Clara Silva

**Clara Silva** is a member of the Sentinel, and leader of its Havoc Squad. She is Crosshair from a different timeline where her would be adopted father was not around and she was instead taken in by the Sentinel. Highly skilled in long range combat as well as espionage, she leads Havoc Squad as she aids in the Sentinel's shadowy crusade against the corrupt and criminal groups that the organization targets, especially the Snake Tong.

## Background

Clara was born into the Silva lineage of mages, a family that had come to South America during the colonial period. They were alchemists who took many opportunities in this new world including engaging in some experiments on themselves that led to the lineage losing pigmentation in its members. In the current generation, the Silvas had twins, Clara and her sister Cassia. Clara probably would have grown up studying the family alchemy and advancing its goals if it weren’t for one thing, she was born as a psychic rather than a magus.

This was discovered when she was about four. While psychics do have power of their own it is almost never related to alchemy and even if it were, Clara would be incapable of passing on a mana lobe as she lacked one herself and would also be incapable of advancing the family magecraft for the same reason. The Silva family was a very traditional and pragmatic lineage, if Clara would not contribute to the family then there was no reason to waste time and resources raising her. Due to this, she was sold to the Chengshi She or as they are more commonly known: the Shiai-shi, the Snakes, or the Tong.

There was a man among the snakes, Pedro Agnote. He was kind for a mercenary and especially had an interest in taking care of children discarded by their parents. Unfortunately though he had already died a year prior and his future successor was only the same age as Clara herself. With that man gone, there was no one invested enough in the Snake's human trafficking to pick her out and she was sent to a workshop with several other children for processing into "parts".

However on the way there, she overheard some of their captors talking, though she couldn’t understand their words, they did sound concerned about something. Still though she didn't show too much interest in this development. Her parents abandoned her and she was halfway across the world. As far as she was concerned all that was left to do was to accept whatever fate she was being brought to. Even if they were having some problems, anything she could do at that moment would change nothing and no one cared about her.

Her attitude changed a little when suddenly there were the sounds of magic and gunshots outside. This alerted all of the children, some became scared, some became hopeful, Clara was somewhere in the middle. She listened as the sound of combat continued on for a little while until eventually stopping. It was completely silent for a moment, then the door to the container the children were hidden in was opened. Standing there were five men and women in suits.

At first the children recoiled when they saw the suits as their guards had been dressed the same. However these people only treated them with kindness, in gestures and multiple languages they urged the children to come out and go with them quickly. They had boarded the transport ship in an ambush and now brought the children back with them to their own boat so as to leave quickly before the Snakes could return.

Clara at first thought that they were police but they denied that. So she then asked if they were like those people from the spy movies, to which she was merely answered with a smile. Once the group had gotten far enough away they started asking the children questions like “do you know how to contact your parents?” “Where do you live?” etc. Clara was stubborn about answering these questions at first but eventually she admitted that her parents wouldn’t want her back which prompted another couple children to answer the same. While this was saddening news it wasn’t entirely unexpected by the agents, such children are frequent targets for this kind of thing after all. So the children who answered as such were brought back with them.

Clara ended up being entrusted to one of the women who had rescued her, Mary O’Connell. While she was grateful for that, things were still a little awkward at first. It was only natural considering she was suddenly living with a stranger in some new country. She was also rather closed off after being abandoned by her own parents and almost being shipped off to her death. Mary also had her mission she still had to go on, she didn’t get nearly as much as before now that she was taking care of a kid but it did leave some gaps in their interactions. Fortunately Mary understood this would be a gradual process and gave Clara however much time she needed while also still encouraging her to open up whenever she wanted to.

Over time Clara began to open up much to Mary’s delight. She started playing with other kids and such, she may have been able to lead a normal life but even though she was opening up that experience never really left her. When she was nine she started asking Mary questions about that again and talking about how cool she was. Mary had been on that operation as an agent of Sentinel and therefore tried to dance around the questions, not wanting to expose the organization and not wanting Clara to feel obligated to follow the same path, but Clara was very persistent.

As Clara continued to show curiosity and interest, Mary began to wonder if maybe Clara might actually want to go on this path. She decided to settle the matter with a secret test. The next few times she went out for groceries or whatever she was purposely a little sloppy with putting away her Sentinel things. Nothing dangerous but enough that a sufficiently curious and intelligent individual living in her house could figure out what it is that she does. If Clara could figure it out within a month she would answer all her questions. Sure enough she was soon being questioned and praised much more accurately by the young girl in her care. So she sat down with Clara and explained in full what it is that she does.

Clara was super excited to learn that her guardian was indeed like a spy from the movies. She wanted to help people just like her and Mary eventually accepted but made it clear that Clara would have to take her training very seriously. Indeed, Mary turned out to be much more strict as a teacher than as a guardian but only because these lessons would save Clara’s life one day. Something that was drilled into Clara and which she took to heart.

When Clara was sixteen, Mary officially sponsored her as a trainee in the two year official Sentinel training regime. She was a quick learner and especially excelled in her marksmanship lessons. So much so that her instructors actually modified her schedule, replacing many of her marksmanship lessons with other ones as they accurately predicted how her marksmanship would quickly reach exceptional levels even by the standards of a full agent. During her lessons she met up with several of the other children that had been saved by Sentinel and they ended up bonding over the mutual experience.

When she graduated, Clara applied to be an international agent like Mary and in fact for her first six months Mary would always accompany her on missions. She wanted to make sure that Clara had really learned everything she needed to and that she wouldn't panic in a real mission. Mary was quickly satisfied and began letting Clara go on missions on her own or with other partners. As it happens she would end up going on many missions with those same fellow trainees she had bonded with. Many of them chose the same types of missions in an effort to prevent their own past from happening to future children.

After a particularly successful mission, Clara made a suggestion. They worked with each other pretty often anyway, why not make it official? So together they worked on a petition to form a new international squad dedicated to the types of missions they had already been going on. To her surprise Clara was made the leader, the council and directors deciding that her bright mind, outgoing personality, and cool head would be good traits. Not to mention as a sniper she would often have the best overall view of missions.

Since then Havoc squad has been a successful and tightly knit squad. They have truly lived up to their name and have wreaked havoc on many criminal and corrupt organizations. Rescuing captives, stopping the production of a highly dangerous and addictive magical drug, preventing assassinations on philanthropists and other well meaning individuals, etc. Clara herself continues to serve well as squad leader.

## Personality

Clara is a fairly, though not extremely so, outgoing and laidback individual in her free time. She doesn't go out of her way to make new friends just for the heck of it but she is fairly receptive to it. Clara enjoys hanging out with her squad and often invites them to things when they have the time, going to arcades, having movie nights, embarking on hiking trips, etc. She also enjoys jokes with her own sense of humor being dry, witty, and sarcastic. When they are off of missions she’s fine with her squadmates calling her anything, within reason. The only exception to this is that she dislikes being referred to primarily as “Silva”, associating it with her parents who abandoned her.

On missions she still retains some of her witty humor but overall gets a lot more serious. Missions are after all often a case of life and death so she tries to keep her squad focused on the task at hand. She does allow a small amount of banter, especially between agents right next to each other, but over all tries to keep irrelevant topics off the coms. She doesn't enjoy killing or injuring for its own sake but does admittedly get some satisfaction from particularly despicable targets.

Even if she was never officially adopted, she has an undeniably mother-daughter relationship with Mary. The two are very close and even though they don't really look anything like each other, those who see them together can quickly enough guess at their familial bond. Clara is very respectful towards her, although she also learned much of her humor from her and they sometimes exchange witticisms.

Clara dislikes all sorts of crime groups but she especially still holds a grudge against the Snake Tong. This is admittedly in large part because of her own personal past with them. It is also because of the overall actions of the Snakes. They use human beings for parts, tolerate and even benefit from inhumane experimentation in their territory, kill for the highest bidder, and unlike Mary who had to be convinced by Clara they often direct children under their care into this life. All told, they're an organization Clara would like to see dismantled.

Out of the Snakes, Havoc squad has a particular rivalry with Unit 9 which they seem to engage oddly frequently but also indecisively. Clara herself has some personal interest in and sympathy for the squad. Intel suggests that all of them were once children abused or discarded like her, having found companionship with each other. One of them even defected with the support of the others and joined Sentinel. Even so in regard to the ones who still remain in Unit 9 she cannot condone their actions. They willingly and happily work for an organization that would have just as happily destroyed some of their number if it weren't for the action of a single man. In the end they are still her enemy, an obstacle on the road to a world where children can be safe.

Clara likes to help all sorts of people but she especially likes helping children due to her own past as well as her belief that children are generally innocent. She won’t hesitate to take any missions that aid children and approaches them with even more zeal than usual. In general, she enjoys being around kids and is both patient and playful with them.

In the past Clara used to have intense trust issues and also avoided socializing with people for a while. Even with Mary she was thankful but for the first month they didn't have any proper conversation. Over time though she began to get a more optimistic and trusting view on things, it helped that her maternal figure did good work and raised her away from the life of a magus. These things improved her view of people, yeah there's certainly bad people around but not everyone is the same. Her comrades, Mary, and Clara herself all fight simply for what's right. She sometimes finds it ironic that a group of super spies and secret agents helped her to trust others again.

Clara is a big fan of spy media and has been ever since she was rescued. Some of her comrades do find this odd, after all they basically live those movies. To this Clara responds that hey, people watch movies about high school and shows about people just hanging out. She sometimes likes to imitate the style of one-liners from these films

## Abilities

### Sharpshooter

Clara was born with a psychic ability known as “Sharpshooter”. Even without her great amount of skill as a shooter, this psychic ability would allow her to land most of her shots where she meant to. Combined with her skill at shooting she can make shots that most snipers wouldn’t even consider in their dreams. While she mostly uses this ability for sniping it can also be used with any other form of ranged attack such as throwing her knife or shooting a handgun. Once she’s using a ranged weapon, Clara simply feels the best way to use it to hit her target.

### Marksmanship

Clara is an exceptionally skilled shooter which has earned her the codename “Crosshair”. She is skilled with all types of guns and can reliably hit targets at ranges most other snipers would consider to be impossible outside of sheer luck. All of this even without taking her psychic ability into account. She is also quite skilled with other ranged weapons such as the ones provided by Sentinel. Clara is considered to be one of the best snipers in all of Sentinel, most consider her to be in the contending for the absolute best.

In a contest of pure marksmanship, Snake Clara would beat Sentinel Clara 15/20 times. At their skill level though the difference is largely negligible and against most targets one will perform just as well as the other.

### CQC

Although she is primarily a sniper, no Sentinel agent is sent into the field without the skills to fight in close quarters. After all their role as more subtle agents means they can’t always go in guns blazing and it’s best to know how to fight up close when you’ll regularly infiltrate enemy positions before acting. Clara is skilled enough to take on multiple combatants in close quarters. She is not on the level of a highly dedicated and skilled martial arts specialist unless she can make good use of her gadgets, she can put up a good fight but will eventually be defeated.

### Acting

As a trained and elite spy, part of Clara’s repertoire of skills is her ability to play a role. Given the right information and some time to get into character she can play just about any role. Arrogant magus, random sleeper, member of a criminal group, etc. Although Havoc squad doesn’t really get used for long-term undercover missions it is still a fairly useful skill for things like infiltrating events or other areas that would normally be off limits

### Equipment

#### Seers

Contact lenses worn by many Sentinel agents on missions. They have a variety of utility uses. They allow users to see through objects including walls, identify and translate languages, tag important things, zoom in, and quickly identify people of interest. They also have shared perception spells useful for group missions being able to look through a teammate's eyes, send "footage" back to HQ, and transmit visual information

#### Vanguard

The Sentinel vanguard is a defense type piece of equipment. It's made with durable plasteel frames and manaweave canvas to appear as an umbrella and provide greater defense than the Sentinel uniform. In addition the inside of the umbrella can turn transparent so that the user does not have to sacrifice vision for defense. The vanguard is mostly meant as a shield against projectiles but has also found great uses as a melee weapon and is able to fire projectiles of its own from the tip, most often rubber bullets

#### Watcher

The aptly named Watcher wristwatch has a dart launcher hidden inside it that can fire small but sharp darts often filled with venom of some sort. Effects can vary from being lethal, to knocking out, to disorientation, to amnesia.

#### Bladerunners

Retractable blades hidden within the soles of shoes worn by Sentinel agents. They are primarily meant to be used as surprise weapons against enemies who have no idea about them or as a secret tool to cut out off or through things.

#### Ironclad

A design contributed by armory associate, Antonia Monomiki. The ironclad is another mystic code meant to look like a wristwatch and remain undetected until use. It is less subtle than the watcher, meant more for combat. The ironclad once activated covers the wearer's hand in armor tougher than even the Sentinel uniform and is capable of casting offensive spells, some lethal some not. Clara generally wears either the watcher or the ironclad depending on the mission.

#### Shroud

An item made for stealth operations. It's a cloak or a blanket meant to cover a single agent plus their equipment. The shroud automatically adapts to its surroundings to camouflage the wearer. It also prevents magical energy from leaking out and absorbs sound. It is unfortunately not made of the same materials as the Sentinel uniform and can be more easily damaged, which is why it's usually worn over the uniform.