Phoenix Rising is a Pokémon: The Series fanfic written by Michael Anastas as a fan sequel to Aquatro and the Hunt for Mew3 by another fan named Surge. The storyline of Phoenix Rising began one month after the end of "Aquatro". Mew-3's deadly rampage left Ash, Mewtwo, and Sabrina dead. His surviving pokemon had been confined to an institution while Professor Oak descended into alcoholism. Misty and Brock struggled with survivor's guilt and Ash's mother was never heard from again.
However, a visitor named Merlin Durai arrived at Ash's small, private funeral. Merlin was the leader of the Phoenix Trainers, a small renegade cadre of the world's strongest trainers that operated outside the jurisdiction of the Pokemon League. He astonished the other guests by using his own Mewtwo to actually resurrect Ash from the dead. Merlin then revealed that a hurricane so huge that it spanned the entire Pacific Ocean had recently formed over a mysterious "oil refinery" owned by Team Rocket leader Giovanni.
Together, Ash and Merlin gathered the other Phoenix trainers in a bid to infiltrate the refinery and save humanity from the coming storm. On their journey to the refinery, Ash was forced to confront the reality of his own death and its aftermath, as well as to master the secrets of the Phoenix Trainers. Meanwhile narrator and Phoenix Trainer Michael Anastas struggled to come to terms with his burgeoning feelings for a Ninetales named Faith and all struggled to survive onslaughts by the minions of demonic super pokemon known as the Wraith.
While the original site the fic was hosted on went down, thanks to the efforts of Valtor111, who had printed a copy of the fic beforehand and ended up typing back up all 150 pages, it can be read in its entirety here.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Ash's mother vanished mysteriously after his death. On the way to the refinery, Gary appears holding her hostage. However at the refinery no sign of her turns up and she is dismissed as dead with no further interest shown in her fate for the rest of the story.
- Aerith and Bob: Merlin Durai and Dragon Matrix work alongside Cassie Fisher and Michael Anastas.
- Affirmative Action Girl: Cassie and Nikki may qualify. Out of the ten Phoenix Trainers they're the only girls and seem there largely for the sake of preventing the PTs' demographics from being entirely male.
- Always Someone Better: An unpleasant reality Ash was forced to confront after realizing that despite five years of journeying and three consecutive championships he had been living in the shadow of non-league trainer Merlin Durai the entire time.
- Anticlimax: Several of these. Most notably at the refinery where the diabolical Wraith Ragnarok expected was actually the more benevolent Sarangel. The real final battle with the Wraith unfortunately turned out to be one of these as well, as it was very brief and not accompanied by the apocalyptic global holy war described in Freeman's prophetic book.
- Ascended Extra: Lt. Surge and Sabrina are major players in the mission to the refinery. Tommy of "The Kangaskhan Kid" fame looked like he was going to become this, but bailed after being killed and later resurrected.
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: Merlin and Dragon.
- Badass Preacher: Christian priest Freeman Bible moonlights as a Phoenix Trainer.
- Bad Date: Michael had a long string of these before he got involved with Faith, since whenever the girl would learn that he was a Phoenix Trainer she would challenge him and then become enraged when he inevitably beat her.
- Battle Couple: Michael and Faith, both as trainer and pokemon and alongside eachother with guns.
- Berserk Button: Gary seems to have pushed this by mocking Merlin Durai for his expulsion from the League.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Wraith is dead, but so is Merlin durai. The Phoenix flees the scene never to be seen again.
- Beyond the Impossible: Seemingly a prerequisite for becoming a Phoenix Trainer and a staple of Merlin Durai's daily life. Notable feats of either or both include training pokemon to levels beyond 100, flouting the type chart, evolving pokemon that supposedly don't evolve or are at their final stage, training the few ultra powerful Pokemon forbidden by the league, and using Pokemon to resurrect people from the dead.
- Chaste Hero: Inverted; narrator Michael Anastas is the only character in the entire cast with any sort of romantic interests or relationship history. Ash and Misty seem to still be just friends after five years of traveling together. Brock is outright stated to be a never-been-kissed virgin.
- Child Prodigy: Merlin Durai was expelled from the Pokemon League for being too good at 8 years old, several years younger than most trainers even start their journeys.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Some pokemon are so dangerous that their very existence is concealed by the League, and their use prohibited.
- Darker and Edgier: Not as dark and edgy as a true "dark fic" but certainly more PG-13 than either the games or anime.
- Deal with the Devil: All of the antagonists have sold their soul to the Wraith for some purpose or other; Gary sold his to have Ash killed, Giovanni sold his to protect the safety of Jessie and James during their quest to steal Ash's pikachu, Merlin's father sold it to be reunited with his family, and Brendan Bible sold his to prevent Giovanni from taking Sarangel from him.
- Demonic Possession: Those who sell their souls to the Wraith become its posessed slaves.
- Demoted to Extra: Although they were main characters in the anime, Misty and Brock only play bit roles in Phoenix Rising.
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Designated Villain: Any actually evil attributes of the Wraith seem to have been added as an afterthought. - Downer Beginning: The world has been devastated by the rampage of an incredibly powerful super-pokemon, Ash and Sabrina are dead, Ash's Pokemon are living in an insane asylum, Ash's mother has vanished, Professor Oak has descended into alcoholism, and Misty and Brock are struggling to cope with survivor's guilt.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Wraith, an ancient malevolent god-figure resembling a cloaked half-skeleton with scythes for arms.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Averted. Not even the ultra-elite Phoenix Trainers show little interest in "catching them all". This may be due to their awareness of a large number of "one-off" artificially created pokemon that make accomplishing this once franchise-defining task essentially impossible, however.
- Healing Factor: Ash and Merlin both seem to have this. Rather than a super power, it's portrayed as their bodies' natural adaptation to having survived many encounters with dangerous pokemon.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: The most central protagonists all use swords at some points. Hell, Merlin seems his far more often than he uses his actual pokemon.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: Merlin Durai's katana; it has a blade made of gold and its hilt and pommel are encrusted with evolution stones that allow it to unleash or redirect elemental energies when "activated" by a pokemon attack of the appropriate type. It was one of only four such swords in existence until Michael commissioned a counterfeit in Portland, Oregon.
- Interspecies Romance: Michael the human and Faith the Ninetales.
- It Has Only Just Begun: "Fear not, my unpaid friend" laughed Gary. "This is only the beginning."
- Lampshade Hanging: The narration explicitly states that despite Merlin's pervasive usage of his golden jewel-encrusted katana, it would normally make a better decoration than serious weapon.
- No One Could Survive That!: The news media's reaction to the detonation of the refinery. Everyone who knew Merlin knew better, though, even Giovanni.
- Oddly Named Sequel: Phoenix Rising is the oddly named sequel to Aquatro and the Hunt for Mew-3 by another author. Phoenix Rising itself has a brief sequel mostly unrelated to the events it portrays called Meowth's Valentine.
- Olympus Mons: A whole crew of 'em; various legendary pokemon, pokemon evolved beyond what the league says is even possible, pokemon at levels beyond 100, forbidden pokemon, and last but certainly not least, the Phoenix and the Wraith.
- Physical God: The Phoenix and the Wraith. The Phoenix is portrayed as just one of a seemingly mundane but now extinct species of bird pokemon, yet also implied to be the Creator Goddess. The Wraith pretty openly identifies as a god, but I guess as a ghost-type you could debate how "physical" it is. Both have temples dedicated to their worship.
- Pokémon Speak: Treated even more seriously than it was in the anime given that Phoenix Rising pokespeak seems to function as a complex language in its own right which challenges even extremely experienced trainers to fully understand. Pokespeak was averted in the case of those belonging to Michael Anastas, nearly all of whom speak perfect English, especially Faith.
- Recursive Fanfiction: Phoenix Rising was a fanfic of Aquatro and the Hunt for Mew-3 by Surge. Both authors seem to have been part of the same online gaming forum.
- Rule of Cool: The text practically comes out and says that Merlin Durai's katana is this.
- Running Gag: Ash being ribbed about his history of dying. Darius's Gengar calling him "Master". Michael regretting teaching his pokemon English.
- Scars Are Forever: Ash's pokemon-inflicted scar flaunting contest with Merlin demonstrates that apparently it is literally easier to raise the dead than to remove scars.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Merlin teaches Ash how to hurt rock type pokemon with electric attacks. Not that this should have been needed given the anime's loose adherence to the Pokemon type chart, but it does provide a good example of the Phoenix Trainers' Beyond the Impossible abilities.
- Self-Insert Fic: Michael is an obvious self insert to allow the author to live out his furry romantic fantasies. Merlin is a slightly less obvious self insert allowing him to live out fantasies of power.
- Title Drop: "The time has come at last!" he raised his hands to the air. "The time has come for PHOENIX RISING!!!"
- Took a Level in Badass: The Phoenix Trainers almost literally do this at the Phoenix School. There they learn extreme training and battling techniques, about the existence of the forbidden pokemon, and crisis management strategies like how to use pokemon to save the passengers of a crashing airplane.
- You Never Asked: Dragon on why he never mentioned that Phoenix Trainers were mere yards from the Temple of the Phoenix while they were infiltrating that of the Wraith.
