The wall was huge, but the names were small. There really weren't many, but there was room for the future. And staring up at it, Clark Kent felt his chest constrict... then carved in a new name with his heat vision.

XXXX

SIX WEEKS EARLIER:

XXXX

The Justice League was relatively new, and the building they were meeting in was donated by Wayne Enterprises, and furnished by Queen Industries. Seven titans sat around the table in the central meeting room, all quiet and trying to deal with what had happened

Superman looked the worst, if only because his face was clearly visible. He was distraught, confused, and most certainly upset. He stared off into nothing, trying to get a grip on what had happened. Why had the unknown man done what he had done?

By contrast Wonder Woman wore a hardened expression. She knew that, whoever he was, he had performed a deed of extreme self-sacrifice. His loss was tragic, but he proved himself to have the heart of a hero, and a warrior.

The Flash was oddly still. As a police CSI agent, he knew what it was like to wear a black ribbon on his badge. But now? Now a hero had fallen, right in front of his own eyes. One of those fighting the good fight proved he had the mettle for it, but now was no more.

Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, paced. He was angry, furious even, at himself. He knew that if he had been a tad bit faster, pushed himself just that much more, the guy would still be alive. But, never once did he blame the man, only ever himself.

The Martian Manhunter seemed oddly contemplative. Inside, he withdrew into his own memories of the death of Ma'alacandraa – the alien ships stripping his world of its people, then simply eradicating what was left. The long years of suffering, as the survivors slowly starved. And then the death of Doctor Saul Erdel, who had brought him to Earth.

The newest member was Black Canary. At first, the other members had no idea why the Batman had nominated her for membership, but her courage and creativity with her ultrasonic 'Canary Cry' earned her the spot. Now, she sat slumped in her chair, thoughts scattered between the incident earlier that day, the fact that she could die even easier, and that her lover had chosen not to join, as well – leaving her alone and lonely, confronting her own mortality.

Batman, as always, had the best poker face. Nobody except the Manhunter could tell what was going on inside his head, and the Ma'al was too polite to even think about looking. He had a laptop open, and was busy ensuring the uplink to the computer in the so-called Hall of Justice was secure and properly encrypted. He then turned to face Superman, and when he caught the Kryptonian's eye, nodded.

Standing, Superman placed his hands on the table, and took a deep breath. "So... what do we know about what just happened?"

Batman spoke. "At 0943 this morning, the communications staff of the League received word that unidentified metahumans were attacking civilians and structures in downtown Houston, Texas. Word was passed to the members of the League, who arrived shortly thereafter. Flash had passed by Star City to pick up Canary, while Green Lantern passed by Gotham to pick me up. Though technically the Flash and Canary arrived first, the time difference between arrivals was negligible. By 0946, all League members were present on the scene.

"The attacking metahumans were revealed to not be metahumans, but rather escapees from Warworld, armed with alien technology and their own innate abilities. They appeared to be attacking simply for the fun of it, killing civilians for 'points', and laughing when collateral damage caused even more chaos.

"At 0947, the League engaged the attackers. For the purposes of this report, they will be referred to as subjects Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, and Theta. All subjects were met individually with League members, except for subject Gamma, who engaged Green Lantern along with subject Theta.

"The ability of most League members to fly was apparently negated by subject Delta, through unknown means, but Green Lantern's ability to fly remained. He and subjects Gamma and Theta began a mid-air dogfight. Lantern's ability in this fight was disadvantaged by his proper concern for property damage and the people present in the buildings the fight took place around

"At 0953, an unknown metahuman emerged from the fleeing crowds, and promptly demonstrated superhuman strength by grabbing and restraining subject Eta, who previously proved strong enough to hurl a loaded bus at his chosen opponent, Martian Manhunter."

The Batman clicked the mouse button, and an image appeared in the monitor screen embedded in the center of the table. A slightly blurry photograph appeared there, of a man in a tight, obviously home-made costume, and wearing a motorcycle helmet. The costume appeared to be a yellow full-body so-called morphsuit, with red designs hand-painted on it, including a rather prominent Scorpio symbol on the chest.

He continued. "Subject Eta attempted to escape the grasp of the unknown metahuman, hereafter referred to as Ally Alpha. This allowed the Manhunter to perform a knockout blow by telepathic means, as the alien's attention and concentrated drifted. With subject Eta rendered insensate, the two began to assist other League members.

"Whatever means subject Delta used to inhibit flight also appeared to somewhat inhibit the powers of Superman. Their fight was still ongoing, but eventually Superman gained the upper hand. At some point, the device subject Delta used was damaged or destroyed, restoring aerial superiority to the League.

"At this point, Ally Alpha saw the barely conscious Subject Eta aiming some sort of weapon at a crowd of civilians that chose not to run. Moving with the speed of an athletic normal human, he jumped in the path of the weapon, and was struck by what appeared to be a bolt of collated plasma. The resulting blast almost totally disintegrated Ally Alpha. Moments later, Green lantern managed to raise a force shield around the crowd, and the Flash disassembled the weapon."

Silence reigned for a few moments. Finally, the Flash spoke. "So, basically, some guy with powers from who knows where comes in, helps us out and probably helped save hundreds of lives, then sacrifices himself to save even more lives."

Batman nodded. "Precisely. And we have no idea who he was."

XXXX

The site of the battle was cold, but downtown Houston was otherwise back to normal. It was two in the morning, and a shadow knelt over a spot with emergency tape surrounding it. "There must be something," muttered the shape.

A gloved hand reached for a utility belt, and pulled out some form of sensor. Waving it over a darkened spot of pavement. The Batman reached down, and picked up a few fragments of what used to be a motorcycle helmet, then stood. He stared at the blackened spot for just a few more moments, then walked off to a nearby alley, and was gone.

XXXX

The Batcave was secret, but a few people knew not only that it actually existed, but also its location. Among those few were Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter, though they rarely went there out of respect for Batman's privacy. Now, however, the Manhunter stood beside the Batman, watching the gathered footage of the battle carefully.

"There, see? At that point, his balance is slightly off. He's very likely wearing lifts of some sort in his shoes, to help conceal his identity."

"Could it not be vanity?" asked the Manhunter.

"Unlikely," grunted Batman. "He could have worn any number of things on his face to conceal his identity, and vanity would call for something closer to what Green Lantern wears. Instead, he concealed his entire head inside that motorcycle helmet. He proved he did not need it for physical armor during the fight."

John Jonzz nodded. "So he was approximately five foot nine, then? Which would put his weight at...?"

"Approximately one hundred and seventy pounds, assuming his metahumanity did not affect his density. He also demonstrated no metahuman abilities besides augmented strength and durability."

A click of a mouse, and close-up images of the helmet fragments appeared onscreen. "I would, however, go so far as to say his superhuman durability did not extend to the type of energy used for this weapon. The helmet he wore was a standard, store-bought type, with the outer layers consisting of a plastic coated polycarbonate shell, over layers of polypropylene foam. The helmet's melting point should be well below the temperature needed to destroy all DNA evidence as thoroughly as happened, unless our unknown hero was actually more susceptible to heat than the average human being."

"What are the odds that he knew this?" asked John.

"Unknown. He might simply have thought that he sunburned easily, or disliked hot days. On the other hand, he may have been aware of this vulnerability, but took action anyway. I'll see you back at the Hall in a few weeks, I have people to interview."

XXXX

A photograph flashed up on the main screen in the Justice League's meeting room. It showed a happy young man of average build, holding up a rather large fish. "Michael Tanaka. Born November the seventh, in the year nineteen eighty four, age twenty-one."

Canary blinked. "Rather young," she muttered.

"Indeed." The Batman clicked the remote in his hand, and the picture changed to a newspaper clipping. "In 2002, July, he was one of six college students trapped in the cave-in at Mastodon Caves in New Mexico. At least one student reportedly attributed their survival to Tanaka literally catching a boulder that would have landed on the student's head during the cave-in, and then passing out from the exertion. This report was attributed to hysterical strength, as Tanaka was an Anthropology major with no known athletic pursuits beyond cycling."

Flash made a noise in the back of his throat. "So you think the cave-in sparked his metagene?"

"Precisely. I was able to build a very rough psychological profile of our mysterious Ally Alpha, and matched it to his approximate height and weight. I narrowed it down to those who had been declared missing since the day of the battle, and had a birthday between October 23 and November 21, due to the assumption of a 'Scorpio' or similar heroic identity. Of those subjects, Tanaka best fit, and had an incident which could have sparked a metagene awakening."

Green Lantern sighed. "So your not positive Tanaka was our 'Ally Alpha', then?"

"I'm approximately 98% certain he was. The only other possible candidates did not have an event that could have awakened a metagene, or any other method of superhuman awakening." With another click, the screen went dark, and the lights turned up slightly. "I took the liberty of inviting Mr Tanaka's parents and sister here. They accepted, and are waiting for us in the back."

XXXX

The name of 'Scorpio - Michael Tanaka' slowly cooled on the surface of the wall. Superman then turned to Shou and Jennifer Tanaka. "Sir, Ma'am, we'd like to take this moment to thank you for coming. What your son did was brave, and showed a level of caring about his fellow man that I wish was more common."

Jennifer simply nodded, while her husband held her close. "Superman, we would like to thank you and your comrades. These past several weeks have been painful, not knowing, and now we know." A young girl stepped up beside him, and Shou reached out, and pulled her close as well. "I just wish... I just wish he had not had to do what he did."

Wonder Woman stepped up, and bowed. "We all do, Mr Tanaka. We all do."