Skies above Brockton Bay Downtown District; March 17 2008 5:40 PM

Kotoro asked Epistēmē to connect his communicator to the most optimal method to report the encounter and its outcome. Epistēmē knew he could connect to the console system the protectorate and wards used when out on patrol, but hadn't been given authorized access to it and didn't want to upset the chain of command by showing how easily he could penetrate their security. Instead he used a telephony protocol to connect Kotoro to an call-in center and tip line intended for PRT employees and police officers. The wards didn't usually use it, as they ordinarily had access to a different comms system which had a faster response, but it would serve.

"PRT report line operator, to whom am I speaking?" said a voice once the call connected.

"New ward calling, not select cape name yet. Can check Director Piggot if system not notified of me. Did power test other day." Kotoro said.

"We've been made aware of you. I see you've got an appointment with Image today. Given the fighting in the streets, did you want to reschedule?" the operator asked.

"It is fine. I arrive soon. Need report encounter with Empire thugs and capes. Not want PRT discover event from news or social media." Kotoro answered.

"Are you safe? I'll see if I can arrange a debriefing with the Director or a protectorate cape. Can you tell me what happened so I can give them a brief rundown?" asked the operator.

With Epistēmē's help, Kotoro related the highlights of what occurred.

"I'm glad you called this in. I think I know the location you're describing. I'm going to place a high priority alert for a PRT squad and any available Protectorate capes to check the area to see if they're still around. Its almost sure to end up on PHO within hours if not minutes. Certainly by the end of the day."

"Thank. Please tell staff I arrive." Kotoro said, and terminated the connection as he landed in front of a guarded staff entrance he had been informed of at the rear of the building. The guard used some kind of tinkertech device to do a biometric scan, identifying Kotoro, and allowed him through. Epistēmē used a map of the office building to guide Kotoro to the Conference room assigned to his meeting with Image staff.

PRT ENE HQ 8th floor; High Security Conference Room; March 17 2008 5:45 PM

Kotoro entered the conference room to find a somewhat obese man wearing clothing that appeared deliberately slovenly. He had an odd hair style. The sides were bald or short, and most of the rest was being held up in the center. It was like an odd fusion of a regent pompadour and mohawk. He wore eyeglasses that were fully rectangular and had brightly colored frames and tinted lenses, also brightly colored. Despite the look appearing to be uncontrolled, it appeared that he was doing it on purpose, though to what end Kotoro could not fathom. After allowing his sight to rest on the man for a while, Kotoro noticed there was also another person in the room that he had not yet met. This woman was extremely well dressed, and appeared to both care about their image AND want to project a very professional appearance.

The obese man took his feet off the table and stood to greet Kotoro. "Given that tail, you must be Kotoro. I'm Glenn Chambers, head of the PRT Image division. Nice to meet you young man. I expect great things from you." he reached out to shake Kotoro's hand.

The woman also stood now and introduced herself. "I'm Diana Gallo, the PRT East Northeast Image consultant. Ordinarily I'd be your primary contact, but since Glenn is here I'll mostly be observing, although I will participate in any designs or discussions where my input is wanted.".

"Mr. Chambers, Isn't your office in New York City?" asked Epistēmē.

"Call me Glenn if you would. Indeed it is! When I read the boy's file, I took a personal interest in his case. I can tell he's going to command the attention and scrutiny of the public once he really starts applying himself. We need to make sure to craft an image that supports his career and doesn't predispose the people to mistrust him. As such I felt a personal touch was in order, and its never quite the same to hold these meetings through a teleconference. Its not that bad of a drive really. I am somewhat glad that I arrived yesterday though. The city's turned into a madhouse." Glenn said.

"We know. Kotoro ran into some Empire thugs and several capes in a situation that required intervention on the way here. A group of civilians were caught between them and some ABB thugs outside of a medical facility. We reported the situation while we were on the way here. Its possible that Piggot or a protectorate cape may come to collect us for a more formal debriefing or report later."

"Lets get started then. Do you have any themes in mind for your brand, perhaps any names? Your current outfit is ... exotic? I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before."

Epistēmē pulled a copy of Glenn's personnel file. Glenn had high clearance since he was privy to the cape IDs of every ward and protectorate cape. While he was cleared to know if a cape was FROM an alternate world, he did NOT have the clearance required to view detailed information about alternate earths or universes. This meant that he would be aware of some of Kotoro's data, but not everything. He would know that Kotoro was from an alternate universe, but the information regarding him being an alien was classified beyond his reach.

"The outfit Kotoro is wearing uses modern armor technology applied with a more traditional look derived from older style armors from his father's culture. I suppose from this Earth's point of view that does make it exotic. The cultural divergence between our worlds is much larger than what you're accustomed to with Earths aleph and bet. It would be analogous to building a set of tinker-tech armor that resembled the armor of a Samurai, Hoplite, or Legionnaire, except in our case the tech isn't power derived. It is reproducible, albeit a bit beyond your world's current level of engineering and scientific discovery." Epistēmē supplied, answering as accurately as he could without revealing too much.

"Well, as far as the aesthetic goes, I like it, even though its a bit intimidating. I suppose that is the point though. We might be able to use it as a base for other designs. We don't really want you to look like you're going to war. The youth guard would shit bricks. We can revisit a return to a look similar to this one when you age out of the wards. If you can share methods for producing your armor technology I'm sure we can have our tinkers and thinkers apply themselves and work something out. It would probably be of great benefit to the rank and file PRT squads as well as the heroes. We'll see if we can use it in whatever costume we come up with for you." Glenn said.

"The power testers noted that you were deliberately holding back so as not to thoroughly destroy the power testing equipment due to the more advanced brute testing facilities not being immediately available. Despite that, damage still occurred in some cases, and several test dummies were lost or totaled. Just how much WERE you holding back if I may ask?"

"Enough. Full power would be dangerous to the facility and surrounding structures." Kotoro admitted, without specifying quite how dangerous it would actually be.

Epistēmē called up a set of files and transmitted them to Glenn's tablet. "I'm sharing some notes I pieced together using data I acquired during my initial tours of the internet in my efforts to learn your world's cultures and languages. We could go with a non-english name derived from things related to apes and monkeys, either the direct translation of those terms in the other language, or some cultural or mythological entity that is somehow related to the concept. Alternately, we could base it around an armor concept styled after something from this world. There is a curious phonetic similarity with a Roman solider category called a "Centurion" with the name of the culture Kotoro's mother is from, but Legionaire and Hoplite as names or influences to the armor designs might work, or perhaps even a gladiator.


Cultural Armor themes:

Roman: Centurion, Legionaire, Gladiator

Sparta: Hoplite

Japanese: Samurai, Ninja

European: Either historical, with accurate depiction, or a folklore style "knight in shining armor" look.

"Ape" or "Monkey" in other languages:

Malpa (Polish)

Bandara (Punjabi)

Pithicos or Maimo (Greek)

Menschenaffe (German)

Deities or Bestiary of folklore/magical creatures:

Satyrus, Callitrix, Cericopithicus (different names for same mythological ape creature)

Hanuman (Hindu deity)

Sarugami (Youkai monkey)

Vanara (Hindu character)


Glenn printed out a copy and began making notes on it. "Given you're not a tinker, I think we should steer away from heavy armor themes. You mentioned martial artistry and melee combat as your preference, so something easier to move around in would be a better idea. The gladiator style would do that, but I think we'd greatly upset the youth guard with that, and it doesn't quite speak to the martial artistry. They were more about weapons and wrestling. The helmet would probably get in the way too what with the ornamental crests."

Glenn continued to comment as he looked through the list and did quick searches into each thing and associated ideas. " With the local Nazi contingent, the German name should be avoided. I don't care if it upsets them, but its just bad optics. Maybe we could do something with Pithicos or Bandara. Vanara doesn't sound all that interesting or striking as a name, even though the creatures are interesting. I like the look of the mythological creature, but those names don't work very well. Satyrus sounds like a satyr, people will be mentally associating it with the goat legged things. Cericopithicus is too hard for most people to read. I do personally like Callitrix, but it sounds a bit villainous to English accustomed ears. People might find naming yourself after a literal god offensive or at least arrogant, so we'll avoid that one."

Glenn and Diana then went to work, churning out quick sketches of possible themes and designs to go with the names that hadn't been rejected outright. Everything they came up with for Pithicos ended up being inspired by clothing styles from ancient-Greece, although decidedly non-warrior derived. After several iterations they decided that one just didn't work well. People would end up thinking of Heracles as the primary association. While not a bad association, it wasn't really what they were going for. Everything inspired by Bandara seemed like it could be interpreted as racist, given Kotoro wasn't from the region and didn't share any physical traits with the native population, and they couldn't really come up with anything for Malpa beyond generic ape masks and costumes that looked like they'd fit in at a furry convention.

Going back to Sarugami, Glenn did some further searches. "This one. This has all sorts of earth Aleph animated shows and video game characters associated with it and a large number of their depictions in fiction are associated with martial arts in some way. With the local ABB gang there is a slight risk of image contamination, but they're not quite as toxic by association as the Empire. There have been plenty of virtuous capes with Asian themes and names. Not quite so many in the US with heavy Germanic names. It looks like they've morphed over the years. They started out as over-sized baboons who behaved like dangerous monsters, but some of these modern depictions look like they could be your cousin. Most are still a bit more primal looking than you are, but I think it fits well. Hey, maybe if we gave your armor a layer that looked like fur. It might look too weird that way, but its worth trying. We can always discard it later. We'll do some work-ups."

It took another hour of designing and negotiating, but eventually they whittled the choices down to a tight-fit body armor under an Asian style martial arts outfit with arm and leg wrappings similar to what Muay-Thai fighters might wear, and another look that more resembled what the traditional youkai-baboon Sarugami were depicted wearing.

"I can't decide which I like more. The one based on the old youkai legends has potential, but the martial artist one with a furry look is very appealing too" Glenn said.

Kotoro couldn't decide either. He liked the fact that the youkai theme would be built into something resembling standard battle armor, but he also liked the streamlined look of the martial arts outfit. He wasn't really thrilled with the heavier animal theme of that costume, but both costumes had strong animal themes regardless. Boy wouldn't they be surprised when they finally discovered what would happen with the full moon! It seemed fitting at any rate, even if a bit on the nose. He had nothing to add so he nodded.

"I'll run these by Piggot and some higher level PRT staff and protectorate capes to get some other impressions. The more heavily armored design would probably be better for any end-bringer battles or encounters with capes with high threat ratings. Given your power testing results, those seem likely to be in your future, but you're also a high level brute, and the armor would probably be superfluous after a point. Just to be clear, I don't actually need their approval to make a decision about branding, and ordinarily I wouldn't even ask their opinion, but I really can't decide which I like more." Glenn said.

[author's note for clarity: Choice #1 resembles something I saw on Newgrounds. A character in an image titled "Yokai Fighter- Yu Yu the Sarugami" by Cee-Haz. Similar to that, with cosplay-quality fur and animal mask additions to the costume to accentuate the look. Choice #2 would resemble Sinister Simian from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3, but with a more serious and less campy implementation. It would be a bit less bulky and would not have the "furry" aspects such as the hairy neck, hands, and feet and the weird white dreadlock hair things. The mask would be styled after a baboon's face though. It would be built into a Dragon Ball Universe battle armor but with a distinctly Japanese theme based directly on how the original youkai were drawn.]

PRT ENE HQ Director's Office; March 17 2008 7:15 PM

Director Piggot was having a very bad day. This godforsaken powder keg of a city had once again started exploding, and this time without warning or any obvious incipient cause. There had been no obvious recent power imbalances or altercations. There had been a slow build up in tensions between the Empire and ABB for a number of years now, and a group of Drug dealers run by capes had moved in and taken over the more run down areas around the docks. She'd also heard whispers and rumors of a villain by the name of Coil, but nobody seemed to know where he was or what he was up to. Thinkers and precogs acknowledged his existence, but couldn't supply much more than that. His powers seemed to interfere with theirs somehow.

Circumstances had thrown her bit of a bone, though it came with steep downsides. Instead of rescheduling his appointment with Image, like a sensible person would have done, the new ward had forged directly through the conflict ridden streets to attend his meeting and had saved some people from the gangs, scoring a decisive win against some Empire capes, allowing the civilians to escape, and then leaving the scene without getting hurt or killing anybody.

On the other hand he hadn't been introduced yet, but they could still use this for PR points when he eventually was introduced. In the meantime, the PRT could foster public anticipation of the new cape on social media and PHO and participating in the 24 hour news cycle with commentators directed to discuss the situation without releasing the whole truth. It made the Empire look like chumps though. Hookwolf was literally taken apart. She sincerely hoped someone got that part on video. Kaiser would hate that, and the networks would quite likely run it on the news for the next several days. Come to think of it, if Kotoro was there, at least one or two of his AI's remote piloted drones would likely have seen the whole thing. Excellent. They would be requesting that footage as part of official documentation of the incident, but they could certainly put it to other uses as well.

It was almost certain that people from the crowd had also either captured photo or video of the event, or at the very least would share their account of it within the next several hours. On the other hand, the youth guard was going to be furious, despite Kotoro's high brute rating meaning he wasn't really in danger here. They didn't like it when the wards fought the gangs, and since Kotoro technically wasn't cleared for duties, having not completed his on-boarding and training, not been introduced to the public, etc. he was technically violating several rules, even though he made the right call from a tactics point of view. If things had gone differently, they might be cleaning bits of those Empire capes off of the street right now.

The office intercom beeped and security staff informed Emily that Kotoro had just completed his meeting and had been summoned to her office. Apparently Glenn Chambers had decided to accompany him as he wanted to ask Emily something. Ugh, she didn't really have time for Image's concerns right now, but she supposed she could put up with him for the ward's sake.

Glenn and Kotoro arrived shortly thereafter. "Hello Emily, always a pleasure. I have something I'd like to run past you before you get into the meat of your debriefing. We've selected a name for Kotoro's cape persona and came up with two possible themes and costumes for the branding. I'm in the unusual circumstance of being indecisive. I figure it wouldn't hurt to get another opinion. I'll be running this by some of the local protectorate capes as well when the situation outside is resolved. Until then I may see if I can ask some of the other capes or Image departments in cities that aren't dealing with a crisis."

Emily groaned internally, but didn't let it show on her face. She couldn't deny Image did a very good job managing PR and branding, but the costumes and behavioral directives so often went directly against the wishes and personalities of the wards, sometimes to the point of absurdity or even diminishing their usefulness. She looked through the materials, wincing a bit at the costumes. "I don't have much of an opinion as to my own taste, but that armored one is so distinctly Japanese that it might end up upsetting Lung and Oni-Lee. They may take it as some form of insult or challenge. Otherwise I have no strong preference. Please let me know when this is finalized, but until then I've got this basket case of a city to deal with."

Glenn nodded and quickly left the room. Turning her attentions to Kotoro, Emily asked "Did you really think we expected you to show up with whats going on outside right now?" Immediately thinking better of her comment, she put her face in her hands. "Don't answer that, obviously it didn't occur to you, you've lived among high level brutes your entire life." She switched topics for a moment, addressing the costume designs without Glenn in the room. "Does it bother you that Image is trying to get you to dress up like a monkey? If it offends you in any way, we can probably appeal on those grounds for a modification to the design." Piggot said.

"I would like to try it first. See how it look. I have tail after all. Most cape costume look ridiculous anyway. Shameless. silly. Might as well do same." and he thought to himself, I actually DO look something like that as an oozaru, albeit much bigger and brawnier.

[Author's note, Reminder: Kotoro left shortly after the arrival of King Cold, and doesn't even know Freeza exists. As such "monkey" had not yet come to be seen as an insult or a slur in quite the same way it became later on.]

She continued on her original topic, "Kaiser isn't going to like what you did to Hookwolf. I don't know how he'll respond. He doesn't know of your PRT association yet, so he may try to find you and go after you. They're usually hands off with the wards, but they play fast and loose with the unwritten rules when it suits them, especially for capes that aren't well known yet. If they can get away with murder, they'll do it. In your case however, I don't think they have anybody on the roster that can actually hurt you. Maybe Purity?"

"Victor concerns me. He may be able to learn KI control and steal my skills with it. I should not like to see what happens if I forget how to perform what little control over it I have right now. He wouldn't be a threat to ME, but that empowerment would be a serious problem for the city and your other wards and heroes would be at risk." said Kotoro said with Epistēmē's help translating.

Emily's brain halted for a second. "wait... learn KI? I'd almost forgotten you're not actually a parahuman. Are you telling me you can teach people how to do what you do?"

"Yes. maybe not as strong. Is impact by biology, fitness, experience, and training, but I not encounter any organic species not able use KI. Also, Humans so similar to Saiyajin and Centurion, should be possible." Kotoro said.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Emily said, silently adding Trump to Kotoro's power classification in her mind.

"Nobody ask. To me it obvious." Kotoro said with a shrug.

Emily was going to have WORDS with the staff in power testing about this. She sighed. "Fair enough. We'll be integrating that into your duties here at some point, but you'll have to clear the conditions for your introduction first. Can't have you training my men if they can't spar with you and survive the experience.

We'll come back to this topic later. Tell me what happened on your way in, don't leave out any details. In fact, let me bring the team scouting the site in on a teleconference for this. Do you have a recording of the altercation Epistēmē? If you do i'd like you to forward a copy to us for documentation purposes."

"Yes. I'm uploading it now." said Epistēmē.

While the file transfer processed, Emily called up the team at the site, which included two squads of PRT officers, Velocity, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia.

"We're securing the location right now. The ABB had vacated the area by the time we arrived. The Empire capes had just finished extracting HookWolf from the street. They managed to escape. We can see some damage to the parking lot. What can you tell us about what happened here?" said Armsmaster.

"I'm about to view footage of the entire thing. I'll be streaming it to your helmet visor as well through the teleconferencing system. " Direct Piggot explained.

They watched the footage in silence over the next several minutes. The director frowned when she saw that Kotoro was not immune to Cricket's abilities, but her eyes glinted and she smirked a bit when Kotoro ripped the smug Nazi's changer form apart. This particular cape had put a number of PRT officers and civilians in body bags. This footage was absolutely delicious. She would make sure the news networks got access.

"It was good for you to put on a mask and a costume for that." Armsmaster said. "There is a good chance this event will make headlines and be plastered all over the internet by tomorrow morning."

"That will be all Armsmaster, I just wanted to make sure you got to see that while you were still on site, so you and the PRT agents knew where to look to document the event and collect evidence." Emily said.

"Armsmaster out" he replied, hanging up the call.

"This brings me to why I called you in today, other than the debriefing itself. This might surprise you, but I don't LIKE paperwork. The more often you do this the more grief we'll be getting and the more paperwork I have to fill out. If you make my life harder I'm going to end up having to make yours harder too. We're probably going to receive pressure from the Youth Guard over this. I can push back a bit given the circumstances. There being an immediate threat to the lives of civilians and the fact that your decisions were tactically valid is in your favor. The problem is that you did technically break some procedural rules and expectations given your position in the on-boarding process. If it were up to me you'd hear nothing more of this, as I consider it to have been well handled, but it is possible that I may need to allow an imposition of consequences for political reasons. I'll try to make sure its something that will either be to your benefit, such as additional instructional sessions on PRT policy, or at least a slap on the wrist, such as another week or two of console duty in addition to what you'd be doing anyway. You'll likely hardly notice since your public introduction is going to be delayed. Please try to avoid doing this again if you don't have to, though. If it becomes a pattern we may have to be stricter than we would prefer."

"I'll notify you if anything further comes of this. I've already taken the liberty of informing your guardians that you will be staying in the wards barracks for the night. It would not do for me to send you back out there and compound the problem. I know it wouldn't be an issue for you, but I don't think the Youth Guard would accept that. You're dismissed for now. Get some rest." Piggot said.

Kotoro turned to leave and head to the wards common area. On the way out of the room, Epistēmē spoke up suddenly. "Director, one of my remote drones piloted by standard non-sentient adaptive AI has just pinged me to observe a scene. You'll want to see this and likely dispatch an ambulance or medical evac team."

He brought up a live feed on a holographic projection. There was a person wearing ABB colors pinned to a wall by bolts of some kind. He was bleeding quite a lot but the wounds didn't appear to be inherently incompatible with life. The blood loss was still concerning though.

"This is very close to where Armsmaster is deployed, so he might be able to search the site for evidence, and do some first aid." Epistēmē said, sending her the approximate street address. Emily immediately sent out an alert through her administrative systems to ensure the appropriate response teams would deal with it.

"Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Our people will take care of it from here. If you happen to see anything else of a similar nature, notify the operator on the comms channel I'm about to send you. I'll probably be too busy making and taking calls and coordinating the staff dealing with this mess to take direct action on every case, but I'll notify them to listen to treat you with priority should you contact them.." She replied to his email with the required access keys and IP address/protocol.