History
In 1992, Hiroshi Kuramoto, using the codename Kayo, was a part of the superhero team Briagde as second in command to Battlestone, alongside Coldsnap, Atlas, Seahawk, Stasis and Thermal, plus a man named Martin Grant doing assists. Together, they freed a group of hostages from terrorists.[2] A week later, an alien named Genocide arrived with a spaceship in Los Angeles challenging Brigade. The team was able to knock him out, but they were all teleported to Genocide's home planet, D'Vor.[3] Brigade appeared in an arena, where the D'Voran Imperial High Council Magistrate declared Brigade had challenged Genocide first and for that crime they had to be executed. With no room for discussion, Brigade escaped the arena they were in, but when they were swarmed by an army of D'Voran fighters, Thermal blasted a hole through the ground, leading them into The Tunnels, a sewage system. There, they defeated a gruesome monster. Afterwards, they were intercepted by a D'Voran task force called The Factor, composed by Knockdown, Reign and Trek, who overpowered Brigade until they were stopped by the arrival of a group of freedom fighters who called themselves the Birds of Prey.[4] Not wanting to fight the Birds of Prey in their territory, The Factor fled.[5]
A few days later, both teams were found by Imperial High Guard. Fighting through the imperial forces, they were led back towards the Citadel, where Genocide was waiting for them. Genocide challenged Battlestone to a one-on-one match. If Battlestone won, the Magistrate would teleport Brigade back to Earth, but if he lost, they would all become Genocide's personal slaves. Genocide exacted the combat by opening the floor and dropping himself and Stone into a pit. Brigade and the Birds of Prey rushed to join them by bursting through the wall to join in. Battlestone insisted on fighting Genocide alone, and left the teams to take care of the guards. Sadly, Genocide murdered Atlas. Afterwards, the surviving members of Brigade boarded a ship and barely managed to escape the Citadel, heading for open space, and Earth, with Kayo driving.[6]
After three months in space, Brigade returned to Earth and landed their spacecraft in their Malibu headquarters. Kayo and Thermal begged Stone to stop shutting them out and to give the team some guidance, but Stone was too blinded by grief and fury to respond in any productive way. Blaming him for Atlas’s death, Stasis quit the team. As she left, she was shot in the head and killed by Battlestone’s brother, Cabbot Stone. He had come with his team Bloodstrike to capture or kill Brigade under orders of Washington. In the course of the ensuing battle, Bloodstrike member Foruplay broke Kayo's jaw, who fell unconscious along with Seahawk while the rest of Brigade escaped.[7]
Bloodstrike secured Kayo and Seahawk as their prisoners and boarded them into their jet. The two of them were put in a healing nutrient bath, and Bloodstrike's computer, Roam, summarized Kayo’s condition as critical, with a broken jaw, four fractured ribs, a cracked right femur and multiple cranial contusions.[8] After Bloodstrike teleported away to Brigade's location, and Seahawk escaped, Kayo was left alone in the jet until a new ally of Brigade called Hacker found his location and Martin Grant picked him up. They headed to the Los Angeles branch of G.A.T.E. International, where Brigade was fighting Bloodstrike. There, Battlestone and Cabbot argued and beat the crap out of each other until Battlestone told Cabbot to leave Brigade alone or else he would expose Project: Born Again to the public. Finally, Cabbot told Battlestone to kill him, but Battlestone refused, saying letting him live was even worse, and left with Brigade. Brigade flew away in their jet, and Battlestone warned the team that Bloodstrike would come after them again, but letting them go sent a message to the puppet masters controlling their strings.[9]