The Frog King’s Glitch: Greed Meets Abuse (Issue No. 1)

Logline: A privileged heiress, driven by tech-fueled greed, loses her family's legendary quantum power source to a charismatic street fugitive, forcing them into a volatile alliance to dismantle a corporate dystopia and forge an ethical future. Synopsis:Kai Sterling, a brilliant African American engineer, lives in a gilded cage atop the corporate Spire. Her life of privilege is sustained by her family's most priceless asset: the 4EVER Quantum Orb, a revolutionary device that holds the key to unlimited energy and the city's tenuous control. But Kai, a reckless gambler and technical genius, is consumed by a hunger for ultimate control, an ethical failing rooted in greed. She risks the Orb on a high-stakes, black-market crypto-wager, seeking a rush that only ultimate risk can provide.She loses everything.The Orb is snatched in a flash by Raymundo "The Frog" Salazar, a resourceful Latino logistician and street fugitive operating deep in the low-city. Raymundo isn't stealing for profit; he is driven by a deep, righteous fight against the systemic abuse perpetrated by the omnipresent 3DE corporation. He used the Orb as collateral to pay the "Sinner's Tax"—a brutal, legalized form of systemic racial injustice designed to crush marginalized communities like his.The instant the Orb leaves her possession, Kai's life shatters. She is forced to descend from her utopian bubble into the grimy, dangerous Urban Neo-Punk reality of the low-city she never acknowledged. She hunts Raymundo, initially driven by pure rage and the desire to reclaim her technological control. But the confrontation forces an ethical reckoning: Raymundo makes her confront the devastating consequences of her family's wealth and her own greed. She realizes her privilege is built on the ruins of his community.An unlikely, volatile partnership is forged. With 3DE now hunting them both, they must embark on a desperate, adrenaline-fueled mission across the desolate industrial plains toward the secretive, supposed utopia of Elysium, the home of the Alliance. To gain entry, they must complete a dangerous mission: infiltrating a 3DE facility to disable Tantalus, an Unregulated AI automating systemic abuse and oppression with chilling efficiency.The journey culminates in Elysium, where the Alliance leaders, including the revered Dr. Dante Leach (Dr. D), test their trust and loyalty. Kai and Raymundo commit their lives to the cause, but not without demanding Integrity: Kai retains oversight of the Orb's technical integration, and Raymundo establishes a Civilian Oversight Committee to ensure the Alliance never replaces one form of Control with another.The First Step is taken. The chase is over, and the war for Freedom and true ethical redemption has finally begun.