The Trial of Juno is a series of Pokémon fanfics started in 2003 by Neo Emolga, finished in 2011. The story begins with The Dawn of Hope, followed by The Second Promise
. The third book, The Cry of Egatept, was also co-written by Rocket Meowth. The last entry in the series is Whispers of the Forgotten Angels. Each of the stories are split into 3 parts.
The plot starts with a young trainer named Randy Ferguson, who is constantly bullied by Jake Kossak and his friends. Things soon change as Randy gets friends of his own, and given a mysterious necklace of incredible power...
The initial parts of the story take on a fair share of focus shifts and setting changes (The only planned part of the entire series was the first part of the first book), although it settles on a more deliberate pace later on in the sequels. Throughout all of them, a Pikachu named Juno serves as the centerpiece of the story.
Various entries of the series garnered a number of fanfiction awards on Pokemon Elite 2000, Serebii, and Poke Community. It served as a major writing influence to its home community, as various other fics were written by authors inspired by the original concept or wrote Spin-Off of the fic, and several role-plays borrowed from the setting and events of the story.
This fan fiction provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Morpheus is initially played up to be important, but ends up not serving any significant role in Cry of Egatept.
- Abstract Apotheosis: Juno and Blazewing, after merging with the Twisted Shadow.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Rectifier was born out of technology having outpaced its creators.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The various characters met in Randy's fantasy world each represent a part of his psyche. Xov and Zaiaku in the later books also count.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the last chapter of Whispers of the Forgotten Angels, Juno tells the reader how he's written the book to share the trials and difficulties he's gone through thanks to his determination and refusal to give up hope.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Morpheus, who comes back from almost a whole book earlier to help Juno.
- Cosmic Ret Con: The end of Cries of Egatept has Juno erase the existence of Jake Kossak, himself, Blazewing, the Abyss, and multiple wars on multiple worlds in various parts of the fic's past.
- Crapsack World: Egatept is a world so far beyond saving that Arceus originally intended to destroy it.
- Darker and Edgier: The fic deals often with war, with modern-day weapons at that. Genocide and creative evil are also dealt with.
- Deus est Machina: The Rectifier.
- Deus ex Machina: Arceus bails Juno out of trouble on several occasions.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Juno's summoning ability near the end of the first book.
- Enemy Without: The Fallen represent the darkness (specifically their sin, or ability to sin) of a person's heart. Injuring a Fallen will cause the original to be hurt as well.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: In The Second Promise, everyone in Juno's nation, as well as the nation they had just allied themselves with, is wiped out overnight.
- Eyes Never Lie: "Anyone can look at Juno and see that he is special just by the stars in his eyes."
- Fate Worse than Death: The soul-puncturing guns in the Abyss can injure any immortal soul, causing eternal suffering to the wounded. Several characters throughout the story are also erased completely from existence and forgotten by everyone save for perhaps the witnesses of the event.
- Forced Transformation: Jake, Alex and David all undergo embarrassingly girly transformations during their time in Randy's world.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Genetic Destiny believe in this.
- The Heartless: The Fallen.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Undead Pokemon soldiers never stay downed until incinerated by the holy fire of a weapon blessed by angel's blood.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: The world created by Randy which Jake and his friends explore is a reflection of his psyche. Major emotions or character traits such as depression or mischeviousness are embodied as living entities that all have their own opinions of the three bullies.
- Kick the Dog: Skepter shoots his court jester just so Juno can replace him.
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: Juno faces the temptation to abandon his goals when he finds himself in the peace and beauty of Utopia. He ends up spending 12 years relaxing in his afterlife palace and flying around with his Seraphim Wings before Sinis snaps him out of his complacency.
- Living Dream: Juno, and Blazewing.
- No Ontological Inertia: After Kirosana is defeated, the battlefield immediately changes as though his influence has come undone. It is implied that the rest of the world requires effort to rebuild, though...
- Nominal Hero: Jake Kossak.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The alternate world created by Randy was very real to begin with, but even after it was broken its effects would have long-standing consequences for the rest of the fic.
- Reality Warper: Randy in the first part of Dawn of Hope, and Juno and Blazewing in the finale of both Cry of Egatept and Whispers of the Forgotten Angels.
- Sequel Escalation: Conflicts were initially solved with battles. Then, with wars. Celestial forces are involved later on.
- Serial Escalation: The final part of Whispers of the Forgotten Angels has Juno and his friends defeating their Fallen, opening a portal to the world of dreams, blowing up the bottom-most depth of the Abyss, blowing up the rest of the Abyss, and finally unifying the universe to destroy the concept of Sin itself.
- Something We Forgot: Morpheus gets a very brief mention that he's okay at the very end of Cry of Egatept.
- Stable Time Loop: One of these threatens when Juno travels back in time, realizing he has landed in a role he had witnessed in a past timeline.
- Teens Are Monsters: Jake, Alex, and David all torture Randy into desperation. Randy and his friends aren't all that better when the tables later turn, however.
- That Man Is Dead: In the City of Dis, Juno comes across the corpse of Jake Kossak, who haunts him as a past life. Juno rejects Jake as no longer being a part of him.
- Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: "The Scathing of the Shadow Phoenix"
- Tragic Monster: Kirosana, Hapaista, and likely many other high figures of the Abyss were ordinary Pokemon before being corrupted.
- Trapped in Another World: Randy's world and Kivistal are both locations where the main characters are whisked away to without their consent.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Randy and his friends have a good time humiliating Jake and his friends after using the power of the Quista necklace.
- World-Healing Wave: The Dawnbringer Star does this coupled with a large-scale Cosmic Ret Con.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Juno invokes this at various times when he tries and fails to avoid an impending Stable Time Loop.
- You Have Failed Me: Randy gets rid of Frank Meyers after losing a battle with Jake.
