Kaldur'ahm/Aqualad

Subject Facts

Full Name: Kaldur'ahm
Codename: Aqualad
Age: Eighteen years
Gender: Cisgender man (he/him)
Archetype: Meta Hero
Aliases: Jackson Hyde, Kaldur
Marital Status: Single
Affiliation: Aquaman Family, Teen Titans (reserve)

Subject Attributes

Meta-Human Abilities:

• Atlantean Hybridized Physiology: Though he's only half-Atlantean, Kaldur still has some of the physical attributes as full fledged Atlanteans, listed below.
• Amphibious Nature: When his skin comes into contact with any amount of water, he grows gills on the sides of his neck and his fingers and toes become webbed. The gills allow him to breathe and speak under water with no issues.
• Enhanced Vision: He's to see perfectly in the darkest parts of the ocean. This ability also makes it possible for him to pick up on energy patterns similar to someone using infrared goggles.
• Enhanced Hearing: Though nearly at the same level as someone like Superman, he's able to hear far better than the average human.
• Enhanced Durability: He's able to withstand the crushing depths of the ocean and can also handle more damage than the average person. This, however, does not mean he's invulnerable.
• Enhanced Reflexes: He's able to process and react faster than the average human.
• Enhanced Speed: He can swim at great speeds and can easily keep up with Arthur's own speed. He's not as fast on land but still a little faster than the average human.
• Enhanced Stamina: Though he can still get tired and drained, it takes more to get him to that point.
• Enhanced Strength: He's stronger than the average human, allowing him to be able to slice solid steel with his waterbearers or lift a lot of weight, even throw a powerful punch.
• Hydrokinesis: He's able to manipulate and bend water around him to his will.
• Electrokinesis: Like an electric eel, he's able to control, manipulate, and summon electric waves. The electricity seems to spark around and in the tattoos that snake up his arms. He's able to make his touch electrical, have electricity sparking off his skin at his tattoos, and even burts of electricity he can send at enemies.
• Swimming: Because he's half-Atlantean, swimming comes naturally to him.

Standard Abilities: N/A

Paraphernalia:

• Waterbearers: He has two waterbearers that help him focus his hydrokinesis. He often manipulates water into the form of blades with the waterbearers acting as the swords' hilts.

Subject Weaknesses:

• Dehydration: Being half-human helps him survive outside of the Ocean, as he did until he discovered he wasn't fully human, however he's vulnerable in dry environments such as deserts, becoming weaker the dryer he gets. He can also get dehydrated faster and more easily than humans in dry environments.
• Mortal: While he can take a lot due to being half-Atlantean, he's not invulnerable and definitely not invincible. He's still susceptible to injury as well as diseases. There are also people stronger than him
• Daddy Issues: He's not close to his biological father at all, still viewing his adopted parents as his real parents. He even views Arthur and Mera as more like parents than his biological father. However there's still a part of him that wants to know his biological father and understand him. It's admittedly a sore subject for him and has potential to cloud his judgement, especially when it comes to dealing with Black Manta.
• Inexperienced: He's still relatively new to having his abilities, knowing he's half-Atlantean, and being a superhero. This means he can be prone to making mistakes in the field as well as miscalculations. This inexperience can easily hinder him in the field, no matter what abilities he has.

Subject History

Kaldur'ahm was born the son of David Hyde. Before he was born, his biological parents were taken, tortured, and experimented on by the underwater people of Xebel. While Kaldur and his biological father, who would become Black Manta, survived, his biological mother did not. As a baby, he was rescued by Mera and taken to the surface where she gave him to a human couple who would act as his adopted parents.

Mera, however, understood that the experiments conducted onto Kaldur as a baby had turned him into a kind of living key - one that could open the field that separated Xebel from the rest of the world. Knowing this, she made it clear to his adopted parents that she would one day have to return and take Kaldur away from him. His adopted parents soon became attached to him and were terrified of the idea of having to give him back to the Atlanteans so they moved as far away from the ocean as they could get.

He was given the name Jackson and grew up happy with his adopted parents, believing they were his biological parents. During his childhood he found out he had the ability to manipulate water and that when water touched his skin, he grew gills and his hands and feet became webbed. Because of this his adopted parents made sure he stayed away from water such as swimming pools, lakes, and especially the ocean.

He never once thought he was part Atlantean. He didn't know about the experiments that had turned him half-Atlantean. Growing up, he assumed he'd been born with his powers and his adopted parents told him as much, afraid that if he were to know the truth, people would come and take him away. Because of his adopted parents' fear, he was also taught to fear the water.

As a high schooler in New Mexico, Kaldur only ever had one girlfriend, Maria. The two of them never hooked up and he was perfectly aware that she hooked up with other guys behind his back and only seemed to want him to do his homework for her. Their relationship was an on again/off again type, and he was with her the day he noticed the water in his hometown of Silver City was vanishing.

He did his best to hide his powers from everyone except his adopted parents, even lying to his girlfriend about being afraid of drowning and being vague about his tattoos that he'd had since he was a baby. But the disappearing water was a sign and his adopted parents knew it. His adopted father took him to an isolated cabin in the woods but it wasn't far enough away. There he told Kaldur that he was adopted and told him about Mera bringing him to them and that she had said she'd one day return for him.

Before the conversation could go any further, though, Black Manta and Siren showed up looking for Kaldur. He fled with his adopted father in their car but his adopted father purposefully drove the car off a cliff and into the ocean to protect him. Kaldur managed to save his adopted father from drowning and keep Black Manta off them but they were both pushed back onto land by Siren.

It was then that Kaldur found out that Black Manta was his biological father. Arthur Curry managed to arrive just in time to save him and his adopted father. Arthur managed to fend off Black Manta and Siren enough to get Kaldur and his adopted father to safety. The three of them then picked up Kaldur's adopted mother and then headed toward an underwater safehouse.

Once there, Kaldur learned more about Arthur and himself. He learned that he was the key to stopping a war between Xebel and the surface, before the war even began. He was then taken to a cave by Arthur where he unlocked a biolock, activating his electric abilities in the process, and saw a message recorded by Mera for him, revealing the truth about his biological parents and what Xebel had done to them and him, as well as the sacrifice Mera had made to protect him and Arthur.

When Arthur tried to get him to leave his life on the surface, his adopted parents, behind to prevent the war, he initially fought back, terrified and insisting that Arthur didn't understand how he felt. But it was made clear that Arthur knew exactly how he felt and he was able to convince Kaldur to dawn the armor and waterbearers left for him. It was in that moment that he took up the mantle of Aqualad.

Together with Arthur, they raced to try to stop the war with Kaldur attempting to help mend Arthur and Mera's relationship along the way. Unfortunately the two of them were attacked and thrown out of the ocean by Siren and her forced, landing on a crowded beach full of civilians. Siren's forces started attacking the civilians, killing as many as they could, but Kaldur and Arthur fought back, trying to stop the army.

Kaldur even clashed swords with Siren herself, trying to protect civilians on the beach so they could get away. But then Siren started claiming that Mera was dead and just as Arthur went to avenge her, Black Manta appeared and cut off his hand. Just as Manta was preparing to strike the killing blow, Kaldur tackled him to get him away from Arthur.

Kaldur fought against his biological father, demanding answers but also desperately trying not to get killed. A part of him wanted to matter to his father, to understand why his father was allied with the people who killed his biological mother and now wanted him dead, only to be told that neither he nor his mother ever mattered to Manta.

That was when Mera, who clearly wasn't dead, and Lorena Marquez arrived and joined the fight. Kaldur and Lorena teamed up against the Xebel forces. Then Arthur had Kaldur use his electrokinesis to cauterize his wound where his hand had been severed off. With Arthur back in action, the four Atlanteans teamed up to drive back Siren's forces. In order to get Siren, her forces, and Manta away from the civilians on the beach, Mera, controlling as much as the ocean as she could, dragged them back into the ocean.

The fight was then taken underwater. Arthur summoned an army of sea creatures to attack Siren's forces. The four Atlanteans all knew they needed to force them back to the Bermuda Triangle and thus back to Xebel.

During the fighting, Kaldur, who was still new to his powers and entirely untrained, started to find his powers, especially his electrokinesis hard to control and painful. The pain increased the closer they got to the Bermuda Triangle. Once they got to the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, at Arthur's instruction, Kaldur let his power lose, opening the field in the Bermuda Triangle and sending Siren, her forces, and even Manta back to Xebel - but not before Manta threatened to come back for Kaldur and kill him as he had Arthur and Mera's own biological son.

Kaldur managed to close the field, trapping them in Xebel for the time being. After the battle, Kaldur, along with Lorena, awkwardly watched as Mera and Arthur kissed after making up. Then the White Lantern power appeared along with Deadman, trying to warn Arthur but it was too late. Arthur vanished.

Kaldur, Lorena, and Mera returned to the surface where the Justice League and other heroes were arriving to help the injured civilians and informed them of what had happened to Arthur. Then chaos broke out and the heroes were forced to spread out over the globe to do the best they could. Kaldur kept close to Lorena and Mera, helping get civilians to safety.

After the battle was done and Arthur returned to life, Kaldur returned to his adopted parents, though he was eager to continue training with Arthur. He also eventually learned that Arthur had contacted the Teen Titans on his behalf.

Subject Interview

This was all still new to him. Jackson - no, Kaldur'ahm - still had a lot to learn. Starting with his name. His adopted parents still called him Jackson. He suspected they always would. But that wasn't his real name, despite as real, as right as it felt. He wanted to try to get used to it. It was the name given to him by, he assumed, his biological mother.

He didn't know that for sure, of course. A part of him was afraid to ask Mera for confirmation, afraid that he would be wrong. He needed something, anything to attach him to his biological mother, to feel like she was still with him even though he had no memory of her. He wasn't sure if she'd even survived long enough to hold him after he'd been born. He wasn't even sure if she'd given birth to him or if he'd had to be cut out--

He stopped at the edge of the reef, abruptly, hands tightening into fists. No, he didn't want to think about that. That wasn't going to help him. Besides, the people of Xebel were still trapped in Xebel. They couldn't hurt him now. And even if they returned and tried to, he now had another family perfectly capable of protecting him and helping him.

That family was compromised of Arthur Curry, Mera, and Lorena Marquez as well as any of their allies. He'd heard about another one, Garth he believed his name was. He hadn't met him yet. He had met some of the Teen Titans but only briefly. He was technically part of their ranks now thanks to Arthur but he still required a lot of training. Sometimes he sparred with the other Titans, but most of his training had to be with fellow Atlanteans.

Jackson - no, Kaldur - sat down on the edge of the reef, eyes following a fish as it swam by. He'd decided that he was perfectly fine with his adopted parents calling him Jackson. It felt right. It felt normal. It felt like it helped link him to his life before, to the time when he'd thought they were his real parents... They still felt like his real parents.

Except now it felt like he had three families. His adopted parents were one. Arthur, Mera, and Lorena were another - he'd asked them to try to call him by Kaldur'ahm or Kaldur in order to try to get used to the name. And despite the fact that his biological father, David Hyde, had made it clear he meant nothing to him, it still felt as if he counted as a third family.

Kaldur groaned, not bothering to try to keep his frustrations to himself. He was off the coast of San Francisco, by himself, after doing some training with the Teen Titans. The team had called in one of their reserve members and the moment he'd seen it was Red Robin, one of Gotham's infamous Bats, he knew he was going to get his butt whooped. And get his butt whooped was indeed what had happened.

It had been embarrassing but he'd only noticed Kid Flash laughing. Of course that didn't mean no one else laughed but he tried to convince himself that it did. His inexperience alone would have been enough to keep him from winning against any of his new teammates, but it was also painfully obvious that he was almost always distracted - a fact he had no doubt was being reported back to Arthur and Mera.

He'd barely had time to process all the revelations and changes in his life when they had first started happening. But then he'd had time to process it all, to let it sink in. It was too much, too fast. A part of him wanted to go back to being a normal teenager in New Mexico. Another part of him didn't want to disappoint Arthur. A third part knew that he had never truly been society's idea of "normal," even ignoring his powers.

There was a lot now he still felt like he didn't know about himself but one thing he realized he'd always known, and it wasn't his powers. He'd tried to deny it, telling himself he had a girlfriend even though she had never really cared about him, they had never really been romantic together. No, he had never been what others would deem as "normal."

So perhaps this part of his life now, being Aqualad, being the son of a murderous supervillain, trying to figure out who he truly was, was all part of a new normal he was inventing.

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Kid Flash / Anna (she/her)

Other Characters: Bart Allen

How did you find ARFD?: Was a member a while ago, rejoined last year.