Chapter 13: Giant woman
Bex groans as she collapses in exhaustion on the sand beside her brother. Who is sitting in lifeguard chair throwing water balloons at Pearl and Amethyst. Both of whom are playing a game of chess.
"You would not believe the day I had." Bex says. "A school visit followed by a Jewelry store robbery that was conducted by two teenagers. The worst was that they were in the very class I was teaching at my last school visit a month ago.
"Oh that's nice." Pearl says though she was more focused on her chess game against Amethyst.
Bex scoffs. Knowing that they don't pay so much attention to her anyway.
She relaxes in the sand and stares at the sky. Looking back over the summer so far.
" Ah…." Bex groans as she wrings out her long pink hair of the ocean water after another day on patrol before she puts it in a ponytail. " That's much better."
She looks up and sees the gems and Steven walking down the boardwalk.
" Hey guys!" She waves over to them as she walks out of the ocean and over to the quartet.
" Hey!" Steven smiles. " I was hoping to see you here. We're going to the amusement park here. You want to come along with us?"
" Sure buddy." She smiles. " I got the rest of the day off, so why not?"
" Cool!" He says.
" So how's his training?" She asks the gems as Steven dashes ahead to the Funland entrance.
" Oh. He's doing well. Considering the near disasters we had." Pearl grumbles as she looks to Amethyst.
" What disasters?" Bex asks.
" Hey. Not everything was my fault." Amethyst talks back to Pearl.
" I'm not saying it was. It's just contributed a good amount. Pearl says.
" Guys let's keep the arguing to a minimum for Steven's sake." Bex says though they keep bickering. " We're here at Funland. Let's have some fun."
" Hey guys!" Steven shouts. " Let's do the Teacups. I have never been able to do that before!"
The gems look at each other in confusion, but Garnet shrugs, " Let's give it a try."
" You guys never took him on the Teacups?" Bex raises an eyebrow.
" Well we haven't had time to go here in general and it's…. Not exactly our kind of place." Garnet says.
" Fair enough." Bex says.
The gems follow her brother into the line for the Teacups while Bex stayed behind for a reason.
" Get ready Steven. This is gonna be intense." Garnet smiles done at the twelve year old.
" I'm ready!" He says excitedly.
" You guys go on ahead." Bex says as the group go inside. " I'll be right outside the exit."
Bex moves over to where the exit is located and watches from a distance as the teacups rise and start spinning.
" Wow. Steven's finally on the teacup ride." Bex whistles in response. " Good for him. Every time I get on the ride, I alway get really sick on it."
It wasn't even a minute later that she found out the hard way that motion sickness runs in the family.
She sighs in nervous amusement. At least though she managed to make a deal with Mr. Smiley for Steven to do community service in exchange of not being banned forever. Given that she threatened to report to her bosses over the lack of gaming licenses.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the two gems begin arguing over something stupid as usual. Then she hears the word Opal and it causes her to groan even more louder.
"Is this about Opal again?" Bex says.
"Yes!" The two gems says.
"GUYS!...What is Opal?!" Steven asks out curiosity as he jumps from the high chair.
"Oh it's me and Pearl mashed together." Amethyst says.
"It's not mashed together. Is Hydrogen and Oxygen mashed together? When we synchronized our forms we turn into Opal. It's called fusion." Pearl says as demonstrates the process with the sand.
" What is fusion?" Steven asks.
"Fusion is when two gems combined into someone that is bigger and more powerful than their abilities put together. Right?" Bex says off the bat still looking at the sky.
Pearl nods to the woman before Amethyst smashes the sand form.
"Except I don't dance like that." Amethyst says.
" Amethyst be nice." Bex tells her. Once again she's ignored.
" Wow that's so cool. Tell more about Opal." Steven asks.
Bex tunes outs the conversation as she looks at the blue sky. Lately the gems don't really acknowledged her as much and that's to be expected. Steven's a half gem child and he's training to be one. She's an adult and a practically human. She can't really be compared to anyone.
It was then the group hears the warp pad activate from inside the house and deduce Garnet's back from her latest mission. Which interests everyone.
They walk in and Steven dashes up to Garnet. Which she immediately hands him a stone to gnaw on.
" Steven. What did I tell you about biting rocks. I want to avoid a trip to the dentist." Bex reprimands him.
" I have located the geo beetles of heaven and earth. Now we need to go retrieve them." Garnet says.
" Well I am going with not Pearl." Amethyst says.
" That's fine because I don't want to go with grammatically incorrect people anyway." Pearl says.
"You three will go together. I go alone." Garnet says.
"Garnet!" The two shout.
" The earth beetle is at the bottom of the boiling lake and only I can swim through lava. You three will find the heaven beetle at the top of sky spire. It's safer." Garnet says as she puts on goggles.
" You mean boringer." Amethyst complains.
" You mean more boring." Pearl scoffs.
" Can't Bex come?" Steven asks. " She can be of real help."
The gems looks towards the young woman and hesitates to say anything.
" Steven she's a human, she might get herself hurt." Pearl says.
" Says the gem that's taking a twelve year old on missions. Regardless of heritage." Bex thinks.
" Come on Pearl. Let Bex come along. She can take care of herself. I mean. She is a cop." Steven says.
" Well…. I guess…..it shouldn't be too big of a deal…" Pearl says skeptically.
" YAY!" Steven says.
" Looks like I have no choice." Bex shakes her head with a smug as she follows the group on to the warp pad before warping out of the house.
The group of four arrive at a beautiful place with an ancient architecture in the distance.
"Whoa." Steven says excitedly.
"Wow." Bex says in surprised. "Is this what you do everyday?"
Steven was about to answer until the group hears a ruffle in the bushes.
"Ah! A monster. You two should form Opal!" Steven shouts before it was a goat that jumped out of the bushes.
Pearl groan while Amethyst chuckles in response. Bex just simply rolls her eyes in amusement. Classic Steven.
The two gems go up ahead while Steven and Bex lag behind.
"Don't worry bud. It might be a while before you see Opal. Especially with those two bickering. I was your age when I first found out about fusion. I annoyed them to world's end with a tune I made up back there. Didn't change the fact that I never have seen them fused." Bex says.
"What tune was that?" Steven asks.
"All I want to do is you turn into a giant woman. A giant woman. All I want to see is someone who gets to see a giant woman." Bex sings quietly and quickly that it really wasn't actually a tune like it used to be. "It's pretty embarrassing….." Bex blushes thinking how ridiculous it was before looking to see Steven singing the very song while riding the goat.
" Oh. Great. History is repeating itself." Bex says in regret to sharing that song to the one person who makes a song out of everything.
Steven spends the whole journey singing that song while Pearl and Amethyst mess with each other like they don't have anything better to do. Only this he's added lyrics and sings in a more upbeat attitude.
After a few obstacles, one of which Steven almost falls to his death, they managed to make it to the top of the spire with breathing heavily from the stairs while Bex is still in shock over her brother's near death experience.
"How could Garnet call this mission safe?" Bex says in reflection to that.
"She didn't say safe. She said 'safer.'" Pearl corrects her.
"That doesn't make it better." Bex says.
Steven looks through a miniature house in the center of this pavilion.
"It looks so tiny and empty." Steven says in wonder.
"It's not supposed to be empty. It wouldn't leave. Would it?" Pearl says freaking out.
"Maybe you should freak out some more. That's really going to help." Amethyst says sarcastically.
" Here we go again." Bex scoffs in annoyance as it starts up another argument between the two. She notices the water vibrate a bit. Which seems off.
"Guys?" She calls out but they don't listen to her as usual as they continue to argue.
A bird like creature burst from the water and quickly eats up the goat. Much to Steven's shock.
"My son!" Steven gasps in tears.
Pearl pulls out her spear and throws it at the bird like monster. Only for the monster to swallow it in one gulp.
The group go inside the little room by the stairs before the monsters could reach in.
" It swallowed my spear!" Pearl shouts.
"Now's the perfect time for you two to form Opal!" Steven says. Bex can't help but agree that this is an emergency.
The two stand at other sides of the room. Their gems glow and they both start to dance. Pearl ballet. Amethyst Hip Hop.
Unfortunately the fusion didn't become successful. No thanks to their lack of cooperation.
"You want to do that again? Only this time with hitting me less in the face!" Amethyst shouts.
" Well it would have be fine if your moves weren't so farmless." Pearl scoffs.
"Guys. We don't have time for this." Bex tries to break them apart but they keep going at it.
"Come on guys. I might not be able to see Opal." Steven begs.
"That's the least of our problems now." Bex says.
The monster pulls off the roof much to everyone's shock.
" And I might get eaten by a giant bird!" Steven shout before the bird eats Steven in one swallow
"Steven!" The three women shout.
"Now look at what you've done!" Pearl shouts.
"It's always my fault! Is it!?" Amethyst shouts as the two go at once more. Which snaps Bex's final straw.
" LISTEN UP! Enough of this!" Bex shouts loud enough to shut the bickering duo up. They look in her direction for the first time in all day. "You two have been going at it for far too long! You older than any other human and you choose to act like children!? I have had it! So here's what you're going to do! You two are going to put your differences aside. Form Opal. And get my brother in one piece! Do I make myself clear!"
The two gems look at each other and nod in agreement. They start the fusion dance
once more. Now determined to not mess this up.
Bex gasps in awe as she sees a whole other gem emerged from the two. She was tall. Lean, but strong. Her gems are on both the chest and forehead. Everything that makes both Amethyst and Pearl into one. Maybe even more. Opal.
She looks down at the shocked Bex and smiles at her before jumping into the sky at the bird like monster.
Opal pulls out Steven from the monster's stomach and lands in the pond of the pavilion before flipping backwards. Grabbing Bex along the way and skids down from the top of the staircase before jumping onto another floating island.
"Stay low." She tells them as she sets the siblings down before she pulls out the weapons of Pearl and Amethyst to form an archer bow.
Bex and Steven watch in shock as Opal pulls the bowstring and releases an arrow of light. Bubbling all of the small bird like creatures and sending them to the temple.
Opal turns and faces the two.
"Uh….." Steven says nervously. "Do….you…..know who I am?"
Opal chuckles as she sings, "All you want to do is see me turn into…"
"A giant woman." Steven gasps.
Opal turns to Bex and says, "Thank you for giving us a much needed kick in the butt."
Bex could only stutter over the day she is having.
Sorry. I am cranking these out as fast as I can. It's just my other stories and schedule is getting in the way. Plus I am trying to make this story work in the best way possible. So please give me your patience.
More will be out soon. I'm tempted to make a Christmas story from this for the holiday coming up but I don't want to interfere with it to much and disrupt the flow of the order. Let me know what you guys think.
Have a happy thanksgiving!