He didn't exactly think like most of the office did. Even innocent things could easily be misinterpreted as cruelty to someone who didn't understand what a prank was. Still, Sterling wanted to include the android in the prank war, even if pranking someone in his own department might further point fingers to him.
When Germaine came back from his lunch break, Sterling assumed he would be visiting the garden nearby again and therefor he new he had time, the next prank unfolded.
Upon his return it didn't take long for Germaine to notice that his desk was covered in... miniature people.
A whole civilization of tiny plastic people were laid out meticulously across the top of his desk, each figure doing a specific task. There was a team of people repelling down the side of his desk. A tiny housekeeper was vacuuming under a post-it note as if it was a rug. A group of construction workers having lunch on top of his monitor. Two small children were using his pen as a balance beam. There was even a new zen garden that hadn't been there prior with his own little caretaker, raking the sand. It was like something out of The Borrowers or Indian in the Cupboard.
Sterling hoped the scene was whimsical enough to not be seen as malicious vandalism. He would hate to have to blow his mischief cover to explain to Germaine he wasn't being picked on. Still, to keep up the ruse, he left the department when he was done and made sure he arrived back from his lunch break a few moments after Germaine to make it look as though he had been gone the whole time.
Ray found himself going into the base less and less these days, only really going in for training sessions with Nic and Marco twice a week and alternating between medical and psych check ups every second week. He didn’t need to really do paperwork. For what? He didn’t go on missions and he wasn’t doing work like he was in Comms. All he was doing was working on his general health and fitness, basic self defense and fighting and his powers. What was the point of hanging around the base between sessions?
So to save just sitting around and frustrating Marco with his uncertainties about what to do and whether working officially with Marco once he was at a more functioning level was the right thing, Ray just stayed at home. He could spend more time with Hailey that way anyway, instead of leaving her with younger kids at the SHIELD daycare. She’d been doing her school work remotely since the shooting attempt on the street by Shigeru’s apartment and her own training had been arranged to allow Shigeru to enter the SHIELD base and use one of their training rooms where Hailey was safe, so she went in with Ray and trained in a separate room while he did his own.
At home, Ray could work on some of his solo training. Part of it was simply meditation, recommended by Dr Silva (something he’d also been working on previously with Dr Lawrence) to help him calm himself better and also to help him pause and take time to sort out his own emotions properly from those he picked up, instead of letting them all jumble up and throw off his own moods as they had often used to.
Another benefit of the meditation was that it helped Ray become more aware of his powers and how they worked in general. He spent a lot of time sitting cross-legged on his bedroom floor, ACE by his side or lying on the bed behind him, occasionally making a comment that would remind Ray a bit of the way Nic would throw in friendly teasing to keep the mood light. Other times ACE would step in and remind Ray to stop and take breaks, otherwise he’d find that hours had passed, if no one else was around or too busy themselves to come interrupt. It was easy to get a bit disconnected from the actual time passing, when he was so focused on the psychic workings of his empathy and navigation.
He tended to get confused sometimes, more so after his longer sessions that accidentally stretched on far too long, having to take time to readjust from the faded world he saw in empath vision in comparison to the burning bright aura colours and then seeing the world again as it was normally. He’d ended up needing to get glasses to help his eyes focus for reading screens and print to prevent some of the migraines he was getting from all the mental and visual strain. But his control over his powers and the effects of them was better than it ever had been, save a few days every now and then where the depression threw him off.
Ray was currently working on better understanding the psychic navigation and the links it made once he first had contact with a person, Nic serving as a practice ‘target’ at the base. The two kept in touch through a messaging app Ray had open on his phone in front of him, Nic making a game of it while they tested the limitations of the tracking: could Ray sense him from home first of all? Was it dependent on how close/far away Nic was as he moved around? Did certain areas of the base have worse ‘reception’? Could he sense Nic’s presence from there, or also his emotions?
Yes, he could.
Like Ray had been able to in the past, before Bancroft; the psychic navigation link to Nic allowed him to also read the emotions, without being affected by them himself. Different to the involuntary link made by Ray’s own strong emotions towards someone, like he’d had with Clay. It was back to the controlled use Ray had had previously, when SHIELD had used him to keep track of field agents.
He wasn’t sure exactly where Nic was in the base, as he didn’t have a map to try to follow along on, so Ray was occasionally caught off guard when he picked up vague readings of others Nic passed by or interacted with, Nic seemed to be functioning as a signal booster for his powers.
Ray was starting to zone out a little, tired, and lost track of Nic for a bit. He must have even drifted off for a moment as he sat there, suddenly jumping awake at a noise from his phone.
Ray let out a sigh and looked around for his glasses he’d taken off while sitting with his eyes closed. He wasn’t used to needing them yet and was still a bit stubborn about it, but tired as he was, he was struggling to focus on reading the words.
“To your left…” ACE said from his spot on the bed, Ray reaching up to pet him in thanks once he had his glasses.
Nic: Let’s try something different. Does it work down here?
Ray?
Hello?
Ray: Sorry. Got distracted. Need to find you again.
Ray sat staring at the name on the phone screen, hoping it would help him refocus. He must have looked like he was starting to drift off again though, as ACE commented about him needing a break to rest.
“I will,” Ray sighed. “After this…”
There was a noise like a snort of disbelief, but otherwise the android dog chose not to comment, for the time being.
The empath closed his eyes again, frowning at first when his attempt to focus back on the base left him with a sense of discomfort… a dull tingling that reminded Ray of the ‘pins and needles’ feeling of a limb sat in the wrong position too long.
“Come on Nic, where the hell are you?” he muttered, not liking the feeling. It reminded him too much of-
Ray took in a sharp breath. He’d managed to link, he was sure. But… this was not Nic. He was going to have to ask what floor Nic was on, but he suspected it was the same floor that also held prisoners, or at least in one of the areas unintentionally above or below it because Ray realised why he was picking up the static-y feeling: he had accidentally linked to his old mentor in his prison cell.
“...Bancroft.”
In the past, Ray would simply have panicked and rushed to break the connection. Now though, he was curious. It had been… nearly a year now, he realised, since their last encounter back in Canada and Ray hadn’t really heard of the man since. Hadn’t asked either. Well, he was still alive obviously. Ray could vaguely hear ACE trying to get his attention after being alerted by the name, but Ray held up a hand to stop him for a moment.
“I’m fine. Just want to see…”
Mostly Bancroft just seemed bored. There was frustration as well, bordering on anger, but that was fairly normal from what Ray knew of the man.
It occurred to Ray then that now that he was connected, he could potentially test if he could do a long-distance projection. He had been hesitant to try it out much with Nic, not sure what would happen if he opened that door. The last few times he’d accessed the remote empathy fully, Ray had been hit with agent Sterling’s emotional and physical pains and then of course there was Clay…
Ray tensed.
If he could work that projection though…
He could finish what he started. He could project more of that pain and fear that had set off Bancroft’s existing heart condition. Ray could do it again, right then and rid the world of the man.
No one would know. There’d be no traces…
Beut could he? Yes, easily, he suspected. But could he actually live with the knowledge that he’d done it? Ray doubted it, considering he’d always been so afraid of becoming evil like Bancroft was.
He was vaguely aware of ACE’s voice, trying to get his attention and his phone buzzing as Nic tried to call.
Ray shook his head and took in a deep breath, letting it out as a sigh of relief when he broke the connection. He blinked to refocus and found ACE was now at his side, clearly concerned by the lack of response.
“I- I’m alright…” Ray mumbled, though he leaned over to wrap his arms around ACE’s neck, forehead resting against the furry body for lack of anyone else around to hug as he tried to settle himself.
More people kept coming and going, but nobody seemed to have any idea when he could go home, or what he was supposed to do.
He looked up when the door opened again, trying to focus through the growing pain and saw another new face. This one at least, looked softer and friendlier than most.
Hector shifted his weight on the bed as the new person held out a little rectangle. D-a-n-i-e-l ... almost all names were new to him. He wasn't sure how to pronounce it if he didn't say it out loud. There had been so many new words.
His eyes lit up - there was ... a familiarity. A lovely little tingle in the back of his head he had been missing in his makeshift room.
{Thank you}
He reached out, fingers grazing over the device and it sparked to life without him having to touch the power button at all. Data flickered across the screen. Apps.. anything that had been uploaded onto it appeared, slid aside, revealed the next. And all he'd done was take it in his hand.
He nearly forgot the new man was standing there in that joyful elation at having a 'friend' again.
Dan watched the boy with soft, sad eyes. He had already been briefed, so the child’s strange aura didn’t take him by surprise, though it did worry him. A cyborg, a mesh of human and robotic. It was...horrific to think about, on some level. But Dan pushed through his own concerns and hang ups. Right now, he was going to focus on the little boy in front of him, who was alone and without a reliable mode of communication.
As the screen came to life and began flashing, Dan hesitated. Agent Sloan had programmed the device, and she hadn’t mentioned any feature like that. Still, he didn’t want to confuse or concern Hector. The little boy had faced enough of that. He waited until Hector looked back up, and then began to sign. {This is called an AAC device. There’s an app that will let you pick words and spell things so you can communicate even if there isn’t someone who knows ASL. What do you think about that?}
Clay was standing in Germaine’s apartment, slightly visible and voice echoy and distant. The last time Clay had see Germaine awake was when he was wandering blindly through the streets of New York. Clay had seen what he had been suffering with before he was down. For months.
Months, right? Or had it been years? Or weeks? He wasn’t sure anymore.
Akela managed to get DeLacey out of the building not long after the power went out around the base. In the confusion everyone was still scrambling and regrouping so the lockdown protocols hadn’t been organized just yet. However, coming back through the base was proving a bit harder. She was able to make it back to Intelligence Analysis but there was still no sign of anyone else. She had to find Germaine. She knew he was still on base. He had gone to get some reports before the power went out. Surely he hadn’t left.
So she began making her way through, trying to figure out what path he might have taken and stumble upon him with her emergency bag over her shoulder and a flashlight in hand.
But even then, she almost literally stumbled upon him.
