Steven Universe
Rise of the Lucid Jewels
Chapter 1: Amber
Earth, 2/25/2016
"Is it finished yet?" Amethyst asked again to Pearl for 20th how many times in a row. They we're finally getting done with the drill so they could stop the Cluster from tearing apart the earth. Luckily for them, assembling the drill took a lot less time than anyone had expected, even Peridot impressed about how fast it took.
"Like I said five minutes ago Amethyst, I just need to upload the coordinates to the computer and then we'll be done," Pearl said with annoyance. Even after their moment at the kindergarten, Amethyst still liked to annoy Pearl, but it was more of a sisterly teasing.
"Well hurry up, we promised Steven we go play Steven-tag in five minutes." Amethyst said just as she finished with the last of the coordinates.
"We'll he won't have to wait much longer, the drills done and ready to go," Pearl said with accomplishment.
"Awesome!" Steven yelled and jumped on Pearl from a tree. "Tag you're it!" he said and ran away. Pearl turned into Stevens form.
"You're not getting away from me!" Pearl yelled and gave chase to Steven. Amethyst joined him as they ran away from Pearl laughing. Garnet and Peridot watched from a distance. Garnet smiled seeing the gems have fun for once. Peridot looked at them with confusion
"I don't get it, shouldn't we be going to the location of the cluster instead of this weird ritual?" she asked curiously.
"We're ahead of schedule Peridot, I think we deserve a little bit of a break." Garnet said as she smile when Amethyst tackled Steven playfully. Peridot grumbled to herself still not getting the concept of "a break."
Suddenly a loud boom broke the tranquility of the scene. All the gems stopped what they were doing and turned towards the direction of the boom. Several more booms followed by bright orange flashed over the tree line. Sirens could be heard in the distance of the fire department.
"Move gems!" Garnet yelled and the crystal gems ran towards the city wasting no time. They managed to reach Beach City only to find it scorched by flames. Cars were destroyed, building crumbled, the side walk scorched as if the sun had sat atop it. Steven looked on in fear as his home was being destroyed. Garnets face looked grim, even under the visor her eyes were widen with shock. Connie came running down the alley way, she had a small burn mark on her arm.
"Connie!" Steven yelled
"Steven!" Connie yelled in equal relief
"What happened? Are you ok?" Steven asked anxiously
"Yeah, I'm fine, me and my parents managed to get out of the house before the explosions started to happen, what about you? Are you ok?" she asked knowing they had obviously just arrived to Beach City, but still asked anyways to show affection towards Steven.
"Yeah I'm fine, I wasn't in town," He told her and kissed her on the check.
"Connie what happened?" Pearl asked with a gruff voice.
"I don't know, I was in the middle of my piano lessons and next thing I know the houses down the road blew up," Connie said. Then suddenly, a female humming could be heard from the distance.
"Peridot, take Connie to the base and run surveillance from the room." Garnet said.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Peridot said. She grabbed Connie and ran off back to the base.
The rest of the gems ran towards the humming in the distance. They found a girl, with long, sun gold hair, brown eyes and a small dot on the center of her forehead. She wore a red t-shirt over a slick brown jacket and grey jeans. She wore brown fingerless gloves and a pair of cowboy boots with spurs on them.
"Miss, the cities on fire! Come with us, we're here to help!" Steven yelled. The girl turned to the gems, she looked around the age of 16 and gave a smile that unsettled Garnet.
"So you're the famous Crystal Gems I've heard so much about, so I hope I made a good first impression," she said cheerfully and twirled around laughing.
The gems looked at her in confusion, until they realized what she was talking about. Then Pearls face turned to anger and she summoned her spears, Garnet conjured her fist, and Amethyst brought out her whips. Steven looked at her in shock, "how could someone do this," he thought to himself
"You caused this!?" Pearl asked in rage, ready to eradicate this human.
"Well, duh, I had to do something to get your attention," The girl said with a smile.
"You're going to pay for this destruction!" Garnet yelled and pounced towards the girl. Then the unthinkable happened, the girl caught Garnets punch, to which all the gems mouths dropped in shock. The girl looked at Garnet with a false pout. "Ruby, Sapphire, that wasn't very polite. Looks like I'm going to have to teach you some manners." The girl gloves then transformed into metal gauntlets. She then punched Garnet with so much force that she sent her flying through five buildings. The rest of the gems took a step back in disbelief.
She turned towards them and clapped her hands together like she just took out the trash. "Now allow me to introduce myself, my name is Amber, Amber Red." She said with bowing like she was putting on a show. Pearl and Amethyst stepped forward shielding Steven.
"What do you want!?" Pearl yelled at Amber with new found distain.
"A few million dollars, a yacht, oh maybe a horse stable…wait I got it, a yacht so big it has horse stables on it. I'm a genius," Amber said cheerfully to Pearl and to herself.
"And Pearl thinks I'm weird and unstable." Amethyst said under breath. The Garnet charged forward Amber out of the flames of the building. Amber disappeared in a flash of orange light, just milliseconds from getting punched by Garnet. She reappeared on top of the roof of a building, sitting with her legs crossed.
"Too slow you two," she said wagging her finger. Then she stood up and threw a fireball towards Garnet. She managed to resist the heat it, but was knocked back by the force of the explosion when the fireball made contact with her. Garnet stood up and launched her gauntlets at Amber. She smirked and conjured a wall of fire, destroying them. Garnet then pounded her gauntlets to the ground and sent an electrical shock wave towards Amber. The shockwave hit her, but she just stood there taking the electricity, in fact she seemed to gain more power from it. Amber then lifted her hands above her hands and clapped them together. The flames from the building the swarmed Garnet engulfing her in an inferno of flames. While Amber was distracted Amethyst and Pearl formed Opal as quickly as possible. Opal fired three arrows at her. Amber flipped over the first, the punched the two others sending them back at Opal twice as fast. Opal managed to dodge the first one, but was hit by the second, forcing her to defuse. Pearl stood up and fired a beam of energy from her spear towards Amber who disappeared again, but as soon as she reappeared she was hit with one of Amethyst whips.
"Nice shot Amethyst!" Steven yelled cheering his fellow gems on. However, this enthusiasm was replaced with fear as Amber burned through the whip and looked the gems maliciously. Her smile was gone, replaced with a sneer that could make The Diamonds feel intimidated. She punched the ground with one of her gauntlets. The ground exploded creating shockwave with plumes of flames coming out the cracks. The shock wave sent all the gems flying back, knocking Pearl and Amethyst out. Steven clothes were burned, his favorite shirt ruined, revealing his gem. Amber walked towards them slowly, like a force of nature. The flames dancing around her as if they were her pets, excited for their next meal. She walked towards Amethyst and place her hand on Amethyst's gem.
"No," Steven said weakly. Amber looked at him and smiled.
"Don't worry hun, she won't feel..." she stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened. She looked at the pink gem on Steven's stomach.
"Your one of us!" she said astonished. Steven looked at her in confusion. "What? One of us?" he said. She let go of Amethyst gem and grabbed him by his shirt.
"Why are you working with them?" She asked with anger cutting him off mid-sentence.
"There my friends," Steven retaliated
"Your friends are weak,"
"They are not"
"Look around you brat"
Steven looked at the destruction they failed to stop.
"If you and your "friends" were so capable, you would've stopped me from doing all of this. Face it, these three pathetic excuses for gems are nothing, but delusional soldiers holding onto the ideas of a radical. You could be so much more, like me, jewels, our kin, are the future of both gem and human alike." Amber said coldly.
Stevens's eyes widen in shock. He finally understood what she was talking about, she was part human, like he was, but where did she come from, how many of them were out there, why did she refer to them as jewels.
"No, my friends aren't weak, we never give up to likes of you, and that's what makes us strong!" Stevens shield appeared on his arm and he bashed Amber in the face. She took a step back stunned.
"Suit yourself runt!" She shouted and tendrils of flames flew towards Steven, but then Garnet threw herself at Steven and moved him out of the way taking the hit. Garnet stood up her visor gone, electricity sparking off her.
"We'll meet again, crystal gems!" Amber shouted and she disappeared. Garnet relaxed and turned to Steven.
"Are you alright Steven," she said kneeling down making eye contact with him. Steven didn't answer, he just stared off into space. He and Amber were the same, hybrid of both human and gem. Was he destined to turn evil, is that what his mother intended him to be, just a weapon. These thoughts hurt his head.
"Steven!" Garnet yelled worried.
"She was like me Garnet," he said
"What do you mean?" Garnet said confused. "That monsters..."
"She's a hybrid Garnet, half human, half gem," Steven looked at her tears coming to his eyes.
"Steven, that's impossible, we would've known about others like you long before. Steven you're unique a symbol of love," Garnet said trying to comfort him
"What if I'm not, what if Rose only used my dad to create a weapon against Homeworld, Was that all I was to her? A weapon!" Steven said anger and hurt.
"Steven…" Garnet started, but Steven turned around and ran back to the house. She stood back up and sighed. She looked at Pearl and Amethyst who were starting to come too.
"Where is she!?" Pearl said angrily.
"Gone Pearl she escaped," Garnet said conjuring a new visors for herself.
Pearl punched the ground in frustration. She looked around and helped Amethyst to her feet.
"I'm going to crush that clod if she ever shows that face around here again," Amethyst said through gritted teeth.
"We have other issues to deal with right now, Steven needs us," Garnet said trying to keep her cool.
"Why what's wrong with Steven?" Pearl asked concerned.
"I'll tell you once we get back to base, we need to regroup," Garnet ordered.
Pearl and Amethyst nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile on the outskirts of Beach city Amber reappeared next to a hooded figure who was a little shorter than herself.
"You don't have wear that hood Michael," she said.
Michael raised his sword to her, she kept a blank look on her face, only cocking her brow in a bit of confusion
"You almost killed him! I told you to leave him be Amber, you're lucky the fusion got in the way" Michael said coldly lowering his sword.
"If it's any concern to you, I understand why you want him to yourself now. Why didn't you tell me he was a hybrid?" Amber asked curiously
"Steven Universe holds the power of one of the most powerful quartz ever to exist, a power he doesn't deserve." He stated
"So what gives you the right to drain his gem? If you would've told me the boy has so much potential I would have..."
"He is also my brother by blood," Michael interjected. "By my right as a son of Rose Quartz, I am the one who should be wielding that power,"
Amber rolled her eyes, "Michael and his code of honor, ask me someone obviously has watched The Last Samurai a little too much in their spare time," she thought to herself annoyed.
"Fine Michael, if you're going to be more of a crab about this than you usually are, Stevens yours to drain. I'll meet you back at headquarters," Amber said disappearing in a flash of light. Michael stood there for a second watching the flames dance on the ruined Beach City. He then slashed the air creating a portal stepping through it. The portal closed behind him and he was gone.