The following story contains characters owned by DC Comics/Warner Bros. It is written as a fanfic parody story not intended to make any use of actual story lines in published books other than accepted background. The story is purely for fun, with no profit to be made by the author. It is free to be archived on any site wishing to do so, provided the author is given proper credit.
Lady Lunar - DC's Crisis of Infinite Earths and later by SteveZ
Comments have been seen ever since the mid-1980's following the continuity shattering Crisis series and then the following Who's Who book entry that it was puzzling how astronaut Stacy Macklin made another appearance as Lady Lunar during the Crisis. But if any of the heroes or villains involved with the Crisis would have taken the time to check the astronaut quarters in Houston, Texas, they would have found her as peacefully involved with all the usual training activities with her fellow mission specialists. So if Stacy wasn't in Crisis playing the role of Lady Lunar, who was?
Prologue
Going back a good while before Stacy Macklin was transformed into Lady Lunar, a brief telling of how Brice Rogers got turned into Moon Man, her predecessor. Followed by Stacy's transformation.
Early in the nation's space program, even before any of the astronauts had been selected for what would become the Mercury program, a top secret test was developed to see not only if the astral navigation systems being worked on were viable, but also if the basic question about human beings handling the rigors of space flight could be answered. None of the booster rockets then available could do any more than insertion into low Earth orbit, and that with very minimal payloads. So it was arranged for Superman to handle the chore.
Test pilot Brice Rogers volunteered for the daunting mission, occupying a small cabin built into the top stage of the missile stack. This early in the program, what would become the Mercury capsule was no more than an idea in some engineers' heads. The plan was for Rogers to get all strapped in and then have the Man of Steel 'launch' him from a secret location, using his throwing arm to give the entire stack exactly the correct velocity needed for breaking free of Earth's gravity and making a loop around the Moon. The fuel of the rockets would be used only for the actual lunar insertion and the push back toward Mother Earth. The heft went exactly as planned, and Brice's progress was followed by Superman using his telescopic vision.
Something the Last Son of Krypton spotted in addition to the seemingly right on target Rogers was an unpredicted and hitherto unseen comet on a path seeming to come very close the Moon and the missile's track. The pilot started his engines right on cue to do a perfect loop around the Moon and then head back toward Earth. In the process, though, the rocket soared right through the bright, unnaturally greenish hued tail of the comet. From what Superman could see and data streaming back from the rocket's instruments showed, no apparent damage or harm was done. Rogers landed safely close to where he'd been thrown by the Man of Steel after all the fuel had been used strictly for the loop and return. Superman had been ready to catch the rocket for his comeback, but was unneeded. All the post mission medical checks showed the pilot, now an unheralded astronaut, to be in excellent condition.
The medical checks failed to discover one thing, however. The strange, green hued comet tail had affected both Rogers and his rocket. It was a good thing Superman hadn't had to grab the rocket for his return. As was found out later, the odd green glow of the comet's tail showed there was Green Kryptonite in its composition. Brice's early form of pressure suit had done nothing to protect him from the comet's strange radiation. The very night after his return, a perfectly clear sky allowed the Moon to shine brightly in the sky. This allowed some very specific frequencies of the reflected sunlight which is called moonlight to affect the young man in a bizarre way.
Brice's body began to glow an eerie green as the moonlight reacted with the comet derived radiation in his body. The glow was the sign of a number of super powers becoming his. His face altered to a quite different visage, and from thin air he devised a costume to wear for his new identity as Moon Man. He had complete control of magnetic fields and magnetism, became impervious to physical harm and had super strength almost on a par with Superman's. Also, while he did use his magnetic powers to make a silver chariot in which he rode to fly, Moon Man never got around to flying on his own which his powers could have made easy. All of this also gave the young man a strong desire to commit specifically Moon oriented crimes and mayhem.
On the second night, the Dynamic Duo and Superman were on hand in Brice's garage to watch for the return of Moon Man, who they all including Brice thought had left the chariot and other booty from the night before there due to his connection to the Moon. They watched as moonlight again struck the pilot, and saw his face change right before their eyes. Moon Man trapped them all before going out for his next night's crime spree. But they were long gone when Brice woke up and found himself to be wearing Moon Man's costume. He made an effort to turn himself in to try and get some help, but as Batman and Robin approached some other criminals heard him and drove off the Dynamic Duo so they could take the unwilling Brice to a lighthouse where he was tied to the railing around its top. The rise of the Moon that night brought about the third appearance of Moon Man. The next morning, Brice was successful in getting to Superman before being grabbed by thugs again. That night, he pretended to be Moon Man in helping to bring in the entire gang of crooks from the night before. The Man of Steel had devised a way to drain the comet and lunar radiation from his body, so that never again would the pilot turn into Moon Man. When it was certain that his alter ego was no more, Rogers was allowed to keep the costume as a souvenir and get back to his regular life.
The rocket in which Brice had spearheaded the manned spaceflight program totally unheralded? It obviously couldn't be given to the Smithsonian or any other museum due to the secrecy, so into storage it went amongst all the other space knickknacks in NASA's complex in Houston, Texas.
Forward now to the time preparing for the start of the Space Shuttle program.
Amongst the large number of men and women selected to train as Mission Specialists for the Shuttle were two ladies who met and became friends right away, Diana Prince and Stacy Macklin. Ms. Prince didn't stay in the program for long, unfortunately. For the few who don't recognize that name, Wonder Woman got into various other careers to keep her alter ego occupied.
Stacy, on the other hand, became a very dedicated NASA employee. Very interested in the history of the space program, she was more than pleased to discover a relic stored with so many other early pieces of space hardware. A rocket that looked more like the pointy objects with wings prevalent in 40s and 50s science fiction magazines than the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules with which she was so familiar had a hatch on its side and must therefore have been used for some kind of manned flight. But what kind of flight, and when, the young woman wondered? For more than two years she studied the rocket closely, touching its surfaces considerably while doing so, whenever time permitted during training. With no way of knowing, the investigator was getting large amounts of the comet dust and radiation from Brice Rogers' mission embedded in her skin. It wasn't until she'd been at it for almost three years that the future astronaut found out about the very secret Moon flight made in the late 50s.
After the first three test missions of the Space Shuttle with just cockpit crews onboard, a big exposition was set to be prepared at S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis. Its subject would be Space Exploration and development with a particular emphasis on use of the Moon. Part of the exhibit was going to be the rocket hidden away at NASA for so long, and when Stacy heard about this she made sure to get time off to go to Metropolis and help to show off the long hidden rocket.
The night before the exhibit was scheduled to open, Stacy was helping Dr. Jenet Klyburn get the rocket set up. This involved even more direct handling of the vehicle's surface, increasing even more the amount of comet dust and radiation absorbed into her skin. While they were doing so, a cloud moved out of the way and the full Moon became visible through the big window on the wall to the side. Stacy and the rocket were both bathed in its moonlight, and she got a full dose of the activated comet energy when the moonlight released the radiation. She started to feel odd and dazed, and was sent back to her hotel. Dr. Klyburn decided to remove Stacy's portion of the exhibit and keep the rocket out of the display for some later study.
No one saw that Stacy didn't go directly back to her hotel, though. Instead, the walk in direct moonlight brought out a big change in the young woman. A wicked sneer formed on her lips while she sought a spot hidden from view but that would still leave her exposed to the glorious Moon. She found an alley that fit the need, and let her body glow with an eerie green hued aura. Her thoughts turned back to the Moon Man, thanks to all the research she'd been doing as Stacy. She would have an even more striking ensemble! The clothes she was wearing disappeared, to be replaced by tight fitting green and gold. Right away she made it so that nobody would be able to find any evidence of the comet dust and lunar radiation in either her own or her alter ego's skin by siphoning all of it into the lunar power batteries as part of her goggles and cowl over her ears. In this way, not even her alter ego would know anything about her super powered other self. She knew she could alter her face also, but decided that covering her bland shoulder length brown hair with a knee length, gloriously golden blonde wig in combination with her costume's goggles would hide her face well enough. Lady Lunar laughed, she was ready to go on a big crime spree, making her beloved Moon the subject. But she also knew about the exhibit being set up at S.T.A.R. Labs for a big start the next night, and decided to make that her debut. As much as she hated doing so, the super villainess reverted to her Stacy Macklin form to go to the hotel. The rest and avoidance of the sun would make her ready to pounce the next evening.
On to the story
After Superman and Batman foiled Lady Lunar's plan to detonate a bomb which would destroy the city on Saturday night, they exposed the super villainess to intense reflected sunlight as set up by the Man of Steel. This knocked out the young woman who was empowered by the moonlight, and she reverted to her normal identity. Stacy was taken right away that night to the clinic laboratory of S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis for rest, rehabilitation and study. Sunday morning, Batman went to pick up Dr. Jenet Klyburn, the S.T.A.R. Labs physicist who the World's Finest had seen at the exhibition Friday night and initially suspected of being Lady Lunar but were proved wrong when she and the Dark Knight were attacked by the super villainess. Superman went to get astronaut Brice Rogers, the original super villain Moon Man who first succumbed to the power of moonlight after his rocket passed through the tail of a comet. All four met with the young woman, who Dr. Klyburn had witnessed being close by Brice's rocket being set up for the exhibit when moonlight coming through the window hit both her and the capsule. That had seemed to adversely affect the young mission specialist and she'd been given the rest of that night off. Dr. Klyburn informed her and the other three that, just had occurred with Brice, the radiation she'd been exposed to at his capsule was fading from her body. Brice assured her she'd be back to normal soon, and Batman advised that keeping her sedated during evening hours until she was completely cured would keep Lady Lunar from taking over her mind again.
As the four started to leave the bedridden Stacy just after noon time, the three guys were so involved in their conversation that it was not noticed that the bag holding the costume taken off Stacy before placing her into the bed for study was picked up by Dr. Klyburn. Batman merely assumed it was junk taken home from the lab as he dropped her off, and headed back to Gotham City. If his original suspicion about Jenet had been proved wrong, what was about to occur would have reversed that conclusion. Her original idea was just to get it away from the young astronaut, but things would change.
In her bedroom, the redhead scientist emptied the contents of the bag onto her bed. 'I sure am glad Batman didn't question my grabbing of this bag!' She recalled what had occurred on the night before Batman had come for his fateful visit, on the same Friday night both he and the Man of Steel had been attacked by Lady Lunar at the space exploration exhibit. 'There was no way to tell visually because of her costume, but I found out she was Stacy as soon as I heard her voice, after finding her waiting for me at my house when I got home from the exhibit. After she took me to that hotel and used her incredible hypnotic powers to pull so much from my mind, she left me tied to that chair and continued to taunt me until the rising sun coming through the window knocked her out. It sure was a good thing she went under before going through with that plot she said she'd hatched. She'd told me that she was going to strip me from my own clothes and put her costume on me to leave me to be discovered as Lady Lunar while she left in my clothes to go back to her own place to get started on her bomb plot. She mentioned testing her powers to see if she could change me to be her twin. I'd witnessed her super strength, seeming invulnerability and ability to fly, in addition to her super hypnotism. What other super powers could she have had? Could she really have altered me to look like her? Thank goodness that rising sun took her out so I could work myself free and get back here.'
But these memories got Jenet to wondering if what the super villainess had suggested would have really worked. Sure, she and Stacy were close enough in body size that the stretchy green leotard with the gold trim would fit her easily, but would the boots have fit her? Well, there was an easy way to find out. She slipped off the white flat heeled shoes she'd been wearing and placed them in her closet. She was still in her pantyhose, so no socks would be needed.
She sat on the edge of her bed and picked up the right foot green boot with its golden folded over top. No zipper, so Jenet merely stuck her foot into the stretchy upper material and pulled until her toes met the pointed front of the boot. She was both surprised and pleased to find her heel settling into place at the same time, meaning she and Stacy must have shared the same shoe size. The left boot followed immediately. She pulled up and smoothed out each boot, making them cling tightly to her calves and emphasize their ultra feminine shape. She made sure the folded over golden tops were even and centered below each of her knees. Then Jenet stood to get even better settled in the boots. They felt no different from her usual flat heeled shoes, since they had no heels at all.
'Well, since the boots fit so well, let's see how I'd have looked if Stacy hadn't faded out. Would they really have thought I was Lady Lunar?' she wondered. Jenet pulled off her knee length tan skirt and went to hang it in her closet, and while there also unbuttoned and took off her short sleeved golden yellow blouse to hang it in addition. Since she intended to put it back on almost right away, her bra was removed and placed on the shelf over the hangers instead of into the hamper for washing. She figured her pantyhose could stay on since their top portion was just as sheer as the legs and wouldn't show too readily. Besides, the boots were already on over them.
Back out to the bed, she picked up the long sleeved green leotard and held it up by its sleeves. 'I liked seeing the way this gold swept down from Stacy's chest where the deep V shape exposed her cleavage, split and spread out at her waist so that it covered her lower tush the way it did,' Jenet thought while carefully slipping her booted feet into its top and through each leg opening. She made sure the boots didn't snag on anything. This done, she pulled it up until its crotch met hers. A quick check showed that the hose looked great streaming out and down on her hips and legs without giving away the fact that her legs weren't bare. She placed her arms into its sleeves to pull it all the way up. It took just a bit of straightening out to get both the gold in front centered between her breasts, which happened to be marginally larger and even better shaped than Stacy's, and the gold collar over her shoulders and around her neck even. 'Ah, yes! It fits me just as well as it did for Stacy, just like I thought!'
The next thing to make her seem to be the super villainess was putting on that ultra long golden blonde wig that fell to below Stacy's knees. Jenet didn't have any wig caps, so she held the wig over her head while slowly but surely stuffing her short, bob cut red hair up under it. 'I might have to wash my hair after this to undo the mess its bound to look like,' she thought while getting it perfectly situated. A few quick strokes with her brush got it to look natural and just as stunning as it had for Stacy as Lady Lunar. 'Wow, except for my different facial features, I sure do look a lot like Stacy did!' She picked up the gold gloves and pulled each one on and up to just below her elbows, making sure the crescent moon styled edging looked even for each arm. 'Almost there now...'
The only thing left to put on was what held the possibility of making Dr. Klyburn look almost exactly like Lady Lunar even if her super powers didn't include physical changes. She picked up the green helmet style cowl with a yellow crescent moon logo in front and the big gold rectangular shapes that would go over her ears and secure the large gold goggles with green eye pieces which would leave only her nose and lower face exposed. 'Now to see if they really could have thought I seemed to be the evil minded super villainess Stacy had become,' was her thought as the cowl got pulled down over her head with the goggles perfectly positioned. It was to be the last thought coming from the purely minded Dr. Jenet Klyburn.
The addition of the cowl was what completed the costume, and a big change came over the woman inside it. The ear pieces were actually battery like cells storing lunar power, and filled her body until she glowed with green energy just as had the original. "Hah!" she exclaimed with glee, "Seem to be the evil minded super villainess? A lot more than just seem, I actually am her! Now I know why the machines in the lab showed the radiation fading from Stacy's body. She must not have kept any memories of what she did to become her new self. It's this costume she made which actually made her, and now ME, be Lady Lunar. I've got the intellect to make sure I stay in power no matter if I'm under the sun or the moon, but it will be moonlight I'll need to recharge my power cells," the newly minted, incredibly evil thinking super villainess said with her realization. At that moment she altered the physique of her body to block the portions of solar radiation and light which had made both Moon Man and her predecessor succumb to their original identities in sunlight.
Her superior intellect also gave Lady Lunar full awareness of all her many, incredible super powers. Right away she made the glow disappear, unless it would be of benefit in her evil doing. She then made her face and voice alter to mimic her predecessor, along with turning the wig into her own real and glorious knee length hair. Then she decided to make her boots look more sexy and incredible; they instantly became six-inch heeled ones instead of the meeker flat ones they had been. Then without even having to go to a mirror in order to super hypnotize herself, she made it so whenever she was in her Dr. Klyburn role she'd be unaware of thoughts or plans being made by her ultra evil alter ego. Then, since she had no plans for the rest of the daytime hours, with but a thought Lady Lunar changed into Jenet and made the bag disappear. She was wearing exactly the same outfit as before, and her red hair looked just as fresh. All during her usual Sunday afternoon and dinner time activities the physicist's thoughts gravitated toward Stacy Macklin's recovery.
It was shortly after the moon rose that evening when Jenet's alter ego took control and transformed back into her super villainess identity. She had no intention of doing any attention getting nefarious activity, just do some minor bad girl stuff while letting her lunar power cells get fully charged. But as it turned out, her power cells got super charged instantly when Harbinger showed up and zapped them for her. The beautiful and fascinatingly clad blonde persuaded Lady Lunar that it would be to her advantage to join all the other super heroes and super villains contending with the Crisis. However, like all the other villains, she allied with them to fight the super heroes and gain control.
The rest is the known history of Lady Lunar, and now you know who she really was all that time.
The end...of this brief beginning
