Ash and Serena's Atomic Odyssey by Ander Arias is an Alternate Universe Pokémon: The Series fanfic that doubles as a Crossover with the fan-game Pokémon Uranium. The story is currently ongoing and being posted on Fanfiction Dot Net here
and on Archive of Our Own here.
Instead of parting ways after their adventures in Kalos, Clemont, Serena and Bonnie decide to accompany Ash back to Pallet Town and stay over for a few days. A scientist from the Orangics company comes to the Ketchum household looking for Clemont with an offer to participate in a project involving nuclear power plants in the Tandor region. As Tandor has its own Pokémon League and Contests, both Ash and Serena decide to accompany him there, beginning a new adventure for all of them.
However, in the Tandor region await many secrets and dangers, with an incident having happened ten years ago that resulted in a nuclear meltdown in one of its power plants. Fast forward to a few months, Ash and his friends will be facing an unknown enemy in a radiation-filled chamber with protective shields dangerously weakening. How did it come to that, and will they make it out alive?
Now with a character page under construction. Move all the character specific tropes there.
Ash and Serena's Atomic Odyssey provides trope examples of:
- Actually, I Am Him: When the group enter Professor Bamb'o's lab, they ask a rather eccentric man in very casual clothing where the professor may be. Said man happens to be Bamb'o.
- Adaptation Expansion: The author expands the details on Uranium's locations, lore and characters.
- Adaptational Badass:
- A minor example in Ash's Gible, who is shown to evolve into Gabite during a mock battle with Serena's Braixen for training purposes in Chapter 1.
- The Terlard you fight at the end of Comet Cave is just a normal Terlard. The one Ash and Clemont had to fight was almost twice as big (comparable to an Alpha Pokemon from Pokémon Legends: Arceus), and forced Ash to use Greninja's Battle Bond to beat it.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- The player in Uranium does not encounter any Nuclear-types until Nuclear Plant Epsilon (after the third Gym). Ash gets introduced to the type with a Xenomite owned by Alain shortly after the second gym.
- You don't see Professor Larkspur until you get to Silverport Town, a place you can't reach unless you have six badges. Here, he appears in Rochfale Town, when Ash only has two badges.
- Adaptational Villainy: Maury in the game is a Jerkass, but otherwise harmless. Here, he's part of a Pokemon trafficking ring, and Chapter 49 reveals they're in cahoots with Team Omega.
- Age Lift: As per the notes of Chapter 2, Ash, Serena and Clemont are 15 years old, while Bonnie is 9.
- Alternate Universe Fic: To the Sun & Moon and Journeys seasons of the anime.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Grace cannot resist the opportunity to be this for Serena during the videocall in Chapter 47, when Serena informs her that she and Ash are now officially a couple. Surprisingly, Delia doesn't do the same for Ash.
- Author Appeal:
- Inverted at the beginning. The ending of the first chapter has Giovanni sending Team Rocket to Sinnoh as backup against law enforcement. The author has stated that he wasn’t fond of them.
- The ending of the second chapter shows that Serena's hair had grown back to how long it was before she cut it off in the anime. The notes at the end of the chapter confirms that the author preferred Serena with long hair.
- During his very first battle, Greninja learned Night Slash, which replaced Cut. The author stated in the notes of that chapter that he couldn't take Cut as a serious attack, so he replaced it as soon as he could. He also wanted Greninja, who is part Dark-type, to have a Dark-type move, unlike the anime.
- The author is a big fan of Mega Evolution, and it's prominently featured in the fic. Not only all Gym Leaders use a Mega Evolved Pokemon as their ace, but Ash, Serena and Clemont gain Keystones and Mega Stones for Pokemon they own in Chapter 18.
- As it's common with western fans, the author prefers badass mons (preferably those fully evolved) over cute ones that stay unevolved. This is best seen with Clemont: in canon, Luxray was by far the least seen of his Pokemon, often overshadowed by Bunnelby and especially Chespin. Here, of all of Clemont's canonical Pokemon Luxray is the one who gets the most focus and development, with Chespin and Bunnelby appearing much less.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The scene at the end of chapter 1 with the Team Rocket Trio makes it appear as if they're also going to be sent to Tandor as well, as it's the norm in both anime and most fanfics whenever Ash is going to visit a new region... then Giovanni gets a call about something happening to a Rocket cell in Sinnoh, so he sends the trio there instead.
- The plot of chapter 5 looks like Ash and Serena helping a boy to reconcile with his Pokemon whom he got into a fight with, then it's revealed that said boy is part of a Pokemon trafficking ring, and the Pokemon in question was about to be sold.
- The story makes it look like the Dunsparce Biker Gang will cause no small trouble for Ash and and his friends, then like in the game, it's revealed they're Good All Along.
- In Chapter 39, Sayaka appears and makes a deal with Ash's group to give them a Shiny Stone in exchange for them helping her find a Dusk Stone, so that Serena could evolve Minicorn into Kiricorn and Sayaka her Misdreavus into Mismagius. Bonnie finds a Dusk Stone, but ends up tripping and tossing it near Minicorn, who touches it and evolves into Oblivicorn instead.
- Beach Episode:
- Chapter 12 has Ash and Co. enjoying a day at the beach on Seabreeze Way.
- Chapter 27 starts off as one in Bealbeach City, then a large wave of Nuclear Pokémon begin to rampage all over the place.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Ash has always wanted a Dunsparce since the Johto Anime and here he gets one! Unfortunately, he is a friggin' arsehole!
- Beehive Barrier: The Personal Shield Generator creates this effect when blocking attacks.
- Berserk Button: Aisha can't stand when someone insults her Pokémon. When Ambrose Reigns gives his comments, she flies into a rage and starts chasing him, to the point security has to restrain her. Thankfully she's let off with just a warning and allowed to continue in the competition.
- Break the Haughty:
- In Chapter 20, Sayaka not only does second best in the Appeal Round, she ends up losing her battle against Leona. Sayaka does not take it well.
- In Chapter 36, Theo was struggling pretty badly because he is plagued with concern for his missing father. It got so bad that he started crying when Ash tried pressing him on what's bothering him.
- The Cameo:
- Goh has a small appearance in Chapter 12, participating in the Magikarp Jump contest.
- Chloe and her Eevee also make a small appearance in chapter 19, during the demonstration for the PST.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Pretty much any Pokemon Ash, Serena or Clemont capture in Tandor. Same goes with any Pokemon Alain and Mairin have that they didn't had in the anime.
- Team Omega, since Pokemon Uranium didn't have a villanous organization.
- Caustic Critic: Ambrose Reigns fills this role in the Contest judge panel.
- Cats Are Mean: The main antagonist of Chapter 15 is a Feliger, who forces the Pokémon in the area to steal stuff for it
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Aisha, one of the members of the Dunsparce Gang who helps Ash and his friends in Chapter 9, reappears in Chapter 14 as one of the participants in the Burole Town Contest.
- Leona, the girl who wins the raffle tickets for the luxury cruiser, appears to help Serena during the Nuclear Pokémon rampage in Chapter 28, and becomes another friendly rival during the contest.
- City of Canals: The group arrives to Venesi City (which is based on Venice) in Chapter 46.
- Dangerous Terrain: Played with in Ash's second gym battle against Davern. While the Gym Leader's own Pokemon aren't bothered by the poisonous Toxic Spikes, Birbie and Greninja certainly are, and can barely stand after winning the fight.
- Darker and Edgier: As a crossover with Pokémon Uranium, this is a given. That said, the early chapters begin pretty lighthearted, in a similar tone to the X&Y series.
- Deadly Upgrade: Downplayed by the Muscular Enhancer used by some Team Omega members: upon activation, the Pokemon gets the equivalent of several Sword Dances in a row, giving them a massive increase in attacking power. Unfortunately, it also puts a huge strain on the Pokemon's body.
- Demoted to Extra: The first chapter makes it look like the Team Rocket Trio will be doing their usual shtick of somehow end up being in the same region as Ash, only for them not to due to Giovanni needing some Rockets who are familiar with Sinnoh's territory and thus temporarily canning their planned operations in Tandor.
- Doing In the Wizard: Or the alien in this case. The "aliens" who abduct the cattle from Ripley's farm turn out to be just a group of S51 sent by Sheldon to entertain himself as he can't stand the boredom of Vinoville Town.
- Dungeon Bypass: The gang do this at Ash’s suggestion at the end of Chapter 43 to avoid traveling through the jungle. Justified since they have two fully evolved Pokémon capable of flying while carrying them (Coatlith and Dunseraph).
- First Kiss: Ash and Serena share theirs in Chapter 46 at the end of their date.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: An unusual example in that it happens in a dream. At the start of Chapter 40, Ash has a nightmare where Serena dumps him for another boy, which makes him start fearing someone may take her away.
- Hold the Line: During the climax of events at Nuclear Plant Epsilon, Ash and his friends fall unconscious due to nuclear radiation exposure. With a massive horde of Nuclear Pokémon incoming, Pikachu fights with everything he has to defend the group. He barely holds out long enough for the Rangers to arrive. Unfortunately, doing so injured him to the point where he would have to avoid battling for the foreseeable future.
- How Much More Can He Take?: During the battle against Davern's ace Pokemon, a Mega Drilgann, Ash worries about Greninja, as his Pokemon is whittled down by poison caused by Toxic Spikes, the active Sandstorm, and Drilgann's constant attacks.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Played for Laughs. After Serena and Ash tell Grace that they're finally a couple, Grace takes the chance to warn Ash to take good care of Serena and not fool around, lest he wants to learn how terrifying a Rhyhorn can be. An embarrassed Serena cuts her off and she immediately clears up she was just joking.
- In Medias Res: The story opens up with Ash and his friends facing an unknown enemy inside a radiation-filled chamber as their protective suits continue to dangerously weaken, before cutting back to several months before when they're leaving Kalos.
- It Makes Sense in Context: The title of chapter 15 is Cats: The Not-Musical. Halfway through, an Orchynx appears, and ends up being caught by Ash. Also, the chapter's main antagonist is a Feliger, another cat.
- Jerkass:
- Ambrose Reigns, the replacement for Mr. Suziko, is quite deserving of this, being an extremely harsh judge of all participants in the contests. He kicks it up a notch with his treatment of Aisha in her return to the circuit, prompting her to lose her temper and almost get disqualified.
- A group of teenage girls Ash and Co. run into when they arrive to Burole Town dismiss the towns to the west as " a bunch of backward places full of dumb hillbillies".
- Knight in Shining Armor: Ash is forced to dress up the part for his Gym battle against Rosalind in Chapter 47, since it's framed as a stage play with him as the hero and Rosalind as the villainess (and Serena is also dragged into it as the princess the knight must rescue).
- Logical Weakness: The Personal Shield Generator used by Anika and Alina's Pokémon combines the effect of Reflect and Light Screen and enhances it several times, allowing it to pretty much No-Sell any attack. However, Ash and Clemont discovered that attacks like Ice Beam or Sludge Bomb can coat the shield in a layer of solid or liquid matter, thus trapping them inside.
- Seikamater was incredibly powerful, but it was still subjected to the recharge period of Hyper Beam. This gave Ash and company the chance they needed to strike back.
- Love Confession: Serena confesses her feelings to Ash in Chapter 30. However, he's so shocked by it that he doesn't know how to respond and ends up running away while apologizing.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The general reaction of everyone when they came face to face with the queen of the Anthell, Seikamater.
- Meditating Under a Waterfall: Greninja is shown doing this at the start of Chapter 43.
- My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: Serena’s winning plan to overcome Z-Moves; using Sylveon’s Protect to hold off the attack while Quetzoral matches the rest of the move with an oversized Energy Ball. It worked.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Chapter 39, Bonnie accidentally trips and drops a Dusk Stone near Serena's Minicorn, who touches it and becomes an Oblivicorn, not only making them lose their deal with Sayaka, but also causing the newly evolved Oblivicorn to turn violent and even try to abandon her own trainer.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Serena's first three contest rivals fit this trope neatly; Vitor is the Nice, being the most friendly and easygoing; Sayaka is the Mean, being a rude, arrogant Jerkass; and Aisha is the In-Between, being generally nice and friendly, but way more brash and rougher around the edges than Vitor.
- No-Sell: Greninja's attempt to use Double Team in Ash's gym battle against Davern goes poorly, due to the sandstorm wiping out the copies almost immediately after they're created.
- Oblivious to Love: Ash, as per canon. Serena was quite surprised to know that he never considered the possibility of one of his female companions liking him romantically.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During Chapter 22, Serena starts training her Pokémon much harder than before, in the aftermath of her loss to Vitor in the Rochfale Town contest, to the point she doesn't spend time with the others. This doesn't go unnoticed by Bonnie and Ash, who grow increasingly worried about it.
- Point of Divergence: Instead of parting ways in Kalos, Ash's friends accompany him to Pallet Town to stay over a few days. When Clemont gets the offer to work in Orangics nuclear power project in Tandor, they all decide to continue traveling together to accompany him (with Serena deciding to change her original plan to go to Hoenn upon learning that Tandor also has Pokémon Contests).
- It's implied that the incident with Team Flare's remnant does not take place, so Greninja doesn't need to stay back to protect Kalos and stays as a member of his team along with Pikachu.
- Poor Communication Kills: The whole conflict between Serena and Oblivicorn turned out to be a case of this. After Minicorn evolved using the Dusk Stone instead of the Dawn stone, Serena's reaction to her appearance made her assume the worst, so she started acting violently to drive her away. It's not until Serena risks her life to reach her in Chapter 49 that Oblivicorn finally explains how she felt and apologizes, while Serena also apologizes to her for being insensitive when she evolved:
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Chapter 41 has Serena finally overcome Leona’s Z-Moves. Serena expected Leona to use a Z-Move Limit Break during their battle and so she chose her Pokémon (Sylveon and Quetzoral) to best counter that tactic.
- Put on a Bus:
- Averted for Greninja, who follows Ash back to Pallet Town instead of staying back to protect Kalos.
- Played straight for the Team Rocket Trio, whose first (and only) scene makes it clear they won't be following Ash and Co. to Tandor. Ash lampshades their absence in chapter 10, claiming how odd it is that with all the time they've been in Tandor, they haven't shown up yet to try to steal Pikachu.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Sayaka's victory over Serena in Chapter 37 is mostly this. While she ends up winning the ribbon (if by the skin of her teeth), she failed in her main goal of breaking Serena, instead giving her extra motivation and making her even more determined to beat her.
- Related in the Adaptation: The Uranium character Kellyn is an older version of the player character from Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, but the anime has its own version of Kellyn who's a similar age to Ash and his friends. To avoid a Continuity Snarl, the author chose to make anime Kellyn the eldest son of Uranium Kellyn, and thus the older brother of Natalie and Vitor.
- Relationship Upgrade: Ash and Serena finally get together in Chapter 46.
- Second Place Is for Losers: When told that Serena was the runner-up in the Master Class Showcase, Sayaka's response is "Runner-up is just a fancy way of saying loser".
- Ship Tease:
- If the title isn't a given, there's plenty between Ash and Serena.
- There are also hints that Lilia and Clemont will become the Beta Couple eventually.
- Shout-Out:
- Some of the villanous organizations Team Omega made deals with are the Abyssal Cult and the New Elders.
- After Davern's Drilgann uses Sandstorm, Davern says "Don't you love sand? It's soft, smooth, soothing, and it gets everywhere!"
- Clemont telling Theo "You can come out now. The chance to prove yourself a hero is long gone" in chapter 17 is a reference to the The Simpsons episode "Krusty Gets Busted", where Apu tells the exact same thing to Homer after Bob-as-Krusty leaves the Kwik-E-Mart after robbing it.
- In Chapter 22, Bonnie menations a movie titled "Kung Fu Pangoro".
- While Ripley's Sidequest was already an Alien reference, with the questgiver named Ripley and dealing with alien-like Pokemon note , chapter 32, which adapts said sidequests, expands on the references by making Ripley's first name "Helen", giving her a daughter named Rebeccanote , a feline Pokemon named Jonesy, a husband named Dwaynenote that works on the closest thing the setting has to the military, and a bad past experience involving somebody named Ash.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In Chapter 37, Sayaka reveals that she used to be a lot like Serena when she first began in Pokémon Contests, wanting to make people smile with her performances, but after she failed in the competitions, she decided she had to grow stronger and more ruthless, leaving her childhood dreams behind if she wanted to make it to the top. Naturally, Serena's response is the complete opposite, even calling her a quitter for giving up on her dreams and vowing to make her smile again.
- Small Town Boredom: The reason why Sheldon orchestrated the Mareep and Baschaff abductions with his numerous S51 and S51-A. He found Vinoville Town too boring.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: The Pokémon Speech Translator (or PST) has this as a built-in feature in order to filter profanities (as shown when they tried it on Ash's Dunsparce).
- Take That!:
- In Chapter 14, it's revealed that Mr. Sukizo's habit of only saying "Remarkable" to everything was due to suffering a serious case of senility, not being aware of his surroundings, to the point he was sent to an asylum.
- In Chapter 47, during Ash's videocall with Delia in order to tell her about his Relationship Upgrade with Serena, she cries in happiness over how her son is growing into a man, while also remarking "It's only natural, you weren't going to be ten forever".
- Tempting Fate:
- As Ash and the gang are leaving Pallet Town, he's happy that for once his mom didn't embarrass him by loudly reminding him to change his underwear every day. It turns out he spoke too soon.
- In Chapter 28, while heading for the department store to help people escape from the Nuclear Pokémon, Clemont, Lilia and Serena run into a group of Nuclear Magikarp. At first they're worried until they see they're as helpless as normal Magikarp, even laughing at them. Then one of the Magikarp evolves right in front of them.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Ash's Birbie evolves to Aveden during his Gym battle against Davern. Though this only wins him the bout, not the full match.
- Serena's shy Selkid masters Ice Beam, which it had been struggling with, to freeze a tidal wave solid, saving Braixen and allowing Serena to win her second ribbon.
- Sayaka's Volchik evolves to Voltasu during their contest battle against Leona aboard the cruiser. However, she still ends up losing when Leona calls for a Z-Move.
- During the fourth gym battle between Ash and Sheldon, Sheldon's Dearewl evolved into Gararewl.
- Done three times in Chapter 42. Ash’s Frosulo and Aveden evolve into Frosthra and Splendifowl respectively and Clemont’s Eletux becomes Electruxo. The latter two evolutions were justified as having to battle hordes of Bug Pokémon in the Anthell.
- Ash’s Dunsparce learns the move Sky Fall in Chapter 43 while battling Tiko. He then evolves into Dunseraph after beating him.
- Chespie is revealed to have evolved all the way into Chesnaught when seen again in Chapter 45. Happened twice during Ash and Alain’s battle when Alain’s Jungore and Ash’s Raptorch evolved into Majungold and Archilles respectively. Also, Ash managed to tie with Alain compared to having only lost against him in the past.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Ash and Greninja whenever they activate the Bond Phenomenon.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating:
- Theo starts engaging in this when he and Ash defeat Vitor and Natalie, even though he was The Load for most of it and Ash had to make up for his blunders during the battle.
- Sayaka starts putting Serena down as soon as they meet, and mocks her after beating her in the final round of the first Contest.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Professor Larkspur seems to have taken great interest in Ash and Alain’s strongest Pokémon (Greninja and Charizard respectively) due to the sheer power they wield in their Mega Evolved states. So much so that he began to plan Alain’s capture at the end of Chapter 44.
- You Remind Me of X: Chapter 37 has Sayaka revealing that Serena reminds her a lot of herself when she first started in Pokémon Contests, which fuels her desire to bring her down because she represents her past self (whom she regards as naive and weak).
