Although the parking lot he'd pulled into had long been abandoned, Kofi took great care to neatly park the garishly-painted van he drove between two faded lines that once marked a parking space. He unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door and stepped out, followed by his passengers.
Stretching after the long ride, Buck, Jenny and Sour Cream checked their mechs to make sure they were fitted properly. They'd spent the last few months practicing and preparing to use the gadgets and weapons hidden within them under the guidance of their parents; Bill, Kofi and Vidalia.
Last out of the van was Steven. Despite having been provided with similar equipment, he was quite confident in the abilities granted by his gem heritage.
Slightly concerned, Bill looked down at the eager young boy and asked, "Are you sure you'll be fine without your mech, Steven? No matter how small, any mission could become a dangerous one."
Smiling with a thumbs up for added reassurance, Steven replied: "It's fine! I was born with built in tech!" He patted the gem on his stomach proudly.
Bill sighed. "Okay, but take it with you anyway just in case."
With everyone filed out, Kofi locked the van. While it wasn't likely that any gems would know how to drive Dominion vehicles, he wasn't taking any chances.
"I'm ready when you are." He said, to which Bill nodded, before leading the group onwards.
The adults were somewhat on edge that day. It was the first mission the kids had been brought on - a supply run to an abandoned Dominion mall. They had been running out of wearable clothes, toiletries and the base was falling apart. Food was running low and the crops were not due to be in season for months - or at least, most of them weren't. Vidalia had at one point remarked that if she ever saw a spinach leaf again she'd go on a hunger strike.
The mall had a looming presence, as if it were alive and watching them. Almost alive, and yet terribly lifeless. The three adults felt ill recalling the thousands of humans who frequented this place before disaster struck and Demeter's colony had been evacuated.
Before the mall's entrance was a gaping chasm. The mechs could do many things, but flying was not one of them. It was, however, something Steven could do, and so he did; not that this was of any help to the others.
Kofi yelled across the chasm, "Steven! We are supposed to stick together!"
Steven called back, "Just meet me on the other side! I'll wait!"
Kofi surveyed his surroundings, taking in how wide the chasm really was.
It was going to be a long, arduous task to get across. Steven was going to be waiting a while - or so they thought.
While the others were busy pondering, Jenny decided to have a look around. Creepy abandoned places were usually surrounded by chunks of debris, and she was hoping there'd be some big enough chunks to make for a bridge. Soon enough, she spotted something suitable.
"Yo, Dad, what about using this to make it across?" Jenny called out, gesturing towards the crushed remains of a Class C delivery vessel. It wasn't easy to tell in its current state, but Kofi had seen enough of them during his days working for the Dominion to know.
The humans activated their mechs. Their deceptively light bracers and boots expanded into thin plating over their entire bodies, which surged with the power of an extra forcefield overtop. With the newfound boost to their strength, they hauled the broken ship into position, then made their way across.
As they approached the mall, they found its condition was even worse than they had anticipated - the walls were crumbling, the floor looked unsteady and the place was infested with stonebreakers which drilled into the walls with their whirring, conical noses.
For some unfathomable reason, the revolving door at the entrance was still working. One by one, they entered and were about to discuss their plans, only to be interrupted by a despairing groan.
Sour Cream had become stuck in the door, slowly revolving in circles, trying to avoid being touched by the door's panels. "This is my life now. Just leave without me."
Having feared something like this might happen, but not quite this specifically, Kofi grabbed Sour Cream's hand and pulled him from the clutches of the door. He then gave a dirty look to the snickering Vidalia. Bill cleared his throat.
"Now, kids, since this is your first mission, I expect you to take extra caution." He gestured to make it absolutely clear who he was addressing. "Kofi, Jenny, you two head to the grocers. See if you can find anything frozen or canned. Bring whatever toiletries you can find, too. Vidalia, Sour Cream, you'll head to the electronics section. You two know what to look for. Buck, Steven and I will be looking for clothes."
Kofi piped in, "Anything else?"
"If you see any gems, dissipate them and put them somewhere safe. We don't want any of them getting hurt." Bill paused to think, then continued. "And watch out for Infected! This especially goes for you, Steven."
Steven threw his hands into the air in protest. "But I'm half gem!"
Kofi shook his head. "Your body's still human, so there's a chance you could contract the infection. Seriously, what were you thinking coming along without your mech?"
"Don't be so hard on him, he's got his shield and his bubble. Those are about as sturdy as the mechs." Vidalia said, then turned to face Steven. "I do wish you'd use the things I make you, though."
"Hmph, relying on his gem abilities alone will not get him anywhere in a serious situation. They're too unstable, and refusing to wear his armour is a direct violation of protocol."
Seeing that things were likely about to get out of hand, Bill stepped into his usual role of mediator and spoke up.
"Now, now, bickering won't get the mission done. He'll be fine with us as long as he doesn't wander off. Now, we haven't got all day. Let's go!"
Bill grabbed Buck's wrist, perhaps a little too roughly, and ushered Steven in the direction of a department store. The others took heed and went their separate ways.
Jenny's mech punched through a decrepit wall between the checkout and the storeroom of an abandoned grocery store. After walking through the hole, she and her father proceeded to wipe off the layers of dust covering the freezers on the walls to inspect the frozen merchandise.
"Jenny, get a trolley from over there." Kofi gestured to his left. It took Jenny a few moments to figure out exactly where 'over there' was. Once she got there, she struggled to find a trolley that hadn't rusted over so badly it had merged into the others.
Jenny grabbed onto a trolley and pulled hard. With her mech fully extended, she had little trouble moving the trolley - and all the other trolleys she dragged with it. With a frustrated groan, she got to work on trying to separate them.
Heaving and grunting, she extended gadget after weapon from her mech. She wondered how in the world she managed to lift a cargo ship, burst right through a heavily reinforced wall and yet she met her match in a bunch of rusty trolleys. She was beginning to wonder if the mall wouldn't have been falling apart so badly it it had been built from metal panels that were left to rust into each other.
Deciding she wasn't going to bother any more, she dragged the fused mass of trolleys to her father, who in one swift motion, sliced right through the junction of two trolleys with a laser. Jenny was speechless, both at the ease with which the laser cut through steel and with how utterly insulting it was that her mech wasn't fitted with anything like that. She crossed her arms, pouting under her helmet while Kofi placed a small, pink freezer within the newly-separated trolley.
The freezer was pink, with a charming cat decal on its frost-encrusted door. Beneath the frost, Jenny could make out some letters spelling out 'Cookie Cat Ice Cream Sandwiches'.
"What's ice cream?" She asked.
"A frozen confectionery."
"Are there any in there?"
"No, and if there were, I wouldn't be feeding them to you," Kofi huffed, "they are dairy products, and probably wouldn't be viable by now."
It had been at least twenty years since anyone had set foot in this place, and Kofi wasn't willing to risk their health. The freezers in the grocery store weren't cryopods, which were built for much more intense purposes. Frozen treats didn't need to hibernate when travelling long distances without a warp gate.
"Besides, if you want a really good dessert, go and look for these!" He reached into a pocket and pulled from it a series of labels cut from old boxes of crackers, baking mixes and breakfast cereals.
Sighing at the sight of brands and meals she'd had countless times, she took them from him.
"Yeah, sure, where are they around here?"
Ignoring her disapproval, or perhaps not even noticing it in his focused state, he yet again vaguely gestured behind him.
"You can find them there. Aisle seven."
Begrudgingly, Jenny looked over the faded, dirty signs signifying the aisles until she spotted the one in question.
She searched the shelves of aisle seven, which were stocked with a lot more than what was indicated by the labels she'd been given.
She knew she shouldn't, but it was all going to go to waste if she didn't. Besides, it was better to bring too much back than too little. There were seven people who needed feeding, and a little variety wouldn't hurt.
Jenny stuffed her trolley with whatever she could find - jams, honey, seasonings and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. Further down the aisle were seeds and gardening equipment, all the better to make more food. Those also went into the trolley. The seeds weren't likely to be alive after all this time, but it was worth a try. Judging by the packaging, some of those seeds came from very interesting-looking plants, and the 'pumpkins' particularly intrigued her.
Meanwhile, Kofi fiddled with the internal mechanisms of the cookie cat freezer, which proved to be difficult for him as he had no idea how it all worked. He was primarily a biologist, and his knowledge on mechanical engineering was limited, so the tinkering was usually left to Vidalia. He wondered how she and Sour Cream were doing with their search.
Searching through what had once been an electronics store, Vidalia loaded appliances, computers, and anything else she could possibly harvest for parts or use as-is. Since machines did not spoil as food did, Vidalia had little trouble finding things that were useful.
Sour Cream followed his mother closely, searching the shelves on the other side of the aisle, looking for anything else that might be useful.
Vidalia shooed him away. "Hey! This side's mine! Go get stuff somewhere else!"
Sour Cream groaned. "It's not a contest, mom."
Vidalia snorted. "Come on, I'm giving you the good side! They keep the best stuff behind the counter."
Rolling his eyes, but unable to resist cracking a smile, Sour Cream made his way over to the dusty, decrepit remains of the counter. He still wished he could have a look at the whole store himself - there was a lot of fascinating stock in there, and he never got to properly explore Dominion ruins before - but Vidalia was right. The best stuff was always kept behind the counter.
Once he reached the counter, he froze. He could smell something burning, and he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Before he thought to say or do anything about it, the smell faded. He shrugged. Perhaps a Ruby was wandering around where she shouldn't have been, or it was just his imagination. Either way, it didn't matter. This was a supply run.
With his mech's air-blaster attachment, he cleared a thick layer of dust and debris from the surface of the counter. Once the resulting dust cloud cleared, he could see the stock behind the glass of the counter's cabinet; tiny, sleek looking machines mounted on metal stands, some of which he could identify as communication devices. He crouched down to examine the devices and look for a way to get them out. From what he recalled, glass used by the Gaian Dominion was treated to resist shattering.
Looking over the cabinet for an opening, he caught a glimpse of something on the floor next to him - a device that looked a lot like the ones on display, but bigger and clunkier. It must have fallen off the counter. Curious, he went over to pick it up to put it in his pocket. Once he found a pocket in his trousers without holes in it, that is.
They needed new clothes. Nobody knew how to stitch things up. Or rather, Buck knew, but he wasn't very good at it. Sour Cream hoped Buck was better at picking out new clothes than he was at mending them.
Rows upon rows of dusty clothes surrounded the three humans who'd been tasked to look for them. They had already gathered what they needed from the other sections of the large department store and had moved onto this forest of crucified fashion.
Bored with all the browsing, Steven ran and down the rows, batting at the ancient merchandise and stirring up fierce clouds of dust.
Coughing and wincing, Bill called out to Steven: "Hey! Stop that! It's already hard enough to to see in here! And to breathe!"
Silence followed, indicating that he'd either run off to another section or was hiding. Bill paced slowly down the hall, spotting two guilty, sandaled feet between a few pairs of khakis.
"BOO!" He jumped out. Bill, who was neither startled nor amused, sighed.
"This is your first mission, Steven. Please, take this seriously."
Steven looked up at Bill with a sheepish grin. "Aw, okay. Sorry, Bill."
Holding out his hand with a small, forgiving smile on his face, Bill led him back to where he'd left Buck, quickly adding, "and for the last time, please take off that ridiculous shirt when we get back to the change rooms. It's far too small."
Steven shapeshifted his gut and arms even further inwards than he had been previously. "No it isn't!"
Bill shook his head, mainly to hide his growing smile at Steven's antics.
With one child under control, there was only one to go.
Stoic though he may be, Bill knew his son had a certain quirkiness about him. Today this was demonstrated in the form of a stack about a foot tall of identical plain white T-shirts.
The teen seemed to not be done yet, reaching for another whole rack's worth of white V-necks.
Exasperated but curious, his father dared to question: "Gosh, Buck, why all this? Isn't two or three enough? How are we going to carry this all back?"
Casting a sideways glance over his shades, he responded in a slightly less monotone voice than usual, "it's for ART, father…"
With a sigh, Bill halved the stack and put some back, then decided to go back to tending to his own clothing needs. He'd left off in an aisle full of casual pants, but nothing that fit his waist seemed to be able to fit his legs. He felt a little insulted that the others, whose sizes he'd memorised, weren't in between sizes like he was.
Steven shuffled his feet and looked at his wrist, despite not wearing a watch. He had no part in this conversation, and there was nothing for him to do as he'd already stockpiled plenty of clothes for himself. He sighed, breaking his shapeshifting and causing the undersized shirt he was wearing to tear. That gave him something to do, at least - find a replacement for that shirt.
Quickly locating the aisle from which he'd taken the shirt, he took two. They didn't come in his size, but he didn't care. The little sun print on the front was too cute to resist. He looked over his shoulder at the two older humans. They were still bickering.
Looking around for something else to occupy his time, Steven spotted a window display across the hall filled with enormous plush toys. They were probably full of dust by now, but their black button eyes and charming embroidered smiles and overstuffed, outstretched arms practically beckoned him into the toy store.
Eager to see what was behind the window display, he dashed over to find out.
Lining the shelves of the store were rows of toys. Plushes, much like the ones adorning the display outside, alongside the likes of board games, hardcover books and all kinds of strange little widgets. Beside all of these hung a vertical row of backpacks made to resemble some kind of sandwich. He took one, then stepped back again to gawk at the toys.
"Wow, Dominion kids are so lucky," Steven said to himself. "They get to play with this stuff all day!"
His eyes were particularly drawn to the board games. There was such a variety, and 'Castles and Cryptids' particularly took his interest. "We really need some of these. We get really 'bored' at the base sometimes." Taking a few boxes, he silently congratulated himself for finding a place full of supplies so essential to everyone's survival.
After stuffing the boxes into his new backpack, Steven walked through the store, passing a shelf which stocked figurines with names like "G.U.Y.S.", "G.A.L.S." and "P.A.L.S." emblazoned on their boxes. He wondered if these were meant to resemble different models of humans. Picking up Triangle G.A.L., he examined the toy in his hand. This one looked particularly strange. Gems at least all had the same body plan - two arms, two legs, a head and a torso. Triangle G.A.L. was just a pink triangle with a face.
Intrigued, he placed the figure into his pocket, then pocketed a Ranger G.U.Y. to keep it company.
While he continued to marvel at the many items on the shelves around him, Steven was caught off-guard by a deep, muffled voice.
"Ow, my stomach!"
Backing against a wall, Steven summoned his shield. He peered over in the direction from which he heard the voice. He gulped. "Who's there?! Are you infected?"
The voice answered, "I have a medical condition!"
Steven knew he should run, tell the others, but his curiosity overcame him. He moved a few figures out of the way with his free hand to peer past the shelves in the direction from which the voice came. He heard a thump, then another, followed by echoing, metallic noises interspersed with the voice continuing to moan about its medical issues.
Against his greater judgement, he stepped out of his hiding place, shield still clutched before him as he crept over towards the sounds. The adults were right, he should have brought his mech. Fighting an Infected alone wasn't going to be easy, and he knew he should leave before it'd come to that, but his curiosity was too much to bear.
The monstrous growls grew louder, and as he got closer, he heard their metallic undertones. He tried his best to control his breathing as not to be detected by the infected, and stepped even closer - and onto something soft.
"Oh, my stomach!" Came the voice again. This time, from much closer. Steven jumped, then looked down at the source - a green plush doll, shaped like a creature he'd never seen before. Perhaps another model of human. He looked over before him to find a shelf stocked with identical dolls, beneath which was a hulking, mechanical beast. It had a plush in its mouth, and was thrashing about. With every thrash, the toy cried out something about its state of pain.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Steven dropped his shield. It was just a robot. A toy, playing with another toy - not an Infected at all. While this might be just as frightening to most, Steven was a Quartz, and Quartzes were meant to be brave and strong.
He approached the robot, and it stopped what it was doing to look at him with the cameras which constituted its eyes. It froze in place, then emitted a red light from what was analogous to its nose, scanning over him.
It let out several beeps, then its tail began to wag, and its upper body crouched to the ground. Steven grinned and giggled, taking this as a signal that it wanted to play - or rather, that it sensed he was friendly and wasn't going to attack him. He picked up the doll the robot had been mauling and shook it.
"Kid, don't shake me!" It squeaked. Steven giggled, continuing to shake the toy to hear its protests. The robot tilted its head side to side, following the movement of the doll. On its chest, Steven could spot an engraving which read ' '. That must have been what it was called. He decided to give it a try, to see if it'd respond to that name.
"Lion!"
LiOn cocked its head, one of its metal ears raising as its eye-cameras focused again on Steven. It appeared to be awaiting orders. Steven wiggled in glee. He just had to show this to the others. He climbed onto its back, then pointed at nowhere in particular. "Take me out of here! I'll tell you where to go!"
Steven held on tight as LiOn walked towards the store exit, then that walk became a run, and their surroundings seemed to warp around them. Before he could do or say anything, a flash of light engulfed them both, then faded as the robot screeched to a halt.
Dazed, Steven fell off the robot's back, and onto a dusty old mattress.
"Wha… where am I?"
He looked around, trying to get his bearings. The bed he'd fallen onto was one of many, and he saw various other items of furniture arranged into partial, open rooms. He wondered if these were living quarters until he spotted price tags on the items, and a sign overhead that read 'Liminal Space Furniture'.
From beside him, he could hear a mechanical whirring and scratching. He turned towards the sound. LiOn had hopped up onto a bed and was scratching and digging onto the mattress. It then flipped over onto its back, its cameras facing towards Steven.
"Can you take me back?"
In response, LiOn rolled back over onto its stomach, then leapt from its mattress over onto Steven's. However, rather than crouching to allow him onto its back as he hoped, it stood over him, nudged him with its nose, then tapped at him with a paw.
"Aw, come on!" Steven wailed, trying to push the beast off him. "We can play later - we really need to get back!"
As if on cue, his communicator buzzed. He answered, and onto the holographic display came Bill's greatly concerned and mildly disappointed visage.
"Steven, where are you? I told you not to wander off!"
"Uh, I don't know." Steven looked around some more. "There's chairs and beds and stuff. I think this place used to sell furniture?"
"How did you get all the way over there?! You know what, don't answer that. Just stay put and we'll come and get you." With that, Bill ended the call.
Putting away his communicator, Steven looked to his side and saw LiOn had left.
He sighed, slumping onto the bed without taking off his backpack. "At least I have all these toys here so I won't be bored waiting for everyone."
For what felt like hours, but wasn't, Steven amused himself with a holographic board game with an automated opponent function. He had no idea how to play, and didn't bother looking at the rules, but he played anyway.
"I wonder if Dominion people always have communicators with them because they get taken to weird places and left there by robots." He grumbled, setting the board down as it glowed red yet again, blaring the words "YOU LOST" in an obnoxious, robotic voice. Then the words "I found him!", in Jenny's voice. Except it actually was Jenny, and she was running towards him. The others soon followed. Having already gathered all they needed from the mall, they were quick to take him and leave.
—
"...and that's how I ended up in the furniture store." Steven explained, his head down and his hands clasped together as he and the humans walked back over the makeshift bridge they'd constructed over the chasm outside the mall. "I'm sorry."
Kofi gave a grunt of acknowledgement to his apology, while Bill nodded. Vidalia stroked her chin in thought, then spoke.
"So you found the Locational Orienter. I'm surprised it still works after all this time!"
"LiOn was yours?" Steven asked.
Vidalia shook her head. "Not exactly. He - it… you know what, Greg called it a he. He belonged to your father." She smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder as they walked. "I'll tell you what. If we find him again, you can have him."
"Guys, there's smoke coming from the parking lot!"
The group looked over in the direction in which Sour Cream was wildly gesturing.
"That's where we parked!" Kofi yelped. "Rubies! They get everywhere, I swear!"
"Dad, most of my friends are Rubies!" Jenny scolded, only to receive no response other than a dismissive wave of the hand.
The humans summoned their mechs, and Steven summoned his shield. Following the smoke, they rushed to the parking lot.
The van was on fire, as was the Infected crawling all over it. The oozing, crackling monstrosity obviously had fire-related powers, made evident by the flames which burned its twisted bones and blackened flesh. Its long, grotesque body reared up, then pointed what was hopefully its face at the group. From there, it spewed forth a stream of what appeared to be molten lava, which landed only inches away from Steven's feet. He jumped back, clutching his shield tightly.
"Kids, stay back and guard the supplies! We'll take care of this." Yelled Bill. The children followed the order. Begrudgingly, Steven joined them as they huddled behind a concrete pillar.
The adults circled the Infected as its awful visage followed their movement. It arched its exposed spine and launched another glob of lava - this time, right at Vidalia. Just in time, Bill pushed her out of the way.
"Keep a wide berth, its flame attacks may compromise your armour!" He stated, then continued before she could answer with some quip about how the mechs were fireproof. "You saw what it did to the van!"
After a few more poorly-aimed shots of lava, the Infected curled in on itself atop the van's roof. The adults stopped moving, carefully watching its movements. Its flames began to burn blue, as its torn, sinewy muscles tensed around its blanched bones.
Hollering a Quartz battle cry, Steven dashed from his hiding place.
The adults all turned their heads to the sound, and the children ran after him. As he was about to throw his shield, he was thrown off-balance by Sour Cream's sudden grip on his arm, and the shield flew through the air not at the Infected, but right at the helmet of Vidalia's mech. It connected with a sickening 'clang!', and Vidalia fell to a crouch, her gauntlets around her helmet, struggling to hold it steady to reduce the vibrations. Sensing vulnerability in her disorientation, the Infected charged towards her.
Fortunately for her, she'd done a better job of fireproofing the mechs than she did on the van. While no structural damage was done, the sheer heat emanating off the Infected still shot right through her armour when it caught her in its grasp.
Bill and Kofi rushed to her side, weapons extended. The Infected tried to flee, but was trapped when Bill launched a netted forcefield at it. Taken by surprise, its flames burned ever hotter, but they could do little against a force-net. Vidalia got up, then added her own force-net's strength to Bill's, further restraining the creature.
Kofi held out his gauntlet, dispensing a tranquiliser gun. Walking into close range, he pointed it at the Infected. The three adults remained still for a few moments, coordinating their movements. Giving a hand signal, Bill and Vidalia dismissed their forcefields, then Kofi plunged several darts point blank into the Infected's skin.
Slowly, its flames turned yellow, then faded away completely. Its body fell limp on the ground, its singed flesh quickly coming to resemble the bottom of a volcano that erupted a long time ago. Kofi stood by its side, then withdrew his tranquiliser gun.
Bill walked over to Steven, his helmet retracting to reveal his disappointed face.
Quickly averting eye contact, Steven shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to help, that's all."
"It's alright, just… try and listen next time, ok?" Bill placed a hand on Steven's shoulder, then led him and the other children aside.
Vidalia withdrew her mech, then stepped into the remains of the van to survey the extent of the damage.
"I don't understand." She said, running her hand over the soot-covered dashboard, checking the structural integrity of the buttons and wheel. "We've done missions inside active volcanoes, and yet all this happened." She sighed, pressing a few buttons on the control panel.
Much to her relief, they lit up as they were supposed to, and she could hear the faint whirring of the engine once she scanned her thumbprint on the ignition. "Everything works, at least. It's mainly just superficial damage to the doors and plating. Wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last." Having deemed the half-singed van driveable, she climbed into the driver's seat.
Bill and Kofi loaded the unconscious body of the Infected into a closed-off section in the back of the van, away from all the supplies they had gathered, before boarding along with the others.
As they drove off, a loud, metallic roar could be heard in the distance.