We're back! Here, have a fight scene!


The place we arrived at - some kind of underground temple, judging by the pop in my ears and the engravings on the walls - was a war zone. Flashes of deadly light could be seen ahead of us, and there were several craters between the fight and us.

The fighters were...odd, to say the least. There was a really tall and pale one with four arms, wielding an enormous bow and shooting arrows made of light. It was fighting a black dragon-like enemy with two heads and four wings, which was shooting back purple fireballs, deftly evaded by the giant woman via moves that reminded me of ballet twirls.

Then there was a shorter one, this one bearing giant gauntlets, and rocking a perfectly cubical afro, shades, and a bodysuit with a star-like motif on the chest. She was fighting a weird cross between a crocodile and a frog.

Stevonnie grinned at us. "Come on!"

They manifested their shield and brought their sword up, issuing a war cry and leaping towards the fight, amazon style. The three of us looked at each other, smiling, then went to work.

Fortunately for us, the monsters had about a dozen friends. They were smaller, but much more disturbing and less coherent - they were made up of fused together humanoid body parts, torsos with multiple hands, hands attached to the top of legs, and a truly monstrous big boy with a featureless head, five legs, and one massive, muscular arm.

I took to the air, immediately blasting them with ecto-rays. The creatures screeched - how they did that without visible mouths I have no clue - but they still came. Nico brought out his black sword, slashing through two of them. They exploded into light and dust, leaving behind only Gem fragments. The demigod raised his hands and three skeletal warriors in corroded and broken ancient greek armor burst from the ground, bearing equally old bronze swords and keeping the monsters busy.

Ginny finally gave us a taste of her abilities, waving her stick around - which I'd deduced by now to be a magic wand, since she was a witch and all - moving out of the way of danger like a graceful dancer and shouting out nonsensical, pig-latin words that seemed to trigger her spells.

"Incendio!" -a powerful gout of flame consumed an arm.

"Bombarda!" -an explosion, as powerful as a grenade, eviscerated a pair of arms attached to some curvy hips.

"Expulso!" -a leg that was getting too close to her flew away.

"Protego!" -a fist that would've hit Nico was stopped by an invisible wall.

As for myself, well, I decided to take on the big boy. I charged up an ecto-ball and lobbed it at the creature. "Hey mittens, catch!"

The heavy, highly unstable orb made contact with it, exploding and sending the monster a few feet back in a heap. It still rose, zeroing on me. I flew at it, ducking under a massive swing and jabbing a couple of times at it. It squealed in pain from the superhuman punches, but managed to swipe one of its legs against mine, making me fall, right as it punched downward.

Ouch.

The massive fist hit me into the ground with enough force to pancake a car. Every bone in my body bent and creaked a little. It hurt, but I could take it. I groaned in pain, phasing into the ground, then came up behind it and delivered a powerful, ecto-charged punch. The hit was so fast and strong it went into the creature, making it explode like its brethren, a weird conglomerate of crystalline shards falling to the ground.

I stretched, feeling all of my joints pop. I felt for bruises, but none seemed to be forming yet. I saw Ginny come towards me. "Oi, you alright?" -she asked concernedly.

I nodded, wincing. "I'll feel it tomorrow, and probably next week, but otherwise, I'm good."

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "You're tougher than you look, love." -she noted approvingly.

Before I could answer, the dragon monster belched fire towards us. I tackled Ginny to the ground, making us intangible, the fireball exploding harmlessly on and around us. Ginny waved her wand, shocked. "Aguamenti." -she whispered, and water flowed from the tip of the wooden stick, extinguishing the flames shortly.

I let the intangibility go, helping her to her feet. She was blushing slightly, so I imagine my cheeks were a bright green in return.

"You...saved my life." -she said, slightly distraught.

I smiled shakily, but there were more pressing matters, namely the dragon diving towards us. Angered, I flew like a rocket, closing the distance in a couple of seconds. It breathed purple fire at me, but I was immune to it, feeling it wash over me like warm water. I gave both of its snouts a quick one-two combo, then summoned a large amount of ectoplasmic energy, blasting the creature with a concentrated, two-handed beam.

The dragon monster tried to fight against the force of the beam, but it made the mistake of forgetting its initial opponent. I saw the giant woman nock a light arrow, then fire it at the creature's back.

Trapped between two powerful energy blasts, the monster crumbled. Or rather, poofed. A heavy, splintered purple Gem fell down to the ground, becoming bubbled in a turquoise sphere, before disappearing into thin air.

I landed, slightly tired from the effort. Ginny ran up to me, flustered. "Ellie, that was wicked!"

I attributed the blush to the adrenaline of being near death. "Yeah? Kinda feels...exhausting."

In my defense, the last time I'd had to spend so much energy in such a short time, I'd kicked the crap out of Vlad.

She rolled her eyes. "Aaand now you've gone and made it boring. You're a riot, Miss Phantom."

I smirked. She looked like she was trying to ask me something, but the Gems were approaching, as was Nico.

"Nice work." -said the one with the afro and shades, Stevonnie nodding eagerly behind her as her pink shield dissipated. The Gem had a pleasant, deep voice, with a slightly british accent. She made her giant gauntlets glow and vanish.

I smiled. "Thanks."

"Garnet." -she said, offering a hand with a dark wine-colored gem embedded in the palm. I took it, surprised at how strong her grip was. She had full lips, and her visor-like sunglasses glinted with shades of red or blue depending on the angle.

"I'm Danielle. Ellie for short."

She nodded. "Your companion mentioned that. You've already met Stevonnie, and the tallest Fusion is Opal." -she said, pointing at the other Crystal Gems.

I blinked. "She's a Fusion too?"

She smirked slightly. "It's a theme with us. Let's go talk back at the house."


So, the story will cover this a little bit later, but I wanted to reassure you (or dissapoint you, I suppose): the Cluster itself is not a thing in this universe. The Homeworld Gems didn't get to plant it back then. Their leftover structures are kinda like Hogwarts Castle in that mortals can't find them. Cluster Gems are a hint at what Homeworld planned to do, but they were...rather busy back in their corner of the galaxy. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.