A/N: Deciding to write this story at the same time as my other one probably isn't the smartest thing to do, especially when I'm the biggest procrastinator on Earth, but hey, when do I ever think things through? Never.

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Hetalia or its characters. Do I really even need this written here? Probably not.

Warnings: Possble character deaths, probably some violence, maybe even torture at some point, I might throw in a couple graphic descriptions, and, oh yes, extreme stupidity and facepalm-worthy moments.

Side note: The actual chapters will be much longer than this. I usually write short prologues in the beginning of a lot of my stories.

Oh, and I don't usually write in a first-person POV, let alone in the POV of a character I have only recently gotten obsessed with—ahem, interested in, so if it sucks, oh well. Just tell me how to make it better. Constructive criticism won't hurt me.

Alright! Unnecessarily long introductions aside, enjoy the story!

Welcome to Safe City, or as I like to call it, Dead City. Pretty clever, huh? I'm really proud of myself for thinking up that one. Well...I guess it would seem more clever to you if you actually knew why I call it that. Damn, do I really have to explain it all to you? I'm not exactly sure if I have the time for that, and I don't really want to, either. It's a long, long, long, long story that could bring back some bad memories. But, I guess if you really want to know, I'll give you a little bit of a backstory before I explain why I'm sneakily climbing out of a window at 11:02 PM.

Here's the short version of this part of the story, since I really shouldn't be hanging around with one leg out the living room window for too long. I suppose I could multitask and explain everything while I escape my home. Actually, yeah, that might be a smart idea. I'll do that. This story might still be short and vague, though, just because it truly is a long story.

This whole thing started about five years ago, I believe. Like I mentioned before, I live in a place called Safe City. It actually has a different name, and I'm pretty sure it's not a city, but people have been calling it 'Safe City' since I was a little kid. You see, the rest of the world is, to put it simply, crap. I'd rather not get into technicalities and details, but let's just say it's really fucked up. The only safe place—see what I did there? Heh—has always been Safe City, a large city (or whatever it's supposed to be) located on an island in a more peaceful area of the world. It's so huge that it nearly takes up the entire island!

Anyway, according to the mayor, this is the happiest place on earth. And I actually agree with him on that, or at least I did. We had the world's most stable economy and government, the best education, a powerful army, and all that great stuff ever since the sanity of the world went south. Technically, we still do, and everything is even better than before, but we'll get to that.

So back to the 'five years ago' thing. Back then, our government released this new technology that would get implanted into people's brains. Creepy, right? Naturally, people didn't trust this stuff at first, especially when they claimed this stuff could bring one's brain's functions to their peak condition or something like that. But then some people tried it out, and to everyone's surprise, these people were smarter and stronger mentally. That wasn't it. They also had some physical enhancements, too, like better muscle control, balance, coordination, senses, reflexes, and other things like that.

Let me tell you, people went crazy after that. Left and right, people were getting this new technology implanted into their brains, and about four years later, almost everyone in Safe City had it. This is where it got weird. Most of the very few people who hadn't gotten these brain enhancements yet hadn't done so because they were really skeptical of the government, as if it all seemed too good to be true. These people began to disappear, and if they came back, they actually had the technology they had refused to support for so long. The ones who never came back seemed to be gone forever. Some say they just fled the city, which was a thing some people actually did, but I doubt that many people would be insane enough to leave a safe haven like this. This was all really suspicious, but at the time, I didn't think much of it. Now that I'm alone, I've had time to realize what really could have been happening.

Not too long after pretty much the entirety of Safe City had become something close to superhumans, our government did something no one would have expected. They began to use mind control. Apparently, they had these controlling mechanisms in whatever they had placed in everyone's brains. So is everyone a brain-dead robot now? Not exactly. People can still kind of make their own decisions and have basic free will over actions, but stuff like their general goals, values, desires, opinions, and lifestyles are controlled by those higher-ups. I'm pretty sure even they're controlled in some way. The mayor is the only one of them who I know for sure is totally free.

You're probably wondering about me now. Well, since I'm just completely and totally amazing, I never got my brain poked around in and modified, and I've never been caught. When it was a trending thing, I never really considered it because I'm clearly awesome enough not to need anything changed. Sure, I'm not the smartest, but come on, who needs that? As for how I've never been caught, I have no idea how that happened. I guess I was just lucky at first, and now, a year later, I've learned how to avoid any suspicion. During the day, just act like everyone else, and at night, wait until the surveillance cameras around the city are shut off. After that, you're pretty much set for life.

And that brings us to what I'm doing right now. The government monitors us, but that's something we've been used to for a while, even before this mess. Everyone was alright with it, though, since it really did keep us a lot safer, and they didn't watch us in our homes or anything. Now, they just monitor us from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM, and in that nine-hour period where they aren't doing this, all surveillance cameras are shut off to save power. Everyone is programmed to wake up as early as 8:00 AM, and go to sleep as late as 11:00 PM. I guess it's more organized that way or something, I don't know. Whatever it's for, it gives me perfect opportunities to sneak out of my house and just take a stroll around the city without worrying about pretending to be a boring, mind-controlled puppet.

That's what I'm doing right now. I just climbed out of a window in my house, and now I'm walking down a dark street, breathing in the cool night air and enjoying my short window of freedom. Climbing out of a window really isn't necessary, but it's way cooler than just walking out the front door, and hey, you can't blame a guy for wanting to have some fun in a world like this.

Oh, right! I got so caught up in the whole story-telling moment that I never actually explained why I call this place 'Dead City'. It's probably obvious, anyway. Basically, everyone in this city is kind of dead, or at least as good as dead. They're all controlled without even knowing what's going on in their own minds. Everybody here is pretty much lost forever, since that stuff that was put into their heads can't really be removed, and it's not like the government is going to stop what they're doing anytime soon unless someone forces them. See? Damn, I'm clever. Handsome, too.

Speaking of stopping the government, believe me, I've considered trying. But I actually stopped to think for once (crazy, I know, but you'd be doing a lot of thinking too if you were in my place), and as amazing as I may be, I'm just one guy who would be putting himself up against a powerful man with thousands upon thousands of mind-controlled superhumans at his disposal. I would need help, but where would I get that from? No one on this island can or would help, and the rest of the world has much bigger problems to deal with. Seriously, you would think other world leaders would do something about this, but nope! Guess not! I guess war and the threat of anarchy are more important than an island full of people being mind-controlled by some crazy dude.

So, yeah, I'm alone. I mean, I suppose if those people who disappeared and never came back are still alive, or if I could reach the ones who fled the city, I could possibly get them all to—

Oh my god.

Why haven't I thought of this before?! I could totally get all of those people to help me! This is perfect! Well, if any of them are still alive, that is. There has to be someone out there. Oh man, this is going to be great! Okay, okay, I probably would need a plan. That's the smart thing to do, right? Hm, I guess smarts are important. Well, it's a good thing I didn't care about that before, or else I would be just like everyone else right now. So, does that mean they're important, but also not important? Ah, who cares? What matters right now is that I'm finally going to do something to fix everything!

Oh yeah, this will definitely be fun.