Characteristic
Cost
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3
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10
1
0
3
-1
2
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10
2
8
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20
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10
15
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15
"Denny!" came a shout from the water. It was Pierre, Denis's younger brother. As usual, when not working at the oyster farm, Pierre was free-diving around the reef looking for something delicious. That was a perfect description of Pierre, always looking for fun or something good to eat. That beckon could only mean one thing. Pierre called out again, "Denny! Come over here! There's a bunch of lobsters down here. Come, help me catch them."
Denis licked his chops as he got up from the wicker chair, stopped the movie playing in the VCR, and tossed off his shirt. He ran down to the water, taking a leaping dive into the water of the sandy area between the two close-to-shore reefs. He swam about 50 meters to where Pierre was. Denis smiled at his brother, who gave him a "thumbs up." Pursing their smiles, each took a deep breath. They'd done this many times before. So when Pierre flipped over and dove down into the water, so did Denis. Denis's job was to herd the lobsters toward Pierre, who would catch them as they jumped backward to escape Denis.
This time, however, the lobsters didn't back away from Denis; they turned to the side and scuttled quickly under the nearby large reef formation. Their shelter was easily large enough for the two brothers, so they pursued, hoping to catch the lobsters with their backs against the reef wall.
Instead, they both swam into a tangle of nearly invisible fishing line. Denis and Pierre separately struggled to free themselves, but they only managed to entangle themselves further. Eventually the two blacked out, victims of ill fortune and the capricious ocean.
Denis awoke, not on his bed as if from a bad dream, but still in the same reef bed, his leg still tangled in the mess of fishing line. Pierre was slowly untangling his brother from the mess. It was strange, but it seemed as if Pierre was breathing water. Then Denis noticed that he, too, seemed to breathe there, 20 feet under the water's surface. His body felt strange, too. Before thinking too much, he helped his brother untangle the fishing line that ensnared him. It was slow work and out of frustration, Denis just began pulling it apart, finding that he could easily snap the 50 kg test line. It was a feat that he couldn't have done to save his own life before he blacked out earlier.
Over the next two months, Denis underwent changes, as did Pierre. They both began growing larger. While Pierre continued to grow, Denis finally stopped growing when he was nearly three meters tall. That in itself was not so bad, but Denny's head had been elongating, too. His teeth slowly began shedding and were replaced by sharper triangular-shaped teeth with serrated edges. He began to smell everything much more clearly, especially the smell of food. In fact, his sense of smell became acute when the food was raw or had even traces of exposed blood. And that made him ravenous and somewhat vicious. By the time it seemed that he had stopped changing, resembling a shark as much as a man, his brother, who had grown much larger than Denis with abilities of his own, frequently had to sit upon him, pinning him to the ground until he calmed down. It was during one of these times when Pierre was sitting on Denis on the beach in front of the house that an agent from a large movie studio visited the Ta'aroa home.
Denis was near the top of the list when the Heroes of Filmland team was being selected. A shark movie had been one of the biggest hit movies of the 70s, and the shark attraction a popular one at the studio's theme parks; that made Denis the perfect fit. Research into the sharkman of French Polynesia gave the owners a perfect way to ensure his command of Denis's powers. The ubergene that ran in the family had something to do with growth and, in the elderly, caused severe bone mineral depletion combined with severe muscle atrophy as if the large amount of growth sustained in youth were being paid for in old age. While her ubergene had never fully manifested, Denis's mother, Marie, was suffering from this degenerative disease.
Fortunately, the mysterious new owner of the studios had paid top buck for the services of one of the world's premier uberhuman physiologists, Dr. Johanna Weinhardt. After analysis of Marie Ta'aroa and her two sons, Dr. Weinhardt came up with a therapeutic agent that would remediate the degeneration. Denis was signed to the Heroes of Filmland with the understanding that he would be provided with a large daily supply of raw, bloody meat and that his mother would be provided the drug for as long as he was with the team.
Created by Neil Ma
As a sharkman, Denis is now thoroughly a carnivore, and he likes his meat raw and bloody. Between the sit-down therapies with his brother and similar psychological treatment as a member of the Heroes of Filmland, Denis can now control his reaction to blood.
Denis is sour about what his ubergene has done to his looks. The fact that he is far away from home doesn't help, either. He's frequently sarcastic with his teammates or his brother. He is even more sarcastic to anyone who he views as a competitor, and he often likes to use trash talk with them (he's even worse to villains). Only his mother and his fan club are really treated nicely by him.
Jaws is a brick on land and BRICK in water. He has superhuman strength; very, very tough skin; and an extremely keen sense of smell. Not one for the subtle approach, he works his way quickly to the heart of a fight and just pummels his opponents. In the water, his strength, speed, and defenses are all amplified. His swimming ability makes him nearly unstoppable in the water. One of his favorite tactics is swimming to the water's edge, then leaping at his target. Frequently, those not of stout heart will freeze just from fright.
Denis no longer appears much like Denis anymore. The manifestation of his ubergene has completely transformed him into a half-human/half-shark hybrid. Jaws is very tall-nearly 3 meters-and weighs a good 200 kg. He has thick, leathery skin over his entire body, bluish-gray on the dorsal side and dull white on the ventral side. His eyes are vaguely human-looking except that they are completely black. His mouth and snout resembles a shark's and his smile is definitely as scary as his grimace. The most human parts of him are his extremities, but then, too, his hands and feet are webbed. He typically wears a close-fitting vest and short pants of deep blue to carry things and to preserve his modesty.
Art by Ben Langdon