Brave New World (fanfic)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Brave New World is the current[when?] 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.

Tropes used in Brave New World (fanfic) include:
  • 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 when Bellum attaches magical chains to her, meaning, no matter how hard she tries, she can NEVER LEAVE.
    • She shaped Lily while she was in the egg to look and have the same powers as Fantina, her hated rival.
  • 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 that he has shades of being a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
    • 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, handing over the Star Badge animating him without any fuss, agrees to a fight for his ship and takes his defeat to Tiny in a drinking contest with good humor. 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.
    • If you can get past the fact that Ford is a sinister creature who has taken fighters and been draining their powers over the course of years, 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 {{[[[Seers]] oracle}} 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: Ash, Richie, Tiny, Cruse, Cherry and Rebecca at the talons of Denchu
  • 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:
    • Ford's ultimate fate at the end of the Mt Battle Arc. And, He's given to a Golem Troll as a Red Herring. To eternally sit on the mantle place... and Mrs. Golem's Bad cooking.
    • Everyone who gets soul-eaten by Leviathan or killed at the hands of the Nihilators.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Manaphy, who gets beaten up and down with silly ease once our heroes break his Heart Swap gimmick.
    • Also Ford. Who, unlike his Paper Mario counterpart, Grubba 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 Team Ebony 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. Thus, it isn't surprising that he is the reincarnation of N, King of Team Plasma. Also, when the Light of Justice hears of the true extent of the Nihilator's crimes, he wants to put aside the gathering of Arceus' plates to focus on the Nihilator's destruction, and is certain that his organization and Team Getem can put aside their conflict to defeat an organization that is truly evil.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Frequently, but one case in particular stands out in relation to Lily and the above trope.

Leo: That bitch! Depriving you of video games growing up! That's going too far!

    • And...

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…

  • 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: Malestrom has the unfortunate weakness of having the orbs that are the source of it's divine power and immortality be in an exposed Ribcage on it's chest. It's Lampshaded by the heroes.
  • 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.

ChobinOh! Oh! Can I rape her and molest her body just as a Beedrill molests flowers to harvest their sweet, sweet honey nectar of sweetness that is deliciously delicious and enjoyed by Ursarings, especially if those Ursarings are being Pedobears and harvest other kinds of honey too that is from another kind of flower that is not a plant but a Pokemon unless it is a Grass type which can often be flowers and isn't actually honey at all? Her horrible disfiguring disfigurement of ugliness is turning Chobin on,"

  • 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: The trolls accidentally think that Briney is someone called Wodin One Eye, a one eyed deity of death and terror to almost all of them. Briney's response? "Oh, I'm not him. I'm much worse."
  • 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 his mustache is removed via Shadow Lugia smashing him through THIRTY FIVE battleships, Briney loses his mustache. (don't worry, he gets it back) This is apparently traumatic enough for him to shed a tear. He dosen't appear to care much about the fact that he lost an arm in the same attack though... (he gets that back too.)
    • 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.
  • 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.
In true Sam and Max fashion, their car when they're caught in treasure town.
  • Bigger Bad: Whatever is behind the Door in Treasure Town so Giratina and the Ruler of Evil, combined with the Gaiavore and most of Hell.
  • Black and Gray Morality: T-Bone/Iron Masked Marauder. His wife and child were captured by Hunter J and sent to the Nihilators, and Team Rocket blackmailed him into betraying Team ACT to the Monkey King (which resulted in Allen killed and Charlie maimed) in order to infiltrate them on the Rockets' behalf.
  • 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: Lugia's cycle of nightmares that's keeping him Shadow is highly similar to the one in the prequel, but it's not induced by Deoxys this time.
  • Care Bear Stare: Aura Purge. It consists of bombarding the enemy with so many happy feelings they give up being evil.
  • The Cavalry: Also in true Sam and Max fashion, The Rubber Pants Commandos.
  • Chaste Hero: Ash and Pikachu.
    • Special mention must go to Pikachu, who currently has Dawn 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.
    • Until a What Did I Do Last Night? incident happens...but it turns out even then he was a perfect gentleman.
  • 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.
    • Used by Evan as an explanation to why they lost to an army of mummies, even with Janine on their side. The rest of Team Nightshade completely dismiss it as stupid.
    • Unlampshaded, played straight, and definitely NOT subverted with Captain Briney against the frost Creatures, Though it may have less to do with Conversation of Ninjutsu, than, well, being Captain Briney.
      • about half of the rest of the people on the train getin on it as well... theu just don't do it quite so impressively
  • 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 not only survive the supposed equation that has driven the others insane, but declare that it's a mathmatical and logical impossibility
    • It gets better. That wasn't just any equation. It was the goddamn Anti-Life Equation of all things!
  • Cool Ship: Briney's Peeko, and Barbedo's Golden Dream. The latter has ridiculously advanced Magitek weaponry and a frigging rail gun.
    • Don't you mean Briney's Golden Dream, or rather Peeko XII?
  • 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. Within the organization, the Light of Justice, who was N in his human life, believes in the goals purely, while the seven Sages undoubtedly have more less-than-holy goals.
  • Crapsack World: TREASURE TOWN. It's says something that it makes places like Rapture and Pandora look liveable.
  • 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 almost every major protagonist from the series, The Legendary Birds, Darkrai and Cresselia 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.
    • Brodie tries to face off with the passengers on the Enchanted Express. Who consist of both Team Aurabolt, Team Getem and some of the most powerful mages in the world. It goes about as well as you would expect.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Several. From Hissa' Yamatorochi power which makes her shadow grow six heads, to a Magitek supercomputer beneath Pokemon Square 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: Misty
  • Deader Than Dead: The Legendary Birds, after they have their Orbs destroyed
  • 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 Palmer's ultimate Ninjutsu, the Seventh Slash.
  • 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.

"Oh no! We're all gonna die! If only there were some convenient plot device to save us!"

    • Subverted by Mack Salmon when he manages to remove every factor that Sam and Max could call upon, in order for Max to summon Leviathan.
    • Apparently Leo is a high-ranking ordained cultist nun. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.
    • You are lying if you expected the DeSoto to be a Decepticon
  • Deus Exit Machina: Denchu captures Ash and Richie so they can't purify Lugia. It stops them from taking part in the beginning of the battle as well.
  • 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 that he's actually a Ditto named Mondo and actually fairly intelligent
  • 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. Keep in mind the world has already been annihilated and rebuilt once, so as long as the right deities are still intact by the end...
  • 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 Lily's "imaginary friend" B is not only quite real, but some sort of extradimensional...something that can directly see love, but at least he/she/it appears to be a friendly one.
    • "B" was hinted to be a nearly forgotten main character from the very beginning, Latias's daughter Bea
  • 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, though even she's starting to loosen up a bit since she joined the team.
  • 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: Invoked by Light of Justice. He thinks Team Getem is Not So Different in their goals but they refused every offer to join forces. Once the Nihilators are exposed 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.
    • And now we have one of Dan Green. He doesn't last long, sadly.
    • Viers, formerly known as Midboss is an expy of Midbus from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
  • Face Fault: All the time! Mostly because of Leo.
  • Face Heel Turn: Suicine, Raikou and Entei have turned from their duties and now serve the Big Bad for power! Just like last time. They're hinted to be mind controlled this time around though.
  • 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...but then Lily reveals that they end up as the aristocracy there, which inverts the trope by making it their own personal heaven.
  • 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 Dawn when he reveals he's an ordained cultist nun.
    • 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: Judgement and Ritche's team. 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. They show up to help fight the Nihilators.
  • Fridge Logic: Plenty pointed out in the book.
  • Past Me Scares Me: Ash, once he starts getting flashbacks of how the world got trashed the first incarnation around, watches himself slaughter five legendaries using Aura.
  • 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, Team Quantum , is apparently trying to ensure the best possible outcome for the future, so far by protecting Team Rocket from T-Bone's attempted selling out to Pokemon Square.
    • Chapter 55 reveals just how further Team Quantum's actions are. They have been manipulating events since the previous world, all so their Perfect Future can happen
  • Gambit Roulette: Played for laughs. Cherry initates a long term master plan of vengance on Todd, for taking risque photos of her without paying royalties. 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.
  • 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. And then it gets worse.
    • 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: Yep, certainly a convenient way to explain why we had this ability all along but never talked about it or used it before now.

  • 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.
    • Dawn 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 Dawn 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 Dawn 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 Shivhel unleashes her ice wave, everyone caught by it came inches away from dying. They were luckily saved by the summoning of Surtrit.
  • 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: Lily.
    • If you count the previous book too, Deoxys is a total 180 from what we're familiar with, and was supposedly the one who rebuilt the world when it got destroyed.
  • 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 Team Quantum seem to be this, attempting to take T-Bone against his will back to Team Rocket to ensure its safety and survival for the final battle against the forces of evil.
  • 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 he finds out that there's no internet connection on Zero Isle.
  • 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, Sasha can't use her Priestess Cloak against the Nihilators.
    • Lugia isn't very happy about being turned Shadow.
  • 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?
      • Turns out Max is an adopted illegitimate child.
    • 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. Charlie manages to actively fight against Gal after being previously left in a near dead state
  • I Am Legion: The Sorceror turns out to be a colony of Unknown
  • 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 Dawn the Ninja Buneary out of her evil form. Pikachu doesn't think it'll work. It kind of does, but not really.
  • 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: Any Nihilator that gets killed is given a positive afterlife by Giratina for their service towards her. Whether any exceptions will be made is unknown.
  • Karmic Death: Manaphy is killed by Kyogre, who he enslaved with the Blue Orb.
  • 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.

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.

    • 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.

Pikachu: So...let me get this straight. You're saying that Ash is right here in this room next to you but we can't see or hear him because of the spell the Ditto cast on him, and that you're the only person who can see or hear him due to being a witch. Not only that, but you've turned your back on your mother and the rest of your family and agreed to join us — the Pokemon whom you tried to kill that beat you and your family up the last time we met — because Ash — whom, I repeat, is supposedly in this room even though we can't see or hear him — broke the curse that allowed Bellum to control you and is apparently an excuse for a great deal of the evil you've committed in the past and you conveniently know a way to reverse the spell on Ash, just when we needed that knowledge the most. And you found the way to reverse the spell by catching a chain-smoking fairy in the middle of the forest with a piece of fruit. Am I right so far?

Lily: 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.

  • Lighter and Softer: Lily and Dawn'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.
    • Giovanni and the Terrible Trio have lived since the Catacylsm a thousand years ago. None of them have any complaints.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: And you thought the previous book had a huge cast.
  • Loophole Abuse: Darkari and Oblivon's Shadow 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.

Chimchar: I think I soiled myself.

Blaziken: I think we all did.

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

    • The Mamoswine army, the Legendary Golems and likely the reader gets this when they see The Legendary Dogs transforming into even stronger versions.
    • This is almost everyone's reaction to the battle of Dusty Ditch when Bellum summons 3 Frost Giants.
    • and the hero's reaction when Shadow Lugia turns up.
  • 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: Lily refers to Leo as her "significant other" while he's in crossdressed disguise. Fantina gets the wrong impression.
  • The Mole: A heroic version, May took a considerable level in badass since the first book and infiltrated Ford's tournament operation to save her father.
    • Another heroic version, Sasha 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, T-Bone of Team ACT was a Mole for Team Rocket (the Iron Masked Marauder, in fact), and in attempting to infiltrate the Monkey King's army for them, got Allen killed and Charlie captured and brutalized. It's hard to blame him for this, too, since Team Rocket blackmailed him into joining to save his wife and child.
    • And a villainous version comes in the form of Otoro, the Link Shop owner, who turns out to be The Sorcerer.
  • Monster Is a Mommy: Tiama, the dragon who'd been terrorising Turtle Town.
  • More Dakka: The Rubber Pants Commandos take this Beyond the Impossible. They have flaming projectiles underwater.
  • 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 killing almost everyone that Ash cared about on an impulsive and heavily flawed reasoning. Too bad there was a reason that Ash was meant to be the Chosen One.....
    • 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 Due to his immortality
  • Noodle Incident: Whatever the hell happened to make him a cyborg, Tarantulas never wants to discuss it again...

Chobin: Big Lipped Feraligatr Moment! Big Lipped Feraligatr Moment!

  • No Social Skills: Sasha sees no problem with eating Team Aurabolt's latest kills, and is quite cynical about many "civilized" customs.

Sasha: See, this wouldn't be a problem if you would just eat your dead!

Aaron: "You are nothing, Gal. And now...you are dust."

  • 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.

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.

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.

  • 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 He was approached in his prior life by Riley to start up Aura Training so he could save the world from the apocalypse. Ash, understandably tired of being the only person who can save the world a few hundred times, turned him down. And shortly thereafter, every Aura Guardian is eliminated by Lord Null.
    • Not that he would've gotten powerful enough to stop Null after the three weeks of training he would've gotten before the Guardians were offed anyway. Even as a kickass Lucario with a boatload of combat experience and what had to be a triple-digit body count by that point, an Aura handbook, years in Chuck's danger room, and some coaching from Aaron himself, he still got dropkicked by Oblivion's Shadow.
      • However, Ash's guilt stemmed from the fact that by becoming an Aura Guardian he thought that Null would have spared them due to their affiliation with him. And the fact that mastering Aura would have made him able to save his friends.
  • 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. Dawn/Pikachu is a new one though.
  • Remember When You Slaughtered A Pantheon And Caused An Apocalypse?: 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 Ash, whenever he sees Oblivion's Shadow, or when the Legendary Birds kill his mother during the apocalypse.
  • Rule of Cool: The book alternates between this and tons of terror.
  • Rule of Funny: Frequently.
  • Running Gag: Several, but most notably...

Event happens.

Ash: Reaction!

Other party members: Alternative views on event.

Tiny sucked his pacifier.

    • Although once Tiny regains his ability to talk, he ditches the pacifier and gains a monocle.
    • Tiny's drinking problem.
  • 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."
  • 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.

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!

    • 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 Arceus' plates to be morphers.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: The Rubber Pants Commandos when they try to take down Leviathan with a kamikaze run. While firing a nuke no less. Sadly, Leviathan survives.
    • As do the Commandos.
  • Serious Business: Bow is very determined to make Marianne pay for ruining her birthday cake. It's then subverted when it's revealed that Bow's best friend was hiding in the cake as a surprise, and was killed when Marianne ruined it.
  • 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 Brodie.
  • 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 Lily together, not to mention Pikachu and Dawn. Possibly because he considers it "fun." Oh that crazy old bastard...
    • Before Briney came aboard, Ash and Leo were shipping Pikachu and Dawn.
    • Similarly, Pikachu and the entirety of Pokemon Square were shipping Ash and Misty.
    • Briney's probably the only one shipping Leo and Lily though. Everyone else is honestly a little frightened of the possibilities.
    • Darkrai is apparently shipping all of the above too. He gives Dawn a healing spell for her voice that will only kick in when she's happy enough to evolve, confirms for Leo that his idea to sever Lily's slavery to Giratina can work, and is very glad to assure Ash that Misty is alive. 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.

Sabrina: That's right. I can break necks with my mind.

Random Townsperson: She ate me just last week!...I got better.

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.

  • Spanner in the Works: Someone tampering with Latias' divine intervention.
  • 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 [{{[[[Spell My Name with a "The"]] The Brock}}
  • Story-Breaker Power: Sasha's Darkrai Priestess Robes, which esentially make her untouchable AND unkillable. She states that she dislikes wearing them though, and Darkrai doesn't really know if they will fare well against Frost Giants.
    • 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: Maren. Shortly after it's revealed to the reader, most of the secondary characters in that arc either find out or guess.
  • The Strategist: Max orchestrated his sister's infiltration, uncovering, and downfall of Ford's scam during the Tournament Arc, as well as working Ash and company into the plan on the fly. We're to assume he's about ten or younger.
  • 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: When Team Aurabolt discovers that the monster that's been plauging Turtle Town is actually a necromantically raised Garchomp that's only extorting the townsfolk to feed her children and eats people in order to keep herself 'alive so she can feed them, they're reluctant to kill her and condemn her babies. Leo comes up with a solution that he raises to her; have Turtle Town raise her babies! The turtles of the town are skeptical at best, until Tiamat reveals that the skeletons under her command (the dead bodies of adventurers, mercenaries and the townspeople's relatives) retain their souls and personalities when she lets them. The deal is thus: 'Raise my babies, and you get your relatives back'. It works.
  • 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: Paul tries to invoke this on Dawn when her Frustration attack fails to kill him. Palmer convinces her otherwise.
  • 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 Once she's revealed to be a transfomer 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 There is a reason Chobin has been cloned repeatedly, especially when he does things like jump into a swarm of ravenous robo spiders....
  • Took a Level in Badass: Any recurring member of the cast has basically dual-classed permanently to Badass.
  • Transforming Mecha: THE DESOTO. A Decepticon to be exact. We are as surprised as you.
  • 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 Chapter 55, it was performed by Latias...
  • 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 Pikachu.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Mewgle and Mie/Molly Hale's duel through the most epic game ever of Scrabble.
  • 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 Annihilation is destroying every living being in sight, 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.
  • 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. Max 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: In chapter 53, Ash and Dawn come inches away from killing Articuno and Paul respectively, only for the ice wave to freeze them and Bellum to take them away before they can do the job. When Lily has Bellum on the ropes, she's tricked into letting Bellum go as well to save them.
  • 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 Dawn's 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.
  1. ↑ is a transplanted human soul in an animal's body, adopted by members of another species (one of which he knows is supposed to actually be his mom), has three adopted children before admitting he even has a thing for the girl said children consider their mother, and regained the memories of watching all his friends systematically killed and his own Unstoppable Rage that wiped out a couple of innocent deities during a previous apocalypse.
  2. ↑ is a swordsmon who basically knows full well that his job description inevitably ends in "killed in action", has a stick longer than his sword jammed up his ass when it comes to the samurai code, is probably the only remotely normal one present in a team full of -- let's be honest here -- wackos, and is being gleefully shipped by one of his teammates with a deadly assassin.
  3. ↑ is an overweight, underage nerd with delusions of grandeur and a desire to attain immortality. He sees the world as an extension of video games (and is often right to everyone else's horror), exhibits masochistic tendencies, and has a thing for a dead girl.
  4. ↑ has No Social Skills -- little grasp of civilized social conduct, and has little patience for what she does know. She sees no problem with eating the team's kills, or racking up a slightly higher body count than strictly necessary.
  5. ↑ is an infant whose mother was killed right in front of him and his egg dropped from an airborne rocket onto a Steel-type's head. His traumas have rendered him halfway into a perpetual Shadow state, and he screams loudly if anyone other than Ash approaches his bubble of personal space. It's hinted on more than one occasion that he actively hates everything with the exception of Ash. He got better thankfully.....And then discovered that his father betrayed Pokemon Square and his mother is now a Shadow Pokemon. He didn't take it that badly though.
  6. ↑ Lily... Freudian Excuse doesn't even begin to describe her childhood; joining a cadre that faces unspeakable horrors on a nigh-daily basis is a step up for her. She's slowly learning social protocol since joining the team, but her most persistent teachers in this are Leo and her imaginary (?) friend B.
  7. ↑ Briney's wife was murdered by thugs, and he has since torn out one of his eyes and replaced it with hers to aid his long-running Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He is deeply paranoid enough to psychically intrude on the thoughts of everyone around him on a regular basis -- and one must realize that he hangs out in Treasure Town, so he's probably not getting anything G-rated there.
  8. ↑ Dawn had her vocal cords torn out at birth, was raised to be an assassin, betrayed by her best friend, had her entire clan and family slaughtered by said betrayer, had half her skin burned off and was left to die by said betrayer, has done a few... favors to unsavory characters while tracking him down, and was put through weeks of indescribable torture which ended with a mathematical equation that crushed her will to live and turned her Shadow. She is now in unending servitude to Pikachu; as with Lily, this is a considerable step up from her life thus far.
  9. ↑ The friend for life!
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