“Striking Sparks” — Page Forty-Eight
Rules of the Strike Gate (so far)
#1 The Strike Gate will not teleport metals, nor electronics, nor your soul.
#2 As long as the power stays on, the Strike Gate will extract everything it initially sent, but nothing else.
#3 If power is cut, anything that was sent will remain sent and can no longer be extracted.
So any gear that’s not coming back gets sent on ahead. Kinda like FedExing your swag home from a Con.
Cool. Feels kinda like the informative act-break images in Attack On Titan. (A title which I’ve never quite understood, BTW; seems like it should be Titans.) (Though to be fair, I once directed a Beast Wars episode which I insisted upon titling Code of Hero rather than Code of a Hero. But I had sound reasons for this, namely: Code of Hero sounds moar awesomer.)
More below!
Bobservations
Teamwork
The Strike Team springs into action! Lotsa steam atmospherics and of course Marissa bringing up 3-D schematics of the building on her computer; a trope in such common usage that no one even questions it any more. Although to be fair, Los Angeles City Hall has undergone so many retrofits for earthquake protection, riot protection, handicapped access, and other security and safety requirements over the years it probably does have a complete digital mockup somewhere. And assuming that, someone like Marissa could easily access it. Meanwhile, Madison is translating the coordinates into 4th-dimensional space-time equations in his head, and Sharma is loading the syringes as Max easily assumes command. A former Staff Sergeant, he’s likely more comfortable in these kind of situations than he is in his new apartment.
And Eekto’s probably fascinated by all of this.
Speaking of teamwork:
Max had an early birthday party last night. He was a Halloween baby, which kinda made choosing the theme for his birthday celebrations fairly simple over the years. (Here I am speaking of Max-the-artist, but what the hell, we may as well claim our hero’s birthday on Halloween as canon. It kinda fits with the whole deadvision thing.)
Anyway, great party, and impressive decorations. Yard strung with orange lights, skeletons erupting from the ground, cabinets full of potions, and nine zillion little spiders hung everywhere on an intricate lacing of fishing line. I was impressed with the decorations and told him so. Asked him how he had managed to do them all.
“I didn’t” he said. “I married the right woman and got out of her way.”
Yep. The Virgil Cicerone method. Good to see.
—Bob out
No tricks! Treat yourself to an Owl book! ——————————–>
Whoa, wait? If the power is cut, it stays? no spring effect, no power dump needed? I assumed the return was part of the program. Interesting, that opens up more possibilities. that also means they need to start stockpiling more things that can teleport. like food (miners stuck in a mine?) as well as non metallic replacements for metal objects. (ceramics for the win)
The test rat and cheese at the very opening of the comic demonstrates the “cut power” effect of just staying. There may indeed be some energy springback but Madison would have engineered some sort of compensation into the steam-powered kinetic boost mechanism mentioned in “Fynch.” (I freely admit I’m stealing that concept from Larry Niven’s similar mechanism – IIRC his was basically a giant steel beachball in a pool of water – but the principle’s the same.)
I feel like there should be some kind of action theme playing in the background. I think because the whole page gives me a pretty strong “A-Team” vibe.
Once again I find myself asking why this is not a movie or miniseries yet.
From your keyboard to God’s screen, Nesphandus.
Sadly, because the Entertainment Industry Schmucks would
A. Take creative control away from these guys, causing it to end up sucking
B. Try to do it on a woefully insufficient budget, causing it to end up sucking
C. Never be able to find an actress remotely hot enough to play
Marissa, causing it to end up sucking 😉
Be careful what you ask for and grateful for what you’ve got!
Sending the rope ahead and then leaving it there will leave behind evidence that can potentially lead back to the heroes. The rope itself is evidence, plus he touched it without gloves, leaving skin cells on it. Marissa may have left hair on it too. Of course this little problem is solved if it gets destroyed in the fire.
Great comic, I’m really enjoying it.
You’re right, “Attack on Titan” (chosen by the author, I think) does not make sense in English, and not just because of the singular. “Shingeki no Kyojin” translates as “Advancing Giant(s);” it’s the titans that are attacking. Like .most Japanese nouns, kyojin (“giant(s)”) has no specifically singular or plural form.
I take it that’s not Titan the moon. Speaking of terrible titles, “Dark of the Moon”. *Groan*
I feel like somebody forgot to put ‘Side’ in there and they rolled with it.
I feel like they were originally calling it that then went, “shit, that’s a pink floyd album isn’t it? Uhhhhh, just leave off the side!”
IIRC, I remember the phrase “dark of the moon” being used several times by Jack Aubrey in the “Master and Commander” books by Patrick O’Brian. “The Mauritius Command” among others. I assumed it was a Royal Navy term for moonless nights when they could best perform covert actions.
@Bob Forward: It seems I can’t reply directly to your comment. “Dark of the moon” is a general term (not a navy term) for the part of the lunar month near the new moon when the moon seems very or completely dark; “light of the moon” means the opposite. “Dark side of the moon” means the side of the moon facing away from the sun at a given time and thus dark, duh; it’s also wrongly used to mean the side always facing away from the earth, which is dark equally much and often as the other side.
Speaking of terrible titles (and of terrible movies), any of you guys seen “Iron Sky”?
The Good: Max understands how the Strike Gate works, and is thinking ahead. By sending the rope first, he can leave it behind when he needs to return. Good plan!
The Bad: Even though it’s unlikely that good prints could be lifted off a rope, there is the possibility of leaving DNA evidence behind on it, as Anthony points out above. A police inspector determined to find this teleporter would definitely check for that! Also, a rope that long probably doesn’t sold in the city every day. If the inspector tracks down where it was purchased, and there are security cameras everywhere… Uh oh.
Plus, as cool as Max’s new car is, I thought right from the start that it was straight-up irresponsible of Madison and Marissa to give a car that shoots lighting out of its wheels to someone who is supposed to remain secret. There are traffic cameras too. I’m afraid he may not stay secret very long.
Astute comments! I need to avoid spoilers but I can say that Max is indeed more focused on the mission than identity protection right now. And the car, while
possiblydefinitely ticket-bait, isn’t currently associated with the vanishing vigilante in the minds of anyone outside the Strike Team, at least ATM.I remember now. When they were first telling Max about the ‘porter, they cautioned him about what would happen if they lost power while he was on a mission. He’s be stuck where he went without his soul,
Here’s hoping that Marissa noticed the bullet-proof glass in the schematics – and loans Max her lightsaber as a glasscutter.
I would guess that the lightsaber has metal in its construction, and therefore would not travel through the strike gate.
Even worse, she’s probably accessed those schematics from a government database, so it’s likely they are the original building plans and were never updated to reflect the bullet-resistant glass that was added later (because: Government) so he’s not going to know about that little problem until he gets there.
wait wait wait you directed a beast wars episode and not just any but the one of my favorite ones with my favorite transformer Dinobot. please tell us more
Yes do tell.
Aw, you guys are my favorites. I should save that for conventions or something though.
Firstly I love this comic! And not just because of the beautiful artwork (And beautiful ladies there is artwork of) but also the story and the characterizations! Nerdgasm over, I assume equipping Max with polymer and obsidian knives has been considered? Or in this case, a stick of dynamite and a book of matches!
Thanks so much, Mark! And yes — all those things have been discussed (comments section here, for instance: https://3mm-crisisstrike.com/3mmcomic/striking-sparks-page-forty-five/ — I’d put in a FAQ but no one reads FAQs. I don’t read FAQs.)
Fair enough Bob. Whatever you do, I know it’s going to be impressive! Now I just have to get this idea out of my head of a polymer/carbon fibre version of the H&K P11 pistol using a revolver mechanism and carbon fibre percussion caps to fire stone ball rounds. WITHOUT having a three letter agency come and jump on my head.
I’m think NCIS. That’s not three letters.
They used to be just “NIS” until the early 90’s, I think. Does that count?
What about wood tonfas and, if we are going to be nerd about it, the plastic weapons used in the X men 2 movie?
A thought occurred to me: could they send a fire extinguisher through the teleporter? Or, more accurately, the contents of a fire extinguisher? Land a couple of those on the fire might help things. 🙂
My understanding is that they could… But there’d be nothing to spread it around. You could probably fill the strike gate with water and teleport it in, but Mr. Madison probably wouldn’t like you getting his equipment wet. Also they don’t know precisely where the fires are. You could teleport a cylinder of compressed CO2 into the area and let it expand, but that would essentially be a big explosion and might do more harm than good.
Not to mention that no one is using the fire extinguishers because the foam is ment for household fires. The flames are outside yet too hot for the foam to stay consistant. It would melt before touching the flames, releasing the co2 into the atmosphere… I say reprogram the Phantom sphere that’s around the building to cover a lake and triangulate the water over on top of the building. After the water did it’s job, you could call it back and save the world from lack of fresh water too.
That stance reminds me of the power glove ad. That was the best thing ever. In more relivant news I am glad that he is getting involved. I was honestly expecting a rival to appear at/in the fire as there has only been one long standing rival/enemy established.
and not a very concrete one at that. LOL
One day… took me about 2 glorious hours to read. I am hooked.
Nice! I guess we have enough for a movie now.