No Soul Left Behind is now available for purchase in print and PDF! Now you can plan out your own villainous careers while running/ruining the future of the Brighter Futures Academy! Though what is a villain without other villains to get in their way? In the excerpt we present Hector Noriega or HECK-TORE, an antagonist presented in the sixth adventure ‘The Performance Gap’:
Hector Noriega was a visiting UPS driver given the wrong visitor’s lanyard at the wrong time. If only he’d remembered to give it back before leaving the building, he might not have wrecked his truck when the demonic amulet branded him. It got him fired, but he soon learned it was the best thing to ever happen to him. The demon too.
Hector had more stepfathers than he could count, and Mom used to make up for gaps in their abuse by leaving him without food for days. He came from a neighborhood where domestic military deployment seemed like a good idea. He’d long dreamed of gangs, of mafias, of becoming the kind of kingpin that could take back whatever he felt life had stolen from him at that particular moment. But the crew on his block laughed at the mere thought of rolling with a 5’4” bucktoothed asthmatic. The drug dealers of his youth saw him as a victim. When he managed to get a decent job and get out the neighborhood, he found the straight world thought even less of him. He was pitiable, disadvantaged, an affirmative action hire that should be grateful for his mandatory overtime. Hector lived a life built for revenge. The demonic seed that infested him blossomed in the shit that was left of his soul.
Now that Hector can turn into a giant made of fire and impale people with his tongue from 50 feet away, he’s done wasting time. Noriega’s first task was dismembering his old boss. He then took the man’s money, walked through the worst neighborhood he could find, and flashed around a wad of cash until he got mugged. One bloodstained alley and a traumatized criminal later, Hector was being led to their leader. That guy resigned. Violently.
Screw costumes and codenames and all that nonsense. Forget ransoming national monuments and taking over live news broadcasts. Hector is going to get what he’s owed. Life’s always been for those strong enough to take it, and he has some catching up to do.