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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I don’t care how bad it looks, I’m sticking with my theory. Vehemence is the new team trainer, hired by the general, and this is just one giant field exercise.
and I still love this theory too, even as it gets less and less likely. I’d love for it to be so but it would kinda be a pull if it was at this point. =S
Actually…has Vehemence seriously wounded anyone? I mean, he’d definitely fail his ethics review for creating a scenario that lends itself to serious injury, but considering the nature of Arc Swat I could see that being vaguely acceptable, especially there don’t seem to have been any civilian casualties. (I kindly remind readers that a “casualty” is not necessarily a death).
As much as I would love to see this happen, I think that he would have stopped right when he had Maximus pinned before Sydney had a chance to do this counter. He would have let go and said “This is why you aren’t invincible. I could have stuck right here and killed you straight.”
But nobody on the team thinks they’re invincible, plus, this whole battle caused a lot of property damage, injury, put innocent people at risk of injury, and many people came close to dying.
If this was just a test, I think most of the people on the team would have a massive lack of trust in their superiors. If not just outright quit.
Umm, actually, Maxi believes herself to be the Ultimate Super in their world, or at least the Apex Super
That’s only been sparingly mentioned, and she doesn’t go around constantly gloating about it.
She probably just considers herself to be a exceptionally powerful super.
She’s under no illusions that she can’t be hurt, or that her powers can’t be matched.
Especially considering Dabbler fought her to a stand still.
Not 100% She is pretty sure the one she killed is dead but not positive. She acknowledges that Dabbler fought her to a standstill and maybe even a TKO. She is too smart not to realize something like V could happen and may happen again.
I have no idea why people think this would be a great idea. It would be an awful idea – considering how he’s ACTIVELY TRYING TO KILL MAXIMA… has been given multiple chances to cease fighting… has caused massive property damage as a result of this, and has ties to EVERY SINGLE metahuman criminal in the country (if Arclight’s estimates can be believed)… not to mention what a moronic plan it would be as a ‘training’ thing (would be more like a mysogynistic wankfest to Maxima haters) – and I imagine that DaveB is too good a storyteller to do something like that.
And in the extremely unlikely scenario that that’s true, I hope the team does the only sensible thing and quits en mass.
Agreed.
If we go with that theory, I’d go more with he’s unaffiliated with anyone and was testing the team for his own plans. If he gets stronger from violence, then he could be after the greatest fight if all time. And you’d want a powerful team to fight against.
you can see him reacting to the press conference with “Challenge accepted.” in the 1st panel of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
I see pac-man. Is that from Sydney? Or part of Vehemence’s original aggro field?
Wow, I missed that!
Wakka wakka wakka!
Oh wow. It’s literally PacMan gobbling down pellets with a ghost at the end.
Freaking on mark again, Dave.
Checkout the full aura from the comments on the last one there are all sorts of goodies. Though on that ring all I could make out was the Batman symbol.
Haha, yeah, that is Pac-Man, indeed! I bet the aggro circle is full of that stuff!
if it’s incorporating aggro vido game tropes it had better have some scenes from Total Carnage in it…just sayin’
It’s not just video game symbols actually. There are Stargate ‘gate address’ symbols in one row as well (though, that ring has been pre-empted by Sydney’s shield.
Oooooohhhhhhh. Took me a sec to figure out what Sydney did. Stop reading if you want to figure it out yourself:
She embiggened her shield to encompass the entire aggro aura glyph, thereby blocking it completely.
More accurately she made the shield just big enough to only include V Max and herself in it… thus disabling it for everyone outside of her shield.
Er… yes! That! Which is totally definitely what I meant to say, for real!
Good time for an illusion. Anytime…
And now shes going to go ape shit again because her shield is not stopping the aggro aura for her. Vehemence will be detained with a new PTSD of halo for the rest of the comic
Not necessarily, she knows the mind effecting aura is there and that might allow her to resist it.
This comic draws a lot on rules like that. She gets a will save to disbelieve.
It would be funny if it happened that way though…
I think if it did effect her most likely she would end up re shielding her self as attack reflex. The aura is’t causing blind rage..
More likely fear has overrides agrro.
Makes sense though I would say it could also be that it isn’t as powerful as let on, since most of those affected are people already worn down from previous fighting?
The ones who were out cold just dropped when the aura was shut off. I doubt the second fight did them any good injury wise.
I think her ADD might give her an edge, actually. V’s aura is affecting her, but because she can’t stay focused, she ‘forgets’ to be infuriated.
This isn’t a stalemate. The shield is airtight, so Halo, Maxima, and Vehemence are going to pass out eventually, and given his size, Vehemence is probably going to be first in line… if Vehemence stops attacking Maxima to shift his focus to Halo, Maxima will probably put everything she’s got into an energy blast and end it decisively.
Energy blast probably not, too much chance of collateral damage to Sydney (she’s squishy without her shield, more the worse since setting off an explosion inside the shield would probably rebound around inside), but the point remains: without more vehemic energy from outside the shield, V can’t keep Max down for long. The question is, can V shift targets and kill Sydney before Max can shift enough power to attack. Too bad she didn’t drop the truesight orb and switch to the lighthook orb before doing the shield trick, then she could at least keep V at arm’s length with a tentacle wall…
Somehow I don’t think the “tongue throw” Sydney used in the bank will be effective on V… but it’s a great mental image. =)
Knowing it’s an aggro attack and resisting it are two different things. I agree Halo will have to make a resist roll, and with her hyper emotional “punch it in the face” reflex, it will be a tough roll to make. Looks like the “puppy eyes” may give a plus modifier to her survival chances and any momentary distraction of V will hopefully allow Max a one shot at ending this.
Question, does Sydney’s shield work in doth directions? If Max goes for a power dump into strength for a one shot, will V fly through the shield or bounce around inside like a (high mass) pinball? That would do more damage to Max and Halo trapped inside the shield than the fight so far.
If Max is smart, she’ll punch Vehemence into the ground.
If she’s smarter, she won’t try violence until Sydney tells her to. Sydney has a plan, therefore she outranks everyone.
Maxim 3: https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-11-01
An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody [2009-11-01].
I think everyone inside the aura field is safe from the effects. Otherwise, Max would probably have dropped her armor to boost strength to fight with. She’s still thinking clearly at this point.
My question is, if he’s dropping all that energy to keep the aura up, plus strength and lightning to hold Max down, if Sydney can keep up the conversation long enough, is it possible he might burn through his energy pool pretty quickly while being distracted?
Vehemence has leveled up and has evolved into XXXL KAWAI
It’s over 9000!
ok sydney its almost time to abuse the fact that the orbs only give a **** if you are the one controlling/moving use 4 orbs to hold vehemence in place
im guessing max is not effected by the aura because she’s in full def mode and now im going to go on a limb and guess the comm-ball protects her from being effected by aura’s, illusions, and other mind trickery in its current mode, theory 2 the aura only works if one is not aware of it/ on gaurd defending, that or shes far to frightened to have the aggro aura work.
To be fair Max is all for fucking his shit up. So i think maybe it is working on her
Yup, the only thing stopping her is the lightning: she stops being full (and talking full FULL Defense) she will fry
so far the aggro aura has only worked on unconscious people and newscasters…which is kind of the same thing…so conscious people don’t seem to be affected by it.
We saw the Harem taking part in that scrummage
What about the Stalwart/Hiro altercation ?
No, DaveB has stated that it effected everyone. Except Halo offcourse, because she was shielded
I think we all can sort of see sydneys endgame and that is vehemence strikes “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (now to be referred as FHTBT, For Whom, of Fart) as his nemesis drains built up power reserves
she’s in the wrong place for that, she’s on his left while FHTDT (it’s for whom the *death* tolls, not bells) is on Vs right. what we’re seeing is either an illusion or she moved to the other side of V, the background behind her supports this as well.
This is great. Nice break from the long-running fight, characters other than V and Max are back in the spotlight again and will probably be showing agency over the next few strips, and we are moving back to something that features dialogue and Sydney’s wackiness. Really excited — thank you, DaveB.
Also, I am *so* impressed with the level of detail in this strip. I hadn’t noticed before that the yellow comm ball has a center that moves when it’s used — learned that from the comments. Arianna and Suzie have bloody knuckles… the list goes on. I’m amazed that DaveB can think of it all and keep it all straight.
Not always but the comments helps.
We can also do some CSI sleuthing on the crime scene. We can probably infer that Arianna is right handed due to the scrapes to her right knuckles and the bruise to Suzie’s left eye. Suzi is most likely left handed since she has scrapes on her left hand and Ari’s right eye and cheek are bruised.
P.S. The location is west of the Mississippi, since the news station ID starts with a ‘K’.
Damn. Sidney’s got some serious ovaries. Like, giant, massive ovaries.
My theory as to Sydney’s plan, a three-step plan as per her enlightenment by Math (did anyone catch that last week?):
Step 1: Deactivate her shield and use her tele-presence to get close to Vehemence.
Step 2: Have her copy reignite the shield around itself, Vehemence, and Maxima (step 1 and 2 would be done almost instantaneously to prevent herself from getting in the violence aura)
Step 3: … This one is up for grabs, but I wager that she’s trying to enrage Vehemence to the point that he lets go of Maxima and focuses on her copy instead, allowing Maxima to put more of her energy into attack rather than defense… Again, this one might be stretching it a tad because really, where did that get her before?
The shield has to be around her. The Copy is an exact visual reference of the original. I say reference because it’s basically a template of her at the time. The shield can be around the clone but only if it is also around her and the clones shield is as immaterial as the clone itself
Will the shield be immaterial when used with copy, we have no proof?sp either way. I theorisedthat it was on of the combo power that were suggested in the power diagram, before the power diagram was reviled. The only problem is the copy ball appear to have the projector in side. Although then the orb is active we never get a clear look at it.
See the strip when Sydney speaks with V’s for the first time. In that you see that the shield ilusion is just a show of light.
Plus, Fedorka put his arm through the shield (unless that was what you meant)
I overlooked that. Here’s hoping that she can actively change that. activate the hallow circles in her skill tree. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166
Sydney is floating above Vehemence, or directly behind him.
Remember. Three steps ahead.
She has the shield orb and the teleprescence orb only, not the flying one.
… Sydney has found out that one of the other orbs grants her a third and fourth arm while using it!
Hence, she’s using four orbs. Including the one that lets her use four orbs.
But, seriously, I realized my mistake after the post. She’d be standing directly behind him.
And it looks like Sydney has leveled up again!
Twice in one day Sydney? You must really be a low level
That’s Vehemance levelling up….
You forgot to make one of Vehemence’s teeth gray in the first panel.
He’s shown he can heal/fix himself with enough power, and he’s pretty beefed up right now, so it should be clear he’s taken care of fixing his missing/damaged teeth.
That’s the point. The regeneration spell gave him replacement parts made of organic steel.
If that were the case, his arm would also be skin colloured again
For everyone who predicted that Sydney would trap herself with Vehemence (like me): pat yourself on the back.
But if Vehemence seems polite, it’s because he’s a violent sociopath. Sydney better have a REALLY good plan. Looks Like she’s got the teleprescence orb out. Hmmmmm…
Trapping herself was just a lucky side effect of the running “She can just put the shield around him until he runs out of air!” commentary from all the dozens of posters who don’t bother reading the other posts stating how she has to still be inside the bubble herself
Sydney’s projection is cowering in fear. Sydney is actually directly behind Vehemence where he’s not looking.
No, look at the TeleSight Ball: see the yellow ball in the middle? That is the projection part, which means, if it is still inside then Sydney is not using it to project her image
The image also can not ‘move’ independant of the Real Sydney, ie what the Image does the Real has to also be doing
the projection part stays where the illusion is, illusion Sydney’s comm-ball has the yellow ball while real Sydney’s comm-ball loses it whenever she creates the projection.
The mirror image of Halo can’t interact with anything, and it’s clear in panel 8 that she is backed up against the shield (the shield reacting to her pressing up against it).
Sydney took out the teleprescence orb so she could see the aura/markings vehemence made to make everyone aggro out. The fact that she still has it out would be so she knew where to place the shield. Besides that, I do agree with your ‘hmmm’ that illusions are getting pulled out of the bag.
Hannibal Lechter was also polite.
You know… until he rips your face off, wears your face while eating your liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone.
Can people stop deluding themselves that Vehemence is a nice person? :/ He’s a sociopath. It doesnt mean nice.
Hey, some of my best friends are sociopaths!
Jokes! I don’t have friends.
Sociopaths are nice, we just also happen to be evil (well, technically, we are apart from both good and evil, but society only sees the ‘evil’ aspects)
test reply
ok this is weird. I can post to the page but not as a reply. But if I try to repost what I had put in a reply attempted the site tells me it’s already posted. Even though it isn’t. Anyone got a clue what’s going on?
I finally figured that part out Motorcycle. If you’re trying to reply to someone who already has a bunch of replies, you have to scroll down the page until you get to the ‘bottom’ of the replies to see your comment box.
Fun page. A couple of things of note on this page. One the bad guys are falling back unconscious but the good guys aren’t (That we’ve seen). So while it woke up and berserked everyone it does not appear to have healed them (AKA, removed the tranquilizer from their system.) Also, Max does not appear to be affected by the berserk aura. I wonder why that is? Maybe because she is at the very center of it? Maybe because her armored up mode also makes her more resistant to stuff like that? Or maybe she is just naturally immune to that kind of stuff.
I’m also guessing that Dabbler has resistance to that. Suzy and Arianna were awake before the aura went active and were fighting during it(which is hilarious to me), so it can’t be that it only affected those that were asleep. And now we know that the shield does not have to center on Sydney. I do see that she is holding the comm ball, but unless that upgrade to the comm ball let’s Sydney’s projection become solid, that’s the real her. But I guess that is a possibility, we shall see.
Maxi is not immune, she is just focussed on staying alive, which means she can’t go on the offense while Fedorka has the lightning going (she even mentions that fact)
Dabbles doesn’t have resistance either as she was fighting Sleeping Fist just as much as Hiro and Wart
We already knew the Bubble doesn’t have to center on Sydney, but she still needs to be in it (and as has been pointed out: while the CommBall has the bubble still inside, then it’s not a projection, also, if it was a projection it would not have bumped up against the bubble but have kept going)
It might just center on her when it forms, but then she can move around within it, like she did during Maxima’s explosive display with the press where she then was flying around within the force field, or how she moved around in the shield when shadow boxer attacked without the entire shield moving with her.
Might also be a ‘mental control of the shield thing’- like needing to will the shield to move along with her.
the yellow dot on the CommBall only goes away from the real ball, the fake ball still has it whenever it creates the illusion.
Perhaps she’s standing behind him, inside the shield, and “telepresencing” (is that a word?) herself to be almost in front of him to draw his attention away from her actual self, so she’s sorta hiding, but not really, at least until she finds out his reaction to being canceled like this. She can sense through her clone, right? So her (clone’s) reaction is authentic.
For support, I refer to the previous comic (ADHD brain idea jumping): the thoughts with question marks include something to do with distraction or misdirection, reactions to being surprised, and her shield being impenetrable; the check marks seem to refer back to conversations with Max and Math that she had earlier (someone else can find those exact comics).
Nice idea (thought of that as well) but note the bubble inside the CommBall, that indicates it is the real Sydney
Unless the bubble is inside the illusion of the comm-ball.
actually, a *lack* of the bubble would indicate that it’s the real Sydney, but only when said bubble is somewhere else.
I think, based on some of her Super ADHD Brain images (Death Toll draining Anvil’s energy + image of Jiggawatt), that her plan runs something along these lines:
1) Stop V’s aura–check!
2) Message Jiggawatt with her sleeve thing (unfortunately the shield may tamper with this).
3) Get V to drop aura
4) Drop shield for a second, let Jiggawatt in, pop up shield again
5) Jiggawatt drains lightning, both freeing up Max and draining V
And I have no idea what would come after that.
Use the body of DT to stop V’s punch would be better.
Jiggy can do negative energy projection, so would that still count as violence energy? Max can withstand the radiation from the negative/positive energy mix, and Syd can throw up the shield around herself to deflect it. Jiggy would be immune to it, but would V be immune to radiation poisoning?
Problem is: how do you protect everyone else is the radiation generation isn’t contained by the shield? It not like radiations are going to stay there
why would jiggawatt be immune to radiation?
Necessary secondary superpower.
Just as superman gets longs that don’t implode when he hits space, the flash heals quickly, and Lina Inverse… Hang on, problem in my notes…”destroys the town” is not a superpower, is it?
Hmm…
i fail to see how being able to generate electricity makes radiation immunity necessary, it’s not like Cyclops in x-men is immune to the explosions caused by his beam hitting flammable stuff.
I’m bettin’ my lucky mallet that Dab’s Mesma-breasts are part of the plan. Possibly with Harem teleporting away with her top.
Chekhov’s Breasts? That sound about right?
Dabbles’ outfit is a hologram slash illusion
Nope, these are her real clothes. She didn’t bother to change their look when she dropped the “human” illusion to take her “battle form”. Sidney called her on it, and got shot down quickly :P
Nope, that top at least is an illusion, because the band at the top rotates like an old ticker tape machine
Clever.
Maxima can’t take advantage of this opening to kill Vehemence, because any violence she hits Vehemence with in this enclosed space would paste Sidney, which would knock down the shield. Vehemence must realize this, and therefore has reason not to finish off Maxima. So they have to talk.
Love it, that face on the first panel. Frickin brilliant, so much so that I edited out the panel and one of the speech bubbles and posted it as a template on Funnyjunk. I credited DaveB as the author of the comic and gave a link to the first page of Grrl Power for anyone on that site who might be interested from it.
https://www.funnyjunk.com/Face+with+speech+bubble+have+fun/funny-pictures/5404579/
Of course I will take it down if DaveB requests me to do so.
I think that Sydney’s fearful pose is about as genuine as her lack of vision was with the shadow “homerun” ninja. Just saying.
Maybe she’s hoping to stay away for him till the air runs out?
That would only work if he requires the smae or less oxygen as either of the other 2 occupants inside the Bubble
If the air runs out for any one of them, it’ll run out at the same time for *everybody* in the shield. The biggest question would be who has the most endurance to avoid passing out first. Max is a trained & experienced soldier & already aware that the shield is airtight. Vehemence’s endurance is up through the roof right now. Guess who is the most likely to pass out first & let go of the orb?
typically when some one says “the air ran out” what they mean is the ratio of oxygen to other gasses (most likely carbon dioxide) became so low that breathing it no longer gives the body what it needs to remain conscious. Only a scientists doing an experiment would say it to mean there was no air at all or no oxygen at all any more and they would say “pulled a vacuum” or “depleted of oxygen” instead of “the air ran out.”
Add to this the fact that even ordinary humans have different tolerances for how oxygen-depleted the air they are breathing can get before they pass out and it’s really not hard to imagine V’s or Max’s bodies being hyper efficient and thus able to function with far less oxygen present than any one else.
1) That’s extremely risky. If Sydney or Max pass out before V then Max is dead.
2) Given the amount of air inside the shield, it would take at least an hour to reach that point.
So do we all agree that Vehemence’s power level is so high that he could kill Sydney by sneezing in the right direction? I hope Sydney does her thing before the condensed aggro aura she’s standing in takes effect
Fairly sure he is immune to his own effect
I meant the aggro aura affecting Sydney.
that’s assuming that the aura condenses over smaller area, most auras don’t.
I think Sydneys plan is all about distracting Veh enough to let max do enough damage to Veh that he is put of the battle..
1. Yes the Shield has blocked the Aggro Aura.
2. For Veh to attack, he would need to stop attacking max.
3. Veh thinks max is drained, but she has simply been forced to dump everything into armour. so Veh would not hesitate to attack Sdyney
4. Sydney is holding com ball, letting her see the aura AND create a visual clone… As has been pointed out Sydney needs to be in the shield, that deos not mean the one we and Veh can see is the real one….
5. Sydney was sending a message out on her Pip boy, it is possible that she sent it to one of the spell casters(Dabler perhaps) to cast an illusion over her real body, once the rage aura is gone Dabler would be able to cast it. so long as Veh doesn’t clue on immediately, she should then be able to keep Veh busy with a fake image Sydney. Depending on Veh knowlidge she could slip fake Sydney in and out of her shield, Veh doesn’t know the shield must be around Sydney..
Ultimately, Veh isn’t getting anymore free energy, he cant release max to attack sydney, sydney in frame is fake..
No, the shield blocks everything, including spells (like the aggro aura). So Dabbler wouldn’t be able to cast anything on Sydney in this state
Here is my take on the situation.
Sidney, has positioned herself behind V, popped her shield around him, then used the Comball to create an image where he would see her, the image is including the shield so the shield “reacted” when she backed into it when V spotted “her”.
I would like to think that “she” is standing over FWTDT, so if she is attacked FWTDT’s ability should siphon V’s ability,
Either that or it is actually the reverse, and that is her, and she has an image behind V. She knowing that V is genre savvy would work against him, with his knowing about her comm ability, so he would think she was the illusion.
Now this only works if she had time to drag FWTDT’s body over since he was further out then Stalwart and Hiro,
But then again……
BADGERS!!!!
Oh, one other thing, she knows attacking him with the balls would not work well since it would just power him up.
But, she can cluster them together by thought and use them as a defensive shield for protection against a direct attack. She has shown on several occasions that she can control them by thought, very quickly, and can maneuver them anyway she wants (within a limited range of her body).
if that is the real Sydney, then she’s not using an illusion since we can see the telepresence ball within the comm-ball, and that would only be present with the illusion. also, FWTDT is on Vs right, the Sydney we’re seeing is on Vs left.
After reading comments i hope Sydney’s plan involve Dabbler putting an ilusion over DT to use him to drain V.
The next pages are gonna be really interesting.
Not ganna happen as long as the shield is up.
Shield blocks magic, that’s the whole point of putting up the shield here. So there’s nothing Dabbler can do from outside that effects the inside
Deathtolls is on the outside, so Dabbler can place a spell on him, but Sydney would need to drop the shield to make use of that, but then again she needs to drop the shield to get *any* kind of help at all so unless that message she sent was for Max, dropping the shield will most likely be a part of her plan.
I think Sydney right now is buying time or do you think that she is gonna win V with just putting the shield around him?
The check marks we KNOW of are “Sydney, Three Steps Ahead. (comic 136 panel 8)” & “Sydney: So, if you can catch a bullet… Maxima:I wasn’t ready for fear vomit (comic 047 panel 5)” and what we see already is Halo holding the force field orb, & true sight orb. We can also see Halo NOT standing in the center of the orb when V looks at her – which we know isn’t possible for the force field orb . That appears to be the telepresence double. The 2 check marks we know of are making me think that Halo is about to let V ram into her double – which means thru her double & into the shield. The shield that we now know stops energy from getting thru it would also tend to have the same effect on direct interaction with force. So V hit shield hard & loses much of his energy, then Max can step in. 3 moves ahead, & unplanned reaction plus what ever other check marks her super SDHD gave her. That’s my current theory at least.
Umm, about that ‘see Halo NOT standing in the center of the orb when V looks at her – which we know isn’t possible for the force field orb.’, you are wrong: Sydney has to be inside the Bubble, but she doesn’t have to remain at the center. It’s possible she sneaked as close to Fedorka as possible before activating it (while he was distracted) and then quickly moving out of immediate reach while he was again distracted because we see her TUMP into the bubble
I think it’s even simpler. She put the shield up (ball in one hand) and she is holding the comm ball to see if it actually reduced the aggro aura V projected (which it did). You can see from the angle of the aggro field that the shield almost completely centers on V. She has a different plan in process.
While the perspective can be off from where V is looking, it appears Halo is standing near the edge of the force field – which is what makes me think she is already using the true sight orb to make her telepresence double. As to the idea Halo doesn’t need to be in the center, she is always in the center – although the orbs shape can be changed by Halo instantly, that change is based on where the orb is. In every single instance & use of the orb, Sydney never moves around inside a stationary force field orb, rather she flicks old one off & new one on.
Wrong again: go back to the Live Fire Desert Test and you will see that Sydney floated towards the top of the expanded Bubble so she could see Maxi’s Inferno Ball trick
The Bubble forms with her at the center, but she does not need to remain in the center
Warts’ balls may be tougher than Hiro’s foot, but they are still gonna be hurting for awhile
Considering Suzie (yay Suzie!) and Ari got into a fist fight (note Suzie’s bruised knuckles and beginning of a black eye) their clothes are still in perfectly neat condition (not even a loose or missing button)
Some women just know how to fight fashionably :P
More accurately, I think what Stalwart is trying to say is that his balls are tougher than how hard Hiro’s leg muscles can drive his foot…
It’s a small distinction, but it’s there…
;)
The point is, they are still going to hurt
Don’t forget the air supply and who has his head up high. By nature of there size and energy expended, who do you think will go down first?
The bigger someone is, the longer they can last without the need for fresh oxygen (how much longer is determined by how smart he is and how much oxygen and can get before it runs out)
Bigger someone is, the bigger their lung capacity, the bigger their oxygen storage, unless you have had specialized training (or just a freak of nature like me: no a particularly big person, but don’t need to breath as often as others as tend to take deeper longer breaths)
I’m pretty sure if it was a waiting game, the person who would go down first would be Sydney, since Vehemence can just incinerate her with lightning, or flick her head and make her head no longer there. And it’s hard to breath if your head is a red stain on the ground.
So…. Sydney probably shouldnt be relying on a waiting game for air running out.
I’d agree that Sydney has something else already in mind rather than trying to wait it out. She’s thinking “3 steps ahead” & probably already figuring out how to minimize the risk she’s taking.
I figure that she’s using her Telepresence to distract Vehemence, by making him waste time trying to decide which one is really her, especially if she points out that there’s two of her inside the shield now. She’s already got something in mind to bring V down without killing him, because she’s already feeling bad about being instrumental to Max blowing V’s arm off.
I don’t think Sydney is relying on V to let go of Maxima in any case, because he has to keep up the pressure on her, just prevent Max from blowing his head off. I don’t know how Sydney’s planning to bring Vehemence down, but I’d bet it has something to do with what she typed out on her pipboy earlier, to let the others know what she’s planning.
Ooh, I like the vehemic haiku in panel 1. :D
You sir, are a legend.
Heyayayay
Harem with drugs in the parking lot, or Peggy with tranqs.
The shield is around V-the-ass blocking his aura
Sydney is using telepresence
I think thats what I just read/saw.
I am also on pain meds, my words should not be trusted.
I wonder if she can bend the force field to create a wall in front of her
That would be a nice future upgrade of the shield.
I think Vehemence would look a lot better on the first panel with yaranaika face.
Wow, That is incredibly Brave. Medal of Honor grade Brave.
Did you know 62% were awarded posthumously?
yeah was gonna say that’s “posthumously awarded Medal of Honor grade brave even.”
But she’s crafty. She got herself a plan!
When you actually read some of the MoH write-ups, what’s amazing is that almost 40% are NOT posthumous…
My personal favorite MoH hero is Desmond Doss.
First person in American history to receive the MoH without firing a shot. It was against his religion to kill, so he took enough courses to become an Army medic. In the Pacific theater (WW2), he crawled through heavy enemy fire to rescue Marines, then he dragged them out of the firing zone and stabilized them, then he WENT BACK IN to rescue more people.
Seriously, look up his full story. “Badass of the Week” featured him (how I learned about the man). They are also coming out with a movie called “The Conscientious Objector” telling his amazing story.
For someone who’s probably going to get a MoH for what they do, I’d be willing to wager that they all were hoping to not get the award posthumously in the first place…
Umm… can nobody else see the shield reacting to her touch… thats not an illusion… the shield wouldnt react to her back being pressed against it if she was an illusion… also, she has no idea what two of the orbs even do, so perhaps one of them shields her from the adverse effect of the Aura… and its unlikely that Vehemence will be captured, or truly defeated, at this time, as he is obviously recurring antagonist material…
Unless she’s on the opposite side of where he’s looking, and the comm ball is just making a copy of what she’s doing on that side?
… unless:
A. the shield reacting to her is part of the illusion (because she’s really behind V and pressing against the shield there… then the telepresence orb projects her and a portion of the sheild being effected by her to the other side where V sees it).
B. the illusion has been made semi-tangible by her recent level-up
or C. The shield can now interact with illusions.
(in order of most likely to least)
“C. The shield can now interact with illusions.”
or C1. The shield can interact with Sydney’s personal illusion only, because both powers are sourced from the orbs.
I’ve seen this posted before and I’m just going to say it once, it doesn’t matter what the two unknown balls do at the moment, since she’s not holding them and that’s the only way they work!
Oh my fucking god she actually did the thing everyone was saying she should do when they didn’t remember she’d be stuck inside with him, and that everyone who did remember said she wouldn’t do.
Oh, Sydney.
Better plan forming, huh?
I do have to admit she’s adorable.
Also, “my balls… are tougher than your foot…” <= pure gold
I gotta admit, that phrase was being pretty Stalwart of him…
;)
Finally, an end to “TRAP HIM IN SYDNEY’S SHIELD!” Good work Dave.
To everyone pointing out that the yellow center of the comm ball disappears when she uses it for telepresence –that is correct in itself, if you are looking at _her_. Her image however is as she was when it activates, and then mirrors her movement. So if she activated before raising the shield, the shield would not be part –and the yellow center would be in the image. That is the default “which one is the real Sydney” weakness DaveB built in for those working with her.
Her next step will be to cower down in fear as he steps toward her image. She can reform the shield at her real position (on the center that he vacates with his step) and keep him out of his own spell focus. No spell, only minimal vehemic absorbing (direct hits) and Sydney can pull aggro by taunting him into beating on her force field.
Scotto: and that wouldn’t last long, as Maxima would shift power from defense to offence as fast as she can. Maxima also only sees Illusion!Sydney, and aims her attack accordingly. Knowing better than to set off an energy explosion with Sydney in the bubble with her, she attacks physically. With a mighty right hook to the underside of the jaw, she crushes his blabbering mouth and continues on with a practical demonstration of the Chunky Salsa Rule. Completing her punch’s follow through, she realizes that the spray of gore that results from a penetrating hit from low front will project to the target’s rear…which is exactly where Sydney thought she’d be safe where pulling her illusion. Cue yet another “what was that about watching what’s behind your target, Max?”
Check out this strip: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422
As you can clearly see, there is no light center in the com-ball illusion Halo is holding while talking to V. Theory disproven.
Since the only panel where you see illusion!Sydney actually holding the ball is panel 5, and her pocket is reflecting yellow light, I think the com ball illusion actually DOES have a light center, so the theory is not disproven.
the comm-ball is only seen in panel 5, and in that panel NONE of the balls show their center.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494 gives a much better example;
panel 7: real Sydney, no light center inside the ball.
panel 10: fake Sydney, light center present within the ball.
And more importantly panel 5 is the telepresence image of her–not the original still standing over by the downed nooks. I said her original would lose the center light, not the image of her which consistently makes an image of her current state on starting the image.
Whoops got my replies crossed there. Your example is where she seems to show she can only duplicate he movements mirror fashion. As to how that effects my original thought is that she is behind V and facing away from him, she can see if he turns around via the telepresence which is facing him. Gutsy, but not impossible.
actually, my point was that the illusion has the telepresence-orb within the comm-ball and that only the real comm-ball does not while the illusion is active.
i kinda agree with you on her being behind him, because otherwise she moved to the other side of him for no apparent reason.
The only panel in that instance showing the original is in Panel 9 where the light is returning as she turns off the telepresence image of herself. The original loses the yellow creamy center when the image is out, but gets it back when the feature is off.
Maybe that’s what she needs for the PewPew, to think “targeting” to have it project a dot where it will hit…