Broken Jewelry
Ben didn't waste a second, launching himself into the sky with Stinkfly's powerful wings and heading straight for the blue bird that circled overhead. "Thanks a lot Omnitrix." He muttered. "A frog and a bird show up and you turn me into a giant appetizer."
Before he could reach his target the creature suddenly dived straight down, its massive body folding into a sleek arrow shape and heading straight for him!
"Oh man!" He cried out before pulling to the side, just as the creature whooshed by, displacing the air and sending him tumbling through the sky. He struggled to right himself just as strange, whip-like tendril lashed out just to his left. "Jeez!" He yelled dodging again, as the toad below pulled its tongue back. "Seriously?"
As the toad puffed its chest out, letting out another croak, it suddenly spat out a burst of hot air as a spinning purple ball slammed into its side, knocking it over and sending it tumbling through the sand. As the bird was pulling up back into the sky, Pearl leapt onto its back and impaled her spear right behind its neck.
"That's odd." She said, as she stared into what had to be the creature's gem. It was cracked, but was bright red, in significant contrast to the rest of its color scheme. It would not have been strange, if it were not for…
"Incoming!" A gargled voice yelled over the rushing wind. Pearl looked up to see Ben, in the form of a giant insect, flying directly at her! Before he could be hit he zipped to the side and reared back his…stinger! Before slamming and dragging it along the wing of the bird, causing it to tumble to the side and Pearl to fall off.
"Excuse you!" She yelled indignantly, righting herself almost instantly before landing on one foot, sending out a small ripple of sand. She summoned another spear from her forehead, which she began twirling in an intricate dance causing the sand around her to twirl into a spiral in the air.
Meanwhile, Amethyst was hopping around as a giant cricket, dodging the tongue lashings of the toad creature. "Come on frog-breath." She laughed, wagging her antenna. "Aren't you hungry?" She asked, dodging it yet again. As the tongue cracked like a whip across the beach, sending little bursts of sand into the air, it didn't notice the red woman, who leapt in front of Amethyst and grabbed it with gauntleted hands.
The beast croaked as it struggled to pull its appendage back, only to slowly get dragged forward itself. "Surprise Thorny-Toad!" Another voice cried out, as Amethyst descended as a giant cricket before morphing into giant hairy wrestler and elbow dropping on the creature's head, causing it to bight off its own tongue! Garnet through away the useless appendage before charging forward and attempted to punch the beast, only for it to throw back its head and toss away Amethyst before puffing out its chest just as Garnet's punch landed, causing her fist to get absorbed into the air sack before being thrown back onto the beach.
As Pearl's sand spiral grew, Stinkfly was zooming back and forth slicing at the bird creature with his stinger. "This isn't working." He gargled. "It's way too tough to go down from just this. I need to find a new way to make this work."
'Genetic damage detected.'
"What?" Stinkfly's bulbous eyes widened.
"Move aside!" Pearl cried from below. As Ben looked down he could see what looked like a small cyclone of sand moving straight for him! He barely managed to dodge as it rushed passed and slammed into the bird like a drill, sending it tumbling out of the sky.
"Hey, watch it!" Stinkfly shouted. "You could have de-winged me!" He said as he landed a few feet from her.
She gave him a dry look. "Oh like you had any problem sending me tumbling out of the sky." She said crossing her arms.
"Hey I told you I was coming. You saw me." He responded.
"I warned you as well."
"Yeah, after you launched the attack." He grumbled. "I was already fighting the thing when you jumped in."
"Looked more like you were struggling to me." She said shaking her head. "Just how effective did you think a giant smelly insect would be?" Just as she said this, a loud screech alerted them both to the blue bird, which was shaking the sand from its body as spreading its wings.
CREEEEEEE!
Stinkfly just smirked. "Let me show you." He said, taking of down the beach directly at the downed bird. 'Genetic Damage Detected.' "Yeah I heard you." As he got in closer, he began launching streams of thick green slime at the creature's wings. "That should hold yah." He said as the monster struggled to move its wings, which were sticking to its body. "At least long enough for me to do this." He said, launching even more streams of goo, these being a much thinner substance, as he circled the creature's body pelting him like rocks.
"And just what is that supposed to do?" Pearl asked, catching up with him as he landed, admiring his own handy work. Beneath the gross looking slime, the bird screeched as it tried to free itself. Just as she asked this, another flash of green light shone in the corner of her eye. Glancing over, she noticed Ben had become a humanoid creature made of stone and fire, with the Omnitrix on the chest of his molten body.
"Just this." He said pointing a single finger at the slime covered creature. "Bang." Ben launched a ball of flame the size of an apple like a bullet directly at the bird, which exploded into a massive inferno causing it to cry out in pain, and Pearl to shield her eyes. The monster rolled, and flapped around the beach before throwing itself into the ocean.
"For the record." Ben said, crossing his arms. "This is Heatblast."
Much farther up the beach, Steven stared at the two with a concerned look on his face. "Something doesn't feel right." He said, as he watched the bird-creature leap into the tides.
"Oh don't worry." Professor Paradox said from behind him. Steven looked at the man as he appeared to be messing with some sort of blue holographic screen. "It's universally disturbing to watch living things being set on fire. You should have seen the unveiling of the original Human-Torch."
Steven raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing exactly?" He asked.
Paradox smiled at him. "Why, I'm helping of course."
Meanwhile, back with Garnet and Amethyst, the two warriors were now trying to pin down the Thorny-Toad as it leapt around the beach, dodging all of their attacks. "Hold still!" Garnet yelled, as she punched the ground, sending out a shockwave that would have thrown the beast in the air had it not jumped up to escape it. "Amethyst, let's go!" She called out, as Amethyst summoned her whip and lashed it out at Garnet, who caught it as it strung around her hand.
Amethyst then through herself at Garnet while winding herself into her whip. Just as she reached her, Garnet flung her directly at the Thorny-Toad as it landed, sending her spinning like a top across the beach. The Toad puffed out its chest, just as before, as Amethyst slammed into it with a powerful kick, knocking all the air out of its sack. As its defenses deflated, Amethyst was sent tumbling back, and a flying Gauntlet smashed into its now vulnerable chest, flipping it onto its back. Not wasting a second, Garnet jumped into the air with her fist raised, before landing a devastating punch on the Toad's underbelly, with a force that made the entire beach quake.
"Alright!" Amethyst shouted. "Our weird plan worked." She said running up as Garnet leapt off the beast's stomach.
"My weird plan worked." Garnet said, as she dismissed her other Gauntlet. She began to walk away, but the stopped. "Wait…shouldn't it be turning back by now?"
"Hey yeah." Amethyst said, staring at the unconscious beast. "It's just lying there." She was about to start poking it when, as if on cue, it glowed bright red. "Oh man, it's gonna disappear!" Surprisingly, it did not, as it morphed into a glowing red ball that shot into the sky.
With Pearl and Heatblast, both of them stood in shock as a glowing blue ball rose from the ocean and flew into the air.
Steven gaped as the two sphere's met in the sky between the two pairs and shone with a bright light before-
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!
- a powerful roar rippled through the sky as the light died down, revealing a large, burgundy colored, lizard creature with leathery bat-like wings and a serpentine body. The creature fell to the ground on all fours, sweeping its tail at Ben and Pearl at lightning speed, sending them both into the ocean. Then it locked eyes with him.
Steven was frozen in place as the piercing red eyes of the serpent penetrated his soul, even from so far away. The creature suddenly started to glow again, although unlike before a fiery aura shimmered around its body, charring the beach beneath it. It reared back its head, and launched a massive ball of blue fire across the beach and directly at him.
"Oh my." Paradox muttered.
Steven held out his arm and summoned his shield, much larger and wider than before, just before the blast hit, spreading the explosion around both him and Paradox without a struggle.
"Excellent reflexes Mr. Universe." Paradox said, as he dismissed his holographic screen. "You'll be a warrior in no time."
"Thank you." Steven smiled.
"But now I suppose we she get ourselves involved, before things escalate." Paradox said, as he began to walk towards the action.
"Now?" Steven asked, as he looked out to see Amethyst and Garnet fighting the serpent. "Are you sure?" The monster let out a roar as Pearl jumped out of the water and threw a spear through one of its wings.
"Now." The Professor said.
The dragon howled as the four aliens surrounded it. It swept its tail back and forth across the sand, kicked up a dust storm as it tried to push back its opponents. Garnet, jumped into the fray, gripping its tail, as Amethyst rolled into a ball, knocking its legs from beneath it, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Immediately, it tried to use its wings to launch itself into the air, but was pinned down by Heatblast, who threw himself onto one of its wings. Desperate, it began charging another fireball in its mouth, only for Pearl to blast it with a laser from her spear, detonating it on the inside and sending the beast reeling back. The four fighters jumped back into group formation as the serpent stumbled around, coughing up fumes.
"This isn't supposed to happen right?" Amethyst asked. "I mean, monster fusion."
"This doesn't happen often?" Heatblast asked. "I mean it's weird but…"
"No it doesn't." Garnet growled. "It's not supposed to happen. In fact it should be impossible."
"What should we do?" Pearl asked in a shaky tone. "This is just…I can't even…"
"Excuse me?" The group turned to see Professor Paradox walking towards them with Steven close by. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Paradox, what's going on?" Garnet asked.
"Steven what are you doing here?" Pearl cried out.
"I was just following the Professor." Steven laughed nervously. "Plus I kinda just wanted to help." As he said the serpent roared, as it brought itself onto its hind legs. Just then, it began to shimmer into translucency.
"It's teleporting!" Garnet cried, before Paradox shot a blue sphere at its chest from his gauntlet, bringing the creature back into solid form.
"Oh no it's not." He smirked. "Hop to it Benjamin."
"Hop to what?" Heatblast asked. "What do you expect me to-"
'Genetic Damage detected'
"Oh right." He said, before bringing a hand up to the Omnitrix. "You guys might want to stand back."
"What are you going to do?" Amethyst asked. Instead of answering Heatblast fired a green beam of energy from his chest at the monster, engulfing it in a bright green light.
"Ow, ow owowowowow!" Ben cringed as the beam lifted the struggling creature several feet off the ground.
"What's happening? What is he doing?" Steven asked, turning to Professor Paradox.
Paradox frowned. "Hopefully, he's fixing her." His words seemed to strike a chord in the Crystal Gems as they all turned wide eyed at the Professor.
"A-are you serious?" Pearl stuttered. "He can do that?"
"Maybe." The Professor sighed.
As the light that held the monster in place began to shrink, the atrocious roar that rumbled the ground contorted into an agonized scream. A woman's scream. Heatblast's eyes widened. "What the? What's going on?"
"Keep at it Ben. We won't know for sure unless you finish."
"Finish what? Who is this?" As the monster shrank and touched the ground, the glowing green light took the shape of a woman, although none of them could make out the details. The Crystal Gems stood shocked at what was happening, and Steven began to sweat from the tension. The shape became more and more humanoid as the woman inside reached out her hand at them.
"St-Ste-ven!" Her gurgled voice called out, causing everyone present to turn to look at him.
"M-me?" He asked taking a few steps back in surprise. "How do you know me?"
"Stev-AAAAH!"
"I can't hold it!" Heatblast called out as he was overtaken by the green energy. Ben was thrown back by the energy surge as his transformation timed out and a bright flash of light blinded everyone around.
"GAAAAAAAWW! RAAAAAAAA!"
The serpent rose from the sand, thrashing its body back and forth like a crocodile.
"Everyone get back!" Paradox yelled. Before anyone could react a tentacle like tail shot out from the dust cloud directly at-
"Steven!" Pearl shouted as she shoved him out of the way, causing the tail to wrap around her like a python. The beast instantly flapped its wings, sending a powerful gust against the warriors, knocking them all back as it took off into the sky.
"Pearl!" The Gems shouted. Garnet didn't waste a beat as she flipped back to her feet and launched herself hundreds of feet into the air with a powerful jump, and grabbing Pearl's leg just before the dragon flew off at hundreds of miles per hour into the distance. The three of them were gone from sight in seconds.
"That ain't good." Amethyst muttered wide eyed.
"Professor?" Steven panted. "Ben? What should we do?" He looked up to see Professor Paradox glaring into the distance as Ben struggle with his Omnitrix.
"Come on! Work!" He grunted, trying to activate his watch, only to get a buzzing sound.
"Don't bother Ben." Paradox said. "Your power is drained. You need to give it time to recharge." As he said this Ben's own frown turned tired.
"This sucks." He muttered. "If I hadn't been using it all day, maybe I would have had enough juice to fix her."
"No, that wasn't the problem." Paradox said with a sigh. "Something else is wrong with her. Something with power that rivals the energy of the Omnitrix."
"You two wanna explain what's going on?" Amethyst asked, stepping between them. "I mean, in case you haven't noticed, we have an emergency on our hands." She said gesturing to the sky. "Not that I'm worried or anything, but I don't wanna get yelled at for taking too long to save them."
"Right." Paradox said. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on, I'll admit." He tapped his cane. "But there is a familiar power at work here, one that I could sense within those corrupted Gems." His words made Steven and Amethyst wince, and they both looked at Ben subconsciously.
"Corrupted Gems?" Ben asked, before his eyes widened. "Those monsters were Gems?" He turned to Steven who looked at the ground.
"Yeah." Amethyst said rubbing her head. "The monsters we fight are broken Gems. Usually when we beat them they turn back into Gem form and we store them away."
"Away for what?" Ben asked, surprised and confused.
"I…don't know." Amethyst sighed. "I guess, just so they don't have to be monsters. I mean…we can't fix them."
"And someone's taking advantage of that." Paradox stated. "Someone is controlling them, and is somehow able to prevent Ben from repairing their genetic damage." He said adjusting his hat. "That same person is also able to teleport them on a whim. Whoever this person is, they're formidable."
"Any ideas who it could be?" Ben asked. "Maltruant? Eon? Vilgax?"
"I don't know, that's the scary part," Paradox shook his head. "But right now, we have different priorities. You should regroup with Pearl and Garnet, I'll continue my investigation and keep you updated. Now that I've had a chance to examine the energy on the teleportation it should be easier."
Ben nodded. "Sure thing. You guys ready?" He asked turning to Amethyst and Steven.
"Yeah." Amethyst said. "Let's get going."
"R-right." Steven said, still looking at the ground. With that, Paradox vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving the three to their task.
There was an awkward pause between the three as Ben looked to both Steven and Amethyst. "Um, you guys wanna take the lead on this one?" Ben asked. "I mean do you have like a ship or a car or something, or are we hoofing it?"
Both Amethyst and Steven gave him nervous looks. "Ben," Amethyst asked. "Can you…really fix those broken Gems."
"You mean repair genetic damage?" Ben asked before smirking. "Sure I could. I mean I've done it before. We just gotta figure out what's blocking it."
"Man, talk about a game changer." She muttered.
"How exactly do Gems break?" Ben asked. "Is it like a sickness or something?"
"I…uh…I think maybe you should talk to Garnet about that." She smiled nervously. "I'm not really the smartest Gem around."
Ben chuckled. "I know the feeling. Pretty much all of my friends know more stuff than me." He then put his hands to his sides. "Well, no point in standing around you two, we gotta go catch up with Garnet and Pearl before they finish the fight without us."
"How will we catch up though?" Steven asked. "We don't even know where they went."
GAOH!
A loud roar suddenly rang out behind Ben causing him to jump and fall into the sand. "What the heck!?" Standing behind him was- "Why is there a pink lion on the beach!?"
"Oh," Amethyst laughed. "That's Steven's pet lion. His name's Lion."
GAOH!
"Um, hi." Ben muttered, still shook up. "Where'd you get a lion?"
"My mom, I think." Steven said, petting Lion on the muzzle. "I guess we could ride him. He might know where Garnet and Pearl are." Steven leapt onto Lion's back, gripping his main.
"How exactly did he know where to find us?" Ben cautiously followed Steven as he also climbed on, with Amethyst Jumping on behind him.
"He just sorta comes and goes." Steven replied. "Lion, find Garnet and Pearl!" Steven shouted zealously.
Lion just stood there.
"Um…please?"
Lion just stood there.
Ben scratched his head. "Did you train him to find things?" He asked.
"Lion just sorta does whatever he wants." Amethyst said. "We'll be lucky if he moves at all."
Lion turned around slowly until he was facing the ocean.
"Um."
Suddenly he took of at incredible speed, across the surface of the water.
"Woah!"
"Lion wait!"
"Shoulda seen this coming." Amethyst sighed.
Garnet held fast as the force of the wind threatened to send her plummeting to the ground. It wasn't the toughest thing she'd ever had to do, but it wasn't like she'd be able to find Pearl again if she let go now.
"Garnet!" Pearl yelled. "I can't move my arms! I've got no leverage!"
"Pearl, you need to change into something smaller!" She shouted back. "Anything at this point would be helpful." If Pearl could shapeshift into a smaller form, or even convert her body to energy for just a few seconds she could get free, and Garnet had no doubt they'd survive the fall. "Wait, I think we're descending!" No sooner had she noticed this-
"Gwah!" Pearl was suddenly flung to the wayside with a flick of the creature's tail, sending them both tumbling through the air and down into the forest below. The creature, which had attacked them let out one more roar as it flapped away into the clouds. Not one to panic, Garnet instantly righted herself and braced her legs for a hard impact against the ground and Pearl followed suit.
"Pearl, aim for that clearing! We'll get a smoother landing!"
"Right!" And like two meteors they both splashed against the soft earth with a powerful THUD, sending several pounds of soil and rock spewing into the air around their craters. Within seconds the forest was quiet once more as the echo of their crash faded away.
"Oh my." Pearl sighed. "That was…different." She mused, pulling her legs from the ground. "It's just one thing after another today."
"Shh."
She looked up to see that Garnet was standing perfectly still where she'd landed, holding up her hand to silence her.
"Did, you hear anything?" Garnet asked. Now that the forest was quiet she couldn't hear anything. Now that the creature…
"I don't hear anything." Pearl replied with her eyes going wide. Their crash landing should have upset quite a few birds and creatures but there had been nothing. Not a single sound since they landed.
"I think that creature wanted us to land here." Garnet said, looking up at the sky. "I think that- PEARL!" She suddenly leapt from the crater and summoned her gauntlets as Pearl whipped her head around to see the white snake from that morning, slithering slowly from the foliage with its spear-like head shining in the moonlight. Pearl quickly summoned her own weapon when they both turned to see a huge hyena like creature with razor-like hair step out on their other side.
The two warriors jumped back to back as their two foes inched closer and closer.
"Any ideas?" Garnet asked, pounding her fists together.
"You could surrender." Said a new voice. Garnet and Pearl's eyes quickly locked on to the source of the voice, as a figure walked in between the beast. It was tall and humanoid, wearing a set of black armor with gold highlights. The figure also wore a skull-like visor over a black helmet. Judging by the lithe body type, it was clearly a woman. "In fact, it's really the only safe option you have, Crystal Gems."
Pearl's face looked aghast with confusion. "I-who are you?"
"More importantly," Garnet added. "Are you the one behind these beast attacks?"
"Obviously." The armored woman muttered. "It's amazing how similarly you respond compared to our last meeting."
Pearl scoffed. "I doubt we'd ever speak to someone like you. How are you even doing this?"
"That's my business." The woman said, pressing some buttons on her arm. "Now about your surrender." No sooner had she said this did a familiar humming sound resonate behind them. Followed by a very familiar roar. They swung their heads back just in time to see the dragon from earlier loom over them with its wings spread wide! "You will give yourselves up immediately, and submit yourselves to my full authority."
Garnet grit her teeth. "Never." She hissed. "You're crazy if you think we'd ever give up to someone who hides behind our fallen sisters."
The woman just laughed. "How very noble. But what about poor Steven?"
They froze.
"As we speak he's being hunted for the sole purpose of drawing you out, but here you are making it easy."
"I swear if you touch him!" Pearl seethed. "I don't care what you want, don't you dare hurt Steven!"
"What room do you have to argue?" The woman, asked rubbing her hand over the white snake. "You're the one with the weakest will. You'll talk a big game, but you'll be the first to break. You're just a Pearl."
Pearl was put off by the comment, even taking a step back, only for Garnet to step forward. "I'll ask you once more. What do you want?"
"And you Garnet. You pretend to be strong, but you're just a machine of a creature. All the cobbled together pieces of two children who can barely think for themselves."
Garnet tensed. "H-how do you-"
"Know what you are? The same way I know that Amethyst is little more than a talking dog who can barely grasp what it means to be alive."
For some reason those words made Garnet and Pearl's spirits feel cold. If Amethyst had heard that she'd have fallen apart. That one sentence.
"I know you all quite well actually. We've met before." The woman held up her hand, and a flash of yellow light shone over her as an object materialized in her hand. A massive pink sword. Rose's sword. "Or should I say we will meet." She impale the blade in the dirt. "It's amazing what you can learn about someone when they've got nothing to lose."
"That's…you can't…WHO ARE YOU!?" Pearl almost jumped back, only to bump into the dragon that had crept up behind them.
"We will have met?" Garnet asked. "You're from-"
"The future. Yes." The woman pressed a few more buttons on her Gauntlet, causing the creatures around them to glow bright red and roar with what could only be assumed was agony. "It seems I forgot something important during my last go around so I've been trying to start over. And I've got to say-" The roars turned to screams. Familiar screams, as the beasts became feminine in shape. Pearl and Garnet's jaws dropped at the sight, and their limbs began to shake.
The snake became a teal skinned woman with peach color hair, a tattered unitard, and a round craked red gem on her forehead.
The hyena became a short, stocky, purple woman, in lose black denim with matted lilac hair.
Pearl eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of her head. "Oh my goodness." She barely whispered. "That's…us."
Behind her, Garnet stood shaking as a twisted blue and red version of herself shambled across the ground. On her forehead was a jagged fusion of Ruby and Sapphire's gems. She could barely hear the woman speak.
"I'm curious to see if you'll be as easy to break this time." She laughed, swinging Rose's sword over her shoulder. "I'm actually looking forward to it."
A/N: I made a cover for the story, which some of you can see. Took me all week to finally scan and paint it. Now I feel all official.