The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter 4—Page 53

July 15, 2016 Alex Woolfson 121 Comments

Looks like our team is wrapping everything up with a bow!

Oh, and if you haven’t checked it out in a while, the TV Tropes page of The Young Protectors continues to be updated by the readers. While not everything is 100% accurate, it’s a ton of fun to read with a lot of smart insight. In addition to the main page linked to above, I also recommend you check out the Characters page. 🙂

So! The Annihilator still has a pulse and Kyle is denied a FlukeHug! Is The Annihilator really “down for the count”? Or has the fight between the Silver Fox and the team just begun?

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

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121 Comments

Aww, Kyle can’t hug him.

How did you sneak in ahead of me?

I was going to ask the same thing. You posted a second right before me. But that was all I saw

We posted right at the same time but then I refreshed and Danishwolf showed up. I suspect some four and eerie computer connection…
wink, wink

Most likely!!

I just spent a full hour with the snooze button going off every 5 mins, trying to wake up, only to show up to see you talk about rumblings, so loaded the new page address, refreshed once and there it was.

Disqus makes first comment interesting by not showing all comments at first, if 2-4 are posted within seconds. I’ve thought I had first more than once, to find out otherwise after a comment refresh. Disqus gremlins :-p

Do you see the page on a cellphone?

Tablet. It’s a tad slower than my computer (or was, since computer is broken).

I use disqus on a political website and there are people that hooked Disqus into the cellphones that always hit the first comment. I thought that I’d ask.

Yeah, can’t do that. I have many a time seen first comments has been posted in the seconds while I was waiting for my comments section to load.

Doki has an annoying alarm bug if you want it…providing Doki doesn’t kill it when she finds it.

Did you know that you can get an alarm clock that is a small helicopter? When the alarm goes, it takes off, and to press the snooze button, you have to catch it.

Given that I sometimes can get up, go to set the timer to another time my brain likes better, and go back to bed while being semi-awake, this might not be enough 😉

But sounds really cool.

Danish has the most Vs for a reason. ^_^

Speedy DanishWolf!

Yes, love the body language in panel 2. Fluke can see Red Hot’s in a ‘hug everybody’ mood and makes back-off-for-your-own-safety warnings.

I really like how Adam did that. 🙂

I just looked at the script. It says Red Hot moves forward for a ‘warm hand clasp’. But obviously Adam has picked up the ambiguity trick from you, because with that pose and after the last page pretty much all the readers will be thinking ‘another hug’. But, yeah, Fluke’s gesture is lovely.

He’s really good at portraying body language.

It’s just awesome! x3

I think Fluke should wait for Laampros and hug him…

OMG you’re a genius x’D

I like that phrase — down for the count!

Eeep!

Set him on fire just to be sure.

Fluke’s so unlucky that he can feel the negative charge? Scary!

I think he might always be aware of it, he was confident he was super good luck charged before the fight started.

And wow, was he ever lucky then; if he’s similarly unlucky now, that’s a terrifying thing. What’s going to have to happen to work off that lack of luck?

Hopefully he can let it out in smaller bursts over time. .

indeed that must be awful D: if you’re desperate to be close to someone and even in general ;__;

Yes, *please* Tsunami, go disable the kill-o-matic.

I wonder if Fluke can burn off the negative charge through a bunch of smaller accidents or if it’ll be something big just because?

Darn, so much for the makeout theory. Interesting thing to learn about Fluke’s powers, though.

Yes, FINALLY, save those poor people! And try not to drown them. After this is all over and Fluke’s got the bad luck charge taken care of, they can all have a group-hug. You too, Commander. Tsunami, don’t even think about backing out.

And where is the government help?

There was a makeout theory? For whom?

I was just joking around about Fluke and Duncan making out off-screen. :p It’s not a real theory.

Amanda’s hands in that las panel look like they are getting ready to punch someone

Or preparing to wring someone’s neck.

Or that, I think Amanda would love to do either to Anni for hurting Kyle the way he did.

They can take turns! I assume choking someone with invulnerability would take a while.

So we might see Duncan on the next page? This should be interesting. If he’s unconscious, I’m sure they’ll punch him awake.

*punch* Rise *punch* And *punch* Shine *punch*

I’m sure Duncan will be particularly glad to see Spooky back in action, haha.

Coochie coochie coo!! *tickled with green ecto tentacles*

Tickled green.

Duncan still believes that the walls between the dimensions are weak.
Worse for Kyle, Duncan is on the wrong end of Lammpros agreement (or curse) …
And I wonder if the timer really does anything but count time?

The walls are weak, Spooky and Amanda have confirmed it. The question is whether it’s genuine problem or a staged one.

If it is staged, it is a very eleborate deception. It is now six years ago Spooky informed the BCPD and the Charlieboys that the walls are weakening.

What is six years to an immortal?

A very good point.

Not to harp on *too* much from the script, but apparently there’s 5 minutes 49 secs left on the clock. Enough time for the Annihilator to make a last ditch fight for victory

I wonder how well he’d function under telepathic assault? I doubt he’d be able to fight off Amanda as well as Sircea did.

I really like the art on this page. I like the art on every page, actually, but the second panel in particular is fantastic — like Saxon said, the body language is so expressive. Adam did an awesome job!

I’m also interested in the idea that Fluke’s powers have a certain area of influence. I guess it makes sense, and it’s probably better for his health — imagine him watching the news and seeing unfortunate people, wouldn’t he feel compelled to bring bad luck on himself to help them out? It would be overwhelming.

In a parallel universe:
Fluke: “Those poor people! I’ll go disable the machine!” (runs off)
Amanda: “What? Wait…!”
PP, magically observing : “Yes! Yes!”
(earth shattering ka-boom)

Nya! I wants to see the Duncanator! This page, it gives me the suspense pains! *does a wiggle dance*

. . . it occurs to me that I should take the time to express how grateful I am for all the nice people of this community! While I am always impatient for the next page, someday all the pages will be done, and everything will be all wrapped up. No more camping, no more wonderful conversations, no more suspense! So, while we’re all still together and happily chattering over the glory of this comic, thank you all for being great!

It is indeed a great community. I’m hoping most commenters will move on to what comic Alex will make next, after this one will be done. Just as many was around in the Artifice days.
Not sure whether next comic will be a whole new project, or another YP comic (with other character focus, probably Mitch or maybe Spooky), but I hope/believe there will be another YP arch made some day 🙂

Or Cory.

Paul! Paul! Paul! That’s all I can say atm. So happy to see him again, even if he’s out of luck.

“Out of luck” is so ominous when it comes to Paul.

I’m a bit worried that having Duncan around, in what ever healthy/hurt state is enough to set things off anyway – being what Laampros needs to get through the gate. Been wondering about this for a while.

There’s two portal keys, one in each end (where did Sircea’s go btw?), but Duncan was used as a fleshy agreement signature, and his blood was used as part of the bowl mix. Also he was part of the spell chanting they had time to say before our heroes showed up.

A key in each dimension, but what if Duncan was set up by Sircea to be the kill-switch, if anything else failed? Or a needed factor for it to work? One reason she also kept him around.
Before YP showed up, Duncan was pointing out that she couldn’t do it without him, but that could be true in more ways than Duncan knows about.

Right now, the question for me isn’t if Sircea *could* do it without Duncan but, with her being (temporarily) gone, could it happen without her?
That, and if there’s a specific reason she wanted to keep the YP team at the site, rather than sending them away, and is that reason Kyle and/or Spooky?

Soooo ummmm Mitch?

I know. We need to get a view of him again, despite knowing he’s fine. Where is he? Looking after the minions in the river?

Hmmmmm…..there’s a demon just offstage and a nasty magic gate in the area. Why do I think this is not over?

It’s so not over. Question is jusy how things will play on next.

What if a meteor lands on Fluke?
Or his negative charge lets Laampros through anyways….

Mitch will catch the meteor in time 😀
(though it might be too hot…)

No silly, Mitch is too hot for the meteor. lol

Ohhhhh bring on more confrontation.

so Fluke’s power is Luck? One moment of Super Luck and then will return him with a Super Bad Luck after usage?

That’s just about how we understand it. It’s a bit of a cycle, good/bad/good/bad

Yeah, the bigger his luck is, the worse his bad luck is and vice versa. Also affecting people around him.
Like all the way back in early chapter 1, with the fire, where he had crashed his car just after paying it out, and two firemen miraculously avoid getting hit by falling debree.

Must be a constant balance act to keep people around him safe, as well as himself. A karma-like life. What goes around comes around.

Makes me think of the Supernatural episode with the rabbit’s paw. I love that episode.

ohno… it’s “the other shoe” time…. I see it dangling like damacles’ slipper 😛

Wit points for Trish!

Aww, was hoping for a cut scene of Paul and Duncan in hell. That would have been some terrible luck.
Also terrible luck: if the kill switch can only be disabled by PP’s staff and she’s locked out of the barrier Spooky just put up.

Good to know Paul’s fine!!
But I had no clue that he can “feel” his bad luck >////< it must be really unpleasant T___T'
So Duncan is lying on the ground… conscious or not? Just exhausted or in agony?
Wednesday, come soon pls x'D

He seems to have been super extra charged when they broke loose of the pods, after realizing a new way to feel lucky. Maybe that has led to him feeling the opposite more too. Now that the super luck has changed.

What is the range of Paul’s power? Does he know?

That’s a good question. The trading cards, they say nothing. And having thought this over, I’m at a loss.

Look at it this way. During the plane flight at the start of chapter 3 Fluke claims that his best friend had just been screwed over and Fluke thought he’d never been so charged up. Now, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that was a genuine claim rather than a teenager engaging in hyberbole in order to get the go-ahead to rumble on the supervillains. We still have NO IDEA whether the luck charge built up at the time events were happening to Red Hot, or whether it happened later when Fluke came into Red Hot’s presence at the warehouse. That’s the difference between an immense distance (almost an hours flight with Flyboy’s help) versus being in the physical presence of events. The same limitations might or might not apply to when Fluke’s car was written off prior to chapter 1.

And that’s just the distance for Fluke *gaining* a luck charge. Which may or may not be the same distance when the luck charge manifests as *further* helpful or harmful events. All we can say for sure is that we’ve seen the latter happen within his line of sight. His effective range might be a lot further.

An interesting thought is that if Fluke can indeed feel when he’s got a charge of luck, that maybe he did gain some when Red Hot was away off at the warehouse – but that Fluke didn’t notice because he was distracted by playing Angry Birds. Tsk. Typical teenager.

Maybe he did notice and just assumed his car got smashed up again.

It would seem to me that it isn’t so much a matter of range as it is of perception. From reading the comic, I’ve come to suspect that Paul’s power is greatly influenced by his perception of things. I would theorize that he has a well of power that bends probabilities but that it is a quirk in Paul’s mind that determines if it swings toward something positive or negative. Good and bad are themselves constructs of perception so that, for instance, if Paul had a friend whose violin broke, it could be considered either good or bad luck for Paul depending on how good his friend was at playing it; therefore, the accumulation of the type of luck would be reliant on just how Paul views the incident.

This was why Commander was able to activate Paul’s power when the rest of them were affected by the dampeners. She convinced him first- that he had stored up enough good luck in light of all the bad luck that had happened and second- that his luck had already managed to arrange things in his favor by rendering his powers immune to the dampening. If Fluke had believed his power was useless, it would have been, but by being cognitively convinced that his power was active, it was.

Now, fast forward to this point, Paul believes that his store of good luck has been used up from all the things that have gone well for the team over the last few minutes, meaning that his power will only work against him until he can convince himself that enough bad has occurred to discharge it. Now, if he believes that proximity will allow his power to influence things negatively for his friends, it probably makes it so, in which case, keeping his distance will actually have the effect of keeping his power reined at least enough to prevent him from actively sabotaging his friends’ efforts.

FLUKE, YOU’RE OK, good
now to dogpile on Anni (cuz he’s a lapdog…get it…ok), but it is a good idea to make sure to keep him down, and good to get someone to stop that box of death from happening…hopefully
fluke: also i just saw how you hugged spooky, i like my ribs how they are

oh goddess FINALLY someone remembering the fact there is a TIMER going on still.
unless they wanted to meet kyle’s daddy THAT badly…

Nuts. Another half-week before the showdown with whatever remains of Duncan.

aaww, poor Kyle looked almost upset there…but yes, definitely better Paul stay back for now.
hey Duncan, run run run, as fast as you can…;P…..ooooor, maybe not, or we’ll need Flyboy to go after him XD

I wonder if Fluke’s gonna have a slapstick attack that would put Buster Keaton AND The Three Stooges to shame.

that or “Rocks fall everybody dies”

So how do we make Paul hug safe again? I am willing to sneak of with all his shows, and wallet…. Darn it! Only a few cents! Someone else have any bright ideas?

Get Fluke to convince himself that Laampros is one of the family now and give him a “Welcome to the Family Big Guy” hug.

As Laampros is Kyle’s dad.

Honestly, I would love to make some kind of Pokemon go joke here…. You go and to catch him! ^^
that have to do for now 😉

Did you know that my state (Pennsylvania) is searching for Aerodactyl more than any other pokemon?
And Alex’s state (California) is searching for Squirtie more than any other?

And no one is searching for Zubats. I think PP took them all to do something quite unmentionable and against nature.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pokemon-go-each-state_us_57893dfde4b03fc3ee50dac8

i’m the antiPokenom.

No one wants to catch me

I been hunting your for days. Still have not found you!

G+ skype, hangouts …

How negatively is Paul charged? “Accidentally open the portal to Hell” charged?

Let’s hope not. It’s risky enough that Duncan is still around.

The Annihilator ain’t goin’ NOWHERE if the Commander has anything to say about it!

So, if Paul decided to help Duncan, would that mean that Duncan would take the brunt of all of Paul’s bad luck? (okay, okay, that’s more than incredibly mean of me. :/ )

would it not be that if Paul would want something, and he was charged with bad luck, it would not help. And that would be the same if he would want to help Duncan?

I’d think it would only work if he actually wanted to help Duncan with all of his heart. Since Fluke hates him, Duncan would probably heal spontaneously from a random potion falling from the sky or something.

hue hue hue
Amanda’s scars change from one panel to the other

And cry?

The TV Tropes page for TYP is fun to read. It’s got a good sense of humor about it.

There was a very loud noise just a few minutes ago. I thought someone was busting a hole in the outer wall of our house. Turns out it was either just a firework or a CO2 canister from one of the airsoft *insert colorful adjective/s* that they dumped in one of the burn barrels. Doki is not amused. -_-

And there went another one.

When I was in high school, someone threw a cherry bomb into the basement trash barrels (55 gallon drums) and up on the second floor it sounded like a small bomb. I never saw a grown woman (Sister Mary Maria Brunhilde) move so fast to find out what happened.
It did nothing but shred paper physically but it did scare the daylights out of half the school. Personally, I don’t play with those things.

I am pretty sure a few years were scared out of me each time.

yeah.
At work I had a few hydrogen “pops” (sounds like shotguns) go off with only a 3/8ths inch armor plate steel barrier between me and it. I don’t jump at loud noises anymore. I do try to avoid them.

Stupid people for scaring Doki.

After I drank my coffee, I showed my empty mug to the IT guy and told him I’ve successfully installed Java. He hates me

‘Morning. Waking to blackbirds singing in the very grey and misty twilight.

Anitra, you woke up!

Morning Danish!

Morning 🙂

It is quiet in here tonight

Happens some times. People are busy or just lurking around.
Some is probably because it’s ‘vacation season’ many places now. In Denmark the biggest time for vacation is July and August. A lot of people have 2-3 weeks off from work, and many are traveling if they can.

Oh, and I’m reading some Q&A on the Demon of the Underground’s Tumblr site. An extra thing in celevration of the webcomic’s 5th anniversary 🙂

yesterday, because my electric was out, I read Joyce Carol Oates “Jack of Spades.” Today,with the electric on, I started the graphic novel of Camus'”The Stranger”…

added: I’d forgotten the exquisite words of Camus:
“Maman died today,or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”

Doki is hoping for Mitch on the next page. ^_^

Page is up:
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch4-page-54/

lets finish this