Francisco Vasquez

## History

Francisco Vasquez (aka El Chupacabra) had been one of Mexico’s premier superheroes for years when the second incarnation Guardians of the Globe decided to expand its roster.

His past involvement in saving the world, alongside Brit and the Global Defense Agency, made his position on the team a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, when the Guardians came to recruit him, they found that he had fallen onto hard times.

Somewhere along the line, Francisco had cheated on his wife and upon discovering the affair she ended their relationship. Dejected and hurting, Francisco turned to the bottle and found himself frequenting local bars when the Guardians came calling.

### Guardians

Despite his better judgement, Cecil trusted that Francisco would rise above his troubles and become the hero that he once was. He asked him to join the Guardians. With little to nothing left good in his life, Francisco agreed.

Francisco’s first few missions as a Guardian of the Globe were disastrous. Despite his best intentions, he arrived drunk and disoriented. Thus, he was little to no value to his teammates.

Worse, in at least one instance he nearly got some of his teammates killed. It was during this time that Brit and Chupacabra had their first physical encounter. It was only Cecil’s reminder of Francisco’s past glories that make Brit allow him to remain on the team.

This proved to be unfortunate for their ally Cast Iron. He was fatally wounded while protecting Chupacabra (who was too drunk to protect himself) during a particularly violent battle with the Order.

### Cold turkey

A few days later, Francisco attended Cast Iron’s funeral. There, he was viciously attacked by Brit whose rage had boiled over at Francisco’s presence. Brit beat Francisco into near unconsciousness and kicked him off the Guardians’ team.

These events proved to be a catalyst of change for Francisco. He returned to his home in Mexico and began the long process of drying out. He quit drinking cold turkey, and overtime regained a measure of control over his life once more.

During this time, he was approached by several members of the local community that were looking for a missing girl. Despite his reluctance to don his costume again, Francisco re-assumed the identity of El Chupacabra and searched for the little girl.

He found her remains later that night, and mistakenly assumed that the hero named Wolf-man was the culprit. The two battled briefly but quickly realized that the true villain was a body-controlling alien spider from another dimension.

With the help of the Guardians’ members Monster Girl, Japandroid and Outrun, Francisco helped defeat the alien and gave the girl’s family some closure.

### On the wagon

Francisco’s actions that night put him back in good standing with the Guardians. He was accepted back into his role as a member of the team. He participated in a few more adventures with them before he built up enough courage to visit Cast Iron’s family and admit his part in their son’s death.

He journeyed to Serbia where he found Cast Iron’s family, the Stojakovics. These were actually a crime cartel made up entirely of members that possessed the same superhuman ability to transform their flesh into iron that the fallen hero did. His arrival caused much consternation among the criminals who immediately decided to kill him.

Chupacabra, utilizing all of his wits and skill, managed to defeat the entire family and take them into custody. He did so by destroying a dam that was built against their land. Then Vasquez rendered them unconscious as they reverted back into their flesh and blood bodies in order to surface from the deluge of water.

With the first leg of his apology tour completed, Chupacabra continued his world wide journey to make amends for his past sins.