Lamp Entertainment presents…

Chapter 10: The Lead

On Homeworld…

December 10th.

YP&BP's News and Entertainment was currently the largest growing and most popular out of all new networks that had started popping up all over the empire's interconnected information-sharing webs. Originally, it was just supposed to be a network for Steven and the Diamonds to make announcements to the rest of the galaxy. But Blue Pearl had slapped a logo of her and Yellow Pearl's faces on the broadcast as a joke. Within a few weeks, demands were in for the return of YP&BP's News. Since then, the channel had grown to include not just daily news brought to you by Yellow and Blue Pearl themselves, but also various entertainment programming. Yellow Pearl had a cooking show, introducing "foods" to all the gems out there. Blue Pearl had a show where she did painting while talking softly. There were several other programs, including Spinel doing stand-up comedy.

Still, the channel was primarily focused on news. The last nine days had been focused mostly on reporting the preparations for Operation Christmas. Of course, not all news were good news.

"Reports have just come in that several explosives have been stolen from a Disarmament Unit here on Homeworld, alongside several weapons," Yellow Pearl read from the teleprompter.

"The thief left several messages behind," Blue Pearl continued. "It appears to be the same individual that responsible for the attack on N1V-25, who calls themselves the 'Winter Shadow.'"

Several images of the threatening messages burned directly into the walls showed up as holographic screens next to the two news anchors.

a lie that you cheriSH

christmas shall pErISh

the truth you will sooN see

i am yOu Truly set Free

the dream wIll die

the winteR Shadow will end The lie

"Citizens are encouraged to stay vigilant and report any suspicious individuals or activity to their local law upholder office," Blue Pearl continued.

"And that concludes today's news report," Yellow Pearl said. "Next up, how do you impress a Jasper without defeating all other competition in combat? Join me and our panel of experts as we answer this and several other of our viewers' questions on relationships and romance."

xxXXxx

About an hour or so after the above broadcast, the three Diamonds were gathered in one of the many enormous rooms inside of their palace. To say that the atmosphere was filled with unease was an understatement. White's face was pulsating with anxious purple as she paced back and forth.

"Not good," she said. "Not good at all."

That too could be considered an understatement. The Winter Shadow had managed to sneak into one of the most well-guarded places on Homeworld, the Disarmament Unit that disposed of old weaponry. Not only that, but she had somehow managed to smuggle out enough explosives to blow a hole through a mountain.

"We know," Yellow said, getting ever so slightly irritated at White's constant pacing. "White, please calm down. This is not a time to panic. We have to think things through rationally and calmly."

"Calm down?" White snapped. "I'll calm down once the Winter Shadow is captured!" Stripes of fiery red crept onto her face and she closed her fists tightly. It was not hard to imagine a gem trapped between her fingers being ground to dust.

Blue put one hand on White's shoulder. With the other hand, she conjured a small cloud of happiness and blew it towards her. Slowly, the red and purple faded from her face. The worried purple didn't fully go away, but it became fainter, like a shadow on her face.

"Yellow is right," Blue said softly. "Please calm down."

White took several deep breaths and did her best to suppress the bubbling fear and anger within her.

"Sorry," she said after a few seconds. "It's just… that message. Something about it… it got to me. And I just… I don't understand why the Winter Shadow wants to destroy Christmas. Why would anyone want to ruin something so beautiful?"

Yellow and Blue both nodded.

"We get it," Yellow said. "I'm just as upset as you. But the fact is that the Winter Shadow has acquired several pieces of powerful weaponry. And getting angry or worked up is only going to distract us from actually capturing her."

"You're right, of course," White said. To think, barely two years earlier, and the mere idea of White ever admitting any fault was tantamount to blasphemy.

"Ahem," said a smaller voice from down on the floor. The three Diamonds looked down and found a green gem entering through the smaller door into the room where they were standing.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting something important," the green gem said. "Spinel told me you wouldn't mind, and this is rather important…"

The green gem was a Herderite. She was tall and lanky, with long limbs, a big head, and large bright eyes. Her fingers were long and nimble, and constantly moving, unconsciously typing out long algorithms in the air or on her leg. Her square gem was placed in her left eye socket.

Herderites were a type of tech gem that specialized in programming, analyzing, and storing information. Think of them as a cross between a librarian and a programmer.

"No, not at all," White said, absentmindedly reaching out to pick up the gem in her hand. "What brings you here?"

"I can find the Winter Shadow," Herderite said, cutting getting straight to the point.

Three pairs of immaculate eyebrows raised simultaneously.

"And how exactly would you go about that?" Yellow asked. She had worked with Herderites before and knew that they could get a bit full of themselves. Actually, that went for most tech gems. "We've already tried to track the explosives."

All weaponry that was being primed for disposal was sprayed with a radioactive tracker that could be detected from orbit. In theory, if as much as a single destabilizer made it outside the Disarmament Units, they'd be able to track it with millimeter precision. But the explosives the Winter Shadow had stolen hadn't shown up on any scans. It was as if they had simply vanished into the dark.

Herderite scoffed.

"Pah! Peridot tech, no doubt. I wouldn't trust them to track the sun in the sky." She chuckled at her own joke. "No, I didn't say I was going to track the explosives, did I? I said I was going to find the Winter Shadow."

She tapped a pair of computers strapped to her wrists. A large holographic screen and a holographic keyboard appeared before her. She started typing as a large list of gem names were slowly scrolling past on the screen.

"We may not know who the Winter Shadow really is, or even what type of gem she is," Herderite started expositing. "But what few gems realize is just how much information they leave behind them."

"The warp records," Yellow said. Whenever a gem used a warp pad, the information of who it was and where they were going was stored. It made it a lot easier to find a specific gem when she was needed for a mission or project.

Herderite nodded.

"Indeed. This is the list of gems that were on N1V-25 at the time of the attack," she gestured towards the list scrolling by on the screen.

"Which narrows it down to about five billion gems," Yellow said while squinting and looking at the numbers on the screen.

"Ah, but we also know the Winter Shadow must've been back on Homweworld by now in order to steal the explosives," Herderite said and fed some commands into the computer. They whirred and the number on the screen shrank dramatically to a few million.

"I see," White said. "Let me guess, the next step is to see who out of these gems have access to the Disarmament Unit?"

"Correct," Herderite said, smiling confidently. "There were no signs of a break-in, so it must be someone who works at the Unit." The list shrank again, now to a few dozen.

Herderite scanned the list with her sharp eyes.

"There!" she exclaimed and tapped a name on the list. A second screen opened and showed the profile of an Era 2 Peridot. Peridot N07-H3R.

"What makes you think it's her?" Blue asked while eyeing the profile. The Peridot seemed fairly normal and unremarkable from what she could see.

"Well, for one thing, she'd probably know how to wash off the tracking spray," Herderite said while without looking away from the screen she was working on. "More importantly… she held up the screen so all the Diamonds could see. The screen was split in two, showing the field with the dropships on N1V-25 and the Disarmament Unit on Homeworld. On both maps was a blinking dot. "I can track her limb enhancers! And she was at both crime scenes when it happened!"

To be continued…

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Aw shoot, here we go again with the plot. Can't have too much fun, now can we?

Also, I can't believe I forgot this, I should've done it back in chapter one, but I only thought of it now…

As you've probably noticed, White's face shifts color depending on her mood. Long story short, I saw it in a piece of fanart and thought it'd be fun. Here's the explanation of what all the colors mean:

Pink-Embarrassment

Red-Fiery red is anger, hatred, and wrath. Lighter red can symbolize love or passion.

Yellow-Bright yellow is happiness or excitement.

Orange-A combination of happy yellow and red passion; symbolizes determination.

Green-Deep green is disgust while a paler green can be shame of guilt.

Blue-Dark blue is sadness or depression. A lighter shade of blue can be indicative of deep thought, concentration, or introversion.

Purple-Fear, worry, or anxiety.