083. Dragonstrike

The motley revel in their success, but meet a new foe.

### Play of the Game:

Kate as Patches, for staring down at the Grifter of Capitalism and whispering... "no."

***"One of the effective ways to improve profit margins are with expansions to games."***

In the workshop of The Spark, Patches and Zistor marvel at their masterpiece on the whiteboard: while Patches was veering towards Bedlam, she was able to tap into her creativity and fashion plans for a teleforce, a particle field defense system for The Spark. Zistor is deeply impressed, but quickly realizes that this technology would be powerful enough to be restricted. Patches agrees that the plans should only be made available to the Grand Bes Din and to Tara-Nar… and a version built for the Spark, of course. Zistor sends Patches out to ravage, fearing her Glamour is running low.

Sophia lets Xaeron ride her up to Mount-Royal where they look out over the city. The new dragon tells Xaeron that it was her newfound power that led her to want to destroy Abford; Xaeron knew that she had that power all along. He wonders aloud what will happen to him now that the place has been destroyed, since so many of them have so much history with it.

Returning to the Spark, Sophia asks Braum if she can venture into his dreams to feed herself that night, seeing as hunting in the city might be difficult. She manages to gorge herself on some dream sheep, but exits the dream right into the middle of Kyoko's room, crushing Braum and the pooka right up against the wall! Patches manages to shrink her down to a manageable size so that she can head back outside, but it becomes quite obvious that something will have to change, soon.

The next morning, Patches is the first to discover a nocker in a three-piece suit in The Exhaust, carrying an intricate clockwork briefcase. He introduces himself as Jigg Grifter, a representative of a "business conglomerate", who carries a device that allows him to sense genius… and there's definitely been a recent stroke of genius here at the Spark! Patches is suspicious, but does acknowledge that she did have a flash of insight the night before, which will lead to a new invention. Grifter pops open the suitcase with a soft click to reveal $75 million dollars in U.S. bearer bonds, and offers to purchase her idea and all of the rights to it, sight unseen. Patches is thrown by the offer, but tries to find out what he knows about the invention. When it seems that he really doesn't seem to have any idea of its potential, she flat-out refuses. Incisor and Braum arrive on the scene to find Grifter shrugging off the refusal, smiling that he'll "find genius, don't you worry". Braum offers to escort him downstairs, and tries to follow him from a distance.

Incisor is shocked by Patches' refusal of the absolutely absurd amount of money, but the nocker knows that selling a weapon to someone who just happened to show up out of the blue can't possibly be good: "would you sell a nuclear warhead to a man with a briefcase full of money?" Downstairs, Braum follows Grifter around the block, right back into Westmount Square's lobby, where Grifter approaches the building's administrator. Behind closed doors, Braum hears the two come to an agreement, and the bearer bonds changing hands. Worried that Grifter is trying to steal Patches' work, he follows the two down to the parking garage and manages to confront the nocker in an electrical room. Braum, of course, doesn't have a leg to stand on, seeing as Grifter's actions seem to be above-board (not to mention that he's forcibly confining a stranger), but when he tries suggest that he'll "get to the bottom of this", the nocker casually rips a slab of concrete out of the wall with his dragonskin gloves, suggesting a strength that even Braum can't match. What's Grifter's game plan?

Returning to the Spark to report what he found, the motley (including still-dragon Sophia) notice dozens of delivery trucks pulling into Westmount Square. The elevator dings, and a put-together sluagh steps into the Exhaust, gripping her clipboard and accounting information. She introduces herself as Millicent Paige, Mr. Grifter's personal assistant: she hopes to make the acquaintance of the freehold residents, seeing as they are new neighbours. The floor below them, the architectural firm where Patches works, has been bought out by Grifter's company! Patches herself has a meeting with her firm's boss, learning that one of the conditions of the buyout (allowing him to retire early) was that Patches be kept on at double salary, or given a very generous severance package. Patches knows she's being bought out, but isn't ready to give up just yet.

Zistor tells them of Jigg Grifter's MO over the years: legally acquiring the rights to nocker patents, then simply sitting on them. To what purpose, nobody can guess… but when Braum mentions his name to Kyoko, the pooka perks up: "Jigg… Grifter?"