HEROism

Kay looked at the size of the package.

"Fuck. We're going to be here all day, aren't we?"

"Well... probably." Sigrun said, taken aback, "But the paperwork shouldn't take more than fifteen to twenty minutes. Once that's done, there are other things we need to deal with. We're establishing a superhero team; it takes more than a few minutes to do that."

"I'm done..." Cardinal stated, pushing the papers away, "what now?"

Gungnir's pencil snapped. She turned to Cardinal with a smile pasted on her face and said, "Well, fantastic! Mind giving the rest of us the cliff-notes version?"

Cardinal looked from the broken pencil to Gungnir's face and back before deciding it was best not to answer. Instead she silently handed Gungnir a new pencil.

Gungnir took the pencil with a mumbled thanks and went back to reading.

Kay reached into her pocket, pulling out a pair of reading glasses and setting them on her nose. She grabbed a pencil and highlighter, determined not to miss a detail.

"If I ever decide to leave this city to, lets say, return home; how much notice would that require?" Mik asked, skimming through the paperwork to figure out where his signature was required.

"Well," Sigrun replied, "preferably as much as you can give, but legally? So long as you've filled out the paperwork and informed the team, there technically is no minimal required warning."

After everyone had filled out the paperwork, Sigrun gathered it all together and put it away to be sent to H.E.R.O. at a later time. "Okay," she addressed the group, "now that that's done, we should move on to another pressing issue. Our name. I'll be honest, I really don't know what sort of thing we want there. Initially I was thinking something referencing Norse mythology, since both myself and Gungnir have names from that source, but that's only two fifths of us; not quite everyone. As such, I don't really have many thoughts on the subject, but I'd like to hear what you have to say. We don't have to commit to anything now. H.E.R.O. gives us a two week period between filing the paperwork and needing to declare a name, but since a name is necessary to identify us, we won't be able to officially do any work until we have one. So... Any thoughts?"

Cardinal shrugged, "I don't really care too much...as long as it doesn't sound too ridiculous...'

Kay tilted her head sideways, thinking.

"If not for Red, I'd want to go with Valkyries. If we want to keep the mythical theme going, we could go with the Furies."

Gungnir gave Kay a sideways look. "I'm not sure 'furies' bodes well for a hero name. I mean, we want this to be something a desperate crowd can shout with joy." She paused and thought for a moment. "Constructive criticism aside, I got nothing." She added with a shrug.

"Yeah," Cardinal added, "furies just doesn't fit..."

"I'm inclined to agree." Sigrun said, "But it all that's been suggested right now. Any other options?"

"We could try something with the first letters of our names..." Cardinal began, "We have G, M, C, S, and K...adding some vowels..."

"Those letters do not fill me with an abundance of confidence." Sigrun said, "If you can think of something, great, but I was more thinking thematically. Which is tricky, since we have pretty much nothing in common. We're nearly there with a few things; almost all women, almost all fairly young, almost all human..." She thought for a moment, "Wow... sorry Red, didn't mean to single you out there. And that's not counting the variations in powers, appearance, personality... we're a startlingly diverse group, actually... I wonder if H.E.R.O. said yes in part because we look like a good team on paper."
Sigrun shook her head. "But that's all beside the point. I was originally thinking 'Ragnarok' or 'Valhalla' or something like that, but I'm not sure the mythological approach will work any more. So, changing approach, what about... I dunno... 'The Watch'? Maybe? It's a bit close to 'The Watchmen', which is copyrighted, but it should be different enough, and there's something classic about it."

(I'm spitballing as much as Sigrun here, so feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit. I honestly did not plan out a name in advance, wanting to have us all collaborate on it as we are now.)

"Hmm," Cardinal thought out loud, "what about the watchers...I feel like I've heard of a team called the Watch before, but I could be wrong..."

"I'm pretty sure there isn't," Sigrun said, "and personally, I'm not as big a fan of being a 'watcher'. It sounds too... stalker-y."

"You may be right on that one..." Cardinal said, lost in thought, "maybe..."

"What if we spell Ragnarok with a 'C' and a 'K'? It has the first letter in all our names if you use 'R' for me instead of 'M'. Or if we choose something to do with the colour red, for myself and cardinal?" Mik asked.

"That sounds interesting..." Cardinal said, "any other ideas?"

Kay sighed.

"How do people feel about puns? We're in New Lyon, so what about The Pride?"

Cardinal grinned at that, before looking at the others to see their reactions.

Sigrun snickered, "I like that." She said, "I like that a lot."