Collectively, the team shook their heads, so Caleb called for the vote.
“I’m not participating on this since I won’t ever be in the field. All in favor of individual uniforms with a team patch?”
Around the table, all of the hands went up, except for Strong and Caleb who wouldn’t be wearing hero gear, and Mike who wasn’t on the team yet.
“All right, that was easy.” Caleb hit a button on his laptop and the first item disappeared from the list. “Next. We have a team name. Arch City Guardians. I love it by the way.”
Sonica playfully flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Thank you. Glad you all liked my suggestion.”
“But we don’t have a symbol. We’ll need one designed before we can create the uniform patch. Blaze?”
“I’ll talk to Danny and see if he wants to do it.”
“Thanks.” Caleb typed a quick note onto his laptop before continuing. “And the big-ticket item. It’s time to appoint a team leader.” The holo screen changed to a list of all the ACG members.
“Isn’t the lieutenant our leader?” Stardust asked.
“I’m the director,” Strong answered. “Which means I’ll only be working behind the scenes. You need someone who can lead the team during missions out in the field. Someone who can make tough, on the spot decisions when necessary. You’ll also need someone who can speak as the team representative when the media shows up, or whenever you have to address a crowd.”
“Got it.” He turned his golden eyes from Strong to the man in the black hat. “Blaze, what about you? After Strong you have the most experience working as a superhero.”
The answer that came back was so swift that Blaze must have expected the question and already had his answer prepared in response.
“I’m on the team. I’m not looking to lead it.”
Caleb swiped his hand to the left and Blaze’s name disappeared from the screen. “Sonica? You’ve got crowd control experience. And social media loves you.”
The teleporter shook her head. “You can take my name off the list too. I’m happy with my role as emergency transport.”
Caleb swiped left again. Then Frost spoke up for the first time.
“I nominate Helios as the team leader.”
It was quiet for only a second before a chorus of assent went around the table.
“Makes sense.”
“Yeah, he’s my choice too.”
“Frost, you beat me to it.”
Again, Strong rapped his knuckles on the table to quiet the room. “I think that’s a great choice, but we need to make it official. Everyone text Caleb your vote in case someone wants to keep their choice private.”
The team pulled out their phones and started texting. Caleb’s phone immediately began chiming with incoming messages. He focused on the screen, checking each one as it came through. Once the phone stopped dinging, he set it down on the table. “Okay, Helios. Looks like you’re our fearless leader by unanimous decision.”
Helios stood. “Thank you,” he said with a warm smile. “I appreciate your confidence in me and I will do my best to be a leader you can all be proud of. But I can’t be everywhere at once. I’d like to nominate Bulldozer and Amina as co-second in command to take the lead when I’m not there.”
This time Strong called for the vote.
“All in favor?”
Again, all of the hands went up. Amina hid her face in her T-shirt for a moment. When she emerged, she expressed her thanks along with Bulldozer. Then the two of them high-fived each other.
“One final thing,” Caleb said. “Vehicles. Now obviously, some of you don’t have to worry about transportation.” He paused and looked at Mike. “Sonica can teleport and Ignite and Helios can fly.”
“Got it.”
Caleb turned back to the group at large. “Blaze has that souped up muscle car, but the rest of you will need something that isn’t registered to you. We don’t want anyone, villain or otherwise, getting your plates and using that information to find out who you are and where you live.”
