Grrl Power #877 – Ray tracing amputation
Yes, Dabbler has a gun that fires backstab rounds. (See panel 2 if you didn’t notice.)
Yes, yes, I’ve talked before about how people with fake limbs get them chopped off all the time. Well, Cora grew up with all limbs being fake, and she’s used to throwing them in the way of incoming damage to protect her meatier bits. I know, it’s impolite to use the phrase “meatier bits” when talking about a girl. She’ll get over it.
If Dabbler and Cora seems a little bloodthirsty, try to think of them as characters from ARPGs. Dabbler would fit right in with the Diablo/Path of Exile crowd. Cora’s more of a… hmm. There aren’t a lot of really good gun based ARPGs are there? Although, honestly, the Alien/Zombie Shooter games, while very cheap feeling, are pretty dang fun, especially when you realize the first minigun you buy is a real sissy weapon compared to the late game stuff. Like the minigun missile launcher and the one that’s like a machine railgun or whatever.
Dabbler is adjusting to the “try not to go lethal with your opening move” mandate. Cora probably needs to be reminded about that. That said… these alien mercs aren’t American citizens, and don’t have any sort of diplomatic representation, so they’d be okay with wasting these guys, looting them, then kicking their bodies down into the sewer when no one is looking. Really they’re just used to gunning down alien mercs out of reflex.
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Ah, the true hallmark of an adventurer. “DIBS ON LOOTING THE CORPSE!”
That’s how you know you’re working with professionals.
Yes
The “Dibs on the gear” thing sure brings me back: https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/06262005
Queue Cora’s over excessive use of firepower! :D
There is never enough dakka.
There is no overkill. There is only open fire and reload.
Yeah, Cora’s word for “Cease Fire” is “Reload and/or Switch Guns”
Gun based ARPG’s? Grim Dawn comes to mind.
Or Fallout? I loot a lot of things I shoot in Fallout…
Borderlands guys Borderlands ……
Fallout is the first thing that came to my mind, probably because I’m playing 4 for the first time…
I was thinking top down ARPGs for some reason, but yeah, Borderlands is a good call.
Dave, do you know about Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survival? X-Play used to make an epic review of the first. If I can find it… And found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtRsMrGEdhg
Oh yeah, I’ve got that in my steam library. Kind of forgot about it honestly.
I mean, Warframe kinda qualifies as an RPG (though that’s like a mid-to-late-game-progress-branch), but it’s very much a TPS as well. (Though it also has melee weapons, spacesuits, pets, co-op, and, with the latest Mainline update, undead mechas you can pilot.)
Destiny, as well.
Ahhh, the MiRV-pipegun pistol that shoots .38’s
That is if ya knowhow to make it.
simple but fun side scroller Zombotron is a good one.
If you really want to blow your mind, try Zombo.com
Let’s hear it for our next contestant!
Math’s not around, so it’s up to The Mighty Halo!
This fight is too much in the view of the galactic community for that(NTH-tech). Can’t I just call Jabberwocky, Hiro or something.
Without Max telling Halo not to use one power or another, she may go nearly full tilt, especially if she freaks out because Max isn’t able to move…
“Shudder”. I’m afraid you’re right.
She would hold them back if she had already been trained in classified power control, but since she is still in basic training I don’t think so.
Nah. You guys need to think like an RPG nerd. Halo will see this happening, do a thinking tilt for a second, then fly up next to Max and activate her shield.
Are we sure that doesn’t a. reveal already that it’s high tech and b. it will actually help the situation(we haven’t seen it interact with anything like it.
Sydney’s shield interacted with the world breaker cyclops’ eye tractor beam, it held her in place but she was free to move inside her shield, thus able to teleport out, which also means the light bee projection of the comm orb can move freely though such beams.
Sydney didn’t teleport out, she simply set Mr Buble on a collision course and smashed through the tractor beam
yes she did. She was stuck in the tractor beam while the other two were lining up the blast her.
She was stuck, she teleported to directly in front of its eye and blasted her way through.
No, she didn’t, if she could have teleported, she wouldn’t have needed to blast her way out as she was already out
Nothing can pass through Mr Buble, and LightBee is solid (it can’t pass through a window)
The event it happens is here
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-668-alls-fair-in-love-and-kaiju-battle-royale/
Than without a link
Okay, will admit when shown to be wrong, thought she simply accelerated from her starting point and through the head, not *BEEm* in close and PEWPEW her way through
Mr Bubble’s reaction to the kaiju beam is an interesting but non-binding data point, since we have no basis to show that the Max-napper’s weapon uses the same principles.
Gaustiscus,
that’s the PPO in her hand, she blasted her way through.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-669-particle-beam-ik/
Yes, already admitted to being wrong and that she PEWPEW’ed through
Oh, and it’s Mr Buble (pronounced ‘Boo-Blay’), like the singer (just can’t get that little thing above the ‘e’)
I misread your post, I missed the “t” at the end of the word thought and thought you typed the word though,
implying she accelerated and through and not used the PPO.
my bad.
Nah, Halo’s a little ways off trying to figure out how to spell names in English.
Last thing Max was doing was telling off Achilles, Amorphous, and Heatwave right before D+C interrupted her, so they’re going to be next on deck. I’m guessing… Heatwave melts the stasis gun, Amorphous joins in with Ray’s wrestling match, and Achilles stops another sword(?) with his eye.
Technically, since Cora’s limbs are just solid light projections, should it even be possible to cause any lasting damage to them without directly attacking the projector?
That’s why she likes to use them to protect her “meatier bits” as said in the below comic info, cause they can take the hit and be fully functional again in no time. Seems the pieces are still cut off as if fully physical, but unlike living body parts which would require a lot of work to stick back on, even for us Cybertronians, hard light limbs could be repaired as easily as Cora changes shoes…
PROBABLY not, though there might be some trick like creating a sentient virus made out of photons or something? In this case, yeah, Cora’s only been momentarily disarmed, and will be materializing some sort of high-yield armament the moment she sorts through the handful of weapon patterns that she has in her onboard files.
If I remember correctly, the weaponry options require porting in the high-tech aspects rather than being able to build them in situ. Cora’s custom limbs just mean that she has an arbitrarily good grip without needing to compromise the weapon’s function – instead of fitting the weapon to her hand, she fits her ‘hand’ to the weapon. Anything ported in would therefore be vulnerable to damage, including catastrophic disembarreling, just as if she had brought it by conventional means.
It may be a similar situation for armour: there is probably a limit on how ‘hard’ a hard-light construct can be, but we don’t know how that compares to the hardness of what could be ported in to reinforce it. If a few plates of alloy or composite would make Cora’s limbs significantly more effective at protecting her “meaty bits”, it would seem foolish not to use them.
But I agree with the principle: Cora is only disarmed for as long as it takes to call up the next weapon.
Are any of Cora’s Hard Light arms decapitation grade lobster claws?
Chain saws? (Had she seen some of the Earth’s finest cinema she might have added that.)
Based on the current positioning of her arm in panel 9, I expect the cannon (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-696-shes-specular-modular-interactive-odular/) will be make a reappearance for a point-blank shot to the face…
Did that person call Cora a “terran”?
I have a feeling somebody is going to get really annoyed about that…
Well, at least one person.
Well, as mentioned in an earlier panel, she actually is a human, albeit a modified one. And as we saw in Sydney’s alien cuisine adventure, humans are a known entity in the galaxy. So it’s not too unlikely for them being referred to as “Terrans” by aliens.
Yes, she may be of hyu-mon stock, that doesn’t make her a Terran
Does that mean, when the fifth generation of hyu-mon is born on Mars, they will still be called ‘Terran’?
Perhaps ‘Terran’ is the galactic term for the human species? Unless the martian colonists would engage in serious genetic engineering of their offspring, the fifth generation martians would still belong to the human species, right?
Cora disagrees: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-757-ets-extra-terran/
Thank you for that
Yes, Cora is a hyu-mon, she is not a Terran
I think we could consider the attacker an unreliable narrator. Like people who call Asians “Chinese” and the like.
Star trek mostly just uses the races historical home planet. Romulus got obliterated by a supernova. But a Romlulan is a Romulan regardless of they were old enough to have been born there.
Isn’t the historical home planet of the Romulans… Vulcan, though? Romulus may be a super-important capitol-colony but it’s not actually their birth-world.
Technically, all aliens terms for themselves would translate as human or Terran, most usually named by species according to the name of their planet. Klingons are from Kling, Vulcans are from Vulcan, etc., but each planet’s description would be as ‘Terra {sp}’ where {sp} is the specific type of earth or dirt the planet is made of. (I may have this totally wrong, but it sounds feasible) :)
Klingons are from Qo’noS, actually (pronounced ‘Kronos.’)
No, you’re right on target. Of course we don’t have any true non-sol species to interrogate, but OTOH every language on this planet uses a word that is similar to “soil” as the word for this planet. The classical example for Judeo-Christian folks, probably also for Muslims, is Adam.
a fully terrestrial species whose civilization relies on agriculture and has extreme territorial behavior, and ideological attachment to their area of birth or that of their ancestors as a “mother land”.
Well of course they’d name their world “land” or “dirt”.
However that’s not to say it is completely universal. It is also not unreasonable some species word for their home planet could be something that translates as “Mother”, “Great Mother”, “Birth Place”, and other such words.
Yes but that’s top secret.
Twinstick shooters ala aliennation count too? Top down/ iso perspective, killing everything in sight and looting some special gear / ressources here and there…
Also what ’bout looter shooters? Borderlands , hellgate and the like are pretty much shooter arpgs too
Crimsonland
Gun based ARPG? Borderlands series comes to mind.
Oh hey it’s a Dark Ranger. Sylvanas must not be paying enough.
Since she got fired as warchief, payroll has been a complete mess.
Yeah, you had this coming, DaveB…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oM_UTdfaPc
:P
Someone didn’t get the Memo on who Cora is, I think. I mean, she’s human, but not Terran.
And if that mistake is not what ruins their plan, it might be fun to see Sydney clean up the whole lot on her own just with the Lighthook.
I’d not even be surprised if the shield orb can shrug off something like the stasis beam because the technology is so much more advanced. If only the orbs had passive effects too.
Also, they should know her by reputation. They’re pretty much assaulting Commander Shepard.
She is a Terran as a black person is afro-american even if he/she has not ever been in Africa all his/her life (and sometime is not even american)
Thats a very weird American thing though….other countries don’t tend to say things like that. Sure someone can be black and British – just like you can be blonde and British, or short and British – but no one names them after the continent of their ancestors. To most of the world your comment doesn’t make any more sense….
I had a long and interesting chat with an expat who handled the networking for my employer. He said to me that the thing he like most about living in Australia is that here he’s a person who happens to be black, instead of a Black Person with capital letters. He came back (Australia is home now) from visiting family in New Orleans and told me he’d forgotten what that was like and it was a real shock.
It’s almost like they want to keep that divide, that separation, like they don’t want to be integrated because then they won’t have anything to bitch about
I think it’s a few factors but part of it probably is the dependence coaching the democrat party does. (and before I get to far into this, I think both parties suck in their own ways. I’m not a cheerleader for the republicans.) I just can’t help but notice that the democrats seem to offer solutions to race problems that A: Amount to giving away free stuff, B: Makes themselves look compassionate, and most importantly C: Doesn’t fix the actual core problem.
It feels like being a “friend” trying to help another “friend” lose weight, but they actually hate that person, so they give them lots of support and encouragement and offer to buy them food for their diet and help research diet stuff, but in actuality, they are deliberately leading them into eating stuff that will keep them gaining weight instead of losing it.
Hm. Analogy needs work. Let me fix that for you.
“It feels like a group of friends trying to help another friend not starve to death during a pandemic caused by wilful mishandling and dismantling of the institutions that protected people from such situations by people who literally only care about enormous tax breaks for the phenomenally wealthy.”
That’s a bit politicky – isn’t that banned?
If not, let me tip up my magical bag of infinite storage here. It’s jammed with explanations why, after the last 4 years, the world no longer loves, respects or fears the USA, but just pities it.
I’ll stop there. And you should too.
Been a lot longer than just four years
This year alone has been at least 3.5 years long. o_0
Reminds me of the Democrat/liberal mantra:
_I_ see a problem.
_WE_ must solve this problem!
_YOU_ must give me all your money to solve this problem!!!
This goes back at least to Lyndon Johnson, his War On Poverty, and his Great Society. It goes further back I’m sure, but that’s as far back as my own memory goes.
The stuff they give away is not free. It’s paid for by everybody BUT the Democrats/liberals.
You are absolutely right that what they do is carefully designed to NOT solve the core problem.
Do you have any evidence that liberals don’t pay taxes or that the taxes are structured to not affect liberal? Or are you just assuming no one would volunteer for extra taxes and thus must have a plan to not pay them?
I’d agree this is probably too political for here, because the individuals I see reinforcing that divide the most are “conservatives”, like my mother. We all see the problem as coming from people who are not in the group we trust. I suspect it’s really coming from both sides, and we just don’t see it.
you say it like its black people that started or enforce that language. lol the simple answer is the US is still a highly racist country
I’ve got a friend who’s an African-American. An Afrikaner immigrant… I don’t think most people who look at him think, “African-American”. ;)
Cora seems to disagree to this reasoning : https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-757-ets-extra-terran/
ARPG with guns?
How about Hellgate London.
…There’s a game name I haven’t heard since Flagship folded and T3 released the free-to-play version which trashed the character of Lucious Aldin. And did some weird shit with Murmur’s hair.
Well, it’s not a RPG, but there’s always the Borderlands games.
I think halo is about to make herself an even bigger target than max.
Halo: Projected shield around the chick with the stasis gun.
Maxima: “Would you like to surrender while you still have the capability?”
The shield cannot be projected. It centers itself on Sydney.
Which means that Sydney is standing right behind her when she activates the shield. I seem to recall her doing something similar with Kevin back at the Restaurant Rumble (uh, Restaurant Rubble?).
Catch her in the shield, fill with inert gas. (Sydney has her own O2 supply.
Sydney’s own O2 supply applies to the entire interior of her shield.
Not the personal canister she might have brought with her
we seem to be forgetting she discovered the green orb that had previously been a mystery can supply air to fill her shield.
Yes, the airb would fill the entire shield, and (assuming it replaces/removes the inert gas) would prevent both Sydney and the target from passing out, making bubble-and-choke an ineffective technique. Especially without knowing what kind of atmosphere the target can breathe.
However, while we have no reason to think Sydney might be carrying a personal oxygen tank (her utility belt can only carry so much), we do know she has a rebreather from Machina Industries. If Sydney put it on and had better (any?) control of the airb’s production element and rate, and then bubbled up with a target, she’d still need to fend them off for at least a few seconds until they passed out.
Even though Sydney used Mr Bubble unconventionally and with great effect as a containment tool during the restaurant throwdown, that only worked because Vehemence was willing to spare her instead of crush her. A shield is always better when it separates you from your enemy instead of your backup.
If Maxi gets freed while Sydney deploys Mr Buble, that means that Maxi is on the outside, and nothing Maxi can safely deploy can get through it
Precisely…which is why I figured Sydney should form her shield around herself and Maxima if interrupting the stasis field was the goal. :)
and lock Sydney in with a merciless mercenary for an assumed benefit.
Can’t she just stand bubbled inbetween the mercenary and Maxima?
Or bubble up next to Maxima so they will both be safe in the bubble.
Also exceptable, but Maxima might find that it restricts her movement too much(ironically)
She could probably use a short pause while she makes a strategy and build up some rage.
I forgot she had superspeed. No need for that then.
Sydney could just use the lighthook to crush the stasis gun
You calling a Maxi a ‘merciless mercenary’?
Re-read what Julie said
As long as Maxi can still think and give orders, don’t believe she will have any problem remaining bubbled-down
Maxi has super-speed, not super-thinking
eh, oops.
My mistake.
What if using the shield causes the beam to splash / reflect back & affect everyone inside the bubble? Thus locking Sydney & our would-be kidnapper in a stasis field behind a shield that no one can break?
Reflecting things inside itself seem to be hobby of it indeed.
Maybe try blocking it before Maxima, than sliding it over her.
Sydney has to dismiss the shield before she can resize it, it can’t be expanded to absorb additional area / people. However she could bubble up and just fly between the gun and Max.
Bubbling up with an incoming stasis beam to make a cage with the key locked inside is an intriguing point… I’d imagine the field requires constant energy input to sustain though, given that the previous page showed the beam fire being maintained, so I think DaveB has prevented this from being possible.
Does she?
During the demonstration and on Alar when she bubbled everyone up to survive the shimmer blast it looked like it isn’t dismissed, just during expansion it overlaps everything around it until she hits *stops expanding* then becomes solid again.
Yes. Can’t find it now, but we have seen her explicitly drop, embiggen, and redeploy the shield. During the examples you mentioned, we only saw the shield up or down, never transitioning. On Alar specifically, she was unable to expand it and include everyone even though they were under attack.
Shielding the Press Conference from Maxima’s ‘little’ firepower demonstration in the desert?
I doubt it, debris bouncing around from momentum is one thing but this beam has a source that looks to require a continuous outpouring of energy, cut it off and the effect stops, provided the shield can cut it off and we don’t get another discussion about transparent force fields and photon relations, and the long discussions once again as to the possible nature of her shield from just a strong kinetic barrier, solid mass, perceived threat, encapsulated pocket dimension with shows a projection in and outside its shell of the interior and exterior, ect…
Well, Ftedt does not appear to be connected to a remote power source, so nothing for Mr Bubble to cut off. But this does mean there is a probability that Ftedt could pull the trigger and create an unbreakable stasis pod…
I mean she expands the bubble from herself to around Maxima, thus cutting off the beam which is being supplied by the gun as a continuous beam; the beam pouring from the gun would then be hitting the shield and not maxima anymore. Basically raising the shields while being fired on by an energy beam weapon.
-to use a Star Trek like analogy.
think of it like the gun is a water hose, and Maxima is being continuously splashed by it. Sydney would be raising up a barrier that then blocks the water hose from splashing her. Instead splashing against the barrier.
So, the only person who lost an arm was the one who could afford it.
How does that reflect on Sidney’s earlier musings on Wolverine?
An arm and a leg, if I’m not mistaken.
It suggests she was accurate. Cora can probably regenerate those limbs faster than Wolverine.
In this case, it’s possible to argue it was a sound tactical decision for someone who wasn’t aware that Cora’s limbs are hard light projections. It’s probably easier to put a terran out of commission than a succubus most of the time. People not familiar with Archon probably rate those adventurers from off-planet on Earth to be bigger threats than any terrans who have never left the planet.
It’s even possible that she’s right about that. If I’m not mistaken, Hiro isn’t here, and Sydney is not yet well-trained. Achilles is, but doesn’t necessarily have significant range power. But she was clearly wrong about how to disable this particular terran.
As a slaver, she probably is thinking of a bigger haul than just Maxima. She just went for Maxima first because she was the known big threat and also known big prize. Having “gotten” that prize, she’s now looking to minimize the amount of battle damage loss on the rest of the haul she’s looking to get. Cora would sell for more minus a couple of limbs than with a much more life-threatening injury.
I hope you’re right.
Rebuilding NYC is expensive.
As fpr whether Hiro is here. Looking back at the page where they’re summoned, it seem like we only see the people with some kind of fast transportation that go there. If that’s the case the blonde one is Hiro and thus also on this mission.
Sydney should hold back to not alert the galactic community of her NTH-tech(mercenaries are bad, but not as bad as entire armies).
Hiro has black hair, which is common for people who are part Japanese. The blonde is Achilles. It’s my impression that he frequently catches rides from faster teammates, just like Amorphous.
From a logistics perspective, bringing in the two most powerful trained supers on a tourist watching expedition seems like asking for problems to show up elsewhere.
There’s also yet to be determined black haired one, but Achilles being on the rooftop implies that what we’re seeing there is the entire response team as opposed to only the fast travelers and thus fills that spot with mr. Amorphous, so you’re probably right.
Not mine, since Hiro is one of the people shown carrying the buses toward the shooting range and established in Sydney’s flight test to be able to fly mach one with gravity assist.
You’re absolutely right that it seems to be a bad idea to let both the most high ranking and most well trained Archon personal act together if spread trouble is to be expected, but that’s also what they do when Sconia is using her disperse tactics, so that would be a change in tactics(which isn’t necessary a bad choice)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-866-rooftop-rally/
When was the last time you saw someone with hard-light limbs? This is what every General fears: extant technology which is in fact so uncommon you just don’t think about it, because the people who do have it are always where they should be, at home or tottering around in the local supermarket.
Good gun based ARPG: Try Inquisitor Martyr, from Plasma guns to Heavy Bolters to automatic grenade launchers to flamers it has ranged, explodey murder galore with psychic powers and giant murderbots thrown in for extra spice.
40k aesthetic complete with shoulder mounted MLRS and Shields that can stop anti-tank rounds.
Did somebody say loot? Time to go full murder hobo.
You always go full murder hobo when loot’s at stake.
ARPG, like we talking stuff like Ratchet and Clank or what?
I haven’t said it yet but I am hoping that eiether Maxima breaks out of the stasis field herself or Halo breaks her out using her “Shield-Others” ability :)
The only way she can shield others is if put them in the shield with her.
Other options:
Halo could put herself (or at least part of the shield) between Maxima and the stasis beam. I would be willing to bet the advanced shield is up to it. Maxima would then be in play.
She could fly at the alien holding the gun at high speed, and unless the alien’s shield keeps her from being moved, that could knock her out of the way.
She might also be able to grab the gun through the alien’s shield.
She probably should avoid the pew pew gun, though.
In any case, I would like to see her being the one to directly save Maxima this time.
Good observation: no one said Sydney had to put the Bubble around Ms Nasty-pants, just has to be between Maxi and the gun
Really wondering what interrupting a stasis beam will do to the (former) target and the surrounding spacetime fabric. I imagine the gun itself is shielded against blowback, and Mr Bubble will of course be fine, but something weird is bound to happen with the stasis beam being deflected or exploding or something.
nothing,
just explode, like anything else.
maybe cause a strong EMP, like anything else with a high energy yield.
PS: Until/Unless DaveB says so I am regarding that gun as the exact same thing as an “immobilizer ray” only with a better name going by the definition of the word “stasis”. Especially as a previous comic involving Krona regarded time as a harder thing to manipulate than thought and dire ramifications but also nearly impossible to do as stated by Dabbler if possible.
Ah, so it was designed in Hollywood, California using the finest explodium, and Made by Ford.
but of course, and conveniently when dropped while malfunctioning it will magically disintegrate its self.
I have previously speculated a surge protector against certain stresses on its various potential power sources, so boring realistic solution, “fuse blows” and it just stops working as Maxima over stresses the output to keep her contained.
I’ll give Dabbler 7/10 for quick reflexes, but 0/10 for theoretically being the smartest being on the planet.
Dude, she’s using a flipping stasis gun to immobilize the woman who can mop up the entire kidnapping team in like half a second of being very very quick. WHY DIDN’T YOU SHOOT THE STATIS GUN?!?!
Classic high INT, low WIS behavior…
If you look in panel 2, the gun is behind the shield. So they could have been shooting at the gun the whole time.
I believe the general rule of thumb is that you should aim at the torso because it’s a bigger target.
And when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter. From what I can tell, any shot that disrupts her aim would release Maxima. You’re basically going on the assumption she can maintain an accurate beam no matter what.
Still, they could basically just toss a beach ball in the way…
I’m personally going on the assumption that once you pull the trigger with a target in the viewfinder, it locks on and stays activated until you activate the safety. Even if you drop it.
That’s the way I’d design it, to make it reasonably useful.
“DIBS ON LOOTING THE CORPSE!”
Now now girls, don’t fight. The would-be kidnapper brought backup: There should be more than enough corpses to go around.
I feel like it’s probably an inside joke between them since they’ve adventured together a bunch.
And if Halo gets in on the action and her knowing the genre and how to pull the rug out from any kidnappers is take away their ride. She already has plenty of experience breaking big flying things.
They didn’t say which corpse!
And, so far, only one has that fancy new shield-tech
Wasting hordes of alien mercs without a care in the world sure sounds like Mass Effect 2 lol
Like 90% of the game is shooting mercs and the other 10% is shooting Geth or Collectors.
Well, there’s a reason why you are not shooting mercs in Mass Effect 3.
Aw! Dabbler’s such an optimist! Well maybe one day it’ll happen. I doubt it, but maybe.
Time for Sidney to drop in and one of the mercs to recognize the orbs at least enough to give them a new clue about what they are.
At the very least have an “oh sh*t, the Terrans have that technology and know how to use it!” moment.
If Dabbler and Cora, famous galactic mercenaries, had no idea what the orbs were, I doubt just about anyone else will either. However I wouldn’t be surprised to have someone recognize one of the murder twins.
I can see Maxima was just waiting to see who else is in the plot. Then she will act, because she was never really in any trouble.
Nad nobody is even noticing that Dabbler just professed a romantic interest in Max that goes beyond just having a happy meal?
What!? Nah, for a succubus everyone who isn’t a past lover (or possibly present) is a future lover (potentially).
I believe, a succubbus would call a passing fling “lunch”, not lover.
Dabs might have a teensy crush on max. She does like to tease the prudish.
S9metime winnjng the game is not half as fun as playing it.
Next page:
Hiro: Achilles, arrest the lady in black for Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Halo, you are with me.
[ Halo runs over beside Hiro and pops up her shield around both of them ]
Hiro: [ To the lady(?) with the stasis gun ] I will give you the opportunity to release my commanding officer, who is also the leading law-enforcement officer on scene. Release her immediately.
Stasis Gun Lady: No.
Hiro: Fine. Let it not be said that I did not give you the opportunity to surrender. I believe our commanding officer was in theprocess of arresting that man, so Halo, arrest that woman on charges of Assault on a Federal Law-Enforcement Officer and Interfering with a Federal Law-Enforcement Officer in the Performance of Her Duties.
[ Achilles steps up to the lady in black, who swings her sword down on his left shoulder. The sword breaks. ]
Lady in Black: What?! That can cut through anything!
Achilles: Well, not everything. You see, your sword was too hard. When it hit the immovable object (me), it could not bend enough, so it shattered instead. You are under arrest for the attempted murder of a federal law-enforcement officer, that is me. You have the right to
Cora: Ah, you’re no fun.
Achilles: This way, she will not be harming anyone else.
Cora: But that would happen my way as well.
Achilles: But this way, everybody survives.
Cora: Phooey!
Halo: [ To Hiro ] But I haven’t finished my training yet. I can’t arrest people.
Hiro: Then I deputize you. Do you remember the oath from last time?
Halo: Yeah. Okay. I agree, again. Okay lady, let my boss go now!
Stasis Gun Lady: No! She isn’t going anywhere except with me.
Halo: Okay, I gave you the chance. This is officially called the Lighthook, but my first name for it was the Violator! Let me show you why.
+1
See? The comments need voting!
But they don’t need a edit option. It’s more fun to post if you can’t change afterwards.
Knowing Sydney with her savey about comics and hentai, those poor merc ladies are about to be rule34’d
Yoo hoo! Does this mean I actually got it right? I guess we will find out on Thursday.
Not about Les though: he is annoyingly-invulnerable, not immovable, and he’s only slightly stronger and faster than a ‘normal’ hyu-mon
He’s probably rather significantly stronger than what a normal human could bring to bear on a regular basis. You can get a LOT out of your muscles in an emergency (see: people picking up the end of a car to save someone) but it’s incredibly dangerous and damaging so normal people have limiters to stop them from using it except in extreme circumstances. Since Achilles is immune to harm (and pain, the main limiter) he can use that level of strength at any time he wants.
Still only a “mild” super strength compared to actual super strength though.
Yes, and unlike literally anyone else, Les can never get stronger, or faster, because that requires your muscles changing
Yes, he can push his muscles further, but there are still limits that he can never go beyond
You are right. I should have said “indestructible”, not “immovable” when describing Achilles.
If Detla continues to favour vertical cleaving hits such as the one used on
DabblerCora, then Achilles doesn’t need to be immovable. Hits that pin your target between the oncoming blade and an object such as the ground are great for ensuring that the blade cuts in rather than batting the target away, but this does assume that the target is capable of being cut by your blade.Cora: … Say, would it be so bad if Cosmos ‘accidentally’ got ‘hit with a ricochet’ during the battle?
Achilles: Cora.
Cora: I could make it bounce at LEAST six times before hitting him!
Achilles: Cora!
Cora: Fine! *grumble* You guys REALLY aren’t any fun…
All we need now is a cameo from or favourite …. okay maybe my favourite … Mercenary armed with a Plas Gun. There are never any bodies to dispose of – He eats them.
Call back-up now.
The enemies keep piling up.
Sure you can handle two mercenaries, but there has already been established there is a third one in a stasis pod and we don’t know how much more there’re and how much time there’s, the people handling it now aren’t very experienced in non-lethal or non-collateral damage take downs and I would like to know their exact plan and abilities and to have NYC conserved.
Harem warn everybody and gear them up.
Sydney, Bubble hit sensitive groups. Only use your non-classified abilities if they’re strictly necessary(I don’t want a war about NTH-tech yet).
Achilles, grab the mercenary with stasis gun.
Heatwave, guard the tour ship.
Jiggawatt, destroy all the shields.
Mr. Amorphous grab a second mercenary.
Math, attack, but keep an eye out for attacks.
Peggy, provide cover for Heathwave.
Stallward grab a big gun and provide cover for Math’s team.
Goose, provide cover for Peggy.
Cora crew, grab the ship and focus on the strongest weapons of the aliens.
Cora and Dabbler take down the stasis gun.
Varia, help Stallward with whatever power you get off him.
Ren, assist Math.
Jabberwocky, protect Sydney.
Hiro, control the sky, order everybody around and call for
1. airforce
2. Heatwave
3. Sydney
in that order if you need help
Airforce, help Hiro.
Ariana, bring the press somewhere safe where they can still watch.
Sandy, call the general to fill the gap of command.
Police, bring everyone to safety.
Arc Light, try to figure out what these aliens can do and how to counter it just like the Vehemence fight.
Let one ambulance come to handle the serious injuries.
I hope the commanders thought of calling the infantry for help on this matter so they can now quickly help by providing cover for the squishier members of Archon, such as Jiggawatt, Goose, Ren and Peggy.
Time to test those new tools of Arc Sparq.
*classified abilities
Technically speaking, Jabberwocky doesnt need to protect Sydney if Sydney is bubbled up. She can pretty much protect almost anyone when her shield is up, including from skyscraper-sized kaiju worldkiller alien things.
Except… who is going to protect Sydney from whomever she has trapped inside Mr Buble with her? Remember what happened the last time that happened? Sydney will not get lucky a second time
Exactly.
Exactly.
She is essentially powerless within the shield.
She can’t even summon her lighthook.
She was able to still beat up Shadow Boxer while inside the shield. Her orbs still can move offensively as weapons.
Shadow boxer nearly took her down, just as that piece of derby she got stuck in her shield on the Alari homeworld.
I admit she’s a though opponent inside her shield, but against hyper advanced alien mercenaries “though opponent” isn’t exactly the defense you’re hoping for.
If an alien mercenary attacked with for example a sword and shielding in a surprise attack her defenses would be worthless, because she wouldn’t be able to react on time.
As to why I think so. Dabbler is a more experienced fighter than Sydney and didn’t see the attack of “shadow mercenary” coming after a pretty clear warning and all Cora could do to counter it was to sacrifice an (disposable)arm and a leg(pun intended). Sydney might have a substitute for this arm and leg(orbs), but doesn’t have Cora or Dabbler reflexes or battle awareness. To corrigate for this she needs a specialist like Jabberwocky.
While not completely defenseless on her own, Sydney can’t operate most orb powers inside the shield – we’ve seen explicitly that the PPO and lighthook only manifest outside. The flyball, airb, and lightbee can be operated, but their powers can’t really be used directly for offense/defense. Whereas anyone she bubbles up with still has their full range of powers and weapons, making it a cage match with her main weaponry locked outside.
The only useful bubble-capturing* approach I can think of (aside from the trick of cutting someone off from attacking others as she did with Vehemence) would be to capture someone, immediately teleport into an alternate location** and drop them, then immediately shield just herself again before they can respond.
* I want to tentatively name this move either “The Pokeball” or “The Ninja Turtle”. Perhaps “The Squirtle” as a combination of the two?
** Holding cell, shark tank, 10K feet up, middle of the desert with Max waiting…
The last time she was trapped in the bubble with an enemy, she beat the enemy up in a few hits. :)
Shadow Boxer, remember? :)
Anvil help Stallward
correction.
Anvil get on Ray’s case. Including his fight with one of the mercenaries.
Stalwart isnt there.
Not more or less than Anvil(I assumed that the entire team was here when writing it).
*of him
correction.
Ren assist Anvil.
“Detla” looks like a typo for “Delta,” but maybe that’s intentional.
Or, it could be their name, like with the lizard who took down Raysmo
Nice to see that Murder Hoboing exists among all adventurers no matter the species.
That’s probably how Cora could afford her ship and harem.
I’m actually looking forward to this fight. These mercs seem like they’ll put up a decent fight. And maybe it’ll give us some insight into the other kinds of powers that are available in the universe.
At least they chose nearly the perfect attack location and time and took out the big gun first.
This’ll become a serious problem for Archon. I hope they won’t have to compromise the secrets of Sydney’s power set, because I don’t think earth can really handle an interstellar war.
Is it just me, or does Cora look sad in panel one? Is it the mention of ‘future lover’?
And do NOT have it that she was talking about Raysmo!!!
I’d have gone for disappointed. She expected better of Dabbler than to get so fixated on one person, even if she is so temptingly unique, shiny, and inaccessible.
Alien that can hit anyone in reach, nothing seems to affect him. Suddenly grabbed by tentacle and sorta immobilized. Spins head 360 and looks at Sydney. “Let me go and you live!”
Syd “Nope. One sec bubbling up!”
Alien “You’re inside with me? There is no escape, now!”
Syd “That’s my line.” Syd makes a wince and then smiles…
Alien “What was that noise? Very high pitched. Is there someone in here with us?”
Syd “Number Five lunch at LuftWaffles with Sauce #23 and Sauce #8-b. I carry them everywhere.”
Alien “How can what you eat harm me? I’m invulnerable.”
Sydney “This even works on Achilles or Math. No one can see it coming. Sometimes not even me.”
Alien “What are you talking…what is that SMELL? LET ME LOOSE!”
Sydney “Did I mention I’ve been to Fracture? I’ve seen your type before. Very sensitive nose. Great trackers. But what happens when the tracker is surrounded.”
Even syd’s eyes start to water.
Outside Peggy makes a comment. “I don’t think anyone wants to be downwind when She breaks the bubble….I heard about the Grak, and I know what else she eats. He should thank his stars it wasn’t Chili day at the commissary. They have started to take that serious since she laughed at their efforts. They’re Texans, they have their pride.”
Inside the alien tries to hold his breath and fails because he already got a snootfull. When he blinks away the tears enough to refocus, he notices that the lil human is wearing a Bane Mask.
Slowly the world takes on an Etcher painting coloration and morph’s into the Munch’s scream and then fades to black.
Sydney tosses the drooling invulnerable alien to someone who can handle them.
Three blocks away two cops are redirecting traffic.
“You smell waffles? Suddenly I want waffles.”
only one canonical flaw in your story. Her bio weapon technically goes off the moment she opens her mouth, she doesn’t need to wait to break wind. In fact, her bio weapon is known to have gone off before she even started eating.
Max”So I hear you took out a major alien without any overt violence? Rendered him unconcious?”
Syd “Well, ever since I ate Grak(x) somethings have changed…”
Max “Is that the Alien Chili from the Fracture? What are the effects?”
Syd “Reminds me, someone should be checking on a certain scientist…”
Convention
Bill the Science Guy “I will not sit next to him, ever again since that last convention after the Aliens showed up!”
Con Rep “Why? I thought you were as close as…”
Bill “You sit next to him. I’ll sit at the end with fan behind me.”
Con Rep “You want a random fan behind you?”
Bill “As long as they are holding at least a 4 horsepower blower, sure.”
Cora “New superpower, Syd?”
Syd Blushes… “Don’t tell Frix. But, sorta. Silent but deadly…”
Cora “I wonder if we can weaponize that…can’t exactly take you everywhere I go.”
Can’t exactly take Sydney anywhere :P
The villain’s possession of the latest in personal shielding (presumably expensive) implies that they were expecting significant resistance and that they may have resources for an epic level fight.
The choice of NYC as the fighting location and doing so with tons of witnesses also implies this(poor NYC).
You’ve just fallen victim of one of the classic blunders. The most famous is, never get involved in a land war in Asia. But only slightly less well known is this: Never go in against an Adventurer when Loot is on the line.
So I shouldn’t start a land war with the asian adventurers guild over that giant stack of gold.
Well if I can’t do that I will just try to conquer Russia screaming that I want to destroy all their oil in the Russian winter.
Grbmbl.
:-D
https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/06262005
Where is everyone else during this?
This all has happened in less than a minute and without a lot of noise.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest doesn’t even realize yet there’s something going on.
Yep, if the people involved are well trained and know their jobs there wouldn’t even be any conversation. The conversations are just there to provide narrative continuity for us readers.
I question that statement.
I would think there’s verbal communication in a fight even by trained fighters, just mostly about the actions one hopes the other will take in the fight and aftermath and that is what they’re doing here.
Dabbler makes her intentions clear, Dabbler and Cora lay their claims for the aftermath, stasis gun holder calls for back-up all the time and Cora and shadowy figure offer each other surrender.
I acknowledge that they’re a little wordy about it.
All these back-up calls would just’ve been “name”
Dabblers intentions would’ve been worded with: “release her”
The loot claim would be: “dibs”
Cora and shadowy figure would be comparable.
My only in story explanation for their wordyness is psychological warfare: imply that you’re not taking this fight seriously to get the other to chicken out.
If that’s the case: learn to read the room, you all!
Okay, I’ll grant that there might be some conversation but having watched a well trained team in action, the conversations is usually “Stop doing what ever it is that you are doing” followed by a restraint. The conversation between the persons responding was usually “I’ve got the arms, have you got the legs?” or “Careful, he bites!”. I’ll grant that a maximum security psychiatric setting is different from the street. My opinion about the conversations was just to point out that they serve narrative continuity. Witty quips and banter waste time and can get you or your team mates hurt. That sort of thing was saved for the debriefing. Best practice however makes for dull story telling. My original statement was just meant to be in support your observation that in actual time, things happen very quickly.