Fortunato (Wild Cards)

Fortunato is a character from the Wild Cards series of books. He is a pimp, but prefers to downplay, even to himself, the negative aspects of his "escort" business (calling his prostitutes "geishas", for example). Fortunato is also an ace. His wild card grants him immense telepathic and telekinetic powers. These include but are not limited to: mind control; flight; force walls; mental blasts; reading the future (and the past) and subjective temporal manipulation. Dr. Tachyon believes him to be Earth's most powerful mental/telepathic wild card (Starshine may be the most powerful non-mental). Fortunato derives all his power from tantric sex magic. Tantric rituals feed his power reserve, which then allow him to utilize his massive powers. However, the more he uses them, the faster he runs out of power. In terms of powers and strength, Fortunato is even (or nearly even) with the Astronomer; this is one of the most obvious case of opposites in the Wild Cards' universe (Fortunato gaining his power from sex—the source of life—while The Astronomer gains his powers from death).

Fortunato was an infant of unspecified age on the first Wild Card Day. Son of an unnamed African-American soldier and his wife Ichiko, a Japanese woman he brought back to New York after WWII, Fortunato was infected by the initial wave of virus carrying spores released into the upper atmosphere during Jetboy's battle with Dr. Tod. Fortunato became a latent carrier of the virus that would not "turn his card" until many years later. His father was not so lucky, dying after drawing the Black Queen. Raised by his mother, Fortunato was subjected to various forms of discrimination due to his mixed parentage and grew into a handsome, but angry young man. Graduating from petty crime to pimping, Fortunato brought home the first girl in his stable at age sixteen.

In the 70's, Fortunato was introduced to tantric sex magic while "auditioning" a new girl. The intense orgasm brought on by the sex ritual triggered his latent wild card, causing him to have an out-of-body experience. Disheartened to learn that Fortunato's sudden powers were the result of a virus rather than true magic, Fortunato's new girl left the city. Undeterred, Fortunato continued to pursue research into tantric rituals as a means for further developing his mental abilities. However, he was not prompted solely by curiosity. A serial killer had been preying upon New York prostitutes, including his own, and Fortunato wanted revenge. Still in the early stages of developing his power, the ace pimp brought a handgun as backup. Forced to kill in self defense, instead of the righteous revenge he had planned, Fortunato was unable to question the murderer. Disgusted, but seemingly unable to stop himself, he performed a tantric ritual upon the dead man's corpse, briefly bringing it back to life. Though never explicitly stated, guilt brought on by this experience could be the reason Fortunato consistently accused Dr. Tachyon of being a "faggot from outer space." Only temporarily revitalized, the corpse uttered the word "Tiamat" and then tore its own throat out. This, along with a strange red penny carried by the killer, served as Fortunato's only clue in a mystery that would eventually bring him into conflict with the deadly Astronomer.

Description

Even before turning his wild card, Fortunato was a tall, muscular individual with intense sex appeal. Inheriting the best features of both parents, Fortunato was a handsome man of African-American and Japanese descent with pronounced epicanthic folds around his eyes. After drawing his ace, Fortunato literally radiated sexual magnetism, even though the virus had physically manifested in a somewhat distended forehead as outward evidence of his prodigious mental powers. When using his powers to their fullest, a pair of quasi-real, curving horns will often appear, extending outward from his enlarged forehead.