Throughout the world, Power Uppers are the hottest drug on the market. A single pill allows any Normie to obtain the power of a Super. The drawback? They're also highly addicting and the cause of most financial ruin.
Tayla wants nothing to do with s...
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Tayla paced around the room, watching the monitors shift and flicker through various city streets. Mylar had the entire city displayed before him. Security cameras, raw news feed—if it was filmed she assumed he had access. Few of the streets were ones she recognized, but for a split second she caught sight of Danika's car. As expected, yellow suits and Recruiters swarmed it. It didn't stay on screen long enough for Tayla to fully grasp how many converged on a single car, nor what they were doing to it.
She crossed her arms and stopped pacing when she glanced at Mylar. He sat in his chair, feet kicked up on the desk, smiling at her.
"Am I being amusing?" she asked.
"You act like an animal trapped in a cage." He pulled his hands behind his head. "So yes."
"At least I'm not named after a balloon that was banned years ago!"
"Oooh ouch. You got me there." He laughed. "Do you want to know why I changed my name to Mylar?"
She didn't. On a scale of one to ten, that landed at about negative twenty on the things she cared about scale. The longer Max was gone, the less likely Gifted Books would still be open. Tayla wasn't sure she could stomach another night without knowing at least her mom's fate. While it was slim, she hoped this Nicron would at least be able to answer that. She sighed and shrugged.
"Because you like to get as high as the balloons did?"
Mylar chortled. "That's a great answer, but no. I need to be clear headed to do what I do."
"Yet you sent Max to get you some P.U's."
"To sell, baby. My hacking don't always pay the bills, but Power Uppers are gold on the streets. Especially ones not yet on the market." He spun once in his chair and leaned forward. "Do you know why Mylar balloons were banned?"
"They were used to start the Great Nuclear War that nearly ended the world."
"Exactly. Someone, somewhere found a way to turn a seemingly harmless object, a child's balloon, into a weapon. They thought 'hey, what if we filled these balloons with nuclear power and ignited them?' In theory, it shouldn't have worked. Yet it did. Those harmless looking balloons crippled and destroyed entire nations within minutes."
Tayla raised an eyebrow. "You see yourself as a child's toy?"
"Well..." Mylar winked. "No. I see myself as an object that looks harmless, but holds deadly secrets. This world is in shambles, Miss Tayla. You don't know the depths in which the Pharmaceutical Companies go to control our minds. Power Uppers are just one of the many, many, things wrong. I am a voice in the darkness that brings the light. If one has knowledge, I can get it."
"You're a conspiracy nut." Though she said that, she didn't necessarily argue his points. The world was broken. People gave far too much power to the PC's. After the Great Nuclear War, the PC's were the one who stepped up to save countries. They created the three world powers that became the Corporate British Isles, Corporate Eurasia, and Corporate Americana—where Eden City was located. Countries not under corporate rule begged for their support.
