Chapter 21
Sugilite looked down on everything before her with contempt. Everything looked like bugs to her, bugs that she would crush if they provoked her.
She didn't care who they were, she was the top dog. Plus, there was just so much stuff to break. The reactor was pretty much totaled already, but then there was still the old city behind her that still stood unsmashed. Sugilite licked her gnarled teeth with excitement.
It had been too long since she had let loose, and she was going to savor every second she had.
"So, who's first?!" she stated with a threatening sneer.
Sugilite's battle hungry gaze fell upon Pearl, the one who had defeated her the last time she was let loose.
"You!" she roared, pointing her clawed finger at the pale Gem. "Cheap shots won't help you this time!"
Pearl raised her hands defensively.
"Now, now, let's not be rash!" Pearl stated nervously. "I'm sure we can all work things out-"
"SHUT UP!" Sugilite boomed angrily. "It was a cheap shot and you know it! Figures that a lil' runt like you would pull that kind of crap on me!"
Pearl suddenly felt Iron's hand push Pearl behind him. With his sledgehammer in hand, the Alloy planted himself firmly between Pearl and Sugilite.
"Iron what are you doing?" Pearl asked. "You're in no shape to be fighting anything, let alone Sugilite.
Iron said nothing, he simply stood his ground. The Alloy's actions amused Sugilite. She let out a loud cruel mocking laugh as she stomped her way towards Iron.
"Wassa matter lil' man?" she asked mockingly. "Is tiny Miss Wimpy makin' you do her fightin' for her?"
Iron gave a low threatening growl, like angry guard dog protecting his master.
A big mistake.
Sugilite scowled angrily as she began to swing her flail.
"Alright, lil' man, you asked for it!"
Iron raised his sledgehammer and braced for the impact, but the crushing impact never came. When he looked back up at the purple ogre, her eyes were glowing white and she was surrounded by a blue aura.
Pearl noticed that there was a thin blue magic tether leading down from Sugilite's head. The tether lead down to Turquoise's hand.
Turquoise was softly whispering spells of submission as blue lights danced around her.
"Kneel," she ordered calmly.
Much to everyone's surprise, Sugilite obeyed.
"I-I o-obey..." Sugilite stammered with difficulty, a part of her was resisting the tether's dominance.
"Good, now, you see those creatures that are massing around that reactor?" Turquoise asked. "Destroy them, all of them."
"C-Complying...bitch," Sugilite begrudgingly submitted.
She dropped her flail, then with a mighty pull, swung the massive flail right into the center of the Burner horde.
The creatures flew in all directions as each impact hit with the force of a five-hundred pound bomb.
With Sugilite on the battle field, numbers alone would not help the HLA. And the Hybrid knew this. His horde were ants, and Sugilite was a boot.
As Sugilite decimated his horde, the Hybrid desperately looked for a way to shift the battle back into his favor.
Bullets weren't working, and the Burners shields did nothing to protect them against the purple giant's wrath. Then it hit him; if you can't kill the threat, blind it.
"AIM FOR IT'S FACE!" he ordered furiously. "BLIND IT!"
The Burners that remained suddenly began to focus their machine gun fire on Sugilite's face. At first she didn't react to it as her shades were protecting her eyes.
But a well placed RPG rocket stripped her of that protection. With a loud wet burst of purple fluid, the eye in the center of her forehead was blinded.
The pain that tore through Sugilite flowed down the magic tether and struck Turquoise. She let out a pain filled groan as she fell to her knees.
Steven ran to her aid but she raised her hand to stop him.
"Don't touch me...I must maintain focus," she stated as she pushed herself off of the ground. "Any outside interference will disrupt the spell and I'll lose control of Sugilite. And I don't think she would be too happy if that were to happen."
Steven's eyes darted from Turquoise to Sugilite then to the horde.
"Gems, Remnants, Alloys, protect Turquoise!" Steven shouted firmly. "She is the only thing between us and an angry Sugilite!"
Pearl was the first to join Steven. She was followed by Iron and Carnelian. Titanium joined the circle with an audible gasp of shock and repulse at the sight of his missing arms.
"You're welcome..." he grumbled bitterly as his hooked chain snaked around him.
Pounamu and Azurite joined in shortly after Titanium. The only two who didn't join were Wolfram and Steel.
Wolfram was scanning over the battlefield looking for the Hybrid. He had a feeling whatever that Sugilite was, she wasn't going to take the Hybrid alive.
Steel was building up a massive amount of static electricity for a little experiment he wanted to conduct.
He had noticed rain clouds earlier that day but didn't care about them at the time.
Now that he had this new electrical ability, he had the perfect conditions for the experiment.
There was a dull rumble of thunder followed by a heavy rain.
"With thunder, there is lightning..." he giggled excitedly.
Steel raised his hand up in the air and discharged the electricity flow from his body and up into the electrically charged thundercloud. Before anyone could register what he was doing, lightning began striking at an unnatural rate all around them. Anything that got struck was destroyed in a shower of sparks.
The thing that Steel overlooked was the fact that lightning is attracted to points that are higher off of the ground.
In this case, the one that was highest off the ground was Sugilite. With a bright flash and clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning struck the giant Gem.
The electrical energy flowed down the magic tether and electrocuted Turquoise. The old Gem was forced to release the tether as she was thrown on her back.
"Turquoise!" Steven cried out as he rushed to her aid.
The old Gem was unconscious and could no longer help them. A deep ominous growl rumbled over the battlefield.
Standing with complete control over her actions was a very, very, very angry Sugilite.
"Oh, dear..."Pearl muttered with terror.
Sugilite bared her tusk like teeth and began to swing her flail.
"No one and I mean...NO ONE USES ME AS A MEAT PUPPET!"
With a mighty heave, Sugilite sent the flail hurtling towards the Gems and Alloys. Steven raised his shield, but he knew that wasn't going to be enough to stop it.
"Brace yourselves!" Pearl shouted as the flail hurtled closer.
Steven shut his eyes as he braced for the impact. As his shield shattered, Pearl grabbed Steven and threw him out of the way.
She braced herself for the bone crushing impact, but all she heard was a loud metallic clang.
Confused, Pearl opened her eyes to see the colossal Alloy Iron slump onto his knees, with the flail smashed deep into his helmet.
His arms hung limply to his sides as rust colored fluid seeped out of his helmet.
In the last few seconds before the impact, he had thrown himself in front of the flail to stop it.
Unfortunately, he had, with his head.
Sugilite laughed cruelly as she pulled the flail back to her. With a loud thud, Iron fell face down on the ground.
"Iron...?" Pearl asked with a fearful quiver.
Iron was silent and didn't so much as twitch as he laid face down in the dirt. Titanium rushed over to his downed comrade.
Dread spread across his face as he took in the cite of Iron's body.
"Wolfram, Iron is down!" he shouted in an uncharacteristically worried tone.
"He will be alright, wont he?" Pearl asked as she placed her hand over Iron's. "He-he just needs to retreat into...whatever it is you Alloys use for energy. Right?"
Pearl felt a cold hand pull her away from Iron's body. Wolfram knelt down and ran his hand over Iron's body.
"We are nothing like you," Wolfram said in a cold voice. "These bodies of ours aren't physical constructs like what you Gems are made of. Once these bodies break, we break."
"What do you mean?" Pounamu asked nervously.
"Isn't it obvious, Tatts?" Titanium asked flatly. "We don't heal or regenerate. The only person who can repair us is Adler, and he doesn't know we're here!"
All this talk about breaking stuff was only encouraging Sugilite. The one called Iron was just the first, the others would follow.
"Awww, how cute, lil' Pearly is all sad over the big stupid hunk of metal!" Sugilite laughed cruelly. "Hopefully the rest of you tin-men won't be as slow as he was!"
Suddenly, Iron clenched his fist and began to hiss with steam.
"Slow...?"Iron mumbled weakly. "You call me...slow?"
Titanium and Wolfram began to cautiously step away as the colossal Alloy began to glow red hot.
"Out of all of the things that bitch could have called him..."Titanium stated worriedly.
Sensing something really explosive was about to happen, Steven grabbed Pearl's hand and dragged her away from Iron.
"Did the purple giant call Iron...SLOW?!" the Alloy bellowed as an intense orange glow shown from his helmet.
Sugilite smiled and leaned down to look the Alloy as close to his face as she could.
"Yup...you're slow, weak , and dumb," she spat as she ran her tongue across her teeth. "What, are you gonna cry about it? Huh, you big stupid pile of-"
Before Sugilite could finish her stream of insults, Iron smashed his fist right into her mouth, breaking her teeth.
"IRON IS NOT SLOW!" the Alloy roared as he grabbed Sugilite by the tongue.
Sugilite's shrieked in pain and reared back to her towering stature, but Iron didn't let go.
While Sugilite tried to pry the enraged Alloy off of her face, Iron began slamming his sledgehammer into her face.
"I AM NOT SLOW! I AM NOT SLOW! I AM NOT SLOW!" Iron screamed as he bludgeoned Sugilite's face.
Pearl watched with a mix of awe and fear as Sugilite fought against Iron. He was actually hurting her and showed no signs of slowing down.
"Wolfram, we need to stop him before he hurts Garnet and Amethyst!" she exclaimed, remembering who it was Iron was truly fighting.
"So, that's who Sugilite is made of," Wolfram stated with intrigue.
"Yes, that's why we need to stop them!" Pearl exclaimed, grabbing Wolfram by the arm and tugging on him. "He'll listen to you, you can make him stop!"
Wolfram pulled his arm out of Pearl's grasp and shook his head.
"He's doing his job," he stated stoically. "Sugilite is a threat, and Iron is neutralizing it."
After one powerful swing, Sugilite's top right eye was smashed to a bleeding mass of goo. For the first time in years, Sugilite was forced to submit.
She fell with a thunderous boom on her back.
"A-alright! I yield!" she coughed through her broken teeth. "I'm sorry alright!"
Her apology fell on deaf ears, Iron was too far gone now to be reasoned with. Iron slowly pried Sugilite's mouth open. Her outside might be able to survive lava, but something told him her insides couldn't.
Destroy her...
With a bright flash of orange light, Iron fired a beam of x-ray heated air right down Sugilite's throat. The beam burnt its way through Sugilite's body.
With a white puff of smoke, Sugilite was destroyed and released both Garnet and Amethyst.
With a loud thud, all three hit the ground. Garnet and Amethyst moaned and groaned sorely while Iron stomped around them, still fuming with anger.
"WHERE IS PURPLE GIANT?!" he roared as he bellowed gouts of steam. "I WILL CRUSH HER!"
"She's gone," Garnet coughed weakly. "You won."
"Yeah, big guy," Amethyst chuckled, not trying to show how freaked out she really was. "You scared her off."
Iron turned to where Garnet and Amethyst were laying. His anger quickly turned into confusion as he tried to make sense of everything.
"Red, Purple?" he asked. "Did the giant spit you out?"
"She sure did," Amethyst answered, praying that Iron wouldn't realize that Sugilite was her and Garnet's fusion. "So now you can just calm down and relax."
Iron suddenly felt...ashamed, like he had done something he shouldn't have. But he couldn't understand or even remember what it was he had done. He remembered jumping in front of the flail, then darkness. Then a whisper telling him to stand and fight. He defiantly remembered the purple giant calling him slow. Oh how he hated that word. He didn't even know why he hated it, it just made him angry. Steam rose off of him as he slumped onto the ground.
Garnet, Amethyst, Iron!" Pearl shouted as she and the others ran to them.
With a loud cracking sound, Iron's helmet finally fell apart.
"My head hurts..."Iron said tiredly.
"Alright, let me see how bad it is," Pearl stated in a concerned tone.
Pearl gently lifted up his head to see how badly he was injured. For the first time, the Gems finally got to see what Iron looked like without his helmet.
His skin was a rust color and was covered in what looked like welding marks. What little hair he had was burnt umber.
His eyes were soft gray and filled with a childish innocence.
Pearl let out a soft gasp when she looked over his forehead.
"Oh no, it's worse then I feared," she stated somberly.
On the front left side of Iron's forehead was a large indentation, most likely causing damage to his brain. Suddenly, Steel and Titanium let out loud sighs of relief.
"Iron you totally iced that bitch!" Titanium cackled. "But maybe 'iced' isn't the right term, is it?"
"More like 'nuked' her, brother," Steel laughed loudly.
"What, in the name of whatever higher power you bow to, is possibly funny about this! " Pearl shrieked, trembling with anger. "Iron is injured and yet you laugh?!"
"Sweetie, Iron's always had that little dent in his head," Steel chuckled smugly.
"Am I broken, Pearl?" Iron asked worriedly as he rubbed his still aching head.
His big gray innocent eyes melting through Pearl's heart like a hot knife through butter. She wanted to explain to him what was wrong with him, but after seeing what happened when Sugilite called him 'slow' she figured that it was best to let it be.
"No, you're fine, Iron," she stated in a soft motherly tone.
Garnet held out her hand and helped the Alloy back on his feet.
"I'm glad that you are alright, but we still have to hunt down that Hybrid," she stated flatly.
"If he was smart, he's probably hiding inside the reactor complex, along with the whatever was left of the Burner horde." Azurite said in a weary tone. "I say we storm the complex and end this!"
"We aren't going anywhere," Garnet stated flatly.
"What, why not?!" Amethyst exclaimed.
"One; Turquoise is still unconscious," Garnet stated. "Two-"
Garnet paused and pointed to the east of the reactor. Suddenly, white puffs of smoke burst over the treeline of the Red Forest. Out of the clouds flew ten HLA Mi-24 gunships, all of them were zeroing in onto the reactor.
"Reinforcements..."Garnet finished flatly.
Tired and battered, the Gems and the Alloys readied themselves for combat.
"Arms or no arms, I'll still take you on!" Titanium boasted loudly, his hooked chain rearing back like a snake about to strike.
Just as the gunships were within firing range, all ten suddenly burst into flames and hurtled to the ground.
"What the...who did that?" Amethyst asked as she looked around for the one responsible.
"Wasn't us," Garnet stated, just as confused.
Suddenly, there were several large black puffs of smoke above the warriors. Out of the black clouds flew three Black Hawk helicopters, a RAH-66 Comanche gunship, and one CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
"Oh no..."Wolfram groaned with dread.
The Black Hawks hovered low to the ground and began dropping ropes. Soldiers in black uniforms and gas-masks zipped down the ropes.
The wind from the helicopter blades sent rain water flying everywhere. The soldiers with the black uniforms raised their weapons and encircled the Gems and Alloys.
"Nobody move!" one shouted as he aimed his weapon at Pearl's forehead.
"Do what they say!" Wolfram ordered. "They are not with the HLA!"
"Then who do they work for?" Pearl asked as she stared into the red lenses of the soldier's gas masks.
"They work for me!" a raspy voice shouted over the unusually quiet engines of the helicopters.
The soldiers opened a gap in the circle and revealed who it was that was speaking. The one speaking was wearing a white radiation suit, but Garnet could recognize that cold, joyless voice anywhere.
"Professor Adler..."she hissed softly.
Adler stood with his arms crossed in a very unamused fashion, like a father before about to discipline.
The Alloys were afraid of him, Garnet could see it and sense it within them.
"You, all of you, have a lot of explaining to do!"