Fanfic / Saiyan in Brockton

Saiyan in Brockton is a Worm/Dragon Ball Crossover, written by Desert Chocolate (who also wrote Hunters of Death, Adorable Murderbeasts, and Through a Temple).

A Self-Insert where the main character, who takes on the moniker "Gohan Moha", wakes up in Canberra, Australia in the midst of the Simurgh attack. He is immediately hit by a boulder.

Upon waking up, he feels something wiggling under his back. A long, fuzzy, monkey tail.

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This series provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptive Ability: Like all Saiyans, the SI gains an immediate boost to power when healed, in this case courtesy of Panacea healing him from his injuries.
• Always Someone Better: When it comes to Ki, this is Panacea. She manages to figure out how to do Ki sensing and flight before the person who literally introduced her to the concepts could get off the ground (literally).
  • As of chapter 21, the author confirmed that The Triumvirate, the Endbringers, Panacea, Assault, and Scion could all destroy Gohan.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Gohan insists that Amy get better armor than just Kevlar, and Armsmaster backs this up.
  • Gohan's armor protects him from things that even his impressive physical resistance can't overcome, as well as allows him to enhance his training by providing resistance to his motions. Unfortunately, it gets wrecked in his fight with Lung, but given that Lung is one of the most physically powerful capes on the planet, this is at least somewhat understandable.
• Ass Shove: Militia threatens to do this to Gohan with one of her knives when he keeps pestering her for said knife to cut off his tail.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Gohan does what he can to avert this- specifically, him transforming into the terrifyingly powerful, fifty-foot-tall Great Ape form of Oozaru. Once he gets his tail cut off, this ceases to be a problem. Unfortunately, there's still the Worm versions of this trope in the form of the Endbringers…
  • During the Gang War arc, Gohan fights Fenja and Menja, two women whose powers are "growing to about fifty feet tall".
• Berserk Button: Gohan accidentally hits one during the press conference in chapter 19 for one of the reporters, who thinks that he picked certain Japanese Kanji for his costume because it looked "Cool." He then informs her that the symbols (those for "Turtle" and "Monkey") were well-chosen for what they represent.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Word of God is that Panacea could destroy Gohan in one hit, putting her in the same category of beings as Endbringers, Zion, the Triumvirate, and Assault.
• Big Eater: Once he gets money, the SI manages to shock an entire buffet restaurant with his eating, polishing off entire plates of food in seconds. It's also why he joined the PRT- he literally eats as much as an elephant in a single day, and he can't pay for that sort of caloric intake on his own.
• Blatant Lies: Gohan claims that when Miss Militia was walking away from him that he "Was not checking out her backside and any suggestions otherwise are lies."
• Blessed with Suck: Trainable superpowers that anyone can (theoretically) learn? The workout to achieve said powers is so intense that the Youth Guard prevents the Wards from learning it. Amy can, because she's not a Ward, and therefore not under the Youth Guard umbrella. And when one person does get powers from it, he has to immediately turn himself into the PRT for testing.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Lung is accused of being this. He is one of the strongest capes in existence, but he never trains, never experiments with his powers, never tries to see how improving his base form would affect his transformed form, never seeks out stronger foes so that he can test himself. Ultimately, he sits on top of Brockton Bay, knowing that there's nothing that can really take him down or stop him, but not capitalizing on that. Gohan's new Saiyan instincts are furious at this.
• Bullet Time: Gohan moves so quickly that he's capable of slowing down his perception of the world to keep up with how fast he can move. The world doesn't actually move slower, but it appears that way to him.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Assault may be one of the most spectacularly immature heroes in the Protectorate, but he's a very experienced reformed supervillain with plenty of experience, as well as an ability to redirect kinetic energy. He's one of the few- if not only- people in the Protectorate ENE capable of fighting Gohan to a standstill (see the "Always Someone Better" trope for more information).
• Calling Your Attacks: Averted, but discussed- Gohan postulates that the Kamehameha is actually a very advanced technique, and saying it out loud helps perform the technique, with each syllable symbolizing a different stage in the process of the attack.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Ki somewhat works like this, according to Gohan. While training really, really hard won't unlock ki specifically, Ki is, at the most basic level, life force energy. The stronger and more physically fit you are, the more Ki you can access.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 20 ends with the announcement that Lung has entered the battlefield.
• Clueless Mystery: For Tattletale and the Armsmaster, Gohan is this. They're trying to figure out how he fits into the world or knows the things he does, but all they have is in-character knowledge of their own setting…not knowledge gained by fanfictions of their universe or knowledge of a completely separate fictional universe that has never existed in Earth Bet or Aleph. In other words, they're trying to figure out the motivations of Gohan the Parahuman, when in reality, he's Gohan the human from another universe stuffed into an alien body.
• Cold Reading: After watching a video on Alexandria, Gohan picks up how to combine his Bullet Time skills with his Instant Expert skills to create a technique he calls "Body Read," which is basically this.
• Conflict Ball: Gohan claims to the Director and Armsmaster that this is what powers do- they seek conflict and try to get their wielders to use them as such. Note that this is explicitly the case in Worm canon- Powers really do drive people to seek out conflict so that they can be used to acquire data for the Entities. This is true for Gohan, as a Saiyan, as well, but for a different reason- Saiyan Biology naturally drives Saiyans to seek out conflict to become stronger.
  • Because of what he knows about Shadow Stalker, AKA Sophia Hess, AKA one of Taylor's main antagonists at Winslow, Gohan deliberately antagonizes her.
• Contrived Coincidence: Somewhat. When Mahmoud tries to find a free clinic that would help him heal his arm, he manages to find the one that Panacea is currently visiting. It's implied, however, that the Simurgh was manipulating his path, so it's less of one than it first appears.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Gohan calls his ki blasts this. They're far too strong to be used on normal humans or Parahumans without Brute levels (his first one put a hole in a concrete wall), and they aren't useful on those who are strong enough to survive the blasts. It's actually easier for him to just give people a Finger Poke of Doom or use melee combat.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight between Lung and Gohan was extremely even in round one, but outside interference meant that Gohan had to be saved by Glory Girl. Round two, after Panacea triggers a Zenkai Boost in Gohan, is brutally one-sided to the point where it's clear that Gohan is just sending the gangs a message.
• Didn't Think This Through: * Do You Trust Me?: In chapter 23, Panacea asks Gohan if she can heal him, only for Gohan to invert this trope when he realizes that she doesn't know that he absolutely trusts her to do the right thing. He tells her that she doesn't need to ask him for permission, she can heal him whenever she wants because he has absolute faith in her. For someone who fears her own powers and what they're driving her to do, this is something that Panacea absolutely needed to hear, and led to her triggering Gohan's second Zenkai boost.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Taylor Hebert and Gohan catch each other's eye while Gohan is in the middle of a fight in chapter 19. Her name is never mentioned and "Catches each other's eye" is literally all that they do before Gohan is forced back into battle. At the end of the battle, several gangsters are found unconscious in an alleyway, badly stung and bitten by insects, with an epipen left on them.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Armsmaster claims that his comparison of Dauntless to someone who would bully people in high school is dated, as "Bullying isn't a problem in schools anymore."
  • Due to his lack of obvious psychological issues and the wide variety of powers, Battery believes that Gohan is someone who got his powers from Cauldron, just like she did. This is because, since Cauldron Capes get their powers from test tubes, they don't have a Trigger Event (which leaves psychological scars) and often have a bunch of different powers.
  • Given that Gohan's alleged backstory sounds similar- unwillingness to discuss his past, high aptitude with Martial Arts, hatred of her name- the PRT's running theory of Gohan is that he was one of Crane the Harmonious' past students. Crane had a habit of kidnapping children, training them to be master martial artists in the woods, and… erm… "having her way" with them.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Linebacker Genius," a scientist at the PRT who is extremely buff and smart, gets called this for much of the story. The second interview reveals that his name is Bob.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The story begins on the February 24 attack on Canberra, and by chapter 21, it's only March 7- eleven days later. In that time Gohan has learned how to use ki, taught others how to use ki, joined a national superhero team, and fought Lung in single combat.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Gohan's main method of taking down non-brute enemies. He works very hard to keep the poke of doom restrained- he demonstrates to Regent what he could do with a poke of doom without holding back, and burrows his finger straight through a brick wall.
• Flying Brick: Now that Gohan can fly, he's one of these. Saiyans in canon Dragonball were this as well, and this type of power is known in Worm as an "Alexandria Package," after the famous heroine. Glory Girl also counts.
• Foreshadowing: Interlude 4 (part 2) as well as Chapter 23 imply that not only has Glastig Undine and Crane the Harmonious taken an interest in Gohan, but Bonesaw is on her way to Brockton and Crane may be developing Ki.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Armsmaster hates this. In canon it was one of the main reasons for his dislike of Dauntless- the man was able to improve all of his equipment with little to no effort, while Armsmaster had to fight and struggle to get mere percentages of efficiency out of his gear. Gohan irritates him for the same reason- anything Gohan does will improve him slowly but surely, far easier and faster than would normally be possible. This is mitigated by the fact that Gohan is both personable, and very clearly works extremely hard at improving himself, but the irritation remains.
  • Lung is a big Berserk Button for Gohan for this reason- Lung is strong, yes, but he doesn't work for the strength. He doesn't train, or experiment to see how his powers would hold up under different circumstances, and doesn't seek out new challenges to test himself. He's one of the strongest capes in the world, but decided to go to Brockton Bay and sit around as the top dog, knowing that no one can stop or hurt him.
  • Dauntless is shown being envious of Gohan because Gohan has the same sort of ability that he does- gradual, permanent improvement over time with barely any work.
• Healing Hands: Gohan asks Panacea to not use these on him and Glory Girl- or at least, not to the extent that she normally does. He asks that she takes care of anything serious and remove bruises from visible places (so as not to raise questions) but says that wounds serve as valuable reminders of the need to train and improve, not to mention that instantly healing wouldn't lead to the two of them getting stronger. He's also asking this so that they don't take Panacea's powers for granted and abusing that gift- which contributed to her breakdown in canon.
  • That being said, he also really likes it when she does use her healing gifts on him, because he's a Saiyan. Saiyans have an ability called the "Zenkai Boost," where they get a massive power surge anytime they almost die.
  • Panacea's healing abilities actually had an unexpected effect when healing Gohan for the first time- they unlocked her hidden ki potential.
• Humans Are Special: Gohan believes this, but at the same time is a little upset that he's been robbed of his humanity and replaced with a species whose whole schtick is "better than humans at everything."
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Gohan just barely manages to keep this reaction nonverbal after he manages to pull off the "Very Enthusiastic Walks" conversation with Piggot.
• I Have Many Names: The SI, for lack of better term, goes through a lot of these. His original name was Mahmoud, but upon his entry into the PRT changes it to "Gohan Moha," in reference to his favorite Dragonball Character and his father. He's also granted the title of "Monkey God Of Fitness," by the internet, and goes through the cape names of "Defiant" and "Kong" before settling on "Sun Wukong" as his official cape name.
• Idiot Ball: In the middle of a fight between Lung and Sun Wukong- arguably the two most physically powerful capes in the Bay area- which in itself is part of a massive gang war, a random civilian wanders into the middle of the fight and starts recording it on his cell phone. His presence forces Sun Wukong to go on the defensive and have to take a massive fire blast from Lung to save the fool, nearly costing him the fight. Had Glory Girl not shown up, it's quite possible that Sun Wukong could have been killed.
• Immune to Bullets: Just like Saiyans in the original material, Gohan is immune to small-arms fire. He later uses this to train his speed by trying to catch bullets fired at him by Miss Militia.
• Innocently Insensitive: While talking about installing restraints in Gohan's armor as a precaution, Armsmaster defends it by saying that Gohan is a potentially unknown threat and that steps should be taken to keep him in line... and he's saying this to Dragon, who is extremely limited by her creator's restrictions for basically the same reason.
• Instant Expert: Gohan can learn nearly any type of fighting style or movement after watching it. He can't copy it if it requires powers to achieve it, but he can tell when movements feel "Wrong" or "Off," such as when he was trying to learn Tai Chi through an online video and found that the "expert" was actually throwing in moves to make it look better.
• Kamehame Hadouken: One of the trope namers is mentioned (which is somewhat of a given, seeing as how it's a Dragonball crossover) as an example of how extremely difficult ki attacks are.
• Logical Weakness: Saiyan eating habits do not come cheap. The only way that Gohan can supply himself is by signing up with the PRT, as the only other option would be go to the gangs for his dietary needs (which he won't do).
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Gohan's noticed that his personality and way of thinking have been changing since he was turned from a Human into a Saiyan. For example, he's more aggressive and finds it harder to understand other people's intentions. Tattletale's power even picks up that he's slowly changing.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe. Gohan never read the original Worm, and went off of what fanon said about the Undersiders. Unfortunately for him, he realized after their meeting that the stories he read painted them in a much more sympathetic light, and that they're less heroic than he thought. They aren't out-and-out puppy-eating evil, but they are less altruistically inclined.
• Mistaken Identity: Gohan first meets Glory Girl when, in the middle of a gang fight between the ABB and Empire 88, she slams him into a car, thinking he was Lung. She justifies it as seeing a Brute with obvious dragon symbols (Gohan's first costume was just a shirt with dragons on it and a mask) beating up members of the Empire and responded accordingly.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After introducing her to anime, Amy starts calling Gohan "Sensei" to annoy him. When she actually starts flying, she's so amazed she starts calling him that for real.
• Open Secret: Gohan is tracked down by the PRT after his first night out fighting crime? How could this be? Turns out that when a shirtless man with a tail is running around the town beating up drug dealers, robbing them, leaping across rooftops, and then spends several hours gorging himself at an all-you-can-eat buffet, it might attract some attention.
• Outside-Context Problem: Surprisingly, not a Saiyan in the Worm universe- they've seen people with Brute ratings, Trumps, Blasters, and more. What is an OCP is Gohan to himself, as there has never been a canon instance of a human being given the body of a Saiyan. Since all Saiyans grew up with their instincts and hunger for battle, they have control over them, but how would a human with no exposure to those drives handle those being slammed into him? Note that this was written well before the Goku Black arc in Dragonball Super had this as a plot point.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Gohan points out that with Coil's powers, he can murder, rape, or torture people in one timeline and then collapse it, so he gets to do everything he wants in one with no repercussions.
  • He holds a special hatred for Lung for allowing Sex Slaves to be a thing in the ABB.
• Running Gag: Gohan tries to keep his shirt on but the world conspires against him.
• Ship Tease: Militia and Gohan appear to take great pleasure in eyeing one another when they think the other isn't looking. Or when she's shooting him in the chest while he isn't wearing a shirt.
• Shout-Out: Gohan, being a massive nerd, makes little shoutouts all the time.
  • Gohan's "School Code" is the ancient Jedi Code, modified to remove "Death, yet The Force."
  • It's clear the Author likes Team Fourstar. When imagining a match between Vegeta and the Simurgh, he quotes TFS Vegeta's line "Do you feel fear" from TFS Vegeta's match against Android 19. Gohan also gets a lot of glee from quoting the "Very Enthusiastic Walks" bit from Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
  • When asked if he likes Coke or Pepsi, he states "They both taste like battery acid."
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Assault and Battery have a relationship like this. Gohan and Militia have a much more subdued version, but he privately admits to her that he really likes that she keeps him grounded and doesn't let him do some of the crazier things that he knows he's capable of because he's terrified of one day just not caring about anything he used to.
• Slave to PR: Averted somewhat. While Public Relations is an important tool in the PRT's arsenal, they're very open to suggestions by Gohan and help immensely when putting together his costume, themes, and picking out a cape name.
• Super-Empowering: Gohan inadvertently causes Panacea to gain ki sensing.
  • One strength of Ki is that it can be taught to anyone in theory- no need to trigger or have a Corona Pollentia (the portion of the brain responsible for superpowers in Worm). "Linebacker Genius" manages to get ki just by doing what the Saiyan and Panacea does. Admittedly, he's not the best at it- when he first shows it off, all he can do is make a glowing light show up in his palm for a few seconds before he nearly collapses, but it's still Ki.
  • Gohan deliberately introduces the idea of Modular Equipment to Kid Win, which is his Tinker Specialty (which Kid Win didn't know at the time).
• Superpower Lottery: Gohan claims that he's won this, even before he learns how to do Ki attacks or fly. Given that his strength will constantly increase over time, he's immune to bullets, has reaction times so fast that he can spend hours contemplating his next move before the opponents realize what's going on, can run faster than any car, and concrete crumbles in his hands, he's not entirely wrong- and then he learns how to use ki, and gains the ability to fly and shoot lasers from his hands.
• Switching P.O.V.: The Interlude chapters do this, examining Gohan's actions from the points of views of the other characters that he interacts with. The author took special care to show him in a more negative light during these interludes, to show how others might view his purehearted actions in a world like Worm.
• Tempting Fate: when seeking medical attention for getting a boulder to the face from the Simurgh Fight, he specifically states (in his head) that he doesn't want to go to a hospital, as Panacea is probably there and could out him in a nanosecond as "Not normal in the slightest." He instead decides to go to a free clinic. Guess who's at the ONE clinic he goes to?
• Too Dumb to Live: In chapter 21, Gohan is providing the most righteous of beatdowns to Lung... and then an ordinary, bog-standard human walks into the fight and tries to record it on his phone. Not only does this moron nearly get himself killed, but in saving him Gohan loses the advantage he had on Lung and starts getting slammed.
• Troll: In an omake, when Battery asks Assault and Gohan as to why a house they were supposed to be watching burned to the ground while she was in the bathroom, they decide to answer entirely in innuendo, causing Battery to burst into tears.
  • Gohan claims that if he meets Thomas Calvert, he plans to put his arm through his chest to instantly collapse that timeline and prevent Calvert from getting data on him. This is under "Troll" because he plans to yell the most nonsensical things possible as he does so.
• The Unfavorite: Amy's status as this with her mother makes her very suspicious initially of Gohan's offer to teach her how to fly.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The universe itself conspires against Gohan's ability to cover his upper body, ripping shirts apart, filling shirts with bullet holes, lighting shirts on fire, shredding them, or just having Lung tear his new, Tinkertech armor to pieces with his bare hands.

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