Fluffy. Likewise she was informed about how spells are programmed, the existence of the Veil, the world-wide-magical web, succubus education, vampire feeding habits, council in-fighting (including on a literal basis).
And a lot more. Basically the only limitation was Dave not wanting to bore readers with too many info dumps. Not once did Sydney hit a ‘sorry that is classified’, nor were there any evasive answers.
Further we know that the VI’s (semper vigilantis) are passing over the operational reins to Archon, to take the lead. Which as a simple matter of practicality includes providing all relevant case files and related information, otherwise that could not be done effectively. Again we have had no aside from Maxima, to Sydney, saying ‘we suspect we are not getting full disclosure’.
Obviously the process has only just started (the blood bank infection being one of the early examples), so Archon will not have a full case history on everybody that the VI’s have dealt with previously. However it would be impossible to conduct an investigation or take action against foes who Archon know nothing about.
Now I will concede that cross-agency communications can be flawed between any organisations. So there may be gaps, or miscommunications. And we saw that the Council dropped the ball on providing info about the Dark Reliquary. That though was not a case that had been handed over to Archon (until it got raided). As soon as it was though, we saw them briefing Archon in-transit.
Likewise they could not have located the Mars factory base unless pretty impressive intelligence analysis had been shared. We therefore have many examples of generous information sharing.
So we would need something much more substantial than your suppositions, to support the quoted claim.
Sydney should really stop dropping her bubble during super fights. Particularly while pointing out a bomb threat she’s standing next to.
OMG, again! Sydney, I am going to have to give you a really severe talking to! I can’t have you dying, just because you think it is more heroic not to go around bubbled up, and think that your reflexes can save you.
Well in the last comic she did it so she could get closer to the barrel and look on the other side of it but yeah now she’s back in the fight so she has no excuse.
Though, all Sydney needs to do now is (hopefully) see that the bombs been activated, use the light hook to bring everyone close to her, and then she bubbles up. But ya, definitely need to keep guard up in the middle of a super fight.
Also, why did Sciona just leave the activation ward in the middle of the room? Why not on a far wall, or under a table, or anywhere that is not within a few feet of said bombs. Villains can be dumb with self-destruct buttons. Believe me, I know. >.> (Learned from my mistakes)
Doesn’t she need to drop the bubble to talk to people?
No. She has talked to people before with it up. Its kind of weird really. The shield can identify and block harmful status affects and physical attacks but still allows radio waves and speech to go through.
It is just sophisticated. It blocks harmful stuff, but lets through useful things. Hard for our primitive technology to do. Easy for those with highly advanced technomagic.
Maybe it’s just me, but it kinda makes me squirm when I’m reminded of Dabbler’s five-figure body count. Especially since she’s only in the hero profession as a curiosity, to be discarded once she gets bored again.
Gives me flashbacks to Mr. Mxyzptlk in “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.”
Dabbler can cure you of that. By getting you to squirm another way.
Iunno. The knowledge of my partner’s willingness to take sapient life is a pretty impenetrable turnoff.
You don’t have a choice in the matter, because magic.
…ick. Thanks for bringing that aspect up that I hadn’t considered.
To be fair not all of her kills are necessarily sentient let alone sapient. If she’s an adventurer there may have been a lot of monsters and dumb automatons and such.
I know, I know… It’s my personal tic is all. Hell, I’m not in favor of ARCHON’s militaristic approach to superhero work (though I’m grateful it’s the voluntary kind rather than conscription).
Dabbler is probably not an amoral being, but it still makes me uncomfortable. Like I said, Mxy at the end of “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” …
“Maybe after I’m done being evil, I can spend the next thousand years being guilty.”
It does depend on the morality of the killing though. Soldiers have to kill, as a part of their role in protecting the country that they serve. And, in modern war, they control vastly destructive powers. With a single push of a button they could sink a warship with hundreds or thousands of crew.
Provided the cause is good, and the deaths justified, the numbers do not change the morality. And the fact that Dabbler kills her enemies face to face just shows that she is willing to see that happen. Rather than having the veil of distance to shield her emotions from her actions and the consequences.
Considering that Sciona’s magic, al the lines and symbols and whatnot, are triggered by blood, even her own, then anyone bleeding could be very bad. Maybe Max knows this? Maybe she already realizes that Dabbler blowing up Sciona’s leg and spurting blood all over the place might trigger something.
Like the traps that Sydney found but never had a chance to tell anyone about.
I beleive Sydney’s question to now be moot. When the big baddie yells now at thier own trap activating you know it is bad.
Sydney failed to apply Maxim 2, which has now lead to Maxim 3: An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
*pulls out MP3 player*
*queues up the 1812 Overture*
I’m sure someone will play Tchaikovsky with railguns one day. It will be glorious.
They be probably quieter to fire than a canon. So you’d have to time the booms of the impacts instead :D
Two words: Sonic boom.
Isn’t the Navy’s experimental railgun’s projectiles reaching like mach 10
It would confirm my stereotypes about our dear Yanks if they are already planning to use those guns to play the 1812 Overture. I can hardly wait to see it.
Dadedadedadedatatata. SONIC BOOM.
Hey, even our national anthem talks specifically about bombs bursting in air, it would really just be the patriotic thing to do.
:-D
And maybe one day y’all might overturn the rebellion and restore your patriotic loyalty to your rightful sovereign? ;-)
So sad that you have strayed from the path. For the time being.
*ears hang mournfully*
I lived across the pond in the UK for a couple years, wouldn’t really have been all that different – pre-Brexit, at least. Get that mess sorted out and we can talk. ;)
Or if our 2020 presidential election is as crazy as the last one, maybe some of us will just defect back anyways… :(
I do have an alternative to offer to Brexit (likewise to ‘Remain’). It is part of my improvement to democracy. It has a couple of flaws, which I have found a two-part solution to.
Do that and a heck of a lot of the world’s problems become non-issues. Once you have implemented the changes I propose.
*sigh*
I have precious little time left to finish laying them out though. I may have to just publish the bare bones. Very shortly I shall have to switch full time to getting back into the rat race, just to eat.
Not that the proposal is of any use to the present UK government. They are in too weak a position to implement it, having chosen to partner with a minority party.
I was actually in negotiations, with Number 10 Downing Street, for about a week, trying to convince them to hear my proposal in detail. Telling them that, if they did, it would give them an alternative. But only if they chose a strong coalition, rather than a slender majority.
But, before they agreed to it, they had committed themselves to the weak option. So even though I got an invite, by them, to submit the proposal, I decided that it would be pointless. The only way I could have gotten it to them (before the coalition was officially confirmed) was electronically, however they declined my request to submit it by email.
Plus, although they indicated that my offer had been submitted to the relevant government departments (with my permission), their invite did not indicate that it should be marked for anyone’s attention, or quote any reference. So it would have just been swamped in the thousands of postal items Number 10 get every day.
I have been kind of hoping that the present government would be forced out, so that I can continue the process with a stronger replacement.
As it stands though I prefer offering the complete package to the world, rather than just a niche application to a single government, who would be unable to do anything useful with it.
But, keep your fingers crossed. The top EU dude indicated that they would keep all options open right up until the final day. So, if the circumstances change dramatically, the third option may become a reality.
Unlikely. But possible.
Oh, and it also offers you the advantage of never having to live under a Republican president again. Likewise Republicans not having a Democrat president.
Similarly for any other government, which takes up my proposal.
It is dumb that people continually willingly subjugate themselves to the rule of political parties that they feel diametrically opposed to. Well, once you know there is a viable alternative, anyhow.
If only they’d listen – someday you’ll show them all!
I’m looking forward to hearing the railgun version of The Star Spangled Banner.
It’s probably best to stop at railguns though. Who knows where this musical arms race might end? Let’s not risk a nuclear version of the 1812 Overture.
There is a whole category of work that uses modulated Tesla coils to produce music. With a little tinkering and removing the shielding from around the linear induction coils, I think Dabbler could get her gun to do the same thing. (just don’t stand too close while it is turned on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar61Fh5KXMU
If 50,000 volts is out of your price (or safety) range, here is a lower tech option you can try at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdgzsF_O7oI
The improved thunder and lightning clicker.
Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening.
Ask and ye shall receive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rseM7tCScdw
so, what will unwanted blood do for summoning circle (remember how sciona was almost desperate to stop that leaking blood from reaching circle and now her leg is bleeding on it)
Something that messes up Sciona’s plans.
*wags tail, in satisfaction*
I vote we keep Daph either lefty or ambidextrous, world needs more of us southpaws.
Given that Harem has an intrinsic ability to coordinate five brains (sort of), worrying about left or right hand is probably not a big deal. So I’d vote for ambidextrous as being more in-keeping with her strengths.
Question: Why does Dabbler’s railgun make a *VORCH* sound? It’s a mass driver. Shouldn’t that sound effect be reserved for jagged energy rays?
I don’t think it’s your grandmother’s mass driver. If it were, imagine what Newton’s third law would do to Dabbler. No, the “mass” is probably not just a dumb projectile. Instead it creates some localized effect which in turn slings the projectile forward. That would explain those pink ribbons. Imagine a rocket, but magic. Or a mass driver that carries its own gun. Or a taser, but built by a homicidal madman. “Mass driver” is probably just the closest thing humans know that describes the effect. And something about that effect could well be jaggedy and energ-y and ray-y.
Maybe it’s gravity manipulation? The bullet isn’t being fired sideways, it’s falling “down” into an extremely intense and tightly constrained gravitational field.
My grandmother’s railgun makes a sort of New York raspberry sound…
I’m pretty sure a railgun would make a thunderous sound as the air in front of the projectile is turned into plasma and the projectile itself is punching through the sound barrier. I’m pretty sure it would also liquefy the target rather than just neatly shear off her leg.
Well my railgun just went “clunk”.
Railguns are the ultimate variable strength weapon, they can do anything from spitballs to planets at .9c depending on the materials and energy involved.
Do you mean coilgun? For Dabble’s gun to penetrate everything it did in the comic, punching through Sciona’s “wing” and her supertough body, it had to be going at an outrageous speed. And that means an outrageous amount of sound at the very least.
If it was just a sonic boom caused by the projectile’s speed, I’d expect the unsound effect *SONIC BOOM* to appear instead of *VORCH*, as it has several times in the past.
InsaneMole probably has the right idea: it’s a railgun, alright, but it’s a MAGIC railgun with extra effects and enchantments to deal with those pesky laws of physics that never let us real people have any fun.
What are you talking about? Seeing a railgun launch a 10lb bullet at mach 7 and punch through a target like it was the fury of God IS fun!
You do not wish to provoke the divine furry!
Good point. It’s just not AS fun as it could be if the railgun bullet could carry the victim’s still-beating heart out of their chest and explode it against a wall (or a distant mountain). Plus, there are all sorts of other scenarios, like:
Using super strength to lift a car makes the bumper come off instead (Maxima needs a very specific loophole to avoid this)
Moving really fast gets you shredded by air molecules
The universal speed limit of light keeps us trapped on this insignificant blue planet because there’s no hyperspace
Trying to jump really high breaks the floor by pushing against it
Lasers don’t work anything like bullets
Lightning/gamma radiation/genetic manipulation/bug bites don’t give you superpowers
Swords/guns/armor break when it’s not plot-significant
The human body can be permanently damaged by getting out of bed and stepping on the side of your foot
…The list goes on.
She does have that. All detailed in Dabbler’s Science Corner #1
Forcefield around every molecule in her body.
Only to the unimaginative. Just fold space. Or travel for a long time.
I bet they do if you use the right technique to combine all four.
Situational awareness is a premium in battle… Max… you really need to get your head in the game here. Sciona’s shouted “NO!” means bad things are about to happen… and Max is more worried about Dabs Vorching Sciona…
I question her choice to fight, while covered in blood, OVER her runes instead of forcing hte fight further away in soem fashion
What makes you think it was her choice?
Aaannd… Now I want to see a pic of Dabbler, lower arms firing a BFG and the upper putting fingers in her ears…
She has shown pretty good strength. How about firing 4 miniguns at the same time?
I think her best multi-attack mode may be firing a weapon with one pair while casting spells with the other.
who the hell taught Harem to shoot like that? there are iron sights on the barrel assembly for a reason. this looks like she’s aiming below her shooting hand. no wonder she’s spraying her shots all over the place.
“Suppressing fire!”
is aimed fire at the enemy to hinder movement. right now Max is in the line of fire. and even though she might be bulletproof, she is still at risk of getting hit. or bystanders because of ricochets.
Maybe she was taught by the Grrlpower-universe equivalent of a Warhammer 40k orc.
She’s currently in the middle of firing several rounds and is at the peak of recoil, maybe beginning to ride it back down… The pic is fairly accurate. (Coming from a former MP who has spent countless hours shooting just like this…)
Nicely put, and thanks for the expert informed opinion.
Those are not ‘all over the place’. Against a normal person one would be centre torso and the other through the mouth. So, whilst not tightly grouped, they are precision ‘kill’ shots.
In this case obviously ones that Sciona can counter, however well enough placed that she is doing so instinctively. Importantly meaning that she is using her wings to block, rather than to slice Maxima open!
I really am not a fan of Harem, but she is doing a good job here. You are right that there is a potential risk of a ricochet off Maxima. However Harem is firing carefully enough that the risk is minimal.
As opposed to the high likelihood that Sciona would have been on the offensive, without the suppressing fire that Mike mentioned. So the low chance of an unaimed bounced shot is negligible danger compared to the high risk of precision counterattacks.
And I must give Harem extra credit for ceasing fire, as soon as she realised that Maxima was trying to negotiate a surrender. She is following her commander’s lead.
I give even more credit to Harem for engaging Sciona WHILE IN HER COMMANDER’S GRASP and not hitting said commander! THAT is marksmanship. That’s actually probably my favorite Harem pose so far in this comic…
Heh. If Maxima were not bullet proof, that would be pretty reckless, given that Harem is just an average SWAT officer, in terms of weapon skill. Unlike Peggy she is not a highly-skilled marksman. But, in my opinion, she did have a good call on the risk to reward ratio.
Especially if she chose a moment when Maxima’s hold was keeping Sciona still enough to make placing shots accurately easier. No guarantees mind, in a dynamic fight. But if up against a top-tier opponent, you have to instantly seize whatever opportunities may present themselves. There may be no second chance.
Okay Sydney. Save the calm talking for the debriefing. Right now, you need to shout “BOMB”.
Also, make sure to do an actual debriefing and discuss what went wrong, what went right, ….
This debate could fall under action vs reaction.
You get punched you swing back. No time to focus on what you did or what’s behind them.
Action would be taking aim and firing making it a clear decision instead of a reactionary attack or defense.
Man, there is nothing scarier than an ominous blop.
sidney why did you let the shield orb go? i would have thought that once you found the explosives it would be fastened to your hand
+1
This stems from having carelessly dropped her roll of duct tape (when conducting flight tests, with Maxima). Had she replaced that later, when equipping her utility belt, and thought to use that when Dabbler’s explosion almost singed her, this would not be a problem.
The big problem is that this is happening repeatedly in the ‘fight’. She needs a stern lecture on this. Preferably without visual aids.
What about tactile ones?
You mean that particular Harem isn’t just left-handed anyway? (Actually would they all necessarily be right-handed? Probably, but..not being in a similar situation, don’t think I’d ever know for sure…..)
All the Harem’s are the same person, so they all have the same handedness. Which we have seen in the past.
Dave does sometimes mix up left and right, but that is a natural problem in the drawing process, especially when hands are involved. The easiest reference is your own hand, but if you are drawing with your right hand, whilst looking at your left manipulating something, it is easy to forget that you are meant to be depicting a right-handed person.
The bigger problem than Harem shooting left handed, is she is holding the pistol too high, she looks like she’s sighting down the lower part of the trigger guard.
Also, the shock wave from fast bullets is VERY deadly. Assault rifle and machine gun bullets are all usually going so fast that they will punch through a person without stopping for directions, and unless they hit a bone will likely not leave any fragments. But as forensics has determined* the shock wave is a major problem. Think of a boat going through water, it leaves a wake behind it. So does a bullet, but the bullet is moving MUCH faster, and the ‘water’ it is passing through is tissue. The ‘wake’ will make a hell of a mess, bursting blood vessels, tearing muscle and tendon, pulping organs, and the like – more damage than just the path of the bullet itself would cause. The bullet passing near the heart may cause enough damage to cause it to stop beating. And even if it doesn’t kill you, it makes enough of a mess that you are probably out of the fight unless someone pumps you full of drugs.
This is also why exit wounds are a mess, small hole going in, giant hole going out as the wake cause the pulped tissue to burst outwards around the exit point. Not going to suck your insides out through the hole, just pulp the hell out of muscle and other tissue, and spray blood out the back (blood can also spray out the front as it is displaced by the bullet’s passage). Entry to exit takes a very small fraction of a second.
This video of bullets passing through various objects in slow motion is quite informative. Its a relatively slow pistol bullet, but the bullet passes completely through, and causes the object to explode in 3 dimensions. That is simply a result of displaced matter at high speed. If you pushed the same bullet through slowly the apple or whatever might bulge a bit, but probably not burst like they do here, and that is because of the speed of the displacement of matter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjUTZH_Vdxs
* This was found by firing bullets into ballistic gel. There used to be this notion that bullets ‘tumbled’ and that causing all that extra damage. The notion is absurd as it would destroy the flight dynamics of the bullet. Bullets are shaped aerodynamically, and spin – that is what the rifling is for – so that they tunnel through the air, going further and straighter (gravity still gets its say, as does wind). A bullet MAY start to tumble if it hit something and is deflected even slightly, but under normal circumstances it should not tumble, nor would you want it to.
Bullets are a problem for humans. But not Maxima. Not those teeny little ones, fired from a handgun. Likewise with Sciona.
Use a bit of Mythbusters analysis. They fire a shot into ballistics gel, to see how much penetration they get, so they can figure out if it was a killing shot. A handgun bullet may go in a few inches for the weaker calibers (but still enough to class as a kill). Or all the way through (and back again) for some of the heavy duty shots.
Now shoot the type of weapon Harem has into concrete. It will chip it a bit, and leave a small hole.
Maxima punched Sciona through two metres of concrete! That is many, many times the power of the teeny bullet.
The problem they have understanding Sydney is that, the more serious the issue, the more calm she is about it. If she felt safe and was just curious about something, she’d be shouting and bouncing off the walls.
The commentary reminds me of the reason WHY most DM’s don’t allow me to use heavy projectile weapons. Sniped a guy, in the eye no less, across a city, through 3 buildings. Silly things that can be done with +~36 to hit and a willingness to soak penalties.
Carlos Hathcock was one of the pioneer snipers who adapted 50 cal machine guns, for use as a sniper rifle. Racking up a staggering number of kills and some extraordinary events, like setting the world record for the longest shot (at the time and for a long time afterwards) and shooting an enemy sniper through his sight!
Such inventive use of heavy weapons is what led to the construction of purpose built anti-materiel and sniper rifles, like Peggy’s barrett.
I thought Mythbusters proved that you couldn’t snip someone through their sight? Like what was shown on Saving Private Ryan. The bullet would get deflected by the optics within the scope.
They were unable to replicate it. Mind you I don’t recall them attempting the feat with a 50 cal machine gun (or modern sniper rifle akin to that). As those can shoot a hole in an engine block, I doubt that anything in a scope would impede the shot.
There might not have been much left of it. But if that is where the shot hit, then the claim is valid.
Sadly some bugger nicked the enemy rifle, after Carlos Hathcock logged it into the armoury, as a souvenir. So it is not something that we can verify other than by his word.
But that is good enough for me. The man earnt the benefit of any doubt.
Who wants to see Maxima chew out Dabbler over what she did..!?
You are very naughty for evoking such images!
*wags tail approvingly*
Flayed skin. Exposed muscle tissue. Someone’s leg just blown off.
How is Sydney not getting sick?
There are enough other noises going on that any retching Sydney may be doing would be drowned out.
I think last time though she felt so bad because she had (inadvertently) contributed to Vehemence’s arm being ripped off. I don’t think she is necessarily queasy just at the sight of such. After all she coped with a chamber covered in Cooter blood and bits.
Up until she got dunked in a pool of blood anyhow. Which would gross out pretty much most people.
The railgun bullet, per se, doesn’t cause a lot of damage. The kinetic energy transfer into whatever it hits? THAT is where the damage occurs. Think of HEAT rounds, or even U-Dep rounds. they penetrate juuuuust enough, then the REAL fun starts with nice shaped charges and exploded bits, or in the case of U-Dep, it’s MOLTEN when it slices through the tank, and itty bits of uranium lava go EVERYWHERE inside a nice shiny ammo and fuel loaded target! Much fun! So explode! Corgis everywhere! O-O!
Poor doggies! Her majesty would be most displeased!
You shoot nineteen tanks and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt…..
Deeper and deeper …
At the bottom of this mine lies a big big man, Big John.
It’s an eighty-eight magnum. It shoots through schools.
Probably funnier back in 1984 than today, alas.
You shouldn’t reference that movie. My mother referenced that movie once. Once.
Actually I combed through the comments specifically to see if anyone had made the reference. It was the very first thing that came to mind.
There are Johnny Dangerously references on page 1 of the comments, specifically the 88 Magnum one.
It does not look like an ice cream to me.
Besides which, they shoot with a higher caliber, than the one you specified.
Wait… Blood magic spells…
Did they just butt-dial an interdimensional portal destination…?
That is a very, VERY bad thing.
I’m fairly sure that is the base Self Destruct that Sydney was trying to warn them about.
For a regenerator keep trimming the limbs so they can’t regrow fully. Worse if you mess with the regrowing limbs like you can do with trees and make them horribly crippled. Which limit their abilities for a long long time. Just though.
Not a good idea to limb people when there are dormant blood magic runes all over the ground. That’s what has Sciona worried enough to scratch grooves in the floor to catch errant blood spills. And this time, she couldn’t stop it.
A case of “Hoisted by Her Own Petard” possibly leading up to a “Death by Irony”. She can’t wink out with her wing damaged, she’s legged, bleeding out rapidly (possibly having blood actively drained from her by her trap) which means the clock on her superpowers and subsequent power crash just got dialed in, and she’s covered in blood which is going to interfere with her goth finger-paint tattoo magic. Que deadly splosions. . . Syd can probably bubble around her vulnerable teammates in time since she’s already aware of the trap and positioned near them, but Sciona’s going to be needing a new troll body.
I must admit, this is sorta running into an ongoing issue I have with this comic: The enemy is never really a threat if any of the heavy hitters are about. We’ve yet to see anything that can seriously threaten Maxima or Dabbler so there isn’t really any tension to this. It’s sorta why I was hoping Sciona would hand them their first actual loss, to build up the idea that Maxima can actually lose, or at least be outmanoeuvred enough to not manage her objective. Instead we end up with ‘Even using one shot resources, in her own base, Sciona can’t hold Maxima off briefly, let along win. Not even getting into Dabbler and the others also being there’.
I like this comic rather a lot but whenever it sets up a major villain it ends up being a dull flop. It doesn’t help that said villains honestly tend to have much more interesting powers than Maxima and Dabbler’s ‘We can do anything’. There is something rather unsatisfying to see the bad guys go in as the underdogs who have to use smarts to handle the heroes…and then get stomped down anyway because the power levels are that disparate.
Vehemence was beating Maxima handily and Dabbler wasn’t a threat to him at all.
Also it is necessary for high-powered supers like Maxima to actually be high-powered. You don’t want a Worf-effect in which the Maxima get’s regularly beaten up by the villain of the week in order to show how powerful they are.
Sciona has done pretty well so far, despite being weaker the Maxima, and she does still have a plan in operation.
Yup.
Plus at the moment Maxima is having to put most of her power into defence. The only way she was able to use the MFP was when Sydney took Maxima’s place, and she was able to dump most of her power from her defence and switch it to the attack.
If she did that right now, Sciona could lop Maxima’s head right off (we saw her draw Max’s blood, even before she gained eight extra super powers).
Right now it is teamwork that is allowing them to keep the upper paw over Sciona. She is buffed up to the point where she likely is stronger than Maxima. But weight of numbers is allowing them to keep the pressure on her.
And look what happened when they eased up momentarily (when Achilles made his surrender offer). Sciona got off a single spell which wiped out half the team! Fortunately they survived, but they were incapacitated (for instance Maxima had to help dig Achilles out of the ceiling).
And Sciona has demonstrated less than half of the new super powers she gained. So I would not write her off, just yet.
Wait… Where’s Sydney’s shield? Why isn’t she inside her bubble?
she needed to replace the air? Couldn’t get close enough to Dabbler for her to hear Syd without yelling “THERE’S A MAGIC BOMB!” to be heard over all the noise?
It took me a minute to realize that was Harem, not Gunnhildr suddenly appearing and switching sides. And wearing arc-gear. And firing a gun instead of swinging a sword. I blame the hair.
I too thought it was Gunn for a minute, but couldn’t think of a reason she’d be there and had to reason my way around to it being Harem.
Harem has been hanging around Deus too much, and has probably been reading ‘Super villain hairstyles monthly’ and picked out that look.
We do know that Harem was part of the Alpha team though, as we got a couple of shots of her before.
…why even give them guns, then? I mean, those things aren’t shooting candy.
We saw Peggy demonstrate the use of a gun in a super fight. Taking out Vehemence’s eye was allowing a muggle to influence a super fight.
Even here we see Sciona moving her wings to block two bullets. That is two wings which would otherwise have been free to strike at Maxima. And we have seen Sciona draw Maxima’s blood, before she had her upgrade with eight assorted super powers. So her blows are likely to be much more dangerous now.
Ergo Harem is not wasting her time, she is making a minor, but useful, contribution to the fight.
If though you are suggesting that she should not be firing, whilst Maxima is trying to negotiate a surrender (just like Max is berating Dabbler for), we should forgive Harem. Because she was firing at the same time as Maxima made the offer. Further she immediately ceased firing. So Harem was being a good soldier, and following her commander’s lead.
Weak Hand Drill is important too…
The technique requires speed over strength. Plus you need to know your wood, which varies from region to region. Requiring a different wood for the stick (needing a hard one) that you spin versus the flat piece that you drill it into.
Be sure to carve a “V” shaped notch into that hole though. So that all the wood dust you generate, from the friction, is concentrated into a confined spot. Maximising the chance of the heat being high enough to ignite.
And have all your kindling to paw, before doing the hard work. You don’t want to let the ember go to waste.
Still very hard to do though, even when you know the ideal woods. As such my advice is to opt for a bow drill instead. Far easier.
Or a lighter or ferro rod and striker, of course.
Personally, I think Sciona should sue Archon for their excessive use of force, but I don’t think the case would have a leg to stand on.
Better a wrongful injury suit, than an execution at the paws of the Twilight Council. She aught to hop to it!
WIth the setup on the page title, I’m surprised it took this long for someone to step up to thereference.
If Gwen wants to take her Muppet Maxima act, to the next level, I think I have come across some NSFW inspiration for her.
Well it is Muppets so it is fairly safe at work. With headphones on. Provided you stop it before the really graphic stuff at the end!
*holds paws in front of eyes*
Wonder if the 7th orb is some kind of magic canceller and Sydney accidentally (or “accidentally”) grabs it and this is how it’s found out.
I don’t think it’s been activated before with other magic around, has it?
We have only ever seen Halo hold it in this scene, so no.
Even X was not present at that stage. She was shadowing Dabbler, who had not arrived yet at that point.
I mention this because X becomes invisible by some means. Possibly a super power, possibly magic. But without even her being there, no known magic was in operation.
However we do know that Zephan Zoeng is both a mage and (from his cast details) ‘has a large collection of tomes and artefacts’. So it is very likely that he had a magic item on him. Likewise he could have some kind of protective or other spells in effect (especially when in the presence of a strange new super).
But, equally, he may not have had any. So we cannot say for sure, either way. Plus, even if he did, there are quite a few which he would not notice if they had been (temporarily) dampened. Items which protect him from various forms of harm for instance.
We can be sure he does not have a magical pacemaker though, if the mystery orb does negate magic.
It is worth mentioning that the truesight orb does actually have the ability to detect magical auras. Sydney examined the attic full of magical items, next to the council chamber. Likewise she could see auras (possibly magical, alternatively just whatever auras living beings have) of the delegates, even through the wall.
So not quite magic dampening/negating, but it does show that the orbs do interact with magic. So the possibility that the brown orb does too is viable.
Oh, and one other thing supporting that. Which is that the orbs (as a set) do have absolute invisibility to magical (and technological) detection of certain things (for instance the glyphs and the skill tree). Which could be the brown orb manifesting a passive power (i.e. one which works even when the orb is not being held).
This point itself is plausible as the skill tree indicates that the orb does have some capability unlocked. Yet Sydney has no idea what that may be.
Wait, is X’s gender (or lack thereof) canon? Haven’t seen X since the initial interview, and don’t recall any discussion of the topic at the time or since.
Choice of gender pronoun is not indicative of actual gender, where it has not been ascertained. So, no, it is not cannon.
However do bear in mind the title of the comic. ;-)