Shout Out / Pokemon Wars Of The Dark

• Plenty to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
  • The TR (Team Rocket) Owned Count. That is all.
  • When he trains Ash for challenging Brock, MissingNo references the "DOOOOOOOOOOOODGE!" Running Gag. And during the challenge itself, he gives Serena a poster with a big "DODGE" written on it with Piccolo's head replacing the O◊.
  • It gets better. Apparently both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z Abridged exist in the fic's world, and Pokemon like watching these.
  • When confronting Cassidy and Butch, Pikachu references Raditz's Memetic Loser status by stating that Officer Jenny's Growlithe is the equivalent of three Raditz, Giselle's Cubone is worth five Raditz, and he himself is worth ten Raditz.
  • Pikachu uses Thunderbolt in a similar manner to Tien's Tri-Beam.
    • When Roo points it out, Pikachu points out that Nappa mistook Chiaotzu for a Pokemon, so he can channel Tien all he wants.
  • Upon Ash fully realizing the only actual limit to the moves a Pokemon can learn is Power Creep, Pikachu asks if he's going to abuse this info. "Maliciously!"
  • Level Break is a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that boosts the user's attributes at the cost of draining the user's life force. Roo quickly figures out that this is essentially the Kaioken.
• Merger is a big fan of Pedro Araujo's Pokemon series, and shows it by making loads of references.
  • Ash had a Nidoking until sometime after the SS Anne trip, where said Nidoking went overboard and killed Gary's Raticate. Nidoking was then Put on a Bus before Ash went to train under Lieutenant Surge. He also caught a Drowzee.
  • Ash training under Lieutenant Surge leads to an over the top scene where the entire military goes out of the way to show the results Surge's training has on Ash and his Pokemon... only for Misty to stop it in the tracks by having her Golduck defeat Ashachu.
• Ash's Kangaskhan Roo is named after Winnie the Pooh's Roo.
• When he rants on how many people see him as a villain, MissingNo says the censored line from Meet the Demoman.

  "They have more feckin' monsters in the great loch of Ness than they have the likes of me!"

• The confrontation between Misty and Daisy where Daisy nearly strangles Misty to death, but then has a Heel Realization is one to End of Evangelion, complete with Misty saying "Disgusting".
• Pikachu being able to use Bond Phenomenon is this to the many artists that give various Pokemon the ability to use the Bond Phenomenon, mainly a Gym Leader's or Elite Four member's Signature Mon.
• Surge references several fictional military men.
  • He references Colonel Hathi by stating that he got the Medal of Honor just before becoming a Gym Leader. One of his Raichu even states it's a common occurence.
  • While he's nicer to Ash than in canon, Surge acts like Forrest Gump's drill sergeant, at least early on since there's a hipster there.
  • Perhaps the biggest one is to Sarge. His Gym is next to a Pokemon Fan Club whose head is a hippie that Surge has a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with. He also gives Sarge's speech at his SUV camp, including a hipster that never left Vermilion City to reference the Hummer that has never been off road.
• Ash's Training Montage is set to "Eye of the Tiger".
• According to the end-of-chapter logs, the Pokemon League is done in a similar manner in this fic as it's done in Pokemon: Festival of Champions. There, however, it isn't mentioned that Gym Leaders are spared from travelling to collect Badges.
• The teleportation system from the various Pokemon Centers is similar to that of Pokémon Fire-Ash.
• Tobias's role as a Buster (basically a guy who weeds out undesirables in the Pokemon League, including but not limited to criminal Gym Leaders or Elite Four) is this to Skylight Sparkle's The Road You Choose series, where he was sent by Red specifically to stop Ash from winning a Pokemon League because that would set Team Rocket's plans into motion.
  • That series is further referenced with The Reveal that Delia is Yellow.
• MissingNo's swords are dead ringers for Young Xehanort's and Master Xehanort's Keyblades.
  • He also channels Young Xehanort when explaining how time travel works, Ansem when explaining how to restore other's memories, and Axel when convincing Misty to give Daisy a chance.
  • How does Squirtle react to Ash and Misty dating^note before having his memories restored?
  "okay i believe you"
• In his debut chapter, Giratina channels Hades, specifically his meme-worthy Disney incarnation.
  Giratina: "Okay, Ash, first of all, this is my home.^note They're in the Distortion World I’m the one who does the VOICE RAISING here."
• There's a super-powerful Pokemon in the Cerulean Cave. While fans see this as a Mythology Gag to where you find Mewtwo in the games, the Cerulean folks are calling that Pokemon "Giygas". Chapter 11 reveals that it ultimately is a Mythology Gag to where you find Mewtwo in the games, with Merger pointing out Mewtwo is an Expy of Giygas.
• When the Team Rocket Trio tries to warn MissingNo about Cassidy and Butch's revenge plots, Meowth responds to MissingNo's priorities with "YOU IS A MOTHA FUCKA YOU KNOW DAT?!?!"
• For the SS Anne Interlude, Merger tried to have MissingNo make a You Are Already Fainted towards Brock's Croagunk so it will sound like Kenshiro's signature "Omae wa mou shindeiru", but doesn't feel like he did it well.
• In the SS Anne Interlude, MissingNo says that Ash can befriend everybody who is anybody (with the implication Cyrus is not in that category).
• Mewtwo's Wham Line is a variant of the Wham Line from Friday Night Funkin' Lullaby that reveals that Hypno has a Freudian Excuse.

  "You took her away from me."