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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Tradekur was beyond anything Tayla had ever seen, and they hadn't even passed through the rot iron gates. Despite still being several miles away from Eden City, Tradekur filled every inch of that space. Tents, tables, and people pushing carts full of goods covered the land that once stood as an animal sanctuary. Many of the traders made their booths out of the old habitats, removing the gates that once kept the animals inside. Outside the crumbling walls of Tradekur were more tents, clothing hanging on wires suggested they were camps for those who either came to trade or to sell.
Tayla turned her attention away from the bustling trade town to the arching entryway where most of the letters of the former name were missing.
"This was the Tracey de Kurt Animal Sanctuary, right? I think I saw it in a history book as one of the last surviving sanctuaries after the war."
"Before much of the exotic animals died off, places like these cared for them. Now we get robotic talking raccoons and other genetically created animals."
"What do you have against talking raccoons," Tayla asked.
"Nothing. They're just creepy. Don't get me started on the animals with multiple heads. I was traumatized the first time I saw a two-headed dog."
"How come there aren't many buildings left out here besides this? I saw a handful of rubble when Chino was driving us in, but otherwise it's empty. I know this area used to be part of the original city."
"For a while Eden City higher ups and the PC's actually gave a shit about the dead lands. They thought they could clean it up and make it livable again. For a good ten years they worked on clearing rubble and farming land. Eventually they realized it wasn't cost effect. All of the cities banded together to determine the dead lands to be useless. They erected their safe walls, used filters to make the sky normal, and I wouldn't be at all shocked to someday find out even the weather is artificial. Trader towns like Tradekur are the only place you'll find a lot of the modern convenience of the cities here in the dead lands."
"Yet they don't take money?"
Max shook his head. "Not a penny. Well, unless the trader is actually from the cities. Most of the time nobody has the balls to step out of their sanctuary and trade out here. They'll work a deal with someone on the outside to sell for them. I have some pure Invisible Uppers if we need to get something, that's worth quite a penny here."
"Surprised Chino even took our Chameleon Uppers and the Downers as payment."
Max chuckled. "Because those are actually worth more than the ride he gave us and he thinks he took advantage of me. Which he did, but not because I didn't know it, it was because I had nothing else to offer. Your backpack was barely enough to get food and a bath, let alone a ride anywhere. And I was not giving him my pure powder."
"Why is that more valuable?"
"Besides the fact it's an invisibility power, it's pure. One hundred percent, pure. Normally when the Pharmaceutical Companies make a Power Upper, they add some kind of additive to it that helps dilute the effect some and I expect to also make it addicting. They determine how long a pill will last. More popular powers will in essence be made to last a shorter time period because they know they can milk the public for more money. In powder form you can basically dip your pinky in it and lick it off, having the power for a long ass time. On the black market, pure Power Uppers can go for millions if it's the right power. That's part of the reason Mylar likes having the unreleased PU's, he can bank roll his entire operation with even a small baggy of powder or stretch it out by making it into a typical pill."
