The gems made it outside, fighting against the quaking ground that attempted to knock them flat on their backs. A ringing noise that usually accompanied the sound of a forming fusion still sounded throughout the rocky landscape, although a bit muted since they'd escaped the lab.
"Garnet, what fusion are they making?!" Steven asked, excitement mixed in his tone without a hint of fear.
"I-I don't know," the leader replied a second slow, barely keeping her composure. For a moment, she wondered how Steven wasn't the least bit frightened by this new development.
She shook her head, clearing her mind. She had a job to do.
"Peridot, tell us if there's any other abilities of an Obsidian."
"Uhh," Peridot hesitated, trying to rack her brain for anything she might have missed. "No, not that I can think of," she answered, looking down in concentration. " I think just Mind powers and telekenesis," she reminded.
Garnet remained silent, her head lowering slightly in thought. The gems made it back to the open clearing where the entrance to the lab's defunct lift was located. They followed Garnet behind an overturned Gem Harvester. This would buy them time, at least for a minute or two.
"What are we going to do?" Peridot whispered harshly, although with this being Peridot, she might as well have not been whispering at all.
"We just take out fusion with fusion!" Amethyst declared, as if the answer was obvious. "We could form Opal!"
Pearl regarded her curiously.
"The arrows are pretty strong," Amethyst explained, now holding everyone's attention. "Maybe it could poof their fusion."
Garnet was almost inclined to agree. But something in her future vision was telling her it wouldn't work. But she couldn't surmise how...
Garnet's lips were pursed in that way where the rest of the gang knew she was debating on whether to take advice that she heard or not.
Finally, she shook her head, to everyone's surprise.
"She's not strong enough. I foresee that we'll need someone who hits a lot harder..."
It was silent for several seconds until Pearl spoke up.
"Alexandrite?"
Everyone held their breath when Garnet didn't speak for several seconds. The group nearly jumped out of their skin when the ground exploded outward where the lift entrance was, creating a massive crater where it once lie. Dust exploded outward like a sphere, obscuring the gems' view of the damage.
An impressively large figure was revealed through the settling dust cloud.
She had four arms, and where the elbow would be, that's where the limb would split into two arms on either side. The forearms were powerfully built, legs thick with muscle. It was clear most of her form was inherited from the Quartz.
Just like her limbs, she also had four eyes, the upper pair placed where eyebrows would be. They looked constantly narrowed and held a piercing stare. The lower pair, placed normally, were slightly larger and more expressive. While they weren't narrowed, neither did they look friendly.
Her expression looked more intense than necessary, with her head framed by a wild mane of hair, centered by a widow's peak. Because Obsidian's hair had been obscured by the hooded cloth she wore, it was surprising to see the fusion's wild hair topped of by a pony tail that seemed to stand upwards as if lit with static electricity.
Garnet noted that the new fusion was staring at her own hands in some sort of awed confusion as if seeing them for the first time.
She reconsidered Amethyst's suggestion.
"Alexandrite won't work either," she stated, but raised her hand to halt Pearl's confused protest. "I've thought it over again," she clarified. "I think this gem is it's first time coming into existence."
At this, the gems peeked around their cover, noticing that the fusion seemed to still be examining herself.
"She looks to be slightly weaker than Malachite but more stable- Opal can take her, if she's careful."
The silence seemed to grow a bit more oppressive at the mention of Malachite, but Peridot, surprisingly, broke the silence.
"While the battle commences, I'll see what I can deduce of the data that's been sent to Yellow Diamond," she said, procuring a disc shaped device, of which a holographic screen popped up.
"Where'd you find that?" came Pearl's query.
"I grabbed it off of Obsidian," Peridot stated matter of factly, as if it were obvious.
"Wow, Peri, didn't know you had quick hands like that," Amethyst complimented.
"Amethyst, Pearl, get ready," Garnet intoned. Amethyst and Pearl's expressions grew serious and they nodded simultaneously.
She stared at her hands for a while, even after registering that the Crystal Gems had retreated from the lab. Moments later she followed suit, merely jumping through the roof as if it were wet paper. Dust and dirt and rocks exploded around her, and she found herself to be standing in a crater. She looked at her arms and how either set of arms met at her elbow. Had she done that?
This was what a fusion of different types felt like.
It was amazing!
Sure, she had fused before, at least the Amethyst part of her had. But that was an Amethyst fusing with another Amethyst. This was a completely different experience.
Melding with another of your own cut mostly felt like you were yourself, only bigger.
She felt like two gems, but also...didn't...as if Amethyst and Obsidian were totally different entities from herself. It was confusing and simple all at once.
Something in her head was bugging her to think of a name. Obsidian managed kindergardeners; she felt she should know this.
"I'll call myself...Apatite," she murmured and suppressed a snort, as if she were privy to some inside joke at the mention of it.
From the corner of her mind's eye, the telepathic portion of her brain alerted her to an incoming missle, cutting her laughter short. She jerked her head backwards, just missing what looked like an arrow made of pure white light. It soared past to collide with a nearby cliff face, almost obliderating the outcropping. Light flashed behind her where the sneak attack had overshot it's target, lighting the area around her like a temporary halo.
Apatite gazed ahead of her at the new Gem facing her. She looked tall and very athletic, if not a few heads shorter than herself.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Apatite demanded, taking note of the rest of the Crystal Gems behind the fusion. By process of elimination she figured the fusion to be made up of the Amethyst and Pearl.
The fused archer had a new arrow already nooked into her bow, the light emanating from it almost painfully glaring to her quartet of eyes.
Opal didn't respond immediately, narrowing her left eye. She allowed the arrow to let fly, forcing Apatite to quickly arch her head sideways. This time, thin strands of hair got cut away, and one of Apatite's larger eyes widened curiously.
"Opal," the archer's somewhat deep voice answered, almost at odds with her lithe figure. She still aimed her bow at the other fusion. Both gems were still, with Garnet and Steven looking on apprehensively. Peridot was totally unawares, typing furiously on the holographic display, uttering an occasional grunt of concentration or frustration.
"I'll be farther back, where there's less chance of me becoming collateral damage," Peridot announced, backtracking from Garnet and Steven.
Steven nodded in acknowledgement, while Garnet was a bit more distracted. "Please don't wander too far," she insisted, not having looked behind her.
Turning a corner, Peridot made sure to still be within earshot, resuming her work on the stolen log.
The holographic screen was another reminder of her lost limb enhancers, and she sighed. She had to keep it together.
After tracing the download history of the signal, she found that Yellow Diamond knew the cluster was bubbled. She paused her typing, thinking of the ramifications of this. Seeing firsthand how...irrational her former Diamond could be and her being aware of just why the Cluster had not taken form left a cold empty feeling where her stomach would be. She wouldn't let this kind of information be. Yellow Diamond had no love for the Earth; she wouldn't just leave the Earth alone, no, she'd find another way to destroy the planet, and that left her feeling a bit horrible.
But what could she do? At this point, Yellow Diamond doesn't know that the Crystal Gems - or at least Peridot as of now- are aware of Yellow Diamond knowing this. She'd have to find a way to turn this to their advantage...but how?
A loud clanging noise ceased her train of thought, and she peeked her head around the corner. Opal and Apatite were still duking it out, but it looked like the shorter fusion was slowing down against the homeworld fusion. That was definitely cause for conern-
KLANG
There was that noise again...
The engineer turned back around to face her holo display and nearly jumped.
Merely a foot away from her stood an apparently inactive Robonoid, supported by two legs, while the remaining two were in open air, as if it was freeze framed mid-fall. And it was about the size of the escape pod she had had used when she first got stranded on Earth.
"What's a robonoid doing here..?" she asked aloud. She looked behind her to see the fight still ongoing, and she could still easily spot the mop of curly hair belonging to Steven and the wavy afro of Garnet.
She tapped her bottom lip in thought, idly examing the out of place device with the trained eye only a technician could have. She walked around it, behind it, and stared at it from all angles.
"Obsidian's ship wouldn't even have a robonoid if there was no Peridot stationed," she exhaled in irritation, wondering if she should possibly try to hack it. It could help fight off the two gems.
"Valid observation, era 2 gem," said a voice nearly identical to hers.
"Wha-" Peridot was cut off by something poking at her side. Teeth chattering, her limbs failed to answer her mental commands, belatedly realizing they were being overloaded with electricity. The last thing she saw was her own face leering down at her before it was obscured by green smoke and then darkness.