The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter 4—Page 42

June 7, 2016 Alex Woolfson 243 Comments

So, Fluke decided to spear the Dampener after all! And now scary red energy is blasting out from it. Is this good luck or bad luck? And for whom???

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

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243 Comments

oh my FUCKING GOD, FLUKE.

🙂

Very unexpected, bravo!

It’s gonna be okay, Syllibub!!!

… um… we hope…

Big badaBOOM!

Although it looks like the boom is heading towards Duncan

Yeah, he’s pretty much right on top of that sucker. This is gonna hurt.

And he deserves every ounce of pain..

Please he just knocked my Spooky for a 100 bouncing yards… Duncan will hardly feel it. Poooh.

Grab the ball!

No, no… grab the boy. Balls are boring.

But what about the other boys and gals around if that blows?

All sacrificed for the good of earth… however Alex doesn’t get a sequel… Hmmmmm????

One in the hand is worth two in the crater. 😉

Smash! Red fire! Panic!

I mean, it’s no real surprise that he wouldn’t listen to Duncan — Fluke hates him more than Kyle does, I’m sure — but after the Not A Bear and aggressive beanstalk very luckily targeted the villains and gave Fluke his shot at the dampener, wouldn’t he be a little concerned about his luck levels? A real man of action, this one.

I think if he starts thinking about luck levels they might go kaputs.

He may think it’s worth taking an explosion to the face to screw over the villains.

Thassss why I like him.

I don’t think he’s running math equations and calculations on luck levels anymore. I agree. It’s action now.

I think Mitch and Spooky should be mostly okay if they stay hugging the ground if it explodes.

The most damage they will take from their position will be third degree burns all across the side that’s not on the ground and possibly some shrapnel embedded in their flesh closest to the explosion.

Mostly okay. ^_^

Boom?

Big badaBOOM!

Again you with that fifth element. Well, it might save the day. One never knows………..

so loquacious you……

Boom!

Panel two gave us a nicely understated view of Duncan’s armband-protector – with a red section to draw the eye. Lovely piece of work! Now i wonder what happens with it next?

Looks like it’s gonna blow in Duncan’s direction. Could push him back.

This could be good or very bad, if Duncan in fact IS going for the small red ball. We know how that blew with a big kaboom on the other dampener, after that one got destroyed. For once I hope this WON’T blow up in Duncan’s face.. at least until we know otherwise about the reaction of the red ball.
He looks pretty concerned and that, along with previous Hongkong boom, makes me believe he could mean and tell the truth about that part still.

Duncan’s mistake was saying that along with a sudden ‘I’ll change side’ comment. Fluke heard some of the convo between Kyle, Amanda and Duncan. Even without that… Fluke believe him? Riiight.

OK, this could get interesting. Annihilator is protected from the dampener, but he’s about to get lit up by the full force of the dampener’s energies. Without the anti-dampener arm band I might expect him to lose his powers permanently or long-term at least. With the arm band, who knows? But perhaps he’ll end up as a very average immortal human.

Shouldn’t Anni be okay even if it does blow up? I guess it depends on whether or not the explosion is made out of power-dampening energy. If it’s just a regular explosion then he should be fine.

Idk, I mean, is this an explosion where everyone’s limbs are dismantled and sent flying in the air? I don’t think Anni could regenerate from that.

Anni’s powers are regeneration, super strength, and an extremely tough hide. A regular explosion can’t really hurt him, but the last time one of those exploded he actually felt the blast so I’m pretty sure this one could kill him with or without the arm brace.

Hmm, I’m still not sure.

Last time Duncan didn’t have his powers–he was under the effect of the dampener. We don’t know if the blast effects hit him before his powers fully returned or not. This time he has all of his powers. I’m going to side with blasted away from the scene, and possibly mildly injured, but not killed.

Actually, when the device was blown up, you see him backhanding the other guy effortlessly into the wall that also knocked him out. He picked up the other guy and Kyle and super jumped to safety but he still felt the blast.

Oh. I like the way you think!!!

Anni are you (gonna be) okay, are you (gonna be) okay, Anni

Golly, I hope not.

You appropriated that reference from Me! lmao.

😛

This one is really pushing his luck. But from Fluke’s perspective throughout everything that has happened, and with his impression/disgust towards Anni, I think if I was him i’d be doing the same shit lol.

At the very least they will be stopping the summoning ritual…everyone participating will be dead or disoriented too much. Also, the last time one of those blew up, Anni also felt the boom so I’m pretty sure it will kill him at that range unless he throws it before the boom in order to protect the ritual site/sacrifices.

The ritual is complete. If everybody outside the glass cage just walked away, the gate would open on time. Would killing the sacrifices early spoil the ritual? Not a very heroic way to do it, though.

I’m just glad something is finally going to go BOOM!

Thank you Alex, Adam and Veronica for the ongoing cliff-hangering excitement. Why am I always ready for the next page even before the digital ink is dry on the current one? It’s dreadfully unfair…

… and yet THANK YOU all.

Ummmm… just don’t hurt Cuddles. I want them to take him back to HQ and make him a pet with a really big ‘not-a-bear-bed (totally a bear)’. He’d be so comfy for an afternoon nap.

Woody… eh. It’ll work out.

Fluffy!

Right! Fluffy.

I prefer Cuddles to Fluffy…

See, you understand… there’s more than one demonic fuzzy creature. One has to leave one’s self somewhere to go. It’s not all carapaces and chiton is it?

You guys keep going on and on about Woody McBeanstalker and Fuzzy Wuzzy Lazer Bear, but I miss the happy sneks.

Well, Cuddles and Woody are still in the game, the the Brooklyn Headed Hell Snakes were looking a little knocked out last we saw them. Although, I do find it interesting that they seemed to simply fall unconscious when overwhelmed instead of being dismissed/unsummoned/disappeared.

Pom pom…

You can declare him “Fluffy” if you want, but that seems more like a super giant demonic Pomeranian with a laser anus to me… I don’t know, I just don’t get the connection. However we’re all unique special flowers, so don’t worry… be happy,

Oooooo. I call dibs on the laser anus! That seems like a perfect upgrade for my next robo-boyfriend. Especially if I can program it to project in time to music and the fog machine.

Remember to use REALLY GOOD protection then.

I have a soft spot for bears (*pause so we can get the winking and nudging over with, lol*) so I’d rather not see him hurt. Return from whence you came, Fluffy, and in one piece!

Woody! You better take care of him also, not only Cuddles!

Woody is always welcome to transplant into my garden, I will have no qualms whatsoever about feeding him nasty politicians

I recently found this article and thought about Fluffy/Cuddles/whatever nicknames he has now xD
http://thechive.com/2014/08/28/in-russia-bears-are-essentially-just-really-big-dogs-35-photos/

A bear cub is cute, but when it grows up, it is always a bear.

Unless it’s Not!aBear

but it seems there are quite some with grown up bears inbetween ^^

This page is so awesome I don’t even care if it backfires. XD

or frontfires, or sidefires, or…….

This fool has lied one too many times…I say STAB IT, FLUKE! Stake it like Buffy would a VAMP! Thrust your hard iron rod deep inside the…*Eyes glaze over*…I’m sorry–where was I going with this?

Oh, you made me laugh hard…

What did he write… my eyes glazed over in the first couple of sentences… 🙂

Okay, given what happened with those bounty hunters once Kyle used that bazooka majigger, I’m guessing Duncan Donut here might be telling the truth, kind of…Still, I wanna see that big rod thrust into the chasm of that pulsating silver–*Eyes glaze over again*–What?…I mean, nice story and drawing, guys!

Heads or tails?
*flip a coin*

Scissors!

Spock

Lizard

The magic eight ball says……….

Eenie, meenie,minie,moe.

Lizard

Oki…. wait? What? … are you sure? o.=

It could be rock.

WHAT IS THE RESULT OF THE COIN TOSS, SAPFO? THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME! I can’t take it no more ::cries::

Mormot? o.O

I think Friday’s page will be a giant crater with a flaming hole in the middle leading to the Hell dimension.

And a very angry Woody.

Either that or Woody is blown into splinters?
Maybe Woody yanks or shields some of TYP’s?

YAAAAAYYYYY!

… oh, sorry, is that an inappropriate reaction? 🙁

not at all

No, I’m so with you!!!! I hope our big eye, GFE, comes out of the hole first!!!! 😀

I usually prefer to come into the hole first myself

can it be a Hell Portal Lake? I wanna Hell Portal Lake, with flaming sulfurus water a Hell Fish, and Hell Toads, and Hell tadpoles, and Hell Ducks!

Now it explodes, but Duncan dashes in and saves Fluke, proving he really meant to help him all along! Then, pan the camera into Kyle’s face while he watches Anni rescue another man. Okay well maybe not that last part.

He saved another man in Hong Kong.

remember the explosion from the last dampener. this doesn’t look good for anyone in the area.

The explosion from the first dampener was enhanced by the rocket/missile hitting it. Fluke used a spear. No additional energy added to the breaking of the machine.
No BOOM for you.

The energy of the grenade had long since disspated when the dampener blew up.

True, but that’s also a very different kind of damage.

Klaus is right, I thought the same as you at first Eye, but the relevant pages were linked a couple of discussions ago. the rockets very clearly cause a big boom when they destroy the dampener, and then the little red ball very clearly shows up and makes an even BIGGER boom, which Anni very barely gets away from in time, even he admited that part of the plan almost went very wrong.

He broke it.

Well, then he pays for it. That’s the rules… 🙂

Knowing Alex’ ability to go the unexpected way, I really wonder what next page will bring.

It can be everything from Duncan going for Fluke, the dampener blowing in Duncan’s face (after he pushes Fluke away?) to Duncan grabbing the small ball before it blows and throws it away. Heck, maybe even throw it into Woody’s mouth just to go all out xD

Totally off the wall idea: Annihilator knows that while an explosion by the dampener can hurt him, it’s not going to kill him or even permanently incapacitate him considering how fast he heals. So in order to win Fluke’s trust he grabs the red ball and uses himself as a shield. But of course this is nowhere near good enough for Fluke, who is still mad on Red Hot’s behalf, and Annihilator gets another opportunity to complain about infuriating children.

Could very well be. In cases like this it’s always hard to guess whether it goes the ‘obvious’ possibilities, or if Alex throw us for a loop.

Living, Sentient explosion, trust me on this, lmao.

I hope so! One with a pathological dislike for monologuers.

Zapranoth?

Oh dear goddess, if Duncan is going to monologue again about (anything really) infuriating children… then I need to get a lot more vodka out…

I’m calling your sponsor.

Now there’s an idea for a coping mehianism. The Young Protectors: Engaging the Enemy drinking game.
Every time Annihilator monologs, take a drink.
Any other rules?

Whassssss thasssssst?

Gah, no more whining from the guy who caused all the trouble.. gives me an eye twitch.

well, based on how recent surprise twists; I’d say that the explosion turns out to be alive and sentient and proceeds to join Cuddles in it’s chase of PP.

As luck would have it the blast only hits Annie and PP

Anni was the one who cast the last part of the summoning spell, so would the explosion vaporizing him break the spell and save everyone?

It is possible. On the other hand, the spell is complete. Only the death of the sacrifices is lacking. So killing everybody, or even anybody, in the area might open the gate.

Again (not being snarky just this is the second time in the space of 5 minutes I’ve seen that mentioned), unless the bone circle is a required physical focus for the gateway and it is also destroyed in the blast.

Good point.

I didn’t think fluke would do that.

Paul popped a cherry…

He went for a loaded ball, and it’s gonna blow 😉

Looks like it’s gonna be a really big blast too.

Okay let us remember the options:

1) Fluke buys the baloney and Duncan thumps him… thus a King of hell takes over the earth and enslaves all — oh, except those who are enslaved by the now immortal re-powered 6,000 year old sorceress and her lackey the invulnerable and now (apparently) immortal super senior old fart…

OR…..

2) Fluke and fellow willing heroes, die quickly in a big quick explosion and the world lives. I’m with Fluke all the way. Seriously, when the asteroid strikes earth I don’t want to live, suffering in the new ice age. Or when the nuclear armageddon goes off between countries, I don’t want to live a half life in radiation city… NOPE.

Like Fluke, want to go out in one quick blaze of glory. Annnnnnd… if I can protect the rest of the world from hell on earth by doing so. I’m all in.

This doesn’t seem like a hard decision to me. Go my Fluke!

Well, as pointed out below, since the rest of the spell to open the hell dimension seems to be complete except for killing the sacrifices, wiping everyone out in an explosion might open the gate as well.

unless the gateway is also destroyed (the big bone circle. At least I’m assuming the ritual needs a physical focus for the gateway, otherwise the bone circle is very dramatic, and I applaud the dedication to flair on PP’s part, but there just is no justification for the time it took to construct it.)

‘… half life in radiation city’ – nice phrase!

I see two outcomes from this. Either Fluke’s good luck wins out and Duncan gets blasted (and takes moderate to possibly severe, but non-lethal damage).

Or…Fluke purposefully takes in all the bad luck so he’s the only one that gets hurt by it.

I’m worried the latter may be the option he chose.

I do not think that he has a choice. Luck just happens, good or bad. Though Amanda managed to control it somewhat.

First rule of superhero school; “If a villain says something; they are probably lying.” Second rule of superhero school, “If the villain is telling the ‘truth’, they are leaving out crucial information and can not be trusted; a lie of omission is still a lie.”

Third rule: “If a villain seems to be speaking the truth, refer to first rule.”

Fourth rule “If a villain is genuine about wanting to be a better person they’ll go to the authorities, not try to seduce a teenager.”
You’d think this one would go without saying but apparently not.

I’m guessing Superhero on Villain hanky panky is common; though not encouraged in their world. Establishing such a rule would probably just make more recruits for the Villains side. Also I’m in my mid thirties and if a potentially evil, handsome, wealthy and powerful silver fox slithered his muscular and sinuous frame up to me then fed me the line that “He wants to be a better man” I would totally eat that up with a spoon and a smile on my doe eyed face.

For me I’d prefer honesty. “Yeah, I’m a villain and a total bastard but I’m hot and we should bang.”

As my mother once told me “Romance is just another word for a very pretty and well crafted bullshit lie; there ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

Craunch! (incipient kerPOW!)

Well…. the scary red glowy stuff is spraying towards Anni.. so it seems that Fluke’s luck held out for a bit more.

So … Should that dampener thingy be doing that?

I also noticed that while Paul definitely killed the main body of the dampener, the red orb is still intact…and when Kyle shot the dampener, the red orb was the thing to go really BadaBoom.

so courageous Paul!!! I cheer for you!!! You stood your ground just fine 😀
Ofc I hope nothing bad will happen now, but I really think he did the right thing >_<'

so the big teddy trying to spank platinum blonde is just sad because he misses his owners? hehe

mybe? x’D I mean Spooky is knocked out, he could also just try to protect his owner x3

Well, here’s hoping that Anni was only bluffing XP…though I get a sinking feeling he wasn’t…

last time this was use there was a big explosion…but it could have been caused by the rockets too.

Hmmm….that’s very true…I’d forgotten that part….now I’m really not sure where this will go…

Somebody is going to get his beard singed.

good fluke am liking you more and more hehe

I knew it!

That’s what I like about Luck-based power. It can go either way, regardless of intentions. Good or bad luck, you take your chances when your power is based on luck. Fluke must think he’s still super-charged from all the crap that’s happened to them. Let’s hope he’s right. Or not. I…kinda wanna see Laampros again. On Earth, not brutally mutilating Duncan.

Never believe a bad guy. Flukes got enough good luck, let’s hope it’s enough for this. Not that we wouldn’t mind seeing Kyles dad again.

And seeing epic battle between those two. I have a feeling though that Lampy will be more pissed at Duncan, and let everyone go, punish Duncan for being a dumbass, and ending the deal.

Here’s hoping anyway.

Will this be Duncan’s opportunity to prove the change of heart he professed to Fluke? Will this be the end of the Annihilator? Will he perish throwing himself on the big exploding thing?

Naw. He hasn’t suffered enough yet.

Here’s my guess: I think Anni’s anti-dampener field is going to attract the rogue dampener’s energies, negating each other. I doubt he knows how the alien science works any better than Fluke does, but I think it’s entirely possible his anti-dampener field will act like a magnet to the red energy and suck it all up like a sponge.

Of course, even it that’s true, it may have other side effects as well. Perhaps Anni will be forced into hugging the dampener until it runs out of juice. Perhaps there will be a secondary explosion as the two types of energy directly interact. Perhaps the mingled energies will destroy Anni’s superpowers (but not Fluke’s since he’s immune) instead of just nullifying them temporarily. Or maybe we get a portal into yet another dimension where the alien energies come from. Or maybe Anni’s powers change so he becomes a living power-dampener either instead of or in addition to his current abilities.

All sorts of chaos still possible, but I feel the anti-dampener field will be the key that makes this explosion different from the one that happened in Hong Kong.

aaaand! he stabs that shit. yep. he stabbed it good.

I am starting to think Fluke needs a theme song. Something catchy I can hum while he’s being awesome.

I don’t know about Fluke, but here is Red Hot’s theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaolVEJEjV4

O_O ARRRGH! EUROVISION!!!!

Read the lyrics:
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/lyrics?song=31403
It could have been written for Kyle.

If this were a musical, I think that song would definitely be the score of this act, but I think I’d pick something faster and more upbeat to be his superhero themesong.

This is actually true. 🙂 Well played.

Wow, it would fit well. But I think Kyle would sing it in (what else?) a hot baritone. 🙂

With Kyle’s tastes, you could even say a bear-itone.

I wonder who’s going to get the worst of the blast/whatever.

The dampner has been keeping Not-a-Bear under control, and now he’s going to be unstoppable.

Interesting idea. It does work on Kyle, so one would expect it work on other demonic powers.

Oh boy.

Dampener goes and all of a sudden Fluffy no longer looks like a bear!

Y’know, Fluke’s karma-transfer powers tend to make his bad luck into other peoples’ good luck. It’s entirely possible that this thing is going to hurt or kill him pretty badly, because there are those people in the plexiglass kill-box, and the incipient demon-summoning to stop.

Or that someone else from the team has to pay the price as long as Fluke keeps using his good luck.

I’m not sure why, but I feel like this was the right decision. For anyone else “taking their chances,” would be a whole lot more bleak, but this is a fully charged Fluke we’re talking about.

I don’t know about fully charged though. He’s had a fair run of luck since his powers were luckily unaffected.

True, but no reason to think he’s run out of juice yet! He’s on a roll 😀
And as someone else pointed out — if it didn’t work to Fluke’s advantage, then the comic would be over, cause everyone would be in little pieces. I’m betting it’s going to be okay 😉

Oh no! Not Hell leeches!

Starfighter update! http://starfightercomic.com/chapter_04_comments.php?page=Chapter_04_Page_76.jpg

Thankee, Doki!

Ah! I knew Fluke’s powers had an incredible potential! Let’s just hope he hasn’t run out of luck now. In this case, you know, I’m afraid there wouldn’t be a comic anymore… cause… well… the young protectors would just explode in tiny little pieces *sweats*
I really love this comic! Great job!

P.s. I love how Spooky is indirectly saving the situation even when he’s currently down, thanks to his potions 😉 Mages are scarily dangerous dudes…

I thought Fluke might do this, to be honest. There have been a lot of comments he’s made since he arrived to pick up Kyle from the warehouse that showed he hated Duncan with a white hot rage for what he did to Fluke’s best friend. I think Fluke might hate Duncan more than Kyle does for what he did. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fluke never planned to listen to Duncan and was only pretending to for the sake of revenge.

Except, by purest chance (A FLUKE) the device WON’T blow up! mwahahahahahahaaaaa!!! …my, I feel a bit diabolical…

Did he roll a Nat 20, or a Nat 1? Tune in next week for the roll to confirm.

He rolled a 16, juuuust missed the device’s AC.

he penetrated it’s outer shell that’s still a hit.

There seems to be some kind of bluish energy coming from the spear in panels 1&2. Did Fluke just happen to pick up something magic, or are we seeing the very subtle manifestation of his power?

It’s water. Tsunami lefty a lot of lying around, and Fluke just picked the spear up from the ground.

With Fluke’s current run of luck, it will be Dunc and Sircea’s’s own power/energy directly controlling the device, and now they both immediately faint from shock.

Then exsec take them in while they’re still drained of power, everyone can go home for a well-deserved rest, and Mitch can get his poor aching body massaged by Cody.

why do I think it’s only that last sentence you and Doki are thinking about. 😀

Mitch needs the appropriate love and care for first saving his possible bf and then helping save the world.

Is there something wrong with that? 😛

Never. 😀

WELP
not too surprised there, but damn Fluke, you really are taking your chances here
i can just imagine this part in slow mo and a drawn out “noooo” from Anni before the actual explosion happens
…will it still? probably
let’s just hope that in these mere moments it works so TYP gets their powers back so they can have various ways to protect themselves from the blast

I’m with you. Alex is so cinematic.

I’m changing my previous answer… the dampner was meant to control Lampros.

Oooo, I hadn’t thought of that.

I’d say this is a good thing….or not. I still don’t want to listen to Annie though.

Well…if they are lucky they will survive this.

YAY!

I vote for either the LazerBear stomping on the dampener, thus absorbing most of the blast and saving everybody; or the PP quickly opening a portal and having Duncan lob the crackling Dampener through it (bonus points for having the dampener land and explode somewhere interesting, like in Laampros’ loo).

Bear-not-a-bear (totally a bear) could just sit on it?

*Ahem-hem*

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Chrii-is,
Happy birthday to youuuu…

Happy Welcome to the World anniversary, Chris.

OMG it sounds just like Celine Dione… thank you.

She sounded like a hoarse dog? She must have had a terrible cold when you heard her then 😉

..but you’re welcome.

Happy birthday Chris!
Now you will not do anything I would do! <.<
Have a great birthday ^^

Nothing you wouldn’t do? Well that is AWESOME and leaves all the good things open! 😀 xo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!

Yayyyyy Doki. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Chris.

The best people seem to know the important things. Thank YOU!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dangerfield!

Thank you ever so…

This video came up on my facebook the other day explaining consent using tea. I really like it. There is some cussing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8

That’s brilliant, thanks!

Do you fancy a cuppa? I make great phone-tea… I could even tea-xt you with my phone ;°)

Talk tea to me ;-P

Hey, where’s everyone tonight?

Just finished up eating dinner.

Dinner is good

Yes, yes it is. I’m now waiting on dessert

I Stared at deserts at the supermarket today. I also waved at them. Forbidden foods

Ganbatte!

There is a buckwheat chocolate chip cookie with my name on it.

*shakes fist angrily at so many treats with my name under a red cross on it*

Sorry. 🙁

You shouldn’t be and I shouldn’t be angry

I am the one who sent the red cross stickers to all the grocery stores in town ^^;

Now why would you do that?

Used to be a scoutmaster, met a scout for the first time in ten years and he was honest like brutally honest!

~~i must be 20kg fatter~~

Oh, that’s always painful to hear…

How rude!

Buckwheat was shot!

A name inscribed in it in calligraphy!!

Forbidden is the BEST! (yet I understand)

Peace! Just got here…

I’m relaxing and doing not much

Me neither, woke up from a nightnap and reading Leftovers webcomics…

That’s the name, btw ^_^

I’ll check it out.

Hiya, good to see you around again.

Tried several times this month without success, woke up to late, not in the mood…

Glad to be with you again :°)

Just got here

I was going to watch the original LA CAGE AU FOLLES but then I remembered it has subtitles and I can’t type and read subtitles at the same time. So I put on S.T. INTO DARKNESS

Morning. Waking up before my alarm, despite it being very early. Must be the load of sugar I got yesterday, most in a while xD. (I’m so happy that I don’t have clear number of how much).

Page is up
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch4-page-43/

Well, I was wrong. I thought the risk was too great for him to do it, but I guess he disagreed.

Demon Poo? You had to put that image in my head? Bad DFrag. Bad DFrag! LOL.

I try real hard to be that bad.

Please don’t kill them(hopping)