Grrl Power #205 – Hyperactivity bonus vs. backstab
Apparently there was enough room between the wall and the table for a shield that large. Good thing it either automatically resets to a smaller default size or Sydney thought to reset it herself after the demonstration, where if you remember the shield was large enough to totally destroy that room if it went up in there. Her shield does form centered on her, large enough to encompass her, but will adjust itself up or down a bit not to slice off anything near her, which is why Shadow Boxer there didn’t get a haircut when her shield went up. That may be a yet undiscovered option though. Something else to note is that the orbs don’t automatically activate when Sydney grabs them, she can hold them without them turning on, but in this case it was a defensive reflex.
It was kind of tough drawing Sydney taking a real punch. Her adorkableness affects even me. Sure she’s suffered a few hits already during the course of the comic, but most of them were self inflicted except the bonk on the head at the bank, and we all know how well that went for her assailant.
I’ve groused a little about the nature of the webcomic format a little before, in that the delay between pages allows people to consider each page with far more scrutiny than they would if you’re just flipping through a finished book. As such, the resolution to Sydney’s current conundrum may not surprise much of anyone, but what can you do? Of course it works both ways, and the little gags I hide in there whenever I can are more likely to be ferreted out.
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Fantastic! I can’t wait to see what you have in store for this fight!
Actually, I suspect that she is just going to fluctuate her shield size quickly to knock him around and potentially out. Any other orb will take a moment to cycle up and use (especially the PPO, which is ‘harder to use than the other orbs’). Depending on how variable the shield size can be and how it may change sizes, it can be an effective physical attack in this case.
what about the fly orb that has no activation time she could fly strate up (the building is already a goner) then make the sheald larger so he carnt rach her then she can threaten to drop the sheald if he twitches leavening him with a long time to wave good bye
I suggested earlier she might deploy one shield inside another, trapping a villian between the outer and inner shield, and then closing the gap between the two to squeeze the fight out of him.
I think she’s going to go for the Lighthook. The PPO is too explosive to use here, and too uncontrolled. Plus it does have the start-up time. Sidney has no other explicitly offensive powers, but the Lighthook has super strength, so she might be able to use it to put up a good fight.
There are a lot of ways to handle this. But I vote molestorb.
Also, “Warning: you are being punched.” Best tactical computer evar.
The best resolution involves her hulking out because he broke her glasses, and those things are damned expensive, and she JUST got over wearing the eyepatch.
Glasses were not broken in the punch. He just punched the spit out of her.
Alternatively she may just use the orbs to pummel him without bothering to activate any powers whatsoever.
And we know how well that worked on dabbler
It works for Deadpool though, i guess it depends on the opponent.
Ooh! here’s an idea that will only end with one casualty. Use the pewpew orb while inside the (as far as we know) indestructible force field and feel absolutely no guilt about wrecking the guy that just tried to gut you
Two casualties, one of whom would be our main character.
still an epic one off final attack as explosions are more powerful in a confined space as thee concussion wave rebounds within the small space
That would depend on if the secondary shield that protects her from backblast extends to the edges of her primary shield. In which case the firepower from the PPO would just bounce back and forth between the two until dissipated. Leaving Shadow Boxer diced and charred on each side.
Well, I guess I didn’t take physics into account but still what a way to go. Too bad such a move would probably be wasted on this guy.
“Warning. You are being punched.”
Hmm, not very helpful.
Early warning, perhaps?
“Warning. You are about to be punched, but this message is distracting you from dodging it.”
…Nope. Better go for armored glasses with a built in display.
Err…wait…
“I can’t dodge that damn punch because the message is obscuring it!”
Set it to explain. *gets knocked down* “what was that?” (armband) “You just got punched.”
Probably has a full list of snarkers…. Just in case.
Warning, you have been drugged.
…are standing in lava…
…have been blinded…
…are about to consume toxically spicy food…
…etc…
Sydney would see that last one not as a warning, but a challenge.
Somehow I have the feeling we are about to be treated to another wall of “Words” on this, but the words shall be Sydney’s patented “Turn The Air Blue” invective. Can’t wait to see the Hyperactive Halo going berserk and making sailors blush again.
Well she looks pissed off enough in panel 7.
I’m guessing that the blue-ness of the air is due to the stray Cherenkov-radiation, which is a natural side-effect of a Sydney-level stream of cussing.
No, it is from her summoning the Elder Gods of Chaos and Destruction.
Yes the wording will be that BAD.
and the gods are so offended by her cursing they are trying to stay away
Except for #$%@&^!^#$@*$^@%$&!%^&#$**!.
He just found a new High preistes.
Consider the alternative…
…rather than chase them away, the cussing draws all the Gods to her!
They’re taking notes – they’re awestruck at her verbal prowess!
It might be too messy for this comic’s audience, but with the combination of enclosed space plus orbs at full-speed rotate we could get this universe’s version of ‘Will It Blend?’
https://www.willitblend.com/
I’m calling it now. Groin kick. Look at where her foot is, and where he’s standing. That’s the “oh the humanity” moment we’re going to see Thursday.
That, or Harem is lying and can in fact teleport through, and is using one of her selves as a distraction.
Or maybe that isn’t actually Harem?
The first thought into my head was “Dude… you are so screwed.” That punch was not something that gets you an angry stream of consciousness with a beating. That punch gets you hell unleashed.
At the same time though, I honestly wonder if she’ll be able to handle an actual villain. Up until now she’s only been going against friendlies right? I need to go back and re-read everything to double check. Will this be the “I got this” moment, or the “Oh shit” dose of reality? Is it Thursday yet? *chews on her desk in anticipation*
You forget one very sorry mugger she trashed.
She more than held her own against the “bank robber”. True, it wasn’t really an enemy, but she didn’t know that at the time.
She held her own against a ‘bank robber’ who was certainly under strict orders not to harm any civilian under any circumstances. You notice how when he bopped her on the head with a pistol butt, he didn’t even do it hard enough to make her scalp bleed.
This was what I was more or less responding to. Regardless of what his orders were, she fought back instead of simply folding under the pressure.
And when the second guy (Achilles?) shot at her, Maxima was standing right there.
Lol at the bracer’s warning.
Congratulations, you made her mad.
Put forcefield around bad guy only. Shrink forcefield diameter to the size of a baseball. Move forcefield OUTSIDE before releasing high-pressure plasma generated by compressing bad guy into degenerate matter.
The more I read of it the more I know I will never drop this comic….and I think Sydney will have no problem handling mister emo blades here XD
Yes DaveB It was kind of tough seeing Sydney taking a real punch.
Well, now we know the shield can slice things off if intersect them when created. That could be a great weapon if she can control it.
Here we can see the importance of training. If so Syd would have immediately obeyed Max’s order of put the shield up and would have been protected.
Maybe Shadow could phase thru the field though (unlikely if Harem can’t teleport in) but anyway.
In fairness it could be only seconds since Max said that – this page might be happening at the same time as the previous one. But yeah, it likely is after Max spoke to her because we can see harem starting her equipment run, so Sydney really should have listened. Remember kids, shield first, fiddle with the shiny in the middle of a battlefield second.
Well, to be precise I do not think that Harem would snicker about “hump the Barrett” while Syd is going to be stabbed, so I take it as this scene is at least afer that and so a while after the order.
I dont thinl that would have helped. He came trough the floor and the do not close in that direction.
I am not so sure. But even if so DaveB said:
“Her shield does form centered on her, large enough to encompass her”
so being she alone the shield would be way closer to her feets: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034
making it more difficult to Shadow going in. Unless he can phase thru it as I already said.
If the shield is actually not closed below, I hope some of the superstrong think about bursting in through the floor.
But if it closes below her she would destroy the floor. She would do gigantic amounts of damge and what would happend if she want to walk forward with the shield up? Would it burn through the floor?
And if it closed directlyat the floor it would damge anything directly in contact with the floor.
I think the least destructiv way, and I think that is the default of the Shildorb, is to not close to the flore unless Sydney is flying.
I totally agree, just it has not yet been established. It is a potential major flaw and also should give some detail about how that works.
Lighthook vs. Shadowblade
Round1: FIGHT
Personally I vote for the sydney version of the food processor. shield + PPO = diced baddy and minimal collateral damage (save perhaps to the earth’s crust depending on how shield vs PPO and PPO accuracy works).
I know the comic isn’t really going the gory route, and maybe there is a quicker option or maybe sydney is worried about being trapped inside her shield with an active PPO ( I mean what if it bounces, that would get ugly fast), I’m sure the visuals would be hard too, but still my vote.
-S
My gut feeling is that Sydney will instinctively come up with a humiliating, hilarious, totally unexpected way to dispatch her opponent.
I was tginkin more along the lines of:
Forb + lighthook =The blender
Anyone else notice the similarity and opposition of their abilities. This guy manipulates shadows, and Sydney has an orb that creates a tentacle of “light.” I’d go so far as to say this isn’t coincidence.
You are aware that with that logic pretty much everyone else is Syd’s rival since their powers can be proven that somehow reverse of one of her orbs?
Harem not being able to teleport thru the field is pretty interesting. It implies either the field goes below the floor (without slice it off, it seems) or she only can teleport in a straight line.
It also means that Sidney’s force field is capable of blocking things that aren’t nescesarily tangible, like Harem during the part of teleportation where she is actually moving from point A to point B.
So I have this running Fan Theory in my mind That Haram’s Divided (distributed) Intelligence actually makes her Duller Than if she were one person rather than well a Harem of people.
This is where she asks him if he is familiar with the movie la blue girl?
Has anyone seen the TV series the dome? Spin of from the book.
The cow being chopped in two, nose to tail, then one side only falling over.
Halo needs to drop shield, roll away then raise shield and see how much of him she chops of.
no this is where she asks if hes seen the bank footage
Dave has already dismissed that notion as being possible at the moment.
“Her shield does form centred on her, large enough to encompass her, but will adjust itself up or down a bit not to slice off anything near her, which is why Shadow Boxer there didn’t get a haircut when her shield went up.”
Yes, but he also keeps the way open by adding: “That may be a yet undiscovered option though.”
Ie: skill-tree option. Not something Sydney has now nor knows how to use.
I was thinking more like the embiggener, an in-ball option controled for some of the holo-thingies.
Anyway not that we could expect she will realize right now, I concur on that.
Something I haven’t seen mentioned here. ShadowBoxer is at the very least an opportunistic, cowardly scumbag.
He already knows Halo, and looks like he came specifically to target her for infamy and glory.
He heard that she was new and hadn’t had any training in the press conference. He’s aiming for an easy kill.
I honestly think he underestimated Sydney. The next few seconds will tell. If she can shack off the effects of that punch,
as has already been stated, she has a number of combo’s she can use against a melee opponent.
I disagree on the cowardly comment, underhanded perhaps, but cowardly no. Even without training, Sydney’s a viable target for no other reason than she was the only one who showcased a purely defensive ability capable of protecting others and a strong one at that. Taking her out could remove several offensive and defensive options that Arc-SWAT could utilize in a fight.
That doesn’t even take into account that three of her orbs are “classified.” While the villains don’t know that two of em are as such because their abilities are unknown, given the strength of her other orbs, I wouldn’t want to take the chance that utilizes them. Again, taking her out ASAP removes several variables that could otherwise cost the villains a loss, from their perspective.
He got highly lucky Halo unexpectedly put her field up around him, he could not be so calm standing at Heatwave, Dabbler and Peggy shoot range unprotected.
I fear this will not end well, for Shadow Boxer. Incidentally, It would be kind of neat to see a villains page. In the Cast files.
That would depend on who survives
Still possible, Just add Something like: currently hospitalized, or Deceased.
to go with the ‘Body-cast Files’?
Unless as some people are guessing Sydney has some sort of danger sense or instinctively can use the obrs to deflect blows, she just escaped death here by pure luck. In a realistic comic, someone without super-defenses who is hit that way could easily be killed or permanently crippled–it’s only in the comics that concussions are harmless.
Also, you have to wonder why the villains didn’t wait outside the restaurant with a sniper rifle to take out Sydney immediately.
Something else not about this page in particular: I understand why Sydney is drawn without a typical comic-book body type, but it looks strange. IN a superhero strip, the reader gets used to a baseline for “normal”, so characters with big breasts (or muscles, or large anime eyes or whatever) don’t look out of proportion, they just look normal for the setting. But if you then throw in a character who is not drawn that way, it looks weird. Sydney would look normal in a strip consisting of other people drawn like her, but stuck among typical comic book style superheroes she looks around 12 years old.
That’s the whole idea.
There was luck, yeah, but note that when she did get hit, it was partially deflected by one of her balls.
Look at the movement blurs, the PPO moved by itself to protect sydney physically and she’s been show to be able to control them as bludgeons and what not.
Either a instinctive or automatic block that could be replicated I’d wager.
Or it was heading for her hand and HE knocked it aside.
Or at least tried to, the orbs seem to be resistant to outside infuence, just like the time Maxima tried to pull them away.
Well, Sydney wanted to be a superhero & it’s one of the primary reasons she signed the contract with Archon (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/755)…This is her first real experience of the downside to being a superhero: You’re going to get hit sooner or later. Practical training is probably going to reduce how *often* she gets hit, but she hasn’t been trained yet…
You don’t understand. She’s not trapped in there with you.
You’re trapped in there with HER.
Hmm? Is that a real Harem or an “illusion” Maxima mentioned earlier? Should Halo lower her shield for Harem? Maxima ordered Halo put her shield up “and keep it up.”
Completely off topic but did anyone else love the last part of the latest Game of Thrones episode?
The only disappointing part was I didn’t get to actually see the little pricks head on a pike. Otherwise, PERFECTION! ( I think the new queen did it. )
He has to be the most hated character in the series.
I would say, given Max’s comments about the Lighthook and PPO, that Sydney will immobilize him w/ the Lighthook (which seems to work really quickly, given how fast she spelled out her store name and url to get by Arianna, and how fast she grabbed the girls for the superheroine ‘no-speaka-the-veggie’ conference) and then pound him into the floor.
Alternatively, she could grab him and drop the shield, letting Harem take him out out, but the ‘aim for the ground’ comment was too recent probably to not be the likeliest outcome. Or in a ‘oops, I forgot/panicked/raged way’, she could throw him through the wall/roof against Max’s orders. Either way, in order to get any real force behind the throw/pound, she’d have to either drop the shield or be able to move things out of the shield with the Lighthook.
Lighthook yes, Immobilize no. I am expecting her to go to her inner nerd with a streetfighter move from Ryu, using Lighthook to create the light version of a fist to do the spinning upward punch. And she won’t drop the shield, just mash him full body into it. Just keep unreeling the Light up against him and paste him to the inner edge of the force field. If his powers are darkness then by comic logic he cannot cut through light, it only works the other way round.
Also he probably thinks he can dodge attacks by warping.
He doesn’t know the shield seems to be an interdiction field for teleporters
He can still possibly *phase*, just not through the “Sphere o’ Hurt”, but that just puts him on the defensive (and the scared once he finds he can’t escape)
So not all of the bad guys are stupid. But Mr. Shadowboxer may become famous for unexpected reasons very soon. Assuming that he can’t ‘phase’ through an energy tentacle, Sydney’s best approach may be:
1. – Leave shield up to prevent escape and muffle screams.
2. – Activate Molestorb
3a. – “Hulk vs. Loki”
3b. – “Spitroast” (shudder)
3c. – Simultaneous 3a & 3b.
I found it very interesting that the Red Orb moved under it’s own volition to block what would have been a devastating punch. Hmmm.
It’s been previously demonstrated that she can control their movements. She can totally cheat at skeet ball. See also her two fights with Math.
She also boinked Dabbler’s head, back in the office during her first interview & altered their orbital paths to resemble an atomic structure with herself representing the nucleus. When she decked Math, the orb followed her fist, evidently as part of an instinctive reflex performed by the orb.
Good point.
There is a minor detail to the shield location. It has just gone through the floor. So now the question is what happens when Sidney moves the shield. Will it ignore the floor like it can let non dangerous levels of light/sound pass through or will the entire place be one step closer to the writeoff, the one max talked about 2 pages ago, by collapsing into the space below it.
Personally feel that the shield ‘moves’ through the floor, or there would be a large hole in Ari’s precious Ballroom
My unlikely prediction:
She goes hyperspastic with the PPO, messes up the Twilight wannabe, but bounces around and eventually hits Sydney.
Follow comic we learn Sydney is immune to the PPO.
On the plus side it looks like she successfully reset her surprise reflex to “grab for the shield orb” . . . For some reason I assumed the shield could pass through inert matter like walls or the floor without interacting with them. If it can’t do that it’s either terminating at the ground, or cutting through the floor.
While lots of people have commented on this one way or another, your comment specifically made me think of this demonstration of the spherical nature of Sydney’s Force Shield: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1088
Remember: the sand was flying in the air when the shield went up
I seem to recall that the fella that Sydney “judoed” by his tongue was in fact one of the supers from the team, Sydney is about to school this guy.
While Mr. A is a member of the Arc-Swat, remember that he was supposed to appear as a non-powered robber and was nowhere near prepared for someone of Sydney’s stature to react in the way she did.
And also under orders to NOT cause harm to civilians.
I mentioned long ago that he was not 100% successful in hiding his stretching power.
If she hadn’t been so jazzed-up on adrenaline she might’ve noticed that NOBODY has that long a tongue – not even Gene Simmons! It spans the WIDTH of her fist, with her fist completely outside his mouth, & with even MORE tongue to spare, on the other side of her fist!
I see 3 possibilities.
1.) Sydney is unconscious. She will drop the shield orb when her hand relaxes and Harem and Shadow Boxer will face off for a bad ass fight. Multi-teleporter vs shadow ninja would be really good.
2.) Sydney is stunned and reflexively keeps her grip on the shield orb because she is not thinking clearly. This one has a bad outcome. She can not use the PPO because it would certainly reflect and obliterate her as well. She can use the orbs to bombard Shadow Boxer but he has Ninja skills and could dodge and continue his attack. She can use the Lighthook and other commenters have described many creative ways she could use it but Shadow Boxer would just phase through it and continue his attack. She can try to fly and use aerial maneuvering but she is inexperienced and Shadow would bounce off the shield walls and attack. Unless she comes up with a creative combination that I have not thought about she would lose. Normally I would give good odds on that but not if she is stunned.
3) She is conscious and able to hear Harem. She drops the shield and Harem buys her some recovery time and then she gets a nasty creative revenge
I go with possibility 4, whatever that might be.
Possibility 4: Sydney pulls a Sydney.
My vote for Possibility#4:
Sydney extends “Lighthook”, which fills the shield until there’s no room for ShadowBoxer to move.
Not only does this keep her safe from him, but it’s possibly the most humiliating way imagine-able that she can make him *EAT* that arrogant prediction of his.
In one of the earliest of the “Sinister Six”-team-ups, Spider-Man did something similar, when trapped in a huge bowl of water with a scuba-diving Dr.Octopus. Unloading his wrist-shooters into the water to create a cloud of webbing to entangle his opponent in a helpless snarl.
OR, possibility #6? as Codebracker said earlier… what if that ISN’T Harem… meaning that the Harem we see is an illusion from some other bad guy trying to trick her into dropping the shield? then they’ll dog-pile on the other bad guys in order to take her out?
Whelp. Now it’s time for DaveB to show how fuckin’ grimdark he can get by killing Syndey off and foolin’ us all with the Decoy Protagonist. I vote Joel as Powerball Inheritor!
lol. Not gonna happen. Especially with that Intro. Oh well. One can always dream.
I think Joel would be the most likely candidate. After all, Sydney’s initial meeting with him was the first time we saw Sydney write into her “List” after turning her book upside down…
That was Leon (tech guy), not Joel (comic shop co-owner).
1) “adorkableness”- is that even in the dictionary? I think not!
2) “I’ve groused a little about the nature of the webcomic format a little before, in that the delay between pages allows people to consider each page with far more scrutiny than they would if you’re just flipping through a finished book. ” Don’t be silly. There’s always going to be those people who take their comics seriously enough to scrutinize each page regardless of what format it’s in.
3) Looks like Shadow Boxer has a bad case of VGS (Villain Gloating Syndrome). Remember, villains: always make sure they’re beaten (and will stay beaten) before you start to boast.
Kinda.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Adorkable
https://www.pinterest.com/fiercefoto/adorkableness/
As far as he is aware, she is helpless and possibly only semi-conscious
He also is not aware that this is her Flashback Origin Story
In response to your 3rd comment, it seems Shadow Boxer should be referenced to give https://www.eviloverlord.com/ a read-over…
Luckily for Do-Gooders everywhere in the Free World, this is =NOT= required reading for would-be Evil World-Conquerors.
Since when have Evil World-Conquerors ever followed the RULES?