Mania, for once in his career as a beta tester, found himself as the one stricken with fear. 'Damn it!' he thought. 'Now I'm afraid– no, I'm not afraid. I'm hesitant to send us all to my Hades Realm. If everything I do is sent back to me, then he might gain control of the realm!' Mania could lie all he wanted, but it was clear as day that his own fears were paralyzing him. This feeling, one he'd despised ever since he'd finally broken free of his stepfather, his mother's killer, was something he'd run from for years. His hatred of fear is what led to him being able to weaponize it once he was chosen as a beta tester for Hero x Villain Online.
Mania rolled backward onto his feet, his handgun still in hand before aiming at Flipside. 'What does he do?' Mania's finger rubbed the trigger gently, yet he refused to pull it. 'Damn it, Novacaine! I wish he spoke, then I could understand Flipside's ability.' Even if Novacaine could speak, he couldn't tell Mania the limitations of Flipside's ability to swap positions whenever he chooses. Fortunately for the two of them, Mania wasn't foolish enough to test Flipside's ability out in the open.
Meanwhile, Novacaine was engaged in hand-to-hand combat against both Japanese fighters. Flipside was using Novacaine's own knife against him, however, the mute mercenary avoided each attack with ease. Due to his arms being pinned against his own chest, Penance attacked with a flurry of kicks with a style reminiscent of Taekwondo.
As Mania continued pointing his weapon at Flipside, tracking his movements whilst waiting for him to reveal his ability, his hand was trembling. 'Fear, my old enemy. I thought after weaponizing you, we would antagonize each other no more. Yet here I am, stricken by you.' His gaze shifted once more, tracking Novacaine as he continued to hold his own in a two versus one bout. 'Look at him, Even in a two versus one against an invincible opponent, he isn't afraid. Damn it, Mania! Relinquish these feelings of fear! You are the Harbinger of Fear, not them! So fight!'
Mania's trembling ceased and he could feel his brows scrunching beneath his mask. He was laser-focused on Flipside, knowing that the only one who stood a chance against Penance was Novacaine. 'There's a reason why Flipside wanted to fight Novacaine instead! He's afraid of my ability! If that's the case, then I will bring him to the Hades Realm and show him true terror!' Mania stepped forward until he was within range before sending both he and Flipside into the Hades Realm. Since the activation is instantaneous, Flipside wasn't able to react and switch places with anyone on the field. Instead, both of their bodies went limp, falling to the ground like two bags of rocks. Novacaine quickly glanced over at them. 'Hades Realm.' he thought. 'Now I'm stuck with this guy AND I have to protect Mr. Sleeping Beauty over here… this sucks.'
In the blink of an eye, Flipside found himself transported to the Hades Realm, shrouded in darkness beneath the red sun. Mania was still cautious, watching from afar before making any sudden movements or changes to the environment. He still hadn't a clue what Flipside was capable of, therefore, he thought it best to play it safe.
"Where the hell are we?" Flipside asked, glaring up at the crimson sun as it beamed down onto him. Mania, with his arms behind his back, teleported elsewhere, leaving a cloud of black smoke behind.
"I call it the Hades Realm." Mania spoke with a thunderous voice, one that came from behind Flipside, startling him, and reverberated off of the infinite nothingness around them. Already, Mania was inciting fear into his opponent, causing him to hallucinate. In reality, Mania was still standing in one place. "You and I are unconscious in the real world, completely vulnerable to attack. Either one of us can die at any moment, but I trust Novacaine to protect me. How about you?"
"Penance couldn't give a damn about me." Flipside looked around as he spoke, tracking the illusionary Mania who phased in and out of view around him. "So is this your plan? You're too afraid to fight so you're going to let Novacaine do all the fighting for you?"
Mania scoffed. "Not necessarily. I just wanted a place where I could look into your psyche without interruption. Now, Flipside. What is it that you fear?" With these words spoken, unbeknownst to Flipside, Mania's had a full hold on Flipside's psyche. He could feel a cold chill travel through his body and his eyes enlarged upon his mind manifesting his biggest fear right before his eyes.
For Tigress, she feared arachids. She pictured thousands of them crawling all over her body, nipping at her flesh. It drove her mad, compelling her to lacerate herself to death.
For Fixer, he feared being weak and he feared death. He imagined himself beneath his own teammates before death came for them and then himself.
"What is it that you fear, Flipside?" Mania's words repeated, strengthening that hold on Flipside's psyche.
"AAAAAAAH!" He screamed, falling to his knees as his greatest fear surrounded him. While inside the Hades Realm, Mania could visualize his victim's fears, though this one was– it was quite odd, to say the least.
"What the hell…?" Mania whispered, watching as women surrounded Flipside. For a moment, Mania thought that perhaps his ability was malfunctioning. However, there was no malfunction. Flipside's biggest fear was in fact, women. Not just any women, but beautiful women. He pictured these women towering over him as if they were Amazonians and the realm began to transform into a beach to match the attire of the bikini-wearing babes. Where most men who were attracted to women would be elated that they were surrounded by these women, Flipside was trembling in place, shielding his eyes from all of them.
"Hey, there handsome." One of the women whispered in quite an alluring voice as the rest giggled. Still, Mania was baffled. Out of the hundreds of people he'd incited fear in, Flipside's fear was by far the most outlandish. Regardless, it didn't matter what the fear was. What mattered was that his opponent was down for the count.
As Flipside held onto his chest, struggling to breathe as these women crowded him as if he were the main character of some poorly written harem fanfiction, Mania spoke. "So… You fear women. That's– it's very odd." Mania stepped forward, reaching into his trenchcoat to pull out his trusty sidearm. He pointed it at Flipside, approaching him to get a clear and easy shot.
When Flipside looked past the women and saw Mania, his blood-curdling screams only intensified even further. Of course, most people would have this reaction if someone were to approach them with a gun...however, that wasn't why he was shrieking like a child. In his mind, Mania wasn't approaching him; at least, the Mania of old wasn't.
Mania found the reaction odd and looked down at himself, seeing that he'd grown two feminine assets and his outfit had become far more revealing. Rather than the tactical pants and shirt he wore beneath his jacket, he– or rather she– was wearing a very alluring bikini. "What!?" Mania uttered. As mentioned previously, while inside the Hades Realm, Mania could see everything that his victims could see, including any transformation Mania undergoes in front of them. In the past, Mania had grown accustomed to turning into snakes or spiders, but turning into a beautiful woman was something he wasn't quite prepared for.
Mania fired a bullet at Flipside, wanting to end this double-sided nightmare. However, Flipside simply switched places with one of the illusions of women surrounding him and she took the bullet for him. Mania kept tracking Flipside, following him as he fired more rounds, only for Flipside to continue his charade, switching places with the beautiful woman who kept spawning out of seemingly thin air.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Mania and Flipside's bodies were already escorted off of the stage. There was one rule about the tournament that Mania had forgotten about. If one were to be unconscious for ten seconds, they would be eliminated from that round. Since the announcer, their referee didn't understand Mania's ability, it looked as if he and Flipside had been mysteriously knocked out.
To put it simply, the fight between Mania and Flipside was for naught. Regardless of who came out on top, they were both already eliminated.
Novacaine and Penance were still fighting, however, they weren't doing any sort of meaningful damage to each other. If Novacaine was any regular fighter, he would have long been killed by Penance. However, when he was on the defensive, his movements were completely unpredictable. With every kick or slash sent his way, Novacaine would taunt for a brief moment before avoiding the attack as if his body were boneless. In a way, his movements were something straight out of a cartoon from the eighties, defying the laws of physics while at the same time, his movements were still somewhat plausible.
Even if he were to get hit, Novacaine would simply heal himself with his near-instant healing factor; as long as his limbs weren't detached from his body that is.
'This sucks…' The silent mercenary thought. A yawn was hidden beneath his mask as he grew bored of being on the defensive. 'I guess I have to pull out the big guns. Heh.'
As if he somehow broke through the barrier of fiction and saw how his movements were described, Novacaine's cartoonish nature amplified times a dozen. A wooden hammer, straight from those aforementioned eighties cartoons, appeared out of thin air in between his two hands. This was one of Novacaine's abilities: Hammerspace! At least, he called it that as more of a joke. In reality, he had access to a dimensional storage with actual objects that he manually stored inside. Its space was seemingly infinite, all he needed to do was fill the space with objects for any situation. This situation, at least in his opinion, called for a hammer.
'If my attacks are reflected back on me, sharp objects are no bueno! I can't risk getting a limb chopped off our I am cooked! I'd be fine in a day or two, but if we lose this, I won't have a day or two to recover! Man, this sucks!'
With wide, telegraphed swings, Novacaine attacked Penance and of course, Penance simply allowed himself to be hit. The moment that wooden mallet would make contact with Penance, Novacaine's body would contort as his own attacks were being deflected back onto himself. Sometimes, it would appear as if he'd broken something, only for his body to straighten out and heal itself.
This continued for three minutes. If there wasn't any sort of time limit, the two of them could go on like this forever. Even if Penance did want to attack Novacaine, it wouldn't have mattered.
"Anata wa nihongo o hanasemasu ka?" Penance asked Novacaine. To his surprise, the mercenary in black nodded quickly. It seemed Novacaine miraculously spoke Japanese. "Kenka suru kawari ni gēmu o shimashou. Shōsha wa shukuhaku dekiru."
Novacaine held up a finger and an imaginary light bulb appeared over his head. He couldn't speak, so instead, he motioned to play rock paper scissors with his opponent and held up three fingers. "3-Kai tokuten shita hito ga kachidesu ka?" Penance asked.
Novacaine nodded quickly.
"Okay." Penance said, approaching Novacaine with his hand on his palm.
"It-" The announcer was baffled. "It looks like Novacaine and Penance are about to play a game of rock-paper-scissors. I saw Novacaine hold up three fingers, so perhaps it's first to three?" Novacaine looked over at the announcer and held up his thumb. "It seems Novacaine is confirming that it is first to three."
"Junbi ga dekite?" Penance asked, getting a nod from Novacaine. The two of them entered their ready stances before Penance exclaimed, "Jan! Ken! Pon!"
The two of them played their hands, but it was a draw! They both picked scissors!
The crowd cheered, finding the battle to be intense. Realizing the crowd was into it, the announcer played into it. "It seems they both played scissors! Unbelievable, their first round was a draw!"
"Jan! Ken! Pon!" the two of them played their hands again, and instantly, the crowd erupted. A scoreboard appeared on the jumbotron, showing that the score was then zero to one! Novacaine held out his hand, using his scissors to slice Penance's paper! 'Ha! Idiot! It works every single time. When there is a draw between scissors, it's only instinctual to pick rock. But Penance is smart enough to know that as well, so he picked paper in hopes that I was dumb enough to pick rock!' Whether or not this way of thinking was sound or not is up for debate, but Novacaine took the first round regardless.
"Novacaine scores for Team New York! Bringing the score to zero to one in their favor!"
Penance scoffed. He underestimated Novacaine, taking him for a fool due to his strange mannerisms and fighting style. Penance knew that if he were to win, he'd need to up the mind games. "Jan!" Penance shouted, along with the crowd and announcer who were heavily invested in this children's game. Meanwhile, the two of them were adding layers upon layers into the mind game inside of their own heads.
'He would never expect me to play scissors a third time in a row, that would be foolish! Since he just lost on paper again, there's no way he'd play it two times in a row. That means he's going to play either rock or scissors. If he plays rock, I will lose if I play scissors again, and he knows this! But there's no way he'd play rock in a moment like this because he thinks that I'm going to play rock! This means he's going to turn the tables, defying all logic while playing paper! Therefore, I will play scissors a third time!' Mania's thoughts raced through his mind in a fraction of a second as the crowd, the announcer, and penance continued shouting, "Ken! Pon!"
The crowd once again erupted, shaking the stadium beneath their feet as the score changed.
"Hmph!" Penance scoffed, holding out a rock to beat Novacaine's scissors.
'WHAT!?' Novacaine thought. 'This bastard saw right through me! Damn it, he's good!' Penance figured that due to Novacaine's wild, unpredictable fighting style, his rock-paper-scissors style would likely be the same. Therefore, he opted for the most unpredictable option.
"The score is now one to one! I can't believe that a game of simple rock paper scissors would be so intense! Perhaps it's due to their lives being on the line! That's it! This children's game is more than just that, the two of them are fighting to live!"
'I don't care if I live or die, I just want to beat this kid!' Novacaine thought.
"Jan! Ken!" Everyone shouted along with Penance as round four was commencing. Meanwhile, Novacaine was thinking at a million miles per hour.
'I see. Knows I'm crazy, which means he knew I was going to try something unpredictable! Bastard! Fine then, I'll simply hit him with a mix-up. He thinks I'm unpredictable right? Then I'll hit him with the most predictable strategy! He showcased a pattern to me! He played scissors, then paper, then rock! That means, to an idiot, he is going to play scissors again! He knows that I know that he knows this! If I were a simpleton, I would play rock to beat his scissors and he would play paper to beat my rock! But I am not a simpleton, I am a rock-paper-scissors genius with an unpredictable style! What would be the most unpredictable thing for me to play here...? Probably playing scissors a fourth time, right? But technically, that is the most predictable move because he thinks that I am trying to be unpredictable! Therefore, I will play scissors again to play my most predictable, unpredictable hand again!"
"Pon!"
Unbeknownst to the two at center stage, the viewership of the tournament had reached its peak! They were trending all over social media for their intense game of rock-paper-scissors, leading millions around the world to want to be a part of it! Once more, the crowd rumbled and the score shifted on the screen.
As he said he would, Novacaine played Scissors. Unfortunately for him, his scissors were met by a rock.
"Rock beats scissors again!" The announcer shouted. "That makes it two to one in Japan's favor! All Penance needs is to score one more point!"
Novacaine felt as if the world shattered around him. 'How did he know!? How could he predict the unpredictable?' Though Penance's face was wrapped as if he were a mummy, his mouth was visible slightly. He had a shit-eating grin on his face, knowing that he was the superior Jan Ken Pon player. 'This sucks...' thought Novacaine. However, Novacaine hadn't given up yet.
Out of thin air, Novacaine summoned a whiteboard and marker before writing something on it. Penance tried to sneak a peak, but he couldn't make out what he was writing. Once he was finished, Novacaine held up the whiteboard and showed it to Penance. In both English and Japanese, the whiteboard said, I am going to play scissors two more times.
"It seems Novacaine is letting his opponent know what he's playing next. Apparently, he's going to keep playing scissors...?"
Beneath Novacaine's mask, a smug smile adorned his face. 'Fuck this. I'm going to double down on unpredictability. What's it gonna be, Penance? Are you going to call my bluff or will you play rock again!?' Novacaine threw the whiteboard to the side and stood in a ready position once more. Meanwhile, Penance was stunned. He had a read on Novacaine, and he figured that he wasn't going to play scissors a fifth time, yet he just told him that he would. He began to overthink himself, getting lost in the millions of ways this game with only three outcomes could end!
"Jan! Ken! Pon!"
Penance was stunned. The score changed, though he hadn't won just yet. It was a tied game.
In front of his paper, Novacaine played scissors once again, playing it a fifth time in a row. "Bakana!" he uttered, compelling Novacaine to silently laugh. 'It's far from impossible buddy, you see it right before your own two eyes!'
"I am in disbelief ladies and gentlemen. Novacaine has played scissors five times in a row. The next round, unless it's a draw, will be the deciding round. Will Novacaine stick to his word and play scissors? There's only one way to find out! If you think he's going to play scissors, make some noise!" Half of the crowd erupted as the announcer held out his microphone. "And if you think he's going to play something else, let me hear you!" An equal amount of fans cheered, showcasing just how unpredictable the outcome would be despite Novacaine telling everyone what he was going to play.
For a moment, Penance was frozen in place. This moment passed rather quickly as he and Novacaine returned to their ready positions for the final round! No matter what, Penance wasn't going to play scissors. He was going to play rock or paper; the question was which of these would he pick?
The two of them decided mentally what they were going to choose and the final play commenced.
"Jan!"
"Ken!"
"Pon!"
.
.
.
The crowd had gone completely silent. They were in awe at the outcome.
As he said he would, Novacaine held out two fingers, playing scissors.
Across from him, Penance played a hand that would result in the match ending right then and there.
He played paper.
"Team New York wins round two! They win round two! All they have to do now is win one more round and they get to move on to phase three!" Once more, the crowd exploded and the scoreboard reverted back to the default settings, showing the tournament score rather than the rock-paper-scissors score. Novacaine exhaled humorously before walking off the stage toward his team.
They all congratulated him, meanwhile, Mania was still knocked out on the ground. Novacaine knelt down and dislocated Mania's shoulder, waking him out of the Hades Realm and bringing him back to the real world before placing his shoulder back where it belonged. Physically harming Mania's body would cancel his ability, he told Novacaine this in case he ever needed a way out.
"What happened!?" Mania was disoriented, looking at his teammates who all surrounded him.
"Wait... Was eliminating yourself and Flipside by rendering the two of you unconscious not part of your plan?" Infinite asked him. The team praised him for his quick thinking, but based on his reaction, they were starting to doubt he'd thought that far.
"Of course, it was part of my plan. Silence." Mania ignored Infinite's helping hand and rose to his feet on his own.
"Will the next four fighters please make their way onto the stage!" said the announcer. Despite their fears, Flora and Lady Luck made their way toward the stage. Before Lady Luck could take more than two steps forward, Tempo grabbed her hand. She turned to face him, looking into his glowing white eyes with hers. "Good luck out there. Not that you need it."
Lady Luck could feel a small portion of that fear within her wane. Though her ability seemingly made her immortal, she was still afraid of her opponent's capabilities.
"Thanks." she told him, giving him a quick grin before following closely behind Flora.
"When did that happen?" Celsius asked. "Is that where you disappeared off to last night?"
"Last night?" Professor Anarchy added.
Infinite, knowing everything Tempo and Lady Luck had spoken about, laughed to himself.
"You know something!?" Celsius asked him. "C'mon, tell me!"
As Celsius begged Infinite to reveal what he knew, the morale was high for Team New York. All they needed to do was in one more round, and they were completely safe from elimination despite being two members down. However, despite the high morale, Tempo still felt uneasy about the oncoming match.