So, Team Fortress 2 players, you know that map, Nucleus? The one with the spinning, glowing machine in the center of the map?
You ever wonder what it does?
Well, one fan came up with a theory, and thus we have The Nucleus Incident, a fanfic that explores what happens when the RED team is exposed to a blinding light the machine gives off one day. Each team member wakes up some time later to find out they've acquired strange superpowers. Eventually, they not only learn to use their abilities in battle, but also that their powers are actually evolving. And, what's more, the BLU team's gotten superpowers of their own...
A rather popular fic that's inspired Fan Work of its own. Although the author previously disowned the entire story, Word of God recently stated that it was undergoing extensive re-writes
, and the revised version can be found here. The livejournal the fic was on has been purged, however, every chapter of the fic pre-rewrite can be viewed here, albeit with formatting errors.
- Animorphism: Pyro, to such an extent that they're not able to transform back into whatever filled up that suit. While initially uncontrollable until settling upon ape-like appearances, they can later utilize this more tactically.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Sniper's backstory- He doesn't look like a typical Australian, leading to him being mocked and ridiculed as a child, and his father has always looked down on him in disappointment..
- Applied Phlebotinum: Australium, even more so here than in the source material.
- Ascended Fanboy: Scout's a big comic book reader, and while he does freak out about his powers as much as the rest of the team, he still gets pretty excited about them especially when he learns how to fly.
- The Cassandra: Demoman's the first one to notice The BLU Spy's influence, but seeing as he's been turned into a kid, no one believes him.
- Chrome Champion: BLU Heavy
- Dead Fic: Once, but not anymore.
- Disney Death: Engineer
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The RED team all have very vivid and symbolic dreams pertaining to which power they'll eventually develop before they wake up to discover their new abilities.
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Fan Nickname: Enjawneer for Engineer. Spycho for BLU Spy - Fertile Feet: Sniper, sort of. His emotional state determines what plants grow around him, and these can range from flowers and edible fruit to thorn bushes and poisonous berries.
- Fish People: Engineer, although he is able to switch back and forth later.
- Flight: Scout, once he figures out how to get out of his own anti-gravity.
- Forced Transformation: Engineer, who turns into a half-man, half-fish thing. He's later able to change between forms
- Fountain of Youth: Demoman
- Gravity Master: Scout, sort of. He can only control his own gravity, and it takes him a while to really master it.
- Green Thumb: Sniper. At first, he woke up with his entire room turned into a forest. It extends to stuff he touches, making wooden bows useless as they're immediately overgrown. However, he gets better, ever since finding out that the powers react on their subconscious.
- Heroic BSoD: Soldier when Engineer has his respawning mishap
- Medic, Sniper and Spy all get one, too after their respective run-ins with the BLU Spy.
- Heroic RRoD: Their powers do have limits, as shown when Scout passes out from his first flight, and Sniper almost does so as well after creating an enormous tree alone in the desert outside Teufort.
- I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: This is implied to be what's going on with the BLU Engineer, who rips his own machines apart to feed off of their electricity.
- I'm a Humanitarian: During an encounter with the BLU Spy in Teufort's sewers, Engineer discovers his mutation's given him a shark-like attraction to blood and an affinity for raw meat. Naturally, he's horrified. He finally gives in to his urges when he kills the BLU Engineer at Well.
- Instant Expert: Cruelly subverted. Everyone needs time to adjust to their new powers, sometimes to How Do I Shot Web? extent.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Everyone wants their powers reversed at first. Slowly, however, many of them (particularly Sniper) grow used to their abilities.
- Intangible Man: BLU Medic
- Light 'em Up: Spy. Actually, his is a rather creative use of this trope, as it's shown that controlling light means he can bend it around himself to achieve invisibility, AND he has control over color as well. Now, consider how this would help a character whose job is basically dependent on being able to disguise himself...
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: The titular incident.
- Mind Rape: BLU Spy's power is basically this
- Mundane Utility: Discussed on the ask blog here. In another ask, it is revealed that instant fruit salads also belong to Sniper's toolset.
- Omniglot: Soldier. And yes, he eventually Speaks Fluent Animal as well.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: BLU Sniper seems to be a were-thylacine.
- Playing with Fire: BLU Pyro
- Precision F-Strike: How do you show the RED team's really on edge? Have the Engineer, of all people, drop the F bomb!
- Psychic Link: Spy and Sniper, thanks to BLU Spy screwing around with their brains
- Rubber Man: Medic.
- Shock and Awe: BLU Engineer
- Shout-Out: Scout, while commenting that Spy would make the worst superhero or supervillain ever, compares himself to Spider-Man and Sniper to Poison Ivy
- Also, a big Russian man with the ability to turn himself into metal? Now, where have we seen that before?
- Sizeshifter: Heavy, as well as any other person he makes skin-on-skin contact with while using this ability.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Soldier. Demoman even references the former Trope Namer when he finds this out.
- Super-Speed: BLU Scout. As if the class wasn't ridiculously fast enough...
- Wall Crawl: Scout, due to his gravity being reversed.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: While his teammates' powers are quickly evolving, the only change Demoman's gone through since the titular incident is that he's a kid, and he gets pretty frustrated about not having any special abilities.
- Would Hurt a Child: BLU Spy. Granted, Demoman's an adult turned into a child, but the effect remains the same. (at least, from the RED Spy's point of view)
