Head to Head
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Image Unavailable | |
| Head to Head | |
| Player: @mousedroid | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 14 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Atul Singh |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 14 |
| Height: | 5'5" |
| Weight: | 95lbs |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | India, Natualized American citizen |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Place of Birth: | Mumbai, India |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Pranit (Father), Rajani (Mother), Priya (sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Mind control, mental mainpulation and psychic projection | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| ' | |
Contents |
The Early Years
Atul Singh was born in Mumbai, India in the 1990s. He is the second child of Pranit and Rajani Singh. When he was four years old, Atul's father quit his job as manager of a large international hotel in Mumbai, and moved his family of four to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Pranit Singh took a job as the manager/caretaker of a small motel on the outskirts of Oak Ridge, and Rajani remained "self-employed" as she consulted for various technology companies.
Atul and his sister, Priya, who is a year older than him, adapted quickly to their new home, probably due to their age, and made many friends. Both children became naturalized American citizens when their parents passed the citizenship test a few years after immigrating.
Priya was always more athletic than Atul. He prefered to read and play games, while she was an avid swimmer, and played tennis and volleyball regularly. When the children were eight and nine years old, their parents pulled them out of school in the middle of the year and abruptly moved to Paragon City, RI.
An Epic Battle
Life in Paragon City was much different for Atul than life in Oak Ridge. The fast pace of life in the largest city in the US was daunting after years in the more laid-back environment of Tennessee, and he made friends slowly at his new school. Unlike Priya who flourished in this shiney new world, Atul became somewhat withdrawn. It wasn't until he saw his first real-life superhero that he snapped out of his funk.
It was "Take Your Children to Work" day, and Atul got to go with his father to his job at the Hotel Scheherazade in the Atlas Park neighborhood of Paragon City. While Atul was helping Pranit man the check-in desk, an epic battle began outside. The valiant hero, Captain Astonishing, was battling the ancient villain, Lord Stormbringer, right in front of the hotel!
Lord Stormbringer unleashed a hurricane force blast of wind that propelled Captain Astonishing through the glass doors and across the lobby, slamming him into the elevators. Undaunted, Captain Astonishing got up, checked to make sure no one was injured, and then slowly, steadily fought his way through the battering winds and the barrage of lightning bolts the mythological menance unleashed against him. Bruised and bloody, Captain Astonishing fought on until he was close enough to put all of his remaining strength into a single, astonishingly powerful roundhouse punch that put Lord Stormbringer down for the count.
It was at that moment that Atul Singh knew what he wanted to do with his life - he wanted to become a superhero!
A Dark Cloud
It was as if a dark cloud had lifted from Atul. After that day in Atlas Park, he seemed to come out of his shell. He made friends more easily, his grades improved, and he even decided to try playing baseball. His teachers were amazed, and his parents could not have been happier. As for Atul, he knew he’d found his purpose in life and that one day he’d be a hero.
But tragedy was about to strike Atul. Shortly after his 11th birthday, Atul began to complain of always being tired. Over the following weeks and months his body became progressively, and inexplicably weaker. Through her contacts, Rajani arranged appointments with the best neurologists on the east coast, but the only explanation they could arrive at was a previously unknown type of cerebral palsy that was targeting only the motor control and speech centers of his brain. Within a year the once active boy was confined to a wheelchair.
By the time he was thirteen, the doctors had found a way, through aggressive and somewhat unorthodox medical treatments, to halt Atul’s deterioration. However, by this time he was functionally a quadriplegic and could no longer talk, his condition similar to physicist, Stephen Hawking. Throughout it all though, Atul remained upbeat and courageous for he knew that no hero’s journey is complete without tragedy.
The Silver Lining
The next defining moment in Atul’s life occurred once again in the lobby of his father’s hotel just prior to his 14th birthday. Atul was sitting in his wheelchair, people watching, when he noticed a hotel patron look up and gasp when he left the lobby. “He has probably seen his first superhero,” Atul thought, “I wonder who it is?” And just like that, he found himself on the sidewalk gazing up as Atom Lass flew by overhead.
“How did I get out here?” Atul wondered just as he heard someone nearby ask the same question. Atul turned to see who had spoken, and glimpsed his reflection in the lobby doors – somehow he was in the body of the hotel patron he had been watching moments earlier! Startled and disoriented, Atul just as quickly found himself back in his own body, once again looking at the man on the sidewalk who was glancing around in confusion.
Atul immediately realized what had happened – he had projected his mind into the body of another person! His superpower had finally manifest!
A New Hero Emerges
Over the next few weeks, he secretly practiced projecting his mind into passersby either from the lobby of the hotel, or his family’s apartment in Steel Canyon.
One fateful day he projected his mind into the body of a nurse on the streets of Atlas Park shortly before two street thugs approached and demanded her purse. Atul struggled with the one thug, but the nurse just wasn’t strong enough to resist. Then Atul got an idea – he surfed (as he called it) from the nurse’s body to the body of the thug who was trying to steal her purse. He then let go and told the woman to run.
The other thug tried to pursue the young nurse, but Atul tackled him and they began to fight. Atul quickly and painfully learned that he didn’t know how to fight. As he tried to defend himself and wished the other man would stop pummeling him, the other thug simply fell asleep. Once again, Atul realized this was his doing, but before he could explore this new aspect of his power, two Paragon City Police Officers arrived to arrest him and his “buddy.”
Not wanting to be arrested, but still curious about what was going to happen to the two "Hellions" as the police officers called them, Atul decided to bodysurf into the female police officer on the scene. Oddly, entering her body was not like simply opening a door and stepping in like it was with everyone else. It was more like trying to swim through a pool of molasses.
"That was weird," Atul thought to himself.
"Who the hell are you??? Get OUT of my HEAD!!!" he heard the woman think, and he could feel her trying to push him out.
Atul tried to quickly explain, but he could feel the police officer's fear and sense of violation, and he fled her mind in panic. From that moment on, Atul decided to swear off bodysurfing for fear he would cause someone else to feel the same things.
