Chapter 14: A night out on the town
Temple:
Pearl gasped and rushed over to the boy, "What?! Please tell me you're joking!" The fusion gave her a sheepish expression, "I wish we were, Pearl..."
"Who'd you even fuse with?" Amethyst questioned, crossing her arms.
"My girlfriend...?"
"Connie?" The pale gem raised an eyebrow while the shorter one chuckled, Smoky spoke up, "We should talk about this inside the Temple..."
Lapis, who had been standing behind the group, noticed something familiar about his voice. "Wait a second...it can't be possible..." She whispered as she calmly pushed past the group towards the brown gem.
Smoky noticed her, and his eyes widened, "Lapis..."
"Is he seriously just noticing her now? Steven literally just announced she was here five minutes ago!" Amethyst blurted out, Garnet hushed her, "I think they know each other..."
The thin blue gem stopped directly in front of the taller brown haired one, he brought up his hand and caressed her cheek. "My sweet, sweet, precious little water witch...I missed you."
Lapis backed away a little, and seemed to be skeptical, "Is it really you? Are you...uncorrupt?"
Smoky only smiled and then leaned down and kissed her, "How corrupted did that feel?" She blushed and then smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck and returning the kiss, the other gems just stared.
"Wow..." Was all the leader could say, Pearl was the most surprised, "I can't believe my flippin' eyes!"
They broke the kiss and hugged for a moment, Lapis had tears in her eyes, "Man, have I missed you, I had been trapped in that mirror for so long...I thought that I'd never see you again...Then when my gem broke I-"
Smoky's eyes widened and he immediately spun her around to check her gem, being a bit confused when he found it untouched. The ocean gem giggled and faced him again, "Don't worry, Steven healed me...in a rather gross way..."
Pearl quickly turned and looked at the fusion that now sat on the couch, "Wait, you have her healing tears?"
"Not exactly...it's more like I have her healing spit..."
Amethyst broke out laughing again, the skinny gem shrugged and looked up at Garnet, "At least he can heal, right?"
Lapis suddenly grabbed Smoky's muscular arms, "Wait, what about the war- the Black Diamond Tribe?"
"Over, over, it's all over...we won! Rose was the one who healed me..and after that, Steven and I used one of her Quartizine bombs to blow up their base."
"You found her secret armory?!" Pearl practically yelled at Stevonnie, Connie began to feel uncomfortable. "You know what, why don't I give you guys some space?" She began to stand up, and then the obvious hit her, "Oh wait..."
Lapis smiled weakly, "Well what do we do now?"
"Have fun!" The fusion gushed from the other side of the room, Amethyst smirked and grabbed her off the couch and then led the reunited couple to the door. "Great idea, I know just the place!"
Garnet and Pearl exchanged looks, and then entered the temple.
Outside:
The group stopped shortly, just in front of the boardwalk, "Where are you taking us, Amethyst?" Smoky asked with curiosity.
"To the club of course!"
"Isn't that place like five miles from here?" The fusion inquired, the purple gem grinned widely.
"That's why we're gonna fuse to get there.."
"What? Amethyst, you know that you only need to fuse in deadly situations." The grey skinned gem slightly scolded her.
"Geez you sound just like Pearl, besides you two have been cooped up in mirrors and corruptions for like three-thousand years. When was the last time you guys ever did anything fun?"
The couple looked at each other considering the statement, "She does have a point..."
"Stevonnie, what about you?"
"Yeah! No Steven, it's getting late! Plus we're too young to be going to a club, and I gotta get home." Connie was starting to get frustrated, and so was Steven.
"Come on, just live a little, have some fun! I'd rather have fun that's legal!" The fusion continued to argue with itself, Connie was starting to panic, scared she might be stuck like this forever. While that went on, Smoky and Lapis had began a fusion dance.
It was a fast pace and sensual Argentine tango, Lapis was flipped around Smoky's shoulders and then was twirled and dipped. The brown gem finally ran his hand up her leg, stopping at the middle of her thigh, they then began to change form and grow.
At full size, they were about the size of Alexandrite, the fusion had bands of blue and brown that wrapped around the arms and legs, also plume of wild blue-brown hair. Along with the four arms, the monstrous being also possessed four eyes two being light turquoise and the others being honey brown(The same color of eyes were not directly next to each other). He wore a skin tight brown shirt and baggy turquoise pants that covered his bare feet, the tall fusion was Labradorite.
"So are we going out or what?" The beast's voice was calm but bellowing, Steven tried to convince Connie to go with them, "Come onnnnnnn! I. Said. NO!" At that moment Stevonnie's gem glowed and in the blink of an eye the two young children were laying side by side in the sand. The gem hybrid looked over at his girlfriend, and she wasn't happy, he reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
"I think I need a break..." The Indian started, the pink gem frowned, "What do you mean?"
"We should stop seeing each other for a couple days.."
"A-are you breaking up with me?"
"No...I just..need some space after...all of that." The girl gestured towards him with her hand in a dismissive motion.
Steven then got the hint and slightly backed away from her, turning towards the giant fusion. "Uh, what's your name?"
"Labradorite."
"Can you take Connie home for me please?"
"Sure thing!" The being bent down and held a hand in front of the dark skinned girl, "Hop on..."
She climbed into his palm and was lifted into the air, as the fusion bounded off into the night, Connie waved goodbye to her boyfriend. Amethyst glanced over at Steven who had been staring down at the sand sadly, she walked towards him. "Are you okay?"
"She hates me..."
"No...no, no, no, she's just a little shaken up from almost being stuck as a fusion for the rest of her life.." The boy's gaze shifted to the ocean, the purple gem then tried to cheer him up.
"Do you want a hug?"
"I want to punch something for being such a jerk..."
"Ah, you wanna let off some steam, eh? Well I happen to know just the gem fusion to help you with that.." Amethyst moved away from Steven and then started dancing, her gem lighted up the area in front of her.
"Amethyst, you know that's not what I meant..."
"Yes it is, I can see it in your eyes; the desire to smash something! You know only Rubellite can quench that thirst!" The purple gem gyrated her hips and flipped her hair, "C'mon, don't leave me hangin'"
Steven thought for a moment and soon found himself fused with Amethyst, destroying a vacant farm with his giant weapon.
"Hahahaha! This is just what I needed!" He barked as he launched his destructive top into the barn.
Suddenly, two hands made of water grabbed onto Rubellite's lower set of arms, and then morphed into shackles. The reckless fusion spun around to see Labradorite behind her, "What are you doing?!" He yelled, the shorter fusion tugged at the water chains, but they were in labradorite's tight grip.
"What does it look like? I clearly saw a gem monster and tried to destroy it, you just got in the way.." Rubellite lied, the blue-brown fusion immediately let the water fall to the ground and stepped in front of him.
"Really? Where?" Once Labradorite's back was turned, Rubellite knocked him down with his weapon. The gargantuan beast crashed to the ground, while the other laughed at him, "Oh man, I totally got you! Hahahahaha!"
As the fusion chuckled, a giant water hand sprouted from the fallen being's teardrop shaped gem. It moved towards Rubellite's face, formed as if it was going to flick him, once it got close enough, the finger was released and the magenta beast was sent flying 200 yards backwards.
Rubellite moved the soaking strands of hair out of his face and sat up, "Sheesh, water lizard...can't you take a joke?"
"You're unstable Rubellite, and besides, I thought we were going out..."
"Eh, I got a better idea...why don't you and I go a few rounds.." The pink fusion punched at the air signifying he wanted to fight.
"I don't think you want to do that..." It was clearly Lapis who was warning them.
"Ah c'mon...Smokes, I know you're in there...and I know you wanna wrestle with the Puma! Plus, your nephew just got dumped by his girlfriend, and he really needs to take his anger out on something..."
"You're on!" Labradorite shrugged and cracked the knuckles on the lower set of his hands.
Temple:
Lars was walking over to the temple with Brad, the donut clerk's younger brother seemed to have a lot to say about his trip to the Black Diamond Tribe's base in Homeworld.
"...And then the blue guy started shoving these black crystals into my arms. It really hurt, and then I blacked out for a while...but it's okay because when I woke up-"
"Why don't you tell me more about this story tomorrow..besides, it's probably nothing compared to my time in prison.." Lars grabbed the boy and noogied him, much to his surprise.
"Hey! Cut it out, donut hole!" Brad complained, ducking out of his brother's grasp and fixing his hair. It was then when he realized that they were standing in front of the Temple, the young boy looked up at the broken and withered statue of Fire Opal that was darkened by the night sky.
"Why are we here again?"
"We are here to pick up Steven's hot older sister..." The ginger explained, the twelve year old raised a brow. "Why did you bring me then?"
"Because I think I might've scared her off with the orange jumpsuit I was in when we first met..but when she sees how caring I am with children...Bam! She's all mine!"
"Pfft...I'm not a child, I'm almost thirteen.." Brad argued, Lars rolled his eyes, "The operative word being almost..."
The brothers jogged up the steps of the house and knocked on the door, Garnet was the one to answer. "Hello to you two..." Brad quickly hid behind Lars, quivering.
"Hey, what's the big deal, man?"
"She's the one I saw die...how is she still alive?!" The traumatized preteen was in shock.
"Now I know you're lying, Garnet just saved me from prison..."
"No, he's telling the truth.." The red gem spoke up.
"What?"
"Peridot killed me after I ran into your brother...right Brad?" She started, the boy nodded, Garnet continued, "But unlike humans, when Gems die, we release our physical forms and retreat to our gemstones to heal. Heh, you should've seen look on his face when he saw me, he was so scared!" She chuckled, "You're lucky he got to me before I pummeled you, though...but now that I think about it, when I died I should've s-"
Garnet was cut off by Pearl's voice from inside the house, "Hey Garnet is that Steven you're talking to?" The pale gem walked to the door and saw Lars and Brad, "Oh hi there, Lars...what brings you here so late?"
"Uh, I was wondering if Steven's sister was here..."
"Steven doesn't have a sister...OH you must be talking about Stevonnie! They- I mean she went out with Amethyst and the others. She's probably trying to find a way to unfuse..." She explained, Lars furrowed his brow, not what Pearl meant when she said unfuse.
Garnet put a hand to the side of her shades, "Pearl, something's happening downtown..."
"What is it, did something happen to Steven?"
"I can't tell, too much is going on.." She said with a worried tone, at that moment, Lars' phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket. It was Sour Cream face timing him, he hit the answer button and saw the blonde with Jenny and Buck,they all looked scared.
"Sour Cream, what's going on?"
"I don't know, me and the gang were just ravin' at the mall when these ginormous guys just showed up and started knocking the crap out of each other."
"What are you talking about?" The ginger could hear crashing and horrified screams in the background. The camera turned and showed Labradorite and Rubellite battling each other, damaging buildings in the process.
"Uh, guys...you might want to see this..." Lars showed the gems his phone, Pearl gasped and slapped a hand to her mouth.
"What are they doing?! They're going to destroy the whole city if they stay fused! And is that Smoky and Lapis with them?!"
"That lil boy is in big trouble!" Garnet stated, and then turned to the skinnier gem, "Pearl, we're gonna need...Spessartite!"
"Wait what now? What's going on?" Lars asked, pocketing the phone once again.
"There's no time for you to worry about that now... But I believe you'll be safer if you stayed here while we go and handle the problem..."
"But..." Garnet ignored him, and leapt from the balcony with Pearl, landing in front of the temple. They began a fusion dance that ended with the red gem shoving the shorter one into the side of the cliff while placing each hand on either side of her head.
The bow on Pearl's tunic wrapped around them and they grew into a four armed giant woman who was as tall as Rhodolite. She wore and outfit that perfectly combined each of their outfits: A red-orange bodysuit that was now flowing in the wind like a dress, the usually cubed shoulder pads were now round and connected to dress-like sleeves. She wore orange ballet slippers and had light tan skin, he dark tangerine colored hair was shaped like an oval afro, and wore a V shaped visor with pointed tips.
She looked towards the two boys who stood in shock in front of the house, "Stay inside you two, I don't want anyone in danger." Lars immediately grabbed Brad's arm and pulled him into the house, Spessartite then turned and moved heavily towards the downtown area.
Downtown:
"Hey, that's not fair!" Rubellite screamed as she was knocked down by his own weapon, due to Labradorite grabbing it and throwing it back.
The unstable fusion got back up and picked up an oil truck, Labradorite readied himself as the magenta fusion drew his arm back. Just as the truck was about to be thrown, Rubellite was interrupted by a voice yelling at him, "Put the vehicle down!"
He spun around to see Spessartite standing behind him, Labradorite grimaced, "Shoot...we're busted.."
"That's not even the half of it.."
The blue and brown fusion defused, Lapis and Smoky were then standing in front of the two other beasts. Rubellite wasn't so quick to seperate, instead, he threw the oil truck at Spessartite.
"If you want me gone, you gotta catch me first!"
The orange fusion summoned her weapon, which was oddly a hammer, and used it to hit the vehicle in the opposite direction, it exploded when it hit the ground.
When Spessartite turned her attention back to Rubellite, she noticed that he had ran off to an empty field. After scooping up Smoky and Lapis, she made her way over to him, hammer ready. When the fusion reached him, she saw that he had stopped and was staring off into the distance. Spessartite approached Rubellite slowly, "Isn't it amazing? How you make one mistake and it ruins something so precious..." He stated with his voice wavering.
Spessartite put away her weapon, "What are you talking about?"
Rubellite's voice changed to Amethyst's, "He's talking about Connie..."
The fusion then separated, Steven and Amethyst sat on the ground looking ashamed, Spessartite unfused next after setting the blue and brown gems down. Garnet and Pearl walked over to them.
"What happened with Connie?"
"Amethyst was going to take us to a dance club and she was trying to tell me that we were too young. But I ignored her and kept trying to push her to go, then she got mad and we unfused, I tried to apologize, but she said she just wanted some space. She also said that we shouldn't see each other for a few days...I was so upset, that I fused with Amethyst and...this happened.." Steven sadly looked at the ground with tears in his eyes.
"Steven..." Garnet knelt down and gave him a hug, "It's okay...it's not your fault...But remember, if you do something like this again, there will be some serious consequences, do you understand?"
The boy nodded and wiped his eyes, the red gem turned to Amethyst, "As for you, Amethyst...you need to stop trying to urge Steven to be like you, you've probably costed him his relationship.."
"Sorry..."
"Okay...now let's get out of here, because I'm not cleaning this up." Garnet then leapt into the air towards the temple, the other gems followed.
Temple:
The gems arrived at the temple and went inside, they found Lars and Brad fast asleep on the couch. Steven didn't want to wake them, so he just bubbled them to their house.
The boy yawned as he made his way to the temple door, "Where are you going Steven? Your bed is over there.." Pearl pointed to it.
"I know...but I think I'm going to sleep in my mom's room tonight.."
The skinny gem exchanged looks with the rest of the group and then sighed, "Okay, but be careful..."
Steven smiled and then said goodnight before entering Rose's room, once inside, he made a bed and laid down. "I want to talk to my mom..."
Within a blink of an eye, a cloud version of his beautiful mother appeared, she moved over to the bed and sat next to him.
"What is it Steven?"
"Can you sleep with me tonight, I really need some comforting..." The boy requested, his mother smiled, "Of course.."
After climbing into the bed, Rose wrapped her arms around him and kissed his head, "Goodnight my darling son..."
"'Night mom...love you." And with that, the boy drifted off into a deep sleep.
Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! If some of you were thinking that Steven and Connie would've been fused longer, don't worry. I made their abrupt separation like that on purpose, also, Lapis and Smoky are romantic partners? On another note, what was Garnet talking about when she was mentioning her death? What should've happened when she died? Find out in the next chapter.