Chapter 21
"If I were you, I'd start running, boy," Geissel hissed as she stared down the three gems. "I'll get to you when I'm done with your friends."
Steven looked up at Pearl, hoping she would know what to do. She looked back to him and gave him a nod as if telling him to take the advice.
Steven took a few steps back before bolting towards town. Once he was out of sight, Geissel's body body began to glow a dull orange.
She could feel her core burning in her chest.
"So, you've found my tickle spot, goodie for you," she hissed as she ran her clawed finger across her bosom. "Lets see if I can find yours."
Her hands began to glow and pulse with light. Her fingers warped into long, curved claws and dripped with molten slag.
"I was going to eat you three first, then kill Steven. But, I think I'll make you three watch as I tear out his gemstone. That is if you can survive long enough..."
Before the gems could retaliate, the False gem released a pulse of energy from her body that threw the gems back.
Staggered, the gems were unable to see the False gem charging at them before it was too late.
Geissel grabbed Pearl by the arm and slammed her into Garnet's gauntlets, who was then kicked in the stomach and sent tumbling backwards.
With Pearl still in her clawed grip, Geissel snagged Amethyst by the hair and slammed the two gems together.
She then threw them at Garnet and lept through the air towards them. With her fists raised, Geissel slammed down onto the gems with a blast of heat and radiation. The blast formed a tiny mushroom cloud. Scorched and heavily irradiated, the three gems were thrown out of the cloud and then tumbled in the sand.
The False gem smirked, in all, her assault had only taken a total of six seconds to complete.
But she soon realized that the Crystal Gems were not the push overs her past meals had been.
Garnet was the first back on her feet, her shades were shattered and her face was bloodied.
Pearl forced herself off of the ground, her wrist was broken and her arms were baldly burnt.
Amethyst stood up uneasily, her face was badly bruised and her nose was bleeding.
Geissel could not believe how determined the three gems were at protecting the child.
She had burned and battered their bodies far more than the other gems she had battled. She had underestimated their strength.
"You don't know when to stay down, do you?" she laughed cruelly.
She took a step forward but suddenly felt a crippling pain tear through her chest. She looked down at her chest and could see her core burning through her crystal body.
"No, I need more time!" she cursed as she clutched her chest. "I need to feed!"
Geissel looked to the gems, then back up at the exposed crystal heart in the temple. The crystal heart at best would buy her more time.
It would have to do.
But then there was the issue of the three gems and what to do with them. She had no time to waste on them.
If she couldn't have them, then her elite Burners would have them.
Geissel bit into her wrist and squeezed out three thick pools of liquid Uranium.
"Do with them what you will, children!" she ordered loudly before leaping for the temple. "Mommy needs a little pick-me-up."
Out of the pools of metal, three humanoid figures clawed their way into the world. The three elite Burners were seven feet tall and had razor sharp teeth and claws. Garnet held out her arm and signaled Amethyst and Pearl to stay back.
"Leave them to me," she stated flatly. "They aren't hot enough to burn me."
"But me and Pearl can't stop Geissel on our own!" Amethyst protested.
"She's right," Pearl stated in a panicked tone. "She'll tear us apart."
"This isn't a job for Amethyst or Pearl," Garnet responded coolly. "It's a job for Opal."
Amethyst and Pearl both gave each other a surprised look. It had been a while since they last needed Opal, but both gems knew that her strength was greatly needed.
"Alright, we'll form Opal," Pearl stated as she snapped her wrist back into place.
Amethyst wiped the blood from her nose and stretched her limbs.
"Yeah, Opal can take that freak!" she exclaimed eagerly.
Garnet nodded her head then turned back to the three Burners.
"I'll go find Steven once I take care of these three," she stated as she cracked her knuckles. "You two go find a place where you can fuse. Good luck."
While Amethyst and Pearl ran to find a safe place to preform the fusion ritual, Garnet was left to fight the three elite Burners.
Two of the Burners bolted after Amethyst and Pearl, but where stopped by a well placed punch that sent them crashing into each other.
They quickly recovered and set their sights on Garnet. Like hungry wolves, the Burners circled the gem, snapping their jaws and snarling.
Garnet was not fazed by their threats. She had killed dozens of Burners with Rose, three more would not stop her. She raised her fists and readied for their attack.
"I don't have all day," she sassed coldly, hoping to hasten the battle.
With a grinding roar, the infernal creatures attacked.
Garnet ducked as the first Burner lunged for her head, and slammed her fist into the second one's face.
The third Burner managed to latch onto her back and sink it's teeth into her shoulder.
Using the second Burner as a club, Garnet bludgeoned the third Burner off her shoulder.
As the second and third Burner recovered, the first Burner raked it's claws up Garnet's back.
Even with searing pain tearing through her back, Garnet spun around and kicked the Burner in the mouth.
Before it could get back up, Garnet raised her foot and stomped down on its head, crushing it in a spray of liquid metal.
"One down," Garnet said aloud as she turned to the remaining two Burners. "Two to go."
Unfazed by the death of their brother, the second and third Burner both charged Garnet.
The second Burner sprayed it's molten slag vomit at Garnet's face in an attempt to blind her.
Garnet managed to dodge the attack but failed to block the rending claws of the third Burner.
Like a white hot scalpel, the Burner's claws slashed across Garnet's face and sliced open her right eye.
Now half blinded and agonized, Garnet felt a set of jaws clamp down onto her left arm.
As she fought to get the creature off of her arm, the second Burner bit down onto her right arm.
A very big mistake.
With the strength to shatter mountains, Garnet smashed her hands together, crushing the two Burners to death.
As their bodies crumbled into dust, Garnet let out an exhausted sigh.
Her back was bleeding and she couldn't see out of her right eye. With the Burners dealt with, Garnet ran and followed Steven's foot prints.
Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed behind her.
"It's about time you showed up," Garnet stated with a smirk.
The crystal heart was barely beating, but Geissel didn't care. All the wanted was the precious life blood that flowed through the heart.
After reforging her halberd, Geissel slashed open the crystal heart. She laughed gleefully as the fresh blood rained down onto her.
"That's what mamma needs!" she hissed happily as the blood poured over her.
With her hands cupped and mouth wide open, the False gem drank mouthful after mouthful of the crystal blood.
She could feel her body regaining it's strength as the crystal blood sealed her cracked chest.
The warmth, the smell, the taste, she found it oh so intoxicating.
As the crystal heart stopped bleeding, the entire temple went dark and deathly silent.
Satisfied with her meal, Geissel sat down an licked the blood off of herself.
"Tastes like virgin gemstone," she sighed happily as she licked the sparkling crimson liquid from her palm.
With her stomach pleasantly full, Geissel decided it was time to hunt down the child. She ran her hand down her stomach.
She was so full, but always could make room for more.
"Ready or not, here I come!" she cackled as she twirled her halberd playfully.
Out of nowhere came a flash of blue light followed by a sudden and intense pain in Geissel's shoulder. She reached back and ripped out a blue crystal arrow.
With an angry growl, she spun around to face her attacker.
Standing at least eight feet tall, with the string of her bow still vibrating, stood the four armed, long haired, and sky blue eyed Opal.
Before Geissel could react, Opal fired another arrow. The arrow split into a volley of arrows. With her hands covering her chest, Geissel held fast against the storm of arrows. She realized that her halberd would be of little use against Opal's long ranged attacks. Geissel hissed in frustration and shattered the halberd.
"So, that's what you two look like mashed together," she stated coldly.
A loud cracking noise echoed through the chamber followed by four beams of light that shown through her back.
Suddenly, four molten metal limbs burst out of her back. The limbs cracked and shaped into four sets of arms, all glowing hot and dripping with slag.
"I'm curious as to what your combined flavors will taste like," Geissel mocked as she licked her lips in a disgusting mixture of hunger and lust.
Through her teeth, a large amount of heat and radiation began to build and leak out.
"You will never find out," Opal stated coolly as she readied her bow.
"I disagree."
With a thunderous boom, Geissel fired a focused beam of x-ray-heated air. The beam, which was over 7000ºF, easily sliced through the temple floor and wall.
Had Opal been a bit slower, she would have been instantly vaporized. The attack left a glowing hot scar in the temple floor and wall.
Satisfied with her show of force, Geissel blew a ring of smoke from her mouth.
"I'm going to burn your shadow into the ground!" she roared as she recharged her attack.
Opal drew back her bow and readied an arrow. This was going to be a challenge, for both of them.
On one hand, Opal had greater speed and could rapidly attack from a distance.
On the other hand, Geissel had a very powerful but slow firing ranged attack as well as more endurance.
It was going to be a battle of speed and grace vs durability and raw power. One way or another, this was a dance only one would walk away from.
"I'm sending you back to Hell!" Opal cried out as she began to fire a volley of arrows.
Geissel was fast, but not nearly fast enough to dodge all of the arrows. But with the blood of the crystal heart still fresh in her stomach, her body was twice as thick as it had been. Opal's arrows could pierce through Geissel's skin, but could not pierce deep enough to damage her core.
Without so much as a wince of pain, Geissel ripped the arrows out of her.
"Burn!"
A bright light flashed from her mouth as she fired another beam of x-ray-heated air. With her natural grace, Opal dodged the beam.
However, the flash from the blast temporarily blinded her. Before she could refocus, Opal felt six sets of super heated claws rake across her stomach and thighs.
She staggered back and slammed her bow into Geissel's face. The False gem reared back and fired another heat beam.
Injured, Opal managed to avoid the beam by only mere inches from her face. The intense heat scorched her skin and made her lose her balance.
She tried to push herself back up but found that she felt incredibly off balance. She thought nothing of it at first.
It wasn't until she tried to draw her bow did she realize with horror the extent of her injuries. In the blast, she had lost her lower left arm.
She hadn't felt anything because the beam had flash vaporized the nerve endings before they could signal pain.
As Opal regained her balance, Geissel let out a cruel laugh.
"Missing something?" she cackled as she blew a puff of smoke.
Opal responded by firing an arrow that punched right through the False gem's left eye. She shrieked in pain as she tore the arrow out of her eye.
"You tell me," Opal stated coldly with a smirk.
The crystal shell around Geissel's eye socket cracked and split. Seething with anger, she began to fire her beam in rapid bursts.
Opal had to move as fast as she could to avoid the attacks. Arrow after arrow she fired as she tried to dodge the deadly heat beams.
Geissel could smell the exhaustion building in her opponent. It was only a matter of time before she would break her.
While dodging the heat beams, Opal drew back her bow and charged the arrow with as much mystical energy as she could spare.
As the False gem charged another heat beam, Opal let the arrow fly. At that moment, Geissel fired her charged heat beam.
Once the mystically charged arrow collided with the heat beam, they both erupted in a massive explosion.
The explosion was so large that Steven; who had ran into town, could see it's flash.
Steven watched as the fire ball faded.
"Please be okay guys," he begged.
He heard a dull thud from behind him and spun around to find a badly wounded Garnet standing behind him.
"Garnet!" Steven exclaimed as he ran to her. "Where's Amethyst and Pearl?"
Garnet looked up towards the temple in the distance.
"They formed Opal," she stated flatly, not wanting Steven to hear how much pain she was in.
"They formed Opal?" Steven asked with excitement. "That fake gem doesn't stand a chance!"
Not wanting to stay in one spot for too long, Garnet grabbed Steven and started to run away from the temple.
"We have to keep moving!" she stated with an urgent tone. "Opal is strong, but I don't know if-"
A second explosion boomed in the distance behind them. Then out of the sky crashed a baldy burnt Opal. The force of her impact caused the street to buckle and crack.
"Opal!" Steven cried out.
With obvious difficulty, Opal strained her neck to look at him.
"Ste-"
Before she could groan out his name, Opal was smashed further into the ground by the False gem. The shock wave from the second impact threw Garnet and Steven backwards. As the dust settled, Geissel stood triumphantly over Opal's broken body.
"You know what?" Geissel hissed with a sadistic smile. "I think you look a bit too-"
She paused as she pressed her foot down onto Opal's collar bone and grabbed her arm.
"Asymmetrical."
With a horrifying snap and blood curdling scream, Geissel tore Opal's arm off. Sky blue blood sprayed from the bleeding stump while Geissel ran her tongue through the severed arm's fingers.
"There you go, nice and symmetrical."
Opal's eyes rolled back into her head and with a flash of light, Amethyst and Pearl were thrown apart.
Before the two gems could react, Geissel grabbed both of them by their waists and used her second pair of arms to hold them still.
Geissel held up the unconscious Amethyst and slowly ran her tongue along her gemstone.
"Hmm...salty, yet tangy," she said thoughtfully as she studied the taste.
She then held up Pearl who was very much awake and fighting. Her struggling only seemed to encourage the False gem.
She held her up and licked her gemstone, and her cheek.
"Ooh, I was right," she hissed playfully. "Sweet and unspoiled."
The False gem then smashed the two gems together and dropped them with Steven watching helplessly.
Geissel's mouth began to glow a bright orange.
Garnet took Steven and threw him out of the way but could not avoid the blast of concentrated radiation.
Blood gushed from her nose as she feel to her knees only to be stomped in the face by the cruel False gem.
"Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, please get up!" Steven cried with terror.
They didn't respond, none of them were moving.
As the False gem approached him, he began to run but was stopped in his tracks as a halberd pierced the ground in front of him.
Terrified, Steven turned around and found himself face to face with the smiling face of the False gem. She reached over him and pulled the halberd out of the ground. She giggled and spun the halberd in the air before raising the blade up to Steven's neck.
"It's just you and me now, kid."