OFF COLORS!" Emerald shrieked.
Lars was getting used to this. This was the 56th transmission to date and all Emerald ever did was scream at them.
"Emerald's going to contact us again!" Padparadscha said.
"Thanks Padparadscha" Lars said.
"You off colors make me sick!" Emerald hissed. "I will catch you and I will shatter you a-"
The transmission cut out.
"And have a nice day." Lars said, leaning back in his chair. "Don't we need more fuel? Someone set a course for the nearest colony. If we're lucky we can taunt Emerald in person."
" Captain Lars." Rhodonite said. "I think you might be getting a little carried away with this Emerald thing. She's still dangerous-"
"Come on, have I let you down so far?" Lars asked cockily.
"Well...no but..."
"Don't worry, Emerald's not going to do anything while we have her ship. Trust me." Lars said.
Rhodonite seemed skeptical but nodded. "Alright then captain."
Emerald paced back and forth angrily. Those damn off colors! How dare they steal her ship, then taunt her! She was an emerald! She was The emerald. The diamonds trusted her and now those freaks of nature had ruined her reputation.
"AAAAAGH!" Emerald shrieked, kicking the control pannel.
The screen snapped on. Emerald jumped back. Yellow Pearl's snide face leered back at her.
"Hello Admiral." Yellow Pearl said. "I was just curious about how your "situation" was going."
Emerald scowled harder. She almost hated Yellow Pearl more then Lars.
"You are a pearl and have no right to be questioning me." she snapped.
"Maybe not but my diamond was wondering when the highly esteemed Emerald was going to get her ship back and crush those insignifigant off colors."
"Soon." Emerald said. "I almost have them in my clutches..."
"Almost isn't good enough." Yellow Pearl said. "Either it's them getting shattered, or you."
The transmission ended.
Emerald stood still. She had known she was pressed for time but this...
It was her or the off colors now. And the off colors weren't going to escape her again.
"Woah." Lars said, looking at the bust gem market place.
"It's the bazar." one of the Rhutiles said. "It's like the gem shopping center of the universe."
"Perfect." Lars said. "There are so many gems here it should be easy to get in and out without being spotted or recongized."
Lars had brought the Rhutiles and Paparadscha with him while Fluorite and Rhodonite waited on the Sun Incinerator just in case.
"Now where could we find fuel?" Lars asked, looking at the many shops.
"We're going to land in the bazar!" Paparadscha said cheerfully.
"Thank you Paparadscha." Lars said. "We'd better start looking."
"Perfect." Emerald said. She had thought the off colors would land here. "Alright." Emerald said, turning back to the group of rubies and amathysts she had gathered. "Half of you surround them, the other half of you go and take back the Incinerator. When you capture the captain bring him to me."
The gems saluted her and hurried off.
"Fuel fuel fuel." Lars said, scanning the tents. "Aha!" A tent with a green roof seemed to be selling fuel.
"The fuel is in the green tent!" Paparadscha said.
"Yep." Lars said. Now how do we steal some?"
"Captain, there are a lot of rubies here." a rhutile said nervously.
"There are a lot of amathysts too." said the other.
Lars nodded. That was a little strange. The amathysts were clearly trying too hard to act natural while keeping their eyes on Lars and his friends.
"Let's go." Lars said softly.
"There's a suspicious group of gems following us." Padparadscha said.
That settled it. Something was up. Lars motioned the three gems forward towards the fuel tent.
"We gotta make this quick ok?" Lars said. "Padparadscha pretend like you want to buy something while me and the Rhutiles steal some fuel out of the back."
Padparadscha stood in front of the tent smiling but not saying anything. The gem manning the station looked a little freaked out.
Flourite and Rhodonite were calmly awaiting orders if any came.
"Rhodonite." Flourite said slowly. "Something's...on...the...radar"
Rhodonite squinted at the screen. "Oh no! Rubies and amathysts! We have to call the captian! We have to-"
The Sun Incinerator rattled violently. The gems were trying to pry the door open.
"What...can...we...do?" Flourite asked?
"I think I have a plan. It's risky but..."
"Go go go!" Lars hissed as he and the rhutiles lifted up a canister of fuel. "Lift with your back! I mean your legs! Never mind!"
Suddenly Lars heard Padparascha speak up.
"I'm going to be a diversion while Captain Lars steals fuel!"
Great. Lars ran forward dragging the fuel and the rhutiles with him.
"PADPARADSCHA!" he yelled, scooping her up.
The trio ran and hid down an alley way.
"I'm going to mess up." Padparascha said softly.
"It's ok." Lars said. "I don't think anyone's following us."
"HEY!" a ruby yelled, jumping out of nowhere.
"GAAAH!" Lars yelled, jumping back. Did Emerald send the ruby?
"SHE FOUND US!" The ruby shrieked! "EMERALD HAS THE SHIP AND FLOURITE AND PEARL!"
"I...what?" Lars asked.
"CAPTAIN LARS THEY NEED YOU!" The ruby cried. Lars noticed her gem was on her navel like...
"Rhodonite?" Lars asked.
"Yes!" the ruby said. "That's me and Pearl! We unfused to I could sneak away and find you!"
"Emerald caught us?" Lars asked.
"A ruby is going to find us, but she's one of us! But Emerald has the Sun Incinerator!" Padparadscha said.
"Not for long." Lars growled.
Emerald smirked as the fusion and Pearl looked at her in horror...Pearl?
"When did they get a pearl?" she muttered. They didn't have one...
"YOU IDIOTS!" She shrieked. "DID ANY GEMS LEAVE THIS SHIP?"
"A ruby went to find you." An amathyst said.
"Which ruby?"
"It was...I don't know." the amathyst said.
"YOU'RE WORTHLESS!" Emerald yelled. "I THOUGHT YOU COULD HANDLE THIS!"
the gems looked down.
"Oh, Emerald we can to better then your citrines, I DON'T THINK SO!" Emerald yelled. "Who said that, who said they could do better?"
As Emerald chewed out her army Flourite slowly reached over and turned on the radio that was linked to the one Lars had put in his gauge so he could communicate with the ship.
"-SHATTER ALL OF YOU STARTING WITH YOU!" Emerald's voice blasted into Lars's ear.
"GAAAH!"
"Flourite's going to turn on the radio so we can hear Emerald!" Padparadscha spoke up.
"Oh." Lars said, stopping mid freakout.
"PEARL!" the ruby yelled.
"It's not on comunitcation mode." Lars said to the hysterical ruby.
"We have to get back to her Emerald might-"
"Chill." Lars said. "We have time. Emerald loves yelling and I think she's only getting started. We got lucky. She brought rubies and amathysts. No offense" Lars said quickly.
The ruby was pacing back and forth, not listening.
"Ok. Padparadscha, I want you to tell us what's going on with the ship." Lars had found a pretty good use for Padparadscha. Even thought she could only predict the past, she could predict the past anywhere and could tell Lars what was going on at another location.
"Emerald's yelling at her guards. They let Ruby escape." Padparadscha said.
"Good, keep going." Lars said, running through the crowd. He had to get there in time.
Emerald massaged her temples. This was impossible. The giant fusion was taking forever to get on the Destiny Destroyer.
"Can't you make it go any faster!" Emerald yelled.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A voice yelled. Lars sprinted towards the ship at full speed.
Lars didn't really have a better idea, and Ruby needed a distraction to get to the pearl so he sped up...
"HEY!" Emerald yelled as Lars tackled her, knocking her to the ground. "GET OFF ME YOU OFF COLOR SCUM!"
"NO!" Lars yelled as the two struggled on the ground. Neither the other off colors or Emerald's army seemed to know what to do.
Emerald kicked Lars in the stomach and rolled to her feet.
Lars knew she would try to summon her weapon so he acted on another random impulse. He jumped up and pressed both hands over Emerald's gem.
The other gems gasped. Lars looked at them. They were all staring. One of the rhutile's mouths had fallen open.
Emerald's face had turned a dark shade of green. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
"RUN! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Lars yelled. Ruby dashed towards the ship. Flourite turned around and made her way back towards the ship, slightly faster.
"We're going to make it in time! Lars will tackle Emerald but she'll kick him off! Then Lars will..." Padparadscha made a sqeaking sound and slapped a hand over her mouth.
"What?" Lars asked.
"G-get him off!" Emerald said weakly.
"Huh?" Lars asked. An amathyst finally carefully pried Lars off Emerald. She quickly dropped him. "Don't you dare touch my gem you creep!"
Lars didn't wait around for long, he got up and dashed towards the ship.
"Engines, go, shields, go!" Lars commanded. His crew quickly followed orders.
"NO!" Emerald yelled, recovering. "NO NO NO NO NO!"
"Bingo bongo!" Lars cheered.
"NO!" Emerald shrieked as the Sun incinerator sped away.
"Ok, what's up?" Lars asked. Every crew member had been sneaking looks at him.
"Lars...I didn't know you..." Rhodonite trailed off. Ruby and Pearl had re-fused.
"I what?" Lars asked.
"You're a toucher." one of the rhutiles muttered.
"A what? That sounds gross." Lars said.
Flourite looked at the other gems. "I don't...think...he...understands"
"Oh." Rhodonite said, blushing. "W-well Lars, a toucher is someone who...touches other gem's gemstones."
"And that's bad why?" Lars asked.
The off colors looked apalled.
"Lars, that's really..." Rhodonite looked around for help. "Do humans...touch each other?"
"Ew gross. I mean if their in a relationship yeah but to go around groping...oh. Wait" Lars said. "Does that mean I...EW!"
"You didn't know what you were doing?" one of the rhutiles said laughing.
"The look on Emerald's face." the other said, joining in.
"Captain Lars"
"Space's most feared off color toucher."
The two collapsed into laughter.
"COULD SOMEONE MAYBE EXPLAIN GEM STUFF LIKE THAT TO ME?"
"Why? So you can do it right next time?" A rhutile asked, grinning.
"NO!" Lars yelled, blushing.
"Lars didn't know what he was doing! So it's ok!" Padparadscha said. "And now we can joke about it!"
"Too soon." Lars grumbled.
"Sorry Captain." Rhodonite said, wiping tears from her eyes. "This feels good though. Ever since I...separated I've been feeling a little weird."
"HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?" Lars asked.
The off colors collapsed into laughter.
"WHERE'S THAT CAPTAIN RESPECT NOW HUH?"
The off colors stopped after that but every now and then one of them started giggling.
"Explain." Emerald said in a scarily soft voice, pointing to a holo-picture of Lars grabbing her gem.
An amathyst was shoved to the front of group.
"It was you?" Emerald asked.
The amathyst nodded slowly.
"WHY DID YOU THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!" Emerald yelled. "IF THE DIAMONDS SEE THAT I'M...I'M RUINED!"
The amathyst looked down shamefully.
"AND LOOK AT THE FACE I'M MAKING! I LOOK LIKE I'M ENJOYING IT!" Emerald screamed.
The amathyst smiled slowly.
"Think that's funny do you?" Emerald asked. "Well if you think touching is so great then you should enjoy this."
Emerald slammed her fist into the amathyst's gem. The amathyst looked up in surprise as her gem shattered. The other amathyst watched in horror.
"Someone find a pearl to clean up this mess." Emerald snapped, reatreating into the cockpit.
Alone at last. Emerald had never really liked other gems. She was either too good for them, or had to serve them.
Her one real friend was the Sun Incinterator, and now she didn't even have that.
How dare those off colors challenge her! And now she was even more humiliated!
She quickly wiped a tear from her eye. No weakness. She was an emerald. Even if she would never live this down.
It was officially catch these off colors or die trying.