The flavors had come to him after an all night dueling session. Rather than going home he went out for breakfast, waffles of all things, but these were topped with blackberries and peaches. The texture of the peach allowed the blackberry flavor to be tasted without any of the bitterness that he always associated with it. A drink seemed obvious to him, but it needed to be more, it should be packed with essential nutrients and electrolytes to bring you back from the point of exhaustion. It should allow you to push your limits. Now he had a concept, and he had even come up with a slogan. Through his work with Rhydin’s small business association he’d managed to find a few contacts that might help him turn the idea into a reality.
There was always more to it than what appeared on the face of things. He’d tried some of the larger distributors only to face rejection, there were even a few who were willing to pay him to drop the idea all together. He’d been informed later that they already had a line of energy drink. Kruger sat on the idea, working slowly on things he could control like his strange appeal to the fans of the dueling community. That had given him more ideas, or rather a certain promotional gimmick had. Perhaps if he were well known enough to sign a few autographs, he might be famous enough to make himself part of the ad campaign? That gave him more to sell, but he was still gun shy about approaching any of the known vendors. Then came the offer he hadn’t expected. The Diamond, Jake mother effin Thrash had extended a hand to Kruger to become one of his mentees.
This was no ordinary meeting, it had come at the end of a training session, after the bruising had begun to set in. He was still uncomfortable, but he wasn’t wearing the suit that made him more so. In his mind he was still, in part, The Anvil. Kruger let himself settle into that frame of mind further before beginning. He found the grin that always appeared as he stepped into The Outback and then looked to his new mentor. “I’m no salesman Jake, I have no idea if you’re interested in a line of energy drinks or not. You put out Broot, so at the very least you could be.” Kruger pulled a large poster out of his locker. “I’ll give you the formula, I’ve taken the liberty of having an ad created. I’m willing to do more not because I need the cash but because I believe in the product.”
