"Okay, got it." Batwoman ended her communications conversation after clicking the small button on the side of her mask. "Batman and Robin are bringing our recent adversaries here."
"He's what?" said Batwing.
"Why'd he do that?" asked Clayface curiously.
"All I got was that we'd had a misunderstanding and that things needed to be sorted out," she said back. "His exact words were an "urgent matter."
…
Some time later, Batman and the others managed to make their way to the Belfry, swinging or leaping onto the old tower roof hundreds of feet above Gotham's streets. Peridot nearly fell as she got accustomed to the old, weathered top.
"This way," Batman said. He started walking to a ramp that lead to the door.
"One door?" Amethyst asked sarcastically. "Is it a doorway to doom?"
"It'll be one if you can't get a hold of yourself," Robin barked. "Stop dawdling and keep up!"
"Little tyrant, isn't he?" Connie said quietly to Steven as they walked together.
"I guess so," Steven said. "Then again, everyone has different sides to them."
The group shuffled single file into the door and walked to an elevator inside. Once everyone was in it, they went down and stopped on a particular level. The door revealed a dark blue hallway leading into a massive hub room. The Gems could barely believe their eyes when they saw it; the room has massive windows that showcased the city in the background. The walls were packed with computer consoles, equipment, and what looked to be variations of Batman's costume. In the middle of the room was a round table with six seats, and hanging over it was a thick but rusty bell, held into place by three chains. All of the vigilantes they had fought earlier that night were seated around it. Understandably, they were unable to look at the newcomers without being suspicious
"Er," Batwing managed to get out, "Hey, folks."
"What is this place?" Pearl wondered out loud, really entranced by the enormity of the the building.
"It's called the Belfry," Batman said. "It's the base of operations for most – but not all – of the people here."
"And these days, people apparently walk in without an intro," Batwoman said dryly. She took Batman aside, whispering, "What was this urgent reason you brought them here for?"
"You might want her to explain it all," he said, pointing to Garnet.
"We are the Crystal Gems," Garnet said strongly. "We are alien warriors from another universe. We wound up here during a scuffle with an enemy of ours, and now we're looking to reclaim the very item that sent us away from our home."
"How do we know you're not lying?" asked Batgirl.
"Because we're trapped here," said Steven, whom everyone suddenly paid attention to. "You're the only ones who could probably help us."
"Additionally," Pearl said," we tried to stop Wrath from planning an attack on the police, even though he managed to bomb his own forces. Doesn't that count for something?"
Silence lingered in the room for a bit before Nightwing walked up and extended a hand. "Sorry. Let's try this a second time; my name's Nightwing, welcome to Gotham."
Garnet accepted his hand and smiled. "Thank you," she said.
"If you guys are aliens," Batwing said, "then is your lion alien?" He pointed to Lion, who was currently licking his fur and sitting on the floor.
"Hahaha…not exactly," said Steven. "It's a long story…"
Batwoman turned to the rest of the vigilantes, saying "Alright, team. We've got some work to do. Batwing, I want you to try to help the Gems figure out what we're looking for and where it might be. Robin, check the GCPD cams and dispatch. See if there's anything about we can use. The rest of you can socialize for the moment."
"I don't need orders, I know what to do," Robin quipped.
"Then why don't you act your age and follow them?" Batman reprimanded. Robin shot him a glare before walking quickly to the mainBelfry computer.
"Ooh, burn!" Amethyst cried sarcastically. She looked around to find that none of their new acquaintances were smiling or amused. "Aww, never mind."
The groups began to blend, conversations erupting and apologies issuing amongst the Gems and heroes. Garnet walked over to Batwing's computer station to talk about the container. Pearl stroke up a conversation with Azrael, who whipped out his sword and quickly compared it to her spear.
Orphan meandered quietly towards Lion and bent to stroke his hair out of curiosity. Just as she was about to do so, a voice interrupted. "You want to pet him?"
The girl saw that Steven watching her and retracted her hand quickly. "…Yes?" was what she managed to get out. Part of her was worried, had she offended him by just daring to touch his pet?
"It's okay," he replied smiling. "He likes to sleep a lot, but that's when you get the best chance to touch him." He motioned for her hand, and when she gave it to him, he brought it down to his fur. Even through her costume's gloves, she could feel the individual fibers and energy in the beast. It was unlike anything she'd ever sensed. Plus, Cassandra had never seen a lion before, and a tame one at that.
Steven looked at her masked face curiously. "My name's Steven. What's yours?"
Appreciating the way he was being nice to her, Orphan ripped off her head garb and extended her hand to meet his. She honestly didn't care if he and the others saw her face and black hair, she wanted him to feel comfortable. "…Cassandra."
"Cool!" He exclaimed.
…
While all of the ice breaking was going on, Lapis slunk our to the hallway and began exploring the Belfry. Social interactions just weren't her thing; she had a hard time trusting people, and despite Garnet putting their differences aside for getting home, she still couldn't bring herself to do it.
The blue-skinned Gem passed a series of rooms that were specifically decorated with gear, posters, and living quarters. She swung a right in the hall and started heard loud noises. Going closer to the source, she reached a window that looked into a massive training room. It appeared to be half the length of a football field, but what was really intriguing was the training going on inside it.
Standing in the middle of the room was Clayface, surrounded by a series of robbers with technologically-advanced guns. Two of them progressed forward and fired beams of red energy at him. In response, he quickly maneuvered his clay body out fo the beams' way, making holes in the process. Then he stretched his arm and proceeded to punch the robbers one after the other. Realizing there were four robbers left, the mud man chuckled.
"Game on, fellas," he said charismatically.
He began to morph into a shape, swirling until all that was left was a large ball of brown clay. The robbers fired at it, but said ball was already out of the way and directed itself at them. They were helpless as he rolled into all of them, one after another. When he stopped and reformed into his bulky normal self, all that could seen of the robbers was nothing but smudges of blood.
He killed them?! Lapis thought, shocked at the outcome.
Her question, thankfully, was answered when the robbers' remains began to move and congregate into piles of mud. That's when she understood it; he'd been fighting dummies, creatures that could mimic a threat and yet be recycled instantly.
Clayface looked at his surroundings before walking to the door. Lapis suddenly realized her point of view was actually above it, and then deduced that he would be coming out under her. True to her idea, the door opened and he exited, breathing heavily from his fight.
"Nice work," Lapis said. Clayface turned around and looked at her, surprised.
"Ain't you supposed to be with the others, hanging out and stuff?" He said back.
"I'm…not that social," the Gem replied. "What were you just doing back there?"
"Workin' our a bit," he said nonchalantly. "I need to hone my skills every now and then, even with my clay powers."
Lapis was intrigued by what he said. "Those clay things…you and them are the same, aren't you?"
The ex-villain looked away and sighed. "S'nothin important."
"How did you get your powers?" Lapis asked curiously.
He didn't answer right away, preferring to look at one of the room's dark walls. Finally, he turned around with what looked to her like sad eyes. "I was in accident…it turned me into this freak, and in the process I hurt people. A lot of them. I couldn't control who I was for years. And then one day Batman gave me the chance to become a better person. But some days, I just don't know…" he rested against a pole nearby and sighed once again.
"Why?"
"All the people I've hurt…the things I've done…is it really worth it? I just feel like I'll end up the same as I was before…" he ended there, his words choking his throat up.
Lapis walked closer, gathering as much courage that's she could muster. "I…I've done some bad things, too. And at first, I felt that I deserved hating myself. But the other people in my life, they showed me that there's more to living that being self-loathing."
"If you're friends are like mine, they believe in you, and that's enough to keep you working towards doing the right thing."
Clayface looked up at the Gem, smirking like he normally did. Her talk seemed to have helped uplift his spirit once again. "Y'know, you make a pretty good motivator."
Lapis blushed dark blue. "Thanks. I guess you could say that comes with being a Gem that controls water."
"So that's how you beat me back at the rooftop," he said. "Kind o' cheap, if you ask me."
"I'll show you cheap the next time we get in a fight," she said back.
"Fair enough."
…
Back in the hub room, everyone was gathered around the main round table, listening to an in-depth explanation of fusion. Some were attentive and other looked at the concept with skepticism.
"So fusion is what you did back there?" Nightwing said.
"Yeah," Steven said. "It's like when two Gems dance or get near each other, they become one being whose stronger because of their combined power."
"Tt," Robin said. "How can you two fuse if you're both human?"
"That's because he's not," replied Pearl firmly. "Steven is half-Gem, seeing as he's the son of our... deceased leader, Rose Quartz. That's why he had his mother's shield and healing saliva."
"And her gemstone, too!" Steven added in. He lifted up his shirt to expose his gem. Planted firmly where his belly button would've been, a shiny pink Gemstone stood out. It shined in the lights of the space brightly, capturing everyone's reflection in its wake.
"Fascinating," said Azrael.
"It's…shiny? It looks nice, though," commented Batgirl.
As Steven pulled his shirt down, Garnet turned back to Batwing and the holographic maps of Gotham. He'd pulled them up in order to compute where a small container that powerful would be, but the readings had only been recently put in. It would take some time.
"How's it going?"
"Slowly," He said. "The energy this thing should be giving off matches your guys' signatures, but having to filter out yours and spread it across the city isn't an easy feat."
"Don't worry, she replied. "I know you'll succeed."
"How do you figure that?"
"You could call it luck, or in my case, future vision."
Just as he was about to make a retort, the screen blinked green and changed dramatically. A series of several dots appeared in a portion of the city close by. As they linked up, Batwing blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"I must be seeing things," he said.
"Why?" said Batwoman, who's returned to the room and made her way towards him. "What's going on, Luke?"
"Garnet had me try to track down her container, but the thing is…I've got several different matches on Finger Avenue."
"Meaning?" Pearl asked.
"Either that container spilled…" Batwing said eerily, "or it suddenly became several different people."
Batwoman's communications headset suddenly buzzed to life, a worried voice playing quickly. "Kate!"
"Renee?" Batwoman whispered. "No offense, but we're kind of-"
"-in trouble!" Renee screamed over the phone. "I'm on Finger Avenue! Something happened to a bunch of Arkham inmates, and now they're causing mass panic."
"...What do you mean by 'something happened to them?'"
"I don't know!" Renee stated loudly over the radio. Batwoman heard a couple of gunshots and what appeared to be haphazard screaming in the background. "They've all got colored things growing on them, and they're crazier than normal! We need help!"
"On it," Batwoman said calmly. Once Renee had hung up, she turned to the others. "That was the police. There's mass hysteria on Finger Avenue."
"That might explain the multiple signals," Garnet said.
"We need to head there now. Azrael, Orphan, Nightwing, you're with me. Batgirl and Batwing, stay at base and work on deducing what we're looking at." Batwoman turned and began walking towards the exit, flanked by those she'd called.
"We're coming too," Connie said.
"I wouldn't think that would be a good idea," Batman said as he walked in, most likely having heard the conversation getting to the room. "Gotham's criminals are dangerous, and you don't fully know what they're capable of."
"We've taken on giants and aliens from different planets, B-Man," piped Amethyst. "We'll be fine."
"Not to mention your clods might be getting pulled into our mess," Peridot. "We need to clean it up, after all."
"Suit yourself," Batwoman said. "Everyone, let's go."
The four vigilantes walked out, with Steven, Pearl, Amethyst, and Connie following right behind them. No sooner had they left than Lapis and Clayface walked in, dumbfounded as to why there were fewer people in the room.
"Crud!" exclaimed Clayface. "We missed something good, didn't we?"
"Getting warmer," Robin said grumpily.