Discovery Gaming Community

Unique - u·nique

adj.

1. Being the only one of its kind.
2. Without an equal or equivalent; unparalleled.

A view of Planet New Berlin can be seen, spanning miles of snowy skyscrapers, all as bland and dull as each other. Normally, these buildings would have billboards, bright lights and advertisements, today though, nothing. No ships passed the windows, either, the sky was cold and clear. Something was strange about this area of New Berlin, something not quite right.

One building in particular stood out amongst the grey city scape, this one was well lit up, as crowds of people gathered to celebrate. On the seventy-first floor of this building, these people all united for one common purpose.

A man stood atop a large flight of stairs, swinging a drink merrily as he accepted the cheers of the crowd below, he was their leader, and this celebration was in his honour.

All but one of this crowd worshipped this man as their lord and savior, a young man with large-rimmed spectacles, he shuffled awkwardly towards the bottom of the stairs, wincing a little at the loud cheers of the people. He clambered up the steps, tugging on the man's arm to get his attention.

"Hello Axel, sorry to ruin the party, but you're in a coma" the young man spoke, forcing volume into his words enough to be heard over the noise of the celebrations.

Doctor Axel von Fischer looked down at the people underneath him. He had them seduced, controlled. It did not matter what he said, for he controlled the strings of the puppet show and manipulated the masses like a potter's clay. He was just grinning, and they were applauding. What he had said or done to make them applaud was at the back of his head, he was too intoxicated by the clapping. He couldn't remember in all honesty.

Inside his twisted mind, he was laughing. His imagination fed him constant images of the untermensch stood beneath him burning, exploding, dying in any sort of horrible way. That was what really made him grin to the people: the vision of their deaths.

The skies were clear, the electronic billboards which normally brainwashed the masses with shampoo advertisements were now dark and silent. It was a relief to Axel. He noticed all of the propaganda of the world, how people tried to manipulate others, and he felt immune from it just by noticing what these artists tried to do. He hoped one day to turn this art of manipulation around to suit his own purposes, but the cheering crowds suggested he had already done so.

In his peripheral vision a man approached. He was young, awkwardly positioning himself and shuffling through the crowd. Every push required to advance knocked his large-rimmed spectacles this way and that. Axel now watched him with his entire concentration shifting toward new thoughts. This man was not like the rest in the crowd.

The man began to advance up the steps, completely ignored by the guards. They had not even seen him. Now Axel knew something was wrong, or perhaps not right. He did not know which yet.

The man was a quarter of the way up the stairs, so Axel turned away to survey the crowd once again. A second later his arm was being tugged. He turned to see the man. How had he moved up the rest of the stairs so quickly?

'Hello Axel, sorry to ruin the party, but you're in a coma.' He spoke loudly over the crowd, but it was as if Axel couldn't ignore the man even if he had wanted to.

The crowd was merely a background noise now as he shifted his entire body to face the intruder. He had, after all, breached security. In a coma? Perhaps the facts had been there, and Axel had just been caught up in the "celebrations" to notice? What were the celebrations even about? The last thing he remembered was being on planet Hamburg, watching thousands choke to death in clouds of methyl isocyanate.

His visible reaction gave nothing away, neither did his words. But in his head he was panicking. 'Let us step into my office and... discuss this.' He stepped away from the balcony, the cheering of the crowd did not flicker for a moment. As if they were forced to cheer. The man moved forward toward his office door, and stepped inside. Axel followed, and closed the door to the crowd, silencing the celebrations as quickly as they had done.

The building stopped creaking. The winds outside, which must have been travelling over three hundred miles per hour, were barely audible. More like a gentle gust. The tornadoes whirled on through what remained of the city, even the stronger buildings now succumbing to the inevitable collapse.

The laws of physics themselves changed outside the room. Pieces of debris floated and were the toys of the twisters which hurled them around in the sky from one whirlwind to the next, like a game of tennis across the landscape. The ground itself began to break up as far as the eye could see, the entire planet beginning to implode in on itself. These events Axel could witness, the building he stood in was safe from it all for his mind did not want to destroy itself.

Suddenly, silence. The crowds stopped screaming. The wind stopped gusting. The spectacle outside was on mute.

'I had my suspicions,' he lied. The world had seemed so perfect, down to every detail. Except... he remembered nothing, until he found himself in front of a cheering crowd.

'I know when you're lying, Doctor,' the man replied. Axel moved to the glass wall to observe the destruction, and the man stood next to him. A tear began to roll down Axel's face, which he quickly wiped away. No, he thought to himself. I am not a man of tears.

'How long?' He refused to look at the man, staring contently at the imploding planet below him.

'Hmm?'

'How long... have I been here?'

'Judging from your muscle degeneration.' The man ended the sentence. Perhaps, Axel thought, there were emotions he was trying to overcome? He doubted this first assumption.

'How long!?' Axel shouted, losing his temper. He kept his arms rigidly behind his back as he observed what was left outside.

'Eighteen... years.'

Axel remained silent, but in his mind he was screaming. Cursing. Hating. This showed itself outside, as planet New Berlin imploded and disappeared. The building now floated through darkness. No objects, no distant stars. All that was outside was blackness.

Axel turned to face the man, who pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose once again.

'I am ready to leave.'

Axel stared at the frozen scene, his arms firmly behind his back. The city far in the distance, its destruction paused. The more prominent scene, the boy being dragged away by soldiers. Trying to reach for one of their guns.

'It's more than that.' Why was Axel telling this man these things? Perhaps it was a test of his subconscious, now aware of its situation and trying desperately to wake him up? Axel had already deduced that if he was in a coma, it was most likely medically induced. So if he managed to wake up, what would we awaken to? A platoon of marines most likely. 'The understanding of many was... vague. They believed my family was cursed, and had been for hundreds of years by the old Kaiser as a punishment for failures unknown.

'The family bloodline always survived, of course. We were strong. So I guess I want retribution against those who have judged my family for being... different. But what I saw here re-ignites a certain spark.

'Did you hear what that soldier said, to my father? Right before he killed him? He filled my father's last thoughts with the idea of myself suffering for the rest of my life. It shows just how cruel humans can be to each other. And even I am not above this.

'Why here?' Axel turned to the man. 'There are surely more monumental events in my life. Is this the first of many we must visit?'

'This state which we stand...' Axel muttered again. He already knew which path he was going to choose. He had chosen long ago the path of emotion embedded in his subconscious, because it's unavoidable. And it was what drove him, so why attempt to avoid it? Anger, fear, desires, hate, they were all just so human. And even Axel, despite his superiority, could not hope to conquer them unless he worked with them.

There was no ignoring fear. You had to conquer it. There was no controlling anger. It just built up until it breaks free in one massive wave, which was something Axel always tried to avoid. When anger reached that level, there was no controlling it. And when you had no control, you made mistakes.

A flash, and a new location appeared. It was again snowy, the blanket covering the rooftops with a perfect coat, eerily perfect. Gushes of people washed by in a constant stream, all in one direction. A large structure, just visible over the heads of potential shoppers heading for the new shopping centre. It's grand opening. But Axel knew immediately that it was the only time it would open for a long time.

He grinned. The intruder and him were wearing gas masks, even though the methyl isocyanate soon to flood the area could not possibly affect them. It was only a memory.

Axel spotted himself, far in the background. He had known where to look. An underground sewer entrance, with a maintenance worker removing the top and descending down. His fluorescent coat shone in the bright morning light as he bent down to shift snow away from his entry point. The man looked up once more, taking in the people swarming like flies. He glanced at them as if they were animals. Then he grinned, and descended down.

Axel, with the intruder, stood silently for a few seconds.

'Not many people would associate this sort of event with a good memory. But you orchestrated the proceedings, so I suppose you must be happy with your success.'

'Ja, everything went just perfect. Better than expected, right until I was caught.'

There was a loud slamming at the building. The doors and windows had sealed themselves shut. Magnetically, Axel knew. There would be no escape. He glided onward, through people who had now stopped in confusion. The flood had become a trickle as late-comers arrived. They had no idea how fortunate they had been.

Axel arrived at the glass doors, the intruder pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose as he too arrived to observe. The building was filled with a smoke, impregnable to the gazes of spectators. The occasional moving shadow was all that could be seen.

A thud could be heard. Another. People outside were starting to bang on the glass, panicking and wondering what was happening. A figure flung himself into the door from the inside. He was splurging white gunge wildly, trying to keep it contained in his mouth with his hand. The man was begging to the crowds outside, begging to be helped. They tried to break down the door, a potted plant becoming an eight-man battering ram. But the man inside, and others who had joined him at the window, just collapsed and stopped moving.

Amidst screaming from children, the intruder tilted his head and looked at Axel.

'Is this what you want?'

'Ja,' Axel quickly answered. 'It's exactly what I want. Too bad I didn't manage to escape. And then they decided to put me in a medically induced coma.'

Axel's view flashed again, and suddenly he was aboard a ship. The intruder stood at his side once again, both of them holding arms behind their backs as they walked through the winding corridors of the ship. It was a freighter, Axel knew. He remembered seeing it, a Humpback, as he was wheeled in on a stretcher. All he had been able to move at the time were his eyes, was all he could remember. Straps and buckles had prevented any movement of limbs which could cause harm to personnel nearby.

Axel and the intruder moved to the side as Axel was wheeled past, a number of armed escorts moving in front and following behind. A doctor pushed the stretcher into the medical bay, Axel and the intruder following behind to observe the scene.

'Is the injection ready, Doctor?' A guard asked the doctor, who was flicking a needle in preparation of injecting its content.

'Ja, I think so. No reason to keep him awake now. We can plug in the monitoring equipment once he's under.' These words, normally terrifying the individual about to be subjected to the injection and monitoring, did little to Axel. He had accepted a number of possibilities and had decided to go out with his dignity. The Axel on the stretcher did nothing to struggle. He did not even flinch. But that did not mean he was scared.

'You were scared, weren't you?' The intruder whispered into Axel's ear. 'I can tell, even from here. You were allowing your emotions to course through your body as you embraced your fate. Lying there, unmoving, for all of your life. Your muscles deteriorating, your short existence in this Universe being poured down the drain...'

'Enough!' Axel shouted, his voice booming in the small room. He sighed, and lowered his voice down to a normal level. 'Emotion is the reason mankind is driven toward a goal. Emotion controls us, whether we want to admit it or not. I embrace my emotions and my subconscious, because there is no avoiding it. It is a part of me. It is what drives me. I have never tried to avoid it and it is what drives me, so it is the logical path to take.'

Axel opened his eyes.

'Merry Christmas.' A voice said to him.