Hooktooth
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Hooktooth | |
| Player: @Neurotix | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 45 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Narcissus Styx |
| Known Aliases: | Hook, Styx, Fishface |
| Species: | Mutated Human/Humanoid Shark |
| Age: | 19 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 215 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Dead Black |
| Hair Color: | None |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American Citizen |
| Occupation: | Hero-for-Hire, Adventurer, Fortune Seeker |
| Place of Birth: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | In a relationship with Cosmic Lilac |
| Known Relatives: | Parents: Linda and James Styx (Deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| Heightened regeneration and metabolism that allows him to regenerate minor to moderate wounds at a rapid pace and run at superhuman speeds | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Underwater breathing, Superhuman sense of smell, Superhuman sense of hearing, Ability to feel electronic pulses around him, Superhuman strength, Hand-to-hand combat | |
| Equipment | |
| Several flashbang/concussion grenades, standard-issue Apple iComm©, and a battered, black iPod Shuffle | |
| Hooktooth is, more or less, a humanoid shark. As such, he looks almost exactly like this. | |
Contents |
Personality
For a sharkman, Hooktooth definitely breaks the stereotype. With villains like Captain Mako running around, one would think that sharks can be nothing but bloodthirsty killing machines, however one look at Hook would certainly change minds. Ever upbeat, even with his face in the dirt and a boot on his head, he's always ready with his trademark grin and a snappy, sarcastic comeback. Newly recovered from a long bout of post-mutation depression, and combined with his shark-like nature, he tries very hard not to relapse or outwardly seem anything but normal. Normally, he exudes a sense of self-control and confidance, however when he catches the scent of blood any semblance of self-control dissappears instantly. To those who don't know him, his cheerful demeanor may be misinterpreted as vanity and pride, however this is not the case in the least. Hooktooth is merely a mutant trying to make the best of his condition.
He is not against killing and generally believes it to be a much easier and more economically friendly solution to spending tax-payers dollars on having criminals rot in jail for long periods of time. This tends to lead to arguments with more "law-friendly" heroes, and causes an abundance of troubles between him and law enforcement in general.
Mutations
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Fighting Style
Hooktooth, for better or worse, does not have a specific fighting style. He generally sticks to the "berserker" style, as he does not plan his attacks before executing them. This is not to say that he is unaware of the fight around him. His manner of fighting has a tendancy to change based on how the fight started, how the fight is going, how many people are in the fight, and what the extenuating circumstances are. As such, he is not against killing and generally believes it to be much easier and more economically friendly. His primary weapon against his enemies are his natural weapons: his claws, teeth, tail, and brute force. He is known to wield these with deadly efficiency, and more often than not, Hook can be seen turning his enemies attacks against them. This has lead to the question of whether or not he ever recieved conventional combat training or any form of martial arts.
Regeneration
Hooktooth's enhanced regeneration allows him to regenerate anything from a papercut to a lost limb. However, the speed at which he regenerates and the quality of the regeneration varies based on how dire the wound is. For example, were he to cut his finger with a knife while cooking, the wound would close in a matter of seconds. Were he to be skewered on some lucky villain's sharp implement and left to die, he would regenerate the wound in a matter of hours. Severed organ/artery requires a day. Were he to cut his finger off, it would regrow in a matter of days. Partial loss of organ requires a week. Loss of limb requires several weeks. Partial loss of organ requires a week. Complete loss of organ requires a month. Muscle takes the least amount of time to regrow, tissue coming in close second, and bone in third. His regeneration speed is also affected by the condition in which he is hurt. If surrounded by several foes and in combat, he recovers faster than if merely standing calmly alone.
Metabolism
Despite the fact that normal sharks can survive on a single meal for several months, Hooktooth's superhuman metabolism causes him to need to feed almost constantly. Due to his financial situation, this tends to be a problem and he has been known to resort to cannibalism (that is, eating his enemies) in order to stay fed. However, this also keeps him from being affected by many types of disorders and diseases that would affect normal humans. On that note, he has inherited the shark's immunity to cancer. This has caused a rather large stir in certain scientific circles, and is viewed as the next possible step to curing cancer. On the other hand, his metabolism also keeps him constantly sober, not matter how much he drinks. But, it beats chemotherapy, right?
Superspeed
Hooktooth's natural skin texture, combined with his sleek form, hypermetabolism, and superhuman strength and speed, allows him to run a extremely high rates of speed. While he has not yet been clocked on a spedometer, he is estimated to run at an average of slightly lower than the speed of sound.
Underwater Breathing
Sets of five gills on either side of Hooktooth's neck provide him with the ability to breathe underwater. Due to his unique physiology, these gills function to the same effect as lungs both in and outside of the water. He has no lungs to speak of, but at this point in time, this has yet to trouble or affect him adversely in any way.
Supersenses
Much like a normal shark, Hooktooth has extremely enhanced senses in comparison to a normal human being. He has a highly developed sense of smell, which would allow him to detect a single drop of blood in 25 million drops of water. Outside the water, his sense of smell triples, allowing him to smell clear across an apartment complex. His eyesight is far better than any human's; about 7 times better, in fact. In addition, he has a nictitating membrane that allows him to protect his eyes, but still see clearly. As a shark, he retains the electrosensory "sixth sense" from a collection of small, mechanoreceptive spots and jelly-filled electrical sensing pores called "Ampullae of Lorenzini." With this he can feel mild vibrations, movement, temperature changes, and electromagnetic fields in his immediate area. Along with this, he has powerful jaws which can shoot forward and clamp down hard enough to shred through steel, and extremely enhanced hearing, much like that of a bat.
Energy Manipulation
Due to some fluke in his mutative process, Hook's mutant genes perked up again momentarily to grant him the ability to manipulate the natural energy in the world around him and convert it into a different type of matter. How he does this, no one is really sure. All he knows is that suddenly he can't miss, and is able to shoot laserbeams from his eyes. So, yes. He's a shark with frickin' laserbeams coming from his frickin' head.
Weaknesses
As a water-based anthropomorph, he must spend several hours a day in the water or else begin to dehydrate at an extremely accelerated rate. In addition, his regeneration can only go so far. For example, essential organs such as the heart or brain cannot be regenerated. As for psychological weaknesses, he generally adheres to a rather loose form of chivalry. Hooktooth refuses to kill or seriously injure those who are not fighting against him by their own volition. Therefore, he has had a very hard time fighting the Carnival of Shadows and many Praetorian followers. In addition, he can easily be provoked to frenzy if the smell of human blood is introduced into the environment. These could easily be used to a tactical advantage, if done properly.
History
Early Life
My name is Narcissus Styx. And I wasn't always like this. Life used to be good. Well...good enough. I lived in the slums of Boston with my mother and father. My mother was a math tutor during the day, and moon-lit as a stripper to earn us some extra cash. My father worked as a taxi driver for the city. Money was tight most of the time, and more often than not we had trouble getting our rent together. A few times I tried to convince my parents to let me get a job, but they said education always comes first. So, I focused on school. I was a good kid, always got A's, and had many good friends. Some might have even called me popular. But, for the most part, I did not really think of it that way. Hard as it was though, life was good. But it got great, real fast. Every morning, my father would go to the grocery store, get a ham sandwich, a diet coke, and a lottery ticket. And every night, my father would sit down in front of the television, and wait for the Mega-Millions lottery numbers to come on. He'd sit there for hours on end, just waiting for the program to come on for all of three minutes, in hopes that he'd see his numbers: 03-20-90. Every time, just before the program would come on, I would ask my father why he played those numbers. Every time, he would turn to me and say, "It's because that was the happiest day of my life. That was the day my lucky charm was given to me."
To be honest, I had never known what he meant by that. I always thought it was some lucky penny, or a four leaf clover that he had found on that day. As I grew older, I slowly took notice that it also happened to be my birthday, but I never managed to connect the dots for some reason. Well, on March nineteenth of 2002, he was sitting in his chair, waiting for the program as usual. My mother was cleaning dishes in the kitchen, talking half to me and half to herself about the next day's festivities. It was only a few minutes before the program was to start, and my father had his eyes glued to the television. I looked away from my mother and up to him, and asked him again what the numbers were for. Right on queue, he answered, "It's because that was the day my lucky charm was given to me." I smiled and nodded, just to humor him, though I still hadn't the slightest idea what that meant. But then, my father turned toward me, and pulled me up onto his lap, looking directly into my eyes. He smiled softly a moment, then said, "Son, I want you to make a wish." I looked at him rather oddly, but he merely nodded. "I want you to make a wish, and wish it with all of your heart." I stared at him for another moment and then, realizing that he was quite serious, I closed my eyes and wished with every fiber of my body. Then the program started.
I tried to pay attention to the program, I really did, but my father's wierdness had confused me to the point of not being able to focus. His words stuck in my mind, and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what he meant by that. So when his jaw suddenly dropped, the lottery ticket following suit, I hardly noticed. It was only when he turned to me in an utterly floored expression that I realized something had happened. "What did you wish for?" I blinked, confused, and replied automatically. "I wished that I knew what you meant when you said you got your lucky charm..."
Another soft smile spread across his face, as he reached down to pick up the ticket and held it up in front of the television. I looked from the ticket, to the television, and back to the ticket again. The numbers were identical. Wide-eyed, I looked back to my father, unable to speak. He kissed my forehead, and smiled wider. "I meant that our life's about to change thanks to you, my lucky charm."
Rikti Invasion
May 23rd, 2002. A day that would live in infamy, as they say. The day started out so nice, too. Sun shining, birds chirping, alarm buzzing. Well, maybe not that nice. We'd since moved in to a new house, and it was big. Biggest house I think I'd ever been in. At first, we thought it might be a bit much, but my parents wanted a change and I certainly wasn't going to complain. I remember getting ready for school as usual - I was in the eighth grade then - not expecting anything strange to happen at all. It was a field-trip day, which meant that we'd be getting back to school later than most. But most of the students would still be there. The field trip was to the beach, for some reason or other. It was a good day for going to the beach, over all, and it retrospect I can understand why they chose that day. But, it doesn't make it any better in the long run. The beach-adventure passed rather uneventfully, other than a bit of flirting with girls, some romping about on the sand, and a lot of splashing friends in the water. But, as with all good things, it had to end eventually.
At around 3:50, we boarded the buses and began the hour-long drive back to school. No one, not even the bus driver, seemed to notice anything wrong on the way back at all. Until we got to the school, that is. It was 4:45 by then, and the portals had been open for fifteen minutes. As it turned out, there was one about five hundred feet above the school, and another down in the basement. All the students piled out of the buses, and headed inside to get changed again and get ready for afternoon pick-up. But, the governor had other ideas.
While some states just let the chaos rage in the streets, Massachusetts was not one of them. The moment that the portals opened, he shut down every major roadway and ordered that everyone stay in their homes, places of work, and schools until they could figure out what these portals were. Which meant that we were having an all-school sleepover. My classmates and I were thrilled. The staff had pulled out all the cots that they had, and set large groups of students up in both gymnasiums and the auditorium. However, it was only about 6:00 by the time the set-up was completed and every kid in the entire school was amped. They had us all file into the auditorium, and watch as they played some stupid movie for us. It didn't matter. No one was watching it. An hour and a half later, halfway into the movie, it started. I was in the bathroom at the time, and I heard shouting in the hallways. At first, I was excited, because I thought someone had pulled an excellent prank. But then the screams started, and the smell of ozone reached my nostrils. Deep down in the pit of my gut, I knew something bad had happened. Even then I knew that Death had come, and had no intentions of leaving soon.
I burst out of the bathroom, in hopes of getting away from whatever was causing this tragedy - just as a group of Rikti rounded the corner. Kids were running everywhere, the place was chaos. There were black scars across the walls where plasma fire had hit it, and blood was already beginning to claim itself as the new wallpaper. The Rikti charged down the hallway, though not directly at me. Several pulled massive swords from their backs and held them low to the ground, as if ready to swing. Others merely levelled their blasters at the scurrying children. Then the blood began to fly. One Rikti in particular, with his sword slung low, turned toward me and began advancing quickly. I was rooted to the spot, I was so terrified. I would have died then and there, had some brave idiot not jumped infront of me at the last second. I remember the crackle of the energy sword against flesh, then blood blasted backward at me as the man fell in two pieces. The Rikti must've thought I'd died, because it quickly moved on to another target as I dropped to my knees and crawled toward the man. From there things get hazy. I remember the taste of blood in my mouth, and then everything went red. It was my first frenzy, my first change. But, what does stick firmly in my mind was the taste of the blood, and the face of the man who fell for me that day.
My father, smiling his soft smile up at me. A single tear fell upon his face, before the blood took over. I slowly closed his eyes, and looked up at the Rikti around me with such hatred and divine fury that I've never been able to muster since. After that, all I remember is coming to hours later, lying in a pool of slick, oily Rikti blood, surrounded by their battered, shredded remains.
Sorry, dad. I guess I just wasn't lucky enough...
Invasion Aftermath
Hooktooth Today
Evolution-X
Immediately after arriving in Paragon City, Hook decided that in order to really do some good in the world, he'd need a bit of training. So, after a quick search for any active groups that also happened to be willing to teach budding mutants, he happened upon Evolution-X. One speedy meeting with a certain Steelo, he was inducted into the group. He spent an exciting several months with the group, but as his raging mutation seemed to near it's final resting place he found that there was actually very little for him to learn. So, naturally, when his friends within Evo-X found that they had reached the same point, he joined them in branching off into their own group: Aces Wild.
Aces Wild
Creating a new group out of an old one's members it always tough, but Hooktooth was optimistic. Each member had their own ideas as to what the group should stand for, and how they should be structured but they quickly began to find a common ground. As soldiers of fortune. It wasn't long before they had their charter completely written and signed, and were on their way to becoming a true Super Group. However, when it came to the topic of where and what their base would be, all were at a loss. While everyone had great ideas, none could come up with something interesting and original enough to get unanimous approval. Until they found the "Titan," that is. Sunk into the bottom of the Independence Port harbor, Hook himself found it on an early morning patrol. With the help of the rest of the Aces, and even Lusca herself, they managed to dig the ship out of the harbor and repair it to operational status. The group has since settled into their new home, but after all he's been through, Hook has begun to wonder what's next? Perhaps time will tell...
Trivia
- Hook has a rather long, dark scar that runs from his left shoulder to right hip, and it is rumored that this scar was the handiwork of the Night Widow Nocturne.
- Unlike Captain Mako, Hooktooth has a four-foot-long tail that continues as an extension of his spine. This tail is just as much a part of him as his arm is, and he uses it as such. For the most part, the tail appears prehensile. However, he is yet to be seen using it to lift or hold anything with it
- Despite being rather upbeat most of the time, Hook does carry a bottle of prescription anti-depressant medication on him at all times
- Hook does not sleep. Ever. He does this because in order to sleep conventionally he would be forced to put both his higher brain and his "lizard-brain" to rest simultaneously. Thus far he has found this to be impossible, and sticks to setting one to sleep at a time
- When in solo-combat, Hook generally sets his higher brain to sleep and allows his "lizard-brain" to take over. However, when in a group, he retains both brain functions. This is to keep from frenzying around any of his friends and comrades, and thereby causing meaningless and avoidable harm to anyone. While socializing he generally puts the "lizard-brain" to sleep, however this does not always work as planned
- Hooktooth's "lizard-brain" can be woken up or provoked into dominance by the smell of human blood, but as of late he has managed to keep this under control
- When in a frenzy, Hook loses all sense of place, time, and restiction. He generally doesn't remember events that occured during a frenzy, though this is probably for the best. While in a frenzy, he will attack anything and everything that both moves and smells like food. This can and has been known to include nearby allies and innocent bystanders, much to his later dismay
- Hook has a thing for cats. Be they catgirls or just plain old cats, there is a special place in his heart for the small (or large) furry critters
- Due to his extremely developed sense of smell, much of his mood is governed by the scents of those around him. For example, the male-pheromones that other anthropomorphs give off tend to make him territorial, while the scent of perfumes (lilacs specifically) tends to put him in a state of blissful calm
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