Sidekick Girl
Saving the City: Sans-Spandex
At least he’ll be off the streets long enough to fill out the paperwork.
25 responses to “Interim XIX”
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Jordan on June 29, 2016 at 12:12 PM
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Kiatana on June 29, 2016 at 1:17 PM
He told S.G. he didn’t really know why the transfer was happening. Maybe he’s resigned because he realized he got a company problem child shoved on him and he doesn’t know what to do about it yet. Hero’s are on the highest pedestal in this society. He can’t just put Shiver at a desk. Shiver could go public and turn everything around on S.G. and the agency to make them look like the bad guy while he was just doing his job. And the public would eat it up with a spoon.
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The passing critic on June 29, 2016 at 1:18 PM
Yeah Agent Grey knows hes got a politically awkward situation for the heros agency at the mo,Its not long ago that one of their heros went on a very public killing spree followed by a villain being seen to level multiple buildings and superteams without breaking a sweat.
The public hearing that a pair of supers went Rodney king on an already easily captured teenager(Yeah I know its more complicated than that but any one at long distance with a camera would only be seeing Val going nuts on a guy with a bat who couldnt even move to defend himself while her partner just boredly watched) could cause some serious investigations into the heros agency in general.
That said given on how its decided that your a hero or a sidekick coupled with the fact they hired Illumina who wasnt even upto sidekick grade back then I think the agencys needed a serious retooling for a LONG time!
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Phantomskyler on June 29, 2016 at 1:20 PM
Yeah, this is going to go 2 different ways, either they just discussion what they need to do with Shiver and/or learn his backstory and why he got dumped here,
Or, Val is going to finally snap at how bull**** the Agency’s system is that they’ll let callous sociopaths like that be superheroes while she’s still stuck as a sidekick despite proving time and again she can run circles around most “heroes.”
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Black Rose on June 29, 2016 at 1:52 PM
Mr.Harvey is sixteen then he probably could be tried as an adult?
Still that doesn’t explain his taloned hands,unless they’re some kind of weapons gauntlets?!?!? -
David Johnston on July 2, 2016 at 11:39 AM
Nah. I figure he was just born that way so everyone expected him to go into crime and he lived down to expectations.
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Adon on June 29, 2016 at 1:55 PM
I still bave a bad feeling that Val is now going to get thrown under the bus here. Even though it looks like Gray knows she did what she had to given what was available, the agency seems like exactly the type of organization to ‘punish’ someone because they need to look like they are doing something useful, and it looks like Shiver has some immunity — maybe he’s related to someone high-up? Would not be the first time someone got off light because he is so-and-so’s son/nephew. And does anyone doubt that at least one of the purposes of sidekicks in this organization is to shoulder the blame when stuff goes wrong, whether it was their fault or not?
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HakkyounoTenshi on June 29, 2016 at 2:46 PM
Well, now we know why Shiver was transferred. It was probably the easiest way of getting him out of the city.
I imagine that there is a disciplinary ladder in place to protect Heros from legal charges from Villains and criminals (non-Villain agency affiliated law breakers). Unfortunately, the disciplinary ladder would also protect Shiver, despite the fact that he very clearly uses his powers to abuse criminals. It’s a double edged sword.
Think of it like this: Hero A accidentally breaks a criminal’s arms during a hostage situation. Hero A wasn’t trying to do serious damage to the criminal, it just happened. The criminal’s lawyer decides to try and go after Hero A with excessive force charges (maybe it will sway public opinion in favor of his client, maybe he’s trying to make a name for himself, or maybe the criminal is very spiteful and bitter). Thanks to Hero Agency bureaucracy, Hero A gets a reprimand in his file and the agency tells the city that hero A has been disciplined and that’s that.
Now you have Hero B. Hero B’s a jerk who uses his powers to hurt criminals at every opportunity (there scum after all). So one day Hero B PURPOSEFULLY breaks the arm of a criminal because he can, and now some dumb mook is in a cast for 2 months for robbing a convenience store. The problem is that even though Hero B very clearly used excessive force, the Agency HAS to follow the same steps it would for Hero A.Poor Val is probably going to have to deal with fallout here. Hopefully Agent Gray can protect her some. I honestly believe that while the Hero AGENCY has become bloated and bogged down with bureaucracy, funding, and public opinion the individual Agents are trying to do there best withing the system (it least Gray seems to be, we really don’t know much about Red or anyone else).
I hope Mack gets back soon (and that the research center she was sent to isn’t a brainwashing camp or a mad scientist’s experiment lab).
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Ragingagnostic on June 29, 2016 at 3:41 PM
“It’s not my fault.” Yeah, I’m betting Shiver uses that phrase a lot.
I hope that Val comes out of this with her career intact. She’s clearly on the verge of losing her temper and needs to keep a cool head. Shiver also needs to be disciplined sharply but if it hasn’t happened by now, it likely never will. There’s no way the agency can get out of this problem looking clean without sacrificing someone. I just hope it isn’t Val.
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Nightmask on June 29, 2016 at 5:20 PM
So now we see the truth of it, Shiver is the super-powered equivalent of the RL people who think that it’s not a crime to engage in brutal acts towards someone deemed a criminal. To him they aren’t human beings and however petty the crime it’s permission for him to be as ruthless as he feels like and if someone dies (mostly likely they have given the circumstances) well that’s their fault not his when he kills them. Standard immoral thug behavior justifying their behavior by going ‘hey it’s okay when I do it’ because I’ve seen all of that dialogue from him almost word for word way too many times when people have backed brutal assaults and murders on the part of law enforcement. Time for someone to take a stand and put a stop to Shiver preferably with some karmic justice.
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Laura on June 29, 2016 at 6:32 PM
Yes.
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It’s not a subtle comparison, but it really wasn’t meant to be.
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Katy on June 29, 2016 at 8:54 PM
I wonder if Agent Grey is going to apologize to Val for sticking her with the insult to all a-holes out there? And then ask her if she thinks if she can control this hero.
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Sean Duggan on June 30, 2016 at 7:35 AM
My bet is that Val is going to be reprimanded for contradicting her hero. She’s in the right, but hierarchy being what it is…
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Sprainogre on June 30, 2016 at 1:19 PM
I think she was placed with Shiver to try and curb his stupid, the same way she was placed with Illumina to keep her from getting killed. They know how level headed, decent, and tough she is, and that she’s not afraid to go against orders that she knows are wrong. I don’t think the agency realized just how much of a, let’s say, “loose cannon” Shiver really was.
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The Auld Grump on June 30, 2016 at 6:31 PM
Next stop for Shiver – Saskatooon!
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Nightmask on June 30, 2016 at 9:09 PM
Given the look the two of them exchange it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how that works out since we know he’s not learned anything yet and only sees her as making trouble for him rather than accepting he made trouble for himself since he can’t accept the rules (and the passive help from where he came from since rather than shut him down hard they simply covered it up and shipped him off to be Someone Else’s Problem).
In regards to Sidekick Girl’s upcoming conversation I can see him apologizing in some fashion and probably admitting he should have dug harder into why Shiver was being reassigned. He’ll then hope she’ll stick with trying to correct him but unfortunately not yet admit that the guy’s not really a hero and keep giving him breaks he’s not deserving of until something horribly tragic happens (since while mostly slice-of-life is what we see we’ve seen enough dark in previous storyarcs that we can likely expect Shiver ending up killing someone and having to be taken down).
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Kaian on June 30, 2016 at 10:05 PM
This looks like a bus throw. At least in part because all the injuries but the ear would be caused by SG trying to break the ice to let him breathe.
Reasons I see it as a bus throw is that sidekicks seem to be treated like commodities at best and dirt the rest of the time. Note that she had zero say on the partnering and the uniform and no recourse from his sass.
Heroes are the life blood of the agency. They are the ones the public needs to see to keep money flowing in. So he will be given a metaphoric wrist slap and she will be canned. Despite her being better at the actual job than the certified by looks heroes. -
Aline1 on July 1, 2016 at 5:42 PM
That would stupid given apparently she seems to be the resident strategist they run to when ever things go badly not to mention that Illumina would likely take it poorly…
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David Johnston on July 2, 2016 at 11:51 PM
Not likely. If Grey was taking that tack, he wouldn’t have mentioned that Shiver’s victim qualified as a juvenile and there wouldn’t be any need to have Shiver leave before they have this talk.
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shori on July 1, 2016 at 7:49 PM
I usually don’t comment (bc it seems like too much effort lol) but this page really struck a core in me that nearly made me want to cry. I don’t know if the conversation between Shiver and Val was intentional for this purpose or not, but it really reminded me of some of the arguments I hear happening revolving around police brutality. In particular I thought of Tamir Rice and how he was shot because the officer presumed that he was older than what he actually was and assumed he was a thug with a real gun that needed to be taken down.
That being said, if this follows how these cases usually go, even if Val is correct in this case, she a sidekick_ an individual with little power_ while Shiver is the hero in a authoritative position. Shiver will be taken off the streets just for a little while until things calm down and then promptly transferred again and allow to roam as usual with his disgusting ideals of heroism. Meanwhile, Val will either be stuck with him, move on to waiting AGAIN for another hero who need her expertise or unjustly removed from her job for doing what was right.
Thinking that, this left a pretty bitter taste in my mouth.
Still though….I can’t wait for the next scene XD. -
Tomy Ironmane on July 2, 2016 at 10:08 PM
To be fair, officers of the law have to judge “is it a gun?” quickly. Also, the age of the person pointing a gun at you is fairly irrelevant. An engagement with superheroes is a slightly different proposition, considering potential force and reaction times and the fact that the kid didn’t have a projectile weapon, but it can still be considered that Vanilla Ice there used excessive force.
…and don’t even tell me nothing about orange tips on toy guns. You DO know that cops have started to recover airsoft & bb guns indistinguishable from their more lethal originals. Hell, I was in a little podunk museum that had Airsoft M-16s used for the displays with the orange tips painted black. I carried an M-16 for 4 years, and was looking at the replicas extra close, and I didn’t know the difference till the curator TOLD me. AND real guns with the tips painted orange by criminal assholes.
And then there’s THIS beauty:
Supersoaker? Nope! That’s a 12 gauge Remington 870 in a supersoaker hull. And the pump on the supersoaker even operates the action. -
Kaian on July 4, 2016 at 5:49 AM
This is going to sound strange. But that image manages to offend me.
Disguising a deadly weapon as a toy, might let the perpetrator get away with using it once. Then every cop for three states will be shooting children trying to have harmless fun.
I am not blaming the police. I blame the sick mind that made and uses that thing or anything like it. -
Caf on July 5, 2016 at 9:19 PM
The kid is black. I wonder if there is a racial element here.
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Nightmask on July 6, 2016 at 2:04 AM
@caf Unlikely, people like this it’s ‘criminal’ or ‘non-criminal’ and they don’t care if ‘criminal’ is ‘rapist’ or ‘squatter’ they’re all worthless trash that killing them is totally acceptable in their minds. Which is why Shiver has absolutely no empathy for another human being and can so callously treat them as he does.
@Kaian Someone like that that’s likely WHY they did that, just like that idiot company that put together a possible handgun that looks like a cellphone. They WANT innocent people being killed by police AND they want to give them even more excuse for getting away with murder by making it where a cop can actually say ‘I’d heard about those super-soaker disguised guns and wasn’t going to take any chances it was that 12 year old or me’.
Agent Gray seems… Resigned? Is that the best way to put it? He seems tired and disappointed in how that night went. I’m guessing that now is the part where he tells S.G. why Shiver got transferred to their city.