PaRARGdox 173
VOMMM vs HEX!!: The VOMMM has dropped! Should we feel cautiously optimistic?
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Next update: October 22, 2022: Fallout?
Magellan
a superhero webcomic by Grace Crowley
The story so far…
[1] Wannabe
[#] History
[2] Great Leap Forward
[3] Daze
[4] Bad Karma
[#] Gifford: Hero [back soon]
[#] Buying the Stairway to Heaven
[5] Worst Fieldtrip Ever
[#] Redux: Gola Beh
[6] Lock(e)down
[#] The Things That Matter
[7] PaRARGdox
Tales from the MagellanVerse…
Olga & Brelvis
Dr Spooky & Otto
The Olaf Mystery
Legacy
Crossoverkill [a crossover!]
Magellan stuff
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Fan Art [back soon]
Fan Fiction
Magellan Miscellany[back soon]
Magellan TV Tropes Page
looks like a lot of little hope spots leading to a golden ending to this timeline’s wartimes
So Charisma still will be affected to some degree, unlike her pops which should still be at 100% when they port back.
Maybe if the first VOMM took out 95% of Charisma’s powers now it only took 10% or thereabouts?
Will the Hex Shield hold given the “energy discharge” levels? Yes “three” is a powerful number in witchcraft but still…
In addition, wouldn’t Ranger Bill’s nanobots wreck absolute mayhem on the Rarg’s bio-suits? And let’s not forget the one, the only, Mandy Cans (The Man Who Can) who could potentially make their tech turn on them.
We stil don’t know for sure how The Man Who Can’s technopathy works. Does it only work on human-based technology? Could a human make a computer/device he can’t mentally hack?
We saw him attempting to access alien tech in Worst Field Trip Ever. I think we can presume yes, but not always and even then, not without effort…
Ah! Thanks for the reminder. Slow-Mo was involved in that scene too, if I recall correctly.
Indeed!
Mandy is in Oz though. May not be enough time for him to scoot over to Magellan island to make a difference.
In five minutes or so (Kaycee got down to Charisma and evaluated and patched Charismas injuries between the pulses so 5 minutes at least) the buildings are going to get wrecked. Everybody needs to skedaddle tout suite, or move the Rarg off the aim point(How?).
Ambrosia: Hey, Mort. We need to let Sista Superior out of confinement to take on the Rarg.
Mort: Are you crazy?! The woman is nuttier than squirrel poop. We can’t let her out.
Ambrosia: Yeah, that’s what you said the last 14 times too, but I have been working that out. So, this time…
I would be more worried that the Rarg will move the aimpoint themselves, if too many people skedaddle. It’s all well and good having future knowledge of where the enemy will shoot, but if you pre-emptively move to the side, there’s nothing stopping the Rarg from adjusting their aim.
The best scenario is that the Rarg beam weren’t actively aiming, but fired on a spot where the memories of the two ex-Magellan scientists on the space station said the important stuff is located.
It all depends on how flexible the rarg are I suppose.
If they see too many supers still active then they may decide to recharge the Neuteron Beam and try that again before using the cutter beam.
Only through the grace of Grace will we find out.
“Mandy”… lol
“Mandy Cans” is definitely a stripper name…
Ok this wildly went in a direction I did not intend it to lol.
Part of the Charisma’s pain last time was due to falling 30 feet onto the rocks in the beach below. This time she is not doing that part.
Could Olga’s technique be used for quickly learning new magic? Sounds pretty useful. Although I’m sure Lord Psiot would have a few bold, all caps things to say about novices learning advanced spells.
Maybe it is rapid learning.
Without the traditional learning synaptic pathway links, accessing that newly acquired magic memory without guidance to follow, could be limited to Swiss cheese spotty.
Still even limited, could make picking it up again normally quicker like someone who was rusty picks up an old skill.
It probably helps Charisma, that she didn’t plummet down onto rocks this time
So the real question here is how much of a fighting force Magellan is gonna have left. There’s small pockets of heroes that will be left but even at a generous estimate 75% of those with powers aren’t going to have them. It’s obviously going to be a greater amount than last time but remember the Rarg are still a dangerous physical threat themselves and have weapons the heroes might not be expecting at their disposal like when they killed Cadet Jax. Will there be enough heroes to turn the tide completely?
That may depend on how many people The Hex protected. If it only covered 5 feet, then you have a couple of spellcasters and a telepath. If the effect was large enough, they may have an army.
The fact that miss groundhogs day said she didn’t need to be in the field, as if it would be easier that way for them, but is still so close would imply that she at least expects the field to be very tiny. Rather she knows enough about magic for that accessment to mean much is hard to say in universe.
Out of universe I take that as a suggestion from the author to not expect the defensive field to be too wide, because why bother with that bit of dialogue if it wasn’t foreshadowing something? Besides for all the other folks, Charisma, lunar outpost folks etc who have been making plans to keep their powers to be meaningful there can’t be too many other powered people around rendering them superfluous. No I’d say looking at the narratively the defensive hex almost has to be a very tiny range to keep the tension high.
FM is a potent strike force all on its own, and they’ll have assistance from the handful of cadets that still have powers, working comms among each other and tactical intel from the time-slipped team. I imagine they could pull off a “Shock and awe” attack to cripple the Rarg ship if they can get past the force field. Maybe the Hierophant could replicate Contessa Q’s stunt?
Who can predict the outcome of this conflict..?!?
So now Bobbi has her thumbs up and Yasmeen has her thumbs down.
It’s all in the orientation of the fist and the angle you look at it… that’s my excuse anyway… 😀 ***runs away***