THE ANARCHY EFFECT

Part I

By Wesley Overhults

SHIELD Cemetery, New York City

Finesse never went to her parents’ funeral. They had died when she was young, murdered before her eyes by an employ of her father’s chemical company. She never got to say goodbye to them in any proper way but then again she didn’t have a good relationship with them when they were alive. When her abilities manifested around the age of five, Jeanne’s parents put her on the fast track for success. They felt that she was special, that she was better than the other children. She had private tutors instead of public schooling, her parents and her tutors driving her hard. By the time she was supposed to be in elementary school, she was taking courses designed for most high school students. Jeanne hated her parents though. She hated them for not letting her have a real childhood. Maybe that was why she didn’t go to their funeral, that and the fact that she was surviving on the streets at that point. Her parents wouldn’t have agreed with that lifestyle but they didn’t matter anymore.

“Funerals are a very morbid exercise,” she noted as she looked at the rows of tombstones that littered the graveyard owned by SHIELD so the organization could bury their dead in peace.

“This is important to Stephanie,” reminded Composite.

“You say that as if it means something to me,” replied Finesse with a shrug.

“She lost the only family she had,” said Composite as he, Finesse, and Wipeout stood off to the side while Requiem and Neon stood at the grave of Raymond Sydney. “It was our fault in case you forgot.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to stand here and watch her put herself in emotional agony,” countered Finesse.

“Girl has a point,” agreed Wipeout. “I can think of tons of places I’d rather be than here. Of course it could get a little lonely without someone around to keep me company.”

“Don’t delude yourself,” advised Finesse. “I highly doubt you’re used to my required level of accommodations or that you could afford them. Still, I would rather go ahead and shoot myself in the head than continue with this.”

“You won’t have to do that for long, Jeanne,” promised Quake after approaching her young charges.

“That’s your name?” asked Wipeout. “You never told us your real name.”

“You didn’t ask,” retorted Finesse through gritted teeth. “Agent Johnson, I’ll ask you to refrain from calling me that name. Next time you do it, I won’t ask so nicely.”

“I’ve got a mission for you guys,” explained Quake. “I know it’s terrible timing but the machine doesn’t stop for anyone. We’ve discovered a lab on the outskirts of the city that’s owned by AIM. Word has it that they’re developing some nasty stuff in there. We want you guys to take that lab apart before AIM gets the chance to unleash whatever they’re cooking up.”

“Give them a moment and then we’ll get on it,” promised Composite.

“I tried to get Daisy to show me my file from the Caterpillar List.”

Requiem silently nodded, his eyes not leaving the tombstone with Raymond Sydney’s name engraved on it. While he was in the asylum, Sebastian had been sheltered from death. Now it was staring him in the face and it left him uncharacteristically uncomfortable. His thoughts turned to his father, the father that everyone said was dead but Sebastian knew better than that. If his father was dead then why hadn’t Requiem ever had the opportunity to talk to him? It seemed as if every dead person whose soul still haunted the earth eventually managed to find him. So if his father was dead then where was he? The only way Sebastian could make sense of this riddle was to believe that his father wasn’t dead, that he was out there somewhere in the world. It didn’t help the loneliness though. It didn’t hide the fact that Sebastian never had a father in the first place.

“How did that go?” asked Requiem.

“She showed it to me but it’s blank,” answered Neon sadly. “Daisy said I could take it up with Fury if I wanted but I don’t think I’ll have any more luck with him than I did with her.”

“I’m sorry,” apologized Requiem. “I understand your family is very important to you. I wish that I could provide more answers for you.”

“No, you were right before,” assured Neon. “I can’t use you like that just to get the answers from Uncle Raymond that I need. It wouldn’t be right.”

“He’s proud of you,” said Requiem.

Neon wordlessly nodded and blinked away a few stray tears. The funeral had been a small one due to the secretive nature of Raymond’s former work. It helped to have her teammates here though even if some of them like Finesse didn’t want to be here. Stephanie thought back to what Requiem had told her a few days ago. They were the only family they had now. It was important for them to stick together. No matter what answers she may find, Stephanie promised herself that she would always think of her teammates as her family.

“We should get back with the others,” realized Neon, seeing that Quake and Composite were talking to one another. She left the grave to rejoin the rest of her friends, leaving Requiem alone with his thoughts.

“I promise I’ll take care of her for you,” he assured the voice of Raymond Sydney that was inside his head. “She’s not going to let this go, we both know that. All I’m asking of you is give her the answers that will give her peace.”

Sebastian silently nodded his head as the voice spoke to him. He wondered if perhaps it was better that she didn’t know. He had spent his entire life without interacting with either of his biological parents. Who could say that, were it not for his years in the asylum, he wouldn’t have turned into a happy, well-adjusted child without them? He couldn’t answer that question. The only thing he could do was help make sure that Stephanie got the answers she needed. Closure was an important thing and he vowed that he would help her find it, no matter the cost.

“What’s going on?” asked Requiem, he returned to the group.

“We have a job,” answered Composite. “She wants us to bust up some lab owned by . . . who the hell was it again?”

“AIM,” finished Finesse. “It’s an acronym that stands for Advanced Idea Mechanics. They make weapons, lots of them. Sometimes they sell those weapons to other terrorist organizations like HYDRA.”

“Word is that they’re not planning on selling this one,” said Quake. “I need you kids in there to break this up before things get really hot.”

An AIM Facility, Somewhere on the outskirts of New York City

Locus took in the sights and sounds of the AIM lab, watching the technicians buzz around its halls like worker bees inside a hive. She smiled to herself, knowing that all she had to do was simply be in the building for her power to do what her employer wanted it to do. She would spend some time here and then teleport back to her current home to inform him of their security measures. Once her power had registered her current location and filed it in whatever memory it used, she could teleport back here any time she wanted. More importantly, the next time she came she would bring friends with her.

“Do you have what I need?” asked the voice of her leader in her earpiece.

Locus had never met Misfit before. The young man was a newcomer to the scene, a man no one knew very much about. He had clout though, enough to bring together a group of individuals to form something new, something he touted as revolutionary. Locus didn’t care so much about politics or rebellions. She wanted money and Misfit had promised her a nice cut of the profits they would generate with their criminal ventures.

“I’ve got what you need,” said Locus. “I’m about to head back home now.”

“I’ll see you in a few seconds then,” decided Misfit.

Locus excused herself from the view of the other people buzzing around the facility, ducking into a small alcove that afforded her some privacy. In a flash of light, she had disappeared from the compound altogether, reappearing next to Misfit at his hideout. She smirked at him after noticing his surprise at how quickly she could appear and disappear at will. Misfit had recruited Locus for the speed her teleportation powers provided. With just a quick thought from Locus, Misfit and his team could be anywhere. They could strike with the element of surprise and then disappear once their job was finished. That kind of mobility was a huge asset to this new organization that Misfit was building.

“Their security measures are mostly around the perimeter of the facility,” explained Locus. “They’re keeping what you want on the lower levels and there’s some pretty tight security around it. Shouldn’t be a problem for us though.”

“I didn’t anticipate it being a problem, no,” agreed Misfit. “I knew that when I assembled this group that nothing could stop us. Nothing is going to stop our revolution.”

Misfit moved into the other room of the warehouse they were using as a base. He looked at the rest of his group, his Agents of Anarchy. They were going to ignite a revolution, a rebellion against the corporate machine that had swallowed this country whole. What was in that AIM lab would be the catalyst for change. It would help the world realize that all the rules they lived by were nothing but methods of control employed by the true powers that ran the world.

“We’ve been sitting on our asses long enough,” stated Firebrand. “When are we going to do what you promised us we could do?”

“Have to agree with him,” said Boomerang. “I mean I don’t mind getting paid to stand around and do nothing but I could use some action too.”

“Patience everyone,” assured Misfit. “Locus has returned from her recon mission so we’ll be able to get into the facility any time we want to. Once we’re inside the compound, you’ll have ample opportunity to satisfy your lust for carnage.”

“Don’t say that word,” warned Shriek, her scarred eye glowing with deadly power. “You know how I feel about that word.”

“My apologies,” said Misfit. “All of you were assembled by me for a purpose. Some of you are here because you’re lacking something, because the world took something from you. I understand that. Others are here for money, for the chance to attain something that they feel they were denied. I understand that too. Make no mistake, all of us are here because we have a problem with this world. After we get what we need from that AIM facility, we’ll all get what we want. Understood?”

All the Agents of Anarchy nodded in compliance. It was true. All of them wanted something and Misfit was the man who they felt could give them it. Misfit knew that was the critical key. All of them were lacking something whether it was direction for their lives or just a little more money in their pockets. Misfit was their provider, in some cases their savior. That was exactly how he enjoyed it. It was important that his followers be committed to the cause. It was important that they not only believed in him but also in his message. This world needed to be razed to the ground so that it could be rebuilt into a better one. The Agents of Anarchy were going to be the instruments of that destruction.

“We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” asked Neon, looking to Composite because he was the leader of the group though not by his own choice. “These guys are bad news and we’re just going to go in there and piss them off.”

“That’s pretty much the plan,” admitted Composite as he drove their car through the city towards the location Quake had given them. “Whatever they’re cooking up in that lab, Daisy wants us to wreck it.”

“So we just jump through their hoops for the rest of our lives then?” asked Neon.

“For someone who controls light, you seem to be very dim,” commented Finesse. “All of us agreed to this deal. That means we don’t always get to do things that we like.”

“This is our job now,” agreed Wipeout. “Like it or not, and I know we don’t, we all agreed to do this.”

“We didn’t have a lot of options,” reminded Requiem.

“We didn’t have any options,” corrected Neon.

Composite didn’t have time to continue the conversation. They were getting to the city limits and that meant that they were on the right track. He could see the facility in the distance and he pulled the car over on the side of the road before getting out of the driver’s seat. The rest of the Warriors followed suit, none of them very keen on disobeying Quake’s orders. They were going to have to go the rest of the way on foot. The complex was out in the middle of the woods with a dirt path to the main gate as the only visible means of entrance. Since they couldn’t exactly drive up to the complex, the Warriors would have to come in through more covert means.

“Not exactly the walk in the woods I had imagined us having, Jeanne” admitted Wipeout to Finesse as the group moved through the small forest that surrounded the complex, trying to get as close to it as they could so that Requiem could teleport them inside without too much trouble.

“I’m sure,” retorted Finesse. “About my name, I’d rather you not use it. I disowned that name a long time ago and I don’t particularly enjoy being called by it.”

“But it’s still you,” protested Wipeout.

“I will break your jaw like I broke your fingers if you call me that name,” stated Finesse, glaring at her teammate with eyes that held death in them.

“You do realize that’s not going to stop him, don’t you?” asked Composite. “Everyone keep quiet. I think the perimeter fence is just up ahead.”

The Secret Warriors stopped the moment they spotted the chain-link fence that surrounded the facility. Beyond it they could see guards on full patrol, pacing the outside of the building like caged animals waiting for their next meal. Composite looked to Requiem, waiting to see if he was ready. Sebastian was their way in but his powers weren’t exactly stable. Everyone knew he still had trouble controlling his teleportations but he was the quickest and easiest way inside. Quake told the group to put down whatever AIM had in there before they got a chance to use it on anyone. The Warriors were intent on doing just that.

“I’ve already memorized their patrol patterns,” noted Finesse after only a minute or two of observation. “Were you thinking of going in with guns blazing or would you prefer a more subtle route?”

“How close can you get us?” asked Composite, his question directed to Requiem.

“I can’t get you inside the building itself but I can get you as close to it as you need to be,” answered Requiem. “I’m still not comfortable teleporting into a place I don’t know anything about. I’d rather not do it unless I have to.”

“Front door then,” decided Composite, reaching his hand out to the metal fence so he could armor up before they went in.

Unfortunately, Henry didn’t think about the other measures AIM might employ to keep out unwanted guests. The fence was electrified and the moment Composite touched it he received a dose of electricity meant to kill even a superhuman being. The electrical surge sent him sprawling backwards but it did more damage than that as the rest of the team were about to realize.

“They could’ve seen that for miles,” said Finesse, sai daggers forming in each of her hands thanks to the generators on her wrist. “Any thoughts of surprise we had just got blown out of the water.”

“Time we go with plan b then,” suggested Wipeout, turning into his water form and zipping through the chain of the fence, slamming straight into the stomach of one of the guards.

“Get us in there,” ordered Finesse to Requiem.

“What about Henry?” inquired Sebastian.

“If he was smart then he would’ve done what I think he did,” shot back Finesse. “Just do it!”

Requiem created a warp portal underneath their feet and watched all of them, including Composite, sink into it. The reappeared on the other side of the fence just as AIM realized that they had more intruders and sent out more guards to deal with the threat. As soon as they appeared, Requiem channeled the residual magical energy from the portal into blasts of concussive force that blew some of the armed men and women off their feet and gave Wipeout some cover while he continued to attack the rest of the guards. Finesse somersaulted towards them and slashed one of the guards across the face with one of her daggers. She turned and buried the blade of the other dagger straight into the chest of another guard, yanking it out with a sickening noise that meant she had drawn blood.

“You could tone it down a little,” suggested Neon, glowing balls of light flying from her hand and exploding like flash grenades to disorient the rest of the AIM shock troops.

“They wouldn’t give us the same courtesy,” reminded Finesse, slicing the barrel of a guard’s gun off with a katana before striking the bewildered man with the pommel of the sword. “I’ll try to be nicer but only because there’s a small shred of guilt in me over your uncle’s death.”

“I would take what you can get,” suggested Composite, gingerly getting back to his feet with lightning crackling in his eyes. “Speaking of which, this isn’t the form I really wanted but I guess it’ll do.”

He unleashed a blinding storm of lightning from his hands that shocked the remaining guards into submission and forced them backwards. Wipeout twisted his watery body around an errant arc of lightning to avoid from getting shocked himself and continued his charge towards the front entrance of the facility. He hit the door with the force of a tidal wave and tore it down, washing away any of the AIM agents that were standing ready behind it. One of them hefted what looked like a high-tech rocket launcher at him and fired. The beam of energy struck Wipeout and he gasped for air as it actually hurt him.

“That beam is made of pure microwave energy,” explained the owner of the weapon. “It can evaporate even the largest body of water. Who are you people and what do you want with us?”

“SHIELD,” coughed Wipeout as he turned human and tried to reactivate his power. “I didn’t come alone.”

A blast of lightning struck the man with the microwave blaster and took him to the floor. The rest of the Warriors entered the complex. Finesse used her energy blades to deflect the bullets that sped towards them, putting her body between them and Wipeout so he could have time to recover. Composite sent a spike of lightning through the metal wall of the complex and watched it leap to strike the AIM goons that were shooting at them from farther down the hall. He moved to cover Frankie’s other side while Requiem brought up the rear.

“Where’s the thing Miss Daisy wants?” asked Requiem

“Scum always settles at the bottom,” said Neon. “Go down.”

She let out a round of flash grenades to stun some of the AIM agents and they moved down one of the hallways, looking for an elevator that would take them to the lower levels. Wipeout managed to regain his powers and raged down the corridor, washing away all the opposition. They continued through the maze of hallways, neutralizing anything AIM could throw at them. They couldn’t find an elevator though and all of them knew the longer they stumbled through the building the more likely they were to get killed.

The Agents of Anarchy appeared inside the complex thanks to Locus. They looked around at the chaos that the Secret Warriors had created when they made their entrance. The Agents took it as a stroke of good fortune on their part. Misfit nodded to the rest of his team and the Agents tore through the complex. Locus had done her recon well. Unlike the Warriors, the Agents knew exactly where they were going. Blasts of heat seared through the air from Firebrand, a cruel smile on his face indicating the pleasure he took in killing whoever stood in his way. His fury and delight were equally matched by Shriek as the dark-haired woman cut loose with her sonic blasts. The anger and torment she carried inside of her had only heightened after her lover Carnage left her to rot. When he had the chance to escape the hellish life of Ravencroft and once again ply his craft, he had left her behind and forever trapped inside the asylum’s cold walls. Misfit was her savior and she would repay his kindness by helping him acquire whatever he wanted. Most of all, she just liked to kill people.

“We need to get to the lower levels to get what we’re after,” stated Misfit, energy lancing from his hands in concussive bolts not unlike those that Shriek delivered. “Someone find us an elevator or make a hole.”

Firebrand took that as an invitation to cause more destruction and shot his flame blasts at a downward angle, scorching a hole in the metal floor of the complex. The hole turned into a tunnel thanks to more blasts and soon he had punched through the ceiling of the room underneath them. Misfit led the way down to the next level of the facility, using bursts of energy to slow his descent so he didn’t hurt himself when he landed. The rest of the Agents followed him downward and were met with more resistance. Boomerang unleashed a flurry of razor-sharp boomerangs, the deadly projectiles singing through the air and literally cutting down the AIM soldiers that opposed them. What he couldn’t kill, Shriek did. She lashed out at the opposition with sound so intense that it left them in complete agony until the second they died.

“We need to go another level down,” said Locus.

Firebrand once again made a hole, this time with a few explosive boomerangs from his team member for help. In only a matter of minutes, the Agents of Anarchy were exactly where they needed to be. All it took was cracking open the heavy, iron door in front of them and Misfit knew the prize would be theirs.

“Scorch it,” ordered Misfit and Firebrand complied, unleashing a furious blast of heat that began to melt through the door. “This is proving even easier than I had anticipated. I had hoped for some sort of challenge.”

“Wish granted,” retorted a female voice.

The rest of the Agents aside from Firebrand turned in the voice’s direction and saw Finesse jump and hit Misfit in the jaw with a flying kick. The Warriors had seen the carnage the Agents had created and had merely followed the trail that the anarchists had literally blazed. The SHIELD agents didn’t know who these other people were but if they were after whatever was down there then it wasn’t for any good reason.

“We saw you guys dropping in and thought we’d do the same,” said Wipeout before launching a blast of water at Firebrand. “Cool off, sparky.”

The blast of water hit Firebrand in the back and clouded the Agent in steam. He managed to get his hand up to block another blast but Frankie’s water attacks were cooling him off faster than he liked. He sent a blast of fire at Wipeout that the member of the Secret Warriors dodged. The rest of the Warriors moved to engage the Agents in battle. Finesse pressed the advantage she had on Misfit, flipping to dodge the blast of energy from his hand and then rushing in at him. She tagged him twice in the jaw with a wicked left-right combination of punches before kicking him in the chest and sending him to the floor gasping for breath.

“You people obviously didn’t get the memo that getting whatever’s behind that door is our assignment,” she said to Misfit. “However, if they’re all as weak as you then I don’t think you’ll give us too much trouble.”

“Think again, honey,” warned Shriek, launching a blast of sonic energy at Finesse.

Finesse parried the attack with one of her energy katanas but the force of the blast still knocked her backwards. Requiem teleported to break her fall and then looked dismayed when Finesse wasn’t there. Locus grinned as the energy of her warp portal faded and Finesse was gone. Finesse would find herself on the perimeter of the compound where she was when the Warriors started their mission. Meanwhile, Locus teleported to where Finesse had been and helped her leader back to his feet. Requiem vanished in a spark of magical energy and reappeared behind Locus, trying to blast her in the back. Locus turned and teleported both her and Misfit out of the line of fire and deposited them in the position where Requiem was before he moved to attack.

“That’s exactly where I needed you,” said Composite, knocking Locus in the head from behind.

Locus spun on her heel and lashed out with her teleportation powers even as she was disoriented from the blow to her skull. Composite fell back and suddenly found himself missing part of his left arm. In his current metal form, Henry didn’t even feel any pain from the attack but he knew when he changed back into human form he would be in a world of hurt if he didn’t do something fast. Neon saw what happened and let out a blast of light that put Misfit down before he could fully recover. She moved to help her leader but she heard a whistling noise to her right and managed to duck just as the razor-sharp boomerang lodged itself in the wall behind her. Neon pointed her glowing hand at Boomerang and fired some of her flash grenades at him, blinding him for a moment so he couldn’t toss his weapons at her or any of the other Warriors.

“You need a doctor,” said Neon to Composite.

“No, I need Frankie,” corrected Composite. “Get him over here so I can steal his form for a second.”

Neon nodded and looked to see which members of her team were still active. Wipeout had managed to douse Firebrand for the moment but he was currently engaged in dealing with Shriek. Stephanie moved towards Requiem and noticed that Sebastian was staring at the half-melted door that shielded them from their target. She nodded to him and he took her hand, teleporting both of them inside the vault so they could get whatever it was they had come there for.

“What do you think it is?” inquired Neon as they looked at the metal canister held in a suspension field in front of them.

Requiem couldn’t say. The only thing he knew was that it wasn’t something people like AIM or the Agents of Anarchy were supposed to have. Neon moved to the control console to disengage the suspension field. She didn’t know the proper access code so she just demolished the console with a blast of light. Requiem caught the canister as it began to fall after the field dispersed. The canister had a coded lock on it but neither of them knew how to open it and they didn’t want to run the risk of breaking it. It was better that they just take it back to the Helicarrier and let SHIELD deal with it. They had other problems to worry about.

“I think we’ll be taking that,” said Misfit after widening the hole Firebrand had created enough so both he and Locus could get through it. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting before. Who sent you to get that?”

“SHIELD,” replied Neon. “If you want this then you can come and get it.”

“Oh this will be a treat then,” decided Misfit before coming at Neon and Requiem while Locus hung back, waiting to insert herself into the conflict at the opportune time.

Misfit blasted Neon backwards, choosing to focus his attention instead on Requiem. Unlike the SHIELD agent, Misfit knew exactly what was in that canister and he couldn’t risk damaging it. He rushed Sebastian and hit him with an uppercut that knocked him backwards. Misfit could tell that the Warrior wasn’t well-versed in hand-to-hand combat so he was confident he had the upper hand. Requiem tried to defend himself but he had to do it with one hand since the other hand was holding the canister. Misfit pressed his advantage, hitting Requiem with a combination of punches before ending it with another vicious uppercut that sent Sebastian to the floor. The canister slipped from his grasp during the fall and it clattered across the floor. Both Requiem and Misfit lunged for it in an effort to claim it for their respective teams. They clawed and wrestled with one another but it was a moot point. Locus ran in and scooped up the canister. She turned and saw stars as Neon emitted a blinding burst of light from her hand.

“Get it from her,” ordered Requiem as he continued to grapple with Misfit.

“Go home!” shouted Misfit to Locus.

Locus heard the words of her leader and initiated a blind teleport with the canister in her hand. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see her destination with her eyes. The only thing that mattered was that she had been there before and now both she and the canister the Agents of Anarchy wanted were miles away from the Secret Warriors. Satisfied with his teammate’s performance, Misfit hit Requiem in the face and then exited the vault through the hole he had used to enter it.

“What happened to Stephanie and Sebastian?” demanded Composite, now sporting the same water form that Wipeout had.

“I wouldn’t expect such concern and compassion from a puppet of the system,” admitted Misfit with a cruel grin as Locus returned to his side to provide the rest of the Agents with their exit strategy. “A word to the wise, children. You can’t stop what’s coming so don’t even try. We call ourselves the Agents of Anarchy and we’ve just acquired the weapon we need to let the revolution begin. You and the others of your ilk may be content on defending our broken society but you’ll soon see the error of your ways.”

With that, the Agents of Anarchy teleported away, the prize they sought already in their hands. The Secret Warriors looked around at the ruins of the AIM facility and tried to figure out what to do next. Their mission was a bust and they were in hostile territory. They needed backup and they needed it soon.

“Quake, this is Composite,” said Composite into his earpiece. “We lost the canister to some group called the Agents of Anarchy. What the hell is in that thing anyway?”

“A biological virus,” said the AIM technician in charge of the facility as he and more of his goons confronted the Warriors. “I would like it back immediately.”

“I’m going to have to call you back,” said Composite. “Get us some backup. We’re going to need it.”

Next Issue: The Agents of Anarchy are in possession of a bio-weapon and it’s up to the Secret Warriors to stop them before they infect all of New York City.