Brave New World (fanfic)

Brave New World is the current epic written by fanfiction author, Ri2, and the sequel to Latias' Journey. In this world, many, many years have passed since the events in Latias' Journey, sending our main protagonists, Ash and Pikachu into the familiar world of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

The plot is heavily inspired by the Paper Mario game, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Although, not so much inspired as it is a Darker and Edgier retelling...With Pokemon! Ash, reborn as a Lucario, and Pikachu, Reborn as a Pikachu, travel to find the Crystal Stars before the Big Bad.

Like Ri2's other fanfiction, this one has its healthy share of comedy, romance, action, psychopaths, and stuff that will keep you up at night.

Character sheet can be found here. Fridge Brillance and Horror can be found here

Currently still being written. Can be read here.

No relation to Aldous Huxley's novel, despite the name.

"Leo: That bitch! Depriving you of video games growing up! That's going too far!"
 * Abusive Parents: Bellum not only abused Lily for a good portion of her life (Or unlife, based on how Ghost Pokemon work), but she's been verbally abused, mentally, constantly crushed, but the worst has to be
 * Actually a Doombot: Chobin/Arackaiser makes this excuse for his failure in the Tree of the Beginning arc. Leo says its a lame excuse but that's actually what happened. sort of.
 * Affably Evil: Admittedly, while Tarantulas may seem like a total psycho, he does have the occasional gentlemanly side with the patients he's horribly mutilated. It's mostly based on his mood.
 * Oblivion's Shadow also has shades of this. He's fairly notable as being the most polite, well-mannered and reserved person in the entire series. He's actually fairly comparable to Deoxys from Latias' Journey, except
 * Barbedo is unusually for this trope not an antagonist; he was the most vicious and monstrous pirate to ever live, and he got worse after he and his crew were cursed with immortality. To everybody's surprise, Barbedo's friendly enough to Team Aurabolt when they meet him,  He's unapologizingly brutal and loves being the worst sort of pirate, but his friendly demeanor and fondness for his crewmates make him likable in spite of that.
 * , he's really quite nice and charming.
 * Abhorrent Admirer: Blackarachina has one in Tarantulus. "…Is this seriously happening? Am I seriously being propositioned by a creepy evil cyborg Ariados using unbelievably cheesy and outdated pickup lines?"
 * All According to Plan: Cherry an is quick to remind everyone that she foresaw whatever just happened (usually) and no matter how strange the events are they are part of The Plan.
 * All Webbed Up:
 * All Women Are Lustful:
 * If one were to believe Sasha this is the case among Absol to such a degree that they mate first and get to know their mate later. She can't get her head around doing opposite, and the rest of the team find this as weird as her eating their dead enemies.
 * The Temple of Mew, staffed by Good Bad Girl and lead by a literal Memetic Sex Goddess. Lilly is unnerved by it but Fatiana and Bow are very pious.
 * Also, the Sisterhood of Bountiful Gracia is about as 'strict' as it in regards to sexual practices
 * Pikachu has to get horrendously drunk before he'll mate with his love interest.
 * He seems to be in the minority, however, as people like Aaron are only too happy to oblige their wife's desire.
 * And I Must Scream:
 * ultimate fate at the end of the Mt Battle Arc.
 * Everyone who gets soul-eaten by Leviathan or killed at the hands of the Nihilators.
 * Anticlimax Boss:, who gets beaten up and down with silly ease once our heroes break his gimmick.
 * Also . Who, unlike his Paper Mario counterpart,   does not get a chance to go One-Winged Angel, or even have a proper fight with the heroes. Lampshaded by Leo during the next arc.
 * Anti-Hero: Aeon of Team Quantum. The rest of his team are already here, but he pushes the trope far when he puts  through a downright horrid Training from Hell. It grants them time-based powers and fearlessness at the cost of traumatizing them. Even his teammates were disgusted.
 * Anti-Villain: According to Richie, Light of Justice is a type III; a Nice Guy with a noble goal who wants to be Richie's best friend. He just happens to be a Knight Templar.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Frequently, but one case in particular stands out in relation to Lily and the above trope.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Frequently, but one case in particular stands out in relation to Lily and the above trope.

"DarkraiYeah, aside from being an all-around asshole, the bitch called Cresselia a slut and a worthless waste of moonlight on multiple occasions. And she cheats at cards…"
 * And...


 * Ascended Extra: Most notably Lily and Briney, who were only bit characters of the day in the cartoon but are a good deal more pivotal here.
 * Not to mention Raiki, who was originally only mentioned in Latias' Journey (and may or may not have actually existed), but becomes a recurring character in Brave New World.
 * As the story goes on, the main characters in Pokemon Square tend to fall into this trope; in the second chapter, Matthias first appears to show the monstrousness of the barbarians and demonstrate Ash and Pikachu's awesomeness. His role is then expanded throughout the story in order to get some nice character studying in and show him growing as Pokemon Square is explained to him.
 * Max ran an entire subplot behind everyone's backs, and is now part of a Rescue Team.
 * Attack Its Weak Point:
 * The Atoner: Father Yamiri, who was a rather unsavory sort before his undeath and joining the Arcean Order. He is remarkably angst-free about this.
 * Of course, the fact that it happened four hundred years ago may have given him the time to get over any angst.
 * Ax Crazy: Chobin. Dear God Chobin.

""Oh no! We're all gonna die! If only there were some convenient plot device to save us!""
 * Badass: Once more, Wes shows just how awesome he can be.
 * In a sharp turn to what we're used to, Ash himself is as much, if not more so. When he's not being the familiar lovable doofus out of combat, of course.
 * Badass Boast:
 * Badass Bookworm: Leo once he works off some basement fat—even before then, he managed to beat the crap out of Ash via Confusion Fu.
 * Badass Mustache: Ash uses a disguise that has such awesome facial hair, it fools Team Rocket. Of course, it is Team Rocket...
 * Briney on the other hand, has a truly awesome mustache that may just double as a blade. Tellingly, his very mustache is a Shout-Out to Whitebeard...this may give you an idea of how much of a Badass he is.
 * Hell, Buck actually calls him Whitestache.
 * And when
 * The first time Briney and Scotty speak over video chat, their first impression of each other is "my mustache is better than his."
 * Badass Preacher: Father Yamiri, who between the friendly-but-wise demeanor, explosive ofuda, and hugeass mace, seems to be a fusion of a Western Good Shepherd, a Shinto shrine priest, and a D&D battle cleric.
 * Battle Butler: Butler, naturally.
 * Berserk Button: The very sight of Oblivion's Shadow to Ash. This is a very, very bad thing.
 * Paul is this for Dawn. Merely catching a glimpse of him causes her to completely flip out.
 * Beyond the Impossible: Sam and Max can do this by virtue of Crazy Awesome, like when Mewgle trapped them in a game (a JRPG Turn based combat) and the pair of them triggered a Limit Break each, despite the fact that Mewgle deliberately avoided adding them in his game.
 * Articuno can freeze fire. Being a lower-tier ice goddess, this should be impossible for her, according to Lily. The power of shadow allowed her to surpass that rule.
 * Pikachu used to think that one could not push sound waves back with one's one sound waves.
 * Justified with Fichina's landscape: apparently the mages there like screwing over the laws of physics because they have the magical clout to do so.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Ash and Pikachu are introduced this way when they rescue Mathias from barbarians.
 * Bigger Bad: Whatever is behind the Door in Treasure Town
 * Black and Gray Morality:
 * Bland-Name Product/Fictional Counterpart: There are alot of shows and games in this fic that are riffs of actual works.
 * Blood Knight: Bruno. Knowing in advance that his security detail would involve fighting evil gods and enormous fleets would only make him more excited. "This is some of the most fun I've had in ages! Yesterday I ripped my way out of the intestines of a frost giant. A frost giant! Do you know what would have happened if I'd refused the job and stayed at home? Absolutely nothing."
 * Break Them by Talking: Every single villain. Some of the heroes too. It rarely takes.
 * When Gal tries this on Team Auraforce, Charla gives him a positively stomach-turning To the Pain in reply.
 * Brick Joke: The identity of Lily's imaginary friend B is hinted to be someone who hasn't been seen or mentioned since the majority of the book ago.
 * Bring My Brown Pants: Given the high level of mind-bending horror going on, this is bound to happen occasionally.
 * But you know the good guys are at least up to the task when Ash and Pikachu kick enough ass in the very first main chapter to induce it in the bad guys. Bonus points for making a Monferno and the Rapidash he's riding lose control simultaneously.
 * See the rather literal approach to Mass "Oh Crap" below.
 * Bullet Hell: Paradox the Celebi pulls this on Wes and Rui by using several instances of herself to spam Ancientpower through recursive time portals.
 * Leo calls the barrage they flew through during the battle with the Arachonoblast.
 * Call Back:
 * Care Bear Stare: Aura Purge. It consists of bombarding the enemy with so many happy feelings they give up being evil.
 * The Cavalry:
 * Chaste Hero: Ash and Pikachu.
 * Special mention must go to Pikachu, who currently has in permanent servitude to him, and both she and Leo have explicitly mentioned that she will do anything he wants. He hasn't taken her up on this yet.
 * Chew Toy: After being defeated, Brodie never does exactly get back into his groove.
 * Church Militant: The Arcean Order are genuinely very nice people. They're also, like pretty much everything else in this story, very heavily armed.
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: Always Lampshaded, doesn't always work.
 * Cool Old Guy: Don't mess with Briney if you value breathing.
 * Cool Shades: Leo's entire family lineage is most well known for the awesome sunglasses. SO awesome in fact, that combined with Leo's smarts, they manage to
 * Cool Ship: Briney's Peeko, and Barbedo's Golden Dream. The latter has ridiculously advanced Magitek weaponry and a frigging rail gun.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: The Nihilators' modus operandi. Oblivion's Shadow sometimes uses it as a power source.
 * Corrupt Church: Judgement, the Nihilator expies that Team Getem is dealing with. However, Eviler Than Thou kicks in and Richie admits that Judgement is a club for Knight Templars who ultimately think they're helping the world, while the Nihilators are Omnicidal Maniacs. It is later revealed they are led by the reincarnated members of Team Plasma.
 * Crapsack World: TREASURE TOWN. It's says something that it makes places like Rapture and Pandora look liveable.
 * Not as bad as Genocide City...
 * Crazy Prepared: Half the cast, Leo in particular.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most notably, Ash and Raiki. Team Rocket gets a little of this. However, given the setting, one has to assume that any first-glance moron who's still breathing is probably one of these.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Oh boy. Have fun seeing this happen to  during Ash's flashbacks. Things don't get better during the story proper.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Latias vs Redwing. Latias reveals that she removed all of Redwing's flight feathers during his monologue.
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Several. From Hissa' Yamatorochi power which makes her shadow grow six heads, to that could cut the continent in half.
 * Dark Is Not Evil / Don't Fear the Reaper: Darkrai, the god of death and causer of nightmares is more than willing to help the Heroes if it's within his power.
 * Darker and Edgier: To both Pokemon, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
 * Dead All Along...Sorta:
 * Deader Than Dead:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Several. Usually Pikachu or Leo. Briney seems to have a habit of this, what with his lack of personal mental space and all.
 * Death of Seven Hundred and Seventy Seven cuts
 * Demoted to Extra: Tons, both in the fic and in comparison to the first fic.
 * Ash's Crawdaunt, a major character in the first fic only gets one line here. He is mentioned quite a bit though.
 * Brock only manages to get into one arc and serves no purpose in it.
 * Description Cut: Several.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Many times, and sometimes directly invoked once Sam and Max teach them how.
 * Dead All Along...Sorta:
 * Deader Than Dead:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Several. Usually Pikachu or Leo. Briney seems to have a habit of this, what with his lack of personal mental space and all.
 * Death of Seven Hundred and Seventy Seven cuts
 * Demoted to Extra: Tons, both in the fic and in comparison to the first fic.
 * Ash's Crawdaunt, a major character in the first fic only gets one line here. He is mentioned quite a bit though.
 * Brock only manages to get into one arc and serves no purpose in it.
 * Description Cut: Several.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Many times, and sometimes directly invoked once Sam and Max teach them how.

"Leo: Yep, certainly a convenient way to explain why we had this ability all along but never talked about it or used it before now."
 * Subverted by  when he manages to remove every factor that Sam and Max could call upon, in order for Max to
 * Apparently Leo is a . Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.
 * Deus Exit Machina:
 * Did You Just Punch Out Leviathan?: Max inverts this by BECOMING Cthulhu and kicking Leviathan's ass. And again during the battle of Dusty Ditch.
 * Disney Villain Death: Redwing, after his flight feathers are pulled out by Latias.
 * The Ditz: It's gonna take a lot more than the rebirth of the universe for Chimecho to get any brighter.
 * Until the reveal
 * Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Or Frost Giants.
 * Doom Magnet: Team Nightshade, more often than not, ruins people's lives instead of helping them.
 * Doorstopper: This fanfic is so far at 59 chapters and 1,965,453 words. For comparison, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the thickest book in the Harry Potter series, was only about 255,000 words.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Buzz to Jessie.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Team Aurabolt, full stop.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: Even more so than the first book, it seems.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Team Aurabolt has fought a few, like Yamatorochi and one of Tarantulas's creations. Giratina is still an Eldritch, and other beasties like the Gaiavore are sure to show up later. Additionally, it seems lately that
 * Dude, Not Funny: In-universe example. Zachary does a lot of things with illusions that his adopted siblings don't think are funny. Collette even calls him out on it. "Zachary! NOT COOL!"
 * Emotionless Girl: Lily can be considered this. She HAS emotions, she just doesn't know how well to use them.
 * A closer example would be the ninja Buneary,
 * Enfante Terrible: Chobin. Judgement ranks him as the 3rd evillest person in the world for being a depraved psychopath since his infancy.
 * Enhance Button: Chobin wants one but a mook says cameras don't work that way.
 * Enemy Mine:  He thinks Team Getem is Not So Different in their goals but they refused every offer to join forces.   he believes he will be successful this time. "it is not unreasonable for enemies to join forces against a common foe, is it?"
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Gardevoir, which is different to how she was in Latias' Journey.
 * Everyone Calls Him Pikachu: Where all other Pokemon have regular names, Pikachu is actually named "Pikachu" (family tradition—he has to earn his own name).
 * Gardevoir as well.
 * Pikachu's little brother Pichu freaks out when Delia is pregnant with a third egg, because unless he earns his name rather quickly there'll be two Pichus running around and he doesn't want to be renamed Pichu One or Pichu A.
 * Evil Plan: Every villain worth their story arc has one but the one which drives the plot is that of Oblivion's Shadow, which involces collecting the Star Badges before Team Aurabolt and opening the door under Treasure Town to end the world.
 * Expy: Nearly everyone from the series (and many from random other places) at ONE point is reborn as a Pokemon here. So be sure to see a lot of familiar faces...kind of.
 * What, no mention of the main cast? Considering how the work is essentially a reskin of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it doesn't take Pennington to figure out which member of Team Aurabolt corresponds with which member of Mario's party (or for that matter some of the story's antagonists and the main antagonists from the same game)...
 * Captain Briney is also heavily themed by Whitebeard of One Piece fame; it starts with him being a terrifying badass in the second worst city in the world and a VERY familiar mustache, and as the chapters go by, he comes constantly close to matching Whitebeard in raw Badassery.
 * Ritchie shows up, and just like the anime he's a shameless carbon copy of Ash. And like everything else, this is taken to its logical conclusion by having Ritchie's entire team Expys of Ash's, and they're on a parallel quest to save the world from another crazy apocalyptic cult. Ash and Tiny are not amused.
 * On another note, Lu, Dawn's counterpart on Team Getem, is a hooded italian assassin who used to belong to a noble family that was killed by a 'Rodrigo Borjia'. Sound familiar?
 * And now we have one of Dan Green.
 * Face Fault: All the time! Mostly because of Leo.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * The Faceless: Oblivion's Shadow.
 * Fan Disservice: One half of Shivhel is beautiful. The other half......Not so much.
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: The cast assumes throughout the book that the Nihilators they kill go here. Turns out they do...
 * Flat What: Pikachu's typical reaction. Usually to Leo.
 * Ash gets a pretty classic one when he learns that his rescue from drowning was stalled for five minutes by Pikachu and Leo talking about condoms.
 * Leo gets one out of when he reveals he's
 * Likely to be uttered by you at least a few times per chapter.
 * Killer Rabbit: "They were all very cute, and reminded Latias somewhat of Mew, Celebi and Jirachi…which also meant that they had to possess some awesome power, since the cute ones always did."
 * Friendly Enemy:  The former are a nice, if deluded, bunch, and one of them, Silverbolt, is even praised as a 'true knight' by none other than Sparky.
 * Fridge Logic: Plenty pointed out in the book.
 * Past Me Scares Me:.
 * Gambit Pileup: This line was written during what's probably around the halfway mark of the book, and there's already a considerable amount of this going on.
 * Apparently, a subsection of Team Rocket,
 * Gambit Roulette: Played for laughs. Cherry initates a long term master plan of vengance  The only reason it works is because she's a pen point oracle.
 * Gender Neutral Writing: When describing The Ruler of Evil, something that is of course Lampshaded.
 * Genre Savvy: Pretty much everyone, hero or villain, with the possible exception of the barbarians.
 * Leo in particular, to the point that he's pointing it out in the middle of a fight.
 * And then he Granted he wasn't exactly in his most sane mind at the time.
 * Viers and Chobin also reference tropes.
 * Good Bad Girl: The Temple of Mew is staffed by these. It's their Sacred Doctrine, seeing how their deity is a fertility goddess and all.
 * The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: Team Aurabolt and Pokemon Square are the Good, the Nihilators are the Evil, and Giovanni is positioning Team Rocket as the Bad.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Zorro and his crew.
 * Grimmification: To quite a few of Thousand Year Door's plot points. For example, remember in TTYD when Luigi recounted how he defeated a giant statue by throwing his partner Blooey at it, only for the partner to say he missed and fell in lava, leaving him with comical burns? Well in the fic's equivalent with Team Nightshade....It doesn't end well..
 * Misty's fear of bugs is given a terrifying explanation.
 * What Ri2 has done to Treasure Town has to be seen to be believed.
 * Mathias stories about his childhood are extremely cruel accounts of what would be like to be a wild pokemon.
 * Guy-On-Guy Is Hot: Rosa briefly entertains the idea of hypnotizing her fiancee and one of her foes to drop the current battle and start making out with each other.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Leo and Mewgle. Usually while playing children's card games.
 * Hand Wave: Parodied.
 * Leo in particular, to the point that he's pointing it out in the middle of a fight.
 * And then he Granted he wasn't exactly in his most sane mind at the time.
 * Viers and Chobin also reference tropes.
 * Good Bad Girl: The Temple of Mew is staffed by these. It's their Sacred Doctrine, seeing how their deity is a fertility goddess and all.
 * The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: Team Aurabolt and Pokemon Square are the Good, the Nihilators are the Evil, and Giovanni is positioning Team Rocket as the Bad.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Zorro and his crew.
 * Grimmification: To quite a few of Thousand Year Door's plot points. For example, remember in TTYD when Luigi recounted how he defeated a giant statue by throwing his partner Blooey at it, only for the partner to say he missed and fell in lava, leaving him with comical burns? Well in the fic's equivalent with Team Nightshade....It doesn't end well..
 * Misty's fear of bugs is given a terrifying explanation.
 * What Ri2 has done to Treasure Town has to be seen to be believed.
 * Mathias stories about his childhood are extremely cruel accounts of what would be like to be a wild pokemon.
 * Guy-On-Guy Is Hot: Rosa briefly entertains the idea of hypnotizing her fiancee and one of her foes to drop the current battle and start making out with each other.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Leo and Mewgle. Usually while playing children's card games.
 * Hand Wave: Parodied.

"How did he keep getting himself into these situations? Briney: Because you have a big mouth and don't think before talking. Leo: You don't have to constantly be reading our minds, you know."
 * Happily Adopted: Ash to an extent, though he was already an adolescent at the time of his soul transplant.
 * Junior, Collette, and Sapphire were adopted by Ash and Misty, and are all pretty happy with this arrangement. Matthias is adjusting fairly well to life with the Thunderblades as well.
 * Given their species and that of their father, either May or Max—possibly both—were adopted. Neither have any problems with this.
 * In an inversion, that Tiny was adopted by Ash is probably the only thing in the world he could stand.
 * has clear memories of watching her biological mother murdered immediately after birth, and her adoptive mother coming to her rescue. She's pretty clear about considering the latter to be her mother for all practical purposes.
 * Note that all of these adoption cases were by completely different and often genetically incompatible species, and pokémon seem to be able to form coherent memory while still in the egg. So it's not like the fact that they were adopted is any particular secret.
 * Happiness in Slavery: It was lukewarm at first to be sure, but after one story arch becomes very happy indeed. In fact, she immediately shoots down each and every attempt of her master to free her.
 * Harmless Freezing: Ash, being an Aura using Steel Type, survives getting frozen solid by Bellum, as have Leo and  at one point or another. Most everyone else.....aren't so fortunate. In fact, when Bellum unleashes Sheer Cold against the team, Leo notes that it will only leave Ash alive.
 * When
 * Healing Factor: It's directly stated in the book that the local Joys can patch up anything up to and including most minor forms of death. Unfortunately, most of the bad guys have even more impressive regenerative abilities, what with being undead (or Ditto) and all.
 * Heel Face Turn:.
 * If you count the previous book too,
 * Hero Antagonist: In Team Nightshade's quest, the Berry King is shaping up to be this. Although it's difficult to say, considering he hasn't actually appeared yet.
 * Also, the newly-introduced
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Pikachu is a samurai for some reason (As a reference to Latias' Journey). Also, Zorro shows up again.
 * Heroic BSOD: A rather humorous involving Leo when
 * Holding Back the Phlebotinum: The good guys have several deities on their side, all of whom are conveniently asleep for Hell Year, sabotaged in their summoning, captured, or held back by excessive legal entailments. Lampshaded, as usual, by Leo.
 * On the note of said legal entailments,
 * Improbable Species Compatibility: Naturally, several times. Don't ask Briney (Metang) about Peeko (Wingull).
 * How the hell did Norman (Slaking) end up with a Combusken and a Treecko for kids?
 * An actual Skitty and Wailord couple are mentioned at one point.
 * How Much More Can He Take?: Ash takes some truly horrific injuries during his fight with Paul, and to a lesser extent, Bellum and Oblivion's Shadow.
 * I Am Legion:
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Taken to the logical extreme with Genocide City.
 * If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him: When Lily is one spell away from finishing off Bellum, she noticies her friends are in grave danger and the old witch invokes this on her. If she would rather have vengance than save her friends than she's no different from her evil mother. The prospect is so terrifying she spares Bellum.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Suggested by Leo to break  out of her  . Pikachu doesn't think it'll work.
 * Impossibly Cool Weapon: Either Leo gushes about this upon seeing one, or he makes one. Can sometimes borderline with Deus Ex Machina.
 * I'm Taking Him Home With Me!: Valerie the reporter "adopts" Grobnar son of Grobnar.
 * Inner Monologue: There actually weren't that many until Briney came aboard, but now he has way too much fun abusing psychic powers to butt in on these.
 * Insane Troll Logic: Most notably Chobin who is insane. Viers, formerly Midboss, is also like this but he'll start making sense if you think about it long enough.
 * Interspecies Romance: Mercifully, the subject is changed before we get any details of Molly/Fat Pete—a Chatot and a human skeleton.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Valerie the Kirlia, who not only waltzes out into a pitched battlefield to interview Nuken of all people, but when he brushes her off in lieu of mauling a Mook she frees him up for the interview by slaying it herself. Her followup is to abduct an enemy soldier right off the frontline for an interview.
 * It Gets Easier: Leo has this after killing a Nihilator, before quickly realising that said person really deserved it. Word of God says that it was parodying Cody and Yolei's turmoil from killing Digimon from Digimon Adventure 02.
 * It Runs on Nonsensoleum: In regards to how Gonzap, in keeping with his original apperance, has a nice mustache in spite of being a Skarmory (which, being a metal bird, is completely incapable of having hair at all), Ri2 has stated that he grew a mustache 'very carefully'.
 * He has a tendency to address unimportant question in this way; one might think he's channelling Oda Eiichiro.
 * Have fun trying to figure out what using Illusionary Televisions to steal Illusionary Signals via Illusionary Cameras even MEANS, let alone how it works.
 * Kansas City Shuffle: Maelstrom's three pronged attack. First it throws airships than a shadow aura with the heroes thinking that each is the real attack. No, the real one comes after when they're weakened.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Karmic Death:
 * Kill'Em All: It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Leo has a tendency to point out cliches, plot points, plot holes, and even tropes, on a regular basis.
 * Laughably Evil: Chobin and Mewgle may be heartless, cruel, perverted, sadistic, monsters, ... but damn are they entertaining.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Briney regularly uses his psychic powers to intrude on people's thoughts...and sometimes upon the omniscient narration of their thoughts.
 * Laughably Evil: Chobin and Mewgle may be heartless, cruel, perverted, sadistic, monsters, ... but damn are they entertaining.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Briney regularly uses his psychic powers to intrude on people's thoughts...and sometimes upon the omniscient narration of their thoughts.

"Pikachu: So...let me get this straight. Am I right so far?
 * Ritchie goes meta when he moans about Ash's presence makes him feel like "I'm not the real hero anymore, just some secondary character who's only tangentially related to the big picture." Salty extends the analog by assuring him, "you're still the hero of our story."
 * Left Fielder: Er...frequently. Conversations tend to take the scenic route.
 * Lemony Narrator: So lemony, he practically craps citrus.
 * Let Me Get This Straight...: Happens a couple of times. The following example in Twilight's Edge takes this trope and, as is status quo for the whole book, just keeps running.


 * Um...yes...

Ash: I guess it does sound rather unbelievable when you put it that way...

Pikachu: Okay, I believe it.

Leo: Totally.

Sasha: It makes sense to me.

Yamiri: It seems perfectly plausible."

"Chimchar: I think I soiled myself.
 * Lighter and Softer: 's lives take a significant step up when they join the party, getting out of their respective Trauma Conga Lines and all. Both are very grateful for the change.
 * Living Forever Is Awesome:
 * Anyone that joins Dexoy's crew is offered Immortality. Even after traveling to the far reaches of the omniverse and living for millenium they still enjoy it.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: And you thought the previous book had a huge cast.
 * Loophole Abuse:  have a non-aggression treaty, but the former manages to send his high priestess help the heroes, while wearing her priestess robes, and convince the latter that it doesn't break their treaty. It works because she wasn't actually fighting anyone that worked for him. All the mooks she killed worked for Shivhel instead.
 * Lovable Nerd: Leo IS this trope. His first act of heroism is beating the villain in Dungeons and Dragons.
 * Tracey geeks out with Leo a few times every time they meet.
 * Made of Iron: Well of course Briney is a Steel-type and actually made of iron, but even then not a whole lot of Pokémon can use Explosion multiple times in a row.
 * Hell, the rest of Team Aurabolt counts.
 * Mass "Oh Crap": The Monkey King's entire army when Latias breaks their shield.
 * Mass "Oh Crap": The Monkey King's entire army when Latias breaks their shield.

Blaziken: I think we all did.

Mankey: We're fucked, aren't we?"

"Chobin: Big Lipped Feraligatr Moment! Big Lipped Feraligatr Moment!"
 * The Mamoswine army, the Legendary Golems and likely the reader gets this when they see.
 * Memetic Badass: In-universe, the Treecko evo line is known for being way too badass for their own good.
 * Memetic Sex God: Also in-universe, Gallades are known for being way too...erm...active for their own good.
 * Mind Screw: Your constant companion throughout the book.
 * Mistaken for Gay: refers to Leo as her "significant other" while he's in crossdressed disguise. Fantina gets the wrong impression.
 * The Mole: A heroic version,
 * Another heroic version, has been spying on Team Aurabolt on Darkrai's behalf since the beginning. This Mole came clean about this however, and to be fair there hasn't really been any conflict of interest.
 * A more tragic version,
 * And a villainous version comes in the form of
 * More Dakka:
 * Mundane Utility: Sabrina's clairvoyance can foresee major, potentially fatal holes in town defenses, deliver cryptic yet nightmarishly corny prophecy...and get her a discount on flip flops before they're sold out.
 * Mythology Gag: Among many others, Lady Bow.
 * Name's the Same: Max Maple and the other Max. So far they haven't met, but it's pretty much inevitable to happen eventually.
 * Nice Hat: Among pirates, the nicer the hat the higher the rank. Barbedo even credits his 'king of the pirates' title to his captain hat.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Marianne causes Bow to evolve by mistake, making her much more powerful than before.
 * Nice Job Breaking it Legendary Birds: Great job.
 * Team Nightshade BASK in this trope, hell, they created their major enemies though sheer carelessness. It gets played with when Gary does realise all the horrible things they have done due to their clumsiness, and doubts he and his Team's abilities as an actual rescue Team, an then try to change for the better.
 * Ninja Maid: Diane, who is Fatinana's maid and bodyguard. She wears the traditional Meido outfit as uniform but also because Butler likes it.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Paul to Ash during the Mt Battle Arc, who, despite his type disadvantage, mangages to remove one of Ash's leg's AND eyes, as well as blowing a hole through his chest, all while being completely unfazed by any attack that Ash threw at him
 * Noodle Incident: Whatever the hell happened to make him a cyborg, Tarantulas never wants to discuss it again...
 * Ninja Maid: Diane, who is Fatinana's maid and bodyguard. She wears the traditional Meido outfit as uniform but also because Butler likes it.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Paul to Ash during the Mt Battle Arc, who, despite his type disadvantage, mangages to remove one of Ash's leg's AND eyes, as well as blowing a hole through his chest, all while being completely unfazed by any attack that Ash threw at him
 * Noodle Incident: Whatever the hell happened to make him a cyborg, Tarantulas never wants to discuss it again...

"Sasha: See, this wouldn't be a problem if you would just eat your dead!"
 * No Social Skills: Sasha sees no problem with eating Team Aurabolt's latest kills, and is quite cynical about many "civilized" customs.

"Aaron: "You are nothing,. And now...you are dust.""
 * Tiny would be confused about social customs...if he gave enough of a rattata's ass.
 * Lily has her own issues that cause her to have little grasp of social protocol as well.
 * Obviously Evil:
 * Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: this is the sequel to Latias' Journey.
 * Oh Crap: Bow, when Marianne unleashes her
 * Oh My Gods: Arceusdammit!
 * Only Sane Mon: Pikachu
 * Also, from Team Rocket, Wobuffet (and Gardenia to an extent).
 * Our Vampires Are Different: One seems to be from another univese, and now has a variant of The Virus from a Boktai universe.
 * ie: they're not actually their vampires. In Chapter 41, Bellum states that the vampires native to the universe the story takes place in are actually extinct.
 * Overly Long Gag: Close your eyes, scroll to a random point in any given chapter, and there's about 1/4 chance you'll be in one.
 * Oh good lord. Fantina and Bellum's "I prepared for this" exchange is ludicrous.
 * Parental Substitute: Lilly's birth mother is one of the Complete Monsters mentioned above. The womon she looks up, and who loves her as a daughter, is Fatiana.
 * Pass the Popcorn: Trantalus and Chobinn having a spat is better than soap opera for the mooks in the bridge.
 * Power Perversion Potential: Inverted. is in total servitude to Pikachu and will do anything he asks. Not only does the very idea of asking her to go along these lines not sit well on him, but she's actively suggested it on multiple occasions and is basically doing everything short of pouncing him to get it through his head.
 * Played nauseatingly straight by Paradox the Celebi though, who...well, let's just say she really enjoys being able to exist multiple times at a single point in time.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: Mewgle shows an instance of this when explaining his reasoning for why he wants to kill Leo before he becomes more powerful due to Mewgle's
 * Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Several, but Aaron gives the most brutally simple one to.

"Uxie: Every single moment of their passion is engraved into my brain...as well as every moment of every other time they will have intercourse, which, believe me, will be a lot...forever. Azelf: ...Oh. Um...I...sorry."
 * Primal Scene: During the prologue, Arceus and Mew...erm...seed the universe. Right in front of their lieutenants and Latias. Uxie, in spite of not directly seeing it due to permanently-closed eyes, gets the worst of it anyway since he is a being of inherent knowledge.

"Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me. I'd list what I've appropriated/referenced/ripped-off, but it would take forever and I'm not sure it's worth it."
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: This is what seperates Goku from the barbarians.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Oh, beautifully done, Aaron.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Don Wigglytuff and Chobin.
 * Porn Without Plot: Lorne weaponizes a smutfic to use against Sam and Max. It Makes Sense in Context, at least as much as anything relating to Sam and Max does.
 * Rasputinian Death: Most of the villains will bounce back from progressively ludicrous punishment. Many of them have some kind of Body Horror Healing Factor going on. Mewgle has been killed several times now.
 * Rated "M" for Manly: This fan fic and its predecessor run on high test Rule of Cool.
 * Reality Ensues: The aforementioned Team Nightshade Grimmification puts a much darker spin on the Amusing Injuries and Butt Monkey tropes.
 * During Ash's fantasy in Chapter 54, Ash and Pikachu find out how charging energy into wooden swords would really turn out. Not well.
 * Really Gets Around: Mew, who as the local goddess of life and the creation thereof, is pretty much required to get plowed by something or other everywhere she goes. This isn't considered cheating on Arceus, because Arceus specifically said it wasn't.
 * Also, the multiple examples of Memetic Sex God above.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Latias delivers a particularly classy one to Redwing.
 * Also, Ash gives a MASTERFUL one to the Admiral.
 * Before that, Oblivion's Shadow gave one to Ash.
 * Rousseau Was Right: Yes there are a lot of complete monsters, but even Chobin felt remorse for his actions when Oblivion's Shadow gave him a conscience. This trope is also the basis behind Aura Purge
 * Reference Overdosed

"Event happens.
 * Recycled in Space: Hayzee's next idea for a reimagined play is I Want To Be Your Natu IN SPACE!!
 * Refusal of the Call: That's right. In the climax of the Zero Island arc, Ash reveals that
 * Reincarnation Romance: Due to the nature of the multiverse and its continuous reincarnation, this is bound to happen to most of the pairings to some degree..
 * Remember When You ?: Despite the memory of such obviously being quite traumatizing to Ash, Leo sees it as the most ridiculously badass thing he's ever done and never lets him live it down.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Team Nightshade seems to make make a LOT of enemies that want them dead...
 * Also
 * Rule of Cool: The book alternates between this and tons of terror.
 * Rule of Funny: Frequently.
 * Running Gag: Several, but most notably...
 * Rule of Funny: Frequently.
 * Running Gag: Several, but most notably...

Ash: Reaction!

Other party members: Alternative views on event.

Tiny sucked his pacifier."

"Pikachu: No! No more explanations! No more stories, no more arguments or debates or lengthy digressions about completely random subjects! We don't have time for this! Let's get out of here before we get blown to Kingdom Come!"
 * Although
 * Tiny's drinking problem.
 * Which becomes a Chekhov's Skill.
 * Saintly Church: The Arcean Order. Lampshaded by Leo, who remarks that the Corrupt Church stereotype is a little old and offensive, and stories need more of these. "We're a lot more diligent in weeding out corruption from our ranks than many give us credit for."
 * Until Judgement comes along that is......
 * Sanity Slippage: Leo causes this in Pikachu pretty often. Leo's brief identity crisis as Monscrub Fourplank induces this in Sasha as well.
 * Mondo has a spectacular one when he witnesses what the Rubber Pants Commandos can do.
 * Could also happen to you at pretty much any point in the book.
 * Scarpia Ultimatum: Oblivion's Shadow threatens to kill Misty if Gardevoir won't let him have what is pretty much the Psychic equivalent of sex with her.
 * Self-Made Orphan: Bellum did this to her whole family
 * Seinfeldian Conversation: While being bombarded by an enemy fleet. It almost causes Pikachu to have an an aneurysm.

"Sabrina: That's right. I can break necks with my mind."
 * Hell, this happens at least three or four times in any given fight. Or plot conversation. Or anytime, really.
 * Sentai: It's an Ri2 fanfic. What did you expect? Although one can be forgiven for not expecting.
 * Of course, there is also actual Super Sentai/Power Rangers parodies in the forms of the Musirangers.
 * Senseless Sacrifice:.
 * Serious Business: Bow is very determined to make Marianne pay for ruining her birthday cake.
 * Serial Escalation: Whether your jaw dropped first at the Squick or the absurdly epic fight sequences, don't bother picking it up from the floor. It just keeps getting better and worse.
 * Shapeshifter Showdown: Chapter 34 is actually called this and contains the team's fight with.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: In contrast to the first book, Ash and Misty are not a couple early on—or at least they vocally claim not to be, in spite of three Pokemon who consider them in quite specific terms to be their parents.
 * Pikachu and the ninja Buneary get this a lot too.
 * Shipper on Deck: Looks like Briney's trying to push Leo and  together, not to mention Pikachu and  . Possibly because he considers it "fun." Oh that crazy old bastard...
 * Before Briney came aboard, Ash and Leo were shipping Pikachu and.
 * Similarly, Pikachu and the entirety of Pokemon Square were shipping Ash and Misty.
 * Briney's probably the only one shipping Leo and though. Everyone else is honestly a little frightened of the possibilities.
 * Darkrai is apparently shipping all of the above too. So basically despite the whole nightmares and terror thing, he's kind of a WAFFy guy at heart.
 * Shout-Out: Many. Many many. Several in particular to Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series.
 * Shout-Out: Many. Many many. Several in particular to Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series.

"Random Townsperson: She ate me just last week!...I got better."
 * The Zero Isle arc seems to be one big excuse to make Monkey Island and Lost or Misplaced jokes.
 * The chapters of the Zero Isle arc are even NAMED after the games in the Monkey Island series!
 * Then there was the Monty Python and the Holy Grail bit in the Turtle Town arc...

"Ash: Stantler have always existed. It's not like they were spontaneously discovered some time afterwards along with a hundred other new species of Pokémon and then everyone pretended that they'd always known about them and they'd been around forever or something, that would be silly."
 * The despotic, ruthless, Social Darwinist Gal, who has a thing for fire is called the Fire Lord.
 * SANTA CHRIST exists in this world
 * One of many to the various Pokemon games.


 * Chrono of Team Quantum.
 * Kragok Vulkanus is one giant Shout-Out to the "Winter" segment of the Samurai Jack seasons episode, meeting the same fate as his counter part and then some.
 * Meowth has a jar of dirt!
 * Butler's ancestor was the first to wrestle a troll into submission with his bare hands. Where have we heard this before?
 * Leo renacting the famous scene from Zero Wing
 * Discord and Celestia make an apperance to aid Mewgle and Mie respectively. Even the theme song is refered to as a 'catchy song about ponyta'.
 * some guy tried to kill the collossus guarding Fichina thinking it would revive his dead girlfriend. He got stepped on. Darkrai called him a loser.
 * Gooey invokes Grahf from Xenogears when he recruits allies in his revenge quest against Team Nightshade.
 * Many to Power Rangers.
 * Amp Zord turns its dial up to eleven
 * Surely it's no coincidence Ash and Misty's Togetic daughter is named Collette?
 * Spanner in the Works: Someone tampering with.
 * Species Surname: Surprisingly averted; each (Pokemon) character has a given name rather than being called by his / her species name. Pikachu plays it straight, however.
 * Spell My Name With A "Son of Grobnar"
 * And [
 * Story-Breaker Power:
 * Alot of the stuff Oblivion's Shadow and Team Quantum do. Have fun trying to properly fight a person that can explode your head with zero effort and use Dark Aura to a horrific degree, to the point of being able to stop a Void Pokemon at limited power. With Team Quantum, Paradox can use her powers to basically render every action taken against her null and void, as well as unleash Bullet Hell through time portals. Crono can inflict wounds IN YOUR PAST to you. And Aeon can suck you into his portal and make you suffer a Fate Worse Than Death. Both Ash and Wes' group each suffered a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the hands of Shadow and Quantum respectively when they were holding back.
 * As mentioned before, there's a lot of good guy phlebotinum being meticulously held back in the form of multiple deities.
 * Invisible to Gaydar: . Shortly after it's revealed to the reader, most of the secondary characters in that arc either find out or guess.
 * The Strategist:
 * Summon Bigger Fish: Summoning Surtrit. If Fatiana hadn't been there, he might not only have kept the Flame Plate but replaced Shivhel as their primary enemy at the momment and turned Dusty Ditch into Muspelheim instead of Niflheim.
 * Sweat Drop
 * Take a Third Option:
 * Take That Me: A variation occurs during the RPG fight with Levithan, when Sam talks about action commands in RPG's and says how they are lucky that they don't have to do something like press a button when a fast moving line hits a small spot on a bar. This is the action command for Earth Tremor in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year door, which, of course, this story is based on.
 * There are multiple cracks about how humans becoming Pokemon is a concept only used in bad fanfiction.
 * Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded to hell and back.
 * Tempting Fate: Played straight on most occasions, though the amount of times Genocide City is mentioned probably guarantees they'll be going there at some point.
 * They Were Holding You Back:
 * Time Abyss: Latias and Mewgle from the previous book weren't part of the big soul-crunch when the universe ended. This makes them older than both the current multiverse and its supreme deity.
 * Time Police: Team Quantum.
 * Too Much Information: Frequently. It helps that a good deal of the cast are either Cloudcuckoolander or Crazy Awesome enough to volunteer these things.
 * To the Pain: Charla gives a pretty damn epic one to Gal.
 * Troperiffic: Sometime between Latias Jourey and here, Ri2 became a troper. It shows. Considerably.
 * On a equally meta note, Leo is a troper too. He's directly referenced many of the above tropes, as well as predicting half the plot turns thus far.
 * Tsundere Outlaw  she makes it clear that she does not care about the 'meat bags' in her seats while she's protecting them. She's distraught about lossing Max to Bellum but, as is standard for the trope, denies and makes exuses.
 * Too Dumb to Live
 * Took a Level in Badass: Any recurring member of the cast has basically dual-classed permanently to Badass.
 * Transforming Mecha:
 * Twitchy Eye: Several characters when assaulted by gratuitous weirdness, but most notably Pikachu.
 * The Unpronounceable: Leo has been occasionally known to shout "!", an impressive linguistic feat.
 * Wacky Racing: One of Team Nightshade's arcs.
 * Wedding Day: A nice one in, it was performed by  ...
 * Weddings for Everyone: ...for a lot of people, probably most significantly
 * The Worf Effect: Leo is afarid this happened to Ash in the Mt. Battle arc. He even describes it for everyone's benefit
 * Worf Had the Flu: When Dawn is amazed to hear that Pikachu and Ash defeated the real Groudon Pikachu qualifies it with "it was only because he was still groggy due to just waking up from his long slumber, Team A.C.T. got there first and weakened him for us, and we had the help of just about every other major Rescue Team and hero in Pokémon Square, including my dad. Even then, it was still awfully close."
 * What Did I Do Last Night?: Poor.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Mewgle and  duel through the most epic game ever of.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Two examples: One when Misty berates Ash for whining that he does not want his life to always have him needed to save the world when, and pretty much the entirety of the Ash vs Oblivion's Shadow fight, where Oblivion's Shadow constantly calls Ash out on becoming obsessed with killing him.
 * Paradox and Chrono give one to Aeon when he puts Team Ebony through an utterly horrible Training from Hell.
 * World of Badass: Let's face it. A Ctrl-F search on "badass" yields 14 things on this page at last count, so if you read this far down, you were probably thinking it. You're right.
 * World of Ham
 * Wretched Hive: Treasure Town puts the previous book's rendition of Lilycove to shame.
 * It isn't as bad as Genocide City.
 * Apparently it's actually getting close though.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Not sure if it counts but the unwinnable boss fight comes to mind
 * Technically it counts, but Heads I Win, Tails You Lose is more appropriate. Chobbin's tale of Tarantlus trying to induce a pyschic link in nonpsychic pokemon; he place two halves of a brain in two bodies but only succeeded in driving them insane. Despite the failure, he remembers it fondly because it was fun.
 * Another example is Darkrai's Loophole Abuse; regardless of what Oblivion's Shadow did at that point, Darkrai stood to gain something.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: The whole cast. was running a pretty impressive game behind the entire Tournament Arc. In relation to everything else, every faction involved is balancing a delicate game of screwing each other over and spying on each other (even if they end up being on the same side), and Team Rocket is trying to sway the war such that the world is saved but they control it at the end.
 * Bellum and Fantima manage to have an utterly spectacular moment of this.
 * Yank the Dog's Chain:
 * You Have Failed Me...: Pro Tip: Don't fail Oblivion's Shadow. He won't KILL you if you still have use, but he will make you wish for death.
 * Weirdly, inverted for the most part—the Nihilators being an apocalypse cult and all, Oblivion's Shadow does kill you if you succeed.
 * You Never Asked: Lily initially forgets to mention several important plot points, including the identity of one of the Big Bads.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Subverted when Ash and company use Aura to project their spirits into heart. Leo assumes this trope is in effect, and Ash's response is along the lines of, "What? No, that's stupid. Why in the world would the Aura Guardians set up their own advanced technique that way?"
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Courtesy of Jurgen during the Twilight's Edge arc.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Subverted when Ash and company use Aura to project their spirits into heart. Leo assumes this trope is in effect, and Ash's response is along the lines of, "What? No, that's stupid. Why in the world would the Aura Guardians set up their own advanced technique that way?"
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Courtesy of Jurgen during the Twilight's Edge arc.