{"id":2462,"date":"2014-05-05T14:34:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T20:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/?p=2462"},"modified":"2014-05-05T14:34:52","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T20:34:52","slug":"better-angels-big-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/2014\/05\/better-angels-big-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Angels: Big Shot of The Villainous Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Big-Shot\"<\/a>Written by Greg Stolze, illustrated by Kurt Komoda, (c) 2014.<\/i><\/p>\n

In a lineup full of prosocial juggernauts\u2014whistle-blowers, clean-governance advocates, philanthropists\u2014Mack Cready would stick out like a sore thumb.\u00a0 Mack started as an oil roughneck, struck it rich on a long-shot wildcat investment, transitioned into real estate and routinely told anyone who hit him up for a donation just where they could get off.\u00a0 (Specifically, where they could get off his property, which was a sprawling ranch in Texas.)<\/p>\n

Cready married a beauty queen half his age, invested in art and sports teams, drank expensive scotch, and got bored.\u00a0 He got really, really<\/em> bored.<\/p>\n

Unlike some of his peers, he didn\u2019t really feel threatened by the poor\u2014hell, he\u2019d been<\/em> poor.\u00a0 Other millionaires spent their time and efforts at high culture, but Cready just didn\u2019t have the background.\u00a0 Still others involved themselves in politics of the right or left, but all Mack ever heard from both ends were how their efforts backfired and how those heartless conservative bastards (or liberal, depending) were now more powerful and dangerous than ever<\/em>.\u00a0 It was all a lot of BS.<\/p>\n

Catching his young wife with a young lover wasn\u2019t the last straw.\u00a0 Realizing that he didn\u2019t really care\u2014that<\/em> was the last<\/em> straw.\u00a0 So he revamped a half-baked charitable institution he\u2019d started for oil-field workers too injured to work and put all his money into it, except for $100 (because he didn\u2019t want to be destitute).\u00a0 He cut up his credit cards, sold his houses and property and dumped it all into that nonprofit.\u00a0 The sole exception was two cars, one of which he figured his wife would take in the divorce.\u00a0 (She did.\u00a0 She also got fifty of his last dollars, but the attorney he hired to set up the trust fund worked really well with his divorce lawyer.)<\/p>\n

At the age of 47, having been poor and rich and now poor again, he started over.<\/p>\n

When General Null heard the story, he immediately set out to recruit Cready, seeing in his story a parallel of the life of Siddhartha.\u00a0 It took him five months to track down the former millionaire, who was working as a dishwasher in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d Null asked. \u201cEver wanted to be a supervillain?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really,\u201d Cready replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will,\u201d Null responded.\u00a0 He was right.<\/p>\n

Of all the Villainous Nine, the Big Shot is easily the most flamboyant.\u00a0 His cowboy outfit is black, with red fringe and white rhinestones.\u00a0 A huge hat compliments his black domino mask and pencil-thin mustache.\u00a0 Naturally, he\u2019s got spurs and a pair of six-shooters, which make a nice compliment to his other attacks.\u00a0 (They\u2019re big bulky +2 Advantage revolvers.)\u00a0 He likes to start out with a Dominator Strike (which looks a lot like a tracer round) and then follow up with gunshots and surprise Telekinesis attacks.\u00a0 His Carapace expresses itself as a shimmering wall of shiny black interference, like visible heat-haze.\u00a0 Sadly for him, when his Giant aspect activates, it shreds those garments, leaving him a towering middle-aged white guy with his tackle hanging out.<\/p>\n

CUNNING<\/strong> 1, PATIENT<\/strong> 1
\nGreed<\/em> 0, Generosity<\/em> 1
\nEspionage<\/em> 1, Knowledge<\/em> 1<\/p>\n

SLY<\/strong> 3, OPEN<\/strong> 3
\nCruelty<\/em> 4, Courage<\/em> 3
\nCowardice<\/em> 1, Endurance<\/em> 3<\/p>\n

DEVIOUS<\/strong> 1, INSIGHTFUL<\/strong> 2
\nCorruption<\/em> 1, Nurture<\/em> 2
\nDeceit<\/em> 2, Honesty<\/em> 2<\/p>\n

POWERS:<\/strong> Dominator Strike (Enervating), Telekinesis<\/p>\n

ASPECTS:<\/strong> Carapace, Giant<\/p>\n

PRIMARY SINFUL STRATEGY:<\/strong> Sly<\/p>\n

\"Better<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Greg Stolze, illustrated by Kurt Komoda, (c) 2014. In a lineup full of prosocial juggernauts\u2014whistle-blowers, clean-governance advocates, philanthropists\u2014Mack Cready would<\/p>\n

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