Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 14

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. They belong to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO. Balian and Sybille are real people from history, although their characterizations are mine.

Chapter 14: Old Friends and New Allies

The mutant underground in North Louisiana. There was a mutant underground? Marie looked at the stranger. Gambit. She didn’t remember ever hearing that name. As she stood there like an absolute fool with her fingers poised over the packs of bubblegum she’d been tidying, she saw Pam turn and indicate that she should join the little group. Probably Eric’s orders. Ginger and Belinda were dismissed. They’d probably have to come in early the next afternoon to finish cleaning up.

Marie carefully picked her way over, aware that she was a minor taking part in some very serious adult conversation. ‘You can do this,’ she told herself. She’d hitchhiked from Mississippi to Canada, hopped in the trailer of a guy with claws, gotten kidnapped by a terrorist, had her school attacked by special forces, and she survived. She could deal with this. She hoped. Gambit gave her a smile when he saw her. Did he know she was a mutant, or was he smiling because he was just being friendly? “Bonsoir, cherie,” he said. She managed to whisper a ‘hello’ in return.

Eric glanced at the two of them. “Did you know about this mutant underground?” he asked Marie.

She shook her head. “I knew there were mutants out there evading the authorities for whatever the reason,” she said, “but I didn’t know they were organized.”

“Oh, we’re not, cherie, believe me,” said Gambit. “I just gave it a name because it sounds good.”

“So if you’re not organized,” said Eric, “then what are you?”

“Just people trying to find a way to live in a world that doesn’t want them,” said Gambit. “Same as you.”

“Why did you think we were interested in having anything to do with you, cher?” asked Pam.

“You are forging an alliance with the Wolverine,” said Gambit. “So why not add more mutants onto your list of allies?”

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 13

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. It all belongs to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

Chapter 13: Brother, My Brother

Durnham was a much slower driver than Eric, for which Marie was glad. High speed was not really her kind of thing. The Sheriff’s ‘daytime man’ drove a black Honda with the word ‘Fangtasia’ stencilled on it in red. The seats were of leather, and there was a port for someone to plug in their iPod. The only car she’d seen that had looked that nice had been Cyclops’ car. Of course, that was now Logan’s car. The only thing the Wolverine and his former romantic rival had had in common, apart from their love for Jean, had been super-fast vehicles. Boys and their toys.

The sun was just beginning to set as they arrived at the nightclub. The human employees had already started arriving, to set up before their ‘master’ woke. She hadn’t noticed it before, but Fangtasia was situated right next to a Toys ‘r’ Us, which was highly disturbing in a way, considering the sort of kinky things that went on inside the club. Just as well it did not share the same opening times as the toy store.

One of the other employees had opened the door by the time Marie and Durnham got out of the car. There were some whispers amongst the women —and they were mostly women. No prizes for guessing why they had been attracted to the job. All right, so perhaps that was unfair. Maybe some of them did want a livelihood instead of a chance to…um…get to know the boss. They were wondering who she was, and some of them were giving her dirty looks. Marie nodded at them politely once she was inside.

Durnham gave her the briefest of tours, pointing out the bathrooms, the staff lockers where she could put a spare change of clothes, and, of course, the booth she would be looking after. Fangtasia had a range of merchandise, and she had to be impressed with Eric’s creative marketing schemes. Seriously, what woman wouldn’t want to buy a calendar that had him posing naked on a bed of furs, with eyes that clearly said ‘come get me’? And if that didn’t cater to their tastes, there were t-shirts, postcards —again with Eric and some other very good looking vampires posing on them— mugs, bookmarks, and even pencils and notepads.

“I see you are impressed with our products,” said a voice behind her, making her jump.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 12

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rated: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize; it all belongs to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

Chapter 12: League of Darkness

Bill was awfully quiet tonight, and Sookie was wondering why. Although one of the main attractions of being with a vampire, at least for her, was the fact that she couldn’t read his mind, she sometimes wished that she could. Her vampire wasn’t exactly the most talkative of people. In fact, he was downright bad when it came to expressing himself and telling her things that he really ought to tell her. She supposed it was one of the things in their relationship that they needed to work on. She snuggled up closer to him, closing her eyes as she leaned against his chest. He was so still; no heartbeat, no breathing. His arms were wrapped around her, making her feel safe.

“Eric called me earlier today,” he suddenly said.

“Do we have to talk about Eric?” asked Sookie, opening one eye. She was in no mood for whatever business the Sheriff had at the moment. The bar had been extremely busy tonight, and she really just wanted to cuddle. Damn vampire politics. Like sand, it got into everything, and there never seemed to be an end to all the conflicts. All in all, it was very similar to human politics. Perhaps that was the one aspect of humanity that the vampires all clung to.

“He has arranged a meeting with the queen in two weeks,” said Bill. “He wants you to go with him, and I am to accompany you, of course.”

“Um…Bill?” said Sookie. “I just took three days off work. It doesn’t seem right to take off again so soon.”

“But you did agree to work for Eric if the humans involved didn’t get killed,” said Bill. “He has honoured his side of the bargain, so you must also honour yours.” He sighed. “Even if he didn’t honour his side, you would still have to honour yours. He is the Sheriff.”

“Oh, I hate vampire politics,” said Sookie, reaching up to kiss him on his cool lips. She had intended for it to be a small affectionate kiss, but it evolved from there. Somehow, with methods that completely eluded her, they managed to find their way into Bill’s bed.

---

After Eric had left —and he hadn’t stayed for long, much to Marie’s relief— she immediately called Logan. She needed his advice. All right, so maybe he wasn’t particularly good at giving other people advice, since he didn’t have a clue what he himself was doing half the time, but he did have good instincts and he’d always been there for her. She really just needed to talk things through with someone she trusted, that was all. He picked up after the first ring.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 11

True Blood/X-Men crossover

Rated: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize; it all belongs to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

Chapter 11: Worlds Collide

Logan pulled Eric aside as soon as Stan Davis and his retinue had disembarked. “Listen, bub,” he said. “I don’t appreciate you claimin’ that we belong to you, coz we don’t, got it?” Sookie held her breath, wondering what the Sheriff would do. From what she knew, Eric did not tolerate this sort of disrespect, although, strangely enough, he brushed it off when she was the one who disrespected him. There was a niggling suspicion at the back of her mind that he was giving her preferential treatment, and she was quite sure that it wasn’t just her telepathic ability that was making him treat her thus.

Eric, to his credit, did not lose his temper, although he did forcefully remove Logan’s hands from the front of his completely ruined shirt. “I had no other choice,” he said. “He would have tried to claim you, otherwise, and I certainly did not want that, although…” Here, he paused and smirked. “I would have liked to see how Davis would have dealt with you.” That was directed specifically at Logan.

“I would have cut his head off, like I said I would,” said Logan. “It’s very simple, really.”

“You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, have you?” asked Eric, shaking his head. He wasn’t sure, but he felt he liked having a completely clueless nephilim as an ally, or rather, a potential ally. It made him so much easier to control. Of course, other troubles were sure to arise in the future. Howlett had made it very clear the only predictable thing about him was unpredictability and the smell of cheap cigar smoke.

The intercom crackled to life again. “Logan!” called Mystique. “Storm’s on. She wants to talk to you.”

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 10

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. It all belongs to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

Chapter 10: Ad Victoriam

Logan stared at each of the soldiers in turn. Well, just the six at the front. He didn’t have time to give them all individual looks. He could feel the others staring at the back of his head. They were probably wondering if he was mad, or what he was, or both. He didn’t particularly care at the moment. The Wolverine snarled. It was a guttural sound that came from deep down in his throat; an inhuman sound. The beast within him was straining against the constraints he had erected around it. If he had enough hair on the back of his neck, it would be bristling.

He didn’t wait for them to shoot him; the idea just wasn’t that appealing. He lunged first, going for the guns. It was inevitable, however, that they fired at him before he could disarm them. The first bullets hit him in the chest. He almost staggered backwards as the pain struck him. He could hear Marie screaming his name and taste blood at the back of his throat. And no, it didn’t taste different from any other blood, despite what those vamps were saying. He ignored the pain. The claws came down, slicing the gun closest to him in half. The claws of his other hand pierced through Kevlar and silver chainmail. Frothy blood bubbled from the man’s mouth, staining his chin red. Logan yanked out his claws with a grunt and before the corpse had even fallen, he had launched himself at his next opponent.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 9

True Blood/X-Men crossover

Rating: Teen

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize.

NB: I used a mix of book Godric and TV Godric.

Chapter 9: Sin and Retribution

The sun was rising in the east, its golden rays slowly creeping across the sleeping earth, waking it up. It was silent, apart from the chirping of a few birds. Godric turned his face towards the rising sun. He was beginning to smoke. Logan’s cigar dangled from his fingers. He’d forgotten it was even there as he watched the ancient vampire close his eyes and lift his hands to the sky as if in ecstasy. Flames of blue and gold appeared on his skin. His robe caught on fire quickly. Logan’s first instinct was to tackle the vampire and roll him around on the ground until the fire died, but he made himself stay where he was. The flames engulfed Godric’s body quickly, and when they died down, there was simply a charred spot on the yellow grass and the smallest pile of ash.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 6

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: Teen (violence, language and mentions of adult material)

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. All rights belong to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

The traffic was awful. In fifteen minutes, they’d moved about three hundred feet. Marie wished that Logan had his motorcycle with him. It would have been dangerous to weave in and out of this traffic, but Logan was a great motorcyclist, and he usually had one helmet, although he never wore it. His skull was a better helmet than anything else. However, Logan had left his motorcycle in Louisiana at Sookie’s place. With no other mode of transport, they’d had to catch a cab.

Her imagination was going into overdrive. Who knew what those fundamentalists would do to her cousin for consorting with vampires? They could be uploading videos of her execution onto YouTube by now—no, she would not think about that. They were probably far too media savvy to do something that ridiculous anyway. Those YouTube videos had not done much for Al Qaeda’s reputation. If they were going to execute Sookie, they’d do it in private. No, she was not going to think about that either.

“Don’t think, kid,” whispered Logan.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 5

True Blood/X-Men Movie crossover

Rated: Teen

NB: This version of the Fellowship of the Sun is very different from the one in the books and in the show.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize; it all belongs to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris.

“Look, I’ve told you everything.” Sookie couldn’t help but feel just a little bit sorry for the hitman who’d been hired to kidnap her. It was rather terrifying, being surrounded and interrogated by vampires who could easily snap his neck if they wanted to. “I was contacted by the same man twice, from two different phones, and I was supposed to take the girl to a drop off point outside Dallas and leave her there,” said the man. His name was Todd Jordan, he was a loner, and he liked gambling a bit too much for his own good, Sookie could tell. He wouldn’t have taken the job if the money hadn’t been so good. 

“How did anyone find out that Sookie was coming?” said Bill. His fangs were bared, and he was very very angry. Actually, that was an understatement. The King of Texas, on the other hand, sat totally still in his swivel chair, his pale eyes inscrutable behind the thick lenses of his glasses. He wasn’t what Sookie had expected a vampire king to look like, but what would she know about vampire royalty? Before Bill, she’d never encountered vampires before. Now she had the feeling that she was encountering far too many strange things all at the same time.

“I don’t know,” said Todd. “I only carry out the orders.”

“Where were you supposed to drop me off?” asked Sookie.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 4

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. X-Men characters belong to Marvel and 2oth Century Fox. True Blood characters belong to HBO and Charlaine Harris.

This is set in an alternative universe after True Blood season one, where there is no Maenad, and after all three X-Men movies.

Why was it that Bill Compton always associated with the oddest sorts? First it was a telepath, and now mutants. Eric snarled at the man called Logan, baring his fangs. Any sane being, human or vampire, would have known to be careful then, but not this mutant. He snarled right back at Eric, baring very human looking teeth, but it wasn’t the teeth that surprised the vampire. The quiet ring of metal could barely be heard above the music, but it was clear enough to vampire hearing. He glanced down. Metal claws were sliding out from between the man’s knuckles. They were not silver –he’d been a vampire long enough to know the smell of silver– but of a metal that he had never encountered before in the millennia that he’d walked this earth.

“You wanna fight, vampire?” growled the man.

The others watched the sheriff with some apprehension. Bill was ready to intervene if he needed to, Sookie was swallowing rapidly and her cousin, that fascinating girl who looked just like her, simply looked terrified, as she ought to. He guessed he really surprised them when, instead of actually taking up Logan’s offer, he laughed. “Where do you find these people, Compton?” he said.

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 3

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters of X-Men or True Blood. They belong to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

NB: This is mostly based on the X-Men movies and the True Blood television show, with only a few elements of the original comics and books. I am not trying to follow the original material, that is to say the printed version. This is also an alternate universe

Read chapter 2 here.

She was just sitting on Sookie’s sofa, listening to the radio and filing her nails when she felt it. It wasn’t a strong sensation –just a sudden but slight surge of warmth, really– but it was enough. She knew. Her power, her gift, her curse; it was back. She had known there was every chance in the world that the Cure might not be permanent, and she had thought she would be able to handle it. She’d been wrong. She dropped the nail-file and flexed her fingers, staring at her hands as if they were not her own. They looked so ordinary, her hands; slender, but not skeletal, with short neat fingernails –she had never mastered the art of the self-manicure– and a few freckles on the back. One could simply not imagine that they could kill someone all on their own.

Marie suddenly burst into tears. After everything she had been through, everything she had tried, she still had killer skin. There was no escaping it. She was doomed to be isolated from everyone else forever, at least physically. She heard the front door open. “Marie?” called Sookie. Being a telepath, her cousin must have sensed that something was wrong, especially since Marie had made no effort to hide her emotions. Sookie came into the living room and immediately dropped her things. “What’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

The younger woman jerked away as Sookie tried to hug her. “Don’t touch me!” she cried. “I don’t want to hurt anybody…”

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 2

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters of X-Men or True Blood. They belong to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Charlaine Harris and HBO.

NB: This is mostly based on the X-Men movies and the True Blood television show, with only a few elements of the original comics and books. I am not trying to follow the original material, that is to say the printed version. This is also an alternate universe.

Read chapter 1 here.

Well, Logan approved of Marie’s cousin Sookie, as far as he could tell, and he had great instincts, he had to say. One didn’t survive for as long as he did without having a knack for being able to tell whether others meant him harm or not. Of course, being almost indestructible helped, but that was another point entirely. The main thing was that Logan had never really had prove just how indestructible he was apart from one or two times. All right, maybe seven or eight. He ordered another beer. It was growing dark outside but he was in no mood to go and find a motel just yet. He’d passed one on his way, actually, and it looked as if it had a lot of rooms vacant, anyway, so accommodation was not a problem. Sookie brought him his drink within a minute. “I’d have thought you’d be less than sober by now, Mister Howlett, with the amount you’ve been drinkin’,” she said as she set down his bottle of Molson’s on a clean napkin.

“What can I say?” said Logan as he took a sip of his beer. “I’ve got great tolerance. An’ call me Logan, please. Mister Howlett makes me feel so old.”

Sookie laughed. Yes, even if she didn’t look as if she could be Marie’s blonde twin, he would have been able to tell that they were related. They both had the same laugh, although Marie was not half as cheerful. ”Well, you are pretty old,” she said, and she wasn’t really teasing him. Logan could tell. And he could feel something at the edge of his consciousness, something like…

 

Fanfiction: Survival of the Fittest 1

A friend of mine got me hooked on True Blood. Yes, despite myself, I find that I am drawn to the character of Eric Northman, sexy Viking vamp. I keep on wondering what would happen if he met the Wolverine. (It’s more…errr… likely than Wolverine meeting Aragorn, and I’ve already had that happen.) So I’m just going to write up something…maybe it’ll turn out to be another long crossover. Who knows? (Yes, I do intend to work on Chance Encounter V; that still takes precedence, but I’m tired so I should be allowed to play.)

 

True Blood/X-Men Crossover

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that you recognize. X-Men characters belong to Marvel and 2oth Century Fox. True Blood characters belong to HBO and Charlaine Harris.

This is set in an alternative universe after True Blood season one, where there is no Maenad, and after all three X-Men movies.

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Violence and some adult content

She’d left him a note; just one piece of lined notebook paper, slipped under his door. He must have been deeply asleep because he had not heard her. There was not much on that piece of paper, although he could sense that there was more that she had wanted to say, only that she had not been able to put her thoughts down in words. In the end, she had left those words unsaid. Logan unfolded the note again and read the few lines, written in Marie’s large round hand.

“Dear Logan,” it read.

I need a break. I don’t know how to tell you this, but I need to get away. I have some family in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and I’ve written to them asking them if I coul stay with them  for a while until I figure out what to do with the rest of my life and they agreed. I’ve never met them but I think I’ll like them. I’ll write again once I’m there.

All my love,

Marie

He understood her need to get away. So much had happened to her in the past couple of years. To be quite honest, he was surprised she had held out for so long. But Logan was Logan, and he would be damned before he let her go off into the world alone. Heck, he had to at least make sure that her relatives were actually decent people first. Yes, he knew she was nineteen years old and turning twenty in two months, but he couldn’t help it. In his eyes, she was still that frightened girl who had sneaked onto his trailer, and he was not going to let her go out alone into a world with vampires and who knew what else in it. No, he was not acting like an overprotective father, and if he was, he would die first before he would admit it.

It was summer. There was nothing for him to do here since all the students were either at home or overseas on a school trip to Greece and Italy. He pretty much had the entire mansion to himself, apart from Mystique, who now taught IT, and she didn’t need him around. The last time he subbed one of her classes, he’d punched a computer screen in frustration and smashed it. She had not been impressed.

 

On Writing Good Crossover Fanfiction (Guidelines only)

Well, considering I’m in the middle of writing my third mass crossover fanfic, and am planning a fourth, I thought I would discuss this topic.

Crossover fanfiction–it’s not original, it’s not popular, but it’s been done multiple times. The question I want to ask is, why is it not popular? I mean, putting two stories together, and I presume that these two stories have their own fanbases, what’s not to like? The fact is, there are a number of things that can go wrong.

Prior Preparation

Yes, you have to prepare before you can actually start writing the crossover. Before I wrote mine, I’d seen the Lord of the Rings movies about fifty-two times (the theatrical versions and extended versions) and I’d seen Kingdom of Heaven about fifteen times (theatrical and director’s cut). I’d done a literature research for school on the two texts, focusing mainly on Balian’s psychological growth, and how Legolas and Gimli learnt to accept each other and become friends. I’d also read the LotR books a few times, and done some reading on the Crusades. To write a crossover, you need to know the character very well so you can write how they deal with being thrown into this bizarre situation. You also need to do some research about the characters’ backgrounds, and think about how this would affect them as people.

Characterization

I cannot stress how important this is. People only read crossovers because they’re interested in those characters, and how they will react in this entirely strange situation. They want to see the characters they know and love, not people who share the same names and nothing else. You need to be able to describe things in relation to the character’s experiences. For example, Balian compares everything in Middle Earth to his village in France and the Holy Land, because those are the things he knows. If I’d had, say, a Roman soldier in Middle Earth, he’d be comparing everything to Roman things.

Tip: I suggest sticking to the original canon plots as much as possible, and only changing what you really need to change. However, you have to take into account the fact that because you’ve merged these two or more stories, the plot is definitely going to change. The visitors should not change the plot too much though. A good way to prevent this is instead of having them as the centre of everyone’s attention, have them on the periphery, and then tell everything from their point of view. That allows you to step into their shoes. Also, research their background and the sort of world they come from. If it’s a modern insert, then you probably can use your own experiences, but remember, if you’re trying to do period pieces, people are going to think differently from the average modern day person. Research is everything, and anything that research doesn’t answer, you can fill in with your own imagination.  

The Plot

This is much easier. For my first crossover, I just followed the plot of Lord of the Rings, with an extra character or two. Sometimes, the characters want to do one thing but you want them to do something else. Go with the characters. They know what’s best for your story. Your job is to write down what they think they ought to do, and throw in some random events so they can have a reaction. I suggest not changing any of the outcomes of the original story, if you’re following a canon plot. You can take a slight detour — in fact, that is encouraged.

Use of movie/book dialogue

Sometimes, it’s impossible not to use lines from the movie or book, but try to keep it to a minimum, since if your readers want to read a rehash, they can just search out the script. And I suggest you add your own commentary if you have to use the movie lines. If you don’t think you can do the characters justice with your own dialogue, then perhaps you shouldn’t be writing the story at all, since you don’t know the characters well enough. Do not, and I stress this, do not write out the script and then insert a few lines about your other character here and there. It doesn’t work.