Ashton PRT

Ashton, Washington is home to the second-largest PRT department in the state, after the Seattle office. With ten PRT squads, it along with the Portland PRT is responsible for all operations in southwest Washington.

History

Like many of the original PRT departments, the branch has its origins as a field office of the former PPAC. While Seattle was home to the PPAC's official field office, due to an early influx of capes a satellite office was opened at the University of Ashton in order to research and study the local parahumans. When the PPAC transitioned to a paramilitary organization, the Ashton lab was spun off as its own independent department.

Like most of the new PRT departments, Ashton took the controversial step of federalizing the local Parahuman Crime division of the Ashton Police Department. This, along with resources transferred from the FBI and Washington State Patrol, resulted in an early staff of about twenty.

Perhaps due to their origins as a research facility, Ashton elected in 1987 to join a pilot program creating local hero teams, becoming one of the original seven cities of the Protectorate. This first team was headed by local hero Cogknight out of a former APD precinct office near the Ashton Boardwalk (the site of which is the current Protectorate Headquarters).

While the New York Protectorate is today credited with the expansive marketing efforts the PRT undertakes, Ashton was also an early experimenter in the then-unconventional marketing strategy. The TV program Troops shot their groundbreaking first season in Ashton, with camera crews following both the Protectorate and the PRT officers that assisted them. Between Ashton and New York's efforts, the public perception of parahumanity was pushed positive and allowed the flood of PRT and Protectorate expansion that occurred in the 90s.

However, the department has not been free of controversy. In 1996, the SWORDFISH initiative uncovered corruption in the leadership of the department, which resulted in racketeering convictions of the Operations Deputy Director and several officers under his command. More recently, in early 2018 many low-level members of the department were found to be moles for local villains, most notably the Cult of Paracelsus. This resulted in summary dismissal of the entire leadership and a thorough vetting of existing and future employees.

Staff

Ashton has a sizable staff on payroll due to the nature of cape crime in the city. Nationally, the department is lead by Chief Director Jennifer Allen, and regionally Ashton is under the supervision of Deputy Operations Director Jarrett Hibbert from the San Fransisco regional office.

In total, there are approximately two hundred PRT employees in Ashton, not counting the parahuman employees under the Protectorate and related organizations. About half of these are members of the Operations division, the so-called "boots on the ground" of the PRT.

Operations Roster

Rank	Name	Callsign	Endorsements
LEADERSHIP (/u/PM_ME_UR_SIMURGH or /u/Shimme)
DIR	Mayer, Veronika	SHARKTOOTH	TM
D.DIR OPS	Rolando, Jacob	LANCER	TM ST
D.DIR IMAGE	Rowe, Virginia	N/A
D.DIR ADMIN	Preston, Gabrielle	N/A
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-1 (/u/Skelitinor)
LT	Hayward, Letitia	MOXY LADY	ST
PVT	Weimann, Jessica	LIGHTNING
PVT	Poplawski, Dominik	TEMPEST
PVT	Remington, Kathy	HOLLAND
PVT	Stokes, Cory	GALE
CPL	Monroe, Alexander	PASTOR	ST
PVT	Nagaoka, Shoji	STORM
PVT	McCall, Brian	BULLDOZER
PVT	Townsend, Anthony	DEADLIFT
PVT	Friedman, Frederick	CAPSTAN
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-2 (/u/PM_ME_UR_SIMURGH)
SGT	Cooper, Laura	VALIANT	TM PR ST
PVT	Reese, John	PILOT
PVT	Hart, Jerry	WHISTLER
PVT	Guercio, Alberto	COWBOY
PVT	Williams, Calvin	SPEEDBIRD
CPL	O'Connor, Lisa	CLOVERLEAF	ST
PVT	Paris, Denise	EIFFEL
PVT	Martinez, Jose	BANDIT
PVT	Trujillo, Amy	ROGUE
PVT	White, Lynn	SCORPIO
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-3
SGT	Juarez, Rico	AFTERMATH	ST
PVT	York, Bella	SHADOW
PVT	Arrington, John	ZERO
PVT	Diaz, Amelia	LIFELINE
PVT	Lee, Greg	RUGBURN
CPL	Price, Christie	VEGAS	TM
PVT	West, Ray	SMOKE
PVT	Brown, Matt	KING
PVT	Hashim, Rahman	MOLOTOV
PVT	Megalos, Eva	ANVIL	PR
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-4 (/u/PM_ME_UR_SIMURGH)
SGT	Tindall, Frank	OUTRIDER	TM
PVT	Mitchell, Naomi	TANK	ST
PVT	Ferguson, Lindsay	FIREBALL
PVT	Richards, Jordan	FLASH
PVT	Walker, Thomas	FREEZEFRAME
CPL	Hernandez, Isabelle	BLINK	TM
PVT	McDaniel, John	TULSA
PVT	Akihiko, Hirata	STATUE
PVT	Taise, Mary	CUPID
PVT	Brown, Emma	GHOST	ST
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-5 (/u/PM_ME_UR_SIMURGH)
SGT	Mathers, Byron	GRAVEDIGGER	ST
PVT	Alberts, Sean	OVERWATCH	ST
PVT	Bennett, Marie	SCARAB
PVT	Ward, Kelly	EMPRESS	ST
PVT	Boyle, Dutch	HOTSHOT
CPL	Tyler, Jessica	RAZORWING
PVT	Peak, Audrey	FREEZERBURN
PVT	Styles, Felicity	MAGNUM	ST
PVT	Wilson, Heather	HOUNDMASTER
PVT	Greenspan, Nicholas	MIRAGE
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-6 (/u/baka2k10)
LT	Matthew, Scott	ZUBAT	ST
PVT	McCloud, Brandi	THISTLE
PVT	Weimann, Lucas	THUNDER
PVT	Cruz, Jesse	JESTER
PVT	Gabriel, Leandro	BARNSOUR
CPL	Bolton, Ty	TYBALT	ST
PVT	Mero, Rogers	ROMEO
PVT	Long, Caroline	OBELISK
PVT	Fisher, Jamie	OLYMPIA
PVT	Walker, Jay	JAYWALKER
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-7
SGT	Bridgette, Noel	COUGAR	ST
PVT	Coffin, Miguel	SIDEWINDER
PVT	Miller, Jamie	SPRITE
PVT	Healy, Gregory	SWORDFISH	ST
PVT	Hedge, Adam	DANDYMAN
CPL	Nagatoshi, Brian	AFTERSHOCK
PVT	Wolfe, Brenda	HONEYCOMB
PVT	Baronovski, Yakov	TSUNAMI
PVT	Madden, Ryan	FAE
PVT	Russel, Alison	LONGSWORD
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-8 (/u/Shimme)
SGT	Munson, Julius	PALADIN	ST
PVT	Cabalo, Jorge	KNIGHT	ST
PVT	Zamora, Evie	SQUIRE
PVT	Brooks, Page	PAGE
PVT	Christenson, Helen	DAME
CPL	Sutton, Jordan	HUNTSMAN
PVT	Green, Jay	TYRANT
PVT	Claire, Elizabeth	CONTESSA	ST
PVT	Tanner, Matitas	BARON
PVT	Romero, Annabella	KING
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-9
SGT	Crewe, Cynthia	CAPITOL	ST
PVT	Kelly, Alfie	SLAMBURGER	ST
PVT	Everett, Luna	HOUNDSTOOTH
PVT	Riley, Sidney	SYMPHONY
PVT	Wheeler, Akira	STARSHOT
CPL	Watson, Tess	BEDROCK
PVT	Toyokazu, Nakahara	FULCRUM	ST
PVT	Lawson, Domenic	SUNBEAM
PVT	May, Manson	FLINTLOCK
PVT	Minervino, Sara	PHALANX
PRT ASHTON CONTAINMENT SQUAD ASH-10 (/u/Skelitinor)
SGT	Kelsey, Lloyd	SHOWBOAT
PVT	Peaks, Jane	ARGUS
PVT	Carpenter, Zoey	SPUDMUFFIN	ST TM
PVT	Smith, Ulysses	RECOIL	PR
PVT	Smith, Lana	PIXIE	PR
CPL	Riveria, Ash	NEWSREEL	ST
PVT	Collins, Samantha	REDWING
PVT	Yepes, Ramon	MILLRACE
PVT	Sadoul, Florence	RANGER
PVT	Curbelo, Maria	TRINITY
TM This endorsement indicates the officer is certified for training of both other officers and Protectorate members in combat operations. ST Officers with this endorsement are members of the Special Strike Force, the PRT equivalent of a SWAT team. PR Officers with this endorsement have known parahuman family members.

Facilities

The PRT maintains three main facilities throughout the city of Ashton, as listed below:

PRT Headquarters (PRTHQ)

The PRT Headquarters (HQ or PRTHQ) is located in the heart of downtown Ashton. This location serves as the command and control center for all PRT and hero operations throughout the city. Due to its status as a mostly-administrative facility, it doesn't see much tourism besides those heading to its ground-floor gift shop.

The PRTHQ is a ten-story tower opened in 1996. Due to a surplus of space, the PRT leases out several of the floors to other agencies. It is officially known as the Lauren Acevedo Federal Building, after an Ashton PRT officer who was killed in the line of duty shortly before the building opened.

Protectorate Headquarters (PHQ)

The Protectorate Headquarters (PHQ) is located on the western side of Ashton, and is the primary location for the local Protectorate team. A three-building compound in secured area. The main building is five stories tall and is home to Protectorate Forces while the other two are dedicated to administrative and recreational purposes for the city's heroes. In the center of the courtyard centered within a stone circle is a statue dedicated to its founding. This is by far the most popular of the PRT facilities, with the Image divsion running regular tours.

The site was originally an APD precinct station which was purchased by the PRT in 1987. The facility suffered severe damage during the Endbringer attack in 1992, and was completely razed and rebuilt in the recovery.

Wards Headquarters (WHQ)

The Wards Headquarters (WHQ), operated to the east of downtown on the University campus. Although no longer used by the Wards, this facility (like the PHQ) is still used extensively by the PRT for their operations, and acts as a "Precinct HQ" for this section of the city. The Wards themselves train and operate with their elders at the PHQ.

The WHQ is the oldest PRT facility in Ashton, as it served as the original PPAC research laboratory which later became the Ashton PRT. In 1996 after the PRTHQ was opened downtown, the majority of the building was signed over to the Wards, as it was deemed that the low-crime area around the University would prove safer. However in 2018 it was decided to transfer the team to the PHQ.

Other Facilities

A small gift shop is operated at the Fair Pines Mall west of downtown. In a few cases, it's served as an adhoc holding cell while reinforcements showed up from downtown.

Finally, the forests east of the city are home to a small section owned by the PRT, reserved for practicing the more-destructive abilities and other things they'd rather the public not see. The Wards have their annual campout there every summer.