Badger

Badger is an original fictional character, originally a player-character, who first appeared in New Mutants: Last Class.

Background
From the moment of his premature birth, Thomas was always been abnormally small. Doctors could never agree why the boy grew so slowly, or why he would be lucky to reach five feet in height, fully grown, despite coming from an exceptionally tall family. It would be fourteen years before it occurred to anyone that his small stature could be the side-effect of a latent mutation.

Thomas' atypical physiology shaped not only his body, but his social life and general outlook. He made an easy target for bullying, and was saddled with the nickname "Runt", a curse which followed him throughout elementary school and into high school. In compensation, Thomas was forced to find other strengths on which he could depend. His small size gave him surprising agility and made him a slippery target when he wanted to escape a physical confrontation - which was often. Perhaps most importantly, he grew tough, developed a high pain threshold, and learned to rely on himself and only himself, even and especially when confronted with overwhelming odds.

The constant bullying only intensified in his high school years, particularly from a boy named Taylor Pike, who, as luck would have it, lived only blocks away from the Reeses, and even rode the same school bus. Pike and his goons were relentless, pushing their boundaries further and further each year as they dedicated themselves to making Thomas' life a living hell. Gradually, Thomas grew weary of passive resistance, of always hiding, always running. He started to adopt the name "Runt" with pride, and studied martial arts in private, determined to build up some kind of edge on his tormentors and one day fight back.

New Mutants: Last Class
It was at the age of 14 that "Runt" got his wish, as he became one of the first mutants since M-Day to develop an a mutation. It happened while escorting a classmate, Abbigail Eppley, back to her home after school, when the two were set upon in the subway by Taylor Pike and three of his thug friends. Thomas would ordinarily run or simply accept the beating that was certainly coming his way, but with Abbigail there it was a different matter: she was one of the few people at school who would talk to him, who even seemed to like him, if that were even possible. Thomas would not allow her to come to harm, and so, summoning all of his courage, he chose that moment to make his stand.

Though he fought valiantly and managed to strike a few blows of his own, Thomas was inevitably beaten - badly - and even Abbigail suffered injuries as she tried to defend her friend. At first it seemed that all his secret training, his shift in attitude, and even the friendship of the girl he loved were not enough to make a difference - but all of that changed when he discovered that his many inhuries were healing at an exceptional rate. The bruising, the cuts, the swelling - it was all gone by the time his parents came home from work. And as he would learn the following morning, his mutant healing ability was only the beginning.

When Taylor Pike - who had spent the entire morning busride explaining away his own cuts and bruises by boasting about what a beating he'd given "Runt" - got a good look at his completely uninjured victim, his credibility as a tough guy flew out the window. Enraged, he challenged the smaller boy to a fight the moment they stepped off the bus, right there in front of the school - and Thomas gladly accepted. This time the fight went entirely differently: the previous day's beating had triggered his full mutation, and as the battle begun the world seemed to slow to a crawl as his sudden control over his mutant adrenal system pushed his mind and body beyond normal human limits. Filled with intense strength, speed, and agility, the boy named "Runt" easily mopped the floor with his attackers.

He had won at last, though the cost of victory was greater than he expected: As a side-effect of his powers, Runt suffered from a tremendous hunger, and his hair turned stark white; more pressingly, he was swiftly expelled from school for not only fighting, but badly beating several other students; and perhaps worst of all, Runt lost the respect of Abbigail, the girl who had always secretly loved the school underdog, the boy who never sunk to Taylor Pike's level.

Runt wouldn't look back. He was a mutant, now; he had power, and vowed never to allow himself to be bullied again. And though he had been expelled, he was soon offered an opportunity to attend a very different school: the Xavier Institue for Higher Learning.

At Xavier's, Runt was assigned a room to be shared with Alexander Derasmo, a New York teen with the ability to teleport and control potential energy. Alex's talent for cooking paired well with Runt's capacity for eating, and the two quickly became friends. But Runt's life soon darkened again as he was sorted into the New Mutants training squad along with peers such as Andrea Richmond, Nathan Jacobe, and Kelly Marshall - all of whom had strong powers with significantly higher potential. Just when it seemed that he'd finally gained enough power to compensate for his small stature, he found himself surrounded by people with even greater power in every regard.

Frustrated and ashamed, Runt grew sullen and began skipping both classes and training sessions with the squad. The X-Man Wolverine had taken an immediate liking to the short, scrappy teen, and began training him personally - an option that Runt vastly preferred. Wolverine pushed him hard, running him through advanced scenarios in the Danger Room; the man even insisted on choosing Runt's codename, "Badger". Though his grades plummeted, he quickly learned to master the full extent of his power, as well as various martial arts and the arts of stealth and espionage. Perhaps it was this training with Wolverine that made it easy for him to bond with the man's female, teenage clone, Laura Kinney, codename X-23, who offered him advanced training that even Wolverine frowned upon. It wasn't long before he had quit the New Mutants squad entirely, and had thoughts of abandoning the whole school.

Timeskip and the Last Stand
Badger was one of only a handful of mutants who did not take part in the climactic battle that would become known as The Last Stand of the X-Men. Though he repeatedly petitioned the X-Men for early membership, he was constantly denied and ordered to follow the other students through a portal to the safety of Wakanda. Badger grudgingly agreed, though he secretly planned to follow Anole right back through the portal and join Wolverine, X-23, and the other X-Men in the clash against the hated Purifiers, but to his (and even Anole's) surprise, the portal closed behind them, trapping them not only on the other side of the world, but a full two weeks into the future. By then, the battle, along with all of his mentors and the woman he loved, had already been lost.

Badger declined Anole's invitation to create a home in Wakanda, believing that the fight with the Purifiers wasn't yet over. Disgusted with the passive attitudes of his so-called peers, he struck out on his own, determined to hunt the Purifiers on his own terms, even if it took him his whole life to exact appropriate revenge.

And he did just that, though the exact details of the next eight years are not the sort he divulges lightly. He soon found himself in the company of the Brotherhood, who shared many of his goals, if not always his methods. Though he refused to join the Brotherood in any official capacity, Badger would team up with them on numerous occasions, particularly when his black ops training could be of use. In return, the Brotherhood supplied him with information and some of the spoils of war, including everything from money to weapons and technology pilfered from the Purifiers themselves.

Powers and Abilities
Badger is a Gamma-level mutant, whose powers derrive from an extremely sophisticated adrenal system. Whereas a normal human body features two adrenal glands locaded above the kidneys, Badger has dozens scattered throughout his body, each of which is capable of generating a number of powerful stress hormones, including some that are entirely unique and previously unknown to science.

These hormones enable Badger to greatly exceed his body's natural limits, allowing superhuman strength, speed, and durability, greatly boosting his senses, and accelerating his natural healing rate by a factor of 20. Most dramatically, these chemicals tremendously enhance his cognitive processes, enabling him to think at a rate hundreds of times faster than an ordinary human. This signature ability allows him to process complex scenarios with ease, giving him hightened situational awareness and boosting his effective agility even further.

Prolonged abuse of this chemical process is dangerous to Badger's body, however. When under the influence his body consumes an enormous number of calories, requiring that he take in a quantity of food several times that of a normal adult man; it also causes his hair to grow in white, though it returns to his natural sandy blonde when he refrains from using his powers for days or even weeks at a time. This added strain is likely to blame for his stunted growth, and he has even begun to show some premature signs of aging.

Due to intense training under the likes of Wolverine and X-23, as well as years of experience in the field, Badger is an expert in hand to hand combat, both unarmed and with a variety of weapons. He is also a skilled marksman, proficient with all manner of firearms and projectiles. He has experience with explosives, and has always had an interest in advanced technology and computers. He has had thorough training in stealth and reconaissance, and is an expert assassin. Though not a skill, exactly, Badger is known for his fearlessness, ingenuity, and tenacity in combat, especially when outnumbered or when facing a larger or otherwise superior foe.

Badger is know to employ numerous weapons and tools which he carries with him in a compact backpack. He is particularly fond of escrima sticks and tekagi shuko, and other easily concealed, close combat weapons. Badger often wears compact body armor and a stylized mask that includes nightvision, air filters, and other advanced technology.