Shadowdemon is a 2014 Superhero novel narrated by Travis Colfax, and the sequel to Shadowboy. Unlike the original, which spanned several months, Shadowdemon takes place over the course of a hectic fortnight which exposes signs of inner decay within the Community Fund. Travis, a lifetime superhero who relies on training rather than powers, tries to solve the mysteries of strange explosions, night attacks on his friends, and his own personal struggles.
The Author's home page is at http://evcombine.net
Shadowdemon provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Icerazor's sword is among the few things reliably able to carve through force fields and psychic constructs, making steel (galvanized pipe, Omicron bots) mundane in comparison.
- Artistic License – Martial Arts: (Lampshaded) - Travis admits to using overly showy moves when he has an audience, despite the act coming back to bite him immediately.
- Badass Cape: Jack wears one, though the wind doesn't always cooperate.
- The Big Guy: Or Girl — Pam, Still.
- Birthday Beginning: Both Shadowboy and Shadowdemon start near Travis' birthday.
- Dark Age of Supernames: Razordemon, also notable that the character picked up the name during the dark age.
- Electronic Eyes: Travis' replacement after his run-in with Uth-sk.
- Evil Pays Better: Working at the Community Fund gives little in the way of disposable income, especially after paying for Hero Insurance. It also turns out to be highly taxable.
- Eyepatch of Power: Travis still wears one one for his civilian identity because he shouldn't be able to afford the electronic replacement.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Xiv, the result of attempting to reverse engineer a male dragon from fragmentary female DNA.
- Hero Insurance: Literal Hero Insurance issued by the government with premiums adjusted for the licencee's destructive potential.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Visible mostly in Travis' narration, which leads to occurances of Male Gaze
- Idle Rich: Jack keeps up this persona for his Secret Identity.
- Killed Off for Real: Bussard in a rather blunt fashion.
- Male Gaze: The Narrator being an aforementioned Hormone Addled Teenager.
- The Medic: Stephanie
- Missing Mom: Mrs. Colfax was dead before the events of the story, as is the previous Ixahau.
- Mooks: Mostly Morlock Society members.
- Number Two: Stephanie as the only other member with a leadership endorsement, and takes over the role of team lead when Travis is out of commission.
- Oh, Crap!: Donny speaks the phrase verbaitum as he realizes he's the target of a cluster bomb.
- Partial Transformation: Pam and the survivors of Project Thirteen can opt to only partially switch between forms.
- Powers Do the Fighting: Miss Pain works this way as she fights using psychic constructs, Irvin tries to imitate this, but is overwhelmed by the emotions of people fleeing Firegod.
- Psychic Powers: Miss Pain, Serar and Irvin Keyes.
- The Reliable One: Travis sees himself as this and strives towards that goal.
- Retired Badass: Neutrino and an informed trait of the entire Fund Board.
- Secret Identity: Everyone has one because criminals started targetting family.
- The Sneaky Guy: Travis, lacking powers, relies more on stealth to survive.
- Squishy Wizard: Stephanie has to build up power before an attack, and has few defenses beyond her magic.
- Standard Superhero Setting: Fully embraced short of Death is Cheap.
- The Stoic: Stephanie, because Magic requires a great deal of mental discipline.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Virtually everyone with a powered parent inherited the potential.
- The Team Benefactor: The Community Fund as embodied by Neutrino.
- Team Pet: Xiv, arguably
- Team Prima Donna: Miss Pain started this way, but got better.
- Terror Hero: Razordemon treats his reputation as a weapon all its own.
- Trophy Room: Albeit one that is mostly empty
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Pam and the survivors of Project Thirteen gained the ability to change between human and demi-dragon forms.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Other than being slightly east of the great plains, the location of New Port Arthur is never given.
- Ye Olde Nuclear Silo: The team base is a rennovated Gruefield 18 Nuclear Missile facility.
