With an ear-shattering crash of thunder, the kindergarten filled with an explosion of lightning that sent Pink soaring out of the canyon, and crashing onto the higher ground, beyond, rattled and stunned, but with her gem unharmed. Looking up, fearfully, Pink saw Yellow shoot out of the canyon and high into the air. Yellow reached upwards and, with a swing of her arm, cast a bolt of lightning from the storm clouds above, at the smaller Diamond.
The explosion of light and smoke obscured Pink from sight. Yellow landed in the sparse forest beyond the kindergarten, and waited for the smoke to clear. When it did, she saw Pink huddling in a protective sphere of dense foliage, which was scarred, blackened, and partially aflame, but intact.
"A leader has to be powerful, Pink!" Yellow goaded, as she walked towards her. "If you can't defeat me, then what right do you have to continue the legacy of the Great Diamond Authority?"
"There's more to being a leader than wielding power, Yellow!" Pink spat.
Yellow made to grab Pink's arm, and pull her from her cocoon, but Pink surprised her by thrusting her hand out first, and grabbing Yellow. As Pink pulled her hand down, Yellow was ensnared by a series of tendrils that burst out of the ground, impaling her arm on wicked thorns.
"I am resourceful... resilient... intelligent!" She countered.
While she spoke, Pink leapt over Yellow's head, and kicked her in the back while pulling on her free hand and, before Yellow could overpower her, another group of thorny tendrils secured her other arm. The foliage constricted, pulling Yellow's arms to the ground, and forcing her to her knees.
Far from looking distressed, or fearful, Yellow smirked. "What now Pink? Are you going to shatter me? I had every intention of shattering you, you know."
"Well I'm not you..." Pink said, proudly, crossing her arms. "I told the other Diamonds of your invasion, and I'll tell them about this too, we'll all decide what to do with you."
"That's your problem, Pink." Yellow sneered. "You'll always feel like you can fall back on White and Blue, because you're weak. You'd rather hope White shatters me, than do it yourself. I've got news for you Pink, this isn't White's colony, it isn't Blue's and it isn't mine. You have to deal with invaders yourself, and decide their fate, but you'll never have that kind of strength... If you tried to do what I did on one of my colonies, you'd be dust before you touched the surface!"
"Tough talk, from someone who was beaten by someone who's never been in a fight before..." Pink said, trying to sound confident, but Yellow's utter lack of concern was making her nervous.
Yellow laughed a quiet, terrifying laugh. "If you get another chance to shatter me... I suggest you take it. But don't worry... You won't."
Before Pink could respond, lightning surged from Yellow's hands, down the foliage and into the ground. Yellow was obscured in another explosion, which sent dirt and smoke flying in all directions, prompting Pink to shield her face. Before Pink recovered, Yellow leapt at her and, with arcs of electricity crackling from her fist, delivered a resounding punch to her torso. Pink Leapt to the side, and as she rolled across the dirt, plant life coated her arms and chest like a suit of armour, with thorns like gigantic blades.
Yellow cast bolt after bolt of lightning from her arms, which Pink did her best to evade. Occasionally, Yellow would land a hit, and some of Pink's armour would burn away, but she didn't have any openings large enough to grow more.
After a particularly violent outburst of electricity, Pink saw such an opening. Transferring her protective plants to her hand, Pink lunged at Yellow, and slammed her palm on the other Diamond's gem. The vines ensnared Yellow, and began to restrict, the vicious thorns tore into Yellow's form, and she began to flicker.
While Pink focused on commanding her plants, she didn't notice the spots of light, glowing through the storm clouds above her, like tiny suns. All at once, a barrage of laser fire fell upon Pink, from a small fleet of attack robonoids, large drones, with wings and laser cannons, built to storm enemy fortresses on hostile planets.
Pink leapt backwards and lifted her forearms, manifesting a sturdy, wooden shield from the ground. The vines restricting Yellow relaxed, just short of disrupting her. As Yellow rose to her feet and advanced, Tayko climbed out of the kindergarten, and onto the flat ground on which the Diamonds were fighting. She looked up at the robonoids, lowering towards the spot at which they were firing, where she guessed Pink was sheltering behind a sheet of wood. It seemed like Pink was at a disadvantage, and needed all the help she could get.
Tayko ran towards the nearest robonoid and mentally prepared herself, breathing in and out, rapidly. Having mostly used her mutant powers to fight unprepared Gem soldiers, she hadn't had much opportunity to test her powers' limits, but she was about to. Tayko leapt high into the air, flailing her arms as she soared helplessly above the nearest drone, and tried to guide herself down towards it. She fell gracelessly onto its wing and rolled, just managing to hang on with one hand, before she fell over the edge. Below her, she saw Yellow Diamond, adding to the bombardment Pink was receiving, with her lightning powers.
Tayko quickly heaved herself up onto the robonoid's back and ran to its center. She reached as far as she could down the wing on each side, and grabbed the edge, about a third of the way down each's length. Grunting and groaning at first, and then screaming in physical exertion, Tayko slowly bent the wings inwards. The drone began to sway through the air helplessly, and Tayko shifted her weight, guiding its laser fire in the direction of its fellow drones. One by one, Tayko used the Robonoid she had mounted, to destroy its partners, and by the time Yellow Diamond turned around, in response to the laser fire slowly dwindling, Tayko had it firing upon her.
No sooner had Yellow's bombardment on Pink ended, than Pink pulled her seared and broken wooden shield from the ground, and slammed it against Yellow's head in her distraction. Yellow flew from her feet, and splayed in the ground. With a hasty gesture from the floored Diamond, Tayko's captive drone immediately ceased firing on her, and fell to earth, with Tayko leaping clear of the subsequent explosion.
"You know Pink... Diamonds very rarely fight their own battles, and until now, they've never fought each other..." Yellow said, crawling backwards, as Pink advanced, clenching her fists.
"What's your point?" Pink snarled.
Yellow smirked triumphantly. "My point is... no Diamond truly knows what any other is capable of..." Yellow pointed the palm of her hand at Pink and a searing light shone from it, forcing Pink to squeeze her eyes shut and cry out in pain. Before Pink could see again, Yellow shot to her feet, grabbed Pink's neck and lifted her cleanly off the ground. "… But I'd hazard to guess that your powers only work when you're in contact with this disgusting planet!"
Pink struggled, pointing her toes downwards, but the taller Diamond kept the ground out of her reach.
"You're wrong..." Pink croaked.
She slammed her knee into Yellow's gem, forcing her to double over just enough. The second Pink's toe touched the ground, a vine ensnared her and held her down securely. Pink delivered a brutal uppercut with her bare fist, which send Yellow stumbling backwards.
"THIS PLANET IS MY POWER!"
With a series of gestures, Pink had thorny vines leap out of the ground at Yellow, like snakes. Yellow defensively deflected with minimalistic sparks of lightning, but Pink attacked too quickly to allow her to manifest enough power to retaliate. As Yellow backed away from Pink, Tayko sprinted towards the two combating titans, aware of how she could help. The mutated human slashed, with her thorns, at the bark of a tall, thin tree, like a feral animal, in such a way that it fell immediately into Yellow's path with a resounding crash.
Unable to turn around, to investigate the source of the noise, Yellow tripped, and fell backwards, into the mud. Silhouetted by another bolt of lightning, Pink lunged for Yellow's gem, and began to pull. Yellow resisted, but her strength faded and her form flickered as Pink pulled. With the last of her strength, Yellow thrusted upwards, and Pink was blasted clear of her, with a burst of lightning.
Hyperventilating, and exhausted, the two Diamonds rose to their feet slowly, looking at each other with pure hatred. Yellow clenched her fist and it visibly glowed with lightning. Pink did the same, and a network of vines crawled towards her hand, ending with a thorn the size of her forearm. With an enraged scream from Pink, the pair lunged at each other with the intent to shatter, but moments before they made contact, they both froze in place, suspended in the air, as an enormous column of light shone down on each of them.
Craning their necks, Pink and Yellow saw the storm clouds parting, and White and Blue Diamond's ships descending on them. Blue Diamond's ship was shining a beam of light which had suspended Pink, and White had secured Yellow. Pink swallowed nervously. There were many ways this could be bad.