Pyroclasm
is a Self-Insert Young Justice (2010) fanfic written by Fulcon, and posted on Spacebattles, featuring the titular character (otherwise known as Michael Winter) being recruited by Batman and Green Arrow as a member of The Team.
It can also be read here.
Pyroclasm contains examples of the following tropes:
- Artificial Intelligence: Michael is a brilliant programmer, and he has created several self-aware A.I.s for different purposes by the time the story starts.
- Badass Normal: Robin, Artemis, and basically anyone who doesn't have superpowers. Artemis changes her mind when she realizes Pyro can give her powers with little hassle.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Invoked by Klarion when giving powers as mentioned in the entry below, as he makes their powers as dangerous as he possibly can and inflicting Horror Hunger on one of them to ensure she uses her powers for evil.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Pyro acknowledges that his powers are quite deadly and not good for non-lethal take downs.
- Crazy-Prepared: One fine example is the steps Pyroclasm takes to prevent mind-reading. The computer chip implanted in his brain even affects Miss Martian's telepathic communication.
- Create Your Own Villain: Invoked. Klarion, taking inspiration from Pyroclasm, gives super powers to four completely random people. Notably, only one of them needed actual motivation to be evil, and she's the woobie.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Michael incinerated Victor Zsass when Victor tried to kill one of his neighbors. It was ruled justified by the courts, but Michael constantly receives hate mail and death threats from criminal activist groups and jerks.
- Evil Overlord List: Pyroclasm operates by a set of rules, one of which is using the Evil Overlord List.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Kid Flash doesn't believe in magic while both Aqualad and Pyroclasm use it. Pyro's father appears to be this as well.
- For Want Of A Nail: An alternative plan suggested by Pyroclasm to keep Dr. Serling Roquette safe ended with Superboy severely injured.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Artemis decides to take advantage of Pyro's offer to give her super powers.
- The Lancer: Invoked with Aqualad picking Pyroclasm to be his second. With Aqualad being a nice, kind and polite leader to contrast with Pyroclasm's blunt, acerbic and brutally honest nature.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Pyro is very attached to his A.I.s and has trouble emotionally connecting with almost everyone else.
- Magitek: Pyro bonds with both M'gann and Kaldur via discussing this.
- Moral Sociopathy: Pyroclasm would probably describe himself as such.
- Mundane Utility: Pyro doesn't just make fire, he can control heat, and uses this power to...pull the excess heat out from cookies right out of the oven so that they can be eaten straight away.
- Never Be Hurt Again: The main reason Michael chose fire as his power was for fire’s purification properties, which ensure that he’ll never die from cancer like his past self.
- Past-Life Memories: Pyroclasm retains the memories of his past life but they’ve rapidly begun to fade by the time the story starts.
- Playing with Fire: Pyrokinetics are Michael's bar trick, which he gained by performing a magical ritual that melded a Fire Elemental to his own soul.
- Poor Communication Kills: M'Gann doesn't tell Wally that she's not interested in him because the telepathic nature of martians means that directly telling someone that you're not interested is considered rude. Wally for his part just assumes she's playing hard to get and his constant attempts at wooing her serve as one of the main sources of tension between him and Michael.
- Reincarnate in Another World: This is the premise of the protagonist, who remembers having lived on our own Earth but has been reincarnated on Earth 16.
- Secret Identity: Pyro keeps his from the rest of the team.
- Ship Tease: Pyroclasm and Artemis both have a similar sense of humor and love one-liners.
- Shout-Out: Possible names Michael suggests for himself before settling on Pyroclasm are Captain Falcon and The Human Torch.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: How Pyroclasm and Artemis bond.
- Sociopathic Hero: Pyroclasm, at least as far as Kid Flash is concerned.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Pyro built an AI with this express purpose.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Pyro delivers a big one to Kid Flash during their debate.
- The Snark Knight: Pyroclasm's generic response to anything he perceives to be stupid.
- Trauma Conga Line: Wendy again.
- Took a Level in Badass: Pyroclasm managed to snag multiple power-ups in quick succession during the break when the team was forced to go to ground, such as Nabu helping him gain much more control of his fire.
- The Unmasking: Cheshire ends up captured during the Fog incident, and thus revealing Artemis' heritage. The Team took it well, though.
- Wowing Cthulhu: Pyro gives inspiration to Klarion the Witch Boy.
