Summary:
A crazy funso riot!
Chapter Text
Connie once more held the wooden blade to Luz's throat, her shoe resting on the girl's stomach. "Yield." It's been like that for weeks since the girl joined, and Connie would be lying if it wasn't a little cathartic to beat up Luz and NOT get in trouble for it.
"Excellent form Connie, you're nearly perfect." Pearl praised her with a pat on the back. "Luz, you're lagging behind. You're still so unbalanced. Carrying around Rose's sword without formal training beforehand has made you develop bad habits."
"It's a magic sword that cuts through anything." The girl said. "How could I not use it all the time?"
"It wasn't made that way." Pearl looked to the scabbard. "When Rose asked for a weapon, she requested for a blade that could cut through anything that would harm her friends, but leave a gem's stone completely untouched. It was made for pacifistic fighting of deflecting attacks away with its size, while reaching forward through cages that held allies down."
"Well Bismuth said she made it to cut through anything except a gemstone, a fact she took advantage of when she was trying to kill Lucci and everyone else." The short haired girl grumbled, getting back up.
"Hmm … maybe we should move to weights … although that could cause growth issues in the long run." The gem pondered for a moment. "Are you fine being shorter than your girlfriend?"
"I mean, I'm not opposed to the idea … no, not going to get any ideas. Mom already busted out the baby pictures, I'm not going to fuel that fire." She shivered. "I'm just glad she's supportive."
"Wait, you came out to your mom?" Connie asked.
"Yeah. Didn't want to, but Amity showed me I was overthinking it, so I figured I'd ripped the band-aid off."
"For once I can relate." Connie groaned. "Mine thinks 'Steven' is a nuclear family, and I'd like to keep it that way."
"Why would you tell them gems are radioactive?" Pearl asked. "Yes we occasionally make things explode; but that's because either I'm using my lasers, Amethysts is setting everything on fire, or because Garnet is channeling electricity…"
"I mean as in 'normal' family. A mom, dad, and kids." Connie explained. It was tough, but in the end it was for the best.
"… You thought it was better to think Steven Universe is a kid you hang out with when everyone knows about Mr Universe?" Luz asked. "Aka, objectively the worst human being to live in the human world that's dating my mom."
"I told her this before I knew Steven-Vee's full story." She sighed. "Plus mom and dad don't listen to town rumors, so I can drag this out for a bit longer."
"Not really, 'Steven' doesn't really exist now. Vee in a new form…"
"Not that it should even be enjoyed that much." The gem training them both grumbled. Sometimes Pearl made it hard to be her student, given she outright abandoned the girl.
"… And the only one who can fill that role is Lucci, but you know his stance on that, and he's kind of … dragged Steven's name down in terms of reputation, so there's probably plenty of rumors about him too."
"Please don't let them listen to the rumors, oh stars above." She pleaded to the sky. "You can do anything else, just don't let them listen."
CRASH
They all silently turned to the smoking crater. "If I hadn't actually seen a shooting Star crash down before, I would've called that a coincidence." Luz spoke. "Should we run before it becomes magma?"
"No, if it was a shooting star, then we would've been incinerated from being in such close proximity almost effectively immediately." Pearl blinked. "Wait, why would you instantly assume it's one of those?"
"One fell into the Isles, Bismuth powered it for a machine, we blew it up."
"You blew up … that should've destroyed most of the island! You shouldn't even be standing!"
"I know, but me and Lucci formed Glyphon and sent it up to the sky." Luz shrugged.
"How much context am I missing?" Connie muttered as she looked into the hole. "Hmm … can't make out anything from the smoke."
"Stay back, if this is something from Homeworld, we can't afford to take it lightly." Pearl warned them as they circled the crater. "It's been thousands of years since we've last been there, who knows what sort of disastrous tools they have at their disposal now."
There was a rumbling sound, as every single one of them tensed … before a ball came out, walking on three legs, making robotic whirly noises as it moved. "You know, I sometimes forget you guys are aliens." Connie admitted. "And therefore, highly advanced in robotics."
"Aww, it's adorable." Luz cooed, as Pearl rammed her spear through it. "...And now it's dead."
"It's an autonomous machine, the likelihood of any sentience or sapience is very low." Pearl rolled her eyes, as a green goop exploded from the little thing onto all of them.
"I'm going to be washing that out for the next week." Connie deadpanned as she took off her glasses.
"Hey Connie … I think some of it got in my eyes." Luz said.
"It did just explode on all of us." Connie groaned.
"Unless of course, everyone else is seeing an entire shower of meteors."
"...Huh?" Connie looked up…and saw SEVERAL orbs falling down on top of them, looking much , MUCH bigger than the one before. "..Crap. This wasn't the kind of target practice I was hoping for."
"It looks like we won't have the time for anything else." Pearl stated. "Make sure none of them remain."
"I know the drill." Luz drolled. "I'll go for the left, Connie the right, Pearl … everywhere else."
"At least your strategic skills are on point." Pearl noted.
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"What next sir?" Hunter asked.
"Hunter, there's nothing left to do." One of his bosses, though she kept insisting it was co-worker, Sadie, responded. "The trash is taken out, food's restocked, the cooler's cataloged. All that's left is the electronic paperwork, but me and Lars already have that covered."
"It's one of the few parts of the job I can do at home. No rules at all." The boy in question grinned. "Blasting to music and eating snacks."
"So … we just stand here the rest of the shift?" Hunter asked. "That seems like a lot of free time." What kind of job allows just mindless standing all day?
"We're not the busiest store." The girl shrugged. "It's one of the reasons none of the management team tends to show up. They just give us a call every week or so."
"So you can do … whatever you want?"
"Not exactly … though that doesn't stop some people from trying." Sadie sent Lars a glare.
"How is sleeping when no one's in the store against the rules?" He asked.
"It is when you're using the unopened bagel packages as a bed." Sadie argued. "Not to mention the several times you've arrived late, left early, made me cover your shift, need I go on?"
"If he needs someone to cover his shift I can do it." Hunter offered.
"See, problem solved, nothing to it." Lars waved off. "Everyone wins."
"Uh huh, at least actually stand up straight and watch the counter while I use the restroom." Sadie rolled her eyes as she left. "Actually set an example for the new guy for once."
"Yeah yeah." Lars rolled his eyes as he stretched. "So, what music do you listen to?"
"My Pal-I mean … pet cardinal occasional tweets something resembling a melody every once in a while." Hunter corrected himself. "Any other time I was blasted away from ba-from how … loud the speakers were." It was hard to keep reminding himself what was the norm … considering he barely knew what normal was to witches, let alone humans.
"I could recommend a few bands if you're that sheltered dude." Lars offered with mild concern.
"Bands of what? String?" He asked. Hunter didn't know what that had to do with music.
"... I honestly can't tell if you're being serious." The guy shook his head. "Okay, how about you start the small talk."
"Small … talk?" He questioned. "Like you want to talk quietly or.."
"Geez, I thought Steven was clueless." Hunter didn't know how offended he should be, considering that applied to either the basilisk or Clawthorne. "Look dude, small talk is just any conversation starter you can think of." Lars shrugged. "Just say whatever comes to your mind." He said as he took a sip of coffee.
Hunter thought about it for a moment, then noticed Sadie walk back in as a question came to mind. "… Do you think Sadie and Willow look nice?"
Lars spit out his drink as Sadie fell to the floor. "WHAT!?"
"I mean they have the same body type, and I think Willow looks cool and nice, so I wondered if you felt the same about Sadie." Hunter explained his reasoning.
"I uh, I don't … I …" Sadie babbled.
"No I don't think she.." Lars covered his mouth when he noticed Sadie giving him a glare. "I am not saying she doesn't, but … I … I'm going to recount the stock again." Lars fled to the back.
"What's got him so worried?" Hunter scratched his head. "It was a simple yes or no."
"The sad thing is I can tell you're completely serious." Before he could ask for clarification, a giant thud was heard outside. "What was that?"
"Hopefully not another food war." That whole thing was honestly pretty ridiculous in his opinion. Times like that the calmer job was greatly appreciated. "I'll check it out, you stay behind the counter in case things get messy."
"Way ahead of you." She said, ducking behind it.
Hunter went outside to investigate, not seeing anything of note. He moved to the edge of the store … only for something to bump into his leg. He pulled out Flapjack, aiming them at … a small little marble with legs. "Oh … hey there little guy." He greeted awkwardly. "Lost?"
THUD
A giant leg quickly proved that to not be the case. "Please tell me you're a normal earth thing and I don't need to flee from my life."
THUD THUD THUD
"Chirp."
"Yes I know it was a long shot, pardon me for being a little hopeful!" Hunter counted as he looked around. The humans were running away in fear or hiding, so that meant no one was paying attention to him. Perfect opportunity to use magic.
He raised himself above one of the giant marbles, firing at it with a spear of ice … which shattered upon impact. "...Okay, definitely not an earth thing!"
"Don't worry Hunter, we got you!" Willow yelled from the top of a roof, using vines to grab ahold of its legs, and flinging it against the ground.
"Does anyone have eyes on what's going on?" He asked, landing next to her.
"They've popped up all over the city. The Gems and the others are doing their best, but there's too many and the sky says more are on their way." Willow explained, pointing at another shooting star.
That didn't bode well. Hunter looked at the army. Small, large, hundreds of marbles … "Did anyone notice they're all heading the same direction?" He asked.
"Kind of busy trying to stop them from falling on top of us!" Boscha yelled as she unleashed a fury of fireball.
"If they're all heading one way, we just go there first and wall it off, right?" Amity asked, in her wrestling costume and flying on her staff using an abomination fist to beat one of the marbles down.
"That's the thing…they're all heading towards the temple place." Hunter noted as the mass of metal marbles began converging on the beach.
"What the heck do they want with the temple!?" Willow asked as she threw a marble into Garnet's direction.
"The Warp Pad, the arsenal of weapons, the room of gems we've bubbled, take your pick." The afro gem responded as she sent a fist through one of them. "When it comes to Homeworld, we need to go fight first and ask questions later."
"That seems like an incredibly terrible strategy, especially in a fight!" Hunter noted, using micro control of the sand on the beach to lift a few on top of each other.
"It's not like we're going to let them inside the place and get access to what they want to find out!" Pearl shouted, shooting a few lasers at a couple marbles that got close.
"Maybe it would be better to follow ONE of them and stop it right before it gets what it needs to get!" Luz shouted, jumping on top of one and slicing it in half. "Aha! I'm in the lead!"
"You have the magic sword, you have an instant win!" Connie shouted, tearing into one of them with several instant slashes. "Hey, does anyone have eyes on Vee?"
"She's with Amethyst, they're rolling around town!" Clawthorne shouted as rolled in on a bubble covered in spikes, running the marbles over, before shooting the spikes out and piercing each one. "Man, smashing without remorse or restraint is cathartic!"
"You're telling me! I have to hide everything about myself, including my eye!" Boscha shouted as she created a tornado of fire around another group of marbles. "These little freaks are the perfect punching bag!"
"At this rate we could probably just let the two of them handle most of the dirty work." Gus muttered from a ledge.
"Aw, but I want to play too!" That freaky pink noodle limbed gem whined, before bouncing around like a spring, and kicking them into the air like they were grudby balls. "Yay, I'm going to crush all of them and win!"
"..I don't remember her being this terrifying." Pearl shivered.
"You know Spinel?" Luz asked as they got out of the way of the pink trio. "Lucci said she was abandoned by Pink Diamond."
"Rose would never-hggh … It was another life." Pearl sighed. "Before Pink was given earth, Spinel was her playmate, creating constant games and joy in her life."
"Oh, she got a new Pearl?" Spinel asked. "Wow, she must have really broken the last one harder than I heard."
"..Broken?" Hunter questioned. Suddenly it felt like he wasn't the only person in the universe that felt replaceable.
"Oh yeah, see there was this-" Spinel was cut off by a Marble spinning right over her, making her as flat as a pancake barring the lone gem on her body. "Oooh, inflation time!"
"Has she always been this insane?" Willow muttered.
"A little bit … gems aren't known for changing and maturing, at least those on Homeworld." Pearl said.
"Not to mention we don't exactly have the concept of 'childhoods' to begin with." Garnet added on. "It's a big reason Amethyst is so human-like."
"Oh, so the reason why she's the only likable one out of you three?" Clawthorne questioned, ripping a marable apart.
"...Just…keep….smashing…." Pearl gritted her teeth.
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Spinel was having the time of her life! Between eating food and playing all these new games on this new planet, it suddenly made six thousand years feel like six minutes. And it was all thanks to her second bestest friend in the universe! Not that she would ever forget her first bestest friend in the universe, but with her gone and being busy, second bestest friend was almost tied for the bestest best friend.
Although they were a bit finicky. A couple days ago they ditched her to be part of a fusion. It … it … was fine, it was just one night, they had the rest of their lives after all. "Patty cake, patty cake, bakers bake." And now she got to play games with robots, how fun! "Bake me a cake as fast as you can." She sang the earth song as she used giant hands against the marbles. They were such bad players, maybe she should give them a handicap.
"Seriously Spinel…you are amazing." Lucci gleamed at her as he sliced through one of them with that weird saw shield he had. "Fighting just seems more fun with you."
"Tell me something I don't know." She grinned, grabbing one of the bigger robots and using them as a bowling ball. "Anything can be a game if you have the right imagination!"
"I seriously feel like we're treading way too close to Collector mindset territory." That short haired human Lucci seemed close to, muttered.
"As long as she doesn't kill people, that's all that matters." Lucci said. "Now, how about we try some baseball!" He turned Sugar into a stick, covering her in a pink glow. "The final inning is here, it's up to the stretchy pitcher, Spinel, to make the shot. Can the Manticore Menace, Lucifer Clawthorne, hit the ball or will it be all over for the once and forever criminal of the Boiling Isles?" He asked in a cheesy talk show voice.
"Hey, batter, batter, batter, hey, batter!" Spinel spun a medium sized marble in her hands, and spun it until it was a blur. "Hey, batter, batter, SWING BATTER!"
" Blazing at a hundred miles an hour, Lucifer Clawthorne takes his shot, he readies his stance, he sends a kiss to his lovely Angel Boshca…"
"Now is not the time Crystal! Let me revel in the mayhem!" The girl she had mixed feelings about said as she shot out balls of flames at the robots.
"..He'll save that kiss for later, he takes his swing!" Lucci swung that hammer, and created a shockwave that sent the ball over the seas. " And it is out of here! A home run!"
"YAY! Ball winning!" Spinel cheered as she clung from Lucci's back. "You think we can send them right back into space for a return serve?"
"I already tried that once with a Healer. Sadly, they always come back down." Lucci sighed in defeat. "But what does our lovely crowd have to say?"
"They say incoming, there's plenty more!" Lapis came down from the air, looking exhausted. "I tried intercepting incoming Marbles in the sky. There's too many and they're not stopping."
"Then we keep going until they run out." Lucci said.
"Dude, it's been three hours!" Luz screamed. "We can't keep this up forever!"
"Actually we can…but I don't want to." The permafusion smashed two together, making a big and mushy pile. "We need to actually figure out what they want."
"You want to let them inside of the temple!?" Pearl shouted. "What if they release the corrupted gems!? What if they destroy the heart of the temple?!"
"We don't have any other choice. Either we keep fighting them and go months without stopping, or we actually figure out what these things want and how to stop them." Garnet sighed. "If we run ourselves tired, we risk being unprepared for something worse up ahead."
"Alright!" She saw as Amethyst rolled in with the other fun shapeshifter in the group. "I evacuated all of Vee's stuff. We're good to let them ransack the place. Unfortunately we won't be able to clear out my room intime, so the junk pile may be lost."
"But that's how I make my living now." Lucci pouted.
"Don't worry, I get you all the junk you need, even if I gotta rip it out of the ground!" Spinel reassured me.
"Again, too close to Collector territory." That purple haired human mumbled. "So we're just letting them go wherever they want?"
"That's what appears to be happening." Pearl groaned as they approached the house. "This is going to end in disaster."
"Someone needs a smile!" Spinel shouted, jumping onto her fellow friend of Pink. She was still bestest of course, but it was nice to see Pink be loved. "Come on, point that mouth upwards, don't make me force you, because I will!"
"Garnet, please tell me you know what these things want now." Pearl pleaded
"They're using the Warp Pad. We'll have to follow." She spoke. "Everyone, jump on the large one."
They all followed, going inside of the place as they entered the pretty pillar of light … into a pretty dull looking place. How lame. It looked worse than the Garden.
========================================================================
Silence. That was what filled Willow's head. It wasn't like the beach, it wasn't like the ocean. It was an unnatural silence that was not meant to exist. And it stretched everywhere, all at once, closing in on her skull, crushing her apart-
"Willow!" She blinked, seeing as Lucci kept shaking her. "Talk to me! Willow!"
"We need to go." She spoke.
"We are, we're walking there." Hunter spoke.
"We need to leave this place is wrong and not right and quiet and empty and cold and it hurts it hurts so much." She fell to the ground. "There's no life here…there's nothing…..no grass….no roots…not even a single weed….nothing….nothing is here."
"Yeah, that's most people's reaction." Amethyst rolled her eyes, talking like it was a joke.
"Why does this place exist?" She asked. "Why …"
"That's the truth everyone wants to ignore." Everyone turned to Amethyst, who looked downtrodden. "Why Rose fought off Homeworld, why we're immortal … Gems are born by permanently sucking the nutrients out of the ground … we live because all other life dies. Like parasites."
"This…this is where Gems are made?" Connie gasped.
"Oh …" Vee looked around, giving an awkward smile. "It … really speaks volumes on you, Amethyst."
"There's no need to sugar coat it, Vee, I know this place is terrible." Amethyst responded. "Welcome to the kindergarten! Home to all earth born gems like me."
"That is the most ominous use of that name I have ever heard, and the context makes it worse." Luz shuddered as she should in this nowhere land.
"So what, are they just going to start it back up?" At Gus's point, fear hit through Willow. This could become the planet. This could be everything.
"If they are, we're going to stop them before they do anything." Pearl stated solemnly. "For that was Rose's mission, to protect and serve all life on this planet..."
"Save the inspirational speech for later and just keep following them." Lucci grumbled as he walked ahead. "Amity, look after Willow, alright?"
"You got it." Amity held her as Willow breathed heavily. "Calm down Willow, it's going to be alright."
"Alright, ALRIGHT!? How can you say that in such a terrible place!?" Willow screamed. "The dirt, the soil … all the nutrients are gone and all the minerals have been depleted of their richness! It's all dead! Life isn't sustainable here … this is what crystal devils do to planets … they want to do this … to every planet…."
"And we can get through it." Amity said, rubbing her back. "Homeworld was stopped once, it can be stopped again. We have this team with us, and we're going to take down any threat." The Blight looked her in the eye. "LAW style."
That's right … she wasn't alone here … she had help. "Right … they haven't won anything yet…we can still beat them … we can still beat them…" Maybe if she said it enough times she'll actually believe it.
"Found them." Hunter spoke up. "They're all entering a hole in the ground."
"What?" Pearl sounded surprised. "What would they want with the ground? The injectors are all on top."
"We're about to find out." Luz spoke, running forward and jumping inside.
"... So the Boiling Isles didn't change the 'running into danger' habit, did it?" Connie asked.
"Guess she just has more guts and courage than you." Amity snided as she followed her girlfriend there.
"It's times like this I remember she used to be one of the cool kids." Boscha commented. "Oh how times have changed."
"Can we just jump in the death hole already?" Lucci asked as he went inside. "The quicker we do, the quicker we get out of here.
"I'll … wait here." It's not like she could do anything in this nightmare zone .
"I'll stay with you, it's not like I can fight." Vee said. "We can be uncomfortable together."
"Thanks…." This place was awful…just..so…so…very awful.
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Lucci groaned as he slid down the tunnel. "So every gem we've fought … they come from here?" How did he go from knowing nothing about his past to learning everything about it?
"Not every gem, but this is how every gem is crafted." Pearl explained. "Earth only produced Quartz soldiers. From Amethysts, to Jaspers, to Rose Quartzes."
"Took down a handful of them and a blue lady with a whip. Didn't seem that terrifying … no offense Amethyst." Amity said.
"No big, hope they were fun to fight." Amethyst smirked. "I know I come from something awful, but this place was my home for about five hundred years. Before I met Rose and the others, this was all I knew about the world, and I loved it. It was a dark dank hole, but it was my dark dank hole."
"I get that." Lucci nodded as they caught up to Luz and a descending platform. "Wow … how deep is the earth?" He asked, half expecting to hit Titan Bone at this point.
"Well the Earth's crust is approximately 43.5 miles give or take, while the mantle can be up to eighteen hundred miles." Connie answered. "So we have a good while of potential travel before we reach something-" The descent stopped. "... Does this happen to you guys all the time?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." Gus sighed. "This is somehow better than the death temple. We haven't triggered any booby traps or encountered a haunted and vindictive voice."
"I'm almost afraid to ask for full context." Pearl shivered.
"Don't worry about it so much, we almost die about every other week, and we get out of it eventually." Lucci rolled his eyes.
"That's not what I-" The bird lady was stopped as Garnet shoved them all to the ground. "What-"
"Shh." She silenced them as a voice entered the scene.
"This is Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG." An annoying voice spoke up. "After running into several failed attempts to use the Galaxy Warp, permission to use Robonoids has been granted. Although there is a notable lack of material … we may need to reraze the planet." They said casually. "Thoughts for later. Checking the progress of the experiment."
"A Peridot…." Pearl gasped.
"Another gem…and they're talking from space…" Luz brought up. "We're really into the sci-fi now."
"That's who's been sending those annoying balls everywhere?" Boscha said, peaking up. "She doesn't look that threatening."
"Get down." Garnet pulled the girl to the ground. "We need to keep quiet, figure out what she's doing, and then destroy it."
"Shouldn't we just destroy the screen now?" Lucci brought up. "In fact, just set fire to this whole place. It's all important to her, so burn it all down."
"Because this might just be an observation station." Pearl explained. "We need to figure out what specifically she's after. It could be anything from just the kindergarten, to the various defense arrays, to the moon base, to the hourglass, to.."
"Oh for the love of, I'm going in." Lucci began moving.
"No, don't-" He ignored them, jumping up and walking to the gem.
"I swear, there's nothing amusing about these archaic controls. How are they even functioning?" The green thing complained.
"Yo, green and annoying, down here." He spoke up.
They paused their work, as the screen moved down to see him, staring down with mild curiosity. "... What are you?"
"Name's Lucci, I'm a witch." He waved off.
They continued to stare at him, before reaching into a wrist thing. "A new subspecies has made itself known, a 'witch' that' has identified itself as a 'Lucci'. There may be an infestation on the planet that replaced the dominant species of humans."
"If only." He muttered to himself. "So you're sending down giant green marbles everywhere, mind telling me what that's all about?"
"Classified." They stated, looking around him. "Are there any other 'Luccis' in the area I should be aware of?"
"Nope, none at all, I'm one of a kind."
"Good, then I don't need to waste the toxic gas on eradicating you."
"Oooh, sounds tasty, mind giving me a sample?" He asked. Multiple facepalms could be heard in the distance.
"High resistance … good thing it's just one." The hand raised up, crashing down on top of him.
"And you've officially worn out your fun." He took Sugar out, and used hammer mode to smack it into pieces. "Got anything else?, or are you just that pathetic?"
Their eyes widened in mild surprise. "Hard light technology … it almost resembles that of a gem's construct." She spoke, like he was some kind of rat in a maze. " Deploying Lasers."
"Oh no, not lasers, how would I ever-yawn." He put a bubble around himself and deflected the blasts. "You're really bad at this."
"Bubbles … between that and the hard light, combined with the multiple shattered gems …" They spoke into their log. "Possibility of gem organic hybrid now roams the earth. Suggest collection for study."
"… When I heard you were more going to be more dangerous than Bismuth, I was expecting a full on dragon of a gem. Not a metallic menace with a personality deader than abominations." Lucci had to fight off the urge to laugh. "Like seriously…the biggest threat we could possibly face right now is a tiny green nerd!?"
"I have no context for your derogatory statement, but I AM NOT A NERD, YOU CLOD!"
"Oooh, fancy words, just like what any ordinary nerd would use." He laughed. "You get less and less impressive the more you talk."
They growled. "How is this for impressive!?" They pressed a button, causing the lights to go off and walls to close in.
"Self destruct initiated. Thirty seconds."
"Jokes on you, I was going to blow this place up anyway, thanks for doing my job, nerd!" He laughed, running to the others. "Well you heard the green gall, time to run for it!"
"We're trying to cut you out!" Luz shouted. "The walls are thick, you know!"
"Then get back, I'm going pink mode." He closed his eyes, and began glowing. "And away…we…GO!"
He zipped through, running through the layers of rock as fire began showing up behind him. About five seconds later, they all shout out of the hole, and back into the black and grey environment that was freaking out Willow. "I think that went well."
"Clawthorne….are you REALLY that dense!?" Golden Boy yelled at him.
"What, we got the green bean to blow her own stuff up."
"Lucifer that was a Peridot." Pearl stated.
"… And?"
"Each gem has its own abilities and powers." Garnet explained. "Bismuths can forge, Lapis's can terraform with water, and Amethyst has a lot of flexibility." She explained. "You argued with an engineer that can talk to a bigger threat."
"You keep saying that, but Bismuth was the only threatening one of you people I've ever met. She could move metal with just a bend of her hand, made a machine that could destroy half an island, and took everyone good and evil to even scratch her armor." He began walking away. "Maybe you all just weren't good enough."
He heard incoherent yelling and pouting, but he didn't pay it attention. "Lucci.." Luz walked up to him. "Don't you think that was a little too far?"
"All they do is complain over and over how we're in over our heads without any consideration that we can take care of ourselves. I fought every one of them when they thought I was an invading gem and none of them so much as scratched me besides one lucky shot from Pearl. Tell me where I was wrong."
"Maybe they're overreacting, but maybe they have a reason too. We're talking about a whole planet of gems whose main goal is to do this…" She waved off. "To every planet.
"In other words, an army of Philips that can't back up their bark." He deadpanned. "Luz, we fought their army. Their best soldiers were beaten by Hunter and Amity, and the latter is running on limited Abominations." Lucci patted her back. "I know you're worried, but I know this group. We just got back from being flung across space. We're going to make it through, I promise."
"..How is it that you sound more optimistic than me now?" Luz let out a little laugh.
"Maybe you're just a good influence on me." He shrugged with a little smile.
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Jasper walked through the halls. She's just come back from her last mission, dealing with a group of Vauxisorians that were in the way of a colony forming. They were a slight challenge, but nothing she couldn't handle. Gems of her caliber were made to endure even the harshest of hells the universe had to offer.
She was told to report to Yellow Diamond. They wished to have a word. Everything about Jasper tensed at that, but she never let it show, she couldn't. She was only allowed to serve as she did because she was above average … she was still an earth gem from the beta of all things. She was formed lucky, that's all her existence amounted to, pure, unbridled luck, being created the strongest in spite of her origins, being formed from the planet that doomed her diamond…her real diamond.
Jasper walked through the door, saluting the diamond likely to berate her for any failures or flaws. She had to be perfect, the strongest, the best. "My Diamond." She had to lie through her teeth.
"Are you finished with your mission?" Yellow Diamond asked, sitting on her throne, the casual posture still managing to radiate energy and presence unknown to any other gem. The disdain on the Yellow one was all too clear, and Jasper didn't blame her. She was an earth gem, a reminder of their species greatest failure, that would forever haunt Jasper till the day the universe imploded on itself.
"Yes, My Diamond." She answered, trying to hide the shame in her voice
"Good. Then that means you're free." Yellow responded. "What do you know of the Cluster?"
"Not much. I know it is a geo weapon planted within a planet's core, but not much else, my Diamond."
"That's all you'll need." She spoke. "Something has caused the project to enter … delay." Yellow Diamond groaned in frustration. "One of my peridots has reported outside interference that could prove troublesome to the Cluster's emergence. I want you to escort the Peridot to oversee its fruition, and dispose of any interruptions by any means necessary."
"Understood my Diamond." She bowed. A simple task, just protect the small defenseless gem while they did their job. "What planet will we be arriving on?"
" Earth ." No…no…
"Earth…?"
"Is that going to be a problem?" Yellow Diamond threatened.
"… No, my Diamond." Earth …Back to her shame…back to where it all started…maybe she might find some form of redemption there….she could only hope.