My name is Seraph. I am…or was…the leader of the Gunslingers, a group of highly skilled mercenaries that did “special” jobs for the United States government. Until the greedy officials who we worked for betrayed us.

It was a highly dangerous mission. My friends, Jeremy and Rico, myself, and my girlfriend, Karen, were the ones deployed for a special job in Iraq, where apparently a new terrorist group known as ‘Symphony’ had arisen.

According to our reports, they had taken down all U.S. Army units stationed in the country and taken over bits of the surrounding countries, resulting in a tragic number of military and civilian casualties.

We were able to go through with the whole mission successfully. After infiltrating Symphony’s base, we destroyed their nuclear research facilities and assassinated the leader, which in turn caused most of the group to surrender with minimal resistance, which was quickly dealt with.

After the U.S. Special Forces showed up and arrested the members who hadn’t been killed, we approached their commander and demanded our pay. $300,000 is what we asked for the job, which was nothing considering what they had paid us before.

But instead of handing over our pay, the commander ordered his men to open fire on us. We were taken by surprise and were unprepared. Rico, Jeremy, and even Karen were all killed. I somehow survived the slaughter and was taken prisoner. I was charged with treason for killing three of the soldiers that attacked.

The jury wouldn’t believe a mercenary, and took the word of the military. I was charged with life in prison, but the commander who turned on us, Eriks, had other plans. I was taken to a special holding cell where I was repeatedly tortured. Many experiments were conducted on my body. Strange experiments using some sort of strange glowing liquid, all I can remember about it is that it made me sick to my stomach and caused me to have hallucinations. Eventually, when I had apparently outlived my usefulness, I was executed and buried in a cemetery somewhere in New York.

Twenty years later, I was revived by a doctor named Damian Marcus and a few of his colleagues. The strange chemicals put into my body during the experiments had served as a kind of preservative and my body had not deteriorated at the normal state human bodies usually do. Adding this fact with twenty years of new technology, Marcus had made my body stronger and more resilient. Unfortunately there was no way for them to bring back my friends.

They explained to me that Symphony had risen to power again, and over the years had made its way onto American soil. A lot of American soil. It had taken over the whole northeastern part of the United States. According to data files I was the only one who stood a chance against them, so they resurrected me. I had to fight an even stronger Symphony, alone…but first, I had some unfinished business to take care of, and I knew where I had to go…

Fast forward to today.

I stood outside of the old Asylum where I had been held. I recalled all that had happened, all the suffering; everything was fresh in my mind. Dr. Marcus walked up beside me. “So you really plan to go back there?” I didn’t look at him, “Yes…I’m going to make Eriks pay for killing them…I know he’s here…still putting people through the same pain I suffered…” Marcus shook his head then reached into a small pouch he had been carrying and pulled out a large black handgun with a blood red crosses on both sides. He handed me the gun and a few clips.

“Karen…Rico, Jeremy, I’ll avenge you…Watch over me…” I whispered. Marcus put his hand on my shoulder, “I have one more thing for you.” He handed me a very heavy blood red coat with silver crosses on each of the sleeves. “May the good lord watch over you Seraph, I wish you luck.” With that he got into his car and drove away.

I pushed my long silver hair out of my face and slowly opened the gates.