Hellinger

Harlan Ryker was a cyberneticist and former U.S. military intelligence officer who worked alongside his brother Simon Ryker as a leader of Project: Alpha-Mech. During the project, he converted the dead soldier Luther Manning into the cyborg Deathlok, turning Manning’s body into a weaponized experiment rather than treating him as a person. Ryker also transformed himself into a cyborg, eventually operating under the name Hellinger.

Hellinger later used Deathlok as a tool in his conflict with Simon Ryker, tricking him into delivering a bomb meant for Simon. The bomb failed to release properly and instead severely damaged Deathlok, showing how Hellinger’s schemes often treated even his own creations as disposable assets. His story is centered on Project: Alpha-Mech, the creation and manipulation of Deathlok, his betrayal of his own brother, and his transformation from cyberneticist into would-be world conqueror.

Appearance: Hellinger has golden-yellow skin and a tall, extremely muscular build with broad shoulders, thick arms, a narrow waist, and heavily defined legs. His body is completely exposed except for the seamless yellow surface covering him, with exaggerated muscle definition across the chest, abdomen, shoulders, biceps, forearms, thighs, and calves.

His head is bald and angular, with sharp cheekbones, a long narrow chin, and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. His eyes are pale yellow-white and set beneath a heavy brow. The top of his skull is open, revealing a dark red exposed brain with rounded folds contained inside the upper head cavity.

His hands have long, thin fingers with extended segmented tips. One arm shows a stretched, exaggerated hand with splayed fingers, each ending in narrow rounded points. The other hand grips a small circular ring-like object made from the same yellow material as his body.

His torso is heavily sculpted, with large pectorals, sharply separated abdominal muscles, and deep grooves running along the ribs and waist. His arms are thick and vein-like in their definition, with rounded deltoids, swollen forearms, and pronounced tendon lines near the wrists.

His legs are long and powerful, with large thighs, sharply defined knees, and muscular calves. His feet are covered by the same yellow surface, shaped into smooth boot-like forms with pointed toes and no visible separation between skin and footwear.

Personality: Hellinger, Harlan Ryker, is a cold and ambitious cyberneticist whose personality is defined by control, experimentation, and conquest. As a former U.S. military intelligence officer and a leader of Project: Alpha-Mech, he treats human bodies as material for cybernetic advancement, shown by his role in converting the deceased Luther Manning into Deathlok and transforming himself into a cyborg. His genius is practical but deeply unethical, making him the kind of scientist who values results, power, and survival over human dignity.

His main relationship is with his brother Simon Ryker, with whom he led Project: Alpha-Mech. Their connection is not presented as warm or sentimental, since Harlan later tricked Deathlok into delivering a bomb meant for Simon, showing that even family can become expendable when his goals demand it. He is also tied to Deathlok as one of his creators and manipulators, making their relationship one of control, exploitation, and violent consequence rather than loyalty.

Hellinger is a genius-level cyberneticist and former U.S. military intelligence officer, with enough technical skill to help lead Project: Alpha-Mech, convert Luther Manning into Deathlok, and rebuild himself as a cyborg. His cyborg body gives him superhuman strength, superhuman speed, enhanced durability, and short-range energy projection, though his normal fighting skill is not especially advanced.

His main strengths are scientific expertise, cybernetic engineering, military intelligence experience, and manipulation. He is dangerous less because of martial skill and more because he can design, modify, weaponize, and exploit cyborg systems while treating people as disposable machinery.