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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"So you're just going to leave your girlfriend behind like that?" Ash asked. She followed behind Max, a fireball floating above them illuminated the tunnel.
Max hadn't wanted her to follow, in fact he'd snapped at her repeatedly to leave him alone. After seeing her kill the dreaded night of the tunnel, he was grateful. Though he wasn't about to admit that. He was still pissed. No matter how hard he tried to stop them, tears continued to roll along his cheeks, mixing with the dust floating in the air.
"Tayla made her choice."
That wasn't exactly true and he knew it. If placed in her shoes, Max knew there was no real choice. Danika was her mother in her mind. She was a mother who cared for her, raised her, nurtured her—everything Max's mother failed to do. There wasn't really a choice if she had a chance of saving Danika and Max knew it. It didn't stop it from hurting when she chose family over him. Max would never understand that concept.
Family was a load of shit piled on top of a mound of lies to him. Max was no better than his father. He knew all those people he'd used his powers to bring to the PC's weren't simple deadbeats; too many of them lived a middle class life for them to be debtors. If he'd had the courage to stand up to Christopher, to fight his brothers, to do anything but quiver like a sniveling asshole, maybe some of them would be safe. Maybe he wouldn't have harmed a single Super without realizing it.
If he had a penny for every maybe in his life, Max would be the richest person alive.
"You know a telekinetic would go a long way to helping the fight. We only have one other in Genesis and she's like ancient."
Max rolled his eyes but continued walking. Of course Ash would want to use him. If given a chance, Corin would too. They all would. Every last one would milk Max's power dry until he was nothing but a mindless drone babbling in a mental institution. Many telekentics ended up that way. They used their power so much that one day their brain fried under the strain. It was inevitable, with his gift, to lose himself to it. That didn't mean he wasn't going to fight until the end.
The fireball vanished when Max stepped out of the tunnel into the dead lands. He turned back to Ash. Fire still coiled over her knuckles, twirling around her fore arms in tiny veins and coating her in dancing hues of orange.
"We're a lot alike you know," she said.
"You're family used you to kill a bunch of Supers to created a shitty drug?"
"Yes and no." She held out an arm, rolling up her sleeve. A long dark scar snaked over her arm, ending in the familiar markings of a cigarette mark. Max instinctually touched his side where his own identical marks stayed hidden under his clothes. "Obviously I didn't get it as bad as you, but this lovely scar was courtesy of my step father. He was a crime lord of sorts. Like all leaders of gangs, he was in the pocket of the Pharmaceutical Companies. While we didn't deal in bringing Supers to the PC's, we did deal in distributing the Power Uppers and ensuring . . . cooperation . . . from everyone."
