The Other Eight, page 22
“I know, I know. At ease, all of you,” said the general. “You sorry lot have been raising my blood pressure ever since I first read your names. I genuinely hoped we would never have to meet face-to-face again. To be perfectly frank, with the possible exception of Mr. Logan here, I never would have allowed any of you anywhere near a military force under my command, super or otherwise. I overheard you asking about your ‘scores’ just now. Well, in my army we don’t hand out report cards, but if you were after a skills assessment, here it is. None of you are what I would call ideal soldiers. There are severe deportment problems almost across the board. Most of you are seemingly unwilling to follow military orders, but are more than willing to fall in line for an idiotic plan of your own devising. For most of the testing period I had serious doubts about your dedication and motivation. Some of you are too old, some too young. Some of you fail pitifully at meeting our minimum physical requirements.”
As he counted off the faults, the general mood in the room plummeted.
“That said, and to my great surprise, you function phenomenally as a unit. I saw inventive use of limited resources. I saw ingenious application of strategic thinking. I saw tremendous initiative. And when the real heat was on, I saw unquestionable dedication to the task at hand. Your performance in the war game spoke for itself. Beyond that you did a service to your country by uncovering what Major St. John was up to, and a tremendous service to me personally by giving me a valid reason to put him behind bars for the rest of his life and thus get him out of my hair.
“Unfortunately, though his methods were deplorable and his motivation insane, in a way he nonetheless succeeded at his goal. He’s illustrated that there are super villains out there. And while a power might be called laughably weak by some, in the hands of the wrong people that same power could be called subtle and insidious. His point was valid. We do need real superheroes. I don’t know what sort of demented plan he had in mind for creating his own, but in my mind you create a super-soldier in the same way that you create a standard one: by starting with good men and women and giving them the skills they need to be great.
“And I see some good men and women here. It is the reluctant decision of myself and the rest of the command structure that Project Guardian shall be maintained and expanded. With the temporary exception of those of you who will have to take a hiatus until you reach the legal age of enlistment, there is a place for each of you if you wish to remain with the project. Welcome to the Department of Defense.”
The room erupted into cheers. General Siegel handed a thick envelope to Summers and excused himself from the room as handshakes and hugs were shared between the private and various members of the team.
“Up here! Up here, buddy! Come on!” Gracias proclaimed, hands high for the endlessly sought high five from his partner in green.
“Fine,” Chloroplast said, slapping hands. “Go Team Green.”
“Damn right!” Gracias said.
“And what about you?” Nonsensica asked, pulling Non Sequitur aside. “You still think you want to do this? Ready to take the plunge and don the white hat?”
Non Sequitur looked up from his phone into her goggle-clad eyes. There was vulnerability in them now, and no attempt to hide it. Her pride would never allow her to even whisper the word “stay,” but her eyes screamed it. He looked back to his phone. The little red 1 next to the saved messages icon stared back. He smiled, opening the mailbox and tapping delete.
“You don’t break up a winning team.”
“It’s about time you figured that out,” she said, throwing her arms around him and kissing him firmly on the cheek. When she was through, and his face was comically smudged with black lipstick, she threw an arm around his neck and walked him toward the rest of the group, “Now all we need to do is find you a uniform. I’m thinking red and white. Something with a clock motif…”
“Okay, okay, listen up everyone,” Summers announced, calling the room to order as she held the contents of the envelope before her. “You’ll have three weeks off while an ‘appropriately appointed’ training ground can be constructed to fully explore your powers and capabilities. Following the successful completion of your training, you will be put into active duty and begin receiving assignments according to your capabilities. And it says here that you get to choose your own unit name.”
“Oh, oh! Let’s be the Super Commandos!” Gracias said.
“I vote Special Executives,” said Nonsensica.
“I don’t know,” Phosphor said. “The way I figure it, it doesn’t matter what we call ourselves. To the rest of the world we’ll be what we’ve always been.”
“Oh yeah? Then who are we?” Nonsensica asked.
“The Other Eight.”
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From The Author
Thank you for reading my first ever National Novel Writing Month success! The Other Eight started life as a silly little game my friends and family would play, in which we would attempt to imagine the most useless powers possible. Once I decided to do a NaNoWriMo project, I thought fleshing out the character that each of these heroes might be was a good focus. I hope you liked the result. If you enjoyed the story, or if you felt it could use some work, please feel free to contact me through any of the methods listed in the next section. I’m always happy to get feedback, and I do my best to answer any messages I get from my readers. Thanks for reading!
Discover other titles by Joseph R. Lallo:
The Book of Deacon Trilogy:
Book 1: The Book of Deacon
Book 2: The Great Convergence
Book 3: The Battle of Verril
Other stories in the Book of Deacon setting:
Jade
The Rise of the Red Shadow
Science Fiction Titles:
Bypass Gemini
Unstable Prototypes
Connect with Joseph R. Lallo
Website: http://www.bookofdeacon.com
Twitter: @jrlallo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-of-Deacon/239647549418500
Tumblr: http://jrlallo.tumblr.com/
Joseph R. Lallo, The Other Eight
