Grrl Power VII: Let Me Explain For The Next Thirty Comics!

[Shining Wrath]

I count 7 mooks, super strength guy dragging down the wall, and BBEG flying.
Point one: these guys have to be serious to be in the building without setting off alarms. There's got to be sensors on the exterior grounds, including things to pick up fliers. One does not simply walk into Arc HQ.
Point one point five: That means someone tech savvy, either the BBEG himself, or an off-screen minion. Presumably mooks are mooks and super-strength guy is not there for his hacking abilities, but Dave might throw an anti-trope curveball at us.
Point two: I do not put it past Deus, at all, to do something he know will draw powerful forces from ArcSwat, arrange for Darude to attack to tie down the ArcSwat team in Africa, and then attack Arc HQ in order to seize information (like their database of known supers, which he can then try to recruit).

[Dragonus45]

I count 7 mooks, super strength guy dragging down the wall, and BBEG flying.
Point one: these guys have to be serious to be in the building without setting off alarms. There's got to be sensors on the exterior grounds, including things to pick up fliers. One does not simply walk into Arc HQ.
Point one point five: That means someone tech savvy, either the BBEG himself, or an off-screen minion. Presumably mooks are mooks and super-strength guy is not there for his hacking abilities, but Dave might throw an anti-trope curveball at us.
Point two: I do not put it past Deus, at all, to do something he know will draw powerful forces from ArcSwat, arrange for Darude to attack to tie down the ArcSwat team in Africa, and then attack Arc HQ in order to seize information (like their database of known supers, which he can then try to recruit).

I agree it's entirely possible, and that he has no qualms about doing it if needed, I just don't know that Deus would actually need anything from Arc he couldn't just get easier then this. Frankly, he is ahead of the curve right now.

[lord_khaine]

Good point on whats left of Archon not being harmless. There are some very heavy hitters remaining.
And covering a fairly wide spread of powers to. You need different tools to take down Math and Hiro. But both will wreck your ground team if not stopped.
That does add support for the smash&grab suggestion.

Counter Point 2.
I think Deus could get the needed info a lot easier if he wanted to. Looking at how easy he broke into the artifact vault.
I also think he dont need that info, seemingly being able to make supers? or at least hire aliens.
Lastly as already mentioned i do think he knows more this than Archon.

[Shining Wrath]

Oh, I'm not insisting on it must be Deus, just pointing out the timing is pretty darn coincidental if he isn't involved. Of course, this enemy may very well have their own intelligence capabilities and learned Our Lady Of Incineration was out of town. And that they are arriving at night suggests that they don't think they can take Hiro + Math + the rest. They don't intend to stay long.

The mask on super-strong guy does remind me of the worthless used pieces of toilet paper that tortured Concretia and intended to murder Halo. In which case I hope Concretia puts in an appearance and opens a large can of whooping. It may be coincidence, though - how many evil organization masks can Dave draw? Also, BBEG has a cape, while super strong guy lacks a shirt - neither is consistent with the Concertia torture team dress code.

I want to see Math against super strong guy. Boot to the head!

[lord_khaine]

Oh yeah the timing is certainly to good to be true.
But you dont need to be a super genius like Deus to arrange something like that.
(my counter argument for Deus's involvement. To crude)

That Max has a official diplomatic visit to Galten is close to impossible to cover up.
To many officials involved. And they likely need flight permissions and stuff.

It then dont take a genius to hit Galten with Max's nemesis.
While hitting Archon with a subtle strike force.

[Radar]

If Deus had absolutely anything to do with this attack, it is more likely to be something indirect maybe even with subduing the attackers as one of the goals - basically nudging them with some fragmentary intel to do something stupid. Or as with Sciona in the vault, he will use the chaos to get something out of ARCHON headquarters discretely.

[Dragonus45]

If Deus had absolutely anything to do with this attack, it is more likely to be something indirect maybe even with subduing the attackers as one of the goals - basically nudging them with some fragmentary intel to do something stupid. Or as with Sciona in the vault, he will use the chaos to get something out of ARCHON headquarters discretely.

Provided he keeps himself in the clear just joining himself and ARC against a common foe could be enough, since it gets him closer to his most important and dangerous goal. The top of the list, priority SSS+ must do or it all will be for naught objective, dating Maxima.

[Radar]

Provided he keeps himself in the clear just joining himself and ARC against a common foe could be enough, since it gets him closer to his most important and dangerous goal. The top of the list, priority SSS+ must do or it all will be for naught objective, dating Maxima.

Theme song for Deus?

[Traab]

One of the issues for deus being behind this is, he is already elbow deep in archon by virtue of being one of its biggest backers and suppliers of random stuff. Not even counting dating double, maybe triple, agent harem. Or whatever the amusing euphemism was he used, consensual hanging out? Point being, there is likely very little he could get out of this, aside from maybe a forced conscription of someone, or maybe a setup of some sort where these dudes are patsies sent to lure specific people to a specific area for a specific purpose.

As a random example, My name is Dirk, im leader of the Manhattan Murder Hobos. The penultimate gang in NYC. My only rivals are the Harlem Borough Trotters who dare to oppose me. I cant just go for outright warfare, the losses would add up and the cops would respond. So instead I used my dastardly plotting skills to fake an assault on a police precinct, left evidence the Trotters were behind it, then let the cops raid my rivals headquarters. Then I moved in to mop up whoever was left.

Long winded way of saying this could be a semi complicated plot to aim archon at his enemies so he can profit. Get max halo dabbler and anvil away from base so a raid is lower risk, have it attacked, goons get away with some sort of valuable thing, either servers or something locked in an archon vault, leaving behind enough evidence to "prove" it was Tres ex Anima inc that was behind it, then revel in the corporate bloodbath as he rolls up the company into his own after significant portions end up in jail or dead.

[Traab]

Ouchie. I know that they have themselves a super healer on staff but that isnt going to make the next however long it takes less painful. Also, seriously lady? Your reaction to everything going dark and alarms going off in a high security government building is to walk out of your door hollering? Well, if she lives, lesson learned I guess? And I kinda agree with dave here. While taking out the power and communications was a great step to raid the location, the followup is kinda lackluster. Also, the flashbang. The door was automatically closing so what exactly was going to be accomplished by giving the people inside the presumably VERY strong glass a bad headache and temp deafness/blindness? I suppose it would slow down anything leon might be able to do in there if there is anything he can do, like swapping plugs to internal power generators or something. And I could absolutely see that as being an emergency move. He has a couple powerful batteries or whatever inside the room, in case external power and standard backup generators are shut down, he can still swap internal defenses and communication over from inside the room for at the very least a short term activation to fight off the invasion.

[Shining Wrath]

Arianna ought to be at a minimum scarred for life here, and everyone's training should absolutely include how to respond to an alarm - which is probably not "enter hallway, draw attention to yourself".

[lord_khaine]

To be fair to Adriana, Krona who were in the middle of everything initially assumed it was a drill.
Its a lot more likely that alarm is a drill. I mean, who the heck is dumb enough to attack Archon at their base, right?
Its a bit like attacking a military base. Only worse.

[Keltest]

To be fair to Adriana, Krona who were in the middle of everything initially assumed it was a drill.
Its a lot more likely that alarm is a drill. I mean, who the heck is dumb enough to attack Archon at their base, right?
Its a bit like attacking a military base. Only worse.

On the one hand yes. On the other hand, if you were to be caught doing that during a drill, you would, at best, be severely reprimanded. That is, after all, the point of a drill.

[Dragonus45]

On the one hand yes. On the other hand, if you were to be caught doing that during a drill, you would, at best, be severely reprimanded. That is, after all, the point of a drill.

Here is where the issues with Arianna being so tied in with Archon comes into play. She is essentially just a civilian contractor, and ultimately one who is to highly connected and tied in with the organization to be easy to reprimand or replace for something like this, so I bet she just never got into the habit of respecting drills.

[Shining Wrath]

Here is where the issues with Arianna being so tied in with Archon comes into play. She is essentially just a civilian contractor, and ultimately one who is to highly connected and tied in with the organization to be easy to reprimand or replace for something like this, so I bet she just never got into the habit of respecting drills.

Disrespecting safety practices is a good way to die. As we just saw. If Arianna thought she was too special to do safety drills, she just learned how not-special she is.

[Keltest]

Here is where the issues with Arianna being so tied in with Archon comes into play. She is essentially just a civilian contractor, and ultimately one who is to highly connected and tied in with the organization to be easy to reprimand or replace for something like this, so I bet she just never got into the habit of respecting drills.

As I said, safety drills are never optional. The only people who might possibly be getting out of them are the ones overseeing the drills to make sure people are doing them correctly. Even something like a fire in the building doesnt care who you are or what your rank is. You will get out in an orderly manner, period, or you will get hurt.

[Dragonus45]

As I said, safety drills are never optional. The only people who might possibly be getting out of them are the ones overseeing the drills to make sure people are doing them correctly.

This is true in theory, but even in the real world there tends to be mixed results. Add in the confused command structure of ARCHON, and differing workplace standards that result from so many of the individual members being inherently valuable in a way that is difficult to quantify and you get a civilian who practically lives on base, is mixed up in the chain of command in odd ways, and then takes a very very wrong turn during an attack and get's a lesson learned. Or she actually has powers and this is the reveal. I wouldn't put it past Dave. I don't see her getting hurt too badly here though.

[lord_khaine]

On the one hand yes. On the other hand, if you were to be caught doing that during a drill, you would, at best, be severely reprimanded. That is, after all, the point of a drill.

Problem is of course she is one of the people authorising the drills and so on.
Im kinda confident if you randomly pressed the alarm at most bases, then you would get confused generals popping up asking what idiot pressed the fire alarm.

In a situation like this, its about 99% likely or so the alarm is due to some idiot fooling around.
Since i mean.. look at some of the recruits? Sydney is the worst.
But show what kind of people they have to take because they have powers.

Saved by Varia.
My guess would have been Heat Wave.

[Traab]

Well thats fortuitous.

Problem is of course she is one of the people authorising the drills and so on.
Im kinda confident if you randomly pressed the alarm at most bases, then you would get confused generals popping up asking what idiot pressed the fire alarm.

In a situation like this, its about 99% likely or so the alarm is due to some idiot fooling around.
Since i mean.. look at some of the recruits? Sydney is the worst.
But show what kind of people they have to take because they have powers.

Saved by Varia.
My guess would have been Heat Wave.

She would not be authorizing drills, she is the media consultant. Her job is marketing archon in such a way that the people support it. This does have trickle down effect in a few areas you might not expect, like when interviewing sydney, she was analyzing her to see if she would help or hurt the brand (got excited by collect them all) But security drills? At best she might be able to say, "We have a press conference then, so maybe push it back till 4?"

As a side note, the fact that they have a media consultant like her here makes me have The Boys flashbacks. I doubt very much they would go to the extent Vought does to control media opinion but still.

[Shining Wrath]

Well, that's good timing. But does Varia have to keep a grip on Arianna to keep her from dying?

Also, BBEG doesn't care if he kills. That's a statement, because Arianna may be annoying, but her death would be avenged as a matter of principle. It's like killing a cop, but the cop is Commissioner Gordon, and now the Super Friends are after you.

[lord_khaine]

She would not be authorizing drills, she is the media consultant. Her job is marketing archon in such a way that the people support it. This does have trickle down effect in a few areas you might not expect, like when interviewing sydney, she was analyzing her to see if she would help or hurt the brand (got excited by collect them all) But security drills? At best she might be able to say, "We have a press conference then, so maybe push it back till 4?"

I said ONE of, not THE. She is by all accounts one of the key decision makers.
Doing stuff like taking calls from senators. Or arranging surprises for Maxima at a bank.
So no, i cant see her not being part of the group that decides something as major as a unannounced security drill.

Well, that's good timing. But does Varia have to keep a grip on Arianna to keep her from dying?

Also, BBEG doesn't care if he kills. That's a statement, because Arianna may be annoying, but her death would be avenged as a matter of principle. It's like killing a cop, but the cop is Commissioner Gordon, and now the Super Friends are after you.

Its extremely lucky, and very good timming.

And yeah. Its also a massive statement.
I would like to think Max would come down on you like a ton of rectangular building blocks if you killed the girl who brought her morning coffee out of personal reasons.
But killing the very visible Archon spokesperson is possibly the only think you could do to provoke them more as an organisation than robbing their base.
This is a declaration of war.

[sihnfahl]

Well, that's good timing. But does Varia have to keep a grip on Arianna to keep her from dying?

Yeah, Varia's power ends the moment she lets go. So as long as Arianna is getting flamed, Varia needs to hold on.

And then Heavy Weapons Guy introduces her to Sasha.

[Shining Wrath]

Since BBEG is willing to kill Archon members, thereby ensuring they will hunt him down, I think the odds that Deus is involved at all just dropped a lot; and if he has any involvement, he'd be horrified to learn that BBEG is this stupid.

In fact, if you think you can take out Archon, the rest of the world has to ask themselves "Do we want to be next? Probably not.". The United States still has some reliable allies, but an alliance of convenience with nearly everyone might occur if BBEG is really a threat to Archon. BBEG may think he can flee to, e.g., some island in the Sprately Island chain and China won't let the United States come visit - and then discover that ArcSwat is visiting with full cooperation and participation by the Australian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, etc., equivalents. No nation wants super-powered mass murderers running free.

It's how I handle murder hoboes in D&D; you burn down the tavern, and discover that the Baron defends his people. Oh, you took out the Baron's squad? Here comes the Duke's people, then the Queen's, then the Emperor's. And the Emperor's team is 3x your number, all 20th level, and have artifact level magical equipment, including stuff that gives them 100% accurate intelligence on where you are and what you're doing. Good luck with that!

[lord_khaine]

The odds that Deus was involved were already slim to none imo.

But well.. im less certain about the alliance of convenience.
To a lot of nations Archon is a rival organisation. If they get bombed? bring out the champagne.

Are there supers on the run now, with low to little morale?
That in turn sounds like the time to extend employment offers to whats a priceless asset.

Not officially of course. But to your black opp team. Since no nation indeed want super powered killers to run flee.
But to have them work for you? ohh thats another story.

[The Glyphstone]

Why would Archon be a rival to any other nations? They're a domestic security agency, and one of the big points being driven into us right now is that their mandate outside U.S. borders is extremely limited.

And as far as shadowy recruitment goes - the last sort of person you want on your black-ops squad is an uncontrolled maniac who decides to pick a fight with the biggest and baddest super-agency in the world. That's a colossal liability just waiting to happen.

[lord_khaine]

Because if you were a rival nation, and begun to develop nukes or the equivalent.
But explained that it was for "defensive purpose only" And "no need to worry"
Then i would begin to develop my own as fast as possible.
Its not relevant for this topic what Archon is. Only what its seen as.

While regarding shadow recruitment. Well that makes assumptions on how controllable said maniac actually are.
And as for picking a fight with the biggest and baddest super agency in the world?
Well i think i already presented my arguments for why thats unlikely to be Archon.

[Radar]

It's how I handle murder hoboes in D&D; you burn down the tavern, and discover that the Baron defends his people. Oh, you took out the Baron's squad? Here comes the Duke's people, then the Queen's, then the Emperor's. And the Emperor's team is 3x your number, all 20th level, and have artifact level magical equipment, including stuff that gives them 100% accurate intelligence on where you are and what you're doing. Good luck with that!

Well, burning down a tavern would also draw the attention of all the other adventurers. After all, where would they gather the party, go looking for clues and rest between quests?

Why would Archon be a rival to any other nations? They're a domestic security agency, and one of the big points being driven into us right now is that their mandate outside U.S. borders is extremely limited.

1. Overall arms race. Supers are one of the most important defensive and offensive assets a nation can have. All that talk of ARCHON being purely for internal defense could at moments notice turn out to be just talk and we know that some of the ARCHON supers were deployed abroad with regular army before. Whatever international agreements are in place, they mean only as much as signing signs want them to.
2. My state is the best in the world and we shall have the best supers no matter what! response can be triggered easily. Just think on why did we go to the Moon for example. Also consider that there are always people who consider cutting down the concurrence as a viable method of reaching the top position.

And as far as shadowy recruitment goes - the last sort of person you want on your black-ops squad is an uncontrolled maniac who decides to pick a fight with the biggest and baddest super-agency in the world. That's a colossal liability just waiting to happen.

Remember that gal with contract-based powers? Whoever hired her obviously did not ponder well enough in that decision. The case of the pyromaniac at hand could be similar - whoever hired him needed muscles, this guy agreed, so he's on the assault team. Not every villain takes their time to interview the candidates properly.

[Shining Wrath]

A mercenary is a mercenary, and a more powerful mercenary still has the same problems. You recruit pyromaniac from today's script, how do you know you can trust him? He's powerful and a risk taker - what happens if he's left to defend your base when part of the team goes on a mission, and he seizes the moment and loots your base, then burns it? How do you know he hasn't sold out to someone who offered more money, or money + freedom to burn more things, or whatever pot sweetener appeals to pyromaniac?

In fact, I think this is where Deus is driving (just likely taking it too far, as is his wont) - supers are too powerful to be trusted, you need to have some sort of control over them. All of them. Who responds if Maxima betrays America?

[Radar]

A mercenary is a mercenary, and a more powerful mercenary still has the same problems. You recruit pyromaniac from today's script, how do you know you can trust him? He's powerful and a risk taker - what happens if he's left to defend your base when part of the team goes on a mission, and he seizes the moment and loots your base, then burns it? How do you know he hasn't sold out to someone who offered more money, or money + freedom to burn more things, or whatever pot sweetener appeals to pyromaniac?

In fact, I think this is where Deus is driving (just likely taking it too far, as is his wont) - supers are too powerful to be trusted, you need to have some sort of control over them. All of them. Who responds if Maxima betrays America?

While maxim 49 states that every target is one bribe away from becoming a client, a mercenary needs to remember about top priorities:
1. Get paid.
2. Live long enough to spend your money.

And it is not just about being a target for revenge - that's the standard risk in this line of work. It's more that the person who bribed you knows you have no loyalty other than money and he could be outbidded at any moment. Typically a solution for that is simple: off the risky asset once the job is done. And even if you live through that, who would hire you afterwards?

Anyone doing mercenary work longterm needs to be loyal enough that when contract is agreed upon, it is to be fulfilled as long as the employer is holding his end of the deal. Those who violate this kind of common sense I guess would not work or live very long.

Obviously, a throughout background check should always be made on all prospective contractors.

[Traab]

While maxim 49 states that every target is one bribe away from becoming a client, a mercenary needs to remember about top priorities:
1. Get paid.
2. Live long enough to spend your money.

And it is not just about being a target for revenge - that's the standard risk in this line of work. It's more that the person who bribed you knows you have no loyalty other than money and he could be outbidded at any moment. Typically a solution for that is simple: off the risky asset once the job is done. And even if you live through that, who would hire you afterwards?

Anyone doing mercenary work longterm needs to be loyal enough that when contract is agreed upon, it is to be fulfilled as long as the employer is holding his end of the deal. Those who violate this kind of common sense I guess would not work or live very long.

Obviously, a throughout background check should always be made on all prospective contractors.

Agreed, its theoretically possible the merc could get a big enough payday to vanish and live the high life in the easter islands or whatever over a big enough betrayal, but it had better be good enough to retire on, because nobody else will hire you other than for teams where everyone involved is racing to betray each other first. You get one turncoat opportunity before your career is basically over.