Hulkling

Hulkling Portrayed by Chandler Massey Statistics Full Name Theodore Rufus Altman Age 18 Height 6'2" Build Athletic (Teddy) | TeenHulk (Hulkling) Eyes Grey Hair Blond (usually) Factions none Occupation College Student Alignment Hero Claim to Fame Metropolis University student, Hero Wannabe Reputation Skilled athlete at Metropolis University, Wrestling and Gymnastics; Academic scholarship. Biography Some people get to have good lives, but most of us have ordinary lives. That was me, for a while. My dad died before I was born. My Mom always said he was a great guy but it was sometimes like he was someone she didn't really know that well. Like they got married too suddenly. So I spent a lot of time alone when I was growing up. My grandparents were all dead. My Mom worked, so I had a sitter, or I was in day care sometimes. And when I was like seven years old, I found out that I had a secret. I had powers. I could change myself — change my shape, that is. I was going to ask my Mom about it, but she got all solemn and sat me down at the kitchen table. "Teddy," she said, "we move a lot, and I'm sorry that you haven't had a chance to make friends. So it's important to be normal, not to stand out too much, or people will be jealous or think you're strange. I know this is a hard thing, but, I want you to be like the people around you, so you can fit in better." You might think that's a really weird thing to say, to tell your kid not to stand out or be exceptional. But I realized none of my friends could change - and there was the news, the TV guys going on about the evil mutant terrorists and I just, well, decided to keep quiet, until I understood things better. Besides, Mom made it a game for a while - see how well I could pick up on what other people were doing, how they acted, and blend in. It was really easy. So that's how I learned that I wasn't normal … and everyone said that people should be normal, it was BETTER to be normal. I knew that normal was a lie. Everyone was different, in lots of ways. But there were commonalities, too. You can't BE normal. You can be typical. I kept my secret until high-school, didn't try to fit in or stand out, just blend in. But then we moved, and I was starting in a new place, and I decided, why not be one of the popular kids for a change. They had their own "normal" after all. Besides, I had just found another power. I was really strong, like pick up cars and throw them strong. Definitely not normal. And then there was the other way I wasn't normal. I wasn't just a mutant. I was a "deviant" too. I liked guys. A lot. And not girls. They were cool, I mean, some of them were good friends, but they didn't do anything for me. There was this guy I admired. Greg Norris. He was everything that defined cool. He was a jock - captain of the basketball team - and he was built, he was good looking, and smart and he had that natural charisma. He was even president of the student council. Yeah, I had a crush on him. The guy was perfect. I decided to get into his clique. So I changed myself … got taller, grew muscles, sharpened up my jaw. Over the course of a month, so it looked like a growth spurt. They accepted me as one of them … and I cheated a little. Used my super-strength to make up for lack of skill, but it didn't take me long at all until I had the real skills. I went into Wrestling, Basketball, Football. He became my best friend. And after one game I showed Greg what I could do … I turned into his twin. He was surprisingly OK with this. We ended up in a relationship, dating, Freud was slightly involved, but I thought it was a good one. But then it went sour. It wasn't just that he wanted me to be other people, famous people, to get away with stuff. He wanted me to help him steal things with my power. I said no. He threatened to expose me as a mutant. And, derp, finally I realized that this guy who I really admired, the first guy I admitted to myself that I had a crush on… was an ass. So I turned into something scary, and stared him in the eye and told him if he didn't leave me alone, if he ever told anyone, I'd eat his head and replace him and nobody would know, and it would be better for him to forget everything strange about me. It was incredibly corny, like bad TV show corny, but it worked. The next time we ran into each other, he acted like we were just teammates after that, like he'd really forgotten what I could do. And he'd forgotten our relationship - the next day he started dating Chelsea Addams. So much for teenagers in love. So I focussed on my grades and wrestling and gymnastics, and before I really expected it, I graduated, so I decided to go to Metropolis University — I had an academic scholarship and a good chance to get on one of their sports teams, I could try out for football, not as QB but maybe I'd bulk up a bit and play fullback, but then the Wrestling coach pretty much drafted me onto the second string team, and I considered adding gymnastics or something. He was OK with that, but not football — too many conflicts. Mom transferred her job there — some people might call her just a little clingy, but at the end of the day, we were all the family we had. I promised to visit her at her apartment on weekends and she'd call me twice a week to check up. She still remembered that I had been with Greg, but she never asked why we stopped. I guess "my EX-boyfriend is a cross between a pinworm and a body louse" was explanation enough. So I was open to meeting new people at college. And so far, there's a plenitude of luscious, tanned, toned jock types, but they're all "culture of 'phobes" and I don't want to stand out for being the combative gay athlete, especially since I have to limit myself to being just good, not super. But I did meet some really cool guys in the dorm. There's this one guy, who is just … well, I can't call him pretty, because he'd be hurt, but he is. He's got this perfect black hair, and his eyes are brown but not like mud, more like there's too many colors in there to show all at once. And he's not a jock but I wouldn't kick him out of bed. And he reads comics too, and he's a fan of real life superheroes. O.K. I think I feel another crush coming on. I wonder if he would mind dating a super-hero wannabe. + Secret History This is a more concise description of Teddy Altman's background. He believes himself to be the son of a war hero who died in combat. He believes his grandparents to be dead, and his parents to have been only children, so he has no cousins, no aunts or uncles. He is a reasonably bright young man who believes that his powers of super-strength and shape-shifting come from his being a mutant. His foster mother deliberately encouraged him to think along those lines, because it would cause him to be more reticent about his power uses. For reasons he believes had to do with her job, they moved around quite a bit when he was young; in fact, it was because he couldn't be allowed to fixate too strongly on one family or group of friends or he'd begin to imitate them too closely, and that would be dangerous; he might accidentally slip and reveal some non-human trait which would be disastrous. He loves his (foster) mother and believes her to be simply a loving, generous, occasionally strict woman with a great job, who is his only family in the world, and one who is accepting of his being gay, which was evident when she found him dating Greg Norris. She did not approve of Norris, and dated him in her undercover guise of Chelsea Addams in order to use her own Skrull Infiltrator hypnotic powers to ensure he wouldn't be able to betray her charge's "mutant" nature. Most of the following information is secret. Teddy doesn't know. How much is true? Only the Watcher knows for sure. Teddy Altman is actually Prince Dorrek VIII — heir to the throne of the Skrull Empire. Except that almost a third of "his people" want nothing to do with that because he's also the son of an alien soldier whose people are enemies to the Skrull - a Kree warrior named Captain Mar-Vell. NOTE: This may not be consistent with the history of any person who applies for this character - so for this game's purposes, should that be the desire, Teddy's father would be a previous warrior of that name who had wielded the Nega-Bands, or someone who came temporarily from an alternate universe. In any case, he's half-Kree with a powered-up, but now deceased, father. His TRUE mother, Princess Anelle (future Empress of the Skrull Throneworld) had kept his parentage a secret, but before his death, the Emperor found out and ordered his agents to find and kill the child. This is why he was sent to Earth - to be safely hidden away. In the years he was there, Galactus stopped by the Skrull Throneworld for munchies, and ate the whole thing, including Teddy's real Mom. Meanwhile the Kree warrior had died years before as well, a heroic death. So he's an orphan with political complications. Note also that there is a new Skrull Emperor - a member of a secondary lineage, and uncertain on the throne. And there's a Skrull prophecy that the son of Anelle and Mar-Vell will unite the two warring empires (Kree and Skrull) into one matchless force to rule the galaxy. With a cult following. But the late Emperor ordered the Super-Skrull (and other members of the elite guard) to kill him; having learned of his existence somehow, the Kree want to collect him and turn him into a Kree warrior because of his powers, and incidentally to harvest the Skrull changeability from his genetic material so they can restart their stalled evolution, and a good half of the surviving Skrull Empire wants to forcibly install him as Emperor. He doesn't want to be a brain-hacked Kree soldier or a Skrull Emperor responsible for herding a race of the sneakiest beings in the universe. He wants to be a typical superhero.

Character Details Personality Teddy's a mutt - a cross between Kree and Skrull with just a faint hint of human from his father's side - and as a result he's got the Kree assertiveness, and the Skrull need to blend, in a generally stable balance. He's gay, but he's also figured out that there are ways to blend in as human even with that relatively uncommon trait. He's always been a bit of a geek, the fanboy is strong in him, and despite becoming a Jock in high school he is actually attending college with (some) help from an academic scholarship rather than an athletic scholarship. He's something of a romantic, something of a stoic, and a social chameleon, except that his 'main persona' is a young college kid who has aspirations of heroism and a strong sense of honor and right-and-wrong. Abilities Shapeshifter Half-Skrull, son of a Skrull Empress, Teddy can change his shape. His body is made of unstable molecules under his mental control. He can increase and decrease his volume and mass like all Skrulls, but as an elite shapeshifter, he could easily go as small and light as a hummingbird or as large and massive as a blue whale - if he ever tested his range. So far, he's only changed into an animal twice in his life, when he was a child, and has since kept to copying humans. He hasn't tested his abilities beyond looking like a child, or growing to his seven foot tall armored "Teen Hulk" form. However, he does unconsciously shift larger and more terrifying when he's enraged. Incidentally, his natural form is the light green, blond haired, armorless, six-and-a-half-foot-tall shape that he wears as "at rest" Hulkling. Impersonation — Teddy can accurately imitate and impersonate anyone he has spent sufficient time observing. He can take on nearly any humanoid form, even those of the rich and famous. He hasn't studied them with the intention of becoming them, unlike a trained Skrull Infiltrator. So animals and inanimate objects would give him trouble and (until and unless he gets training) and he won't replicate them with any guarantee of authenticity. However, if he does get training, he'll be able to do them. He won't be likely to partial-shift into non-organic forms unless part of a disguise, like imitating the appearance of Iron Man's armor. Partial Shift, and Shapeshifted Weapons — Teddy is able to perform partial shape shifting such as creating claws, stretching, and growing flight capable "dragon wings" (up to about 120MPH sprints) and functioning gills for underwater activities. Like other Skrulls, he would need some form of their technomystical endowment or devices to duplicate most metahuman powers. However, in time, he will eventually be able to create and adapt more subtle biological weapons and powers: Shark electric sense, electric eel discharge, jellyfish or insect poisonous spines causing paralysis, sleep, or pain. Shapeshifted Armor — Besides his normal resistances, Teddy can increase the density of his body, making him more resistant to damage and injury while in Hulkling form. Further, he creates a form of "scale armor" that provides him additional protection against normal-strength weapons wielded by normal-strength humans. He started doing this after a regular thug stabbed him in the back with a bowie knife. (It healed fast, but it hurt.) This scale armor is about as good as military grade Kevlar with ceramic plate under-armor, able to stop most small and medium calibre bullets. This armor is not innately more resistant to energy attacks, and some physical attacks could still ignore it. Fire can hurt it. Evasive Insides / Shifted Healing — One of the weirder uses of shapeshifting: it's instinctive for Skrulls to move their internal organs around to avoid taking lethal damage. They can overcome this by will, but it's automatic if they're unconscious. It can be defeated by a very fast, precise strike, a special weapon, or poisons. In the comics, during the Civil War arc, the warden of the Cube decided to have Teddy dissected. While he hurt a lot, he wasn't killed, and was rescued before the second day. They can also shapeshift to some extent to repair damage. It's not Wolverine, but it's much faster than normal human healing. In fact, if trauma doesn't kill them, they can usually heal, special weapons and poisons notwithstanding. Detection While Shapeshifted — Skrulls, at least the well-trained and the nobility, become perfect copies of whatever they're copying, sometimes to the molecular level. They can be detected by certain devices and technomystical procedures, even forced to revert to their base form. They also revert to their base form when comatose or killed. Due to his unique heritage, Hulkling cannot be detected by the standard ‘skrull scanners’. A special one would need to be created to detect him in another form thanks to his being partially Kree. Further, in his 'true form' he can be detected as both Skrull and Kree by appropriate medical tests or specialized scan devices. In the comic, Kl'rt attempted to use a Skrull reversion ray to force him to revert from human-Teddy to his true form, but it only affected his Mom. Wolverine was able to tell him from the Super-Skrull when he and K'Lrt were impersonating one another, because of their different scent. However, Wolverine couldn't always detect a Skrull as such by scent. It's also possible for him to learn to so completely immerse himself in a role that a telepath couldn't find any evidence that he was anything but what he is portraying. This requires going very deep into the role, so it isn't likely to show up in casual infiltrations or impersonations. Skrull Hypno-Gaze Skrull Infiltrators are generally recruited from the lowest ranks of Skrull Nobility, and like all Skrull Nobles, have the power to hypnotize and transfix with their gaze. This power can be used to put people to sleep, to insert suggestions (like 'forget I have powers'), and, when accompanied by the proper ritual (which Teddy doesn't know at this time) it allows them to absorb the physical skills, memories and personality traits from the person they're impersonating. Note that the ritual is generally used only when taking over a world, or in emergencies, as there is a distinct risk of 'going native' if the targeted being is in some way mentally stronger than the Skrull who is replacing them. In this continuity, Teddy has only used this power accidentally and doesn't know he can do it, yet. He will probably find out if he ever encounters other Skrulls using the power (or other hypno-controllers). Super Strength and Durability Teddy possesses natural superhuman strength, his heritage from his Kree father. Usually he's capable of a maximum unaided lift of 75 tons. With this strength, he can effortlessly lift a battle tank above his head with one hand and perform super-leaps over tall buildings. However, he's capable of greater feats (lifts of over 100 tons, e.g.) when enraged, and will likely grow to that strength category when he fully matures. In the comic, when Kl'rt the Super-Skrull, who has the strength of the Thing, accidentally burned Teddy's (adoptive) Mom to death, Teddy shifted to Hulk size and punched Kl'rt through two office buildings and halfway into a third, leaving him stunned for a few minutes. With that excessive degree of strength, without major adaptations to bones, connective tissue, and flesh, there would be broken bones, ripped tendons, shredded skin, blood everywhere, it's horrible. However, like most super-strong people in comics, he is structurally and internally strong enough to endure without harm the same degree of strength that he can exert, so is resistant to crushing, impact, and so on. (It's still possible to get a knife or a needle through his skin by surprise if he isn't prepared and aware, or if he deliberately relaxes.) This gives him a greater degree of damage resistance than a normal human. Combat Being a jock means learning to fight. It's part of the culture. And he was in wrestling, and helped out a friend who was a boxer to train. But Teddy already knew how to fight from his upbringing; his Mom made sure he watched plenty of realistic combat videos, including videos of real martial arts of various kinds, and he also watched the vids of superhero/supervillain battles. Skrulls, even more than monkeys, are imitative monsters, and he was able to get the general 'feel' for most of what he watched. He doesn't use any specific style, because, being super-strong means he's pulling punches against normals, and when not, SMASH isn't a style per-se, but he does have moves appropriate to someone who has trained for 2-3 years in various fighting styles. He's able to hold his own against a large number of norms, not so much against swarms of combat-trained super-humans, or a really good normal (unless he has backup and a great deal of luck) and at incept, he has gone 'solo heroing' only two or three times, so there isn't a lot of skill yet. Advantages Mom Sarah Altman is Teddy's foster-mother, but he doesn't know that. He thinks she's his biological mom. Her actual relationship is something like "Fourth cousin from third spawning twice delayed" - don't ask about Skrull Regal Biology. Just don't. Anyway, she's been his mom all his life and he loves her. She's a great Mom, gives him just the right amount of discipline, doesn't let him be a brat, and has secretly, subtly, encouraged him to be reluctant to reveal his powers, to learn how to fit in, how to blend with other people, how to do all the things a good Skrull Infiltrator has to know how to do, except that she hasn't revealed his identity to him. Also, her job is real - she's able to be a personal assistant with skills rivaling executive enablers Pepper Potts or Mercy Graves - but she doesn't actually do that job as often as it appears; the role was swapped to another member of the Cult at least half the time, while Sarah Altman became a member of Teddy's class, or a teacher, or someone else who could watch him at school. This continues to be the case at Metropolis, where she spends at least half the week monitoring him as one of several classmates. This is not creepy-stalkery at all, because there are other Skrulls who want him dead. OK, it is a little. Secret Personal Cult While he doesn't know it exists (and won't until and if it's revealed in game) Teddy has a cult - a network of Skrull infiltrators in hiding among humans - which ensures that he does not suffer undue privation etc. They are there to make sure that the future Emperor can take over the reins of power again at the right time. They also make sure he has money, by employing his Mom and by providing scholarships and grants that pay for his college. They do not impede his heroics because it is the prerogative of the Prince to train himself in the arts of war. Nor do they disapprove of him disporting himself with the human boys - they won't get pregnant, and he is allowed to have pets. He will be required to perform the correct services to the Imperial Consorts in time, but that's in the future, not now. Incidentally they also think he's going to unite the Kree and Skrull into a single all-conquering Empire. The Prophecy says so. Disdvantages Secret Personal Cult There are disadvantages to being the object of prophecy, and the cult will definitely act to intervene if they think anything might be likely to interfere with that prophecy, and with Teddy fulfilling it. Further, there are factions in the Cult who don't so much believe in the Prophecy and instead have Plans for their future emperor, and aren't about to let the future emperor interfere with those plans. This may result in bizarre, Byzantine plots that impact his friends and family, leaving loose plot threads all over the place. Mutant Alien Freak Teddy thinks he's a mutant. On top of being gay, which can be inconvenient when bigots are around, he's also got the mutant (he thinks) super-strength and shape-shifting power, which means he's potentially a target for anti-mutant bigots. Should it be discovered that he isn't a mutant, but a member of an alien race that likes to infiltrate and take over other worlds, or a member of a different race that likes to simply conquer through force of arms, he'll be even more of a target, possibly for more than just hate groups. No Impersonating Most Meta-Powers While he is able to shape shift to impersonate other heroes, it's an illusion created by his powers. He could look like Iron Man but (without a concealed blaster) would not be firing repulsor blasts. Most Skrulls who impersonate powers either have them as a result of Skrull techno-mystical science, or use a concealed device to simulate the power. Munchies From Heck Eventually that ol' second law of thermodynamics gets fed up with being ignored, and you have to pay for the energy spent doing crazy things like shapeshifting, flying, lifting tall buildings in a single bound, you have to replenish it. Being green helps a little bit, because chlorophyll, if he happens to be outdoors or in the right spectrum of light. Nonetheless, he does have a Hulk-like appetite when he's using his super-strength a lot. But it's only a little worse than most teenagers. Although, really, he should be past that growth-spurt stage. Still, if he can't eat enough for too long, he'll lose his endurance and strength bit by bit, and 'enough' means what three people would normally eat. He carries candy bars around to help with this. Relationships Image Name Relation Information Billy Kaplan Friend (+?) Beginning crush and hopeful more than that. Sarah Altman (foster) Mother Unnamed cousin of Super-Skrull who was "Dorrek's" nursemaid. Teddy thinks she's his Mom. Notes Hulkling was created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. Heinberg was also a producer on Grey's Anatomy, where (sources suggest) he created a female character, Dr. Theodora "Teddy" Altman, M.D., portrayed by actress Kim Raver. Her appearance is suspiciously close to Hulkling's foster mother. Character Gallery Logs 2014 TheAttackNeverHappened August 24, 2014: Wiccan undoes the destruction of Titans Tower … almost. (log: 20140824-theattackneverhappened | tags: hulkling kid_flash phobos rain titans vorpal wiccan | posted: 25 Aug 2014 07:02) The Process of Baiting the Trap August 22, 2014: Kate goes out to pick up pizza for the fugitive Hawkeye and runs into some new friends in the process. (log: 20140822-the-process-of-baiting-the-trap | tags: hawkeye_ii hulkling vorpal | posted: 23 Aug 2014 18:08) Two Heroes and a Drug Deal August 18 2014: Kate Bishop and Teddy Altman bust up a drug deal in Bronx Park. Marshal Nashoba gets the arrest. (log: 20140818-two-heroes-and-a-drug-deal | tags: hawkeye_ii hulkling tin_star | posted: 20 Aug 2014 11:13) Speak Up, I Can't Hear You, Part 1 July 27, 2014 The Titans and two new heroes are called into a grisly murder scene in Brooklyn. (log: 20140727-speak-up-i-can-t-hear-you-part-1 | tags: hulkling kid_flash titans vorpal wiccan | posted: 28 Jul 2014 23:47) The Curse of the Goat July 24, 2014: A sky-clad sorceress! A bewitched baseball mascot! An unearthly stench! (log: 20140724-the-curse-of-the-goat | tags: falcon hulkling jerrica_fawkes-npc wiccan | posted: 24 Jul 2014 21:10) Bill & Ted And the Mutant Menace July 15, 2014: Billy and Teddy wander into Mutant Town one evening… (log: 20140715-bill-ted-and-the-mutant-menace | tags: cyclops hulkling iceman m-town nyc wiccan | posted: 16 Jul 2014 20:46) Out At Coney Island June 22, 2014: Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman have an actual date, and again the world doesn't end. Yet. (log: 20140622-out-at-coney-island | tags: hulkling wiccan | posted: 29 Jun 2014 04:37) A Picnic In The Park With Ordinary People June 21, 2014: While in Central Park, Teddy Altman meets four very ordinary people, who are quite encouraging. (log: 20140621-a-picnic-in-the-park-with-ordinary-people | tags: cypher hulkling lunair magma mimic | posted: 22 Jun 2014 01:47) Melting Ice Cream May 30, 2015: Teddy Altman attempts to distract Billy Kaplan from his ice cream. (log: 20140530-melting-ice-cream | tags: hulkling wiccan | posted: 31 May 2014 06:55) Da Bklyn Beast May 29, 2014: Coincidence brings several Interesting people to a specialty gym in Brooklyn. (log: 20140529-da-bklyn-beast | tags: arsenal hulkling paul_manning roxy shift witchblade | posted: 31 May 2014 06:21) On Patrol -- Interrupted April 28, 2014: Hulking, planning to go on patrol, is interrupted when Billy Kaplan accidentally triggers a fire alarm. (log: 20140428-on-patrol-interrupted | tags: hulkling metropolis wiccan | posted: 30 Apr 2014 06:39) Back to: Current Cast