LORE24 ENTRY #35 – Supers Month #4 – Mecha Musume

 

Hero Name

Mecha Musume

 

Real Name

Emi Koike

 

Description

Emi is a young and pretty Japanese woman, with dark hair and a pleasant face framed by a pair of glasses, standing just barely at five feet tall.  She wears her hair at shoulder length in a plain cut, and typically dresses neatly, usually wearing a proper skirt, blouse, hose, and sensible shoes.  She’s still getting over her more introverted nature, and doesn’t go out of the way to draw attention to herself.  She does dress more casually when at home, though this usually means she’s wearing some kind of coverall and covered with grease and metal shavings as her favorite hobby of late is tinkering with her armor.

As Mecha Musume, she stands nearly seven feet tall, broad and bulky in the humanoid powered armor.  The current Mk. I design is painted in dark gray and black until she decides on a proper color scheme, the armor several inches thick in most places.  The backpack unit resembles that of an astronaut’s pack, equipped with powerful thrusters that enable her to fly and leap much further than the weight of the suit might indicate it is capable of.  The weapons are likewise much too large to use by a regular human, a large directed energy cannon that she uses like a pistol, and the energy sword stored in the backpack resembling a good sized pipe.  

 

Powers and Abilities

Though Emi doesn’t possess any flashy superpowers, her mind is her greatest asset.  Though she can’t process information at the speeds that Becky does, she has a far greater ability to grasp complex concepts and a far deeper understanding of engineering and robotics, and can learn practically anything if she applies herself.  Her true passion is robotics, though, and that shows in her armored alter ego, Mecha Musume.

Initially appearing as something of a walking tank, Mecha Musume’s armor is continually being refined and modified to adapt to new situations and the ever-changing face of super-powered villainy in Sentinel City and beyond.  The armor itself is extremely dense and heavy, but manages not to overburden most of the city streets, and is capable of shrugging off small arms fire without a scratch, and can even absorb anti-tank rounds to some extent.  The armor is incredibly strong as well, allowing her to lift several tons without putting a strain on the suit’s mechanics.  Having modeled her designs after her favorite mecha anime, Emi’s initial loadout of weaponry were decidedly too much for dealing with most of the criminals she would initially encounter, the powerful energy cannon and sword easily tearing through anything up to an armored truck like a hot knife through butter, even on lower settings.  Emi would adapt her arsenal as time went on, expanding and tweaking it like the rest of the armor.

Though she was never one to get into physical altercations growing up, Emi has had to learn to fight now that she’s embraced her heroic side, practicing with both guns and in various weapons, though she still relies mostly on absorbing damage and providing heavy firepower against more dangerous villains.  She has become something of an amateur martial artist while she’s not tinkering with her armor, learning  unarmed techniques and how to use Japanese swords and naginata, modifying her techniques to better serve her inside her armor.  

 

Background Info

Emi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan as the only child of her parents, dutiful government employees, though her father was often absent due to travel requirements.  From an early age she displayed an amazing intellect, a child prodigy, though her interests always leaned toward the sciences.  Though placed in accelerated courses in school, Emi was not entirely out of touch with pop culture, having fallen in love with the giant robots seen in various manga and anime.  It was perhaps no surprise that she would begin delving into studies on robotics as she rapidly advanced in school.  She had attained a college-level education by the time she reached puberty, and had attained doctorates in engineering and robotics by the age of sixteen.

Though still dedicated to her field of study, Emi also had a desire to see the world and experience American culture, and, against the wishes of her parents, though they would still support her decision, Emi went to America to see the ‘college experience’ first hand, even though she had already surpassed anything they offered.  It was in college that she met Becky Dodgers, who was a couple years older than her, and the two became fast friends and more, sharing a love of technology and her favorite mecha anime.  It was during a summer trip back to Japan after that first year that Emi would learn the truth about her father, that he was actually a highly trained operative performing various clandestine missions for the Japanese government, perhaps even with some lingering ties to the Yakuza, and that he had worked and even clashed with Becky’s father several times over the years.  Though her father was adamant she severe ties with Becky, Emi refused and returned to America, though she learned that Becky was completely clueless about the nature of the work her father did, and to this day, still doesn’t grasp that he’s not a simple accountant.

In the days following the world’s awakening to super powers, Emi worked with Becky to learn the extent of her newfound ability, and for a time thought she hadn’t been gifted with any such changes.  However, she would soon begin to work out designs for technology the likes of which were only in the earliest conceptual phases, and had envisioned her very first powered armor, the early-phase prototypes following in secret soon after, with only Becky aware of what she was doing.  Later, following their graduation and arrival in Sentinel City, with a little help from her father’s contacts within the government to obtain a few particular materials, the two would develop the first working prototype power armor, just before Emi started her new job as a teacher of robotics at Sentinel City University.

As fate would have it, the first test of the armor’s functions would also be the pair’s first encounter with the criminal element of Sentinel City in the form of the Clean Sweep Gang.  Though there would be some trouble during this encounter, the two would emerge victorious, and Emi would tirelessly refine and improve her design from there on, though there always seemed to be an underlying cooling issue for the inside of the armor, one that she has yet to puzzle out.  It would be after an encounter with Clean Sweep herself that the pair would join forces with the mysterious mage Black Cat that would put them on the path to confronting the thieving Pink Pussy, and eventually confronting Dollface and learning of her otherworldly boss.  

 

Known Enemies and Rivals

Clean Sweep (Enemy)

The Clean Sweep Gang (Enemy)

Dollface (Enemy)

Grover Bloomenthal (Rival)

Demon Lord Kurae (Enemy)

Kitsune (Enemy…?)