The Sun Soul

A Pokemon fanfic written by 50calliberchaos..

A Darker and Edgier take on Pokemon, this fic chronicles the journey of Ash Ketchum in a more realistic, dangerous Pokemon world where death and corruption are rife. Pokemon are dangerous enough that one red Gyarados can wipe out an entire town, science has focused mainly on researching pokemon, leading to very advanced medicine but relatively little in terms of computers, transport etc, transportation is mainly on foot/per pokemon (with cars being right out, even in the core region) and there being an actual frontier to human civilization.

The story follows Ash Ketchum, but not as we know him from the anime. An early experience with Pokemon in his childhood teaches him to respect Pokemon for the dangerous nature they possess, a lesson that stays with him throughout the rest of the story. With his traveling companion Misty, a girl with a mysterious past, Ash attempts to get to the bottom of why Team Rocket are occupying Mt. Moon and trying to enter Cerulean Cave. Along the way he meets Bill the scientist, a reclusive inventor, Dawn, a fellow trainer with whom he shares a mysterious connection, Jesse and James, who are constantly at odds with Ash and Misty, and the ever manipulative Mewtwo. Warning: character deaths, violence, and gore ahead.


 * Action Girl: Janine. She throws herself at the enemy before she throws her Pokemon.
 * Aloof Ally:
 * Almost Dead Guy:
 * Anti Hero: Misty is a Type II/III with a Dark and Troubled Past.
 * Anti Villain: Koga may have but only so he could.
 * is shaping up to be another one.
 * is trying to present himself as one of these.
 * Anyone Can Die: A lot of things (people and Pokemon) die in this fic, so we'll just list the plot-relevant ones. This is just from the pre-Time Skip chapters.
 * In a recent chapter, The fanbase has been flipping their shit in the reviews.
 * Even more recently,.
 * Armor Is Useless: Averted big time. Throughout the story armor is shown to be a main reason the heroes are still alive.
 * drives this trope home like a sledgehammer where it is specifically shown that one of the things that makes the event horrific is how.
 * death is due in large part to opting out of wearing armor.
 * On Cinnabar, Ash's armor saves his life when.
 * The Atoner:.
 * Ax Crazy: Cade the bug hunter.
 * Also Jessie. The only reason she doesn't try to kill everyone the minute they get in her way is because James is pragmatic enough to remind her that's not always the best course of action.
 * Badass: Running around, everywhere.
 * Badass Adorable: Pikachu, Growlithe.
 * Badass Normal: Most of the named cast qualify. Misty and Brock are both shown to be deadly in combat, both with Pokemon and by themselves. Officer Jenny and Erika both kick some serious ass, and let's not even start on Jesse and James.
 * Badass Grandpa: Professor Oak.
 * Battle Couple: Ash and Misty, Jesse and James.
 * The Beast Master: Everyone with a Pokemon, but especially Ash, who seems to command unusual respect and obedience from pokemon around him.
 * Beast of Battle: Pokemon, naturally.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted with, who is expressly shown to have suffered all of the physical effects of
 * Big Bad Ensemble: at first, Team Rocket serves as the main antagonist force, but and  are giving the group a run for its money. After,  becomes the only Big Bad.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: The Caterpies and Weedles in Viridian forest. Especially the Weedles.
 * Big Damn Heroes:,  in Vermilion.
 * Subverted in chapter 30,  intended to do this during the fight with  . They were a bit late to the party though.
 * Big Screwed Up Family:
 * As does
 * Ash's dad is Yup.
 * Black Widow:  apparently acted as one once.
 * Born Lucky: Ash, apparently, surviving amazing odds;  among others..
 * Break the Cutie: "Hey kids! Let's see how badly we can traumatize Ash!"
 * At this rate we're going to need to invent a "Break The Cutie Conga Line" trope.
 * Canine Companion: Growlithe/Arcanine
 * Mightyena for.
 * Cain and Abel:
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Janine to Koga. Since both are ninjas, it quickly takes a turn for the worse.
 * Chekhov's Army: At the Saffron City checkpoint, the group meet up with a mercenary company. Said company later reappears for the Celadon arc.
 * The Chessmaster:
 * Cincinnatus: What the Gym Leaders are supposed to be like, though several of them have become corrupt. Brock himself denies this, just because he doesn't like the idea.
 * City of Canals: Cerulean City has this in spades, complete with the odors such a setup entails.
 * Cliff Hanger: An especially cruel one in Chapter 31
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Janine displays some of this when she thinks Sabrina's getting too close to Ash. Vicki lampshades it almost immediately.
 * Composite Character: Gary apparently doesn't exist in this universe, so Ash takes his place as Oak's grandson.
 * Cowboy Cop: This is pretty much the golden rule of the Fuchsia Gym.
 * Crapsack World: Pokemon are deadly dangerous. And thanks to the machinations of Team Rocket,, Kanto is becoming a steadily worse place to live (food shortages, open war over cities, the works). Ash and company are working to fix this, though time will tell if it works.
 * From the stories coming from Cinnabar, the other regions may be even worse.
 * The Orange Islands are in the grasp of a populist revolutionary council that overthrew the sitting King, and now has its sights set on
 * Hoenn has been torn apart by a devastating civil war and is almost a total loss.
 * As bad as those are, Orre is implied to be even worse.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Oak and Clair, two of the world's most powerful trainers, swoop down on just off the coast of Cinnibar.
 * Dark Action Girl., but went soft after meeting Ash.
 * also has shades of this, especially in the way that she
 * Darker and Edgier: Everything! But to be specific, the Pokemon are really wild and dangerous wandering monsters. This means that the safest places are the cities which are protected by the gyms, but this protection comes with a price of its own: namely, the gym leaders basically run the cities. Team Rocket masquerades as a community service organization even as they cause economic havoc, take away food sources, and run horrific experiments. And that's not even getting into the characters...
 * Dead Line News: During the, a cameraman is killed by an attacking Gyarados.
 * Death By Origin Story: Prior to Ash's journey,
 * Death Seeker:
 * Deceptive Disciple: may be Professor Elm's protege, but  That doesn't exactly mean that she finds him innocent, either...
 * Deconstruction Fic: The whole fic is essentially an examination of how dangerous a realistic Pokemon universe would be.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: While catching Pokemon still works this way, it's not instantaneous. For example, after catching Fearow, Ash and Misty release all their Pokemon before releasing Fearow for the first time, ready to fight it if it tries anything.
 * Determinator: Ash embodies determination. Even by the end of the Vermilion arc, you'll wonder how someone can endure that kind of punishment. By the end of the Celadon and Saffron arcs, you'll wonder how anyone can function as a person after what he's been through. And as of the Cinnabar arc...you get the idea.
 * Disappeared Dad: Ash has one.
 * According to his mom, his name is
 * as of the end of chapter 30.
 * Doomed Hometown: Pallet Town.
 * Doom Magnet: destroyed while Ash is nearby.
 * Doorstopper: So far it is 311,246 words as of Chapter 33, so it counts.
 * Dragon Rider:, once gets a Charizard. Making it even more Badass is the fact that Charizard is wickedly aggressive and Ax Crazy, even for its infamously dangerous species.
 * Later on, is flying around on a Charizard.
 * Dystopia: Kanto in general seems to be a mild(ish) example of one.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Misty
 * Everythings Deader With Zombies: Zombie pokemon even.
 * Expy: By the author's admission, Bill is based off Mordin Solus.
 * Cinnabar Island is looking more and more like it was based on Israel. The vaguely Hebrew names around there clinch it.
 * It's described at having universal conscription, and having been at war with it's neighbours for generations, so it looks about right.
 * Fantasy Gun Control: It's mentioned that gunpowder weapons were experimented with, but were found to be too inefficient as well as frightening the trainers' Pokemon.
 * Feathered Fiend: Fearow, among others. More recently, Pidgeot.
 * and later each have Swellows.
 * Freudian Excuse: Koga had to.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Ash. He seems to command an unusual amount of respect from pokemon he catches or commands, and they seem to intuitively understand his orders. Most notable with Blastoise, who is described by Misty as rather dense, stubborn and tactically disinclined, but under Ash's command suddenly understands completely new tactics and obeys without hesitation.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Professor Oak definitely qualifies, for obvious reasons.
 * Ash is an interesting example. He inherited some of his grandfather's scientific talent by working with the man, though he still displays the lack of book-knowledge one would expect from a simple frontier kid with no formal training in much of anything other than Pokemon, as seen in his conversations with Erika.
 * Dawn also qualifies; Oak says that she's better than Ash.
 * Gratuitous German: Blaine in chapter 31: "Schweigen!". Technically correct, although "Ruhe!" would be preferred by Germans.
 * Guest Star Party Member: The Old Crone  in the Lavender arc, Janine in the Fuchsia and Saffron arcs.
 * Gut Feeling:
 * Head Pet: Pikachu
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heroic BSOD: Ash suffers one when . He has a far worse one when.
 * Heroic Dog: Arcanine, at one point.
 * Heroic Neutral: Sabrina is a gray version of this trope; she cares about Saffron's well-being above all else, and any friends of Saffron are friends of hers.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Ash's Haunter.
 * Hero Killer: Jessie and James. No, seriously. They have a Charizard, for Arceus' sake! Most of the reason they haven't killed Ash was because of.
 * Another, more successful Hero Killer would be.
 * Hero of Another Story: Dawn clearly has some adventure going on back in Sinnoh.
 * Hurting Hero: Oh boy, where to start?
 * Pretty much every character.
 * I Am Saffron: Combined with Punctuated for Emphasis for good measure by Sabrina.
 * Ice Queen: Dawn, like crazy.
 * Misty fit for a while.
 * Ill Girl: She compensates by being one awesome ninja.
 * Improbable Weapon User:.
 * In the Hood: Seems to be the standard uniform for the Fuchsia Gym.
 * It Got Worse: Ash goes from losing his entire hometown, his mother, and entire childhood in a night to being thrown into a continent-spanning conspiracy that culminates in him being Oh, and then . Not to mention . And then ... How much worse can things get?
 * I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Misty expresses surprise that Ash can bond with and control Pokemon on a level that shouldn't be possible; on numerous occasions she observes that Ash performs actions with just-caught Pokemon that would have left anyone else dead. Ash is completely unaware of this.
 * Knife Nut: Ash, Misty and Brock all carry knives. Ash in particular, who escaped a few sticky situations by throwing his.
 * Lady of War: Erika has a flavor of this to her. While she maintains an air of royalty about her, to the point of being a major pain in the ass, she can also be a surprisingly potent force on the battlefield if.
 * Lamarck Was Right: Apparently being around a specific type of Pokemon can, over generations, cause humans to take on the aspects of that type of Pokemon.
 * The Lost Woods: Viridian Forest. At a certain point, the canopy covers the sky completely, not letting any light in. The air becomes completely still. The temperature drops sharply in certain areas. The trail gets ever narrower, making it easy to get lost. And God help you if you stumble upon a silky white pod ... Even Indigo Plateau Rangers, some of the toughest survivalists Kanto has to offer, aren't safe, as Ash and Misty eventually find out.
 * Love Makes You Evil: Koga.
 * Love Redeems:
 * Luke I Am Your Father:
 * The Messiah: Ash.
 * Mon: Averted. Trainers are anything but safe, even in tournaments.
 * Motor Mouth: Bill.
 * Mutual Kill: with more than a hint of Taking You With Me on the part of the latter.
 * Mythology Gag: In the beginning, Ash is rescued by Professor Oak while running through - you guessed it - tall grass.
 * Mysterious Past: Misty. Even after The Reveal, there are huge chunks of important detail missing.
 * And according to the author's comments, we won't be getting those details, because.
 * Ninja: All members of the Fuchsia Gym.
 * Nothing Personal: Stated word-for-word by Ash
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: When in public, Jessie and James act pretty similar to their canon counterparts.
 * Olympus Mons: Zapdos is somewhere between this and an Eldritch Abomination.
 * Omnicidal Maniac:
 * One Head Taller: Ash to May.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: James. He usually keeps Jessie in line, and has warned her that he will have no choice but to kill her if she lets her urges override common sense.
 * Prepare to Die:
 * Olympus Mons: Zapdos is somewhere between this and an Eldritch Abomination.
 * Omnicidal Maniac:
 * One Head Taller: Ash to May.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: James. He usually keeps Jessie in line, and has warned her that he will have no choice but to kill her if she lets her urges override common sense.
 * Prepare to Die:


 * Psychic Powers: The usual suspects.
 * Red Shirt: Tends to be averted. Regular joes wear armor and carry weapons that are no more or less deadly than what the heroes get. Pokemon notwithstanding, everyone is on pretty equal ground, which is, of course, what sets the heroes apart.
 * Relationship Upgrade: Ash and Misty get into a relationship, and have explicitly had sex. It's strongly implied that Jessie and James have had the same. also have one much later on.
 * Please Wake Up:
 * The Professor: Oak, of course. Though we also see Bill, and hear about Rowan.
 * Elm shows up.
 * Ship Tease: has been hinted at a lot ever since
 * Shoot the Messenger: During the . It does not end well for the messenger.
 * Shout Out: Chapter 18: "Janine nodded. "Rule thirty-four of the Fuchsia Gym: Be polite and professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." (Right at the bottom of the page, number 21.)
 * Smug Snake: gets results, but he seriously overestimates his sway over  This ends
 * Survivor Guilt: Ash shows some of this.
 * Teeth Clenched Teamwork: Ash and in Lavender Town. This troper finds the dynamic actually rather amusing.
 * Now Ash is serving as the
 * The Force Is Strong With This One:
 * The Reveal: Misty
 * Time Skip: The fic goes a year ahead in time after
 * Title Drop: in Chapter 31
 * Took a Level In Badass: Every single character compared to their canon counteparts, due to the much more dangerous world they live in. But special mention goes to Jessie and James, who went from jokes to outright menaces. Also in-story for Ash.
 * Transhuman Aliens: Humanity seems to be set out for this as they adapt to the pokemon around them.
 * Unreliable Narrator:
 * Villain Exit Stage Left: Koga... but then again, ninja.
 * Villainous Breakdown: James really loses it during the battle at Silph Co.
 * Elm just about craps himself during the ending of his battle with Ash and.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Team Rocket.
 * We Can Rule Together: Jessie and James give Ash a job offer when they first meet. To their credit, they hadn't done anything evil on screen yet.
 * Kasumi also tries this on Ash, with little success.
 * Koga tries this on Janine. It doesn't work, though it rattles Janine enough to bring her to tears.
 * Elm tries it too. Is this like a required act for all potential villains or something now?
 * So that's a 'yes'.
 * War Is Hell: proves once and for all that Pokemon have their place in war... And that it's not a pretty place.
 * And then
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Koga and James. Apparently, many members of Team Rocket are this.
 * Wham Episode: Chapter 22.
 * Chapter 25.
 * Word of God is that
 * With This Herring: When Ash and Misty first set out, they're given body armor by Professor Oak, which was rather crappy, but did the job well enough. This is due in part to the fact that Oak barely had any resources to scrape together considering . When they get to Bill, he gives them two very nice sets of armor which Brock says even the Elite Four would like, which Ash reasons is because the Pokedex cataloguing mission they're on is incredibly dangerous and it would only make sense for them to receive such high-end gear. In addition to the armor, Bill replenishes their supplies of rations, anti-toxins, gear, etc. and parts with a joke about how they're draining what he has.
 * You Fail Economics Forever: Invoked in-universe. The people of Celadon city see nothing wrong with paying for timber, iron, ect., with money that they print (while exporting next to nothing). As Erika points out, this is a very bad idea.
 * You Killed My Father:
 * You Kill It You Bought It: though he didn't do the deed himself. It's noted that it only worked due to extrenuating circumstances.
 * Zerg Rush: The "bad guys" try this in after their trainers fail to carry the day.
 * Zerg Rush: The "bad guys" try this in after their trainers fail to carry the day.