N And The Roster (Murder Drones)

7. The Socializing Of Jill H.W

Warning: There are mentions of the word drugs.

YOUVE BEEN WARNED.

The black market... One of the only places where business still runs. The streets are paved with gravel, the gravel being any type of mineral they get their hands on. Gravel slows drones down... You aren't likely  to run that way. It has multiple floors, some only have two. Other sections go higher, the max is a sixth floor, standing a radio station and a... Indulgence place.

But as it stands, it's a tourist attraction and a town. I'll explain this place for fully later.

Stalls are built on every side, every ware different.
Guns? Yep.
Custom guns? Yea.
Goverment secrets? Not really.
But they do have someone selling the Mona Lisa.

"How long have you tried to sell that?" Jill stands infront of the drone trying to sell the painting. It has the lable of D.850,000 on it.

"Aah... I shipped this stolen good here since April a few decades ago..." The drone began a long speech. "This painting was the most famous back in the time of the Dark Age... And I stole it in two thousand and-" Before the drone can say the date, Jill had made his way to a visitor center.

He walks up the the visitor center, a booth selling maps of the place. The place was decorated with parchments and scrolls, none Jill needs. "Looking for the recreational goods section... You know where is it?" Jill asked.

The drone in the booth slides two pieces of paper that saaid "Ping Pong Tournament Tonight! D.19 Per ticket." Another paper said "The Wolf Queen Of 3075 Exhibit." It showed a promiscuous drone wearing a red dress.

Jill, disgruntledly slide the paper back. "No.  Where's the drugs?"

The drone stares at Jill "This is a black market drug dealers are everywhere. they have special hoodies, you'll find one quickly." He they pulled out the hoodie in speaking.

A hand holding up a magnet. Easy enough to find. So he walked out with that detail memorized.

Now, the place was more then just booths, crime and gravel pits. The place is a cesspool of culture and more surprisingly it's a safe place for worker drones and dissassembly drones alike. The place has become less of a black market but a community hub for different people. Of course, there is still illegal activities but most of the newer areas are more focused on housing and communities.

And protection. So much drones live and sell stuff here so it has it's guards. The place is guarded by a faction only known as Black Marketers. Black marketers are the little council that runs it as well. Guards have two types, the Rats and Black market drones.

(Black market is a trade mark at this point.)

The Rats are secret dwellers hiding out of scene and rapidly responds to situations at hand in their area. Black market drones are customly built drones by the Black Marketers that act as Phase two of protection.

They are wall climbers, rabid dogs that are deadly in any number. Fast and diligent made to run through metal jungles to get to their opponent.

So anyways. Jill takes a right from where he currently was, entering a gambling street. The street was paved with slot machines and tables, some cheap and crappy and other places going full Las Vegas.

One place had drones dancing like crabs, Another was gambling their insurance, another had a Drug dealer and... Wait that's a drug dealer.

Jill walks over to the drug dealer, it was a short and scruffy drone wearing a hoodie with a hand holding a magnet. He was playing Poker as Jill tapped his shoulder.

"What you want? We ran out of Tarr." the drone said, paying no attention to Jill as he took a peak at his cards.

Jil nodded and walks away, looking for another dealer. He looked at another map of the place and calculated the quickest path to him.

And so he walks into the Biological section, one of the novelty sections of this bizzare world. He looked around and was quite amazed at all the plants on display.

He came upon a little puffy and spiky looking plant kept inside a metalitic little box with a UV light inside.

"This is a Cactus! Lives in the heat." the drone said out seeing Jill intetested. It was a girl drone with a name tag saying 'Ozwald' Jill curiously replied. Jill hears a rather similar tone of speach like Qwertz, fast and daft. "Wasn't all biological life wiped out in the incident?" Jill questions.

"Oh, these are imported all the way from Iron-3, nearest mining planet from here." the drone said. "That place is the opposite of here! Always sunny and dry."

Jill looked at the price tag... D.5,000. "Five Tousand? Guess shipping is tough."

The drone at the counter replied. "Well... Maintaining a plant also needs a lot of equipment... I don't recommend buying one of those. Maybe I can show you our fungus collection?"

Jill waved his hand. "Thats fine, I was just looking anyways." Jill said daftly. "I need to give out business cards for company reasons." the drone said quickly grabbing out a card and handed it to Ozwald.

"Thanks... Looking for a side hustle anyways.." the drone tucked the business card into a pocket as she talked.

Jill nodded as he walked away. Now... To find Drugs. It took another while of walking to get to the Drugs, but whilst he was walking he realised something weird. Drones he met have been strangely similar to members of his group.

Maybe its over reacting? I mean, it could just be luck. Ozwald did have a weird name but he isn't wasn't a mechanic. The Drug dealer did remind him of himself but it could just be under the same personality defect as himself.

He then saw another drone wearing the hoodie. So he repeats the cycle. He walks up and asks for Tarr.

"Yea, we have Tarr. D.300" The drone said, he took out what seemed to be packaged chewing gum and handed it to him. In response Jill took out a wallet. Inside the wallet colourful mixes of glass. He takes out three of them and hands them to the dealer.

"A bit cheap dont ya think?" Jill says, closing the wallet and putting it back in his pocket.

"Well Tarr is Cheap. Made a dozen packets for D.1000." He said, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. "Raw Tarr is cheap but if you want something expensive the try Koldera. Koldera is just a refined Tarr. This thing." He takes a blow of the thing. "Smooth on the inner functions."

"Well I'm buying this for my friend. Don't want to get into these drugs too much."

The Drone nodded. "Understandble. They aren't harmful... But it is a ugly obssession. See teenagers do I ton of magnets though. They aren't even drugs but hey they attract the Teens."

In the background a group of drones held up against the same stall he visited a while ago. Before Jill could really react to whats happening by standers raised their own pistols at the group.

"Marketer Rats! Throw down your arms!" The drones commanded as they quickly surround the group. One grabbing out some sort of badge.

"Never was a teenager. I don't understand them." Jill said looking at the drones getting taken away. He can't relate.

"Me neither friend, me neither." The drone said as he relaxed a bit and continued to smoke the Koldera.

Jill left the black market with a sense of feeling of learning so much but yet so little. Which lead him to wander off, directly towards the corpse spire.

And so thats how Jill came to the corpde spire.