Grrl Power #694 – Threat underwhelming
Sydney’s comment at the beginning of this page is mostly just me recognizing that this conversation has taken place across a number of backgrounds, and it sort of looks like they’ve walked halfway across a city by now. I haven’t decided if Cora is running an errand on the way back to her ship or what’s up, but you know how it is in this comic. Half the pages so far seem to be her meeting new people and having lengthy QA sessions with them.
Sydney doesn’t know what Cora’s combat abilities are, she’s mostly just laughing because these thugs are… probably lower level that her previous battle. Still, she knows if Cora is Dabbler’s friend, she can probably take care of herself.
Cora does know her own abilities and at least suspects Sydney’s.
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Muggers who read comix should know to run when this happens.
Does the embiggener push the shield outwards if its already active? Because that would be hilarious.
Bowling for dummies…. I’m certain Sydney has a way to keep score while they fly.
Mugging the girl with big boobs and a ridiculously tight costume is never a good idea in comics.
It’s called Mugging the Monster (warning: TVTropes link). I think somebody called Sydney a monster before due to her enormous power and lack of self-control, so this could be even more apt. This situation looks similar to what I suggested a few days ago, but with fewer humans and fewer “good girls”.
Have you forgotten what happened last time Sydney was “mugged” good sir?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416
And that was BEFORE she got the Orbs.
Not to mention this is what she did even without using the orbs https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/241
I found the internet comment Arianna was looking at about it to be hilarious
“Did she just GRAB that guy by his tongue?”
“Yup! and THROWS HIM BY IT! I’d be scared to get a handjob from her. Not so scared that I wouldn’t do it.”
At least Sydney has some fans of her work.
Sydney, they could still shoot you whilst you’re laughing instead of shielding.
For the sake of argument, we’ll call the laughter is a free action. The mugger has just given Sydney the next move, as he wants her to hand over her belongings. This allows Sydney to grab her shield orb under the guise of making to hand it to said mugger. Once shielded, hijinks ensue.
Their reaction could make him realize he has just made a big mistake though, if he’s smart enough. That would give him the opportunity to shoot before Sydney can grab her Shield orb. Unless Cora has the kind of reaction speed Max has, things could still end very bad for them. Of course they are the heroines, so it’s almost certain this guy isn’t that smart. Plot armor is probably the only defense even better than Sydney’s shield.
I would buy a drink for the savvy one who runs after seeing their reaction.
They just came from watching The Mark of Space Zorro.
One case of “Mugging the Mugger” coming right up!
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MuggingTheMonster
Oh those poor, poor defenseless goons.
Yeah, when your victim laughs at your threat… its probably time to laugh as well and explain you were kidding and are glad they got the joke… then retreat briskly.
Backing away slowly while laughing nervously is recommended in this case.
I foresee Sydney getting to do this.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1608
fire guy was lucky considering the force potential of the lighthook
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2023
And here is where the perfunctory “they choose…poorly” quote gets entered.
I hope Sydney doesn’t go so far as actually melting one or more of them before saying that…It would kind of be contrary to her commitment to being a super-hero, ya’ know.
I don’t see a cup around here. Hmm, looks like Sydney and Cora are in a moderately target-rich environment.
Military Unit: Give up! We’ve got you surrounded!
River Song: [ Menacingly ] I know.
I expect similar results here that River had with her encounter.
*goon* MERRR-CYYYY!!!!
You must remember: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416
Wasn’t that a Dalek that made that request?
“None of you seem to understand – I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me.”
Or for the family-friendly version with Bugs Bunny, “On the contrary – I’ve got you.”
Or Star Trek; the Motion Picture:
Kirk: “Exactly, now that we have them right where they want us.”
Makes me think more of:
“It was at this moment, the alien knew. He F’d up”
I hear that phrase a lot when I’m watching YouTube videos with GTA 5 Fails…
“We’re not laughing AT you, we’re laughing wi… uh… heh, heh… Okay, you got us. It’s definitely AT you!”
would it not be funny if actual space batman appeared…
I wonder how Sydney would react?
Probably “Holy $%&% ##$& %^$%&^ *&%&^ #$@%& Space BatMan”
I’m not worthy enough to even try to copy a Sydney expletive rant so you gets comic book symbols expletives instead
“Hi there Garrus Vakarian!”
A mugger on an interstellar junction with a New York accent, no less. Priceless!
Yeah, this is another case of Sydney being annoyingly stupid.
Being shot is her major weakness. And as Morti already pointed out, someone pointing a gun at her would be able to get off 2-3 shots before she can call her shield orb to her hand and engage it.
Though i guess laughing is a great distraction. Likely the least expected response.
No, Sydney is at a tactical advantage. Consider: mugger wants Sydney to hand over her belongings, giving Sydney the next move. Since the mugger has no idea what the orbs are, Sydney says “Sure, here!” and grabs shield orb. Now effectively invulnerable, Sydney can molestorb the goons to her dark heart’s content.
Unless the mugger decides to prove he means business by legging one of them.
Better move, raise hands in pretend surrender. The orbs are overhead.
Good one. Also a good signal for snipers. Raising one’s hands in surrender is easy to spot and not a gesture commonly applied in polite conversation.
I know I recognize the gun but can’t recall it at the moment.
Space 1999, when the moon is blown out of Earth orbit.
Yeah, i’ve seen it too… Possibly it’s from ?Space:1999, or something around that era? or maybe something newer like Andromeda?
Space 1999
The goon isn’t holding a Space 1999 stun pistol, he’s holding something else… it is very familiar though.
Differences being it has a short barrel, two blue lights, and is contoured. Compare it to the blocky, no barrelled and four emitter points of the stun/kill gun.
Going to be puzzling where I’ve seen though…
There’s too many that I know of Robotech for example if you include osm and the expanded material created by Palladium games has a number of handguns inspired by the Space 1999 gun, including a number of Boiroid hand weapons, and I remember a few Turn up in their Rifts Series and Mechanoids series of game books.
“Hand over your logins”
See, advanced cultures don’t use biometrics. The downsides if you do get compromised are too big.
If a password gets compromised, you just change the password. If your biometrics somehow get hacked, how do you change them?
As Bruce Scneier pointed out, biometrics can only be used as userids, not passwords. The first time someone hacks your biometric “password” from Yahoo, you’re forever screwed.
They can’t have Kenny!
Watch the related videos from black hat. That will cure you of the notion that biometrics are save in any way.
Not just from user compromise, and there may be ways to read/verify around that. But every biometric system has its database back-end, that relates the data measured to the users registered. Edit-level access to that database is game over for the system.
I know of a martial artist paramedic who was mugged in an alley at knife point and had this reaction.
The *ahem* punchline being: “…I put him in a chest drain and waited for the ambulance.”
I knew a cop who was attacked in an alley like this by a mugger with a gun.
My friend shot him in the leg, took the gun away, and waited for the other police after making a tourniquet.
There’s a song about a early SCA re-enactor getting mugged, while she was wearing full chainmail and carrying a broadsword. Went about how you’d expect.
Google “I’ll see your six” for lots of very bad renditions of it.
To the best of my knowledge, the official title of said song is ‘The Ballad of Sir Trudy’. I’ll see your six is a reference to one of the lines in the song. Chorus to said song is; “Oh, the things you will encounter, and the people you will meet, when walking home alone at night, on a New York City street.”
Oldest YouTube video I could find (2007) is titled “I’ll See Your Six“.
I heard this story back in the late 1980’s. So if there’s a song about it now, that’s all well and good, but the song has some sort of reality behind it. Defrinitely farther back than 2007.
And someone tried to mug Sydney BEFORE she had super powers. This wont end nice for the muggers.
Swear, swear on grabthars hammer
Faith and Begorrah! Wot’s all this, then!
Normally, I don’t feel much compassion for muggers getting their comeuppance, but in this case… threatening Sydney when she’s already all hyper and coming off a fight to the death with giant space monsters? Plus, Cora being a friend of Dabbler, probably won’t go for non-lethal weapons (remember how Dabbler had to adapt all her weapons after she joined Archon?). Is there anyone who can see this end well for those muggers?
To paraphrase the imortal words of Mr. T: I pity the fools who try to mug the Mighty Halo (and sidekick)!
So they still use Passwords in space… I guess there really is no better handshake – tentacleshake.. or whatever other appendage you may use to shake – to let others know that you really are who you pretend to be. . . Unless you can do brute force like no other (ambiguities intended ;) )
It may be difficult for Cora to use fingerprint identification on her login. She may no longer have actual fingers.
See, the brute force method only works when you don’t have systems watching out for brute-forcing. Have something watching out for sequential password attempts and lock all access to that username after, say, 50 attempts? Then just require something like 3 witness verification to unlock afterwards.
I’m surprised brute forcing ever worked once someone thought about it and first discussed it. It’s so simple to protect against that it’s silly.
First of all any login system intended to be used by a human should be written with human limitations in mind. One such thing is the speed of input. Sure we can learn to type fast, but I doubt a significant number of us can exceed say ten characters per second. Even six or seven might be a good target number. Limiting the input speed like this immediately slows down any brute force attack.
Next introduce a delay for every attempt from any single point of entry. Something like three seconds between attempts helps slow down any attack a bit more. Add to the delay after each unsuccessful attempt. If each failed attempt added three seconds it would take a bit over a minute to make ten attempts, four hours and thirty minutes for 200 attempts, and something like one day and nine hours for 500 attempts. And that’s if you don’t do anything more to enhance this.
I can think up so many ways to enhance this (force a one minute pause after ten failed attempts, double that for every ten login failures and so on) without even looking into sequential attempts or anything like that. No AI required and ordinary users would hardly notice any difference at all.
And that’s just a few minutes of thinking about this…
A firm I worked for had the following if you were trying to remote access your system from a non company issued laptop.
1) Put in your PIN which was your usual 4 digit number
2) Now put in the random number generated on your RSA token, you have 15 seconds to do this with an 8 digit number before the number resets.
3) Now put in your second PIN which can be between 4 and 8 numbers followed by your registered off site login name and number which was changed every 10 days.
Failure on any of these steps gets the first delay of 30 seconds (and it doesn’t tell you which bit failed either), the second was between a minute and three minute, the third was between three and five minute, the fourth was anywhere up to half an hour and the fifth was completely locked out and call IT.
If you made it past this you then had to log into your system normally……………which had 4 different steps (this is even physically in the office) and you had to change your details every 7 days including one which was randomly selected for you and you weren’t allowed to repeat any you may have used for the last 13 months. Oh this is after getting in past several security doors with pass and code. Wasn’t even in the “high security” area which had several biometric scanners and this was just for a high up financial company.
After seasonal vacation breaks was a nightmare for the poor IT section with the usual “I’ve forgotten my password due to being off” I think the average reset was about a two hour job per person.
That sort of system has one huge, gaping hole: the password-reset routine. The IT department is so used to resetting peoples’ passwords that an attacker can just call up and pretend to be a worker who’s forgotten their password.
You bring up reduced speed for login attempts – that very security feature is going to be implemented in the next wifi protocal thats going ro replace WPA2 – 802.11ax
If you want someones passwords, Phishing attacks are very effective. We constantly have to fight those at work even through the filters. It’s amazing how fast a busy person on a busy day will reply to what appears to be an official email and log into the fake website they get directed to. Even after years of training to triple check everything. You don’t need to mug someone for something they’ll happily hand to you if you act like you are the real thing.
Pass phrases have been shown to work better for security codes.
“The crow sails West at dawn”
“But not with an empty mind”
Thugs getting angry in 3, 2, 1…
More like thugs getting smeared in 3, 2, 1…
Thugs begging for their life and/or parental figure in 5, 4, 3….
Sydney doesn’t know what Cora’s combat abilities are,
Cora does know her own abilities and at least suspects Sydney’s.
This is the one thing that might turn out to be a problem for Sydney and Cora. They don’t know what the other can or might do, so they could end up getting in each other’s way.
By herself Sydney could easily bring up Mr. Bubble using one hand and grab the lighthook with the other. She then proceeds to grab the largest of the goons and uses him to pummel the rest of them. She could easily bring her shield up with Cora inside, provided Cora is content to just sit back and watch.
We saw a few pages back that Cora is packing a major piece of artillery (God only knows where she’s hiding it). It also wouldn’t surprise me if her cyber limbs contain a few surprises that bring a ton of hurt. It could be a problem if she starts to do something big, only to suddenly find herself on the inside of an impenetrable sphere. Grenades suck if you suddenly find you can’t throw them.
Plus,they’re both wearing body armor: Cora’s is hard-light while Sydney’s is Archon special weave with impact inserts.
Another thing to consider: Where is Cora hiding that gun?
Same place Dabbler stored her railgun: in Hammerspace.
If Dabbler can build a dimensional pocket into her cybernetics, you can be dammed sure Cora can.
The dimensional pocket is her summoning Reaver or maybe other magical weapons, her tech is teleported from her lab/ship
Same place Robocop keeps his Auto 9.
Seriously though, after seeing what Ururu hides in her Victoria’s Secret compartment…
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uruushidingplace.gif
I stop worrying and just say Hammerspace.
I don’t recall forcefield testing ever getting around to seeing if energy attacks other than Sydney’s can pass OUT through the forcefield.
Well during the brawl at the diner, the budget Halo did use laser like weapons on the shield and they simply reflected off.
It’s been pretty well covered in past discussions, but Sydney’s own weapons originate from outside the shield, they do not pass through it. The PPO reticle, for example, is a targeting circle and is not an actual aperture, and the Lighthook can’t manifest inside the shield (at least at current level).
That said, the orbs somehow manage to control their various functions through the shield, so something must be passing through/around, if only quantum entanglement. Visible light (at safe levels) and sound also pass through, so it appears to be selective to some degree. The only inside force we’ve seen try (and fail) to get out is the shrapnel bouncing around, so not a lot of data points.
Halo’s PPO blasts can’t pass through her shield either. She has to make holes in her shielding for the beams/bursts to pass through. See the fight with the blood mech at the Mars plant during the Twilight Council story arc where it seems she got THAT particular upgrade.
We don’t know what the muggers’ abilities are either, but it’s unlikely they have Nth tech. If they had anything good, they would probably not being reduced to mugging people in dark alleys.
O the humanity…
Alianity?
What a wonderful host Cora is. She’s even provided Sydney with some lite entertainment.
And its an absurdist comedy!
I *really* like how you drew Cora’s laughing expression
2nd panel, far right hiding in the background….Inverse Ninja!!
Only if you meant it in the way of “he is one of the goons and is bad at hiding” sense ;)
Nah. That’s his shoulder in the far left of the third panel. Look at the color and the fur neckline.
If it weren’t for the fur collar it almost looks like Rorschach from Watchmen.
Yeah if you see something like this it’s time to run. Both Cora and Sydney are like I could handle this alone and together with this person you guys are in for a world of hurt.
Sydney raises her hands and says”We don’t want any trouble”
At this point the shield and tentechel orbs leap to her hands.
PewPew is used kineticly to knock away the gun.
Other orbs bounce against legs and heads.
The Hulkiest one is grabbed by the light hook and repeatedly impacted
against the left and right sides of the alley.
Cora takes care of the rest.
“We don’t want any trouble so we’re giving it all to you.”
Oh for a +1 button.
Nah, I see lighthook grabbing the demon guy behind them and her rendition of Hulk vs. Loki.
“Puny demon.”
Knock away the gun? It blasts the gun and hand away if the gun doesn’t explode first. Oops! I don’t think Sydney has that kind of pinpoint aiming capability in her head. Looks like the place is crowded with mooks, some of them gigantic and rippling with musculature. Big musculature.
“Kinetically to knock away” means to use it as a blunt object
3rd panel, towards the right. Did Robocop go rogue?
A perfect opportunity for Sydney to launch “Operation Googly Eyes”.
And when she is done, she needs to post the photos on her Space Book page.
Not her old My Space?
What’s going to happen next is anybody’s guess….
Some variation of “For the love of space god please stop hitting me im verry sorry”
another tounge-flip?
They should know that bright colors are warning colors
Thus endeth the Epick of yon Bayard whose Ha’p’orth Nous Ledde to a Most Tymly Ende.
Why yes, I did just spend 20 minutes learning about middle english grammar to make it sound like an epic from olden times with accurate archaisms instead of working for my exams. Yes, I totally did that. Somebody slap me please.
I would be happy to accomodate you…If I can only figure a way to reach you through the miles of fiber-optic and/or electrical wiring that lies between us.
Hmmm. for the fiber-optic I know about, this laser might work…
Well that’s easy. You just need to convert your body into electricity, then light, then back to electricity before reconstituting yourself at the new location.by
Hmmn, actually it might just be easier to straight teleportation. Less risk of critical data loss.
DaveB’s under the page quip: “This space alley is where space Batman’s space parents were space killed.”
Not today that won’t happen, I think. What I think is what will look more like this, but with the aid of Super-Powered Nth-Tech Happy Fun Balls.
And now I hear Arianna say, “don’t call them that!”
It feels like the entire webcomic has been made just to set up this joke. I was actually crying a little (from laughing).
Thus Endeth the Epicke of yon Bayard whose Ha’p’orth Nous ledde to a Most Tymly Ende.
Why yes, I did spend 20 minutes looking up Middle English grammar to make sure my superfluous comment sounded like an epic of olden times with grammatically correct archaisms. Somebody slap me please.
It was at this moment the muggers knew they had effed up.
When tiny ladies you have the drop on laugh at your threats, time to RUN
Or at the very least reconsider your life choices up to this point.
When I said Space Batman, you meant Space Ghost, right?
Please take it easy on the big guy. He looks like a bit of a crier, to which I relate.
Just having some crossing the line perspective problems but is dude with the gun in panel 2 the dude on the far right in panel 3? Just trying to get a head count and he is in the right position but the shoulder pads look different.
Judge dredd is a crook in this universe?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Judge Dredd? I can see a vaguely Haloish generic space marine and either a space ninja or some sort of cyborg behind him, but no judge. Unless you mean Judge Dread from the Prince Buster song (we don’t really know what he looks like apart from coming from Ethiopia (also one of the inspirations for Judge Dredd, along with Dirty Harry)), but I think he would be on Sidney & Cora’s side.
Huh. Halo vs Halo.
Nice work, DaveB!
That helmet look a bit like Dredd’s. Too small chin and not enough frowning though.
It looks nothing like a Judge Helmet, not even the Urban Judge
This is how a story that ends with “and dats how I got dis limp” begins.
I used to be a mugger like you. Then I took a meson burst to the knee.
If that’s all that they get they should count themselves lucky! We’ve seen Sydney in a situation like this before, twice, and both times she went berserk! And now she has her orbs active, and she just had a long fight to the death – those muggers better hope she’s able to control herself. As for Cora, she doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to go for non-lethal solutions in these situation. “They start it, they’re asking for it.”Or something like that.
Love the last two panels, especially that “Are they kidding?” look they exchange in panel 4.
I know Dave has said Sydney gets a different art style than others, but her mouth in the last panel covers half her head. Never mind the laughing, if I saw a human look like that I would be sprinting away in terror.
Alannis Morrissette’s mouth opens just about that wide at the end of the movie Dogma…you know when she, as God, speaks…and mortals are shattered by it…
Sydney’s a toon in a human world. Her look, her behavior, the things she gets away with… She’s a Toon!
Nah, she’s no toon, she’s a Loon! :P
She’s a Looney Toon! ROFL!
“The dock is just past…”
… Random Encounter Alley?
Roll for initiative!