Chapter 11

Marble Madness

Jet hissed as he lowered himself in his spacious bathtub. These past few weeks, since their encounter with the mysterious gem Peridot, have been a little rough on him. He sighed as the memories of his past adventures flowed into his head. He remembered witnessing the fused version of Steven and Connie, which left him feeling slightly confused. They called themselves Stevonnie because Amethyst gave them that name. Stevonnie was slightly taller than he was, about an inch or so, and she (because Stevonnie had the appearance of a female) had the combined clothes of Steven and Connie. Her clothing consisted of a blue muscle t-shirt with a pink shirt underneath it. She also wore short blue jeans and has hair that flowed past her back.

He remembered the gem's reaction to Stevonnie with Pearl questioning the possibilities of the fusion happening and Garnet standing there, smiling and looking overly excited. Jet didn't understand why she was so excited over a fusion, but he decided to let it pass. Amethyst was excited for them as well, as she examined Stevonnie. When Stevonnie asked Jet of what he thought, he didn't have an answer.

He leaned his head back, as his memories flooded to the time where Steven and Amethyst left the temple and went on an adventure on their own. Jet secretly followed them to make sure that they safe and that their little "adventure" didn't get too dangerous. Their adventure ended up in a deserted, isolated place called The Kindergarten and it was the place were Amethyst was made. Pearl also showed up and she wasn't too keen on Amethyst showing Steven such a bizarre place. Amethyst wasn't too keen on Pearl calling the place bizarre and the two ended up fighting.

Jet thought that it was a way for them to blow off some steam, but when it got to the point of being too serious, he intervened. That was mistake on his part, as both gems shifted their anger on him. He managed to block their attacks and reframed from countering with his own. He wanted to stop them, not hurt them. Only by him taking some damage (because he intentionally dropped his guard) they were able to stop their fight to see if he was OK. He was but he told them to talk it out instead of fighting. They did and they were all able to go home together.

His eyes started to close until he heard a knock at his door. He got out of the tub and stretched his limbs. He told the person at the door to wait a moment until he grabbed something to wear. He threw on his usual getup minus the trench coat. He went to the door and was surprise to see Pearl there. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hi, Jet." Pearl greeted, as Jet smiled and folded his arms. "I hope you weren't busy."

"How come?" Jet asked.

"Because of that." Pearl said, as Jet peeked his head out to see what she was talking about. It was a giant robot, like the one Steven encounter before and it was causing mayhem on the beach. Steven and Connie was there, but out of the robot's way. Garnet manage to hold it of a little but even she was slung back by one of the robot's legs.

"Awesome!" Jet said, with stars in his eyes. "Let me grab my coat." Jet hurried to grab his coat, which took him no time at all, and raced towards the location of the robot. He grabbed his sword from his back and leapt in the air. He yelled before impaling the robot, causing it to explode in a glorious fashion. Bits of robot parts and goo from it went flying everywhere. Steven had his bubble shield up to protect himself and Connie.

"Aww." Jet said, brushing himself off. "Fun's over. Hey, Pearl is this-"

"One of Peridot's machines, then yes I think so." Pearl said, walking over to him. "Except we've never encountered one this big before."

"Or this gooey." Amethyst said, covering in the robot's goo. Amethyst took a few steps towards Pearl.

"Amethyst, we need to be careful. We don't know what that stuff is." Pearl said. Amethyst started to snicker as she slowly made her way closer to Pearl.

"Oh, no." Pearl said, slowly backing away from here. "Don't you dare get that stuff on me!" Amethyst ignored her and inched closer.

"Goo hug! Come here Pearl!" She shouted, as she tried to hug Pearl. Pearl took off running with Amethyst not that far behind her. Jet smiled, as it was nice to see those two back to their normal relationship. Garnet brushed some robot parts off of her and picked up on of the robot piece. Jet walked over to where she was.

"So." Jet started. "What do you think that thing was here to do, beside wreck things?"

"It's destroyed and that all that matters." Garnet said.

"Hopefully, it's the last one." Jet said. "Because it interrupted my bath time."


Jet face-palmed himself, he should really learn to shut his mouth sometimes. Unfortunately, it wasn't the last one as the gang been fight them for almost a whole week. Jet was currently at the temple, sitting on the couch while Steven was talking on his cellphone. Jet assumed that he was talking to Connie and was about to tease him about it but he left the kid alone. Suddenly, the temple shook causing Jet to stand up. The gems came running out of their rooms, looking around. They knew it was another giant robot making a crash landing somewhere close by.

"What is with these things?" Amethyst said, a bit annoyed. "This is like the sixth one this week." Garnet looked as though she was concentrating. Jet figured she was trying to located it.

"We'll find it in the desert." She said. Jet walked over to the warp pad with the others, he was ready to fight once more. Steven had finished his conversation and was rushing over to join the crew.

"Wait for me, guys." He said making his way over. The others took over before he had a chance to get on the pad, but they didn't worry they knew that he'd joined them soon. Jet looked around and there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Before he had a chance to say or doing anything, he saw 3 shadows rush pass him. Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst were already attacking the giant robot.

'That was fast.' Jet said, as he drew his weapon. He noticed that Amethyst had her whip wrapped around the robot and Pearl was on top of it, trying to pierce it with her spear to no avail. Garnet started punching it, but her punches just bounced off it.

"Stop...coming..here...you...stupid ball..." Pearl muttered, as she tried to stab through the sphere.

"Yeah!" Amethyst said, pulling on her whip. "Let it out! Get crazy!" Jet started to take a swing at the robot himself, until he heard Steven say something.

"Guys, cut it out! How many more of these things do you have to fight?" Steven said, making his way behind Jet.

"We don't know." Pearl whined a little. "They just keep coming and coming and coming and we don't even know what they are. We don't know anything."

"That's OK." Steven said, making the pause from his words. "I don't know anything all the time. It's like my whole life, but I've got you guys to tell me about gem stuff and dad tells me about weird dad stuff."

"But nobody knows what these things are here to do." Pearl said, clenching her spear.

"Well, it probably does." Steven said, pointing at the robot.

"What?" Pearl said, raising an eyebrow.

"We can follow it and see where it goes." Steven said.

"Are you nuts?" Amethyst asked.

"Who knows what could go wrong!" Pearl said.

"We can't fight these things forever." Garnet said. "Well...we can, but I don't want to. let's do it Steven's way."

"Yeah! Let's follow the funky flow!" Steven said, making a wave motion with his arm. Jet raised an eyebrow at that.

"We're dead." Amethyst said. The gems stopped their attack on the giant marble and all five of them was able to squeeze on top of it, with Steven in the front and Jet in the back. The other gems were in between the two.

"Alright big guy! Mush!" Steven said, giving the robot a hard slap on its surface. The robot started to move in an eerie fashion at first, but then corrected itself as it headed towards the warp pad. The robot warped the crew to the Kindergarten area.

"Kindergarten." Garnet muttered.

"Oh... why here?" Pearl asked, looking around the deserted area. "This site has been damage enough by the gems that were incubated here 6,000 years ago..."

"That's it! This thing is up to no good!" Pearl continued, as she started to draw her weapon from her forehead.

"Hold up, Pearl!" Jet said, making Pearl stop for a moment. "We don't even know what it's doing here yet. Wouldn't you like to see at least?"

"Garnet?" Pearl said, looking at her.

"Hmm." Garnet said. "Let's follow Jet's idea." Pearl groaned, as she let her weapon dissipate from view. The robot started to move again, taking the crew the quite Kindergarten.

"What does it want here?" Amethyst asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Maybe it wants to see where Amethyst was made?" Steven suggested. Amethyst crossed her arms.

"Maybe it should mind its own business..." She retorted.

"I don't like this at all." Pearl said, looking around once more.

"But..." Steven started.

"I'm with Pearl on this one." Amethyst said, looking at Steven.

"Aww, C'mon. Can't you feel this guy's funky flow?" Steven said, patting the surface. "He's a funk master."

"I can't believe we're doing this." Pearl said. The giant robot suddenly stopped in its tracks.

"Why'd stop little buddy?" Steven asked, patting the surface once more. Garnet looked at Jet and he nodded.

"You sense it too huh?" Jet asked her. She nodded as a response.

"Sense what?" Steven asked.

"Something's about to happen." Garnet said, grabbing Steven and jumping off. The other's followed and jumped off as well. The robot's legs that it used to carry them, suddenly disappeared. The robot shot a beam into the ground and it created a green-shaped square into the surface. The robot then morphed into a shape of the same designed and landed itself with the square. The area glowed a bright green as a passage was opened to them.

"Well, that's convenient." Jet said, as he walked closer to the passage. The other's followed behind him.

"See?" Steven said, looking down the hole the robot created. "I knew we'd find some cool! Let's go!" As soon as he said that, he slid down the hole. The gems let out a gasp of surprise and followed Steven. Jet was right behind them, as he was enjoying this adventure so far. They landed on a pad that was leading further down.

"Hey guys!" Steven said, smirking at them. "Going down? Are you OK?" He asked when the gems didn't respond to his joke. The area that they were in was dark, surrounded by green-like crystals on the walls.

"What is this place?" Pearl asked, as they continued to descend downwards. No one had an answer for her, as they continued to their unknown destination.

The pad made a sudden stop in an area that looked like a small auditorium with a podium in the middle of it. The others heard a noise that made them wonder what it was, until they seen a smaller robot make its way toward the misshaped podium. Once the robot was on the podium, it activated what look like a giant screen and on that giant screen was Peridot. The crystal gems let out a gasp of surprise and looked for a place to hid.

"Established gem projection link with control room." She said, using her finger screen to document herself. "Robot has successfully landed on planet Earth and enter prime Kindergarten control room in sector 5. Will proceed to perform status check of Kindergarten..." The screen of Peridot disappeared and the gems had a look of worry on their faces.

"It's Peridot." Amethyst said.

"Is she trying to reactivate the Kindergarten?" Pearl asked, looking at Garnet. "Does she know that it'll destroy all life on Earth?"

"What?" Jet said, eyes widened at this.

"Well..." Steven said. "Why don't we just ask her?"

"Steven..." Garnet started. "We're facing an enemy we don't know with technology we don't understand. This isn't the time to be asking questions."

"Well, it sounds like it is..." Steven muttered.

"Ok, here's the plan." Garnet said, looking at the others. "We can't let her see us, so we wait for an opening. When she's distracted, we destroy the power source on the far wall. Steven stays here..."

"That's gonna be a problem." Jet stated.

"Why's that?" Pearl asked.

"Because he's currently making his way up there." Jet pointed to the location of Steven. He was making his way toward the center of the platform." The others looked where Jet pointed and Jet was right. Steven was making his way towards the center.

"Steven!" The others whispered in frustration.

"Now accounting for all operational injectors..." They heard a voice say. They peeked and noticed that Steven was in the center of the auditorium-like platform and that two giant hands had emerged from the surface. The screen that held the image of Peridot was back as well.

"Checking for details of the perimeter." The voice continued, as the hands were bringing up what looked like detailed information. "This gem tech is simply arcadic..."

"I don't know, I think it looks cool." Steven said, getting the attention of Peridot. She was on the screen now, looking at Steven in wonder.

"Hi, I'm Steven." Steven said, waving at her.

'You little idiot.' Jet thought, looking at Steven in disbelief. 'You're gonna get killed.' The screen zoned in on Steven with Peridot still looking at him.

"There's appears to be an infestation of Stevens in the Kindergarten." Peridot said, talking into her finger screen.

"Aww, I'm not so bad once you get to know me." Steven said.

"And how many more Stevens are present in this area?" Peridot asked, looking around.

"Oh..." Steven said, placing his hands in his pockets. "Just me."

"Well, that's a relief." Peridot said, looking away from him. "So, tell me, have Stevens replaced humans as the dominate species on Earth?"

"Well, no." Steven said. "There's lots of humans."

"Hmm." Peridot hummed.

"Now I get to ask you a question." Steven stated. "What are you doing?"

"Just picking up where we left off." Peridot said, as one of the giant hands hovered above Steven. It balled itself into a fist and before it had a chance to slam down on Steven, Garnet intervened and held it up and threw it to the side.

"A gem?!" Peridot said, looking at Garnet. Pearl, Jet and Amethyst hopped on the stage as well. Their weapons drawn, ready to attack.

"Ahh... more?" Peridot said, looking at them. "But the Red Eye didn't report the presences of any gems on this planet."

"That's because we destroyed it." Jet said, with a smirk on his face.

"You what?" Peridot said, looking a bit worried. "But the records say that gems have been wiped out on Earth...wait a minute, you're the ones that have been destroying my robots. Are you the reason that the home world warp is down again? Why do you keep destroying my things?"

"Because we are the crystal gems." Pearl said, point her spear towards the screen. "We're still alive and we're still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures."

"The crystal gems?" Peridot said, with a raised eyebrow. This apparently set the gems off, as they started to attack Peridot's giant hands and the equipment that was surrounding them.

"Hey! Stop!" Peridot yelled, as the crystal gems continued. "How dare you! I'm doing this one way or another! You're...just...making this really...difficult." While this was gonna on, Jet and Steven stood there and watch the gems go at it.

"Why aren't you helping Jet?" Steven asked.

"They don't need my help with this. "Jet answered, putting his weapon back into his gems. "Besides, this hardly counts as an opponent." Jet folded his arms and continued to watch.

"Amethyst, now!" Garnet yelled. Amethyst grabbed one of the giant hands with her whip and smash it into the power source (that was located near the far wall).

"I'm reporting this!" Peridot said. And with that, the screen vanished from site.

"Is it over?" Amethyst said, putting her whip back into her gem. The gems looked at each other then walked over to Steven.

'They look pissed.' Jet thought noticing the expression on their faces.

"OK." Steven said, noticing their look as well. "I might have gone a little too far this time."

"Well, Steven, you weren't completely wrong." Garnet said, placing a hand on her hip. "We learned something new because of your decision."

"Cool!" Steven said, excitedly.

"But, yeah, this was a pretty bad idea." Garnet said.

"Rats." Steven said.