It's clear from today's comic that powering up the zappy stick will be important to the story of how this battle goes. So it wasn't a digression. It wasn't random. People seem to have a tendency to say that about the comic every five minutes, that it's always getting distracted because it's not focusing on whatever it is they think it should be focusing on at this particular moment, but the Foglios are pretty good at this, and all those digressions that don't really matter end up mattering before all is said and done. So, me, I just go with it.