Ax Arcenast, the Vigilant Firefighter
Steamgear Inc. was created by Snuffysam, it can be read on its own website or Webtoon
Welcome back to the blog! As a 3D animation student, I have great respect for anyone who sinks their teeth into making 3D projects that aren't related to games or animation. Completely 3D webcomics with original assets are hard to come by, so this one really stuck out to me. Add in my love for steampunk and you've completely sold me on it. Let's see what Ax is all about!
Background
"My brother's legacy is worth a million times more than what you will ever be!"
Welcome to Steamgear Incorporated, a massive corporation responsible for practically every widely used invention in the world. They've built glamourous locomotives, high tech record players, and most notably their large variety of weapons called Steamgears. Outside of their groundbreaking inventions, the second thing Steamgear Inc. is most known for is the crimefighters that work under the company name, Steamgear Defenders. Defenders are bona fide steampunk superheroes who use their Steamgears to stop lawbreakers and uphold justice. If you aren't dreaming to get your foot in the door into the inventing world, you're most likely hoping to be a Steamgear Defender. At least, that's what Ax Arcenast believed at first.
Alexandra Cadogan Arcenast is an Irish-American born and raised in Wyoming with her brother Hatch. Ax was always an optimistic ray of sunshine who always brightened her brother's day. She may be impressionable and idealistic, but she's also very shrewd and stands up for what's right when no one else is willing to. She greatly looked up to her inventor brother, wanting to follow in his footsteps to become a Steamgear Defender. After their parents died in a horrific fire, he designed an advanced fire extinguisher so no one would have to experience what happened to their family. This invention is what landed him in Steamgear Inc.'s Oasis Campus so he can continue building world-changing machines—and is the Steamgear Ax currently possesses.
She decides to surprise her brother by arriving at the campus to experience a tour. On her way, she crosses paths with a mysterious barkeep named Nell who tries to swindle her like she has done with other Defenders. However, Ax's blind optimism and righteous acts inspire Nell to join her on the tour to see what lies behind Steamgear Inc.'s door. Unlike Ax, Nell believes the Steamgear Defenders aren't all they're cracked up to be. In fact, some are quite lousy...
Ax marvels at every gizmo featured during the tour and befriends a few cool Defenders on the way. Suddenly, a Steamgear goes haywire and the Defenders are unable to stop it with their combined efforts. When no one else tried to help, Ax jumps into the fray and singlehandedly stops it herself. For her valiant efforts, she is rewarded with what she desired the most. She relished the moment of sheer happiness when she finally became a Steamgear Defender. Everything was perfect… until she asked about her brother's whereabouts.
As it turns out, when Hatch was accepted into Oasis Campus, he was lumped into the Bright Minds program to keep coming up with brilliant ideas for all kinds of inventions. The program was extremely demanding, so much so that he quite literally worked himself to death. His corpse was used as fertilizer for a giant tree in the center of the campus and was swiftly forgotten about.
Truly, Ax was enraged by this news. The campus' administrator wrote it off as entirely voluntary and choosing Steamgear over his own life, but it was clear to Ax that the program is what killed him. On the turn of a dime, the Defender friends she made at Oasis turned against her and she had to fight each and every one of them. Thankfully, Nell decided to team up with her. Now that both really knew what was going on behind doors, they couldn't just stand around and let this slide. Thus, they beat each Defender on campus and beat its corrupt administrator Phillip Driver.
Now, Ax and Nell are wanted women. In order to clear their names, Ax came up with a plan to ask Steamgear Inc.'s CEO Thaddeus Thinner for help. Phillip was a bad apple, but Thaddeus is the most beloved man on the planet and a rich supergenius. Surely he can get rid of the corruption in his corporation. Nell is certainly more suspicious of him than Ax is, but she takes part in the plan regardless. As it turns out, Ax was wrong about him. Removing Phillip from the company would set the company's innovation backwards, and that's something he can't risk in spite of his program's backwards morality. In the end she had to rescue Nell and collaborate with a duo of robbers to escape him.
Equipment
Custom Steamgear Arm Cannon
Anyone competent enough in this world owns a Steamgear, their weapon of choice. Ax is no exception. Her Steamgear was designed by her brother Hatch; it's a modified fire extinguisher taking the appearance of an arm cannon. Its ammo contains foam made with a chemical formula that repairs fire damage at a molecular level. Sounds like a pretty nifty fire extinguisher, right? More on that later. She can fire the foam in front of her, or under her to launch herself into the air. She can even spray foam to mask herself from her opponent or shoot other objects from the cannon. The ammo can be used as small spray cans. Destroying a single piece of ammo unleashes an explosion of foam. Ammo can also be cracked open to wield like a broken bottle. The arm cannon itself can also be used as a gauntlet.
Matches
Ax has 48 matches on hand in case she needs to cauterize wounds with them. Then she heals the spot with her Steamgear.
Abilities
Un-Burning Foam
Ah, yes, the bullshit. Remember when I said that the foam repairs damage done to fire? Weeeeell, I didn't mention everything. You see, Ax's steamgear's foam doesn't just repair fire, it repairs ANYTHING at the cellular level back to its original state. If I had to compare un-burning to another fictional power, it would be Crazy Diamond from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Wanna know what sort of tomfuckery this entails? Here's a list of every instance she un-burned something- Healed a man's burn wounds that have remained on his arm for months. It even regrew his missing fingernails
- Reattached part of a broken vine to save herself from falling to her death
- Trapped a man's hand in a broken pipe she reconnected with her foam
- Turned smoke from an incense blower back into incense
- Returned molten paperclips back into regular ones
- Un-Burned her own arm after it was melted in a barrage of molten paperclips, then used more foam to reattach it
- Turned the coal dust stuck to Claudette's clothes into massive heaps of coal
- Turned smoke released from Claudette's Steamgear into coal
- After blowing a puff of foam down the hardcore smoker Piques' throat via a kiss, all his years of smoking caught up to him as so many cigarettes reformed in his body that clumps spewed out his nostrils and mouth
- After the Joy Tree was destroyed, she regrew it inside Driver's mech
- Sprayed foam on an ostrich feather to turn it back into an entire ostrich corpse
- Turned a Steamgear that was made out of vulcanized rubber into natural rubber and sulfur
- Reversed the trimming of grass to ensnare Olivia's leg in tangly grass strips
- Fixed Starhead's broken nose by plugging her nostrils with napkins, lighting them with a match, and spraying them with her foam
- Completely regenerated Dimitri Drill's lower half after it had been completely disintegrated, as well as Nell's numerous burn and energy beam-related injuries
- Rebuild a broken wall
Ah, yes, the bullshit. Remember when I said that the foam repairs damage done to fire? Weeeeell, I didn't mention everything. You see, Ax's steamgear's foam doesn't just repair fire, it repairs ANYTHING at the cellular level back to its original state. If I had to compare un-burning to another fictional power, it would be Crazy Diamond from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Wanna know what sort of tomfuckery this entails? Here's a list of every instance she un-burned something
- Healed a man's burn wounds that have remained on his arm for months. It even regrew his missing fingernails
- Reattached part of a broken vine to save herself from falling to her death
- Trapped a man's hand in a broken pipe she reconnected with her foam
- Turned smoke from an incense blower back into incense
- Returned molten paperclips back into regular ones
- Un-Burned her own arm after it was melted in a barrage of molten paperclips, then used more foam to reattach it
- Turned the coal dust stuck to Claudette's clothes into massive heaps of coal
- Turned smoke released from Claudette's Steamgear into coal
- After blowing a puff of foam down the hardcore smoker Piques' throat via a kiss, all his years of smoking caught up to him as so many cigarettes reformed in his body that clumps spewed out his nostrils and mouth
- After the Joy Tree was destroyed, she regrew it inside Driver's mech
- Sprayed foam on an ostrich feather to turn it back into an entire ostrich corpse
- Turned a Steamgear that was made out of vulcanized rubber into natural rubber and sulfur
- Reversed the trimming of grass to ensnare Olivia's leg in tangly grass strips
- Fixed Starhead's broken nose by plugging her nostrils with napkins, lighting them with a match, and spraying them with her foam
- Completely regenerated Dimitri Drill's lower half after it had been completely disintegrated, as well as Nell's numerous burn and energy beam-related injuries
- Rebuild a broken wall
Strategism and High Intelligence
She may not be as smart as her brother who built a Steamgear, but she more than makes up for it with battle strategy and quick thinking. She picked up a lot of obscure trivia from Hatch, which is surprisingly incredibly useful when she has the power to revert anything back to its previous state. Her level of big brained ass-pulls feels like something straight out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!
She may not be as smart as her brother who built a Steamgear, but she more than makes up for it with battle strategy and quick thinking. She picked up a lot of obscure trivia from Hatch, which is surprisingly incredibly useful when she has the power to revert anything back to its previous state. Her level of big brained ass-pulls feels like something straight out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!
Acrobatics
Ax and Hatch grew up in a forest, so there wasn't much for them to do. Ax found entertainment in scaling trees. That paid off quite well, as Ax is very agile and acrobatic. Her Steamgear helps with that since it can launch her into the air.
Ax and Hatch grew up in a forest, so there wasn't much for them to do. Ax found entertainment in scaling trees. That paid off quite well, as Ax is very agile and acrobatic. Her Steamgear helps with that since it can launch her into the air.
Techniques
N/A
Feats
Overall
- Defeated the criminal Ro Terry and his goons, fixing the cell tower they tampered with for years so people can rely on them for repair jobs instead of Steamgear.
- Figured out how Nell was cheating in a game of pool, and bested her by cheating in return
- Shut down a haywire Steamgear with her melted arm, un-burning it into a non-skeletal arm so it could fall onto its button. She accomplished this while the Steamgear Defenders Stud, Piques, and Claudette couldn't
- Defeated the corrupt coal-fueled captain of the Oasis Campus Defenders, Claudette Claudette, crushing her under the weight of coal
- Beat Isaak Piques, the privileged ice-bearing Steamgear Defender by filling his body with the cigarettes he oh-so loved
- Defeated the remorseless administrator of Oasis Campus, Phillip Driver, and his advanced Steamgear mechanical suit. The fight resulted in nearly 20 million SteamBux in property damage
- Correctly deduced that Thaddeus Thinner was on his way to his apartment via a train, and snuck onto the triple-decker Grand Continental Express to intercept him
- Squared off against the Gilded Bandit Dimitri Drill
- Defeated Corporal Malcolm Mallet, the Steamgear Defender who takes the moral high ground, by using him as an electric conductor
- Saved the nearly dead Nell and Dimitri after their fight with Steamgear Inc. CEO Thaddeus Thinner
Strength
- Sucker punched Claudette straight in the gut, possibly breaking bones
- Destroyed said mech by unburning a tree inside it
Speed
- Evaded the attacks of a Defender with a Steamgear that generates electricity (MHS+)
- Scales to Nell, who caught flying ice picks
- Blocked steel ball bearing bullets with her Steamgear
- Dodged vulcanized rubber bullets that move fast enough to dent steel
Durability
- Survived after her arm was melted off by a cluster of molten paperclips
- Endured electrocution on multiple occasions
- Received a beatdown from Stud, who used his Steamgear to predict her movements while he was blinded
- Survived a building-level explosion that blew up the giant Joy Tree
- Endured steel bullet shots
Weaknesses
- Ax's overly idealistic and optimistic behavior and blind her from the bigger picture at times
- An advanced analytical engine determined her biggest weak point is subsurface nerve damage near her cheekbone. Granted this was scanned directly after her fight with Claudette, but attacking that area was the best way to neutralize her with his Steamgear at the time
- Ax isn't the best at making split-second decisions, preferring to think things out first
- She often draws a lot of attention to herself with her rash decisions, which eventually led to her being wanted by Steamgear Inc.
- Even after learning about the horrible things going down in Steamgear Incorporated, Ax is still too trusting. She thinks that seeking out Thaddeus can solve all her problems, when for all she knows, Thaddeus could be the worst of them all
- Un-burning can't revive something that has been killed
- Her brother's invention may be brilliant, but it has one drawback. Many chemical reactions only work in certain temperature ranges. In the case of the Steamgear, it can't work in freezing temperatures.
Matchup Potential
Ax Arcenast vs Brigitte Lindholm (Steamgear Inc. vs Overwatch)
(thumbnail by Vibe Check)
Vibe Check
The connections are as follows: Both are aspiring fighters who grew up surrounded by steampunk tech. Both want to follow the footsteps of an inventor family member and join a fighting force organization. Both are lovers of tech with hearts of gold who are determined to get their needs met, and they prove themselves as worthy heroes. Upon reaching that point, they realize that the organization they wanted to join is corrupt in some way, and seek to fix it. Both of their main abilities are mending things and people.
Ax has fought against many characters with high tech gear before, so fighting one of the more low tech characters in Overwatch seems fitting. Heck, Ax even fought someone that wielded a flail like she does. There could be a gag where the two sustained a lot of damage and pause to heal themselves. Ax's un-burning could be used in completely breaking down one of Brigitte's weapons into its bare essentials, but perhaps even that isn't enough to take her down. There also aren't any fights I can think of that had a steampunk aesthetic. Closest we got was with Dio vs Alucard in its Victorian battleground. There's a lot of cool environment usages that can be done with a steampunk environment, especially considering how Ax can use it to her advantage by un-burning certain things and tricking Brigitte into getting harmed by them. Something I'd like to be shown in the fight is their comparison in intelligence. Both are smart, but Brigitte's knowledge lays more in her mechanical skills while Ax's relate more so to her battle strategism.
Even though Ax has way more useful hax, I'd imagine Brigitte speedblitzes her.
NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it
