PaRARGdox 49
Nun on the run!: Sista Superior… remember her? It has been several pages since this superpowered menace was brought to Magellan Island by Force Magellan… check out page 7.25. But wait, why does she still have her powers, you might ask. Why, indeed. The security guards – Bart Mort and Jane Macey have been seen in the pages of Magellan of the course of many stories… but maybe not for much longer.
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Next update: Friday 17 July: Bringing down the building. (Today’s update is a bit earlier than I had anticipated, but given it is technically the late Sunday update and since it is now ready to roll I figured I’d get it online at soon as possible. I’m hoping to get back on schedule in a week or so.)
horseapples, why didn’t the neutralizing thing work on her??
Uhhh guys? Sista Superior didn’t have powers to neutralize when the neutralizer went off!
If that’s why, then saying that Force Magellan is in trouble might be a bit of an understatementā¦
Super useful intel if they do end up sending the time skipper lady back to stop it. Switching Sista Superior out for Epoch, or bunging Force Magellan into spare cells would make a big difference to the fight.
I’m guessing the field in her cell ironically ended up protecting her.
Maybe whatever her powers are based on is not affected?
But Magellan’s own neutralizer field did work on her powers, and this pulse was presumed to be an adaptation of Magellan tech. Autoskip’s suggestion, or the neutralizer field working as a kind of Faraday cage for this pulse, seems more probable.
Or just being in the cell shielded her. It’s strong and made of heavy materials.
That’d be my guess. The neutralizing field affects aether-linked powers, iirc. Innate abilities that do not require the aether would remain unaffected.
It might seem a pretty big oversight, except the Rarg have managed to de-power over 90 % and apparently all the heavy hitters on Magellan Island. One or two fish slipping through the net is a more than acceptable margin of error.
Of course… it is possible the Rarg deliberately excluded Sista Superior from the effects of their de-powering weapon. Having Sista Superior running amuck on the Island would be a lovely distraction while they do their thing.
Murphy’s Law Effect?
Jane doesn’t look like the worst case scenario happened: she doesn’t look like she was in the middle of stretching when her powers were deactivated. Imagine the pain it would cause to be stuck in the middle of a stretch, as well as the horror of knowing that since human biology isn’t designed to be set up like that, whatever part she stretched would be unusable.
Or else she actually WAS in the middle of stretching and her limbs snapped back to human proportions, again likely causing immense pain.
She did, however, just take a cell door to the everything.
Next page:
Jane: Ow! I haven’t felt this much pain since I got my powers. I think my leg is broken.
Sista Superior: That is not that will be broken. Thy punishment for thy sin is at hand.
Fatima [ Jumps on Sista Superior and tangles her up with 10 tentacles ] Nothing is handy to you. Keep hands away!
Sista Superior: Unhand me, spawn of Satan!
Rochelle: [ The students had been on their way to their bunker which is beside the holding cell ] She is not holding you with her hands, so in effect she has already unhanded you. [ Performs a Vulcan Nerve Pinch on Sista Superior, who falls limp. ] I knew with enough attempts, I would figure out how to make that work. Good night.
Mort: Hey, kids! Help me get this door off Jane here. [ Several of the students move to help get the cell door off the injured guard. ]
Morgana: Ambrosia, can you pop back and undo her blowing the door?
Ambrosia: I’m trying, but it isn’t working. I’m stuck!
Mort: How long before she wakes up again?
Rochelle: I am not certain; this is the first time this worked for me. Based on other times I have rendered someone unconscious, I figure we have a few minutes anyway. I need a few people who are still strong enough to carry her outside so she can attack the Rarg when she wakes up.
My guess is, the neutralizing field stayed online just long enough to neutralize the Rargās wave.
Well, clearly because Sister Superior’s powers come directly from God, not from that sinful satanic dark energy. Now to kill them all and let God sort them out!
Though that doesn’t explain why Magellan’s neutralizer did work.
It’s possible that the Rarg’s neutralizer emits a powerful, but momentary, pulse of aetheric neutralization, that temporarily (and painfully, it seems) ‘shorts out’ all aetheric-based powers. In contrast, the cell maintains a constant field of aetheric neutralization around the cell, which weakens but does not harm the prisoner. Since the Rarg plan to kill everyone anyway, they only need powers down for a short time (an hour or two should be sufficient), and don’t mind if they cause their enemies pain. This may mean that people arriving from outside the island won’t be affected by the suppression – I don’t know what the Rarg’s range is, though. They may have effectively shorted out aetheric powers planetwide. With communications down, it’s hard to know.
More to the point, since Sista’s powers were being suppressed by the cell, the aetheric pulse may not have ‘shorted’ her. Then, the EMP took out the cell, allowing her powers to work.
My theory would suggest that their powers should return after a while, if they can manage to survive. It might also indicate that taking out the Rarg device might not immediately restore powers. Updates will tell.
These problems require a creative solution. How quickly can Force Magellan spray paint a pentagram on the Rarg’s mothership, then make sure Sista Superior looks up for a second?
Could Sista Superior become a hero? She is the only one with powers anywhere close to Magellan Island! Hmm, Master Assassin, could THIS now be a redemption or anti-hero story?
We didn’t see any sign of her on pp8-9. That doesn’t necessarily rule the idea out, but anti-hero does seem counter to her personality (at least, what’s been demonstrated).
I don’t see getting her to actually care about hurting innocent people. I DO see the possibility of pointing her at bad guys.
Rochelle: You want to purge sin from people? You see that ship hovering over there? That is the source of sin right now! Purge that from the skies!
Macey’s another one who I hope pulls through. We haven’t got to really know her yet. She and Mister Putty are both characters which I am very eager to get to know more of.