It All Started In A McDonald's...

"What about ending with a J?" I mused aloud to Peter in the training room, hanging upside down on the balance beam, my hair dangling towards the floor.

"You mean like MJ?" Peter returned, frowning, looking up at me from where he was sitting, cross-legged on the floor, taking a break from lifting his weights.

"Not exactly," I shrugged, crossing my arms and letting them hang past my head. "Like a word, and then a J. Like... Jessie J."

"Surely you aren't going to make Jessie J your codename."

"Nah. Not really a Jessie J fan," I shrugged, and Peter sighed, which I ignored. "Maybe I could be a ninja? Ninja J? Nin-J? Nah, that's stupid." I flipped back up, still monologuing. "What words mean a similar thing? Um... bandit, but that makes me seem like a bad guy. Do you think it makes me sound like a bad guy, Peter?"

For this last bit, I swung back over the beam, and Peter looked up at me, unimpressed. "Jamie, are you going to give this a rest? You've been talking about this for half an hour now."

I dropped down onto the mat next to him, landing cross-legged in an admittedly clumsy way. I'd perfect it over time. "Peter, remember, I can't talk to MJ about this, and Loki's in that meeting. The usual people I rant to are unavailable, so you'll have to do." Peter rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, I bought my hands together and pretended to beg. "Pleeeease, Peter? I need your... um... creativity for superhero names."

I succeeded in making him laugh. "OK, that sounded sarcastic."

It was about four in the afternoon, and Peter and I had been left alone in the training centre to our own devices while the adult Avengers were in some kind of meeting. Everyone had been dragged along – even Loki and Barnes, who never went to meetings because of their so-called "untrustworthiness" – though, they had done reluctantly. No one would tell me and Peter what it was about, that's if they even knew. All I knew was the meeting was only meant to be half an hour, and so far it had been over double that.

Ever since, I'd been mulling over ideas for my codename. Earlier, I'd spoken to Rogers, and he'd agreed it would be a good idea for me to think of one sooner rather than later, and I'd spoken to Stark too, who said the same thing, since he was wanting to get my suit started soon, and I decided I wanted my superhero name on the back. Because of course I did.

I frowned thoughtfully at my friend, standing again and lifting myself up on the gymnast rings, immediately losing my balance, so I just put my arms through and hung there for a bit. "OK, but even you can surely admit Spider-Man isn't especially creative. Iconic, yes. But creative?"

"Like you said, it's iconic, why would it need to be creative?" Peter countered, ushering me away from the rings so he could show off.

"Hm," I hummed to myself, swinging my legs over the vault. "Well, there's a lot of birds with Jay in the name. Maybe I could name myself after a bird."

"You can't fly."

"I know, and I don't care. Birds are cool," I shrugged, thinking. "So, what is there? Blue jay, green jay..." I gasped, and Peter looked at me with urgency, and he seemed pretty surprised by the giant smile on my face. "I could be the Mockingjay."

Peter frowned, crushing my split-second hope. "I'm pretty sure that name is copyrighted."

"Damn," I sighed. I was really getting somewhere then. "It doesn't sound stupid, though, right? If I named myself after a bird?"

"You're asking the guy who's named after an arachnid."

"There is that," I noted. Well, colour seemed like a good option here. I considered purple, or variations of purple, after my hair, before I realised no one would be able to see my hair because of the hood. Green? No, no one would be looking so close as to be able to see the colour of my eyes. Blue wouldn't make any sense. My suit was going to be a dark grey, but Grey Jay sounded weird. I don't like rhymes. Also didn't sound cool enough. What colour was dark grey similar too that I could get away with? "Hey, you think I could get away with Black Jay?"