The 1337 Crew (or L33T) is a group of characters in the Madness Series. They are enemies who the protagonist of the series, Hank, must fight during his struggles. The Crew is made up of characters who wear and use the same equipment as the Agents [1] did in the movie The Matrix [2](these include suit and ties, the distinctive sunglasses, and Desert Eagles). First appearing in Madness Apotheosis, they are elite soldiers who are meant to stop Hank, but they never fare much better than the previous enemies. Sometimes, they seem more concentrated on keeping their glasses on straight, evidenced by the time when Hank smacked an agent in the head and he straightened his glasses in the heat of battle, ignoring any possible attacks.
Origin[]
Their first and subsequent appearance in Madness Apotheosis and Madness Depredation did little to describe what the goal and purpose of the 1337 Crew actually was, and thus they were left an oddity to fans. However, this all changed with the release of Madness Antipathy in which a poster as well as various signs which were in the background described in detail what the 1337 Crew was and why it came into being. The Crew is a smaller squad of a much larger group called the Agency Against Hank Wimbleton, an organization whose goal is to stop the violence and mayhem caused by Hank. The Crew are the elites of this group who are heading the anti-Hank effort.
Madness Interactive's character editor contains components called "Smith Hair" which resembles Agent Smith's hair and ear piece, "Smith Shades" which are the distinctive sunglasses, and "Businessman" which is a black suit and tie. These designs are seen towards the end of the story mode in the rooms in front of the sheriff's. The members of the 1337 Crew have all of these traits except for the hair. Since Madness Interactive was made prior to Apotheosis, and thus before the Crew's first appearance, the "Smith" enemies may have given Krinkels the initial idea for the 1337 Crew, but this is unverified.
Appearances[]
Madness Apotheosis[]
The Crew made their first appearance in Apotheosis in the form of a single member as well as various recruitment posters scattered throughout the background. The single member showed obvious improvement over the other enemies and was able to hold up Hank for at least eight seconds. He also appeared to command some respect from the normal grunts, as the guard next to the agent appeared to ask his permission before approaching Hank around the corner. However, the agent was still silenced when he was impaled in through the throat with a nightstick. The agent later returned in the state of a zombie with a G-36 and managed to shoot Hank. However, the 1337 zombie's head was sliced in half by Hank's katana seconds later. It should be noted that the Deagle he carried was a normal one with a laser attachment, rather than being the easily-recognized black "1337 Deagle" of the next two episodes.
Madness Depredation[]
Although the 1337 Crew has greater abilities than the typical grunt, they are still no match for the series' protagonists.
The Crew also appeared in Depredation, the fifth installment of the series. In it, every enemy who was not a main character was a member of the 1337 Crew. (Excluding Sanford, Deimos and the people in the 'flying party') Despite their numbers and their skills, however, they proved to be no match for Hank and were slaughtered just as easily as the other enemies were before them.
Madness Antipathy[]
Madness Antipathy was the Crew's most important episode by far in that it gave the details necessary to know who they were and what they were about. In this episode, they are actually within a recruitment center, and so most enemies (except for the main characters as well as several "new recruits") were part of the Crew. It appears that Tricky is at least an ally of the 1337 Crew, as he calls upon them for assistance in this episode. Also, one of the signs directing enlistment procedures refers to a "New Lord and Master", however, this more than likely refers to the auditor.
Madness Consternation[]
Consternation shows a very vital change in the 1337 Crew. In this episode, the 1337 crew wear red sunglasses instead of the older dark ones and are now named l33t. Also, two members are shown stabbed to walls with knives in two parts of the episode. Furthermore, there seem to be three new ranks to the crew, a giant version of a l33t agent (presumably named the Mag-Agent: Torture) with two large spikes stabbed through its head and a large shotgun (this agent was shot several times by Hank without even being fazed, though it was later killed by several chainsaw wounds to the face), two different members with seemingly yellow blood that wore a sort of mask with a yellow visor, and two more large agents, each with a strange mask and seemingly exposed teeth (Possiblly a genetic experiment of some sort). The l33t seem to be lead by the auditor. Also, Jesus appears to no longer be an ally of the crew, as he shows no hesitation in killing three members toward the end of the episode. On a side note, the l33t crew seem to be having more of an effect on Hank, however, it is unknown if this is a result of Hank's frequent body changes, or if the crew is becoming more powerful.
Madness Inundation[]
The l33t agents have not changed their appearance in Madness Inundation. The advanced members of the crew are also more common and they play a more vital role. In the animation, cryogenic pods are shown in the background of a building, offering the possibility that the l33t agents are either given some sort of powers unnaturally, or are being transformed into the larger or the yellow blooded agents seen in this and the previous episode.
Madness Aggregation[]
The l33t crew reappears in Madness Combat 9, and have still not changed their appearance. The Mag V3 guard also appears.
Madness Combat 9.5[]
The agents, alongside engineers and soldats, are seen fighting against Hank in The Other Place. An agent can be see writing "We are abandoned" on a wall before being killed by Hank.
Madness Abrogation[]
The crew returns to fight Hank and Sanford. They assisted the Auditor as he confronted the protagonists, though they were no match for the magnified Hank and the agile Sanford. One of them managed to stab Hank's head with a Bowie knife, but without much effect. In this episode, two agents were successfully resurrected by the Auditor's spell, giving them significantly enhanced fighting ability. In addition to the corpses of their deceased co-workers, several living agents were absorbed by the Auditor in order to heal his wounds and enhance his power.
The Auditor resurrected two l33t agents with his powers in an enhanced form (similar to the enhanced engineers in Madness Aggregation). These agents were able to take multiple hits to the body and head and had much faster reflexes than normal agents. For instance, the first resurrected agent managed to dodge Hank's sword swings and land a few punches on him. Like Jesus, they also had bloodshot eyes, which were partially hidden behind their shades that turned dark grey during the resurrection process. Sanford managed to interrupt a resurrection by destroying the body with a Mossberg 500 before the process was complete.
Madness Expurgation[]
The crew appear as some of the A.A.H.W. units summoned by Tricky in the hell dimension Hank and Sanford were sent to. All of them were killed by either Hank or Sanford.
SACRIFICE.fla[]
Agents are among Deimos' victims in the short. Notably, they have the black sunglasses of 1337 agents, rather than any iteration of the red glasses.
ANAMNESIS.fla[]
The black sunglasses-wearing 1337 agents make another appearance in the short, one stabbed with their own MP7 by Deimos.
DedmosRebuilt.fla[]
After Deimos restored and enhanced his body, he fought and killed several 1337 agents with black sunglasses. Like most of Deimos's opponents in the episode, these agents were significantly larger than normal, although not quite to the level of a MAG Agent.
One agent had the misfortune of being impaled on a chain over a hole in the floor; as he struggled to free himself, Deimos walked on the chain, stole his shades, and then punched him along the chain and into the wall. Another agent had a baton jabbed into his throat, leaving him choking and bleeding from his neck as he staggered into the next room and died.
After "2BDamned" retrieved Deimos from Purgatory, three giant 1337 agents emerged from the cliff wall to attack them. These agents wore fully red shades and had small protrusions of bone or rock scattered around their faces.
DISSENTER[]
Two agents with crimson-tinted shades appear in this short, both of them are on the unknown building's raid. Both agents got killed by an A.T.P. Soldat that fired a rocket at them.
Incident: 001A[]
Although a non-canon episode, Incident: 001A showed that the agents still retain their usual role of fighting Hank. They were first seen unloading boxes from a truck, with the last crate containing Hank, who leaped out in a surprise attack and killed them with dual Beretta 92s. Hank later advanced into the building, where he threw several agents into a giant blender.
Incident: 010A[]
Agents in Incident: 010A appeared to be guarding themselves in a building against a horde of zombies outside. Hank managed to break in and kill both the agents and the zombies.
Incident: 100A[]
The l33t crew appear in Incident: 100A as the main antagonists against Sanford and Deimos. At the beginning, one agent fired at a Deimos-like decoy before getting stabbed by the real one. One of them was beating up the person who Sanford eventually kidnaps. Additionally, there were four 1337 agents wearing paintball masks instead of shades. Deimos stunned them with a flashbang and kills them just as easily using an AR-15 with a grenade launcher attachment. According to Krinkels, these agents wore paintball masks because they somehow (incorrectly) thought that they would improve their odds.
Incident: 101A[]
Only three agents appeared in Incident: 101A, guarding a building while watching a delivery man pass by. This is the only animation where they neither fight nor get killed.
Incident: 110A[]
The agents in this animation retain their usual role as victims killed in large numbers by the protagonist, Jesus. At the end of the episode, Jesus was mowing down a horde of oncoming agents with a minigun in a comical display.
Incident: 111A[]
Three agents appear in Incident: 111A. However, they are simply targets of Jesus rather than antagonists in this animation.
Incident: 1000A[]
The agents are the antagonists in this animation, fighting against Hank and Jesus. Here, they have a new red tint in their glasses.
ROMP.FLA[]
The agents appeared in this animation as targets for Sanford and Deimos, where they were all killed with ease by the duo.
Trivia[]
- The Agents of Madness Combat were inspired by Agent Smith from The Matrix.
- Old concept art shows that A.A.H.W. Agents were splinter faction from NEXUS forces, were well equiped and had private funding. In the final game, the A.A.H.W. does have access to some decent weaponry, as shown in The Escape, where they are seen with iron swords, CP5s and NS-19s, but can still be deployed with weak melee weapons, cheap revolvers and sometimes with no weapons at all.
- On the kickstarter page and pre-alpha stages of the game, Agents wore solid red shades. They now wear black shades. It's unclear why this change was made, but possibly to make their NEXUS CORE counterparts more distinct.
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