The Teraverse

""How do I become a hero?" More than one person has asked me this, and I think this is a really great question. You do not need superpowers to be a hero. There are everyday heroes all around us... All you need is the morals and the strength to ask the question you already posed."

- Terawatt, in Chapter 73 of The Secret Return of Alex Mack

The Teraverse (also called the "Alexverse") is a Shared Universe Fanfic setting created essentially by accident by author Diane Castle with the publication between 2012 and 2014 of her Alex Mack fanfic The Secret Return of Alex Mack. The story of how Alex Mack transformed herself from "a kid with powers" to her Earth's counterpart to Superman inspired a whole raft of other fan writers, who began creating their own stories set in the same world (with Castle's permission).

At its core, the Teraverse started out as a blend of The Secret World of Alex Mack and a highly variant version of The DCU in which counterparts to the characters of the latter are starting to appear (not necessarily in familiar forms) at the turn of the 21st century. As writers joined the project and added their own ideas to the 'Verse, it quickly evolved into a world that only superficially resembled our own before the advent of Terawatt, and which had a secret history of metahumans and weird science dating back centuries or even millennia. Along the way a world that started out with a mostly Black and White Morality became somewhat more nuanced, but never to the point of excusing its villains and their depravity.

The Teraverse does not yet have a dedicated home page, but a listing of its fics is included on the home page for Castle's intersecting series A Brane of Extraordinary Women, and all of the fics in it can be found on the fanfic site Twisting The Hellmouth. Also, Spacebattles.com hosts a discussion area for the Teraverse. With the number of contributors it possesses and the rate at which stories in its 'Verse are being written, it may come to rival Undocumented Features in size and scope in only a few more years. The authors (especially Diane) also all tend to Show Their Work and/or Write What They Know in a multitude of obscure fields.


 * The Secret Return of Alex Mack, which unintentionally launched the 'Verse.
 * Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived by Diane Castle
 * The Lion, the Walsh, and the Laboratory by Speakertocustomers
 * As the general saw it... by fpb
 * Refusing the Call by Zeviz
 * It is to Laugh by batzulger
 * I Thought I Was Crazy by batzulger
 * Nevada by batzulger
 * A Matter of Family by AntonioCC
 * Thank Yuh Very Much by batzulger
 * Rough Day at the Office by batzulger
 * Flyover Country by batzulger
 * MINUSCULE by batzulger
 * The First Cut is the Deepest by Speakertocustomers
 * Hunter's Moon by batzulger
 * Band in Boston by hysteriumredux
 * Bee Alone by Traszgo
 * Ye Shall Not Die Alone by BobSchroeck
 * Legacies by hysteriumredux
 * The Crime Dog by hysteriumredux
 * AGENTS by batzulger
 * The Dog Pack by hysteriumredux
 * Announcements by MarcusRowland
 * Release the Hounds by hysteriumredux
 * Apprenticeship by batzulger
 * Source by batzulger
 * Dog Fight by hysteriumredux
 * One Riot by batzulger
 * Shadowbox by batzulger
 * Snapshots by Letomo
 * BeeDazzled by batzulger
 * Leverage Inc. by Letomo
 * Leaping to Conclusions by batzulger
 * Inside Job by hysteriumredux
 * Bad Medicine by MarcusRowland
 * Cave Canem by hysteriumredux
 * Messing With The Mouse by MarcusRowland
 * Boston Accent by hysteriumredux
 * Stone City Blues by batzulger
 * The Gonged by Manchester
 * Promethean by batzulger
 * La Ville des Lumières (et du Sang) by batzulger
 * Ms. Crush, If You Want To Be Formal by Manchester
 * The Champions by batzulger
 * It's Just A Habit by CaptainBoulanger
 * AXAA AAXC GYAG CYGG... by batzulger
 * Standard Practice by hysteriumredux
 * Empires by batzulger
 * Life's a Beach by CaptainBoulanger
 * Cut Bait and Fish by hysteriumredux
 * Dirty Science by batzulger
 * X Insert by AceDreamer
 * Detective... by batzulger
 * Terawatt: Seven days in Italy by fpb
 * Five Golden Rings by CaptainBoulanger
 * Dog Days of Summer by hysteriumredux
 * Six by batzulger
 * Living Under Iraq by CaptainBoulanger
 * Been a Long Time by batzulger
 * Five Photographers Alex Met and One She Didn't by MarcusRowland
 * Shellfish and Sea Dogs by hysteriumredux
 * Operation Eternal Flame by CaptainBoulanger
 * The Secret Collocation of Alex Mack by Diane Castle
 * Buckeroo Bonsai by hysteriumredux
 * Fiddler by batzulger
 * I Do My Own Stunts by CaptainBoulanger
 * The dictator and the mad doctor by fpb
 * Up In Smoke by CaptainBoulanger
 * Speedloader Dynamite Dance Party by batzulger
 * Vanishing Act by Marcus Rowland
 * The Lady and the Detective by Manchester
 * Bat by the Bay by batzulger
 * Holy Tragedy by CaptainBoulanger

The Teraverse overlaps with Diane Castle's series A Brane of Extraordinary Women, which chronicles in its various parts events which take place in several different universes, of which the Teraverse is only one.

There also exists a Who's Who in the Tera-Verse guide, listing characters, organizations and locations in a format similar to that seen in "official" guides to The DCU and the Marvel Universe. It can be found here. (Warning! Spoilers abound!)

There also exists a Tera-Verse Time-Line which attempts to detail the chronology of the various stories and events. Some stories occur in a single day while others may occur over a span of months or years. It can be found here.

Finally, artwork for the Teraverse can be found on the home page of A Brane of Extraordinary Women.

In addition to the sources already incorporated into The Secret Return of Alex Mack, the Teraverse also includes elements and/or characters from the following works:


 * Angel


 * Archie Comics


 * The Assassination Bureau


 * Banacek


 * Banlieue 13


 * Big Trouble in Little China


 * Black Lagoon


 * Black Mask


 * Black Scorpion


 * Boondock Saints


 * Boston Legal


 * The Bourne Legacy


 * Breaking Bad


 * Bubba Ho-Tep


 * Burt & I


 * Carnosaur


 * The Cellar Series by Bob Mayer


 * The Champions


 * Charlie Chan


 * Charmed


 * The China Syndrome


 * Christopher Cool: TEEN Agent


 * Colossus: The Forbin Project


 * Condor


 * Congorilla


 * Danger Man


 * Demon Seed


 * The Departed


 * Department S


 * The Destroyer


 * Dexter


 * The Dirty Harry films


 * The "Medfield College" movies from Disney: The Absent Minded Professor, Flubber, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him, Now You Don't, and The Strongest Man in the World


 * Doc Savage


 * Drop the Dead Donkey


 * Dumbo


 * The Eiger Sanction and The Loo Sanction


 * Eisenhower and Lutz


 * The Embassy


 * Emergency


 * The Equalizer


 * Evolution


 * An Eye for an Eye


 * Eyes of Laura Mars


 * The FBI


 * First Blood


 * Flowers for Algernon


 * Frankenstein


 * Fu Manchu


 * The Game Plan


 * Galaxy Quest. A case which straddles the line between in-universe and not.  The TV series from within the film exists in the Teraverse, and takes the place of Star Trek in the Teraverse's pop culture.


 * GI Jane


 * Gladiator


 * The Gnarly Man


 * Goldeneye


 * Good Will Hunting


 * The Great Pursuit by Tom Sharpe


 * Green Lama


 * Gunsmith Cats


 * Harvey


 * Herbie, the Fat Fury


 * Hitman: Codename 47


 * Hooper


 * House


 * Hunter


 * I Dream of Jeannie


 * In the Heat of the Night


 * Innocent Blood


 * Inspector Gadget


 * Ironside


 * It Takes a Thief


 * Jason King


 * Jekyll


 * Jerry Maguire


 * Jonathan Creek


 * The Karate Kid. Both Daniel LaRusso and Julie Pierce are the current grandmasters of the Miyagi-Ryu.  Daniel wrote a book that went on to inspire the in-universe version of the Karate Kid movie series (which was only three films long -- there was no in-universe version of The Next Karate Kid).


 * Kim Possible. Although KP is an In-Universe work, there is a dimensional counterpart to Shego in Siobhan Bri, and one to Kim in Trish Chabot.


 * King Kong (1976)


 * Knight Rider


 * Kolchak the Night Stalker


 * Legally Blonde


 * Leverage


 * A Lobster's Tale


 * The Long Kiss Goodnight


 * Lou Grant


 * Man from Atlantis


 * The Mechanic


 * Men in Black. Agent K has a counterpart in the Teraverse, but there are no aliens, so he was never an MIB.  Oddly enough, there was still a Men in Black movie.


 * The Mighty Ducks. Ducks player Connie Moreau decided to pursue an acting career as an adult, and wound up being interviewed about one of her acting roles in I Do My Own Stunts.


 * Modesty Blaise


 * The Monster that Challenged the World


 * NCIS


 * Neverwhere


 * Norse Mythology


 * Northern Exposure


 * Numb3rs


 * The OC


 * Paparazzi


 * Patlabor


 * Payday: The Heist and Payday 2


 * Petticoat Junction


 * Preacher


 * The Prisoner


 * The Prize


 * Professor Challenger


 * Queen and Country


 * Rear Window


 * The Relic


 * Remington Steele


 * Revenge of the Ninja


 * The Ring of Fire books by Eric Flint


 * Rizzoli and Isles


 * Sabotage


 * The Shadow


 * Shannon's Mob


 * The Shawshank Redemption


 * Short Circuit


 * Spring-heel'd Jack, The Terror of London: A Romance of the Nineteenth Century


 * Sumuru


 * Stephanie Plum


 * The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde


 * The Stunt Man


 * The Thomas Crown Affair (1999 remake)


 * The Toby Peters mysteries by Stuart M. Kaminsky


 * Tom Swift jr.


 * Tootsie


 * The Transporter


 * True Lies


 * Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


 * Universal Studios' classic monster movies: Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, Dracula, The Wolf Man


 * Vega$


 * The View Askewniverse, particularly Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back


 * Vikram


 * The Wasp Woman


 * Watch_Dogs Video game


 * Watchers by Dean Koontz


 * West Side Story


 * The West Wing


 * Finally, in an unusual case, characters from Ah! My Goddess, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Bubblegum Crisis and Sailor Moon (among others) briefly appear in a metaphysical realm attached to the Teraverse to.

Some of these may be thoroughly transformed and not obvious. For instance, the Universal monsters are more homages than direct imports.

In-Universe works which have some influence on the events of one or more stories include: (These are real works shared with our time line; see Fictional Document below for works that exist only within The Teraverse.)


 * Cheers


 * The Chronicles of Narnia. Including a portion of Life's a Beach being set aboard a ship actually named Dawn Treader.


 * The Flying Nun. Sister Marie has sometimes been compared to the titular character, Sister Bertrille, and has even been jokingly called by her name. While she doesn't seem to terribly mind that, she has asked not to be called "the flying nun", in order to prevent any confusion between her and the fictional character.


 * Galaxy Quest. As noted above, the TV series from within the film exists in-universe, and takes the place of Star Trek in the Teraverse's pop culture.


 * The Herculoids. Source of SRI codenames.


 * Junior


 * The Karate Kid. A movie series based on Miyagi and Me, a non-fiction book written by Daniel Larusso.


 * Kim Possible. Despite this being an In-Universe work, the Teraverse has a dimensional counterpart to Shego in Siobhan Bri, and one to Kim in Trish Chabot.


 * Marvel Comics in general


 * Men in Black. Despite the existence of a dimensional counterpart to Agent K in the Teraverse, there was still a Men in Black movie, whose iconography and code-naming conventions the ISERB have appropriated.


 * The Mighty Ducks. A film series based on a true story; one of the original Ducks turns up in I Do My Own Stunts and comments on her similarity to the actress who played her.


 * Mission: Impossible


 * Monty Python's Flying Circus


 * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Running joke as source of SRI code names.


 * Newhart


 * Orca: The Killer Whale


 * The Pink Panther


 * Predator. In universe, the only science fiction-action movie Arnold Schwarzenegger ever starred in.


 * The Princess Bride


 * Sister Act. Quoted or referred to several times in It's Just A Habit.


 * Star Trek (before Galaxy Quest was firmly established as taking its place in Teraverse pop culture; any Trek references should probably be assumed to be "really" Galaxy Quest references)


 * Terminator. Popular film series starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as the T-800 assassin.


 * Troping sites like this one seem to exist, judging by the use of our jargon in comments seen posted on "Twisting The X-Men" in various stories.

In addition to those tropes present in The Secret Return of Alex Mack, the stories in the Teraverse make use of the following:


 * All Myths Are True:
 * Centuries of weird biosciences are responsible for at least some creatures of myth being real, or at least made real after the fact -- like.


 * Alternate Universe: Very much one of The DCU.
 * Also, Alex Mack is summoned to one by Hermione Granger in The League of Extraordinary Women.
 * Something seems to be using portals to gather up the various versions of Alex Mack from the universes that contributed to The League of Extraordinary Women (and anyone near them) at the beginning of The Secret Collocation of Alex Mack.


 * Anachronism Stew/Schizo-Tech: Deliberately done by the authors to reflect the more advanced tech level of the Teraverse.  (And according to one of the authors, to annoy readers who get too obsessive about that kind of thing.)


 * Ancient Conspiracy: Not just one but two, battling over the control of the world in secret.


 * Anime Catholicism: Very much averted by It's Just A Habit, which depicts a very real Catholicism.


 * Another Dimension: Bendix Space, which is essentially a universe filled with nothing but roiling energy that some devices and metas can tap.


 * Artificial Intelligence: Only one so far, but they are one of the scariest hackers and crackers in the 'verse.


 * Artistic License Martial Arts: Averted constantly.


 * Attack of the 50-Foot Trout: Yefraytor Boris (Corporal Boris). A Siberian Char that has been altered by the toxins, mutagens, and radioactives tossed into the Lake from Hell to become over 30 meters in length and also capable of limited movement on land. The Alembic Security Complex has 30mm autocannon to keep him from simply storming the base if he gets frisky. The cannons can't really kill him, just encourage him to reenter the lake where he can eat the smaller and more agile mutates.


 * Atomic Hate: Nuclear events have occurred multiple times on US, Lebanese, and Chinese soil in the past decade or so. These include everything from meta and Godzilla Threshold situations, to something of the scale of an Atomic Hand Grenade.


 * Back from the Dead: Lord Deathstrike from Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived didn't actually die, although many in the intelligence community thought he had for about a decade.  Regardless, even if he had, he could have come back with a combination of the weird-science cloning and memory upload technologies that he developed before his... sabbatical.


 * Bad Habits: Averted by Sister Marie of the Order of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, who is a genuine nun who happens to have super powers.


 * Badass Normal: The Breslynn Orphans and many other "metas" are really just humans engineered to be at the top end of the bell curve and aren't, strictly speaking, "super" at all, any more than Captain America is.
 * There are also the various academy-trained intelligence specialists, many of which are qualified for this trope.


 * Based on a Great Big Lie: The third in-universe Karate Kid movie.  In Buckeroo Bonsai, Daniel LaRusso admits he made it up out of wholecloth just for the money.


 * Based on a True Story: The first two in-universe Karate Kid movies. Also the Mighty Ducks movies.


 * Battle Couple: Stew Scott and Siobhan Bri. Trish Chabot and Mike Long. Aidos and Wally. McGruff and Red Vixen.


 * BFGs: As metas become more common, non-powered agents begin using heavier and heavier weapons. This leads to the SRI's Orphans using general purpose machineguns in the assault rifle role and Rinkin Mueller adapting a 20mm aircraft cannon to anti-personnel use.


 * Big Sister Mentor: Rinkin Mueller is this to Cate Baltimore.


 * Blob Monster: One of the more common powers granted by GC-161 exposure is the ability to transform into a blob of silvery goo. The transformed individual can see, hear, and speak normally through some unknown means, but is immune to pressure differences, inhaled toxins, and many other physical threats.


 * Boston: Boston is the primary location of hysteriumredux's MMIU/Dog Pack stories.


 * Boxing Lessons for Superman: Azure Crush (who is one of the strongest humans on the planet) started out with the fighting style of an angry high school girl. To be fair, at the time she got her powers she was an angry high school girl. She is currently being taught to fight by the Batman.


 * The Cameo: Alex/Terawatt herself makes surprisingly few appearances in these stories, and when she does it's almost always as a supporting character, and often in disguise or her civilian identity. Most of the authors keep a hands-off approach because they don't want to screw up in writing her.


 * Canine Companion: Umysl, Penny Wynalazek's service dog and unofficial mascot of the Chicago Crew hero team.


 * The Caper: Any time a member of the Mundy Family shows up, there is a high likelihood that a caper of some kind is or will be occurring.


 * Captain Ersatz: Semi-Averted. David Lo Pan really is Dr. Fu Manchu who faked his death and changed his name to throw his enemies off the scent.


 * Celebrity Lie: In Holy Tragedy, a prissy teacher with no imagination accuses Maddie Taylor's son Jimmy of this when he mentions in class that Sister Marie is his godmother.  Even when Maddie confirms that Marie is his godmother, the teacher clearly thinks Maddie is lying, too.  (Apparently she thinks superheroes appear spontaneously out of the ether, don't have childhood friends, and can't make friends, either, even with people they see on a regular basis.  Let alone be someone's godmother.)


 * The Chessmaster: Dumont Appledore, Rupert Giles, Jack O'Neill, and Sefot Na-Gavolot.


 * Chicago: Chicago is the main location of batzulger's Chicago 7 stories.


 * Christianity Is Catholic: More as a side-effect of story focus than an actual fact in the Teraverse, the vast majority of devoutly Christian persons we see are Catholic, such as Sister Marie and most of her close associates.


 * Cloak and Dagger: Most of the agencies involved in the Shadow War fall under this trope.


 * Cloning Blues: Lord Deathstrike's seemingly endless collection of secret bases with their cloning tubes.
 * The Nazi experiments to clone Hitler which led to the Breslynn Orphans and other enhanced humans.


 * Collective Identity: Spring-Heel'd Jackie is the poster child for this one.
 * Similarly, Cate Baltimore and Rinkin Mueller share the identity of "Kennedy Redondo", an Australian mercenary.


 * Combat Pragmatists: Many of the non-metas with two stand-outs being Wanderer and the Equalizer. Either one will use whatever they have to to win.


 * Consummate Liar: WO1 Stewart Scott is one of the best for survival reasons, seeing as he had to go undercover in the Russian Underworld for almost a year and a half and not get killed. Argyle Garrett qualifies as long as the person he's lying to is law enforcement. If he tries lying to anybody else he's a ridiculously bad liar. All of the Mundy Family learned this skill as they grew up, they couldn't help it.


 * Crazy Prepared: Allison Mundy and her obsession with lock picks, and the entire Mundy Family's "hobby" of stealing random building plans and casing museums that they might have interest in in the future.


 * Cyborg: Cybernetic replacements/enhancements are definitely a maturing technology in the Teraverse, with cyborged animals and humans appearing, including Konneycha and Cerberus of the Chicago Crew, and Cesca Santana's associate Romeo. On the villainous side, several opponents including Ort-Myer, Onatopp, and 47 have been upgraded. The Prometheans all are cyborgs, only using corpses for their organic components.


 * Da Editor: Tony Vincenzo of the INS wire service.


 * Dance Battler: A number of the heroes and villains use Capoeira and a few even use Savate. Wanderer uses both of those along with other acrobatic styles such as Taido and Kalaripayattu.


 * Death by Irony:


 * Death Ray: Created by Lord Deathstrike using a transuranic element found in a meteor.


 * Diabolical Mastermind: An embarrassment of riches with Lo Pan, Sumuru, Ort-Meyer, and Count Na-Gavolot definitely being such. Even Rupert Giles qualifies.


 * The Dragon: With so many Diabolical Masterminds in play, there are a variety of Dragons in the stories, such as Mr. 47, Dr. Jezebel Terrenzo, Ting, and Grendel.


 * Escape Artist: Several but the champion is Allison Mundy, who managed to escape from a bare concrete cell while handcuffed by her hands and feet to a padeye in the floor while stripped to her underwear.


 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Dr. Suzanne MacGregor, Congorilla, Monsieur Mallah.


 * Everything Is Online: Shown by the CtOS and Ted Kord's, Malcolm's, and Willow Rosenberg's ability to infiltrate almost any form of telecommunications or computer records.
 * Averted in Operation Eternal Flame, in which critical information was intentionally kept offline.
 * Also averted in Speedloader Dynamite Dance Party, because Roanapur's entire telecommunications infrastructure is built on electromechanical equipment from the 1930s.


 * Evil Overlord: Pierre L’Grenouille-Dévoreur has ambitions to be one -- but possesses neither the skills nor the minions to actually accomplish his goal.


 * Fake Nationality: Spring-Heel'd Jackie, twice over:  once for being a Fake Brit (and a pseudo-Victorian as well!), but even more for being a Fake Extradimensional Alien.
 * Rinkin Mueller (a Japanese/German) almost never operates under her own nationality having impersonated an Aussie (her most common), a Texas ex-Beauty Queen-looking woman, a South African, a Chinese, and a Russian.
 * Stewart Scott has made a career of impersonating Russian and Serbian mobsters.


 * Fantastic Catholicism: We see the very beginning of it in It's Just A Habit when Sister Marie and two other nuns found the Order of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc.  Officially an order of nuns dedicated to first responders and emergency preparedness, it is also explicitly intended as an order for nuns with super-powers -- like Sister Marie -- and their support structure.


 * Fast Roping: Many of the trope's fallacies are averted when it is performed by Mike Long, Alf Bellows, and Dexter Reilly as a variant on the Super Window Jump escape plan in Dallas.


 * Fictional Countries: Kranjovia, Markovia, Ragaan, Kahndaq.


 * Fictional Document/Show Within a Show:
 * Jack Ryder's Big Things. Bad Things, Strange Things. The History of the Appearance of Metas has sections posted through many of the Chicago 7 stories
 * It's Just A Habit is revealed, in its epilogue, to be Sister Marie's published autobiographical account, "It's Just A Habit: Sister Marie in Her Own Words".
 * Several portions of It's Just A Habit, as well as the entire text of I Do My Own Stunts, are presented as newspaper clippings. Partially averted, in the sense that all of the newspaper clippings are attributed to real newspapers.
 * There are also references to an in-universe Terawatt fan club webforum. Two chapters in The Secret Return of Alex Mack are, in fact, copies of postings on that forum attributed, directly or indirectly, to Terawatt herself. One of these triggers a story development in It's Just A Habit and is routinely quoted (including as the page quote above). It has also been mentioned that one thread exists entitled Walking in Terawatt's Shoes. Despite the metaphorical possibilities of that thread title, it turns out to be eminently literal: the thread contains tips for Terawatt cosplayers attempting to deal with walking in her platform-heeled boots.
 * "Twisting The X-Men", the in-universe counterpart to the Teraverse's home, "Twisting The Hellmouth", from which we have seen occasional postings.
 * Dumbo is a Walt Disney Pictures (live action) remake based upon the classic Disney Animation film, and starring Lulu, the telekinetic flying elephant.
 * Boston Accent is a film crime drama with Seth Meyers playing ten different roles.
 * Mallory for Hire is a mystery novel loosely based on an old Banacek case, written by Francesco Dagustine (Franklyn the butler).
 * Amazon Warrior Deedee is a best-selling novel by Daniel LaRusso.
 * Beverly Hills Narc is a long-running TV action/comedy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Gunther Shtepple, a high school gym coach who moonlights for the DEA to meet the alimony payments to his vindictive ex-wife Marci, played by Cheryl Sarkisian (the actress formerly known as Cher).
 * Sister Marie is a biographical film made by Walt Disney Pictures and based upon Sister Marie's published autobiographical account, "It's Just A Habit: Sister Marie in Her Own Words". Sister Marie did not personally appear in the film, but did provide technical support for at least one flying scene.


 * Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Ye Shall Not Die Alone comes at the trope from the side, with.


 * Flying Saucer: The ISERB (aka The Men in Black) have several of these built from Nazi designs. These Haunebu units are also capable of going invisible.


 * Former Child Star: Harmony Kendall, as well as her friend and former co-star Allegria Kuzma.


 * Fun With Acronyms: The Coalition for the Liberation from Ichthyo-Terrorism (CLIT).


 * Gadgeteer Genius: Scattered all throughout the Teraverse, including such notables as Ted Kord, Dr. Gretchen Thomke, Fred Burkle, and Penny Wynalazek.


 * Genius Ditz: Harmony Kendall, who is completely The Ditz unless you get her on the topic of unicorns and their folklore, which she is able to discuss like an experienced anthropologist/mythologist.


 * Giant Enemy Lobsters: Larry, Darryl and Darryl, the bus-sized lobsters that appear in Boston, led by the Merman.
 * And let us not forget their smaller cousin, Burt.


 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: Hermione Granger's sunglasses in much of Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived -- they're the display screen for her forearm-mounted computer.
 * Also Cate Baltimore and Dana Tasker's sunglasses, which function as a display for some of their gear.


 * Good Old Fisticuffs: Most of the unarmed combat types are more or less formally trained in one or more styles of standardized martial art. There are exceptions however, such as Mike Long, Charani, Mammoth, Konneycha, Azure Crush when she started out, the Toxic Avenger, and Aidos.


 * Government Agency of Fiction: Many and belonging to many governments, though most often seen are those belonging to the United States, its subordinate jurisdictions, and various European nations (including, arguably, Vatican City).


 * Gratuitous French: Just about every second word uttered by Pierre L’Grenouille-Dévoreur. Also quite common in the various stories featuring Sister Marie and her associates; notably, she suggested naming her religious commune mostly in French.


 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Acknowledged (and very carefully not invoked) by Seth Pevsner in chapter 17 of The Lady and the Detective when he finds himself in a position which should -- but doesn't -- result in him plummeting to his death.


 * Half-Human Hybrid: In addition to the products of Nazi weird science, there are also Lord Deathstrike's lizard-men and wolf-men.
 * The Merman.
 * Project Galinka with the DNA contribution to their genome.


 * He's Just Hiding: Lord Deathstrike, for ten years or so, in-universe.


 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Dr. Gretchen Thomke and Detective Lien Kane, the two women who take turns being "Spring-Heel'd Jackie", are shaping up into this (though not entirely by Gretchen's choice).


 * Hollywood Nuns: Averted with The Order of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc.


 * Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Spring-Heel'd Jackie in her white silk shirt and "Ivory" mask, black leather vest and pants, and red swallowtailed morning coat is one form of this.
 * Marcie Ross and Trish Chabot when they are in their 'Field Service' uniforms. These being the black suits popularized by the Men in Black Conspiracy theories.


 * Humanoid Alien: What Spring-Heel'd Jackie claims to be.


 * Impersonation Gambit: Performed by both Dana Tasker and Cate Baltimore.
 * Also a semi-reverse performed by.
 * Stewart Scott is frequently undercover as a gangster (usually Russian or Serbian), though he has gone undercover as himself once.


 * Incompetence, Inc.: Pierre L’Grenouille-Dévoreur and his minions.


 * Intoxication Ensues: A mild case of this affects both women who portray Spring-Heel'd Jackie when they wear the suit; the technology behind it has a mild side effect on their brains that lowers their inhibitions and enhances their libidos.  It's nowhere near severe enough to be a problem, but it helps make Jackie's personality quite different from either of their own.


 * In a Single Bound: Spring Heel'd Jackie's specialty, as her suit is capable of leaping over 30 meters straight up.
 * The Creeper is also capable of amazing jumps.
 * Konnycha is "merely" able to leap two stories vertically in a half ton suit of powered armor.


 * Intrepid Reporter: Jack Ryder to his very bones.


 * Karmic Death:


 * Lady of Adventure: Part of the persona -- to the point of being on her card -- of Spring-Heel'd Jackie.


 * Last Rites: Averted and discussed in It's Just A Habit.  At the start of the story POV character Marie O'Neill is a Catholic Eucharistic minister -- a variety of Catholic lay-clergy with a very limited remit -- and in one chapter she remarks on the difference between the movies and reality when it comes to the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.


 * Legacy Hero: Spring-Heel'd Jackie claims to be a descendant of (or at least the heiress of sorts to) the figure of Victorian folklore known as "Spring-heel'd Jack".


 * Living Lie Detector: The Champions can do this along with tuning out any surrounding background noise so they can get an even better idea of the target's heart rate.


 * Lizard Folk: The Lizard King of the Chicago Crew along with his "relatives", the Kothaga.
 * Lord Deathstrike's lizard men Mooks.


 * Lower Deck Episode: Several stories shift the focus to the less-prominent members of the SRI, and let us see just how badass they can be on their own.


 * Loyal Phlebotinum: Inverted.  Anyone can use the Death Rays created by Lord Deathstrike on any target they like -- but they are keyed to his DNA and will blow up if they are turned on him.  (Harry Potter had a sample of Deathstrike's DNA injected into him as an infant, which was unfortunate for Deathstrike...)


 * Magic: One of the most FORBIDDEN elements of the Teraverse. No spells or spellcasters are permitted.


 * Master of Disguise Rinkin Mueller, the Wanderer.


 * Meaningful Name: "Pierre L’Grenouille-Dévoreur" from The Lady and the Detective, which literally means "Peter the Frog-Eater".


 * Mega Corp: Petrox Oil, which is actually owned by one of the Ancient Conspiracies and is one of its primary sources of income and money laundering.


 * The Men in Black: Field agents of the ISERB have sort of fallen into using the MIB look and feel, lifted from an in-universe Men in Black movie which appears to have been similar to the one in our time line.


 * Mercenaries: There is a remarkable assortment of them in the Teraverse. People that are willing to fight and kill for money range from elite Assassins and former assassins like guns for hire Siobhan Bri and and Ethan Rayne; to the Consummate Professionals that are contracted to Department Six such as Wanderer, Wipe-Out, Socrates, and the Kid; and on to Private Military Contractors as in Nick Tollander and his Oneida Assets firm.


 * Meta Fic: A couple of the stories include or are actually glimpses at In-Universe fan works, including content posted on "Twisting The X-Men", the counterpart to the series' host site "Twisting The Hellmouth" in a world where Buffy Summers is a real person but not a Slayer.
 * It's Just A Habit is presented as a published autobiography,


 * Mind Control: Lord Deathstrike developed and uses a mind control system composed of two parts -- a bulky "chair" in which the actual mind control is accomplished, and a coin-sized disk which is implanted behind the ear of the controlled victim and is basically a radio receiver for verbal commands from a handler.  The "chair" is large enough that it requires a good-sized van or truck to transport it, and it takes several hours to subdue and subvert a victim.


 * Mistaken for An Imposter: During a visit to the bar which inspired Cheers in Buckeroo Bonsai, Daniel LaRusso is mistaken for a John L. Sullivan impersonator, and Peter Valentine for a "Cliff Clavin" celebrity look-alike.

"Lady Jacqueline Dacre adventuress Jahannum, London, San Francisco"
 * My Card: Spring-Heel'd Jackie actually says this line while giving an actual physical card to a thug at the door of a criminal hideout she and Batwoman are about to crash in Bat by the Bay.  In case you're curious, it reads:


 * Named After Somebody Famous: A regular practice of the Black family from the British Intelligence Community, in Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived.  Where their counterparts in the Harry Potter books named their children after constellations and celestial bodies, the Teraverse Blacks name their children after a different kind of star entirely.


 * No Conservation of Energy: A consequence of anyone or anything that taps Bendix Space for power, because doing so is essentially stealing energy from one universe for use in another.
 * Averted, at least partially, for those characters like Terawatt and Sister Marie whose powers impose a sometimes drastically increased caloric intake on them. (The "partially" comes from it being unclear whether they are actually taking in as many calories as their powers expend; in many cases there appears to be a rather large shortfall which has to be made up from somewhere.)
 * And since No Conservation of Mass redirects to this trope: must produce and dispense with about 500 Kg (half a ton) of mass each way, in just a couple of seconds.
 * The Lizard King, Harmony the Unicorn, and Mr. Ting also gain size and mass from utilization of Bendix Space.


 * Non-Human Sidekick: Romeo, the heavily cyborged Leopard that is the inseparable companion of Cesca Santana.


 * Nuns Are Funny: Averted by Sister Marie of the Order of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, who is a well-rounded individual and is no more wacky or goofy than any other person.  However, one of her fellow nuns, Sister Lucy, was named after a Queen of Narnia, sometimes comports herself accordingly, and occasionally uses Aslan metaphors when talking about God.  Even so, she comes across more as having a bit of fun with it than odd or eccentric.


 * Nuns Are Spooky: Although she actively works to avoid this trope, Sister Marie does sometimes give off this vibe -- particularly in a moment in It's Just A Habit where she castigated the mayor of San Diego for trying to politicize her, then flew into a church whose doors opened for her apparently on their own. The production of a film version of this scene is discussed in I Do My Own Stunts.


 * Obfuscating Stupidity: One of BeeDazzle's tactics for keeping her various personae separate -- her primary hero ID deliberately comes across as a bit of a Valley Girl Ditz.
 * In The Lady and the Detective, Seth Pevsner briefly suspects Harmony Kendall of this when she quickly and convincingly carries out the cover story that keeps him out of the public eye.


 * Older Than They Look: There are strong hints that retarded aging is one of the common effects of GC-161 exposure: we know for a fact that Terawatt looks like a twenty-something well into her 70s, and Daniel LaRusso's first impression of Beatrice "Wink in Pink" Thompson is that she looks too young to be the mother of a teenager.


 * One Riot, One Ranger: Actually recognized in-story by anybody who's met Cesca Santana.


 * The Order: The Order of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc.


 * Our Vampires Are Different: Marie and Joe are created by a modified fungus administered to Marie as part of a Nazi experiment.


 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Lord Deathstrike's "wolf-men".  They don't actually transform, physically, but are in all other regards basically Hollywood-style wolfmen.


 * Our Zombies Are Different:
 * Aidos, Bill Glenmorgan, and the rest of the Prometheans are Type Cs created by Dr. Tucker Wells's research.
 * Awqasisa is a Type-PS from a symbiotic relationship with a lichen, and unlike most Type-PS she is fully intelligent and is non-infectious and non-murderous.


 * Paparazzi: Mother Elizabeth often cites the potential disruption caused by paparazzi as an unwanted side effect of Sister Marie's heroic vocation. Including, at least once, making a thinly veiled reference to the death of Princess Diana.


 * Paris: Notable for quite a few metas operating in it, including Terawatt at least once. It has also been revealed that Sister Marie's maternal grandparents immigrated from Paris due to World War II.


 * Posse: "Jackie's Boyz", AKA San Francisco's "Bay Area Meta Operations Task Force", who have fallen into a comfortable partnership with Spring-Heel'd Jackie, and hover somewhere between the classic use and the modern use of the term.


 * Powered Armor: Numerous examples, ranging from the powered diving hardsuits used by Schubert's goons to the Black Scorpion's mix of armor and magnetic fields to Spring-Heel'd Jackie's convincing but bogus alien guise.  After biochemical manipulation, this is the number two way of becoming "super" in the Teraverse.


 * Power Incontinence: Madam Fatale can't turn off her Psychometric ability.


 * Psychic Link: The Champions possess one of these between the three of them.


 * Psychopomp: The girls  in Ye Shall Not Die Alone.


 * Reed Richards Is Useless: Partially rationalized by the explanation of why the use of the extra-dimensional nearly limitless energy source accessible from Bendix Space/Pyre Space is not used, as potentially planet destroying effects may occur.
 * Averted as the high tech firms run by various geniuses are actively marketing their advanced technologies. This has resulted in the entire verse being almost a decade or more ahead of our own in available technology of all kinds.


 * Reformed Criminal: Various. Kaji, Azure Crush, Aidos, Wanderer, Orhidei, and the entire Mundy Family for example.


 * Not My Driver: Reversed by Dana Tasker and Cate Baltimore to kidnap someone they need to question.


 * Rogue Agent: Dumont Appledore ran an entire rogue intelligence network inside the British intelligence community in the Backstory (and main story) of Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived.  Later, Hermione, Ron and Harry themselves are essentially rogue agents (although with the tacit approval of some factions of British Intelligence), and end up running their own network.
 * There is also an entirely impromptu team of intelligence, military, and "independent" specialists who have taken it upon themselves to deal with some of the greater secret threats.
 * Ethan Rayne is an example of a rogue turned mercenary.


 * Roma: Charani Kaldaresh is proud of her heritage as a Roma.


 * Rome: Setting for Terawatt: Seven days in Italy (following up on an incident that takes place in Rome in The Secret Return of Alex Mack).


 * San Francisco: San Francisco and the Bay Area are the home of Spring-Heel'd Jackie, the Bay Area Meta Operations Task Force, and Batwoman. ISERB also have an office in the area.


 * Secret War: A subsection of the stories deals with the organizations and people that allowed something like Harworts and the other intelligence academies to be created, and in fact necessary.


 * Shared Universe


 * Shock and Awe: Electrical discharge powers are some of the most common abilities granted by GC-161 exposure.


 * Significant Anagram: "I am Lord Deathstrike" from "Thomas Arkheit Riddle", in an analogue to Tom Riddle/Voldemort.


 * Sinister Surveillance: Malcolm used this and Everything Is Online to assist in an attempted takeover of the entire city of Chicago.


 * Southies: Charles Sullivan, Herbie Popnekker and Peter Valentine all have strong South Boston working class accents. The Wagha Wagah Café represents yuppie change in the old neighborhood.


 * Spoiled Sweet: Harmony Kendall as a child and teen, according to the people who worked with her.


 * The Spymaster: Rupert Giles and Dumont Appledore.


 * Spy Catsuit: Allison Mundy's Sneak Suit, that darkens in low light conditions and is impossibly smooth so it won't snag on things.
 * Averted by Wanderer's dark gray BDUs.


 * Spy School: The UK's Harworts, The US's Culpepper Academy, The PRC's Temple, and the Russian Institute and Finishing School are just some of the elite training sites. The various ninja clans have their own schools and the League and the Order also have their own facilities.


 * Stealth Expert: Quite a few in the verse, but the Mundy family takes it to the next level.


 * Stock Ninja Weaponry: Subverted by the Wanderer; as she has said, "It's the 21st century, why should I be stuck with gear from the 15th century if there's better stuff around?" She will use swords and other traditional weapons, but only if they are the best tools for the job at hand.


 * Super Serum: GC-161 and its various knock-offs and offshoots: Tar, Rush, Asp and more.
 * Then there's the work of the Nazis, Deathstrike, and other "weird scientists".
 * And finally, the various natural enhancement compounds and organisms found in distant, isolated spots, like the Lazarus Pits and the Waters of Teraka.


 * Super Soldier: Technically Hannah, Charani, the 701 soldiers, and Mr. 47; as they all were engineered or augmented to their current level of ability. The point could be made that Marie and Joe and the Champions also qualify.


 * Super Speed: Both Sister Marie and BeeDazzle have telekinetic flight and shields allowing them to travel at supersonic speeds in atmosphere.
 * Wink in Pink and Konneycha can both run at well over 200 kph.


 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Performed by Wanderer in her "Strannik" ID and BeeDazzle as her "Mr. Unknown" persona. Wanderer is good enough and has practiced this identity so thoroughly that she has currently been able to fool ...so far.


 * Talk Show:
 * "Stay Up Late! with Buffy Summers"
 * "The Breggman Report"


 * Teen Superspy: Graduates of Harworts (or any of the other academies) all qualify as they will be still in their teens at the time of the graduation ceremony.
 * Others that qualify are "Homeschooled" or "Independent" such as Dana Tasker, Marcie Ross to some extent, Alexi Mundy or any of the Mundy children, and of course Cate Baltimore. The Kid from Department Six is also one of these at the start of his career.


 * Telekinesis: One of the classic abilities granted by exposure to GC-161. Of the four most powerful characters who possess it (Terawatt, Samantha Carter, Sister Marie, and BeeDazzle) there is a great difference of strength, range and versatility in the manifestations.


 * Theme Naming:
 * In-Universe, the cyborgs Tucker Wells has created are all named for classical Greek gods.
 * The Tyrgyvssen family (from It's Just A Habit and other stories) intentionally named their four children after the Pevensie children in The Chronicles of Narnia, and they're somehow in the correct age order. The family also owns a yacht named - what else? - the Dawn Treader.
 * Most of the devoutly Catholic characters have first names based on Catholic saints. In Up In Smoke, two nuns are identified as having been encouraged to take on unofficial assumed names in order to intentionally align themselves with this theme.
 * Invoked in a scene of Operation Eternal Flame, in which Sister Marie has just been informed of Maddie's second pregnancy; she responds by asking Maddie to not name the child Bernadette, after the "Saint of the Day", if she should be female and born on February 11th. In Holy Tragedy, that child is revealed to be named Scholastica - possibly after the "Saint of the Day" for February 10th.
 * The Black family from the British Intelligence Community names its children after celebrities.


 * There Are No Therapists: Hovers between Invoked and Averted.  While there are certainly psychiatric professionals in the Teraverse, there is some concern on the part of Jack O'Neill and the SRI about the needs of metas in that regard.  And in Operation Eternal Flame, he recruits Sister Marie to act as a counselor and friendly ear to Terawatt during the segment of The Secret Return of Alex Mack where Alex takes a Ten-Minute Retirement after .  However, she doesn't actually make it to Paradise Valley before Alex shakes herself free of her Heroic BSOD, as seen in Secret Return.


 * There Is a God: At least one.


 * They Walk Among Us: Invoked in-universe by Spring-Heel'd Jackie, who claims to be an extradimensional exile. (But really isn't.)


 * Time Skip: It's Just A Habit summarizes multiple years during chapter 46, and then abruptly skips again between the last two chapters.


 * Time Travel: One of the most FORBIDDEN elements of the Teraverse. Any sort of temporal fiddling is not allowed.


 * Title Drop:
 * Sister Marie explaining that she really is a nun, and has not adopted a superheroine name... and as for the costume? "It's Just A Habit."
 * It turns out that Holy Tragedy is Maddie Taylor's disparaging nickname for her children's elementary school, properly called Holy Trinity, which she also attended (and which is located next door to and affiliated with a church of the same name, which she is a parishioner of).


 * Transformation Sequence: Harmony Kendall gets a surprisingly subdued one in The Lady and the Detective.


 * Training from Hell: Many instances, with Action Girl being the stand out. Others include Wanderer, any of the students of the Academies, and Cate Baltimore.


 * Transsexualism:


 * Undead Tax Exemption:


 * Uplifted Animal: Dr. Suzanne MacGregor, an enhanced orangutan.
 * To a much lesser degree, Cesca Santana's associate Romeo.


 * The Verse


 * Weird Science: Much of it dating back to Those Wacky Nazis.  The story Dirty Science is about a US military team set up to recover and protect artifacts of weird science, some of which was created "off the books" as part of Operation Paperclip immediately after World War II.
 * Some of it is even older. There's Lord Deathstrike's efforts in the 1970s, the work of Hugo Danner's father in the very early years of the 20th century, and Salazar's alchemical experiments with the radioactive meteorite he found some centuries earlier.


 * Well-Intentioned Extremists: The Coalition for the Liberation from Ichthyo-Terrorism (CLIT).


 * Where Do They Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: As of the events of Bat by the Bay, the BAMF in San Francisco is getting equipment from KORD Industries and Kane Weapon Systems.


 * Wretched Hive: Roanapur.


 * Written by the Winners: Spring-Heel'd Jackie claims that the bad reputation of her alleged forebear is a case of this.