The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter 5—Page 24

January 13, 2017 Alex Woolfson 256 Comments

D’aww! Look how hard Kyle is trying to please his father.

So! Some folks in the Comments had placed bets on Kyle going full dark-side. Other thought he might be laying a trap. Now it’s time to pay up/count your winnings, and answer the next important question: will our fire-bending hero succeed?

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

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256 Comments

oh! oh! I see what he’s doing! easy, bud!

New Page is up:
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ch5-page-25/

Page should be up in just a few minutes. 🙂

Hi campers. I’m so ready for the nextbpage and yo see what Kyle is up to 🙂
After this week I’ll need something else to focus on.

Thursday I broke my 2nd tooth is as many months. Gotta love that ‘luck’. Big dentist job coming up in a day or two probably.
I’m still under treatment, and a temporary filling, to try and avoid a root canal in tooth 1, and that lead to tooth #2, exposing that it had a sick root = revealed when that broke too, after using it more in attempt to not overuse tooth 1 til it was fixed (yeaah, lucky me).
Opposite trying to avoid a root canal in tooth 1(won’t known yet if it worked or not), tooth 2 is a sure root canal + needing a crown.

So one, possibly two, root canals, and a crown (and a small cavity) in a short time – and, as nice as my dentist is – I HATE going to the dentist ;_; Damn near a phobia.
Only consolation is that I’m still on an insurrence that helps me pay most of it, so at least I’m not ruined. Insurrence,- and money-wise the timing is good, since it had to happen.

I hate getting my teeth worked on.

Same. The sounds have me freaking out + the syrringe (that IS a phobia). I usually hear music to try and block out some of the sounds, helps me relax more, but I also happen to have a (hopefully) temporary case of tinnitus again-again. Going on two months.
I’m kinda scared to listen to music in a headset, which could make it worse/permanent, if it’s not already this time. So it’s a case of choosing between plague and colera whether I hear music or not *sigh*.

Do you think they’d let you just get really drunk instead?

I tend to get happy drunk, and giggling. Not sure that would work xD

I quit having an orthodontist clean my teeth because they were too rough. My jaw hurt for days.

Not that it helps in your situation, but there were actually some doctors who looked into this, and found that if you have the choice, you should definitely choose cholera.

Sorry to hear it, Danish. That sucks!

Yikes! Sorry to hear that, Danish! 🙁

Oh no!! Poor DanishWolf!!

Eww. Large amounts of not-good.

Doing what I can to not freak myself out before going. I’ve had one root canal before, over 20 years ago, and that was a trauma for me. Didn’t know how much until I now have to get one again. I will try taking it as good as I can.

Understandable. By rights I should have freaked out when I had a root canal a few years ago. Certainly I’m squeamish about blood and otherwise well suited for not coping with pain. However, I seemed to get lucky and was able to zone myself out into the same state I used about 20 years ago when I needed to have electrolysis on my face (I had a mole that kept getting cut every time I shaved. In the end I decided to have the hairs on and around it removed). For me the root canal was in the this-is-unpleasant-lets-just-get-this-crap-over-with category.

dental practices have improved a lot in the last 20 years, I’m sure this one won’t be nearly as difficult. 🙂

I am sorry to hear that. I can only hope that it will not be too bad. But bad it is.

Okay, I need to take a shower before I get too tired to do so. Be back soon!

Hello fellow campers. Can I offer anyone a virtual scone? 🙂 Earl Grey and lemon lavender.

Ooh, I’d love one, thank you!

And if you want it a bit crispy on the outside, we can toast them over Laampros’ flames.

Eh, I’ll keep my scone hellfire-free, thanks.

…On second thought, good idea. I’m sure Laampros gives off all kinds of carcinogens.

He would, the jerk.

He does seem to be a cancerous influence on poor Kyle.

stick! Can I curl up in your lap?

Absolutely! It’s wonderful to see you, Doki. (Er. so to speak)

Don’t want to sleep, but I want to be a cat (aka curl up in someone’s lap and be pet)

*scratches Doki behind the ears and strokes her head*

*purrs*

It’s very nice to be a cat sometimes.

I see you’re still as wonderfully weird as ever, Doki 😀

^_^

Scones are nice.
please…

I have some raspberry sherbet.

That sounds really good…

Oh, yes. Thank you.

No problem. When things are stressful, a fresh-baked scone is especially nice.

And tea! Definitely tea.

But of course!

Ooh, scone? Don’t mind if I do!

The more the merrier!

I’ll be going to D.C. on Friday for Saturday’s march, so there’s a chance I won’t make it to camping for the next page. But I’m very excited for the march!

I hope you mean the protest march, and not the Hail God-Emperor Trump march…

DEFINITELY the protest march. The Women’s March one.

awesome, I hope it goes well.

Thanks, me too!

Saturday’s march will be bigger than the inauguration if the number of buses is an indicator of the number of people attending.

I know – I’m really excited. Plus there’s all of the sister marches being held in other cities for people who can’t get to D.C.

Maybe they’ll use the buses to blockade the front entrance of the White House.

*High Five* I’ll be there with you in spirit!!

*high fives you back*

I wish I could get to one.

Maybe you could be our emergency contact in case we need to get bailed out of prison.

I could bring the shovel to dig you out?

Or bake us a cake with a file in it!

I think Ma Beagle posted some of her recipes…

I could do that!!

Good luck, and try to stay safe.

Thank you! I’ll be with my 72-year-old mother and 69-year-old aunt, as well as a friend who’s disabled, so we will definitely be being careful.

I guess then you won’t challenge the Bikers for Trump is they are around.

{wink, wink}

Well, I would personally, which is why it’s probably a very good thing I’m going with people who can help curb that type of impulse.

I know the feeling.
Here’s a game for the bus: Answers to the question:
“I would rather _____ than go to the inauguration”
It gets interesting answers.

Sounds like fun!

Dress warm. Washington DC may be cold and rainy.

If you need a chant, this was just released a few hours ago:

https://soundcloud.com/michael-whalen-997591802/little-hands-womens-march-chant-featuring-fiona-apple

Hey all! Camping time? I haven’t been on in a while, but I’ve been keeping up. 🙂

Welcome back!

Is it time for camping now? Hi everyone! After a bit over a year away from here, I’m back! Until I get a new job, my Wednesday afternoons are free for camping etc. :/

Hi Michael! Would you like some hot cocoa?

Ooh, can I get in on that?

Absolutely! Here, have a mug!

Hey, stick! How are you?

I’m doing pretty well. How about you?

Also good! I spent last year studying full time to get a Diploma of Library Services, and now I’m looking for work.

Awesome! Best of luck! What sort of library are you hoping to work in?

ideally a school library, I don’t mind about grade/year level (either primary, secondary, or K-12 combined).

Nice. I wish you lots of luck!

Thanks 🙂

hahaha this school and the stress makes me so confused that I was absolutly sure that today is wednesday. And I was like whaaaaaat why is there no young protectors???
it took a while
a long while
can’t wait for tomorrow to see if he does what we all want to see

camping for the next page starts in 7-8 hours. ^_^

That would have been at 3-4 am haha maybe on a friday. But thanks 🙂 just saw the update~

The update occurs between 10pm to midnight or maybe later Eastern Time in the USA.

thank you 🙂 but that means that I will probably never be one of the cool camping guys since 10 pm in the US is 4 am in austria. but that means that there will always be a new page when I wake up and that’s really cool~

BTW – Danishwolf gets up really early. Several other members, too.
Don’t let the time stop or deter you from commenting and enjoying the new pages and the discussion. Comments are welcome anytime of the day.

I will totally be commenting more in the future, when my head is clear again so that I can actually translate my thoughts into english. It’s really hard at the moment because of all the stuff I need to learn. But I will always be here, reading the new pages in joy.

Relax Laampros, just think of it as making up for lost time.

Oh no, it looks like a lot happened while I was busy with university entrance exams. I hope it will all end good. And I’m really glad that Kyle didn’t lose himself to that devil powers. For a moment I thought we were gone.

I KNEW IT! Now we just have to hope he doesn’t turn all that power on his friends after daddy dearest is drained.

Kyle usurps his dad and brings Spooky back and is like “come, we shall rule this world together. Take your place by my side and all shall love and fear us” I could totally also see the team and Duncan trying to talk sence to an evil Kyle and then Kyle telling Duncan “You were the one who told me you became the most powerful and feared supervillan and afterward the “gay thing” didn’t matter so much.” Kyle, be careful whose advice you take.

Wow! Didn’t see this coming!

aaand there is the deus ex hail mary, called it.

I’d really like to hear how characters we know, using powers we’ve seen before, in a way clear enough that a few people were predicting it pages ago, in any way constitutes a deus ex machina.

If one wished to do so one could argue that Fluke is a major deus ex machina with his luck based powers, always churning out the good stuff when one needs it the most.

But the fact that we have those luck powers established early in the story and explained stops it from ever being a deus ex machina.

“a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the inspired and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.”

Fluke is one thing but this is kyle, his being or abilities are not luck based, also even from having a little fire given to him by his father he almost went all evil, now he’s all of a sudden chugging like no tomorrow with no repercussions whatsoever.
But this type of lazy story telling is typical for western style comics, i would have hoped they’d evolved by now but evidently not.
This is why i personally prefer mangas, people can die and they mostly stay dead, if someone died here they would just be resurrected a few pages later, or not die at all ala spookys deus ex.
It will be interesting seeing how many Deus exes this guy can cram into this chapter.

I wouldn’t say that Kyle is definitely not evil. That’s reading too much into it. I also disagree that this is or is leading up to a deus ex, as Kyle has been well-established as (a) being very powerful, (b) being connected in some way to Hellfire, e.g. the ritual that opened Duncan’s original portal (as well as being literally Hellspawn), and (c) able to absorb a lot of fire into himself. With those three abilities/traits established in the story, I’m not surprised that Kyle was able to adapt — after a brief period of overwhelm — to the new “flavour” of Laampros’ hellfire, and to learn to absorb it without being overwhelmed once he’d become more familiar with it.

“no repercussions whatsoever”

we don’t know that yet. This comic comes out two pages per week, and each page only has a few panels. There hasn’t been enough time to show if or what sort of repercussions there might be.

Yes!

Aaaand the penny DROPS!

I’m delighted to see him trying this, whether he succeeds or not. Kyle has officially cemented his status on Team Good Guy, and I love him for it.

I’m quite curious about the effects this will have on his powers (assuming of course that he and TYP survive this intact, and that he retains his powers afterward). Will he still just be the “Red Hot” pyrokinetic/firebender, or will other forms of magic reveal themselves to him? And what about his (thus-far problematic) relationship with the ratio of power vs. control? This opens the door to a TON of possible story twists, both happy and tragic. It’s exciting!

…now we just need to get Spooky out of Laampros’s spite radius.

just noticed: this is the very first panel where Laampy doesn’t look totally relaxed.

Long-time reader, first-time commentor! Just wanted to say I love this web series and eagerly await Wednesday’s update 🙂

Welcome to the comments.

Welcome to the comment community 🙂

Welcome to the comments!

You chimed in at an excellent moment, LadyRassberry, for the clue has just dropped, brick-like, on Lampros’ pointy head. Welcome to the community and enjoy the ride! 🙂

Thank you so much, LR! Welcome to our community! I’m really glad to hear you’re enjoying it! 🙂

I’m curious, how did you find us?

I think it was about 2-3 years ago that I saw Artifice advertised on another webcomic site, so I decided to check that out. I immediately fell in love with it, so when I finished reading I saw The Young Protectors as another comic you were working on and I got hooked.

Very cool. Thank you for letting me know! 🙂

All right Kyle! I knew that sexy little Ginger wouldn’t go over to the dark side! Ok, OK, I didn’t “know”, but I certainly hoped, anyway…

I can’t wait to see Platinum Priestess’s face after all this plays out.

“Uh…I always knew you had greatness within you, my boy! Umm…everything I did was merely to help you on your way! In a way, you could say your ascendance is all because of ME, ha ha…ha…uh…I’ll just see my own way out…”

🙂

Hem. Dear Kyle, may I direct you to the Evil Overlord List where it clearly states:

“No matter how good an idea it seems, I will never absorb an energy field larger than my own head.”

No, seriously. I know Kyle controls fire (apparently due to daddy here) but I can’t imagine he’s strong enough to control the power of a demon who’s what, millenia old?

My worry is that daddy will be pissed afterwards and decide to take Kyle’s “pets” away.

So, does this mean the horns go back in his head after all this or will he need a plastic surgeon?

He’ll change his name for Hellboy? 😛

If you look closely at the movie version of HellBoy when he has horns and not the ground down stubs, he has a crown of fire over his head. It’s hard to see that particular image but it’s in the first movie. . . Laampros’ head has flames sprouting from it but not a crown. HellBoy is royalty in Hell. I suspect Laampros is simply the latest strongman who has seized power.

Hi, Alex!One question: I’d love to help translating the scripts to Spanish. It would take me a while (I’m quite busy), but I think I could and would.

Thanks!

I would recommend you write Alex an email. If you click ‘About’ above the page, you can find a link to do that 🙂

Howdy Nirgal,

Danish is right. Please shoot me an email and I’ll put you in touch with my assistant who can set you up. 🙂

Kyle, you tricky little minx 🙂
Goodluck sweetie. and be careful. This could go badly.

*to the artists and writers of this comic, I am deeply glad that I get to read this. Thank you for sharing, cuz right now, i really need it 🙂 *

You’re very welcome, Trish. I’m glad it’s a bright spot for you. I am wishing for good things in your life soon. 🙂

Wuhuuuuu!

See Laampros, THIS is why you can’t have nice things: your kids are just gonna break ’em.

LOL

I’m betting succeed, but it might kill him

This is trap!!!

Can he at least keep the demon form?

I like it too but it would make daily life rather …complicated.

I meant being able to switch back at will

That would rock!!!

I Knew it, Kyle’s up something 🙂

Go, Kyle, Go!

what ever happened to the PP?!

She teleported away. And Spooky set up a ward to prevent her return.

Oh come on Kyle you need to wait a few years before you usurp your father. You need time to develop an understanding of how to govern before you become the all powerful global dictator. If you take power now while you don’t know what your doing, you may be able to avoid being overthrown, but your early rule is going to be much more difficult for you and your subjects as a result.

I like where this is going Kyle…drain him dry!!! ^_^

Bow-chicka-bow-wow

i was hoping The Annihilator was going to come around and help the guy. Oh, well… please don’t go dark.

If he could regain his powers, he would be useful, if he decided to switch side -or had been on the good side all along.

Also, welcome to the community and comments 🙂

Personally I keep waiting for someone to just blast him while he’s laying there vulnerable.

It could still be both, you know. Maybe he’s gone full dark side *and* is betraying his father. That’s a dark side kind of thing to do.

Oft evil will shall evil mar.

NICE ! how very tolkein of you…

You are so naive.

We don’t attack other commenters here, lollerilol. Avoid the you-statements and keep it about the ideas, please.

For more information, take a look at our Comment Policy:

http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/comment-policy/

Kyle’s definitely got a plan going on….he’s pretty damn strong, able to form a plan to defy his daddy while he’s got all this demonic energy flowing through him…it looks like he’s going to try and take Laampros’ power. I wonder if it will work? He seems to be a full demon, so maybe he can rival Laampros in power if he takes more than what Laampros was willing to give. There has to be a reason Laampy was only willing to share a little of his power with Kyle. Maybe there’s something about Kyle that makes him more powerful. Maybe his demon mommy was something REALLY powerful and Laampy doesn’t want him taking more after her than him. xD

I kind of doubt his mother was a demon.

I just like to imagine her as a really powerful succubus…give Kyle some extra sex-powers later on…that would be really hot, and give Kyle an excuse to have lots of hot sex. Literally hot.

Why can he not have his sex powers from his father?

Hmm. This is true. Laampros IS really sexy…Stupid flames and shadows just keep us from finding out HOW sexy!

Only once he dealt with the little side effect of literally burning everything around him to a crisp when he got too excited.

Immolation = turnoff, I’ve generally found.

I know Kyle is about to defy his father but even with his fathers power, he doesn’t seem enough of a threat to me.

See Laampros, that’s where you fucked up; don’t mess with a boy’s boo, even if they aren’t dating!

And yay for Kyle! Stick it to your dad and assert your independence! Although, call me selfish, but I really hope that the transformation he’s going through is not permanent (especially the claws!). If he thought he had trouble finding a boyfriend before…

Dark and dangerous can be attractive if you play it right. Pointing out the dangers of his huge flaming orgasms might be less of a shock to potential partners this way too.

He may need to invest in some heavy duty nail clippers, though.

Oho, now this promises to be quite interesting. What will Laampros do about this? What will he *be able* to do? Will the other Young Protectors intervene? Will taking too much of the ‘true fire’ from his father change Kyle in a way that’s inimicable to his personality? Why does the spell-checker think ‘inimicable’ isn’t a word? Have I asked too many questions in a row?

Probably yes, but that’s hardly the point! Loving how well Kyle played the charade, he had everyone fooled right up to this point. Puts me in mind of a certain Warcraft princeling who had his own daddy issues; “What are you doing, my son?” “Succeeding you, father.”

Spell checker probably thinks “inimicable” should be “inimical” since that’s the actual word. Other than that? you got me.

Except it is a word. Both of them are 🙂

http://www.wikidiff.com/inimical/inimicable

Microsoft’s dictionary is used pretty often online, and it’s very prescriptive and stodgy.

Yes, I do know that the two are basically synonymous, but I am glad you agree. One must suppose the garden variety spell-check cannot be expected to catch all variations.

Honestly, I think it can do a lot better, but I think it’s bundled with .NET or something and you get whatever version they put out lately. It’s all very annoying.

I wish you two would end this philosophical dictionary discussion. We all know what the first comment meant by now. Plus, we all know what the synonyms meant.
Enjoy the next page.
Have a good day.

And one last thought — My hovercraft is full of eels.
😉

i keep telling people semantics matters. ill chosen words can start wars or cost kingdoms. nothing sillier than saying that’s just semantics…

I do hope Kyle has a big enough personality to contain all this power as not to blow up like a baloon.
I can recall at least 2 instances of evil doers blowing up from gaining more powers than they where equipped to handle (Kung Fu Panda 3, From far Away(manga series,vol.12))

Not to mention Jafar from Disney’s version of Aladdin.

That was less “blowing up” and more “trapped by the rules of his own stupidity”.

In the sequel (one of Dinsey’s less horrid), he can switch back and forth between his old skinny-sorcerer self and the full-sized Dark Genie appearance.

Yay! I mean, I know some people called it but I’ve got to admit, I was starting to doubt :O Glad to be wrong!

Script readers,

Whats up with the fire? It looks winged figures in it.
Is this intentional?

When Kyle absorbs fire it is meant to look like a double helix. Which makes a lot of sence know that we know more about his background and powers. Personally I don’t see winged figures and that isn’t mentioned in the script.

*screams*
HAHA!!! YEEEESSS!!!!! GO KYLE GO!!!! 😀

Yaaaassssssss!!!

And that butt is even hotter

Panel Four…. :shiver:

uncle Iroh would be proud

oh
OH
ohhhh
go Kyle!! but please be careful!! this is a lot of power, and a lot of new power for you, so uh, take it a little easy there buddy
demon daddy was hoping this was gunna be easier, but he clearly doesn’t understand human teenagers, they’re ALL about being rebels

It says a lot about the YP team that no matter what stage of art we see, it always looks amazing. From the pencils to the full colors, every single step is beautiful on it’s own.

Daddy Dearest should never have threatened Spooky. Not to mention letting that particular cat out of the bag…

I actually kinda like this under finished look. Next story you do should have this style. It’s got a classic comic feel.

How sharper than a serpent’s… er… demon’s tooth it is to have a thankless child…

omg was my hope from last page right after all?!?!
I’M SOOOO DELIGHTEDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!
>///////////////////////////<

t least doesn’t seem to want to go against his friends but against his father for now which is more than satisfying for the moment

Kyle still doesn’t have red skin.

I answered this on Patreon, but I guess I didn’t answer that here. 🙂

It was my original intention to have red skin for Kyle as he transforms, but as Vero and I tried it in the colors, it just didn’t work with the red in his uniform. Everything just started to blend together and I found we lost a lot of the great detail that Adam had included.

So, I decided to exempt his skin color from the transformation — at least so long as his uniform remained. There are a lot of factors you need to balance to keep the comic art looking sharp, and sometimes you just have to see things to know if they’re going to work or not.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the explanation, Alex. I think it actually works better thematically for Kyle to keep his human-colored skin, and I’m glad the choice worked out this way.

I agree with this; to me it signifies that he may have demon heritage, but he will always have his human heart!

Me too – though he would have looked like Anaado, so it would have worked with red too. But can see where it would look wrong with the costume and artistic change.

(Guess-as I mentioned before- there’s a chance Kyle has a half/full brother out there, who might be living in hell (or another dimension). And if there IS one, there could be more, in various demonic evil stages)

“As long as his uniform remained.”

That sounds extremely promising.

It makes perfect sense artistically, and I was kinda wondering what would happen to the costume if he did turn red. (I suggest golds and whites.)

Black and gold has my vote. Both go well with red, and he doesn’t really seem like the white-hat type anymore.

Of course, that could just be my general dislike of white costumes — I like sharp contrasts and vivid colors, whereas white just kind of makes me feel the way gray makes most other people feel…namely, ‘meh’.

I guess Laampros stopped reading Kyle’s mind. Silly demon, don’t you know you can’t trust teenagers?

It may not seem like much, but he’s not just claiming power from his father, he’s claiming his Birthright. Demons (depending on the lore one uses) are all about titles, and the best way to defeat another is to take their rank right out from under them. For demons, identify theft is a very literal notion. If Kyle truly claims his birthright, he might establish his dominion over Lampross, and thus his actual power (and minions). Granted, that’s making a huge assumption on my part on exactly how demons are portrayed in the setting.

I like how you’re thinking about this. Nicely put. 🙂

also how i read it, birthright is more than just title, it is dominion. it would appear that laampros is about to overthrown as ruler of all he surveys…
i don’t think kyle has it in him to murder his own father, no matter how much he detests him, so i suspect a much weakened, essentially defanged daddy will be sent back to where he came from a vassal instead of a lord. now kyle will have to learn how to retract fangs, horns and claws to walk among the earthlings again. and, though his desire for spooky has been exposed, he is now more than a match for duncan. who will need to bend a knee to the new lord. that’s my version of this story, and i’m sticking to it, but then i don’t get paid the big bucks…

What I wonder is 1. How this will affect the deal struck between Laampros and Duncan* and 2. What will the walls between the worlds say to such a transfer of power**.

*If this is a transfer of power and Kyle ends up succeeding Laampros in some way would the deal be non and void? Is there a claus in this contract that deals with either party being unable/unwilling to fullfill their part and the consequences of it? Would Kyle inheir the deal and be bound by it or would there renegotiation?

** By acquiring Laampros power will Kyle be able to mend the walls under guidance? And if they are mended will powers be lost?

I was also wondering if Red Hot might have the wherewithall to mend the walls between realities. How fortune that he has an accomplished supermage as a teammate to show him how. How unfortunate that said supermage is currently incapacitated.

Is it possible that Red can heal/resurrect the sacrificial victims, shove their souls back in their bodies, thereby freeing up Spooky, who then instructs Red on how fix an impending inter-dimensional breach? (Nothing simple about anything in that domino chain, is there?)

I don’t really like the idea of Kyle being able to resurrect anyone, not without help anyways but Spooky can’t spend the rest of his life holding on to them either. So I’ll have to wait and see what happens to the souls. Besides, we don’t really know what spooky is doing with these souls only what he appears to be doing.
I agree that unless PP has a sudden change of heart Spooky would be the one to direct any mending of walls, although Duncan might have some pointers on what to do.

all interesting questions…

Isn’t it terrible when your kids want to be independent just because they’ve hit eighteen?

That’s just kids growing up. This is more like them wanting your house, your life savings and the keys to your car.

I just read an interview with Anne Rice and now I can’t help but compare this scene to something we’d see in a vampire novel. In a way we could say humans are vampires: we suck the energy out of our parents and then reproduce so our genes pass on to the next generation. Go Kyle!

Will he succeed?
Not alone, not at first, but with the help of his friends he will!

Am I the only one hearing Ringo Starr in my mind when I read this?

I audibly gasped when I read this one! I’m so glad he’s still able to think for himself!

🙂

Laampy should have started a prepaid college fund. Now his kid is gonna be “I need this” and “gimme that” ain’t it a pain?

well I mean can you blame him? Lampy’s been an absentee father for the past ~18 years, then comes in showering him with gifts and favors all in one afternoon to try and make up for it. that’s gonna mess your kid up. he should have tried a different tactic really; father son bonding exercises, like going fishing, or movie time, or trying to form a bond with him on a personal level. and honestly, where is the mother in all this? no wonder Kyle fell for the bad boy. he needed a stronger family model to grow up in. /s

Yes, I definitely blame bad parenting

not to say those foster families didn’t try their best. it’s a hard job to provide a good home for children, and not everyone’s up to the job.

….Be careful what you wish for?

What if Kyle has to stay in the Hell dimension and rule it?

Then he would do it. He told Spooky that he would do anything to stop this, and he will.

The humor side of me thought: Hell will be even hotter then.
The dark humor side of me thought: Sure, the gay guy will go to hell. Ooh, the irony 😉

I thought about “the gay guy goes to hell” too… Not good. Old, old, old, like 1950’s gay story theme…

What I think will happen is that Kyle will need a perpetual manicure or he can hide out on Vulcan with those pointy ears.
Duncan, I’m not sure about, but I’d like to see him rejected even as a young whatever for Kyle’s wedded bliss to Spooky.

Kyle’s not the ONLY gay guy on the team, though. Flyboy is gay, Spooky is bi, Neither of them seem particularly hellbound.

So if Kyle WERE to have to become King of Hell 2.0 (again, drawing the parallel to Magik from X-Men), there’d still be a couple of LGBT+ survivors who don’t…in fact, Mitch has a happy relationship waiting for him on the other side of this, so he gets the best deal of all from my perspective.

I guess that I have to explain myself.
The literature available when I was in high school were really rotten paperbacks hidden in the back of stores with titles like “Little Boy Lavender” and the plots were always some hooker gay ended up dead because he seduced the good-looking family man (who was a closet case but no one knew). The stories were little more than “F— Books” written for reading in men’s room stalls while (I’ll be nice) masturbating. The overtly gay man died for his sins. That made the story have “morally redeeming value.”
–That has changed since the turn of the century (2000). Well, maybe earlier than that.
–There are better storylines now. Much better. TYP is affirming for teens and young adults. All the LGBT literature is better.
–Yes, Kyle may end up the King of Hell 2.0. But Kyle won’t end up like the 1950’s stories — dead and disgraced.

I still wouldn’t want Kyle to be stuck in Hell essentially because he was inexperienced and trusted the wrong guy… unless he was able to train demons to become superheroes, anyway. Somehow I think that would defy their intrinsic nature, though 🙁

Yeah! He did have a plan!

Good going, kiddo – now don’t die!

This may be a silly question…
But what exactly is happening?
Is Kyle draining power from his father? At least, that’s what I’m gathering. Is that right?

That is indeed right!

Is it supposed to be making Laampros weaker? or is Kyle just getting stronger?

Both, I think.

Okay, thanks! Now I’m on the same page as everyone else.
I dunno what it was about this page that made me question what I thought was happening. Haha
Maybe I’m just really sleepy.

It’s Friday the Thirteenth…

Especially for Laampros, it’s Friday the 13th

Hmm, I wonder whether Fluke’s powers get impacted one way or another by Friday the 13th.

I’m not sure of just how Paul’s powers work.

Worse, I never gamble since I learned Statistics and Probability and a friend had one of those “Sure” Trifectas or maybe a Wheel (I forget) at the Meadows Harness Track. It took me all night to break even doing the stats in my head watching the odds boards. Betting to me is mathematical work.

me too, which explains why IF i were to gamble, it would be blackjack rather than poker.

Looking round a Casino and seeing how much is handed out in winnings compared to how much is swept up by the house is an illuminating experience. Plus the betters got free drinks.

well since I have my doubts Paul’s got a Templar background, I think it’s just another day for him.

Not silly at all. I think it is a safe bet that Kyle is getting stronger. We just don¨’t know yet if Laampros is getting weaker. Does Kyle know?

Wonder how powerful Kyle will be after all this.

well, Alex did assure us long ago that “Kyle will come out of this story much stronger” he just neglected to say /how/

Nope, not neglected. Just being very much Alex 😉

powerful enough to be a fitting lord over duncan, and toast him if he misbehaves…

He kind of already is, Duncan is powerless.

losing one’s powers can be a flexible situation, not unlike death in comics and soap operas.

One question that occurred to me was whether Red was still experiencing pain when he absorbed hellfire, or whether his physical transformation had included a change in metabolism or somesuch so that he was now taking pleasure from it. That “Ahh!” in panel 3 could be taken either way.

Script confirms that he’s in pain, and that Laampros is also in pain as Red siphons off his fire. Of course, that still doesn’t explain whether Red has gone evil and will suffer any torment to gain power, or whether he’s still good and is willing to suffer any torment to save his friends. Roll on next Wednesday.

I’m definitely thinking the latter.

You know, it’d be both hilarious and bizarre if Kyle also started sprouting a goatee to match Laampy’s in addition to the other physical changes.

*lol* .. May be the one demon feature I wouldn’t like at all on Kyle. Laampros can keep that. It suits him.

It would be so unnervingly weird on Kyle.

Will he also acquire ShadowLoins™?

Haha, ShadowLoins™, I will have to steal that one!

That’s fine! It’s not even “mine”, people have been using that one for Laampros for quite a while now.

Heh. I have only read the comments on the last couple of pages… I’m sorta shy. ^_^

Ha! Love it.

Yay!! Kyle pulled through!! I do believe in RedHot I do I do!

*claps eagerly*

I so want to see the final colors now. Look at the spirals and the movement in the flames. Glorious.

Glorious will be the word. I think this finished page will be vibrant.

I can hardly wait!

Yeah!! Go, Kyle, go! But try not to die!!

Yeah, try really hard! 🙁 Such a loooong time until Tuesday night.

I know, right??

GOOO!

GOOOOO!

*plays vuvuzela*

Aaahh yeaah!

(But don’t hurt yourself too much, please)

Agreed.

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