"There is far more at stake now than just Stryke blood"'
A work in progress by Troper JewelyJ . In a seemingly normal world, people gifted with a single unusual power known as Psi live in secret. In 1980 Stryke and Toyaka, two all-Psi families with a history of fighting forge a truce by arranging two of each of their children to marry. Bitter Sophia Stryke is married to Toshiro Toyaka and turns against her family while Kagami Toyaka dominates her meek husband Elliott Stryke until he is driven to leave her and flee to America
Flash forward more than ten years later, 14 year old Skye Stryke and his little brother are told that their parents were murdered while they were at school. They are sent to England with their grandfather and Skye becomes obsessed with finding out why his parents died, why the Toyakas seem to hate his family and what a certain corrupt cell phone company has to do with it. The answer leads him to a certain someone he never hoped to see again and a Sadistic Choice between his friends' lives and his little brothers'. The aftermath from that meeting leads into a resurgence of the Stryke and Toyaka feud, but now the price is much higher and more lives are at stake
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents- Gem and Rusty's family friends Tala and Misty come to live with them when their grandmother found out about their parents' neglect. Blade's parents are implied to be this
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Dex orchestrates a plan to attack the Stryke manor.
- Ambigiously Jewish-The Tektons.
- A Mindis A Terrible Thing To Read-Telapthy does this to many of those who have it. The most notable example is Dai Toyaka. Considering the kind of environment Dai was raised in this isn't surprising.
- Badass Family-The Strykes. Also the Tektons don't need powers to be awesome
- Badass Normal-Caleb
- Berserk Button-Plenty to go around
- Skye-insulting his parents hurting his little brother
- Timmy-threatening his loved ones
- Rusty-calling him stupid, flirting with his sister
- Felix: insulting his parents, being a Toyaka in his presence
- Caleb-hurting his younger siblings, abusing children
- Dex-mentioning his father or saying something about his mother
- Blade-hurting his sister or making her cry, comparing him to his father
- Big Bad Friend-when Timmy returns to America he meets Duncan.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family-The Toyakas and the Strykes to some degree.
- Black Magic- Later in the series, Hemomancy or 'blood magic' is introduced.
- Cheerful Child- Timmy Stryke becomes this after he recovers and grows from the events of the first two (planned) books
- Combat Pragmatist- Subverted. Dex does shoot Skye but only gets him in the shoulder.
- Dead Guy Jr.- Skye's full name is Elliott Skylar Stryke Jr.
- Defrosting Ice Queen-Leandra is dismissive or downrigtht nasty towards Timmy until he stands up to Dai when the Stryke house is held hostage. He later exchanges letters with her for a few years until the brothers are disowned
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male- Defied. Kagami's abuse of Elliott is treated no different then it would have if the genders had been reversed. Mostly because
the creator hates that trope so much she feels dirty typing it. - Ethical Slut-Blade
- Evil Matriarch-Kagami Toyaka runs the family like a warped cult.
- Evil Plan: Kagami seems to have a bigger one in mind than Dex.
- The Empath-Empathy (and telepathy) are two Psi conditions that come along with one's base power and tend to weaken that power. They both have a very negative stigma and are treated like the Psi equivalent to mental issues. Timothy Stryke is an Empath and another known character will be revealed as one.
- Fantastic Racism-Exhibited by both Psi and Muggles. Some psi show it towards Muggles as well as those of their own kind who have empathy or telepathy (known as pathies)
- Fantastic Slur-'Muns' to non-Psi, 'Feelys' to empaths and 'mindspies' to Telepaths. 'Pathys' is used as one but empaths and telepaths start using it for themselves.
- Foil- Foils abound
- Skye-Blade
- Gem-Leandra
- Felix-Dai
- Heartwarming Orphan- Skye and Timothy Stryke
- Heroic BSoD- Skye and Timmy after Dai tortures him
- Heroic Bastard-Felix's parents were engaged when he was born because his father had a feeling that someone would go after him. Leandra claims that this makes him not a true member of the family.
- Heel–Face Turn- Blade and Katsuya
- Jerkass-Lenadra, The Stryke's third cousin who is always trying to fix her family to upkeep the family's reputation. She insults Skye's dead mother, treats Timmy like he has the brain capacity of a rock and tries to get her grandparents to send him away, doesn't even consider Felix a proper member of the family and treats every girl who gets too close to her male raelatives like the devil incarnateShe gets sorta better later on. Also Duncan, a violent little punk who brags about setting his school bathroom on fire, treats Timmy like a kick ball and then guilts him into being his 'best friend' and calls Mysti a bitch.
- Kid Detective- Timmy and Mysti
- Knight Templar Big Brother-Skye is taught by his father that it's the job of an older brother to watch out for his younger brother for life. He is afraid of being like his half brother Dex and so he overprotects Timmy. But he doesn't realize that he sometimes gets overprotective to the point where he's actually hurting his brother.
- Large Ham:Presto
- La Résistance-Monte Corp
- TheWomanBehindTheMan-Kagami to Dex
- Muggles -Called mundanes, muns or just non-Psi
- Nietzsche Wannabe-Duncan, at only thirteen years old
- Power Trio-
- Skye:Id, Rusty:ego Gem:Superego
- Caleb:superego Felix:Id Adelaide:ego
- Timmy:ego Mysti:superego
DuncanPresto:id - Adrian:superego Blade:ego Gretchen:id
- Sibling Team- On the Heroic side, Skye and Timmy and Gem and Rusty, on the Toyakas side, Ana and Blade, Logan and Leo and Vi and Sylv
- Stepford Smiler-A rather depressing example, Anamaria Toyaka, Blade's younger sister is The Un-Favorite of her mother and dismissed by her relatives. She tries to be a good girl and serve them well so that they will love her again.
- True Companions - Skye, his little brother Timmy,Gem and Rusty, Caleb and Felix Stryke, who are the forerunners of Monte Corp the group that will later fight in a war.
- Tsundere- Tala Vasquez especially towards Blade
- Tyke Bomb-Katsuya Toyaka formerly Timmy's twin Gilbert Stryke
- Unwitting Pawn-Most of the Toyaka family
- Whatever Mancy
- Hemomancy-blood magic
- Naturamancy-Nature magic
- What the Hell, Hero?- Felix insults Anamaria Toyaka because he hates her mother, Skye snaps his his brother and withholds information from him.
- You Remind Me of X- Alexander says this of Skye about his father. However Tanya mentions that Timmy reminds her of his late uncle as a child.
