A/N: I've been working on this story off and on for an embarrassingly long time. I am so relived to finally begin posting it. This takes place during/in-between the very first few episodes of the Justice League.

Only Human

Chapter One

The Batman sighed softly as he pulled back his cowl. It had been a long, tiring night, but now he was safely secluded in the cool, dark, underground expanse he called home. For a moment he just stood there, allowing the damp air of the cave to caress his exposed features. He would move on with his work in just a few…

"Master Bruce?" the cultured British tones floated elegantly down from the stair that spiraled upwards towards the ceiling of the cave and the far-removed surface. Bruce held his silence a few more seconds.

"I'm here, Alfred." he finally responded, just as the butler was about to call again.

"I trust you had a pleasant night, sir?" asked the butler, somewhat exasperated.

"Peasant enough." responded Bruce, choosing to ignore any and all sarcasm present in the question. "Any messages?"

"Well sir, there was a transmission from the Watch Tower, but I did not contact you on patrol as it was not marked 'urgent'."

"That's fine, Alfred." Bruce said to ally any concern that the butler may have been harboring. In reality the older man had only been following Bruce's instructions; but that had never stopped the older man from worrying before. It had already been a couple of months since the end product of the billion or so dollars that the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne slipped into Wayne Enterprises Aerospace R&D budget had opened. The said money had gone into building the earth's largest, and most advanced space station, one known only as the Watch Tower.

In this lunar observatory the seven heroes, collectively known as the Justice League, could watch for developing threats both from the planet itself and from the greater expanse of space. Only two of the seven knew that Bruce Wayne was in any way responsible for the Tower's construction; Superman, for he had been in Bruce's confidence for years, and the Batman, who happened to be the billionaire himself.

Since its activation, scant months before, the Bat had received many alerts concerning nefarious and disastrous happenings around the world. Most of which he never bothered to respond to. Could not take the time to respond to.

Unlike the others in the select group, the Batman was no superhero; in fact, some would argue that he was no hero at all – but that was quite beside the point. Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, Hawkgirl, even Green Lantern every other member of the League had some form of special power. An edge. In Superman's case, several. They could travel around the world -several times- completely on their own power, even patrol entire countries if they wanted. Not the Batman. Any edge he held had to be painstakingly sharpened and maintained day by day, and even after years of struggling he had yet to drag his single, solitary city out of the corruption and darkness in which it was mired. He was… only human.

After the fifth time his patrol had been interrupted by -what he deemed- a pointless Watch Tower update he had angrily demanded that Alfred only contact him if the message was of dire importance. He would, of course, view all the correspondences upon his return to the cave, but otherwise refused to be bothered by them. As for the butler, Alfred knew Bruce well enough not to take offence at his unkind tone. The younger man always had a short fuse when dealing with anything that threatened to take unnecessary time away from his city.

So now Bruce found himself stationed in front of the main console of the cave's super computer when he could have been sleeping. Still, it was better than interrupting his patrol. The League's message consisted of a multitude of sensor readings as well as several articles and pictures. A rash of terrorist and /or arsonist bombings had recently swept the globe. Although they could find no definite connection between the seemingly random crimes, aside from the fact that no demands or statements were issued, the rest of the Justice League was positive that they were connected. And when the six of them came up with nothing they sent the information to the Bat. Bruce had several cases at the moment and would have been very tempted to put this one off, had it not been for the fact that one of the said attacks had taken place in Gotham. That made it personal.

Several hours later a noticeably more pressed and refreshed butler made his way down to the cave, duster in hand. Reaching the bottom he received a rather unpleasant surprise in the form of one shadow-shrouded individual firmly stationed in front of the bat-computer.

"Master Bruce!" the older man exclaimed, reproach clearly evident in his voice, "I thought you had retired hours ago."

"Alfred." Bruce said, whipping his chair around. "Contact the League. I've found the pattern."

A/N: I know it's a rather short chapter but please review. More coming shortly.