Shadowchasers: Power Primordial
is a direct sequel to the first Shadowchasers Series story.
Set three months after the original Shadowchasers, something big is happening in Neo Domino, and it's up to the Neo Domino Shadowchasers to find out who is behind it.
This features the following tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: At the end of the story, Jalal instructs the Neo Domino Shadowchasers to enter the WRGP, knowing that Yliaster is one of its biggest sponsors and concerned about what will happen.
- Ascended Extra: Hebi-Na who was just a minor criminal in the original fic, has a lot more relevance in this fic.
- Amazonian Beauty: Shannalla the Fierce is muscular an attractive.
- Arch-Enemy: Hebi-Na in this fic is considered one for Ember. (Lampshaded by Ember herself at one point when it appears they're both going to die; she sarcastically says she wishes she could have had a better arch-enemy.)
- Badass in Distress: Ember gets captured at one point by the ophidia after losing a duel to Hebi-Na. Later on, Shichiro, Jinx and Gears get captured after their losses to Soth, Menzoberra and Rary.
- Betrayal Insurance: Whenever someone swears allegiance to Taramanda, she places a kind of poison into them that would only activate if that person even tries to spill information about her, ensuring that the information in place stays s secret.
- BFG: Jalal's magical M16A2 assault rifle. While not as large as other BFGs, it was capable of killing Count Nyleth, the (ex)ruler of the Nightmare Court. He has used it once so far, after the Demon Guardian murdered Taramanda in cold blood. Jalal keeps the gun in his vault so he wont be tempted to overuse it.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Taramanda, the ophidia empress. She believes she is the one opposing the Shadowchasers, but has no idea that she is being used as a pawn the whole time by the true Big Bad, who has no respect at all for her title OR the goddess she worships.
- Brown Note: The Bells of Baphomet. A curse that causes its victim to constantly hear a set of fiendish bells wherever he/she goes. No matter where they were or what kind of protection they try to use, the bells would constantly ring in their heads which would drive them to madness. Unfortunately there is no known cure to this curse, and the only solution would be for the victim to go in to a magically-induced sleep. The aboleth inflicts this curse on Hebi-Na towards the end of the fic which causes Wilhelm to put her to sleep with a spell. She stays like this until the end of Soulscape, wherein not only does she recover, but destroys the curse forever by killing its fiendish assassin.
- Call-Back: Towards the middle of the fic, Ember recalls the time she was held hostage by Draco and how the rest of the Neo Domino Shadowchasers go out of their way to rescue her. In this fic, the three of them are defeated and captured, leaving it to her to rescue them. Ember herself even acknowledges this.
- Clear My Name: Jetta the Bronze Hearted. She is granted a form of probation by agreeing to work with Ember and released from an intergalactic prison, but hopes that it will expose the ones who framed her for what they are.
- Demoted to Extra: Mistle, who was a fairly prominent recuring character in the original fic only appears in a single chapter with a relatively minor role.
- Enemy Mine: This happens between Ember and Hebi-Na after an accident causes them to fall into Shwa-Sma's lair, and the priority turns to getting out before the thing finds them. Unfortunately, their partnership is shaky at best, and after Ember convinces her to tell her just what Shwa-Sma is, she gets upset by how low Taramanda could sink, and calls the truce off.
- Evil Counterpart: In their last stand against the Neo Domino Shadowchasers, the Four Paragons use the defeated spirits of the Earthbound Gods who have taken the form of the appropriate Signer Dragon that defeated them.
- Evil Cripple: The Aboleth is an aquatic being, and cannot breathe air or even move easily on land without technological aid. According to Jalal, a member of this species that suffocates due to being out of water will not die, but will enter a comatose state called "Long Dreaming", which they consider a Fate Worse than Death.
- Fate Worse than Death: The Bells of Baphomet, the cruel curse inflicted upon Hebi-Na. A victim of this demonic curse is tortured by the sound of horrible bells that only he can hear which prevent sleep and usually cause madness. Only magically inflicted sleep can protect the victim, so long as he never wakes up. The victim does eventually die, hunted down and torn to pieces by a mysterious assassin called the Demon of the Bells, but some believe that this is not the end of the curse, and that the victim's soul is then enslaved by the demon lord who granted the power to cast it. Until "Soulscape", which centers around Jalal trying to cure Hebi-Na this is believed to be incurable.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The aboleth's ultimate goal is to free an imprisoned being called Pandorym, who mastered the Power Primordial better than almost any other being, and used it to challenge the Hebdomad, but lost.
- Green Thumb: Minerva's Naturia Deck also has a good amount of Plant-Type monsters.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Woman, actually. Taramanda meets her end when the Demon Guardian attacks her with his weapon, cutting her in half.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Hers, to be precise. In one of her duels with Ember, Iggwiliv, summons Gears' Il Mathman and later sacrifices it order to activate an effect, only for Ember to use a card that Minerva gave her to summon Il Mathman to her field and promptly finish Iggwiliv off. Ember even lampshades that Iggwiliv did one of the "classical dumb mistakes villains make".
- Land of Faerie: Called the Feywild in this continuity, it first appears in this chapter where the heroes visit it to gain advice from a powerful and immortal being who has a great amount of authority there.
- MacGuffin Title: The Power Primordial was first mentioned in the first fic, but naturally plays a larger role here. It is a energy source that was released in the Big Bang, the creation of the universe. Both the Primordial Titans and the Paragons hold small fragments of it within themselves, but someone who can control a large amount can build whole planets. Mastering it, which very few can do, gives you godlike power.
- Made of Iron: Ember once again. Taken to extreme levels towards the end of the fic where within the span of four consecutive duels, she survives various attacks such as being shot at, stabbed, burned, chilled, and lastly squashed by Ccapac Apu's fist.
- Mark of Shame: Taramanda gives Hebi-Na the Mark of the Disgraced, which reduces her status to little more than a slave. She removes it later though.
- The Men in Black: The Knights of Domiel, a secret organization that seems to be allied with Jalal in some way. They are known to be followers of a powerful celestial being named Domiel (possibly an archangel) and are dedicated to opposing assassins and other criminals who kill for profit. Due to a mysterious bargain that they made with Jalal, no hired gun ever manages to successfully target a Shadowchaser; a Knight of Domiel always gets to the assassin before he can try. (Jalal himself is not covered by this bargain for some reason, but all attempts on his life - and there have been many - have failed.) Only one member of this organization - Minerva - has been named.
- No Name Given:
- Minos, the judge that sentenced Jetta (and grants her probation) is also a member of a race that does not use names. "Minos" is what other beings call him.
- The Aboleth claims its name is unpronounceable by "lesser beings".
- Noodle Incident: Jalal mentions a battle in the past with a villain he refers to as "The Lord of the Nightmare Court", who was so powerful he had to resort to his enchanted assault rifle, something he uses as an absolute last resort. No further details of this villain or the battle were revealed.
- Obviously Evil: The Aboleth. You could probably tell just by looking at this creature that it isn't very pleasant. During the course of the story, it is discovered that it has murdered the entire populations of planets to achieve its incredibly selfish goals. As further proof of its absolute evil, it inflicts a horrible and supposedly irreversible curse on Hebi-Na for little reason other than to prove it can.
- Other Dimension: Taramanda uses a dark ritual to send Ember's soul to the Venemous Tarns, Seghulerak's home realm, hoping that the horrors there will force her to surrender to the dark goddess. Fortunately, Jetta manages to intervene, and is able to contact Ember's cousin and send him in spiritual form to give her the energy she needs to escape.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Lime Juice Louie, a lowlife drug dealer who works for Taramanda, stays on her good side by praising her. Though he seems like nothing more than a common crook, he actually helps the ophidia capture Ember due to a dirty trick on his part.
- Rage Against the Heavens: A justified example with Hebi-Na, who blames the ophidia goddess Seghulerak for her loss against Ember back in the original fic.
- Rescue Arc: This fic has two: The Neo Domino Shadowchasers rescuing Ember from the Venomous Tarns and Ember rescuing the Neo Domino Shadowchasers from the Paragons.
- Shout-Out: When Shichiro first meets Rary, he finds his resemblance to Sephiroth uncanny.
- Something Only They Would Say: When Taramanda duels Jalal in Shadowchaser HQ by using a golem, she calls him "wyrm-waste" at some point, which only confirms to Jalal that the ophidia are the ones responsible for the Dark Synchros as only their race would use that insult on him.
- Space Police: The Harmnonium, a group mentioned a lot throughout the fic that enforces the law in another galaxy, although only two members actually appear. According to the Primordial Titans and one of those two members, the organization is fraught with corruption, is not well-liked, and many members can be bought. The Titans agree to help them at the end of the fic only when a promise is made that sweeping reforms will be enacted.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Towards the end of the fic, Jalal and the Neo Domino Shadowchasers start feeling sympathy for Hebi-Na, after finding out how painful her life was, what the Aboleth had made her go through, and being being forced into an eternal sleep for her own safety. Jalal even gives her a full pardon for her crimes at the end of the fic.
- Take That!: The story treats the line "Get your game on!" with disdain.Shichiro (before his duel with Trueman starts): All right, Trueman, prepare to get your game on!Gears: Shichiro! We all agreed never to say that again...Shichiro: Uh... sorry...
- The dub opening of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds "Hyperdrive" is poked fun of at one point. Gears is listening to the song on the radio in the garage, when Jinx tells him to “Turn off that ridiculous song and come in.”
