Chapter 14: Experiment Title - "Fusion"
Pearl regretted her choice of words with Lapis, now they were awkwardly staring at each other.
"I-I see…" Lapis looks like she's going to cry. She attempts to stand but tumbled over herself.
"Wait! Lapis!" Pearl stands and catches her just in time, "I'm sorry…"
"No… I'm sorry," Lapis mumbles back, "I'm just some sort of creation, I'm not real…"
"But you are…" Pearl replies with a little blush as she gently picks Lapis up and places her onto the couch again, "You're real to me."
Lapis's tears threaten to fall. "But-"
"Never question your existence…" Pearl cuts her off, wiping a tear from her eye. Earning a little blush from the other. "I was wrong before, so forget I said anything." She hastily adds on with a blush.
They were sitting side by side again, Lapis had reopened her book a few minutes ago. Pearl hummed, it was a good tactic for avoiding awkward silences. Almost as good as tea.
"What are you reading?" Pearl asked, she already seen the cover of it but she wanted to at least start a nice conversation for once.
"It has goldfish in it." Lapis replied bluntly, Pearl almost burst in laughter.
"Do you like goldfish?" Pearl asked after a short recovery,
"They're pretty cute," The shorter girl replied, "I'm mostly learning about currents and water environments now though."
"Like the sea?"
"Yeah," Lapis beamed,
Pearl smiled to herself, she knew Lapis was too busy learning the wonders of the world and couldn't see her face. But it was nice to be so passionate about something despite not experiencing it.
"Then, when everything in that basement is over we can go a walk on the beach... Near the sea."
She felt the girl move slightly, "You mean it?" and after a quick nod she shifted again, "I would really like that."
Sitting back and relaxing a little longer, Pearl listened to the waves hitting the shore and lazily closed her eyes for a rest.
That is until the basement creaked and some screams were heard, mostly from Peridot.
All the panic buttons were triggered and Pearl jumped from the couch. She didn't really mind that it was Peridot's scream that she heard the clearest, in fact, if it was only Peridot down there she would have closed off the basement by now and sealed the entrance. But Garnet and Amethyst were also down there and that was very concerning.
They looked ominously at the opening,
"What… What was that?" Lapis asked in disbelief,
Pearl stood and peered over the side, it was dark like always, even if the lights were on. A chill went through her and she shivered slightly.
"Do I have to?" 'of course I have to,' she scolded herself mentally,
"I don't want you to… But you have to." Lapis replied, "can you take me with you?"
Pearl looked at her, one eyebrow raised, "No."
"Please?"
"What- Lazuli, you need to rest! you're cut open!"
"You are too!" She points to the wound still covered in a bandage,
"You can't walk!"
"I can! you can't go through the hole in the wall."
"Wha?- I can!" Pearl began to get flustered,
"Nope." Lapis blankly stared at her, "not without me." and Pearl groaned.
With little effort, Pearl lifted Lapis into her arms and walked slowly down into the basement.
"I'm carrying you there, it'll be quicker…" Pearl glanced down at Lapis, she seen confidence, but by the way she clutched at her sleeve was a different story. "You're certain?"
"Yes," Lapis replied. "It's not so bad with the lights on."
Pearl nodded at the remark and walked towards the crack in the wall, looking through it was futile as there was nothing on the other side.
She was about to carefully drop Lapis till the lights started to flicker wildly, she jumped back at the wall cracked further, a dust cloud formed and Pearl could hear the cracking of bricks and faint rumblings. They coughed a little as the cloud dispersed and when they could see again the hole was wide enough to simply walk through.
"H-how convenient!" Pearl flustered as she stepped quickly through to the next room with Lapis, trying hard not to think about what just happened. 'Garnet, Amethyst and even Peridot take priority. I just hope we're not buried alive.'
Everything was lightly lit up again as the flashing lights ceased, Pearl grimaced as she walked through a puddle of water. Looking up in curiosity as to what caused it revealed to be a busted pipe, some relief washed over her as she continued to explore and try to find the others.
drip, drip, drip, Water was dripping everywhere. The sound drove the tall girl insane and at one point Pearl would have panicked that it would flood the basement, then she remembered that she would do anything to forget about this area.
"Are you alright?" Pearl asked as Lapis shivered slightly, she wondered if she was cold. 'Can she even get cold?' Pearl grumbled, 'Of course she can! What kind of question is that?'
"I'm fine, let's find them and go."
Pearl hummed in agreement and continued walking through the area, getting closer and closer to the tank.
They ignored the symbol on the wall and most of the furnishings. But Pearl did note that the metal tables and desks where uncovered, old documents and papers where scattered about, littering the floor.
"They made quite a mess…" Pearl lamented,
Lapis nodded her head slightly.
Once the eerie glow of the tank was in sight, Pearl seen her friends huddled around a table. Yet another victim to their messy pilfering. They never noticed her get behind them.
"What happened?" Pearl asked as she sat Lapis down onto one of the wooden desks opposite to them, Peridot yelled in surprise and startled the other two.
"P-Pearl?" Amethyst panted, "you're gonna give someone a heart attack!"
"We heard a scream," Lapis ignored the remark,
"Not to worry." Garnet smirked and looked at Peridot, "someone had a fright, that was all."
"It was unfair and you know it!" Peridot gritted her teeth,
"It was so funny!" Amethyst laughed and Peridot blushed,
"Why are you here?" Amethyst looked to Lapis after she calmed down, "you literally can't walk."
"I can! and I wanted to go so I went." Lapis replied bluntly, earning a smirk from Amethyst,
'great, now Amethyst is going to be more annoying than usual.' Pearl sighed,
"So, discover anything?" Pearl asked Garnet,
"They abandoned this place due to water leakages and strange electrical events, so Peridot's story was right." Garnet said, Pearl momentarily seen Peridot smirk in the background, she gestured a lot with her hands, as if trying to say 'I told you so.' "Lapis was also a secret project, but that's all we know…"
"Not very helpful," Peridot remarked, still in a good mood "but with the lack of readable documentation it's understandable to have misinformation." Pearl grumbled at Peridots arrogant display, she smirked when the short technician jumped at the sound of a drop of water.
Pearl had a bad feeling about the place. Certainly it was extremely creepy, an old research base that made people for stuff and then tested on them, but the feeling she had was more than the atmosphere. It was as if something was staring at her from the darkness. She felt every compulsion to just run and not look back. But just when it could not get any worse...
Everyone jumped at the sound of metal being scraped along one of the walls,
"W-What was that?" Peridot held onto Amethyst's arm,
"It came from there," Amethyst grumbled and pushed Peridot protectively behind her, glaring at the dark hallway behind the tank,
"T-that's where I came from originally!" Peridot gasped, "No one could have discovered this place! unless it was another Peridot but still!"
"Another Peridot?" Lapis doubt evident on her face,
"Siblings that you don't want to talk about?" Amethyst grinned,
"In a way, we're clones after all," Peridot replied, "I mean we don't look exactly similar or even behave similarly but we're mass produced…"
"We'll talk about this later," Garnet shifted towards the opening.
They stared at the small dark passage way.
Pearl was expecting to see another short girl with triangular hair and talking strangely into a phone. They collectively held their breath as they heard something shift closer.
They could barely see a figure, it looked like a girl so that was reassuring.
"Come out!" Garnet authoritatively ordered, holding her badge in one hand as crept towards the figure.
But what replied wasn't human.
A monster-like scream was heard, the same type of scream Pearl heard in the bathroom, except louder. The screech had them covering their ears and knees shake as they felt the ground rumble as the lowest note soon after.
The figure disappeared and an unrecognisable mass crawled out…
It wore a hospital gown, 'more like an asylum gown with the amount of buckles it had'. Despite the gown already being connotated with dread, this gown was torn and shredded, fresh blood speckled across it. Making it adequate nightmare fuel. The monster had hands and legs that would move simultaneously and with no purpose. It had no head or any other features, it was like they ripped several people apart and then sown them together again to make one abomination.
Pearl frowned in disgust when that was exactly what happened to make this thing.
The monster came closer and more was visible. The primary arm on it's left held a scalpel that was unsettlingly covered in blood.
Everyone slowly stepped back and held their breaths, the monster was shuffling about and walked slowly with no intentions.
"T-that's the project we where working on! It's experiment title was 'fusion'!" Peridot whisper screamed to the others, "It must have gotten loose!"
"'Fusion?' You sowed people together?!" Pearl gritted her teeth as she inched back towards Lapis that was stuck in place on a table.
"They were clones! it doesn't count!"
"OH You!" Pearl lost control of her voice slightly and the whimpering of the monster turned into a groan and it charged for the closest person.
Pearl gasped when it was Lapis.
Lapis hyperventilated as it came closer, she fell off the edge of the table and stared up to the sharp glint of the weapon in the monster's hand. Sure it wasn't much, but the scalpel wasn't the thing that was on her mind.
Pearl rushed towards them and the others took their chance to escape… Well… One of them did, the other two ran toward the monster armed with a metal beam and bare fists. Pearl would question Garnet later about not using her gun, that is if there will be a later.
The monster lifted it's weapon and Lapis let out a breath as the blade hit it's target.
The experiment soon lost balance due to it's terrible proportions and Pearl took a chance to whimper at the metal lodged in her shoulder blade. With a grunt she pulled it and fell beside Lapis. She swore that there was something on that scalpel that was vaguely familiar… 'Tranquilliser?' Pearl shuddered at the possibility.
Slowly losing consciousness, Pearl watched the efforts of those around her. She never expected Lapis to stand so confidently without a slight limp…
'Why does it feel so cold?'