Wrath of the Administrator

Wrath of the Administrator was the Chaotic Add-On Cascade which introduced the Net.Trenchcoat Brigade to the world!

The Universal Office, a primal mystical force of bureaucracy, is seeking to take over the world and cut off the net access of Trenchcoaters everywhere. The whole NTB gathers together in Chicago to stop it, but becomes trapped when the Office absorbs the entire city, leading to a desperate battle where all the trenchoated loner bastards must join together and find a common ground against the forces of ultimate evil...

Actually, no, it ends in a gigantic anticlimax when Thirteen finds the Office's creator Xeroxes, who shuts it down, and then everyone goes off and gets drunk.

Nonetheless, this is an enormously important story, introducing most of the early NTB members as well as the Office, which would go on to menace not only the LNH (in the Bad Forms crossover) but ASH as well. You can read it here.

Note that the early NTB stories were a more lax about copyright violations than the LNH, leading to characters and concepts being borrowed wholesale from Vertigo, Pratchett, Twin Peaks and so on.

Ultimate Mercenary #7 also crossed over with WOTA, but since all the original authors were gone, only an Anonymous Trenchcoater appeared.

Characters

NTBers

• Grimslut, er, Sloth
• LJC and Kit
• Ramaj and Deft
• Thirteen and his sentient trenchcoat Toni
• Jellomancer
• Doubt
• Elrik of Mojebone and his runecoat Stormbringer
• Some Irish Guy
• Darkrose
• Shade the Changing... Dude
• Question
• Wiloughby Withnail
• Bacchus
• Malcolm Barnstable
• Kid Anarky
• John Constantine (yes, literally just John Constantine)

Minions of the Office

• Burak Racey
• The Netromancer

Others

• Special Agent Dale Cooper
• Xeroxes (creator of the Office)

Locations

• alt.cynosure
• Chicago
• The Pocket Bureaucracy