Chapter 3
The Pearl of Fate
A young man drove to his father's building, disgruntled to be awoken at One in the morning. The car he drove was a luxurious red sedan polished to a mirror shine, and the black suit he wore over a white dress shirt (no tie) was from an expensive tailor shop. His glistening shoes were also from a top-line designer brand. He also had a watch to go with the suit, but he forgot to put it on and left it at home because he was still groggy.
The point was, he was rich. His father was a well-known Wealthy Man, making this young man a Wealthy Son.
Now just what could Father want so early in the morning? The Wealthy Son wondered grumpily as he waited for the traffic light to change from red to green. The clock on the car's smart monitor read, 1:54 AM. He took longer than planned on a "quick" shower before getting dressed.
When he reached the office building his father also called home, the Wealthy Son pulled up at the gate where an overnight attendant greeted him before allowing him in, and then circled over to parking space reserved solely for him and his father. After shutting off the engine, he got out of the car and headed straight for his father's personal elevator which would take him straight up to the penthouse on the top floor. The car locked itself with a honk as he walked away.
The Wealthy Son found his father sitting in his personal office wearing a deep frown on his face. Standing next to him was a young woman about the Wealthy Son's age, dressed in a plain black suit, the Secretary.
"You're late," the Wealthy Man said to his Wealthy Son, clearly displeased. "I thought I told you to be here in an instant."
The Wealthy Son apologized. "Sorry. There was some traffic."
His father scoffed. "Traffic, he says. You know teleportation magic. Why didn't you use that?"
"It slipped my mind."
Not a lot of people know this, but both the Wealthy Man and the Wealthy Son come from a family of sorcerers with magical powers. That's right. They had real magical powers, the kind that let them fly, control the four elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air, and, of course, go from one place to the next in the blink of an eye no matter how far away.
"Hmph!" The Wealthy Man sniffed disdainfully.
"Never mind that," the Wealthy Son said. "What did you call me here so early for?"
"The Pearl has been stolen," said his father.
The Wealthy Son blinked. "What?"
"You heard me, boy," said the Wealthy Man. "The Pearl has been stolen."
The Pearl has been in their family for generations and is a magical artifact used to bring them endless amounts of good luck. It was basically the reason the Wealthy Man and Wealthy Son were so rich and powerful right now.
"How!?" cried the Wealthy Son. "That should be impossible! There should be magical enchantments to keep people other than you away from the Pearl. I saw you perform the renewal incantations just last week myself!"
"The enchantments were erased," the Wealthy Man said bitterly. "The lightning must have struck the building and disrupted the flow of magic energy which led to the destruction of the enchantments."
"But the good luck we get from Pearl should have stopped something like that from happening!" shouted the Wealthy Son. "So why did it?"
"I don't know!" the Wealthy Man snapped. "But that's not important right now. What is important is that we get the Pearl back! Take a look at this."
He held up a white manila folder.
"What is it?" asked the Wealthy Son.
"Pictures from the security cameras of the thief," his father explained. "Clearly a career criminal. But not of the magical sort. I want you and the Secretary here to go find him."
The Wealthy Son frowned. "You're leaving it to me?" Even with his somewhat advanced age, his father was not the type to leave important matters to others.
"Believe me, boy," said the Wealthy Man, "I am not happy about this. I would take care of the thief myself, but with the Pearl gone, I need to keep a careful eye on the company to make sure it doesn't suddenly collapse. Or would you rather kiss that fancy car of yours good-bye?"
"Fine, I'll do it," said the Wealthy Son. "But don't you think it's excessive to bring the Secretary into this? Even if he has the Pearl, he is still just one thief."
The Secretary did more than just record keeping and checking the Wealthy Man's schedule. Her family had served the wealthy family for generations as bodyguards and even assassins. Even though she looked harmless, she mastered lots of deadly fighting skills and knew lots of deadly magical spells. She could wipe out a squad of elite soldiers solo if she wanted to.
The Wealthy Man, unable to contain his anger anymore shouted, "Fool! It is not just one thief! Why do you think we keep covering the Pearl underneath layer after layer of magical protections and force fields? To hide it! It's only because no one knew about it that our family has been able to control it for hundreds of years! But now that it's been taken out of those force fields, its power is out for all of China - nay, THE WHOLE WORLD - to see! Everyone from the wizards that dwell in the criminal underworld to the monsters that lurk in the shadows, to even beings who hail from other worlds will have sensed the Pearl. And they will come to take it for themselves. KILL for it if they have to!"
**********
And the Wealthy Man was right. From the wizards that dwelled in the criminal underworld to the monsters that lurked in the shadows of the city, to even beings who hail from other worlds noticed the power of the Pearl.
Among them was a wizard who controlled his own Triad. The Triad Leader was in the middle of counting his ill-gotten cash in his office when the crystal ball he used as a paper weight suddenly shined next to his face.
He gave the ball a glance and wondered aloud, "What's this?"
Whatever he saw in all that light made him smile with a glint of greed in his eyes.
"Oh ho. Interesting. Very interesting."
He turned his attention to the back corner of the room where a Mummy stood. Like any mummy you'd find in a museum, he was bone-thin, skin turned charcoal and stone-like, eyes sunken in, and lips thinned so much his black teeth were forever bared. But he was not some ancient corpse. He was, in fact, still alive and still in his mid-twenties.
The poor soul was once just like any other average joe. But like many others before and after, he had been captured by the Triad Leader and turned into a mummy-like creature by the criminal wizard's evil magical experiments and had to obey every command whether he liked it or not.
"I got a job for you and the others," the Triad Leader said. "Something special that I can't leave to any two-bit goon on my payroll."
At about the same time, out on the streets a couple of blocks away from the Triad Leader's box-shaped building headquarters, a scrawny man in an ill-fitting business suit was stumbling his way home when he bumped into a young lady in a black leather jacket, white t-shirt and faded denim jeans. Both went crashing down with a "Yikes!" and an "Eek!"
"S-sorry!" the man stammered.
"No, I'm sorry," said the young lady. She was the first to stand up and helped the man to his feet. "Oh, is this your wallet?"
She presented the man with a brown leather wallet.
"Yes! Yes it is!" he cried out. "Thanks."
The young lady flashed the man a smile and replied, "No problem."
And then she started to walk away. But then the man cried out, "Hey! Wait! This wallet's empty! There should still be cash inside!"
The young lady stopped and slowly turned around to meet the man's angry gaze. Unnatural yellow light flashed from her eyes and she said calmly, "But sir, you spent all that cash already."
The man frowned. But then his face softened and he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Oh, yeah. I did, didn't I? Sorry about that."
With a sweet smile, the young lady said, "Oh, that's okay. Be careful on your way home."
"I will, thanks!"
The man and the lady parted ways with smiles on their faces and their backs to each other. The young lady's smile was especially bright as she counted the banknotes she had swiped out of the man's wallet.
She's actually really famous around town as a skilled pickpocket who gets away with stealing from lots of people everyday by using hypnosis to mesmerize and befuddle her victims, earning her the nickname the Hypnotist. But what most people don't know is that her skills as a hypnotist actually came from magic powers she inherited from her grandmother, a sorceress from Britain.
Deciding she's done enough "work" for the day, the Hypnotist stuffed the money into her pocket and started to head home when she felt a strong tingling in the back of her brain. Suddenly, the view in front of her was overtaken by the image of a great, big pearl shining like the sun with something wriggling inside of it. And then it was gone.
She had no idea what that pearl was, but she could tell that it was a big deal. She wouldn't have gotten a psychic vision otherwise. Her instincts told her that it was something magical and powerful. More powerful than anything she had seen from her grandmama.
With that pearl, she thought, I could finally kiss this life on the streets good-bye. No more stealing. Just me at the beach, lying beneath a big umbrella with one of those bright-colored fruity drinks.
"There's no time to waste!" she exclaimed aloud to herself. "I need to go after that thing now!"
And then she turned around and started running, rushing past an apartment complex, where deep inside a meeting was held between people who looked anything but human. They were beings called Chimera, a mix-mash of different creatures or mutants shaped by the experiments of evil wizards, much like the mummies controlled by the Triad Leader.
The leaders of the Chimeras got together in a party room, sitting cross-legged on the floor. They were an assortment of different animals who were half-man and ladies. There was a man with the head of a koala bear with goat horns dressed in a classic-style gray tunic, a lady with an orange-furred cat's head and black-furred gorilla arms wearing a flowery purple shirt and a giant frog with a long, white beard who had on a three-piece suit with patched elbows.
Standing in front of them was a wolfman wearing just a pair of jeans. He had arms so long, they touched the floor even while he stood straight.
The lady spoke first. "We sensed a great power unlike anything we've seen before."
"This power," said the frog man, "could be our chance to make our greatest wish come true."
The koala man spoke last. "We have chosen you, our strongest fighter, to retrieve that power. We are trusting you with the future of our people. Can you do it?"
The wolfman gave a solemn nod. "Yes," he said. And then he promised, "I will do whatever it takes. But what is this power? Do you know?"
All three leaders nodded and the lady answered, "Our fortune tellers, divination masters and psychics all call it . . . the Pearl of Fate."
**********
"The Pearl of Fate . . .
"Long, long ago, there was a dragon with the power to control destiny. Anyone blessed by the dragon would find true love, have their dreams come true and make fortunes that set them for life. Truly, he was a dragon of good luck, and powerful enough to make nations rise or fall.
"But even a creature of such power was not immortal. And eventually his time came to an end. But before that happened, he put all of his power into a singe pearl. That is the Pearl of Fate."
The huge green-skinned man, over ten-feet tall with wild, wavy red hair around his face like the mane of a lion had his head bowed and his left hand wrapped around his right fist as he listened to the many voices speaking as one that came from a tree that was ten times bigger than him. This man would later be known by a certain Girl as a Giant.
He and the tree were in a grand hall, in a huge temple made entirely of white marble atop a mountain high up over a sea of puffy clouds.
Voices continued to speak from the tree as its pink cherry blossom-covered branches swayed rustled against a gentle breeze.
"Anyone with control over the Pearl of Fate would instantly find themselves with endless good luck. But it is more than just an effective good luck charm. The Pearl of Fate holds immense power, as great as the dragon who created it. In the wrong hands, it could bring disaster to countless people. Evil could rule the world with that power. That is why the dragon passed the Pearl onto his most loyal and trusted followers who protected it for generations in this very temple. That was until a thief showed up and somehow managed to steal it.
"For centuries, we have searched for the Pearl of Fate. But we were never successful until now."
The voices paused, but the Giant remained silent.
"The Pearl of Fate is on the world of Earth, in a nation that is twin to our Zhao Empire. It is called China. Like what happened with us hundreds of years ago, a thief managed to steal the Pearl from its current owners and is running around with it, unaware of the power it contains and the dangers that come with it. You have been chosen to find the thief and bring back the Pearl."
"Yes!" shouted the Giant. "It shall be done!"
"Be warned, Honorable Warrior," said the tree. "You will not be the only one chasing after the Pearl."
Large bubbles flew out from the tree's trunk. Each showed images of people. There was the Wealthy Man, the Wealthy Son and the Secretary in one bubble. There was the Triad Leader and his mummies in another. Yet another had the Hypnotist. And one more had the Chimera. Many, many more bubbles flew around them showing many, many more people.
"Your mission will not be a mere treasure hunt," the tree continued. "You are going to war."
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