Literature / La Fuerza Series

The La Fuerza Series is a series of Superhero Short Stories currently available to read on Archive of Our Own. The series consists of Rise of the La Fuerza, La Fuerza: The Hunters, The Inquisitor, Darklight, The Hazard Squad, Supers Anonymous, Fallout, The Inquisitor: Unsafe and Unsound, The Inquisitor: No Rest for the Weary, Frozen Innocence, The Hazard Squad: Unfinished Business, and The Hazard Squad: Into the Void. A 13th book, Some Kind of Hero, is currently a work in progress.

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These books provide examples of:

Rise of La Fuerza

• Berserk Button: Do not touch María’s shoulders, especially from behind.
• Bilingual Bonus: Jake recites Liam Neeson’s “Particular set of skills” speech from Taken in untranslated Spanish.
• Challenging the Bully: Bianca is sick of Rachel’s abusive behavior towards María and stands up to her.
• Country Matters: Rachel calls María a little cunt.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even after Nightshade’s Heel-Face Turn, Engineer isn’t willing to kill her over María’s parental issues.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Jennifer/Nightshade has one after realizing how dangerous Mrs. Álvarez is.
  • Engineer has one after his Even Evil Has Standards moment.
• Mind over Matter: María is telekinetic.
• My Beloved Smother: Downplayed and combined with Abusive Parents.
• Nasal Trauma: After stopping Rachel’s slap, Bianca breaks her nose with a punch.
• Punch Catch: A variant. Bianca catches Rachel’s wrist when Rachel tries to slap her.
• Seven Dirty Words: Recited in Spanish by María.
• Shout-Out: María’s address is 1982 Carpenter Street, referencing John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).
• Shown Their Work: Word of God suffers from nosebleeds and is aware that leaning your head back when you have one is a bad idea.
• Teleportation: One of Jennifer’s powers.

La Fuerza: The Hunters

• Animate Dead: Ray's superpower is Necromancy.
• Back for the Dead: Henry Silvia/Chimera.
• Combat Tentacles: Leviathan has these.
• Our Zombies Are Different: They’re reanimated corpses being controlled by a super named Necromancer.
• Shout-Out:
  • María Álvarez has an uncle named Fede who is Uruguayan and works in the film industry.
  • Emerald Witch is one to Scarlet Witch.
  • Captain Derrickson’s name is one to filmmaker Scott Derrickson.
• Spider Swarm: In the middle of winter, no less. Justified, since the spiders in question are being controlled by a super.
• Took a Level in Badass: María has become much better with her powers since the first book.

The Inquisitor

• 24-Hour Armor: Justified. Jane Keller and the other recipients of the self-repairing cybernetic armor have said armor under their skin, making it impossible to remove unless your superpower is Technology Manipulation.
• Bottomless Magazines: A rare Justified example. Witch Doctor’s superpower is Illogical Construct Creation, and one such creation is a pair of minigun pistols with no recoil and infinite ammunition.
• Breath Weapon: Combined with Playing with Fire. One of the mercenaries who attacks Jane and Jennifer in the hospital can breath white-hot flames.
• Counting Bullets: SWAT Captain Reynolds knows a mercenary’s Desert Eagles are empty because she fired 14 rounds.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Jane’s new cybernetics take some getting used to.
• Existential Horror: Jane experiences this after her Unwilling Roboticisation.
• Flashback Nightmare: During Jane’s imprisonment, she has several Flashback Nightmares that alternate between the day she was abducted and moments with her parents from earlier in her life.
• Foregone Conclusion: The fight between the Hazard Squad and the Hunters goes down exactly the way it did in La Fuerza: The Hunters, only this time from Jane’s third person POV instead of María’s.
• Golem: Priestess has the ability to create these out of almost any materiel.
• A Handful for an Eye: One of the powered mercenaries sent after Jane has the ability to manipulate and and carries literal pocket sand. Lampshaded by Jane.
  Jane: Pocket sand? Seriously?
• I Reject Your Reality: Evan is utterly convinced that Jane killed Mandy and refuses to hear otherwise.
• Kid Has a Point: 7 year-old Jane questions why they have to tell Jesus they’re thankful every night, pointing out that he should remember they already did it the day before.
• Language Barrier: One that requires translation through multiple languages for a single conversation.
• Mundane Utility: Brian Gatling used his super strength to help surgeons get thought Jane’s cybernetic armor.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In La Fuerza: The Hunters, it’s explained to that María kills Etho by using her powers to make his heart explode in his body. In this book, Jane has no idea what kills him.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: During the hospital fight, Jennifer kills one mercenary by teleporting him up to 3,000 feet and dropping him.
• Off with His Head!: During a car chase, a mercenary leaning out a car window is decapitated by a speed limit sign.
• P.O.V. Sequel: Downplayed. The penultimate fight was seen from María's POV in the previous book, and here it’s seen from Jane's.
• Self-Duplication: OMA (One Man Army) has this power.
• Self-Healing Phlebotinum: Jane’s cybernetic armor is self-repairing.
• Shout-Out:
  • Liz telling Evan to “Eat shit and live” is a reference to Sleepaway Camp.
  • Jane points out a Hummer with a “My Graboid at your stick family” decal on the back - a reference to Tremors.
  • During the hospital fight, Jennifer paraphrases Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. Doubles as I Always Wanted to Say That.
• Third Party Stops Attack: The Hunters from the previous book save Jane from several powered mercenaries.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Jane is implanted with cybernetics against her will.

Darklight

• Affectionate Nickname: Adam eventually calls Valerie “Val”.
• Dating Catwoman: Adam Montgomery and Valerie Harper go from Friends to Lovers without knowing that they’re enemies, only finding out after they’ve been dating for years and are living together.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Lea Cornell, future protagonist of the series, has a small role here.
• Fictional Counterpart: This universe’s version of Siri is called Iris.
• Groin Attack: Evan gets a particularly brutal one when Luna rips it off and crushes it.
• Ironic Name: Hope Olsen turns out to be a cold-hearted girl who falsely accused her ex of being abusive.
• Playing with Fire: Hope Olsen is revealed to be pyrokinetic.
• Mind over Matter: Pete Freeman is telekinetic. Word of God generally tries to avoid having multiple characters with the exact same skill set and deliberately made Pete’s use of his powers different from María/La Fuerza. For example, María can use her powers to levitate and fly. Pete can’t do either of those things, but he can use his powers to control his descent after jumping off the roof of a building.
• Monster/Slayer Romance: By the time Adam and Valerie find out they’re enemies, they’ve already been dating for years, fallen in love, and moved in together.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Invoked and Parodied. When Adam is looking at Valerie’s Kill Bill shirt, she tells him, “Hey, my tits are up here.”
• Not Good with Rejection: Hope Olsen. After Adam breaks up with her, she falsely accuses him of being abusive and only backs down from that lie when presented with video evidence that contradicts it.
• Self-Deprecation: Pete says that’s he’s only half as stupid as he looks.
• Shout-Out:
  • Characters watch The Descent.
  • Valerie wears a t-shirt depicting The Bride’s duel with O-ren Ishii in Kill Bill.
• Technopath: Ian Holmes.
• Villain of Another Story: Evan uses Mind Control to get women to have sex with him. He only appears in one scene, after getting his comeuppance.
• Voice Changeling:
  • Valerie Harper/Mercury has this as a superpower.
  • Adam Montgomery and Pete Freeman use voice changers to achieve this.

The Hazard Squad

• Accidental Murder: María accidentally kills Jake in a moment of panic.
• Ascended Extra: Lea Cornell had a small role in the previous book and has a lead role in this book and most of the subsequent books.
• Attack Reflector: The villain has this power.
• Callback: A tragic one to María’s shoulder touch Berserk Button.
• Coitus Uninterruptus: María sees Jane hooking up with Miguel in the locker room and leaves so they can continue in private.
• Crippling Overspecialization: None of the Hazard Squad members are prepared to fight powerless.
• Death by Adaptation: Sort of. The original version of María survives the Spider-Gwen fanfiction she was created for. This version doesn’t get a happy ending.
• Did Not Get the Girl: A tragic example. Lea’s attraction to María is subtly hinted at throughout the book, but in the climax, Lea is the only one who can get close to María, and Lea is forced to kill María.
• Distracted by the Sexy: While looking through binoculars, Jane is briefly distracted by a gay couple having sex, one of them apparently very well-endowed.
• Downer Ending: Jake and María are Killed Off for Real, and the rest of the team is devastated.
• Howl of Sorrow: Upon learning that Jake is dead, Erin lets out the loudest, most pained scream Jennifer has ever heard.
• In the Back: Not literally. Lea stabs María between the ribs.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Lea is forced to kill María, but she declares her love for María before doing so because she won’t get another chance.
• Lampshaded Double Entendre: After finding out Jane hooked up with Miguel, María asks her if they’re “nutty buddies” (friends with benefits), then immediately starts laughing at her own innuendo.
• Meaningful Name: Combined with Double Meaning. Aaron O'Neal's super name is Major Ursa, which comes from the constellation Ursa Major and also is a reference to his superpower - Bear Manipulation.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: Happens twice to María when she wanders through an unfamiliar neighborhood.
• Mundane Utility: When a bridge collapses, Aaron uses his powers to summon several bears to warm up the people who fell in the water.
• Neck Snap: María snaps the blond man’s neck in the opening scene.
• Outliving One's Offspring: María is survived by her Uncle Fede and Aunt Amelia, who were her adoptive parents.
• Shout-Out: María references “I have a banana in my ear.” from Baby Driver.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: The redhead German woman in the opening has this power.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: This exchange.
  Jake: I’m gonna go home. Get some sleep.
  María and Jane(not quite in sync): You’re not my real mom.
• Take That!: Jennifer compares Cabin Fever (2016) unfavorably to the original Cabin Fever. María also states that she saw the 2016 version but doesn’t remember any of it.
• Useless Without Powers: The Hazard Squad in generals but specifically María. See Unstable Powered Woman.
• Unstable Powered Woman: María becomes this when her fear of losing control comes back.
• Would Hit a Girl: Invoked by Jennifer when she confronts the man who attacks María.

Supers Anonymous

• Auto Erotica: Lea and Jason have sex in the backseat of the former’s car.
• Bilingual Bonus: Lea has a conversation with her aunt in untranslated French.
  Lea: Oui, je promets que je vais bien. Non, ce sont des gens différents. Je les ai jamais vus avant. J’en doute vraiment. Je suis pas la seule qu’ils cherchaient. Oui. On l’a trouvé endormi dans notre salle de réunion. Non, je lui ai à peine parlé. On l’a retrouvé mort plus tard. Ils ont demandé ce qu’il nous a dit. Je sais pas, il connaissait probablement des secrets sur eux. Monique, ils savent probablement même pas que tu existes. Oui je suis sûre! J’ai pas le temps pour ça. Au revoir.
  Translated: Yes, I promise I'm fine. No, they are different people. I have never seen them before. I really doubt it. I'm not the only one they were looking for. Yes. We found him asleep in our meeting room. No, I barely spoke to him. He was found dead later. They asked what he told us. I don't know, he probably knew some secrets about them. Monique, they probably don't even know you exist. Yes, I'm sure! I don't have time for that. Bye.
• Dead Person Conversation: In the epilogue, Isaac uses his powers to allow Lea to talk to María and get some closure.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Cited by Kristen when Mia is talking about her powers.
  Mia: According to my vaguely scientific research, it’s called Kinetikinesis.
  Kristen: Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
• Disproportionate Retribution: See Woman Scorned below.
• Do You Want to Copulate?:
  • Mia propositions Kristen the day they meet. Kristen accepts.
  • Lea similarly propositions Jason.
• Dream Sequence: Trixie has one at the beginning of Chapter 6.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Lea and Jennifer are attacked by two of the villains in an elevator.
• Emotion Control: Jorge has this power.
• Failed a Spot Check: Kristen’s boyfriend died because she was too hungover to notice that she had irradiated not only their apartment, but the 17 apartments around it.
• Gravity Master: Colin Patterson can manipulate the gravity of individual objects and people.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The intangible man was cut in half when another super disabled his powers while he was moving through a wall.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: The main villain has this power.
• Intangibility: The man Lea finds asleep in the meeting room has this power.
• Irony: Fred has super speed, but is in a wheelchair after being paralyzed from the waist down. Lampshaded by Fred himself.
• Logical Weakness: Lea is immune to naturally-occurring superpowers, but artificial powers still affect her, at least when the person with those powers doesn’t carry the Super Gene.
• Master of Illusion: Jackie’s superpower is creating illusions.
• Meaningful Name: Oh Dae-su means “Getting through one day at a time.”
• Mundane Utility: Jennifer uses her dark energy powers to create a chair.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Downplayed and Justified. Jennifer learns how to manifest wings, but she does so by using her existing powers in a slightly different way rather than gaining actual new powers.
• Shout-Out:
  • Oh Dae-su is named after the protagonist from Oldboy (2003).
  • Jackie wears an X-Files t-shirt.
  • Combined with Take That!. Jennifer chooses to use a historically-accurate Spartan sword instead of the ones used in the movie 300, saying that she loves the movie but loves history more.
  • Mia wears a Re-Animator t-shirt.
• Stronger Than They Look: Mia.
• Super-Speed: Fred has this power.
• Tap on the Head: Played realistically. During the Elevator Action Sequence, Lea gets punched in the head, which disorients her.
• Thinking Up Portals: Oh Dae-su has this power.
• Truth in Television: Firing a Glock 18 machine pistol without a buttstock isn’t very accurate at a distance.
• Useless Without Powers: Defied by the Hazard Squad, who now train just as much without their powers as with them.
• Woman Scorned: A terrifying variant. Upon finding her male best friend in bed with her girlfriend, Jackie created an illusion that drove them both insane.

Fallout

• A Day in the Limelight: After being members of the Ensemble Cast in Supers Anonymous, Mia and Kristen are the main characters of Fallout.
• Abusive Parents: Mia's mother was a delusional and psychopathic mind controller.
• Ascended Extra: After being members of the Ensemble Cast in Supers Anonymous, Mia and Kristen are the main characters of this book.
• Atomic Superpower: Kristen can absorb and expel radiation.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Mia and Kristen stand back-to-back when they’re attacked in the alleyway.
• Battle Couple: Mia and Kristen.
• Continuity Nod: Valeria mentions the character in Darklight who used his powers to get in women’s pants, and a woman with super strength (Luna) used herself as bait, then ripped his dick off in the morning.
  • According to Word of God, Fallout was actually written before Darklight, and the scene in Darklight was meant to flesh out the Noodle Incident.
• Energy Absorption: Mia can absorb kinetic energy, store it, and use it as a weapon.
• Flashback Nightmare: Mia has several dreams of the things she did under her mother’s Mind Control.
• Improperly Paranoid: Reyna Levy.
• Meaningful Name & Shout-Out: Mia Levy.
• Mind Control: Mia’s mother had this power.
• Precision F-Strike: Mia gets a few.
  Mia: You’re FUCKING right I did!
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Valeria’s reaction to Kristen threatening her with radiation.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Played with. The villains want revenge against Mia for things she did under her mother’s Mind Control.
• Tap on the Head: Played realistically. Kristen is hit in the back of the head with a large steel ball, and a moment later Mia is kicked in the head. Both are knocked unconscious.
• Water Torture: Mia is waterboarded by the villains.

The Inquisitor: Unsafe and Unsound

• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Luna rips an enhanced mercenary’s arm off below the elbow. Then she starts beating him with it.
  • During a fight against enhanced mercenaries, Jennifer’s left arm is severed above the elbow.
• Anger Born of Worry: Lily slaps Jane for leaving without saying anything, then hugs her because she’s glad Jane is okay.
  Lily: You bitch. You didn’t think to tell us what you were planning before you left?
  Jane: I’m sorry, I was worried they were monitoring us.
  Lily: You scared the shit out of me. Don’t fucking do that again, okay?
• Armor of Invincibility: Played with. The cybernetic armor will continue to repair itself indefinitely - even after the person with it is dead and there’s nothing left of their body except the armor.
• Back for the Dead: Rafael from The Inquisitor returns to be part of a Suicide Attack.
• Badass Boast: Lily gets one.
  Lily: With the energy I have now, it’d take a few headshots to actually kill me.
• Badass Bystander: Lily Weaving, who becomes a main character by the end of the book.
• Battering Ram: Luna uses the body of a dead mercenary as one.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Lily has a retractable prehensile tail with a retractable spike.
• Body Horror: Lily suffers from several graphic injuries that would kill a normal human several times over, especially after her apartment explodes.
• Boom, Headshot!: Lily gets shot in the head at close range with a Desert Eagle. She gets better.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Happens to Jane and Lily.
• The Bus Came Back: Erin returns after being absent since The Hazard Squad.
• But I Would Really Enjoy It: Invoked by Jane and Lily when they let themselves get captured and act like they think they’re doomed.
  Lily: If we don’t make it, I want you to know that I would’ve gone down on you until you tapped out.
  Jane: I think I could’ve enjoyed that.
• Casual Kink: Downplayed in this exchange between Jane and Lily:
  Lily: Can I fuck you with my tail?
  Jane: Ask me when I’m drunk.
  Lily: Will do.
• Collateral Damage: Jane and Lily's apartment fight ends with Lisa getting hurt.
• Continuity Nod: Fallout ended with Mia and Kristen getting engaged. This book ends with Jane, Lisa, and Lily attending their wedding.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The veterans at the beach never stood a chance against the enhanced mercenary.
  • Likewise, the unenhanced mercenaries had no chance against Lily.
  • The enhanced mercenaries in Chapter 8 don't last long once the FBI's Task Force Sigma shows up.
• Dead All Along: Lily’s brother Ryan was killed by faulty cybernetic armor.
• Destination Defenestration:
  • During the hotel fight, a female mercenary is thrown out a window.
  • After her apartment explodes, Lily throws herself out the window to help Jane and Lisa.
• Establishing Character Moment: Lily gets one when she attacks the mercenaries, protecting Jane and Lisa in the process.
• Expy: According to Word of God, Lily was originally imagined as Laura Kinney with more offensive options and a weaker Healing Factor, but her personality was changed during the writing process.
• Faking Amnesia: Lily does this to mess with Jane after healing from getting shot in the head.
• Forced Friendly Fire: In the opening, Jackie creates an illusion that causes one of the traffickers to open fire on his teammates.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • Luna rips off an enhanced mercenary’s arm, then beats him with it.
  • Later, she uses another enhanced mercenary’s body as a Battering Ram.
• Healing Factor: Lily Weaving/Predator has one strong enough to save her from a bomb that destroyed her apartment.
• Heel–Face Turn: Cue Ball has one when the people who hired him try to kill him.
  Cue Ball: If those fuckers consider me expendable then they can burn for all I care.
• History Repeats: Like in The Inquisitor, the villain leaves the words SURRENDER JANE as a message. Lampshaded by the cyborg herself.
• Human Traffickers: Even worse, child traffickers.
• Impaled Palm: Mentioned by Lily.
  Lily: I got stigmata from a .357 Magnum and it took a couple days to heal.
• Lampshade Hanging: This exchange points out a potential Plot Hole regarding Jane's cybernetics and explains why it's not one:
  Jane: Who are you?
  Dr. Braxton: You can call me Dr. Braxton. This is my associate, Dr. Hatcher. You were our first success.
  Jane: Excuse me?
  Dr. Braxton: The nanites. I made them.
  Jane: That doesn't make sense.
  Dr. Braxton: Why not? There are people who could flip the Earth's magnetic poles if they chose to. Why doesn't it make sense that I can create nanites?
  Jane: No, I buy that you can do that, I just don't buy that you made the ones inside me.
  Dr. Braxton: Why not?
  Jane: Because I’ve fought someone who is immune to natural superpowers and anything created or manipulated by them, and she wasn't immune to me. If my armor came from your powers, she should've been immune to the strength they give me.
  Dr. Braxton: Not necessarily. How many people in your family have powers that you know of?
  Jane: One of my cousins, but he's adopted.
  Dr. Braxton: Then you probably don't carry the Super Gene. Which could explain why a power resistor's abilities might not register you as a threat.
• Neck Snap: Lily’s neck is crushed by an enhanced mercenary. She gets better.
• "Open!" Says Me: Justified. Luna uses her Super-Strength to kick a door off its hinges.
• Prehensile Hair: Dreadlock has this power.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: This text from Jane:
  Jane: Worst. Timing. Ever. Of all time.
• Sacrificial Lion: Brenda.
• Self-Duplication: One of the traffickers in the beginning has this power.
• Shout-Out: Lisa watches Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and asks if she can refer to Jane as her hetero lifemate.
• Sleep Cute: Invoked, Zig-Zagged, and Downplayed. During an overnight car ride, Lily offers to let Jane sleep on her shoulder. Whether or not Jane accepts is left ambiguous, but when she wakes up, she’s leaning against her seatbelt, and Lily is sleeping on Jane’s shoulder.
• Spike Shooter: Lily can fire small bone spikes out of the palms of her hands.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Jane finds Lily strapped to one. She and Adam soon join Lily.
• Take Off Your Clothes: Said verbatim twice by Jane to Lily when they hook up. The second time features a Precision F-Strike.
  Lily: Say it again.
  Jane: Take off your clothes. Right fucking now.
• Taking You with Me: Jane threatens to do this to Dr. Hatchet and Dr. Braxton during the climax.
  Jane: My new armor is laced with explosives. Tell your people to stand down or I set them off and we all die.
• Truth in Television: Severed arms can be reattached and eventually regain full function under the right circumstances.

The Inquistor: No Rest for the Weary

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Played straight, then inverted. Lily cups Jane’s cheek, then Jane nuzzles Lily’s palm.
• The Ageless: Oscar is revealed to be this.
• Author Appeal:
  • Valeria has ADHD because Word of God does too.
  • Valeria and Sofia live in Hastings, Minnesota, where Word of God lived while writing the book.
• Battle Couple: Jane and Lily.
• Bilingual Bonus: Valeria and Sofia often talk in untranslated Spanish.
• Bookends: The book starts and ends with Jane and Lily on vacation in Hawaii.
• Break the Cutie: Valeria is horrified by what happened once the Mind Control wears off.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The fact that Jane and Lily just so happened to be staying at the same hotel as Valeria and Sofia.
  • María inherited her powers from her mother, but Valeria has the same father as María, not the same mother, meaning the fact that they have the same powers is pure chance. Lampshaded by Lily.
• Cute Bruiser: Valeria Ramos.
• Dead Person Conversation: Isaac returns so that Valeria can meet her late half-sister, María.
• Death Flight: Jennifer attempts a teleportation variant on Harper.
• Decapitation Required: The only way to kill Oscar and the other immortals.
• Establishing Character Moment: Sofia getting between Valeria and Oscar, even when he reveals his fire powers, establishes her as a Mama Bear.
• Five-Finger Fillet: Lily does this with one of her own claws and accidentally stabs herself.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: During the trial, it’s revealed that Judge Crispino has healing powers. This comes in handy when Oscar breaks loose and injures several people.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Jane and Lily are on vacation in Hawaii at the start of the book.
• Hand Wave: This exchange.
  Kalia: Where and how did you get all this?
  Jennifer: I’m a P.I. Finding all this was…relatively easy.
• Healing Factor: In addition to Jane and Lily, Oscar and the other immortals also have this ability.
• High-Altitude Battle: Oscar attacks the others on a commercial flight.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The climax takes place on April Fools' Day.
• Hypocritical Humor: Invoked in this exchange.
  Lily: Are you aware that people who exercise before 8:00 am are 30% more likely to be homicidal maniacs?
  Jane: Are you aware that people who quote fake statistics are 80% more likely to be full of shit?
• Impaled Palm:
  • While testing her powers, Valeria accidentally stabs Lily through the hand with a pencil.
  • Later, while playing the Knife Game, Lily accidentally stabs herself with her own bone claw.
• Logical Weakness: Teleporting while falling doesn’t stop you from falling or change your momentum, it only changes your location.
• Mama Bear: Sofia Ramos stands between her underage daughter Valeria and the 38 year old man who took advantage of her even after that man reveals that he has fire superpowers.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Keanu is named after Keanu Reeves.
  • Judge Anthony Crispino is named after Bobby Moynihan’s character of the same name from the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live.
• Mind Control: Oscar uses a combination of Inhibition Manipulation and Pheromone Generation.
• Mind over Matter: Like her late half-sister María, Valeria Ramos is telekinetic.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All but cited by Vanessa when discussing Amelia’s behavior.
  Vanessa: Amelia’s a lesbian. She slept with every college roommate she had and a bunch of her female classmates like it was no big deal, but both times she tried banging a guy she said it made her feel dirty in a bad way. I walked in on him doing her doggy style while she called him “Daddy”, and it’s easily the most out-of-character thing I’ve ever seen her do.
• Playing with Fire: Oscar has fire abilities.
• Really 700 Years Old: Oscar is 38 years old, but he’s been 38 for 823 years.
• Shown Their Work: Valeria takes Focalin and Strattera for her ADHD. These are both real ADHD medications.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: When Isaac wakes up María's spirit, she mentions that from her perspective it’s been a day since the first time, even though 3 1/2 years have passed. Zig-Zagged, because Word of God says that even if her spirit was summoned twice in the same day, a day would still pass between them from her perspective.

Frozen Innocence

• Actually Pretty Funny: Eddie laughs at his daughter’s Roman fire joke (see Deadpan Snarker).
• An Ice Person: Edward Finch/Cryo.
• Back for the Dead: Officer Carter, last seen in La Fuerza: The Hunters, returns to be killed by Aurora via brain aneurysm.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Aurora Finch.
• Deadpan Snarker: Aurora Finch.
  Eddie: It must be Greek fire.
  Aurora: As opposed to Roman fire?
• Demoted to Extra: Not exactly an extra, but series protagonist Lea Cornell has a supporting role in this book.
• Distinguishing Mark: Memory Man has a scar that makes him easy to spot.
• Downer Ending: Jacob is dead, Lea is in the hospital, and Eddie, Aurora, and Amy got away.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Eddie maybe a supervillain who is behind the events of the book, but he was faithful to his wife.
• Eye Color Change: Aurora’s hazel eyes glow bronze when she gives someone and aneurysm.
• Eye Scream: Mentioned by Eddie when he talks about the only time his wife cheated on him (before they were married).
  Eddie: When she woke up in his bed, the first thing she did was text me a confession and beg for a second chance. Then she found out he was married and scratched him so hard he had permanent damage in his left eye. That’s when I knew I loved her.
• Flat Character: Detective Mike Wallace. Justified, since he’s not important to the story and is only there as Max’s replacement after his death.
• Foreshadowing: Aurora is the only one to survive being frozen, not because she was intentionally spared by the mercenaries, but because of her Greek Fire abilities.
• Framing the Guilty Party: Of the Framing Yourself variety. Eddie Finch/Cryo is framed by superpowered mercenaries for the murder of his wife and sons and attempted murder of his daughter, and they even erased his memory of the events. It’s revealed that the person who hired the mercenaries was Eddie himself.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The PVU (Powered Victims Unit), a relatively new type of police unit that specifically investigates crimes involving superpowered individuals.
• Karma Houdini: Eddie, Aurora, and Aurora’s girlfriend Amy get away with everything.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Lea and the Hazard Squad spend the next book tracking them down and eventually capture them.
• Killed Offscreen: Officer Ben Carter dies of a brain aneurysm in his hotel room.
• Logical Weakness: Abby can only replicate the powers of two supers at once. She has to consciously choose whether or not to replace one of her current powers with a new one, and doing so in the heat of battle costs her precious seconds and can lead to mistakes.
• Manly Tears: Eddie starts crying when he finds out his wife and sons are dead.
• No Peripheral Vision: Inverted and Justified. Blindspot’s superpower is that she can only be seen in your peripheral vision.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Aurora. Unlike her father, her memory hasn’t been altered, meaning she’s playing innocent the entire time.
• Playing with Fire: Aurora Finch can manifest and manipulate Greek Fire, which was the original Napalm.
• Power Copying: Emulator can copy the powers of up to two people at once.
• Precision F-Strike: Aurora gets some.
  • After Eddie says there’s many things he should have told her and asks her to be more specific.
  Aurora: That you’re a fucking supervillain.
  • When she shows him her powers.
  Aurora: Why is it green, Dad? Why is it fucking green?
• Psychic Powers: Aurora has the ability to induce brain aneurysms in other people.
• Rewatch Bonus: Of the reading variety. Pretty much every scene involving Eddie and/or Aurora plays out differently once you realize they’re both in on it from the beginning.
  • The fire caused by Aurora in the hospital isn’t an accident.
  • Probably the biggest example is that the conversation in which Aurora confronts Eddie about not telling her she might have powers is at least partially staged by them both.
• Shout-Out: Eddie and Aurora’s address is 1997 Hackford Street.
• Swiss Bank Account: The person who hired Memory Man, Polymorph, and Emulator to frame Eddie paid them from a Swiss Bank Account. That person is eventually revealed to be Eddie himself.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Eddie and Aurora have been behind everything, and Eddie set himself up to be framed.
• Thinking Up Portals: Loophole has this power.

The Hazard Squad: Unfinished Business

• The Alcoholic: Lea has become one since the end of Frozen Innocence.
• Brick Joke: Jason brings the extra dark chocolate from his fridge when he visits Lea in the hospital.
  Lea: That's enough bitterness to ruin someone’s life.
• The Cameo: Sabrina Avila, Bruce Xióng, and Mike Wallace from Frozen Innocence.
• Chairman of the Brawl: Eddie during the climax.
• Chase Scene: Lea chases Daybreaker on her motorcycle.
• Continuity Nod: Jane reminds Lea that Lea isn't immune to her artificial powers.
• Descent into Addiction: Lea goes through this.
• Everyone Has Standards: Camila/Daybreaker.
  To quote the book itself, “There was little consistency in her crimes. Since first appearing in the city, she had robbed two banks, three pawn shops, and two jewelers. She had assaulted over 40 people and injured at least twice that, but only killed three. She regularly violated traffic laws - running red lights, weaving around other vehicles, and sometimes leaving accidents in her wake. When she paid for things, she usually used cash, and when she did use debit or credit cards, she never used the same one twice. Her tools and equipment varied, but included pistols, knives, zip ties, stun guns, smoke bombs, flashbangs, and even a stolen police baton. The one island in her red river of a rap sheet was when she had walked in on a female diner manager recording her male assistant manager while he molested an underage female employee. Daybreaker had beaten, incapacitated, and restrained the managers, then waited with and comforted the employee, only leaving when she heard police sirens.”
• Good Is Not Soft: Lea is not messing around when she confronts Eddie and Aurora.
• Hero of Another Story: Shapur’s son, Ervin, is said to be on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against his sister Astrella, who stole his powers.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Lea in the climax.
  Lea: You have no fucking idea how badly I want a drink right now.
• Insistent Terminology: This exchange.
  Jason: Have you gone to any meetings?
  Lea: I'm not an alcoholic.
  Jason: So that's a no.
  Lea: Yeah, that's a no. Like I said, I'm not an alcoholic.
  Jason: You're right. You’re not an alcoholic, you're a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.
• Nasal Trauma: Erin snorts hot coffee out her nose while laughing at a joke Jason told.
• Nice to the Waiter: Lea and Camila when they have dinner.
• Nightmare Sequence: Lea has one at the start of Chapter 2.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Eddie and Aurora initially play dumb when Lea confronts them.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lea drunkenly points a gun at Jason when he confronts her about her drinking.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Lea and Jennifer have a mutual one while making up after an argument.
  Lea: You know I love you, right?
  Jennifer: Of course. You’re my best friend. I love you too.
• Recovered Addict: Lea is this by the end of the book.
• Self-Deprecation: This exchange.
  Jason: What are you talking about?
  Lea: Don't to that.
  Jason: What?
  Lea: Trying to make me feel better by playing dumb.
  Jason: I'm not, I just don't know what you mean.
  Lea: Then you're an idiot.
  Jason: I've known that for years. Tell me anyway.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jason and Lea watched Rampage (2018).
  • When Plant Man escapes, Jennifer says that he probably put his Edgar suit back on.
  • Lea's line “You know I love you, right?” is a direct reference to Season 17 of Red vs. Blue.
  • Camila/Daybreaker wears a t-shirt that says “Fuck you you fucking fuck.” This is reference to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).
  • Liz has Lea meet her at a gas station called Gasomatic on 76th. This a reference to the Basomatic 76 from Saturday Night Live.
  • Jason wears a Fear Street t-shirt.
• Statute of Limitations: Plant Man can’t be arrested for or charged with any of his previous misdemeanors because the Statute of Limitations has expired.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Lea finds out she’s pregnant after being hospitalized for falling and hitting her head.
• Technicolor Eyes: Camila has indigo eyes.
• Tranquil Fury: Lea when she confronts Eddie, Aurora, and Amy in the climax.
• Villain Over for Dinner: Inverted. Camila/Daybreaker isn't a villain per se, but she is a criminal. She knows Lea has been following her and invites Lea to dinner because she's lonely.
  Camila: I've been alone for about six years. Sometimes I need to do something like this just to feel normal again.
• Villains Out Shopping: Aurora and Amy wake up and have some pillow talk before the climax.
• Where Is Your X Now?: A variant.
  Eddie: Jesus!
  Lea: Nope. You're not that lucky.

The Hazard Squad: Into the Void

• Accidental Murder: In Chapter 1, Jennifer is hit just as she unleashes dark energy, which misses its intended target and instead kills Chayton Bridger.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Jennifer laughs at Ian's joke about cigars and hamsters.
• Affectionate Nickname: Camila calls Lea “Sweetie”.
• Anyone Can Die: Jennifer/Nightshade, a major character since the first book, is killed in the final fight.
• Better as Friends: Downplayed. Jason and Lea have romantic feelings for each other, but he acknowledges that their connection is weaker than the one she has with Camila. He ultimately gives Camilla his blessing to be with Lea exclusively.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Lea is seeing both Camilla and Jason and can't choose between them.
• Boom, Headshot!:
  • Mei, the Chinese super in Chapter 1, is shot in the eye.
  • Lily is shot in the cheek and loses a few teeth. She gets better.
• Born Lucky: A literal example. See Literal Metaphor and Reality Warper.
• Call-Back: One of Lea's first lines in The Hazard Squad is wishing she could think of a better hero name than Resistor. Here, Camila suggests the name Void, which Lea likes and uses.
• Chekhov's Gun: Ian's explosive pills.
• Combat Compliment: Not exactly traditional combat, but when Aisha tasers Lily, Lily compliments her on a good shot.
• Demonic Possession: Arianna's superpower, though she's not a demon.
• Disability Superpower: Andrew Harker is completely colorblind, but thanks to his superpower, he sees powered individuals in color.
• Dump Them All: Unable to choose between Jason and Camilla, Lea ends things with both of them.
• Double Date: Lea and Jason have one with Mia and Kristen.
• Electronic Eye: Ian made himself one that functions as a camera after losing his left eye in a car accident.
• Enhance Button: Defied. Jennifer asks Ian if his camera eye can do this, but he says it only has a regular zoom.
• Epunymous Title: Into the Void is a reference to Lea's new hero name and a subtle hint at the ending, which sees Lea and Camila driving off to start a new life together.
• Erotic Dream: Lea has one about Jason, then he turns into Camila, then it becomes a Nightmare Sequence when Camila's eyes turn purple like María's.
• Eye Scream: Combined with Boom, Headshot!. Mei, the Chinese super in Chapter 1, is shot in the eye.
• Healing Hands: Meredith Vaughn/Panacea has this power.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Downplayed. Ian and Luna allow themselves to be capture by the police so the others can escape.
• Impaled Palm: During their fight, Lea stabs Jackie/Cannon Fodder through the hand.
• Implacable Man: Catalina’s superpower is being invulnerable to external damage.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Justified, since this is Vera's superpower.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Lea and Camila chase and fight each other as foreplay.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jason and Camilla both feel this way about Lea.
• Literal Metaphor: Camilla’s power is a specialized low-level variant of Reality Manipulation that subtly alters reality so that the odds are always slightly in her favor. Superpowers in the La Fuerza series are genetic. She was literally Born Lucky.
• Lured into a Trap: The police set up a fake bank robbery as a trap for Lea and Jennifer.
• Meaningful Name: Meredith Vaughn’s super name, Panacea, comes from the Greek goddess of universal health.
• Meaningful Rename: At Camila’s suggestion, Lea changes her hero name from Resistor to Void.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Catalina is impervious to external damage, but vulnerable internally.
• Pair the Suitors: Subverted. Jason and Camilla start to hook up, but stop without going all the way.
• Playing with Fire: Mei, the Chinese super in Chapter 1.
• Punny Name: A motel called the Come On Inn.
• Reality Warper: Camilla is revealed to have a power that subtly alters reality so that the odds are always slightly in her favor.
• Refuge in Audacity: Several.
  • David saw Emily and Ana holding hands and tried to pull Emily’s hand out of Ana's. Lampshaded by Leslie.
  Leslie: I don't know where you got that audacity, but you need to put it back before you get yourself hurt.
  • Later, Lea saw David sitting next to Emily, walked up to him, and told him he was in her spot. He left when Emily backed Lea up.
• Relationship Upgrade: After several books of being told they would make a cute couple, Liz and Miguel are finally dating.
• Scary Black Man: Gender Inverted and Downplayed. Leslie used her size for intimidation purposes but was otherwise not scary.
• Second Love: Camila is Lea’s.
• Self-Duplication: Illyana Gonzalez's power.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mia is reading Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.
  • Mia’s superhero name is Boomstick.
  • When discussing Jennifer's teleportation, Lt. Patrick says she can click her heels and go back to Kansas.
  • Vera and Marvin compare the latter's X-Ray Vision to Superman.
  • Ian wears a The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shirt.
  • Camila's “Fuck you you fucking fuck" t-shirt is a reference to Lizbeth's shirt in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).
  • When Lea tells Jason and Camilla she can't choose between them and is ending things with both of them, she says she's praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that she'll still have them both as friends.
• Shown Their Work: Neil Michaels takes Celexa, a real antidepressant.
• Starting a New Life: Camilla does this at the end of the book and invites Lea to come with her.
• Story-Breaker Power: The reason Oscar and Arianna are killed, according to Word of God.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: Andrew Harker and Vera Derrickson have variants of this power.
• Take a Third Option: Lea can't chose between Camila and Jason, so she chooses neither of them.
• Team Title: The Hazard Squad is the name of the superhero team.
• We Used to Be Allies: Previous books showed the police in general as willing to work with supers, but this book shows what happens when the supers become Heroes With Bad Publicity.

Some Kind of Hero

• Adaptive Ability: Anya's superpower is Reactive Adaptation, which allows her to gain different powers depending on the situation. She loses powers when they are no longer needed.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Kronos doesn’t know Anya’s real name, so he calls her Connie, which is short for her superhero name, Conquistador. Also see Shout-Out below.
  • Cassie named the entity possessing her Abomination, or Abby for short.
• Big Eater: Cassie. She's possessed by a symbiotic demonic entity that feeds off her like a fetus and thus is basically eating for two.
• Bilingual Bonus: Anya sometimes speaks in untranslated Spanish. Most notably, she sings Crazy by Patsy Cline in Spanish to make her former team leave.
• Child Of Rape: Violet's mother raped Violet's father to have her.
• Dating Catwoman: Anya was in a sexual relationship with a supervillain named Kronos.
• Demonic Possession: Cassie is possessed by a symbiotic entity that’s not actually from Hell, just another dimension, but otherwise fits the concept of a demon to a T. Cassie affectionately refers to the entity as Abby (short for Abomination). Abby grants Cassie superpowers while feeding off her nutrients like, well, a symbiote (or a fetus). Because of this, Cassie eats a lot more than someone of her stature normally would.
• Does Not Like Spam: Abby can't stand chunky peanut butter. Cassie doesn't mind it.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Nope. The fact that Violet's mother raped Violet's father is treated with the seriousness it deserves.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • The cafeteria scene serves as one for Cassie.
    • Despite being 4’10”, her lunch includes three burgers, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, a banana, an apple, two cookies, and two servings of milk. She proceeds to wolf all this down like she's starving.
    • She burps with her mouth closed, but it’s still clearly audible.
    • She flirts with Anya while referring to her as “fresh meat” in the same sentence.
    • She turns into a demonic version of herself when Jackson wolf whistles at the underage Violet.
  • It also serves as one for Violet, who is shown to be a shy Omniglot.
• Friends with Benefits: Anya and Kronos started off as Enemies with Benefits but came to care about each other enough to be considered this.
• Hotter and Sexier: The series is no stranger to intimate moments, but anything beyond making out is usually implied. This book is more explicit in its sexual scenes.
• Interrupted Intimacy: When Anya and Cassie hook up after watching a meteor shower, they're interrupted by Abby, whose voice prevents Cassie from focusing.
• Never Gets Fat: Cassie. Justified, since she's possessed by a symbiotic demonic entity that feeds off her nutrients and thus is basically eating for two.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Justified. See Adaptive Ability.
• Omniglot: Violet. In her first scene, she is shown speaking Japanese, Spanish, Macedonian, Samoan, Vietnamese, and English.
• Our Demons Are Different: Abby isn’t actually from Hell, just another dimension. Or so she says.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Cassie is 4’10” (5’3” in Demon Mode), and she's possessed by a powerful demon-like entity.
• Powers via Possession: Cassie is possessed by a symbiotic entity that gives off her powers while also feeding off her like a fetus.
• Rape as Backstory: It's never explicitly stated, but Cassie makes it fairly clear that this happened to her.
• Shout-Out: Numerous.
  • Charlie Bates/Sidewinder's original superhero name was Airbender.
  • Thalia McLean/Artemis is named after three characters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
  • Anya wears an Evil Dead shirt.
  • Kronos' nickname for Anya, Connie, is both short for her superhero name (Conquistador) and an in-universe reference to Agent Connecticut from Red vs. Blue.
  • When Cassie realizes Anya is singing Crazy by Patsy Cline.
    Cassie: She's doing a thing from that shitty Assassin's Creed movie from, like, 20 years ago.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Anya gives one to her former teammates when they visit her in New Horizon.
  Anya: You were my friends, my team. We were supposed to have each other's backs.
  Derek: That's why we're here.
  Anya: [Laughs] You're so full of shit. You're not here to check on me, you're here to make yourselves feel better because you're the reason I'm here in the first place!
  Martin: Anya, we just-
  Anya: [Slams her fist on the table and stands up] The only reason you captured Kronos alive is because he let you. Imagine that! A goddamn supervillain knew that if he tried to escape you guys wouldn't trust me, and he cared enough about me to let himself be arrested! But he never would've been put in the position if you guys actually gave me the benefit of the doubt! You wanna know how I'm doing, Charlie? I'm coming to terms with the fact that my ENEMY had by back when my friends didn't!
  Thalia: [Opens her mouth to say something, then changes her mind.]
  Anya: You hijoputas disgust me. You're not here to check on me, you're here because you want me to forgive you. Get the fuck out of here.
• Time Master: Kronos has the power to alter the speed a which time passes, and that power is tied to the Earth's rotation. After Kronos manipulates time, he has one rotation (one day) to manipulate it in an inverse way to compensate and maintain a natural balance. If he doesn't, it will happen automatically once that time has passed.
• Winged Humanoid: Cassie becomes one when she lets Abby take control and transforms into her demon mode.
• Wolf Whistle: Jackson does this to Violet, unaware that she's underage.

Tropes applying to the whole series:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The books were written between 2019 and 2022, and they take place between April 2022 and March 2036.
• Anti-Magic: Lea Cornell is immune to naturally-occuring superpowers.
• Author Appeal: Word of God's favorite color is purple, which is also the color of María's eyes and Jennifer’s hair.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Used often, as many characters speak multiple languages.
• Blessed with Suck: Lea Cornell is immune to naturally-occuring superpowers. This means that beneficial powers such as Healing, Power Enhancement, Physical Enhancement, and Resurrection also don't work on her.
• Bloody Murder: Jason's superpower is a variant of blood manipulation.
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • Regularly and deliberately averted. Word of God researched magazine capacities for every real firearm used in the series and made sure to have characters reload as needed and eventually run out of ammo.
  • Played straight and Justified in The Inquisitor. Witch Doctor’s superpower is Illogical Construct Creation, and one such creation is a pair of minigun pistols with no recoil and infinite ammunition.
• Brand X: In-universe fictional brands include the Mexican restaurant chain La Llorona’s, the ice cream shop Moe & Joe’s, an Italian restaurant named Corleone's (whose slogan is “All bills will be settled at the end of the day.”), a different Italian restaurant named I Fuochi di Sicilia (The Fires of Sicily), and a motel called the Come On Inn.
• Canon Immigrant: María Álvarez was created as an original character in a Spider-Gwen fanfiction. That version of her character has the same origin but a happier ending.
• Consistency: Word of God keeps track of the timeline, and every date mentioned lines up.
• Cyborg: Jane Keller/Inquisitor has cybernetics under her skin.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Jennifer/Nightshade’s main power is Dark Energy Manipulation. She starts off as a villain in Rise of La Fuerza, then has a Heel–Face Turn and remains a hero until her death in The Hazard Squad: Into the Void.
• Domino Mask: Most powered individuals who wear masks wear this type of mask.
• Omniglot: Lea Cornell speaks English, Spanish, French, and ASL.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two characters named Valeria.
• Purple Is Powerful: María and Valeria have purple eyes, and Jennifer dyes her hair violet. All three are very powerful supers.
• Recessive Super Genes: In the La Fuerza universe, the Super Gene is recessive. More information available in the Trivia page.
• Shout-Out: Characters often watch Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Mystery Science Theater 3000, and several movies that Word of God is a fan of.
• Superpowerful Genetics: In the La Fuerza universe, everyone has a recessive gene known as the Super Gene. See Recessive Super Genes, or see the Trivia page for additional information.

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