Vince Crosby

Task Force Gargoyle (Formerly)

Task Force Reaper (Currently)

**Vince "Vinnie" Crosby**is a main character in the TACITUS saga. He is the field comander of Task Force Reaper, and is in charge of leading the vigilante war against organized crime and injustice.

## Biography

### Early life and military career

Vinnie was born on an undisclosed date in the year 1989, in Tucson, Arizona. He didn't have an exactly "normal" childhood; his mother was robbed in front of him when he was at five to six years old, which scarred him for life. This premature exposure to violence led a warped mind, a mind that believed that violence is justified in certain situations (ex: warfare). He attended Columbus High School, where he met Emmett Mack and his sister Diane Mack.

During his junior year of high school, Vinnie met a girl named Inda Montenegro Barrios, whom he instantly fell in love with. However, as Vinnie grew older, he began to get more and more violent-culmilating with an incident where he set a drug lord's residence on fire and robbed him of all his wealth afterwards. About two months after this incident, Inda broke up with him, much to Vinnie's shock and horror. The break-up shocked him, and he felt mentally scarred for quite a while, taking at least until his senior year to officially move on with his life.

After graduating high school, Vinnie Crosby joined the United States Marine Corps, where he served three tours in Iraq, one tour in Afghanistan, two tours in Indonesia, and at least one tour in Syria. Unbeknownst to him, he was inserted into the same Marine unit as another future friend of his-Ellie Cohen. Eventually, Crosby was injured in an ambush/firefight during a mission to assist Iraqi fighters against the Islamic State of New Palestine, an event that also led to the deaths of several of his close friends in the Marines. Traumatized and enraged by the randomless of his loss, Vinnie spent the next few months of his military career obsessing over vengeance against the Islamic State for what they'd done.

### Task Force Gargoyle

Later in his life, Vinnie was approached by a man known as David J. Murray, who was head of a top secret special forces unit known as Task Force Gargoyle. As a Gargoyle operative under David Murray's personal supervision, Vinnie Crosby-using the codename "Jackal"-trained long and hard, and by the year 2015, he was one of Gargoyle's most lethal operatives. Vinnie became notorious for his brazen disregard for protcol and his disturbingly high success rate during missions.

While in Gargoyle, Vinnie was reunited with another operative, Ellie Cohen, codenamed Swordfish, who became one of his closest friends in the unit, having found a mutual connection due to both of them losing close friends to the enemy (Coincidentally, Ellie was part of another US Marine unit that was caught in the same ambush perpetrated by the Islamic State). Together, Vinnie and Ellie formed a nearly untouchable team, slaughtering their way through Islamic State lines in both the campaign against the Islamic State and against other enemies.

Vinnie's biggest (and by far his most notorious) mission was Operation Desert Viper, a hostage rescue mission in Iran against the Islamic State, which had abducted Alexis Gould, friend of Crosby's partner Ellie. Just as before, Crosby and Cohen were nearly untouchable, inflicting large numbers of casualties against the Islamic State, although a large number of United States Marines assisting them in the operation were also killed during the initial ambush. Crosby was nearly unstoppable, killing his way through the Islamic State to reach Gould. Despite heavy casualties being inflicted on both sides, the rescue mission was a huge success and Alexis was returned to her family alive.

### Task Force Reaper

In response to the September 11, 2016 Terrorist Attacks, Vinnie Crosby and Brandon Hitchcock formed Task Force Reaper, a private military company/vigilante network of crime fighters that sought to wage war against organized crime. He formed a rather long record of committing acts of vigilante justice on behalf of other people for the next several years.

### Saints and Sinners

In the story "Saints and Sinners", Vinnie Crosby attends Winter Conference, a conference/getaway in Denver, Colorado, where he eventually comes to faith in Jesus Christ.

### Events of Life: A Compilation

Vinnie is featured in Life: A Compilation.

## Personal life

### Current philosophy

Up until 2017, Vince was an agnostic, but he wasn't not your typical agnostic. He believed that it is possible that some higher power or some holy eternal deity really does exist-he just does not believe the Bible, the Qu'ran, or any holy text from any religion is enough to support the existence of either deity. Simply put, there is a high possibility that *any*of the gods from any of the major religions of the world could be the one true God-the holy texts of the world just don't give out enough information to confirm such a claim (similar to Derek Westbrook and Nikolai Kalinin).

However, as time went on, thanks to being introduced to Jesus through the Campus Crusader Underdogs and his history with the Christian Bible, he had come to what he calls "50-50 faith": part of him is convinced that the Bible could be telling the truth and Jesus may be the only way, the truth and the life, and the only way to God after all (John 14:6), and part of him believes in the possibility that Christianity could be wrong and the Bible could be telling people a load of nonsense. He is convinced that Jesus is indicating that to be saved, one must have an "ungodly" amount of faith, a level of faith that is humanly impossible to attain. He gradually abandoned this view as his faith in Jesus Christ grew.

He also has a rather interesting philosophy concerning people, one that is best described as the Philosophy of "Opposite World"-in Vince's eyes, the people with the most power, the most wealth, and the ones who horde physical possessions are actually weak and insecure, and that they use their power and wealth and material possessioins as a smokescreen to hide their insecurities and therefore lie about themselves. The ones that are weak-they are actually the strongest because in Vince's eyes, they have the potential of doing great things despite their so-called "weakness"; they just haven't unlocked it yet. This explains why Vinnie considers insults that seek to dehumanize and degrade other people are, to him, actually empowering, as evidenced by his experience confronting bullies and abusive people.

He still struggles with guilt, however. Even after he became a Christian, Vince's past sins continued to haunt him at various points in his life. As his faith grew, Vince, much like Derek Westbrook, became a bold believer, sharing his faith with others whenever he could.

He is scathing of the Oneness Pentacostal Movement, calling it a "fake Christian rip-off" and "Phariseeism in disguise." He also believes in "once saved, always saved," and that people who use Bible passages like Hebrews 10:26 and Hebrews 6:4-6 to defend the idea that one can lose their salvation are from Satan. He also believes such people who propagate such ideas are "wolves in sheep's clothing" and trap people into the bondage of Phariseeism (Legalism).

## Skills and abilities

### Linguistics

Vinnie is a polyglot, able to speak multiple languages, due to a gene he inherited from his mother, who was also a polyglot. He can fluently speak French, Russian, Mandarin Chinese (not Cantonese), German, Arabic, and to some extent, even Latin.

### Powers

* Speed and agility-Vinnie can easily outmaneuver most people because of his athletic build.
* Stamina-Vinnie can run long distances for a short period of time.
* Agility-He is not exactly an expert at acrobatics, but he does have fast reflexes and possesses acrobatic skills that allow him to avoid getting hit by gunfire.

### Abilities

* Hand-to-hand combat: Vinnie knows a variety of martial arts, including (but not limited to) Pankration , Krav Maga , the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program  (due to his time in the United States Marines), Vale Tudo , and Nuba Fighting (during his time in Sudan)
* Observation skills: Vinnie is quite good at observing details about people, often to the point where he can know how someone is feeling before being told about their emotions.
* Faster reflexes-Vinnie can sense someone attempting to attack him before any blows can actually land on him during a fight.

## Notable achievements

* 2013-As a United States Marine, Vince Crosby is in Fallujah, hunting down a prominent member of the Islamic State of New Palestine, when he falls into an ambush by said militants. Around half of his men die and Vince and his surviving teammates are injured, but they are saved by mysterious Turkish assassins.
* 2014-Vinnie murders an evil Indian Hindu priest who plotted to force a close friend and former pen pal of Vinnie's into marrying a man she didn't like.
* 2014-Vinnie protects a young Muslim girl from the threat of being executed by her fundamentalist family after it is discovered that she was having an unlawful affair with an "infidel" by brutally slaughtering her whole family.
* 2015-Vinnie investigates a series of murders by a serial killer known as the Bronx Butcher. After locating the Bronx Butcher at a steam junction, prepping the murder of a young woman, Crosby stabs the Butcher to death.
* 2015-Vince joins Task Force Gargoyle
* 2015-Vinnie participates in Operation Desert Viper
* Early 2016-Vinnie and Brandon form Task Force Reaper; his official mission with the organization is the assassination of the nephew of a Saudi prince who is discovered to be funding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
* Early 2016-Vince's second official mission with Task Force Reaper begins with
* Mid 2016-Vinnie and Derek Westbrook find and rescue one of Derek's old friends, a young woman named Amber Young.
* Late 2016-Vince teams up with French officer Laurette Sorel to protect a depressed and suicidal young woman from assassins in New York City.
* 2017-Participation in the February 2018 Religious Riots; in response to a Oneness Pentacostal Street Preacher spreading Oneness Pentacostalism at the St. Louis University of Missouri and the surrounding vicinity, Vince Crosby, Nikolai Kalinin, Emmett Mack, and various others gather up a crowd of people and try to run him out of the campus. The situation suddenly escalates into a full-blown riot when the street preacher persists in his preaching.
* December, 2017-January, 2018= Vinnie attends CCU Winter Conference and converts to Christianity (though he considers himself non-demoninational)
* 2018-February 2018 Religious Riots; in response to a Oneness Pentacostal Street Preacher spreading Christianity at the St. Louis University of Missouri and the surrounding vicinity, Ellie Cohen, Nikolai Kalinin, Emmett Mack, Vince Crosby, Derek Westbrook, and various other people gathered up a crowd of people and spoke against Oneness Pentacostalism. The situation suddenly escalated into a full-blown riot, and eventually a fistfight, when the street preacher persisted in his preaching, and it got so bad that police had to get involved. Thankfully, nobody was severely injured.

## Gallery

Vince Crosby as a Reaper memberVince Crosby showing off his musclesCrosbyVince Crosby while in the Marines
## Quotes

*"She's fading in and out of consciousness! We have to get her to a hospital now!"*

- Crosby to Ellie Cohen while attempting to save an injured Vicki Armstrong from dying of blood loss from a sniper injury.

*"Your first mistake was thinking this wouldn't be personal...In my world,* everything *is personal!"*

- Vince Crosby while threatening an opponent.

*"Welcome to my world, 'ya misguided lunatic....In my world, the weakest are actually the strongest, and the people who think they are the strongest? (laughs) They're actually the weakest. So thank you for calling me an embarrassment-I find it very empowering."*

- Vinnie Crosby to a high school bully.

*"You think that I am weak and feeble just like my mother because of how I live life. You don't know me...you don't know what I am capable of-yet, I find your insult rather-what's the word?-'empowering.' It shows that my so-called weakness is only a smokescreen to hide my true potential, the same way your wealth, your seemingly insurmountable physical power and your craving for material possessions are smokescreens to hide your inward insecurities and contentment issues. The physically weak, in my world, are better off than the physically strong and the materially rich. Why? Because the weak are actually the strongest in disguise-they just don't know it because either, A) they haven't unlocked their true potential yet, or B) they are too lazy to even take that step in the first place. One day, things will change. When life throws a curveball at you- and I have no doubt it will- then mark my words, you are going to realize either in life, or on your deathbed, that it will be because your smokescreen has failed you and your eyes have woken up to the reality that you were never really in control of anything in your life. You can't protect what you can't control. So when life throws a curveball at you-there's no use accusing the other people in your life. You only have yourself to blame.*"

- Vince Crosby

*"Will there been an afterlife, I wonder? Will I see choirs of angels in a place you call Heaven? Or eternal hellfire? To be quite honest, I can be quite sure that I won't be going to Heaven when I die. But why should I fear that? The way I see it, the child who learns to fear hell is never really gone. To me it is sort of...liberating. Sure, I could potentially face an eternal holy being when I die, and said holy being would personally cast me from his presence simply for being a morally filthy creature in his sight.  But I think that's a luxury, not a curse. To know you're close to the end and closer to the day you'll be judged by some eternal being for your crimes that you have committed on this Earth is a kind of freedom. Good time to take...inventory. Inventory of how evil you were during your Earthly existence and how that will affect the judgment whatever holy deity is going to give you in the next life. To me, it's all the same-whether you accept some god's free offer to save you from eternal hell or accept the eternal punishment yourself, it's all the same-you're dead either way so it really makes no difference. But what's that to you? Why should it bother you that I go to Hell, and you go to Heaven when we die? At least you have the security and assurance that you aren't going to Hell. You know where you're going, and you have the assurance and the faith that whatever salvation system you currently follow is the right one. That being said, why should you pester me about it?"*

- Vinnie Crosby giving a speech about the afterlife.

*"If you ask me if I believe in Jesus or not, I'll say this: I'm 50-50. Why? Because part of me is still convinced I could be wrong about Jesus being God, and part of me is convinced Jesus is telling the truth when He claimed to be the only way to God. I mean, I could be right to place my faith in Jesus, but I could be wrong as well-you never know. For all I know, I was wrong to believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God and even that is a lie-but there's no way we can even know* that*. But since you're convinced that the Bible is telling the truth, and that there's no way you can be wrong-then, congratulations. You're one of those people who's totally convinced that Jesus really is the only way to God and His death on the cross and his resurrection in three days really is the only way to get to God and be saved. I'm not totally convinced. My only question now is, does God condemn people for showing skepticism in the claims of Jesus?"*

- Vince Crosby

*"Lemme tell you something, pal: Where I come from, trust is earned!"*

- Vince Crosby to Diane Mack

*"Woe to you fake Christians, you who add to the finished work of Jesus Christ, you who condemn eternal security, and you who promote a false Gospel! You are anathema, condemned by God, you will suffer in eternal hellfire for your unforgivable sin of adding to the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Only Way, the Truth and the Life...!"*

- Vince Crosby as he leads a demonstration against a Oneness Pentacostal street preacher

*"Jesus preached eternal security. Anyone contradicting that is not really a Christian at all, but a wolf in sheep's clothing."*

- Vince Crosby

### Dialog with others

*"Are you ready to **die**, Mister Crosby?"*

(Suddenly, Vinnie bites the man on the hand, takes the knife and stabs him in the chest with his own knife)

*"*(Coolly) *Are you?"*

(Stabs the man to death)

- A serial killer known as The Bronx Butcher and Vince Crosby before the latter kills the former in cold blood

*"These guys are lunatics!"*

- Vince Crosby noticing the reckless fighting style of a team of foreign agents they're fighting

*"Who are you really, Diane? Some girl who wanted to become a small-town hero?"*

*"No...I'm a patriot-I bleed the same blood as you, Vince."*
"Then why are 'ya working with these guys?"

*"Because I belong to them.*(Vince still isn't convinced) *You still don't trust me after that stunt we pulled, do you?"*

*"Man, gimme a break! I don't know shit about you. Where's your loyalty, anyway?"*

*"You know what? It all started when...Nevermind."*

*"Oh, yeah? Try me."*

*"It was two years ago...November, 2015. Islamic State terrorists launched a series of coordinated attacks on various areas in Paris, France. My father was there-he was at a concert when the Islamic State stormed the stadium and shot up the place, killed thousands of people. My father was one of them...a casualty among the dead. He died fighting one of those Jihadist a-holes and protecting others, got blown up by a grenade explosion. They couldn't even identify the body because it was mutilated by shrapnel from the blast. When I found out, I was screwed up for six months... Felt like I had nothing else to live for, getting to the poitn where I felt that meaning in life in and of itself was some kind of logical absurdity, a contradiction of sorts-until Black Rhino came along. They said I could exact retribution against the Islamic State-so I joined."*

(There is a moment of silence; Vince is mortified)

*"Wow... My turn to say I didn't know. I mean, I heard about the attacks, but not...not that your dad was there. I'm sorry, Diane."*

*"What does it matter, Vince? The past is the past...Now, I just live for the present."*

- Vince Crosby and Diane Mack as the latter reveals the origins of her Absurdist views, and her motive for joining Black Rhino