History NightmareFuel / CellsAtWork

** The anime adaptation conveys this futility dauntingly well. After the emergency broadcast, we see everyone, from the Red Blood Cells to the Platelets, get roused for their task as they prepare to face the emergency. The next two scenes are of AE 3803, her Kohai and U-1146 wading through the wounded area, represented at a ghost town. The music has stopped. [[NothingIsScarier Nobody is around]].

** Related: Killer-T's only other relationships are with other immune cells, even if most are combative. As he constantly reminds his trainees, immune cells are ''expected'' to fall in the line of duty.

** His backstory is even worse: Imagine being a child born with birth defects, hunted down and viciously beaten to death by a fascist police, for the sole crime of being born. Mitigated, of course, by the fact that said child will ''[[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds end the world]]'' if left alone, whether they want to or not.

* Killer T-Cell's unflinching brutality is also quite frightening at times, particularly when he verbally and physically attacks Neutrophil (of all cells!) for being "too soft". You can see just how much his job of killing his fellow body cells has gotten to him, and some potential BackstoryHorror to how hardened he has become in having to kill his allies if need be. However, this is later mitigated by the implication that Killer T was harsh towards Neutrophil because [[GreenEyedMonster he's secretly jealous of how well he gets along with civilians like Red Blood Cell]].

** His backstory is even worse: Imagine being a child born with birth defects, hunted down and viciously beaten to death by a fascist police, for the sole crime of being born.

* The heat stroke was also terrifying, due to the cells having no ability to solve it without outside assistance. The water reservoirs are all drying up, no matter how many of the back-ups the secretion cells check, the natural methods for regulating temperature are failing or not doing nearly well enough to cool the body, a germ has invaded and is gloating about taking over the whole body as the lights go out, all but Neutrophil are incapable of chasing it down and protecting the entire body, you suffocate and crowd in the ever- worsesing heat, and all you really can do is strip off ever more layers of clothing, wipe the sweat off your skin, and pray... it's all a slow, gradual, but almost inevitable sort of apocalypse and it is ''terrifying.''

* Heat Stroke was also terrifying due to the Cells having no ability to solve it without outside assistance. The water reservoirs are all drying up no matter how many of the back-ups the secretion cells check, the natural methods for regulating temperature are failing or not doing nearly well enough to cool the body, a germ has invaded and is gloating about taking over the whole body as the lights go out, all but one is capable Neutrophil of chasing it down and protecting the entire body, you suffocate and crowd in the ever worsesing heat, and all you really can do is strip off ever more layers of clothing, wipe the sweat off your skin, and pray... it's all a slow, gradual, but almost inevitable sort of apocalypse and it is ''terrifying.''

* The hypovolemic shock incident. Imagine the aforementioned scratch thing, but much more lethal and life-threatening. Lots of red blood cells are lost (and dead), ordinary cells start to die due to not receiving oxygen and nutrients, making the body decay and turn into a desolate landscape, without any of the body cells being able to do anything to solve it. Thanks to a blood transfusion, things end well, but it's still the only time in the series that the body and the cells who inhabit it have been close to death, something that not even [[KnightOfCerebus Cancer Cell]] has managed to do.

* Staphylococcus aureus, essentially the queen of the germs. It's bad enough for the Neutrophils to deal with a horde of bacterial invaders, but an ''organized'' horde of bacterial invaders, whose leader knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Neutrophils and knows how to fight them? Thank goodness that the Platelets were there to save the day the first time, and that the Monocytes/Macrophages could arrive in time for the second occurrence.

** Note that the parasitic worm in episode 4 was a ''larval'' Anisakis, a mere 2mm in length (as Anisakis cannot mature in human tissue and eventually dies, but not before causing significant damage to the gut lining). Compare that to a roundworm, which can reach up to 8cm (about a hundred times bigger!) or a tapeworm, which can grow as long as ''five or six feet'', and just imagine that from the perspective of the cells...

* Staphylococcus aureus, essentially the queen of the germs. It's bad enough for the Neutrophils to deal with a horde of bacterial invaders, but an ''organized'' horde of bacterial invaders? Whose leader knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Neutrophils and knows how to fight them? Thank goodness that the Platelets were there to save the day the first time, and that the Monocytes/Macrophages could arrive in time on the second occurence.

* Staphylococcus aureus, essentially the queen of the germs. It's bad enough for the Neutrophils to deal with a horde of bacterial invaders, but an ''organized'' horde of bacterial invaders? Whose leader knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Neutrophils and knows how to fight them? Thank goodness the Platelets were there to save the day.

** Note that the parasitic worm in episode 4 was a ''larval'' Anisakis, a mere 2mm in length (as Anisakis cannot mature in human tissue and eventually dies, but not before causing significand damage to the gut lining). Compare that to a roundworm, which can reach up to 8cm (about a hundred times bigger!) or a tapeworm, which can grow as long as ''feive or six feet'', and just imagine that from the perspective of the cells...

* Killer T-Cell's unflinching brutality is also quite frightening at times, particularly when he verbally and physically attacks Neutrophil (of all cells!) for being "too soft". You can see just how much his job of killing his fellow body cells has gotten to him, and some potential BackstoryHorror to how hardened he has become in having to kill his allies if need be.

* The scrape wound. To us, a little scratch that's no big deal. To the cells, ''a massive sinkhole wide as a city block'', with cells that fall through disappearing forever. To make things worse, there are also evil, [[MonstrousGerms alien-looking bacteria]] coming through the wound to wreak havoc upon the body, making the scrape wound basically a portal to hell itself spawning monsters...

** And this doesn't even go into what tumours look like, malformed faces, teeth, and mishapen limbs, [[MeatMoss all fused together and crawling on the walls and ceilings.]]

* The hypovolemic shock incident. Imagine the aforementioned scratch thing, but much more lethal and life-threatening. Lots of red blood cells are lost (and dead), ordinary cells start to die due to not receiving oxygen and nutrients, making the body decay and turn into a desolate landscape, without any of the body cells being able to do anything to solve it. [[spoiler: Thanks to a blood transfusion, things end well]], but it's still the only time in the series that the body and the cells who inhabit it have been close to death, something that not even [[KnightOfCerebus Cancer Cell]] has managed to do.

* There is something deeply troubling about the degree of bigotry and toxic masculinity exhibited by Killer T-Cell, especially the way he verbally and physically abuses Neutrophil for being too soft. This particularly hits home to real-life society's rejection of gentleness in males, and how men who don't conform to traditional norms of manliness being singled out and attacked, and those who do struggling with their own ego and mental health as Killer-T does. It's just such a shockingly real moment in an otherwise lighthearted episode, and seeing the hearbroken Neutrophil sitting injured on the ground is just awful to see.
** Also the way how Neutrophil is attacked because he expressed a more open-minded view on things, and Killer-T resorting to violence because he can't quite accept beliefs different from his own. Again, RealityEnsues, when it comes to cell politics.

* Cancer Cell. A grotesque, twisted mutant version of a Normal Cell, who is a dangerous and uncontrollable psychopath who ''can easily masquerade as one of the Normal Cells.'' And as he mutates further, his appearance becomes even more horrific, eventually [[BodyHorror sprouting a pair of wings made of flesh!]]

* The hypovolemic shock incident. Imagine the aforementioned scratch thing, but much more lethal and life-threatening. Lots of red blood cells are lost (and dead), normal cells start to die due to not receiving oxygen and nutrients, making the body decay and turn into a desolate landscape, without any of the body cells being able to do anything to solve it. [[spoiler: Thanks to a blood transfusion, things end well]], but it's still the only time in the series that the body and the cells who inhabit it have been close to death, something that not even [[KnightOfCerebus Cancer Cell]] has managed to do.

* The hypovolemic shock incident. Imagine the aforementioned scratch thing, but much more lethal and life-threatening. Lots of red blood cells are lost (and dead), normal cells start to die due to not receiving oxygen and nutrients, making the body decay and turn into a desolate landscape, without any of the body cells being able to do anything to solve it. [[spoiler: Thankfully, thanks to a blood transfusion, things end well]], but it's still the only time in the series that the body and the cells who inhabit it have been close to death, something that not even [[KnightOfCerebus Cancer Cell]] has managed to do.

* The hypovolemic shock incident. Imagine the aforementioned scratch thing, but much more lethal and life-threatening. Lots of red blood cells are lost (and dead), normal cells start to die due to not receiving oxygen and nutrients, making the body decay and turn into a desolate landscape, without any of the body cells being able to do anything to solve it. [[spoiler: Thankfully, thanks to a blood transfusion, things ends well]], but it's still the only time in the series that the body and the cells who inhabit it have been close to death, something that not even [[KnightOfCerebus Cancer Cell]] has managed to do.

* Cancer Cell. A grotesque, twisted mutant version of a Normal Cell, who is a dangerous and uncontrollable psychopath who ''can easily masquerade as one of the Normal Cells.'' And as he mutates further, his appearance becomes even more horrific, eventually [[BodyHorror sprouting a pair of wings made of flesh!]] And this doesn't even go into what tumours look like, malformed faces, teeth, and mishapen limbs, [[MeatMoss all fused together and crawling on the walls and ceilings.]]

* Cancer Cell. A grotesque, twisted mutant version of a Normal Cell, who is a dangerous and uncontrollable psychopath who ''can easily masquerade as one of the Normal Cells.'' And as he mutates further, his appearance becomes even more horrific, eventually [[BodyHorror sprouting a pair of wings made of flesh!]]

* They're the good guys, but the murderous rage of the Neutrophils can be quite terrifying to behold. Even the other cells are quite shaken to see the bloodthirsty heroes gruesomely eviscerating bacteria, then [[EatingTheEnemy ''eating them''.]]