As Tempo and Celsius continued their rounds, Fixer, Novacaine, and Mania stood as a group of three away from the carnage. Fixer's eyes were locked on the ice user and time manipulator as they fought, though his gaze was intercepted by Mania's snapping fingers. "Kid! Are you listening to me?"
Fixer jolted upon hearing the thunderous voice of the gun-toting psychologist, placing his hands to his sides as if he were a soldier waiting at attention. "Sorry!" Fixer was still visibly trembling, in fact, he'd been quivering ever since Celcius and Tempo's first battle.
"Ever since those two have started fighting, you haven't stopped shaking once. Why is that?" Mania asked, looking deeply through Fixer's spectacles and into his eyes. He could tell Fixer's heart wasn't into the training. For Mania, this all felt like a waste of time.
"I- I don't know." Fixer was lying. He knew full and well why he couldn't stop trembling. There was something inside of him that was holding him back, yet he tried to hide it from his teammates.
"You're afraid." Mania's voice was deadpan and his eyes, though hidden beneath his skull mask, were still staring daggers into Fixer's soul. "What is it that you're afraid of, kid?" Mania knew Fixer was being held back, and he had the sneaking suspicion that it was due to some sort of repressed feelings hidden deep inside of him. Lucky for Mania, and to Fixer's dismay, he had ways of finding what was held deep within.
"I don't know." Those same words were repeated by Fixer, but that answer wasn't good enough. His eyes were glued to the ground, looking directly at Mania's feet. Unbeknownst to him, Mania was already inside of his head, ready to force the answer out of him.
Fixer's eyes grew wide upon seeing Mania's feet double in size; no, they tripled. Novacaine's feet did the same. It wasn't just their feet, but their entire bodies, which continued growing until Fixer was nothing more than an ant in comparison.
'W- What is happening?' Fixer quivered in place as his contemporaries loomed over him with their new monstrous figures. Tempo and Celsius joined them, forming a half circle around Fixer. What stuck out the most was Tempo's gleaming eyes; however, rather than being white like the stars, they were crimson-like blood. It was cliche, but Mania's ability was designed to insight fear.
Fixer took a few steps backward until his back hit what felt like a wall, but when he turned around, he realized it was yet another member of Team New York's gargantuan foot. He looked up to see Lady Luck and Flora glaring down at him, their arms crossed and their lips distorted as if they were disappointed mothers. Infinite and Professor Anarchy were also present, looming like abusive fathers. Even the Blur appeared, standing beside Flora to complete the circle around the microscopic Fixer.
"What is it that you're afraid of?" Mania's voice was spoken through everyone's mouths and Fixer found himself sinking into the ground as if he were trapped in quicksand. Desperately, he clawed at the ground around him, but the more he struggled, the more he sunk. "Wait-" he called out, reaching his arm toward his teammates, as they began shrinking down to their normal sizes. He wanted them to help him, to carry him out of the sinking void just as they carried him through the competition, but all they did was stare him down.
"Please–" As those words left his lips, the darkness began entering his mouth, suffocating him as he sunk deeper. Before long, darkness had completely taken him, consuming him whole. For a moment, there was a chilling nothingness, but once that moment passed, Fixer found himself at the center of the tournament's stage. However, the entire stadium had been transformed. The audience were shadow versions of themselves, completely unmoving. Their eyes, human in shape but uncanny in size, stared directly at Fixer without blinking. All eyes were on him.
"Up next–" Fixer could hear the distorted version of the announcer speaking, but his voice didn't sound as if it were coming through speakers. Instead, his contorted voice sounded as if it were directly transmitted into his brain. "We have the Fixer vs Team New York!"
One by one, the members of Team New York started to appear.
Infinite.
Blur.
Celsius.
Tempo.
Novacaine.
Flora.
Lady Luck.
Professor Anarchy.
And lastly, Mania.
The reaper-esque beta tester, clad in black, approached Fixer with his hands in his pockets. "What is it that you are afraid of?" As he spoke, so did the rest of the team. "What is it that you are afraid of?"
The entire team started to approach him, their eyes completely devoid of any sort of emotion or humanity yet still having that same uncanny appearance of the audience. It was as if they were all reanimated corpses, shambling about across the stage. Despite wanting to run, Fixer was completely frozen in place as his teammates slowly began swarming him.
"What is it that you are afraid of?" the mob mumbled in unison. Fixer tried to repress his fears, but the harder he tried, the easier it was for Mania to slip through the cracks and find it.
Lady Luck was the first to grab him, followed by Professor Anarchy. One by one, a member of a team grabbed hold of him, and once again, Fixer felt as if he were being consumed, this time by his own teammates. Despite this horrifying sequence, this was not Fixer's true fear. Both he and Mania knew this.
"What is it that you are afraid of?" the mod once again uttered, opening the cracks deep inside of Fixer's soul once again.
Fixer closed his eyes, and when they reopened, he once again found himself inside the stadium. However, this time, his teammates were on stage, fighting without him. Their enemies were shadows, just like the crowd, having those uncanny eyes and all.
It was an uneven fight, nine versus ten. Fixer could do nothing but watch as the shadow people started using their numbers against Team New York. First, two of them grabbed Flora by her arms and started pulling in opposite directions. Her screams alone were enough to send a shiver down Fixer's spine. He felt as if he were going to vomit as her skin was seen stretching as she was pulled apart.
Her screams intensified, though they weren't loud enough to overshadow the sounds of flesh being torn and bones being pulled apart. There was one final shout, one final cry before he'd been successfully split in half. Each shadow held up one of her halves before tossing them at Fixer's feet. When her body landed, her head was facing him. Despite being a mutilated corpse, she spoke.
"What it is that you are afraid of?"
Those two shadows then went on to assist in killing Professor Anarchy as he fought a shadowy mage in the sky. The two that killed Flora launched themselves into the air before grabbing Professor Anarchy from behind, pinning him in the air. The third mage, the one that the professor was already fighting, began charging up a spell with both hands put together before firing a massive fireball, which burned a beachball-sized hold through the center of Professor Anarchy's body.
His corpse was then thrown to the side, landing on the edge of the stage, his body hanging off while his head looked right directly at Fixer. "What is it that you are afraid of?" his voice reverberated off of the inside of his mask, though it was weak as the life escaped from his lips.
Next was Tempo, teleporting around his opponent with his temporal energy weapons in hand. Despite being able to make the battlefield his playground, he could not outrun four opponents. It was long before he was caught and restrained. One of the shadows grabbed him by the hand and started forcing his own weapon toward his neck. There was a struggle for a moment, just a moment before he was overpowered and his head was sliced clean off by his own weapon. It rolled across the stage, stopping at the edge before making direct eye contact with Fixer. Once again, those words were uttered.
"What it is that you are afraid of?"
Infinite was next, flying through the air like a speeding bullet. However, even he couldn't outrun all five of them. He too was pinned down and in an act of desperation, he began firing lasers from his eyes. As he did so, one of the shadows grabbed him by the head and started aiming the lasers at Team New York. One by one the entire team, outside of Fixer, was beamed down by the caped hero. Even the Blur couldn't outrun the laser, as his legs were sliced off and immediately cauterized. He lost all control of his body, landing in front of Fixer and placing his hand on his leg. Weakly, he asked, "What it is that you are afraid of?"
Slowly, the shadows approached Fixer, standing in a tight circle around him. They leaned in close, their uncanny eyes staring him dead in the eye. "Is this what you are afraid of?" they all asked in unison.
Mania, as if he were a liquid being turned into a solid, rose from the ground, his body dripping with black ooze. "Or is this what you are afraid of." Mania's shadow held Fixer by the throat, his grip tightening to the point where Fixer could barely breathe. "You fear death. Dying young. Being the last one that remains. Pathetic. You don't ever plan on fighting, do you? You expect your teammates to do the fighting for you."
Fixer tried to speak, but his voice was stuffed in his throat. Mania threw him to the ground and Fixer found himself back inside of the Hades Realm with Mania and Novacaine standing over him. "Speak." Mania's voice boomed once again.
"I'm weak." Fixer muttered. "I can't fight like you guys. I don't have any real powers, just an exosuit."
Mania knelt down in front of Fixer, grabbing him by the collar. His mask concealed his fury-filled expression. He wanted nothing more than to shoot him in the face, putting the useless where the useless belongs, yet he did not. "I despise people like you. If I could have it my way, I'd let you sit here and sulk. I'd let you die out there. You're lucky you are needed." Mania threw him back before standing up straight once again, his fists clenched as he held himself back.
"You claim you're weak because you have no power-- because all you have is an exosuit. Tell me, who made the exosuit? Did it fall from the sky? Did your mommy make it for you?"
"No…" Fixer muttered.
"Then who made it!?" Mania exclaimed, his fists still clenched with such intensity, that his leather gloves could be heard constricting.
"I did." Fixer sounded defeated despite his suit being his proudest accomplishment.
"Yet you believe it is weak?"
"Compared to these guys–" Fixer looked up to see Celsius and Tempo going all out, clashing weapons as Tempo teleported around the arena. Above them, fighting in the sky beneath the crimson sun, Infinite, and Professor Anarchy were giving it their all, looking like a storm; no, two planets colliding in the atmosphere.
"My exosuit is nothing."
"So instead of becoming stronger, you're going to sit here and mope? If you're too weak, then become stronger! You're a gamer, aren't you? Have you ever achieved a high rank in a game?"
"Yeah…"
"Did you do it by sitting on your ass all day?"
"No?"
"What did you do?"
"I practiced. I fought stronger opponents. I kept losing until I improved."
"Then what's stopping you from doing that now?"
"What if I die? This isn't just a game, there's real stuff at stake here! I can't just click rematch after I'm blown to smithereens!"
"So you'll let your own fear of death kill you? Is that your grand plan? Eventually, you will have to fight. In your current state, you are going to die. Is that what you want!?"
"I don't have a plan."
Once again, Mania knelt down in front of Fixer, but this time, he placed his handgun on the child's temple. "I want to pull this trigger so badly. I truly detest you. You bragged that you can make whatever your brain can imagine. Well, get more creative. You say you have no plan, then leave and come back when you have one."
Fixer blinked and he was instantly transported back into the real world. The Blur was gone, but the rest of the team were all lying on the ground as if they were asleep. Their consciousnesses were all still trapped inside of the Hades Realm.
Alone, Fixer sat on the ground, placing his head between his knees. "He's right." he whispered. "I can't be afraid anymore. I can't doubt myself anymore." Fixer stood up and started for the door. He didn't have a plan, but he would find one; he had a whole day to do so.