All throughout his life Joel has suffered from terrible panic attacks. He could be living his life without a care in the world one minute, but then gasping for air the next. It's a problem that's tormented him for as long as he could remember, and a problem that's causing him to slip closer toward a breaking point. He works for the Lestor Corporation year after year slaving away at a desk filling out paperwork. His boss asks him to perform a speech in front of his co-workers and the girl of his dreams, Lilly Croftcheck. The fear of his panic attacks coming to life while he's up there on that stage scares him. He believes that he'll embarrass himself in front of everybody as he's always done so in the past. This fear combined with the sadness he feels for not being able to be with the girl of his dreams pushes him over the edge. He doesn't want to stand up there with his panic attacks exposing him to the world, and if that happens he'll push a button located on his torso killing everyone in the room with a blinding flash of light.
