Bad Batch Oneshots

Acrophobia

|#4 of Bad Batch Cadet series|

••My headcanon is that Wrecker's extreme fear of heights stemmed from an incident he had as a cadet in training.

"For your final objective, you must find a way across the ravine."

Wrecker took a few steps back as the simulation room shifted. The dull white walls suddenly changed into an image of a blue sky. The floor beneath him turned into rust-colored rock. And just ahead, an image of a wide ravine was projected on the floor.

"Uh oh..." Wrecker felt anxiety curling in his stomach. Heights made him uneasy, fake or not. He flinched when he heard something click above his head, only to notice that some sort of rope now spanned across the room, leading to the other side.

"Use the rope to reach the other side. You have ten minutes to complete the objective."

"Ten minutes?" Wrecker swallowed nervously. He hesitantly shuffled towards the edge of the ravine, preparing to grab the rope. "It's just a simulation... it's just a simulation..."

He held the rope in a death grip as he hauled himself up from the floor. It took a bit of maneuvering, but he eventually got his legs wrapped around the rope so that he hung upside down.

"Just don't look down..." Wrecker told himself. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and began shimmying his way forward.

"Don't take this task lightly. If you lose your grip, you will fall to your death."

Wrecker's chest tightened, his breathing growing labored. "I-I thought you said this wasn't real!"

"Anything can be real if you think hard enough."

Wrecker squeezed his eyes shut, trying to resist the urge to look down. His forehead was covered in beads of sweat that rolled down the side of his head. He came to a full stop, unable to move forward while practically shaking in fear.

"Five minutes remaining."

Wrecker could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage. "I can't do this..." He mumbled.

"Two minutes remaining. You will fall if you fail to reach the other side in time."

Wrecker's grip was beginning to loosen. His muscles burned as he struggled to hold himself up. The mental block he was trying to overcome prevented him from moving any further.

"Thirty seconds."

He just couldn't hold on.

A blood-curdling scream of pure terror tore free from his throat as he fell eight feet to the floor. He landed hard on the durasteel tiles and immediately felt a flare of pain in his side.

The last thing he heard before passing out was "test failed".