Webcomic / Station Square

From left: Dahlia, Brin, Sven.

Station Square is a Shonen-esque action/fantasy webcomic by Eric Lide.

In a world populated by both humans and demons, Brin and Sven are two teenaged bounty hunters living in the titular city of Station Square. They have rent to pay, and no money to pay it with. They seek help from their old classmate Nem, who agrees to cover their rent if they can capture a man named Graves who's wanted for 12,000 bux. They set off, but soon find themselves contending with a rival bounty hunter by the name of Dahlia.

Has nothing to do with a city of the same name visited by a blue hedgehog.

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Tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Brin taps into a new level of power when the time comes to stop Graves and he's the only one left standing.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers connecting to the underground tunnels are empty pipes large enough for a group of people to walk through. It's not clear what kind of sewer they actually are (e.g. sanitary or storm drain).
• Accidental Misnaming: Dahlia addresses Brin incorrectly multiple times, evidently not caring enough to get his name right. It reaches a point where it's obviously on purpose.
• Action Bomb:
  • One of Mad the Swine's techniques turns his arm into a bomb.
  • Rad the Swine detonates himself to try and take out Arlen.
• Airplane Arms: Graves does the "swept back arms" variant while charging forward on this page.
• Alliterative Name: Grinder Grzlbowski, Ridley Reinhart, Mallory Madsen, and Beryl Berkley.
• Amplifier Artifact: The chi amplifier that Graves steals.
• And Here He Comes Now: Sven reunites with Dahlia and wonders about the whereabouts of Brin, who immediately bursts onto the scene.
  Sven: Where's Brin?
  [Cue Brin, screaming and pursued by a grocko]
• Animal Eyes: Dahlia's pupils sometimes become slits, like a cat's.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Kiara Madsen is a demon with the appearance of a nine-tailed fox.
• Battle Aura: Brin and Graves create chi auras during their battle; this supposedly takes years to learn.
• Beast Man: Many demons look like anthropomorphic animals.
• BFS: Ridley's sword is nearly as long as he is, and maybe a foot wide.
• Blood from the Mouth: Happens to multiple characters when they get hit hard.
• Bond One-Liner: After Sven kills an attacking grocko:
  Sven: See ya later…
  Brin: …alligator!!
• Boss Subtitles: A few characters get names and descriptions when they first show up.
• Bounty Hunter: Many of the characters we meet are bounty hunters, including the Meat-Hook Gang. Bounties are issued by the World Order.
• Boxing Battler: Dillinger is described as a boxer, and her fighting style mainly focuses on punching.
• Chekhov's Skill: In his first encounter with Dahlia, Brin is able to overcome the paralyzing effects of her Wave Cannon. Come their battle with Graves, Dahlia exploits this to use it as a Brin-launcher.
• Clean Cut: Nem slices Mad the Swine into neat pieces.
• Close-Range Combatant: Brin and Sven describe themselves as such. Brin fights with his fists, and Sven with his sword.
• Clothing Damage: Graves powering up shreds the clothing on his upper body. Brin and Sven discard their shirts when they get torn up, and Dahlia ends up losing her outer shirt and sleeves. Hilariously deconstructed later when they're in need of replacement clothes and end up getting some tacky gift shop t-shirts.
• Combat Commentator: The fight between Arlen and Rad the Swine is watched over by Kiara, Davos, Shao, and Mallory, who comment on Arlen's moves and provide exposition on the Swine family.
• Combat Tentacles: The hoses on the chi amplifier become this when it merges with Graves.
• Cyclops: Davos is a cyclops demon.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Dahlia's past is hinted at in flashback, and Graves states that he saw his parents killed when he was five.
• Designated Girl Fight: Played with. When Brin, Sven, and Dahlia are going after Graves, Dillinger and Ridley, they initially plan for Dahlia (female) to fight Graves (male), Brin (male) to fight Dillinger (female), and Sven to fight Ridley (both male). However their plans are thrown awry, and instead Dahlia ends up fighting Dillinger alone.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Sven's "Phantom Waltz" technique produces illusory clones of himself. He's first seen using them to circle around Ridley.
• Drunken Song: Arlen sings and dances on a tabletop after she gets drunk at Hatchet Man's.
• Emotional Bruiser:
  • Grinder is a hulking, ogre-like demon who cries freely while vowing to avenge his beaten-up comrades.
  • Belda Xadrite, the captain of the Bear Brigade, is a beefy woman who sweeps her subordinates into suffocating hugs while crying about how they need to build muscle.
• Episode Zero: The Beginning: The prologue chapter is Episode 0.
• Eyes Never Lie: According to Dillinger, Dahlia and Graves both have the eyes of someone who knows how messed up the world is.
  Dillinger: I knew the moment I saw you… You have the same eyes as Graves… You have the look of someone who fully understands how messed up this world is…
• Family of Choice: Hatchet Man, who is distant from his family, was a Parental Substitute to Nem after she ran away from her birth family.
  Child Nem: So if you left your family… and if I left my family… we can be a new family?
  Hatchet Man: Of course we can! If you ever listen to anything I say make it this: You can choose your family. You may not be able to choose the one yer born into. But that doesn't mean you gotta love 'em. There's more to family than the blood you share. Stick with me kiddo, and I'll protect you.
• Family Theme Naming: The Swine family have rhyming names: Mad, Vlad, and Rad the Swine. The patriarch of the family is Dad the Swine.
• Fastball Special: How they finish off Graves; Dahlia uses her Double Palm Wave Cannon to propel Brin at him to get in a powerful blow before he can react.
• Fictional Currency: The currency is called bux, or BX.
• Flash Step: The faster characters can disappear and reappear elsewhere in a burst of speed.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Clairvoyants can sense the location, quality, and quantity of other chi sources. Ridley is a clairvoyant, and Arlen seems to be one as well.
• Frog Men: Bubbles Coulson of the V-Men is a frog-based demon.
• Ground Punch: Brin uses a Lupine Fist on the ground to throw up a cloud of dirt and rubble.
• Hammered into the Ground: Brin takes too long boasting to Mad the Swine, who cuts him off by slamming a fist onto him, burying him up to his chin.
• Handwraps of Awesome: Dillinger has bandages wrapped around her hands. Removing them allows her to hit harder.
• Headbutting Heroes: Brin and Dahlia are not fond of each other and constantly come into conflict.
• Healing Factor: Demons can regenerate from injury; they can even regrow missing limbs, given time.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: Brin manages to land a blow on Graves, who asks how he knew what direction he was coming from; Brin says he guessed.
• Human-Demon Hybrid: Dahlia is half-demon, born of a demon mother and a human father.
• Involuntary Group Split: A cave-in separates Sven from his companions, and Ridley from his.
• Kamehame Hadoken: The "Double Palm Wave Cannon" technique.
• Ki Manipulation: Almost all fighting relies on this.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Dahlia reacts with an "ugh" at Brin and Sven's alligator joke.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Brin insists on charging Graves head-on instead of waiting for the others.
• Lightning Bruiser: Dillinger is not only one of the fastest characters, she is one of the hardest hitters.
• Little Bit Beastly: Dahlia looks human aside from her pointy ears and tail.
• Magic Enhancement: The "Emperor's Aura" technique makes the user stronger and faster by tapping into their chi reserves. Sven also strengthens his sword by channeling his chi through it while fighting Ridley.
• Magic Missile Storm: Ridley's "Feeding Frenzy" unleashes a swarm of homing energy sharks.
• Malicious Misnaming: Dahlia calls Brin "Bob" to get his goat.
• The Man Behind the Man: The one actually behind Graves' plan is a mysterious cloaked person.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Grinder's Devil's Crush technique makes him grow two extra pairs of arms.
• Nervous Wreck: Dalton of the Princessguard tends to work himself up worrying about things.
• Ninja: Nem is a ninja and a member of a ninja guild.
• Ninja Log: A technique used by Nem. Things she's left in her place include: a log with a picture tacked to it of her Flipping the Bird, and a doll of herself with a "try again!" note on it.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Graves notes that Brin reminds him of himself when he was younger and more hopeful.
• One-Winged Angel: Graves achieves a more powerful form by activating the chi amplifier, which merges with him and changes the right side of his body.
• One World Order: The World Order is said to govern the six nations, as well as all actions in the world.
• Orwellian Retcon: With the site being revamped, many early pages were redrawn. In the new pages, the name of Nem's guild was changed from the Lower East Side Shinobi Guild to the Crimson Dragon Shinobi Guild.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons come in a huge variety of forms. Anthropomorphic animals are common, as are other Monstrous Humanoids.
• The Paralyzer: Double Palm Wave Cannon has a paralyzing effect.
• Parental Substitute: While in the present their relationship is strained, in the past, Hatchet Man was a surrogate father to Nem after she ran away from her birth family.
  Child Nem: But we can't go together, cuz you're not my dad.
  Hatchet Man: And yet—who's the one who's been raisin' ya?
• Patricide: Nem mentions having killed her father.
• Pig Man: The Swine family are pig demons, as is the bounty hunter Shao.
• The Place: The comic is named after its main setting.
• Playing with Fire: Rad the Swine uses fire-based attacks.
• Pointy Ears: One of the indicators of Dahlia's non-human heritage.
• Praetorian Guard: The Royal Guard is very powerful; Graves and co. are apprehensive about them turning up. The soldiers of the World Order are even stronger.
• Prehensile Tail: Dahlia can wrap her tail around someone's face to shut them up.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Sven to Ridley, just before stabbing him: "See ya."
• Punched Across the Room: Dahlia, when Dillinger gets the drop on her.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Brin launches a flurry of punches at Graves, but he blocks them all. Later he does it successfully, but it still isn't enough to keep him down.
• Rat Men: Mallory Madsen is a rodent-based demon, as is Jack Hardison of the V-Men.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Grinder is seen taking a bubble bath, complete with candles and rubber duck.
• Repetitive Name: One of the Princessguard knights is named Riley O'Reilly.
• Rugged Scar: Evan Heldrick, a Royal Guard captain, is a rough-looking guy with three scars across his face resembling claw marks.
• The Runaway: Nem ran away from her abusive family as a young kid.
• Scary Stitches: The cloaked man has stitches going across his face.
• Sewer Gator: An alligator-like creature called a "grocko" is encountered in an underground tunnel, made abnormally large by exposure to chemical waste.
• Shaping Your Attacks: Ridley's Spineshark technique unleashes a massive energy blast in the shape of a shark.
• Shock and Awe: Graves uses lightning-based attacks.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: The three main characters are 16/17, but Graves and his buddies, who are adults, are all taller than them.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Dahlia counters Graves' claim that she doesn't know suffering and tells him to spare them the lectures.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Sven's "Swordless Sword" technique creates an energy sword in his hand.
• Street Urchin: Graves and his buddies lived on the streets in their childhoods.
• Subspace or Hyperspace: Nem's Ninja Log technique works by travel through subspace.
• Summon to Hand: Graves makes the chi amplifier fly to his hand from a distance.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Dahlia is implied to have one from her demon side, which she has trouble suppressing when low on chi.
• Super-Senses: Dahlia has above-human-level senses of hearing and smell.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Notably at the climax of the fight with Graves. The characters can exchange lines while moving toward each other without getting closer, and during an attack that's too quick to dodge.
• Teleportation: The mysterious cloaked man uses teleportation to appear before Graves.
• Teleportation Sickness: Arlen throws up after traveling through subspace with Nem.
• Title Drop: Graves shouts Episode 21's title at the end, and Brin does this for Episode 27.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: As Ridley is defeated, he flashbacks to his childhood living in the slums with Graves and Dillinger, and how Graves' idealistic hopes were shattered, setting them on their present day path.
• Tunnel Network: One is under the city and is reached through the sewers.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ridley and Dillinger agreed to follow Graves' plan, but they didn't know that he was taking orders from someone else.
• Urban Segregation: The city is divided into sectors by class.
• Visionary Villain: Graves seeks to abolish class inequality by tearing down those in power and inspiring people to rise up against the government.
• Wake Up Fighting: Hatchet Man responds to Nem waking him up by throwing a hatchet at her head. Apparently the war did a number on his nerves.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Graves intends to help eliminate poverty by destroying the core of the city, where the rich live, which would kill many innocent people.
• The Worf Effect: Dillinger's threat level is established when she catches Dahlia off guard with her speed and sends her flying across the room.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Some characters have what, to us, would be unnatural hair colors, such as green, pink, and purple. Notably, Dahlia's green hair is not pointed out as one of the things that mark her as inhuman.
• World Tree: An enormous tree that appeared one day in the middle of the sea, thought to be a message from the gods. It serves as HQ for the World Order.
• Wrecked Weapon: Ridley's sword gets broken while fighting Graves.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Brin is scared of the dark.

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