[Methariel]

I is for Igel

Obergefreiter Karl Seelmann was born in March 1921, as the son of a journeyman carpenter and a shop assistant, in Schwäbisch Gmünd, not far from Stuttgart. Trying to escape the stuffiness of provincial life, he volunteered for service in the Wehrmacht, much to the dismay of his simple, but very Catholic parents. His unit distinguished itself fighting on the western front, and was selected to serve as one of the non-SS guard units of a certain research facility at Osnabrück. Secretly, Seelmann was relieved that he was pulled out of the war, because, even though the operations on the western front were largely successful at that time, what he had seen was enough to disillusion him from any romantic views he might have held as a youth about waging war.

When Operation Cape was executed, Seelmann was on guard duty and participated in the chaotic firefight. He had taken cover behind some canisters, realizing too late that they contained radioactive waste. Although that didn't matter much to him, any more, when the hand grenade went off directly in front of his cover, damaging the canisters, spraying him with contaminated waste and knocking him out cold in a puddle of radioactive fluids.

Karl woke up after having been in coma for several weeks. At once, he realized that he had changed. His skin somehow had hardened considerably, sprouting needle-like growths all over his body. He was considerably stronger than before, but not as strong as the strongest Atomkrieger, like Hauptmann Deutschland. During an accident, he realized that he could shoot the diamond-hard needles out of his body at a considerable speed, finally managing to penetrate even reinforced steel with them.

Because of his changed looks, Karl Seelmann was dubbed "der Igel" - the Hedgehog - by his immediate surroundings, despite the efforts of the people in charge of propaganda to label him "Schrapnell" - Shrapnel. Karl was shocked learning that his family had been told that he had died for the Fatherland and that every contact he was to have with civilians from now on first had to be allowed by his new military and intelligence superiors. His shock became horror, though, when he was told he had to return to active duty and fight alongside his new immediate superior, Hauptmann Deutschland. Still, he was prepared to do it, knowing that his family would suffer for it if he wouldn't - for now...

Powers
- hardened skin, flame-resistant and able to repel small-arms fire
- considerably above-average strength
- very hard needle-like growth on the "outward-facing" parts of his body, that can be shot at targets, regrowing in one or two days

Weaknesses
- can virtually no longer participate in social events because he is seen as weird, ugly and disfigured
- has become afraid of deep or fast-running water because of his new physique and is, at best, a clumsy swimmer
- has his family used as leverage against him