Hero City — Capital of Justice was a roleplay run on the Neopian Times Writers Forum in 2016. Heraclia, a city where superheroes and villains so commonplace that a biannual reality TV show is held each year for heroes, is attacked by a group of villains in the midst of the competition. The heroes are forced to come together to face this threat while continuing to compete for prizes.
Tropes:
- Action Dad: Bill Sinclair, father of three and former superhero.
- Arch-Nemesis: Nyx is this to Zenith, to the point that it causes some friction between the villains whenever anybody else fights Zenith or implies Nyx shouldn't do so because of other priorities.
- Artificial Limbs: Bill lost his arm in an accident that cost him his career as a hero, and has a mechanical arm in it's place.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Tabitha's entire costume. It is amended for practicality but looks very much like a Victorian lady's outfit.
- Badass Normal:
- Tulley gets to show off the badass of a non-hero government operative in the final fight against Tripwire.
- Bland-Name Product: Chitter, Fuzzbead, Welp, and others all make an appearance.
- Blessed with Suck: Firefly Man, who's primary power is self illumination.
- Breakout Villain: Tripwire, a one-off NPC who the players really took a shine to, resulting in her frequently reappearing later in the game.
- Breath Weapon: Lady Drake (an NPC) can breathe fire.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Chlorolad could not catch a break.
- Career-Ending Injury: Bill Sinclair had one of these many years before the story kicks off.
- The Casanova: DUDE BRO, as is standard for a Jay character; an outlier inasmuch as his position as an All Star means he's way more successful at it than most of his predecessors.
- Cats Are Mean: Iskender, the leader of the villains, is a Turkish Angora.
- Chained to a Railway: One of Nyx's first acts of villainy for the season, with... mixed results (you're supposed to be afraid, not ask for autographs!)
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Bill Sinclair started smoking as a way to cope with his extremely demanding job, and frequently craves a cigarette during points in the story where he's dealing with a lot of stress.
- Clones Are People, Too: You don't even find out thatOssie is Bill's clone rather than his son until almost the climax of the story; up until that point he's spent the whole plot being very much an individual and one who's personality stands in sharp contrast to the man he was cloned from at that.
- Defiant Captive: Oswald Sinclair . When he’s kidnapped by the villains, he proceeds to show them how terrified he is by singing the theme song to the children’s television show he provides a voice for – in character.
- Elevator Escape: Espin tries for this. It is only semi-successful.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even after all Espin's done, his parents still try to an extent to be supportive to him. Nyx as well has some (overly) supportive parents considering her pursuits.
- Fantasy Metals: The mihtium, a metal with numerous supernatural properties, ownership of which is the main objective of the villains- particularly Iskender.
- Flying Firepower: Zenith's abilities are flight and shooting concussive blasts from their hands.
- Green Thumb: Chlorolad has the power to manipulate plants, and carries seeds around in a utility belt.
- Diner Brawl: One goes down at Gyro City after the city-wide hypnosis
- Helping Granny Cross the Street: DUDEBRO attempts to help Dossier Dame (one of the more elderly superheroes) cross the street… while DeeDee is on her way to foil a bank robbery.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Bill Sinclair really does have the best of intentions, but his gruff demeanor and position as the corporate CEO of the network means he gets flanderized a lot by media outlets.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Related to above, Sinclair sincerely cares more about protecting the city than the reality show and goes out of his way to make those priorities crystal clear, although he does recognize where concessions have to be made to keep the entire business viable.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: The Villains kidnap Ossie, Sinclair’s son, and will only give him back if Bill gives the villains the secret identities and personal information of the heroes.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Something Tripwire very much enjoys.
- Intimate Healing: Zenith's method for giving Tim the hypnosis antidote may raise a few eyebrows (and even more ship sails).
- I Reject Your Reality: Dude Bro, as is fairly typical for a Jay character.
- It's All About Me: Applies to both Dude Bro and Nyx.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bill is a prickly mess of jaded cynicism after having spent years being the city's favorite scapegoat for things going wrong, but he really does have the best of intentions.
- Kid Sidekick: Chlorolad to Nimbus. Although when Nimbus becomes comatose after her freezing, Chlory unexpectedly gets something of a promotion.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Tabitha, a hero and owner of two cats. Also Bill Sinclair, owner of Iskender.
- Large Ham: Applies to many of the characters, but most notably Nyx Nightshadow and Screaming Scimitar.
- Mass Hypnosis: Used during the Queen's concert for her big villain reveal.
- Mind-Control Music: What the Queen's concert devolves into.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate:
- Played straight with Dr. Eugene Espin, and averted with Constance Kinglsey and her boss, Irene, who work at the government facility with the mihtium.
- Although Espin’s turns out to be untrue, as he was actually expelled before he was able to earn the doctorate. (In fact, Espin’s writer later confirmed in discord chat that it’s likely he skipped the Master’s degree entirely - which would, naturally, make him a confirmed Bachelor.)
- Never Mess with Granny: Dossier Dame is around sixty, but she's spent most of her life in the hero biz and all that experience means she has a lot of tricks up her sleeve.
- No Indoor Voice: Screaming Scimitar speaks in permanent Caps Lock. His name is very apt.
- Older Than They Look: Though she looks like a young child and is stuck permanently with the emotional and psychological maturity of one, Miszu is actually around twenty.
- Parasol of Pain: Tabitha's tech-decked umbrella.
- Playing with Fire: Lady Drake can breathe fire.
- Power-Strain Blackout: Sinclair undergoes one of these after portalling an empty train into a lake (said train had been attacked by the villains, and was falling off the tracks).
- Psychic Nosebleed: Tim gets these when he overuses his time bending powers, and also when he subconsciously resists the brainwashing used on him by the villains.
- Psycho Serum: How the Queen got her superpowers.
- Punny Name: Gyro City, the roleplay's resident fast food restaurant.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: One round's conflict involves battles across the city with NPC villains Screaming Scimitar, Darkborn, and Tripwire. It's actually just a distraction on Iskender's part, to keep the heroes from interfering with the activities of the PC villains, but the personalities of the characters saw to it that the episode definitely wasn't boring.
- Super-Speed: DUDEBRO’s power.
- Thinking Up Portals: Bill Sinclair’s power.
- Track Trouble: At one point, Glitch derails one of the trains running through Heraclia.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bill delivers one to Nyx, deconstructing her entire villainous motivations and pointing out the general self-destructive and self-defeating nature of her actions. Nyx being Nyx, it goes entirely ignored except to instigate some sulking that he's not properly intimidated by her posturing.
- Retired Badass: Bill Sinclair was a pretty famous and well-respected hero in his day, but his day was thirteen years before the present in-game and he is now mostly relegated to a desk job.
- Shame If Something Happened: At one point, Tabitha receives a threatening note regarding her mother.
- Shark Pool: Iskender has one of these in his office, and is stated to have dangled a contractor over it when they thought building a secret lair for a cat was some sort of joke.
- Smug Super: Dude Bro does not understand this concept of modesty.
- 10-Minute Retirement: Bill, when he's had enough of people questioning his judgement and his loyalties in spite of everything he's done for the heroes. He gets better.
- Villainous Crush: Pretty heavily implied that Screaming Scimitar has this for Eyescream Man.
- Weather Manipulation: The hero Nimbus has this power. It's implied that so does her brother, but he's retired from the hero business.
- We Used to Be Friends: Of all people, Nyx and Zenith.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Chlorolad lays a harsh one down via confession cam after several rounds of the heroes engaging in shenanigans that were more showy than effective and showing more trust in the hero who got his mentor stuck in a coma than they did in their leader.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: It's explained when the Queen's backstory is revealed that she wasn't born a sociopath, but she became one thanks to the same potion that gave her superpowers. By the end of the story she's no longer interested in revenge, instead hoping the staff at ADMAX can figure out a cure for the damage that was done to her mind.
