Fanfic / A Spark of Genius

A Spark of Genius is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Justice League and Girl Genius crossover fanfic by michaelsuave.

Another installment in the YAHF. This story has Xander dress up as a 'Gentleman Adventurer' for that fateful night. The result turns him into Alexander Heterodyne, Son of Agatha Heterodyne and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. After the night is over and the spell is reversed Xander does not find himself back to normal, but instead transported to the DC universe. From there things get interesting.

Seems to be a Dead Fic, since there have been no updates since May 2013, and the author has stated that he has taken a sabbatical from writing.

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Tropes Present In This Story:

• Aborted Arc: Xander actively interferes with several story arcs he didn't like in the comics. such example he prevents Black Adam from going on a killing spree by saving Isis and Osiris for one example
• All Women Are Lustful: Xander is the seduced rather than the seducer when about to engage in any sexual escapades.
• Almighty Mom:
  • When Lois finds out that all of the annoying things hapening about her all week are due to someone pranking Superman, she tells him to make it stop... or she'll tell his mother. This visibly scares Clark.
  • When Lois does end up telling on Clark, Martha proceeds to 'ground Superman'... which he obeys with no complaint.
• Ambiguously Gay: Andrew. One too many comments about Xander's "nice ass" has made him this.
• Anti-Magic: Xander becomes functionally immune to magic after filling his body with nanobots made out of Nth metal.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • Angel, Spike and Drusilla end up dying in the first half of the story, with Angel and Spike being killed in the very first chapter by Xander.
  • The Joker ends up getting killed by insane clown hating, mind controlled squirrels.
• Arranged Marriage: Several of the girls are able to force Xander to marry them when he is told that if he refuses a political marriage it is considered a stain on his honour and a declaration of war.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Xander's pranks on Superman include stealing the batmobile and leaving it in Clark Kent's apartment, sending every woman at the Daily Planet lead-lined underwear and a letter implying Superman uses X-Ray vision to peek on them, and getting Superman to buy a bunch of kids ice cream.
• Artistic License – Economics: After Xander tells the leaders of the world that he will not allow inspectors to come to his country, they all declare a blockade on Romania, as they believe Romania will not be able to get any oil this way. In reality, Romania is an oil-producing nation.
• Ascended Fanboy:
  • Xander gets sent into the DC universe, where he repeatedly interacts with heros and villains he only read about in comics. Takes care of problems fans have been complaining about for years, rewrites story lines, pranks some of the biggest names in that universe and ends up sleeping with Zatanna and Cat-woman, as well as kill Lex Luther.
  • Gsptlsnz, Mr Mxyzptlk's girlfriend ends up becoming one for Xander. She even asks for his autograph.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: In his guise of The Leviathan, Xander wears a black suit with a shapeless helmet. He is also frequently seen fighting in said nice suit because it's actually made of nano machines that respond to his will and have many features that are useful in battle.
• Blood Knight: Xander has a habit of becoming this whenever the ones he loves or his nation is in trouble. Or when the Primal takes over.
• Brain in a Jar: Xander's method of choice when dealing with a particularly intelligent foe is to keep their living heads in tanks were he puts their intelligence to good use, or else the are forced to listen to the 'It's a small world' song.
• Bullying a Dragon: Xander spends an entire week playing pranks on Superman, and some time later admits to being the one who did it knowing the Kryptonian can hear him. What's interesting in that he totally gets away with it.
• Captain Ersatz: A James Bond type spy tries to sneak into Romania via parachute, only to die before he even reaches the ground.
• Chick Magnet: Xander manages to, without trying, attract several extremely beautiful women to himself. Some of whom are quite well known for their beauty both in universe and in the comics Xander read about them in.
• Child Prodigy:
  • While sneaking around Romania, The Question stumbles across two children whose feet don't even touch the ground while sitting debating about the Dionysian and Apollonian life models, and is shocked to find that such discussions are happening between children and teens all around him.
  • For one of his pranks on Superman, Xander gets a few of them to collaborate in exchange of allowing them to work on the design of his Floating Island.
• Cliffhanger: as of chapter 45 (the last published, and probably last ever) the story is at the edge of the Thanagarian invasion.
• Comic Books Are Real: The Scooby gang find out thanks to Andrew and Jonathan that not long after Xander was sent into the DC universe that comics detailing his adventures began to roll of the company presses. No one was writing them, editing them, drawing or colouring them, they were just printing themselves from nothing and the company decided not to question the comic that didn't require them to pay anyone to produce and started distributing it. The gang are able to follow Xander by reading the comic.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Igor tells Xander that he has to accept Wonder Woman's hand in marriage or else risk war, and then all the other girls, Xander gets his revenge by telling Igor he is to arrange the wedding.
• Covert Pervert: Xander is surprised to find that The Question knows what the women in the Justice League look like naked. He uses this as blackmail material against the conspiracy theorist to keep him quiet about his own secrets.
  • After knocking Flash out for groping her, Wonder Woman takes a moment to grope him back.
• Crazy-Prepared: Xander, being both a powerful spark and a DC fanboy, has taken several measures to protect himself and him people from various threats in the world.
• Dating Catwoman:
  • Literally in the case of Xander. They seem to get along really well, especially since Xander has a sense of humor. Unlike certain other people we could mention.
  • Alec Holland (Swamp Thing) ends up in a relationship with Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy)
• David Versus Goliath: The Grey Knight vs an Old One.
• Deader than Dead: Xander kills Ra's Al Ghul's then vaporizes his body so he can't come back to life.
• Death by Irony: Ra's Al-Ghul claims that Xander is a more fitting heir than Batman as unlike Batman, he's willing to kill those who stand against him. He later pushes Xander too far by trying to take his fiances and minions hostage, causing Xander to kill him then vaporize the body to insure he doesn't come back.
• Death Is Cheap: Xander's advanced technology allows him to bring almost anyone back to life, as long as their body wasn't completely vaporized.
• Deus ex Machina: Gsptlsnz, Mr Mxyzptlk's girlfriend, is this in The Female of the Species chapter.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Andrew accidentally admits to wearing tighty-whitey briefs.
• Does Not Like Magic: Xander doesn't like magic, due to his belief that it doesn't like him. It doesn't help his belief when spells malfunction in his presence and an entire race of magical beings try to kill him. Though he does change his mind somewhat when an accidental Wardrobe Malfunction spell culminates with Zatanna seducing him
• Dork Knight: For all of Xander's achievements in badassery, he's still deep down the Adorkable comic nerd we all know and love.
• Due to the Dead: Upon finding the skeletal remains of The Black Heterodyne, Xander crushes the bones to dust to avoid them being revived. Then promises Igor that he will send his late master's remains back to his home dimension like he wanted through the portal nothing living can go through.
• Eating the Eye Candy: While cleaning himself with an aryballos and stirgil (which involves oiling your body then using a dull knife to scrape it off), every nearby Amazon stops to watch.
  Random Amazon: Holy Hera, thank you.
• Emperor Scientist: Xander becomes this eventually.
• Evil Overlord List: Xander references this list numerous times when protecting and providing security for Romania.
• Exact Words: Martian Manhunter sends Hawkgirl to deal with a giant robot, claiming that the situation "has her name written all over it". Said robot is trailing a banner saying "Hawkgirl hits like a girl".
• Gadgeteer Genius: Xander of course, as this is a Girl Genius crossover. Jonathan and Andrew end up becoming this, due to the spreading minion virus.
• Giant Food: Once Xander befriends Swamp Thing, he is able to start producing enormous fruits and vegetables for his people.
• Go to Your Room!: Zatara sends his daughter Zatanna to her room via magic when he finds out that she had sex with Xander.
• Happily Adopted:
  • An odd example. Xander admits that he's never met either Agatha Heterodyne or Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, and isn't even naturally their son. Yet they have done more for him than Tony or Jessica Harris ever did for him and happily considers them his real mother and father. Enough that he had a portrait of Agatha painted in her honour.
  • During his travels, Xander found Cassandra Cain (Batgirl) and offered to adopt her into his family as his sister, which she accepts.
• The Hat Makes the Man: Some of Xander's Jägers get the idea to make Xander a nice big hat. The hat bears several similarities to to his father's own Magnificent Hat including the flames, and is made of genuine Killer Croc .
• Heroic Sacrifice: Xander ends up pulling one during the siege in hell. He got better.
• How Do I Shot Web?: While he can copy superpowers, Xander has to figure out how to use them properly. His attempts to disarm a suicide bomber with Super-Speed resulted in him ripping the man's arm off.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Sparkbucks coffee can be this to many people, especially the Flash. When the shops temporarily closed down, he went into a deep withdrawal, much like a drug addict would.
• I Shall Taunt You: Xander builds a robot called Hitme to taunt Hawkgirl into attacking it so he can test Nth metal's properties.
• The Igor: Literally the name for Xander's chief minion.
• Immune to Fate: Xander is this trope, both in fanfic and canon. The minion virus is just helping things along.
• Insane Troll Logic: When Lois finds herself the victim of a practical joke played on Clark, she says it's his fault.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite Xander being there to mess up the DC timeline, the Thanagarian invasion still seems to be underway.
• Kill and Replace: Xander ends up doing this to Lex Luthor and replacing him with a robotic double in order to hide the fact that he's dead.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: When Xander ponders how every two bit thug manages to get their hands on some of the allegedly rare material, he rhetorically asks if it's sold on the corner. Turns out, it actually is.
• Lawful Stupid: Dr. Fate tries to send Xander "back" to Hell for all the chaotic changes he's inflicting on the world, changing the fates of millions, even though by his own admission, most of those millions were going to die horrifically.
  • Hippolyta tries to uphold Themyscira's No Mans Land law despite currently being trapped in Hell.
• Literal Split Personality: Xander ends up developing one when his Original personality, his Spark personality, and his Primal personality end up manifesting due to being suddenly turned into a Heterodyne and being transported to DC. His Mad Scientist quirks, along with his loneliness and other scientific mishaps only end up with Xander gaining more personalities as the story goes by. As of the present, he's managed to gain an inner Child, an inner Pervert, a Mr. Miyagi expy, his inner Madness, and an inner Dark Side.
• Lost World: Man-made by hollowing out the Romanian mountainside, creating Dyson Sphere's for sunlight, and having a variety of forest and jungle environments grown by Swamp Thing.
• Marshmallow Hell: Gsptlsnz, Mr Mxyzptlk's girlfriend gives this to the imp when he introduces her to Xander, who she is a huge fan of. He appreciates it very much.
• Marry Them All: When they find out Xander must agree to marry Wonder Woman for political reasons, the rest of the girls interested in him use their own political connections to make him marry them as well - or just up and claim to become his mistresses.
• Mistaken for Gay: Superman. During the week Xander was pranking him., he replaced all of his normal suits with a bunch of white and pink "Fantastic!" suits. When he went into town to save the day, the media, as well as his parents and Lois thought this as a result.
• Must Have Caffeine:
  • When Xander is able to replicate Agatha's 'perfect coffee', he is able to use it to gain a near total monopoly on the entire coffee industry since no one will drink anything else.
  • When given to the Flash. he develops such an addiction that he has reactions closer to a drug withdrawal than a caffeine one when they stop distribution.
• Nano Machines: Upon relieving Batman of a shrink ray, Xander is able to create microscopic clanks that resemble his mother's 'Dingbot' clanks for a variety of purposes ranging from curing diease, forcing criminals to turn themselves over to the proper authorities, and even his clothes are made from a veritable oceon of millions of tiny robots.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: When Xander innocently asks Cat-Woman to make herself more comfortable in his hotel room, she pulls down her front zipper and exposes everything down to her navel.
• Not So Stoic: Xander's leaving Nanda Parbat is a shout out to Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
  Behind Xander the doors shut to the hidden city shut, and the moment the doors shut Kai-Ro turned to address his brothers.
  A smile slowly crept across Kai-Ro's face, a smile that was mirrored on the faces of every monk there. With a shout of joy Kai-Ro yelled out, "He's gone! The chaotic one is finally gone, and we can have peace again!"
  And in the frozen city of Nanda Parbat, there was much rejoicing.
  As Xander walked across the bridge out of the city, he swore he heard cheering, but shook his head as it was probably just his imagination or the wind.
• Oh, Crap!: Amanda Waller and the president share one at the Romanian embassy when the Leviathan greets them, and casually makes them aware he knows about the suicide squad.
• Only Mostly Dead:
  • Xander after fighting the Old One. He does need to take a bath in his modified Lazarus Pit.
  • Jonathan explains to Buffy and Willow after Xander's "death" in the comic that this is quite usual in the comics, and whenever a hero dies it is likely that he will come back soon.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires in the DC universe are all victims of an engineered sickness created by The Black Heterodyne who created it in a failed attempt at eternal life. All their powers are originate from science with no magic involved. Dracula was actually an early test subject of the creator, but grew to suffer delusions that he was the first vampire rather than his creator.
• Paper Tiger: Lex Luthor quotes this trope while reassuring Krasnian rebels that Romania won't attack them for knocking down one of its defensive towers. He's incredibly wrong.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Xander's philosophy.
• Perpetual Motion Machine: Xander's perfect coffee engine. It keeps working despite having no need to be plugged in, and doesn't need to use beans as it still produces coffee even when the hopper is empty.
• Power Copying: Xander ends up being able to do this through the use of high-tech nanobots.
• Psycho for Hire: The mercenaries Lex Luthor hires to kidnap a citizen of Romania for the miracle cure in their blood gleefully shoot up a Gypsy camp and fully intend to gangrape the woman they captured before turning her over.
• Reality Warper: Whenever someone with a Spark starts performing Science!, physics basically hides in the corner and pretends they're not there.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Xander has recruited several villains to his service in order to use their talents for good. He manages to recruit some willingly Such as Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze by giving them what they want the most, others like Circe he forces to work for him as punishment but still treats relatively well.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Discussed. Xander wonders why, with all the technological advancements heroes have, that they haven't managed to cure diseases or heal permanent injuries before. Fortunately, Xander is not limited like other heroes are.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Xander if you consider being an emperor a royal. During siege against Romania's border's, he was actually a part of the minor war, and played a vital part in defending it against Lex Luther.
• Running Gag: The mind controlled squirrels who always do Xander's bidding while he's unaware. End up killing the Joker because Xander hates clowns.
• Save the Villain: Subverted with the Joker.
• Screw Destiny: Both the DC Universe and the Buffy universe seem to be moving along these lines, if the Powers That Be's reactions are any indication.
• Secret Identity: Xander have several of these, all of which he brings out depending on what he needs done at any given moment.
  • When he's acting as a ruler and politician he becomes 'The Leviathan'.
  • When hunting demons he puts on the power armour of The Grey Knight
  • From reading the comics, Xander knows the secret identity of every hero, and doesn't hide the fact he knows from them either. Much to their irritation.
• Sleep Walking: Xander has a tendency to do this if he doesn't have anything to keep him occupied. He once woke up and found himself having built a device labled 'The Moon Stealer'.
• Steampunk Gadgeteers: Johnathan and Andrew end up building a steampunk mecha and completely burning down the demon bar. All accompanied by laughter.
• Super-Intelligence: Part and parcel with Xander being a spark.
  • Once he takes over, a large amount of the Romanian people gain incredible intelligence to the point small children can be considered credible scientists with their own labs.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When The Black Heterodyne founded Hetdin, he did so, so early that when American settlers eventually came across him and his people, they assumed from their dark tan complexions they were Native Americans. They never bothered to correct them at the time.
• Temporary Bulk Change: After Xander distracts Krypto from attacking him by giving him a literal ton of steak, the scene cuts to later where Superman finds his dog laying on its back bloated, and looking like a baby hippo.
• Thanks for the Mammary: When given a cup of Xander's spark brewed coffee, The Flash's powers kick into overdrive, and his behaviour becomes erratic to the point he ends up copping a feel from Wonder Woman, who then proceeds to deck him. And then grope him when he is unconscious.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Green Lantern insists that Leviathan is nothing but a murderer after he killed a group of soldiers and mercenaries. Said soldiers and mercenaries invaded his country, killed several civilians, and kidnapped a young woman with the intent of raping her before turning her over to Lex Luthor for the miracle cure running through her veins. Superman even points out that by international law, killing them and invading their country is completely justified, especially since Leviathan isn't a superhero but the leader of a nation.
• Took a Level in Badass: Every single member of the Scooby Gang manages to take a level or two in badass throughout this fic.
  • Xander is now a super powerful Spark with his own nation and enough power to take on the League by himself.
  • Buffy now wields a plasma powered bazooka, and managed to curb stomp Drusilla.
  • Willow, using the knowledge gained from Circe's spell book can now perform high feats of magic with perfect ease.
  • Jenny is now a technomage, and combines binary and computer codes to make a make-shift Green Lantern ring.
  • Giles has once again embraced his inner Ripper, only this time uses his powers in order to rip apart vampires by the bucket load.
  • Joyce uses the power of prayer and statues in order to smote vampires by the dozen.
  • Jonathan and Andrew are now Steampunk Gadgeteers and are able to take out an entire bar filled with demons and vampires by themselves.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Xander comes across and saves the quiet little town of Hetdin, built as a reservation from a corrupt banker and his henchmen while traveling across country. He doesn't think much of it until the whole town kneels and swears allegiance to him. He is shocked to find that The town was built by the 'misplaced' Black Heterodyne, the townfolk are all minions waiting for a new master, and the town itself is even really called 'New Mechanicsburg'.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Twinkies, for Xander, who calls it 'the food of gods'. The gods seem to agree, because, when the Amazons make a sacrifice, the first item to go out is a box of Twinkies.
• Trapped in Another World: After Halloween, Xander finds himself sent into the Justice League universe sort of, and his attempts to leave this universe are hampered by Mr Mxyzptlk who finds him to entertaining to simply let go.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Mr Mxyzptlk is a gruff and unpleasant looking imp, he is dating Gsptlsnz, a human looking woman who the author spends a paragraph describing how beautiful she is.
  • For perspective, in Superman: The Animated Series Gsptlsnz was an expy of Jessica Rabbit.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After Xander performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the amazons of Themiscyra from hell, Hippolyta refuses to properly honour his sacrifice since he was a man. Not only does this shock her daughter, it disgusts her gods enough that they stop blessing the island. It takes her daughter giving a verbal and literal beatdown for her to come to her senses.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The people of New Mechanicsburg and Romania have become so drawn into the madness and genius of the spark that they consider it part of every day life. It takes the reactions of outsiders and visitors to get real reactions to how unusual everything is.
• Withholding the Cure: When the United Nations responds to Xander refusing to allow inspectors into his newly conquered Romania by placing a trade embargo on it, Xander returns the favour by refusing to give the rest of the world access to his all-purpose cure for every ailment there is, from AIDS to Cancer. This does not make any goverment popular with their people when knowledge of the embargo becomes public.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: When Xander beats a female Jäger in one-on-one combat, her immediate reaction is to pose seductively and ask if she can have his baby. Xander runs for it not long after.
• World of Badass: Romania, Xander's ruling nation pretty much is this all the way. Everyone there is in some way smart, lethal, and/or incredibly insane.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Ra's Al Ghul is the only one to realize a connection between Alexander Harris and The Leviathan. After realizing that Sparkbucks coffee (a franchise that supplies 100% of the world's coffee products and over 90% of the world's caffeine) is run out of a small Montana town that Xander owns and uses the same teleporter technology as The Leviathan to transport it's goods, he naturally assumes that Xander is funding The Leviathan in exchange for using his teleporter technology. In reality, Xander 'is' The Leviathan.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Xander becomes the leader of an offshoot of the Amazons after defeating their leader.
  • Subverted with New Mechanicsburg. Xander did kill the previous mayor, but he only gained ownership of the town due to being a Heterodyne.
  • He later takes over the League of Shadows by permanently killing Ra's Al Ghul.