Once Steven and Connie arrived at the hospital, and some tearful hugs were shared with Pearl, the group made their way back to Amy's garage, to reconvene with Peridot and Garnet, so that Pearl could update everyone on their urgent situation.
"What are we just sitting around for!?" Peridot practically shrieked, the second Pearl mentioned Lapis being abducted. "We have to get out there, right now!"
Peridot seemed to writhe on the spot, as she struggled to choose between fleeing for the street, in pursuit of her friend, and dragging the Gems out with her.
"Peridot, calm down." Garnet ordered, calmly. "Obviously saving Amethyst and Lapis is our first priority, but Pearl hasn't finished telling us what happened."
After a moment of internal deliberation, Peridot sat on the ground, wrapped her arms around her knees and ground her teeth, anxiously.
"Thank you Garnet..." Pearl said, with a critical glance at Peridot. "Now, this is the individual who attacked us."
Pearl projected from her Gem, a hologram of the man in the coat and hat. Every few seconds, the image changed, like a slide show. The first was of him standing perfectly still, then firing a laser beam from his hand, then of his arm being impaled by Pearl's spear, and the subsequent burst of sparks, and finally, a somewhat distorted image of the man with Pearl's spear in his chest. With her Gem cracked at the time, it was fortunate Pearl had been able to record any kind of image at all.
"As you can see, he has no visible reaction to injuries that could be fatal to a human and, I assume, a Clem."
"Yeah, that'll kill ya..." Amy confirmed, as the image of the man being impaled in the chest, cycled around.
"If it were just the hand, I'd assume it's an era two Gem, with limb enhancers, but that stab to the chest should have destroyed her." Peridot noted.
"Why on earth would there be other Gems here?" Pearl asked.
Garnet and Peridot caught Pearl up on what they discovered, about the energy discrepancies, and the insect drones, and how it seemed likely there was an advanced alien race siphoning the city's power.
"Well, I think we can safely rule out Gems, at least in the case of this individual." Pearl said. "At any rate, before we pursue him, we should work on getting our friends back."
"Yes, thank you!" Peridot cried, irritably.
Amy walked over to her holographic display device she had used earlier and, with some tapping on keys, and irritable poking of the device, it displayed a street map of the city.
"You said Amethyst's... gem... fell into a broken water pipe?" She asked Pearl.
"That's right, yes."
"Right... so do we need to get her rock back to... reboot Amethyst, or what?" Amy asked, uncertainly.
"Amethyst will likely reform as soon as she enters a space large enough for her body." Garnet explained.
"Even if she's underwater? Won't she drown?" Amy seemed worried.
"We don't need to breathe." Pearl informed her.
"Okay, in that case, she'll probably reform here." Amy zoomed in towards the centre of the map. "There's a water treatment facility in the caverns under the city. She'll probably reform in a vat and get stuck there."
"She'll be able to break out." The Doctor confirmed, being the only one in the room, who knew what Amethyst was capable of, and also knew about Clem architecture. "She might be stuck in the caverns, but she'll be safe, for the time being. What about Lapis?"
"Her Gem was carried away by a wasp. It must have been another one of these insect drones." Pearl informed the group.
"So we hack the city's surveillance!" Peridot suggested. "We find out where that bug went!"
With some hacking help from the Doctor, Amy accessed the city's surveillance of the fight in the street. "I can try... But, just like the repulsors, the cameras only cover street level..." Amy sighed.
Sure enough, the wasp had flown directly upwards, and out of the camera's field of vision.
"Well that's stupid!" Peridot cried. "Why would they design it like that!?"
"Sorry dude, people don't often get carried away by bugs in this city..." Amy sighed.
Connie stepped up to the monitor. "Well the bug is just a drone, right?" She pointed out. "Wouldn't it be better to see where the man who attacked Pearl, went?"
The Doctor nodded in approval. "Good thinking, Connie."
The image on the screen returned to the confrontation between Pearl and the man. After their respective final blows, Pearl's form flickered, and her spear vanished from the man's chest. Peridot felt a pang of guilt and regret at insisting they leave, before Pearl warned them about this person. While Pearl struggled to follow him, the man walked down the street and turned a corner. Amy cycled through several camera feeds, before she found one that allowed her to continue watching him. He went down the street a little further, before turning into an alleyway, between two buildings.
Amy flicked back and forth, between cameras, but none were aligned in a way that allowed them to see more than a few feet into the alley. "Well, he went down that alley. Beyond that? Who knows?"
"Alright Gems..." Garnet began, authoritively. "Doctor, Amy, Connie... To that alleyway!"
"To that alleyway!" Pearl chorused, looking disappointed that no one had said it with her.
Noticing this, Steven and Connie cacophonously followed, "To that... alleyway?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, addressing the awkward silence that followed. "Right then. Allons-y!"
-x-x-x-
The alleyway wasn't overly long. It reached the back of the buildings on each side (a book shop and a hair salon), where it ended with a brick wall. There was a simple door, leading into each building, a few bins, and a grate, leading into the sewers below.
"He must have gone into one of these Clem establishments." Pearl theorised. "Maybe they're fronts for whatever nefarious activity he's engaged in!"
The Doctor had been staring at the wall at the end of the alley. He turned around, dramatically, to face the group. "Nah, if that were true, he could have gone in the front door, I mean, we tracked him this far, easily enough. Besides, you can tell why he wanted to be in this alley?" He looked around, getting greeted by blank faces. "Ohh come on! Don't look with your eyes, look with your tongues!"
The Doctor stuck his tongue out, and looked around at the group again. Slowly, Steven, Connie and Peridot followed the Doctor's lead.
"...ey! ...e's ight!" Connie said. She put her tongue back in her mouth. "My sinuses feel weird!"
"The air tastes like... pennies!" Steven added.
The Doctor grinned proudly. "Localised atmospheric excitation." He explained. "Which means..."
"… there's a teleport relay near here!" Peridot finished. "And not a very good one..."
"Spot on!" The Doctor congratulated the three of them. He produced his sonic screwdriver and began slowly pointing it left and right, he found what he was looking for, when he pointed it at his feet. After stepping back a couple of steps, he tuned the screwdriver carefully, and frowned. "The other end must be deadlocked... tell you what though..." The Doctor stepped back further, holding his arms wide, prompting the others to do the same. "This one isn't."
The Doctor pointed his screwdriver forwards and activated it. A dull beam of light glowed from the ground, like a more subtle version of a warp pad. With a flash, a figure materialised before them. With a hiss of joints and stamping of feet, it turned to face them. Its body was silver, and its eyes were eery, black holes.
The group gasped in alarm. Amy and Atlas were the only members of the group who didn't instantly recognise the figure. The Doctor had done battle with its kind for hundreds of years, while the Gems remembered all too clearly, the army of ghosts which had transformed into metal monsters, against whom they had furiously defended Beach City.
It was a Cyberman...
"Alert! Teleport site compromised. Witnesses must be purged! DELETE! DELETE!"
"Everyone look out!" The Doctor warned, as the Cyberman lifted its hand.
Garnet shot forwards on the balls of her feet. Her gauntlet materialised on her hand, as she wrapped it around the cyberman's palm. There was a brief flash of red as the cyborg's weapon fired, but Garnet and her gauntlet were unharmed. She ducked under the cyberman's arm as it swung at her, and ended up behind it. Before her adversary could turn around, Garnet grabbed the cyberman's wrists, pulled them behind it, and delivered a kick, with all her strength, to the small of its metal back.
With a burst of sparks, the cyberman's shoulders gave in and its body flew forwards, while its arms remained in Garnet's hands. Feeling a sense of personal resentment, Pearl leapt past the Doctor, and swung her spear at the monster, swiftly severing its head, which the Doctor quickly caught in his hands.
"Delete... Deleeee..." The head gurgled, quietly.
Although most of the group looked pleased with their small victory, the Doctor frowned. "Now we're in trouble..."
Before anyone could ask what he meant, the teleport pad activated once again, and three figures appeared, obscured in coats and hats, like Pearl's assailant, with human-like (or Clem-like) chins visible below their goggles. Two of them were more stocky, masculine types, while the third had a more slender, feminine frame.
Garnet and Pearl stood shoulder to shoulder, weapons in hand, but the cyborgs struck with the element of surprise. The new trio of attackers wielded agility not displayed by the one who had cracked Pearl. Like a ninja, one of them leapt against the brick wall, ran several steps and tackled Pearl from the side, before she could defend herself, sending her flying into Garnet who, in turn, was distracted from a rapid jump kick from the second cyborg. The Gems fell backwards, and the third attacker took the chance to unleash a salvo of laser fire from her palms. This time, Garnet was ready though, as she swung her gauntlets in all directions, like a blur, deflecting each blast recklessly back at their attackers, forcing them to group up once more.
The Doctor had an anxious look on his face. Even if the Gems were able to dispatch these alternative cybermen, there was no telling how many more lay at the other end of the teleport feed. They were standing on top of a hornet's nest.
"Peridot." He turned to her and demanded her attention. "We need to get out of here, use your metal powers!"
Peridot was torn for just a moment. She adored showing of her abilities, but her respect for Garnet made her reluctant to intervene. The deciding factor was the Doctor's commanding stare. Screwing up her face, Peridot pushed forwards with her hands, and the three cybermen flew backwards into the wall, with such force that it fractured on impact and collapsed on top of them.
"Run!" The Doctor ordered. The Gems, more used to resolving fights all at once, than the Doctor, seemed hesitant. "RUUUN!" The Time Lord angrily emphasised.
As the rubble shifted, the teleport gate began to glow again. Needed no more encouragement, the group quickly vacated the alley, being ushered out by the Doctor, who quickly followed.
