Thankfully they didn't wait long. Not even ten minutes had passed when small bubbles appeared on the otherwise motionless surface and Garnet shot out of the water like a dolphin. But she immediately switched from swimming mod to her acrobatic-door kicker-commando mod. And of course, she still looked good while doing it. She landed on the beach immediately taking a battle stance looking around for an enemy.
Bismuth noticed her first. "Hey, Garnet. Why are you so fuzzed up?"
"Let's call it Intuition," she said slowly while scanning the surroundings, "you never know." Then her gaze fell upon Steven. "Here you are."
"Yep, but where have you been?"
"I... got stuck."
"Stuck? That doesn't sound like you at all. What happened?"
"It's fine."
"No, I'm serious. What happened?"
"It's. Fine." she said emphasizing each word. Garnet's short responses usually conveyed information on several levels. In this case, the sentence "It's fine." would translate as: Something went wrong but it's all right now. I don't want to tell you about it, not because I consider it unimportant, but because I care about you and I think this information could hurt you. So don't worry and don't be mad when I keep it to myself. But Steven noticed that her pinky was twitching, and so the sentence had another layer to it, which could be interpreted as: What I said is a coverup. Something went wrong, but I don't want to tell anyone to keep the situation under control.
They had an emergency on their hands, but Steven decided to play it cool and go along with Garnet's plans because that was usually the best thing to do. She was the one who could predict the future, after all. So Steven replied, "All right," which, in reality, meant: Don't worry, I and others got your back, no matter what happened, or is going to happen.
"Good." I don't know how you know, but I appreciate you stayed calm.
"Yeah" So what are we going to do, what happens now?
"Hmm" I would like to tell you, but...
"Uh, guys?" Pearl tried to gain their attention by waving her hand in an attempt to break their line of sight, "could you please stop staring at each other and tell us what's going on?"
"I don't think they are listening to you, Pearl," Bismuth remarked as she came over and crossed her arms, "they have that telepathy thing going on between them again."
Steven heard them but he kept his eyes on Garnet's visor. "Hm." You should tell us, Garnet.
"Mhm," You are right, sorry, "It's not telepathy,"Garnet finally reacted to their presence,"Steven just knows how to read my body language."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Bismuth scratched her head.
"And," Garnet continued, "I also lost my ability to use future vision, that's why I was looking for Steven for so long."
Pearl was nodding to both Garnet and Bismuth, "Good... Yes..." until she overheard those certain words and her expression changed from uninterested, "... you WHAT?!" to utterly horrified.
"I said: I searched for Steven."
"No, I meant before that!"
Garnet shrugged, "I lost my powers."
At that moment several things happened at once, Bismuth's jaw dropped, Peridot froze, Amethyst's eyes widened, Pearl's face became something which could be defined only as riddled with desperation and Lapis just returned with an emptied trash bag. "Hey, Garnet.. um, what's going on with the funny faces?"
"I told them I lost my powers."
"Gosh, you can't just walk around and drop bombs like that on other people without preparing them for it."
"Sorry, can't help it."
"Ok so," Steven supported his chin, "Peridot's analyzing equipment is broken and Garnet's powers are gone for some reason. Now what?"
Lapis sighed, "For now, let's give them time to recuperate.
Despite that Lapis wasn't spending that much time among humans or even gems, she certainly knew how to be tactful when it came to sensitive matters. Perhaps it was because of her previous experiences. You can't just casually mention you were trapped in the mirror for several thousand years without disrupting the flow of conversation after all. And so she gave Garnet a few tips on how to explain what happened, without shocking her audience.
Even after the short lecture, Garnet's explanation had few hiccups. Like when she casually mentioned that she was almost shattered under the falling boulder while exploring the underwater cave, or that she found one more corrupted gem they forgot about. Interesting what you can experience when you don't know what excitement or danger awaits behind the nearest corner.
Garnet was remarkably calm about it, considering she just lost one of her vital senses. It could be even said she was enjoying it. Pearl had it the other way around. She was sweating, cursing and walking back and forth among other clueless gems.
And the reason why Garnet lost her future vision? She explained it like this: Green storm above was like a Sun, she tried to look at it and use her future vision to figure out what it is, but she looked at it for too long and her third eye was "blinded", or rather overloaded. But before that, she managed to catch a glimpse of at least three hundred thousand timelines, and all of them involved visions Garnet couldn't explain. She was sure only about three things: that all those visions were very unpleasant, that her upper limit of perception was three hundred thousand possible futures and that they were stuck. No technology and no powers. They couldn't deal with the magical storm without knowing how.
It looked like they'd reached the dead end and that it would be better if they'd go after the newly discovered corrupted gem instead. But before that decision could be made Amethyst broke the silence: "Let's throw a rock at it."
"Amethyst, this isn't the time for your foolish games." Pearl murmured.
"Aw, c'mon P," Amethyst picked up a rock from the ground and pointed her finger at it, "this is a rock."
"Uhuh..."
"Then you throw the rock," she tossed it into the water.
"Aaaand?"
Amethyst rolled her eyes, "Aaaaand then you watch what happens to it, you pebble."
"Amethyst, you are a genius!" Bismuth exclaimed.
"Nah, I just prefer simple solutions."
"It's not perfect," Garnet admitted, "but it could give us an idea of what we are dealing with."
And Peridot came alive as well, "I propose trying out more things made of different materials. Mineral, metal, plastic, something organic too.
Lapis was observing, not saying anything, but then she blinked a few times and made a heel turn, "All right, Imma get the garbage bag again."
Soon they were looking at a colorful collection of items, that Beach City residents managed to produce over the weekend. They didn't have to look further than to the Beach Citywalk Fries. Lapis earned scolding from Mr. Fryman when he caught her dumpster-diving behind his restaurant, but when she explained they needed the trash for an experiment of sorts, he let her go.
Now when they had a potential source of required materials, Peridot took command again, but it was mainly because she didn't want to shove her hands into that pile of useful but stinky stuff. Amethyst, on the other hand, had a great time.
Peridot was reading from the list she made, "Metal?"
"What about this can!" and Amethyst searched.
"Yes, that can do. Now try to find something conductive."
"Headphones. And with skulls? Now where these came from?"
"Probably from the human who calls himself Lars..."
"Finders keepers!"
"Yeah, you can keep it. We need only the wire."
"K," and with one pull Amethyst stripped the headphones of the wire.
"Mineral?"
"Rocks."
"Yeah, right and Plastic?"
"Here."
"Now we need something organic."
Amethyst emerged with a banana peel while chewing something in her mouth, "Whill this boo?"
Peridot narrowed her eyes in response, "The whole rotting banana including the microorganisms would be better but this will suffice. All right team, we have ammunition, now we need a battle strategy." She grabbed a stick lying nearby and started drawing in the sand. "The green rift of unknown origin is up there. We are down here. Somebody needs to throw the materials inside. Bismuth has the strength required to do so, but the objects lack aerodynamic properties. The one who's going to do the throwing needs to get closer but not too much. The only person here who can navigate through the air is Lapis, but she isn't strong enough to throw efficiently and the water could afflict the results of the experiment. We need somebody who is both light and strong."
Everybody looked at Steven. "Ok so... what I'm supposed to do?"
"I'm glad you are asking. Lapis will carry you up and you will throw the samples inside the anomaly. And finally, we need somebody who can tell what's happening with the samples, once they enter the area of effect. Only I-"
"Ehm!"
"-Only I and Pearl... happy?"
Pearl nodded.
"Only the two of us are knowledgeable enough to tell what's happening with the samples. However, we can't fly with you. Lapis has to stay mobile in case things go down the hill. So, we need some kind of device which could allow us to observe."
"Ronaldo's telescope," Steven pointed at the lighthouse, "he won't mind if we borrow it."
"Great thinking Steven. Once the operation 'Taking Out the Trash' concludes, we meet here again."
Amethyst arched one of her eyebrows, "Operation 'Taking Out the Trash'?"
"I felt inspired." Peridot shrugged.
Somewhere in the deepest darkest corner of the universe, something made a wet noise and after a brief while of quiet somebody shamelessly and out loud swore.
"THROW ANOTHER!"
"THAT WAS THE LAST ONE!"
"GOOD, COME BACK THEN!" Lapis and Steven landed back on the beach. "So what did we learn?" Asked Steven eagerly.
Pearl and Peridot consulted with each other for a while but then they turned to others and said, "Nothing."
"W-wha... What do you mean, nothing! Are you saying that we are back where we started?"
"No. It's just all those things we threw in," Pearl started.
But Peridot was faster, "Poof."
"What do you mean by 'poof'? Did they disintegrate?" Steven thought out loud.
"No. Even if they'd been disintegrated there would be at least something left. Smoke or at least traces of heat. But everything we threw in there just disappeared."
Steven was thinking hard. So hard his face turned red but then it finally clicked, "I think I know what we are dealing with here. It's a-" From all of a sudden, green lightning struck into the water just a few steps away from crystal gems and a loud bang was followed by a quiet, gentle but still recognizably angry voice: "Portal. It is a portal." On the place where lightning struck stood a man with a short trimmed white beard wearing a blue naval uniform and wire-rim glasses. He was holding a banana peel pinched between his thumb and index finger. "I would appreciate it if you would stop sending refuse through my portal and on my head."
Everybody just kept staring at him, and he kept staring back until Steven recovered from the shock, "YOU!"
Amethyst frowned, "Who?"
"That guy from my dream! I met him in space!"
"Um, are you sure you are ok Steven? I mean, I don't get it either, but this is something even I couldn't come up with, Even though I had a strong coffee this morning."
Garnet stepped forward, into the water and towards the mysterious stranger. "Whoever you are, I think you are lost."
The stranger tilted his head and smiled kindly. "Thank you for your concern, young lady, but I think it isn't necessary."
She retorted with a stone-cold face, "I'm over five thousand years old."
"That still counts as young in my book."
"So you aren't a human?"
"Oh, of course, I am."
"Excuse me," said Pearl, "but isn't it impossible for a human to live past a hundred and twenty-five years?"
"It's true." Stranger admitted.
"But in that case, you can't be a human." Pearl wondered.
Stranger gave her a slightly irritated look. "I'm a human and that's that."
Bismuth narrowed her eyes. "Then prove it."
The stranger sighed, but then he pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose. The result of that was something green and slimy.
Amethyst laughed. "HAHA, Gross!"
"As you can see, I recently caught a cold. Other than that I also need to breathe, sleep and eat. Is there something more I can do to prove my humanity?"
"And here we go again," Steven growled, "who are you?"
"Patience Steven. Indeed, I wasn't entirely honest with you when we met for the first time, but now it's a different story." He threw away the banana peel and the handkerchief, cleared his throat and bowed (all that while standing knee-deep in the water), "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Abraham Monroe and I'm a nigh all-powerful cosmic being. Formerly. Now I'm a human." He added.
"Nigh all-powerful cosmic being? Formerly?" Amethyst repeated in disbelief. "Like ex-god or something?"
"Yes, you could say that."
"And your name is Abraham. Pfft seriously?"
"Oh? And what's wrong with that?"
"It doesn't fit. And that outfit, tsk, tsk, tsk. You should be wearing - like - purple cape and stuff. And the name. Something like Zorg the Conqueror would fit. And you also need a plan..."
"What plan?"
"C'mon dude, you surely must have some evil master plan. You are supposed to explain it, while you are trying to prove your superiority."
It appeared that Amethyst shook Abraham's confidence, or at least confused him. Steven was sure he caught a glimpse of a devilish smirk on her face.
The silence was Abraham's response for a while until it started getting awkward, but then he said: "Why should I call myself Zorg and wear a purple cape?"
"You know, like the villains in comic books."
Gems exchanged uncertain glances.
Abraham arched one eyebrow and grinned "Well I don't know what a 'comic book' is. But I can assure you I'm not a villain. And an evil master plan? You can cross out words 'evil' and 'master', but other than that yes, I have a plan. Everybody does."
"So, what is yours?" Garnet asked coldly.
"Well, since you are asking so nicely. This portal above our heads will in a short while extract all gems from this world. After that, they will be merged into one superstructure and devoid of their essence."
All gems froze in place except for Garnet. She leaned towards Abraham, so he could see his reflection in her visor, "Steven?"
"Yes?" his voice was shaking with anger.