Anyway, on to a new character. Yes, you heard that right. A new character. Not an update of an old character.
Shock horror!!!
*ahem*
Well he’s kind of new. I was almost done with this character when a thought occurred to me and I said to myself “Self, aren’t we kind of ripping off DC’s Mammoth with this character?”
I kind of agreed with myself and was going to move onto something else instead but then I decided, screw it, I was almost done anyway and I didn’t want all that hard(ish) work to go to waste. So I finished him and here he is.
……………………
Story Goes Here!
Mastodon is the typical big, dumb guy. At least that’s what most people think. And for the most part, they’re right. But the sad thing is…he wasn’t always this way.
Taylor Hall started out as anything but a big dumb guy. As a child he was slightly short and pudgy but he was smart. Smarter than most people around him. His friends, who included a young Lincoln Harley (who would later go on to become Ricochet), knew that he would really make something of himself one day. But ultimately it would be someone else who would make Taylor Hall into the man he is today.
While his friend Lincoln went off to join the police force and eventually became the hero known as Ricochet, Taylor graduated at the top of his class in university and accepted a job offer from the enigmatic Doctor Lawrence Fortune to be his assistant. Fortune was making huge waves in the fields of genetics and biochemistry and Taylor jumped at the chance to continue his studies under this brilliant individual.
It was the worst decision he would ever make.
Doc Fortune began to grow increasingly unstable and seemed to display a worrying lack of concern for others safety. Taylor didn’t know it at the time but his boss had secretly been performing experiments on live subject. Experiments that had been declared too dangerous. But Fortune wasn’t going to let some pesky laws get in the way of science.
He performed his experiments on vagrants and runaways, trying to find a way to improve the human physiology. He wanted to make these people stronger and more resilient. During these experiments, the good doctor had a number of run ins with Ricochet, who continually ruined his work. Ricochet was never able to discover Fortune’s identity, due to the doctors use of middle men and masks.
During all of this, Taylor had unwittingly been helping Fortune from afar but grew increasingly curious about where the doctor kept vanishing to. The disturbing notes he found scrawled in one of Fortune’s diaries only compounded his fears that his mentor was up to something. So he decided to follow the doctor one night and stumbled across a secret lab, hidden below street level. Unfortunately, Ricochet had also discovered the doctors base and as he arrived just in time to find Taylor, as he confronted the doctor.
Ricochet was confused and hurt by finding his old friend with his enemy. In anger he lashed out at Fortune. Taylor was stunned by this. Here was a masked man attacking his friend and mentor. An old man. Ricochet knew better though. Fortune was not what he seemed and was more than capable of taking the blows. But Taylor only saw and old man in need of help and so rushed to his aid.
But in the melee, he found himself knocked into the chamber Fortune had been using to experiment on his subjects. Even worse, the controls for the chamber were accidentally activated and Taylor was exposed to a mixture of experimental chemicals and gasses.
It took Ricochet a moment to realize what had happened but as soon as he saw that his friend was in trouble he tried to shut the machine down. But Fortune wanted rid of this pesky hero and struck at him. Ricochet managed to avoid the blow but the control panel was destroyed. Worse still, the mad Fortune declared that he wouldn’t allow Ricochet to take him into custody. He intended to destroy his base and all the evidence against him. The mad doctor activated the bases self destruct, planning to destroy his enemy in the process.
But as the timer counted down and Fortune cackled a mad laugh, a nearby explosion erupted. Not from the self destruct but from the genetics machine Taylor had been trapped in. From the machine emerged an enormous and deformed man. Through the twisted and snarling features, Ricochet could barely make out his friend. He barely had time to whisper Taylor’s name before the beast swung a massive fist at him. Caught off guard, Ricochet’s own powers of kinetic manipulation sent him hurtling off, bouncing off walls like a rubber ball as he hurtled through the complex.
What was once Taylor Hall turned his attention to Fortune. The doctor gulped, expecting the same treatment from the snarling monster. But rather than crush the mad Fortune, Hall snatched him up and bolted for safety, barreling though every wall in his path.
After the base exploded, collapsing a portion of the city above it into a crater, Ricochet was found barely alive in the rubble by his teammate is the group of heroes known as the Seekers. Ricochet’s powers had shielded him from the brunt of the explosions kinetic energy but it took several weeks for him to recover.
Meanwhile, Taylor had undergone a startling transformation. His body had been transformed. He now rippled with enormous muscles and was clearly incredibly strong. But the great intellect of Taylor Hall seemed lost. This hulking behemoth was dull witted and almost child like. And Doc Fortune was fascinated by it. He was unsure just what mix of chemicals had given Hall these powers, thanks to that bumbling Ricochet. But the creature seemed to want to protect him. He apparently thought he was doing a good thing. In the now twisted mind of Taylor Hall, he saw Ricochet as a maniac who attacked the doctor without provocation. Fortune would use this to his advantage. Over the next several weeks and moths he experimented on Hall, who now declared himself to be “Mastodon”, apparently brought on by a comment the doctor made about the tusk like teeth that now jutted from his mouth. Mastodon tolerated these experiments, believing that the doctor was trying to help cure him.
Far from wanting to cure the poor creature, Fortune wanted to replicate the accident that created him. He wanted to use the same process on himself. Although he would have to ensure a way to retain his intellect in the process.
Now exposed to the world as a mad man, Fortune had to finance his experiments somehow and the best way he knew how to do that was to use what he had at his disposal. An enormously strong behemoth that would follow his every direction. He sent Mastodon out to secure funds the old fashioned way. By taking it from others.
Mastodon began a rampage. He robbed a number of banks throughout the area, occasionally encountering the varied masked heroes who patrolled the city. He even encountered Ricochet a number of times. Ricochet attempted to break through to his friend but Mastodon lacked the reasoning to understand that what he was doing was wrong.
Mastodon continually returned to the doctor, sometimes the victor of his encounters, sometimes the loser. When he failed to return with the funds, Fortune berated his creation both verbally and physically. With the mind of a child, Mastodon never thought to retaliate, viewing Fortune as the only friend he had.
But what Fortune failed to consider was that Mastodon’s body and mind were still mutating. He failed to consider what would happen if this creature ever regained his intellect.
And that is exactly what happened.
Mastodon’s intelligence seemed to ebb and flow. At times he was little more than a mindless savage but at other times he displayed a rather keen mind. While his intelligence didn’t fully return to it’s peak, there came a point where his intelligence rose enough to realize that the doctor was using him. Sick of being poked and prodded, Mastodon declared that he was sick of the tiny man and his experiments. He made this abundantly clear by utterly destroying the Fortune’s new base. The doctor barely escaped with this life.
The years that followed saw Mastodon attempt to make amends for his wrongdoings. When his intelligence returned, he tried to put his strength and physical resiliency to use by battling the multitude of heroes that plagued the world. Often by his friend Ricochet’s side. But at times he reverted back to that basic, savage intelligence and he lashed out at everyone and everything.
At present, Mastodon is working with the good people at the Albright Institute in an attempt to better understand the chemistry of his his brain works now. While he’s not fond being poked and prodded again, he understands that the scientists at the Institute are self absorbed maniacs that Fortune was. (Although Dr McKnight does come close sometimes)
Mastodon continues to work alongside the other heroes of the world who value the great strength of the man. But every last one of them keeps a wary eye on their ally, knowing full well that one day he may be their enemy again.
“HAHAHA!!! Tiny talky man go thud!” – Mastodon.
