Birth Name: Patrick O'Brian

Alter Ego: The Celtic Sniper

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Country of Origin: Ireland

Archetype: Gifted

Allegiance: Splinter

Appearance: Patrick is a small man, standing at 5'5 and weighing roughly 130lbs. He is an average looking Caucasian man, with short brown hair and dark brown eyes. In addition he has no facial hair. Of course only the Champions (and now the Splinter group) are aware of his actual appearance. When he is not in a safe area, the only place that barely qualifies is HQ, he wears a form fitting black suit that covers him from his feet to just beneath his nose. He also wears a dark brown Irish Tweed cap and dark sunglasses.

Powers/Skills: Patrick is just a man, his parents weren't some sort of aliens or divine beings. He didn't suffer a severe accident and have to have any part of him replaced by shiny metal. He isn't even a metahuman. What he is, is a world class marksman.

His typical weapon of choice is a customized sniper rifle, designed to be able to handle firing the specialized round he occasionally uses. While there may be certain supers that would be able to outshoot him he is unparalleled among most of the world in both range and accuracy.

Despite being most comfortable at long range he is capable of holding his own in closer quarters with his pistol, though he only does this when retreat is unavailable.

While he isn't necessarily the smartest man he does have acute battle awareness and his "nests" are carefully selected.

Even though his body is not immune to the effects he can ignore both very cold and hot temperatures which is a must as he may end up having to stay in one location for several hours or even days at a time.

Equipment/Resources: As mentioned in the Power/Skills Patrick carries both a sniper rifle and a pistol, of the two only the sniper is modified. He also has a small box of specialized ammunition. Normally he will carry a variety of rounds with him, so he can adapt as needed. However when he has intel in advance he will stock extra of a particular round. At the moment he only has a few explosive round left as most of his more unique ammo was used during the Nagoya.

As for resources he still has contacts from his days as a mercenary and they are his primary method of receiving new ammunition, weapons, etc. Though this may end up shifting.

Biography: The first few years of Patrick's life were rather bland and typical, average family life for an only child, regular friendships etc. The only interesting thing that happened was he discovered his love for rifles at a young age. He was staying with his grandfather, who lived in a quaint little cottage out in the middle of the woods, one summer and the old man decided it was time that he learn how to shoot. It took them both by surprise when it turned out that the young lad was a natural. Every target his grandfather gave him he hit dead center, no matter the distance or size. He did have minor trouble with moving targets at first, but he overcame it before the day was up.

Neither had any idea what to do with this talent of his, so rather than think on that they spent the rest of the summer honing it. When Patrick finally had to leave his grandfather gave him his own rifle, and told him to find anyway possible to keep practicing. His parents were less than thrilled when they picked him up, but they relented when they saw just how much Patrick wanted to pursue this. In hindsight this may not have been the best idea they ever had, as Patrick took his grandfather's words to heart.

For the first couple of months after he returned he did what he could to practice, which mainly involved walking for several miles to reach a secluded area. Obviously this place of solitude couldn't last forever, after all when do things ever remain peaceful for talented individuals. One day while he was practicing he was approached by a group of well armed men, well armed to him at least. In reality they just had a few pieces of heavily outdated weaponry. Compared to his hunting rifle though they seemed liked cutting edge technology. The group spoke to him for a while, complimenting his shooting, asking how he found the area, etc. After thirty minutes had passed by they offered him a chance to join their group, promising him not only better practice but a better rifle as well. Remembering his grandfather's words he eagerly agreed. And so at the age of 14 he joined up with a militia group.

He spent the next six years of his life with them. At first all he really did was practice, which was all anyone in the group did except a few members. It wasn't until a year into his stay with them that he made his first kill. They didn't even have to fed him any lines to convince him, he had known for a few months now that the only purpose for his talent would be death. The next five years passed in a blur of pink mist, however as time went on he started to get bored of the group. He had never believed their ideology, and he felt like he was stalling with the small time "missions" he was sent on. He couldn't leave though, not until he knew what the next step would be. Fortunately for him this information was given to him when he overheard a conversation between two of the other members. They were discussing the possibility that they would hire a mercenary for their next job. With the first step of his plan given to him, he quickly began to work out the rest. It really was simple enough, when the mercenary came he made sure that he was practicing, and just like six years ago with the militia group he caught the man's attention. They spoke at length for a while, with Patrick voicing his desire to leave the group and strike out on his own. Despite the nature of his business, it wouldn't make sense for a merc to want to help out an aspiring one as that meant fewer contracts for him, the mercenary agreed to help Patrick establish himself with a few contracts. He wanted to get out of the business anyway and figured he may as well help the young man out. As soon as the merc completed the job for the militia group the two disappeared into the night.

There isn't much to be said about the nine years Patrick spent as a gun for hire. He killed a lot of people, made a lot of money, earned the name The Celtic Sniper, and established connections among arms dealers and the black market. While many of his contracts were given to him by individuals he was hired more than once by the Irish Government, and they are the one who decided he should join the Champions shortly after the formation of the group. While it would have been very easy for them to strong arm him, which would have been detrimental to their health, they found they didn't need to. Patrick was more than willing to join the group, seeing it as a way to further his skills.

While many of the Champions were hurt, both physically and via the media, due to the Nagoya incident Patrick got through relatively unscathed. He was far from the scene of devastation given his long range, and while he killed quite a few people that day none of them were civilians. However with the intense scrutiny the group would be facing, and the fact that another group was being formed from a few of the former Champions and other miscellaneous supers, he decided it would be best to cut ties with the Champions and join the Splinter group.

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