A/N: Okay, so this is more like nine little stories but they all link so I've published them together.


Names

Up had a real name, once. It was long and bothersome and he had hated it. He had hated it so much that now he couldn't remember any more than the first letter, 'J'. The last person to ever call him it had been his mother. Another reason he hated it. It reminded him of the life he had lost that day. It was much easier to try to forget about the old name. Just create a new life, along with a new name. 'Up'. Simple. Easy to spell. A goal.

Tootsie was constantly changing his name. It was the downside of Farm Planet tradition. Over the course of his childhood he had changed his name so often that he had learnt to just look up whenever anyone spoke, just in case they were addressing him.

Junior quite liked his first name. But his last name, Space-Claw? He would never forgive his father for that. It was really quite witty at first when the press invented the absurd play on his real last name, Smyth-Claw. But to legally change it! No. Junior would defiantly never forgive him.

Bug was given his name by his best friend who he, in turn, had named Roach. On Bug Planet no-one has time to name every newborn bug. You usually have to pick your own. It was unusual to have someone choose it for you. Most bugs are too busy working for the good of the hive to form a friendship like Bugs and Roaches.

Taz hated her full name. It was fancy and girly and flowery. Everything she wasn't. Since the age of five she had refused to answer to it, much to her Mamas dismay. Taz, she felt, sounded much more like her. Short. Tough. Easy to spell.

Specs had hated her nickname in high school, where it was yelled across the classroom at her. Insults usually followed by balled up paper or spit balls. When she got to the League things changed. Here the name 'Specs' was a term of endearment used by those closest to her, rather than an insult.

February loved her name. Her only problem was that people just didn't understand that she was February the person, not the month. Honestly! Some people could be so silly!

Krayonder hadn't been called by his first name since he joined high school. At his school the teachers had the old fashioned habit of addressing students by surname when they were in trouble. Krayonder was always getting in trouble, a truth that had continued into the Academy and beyond.

Megagirl didn't really understand the concept of 'names'. Humans were very confusing on that matter. There were people like Taz who shortened their full names. Ones like 'Specs' whose chosen name was more of a description. Then there was her husband, who changed his name at the drop of a hat. Megagirl much preferred her own twelve digit reference number that defined her from the other Megagirl units.