Metro City Chronicles - Television Tropes & Idioms

is a series of online stories focused on the lives and adventures of the eponymous Metro City's local Super Heroes as they fight crime and deal with life. Each story is a first person narrative with a different character viewpoint for each arc.

The first story can be found here

. This one follows Atlas and sets up the Metro City backdrop.

The Metro City Chronicles show examples of:

Action Mom: Gamma Girl.
A Father to His Men: Despite not being the team's leader (as there is technically no team) Atlas still manages to dance the line between this and Team Dad.
A God Am I: The alien villainess Princess Nebula after she gets possessed by Zeus.
Alien Blood: Squid Kid has black blood.
Alien Invasion
Amazing Technicolor Population: Gamma Girl has blue skin. Strych-9's hair and skin are green. Jonni Rotten also has green skin, but that's less because of pigmentation and more because of decomposition.
Amicably Divorced: Hypothermia and his wife are divorced, mostly because his powers make it almost impossible for them to have a normal family life. They still meet weekly so they can spend time together with their son. Hypothermia is still miserable about the situation, though.
An Ice Person: Hypothermia.
Apocalypse Day Planner: Over the past few decades, evil wizard Maximillian Mortis has apparently made a habit of this.
"He reversed the planet's rotation in the 1950s, sold the Earth's soul to Hell in the '70s. (...) He actually blew up the Earth twice in the '60s, and he and Tiamat destroyed the whole universe in the '90s."
Authority Equals Asskicking: Hello, Chrome Cobra.
Ax Crazy: Strych-9 and Professor Kaboom.
Badass Driver: Wheelman's powers revolve around this. He can drive clear across the country in a few hours, drive up the sides of buildings, and perform literally impossible stunts, no matter what car he's in.
Badass Normal: Penitente.
Ballet: Hybrid is a ballerina in her civilian life.
Beware the Nice Ones: Atlas is a Gentle Giant. Hybrid is chirpy and part of a dance troupe. Squid Kid is a Perky Goth college student. All of them can and will kick your ass.
Berserker: Hybrid. She's gotten better at controlling herself, though, and now uses her reputation to intimidate bad guys.
Chrome Cobra Is Watching You
Blue Blood: Defender.
Body Horror: Squid Kid, due to some meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know has nearly indestructible tentacles that sprout from her back at will. If she leaves them out too long, her skin turns inky black and she starts looking like a more threatening version of the heartless.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Penitente.
City of Adventure: Metro City.
Combat Tentacles: Squid Kid.
Cool Bike: Penitente's preferred mode of transportation.
Creepy Monotone: Gearbox's voice is described as sounding like Douglas Rain, the actor who voiced HAL in "2001."
Dance Battler: Hybrid converts her ballet training into a fighting technique at one point.
Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?
Divine Parentage: Wheelman
Electric Torture: Yan Sin does this to Squid Kid.
Embarrassing Nickname: Daphne Diller does not like being called Daffodil.
Energy Being: When Star goes "full cosmic".
"I emit heightened degrees of heat, blindingly intense light, and extreme levels of stellar whupass."
Entropy and Chaos Magic: The specialty of Khaoss from the Lords of Villainy.
Even Evil Has Standards
Evil Gloating: Evoked and lampshaded. Villains can't resist a good monologue.
Fantastic Racism: Sentient AIs are supposed to be captured and sent to government facilities so they can be dismantled and used as weapons. Most heroes cover for them because all metahumans used to be seen that way.
Fantasy Kitchen Sink: You've got Ridiculously Human Robots and mechas right along side the Cthulhu Mythos and outright magic.
First-Person Smartass
Foundling: Hybrid.
Frozen Face: Gearbox's face is mostly immobile.
Functional Magic: Some people have it. Other people think it's annoying.
Gadgeteer Genius: Iota.
Genius Bruiser: Atlas and Miss Mega are both very strong, and they both hold professional jobs. But Polyphemus really carries the trope — he's a 12-foot-tall superstrong monster with the brain of a pompous, elderly English professor who prefers to teach classes in his custom-made tweed jackets...
Half-Human Hybrid: Hybrid, although it turns out she�s only one third human, to her devastation.
Hard Light: The Chrome Cobra's suit generates hard light swords and other hand weapons.
Healing Factor: Gamma Girl, Hybrid, and Squid Kid.
Heroic BSOD: When Hybrid finds out that she isn't a mutant human, but an entirely fabricated genetic experiment.
I Love Nuclear Power: Radiation is behind the origins of Gamma Girl, Strych-9, and Professor Kaboom.
Improvised Weapon: Penitente. His fight against Khaoss involves throwing everything from pushpins to a rubber band ball to a live rattlesnake at the bad guy.
Incredible Shrinking Man: Iota.
Iron Lady: Chrome Cobra.
Kid Hero: El Phantasmo and Calypso.
Life of the Party: Wheelman.
Lightning Bruiser: Express. He notes that he's not as fast as other Speedster heroes but has a lot more strength.
Lizard Folk: The Thrugs.
Lovecraft Lite: Squid Kid.
Lovecraftian Super Power: Squid Kid again.
Mad Scientist: Professor Kaboom.
Magical Girl: Silver Protector Kumiko.
Magicians Are Wizards: Cosmo the Astounding, a low-rent criminal wizard for hire.
Masked Luchador: El Phantasmo wears a luchador mask.
Mass Hypnosis: The alien invaders and the Greek gods use this to take over the Earth.
Monster Clown: Mr. Punch. He's not really a monster or a particularly rotten guy, for a supervillain, but Squid Kid really does not like clowns.
Morally Ambiguous Ducktorate: Professor Quackers.
Muggle Foster Parents: Hybrid.
Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Hybrid can break herself out of her berserker rages by thinking about dancing.
My God, What Have I Done?: Chrome Cobra gets one.
[she] yelped when she hit the pavement in the alley. Yelped like a wounded puppy.
Nigh Invulnerable: Daphne 'Daffodil' Diller, to the annoyance of every villain who's ever broken a weapon or wasted a bullet on her.
"You ruined this shirt!"
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
"[Shadow Shinobi], a ninja with shadow powers. Yes, that's exactly as irritating and frustrating as it sounds."
Not So Imaginary Friend: Gamma Girl is the only person who can see or hear Sparky Isotope, the relentlessly cheerful Spirit of Radiation.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Iota and, to a lesser degree, Hypothermia.
Our Demons Are Different: Domina Maleficus of the Lords of Villainy, and Beelzebambi of the Architects of Ruin.
Our Ghosts Are Different: Phantasmo's power has him being followed round by a bunch of kickass Spirit Advisors.
Our Zombies Are Different: Jonni Rotten is in a constant state of decomposition. She's also a weapons master who can puke worms on people.
Perky Goth: Lenore AKA Squid Kid.
Powered Armor: A kind of hero colloquially referred to as Battlesuits. Chrome Cobra is a prominent battlesuit who is unofficially the one in charge of the Metro City heroes. Defender is one as well.
Powers via Possession: A group of the heroes their own powers temporarily turbocharged after they are possessed by the Greek gods.
Prince Charming: Emperor Charming.
Private Detective: Daphne Diller.
Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits
Secret Identity: Most of the heroes have one. Some like Squid Kid and Gamma Girl don't because their Super Hero Origins happened publicly. Express doesn't because he openly advertises his services as a hero.
Secret Keeper: Occasionally, heroes will accidentally learn each other's secret identities.
Secret Public Identity: Daphne Diller is invulnerable and is more or less immortal. She also refuses to be a crime fighter, instead opting to keep her job as a private investigator. As such, when she does get sucked into crime fighting, everyone knows her name.
Shape Shifter: Hybrid.
She Cleans Up Nicely: The Chrome Cobra has to do this to fight Emperor Charming.
Shoryuken: Squid Kid does this to Yan Sin.
Socially Awkward Hero: El Phantasmo.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: From clown themed thieves with giant toy hammers to cults of evil, to Lovecraftian Eldritch Abominations.
Space Police: The Intergalactic Defense Patrol.
Statuesque Stunner: Miss Mega is over eight feet tall.
Stuffed Into A Trashcan: Squid Kid falls into a dumpster twice.
Stun Guns: Defender and Iota.
Super Hero
Super Powered Robot Meter Maid: The AIs.
Super Speed: Express.
Super Strength: Miss Mega, Atlas, Calypso, and Polyphemus.
Super Strong Child: Atlas has three kids and they all take after their dad.
Super Team: If you ask any of the heroes in Metro City, they will insist that they are all freelancers who just happen to work together. Played straight with the defunct Assembly of Order and the Alpha Alliance.
Technopath: Black Hat.
The Big Guy: Atlas.
The Blank: Hypothermia.
The Cheerleader: Beelzebambi is described as "a psychotic succubus in a cheerleader outfit who can make herself burn with super-hot hellfire."
Technical Pacifist: Defender's weaponry is all technically nonlethal. That won't stop her from shutting down your jet boots when you're a thousand feet in the air.
The Fundamentalist: Purity of the Alpha Alliance.
Took a Level in Badass: Subverted with Squid Kid. She tries to go badass with a new costume, new name, and new attitude. The results are less than ideal.
Voice of the Legion: Squid Kid gets this occasionally.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Apparently, back in the Hoover years, all metahumans were labeled �Human Subversives� and subject to immediate capture and dissection. Sentient AI also still get this treatment if they�re caught by government officials.
Whip It Good: Penitente.
X-Ray Vision: Squid Kid, though the power only lets her see through masks and clothing.