Fanfic / Child of the Storm

A Massive Multiplayer Crossover by Nimbus Llewelyn that started on the What If? that The Mighty Thor had been incarnated as James Potter, as a first run on that humility thing. Oh, and after he died, he went mad with grief and Odin had to wipe his memories. Then those memories were restored by Loki in Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts.

The result is a world of strange hijinks, constant snarking, lots of badassery, evil plots, lots of characters, creepy super zombies lead by an even creepier necromancer, and Loki's incredible coffee making skills. The sequel piles on more weirdness. While the premise of Harry turning out to be the son of a Norse god and being given sudden superpowers is a typical Marty Stu setup, the story avoids becoming Wish-Fulfillment by exploring the issues it causes both for him and the wider world. The story also has a lot of Worldbuilding on a large scale.

The author has alternately stated that the entire series is mapped out beforehand, or that he changes his mind at the last minute. He cites as inspiration Smallville and X-Men: Evolution, which similarly start with a youth discovering their powers and the issues that comes with them, and The Last Son series and SmallvilleX: Evolution. He's also friends with the authors of The Magic of Torchwood and De-Aged, crediting the former as a key beta/source of advice and the latter as an invaluable source of scientific expertise.

In short: A patchwork Mega Crossover that is both Denser and Wackier and Darker and Edgier than the original material.

Has five instalments so far:

• Book 1: Child of the Storm, which starts it all with Harry discovering his heritage and, essentially, trying very hard not to die as a lot of people try just as hard to kill him, while discovering new powers and making new friends, all while HYDRA ascend, the Darkhold whispers and everyone dances on the puppet strings of the Sorcerer Supreme... It is Complete, and can also be found on AO3.
• Book 1.5: Chaos Reigns, is a side story set just prior to chapters 59 and 60, alternately from the POV of Harry Dresden and Wanda Maximoff, as they handle an incursion by the demonic N'Garai. It is Complete, and can also be found on AO3.
• Book 2: Ghosts of the Past, follows on from the Final Battle of Child of the Storm with Harry starting to assert himself as a Power in his own right, but one still vulnerable thanks to his nature as a Glass Cannon and his inexperience, and dealing with the reverberations of the events of the previous book. Meanwhile, a number of separate villains are all, for one reason or another, out to either control him or to destroy him. It is Complete. The first (Prelude) and second (Forever Red) arcs can also be found on AO3 ^note  owing to its length and the convenient arc structure, it's being divided up to make it more manageable and avoid spoilers in the tags.
• Book 2.5: Unfinished Business, is a side story in the vein of Chaos Reigns, similarly set with a Switching P.O.V. (this time, initially Carol and Peter's), around chapter 62-65 of Ghosts, when on a school trip to New Orleans, some very particular ghosts come back to haunt them... It is Complete.
• Book 3: The Phoenix and the Serpent follows straight on from Ghosts (it was originally the second half of that book), and leads into the second half of Harry's 4th year, as everything gathers pace towards a cataclysmic finale, to teach Harry one final lesson. Everything has its time. And everything ends. It is Ongoing.
• Book 3.5: COS: Short Stories and Other Whims is a series of interquels, one-shots, snapshots, and snippets, including prompt responses and things that don't fit in the main story. It's set from Ghosts onwards. It is ongoing.
  • The series also has some Recursive Fanfiction in the form of a creator-approved and loosely canon crack oneshot, Chaperone by ThunderStag, one of Nimbus' betas, beta'd by Nimbus himself.

Has also gained a certain amount of recognition beyond this page and recommendations on this site:

• An incomplete reading, the first several chapters of which can be found here.
• It is also being translated into Russian.

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Child of the Storm contains examples of the following tropes:

• Tropes A-H
• Tropes I-P
• Tropes Q to Z

Ghosts of the Past contains examples of the following tropes:

• Tropes A-H
• Tropes I-P
• Tropes Q to Z

The Phoenix and the Serpent contains examples of the following tropes:

• Always Chaotic Evil: Discussed and Subverted with the Changing People a.k.a. the Deviants. When it comes up, one of the Eternals, Gilgamesh, says that even though he almost exclusively faces the violent and, indeed, evil ones, he doesn't think that all of them are like that. As he explains, he thinks it has more to do with the fact that they're constantly mutating, which can kill them, alter their brain-chemistry, render them infertile, or transform them into an animalistic monstrosity without warning. As a result, they're desperate to a) breed fast and relatively young before it becomes impossible, b) are terrified of any conceivable threat, no matter how minor, and respond viciously because any losses are one less potential person capable of passing on their genes. It's also implied that they're jealous of ordinary humans, who're stable and, if they get powers, they only mutate once or twice.
• Arc Villain: Following Yonder Star: The Grandmaster, Mad God and Dimension Lord of Sakaar, who drags in beings from across time and space to torment and feed upon for his amusement.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Played for horror with the Grandmaster, who looks and superficially acts more or less human, but is actually an Eldritch Abomination in a human-suit with the associated difference in outlook and interests. While there's overlap, that just makes it worse.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Harry and Sunniva maintain this habit, though a fair amount of it is Harry complaining - and lampshading how his usual Flirting Under Fire isn't an option because Carol isn't around and he can't snark at his enemies because they're eldritch horrors that won't appreciate his remarks.
• The Chanteuse: Julie Maupin's current role at her club on Sakaar, which acts as a mask for her 'true' role as a Knowledge Broker. What she's actually up to is considerably more nebulous and much more complicated.
• Chekhov's Gun: Harry discovers in passing that with the Phoenix, he can shapeshift on a fundamental level, and is initially just a little curious about it. Fast-forward to chapter 11, and he's using it to hold the Grandmaster's attention by flawlessly disguising himself as a new competitor in the Contest of Champions - Obi-Wan Kenobi. And yes, everyone thinks he's gone mad.
• Composite Character:
  • The Grandmaster in this setting is a mixture of his MCU self, his comics self, the Red King in Planet Hulk, and most pertinently, an evolution of Annihilus.
  • 'Julie' is this as a result of having been many people over her very long life, among them Julie d'Aubigny, Phryne Fisher, Spitfire I, and above all, the Lady Knight.
• Cool Old Guy:
  • Shou-Lao is an Elder Wyrm over a million years old, is so large and so ridiculously powerful that he makes 'Dave' look like an oversized earthworm, and spends much of his time in human form as the strict but fair ruler of the occasionally extradimensional city of K'un L'un, protecting its people and teaching them how to protect themselves. He also has a very dry wit, a remarkable degree of occasionally exasperated patience, and a personality summed up by Word of God as a "benevolent Count Dooku."
  • Adam Brashear is a brilliant scientist who's physically about fifty and mentally about eighty years older than that, and despite having spent those eighty years in a fundamentally horrific Eldritch Location he's not just refused to give up his idealism and hopes for liberty, but he happily gets into animated discussions about the science of magic.
• Cosmic Entity: The Phoenix, natch. Also one of Her aspects, Galactus.
• Day in the Limelight: The Following Yonder Star arc serves as this for Sunniva, with most of the first five chapters being from her point of view as she tracks Harry (who she has not yet met) through the distant past.
• Decomposite Character: Odin again—in Dresden Files canon, he was also the original Beowulf, a status delegated to his oldest illegitimate child, Vidar (who has about 2000 years on Thor and Loki). Here, that original bearer of that title was the Eternal Gilgamesh (though Word of God is that more than one person has held that name).
• Determinator: One needs to be this to spark up a Green Lantern Ring. To spark it up when it should by all logic have no power, in another reality, then keep a jury-rigged gauntlet of five rings running on a battery that's the equivalent of embers for the best part of fifteen years? You need to be someone like Hal Jordan, which gains Harry's immediate and absolute respect.
• Eldritch Location: Sakaar qualifies as this, being a mish-mash pocket reality made of a mixture of reality and the Outside which has somehow not exploded, and ruled by a mad god. It both bends and outright defies logic and the laws of physics, with vari-coloured skies, countless differing layers of the world, stars on sticks that splinter into drifting comets, Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, connections between worlds, with countless planets and civilisations literally fused together... and it's all the size of a dwarf galaxy. Oh, and even more than brushing it with cosmic senses makes Harry throw up. And it turns out that the whole place is an extension of the Grandmaster, with everyone trapped there slowly being drained of their life force to feed him.
• Heal the Cutie: Several months of Walking the Earth in the distant past with no pressures other than very literal self-care, plus some extensive training and emotional purging with Shou-Lao, are noted to have worked wonders, with Harry being much lighter and easier than he was before.
• I Have Many Names: Harry gets a few more this book: Listens-And-Asks-Endless-Questions, Starlight-In-His-Eyes, the Wanderer/Wander (which he finds quite funny for reasons no one else understands), Lord Earendil (this one he finds particularly amusing), and a modernised variant of the latter by his distant Aunt, Sunniva — Prince Aurvandil.
• The Juggernaut: Shou-Lao, who effortlessly shrugs off more or less everything Harry throws at him in their final testing duel and is barely even wounded, with Harry frankly admitting that unless he went Phoenix or really tried to kill him, there's absolutely no way he could win.
• Master Swordsman: Julie Maupin leaves Harry in jaw-dropped awe. Given who she really is and who she's taught, this isn't remotely surprising.
• The Mentor: Harry collects three in Following Yonder Star in Shou-Lao, Sunniva, and Julie Maupin. Shou-Lao teaches him control and judgement, Sunniva teaches him Phoenix lessons on a cosmic scale, and Julie takes it upon herself to give him a few quick lessons in swordsmanship.
• Mythology Gag: Chapter 6 has Harry, channelling the power of a cosmic entity, encourage a world to "Look to the skies... and let hope burn bright." Bro'dee Walker would approve.
• Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: The Forest People have names like these, though they don't mind diminutives, such as Dresden's friend, 'Strength Of A River In His Shoulders', being quite comfortable going by either 'River Shoulders' or just 'River'. Likewise, the Forest Person that Sunniva meets in the distant past, 'Patience Of The Hills In His Heart', is quite comfortable as 'Patience'. They call her, 'Fire Of The Stars In Her Heart', and Harry initially gets nicknamed 'Listens And Asks Endless Questions', before being dubbed 'Starlight In His Eyes'.
• Reality Warper:
  • Phoenix hosts as standard, something displayed to full effect in Following Yonder Star.
  • Annihilus and his forces, in a much more horrific way do this by merely existing.
  • The Grandmaster, as all of Sakaar is an extension of him including, to a very large extent, the people in it. Hal states that he could wipe out billions and entire civilizations with a mere tantrum.
• Refuge in Audacity: Harry's big plan to distract the Grandmaster while his allies enact a mass escape from Sakaar? Enter the Contest of Champions while disguised as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The entire rationale is that while it's utterly ridiculous, it's ridiculous enough that the Grandmaster, who's fascinated by narrative, should play along. It's noted by an amused Hal Jordan that they'll likely get sued if anyone ever finds out about this.
• Secret Identity: Julie Maupin has many, all concealing the fact that she's really the Lady Knight. Complicating this further is that that's just her main Red Baron - no one actually seems to know her 'real' name.
• Stealth Pun: Bor was transformed by Malekith into someone obnoxious, cruel, rude, and nasty—in other words, a boor.
• Stoic Woobie: Buri's generally pretty calm and steady, even philosophical. However, his story is pretty miserable, having been unable to prevent his son's transformation from sweet kid to a brutal borderline monster who didn't want to be saved.
• Story Arc: Following Yonder Star: A (relatively) young Sunniva tracks down Harry in the distant past, meeting him in K'un L'un after he's spent several months decompressing, exploring, and learning from Shou-Lao, before teaching him what it means to be a Phoenix as they jointly confront the Annihilation Wave and go to Sakaar, partway into the Negative Zone, to find the Silver Surfer.
• Super-Sargasso Sea: As in the MCU, Sakaar is this, all the more so for being a very strange Eldritch Location outside reality, with things and people (and bits of time) that fall through cracks in reality ending up there. Half of it is the Landfill Beyond the Stars, to Harry's profound disgruntlement when he lands in a rubbish tip, and the other half looks nice in an eldritch sort of way. Emphasis on the 'looks'.
• Time Skip: A more complicated variant in that the story picks up 6 months after Ghosts ended. However, that time only passed for Harry in the past, as he's set to return to the present before anyone really notices. Per Word of God, he's entirely aware of that, otherwise he'd be considerably more than just a little homesick from time to time and Strange would have burnt a major bridge.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Hal Jordan was last mentioned at the end of Child of the Storm as an Ace Pilot with a mischievous sense of humour. He finally reappears on Sakaar as a grizzled veteran space cop armed with a Green Lantern gauntlet powered by sheer stubbornness, unafraid to face down a Scarab Warrior and someone else with power that's off the charts, who's just effortlessly curbstomped some of Sakaar's biggest and baddest, and tell them to knock it off or answer to him. Then his batteries are fully charged for the first time by Harry.
  • The Fantastic Four all reappear for the first time since the finale of Child of the Storm and have both their powers and a decade and a half of experience in using them and in dealing with distinctly arcane super-science.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Harry had been defrosting over the course of Ghosts, but when he turns up again here, he is notably much nicer than he was prior to his Walking the Earth.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting:
  • A comparatively minor degree of it allows Julie to change her appearance whenever she likes to pass unnoticed.
  • In Shou-Lao's case, it's anything but minor, when he goes from a dragon the size of a mountain range to a large man and back in the blink of an eye.
  • Harry, meanwhile, discovers that this is an artefact of Phoenix powers more or less by accident. He later uses this to flawless impersonate Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • The Grandmaster can also shapeshift. It's best not to speculate on the details.
• Walking the Earth: What Harry's doing at the start, Strange having dropped him through a time portal set to approximately 40,000 years BP. After landing on a Scottish glacier, he rambles south and eastwards, with a very curious Sunniva following some weeks behind him. While he has no clear destination, people he encounters indicate that he's being pulled eastwards. He eventually winds up in K'un Lun.