He couldn't really feel pain unless a being as powerful as him inflicted some sort of injury. Therefore, it was rare for him to feel physical pain and even more rare for him to feel as if he had aches and pains due to his ability to heal quickly. However, as he looked out of the glass panels of the Justice League meeting room and into the depths of space, he felt sore.

Someone once told him that humans could feel sore if they were exhausted or even emotionally distressed. He had never thought about those sensations before. Now he was so exhausted that his shoulders felt tight and his lower back felt weak. Despite this he didn't leave the Watchtower after his monitor shift but prefered to wander around the nearly deserted space station.

Only a skeleton crew was currently working the machines on the station so Superman didn't run into anyone as he wandered around the living complex. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he almost missed the noises coming from the cafeteria. He stopped, wondering if he should go in. He didn't particularly care to visit with anyone.

While he stood around indecisively, the person in the cafeteria continued what sounded like a shop project. He heard the very distinct sound of a screwdriver and then a wrench. He wondered why this person wasn't using the workshop.

Superman peered around the corner and found Batman completely engrossed in building...well Superman didn't know what. It was metal and that was all he could say. Despite the fact that everyone on the team had one reason or another to dislike Batman, Superman merely found him frustrating. He disappeared as quickly as he appeared and never seemed interested in forming any kind of bond with his teammates. If Superman hadn't been around anti-social people before he too would probably dislike this man.

Overcome by curiosity, he stepped into the room and made his way to the coffee machine. He poured two cups and carried them back to where Batman was sitting. He looked preoccupied but Superman knew him well enough to know that Batman was entirely aware of Superman's movements.

"You know we have a workshop for this type of stuff," Superman said giving the other man his cup of coffee.

"I'm aware," Batman said, never lifting his eyes. "The coffee's in here."

Superman smiled a little wondering if that was supposed to be funny. In his exhausted state, he found it slightly amusing.

"You could just sleep," Superman replied.

"Busy."

"Clearly. What is that thing anyway?"

"Auxiliary power booster for one of my cars."

"Why are you working on it here?" he asked. "I thought you had a giant cave somewhere that you put all this stuff in."

"Who the hell told you that?" Batman sneered.

"Flash," Superman said. "He said he woke up there after a battle and you had this giant set up down in a cave somewhere. He said he saw a dinosaur."

"Clearly he had a head injury."

"Yeah, he said you knocked him out pretty fast."

Batman simply grunted at this. He flipped the metal box-like object over and around in his hands, inspecting it closely before setting it aside in favor of the coffee.

"What are you doing up here?" he asked.

"Just finished my shift. Which reminds me, Diana said you were refusing to take your turn."

"I'm busy."

"You made a commitment."

"I can't do anything for you people this month."

"You people?" Superman questioned, surprised by the language. "You're apart of this team too, you know."

"Hardly," Batman snorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Superman asked, slightly offended. He wasn't sure if Batman just didn't want to commit or if he thought they didn't want him around. Either way, Superman believed that Batman was mistaken in whatever conclusion he'd drawn.

"I think you know," Batman said, coyly, sipping his coffee.

"No, I don't."

"Well, I don't know if you know this but I'm not really a people person."

"I noticed," Superman replied dryly, desperately trying not to laugh in Batman's face.

"And I've never worked with a team before."

"What about that cop? Gordon?"

"That's different," Batman snapped and his glare made it very clear that the line of conversation was over. "The Justice League is very different than anything I've done in Gotham."

"Are you trying to say that it's overwhelming?" Superman asked but even to his own ears it didn't sound right.

"No, I'm trying to tell you that my own duties may no longer allow me to be an active member of this team."

"You're quitting?" Superman inquired, honestly surprised by this turn of events. He knew that Batman was having a hard time connecting with the other members of the team, but he'd never considered that the man might leave. His next thought was how smoothly things would be from this point on which immediately made him feel guilty.

"I am," Batman replied. "I'll be around for emergencies but other than that I am going to ask all of you not to contact me."

"Is this only about work conflict?" Superman asked. If Batman was leaving because his Gotham duties were more important to him, then he wouldn't go out of his way to ask not to be contacted. He would want to keep an open line of communication even if it was just to keep up on League cases. Nothing about any of this was sitting well with Superman.

"Yes, it is," Batman told him, drained what was left of his coffee, gathered his things, and left. It would be only a few days later before Superman learned that no one in Gotham had seen any activity from the Batman. There was even a news article wondering why Batman wasn't responding to the kinds of crimes he was known to respond to. Superman used a League computer to access the Gotham police wire and heard quite a bit of chatter from the offices of Major Crimes to the offices in the 401 precinct looking for tips about the Batman's whereabouts. Apparently the 401, which was located in Crime Alley, were usually the first responders to Batman's aftermath. They were used to seeing him nearly every night but they hadn't seen him either.

Superman even tried Batman's League communicator which he had not left behind, but there was no answer. He had an uncomfortable feeling that he was the last person Batman had spoken to before he'd vanished and for some reason that feeling drove him to begin looking for the missing vigilante.

"He's probably fine," Flash said when Superman told the rest of the team about the sudden disappearance nearly a month after the conversation in the cafeteria. "I mean, it's Batman."

"I know that," Superman snarled, frustrated that none of them seemed to get that Batman was missing. There were masked villains-people Batman usually responded to immediately-running loose in Gotham. Superman didn't know much about this man but he knew that he wouldn't have just left his city to this kind of violence. The Justice League had been forced to step in twice already to relieve the overwhelmed police force. "But I can't shake the feeling that something has happened. I think we should look for him."

"Do you have any proof that he's in trouble?" Wonder Woman questioned.

"She's right," Green Lantern agreed. "Unless he's being held somewhere we really don't have the right to step in. I mean, he's a weird guy. Maybe he just decided to disappear?"

"I don't think so," Superman replied. They were right on some level and he knew that. Batman had every right to quit and leave, no matter how out of character it seemed. But that didn't set right with Superman. There was something in his gut, some small little voice, that was telling him that something had happened. "I think we should look."

"And where do you suppose we start?" Flash asked. "We have no idea who he is or where he goes when he's not working."

"There is very little known about Batman," Aquaman chimed in. "And what we do know is likely not true."

"What do you mean?" Wonder Woman asked, curious.

"I mean we've all heard rumors about him. Most are ridiculous, of course, but can any of us honestly say that we know anything about him?"

"Not really," Green Lantern said, scratching at the stubble on his chin thoughtfully. "I mean I heard once that he had wings ten feet long and had black, pointed teeth."

"But what about what we do know?" Superman asked. "Did he ever talk to any of you? What about you Flash? You were in his cave once."

"Yeah, with a pretty bad concussion. I managed to stumble around half blind before he gave me a shot of something. I woke up in the Watchtower a few hours later and nobody had any idea how I'd gotten there. It didn't even show up on the cameras."

"What do you remember?" Superman pressed, unconcerned about Batman's ability to get around their security.

"I remember thinking that it was huge," Flash said, squinting his eyes as he tried to recall a very fuzzy memory. "I mean it was at least four stories, all underground. There was a giant computer bench that he was working on, all these cars and planes, and a t-rex."

"Seriously?" Green Lantern asked, amused. "A t-rex?"

"Yeah, it was life size model. I think it was a trophy or something. That's all I really got a look at. He snuck up behind me and knocked me out."

"We should look at the cave systems beneath Gotham," Superman said. "There has to be a system that's bigger than the others, one that could hold a hideout like that."

"You want to search Gotham for Batman's secret clubhouse?" Flash asked, shocked and more than a little alarmed. "Are you crazy? Even if you do find it what do think he's going to do when you fly in unannounced and uninvited? He'll kill you."

"He won't kill me," Superman replied, confidently. He wasn't sure if his confidence stemmed from his knowledge of his own abilities or if he honestly believed that Batman wouldn't do anything to him.

"You don't know that," Wonder Woman told him. "He could be doing anything right now. He told you he didn't want to be contacted."

"Unless there was an emergency which says that he planned for us to be able to contact him," Aquaman argued, somewhat surprisingly. "I agree with Superman. This man is missing."

"But he still could have simply walked away. Maybe after he left he changed his mind and decided that he didn't even want that limited contact," Wonder Woman reasoned. "Not one of us can honestly say that we know Batman well enough to hold him to his word."

Superman nodded because he could see that this made sense but it still sat ill with him. He just had a gut feeling that something had happened and he needed to know what.

00000

Visiting Commissioner Gordon was the first thing that Superman knew he needed to do in his search for Batman. The police commissioner had a large office as befitting his station but it felt small due to the sheer amount of boxes and filing cabinets that had been stuffed in there. Superman had entered the darkened and empty office through an open window and he couldn't help but wonder if it had been left open for a specific person.

He looked over a large bulletin board that held a dozen open high profile cases. The board was crammed with photos, theories, and news articles. Some red string was connecting victims to suspects or suspects to murder weapons. None of it appeared to have anything to do with Batman. However, the board was so fascinating that he missed someone approaching the office until the doorknob was already being turned.

Gordon had barely opened the door before he clearly came to the conclusion that there was an intruder in his office. The door swung open violently and his gun was drawn in a flash.

"Who are you?" he demanded. Superman was surprised that the man didn't yell it in order to alert others to an intruder in police headquarters.

"That gun won't help you Commissioner," Superman told him politely, turning around and stepping into the light coming from the hallway. Gordon's eyes darted from his chest to his face and back again. Then his expression closed off and he squeezed the trigger. Superman was honestly surprised by the action and it was because of this that he didn't think to dodge the bullet but instead let it hit him. If he had been human he would have been shot in the heart.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Just making sure you're you and not some crazy imposter in a costume. You'd be surprised how often that happens."

"Yes, well, I'm me." He tuned into the comings and goings of the building and was pleased to note that no one had seemed to have heard the gunshot. The building was pretty quiet, operating on a skeleton crew as one shit left and another began to trickle in.

"I can see that," Gordon replied and flicked on the lights. The room looked even more cluttered in the light than it did in the dark. "What do you want Superman? Get bored leaping over the buildings in Metropolis?"

"No," Superman said, amused by the comment. He'd heard something similar from Batman once. "I'm hear about the Batman."

Gordon sat behind his desk and booted up his computer before he bothered to answer his uninvited guest. "Sit down. I've had enough of vigilantes hovering over me." Superman immediately located a chair in the corner, placed the box it was housing on the floor, and brought it to sit down in front of the desk. He felt like a school child.

"What about Batman?" Gordon asked clicking through his computer, clearly only marginally interested in this conversation. Superman could honestly say that he'd only ever been ignored like this once before. He was perfectly comfortable with being ignored when he was in his civilian identity but for someone to ignore him in this identity was pretty rare.

"He's missing."

Gordon burst out laughing, highly amused.

"I'm serious," Superman said. "We haven't been able to get a hold of him despite the fact that he had informed us that we would. Have you had any activity from him recently?"

"No," Gordon replied, still paying more attention to his computer than to Superman. "But that's hardly unusual. The guy comes and goes as he sees fit. He's a vigilante; there's no role call or anything."

"I understand that," he said growing frustrated. It was like the Justice League meeting all over again. "However, I don't think he would be this inaccessible."

Gordon looked up and leaned back in his chair, giving Superman a very contemplative look.

"We've had some incidents where I was certain he would show up but he didn't," Gordon confided, "but that's still not cause to think he's missing. He could easily be in deep cover. He's done that before too."

Superman hadn't thought about that. Batman had not once discussed his undercover work and he had been under the impression that he didn't do undercover work. Now that he thought about it, this seemed highly ridiculous. There was information that was best found through avenues that had nothing to do with beating people, frightening them to the point of loss of bladder control, or dangling people off of buildings. Would Batman respond to an emergency transmission from his Justice League communicator if he was undercover? Did Superman dare send him a fake signal to find out?

"Do you have any idea what he might have gone undercover to investigate?" he asked, hopeful that he'd get an answer to get rid of this feeling that something had happened. He wasn't close to Batman; he didn't really have the right to poke around in his business and to say that he had a gut feeling about Batman's most private actions was bordering on stupid. He knew all of this and despite all of this, he still couldn't shake that feeling.

"Of course not," Gordon said. "He does what he wants, when he wants, and if he decides he wants the police to take some sort of action he'll contact me. But that's really about it."

"Okay," Superman said, disappointed. "Thank you for your time."

As he stood up to go he caught Gordon giving him a contemplative look.

"Superman," he hedged. The alien paused and gave him the few moments he needed to make up his mind. "You should try Detective Blake in the 401 precinct down in Crime Alley. He has contact with Batman every now and then about drug runners. There's always a chance that he knows something."

"Thank you," Superman said, much more sincerely and was gone in a blink of Gordon's eye.