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The Birthday Present	By : Kip Category: DC Verse Comics > Batman Views: 8478 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Trapped within the coils of the transformed Martian, Moon solidified fully and shivered a fiery charge across his 'skin'.
"Aarrggh!" Defeated by his one overriding weakness J'Onn landed on the carpeted floor with an audible thump, instantly reverting back to his natural shape.
"Nope," Moon told his completely surprised opponent. "You only thought that. Unfortunately for you I wasn’t forgetting: I was lying." He held out his hand toward the Martian, “No hard feelings,” A grin curled the edge of his mouth, “and no fire this time, promise.”
“I concede,” J’Onn acknowledged, “and with no damage to our friendship.”
Looking up, Moon saw that he had familiar company.
"Nice take-down," Kal smiled, wandering over.
"Kal!" It was always good to see the Kryptonian.
Kal cast a careful eye over J'Onn, making sure that the other alien was truly uninjured. "Well, I didn’t think that you'd get past J'Onn that quickly," He approved. "That was inspired."
"Thanks." Moon relaxed a little. "Is it over then?" Just for a second, he felt the affection flowing from his huge friend as Kal’s steely arms reached out.
"No." The Kryptonian whispered.

Automatically desolidifying, Moon was amazed. "I have to get past you too?"
"Don’t think you can do it?" Kal grinned.
"Get past Superman?" Moon just stared. "You're bigger than me, Kal, a lot bigger. You're also stronger than me, and far more experienced." He blinked, even though he didn’t need to in this form, but the habit was deeply ingrained.
"And that's without the invulnerable stuff, the superspeed, or your other extra powers. Besides, if I throw you through the wrong wall here it'll let all the air out. I might suffocate myself along with everyone else." Both of them knew that Moon was referring to his true physical form.
"Yeah, there is that." Kal agreed. "So make your mind up what you're going to do? You need to get past me if you're going to pass this test."
"And without inflicting any actual harm on you in the process." Moon reminded him. Those were the exact words, weren’t they? He wasn’t allowed to hurt anyone, but a little embarrassment couldn’t be considered hurting someone, could it? "Of course, I could just give up right now." He sighed theatrically.
As he had expected, Kal saw the transparent ploy for what it was and laughed. "Nice try. But you just lied to J'Onn, why wouldn’t you be lying to me?"
"Would I?" Moon laughed.
Kal only made a face.

"Damn right I would, I intend to win! We know each other too well, Kal. So, let's ask a different question… How are you going to stop me from walking straight over to that door?" The shimmers inside his skin glittered more noticeably as Moon stepped a little closer to Kal, holding his arms out in a mocking gesture. "Come on then, Superman, try and stop me."
"Stop you?" Kal suddenly realised the jeopardy that he was placing himself in. He couldn’t touch Moon unless Moon co-operated, and they both knew it. Kal still hadn't quite forgotten the painful sensations that uninvited contact could induce, and he had NO desire to go through any of that again.
Oh dear, and that wasn’t all, was it? Moon's touch wasn’t always painful…
"Jees…" Kal whispered under his breath, recalling the other way in which Moon could touch him. No way did he want THAT demonstrated in public! And it wouldn’t disqualify Moon …
"I think you've just realised that I'm going to get past you." Moon predicted.
Realising that he had to be seen to put in at least a token effort, Kal reached out, wrapping his fingers around Moon's arm only to find his fingers going straight through! "It's like grabbing smoke!" He complained to the smaller man.
"Tough." Moon smirked.
Taking a deep breath Kal tried to blow Moon off-course, but not being physical, the energy-shape was not so easily diverted.
"I couldn’t use this on J'Onn, but it's fine for you." Moon told him, with a wry grin. He leaned in close, keeping his voice to a whisper so that only the Kryptonian could hear. "Think yourself lucky that I remembered this option in time, Big Guy, my initial impulse was a lot more embarrassing."
Kal's eyes widened as his previous suspicions were amply confirmed. "Would you really have?" He gasped.
"By any means necessary, without harming you." Moon reminded him.
Throwing up his hands, Kal started to laugh. "Okay! I know when to quit!" He sat down on the floor. "You're more than sneaky enough to join the League. Go on, Moon, I admit defeat, get on with the rest of it and good luck to you!"

"I shall not be as easily persuaded, or dissuaded." The uncanny tones of Dr Fate echoed around the room.
"Actually," Moon watched him. "I didn’t think you would be."
Fate regarded him solemnly, the reflection of the room sliding across the polished helmet that the man wore.
"What's with the helmet?" Moon asked. "Do you ever take it off?"
"I am not going to be distracted into idle conversation either." Fate warned him.
"Okay, I was just curious that's all." Moon stood and took a good look at the last obstacle between him and membership of the Justice League. "So we do what? Stand here and watch each other politely for the rest of the day?"
"If that is what it takes..." Fate replied.
The stalemate continued for several minutes, Moon watching Fate, Fate watching Moon, until finally, the energy being smiled.
"Something amuses you?" The helmeted figure enquired suspiciously.
"Yeah." Moon grinned, and waved at something over Fate's left shoulder. "I just won."
"You did not win." Fate disagreed. "You are still some way from the door."
"Actually, I think you'll find that I'm not." Sandy spoke up, hand on the door panel. "I'm touching it right now - at least my body is, I can step in there, flick off and rejoin myself without this part having ever left the testing room."
There was a murmur of confusion from the room beyond, along with mingled sounds of amusement and annoyance.
"So I've completed your test and won." Sandy called from beside the open door. Moon smiled at his other self.
"That remains to be seen." A baritone voice told them. "Sandy, come away and close the door. It's Moon who is taking the test, and he still has to get past Dr Fate. Rejoining won't alter that."
"You're only prolonging the inevitable." Sandy sighed. "But okay." Automatically he reached for the doorknob to pull the door shut.
There was a spark, and the sound of a body falling to the carpeted floor.
"Sandy!" Wally's voice yelled from the other side of the door.

"What the fuck?" Moon stared in disbelief. Angry now, he turned his attention to the small monitor screen, "You bastard! You could have killed me!"
"It wasn’t a very strong jolt." The Bat replied from the video screen. "Sandy will be fine. I made sure that it was just enough to knock him out for a few seconds."
"Oh is that all? I bet you're feeling pretty smug that you've managed to deduce my Achilles heel, aren't you? Well, for your information, it didn’t have to be a strong jolt, there's a lot of me here and almost none in there!" Moon snarled. "Get out of my way, Fate! Time's running out!"
"Regardless of what you might claim," Fate replied. "I am charged with not permitting this part of you to reach that door."
"Charged?" Moon frowned. "Funny you should mention that…" Reaching out one hand he closed his fingers on the empty air. There was a howl of pain from the other man, and Fate dropped to the ground, clutching at his head.
"If you're going to stick your head in a metal bucket, you should at least fit it with a lightning rod." Moon advised, and stepping neatly around his opponent, he hurried over toward the exit. "It's just common sense."

"It’s been said before, but the trouble with common sense is that it isn't all that common…" The Batman stepped into the room, closing the door again meaningfully behind him. "Aren't you forgetting something? You still have to pass me." He stated harshly.
"Batman?" Moon stared at him. "But I need to get in there."
"And I need to stop you. Remember, if you flick out now then you automatically forfeit the contest." He reminded the duplicate.
"You're really going to do this?" The shimmers under Moon's skin brightened as he glared at the Dark Knight.
"People don’t play fair, Moon," Batman shrugged. "Fact of life: if you have any sort of weakness, you have to be prepared for that moment when your opponent finds it and exploits it."
"Be prepared?" Moon echoed. "I really don’t believe you at times…"
"Jees, and you have the cheek to call Kal a Boy Scout?" Wally heckled from in the other room. With the intercom system running, the audience in the other room could hear and see the testing grounds perfectly.
There was a snicker from behind Moon.
"I heard that, Flash," Batman warned, "And that too, Kal," Eyeing the duplicate he took up a fighting stance. "Are you ready for this, Moonshadow? I'm not going to go easy on you, just because it's you."
"I wasn’t expecting you to." Moon told him. "Then again, I wasn’t expecting you to throw the rules out of the airlock either. Hell, the way you've been acting I'm lucky you didn’t throw the other ME out of the airlock."
"I wanted to be sure that you really understood what you would be going up against." Batman defended his actions. "This isn't playacting, we're serious about what we do here."
"Then maybe you need to see that I'm serious as well? And since you seem to have been a bit creative with the rules, I think I might bend a few myself." Moon said softly. "In view of the time factor, I do hope you won't take offence when I bounce your butt all over this room?"
"Harm me, and you fail the test." Batman reminded him. "You won't get into the League."
They circled each other, neither one willing to give ground.
"Oh, so now you're going to try and fall back on that, are you?" Moon was visibly annoyed now. "You aren't playing the same game as everyone else, Batman. Why should I?"
"Right now I'm here as Devil's Advocate which frees me from the usual rules, but you want to be a hero. The good guys have to play it strictly by the book." The Bat reminded him. "Or they aren't the good guys."
"According to you, I'm not even a person, I'm some sort of monster." Moon countered, glancing at the door with increasing urgency.
"I never said that." Bruce protested.
"You didn’t need to speak, your actions said it for you! Well, I've got news for you: I'm not playing games from now on ... you've pushed this once too often, we're through."
There were very few people in the League who could have known what that really meant, but there were stifled murmurs from those who did.
"What?" That stunned Bruce. How could Sandy say that? This was just to show him what it would be like if he were to join the League! This wasn’t personal.
"Isn't it?" Unexpectedly a hand closed on his wrist.
"You're reading me!" Bruce accused.
"You're killing me." Moon growled, slinging him across the carpeted floor as if he were a bouncy ball and not a full-grown man in heavy armour. "I'm dying in there."
Bruce skidded along the floor, hit the wall, and lay there, stunned, as much by the cutting words as the ferocity of the actions.

Heading over to where his body lay, Moon pushed the bystanders away from his fallen self.
"I've haven't let anyone touch him." Wally promised, cradling Sandy in his arms, "He's breathing, Moon."
"I know I'm breathing," Moon told him. "I also know that if I don’t get back in there in less than a handful of seconds, I won't be," He calmed himself and nodded at his friend, "Put me down and step back, Flash, now."
The instant that Wally had settled the limp form back down on the carpet, Moon released his shape and flowed into his natural body.
"Aaggh," Sandy opened his eyes and swallowed, "That was close."
"Sandy!" Batman was back, kneeling hurriedly beside them. "Are you okay?"
"Okay?" Pale eyes blinked at him, "Oh yeah, I'm just perfect…"
Although most of the people on the station hadn't understood what the exchange had meant, they were all relieved that the contest seemed to be over, and that there were no actual casualties.

When the formal announcement from the adjudicators came through that Moon had passed the entrance test, the hero community made it plain that they were delighted to celebrate along with their newest member…
The party went on over several shifts, and while the lively crowds made it hard for Bruce to approach his victorious lover, nevertheless he had the definite impression that Sandy was deliberately avoiding him.
He's just annoyed at me, but Wally and Kal are with him, so he'll be okay …
That thought did not assuage the anxiety still seething in his belly. He had the feeling that something had changed in the younger man, and not for the better.
At least not for me…

It was only when the four of them, Kal, Wally, Sandy and Bruce, had arrived safely back down at the Mansion, that Bruce finally got the chance to ask the question that had been burning away inside him for the main part of the evening. "Are you still mad at me, Sandy?"
"Mad?" The perfect face was a mask: Sandy was giving nothing away. "You nearly killed me earlier, and then you had the actual nerve to ask if I was okay. I don’t believe you, I really don’t." He said tightly.
That would be a 'yes' then?
"I miscalculated." It was the closest the Bat usually came to an apology, but even as he said it, Bruce could tell that it was nothing like enough.
"And I'm supposed to just accept that?" Sandy asked him. "Brush it off as if it didn’t matter? What about the man who calculates all possible angles? Got it wrong, did you? How convenient."
"How can I convince you? It wasn’t deliberate. I wouldn’t hurt you." Without thinking, Bruce reached toward the blond, only to have his hand forced back by something that he couldn’t see, but could only feel. A chill shot through him… When had Sandy ever used any of the moonshadow's abilities in that form?
Or against me – what's happening here?
Whatever it was, Bruce could already tell that he was definitely on the wrong side of it…

"Don’t you dare even try to touch me, or I'll… I'll hurt you," Sandy warned, "And I'll definitely mean it."
"Sandy? What are you saying?" Bruce could practically feel the waves of tension radiating from his lover.
"That right now I don’t want to talk to you, Bruce, or be anywhere near you," The other man told him tightly, "I don’t even want to think about what happened earlier on; because that would make me even angrier than I still am, and that would be a bad thing … for both of us."
Could that thing get loose? Bruce made a stab at the problem. "You're worried that you might lose control?"
Can it manifest itself outside of Sandy, even if he doesn’t want it to?
That earned him an icy stare, "I'm more worried that you already have," Came the curt answer.
"Me?" Bruce couldn’t believe it. "How did this suddenly get to be about me?"
"You made it about you!" Sandy actually raised his voice. It was so out of character that for a second even the Bat hesitated.
"You made it about you when you decided that you didn’t want me to do … what I can," The blond reined in his emotions with an effort, "This isn't about me wanting to join the Justice League; this is about me being a meta!"
"You're not a meta!" Bruce retorted angrily. How could Sandy even think that about himself?
"No? Of course everyone on the planet can separate their consciousness from their body, and walk around interacting with the rest of the world without it, eh?"
"Your DNA checks out as fully human!" Bruce said tartly.
"So you've been checking on that too?" The pale eyes narrowed in suppressed rage. "Are there any lengths you won't go to?"
"I had to do it! While you were in the coma, I made sure to explore every possibility in case there was a way to get you out of it!"
"And now you're comfortable with using that knowledge to prevent me from doing what I have every right to do!" Sandy met his eyes and there was nothing soft in that gaze now. "You fight crime with the abilities you have. Kal does it, Wally does it, everyone in the League does it, but somehow I shouldn’t? You don’t have the right to tell me what I can and can't do, Bruce, or what I am! What I am … is … going," He let his breath out in a hiss and strode toward the door. "I'll send for my stuff later. Hell, burn it if you like, I can always buy more: I don’t need you for that either…"
Bruce was there first, "I'm not letting you go anywhere, not while you're in this mood," He warned.
"You and whose army?" Sandy stared at him.
Stubbornly, Bruce refused to back down, "You might hurt someone."
"I might hurt YOU! In fact, if you don’t get the fuck out of my way, and right now, that is exactly what is going to happen!" Sandy told him coldly, "You're making a fool of yourself, but you're not making one of me … not any more: we're history."
"I won't let you do this." Closing a warning hand on Sandy's arm, Bruce held him.
"You don’t have a choice. Without the armour you're no match for me." The blue eyes were glacial, "Let me go; now."
"NO!" Bruce continued to resist, but the wave of force that rippled through him was staggering. His bones tingled from the sheer power of it.
"Next time, I'll actually release it. I don’t need a suit to be myself," Sandy warned. "You had better leave me alone. Well alone."
"Sandy." Kal was there. "Sandy, don’t do anything you'll regret later."
"Kal, I'm not going to give him the satisfaction." Sandy whispered. "I've done that too many times already, and now he thinks he owns me," The blond looked Bruce right in the eyes, "Julius might have been many things; but he never hurt me, not even by accident," He said softly, "He never let anyone else try to hurt me either."
God! He's right! Appalled, Bruce instantly released his hold. Explanations or excuses, none of them mattered a damn, the facts were all that counted and this time the scales were strongly tipped against him.
What have I done? I didn’t mean this to happen … but it did anyway…
"What do you mean?" Wally was there, "Sand?"
"He knows," Sandy turned away, "He knows exactly what I mean. Wally, is the offer of the couch still open?"
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The Birthday Present