Line #12 Fanfic/TheMeasureOfATitan


1	[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3489752/1/The-Measure-of-a-Titan The Measure of a Titan]] is an AlternateUniverse that diverges not long after the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' Season 2 finale, when Cinderblock attacks a foster-care center and attempts to abduct one of the teens there. When he wakes up, the boy, David Foster, has no idea ''why''; he dislikes using or even thinking about [[StuffBlowingUp his powers]] and has kept them a secret all of his life. Raven doesn't trust him, but the Titans still take him into protective custody to keep him safe from Cinderblock, as well as help him use his abilities to defend himself. Which may be exactly what the villains want...
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3	It would be a lie to say that the most important thing about this story is the character interactions, but ''only'' because the plot turns out to be even better. David Foster is an interesting OC who subverts the BlackHoleSue stereotype by being at the center of events as a victim, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive and against his will.]] And it's not only about him, though he does play an important part, but all the Titans get plenty of screen time and development alone and with each other. Most notable is David's refusal to believe that [[ImNotAHeroIm he is or could be a hero,]] [[KidnappedByTheCall regardless of how many times he ends up fighting.]] But in the background, shadowy figures are moving, and they will make him join the world of the capes, or else...
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6	!!Examples of tropes found in the story
7	* AbnormalAmmo: A rail gun is used for the below AnyoneCanDie.
8	* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler: Who would have guessed that Warp was TheDragon?]]
9	* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Warp just shot Robin in the chest. And it sticks. Never mind [[NightmareFuel what happens to the Hive Five]].]]
10	* ArcWords: "I don't have a choice!" for the latter part of the story.
11	* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Slade, Terra, and Cinderblock. The Hive Five CameBackWrong because Trigon wanted to torture Jinx.]]
12	* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Warp, of all people]] pulls off a ''beautiful'' one that has everyone dancing on strings, even when they know what's going on and to what purpose.
13	* BerserkButton:
14	** David finds out that Raven's is her friends [[spoiler: especially Beast Boy]] in chapter 9 after she punches his button about his past and threats.
15	** Starfire's becomes [[spoiler: Warp and the Hive after the latter help the former shoot Robin]].
16	** Jinx's is threatening the rest of the Hive, especially Gizmo.
17	* BewareTheSillyOnes: Starfire, so ''so'' much. And it is not PlayedForLaughs.
18	* BigBad: Trigon
19	* BigBrotherInstinct: All the Titans, except maybe Raven for a long while, develop this to a greater or smaller degree towards David even before he officially joins the team but Cyborg especially seems to feel this. Part of it stems from how he can empathise with David's past as a civilian. Whereas the rest of the Titans all grew up with some manner of fantastical life, David, like Cyborg, was just an ordinary person living a mundane life before outside circumstances forced them out of it.
20	* BrokenBird: Every female character spends some time as this. Mostly, it only makes them more dangerous, not less.
21	* CassandraTruth: Justified. David Foster is completely honest about his abilities and backstory when he meets the Titans, but Raven doesn't believe him for very good, logical reasons. [[spoiler: This was planned out by Trigon and Warp.]]
22	* ChekhovsGun: David's safety goggles used to belong to Terra.
23	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Carrie, who is actually Terra.]]
24	* TheChosenOne: David denies that he is this ''vehemently'' and outright mocks the possibility due to having grown up in orphanages and foster care, where everyone likes to pretend they're special. Keyword being ''pretend''.
25	* CoolBigSister: Jinx to Gizmo.
26	* CooldownHug: Inverted (the person needing to cool down initiates the hug): [[spoiler:Starfire has been put through psychological and emotional hell by Warp before violating Robin's number one rule and killing him. She shows up to help David and Cyborg channeling her full warrior princess-ness. David sees how furious and violent she is, and realizes as she starts storming towards him that she has every reason to believe he's an enemy, and starts begging for his life. She grabs him, and then pulls him into a hug, having already trusted he was on the right side. David describes it as the first time he felt safe in a long, long time.]]
27	* CruelMercy: The BigBad loves this.
28	* DealWithTheDevil: Slade. [[spoiler: Incredibly, Warp's doesn't come back to bite him, and he gets exactly what he'd wanted. [[BewareTheSillyOnes A broken Starfire]].]]
29	* EldritchAbomination: Beast Boy's arguably greatest moment has him become one of these the size of a skyscraper.
30	* EldritchLocation: The haunted Library. David's mindscape isn't quite creepy enough, but it's still unusual.
31	* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Terra and the fear of betrayal serve as this for a while, as does David's past.
32	* EmpoweredBadassNormal: A villainous example makes Slade even scarier.
33	* EnemyMine:
34	** During a battle between their teams, David and Jinx end up separated from the rest and find themselves trapped in an underground tunnel. Whilst they battle it out at first they both stop when they realize using their respective powers underground could easily trigger a cave-in and kill them both forcing the two to put aside their differences until they can find an exit.
35	** With Trigon's awakening at hand, and few other allies available, the Titans reluctantly recruit the Hive Five to bolster their forces when Slade comes to take Raven. [[spoiler It doesn't make a difference in the end]].
36	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: When David reasons out why they haven't been attacked yet in chapter 38.
37	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Nothing the Titans can do will stop [[spoiler: Trigon from coming.]]
38	* AFatherToHisMen: Robin, in a sense.
39	* FlyingBrick: We get a reminder that [[BewareTheSillyOnes Starfire]] is this when she gets really, really angry.
40	* ForcedToWatch: Raven is made to watch the people fighting and dying against [[spoiler: Trigon's army of demons]].
41	* ForWantOfANail: ''Weaponized'' by [[spoiler: Trigon and Warp]] to avoid the ForegoneConclusion from the first time around.
42	* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: Warp's second childhood really sucked, though it doesn't excuse becoming TheDragon]]
43	* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler: Future Devastator went from a chemical engineer, to the man who killed all of Arkham's inmates, to the most dangerous mercenary/assassin on the planet, to being capable of killing the Future Titans in a four-on-one battle.]]
44	** Similarly, TheDragon started out as an IneffectualSympatheticVillain.
45	%%* FutureMeScaresMe
46	%%* MightyGlacier: Cinderblock. Also the AdvancingWallOfDoom Boss.
47	* GlassCannon: Devastator is a superb example of this trope, as he himself discusses. He possesses the most powerful weapon on the planet but is as fragile as any normal human.
48	%%* GodzillaThreshold
49	* GondorCallsForAid: Defied and Justified. [[spoiler: Trigon has arranged it so that the metahuman heavy-weights like the JLU are off-planet when he arrives. Similarly, Tameran is facing a Gordian invasion, and other forces have other problems.]]
50	* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted. David works hard to keep pace with the other Titans and it shows. Lampshaded once or twice when he compares how he handles a situation/fight with what he would have done in the past.
51	* HealingHands: One of Raven's powers, used very often.
52	* HeroicBSOD: The only reasonable reaction to [[spoiler: Robin's murder.]]
53	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Warp]] has been working as a partner with the BigBad all for the purpose of revenge by [[spoiler: breaking Starfire and taking away everything she loves.]] Unfortunately, when he succeeds he gets a rude reminder that [[spoiler: Starfire isn't a human, and she has different psychology. So when she breaks, she just burns him to a cinder and keeps going.]]
54	* HumanoidAbomination: Slade, because he CameBackWrong.
55	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: Trigon]] claims he chose [[spoiler: Earth]] for his plan because of this.
56	* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: A rare non-romantic example, as David can't believe the Titans are paying him attention, nor that he deserves it.
57	* IneffectualDeathThreats: Nope. Especially not when the Heroes are furious enough to make them.
58	* InferredHolocaust: The background of the Devastator.
59	* InSpiteOfANail: What the heroes' plan amounts to.
60	* InstantExpert: David averts this, as it takes months of practice for him to even survive a battlefield.
61	* LovecraftianSuperpower: This is included in Raven's arsenal when she [[BerserkButton gets really]], ''[[BerserkButton really]]'' [[BerserkButton mad.]]
62	* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: Devastator sounds like David Foster if you slur it, doesn't it?]]
63	** A rare case of [[AvertedTrope aversion]] when [[spoiler: Terra uses a false name-Carrie-that has no connection to her]].
64	* LetsSplitUpGang: The Titans invoke this so that the BigBad will have to split his attention.
65	* LetsYouAndHimFight: Slade sets this up between David and Raven.
66	* LivingWeapon: Devastator, if an energy being counts as living.
67	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Amusingly but sadly, [[spoiler: Slade]] is too competent to be this, no matter how hard he tries.
68	* MirrorMatch or MirrorBoss: The BigBad throws evil copies of the heroes in their path. [[spoiler: Except Starfire has to fight an Evil Robin, instead.]] And David [[spoiler: is turned into [[FutureMeScaresMe Devastator's]] evil copy instead.]]
69	* MoreDakka: 200 surface-to-air missiles aimed at the Titans' ship.
70	* NoKillLikeOverkill: See MoreDakka, fired by 256 armed war robots.
71	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Devastator. [[spoiler: Trigon the Terrible]]
72	* NecessarilyEvil: Slade sees his attempts to [[spoiler: save the world by ensuring David's death]] as this.
73	* NoSell: [[spoiler: Devastator]] is completely immune to Raven's offensive magic.
74	* OhCrap: Several. The earliest when Cinderblock attacks a foster care center, and then later David has one when he wakes up in the Titans' Tower.
75	** The best one may be Jinx in the end of Chapter 29 when Starfire tears away a ''12-inch thick titanium wall'' to get at her.
76	* OneWingedAngel: Raven gets this against an army of robots.
77	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: This happens a lot through the story as people get put in stressful situations. In fact, the drama of the story mostly runs on it.
78	** At the beginning of the story Beast Boy is reeling from Terra's betrayal. He's quiet, isn't eating, and has been crying. And then in Chapter 2 Cinderblock can [[MundaneMadeAwesome TALK]].
79	* OrcusOnHisThrone: The BigBad doesn't personally do much for most of the plot, but there's no mistaking that he's still exceptionally dangerous.
80	* OvershadowedByAwesome: David feels like this, and it takes the other Titans a lot to convince him otherwise.
81	* PersonOfMassDestruction: Devastator
82	* PlayingWithFire: Slade.
83	* PoorCommunicationKills: Raven ''really'' should have been honest about what she found in David's head.
84	* PosthumousCharacter: The story begins not too long after Terra died.
85	** [[spoiler: Then Trigon brought her BackFromTheDead.]]
86	* PowerIncontinence: The fact that David ''doesn't'' suffer from this is considered very suspicious by Raven.
87	* ProperlyParanoid: Deconstructed with Raven. She's absolutely right to be paranoid, but wrong with what she should be paranoid ''about'', which leads to PoorCommunicationKills.
88	* RapeAsDrama: How David meets Carrie.
89	* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Starfire to [[spoiler: Warp when he tries messing with her head]].
90	** Then David gives an epic one to [[spoiler: Future Devastator]]
91	** And Devastator [[spoiler: the cosmic being, not one of the David Fosters]] gives one to the BigBad despite being completely helpless in his clutches. And it might have made him nervous.
92	* [[spoiler: SelfMadeOrphan: David, the reason for his hesitance to use his powers.]]
93	* ShipTease: Robin and Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy, David and Carrie. Possibly David and Jinx or Cyborg and Jinx.
94	* [[spoiler: StableTimeLoop: Averted, which is the entire point of the bad guys' plan. Warp in particular explains how Starfire caused this.]]
95	* SpottingTheThread: Raven keeps thinking she's doing this with David, but...
96	* StrongButUnskilled: Kinetics in general, like Terra and Raven.
97	* StuffBlowingUp: David's powers [[spoiler: and Devastator's for obvious reasons]]. He can manipulate the thermo-kinetic energy of vibrating molecules to do this.
98	* TakeAThirdOption: Brutally deconstructed. The characters' attempts to do this cause severe pain and suffering. [[spoiler: Shaping up a possible DeconReconSwitch in the end.]]
99	* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler: Not only has Terra come back from this, but all of humanity suffers it when Trigon arrives.]]
100	* TemporalParadox:
101	* [[spoiler: TheBadGuyWins]]: ''Possibly''.
102	* TookALevelInBadass: David, at least twice. Beast Boy in chapter 38.
103	* {{Tsundere}}: Raven.
104	* WalkingSpoiler: It is impossible to mention that TheDragon is [[spoiler: Warp the time-traveler]] without spoiling a lot of the plot.
105	* WeakButSkilled: David at the beginning of his training. He can't do much with his power, but he never suffers PowerIncontinence, either.
106	* WhamEpisode: Several.
107	** Chapter 16 has an ambush on the Titans. [[spoiler: Beast Boy is nearly killed before Raven goes OneWingedAngel, which nearly kills her, and David fights Cinderblock and demolishes him. Then someone later [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness breaks into Cinderblock's cell and kills]] him.]]
108	** Chapter 29: The Man in Gold [[spoiler: shoots Robin. ''It sticks''.]]
109	** Chapter 32
110	* WhamLine:
111	** "Demonspawn!" "Gem of Trigon!"
112	** "I... think we need to talk... [[spoiler: Terra.]]"
113	** [[spoiler: "You're not possessing David at all! David's possessing you!"]]
114	** The biggest one from Slade. [[spoiler: "Because, it's what you did the last time this happened."]]
115	* YouAndWhatArmy: Said to Slade, who [[TemptingFate responds with an army of fire demons]].
116	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Several times, beginning with Raven's chapter 1 speech to BB about Terra.
117	** Chapter 38 has Beast Boy give one to David about what it means to be a hero.
118	** David uses a minor ''subversion'' of this on [[spoiler: Future Devastator]] to point out that the guy must want to talk, or else he (David) would be dead now.

Context Fanfic / TheMeasureOfATitan