The Awakening From a Living Nightmare/Regrets, Tears, Anxieties

***Regets, Tears, Anxieties*** is the fourth part of *The Awakening From a Living Nightmare*.

## Regrets, Tears, Anxieties

*[The Apocrypha-themed environment became twisted and distorted, chunks of rocks shooting out of the ground with lightning forming out of nothing from the sky. The chaotic ensemble of attacks was orchestrated by a green humanoid rhino with several cyan Simplicitrixes across his body: Negative Reality Check. The loud honking of a horn was heard as a red, brown, tan, and grey truck with bright red highlights, as well as the Simplicitrix symbol on its grill, shot through the anarchic scene, ramming into Negative Reality Check before changing into his humanoid form to skid to a halt: Ten Wheeler.]*

Ten Wheeler: You've been hit by, you've been struck by, truck.

*[Ten Wheeler turned to see a flash of cyan light, seeing Negative Reality Check having transformed into the small, orange, glowing Negative Digi-Crisis. Negative Digi-Crisis lunged at Ten Wheeler, merging with him and causing his red parts to glow orange, with orange electricity going over him. There was an orange explosion and Alan was flung forward while the metal bits of Ten Wheeler stayed. He groaned then turned to see Negative Lodestar manipulating the remains into a mass of explosives before changing into the heavyset, pompadour-bearing Negative Decagon Vreedle.]*

Negative Decagon Vreedle: Time to go boom!

*[Negative Decagon Vreedle activated a button on one of the explosives and all of them went flying at Alan before creating a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, Negative Decagon Vreedle was revealed to have a smirk, which quickly faded.]*

Negative Decagon Vreedle: Huh?

*[In the midst of the explosion, Alan had transformed, being completely unharmed by having become the small, purple, and dense Heavyweight.]*

Heavyweight: Interesting party trick you had there.

*[Negative Decagon Vreedle groaned in frustration, striking the Negative Simplicitrix to transform into Negative NRG. His grates glowed with purple radiation, before he launched several radioactive beams toward Heavyweight, who entirely withstood the attacks through redirecting his body’s own density to become virtually intangible. Walking through Negative NRG’s beams like they were nothing, Negative NRG gawked and changed into Negative Armodrillo, releasing violent earthquakes that immobilized Heavyweight.]*

Negative Armodrillo: No matter what you do, what alien you transform into, what special powers you pull out of your ass, you’ll NEVER truly best me, Alan! Your attempts only just prolong the inevitable, and all your ego can do is DENY it!

Heavyweight: HOW exactly do they prolong the inevitable?! You’re fucking DEAD, BITCH!

*[In retaliation, Heavyweight managed to break free of Negative Armodrillo’s earthquakes, quickly changing into Spitter and spraying a stream of adhesive bile from his mouth that clung onto Negative Armodrillo's armor, causing him to stagger backwards in confusion from his restricted movements. Negative Armodrillo was blinded by a flash of red light, and once it was cleared, was violently struck straight in the face by Puncherbot, his pressurized strike cracking his helmet.]*

Negative Armodrillo: YOU SON OF A-

*[Blasting Puncherbot off with a sudden transformation into Negative Water Hazard, he temporarily stunned his robotic systems with the scalding temperatures of his water blasts, giving him enough time to again transform in a cyan flash, this time into the gargantuan Negative Lavalamp. With the gurgling of molten bubbles, Negative Lavalamp launched and expelled streams of magma from the volcano on his back down on Puncherbot, instantly burying him under the molten rock and seemingly destroying him.]*

Negative Lavalamp: Like I said… I’ll never be bested by you, brother.

*[Seemingly staring down for any further movements, Negative Lavalamp remained still for several moments, before starting to turn away, only to be suddenly tripped and sent crashing to the ground by a strange tail slithering against the ground. Recoiling back to its source of the massive puddle of magma, a massive rocky humanoid begins to rise, completely unaffected by the molten rock clinging to them, purely because of the fact they themselves had become an even hotter transformation: Ultimate Heatblast.]*

Negative Lavalamp: HOW?!

Ultimate Heatblast: You must be starting to regret giving me this feature right about now, huh?

Negative Lavalamp: *[getting back up]* I can say for a fact, that I may have had a contingency at that moment, brother.

Ultimate Heatblast: You’re so cocky in thinking I can’t beat you that you haven’t even considered the possibility that the reason why is because you aren’t seeing me at my best.

Negative Lavalamp: Perhaps.

Ultimate Heatblast: If you haven’t taken the hint… *[fists lighting on fire]* ...I’m ready to end this.

*[Not even responding to him, Negative Lavalamp instantly raised one of his rocky hands to strike the Negative Simplicitrix symbol on the front of his volcano with an open palm, rapidly growing in size and becoming the towering Negative Way Big. Ultimate Heatblast looked up toward him in shock at his sudden size difference, and with his pyrokinetic propulsion, sent himself flying backwards to avoid Negative Way Big attempting to immediately step on him.]*

*[Extending out his fiery whips, Ultimate Heatblast shot them out and rapidly wrapped them around Negative Way Big’s vulnerable ankle, using his pyrokinetic propulsion to again push himself back in an attempt to send Negative Way Big crashing to the ground, although Negative Way Big’s superior strength allowed him to simply just pull his partially entangled foot back in response, sending Ultimate Heatblast flying forward and smashing into the ground just several feet behind Negative Way Big.]*

Ultimate Heatblast: You think THAT can-?!

*[Before Ultimate Heatblast can even finish his sentence, Negative Way Big whipped around and swung his leg to send his foot flying into Ultimate Heatblast, kicking and sending him flying through the air, eventually smashing into the ground several meters away, and going straight through several structures in the process. Negative Way Big lowered his foot, awaiting for him to get back up, as a red flash suddenly emitted from where the reverted Alan laid amongst rubble.]*

Negative Way Big: *[smirking]* ...Yes, I think it can.

Pride: She doesn't belong here.

Nightmare Alan: This is her home now. She'll be coming with me.

Pride: No. I don't think she will.

*[Pride shot out his chest tentacles, attempting to keep Nightmare Alan from transforming, but was just a tad too slow as his tentacles instead wrapped around the arms of Nightmare Gutrot. Nightmare Gutrot shot out a brown gas from his body, prompting Pride to pull back and cough. Pride then flew up then tried to fly into the ground, but ended up bashing his head then reeling in pain, getting a laugh from Nightmare Gutrot.]*

Nightmare Gutrot: This is the transformation Chloe's most familiar with. You think she hasn't thought up interesting ways he could use his powers? Like, say, a gas that nullifies intangibility?

*[Nightmare Gutrot turned to the sound of Chloe coming at him, but grabbed her arm to keep her from striking him.]*

Nightmare Gutrot: Or, even better... Fear gas.

*[Nightmare Gutrot put out his arm and shot out a gas right in Chloe's face, causing her to cough as she backed away. Everything around her distorted into darkness. Looking around in fear, she heard a mechanical stepping behind her. Slowly turning, she was met with the sudden appearance of The Bat from Tacopolis. Negative Gutrot watched Chloe flail around horrified, believing herself to be terrorized when in reality there was nothing around her. He turned around when he heard Pride groaning whilst getting up.]*

Pride: That doesn't make sense. How am I- AGGGGHHHH!

*[Pride was suddenly hit with the blaring pain of Nightmare Echo-Echo's sonic waves blasting him. Nightmare Echo-Echo duplicated, surrounding Pride in his echo chamber. Still crying out in pain. Pride shot out one of his tentacles out and grabbed a Nightmare Echo-Echo clone by the leg, swinging him around and knocking out the other clones. He flung the one in his grap through the air, only for the clone to hit the Simplicitrix and transform into Nightmare Ultimate Echo-Echo, with his clones converting into sonic disks. He landed on the ground, but before he could command his disks, Pride rushed him, entering his body before flinging him around in the air then throwing him against a tree while escaping him. Picking himself back up, Nightmare Ultimate Echo-Echo tapped the Simplicitrix again, changing into Nightmare Terraspin. Changing his limbs into their fanblade form, he began spinning his body around to generate a cyclone. Pride evaded the wind before passing Chloe, the wind causing the nightmare gas to disappear and her to come to.]*

Nightmare Terraspin: Shit.

Chloe: Wh-What just happened?

*[Pride floated in front of Chloe as Nightmare Terraspin returned to his normal stance.]*

Nightmare Terraspin: Fine. If I can't stop *you*... *[hits the Simplicitrix to become human]* ...then I'll stop the other one.

*[Nightmare Alan disappeared in a cloud of red dust. Chloe looked at a now worried Pride.]*

Chloe: What does that mean? Where's he going?

Pride: Oh no. He's going after the real Alan. We need to move.

*[Pride merged with Chloe, prompting an awkward expression in response.]*

Chloe: Nope, don't like that.

*[While merged with Chloe, Pride made the two of them intangible then phased through the ground.]*

*[Negative Way Big plunged his fist towards Alan, only for there to be a bright red flash of light, followed by a large and scaly black hand grabbing the fist before it could hit him. Negative Way Big looked surprised before being punched away, then looked back to see Mongilla before him.]*

Negative Way Big: This again? Aren't you tired of the same trick over and over?

*[Negative Way Big went to cross his arms at the wrist, but was hit by a whack from Mongilla's tail. Mongilla's spinal plates began to glow purple before he shot out a toxic beam at Negative Way Big, who proceeded to block it with his arm blade, then charged up cyan cosmic energy in his other hand, resulting in an uppercut to Mongilla. Mongilla responded with a low growl before swiping his tail against Negative Way Big's headfin, sending a wave of cyan energy over his body that paralyzed him. With his opponent stuck, Mongilla slowly charged up another toxic beam, which he held in his mouth for a moment before oppening it up, letting out his most powerful attack yet that sent Negative Way Big flying off into the distance before falling and drowning in the black sludge below. Huffing, Mongilla transformed back to human, and cracked his neck.]*

Alan: That wasn't so difficu- *[eyes dart around as he turns around in a fighting stance]* ...Who's there?

*[Alan cautiously stepped forward, feeling something was off. As he walked, red dust manifested behind him in the form of a smirking Nightmare Alan.]*

Nightmare Alan: Boo.

*[Screaming, Alan rushed forward and turned around surprised, then became confused.]*

Nightmare Alan: Hm. Too easy.

Alan: Seriously? We're really gonna do the "true fear is-"

Nightmare Alan: "-True fear is the person themselves," trope? Yes. Heh. *[leans in]* You're not the only one who can break the fourth wall here. *[winks at the audience]*

Alan: What the fuck are you doing here?

Nightmare Alan: Oh, I just got done terrorizing your friends. The ghost and the so-called girlfriend.

Alan: She *is* my girlfriend.

Nightmare Alan: Is she, now?

Alan: I'm not fucking letting you mess with me.

Nightmare Alan: I don't believe you've much of a choice.

Alan: ...Leave me alone.

Nightmare Alan: I don't think I will.

*[Nightmare Alan decked Alan with the use of his Simplicitrix hand.]*

Nightmare Alan: I suppose she does care, after all, her nightmare was you being with someone else. But we both know she deserves better.

Alan: Shut up.

Nightmare Alan: What, with the killings and running away, and secrecy, it's no surprise she's been questioning it for a while.

Alan: I said shut up!

Nightmare Alan: I'd even go as far as to say part of her enjoyed what Samael did.

*[Alan violently got back up, some blood coming from his nose and a few tears in his eyes.]*

Alan: SHUT. THE FUCK. ***UP***.

*[Alan went to throw a punch at Nightmare Alan, who easily dodged the hit whilst grabbing Alan's arm, flipping him over and back onto the ground, the sound of a few bones breaking.]*

Nightmare Alan: Pride was right. You choose to ignore your issues and tell people to shut up when they're mentioned. It's pathetic. *[looks at Alan's Stabilized Simplicitrix]* The Alan Nomaly they knew, the one you're *trying* to be, was gone a long time ago. We both know the truth: The *real* Alan Nomaly is that monster. Why don't you just go ahead... and embrace it?

*[Nightmare Alan turned to red dust again, disappearing from the scene. The reverse sound of breaking bones was heard as Alan sat himself back up, using Ouroborosaurus' powers to heal himself. He sat there in silence for a moment.]*

Alan: ...You're right.

*[Alan reached his hand over to the Stabilized Simplicitrix, hitting the core and causing it to decouple from his arm, falling to the ground next to him.]*

Alan: You're right.