019. Spyfall

The motley are called out on a rescue mission.

***"One of the important things to know is that having an odd number of players can promote action."***

Patches and Zistor work all through the night in The Spark's workshop, trying to build a receptacle for the rocket's energy. As they solder, they bicker about Patches needing to "settle down and get married", as well as about how quickly they need to recover and retrieve the rocket. Patches is still of the mind that a concrete plan (and "battery") are needed before the rocket is found, while Zistor wants to get it back to the Spark as soon as possible.

As Braum and Kyoko return to Montreal, with the pooka leaving Braum in charge of deciding whether to tell the other members of the Spark about their new relationship, Sophia receives a letter from Lady Helena ap Gwydion, the lady of Terra's Glade in the Kingdom of Apples. The letter cordially invites her down to Terra's Glade to play, having heard of her immense talent.

Patches treks into her mortal day job, exhausted, but is surprised to learn that her work on the lighting in their building has won her architecture firm an award. While it might be an Autumn World accolade, Patches is quick to recognize that it will give her a certain degree of freedom from her normal schedule. At the same time, Braum receives a call from his boss, lambasting him for disappearing from work. The troll tries to defend himself by calling his trip a "family emergency", but he is fired all the same.

In the Exhaust, this last phone call has put Braum over the edge, and he interrupts Sophia, Kaylie, Kyoko, and Claude to stand up on a couch and starts announcing his news. He and Kyoko are now together, he tells the assembled group; their mission to deliver Kay's coat to Lauren was successful too. He also explains his intention to use his new "freedom" to investigate Kaylie's mortal attackers from months before, as well as Abford Pharma.

Before the rest of the motley can respond to Braum's outburst, Patches gets a call from Cog: a few men in suits approached him at Westmount High, asking what he knew about a woman with white hair. When Cog told them he knew nothing, they pulled guns on him and tried to kidnap him! Just as he's telling Patches that he ran across the street to a Convenience Store, she hears four suppressed gunshots and the line goes dead. The nocker grabs her pistol and races out with Braum, Sophia, Kaylie, Kyoko, and Claude.

Rolling into the convenience store's parking lot, there is no sign of Cog. As Kyoko climbs up onto the roof, Patches walks in through the front door and Braum tries to get in the back. Inside the store, Patches discovers the walk-in beer fridge is locked, with the view inside blocked. She asks the clerk about the fridge, and observes from his answer that both he and another man standing by the door are out of place… and armed.

As Braum picks the lock on the back door, it swings open silently to put him face-to-face with two men in suits, guns pointed at his face. Braum sees Cog on the ground, gagged and bound, as the suits order him to tie himself up. Out in front of the store, Sophia is becoming anxious that no one has yet returned, and decides to help without getting directly involved: she begins to play her harp, using the music to draw innocent bystanders (and one of the suits) out the front door, towards a growing crowd.

Back in the beer fridge, Braum surprises the suits by casting a cantrip in the small room, causing a strong wind to whip up centered on Cog, keeping him safe. The windstorm disorients the suits, and Braum is able to leap onto them, trying to disarm them. Out front, Patches (trying to keep an eye on the lookout) using Legerdemain to cause his clip to drop from his gun. She dives behind a shelf as he retrieves it, and the brawl in the back room continues.

Sophia motions for Kaylie to "check out" what's going on inside the store: the lookout advises his colleagues to "activate the A.G. Initiative" as she slams him against the wall. Patches blasts one of the men from the beer fridge in the leg, taking him out of the fight. As the last suit takes off running, Braum chases him down the alley, trying to catch him… but the fearsome troll is just a little too slow.

As Patches and Kaylie rush Cog back out to the car, Sophia and Claude watch as the final suit gets in his red Mazda Miata and drives off. Parked just across the street is a white Lexus, whose driver follows the suit, but not before Claude points her out as a beautiful sidhe with white hair. "It can't be…" he mutters as the motley peel out of the parking lot. As Sophia casts Well of Life to heal Cog's injuries, Patches follows Kyoko's directions to a nearby McDonald's, where the assailant fled from Braum. She strides in, flashing her "badge" to customers as she walks into the men's bathroom. Desperately backed into a corner, the man tells her that he "isn't here for" Patches, and that any attempt to take him alive will only lead to one getting killed. "Great. So are you gonna shoot me or yourself?" the nocker asks, calling his bluff. Patches tells him that she has no reason to let him go, that anyone who would be looking for him will do so regardless of his status. As he inches his way towards the door, Patches attempts to knock him back onto the floor with Legerdemain… but ends up knocking him out instead.

Carrying the unconscious man back out to her car, Patches begins driving them all back towards The Spark. Cog wakes up just long enough to ask if they could maybe help him reconstruct SK4G, which Patches promises to do. Sophia takes the opportunity to ask Claude about the mysterious sidhe, but Claude just repeats "It can't be her!" The boggan swears that it looks *just like* Lady Helena ap Gwydion… who Braum remembers as the Red Branch member who "betrayed Kay". As Sophia reveals that she had just received a message from the same woman to come down and play for her at court, the motley try to plan their next move….