Grrl Power #252 – A mighty blow… to the ego
I know Vehemence said he hopes Sydney survives the night, but that doesn’t mean he won’t flick her in the temple if he manages to get through her shield. She did kind of make him look foolish just now. I guess she forgot Maxima’s “don’t totally piss of the supervillain” advice from a few pages ago, but hey I guess she figured with her shield, why not tank the guy for a while?
It’s difficult for people to see you as a threatening arch-villain if you face plant in the first 2 seconds of the fight. I don’t know why that doesn’t happen to more villains. I mean, sure, Doctor Doom probably has gyro stabilizers in his armor, and Thanos can… well, control time – so he can just pop back to before it happened I guess, but the Flash could trip everyone, or take off their dirty sock and stuff it in their mouth mid-monologue. If I wrote the Flash comic, it would be a very different book.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey. I’ll make a permanent link for those somewhere on the page eventually.
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Sidney’s bruise disappeared again.
Yeah it has been missing for a few pages now. Either Dave isn’t bothering with it or something happened when she dropped her shield that healed it.
one of the unknown orbs does it automatically if she doesn’t hold 2 already?
Remote healing perhaps… Just need to speed up the natural healing a bit… could even be a side effect from treatment of the noodle incident…
(2 pages ago the bruese was still there.)
Pretty sure it is just art derp. Lots of details.
Secret power of the mystery balls explained:
Ball 6: healie: heals any wound the ball-holder has.
Ball 7: memorum: make the artist forget there ever was a wound.
I keep forgetting it. It’s added back in now if you CTRL+F5
Figured.
Wow, it’s actually kinda nasty to refresh the page and see her face go from clean to bruised and bloody like that O_o
Maybe that’s why he keeps subconsciously forgetting it. ;)
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R or Ctrl/Cmd clicking the browser’s refresh works as well. In fact Alt+F5 seems to be non-functional on some PC laptops and MIA in OS X.
You also forgot to get around to adding the bruise back in on the last posted comic (which has a nice close up shot of Sydney playing with her “Light Saber”).
SLAPSTICK
I don’t know how you picked it, but it’s perfect
A perfect 10 for the nose plant. Time to hit him when he’s totally distracted.
I give it a 9.2, due to the lack of arms flailing like a windmill and no “stick” with perfectly symmetrical body form on the landing.
But the Russian judge only gave it a 7, so I don’t feel so bad.
Cracks in Sydney’s shield! I wonder if that ever happened when Maxima was testing it? I know Maxima was taking it easy on the raw recruit, but she did test it on several levels of “embigining”, and perhaps with several levels of power in her blasts.
Here’s where Sydney should do what Vektor should have done with his TK, and just dangle Vehemence by an ankle using the Lighthook. We know he’s not immune to it since it managed to trip him so very easily. And a lack of traction is a quick and easy way to neutralize almost all of the powers of Yea Olde Typical Brick. While he might be able to pry it off, that still takes time, and Sydney can just grab him again. So while he and Sydney are trading actions that leaves the rest of the team free to act unopposed.
Those aren’t cracks on the shield though. Those same patterns appeared when maxim was punching it in the board room originally.
Actually, looking at him, it’s probably not all that hard to trip him, as long as he’s not expecting it. I mean seriously – look at him. Those biceps are almost bigger around than his waist! That dude is so overwhelmingly top-heavy, that any attempt to overbalance him that he’s not expecting won’t need a whole lot of force behind it to work.
Well, she just went from cute and adorkable (to him) to potentially annoying twit.
Also, is it me or does it seem his rational side is taking a very quick back seat? Something about him seems … off, like the hamsters are off eating tacos and enjoying some of the local beers while the body is still trying to maul things.
While he was definitely threatening and menacing in the last comic, it seems from the second panel on he’s went into a full psychotic rage. Which could also explain his comment about hoping she didn’t die. He’s aware that once he goes full power, there goes any shreds of sanity for a time.
It’s just a theory of mine, but something about how he started the attack comes off as being almost crazy in a way. And yes, I mean beyond the crazy of wanting to hurt people. We’re talking hurt people and play basketball with their heads while listening to an invisible audience crazy. They don’t necessarily have to be dead at that point either.
To quote Kenpachi “Sanity? Sorry, but I don’t remember having such a useless thing in the first place.”
“Well, she just went from cute and adorkable (to him) to potentially annoying twit.”
Only “potentially?” Somehow, I seem to have misplaced my link to DaveB’s graphic of the “Mater of Understatement” plaque. I’d post it here if I could find it again.
Her orders are technically to pull aggro. She does it well.
Midnight, I was trying to be polite and show some courtesy … then again, we’re talking about Sydney who likes stuff so hot its considered a biohazard to some. That and she tried to hold the balls with her butt.
This might be a good place to insert some witty remark about the “mental image” you mentioned in your last sentence, but Dave already gave us the *actual* image, so….
For some reason this comment got me to write a little scenario. Now everything Grrl Power was created by and is owned by David Barrack. I’m just writing this for fun, and hoping he doesn’t mind me playing a bit with it. So this is not approved by David.B, it’s not canon, and it’s just a fun little story.
Note that some may consider this story NSFW, but there is nothing explicit in it, and it’s up to the readers to add their own imaginary imagery. If the idea of this makes you uncomfortable then do not read the story posted below. I honestly don’t think it’s any more “raunchy” than what’s already been published in the comic, but that’s just the opinion of one, and that one is probably a bit biased too…
Well for those brave enough to go on the story starts in 3
2
1
A briefing room at ArcSWAT HQ. All the current operatives, cadets, trainees, advisers as well as most of the military and civilian support personnel are in attendance.
It’s been a week since their first big fight and everybody who were involved has been debriefed individually. Now they are having a meeting to discuss the fight, individual performance and how to improve teamwork and skill utilization.
“And so we come to Sydney. I heard that you acquired two new, skill points I think you called them.” General Faulk says to Sydney.
“Yay, I totally rocked generalissimo dude!”
“Well I guess that’s one way to see it. Any way Dabbler has provided this illustration of what she called your skill tree.” The general points to a wall screen now showing a diagram. “Have you thought any about how you are going to use those skill points?”
Sydney jumps to her feet and stands at attention, or at lest some kind of pose that might be interpreted as at attention. She performs an elaborate salute, it’s probably something she’s seen in an anime. “Way ahead of you general pops dude man! It’s all done and done man dude pops general!”
“Sydney as you’re still a civilian you don’t have to salute me or stand at attention. You can also address me by my name.”
She uses the flight orb to perform a soft landing in the chair and kicks her feet up placing them on the back of the chair in front of her. “Gotcha mate!”
The General glances over at Maxima. She looks back at him and shrugs, but the big grin on her face makes it obvious she’s taking a great deal of pleasure in seeing someone else standing in front of the Sydney Scoville ADD-ADHD train.
“It is your power, and you are the one who will have to choose how to develop you skills, but in the future you may want to take some time discussing things with someone.” the General leans slightly forward putting some weight on his elbows. “As you learned last time, once you’ve assigned a point it’s final, you can’t take it back.”
“Yo dog, I’m down with dat. I’m so down with it dat I already did it. I got dis discussion thing going with no less dan five dawgs!” Sydney waves her hand, fingers splayed wide.
The General feels his left eyebrow starting to twitch. He glances at Max, again it seems she’s pleased to see him struggle.
“So who did you talk to? Dabbler and?” he asks.
“Nope, Harem!”
“It was me!” “and me” “me” “me too” “and I” Harem is waiving her hands enthusiastically.
A loud slap is heard. It’s the sound of Max doing a facepalm. The general looks down for a moment, slowly shaking his head as he tries to compose his features.
“Yea, we did it FOR SCIENCE!” Sydney shouts that last part standing in a heroic pose, one foot on the backrest in front of her, left hand on her hip and the right arm raised, pointing up at a point somewhere behind the General.
Having got his stone face in place again the General tries to regain control of the situation. “So, what did you learn from this science?”
“Well I started with putting the points into the Molestorb” Sydney says while trying to point at the orb mentioned as it is circling her and apparently trying to stay away from her finger.
“No” Maxima says forcefully.
“Hentorb?” Sydney counters while trying to sneak up on the reluctant orb.
“No! And no, the Violator is still on the no go list. We’ve had this discussion before Sydney.”
“For the sake of safety WE WILL NOT be naming the orb right now.” The General states. “So Sydney, did you observe any change in how the orb works?”
“Well I assigned the first point to the single level branch up top left.” Sydney points to the skill tree, indicating a lone circle connected to the pseudo pod orb by a pair of parallel lines. Suddenly she grabs the fly orb and launches herself through the air aiming for the orb that’s so far been successfully avoiding her. Apparently the change of tactics surprised the orb and she manages to catch it. “Now before this all I could do was call forth a tentacle like this.” A tentacle picks up one of Harem, chair and all. “Well let’s just say that’s so last week. Now hold my beer and watch this!” She grabs the orb with both hands and suddenly nine new tentacles join the first, four of them picking up the remaining Harems, and the remaining five wrapping themselves tightly around each girl effectively tying them to the chairs now floating in the air. “I present to you, the DominatOrb!”
“No!” Maxima shouts. “Eh.. Well… Sorry, force of habit. Actually it might not be a bad name. I’m amazed. And yes that, is a cool power!”
“You’re telling me that assigning one point multiplied this power by ten?” General Faulk clasps his hands in front of him on the table. “Do you have any idea how scary that is? And there was yet another skill point still unassigned?”
“Yep, oh yes and you’ve got it in one o mighty one! Well there were some trade-offs with this. I get five tentacles for each hand, sort of kind of like corresponding to the fingers, I guess. And controlling all ten independently is HARD WORK, so don’t ask me to juggle eggs. Neither are they as strong as a single tentacle. Carrying Harem like this is right at the limit, at least for now. At her current strength she can’t break loose, but she can still use her teleportation to escape.”
“Still a very cool power and quite a bit more drastic a power up than I’d have thought possible.” Max injects. “But what about the remaining skill point?”
“I kind of winged it and put one more point in the lower right path here.” she points to the second circle in a path that’s five circles long and immediately one of Harem starts to fall. Some quick maneuvering which has an obviously distracted Harem being bounced all over the room finally results in all five of her bobbing like balloons on a string as Sydney moves around the room. “As the first level was already marked this brings it up to a total of two points.”
“Well?”
“At first it didn’t seem to do anything, but then Harem discovered something interesting, and then we spent a lot of time learning how to use it effectively.”
“And?”
A grin spreads across Sydneys face. It’s a grin that Maxima has learned to mean that Syd is in the madness place, the ADD has reared it’s head and just about anything can happen. A groan comes from the Harem collective as Sydney says “Well Daphne, how about you being a good girl and answer the Lieutenant Colonel?”
“Oh” “yes” “I mean yes” “Sydney” “I” Daphnes voice seems to bounce from one body to another “so close” “concentrate…” “yes, simple” “power” “Yes!” “new, power…” “they… they…” “VIIIBRRRAAATE!” she screams with the collective voice of all that’s Harem.
For a while the room is silent but for the whimpering of Daphne and the sound of Sydney trying her best at the Evil Overlord laugh. Eventually she overdoes it and her violent coughing breaks the spell.
The slapping sound is Maxima doing another facepalm, this time it’s a double…
“This new power has to be thoroughly studied and investigated, and my unique heritage makes me the obvious choice for this!” Dabbler is probably not even conscious that she’s got the succubus glamor cranked to eleven.
“First Lieutenant Kessler, volunteering as test subject!” Peggy is standing rigid at attention.
A deep groan is followed by a dull thud.
“At Ease!” Genreal Faulk barks. “As I see no way to save this meeting you are now all dismissed! Leon, add one point to both Sydney and Harem, that’s for both vs Max and vs Math.”
“Sir?”
“You running the stats is the worst kept secret around here, and you know they both scored this time, both times, you get it.”
“Yes Sir, consider it done.”
“Oh and Leon, call medical and have them send someone with a gurney for Math. The way he’s drooling on the carpet I think they broke him bad. That’s the second time Miss Scoville has knocked him out. And this time she didn’t even have to connect.”
Sydney 1, Vehemence Rage.
Wonder what the final tally will be.
Well that does show how strong the Lighthook actually is.
We know that Vehemence is supernaturally strong, presumably VERY strong even for those standards. Even reasonably strong ropes would have probably snapped without him even noticing
It must be very strong since he took an exploding car to the head and didn’t budge. But maybe his secret weakness is Stooge-fu.
The car was mostly angled downwards which might have helped. He’s a show off so he did his best, which turned out to be pretty darn best, to take it without showing signs of being hit. Perhaps like Maxima his powers also benefit from seeing it coming (or sensing it… Some of Sydney’s stuff seems to be hard to detect outside of actually just LOOKING right at it for some reason).
Nobody is immune to the injury inflicted by the ultimate weapon…The Slapstick.
I shield myself with Deadpan!
Deadpan is good, but it only covers your facial expressions.
I counter with a spray bottle of seltzer down your pants.
I suck it up with “Dry Wit”.
You miss the moisture with your “humor sponge,” because I tossed a banana peel under you feet. Arms that are windmilling around aren’t very dexterous.
I side step between the pair of you holding a pane of glass and twist sideways yelling “you say something kent”. then walk on showing no sign of noticing two people laying flat unconscious nearby.
That twist was so transparent…
But it also looks like we’ve just been caught napping.
That is the wonder of leverage and conservation of momentum, well, at least until he broke the pavement with his face.
I notice her shield is cracking already. Better hope some of that teamwork comes your way, Sydney.
Nah, that’s what it always looks like when being stressed. That’s just the patern of the shield
It’s the beehive barrier effect. The glowing tile pattern just shows when its working.
It’s the beehive barrier effect. The glowing tile pattern just shows when it’s working.
YOING’S and away!
His reputation just dropped into FWTDT territory. I’d love to see the grin on Max’s face.
He recovered and without gaining a muppet face so he’s still doing better. And his pupils disappeared which is just disturbing.
His pupils were gone in panel two when he started his charge.
RE: Flash tripping people. You already have a super speed guy in your universe. Go nuts!
He has Maxima too. But Max doesn’t want to steal the whole show yet.
I believe Flash (the Flashs I know) wouldn’t do that. They are too serious.
The flash I know is a bit of a prankster and likes the ladies. If it were a competition for a lady, I’d expect something to happen.
“slapstick” is the best sound effect ever.
“Slapstick” is a primitive sound effect for the stage. It literally is a stick that makes a loud slapping noise when struck against an object.
Rather ironic how it evolved, during the silent movie era, to meaning comedic antics. Hence being a very clever ‘silent’ sound effect to use here.
Do mimes scream in space?
They do if you torture them right.
What happens if you torture them wrong? Better yet, is there a wrong way to torture mimes?
Well a good way to do it is to ask them what their favourite movie is and shutting your eyes.
Toss them out an airlock and the air rushing out of their lungs would make a sound when it passed through the vocal cords. The mime would be the only one to hear it (bone conduction) and it would not last long.
The Molestaorb can make anyone scream.
And still in use in live theater! I had to build a slapstick the other day.
Kid Sensation’s favorite trick againts speedsters is to trip them with telekinesis.
Johnny Saturn did the tripping trick as well, and he has no powers.
My working hypothesis on speedsters is that, at least for most of them, their perceptions/reactions don’t quite keep up with their physical acceleration. (Because chemistry, or other handwavium.) As a result, no matter what speed they’re going, they’re operating sort of like a regular (or slightly clumsy) Joe running at a dead sprint. It’s easy to overlook things or trip over stuff while doing that, even stationary objects, let alone deliberate attempts to trip you.
Of course, trip-by-TK would be hard to avoid, regardless, but this would account for speedsters falling to visible attempts to trip them.
Geeh, I could so see him as a character roleplayed by one of my friends… his trademark move was rolling a fumble during the first round of attack, knocking himself unconscious and out of the battle for the first 1d6 rounds, coming back around to pick up the fight while the others were halfway through it :D
That… sounds like something that you could work with, actually.
Only if the fight lasts for more than 1d6 rounds, though.
Wil Rem announces “Flying Kick!” Entire party drops prone as one. Wil misses his target as always, and sails into the dark screaming profanity. Entire party rises to their feet and gleefully takes a surprise round from behind, as the opponents are now facing the direction of the screaming martial artist and busy going ” WTF?”
He once spent an entire fight inverted and fighting only with his hands, as the opening Flying Kick left him wedged to his waist in the roof of the attic we were in.
He was REMARKABLY consistent; his Flying Kick NEVER hit the intended target (most dependable rolling of 1’s I’ve ever seen).
You have no idea how absolutely awesome that sounds.
“When life gives you 1’s, distract the enemies with your failures.”
You just described the Jack Burton character in Big Trouble in Little China.
You can see it in the movie trailer on YouTube….Jack gets all excited at the start of the fight and fires his gun at the ceiling. The bullets knock some rocks loose which knock Jack out.
One of my top ten favorite movies.
If DaveB wrote the flash comic, I would buy it….
Any comic Dave wrote, I would buy. But no editor would let him near their stable of stars. No one could follow him out of the ghetto of “that’s not how we write him”.
I got a way!
ahem…
“WHAT IF DEADPOOL stole the powers of the MARVEL UNIVERSE?”
Well he still wouldn’t have Flash’s power.
no, but he would have Quicksilver
Quicksilver is nth times betterer than The Flasher, Pietr doesn’t have to rely on some bollocks-sniffing ‘Speed Force’, or stick his johnson in a lightswitch
Nooo ….
Dave B writing Deadpool.
I don’t think our minds could take the insanity. And come on, Deadpool, is there a way to write him Wrong?
Yeah, write him ‘sane’
I think I remember reading a comic like that. Deadpool vs. the Zombies or something like that.
There is one thing to be careful of. If you bought an issue you couldn’t read it on an iPad. It doesn’t support Flash.
Not to mention considering the legal aspects of flashing. I think an age gate would be mandatory.
Even worse would be the genetic combination of the Flash from DC & Jamie Madrox from Marvel…Instant Flash Mob.
Provide a titillating subject of discussion and you get an instant mass debate.
Oh wow. I know it’s a thing in this comic, but Vehemence’s body looks rather ridiculously disproportioned (esp. in panel 1). He did look huge in clothes too, but not oddly. But now without clothes… his head looks tiny and his arms compared to his waist… Or is it an artistic choice?
I know unrequited art critique from laypeople is not the greatest thing so I usually don’t do it. But this one looks a bit too much. Though maybe it’s just me.
The page itself is cool though.
I think it’s the muscles and just how big they are. When he was wearing his shirt he looked big, but normal. Now he’s got more muscles than The Hulk, it makes him look even bigger. Unless he can get bigger.
…Maybe he’s their version of The Hulk, only instead of being a small scrawny dude when calm he’s a big macho badass.
Sooo…Vehemence is like a Saiyan? His eyes changed, but it’s hard to be sure without hair to go blond. I wonder what his powerlevel is.
INB4 nine thousand comment…
on a related note, eyes “changing” is simply an artistic way of saying enraged, or very angry at least…
Personally, I think he’s bulking up ’cause he’s ‘Roid Raging. The breadth of the shoulders and the neck is fine, but the deltoids themselves have bulked out quite a bit It’s also mostly the arm on the left side of panel 1, which also has a perspective thing going on, where his forearm and hand (offscreen, admittedly) looks like it’s all closer to the viewer than the rest of his body, so we’re seeing some foreshortening/broadening effects. Maybe he has a Bane-like power where he grows stronger at will? (Yeah, yeah, Bane relies on his drug cocktail, but it’s still technically at will, physical button versus mental button, instead of constantly hulked out.)
Notice his eyes are now all blunked out, so he’s probably doing the equivalent of “hulking out”. The glowy tattoos probably have something to do with it, since they also cover his eyes (via the eyelids).
I haven’t heard the term “blunked out” in a dog’s age. Pogo fan? :D
oh, yeah,from waaaaay back. I just started to learn to read, and my Dad was a huge fan, so I caught Okefenokee fever right away. Ol’ Walt was still alive then, and I got to read Pogo in one of the Detroit papers every day after Dad was done. And of course I bought all the collections, every single one. I remember “blunked out” when Beauregard and Howland were recreating “Lulu Arf ‘n Nonnie.” They remarked about how hard it was to see with your eyeballs all blunked out. Wonder if Vehemence gets around that…
I was only two or three when he passed away, but my mom had several of the collections. Including the one with that sequence. :)
Glew I think its mostly just the muscles throwing your prespective off and mine honestly. But I went back to other pages with him and did a quick measure of his arms to waist and head to waist and it seems his arms seems to have gotten a little bigger but not nearly as much as you think they did. His arms width were always a bit more then half his waists width. As for his head that you think is small its not head to shoulder ratio is about the same. An example look up bruce lee in a suit his waist looks much smaller with his shirt off but it just a trick in prespective or better yet look up a arnold schwarzenegger in a suit it makes a difference.
Yeah, it’s probably that.
One way of making a drawn character seem larger is to make the head smaller. It’s one of the tools in an artist’s repertoire.
Yeah, I’m learning as I’m drawing subsequent pages that I kind of have trouble keeping the proportions of the hugely muscular in check. He changes height and muscle mass a little bit over the next few pages just cause of my own inconsistency. That first panel on this page is a bit much though. Oh well, I’m learning as I go.
So it’s not intended that he’s 2 feet taller and broader across the shoulders than he was while just standing and talking to Sidney? I’d just assumed he was sorta “Hulking out”! Which would explain losing the upper clothing (it would have bound oddly).
Well, bad guys do get a bit of a size bonus to make them seem more threatening.
Having him beef up when in combat mode is perfectly fair. Helps separate him visually from the other meat mountains that showed up for the fight.
The day you stop learning is the day you die.
And we shall morn your passing.
*sigh* Real life stories.
I sure hope he didn’t tear that suit. That was a nice suit – and nice suits are expensive.
Sorry, he clearly tore that suit. There’s even an appropriately onomatopoeic sound-effect attached.
…I’m with you, though; that was a nice suit. *Sigh*
The suit was already ruined anyway from cadillac impact related explosions.
My biggest concern is what the suit was made of, that allowed it to survive a cadillac exploding.
A suit like that could be great for normal use.
I was guessing it was protected by extension of his invulnerability… however, said extention clearly didn’t extend all the way to the brim of his hat.
Nor to the rest of the suit, really… Dave mentions that the last panel on page 250 is wrong; the suit has a large hole to the skin at the left shoulder in panels 6 and 9.
There was some visible damage – from the pattern I’d basically assumed the Cadillac mostly exploded behind him, and almost none of the damage was visible from the front. (But that we had a repeat of this scene.)
And Sidney still hasn’t learned that you only get to be smug AFTER the fight.
Noting that Vehemence was making the same mistake. At least until the faceplant.
I think Sydney needs a humility training montage, from a master. Such as myself.
I think being “trained” by Math, wearing cutesy outfits would probably be more interesting. For the readers anyway. Of course she’d probably survive and end up becoming an adorkable “ninja” with power balls.
I’m thinking Sydney actually likes the view if the shape of the lighthook in panel five is any indicator.
Well, shirtless guys with nice abs are one of her weaknesses. link
Nah, she’s commenting on the power of friendship to overcome all obstacles.
If Sydney beats him, will she get her cutie mark?
(If such a thing were possible, any speculations of what her design might be?)
the 6 halorbs, possibly circling a platter of super spicy food?
It would be a pepper bee, of course.
“We sting your eyes!”
She’s a magical girl?
So one of the unknown orbs summons her outfit transformation and the other one her talking animal advisor?
That
actually makes sense…..
But only after she levels up in those orbs, so not likely to see soon in this comic.
I think you lie down for a few minutes. Or drop your shield and let some oxygen in.
I wonder if she can open part(s) of the shield while maintaining some sort of barrier towards whatever threat she’s facing.
This makes me wonder if she can do a shield within a shield. She could capture someone within the shield and still be protected at the same time,kind of like making a shield sandwich of the bad guy. Or use the double shield method as a secure air exchanger . While still having a close proximity shield on, throw up the big shield, then drop the small shield and put it up again before dropping the big shield. Of course, this is all speculation.
Both of these sound like good upgrades for when she levels up sometime in the future.
That interlocking pattern might be a clue that partial shields could be in the upgrade list.
In my minds eye….
The shield works as 1% illusion and 99% translocation: while up, a solid metal sphere occupies her location and she occupies a hole in a huge block of metal someplace else, where that metal sphere came from. Illusion swamlessly handles the look of being unmoved, and the move provides perfect safety a d immunity to any teleporter that believes the illusion.
He is near enough for Sydneys breathweapon
Yea, but it’s been awhile since she ate anything hot. So it’s not charged
And the shield is airtight. He would have to be in the shield with her for that to work. Her breath didn’t bother Shadowboxer when he got inside her shield (here), so it seems harmless until she gets a new dose of thai food.
Wonder if that anti-material rifle will ‘solve anymore problems’ where this guy is concerned…
But Peggy only has an anti-personnel rifle.
And that one was already at Harem’s limit.
A Barret .50BMG of whatever model is an anti-material rifle, not an anti-personnel rifle. Not the heaviest anti-material rifle out there, true, but it most assuredly is quite good at its job.
As far as it putting Vehemence down, I doubt it – he took a car, engine block first, on his shoulder without budging, that then exploded, and only suffered a moderate amount of clothing damage. And, more to the point, he clearly believes he’s tough enough to take on the team, and while he may have an ego problem, he also appears to have rationally assessed the strengths of the team. He’s doubtlessly on the tougher end of the super-durability spectrum.
I doubt Peggy will be able to do that much to him; special ammo with careful shot placement might be able to disrupt him somewhat, but is unlikely to be decisive, or even a significant factor (for one, he’s probably going to be too close to/mixed in with the rest of the team most of the time, making a clear shot unlikely.
When I read ‘anti-material rifle’ I actually though it said ‘anti-matter rifle’. NOW THAT WOULD BE COOL.
Check with Jiggawatt. She was throwing positrons a while back.
Naa, although she has been using it in an anti-personnel role, the weapon is actually one designed to disable vehicles, aircraft and lightly armoured assets like surface to air missiles. It just happens that tough supers fall more into that bracket than the squishy human one.
Right, I forgot the caliber got mentioned.
Obligatory nitpick: Peggy shot a shinai, that’s an anti-material role. ;-P
To return the grooming, I should point out that disarming a person is an anti-personnel role. But otherwise accepting your insect removing attention.
*offers a worming tablet, if required*
Yet more evidence of what a good idea Maxima’s order to Sydney to keep her shield up was….
Only problem is that it makes her so arrogant that she taunts powerful enemies when in it. If he gets pissed enough to keep an eye on her till she has to let the shield down to breath…. (I mean a brief look round the net suggest she should have an hour at least even in a little shield like that but then she started getting woozy after so many rounds of this fight which seemed less than an hour so she must be excitedly burning through it. {or the net is wrong. Gasp!}) I’m thinking he won’t actually be able to break through it though maybe it will show enough signs of fatigue to finally freak Sydney into wake-up call land.
Panels #1 and 2:
“Stern? I’ll KILL him!”
Yup.
paging Hanover Fist!
Great Heavy Metal references!
“Hangings too good for him, burnings too good! He should be torn to itty-bitty pieces and buried alive!”
You forgot the previous part: “He’s nothing but a low-down, back-stabbing, larcenous, perverted worm!”
…THEN comes your line…
True. But to really do it right you need the entirety of Hanover’s monologue. It’s on YouTube of course.
That’s nothing compared to Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, known as ‘The Rat’.
Thank you. Nothing like the classics.
Wa, wa, wa,
wan, wan, wan, wan
Wa, wa, wa,
wan, wan, wan, wan
chung, chung, chung
Instrumental songs are so hard to get the words right to. =OP
Sydney could take that forcehook and wrap it around his throat nice and tight. Four or five minutes of that and Vehemence will quiet down; a metabolism like that is going to burn a lot of oxygen. To semi-quote from Robert Heinlein’s GLORY ROAD: “I don’t care if his metabolism runs on kerosene… cutting off the air is going to slow him down.”
Provided that his throat coud get compressed by anything. I mean, would that work on Achilles?
Tripping someone might be easier.
Wait a minute…what if Sydney uses the ‘hook to hold him upside down by his feet? Are there any biological, ground-based supers who are immune to “bloodrush to the head”?
Just had to say it.
This is our first chance to see how the light hooks super strength measures up since Maxima didn’t have time to test it. So it could go either way.
But we won’t get far judging things by Achilles who dumped everything and then some into defense!
On second thought, y’all are right. Forget grabbing him by the throat. Grab him by the ‘nads and hold him eight feet off the ground for a while. You can twirl him around if he stays feisty. Maybe they won’t compress, but if there’s any give at all, he’s going to go from wolf to puppy after a few minutes. And he can be a pinata for everybody else while he’s up there too.
Well, shirtless guys with nice abs are one of her weaknesses. link
Yes! Someone remembered that! *highfives*
This was meant as a comment to LordViking. Reposted there.
What I don’t get is Sydney’s first comment: “What are you, an old Italian man?”
Maybe it is some kind of pop-culture reference and we non-USians don’t get? Or something to do with the English language?
Can somebody explain it to me? (especially because I am translating the strip into Spanish, and I want to do a *good* translation :) )
Might be a Stallone reference.
That’s a reference to taking his shirt off to fight.
Yeah, I don’t know why I picked on old Italian guys especially, I can just recall several videos where two guys get into an argument over something and one of the whips his shirt off like it’s a well practiced move then starts in with the fisticuffs. I guess they could have been old Russian dudes for all I know, but I felt the reference would make sense to enough people.
You might expect to get some “Why so racist?” comments after a remark like that targeted at one ethnic group or another, but that doesn’t mean that whipping off the shirt isn’t a time honored fighting maneuver. I recall a time in high school when one of the football team hit his rage limit for one reason or another. He reached a hand behind his neck, grabbed the collar of his dress shirt (it was a football game day, all the team had to wear a dress shirt and tie) and ripped his shirt right off. Not as clean as Vehemence, but still impressive.
And also, this video.
I would have expected a Fist of the North Star reference.
Good Lord. Everyone has left out the God of torn shirts. Doc Savage as drawn by Frank Bama.
A reference to “Hulk” Hogan, the professional wrestler who constantly tore off his shirts before going into a match, or at celebrity events where he’s wowing the audience.
Lou Ferrigno, aka the hulk half of the original The Incredible Hulk TV series from the… Oh god, the 70’s. Jeeze, I didn’t realize it was that old.
Do you still think of the 90’s when someone says ’10 years ago…’ too?
I know I do.
I can remember waking up one morning and finding we were unexpectedly at war. And yet, next year, most of the population will be too young to even remember the
Falklands war
.
Falklands, Grenada, Panama, and some I probably don’t remember.
I loved the cameo of Ferrigno in the second(?) Hulk movie. Even though he was a security guard who was played by Banner to get access to some files, it was classic. And Ferrigno still has the physique of the Hulk, in his 60s!
And remember, there were no special effects for his physique in the Hulk TV series. Just some green body paint and the rest was all nature and hard work.
And drugs, don’t forget the drugs.
Just don’t fuck up the translation tipping what you feel like.
Is that a scar I see just under Vehemence’s right arm? Perhaps, methinks, this is a weakened spot similar to the missing scale that was the downfall of Smaug the dragon.
if you mean left for the viewer, and thus his right arm in panel 1: that looks like the shade of his armpit to me.
I think that’s just an errant abdominal muscle. Once you get to Superhero levels they tend to migrate a little to places you don’t normally get them.
Yeah, couldn’t see any scars, just acres of muscle-land
Yeah, it’s usually not a good idea to piss off someone who’s upper-body resembles a lot full of VW Beetles juggling around for parking space…
Those are intra-costals, the muscles between ribs. Most people have just enough to keep their ribs from bumping together.
Mmmm hickory intra-costal bbq.
Too bad Sydney didn’t/can’t just lift him 2 feet off the ground by the ankles and
hold him there.
He would be unable to attack.
I suppose that would require TK of a high order.
Actually I don’t know why they don’t use this against more supers. Suspend somebody 5cm from the ground with TK or gravity powers and any super without self propeling powers or range attack is done. Hulk, Brick, Speedster.. doesn’t matter. If you have nothing to push against, all your power is useless.
Recall a couple of times in the comics that this has been tried. There is still the air, and when someone like the Hulk slaps his hands together HARD, that makes for one heckuva shockwave.
Yep, and it doesn’t generally work for speedsters either, since they often can generate tornados just by waving their arms around really fast etc.
If you need to take Hulk out of a fight, it’s generally safest to chuck him off the Earth entirely. Ideally through a wormhole to somewhere a long way across the galaxy. That can’t possibly go wrong. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Hulk)
Yeah, I thought the last guy should juggle him like that using objects/rocks to knock him upwards but maybe Sydney is strong enough with the light hook. Assuming he can’t just “burst” the energy of the light hook or tear it apart temporarily.
He might be flexible enough to bend up and grab the lighthook holding him. I bet he’s strong enough to pull it loose.
His arms are almost as thick as his waist.
What.
Clearly he does not practice bowing as much as he works on his arm muscles. That’s what super physique does for you. *shudder*
A discussion of proportions and such coming from a power puff girl? Just seems wrong somehow…. XD
xDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Clap, clap, clap.
About as realistic as breastseses that are bigger than their owner’s head.
Great now you filled my head with mental images of Smeagol discussing breasts….
You’re welcome.
Sagat Vs. Lighthook.
Time to make a sleeper hold out of it.
V ain’t so tough. With those arms and shoulders, let’s see him wipe his own posterior.
Love Sydney’s critical trip maneuver.
With those arms and shoulders, after crapping, he grabs the nearest available super by the arms and legs, slings him or her between his legs and pulls them out and up behind his back. Repeat as necessary. For those “delicate moments” be sure to pick animal/monster type supers with fluffy fur– aaaaah squeezably soft.
Thinking that Sydney might discover what one or the other of her “Mystery Orbs” does very soon now.
Well, if they are space tools as some have said perhaps the one that cleans up and recycles organic waste might have reason to automatically engage soon.
or at least find out what her upgrade she got a few pages ago does.
Sydney talks about teamwork, but then doesn’t actually coordinate with her team on this action.
You can’t coordinate shenanigans of opportunity.
It seems to me that Sydney & Harem did so (to good effect) with Death Toll earlier…
Eh, she’s debuffing (tripping) and tanking. Those seem like pretty team-player moves to me.
Tank by definition starts the boss fight.
Given that I find the concept of a tank* to be weird, I think DaveB‘s portrayal of how Sydney is pulling aggro to be the most realistic portrayal of how to actually pull it off.
Calling him rude names can just be ignored. But being face planted in mid-showoff posing? Now that will piss off any megalomaniac.
* A very odd computer game concept, even if we accept it as being something real. Despite it’s prevalence in MMOLGs, there is no corresponding real world military role.
Even a literal tank’s purpose is not to draw fire, but to protect the crew and weapons, so that the vehicle can operate offensively. You do not see a tank commander leaning out of his hatch and shouting out “shoot at this tank, not at those infantry, out in the open, next to us!”
It’s not such an odd concept, when you consider that the characters designated as tanks are specifically those who can take the pounding which would make paste out of the DPS and healing characters. And they typically have specific abilities which either force the opponents to focus their attention on the tanks, or take advantage of a “hate” mechanic which forces the enemy to focus on the most hated opponents.
And the analogy isn’t terribly off, either. Every machine gun round that a panicked opponent fires at a tank is one less round being fired at those much more vulnerable soldiers advancing with the tank. And just as in most/all MMORPGs, the tanks need those more squishy support units to advance with them so that they are less likely to get taken out by the weapons which can harm them and are capable of being fired from places which a tank either can’t go or can’t see or react to very well.
Your comments are valid, but the key point is that there is no person with such a role in a military unit. You do have heavy weapons specialists who correspond to blasters. Likewise you have medics who cover the healing role, albeit just patching wounds rather than miracle curing. But you do not have a guy who can soak up bullets being shot at him. At least not one who is any more likely to survive than the soldier next to him.
Your other counter-arguments just show how a weakness in the gaming system (not being able to figure out when characters are providing cover to incoming fire) has evolved into an arbitrary work-around mechanic, which is broadly accepted as normal. Which you arguing the case helps to support, rather than dispel.
But look at the powers to see how odd it is. You need to have both phenomenal defences and some means of forcing the enemy to concentrate their attacks on that individual. All packaged neatly into the same individual. Rather a convenient package of distinctly unrelated capabilities. Yet there seem to be an awful lot of individuals with that strange combination of powers.
As I say, weird.
“But you do not have a guy who can soak up bullets being shot at him. At least not one who is any more likely to survive than the soldier next to him.”
Well, yeah, but those troops are referred to as either “expendable” or “cannon fodder.” They may not do well as a super-powered “tank,” but they fulfill the purpose of “pulling aggro” quite nicely.
I actually think the main reason there’s no real-world equivalent is that there’s no perfect real-world healing. A Tank has to heal between (or during) battles because it’s absorbed so much damage – and there’s no way to do that and return to your original specs in the real world. You always end up at least a bit more damaged every time.
That said, I do think the Tank role gets used in the real-world quite a bit. ‘Draw their fire’ is a common concept, and often used to set up ambushes, flanking, etc. It’s just not limited to a specific unit type – it’s whomever’s best able to protect themselves while looking like an attractive target at the time. (Or whomever can’t get to the ambush/flank in time to complete the trap. Etc.)
Which leads to the other problem for that unit type in real life: A unit that can absorb lots of damage but may not be the best damage dealer on the battlefield when approaching an intelligent enemy gets ignored in favor of the units that can’t absorb lots of damage. If you are facing a tank and a mobile howitzer you take out the howitzer if you can – it’s easier and you’ll have less opponents to worry about when you are done.
The concept of the tank is actually medevil in nature, a.k.a. the knight.
He was the big bad as on the field of battle and needed to be taken down quickly .
And before weapons adapted it took a group to do that due to his armour.
I have no problem with a unit, which has both strong weapons and defences. Bear in mind that the knight and modern tank are both classed as armoured cavalry. So they have the additional threat of mobility, to add into the mix, which makes them a genuine high priority target, due to their threat potential.
That is a historical feature and will remain a feature of warfare as long as hairless apes choose to keep killing one another. All that happens is sometimes the weapons make the armour obsolete for a while, and other times the armour gets strong enough that the weapons become less effective.
My only issue is with the odd concept of someone who is super tough, does not have any particular threat capability or useful function on the battlefield (such as healing), yet somehow manages to force all enemies to attack him, rather than his dangerous allies.
Actually the knight should be classes as multi-use as they were equally dangerous on horse back and on foot
[…] the key point is that there is no person with such a role in a military unit.
I beg to differ. You have Achilles, Maxima, and Sydney, at the very least, with Mr. Amorphous and Stalwart as suitable off-tanks. ARC-SWAT is a military unit, after all.
Oh, you meant in real life? Bah, I have no time to ponder how that crazy universe works. :-P
Hmmm, the cite tag just makes things italics. That’s not terribly handy if I have to provide both the tag and the quotation marks.
===
TEST of q cite=””
END TEST
===
Ok, that does provide the quotation marks. But it doesn’t attribute the author, which I tried to do by entering “Fred said something” within the quotes provided in the tag.
“This is a test of the q cite tag . Oberon, in cooperation with this website, has developed this test to keep you informed in the event of an emergency.”
And I thought the thing that Fred said was “Right”.
In the real world the tank would get between the enemy and the artillery or asset to be protected. In the game world with small amounts of players they have yet to make this type of blocking possible for most games (the enemy can often just phase right through you harmlessly to attack those with aggro) so to simulate this type of shielding of squishy assets the tanks in games are given the ability to gather more aggro than the heavy damage dealing and healing units if they do it right. In the real world without stupid game physics you would just block the enemies route and attack as many of them as hard as you could while those in the back prepare to rain fire on them or whatever I guess.
Enemies who can be easily pissed off or taunted would be the one area where the two realms real/game overlap a little. XD
Sure they do… Just not verbally.
When a tank starts shelling you, the infantry grunts immediate become of secondary interest — until one of them throws a grenade… At which point, if you have no grenades, you go take some away from them so you can deal with the tank better.
So, if Juggernaut and Hulk had a kid, it would be Vehemence?
Maybe Juggernaut and She-Hulk, there are technical problems with Juggernaut and Hulk. ^_~
They could adopt, but I guess that would kinda defeat the whole point of this question.
Juggernaut gives his helmet to the adopted child after it had a radiation accident in Banners lab.
Or just fire gamma rays through the god’s gem that empowered Juggernaut in the first place? Easy peasy.
If I were Sydney I would let Vehemence tire himself out on the shield. Maxima couldn’t dent it.
Why would Mr. V be any different.
I’m not sure Max actually gave it her all. At least comparing the nuke of doom during the interview to the remains of their testing after the little skip. The problem with overcoming Sid’s shield with brute force is this. she’s an egg inside a bank vault. Not even a hardboiled egg (though on an unrelated note I do demand some hammy fedora wearing sleuthing at some point from Sid, perhaps with a silver flask full of apple juice?).
What I’m saying is that considering the scale of punishment it’s already been shown to be able to take, then if it does have an upper limit the margin of error between Sidney just fine and Sidney high energy sub-atomic meat vapor is incredibly thin.
The real issue is that they don’t know what will happen WHEN the shield IS surpassed. Namely does it provide a fixed resistance/absorption (Thus greatly diminishing any attack even if it breaks through) or does it just stop attacks up till the limit (Thus any attack past that will likely smear Sidney)? And how can/do you safely find that point and resultant effects?
Maxima obviously did not give it her all during the interview as her superiors ordered her to stop (though not before fracturing one of the windows a lil, oups!). And after the firing range test she explicitly stated that what she threw at sydney was Not at the fullest extent of her power. Naturally there’s the question of if that is the full power when she’s focusing in her blaster power as opposed to debuffing Everything to max that blaster out to the “stronger than some nukes” range.
Still, we do know that anything and everything maxima did try on sydney’s shield it held up for.. She would probably have been a lot less happy afterwards if her shield had actually broken at some point. So I guess it all comes down to is: Doth the bitch slap of doom pack more of a punch than maxima has tried on the shield thus far? If it does I expect the shockwave to deafen most of the team as his hand breaks the sound barrier a few times over.
I’td be downright ironic if it turns out the shield has some kind of really huge dayly limit on how much punishment it can take and might drop from a tossed piece of foam If its done at the end of a really long, high-kinetic kind of day. But between the effects of the grid pattern comming and going as the field gets taxed/turned on its more likely a self-regenerating effect with something like a star as a power source.
With all these events do you suppose this will trigger Sydney’s skilltree for an upgrade again?
Frankly I would be surprised if she doesn’t get at least 2 points.
1 for simple ingenuity and control of the halorbs flight patterns as demonstrated to wince-inducing effect on Shadow Boxer…
2 for range and flexibilty of use both to her shield and lighthook as she successfully denied multiple attacks on her fellow Arc members as well as keeping herself and those behind her safer from thrown weapons / various and sundry shrapnel etc.
Maxima didn’t hit it with her full strength, though. They didn’t want her to break the windows with the shockwaves. Vehemence is not likely to show the same restraint.
It withstood more than that at the news confrence, remember?
Yea, but before that, Maxima had already tested to see if the shield could take that.
And as she said here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1043
That wasn’t her best
As RobK said below in a reply to a reply to a reply (so I don’t know if you saw it) Maxima came out and said after she tested the shield with her gold beams that it wasn’t her best. So it might work but it would be a definite risk.
You know, if you put a hat, cape, and uniform on him in Panel 2 Sydney would be being attacked by M. Bison.
So Major Bison is the Avatar this incarnation? The world is DOOMED!
Sydney is right. The rest are not gonna stand around impressed by his ego. While Sydney may not be able to coordinate with them yet, they will taking their own cheap shots as chance allows. And it looks like V just made a big error, focusing on Halo just because she made him look like a clown. If he goes down from a rear attack it will serve him right.
I bet Maxima is faster. Or could be. This, of course is where her limits show. She is facing an A list super-villain and so cannot really afford to dump any stat, in order to boost another.
If her defences are too low, he can one-shot her, clearly he will be too tough to take down with just moderate super-strength and with him having super reflexes/speed himself, she will need to be as fast, or faster than him, in order to have any hope of being effective.
But can she get each of those higher than his counter-abilities, simultaneously? And that is not even counting whatever unknown powers Super Don has. I think Halo called it right, this is going to take the team, working together well. And she is doing her part, drawing the aggro and exposing his capabilities.
Unless he also has a way of shifting his powers around or focusing them differently. Then it just becomes a super deadly game of Paper, Rock, Scissors. (Speedster, Tank, Blaster?)
now is a bad time for anvil to be running on empty and V is not fool enough to charge her so hero and single body harem (danger still not super tough) could offer physical attacks to build her up or try to restrain V in addition to max
Yeah, V said he hoped Syd would survive the night, but that was before he knew how annoying she was.
okay this is the kind of guy i wouldn’t have any faith in having in a close range.
one of those like in video game you keep shooting from a distance
PP orb could be a good idea against that one…
He hasn’t shown the ability to fly. The lighthook is the perfect weapon against him. All Sydney would have to do is hold him in the air while the others pound him into submission from a distance. Unless he can somehow reel himself in on the lighthook, but that would only put him right next to Sydney’s shield. He also hasn’t shown any ranged attacks so I am pretty sure he can’t do anything to someone he can’t get to physically. He’s pretty much Juggernaut. Who in my opinion is pretty weak in the Universe he resides in.
My guess is he will rip the light hook apart or at least force it to release him if it attempts to grapple. The telekinetic in the last battle had the best chance to toss the Jug’O’Nuts clone up for an air juggle if he was strong enough but he either wasn’t or he panicked.
Just bringing attention to a new MAJOR BUG uncovered on the web. I have no idea whether this website uses the vulnerable code or not, but felt it best to mention it, given that researchers are highly concerned about how easy it is to exploit.
The link gives details on where to get partial fix solutions, until more robust ones are developed, just in case it is relevant:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29361794
It’s the PUPPY! Where you been boy? Has Timmy been stuck down a well all this time? Want a Scoville Snack? :D
Heh, just got busy with life. Making the most of the sun and living in a country with lovely golden, sandy beaches and some of the most beautiful women in the world.
The nicest thing being that super-model good looks are so common here, that they genuinely do not view themselves as being anything more special than normal. So make very good company to keep. Havn’t found one that would match up to Sydney mind, but I must not set myself unobtainable standards.
In between a whole bunch of mundane medical treatment myself and, more recently, acting as a nurse for my critically ill Jack Russell Terrier. Fortunately she has pulled through ok, so my routine is returning to normal. Although I hope for at least a couple more fun days on the beach, before being stuck in my hermitage.
My best wishes for your doggy!
Thanks. There were a couple of really fraught nights, where it looked like she might not make it. But she is well on the road to full recovery now. As perky and full of life as she used to be.
Glad to hear (read) that Puppies puppy is getting better :)
Go puppy!
Thanks for the heads up!
And welcome back! :)
Mr. Kotter, Mr. Kotter!
(Those old enough will know what I’m talking about)
Thanks but it says it affects things with Unix in their genetic make-up so I guess I’ll only be indirectly be affected (probably through DA, that poor buggy site… )
Unix underlies a lot of internet support structures. That said for Unix/Linux users just upgrading to a more recent bash shell solves the problem. For Apple users (me) we gotta wait while the boys at Cupertino fiddle around with iOS 8 first before they get back to Mac.
I love it when you come with new sound effects, case in point “SLAPSTICK”! Genius! XD
Given what we know about Sydney’s orbs, she could at least in theory just have the six besides the shield orb take up position around Vehemence’s ankle, or neck for that matter, and immobilize him regardless of the extent of his strength.
Of course, she’d have to think of that first, but given the creative ways she’s already used her mental control of the orbs’ position/movements (attacking people from multiple angles in rapid succession, partially deflecting Nega Knuckles’ Nega Knuckles), it seems reasonable to expect her to think of the immovable manacles aspect, a la using a few Immovable Rods from D&D.
The only trouble with that is the immovability seems to be at the option of the orbs, not necessarily under Sydney’s conscious control. Whilst that is not to say that your suggestion may work, it is equally possible that the immovability is strictly a safety feature, to prevent the user being separated from the orbs.
As such the feature may only be exploited as a side effect of attempting that, rather than being something she can do on demand. If you think back to the ambulance scene, the power was initially used against her, by Maxima.
In order to get her revenge, Sydney had to wait until Max tried to part her from the orbs. Which simply happened automatically. Rather than Sydney activating the power herself.
Yeah, it makes sense that their would be a limit on the absolutely immobilized thing. It would make her too strong. Question is how strong are they when she moves them around with her mind? So far they seem to only be making hits as strong as what someone with brass knuckles would make. Can they be made to accelerate and hit harder when Sydney gets better at focusing her will?
Too bad she could use the light hook in combination with her control of them to force one down his throat. The he would be tethered to her and the rest of them could spread out beyond her “tether’s” limit and take there time probing him for weaknesses and devising a strategy. (also securing the prisoners) Assuming he can’t crack Syd’s shield.
Two big problems with that: 1) getting it back out again and 2) would she want to be touching that orb again after it was shoved down his throat.
1) Super strength laxative.
2) Shoot it with the PPO then careful scans by the tech and magic departments of ARC.
Technicnicnically, Maxie wasn’t trying to part Sydney from the orbs, but use them (unsuccessfully) to pull her out from under the ambulance.
The scariest part about that is if someone as strong as Maxima can’t move them … what kind of counter-force are the balls exhibiting? I mean, logic would say that if they’re tethered to her, that moving them would move her. But the balls consider her the Center, and will not move past a certain point from her. Which means they are functioning as something like a magnet to her, one stronger than the power Maxima can put out. That’s a bit scary if you think about it. That level of energy? And they’re in the hands of a loon like Sydney?
Would you rather they be in the hands of someone like Vehemence? However much a loon Sydney may be, at least her heart seems mostly in the right place.
Sydney may act up a bit but she is self-aware and smart. She knows what she has hold of.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1219 proves that.
That’s basically one of the points I was trying to make in another comment. While she’s not perfect (then again, who of us is?), I think her critics need to remember that this is all new to her and that they should give her a chance to show whether she will become more responsible and wiser in time.
OTOH, it’s possible that Sydney (see the chin ridges in panel 8, coupled with the fact that I doubt we’ve ever seen her ears*) is actually a Skrull.
*panel 3 of the same comic doesn’t count because I refuse to let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
*ahem* Sydney (probably forgot a quotation mark in the comment above)