Agent (Rick Mason)

A highly covert operative only accessible online under the codename "The Agent," Rick Mason was a free-lance agent specializing in data on non-lethal handling of superhumans. His clients included American, British, Japanese, French, and Israeli government agencies, as well as international agencies such as S.H.I.E.L.D. Son of the criminal machinesmith Tinkerer, Rick grew up exposed to the latest technologies and their criminal users. He immersed himself in covert activities, working beside or studying under operatives including Nick Fury, the Cat (Shen Kuei), Teng Yun-Suan, Dennis Nayland and Alexi Vazhin. His solo defeat of the Arcfire Network cemented his status as a major player.

Working for Great Britain, Mason uncovered a plot by the renegades Dog, Monkey, and Horse from the strike team China Force (with assistance from duped agents Silver, Auric, and She-Devil) to overthrow Hong Kong's British regime. Battling Horse, an overmatched Mason prevailed by throwing them both over a twenty story balcony, angling himself into a hotel pool while the Horse apparently fell to his death. Shortly thereafter, Nick Fury asked Mason to intervene in the South American country of Costa Brava, where American backed rebels had been supplanted by super-powered mercenaries. Fury had to oppose the American-backed forces; Mason was his solution. Seeing parallels to Hong Kong, Mason entered Costa Brava and captured two of the five mercenaries- Zapper, a mutant British energy generator, and Noise (Julio Mendoza), a mutant Mexican sound controller. He interrogated, tranquilized and abandoned them in uncharted jungle, miles from civilization. Mason was briefly caught and tortured by Black Metal (a South American high-tech mercenary) before escaping. He then captured the final two superhumans (Quota, an African cyborg, and Stealth, a flying Irish/Argentinean mutant) and used them to lure Black Metal into an ambush in an exploding warehouse. The five eliminated, the rebels reclaimed Costa Brava's capital of San Gabriel, installing their leader, Javier La Brava, as president. Rick learned that a former teacher, Chinese geomancer Teng Yun-Suan, was the power behind the takeover attempts. Mason was forced to kill Teng.

The Corporation once kidnapped Rick to coerce his father to work for them. The Tinkerer recruited Luke Cage and Dakota North to rescue Rick, but Mason escaped his captors using a light bulb filament as a lock pick, and helped the pair defeat the Corporation. Mason is also believed to have been a victim of a Carrion Plague outbreak before being cured by S.H.I.E.L.D. Rick Mason is currently believed dead, assassinated by an unnamed super-villain; with Mason's apparent death, his identity as the Agent became public knowledge.