All of his young life Helmut Brutner aspired to be a marine biologist, despite the japes and chides of his peers who gravitated towards more “cool” vocations like content creators. Undeterred, he spends his afternoons and weekends throughout high school hitching rides on fishing vessels and stowing away on crafts in the marina, captivated by the open ocean and the creatures that inhabit it.
After finishing his degree program he secures an internship at the Florida Institute of Oceanography and is excited at the notion of being a part of a team researching cetaceans, or the mighty chondrichthyes, or even perhaps his favorite the cephalopods. As he reports for his first day he is dismayed to learn that he is being assigned to the sea jelly squad, a team comprised of exactly one member- Helmut. In his mind he has been relegated to the bottom of the oceanic barrel.
As he spends his summer in a dark basement lab watching a variety of jellyfish and their relatives and collecting data, Helmut’s drive and ambition that have carried him to this point waver for the first time. And then, at his lowest moment emotionally, the scaffolding over the jelly tank he is standing on collapses and he is dunked into the tank with his specimens, suffering stings and bioelectric shocks as he scrambles in the water.
Days later he begins noticing some strange changes to his physiology- his reflexes seem faster than usual, he appears younger in the mirror, he has male and female genitalia now, and he is exhibiting the telltale transient anus of the sea walnut. Helmut seems to have somehow inherited the aspects of the sea jellies in the tank….
It’s like Spider-man meets a Jacques Cousteau film in this new and desperate attempt at a superhero franchise. Will Helmut use his new powers to aid the world, or just hang out and bang himself?