DISCLAIMER: This is very much a story that deals with ADULT situations, and quite a bit of it can be considered either R or NC-17 rated.

I think that fanfiction gets a bad rap. This is mostly due to the fact that anybody can write it, and not all of it is very well written. Given that 90% of anything is usually crap, a great deal of it can be truly appalling.

However, there are some truly talented people out there who are utilizing their potential to 'fill in the gaps' of storylines that haven't been told, or to let things play out from a different perspective - or sometimes in a different way completely, than the inital material itself. Most series - whether books, comics, movies or TV shows have multiple writers involved in a project at any given time. Sometimes characters change, sometimes scenarios change. Although these changes might not be what the fans want, the series continues to lumber on going where it will. It's the nature of the beast.

For frustrated fans, this is where the beginning of fanfic starts. It's all about the unchosen possibilities and reshaping the limits of the story to fit a non-generic non-PC audience. There are no censors in fanfic - and this can be both a boon and a blessing, but because of this the limits are boundless. Anything - and I do mean anything, goes. Now thanks to the the introduction of the internet, with its growing pangs and rebelliousness, there are now many voices and visions that are being shared that would never before have gotten actual airtime.

I've noticed that there are many people who are fairly nasty and smug about not reading or writing fanfic, deriding those who do - but in the end it all comes down to just wanting to hear or tell a different story with pre-existing characters that we know and love.

There is no story cow so sacred that it can't be dissected and told another way.

I started writing my first fanfic back in early September -2006. I still haven't finished that particular story, but another one surfaced - this story - and is currently racing right along. It's an impulse now - to keep writing it. I honestly don't know where or when it's going to end, but at the moment I'm just going along for the ride.

There are those who say that you can't be a successful published author if people know that you write fanfic. I think that's idiocy. Good stories are good stories - no matter where they spring forth from.

Chance Encounter is just one more voice to add to the throng that already sings on the 'net in its own demented chorus. I hope it's good enough to hold its own against the other stellar works out there, and that you find some enjoyment in the story.

Feedback is not only welcome, it's ENCOURAGED.

To reiterate: MARVEL owns the rights to most of the elements in this story. Max, and her subsequent backstory, is my own creation, but everything else is either sub-canon, or warped canon yanked from the X-Men storyline. The header image of the Wolverine claw belongs to MARVEL - the image of the woman is copyrighted to Jonathan Earl Bowser.

This story takes place in an Alternative Universe, so there are some very NON CANON things going on. Wolverine/Logan is only a year out from his escape from the Weapon X program, and he hasn't yet crossed paths with the X-Men. The X-Men as they're presented in this tale are a fairly green team, and have pretty much just started to do that voodoo that they eventually end up doing so well. The 'mutant menace', as it were, is just at the edges of ramping up. People are slowly becoming aware of the term, and it's just beginning to get airplay on national news stations.

This story also gets crossposted to my fiction LiveJournal, as well as the X-Fiction LiveJournal community. If you're at all interested in my personal blitherings, I've got a personal LiveJournal as well.

Enjoy.

:: Rogue ::