Land Shark

Land Shark is one of the foes created by Southern Cross at the behest of the Wishing Demon, in order to help train herself to capture the villain Wither

## Creation

Land Shark began life as one of those characters mentioned in passing as 'something awesome to fight against the hero'. Ultimately something awesome wasn't enough, and the character went through multiple back-stories including enhanced lab experiment, mutated whaler and even a Eiter infused WWII Japanese sailor before the eventual mystical totem idea was conceptualised.

## Character History

### Backstory

Like the majority of Southern Cross Foes, Land Shark was created by Victoria Queen to help enhance her strength to capture the villain Wither. What little of Land Shark's origin is known revolves around a native from French Polynesia and the shark totem he was bound to coming to Sydney. Initially able to hide his shark like features, Land Shark revealed his true nature when he stopped a bus from running over a child in the road, but despite his heroism, his frightful appearance saw him treated more as a villain, with the police engaging the humanoid shark, with Southern Cross arriving just as he finished the battle with his attackers.

After a brief skirmish Land Shark escaped, but learnt that due to distance from the physical totem that gave him his powers, he couldn't regain his human appearance. Heading to the Australian Museum in the hopes of finding a replacement totem, Land Shark battled Southern Cross again, with the pair causing extensive damage to the museum's art collection before the neophyte heroine eventually defeated her opponent, sending him back to the pages he had been born on, if only for a while.

### The Baron's Revenge

Land Shark would later be approached by the Robber Baron, a formally laughable villain who, through Victoria Queen's retcon of Wither's history with Southern Cross, had become a formidable leader and fighter, Gathering numerous foes such as the City Slicker, Gangster Prankster, The Ghoul and Botany Babe, as well as Land Shark to form a team, ambushing Southern Cross into a six on one battle, with the villains gaining the upper hand, mostly due to their unscripted attack.

Fractures arose in the gang however, with Gangster Prankster second guessing the Baron, as well as spreading lies about him behind his back. Land Shark eventually left the group before Southern Cross rallied and defeated the Baron's Men, with Prankster, Ghoul and Botany Babe sent back to the 'page'. Land Shark himself was captured a short time later at an antique fair, where he tried to steal a Polynesian artefact that apparently had the power turn everyone in the city into humanoid sharks like him.

## Powers

Presumably Land Shark was once a normal human before he was transformed into a giant humanoid shark by a totem containing the soul of a Shark Deity. Due to this the character has all the senses of a shark, as well as inhuman features such as shark like teeth, small dorsal fin and bronze coloured skin that was shown to be resistant to the weapons used against him by the Sydney Police Force, as well as Southern Cross's energy blasts. In addition he showed multiple feats of strength such as ripping through a reinforced blast door, throwing cars at the police and surviving the partial collapse of a building onto him, albeit he was quite injured after the event.

Land Shark's powers also worked against him, especially his inhuman appearance, something that conflicted with his noble nature. As such most of his crimes consisted of thefts that would restore his human appearance or turn everyone else into humanoid sharks like himself. This pattern made him predictable, allowing his foes to gauge where he would strike next. In addition, long time separation from water bodies sapped his strength and durability, as did sustained rapid increases in heat.