5.43 - ATTACK!!

Both Kaycee and Go! miss their chance to save the day and so today's update kicks off "Newb cadets v Oz Magellan and freaky monsters"! Who will win??

I was quite happy with how the last panel of page 5.43 turned out - there's a fair bit happening but it's not too confusing. I had hoped to include everyone but couldn't squeeze in Lin-Lin, Bif or Joe.

Anyway there will be plenty of action for the next few pages!

5.40 - Welcoming Committee

Whew! Finally got that page - #5.40 - drawn and coloured. It ended up being a lot more involved to produce than I expected... but I shouldn't be all that surprised given the number of characters involved. So this page brings us roughly to the mid-way point of the story.

I had expected this story would take only 50 pages... clearly I'm wrong in that regard! So I'm thinking 80 or so. I don't want it to be much longer than that. Despite my intention for brevity it was the defeat of Oz Magellan which bumped up the page count. Originally it was intended to only take a few pages but then I started using it as a way to properly introduce each character - plus I wanted to show them being picked off one by one to make their defeat seem a bit more plausible.

There's still a fair bit of ground to cover in the story but things should speed up somewhat from here on in...

Oz Magellan

I've been a bit quiet on the progress of the story for the last few pages - mainly because I didn't think there was anything constructive I could add.

It was always my intention to introduce the characters in battle with their as yet unnamed foes. At some point it occurred to me it would be good to have a juxtaposing voiceover from Kaycee describing each character in turn as they got their arses kicked by the invaders. It took a few pages longer than I expected but hopefully acted as a reasonable introduction to the Oz Magellan team and their powers.

And as the latest update shows none of them have been eaten or slaughtered... those who thought I might be indulging in some pointless minor character killing spree can rest easy (for now...)

A brief recap...

• Good-Guy: uses light force to generate a field of energy that allows him to fly and to levitate objects; can also glow/shine with blinding brilliance
  
• Tassie Tigress: great agility and reflexes combined with a sixth sense that makes her almost untouchable in hand to hand combat, even when she is outnumbered
  
• The Man Who Can: high intelligence combined with an electronic telepathy allows him to psychically communicate with and control computers and machines
  
• Slow-Mo: can manipulate the flow of time within a localised area, can't stop it completely but can get to near absolute. The larger the area and the stronger the manipulation the greater the concentration required
  
• Captain Victoria: Flying powerhouse but not as strong or as invulnerable as Charisma Epoch - long term member, highly regarded and favored by the Australian public
  
• Oz Magellan HQ: Located on Spectacle Island which lies within Sydney Harbour
  
• Cassie Bloom: hapless and lazy security guard, formerly employed at Magellan Island but forced to leave by a very annoyed Maya Applecross
  
• Other Magellan HQ staff... yet to be seen in full but include a chef ("Marco"), Medical, Janitor/cleaner, Maintenance engineer and an admin/finance person.

It also gave us some clues to the nature and skills/powers of their foes...

• Big green warty guy: very, very strong
  
• Spidery one: blue venom from mouth, presumably has some incapacitating and control effect. Can also shoot webbing out its backside!
  
• Hairy one: exhibits rational thinking, attacks tactically... also does a bit of sniffing
  
• Spikey one: talkss with lotss of sssess!

I think that covers the basics...