Elise Gerhardt

Elise Gerhardt
Information
Affiliation	Consortium
Position	Handler
Agent	Mia Renner
Area of Expertise	Operations planning, marksmanship, organizational psychology, international relations
Aliases	None
Played By	Nick

Elise Gerhardt is a newly promoted Handler within the Consortium. Prior to her promotion to Handler, Elise was an Instructor at the New York Initiate training facility.

Early Life

Elise Gerhardt's earliest memory was having a gun placed to the side of her head while the man standing behind her, as well as the rest of that man's group, demanded money from the bank that she and her father had been standing in line at. The situation had turned critical very early on as several security guards had been shot while Elise had remained a hostage. She'd seen and heard all of it; the cries and screams and the men dying on the floor in front of her while they gasped for breath and choked on their own blood. The stand-off had been going on for two days; more hostages had been killed. At a little over eleven years old, she had begun to make peace with her existence and was prepared to die.

Only something else happened instead.

She only saw it out of the corner of her eye, and for only a second, but a woman in a white uniform had somehow gained entrance to the bank and one-by-one, had taken out the other members of the team. They had fired at her, but she had moved so quickly, so gracefully. The uniformed woman seemed to almost dance between gunshots, contorting her body in ways that shouldn't have been humanly possible. At one point, Elise recalled the woman pulling out a small cylinder that extended into a full quarterstaff. The woman had been able to completely subdue each of them, including the man that had held a gun to Elise's head. The people cheered. Elise was in awe.

From that point forward, she wanted nothing more than to become a member of the Order.

At age 18, upon graduating from high school, she took the genetic compatibility test. And failed.

Still, she was determined to somehow contribute to the group that essentially saved her life and still held out that maybe one day she'd still be able to join their ranks.

As an Instructor

Elise went to college, double-majoring in international relations and psychology. This made her an ideal candidate for a diplomatic setting, and she'd considered applying for work at an embassy, but still couldn't shake the idea of wanting to work for the Consortium. So, she applied and after a grueling interview process, was offered a position as an Initiate Instructor. She'd had the option of going to the Rome, Italy facility but chose instead to stay closer to home in the United States.

Before she could actually begin training Initiates, she herself had to be trained as well. The Consortium has a rigid system for prioritization of skills and tasks and Instructors must also be adaptable in this regard. While her primary focus in instruction would be political climates and how to read people, identify their tells, and make assessments on predicted action to external stimuli, she would also be required to understand the various other areas of instruction and topics applicable to Initiates.

Within five short years, now in late-twenties, she was one of the top-rated Instructors across both locations. Although her concentrations were still in psychology and international relations, she was also adept at instruction in firearms, where she designed and developed an incremental improvement program whereby Initiates increased both their accuracy and precision by 40% upon completion of the course. The results were almost unheard of.

When an opportunity to become a Handler had opened up, Elise jumped at the opportunity. Again, after a very rigorous interview process, she was offered the position and eagerly accepted.

As a Handler

Elise has only very recently become a Handler, but brings a significant amount of skills and knowledge to that arena. Some of her ideas and suggestions have not been received well by some of the veteran Handlers, but this hasn't stopped her from wanting to improve the Order and its operations by any way she can.

Elise has only handled one other Agent, who had previously died while on assignment with a group of other Order members, including Aurelia Pasquale's previous charge. It was noted that Elise took the death hard, but that it also did not impact her job performance.

Elise has recently been provided a new charge, Mia Renner -- the former Sigma and current xi of the Order, and again appears very eager to move forward with her work.

Physical Appearance

Elise is in her late twenties, is slightly shorter than average height, just barely over five foot tall and has a smaller frame than most women her height. She tends to dress femininely, but conservatively, often in pencil skirts and buttoned up blouses with blazers. She has green eyes and light brown hair chopped chin length with a blunt edge, which is most often seen pushed behind her ears. She does not wear much in the way of make-up and her pale skin often betrays the freckles under her eyes and across her nose.

Powers and Skills

Elise has no powers but is considered to be extremely intelligent by her peers. She is considered in expert in instructional design and organizational psychology but has additional expertise in international relations, specifically international security. Aside from these knowledge areas, she's also an excellent marksman and is trained in all manner of firearms from light to heavy assault weaponry.

Other Information

Elise never had the chance to meet the Agent that saved her life in the bank as a child, as that Agent was killed in the line of duty only a week before she transferred to the Rome, Italy office as a Handler.