As the song goes, here we are in the future! A new year, a new decade, and the end of Steven Universe Future's first (maybe only?) run. So many occasions call for a new chapter!
As Steven stood on top of one of the buildings overlooking the main square of Beach City, he let out a yawn from his throat. He had to look down at phone to remember it was almost one in the morning, but even with the dire situation his body wanted sleep. He wondered about calling any number of his friends, wondering if he could spare a minute to check on any of them. The first two were his father and Connie and opened the contacts list.
"Hey!" cried a hoarse voice from the streets below, "Get back here!"
Steven immediately put down his phone and looked at the streets. He saw none other than Peedee running from an angry jasper that was hot on his trail. The boy ran as fast as he could, but the jasper's call caused three more gems to run up from the other side. Now cornered between the hulking orange alien on one end and her reinforcements on the other, Peedee broke down.
"Please leave me alone! I didn't do anything wrong!" he cried, curling into a fetal position on the road.
"Aw, too bad!" taunted the jasper as she stood over him, "We're bringing you to our ship so the Diamonds can see what makes you organics tick!"
Peedee's sobs seemed to fall on deaf ears as she reached down to collect him, only for her to suddenly stop when something sharp struck her in the back. She turned to find Steven holding a pink whip in his hands and glaring at her.
"Really? You're going to pick on a little kid?"
"Hey! That's Rose Quartz!" shouted a ruby among the other gems, "Get her!"
The jasper summoned her weapon, a crash helmet just like the Jasper, and made a beeline for Steven. The hybrid merely leapt to the side and lashed out with his weapon, hitting her in the back again.
"Maybe if you say sorry for messing with Peedee, I'll let you go."
"Fat chance!" screamed another ruby as summoned a knife, "I'll shatter you myself!"
Steven switched to his spear as the fiery munchkin charged at him. He remained completely still until she was two steps away, ready to plunge the knife into his gem. Then in one clean move he twirled his weapon and whacked her hard enough to send her clear through a brick wall.
"Now say you're sorry before someone else gets hurt."
Rather than reply, the sole amethyst of the reinforcements spin-dashed right at him. Steven barely blinked as he put up a bubble and stopped her dead in her tracks.
"S-Steven?!" exclaimed Peedee, completely amazed, "When did you get so many superpowers?!"
The other boy smiled as he saw his friend feeling better. "I'll explain later. Make your way towards the beach and I'll pick you up once I'm done."
"You think it's that easy?!" bellowed the jasper of the group.
"Don't know. Surrendering is pretty easy."
The amethyst did not take kindly to that as she readied her own whip and managed to wrap it around the bubble. Before she could lob it away, though, Steven dispelled it and charged in with his shield drawn. The purple warrior tried to ready herself, but Steven threw the shield like a discus and nailed her in the face. She did not get a chance to retaliate before he grabbed her by the leg and slammed her into the asphalt over and over again until she was poofed.
With just two left, the jasper and ruby charged in tandem. Part of him was tempted to leap in the air, but he did not want to leave Peedee vulnerable as he was just now making his escape. Instead the boy summoned a gauntlet on each hand and nailed them both before they could hit him. The ruby was knocked unconscious, but the much larger jasper was not as easily deterred. She came at him with punch after punch, but Steven dodged and weaved until he was able to sweep her feet out from under her and quickly poof her with a spear-strike to the chest.
Not long after that, the first ruby came stumbling out of the brick wall she crashed through to see her two much stronger partners already defeated and watched in horror as "Rose" poofed her counterpart with an elbow-drop. This left the relatively short fighter only one valid tactic.
"I surrender!" she cried, raising both her arms and closing her eyes as she expected the end to come. Steven glanced at her and thought for a moment about bubbling her, but chose to run off after Peedee instead. The other ruby did not open her eyes for several minutes, confused why she was still alive. She thanked the Diamonds for her luck and ran back to her ship, ready to report what happened to Silver.
Meanwhile, Steven was escorting the youngest Fryman the rest of the way to the temple. This also gave the two a chance to talk.
"Holy bits, that was awesome!" praised Peedee, "You know, I used to think all that stuff you said the other gems did was crazy but now-"
"Yeah, that's my life," joked Steven, "Pretty crazy, but it's mostly worked out. Where's your family?"
"Dad was out of town, so he should be fine. Knowing Ronaldo, he's probably holed up in that lighthouse trying to blog about all this."
"Heh, that sounds right. He's pretty overzealous, but even he wouldn't go outside with all this happening."
"Oh trust me, he won't. He had nightmares about the time your three mom-gems beat him up for months. He'll just write about it all instead."
Before long, the two were in sight of the beach house and the safety of its pink force field. Peedee was a bit surprised by the sight, but he walked through it with no problem. Steven stayed on the porch as his friend opened the door and saw about twenty other saved townspeople milling about including Sadie and her mother, the Pizza twins and Onion who was staring out the window. Even though his emotions never showed, he was huddled in a corner by himself worrying about his mom and brother still being out there.
"One of us will come back and let you all know when it's safe," said Steven, "I've gotta go, but don't worry. We're gonna do our best to save anyone still out there."
Peridot had to admit it to herself; she was scared. This was way above anything she had ever dealt with before. While she was not the defenseless gem she once was, she could not help but feel like the weak link of the group. As Lapis continued to fly above the city scouting for Homeworld troops, she wondered how much more she could contribute or if she was just in over her head. She may have been a tech genius, but she knew she was never meant to fight.
"Hey!" said Lapis, shaking her partner out of her funk, "Look alive!"
Peri looked and indeed saw three jaspers bursting out of a downtown building each with a human begging to be released.
"Why do I hypothesize you're going to enjoy this?" asked the techie as they landed on the rooftop next to the trio.
Lapis did not respond, but did give a small smirk as she concentrated on a nearby rooftop water tower. With a flick of her wrist, the liquid flew out of the roof and hovered right over the three gems.
"Hey clods!" she cried, "Let those people go!"
"Yeah? Like you're gonna risk hurting these things!"
"I don't have to."
Several watery tendrils emerged from the floating pool and scooped the humans right out their hands. Once she put them down safely behind her, Lapis formed a twenty-foot long arm out of the water and smacked all three of them screaming into the distance.
"Nicely done!" praised Peridot, "Who would've thought planetary hydrokinesis was applicable to hostage situations?"
"Pretty sure it applies to a lot of situations…"
"Now if only we had that quantity of metal, then Homeworld would truly be doomed!"
"Heh, yeah. What she would do about those three, though?"
Peridot walked over to the door to the rest of the building they were on and forced it to unlock. The humans happily moved to the shelter offered to them while the two Crystal Gems wondered where to go next. Unfortunately for them, Lapis' stunt with the water caught the attention of a second group of Homeworld gems from across town. Four amethysts made their way down the street before stealthily hopping on top of the roof they were on.
"Got you now!" shouted one of the purple brawlers as she easily trapped Peridot in a headlock. The other three turned their attention to Lapis, still holding several hundred gallons of water above her.
"Put her down now," she ordered, but the other gems looked less threatened and more amused.
"Really? You're getting all worried about this useless runt? What, is she your pet or something?!"
"No, worse, I bet they've fused! It'd be just like that Rose to let them do that whenever they want!"
"Yeah, let's just shatter this reject here and now! That ought to get to that traitor!"
While Lapis looked angry at their statements, Peridot was an entire new level of incensed. "REJECT?! USELESS?! YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY?!"
With that scream, several cars from the streets below them suddenly rocketed into the air as if launched from geysers. The amethyst squad was distracted by the sudden noise, but Peridot was not done. She pulled a garbage can from the sidewalks up to her using only her mind and made it slam into the gem still holding her hostage. Once she was free, the enraged green gem held her arms out and stopped all of the freefalling cars and had them circle the rooftop. For a few seconds there was silence as the four gems realized they were trapped, wondering how they could escape or maybe corner the smaller gem again…
…And then all hell broke loose. The cars began spinning like a cyclone, trapping them without any chance of escape unless they wanted to get a pulverized gemstone. While Lapis flew above the carnage, Peridot stood unmoving even as one of the warriors tried rushing at her. She got five feet in front of her before two tires slammed into her back and forced her to the ground. Thanks to the metal hubcaps, Peridot was able to control them as well and made them spin into the struggling gem's back hard enough to burn rubber before she was poofed.
The other three looked terrified for a split second before regaining their confidence, convinced it must have been a fluke. Two of them went for a pincer formation and rushed at her, but they were both stopped by a pair of car doors blocking their paths. The one of the left tried punching through it, but all she did was get her fist stuck in the metal and was flung hundreds of feet into the air. The one on the right was smarter and tried to run around it, but it simply moved with her. Jumping over it and sliding under it had the same effect, but she was defeated before she could outmaneuver it. Peridot made it whack her over the head again and again until the pain was too much and she too was poofed.
That left one now-horrified amethyst left who tried to do the optimal strategy and run away by leaping over the barrier. Even now, Peridot was not having it and one of the cars from her vortex suddenly broke off and stopped her in mid-air. To finish the last one off, the car the spiked her into the asphalt like a volleyball with a resounding crash. With the last one out of sight, Peridot gently lowered the remaining automobiles to the ground.
"Whoa…" gaped Lapis, having watched the whole spectacle. Peridot, now sporting a cheesy grin, gave her a thumbs-up before her legs gave out from under her.
"Oh gosh! Are you alright?"
Peridot's eyes were spinning in her head as she tried to regain her bearings. "I am currently fine save for my vision spheres trying to escape from their sockets… Also, does anyone else smell freshly-picked rutabaga?"
"Great, you ended up pushing yourself too hard. I should probably fly you back to the temple so you can recover…"
The smaller gem wanted to argue, but the fact that even getting on her feet was proving difficult made her relent. Lapis picked her up and began to fly back towards the temple as Peridot closed her eyes and tried to ease the pounding headache she had.
"You know, that was pretty awesome," admitted Lapis, "But where'd all that anger come from?"
"I may have… a smidge of an ego."
"Reeeeeally? You don't say?"
"Easy there, Ms. Sarcasm, I know where you sleep. Anyway, even on Homeworld, peridots aren't exactly seen as top-tier talent. We're good at planting gems and maintaining tech and that's it. There were the ones who got to be in think tanks, but even then all you do is put the thing together dreamed up by Morganites and the real brains behind the operation. I wasn't exactly respected by my peers. Let's just say I've been called clod much more than I call others that…"
"Yeesh. When did everyone on Homeworld turn into jerks? Back when I was there, at least everyone was decent to each other."
"Of course they were decent to you. You were a highly-coveted terraforming gem seen as instrumental in constructing colonies. I was just a dime-a-dozen lab rat who'd be replaced the second she didn't fix whatever device was thrown in front of me."
As the two landed inside the temple's force field, Peridot shakily made her way to the door while Lapis turned around to fly off back into the action. Before she did, though, she felt the need to speak.
"Peri, you know that we don't think you're useless. We wouldn't have made it this far without you and-"
"I know… And it's really nice to hear."
The inventor opened the door to the temple and walked inside. She then turned around to wave Lapis goodbye, but had one last thing to say.
"It's so gratifying to see my genius finally be recognized by the masses! Your praise is always welcome!"
"Watch it, nerd, I know where you sleep, too."
Despite the warning and the situation outside, both of them knew the other meant no harm. With that jibe, Lapis fully took off and Peridot made her way past all the people taking refuge in the house. As soon as she was back to normal, the latter swore she would head straight back outside where her family needed her.
The unlikely trio of Amethyst, Bismuth and Greg continued on their way down the streets in formation. The purple speedster took to the front to scout ahead, sometimes literally sprinting several miles away and then dashing back a few seconds later with information. The sole human of the group was in the middle, trying to keep focused on his goal instead of the butterflies in his stomach or how late into the night it was. That left the bulky blacksmith to bring up the rear in case anyone decided to ambush them.
Just as they were hoping that everyone had either evacuated or made it to the safety of the temple, they found half a dozen people running in fear from a dozen angry gems. While the adrenaline was fueling them onwards, the gems were quickly gaining ground.
"Amethyst," said Bismuth, "Cut them off and I'll help you take them out. Greg, try to get those people into a hiding place so they're safe for now."
"You got it, Captain Dread-head!" saluted the other Crystal Gem as she zipped off. It only took a few seconds before she ran straight through the middle of the chase and got the Homeworld troops' attention. While they were trying to figure out the blur that nearly blew them all off their feet, Bismuth stormed in and grappled onto one of the enemy jasper's back and quickly became the focus of the group.
The humans watched on, both confused and grateful for the help from the friendlier aliens, until Greg ran up next to them as silently as possible.
"Come on, we're here to help," he urged, "We'll come get you once those guys are taken care of."
While a bit weary from their terrifying experience, the other people went along with it and soon he led them into an abandoned shop. While the door was locked, he quickly fixed that by ramming it down with his armored shoulder. He beckoned them all inside and moved to shut the door, but found a strong hand clutching his hair.
"What do you think you're doing?" smugly asked an enemy amethyst, "A bio-bug like you trying to help these things?"
"Maybe," he eked out, but cried out in pain when she yanked harder on his locks.
"Aw, does that hurt? I think I'll let you go once my comrades get those traitorous Crystal Gems and then you can be put in a cell with them!"
The father growled as he stomped on her foot as he hard as he could. Fortunately, it was enough to make her let go as she yelped and grabbed her injured appendage and gave him time to retaliate. He quickly summoned a blaster, but soon the angered gem was charging at him. He managed to skirt out of the way and tried firing a few shots, but all of them missed. She then went to punch him in the gut and this gave him the opportunity he needed. Rather than dodge, Greg caught her blow and held her still long enough to fire shots into her until she was poofed.
"Oh man, that was too close," he sighed before looking over at the people he was trying to rescue. All six of them were wide-eyed and were clearly making an effort to keep themselves from cheering.
"So, uh, sorry about that. I'm pretty new at this, but don't worry. The rest of them are trained professionals so just stay here and, you know, we'll be back…"
Despite his obvious awkwardness, the others all understood and one of them made sure to shut the door and lock themselves inside.
Meanwhile, Bismuth had been thrown off her opponent and was now dealing with several violent goons on trying to pin her down. Key word being try, though, as the blacksmith was proving very agile and resourceful. What she lacked in fine combat training like Pearl or raw power like Garnet she made up for in pragmatism. Everything except for shattering was a viable tactic to her whether it was hair-pulling, smacking foes with whatever was in reach or simply chucking them away and leaving them disoriented.
It also helped she had the one and only supersonic Amethyst on her side who acted as a sort of backup to Bismuth. Since the larger gem employed a great deal of throws in her fighting style, Amethyst acted like a goalie of sorts as she punted flung goons back into the fray. The result was either they were poofed thanks to a punch packing enormous velocity from her speed or they were forced to go back to fighting Bismuth with no time to catch a breath. Their tag team was unorthodox yet effective as the purple duo went from twelve foes to four in a few minutes.
Deciding that they could not win against the Crystal Gems, the remaining Homeworld troops leapt into the air and planned to retreat back to the nearest ship.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Bismuth as she jumped after them. She changed both her hands into hammers as she gained altitude and planned to spike them back down, but the enemies saw through the trick. They all immediately stopped and headed back down to the ground, but Amethyst ran right under them.
"You punks are stuck!" she boasted as she readied her whip. The first of the foes, another jasper, seemed panicked for a moment before locking eyes with something behind the smaller gem. Rather than fight Amethyst, the larger gem managed to sweep her legs and quickly sprinted past her straight at Greg who was watching the fight from a distance. Apparently she decided that if she could not beat them in a straight fight, she would try a hostage situation and try to at least pull off her mission of capturing meatbags for the Diamonds.
That plan ground to a halt, though, when Greg proved he was far from defenseless. Despite the shock of the surprise attack, he quickly summoned a light-blade and sliced the gem clean in two before she could get her hands on him. As her gem clattered on the asphalt, the other three fighters realized they were completely out of options and tried to split up. That too failed as it let each one be targeted by one of the Crystal Gems with Bismuth slamming one into the street, Amethyst whipping one into submission and Greg blasting one straight in her gemstone.
"Dang, Greg!" said Amethyst as she bubbled the beaten gems, "I think you shot that one from thirty feet!"
"Thanks, I guess… It still feels a little shaky doing all this dangerous stuff. I gotta ask Steven how he's been doing it for so long."
"Don't worry about it," assured Bismuth, "Everyone is a rookie at one point. On my first mission, I was so jittery I nearly cut my old friend Snowflake in half with a giant axe."
"Really?" said Amethyst, "I can't count the amount of times I messed up back in the old days. Pearl once spent like two hours lecturing me on 'proper whip handling' after I nailed her one too many times!"
"Oh man, that's nothing. One day, I'll get Biggs to tell you all about-"
As soon as that left her mouth, Bismuth's mood plummeted. She did not know how it escaped her, but remembering all those bubbled Crystal Gems being gone hit her like a meteor.
"Let's go. We've got more upper-crusts to send packing."
The other two did not hesitate as they charged off, hoping that they would lose anyone they cared about.
Garnet and Pearl took a more unorthodox strategy with the Homeworld problem as they ran down the streets heading out of Beach City. Given the handful of suburbs outside the town proper that could be targeted as well, they planned to run interference on any gems trying to grab people on the run. So far they had managed to get two cars full of families out of danger, but that was no reason to lose their vigilance.
The fusion was leading the way, using her future vision to see where the next altercation would take place while Pearl followed behind. While this had become a normal routine of the years since Rose's departure for the team, the slender gem seemed more quiet than usual. Whenever she thought Garnet was not looking, her eyes were downcast and she was clearly pushing down her nerves.
Garnet meant to ask her about that, but that changed when she suddenly saw something about to go down to the west. She wasted no time leaping into the air with Pearl keeping her pace as they cut between nondescript patches of natures and a handful of roads until they came across their target: a middle-aged woman with a child in each hand cornered by five sneering Homeworld soldiers.
"Oh no, looks like your trapped!" taunted one of the rubies of the group, "Guess we'll just have to drag you away with the rest of your friends!"
"Pl-please wait," begged the woman, "I don't know w-why you want to abduct p-people, but these are m-my children! Th-they don't deserve this! C-Can't you just let t-them go?"
"What, just because you say so?" scoffed the ruby, "Fat chance!"
"M-Mommy?! What do we do?" asked her daughter.
"Lying down and surrendering is a good start," muttered one of the jaspers among them while cracking her fists. When the sole boy of the three started to sniffle and cry, the jasper yanked him out his mother's reach and hoisted him into the air.
"You humans are absolutely pathetic!" she growled, "You should be thanking that the Diamonds are interested in you! Now you can finally be something more than a worthless sack of water!"
"P-Put Ronald down! He's just a boy!"
"Oh yeah? And what if I don't?"
Garnet was all too happy to answer that question as she sent a small flame out of her hand and lit the jasper's hair on fire. While there was a time that most gems were designed to be fireproof, she thanked that modern Homeworld skimped on the details as the once-cocky gem threw the kid in the air as she yelped trying to stop her head from burning.
"You literally asked for it," said Garnet, "Now do the smart thing and leave."
"A Crystal Gem!"
"Two of them, actually," said Pearl as she drifted down from above with Ronald safely cradled in her arms. Once her feet touched the street, she let the boy down and brandished her spear at the group. "And I'm quite disappointed to see how low you all stoop to nowadays."
"Save it, traitor!" shouted another jasper, "Like we should ever listen to you!"
"Give it a try," suggested Garnet casually, "Maybe instead of fighting, you'd be happier making sculptures for a living."
"I would suggest you all find shelter," said Pearl to Ronald's mother, "This almost never ends peacefully."
The family took the advice and managed to squeeze through the gems blocking them in and ran towards the nearest open house. There was a tense few seconds of silence, each side sizing each other up, before the dam burst and both sides charged forward. Two of the jaspers, including the one now mostly bald thanks to her hair being charred, went for Garnet. The perma-fusion dodged every punch they sent at her until she suddenly released a blast of cold and froze all of their hands solid. They tried to adapt by fighting solely with their feet, but they barely got the chance before Garnet poofed them both.
That left Pearl to deal with the third jasper, a pernicious ruby and the sole topaz of the group. At first, the trio fought the veteran one-on-one with the clear mindset that this would not be a challenge. After all, what could a measly servant do against three gems built for fighting? The ruby quickly learned when she was poofed before she could even blink. That got the other two's attention and the larger gems ganged up on her.
Now they assumed they would win easily not only because the numbers advantage, but also they has far superior strength. While this may have been true, Pearl had a great deal of experience fighting opponents above her weight class. When the topaz tried bashing her with her mace, she nimbly dodged and forced her to drop her weapon by twisting her arm. Once she was unarmed, it was a simple matter of poofing her and leaving the thoroughly-peeved jasper as the last one standing.
"What is this?!" she demanded, "You're just some aristocrat's toy!"
"How original," she sighed, "How about I sing something for your funeral and then we'll talk?"
While the larger gem was distracted, Pearl thrust her spear into the gem's shoulder. When she still would not poof with that, the smaller gem flung her now-panicked opponent into the asphalt with a resounding crash. Seeing her foe was still whole, though now very much in pain, Pearl stabbed her again and again until she finally disappeared after three jabs.
"Sheesh," she groaned as she bubbled the orange gemstone, "Forgot how resilient some of these guys could be."
"Trust me, I know," said Garnet, "At least yours didn't survive a spaceship crashing from orbit."
Pearl chuckled at that, but still felt morose. She could not help but feel like a rookie having so much trouble with a single opponent and Garnet clearly saw it.
"You are doing fine, we're all a tad rusty compared to the old days. At least now there's far more of us out here fighting than there would've been a year ago."
"…I suppose you're right. Just can't help but feel like a novice again at this rate."
"Come on, we've got more work to do. These guys won't be giving up any time soon."
As Garnet walked off to check on the family they rescued, Pearl felt a lump form in her throat. As much as she did not want to think about it, she knew her friend was right. This fight was far from over, but that was exactly what worried her. Now more than ever, she wondered if this uphill battle was one the Crystal Gems could win.
The battle is looking good for the Crystal Gems, but for how long? Tune in next time if Homeworld still has something up their sleeves!
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!