Zero Shock

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Zero's Shock is a crossover between BioShock (series) and The Familiar of Zero written by the same author who is giving us ToyHammer. Simply put; Jack becomes the Familiar of Zero. While the fic is still in its infancy it has a promising start, with Jack and Louise both having a lot of character depth for a Silent Protagonist - a trait that is somewhat retained - and being spot on with canon (barring the domestic abuse - Jack doesn't give her a chance for that), which has earned this fic praise from the reviewers on fanfiction.net.

Also, there will be BEES.

Word of God says that this is based on a hypothetical in-between ending where Jack becomes King of Rapture while still having the favour of the Little Sisters. Said ending is shown through flashbacks, which gives us glimpses of the Rapture 'Reunification War', with Jack, Tenenbaum, and the rest of the BioShock (series) cast, providing us with Character Development to see how Jack became who he is now.

Tropes used in Zero Shock include:

Guiche's second Valkyrie failed to form past what looked to be a lumpy bronze brick, which dropped to the ground with a heavy thump at his feet.

Salvatore: They're making [Jack] an honest-to-God messiah down here in the slums, and once someone breaks that pedestal, all hell is going to break loose, and we are going to be in the center of it all when the shit hits the fan... and they're gonna blame everyone.

  • Butt Monkey: A literal Leeroy Jenkins is killed repeatedly (sometimes accidentally), only to be revived via Vita-Chamber to continue on with experiments to try and bring back Jack.
  • Covert Pervert: Siesta. After she is first introduced, we glimpse her mind as a trashy romance novel filled with Purple Prose.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Enjoy the bees plasmid, Guiche.
  • Daddy's Girl: The Little Sisters are so attached to Jack, and so cared for by him that they go into an absolute panic when they realize that he isn't there.
  • Defensive "What?": Jack blurts out one of these when he sees the reaction of the people at Old Osmond's office when he tells them he's not a noble.
  • Domestic Abuse: Averted. Louise is more logical and subdued than in the original series because unlike a certain 16-year-old highschool boy/nerd/otaku, Jack doesn't make cracks about her bust size or otherwise jump up and down on her Berserk Buttons every five minutes.
  • Evil Laugh: Inverted. Jack's laugh is scary as hell, since his voice is still augmented by his... modifications, and even makes Big Daddies stop to turn and stare. And he's a good guy.
  • Face Palm: Practically a staple reaction of Jack to the [ZnT crew's antics.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Halkeginia is a world on the doorstep of the Renaissance and contains magic (and magical creatures related to such a setting). It has also been crossed over with BioShock (series), known to have at least taken things from Halo and Pokémon and possibly others... well, you'd expect this trope.
  • Flat What:

“What.” No question mark. It was just a flat statement on Jack's part.

  • Fridge Horror: In-universe with Louise, who realizes that not only does Jack have family, she took him away from them.
  • Genius Ditz: Derflinger, of all... sentients... has this. He's knowledgeable enough about golems to know their mechanics, and has extensive knowledge of their magical anatomy.
  • Hypocritical Humor:

Derflinger: "Golems this big always have a magic-saturated catalytic core to help run the whole thing! Its like the heart, or a lung, actually. Maybe a kidney? Dunno about squishy bits, you people have such complicated names for them."

  • Instant Expert: Played with in a meta context. Jack seems to be an Instant Expert with his plasmids during the events of BioShock (series), but here it is subverted in that the plasmids can be much more effective and more EVE efficient after he's gotten some practice in.
  • Irony: Noted by the author: At the moment, Rapture (a formerly free-market capitalist society designed to be Ayn Rand's utopia) and its population would be more than eager to crown Jack a king or equivalent thereof if it had more spare time from rebuilding after the Civil War. However, most of Halkeginia (a pre-Renaissance era + magic setting) is itself on the verge of a commoner's rebellion (which is, in canon, already in progress up in Albion), which would push its society towards capitalism...
  • The Lancer: Salvatore, back in Rapture, acts as one for Jack and perhaps later for Tenenbaum as well. Shows hints of becoming a Supporting Leader as well.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jack "sees" a blue EVE bar and plasmid selection cylinder.
  • Nice to the Waiter: Jack to Siesta.
  • Mathematician's Answer: Once again, Jack.

Colbert: And what does [having a wrench] make you?
Jack: Jack.

Floating continent?! The splicer tried to wrap his head around the concept of a floating city. Sure, Rapture was a bizarre place on its own, but it still had a foundation! It was at the bottom of the sea, rather than in the freaking sky!

  • Terse Talker: Jack and Tabitha barely speak more than one word each time they open their mouths. When they have their first conversation, which Kirche states to be the longest conversation Tabitha's had with anyone ever, it's entirely done with one-word sentences.
  • This Is Reality:

[Siesta's] life was not like A Country Maid in the Hall of the Duke! This would end badly, no matter what those romance novels had said! She lived in reality, dammit!