Supervillains of Note: Beast-Boss

Today's supervillain has one of the most interesting M.O.'s I have ever seen.

Beast-Boss

This guy has a small army of animals that do his bidding, and he can establish mental control over any animal he can reach. I don't mean like trained parrots and crap like that, I mean like bears the size of a car, or really deadly falcons dropping grenades, or cockroach spies. This dude is seriously scary, and he can screw you up from the next state over if you aren't careful.

Beast-Boss is best known for attacking zoos around the country, especially ones with rare animals. He breaks them out, takes them over, and uses them to do other crimes. It's like real-life Poke'mon, apparently - I think he wants one of everything. PETA seriously hates this guy.

Past

Beast-Boss is a former military super, one of the many people who were investigated by the United State's Department of Intelligence under the Stargate Project. He was a patriotic boy from Alabama who signed up for the Army. When they did their standard blood screenings and saw he was Stage 2, they pushed him into the advanced program immediately.

Somewhere along the line, he decided he didn't like what they were doing, and he went out on his own. He got a bucket load of training before he and the Army parted ways, which makes him a difficult villain for anyone to deal with. You saw "Ocean's Eleven", right? Those guys used their paratrooper skills to do crimes. Beast-Boss is like that, and he's got his own army to boot.

Position

Beast-Boss used to be a member of the Bad Ol' Boys, a villain team from the south. The acronym "BOB" is intentional, and yes, I checked, they think it's hilarious. They were big on anti-government tactics and never stole from poor people. Contrary to rumor, none of the Boys were particularly racist. They liked the idea of Southern chivalry.

Beast-Boss's job was running interference. He'd sabotage police vehicles, take down helicopters, cut power lines, and otherwise cause disruptions for anyone who might mess with a BOB operation. His pets could bring in spare weapons for the rest of the group or attack the cops. Police stopped using horses and bloodhounds when BOB was in town, because Beast-Boss could always get to them.

Personality

Beast-Boss is a good ol' boy in the best sense of the term. He's polite, well-mannered, and reasonably intelligent. He told me once that he'd rejected the name "Beastmaster" (based on the movie, natch) because he didn't want the implications of a Southern man with "master" in the name. I think "Boss" sounds more blue-collar anyway, which is about right.

The one thing you absolutely do not do is mess with any of the man's animals. He can feel their physical sensations as well as their pain, and if you hurt them, you hurt him. He genuinely cares about the animals he controls. He's pretty good about keeping them all fed and taken care of. He donates a portion of his income to animal rights groups - anonymously, so they can't return money they knew was donated by a villain.

Powers

Beast-Boss is classified in the Transhuman Capability Catalog as TCC S6/7, because of his control over his pets' nervous systems. He can "infect" animals with a system of control. Biologists dissected one of his dead animals once, and claimed that he was producing organic nano-machines which bonded with their brains. Creepy, if you asked me. I prefer not to think about it, especially if he's able to infect humans too. If he can, he'd be unstoppable.

Aside from control, he's able to empower some of his animals, basically turning them into Stage 2 supers themselves. They get stronger, faster, tougher, and bigger. You think I was joking about bears the size of cars? Forget it, that's real.

Problems

The biggest problem Beast-Boss has is his animals. Sure, they are tough even when not enhanced, but he feels what they do. Enough painful feedback has been known to incapacitate him. He also needs to be in touch range to take control of an animal, limiting his influence.