Xander walked into the run down apartment he had rented from a local slum lord and collapsed into a recliner that was probably older then he was.
"Another day, another minimum wage shift at Wayne Construction." Xander said as he stared at the blank TV screen. "Bruce Wayne might be world famous for his charities but his managers are the biggest bunch of suited sharks around." The teen grumbled as he let the advanced healing he had been holding in check finally start to work on the aches and pains he had accumulated in the twelve hour work shift.
One of the things that also increased when he let his inner Doomsday out was strength, speed and hearing. He was glad of the last, as the rustle of fabric might otherwise have been missed. Spinning out of the chair, Xander set himself for any incoming attack from the dark figure in the shadows.
"Who are you?" The cloaked form growled as he stepped out of the darkened room to glare at Xander.
"Xander Harris. Who are you?" Xander responded as he tried to ignore the man's intimidating movements.
Pausing more at the fact the boy didn't know than the fact he had asked, the dark figure took on a more intimidating pose. "I'm Batman." The Gotham Avenger said.
Blinking at the statement, Xander looked him over again. "How can you say that with a straight face?" he asked and took a step back at the man's glare.
Glaring at the person before him, Batman resisted the urge to swing at the younger man before him and finally settled on re-asking his original question. "Who are you?" He demanded.
Swallowing at the legendary 'Dark Knight,' Xander decided on the truth. "Xander Harris, I have identification." The intruder interrupted Xanders offer.
"Fake." Batman growled as he took another step towards the young man that had tripped every warning bell the vigilante had, whoever he was the boy was definitely NOT just a construction worker. "Who are you?" He asked for the third time as he tried to keep the desire to attack the young man in check.
Blinking at the fact the other man knew his ID was fake, Xander shook it off. "Just because it's fake doesn't mean I'm not Xander Harris." He stated as he watched the other man's movements.
Actually growling at the man, Batman was more then a little surprised at his own lack of self control. Getting in the boy's face, Batman snarled at him. "Tell me who you are…" he started before the boys grin stopped him.
"Or what, Bats? You'll beat me up? Arrest me? Leave me tied up for the cops? For having a fake ID, trying to keep down a job and not draw attention to myself?" Xander said with a chuckle as he knew Batman actually stood no chance of beating him in a fight. "First and foremost you have breaking and entering along with trespassing right here, assault if you do try to beat me up and first degree kidnapping if you try to arrest me."
Batman took a step away from the target of his ire as the boy pointed out the laws he was breaking. //and the laws I'd been about to break.// he admitted to himself as he continued to glare as the man continued.
"Lets admit it, you either swoop in on people in the act of a crime, and those with outstanding warrants or you simply goad them into taking the first swing." Xander said as he dredged up every ounce of his supernaturally reduced memories of the Dark knight. "You probably have someone in power pulling some strings to get it overlooked as long as you don't kill anyone." He said as the costumed vigilante took another step back.
"But don't let the scum you deal with blind you to the fact that you are NOT a cop, you do not have the right to invade someone else's home and threaten them." Xander finished his tirade and waited for the silent hero to respond.
Batman wanted to hurt the smirking man, he wanted to pound him into a paste for not responding as he wanted him to, but the fortunate side effect of his tirade had been to give Batman the time he needed to re-exert his self control over his own emotions. Moving towards the window he had entered through, he fired a single Zipline towards a higher building. "I'll be watching you." He growled before launching himself into the darkness.
Xander was half tempted to shout out a comment about stalking, but the saner side of his mind kept a firm grip on his vocal functions.
Walking over to the window Xander slid it shut before running his hand through his hair as the adrenaline finally bled off leaving the cold terror he had been hiding.
"Jeez that freak's scarier than Angelus." Xander muttered before turning towards his room and hopefully some sleep before facing another twelve hour shift.
--
"What do you mean fired?" Xander said in shock as his boss turned to walk away after dropping that particular bombshell.
"Fired, terminated, kaput, canned, employment challenged, no longer of the working, on permanent no-pay vacation, What part of this are you having trouble with?" the site manager said with a growl at what had been one of his up and coming workers.
Looking around in desperation, Xander finally focused on his boss again. "Well, how about an explanation as to WHY I'm being fired?" Xander asked as he tried to figure out what he had done recently to be fired for.
"You lied on your application and you've been using a fake ID for the last few months, now Wayne construction has no quarrel with people trying to start over, but starting over on a lie is the wrong way to go." The manager said before sighing at the loss of one of his better workers. "I'm sorry Xander, we would lose every contract you were working on if the suits found out about this." The man said before straightening back up. "Clean out your locker and turn in your badge before lunch."
Xander's hands clenched around the report indicating the multiple minor errors in his history report.
The errors were there, true, but they were so small the company either retained some of the most anal-retentive bean counters in history. "Or they were tipped off." Xander said to himself as he stuffed the report in his pocket and went to clean out his locker.
He didn't know what his problem was but he was going to have words with a certain pointy-eared busy body the next time he saw him.
--