A/N: WARNING. There will be a transition in whose perspective you're reading from. You'll go from Bruce to Clark but it shouldn't be too noticeable until it happened…I hope.
He zoned out. He had no trouble following the first few minutes, but when people started throwing around suggestions on the repairs he simply gave up. He started staring straight ahead, similar to what he saw J'onn often do when he was meditating or simply listening intently. Batman was lucky to have always been a quiet figure looming in the darkness, waiting to strike when he saw fit, if at all. Had he been a talkative person, everyone would have noticed something was off immediately. But then again, if he'd been anything like Flash, he wouldn't have kept it a secret anyway. His thoughts started wandering until he could hear. Hear the sounds of Gotham howling up at him while people talked. Footsteps started whispering to him, telling him who was running late and who was just enjoying a night out on the dangerous streets of a city filled with crime. He could hear the factories polluting the already toxic air. He could feel it clutching his lungs, sucking the breath out of him while he focused on listening for a certain pair of footsteps. Footsteps that had been haunting him for two decades.
Tap tap tap. Cheap shoes hit the pavement in impatient pacing before coming to a halt. He watched a shadow rise on the wall in front of him.
Tap tap tap. The tapping of something hitting a wall. A hand twitching with nervousness. In the hand, a gun that was being hit against unrelenting bricks. He could feel his heart accelerating. A vain attempt at reducing the anxiety that was soon going to become his fuel for justice. The tapping stopped, followed by a loud gun shot. The only sound remaining was his mother's name on his dying father's lips while he crumpled to the ground in sorrow.
He gasped as he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder, pulling him back towards reality. Had he fallen asleep? He straightened up and met Superman's blue gaze. He was looking at him questioningly while forming the "ok" sign with his other hand. Bruce just nodded in affirmation. Everyone was looking at him, all trying hard their best not to stare. Flash quickly turned his head when he lifted his head up to the others. Cyborg and Lantern were watching him from the corner of their eyes and Diana and J'onn were openly watching him. Shayera, had she been there, would have tried to make small-talk with the person closest to her. That being John. Always John. Like a moth she was attracted to her flame. A hawk guarding her only light, a lantern always bright. Cheesy. Batman thought to himself as he started to get side tracked again. He shook his head and looked back at Superman.
'How's the oxygen up there?' Bruce signed, making Superman uncomfortable for a moment. He knew he'd get bombarded with questions as soon as Batman left the room.
'Cyborg and GL repaired the hole. Oxygen levels should be normal, but check before you enter.' He signed, backing away from Bruce slowly so he could get up. The meeting was far from over, but he knew that Batman wouldn't be able to follow them if they were going to be throwing out one idea after another. Truth be told, Superman had been glad when he saw him slump in his seat. Batman deserved some rest, he could also sense the extra tenseness around his friend lately. The moment his friend relaxed he turned his full attention towards the meeting. He'd been so engrossed in it that he failed to hear Bruce' heart pick up speed. If it hadn't been for J'onn to call out to him and tell him something was wrong, he wouldn't have noticed anything amiss and Batman would have woken up later perhaps even grumpier and more closed off than he already was.
'Tell them if you want.' Batman signed, getting up from his seat to leave the room.
"That was so cool." He heard Flash say when the door closed behind Batman. He turned towards the speedster and put his hands on his sides.
"Excuse me?" He asked, not quite getting what the Flash was referring to. How was any of this situation "cool"?
"The signing! Did you guys come up with that yourselves or is it actual American Sign Language?" He was starting to speak almost too fast now.
"Uh…it's-…" He stopped when Flash held up his hand to silence him.
"It's Kryptonian sign language, right?" He asked smugly as if he had just earned himself the title of world's greatest detective.
"N-…" Superman began again before he was halted again.
"That's so cool." Flash whispered loudly in a dreamy voice. "What do you learn first? Kryptonian or is it another language altogether?" His curiosity was genuine, Superman noted with both amusement and annoyance. His first thought was to just say no and leave everyone guessing, but he wasn't the Riddler.
"Batman was on board the watchtower when the explosion took place. He hit his head hard enough to cause damage to his hearing." Superman said, looking around if anyone wanted to say something. Lantern, Cyborg and Flash were just looking at him patiently. "He can read your lips, but if you want to talk to him through radio communication, contact Wonder Woman, J'onn or me. We can sign the information directly to him." Diana visibly agreed to this by nodding her head, J'onn remained stoic but everyone knew he'd help whenever needed. He was a friend of the world.
"Batman to Justice League." They suddenly heard over their comm-links. "I require immediate assistance. Oxygen levels are dropping to dangerous levels so I suggest wearing suitable equipment." Superman was about to send out a reply to Batman but stopped himself when he caught J'onn's eyes lightening up, reminding them that they couldn't contact him through the comms even though he'd just mentioned it. He saw Diana flying out of the room while Cyborg and Lantern ran out, Flash was already gone. He looked at their Martian friend whose eyes had stopped glowing.
"Batman says the explosion was not a coincidence. He also thinks that the current emergency was planned as well." J'onn told him. Superman frowned in thought at that. Either someone wanted to destroy the Justice League tower, or was out for Batman. After all, both accidents occurred while Batman was alone.
"What exactly was the nature of the emergency this time?" Clark asked.
"The hole tore open." J'onn answered, causing Superman's eyebrows to rise in confusion and surprise.
"The hull was damaged, quick patchwork wouldn't have held for long." Superman looked at the door as he spoke. Batman had entered the room, his shoulders sagging in barely concealed exhaustion. He wasn't even attempting to correct his stance when Superman eyed him critically.
"No, but the fact that the alarms didn't go off and the main unit had been tampered with should be enough cause for concern." Bruce' pronunciation was starting to sound exaggerated with heavy "t's" and harsh "s's" now. Clark could only try and guess how it must be to talk without hearing your own voice. Superman looked thoughtful for a second, but he quickly realized he oughtn't break his head over this. Knowing Batman, he probably already had a couple of suggestions on who'd been messing with the tower.
"Superman?" Wonder Woman's voice cut through the silence born of thought, though that could mostly be considered brooding of one person counting for the initial three occupants of the room.
"Yes?" He asked, turning towards the warm voice of their teammate.
"We need your heat vision if we want it to last longer. Cyborg wants to start on the hull's repairs soon too." She told him. Clark looked at Bruce who was waving a dismissing hand, almost urging him to get out of the room. He looked less than friendly right now, even J'onn seemed to catch up on that. Wherever the bat's thoughts had brought him, they were anything but positive. When were they ever though? Superman left the room, leaving J'onn to be a direct link to Bruce should any of them need to talk to the other.
The room was a mess. Almost everything was scorched black, piled up in a heap like an abandoned waste repository. The only difference was that the repository was the upper level of the watchtower. He felt for Bruce, he was the one paying for everything that broke up there. Literally. Both with his hearing and financially. It wasn't true what they said about rich people, not everyone was corrupt and greedy. Bruce Wayne was the very proof of that. He would give everything away if it meant saving even the most rotten person. Heck, he'd sell everything if it meant saving a life. One life, if Batman could save it. He would. No matter whose. His own life, if Batman could throw it away. He just might. Superman clenched his jaws at the thought. The fool would catch a bullet for the Joker of all people!
"I don't get how this could have given out." He heard Cyborg comment thoughtfully. He was holding a melted object made out of lead, something that had most likely been fastened to the newly repaired hole.
"Batman thinks it was rigged." Superman told him, approaching him. Cyborg looked up with a knowing smile.
"Of course he does. He's paranoid." He said laughing the thought away. Superman frowned, prepared to defend his friend. Everyone knew the dark knight was paranoid, but Batman had the right reasons to be so.
"He did have good arguments." Superman countered. Cyborg just snorted while shaking his head in amusement. "So, where do you want me?" Clark asked, lifting his arms as if presenting himself to the world.
"There are some plates that need to be lasered onto the hull so we can start the actual inside-repairs." As it was, the previous giant hole was half patched up, but new scorch marks had already appeared and Superman could feel the oxygen thinning by the second.
"Check out what's causing it to keep blowing up." Superman said, walking towards the door.
"Already on it, Supes." Cyborg replied behind him. Superman made quick work of getting the plates and getting out into space. It was a slow process, having to hold a plate into place while making sure the others didn't float off during which he had to use his heat vision all at the same time. He was relieved when J'onn showed up with a plate that had drifted off without him knowing.
"Ah, thank you." He thanked with a sheepish grin. J'onn nodded and took the other floating plates. Diana came up from the other side. She was looking over the hull, searching for more abnormalities.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." She told them. Clark was still holding a half lasered plate into place, almost asking her to help him with his eyes. He relaxed when she took over from him so he could continue lasering.
"I think someone is trying to get Batman specifically." Superman said jokingly, voicing his earlier thoughts with more than just amusement. A lot of people were set on destroying the Justice League, Batman having been in the room twice would probably have been a mere coincidence and pure misfortune on the Bat's part. He attracted bad luck like a magnet. Only, he never pried himself away from it. He usually clutched onto it as if it was his fuel, keeping him up in the air so he could swing down with a final strike when he knew it counted.
"When not?" J'onn asked too seriously to be a joke. Superman grimaced, as did Diana. "He is alone right now. If something happened now…" He paused momentarily. "We should keep an eye on him." J'onn was actually serious. Wonder Woman nodded, she was thinking the same.
"Green Lantern to team Trinity and J'onn." They heard through their communication. Superman held his breath, hoping this was an emergency call and they hadn't jinxed their friend.
"Yes, Lantern?" Diana answered, still holding the plate firmly in place. Superman quickly, but carefully, lasered it onto the hull. Two more to go. The part that had been damaged most was already covered up.
"We found something that might have set the explosion off." Lantern stated grimly. The three of them shared glances before Diana's turned into one of concern.
"Lantern, get someone to check up on Batman ASAP." They had to work fast.
"I sent Flash. Why? Did he figure something out?" Lantern asked, his tone light with curiosity.
"Someone is trying to kill him." Superman answered, his eyes shooting laser beams, fastening the third but not last plate.
"Someone is always trying to kill the Batman." They heard Flash comment. "Guys, the door won't open." He said in a strained voice. They heard a grunt and a yelp accompanied with the sound of someone hitting something. "Never mind. We should add mattresses to the floors." They heard some more shuffling and then silence.
"Flash?" Lantern asked. The final plate was carefully fit into place by the Amazonian. Superman cursed inwardly, quickly lasering the edges onto the other plates. "Green Lantern to Flash. Come in." Clark had half the heart to tell GL he wasn't speaking on a direct line, but it didn't matter. The frequency of the entire league would still reach the speedster. At least under normal circumstances. Usually, when someone failed to respond. The initial communicator would change the frequency to a direct one on a different, more secure, line. If that didn't work, they would move to their position.
"What was that all about?" Superman asked, looking at Diana who in turn was looking at J'onn in question. Clark turned as well to see the telepath's eyes glowing.
"I think we were right after all." J'onn said, his eyes returned to normal. They wasted no time in getting back inside. "Batman's vitals are dropping and Flash is unconscious." The Martian said before flying through the hull to get there faster. Wonder Woman and Superman flew as fast as they could towards the conference room.
Upon entering, Superman's comm-link started buzzing. He quickly turned it off and walked over to where J'onn sat, kneeling down in a pool of what appeared to be blood. He held back a gasp, hearing someone else doing it for him. Diana rushed up to their Martian friend and the dark figure on the floor. Green Lantern was with Flash who was slowly coming to.
"What happened?" Superman heard the Lantern ask. He decided to concentrate on their conversation while checking up on Batman who remained motionless. There was a huge gash on his stomach, his life's fluid leaking out of him as if he'd been attempted to be butchered like some poor doomed animal. Clark quickly erased the thought. Animals were treated better than this. He looked at his friend's relaxed face, void of any indication of pain. He was clearly unconscious.
"I don't know." Flash answered, taking a minute to gather his thoughts. "The door wouldn't open, when it did, I saw something standing over Batman. I think I startled it." He sounded confused. J'onn stood up with Bruce in his arms while Diana was pressing her hands onto his stomach to try and stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down.
"Why isn't he conscious?" Clark heard himself ask. His question was answered when Bruce' head fell against the Martian's shoulder. He winced, looking at the bleeding headwound that appeared so much worse in contrast to the white hair. The amusing change of hair colour now had him looking at it with scornful disdain. As if it somehow was its fault. He eyed Diana angrily, walking along them towards the med bay. "His cowl would have been able to brace the impact." He said angrily. Diana looked beyond offended at his words.
"Since when did I attack him?" She asked him with an expression matching his.
"You hid his suit." He could sense Flash and Lantern trailing behind them, keeping their tongue.
"Please, stop fighting." J'onn said as they entered the med bay. Superman and Wonder Woman were locked in a staring contest. "I will need more space." J'onn told them, ending their silent battle. Diana sat down in one of the chairs, looking at Flash, daring him to speak. Superman just huffed, eying the sign language book that was still laying on the table he'd put it on earlier. The very book Lantern was also looking at, albeit with more positive interest.
"Flash?" Superman started, suddenly thinking of something. "What happened to the thing that attacked you? Is it still here?" He asked, taking on an urgent posture. Flash looked thoughtful, his gaze faraway but also unwavering from J'onn's back.
"I think I saw it disappear before everything went black." He muttered more to himself. "He just dissipated." He said with surprise as he recalled the memory.
"It could still be here." Diana said, proceeding to stand up.
"No." They turned towards J'onn who was still standing with his back turned towards them. Working on sewing the wound on Batman's stomach. "I did a mental swipe when I saw the state Batman was in. There is no one here but us and Cyborg. Whatever it was. It is gone now." He tied a small knot in the thread and surveyed his work before moving on to Bruce' head.
"The cameras." Lantern said with a smile. He ran up to the door where he hesitated. "Control room JL1.03, is the second monitor room, right?" He asked.
"Yes." J'onn replied absentmindedly. John ran from the room, leaving Flash to look around awkwardly with Wonder Woman and Superman to practically scan him. Speaking of scanning, Superman had probably already done an x-ray on him. His intense gaze should be a dead give-away.
"I'll just get back to Cyborg." Flash said, clearing his throat.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Diana asked. Flash nodded and knocked on his cowl-covered head with a cheerful smile. That didn't sit well with Superman. Superman had gone back to stare angrily at Diana as if remembering the reason he'd been mad at her earlier. She hadn't noticed yet, Superman concluded when he saw her turn from Flash to J'onn.
"How bad is it?" She asked. Clark approached the table to look at the bloody mess of his friend's hair. The blood was mostly cleaned out, but so was the dye. Superman would have to fix that.
"I know what you're thinking without reading your mind, Superman." J'onn suddenly spoke. The Martian was looking at him. "The chemicals of the dye might infect the wound. I'm going to bandage his head, I'll leave the rest of the dye in." He told him. Clark nodded his gratitude. Bruce would have his head if anyone even as much as suggested he was Bruce Wayne. As if it was Superman's job to keep his identity hidden. The thought made him huff out loud, but no one acknowledged it.
"J'onn?" Diana asked, getting J'onn's attention back to her question.
"It shouldn't be that bad, but he already had a concussion. Only time can tell whether this would have caused any lasting damage." Superman had only felt a concussion when he'd been hit with one of Luthor's Kryptonite weapons. It was terrible even though it only lasted a day. Now the Kryptonian was trying to imagine a double concussion. He hadn't even noticed he was grimacing until he caught both Diana and J'onn looking at him in question. He coughed to clear his throat and relax his facial muscles, making them turn away from him.
Only time can tell. And tell it would. Life leading up front, death following, sticking to the shadows of awareness where it looms and waits in patience. Time, a vicious cycle no one can withstand. Shortly after J'onn had put the bandages in place, Superman moved Bruce from the table onto a bed where a grunt was their only response from the otherwise lifeless figure.
Sometime during the night, Bruce had woken up. Both Diana and Superman were still in the room when this happened, but neither was awake. They had fallen into the grip of Morpheus, a god of dreams where they slept peacefully. Because of this, neither noticed bleary blue eyes open. Confusion and disorientation clung to him like a hook caught. It was blissfully dark. The dark seemed to reassure him for he fell into a fitful slumber not long after having woken up. He didn't mind. He liked it. What he didn't like was the aggravating silence. It was almost deafening. His ears felt full and his head was hurting so much. Yet, he fell asleep.
The next time, he woke up to more silence. And light. Lots of light. The moment he managed to open his eyes, he dearly wished he hadn't. He felt movement in his throat while he fought off the onslaught of pain coming directly from his head and his stomach. He felt hands reach up to his head to clutch at it while he moved to lay on his side. He registered two more hands on his back while there was another set of hands, one trying to pry his hands away while the other was resting on his shoulder, gently pushing him back onto his back. He was struggling though. Struggling against the hands and the pain. Good thing there was no sound. He couldn't even try to imagine what it must feel like to have people shouting in one's ears when the world felt like it was attacking his head.
He welcomed the darkness that was slowly creeping up on him. He greeted it like an old friend. He embraced it like a long lost lover. The darkness, his home. His safe haven. He never ran away from problems, but he was human. So he ran. Ran as fast as he could, everything to escape reality for a little while longer. Escape the pain, retreat into the darkness and clamp onto it like a lifeline.