—The sky was pitch black, with the stars above being one of the few natural light sources around the area. Rain poured down from the storm clouds shrouding the starlight, covering up half of the full moon that glowed faintly in the distance.
Light poles lined up across the road that the rain painted wet below the cloud's wake, and a single car is situated on the road's pathway. It wasn't going anywhere, but it was there. A light orange glow starts to emerge from the vehicle, which was completely flipped onto its side. There were two passengers in the crash, but neither of them was present at this time.
Jay was still on the floor, trying to gain some of his energy to overcome the unbearable Debuffs that came with hitting his threshold, but the sudden change of scenery around him shocked him more than his debuffs did. In fact, the effects of his dizziness slowly nullify themselves as Jay looks around him more and more.
The car flipped over on its side on the monochrome road, and the glass spread across the scene next to the fire. Jay's seen this scene unfold too many times and always at his worst moments.
Looking at his own appearance, Jay wasn't wearing his blue zip-up hoodie anymore and had on his real-world appearance. His icy blue hair had turned back to its natural dark brown, and his red sports hoodie and black sweatpants contrasted his tennis shoes. He wasn't Jay anymore, but simply just Jayson now.
Jayson managed to get one of his legs up and tried to stand back up. On one knee, he pushes off the road below him as he tries to calm himself down.
'I can't... feel my Debuffs...' Jayson thinks, 'W-what is happening?'
This wasn't real, just like last time he had an episode at the hospital. He seemed to be going through some traumatic re-experienceness, but this was the first time it's ever happened to him in-game. The car's fire starts to grow at a rapid pace, and Jayson covers up the front of his face as he feels the wind begin to pick up around him.
A figure emerges from the wreck, with bright red lines emerging from every corner of their face and body. They had the look of Jayson's mother, but it definitely wasn't her. Jayson shuts his eyes once again and gets down on both knees in complete defeat.
'I-t thought I...' He thinks, 'I thought I could win!'
The rain picks up in velocity, although Jayson didn't even have the pleasure of feeling it. His clothes were soaked, but he didn't feel wet. He could hear footsteps ahead of him tread through the wet road as they approached him slowly, seemingly from the crash. Before even seeing who it was, Jayson hears them speak.
"Have you given up already?" The dark figure asks.
Jayson looks up at them with tears in his eyes. They still looked like his mother, with blank eyes and a strange expression. Jayson gathers up all of his strength, and through his blurry and dimmed vision, matches eyes with the figure. They still had bright red lines reaching down from their face down to their feet.
"No." He replies.
"Then why are you here?" the figure asks, "This is all in your head! Why'd you retreat here?"
In his head? Was this really Jayson's imagination or even his mind?
"W-what do you mean?" Jayson asks.
"This place exists as a memory, but you keep ending up here!" The figure says.
"B-but I don't mean to! I was in the middle of a fight—" Jayson starts to say but is cut off promptly by the strange figure.
"*Losing* fight!" the figure corrects Jayson.
"You'll never amount to anything!"
As the strange figure speaks, they start to amble around Jayson, leaving several after-images of themselves. Jayson starts to hear multiple voices around him, and some even say different things. Some of them Jayson only hears in his left ear, while some are only heard in his right. He covers both ears promptly as multiple voices call into his head.
"You won't amount to anything!"
"You're just a loser!"
"Quit trying so hard to be someone you aren't!"
"Give up!"
"Quit!"
"Quit!"
"*QUIT*!!!"
Jayson barely makes any noise, if possible, as he covers up his ears and shuts his eyes tightly, trying to blot out the voices inside of his head, which all eerily sounded like his mother. It was scary to hear her voice in the first place with her saying such down-putting things to him. He just wanted everything to be over and done with. He just wanted to do the right thing.
"I-I just wanted..." Jayson whispers to himself.
"*What*?" A familiar voice announces over top of the others.
Jayson opens his eyes as he hears who is talking to him. He was no longer on the road, being pelted by the rain from above. Everything was pitch black, except for a single person standing in front of him. They were glowing a faint white as they spoke, and Jayson couldn't feel the other lingering effects of his threshold anymore, being able to see clearly.
"*What do you want to do*?" A shrouded version of Helmet asks Jayson.
Jayson looks at him with awe as he realizes he must be in his own mind like the demented figure from earlier said. This must be the place that continues to irk him whenever he has an episode. He faces the version of Helmet in front of him with determination.
"I want to be the number one player in the Nexus," Jayson responds with a single tear falling from his face.
"...*Then put in the work to achieve that*." Helmet says to Jayson.
He turns around from Jayson and walks off into the endless void surrounding the two of them. Jayson looks on at Helmet and feels something change inside of him. It felt like an enormous weight that was crushing him slowly was lifted off of his shoulders.
'All this time, I've continuously gotten help from others around me.' Jayson thinks, staring above him, 'The one time I didn't rely on someone else was when I used Preloading to cut through Tide's attack—'
'I need to stop running from my problems and face them head-on. I need to get stronger like Helmet said. Preloading isn't going to help me all the way, but it will aid in my progression without a doubt.'
The world around Jayson starts to change from a pitch-black to a bright white. Jayson feels his body beginning to disintegrate, like how it feels to log in and log out. He keeps up his concentration and looks ahead of him instead of behind.
'Visualize and execute... just do that for now and try to stay alive.' Jayson tells himself
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Jay's eyes open wide as he feels his body start to piece itself together. He was still on the floor after Tide's previous attack, and as he came to, he began to feel the Debuffs of Threshold once again. He didn't go anywhere literally, but he did in his own head.
'This part I didn't particularly miss!' Jay thinks to himself, feeling the dizziness from his Debuffs kick back in.
He was back in his in-game outfit, only missing his sword. Jay spots his weapon in front of him, around two meters away. It's covered up with a thin layer of debris from Tide's attacks up to this point.
"You're still alive from that?" Tide calls out in the distance, "I thought your threshold would've killed you!"
Jay must've blacked out or something if Tide assumed his threshold was going to be his downfall. Jay struggles to stand up, still seeing his HP at a staggering 12/200. He gathers enough strength in his arms to push himself off the ground in an attempt to sit up straight. Tide watches as Jay slowly but surely finds the energy to get up once again.
It felt like he was dying, but Jay continued to persevere through the pain and anguish. He couldn't see clearly in front of him, but he knew where Tide was since he never moved from where he launched Jay initially.
"I'll give you credit where credit's due. You *ARE* the best punching bag I've ever used!" Tide yells at Jay.
"Y-yeah, w-well..." Jay starts to say, "A-at least I don't hide b-behind thick armor." Jay says.
Tide's attitude grows sour after hearing Jay's words. He insinuated that Tide was scared, weak, or something rather, and Tide was furious hearing Jay talk.
"What'd you say?!" Tide screams.
"Y-you heard me...!" Jay struggles to say while keeping his balance.
In a rage of pure unbridled fury, Tide grips his axe with killing intent. He lifts his giant weapon over his head. He could've quickly had walked up to Jay and sliced him once to secure the win, but this fight was more than just winning to Tide now. It was about making sure his opponent never rechallenged him. His war axe sways limply in his hands as he holds the weapon above his head high.
Jay looks on to see Tide's performance, noticing Tide's body language grow aggressive by the minute. Jay didn't anticipate what came next, even if he had used Preloading.
Tide takes a concrete step in front of him with his left foot, breaking the asphalt road beneath him, and shoves both of his hands in front of him. At the climax of the swing, Tide lets go of his weapon.
He throws his war axe like it was a tomahawk.
Jay didn't have time to move. He was a sitting duck, with the axe covering every option he had. He couldn't leap over it, he couldn't roll out of its way or even dodge, and guarding that weapon was a surefire way of admitting defeat. Jay didn't even have the energy to do any of these things either.
Nevertheless, Jay stood his ground and lifted up both hands as if to block Tide's attack. This was it for him. The axe spins violently in the air and parts the wind in its way in a shocking display. Onlookers prayed for Jay but knew he was done for.
Jay's friends all cringed in their seats at the sight, jumping out of their seats with scared expressions.
Helmet looked on with an emotionless attitude but secretly felt immense pain for Jay.
Jay watched as the axe made its way not even several meters from his face. He closed his eyes, but not in an attempt to use Preloading. He was discouraged and had little fight in him.
'I'm sorry Axel, I'm sorry Ivy,' Jay thinks, 'I promised I would win, but...'
*FWOOSH*!
A blinding light envelops right in front of Jay in a dazzling spectacle. Jay retreats his body backward as he doesn't see this coming at all. Tide also flinches in disappointment at the blinding light.
"*WHAT*?!" Tide shrieks.
The blinding light—which is a light shade of pink—concentrated around until it was situated right in front of Tide's axe, colliding with it physically and creating sparks in the heat of contact. The sound the light made when hitting Tide's axe was truly ear-quaking.
'This light!' Jay thinks, 'It has to be—'
the light's intensity fades slightly, giving Jay a more precise shot at seeing what was going on. The light had taken the form of pink flames, forming a giant hand that was trying to stop Tide's exotic attack.
It definitely slowed the axe down, but not all the way, as Jay sees the weapon still rocketing toward him. If he had just used Preloading, he would've seen this coming and made an effort to move if he could.
As the burning pink hand comes closer to Jay, Jay attempts to look away from his death with the axe not stopping.
"*Hah*!" A voice exclaims in front of Jay.
A large impact can be heard in front of him, almost like metal smashing against metal. It didn't sound like the pink flames when they were colliding with the axe, either. Jay looks back in front of him to see a player facing Tide's attack, blocking the axe with his own weapon.
It was a shield.
"Y-you're ok now?!" Jay calls out to Blaze, "I-I needed you earlier!"
"I know!" Blaze yells, still blocking Tide's axe as it continues to spin with high velocity, "I needed to catch a breather!"
Blaze shoves his shield as hard as he can at Tide's weapon, and with the help of his Burning Palm, he manages to send the axe upwards, keeping its momentum but switching its direction.
'N-no! This *can't* be happening!' Tide thinks.
Suddenly, he feels two sharp objects puncture his armour from the back. The weapon which did this felt like it was tethered to something else.
From behind Tide, another player dashes forward into the air, pulling themselves close to Tide with the help of their chain blades, which were embedded into his armour. The player lands with a fast kick onto Tide's back, flipping themselves over him and pulling back their chain blades in the process.
'Not her too!' Tide thinks.
Sandra's hair flapped in the wind as she jumped away from Tide and back onto the ground, landing right next to Jay and Blaze.
"Missed us?" Sandra asks Jay.
"Making our way to your side, like real heroes!" Blaze adds, "And since we're so buddy-buddy now 'Ms Breeze,' I need an apology for your insult earlier!"
"You mean the one about your uniform being like a highlighter?" Sandra mocks him.
"Yes, that one!" Blaze agrees, fixing a crease in his bright pink outfit.
"Whatever, my bad, you geek," Sandra responds with a grin.
Jay, Sandra, and Blaze look on at Tide with grins and pain displayed on their faces. Tide looked on at them with confusion and weakness as he was laid utterly defenceless against them. He had just thrown away his weapon to show off, with that move backfiring completely, and he still didn't have any AP to use his Aspect once again.
"Damn it, damn it, *DAMN IT*!" Tide announces, punching the floor below him.
The shockwaves from that attack alone manage to reach Jay and the others rapidly, giving them a sense that victory was around the corner, but a long way at that.
"T-the only way we win this thing is if he goes down first!" Jay says, "We'll talk later about who among us should pass."
"Agreed!" Sandra calls out, shifting her chain blades outwards instead of in her hands.
"Right!" Blaze says, holding his shield to his side and pumping his fist in front of him.
It was now Jay, Sandra, and Blaze against Tide.