Warnings: None. Safe as the movie was for younger readers, and a good deal less
violent.
Cross-over
Details: You can read this story without extensive
current knowledge of the X-Files or the X-Men, although if you're
an X-Phile who hasn't at least seen the X-Men movie, you'll be confused.
And if you're an X-Men fan who doesn't know who Mulder and Scully are, or why
they were in the basement of the Hoover building, bail now. Otherwise, all that
you need to know is below, or contained within the story itself ...
X-Files
Details: This is an old-fashioned X File. As such, it's
not dependent on the larger series mytharc. But there are a few things that one
can't avoid. If we assume that events in the X-Men film occur (as it
says) "in the not too distant future," then I must extrapolate from the X-Files
season (2001). This assumes no details from the final season! Billy
is still with Scully and Mulder.
There are three people on the
X-Files after 2001 but Mulder is no longer one of them. He was drummed
out of the FBI in season 8. The current agents assigned to the X-Files are
John Doggett, Monica Reyes, and Dana Scully (part time). Yet Reyes isn't in
this tale, and Doggett only briefly. And yes, dammit, I LIKE
Doggett. He gets only a small cameo in Part II because he doesn't really
fit into the story. This is a Mulder-Scully piece, though readers do need to
know that by Part II, Mulder is no longer an FBI agent.
Also, Scully had a baby at the
end of season 8, which is apparently Mulder's, although that was never spelled
out in so many words. I've assumed here that the two did marry at some point
after 2001. Naturally, the dynamics of interpersonal relationships among
the X-Files crowd will have altered somewhat in the four years between the
events of the 2001 season, and the events in Part II of this
story.
X-Men
Details: Anyone who's seen the film should be able to
follow this, but a few points for clarity:
Events here are prior to or
consanguineous with the early scenes of the movie. That means Rogue and Logan
have not yet arrived at the mansion and do not appear in this
story.
As in my "Five Pounds," I follow
COMIC canon here, which makes Cyclops an orphan. The basic tale of Scott's
foster parents is a MUCH modified version of "Little Boy Lost" (with thanks to
Pugui for putting it on the Red Shades archive). As comic fans know, Scott
spent years at an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska.
Despite this Scott-as-orphan
take, I do follow the movie novelization in which Scott's power
manifested at his senior prom. The scene in the screenplay used for the novel
was not filmed, but everything you need to know about it is related in
the story. (Yes, I let Selena grow up in Goddess of the Moon, but this is
Selena as she was at seventeen.)
The snippet of initial dialogue
at the beginning of Part II is taken directly from the beginning of X-Men:
The Movie.
This is for Naomi, for a lot of things. Cyke
and Mulder in one story! And Scott gets a happy ending finally.
A last
note: Fosterage is easy to demonize. But there are good
foster parents, as well as bad ones. And not all foster kids are trouble. This
story is dedicated to the foster parents who do it for all the right
reasons.
Disclaimer:
The X-Files belongs to Fox Studios and Chris
Carter, Mulder to David Duchovny and Scully to Gillian Anderson. X-Men:
The Movie belongs to Marvel Comics and Twentieth Century Fox, James Marsden
has made Cyclops his own, Famke Janssen played Jean Grey, and the amazing
Patrick Stewart has brought to life Professor X, who will now forever have a
British accent in my mind.
