Crossovers
- Avengers: Infinite Wars has a few key moments;
- In Chapter 47, with most of the Avengers facing the threat of Ultron's forces on Coruscant, he is forced to retreat when T'Challa arrives with an attack squadron of Wookies.
- To a point in Chapter 54; back on Earth, the Avengers and the Defenders can't do much against the main threat of Muur and Kaecilius, but they can hold their own against the Rakghoul created by Muur while the sorcerers deal with the main threat.
- Chapter 73 features Anakin, Obi-Wan, Vision, Black Panther and Spider-Man alone on Mortis, facing the Son after he's just attacked the Father and potentially killed Ahsoka, only for Thor to appear.
- In Avenger of Steel, after Lorelei takes control of Superman, the Ancient One steps in just as he is about to be used to kill Natasha, Jessica, Sif and May, and is able to use the Time Stone to undo the ritual Lorelei used to take over Superman's mind.
- Avengers of the Ring:
- In Avengers of the Ring, Thor takes the place of the eagles in rescuing Frodo and Sam.
- In Scarlet Witch and the Thirteen Dwarves, technically applies to the Vision, as his presence tips the scales back in favour of the elves, dwarves and men despite Ultron’s presence on the Orcs’ side, but he maintains a discreet role in the battle to minimise his impact on the timeline.
- Quite a few occur during the final battle in ''Dagor Arnediad, ranging from Hulk returning to the fight to knock down a range of Outriders to Gandalf and Thor appearing to destroy the Threshers.
- The Back to the Future/ X-Men Film Series crossover "BTTX
" opens with Doc and Marty serving as this for Jean, as they arrive at Alkali Lake in time to see Jean holding the water back and are able to time their rescue of her for the moment between when the Blackbird took off and Jean being crushed by the water. - Alyx and Barney get this in Between Minds when they navigate an aerial battle against several gunships with a single helicopter, to drop an EMP on some Advisors.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant:
- Nora and Ren both jump in at the last minute to help Blake, Makoto, and Ragna against the White Fang during the Battle at the docks, with Nora being the one who opened with a surprise attack to save them.
- Jubei's introduction into the story is saving Luna from a Goliath attack with a single sword strike.
- Boldores and Boomsticks:
- Ruby arrives at a Grimm attack and kills a Beowolf an instant before it would have killed a young boy and his Rattata.
- Blake and Yang finally manage to beach a stubborn Feilong, but the giant sea serpent still won't go down... until Jasmine and her Steelix show up.
- In The Bridge (MLP), both the heroic kaiju and Equestrians have good timing.
- Rainbow Dash dives into action and dropkicks Garble in the face when the teenage dragons attack a campground. Her element activates when a transformed Anguirus joins the fray and it reverts him back to his true form to lay the beat-down on the growing drakes.
- Just as the gyaos begin attacking Canterlot, Princess Celestia puts up a barrier around the entire city and Princess Luna helps release Godzilla Junior's true form outside of it to fight off the horde.
- Princess Cadance was restrained by dark crystals and poised to be impaled by King Sombra when Xenilla bursts through the wall and tackled the dark unicorn out the window. Cadance promptly frees herself, armors up, and returns the favor when Sombra busted out his scythe.
- Call Me Kara: This Supergirl (2015)/The Flash (2014) crossover starts out when Kara gets shot and Barry manages to breach into her apartment and get her back to his Earth just in time to save her life.
- "The Case of Ichabod Crane and Dr. Frankenstein" features Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) doing the detective equivalent of this when he arrives in Geneva in time to assist in investigating the death of William Frankenstein. When the Frankensteins' maid Justine is accused of the murder, Crane is able to provide evidence that William was strangled by an individual with far larger hands than Justine based on the pattern of bruises left on William's corpse.
- Cave Dancers Pretty Cure: Pa Gorg is unimpressed with the Fraggles' new Cure powers and brandishes a club to thump them. Just before he does, though, Cure Peace comes roaring in with her lightning to save the day.
- The Chaotic Masters: Big Hero 6 make their entrance into the story by swooping in to save Jade just as the Monkey King attempts to drop her off the roof of a building.
- Children of an Elder God: Rei performs one in chapter 1 to save Shinji when he had been trapped by the spider-alike monster Matarael.
- Comic Book SNAFU: In issue 3, Robin, Orphan, and Spoiler show up to save Batman and Hawkeye. Orphan in particular subjects Baron Zemo to a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Concept Road - Averted. Louis attempts to rescue the Damsel in Distress, Mami Tomoe during her Heroic BSOD while facing Charlotte, but she winds up being the one to get the job done.
- In Contact at Kobol, during the mission to recover the ZP Ms, the Akula is exposed in orbit due to an accidental ramming by a ship coming out of hyperspace. All seems lost, for both the Akula in space and the marines on the ground, until the Britannia and her taskforce come sailing in to deliver a Curb-Stomp Battle to the colonials.
- In Doctor in the Underworld, the Doctor and Erika pull one off when they assist Selene and Michael in escaping Marcus, the Doctor driving up behind their stolen van so that Erika can shoot Marcus’s wings.
- When Hiccup is being assaulted by Snotlout, Tuffnut and Ruffnut in The Dragon and the Butterfly, Toothless and Mirabel show up to force the Berkians back, and are soon followed by other Madrigals.
- Tiger pulls one in Dungeon Keeper Ami. Ami was battling Crowned Death telepathically, during the battle of Crowned Death's High Temple. Battling and losing, badly. Tiger possessed Ami while she is possessed by Crowned Death, a move so inherently suicidal that she manages to (metaphorically) sneak past the dueling minds and fill the massive, swimming fortress with high explosives using Ami's link to Crowned Death. She even briefly goes One-Winged Angel doing it, too.
- A LOT of these happen in Ace Combat: Equestria Chronicles. Lampshaded during the first group moment in chapter 6 of The Equestrian War:Firefly: Seems like we've arrived in the nick of time. What does that make us, Thunder?
Lightning Bolt: Big Mane Heroines, Flash! - An Extraordinary Journey;
- The Avalon in the aftermath of the battle at the supergate. They show up just in time to prevent the Lucian Alliance from taking advantage of things and also help out the ships with damaged life support.
- When Willow is being held captive by the Scoobies at the Slayer Council (who are convinced that her new military project is something to do with the supernatural and won’t accept “It’s classified” as an answer), SG-1 come to save her.
- The Asgard when Willow's powers start killing her.
- The Excalibur when SG-2 are trapped and unable to reach the gate due to a swarm of Nirathi.
- During the “Going Home” arc, when Willow is trapped in an alternate universe, she receives help from the Asgard but serves as this for them, providing them with the means to beat the Replicators and reverse their cloning-induced genetic degradation.
- Fate Revelation Online: Shirou Emiya exists solely for this early on in the fic, to the point that he became known as the Sixth Ranger.
- Fate/Starry Night: Just as Ritsuka is about to get flattened by Illya and Berserker, Jack the Ripper arrives in a nick of time to hide Ritsuka in her Noble Phantasm before escorting him to safety.
- Fairy Without Wings: While the series has had a few of these moments, the really epic one that deserves a mention is the one that happens in chapte 236 with the least expectant character pulling it: Irene Belserion. She shows up unannounced, heals a dying Erza back to full strength, restores Era to its former glory, manages to injure Acnologia, and turns long running antagonist VV into a bloodstain. Certainly a far cry from her canon counterpart to be sure.
- In Chapter Four of Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness, Alice is preparing for the unsavory task of dodging attacks from three giant fairies, whose danmaku have become massive to match. Cue the sun, literally, as Patchouli makes her entrance by dropping Sun Sign: Royal Flare on their heads.
- In Fate/Black Reflection, Ichigo DOES pull this off impressively. How impressively? He holds Excalibur at bay with a Getsuga Tenshou.
- In How To Drill Your Way Through Your Problems, Owl's intervention in the fight between Lagann and Lung saves Lagann's life.
- Lagann shows up to reinforce Miss Militia on his entry to the Uber and Leet brawl.
- Later in that same fight, he gets dogpiled by a group of humanoid robots... only for Mouse Protector to teleport in and save him.
- Lagann shows up to reinforce Miss Militia on his entry to the Uber and Leet brawl.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: In Chapter 26, Danny ends up rescuing the girls of Monster High from the Guys in White.
- My Little Pony Meets:
- Rainbow Dash pulls off one in "??? Meets My Little Pony", after Fluttershy is cornered by Slender Man.
- "Iron Man Meets My Little Pony" has the titular character due this, after the three teenage dragons try to bully Applebloom and Babs Seed.
- In "Freddy Kruger Meets MLP", after Freddy has captured Applebloom in the dream world and is about to kill her, Princess Luna appears and runs her horn through Freddy's chest
- The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which exists as a standalone novel story in the author's crossover universe of Marvel, DC, and Nintendo characters, has an entirely unique arc where the Yiga attack every major settlement in Hyrule to try and destroy any and all resistance against Calamity Ganon. The heroes have just enough warning to fight back, but with Zora's Domain, Gerudo Town, Rito Village, and Goron City, the Yiga unleash an incredibly powerful monster or a Zerg Rush of strong monsters that will overwhelm the settlement. Each time, each town's respective Champion and their Divine Beast unleash a powerful barrage of attacks that instantly decimates the monster, each time rescuing the settlement from total annihilation.
- People Like Us: Just as it seems the cops are getting suspicious about Arthur knowing more about Travis than he lets on, Penny wakes up from her coma and fends them off with the help of a bedpan. The cops leave Arthur alone.
- Just before Luz and her friends are about to be killed by the Shadow Hounds in Raisin' Some Hell, John Constantine saves them at the last minute and kills the attacking beasts.
- In A Girl and Her Bike, just before Yang could be killed by the Ursa Major, B-127 enters in and saves her at the last minute by ramming into the Grimm in vehicle mode.
- In Freedom Fighters (Sonic x Freedom Planet), the remnants of Brevon's army completely surrounded Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman, with the latter being the last one still remaining conscious, after Sonic and Tails got shot down with a missile and Amy got overwhelmed by sheer numbers. But right before they could finish them off, the group gets rescued by Lilac, Carol and Milla, who destroy the robots and then offer them their assistance.
- In Chapter 6 of Equal & Opposite Attraction, Hayate is trapped in a pocket dimension of dark magic, slowly being mind-raped into a coma. In the next chapter, Negi hears her cry for help and acts accordingly. However it isn't so much his entrance that's flashy, but rather his EXIT.
- Hail to the King (Thuktun Flishithy): There are too many examples to count, really. The first example in the story comes when Godzilla catches a VTOL that would've crushed Shinji and Misato during Sachiel's attack, right before laying on the smack down.
- In the "Heroes" Series, during the final battle in "Heroes stand united" (pitting the heroes of Middle-Earth, the Arrowverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe against most of their old villains all at once), Thanos uses the Gauntlet to revive most of the villains just after the heroes have killed them, leaving them facing fresh opponents when they're already exhausted. However, the new use of the Gauntlet allowed Constantine and Gamora- trapped in the Soul Stone after Constantine was lost during a cross-dimensional accident and made a deal with the Stone to save Gamora- to disrupt the link between the six Stones and force the Gauntlet off Thanos's hand long enough for Barry Allen to take it away.
- In Ice Fury, Elsa and Wintergale (the titular Ice Fury) have their moments during the confrontation with Drago, with Elsa just managing to save Stoick's life while Wintergale later saves Elsa from the ruthless dragon-trapper Sigurd.
- Infinity Crisis:
- As things are looking rough with a mass invasion of New York in the original fic, the heroes are aided by the arrival of the Justice League.
- Doctor Strange serves as this in Powers and Marvels when he senses that the Power Rangers have lost their power coins and opens a portal in time to save them, followed by Zordon sending Jason, Trini and Zack along to help the other six.
- In Counterpart Conferences, as the Decepticons are attacking the G.I. Joe team, the Autobots arrive to even up the odds.
- In Brothers of Thunder, after the forces of Hydra on Earth-8096 have captured Asgard and the Avengers, the local Thor (along with the Jane and Thor of Earth-199999) is able to recruit two other teams of Avengers to confront Hydra, with Stephanie Rogers (of Earth-911111, a gender-inverted version of the MCU) affirming that nobody needs to ask them if the Avengers are willing to help their counterparts.
- In A Darker Shade of Red, Clark Kent/Superman (of Smallville) and the Thirteenth Doctor intervene in time to stop Brandon Breyer/Brightburn from killing his mother, and give him a chance to redeem himself.
- General Zod of all people performs one in The Institute Saga when he and his allies aid in the fight against Apocalypse.
- In Interventions, the Scoobies and Potentials are introduced to the Heroes team as this, with Peter, Hiro, Nikki, Claire, Monica and Hana appearing during the fight at the Vineyard to kill Caleb and the Harbringers, save most of the Potentials, and help Buffy and Faith retrieve the Scythe.
- Justice League of Equestria: In Mare of Steel, Princess Luna breaks into Steel Wing's base to save Rainbow Dash/Supermare, and arrests him just after he essentially called her useless.
- With a name like Kyon: Big Damn Hero you'd expect Kyon pulls this trope often. You'd be right: saving Tsuruya from a some Yakuza twice, Kanae from an upperclassman a few days later or to Sasaki when she was being kidnapped he can certainly do the titular trope.
- In Open Battle Arc IV, Kyon's sister and Shamisen have one such moment.
- Last Child of Krypton: Shinji does this constantly in the original story and in the rewrite. Some instances:
- During the battle against Sachiel Shinji stopped a chunk of debris was about to crush Touji and his sister and then he proceeded to trash Sachiel right when it was about to blast Rei.
- Shamshel was about to kill Asuka by crushing her head with its whips. Asuka had no weapons and was nearly out of power. Then Shinji showed up, tore a whip, bit the other one in two and killed the monster.
- He also dove into Leliel to save Asuka before her robot's life support failed or she got nuked.
- The Man with No Name crosses over Firefly and Doctor Who. It would be weird if Big Damn Heroes didn't apply.
- In The Matrix Rewinds, Max/Noir makes her debut in this story by appearing out of nowhere in the Dark Room to engage Nathan in a short but ferocious duel, knocking him out before he can harm Rachel, with the rest of her crew following her inside to help with the cleanup job.
- The Melinda Chronicles. Melinda herself get's one in Cold as Ice when the villain, Frostbite kidnaps Tails and Cream. It's a complete mess at first with lack of foresight leading to a brush with death but in the end she frees them and a puts Frostbite down. A More classical moment happens in a flashback when she hears one of his potential victims screaming for help and rushes in to non-fatally curb-stomp him.
- The Night Unfurls:
- Any moment where Kyril either leads the charge to save as many soldiery and civilians as possible in a region, or rescue the Seven Shields members that have been captured by the Black Dogs. While there are times where he, his hunters or his company arrives late to save a portion of the people from being killed or raped, no further damage will be done at the very least.
- In Chapter 30, Hugh pulls one of these to save Soren from being executed by Mandeville and his goons.
- In Rabbit of the Moon, Eileen swoops in when Bell is ambushed by Henryk and helps Bell fend him off, saving his life and the life of Gascoigne's daughter.
- Remnant and Runeterra: A Tale of Two Worlds: A lot of League of Legends champions tend to save RWBY characters. Such examples are:
- Ryze saving Blake and Weiss from the hijacked Atlesian Knights.
- Pantheon saving Blake and Yang from Adam.
- Shen saving Pyrrha from being executed by Cinder and her group.
- Bard saving Ozpin and his group from Aatrox.
- Renegade: Kaidan Alenko takes down Zaeed Massani in a mini mecha singlehandedly after the latter attempts to double cross Shepherd.
- In Ring of Fire, Hiccup and Toothless convince the other Night Furies to fight alongside the Free Peoples against Sauron's forces in time for them to return to Middle-Earth during the Battle of Helm's Deep.
- In the final battle of The Season's My Reason, the rainbow portal opens up to dump the heroes that Cure Precious met on her quest into the battlefield to defeat Chef Forgifta once and for all. Sailor Mercury, the Fairyland fairies, the Sew Cute Cures, Luz Noceda, Isabela Madrigal, and even Treelo come to help.
- In The Slayer Prophecy, Willow does this when she teleports to Gotham to rescue Buffy, Tara, and the Bat-Family from a collapsed warehouse, although the moment is tarred as she accomplished it by drawing on black magic.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton:
- Shinji when he uses an Eva power cord to rescue Asuka and Unit 02 from Leliel.
- Asuka when she pulled Touji out of Unit-03 when Bardiel hijacked it.
- Asuka when Armisael was about to kill Rei. She flew into the battlefield, yanked the alien monster away Unit-00 and blew it up.
- In A Supe of a Man, after most of the Boys have been caught while trying to escape cells, they are rescued by Annie/Starlight and Lois wielding a large rifle, followed by Annie calling in Clark when A-Train attacks (Clark appearing in a new dark costume intended for undercover work).
- In The Story to End All Stories, the Doctor and his friends attempt to save all of fiction from the destructive power of the Nothing.
- The Charmed (1998) fic "Tempus Fugit" opens with Paige and Henry travelling back in time from the series finale (which killed Piper and Phoebe in this world) to the day when Shax killed Prue, Paige sacrificing herself to hold Shax back long enough to help Prue and Piper cast the vanquishing spell.
- Thousand Shinji: Shinji performs one to save Asuka and Rei from Zeruel... and he does it grudgingly because he hates the trope (emphasis and Capitalisation Academia Nut's):Shinji: "I hate playing the Big Damn Hero."
- In Time Anomaly, as far as UNIT are concerned, even with the aid of the Avengers against Kang the Conqueror, the Doctor is their greatest potential asset.
- "Time's Razor" features the USS Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) being displaced to an alternate universe in time to help protect the Twelve Colonies of Kobol from the Cylon assault (Battlestar Galactica (2003)), identifying the humanoid Cylon models, ultimately exposing Cavil's manipulations so that they can bring both sides to the table to form a treaty and negotiate a true peace.
- In Trust Doesn't Rust, while Castiel doesn’t arrive in time to stop Needy making a deal with Lucifer, he does arrive in time to get Needy and Jennifer to a hospital after Lucifer kills the demon possessing Jennifer, Lucifer having left Jennifer so badly injured from the demon's time in control that she probably would have died without immediate medical attention.
- Turnabout Storm:
- Phoenix gets saved just in time from being attacked by timberwolves while he's lost in the forest by Fluttershy, of all ponies.
- What witness pulls the obligatory Ace Attorney Big Damn Heroes moment by showing up just as Phoenix is about to lose the trial? Surprise, it's Fluttershy again!
- Universe Falls: In "Forever Alone", Dipper and Steven reconcile and reform Stepper just in time to give Mabel and the Crystal Gems some much-needed backup against Peridot and her Attack Robonoids.
- In the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover The Vampire of Steel, Supergirl saves Buffy from two armed vampires in the Sears Tower.
- Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse:
- In chapter 28, Harumi gets soaked with alcohol by a pyromaniac Monster Clown he's fighting. Before the clown can set the young swordsman on fire, Harumi's wotan girlfriend Miriam comes charging in and hits the clown with one of her anchors so hard he is launched a literal mile away.
- Also in chapter 28, Lilith gets swarmed by bounty hunters, only to be saved when Dyna blasts them away with an impossibly precise barrage from her minigun arm.
- Just as Calvin is sentenced to life in Azkaban in The Best Seven Years, Galaxoid and Nebular rescue Calvin by freezing time and teleporting him onto their ship
- This happens again in the sequel In Love and War. Calvin breaks into the Predicons base to rescue Susie. They do a pretty good job until they get to the air duct, which eats up a lot of time and ultimately causes them to get caught and captured by Waspinator of all people. And then the Maximals manage to rescue them.
- When it's Raining on Sunday focuses on the idea that "Pietro" in WandaVision was actually Peter Maximoff from another reality who was displaced as a side-effect of the Snap. While the heroes are also aided by Agatha being good, during the final confrontation with Hayward's S.W.O.R.D. forces Erik plays a particularly important part in restoring the Vision, immobilising White Vision long enough for Darcy to upload his original operating system so that Hex Vision can properly integrate with his original body and survive the undoing of the Hex.
- In “A Witching Happiness”, after Alec Trevelyan (GoldenEye in a continuity based on Spectre) is captured while on a mission, he is able to send a message to his recently-discovered daughter Mildred Hubble (The Worst Witch), which allows Mildred to find and save him.
- Wonderful (Mazinja): Nearly two years before the beginning of the story, main character and super-hero Taylor performed one to save her friend Emma from several gang thugs that attacked her and her father.
- XCOM: RWBY Within: Near the end of the Base Mission, Strike One arrives just in time to save Ruby from a Sectopod.
- Pretty much the whole of XCOM's active-duty roster get to pull off the same thing in the sequel when everything goes to hell at the Vytal Festival. It's not an unqualified success, not least because the Big Bad manages to spin it so that XCOM look like some kind of renegade vigilante organisation, but they do succeed in saving a lot of lives. Including Pyrrha's.
- All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if they were caught during their first mission?", Cassie disappears after she becomes Aftran's host. A few months of planning later, they return to the Yeerk Pool with Ax to rescue the other Animorphs. Then Visser Three bursts in with his lieutenant, Visser Twenty-Three in Marco's body... only for Marco to shoot the former's head off and reveal that he's been Yeerk-free for a week.
- An Interdimensional Meet- an alternate take on the original Flash/Supergirl crossover- has a couple of these;
- Barry and J’onn get such a moment when they show up to help Kara battle Doomsday.
- Later on, while Kara and the Earth-3 Jay Garrick are on Earth-1, they join Barry in assisting Team Arrow during Darhk’s attempt to break out of Iron Heights, which leads to Laurel surviving and Darhk’s idol being destroyed.
- Wrong Road to the Right Place:
- Oliver arrives Just in Time to keep Cyrus Vanch from abducting Laurel. Downplayed in that, just like in canon, she already wiped the floor with his Mooks, but he had her dead to rights.
- In chapter 20, Tommy arrives to evacuate Detective Hall before Malcolm can kill her.
- In Chapter 22, the entire Team Arrow arrive at the airport in time to stop Moira taking Thea out of the country, allowing Thea to stay with Oliver and the others while Moira is taken to prison.
- Chronicles of the Siren War:
- Just as the USS Demeter is about to be destroyed by Sakura drone ships, the USS Laffey swoops in and picks off the enemy pursuers one by one.
- At the Battle of Midway, the Sakura Empire are on the verge of crushing the Eagle Union forces, only for Azur Lane's fleet to finally arrive and crush them instead.
- "It All Came Tumbling Down" features Cylons Cavil and D'Anna attempting to abduct a pregnant Kara Thrace, only for the attempt to be interrupted by a random marine wandering down the corridor and the surprise appearance of Colonel Tigh, the marine drawing the Cylons' attention long enough for Tigh to shoot Cavil from behind and get Kara to safety in a conference room while other marines go after D'Anna and Hotdog alerts Doctor Cottle to the situation.
- The Green Glade: When the unarmed Taran, Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam are about to be killed by four armed thugs of the Horned King, two hooded, armed and trained warriors appear to even the odds. They're afterwards revealed to be Coll and Prince Gwydion.
- Downfall: Ichigo sure thinks he's one when he arrives moments before Orihime's kidnapping is completed. Then Nell shuts him down, hard. Makes sense, she is the Primera, after all.
- Taaroko's Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- As Angel faces his final battle against Wolfram & Hart, Dawn, Connor and Lorne use Dawn’s new ability to open portals to gather various allies to help Angel, and some of the people Angel has helped in the past also show up to aid him in his final stand.
- Subverted at the beginning of Season 9, as Andrew and Kennedy’s forces return to Cleveland to help in the battle against the First, only to realise when they arrive that the battle’s already ended in favour of the heroes.
- Examples from The Calvinverse:
- Hobbes manages to save Calvin from Moe this way while riding his bike in Calvin and Hobbes Get XTREME!.
- From Calvin & Hobbes: The Series:
- Hobbes and Socrates rescue Calvin from Sheila this way in "The Alien Huntress".
- Calvin bursts in with the box to rescue the others from a death trap in "Part Three", shortly after Andy says this:"CALVIN, YOU'D BETTER BE AROUND HERE WAITING TO GET US OUT OF HERE!!"
- In Carpetbaggers, Edmund shows up on dragonback to rescue his siblings from mercenaries.
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars
- Tiberium Wars:
- It has an epic moment when the GDI Marines appear at the Langley AFB battle.
- Havoc does this for Sandra Telfair in Chapter 16, as she escapes from Nod.
- During the battle for the Pentagon, GDI forces are being worn down by Nod's superior numbers and seven Avatars. And then the Mammoth tanks and annihilate Nod's forces.
- In And Again, Asahina gets one when she jumps in and kicks away Monobear when he tries to murder Chihiro while their strongest classmates are off gathering weapons. This is followed quickly by Mukuro, Sakura and Mondo getting back and opening fire before he can retaliate.
- A New Hope (Danganronpa):
- After refusing to vote to kill either Makoto or the clones of the dead students, the Mastermind blows up the supports of the school, threatening to bring it down on everyone. However, the students are saved by Kokichi and Usami, who both survived the attempts on their lives.
Kokichi: Wow. I take a little nap, and look at how quickly things go to hell.- Following this, when Munakata has the survivors surrounded and is planning to have them all killed, Koichi Kizakura arrives just in time both save the survivors and have Munakata removed from command.
- From Danganronpa: Yakuza Arc:
- Hajime saves Natsumi Kuzuryu from Sato, arriving just before she set her plan in motion to kill her and prevents her being killed.
- Fuyuhiko saves Hajime from being tortured by having his fingers cut off one by one so that thugs could find Natsumi in the Akutagawa Mall by attacking them as they were attacking Hajime.
- Hajime saves Natsumi a second time as Hideki and/or his gang was going to rape and murder her to start a clan war.
- Just after Chiaki had her game system stolen by 3 delinquents, Hajime shows up after four months of Yakuza training, and he confronts the delinquents and they give it back after recognizing him as being affiliated with the Kuzuryus.
- Cassandra Cain at the end of the first chapter of One Big Joke, rescuing Commissioner Gordon from Firefly.
- At the climax of Hellsister Trilogy, Darkseid is about to obliterate a defeated Supergirl when his son Orion bursts into the place and blasts Darkseid to atoms. Or so Orion believes.
- Batman fanfiction Dance with the Demons has several examples:
- In the fourth chapter, James and Barbara Gordon get ambushed by Killer Croc, who in turn gets ambushed by Batman.
- In the final episode, Alfred, Robin (Jason Todd), Flamebird, Batwoman, and Cat King are ready to guard Selina's room with their lives from dozens of Kobra henchmen approaching, when they hear an explosion, followed by much screaming. Seconds later, Superman steps into sight.The Kobra troops were getting closer, appallingly fast. They were around a bend of the hall, and their foremost would perish. But none of them had much illusion that they could stand off all the invaders.
Alfred allowed himself a tight smile, despite it all, and awaited the first man he would have had to kill since World War II.
Then there came a great noise like unto an explosion, not far down the hall, at approximately the same site as the Kobramen were, by the sound of it. It sounded like the roof. Alfred wondered, wildly, why the idiots were coming from that direction. Couldn't be much surprise to it, at this point.
Two Kobras skidded against the side wall at the end of the hall, their weapons twisted around their necks. They were on the far side of consciousness.
The sounds that came to the defenders now were different. Men yelling incoherently, but having their voices stopped after sharp cries of pain. There was some gunfire, but it didn't seem to matter. And more Kobramen came flying, piling up against the side wall like so much thrown garbage.
Alfred blinked, and imagined the others were reacting similarly.
"Man," said Karl Kyle, in awe. "Just what kinda cavalry is this, anyway?"
Finally, the tenth or so Kobra Cultist joined his brothers on the heap. Alfred knew who the man was who had put them there, and drew a great, sighing breath as his shoulders sagged.
The man stepped into sight, his hands on his hips, and grinned.
"I thought you might need me here," said Superman. "Diana's on her way. She's got the Purple Ray with her."
- Subverted in Here There Be Monsters. The Squadron of Justice travels to Venus to rescue the Marvel Family, but they are intercepted and defeated, too.
- In Point of Succession when Beyond Birthday has the rookie Matt cornered in the basement of a creepy abandoned building and is about to start cutting him up-cue Light Yagami making his guns-blazing Dynamic Entry.
- Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns:
- Sten gets one and it overlaps with a Journey to the Center of the Mind and Battle in the Center of the Mind, since he is helped inside the mind of the resident Guile Hero / Magnificent Bastard dwarven prince Warden Commander, by a spell of the elven mage. Once inside, he helps him fight off a psychic attack on the Archdemon's part that would have lobotomized the Warden otherwise, if not killed him.
- A later chapter has not just Sten, but also Alim Surana (the elven mage Warden) and Leliana doing something quite similar, although, in this case, they have to save him from his mind breaking down since the Archdemon's psychic attack is already over.
- In the Dragon Ball Z story Honor Trip, this is best described as when Goku comes from otherworld and rescues Trunks from Future Cell just before the latter kills him.
- In Never Had a Friend Like Me, Norm rescues Amanda, Timmy and his godparents from the Anti-Fairies and Pixies before putting Anti-Cosmo and HP in their place.
- And then later, Anti-Cosmo and HP get to be The Cavalry themselves against Bob.
- In The Fifth Act has many examples:
- When Kunsel is too exhausted to kill the last Nibelian wolf, Angeal swoops in and finishes it off.
- Just as he is about to kill Zack, Aeris contacts Cloud through the Lifestream and breaks Jenova's hold on him.
- Genesis saves Cloud and Sephiroth's lives when he reflexively casts a Sleep spell on Cloud.
- A Flower's Touch: Aerith and Zack's encounter with the sewer monster could have turned out very badly had Angeal not been following them. As it is, once it turns out they're in over their heads, he strolls in and handily defeats the thing.
- In Guardian, young Lulu and Yuna are trapped in a cave by a wolf-fiend, and Lulu's one gambit of throwing her moogle doll has been... ineffectual. Then Kimahri comes roaring in.
- Memento Vivere uses this trope when Team BARJ saves the Crusaders at Mushroom Rock.
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic Golden Threads Tie Us, Grima's troops have apparently defeated and routed the Shepherds, and he's getting ready to finish Lucina off, when Chrom and his army arrive and turn the tables on Grima.
- Forward uses this extensively, but being a Firefly fanfic, that's no surprise, and its lampshaded and subverted as often as it is played straight.
- it’s well used in the fandom. In Freedom To The Free, Mal lands Serenity on the roof of a compound where Wash, Simon, Kaylee and River are being held as slaves. Mal wasn’t sure what they were going to do since the place was well defended, but an overseer turned on the slave owner and gave Mal codes to get close enough after he was chewed out for beating Wash to unconsciousness after an escape attempt. Mal blows a hole in the roof and the captive crew members are herded to safety with Jayne and Mal firing at the guards.
- Dream Sequence has Simon mastermind one when Mal, Jayne and Wash are sentenced to death in an arena. Simon helps release a paralytic drug that incapacitates everyone and the crew, dressed in spacesuits so they don’t inhale the drug,drops in on ropes and a makeshift platform to rescue their friends. (Click the right sidebar to get the rest of the story)
- The Execution of Jayne Cobb has Jayne saved this way, with Mal using an explosive round to destroy the bar holding the rope that’s killing Jayne. They pull him onto the Mule and run, chased by an angry crowd that still thinks Jayne killed a man.
- Everyday Craziness In Pontypandy:
- In "Bronwyn's Helper", Gabby is stuck on the cafe roof and hanging off the railings, about to fall off. Sam jumps in to catch her just as she loses her grip, and she lands safely in his arms, much to her surprise as she thought he had lost his job as a firefighter (see "Set for Action!").
- At the tail-end of "Valentine's Daze", one of the party guests begins to choke on a scallop. Gabby, having previous learned the Heimlich maneuver, rushes in to save her. The choking girl introduces herself as Svetlana, and dances with Gabby. Later stories confirm they are a couple.
- In "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure", the fire service is captured by an evil sea serpent, so Sarah, Mandy, Hannah, Gabby, and Svetlana all transform into mermaids to rescue them. The mermaids all work together to defeat the villain, then Mandy/Mermaid Flora and Gabby/Mermaid Coral pull the fire service out of their bubble prison. However, the ending reveals this was all in Sarah's dream.
- Five Nights At Freddy's: Lost Souls
- Cody and Bridget first meet Freddy when he rescues them from the entity in chapter 2.
- Just as it looks like the animatronics, Bridget and Cody are about to be attacked by the entity in chapter 5, an unknown voice calls out to them and leads them back to Fazbear's Frights. Said voice is revealed to be none other than Golden Freddy.
- In Blame It on the Brain, regardless of whether they see him as an idiotic source of cheap labour or the love of their life, the entire Planet Express crew join Fry for the final stand against Onespawn with all of reality depending on Fry delivering the final blow.
- Enemy of My Enemy has two good ones: Vtan & Zerat saving Perry from the desperate Outlander Elites, and later the Hunter pair busting in to save a group of children from a Brute pack.
- In The Thorny Rose Ron gets to do this at the end of the story.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: The moment the homophobe was about to rape Italy, Germany and Japan tackled him to the ground before proceeding to beat the living crap out of him. He didn't stand a chance.
- Happens in the Golden Age series when Queen Jane shows up to repel the Alternian Empires's attack.
- Ruby Pair: In "Meeting of Ruby Eyes", Minimoose bursts onto the scene just in time to save Zim and Tenn from the amoeba gangsters.
- In Torque (Jak and Daxter),
- A Metal Head gets the drop on Keira and nearly kills her but Sig arrives and takes it out with his Peacemaker.
- When Erol is close to strangling Keira to death, Jak shows up and saves her
- Heroes In Forgone Dreams:
- How the story kicks off, with the Star Allies joining Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, Meta Knight, King Dedede and Elfilin in the final assault on Fecto Elfilis and proving support.
- Happens again when the Star Allies return to the Isolated Isles to help Kirby deal with Morpho Knight DX.
- In The Vow, Jade knocks down the guards who are about to kill Po and the Furious Five. Then she frees the sextet and leads them to the trapped nobility of China, allowing them to free them from Lord Shen's forces.
- Flowing Star: Before Lincoln can be beaten up by Chandler's lackeys, Stella saves him by knocking Chandler unconscious and dragging Lincoln out of the area.
- Gal Pals: During the huge park brawl against Lori and Lynn, Ronnie Anne and Carlota arrive in the nick of time to save Lincoln from Lori and Lynn's clutches.
- The Lion King Adventures features a lot of these moments between Simba, Nala and Haiba. There's hardly a moment where they're not rushing in to save the day.
- The Day Everything Changed has Konata pulling this off by saving Kagami's life by fighting against her attacker, Sakura Takahashi, who had just given her the beatdown of her life. Despite taking more than a few brutal hits, Konata still ends up on top at the end of the battle.
- In If They Haven't Learned Your Name, Bucky Barnes tries to scout out a HYDRA base and discovers that everyone inside was given the Winter Soldier's kill-switch words, words spoken in a sequence that are supposed to induce an aneurysm and literally kill him. When he doesn't immediately die, he gets shot in the gut. But right when HYDRA's about to gun him down the rest of the way, Motherfucker smashes its way into the base, scoops him up into the cabin using its hatch, and proceeds to blow the entire base to high heaven.
- In A Real Chance, after Peter Parker and Wanda Maximoff meet in London and fight off the TVA agents sent to keep them separate, Wanda steps in to help save Peter from Beck's plan to expose his identity by interrupting the broadcast from the Daily Bugle and erasing both the tape and the memories of all parties who saw it (both the Bugle staff and Beck's team) so that everyone thinks they didn't see the tape in full themselves before that broadcast.
- Spiderman: A Way Back Home:
- When Harry-3 initially attacks Gwen Stacy and nearly drops her off his glider, she is saved from death by the Hulk (Peter had been visiting Banner's lab to see what he could do about the dimensional displacement issue).
- Later, as Peter prepares to face Harry-3 after he's abducted MJ, Mary Jane and Gwen run into Harry-2, who agrees to assist Peter against his counterpart.
- Sixes and Sevens:
- In Mark's tale from The Haunting of Villa Layla, he and his surviving friends are cornered by moloids and prepared to die when Eternals Ajak shows up with a rifle to save the teens.
- Victor, Maddie, and Roger are captured by Prince Rudolfo in Headfirst Slide into Latveria. While Rudolfo is in the middle of tormenting them and declaring how no one is coming for them, Roger and Michael smash through the dungeon wall and scare him off.
- In Stars Will Light the Way when Strange Supreme ("What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?") travels to Earth-838 (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), although he is too late to save Black Bolt from Chthon (who is possessing Wanda Maximoff rather than Wanda going insane on her own), he manages to stop Captain Carter being cut in half by her own shield and helps Reed Richards recover from Wanda's attack.
- In the final chapter of The Storms of War, Sharon Carter has been captured by Karla Sofen and one of her men taunts her that nobody is going to help her. Cue Wanda Maximoff blowing away the door to the room they're in, along with several of Karla's men.
- In The Amazing Spider-Man: True Purpose, when the Avengers are fighting the spirit of Daniel Drumm, they are surprised when Drumm’s attempt to use Spider-Man as his host is interrupted by the “return” of Red Sonja (once again sharing a body with Mary Jane).
- In Civil War Hulk, after Loki (the real Big Bad behind recent events) has separated Banner from the enraged Hulk to send him against the other heroes, Thor and the Warriors Three (presumed dead since Ragnarok) appear to turn the tide against the rampaging green goliath.
- In Dial, Thor arrives just in time to both assist Tony with a barely-recovering Abomination, and save Dial from a nasty plane crash.
- In A Prize for Three Empires, the Avengers, The X-Men, the Shi'ar Imperial Guard and the Starjammers arrive just in time to rescue Carol Danvers from the Kree Empire.
- In "The Measure of a Man", once Carol Danvers inspires Doctor Strange to find out why 'Spider-Man' has been acting off recently, as soon as Carol and Strange learn that it's because Otto Octavius has taken over Peter's body, virtually every major hero available rallies together to confront the Superior Spider-Man and order him to stand down and let Peter take back control.
- Mega Man Recut has Duo slamming down to the moon to take out Wily and his minions in "The Mega Man in the Moon".
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, ProtoMan borders on this when he saves Mega Man from Bass in Episode 7.
- Bass inadvertently saves Mega Man from the Killers in Episode 10, restating his claim that he is the only one that is going to kill Mega Man.
- Bass does this again in Episode 11, saving Roll from a collapsed building.
- In Episode 11, chapter 11, Mr. Black saves the President from Wily's execution.
- Also in Episode 11, ProtoMan saves Mega Man and the world by turning on Wily and detonating the Mad Grinder.
- Mega Man Reawakened has Rush and Bon Bonne save Mega Man in Arc 4, chapter 2.
- In Arc 4, chapter 4, Wily, Glyde, and Protoman help save Mega Man from a rampaging Quentin Emerald.
- Arc 5, chapter 1, has Roll save Robert from Magnet Man's Gravity Squeeze.
- World as Myth: Zenkichi comes to Kumagawa's rescue during his fight with War God Mode Medaka, and later Hyuga does the same.
- Fashion Upgrade:
- Chloé pulls this off when Lila manages to force Mylene out of the lead role. Because the costumes have already been made, the class now faces the unexpected expense of ordering a new one to fit Lila, which will put them over budget. Chloé figures out how to make it work, though she has to cancel the catering service the class was enjoying during rehearsals to free up the funds they need.
- Chloé does it again when Lila “comes down with a rash” less than an hour before the play is supposed to premiere. Not only does she have Mylene’s costume on hand and ready for her to change into, but she also spares a rare compliment for Mylene’s acting ability before sending her off to Juleka, who is already on standby to do Mylene’s makeup. Thanks to her preparation and foresight, the play goes off without a hitch.
- Crimson and Emerald: Hawks' arrival turns the tides of the battle against Stain.
- Just when a Noumu kidnaps Izuku, Hawks reacts before anyone else. Hawks gets in the air, slays the Noumu and rescues Izuku before anyone could even process what happened.
- Pulse and Void has Aizawa, Midnight, Midoriya and Bakugo storm the abandoned factory where Hizashi is being held and tortured. Bakugo and Midoriya deal with Pulse, the leader, and his giant mutant buddy, while Aizawa goes after Fusion, Hizashi’s torturer. And the more of Hizashi’s horrific condition Aizawa sees, the more angry, driven and out for blood he gets. Midnight helps against Fusion and takes the nearly dead Hizashi into her arms so Aizawa can focus on Fusion.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Abundance: The Battle of Cloudsdale. The abstract Loyalty has brainwashed the masses, Twilight is down for the count and just for fun he decides to drop the Doctor and Dinky to their deaths. Cue two heroic arrivals: first, Derpy Hooves performs a SONIC RAINBOOM to save her daughter and The Doctor... then Trixie arrives with Faith, an army of former prisoners, and a massive airship to turn the tide and win the battle.
- Actually, I'm Dead:
- When The Dark Force is about to kill the Mane Six, Lightning Dust jumps in and knocks it into the sky, before pile-driving it into the ground.
- To return the favor, Pinkie Pie and Discord come in and blast it with the former's party canon, just as The Dark Force is about to kill Lightning Dust while Rainbow Dash sloops in the save her, before she and Applejack jump in and join the fight alongside Pinkie and Discord.
- Circus Days: The Mane Six come back at climax to save Spike, after they had falling out due to their neglect of him, rekindling their relationship in the process.
- Contraptionology!: In the climax, after the villain blasts Rainbow and Applejack's cloud scooter out of the sky and mind-controls the former, Pinkie Pie saves Applejack from falling to her death by snagging her with her gyrocopter.
- Friendship Is Magic: The Adventures of Spike: There's one early on when Spike saves Fluttershy from a group of Timberwolves.
- Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna save Spike from the Diamond Dog grunts harassing him.
- The Doctor saving Ditzy from a group of changelings during their invasion.
- The Immortal Game, being a War Fic, naturally is full of these. The crowner, however, belongs to Fluttershy of all ponies — in the third-to-last chapter, during the Battle of the Everfree, she saves the remainder of the Loyalists from Titan's monster army by showing up riding the oldest and most powerful dragon alive and scaring the monsters away.
- Happens several times in Inner Demons:
- First, adult Apple Bloom, Lezard, and Spike save Applejack from a group of Neo Canterlot soldiers that have captured her.
- Likewise, Fluttershy saving Rainbow Dash from another group of soldiers about to finish her off after Scootaloo left her for dead.
- Shortly after, it looks like Scootaloo's forces are going to finish off the remaining protagonists, only for Rainbow Dash to save Pinkie Pie, causing their Elements of Harmony to evolve to armor, which is followed by destroying the soldiers and sending Scootaloo running.
- Applejack breaks Rarity out of the dungeon and as they're escaping they're cornered by the brainwashed Princess Luna, who begins to wipe the floor with them before the other Element bearers burst through a window, and turn the situation into a successful fighting retreat.
- The Element bearers confront Queen!Twilight in Fillydelphia just before she — in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown — can execute Cadence in an incestuous, jealous rage.
- Occurs a few times in Loved and Lost.
- In the 12th chapter, just as Princess Celestia is about to be publicly hanged, she is saved at the last minute by Princess Luna who severs the noose with a magic blast.
- The heroes save each other throughout the final battle; Twilight prevents Commander Hildread from delivering the final blow to the downed Shining Armor, who in turn uses a magic shield to protect Twilight from Hildread's sharp metal feathers. After Jewelius' army is turned to stone, he prepares to decapitate a subdued Celestia, only for Cadance to blast the sword out of his grip.
- There are a couple of examples in The Lunar Guardsman.
- Raegdan does a couple. Once before the story started when he saved Twilight from kidnappers, and once when he saves Rarity from an assault that might have turned into a rape.
- The Mane Six and the Lunar Guards do one when they save Raegdan and Luna from Griffin assassins.
- A few of the girls are in a burning building, and Rarity has been trapped by debris which they can't move. Raegdan and Luna appear just in time and are able to move them with their help.
- The slaying of the Leviathan is this in terms of saving the coastal line of Equestria from destruction.
- In Marionettes, Rainbow Dash ends up coming to Trixie's rescue from Lightning Dust due to being sent by the Cutie Map.
- In The Meaning of Harmony, Celestia saves the Mane Six and Sunset from being frozen in the blizzard of the Windigos, just when Sunset is about to succumb to the cold.
- Subverted in The Mixed-Up Life of Brad; when Twilight's boyfriend is being held imprisoned, she arrives and knocks out the guards. Brad imagines that any minute now she'll burst dramatically through the door and deliver a badass one-liner, but it turns out she just wants to talk to him—there's no point in freeing him anyway, as there's nowhere they can escape to. He has to persuade her to burst dramatically through the door (and deliver the one-liner).
- A Moon and World Apart: After two chapters of fighting, Flash Sentry and Nightingale's respective troops are getting worn down and the enemy just keeps coming... when backup arrives in the form of all the members of the Equestrian parliament, helping to hold the line until Princess Celestia is finally freed of her chains and can officially end the battle.
- The fanfic collection The Monster Mash features a number of Big Damn Heroes moments particularity in Rarity: Blood and Water and Rainbow Dash: The Big Battle.
- In Paradise, the Shaman came just in time to save Celestia before a pack of hungry wolves killed her.
- The Pieces Lie Where They Fell:
- Wind Breaker gets this in his debut, saving Page Turner from falling construction material. Later, Page herself is this when she steps in to protect a Changeling from a group of bigots, and all five of her future teammates fill the role when they come to her aid.
- Night Blade comes to the rescue during the climax of chapter 30, saving Xvital in the nick of time.
- The Questioning Order also comes to the rescue when they're found by Page and see she's one of the Elements.
- Xvital, her fully restored Element on her head, arrives at the last second to save her friends from the Nightmare.
- In the Pony POV Series, The Final Battle with Fluttershy's Superpowered Evil Side, Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper, is going badly. The group are battered, beaten, and bloody, Rarity's pretty much completely out of it with broken legs and no energy left to use magic, and the only way to stop Nightmare Whisper seems to be Rainbow Dash performing a Mercy Kill. Thankfully, Fluttercruel fights her way out of the Jury of the Damned she was being tried by and manifests in the physical world. Not only does she give the others the motivation to summon the Elements, she fills in for Fluttershy as the Element Of Kindness, allowing them to defeat Nightmare Whisper with them.
- Part 6 of Shining Armor's Arc has a moment that combines this with Gunship Rescue. When Shining and his griffon allies are about to be killed by General-Admiral Makarov's forces, the rest of Shining's squad shows up, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the forces under his command, including several attack shuttles. Makarov wisely retreats at that point.
- Directly before that, Thunderchild, one of Shining's squad, saved Shining from Makarov, who had him trapped in an Anti-Magic force field spell and was going to beat him to death.
- Similarly, in Part 15, a Hooviet army is about to wipe out the village that Misfit Actual and the Anti-Hooviet Rebels are protecting, when Commander Shepherd shows up with every armed ship in Cadence's flotilla and scares them off.
- Part 6 of Shining Armor's Arc has a moment that combines this with Gunship Rescue. When Shining and his griffon allies are about to be killed by General-Admiral Makarov's forces, the rest of Shining's squad shows up, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the forces under his command, including several attack shuttles. Makarov wisely retreats at that point.
- The Powers of Harmony: Luna saves the Mane Six and their allies from Cetus and Eclipse with a Death from Above attack (they survive), followed by teleporting them away and scattering them.
- Rainbow Dash pulling off the Sonic Rainboom (in this continuity, for the first time since she got her cutie mark) in order to save Esra and Tastar from a giant dragon.
- Since she's constantly racing the clock, Pinkamina from Seeing the Pattern gets a number of these moments. The most impressive is when she saves Apple Bloom from a burning barn by launching herself out of the Party Cannon.
- In Catch Your Breath, Minato's Teleport Spam powers allow him to easily act as this. While he missed his cue in the Kannabi Bridge mission, the circumstances surrounding the mission where Rin originally lost her life changed substantially. A sudden revelation, Split-Personality Takeover, and averted Face–Heel Turn later, and Minato successfully rescues his team from Spiral/Swirly Zetsu.
- Drifting has plenty of these moments. They usually result in Naruto earning friends or having another girl fall in love with him.
- The Echo Remains, But The Song Is Not The Same: During Team Seven's mission in Wave, help arrives in the form of Tenzou and six other ANBU showing up just in the nick of time.
- Five Petals has several rescues happen in rapid succession in the Forest of Death... much to Sasuke's mounting dismay and frustration, as he gets increasingly upset at the necessity of each new intervention.
- A Growing Affection has multiple examples, but most notably: the Jonin backup teams save the Naruto Rescue Squad from the One and Three-Tails. Team Kakashi saves the original Ino-Shika-Cho from the Paths of Pein.
- Two of these happen in Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox. Sasuke and Kushina lead a group of Naruto's schoolmates to rescue Naruto when he's taken captive by Mizuki's gang and Akatsuki to be tortured. In a later arc, Sai comes just in time to rescue Ino from being raped by Aoi.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- Touji has Naruto on the ropes, trapped in a ninjutsu that would almost certainly have killed him - until Hinata punches Touji into a tree, and then single-handedly keep him occupied in combat while Yamato, Kakashi, and Sasuke work to free Naruto. Everyone acknowledges her skill and courage afterwards, and it's this incident that earns her promotion to jonin.
- When Kankuro is fighting one of Seireiko's henchmen in Suna, the fight ends with an explosion. Said explosion results in a fire that causes some damage to the village. Fortunately, Gaara arrives alongside Matsuri not too long afterwards and uses his sand to get rid of the fire.
- In Reaching for a Dream Naruto has completely exhausted himself fighting Orochimaru then killing Kisame. Itachi manages to survive though critically injured, leaving Naruto to limp away in the hopes Itachi collapses before he does. Then after Itachi dies of his injuries, Zetsu appears to capture Naruto. Fortunately, Jiraiya arrived and Zetsu decided grabbing the last remaining pair of Mangekyou Sharingan was more urgent than grabbing Naruto.
- A Crown of Stars: In an early chapter Asuka and Daniel travel back in time to rescue or save several people, including Asuka's mother. Asuka shot the death squad was going to execute Kyoko and then retrieved her mother before returning to the present.
- Advice and Trust: In chapter 7 Rei was fighting Zeruel, alone. And she was losing badly. The Angel was about to blast her in pieces when Shinji and Asuka came along riding Unit 03 and knocked it to the ground before saying simultaneously: "Get away from my friend."
- The Child of Love:
- In chapter 3 an Angel is threatening with crushing Shinji and Rei. Then Asuka shows up, breaking her previous synch records and stops the Angel with one hand.
- In chapter 9 Gendo is about to carry out his plan. Then Rei shows up in full Mama Bear mode and slams him with her A T Field. Then Shinji, Misato and Kaji arrive on the place.
- HERZ: When the MP-Evas were devouring Asuka, Shinji and Rei showed up to fight them and save her. That act spawned this story's alternate universe.
- Higher Learning:
- The final encounter with Kaworu Nagisa plays out much differently, thanks to this. While Rei, in Unit-00, is watching from above with a sniper rifle, Toji Suzuhara in Unit-03 leaps down and flattens Unit-02, taking it out of Kaworu's control and forcing him to face Shinji alone.
- The arrival of Kaoru and Kaji in the restored Unit-04 helps change the course of Asuka's infamous last stand against the MP Evas.
- Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): In chapter 17, Asuka fights Sandalphon inside a volcano and kills it, but starts sinking to her death... until Rei leaps inside the ocean of burning magma, dives towards her and rescues her.
- The One I Love Is...: Shinji performs two: the first in chapter 7 to save Rei and Asuka from Zeruel and the second in chapter 12 to save Asuka from the MP-Evas. He arrived too late to save Unit-02 but right on time to save Asuka's life.
- The Second Try: Touji comes along during the battle against the MP-Evas piloting the Jet Alone to help Shinji and Asuka. Unfortunately he was unable to fight effectively.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Asuka saves Shinji just in time when he's about to be killed by Samael.
- In OSMU: Fanfiction Friction, Oz and O'Grady finish spreading salt around the abandoned house that Basil Valentine and his minions are in, which deactivates Basil's Psychic Powers just as he's about to cut Todd open. Then Oprah suddenly appears out of a tube entrance and pulls Todd back in with her before any of the villain trio can do anything.
- Maybe it'll turn out okay.: The second time the school bully beats Sunny, Aubrey runs forth and punches her away, and the school's and Aubrey's notice of the incident results in the bully's suspension from school.
- In This Bites!, this is quoted in full by Boss, Franky, Cross, and Soundbite as they join the battle on the Bridge of Hesitation.
- This happens no less than four times at the Battle of Marineford. First, Luffy arrives with the Impel Down escapees to turn the tide of the battle. Second, Rob Lucci and the former agents of Cipher Pols 1-9 show up to save Luffy, Ace, and company from several Vice Admirals. Third, the ten non-Straw Hat Supernovas show up to save Luffy and Ace from Akainu's Devil Dog mercenaries. And fourth, when Akainu tries to kill Ace, Dragon shows up and rips off Akainu's arm.
- Once Upon a Studio: Version 2.0: Cinderella and Rapunzel take the cake in this case, alongside Prince Charming, Eugene, Moana, Maui and Tui, as they decide to take charge in fixing Goofy's mistake and lifting the collective spirit of all the other characters back up.
Persona Franchise
- Hours 'Verse:
- Minato and Ryoji save Yu from the Reaper in Yukiko's dungeon.
- Just as Namatame is about to escape in his truck, Minato stops him by freezing the road.
- Theodore saves Hamuko and Shinjiro from the destruction of their timeline by bringing them to the Velvet Room.
- When Yaldabaoth reveals itself and attempts to murder Akira after he refuses its deal, Minato, Ryoji, Elizabeth, Theodore, and Margaret all show up to save him.
- In Chapter 17 of As the Bells Toll, Philemon takes advantage of the move Nyarlathotep owed him to force him out of Minato's body.
- In Persona 5: Honor Among Thieves, Morgana (while in his ordinary cat form) becomes this for Shiho, when he saves her from Kamoshida by biting the would-be rapist on the rear.
- In The Sun Soul, there are more than a few moments when the heroes swoop in to save the day at the last possible second. Although the author seems to like making them pay for their constant heroics.
- In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance, the main characters end up walking unprepared into a Monster House in Chapter 14 while looking for the Flygon who can help them find one of the missing crystals that is hidden somewhere in the desert. Luckily, the other two rescue teams that came along to help with the search show up, and distract the wild Pokémon while the main characters look for the exit to the dungeon.
- In Chapter 19, the main characters end up in a Monster House again, and while better prepared this time, still find themselves in a difficult spot. Luckily, their friend Azure, who had recently evolved into a Marill, shows up and helps them fight off the wild Pokémon.
- Pokemon: Shadow of Time;
- As the Johto team are travelling around to find each other before returning to Ash, Clair shows up just in time to save them from a Shadow Tyranitar.
- During a raid on Pokémon Tech, Ash, Misty and the students get vital aid from the returning Squirtle.
- In Zenith, when Lysandre manages to take control of Ash and Greninja during his attack on Kalos, Misty sees Lysandre's attack on Ash and contacts Professor Oak to borrow Charizard, subsequently flying all the way to Kalos to help Ash break free of Lysandre's control.
- In Pokémon: The Mew-sical, Misty and Brock save Ash from Giovanni at the end.
- Earlier, Mr. Mime saves Ash and Gary.
- Rebirth shows Ethan saving Whitney from Team Rocket in the nick of time.
- In the fourth book of the Harry Potter: Pokémon Master series, Harry and Jasmine are down for the count. Voldemort has captured them, Jasmine has been beaten and restrained, and Harry's right hand has been cut off and he is suffer blood loss. Cue Barty Crouch Jr. (a hero in this series) revealing himself in the faceless mob of Nocturne Grunts and using a teleporter to bring in the entire Hogwarts Staff, Remus, Sirius, Tonks, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Hermione's parents, Neville's grandma, Xeno Lovegood, every headmaster from the tournament, a battalion of Kalos and Johto police officers, Jasmine's parents and her uncle, and Cynthia and Diantha Malfoy. Each of whom swears to protect Harry and Jasmine with their lives.
- Guys Being Dudes: Spark saving Arlo from the falling play structure.
- In Restless Warriors, Kelsey, Maya, Taylor, Dustin and Kira are chosen by prophecy to confront the threat of an impending demon invasion, but even with the aid of Eric, Tori and Conner they are still nearly overwhelmed and Dustin sacrificed before Zordon and Trini's spirits summon Aisha, Tanya, Ashley, Katie, and Z to reinforce their sisters (and brother) in yellow for the final stand.
- Two fairly inexperienced adventurers in Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune appear just in time to save the protagonist before he gets caught up in the destruction of the portal at the climax.
- Two Weeks Notice: Raccoon City Mosh Pit]] invokes this trope. Matt, who has not been seen for the whole story up until now appears out of nowhere to save Kate from Nemesis at the Clock Tower. The best part? They even say the dialogue, with Matt as Mal and Kate as Zoe. Plus the chapter is titled 'Written by Joss Whedon'.
- Ruby and Nora: Team CFVY and Port in the last chapter of “Field Trip”.
- Sailor Moon: Legends of Lightstorm: Right as Zoisite is about to kill a captured and beaten Lightstorm, Sailor Jupiter transforms without a Transformation Trinket and gives the bad guys a truly epic beatdown. The battle continues to escalate as more and more Sailor Scouts arrive on the scene to kick ass.
- In Robb Returns, Gendry puts his strength to good use to cut off the cables of the mast in the ship taking him to Storm's End, preventing the ship from sinking.
- CWCollateral: A Tale of the Resistance: After Operation Hedgeclipper is complete, the Honey Badgers are pinned down at KCWC Studios by a horde of feral chu larvae and a number of True Blue merc tanks. They call for reinforcements, and are saved by the elite Picklemen squad and Clyde Cash, who soon recruits the Honey Badgers for his and Jack Thaddeus' unsanctioned Loose Ends campaign.
- The fic "Turning Point: Divergence" has the Asgard play this role in two plots;
- Discussions on past missions reveal that the SGC ultimately called in Thor to help resolve the problems of the Talthusians ("Lifeboat"), with the Asgard bringing all three Talthusian sleeper ships to their new planet and moving the deceased minds in Pharrin's head into new bodies.
- In the current crisis, the SGC have managed to find a treatment for a lethal plague on a planet populated by the descendants of the worshippers of Egeria (the mother of the Tok'ra). When Thor arrives, he is not only able to confirm that the plague was caused by a bacteriological weapon created to attack the Goa'uld that mutated to attack the hosts, but Thor subsequently irradiates the planet to kill the bacteria and make it safe for all future generations without affecting the humans.
- In Plague Ship, McCoy gets to play this role for a change when an ill and weakened Spock is under attack. Somewhat Played With in that McCoy is, at the moment, himself nearly insane from the effects of a mind-affecting-plague and has no clear idea on what is happening, as Spock later wastes no time in pointing out.Spock: It seems that the doctor displayed slightly better sense when literally deranged than while technically sane.
McCoy: [glares at him] Don't be flattered. I thought you were Joanna, or I wouldn't have bothered. - The Wrong Reflection, in a chapter actually titled "Big Damn Heroes", has the USS Bajor arrive at a skirmish between Terran Empire and Klingon-Cardassian Alliance patrol forces and announce its allegiance (the Alliance thought it was another Terran ship) by smashing up a Terran Sato-class* cruiser. Also an example of The Cavalry, since the scene is partly written from a Cardassian officer's perspective.
- "Frostbite" uses it twice, once offscreen when the Bajor has to go rescue a freighter from the True Way, and later when it curbstomps Ruul's ship and deploys an assault unit, led by Captain Kanril, to rescue the Breen-captured away team.
- The Burning Of Beruns World: Berun's World is in civil war and under attack by Orion slavers, with only a badly damaged Starfleet cruiser and an old Gorn-built science vessel to defend it. Then Kanril Eleya arrives commanding a fresh crew with a Galaxy-class battleship and four escorts, rapidly turning the space fight around before landing a battalion of ground troops to start restoring order on the surface. Complete with the epigraph for the chapter being the lyrics of Sabaton's "Winged Hussars".
- The Chaotic Three;
- Finn serves as this when he shows up to save Poe, Aayla and BB-8 from Jabba the Hutt’s forces.
- During the attack on the Jedi Temple, the Millennium Falcon and Luke Skywalker's X-Wing lead a squadron of Jedi Starfighters to fight off the attack.
- In the final assault, Luke Skywalker manages to defeat Palpatine in single combat and save Mace Windu's life.
- In Exchange, after Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin find themselves sent from the start of the Battle of Naboo (The Phantom Menace) to the end of the Battle of Coruscant (Revenge of the Sith)- switching places with their future selves at the same time- they immediately meet Mace Windu while escaping Palpatine after he has to expose himself as a Sith to stop the crash, and the three Jedi are saved from the clone troopers by Rex after Order 66 has been started.
- In Patron of the Art of War, the Ghost crew pull an awesome rescue of Sabine and pulling one over Thrawn. They switch up the crew roster for Thrawn’s shuttle, Kanan and Ezra taking up stormtrooper disguise, while Hera, Chopper and Zeb hold up in the cockpit. Once they are airborne and start to leave Coruscant Thrawn figures out something is wrong but by then it’s too late. Kanan and Ezra quickly shoot the other guards and Zeb comes in and picks up Thrawn and slams him into the wall knocking him out. Not only have they rescued Sabine but they’ve captured Thrawn as well.
- Clash of the Elements: Gemini, Geno, and Alpha pull off one of these moments in the very chapters that they end up joining the group in, saving the heroes from the outer guardian of the Lightning Palace, Joe Dark and The Dark Crystal King respectively.
- Rosalina does this as well in Chapter 46, saving Mario from dying at the hands of Joe Dark
- In return, Mario does this for Alex in Chapter 54 by stopping and destroying Joe Dark's sword from killing him in one-blow
- Respawn of the Dead gives us Scout rushing in whacking the traitorous RED Spy over the head with his bat, when the latter had the Engineer and Sniper at both gun and knifepoint, and had just before been suggesting that he and the Engineer gang-rape Sniper.
- In Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta, Henry, Gordon, James and Hiro arrive just in time to save Thomas and Emily from being blown up by Sailor John.
- The cliffhanger that was famously left unresolved in Hergé's rough draft of Tintin and Alph-Art, whereby Tintin is marched off by one of the villain's mooks to be covered in plastic and turned into a work of art, is resolved in the version finished by fan artist Yves Rodier by having Snowy find Captain Haddock, who shows up just in time to stop the bad guys before Tintin gets completely drowned in molten plastic.
- Black Crayons;
- In chapter 3 of My First Decepticon, Ironhide shows up to save Annabelle from Barricade.
- In chapter 13 of A Child's Innocence, the Autobots show up to help Sam and the military deal with the Decepticon invasion in Chicago as well as save Mikaela from Dylan.
- In Transformers Meta, Wheeljack has one of these moments in the pilot episode, shortly after Hound was contemplating having the team evacuate the ship while they were getting attacked by the Darksyde.
- In Repair the Damage, Starscream, Shockwave, the Stunticons, Octane, Hook and Nova Storm save the other Decepticons from being attacked by both the Autobots and the other Seekers.
- In The Great Red Panda Rescue, Mei is kidnapped and her family and friends rescue her just before she bleeds out.
- The beginning of the "Big Damn Heroes" moment in chapter 20 of Warhammer 40,000 fanfic ToyHammer starts off with the main character running over a Daemonhost (an Eldritch Abomination that has been summoned from a Negative Space Wedgie to possess an already unlikeable monster) with a battered pickup truck. Then offloading the elite of the Warhammer 40,000 universe's armies (who have been miniaturized).
- Semi-subverted in that he still gets his ass handed to him about five minutes later, giving way to a second Big Damn Heroes moment in the same chapter by a 10 year old girl (who has the unmodifiable psychic 'fingerprint' of The God Emperor of Mankind.).
- Tales of the Emperasque has several moments when the Emperor saves the day, most notably when rescues Eldrad from being eaten by Slaanesh and proceeds to take Isha from Nurgle's captivity, starting with:"KNOCK KNOCK, MOTHERFUCKER, WHO ORDERED A BEATING?"
