Commander Vitus Ashland

**Commander Vitus Ashland** is owned by Kooshmeister. He appears in both the script and story versions of *The Radical Beginning*, although his first name isn't given in the script version.

## Bio

Little is known of Ashland's past. He was the second commander of the Enforcers. In Kooshmeister's canon, the Enforcers were created by restructuring and reforming the regular Megakat City police force to deal with increasingly more and more dire threats, and so the first Enforcer commander was the former police commissioner. What no one knew however was that although it'd been Mayor Manx that did it publicly, the idea came from the corrupt Deputy Mayor Claude Balcus, who later becomes Dark Kat. The Enforcers didn't realize it, but Balcus was planning on taking over Megakat City and they were being unwittingly groomed to be his private army for when he took over.

The original commander (the former police commissioner) was forced out, and Ashland was personally appointed by Manx at Balcus' very strong insistence, despite Ashland's relative youth and inexperience. Although he was very loyal to Balcus' cause, as Commander of the Enforcers, he was incompetent, consistently getting subordinates' names wrongs or forgetting them entirely, and too concerned with abusing his power to effectively run anything. He rarely left his office while on duty, leaving everything to his second in command, the only slightly less incompetent Steel (whose name is spelled "Steele" in the script). Most of his subordinates knew him by name but not by sight.

In truth it was a burly young lieutenant, Ulysses Feral, who ran the Enforcers due to the outright stupidity, recklessness and corruption of its commanding officers. Thanks to him, the Enforcers actually performed legitimate law enforcement duties. Ashland allowed this for the purposes of keeping up appearances.

Ashland's role in Balcus' plans was to ensure his henchmen never got arrested and that any investigation into either the Deputy Mayor's affairs *or* the formation of the Enforcers or what they were truly intended for was quashed immediately. His effectiveness was questionable. Steel, for his part, although happy to abuse his power and follow Ashland's orders, was unaware that the Enforcers were anything other than a highly militarized police force. Ashland didn't trust him enough to let him in on the dark secret of why they were formed and what they were intended for. In fact, almost no other Enforcer besides Ashland himself knew the truth.

Ashland's corruption was eventually exposed and he was arrested, while Balcus eventually became Dark Kat and, thanks to his Creeplings, ended up having no need for soldiers and so the original purpose for the Enforcers fell by the wayside and was forgotten. Although the truth about the Enforcers never came out, thanks to the newly-appointed Commander Feral, they avoided their destiny of becoming jackbooted thugs for a corrupt tyrant and instead become what everyone already took them to be: a dedicated police force - only marginally effective, but a force for good nonetheless.

Ashland is currently serving time in prison.

## Appearance

Ashland was of average height with brown fur and slicked down blonde hair. He was very young. Jake and Chance, upon finally meeting him, were surprised at his youth. He wore an Enforcer commander's greatcoat and carried a baton.