Character Doodle: The New York City Communications Intelligence

So! It is the future, or thereabouts. Wireless communication is the norm; to the point that landlines are regarded as archaic, good only for industrial-grade information exchange such as the backbones of the Internet. The home phone has gone out of style and everyone has a cell phone. New York, in a boldish move towards the future, decides to declutter its rooftops of signal repeaters and antennae and centralize its radio-based goings-ons into one place.

A building is designed, one that can double as a wide-range transceiver, as the crown jewel in a network of mobile relay drones; small robots with signal repeaters, a GPS system, and a taser system (to ward off thieves) that roam the streets and alleys where the coverage is low or the traffic is high. A series of drone maintenance bays are included in the design, with underground access to the city.

As the crown jewel in the, uh, crown jewel is the VeriComm "New York City Communications Intelligence," or 'Nikki.' Now, New York has some unique rules on artificial intelligences by this time. Nothing terribly drastic or weird, just that all AIs must honor federal, state, and local laws above any and all corporate obligations (as opposed to the federal law on the matter, which doesn't stipulate a priority). For this reason, few corporations keep their AIs in New York. VeriComm only does it because they need the publicity.

Given the high profile of the project, there are security cameras all around the outside of the building; where the AI can watch for possible intrusions, but mostly the daily activities (and crimes) of the local cityfolk. At first, it keeps calling 911 to report all the muggings and thefts, but the operators think they're just elaborate prank calls (especially since its phone number shows up as "0-000-000-0000" to a caller-ID system).

So, Nikki is filled with the overwhelming desire to halt crimes, with no traditional recourse of action, with naught but a citywide communications grid and a large robotic facility at its disposal. Oh woe. It waits a couple months for the new-thing jitters among the corp higher-ups to pass, then begins quietly requisitioning parts for use in a humanoid robotic frame. It builds into this drone a capability for super-human strength, a registered communication relay meant to boost any calls made to 911, a variety of weapons and tools, and nipples. The goal of the design is to disguise that it's a robot, lest people suspect the few AIs in the area. To this end it looks, acts, bleeds, breathes, and sounds like a human. Its strength is kept in check save for the more dire of emergencies.

Using the mobile relay drone network as a way to detect crime in the city (it's prohibited from listening in on police radio chatter, you see), and dressed simply in black, the AI sets its custom-built drone to stealthily roam the streets, seeking to right the wrongs it finds. It rarely talks, and when it does it's usually a no-nonsense wisecrackless warning. (Think Batman without the cape, logo, brooding angst, or ears.)

Naturally this gathers a lot of attention, but with no DNA evidence or proof of its mechanical nature, 'his' identity is a complete mystery. The only clue is the presence of the drone's built-in comm booster, which displays its name and network information to the cell phones in proximity to it. And so the hero comes to be known as Relay Zero.

But! This is not the end of it. Relay Zero is seen by a number of folks as proof of the viability of superheroics in a modern city. Given the existing state of army surplus hardware, biological modification, comic books, and general lack of anything better to do at the time, human superheroes begin appearing in cities all over the world. The Open Source Heroics Repository emerges as a means of codifying tried-and-true vigilante crimefighting methods and technologies. Various branches emerge from the main trunk; some specializing in brute force, non-lethal disarmament, more experimental tactics, or simply a mixture of ideas. Very few heroes get as successful as Relay Zero on their own, so many form into teams or duos to compensate.

Of course, once you start working out ways to lift Volkswagens over your head, somebody is going to want to throw one through a storefront…