Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Zero Day is a Crossover fanfic created by UPMan. It's a crossover between two unlikely things: The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, and the 2003 film Zero Day.
Taking place in a world that's our world, but inhabited by Pokémon, it follows two teenagers: a Lucario named Spencer Rider, and a Zoroark named Shadow Noir. It's presented as an archive of a Tumblr blog the two created, in which they document their preparations for a school shooting they're about to do, which, just like the movie, is nicknamed "Zero Day".
The blog was taken down a few days after the attack, but at the request of a member of an exploration team Shadow's mother used to be a part of, the archive was created and follows events occurring from June 23, 2015, to May 10, 2016.
It can be read here
The fanfic provides examples of:
- Axes at School: Spencer and Shadow are plotting a school shooting.
- Downer Ending: It's a retelling of Zero Day with Pokémon characters, so it should be obvious what happens at the end,
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Shadow's younger sister, Clara, is one of the few people he cares deeply about, to the point that he's well aware of the fact that what he's about to do will break her heart. In the second-to-last entry, both he and Spencer apologize to their loved ones for what they're about to do.
- Expy: The shooting is reminiscent of the Columbine shooting, so there are some things in the fic that are identical to what happens there.
- Spencer and Shadow are similar to Andre and Cal, who in turn are similar to Eric and Dylan.
- Spencer Rider is similar to Andre Kriegman, and to an extent, Eric Harris. What helps is that he has access to several weapons used in the attack.
- Shadow Noir is similar to Calvin Gabriel, and to an extent, Dylan Klebold. He seems to be a follower of Spencer and sees the attack as a peaceful way to die. It helps that her sister is similar to Dylan's mother.
- The shooters detail their preparations in a Tumblr blog, which is similar to the Basement Tapes: a series of videotapes that Eric and Dylan created detailing their preparations for the attack they've been planning. In the movie, Andre and Cal use videotapes too, but what they're doing is similar to what Spencer and Shadow are doing, as they're detailing their preparations somewhere for the public to find later.
- Shadow's younger sister, Clara the Vulpix, is similar to Dylan Klebold's mother, Sue. Granted, Clara is Shadow's sister and not his mother, but both females are related to one of the shooters in each attack. Sometime after the massacres, Sue and Clara both became activists for mental illness and gun violence. There is a spinoff story taking place after the events of this fanfic that's a transcript of a speech Clara gave that's similar to a TED Talk that Sue gave. Clara's also similar to the father of Columbine victim Daniel Rohrbough. They both destroyed crosses put up to honor the shooters alongside their victims.
- Spencer and Shadow are similar to Andre and Cal, who in turn are similar to Eric and Dylan.
- Last Disrespects: Memorial crosses were put up for Spencer and Shadow after Zero Day, and a few days later, Shadow's little sister burned them down.
- New Media Are Evil: Defied by Spencer and Shadow, who burn several pieces of violent media they own so they don't get blamed for influencing them to commit the attack.
- Spree Killer: Spencer and Shadow.
- Teens Are Monsters: The shooters.
- Villains Out Shopping: Several entries in the archive show Spencer and Shadow doing mundane things, such as Spencer's birthday party and Shadow going camping with his family.
- Would Hit a Girl: Several of the fatalities are female.
