A Hero

So, Dalek Sec died a horrible death, leaving behind his casing after the events of "Daleks in Manhattan", right?

Well, yeah. But he's here now.

In Bioweapon 155's fic, A Hero, because of time shenanigans, he has now appeared in the universe of one certain series...

That of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Oh dear.

In his investigations of temporal space, he meets one Homura Akemi, and, hopefully, they can finally fix this Groundhog Day Loop that she's stuck in.

Or not.

It takes a lot to make the reader root for the Daleks, but Kyubey manages.

This is the first thread, now closed.

This is the location of the second thread.

And the third.

Do not confuse with heroes in general, or similarly titled works and tropes. And definitely not "An Hero".

Tropes used in A Hero include:

• All There in the Manual: The Spacebattles thread.
• Angrish: Sec's fourth attempt at Dwarf Fortress is described as "UNINTELLIGIBLE SOUNDS OF INTENSE RAGE." Italics and caps included in story. Justified as, well, It's Dwarf Fortress.
• Anti-Hero: Obviously Dalek Sec, but he's apparently mellowed out to the point where he'll help Homura Akemi. For a good reason, of course.
• Badass: Sec. Note what happens when he deals with Familiars.

"EX-TER-MINATE!" Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!* So instead of one Dalek fighting in self-defense, they were up against a very, very, very, very ANGRY Dalek, who was fighting to kill them all.

• • Also, see the Dalek Inquisitor General. The Spacebattles forums have somehow built him up into the Dalek version of Chuck Norris, except that "While Chuck Norris facts are fictional and wishful thinking, these are real." The author himself is "surprisingly not surprised," that somehow the DIG has become sort of a "Fate Worse Than Death," on the forums.
• Badass Boast (also a Pre-Mortem One-Liner):

Dalek Sec: I COME FROM A PLACE WHERE GODS ROAM A-MONGST THE STARS, WHERE THERE ARE BEINGS THAT COULD E-RASE ALL OF RE-AL-ITY WITH BUT A ME-RE THOUGHT, THAT COULD BEND TI-ME TO THEIR WILL AND FREE YOU FROM HAVING EVER BEING BORN!! YET, NO MAT-TER HOW PO-WER-FUL THEY ARE, THEY ALL FEAR THE SAME THING. Kyubey: You? Dalek Sec: NOT ME. A WO-RD; IT IS A WO-RD THAT CAU-SES SUCH FE-AR, THAT E-VEN THE LORDS OF TI-ME ARE SENT TO THEIR KNE-ES. Kyubey: And what word is that? Dalek Sec: EX-TER-MINATE!!! *blasts Kyubey*

• Badass Pacifist: Madoka, who convinces Sec not to crush Kyoko's skull during their first encounter with her. When you can talk an Omnicidal Maniac out of killing someone, there really isn't anything else you could possibly be but this.
• Bad Boss: Sec's former commander, The Dalek Inquisitor General. To the point that he got promoted to Supreme simply by virtue of surviving five consecutive missions under his command.
• Banned From Tokyo: Kyouko. She somehow managed to antagonize the Matriarchs of every single Puella Magi gang in the city and can no longer return, or they'll work together to kill her.
• Beam Spam: How Sec gets rid of a few hundred familiars.

"AU-TO-MA-TIC FI-RE EN-A-BLED!! EX-TER-MINATE!!"

• Beneath the Mask: Homura, of course. Unlike other examples, she does this because her own caged emotions would be enough to literally destroy her.
• Blue and Orange Morality: One of the central conflicts in the story is about Sec's new human morals and how they mesh with standard Dalek ideas. How do they fit together? They often don't, but that's half the fun.
• Character Focus: Read this page. Notice how someone keeps getting mentioned.
  • Word of God has it that this is to make up for the fact that he wants to make a believable and interesting character out of something that usually isn't.
  • He has also stated that he'd like to get more PMM characters and elements in on the action, with a little less focus on the Doctor Who side of the crossover.
• Cosmic Plaything: Dalek Sec is absolutely convinced that the universe (or at least some god-like entity) is actively screwing with him. He isn't happy about it. At all.
• Crack Fic: Played with. The general idea of the fic, that a Dalek would turn into a hero, is very, very crack-y. The rest of the fic isn't.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Dalek Sec vs. Uhrmann. It really is no contest.
  • And earlier we have Sec vs. Krimehild Gretchen. Thankfully, he gets better.
  • The Dalek Inquisitor General, a pre-Time War Dalek, got teleported onto a ship occupied by the 2010 Daleks, and shredded them like a tank through wax paper.
• Deadpan Snarker: Unsurprisingly, Sec.
  • Word of God says, when asked how Daleks can be deadpan, that they do it LOUD-LY! complete with a font size increase.
  • Kyouko, as well.
• Eldritch Abomination: Witches. Even Sec's confused by them. But that didn't last too long.
• Epic Fail: When Dalek Sec tries to recreate the Dalek race, his first casing ends up with a horrible kludge with almost no internal mechanisms, unstable life-support systems, an eye-stalk that's almost blind, control mechanisms that keep lighting themselves on fire and trans-solar disks that keep reversing. He thinks putting anything inside would be absolutely cruel.
  • To say nothing of his experimentations with Grief Seeds...

Homura: There was nothing there that could've caught fire, there was nothing there to spark a fire, and there was absolutely no reason at all for a Grief Seed to catch fire. Sec: CO-RRECT. Homura: Then why did that thing catch fire?

• • Sec attempts to play Dwarf Fortress...and somehow manages to trash 69 fortresses in a few minutes.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played with. Sec's human morals tell him that what the Incubators are doing is wrong even though as a Dalek he approves intellectually of the concept behind their operation. What he doesn't approve of is the Incubators undermining the human race's right to self-determination by manipulating their cultural and social evolution to make them more pliable and easy to manipulate.
  • Also, Sec's opinion that it would be cruel to put anything inside the improvised Dalek shell he constructs in chapter 2.
• Exact Words: Kyubey, but that's nothing new. Sec also mentions to Madoka that Walpurgisnacht will devastate "The Area." What she hears is "Destroy the city." What he means is "Annihilate the entire star system".
• Fate Worse Than Death: Spending any period of time with the Dalek Inquisitor General (DIG) is considered this.
  • To the point that one fan suggested that he be timelocked with the Coalition. In response, someone replied that this would be cruel, as "What would he do once he ran out of people to kill?" One branch of thought stated that he would kill them even harder, another stated that he would break into the afterlife to continue his mad orgy of destruction.
• Flat What: Homura gives one when she realizes that even though she's severed the link between her soul gem and her body, and is effectively deaf, she can still hear Sec ranting.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Kyubey, as in the main series. The difference is that from the beginning we know he's one of these instead of being the standard Magical Girl mascot. Also, while he/it tries to use Cuteness Proximity to appeal to human females, it fails hard against Sec.
• For Want of a Nail: Besides the obvious, Sec's presence has changed a lot of the storyline.
  • For example: the conversation between Madoka and Homura in chapter 4, which has Homura revealing to Madoka that Puella Magi do not age. This causes Madoka to later figure out part of the reason why Homura is so insistent in not having her contract with Kyubey, as well as giving much Fridge Horror for the poor girl.
• Groundhog Day Loop: Still very much in effect here. Homura's not getting out of this thing any time soon.
  • Sec's stuck in it, too. Fun.
  • The Doctor's here now, as well.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Dalek Sec, being a non-human, has a few of these. His main one is "SON-OF-A-THAL!"
• Humanity Is Infectious: Zig-zagged all over the place. On one hand, Dalek Sec now has human emotions. However, it's because of his attempt at hybridization in "Daleks in Manhattan," but he's also trying to work through those feelings. And while he's trying to examine human culture... it doesn't always go quite as simply as some of the more iconic examples of this trope. See also, Dwarf Fortress or his reaction to Avatar. But on the other OTHER hand, he views humans as a great species because Humans Are Warriors. See below for more clarification.
• Humans Are Warriors: Dalek Sec seems to think this. Part of his inner monologue implies that humans are only second to the Daleks themselves when it comes to war. He is not at all amused that the Incubators see them as cattle.
• Just As Planned: Chapter Five gives us two of these: From The Mind and The Cybermen
• Mad Scientist: Dalek Sec. Lampshaded immediately.
• Most Definitely Not An Alien/HughMann: Inverted, Dalek Sec doesn't even bother using a disguise or hiding and even accompanies Homura in plain sight, while telling everyone who bother to ask that he's an alien Nazi. Naturally, everyone finds it so ridiculous that they come to their own conclusions instead.
• No Social Skills: Homura. To the point that Dalek Sec is considered to have better social skills.

Kyouko: A little brusque, aren't we?

• No Indoor Voice: Sec. Homura wonders wherever it's just because the Dalek likes the sound of it's own voice.
  • And later taken Up to Eleven when Homura tries tuning him out by partly severing the connection from her Soul Gem to her body, only to discover that she can still hear him.
  • The author, on the Spacebattles Forums, has stated that Daleks can do deadpan, but only one way: LOUD-LY! The original post had the word in greatly increased font size.
• Noodle Incident: Kyouko somehow managed to piss off the Matriarch of every single Puella Magi gang in Tokyo. Word of God has it that the incident in question invlolved a sports car, a house, 4 cases of gasoil, 5 pots of boiling coffee, a slinky, 2 boxes full of Grief Seeds, an incubator drone, a van, a briefcase full of money of unscrupulous origins, a maid outfit and cheese.
• Not with the Safety On, You Won't: heavily subverted. Though Sec admits that there is a safety on his death ray, "no Dalek to his knowledge had ever used it."
• Omniscient Morality License: The Incubators, who have not only been exploiting the human race since the stone age but have also been conducting social engineering projects to make humans easier to manipulate. Sec implies that they're responsible for creating the cultural image of the Magical Girl which misleads so many young girls into contracting with them.
• Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The ones in charge of the PMM plan. So far, we have and Eldritch Hive Mind, an enormous Uber-Orwellian regime and The Cybermen.
• One of Us: The author has links to the TV tropes page in the forums, and openly called Sec's defeat of a witch a Bolostomp.
  • Why hello there!
• People's Republic of Tyranny: One of the members of the Coalition is called "The People". Word of God has it that "They call themselves 'The People' for the same reason an oppressive dictatorship calls itself 'The People's Democratic Republic of X'."
• Precision F-Strike: Uttered by Sec.

"SON-OF-A-THAL!"

• Puny Humans: Uhrmann seems to think so. Which is why Sec stomps her/it.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: There's no indication as to how many times Homura's repeated the Groundhog Day Loop, but she's done it enough times to memorize nearly every single event in Mitakihara that could be remotely relevant to her cause, and learn nearly every single possible route in which events could unfold. Whoa.
  • Dalek Sec claims that he is two hundred and fifty thousand years old.
• Refuge in Audacity: Sec's strategy for remaining inconspicuous is to advertise the fact that he's an robotic alien Space Nazi at every opportunity. Naturally, nobody believes him, and they come to their own conclusions.
  • This actually seems to be a common theme with any of Dalek Sec's ideas. Like the time he strapped an orbital defense array to a Killcruiser to defeat the Skaro Degradations, or the time he stole a Time Lord prision ship and crossed the barrier between the universes, or the whole fiasco of Daleks in Manhattan.
• Running Gag: Sec never succeeds in his first attempt. Or in his second. Or third. And yes, this applies to everything, up to and including video games.
  • The only video game we've seen him play is Dwarf Fortress. Not succeeding is practically the point of the game; so does that mean that he's succeeding in a game where the only option is failure?
• Scarf of Asskicking: Homura now wears one, much to Dalek Sec's chargin.
• Shout-Out: Apparently, Dalek Science sneers at the impossible.
  • The entire Curb Stomp Battle against Uhrmann is a shout out to the Bolo series. Her defeat is even called a "Bolostomp," in the author's notes.
  • Word of God has it that Sec's use of the word "Thal" as a swearword is a shout out to Second Empire.
  • Sayaka seems to be chanelling Shirou Emiya at times.
  • Homura has taken to wearing a long scarf arund her neck. Cue Dalek Sec muttering about "Jellybabies."
  • Kyouku believes, in chapter five, that Sec's emotions are stuck on "Always Angry, All the Time" which is the battle cry of one of 4 Chan's homegrown (original) Space Marine Chapters, the Angry Marines.
  • One of the members of the Coalition is based on the story 1984, especially in its use of newspeak.
    • Another race is the Cybermen. They end their meetings with the traditional Cylon Catch Phrase, "By Your Command."
  • Sec is shown playing an unnamed game, but Word of God and clues, plus the rage and anger it invokes, shows that the game is Dwarf Fortress.
  • Kyouko mentions to Kyubey that Homura handed her "an offer [She] couldn’t refuse"
• Slasher Smile: Homura, of all people. Even Sec finds it disturbing.
• Speak of the Devil: The Dalek Inquisitor General.

[Sec] decided he’d better think about something else, lest he summon the terrifying Dalek here.

• • Guess who shows up in chapter five...
• Stun Guns: Sec uses one to knock out Sayaka, to prevent her from attacking Kyouko.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: I WAS DO-ING NO-THING. THIS DID NOT HAP-PEN.
• Take That: To the 2010 new Daleks, where it's shown that a single pre-Time War Dalek is capable of shredding an entire ship full of them. On the other hand, the Dalek responsible is the Dalek Inquisitor General, AKA one of the few beings in the cosmos that Sec fears more than the Doctor.
  • Dalek Sec rants so loudly about the movie Avatar that when Homura severs the link between her body and her soul gem, rendering her deaf, she can still hear him.
• Tempting Fate: While watching Homura battle Walpurgisnacht Sec concludes that the witch isn't looking his way, and wouldn't attack him. A few seconds later he realizes what he just did and, sure enough, there's a slew of familiars headed his way. Cue a Dalek-flavored F-Strike.

Sec: SON-OF-A-THAL!

• • This:

Kyouko: Besides, what're you gonna do about it? Sec: I WILL IN-FLICT WHAT IN TECH-NI-CAL TE-RMS IS KNO-WN AS A VIO-LENT-LY PAIN-FUL DE-ATH. Kyouko: With what? A plunger? Sec: I WILL TA-KE TH-AT AS A CHA-LLEN-GE. (proceeds to thrash her up one side of the alley and down the other with said plunger)

• The Alliance: The Coalition, composed of The Mind (Incubators), The People and The Cybermen
• Those Wacky Nazis: Not actually appearing, but Sec has said that "I AM AN IM-PERIAL-IS-TIC SPACE NAZI."
• Unexplained Recovery: Sec, obviously. Absolutely no indication of how he managed to survive is given, or how he managed to get his casing back, or how his previous condition was negated. Lampshaded at once, with Sec promptly deciding that he doesn't want to know how he managed to survive.
  • In chapter four, the Doctor claims that when Amy rebooted the universe at the end of series six, it accidentally brought back everything that had ever died. Most of it died again, like it did in the original timeline, but Sec was somehow thrust into the Void, where he eventually wound up in the PMM universe. Word of God states that the reason why the Doctor and Sec were able to get to the PMM universe is because someone came here during the first time war.
    • To clarify: When Amy rebooted the universe, everything that had been killed was brought back to life, and everything that was supposed to die, died. Sec...didn't, and instead fell through the Void, connecting both universes with a Time Space stream, which allowed The Doctor to come here. As well as other things.
• Unstoppable Rage: Dalek Sec. All the damn time. This is actually fairly common for a Dalek.

Dalek Sec wasn’t quite near the I-will-kill-everyone-on-this-planet-with-their-own-internal-organs stage yet, but he was certainly getting there.

• • Noted slightly earlier that what a human considers "Unstoppable Rage," is merely "Miffed," to a Dalek. If any other life form in existence felt what a Dalek considers unstoppable rage, they would explode.
• Wham! Episode: Chapter 4. The Doctor is in the house.
  • Chapter Five: One of the coalition members is the Cybermen!
    • Also The Dalek Inquisitor General is free.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The revelation that Puella Magi do not age causes much Fridge Horror for Madoka.
  • Subverted with Dalek Sec, and the subversion is justified: increased age means more combat experience, so having survived a very long time is a badge of honor for him. Also, he wants to restore his race eventually, and given his first attempts to create Dalek Embryos (in Daleks in Manhattan) and his first attempt at making a casing (chapter two of this story), he's probably gonna be around for a while...
• Written Sound Effect