Clara "Crosshair" Agnote

### Dislikes

Abandonment. Betrayal. Magus society. Most mages. People who try to be buddy buddy with her way too quickly. Bad parents. People telling her to smile more.

## Magic

### Principle

N/A

**Clara "Crosshair" Agnote** is the squad sniper of the Snake Tong's Unit 9, the Bad Batch. Serving as the ace sharpshooter of the spec ops commando unit, Crosshair excels at long-range combat and firearms. A woman of few words for strangers, most you would hear from her is a short and snappy remark, or the sound of her rifle firing, Loyal to her family, the Bad Batch, first, everything comes second.

## Background

Clara was born into the Silva lineage of mages, a family that had come to South America during the colonial period. They were astromancers who took many opportunities in this new world including financial ones that led them to obtain great wealth. In the current generation, the Silvas had twins, Clara and her sister Cassia. Clara probably would have grown up studying the family magic 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 a specific type of magic 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 magic 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 more commonly known: the Shiai-shi, the Snakes, or the Tong.

Like many in her situation or similar ones, the Tong initially intended to essentially process her body for parts. However, a man named Pedro Agnote had an interest in making sure that didn’t happen, having already adopted two children destined to meet that end he also took in Clara. Meeting her new siblings, John and Isa, they tried to welcome her and act like a big bro and sis for her.

Unfortunately, Clara was hardly in the mood for that when they first met. Her own parents had just sold her, the only reason she was alive was that a specific member of the Tong offered to pay even more for her. She had been abandoned by the people she should have been able to trust most on a completely different continent and was in no mood for the meet and greet no matter how friendly they were. For about a week she was completely unresponsive except for the occasional meal that she would eat alone and when she first did respond it was only to snap at them to leave her alone.

Fortunately for all involved, this did not last forever. It took a long time but she did eventually acknowledge that these people are trying to help her and give her a family that she can rely on. Even with this realization, she was a bit hesitant but over time they truly became family such that she would proudly call herself an Agnote and a future member of unit 9’s new generation. That being said she wasn’t entirely sure what she would bring to the team of misfits. Sure, John and Isa weren’t any more suitable to be proper mages than she was but they still had some ability to cast, even aside from that John had his leadership skills and heightened senses while Isa had her exceptional strength that made her a formidable foe with or without magic. Clara, on the other hand, didn’t really stick out much, she couldn’t cast magic at all and while she was competent in her martial arts lessons it wasn’t necessarily enough to keep up with the rest of the future unit.

This changed when Pedro decided they were old enough to start firearm training and brought them to a Snake-owned range/instructor. Despite being completely new to using a gun she hit the target every time, often around the middle. Handguns, rifles, 10 meters, 20 meters, etc. she proved herself a genius with firearms as well as this being the moment they began to suspect her psychic ability. Having found her talent she dedicated herself to training with firearms. When it came time to test her as an enforcer of the Tong she broke records in accuracy, speed, and distance that as of now have only been broken by the present Clara. This exceptional performance earned her the nickname “Crosshair” among her siblings and fellow trainees, a nickname that she began to use as though it were her real name as a way of distancing herself from her past and solidifying her role as a member of unit 9.

When the time came she became the sniper of enforcement unit 9, with the unit specializing in acting as spec op commandos. Her skills continued to hold up even against live targets, proving her worthy of her nickname and reputation. Crosshair herself isn’t sure exactly when or how it started but eventually unit 9 became known as the Bad Batch for being a “bad batch” of mage rejects. Although this was sometimes said in a derogatory way, Crosshair always took it as a title to be proud of. Maybe they are a bad batch of rejects and outcasts but even so, they managed to become a successful unit for a powerful organization.

Although the unit was successful enough with just the current 4 members they did occasionally find someone else who needed a place to belong. Such was the case with Claire Bellerose who had been kidnapped and whose family had decided that a “failure” like her wasn’t worth saving. Instead the Bad Batch just happened to be after the same group that had kidnapped her. Crosshair herself wasn’t present to meet Claire, being the sniper she was taking the role of lookout outside the building. Initially Crosshair was distant to the new addition to the team but did eventually see her as another sister.

From then on things went mostly as normal until one day a mission went wrong. They were sent to assassinate the Hegemon of Solisia island and they did but killing him immediately set off security measures. In the end Pedro had to act as a diversion while Crosshair and the rest of the Batch reluctantly left without their father. Not willing to completely abandon him, unit 9 did come back for his body and he was given a funeral in which he recieved commemoration from Fenghuang herself. Shortly after the funeral Claire admitted that the event had shaken her and that she had already been having doubts about the type of work they were doing. Contrary to Claire’s expectation, Crosshair and the rest of the batch were all understanding of this and were willing to help her get out by faking her death in the next mission.

So the unit was reduced to only three members. The unit was able to begin filling up again however as they once again rescued a magus who had been betrayed by the ones they trusted. During a mission in Europe the Batch came across one Monika Bergmann who had just had an assassination attempted on her by the organization that she had dedicated herself to until this moment. Crosshair was still a little more affected by the deaths and departures in the unit than she was willing to let on so when John, now codenamed “cap” and the new leader of the unit, offered to recruit Monika she made a snarky comment about how they were “taking in the strays now”. Cap pointed out to her that unit 9 is basically a squad of strays anyway and Crosshair didn’t care to make anymore fuss.

Their new 5th member came in the form of Jonathan Holme. An orphan whose orphanage was being run by a splinter group from the Martyrdom that was using its charges as experimentation on cybernetics with the intention of using them as weapons in the future. For all its zealotry even the Martyrdom doesn’t approve of child harm and had put a bounty on the group that unit 9 was sent to collect, afterwards Johnathan insisted on joining unit 9. Finally there was Elaine.

One day the Bad Batch received a mission for the Tong itself rather than a client. The Shiai-shi doesn’t appreciate it when other mercenaries try to get in on their turf and had received word about one such group known as the Moths. Unit 9 was to eliminate and/or drive off the group for taking jobs in snake territory without permission. When they arrived the group was oddly enough already running at them and one was injured. They didn’t question it too much and just fought off the healthy members. Crosshair was about to execute the injured one when she heard the group curse that one as a traitor. Hearing this the batch took her in for questioning where they learned that she was the one who had told them where the Moths would be. When Crosshair first heard this she was a bit pissed off even if it did help them but it quickly came to light that this wasn’t a true betrayal. Rather Elaine was pretty much the only thing keeping the Moths from killing each other and intended to give their hate a new target while also removing their leader so that they would disband and separate rather than killing each other. This culminated in Elaine admitting she was interested in how well Unit 9 seemed to work together compared to the Moths and that she would like to join.

Since then Crosshair has continued to work as the sniper of the Bad Batch. She doesn’t have many ambitions of her own. Only wishing to remain beside the family she chose and to continue to be useful to their unit.

## Personality

Due to being abandoned by her own parents who she should have been able to trust above all else she has big trust issues. Even though that was a lifetime ago it’s left its scars on her mentality. Wanting to make sure that she never gets betrayed again she can potentially take years to open up even a little to people. Treating everyone as though they intend to betray her until she’s sure they don’t. A guilty until proven innocent mindset.

Due to those trust issues and assumption that anyone can betray her she is pretty cold to anyone outside of her brothers and sisters in arms. Outside of unit 9 Crosshair doesn’t even care for her fellow snakes as much as her squadmates do, mostly just performing her obligation as ally and nothing more. She is not completely void of empathy but has a low opinion of humanity thanks to her experiences in life and prioritizes herself and her own. Even with her squadmates she can get a bit sarcastic. On the brightside this also means she usually doesn’t hate people on an individual basis since that would require her to care about them.

Her main and only loyalty is to the Bad Batch. By extension this does make her loyal to the Snakes but it is very conditional and dependent on her own unit. Even if all of unit 9 were declared traitors and were unambiguously in the wrong, Crosshair would stand beside them against any and all other Snakes. She doesn’t often state this loyalty but it isn’t because she wants to maintain a distant tough girl attitude or anything. She simply knows that her squadmates have her back they know she has theirs.

When it comes to their status as a “bad batch” of rejects Crosshair doesn’t really get upset about it. As mentioned she even takes pride in their differences from most mages and snakes. Even so she does despise insults against her squadmates and will always respond, whether with words or fists, unless a squadmate of hers is there to stop her. If the insult is only directed at her on the other hand she simply doesn’t care and will brush it off, possibly while also insulting them thinking that would upset her.

Crosshair doesn’t have many personal hobbies, when left to her own devices she will spend most of her time training to be a better sniper and enforcement agent. She even once said “I do not need to go out more. Our missions are enough”. Because of this most of the time she does go out and do something it’s because her squadmates invited her which she’s always willing to accept.

Crosshair has received disciplinary actions in the past for hitting other snakes. Her punishments usually aren’t too major as she is never the instigator but it is a bit of a recurring situation

## Abilities

### "Sharpshooter"

While it isn’t technically magic, Crosshair 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.

### Equipment and Magic Items

Although Crosshair is incapable of magic and therefore incapable of making magic items she has received items and such from the Tong and from the Bad Batch’s magic specialist, Grim.

Among these are modifications to her eyes that give her perfect eyesight, the ability to zoom in/hyper focus, and the ability to track moving targets even if they’re going way faster than she’s capable of.

Provided by the Shiai-shi are a variety of special bullets such as exploding rounds, ricochet rounds, third impact transmutation bullets, Mk 2 momentum transfer bullets, etc.

Standard to Tong members are the iconic bulletproof/magic resistant suit and a knife that can disperse magical energy, her knife is shaped like a combat knife although it’s not the most suitable for direct combat still. Her Shroud Tie mask is customized with a white reticle design on the right side of her eye slit, emphasizing her role as the markswoman of the Unit.

Grim has also provided many modifications to her rifles that enhance their performance.