"The Core Timeline is an amalgamation of chaos. The so-called real world has been overlapped with the realms of movies, comic books, anime, and more. Fanfictions have literally come to life. And in the city of Chicago in this Coreline, a young hero must fight to save it from destruction... as well as fight her own demons..."
Legends of the Fourth of July
, by OrionPax09 is one of various stories set on the Coreline Shared Universe, and the introduction of, among other things, "Captain America" Mari Illustrious Makinami.
Currently under construction. Please add tropes as you see them!
This Coreline story contains examples of the following:
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Essentially the whole "getting Mari out of the Despair Event Horizon" plot, however the part that mostly fits under this is Mari's final crossing of the Horizon in front of the Captain America Wing of the Smithsonian Museum and "Uncle Steve's" You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech to Mari.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Mari asks Steve one about his reluctance to have Tony upgrade his suit that gets him to finally reconsider.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Mari has this opinion of the classic Captain America vs. Iron Man argument. She agrees with her "Uncle Steve" that Tony is a little too in love with his toys, and needs to learn how to fight beyond just tackling and shooting enemies (especially after how easily she defeated him in their spar). But she also points out to Steve that, while skill is also important, it isn't everything. Besides the Always Someone Better trope, a master sharpshooter like Deadshot would be better with a state-of-the-art rifle than a slingshot, and that improving the tools and weaponry they have available to them is no different than the skill training Steve has/is going through. At the end, she boils the whole thing down to one question; if one's weapons and powers are just tools in their toolboxes (as Steve once told her), then what's wrong with having a bigger toolbox? Steve decides that nothing is, and has Tony build him a battle-suit like Mari's, which he comes to like.
- Brought Down to Badass: For most of the story, the majority of Mari's powers (including some of her battlesuit's devices and the powers of her shield) have been locked down as part of her parole agreement, leaving her with just the enhanced physical capacity and training regular to a Captain America. Unfortunately for the Joker R gang and Golden Four, this is still more than enough to play a One-Woman Army, which she then demonstrates by kicking the crap of anybody who gets in the way.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mari was trying to stop a Deadpool version of her from destroying a mall which was under construction, but isn't quite able to do it. This ends with Cap Mari being accused of being in league with Deadpool Mari, getting the book tossed at her, and the most harsh of sentences (short of actual jail time) given to her. In defense, it was given to her by a version of J. Jonah Jameson that became a Hanging Judge.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe: The "Fakehuggers" are made of this Trope. Designed to look and act exactly like a real Facehugger, right down to knocking out their victims and wrapping around their faces, they were intended to be a harmless prank. However, they instead resulted in some people having fatal heart attacks.
- From Bad to Worse: Just when they're trying to deal with the aftermath of Goldie's plot and what Mari had to do to stop it, it's discovered that Goldie took control of "Jerk Tony" and is using him to try to spread a plague of nano-tech armors clones from an Angel based Venom, starting with the Avengers.
- Hanging Judge: An Alternate of J. Jonah Jameson that became one of these is one of the biggest reasons for Mari's problems when the story starts, thanks to the fact that he gave her the most humiliating sentence he could think of short of actual prison time. Mari's told by her friends afterwards that it's a good thing she doesn't have Spider-Man powers.
- Hate Sink: An Alternate of Naru Narugesawa (which is everything wrong about the character Flanderized and given a badge) is assigned as the probation officer of Mari by Judge Jameson. She is (aside from the Jerkass Tony Stark Alternate) the biggest obstacle in Mari's path because of how she uses her authority to bully the Captain. The Curb-Stomp Battle she suffers alongside the Code: Blue SWAT Team she brings along to try to arrest Mari (and then being restrained with a Fakehugger, which makes her think she has been impregnated with a Chestbuster and drives her into a crying, begging mess) is a spectacular (In-Universe) Take That!.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The events of this story happen during the night of the Fourth of July. The trope is applied because both of the threats that occur during this story are terrorists looking for wide-spread mayhem and death.
- How We Got Here: After the initial attack on Chicago is prevented, a large part of the story then goes into the backstory of Mari Makinami and Maria Vincennes (a.k.a. "Captain America" and "Thunderstrike") and what gave Mari her probation.
- Megaton Punch: When Mari is finally driven to the end of her rope, she unleashes this Trope upon Naru.
- My Little Panzer: The building Mari and Maria now live in was used to store several illegal novelties, which were then left to rot. This includes the "Fakehuggers"; mechanical replicas of the Facehugger that are programmed to act just like the real thing, except that they knock their victims out with non-lethal sonic stunners instead. Meant as a practical joke, the scared reactions of people to the Fakehuggers' attacks (which included various fatal heart attacks) drove their developing company to ruin.
- Not Me This Time: The Tony of Steve's team is quick to point out that he wasn't the Tony Stark responsible for several messes other versions of him have caused.
- Not Now, Kiddo: The whole situation is in Mari's hands to resolve because nobody higher-up (anything from the cops to The Champions to the Avengers) is interested in listening to her (thanks to, among other things, people who bear her ill will making damn sure that she remains disconnected or people think she is as insane as her other versions and looking for attention).
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Steve, Thunderstrike, and the others find Mari, Thunderstrike soon notices that Mari has left her shield lying on the ground. Since Mari is never without it and even sleeps with it underneath her pillow, she immediately realizes that something is horribly wrong.
- Our Presidents Are Different: It's mentioned in passing a couple of times that the current President of the United States at the time of the story is an Alternate of Steve Rogers... and broadening the definition of the Trope, an important character to the plot happens to be Governor-For-Life of the State of Michigan: Optimus Prime.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Avengers Infinity is almost destroyed on the climactic attack because they were not prepared for a bunch of Neon Genesis Evangelion Angels with the capabilities of a Venom Symbiote (which happens to be the mass-produced "offspring" of Venom Asuka's).
- Poor Communication Kills: Mari is forced to handle the Joker R Gang and Golden Four herself because no one is listening when she tries to warn them.
- Psycho Serum: An exaggerated example. Goldie created a version of the Titan serum merged with gammaroids, that is so potent, that even just touching it will turn a person into a savage brute.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: With no other options available to her, Mari sneaks out and not only spies on Goldie and her crew, but fight to try and stop them single-handed, defying her parole, because the consequences would be disastrous if she didn't.
- Spanner in the Works: Mari ends up derailing Goldie's entire scheme.
- Take That!: Aside from the example mentioned above on "Hate Sink", it is mentioned a couple of times in passing that one of the "Code: Blue" officers that Mari curb-stomps is an Alternate of Grant Ward.
- Tempting Fate: Occurs several times, and fate listened.
