Batman stood stoically in front of this new adversary that referred to himself as Bane. He gazed over his opponent, looking Bane over to see what he could decipher. The man was large. He definitely was taller by a few inches and much more stout in build. He wore a black mask that covered most of his face. His eyes stood out in contrast to the mask though. All things aside, Batman had faced larger opponents than the man that stood before him. So how was he able to have taken Dick down and have barely a scratch showing on him? If that was the case, he had to be an exceptionally skilled fighter in the very least. Not even Batman himself could battle with Dick without some form of punishment showing on his body before it was all said and done. Dick had been trained too well to be defeated so soundly. He would have to be extremely cautious against Bane in order to avoid a similar fate. "What do you want Bane?" He asked.

"That is the question isn't it Batman." Bane taunted before he delved further into his answer. "At first I was just honoring a contract, but as time passed, I will admit that the desire to defeat the mighty Dark Knight of Gotham has grown to be just as important. I will be honored to be the one to break you."

Batman ignored the mocking backhanded compliment. "Who ordered you to take me out?" He asked.

"Professional courtesy doesn't permit me to divulge such information Batman." Bane responded. "Even if you are at your end. I'm sure you can appreciate such details being protected from a detective such as yourself."

Batman smirked. "So, it was Ra's al Ghul that offered the contract. What is he up to Bane?"

"You are truly a wise detective Batman." Bane responded. "But Ra's al Ghul's plans are not my concern. Only the money and you are."

"Then you're a fool Bane." Batman fired back. "Ra's al Ghul is a terrorist hell bent on resetting the planet back to before mankind was the dominant species. What good is your money if his plans aren't stopped?"

"I will survive any plans he intends." Bane responded as he moved into a fighting stance. "Enough talk though, your time has ended, and soon once I'm done with you, your body will agree with me."

Bane charged over at Batman, who had been preparing for the inevitable attack the entire time. He'd slipped on his electrically charged brass knuckles and pulled out some smoke pellets. As Bane approached, Batman dropped the pellets in front of himself, and Bane reached there as the smoke had risen up above Batman's chest. He used that smoke to sink away in order to disappear. Bane ran through the smoke swinging his arms wildly as he attempted to make contact with Batman only to find that the Dark Knight had used his cover to leap from the rooftop. Bane looked furiously around the edges of the roof. He couldn't believe that Batman would run from a fight. Especially not after what he'd done to Batman's protégés.

Run Batman did not as he waited for the right moment before springing up and delivering a devastating drop kick to the side of Bane's head. The force of the kick was enough to knock Bane off his feet momentarily. Batman stood pulling out a batarang and flung it directly at Bane. The batarang struck him in the face causing his head to snap back before he gathered himself, and got back to his feet. He wiped his face and realized that the batarang had actually broken his nose. "It's been a long time since I've seen my own blood." He said. "Now the games end."

~~ Washington state ~~

The Justice League had continued their work diverting the lava flow where they could, and evacuating the victims out of the area when it was unavoidable. The sky had become filled with ash falling through as though it were a blizzard. Visibility was down to nothing and had caused all aircraft to be grounded from the Seattle area until further notice. Before that notification occurred, Diana and J'onn had to work together in order to save a few planes that had gotten too close to one another which caused the pilots to lose control. One pair of planes wasn't so lucky though as they actually made contact with each other and were plummeting to the ground. Hawkgirl was forced to break off from evacuating the masses with Flash in order to help J'onn and Diana with those two planes.

Superman was unable to help as he had expanded his search under the Earth's crust for the cause of the tectonic plate shifting. He'd already made his way around the entire plate that Washington State was sitting on, and found nothing either below land or below the ocean floor that would be the cause. He would have been a large help for the planes, but they all agreed that finding the source of these catastrophic events took precedent. Still this appeared to be an endless battle with the Earth as more and more volcanoes were joining in becoming active. Some of them were surprising as they had even been thought to be dormant for quite some time. Even down in Oregon some activity was beginning to develop. After Hawkgirl, Diana, and J'onn were able to get the last two planes down with only minor injuries to report, they finally heard from the Man of Steel. The communicator line was filled with static and garbled and at first they couldn't make sense of what he was saying at all. Finally after multiple attempts, some words could be figured out. "Found…..to …..wish…." Came his voice.

"Come back Superman." John responded. "Did you find the cause?"

"Ye…."

"Do what you have to do." J'onn chimed in. "Things are getting worse here, and we need to try something before its too late."

Everyone looked at the Martian for some clarification. None of them could make out what the Man of Steel was trying to relay to them and they were surprised that J'onn could decipher it. "I could read his thoughts. He has found a device in the middle of Asia." J'onn explained. "He's going to try to remove it to see if that will stem the activity here."

"The sooner the better." Flash stated. "I'm getting tired and ran out of my emergency stash of food to keep charged up."

"Just keep holding up." John responded. "Hopefully what Superman does will help, but if not, we might have to force Batman to come and investigate."

"I'm not too sure how helpful he'll be unless the inmates have all been accounted for." Shayera said. "The man is obsessed with his city, and let's face it. This isn't really a worldwide threat at the moment."

"It couldn't hurt to check in and see if things have improved to where he can come help out." John replied.

Diana nodded in agreement. It had been a few hours since they'd engaged in this effort. Perhaps things had settled in Gotham. She reached up to her communicator and opened a channel. "Diana to Batman."

There were some sounds of a scuffle as he responded. "What…..is it?"

"Things are escalating here and we were looking for a status of your situation with Gotham." Diana said. "We believe Superman has found the device, but we don't know what he is planning to do to alleviate the situation or if it even will. We could really use your help in finding the best possible solution."

There were even more sounds of a fight taking place, and what sounded like a punch hitting the side of a face very close to the microphone smacked through the channel into all their ears. "I'm….ahh…still busy here…can't…."

"Batman?" Diana asked with concern evident in her voice. "All you alright?"

There was silence for a few minutes as they all were waiting for a response. Finally he responded. "Dealing with a situation here still…I'll be in touch when I can….Batman out." They could all hear the heavy breathing in between sentences, but knew better than to question him further as the line was closed by him. Green Lantern shrugged to the others and they all went back to work.

~~ Gotham ~~

Batman was swinging away through the rooftops as he needed to get his bearings set again. Bane had thoroughly beaten him up to this point. The battle started off in Batman's favor as he was able to land many blows while deftly avoiding any counters or random attacks from Bane. It was when he'd taken the attacker off his feet a second time with a leg sweep that something had changed. Bane smacked a button on one of his hands and after that he was incredibly powerful and fast. Absorbing two blasts from Bane at that point caused Batman to alter his means of attacking. He instead pulled out a batarang in each hand and began slicing at Bane any chance he got. After a few minutes, he'd cut up Bane's jacket enough that it revealed tubes running along Bane's body with a green substance inside it. Batman tried to get in close enough, but Bane was able to latch onto one of Batman's arms. He squeezed it tightly and snapped the bone as though it were just a twig. At that point Batman knew he needed to regroup and set a small explosive on Bane's mask before he spun around to avoid the blast. That explosion was enough that Batman's arm was let go, and he quickly surveyed the best route to take and create some much needed distance from himself and Bane.

Batman had swung from one building to the next until he was forced to release his grapple from the force of Bane jumping down on top of him. The altered course caused Batman to crash on the GCPD rooftop. He rolled a ways before popping back up on his feet. Bane had landed almost precisely where Batman had initially hit the rooftop, and was now stalking over towards his prey. Batman knew that one day he would go down in defeat, but he honestly never believed that it would be so soon. His arrogance caused him to believe that he would find a way out of this predicament at some point, just like every other time before. Broken arm or not, he believed he would find a way to defeat Bane in the end. Batman didn't wait for Bane to approach as he rushed forward and performed a jumping flip over top of Bane. While he was in midair, he struck Bane with a side kick that staggered the monster, but didn't cause him to lose his balance. Unfortunately, not losing balance allowed Bane to react quicker, and he once again latched onto Batman, but this time it was around the throat. Batman tried punching Bane over and over in the arm attempting to get free, but Bane ignored the punches and picked Batman up off the rooftop. With few options at his disposal, Batman sent a violent kick to Bane's midsection. That was enough for Bane to lower Batman so that his feet once again were touching the rooftop, but he still didn't release his hold. In fact, after a second or two he spun around one time and almost literally threw Batman through the air until he landed on the Bat signal smashing through it. The combination of the force from the throw and his own body weight was enough to send Batman through the glass as sparks and jolts of electricity flew around him. Some shards of glass stabbed into Batman's back, and protruded through the suit enough that they had actually cut him deeply.

Batman opened his eyes while still laying in the Bat signal only to see a bolt of lightning streak down the sky. He knew that he was in trouble. He had very little information on Bane in order to discover some form of a weakness. Not to mention the fact that he was exhausted and had a broken right arm. In his current condition, he needed to regroup, but Bane was already able to chase him down once. As he began to climb out of the Bat signal, he knew that he had to come up with something and come up with it quickly. While Bane was seemingly taking his time and savoring the joy of having the upper hand, he would eventually lose interest and finish what he had been contracted to.

Bane actually thought he had already been victorious. While Batman was more of a challenge than Nightwing, he'd still not expected the battle to go as swimmingly as it had. But before he became too disappointed, Batman began climbing out of the spotlight, and Bane rubbed his hands together as he eagerly approached his opponent so that the battle could continue. Batman may not have been quite the challenge that he'd expected to this point, but the man's determination to never quit was admirable albeit considerably questionable. "Why do you still fight when you've no hope of winning?" He asked as Batman tumbled out of the spotlight and onto the rooftop below it.

Batman rose up to one knee and responded. "I'll find a way." He then threw another explosive batarang, and this one connected with Bane's knee. That was enough to drop the big man down a peg. Batman wasted no time as he lunged at Bane with a strong roundhouse kick that struck Bane in the side of his head. Batman followed that up with an overhand left and a spinning heel kick. All those attacks struck true onto Bane's head. Batman then went for a front snap kick, but Bane caught his foot before it made contact. He tossed Batman's leg to the side violently enough that it caused Batman's body to spin in a circle before he was met with uppercut. That punch knocked Batman into the air a few feet, and he landed on his back with enough force that it actually knocked the wind out of him. Before he had a chance to get back to his feet, Bane was now standing over top of him looking down.

~~ Batcave ~~

Alfred had just finished treating all of the injuries that Dick had suffered. The poor young man would be in a great deal of pain for quite a few days from the savage beating that he'd received. It was a miracle that he wasn't in worse condition. Barbara and Tim had stayed at his side throughout the majority of the time that Alfred was tending to his wounds. When he was finished and had Dick sedated, they all moved over to the computers so that they could discuss what had happened. "Miss Barbara now would be the time to elaborate on what happened with Master Dick and yourself." Alfred suggested with his hands behind his back and his chin held high. "If there is any information that could aid Master Bruce should he come across those responsible for this, he needs to be informed of it."

Barbara plopped down in the chair as she tried to focus her thoughts on what had happened. She arrived at the clock tower a little early. She hadn't come across much during her last sweep of Bludhaven. She was waiting there watching for Dick's arrival when someone had snuck up behind her and smacked her in the back of her head. She never even felt the presence of her attacker until after he'd already knocked her out cold. She slumped down in the chair after thinking about how careless she must have been to allow someone to sneak up on her like that. "It's my fault Alfred." She said in a very small sounding voice while fighting back a sob. "I….I wasn't careful enough. If I hadn't gotten caught, Dick wouldn't have been forced to keep fighting…."

"No Miss Barbara." Alfred interrupted. "None of this is your fault and you mustn't think such things."

At hearing that from Alfred, Barbara took in a deep shaky breath as she wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face and went back to trying to focus on what had happened. "The next thing I remember was Dick being….being beaten by just one man in a mask." She started to describe. "The man was larger than Bruce, and definitely had a strength advantage over Dick. I've never seen him dominated like that before. Not even when sparring with Bruce. It was almost as though this guy was as strong as…"

An alarm sounded from the computers that interrupted Barbara. The group of three all looked over to the monitors, which flipped to the Batsuit's vital signs. From the information that they could see, Bruce's body was beginning to give out on him. Alfred immediately went into action flipping on the communicator. "Master Bruce!" He called out in an extremely worried tone that Barbara had never heard before from the distinguished Englishman. "Master Bruce, please respond!" Alfred only waited for fifteen seconds before he switched gears, and started typing in commands to perform a task he knew one day might be necessary. "He may not be happy, but I refuse to let my son die if I have any say."

~~ Washington state ~~

Superman landed next to the rest of the Justice League on the coast of the state. His suit was charred from where he'd been, but he was able to breathe a sigh of relief for the moment. "What's the status?" He asked the group.

"It seems what you did slowed things here. The volcanoes are all starting to settle down." John answered.

"But I am concerned about any possible issues from the tectonic plate shift where the device was located. " J'onn added. "It could very well start the creation of many more volcanoes that would otherwise never have come to exist, and may well take weeks for things to settle down in the ocean."

"Agreed J'onn." Superman responded. "When Batman comes available, we'll have him help to identify the likelihood of future trouble as well as to locate the people responsible for this."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm beat and could sure use some food and caffeine." Flash said while stretching his arms above his head.

Shayera yawned and nodded. "It has been a long night."

"Let's get back to the Javelin and head back to the Watchtower." Superman suggested. "Then we can all get some food and…" He paused, which caused the rest of the League to stop walking towards the Javelin and turn back to the Man of Steel. He raised his hand to his ear as they watched him. "Uh this is Superman. Go ahead." He spoke into the communicator. All the League members watched curiously as Superman's eyes became wide with surprise. "On my way."

"What is it Kal?" Diana asked after Superman lowered his hand and had a concerned look on his face.

"Flash, Diana come with me." Superman ordered. "The rest of you, get back to the Watchtower. J'onn, I need you to ready the medical bay as soon as possible." As soon as Superman finished giving orders, he took off into the air. Flash shrugged his shoulders and took off in the same direction, followed shortly afterwards by Diana. The rest of the group hustled into the Javelin and took off towards the Watchtower.

Diana was struggling to catch up to Superman, so she opened a channel on the communicator and conferenced Flash into it as well. "Where are we heading to Kal?" She asked. "What's wrong?"

"We're going to Gotham City." Superman responded.

"Whoa there Supes." Flash said. "We all know that's a no fly zone for anyone not named Bats."

Diana was becoming slightly concerned herself with the realization that Superman did tend to respect Batman's wishes about staying out of Gotham City. "Kal please, what is it?"

"Its…." Superman started, not knowing what to say. He'd been contacted by Bruce's butler Alfred and was told that Bruce was in grave danger, and was nonresponsive to hails for his status. He was also told that a man had viciously beaten Nightwing on this same night. The pieces all fit together too well. The Justice League had been distracted on the other side of the country while all of Arkham were broken out and trying to escape into Batman's city. Then Nightwing is beaten severely, and now Batman's vitals are becoming critical while at the same time he is not responding to Alfred. It was too much to merely be coincidence. Someone obviously wanted Bruce out of the picture. Realizing he'd not answered Diana's requests for answers, he shook his head and thought of what he could respond with and not give away Batman's biggest secret. "I was contacted and told that Batman is in trouble. He has a program that tracks his vitals from the Batsuit, and they are approaching critical status. And his protégés were made aware of it, but they can't help him. We need to get to him as soon as possible. According to the latitude and longitude given, he should be very close to the GCPD building in downtown Gotham."

Diana gasped thinking about how Batman could be in such a dire situation. He seemed unbeatable when she sparred with him. Until this moment, she had never thought about his mortality as being a hindrance. "Then we need to get to him immediately." Diana said as she charged forward as fast as she was capable of. She sent a silent prayer out to help Batman hold on until they could reach him and save him from falling in battle. She didn't want to lose such an ally after she'd just begun to scratch the surface learning about the mysterious man. What little she had learned was that he was a valiant warrior with a keen mind that would be sorely missed if they didn't reach him in time.

Flash went at his top speed, but with his being hungry and exhausted, his top speed now was slower than he'd normally be able to run. He wouldn't give up though. That's not something he would ever allow to happen. He would be fast enough to reach Batman. He just knew that he had to be.

~~ GCPD Building rooftop ~~

Batman was crawling towards the ledge of the building. Bane had been distracted by the police that had interrupted them trying to see what the ruckus was for a few moments until Bane ripped an AC unit off the rooftop and slammed it into the roof access door, thusly blocking any other policemen from getting to the roof. Batman tried to use that time to create some distance between himself and Bane. His broken arm was already numb of the pain it had been causing, and there were shards of glass still protruding out of his back from the Bat signal spotlight. He'd lost quite a bit of blood and consciousness was also now a fight for him to maintain. As Batman reached for the ledge to help pull himself up, Bane already had made his way over to him and latched onto the back of Batman's neck. "It appears time is growing short for you Batman." Bane taunted. "I will end your misery now." Bane then also grabbed Batman by his leg, and hoisted him high above Bane's head. He held Batman there for a moment before swiftly stepping forward while bringing him down until his back slammed against Bane's upper leg.

Batman could hear a crack and all of his limbs fell limp as Bane shoved him off of his leg. Batman crumpled to the rooftop. He tried to get up, but his limbs weren't obeying the commands to move that his mind was sending them. Bane hovered over him while laughing in victory. He'd defeated Batman and he was enjoying the moment. Batman's vision began to blur as Bane knelt down next to him. "I have broken the Bat." He said taunting his opponent. "My contract obligates that I do not kill you though, so I decided to leave you bound to a wheelchair instead. However, a victory such as this should have some sort of a trophy to display, don't you think?" Bane reached down and grabbed Batman by the pointy ears of the cowl. "Perhaps this will suffice."

Bane began to pull on the cowl until the defense mechanism kicked in and sent a shock to Bane's hands, but it didn't have the effect it had on others that had tried and failed to remove the cowl before. Instead Bane removed his hands for a few seconds, and shook them before latching on again and pulling. Just as the latches on the cowl began to snap, a loud sonic boom could be heard close by. Bane looked up into the lightning filled sky and sneered. "So you called in the cavalry after all. How disappointing."

"Did…didn't…..ca….call….an…any" Batman tried and failed to get out as he finally succumbed to an unconscious state.

Bane dropped Batman's head back onto the rooftop, and ran over to another ledge before leaping off the building. He knew he needed to escape quickly as the sonic boom sound was more than likely caused by Superman slowing down. Bane wasn't prepared to face the Kryptonian and he knew it. He had accomplished his goal and honored the contract. He decided now that he would seek out the remainder of his fee from Ra's al Ghul instead of staying to fight a losing battle. Another time, he would seek out the Man of Steel and take him out as well. Bane slipped into the shadows of the night and slinked away from the GCPD building as quickly as he could.

Superman was the first to spot Batman laying prone on the rooftop of the GCPD building. He held his breath as he used his senses and abilities to check on Batman's vitals. He was relieved to find that Batman was still breathing, albeit labored. Flash arrived as Superman touched down on the rooftop, and less than a minute later, Diana arrived as well. Both she and Flash were shocked at the scene before them. The rooftop appeared to be basically demolished. Diana on instinct knelt down to check on her fallen comrade's vitals. "He's alive Diana." Superman said. "But don't move him. I haven't finished checking on him for injuries."

Superman used his x-ray vision to look over Batman, and there he found that Batman's Humerus bone in his right arm was completely broken, and his Ulna had a hairline fracture in his left arm. It was in scanning between each arm that he gasped in shock.

"What is it Kal?" Diana asked. She'd never heard such a noise coming from Superman before. It was not a noise that she wanted to hear ever again from him just based on the feeling she picked up off of hearing it.

"It's his back." Superman stated quietly yet matter of factly. "Three of his vertebrae are protruding out, and two of them are broken."

"You mean Bats is going to be paralyzed?" Flash asked as the first drops of rain began to fall down.

"I….I'm not sure." Superman answered. "His spinal cord isn't severed, but its definitely bruised at the least."

"We need to get him to a medical facility." Diana stated. "Gotham City has to have a hospital."

They were all shocked to hear coughing from Batman. He hissed in pain. "N…No…..hospi…..tals."

"Batman, we have to get you somewhere quickly. You're losing blood, and your back." Diana tried to argue.

"Ca…..call…the…ca…..cave." Batman instructed. Diana and Flash had no idea what he meant by cave, but Superman seemed to as he reached for his communicator.

"This is Superman." He began. "Yes, I've got him. He needs medical attention now." Superman pinched the bridge of his nose between his fore finger and thumb. "Can you override the protocols?...All right, just give us a moment to strap him to something that will keep him from moving."

Superman flew away quickly without saying where he was heading. "Di…Dia…" Batman tried to get out as he fought through the incredible amount of pain that he was in.

Diana reached down and gently grabbed one of his hands. "Its going to be alright Batman." She said as she tried to console her teammate. She wanted to ask if he could feel her hand, but didn't want to worry him at the same time. Her question however was answered as she felt a slight squeeze from his hand. That brought a smile to her face, and she then believed that he would be alright.

She could see with the ticks of the muscles on his jaw that he was trying to find the words he wanted to say. Eventually it came out in a one word sentence. "Stay."

Her eyes widened in surprise. She never thought that Batman would ask her to do anything of the sort. He was always the one to try and stay alone out of the team. She was shocked for the moment until Superman returned with a long spine board in his hand. He set it down next to Batman and glanced over at Flash and Diana. "As soon as you hear from the Watchtower, I want to know what happened here." He said. "Both of you return to the Watchtower and bring a team down here."

Diana chimed in before Superman continued. "Batman requested that I stay. I think he wants me to go with him."

Superman had a shocked look on his face. When she saw that look she began to question it before Superman continued after a sigh of resignation. "Very well. Flash, you work with GCPD and gather any information you can. We need to know who did this as soon as possible. I think it will have ties to what happened in Washington. Batman always said that there is no such thing as a coincidence, and I think he's right. Especially if you look at everything that's happened tonight."

Flash nodded and took off down the building. He went inside to see what information he could gather before reaching out to the Watchtower to gather a team. Meanwhile as the rain began to pour down on them, Superman and Diana carefully rolled Batman onto his side so that they could slide the board underneath him and strap him down. As soon as he was secured, Superman looked over at Diana again, only with a confused look this time. "Are you sure about this Diana?" He asked.

"If its what my teammate wants in such a dire state, then I can think of no other place I should be." She answered.

Superman then reached for his communicator. "Superman and two more, ready for transport." And within seconds all three of them disappeared in a flash of light.