THE ANARCHY EFFECT

Part III

By Wesley Overhults

Mount Sinai Hospital

“Please tell me you have some good news,” said Finesse as Quake and Requiem left the room once Sebastian had finished his unorthodox questioning of their equally unorthodox witness.

“She remembered a lot more than I would’ve thought,” admitted Quake, speaking up because Requiem didn’t look as if he felt like talking. “Thanks to some helpful clues about the buildings surrounding where the Agents kept her, she helped us locate their hideout.”

“Then we’re going in,” stated Composite. “We’ve been screwing around with these people enough. It’s time to end this before more people start dying.”

“We’re moving as fast as we can already,” said Quake. “C’mon, we’ll take my car and be there as soon as we can.”

“Frankie and I can get there faster,” reminded Composite. “Let us go in first and soften them up for you.”

“I don’t agree with the big guy so much but I have to agree this time,” said Wipeout. “After what we saw them do in Times Square, I’d love nothing more than to get my hands on them again.”

“If you two think you can go into a hot situation without immediate backup and hold things down then be my guest,” said Quake. “It’s an abandoned warehouse on Canal Street close to the Lower East Side.”

“We’ll find it,” promised Composite as he and Wipeout turned into water and then disappeared into the piping system of the building.

“We need to get moving,” ordered Quake, heading to her car with Finesse not far behind her.

“You shouldn’t have needed to do that,” said Neon.

“There’s a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened to me,” said Requiem quietly, following his teammate and their handler. “I intend to make sure that little girl gets the justice she deserves. When we meet those monsters in battle, I want their leader for myself.”

Canal Street

It didn’t take the two boys long to find their target. There weren’t that many abandoned warehouses in that small area of the city. Neither of them could get the images of Times Square out of their heads. Those images haunted them but they also drove the two Secret Warriors. They wanted to get justice for the innocent lives the Agents had taken. They wanted to put down the threat the Agents posed as quickly as possible so others didn’t suffer the same fate as the victims of Times Square. Yet in their hearts, there was something else. It was rage mixed with something else, something deeper down in their psyches that hadn’t been brought to the surface until now. Wipeout had expressed glimmers of it when he murdered the man who killed Neon’s uncle but until now, Composite had never felt this kind of anger before. He wanted to hurt the Agents, maul them, cripple them, end them.

“You wanna suit up before we go in?” asked Wipeout.

“Yeah, I’ll open the door and you follow me in,” stated Composite, placing his hand on the concrete walls of the building and absorbing it. He cracked his knuckles before delivering a spine-shattering blow to the front entrance of the building.

The door exploded in a shower of rotten wood as the two Secret Warriors entered the building. Composite’s eyes scanned the empty room, searching in vain for any sign that someone was still inside. He tore through the building, scouring every inch of it for a trace of the Agents of Anarchy. The building was empty. SHIELD was chasing ghosts and the Agents of Anarchy were still one step ahead of them.

“Great, we’re back to square one then,” realized Wipeout.

“Come out!” shouted Composite to the empty building.

“It’s maddening to be jerked around, isn’t it?” asked Misfit, appearing on a monitor screen set up in the middle of the room. “Does it make you angry to know you’re not the one in control of your own life? Does it drive you insane to know that you’re just a puppet on a string, jerked around by larger forces?”

“I swear to God when I find you, I’m going to hurt you,” stated Composite.

“You know, I’ve decided to retract my previous offer,” said Misfit. “I don’t think there’s an amount of money in existence that will make me give up the power this chemical gives me and my Agents. I think you’ll just have to sit back and watch as we bring this entire city to its knees with mass hysteria.”

“We’re going to stop you,” promised Composite.

“You can’t stop progress,” reminded Misfit. “I’ll leave you with a parting thought though.”

Misfit’s face disappeared from the screen and a clock appeared instead. Composite and Wipeout both looked at the clock for a second and then realized that the Agents of Anarchy had wired their entire hideout to blow.

“Move!” shouted Wipeout, zipping back the way they had entered the building.

Composite snarled and smashed his fist into the computer console. He completely destroyed the piece of equipment in a matter of seconds but it didn’t do any good. Somewhere in the building, Composite heard the timer go off and then there was nothing but light and sound. He was getting tired of Misfit and his games. He was getting tired of watching people die.

“Are you crazy?” asked Quake as soon as Composite pushed his way through the wreckage of the warehouse and dusted himself off, his concrete form keeping him safe from the destruction. “You could’ve been killed.”

“He’s not afraid to die, neither am I,” retorted Composite, speaking of Misfit and the fanatic’s desire to achieve his goal even at the cost of his own life. “The Agents are gone. Misfit has ended the ransom demand. They’re going to poison the water supply.”

“The police got a call from North River saying there was a disturbance at the plant,” explained Quake. “We have SHIELD agents there now but we need you guys.”

“They’re going to wish they’d never heard of us,” promised Composite with a cruel smile.

North River Sewage Treatment Plant

“You know they’re about to come down hard on us,” said Locus, staring intently at her leader. “Why the hell did you retract the ransom demand? Now we have no leverage or way to make any money off this.”

“It was never about the money,” stated Misfit. “You don’t know what’s happening here, do you? You have no idea what we’re about to do. When we pour this thing into the water supply, it will be the opening salvo of a war. That is what this is all about. This is war, not a business.”

“You promised us money,” retorted Locus. “You promised us these people would cave and we would be rich thanks to you. Now you’re telling me that we won’t get a dime and we’ll go down as the worst mass murderers in the entire world. I’m out. I don’t want any part of this if it’s not going to benefit me.”

“Count me out too,” decided Boomerang. “You promised us we would all get what we want. I don’t see us getting anything now.”

None of the Agents of Anarchy had a chance to continue the conversation. Everyone noticed the water in the tank below them began to rumble. It began to froth and churn with an unnatural anger that gave the group of villains pause. All of them stared as the rest of the tanks joined in the open revolt that the first one started. Without warning, the water in the tanks shot into the air and surged towards the Agents of Anarchy. The torrent of water blasted the group of terrorists, soaking them to the bone. The water even managed to douse Firebrand’s flames for a few moments before he reignited himself. The water turned into human form as Wipeout stood before the Agents of Anarchy.

“You’re in my element now,” he told the group of villains. “You’ve been screwing with us since the beginning but now we’re going to end this.”

“Come and get it then, kid,” dared Firebrand, unleashing a blast of fire at Wipeout.

The Secret Warrior contorted his watery body around the blast of fire and struck back with more torrents of water. A flash of magical energy heralded the arrival of the rest of the team. Composite absorbed the steel of the catwalk they were standing on before running towards the Agents of Anarchy. Shriek hit him with a sonic blast that didn’t faze him in the slightest. Misfit hit him with a blast of energy that didn’t do anything better than Shriek’s attack. Composite scattered the group of terrorists like bowling pins. The ones who could fly were instantly airborne, getting off the confines of the catwalk so they could have more space. Wipeout launched blasts of water at Firebrand, attempting to ground him and cut down on the Agents’ advantage in the air. The air was alive with light as Neon used her flash grenades to blind their foes and disorient them so her teammates could attack.

“I would suggest you handle me with more caution,” advised Misfit, dangling the canister of chemical weapon over one of the water vats. “You never know what might happen if you’re not careful.”

“The fact that I’m going to leave you breathing means I am careful,” retorted Composite, throwing vicious haymakers that Misfit weaved to dodge.

“But not intelligent,” retorted Misfit, using his mutant power to unleash a blast of concussive energy at Composite.

The force bolt was strong enough and at such a close range that it pushed Composite backwards and sent him toppling off the catwalk and to the ground below. Misfit turned and tried to keep track of Locus. He knew he could still use her as an escape route if things turned bad. However, he neglected to pay attention to the rest of his surroundings. Requiem took his moment and hit Misfit with a blast of magical energy that sent the leader of the Agents of Anarchy skidding down the catwalk. Sebastian wasted little time in teleporting after Misfit though he wasn’t sure exactly how much more use of his magical abilities he could make. The strain was taking a toll on him physically but getting Misfit was more important than any amount of fatigue he had to endure to accomplish that goal.

“Did you even know their names?” asked Requiem. “Did you even know the names of the people you murdered?”

“Their lives were expendable in order to bring about the change necessary to save this world,” replied Misfit, blasting at Requiem to keep him away. “All great revolutions must come with sacrifice.”

“Murder and senseless violence isn’t revolution,” retorted Requiem, teleporting to sidestep the blast and hitting Misfit in the jaw upon reentry. “Those people spent the final moments of their lives in complete agony. They died screaming and even now I hear them screaming in my head. I was forced to talk to the spirit of a dead ten-year-old girl that received a dose of your poison and tried to murder her own mother. You are a monster and I promised her I would put you down before anyone else became a victim of your ‘revolution’.”

“Better she died to set an example than to become a mindless, soulless zombie of the system,” replied Misfit, hitting Requiem in the stomach and then bringing his knee into Sebastian’s face.

Misfit barely had time to catch his breath before Finesse caught him with a flying forearm shot that stunned him. She locked him in a Muay Thai clinch and delivered a vicious shot to his face with her knee before letting him go to stumble and fall backwards. Jeanne gave the leader of the Agents of Anarchy a satisfied smirk before turning towards an incoming attack. An energy katana formed in her right hand and she used it to deflect the boomerang heading straight towards her. The projectile careened off its intended course and exploded against the railing of the catwalk. Without proper support, the metal structure began to buckle in the middle and everyone who was still on it felt themselves sliding towards the drop.

“We need to get that canister,” realized Composite even as he held onto the railing with one hand and caught Neon with the other before she took a dive into one of the vats.

“Something tells me that’s going to be a problem,” realized Neon as she saw what was happening on the other side.

When Finesse had knocked Misfit unconscious, the canister had fallen from his grasp. Now it was sliding down the broken railing just as they were. If the canister was damaged in any way that would cause it to leak and if it hit the water in the vat, then they were screwed. Requiem knew it too and he teleported from his current position to appear in mid-air, grabbing the canister and wrapping it in his arms. However, though Sebastian was magic he wasn’t immune to the effects of gravity and he too began to plummet towards the vat below. A glowing cord of energy wrapped around his ankle and stopped his descent. Finesse grimaced in pain as she held the energy whip she had created and tried to secure it to the railing. It was then that she remembered that three of the Agents of Anarchy had aerial capabilities. Shriek and Firebrand circled around her and prepared to finish her off. She looked around and couldn’t spot Boomerang but knew he probably wasn’t far away.

“I know I’m not used to this but I could use some help,” she called out. “Expediency would also be nice.”

Wipeout saw the situation and focused on the water in the tank. A geyser erupted from one of the vats right under Shriek and sent her hurtling into the ceiling of the building. Firebrand sent a blast of flame at the energy whip and severed it, sending Requiem plummeting towards the vat of water below. Sebastian had enough time to catch his breath and attempted one last teleportation that saw him wink out of sight but no one could see where he landed. The Secret Warriors had other problems. They needed to take the Agents of Anarchy down and they needed to do it soon.

“We need to get to the stable one,” realized Composite, glancing at the railing that ran around the perimeter of the room and seeing that it was still intact.

He managed to hoist himself and Neon up to more stable ground while Wipeout let go of the railing entirely and dropped onto the floor, splashing across it before reforming himself. Without the additional burden of Requiem, Finesse found it easier to climb up to the other railing though she found herself on the opposite side of the room from her teammates. Firebrand came at her and she flipped to dodge the blasts of flame that flew from his hands. She jumped off of the catwalk and used another energy whip to slow her descent so she could make it to the ground safely.

“I need a platform!” ordered Composite.

Wipeout nodded and created another geyser even as his leader took a running leap from the catwalk. Composite used the geyser as a stepping stone to leap onto Firebrand’s back. Henry quickly absorbed the properties of Firebrand’s body, thereby shielding himself from the villain’s heat. He began to bash the Agent in the face over and over again, causing him to lose altitude slowly but surely. Wipeout sent another geyser towards Firebrand and Composite jumped off of him just before it hit. Henry knew he didn’t have long to act before his fiery form would revert back to human flesh and blood. He needed to find that chemical weapon and he needed to find it fast so that he could put an end to this nightmare once and for all.

“I think most of these guys are down,” said Neon. “I can’t find the teleporter and I think the guy that throws the boomerangs is still around. Where’s the leader?”

“He probably went after Sebastian and that’s where I’m going,” declared Composite. “You guys clean up here. I’ll close the book on this whole assignment.”

Henry took off running even as the other three Warriors saw Boomerang hovering over them. He launched a trio of boomerangs that exploded on contact and sent the Warriors in all directions. Finesse got to her feet first and realized that she had to get in the air if she was going to take out the remaining Agent. She looked at Wipeout and nodded her head. Frankie instantly knew what she wanted and turned his entire body into water. Finesse ran towards Boomerang and Wipeout snaked himself under her feet before exploding upwards and propelling Finesse into the air. She used her weapon generators to form a set of brass knuckles on each hand and tagged Boomerang in the face twice, knocking him downwards and watching as the jets in his boots did their work. By the time Boomerang got his bearings and got upright again, Wipeout hit him with a blast of water that sent him into a wall and dropped him.

“That was quite satisfying,” noted Finesse before turning to Wipeout. “Thank you for the assistance. It’s nice to see that you’re not as inept as I originally thought you were.”

“The whole world must be going to hell,” realized Wipeout with a grin. “You actually sounded like you were giving me a compliment.”

Sebastian Druid mumbled something unintelligible as he rolled over onto his back and felt his fingers clutch around the metal canister that housed the world’s deadliest chemical weapon. His entire body felt like someone had hit it with a truck. He was tired, exhausted in fact, but he knew it wasn’t over yet. It would never be over until what he had in his hand was destroyed for good. Unfortunately, that required energy his body didn’t have. He had teleported too many times and used too much magical energy in too short of a time. His body was so drained that he could barely move at all. Unfortunately, that left him easy prey for the leader of the Agents of Anarchy to take back what he viewed as rightfully his.

“I’m sorry that such a weapon has to be in inferior hands once more,” said Misfit, taking the canister from Requiem and gloating over his prone body. “Rest assured that now it’s in my hands as it was always meant to be.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else,” stated Requiem, clawing at Misfit’s ankle in an effort to prevent him from escaping.

Misfit kicked Requiem in the ribs as Sebastian tried to get back to his feet. Requiem rolled over to get away from Misfit and struggled to get back to his feet. Misfit blasted him with an energy bolt that sent him back to the ground and simply watched as Requiem summoned up the fortitude to get back to his feet once more.

“You may have won a few battles but you’re not winning this war,” stated Misfit, blasting Requiem again. “As long as I have this canister, my revolution will still come to pass and there won’t be anything you can do to stop it.”

Requiem got back to his feet for a third time and managed to duck under Misfit’s next blast. He threw a weak punch that lightly hit Misfit in the jaw. Misfit backhanded him with the canister and then turned to escape. However, he took a blast of magical energy in the back from Requiem and it knocked him forward. The canister clattered across the concrete as it slipped from his grasp. Composite arrived on the scene and picked up the canister, using the heat of his fiery form to melt through the metal. He began heating up the chemical compound, burning it into nothingness. He knew that the people at SHIELD probably wanted to keep the compound under lock and key to study it but he had seen firsthand how dangerous the chemical could be. It was better off no longer existing so that no one, good or evil, could have it in their possession and risk further danger to the rest of the world. Composite heated the chemical up as much as he could and when he was finished, the chemical weapon was nothing.

“It’s over,” stated Composite as he saw the look of horror on Misfit’s face. “That thing is gone and it’s never going to hurt anyone ever again. You’ve lost. If you know what’s good for you then you’ll turn yourself in and maybe they’ll go easy on you.”

“You don’t deserve to live in my new world,” snarled Misfit, blasting Composite backwards and trying to find a way to get out of the losing situation he was stuck in.

At this point, discretion was the better part of valor in his mind. He began running away as fast as he could, determined to find a way to evade capture by SHIELD. He would regroup and come back with a new plan. The revolution couldn’t be stopped as long as he remained free to plan the downfall of the corrupt system. He turned a corner and saw his exit strategy standing there inches before him. He knew that Locus wasn’t the most committed of his brood but she couldn’t fail him now, not when he needed her help the most.

“I need you to teleport both of us away from here,” he ordered her. “You’re my only hope of getting away safely.”

“I want you to remember that this could’ve been avoided if you had stuck to your original plan,” stated Locus. “The only reason this failed was because you got greedy. I’m one to sympathize with that, sure, but I at least know how to be successful with my greed. You tried to cheat me out of a huge payday. Remember that while you’re rotting away in jail.”

“I need you,” said Misfit even as Locus vanished from his sight, probably a thousand miles away from his current position.

He had little time to ponder such things as another flash of energy appeared in front of him. Requiem grabbed Misfit by the throat and pressed him up against the wall of the building, squeezing his fingers as tightly as he could with the little strength he still possessed.

“Her name was Julie,” said Sebastian coldly, speaking of the little girl that Misfit had infected with the chemical weapon. “I want you to remember that because I can’t get her voice out of my head. I can still hear her screaming, crying, begging me to do what needs to be done. If it wasn’t for the fact that I can barely stand, I might carry out her demands.”

“It’s over,” stated Composite. “Let him go, Sebastian. I’ll personally make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

“No, I will,” assured Requiem, punching Misfit in the jaw and knocking him out cold with one blow.

Composite gave his teammate a nod of satisfaction. The nightmare was finally over. The Agents of Anarchy were, more or less, in SHIELD custody and the chemical weapon that had started all of this was destroyed. Yet in his heart, Henry wondered if the war was really over. The Agents had pushed them like no other villain had. They had stared into the face of pure evil and all of them had blinked. Henry couldn’t say he would’ve walked away if he had been in Sebastian’s shoes. He wondered if that made Sebastian the better man than him or merely a more naive one.

SHIELD Helicarrier

“You did well in the field on this one,” admitted Fury as he looked at Quake. “I know you were hoping to get your hands on them but I think your kids roughed them up well enough.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Quake. “I’m glad I was able to live up to my responsibilities in coordinating the manhunt for the Agents of Anarchy. May I ask whether or not this means I’ll return to active field duty?”

“For the moment, no,” decided Fury. “You’ve taken a huge step in the right direction, Daisy, but you’ve still got a ways to go. For now, I want you to continue to handle these kids and run their missions. In the future, get them to be a little more covert. They’re called the Secret Warriors for a reason.”

“Frankly, sir, I’ll try my best but I don’t see that happening,” admitted Quake. “These kids wouldn’t know how to be covert if it bit them in the ass. I’ve got my work cut out for me if you think I can shape them up.”

“That’s why you’re the right person for the job,” said Fury. “I expect your report about this incident on my desk by tomorrow morning. Good work out there, Agent Johnson.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Quake with a salute as she got up to leave. “Director Fury, I’d like to be kept informed on any progress we make on finding a cure for those who remain infected by the chemical weapon.”

“We’ve been in touch with Reed Richards and he’s going to get back to us about finding an antidote,” promised Fury. “I suspect if he puts his mind to it, they should be fine within the next couple of days. Tell your kids that the city of New York owes them one. Things could’ve been a hell of a lot worse if those psychos had gotten that stuff into the water supply.”

“I’ll pass that information along, sir,” assured Quake. “I’m sure it will help cheer them up.”

She exited Fury’s office and made her way to her quarters, eager to get a decent amount of sleep for once in the past few days. She forgot how exhausting field work could be, especially when you were in charge of a manhunt. Fury was right though. Things would have been much worse if the Secret Warriors hadn’t have stepped up and brought the Agents of Anarchy to justice. Quake felt a sense of pride in them because it meant that she had made the right call in forming the team from those particular people. She trusted them and she was being rewarded for that trust. Still, there were nagging feelings of failure that haunted the back of her mind. She sat down at her computer and opened a blank document so she could begin work on her report. However, her mind kept drifting back to one thing in particular where her team was concerned.

“We got ’em,” she said to the picture of Raymond Sydney that accompanied his file when she pulled it up. “You would’ve been proud of Stephanie, Ray.”

She pulled up the file on Neon that SHIELD had as part of the Caterpillar List. The file was completely blank and Daisy knew why. She had been with Sydney on the mission that led him to finding Stephanie. She didn’t know the full story on things but she was willing to bet that Sydney specifically asked Fury to not keep any records of Stephanie’s past. In return, he wouldn’t put up a fight when Fury put her on the Caterpillar List. That still didn’t solve Stephanie’s problems though. The poor girl had the right to know where she came from and the right to lead as normal of a life as possible.

“You were the only one who knew where she came from,” said Quake to the picture of Raymond Sydney. “How the hell am I supposed to find the answers she wants if I don’t know where to start looking?”

Daisy Johnson sighed and decided to get some sleep. The report could wait until afterwards but she knew the questions Stephanie had couldn’t. Maybe it was time to do some digging into Raymond’s old SHIELD cases and see if she could help the younger girl get some closure.

SHIELD Safehouse 23

“I was thinking of going out for Chinese. You wanna tag along?”

Requiem looked up from the notebook he was writing in and saw Neon standing in his doorway. He put down the pencil and closed the notebook, deciding that his scribbles could wait for a few moments.

“I’ve never had Chinese food,” he admitted. “Is it good?”

“Come see for yourself,” she suggested with a grin. “What were you writing?”

“I kept a journal while I was in the asylum,” explained Requiem. “The doctors there thought it would be a good way for me to deal with my . . . condition. What happened with the Agents of Anarchy unnerved me.”

“I’m sorry,” apologized Neon. “What you went through with that girl . . . I couldn’t imagine going through something like that.”

“She’s at peace now,” assured Requiem, crossing the room and standing next to Neon. “Her killers have been brought to justice and there’s not much more I can do, at least not much I’m willing to let myself do.”

“Would you really have killed him?” asked Neon as the two Secret Warriors made their way out of the safehouse and towards a nearby Chinese restaurant.

“Probably not,” admitted Requiem.

“Good,” decided Neon with a nod of approval as the two of them entered the restaurant. “C’mon, I’ll teach you how to eat with chopsticks.”

The two of them spent the evening in each other’s company and for the first time since they joined the team, they actually felt normal. It was a brief moment of calm inside the chaotic storm that was their lives but at this point they decided to take what they could get. The worst was over and it was time to catch their breath before life threw something else at them.

Next Issue: Frankie Jensen’s homecoming isn’t quite what he expected or wanted.