Grrl Power VII: Let Me Explain For The Next Thirty Comics!

[Yuki Akuma]

It is very smart to not let anyone know the full extent of your powers. Archon does that, even - lots of them have classified powers.

[Traab]

Well there we go, now we know more or less how his powers work. Or at least the win condition max needed last time. She needs to slag his sand and all the sand nearby. Sounds like to me she has to pull a superman in the cartoon where he fought an army of doomsday clones with the amazons and went wide angle heat beams to destroy them all at once. But that may be an issue of not enough power to do while maintaining her defenses at an acceptable level. That being said, we havent exactly seen darude DOING anything to max. I wonder if its more a case of him being really really dangerous to the normies and their stuff, and really really hard to stop, but his power is only applicable to max in very specific ways, like she said, she needed a mask to keep him from shoving sand in her lungs. But aside from that, he may not have the power to be a real threat to her.

[lord_khaine]

Well according to the text box, last time they fought she ended with what was basically road rash because the fight forced her to divert energy towards flight and energy beams.
That i guess, in turn speaks about how absurdly powerful the sandblasts are. We are likely talking about industrial+ grade sandblasting.
The stuff that strips a human down to a skeleton in a short while.

[Shining Wrath]

We know Max has to wear him down by repeated blasting. I wonder what Halo will do to help? She's reaching for the blue sphere, which is flight. Is she going to fly into the sandstorm? How does that help?

[Keltest]

We know Max has to wear him down by repeated blasting. I wonder what Halo will do to help? She's reaching for the blue sphere, which is flight. Is she going to fly into the sandstorm? How does that help?

She could be taking a gamble that the shield will cut him off from the sandstorm? She also seems to have become proficient in switching between flight and PPO without falling to her death while she was lost in time and space, so maybe she's just going to set it to "melt everything" and let loose?

[Traab]

She could be taking a gamble that the shield will cut him off from the sandstorm? She also seems to have become proficient in switching between flight and PPO without falling to her death while she was lost in time and space, so maybe she's just going to set it to "melt everything" and let loose?

I mean, its not a terrible idea I suppose, but probably inefficient. I dont think her scattershot blast is hot enough to melt sand (Which takes a frankly absurd temp) And her beam would do it but is a narrow beam and thus not very efficient. However, it MIGHT be good as a distraction for max. Get his attention so max has the time to wind up, reallocate points to three mile island level, and nuke all of the sand, or at least enough to speed things up greatly. Considering the speed she can fly at, she may just be going for disruption. Id imagine a large enough shield bubble, traveling at several times the speed of sound, could create some large scale shockwaves within the sentient sand storm. A person shaped missile like max traveling at mach whatever, versus a orb shaped projectile large enough to contain 7 people doing the same. Someone do some advanced physics math on this, im kinda curious as to how the shockwaves might differ.

[lord_khaine]

With the amount of energy Max emits it seems unlikely Sydney can rival it just by flying around.
And its also not certain she can each the same speed with a massive 7 person shield as with a 1 person one.

But she does have a ½ genie with her in the shield.
Its possible this will involve either her, or getting someone else up there?

[Dragonus45]

She could be taking a gamble that the shield will cut him off from the sandstorm? She also seems to have become proficient in switching between flight and PPO without falling to her death while she was lost in time and space, so maybe she's just going to set it to "melt everything" and let loose?

I'm betting its the wide area shield trick. It probably even works, if she survives the time in between lowering it and raising it again. Only probably though. She might not be able to get all of him or he might be able to just shift what sane he is inside of. I could see this going potentially very suddenly dark when she just winds up with his severed arm inside of the shield. Still it's a trick the only works if you catch him the first time though.

[Keltest]

I'm betting its the wide area shield trick. It probably even works, if she survives the time in between lowering it and raising it again. Only probably though. She might not be able to get all of him or he might be able to just shift what sane he is inside of. I could see this going potentially very suddenly dark when she just winds up with his severed arm inside of the shield. Still it's a trick the only works if you catch him the first time though.

The obvious problem I see with the wide area shield trick, which is why I'm really uncertain she would go for it, is that if he's in there somewhere, locking him and a bunch of his sand inside the shield with her is basically lethal. It only works if he's at some remote location outside the shield controlling the sand.

[lord_khaine]

It sounded more like this is a version of what Concretia does. Where Darude expands out and becomes a massive amount of sand.

Its also why i dont think catching a shield full of sand will do anything meaningful
Having individual bits of sand burned into gas or glass does not seem to affect him.

Also when the sand is moving at a speed that hurt Max over long time, then i dont think its save lowering the shield for even seconds.

[Shining Wrath]

If Halo's shield is truly invulnerable, and she can hit Darude at Mach 12, that's one heck of a shock wave. The damage to civilian structures and ears on the ground might be severe, though.

[Radar]

If Halo's shield is truly invulnerable, and she can hit Darude at Mach 12, that's one heck of a shock wave. The damage to civilian structures and ears on the ground might be severe, though.

Indeed. This would seem to be a less concentrated destruction that those energy blasts Maxima produces. Not sure if even such a shockwave would do anything substantial to the sand - fusing grains of sand requires some extreme conditions. Maybe scattering it far enough would make Darude lose control over it, but this is all guesswork at this point.

[lord_khaine]

Its also uncertain she has enough acceleration to hit march 12 with such a low runup anyway.

[Dragonus45]

The obvious problem I see with the wide area shield trick, which is why I'm really uncertain she would go for it, is that if he's in there somewhere, locking him and a bunch of his sand inside the shield with her is basically lethal. It only works if he's at some remote location outside the shield controlling the sand.

I think what might happen is she catches the sand he is "inside" of and hopefully with so little to work with within the shield itself he is less dangerous while she moves him around. Having tiny succubus girl who's name I can't be bothered to remember could likely help make this much less lethal in general.

It sounded more like this is a version of what Concretia does. Where Darude expands out and becomes a massive amount of sand.

Its also why i dont think catching a shield full of sand will do anything meaningful
Having individual bits of sand burned into gas or glass does not seem to affect him.

Also when the sand is moving at a speed that hurt Max over long time, then i dont think its save lowering the shield for even seconds.

See above. Alternatively I wonder if she could scoop up some industrial sized heap of sand and just start carting the sand he isn't inside away while the shield cuts him off from it. Regardless I think abusing the shields ability to cut off things from the outside on a metaphysical level is likely the trick here.

[Traab]

Indeed. This would seem to be a less concentrated destruction that those energy blasts Maxima produces. Not sure if even such a shockwave would do anything substantial to the sand - fusing grains of sand requires some extreme conditions. Maybe scattering it far enough would make Darude lose control over it, but this is all guesswork at this point.

See, to me the thing is, if the shockwave is big and bad enough, it would work as giving maxima her opening for a major blast. Think the time she wrapped vehemences eyes with her tentacle orb. No damage done, but it left him open for max to delimb the dude. If she can shatter his form and take his attention for even a few seconds, maxima can go full power and wide angle and slag a vast amount of area in one go, greatly reducing his available material and shortening the fight. Its not an instant win condition, but it should make things go faster. And heck, if she can take the advantage like that, its entirely possible she can carpet bomb him at higher power because she wont give him time to reform so he cant fight back well enough to force her to divert power to armor.

I foresee it working a bit like this. Sydney flies away so she has room to gather full speed, she gives max a 5 second warning, "Five seconds till impact, then take the shot" Then KRAKABOOM! She slams her full sized shield at whatever mach she can hit right into darude, scattering his sand body and drawing his attention for the crucial moment. That being said, if whatever her plan is does work, it might show why she is moving up a few ranks quickly post flashback. She has shown repeatedly that she has not only a good control over her impressive powers, but the lateral thinking to solve thorny issues with plans that work surprisingly well. Vehemence and the super brawl she showed that several times, the twilight council and sciona she did so again, dealing with being trapped on an alien planet surrounded by hostile forces, the list goes on. Sydney is someone who can be counted on when matters get serious. I wouldnt put her in charge of anything important yet, but she is getting there.

[Radar]

See, to me the thing is, if the shockwave is big and bad enough, it would work as giving maxima her opening for a major blast. Think the time she wrapped vehemences eyes with her tentacle orb. No damage done, but it left him open for max to delimb the dude. If she can shatter his form and take his attention for even a few seconds, maxima can go full power and wide angle and slag a vast amount of area in one go, greatly reducing his available material and shortening the fight. Its not an instant win condition, but it should make things go faster. And heck, if she can take the advantage like that, its entirely possible she can carpet bomb him at higher power because she wont give him time to reform so he cant fight back well enough to force her to divert power to armor.

I foresee it working a bit like this. Sydney flies away so she has room to gather full speed, she gives max a 5 second warning, "Five seconds till impact, then take the shot" Then KRAKABOOM! She slams her full sized shield at whatever mach she can hit right into darude, scattering his sand body and drawing his attention form the crucial moment.

That might be a good option. I was too focused on direct damage and did not see a possibility for support and aggro holding.

That being said, if whatever her plan is does work, it might show why she is moving up a few ranks quickly post flashback. She has shown repeatedly that she has not only a good control over her impressive powers, but the lateral thinking to solve thorny issues with plans that work surprisingly well. Vehemence and the super brawl she showed that several times, the twilight council and sciona she did so again, dealing with being trapped on an alien planet surrounded by hostile forces, the list goes on. Sydney is someone who can be counted on when matters get serious. I wouldnt put her in charge of anything important yet, but she is getting there.

Emergency situation are most likely up her alley - basically anything that cannot be pre-planned and does not fall under standard procedures. Day-to-day operations and administration involved with an officer rank, I am really not sure. She does operate a business though, so maybe?

[lord_khaine]

See above. Alternatively I wonder if she could scoop up some industrial sized heap of sand and just start carting the sand he isn't inside away while the shield cuts him off from it. Regardless I think abusing the shields ability to cut off things from the outside on a metaphysical level is likely the trick here.

Yeah i did see above. And no i still dont think it work that way.
I also dont think Sydney survives lowering the shield. As mentioned previous. It freaking hurt Max (even if it was in a prolonged fight).

And i cant see how she can scoop up a industrisal sized heap of sand. right now its spread out decently.
The amount of sand she can catch would be insignificant compared to what Max breaks.

If she can shatter his form and take his attention for even a few seconds, maxima can go full power and wide angle and slag a vast amount of area in one go, greatly reducing his available material and shortening the fight. Its not an instant win condition, but it should make things go faster. And heck, if she can take the advantage like that, its entirely possible she can carpet bomb him at higher power because she wont give him time to reform so he cant fight back well enough to force her to divert power to armor.

I cant see how you can think Sydney can manage to shatter his form when Max at her best has only managed to get his attention.
And i also cant see whats preventing Max from going wide angle now. except possibly not having the impact to melt sand on wide angle

[Traab]

That might be a good option. I was too focused on direct damage and did not see a possibility for support and aggro holding.


Emergency situation are most likely up her alley - basically anything that cannot be pre-planned and does not fall under standard procedures. Day-to-day operations and administration involved with an officer rank, I am really not sure. She does operate a business though, so maybe?

Too be fair, they were going out of business, though that may not be entirely her fault. But yeah, I agree, she needs a lot more training and experience before I would put her in charge of a squad, with all the non combat stuff that entails being another issue entirely. But agreed, she is the fire extinguisher, great in emergencies, not so useful day to day.

[Squire Doodad]

And i also cant see whats preventing Max from going wide angle now. except possibly not having the impact to melt sand on wide angle

I presume not being able to see what's there and thus major risk of collateral. It might also have negligible impact with spread than focusing on...his...face? Not sure what's going on there

[lord_khaine]

I presume not being able to see what's there and thus major risk of collateral. It might also have negligible impact with spread than focusing on...his...face? Not sure what's going on there

I kinda assume that in a 4 hours fight Max has had time to test all the basic variations on her beam attack for effect.

[Traab]

I kinda assume that in a 4 hours fight Max has had time to test all the basic variations on her beam attack for effect.

Im working under the assumption that she needs to maintain a certain level of durability, and flight speed, in order to cover her defenses, which keeps her from going full blast. Best reference, the thumb break and throat punch on vehemence. He had her pinned down so she couldnt use her strength to its fullest without weakening her defense enough to get her throat crushed. When jiggawatt absorbed his additional lightning damage, she was able to do a quick stat dump into physical strength to get him off her. Similar to this, if sydney is able to gain darudes attention, max could theoretically do a full stat dump into blaster and nuke him at a far higher destructive level than she currently can. If she can eliminate a sphere of sand a half mile in radius, its going to be harder for darude to retaliate as he needs to find more sand to inhabit leaving her free to continue nuking.

[lord_khaine]

In their last fight she ended up having to lower her defence far enough to get sandblasted.
But she didnt do enough damage all the same.

And if she wanted to go full out now she could always move out of range and then nuke him.
But we have not seen her do a wide area blast. So its quite possible she cant do that.

[Dragonus45]

Yeah i did see above. And no i still dont think it work that way.
I also dont think Sydney survives lowering the shield. As mentioned previous. It freaking hurt Max (even if it was in a prolonged fight).

And i cant see how she can scoop up a industrisal sized heap of sand. right now its spread out decently.
The amount of sand she can catch would be insignificant compared to what Max breaks.

Once again, see above. Narratively convenient Dabbler's little sister is in the bubble with her. And her shield can expand fairly wide as well, she could easily get a ton of sand in there, which is only 22 cubic feet. Roughly the size of a large refrigerator. Heck they tried to put a couch in there once.

I cant see how you can think Sydney can manage to shatter his form when Max at her best has only managed to get his attention.
And i also cant see whats preventing Max from going wide angle now. except possibly not having the impact to melt sand on wide angle

And presumably large numbers of locals who would be caught in the blast radius.

[Traab]

In their last fight she ended up having to lower her defence far enough to get sandblasted.
But she didnt do enough damage all the same.

And if she wanted to go full out now she could always move out of range and then nuke him.
But we have not seen her do a wide area blast. So its quite possible she cant do that.

Honestly, we dont know the full details, it may be that she got sandblasted a bit at the end because of how tired she was getting. That was a brutal endurance match fighting a sand manipulator in a desert. And she did do enough damage to at least make him run away so it ended in her victory. It just took a long time because there was way too much sand for him to work with to end it fast. Thats not the situation here. Unless he has a new trick, she would win in the end anyways, and sooner this time as she has less material to blast first. But ending the fight faster is almost always the better option to take.

The interesting thing here is, maxima clearly cant quickly end the fight as it is. Now, that may be because darude is strong enough to cause her issues if she doesnt defend herself, but the fact that he isnt ignoring her to go after his objective, whatever that may be, implies that he has to focus on her or else maybe she COULD wear his sand down fast enough to stop him. Im judging that their relative powers are an odd setup where they are both stronger defensively than offensively. Darude cant seem to kill maxima even in a 4 hour death match. Meanwhile it took maxima 4 hours to wear him down to the point where he had to make his escape.

[Dragonus45]

The interesting thing here is, maxima clearly cant quickly end the fight as it is. Now, that may be because darude is strong enough to cause her issues if she doesnt defend herself, but the fact that he isnt ignoring her to go after his objective, whatever that may be, implies that he has to focus on her or else maybe she COULD wear his sand down fast enough to stop him. Im judging that their relative powers are an odd setup where they are both stronger defensively than offensively. Darude cant seem to kill maxima even in a 4 hour death match. Meanwhile it took maxima 4 hours to wear him down to the point where he had to make his escape.

Just saying, if I was the person doing planning for OPFOR here then Darude's objective would be Maxima if only because time Max spends in that tarpit of a fight is time she spends not doing unimaginable damage to my plans.

[Traab]

Just saying, if I was the person doing planning for OPFOR here then Darude's objective would be Maxima if only because time Max spends in that tarpit of a fight is time she spends not doing unimaginable damage to my plans.

Yeah its an interesting decision. On the one hand, he is all that holds maxima back, which is important. On the other, he is a vast sentient sandstorm thats powerful enough to cause issues for maxima, meaning an enemy base would be worn down to desiccated bones in short order. That being said, i cant help but notice he is being a very huge and obvious distraction. The question becomes for who, and to accomplish what? It could be what it appears on the surface, an enemy raid to grab or destroy whatever they can get with their heavy Darude keeping the heavies of the enemy side busy. It could also be a deeper plan from deus as we know he has an extremely extensive set of connections to the evil underbelly of super society. It would hardly be a challenge for him to arrange this attack for some reason. On the other hand, he literally just confessed to being a super duper mega brain to maxima, which means she is going to be aware of the fact that he could be behind everything that happens and look into it, so maybe he wouldnt try that now.

[lord_khaine]

Once again, see above. Narratively convenient Dabbler's little sister is in the bubble with her. And her shield can expand fairly wide as well, she could easily get a ton of sand in there, which is only 22 cubic feet. Roughly the size of a large refrigerator. Heck they tried to put a couch in there once.

Once again. I -DID- see above.
While. Your leaving out that the sand is currently part of a sand storm. A literaly ton of sand is not going to fit into 22 cubic feett
What she can steal, is at best a full shield of sand, from a guy whose height is measured in kilometers.

Yeah its an interesting decision. On the one hand, he is all that holds maxima back, which is important. On the other, he is a vast sentient sandstorm thats powerful enough to cause issues for maxima, meaning an enemy base would be worn down to desiccated bones in short order. That being said, i cant help but notice he is being a very huge and obvious distraction. The question becomes for who, and to accomplish what?

It is quite possible he is just what he appears. The heavy support for the team of heroes launching a surprise strike against the demon-summoning, humanity betraying, warlord about to conquer afrika.

And originally he was there to fend off native super/demons.
But now he is instead distracting the Imperialistic Golden Enforcer he has a feud with.

(i continue to be amused by how little change in perspective it takes to make Darude the hero)

[Traab]

Oh i agree, it absolutely could be played straight, a group of mercs or some nations military force working with darude to attack deus and it just happens that max was there. But it could also so easily be something more because that is one heck of a coincidence that darude just happens to attack deus at the base location where maxima just happens to be.

[Radar]

Oh i agree, it absolutely could be played straight, a group of mercs or some nations military force working with darude to attack deus and it just happens that max was there. But it could also so easily be something more because that is one heck of a coincidence that darude just happens to attack deus at the base location where maxima just happens to be.

Might be that Deus made sure that Maxima's visit and Darude's attack happen at the same time. After all, when Maxima would arrive would have to be heavily consulted on a diplomatic level. What was stopping him from baiting his enemies to attack at a given time? This way he can get rid of a serious local threat as if Darude attacked some other time, things could have been more complicated for Deus or at least there would be more collateral damage.

[Dragonus45]

While. Your leaving out that the sand is currently part of a sand storm. A literaly ton of sand is not going to fit into 22 cubic feett
What she can steal, is at best a full shield of sand, from a guy whose height is measured in kilometers.

Is it? There is all kinds of sand just around on the ground or at the outside. Also, see above about magic user who could help cover her while she captures sand that is part of the sandstorm if needed. It's right there in the comic. Also, yes a ton of sand is about 22 cubic feet.