The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter 5—Page 23

January 10, 2017 Alex Woolfson 169 Comments

All this talk of “gifts,” it feels like Christmas again around here!

(With, y’know, the Christmas tree and all the presents blazing with demonic Hellfire, but still…!)

Oh, and in case you missed it with the last update, The Young Protectors Volume One is now finally available on Comixology, making it super easy to read offline on your mobile devices! You can check it out here:
https://www.comixology.com/The-Young-Protectors-Vol-1-Engaging-The-Enemy/digital-comic/456660

So! Looks like Kyle is going full dark-side! And it seems there there are indeed cookies! (That’s what the gifts are, right? I hope so! Gosh, I love cookies…)

Anyway! What will Kyle do with this power his father is giving him? What will his father do with Kyle? And what will our team possibly do to stop the two of them?

Tune in this Saturday to find out! Hope to see you there! 😀

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169 Comments

Mmm, cookies!

Yes, mmm…

Cookies are serious business.

Er… Meep!

Kyle has a mean look on his face. I don’t think I’m going to like what is going to happen. Kyle will be one mean angry demon when he let’s go of all that rage.

I hope this is a trick from Kyle.

Me too!

I suspect so

Please no.

O.O

“…But only if they come with the original receipt so that I can exchange them!”

Gift receipts!

There will be a turning point in this for Kyle, I am just not sure at this moment what it will be or how. Perhaps it will be Spooky, when he solves his floaty soul-bearing-balloon conundrum. Perhaps it will be Duncan, if he can make a reappearance and is still capable of doing anything super-heroic. Perhaps it will be one of the other Young Protectors. Maybe it will even be Kyle himself that overcomes this dousing of demon-personality that his father is giving him, though at this stage it doesn’t look like it!

I really can’t tell right now what it will be, and that’s part of the joy of this page.

Glad you like it, Hamish! 🙂

Gee, the only gift my dad ever gave me, was gloves.

Well, that’s less dangerous than demon powers, you have to admit.

You bet!

But also less fun…

Something tells me threatening Spooky was the final straw for Kyle. I am willing to bet that Lampross’ ability to sense emotions is myopic in scope, only allowing him sense them through the lens of his own nature. He can’t distinguish the full nature of Kyle’s anger, hatred, or love, and probably fails to see that two of those three are actually aimed at him.

“… Others MUST fall.”

Uhm, since the closest ‘others’ around is Spook, and the rest of the team, along with Duncan and a load of tiny demons… I vote for picking the demons. Not the ‘abomination’.

Is it just me or does that last panel with the really broken speech and fire coming from Kyle’s eyes remind anyone else of a certain page from chapter 2?

He really is a weekend dad? Comes in and give great gifts, but their relationship seems not so deep. You can not buy your sons love Laampros.

More like a REALLY free range dad who’s shown up to tell his son he’s ready to step up and become a proper demon just like his old man. After all so far it’s looked like he’s been leaving it to his son to choose whether or not to absorb his hellfire and release his full demonic potential.

“Luke 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power
will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me;
and to whomsoever I will I give it.

4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

Kyle isn’t the messiah, but I’m not sure this presentation of birthday gifts is going to go quite the way Laampros is expecting.

anyone can see where this is going, kyle pulling a hail mary by taking his fathers powers from him and then using it against him, western comics are predictable to the point it makes me vomit.

And then what happens?

Dance party!

You found a copy of my script, haven’t you? 😀

Just no disco, please: I personally took a stake and drove it through the heart of Disco, crammed the bones in a casket and buried it deep… but recently, THE MARTIAN reminded me of Disco. They gave it the treatment of silly fun and made Mock of it. I don’t want to relive the horror years of Disco. I think Disco should sink into the cesspool of atrocities along with the inhuman horrors of CUPCAKE WARS…

I hope Earth, Wind and Fire is not among those remains! You can take The Village People though.

I’ll only take the Village People to bed
😉

But ABBA gets to stay.

😉

Well, since they are having a dance party I think this is the dance they do (https://youtu.be/y9WUm3QvHK0 ). I sware, this comic reminds me of this song more and more, at least the english parts but I imagine that the korean runs along the same lines.

I think you just volunteered to get “hold her hair” duty.

Better you than Me

You are the king of cool!

I like your optimism =) That’s the uninspired response though. The more devious authors like to jazz things up a bit until you’re basically just praying for an ending that isn’t absolutely horrifying.

I’ve seen plenty of authors do the unexpected. I’ve seen authors where, in this exact situation, Spooky would die within the next couple pages, possibly by Kyle’s hand. Also some where Laampy would win, and Kyle would rule with him, and a lot of the following chapters is just the rest of the team trying to break the spell

But this is the last chapter….

I’m just saying what other authors may do in this kind of situation, from my experience

Even if it does not end well, it is well that it ends.

I am interested in what would be a different plot. Right now, this story is one of the few with mainstream graphics and a gay male as hero. That makes this different and floats my boat (so to speak). What would thrill you?

Oh, but Alex is the king of the unexpected (in a good way, not a creepy clown in the dark way).

Then again, maybe not.

Most stories regardless of where they hail from follow similar tropes. Let’s stop rewriting reality by making provably false or hyperbolic statements. And sometimes those “predictable” routes are predictable because they make the most sense. “Shaking” things up just for the sake of being unpredictable is nothing more than a cheap tactic in of itself. It’s not being edgy, it’s simply amateurish.

It is pretty well established story writing (in ALL of the world) that the protagonists will always come out on top in the end. The question is always in the how. Pretending disdain for literally the near universal story structure just comes off a bit pretentious.

Honestly, I have never seen you make one single positive comment on this site. Why even continue to follow something that makes you want to constantly “vomit?” Wouldn’t your oh so valuable time be better spent doing something you’d actually enjoy?

Well, I once was told that there are basicly only 7 different stories and the rest is detail and even if one counts differently and gets more or less repetition will occure.

But I somewhat can understand frustration with a well trodden path. Its why I have developed a love/hate relationship with erotic shifter stories.

Well… let’s break it down.

Commander beats Lampy – unlikely, we have already seen that Lampy can overpower her. If she does help it would likely be in support of Kyle or Spooky.

Tsunami beats Lampy – also unlikely, we have seen Laampros can handle his water attacks pretty well.

Flyboy beats Lampy – possibly, I think he is probably powerful enough to fly Lampy back through the portal and with his obvious growing concern for Kyle and Spooky I fear this option is becoming more and more likely. “Fear” because it will probably be a self-sacrificing move in which he too is trapped in the hell dimention. Since this is supposed to be the last chapter I think a rescue happening in this story arc is unlikely but I think Alex has hinted that there might be more story arcs with Young Protectors after the “Engaging the Enemy” storyline. It would still be a difficult ending to pull off and still make it satisfying for readers.

The military defeats Lampy – unlikely, even more so since Commander just mentioned them and if that were the direction the story was taking then it would have been left as more of a surprise. Also a difficult ending to satisfy readers with.

The Platinum Priests defeats Lampy – unlikely, it would certainly be a twist (especially if it happens now vs. after some time and gaining power from the demons). She doesn’t seem to have a motive to get rid of him now and again that would be difficult to satisfy readers with. Now if Kyle went full evil and time did pass a continuation story arc beyond “Engaging the Enemy” could show the Young Protector team dealing with a world half infested with demons and maybe even working with PP to finally defeat Lampy.

Duncan defeats Lampy – unless one of those other artifacts in the podium (yes, I’ve not forgotten those) is something super powerful meant to beat Lampy if the deal went south I think Duncan is probably down for the count.

Spooky defeats Lampy – perhaps. Maybe Commander finally reaches him (but if it didn’t work before then I don’t see it working now). Or, Kyle going evil pulls him back… maybe? OR Lampy tries to fry Spooky but he absorbs the fire instead, like Kyle, and that gives him the power to overcome the souls and then Kyle and Spooky defeat Laampros together with the power of love! Then we will get a bonus chapter where they have really hot sex because Spooky would be immune to demon fire. (Just kidding about the bonus chapter… not that I would mind 😉

The team beats Lampy together – I don’t see this happening. This is what happens in stories when a group of people need to learn how to work as a team. But we have already seen that the Young Protectors CAN work as a team so that resolution isn’t very likely.

Lampy wins – I think refer back to my “Platinum Priests” explanation of what would happen.

Kyle pulls a Hail Mary and beats Lampy – admittedly the mostly likely scenario given the current course of events. However, as Alex said, “then what”? Most likely you now have evil!kyle to deal with. I think he would probably have the power now to help Spooky with his soul problem because evil Kyle would view Spooky as *his*. Then Kyle will probably want revenge on Duncan, the person who hurt him the most, dispite Kyle seamingly starting to come to terms with the betrail at the end of the last chapter. Then Spooky and the team, but mostly Spooky, will have to convince Kyle that he shouldn’t kill Duncan and that isn’t who he is.

Surprise cameo!

Ugh, I can’t wait until Saturday! Will Kyle go Kylo Ren on Papa Lampy or Anakin on his fellow protectors?

Or an attempt at Luke.

you just HAD to pick the two characters from that franchise I hate the most. Now I have no good options. :p

Ummm…Han? No, that’s a bad example no matter which movie he appears in.

I guess I’ll hope for a Return-of-the-Jedi Luke.

Well, it’s a change from the standard father-son fishing trip.

Kyle! T_T
Spooky, now would be a really good time to snap out of it! I have a feeling that if anyone could get through to him, it’s you…

I am personally rooting for Mitch to get through to him.

Or they could team up!

Heck, I’ll take either!

….This is the first time Kyle calls him father…

🙂

Well spotted.

Well, I am not always distracted by Mitch being completely awesome..

^_^

that is exactly where my hope theory with just playing the part came from

Indeed…

And this is when he decides on some family bonding time?!

I almost feel bad for Laampros.

Boy has some real daddy issues…

i’m finally back here after a week of the worst sickness i’ve had in years! (was a fever/cold combo and was all around bad, my colds aren’t usually too bad)
things look more and more grim with every page, and there’s two things i’m curious about; what’s demon daddy’s plan with Spooky there? i mean, i know what he said before about what was ‘needed’ to be done, but i wonder about exact plans, cuz he is holding a bunch of souls that…were meant for him?
the other thing is, what would Anni think of all this? i have a feeling he wouldn’t like Kyle like this, this had nothing to do with his/PP’s plans i’m sure
Kyle goddamnit, we told you not to go to the dark side

I don’t think the souls were meant for him. There was no need to pay Laampros to come to earth. He wanted to do that.The deaths were needed to power the gate spell. The sould are incidental.

Spooky is “an abomination” in Laampros’ eyes. Only reason I can think of for him still being alive is that he wants Kyle to kill him personally, like taking Old Yeller out behind the barn yourself instead of making your pa do it for you. Remember how Laampros sees the other Protectors, as ‘pets’.

Of course, I’m banking on that being the linchpin of Kyle’s rebellion, that he DOES love Spooky (and his friends, and his planet) more than he resents Duncan for his betrayal, or Gordon for his (admittedly not all THAT extreme, we’ve all seen worse) prejudice.

omg nooooooo

;_____;

My hope now is that Kyle is just playing the part to gain enough power to match his father in the fight against him…. but… T_____T

I could also imagine that Kyle falls… for now… somehow our other heroes can escape and their only chance to bring him back will be some kind of plan they form with Duncan!

but I might just be looking into the future too much…

Yeah you guess are right Kyle will akcept those gifts then use them to fight his father still I wonder what will be the costs of his demonic power up ? So many interesting story possibilities!

The thing is, even if this is a cunning plan from Kyle’s side – and I’m not sure of that – this is extremely dangerous for his friends and especially for Spooky now. Please don’t kill Spooky.

Seconded. For like six weeks running now.

We should write a song,

Noooo, don’t do it Kyle!! Unless you’re going to do what Karol suggests and use them against your dad

It had never occurred to me that Kyle might be capable of being sneaky…but then I remembered Kyle is not long out of his teens. Of COURSE he can be sneaky!! Fingers crossed that is exactly what he’s doing. 😉

Doki would like to call attention to how adorably awesome Mitch is being in that first panel.

I know a lot of you are hoping this is some scheme by Kyle to turn on his father, but the boy hasn’t gotten a great record of being smart…

True, but he does have very strong feelings about not being a dick.

Lol true true. Still though, I don’t think I’ll stake my trust in him. At this point I’m hoping the Army pulls through!

The army is never helpful. Kyle’ll do something important eventually.

Lol no comic book armies rarely help, if not make the situation worse. That’s my point, that’s how little I trust Kyle to turn this around on his own!

He’s the main character, he’s pretty much fated to do something really impressive to either turn the tide or end the battle altogether.

NOT necessarily.

This could be a “learn your lesson” type of journey for Kyle, where he gets to learn from a series of mistakes. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be the one setting them right, though…

We’ve already been told what kind of story this is: where Kyle becomes one of the greatest super heroes in the world. Which means he needs to earn that title.

Ugh, this is my period talking, and watching the final address last night, and please, no flaming me for this, but this feels like election night all over again. And yet not, because I’m totally looking forward to seeing what comes next! And gee, Kyle, I really didn’t think you finding yourself would come to this! Reminds me of the not-so-great decisions I made when I was eighteen! As did most of us though, I made it through them, so I still have hope…?

No flaming (great pun, in view of the images, eh?). An apt analogy, friend, and perhaps I too have “too much” hope that we have better luck in our RL struggles. However, have you seen David Cronenberg’s “Scanners”? No spoilers — just my bet on how this might yet turn out. Let’s not despair, here or in Real Life. There are Protectors among us. Perhaps even ourselves.

chocolate?

Yes please, lots!

*hands a bag of chocolate* My cramps have let up a bit so I am more willing to share. ^_^

May I be in on this?

*hands Ember some chocolate*

You are a saint.

Oh wow, I would love too, but post holiday season bleuargh health state means no chocolate for some time. So I have to go through the period without. Arg. Have one on me.

Having my Shark week too. -_-

The weak is meat and the strong do eat…..

If I was Flyboy, I’d throw these two demons right in Laampros’ face, just to interrupt him. They might not win this battle, but that doesn’t mean they can’t give him a hard time, right?!

And shut him the hells up (no pun intended), so that’d be a bonus.

Maybe Kyle is taking in more powers so that he can become strong enough to fight back?

I don’t think Laampros would fall for it. Remember- he has access to all of Kyle’s memories, so he also has access to Kyle’s mind. If Kyle were intending to betray Laampros, Laampros would know.

I really really want you to be wrong, but I’m not sure how you CAN be…

I know 🙁 I think the day may have to be saved by Spooky suddenly regaining his senses and doing something awesome.

Kyle is shaping up to be a disappointment, which is really rather sad.

HA! I knew it guys <3

Maybe all Kyle is thinking about right now is being strong to throw Laampy off?

Don’t disappoint me, Alex. I know you have it in you to save your friends. (And me, since…you know, I live in the world and all.)

Ehhh….. Lamproos couldn’t be significantly worse than any of our other politicians. I say give him a chance. In fact I bet he’d be better than Sircea.

Oh yes he could be, and would be. The difference between ‘bad’ and ‘worse’ is much sharper than that between ‘good’ and ‘better’.

I don’t know maybe if Alex gave us a clue about what he wanted to accomplish and how he plans on doing it, we could make a more informed decision. If my fridge is full, my roof is keeping out the weather and the trains are running on time I can forgive an awful lot.

Okay, now I’m sure Kyle is gong to turn these “gifts” on his father. That last panel gives it away.

Is this the part where Laampy starts spouting that cliched crap that ALL villains tend to spout, about how “I/we are wolves and they are sheep, I/we are awake and they are all asleep”?

I swear that’s from some villain song or other, but I can’t place it…

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?” Buffy’s “Once More With Feeling?” “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” from Little Shop of Horrors? Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I want to mention the brilliant composition of this page.
Flyboy reminds us that the Team has some power in this situation, its members are not helpless in the face of Lampros’ greater power.
Spooky reminds us of their vulnerability, and what’s at stake.
Kyle reminds us of the power of commitment, even though we don’t yet know quite what he has just committed to do.
I can hardly wait until this comes out in paper format, so I can eagerly turn the pages and savor every panel!

(No, Mr. Dangerfield, I am not channeling you; this is merely the sincerest form of flattery.)

Thanks for the kind words on the composition, Pietro! 🙂

I accept your gifts… and use them against you

No take-backs!

BTW, thank you all for the well-wishes yesterday. I’m still sore but definitely healing. Ice is a miserable thing, I am glad none of the YP are stuck with an Ice Power.

Not a baseball guy, but this feels more like the wind-up than the pitch.

Come on, Kyle, don’t let me down now.

Power, unfortunately, does not make one smarter. Some of the strongest characters in comic books have also been some of the dumbest.

In fact, I’ve noticed the reverse is usually true. When your powers approach levels like Phoenix or Superman, suddenly everything looks like it can be solved with a big enough blast or a hard enough punch.

Kyle is becoming many things — angrier, more demonic, burnier — but he doesn’t seem to be getting any smarter.

Yep, that’s why I said “suddenly acquired” instead of assuming he had the smarts already. I agree, we haven’t seen that.

True, but that’s to make those powerful characters manageable, otherwise they’d be unbeatable.

He’s still in time to change his codename to “hothead” 😉

Yeah! Accept those gifts! ….and then throw them back in his face.

That’s what I am rooting for too!

That’s what I’m hoping, that he’ll get some of Dad’s power, enough to fling Dad and the demons back into hell…

Or he’s distracting him long enough for Spooky to suddenly leap into action when least expected – maybe shove all those souls down his throat 🙂

i’m just wondering, what kind of Swerve Ball are you gonna throw at us, Alex?

surely you are, M’signor?

as you know most of your audience is relatively Genre Savvy..
..so this upcoming turn of events better be good.

even if that means, we wind up hating Flame Boy forever.
i’ll even accept it, if Kyle ends up torching the rest of The Young Protectors, as long as you keep your story engaging, Mr. Woolfson

eh?

I just realized, is Laampros a play on the words Lamp and Roast? Because LOL.

Or… I tend to pronounce the double “a” with a short “a” sound, but if it’s a long “a” it could be Lame-prose. And I suppose truly lame prose could be considred evil.

Does Kyle need some cognitive recalibration? A good hard Gibbs’ smack should work yeah? Any volunteers?

Anyone who slapped me like that would get a punch to the throat. And Kyle broke the arm of the last person to touch him. So probably not a good idea.

Lampros is actually a proper name, meaning shining, or magnificent. Lamprus is also a synonym for Orophia moths. And you know, moths to a flame…(god I’m such a geek!)

I’m waiting for Anni to save him…

…with sexy results!

So, I’m having trouble wanting to watch the drawn-out story right now… there is a pacing problem here that could be corrected on the cutting floor with a few reshoots, but that’s not happening in a twice-weekly webcomic presentation. I’ve defended parts of this with comparisons to old-time radio plays, but that wasn’t intended to suggest that old-time radio plays were an exemplar of good pacing. Our guys have been in this field for over a year now, I think. At least DemonBear and Tina the Evil have gotten a change of scenery.

That complaint aside, this reads to me as one of two things. Either Kyle is gonna go fire-side (fire’s not dark) or he’s somehow hiding his true intentions to suck away all of his Demon-sperm-donor’s power and then attack him back with it.
I am assuming the latter, because that would be consistent with our heroic Kyle.

At this point I am not past thinking that Alex would be willing to kill Spooky for dramatic purposes. Or Kyle.

Also, art comment: Great Palpatine face on Laampshade there in panel 2.

Think of it this way — if you were reading a graphic novel, you would be turning the pages faster. The twice a week update slows that artificially.

I re-read it in one chunk to see if that was the problem. It’s not the problem. Even in a single flow it’s dwelling on some aspects in a way that feels a bit more like melodrama than drama. Of course, any more than one panel of Laamproast talking is too much, and the scene with Duncan and the Platinum Monologuer went on and ON and on, so perhaps it’s just that Alex wants us to hate the villains so he writes them that way on purpose.

In case no one has yet made this observation, Kyle has really become, er, smokin’ hot…

And horny, even though he was already – just not literally. 😀

DOH!!!

So . . . you’re saying Kyle is a smokin’ hot horny devil of a flamer, right? Did I miss anything? 🙂

This is getting better and better! Everything — the comic, the comments, the weather…for now…

If Laampros let´s Kyle keep Spooky in one piece, then I dont think he would such a bad daddy. But if Spooky gets even a little banged up, well I would not like it at all! >_<

Sorry (not sorry)

So the question is, is his father still reading his mind to ensure he’s committed to joining him or has he stopped at just the right moment for his son to be able to get away with deciding to take the power in order to fight his father and protect the earth, or at least for the more selfish reason as to protect his love/lust interest?

This is *the* big question, and the obvious potential stumbling block to the hopes of all of us who want Red Hot to be trying to trick Laampros. In addition to what you suggest, it’s possible that Commander could help disguise Red’s thoughts. But I’m also wondering if Alex has prepared something unexpected from out of left field.

I knew Kyle wouldn’t be able to resist. I hope he doesn’t actively oppose team typ but just observes instead.

First the good news — my Symphony season begins on Sunday (yay, live music) and second, the bad news — I started to assemble my tax stuff for 2016 (tedium)

Gasp! Kyle discovers that his Dad wants him to fill out a Form 1040 with eleven attachments! The horror! 🙂

Oh yes! Horror of horrors.

Truely evil.

I did a very very long write up farther down the comment section of how this MIGHT go down. But I left off: the adult heros spontaneously showing up from off planet and Flyboy’s friend showing up (both possible but unlikely) and a new favorite of mine, Kyle using his new found sense how other people feel to get Spooky back. Maybe he is so insistent that Lampy keeps giving him power because Kyle can feel that he can almost reach Spooky.

There has to be a final reconciliation with or about Duncan.
Sircea can wait for later stories (if there are any).

Kyle using his new found sense how other people feel to get Spooky back
Hmm. I think I like that one. I’ll need time to think about it, but it’s got a good initial impression.

I love the glimpse of the expressions of those two flying demons that Mitch is dragging. To me, it feels like they’re going “Why does this keep happening?!”

So, I was trying to watch tonight’s sports game and the tv froze – ironically enough, it froze on the closing shot of a commercial about the reliability of at&t connectivity. Guess who our tv provider is?

I did see two goalies fighting in a hockey game earlier somewhere.
It’s tough for goalies to fight in hockey.
However, the one had a glass jaw and skated right into the fist of the other.
Good fight.

Were they fighting near the middle of the rink, or by one team’s goal?

yes. the one goalie was pulled and he mouthed off after the play to the other goalie. They threw mitts down (hah!) and tried to get near each other. (bigger HAH!)

You must have to yell pretty loudly to make your comments audible to a guy at the other end of the rink.

They were both on one side of the ring closer to the one net. I don’t think that what they yelled was very nice.

My Niece’s son is a goalie and I still tease him at 21 y/o that he is only 140 lbs under all those goalie pads. Dressed in pads he looks over 200lbs.

patreon rumbles and it’s all Kyle

Well well well. A lot of people were pinning hopes on that.
Doesn’t mean it’s going to work, of course.

Hiya. Looks like I made it just in time, though barely awake 🙂

Good Morning DanishWolf…

Welcome, DanishWolf!

New Page is up:
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ch5-page-24/

can I just say: shhhiiiiitttttt

I know they succeed… somehow(i just dont know).