Owner	Pose
Melinda May	It's the day after the Helicarrier Iliad took the last of the Asgardians from the Mercy to their new home -- whether temporary or permanent remains to be seen. Agent May, having just returned to the Triskelion, has been given the unenviable task of getting the replacement supplies for Medical carted in from the supply trucks. Moving supplies about is usually time consuming but not terribly complicated, but this particular shipment contains several large quantities of very delicate and breakable items. Thus, she's called in assistance. It's dual purpose, really. It'll help get the supplies in place faster, and give her a chance to test one SHIELD's agents with abilities that she has not really had a chance to evaluate yet. Hence the message that was sent to a particular individual. It simply gave a place and a time. No details. That's the beginning of the test.
Shadowlite	Outside of a few fungus operations and one particularly nasty ambush, Shadowlite hasn't been altogether much of a presence in SHIELD. They pay him on commission, and he /has/ been reliable for those missions he's been paid for... but in the end, he's a mutant mercenary with the ability to do really interesting and nasty things with Darkforce. He has no real loyalty to SHIELD in itself, but for what he's done, he's been pretty good about working with teams... though he has professed a preference for solo operations after the ambush. He /does/ require 24 hours notice before any call ins though; he considers it non-negotiable. Shadowlite is about five minutes late when black lightning arcs in the air out of nowhere. It flits here and there, 'hitting' objects to no real effect, and a black hole in reality opens. After about five seconds, it's big enough to fit a person through. Twenty seconds later, a man in a black balaclava of some sort and goggles, a tactical gear web with various weapons and gadgets, and a longcoat 'flies' out of it on a black disk, before he settles onto the floor with said disk, and glances around. "SHIELD medical? I thought that was a joke." Shadowlite says, amused, before he crosses his arms and looks to Melinda, "Well, I'm here. I'm pretty good with biochem, but I'm not a medic, for your information. Melinda May, right?" The voice mask does nothing to mask the mutants dry humor.
Melinda May	Standing in the middle of all of the chaos created by the man's arrival, May is quite adept at appearing to be completely unimpressed. And her being so calm likely helps the medical staff calm down more quickly than they might have otherwise. "Shadowlite. Thank you for answering my message. I have a task for you, likely outside of your usual purview. Follow me." She leads the man through the Triskelion -- notably only areas that his employment status with SHIELD allows security-wise. As they walk she generally explains the goings on the Atlantic, expecting the man to have only heard portions of it from the news media. "...because of that, Medical is dangerously short on supplies. They've arrived by truck, but getting them to the correct supply rooms will take hours if not days." She stops at the doorway to where multiple freight trucks are visible outside. "As you just demonstrated, you have a way to travel from point to point more quickly. Can you safely move delicate, breakable, and temperature sensitive cargo the same way?"
Shadowlite	When he's addressed by Melinda, the black disk disappears out of existence, 'evaporating' back behind the Darkforce dimensional barrier as the black suit wearing mutant listens. "A task." Shadowlite repeats with more then a hint of 'ok then', in his tone. Once she's walking out of medical though, he follows along, "Uh huh." Another bit of news, "Yep." Shadowlite is listening, but isn't demonstrating much enthusiasm as he does. When Melinda asks the question about transporting goods though, Shadowlite breathes through his nose audibly in a sigh, and walks over, placing his gloved hands into his longcoat as he examines the trucks, "I can bring just about anything through my portals as long as they can handle some cold. If you're talking delicates though, I can't control distance, speed, or trajectory. The only things I control are opening, and whether or not a person or object can get through my tunnels. I can trap anything in there if I want it to be trapped... and the only way out is if I decide to let you out, or if someone else decided to rescue you."
Melinda May	As the man considers the task at hand and explains, mentally nixing all cold sensitive medications from the list of things to be moved. "What does control speed, distance, and trajectory? The way they entered?" If the items arrive exactly how they leave, then their transport can be done slowly and gently, and it would still be faster than hauling pallets through the halls on hand trucks. "Perhaps we should do a trial run first, with something that will tell us if this will work safely enough." She's already mentally picturing the Gallagher-esque moment of sending a watermelon through one of Shadowlite's portals, but the cleanup on the other side might not be worth the amusement value. Maybe if the watermelon is in a plastic bag....
Shadowlite	"The Darkforce Dimension itself is /very/ cold. People can handle it, but it gets into your bones if you stay there for more then a few minutes." Shadowlite continues, before he turns around in place and looks to Melinda. Well, it looks like he does with the way those goggles go to her, anyway. "I haven't have much cause to use my portals for transport of inanimate objects themselves. My tunnels are self-contained in that I form elastic bands from point A to point B that things bounce off of, but the Darkforce Dimension itself is very fluid and doesn't have any center of gravity or gravitational pull unless someone like myself forces the issue." He reaches out with a hand then to one side, and a black mist appears, and begins to pour off his hand. That same black lightning appears, and another black hole in reality appears. "Generally speaking, the object or person themselves controls all three. I just provide the space. Toss something in there slowly, and it comes out slowly." He chuckles as he replaces his hands back into the longcoat pocket, "I can pretty much open portals to anywhere in this building from here, so it's just a matter of making sure they can handle the trip through the tunnel." He looks back to Melinda, "pop some stabilizers on something with a human directing it, and they can probably keep your stuff from going boom on the other side. A hoverboat with straps and a gyromount?" Shadowlite shrugs, "Never did cargo trucking before."
Melinda May	May considers that and after a moment nods. "A test run, then." Putting one hand to the comm link in her ear, she speaks with someone on the other end for a moment, and soon enough a low level agent approaches pushing a pallet of cardboard boxes on a hand truck -- a basic wheeled thing that emulates a forklift without the vehicle portion, just a push bar like an old school lawn mower. "I'll carry the first through myself to see if it's feasible. This pallet is all bandages, nothing delicate or temperature sensitive." She takes over the hand truck from the other agent.
Shadowlite	"That things going to float on it's own in there. As I said, gravity doesn't really apply unless I force the issue, and I can only force the issue locally, in a limited manner, from here. If I had to guesstimate, I can probably do about a third of earths gravity at my limit, so if you insist on bringing that thing through, watch yourself." Shadowlite replies, before he gives a nod to the portal itself, "Those are also one way. Once you're through, you can't go back in. A side effect of shunting people through from one side." There's a pause, before he continues, "I could probably reopen a portal from there to here... but I've never had cause to do that before. I don't know how effective that'd be, since I wouldn't be there to open the portal precisely."
Melinda May	Looking at the pallet jack and considering Shadowlite's words, May is clearly trying to mentally figure something out. "About how long would the distance from here to Medical feel in the portal? As quick as one step to the other, or more like a tunnel as in the movie Coraline?" If it's the former, maybe she can back through so she's holding the pallet jack and pulling it after her. There's got to be a way to make this work, at least better than making a dozen people hand-walk boxes through while wearing winter gear.
Shadowlite	"Distance is pretty wonky in there, so the further I push it, the further through you need to go. It's sort of like the latter, but with less gravity and a much larger tunnel. Think of it like walking on the moon, only with oxygen and lots of darkness around you." Shadowlite shrugs, then, "I'd only be opening a portal into the building itself, so it'd be a short tunnel. Probably a four second walk. I can make them clear across cities. Those take fifteen seconds."
Melinda May	Okay, so the parameters of Shadowlite's tunnels are becoming clearer to May. "With those factors in mind, we'll need to secure the cargo on their pallets." This particular stack of cardboard boxes are already securely wrapped in clear plastic, but a word from May over her comms and the Agent returns, adding cargo straps with the ease of much practice to keep the pallet on the hand truck even if it overbalances. "All right. Let's give this a try. Whenver you're ready, Shadowlite."
Shadowlite	With an exaggerated flourish, Shadowlite gestures to the portal, "That goes directly into medical storage roughly on the same plane as the floor. Have it at." He confirms.
Melinda May	May nods and then pulls the hand truck after her as she walks backwards toward and into the portal, taking a breath before stepping into the darkness. It's bitingly cold and extremely disorienting, but she refuses to change the way she places her feet or how she pulls on the hand truck until she feels the change of stepping into the Medical storage area.
Shadowlite	The cold is not as bad as one would assume from his description... but the few seconds Melinda is going through the tunnel, she can feel the cold of the place trying to seep into her. This isn't a natural cold by any means, but something that goes more bone deep. Shadowlite keeps the portal open even after Melinda walks out the other side, no worse for wear. The first time through can be very disorienting for people who are used to having a center of gravity, though, "Try not to puke." Shadowlite quips over the transceiver.
Melinda May	After stopping the hand truck and spending a moment making sure the disorientation is gone, May can't stop herself from quipping back at Shadowlite, "I've taken zero-G training. I'm not going to puke." She lets the medical supply clerks quickly unpack and unload the boxes from the hand truck, taking the strapping back from them to use again with the next load. "Ready to head back," she tells the man after a few minutes.
Shadowlite	Shadowlite emerges from the portal himself, his hands in his pockets. It also 'evaporates' into a black mist as it closes behind him, "If I had known I was going to be playing delivery boy, I'd have brought along a gameboy." Shadowlite quips again, before he reaches in front of himself, and that same black list emits as black lightning tears open yet another black hole in reality. "Goes to the same place." Shadowlite confirms.
Melinda May	May doesn't dignify Shadowlite's words with a response, and instead just waits for him to confirm the portal back to the shipping dock is ready, and pulls the hand truck back through. If she had to step through those portal any more frequently than once every five minutes or so, she'd likely feel the cold of the portal more severely. But, as she's given enough time in between each trip, she'll tolerate it as long as necessary.
Shadowlite	The only real problem with going through the tunnel for Melinda is the cold and adjusting to the gravity. The cold probably wouldn't be life threatening, as Melinda can tell it's less the temperature and more something about the dimension that seems to sap energy. Shadowlite drops her right where she went in at the cargo area, with Shadowlite himself walking out a few seconds later. The black holes that serve as portals don't allow sight, but at least the tunnels themselves are accessible. Melinda could very easily speculate that the area outside the 'tunnel' is probably in total darkness. Darkforce is odd in itself, but the Darkforce Dimension is in it's own league. "It'd probably be easier on both of us if you did trains for this stuff." Shadowlite reaches out a hand as he walks, then another. A disk of Darkforce materializes a few feet away, and starts to grow into something akin to a surfboard, "while I'm here, I might as well use these."
Melinda May	Passing the hand truck back to the waiting supply agent, May nods to Shadowlite and looks at the disk as it grows. "If you can make one of those that can support a shipping pallet, that would likely be easier. And by train, do you mean a continuous chain? Or several items one after the other?" The supply agent returns with another pallet, this one marked 'This Side Up', so possibly something spillable.
Shadowlite	"I can control these to a degree. I use the dimensional barrier as -for lack of a better word- support. I can usually handle a few tons doing it. Pinching the particles to support physical matter like this is fairly easy below a few tons. Go beyond that and it's like trying to keep a snowball intact in hell." Shadowlite quips as he flicks his wrist, and the 'surfboard' floats over to the trucks. The black mist flowing off his hand spikes briefly from the movement, before it settles, "several items. I could, potentially, keep a continuous chain going, but I've never done that before. I have no idea how keeping the portal open for longer then a few minutes will go. I've done cargo transport before, but nothing to this degree."
Melinda May	"That sounds more than adequate," May comments seemingly idly. "And it would likely be easier for the Medical staff to send no more than six pallets or so at a time anyway. It's not like we're trying to stock a discount retail store, here." The supply agent offers helpfully, "We have a total of eight pallets to send, ma'am, not including the temperature sensitive ones." Apparently, those are being handled separately.
Shadowlite	"On that note, I'm the only one who can move any of my constructs. They don't free float, but rather I keep them in place or move them with the barrier. Anyone with superstrength or something could potentially rip it from my control... but I can just evaporate them back into the Darkforce Dimension, so not like it'd matter." Shadowlite shrugs, before he amusedly, states, "... I probably shouldn't say hell too much, since I learned it's an actual place a few months back." Shadowlite muses, before he flicks the 'surfboard' over to the supply agent, stopping it a few inches away, "have it at. I'll add matter to the thing to compensate if somethings gets to be too much."
Melinda May	May steps out of the way to let Shadowlite and the supply agent work together on this, using her comm to radio ahead to Medical to expect several pallets at once this next go-round. The agent looks at the construct oddly for a moment, then shrugs and moves the hand truck to try and set a pallet on top of it. It takes him a couple of tries, and then it's settled neatly in place. Three more pallets are added with increasing confidence each time. The supplies themselves are apparently not very heavy, just voluminous. But even so, the four pallets total up to several hundred pounds.
Shadowlite	As more pallets are added, more Darkforce is pulled through to accommodate the surface use, appearing as if from nowhere and knitting together, fusing into the existing construct. The last one has Shadowlite taking a deep breath as he reaches out, and a burst of black mist emits from his hand, "Been a while since I've built a disk this big." Shadowlite muses, more to himself by his tone. "Is that all?" Shadowlite asks the agent, without looking away.
Melinda May	"That's half of it, sir. Didn't want to send them all at once. Medical's slower than we are about moving pallets," the supply agent offers. Likely, they're used to receiving only one pallet at a time. "I can go ahead of this train and make sure they're ready to receive everything," May offers. She's recovered from the last trip through, and while she can already tell she's going to feel this tomorrow, she'll deal with it. She's dealt with worse.
Shadowlite	"Go for it. Keeping this thing intact and keeping the tunnel open is a bit taxing though, so I'd appreciate if you were a bit more brisk this time." Shadowlite notes with a hint of amusement. He walks over to the swirling black hole in reality, black mist flowing off of it, and 'drags' the board of Darkforce with him, itself coming to a stop a few feet away, "after you."
Melinda May	May nods to Shadowlite. Since she won't be needing to control a pallet of supplies this time and she knows what to expect, she does make the trip through the portal much more quickly and efficiently. And as soon as she's through, she's making sure the space is ready to receive the four pallets that are about to follow her through. "We're ready on this end," she tells the consultant over the comms.
Shadowlite	"Clear the hole." As if on cue, the 'surfboard' is shot through the portal, stopping a few feet away from the receiving end. Anyone directly in front of the portal will be tossed back a few feet from the force. This time, there are visible Darkforce straps on each of the pallets. "Have fun." Shadowlite comments with dry amusement.
Melinda May	Thankfully, May was prepared and kept everyone well clear of the portal. As soon as the 'surfboard' is through, the Medical staff move to quickly clear the pallets. It takes about ten minutes all told before May messages to Shadowlite again. "Ready to send the next batch through." And when all's said and done, getting the empty skids back to Supply would be really helpful as well.
Shadowlite	Stepping through in about six seconds after that, Shadowlite takes a look around. His longcoat is brushed down, and he bring up his hand and clenches it in a fist. The portal behind him closes in on itself, and evaporates in black mist. Then, he opens the fist again, and the portal 'opens' again. Turning to face it, he gestures inside, "Have at it. I imagine you'll be doing this for a while?"
Melinda May	"Hopefully not too much longer. Just one more round of cargo like that, and the medical staff will have plenty to do for the next couple of days." But, yes, she'll be here working for most of that. At least Shadowlite's part of the job will be done quickly. "You don't have to stay once the supplies are in Medical, you've already been a great help."
Shadowlite	"This is much larger scale then what I usually handle, but I've done transport jobs before." Shadowlite looks at the black hole, "trying to get a car or something through this would probably almost knock me out, though. Keeping a center of gravity for something massive is a major headache." Shadowlite steps through, then. "I'm assuming you wanted to see what I can do, from the way this has been going." Shadowlite notes from the other side over the radio.
Melinda May	"That was a side bonus," May replies back over the radio while waiting for the next and last batch of supplies to come through. "Medical really did need these supplies as quickly as possible." And this has managed to get them restocked in just a couple of hours whereas normal means of moving supplies would have meant the next few days being spent doing this one pallet at a time.