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My Stranger Things/Monsterverse crossover prompt no one asked for

So some posts ago, I said I was getting ideas for a Monsterverse/Stranger Things crossover fic

Having already had two Godzilla crossovers in mind for Avatar: The Last Airbender and Game of Thrones, I figure this one deserves its own post. Especially since it’s unlikely I’ll get to write the story proper, but will probably give it the Dragons & Monsters treatment.

This is still in the “idea” stage so very few of this is set in stone.

1. Set after season five, towards the tail end of the Cold War.

The Party has mostly gone on to pursue post-college careers. Mike lives in Manhattan, having at least two books published. Will has several art projects in San Francisco. El in hiding in Iceland, but has a psychic/empathetic link with Mike and Will that subconsciously affects their writing/artwork.

What Mike thought was stories he came up with, is in fact lore and information only Monarch should know about. And what Will thinks is original art pieces are images reminiscent of cave paintings only Monarch should know about — images of Godzilla fighting Ghidorah, or Skull Island etc.

The reason for these images is because in Iceland, El encountered and befriended a titan living out there. Monarch’s studies of the area pick up acoustics, revealing she has been psychically communicating with the titan. Because of this, Mike and Will are approached by Monarch for an expedition to find this “communicator”. And soon, the rest of the Party and their friends tag in.

2. With the military occupation in Hawkins having gone kaput, Dr. Kay has nothing to show for her operations. The government has ordered a “cleanup” on Hawkins, silencing witnesses; some are simply bought, others “disappeared.”

With Kay’s career hanging by a thread, she learns of Monarch’s investigations into “the communicator”. Putting two and two together and realizes it’s a psychic child. So she lends a hand to Monarch as a military collaboration. This complicates things for the Party; they know she can’t be trusted but Monarch isn’t aware of what she was doing in Hawkins.

Inevitably, Kay goes rogue in trying to acquire El, as well as focuses her attention on the discovery of Titans. Kay see this as a means to continue the Cold War — or triggering a full out war with Russia — for a chance at salvaging her career.

3. So for character specific subplots, besides Mike and Will getting brain wave “signals” from El.

Will's a lot more worldly these days. He's on the road a lot; he's working on concept art for one of Jonathan's movies; he's a got a boyfriend from the UK who is actually a Monarch monitor. He's living his best life, mostly put his trauma behind him.

Will's not a struggling artist, but he's surrounded by people who want him to be. As an openly gay man in the early 90's, he's garnered a divided following. Some would encourage him to be more open with his sexuality, though a lot of them only see it as a selling point.

A lot of Will’s supposed fans are more interested in Will Byers the concept, not Will Byers himself. I'm also picturing Will as having a publicist being one such person. Will has his publicist fired for trying to get him to say that his family wasn't accepting of him, in order to push the “struggling artist” narrative.

This couldn't be further from the truth. If anything, Hopper and Joyce are pretty protective of Will regarding his new boyfriend. The worldly son of an aristocratic family; who happens to smitten for an up and coming artist with a small town background ? It just screams to good to be true. Low and behold, he and his father are in with Monarch.

But due to El's psychic influence, Will finds himself drawing monsters and places such as Skull Island; Godzilla being nuked at Castle Bravo; or the Ion Dragon's attack on the SS Lawton. All these are regarded as conspiracy theories In Universe. What gets Will's attention is when he makes a painting of what looks like El floating in the water, with a titan swimming beneath her.

On Mike's end, he's gotten two books published; fantasy novels very loosely the events of the series. Mike isn't that outgoing as Will. Sure he hangs out at bars, restaurants and such, but generally keeps himself as part of the scenery. Mike's just waiting around for whatever life throws at him next, hoping for a some higher calling. Despite his success, he doesn't feel fulfilled.

Picking up El's signals, Mike writes what he thinks is original lore for his books. In actuality, he's writing descriptions of titans and events that only Monarch is trying to cover up. Mike writes a story depicting a band of warriors being lost in a jungle, where they encounter a giant ape and battle “lizard snakes”; he writes of a Kingdom testing a dangerous weapon to try to destroy a sea dragon, etc.

He straight up writes the Ion Dragon into one of his books, and doesn’t even know the Ion Dragon is an actual thing until Monarch tells him.

It's only when Mike looks over an epilogue of one of his manuscripts does it click on him; the mage he wrote based off of El, settled down in a distant land where she befriended a dragon...which happens to resemble a creature Monarch had on their radar.

Because Mike and Will are receivers to the beacon El is emitting, they go along with Monarch to track and find her. But they don't fully trust Monarch is or their intention. As far as they know these guys are just more government baddies out to hurt her. If anything they’re in it to make sure they find El before Monarch does.

As for El herself, besides befriending a titan, and reuniting with her friends, she has a fugitive arc. Word is out that she's alive, which means Kay's forces are onto her. It would also turn out Mike and Will aren't the only ones receiving her Beacon; Terry Ives has also been drawing pictures similar to Will's and writing entries about Jane a personal journal that mirror Mike's stories.

Because of this, the Ives family are also reached out to by Monarch to help track her. I have more to go on for the Ives family but I'm keeping a lid on it for now. But for El, while she feels a pull and desire for a normal life...is “normal” really on the cards for her ?

Think about it; her whole life, she was the center of government conspiracies and plots, and alternate dimensions, and is now in a world where Titans are in her back yard. She has tried time and again to settle down for something mundane, but when you see how big the world is, what even is “normal” anymore ?

A white picket fence life would at best be a pause in a life that's grown so much bigger. Because of this, I don't see El as the settling type. Not permanently anyway. Her story doesn't so much end, as much as it's taking a break to see where life takes her next.

Mike and Will's involvement starts a domino effect; Jonathan, Nancy, Joyce and Hopper get wind of this, and pursue the boys. And if Nancy and Jonathan are getting involved, so too is Robin and Steve. And if Steve is getting in this mess, so is Dustin. And along with Dustin, Max and Lucas.

4. This is still in the idea stages but here’s what I’m spit-balling so far.

Of the characters I can see formally joining Monarch by the endgame, I lean to it being Nancy. I see Nancy as trying to start a career as an investigative journalist, but after Hawkins, she’s always seeing or expecting something bigger behind the surface. So when Mike gets roped in with Monarch, she gets a good look at what’s actually behind the curtain.

If/when Nancy is formally conscripted, she becomes an investigative field agent; on the scene playing detective on titan activity, and taking Murray’s advice, puts a believable spin to sell the public when the titans get too loud. And on the field, when the shit hits the fan, Nancy—

Yeah that.

Mike is another candidate I see fully joining Monarch. Being one of El's beacons effectively turns him into a walking talking lore keeper. It's the sort of “higher calling” he's been hoping for.

I’m not sure I can see Jonathan or Steve joining Monarch. They're along for the ride yes, but they have mundane lives and careers they prefer getting back too. They mostly treat it as “One Last Job.” But Robin’s in it for the love of the game. And if Robin herself doesn’t join in with Monarch, I had ideas for Vickie of doing so.

I like to think Vickie applied thinking because she thought she was applying to a conservation effort — but when she found out what it actually was, she just stuck to it after “seeing too much.” By the time they catch up with Vickie, she’s become an expert on Titan biology and such. Throughout plays a Claire Temple role, where being an impromptu nurse whenever a character — or even a titan — has a pressing medical emergency.

While I may lean to Ronance, Rovickie also grew on me. So I’m picturing Robin, being run ragged trying to keep up to Nancy and Vickie, while the latter two are at the top of their game in their fields. Maybe Nancy and Vickie start to bond over this, and Robin starts to feel left out.

5. And finally Max and Lucas.

I imagine them as also trying to settle down, and having a lot to lose before getting involved with Monarch’s operation, having become engaged right after college. I see Lucas pursuing a sports career, but I’m admittedly not much of a sports guy, so I don’t think I can add much to that regard.

Max on the other hand, I see her being a writer, albeit of a completely different genre than Mike would. Max had a book published during college, also loosely based on her experiences in Hawkins. But while Mike is writing fantasy stories, Max wrote a “modern” (late 80’s/early 90’s) magic realism book with a horror edge.

If this story was set in the mid to late 2010’s, her readers might describe her book as being “Alan Wake Meets Life is Strange”. And because of Max's friendship and history with Mike, mutual readers often theorize and try to make connections between their books despite them being completely unconnected. People even crossover ship some of their characters.

Max is also a lot more blunt about Hawkins influencing her writing. Her characters are made up for her book, but she sets her story in Hawkins, and directly depicts/alludes too the Upside Down various conspiracies. But she does so in such a way where it could be written off as stuff she made up for her book.

This actually put her under scrutiny. As part of the government's cleanup of Hawkins, Lucas accepted payment, preferring the normal life he thinks they earned. Sneakily putting Hawkins’ conspiracy out there, complicates things. This also puts them at an impasse; the government makes a young woman disappear after she writes about a “fictional” conspiracy ? Yeah, that’s not gonna raise alarms.

What ultimately gets Max and Lucas to join the expedition, is soon Max herself becomes a “receiver” to El’s signal; when she starts a draft writing another book, her treatment includes Godzilla showing up and rocking the shit out Hawkins and the military forces during the occupation.

But because Max and Lucas were about to settle down, I also don't see them joining Monarch in the endgame.

6. For Titans I thought of included, of course Godzilla or Kong came to mind. Here’s the thing, I’m not sure this could be a Godzilla or Kong story. If we’re keeping true to the timeline, Godzilla wouldn’t go public until 2014. And I just don’t see the party travelling to Skull Island. At most, I think Godzilla would be the subject of In Universe conspiracy theories.

Before this post, I found out that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is getting a Cold War spin-off set in 1984 — maybe I could get some leeway to include Godzilla depending on how that series plays out.

Then again, considering this story mostly covers isolated parts of the world, I can see Godzilla maybe showing up at a few points, but I’d put a pin in it. Of course it’s also possible Nancy could find a way to spin a Godzilla incident to the public; she’s probably that good at covering up shit like this.

Maybe she was just on sick leave during 2014.

7. There was a point I considered making this a Gamera: Rebirth crossover (albeit one that ignored the mid credits scene where iPhones are invented in the late 80’s). Gamera: Rebirth has the themes of “the magic of childhood/cynicism of adulthood” and is set during the summer of 1989 – conveniently right before Stranger Things ended.

The problem is A. I couldn’t/can’t think of good enough story involving Gamera, and B. Rebirth already went though most Gamera’s rogue’s gallery; about the only two left I could think of is Barugon and mainly Iris — but the problem with that while Iris can be done in a Stranger Things story, it would just be rehashing Henry and the Mind Flayer’s dynamic.

9. I also had ideas for more obscure kaiju. Such as Gorgo and his mother Ogra.

Why him ? Well, he’s one of those kaiju I wish got a modernized reboot, but more specifically El is somewhere in Iceland.

In the original movie, Gorgo and his mother lived off of Nara Island, which is off the coast of Ireland…but I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say their territory broadly covers the sea between the UK and Iceland. Especially since his mother has a mythic backstory tied to Viking legends. Besides, Gorgo is a baby, which I think would make him more “approachable” to El.

El's psychic presence causes Gorgo to stir while Ogra still sleeps. Through her bond with Gorgo, she subconsciously influences Mike’s writing and Will’s artwork. Mike and Will's bursts of inspiration for their monster stories was pretty much Gorgo’s genetic memories of the Hollow Earth and the Titans’ history. As for Ogra, she is asleep for most of the story and El would prefer to keep in that way.

10. Another monster I had in mind is the Rhedosaurus — The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which was one of the main inspirations of Godzilla, and like Gorgo, was also brought to us by Eugène Lourié.

A “Monsterverse!Rhedosaurus” would be an antagonist Titan and foil to Gorgo and Ogra. The lore the Party/Monarch uncovers establishes them related species to Godzilla, while having a natural predator/prey/competitor dynamic; a natural niche recorded in Mike’s stories. The Rhedosaurus is a natural predator to Gorgo as a juvenile, but bring Ogra into the picture, it'll be a curbstomp battle. While not as big or powerful as Godzilla, its real threat is that it carries a titan disease that would devastate the ecosystem and humanity should it spread.

To the titans, this disease would be akin to a cold; to humanity, it’d be something out of Resident Evil or Prototype. So of course, military (Kay) see this as a bioweapon. Things escalate further when Gorgo is inevitably captured, sending Ogra not only on a Mama Bear warpath, but the Rhedosaurus on the hunt; and if/when Ogra inevitably kills the Rhedosaurus, it’s blood and disease will spread. From there the mission becomes not just rescuing Gorgo, but trying to prevent Ogra from fighting the Rhedosaurus; as well as trying to find a way to kill the Rhedosaurus without spilling its blood.

12. And to complete the Eugène Lourié “trinity”, let’s throw in the Paleosaurus — The Giant Behemoth.

A titan that would be closely related to the Rhedosaurus but further up the evolutionary ladder. What tigers are snow leopards, what polar bears are to black bears, the Paleosaurus is to the Rhedosaurus. It doesn’t quite have the same predator/prey dynamic with Gorgo/Ogra’s species, but more of direct competitors. This would include a “mythical” backstory conveyed by El/Mike; telling of how a Paleosaurus fought and killed Ogra’s mate/Gorgo’s father, destroying the nest which left Gorgo as the stole surviving egg.

The Paleosaurus would first make its presence known when the party gets involved in a mission to rescue a cruise ship seemingly attacked by the Rhedosaurus…only to discover it was fleeing the Paleosaurus. (Vickie would be the zoologist trying to clarify the difference between the Paleosaurus and Rhedosarus to the others, while they’re in the middle of an attack by both monsters.) Later when the Rhedosaurus and Ogra are on a collision course, the commission rouses the attention of the Paleosaurus.

This puts the Party in the crosshairs of three different kaiju at once.

12. But besides that I had a few other ideas cooking up, tying the Upside Down to the Monsterverse. With the wormhole reveal in season five, one angle I was thinking was the Upside Down being a “level” towards the Hollow Earth, like Axis Mundi. Like the Abyss would be either within the Hollow Earth or a “lower level.”

I even had this idea that Monarch had some awareness of the Mind Flayer…but didn’t seriously believe in it so it was never classified as a titan. Its existence would have defied their scientific understanding in such a way that they couldn’t write it off as being just an extraordinary animal.

Even so, Monarch would be familiar with Upside Down/Mind Flayer manifestations from an ancient past (albeit, as myths and legends which they’d brush off as just that).

It would be recorded in Japanese mythology alongside Gojira. Where Gojira was seen as a guardian sea dragon in Odo Island’s folklore, the being known as the Mind Flayer is remembered as a demonic God of Darkness, and took on a more dragon-like form; known to them as “Bagan.”

13. While I’m still floating the whole “The Abyss is part of the Hollow Earth” idea, I spit-balling an idea it'd play in the endgame; an epilogue with a Time Skip from 1991 to 2000.

I don't want to say too much about this endgame, because I might actually use it; but it involves the time warp effects of Axis Mundi, and a certain couple ending up having to use it to deal with such a volatile threat that it can't be taken out on the surface.

There's so much I want to say about this idea, but I also don't because I'm thinking of actually using it. But it's one of “Nothing will be the same for us” kind of Bittersweet Endings.

— — — —

Anyways here’s a potential soundtrack I came up with — keeping in mind the time skip to the year 2000

“Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi.

“Kyrie” by Mr. Mister.

“I Still Believe” by Tim Cappello.

“Win in the End” by Mark Safan.

“Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi.

“Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.

“Thought I Died and Gone to Heaven” by Bryan Addams.

“Mama I'm Coming Home” by Ozzy Osbourne.

“It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi.

“Eyes of a Child” by Michael McDonald.