Literature / Brave New World Universe

The Brave New World Universe is an ongoing series of Superhero stories set in the fictional Brave New World Universe. It has been running since March 2014 on tgstorytime.com^note TG Storytime is a site that specializes in transgender fiction, and as a result has many examples of Gender-Blending Tropes, many of which are used in a very NSFW way. The Brave New World Universe is an exception to this, and currently has nine stories. Hikaro (the original author), along with A_Kent, Orange_Laces, StephAD, Selena, Misaania, and TheWedge all participate as writers on the project. The stories, in order of publication on the site are: Brave New World by Hikaro, Tech Adventures by A_Kent, Shining Light by Orange_Laces, Mind Games by Hikaro, Swarm Rising by StephAD, Brewing Storm by Selena, Ride the Whirlwind by A_Kent, Shifting Tides by Misaania, and Old Friends by Hikaro, StephAD, and TheWedge. It has no relationship to Brave New World, and the entire series can be found at its series page.

The story is based upon the premise that there are a group of mysterious beings going around, Choosing people to gain superpowers. Every Chosen (as they are called in-universe) gains superpowers, and has their sex changed. Each story focuses on a small group of Chosen^note with the exception of the first, as it introduces maaany Chosen and follows almost all of them for at least a short while, and explores how they deal with their sex reassignment and newfound powers. It makes many references to mainstream heroes and villains^note the most notable of which being a character that, in-universe patterned themself off of The Joker, to the point that they ''actually call themselves The Joker’’.

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The Brave New World Universe contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Charlie, Brenda, Sate, Allie, etc, etc…. There are too many to list.
• Alternate Universe: Tim travels through many of them in the course of learning his many powers.
• Always Save the Girl: Tim is fighting the Benefactor to save the world, but mainly to save Charlie.
  • Sasha goes back into the big bad's base to rescue his girlfriend.
• Archetype: Charlie falls into many superhero tropes after becoming Arachnya.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: The Benefactor seems to have unlimited funds to do everything that he does.
• Badass Normal: in addition to being a huge Batman ripoff, probably the most notable of this is Knight.
  • Executioner^note Brewing Storm even though we don’t actually see a whole lot of him. In addition to being a member of HARP, he also has Improbable Aiming Skills.
  • General Leroy^note Also from Brewing Storm, who has his leg frozen off and still goes out to do battle with Allie.
• Big Bad:^note there are multiple examples of this, as each story takes place mostly in isolation from the others, and there are many loose sideplots running around... The Benefector. Arguably the Big Bad of the entire series, as it is revealed that he is behind HARP, and plans to kill off all of the Chosen and Rejected. His reasons for doing so are not explored until later in the series.
  • The Joker^note The Brave New World one. This is going to get really annoying….
  • Mindwurm in Tech Adventures.
    • This is spot is taken by his underling Joanna around the middle of the third part when she burns him alive, as he's recovering from near death after fighting Sasha.
• Bit Character: Cloak. He is used for almost nothing except to be The Benefactor's Mook. Is eventually killed off when he tries to double cross The Benefactor.
• Break the Cutie: Tim is captured by The Benefactor, given superpowers, and forced to toughen up.
  • Tech Adventures is basically one long break the cutie for Sasha,he's actually broken about three times.
  • Ride The Whirlwind has Ricki who was almost broken in Tech Adventures, and as of chapter 10 is definitely broken in her own series.
    • Al also originally from Tech Adventures, is apparently well on his way to being broken. Are we sensing a pattern here?
• Character Development: Basically everyone, as every Chosen and some Rejected has to reconcile their new sex with their old memories. Most characters in the series go through at least a little character development.
  • Charlie: forced to deal with the estrangement from her mother, and later, the death of her father. Changed a lot directly as a result of her kidnapping and torture by The Joker. She even makes Knight reconsider some of his philosophies when she talks to him about it.
  • Sasha: Going from an invalid to a Chosen that's relatively high on the power scale.
    • Later in the series, he is forced to deal with his many mental issues.
  • Ricki: Originally from Tech Adventures, started off as a tragic character entire family murdered before her eyes, and nearly killed twice in that story, and is now dealing with the trauma in her own series Ride The Whirlwind one nervous breakdown and counting after killing her mothers murderer. She's getting counseling now.
• Chekhov's Gun: Tim. After he’s given all of The Benefactor’s powers, we expect to see them used.
• The Chessmaster: The Joker. He successfully manipulates HARP into instigating much of the Pine Ridge Riots. They didn't find out until after. When he told them. For the joke.
• Child Soldiers: Since the Chosen are chosen to be soldiers in a war they don't understand, really any Chosen under 18 is a child soldier.
  • The mental toll on children forced to fight is shown in rather brutal clarity in Ride The Whirlwind, where two fifteen year olds Ricki and Al are used by a rebel/terrorist group to defend Chosen by any means necessary. So far one of them has had a mental breakdown and is borderline suicidal, the other one is into self-harm and severe depression.
  • This trope is avoided in Tech Adventures. Heal All which is trying to create a team of Chosen heroes, doesn't even ask anyone under 18 to join. And Joanna the Big Bad doesn't use them in her army, instead she kills any children who have lost their parents to her supersoldier program.
• Continuity Nod: All the time. Many characters reference things that have happened earlier in the series. This is one of the primary reasons for the progressively worsening Continuity Lockout.
  • In Swarm Rising, we pick up a fragment of a thought from someone expressing relief that someone wasn’t “as bad as Tech.” Even though Tech is halfway around the world from the events of Swarm Rising.
• Cool Sword: Allie^note Brewing Storm can make sword out of ice. Literally, a cool sword.
• Darker and Edgier: Tech Adventures is considerably darker and more horrific than any other story in the series by a long shot.^note A_Kent, the writer of Tech Adventures, is so well known for this that another writer challenged him to write a story that was happy. He almost couldn’t do it..
  • There are a couple arcs in Brave New World that fit this trope, specifically, the Across the River arc, although Word of God states that there will be more.
• Deadpan Snarker: Charlie^note practically a clone of Spider-Man fits this to a “T”.
  • Elliot from Shining Light also seems to be one.
• Evil Counterpart: The Rejected to the Chosen, with the Rejected almost always being evil, unstable, and more powerful forms of Chosen.
• Evil Old Folks: The Benefactor is almost literally older than time. As he looks like he’s in his fourties, he also falls into Really 700 Years Old.
• Fantastic Racism: HARP is extremely prejudiced against Powers. Though not without reason, as the rise of Chosen and Rejected eventually led to the annihilation of East City. However, they were prejudiced before this, so they definitely fall into this trope.
• Follow the Leader: The Brave New World Universe has been influenced by many different Superhero stories. It has also taken inspiration from^note ripped off everything from Manga to Video Games to traditional Literature.
  • Charlie is basically Spider-Man with boobs. The Joker is a direct lift of The Joker. It’s literally the exact same character. Knight is almost a direct lift of Batman, sans the Angst. Guardian is Superman sans many of his Story Breaker Powers…. There are so many examples that it’s almost a poorly disguised fan-fic.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sasha from Tech Adventures. Granted, if it had ended any other way, the fans (and a few of the other writers) would have thrown a fit.
• High-Voltage Death: Korra has electrical powers, and can use them to suck the bioelectricity out of people. Artistic License – Biology is in play here.
  • Elizabeth from Old Friends also has electricity powers, and uses them quite effectively to kill zombies in the introductory arc of the story.
• Homage: Literally everywhere. To the point that it’s almost a Fan Fiction.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: The Bit Character Cloak is planning to betray his boss, The Benefactor. He gets beaten to the punch.
• Inhumanly Beautiful Race: The Choosers and Rejectors who pick the Chosen and Rejected are described as being extremely beautiful. It is also obvious to everyone who sees one, that they aren’t human. This may have something to do with the fact that they float, but sometimes, they just look off.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: If an event wasn’t planned by The Benefactor, it usually factors into his plans anyway by damaging the Chosen’s public reputation, and turning the public against them.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Benefactor is the true man behind HARP. In Tech Adventures, The Joker supplied weapons and equipment to HARP.
• Master Swordsman: The Benefactor is confirmed through Word of God to be good with swords. Allie also wields her ice sword with great skill.
• Mind Rape: Happens frequently in Tech Adventures.
  • The first time is when a mercenary group uses a chemical cocktail on Sasha trying to capture him alive, driving him temporally insane. It ended poorly for them as it drove him into a rage and he slaughtered them.
  • Then Maria tried to enter The Jokers mind, and was driven completely insane, she developed a split personality to deal with it.
  • Mindwurm is a great believer in this, and does it twice to Sasha.
  • Finally Maria does a limited one on Joanna to buy everyone time as they try to escape.
• Mini-Mecha: Penelope Banter’s Titan armor, in addition to it’s uncanny resemblance to Iron Man’s Hulk Buster armor, is this.
• Mood Whiplash: The individual stories have very differing moods, with Tech Adventures being almost outrageously dark, and Shining Light being almost the exact opposite. Brave New World has a tendency to flip-flop^note generally depending on how prevalent a part Charlie plays in the arc
• Muggles Do It Better: This may be a world populated by a lot of superpowered individuals, but Knight holds his own in a fight as well as Guardian. Additionally, The Joker is possibly the evillest villain in the entire series, all without powers.
  • This is highlighted in Tech Adventures, where Sasha, one of the most powerful Chosen so far has to fight primarily ordinary humans they tend to use high grade explosives, tactics, ambushes and poisons to wear him down.
• My Greatest Failure: Knight holding himself responsible for Seeker’s fate in the Across the River arc.^note even though he really couldn’t have done anything to prevent it
  • Sasha feels this way for most of the third half of his story, he was kidnapped after saving some schoolgirls from an explosion, but believes they died. He basically gives up after that and only wants to be left alone.
• Nebulous Evil Organization: HARP. Nominally organized, it’s more of an evil cult than an organization, it has chapters all over the globe.
  • Also, the unnamed organization in Tech Adventures, as their repeated attempts to capture Tech are implied to be a part of their evil planConfirmed, when Joanna’s forces capture Tech, take his powers, copy them into their soldiers, and attempt to take over Africa with plans to take over the world in a few years.
• Necromancer: Moros from Old Friends. In addition to bringing super-zombies with him to break into a secret lab, he spread a zombie virus, raised a monster from the dead, healed a character by infusing them with life energy, and made explosive zombies to destroy all traces of his presence at the lab. ^note he did all of this in the same chapter, without really breaking a sweat. This makes him one of the most powerful characters in the series
• No Name Given: Many characters:
  • In Brave New World, Cloak, The Joker, The Cigarette Smoking Man (no, not that one) and The Benefactor
  • In Tech Adventures, Mindwurm, a moniker given to him by his subordinates.
  • In Swarm Rising, Smoke and Conjurer.
  • In Brewing Storm, Venus, Helios, and The Executioner
• Powered Armor: Shown in a Swarm Rising intermission that Abaddon Industries is building this. They are discussing design issues with the suit. Basically the only question at this point is whether it will get finished or not.
• Psychic Powers: Mindwurm invades the minds of many Chosen, changing them as he sees fit. It’s part of the reason that he’s so scary.
  • Also Maria from the same story. She can take control of regular humans using them and their memories as she see's fit. When she tries this on other Chosen, she enters physical representation of the persons mind Sasha's is a park, Joanna's is an auditorium with her at the center, another characters is an arcade she liked to play at, where she can do many of the same things Mindwurm can just more slowly and not nearly as powerful.
• Psychological Torment Zone: About half of Tech Adventures has some form of this. Pyschological horror plays a big part in the story, with five fights in various characters minds, and one of the biggest battles taking place in Sasha’s mind it leaves him lobotomized. When Maria enters the Jokers mind, she is put through this and goes temporally insane from torture until Sasha gets her to enter his mind and snaps her out of it. In the final battle Maria enters Joanna's mind and begins destroying her memories as Joanna watches to buy time for everyone else.
• Randomly Gifted: The Chosen and Rejected are picked seemingly at random.
• Red Shirt: A few Chosen in Tech Adventures were created solely to be killed off, sometimes in the same chapter.
• Research, Inc.: Heal-All, Abaddon Industries, Banter Industries, and Brand Industries.^note there is apparently a lot of industrious research going on
• Scrapbook Story: The entire Brave New World Universe, as everything happening in each story feeds into the plot.
  • Sometimes before certain stories even go up. For example, in-universe, Old Friends takes place about a month and a half after The Big Fight, but was posted before The Big Fight arc went up. However, this didn’t stop it from referencing stuff that happened in The Big Fight.
• Seers: One of Angel’s main powers is that she can see the future. This becomes a minor plot point when it is revealed that her future sight has gone on the fritz.
  • Eye See from Ride The Whirlwind can also see the most likely future, but it's only really accurate in the short term.
• Signature Device: Shining Light’s Brenda literally has one of these. Of course, hers is blue. However, in her case, it only serves to focus her powers, instead of being the source of them.
• Switching P.O.V.: All of the stories to some degree, but anything with Hikaro as a writer^note Brave New World, Mind Games, and Old Friends is particularly prone to it.
  • Brewing Storm actually averted this one for the most part, with very few switches.
• Tempting Fate: Lampshaded when Moros congratulates himself for how well his plan is going, then immediately kicks himself for having the thought. It doesn’t actually result in anything going wrong.
  • Done in Tech Adventures with Sasha and Parks after capturing a monster. They congratulate each other, and then the monster reveals a razor sharp tentacle, gutting Parks, and escapes.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted in Tech Adventures, where psychologists struggle to explain what happened to Maria after she was tortured for possibly years, at least as far as she's concerned, by the Joker. They don't do much for Sasha however.
  • Also averted in Ride The Whirlwind, where people are desperate to get Ricki help after she has a mental breakdown. Unfortunately her fear of doctors and the fact she is a runaway who could destroy a city makes this a little difficult.
  • Played straight in the rest of the universe, with fifteen year old Charlie being the star of the trope. She resorts to alcoholism at one point to deal with her troubles.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Largely avoided, it only really comes into play with Ride The Whirlwind where most characters are under 18. They live in a drop in center for teenagers, under the care of Jacky who is an adult, whether this is legal or not is not mentioned. Averted with the Home for Girls which is actually a home for teenage girls who have escaped from prostitution and is closely connected to at least one of the characters, who used to live there before becoming a boy.
• Tragic Hero: Sasha from Tech Adventures. The entire story is about how he gets into progressively worse and worse situations, with many of the other characters even lampshading how much his situation sucks. It gets to the point that he has a Heroic Sacrifice in the conclusion of the story. After he has nearly had one a few times before.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Happens in over half of the stories, with only Shining Light, Brewing Storm, and Ride the Whirlwind averting this.