The watchtower was quiet. The low hum of what everyone assumed to be the monitors, but was truly not, was the only sound. Batman had tried to explain that the sound was coming from the system unit, but Flash had insisted time and again that the sound was most definitely coming from the monitors. He had tried to prove it by leaning in close to the largest monitor in the room which hung on the wall to hide a hatch where, coincidently, was where the system unit had been placed behind. Batman had resisted the urge to massage his temples, knowing that there was no way to relieve his increasingly worsening headache with his cowl firmly in place. He remembered the smiling faces of Superman and Wonder Woman as he grunted in annoyance.

Allegedly, Green Lantern and Flash had seemingly teamed up, much to the vigilante's dismay. Green Lantern, who had also been in the room at the time, created a green stethoscope and proceeded to hold it up against the same monitor. He held one end of the oversized stethoscope out for Flash to take while he pressed the other end to his ear.

"Yup," GL had muttered. "Yes, definitely the monitor." He stated, smiling at the Flash who was bobbing his head up and down with a smile that would have put the Joker to shame.

Now, Batman was alone on monitor duty. It was noon and Wayne Enterprises was closed for the day, meaning he wasn't in a hurry to get back to earth until it was time to go on patrol. The only one on board was himself and the Martian manhunter. J'onn was a pleasant presence, Batman had long since concluded. The Martian rarely spoke without having been spoken to first. Both appreciated the silence the watchtower offered. Sure Batman had his cave or even the manor, neither were overly noisy, but he would rather hole up in the silence of the watchtower without a butler who made it his mission to get him to relax and eat something every half hour. J'onn merely presented him with coffee every once in a while, never saying a word. Never insisting he should take a break. After all, J'onn knew the world could end in the five minutes of abandoned monitor duty. That was Batman's opinion at least.

Of course. He thought bitterly. He felt betrayed the moment he felt his bladder making its presence known. The coffee was definitely doing its job in helping his kidneys clean out his body. In five minutes the world could end. He looked at the screen in front of him, studying it intently before deciding that emptying his bladder would probably take less than five minutes. He stood up and made for the door. Bruce Wayne's happy-go-lucky voice entered his mind when he took one last glance at the monitors.

"You've gone to the bathroom before on monitor duty, Bats." Batman knew that imagining his second persona talking to him was a new kind of insane for him, but he didn't care. Even the lonesome bat needed someone to share his views and findings with. It kept him from going completely off his rocker. Most people in Gotham already insisted he belonged in Arkham Asylum anyway. Batman found himself agreeing with his other half and left the monitor room in favour for the restroom at the end of the hall.

Five minutes and the world could end.

Less than five minutes and the implausible could happen.

Said implausible happened to occur. Batman was almost certain adversity was after him; often, it presented itself with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for vengeance. He could imagine it having a face resembling the Joker's. A smile too wide to be sane. A laugh that was too cheerful to be truly happy. The origins of the aforementioned vengeance he had yet to uncover, but that was the least thing on his mind. What was, was the sudden light and ear deafening explosion that greeted him the moment he left the restroom.

Less than five minutes and the most unforeseen thing could happen.

The force of the blast send him flying backwards where he hit the opposite wall. He vaguely registered his head getting too familiar with the wall before he slid down to the floor, leaving a red trail to follow him down where it started to pool underneath him. His ears were ringing and the world was spinning. He tried to follow the room with his eyes, but it was only making him nauseous. He forced his eyes shut, fighting against the spinning of both his head and his stomach. It wasn't until he felt a hand grasping his shoulder that he forced his eyes open. Everything was fuzzy. The ringing in his ears was considerably less, but so was everything else. J'onn was talking to him, but he wouldn't have been able to focus on his words even if he was able to hear him. Apparently, the explosion was louder than he had initially thought.

By now, J'onn was pulling him up with one hand and holding his other hand to his ear where he was undoubtedly trying to reach out to the rest of the league. Once Batman was steady enough on his feet, J'onn led him downstairs towards the med bay where he gladly sat down to try and get the world back into focus. J'onn was talking again, but he could only stare at the manhunter and hope his hearing would return soon. Knowing J'onn would notice the shift, Bruce opened his mind, allowing the Martian access. This earned him a worried frown, but also an understanding nod.

"Batman, are you alright?" J'onn's voice entered his mind.

"I'm fine. My eardrums have been damaged by the blast, it should repair itself soon." He answered, leaving out the possible concussion that was making his world go in circles. J'onn nodded curtly before reaching out to him again.

"I contacted the rest of the league, they're getting in position to be teleported." J'onn told him. Batman felt the need to address the fire currently raging above their heads, but decided against it when he remembered the Martian's phobia. "May I?" J'onn asked, gesturing towards his head. So he had noticed.

"No." Batman said in what he hoped was a not-open-for-debate voice.

"I can feel your headache, it's different from a normal one." Bruce watched as J'onn opened one of the drawers where the medication was kept. Weary, Bruce started to get up. He didn't appreciate being drugged so he wasn't going to sit there and watch it happen. "Don't worry, it's just an aspirin." J'onn told him, having sensed Bruce' sudden conjecture aimed at him. Knowing an aspirin would barely take the edge off, he complied for the sake of keeping peace until the fire was out. He had to get to work fast, the league was taking too long for him to just wait it out until the upper half of the watchtower was burned out. His mind started reeling, his past research about fire coming in handy. He build up his mental walls, shutting out J'onn effectively with a visible flinch from the telepath. Having been inside his mind for more than a couple of minutes, J'onn had probably discovered his language abilities and his knowledge of sign language. Being a fast learner, J'onn could have taught it to himself using Bruce' knowledge. Taking the Martian's stubbornness into stride, Bruce quickly ran out of the med bay. J'onn wouldn't have hesitated in trying to communicate his disagreement with Bruce' choices, causing him to leave the room even faster.

First things first. Facts. Without oxygen, no fire. He activated the oxygen supply in his suit and let a built-in mask cover the lower part of his face. He had to get to one of the control rooms upstairs. He was looking around while he ran, unsure when someone would suddenly appear without him knowing. His hearing was what got him through the night most of the time. Without it, he might as well become Catman and try to enjoy the sun as much as the furry animals did. But then again, Catwoman usually spent her time in darkness as well. His concussion was impairing his concentration. His mind was wandering. He growled in frustration, keeping himself from doing it a second time when he couldn't even hear his own voice.

Having rushed up the stairs, skipping three steps at a time, he kicked open the door to one of the smaller control rooms, not caring that it wasn't locked in the first place. He didn't have time to think about trivial matters. Bruce felt genuine relief when he saw the system unit was still working despite the rising temperature. Speaking of temperature, Bruce was starting to sweat and his cowl was itching. Punching in the access code, he quickly navigated through to the main system unit in the monitor room, hoping it had survived.

Again. Adversity. He growled once more when he saw the main system was offline. He had planned to close the oxygen vents on the upper level of the watchtower. He turned around, barely seeing through the thick black smoke when he felt the room cool down. Superman stood in the doorway, blowing the heat and the smoke away. He was creating a path in the process, one Batman took advantage of by sprinting passed the Kryptonian and into the hall where the blazing fire was starting to spread.

"Can you make a hole in the wall?" Batman asked, focusing on his words and the feeling in his throat when his ears failed to pick up the sound again. Focusing on Superman's lips, he could make out his answer,

"I can try, how big?" Clark asked. Batman looked at the flames and then at the hand rail conveniently placed along the wall. He grasped the metal rail and growled out his response,

"Big." Superman nodded and floated up into the air where Bruce saw him brace himself against the inevitable pull the hole will create. He looked down to see Batman in position as well. Looking back up, Bruce watched as Superman fired two precise laser beams from his eyes. Two tiny holes quickly tore open to become one giant hole. Superman's eyes had widened in surprise. The fire had probably damaged the hull enough for him to create holes in the first place, not to mention the strange reaction to his laser beams. Batman, not having anticipated the strength of the pull was lifted off the ground, only stopping mid-flight by his hands holding on tightly. Sure, today was not his day. He didn't hear the ominous groaning of the hand rail, but he did feel it bend outwards and the vibrations going through his arms. He looked up over his shoulder at Superman who was still staring at the hole, watching the fire go out as the oxygen left. A powerful tug at his waist made him aware of another person in the room. Diana was holding the railing with one hand and steadying him with her other hand, bringing him back down. She was holding her breath while making gestures with her head towards the door. He looked at his hands, contemplating whether he should let go or not. Seeing his hesitance, Diana nodded. Her eyes were hard and piercing with determination, he had to trust her.

Even if he wouldn't have let go, the railing choose for him. It tore off of the wall with what he knew would have sounded like a loud clang. He didn't have the time to try and get a hold of Diana so he had to rely on her to catch him in time as his feet were being pulled up again. He watched Superman's cape flapping in a sick desirous yearning to go and savour the bits of oxygen being sucked into the vacuum of space, instead of being caught by the density and lack of wind to bring it to life. Superman, Batman finally discovered, wasn't just staring at the hole. The Kryptonian held a fascinated gaze locked on what only he could perceive. Batman could only try and guess what his super vision must be relaying to him.

Another pull at his waist made him look at Diana who was now flying them towards the door. She had successfully brought Clark out of his staring contest by pulling at his cape, urging him to follow. They reached the reinforced door and quickly opened and shut it with what Bruce imagined was a loud resounding bang in the silence of the hall. The oxygen levels were dangerously low, sending the halls in emergency-mode. Locking the monitor room, the watchtower should start pumping more oxygen into the critical places. Bruce lost his train of thought when he noticed Clark and Diana talking. He turned towards them, pretending to listen while opening up his mind again.

"J'onn, where are you?" He started, waiting for the telepath to answer.

"I am in control room JL1.03." He heard. It was nice, the sound of someone else' voice finally meeting him. It wasn't the same, but it had to make do.

"I need you to go to the med bay and get me the fast healing compound." He instructed. He had created the compound for when one of his teammates suffered from a severe injury. Never had he intended to ever use it on himself, but a Justice League member who couldn't hear wouldn't do. Truth be told, he wouldn't miss stepping out of the Justice League, but Gotham needed him.

"It's still untested, are you sure about this? It could not work." J'onn warned. A waving hand trying to catch his attention brought him back to reality with a start. He had zoned out again. Only, he wasn't standing in front of Clark and Diana anymore. He was kneeling on the floor, staring at literally nothing while both Superman and Wonder Woman were kneeling in front of him, talking rapidly. He felt dazed and his armour seemed to have gained a few hundred pounds more. He felt his throat working and his mouth moving, but he couldn't even register what he was telling them. It must have been along the lines of "I'm fine.", if their incredulous expressions were anything to go by.

Everything was moving too slow and too fast. He was missing moments, drifting in and out of consciousness without ever progressing anything. He didn't feel the fresh oxygen stopping and the mask being pulled away. But he did feel himself being lifted off of the ground, if only he knew who was holding him. He vaguely heard J'onn in his head, calling him. It sounded urgent. Why was there an alien inside his head? Looking up at the person who was carrying him made him chuckle. Why was there an alien kidnapping him? Said alien looked down at him with a worried frown. Bruce felt himself smiling loopily before he allowed exhaustion to take him.

For both the Kryptonian and Amazon the change went too fast. One moment, Batman had just stood there seemingly brooding while they discussed how they were going to fix the hole. The other moment, Batman's head lowered slowly before his knees buckled. Clark tried to get a response out of him while Diana held him steady before calling his name several times.

" 'm fine." The caped crusader had tried to growl out, but it was a whisper among their frantic shouts. They had heard him though. They shared glances before looking at him with disbelief.

It wasn't until Batman started leaning forward that Clark decided to pick him up and bring him to the med bay. From there on, interesting things started happening. All in all, Batman was mainly unresponsive. Only grunting when he was jostled too harshly in Superman's haste. At one point, Bruce had looked up. He seemed normal enough, making Clark slow down for a second. It didn't last long though. A foreign sound coming from Bruce had him flying faster than ever before through the plain halls. Batman waslaughing. And smiling. Had he mentioned he'd heard him laugh?

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: This is a fairly short chapter compared to what's to come. Fair warning ;)