Grrl Power #279 – High risk reversal
A bold and risky, even potentially foolish, but obviously very effective opener to Sydney’s plan. She’s obviously banking on the fact that Vehemence doesn’t seem like a total d-bag. Besides setting up the whole thing, causing massive destruction, beating the hell out of the team and trying to kill Maxima. But in a strangely polite way for the most part. Appealing to him via the scared puppy eyes may be part of her plan, but also may be genuine terror. Does the aggro aura affect Sydney? Well, it’s been like 1 second. We’ll see on the next page.
It was pointed out quite a few times in the comments, but in case you didn’t notice it, Sydney’s shield cut right through Vehemence’s aggro aura (which obviously had considerable range on it, considering it reached Arianna and the news crew all the way on the other side of the highway. I wonder how that part of the newscast will go.) Luckily, Sydney did notice.
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So yes, just like we have established weeks ago, she has to be inside it ;P
Really? For all we know, that’s the comm ball clone and Sydney is actually behind him, with just her hand poking through the shield and the rest of her safe on the other side.
the commballs illusion cannot interact with anything on a physical basis, she clearly bumps into her own shield. not a commballclone. Although I too wonder how she can fix her shield in place so she can even bump into it… probably just some button on the orb she just found…
…. Or the fact that her shield is basically embedded in the ground – and she isn’t.
It is already evident that she can move around INSIDE her shield.
Ah, but if the real Sydney moves, her illusion image moves the same as she does! If V is looking at fake-Sydney, all she had to do is back into the shield *behind* him & her back bumping the shield might have also translated visually with her image.
My thought too.
“Three moves ahead…”
Image with 6 balls, 7th ball at the image and whacks the force field. That is 3 moves ahead.
When she first talked with V the image of the shield was with her. Hmmm.
Remembering that she has just ‘levelled up’ – and her “point” was put into an orphaned node of her Com-Ball. Could be we are seeing some aspect of that choice here.
Right, we believe that the new point gave her the aura vission, but that might aswel have always been part of the orb
the Image’s shield was interrupted by the tree that they were standing under.
Perhaps she set the image before setting the force field? Then the image only shows what she looks like when she forms it. Last time she formed the image after the field was up. And I still think she formed it with only 6 balls in range and flew an extra (unknown) over to where the image forms and tapped the field with it.
I’m wondering if the real Syd could be somewhere less obvious than behind V: If this city had any underground infrastructure she could be hiding BELOW him and projecting her image upwards.
I’m thinking she needs “line of sight” to project. Can’t do it through solid objects.
It would be of really limited usefulness if it had that kind of restriction.
Sydney can see & hear from her image. She may need line of sight to establish it at first, but she should also be able to navigate her image around according to its surroundings. That would be very useful for tailing someone…
That’s what happened during the press event to.
When she shielded the entire press during Maxima’s show piece, Sydney was flying around inside her shield, without the shield moving
actually we know she’s not projecting her illusion because the illusion-making-portion of that orb (mini-orb) is still embedded.
That makes sense although given the constant battle with continuity in his art Dave suffers because of having to write, draw, and color his own multipanel comic twice a week that could just be a “Whoopsie”.
Saw this below from a post by “Culminate”.
“The mini-orb shows up in the illusory version of her, just not the main version.
See panel 10 of number 89.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494 ”
So looks like telepresence is gaining likely hood by the second.
Also that one shows how it only copies her speech so he’d hear her talking from two places.
He would hear it but would he notice it properly fast enough when an aggravating and very real looking Sydney is dancing around right in front of him all smashable and stuff? He’s just suffered his first surprise and there she is.
But I admit its definitely a point in favor of her being “real Sydney”.
she put him inside her force field to cut his power off? or am I looking at this wrong?
You’re looking at it right. But she has to be in the forcefield too.
also..
WOO second place!
also also: lets play a game..come up with wacky names for the possible powers of the balls
Example: Power of invisibility : Invizi-ball xD
So her shield orb would make it Invinci-ball ? :p
And the telepresence is intangi-ball. Or untoucha-ball
no it’s the INWEEEEENCIBALL!
Sooo…All you like to play with Sydney’s balls?
Wait…What?
O.o
Sydney quite clearly (and in more ways than one) has more balls than anyone else here. Of course we would be envious.
I’ll be that much more impressed when she starts typing on the keyboard with them.
Oh that’s clever! I didn’t even think of that… someone please tell Sydney about all the “balls” jokes she can make now xD I can already see Arianna’s face as she fumes over it xD
Considering that Sydney’s balls can do things that mine can’t do, I’d like to play with them too..
No homo, bro…
Wait a tic… is she now going to ‘zerk out and try to rip his eyes out?
Do you remember the ‘toungue fu’ incident from back at the bank?
I doubt that would work on Vehemence. He is, after all, fuelled by violence.
He also has no reason to go along with the gag. If he gets his hands on Sydney he may kill her even without intending to.
And a 50. Caliber sniper bullet can’t penetrate his closed eyelid. And that was before he leveled up again.
He looks SOOOO high in panel one.
Well, he probably IS high on power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA
She did it. The craziest, most dangerous move possible, and Sydney did it. She just won her real superhero badge right there.
Hopefully, she’ll earn a promotion out of this as well.
Even more hopefully, it won’t be posthumous.
(Yes, this is a flashback, but she doesn’t know that)
Wow, I forgot about the flashback thing. You possibly killed all the tension ever… :|
why, we only know syd survives ;)
and as the main character, that was already kinda obvious, I hope
We know Max survives too.
why, we only know syd survives ;)
Yup. We also know that Dabbler can probably produce lifelike cybernetic prosthetic replacement parts, AND they’ve got a healer on staff who can fix unknown levels of major damage, so while we know Sydney’s going to live through this, we don’t know what shape she’s going to be in.
Tow arms, two legs, both eyes, and major organs intact. It’s not like we’ve seen Sydney nude, so we can’t say she won’t get a leg (or two) replaced, but her arms are normal.
It’s the question of HOW they survive that keeps me coming back for more.
Forget the Promotion, She needs more skill points.
She’s taking on the “final boss”, you always lvl up when beating the final boss (except FF8, but that game mechanic sucked) be it a string of speech challenges or physical combat…
I find many final boss fights to be a let down compared to the midboss. :/
probably wouldn’t get a promotion from trainee to patrolman or whatever without training anyway, a commendation at best, no matter how good she is
Her promotion happens at the end of Basic Training. She goes from Recruit to Private. A field promotion to Corporal appears to happen a few months later. I am not sure who she would be in charge of, or why.
Did not even notice the camera crew had arrived.
Talk about an end of the year Cliffhanger though. I can’t wait to see how this resolves next year.
They have been about a block away for most of the fight. At least since the restaurant collapsed.
So… If the aggro aura affects Sydney… Not sure I wanna be anywhere near that after seeing the tongue flip and what she did to the mugger…
She was inside the aggro aura while she was searching for it with her Truesight/comm ball.
So if it wasn’t affecting her then, why would it affect her now?
Because at that point she was inside the shield and the source of the aura was outside of it so it could protect her. Now she is inside the shield with the source of the aura keeping it from affecting others but she has nothing keeping it from affecting her. Unless the commball does for some reason.
She was not holding it while her ADHD brain activated…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1569
You also, however, can’t see her other hand save for her fingertip, and she CAN type with ball in hand.
Or possibly one of the unknown balls. There *are* still those two that we don’t know about! Maybe one of them protects from debuffs?
They only work when she holds them, as far as we know.
The active effects only work when she holds them. This could be a passive
There is a particular single upgrade slot each orb has that is connected with a much thicker line then the rest. Only the green unknown orb has it slotted. If I were to make a guess that would be the “hands free” slot but we have no way of actually knowing that until ether we figure out what that orb does or it gets slotted into a known orb.
Oh hey yeah, actually, she does not seem to be affected by it at all, and neither does Maxima (she can think clearly.) Maybe the aura only works at a distance?
I recalled Dave saying Max was affected, but is simply in no position to do anything.
Yup, indeed she is affected.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1562/comment-page-3#comment-277769
Can’t help wondering, who’d win in a fight? Arianna or Suzie News? :)
Looks like a close match. A black eye and a bloody nose each.
Is it wrong of me to want to root for Suzie?
Not even a little bit. :P
I would think very poorly of you if you didn’t.
Now that lines are drawn… No, no it’s not :)
Regardless I bet that Maxima will get some milage out of Arianna fighting with the press once the battle is finally over.
Something along the lines of that’s Max’s job to give the press aggro?
/I/ wonder if that was on air
If the aura affects her we will see Maxima vs. Halo in the next comic
Unless cutting him off from all the violence surrounding him, depowers Vehemence enough to stop his aura working.
He may not be able to gain more vehemic energy, but he is well-loaded for a fight. Step two may be siphoning some of that power off.
I’m not so sure. Max is still thinking clearly and she is dead center.
Max is full protection. No reason it doesn’t also protect her mind a little
Dave has indicated otherwise:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1562/comment-page-3#comment-277769
Vehemence is closer to Maxima so she’d fight him first unless he uses up some more juice to get behind Sydney faster than Maxima can switch power modes and attack.
Now THAT is bold.
I have to hand it to her, she is brave. And she is the first one to limit what he is doing. Now we just have to see if she can actually manage to survive.
Or, is her next move going to be opening up with the PPO, and taking his head out.
Not sure if Sydney is that ruthless…
Although, if Maxima gets any sort of breather, you can bet that she will be.
The distraction and the fact Sydney seems to have blocked V’s energy input may allow Max to counter punch hard. Sydney is counting on Max’s speed to keep them both alive.
I noticed something in the flashback that may be significant: Death Toll using his Nemisis power to drain all of Anvil’s accrued energy at once, causing her to faint from the flux. If she can find a way to make all the power leave him at a very rapid rate (likely in a way that will give Maxima enough time to dodge) he will instantly black out. As he is pretty much impossible to stop by conventional means at this rate, it’s the best thing I can think of.
Aaaand I think I figured her plan out. 1: Get him trapped inside with her, canceling the aggro-aura on everyone. 2: Get him to attack her in his anger, only to realize it was a well placed tele-comm orb and finally…3: He accidentially punches her human shield DEATH TOLL (in the page with the overview of the field Death Toll is directly behind her). This instantly drains his accrued powers and he is down for the count!
that’s actually a really REALLY good plan – I like it. Unfortunately, the illusion-producing mini-orb is still embedded within the comm-orb… no illusion.
The mini-orb shows up in the illusory version of her, just not the main version.
See panel 10 of number 89.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494
Objection!
it looks to me what we see in page 89 is an orb with a gap where the mini-orb would go. also, https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422 panel 5
^.^
So he guesses that is the illusion and turns to attack the real one, which is the fake one…
Unfortunately, Dave has unequivocally stated she must be inside her shield. Thus that cannot be the illusion.
What makes you think that she can’t make her illusion inside the shield with her real self?
Agreed, the plan would only require the use of the Telecom and Shield orbs.
Well, I don’t know about Sydney but if “I” was going to make my next move after enveloping V, who is very fast, in my shield a PPO attack I would have had the blaster orb in my hand before I threw up the shield instead of the telepresence/truesight orb. If she’s anything like me her next move, if its not already happening, will be with the other orb in her hand in the last panel.
That would most likely result in Sydney salsa.
Using the telepresence orb would result in Sydney salsa? << My suggestion.
PPO attack was the OP suggestion which I was responding to.
huh? what? how did she do that? when she activates the shield, doesn’t it form around her with her being in the center? how does she keep the shield fixed to a certain point so she can bump into it? I demand explanations…
The shield forms on her but once it is up she can move inside it. If she moves too far or uses some willpower, the shield follows her movement. Sydney must have snuck up right behind V and turned the shield on, then backed away fast.
When was that established?
as early as the press conference showed she could move in it and Dave has said multiple times that syd has to inside the shield for balance reasons
Plus, watch when she tried to rope him when they first fought. He was dragging her, and the shield, around.
It wasn’t really explained at the time, but when Sydney covered the reporters at the press demo earlier, she got them all in her shield, but she was nowhere near the center of it…She was hovering near the top of it.
And actively moving around
best guess
the shield starts centered around her then halo can choose to have it fixed or mobile
Think of the shield as a big beach umbrella. When you open it you have to be at the center to lift open the canopy. Once open, it can be stuck in the ground and you are free to move around underneath it.
P.S.
I am still waiting for her to try the mid air globe-style deployment, then land it and roll the shield around like a big hamsterball.
Can’t wait for some of the training sequences.
I am waiting on a sphere of water flying about and her in her scuba gear in the middle.
Another easy stunt to pull is to get on the ARC elevator at ground level and send the hologram out about 5 feet in front of the door. Pushing the up button for the top level will then send her up through the floor on each level and she can wave to anyone she meets as she disappears into the ceiling. (This could be a good prank on Halloween while wearing a ghost costume)
Brilliant.
All the while loudly chanting the katamari soundtrack, I assume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekOqgknkVN4
she has to be inside the shield for it to form but that doesn’t mean she has to be the exact center of it. i’m guessing the default option of the shield is centered on her but when she uses some of the other options like the embigener it becomes anchored and won’t move. the downside to having it anchored like that is now she is stuck inside it with 2 extremely powerful supers that could kill her with a flick of a finger since she doesn’t have her shield to hide behind now.
Well, earlier, Max did tell Sydney to stay inside her shield…
But I don’t think Max had it in mind that she’d also let the Boss Villain inside of it with her.
:/
And now I’m imagining Max chewing Sydney out for putting herself in such danger in the debriefing and Sydney cheerfully pointing out that technically she followed her instructions to the letter XD
(Maxima quietly facepalms, Dibbler gives Sydney a high five with a hidden arm)
I don’t think Dabbler would hide that high five. Max’s blood pressure is one of her favorite things to toy with.
Some of what everyone said plus that’s probably telepresence Sydney (illusory Sydney?)
Risky, but getting Vehemence & Maxima inside her shield cuts off him getting more energy. But there’s going to be *something* next in Sydney’s mind…This is only “step 1” of whatever she’s got planned. Unless V lets go of Maxima before pounding on Sydney, I’d guess her only real defense now is using her orbs to defend herself, like how she *almost* did with Math back at Arc HQ; as long as V keeps pumping electricity into Max, Sydney can’t rely on her for defense.
Judging from the color of V’s markings at this point & what Sydney did to cut off his energy-flow, I’d say he’s pretty well “fed up” with her…
Noting that this is just Phase One of whatever Sydney has planned.
“Three moves ahead…”
Partially Agreed.
Maxima is also “contained” since anything that remotly has a possibility of harming V will be lethal to Halo in the presente situation.
I also think she has other non violent strategy.
Halo’s presence even changed the aura! It became geekier next to her!
Lol, that’s true! :D
Look back in the full pattern from before – the pac-man sprites were always there.
If I recall, doesn’t that yellowe one allow her to project an illusion of herself? Here’s hoping VH doesn’t turn around and figure which one of them is fake
Yes it does. I didn’t see her holding it until you mentioned it. So which Sydney are we seeing? It has to be the real one since the shield reacted when she backed into it. The true sight version is just an image.
The Comm-ball’s telepressence likely echoes any sounds the real Sydney makes, not just voice, similar to how it can also project images of other things near Sydney (such as the other orbs, and once the force field).
The center of the commball/truesight ball is still in its place.
Therefor we can safely assume that that is no illusion of Sydney, but the real deal.
Plus: I don’t think it works like that: now the Aura is visible through the ball, I don’t think she even CAN make an illusion with it simultaneously.
Vehemence was looking at his own aura. He probably can see it.
The center goes to where the illusory Sydney is and projects things from there. So if it was the illusory Sydney you WOULD be seeing the center of the telepresence orb with her. I should have thought of this myself but actually credit goes to someone else in the comments (who’s not someone I regularly converse with so I forget their name. Sorry)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494
Ah ha! Possible. I had wondered why she was still clutching the comm-ball and hadn’t switched to the light-hook or pew-pew orb that might keep him off of her for a few seconds. Illusory distraction might even work better.
It’s the real one or would be 2 shields. She has the comb ball to be able to see the agro-aura.
V’s looking at his own aura. Not Sydney.
If she planned it out well and moved to adjust at the time of appearance she may have lined the two shields up perfectly just before he started really looking for its line of intersection. She would have to be directly behind him which might work for a second or two since he is so big and she is so small.
So your theory is that Sydney is the cousin of flash…
No, originally I was going off a memory that she was initially facing Arianna when she demonstrated the telepresence orb features but upon speaking to others and rechecking they actually don’t show her in that position and the illusion forming in an opposing faced position simultaneously so there is no foreshadowing to suggest that Sydney knows the controls, assuming there are any, to make the telepresence part of the orb appear oriented differently than the actual Sydney is.
If she could then she could just stand behind him, activate the illusion oriented perpendicular to her facing direction and align the two shields (if its perfectly spherical shouldn’t be hard) while he is just becoming aware that something is up with the people shaking off the aggression aura. But yeah, I jumped the gun on that one. Its POSSIBLE but doesn’t seem like Dave to not to give us some kind of foreshadowing for that when she’s used the orb a couple of times before this fight.
Please note: Vehemence just got distracted. His attention is on Sydney. More importantly his attention is _not_ on Maxima.
Not paying attention to Maxima probably counts as a mistake in a superfight.
Not paying attention to Max is a good way to end up in traction. I don’t think she will go for a kill with Sydnay in the blast zone.
Distraction == Dat Traction
+1
I like it. Nice lyrics and good dancing rhythm. 8.75
He still could be pumping electricity into Maxima (keeping her at full armor for now)…Maybe he stops with Sydney’s distraction, maybe not. From the angle of view, we can’t see if he’s still doing the electricity as of the last panel.
Just guessing, but that is probably the whole point of that particular camera angle. Just what is going on with Max off panel?
Look at the first panel then at the last, the electricity is now gone from arching around his body. So the he is no longer shocking Maxima and therefore she can drop out of full armor mode and retaliate. Imagine an unstoppable punch from Maxima into an immovable shield of Sydney.
My gues is Maxima is currently very confused, and unable to think, seeing that little Sydney has basicly thrown herself infront of the lion trying to distract him from Maxima.
Here’s hoping she regains her thoughts soon
Wait. Wait. Wait.
After weeks where every comment suggesting putting the shield around Vehemance has been repeatedly shot down because it would make Sydney vulnerable to his retaliation, or the aura, you actually went ahead and had her do it anyway?
Genius!
I don’t recall anyone saying that Sydney *wouldn’t* do that…Just that there’s an obvious risk to do it.
Whoo! Super ADHD brain! And meds wearing off!
You know what just springs to mind.
ADHD makes certain drugs have some very weird, unintended effects (main example, Speed).
What if the same applys to magic. Sydney’s brain works differently, so what if the aggro aura, tuned specificly to stimulate a certain region of the brain to achieve the desired effect, has a different effect on Sydney?
oh my god YES
(ADHD is basically a superpower anyway, for Sydney at least)
All the idiots we mocked were right! BRILLIANT! I love it when that happens.
If they were right, then who’s the actual idiot? The folks who turned out to be right, or the folks who called them idiots and mocked them?
They got razzed a bit for not reading hardly ANY of the comments or even the authors official blog comments and so continuing the endless chain of “Sydney should bubble him while she stays on the outside” comments. Which she can’t do so they were in fact wrong. Most of the time, with a couple exceptions here and there, I don’t remember anybody getting really asinine about it but some solid ribbing was done.
And several of us said Dave should do something in comic to finally get through to them this fact of his and now he has. Huzzah! :)
The suggestions were primarily that she trap him in the shield until the air runs out, which implied that she wouldn’t be inside the shield with him, which is something she doesn’t know how to do.
That phrasing implies a “yet.”
Could be a control issue but also endless upgrade possibilities. Depending on if there is ever a point in the comic where this is not deemed “overpowered” for Sydney to have.
Kudos Dave, ginormous kudos for taking the idea suggested by pretty much everyone who didnt catch any of the parts where it would leave sydney in the bubble with Vehemence and shot down by everyone who Did and making it (I dare presume) work! Cant wait for the next page!
I note that Arianna has been punched in the face at least once – and the strongest emotion I feel is that this is well-deserved AND long overdue..
I’m sure Max’s nose will hurt her less once she sees that.
Why the hate on Ariana? I don’t think she’s done anything nasty this far. She hasn’t even come across as unreasonable – at least to me.
Yeah, but look at that vest… And combined with an orange shirt? Who the heck wears orange that isn’t hunting or playing with asphalt?
Funny thing is with her hair out of her bun I didn’t even notice it was her until someone mentioned her and I went back for a second look.
For me, Arianna’s “fake bank robbery” stunt continues to open up new frontiers of irresponsibly stupid.
Don’t forget the “robbers” used LIVE AMMO, and if Max had been just a little off her game, someone could have been seriously injured or killed. Heck, Sydney was pistol whipped which could have given her a concussion. Ofc, Sydney being Sydney, her reaction was totally kicking his ass, and going pure feral.
Right enough…Simply holding a gun & waving it around in a threatening manner constitutes *assault* regardless of if it’s even loaded or not; not to mention the fact that this happened in a *bank* with customers. thumping Sydney on the head is committing battery.
By engineering even a fake bank robbery, that’s a whole lot of felony charges on Arianna’s head! But who’s going to hold her accountable?
She is a manipulative opportunist.
I guess but I really thought the waitress would be winning against everybody there with all her carefully locked away rage unleashed but she’s not even visible. :(
She was chewing on one of the newsvan’s tires trying to get at the crew cowering underneath. Scared the aggression right out of them.
The worst idea ever, denied every time it is proposed, and it happens…
i don’t care if it wins, it is still a stupid idea.
And since when is his marks orange, wasn’t they yellow last time we seen him?
Did they JUST became orange?
from white to green, to yellow, and now orange. are there more colors coming? like red maybe?
” If It’s stupid and it works, then it aint stupid.”
Don’r know where that comes from, but it seems appropriate here.
Also similar to “there’s a method to the madness.”
:)
I’d say more like there’s a madness to her methods ^.^
Even so, if it works…
Yeah, it’s a risky move. Then again, what makes a person a real hero (whether “super” or not) is the *willingness to take the risk* to save others…so that other people don’t have to make that choice themselves.
well, i am not a hero myself so that’s probably why i disagree with this plan.
well, i do agree, that those who risk their lifes for others are heroes,
but…
there is a “risk of loss of health” and there is “high chance of INSTAKILL”.
as a nerd who has never been on the battlefield herself, and instead Roleplayed a greate many scenarios, she sure has enough confidence in her strategy, but i would rather say “well maxima, that’s what you get for trying to intimidate someone who has no intention to kill.”
That’s one of Murphy’s 17 Laws of Combat, alongside some gems as “never forget that your weapon was produced by the lowest bidder” and “the only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire”
Maxim 42: If it’s stupid and it works, it’s still stupid and you’re lucky.
That said, not sure if this is all that stupid. Vehemence has at least admitted he would prefer not to kill anyone, and is only doing so with Max because she’s made it necessary from his point of view. He would only have to knock the orbs out of Sydney’s hands to get the shield to cancel, and he probably knows that because he’s been watching the fight the whole time; every time he’s seen her use a power she would have had the corresponding orb in her hand. Not to mention she even said at the press conference that it’s the specific orbs that allow her to do things.
So, there’s enough reason to believe that even if her plan, whatever it is, fails, and he successfully retaliates against her, he won’t kill her.
The little ‘level up’ arrow by V’s head say the stripes just got orange. If my guess is right he is now running on internal batteries only.
… And at his current rate of expenditure, those batteries will probably drain pretty quickly.
We, and Sydney, can only hope.
“Quickly” being an extremely subjective term< I should add.
Let's just say, his reserves would last MUCH longer if he wasn't already doing at least a couple of things that probably require very high energy expenditures.
He “leveled up” in the first panel, the stripes are still part yellow there.
As for the plan, this is only the opening move, she’d presumably has (at least) three more planned and this is likely as much distraction as anything. It’s very ballsy but she’s evidently banking in V’s apparent fondness for him to not do the logical thing straight away.
‘Fondness’, I suspect not. Or, at least, not enough to put him off his game plan.
V might pull his punches on Sydney A LITTLE because he isn’t a complete psycho and she clearly is not invulnerable. But, if it is necessary to rough her up “somewhat” to get his plan back on track (or, at the very least, to stay out of jaill), then I doubt if V would have a problem with that.
But what would be the point of hurting Sydney? It has already been established that the orbs are tethered to Sydney and she is the only one who can control them. Which means you’re either going to have to convince her to drop the shield (which I doubt is possible unless you try lengthy torture), or kill her. And I doubt V likes either of those options. He may try to intimidate her though.
But he’s probably cut off from his power supply right now, and the rest of the team seems sane again, so yeah. The tables are turning!
The “point” of hurting Sydney would be, as is sadly often the case, to try and get what he wants.
V might attempt intimidation first but, given the circumstances, he could very easily choose to NOT take time to be nice OR polite. Can’t make an omeltte withoput breaking a few eggs, after all..
V only hoped Sydney survived. By staying out of the fight. Her fault if something bad happens to her now.
CUT THE HANDS OFF.
This probably will drop the shield and cease all further interference form Sydney. Having reestablished his power source he can afford to be a gentleman and either preserve her life and her hands (put them on ice or something magical) or perhaps heal her with the addition of thick irremovable mittens (with little apologetic looking kittens on them. LOL ). With the kind of power and unlimited effects he’s been throwing around he has tons of options short of killing even in a situation like this. (sort of why his character has been ticking some people off lately… )
I meant the fondness would prevent him out right killing her straight away. Given the power he’s got stored up and his ability to improvise new spells because of it seems likely he could dispatch a ‘ squishy human ‘ from that distance without letting max go. Dead Sydney presumably = shield down and resume killing max.
Instead this is going to cause him to hesitate while the other team members get on with whatever instructions Sydney has left then on thier comms (assuming that is what she was doing with the typing at the end of the last page.
Don’t forget that V’s fondness for Syd has always been expressed in the form of internal dialog.
No-one else has any reason to assume that he’ll show her any mercy.
“It’s very ballsy but…”
I’ve said it before & I’ll probably say it quite a few more times along the way, but…
For being a female, Sydney certainly has got a lotta balls.
Sydney has demonstrably more balls than any member of any alien species imagined in popular fiction of either gender that I am familiar with.
Given this move and her past interactions with people in the comic so far, tis pretty likely that more than a few would accuse her of having lost her marbles however.
Krogan might be the closest, with 4, erm…balls.
That’s nothing…Dave has already demonstrated Sydney cracking 4 balls already, during the course of the comic so far.
It was an improbable idea and incredibly risky that that is why I also disagreed with it, but I won’t call it stupid or anything till I see what the rest of the plan is. Afterall, shield is only part of the plan; the follow-ups I’ve seen suggested, many were truly bad.
It was a good idea, but everybody was talking about her just dropping the shield over V people had to point out that Syd had to be IN the Shield when it was deployed, leaving her very squishy self trapped with someone who could Gib her with a fart. We weren’t saying that the people proposing it were having a Bad Idea, just the way they were thinking of using it was a Very BAD IDEA.
No one ever “denied” it. We just said that it wouldn’t work the way it was being proposed. Most folk were saying she could project it onto other folk without having to be in it. And she can’t do that yet.
And she is in side the shield here so far so that means she hasn’t done the “denied” thing yet. She is well within her expected abilities and taking one hell of a risk. She went all in. (she has a lot of balls!)
well she’s the Betty to Arianna’s Veronica, the Mary Anne to Arianna’s Ginger, so it’s all a matter of personal taste.
But yeah, I’m on her side as well :-)
Gaa! Replys aren’t working on my laptop, but ARE working on my tablet? (Headdesk and repeat)
The Arianna-Suzy News battle continues. Now, about the next incentive picture. Those two in a bikini Jello wrestling match?
Clever girl……
Yes, that was a possibility that was obvious from her “shadow” in the earlier panels. So now she’s cutting off his major power input, and playing on his prior apparent liking for her. I’m GUESSING that she is also using her image-projection ability to make it so that if his liking doesn’t extend to mercy, she doesn’t instantly end up dead.
The ilusory skill would put and ilusory shield. I don’t see such a shield.
We know it copied a small shield. It may not copy an embiggened one.
I think it only projected an image of the shield, not copied it.
He meant an image copy. He also meant that the enlarged shield is out of range of its “camera” or whatever to be copied. She’s right up against it and its reacting so probably not but that is what he meant.
Or maybe the illusion of the shield just happens to be in the same exact placement as the real shield…Still around Sydney & the other two people in there. If V is looking at the illusory Sydney while her real self backs into the shield, wouldn’t the shield’s reaction-pattern also transfer across the the illusion & *appear* with the illusion of Sydney too?
The ilusion is an exact copy os Sydney, so unless the ilusion is cast in the same place she is the shield wouldn’t be hiding in the same place as the original.
It is the same size and position as the real one. With Sydney on the opposite side behind V.
I disagree – DaveB has gone to the trouble of showing the “stress” pattern, and it is curving just like the inside of a sphere. If that aspect of the shield was an illusion (like Sydney), the curvature is wrong. Also, the stress effect would be in front of her.
So it must be the real Sydney backing into the shield. But why is she holding the comm-orb? Is she projecting an image somewhere else, or just forgot about it?
Also, doesn’t the comm-ball send out its central ‘pip’ when making an illusion? It did here. The pip looks present and correct here.
The pip is present in the illusion see panel 10 of your referenced page.
I dunno, is that really the pip? Or just a reflection? It looks similar to panel 7, where it is definitely absent.
It would mean the illusion is identical to the real Sydney, except in that one tiny detail.
panel 7 is the real Sydney, panel 10 is illusion Sydney, the illusion orb is present in the fake, but only present with real-Sydney when she isn’t using it.
Also, in panel 3 when Sydney initiates the illusion, the pip is still inside the orb, even though it appears to float over Arianna at the same time.
Sydney is holding her Comm-orb in order to see V’s aggro aura, she may or may not also be projecting some kind of illusion with it.
V’s looking at his own aura…
If her illusory self is a projection of her true self up against a different interior segment of a perfectly spherical shield then the “stress” pattern would be exactly the same curve.
She doesn’t have to be opposite herself (and from the way he looked on both sides of himself she isn’t). She can project her image anywhere in any orientation. The key here would be knowing her geometry and making a perfectly spherical shield then backing up against it behind him while projecting to his side at the same distance with her illusory selfs back right up against it exactly the same way. Difficult to get done fast enough to beat V looking around at it but not impossible since she can mostly just look at the edges of the two shields and line up their curves quickly.
[Citation needed]
AFAIK, this would be inconsistent with previous use of the comm-ball, which always shows “real” and “illusion” Sydney facing in the same compass direction.
Yes. I believe you are correct and I have included this in comments made after this point. (this one was a little rushed). We have not seen her use the telepresence orb to alter her true orientation yet. Though it might be a control option. I had a false memory of it due to her starting out facing Arianna when she activated it and sent the inner orb over behind her. The next time we see her after the illusion is invoked she is facing away, as you say, either because she has to or in order to set up her next demonstration which was that she can see through it.
It could go either way at this point. You’re right. I apologize for so obviously jumping the gun on this one.
No problem. It could be an option, as you say (and if that gets shown on the next page it would be me with egg on face).
Nah, you read the foreshadowing correctly so you’d be fine. I’d come off as psychic though since I would have guessed the correct outcome slightly in the face of the foreshadowing’s misdirection. And probably I’ll flip flop somewhere in the middle of the comments and loose even that distinction! X-P lol
From the ‘Badger!’ incident, it appears that the projected image has the same directional orientation (N/S/E/W) as the original. If she backed into the shield behind V, then the image projected in front of him would be of her looking away from him.
If anyone can cite a use of the TP orb that contradicts this, then I rescind my argument.
The prosecution rests, your honor.
sorry e-, that comment wasn’t there when I wrote mine.
Heh! Because of the timeouts, and to avoid posting twice or in the wrong place, I compose offline and refresh just before posting. Several times I have thought “Damn, no need to post it now…”.
Just post it, 2 peole that come to the same argument is better than 1.
Nice Move from Sidney…and poor Stalwart…
Very nice, since I’m pretty sure if he lets up on maxima even a little bit she’s going to make good on the offer she gave.
From the way Stalwart is talking, it sounds like his balls are still hurting, even while Hiro’s foot doesn’t seems to be bothering him at all…
At least Stalwart doesn’t seem to be “squeeking” his speech pattern.
To be fair the squeeky thing is more an ‘cartoony/comedy’ thing then real :P
In real life its more a “Oh gods It hurts” while fighting the urge to vomit, and those contractions only makes the pain increase, kind of of thing, of which Stalwart’s reaction is right on the nose
Interestingly Sydney being (apparently) scared is more surprising than most other character development this far :D Her aggravating personality has been nicely built up. Good to know that she has at least some sense of self preservation/danger. Or maybe this is just some cunning ruse.
Remember what happened with that Shadow-dude? The one that is now called “Squeaky”?
She starts using the orbs as a meteor attack, that should cost V some energy not to mention forcing him to go after Sydney. Which leaves Max. The last step may be a two on one slugfest until V needs to hold up his pants.
Possibly something different. Possibly. Apart from a propensity to punch for the face, Sydney tends to be …. unpredictable when it comes to attack.
No, totally forgot about him. But fair point, now I’m even more leaning towards “cunning ruse”.
Also, you guys are quick, am I the only one checking in from work? ^^”
For we Australians, it was actually late at night when I put that up.
she has trapped herself inside her own protective bubble with a villain strong enough, and willing, to kill Max
A villain who has just had his power supply cut off – while he’s choke-holding the most powerful (known) super on the planet ….
… And who doesn’t yet realize that she isn’t trapped in there with him, HE is trapped in there with HER.
^^^^ This.
Also maybe Sydney can use her other 5 orbs to prevent Vehemence from getting to her, since they’re unmovable by anyone except her.
They are only immovable if you try to get them OR HER a certain distance away from the other. Its some kind of safety feature to prevent the user form loosing contact with the tools I guess. Inside that limit they have been moved around on at least one occasion (maybe more than that… I don’t want to go archive diving that much right now). V himself moved one and through it Sydney with the Light Hook.
Risky, but it gives whomever (Dabbler is my guess) the chance to collect her wits and counter that aggro aura, maybe even work up an exorcism for the moment when the shield drops. If Sydney can keep V talking, she has time to pull the shield back around herself, and anyone who has gathered near her for that purpose.
I think in the short time they’ve known each other Vehemence and Sydney have built up enough of a relationship that he will honor her reasonable request.
Vehemence may not want to kill Sydney outright, but I don’t think he has any problems with the idea of maiming & crippling her…
I wouldn’t call being amicable the same thing as a relationship here…
Every minute he’s kept talking he’s using up energy or not ‘pinning’ max.
Maybe Sydney’s ADHD prevented V’s aura from affecting her.
OK, the first part of the plan makes sense but is risky. The problem is that V doesn’t have to release Maxima in order to paste Sidney – he can just do a kinetic pulse like what he did to keep Anvil away. So besides limiting his power, the second move better be really good.
Seems she has an idea but now she is trapped in there with him, hope Maxima can smash him into oblivion otherwise if he goes at Syd she is toast and he can just regain lost energy.
Oo, we have seen a new Dabbler Gadget. A ring, and part of it seems to be electricity? Interesting
She was going hand to hand with Gauntlette. I think it is some form of brass knuckles.
I don’t claim to be an expert on alien weaponry, but a loop shaped weapon can have some drawbacks. It might be good if it can be used in a pulling motion. This one looks like you thrust or slice with it. If you slacken your grip during a strike that thing is going to twist back on you and cut your own hand off.
She’s gonna be pissed off if she finds out that her shield has a function that allows her to put it not around herself.
Well played, Sydney!
And she’s not completely vulnerable; she’s still got her “meteor shield” and two deus-ex-machina orbs (although if those orbs are what I suspect they are, they won’t be much help)
Just share your theory with the rest of us.
I just noticed that at the edge of the glyph is pacman eating pellets and about to go after the ghost.
… aanndd drink!
So, does DaveB also get a sign?
I think all the signs and trophies that were ever made will landing on DaveB’s yard…
No, that doesn’t count. All the ninjas, signs, and drinks were of the ‘suffocate V in the shield with Sydney outside’ variety. Sydney is inside the shield with him. Many including myself disagreed she would do that, but everyone knew she was able to do that.
You’re just drinking because you’re thirsty. ;p
I was afraid this was her plan. It’s effective, but unless her ballsiness earns a ton of respect points from V, it’s going to be a very short lived one.
To be fair, she does have _seven_ of them.
It occurs to me the level of detail that Dave has to put into these comics. With everyone dissecting every bit of the comic down to the smallest detail, the level of mental input to keep this all flowing together is amazing. My hat is off to you, sir! If I was wearing one….
In the last page Sydney types on her armband. Could she have messaged her plan to someone? Maxima perhaps?
Max isn’t able to read her mail right now. But she may have sent an SOS to Harem or one of the others to get Step 2 ready.
Step 2 being get all the recently-possessed out of range. Where the range is unknown, therefore as far as feasibly possible. If only the portal girl was awake.
I’m betting of Dabbler. If someone has a ball of tricks for this moment is her.
Are any of us sure that that IS Halo? Does it violate any of the “rules” if she has cast the illusion around somebody else to make them look like her? V will go after the dupe, perhaps Nemesis, in an attempt to turn the juice back on. And where is Halo? Perhaps part of the illusion is her being blended into the background so thoroughly that she’s for all intents and purposes, invisible.
The telepresence orb generates a simple image. No fancy stuff it just projects an active 3D picture of Sydney and throws her voice to another location. If the real shield is up, she is in there.
Hi there everyone, I hope you had a great Christmas/holiday time (I sure did).
I am back a little before the end of the year and saw this.
I am interested in seeing how Sydney would react, of course, like everyone else.
What I am thinking is that she might be able to use the balls themselves to form a secondary shield. After all, Sydney can control them extremely quickly by thought alone (her spastic thought defense response has been demonstrated repeatedly). If 5 of them are grouped in front of her, unlike when she was being hit in the face before (where it partly came through I think because she didn’t squarely block it), she could have a way of being able to protect herself from direct physical assault. She doesn’t have to physically move, and since we saw that it even took out Math, by a combination of its surprise factor, strength, and speed, I would suspect it would be what Sydney needs to take away V’s focus, just for a second (since he thinks Maxima is weakened from electricity), allowing Max to recover in record time and get both her and Sydney away from V long enough for a proper counter-attack. No violence, quick thinking, unexpected results, and a way to get them both out safely.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts.
See you next year!
Dave, you forgot the new V’s new tooth in panel 1
Oops, so I did.
Also, I love the level up in panel 1, anyway I could get a copy for use as an avatar?
I honestly chouted in fear for Sydney, That’s a hell of a move!
sigh.. *shouted
Sooo, does this mean Dave gets a sign? Is Atlantis now fully above the waves?
I really was not expecting Sydney to pull this. Embiggening the shield and moving as close as possible would have blocked about 1/2 the aura, while staying safe and cozy inside the shield. As much as I agree that V seems like a rather gentlemanly opponent, he has shown himself willing to kill, so this seems like way to big a risk to me.
A possible trick though. Dave has stated that the shield can’t be projected. But up until he posted that (and even a few time after) not everyone knew that. V certainly can’t be sure of hat. V does know Sydney can make a projection. She should have a projection clearly visible outside the shield. V would most likely assume the Sydney inside the shield is the fake, since who would be dumb enough to get in there with him? Then there would be little reason to attack the one inside the shield, although if he pulled off an AOE attack to try to blow the shield apart or something, we would still wind up with a dead Sydney (which obviously doesn’t happen, since we see Sydney alive later).
Dave was this the original plan, or did you decide to do this after so many pages of us all saying it wouldn’t work, so you decided to make it work?
The way I write, I basically know what happens as I move toward a scene, then as I get close, I write up the actual dialog, then before I start drawing I break that stuff down into panels, which sometime involves me tweaking things to make it all fit and whatnot. The exact sequence of the end of the fight has probably been modified and tweaked a bit during that process but not really as a response to the comments, more to ensure that everything plays out logically and I can still get a few good jokes in there.
So to answer your question, this was more or less the plan from the beginning, though some of the finer details have changed along the way.
No. he doesn’t get his sign, nor will there be any trophies to raise Atlantis. Sydney has to be outside the shield for that to happen. :P A number of us weren’t expecting Sydney to put her neck on the line like that, though. We expected the shield to still be involved in some way, but not like this. Ballsy, as it was put.