Save the Day is a novel by D.J. Fahl. Set in a world like ours, except for the presence of superheroes (and the fact that everyone is an anthropomorphic animal). It tells the story of Ted Rodriguez (a coyote) and Jay Carson (a border collie), a gay couple living in Portland, Oregon. One day, after Ted misses one date too many, Jay forces him to reveal his secret: for three years now, Ted has been the secret identity behind Star Coyote, Portland's resident superhero and a member of the respected team, the Extraordinaries.
The rest of the novel focuses on three storylines: Jay's introduction to Ted's world of superheroics, Ted's usual superheroic acts, and Ted's struggle to hide his sexual orientation from as much of the team as possible.
Save the Day provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: The being known as MishMash absorbs genetic information - and accessorily, superpowers - from whoever he touches.
- Enemy Mine: After Power Puma attacks Portland and threatens to raze it for publicly supporting a gay superhero, several gay, trans, and bi minor villains side with the heroes against him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Several villains almost turn on Power Puma after he reveals that he crippled one of their own for refusing to join his attack on Portland.
- French Jerk: Etenoir, the super-strong and nigh indestructible goat.
- Gayngst: The source of all of Ted's problems... His parents disowned him when he came out, pretty much convincing him to never come out to anyone important to him again, including his own teammates.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Power Puma.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: The novel begins with a barely averted type 1A and eventually turns into type 2.
- Poor Communication Kills: Camo blasts Ted for being imprudent with the identity of his lover. Some unfortunate wording and Ted's gayngst combine to make Ted believe for a while that Camo resents him for being gay. The team's cohesion suffers until the misunderstanding is cleared up much later.
- Rogues Gallery: Each hero usually has a list of criminals and villains they regularly end up facing.
- Secret Identity: Each hero has their own that they'll only reveal to those they trust the most.
- Stock Superhero Day Jobs
- Police: Solarcoon/Bill Jefferson
- Attorney: Force Vixen/Emma Smith (okay, so she's a legal assistant, she found that the job of an attorney wasn't flexible enough to allow superheroics on the side).
- Scientist: Star Coyote/Ted Rodriguez is a meteorologist. Stratagem/Samuel Bernadette works at MIT.
- Something Animal: Solarcoon, Star Coyote, Force Vixen, Lady Leopard, Titan Tomcat, Metalyena, Power Puma, Atomic Lion, and the list goes on.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Even pre-Mind Rape, MishMash was known to be psychologically unstable.
