PaRARGdox 159
A rough time-landing: As many readers have presumed… Ambrosia might have some difficulty convincing people she has gone back more than one minute… and also, several other characters have slipped back with her.
We find Olga, roughly in Ambrosia’s vicinity – she was in the Cafeteria with Sun and Jasmeen on page 7.41 when the alarm went off. Rochelle was at the swimming complex with Fatima and Sioni and others on page 7.42. Kaycee and Charisma were at Largo Castle – see page 7.43, although they were closer to an exit there than they are here. And Go!Anna was with Force Magellan and Dane – we saw them moments before the alert sounds on page 7.38.
It’s great they’re back and everyone is still alive… but it’s mere minutes until the Rarg attack…!!
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Next update: July 17, 2022: Action stations – confusion reigns!
Good. Not only does Olga being there mean she already knows what happened, but the higher ups at Magellan who know her true ID as Gola will believe her without question and get everyone coordinated against the invasion.
The obvious solution would be to crowd everyone into the detention cells in the hopes that the power-dampers would protect them from the Rarg weapon as they did Sister Superior. But it can’t be that simple, can it?
Maybe a portable dampener similar to what was used in Bad Karma to restrain evil Maya/Miasma would be sufficient?
Magellan isn’t a prison facility so I don’t think they have enough top-security cells to host all the powered people. Maybe a few crucial ones like daddy Epoch? I have a feeling that without their power neutralizer the Rarg wouldn’t amount to much against him as we’ve seen how even cadets like Sun and Olaf were able to basically one-shot a Rarg fighter.
I think the only way a somewhat large number of supers get to keep their powers is if they can take out the power neutralizer before the Rarg fires it. Which seems unlikely, unless as you proposed below, Annie can instruct Epoch to launch the right attack right away… and I don’t think Annie was prepared for this timeskip.
The number of people that can be briefly crammed into a cell is noticeably larger than the number of people that can be housed in it.
Phone booth physics ftw
See also: elevators.
Now we’ve got hope for a happy ending.
Ranger Bill, who knew we would be relieved to see his “witty” comments back.
Yeah, but someone ought to shove a sock in his face-hole.
Not only that, didn’t he have a moon base or something? I doubt our good creator would drop that info earlier if it wasn’t going to come up again…
I like how Morgana trusts Ambrosia without question and jumps to her defense.
Ok, Princess Charisma. Forget puking your last meal and get with the program! Kaycee might have to do a quick explanation though since I’m pretty sure nobody bothered to tell Charisma of the whole time-jump possibilities. But YAY they’ll keep the relationship progress now!
Shame Go!Anna couldn’t have projectile-vomited in RB’s face, but maybe that would cause more delays with his blabbing tendencies.
Thank goodness Rochelle is almost dressed already and not still in her swimmers. It’s gonna be a hell of a thing to (try to) explain what’s going on to someone like Sioni.
Also I’m so glad that Tros and Dane have their heads attached to their bodies again… for now.
Not only do they get to keep it, they probably get to go in that boat again! Now less delirious. Might be quite interesting 🙂
_Ambrosia_ might have difficulty convincing people, but neither Olga/Gola nor Go!Anna will.
Rochelle and Kaycee are unlikely to have much difficulty as well. It is key that not just Ambrosia slipped back, and I did not expect that at all until it happened.
Well, the ladies have time now to get everyone up to speed but not a whole lot of it. Much as I do like that all the deaths were negated by the big reset, it might be too late to stop ALL of them or some may still die just in a different manner for an extra twist.
Always a possibility. This ain’t a Disney movie so people MIGHT still die for good still.
I’m guessing a few elites like Epoch could trash the spaceship if they attack preemptively. I’m sure Go!Anna can be… persuasive.
“Go!Anna, we don’t know if they’re hostile-”
“Listen up big E. My consciousness was zapped back from 3-4(?) hours into the future to now and I assure you that they are about to zap your powers away, break both your legs, and kill you off all in under 5 minutes if you don’t go and smash that thing NOW.”
Avengers: Endgame is technically a Disney movie and it killed off some characters for real, most notably Iron Man and Black Widow, but yeah.
Mere minutes left, but this is a much better situation. Now they know the threat, in quite some detail, and this knowledge is not just with a first-year cadet having trouble convincing anyone of her extremely extraordinary intel. The knowledge is in key places, in key people.
It is time to do this battle over and to do it right. With less of the hard-to-swallow fatalities.
I am once again reading with eagerness and joy at finding out how the story now goes, rather than the apathy that this chapter previously had me caught in. It is great to be back to enjoying the story 🙂 And I’m very greatly looking forward to the re-read… as soon as I can make time for it. Which may not be soon at all, but hey, eventually I’ll get there.
I’m wondering if anyone took note of exactly when the power neutralizer hit and I’m guessing that Rochelle did. Question is how effectively they can get that information to everyone, if she is the only one who has it, especially if no one else realizes that she probably does. But maybe Annie does realize this.
Olga, you might have phrased that a bit too pessimistically. The idea is that you now have the chance to not let all of earth die. On the other hand, if this is not the time so say that phrase, then when is it?
Worse comes to worse Rochelle can kill Ambrosia and get another hour or two for preparation.
Maybe not, maybe the recharge-takes-longer-than-the-skipped-time is a limit that is absolute.
Not to mention even if not, you’d still need Paradoximan again or else the timelines multiply
Or a humungous gravity source to bend time
… or or and?
Talk about deja vu?!?
On the bright side, this means more than one person can confirm. It’s a start to a backup plan, even if at a limited time frame.
This doesn’t seem far back enough to save many people on Magellan Island, let alone everyone . . . it’s either going to be a matter of triage, or someone doubles-down on the eviscerate-Ambrosia plan . . . lest we see the same carnage cause almost as many deaths of Magellan Islanders regardless.
Unless . . .
http://magellanverse.com/comic/parargdox-59/
100 pages earlier.
Ooooh, I’d completely forgotten about that! Yeah, portal everyone possible up to the moon base (maybe even everyone, if it’s big enough), while Go!Anna and Olga infodump everyone’s future knowledge to whoever can use it. Since they now know why the Rarg attacked, they might even be able to communicate with them and prevent that attack by peaceful means. I’m calling it right now, the soulless corporate criminals are going to be turned over to the Rarg for summary justice. 🙂
Good find, very good find, let’s hope Annie remembers that.
Wait a minute, this means that both Kaycee and Rochell will remember Rochelle declaring her deep respect for kaycee. That and the fact that she planned to violently kill Paz. That could be an interesting premis to, how did Rochelle put it so eloquently, “properly revisit this again at some time”.
Also, what is quite interesting that charisma apparently is going to keep all the memories of the initial attack. I really like this, she showed some really nice character development in this arc, however there is the small detail of billy saying kaycees name when dying.
Well done Grace.
Maybe this is a chance to “put right that once went wrong”?!?