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The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter Three—Page 91

The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter Three—Page 91 published on 244 Comments on The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter Three—Page 91

You’d think as a future ruler of the Earth, The Platinum Priestess would be more careful about protecting her forests. Nahhhh…

Just a reminder that I’m still having a Holiday Sale at my little store: Use the code “YAOI911-HOLIDAY” at the checkout of my online store to get 20% off any order until January 1st.

We had our seventy-sixth bonus page in a row on Wednesday and, thanks to your generous donations, and in addition to our regular Saturday updates, there will also be bonus pages on Wednesday, December 31st (page 92!), Wednesday, January 7th (page 94!), Wednesday, January 14th (page 96!), and an additional bonus page (page 98!) on Wednesday, January 21st!

Special thanks go out to long-time supporters Deanna H. (who makes their seventh generous donation to The Young Protectors!), Antonia S. (who makes their twentieth (!) generous donation to The Young Protectors!), and Saxon B. (who makes their 132nd generous donation to The Young Protectors!) and a warm welcome and grateful bow go out to new supporter Heather K. for their generous donation over the last few days!

Big hugs go out to long-time friend of The Young Protectors Hannah Rebecca K. for their super-generous $25 donations! And this makes Hannah’s seventh super-generous donation to this comic!

And finally, ZOMG! very-merry-mega-hugs and deeply grateful bows go out to long-time mega-friend Christopher D. for their stunningly generous $100 donation, their 131st stunningly generous donation to this comic! Thank you so, so much, Christopher!

Thank you all so much for your generous support!

So! Kyle chooses the high road and attacks The Platinum Priestess! The Platinum Priestess gets her big stick and blocks Kyle’s fire blast! Flyboy gets the bird’s eye view of the whole thing and Commander psychically joins in! What’s next for these crazy kids?!

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

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244 Comments

Not long now? Good to know. Do we have time to speculate on who the Annihilator is making his ‘action pose’ against: Tsumani or Red Hot or an invisible Spooky?

Not long now, y’all. 🙂

Usually a quiet camper here, but seeing as how it’s the last of the year I had to get in on all the fun and goodies. Hello all!

heya! *offers u open bag of chili cheese fritos.

-takes a few- Don’t mind if I do. I think I need to join that fire I see people have going on, and get some of those brownies if they’re not gone.

*Saxon wanders up to the camp, towelling himself off and trying to work the salt water out of his ears*
Hiya. The family has just got back from taking the dogs for a swim down the beach. Man do they bark a lot when they see tennis balls just waiting to be tossed for them. Anyway, I’ve brought virtual pizza and soft drinks.

Good Morning Good People!

“hello everyone!” *walks over to a vacant spot near fire. sits a little too close to it. scoots back a bit. holds hands near flames. (brought bag of goodies, including a little chocolate, some brownies, chili cheese fritos, coke classic and milk in a thermos.)

Hello! I will take those chocolate and brownies off your hands!

*eyes doki’s big stash of chocolate and quickly stuffs my mouth with my little chocolate bar. “help urself to some brownies, doki.”

*big stash isn’t quite as big anymore, eats all the brownies* Thanks!

*laughs and is grateful i ate two brownies before arriving at camp.

*sighs and curls up in her sleeping bag, did not take the pills in time and now have to wait for them to kick in again*

*looks at doki’s unprotected chocolate stash and has inner debate with devil and angel on shoulders…

…..*just because Doki is curled up in her sleeping bag doesn’t mean she isn’t keeping an eye on her chocolate*

*sneaks up and swipes a piece*

Waiting is hard. 🙁

Seriously. Btw, hi! I’m Kel.

Allo! I’m Simba. I’m lame and disappeared for a while, but now I’m back.

*Slowly, half asleep walks to the campfire. Almost trips over sleeping Amaya and an bean bag or two* .. Morning.. I’m so tired but not joining the last camp of the year was just not an option.

*Looks for best available spot at the fire* I said this next page would probably be a nail biter, so needed snacks to munch on, and I settle down with my glass of milk, scones and fruit.

Good Morning, Ms Wolf!

Morning. New year is less than a day away here. I’m so not ready and it feels wrong.

This year went somewhat fast. I’m trying to process most of it.

I think some of the reason is that I’ve been in a mix of being pretty busy + sick for the last month.. out of energy.
Another thing being Teahouse ended, and it just feels wrong and so very final to sit in 2015 and say that TH ended in 2014. It’s not been THAT long yet, but being in another year feels like it now while the last summaries are being posted and that’s it.

Well considering I still think the 90’s are ten years ago…. Sigh…

I know! Being born in the 80s tha is just a fact in my head 😉

*drags self to campfire w/ tea* I have been sleeping all day… it is sad that I likely will not be drinking on New Years Eve tomorrow night ;___; stupid colds!

Yeah, I’m still fighting with my cold for almost 4 weeks now, but it’s gotten better. Going back to the kindergarden after the holidays better not knock me down all over again before this is over.
Still, I have a handful of Bacardi Breezer Orange (basically one of the few types of alcohol I like) so I’ll have what amounts to 5 bottles of beers. That’s all I’ll stick to for the night except soda.

Hai guyz… Remember me? I’m baaaaaack. :3

Hey guys, mind if I join in on this camp?

Come on in. Find a place about the fire.

Uh, sorry guys, I gonna have to go take a shower before I come anywhere near the campsite. I’ve been helping Dad set up a dog fence in my sister’s backyard, and, you know, work in the garden in Australian summer heat… I’m way too sweaty and stinky right at the moment.

It’s 24 degrees F here. THAT’s COLD. How cold you ask?
Freezing cold! like Minus four and a half degrees cold

*notices people claiming prime spots by the campfire and grabs one for herself, wrapped up in a sleeping bag with a pile of chocolate in front of her, pills off the the side and a few bottles of water*

*gives Doki a big mug of hot chocolate*

*sits next to Doki, hands over graham crackers and marshmallows*

*eyes Kkel mistrustfully and gathers her chocolate close to her and hisses* You can have anything but my chocolate. *digs out a huge plate of cookies and pushes them close to Kkel but always being protective of her chocolate*

*pulls out own bag of chocolate, with an extra chocolate bar for Doki* Thanks for the cookies! *munches a cookie*

*Moves Chris’s spot over one and settles down with kindle, blanket, warm warm toasty slippers, bean bag chair, a Mary Poppins thermus that never runs out of warm tea and a tardis lunch box with a never ending supply of snack food.*

“OMG… LOOK OVER THERE! IS THAT A NEW PAGE?”

[AJ momentarily distracted… chris snags his spot back but puts AJ’s stuff down in exactly the same order so she doesn’t notice anything.]

“OH… sorry, I guess it wasn’t the new page after all…”

*The Admiral snickers as Chris falls for the decoy and snuggles further into her spot. Feels guilty for a moment and gives Chris his own beanbag chair and a basket of muffins.*

[chris snuggles into gifted bean bag chair and warms himself at fire. he feels sorry/not sorry that AJ believes she is still is in her stolen spot, but she looks happy with her cookie, so he leaves it alone. amaya continues to snore lightly. it’s kinda cute as the campers slowly arrive… everyone tries to set up quietly, so as not to wake her until the s’mores are roasting…]

[chris comes freakishly early to the campsite to try and get best spot. He sees that Amaya has already arrived and taken the warm spot by the fire. He nudges her with toe. She just roles over and snores lightly. chris trudges to other side and sets up comfy pad, blankets, cool chest, book for waiting time, checks wireless internet service, gets out laptop, iPad and iPhone, looks for plugs worriedly, goes back to parking lot and runs extension cord and plug strip… planning to rent extra plugs later for spare change. sits down with a sigh…………. OMG… he realizes he forgot FOOD. inconceivable (and yes chris knows what he thinks that words means). chris races back to the car for a quick store run for essential camping treats and hopes no one moves his stuff.]

oh twiddles. . .
I thought tonight was update night and spent 3 whole minutes staring at a blank screen. Rats!
I’ve had a rough day. Just Don’t Say Anything. Please Don’t.

*hugs* Want some cookies? Three kinds of sugar cookies, peanut butter, chocolate chip, gingerbread? Rum cake? mint brownies?

Anyone else notice that in the prior page, there was no glowing key in the ball showing when it fell to the ground but when PP goes to pick it up, it’s showing/glowing?
Wonder if there is a possibility that Spooky switched the balls in the confusion and PP is now holding a fake?? He has been conspiciously absent so far based on the original plan the team had.

Looking more closely, I see that Kyle’s flame did hit Sircea’s first, position, but she dodged and grabbed the key in one motion, loosing only the hem of her cape. Then she retrieved her staff and then bocked his next flame attack which is two rapid fire movements or another combination maneuver. She did all this in between two actions by Kyle, so she is somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 times faster than he is depending on how you count it.

Interesting that she went for the key first, before the staff. Probably the result of confidence and the overriding importance of the key. IMHO that means she has to do something with it to get Laampros through the gate.

What worries me is how she’s clearly concerned and exerting herself to the fullest to skillfully counter the serious threat Kyle poses. That means she’s likely to hit back hard. He needs back-up, like, NOW!

In both art and content, this page is a visual thing of beauty. Adam and Vero should be very proud. (As was already mentioned) Kyle’s fire is gorgeous. I love that we really feel Sircea’s movement and effort, not only to protect herself, but to get that all important key.

Dramatically, I think Alex wins the internet, for once again bucking the expected, and having the gay hero be a hero first and not immediately doing the clichéd thing and losing his mind in the presence of ‘The Big W’ (that is Duncan’s weenie, for anyone confused).

So often the term Homosexual is an indicator of the only thing that people can think about regarding gay men (‘sexual’). When it’s no more about sex than it is for any human.

Kyle is a hero! (Hopefully the sex part will be addressed when the time is right — snort — and he’ll enjoy some heroically.

Thank you so much Team Woolfson, this was a page worth waiting for. It was sort of the best present I got over the holidays… well with the exception of the night my man and I… oh wait… that’s all about ‘The Big W’ — never mind

Agree with you entirely Chris! I love it when Alex breaks the cliché’s and the stereotypes. And it’s a great Chrissie present. 😀 It also makes for a much more interesting story because then we as readers really don’t know what’s going to happen next. And that is a true gift as well! I’m primarily tuned to story rather than image – and this story is absolutely the best I’ve read for quite a while. That’s not to say that I don’t think about Adam and Vero’s work – they wow me with their professionalism and the quality – but I’m not as ‘qualified’ in my head to comment on their work rather than as an ‘Oh Wow! the pretty pictures!’

Hmm… we don’t really know the mechanics and limits of Kyle’s powers.

I wonder how much control he has over fire? Could he, for example, make the flames, that the Platinum Priestess deflected, arch around and attack her from the back? Can he shape the flames to create fists, shields, or creatures, similar to a Green Lantern’s ring or the Fiendfyre curse in Harry Potter?

Oooooo, bitch looks afraid.

You think so?
She looks pissed off to me. How dare that puny mortal go against her?

I may not like Sircea but I think it takes a lot to scare her. She’s not there yet.

True, but as far as we know Duncan never told her about him being burned by Kyle (aka A Prince of Hell) OR the Lamppros has acknowledged him as a true son of his.
I’m sure she would take him alot more seriously if she knew that. Not to mention daddy Lamppros maybe very angery if she hurts/kills his son.

I love it when Kyle talks to himself. “STAY ON MISSION, Kyle.” You know he so wants revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.

PP, didn’t you get the memo from Edna on capes? Apparently EVERYONE else has gotten that memo but you. OR, you did get the memo and didn’t believe the “No cape” thing. Edna was serious. Never doubt Edna. *nods head seriously*

Of course having the cape is keeping her from becoming the burnt to a crisp priestess. 🙂

Edna would have likely sent that memo out only to the superheroes in her address book, you know, darling. Which is why Syndrome bit it.

This…this is very true. Syndrome missed that memo too,

Batman apparently hasn’t gotten this memo either. BUT, he’s very good with his cape. His Robins, on the other hand….poor Robins. I think Dick Grayson made a trip to Edna because his costume is so vastly different. HA HA HA HA.

I feel like… by now… Saxon B. could have had his name on a children’s hospital donor board by now with all the money hes put into this comic

While I appreciate the thought, seriously, usually I’m only throwing in about $10 each week. (As I’ve mentioned before, I literally use the donation as a goad to myself not eat quite so many chocolate chip muffins each week). The real money has been coming from the likes of Chris Dangerfield, who regularly chucks in about a hundred.
And lest that be seen as me trying to be modest – it underlines a serious philosophical point. Even small contributions help the webcomic, because they all add up. I’m just being bloody-mindedly persistent about it 🙂
(And anyway, the real instance of me showing off was the period when I doubled my donations to twice a week simply so that I could beat Chris to the one hundred donations number 😛

Oh my gosh, the action here is harrowing, but gorgeous to look at! I love the way Adam and Vera depicted Sircea’s cape catching on fire in panel 3 (yet another reason why I always thought capes were an impractical part of any super being’s ensemble!) and the flamework in general on this page is totally hot! Awesome action on an awesome page, although right about now I think Fluke and Spooky need to make an appearance and help out (think of the trees!).

Can’t wait to count down to the new page as I count down to the new year!

She doesn’t have on much else *to* get caught on fire, does she? she’d be naked quick. :3

Quite naked and quite possibly burnt.
It’s like cooking bacon naked – certain parts of the anatomy ain’t going to like the result.

It’s not part of the plan, but what if Spooky slipped away for a moment to disguise himself as a minion? I figure if he can conjure a dragon, he can probably whip up a temporary outfit change like Sircea did for Kyle back in Chapter 1. That way he could get pretty close to Duncan without either him or Sircea noticing, and then restrain Duncan like Amanda said.

The colors on this page are spectacular — I’m always really impressed by the way Vero renders fire, and she did a wonderful job with Sircea’s burning cape. It’s also a lot easier to read expressions on a colored page, and holy shit, Sircea is pissed. (Not that it’s a surprise, but Jesus.) I can see why both Gordon and Kyle will have to team up to occupy her.

thinking how it was Christmas and all I just imagined that last panel as a miniature Tin Soldier version xD

I’m really proud that Kyle didn’t give in to his his feelings of vengeance!
Now I’m looking forward to see a little Spooky action though 😀

Now why did you have to do that?…..the lyrics to Coven’s “One Tin Soldier” just popped into my head :” And on the mountain , dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath
Peace on Earth was all it said.”

Perfect for the Christmas message.

Well, it seems that the Commander’s psychic attack has reached the end of its effectiveness, and she’s retrieved her staff; these two developments are problems.

Kyle and Tsunami have still failed to tear down the bone ring and seem to have moved on to attacking PP; isn’t that out of order? And Spooky is missing, but I asssume he’s moving into position to get the drop on Anni, as Saxon suggested below.

Hmm. I hadn’t put any thought into the placement of Fluke and Commander – but compared to the mystery of ‘Where’s Spooky Jones?’ that’s actually rather easy to make a guess at. Look at the way Tsunami and Red Hot’s entry and attack from the right hand side of page are flanked by the presence of the big box with the hostages. That kind of makes the area on the right hand side of the box a target range for possible collateral damage between the superhumans with ranged attack powers.

Now, Fluke’s luck could allow him and Commander to wander through the firefight unharmed – but why waste all that luck when Commander has already indicated that they’ll be burning it just by confronting the two dangerous supervillains? There’s no point in squandering valuable resources that you have good tactical reasons to think you’ll need later. The simplest solution that I can see is that Fluke and Commander will be coming down the left hand side of the box, which is a little bit further to run. So, yeah, you’re correct, they’re probably just out of sight at the moment.

Sircea is a bit scary. She just got two actions (scooping up the key and summoning her staff) just in the time it took for Kyle’s flame to reach her.

I know, right? Not only are they not really gaining much footing against her, but they’ve lost the element of surprise already; and now that she has her staff she looks like trouble. They’re gonna need more psychic attacks and some Spooky tricks, asap. Kyle isn’t going to hold her for long, at this rate. Looks like Tsunami is coming in with another wave, which is good. Tho with the focus and energy they’ll need holding off the enemies, I’m not so sure they’re going to be doing much damage against the portal ring. It didn’t budge from the first attack. Maybe… Fluke could do something…?

Looks like things are really Heating Up for PP,

Might be the magical nature of the ritual dictated the place and amount of decorating. Or just the place and limits on subtly carting stuff there dictated the decorating.

even so, but don’t you think for all their planning and preparation they could have had things ready sooner? Knocking down the scaffolding is/was part of the YP plan; why not have the Fargate built and ready while Anni was seducing the pants of Kyle? or even before then? PP had a lot of time to get herself ready. what was she doing in the ensuing centuries?

For all we know, some of the prep had to take place after the demonic deal was actually made between Anni and Laampros. It may have been a prerequisite for whatever spells may have been cast into the structure of the gate, or whatever other prep has been done.

I’m starting to believe. but I still feel like there could have been other steps taken (again; a protective barrier?)

There is always the overconfidence factor, which is generally a villain’s weakness. They also may have just not given TYP enough credit as to do something so ballsy, and thought that with the rest of the heroes off the planet, that they themselves were enough to scare away any plan-foilers.

And besides that, there are so many background pieces of information that we don’t know. I’m getting the scenes from Tomb Raider floating into my head. Why not set up the ritual earlier? Maybe they were locating the special elements they needed in order to assemble the thing? Who knows, really. It could be anything.
But yeah, they probably could have taken some further steps, but this is what they’ve got. That’s why I think it reeks of cockiness. 🙂

True dat. They must have been relying on the secrecy. It was rather hard to find, requiring magic and some guessing. Spooky had it narrowed down to three locations and the first one they came to was it.

I’m surprised the area wasn’t better secured, too, and I’ve been trying to rationalize why. My assumption this whole time was that they expected and wanted TYP to show up, but it looks like that wasn’t the case after all, so…huh.

If they needed all the minions to participate in the bloodletting conga line, that could explain why there were no lookouts posted. And I suppose wards conceivably could have interfered with the ritual, since they’re attempting to break down a dimensional wall, and wards are meant to keep things out. As to the open nature of the site, it’s implied that Sircea tried to mitigate that by having her “crazies” establish a bunch of other ritual sites as a smokescreen — not that it fooled Spooky, but it did slow the team down a bit. And if the setup looks a bit shabby, it’s probably because they were aiming for subtlety — anything more elaborate might have made their location too obvious.

Those aren’t great explanations, but it’s all I can come up with so far. Whatever way you slice it, they do seem strikingly unprepared for interference. It really seems like, even with the ego trip Sircea’s on, they would have been a lot more cautious since their lives are at stake if things go awry.

Oh dear… something just occurred to me.

Spooky is supposed to be backing up Kyle. And he isn’t doing his job.

Also, “all magic users are nuts”.

I can see two possibilities, neither of which I hope are true.

1) Heel turn. He wants the portal open because he’s actually working for Laampros.

2) He wants the portal open out of REVENGE.

I hope there’s a third option I’m missing. Maybe something about the spell they were using has affected him, and he can’t fight?

Stay good, Spooky! Stay good!

Flailing around desperately for other options:
– He’s sneaking up on Annihilator in order to blindside him (although this seems unlikely given the range of his powers if his dragon conjuration is any example)
– Commander secretly telepathically gave him other orders (although hat seems out of character for her)
Uhm. I’ll have to think on the problem…

Not to be pessimistic but that Infernum ring looks intact…

Well I have to say that I really enjoy this lucky moment of a lineart page. This Adam dude does know his lines and this gives my a chance to see the flow of the page in a whole new way.
It is also a good way to view Veronicas art later on when the page is up. Where do Adam ends and Veronica starts so to speak 🙂

I do have to say that if I was going to battle/hell, I would have taken the fireprof cap. Just saying Sircea.

Have a great day all of you. take care

So.. it’s been asked where on earth Spooky is right now (good question).. but I almost want to know more – where is Anni going? Is he about to run into Spooky coming from the other side?

Did he takea step back into the background when he had to face a charging pissed off Kyle? Previous page suggested that he didn’t expect to see Kyle again, or the team, quite so soon.
Kyle got his reaction and head together before he did. I’m just quite worried about Kyle facing Sircea >.>

Next page is going to be a nail biter page. I better remember to have snacks to chew on instead.

I think Spooky, Commander, and Fluke are still closing in towards the action. We don’t see any of them yet simply because they’re not close enough yet.

Why Tsunami isn’t continuously channeling water from the river, though, I don’t understand. He’s gonna want that water nearby at all times, not a few seconds later after deciding what to do with it.

His second mission was to use water to disconnect the timing device in the sacrificial cage. No doubt that fine level work is taking all of his concentration. And possibly where the Annihilator is about to direct his attention if Spooky doesn’t intervene. Personally, I think we haven’t seen Spooks because of his impeccable sense of timing.

The fight scene is lovely, and as people have already noted it will no doubt look even better when the final colours come through.

But let’s focus on the last panel. The bone summoning circle is dripping wet and has some of its support scaffolding collapse, but the portal itself seems to be still standing and suspiciously undamaged. That might be a bad sign considering that if it’s made of a whole lot of bones it should have nowhere near as much structural strength as steel or aluminium support beams. I’m wondering if it’s been magicked to be more resilient that Commander suspected.

Meanwhile, minions are running in, probably to get stabby as Spooky guessed.

Finally, that seems to be Annihilator just to the right of the stones that mark out the path leading to the platform where the blood was being donated. In other words, he’s the bad guy directly above the Priestess and closest to both Tsunami (rushing in from top right) and Red Hot. He seems to be in a ‘dramatic action pose’ without actually moving, but I can’t really tell whether he’s ‘bracing himself’ against another attack by Tsunami, or whether he’s expecting Red Hot to change aim from the Priestess to himself.

You’re probably right about the circle being magically reinforced. In any case, I think Laampros will still be able to come through, and if Sircea, Duncan, and the minions hold off the Protectors long enough, the sacrifice of the hostages will probably trigger on its own and complete the ritual. I wonder if Sircea has to activate the key somehow, or if it’ll happen automatically once the timer runs down.

Considering he’s the one with super speed, Annihilator’s being awfully not speedy. Sircea recovered from a psi blast, dove past Kyle’s fire bolt, regained the key, summoned her staff and deflected Kyle’s next attack.

Even though I was looking forward to see Duncan getting roasted I am glad Kyle has the discipline to stop and stay on plan.

Yeah, I’m happy he’s got his head in the game, especially since a lot of us figured he’d flip out as soon as he saw Duncan in person. I would prefer not to see him attempt to incinerate Sircea, but eh, she’s got her staff back. Her cape though — RIP.

What are those things sticking out of the ground?
It’s only the pencil but they represent something that might be significant.

The rocks I think.

I went back pages and looked at page 68 and there are plinths standing around that dirt circle. They aren’t regularly shaped so I wonder if that means anything.

Maybe to make Laampy feel at home? 🙂

Doesn’t look like Sircea’s cape is fireproof. I don’t think she’s going to be too happy about all of that. Probably designer.

Naturellement, but at least this one was a little longer than her previous cape, so she has some fabric to spare.

True! Of course she may need to rethink the whole metal bikini.

Ouch, good point!

Granted, she probably never expected someone would DARE attack HER with fire.

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