"Well now you know-- I’m a Hulk!” (MURPG Staggerverse setting)
Avery stood staring at the man sitting at the edge of a familiar lake. She knew she was dreaming, but as far as she knew, this was the first time she’d been cognizant for one.
“Oh, there you are,” he broke his gaze.
“Do I know you?” she asked cautiously.
“Uh, well, technically, I’m Robert,” he smiled, “But no, we’ve never met.”
The wind whipped across the lake, like it had both the times she’d taken a canoe out and gotten stranded at the other end. Her hair caught in the wind, blonde like it used to be, and she wondered again what was happening.
“Okay, ‘Robert,’“ she said, “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Eh, I’m not exactly sure,” he shrugged, “I’m still convinced I’m having hallucinations, because the same things tend to happen.”
“Sorry, but this is my dream,” she replied, “And because you all the made the mistake of making me lucid? I’m pretty sure you’re an interrogation program or something. That’s kind of a problem when you pick someone who’s got any sense of sci fi genre savvy, you fucks.”
“Woah, alright, let’s start at step one, eh?” Robert looked confused, “Are you not a gamma-powered human?”
“Mutant,” she answered.
“Wait, did they initiate the X gene via gamma radiation?”
“Nope, all me.”
Robert ran a hand through his hair as the scene changed weather and time of day, in accelerated cycles.
“That’s a first for these, I guess,” he looked thoughtful, “Used to be accidents, a result of experiments, but in the last year or so, a couple have been successful. At least, according to whomever or whatever I’m actually speaking to.”
“Fifteen year old girl in this case,” she frowned, “But you know that, because you’re prying into my brain.”
“I’m really not,” he held his hands up in protest, “Last thing I knew I was saving the world from a rogue machine in orbit, and then I... well, maybe I woke up a couple times, but I can’t make sense of it.”
He pointed to the sky, which played out a zoomed in version of events. Something about an orbital nuclear weapon, capable of insane nuclear capabilities, but unable to match... The Hulk? It switched to a seizure inducing flash, red and yellow, with some globule-like energy crackles or shadows in between.
“What part of Bruce Banner did you derive Robert from, exactly?” she crossed her arms.
“Bruce is my middle name,” he watched the crackling energy, then turned back to her, “Turns out magic is real, and I didn’t really want to give my full, actual name to a demon or wizard or anything that might be lurking, but everyone, everyone I’ve run into while doing whatever this is, knows exactly who the Hulk is already. Don’t know why I keep trying. But I keep seeing people like you, people like me really, and I don’t know where I am.”
Avery felt a little self-conscious. If this was really him, she’d been stand-offish really quick. But given the history governments had with mutants and other super-powered freaks, she didn’t feel wrong to be skeptical. They always kept the weird super science to themselves, so who knew what they could or couldn’t do. Mind probes were not an impractical assumption. She still didn’t want to move closer.
“Well okay, I dunno when that all happened, but there’s another wave of mutants now,” she explained.
“So it’s like, what, 2020?”
“Close, 2018.”
“Jesus, twelve years,” he sighed deeply, “I wonder how much longer I’ll be here.”
“I dunno where I am either,” she admitted, “I think I even regained consciousness a couple times.”
“Do you get stronger as you get angrier?”
“I dunno.”
“Well I’m not doing anything else,” he sat down on the beach, “Do you wanna see if you can?”
“Even though I’m apparently a figment of a gamma irradiated dream?”
“On the chance you’re not,” he smiled, “We’ll call it a spiritual retreat. For Hulks.”
************
Avery Birch aka Virid
Intelligence 3 Strength 9 Agility 2 Speed 3 Durability 6 Actions Close Combat 1 (Specialty: Kickboxing) Ranged Combat 1 (Specialty: Thrown Objects) Social Skills 2 (Specialties: High school culture, Mutant culture)
Modifiers Mutant Healing Factor, Enhanced Toughness +7, Nullifies AP, No x2 Damage Virid is a mutant that just became a Hulkling, no experiments or accidents involved. Baseline, she’s stronger and heals faster than She-Hulk, and heals faster than most Banner forms, though her toughness mod is a shade lower than the Hulk’s. She costs about 52w, given the mutant challenge and the “looks non-human” for 1w additionally, 56w without those challenges.