a short story about a hero

Toto was a totally normal boy, and was paddling in the sea one day when a sea urchin stung him. At that precise moment, when he was rubbing his foot, he was simultaneously attacked by an octopus, a mosquito and a parrotfish, while being whipped by the tail of a platypus and having a seagull poop on his head….

From such an unlikely confluence of events there could only emerge a new superhero, with impressive superpowers:
Superpower Ultra Man!

Such were his powers that he immediately thought he should not waste them on little things, and Superpower Ultra Man began hunting danger and threats to the world, so he could save us from the worst of the worst.

But the more he searched with his super-sight, the more he travelled the world with his hyper-velocity, and listened to the skies with his multi-frequency digital hearing, he found no one trying to conquer the galaxy or attempting to blow up the planet. He couldn’t even find some villain planning to drain the seas or plunder a mountain. It seemed as thought everyone, the good and the bad, were busy with much more mundane things, and they only had normal problems. So Superpower Ultra Man spent his days bored, exploring the skies in search of missions impossible that were deserving of a superhero of his calibre.

He got so very bored that when they offered him a television program to do, to demonstrate his abilities, he accepted, though he would only get the chance to rescue a few dozen people.

And when, finally, his moment of glory arrived, about which every superhero dreams, his demonstration turned into a complete disaster. Superpower Ultra Man was so used to thinking of things on a grand scale that he didn’t know how to grab and rescue a single person.

He did everything to the max, without controlling his strength or his speed, so the whole thing ended up as a painful mix of blows, bruises, scratches, shouts, broken bones and torn clothing. Hurt and half naked, the “saved” ended up calling the superhero everything under the sun, amid the loud laughter of the public and journalists..

It’s possible that no superhero had ever been so embarrassed. And ever since that day, any time someone refuses to do something because they consider it to be beneath themselves, everyone remembers the case of Superpower Ultra Man and says:

-“Don’t be such a Superpower Ultra Man; if you never learn how to do the little things, you’ll never know greatness