Then

The wyvern corpse, as the people had taken to calling it, was placed inside a warehouse that was previously used by a food distribution business. Cal would’ve have preferred holding of on naming it such, but Eron got to the people before he could.

There was a good number of people gathered around the corpse. Most at a safe distance. The only exceptions were a zoologist, a veterinarian and a couple of butchers drafted to perform the combination autopsy and harvesting.

There was some discussion about the allocation of the wyvern parts, but Eron had put his foot down and made it clear that since he and Cal were the ones that brought it down then they’d decide the allocation.

As Cal watched the eager zoologist argue with the less eager veterinarian about where they should start, while the poor butchers looked on stoically. Cal could tell that the only thing that was keeping the men from bowing out was professional pride and the desire to not look weak in front of the others.

“Whatever you do, be careful with the tail. There’s probably some kind of poison gland somewhere in there. Might be others, for that matter,” Eron said before walking away to join Cal.

The people around the corpse paled.

“You sure they got this?”

“Yeah, they did some test cuts, tough skin, but they can get around the armored scales,” Eron said.

“Good, cause I was hoping they didn’t need help,” Cal gave a relieved sigh. “That monster smells even worse now that it’s dead.”

Eron made a disgusted face. “Tell me about it. Also it is a wyvern.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Cal rolled his eyes. “There are bestiaries available for purchase at the spire. It might be time to get one, at least the ones focused for this area.”

“I swear, so much bullshit with how this system works. It’s like charging per page for the manual,” Eron said. “We can get a list of monsters, but if we want more than just the name we pay more. If we want a physical description, oh that’s extra. Do you want a drawing of them? Extra. A photograph? Even more extra.” He threw up his hands. “I tried to punch the spire once, did you know?”

Cal’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Relax, nothing happened, my fist just went through it like it was smoke.”

“Maybe no more hitting the possibly multiversal structures,” Cal said.

“Whatever,” Eron waved Cal’s concern away. “Let’s get out of here. Super smell isn’t being a good power right now.” He wrinkled his nose.

“So… I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, but we need code names.” Eron held up his hands to forestall the protests from everyone at the table. “Hear me out, before you all start complaining.”

“We’ve already had this conversation,” Remy sighed.

“Right, but since I’m leaving tomorrow this might be my last chance to convince you.”

“Yeah, dad, you should totally have a superhero name.” Veronica bobbed her head earnestly.

Eron pointed a finger at Veronica. “See, youngest one here, but already way ahead of all you so-called adults.”

“Fine, let’s hear it,” Remy said flatly.

“It all comes down to OPSEC,” Eron said.

A finger poked Cal in his side.

“What’s that mean?” Tessa whispered in his ear.

“Operational Security. It’s a military term, basically means that when you’re doing anything you don’t let any information out that might be used by an enemy against you… or something like that.”

“Uncle Eron’s not in the military.” Tessa brow furrowed in confusion.

“Yeah, but he played a lot of FPS games,” Cal said.

“What’re those?”

“Um… kind of like Minecraft, but more violent, with guns and stuff.”

“Oh, like Destiny and Halo,” Tessa said. “I’ve watched dad play those.”

“Yup, you got it exactly!” Cal smiled at his niece.

“At a bare minimum we have to stop calling ourselves by our names while we’re fighting,” Eron said.

Nila raised a hand. “Okay, sorry, but what does that matter? The monsters aren’t exactly going to look us up in the phone book and I don’t know, attack us while we’re in the shower.”

“I’m not necessarily talking about monsters. Although, who’s to say that there isn’t the possibility of intelligent monsters appearing in the future.”

“You mean other people,” Cal said. He had often had this discussion with his brother.

“Exactly! We got really good powers and it’s fortunate that we aren’t total a-holes. You already saw what that Jay clown did with some super strength and toughness. What if there are people like him or worse out there with powers on our level? Isn’t it smart to protect ourselves?”

“So, we’ll need costumes? Masks?” Remy made it clear what he thought of that notion.

“I mean, yeah, ideally. We should probably be looking into proper protection. Helmet, armor, the works. The wyvern was a wake up call for me. We can’t just assume our natural toughness will be enough against what comes next,” Eron said.

Cal nodded. “I agree on that part. There is an obvious, if not clear, progression to the things the spires are doing to our world. If things are like in a game, then that means we should expect the difficulty level to keep rising.”

“Fair enough,” Remy conceded, “but costumes and super hero names? This is real life, it might be stupid right now, but I don’t know about treating it like a game.”

“How can we not, when the reality of it is so obvious?” Eron spread his arms.

“Then shouldn’t you be working harder to fix things?” Megan’s face betrayed her unhappiness with the line of conversation.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Eron challenged her. “I’m not exactly having fun. But I’ve accepted that any hope of fixing things probably goes through the spires. And our new reality has made it clear many times that I, we, need to keep getting stronger or be destroyed by those that are.”

Cal saw the brewing fight without needing to use his telepathy. “So, code names?”

Eron took the hint in Cal’s look. “Since one of the reasons I’m going to SoCal is to try to establish lines of communication. Then I just think it’d be better to have names to call each other rather than our actual ones. It’s a simple request. Not really a big deal.”

Cal saw the merits of it. Truthfully he was resistant because it felt silly. Like he was a kid playing a game, which considering how the world had changed, wasn’t actually that far off from reality.

Remy’s brow was furrowed, deep in thought, as he considered Eron’s words. He glanced quickly at Megan, who was glaring at no one in particular.

“Dad?” Veronica tugged on Remy’s sleeve. “Can I pick your super hero name?”

Remy smiled down at her. “Only if it’s cool!”

Cal felt another poke in his side.

“Can I get a code name too?”

“I don’t see why not, Tessa,” Cal whispered, “but maybe you should wait until you’re older and know what your powers are.”

Tessa pouted. “Mom doesn’t want us to do that,” she whispered.

Cal didn’t know what to say to that. So, he smiled and wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Alright, fine,” Remy said finally. “Since this is your idea, you go first. What do you want us to use as your code name?” His face twisted slightly, as if it was a struggle to get the words out.

“Oh, I don’t know yet,” Eron shrugged. Then he pulled out a folded up sheet of notebook paper from his back pocket. Carefully unfolded it. “I’ve got some ideas I wanted to workshop with you guys.”

Cal could see that both sides of the sheet were covered in Eron’s tiny and surprisingly legible hand writing. He was not surprised to notice that the paper was divided into several sections and it seemed that half the people at the table had one devoted to them.

“Your idea, you get to go first,” Cal said. He looked over to Tessa with raised brows.

Eron chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, Uncle Eron! You first!”

Eron sighed. “If you insist, Tessa.”

“Do you have any good ideas?” Nila leaned over on Cal’s other side.

“Oh, oh!” Veronica’s hand shot up like a rocket. “Super Eron or Captain Eron or Iron Eron!” She giggled, as the rest of the table with one exception laughed.

“Thanks,” Eron grinned, “but I don’t want to get sued.”

“What about Strong Guy?” Nila smirked.

“I believe that is also taken,” Eron said flatly.

“You get your powers from the Sun, so we can call you Solar Man or Sun Master!” Tessa smiled in a way that revealed she knew exactly what she was doing.

Eron sighed. “Well, I was thinking I’d need to stay away from Sun related names. I mean it seems dumb to name myself in a way that’d let the bad guys know what sort of powers I have.”

“Makes sense,” Remy said. “Why give out information right away? Might as well print out a list of your strengths and weaknesses and hand it out before a fight.”

“Exactly, but the same time I kind of feel like it’d be wrong to go with something like Laser Man or Dude of Darkness,” Eron said.

“Wait, what? Isn’t that actually the smartest thing to do,” Megan said.

“I’m with her,” Nila said.

Eron shrugged. “Intellectually, I see what you’re saying, but going so far in that direction feels wrong.”

“Ah, so feels before reals,” Nila nodded. “You do a good job undermining your own arguments.”

“Fair point, but I’m unmoved.”

“So, Eron, you’ve clearly come up with some ideas,” Cal said. “Why don’t you share them and we can give feedback.”

Eron held his sheet up and cleared his throat.

“Sunst— oh right, I’ll skip that one. How about Halcyon?”

“A brightly colored bird?” Megan narrowed her eyes.

“Or a time in the past that has a perception of being idyllic,” Cal said.

“I was going for the second one,” Eron said.

“Decent,” Remy said.

Nila shrugged.

“I guess it’s okay,” Tessa said.

“What do you think, Veronica?”

“I don’t know, Uncle Eron.”

“So, I’ll mark that down as a ‘maybe’. Next up, Dominator.”

“Hard pass,” Cal said.

“Yeah, that’s a bad guy’s name,” Veronica said.

The rest of the table shared similar opinions.

“So, that’s a no. I thought up variations of the word Celestial. Celestial, Celestion, Celestior.”

“Kind of awkward sounding,” Nila said.

“Dumb, dumber, and dumberer,” Remy said to the delight of his giggling children.

“Was that really necessary?” Eron huffed. “Fine, next. Orion, after the constellation.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s taken,” Cal said.

“I know, but does that really matter since I can point to actual stars as the inspiration,” Eron said.

“The hunter, I like that one,” Nila said.

“Sounds pretty cool,” Tessa concurred.

“I also wrote down a few adjectives and adverb-based ideas. Gallant, Valor, Valiant, Valorous, Intrepid, Unstoppable, Indomitable, Indominus,” Eron said, “but I’m not too sure. Kind of sounds like what they name ships.”

Veronica was giggling uncontrollably.

“What’d I say?”

Tessa was laughing as well. “You’re a dinosaur!”

Cal chuckled. “In that case we can call you Rex or maybe Ruler.”

A look of realization crossed Eron’s face before he broke out into a wide smile. “I totally didn’t catch that. Thanks, girls! You saved me from a terrible mistake!”

“I guess most of those are fine. It doesn’t give your specific power set away immediately and they don’t sound too stupid,” Remy said.

“Indomitable,” Megan said. “It fits since you never listen to anyone else.”

“Uh… thanks, I think.”

“I vote for Unstoppable,” Nila said.

“You should call yourself Death Star!” Veronica cheered.

“We’ve been watching all the Star Wars, since Remy and the professor got that power generator prototype working,” Megan said.

“Alright, so that’s three votes for three different names, so not helpful,” Eron grinned.

“You should just pick the one you want,” Remy said.

“Yeah. You’ll be happier that way,” Cal said.

“Lame!” Nila, Tess, and Veronica echoed each other.

“Hmm… I guess I will… decide over my trip down south,” Eron said to groans all around the table. “What? I’ll use the name once we establish communications. It’s not like you won’t recognize my voice.”

“Cal, you’re next!” Nila punched his arm.

“Why me?”

“You’re the oldest.”

“I’ve got some for you.” There was a gleam in Eron’s eyes.

“Of course you do,” Cal sighed.

“Mind Punch, Mind Stab, Mind Crush, Mind K—”

“I’m sensing a theme here,” Nila said.

“What happened to disguising your powers?” Megan rolled her eyes.

“I can explain and it’s perfect,” Eron said. “The bad guys will be expecting you to come at them with mind powers, then… Bam! You hit them with your super strength. So, now their like, ‘Oh no, we were wrong about his mind powers’. That’s when you hit them with your mind.”

Cal shook his head.

“How about Mind Bullet?” Nila smiled.

“No to all of that nonsense,” Cal said flatly.

“Neuro or Neuromancer?” Eron raised a speculative eyebrow.

“That’s taken too,” Remy said.

“M.R.I.”

Cal turned his head toward Megan. It was a shock that she was willing contributing to Eron’s nonsensical stuff.

“It does brain scans, among other things,” Megan said. “That fits what you can do.”

“Yes,” Cal said. “I’m going to pass on that though.”

“Alright, then how about Honor?” Eron narrowed his eyes at Cal.

“A bit presumptuous,” Cal said.

“Hey! I basically pulled it from your second first name,” Eron shrugged.

Nila’s eyes brightened. “Oh yeah! I like it!”

“Really? What is it?” Megan looked confused.

Cal shook his head. “Thanks to my parents’ unique naming conventions. I had to deal with my classmates looking at me funny whenever the teacher did roll. Calmin Honorio Gerzan Cruces.”

“Whatever, I had it worse Remy Albano. I got called albino a bunch of times.”

“Kids are mean,” Tessa said.

“It was the teachers,” Remy sighed.

“You guys had it easy. Eron Eleon… kids called me ere—”

“Don’t say it!” Megan cut Eron off before shooting a pair of significant looks toward her two children.

“What’d they call you, Uncle Eron?” Veronica looked troubled.

“Oh… I just forgot.”

“That’s convenient,” Tessa said.

“Yes, yes it is… so, what do you think, Cal?”

Cal mulled it over for a few seconds. “Sure, why not. When I’m accused of being presumptuous then I can hit back with an ‘actually it’s my name’.”

“Remy’s next,” Nila said quickly.

“I wrote some ideas down,” Eron said. “But I think someone else wants to go first.” He gestured to Vanessa, who was waving her small hand as high and as vigorously as she could.

“What do you think daddy’s code name should be, sweetie?” Megan smiled at her daughter.

The sudden attention made the shy little girl smile sheepishly for a moment. “Magneto,” she said a small voice.

Tessa rolled her eyes and sighed all at once.

“But sweetie, he’s a bad guy,” Megan said.

“Nuh uh… Uncle Eron said it depends,” Veronica frowned. “And daddy has the same powers.”

“He said it’s cause of perspective that Magneto is morally gray and not a straight villain. Since he’s a holocaust survivor and he’s fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen again with the mutants,” Tessa said proudly.

Megan narrowed her eyes at Eron. “What are you teaching my children?”

“It’s true,” Eron said defensively. “The whole thing about the X-men is like an allegory of bigotry and racism.”

“Okay,” Remy cut in, “while you’re right that I have similar powers to Magneto, I can’t use it since it’s his name, sweetie.” He smiled at Veronica.

“Dad, you can be Magnetron!” Tessa said. “Or Magnetosphere,” she add hastily.

Remy kept the smile on his face. “A lot of magnet themed names.”

“I got it!” Eron snapped his fingers. “Sphere. You create and control magnetic fields. So, like spheres of magnetism. It ties into your powers, but doesn’t give it away.”

Veronica’s pout could have launched a thousand ships, filled with a thousand parents. “That’s okay, I guess.”

“It sounds fine,” Tessa rolled her eyes.

“Well, that’s a good enough endorsement for me.” Remy smiled at his girls.

“Nila,” Eron said with a wicked grin. “You will be Captain Kiwi!”

Nila’s glare could’ve melted ice.

“It’s perfect! You’ve got Captain America-like powers and you were born in New Zealand and what is New Zealand known for?”

“Nope.” Nila shook her head.

“Well you can’t be Captain China, since you aren’t actually from there.”

“I’m Chinese.”

“Technically… I mean ethnically,” Eron said.

“He’s got you there,” Cal said. “You’ve only been to China like once.”

“No I haven’t,” Nila said. “I’ve been to Hong Kong like six times.”

“Yeah, but that’s not really China,” Eron said.

“I thought they got it back from the British, like twenty years ago or something,” Remy said.

“Sure, but I bet the people of Hong Kong don’t see themselves as part of China,” Eron said.

“Then why can’t I be Captain America? I’m a dual citizen,” Nila said.

Cal patted her on the arm. “We can’t use well-known, trademarked names.”

“Okay, you don’t like that one,” Eron said. “Then how about The Curatorian?”

Nila’s gaze rivaled that of the Medusa. Sadly for Nila, she didn’t actually have a petrifying glare.

“The Curator of Pain? Curatorian?”

“No, nope,” Nila said flatly. “I’ll come up with my code name.”

Eron sighed. “Fine, fine. Megan, you’re next.”

Megan made it clear what she thought of the idea with a withering look.