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// Chapter 4: A Heavy Taboo 
// Story: My Little Anti-Hero 
// by T_Rex 
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“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.”


The Agent sighed and walked back toward the door, pocketing three clips of 5.56mm rounds for his sniper rifle. The conversation that unfolded earlier reverberated in his mind, bringing on yet another wave of both guilt and uncertainty. What was I supposed to do? He thought. I did the right thing... right?
He continued pacing back and forth, his hooves clacking against the steel of the floor. Although he felt vulnerable and foreign without his armor, he also felt something that he hadn’t known before; he felt lighter and more agile, and a serene feeling encompassed him. He didn’t notice this, though, because he only had one thought on his mind.


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1 Hour Ago


The car pulled up to the Tower, slowing to a stop at a large circular lot. The Agent and Eclipse stepped out and began the slow trot to the main building, Eclipse constantly adjusting her bandages. As they entered the building, a fellow Guard stepped in front of the pair.
"Sir, the Director is requesting a meeting with you about your last assignment in the room on the next floor up, directly across from the stairwell." With a nod from the Agent, he turned and retreated to the barracks.
The duo looked at each other, Eclipse nodding and walking toward the medical station. The Agent looked at her for a moment before turning and heading for the stairs.
He slowly ascended the staircase, dragging out the time until his meeting with the Director. Nothing that was said would be good, and he knew it. Engrossed in thought, he didn’t notice the door looming in front of him.
He tapped the door controls set onto the wall lightly with a hoof and stepped through as the door slid upwards, lifting into the ceiling. Feeling trapped as the door slammed back into place behind him, the Agent surveyed the room in front of him.
An old circular table sat in the center, its surfaced covered with worn books and research notes. On the wall, a large television screen sat idly, displaying breaking news and the occasional commercial. 
As he watched, the news faded and was in it's place a larger-than-life silhouette slowly came into focus. The stallion, shrouded in dakness, simply stared at the Agent.
He craned his neck away from the camera and spoke, presumably to somepony off camera.
After a brief inaudible exchange, he turned back to the Agent. The Agent sat there, waiting for the Director to start the conversation. After a brief sigh, he began speaking.
“Agent... You single-hoofedly almost annihilated the fruits of over ten years of scientific research in order to save a single guard.” The Director slammed a hoof onto the table. “This is not acceptable! We can not have you jeopardizing entire projects that could save this city in order to save “friends”.”
The Agent stared silently, taking in the Director’s words. The Director started again. “The next time you pull one of those stunts, you WILL be disciplined accordingly!” He was interrupted by a scientist trotting over and placing a file in front of him. He scanned the report silently and sighed audibly. “You...you’re fucking kidding me. Is this a joke?” He turned towards the scientist and flung the file at him. The scientist cringed and retreated off camera, shaking in fear.
The Director turned back towards the camera. “According to this, you aren’t progressing along with our projections. You should be much more advanced right now, but apparently there was a glitch in our systems.” He hung his head. “Get the fuck out of here. But if this happens again, remember what I just said.” He turned back to the scientist. “And you? You’re fired.”
As the screen faded to darkness, the Agent practically galloped out of the room, making sure he could get as far away from the Director as possible. Damn, he thought. And they say that I’m scary.... With a shudder, the Agent started back towards the barracks.


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The Agent trotted up to the medical wing, still lacking his trademark armor. Without the only garments that most ponies recognized him by, the Agent received only slight glances from off-duty Guards.
The wing bustled with doctors and medics levitating or calling out for various supplies. A group of nurses burst through a nearby door, a stretcher careening through after them. As the Agent watched, they pushed through a similar door, all the while yelling about emergency surgery.
With a shudder, he walked up to the front desk. A familiar blue pegasus stood idly there, talking with a nearby doctor. After they had spoken, the doctor nodded and returned to his office while Eclipse trotted towards the entrance. She looked at the Agent standing by the door and looking at her, and cleared her throat.
“Um, may I help you?” She asked, looking strangely at him. He raised an eyebrow quizzically and gave a short laugh. “Wierdo...” Eclipse muttered as she stepped past him.
“Don’t recognize me without the costume, do you?” The Agent smiled as her eyes widened and a look of realization lit up her face. They simply stared at each other for a few moments before Eclipse broke the silence.
“Um, sorry. Well, thanks, actually.” She said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Wouldn’t have gotten out if you hadn’t came along.” She looked up at him hopefully. “Speaking of tagging along, do you think... maybe we could travel together again?" She smiled and gave the Agent a pleading look.
"Well... I guess..." He started. "But I don't think that the Director will approve. He'll just say that you'll slow me down or endanger the mission." He grimaced at Eclipse and frowned slightly.
"Well then, why don't we get his opinion?"


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The Agent gulped, nervously standing before the monitor the Director had inhabited less than an hour ago. He was still nervous, but having somepony else in the room had lowered the tension, if only slightly.. Why oh why did I ever agree to come back into this room? He thought while taking a look in his surroundings, even though nothing had changed.
As the monitor powered on, a familiar silhouette appeared onscreen. The Director sat in the same pose as earlier. He sighed and began speaking. “I don’t remember calling you back in here,” he said hostily.”So why are you standing there?”
Eclipse spoke up first. “Um... I just wanted to ask you if I could accompany him on his next few missions.” She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. “I believe that a small squad backing him up could be beneficial to the project.”
Their higher-up turned his head quizzically. “Oh? And how is somepony slowing down my super soldier not detrimental?” He shook his head and shifted backwards slightly.
Eclipse answered, without missing a beat. “How do I endanger the mission? I can fly, which he can’t, I’m smaller, and I’m a whole lot smarter than him!” The Director contemplated the proposal as the Agent glared at Eclipse. After a few minutes of silence, he cleared his throat and began to speak. “You have one chance. One chance to prove that this is a good idea. If I decide that it isn’t, you’re back to your old assignment. Am I clear?”
They nodded and withdrew from the room as if it were radioactive, unable to see the grin covering the Director’s face.


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The Agent and Eclipse made their way to the helicopter, the pegasus showing a large change in attitude. Ditching the silent air, she talked easily and showed a rare smile. 
“I mean, it’s stupid, really.” She said, looking over at the Agent. “Why do we need a helicopter when I can fly and you can just jump your way over there? It’s kinda counterproductive, if you ask me.”
They continued talking as they stepped onto the helicopter and throughout the flight to the LZ. Before they knew it, the pilot turned back to announce their arrival at the first beacon’s landing zone.
Eclipse leapt gracefully from the chopper, gliding down to the pavement below and landing daintily on her hooves. The Agent followed suit, falling like a rock and cracking the pavement as he landed in front of the building.
“Alright, let’s keep this quick and quiet.” he said, motioning for Eclipse to follow him. They trotted up to the door of the building that acted as a facade for the Freak activity inside. With a swift kick, the doors were launched off of their hinges and splintered against the far wall. The duo stepped inside the eerily silent building. The Agent motioned for Eclipse to follow him, and together they began to make their way to the second floor. As they reached the door, he hid behind an overturned table and peered over the top. This room, along with the first, was completely devoid of freaks.
“Whaf fthe hay?” Eclipse muttered, her voice muffled by the pistol in her mouth. The Agent emerged from his cover and together they entered the next room in the abandoned building.
This room contained a point of interest in the form of a fissure slicing through most of the floor, mirroring another one on the ceiling . The super soldier and the Guard walked up and peered into the breach, taking care not to fall in. The hole led through a sealed-off room on the first floor and concluded in a large cavern underneath the building.
The Agent looked up at Eclipse and laughed. “Fillies first!” He exclaimed motioning towards the large depression.
With a sigh, Eclipse dove into the fissure and landed on the first floor. The Agent followed, this time falling slowly enough to not have enough force to damage the floor. The duo peered over the edge once more.
Gwa-huh!?! The Agent thought. At least 50 freaks littered the cavern, sitting idly or wandering around, oblivious to the intruders.. Now what? He voiced his thought to Eclipse, and she simply stared back into the lair. After a few seconds, she replied.
“Explosives could clear them out...” She began. “Then you keep the ones that are either left behind or come back off of me while I call in the beacon. After that, we get out and get back to the base.”
With no better plan, the Agent raised a grenade with the suit’s levitation spell and got ready to execute the mutants below. With a click and a ping, the grenade hit the ground in the middle of a mass of the freaks and detonated with a muffled bang.
The Agent fell in between a group of freaks, slamming down onto one of them and levitating his sub-machine gun. Eclipse flew into the grotto, touching down in the beacon’s landing zone. As the Agent leveled waves of freaks with both bullets and the butt of his gun, she called in air support to drop a beacon at their location.

The Agent swung the gun upwards again, caving in another freak’s chest. The levitation spell spun the gun back towards the crowd and fired another clip of ammo into it, taking down a total or 4 freaks. Fuck! We need a better way to kill them! He aimed for another freak’s head, and another burst brought the hostile down. He turned to check on Eclipse’s progress as another hostile slammed into him.
Eclipse was faring much better, as the freak’s hadn’t reached her yet. As he watched, the beacon fell from the sky and slammed into the ground, showering the pegasus with dust and debris.
With the beacon beginning to charge, the Agent slammed his gun into the freak and tossed another grenade into the mass of bodies. Following another bang, the air was filled with charred bodies and pieces of said bodies.
All hell broke loose as the evolved freaks from the previous night stepped out, yelling in anticipation as the beacon continued to steadily charge.The Agent and Eclipse turned, and they both began to unload their weapons into the newcomers.
One evolved freak galloped straight towards the soldiers, stopping momentarily to fling acid at them, before leaping over the Agent and landing next to Eclipse.
The Agent singled out that freak and levitated another clip into his gun, realizing that that was his final clip. He aimed for the freak’s head and unleashed a barrage of bullets, tearing into its skull and dropping it to the floor.
With his attention singled onto that offending freak, he did not notice the other evolved freak advancing towards him. The Agent turned.

The freak smashed into him, launching him backwards about 4 feet. He scrambled to his hooves, swinging his gun back around.
*click*
*click*
Gah! Letting out a stream of obscenities and throwing aside the now useless firearm, he levitated one of his last 2 grenades and dropped it at his hooves before galloping in the other direction. Sliding to a halt, he turned to look just as the freak’s charred body flew past and a loud humming started up behind him. He yelled out to Eclipse as he lied down. “GET DOWN!”
Eclipse turned and hit the floor seconds before the beacon detonated, bathing the subterranean cave in blinding light. The Agent was unable to see anything for a few seconds, even with his helmet darkening to compensate for the burst of light.
As the light died down and the hum quieted down, The Agent stood back up and walked over to his partner, snickering as she groaned.
“Why oh why did I ever agree to do this?” Eclipse muttered as she stood up. The Agent walked over to the hole in the ceiling and looked back. Eclipse trotted up to him and sighed, stretching her wings. Together, they exited the cavern and then made their way to the front door.
Eclipse lagged back as the Agent stepped out of the building and into the sunlight. “The mission was a success,” she muttered into her headset. “He’s progressing as we expected.” Without waiting for a reply, she shut off her headset and stepped past the School for Gifted Unicorns sign amidst the dead grass in front of the now-empty freak lair.

(Author's note: I don't really like the pacing of this one, but I can't rewrite it now. I might go over all of the chapters and fix parts of them later, but right now I don't have time.)