Surprisingly, Hex was the one to take first crack at it, raising his gloved hand into the air.

Starline nodded to him. “Yes, Hex?”

“Um.. How about ‘Misfits?’” The small purple rat suggested, dropping his arm and dangling it with his other one over the back of the rolling chair he was occupying. “You know, because we’re all kind of a band of misfits working together?”

“That would make sense,” Rivet agreed, pointing to herself, then to her brother who was lounging next to her on the couch. “I mean, Charge and I grew up in an isolated village without any technology—“ She then pointed across the circle to Cello. “Cello’s a hardcore chemist in a family of strict miners, Starline does multiple fields of study, Hex is a kid genius who could probably outcode the sun if he wanted to, and Lug—“

The lavender cat paused, as if suddenly realizing the bulldog didn’t really have anything noteworthy about himself to speak of. “…Well, Lug is Lug!”

Starline sighed as he crossed his arms, rubbing the bridge of his bill. Not… off to a great start.. “We are not going with Misfits,” he stated firmly. “A team name is supposed to inspire confidence, not make us sound as if we have no idea what we’re doing.” He shook his head haughtily.

“Well, how about ‘Intellects’ then?” Cello suggested next, her deadpanned expression unwavering as she adjusted her round, large framed glasses. “To show that we’re the opposite?”

“That’s too obvious though,” Charge pointed out, draping his arms across the couch’s back. His yellow ears flicked to the side. “And.. it kinda makes us sound like a bunch of know-it-alls. Not really a good look.”

The firefly crossed her arms and grumpily glowered over at the goofball of the group. “Well then, do YOU have any better ideas?” Cello pointedly asked him.

Charge debated for a moment, sticking his tongue out and closing one eye as he looked to the ceiling. His ears cocked with the movement, before he resumed his normal expression. “…How about ‘The Hex Squad’? Y’know, cuz there’s six of us—a hex bolt has six points—and we’re working on constructing robots and such?”

“I’ll confess that is a clever... utilization of that word…” Starline started, slightly impressed he had come up with that on the fly. “But I think the problem with that one should be fairly obvious.”

“Oh?” Charge blinked cluelessly.

Hex cleared his throat as he rose his hand again.

“…Oh, right—“ The cat chuckled after a moment, scratching sheepishly at his face. “Guess we shouldn’t use the name of one of our teammates, huh?”

“I mean, it’s not that I wouldn’t mind my nickname being part of the team name,” Hex started, rubbing the back of his visor-clad head. “Honestly I’d be kind of flattered really… But if we go with that, then everyone might think I’m the leader.” He shuddered in cold fear. “And I don’t think I could deal with the stress of that…”

“Yeah, you have a point there,” Charge agreed before sliding further down the couch, hiding his mouth in the crook of his scarf. “I just thought it might sound cool.”

The cat then blinked and side glanced at Rivet. “How about you, sis? You’re good at coming up with names. Got anything cooking in that nogin of yours?”

“Mmm.. sorry to say it, but no, not really,“ Rivet sighed in frustration as she crossed her arms. “Most of the ones I thought of were already taken by the other groups early on. And it’s kind of hard to encompass so many people with so many different talents under one name.” She shifted her weight and frowned. “Honestly, the best I’ve got at this moment would be something like ‘Team Vision’ or ‘Team Innovation’.”

The group grumbled and collectively deflated with a sigh.

“I mean, yeah, I guess those would technically work, but they are pretty bland and generic…” Hex stated with a weak chuckle.

“Which is precisely why I didn’t bring them up...”

Starline rubbed his face as each of their ideas came up short. This was shaping up to be a bigger disappointment than the platypus had originally hoped. After all their insistance to be involved and work as a team, he had hoped they might be able to surprise him a bit and prove they were deserving of the voice he was giving to them. But so far, things were playing out just the way he thought they would.

The platypus huffed a bit, deciding it best to take control again. “Well then… unless you all can come up with something respectably appropriate by this evening, then I’m afraid we’ll have no choice but to fall back on the name that I chose earlier.”

“Oh please no,” Hex groaned, putting his face into his hands. “Not that one.”

“Yeah, I’m not exactly thrilled about being called ‘Dr. Starline and his Minions’ either,” Rivet admitted with a frown.

Starline scoffed and stuck his bill in the air. “It is a perfectly acceptable name!”

“Yeah, for you maybe!!” Cello ground her teeth together like a dog ready to chomp on his head. “I don’t much appreciate being called a ‘minion’. And if Hex can’t have his name be part of the team one, then why can you? Like? Ego much?”

Starline blanched and glowered over at the firefly. “We’ve been over this already, Cello!” He argued, clenching a fist in annoyance. “I can do whatever I please because I AM the leader!”

As the two began to bicker back and forth, Rivet chuckled weakly to herself. “Well, there they go again...”

“Honestly…” Charge grumbled in agreement. “The Doc does have a point though. None of our ideas are really working, and we’re almost out of time.”

“If only we hadn’t spent so much time fighting this last week…” Rivet sighed as she rubbed the back of her head.

Hex made a thoughtful noise, then glanced over to the bulldog sitting wide stanced in the couch chair besides him, twiddling his big gloved thumbs. “…Lug? What about you? You’ve been pretty quiet this whole time. Do you have any ideas?”

“Huh?” Lug glanced over at his best friend, before shrugging his shoulders at being addressed. “Oh, well, I mean—I do have one, but it’s probably not that good.”

“Aha—dear boy, I don’t think it can be any worse than anything we’ve heard already,” Starline scoffed, breaking off from listening to Cello’s flaming remarks and earning a dirty look from her and the others in the process.

Lug debated that silently for a moment, then his ears perked as he decided to just shoot his shot. “Well then, how about… ‘Starpoint’?”

The air of the group suddenly shifted as tensions dropped and everyone looked to him with complete confusion.

“‘Starpoint’?” Rivet echoed, tilting her head a bit in bewilderment.

“Yeah!” The bulldog looked around at the collective group. “I mean— we are all here to prove something, right? To show that… we’re something more than what they say we are?”

Hex and Starline’s eyes widened.

“That we can be better versions of ourselves, and make a real difference?”

Rivet and Cello exchanged a thoughtful glance.

‘We’re gonna ‘reach for the stars’? Fulfill our goals and all that stuff?”

Charge grinned as he let out a impressed little laugh.

Lug held out his hands like he had just told the punchline to a joke and was awaiting the audience’s response. “Ehh? Makes sense, right?”

“Starpoint..” Starline murmured thoughtfully, putting a hand to his bill in earnest contemplation as the platypus suddenly found himself genuinely surprised by the depth and insightfulness of that name.

How shocking for it to be coming from their arguably dumbest member as well.

“It does have a nice ring to it,” Rivet spoke up after a moment of thinking as well.

“Not too haughty or degrading…” Cello added as she also put a hand on her chin. “It fits our group dynamics pretty well too...”

“And it sounds rad as heck!” Charge barked out excitedly, grinning ear to ear. “Ha ha! I think it’s perfect!”

“Yeah?” Lug sat up straighter as his grin grew even wider. Almost like he didn’t expect them to like it.

“Yes..” Starline wagged a finger through the air as he weighed this new option, before glancing across to Lug with a rather impressed grin. “I do believe you might be onto something there, Lug. Well done!” A genuine compliment he did not expect to be giving.

“So, if sour face over there is behind it too, does this mean we’re going with it, or not?” Cello asked, ignoring Starline’s sharp, withering glare as her eyes darting from person to person, trying to judge the vibe of the room.

“Why not?” Rivet asked, shifting her weight to the other side. “I like it!”

“Let’s do it!” Charge agreed. “Beats the other option by a mile anyways!”

Starline grumbled, feeling his pride take two severe hits, like a flaming arrow to the heart. But the self proclaimed doctor quickly moved past it and cleared his throat to give an approving nod as well, despite his disbelief that he was doing so. “I suppose it does encapsulate our shared goals quite well... and if everyone’s in agreement with it, then I see no problem with us being the ‘Starpoint Team’.”

“SQUAD!” Hex suddenly exclaimed, raising his little hand again excitedly. “Let’s be the ‘Starpoint Squad’ like how Charge suggested instead!!” He practically leapt up onto his seat cushion with stars glowing in his eyes. “I just realized if we do that, then we’ll be JUST like my favorite heroes from Mega Battle Robots VII! A team of powerful warriors using their combined skills to protect the world and make it a better place!”

“Ahah..” Starline hesitated, feeling a dip of reluctant to let that change slip through. He had already approved of Lug’s idea. Not to mention ‘Team’ sounded much more put together and professional than ‘Squad’ did. “Hex… we aren’t in a video game—“ he started to say. But the kid was too eager to let him finish.

“Awwww please???” Hex put his hands together and gave the platypus his best puppy dog look.

Lug was immediately ready to back his best friend up, giving a big ole, sad frown as he pushed to the rat’s side as if to showcase him like a car salesman. “Aww, I know you’re a big grump an’ all, Starline, but you wouldn’t say no to a face like this, ✨ would you? ✨”

“Yes, I would,” Starline said without skipping a beat, and Lug bristled like a cat being thrown into water. “WOW—SO COLD!!”

Charge laughed at their back and forth before leaning forward on his knees to glance over at Starline. “Aw, come on Doc, let the kid have his fun. You know it won’t hurt anything in the long run.”

Starline grumbled beneath his breath, suddenly feeling very bullied from all sides. Hex certainly wasn’t going to let this go, was he? And was it really worth his time and effort to argue with them on this? Especially when they were already so far behind schedule as is?

“Don’t lose sight of your goal. You’re doing this to gain Eggman’s attention…” he begrudgingly reminded himself, pressing a hand to his well-maintained bangs.

The platypus finally sighed loudly and waved a hand through the air with a dramatic reluctance as he conceeded. “…Very well, fine! If you so insist, ‘Starpoint Squad’ it is.”

“YIPPEE!!” Hex exclaimed excitedly as he quite literally jumped out of his seat in joy, and Starline couldn’t help but huff a bit and shake his head.

“See? I knew it,” Rivet’s voice caused him to look up again, just in time to see the rider smirk as she lightly punched him in the arm. “You do have a heart in there.”

Scoffing, Starline rolled his eyes as he straightened his blazer. “It has nothing to do with having a heart,” he stated as he watched Lug hoist the excited, giggling rat into the air and spin him around. “Charge is right. At the end of the day, the work we complete will be ultimately what matters.”

“Mmm.. sure, okay. Whatever you say, Doc.” Rivet hummed thoughtful. She didn’t sound like she believed a word of it.

“It’s simply strategy,” Starline thought to himself, dismissing her words. “Nothing more.”

Still… watching the laughing Hex, he did have to admit.. The boy’s energy over such a small thing was contagious.

The platypus smiled. Just a little bit.

Charge is special to me because, like Rivet, he was an OC I made back when I first got into Sonic via Sonic X and Unleashed. His and Rivet’s story was always dear to my heart, and coming back to it after getting into the comics over a decade and a half later, was exciting. I wanted to see how I could work them into the IDW universe and make their story better.

…Thennnn I caught up to present IDW and met a certain tenrec.. Aaaaand Charge immediately became the bane of my existence. XD (Mainly because of the complications he makes due to multiple similarities with that line of IDW’s storyline specifically.)

I wrestled with a solution for weeks, but sadly, I couldn’t bring myself to change his powers much since they’re important to his personal story. I think I’ve managed to adjust things just enough that it’ll be a good enough compromise? But if not—then, heck. Oh well! I tried! ʅ(◞‿◟)ʃ