History Literature / Alterien

---''[-Alterien: Once Was Lost-]''

* {{Touched by Vorlons}} - The Shanda'ryn had a direct hand in creating the Altered Homo sapiens. In fact, it was Dr. Grey, with a lot of help from Ara, Li'nia, Lyra and Eve, who gathered those initial humans to transform them into Alteriens. Their subjects were then programmed with specific missions they were to carry out in order to ensure the new humanoid race becomes the only humanoid race in a few hundred years.

* {{Ivy League} - Newland University serves this role throughout the series. Oberon, himself, graduated from the pretigious university located in Charleston, South Carolina.

* {{Half Human Hybrid}} - This occurs as a result of Oberon and other Alteriens mating with humans.

* AlienAbduction - Though this is only hinted at throughout much of the series, Oberon was taken by a person who may not be of this world. It even happens again after he revisits the rest of his family. However, Oberon isn't certain whether it actually happened or if it was a bizarre dream.
* AllMythsAreTrue - The Alteriens are the source of the myths about elves and fairies.
* AlternateTimeline - Oberon and Theseus stumble into an alternate timeline during a joint tranz through the early 21st century with a strange artifact.
* AmnesiacHero - The main character, first known as John Lost, has amnesia. In his case, he has no memory of his life prior to the past seven years. During those seven years, he's been in the military and later the ISA (International Security Agency).
* AncientAstronauts - The Shanda'ryn are portrayed as this later on in the series.
* AncientConspiracy - The Alteriens eventually form a secret society called the Community. It is actually an extension of their nation that exists in 4-dimensional space. Despite their efforts to keep their society a complete secret, at some point the Community gets mentioned throughout the latter 20th century and well into the 22nd century in the same vein as {{The Illuminati}}.
* ArchEnemy - Theseus serves this role for a while against Oberon, especially in the first and third books.
* BadassNative - Oberon, a Lakota-Sioux Indian, could be considered this due to his excellent skills in martial arts and armed combat. Add to this his superhuman strength and speed and healing factor, and he's pretty badass. His former teammate, Ulysses River, a Crow Indian, is also this for the same reasons.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo - The Sisters of Orion tell Oberon he is meant to expand the Alterien species and lead them into a golden age.
* BefriendingTheEnemy - Oberon and Helena later become friends after he rescues her children from a burning house.
* BigBad - Oberon and the other Alteriens have to contend with a variety of opponents over the course of the series.
* CreepyTwins - The Sisters of Orion could be considered this, especially due to them projecting adult monotone voices as young children. They also fit into the tropes {{Creepy Child}} and {{Emotionless Girl}}.
* DatingCatwoman - Despite their shared dark past, Oberon and Helena become friends and eventually form a romantic relationship.
* ElevatorSchool - The Nu-Age Program, founded by Oberon, Helena and Oberon's business partner, Morgan Flaye, leads to the formation of a private education system. The program, which stands for Nurturing Universal Avante-Garde for Excellence, begins with a junior high/senior high level school called Nu-Age STI (School for the Talented and Impassioned). Other schools attached to the program are constructed later.
* EmergingFromTheShadows - Theseus Spencer, after remaining completely anonymous behind the attacks Oberon and his partner, Abigail, investigate, reveals himself to the young agent. Theseus had apparently learned all he wanted and revealed his primary focus had been Oberon the whole time.

* IvyLeague - Newland University serves this role throughout the series. Oberon, himself, graduated from the pretigious university located in Charleston, South Carolina.
* IWillFindYou - Oberon's elder half-sister, Sharon, stated she'd been looking for him for seven years. They finally reunite in her office after Oberon links her identity to a vision he'd had of her.
* TheFairFolk - The Sisters of Orion and another person named Yon'ro are portayed as this when Oberon meets them during what he believes to be a dream. The Alteriens also exemplify this particular trope.

* FriendlyEnemy - Theseus kind of becomes this in relation to Oberon later on in the series.
* TheGreys - The scientist who kidnapped Oberon, Dr. Grey, is possibly one of these. Other people the main character meets, such as the Sisters of Orion, are hinted to be related to this as well.
* HalfHumanHybrid - This occurs as a result of Oberon and other Alteriens mating with humans.
* HealingFactor - The Alteriens and Enhanced can regenerate damaged tissue and bone. Other people, such as the enhanced soldiers of SABER, the Actuals and the Red Hammers also have rapid healing.
* HumanAliens - The Alteriens, particularly while in their concealed forms, fit this trope quite well. They look completely human, but on the inside are quite different. The primary difference is their blood, which stays blue when exposed to the air. A human's blood is also blue on the inside, but turns red when exposed to the air.
* HumanoidAliens - Pleiades of the group headed by the Sisters of Orion fits nicely here. He is based on the Nordics of UFO lore in terms of his overall appearance. In addition, he has six digits on each hand and foot rather than five.
* KryptoniteFactor - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect. Iron also negates their ability to tranz or phase through matter, thus they can be bound to normal space-time with iron chains or contained within an iron box.

* MagicalNativeAmerican - Oberon could be considered this, as he is a mixed Native American. He looks like an attractive Native American with gray eyes and dark brown hair. This trope is somewhat played down in that his abilities are science-based rather than magical. However, many humans who witness his abilities in certain time periods regard him as a magical being.
* MentorArchetype - The Sisters of Orion serve this function for Oberon, especially their leader, Vasja'ri.
* MuggleBestFriend - Oberon's partner in the ISA, Abigail Summers, serves in this role throughout the series. His business partner, Dr. Morgan Flaye, later serves this role as well after Oberon leaves the ISA to start a technology company.
* NebulousEvilOrganisation - Spencer Industries, owned by Oberon's rival, Theseus Spencer, serves in this role. However, Oberon's own company and affiliate companies ironically serve this role insofar as achieving a great objective that doesn't bode well for humanity.
* NighInvulnerability - The Alteriens (as well as the Enhanced) seem nigh invulnerable. However, their bodies actually absorb the energy from impacts, friction and pressure. The energy is smoothly distributed throughout their bodies, allowing them to easily convert and or expel that energy as quickly as they absorb it.
* OneWorldOrder - The Alteriens eventually achieve this, albeit on 4D Earth among their own people. They essentially become world rulers that are never seen even when they're right in front of you.
* OurElvesAreBetter - The Alteriens are an elvish-like race that are not only like space elves, but are possessed of abilities humans might regard as magic.
* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent - The Alteriens can travel through time using high-yield vibration to create short-lived wormholes that typically last for less than a second. They call the method dimensional transpositioning or tranzing and use it to effectively teleport and travel through time. They can even upshift to 4-dimensional space and actually rewind and fast-forward time around them.
* PastLifeMemories - Oberon regains fragments of his old life after touching his family members and visiting the home they shared. He doesn't remember everything, but he ultimately remembers enough to understand how different he used to be.

* PsychicPowers - Oberon and many other people in the world of Alterien possess a wide range of psychic powers, including telepathy, energy-based telekinesis, empathy, psychometric retrocognition, precognition and hypercognition.
* PureEnergy - The Alteriens can manipulate energy within and around their bodies.
* TheRival - Oberon encounters another superhuman with abilities beyond his own. His name is Theseus Spencer, and he reveals himself to not only be the mastermind behind the plot Oberon was investigating; he tells him they are both of the same new species, Alteriens.
* SameSexTriplets - The Sisters of Orion are identical triplets.
* SpaceElves - The Alteriens are revealed to be this after a fashion. They actually resemble the elves of legend and they even later inspire the legend of the alfar that later develops into the mythology of the elves and the Fae. Due to their superior technological advancement through the geniuses among them, including Oberon, they acquire a large fleet of space ships capable of 4th dimensional travel. Their ships essentially do what they can do, but at a much greater capacity. The Alteriens eventually build a massive society that spans several centuries across multiple planets.
* StableTimeLoop - Oberon learns many of this actions after viewing possible futures present situations in which the effect comes before the cause. The Sisters of Orion take his learning even further when they tell him he is to travel to the 17th century to found the Sol 3 Group. The Sol 3 Group is the same organization that built Newland University, his Alma Mater.
* SuperSenses - The Alteriens have impressively sharp senses that allow them to hyper-focus on the smallest visual, auditory or olfactory detail. Visually, this effect is similar to telescopic vision, but they are just able to discern the tiniest details of something several meters away.
* SuperSoldier - Oberon was once part of a group of enhanced US soldiers called SABER (Strategic Adaptive Ballistics Engagement and Reconnaissance).
* SuperStrength - Alteriens tend to be very strong at a normal level. They have what is called half-ton strength, meaning they can lift half a ton with minimal effort. Lifting twice that much requires their best effort.

* TeleportersAndTransporters - The Alteriens and the Enhanced have the ability to teleport themselves and others. They actually slip through short-lived wormholes via a technique called tranzing, but the result is pretty much the same.
* TheThreeFacesOfEve - The Sisters of Orion are portrayed in this way with a slight difference. They are more like the wise one, the caring one and the sexy seductress, though this does not become apparent until later in the series. Initially, they are all seemingly emotionless and pragmatic. This trope is also played more directly, as it is later revealed the Sisters of Orion have a very close relationship to another powerful being called Eve.
* TimeTravel - Oberon learns to traverse time with Helena.
* TwinTelepathy - The Sisters of Orion, identical triplets, share a telepathic link to each other and are each powerful telepaths in their own right.
* WeUsedToBeFriends - Oberon goes up against an assassin who turns out to be a former teammate from his days with SABER. The former teammate is a man named Ulysses River. This trope is played down, however, when Oberon flatly states they were never friends.
* WomanScorned - The plot behind the second and third books of the Alterien series plays this up, though in a slightly different way from the traditional concept. In this version, Oberon has to fight off an assassin and ultimately face a powerful woman (Helena Velazquez) who blames him for the death of her best friend years earlier.

* KryptoniteFactor - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect. Iron also negates their ability to tranz or phase through matter, thus they can be bound to normal space-time with iron chains or contained within an iron box. Alteriens can cancel out their energy absorption just by touching each other. The implication of this is an Alterien can hurt another Alterien in the same way a human can hurt another human. Additionally, many Alteriens, such as Oberon, have a heightened empathic sensitivity to concentrations of dark psychic energy. Being inside such an area makes Oberon very weak to the point he loses his ability to absorb kinetic energy. Leaving the area resolves the problem, though he sometimes requires help.

{{Alien Abduction}} - Though this is only hinted at throughout much of the series, Oberon was taken by a person who may not be of this world. It even happens again after he revisits the rest of his family. However, Oberon isn't certain whether it actually happened or if it was a bizarre dream.

{{All Myths Are True}} - The Alteriens are the source of the myths about elves and fairies.

{{Alternate Timeline}} - Oberon and Theseus stumble into an alternate timeline during a joint tranz through the early 21st century with a strange artifact.

{{Amnesiac Hero}} - The main character, first known as John Lost, has amnesia. In his case, he has no memory of his life prior to the past seven years. During those seven years, he's been in the military and later the ISA (International Security Agency).

{{Ancient Astronauts}} - The Shanda'ryn are portrayed as this later on in the series.

{{Ancient Conspiracy}} - The Alteriens eventually form a secret society called the Community. It is actually an extension of their nation that exists in 4-dimensional space. Despite their efforts to keep their society a complete secret, at some point the Community gets mentioned throughout the latter 20th century and well into the 22nd century in the same vein as {{The Illuminati}}.

{{Arch Enemy}} - Theseus serves this role for a while against Oberon, especially in the first and third books.

{{Badass Native}} - Oberon, a Lakota-Sioux Indian, could be considered this due to his excellent skills in martial arts and armed combat. Add to this his superhuman strength and speed and healing factor, and he's pretty badass. His former teammate, Ulysses River, a Crow Indian, is also this for the same reasons.

{{Because Destiny Says So}} - The Sisters of Orion tell Oberon he is meant to expand the Alterien species and lead them into a golden age.

{{Befriending the Enemy}} - Oberon and Helena later become friends after he rescues her children from a burning house.

{{Big Bad}} - Oberon and the other Alteriens have to contend with a variety of opponents over the course of the series.

{{Creepy Twins}} - The Sisters of Orion could be considered this, especially due to them projecting adult monotone voices as young children. They also fit into the tropes {{Creepy Child}} and {{Emotionless Girl}}.

{{Dating Catwoman}} - Despite their shared dark past, Oberon and Helena become friends and eventually form a romantic relationship.

{{Elevator School}} - The Nu-Age Program, founded by Oberon, Helena and Oberon's business partner, Morgan Flaye, leads to the formation of a private education system. The program, which stands for Nurturing Universal Avante-Garde for Excellence, begins with a junior high/senior high level school called Nu-Age STI (School for the Talented and Impassioned). Other schools attached to the program are constructed later.

{{Emerging from the Shadows}} - Theseus Spencer, after remaining completely anonymous behind the attacks Oberon and his partner, Abigail, investigate, reveals himself to the young agent. Theseus had apparently learned all he wanted and revealed his primary focus had been Oberon the whole time.

{{Intangibility}} - The Alteriens can vibrate their molecules to the point of allowing them to pass through solid matter. The only limit to this ability is it does not work on iron.

{{Ivy League}} - Newland University serves this role throughout the series. Oberon, himself, graduated from the pretigious university located in Charleston, South Carolina.

{{I Will Find You}} - Oberon's elder half-sister, Sharon, stated she'd been looking for him for seven years. They finally reunite in her office after Oberon links her identity to a vision he'd had of her.

{{The Fair Folk}} - The Sisters of Orion and another person named Yon'ro are portayed as this when Oberon meets them during what he believes to be a dream. The Alteriens also exemplify this particular trope.

{{Flight}} - The Alteriens can fly using sonic or electromagnetic fields. Upon seeing Oberon float down from the sky, she asked if he had been training with Superman, who is a fictional character in their universe like he is in ours.

{{Friendly Enemy}} - Theseus kind of becomes this in relation to Oberon later on in the series.

{{The Greys}} - The scientist who kidnapped Oberon, Dr. Grey, is possibly one of these. Other people the main character meets, such as the Sisters of Orion, are hinted to be related to this as well.

{{Half-Human Hybrid}} - This occurs as a result of Oberon and other Alteriens mating with humans.

{{Healing Factor}} - The Alteriens and Enhanced can regenerate damaged tissue and bone. Other people, such as the enhanced soldiers of SABER, the Actuals and the Red Hammers also have rapid healing.

{{Human Aliens}} - The Alteriens, particularly while in their concealed forms, fit this trope quite well. They look completely human, but on the inside are quite different. The primary difference is their blood, which stays blue when exposed to the air. A human's blood is also blue on the inside, but turns red when exposed to the air.

{{Humanoid Aliens}} - Pleiades of the group headed by the Sisters of Orion fits nicely here. He is based on the Nordics of UFO lore in terms of his overall appearance. In addition, he has six digits on each hand and foot rather than five.

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect. Iron also negates their ability to tranz or phase through matter, thus they can be bound to normal space-time with iron chains or contained within an iron box. Alteriens can cancel out their energy absorption just by touching each other. The implication of this is an Alterien can hurt another Alterien in the same way a human can hurt another human.
Additionally, many Alteriens, such as Oberon, have a heightened empathic sensitivity to concentrations of dark psychic energy. Being inside such an area makes Oberon very weak to the point he loses his ability to absorb kinetic energy. Leaving the area resolves the problem, though he sometimes requires help.

{{Magical Native American}} - Oberon could be considered this, as he is a mixed Native American. He looks like an attractive Native American with gray eyes and dark brown hair. This trope is somewhat played down in that his abilities are science-based rather than magical. However, many humans who witness his abilities in certain time periods regard him as a magical being.

{{Mentor Archetype}} - The Sisters of Orion serve this function for Oberon, especially their leader, Vasja'ri.

{{Muggle Best Friend}} - Oberon's partner in the ISA, Abigail Summers, serves in this role throughout the series. His business partner, Dr. Morgan Flaye, later serves this role as well after Oberon leaves the ISA to start a technology company.

{{Nebulous Evil Organisation}} - Spencer Industries, owned by Oberon's rival, Theseus Spencer, serves in this role. However, Oberon's own company and affiliate companies ironically serve this role insofar as achieving a great objective that doesn't bode well for humanity.

{{Nigh Invulnerability}} - The Alteriens (as well as the Enhanced) seem nigh invulnerable. However, their bodies actually absorb the energy from impacts, friction and pressure. The energy is smoothly distributed throughout their bodies, allowing them to easily convert and or expel that energy as quickly as they absorb it.

{{One World Order}} - The Alteriens eventually achieve this, albeit on 4D Earth among their own people. They essentially become world rulers that are never seen even when they're right in front of you.

{{Our Elves Are Better}} - The Alteriens are an elvish-like race that are not only like space elves, but are possessed of abilities humans might regard as magic.

{{Our Time Travel is Different}} - The Alteriens can travel through time using high-yield vibration to create short-lived wormholes that typically last for less than a second. They call the method dimensional transpositioning or tranzing and use it to effectively teleport and travel through time. They can even upshift to 4-dimensional space and actually rewind and fast-forward time around them.

{{Past Life Memories}} - Oberon regains fragments of his old life after touching his family members and visiting the home they shared. He doesn't remember everything, but he ultimately remembers enough to understand how different he used to be.

{{Precognition}} - The Alteriens and Enhanced all have the ability to perceive future events. What they see are actually possible future events rather than what will definitely occur in the future. In this sense, one might compare this ability to subconscious probability forecasting. Oberon is the only Alterien who had this ability prior to becoming an Alterien, albeit to a lesser degree.

{{Psychic Powers}} - Oberon and many other people in the world of Alterien possess a wide range of psychic powers, including telepathy, energy-based telekinesis, empathy, psychometric retrocognition, precognition and hypercognition.

{{Pure Energy}} - The Alteriens can manipulate energy within and around their bodies.

{{The Rival}} - Oberon encounters another superhuman with abilities beyond his own. His name is Theseus Spencer, and he reveals himself to not only be the mastermind behind the plot Oberon was investigating; he tells him they are both of the same new species, Alteriens.

{{Same Sex Triplets}} - The Sisters of Orion are identical triplets.

{{Space Elves}} - The Alteriens are revealed to be this after a fashion. They actually resemble the elves of legend and they even later inspire the legend of the alfar that later develops into the mythology of the elves and the Fae. Due to their superior technological advancement through the geniuses among them, including Oberon, they acquire a large fleet of space ships capable of 4th dimensional travel. Their ships essentially do what they can do, but at a much greater capacity. The Alteriens eventually build a massive society that spans several centuries across multiple planets.

{{Stable Time Loop}} - Oberon learns many of this actions after viewing possible futures present situations in which the effect comes before the cause. The Sisters of Orion take his learning even further when they tell him he is to travel to the 17th century to found the Sol 3 Group. The Sol 3 Group is the same organization that built Newland University, his Alma Mater.

{{Super Senses}} - The Alteriens have impressively sharp senses that allow them to hyper-focus on the smallest visual, auditory or olfactory detail. Visually, this effect is similar to telescopic vision, but they are just able to discern the tiniest details of something several meters away.

{{Super Soldier}} - Oberon was once part of a group of enhanced US soldiers called SABER (Strategic Adaptive Ballistics Engagement and Reconnaissance).

{{Super Strength}} - Alteriens tend to be very strong at a normal level. They have what is called half-ton strength, meaning they can lift half a ton with minimal effort. Lifting twice that much requires their best effort.

{{Telekinesis}} - The Alteriens and Enhanced possess energy-based telekinesis. This means they can affect objects and people only be expelling a form of energy that makes that movement possible. They can also turn this ability "inward", surrounding themselves in a field that enables them to achieve flight.

{{Telepathy}} - The Alteriens, the Enhanced and certain other people they encounter are telepaths. The Sisters of Orion are the most powerful telepaths Oberon encounters.

{{Teleporters and Transporters}} - The Alteriens and the Enhanced have the ability to teleport themselves and others. They actually slip through short-lived wormholes via a technique called tranzing, but the result is pretty much the same.

{{The Three Faces of Eve}} - The Sisters of Orion are portrayed in this way with a slight difference. They are more like the wise one, the caring one and the sexy seductress, though this does not become apparent until later in the series. Initially, they are all seemingly emotionless and pragmatic. This trope is also played more directly, as it is later revealed the Sisters of Orion have a very close relationship to another powerful being called Eve.

{{Time Travel}} - Oberon learns to traverse time with Helena.

{{Twin Telepathy}} - The Sisters of Orion, identical triplets, share a telepathic link to each other and are each powerful telepaths in their own right.

{{We Used to Be Friends}} - Oberon goes up against an assassin who turns out to be a former teammate from his days with SABER. The former teammate is a man named Ulysses River. This trope is played down, however, when Oberon flatly states they were never friends.

{{Woman Scorned}} - The plot behind the second and third books of the Alterien series plays this up, though in a slightly different way from the traditional concept. In this version, Oberon has to fight off an assassin and ultimately face a powerful woman (Helena Velazquez) who blames him for the death of her best friend years earlier.

{{X Ray Vision}} - The Alteriens are capable of seeing through solid objects with a visual ability that's similar to x-ray vision. Oberon calls it 3D Sight, which is the ability to perceive matter from a 4th dimensional perspective.

{{Stable Time Loop}} - Oberon learns many of this actions after viewing possible futures present incidents in which the effect comes before the cause. The Sisters of Orion take his learning even further when they tell him he is to travel to the 17th century to found the Sol 3 Group. The Sol 3 Group is the same organization that built Newland University, his Alma Mater.

{{Telekinesis}} - The Alteriens and Enhanced possess energy-based telekinesis. This means they can affect objects and people only be expelling a form of energy that makes that movement possible. They can also turn this ability "inward", surrounding themselves in a field that can lift them into and rocket them through the air,

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect. Iron also negates their ability to tranz or phase through matter, thus they can be bound to normal space-time with iron chains or contained within an iron box. Alteriens can cancel out their energy absorption just by touching each other. The implications of this is an Alterien can hurt another Alterien in the same way a human can hurt another human.

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect. Iron also negates their ability to tranz or phase through matter, thus they can be bound to normal space-time with iron chains or contained within an iron box.

{{Flight}} - The Alteriens can fly using sonic or electromagnetic fields. Upon seeing Oberon float down from the sky, she asked if he was training with the comic book character, Superman.

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular blades have the same effect.

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular bladed have the same effect.

{{Kryptonite Factor}} - The Alteriens are vulnerable to a few things that either gets through their ability to absorb kinetic energy or cancel it out. Strangely, iron is the one metal capable of hurting them. Although they can still affect iron with electromagnetic fields, should they be stabbed with an iron blade, it would have a similar effect as any blade would have on a non-enhanced human. This means an Alterien could possibly be stabbed to death or even beheaded using a blade made of iron. Monomolecular bladed have the same effect.\\ Additionally, many Alteriens, such as Oberon, have a heightened empathic sensitivity to concentrations of dark psychic energy. Being inside such an area makes Oberon very weak to the point he loses his ability to absorb kinetic energy. Leaving the area resolves the problem, though he sometimes requires help.

{{Woman Scorned}} - The plot behind the second and third books of the Alterien series plays this up, though in a slightly different way from the traditional concept. In this version, Oberon has to fight off an assassin and ultimately face a powerful woman (Helena Velazquez) who blames him for the death of her best friend years earlier.

{{Super Strength}} - Alteriens tend to be very strong at a normal level. They have what is called half-ton strength, meaning they can lift half a ton with minimal effort. Lifting twice that much requires their best effort.

{{Teleporters and Transporters}} - The Alteriens and the Enhanced have the ability to teleport. They actually slip through short-lived wormholes via a technique called tranzing, but the result is pretty much the same.

-----[-Alterien: Once Was Lost-]

[-Theseus grinned. “We don’t experience emotion at the same level as humans, but you are even less emotional than the others I've found.”-]

[-Oberon visibly showed the pique in his interest.-]

{{Big Bad:Literature}} - Oberon and the other Alteriens have to contend with a variety of opponents over the course of the series.

{{Arch Enemy}} - Theseus serves this role for a while against Oberon, especially in the first and third books.

{{Badass Native}} - Oberon, a Lakota-Sioux Indian, could be considered this due to his excellent skills in martial arts and armed combat. Add to this his superhuman strength and speed and healing factor, and he's pretty badass. His former teammate, Ulysses River, a Crow Indian, is also this for the same reasons.

{{Energy}} - The Alteriens can manipulate energy within and around their bodies.

[-Theseus grinned. “We don’t experience emotion to the same level as humans, but you are even less emotional than the others I've found.”-]

--->--[-Alterien: Once Was Lost-]

-->--[-Alterien: Once Was Lost-]