The Young Protectors: Double-Cross Chapter Two—Page 27

February 25, 2020 Alex Woolfson 46 Comments

The voice of reason.

Please note: These are work-in-progress colors. Vero should get me the final colors soon.

You can talk about this page at The Young Protectors Community here.

(Disqus comments are still at the bottom of this web page!)

Last Chance For All Patrons To Download The NSFW Kyle-Anaado Pin-up!

This pin-up was unlocked for all Patrons (even brand new ones!) at the beginning of the month, and as of March 1, the art will only be available to higher-level pledgers.

This fun scene features full frontal nudity, two very handsome guys, and was created by the amazing Travis Moore. If you’ve been on the fence about becoming a Patron (or are already a Patron, but haven’t had a chance to download it yet), now’s the time! Download it here!

ANNIVERSARY PATRON THANK YOUS

It’s my great pleasure to send out another, very special Woolfpack anniversary “thank you!” to the superheroes of this comic who have been supporting our work month after month!

First let me thank pack members who have been supporting our work for the last 12 months as of this week (Feb 23-29):

Azhrie139 and Preston F.

(You totally rock, Azhrie139 and Preston!)

I’d like to send out a big thank you to members of the Woolfpack who have been supporting our work for 24 months of this week (Feb 23-29):

Windy H., Rory P. and Michael V.

(Two years of support! Thank you so much, Windy H., Rory and Michael!)

And a heroic thank you as well as for Woolfpack members who have been supporting our work for 48 months of this week (Feb 23-29):

Katherine D. and Lauren P.

(Three years of support! Thank you so much, Katherine and Lauren!)

And let me also send out my biggest howl to those members of the Woolfpack who have been supporting this comic and our work from the very beginning!

These are the awesome readers who have been supporting me and this comic for 60 months (5 years!) as of this week (Feb 23-29):

B, Barry, BootedBear, Paul (Chiron), T, Takeshi, Pedro A., James B., Cody H., Christine K., Fred K., Rene M., Salvador M., Mario N., Matt N. and Chuck T.

Thank you so much, B, Barry, BootedBear, Paul (Chiron), T, Takeshi, Pedro, James, Cody, Christine, Fred, Rene, Salvador, Mario, Matt and Chuck! Y’all are so awesome!

Thank you all so much for your amazing, ongoing support! It’s the consistent support that is what really allows me to continue making this comic. You all truly are superheroes!

(Would you like to make sure this comic continues? Ready to dive even deeper into The Young Protectors world? Learn more about all the benefits of joining me and your fellow readers as part of The Young Protectors tribe on Patreon and then join the fun!)

So!

So! Flyboy’s doing his best to convince Teen Spooky to cool his jets. Will it work? Who is this Leader that Flyboy’s talking about? Who would have taught him that a fight is won or lost based on intel? And will trying the back door make all the difference?

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

Liked it? Take a second to support Alex Woolfson on Patreon!

Comments From The Young Protectors Community

dave.fragments.dc says:
February 21, 2020
What if this set of coincidences and travel through that portal provided the spark to form the Young Protectors Team?
What if that is the consequence of all this?
Klaus says:
February 22, 2020
dave.fragments.dc:
What if this set of coincidences and travel through that portal provided the spark to form the Young Protectors Team?
Anybody remember the Throckmorton device?
Nate says:
February 22, 2020
“B-b-but I wanna be BADASS!!” :sulk:
ETA: “Trying the back door” may not be the best way to phrase it.
bronakopdin says:
February 22, 2020
I’m proud of almost grown up Mitch here and “teenage-you likes to play hard-boiled” absolutely made my day
w_period_r_period_cl says:
February 22, 2020
Uh, no? What is that?
w_period_r_period_cl says:
February 22, 2020
Wow. Called it! Maybe at this point in time is where Spooks starts to get wise AND gets his bits and pieces scrambled with the memory blackout. He goes in with Mitch, does the save, gets conked pretty well with an ill timed blast knocking down the ceiling and cross (hint, hint)! This is why he doesn’t remember meeting Mitch! Timeline fixed. There ya’ go. Your welcome!
Klaus says:
February 23, 2020
w_period_r_period_cl:
Uh, no? What is that?
This is a spoiler for the role playing game Over the Edge.
One of the reasons that there is so much strangeness is the Throckmorton device. This is a very powerful machine that adjusts reality to fit the prejustices of a man name Throckmorton. It will not be invented for another ten years or so, but it is so powerful that it even affects the past. The main adjustment the past needs is that the Throckmorton device must be buildt, which would not happen in the natural course of history. Therefore a brilliant scentist is working night and day on this invention. She has no idea what it does. She only knows that it is very important. She does not know that mr. Throckmorton even exists.
As for mr. Throckmorton himself, he is an utterly unremarkable man who has no clue that any of this is going on.
w_period_r_period_cl says:
February 25, 2020
Gotcha. I don’t do those. Tried. Couldn’t get into it much.
dave.fragments.dc says:
February 25, 2020
Two thoughts came to mind:
1. discretion is the better part of valor
  and
2. Prudence is the better part of reckless abandon
alexwoolfson says:
February 25, 2020
dave.fragments.dc:
What if that is the consequence of all this?
A good question.
There will be consequences to this arc.
bronakopdin:
I’m proud of almost grown up Mitch here and “teenage-you likes to play hard-boiled” absolutely made my day
I’m glad, Nadin!
w_period_r_period_cl:
He goes in with Mitch, does the save, gets conked pretty well with an ill timed blast knocking down the ceiling and cross (hint, hint)! This is why he doesn’t remember meeting Mitch! Timeline fixed. There ya’ go. Your welcome!
We shall soon see.
dswxyz says:
February 25, 2020
I love this sign of maturity from Mitch. Shame the Commander and the others aren’t around to see it.
I admit to a little confusion over Mitch’s assertion that Spooky hasn’t heard of the Platinum Priestess yet. Sircea’s been around for thousands of years (supposedly) and she’s probably been reasonably powerful and active for most of that time, yes? How could Spooky not have heard of her? Should I assume instead that she was enjoying a magical sleep for a thousand years or so or in another dimension until somewhat recently?
Klaus says:
February 25, 2020
dave.fragments.dc:
discretion is the better part of valor
and
Prudence is the better part of reckless abandon
1. Look before you leap
2. Who hestitates is lost
Klaus says:
February 25, 2020
dswxyz:
How could Spooky not have heard of her?
She has been keeping a very low profile. She has been active, but has kept out of the limelight.
Julian_White says:
February 26, 2020
1. Curiosity killed the cat…
BlueWizard says:
February 26, 2020
…But satisfaction brought it back!
JujYFru1T says:
February 27, 2020
6 days ago… bwuuh how’d i miss this
I like the lil touch of the flame sputtering out when Mitch grabs Spooky’s shoulder
and also his “I’ve had it up to here with this kid’s Danger McGunghopants crap” speech is (I agree bc i want precisely no one to die… unless there are more of those kid-murdering hooded folks im sorry)
alexwoolfson says:
February 28, 2020
dswxyz:
I love this sign of maturity from Mitch. Shame the Commander and the others aren’t around to see it.
Agreed. Commander especially now trusts Mitch a lot more after the events of Engaging the Enemy, but it would definitely be good for her (and Gordon! and Paul!) to see this too.
Klaus:
She has been keeping a very low profile. She has been active, but has kept out of the limelight.
Yes. There’s a bit more about this is the [Spooky Jones Short Stories](Alex Woolfson | Creating comics with gay heroes | Patreon Story) on Patreon. And maybe in the Trading Cards as well.
BlueWizard:
…But satisfaction brought it back!
Welcome, BlueWizard!
Klaus says:
February 28, 2020
Blue wizard as in Istar Luin, or does it come from somewhere else?
alexwoolfson says:
December 27, 2021
Hey Jason!
Good to hear from you! And it took me a little bit to realize what pin-up you were talking about. It has been a while—I think I posted the NSFW Kyle-Anaado pin-up close to 2 years ago!
FWIW, if you’d like to see it right away (along with anything else you might have missed), it is available in the itch.io download library which any $10+ Patron can access:
https://alexwoolfson.itch.io/special-patreon-pin-ups/patreon-access
(And since you can change your Patreon support at any time, you could bump up your pledge, connect to itch.io, and then just change right back to your current level right after you’ve downloaded the new pinups. Of course, you don’t need to do that at all—it’s just an option if you want to see it right away.)
In any event, thank you very much for your support. I’m glad to hear you’ve gotten back into the comic lately. And I hope you continue to enjoy the new things I’m putting out there.

Continue talking with your fellow readers about this page at the Young Protectors Community

1 more comment

Active Young Protectors

(Disqus Comments Can Be Found Below)

46 Comments

Betting the boss is Platinum Princess!

That’s where my nasty paranoid mind went as well.

Could be… 🙂

Thank you for that “definite maybe”, you TEASE! 🙂

Look at Flyboy’s eyes …

What do you see there, Dave?

Of course Mitch likes to take the back door *eyebrow wiggle*

Ah, right; We’re back in the past, when some people still thought that kind of joke was hilarious…

Delete me.

“Baby, I’m your back door man!”
This has two levels of innuendo:
1. A secret affair where you don’t use the front door or readily observed entrance.
2. And, of course, that lower level where our naturally reptile, id-driven
brain dove into immediately!
Lulz.

Try the back door…. So many things to say.

Today I discovered two things about the showing of Patreon comments on this page:
1) If you have a blurred spoiler in the Patreon comment, it gets shown as clear text here.
2) If you number points 3 and 4 in the Patreon comments, it gets changed to c and d here.

3) If you reply to a comment, the indication of what comment you replied to is not shown here.

Hey Klaus!

1) I’m not surprised by the this. The Spoiler feature is a plugin I’ve added to the Community site. It’s a common plugin, but I’m not sure how easy it would be for the WP-Discourse developer to add that. But I can ask. 🙂

2) That’s odd. I’ll definitely ask about that.

3) Yep. I’ve asked, as a feature request, for replies to be made more clear, but this is why I’m using the quoting function to reply to folks. More clear who and what I am responding to. Hopefully, the developer will improve this in the future.

Thanks for the observations!

Voting links for The Young Protectors and Artifice!

Thank you, b3nc0! 🙂

“By gad, sir, you are a character, that you are. There’s never any telling what you’ll say or do next, except that it’s bound to be something astonishing.”
The Maltese Falcon

So this, right here, this looks like some serious closed-loop effect-and-cause
time paradox shenanigans.
Oh crap, this is either very good or very bad. Flyboy and Spooky and birds of a feather when it comes to breaking rules because of the greater good (or simply because it looks cool). They’re going to be enabling each other.

Right now, Flyboy is trying very hard to be very good. Whether they wind up enabling each other anyway, we’ll just have to see. 🙂

Talk to me more about the closed loop shenanigans you see here, Saxon.

Well now, I’m not sure that’s a safe question to ask someone who’s just spent an afternoon playing in a Dr Who role playing game 😛

But since you asked, I can see three. There’s the overt ‘Flyboy giving Spooky some advice that supposedly Spooky gave/will give to Flyboy in the future’ closed causality loop. (Although as the script says, this is superhero 101 stuff, so it raises an interesting question as to whether what Flyboy is *actually* doing here is making the appeal to authority argument with future!Spooky being the authority. That “another smart person” is certainly an appeal to Spooky’s ego.)

The second is that the reference to that unnamed someone’s reliance on intel. That sounds like Commander to me. My gut impression is that she wouldn’t casually go around telepathically snooping without good reason, but there’s still the possibility of Flyboy’s description getting back to her and also causing a closed causality loop. (Although, again, it’s probably something she already knows and has internalised as part of her standard operating procedure.)

And thirdly, I agree with other pack members that the powerful someone that Spooky wouldn’t know yet is the Platinum Priestess. (Which is ironic, because as I’ve had reason to repeat several times earlier in this chapter, current!Spooky has already met Tom Hastings in his recent past in the text stories. And that means Spooky already knows who the Priestess is: he just hasn’t *met* her yet. It would seem that Flyboy doesn’t know that yet, and his advice to Spooky to radically change his tactics if it turns out to indeed be her would be a major spoiler of future events.)

Overall, the amount of hinted-at future detail is an interesting contrast to Flyboy’s claim to only want to do so much to do so much that may derail the timeline. We can extrapolte that Flyboy thinks a moderate amount of detail about the future is safe to pass on as long as the person receiving it acts responsibly and doesn’t use it to change events. That’s… one way of interpretting time paradoxes. IIRC the GURPS Time Travel role playing game supplement referred to it as the Observer Effect, and postulates that history can be spoofed as long as something is appropriately faked to be ‘seen’ to have happened, regardless of what was actually going on behind the scenes. Personally I may or may not be prepared to accept that handwave, depending on how snarky the hardcore nerd part of my brain is feeling on any particular day.

Somehow I missed this delightful response, Saxon. All of it is, of course, very well-reasoned. As you thought, Flyboy is referring to both Adult Spooky and then Commander in his argument. And he certainly does believe that he can get away with some kind of interaction without blowing the timeline, likely for Observer Effect reasons you state.

Whether he is right about that remains to be seen… 🙂

Hello Campers,
What will our teen duo do?

Patreon Rumbles

The New Page is Up:
https://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ3/doublecross-ch2-page-28/

And here at The Young Protectors Community Pages:
https://community.amwcomics.com

Love to see how much Flyboy has matured and grown <3

That’s definitely one of the fun parts of writing this story. Exploring that. 🙂