Darth Wiki / Pokémon: Heroes and Villains

Pokémon: Heroes and Villains is an Alternate Universe fanfiction by more than a torchic, also known as JustaTorchic.

Taking place in the fictitious city of El Ángel, California, the story centers on three college students—Education Major and rock fanatic Steven Stone, bird lover and environmentalist Winona Kimura, and aspiring actor Wallace Papadakis—as they deal with relationships, classes, and LinkedIn influencers trying to kill them and possibly trying to take over the world.]] Characters from across the series appear, as MLM influencers, teachers, or next door neighbors.

Can be read here or here.

Contains examples of:

• Adaptational Gender Identity: Wallace is a genderqueer man rather than male, using both he/him and they/them pronouns.
• Adaptational Job Change: Given the fact that there's no Pokémon League in this universe, it's bound to happen with several characters.
  • The Pokémon professors are still professors, but now they teach at the city's university.
  • Several of the young adult League members are college students.
  • Younger characters, such as the protagonists, go to middle and high school.
  • The villains are, among other things, MLM boss babes, social media influencers, and janitors.
• Alternate Universe: Takes place in the real world, but Pokémon began appearing sometime in 2016.
• Asbestos-Free Cereal: Discussed in Episode 1:
  Karen: All of their shakes are asbestos free.
  Koga: I would hope so.
  Will: Are their supplements not asbestos free?
  Karen: If they have to clarify that they don’t have asbestos, do you think they have arsenic?
• As the Good Book Says...: In Episode 4:
  Wallace: John 8:7.
  Steven: What?
  Wallace: John 8:7. It’s one of over a hundred Biblical verses that mentions the word "stone".
  Steven: It does? What does it say?
  Wallace: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone".
• Beta Couple: Karen/Will to Winona/Wallace. Both couples consist of broke college students, but while Wallace and Winona run from Giovanni and his gang, Karen and Will join him. For entertainment, as Karen says.
  • In Episode 2, Sonia/Nessa and Cress/Marlon are introduced, though the former take more of an active role in opposing Giovanni's goons (by calling Cyrus an old man).
• Drugs Are Bad: Officer Jenny is hellbent on cracking down on "stoner college students". Two people claim they were attacked by a powerful Pokémon? Must be drugs.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Happens a lot with Wallace and Winona.
  • In Episode 3, they passionately make out in a hallway after Mewtwo almost kills them.
  • In Episode 4, it's implied they stayed up all night having sex because of this.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: See Precision F-Strike.
• Only Sane Man: Wikstrom, who calmly puts up with Siebold's eccentric antics and Galactic House trying to take over his house.
  • Steven seems to also be this at first, but given the fact that he dates a rock in the second episode, it's debatable whether or not he's actually sane.
• Police Are Useless:
  • The FBI shows up to stop Lusamine's pyramid scheme. She's able to make them go away by claiming that since what she's doing isn't illegal, it's not actually a pyramid scheme.
    Lusamine: Oh, a pyramid scheme! That’s not what this is. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and this isn’t illegal.
    Officer Jennifer: Understandable, have a nice day.
  • Officer Jennifer (head of the EAPD and apparently also a member of the FBI) is obsessed with "hippie stoner college students" and completely ignores the rich influencers wielding Olympus Mons.
• Ponzi: Lusamine runs an MLM, selling essential oils with the patented UB-01 oil. After Winona and Wallace almost get scammed into joining her team, Steven explains pyramid schemes to them:
  Steven: Well you see, a pyramid scheme is a type of scam in which the scammers make money by recruiting investors, who then recruit their own investors, who then recruit their own investors, and so on and so forth. Pyramid schemes like to do this funny little thing where they call themselves 'MLMs'.
  Wallace: Men who love men?
  Steven: In this context, no; it stands for multi-level marketing. They call themselves MLMs and sell products so the FTC doesn't bust them, because pyramid schemes are illegal, while MLMs are technically legal but really aren’t and shouldn’t be. The MLMs will try to recruit people to sell their products and pass it off as a ‘job’, but you can’t make money by selling the products. In fact, many people lose money. The only way you can actually make money is by recruiting people and having them recruit people and having them recruit people… on and on and on. Those on top get richer, and those on the bottom get poorer.
• Precision F-Strike: In Episode 2:
  Steven: What happened?
  Wallace: All I can say is that after getting attacked by an old man and his purple alien friend, I need—and pardon my vulgar language—a fucking drink.
• Running Gag: The hot tub Wallace bought. Usually, it's brought up to highlight Wallace's poor financial skills. Usually, Wallace's Luvdisc is in it, drinking some sort of beverage.
• The Stoner: Morty smokes pot in class. Later on, he's pretty chill when Maxie and Archie threaten to murder him and Sabrina.
• Version-Exclusive Content: Due to the nature of each site having different emoticons, the way text messages are shown is slightly different between the Bulbagarden and AO3 versions.

---