HOME WORLD
Chapter 2: The Moss
PEARL'S EYES shone as she looked into the darkness of the night whilst standing amongst Jasper, Helio, Ruby, Connie and Carnelian in front of the community building, seeing through as clear as day as she searched the area for the Moss Carnelian seen before. The once lively town was now completely silent, the gems cowering inside their poorly boarded up makeshift buildings they called homes as they awaited the terrors they heard rumors about. Failing to see anything, Pearl turned to Carnelian who clung to her spear that she'd patched up from before.
"Are you sure you saw the Moss?" Pearl asked.
"I swear I did! It was green and it was moving around a bunch." The little gem replied. "It didn't seem to spot me when I spotted it near the village, so I rushed back to tell ya."
"If they're here, we won't be able to detect them even if we tried." Helio frowned. "They have no heat or energy signature, we'd only spot them when we see them."
"Well, that sounds like a headache." Connie frowned, clutching the hilt of Rose's Sword.
"Okay, you gotta go back inside with the others." Pearl told Carnelian.
"And what about y'all?" Old Topaz said as he stepped out of the building. "You don't wanna fight these things and have 'em spread everywhere. Let 'em just move past when they don't detect anything here."
"Guess your info on the Moss isn't up to scratch, huh, old man." Jasper said. "The Moss don't need an energy signature, they can sense gemstones – if they're here, they'll find us and attack us."
Old Topaz huffed then smirked. "Then give those little shits hell." He headed back inside with Carnelian.
Jasper turned to Helio. "I'll need to bubble Blood."
Helio nodded, handing over the toddler who looked at him curiously. "Right."
Jasper smiled as she took her baby in her arms, moving her hand over his chest gemstone. "I'll see you soon, little one." She pressed her thumb on his crystal, fazing into it slightly, and caused the child to poof and retract into the stone. Holding the stone firmly in hand, she fused it into her arm and stepped forward. "Alright, let's do this."
Connie raised her brow in shock. "What did she just –,"
"Now's not the time for questions." Ruby shut her down.
Pearl, Jasper, Helio, Ruby and Connie stepped away from the community building into the center of the Slave Village, the gems able to see in the dark via other light spectrums and Connie through her suit's helmet, and they looked around, wondering what was going on. They looked around on the ground, at every building around them for a bit, beginning to question if they'd been pranked by Carnelian when a shrill cry cut through the air to their right.
The noise caught their attention and another scream came from their left in the distance, followed by a few others that quickly turned into a chaotic noise that filled the small town. Connie drew her blade, wondering which sound to follow when a massive mass of Moss came barreling down toward the five up ahead, splitting up rapidly into Mosslings that started tearing into nearby houses!
"It's them!" Connie cried.
"Everybody split up!" Jasper ordered and charged onward.
Jasper's body radiated in energy as she burst forward and collided right with the Mosslings, flying further into the town and taking on the hordes of Mosslings. Connie tried to assess the monsters and Ruby stayed behind her, unsure of what to do when a large Bloodstone rushed past them and smashed through a Mossling with a punch, jolting them out of their thoughts. Seeing Helio hover in the air conjuring the mindless soldiers, they shook themselves out of it.
"Connie, Ruby, you two help evacuate the villagers." Pearl said, her body glowing as she summoned seven clones around her. "Helio, Jasper and I will try and hold these guys off as long as we can and keep them from reaching the community building."
"You got it." Connie nodded and rushed towards a nearby house when a cluster of Moss washed right over her, swallowing her whole!
"Connie!" Ruby cried out.
A BLUE beam of energy tore through the orange dust-filled skies of a far-off planet, the rays of energy bombarding Steven's body as he tried to shield himself with nothing but his arms crossed before him. The Super Saiyan unleashing the attack, now using one arm, hovered in the air a few feet ahead of him, chuckling as the young boy was barely able to move.
"Come on, whatcha doing?" Goku called out.
"Hey, a Kamehameha isn't just a regular Ki blast, alright!" Steven yelled.
"Well, I won't let up until you can break outta it."
Steven frowned as he tried to think, starting to panic as his jacket began to singe. Reacting quickly, he teleported and Goku smirked as he saw this, spinning back and expecting to see the man there, but found nothing. Perplexed, the martial artist looked around when three pink energy balls crashed against his back, sending him hurtling through the air!
Catching himself, Goku smiled as he saw Steven flying toward him and sped toward the boy, teleporting haphazardly through the sky to test him. Steven saw through this and matched his speed, catching up at several points in the air and leaving sonic bursts behind them, appearing finally on the ground in the wasteland and locking fists, breaking apart the landscape and demolishing two nearby mountains in their wake!
Steven returned Goku's smug look and the older man laughed, returning to his base form. "Good going, Steven, good going."
"Hey, are you gonna show me your god form?" Steven asked.
"Nope."
"Oh, come on, I'm on par with your Super Saiyan form." Steven said, holding up his sleeve. "I mean look, I took your best attack without a scratch."
"You're pretty strong, stronger than most actually, but you're only on par with Super Saiyan 1." Goku turned to him. "You'd struggle with 2, 3 then there's –,"
"Wait, that wasn't Super Saiyan 2?"
"Nope."
"Well, you gotta show me more of your power then." Steven said.
"Hey, I'm tryna get you to learn how to control your energy, not to get as strong as I am." Goku chuckled. "And even if I was, we'd need a Time Chamber and it'd still take a while." He turned to Steven. "Just keep training and who knows, maybe one day you might even surpass me."
"Really?" Steven asked excitedly.
"Sure, I –,"
"Goku!" A disembodied male voice called out.
"Whis?" Goku asked, touched his temple.
"Goku, I'll need your assistance if you'd be so kind." The Angel said telepathically. "We've got a situation on our hands."
"I'm on it, Whis." Goku said, turning to Steven. "Sorry, Steven, I gotta run."
"Wait, where're ya going?" Steven asked.
"It's important and I have to return to earth." Goku said. "I guess this's goodbye for now."
"But, aren't you gonna train me anymore?"
"You've learned a lot these past few months Steven and you've mastered how to control your energy." Goku placed his hand on his shoulder. "I trained you so you could better handle your powers, not to get as strong as I am. You have a lot of potential; it's up to you now to figure out what to do with it."
Steven huffed. "Well, I hope we can meet again someday."
"You're not going back to earth?" Goku asked. "I thought you're from there? You don't have family or anything there?"
Steven hesitated. "I've got a few things to deal with first."
Goku looked at him curiously then smiled. "Well, see ya later, Steven." He touched his forehead with his index and middle fingers and vanished.
Steven stretched out as soon as he felt Goku's energy signature completely disappear and he walked to the edge of the hill they were on, sitting down and taking a breather. He looked out into the blue grassy valley of the monster-filled planet, still amazed at how some of the mountains in the area floated in the air while everything else seemed to obey the same laws of gravity as earth. He began to think about Connie and the others now that Goku had mentioned home, wondering what they'd been up to all these years. It was surprising that years had passed since he left and was a little worrying that he didn't feel the need to return to the Crystal Gems either.
He searched his mind for a moment, wondering what to do next or where to go when he felt someone tap his shoulder. "Hey, Steven."
Steven yelped and fell over at the sudden contact, shifting over to see an orange-skinned, red-haired woman with green eyes clad in a revealing purple suit bending over to him with a smile. "Oh, hey –," He coughed and deepened his voice. "Hey, Starfire."
"What're you doing all the way out on this abandoned planet?" Starfire stood up and looked around.
"Being an idiot as usual." Kevin Levin, a tall muscular man with black hair clad in dark clothing and heavy boots, walked passed them while looking at a handheld scanner.
"What in the world was that energy we sensed on the way here?" Gwen Tennyson, a red-haired woman wearing a long red coat over black trousers and boots followed after Kevin. "It felt like there was a star inside the planet."
"Oh yeah, I met this saiyan named Goku and he'd been training me here for a bit." Steven rose to his feet.
"You met a saiyan?" Kevin asked in disbelief.
"You're joking right? That race went extinct long ago." Gwen said. "Hell, I don't even believe they existed to begin with."
"No way, you actually met Goku?" Ben Tennyson, a brunette-haired man dressed in a green jacket, black shirt, blue jeans and sneakers with a large watch on his right arm, stepped out of space ship parked nearby. "Man, I'd have loved to meet the guy; he's one of the strongest beings in the multiverse."
"Ben!" Steven hugged him. "Man, it's been so long!" He pulled back and looked at him in surprise. "What happened to you?"
"Uh, you left us on Xandar a few months ago, remember?" Ben said. "Jeez, I forgot how forgetful you are sometimes."
"Oh, yeah." Steven said awkwardly. "I kinda got carried away training."
"Mmm, I've noticed." Starfire eyed Steven as she moved up to him. "Your energy's got a lot of weight behind it now, it's almost smothering."
"Uh," Steven blushed and laughed nervously.
"Guys, we've got a problem here." Gwen said, drawing the other's attention as she looked to the lower planes below. "I think we found it here as well."
"What is it?" Ben walked up to her then frowned as he saw what she was referring to, "The Moss."
Steven came up to the edge of the cliff and saw a large mass of Moss moving over the ground below, rapidly increasing in size and heading toward a city in the distance. "What is that?"
"They're a powerful, all-consuming bioweapon Plumber orbital surveillance picked up images of on multiple planets in this quadrant and we were sent along with others to eradicate it." Ben said.
"It destroys everything it comes in contact with and destroys the planet once it's done, and can't be detected with anything except visual confirmation." Kevin said. "It's the perfect weapon."
"You know who's behind this?" Steven asked.
"A distant planet called Home World." Starfire answered.
HEAT AND immense pain spread throughout Connie's body as the Moss swarmed all over her, eating away at her flesh and sapping her of her energy. She struggled as they tugged at her from all sides, trying desperately to grab Rose's sword on her back when she felt a sudden rush of air as the Moss fell apart, revealing Pearl who pulled her out of the entity that spread over the ground.
"Connie, are you alright?" Pearl asked, looking at the burns on the girl's body.
"No, I –," Connie tried to say when her suit suddenly reformed and her wounds slowly began to heal. "Well, I'm okay I guess." She chuckled in surprise.
"Seems Helio's science isn't entirely destructive." Pearl said, looking at a Bloodstone nearby as it pulled a gem woman out from a pile of rubble. "Though I can't say the same about his wife." She huffed as Jasper ripped a Mossling in half with her bare hands and slammed it into the earth, smashing it to bits as she broke a massive hole through the ground!
"I'll be more careful next time." Connie said, drawing her blade and running off.
Connie moved through a small street behind her, cutting down three Mosslings that tried to get in her way, and she came upon a house where more of the creatures gathered. She looked through the window of the small home, seeing three gems trembling inside as the monsters tore the walls down, and she held out her hand, channeling Gaia Energy out of her arm that spread out like a large vine. Drawing out the photonic whip, Connie lashed it against the ground, sending out a shockwave that launched the beasts into the air and she thrust her hand out at them, shooting the energy tube that split into smaller tendrils, piercing the Mosslings and incinerating them instantly!
Elsewhere in the town, Ruby chucked a fireball at a cluster of Moss that began to dig its way into the ground and dismantle the street, leaping at the entity with an electricity charged fist and punching the creature, smashing it to pieces. She looked around, seeing patches of Moss that spread all over nearby houses and remembering how the security outpost in space was destroyed earlier, quickly rising to her feet and failing to notice a large Mossling collecting behind her! The monster swung at her with a jagged arm too quickly for her to react when a transparent energy disc shot through its chest, ripping it apart!
Ruby turned as she heard the monster collapse behind her and smiled as she saw who it was that saved her. "Nalar!"
"Heh, sorry, my spells are a little weak." The ruby said as the magic circle in his hands fizzled out.
"Wait, shouldn't you be healing after what happened earlier?" Ruby asked.
"I'll be fine." Nalar said, grunting in pain and worrying the red woman.
Carnelian ran toward a Mossling nearby the two, screaming wildly as she held out her little spear and swung at the creature while it wasn't looking. She shut her eyes as the blade made contact with the monster, not realizing that it hadn't made a dent, and Nalar conjured a light disc inside the creature, causing it to fall apart. Carnelian opened her eyes and smiled as the Mossling lay dead at her feet, running off to attack another one across from her. Nalar chuckled and followed the small gem as she 'fought' more of the Moss and Ruby looked on in amusement, charmed by his kindness.
A Pearl clone rushed past Ruby however and clashed with a Mossling with its sword, hacking off the monster's arm and swiftly slashing it in half! The doppelganger looked to the sky to see the original Pearl floating above the town, conjuring a large spear in her hand. Looking out into a street before her, the pale woman took aim with her lance and hurled it down at a group of Mosslings that attacked homes below. The weapon split into a volley of smaller javelins and rained upon the monsters from above, erupting in explosions of light that burned them completely!
In front of the community building, Old Topaz cut down a Mossling with his photonic axe, panting as he stood up and looked at the small town become overrun with the monsters. He steeled himself, ready to fight another creature as it ran toward him when Jasper crashed onto it and blasted it with an energy beam from her hand, walking off the downed creature and moving up to the man.
"So, how're things looking out here?" She asked.
"These critters keep comin', but I've held 'em off for now." The old gem said almost breathless.
"You've gotta sit this one out, old man."
"I gotta defend this place; if I sit by, everyone inside will die."
"We've got this under control." Jasper said.
"Ya sure ya do? 'Cause the entire village's covered already." Old Topaz pointed at a building nearby completely covered in a mass of Moss.
Jasper growled. "These things are fucking weak, but they just keep coming." She cracked her knuckles. "But, we'll find a way to take 'em out for good, don't worry."
A bubbling sound interrupted them however and Jasper turned to see the Mossling she'd blasted on the ground slowly reform and turn red! She frowned as she saw this, realizing that all the Moss she and the others had taken down were coming back alive the same way, doubling the number of enemies they were facing! She unleashed her aura from her body and tried to fly off when she heard a loud explosion, looking back and seeing a wall of the community building collapse as a giant Mossling broke through!
She ran toward it, but tripped over as more of the entity wrapped around her leg, pulling her to the ground! She fired at it, freeing herself, but looked onward to see cracks all over the ground, realizing that the Moss had rooted itself beneath the town! "Shit."
Jasper heard screams from the community center behind her and she flew into the building, shooting a hole through the giant Mossling inside and looking to see the gems were unharmed. She rushed outside when she felt a tremor spread through the town, looking to her left and seeing a swathe of Moss hoist a house into the air and rip right through it, killing the gems inside! She frowned as she wondered what to do next and saw several Bloodstones nearby break apart as the green entity pierced into them as it seeped from the ground!
Jasper looked below her and saw a green liquid starting to rise from the ground as the Moss spread further. "Y'all need to get outta here!" Old Topaz said, hacking down a monster to his left.
"What? We're not leaving you like this." Jasper said.
"There's no saving this place anymore." Old Topaz said. "You can't get sucked into this village's problems."
"These things are weak, we can take them out."
"Jasper, look around, the village's overrun."
"No, we don't give up." Jasper unleashed her aura and prepared to fight when she saw several houses nearby collapse underground one by one, freezing in her tracks. Her face paled as the Mosslings began to collect and spread beneath the ground, swarming over Helio and Pearl who were nearby, completely immobilizing them.
"You have to get out while you still can." Old Topaz said. "You can't stop the Diamonds if you get caught up in all of this." Jasper thought this through.
In a street nearby, Pearl struggled as the liquid Moss began to pull her underground, nearly submerging her when a clone of hers grabbed her hand and pulled her out, letting her levitate in the air. She breathed heavily as she felt burns spread on her body and turned to see Helio getting sucked into the entity like she was, raising her arms and pulling him out telekinetically. She looked around as she held him up and saw Ruby and Nalar on the ground below.
"Ruby! Ruby, we need to get outta –," Pearl tried to say when the town split in half, moving Ruby and Nalar further away her!
Nalar and Ruby were knocked off their feet from the aftershock and Nalar panicked as he saw Carnelian holding onto a building frightfully. "Carnelian! Get back here, it's not safe!"
"N-no, I can still fight them!" She mustered, beginning to tear up as fear took over.
"Carnelian, listen to him! We can't take them on like this!" Ruby yelled.
Carnelian whimpered as she saw a house break down near her and she slowly nodded. "I'm coming!" She gulped, inching her way toward them as the ground started to tilt, making harder for her to move. Ruby got to her feet and ran toward the girl who reached out to her, slowly closing the distance when the Moss broke out from below Carnelian and wrapped around her!
"Carnelian!" Ruby cried, trying to shoot fire at the Moss when the earth snapped in half again, splitting them further apart.
Carnelian struggled against the pull of the Moss, trying to get to Ruby when the entity stabbed through her chest, drawing blood from her mouth! Nalar's body fell limp as he saw the little girl impaled, falling to his knees as her gemstone shattered and the Moss sucked her into the earth! Ruby panted as she looked around, seeing the town break down and fall into a widening abyss, separating her and Nalar from Pearl, Helio and Jasper who were on the other side!
SEVERAL PURPLE-skinned aliens ran about in a panic as a cluster of Moss moved through their city on the monster planet, fleeing for their lives as the entity began to root itself into the nearby buildings and raze them to the ground! A woman tripped as she fled and screamed in terror as a Mossling raised its arm to strike her down when a pink energy ball burst through the creature's chest, burning it to bits!
"Try to get somewhere safe, we've got this!" Steven yelled from above and flew into the fray, engaging the Mossling horde.
Running through a nearby street, Ben – who had transformed into Diamondhead – came up to a mass of Moss and slammed his fist against the ground, sending out a line of diamonds that pierced through the creature and broke it apart. He felt the earth rumble and turned to see a building collapsing, quickly running to the rescue when Gwen flew in and raised her hands into the air, holding up the edifice with telepathy! Chanting a spell, the sorceress summoned two photonic pillars beneath the structure that slowly put it back in an upright position and she cast another spell, binding the building together with magical energy.
Ben smiled as his cousin flew past and jerked as the road broke apart, looking to his left to Kevin who ripped a cluster of Moss out of the ground. Grabbing the entity, Kevin absorbed the creature's material and transformed into it, thrusting his arm up and forcing more Moss up to the surface, shattering it instantly! Focusing on the task at hand, Ben tapped on the large watch on his chest, transforming into XLR8 and sped off, dashing past Steven who cut down a Mossling with an energy axe.
Channeling his energy, Steven enlarged the lance and cast it forward, tearing through several Mosslings up ahead and guiding the weapon photokinetically. In a nearby street, Starfire descended to the ground with a twirl, sending out a wave of green plasma that hacked several beasts that were around her! Seeing Steven's javelin fly toward her, the orange woman grabbed the weapon and shoved it through the gravel below; creating an explosion that vaporized the green mass underground!
Steven moved up to Starfire. "You think that's all of them?"
"No; according to Plumber Intel, there should be a lot more of the bioweapon still lurking around." Star crossed her arms. "This battle could prove quite troublesome."
"Not for long." Gwen said as she hovered past them, her body glimmering as her aura rose.
Chanting a spell, Gwen wove her arms above her head and created a massive purple magic circle above the city, creating a vacuum like pull that began to draw in the Moss below! The ground shook violently and Steven, Starfire, Kevin and Ben looked around in surprise as the green entity was sucked up into the air and collected around the light disc, getting bound to it and electrocuted as they made contact!
"I'm gonna need some help here!" Gwen struggled as her energy began to wane.
"I got it!" Steven shot into the air.
Charging energy into his palm, Steven forged an energy ball that quickly expanded in size and he chucked it at the green mass in the air, immediately creating a force field above him and the others! Gwen looked at him curiously when the energy ball collided with the Moss and erupted in a massive explosion that caused gale force winds that nearly knocked her back despite being behind the barrier! Moving her hands away as the blast dispersed, the red-haired girl looked on in amazement as the Moss was completely destroyed, descending to the ground.
"So, was that all of 'em?" Steven asked.
"No, more are on their way." Gwen said.
"Really? Oh, come on!" Steven followed her.
"Wow, Steven, that was amazing!" Starfire looked at the smoke in the sky above.
"Heh, nah, it was nothing." Steven rubbed the back of his neck shyly.
"What do you mean there's still more of this junk? Didn't you draw it all up from the ground?" Kevin asked.
"The Moss are capable of regeneration, though I'm not sure to what extent." Gwen said. "I think the only way we can stop this as it the source."
"You want us to go to Home World?" Ben pocketed his hands. "That's a little ballsy, even the Lantern Corp are afraid of setting foot there."
"I'm sensing an immense energy signature on this planet." Gwen said, looking to the valley to her right. "And I think it might be the source of the Moss."
CONNIE BREATHED heavily as she pulled herself up to the top of the hill, looking up and sighing in relief as Pearl offered her a hand from above. Taking her hand, the girl was pulled upward and she turned to the Slave Village in the distance behind them, her heart sinking as she saw the small town fall apart as the Moss completely swallowed it and the gems in it underground! She looked to Pearl, Helio and Jasper who were on the hill with her, the latter who sat by herself in silence, and she began to panic.
"Wait, where's Ruby?" Connie asked.
"We got separated from them, but she was with Nalar the last time I saw her." Pearl said, huffing. "This's a disaster."
"Not looking into the Moss when they were being developed by the Diamonds was a total oversight on my part." Helio crossed his arms. "Pink Diamond was at the head of the experiments and she wasn't as successful a scientist as White Diamond, so I didn't think she'd pull this off. Now that it's been awakened along with Black Diamond, our problems just got far worse."
"Who is Black Diamond exactly?" Connie asked.
"He's the first gem with an artificial intelligence and is more powerful than most gem commanders, though still weaker than the Diamonds themselves." Helio explained. "When colonization of a planet fails or the Diamonds deem its resources or inhabitants worthless, they send him to simply destroy the planet and move on."
"So, the Diamonds want to destroy Home World?"
"I'm not sure, but we do know that they want to wipe the slate clean of any gems they see unfit to live, so they've awakened the Moss." Helio said.
"We need to come up with a plan." Pearl turned to him. "We can't let more gems get killed off like this."
"But how can we stop this? We don't know where the others are and we have no idea how to actually take out the Moss." Connie said.
"There's no point in trying to stop the Moss." Jasper finally spoke.
"What? But they're murdering gems." Pearl frowned.
"The Diamonds intercepted our plans before they even began and have taken out the armies I had posted off-world before I could bring them back together. We've lost this fight." Jasper said.
"So we should just give up?"
"No, but Helio and I are leaving this planet." Jasper rose to her feet, revealing Blood Quartz whom she held in her arms, and she pressed a button on her gauntlet, activating a space suit that covered her from head to toe.
"Wait, where're you going?" Pearl asked.
"To get more power." Jasper said as she walked off and activated Blood's space suit. "We'll meet up again at the center of Region Pink when we're done."
"Wait, what're you talking about?" Pearl asked, raising her brow as Helio donned his own suit and shot into the air, following Jasper who'd flown off. "Hey, wait!" She called out, but the two gems had already gone.
"Did they just ditch us here?" Connie squinted as the two disappeared into the sky.
"I don't know, but we'll stick to the plan." Pearl said, descending down the side of the hill. "Follow me."
"What's at the center of Region Pink exactly?" Connie quickly followed her.
"The home of Pink Diamond, my former master."
TRUNKS CAREFULLY navigated his ship as he and Goten drew closer to Home World, his mind whirring with thoughts as he tried to think of how they should approach their mission. From the rumors he'd heard, the Diamonds were not beings you'd want to cross paths with and if they had Kale and Caulifla, he wondered how they'd make it out alive. Fear quickly took hold of him as he remembered the stories he'd heard from Thor back at Avengers Headquarters, of how they'd come across Thanos years ago and fought him to a stalemate and how they'd taken out other cosmic invaders in the past.
He tried to calm himself when Goten interrupted his thoughts. "I'm bored!" The raven-haired man beside him groaned.
"Hey, I'm trying to focus here!" Trunks yelled at him. "Do you realize that we might end up facing one of the biggest threats in the known universe if we screw this up?"
"Yeah, yeah, something about some giant bitches or some shit, who cares."
"The Diamonds managed to go toe to toe with Thanos! If we mess this up, we're dead." Trunks said.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, man."
"You know, these past few months, all you've done is just sit around listening to music, eat trash and doing nothing to aid the mission." Trunks put the ship on autopilot.
"Well, how am I gonna help? I don't know how this ship works anyway." Goten sat back.
"You could at least clean up once in a while or help navigate the ship; you went through flight school just like I did."
"Well, you're doing a good job if you ask me; I don't see what else I can do." Goten shrugged.
"Y'know what, I –," Trunks tried to say when Jasper and Helio flew past their ship, causing it to swerve out of control!
"What the?!" Goten yelled as he fell off his seat.
"Something just went past us!" Trunks took the controls and stabilized the ship, looking at the radar in amazement as it tracked Jasper and Helio leaving the star system. "What the hell was moving that fast?"
"Uh, Trunks …" Goten pointed outside.
Trunks raised his head and immediately froze in surprise as he saw the debris of the security outposts floating around Home World. He slowed the ship down and maneuvered through the maze of carnage, stunned as torn apart and burned body parts drifted past them. He checked the ship's computers and became more unnerved as he saw that it detected Kale and Caulifla's energy signatures on the planet's surface.
"What happened here?" Goten asked.
"I don't know, but we're here." Trunks said. "This's Home World."
"But, didn't you say the Diamonds were super powerful? Who wrecked the place like this?"
"How would I know?" Trunks huffed. "Let's make our descent."
Trunks ignited the ship's thrusters and entered the planet's atmosphere, steeling himself for what horrors he might witness when he landed when he saw a massive beautiful city in the distance. The white and chrome futuristic metropolis shone in the middle of a beautiful valley, literally glimmering against the aurora sky lit by two suns. The sight completely caught him off-guard, but he remained apprehensive, setting the ship in the middle of a small forest far from the city to shroud their arrival.
Goten smiled as he saw small six-winged birds and furry creatures scamper about as they landed and quickly rose to his feet and headed for the door as Trunks shut off the engines. "Where're you going?" The purple-haired man asked.
"I'm gonna check the area out." Goten said.
"No, you're staying here." Trunks got up. "I'm taking recon, so you watch the ship."
"Aw, what?" Goten whined.
"We can't have our only way home destroyed, so you keep watch while I try to figure out a way to get into the city." Trunks strapped on a gauntlet on his left arm. "Kale and Caulifla are in that city, so I'll try to find an entry point then we sneak in and get them out before we get spotted, so keep watch."
"Fine." Goten frowned and headed into the cockpit as Trunks opened the vessel's doors and leapt out.
Goten grumbled to himself as he took his seat and watched as Trunks flew through the forest, leaving him alone inside the vessel. He hummed to himself and looked around, immediately regretting leaving his laptop behind and missing the internet as his phone couldn't pick up a signal this far from earth. Five minutes passed and he quickly got bored, grabbing his phone and drifting away to his favorite songs.
As he sat back and bobbed his head to the music however, he failed to see a white-robed guard fly passed the windshield and only jerked up when the gem blasted a hole into the hull of the ship! "Hey, what're you –," Goten turned around and immediately ducked as the gem woman fired a laser from her spear and blew up the cockpit, causing the ship to erupt into flames!
Trunks stopped in his tracks and turned to see a massive fire in the trees where he'd left Goten. "What the hell?" He quickly flew back to the ship.
Goten squinted through the fires and jumped out of the way as another guard shoved a spear at him, quickly grabbing the staff and punching him in the gut, sending him flying out of the vessel. Rising into the air, Goten looked around and panicked as the ship was in pieces and screamed in pain as a larger ship fired at him from above, driving him into the earth!
Goten tumbled on the ground and rolled to a stop, looking up to see several white-robed gems rushing at him with two large ships behind them. "Well, Trunks' gonna be mad."
Goten engaged the attackers, kicking two aside swiftly and firing a ki blast at three others up ahead, causing an explosion that knocked several more behind them off their feet! He smirked and bounced in place, dismissing his enemies when a large six-legged beast bashed him from behind, sending him flying through a tree! The rider raised her arm and summoned more creatures from the forest, surrounding the saiyan from all sides.
Goten looked around in a panic, wondering what to do next as nearly 50 guards and beasts and a ship above immediately swarmed around him and blocked his means of escape. "Final Flash!" Trunks yelled and unleashed a massive blast of energy that blazed through half of the attackers, revealing himself as he rushed toward Goten in his Super Saiyan form. "What the hell did you do?"
"I don't know, they just came outta nowhere!" Goten said as he got to his feet.
"You weren't keeping watch, were you?"
"Is this really the time to start lecturing me?" Goten snapped at him then frowned as the gems that were hit quickly healed their wounds. "This's bad."
"If we fight them, we'll draw more attention to ourselves and if we just escape, the entire city will be on alert if they aren't already." Trunks said.
"What do we do then?"
Trunks sifted his mind when a massive portal opened beneath them and began rapidly sucking the gems and beasts into it, nearly pulling him and Goten along with them! The two saiyans quickly ascended into the air and watched in awe as the gateway swallowed their enemies and vanished, leaving the forest immediately quiet as it was before the attack. They looked at each other in surprise when a purple van flew toward them, confusing them as they heard people inside quarrelling.
"Why'd you use the portal generator? You used up a huge chunk of the ship's power!" A female voice yelled.
"Well, we wanted to help them right? What else was I supposed to do?" A man responded.
"You were supposed to sit back and let me handle it! For crying out loud, it's like dealing with an infant!"
"Hey, you should respect your elders, young lady."
"I am much older than you, human!" The girl snapped back.
"Huh?"
The girl groaned and opened the door. "Hey, you two need a ride? The human says you're most likely friendlies." Peridot said.
"Don't worry, I'm a Plumber!" Greg called out from inside the vehicle.
Trunks and Goten looked at each other curiously.
LOUD CRASHES and bubbling sounds emanated from a massive abyss on the monster planet that stretched out for several meters, a pit so wide that the bottom was invisible to Steven as he looked into it. Frowning as the noises continued to echo; he stepped back and turned to Gwen. "Is this where the energy signature you were talking about is?"
"Yes." Gwen said.
"What the hell is even down there?" Ben chucked a rock into the hole, listening for it to hit the bottom.
"Yeah, and what exactly dug this all up?" Kevin looked around at the huge mounds of rock and soil that lay around the pit.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's very powerful." Gwen answered.
Ben squinted, surprise spreading on his face. "It still hasn't hit the bottom."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to find out what's down there." Steven said, immediately jumping down.
At the bottom of the abyss, several Mosslings clawed against the rock frantically, tirelessly digging further and further underground as they headed for the planet's core. A few feet above them was a dark being with pure black skin that hovered above them, his eyes set below at his underlings as they followed his psychic orders. He was Black Diamond.
There ya go, chapter 2! Sorry I took so long to update, I got really sick and some other stuff came up that kept me from writing anything for a while.
If you're enjoying the story so far, check out our Deviantart page or Tumblr page (/realdoneuniverse) for our character designs for Steven and Connie as well as other character designs for previous books! Be sure to follow so you don't miss any more designs and follow this book so you don't miss any new chapters when we update.
Don't forget to leave a REVIEW and tell us what you think of the story so far, it helps the book get noticed more easily and lets us know if we're doing a good job or not. It also overall motivates us to keep writing more, so don't forget to show your support.
Thanks for reading and await our next chapter 'New Gems'. See ya next time.
