Meetings were the worst. Director Emily Piggot hated a lot of things about working a desk job, but meetings were definitely the worst. Especially the morning meetings. They were usually filled with bad news. It was always reports of a cape fight or the pendulum of the inevitable gang war growing ever closer. Today was no different. Lung being taken down was a mixed bag. It was good because, well, Lung was off the streets. It was a problem because without Lung the Empire was the most powerful force in the city and they would be looking to expand.
"Alright, brief me on what happened last night." Emily said. She had all the of the Protectorate heroes as well as the Wards in a conference room this morning. From what she'd heard they'd need to be on the look out as well.
"At approximately 0130 hours last night we got a call of a fight with Lung in ABB territory. By the time we got the call the fight had already been going on for several minutes. It seems the Undersiders had gotten Lungs attention and he was out looking for them. We believe they engaged lung at least fifteen minutes prior to the call. At some point another group calling themselves The Espada show up, having been drawn to the fight by Lung's usual bout of destruction. We assume they engaged Lung when he was already rather large, and indeed by the time we got there he'd grown wings and was at least fourteen feet in height. The Undersiders took off at some point before we arrived, leaving the Espada to finish the fight, which they did in spectacular fashion. The leader, Sacrosanct, sliced off Lungs legs and one of his arms by phasing through him. She then simply dropped Lung in front of us before one of the other members, Nihilus, opened a portal to allow them to leave." Armsmaster explained
Emily took a deep breath. They had at least one cape capable of taking on Lung running around the city. Lung was bad enough, but someone who could fight him on equal footing was just as bad, if not worse since it meant two capes running around that they couldn't take on without back up from at least Legend.
"What did they say about alignment?" She asked.
"The answer was rather evasive, but she said they 'Independents'."
Emily narrowed her eyes and huffed. That was a rather vague answer. They didn't want to call themselves heroes or villains, meaning they could end up on either side of the spectrum with relative ease.
"Did you give them the pitch?"
"I did, ma'am." Battery spoke up. "They looked like teenagers, so I gave them the Wards pitch. Sacrosanct wasn't having it and the others seemed to be with her on that."
"Unfortunate. Do we have a read on their powers? This Sacrosanct seems to be some sort of Striker, while Nihilus seems to be a Mover." She said.
"We believe them to be Grab-bags." Miss Militia spoke up. "We didn't see Samael use his powers but he took a fireball to the chest with little damage. Sacrosanct displayed Brute, Striker, Stranger, Shaker, Mover, and Blaster powers, while Nihilus appears to have a Shaker ability involving bubbles, though we didn't get to see what those bubbles actually do. Sacrosanct in particular displayed what looked like flight and a space manipulation ability similar to Vista's."
Emily blinked, as did most of the heroes. Vista even did a full double take. Duplicate powers weren't a thing. There were powers that accomplished the same thing in different ways, or powers that looked similar but there were no duplicate powers. Even the Alexandria package capes worked in vastly different ways. Aegis had a redundant biology and Glory Girls ability to take hits revolved around a force field. They looked like they had the same powers, but the operation was different. So for someone to show up with a power that seemed to work similar to Vista's was a surprise.
"You're sure?"
"Yes, ma'am. When we showed up the alleyway they were fighting in was as big as an auditorium. When the Espada were leaving Sacrosanct snapped her fingers and the alley went back to normal."
"She snapped it back to reality." Assault nodded.
Emily ignored that.
"Okay, so we'll need to see more of them to figure out what their powers actually are. What about their names?"
Capes had a habit of picking names that related to how their powers worked. It wasn't a rule, but it was an observable phenomenon that happened enough that you could usually get an idea of what someone's powers did based on their name. Miss Militia, Shadow Stalker, and Clockblocker were prime examples of that. As was Hookwolf. Other names took a little digging to figure out, or you had to know what their power was for it to make sense, such as Cricket, Crusader, Lung, and Battery.
"Espada means Sword in Spanish" Armsmaster started. "Their names, however, don't have a Spanish theme. Sacrosanct is a rather archaic word meaning 'Most sacred or holy, or inviolable'. So she either sees herself as some sort of messiah figure, or believes herself immune from harm. Nihilus has no real meaning, however it does seem relate to 'Ex Nihilo' which is Latin for 'from nothing'. It may also be an iteration of 'Nihilism'. Our best guess is that her powers have something to do with erasing things. Finally, Samael was the easiest to find information on. The name itself means Venom, Poison, or Blindness of God. Samael is an archangel in Talmudic mythology who is known as the accuser, seducer, and destroyer. He is often hailed as the Angel of Death."
"Jesus Christ." Emily sighed. "So either we have a bunch of religious and philosophical nuts on our hands, or their names are meant to be literal and these people's powers actually relate to their names. I'm not sure which is worse, Haven 2.0 or a group of Nukers."
Nuker wasn't actually used anymore. It was a term from the early days of the PRT, back when she had been in the field. Blaster/Shaker combinations were a common enough occurrence to warrant it's own classification, but now they were just called Ruin or Impact Blasters depending on if they did hit large areas at once or had larger, more damaging projectiles. There was a difference, but most people wouldn't care to make the distinction.
"I'd honestly prefer the Nukers. Having Haven-like zealots running around the Bay preaching whatever off kilter religion they run with would be worse." Velocity said.
"I mean, if they were into something stupid or a religion of peace, it'd be pretty cool. Imagine a group of capes following the Church of Bacon. That sounds like a religion I'd join." Clockblocker said.
"Your really think someone about peace would pick a name with the implications of an angel similar to Satan?" Gallant asked.
"This is the kid who picked the name 'Clockblocker'. What are you expecting?" Kid Win said.
"Hey!" Clockblocker said.
"That's enough." Emily snapped. "These Espada seem to be rather powerful for what he have on them. For now, assign them all with Brute ratings of around three. Tack on Blaster, Striker, Mover, Shaker, and Stranger ratings for Sacrosanct, Blaster two, Striker five, Mover four, Shaker five, and Stranger three. Give Nihilus a Shaker rating of five and a mover rating of two. That should be safe for now. We'll add or drop things as needed. Is there anything else?"
"No ma'am." Armsmaster said.
"Good. For Protectorate, I'd advise you approach them with caution when out on patrol. Give them the softest pitch you can if you can. The last thing we need is to annoy them into not wanting to even work with us. As for the Wards, do not approach them but don't turn them away if they approach you. Be friendly and courteous. Offer them to patrol with you, or accept if they ask. Try to make the Wards sound like the place they'd prefer to be rather than operating independently. You're dismissed."
She waited until everyone had left before going to her own office.
Another reason Emily really hated desk work was because she considered herself a woman of action. She'd much rather prefer to be out in the field than stuck behind a desk. But that wasn't happening any time soon. Hell, it wasn't going to happen again at all. Not after her injury in… Ellisburg. That mission had been the source of so many of her problems and got her stuck doing desk work.
Sitting behind her desk, she really wished she could drink. She couldn't shake the feeling that this new group of capes was about to start seriously shaking everything up.