Crystalline Universe: Team Fortress 2 Overwatch - Volume 3: Crystalline Universe: Bloodline's Curse Chapter 83 Rick Mundy The Fallen Gunman Of Team Fortress
” Boom, Headshot! ”
“Sniper’s good job, mate. It’s challenging work, it pays and it guarantees you won’t go hungry, cause at the end of the day, as long as two people’s left on the planet, someone is gonna want someone dead. ”
I was the best assassin in this team of 9 crazed mercenaries. Throughout the years, rather it’s on 2 forts, Dustbowl, Harvest or Badwater, I made sure to make my victims’ heads roll. We’ve been through some insane and almost nonsensical adventure together. To discover that I was born to a family in the lost underwater city of New Zeland to coming back to life after being dead for 2 days, I lived all kinds of madness this world could ever offer to someone of my profession.
All I can say is… after all those years of being the most dangerous sniper in Australia, I’ve lived the profession to the fullest. At the age of 41, I decided to settle down and marry my younger wife, Victoria. You could say life goes happily ever after but how can anyone in our family line settle down and not live all the excitement that comes with being a mercenary.
I had one daughter that gave birth to my 2 grandchildren: Charles (Sniper) and Amelia (Mike’s mother). At a very young age, Charles wanted to become an assassin just like I was, so I trained him. I trained him well, maybe too well, since he became a hitman working for many associations at the age of 13. Heck! This little bastard… hehe… became known as Sniper. THE SINGLE BLOODY BEST Sniper in the world.
He was the pride of the Mundy name, he was ready to take on any job given to him for the right price. He was also the first to be compatible with my old friend’s son’s invention: The Crystal. Ethan gave him the power to manipulate molecules and energy at his fingertips. But as a wise man once said: “Great power comes with great responsibility. ” …See, I must of course correct him: “Great power comes with great corruption. ” Corruption… not only for the user himself but also for the mind of those around him.
Who else is a better example than me? Blinded by the vision of omnipotence in him, I forgot we are humans after all. I forgot he is a man under this mist of greatness, I forgot to not miss my target, I forgot I could be the subject of horrible mistake.
Evelynn, this girl, was Charles’s girlfriend. As time went on, the two forged an inseparable relationship. And I, the old fool, made a fatal mistake… the mistake that cost millions of lives today, the mistake that caused this war.
One day, he came to me and said: “Grandpa, I want to quit my job. I want to leave everything behind. ”
Back then, where I was still blinded by the vision of him having unlimited power, I thought: Why? I thought why would he give up his position, why would he give up a power no man could’ve ever dreamed to possess? One simple answer: Evelynn was pregnant. He chose to commit his life to her and not to the (selfish) power that could *change* the future of humanity for the better (or for the worse).
I said I missed my shot, I did. The bomb blew her up, not me. I killed… I did know back then she had Charles’s child, I committed a crime that humanity could never forgive. Now that I think about it, I wish I was the one who was blown up instead. To add insult to injury, I did not tell anyone about it and it made it look like Sniper killed her with his ability by accident. I killed not only her but also Charles’s heart. That day, I created the monster known as Sniper. I created a ruthless man without mercy or remorse that would even stab a defenceless old man 325 times or kill a baby by slowly strangling it for 35 minutes. All I wanted was to put Charles back in his position, back in the right path of his destiny as the man that would change the world for the better.
*crying*
The cold stare of the *Sniper helmet* still haunts me… it reminds me who I truly am. I ran away to become a hermit, hiding the Australian outback. I lost my privilege as a man, I lost everything. I decided to live beyond the age of man, I used an Australium device to keep myself alive so that I could one day fix the mistakes I made.
The camping car stopped by a graveyard where the rotting tombstones stood in perfect lines with each other. Rick jumped out of his vehicle and slowly walked toward the gravestone with [Victoria Lacross 1942-2029] labelled on its front. The old man quietly dropped to his knees and dropped a small bouquet of flowers in front of it.
[Rick] – “Victoria, I have a confession to make. I know how long we have last seen each other, I miss you but I don’t if you would miss me. You could see everything up there in the sky and you should know my sins. ”
I spent my time spying Sniper’s action around the world but most of the time, I’m powerless to act. Sniper’s empire is like an unbreakable iron wall that I have to destroy and I, being nothing more than an old rotten worm that can’t do nothin’ against it.
It’s Mike’s birth who brought joy to my face for the first time since the incident. Seeing that life could still prosper in our family despite the tragedy is more than heart-warming for me. You saw what happened to Mike on his 18th birthday, you saw how no one in our family could escape the cruelty of this world. Mike’s life has been a mess, I have to admit I could’ve acted when he had his personality disorder, I admit I could’ve helped in many ways… but I don’t wanna make mistake, I don’t wanna accidentally make another monster.
Tears slowly flowed across Rick’s cheeks as he cried in pure anguish and agony as his heart is being torn to shred. His tears flowed like a river into the soil as he felt the guilt crashing down upon him.
I… I… *pause* I k…kkkk… Killed Mike. I removed what made him a man, I removed his feelings, his emotions, what made him… himself. *sobs* I once again had to act when he was going mad searching for his kidnapped wife. I told him that he was destined to become the emperor and take Sniper’s place. I made him believe that he is fated to stand as the most powerful being and rule the world.
This is a curse! This curse started with me, then Charles and now Mike. A curse carved in our blood by birth, a bloodline’s curse! A curse that fated the one to be his victim to chose between 2 paths of life: become a ruthless tyrant or fall as others who rose with greater power dominate you. To say the least, Mike was close to archive greatness but he tried to run from his fate by choosing love and revenge, he cannot run from it and those that do will be punished. But I cannot blame him, we, being human, will always choose love, which is the most logical option to our eyes. The only way to live is to accept what fate prepared for us. I made Mike understand that he must face the hardsh.i.p.s, not try to run away and become what fate wanted him to become.
Only God knows balance, power in the hand of God is the only power we can trust but in hands of humans, it will only make us who we are: A bunch of corrupt savages that seek to destroy everything. I cannot hope for Mike to be a peaceful ruler if he overthrows Sniper because no one can resist corruption by great power. But… a fallen angel is always better than Satan himself.
But I learned to never miss again, I placed a flaw in Mike’s emotion removal. Mike’s emotions will still slightly be triggered every time when he sees something that will strongly remind him of his past or provoke powerful emotions in him. For example, Kadyn.
I did this because I believe there is more to these two than what we see. During Mike’s personality crisis, Kadyn did the impossible. Those two made me feel that they were entangled by fate. I have never seen such dedication, such loyalty and such commitment between 2 persons. I believe if this world still has some light left, that Kadyn one day come back to him and give him some sense in the head as a counterbalance to the corruption of power.
Mike is my wagger token for the fate of this world, to repair part of my mistakes and to dethrone the devil. If Mike fails, humanity will enter a dark age ruled by a dark God. I believe! I believe, not in nothingness, but that this curse or fate can be broken, that a man could do more than act on his nature. I believe this fantasy.
To be continued… Next Chapter: [Operation incision]
