The elderly couple glanced around the apartment: Son, check. Son's third new wife, check. Daughter who will earn money for us, check. Young daughter who will also earn money for us, check. I sure wish Peepoo's son is here. Hey, who's that blue girl?

They got extremely mad at Sparky. Not a boy; not even Peacock's own daughter. What's she doing here? I told you to get rid of her, Peepoo! Dad, stop calling me "Peepoo." I'm 45 years old. Then get rid of her! Alright alright. Peacock didn't want to piss his parents off too much on new year's eve.

He took Sparky to his room and gave her a credit card, a key, and an address scribbled on a piece of paper. Go there, and don't come back until I told you coast was clear. Stay there alone.

Of course Sparky didn't go alone. She got Qibli, Firecrackers, and Sky to come with her on this 2-week long urban camping trip.

The address is an uninhabited but squeaky-clean apartment in a messy village-in-a-city part of Coastline. The kids ate junk food and play video games all day, staying up late into the night and waking up in the afternoon.

Until one day, they met visitors.

The run-in

Sparky went out to buy (junk) food. The other three were at the apartment watching a movie. Three Starcorp goons unlocked the door and walked in on three kids in their pajamas giggling like maniacs.

They looked at each other for a sec, and freaked out. The Starcorp goons started beating the kids up. Sky ran close enough to the window to throw one of his iron cards down. It flew past Sparky's shoulder and got stuck on the wall behind her as the exited the grocery store. She immediately rushed up the stairs, bag in hand, kicking the door down just in time to see her three friends lying on the floor, tied up with bedsheets. Qibli was unconscious because of course.

Sparky dropped the grocery bag and pulled out her pistol. One of them held a knife to Qibli's throat, telling Sparky to drop the gun. She did, but she slammed it against the floor so hard it went off, firing a bullet into the shoulder of the hostage-taker. She then beat up all three of them and untied her friends.

Peacock was pissed. He had told them to skip it this time, delay the pick-up, but they didn't get the message and went ahead as usual; and he didn't count on Sparky bringing her friends. He phoned Sparky, warning her to not tell the other kids' parents, and increased her credit card limit.

Qibli's birthday

Qibli had her birthday in the apartment. She was still kinda freaked out about the run-in though.

Yuanxiao

To make up for the scare, Peacock invited the kids over for Yuanxiao. His parents had left, so it were Peacock, Amber, Fantasy, Willow, and the friends.

Qibli sensed something drastically wrong with Fantasy's pearl necklace. She was determined to get a sample, but Fantasy refused. She took out her wand and pulled her necklace apart, grabbed a pearl rolling on the floor, while the dinner ended in unhappy chaos.

A couple days later Qibli called Sparky to her home and explained to her what was wrong with the pearl.

"This pearl was not from an oyster. It was from a human. No, not man-made. From a human, the way ivory was from elephants."

Qibli got that from pure magic hunch. She also had a hunch about where it came from. Not far, somewhere around the edge of Coastline. They decided to go there during Bauhinia's national holiday.

The rescue

On the second day of the national holiday, Qibli led Sparky, Sky, and Firecrackers to the place she felt in her head. They first hailed a taxi to somewhere near, and then walked. She used her wand a bit for guidance -- she was getting better at magic.

They arrived at an abandoned school and started exploring. It looked like a place no one visited for years, yet it was obvious in the kitchen that people cooked there.

Qibli led them to a trapdoor, saying that it must be down there. That was when some people got to them. They yelled at the kids, telling them they were trespassing. Sparky opened the trapdoor and jumped down immediately, followed by Sky. Qibli and Firecrackers stood outside, fending off the goons.

ramble zone

Underground, Sparky and Sky found a labyrinth of cold gray corridors and blinding lights. They tried to navigate it while avoiding people, though it was hard because they were familiar with the corridors and had video cameras, where Sparky and Sky had an absolute disadvantage.

They fought a couple people and locked themselves in an empty room. In a drawer they found two passports, a Bauhinian one and a Sylvandian one, both featuring the same person: a 6-year-old girl named Pearl. On the Bauhinian passport she was Pearl Gemstone Eagle; on the Sylvandian one just Pearl Gemstone.

Sky immediately came to the conclusion that Pearl was the person where the pearls came from as Qibli said. Sparky tucked the passports into her pocket.

That was about when the basement people got the key and unlocked the door. But before they could open it, Sparky tore it right off its hinges and slammed it into them, clearing out a path for her to get through. Sparky and Sky dashed away from the people and headed