An Alternate Universe Fic designed by Gena and Olita which adds a Body Horror twist to the events of Pokemon Omega Ruby. Here, the Orbs are Artifacts of Doom when used improperly, transform the victim, applying some features of its respective Legendary. As a result, Team Magma's actions kick off a series of events that change the face of the world forever, spanning years and regions.
For those interested in learning more, the first collected chat log can be found here
, the second here, and the third here. Naturally, the logs include spoilers for both games, as well as the Delta Episode and all other games in the main series.
This Alternate Universe Fic contains instances of:
- Abusive Parents: Norman's repeatedly referred to as an Actual Leaky Trashbag, with good reason. Mostly emotionally and psychologically abusive, but the only reason he doesn't beat Kiera is she fought back the second time he tried it.
- Age Lift:
- Kiera started her journey around the age of 18-20. She would have started much sooner if Norman hadn't jerked her around for years, and he didn't approve of her managing to get started after ending up in Littleroot.
- Brendan is around 14-15 when Kiera first moves to Littleroot. Wally, by contrast, is around 12-13.
- Animals Hate Him: Pokemon can sense something unnatural about the transformed Trio and tend to freak out in their presence. This includes the vast majority of the mons they personally trained beforehand, forcing them to let most of them go.
- Blessed with Suck: Legendaries can bless chosen ones, but this doesn't necessarily turn out well. Ubume can attest to this.
- Break the Haughty:
- Maxie gets hit HARD by this, leading to heavy depression and self-blame.
- Kiera goes through a comparatively more subdued version. Transformed!Maxie serves as a Wake-Up Call Boss of sorts, and she doesn't take it well.
- Canon Discontinuity: The authors experimented with a dark interpretation of how Norman is dealt with where he's EATEN by Maxie and Archie after almost killing Kiera, but they eventually decided that Maxie and Archie wouldn't break Kiera's trust and they retconned the event into a side-AU of their story.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Downplayed without becoming less disturbing. Kiera believes that Norman's abusive behavior is typical for dads, and is startled when Archie and Maxie react to casual references to his abuse with horror.
- Cursed with Awesome: Maxie, Archie and Kiera's transformations fall under this, and each copes with it differently. Maxie's horrified, but sees it as proper punishment for his actions, while Archie adapts very well. Kiera splits the difference.
- Darker and Edgier: After all, this is a world filled with Painful Transformations, human experimentation, death, murder, cannibalism, and other cheery stuff.
- Death of a Child: Ubume's child wasn't even born before dying, thanks to her lover trying to kill her.
- Distaff Counterpart: The authors experimented with the outcomes of this fic if it followed Alpha Sapphire's continuity instead of Omega Ruby. Based on Archie gaining Kiera's trust faster than Maxie and having less angst over his transformation, the trio would be friends easier than in canon.Olita: EVERYONE IS SO MUCH HAPPIER
Gena: IT'S THE SLIGHTLY KINDER VERSION - Dude, Where's My Respect?: After repeatedly saving the Hoenn Region, including heroically sacrificing her humanity, Champion Kiera finds herself running for her life, hated and feared by the people she did so much for.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a lot of work over several years, but the cursed trio eventually manage to cobble together a Family of Choice and find happiness together.
- Emergency Transformation:
- Archie using the Blue Orb against Maxie helps save his life, as Maxie had nearly ripped him apart by the time Kiera showed up.
- Steven Stone gets transformed into a hybrid after a tragic accident.
- Foil:
- Birch and Brendan to Norman and Kiera. While Brendan is a bit socially awkward and has some parental issues himself, he still has a loving relationship with his father, and initially assumes Norman's like his own dad.
- Groudon and Kyogre's personalities are a closer match to the Leaders of the other Team. Groudon is like an overgrown, energetic puppy lizard brimming with joy, while Kyogre's an snobby, stuck-up whale.
- A Friend in Need: After Kiera's fall from grace, Wally remains one of her few allies and staunchest friends. He even goes so far as to ask Jirachi to make him a hybrid simply so they won't be separated.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Maxie and Archie each gain a large scar on their chest from when the Orbs were forcibly removed during their transformations.
- Heel Realization: It takes several months, but Kiera eventually comes to regret how she treated Maxie after his transformation, realizing that she was acting like her father.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Archie pulls one during the Seafloor Cave clash, using the Blue Orb so that Kiera won't have to and sacrificing his humanity in the process.
- Kiera follows in his footsteps during the Delta Episode, declaring that as Champion, she's the one who should take the risk of using the Green Orb.
- Horror Hunger:
- Maxie discovers that Groudon's teeth aren't just for show, and starts having cravings for raw meat.
- Brendan becomes another victim of this; following their transformation, they wind up eating his own Blaziken.
- Instant Web Hit: Kiera and Archie embrace the use of online social media to recount their adventures. This includes taking Vines of Archie's more hilarious pranks on Maxie. Their popularity helps increase public acceptance of the trio's mutations.Gena: The true secret to repairing their reputations
Gena: Internet comedy - "It" Is Dehumanizing: At first, Kiera repeatedly refers to the transformed Maxie as 'it' instead of 'him'. Maxie accepts this; Archie, Tabitha and Courtney don't.
- It's Up to You: Deconstructed. Kiera quickly comes to resent how much everyone expects her to solve all of their problems and keep shoving it all onto her. This only gets worse after her heroism in the Delta Episode is rewarded by rejection.
- Karmic Transformation:
- Maxie considers his transformation to be proper punishment for his actions. Particularly since he views Pokemon as naturally inferior to humans; therefore, becoming a hybrid makes him 'lesser' as well.
- The old couple on Mt Pyre feel this way about both leaders' transformations, much to Kiera's fury.
- Light Is Not Good: Ho-Oh is worshipped and held in high regard in the Johto region. He's also a self-centered Jerkass who flat out doesn't get why his Blessed Hybrid came to despise him. He also wants all the victims of Team Rocket's experiments killed to 'cleanse the world'.
- Love Cannot Overcome: After Kiera was mutated and forced to be on the run, her girlfriend Lisia doesn't take it as well (the media craze not helping) and breaks it off, scared that Kiera's transformation will eventually degrade her mind into madness.
- More Expendable Than You: Archie convinces Kiera to let him use the Blue Orb instead of her because she shouldn't have to risk her humanity to fix the mistakes of 'old men like them'.
- More Hero than Thou: Kiera insists on being the one to use the Green Orb because she feels that you don't get to call yourself the strongest trainer if you're not willing to step up and put yourself on the line when it counts.
- My Beloved Smother: Norman is a male version. He's not concerned with what Kiera can do with her life so much as dictating what she can't. Ideally, he wanted to see her passed off to somebody capable of 'keeping her in line'.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Maxie's horrified upon discovering the results of his actions.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Kiera learns this the hard way after the Delta Episode.
- Playing with Syringes: Team Rocket is inspired by the events in Hoenn to try making their own half-pokemon hybrids.
- Reincarnation: Exists in this 'verse. Kiera's spunky Pikachu gets reincarnated into a sassy trainer girl. Tabitha shows up as a Makuhita.
- The Scapegoat: While Maxie has committed various crimes, Kiera blames him for everything that went wrong in order to avoid confronting her own insecurities.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Archie using the Blue Orb has elements of this.
Word of God states that since the Blue Orb had accepted Kiera, she wouldn't have been risking as much. Not only that, but the very thing he wanted to prevent — Kiera becoming affected by the orb — plays out anyway after the Delta Episode. - Shark Pool: Maxie finds Archie in one after the Citidark scientists force him into becoming a Shadow Pokemon.
- Stepford Smiler: Part of how Brendan copes with the horror of their own transformation.
- Undying Loyalty:
- While most pokemon see the tranformed trio as freaks of nature, each of them has one or two 'mons who retain their loyalty.
- Tabitha, Courtney, Matt and Shelly towards their leaders. Even being reincarnated can't break their bonds.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Kiera expects her big confrontation with Maxie to go VERY differently, to the point that she was rocking out to her own soundtrack with her earbuds and using her cell to record her heroic entrance. Needless to say, things don't go as planned.
- Walking the Earth: Being on the run, the trio traverse across Hoenn, Johto, Kanto and Orre - saving the world and getting into trouble along the way.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Archie repeatedly calls Kiera out on how she treats Maxie after the Cave of Origins.
- She also gets this from both of them after they discover poor Brendan trapped in the Rocket Labs and she hesitates about saving them.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Legendary hybrids can find themselves dealing with this. Part of the reason Ubume snapped was finding out the downsides of her blessing in the worst possible way.
