#fieldagentellis

[empatheticagent]

digging up the past

@sadiebrin

It had been a long time since Ray had intentionally used his powers on someone beyond training exercises and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't at all nervous. At least this was something pre-arranged and agreed to by both parties, which helped. He'd taken the morning slow, with minimal contact with others to make sure he was mentally and emotionally prepared for the task, even wearing his old gloves to minimise the risk of accidental power triggers that would ruin his focused (mostly) calm. 

Marco thankfully would be there, monitoring the situation the whole time in case things went wrong. It reassured Ray, knowing his mentor friend would be there and was able to safely break Ray's connection to the other if needed.

The other person being another friend of Marco's; Sadie Brin.

They'd talked about it on and off for a while before everyone felt… reasonably comfortable giving the whole thing a go. Ray understood the reluctance of having someone 'messing around' in their head, especially after past traumas from Hydra. Marco so far absolutely refused to be the training subject, always having suggested Nic do so while he keeps watch, which…made sense, but Ray could visibly see the apprehension Marco always had when it was brought up.

But it wasn't the umbrakinetic's past they were trying to uncover that evening, it was Sadie's, so Ray shrugged and refocused.

He was sitting waiting in their usual training room on cushions they'd set up, deciding it was safer than a meeting room when they were going to be uncovering painful emotions and memories when most people's power tended to be tied to emotions. 

Ray had decided the cushions set up on the training mats was better than the little table and chairs across the room as there was a chance that himself or Sadie (or potentially both of them) would need to lie down afterward and already on the floor was far safer than having to get up from a chair and moving away to lie down. He'd learned that the hard way after one particularly rough session.

Ray opened his eyes and looked up at Marco, who was pacing by the edge of the training mats as they waited for Sadie. "Please pace a bit further away if you're gonna be all anxious like that," he sighed, lifting his glasses to rub his eyes. "It's distracting."

[sadiebrin]

Double Agents

Crisp fall air caressed Sadie’s cheeks, rosy with the cold. As the evening came about, the soldier stepped outside for one of her first outings since she’d arrived in New York. Between withdrawal, physically recovering, and trying to wrap her mind around all of the new information, she’d been cooped up indoors for the most part. But she could only sit still for so long. 

When everything felt on the brink of overwhelming her, Sadie took to the park. Hood pulled up over her hair, the woman kept her head low as she stepped. Her eyes darted about, keeping track as best she could, of the sensory overload that was New York. Even at night, the city was alive. But at least at this hour it had room to breathe. And the park was quiet. She felt more comfortable here. The heavy scent of garbage mingling with various food vendors, wasn’t as strong, the lights not as blinding, the horns and shouting not as harsh to the ears. There was a faint smell of horse manure in certain spots around the park, but she didn’t find she minded that as much.

She was rounding the outskirts of the park, getting ready to head back to the suite, when she spotted someone in the distance. Familiarity raised the hairs at the back of her neck, and she resisted the urge to freeze in place. Sadie’s eyes darted about, doing her best to otherwise clear the area. They were getting closer, and she was sure she knew him. He’d been with them, hadn’t he? Or was her mind playing tricks on her in the dim lighting? How had they found her already? Had she missed a tracker somewhere?

The fingers of Sadie’s left hand slipped into the jacket pocket, while her right hung at her side, ready to crouch and shift the ground the moment she needed to.

[agentsterling]

[from fieldagentellis] Marco found Sterling in one of the break rooms, pushing a small object into one of the agent’s hands once he’d been greeted. It was a small, wood carved turtle. “A certain empath mentioned the date during our last training session.”

Sterling looked up instinctually when Ellis came in to see who it was but went back to his work pretty quickly after a short wave of greeting. When the wooden turtle was pushed into his view, however, he smiled and stopped to look up at the man.

"Oh, Rebecca is going to be extremely jealous of this." He said, picking it up and looking it over. "Thank you. This is extremely thoughtful. Sit. Please. I'd love to catchup."

[theghostofagentweiss]

Clay had left Cassie in the apartment promising her he would go to SHIELD and find answers. She had mentioned something about Ray training with Marco so his instinct was to find Marco in his office on base. The only problem was Marco didn’t exactly know Clay was a thing. Or did he? Ray had been so secretive lately he doubted he would have told him and as far as he knew only Germaine and the ones working on him really knew about him and that Ray had been communicating with him.

Well, he also had Kristi. He’d go to her if he couldn’t figure out Marco. 

He passed through the wall of the man’s office and looked around hurriedly, trying to figure out what the man was up to. If he was aware about Ray. He leaned over his shoulder to see what he was doing, getting what would have been uncomfortably close if Marco was able to see him but not touching him to make him aware of the cold. 

“Come on, Shadow Man. Whatcha got?”

@fieldagentellis

[sergeantcooper]

@fieldagentellis​  liked for a starter

“Don’t get me wrong the whole shadow things is cool and all but if you expect me to make this shot I need to be able to see what I’m shooting.” He muttered into the comms as he leaned back from his sight, he could use the thermal imaging scope but that wouldn’t exactly tell him which of the bodies was Ellis and which was their mark. “Maybe clear it up a bit?” 

[blackhawkcomics]

cont. from here | @fieldagentellis

Lucia nodded and instantly launched into a spiel on her qualifications. “On top of my SHIELD training, I have a third dan black belt in Taekwondo, fourteen years experience in gymnastics, and numerous first place awards in archery. I’m fluent in Spanish and ASL and proficient in Russian.

“I... I know I may not look like much,” she continued, referring not only to her age and inexperience but to her short height and slight frame as well, “and I don’t have the powers or field experience that some of the other recent Academy graduates have, but I was recommended to SHIELD by Agent Coulson himself. I’m loyal and hardworking, and what I may lack in other areas, I make up for by training twice as hard.”

You’re overcompensating, she scolded herself. Just shut up and hand him the file!

Forcing her expression not to falter, she held out the manila folder in her hands. “Everything else is in my SHIELD file,” she said. Everything including the two years she spent in high school as an unregistered vigilante under the name Blackhawk. Given the illegality of it all, she tended not to advertise that time of her life at SHIELD. Or anywhere, for that matter.

[agentariannagrace]

@empatheticagent @fieldagentellis

Arianna would admit, she was nervous. This was bigger than she’d anticipated, this was scarier than she’d thought. And she’d made it through so much shit. But this... it baffled her mind. She might be a genius, but she liked to have rules, have structure. 

Okay, breath, Ari. You can do this.

She walked into the Special Ops wing, her eyes scanning the various screens and cubicles. She knew who she was looking for, and found him with only a few questions.

“Agent Ellis?”

[empatheticagent]

Meeting

Ray stood off to one side of the room, carefully watching as Marco greeted another man, the two seeming to be already familiar with each other based on the cheerful handshake. The stranger was fairly tall and had dark hair long enough to hang onto his forehead, parted to either side. The man’s arms were somewhat thin, but had more muscle to them than Ray’s did. He looked a bit older too, though not quite by as many years as Marco. What drew Ray’s attention though was that the man’s left leg, from just below his knee, was clearly a prosthetic.

“Hey Ellis, how’re you doing?” The man greeted Marco. 

“I’m alright. Keeping busy, obviously. Yourself?”

“Improving. Still not cleared for field yet, but that’s partly why I’m here.”

“Of course,” Marco nodded before gesturing towards Ray. “Have you met?”

The man turned to look at Ray, shaking his head before approaching alongside Marco.

“Hey there. Nic Martin. Former undercover field agent.”

“Uh, hi. ...Ray Hartell,” Ray quietly replied, eyeing the offered handshake warily. 

Seeing the look on Ray’s face, Marco quickly stepped forward, putting a hand on Nic’s arm before speaking quietly to him. “Hartell’s the new student I was telling you about. Not always comfortable with physical contact.”

“Ah, you mean the In- Uh, sorry. The powered one?” Nic asked, shoving his hands into the pockets on his shorts instead. “Alright, not a problem.” 

He flashed a friendly, reassuring smile at Ray. “If you aren’t feeling up to it, I won’t push it. Same goes for talking. Ellis told me you struggle to verbalise sometimes?”

Ray was relieved Marco had already explained things, to save him struggling to do so and smiled gratefully at Marco before nodding a confirmation in response to Nic’s question. 

“You can sign though, yeah? That’s cool. I can read that just fine.”

Marco had mentioned to Ray that he was inviting an old friend who had been a captive of Hydra during the Fall, but... he wasn’t anything like Ray had been expecting. Ray must have visibly zoned out for a moment, because he was suddenly aware of them both watching him with concern. 

“You alright?” Marco asked gently. 

[Sorry,] Ray signed. [I was expecting someone- more like me.]

Marco mouthed the word “Oh” and gestured for them both to follow him over to a group of chairs around a small table.

“It was recent? What happened to you, I mean?” Nic asked quietly once they were seated. 

[Last September] Ray slowly spell signed. 

Nic frowned and went to reach out to pat Ray’s arm, but stopped short, remembering Ray wasn’t as relaxed about contact as he was. “Shit. Barely half a year. It’s taken me a few years to get myself back to this point. There have been some ups and downs, but it does get easier. Especially if you have good friends around you.”

Ray sighed. [I was stupid and tried pushing them away. Made things worse. More problems.]

“I see. I did that for a bit, after finding out my wife had fallen ill and passed away while I was captive.”

There was a silence, no voices or signing. Ray stared at him, his expression softening. “You...lost someone too?”

Nic slowly nodded. “I did. And half a leg. I was barely alive myself by the time SHIELD found me. Not all the infection was cleared simply because Hydra removed the leg, you see. I was a mess. Very weak. Spent months just healing up from the surgery and illness before they could even consider getting me up and about. Even longer before I stopped being stubborn about getting a prosthetic to help me get around,” he quietly explained. “I’ve been on desk work for a while, consulting for undercover missions instead of going on them. But I miss it, so my old buddy Ellis here suggested I sign up for this group. That and he did also mention there was someone else who I might be able to help myself...”    

He looked pointedly at Ray, who had tears in his eyes. The story was sad, along with the fact he could relate to the loss, but the tears were more hopeful than because he was upset. If agent Martin could be so cheerful and willing to help other agents after everything he had been through, then surely Ray could get to that point himself too?

Ray looked over at Marco, who smiled softly at the empath, feeling the sense of gratitude Ray was projecting at him.