The Spectre
is a Pokémon fanfic by Katarena that takes place in Hoenn four years after the events of Omega Ruby And Alpha Sapphire. It can also be found on Archive of Our Own here.
Carla Saverre’s ambition is to become a coordinator, but when her sister gets into trouble, Carla decides to become a trainer instead to get the money she needs. Unfortunately, there is a new rogue team in Hoenn, and it looks like they mean business.
The Spectre is part one of a trilogy. It is complete as of November 2022, and the next part, Princess of a Thousand Enemies can be found here (AO3 link).
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Seemingly averted with the PTPL. They provide a pamphlet for new trainers with advice such as making sure their vaccinations are up to date and helplines to call should trainers get into trouble. Also invoked in-universe: when Bruno asks Carla if the PTPL does what the name impliesnote , Carla replies yes, they do – and they’ve saved a lot of lives.
- Also averted during the attack on Ocean Palms. Carla, Tally and Bruno don't even have a chance to rescue the hostages before teleporters arrive.
- Affectionate Nickname: Carla is called “Carly” by her older sister.
- Similarly, Dave is called "Davey" by his big sister.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Will, Glennis' boyfriend, was a bad boy. This did not go down well with her dad and her sister.
- Amazon Brigade: So far, every pokémon Carla has captured has been female.
- She now has a full team of female pokémon as of Chapter 19.
- Ambition Is Evil: Averted. Carla is extremely ambitious but is willing to put her personal goals aside to help her family.
- An Ice Person: Zoe the Snorunt.
- Badass Adorable: Layla the Buneary.
- Bounty Hunter: Hunters are hired to capture particularly dangerous pokémon so that they won’t cause trouble for trainers. In recent years, they’ve been hired to go after rogue trainers as well.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When someone asks Carla if she’s seen a trainer called Randall Shaw, Carla says she hasn’t. He says she might have battled him, to which she replies that she’s battled a lot of trainers and doesn’t remember half of them. Somewhat subverted in that she’s lying.
- Chekhov's Gun: The black scarf.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The stranger who questioned Carla makes another appearance in Sinnoh...on a 'Wanted' poster.
- Cliffhanger: The Spectre ends with Dave being seriously injured after an attack on the Cave of Origin and Carla vowing to take Team Scythe down no matter how ruthless she has to become.
- Cool Big Sis: Abby is this for Dave.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Played with. Arceus is the main focus of worship, but Carla is shown lighting a candle to Latias and Glennis says she’ll start lighting candles to Articuno on Carla’s behalf.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Played straight with Tess the Vullaby, who is nothing short of adorable. Also played straight with Ronnie, a Dark-type specialist who lives in Verdanturf.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Greenlea, Luka's Gardevoir, is a male.
- Fragile Speedster: Nixie. She's actually the most vulnerable member of Carla's team.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: At the beginning of the story, Carla is forced to choose between her family and her ambitions. She chooses the former, but she lampshades that it wasn’t really a choice at all.
- Gut Feeling: One of the pieces of advice in the PTPL’s pamphlet for new trainers tells them to trust their instincts. Carla seems to take this to heart.
- She also instinctively knew that her sister's boyfriend was trouble. Sure enough, he was.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Downplayed. Tally is a friendly Nice Girl who has pink as a signature colour, and Carla is a little more aloof and wears dark colours. Ironically, Tally has black hair and Carla blonde.
- Making a Splash: Auna. Played with in that she hasn't learned Water moves properly because she was evolved too early.
- Mythology Gag: When Carla challenges the Rustboro Gym, the attendant says that it's been a while since Roxanne had a challenger that wasn't a newbie trainer. The Rustboro Gym is the first one the player has to challenge in ORAS.
- The three orders who worship the Kantonese legendary birds are called Valor, Mystic and Instinct.
- Only in It for the Money: Carla’s motivations for becoming a trainer are purely monetary. Subverted in that the money is for her sister, who needs it somewhat urgently.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Downplayed. Marina, the Johto Champion, is engaged and it is heavily implied that her fiancé is Silver, her erstwhile rival.
- Properly Paranoid: After the attack on Ocean Palms, Carla insists she and her friends leave Hoenn as their interference won't have gone unnoticed and there could be repercussions. She was right to be worried.
- Shock and Awe: Nixie and Frank.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed with Rakel.
- To Be a Master: Completely averted with Carla. She’s not remotely interested in becoming the Champion, and the only reason she’s collecting Gym badges is so she can get the prize money that comes with them.
- Played straight with Dave Ronan.
- Took a Level in Badass: Lt Surge is now one of the Kanto Elite Four. Watching him battle Aaron on TV inspires Carla to take a level in badass herself.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 20. Carla finds a dawn stone (which would enable Zoe to become a Froslass), but Glennis hasn't been getting all the money and their father knows the truth.
- In Chapter 21, there's an explosion at the Cave of Origin. Several trainers, including Dave, are injured and Carla decides to destroy Team Scythe.
- Worldbuilding: An example of this is the trainer blacklist. A trainer can end up there for neglect, abuse, or for using a pokémon to attack a person unless it’s in self-defence.
- Galar and Alola were the first regions to let girls become trainers and in the others, women could own pokémon but they couldn’t battle with them.
