A/N: I don't own Steven Universe or Justice League
Chapter One: The Signal
As the sun began to rise over the western side of the Earth below the Watchtower, J'onn J'onzz could feel something was amiss with the universe. It was not one of his Martian abilities that were telling him this, but rather what Clark would refer to as a 'gut feeling' was what was making him feel uneasy at the moment. Perhaps it was some force trying to tell him that a great evil was headed to the little blue planet, maybe this feeling was a way of foretelling his death.
Or maybe it was the fact that Guy Gardner was reporting in today.
"Hiya greeny!" the Green Lantern greeted in a tone that was trying not to be snide but failing miserably altogether "Anything exciting going on in the world today?"
"Nothing that would require your attention at the moment Gardner" the alien replied as he pulled up the Watchtower's view screen "Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are finishing up clean up and relief efforts in Japan after the earthquake. Flash has just returned from saving the Prime Minister of Britain from Grodd and Batman arrived for duty three hours before you did"
"Really? That's all?" Guy asked, clearly bored by what he heard "Sheesh if I knew it was gonna be this boring I'd have gone with Jordan to Braxas to shut down that Manhunter factory"
"Then leave" a voice said in harsh tone
The two heroes turned to see none other then the Dark Knight himself step into the room with his regular scowl across his face. Alongside him was The Flash, who had just changed into his spare costume after his first was ripped to shreds in his fight against the super-powered ape.
"Nice to see you to Bats" Guy replied in an icy tone "And look, you brought Quicksilver with you"
"Very funny Guy" Wally answered with a fake laugh "Lets see if you keep laughing after a shove that ring up your-"
"That's enough" a new voice said in strong yet calm tone of voice
The next group of heroes that arrived where Superman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who upon seeing Guy quickly facepalmed in annoyance.
"Tell me that's not who I think it is" Diana asked her fellow heroes
"I'm afraid it is sweet-cheeks" Guy said with a grin "When Jordan's away, Guy comes to play!"
"Is it to late to try and contact John or Kyle?" the scarlet speedster questioned his Martian friend
"I'm afraid they are off-world as well" J'onn replied with a sigh "Like or not, we're stuck with him"
"Alright everyone lets get our daily meeting out of the way and then see what the rest of the day holds" Superman informed the rest of the League
"Awe and now I have to go to a meeting?" Guy whined "How can this get any worse?"
As everyone started walking toward the meeting room, a blur of red and yellow zipped by Gardner, at first Guy thought Wally just wanted to get to the meeting room first, but when he went to take a step forward, he tripped over his own pants which had been pulled down by the speedster. Suddenly the super-fast hero ran up to the downed Lantern.
"You didn't see that coming?" he asked in a fake European accent before zipping back to the meeting room
Yep, it was going to be one of those days for Guy.
It had been an interesting few weeks for Steven Universe.
In the past few weeks, the Crystal Gems had gotten some new recruits. The new members were in fact Lapis, Jasper and Peridot, better known to the people of beach city as the trio of aliens who nearly destroyed their town. The once wicked Gems road to reforming started when Peridot first arrived at the temple, seeking shelter from the world she was now forced to live on. Of course the Gems where not all that kind to the invader from Home-World and attempted to kill her on the spot, however the young half-Gem convinced his guardians to spare her life. After nearly four-hours of debating with them, the Gems put Peridot under Steven's supervision and was allowed to stay with them with certain restrictions put on her during her stay.
In that time another development occurred, one day while Steven and Connie where off reenacting one of the scenes from their favorite book series when they found the pair had washed up back on the beach and had retreated back into their gems in order to heal. The children brought them back to the beach house, which upon seeing the shining rocks Steven's guardians once again tried to destroy the Home-World Gem and once more the boy had to keep them from killing them. Once Jasper and Lapis had fully healed, they revealed to Steven that they heard him defended them from their destruction and became indebted to him for his bravery.
Since then, both the Crystal and Home-World Gems had formed an uneasy alliance for Steven's sake. While they where forbidden from entering the temple, the trio of former invaders where allowed into the beach house and were given a makeshift home within the wreckage of their ship and on occasion where allowed to accompany their former adversaries on missions.
Peridot was mostly found fiddling about in the ship, trying to restore what power she could to the destroyed vessel. While the light green Gem mostly kept to herself, she did occasionally play with Steven and whenever she needed a science partner, Pearl was the first in line to be asked for help, however she still liked her privacy and usual stayed in her makeshift lab and worked in silence until someone (mostly Amethyst) would break her things to annoy her.
Lapis was more sociable of the three new Gems. She was often seen playing with Steven and Connie the most out of the three newcomers and while she still held some animosity toward the ones who left in trapped in the mirror, she still made an effort to at least talk with them and them with her, hoping to mend the pain they had caused her for so long.
And then there was Jasper…
Even though she swore that she would on her best behavior while her time on earth, the hulking warrior was still a loose cannon around the team. She would usually keep her distance from the others, even during a mission she would speed off ahead or fall behind as a way of avoiding contact with the others and during battle she would erupt into a frenzy of violence. When they weren't on a mission however, Jasper stalked the forests just outside the city and spent her time training day in and day out, with only Steven as her sometimes spectator.
Today however, Jasper was roped into watching the season finale of some show the boy and his little friend were obsessed with and found herself alongside Lapis and Peridot watching some doctor profess his love to a dying patient.
"This is completely idiotic!" the warrior Gem said with disgust "Why would anyone proclaim their love to dying human? It's not like their going to be around for much longer"
"Don't ruin this for me!" Connie replied harshly "I've waited three seasons to see these two get together, so don't bash my ship!"
"Your ship?" Jasper said in a confused tone "why do you need a ship for a people in relationships? Do they go into space when they get together?"
"I believe it is a term used by humans to refer to their favorite pairings in fictional work" Peridot explained
The young girl then gave the pair of Gems a quick shush before turning her attention back to her show. Suddenly the entire television screen became static, which of course upset the two children.
"No! Not now! We don't know if Anna said yes!" Steven cried out in fear before looking over to Peridot "Isn't there anything you can do?!"
"I may be able to rewire-"she attempted to say
"Look!" Lapis nearly shouted as she pointed at the screen
The group watched in shock as the static began to fade away to reveal the image of what looked like a Gem.
"Garnet! Pearl! Amethyst! You gotta get in here!" Steven called out as he kept his eyes locked on the screen
In an instant, the Crystal Gems quickly emerged from the temple upon hearing the boy's cry distress. Before they could say a word they saw the reason behind his call for them. It was at that time that the image of the Gem came into full view. She was black with red cracked lines all along her body wore a short-cut dress that went down to her thighs with a open space on her scalp were fire rose from making hair for the alien. From what Steven and the others could see, the background of the Gem was in complete chaos and the sounds of other Gems shouting for help and some letting out their final screams could be heard.
"This is Pyrite with an emergency universal broadcast to all Gem-controlled worlds and outposts!" the Gem now known as Pyrite said in a panic "Home-World is under attack! I repeat Home-World is under attack! Exactly seven hours ago, a highly advanced Coluan ship launched an attack on our planet and is assimilating Gems! The Diamonds have managed to escape off-world, but we can't hold out forever! Please send reinforcements!
Just then, an explosion could be heard off-screen and the sound of laser fire followed next. Pyrite let out a horrified scream that chilled everyone including Jasper to their very core before the screen went back to static and then back to its original programming; however neither Steven nor Connie wanted to continue watching their show after what they had just witnessed.
"What…what was that?" Steven asked, still shocked by the message
"It was a distress call...from Home-World…" Lapis Lazuli explained slowly, still shaken bay the message herself
"I…I can't believe it…" Pearl spoke up "Who could attack the Home-World like that?"
"I don't know, but if they used the universal broadcast system, then we weren't the only ones who saw that" Peridot answered
Peridot was correct on that assessment.
Just as their meeting was about to begin, The League's computer screen suddenly activated by themselves and played the message that was seen from the most crowded cities to the most isolated places on the planet below the Watchtower. Even though he had little knowledge of the beings he had just seen, the Man of Steel knew exactly who was behind the assault on their world.
"Brainiac..." Clark gritted though his teeth, clenching his fist tightly as he did
"By Hera, they we're terrified!" Diana said in shock "We must do something to help them!"
"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion just yet if you knew who those bozos where" Guy cut in "If I'm right, that was a Gem and from what I know from the Green Lantern records on Oa, their bad news"
The ginger-haired hero then used his ring to create small constructs an armada of Gem warships.
"For thousands of years, these guys have been conquering plants and harvesting their energy to create more of their kind" he continued as he created a small planet for the warships to attack "The Green Lantern Corps tussled with them a few times in the past before a cease-fire was made between them"
"Krypton also fell under attack by the Gems as well" Superman mentioned "The Fortress's records say that the Gems attacked the planet ten years before it's destruction, but they where stopped by Zod and my farther"
"My people also stopped an invasion from the Gems as well" Martian Manhunter said "Long before I was born, they came to harvest our world, but we fought them back and they instead chose an easier target"
"Which was?" Wally inquired, despite having a feeling that he already knew the answer
"Earth" Batman suddenly answered "And I think their still here"
Bruce then pulled up an image of the planet's very ocean rising out into its atmosphere.
"Several months ago, someone or something was pulling the entire ocean out into space" he began "We we're to busy with stopping invasion from Darkseid that we couldn't respond to it and it ended just as they invasion was stopped, so we assumed it was just a side-effect of what was going on at the time"
"But then just three days ago satellite imaging found this" Aquaman mentioned as he switched to another image
What was now shown to the rest of the League was what appeared to be a hand-shaped ship that had crashed into what looked like a large hillside just outside of a town.
"It's one of their ships alright" Green Lantern said, completely stunned by the sight of it "How did it get past us?"
"And why hasn't someone like Luthor or Waller jumped on this?" Flash added on
"It must have some kind cloaking flied around it" the detective surmised "As for why hasn't anyone reported this yet, we don't know"
"Could the Gems be still there?" Wonder Woman questioned "It would seem unlikely they would stay with their ship"
"I'm more concerned for the town" Aquaman mentioned "For all we know, the Gems that where onboard that ship may have either killed or ensavled them all and kept them from getting help from the outside world"
"In any case, I want to have a word with these people" Superman said "I want to know why Brainiac is targeting their people"
"And what if they don't wanna chat with us?" Guy asked
"Then we make them" the Kryptonian answered
Meanwhile back with the Gems, a debate was taking place on what to do with this new information and from the way it was going, the warrior Gem was losing the argument.
"What do you mean no?!" Jasper shouted in rage "You heard the message, it said they needed help!"
"In case you've forgotten Jasper, we no longer serve the Home-World" Pearl replied sharply
"It's not our concern" Garnet added on
"Well it's our concern!" she shot back as she motioned over to Lapis and Peridot "Right?"
The two other Home-World Gems looked down in defeat, not wanting to answer her.
"Right?!" she repeated harshly, making the other two jump
"...I want to help our people to Jasper, but we had no way of getting off this planet" Peridot sadly elaborated "Besides, even if we did the three of us would only stand at 1.4% chance of success over whatever is attacking our home"
"And the Home-World is so…different it just doesn't feel right to me anymore" Lapis said, not wanting to look Jasper in the eye as she did
With a enraged snarl, the orange skinned warrior smashed the coffee table, making the crystal Gems summon their weapons in response in case she was about to go really off the deep end.
"Cowards and Traitors! Everyone one of you!" she snarled as she began to stomp toward the door "I'm going to find a way off this rock and back to Home-World one way or another!"
As she stormed out of the house, Steven quickly got up and followed her outside, wanting to help her in any way he could.
"Jasper, wait up!" he called out to her with Connie following him as well
Garnet and the others feared what Jasper might do to the boy in her current state and attempted to keep him away from her.
"Steven!" the Crystal Gems shouted as they followed him out along with Lapis and Peridot
Steven and the others followed Jasper outside where they found her standing on the beach with her head pointed upwards at the sky above. At first they where confused by this, until they say what the warrior Gem as looking at.
"Pardon me" Superman said cooly as he and the rest of the Justice League floated above them (with Batman and Aquaman standing on a platform construct from Green Lantern) "But my friends and I have some questions for you"