History Fanfic / OriginStory

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: After a diplomatic incident involving the illegal arrest of a French ambassador, President UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush specifically points out that while they might joke about how the French are weak sisters, everyone knows that the ''truth'' is that a war between France and the United States would most likely end up in a PyrrhicVictory for the US. He also notes that French martial prowess is so respected and worthy of note that many of the words in the English language used to refer to military affairs and combat are borrowed from French.

* UnfortunateNames: According to Agent Dunne, any registered superhuman who can't come up with a superhero codename are assigned one by the MMA. Dunne advised Alex to picking her own codename as the MMA will sometimes come up with utterly embarrassing or only technically appropriate names, such as "Backhoe" (a married housewife in her forties who can control dirt and earth telekinetically) and "Mister Rainbow" (a decorated war hero who served in the Vietnam War who can change the color of his skin to the seven visible spectrum colors).

* BadToTheLastDrop: Alex thinks of herself as a "definitive coffee snob" who usually enjoys a special Indonesian coffee blend that costs $35 a pound. In Chapter 30, she is drinking a cup of coffee she bought at a New York City deli while [[TheStakeout staking out]] a badguy's job. She specifically remarks to herself that she knows the coffee is Colombian because "it tastes like the oily mud the beans were grown in." This makes her NotSoDifferent from Tony, who also considers himself a coffee snob and even has similar tastes, preferring the Indonesian blend and despising the Colombian one.

* ShutUpKirk: Rare hero to hero example in ''FanFic/OriginStory''. [[TheParagon Captain America]] takes Alex to task over her willingness to indulge in lethal violence, [[ThouShaltNotKill stating the Avengers don't do that]]. Alex [[NotSoDifferent throws back that he and the other Avengers have also acted ruthlessly in the past]], and that for all her questionable decisions, she could have done a lot worse.

In early November, 2014, the writer was involved in a near-fatal accident in which he suffered grave injuries that required extensive surgery and physical therapy. While he has somewhat recovered from his injuries, Worldmaker remains partially paralyzed, has lost the use of one of his hands entirely, and can no longer walk or speak clearly. He has thus warned the fans of this story that while he is continuing to work on it, doing so is "slow going" (his exact words) and that it might be a month or two between updates. Since this announcement he has managed to add several chapters and promises that the story will be finished eventually but that it will be ''extremely'' slog going.

* RealityEnsues: Squirrel Girl boasts to Superwoman thats she's utterly unbeatable and has beaten Dr. Doom in the past. Alex is able to beat her with almost less than minimal effort. Figuring out rather quickly that Squirrel Girl is a joke character who might be 'unbeatable' but only in a humour story rather than a serious one like what they're in.

** Alex's meeting with ComicBook/SquirrelGirl ends with Alex giving Doreen a one-handed NeckLift and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech telling her that she's a worthless character]] to her (suffocating) face, insulting her creator Jim Shooter, even calling her legendary victory over Doctor Doom "[[WorfHadTheFlu Wow... Doom must have been having an off day]]". [[BreakTheCutie Overall, it's as brutal as it sounds]]. Doreen ''[[MuggingTheMonster did]]'' tried to fight Alex, though...

* {{Troll}}: After a homophobic man at the diner they're eating in tells Alex and Louise that God says they're sinner, Alex keeps asking him to specify which God, pointing out that there are a massive number of Gods, at least a dozen religions claiming to have a "one true God", and five different versions of the Bible.

He is fulfilling his promise, and is also not lying about new chapters coming out slowly. Chapter 31 came out on October 9th 2019, nearly two years after the release of Chapter 30 while Chapter 32 was released on April 23rd 2021.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech:
** It is Alex's acceptance of the fact that she's not merely a copy of ComicBook/PowerGirl, not merely the memories of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris]], but a person in her own right made from many, many parts that allows her to stop running and be the hero she was always meant to be.
** The speech she gives Captain America in Chapter 30, during which she openly admits that if she wanted to, she could make the world a better place by killing all the people who make the world a not-so-better place, is a pretty good example as well. She correctly points out that, were she of a mind to, she could "round up all those bigots and drop them in a volcano. I could do it in an hour. It would be that easy!" and follows up by pointing out that she '''''hasn't''''' done it because it was wrong, and because she couldn't face Louise after doing so.

** Alex's meeting with ComicBook/SquirrelGirl ends with Alex giving Doreen a one-handed ThroatLift and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech telling her that she's a worthless character]] to her (suffocating) face, insulting her creator Jim Shooter, even calling her legendary victory over Doctor Doom "[[WorfHadTheFlu Wow... Doom must have been having an off day]]". [[BreakTheCutie Overall, it's as brutal as it sounds]]. Doreen ''[[MuggingTheMonster did]]'' tried to fight Alex, though...

* UnderstandingGirlfriend: Gender inverted. When Louise finds out about Alex's super-human strength, her only reaction is "Oh, you must be a mutant, like I am!"

* WrongGenreSavvy: Squirrel girl 'is' known as unbeatable, however, she 'only' unbeatable in more comedy-focused stories. When she tries to go against Superwoman in a serious fight, Alex can't help but laugh. Identifying her almost immediately as a joke character and taking the 'unbeatable' squirrel girl out with almost insulting ease.

He is fulfilling his promise, and is also not lying about new chapters coming out slowly. Chapter 31 came out on October 9th 2019, nearly two years after the release of Chapter 30 while Chapter 31 was released on April 23rd 2021.

He is fulfilling his promise, and is also not lying about new chapters coming out slowly. Chapter 31 came out on October 9th 2019, nearly two years after the release of Chapter 30.

* SuperweaponSurprise: The Avengers are tasked by SHIELD to arrest a girl who escaped from their custody. SHIELD had previously tested the girl's power level, and put her somewhere on the scale between Beast and Franchise/SpiderMan. Well, surprise, surprise, turns out she was a [[{{Superman}} Kryptonian]] who figured out that maybe hiding just how powerful she really was might be a smart idea. Cue [[IronMan Tony Stark]] getting the [[CurbStompBattle ass-whipping]] of his life.

** Alex's meeting with ComicBook/SquirrelGirl ends with Alex giving Doreen a one-handed ThroatLift and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech telling her that she's a worthless character]] to her (suffocating) face, insulting her creator Jim Shooter, even calling her legendary victory over Doctor Doom "[[WorfHadTheFlu Wow... Doom must have been having an off day]]". [[BreakTheCutie Overall, it's as brutal as it sounds]].Doreen ''[[MuggingTheMonster did}}'' tried to fight Alex, though...

** Alex's meeting with ComicBook/SquirrelGirl ends with Alex giving Doreen a one-handed ThroatLift and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech telling her that she's a worthless character]] to her (suffocating) face. [[BreakTheCutie It's as brutal as it sounds]].

In the aftermath of the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Halloween”, Xander Harris finds himself trapped not only in the body of ComicBook/PowerGirl, but in the Marvel Universe as well during a time in which being an unregistered metahuman is a bad, bad thing. Naturally, given Xander's problems with authority, HilarityEnsues as SHIELD and ComicBook/TheAvengers try and bring him to heel. At least, that's what ever
yone thinks is going on. The truth is a lot more complicated, not only for Xander, but for the friends he makes, the enemies he provokes, and for the Marvel Universe as a whole. Calling himself “Alex Harris”, he strives to find a safe harbor for both himself and the woman he comes to love.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Alex "Superwoman" Harris swiftly proves herself to be this for basically every hero and villain in the MarvelUniverse. It is remarked several times that its going to take power on the level of the Silver Surfer or Doctor Strange to take her out, and neither of those two individuals are interested in the job.

* AmazonianBeauty: It is remarked on that Alex is 6' 2” tall and is muscled like a bodybuilder. Louise, her girlfriend, is just above average height for an American woman, but is nevertheless still seen as “tiny” when standing next to Alex.
** According to the writer, Alex is physically modeled on actress/professional bodybuilder Raye Hollitt -- specifically Hollitt as she was in the early 1980s when she was "Zap" of Series/AmericanGladiators'' fame.

* AntiVillain: In the early chapters, Tony Stark can be seen as something like this. He's definitely an antagonist both in his pursuit of Alex and his support for the Registration Act, other characters speculate that he's doing everything mainly for the power rush, and he's definitely a bit of an authoritarian jerk. However, at several points we're given glimpses into his thought processes that both explain why he genuinely believes the Act is for the best and that indicate that he sincerely regrets the necessity of having to pursue a terrified and confused teenage girl just because she has superpowers. [[spoiler: He also begins to have sufficient doubts that what he's doing is for the best to eventually prompt a HeelRealization and gradual HeelFaceTurn.]]

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Lampshaded when Alex points out that her treatment is drastically unconstitutional because its illegal to criminalize the fact that someone exists (or as Alex puts it, “Making it illegal to be a superhuman is like making it illegal to be red-headed; its not something people can help”). She also points out how wrong throwing people in jail without due process is. Despite this, the U.S. government is doing these things anyway.

* BadassBoast: Alex has a little "discussion" with Tony Stark on the SHIELD Helicarrier about her problems with how he's enforcing the Metahuman Registration Act:
-->'''Alex Harris:''' “I am unilaterally declaring Florida a free state. I am defending the Constitution, something you swore an oath to do when you took government office, I might point out.”
-->'''Tony Stark:''' “But you can't...”
-->'''Harris:''' “Oh can't I? What are you going to do, send in the army to catch one person?” (grabs Stark by the lapels and lifts him into the air) "Here's what's about to happen. I'm going to leave. When I've left, you're going to turn this crate around, or so help me God, I will knock it out of the sky and into space. If I need your help, I'll ask for it. Until then, stay in New York!”

-->'''Alex Harris:''' "Marvel, I don't want to fight you. And the last thing you want to do is get into a fight with me. Seriously, you do not want to be on my bad side. If I wanted, I could carve you into pieces like a pig gone to slaughter just by looking at you. I can shatter all your bones merely with the sound of my voice. I can boil your blood, or freeze you in place. And even here, surrounded by our teammates - ''OUR'' teammates, Carol, not just yours, since Tony invited me into this little club - I could do these things to you before anyone else here could even attempt to stop me."

* BadToTheLastDrop: Alex thinks of herself as a "definitive coffee snob" who usually enjoys a special Indonesian coffee blend that costs $35 a pound. In Chapter 30, she is drinking a cup of coffee she bought at a New York City deli while [[TheStakeout staking out]] a badguy's job. She specifically remarks to herself that she knows the coffee is Colombian because "it tastes like the oily mud the beans were grown in."
** This makes her NotSoDifferent from Tony, who also considers himself a coffee snob and even has similar tastes, preferring the Indonesian blend and despising the Colombian one.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled : The assassin that Hydra sends after John Leslie, once realizing he's up against Alex, realizes he has no chance against her so he tries to shoot himself; becomes an AvertedTrope because, before he can pull the trigger, Alex has already used her SuperSpeed to remove the top half of the gun.

* TheBigDamnKiss: When Alex manages to return from Buffyworld and tracks Louise to Wakanda, where the latter is hiding, they reuinite with a magnificently described kiss:

-->“What are you doing here, then?” Alex huffed. The man was a pain in the ass.
-->“Nothing much. This is just a pointless cameo! It’s all the rage in comic books! Alexi Vandeberg, one of the writer’s best friends in the world, bet the writer fifty bucks that there was no way in hell that he – the writer, I mean – would just drop me into the story at random, in the same way that all those comics back in the 90s would include Wolverine just to say he was in their title once.” Deadpool shrugged. “Back when they were doing it with Wolverine, it was basically just a cheap grab for better sales, but it worked. TV Tropes even has a name for it: ‘Wolverine Publicity.’ Pretty neato, right? Of course, it sort of breaks the flow of the story, but fifty buck is fifty bucks, right?”

* BrokenBird: Alex, as revealed by her conversation with Doc Samson.
** Louise also. The pair of them help each other heal.
* CallBack : When confronting Marvin, Louise's pimp, Alex snatches his gun from his hand (Marvin losing his index in the process); much later, in Chapter 30, Alex stops a Hydra assassin from [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled shooting himself]] by quickly snatching the top half of the gun, Alex casually mentioning the incident with Marvin after doing it, making emphasis on the severed finger's detail.

* CatchAndReturn: When Marvin, Louise's pimp, shoots Alex in the mouth from point blank range, Alex spits the bullet out (mentally commenting that the taste of cordite and gunsmoke is "the most disgusting thing she ever tasted") and hands it back to Marvin. [[OhCrap This has the appropriate psychological effect on Marvin]].

-->'''Alex (as Superwoman):''' “You people call yourselves heroes, but all you're doing is running around fighting each other! When was the last time you fed the hungry? When was the last time you helped irrigate a desert? When was the last time you were there for someone who just needed a friend? That's what being a hero is all about. You're all like children, throwing temper tantrums.”

* ClarkKenting: Toward the end of the story, Alex starts wearing a pair of glasses and a dark colored wig, but mostly relies on the fact that people are too busy staring at her CleavageWindow to notice her face when she's in costume to keep her SecretIdentity.

* {{Crossover}}: Of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'', and set in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse.

* CurbStompBattle: Pretty much every time Alex gets into a fight, its a CurbStompBattle simply because she's a Kryptonian and the MarvelUniverse doesn't have much in the way of people able to handle a Kryptonian outside of Galactus and his Heralds. Even Sentry, Ares, and Ragnarok get their asses handed to them on a plate.

* DistractedByTheSexy: She has Power Girl's body, what else would happen? While she expects and uses this to her advantage, she can still get annoyed by it.
** Tony acknowledges that he has a tendency towards this, and is ashamed to admit that it 'does' interfere with his professionalism. He does try to not be distracted by Alex when he realizes he has been ogling a 17 year old girl.

* EarWorm: Alex is trying to concentrate during a strategy meeting with ComicBook/TheAvengers and she finds herself half-humming, half-singing a MajorGeneralSong that starts with the line , “I am the very model of a busty superheroine..." She'd seen it on Website/YouTube and now couldn't get the song out of her head. When the Black Widow asks her if something's wrong, Alex tries to explain, badly. She specifically calls it an EarWorm, and can't figure out whether she is more annoyed by the fact that she can't get it out of her head, or that the damned thing exists in the first place, and was written about Alex herself.

* EpicFail: Marvin the Pimp and a couple of his gang invades the camp full of homeless mutants where Alex Harris and Louise Fulford are hiding out. They're all heavily armed and intent on punishing Alex and Louise for defying Marvin. The confrontation ends with Marvin missing a finger and being shoved into the trunk of his own car, which is then welded shut around him and dropped off at the nearest police station. (The trunk of the car, that is... the rest of the vehicle is torn away from the trunk and the trunk is sealed.) No one but Marvin and his crew are injured in this attack.

** Well more like Ethical Porn producers. A couple of porn producer/recruiter do a somewhat high pressure sell on staring in one of their films to Alex. However the second they learn she's 17 they back off completely, give her the 500 dollars they promised for just talking to them, and point her to a local convent that takes in homeless girls. They do give her their card for when she turns 18 but it's more of an afterthought.

* FaceOfAThug: Sanchez and Francisco, a pair of twin brother who work as agents for porn actresses, are described as looking slimy and like walking stereotypes but turn out to be honestly nice guys who give Alex some helpful advice after realizing she's underage.

* FlashStep: During Alex Harris's fight with [[GoldfishPoopGang The Wrecking Crew]], Alex takes down Bulldozer by slamming into him so quickly he never registers she is approaching, much less that she is slamming him head first into a cargo container.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Chapter 15, Alex jokes about how "There's never a gym bag full of hundred dollar bills around when you need one." Louise then responds that, "if we ever win the lottery, we're going to have to remember to always keep a gym bag full of money handy.” In Chapter 19 -- after they've robbed Norman Osborn -- its revealed they keep a dufflebag full of hundred dollar bills in the trunk of their car for emergencies.

* [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney Gym Bag Full of Money]]: Even with their ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount as backup, Alex and Louise keep a gym bag stuffed full of hundred dollar bills in the back floorboard of their car, just in case of emergencies.
* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Wonder Man says this almost verbatim regarding Alex. She became a criminal after escaping custody and hospitalizing several Avengers because she was going to be sent to prison for life because she's seen as an psychologically unbalanced superhuman.

* HotWitch: When Alex and Louise go looking for the assistance of a powerful sorcerer, they find Jennifer Kale, a witch whose power and ability is on the same scale as ComicBook/DoctorStrange, working as an exotic dancer at the most expensive strip joint in Miami. '''Note:''' This is taken directly from MarvelUniverse ''canon''.

* HumanOutsideAlienInside: Louise and Alex discuss the differences between humans and Kryptonians in Chapter 18, "Things to Do in California When You're on Vacation." Among the differences are the location of the Kryptonian heart (its center right, as opposed to being center left like in humans), the lack of anything resembling an appendix, one fewer set of molars, a menstruation cycle that occurs only once every three months, and fewer body hairs per square inch of skin. Alex also notes some differences that make humans superior to Kryptonians -- or would, were it not for Earth's yellow sun turning Kryptonians into PhysicalGods. Things like Kryptonians being more susceptible to allergens, skin that burns more easily than human skin, and having eyes that aren't as sensitive to shades of color than a human eye.

* IWarnedYou: Tony Stark says this almost word-for-word to Henry Peter Gyrich after Alex Harris utterly annihilates the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} when the attack Gyrich orders on Harris and her girlfriend Louise results in Louise's hospitalization.

* {{Jerkass}}: '''Carol Danvers''', ''and how''.

* TheMole: From the beginning, Wonder Man isn't as supportive of the hunt for Alex as Tony Stark thinks.

* NakedOnArrival: When Alex first arrives in the MarvelUniverse, she's naked as a jaybird. She's also falling to earth from orbit like a meteor. When the Air Force rescue team reaches her point of impact, their first reaction to seeing her lying naked in the middle of a crater is bemusement.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Alex has to spell out to SHIELD and everyone associated with them that due to their attempts to lock her away forever unjustly, she is actually following the law: She is registered, no court will even think about pressing charges on her for escaping illegal custody, and the people she killed are criminals who had international, shoot-on-sight orders on their heads. So any attempts to take her in now will result in a [[HeroWithBadPublicity media and legal]] [[PrecisionFStrike clusterfuck]] that they wouldn't be able to get out of in less then two decades.

* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Tony Stark walks in on Alex, Louise, and Natasha Romanova while the three women are sunbathing topless next to the Black Panther's private swimming pool. While Louise rolls over to cover herself up, Alex and Natasha basically shrug and keep sunbathing. Despite his normal womanizing nature, Stark manages to be a good boy and doesn't ogle the naked women even once during the ensuing strategy session.

* OneHeroHoldTheWeaksauce: Alex Harris retains her species' normal weakness against kryptonite. The thing is, she lives in the MarvelUniverse, where there is no kryptonite. Averted in that she also retains her species' weakness against magic, which is found in abundance in the MarvelUniverse.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In Chapter 29, Tony Stark, Alex Harris, and Natasha Romanov have what is effectively a strategy session while the two women are sitting topless, subbathing next to the Black Panther's swimming pool. The fact that Tony Stark isn't ogling the hell out of the naked women is a sign that he's taking the situation ''much'' more seriously than he normally takes any situation.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: In Chapter 13, Alex speaks this way while instructing Moonstone on the message to be taken back to Gyrich and Osborn:

--->'''Tony Stark:''' “Why do you call her a thing, Norman?”
--->'''Norman Osborn:''' “What?”
--->'''Tony Stark:''' “[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Why. Do. You. Call. Her. A. Thing.]]” Stark spoke slowly, as if to a four-year old. He grinned when he was done, then caught himself and added, “Norman?”

* ReallyGetsAround: John Leslie, a Hydra agent who'd been following [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Carol Danvers]] for months, remarks how easy it was to use Danvers' promiscuous sexual habits to dose her with a mind control drug.
-->'''John Leslie:''' "She was cycling through the regulars there – I’m talking, like, a different guy or a different girl every night for a month, never repeating. She is seriously into the entire ‘take them home, fuck their brains out, shove them out the door’ thing and she never repeats a lover, I guess. So, I knew all I had to do was wait. Eventually my turn came around.”

* SarcasmFailure: In Chapter 29, Tony Stark, Alex Harris, and Natasha Romanov have what is effectively a strategy session while the two women are sitting topless, subbathing next to the Black Panther's swimming pool. Stark not only doesn't ogle the naked women, he doesn't even comment on the fact that their naked breasts are on full display. This is especially notable because while all women in the Marvel Universe enjoy the MostCommonSuperpower, Alex Harris is a physical clone of ComicBook/PowerGirl, and thus her MostCommonSuperpower is a bit more "most" than anyone in the Marvel Universe. The fact that he's not making tit jokes and eyeballing the boobies is a clue that he's seriously worried about the situation they are all in.

** Agent Coulson and two other SHIELD agents leak the exact detail of what happened to Alex. Suddenly she goes from a mentally unstable girl who escape from treatment, to a scared teenager running from unlawful detention and government assassination. Which means that politically, publicly, and legally she is now untouchable.

* ShootingSuperman: SHIELD agents try to shoot Alex with “Hulk Buster” bullets (designed to take down the roaring green ragemonster himself). They have no effect at all. Alex even lectures them about how they are more likely to hurt themselves with a ricochet than hurt her with them. Even better when a couple of agents try hitting her with batons. One agent had to let go of his baton because it rebounded too hard.

** Every hotel, restaurant, new age shop, and strip joint mentioned in the story is an actual location, and all the prices involved are authentic. The writer mentions several times in his notes that he actually called these people up and asked them questions. Of special note were the women who worked in the men's department at Macy's in New York City, who actually had a twenty minute long phone call with the writer in which they described what could be seen outside the store from the window's of their department.

* StatuesqueStunner: Alex just has that effect on people. She's 6'2" tall and built like a body-builder. Combine this with the MostCommonSuperpower and the effect is complete. WordOfGod says Alex is physically based on how champion bodybuilder and actress Raye Hollitt (Zap of American Gladiators) looked back in the 80s.

* SuperHeroOrigin: Ultimately, the entire story is the origin tale that explains how Superwoman, a Kryptonian hero in the mold of Franchise/{{Superman}}, came to be in the MarvelUniverse.

* TakeThat: The writer of ''FanFic/OriginStory'' really doesn't like the MarvelUniverse's Carol Danvers, and has gone on record as saying that she's unworthy of the name "Captain Marvel". (In his opinion, only [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]] has earned that moniker.) As such, Captain Marvel continually gets used as a punching bag by the story's heroine, Alex "Superwoman" Harris.
-->'''Dirty Jim:''' (during a radio interview) "So nothing bad about the Avengers?"
-->'''Alex Harris:''' "Well, Captain Marvel's a total [BLEEPED OUT]. Can I say [Bleeped Out] on the radio?
-->'''Russ Rollins:''' "Not technically, but we're running on a delay, so it'll get bleeped out."
-->'''Alex Harris:''' "Okay, in that case yeah, Captain Marvel is a complete and total [Bleeped Out] and I'm glad I kicked her ass. Twice."

** After showcasing a snippet of an InUniverse episode of ''Series/CSIMiami'' where Alex makes a cameo as herself as Superwoman, the story cuts to the backstage conversations. David Caruso turns out to be a pretty big Jerkass that can't stop himself from ogling Alex.

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: At one point Wonder Man asks Iron Man why they're chasing down a teenage girl who isn't likely to be hurting people or being a menace to anyone. Tony's answer is “Because the law says we have to.”

* UnfortunateNames: According to Agent Dunne, any registered superhuman who can't come up with a superhero codename are assigned one by the MMA. Dunne advised Alex to picking her own codename as the MMA will sometimes come up with utterly embarassing or only technically appropriate names, such as "Backhoe" (a married house wife in her forties who can control dirt and earth telekinetically) and "Mister Rainbow" (a decorated war hero who served in the Vietnam War who can change the color of his skin to the seven visible spectrum colors).

* [[UnderstandingBoyfriend Understanding Girlfriend]]: When Louise finds out about Alex's super-human strength, her only reaction is "Oh, you must be a mutant, like I am!"
* UngratefulBastard: The entire United States government. Alex stops several serious crimes, a train derailment, a bunch of building fires, and several other natural disasters, and their response is to call SHIELD and the Avengers down on her head. Again. [[note]]To be fair, they didn't know who they were dealing with (as she was identified as Superwoman) until they saw her in person.[[/note]]

** A lot of the residents of the homeless camp at which Alex and Louise take shelter fall under this trope. Aaron's power is to see infrared light, Oz can shapeshift, but only to the four primary characters of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion), without gaining any of their abilities. Jan was a teenager with oversized jaw muscles and superhumanly strong teeth. Debby's skin is transluscent. The Avengers these people aren't.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: It is Alex's acceptance of the fact that she's not merely a copy of ComicBook/PowerGirl, not merely the memories of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris]], but a person in her own right made from many, many parts that allows her to stop running and be the hero she was always meant to be.

* YearInsideHourOutside: When Alex finally returns to the "Buffy" universe she finds that while only a year passed for her while she was in the ComicBook/MarvelUniverse, three years have passed for Buffy and her friends.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Alex gets recognized (and caught on video) surveilling the workplace of John Leslie, a Hydra agent central to a plot wherein ComicBook/TheAvengers would be drugged and mind controlled by Hydra. Hydra's leaders don't know for sure that Leslie has been compromised, but the mere possibility that he ''might be'' is enough for them to send an assassination to "clean up the loose end" that Leslie represents.

* BiTheWay:
** Subverted with Louise. She only slept with men for money during her days as a prostitute. She's actually only attracted to women, and the moment she has a chance to stop sleeping with men, she takes it.
** Carol Danvers ReallyGetsAround with both men and women, even if it seems she has a preference for male companions.

* MediaTransmigration: In the aftermath of the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Halloween", Xander Harris finds himself trapped not only in the body of ComicBook/PowerGirl, but in the Marvel Universe as well during a time in which being an unregistered metahuman is a bad, bad thing.

** The Marvel Universe has a popular comic book superhero team [[CaptainErsatz analogue]] of the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica called ''The Guardians of Freedom''. They consist of [[Characters/{{Batman}} Achilles]], [[Characters/{{Superman}} Ultraman]] (who is regarded as the first comic book superhero and predates the ''real'' superheroes), [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Crossbow]], [[Characters/WonderWoman Amazon]], and the [[Franchise/GreenLantern Sapphire Sentinel]].

* MistakenForBadass: Louise is thought to be a powerful mutant because she hangs around Alex and took out Typhoid Mary. In reality, the two are in love (later married) and she beat Typhoid Mary over the head with a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

* RealityEnsues: Squirrel Girl boasts to Superwoman thats he's utterly unbeatable and has beaten Dr. Doom in the past. Alex is able to beat her with almost less than minimal effort. Figuring out rather quickly that Squirrel Girl is a joke character who might be 'unbeatable' but only in a humour story rather than a serious one like what their in.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: After Alex and Louise are asked to leave a diner for picking a fight with a homophobic customer, the Sheriff's Deputy outside walks them to their car and advises them to get a hotel at the next exit so they won't have to deal with more bigots.

* TheReveal: In Chapter 14 (entitled "RAGNAROK!"), Alex discovers that she is not, in fact, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris]] somehow [[GenderBender transformed into a woman]] and given ComicBook/PowerGirl's powers. She is, in fact, a magically created copy of ComicBook/PowerGirl who somehow acquired all of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander's]] memories. The realization causes a short HeroicBSOD.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Agent Coulson and two other SHIELD agents leak the exact detail of what happened to Alex. Suddenly she goes from a mentally unstable girl who escape from treatment, to a scared teenager running from unlawful detention and government assassination. Which means that politically, publicly, and legally she is now untouchable.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Moonstone retires to be a teacher after her fight with Alex.

* ShootingSuperman: SHIELD agents try to shoot Alex with “Hulk Buster” bullets (designed to take down the roaring green ragemonster himself). They have no effect at all. Alex even lectures them about how they are more likely to hurt themselves with a ricochet than hurt her with them.
** Even better when a couple of agents try hitting her with batons. One agent had to let go of his baton because it rebounded too hard.

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 13, appropriately entitled "Ragnarok!", reveals that Alex, who had up until then thought that she was a male-to-female gender-swapped [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris]], finds out that she is actually a magically created copy of [[ComicBook/PowerGirl Kara Zor-El]] who merely ''thought'' she was Xander Harris. She was never gender-swapped at all. The stress of this revelation was one of the spurs behind her RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}''.

* HelloNurse: Francisco and Sanchez recognize that Alex is sex on two legs even when she's in badly fitting clothing, her hair is a wreck, covered in grime, and barefoot.

* EarWorm: An in-universe example. Alex is trying to concentrate during a strategy meeting with ComicBook/TheAvengers and she finds herself half-humming, half-singing a MajorGeneralSong that starts with the line , “I am the very model of a busty superheroine..." She'd seen it on Website/YouTube and now couldn't get the song out of her head. When the Black Widow asks her if something's wrong, Alex tries to explain, badly. She specifically calls it an EarWorm, and can't figure out whether she is more annoyed by the fact that she can't get it out of her head, or that the damned thing exists in the first place, and was written about Alex herself.

* ShutUpKirk: * Rare hero to hero example in ''FanFic/OriginStory''. [[TheParagon Captain America]] takes Alex to task over her willingness to indulge in lethal violence, [[ThouShaltNotKill stating the Avengers don't do that]]. Alex [[NotSoDifferent throws back that he and the other Avengers have also acted ruthlessly in the past]], and that for all her questionable decisions, she could have done a lot worse.

In early November, 2014, the writer was involved in a near-fatal accident in which he suffered grave injuries that required extensive surgery and physical therapy. While he has somewhat recovered from his injuries, Worldmaker remains partially paralyzed, has lost the use of one of his hands entirely, and can no longer walk or speak clearly. He has thus warned the fans of this story that while he is continuing to work on it, doing so is "slow going" (his exact words) and that it might be a month or two between updates. Since this announcement he has managed to add several chapters and promises that the story will be finished eventually. And he is fulfilling his promise - Chapter 31 came out on October 9th 2019.