PRT meeting Febuary 2nd 2000
Jason Lee Director of Seatle
I felt frustration, I wanted that thing out of my city, out of a major american city. But then the Senate, and congress and the fucking governor said 'nope, he defected in your city, he stays in your city. Sorry, Mr. Lee.'
"So, he needs a name."
Sorry Mr. Lee, but we're going to let an Endbringer join the Protectorate.
"Judas?"
We all looked at Tagg, stared at him, Brown sighed.
"No names that remind people of traitors, public relations is going to be hard enough as is."
I looked at the horridly dressed man who nodded, Glen Chambers, some PR guy from LA.
"We have a list of names, Asclepius - Greek god of healing."
Brown nodded, deep in thought.
"That might work, he's already brought a bunch of our heroes back online. Other ideas?"
"Hephaestus - Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Vulcan - Roman equivalent of Hephestus. Imhotep - He is considered by some to be the earliest known architect, engineer, and physician in history. Vishvakarman - Hindu god of engineers, artisans and architects, and Prometheus, the titan that stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity."
She closed her eyes.
"We need something with pathos, power. Asclepius is good, but it doesn't really roll of the toungue, Hephaetus doesn't really fit and Vulcan is already taken, and Imhotep doesn't seem to fit, and Vishvarkarman is already being used by an indian cape, so India might be offended. Prometheus... it fits, any objections?"
The room was silent.
"Very well, his name is now Prometheus, so that brings us to the intelligence that we have on his siblings."
The mood of the room sank distinctly.
"There are 20 of them, most of which are still stuck in some kind of prison and they are trying to escape."
"Fuck."
That was Tagg, the enormity of our situation just hit us, just having 3 of them running around was driving us to the edge.
"This is why we have to accept his defection and let him into the Protectorate, we have all lost people, friends, family members, coworkers."
"Why are they doing this?"
Tagg was never one for subtlety.
"Entertainment."
A growing anger filled the room.
"What?"
She sighed.
"They are destroying our cities, killing our people, ending our world because they think it's fun, President Powell is going to give the complete briefing on what information we gathered in a few hours."
She looked tired.
"We have to be pragmatic about this, yes there are issues, resonable fears but we have their healer, we know why they attack us, where they came from, how many their are and..."
She smiled.
"That they can be killed."
The room was silent we leaned in.
"Endbringers have something called a core, hit it and the Endbringer dies. Said core can be moved around but well, now we know that they have a weakness. We also know the powerset of at least 7."
"You said there were 20."
"Another bit of good news, they visited other worlds and on the last one they lost, they got their teeth kicked in, and 14 of them died, we don't know what the remaining 14 can do but they're not veterans. They're going to be fresh, and as I said earlier, most of them are currently being held in some kind of prison. They're trying to escape, but it's holding most of them."
She folded her hands.
"So I'm just going to be frank, Prometheus is going to join the Protectorate, he is going to fight in every Endbringer battle, he is going to be a PRT resource, he will be stationed here in Seattle, the question is, how do we sell this to the american public."
Glen looked up.
"I recommend taking up the view that he's a gentle healer that has turned his back on his siblings' ways. Play up the medic part of his identity."
Director Costa-Brown nodded.
"Ok, that sounds like a good idea, the Area known as Lincoln park will be used to hold him...we will announce his enterance into the Protectorate after his first Endbringer battle, and then well we will take it one day at a time."
The mood was sour and somber.
"Let's not forget that we won, that this is a victory for humanity. Whatever happens, everyone saw an Endbringer bow before the might of the PRT. That's big, yes the war isn't over, not by a long shot but... well this is the end of the beginning. We can turn things around, we can win."
PRT Report Prometheus
The Endbringer defector, Prometheus has given us a lot of information about how the Endbringers think, their emotional make up, culture, and biology. The samples we have gained have given us a lot to think about and study.
Endbringer culture is based on darwinism, social and otherwise, with the rule that the strong do as they will and the weak do as they must. Psychopathic, antisocial behavior is not just tolerated but encouraged and celebrated. The Endbringers were created by some alien race and used as weapons of wars, this same race also created shards, or passengers, the source of all parahuman powers. The Endbringers have destroyed countless alien worlds. Ravaging their populace and stealing their technology and resources. Thankfully we know that they can be defeated with most of them dying in a past conflict, and being sealed. Prometheus, our defector was one of these survivors.
When it comes to their biology, they're hard to study, the outer layer is a crystalline structure, but the inner layiers get more and more impossibly dense. We currently have our best tinkers and thinkers and other men of science studying our samples from Prometheus, but it may take years before we truly crack it. We also know that the Endbringers do have the concept of gender and that the defector defines himself as male.
Next psychology, Endbringers are capable of feeling pain, anger, sadness, joy, and shame. The question arrises as to why Prometheus defected, he clearly states that he watched human television and grew to love human culture. With PBS teaching him how to read, write, and understand english. The question of course is why did this work? Why didn't the subject go on a rampage like his siblings did?
I believe the answer is simple, the subject was created to do medical work, to heal. He has stated that he is not a combat model. One thing that's very important in medical work is empathy, this is a trait that the other Endbringers most likely lack. The subject has shown empathy repeatively during the time he spent healing our PRT operatives, who were injured in the New York attack. This empathy probably explains why he was kept away from combat operations and was relatively sheltered. Endbringer medical personal have most likely defected in the past or it's a risk.
That said, we get to what we know of our subjects healing capabilities...they're awesome to behold. Limbs can be regrown in seconds. Mulitiple people can be healed at the same time with a level of multitasking that no other cape has matched yet. If the subject just healed for us, well it could be a game breaker. Thinkers are already hard at work crunching the numbers and they have come to the conclusion that the defector is a net positive for the budget just from healing alone.
The subject is also capable of biomanipulation and genetic engineering on the fly, capable of creating plants with desired capabilities on the fly. This defection represents a new age in human medicine, things like a male birth control pill, a cure for aids and numerous other diseases, the possibilities are maybe endless. That said before we can get into such things, the defector must be cleared as safe.
Considering his past behavior I recommend allowing him to have freedom of movement around the special district, not allowed into the city proper but allowed to walk around. This might be good for it's mental health and allows us a carrot to use in our negiotiations with it
