Tom Lehrer is pretty funny. My favorite hunting song is Da Yoopers’ “30 Point Buck.”
Character Contest 44: Nature
Pororoca: an original character who I created for this contest. I have since added him to my meta-verse.
Pororoca
Close-up
Origin
Like many popular Brazilians, the superhero known as “Pororoca” goes by only one name. His grandmother named him. She said that he was born blessed with the heart and spirit of Brazil. In the indigenuous Tupi language, “Pororoca” means “destructive noise”. It is used to describe the large sustained waves that come in from the Atlantic Ocean and churn the mouth of the Amazon River.
This is somewhat a misnomer because Pororoca the man is a gentle spirit. An agile soccer player, a bright student, and a champion mixed martial artist. He discovered his power to manipulate the earth, wind, and sea when he learned to surf.
After some hours of testing his new powers, he ran home. He wanted to know how his grandmother knew. And how did he get this amazing gift. Unfortunately, his whole family had been murdered while he was playing on the ocean.
They had been at a local market when rival drug gangs opened fire in broad daylight. They were not ordinary gangs. They employed super criminals. On one side was the international killer-for-hire El Toro Rojo, “The Red Bull”, a massive minotaur. The other gang had hired Lâmina-fogo, “Fireblade”, a master or pyrotechnics.
Striken with grief, and wanting revenge, Pororoca went after the gangs. He was able to take down the pedestrian thugs. However, he was no match for El Toro Rojo. He barely survived the encounter. Undeterred, he went after Lâmina-fogo. That is when he discovered though he could control water, air, and earth, his weakness was fire. Pororoca swore that he would take down the villains. He would continue to train and fight evil men.
He is a folk hero in Brazil. He is a public superhero with no secret identity. Like his Tupi namesake, he controls water, creating huge waves and jet streams wherever there is a source. He creates sonic booms and winds that can knock down his enemies and barriers. He can cause the earth itself to tremor.
Though he does not have full control of his power. Pororoca might mean to push someone out of the way of an attack or an on-coming vehicle. Instead, the rescuee ends up thrown against a wall, injured but still alive. Still, he does not give up. His other mission is to find the source of his power. He believes that if he can find that, he will learn to control it. Unfortunately, no one outside of his family has ever heard of his grandmother.
