Grrl Power

Haha, Batsie and Catsie.

But can she stop a laser?

It depends on precisely how the laser works. A true laser would only be blocked by an opaque shield (though I have a feeling her shield might be smart enough to turn opaque in that instance), but a lot of sci-fi lasers handwave that sort of thing by using plasma bolts and so on that give off light as a harmless byproduct.

Or a shield that turns opaque at the point of impact.

And indeed, Sydney is making good use of the aura-blocking powers. Er... if by that, you mean "good use locking yourself in the polar bear environment"...

Force Field to full NOW, Sydney!

She's taking several varieties of risk, obviously. But the thing I like is the choice of characters to be shown thumping each other here. Which also makes me wonder what's happened to Zeph, Gwen, and Leon in the last few seconds.

Well, that's kinda the problem - it's already on full, and right now, Vehemence is inside it. I'm actually wondering if lasering him might not be a bad idea - there has to be a limit to his power, after all, and her laser was pretty powerful.

Also, I noticed she leveled up again. Too bad she doesn't really have time at the moment to pick her new power. Though it would be pretty hilarious if she asked him to wait while she decided. Even funnier if he made some suggestions.

Firing a particle beam weapon inside a forcefield...might not be a good idea.

I'm sure she'd be fine. She just has to keep it aimed away from herself. Maxima's got her armour maxed, so she could probably take it, too.

But anyway, I'm guessing Sydney's plan is going to be way better than that. Probably so much crazier.

Catching up with this, and I'm starting to feel like Vehemence is becoming just a tad too OP. I mean, I accepted the regeneration as a necessary evil to ensure Maxima couldn't brute force her way through it. His arm turning to metal was a bit odd, but hey, it's probably just part of the regeneration, so sure. But then the electricity confused me, and the "violence aura" has now taken it a bit too far, because Vehemence has just been given a way to freely power himself whenever he wants. This would be a stomp if his aura wasn't blocked by Sydney's shield, and that just raises questions on how either of those work.

Still, good thinking on Sydney to pull the field around him. Best way to stop it is to cage it in something. Now hopefully she has a way of not being completely pummeled.

I wonder whether she has a way to "project" the shield via the telepresence orb. If so, that might not even be her in there.

That thing in the first panel was Vehemence leveling up. You'll notice his tattoos changed color again.

Ah. Well that's likely problematic, then. I figured the leveling up was unique to Sydney.

Well, it's not a traditional level up in that it's not permanent. He just reached another plateau of power to burn. Hopefully the aggro aura is really expensive and burns off enough that Maxima can switch to the offensive before he destroys Sydney.

Update.

Bad news: He turned off the aggro aura before it could exhaust too much power.

Good news: He turned it off before Sydney could do anything stupid, and he's not concerned with killing her.

More bad news: Whatever the second part of her plan was, she already managed to derail it completely. And as a side note, apparently she can't spawn the lighthook inside the shield.

Max is conflicted.

Gloriously shameless fanservice? Check. Conflicted Maxima and genre-savvy Sydney? Check. Logical approach of defeating the villain powered by violence by calming him down? Check. Long-previous page being foreshadowing? Check. Man, this is just hitting all the right marks, ain't it?

And dammit, Dabbler. Your massive platter of powers and your ability to pull every spell and gizmo out of your ass should make me slap you with a Mary Sue card. Quit being such a fun and enjoyable character.

...I'll admit I forgot about that gag of dabbler's boobs being hypnotic. Definitely didn't expect it to be tactically deployed against an enemy though

Fortunately, Sydney can type really fast on a small touch screen.

So radio waves can pass through the shield.

Maybe, but read the first part. It seems like this was written before she trapped Vehemence in the bubble, and Jiggawatt finally noticed. Maybe she dropped the shield for a second there, letting the radio waves through.

Hmm... I had forgotten that that little snail thing was there from Dabbler soaking up radiation from the darkning. I don't know if it's foreshadowing or just a nod to "Oh, and yes, the team is still scrubbing radiation, so this won't be an environmental disaster area".

Tectonic Uppercut

So far, fairly standard plan... distract the bad guy, all-in-one shot, take advantage of a temporary wound to dig the knife deeper... now what happens with Anvil?

Twisted rope looks like a mighty fine anchor to either choke him out, or throw him far far away.

Also, getting the tentacle around the throat before he heals is a nice touch. Now he either can't heal, or more likely will be forced to heal in a constricted position, cutting off air.