Adrenaline
The crystal gems stepped off of the warp pad, and began to slowly approach Perry. All of them looked like they were there for a fight, their weapons already summoned.
"Guys, wait!" Steven ran towards the group, only for Pearl to grab a hold of him and push him behind her, still holding her spear in her right hand. She nodded to Amethyst and Garnet, they seemed to understand her as they both rushed towards Perry.
"Just leave me ALONE!" Perry screamed, clumsily swinging his metallic arm towards Garnet's face. She ducked under the blow with ease, and delivered a devastating gut punch to the human, sending him flying back as flem flew out of his mouth.
"GU-GUH!" Perry gasped for air as drool flowed out of his mouth. Amethyst was the next to attack, slinging her whip around Perry's right arm, holding him in place while Garnet readied a punch aimed squarely at his head.
"Huh, did she just cough somethin' up?" Amethyst asked, only to be hit by a massive discharge of electricity that was currently coursing through Perry's limb enhancers, and by extension her whip.
"Crap- That… I can't do that again" Perry mumbled, watching the Smaller gem crumple to the ground, causing her whip to fall off of him. He barely dove out of the way of Garnet's gauntlet, swinging his right arm behind him, and pointing it at one of the many ancient battle-axes littering the battlefield.
"I WARNED YOU, NOW IT'S TIME TO FINISH THIS!" A gravity beam shot out of his right hand, enveloping the battle axe behind him in a sickly green grow. Perry began to laugh maniacally, as he swung the massive axe straight towards Amethyst's limp body. Moments before the axe could impact her, Garnet jumped in the way of the axe, grabbing a hold of the axe head with both of her gauntlets.
"C'mon!" Perry raised his left arm, another gravity beam firing towards the axe, doubling the force he was applying to the axe. The massive axe was slowly getting closer to the purple gem, while Garnet struggled in vain to keep the axe away from Amethyst. A bright blue light began to flash rapidly on Perry's limb enhancer.
"Warning; Low power, please cease all work-related activities and allow time for your enhancers to recharge." A monotone voice echoed out of the limb enhancer, to Perry's complete disregard as he kept on applying more pressure to the buckling fusion.
"NO, NOT WHEN I'VE ALMOST GOT THEM!" His eyes darted to Steven who was staring at him, looking rather shocked at the situation. No- Wait a second, he wasn't staring at him… He was staring at something behind him.
"Wait, where did the Pearl-" A cold, yet burning pain burst through his stomach, completely interrupting his vocalized train of thought. His gravity beams immediately dissipated as his arms fell limp beside him. He was in absolute agony, what just happened…?
He looked down at his body, seeing the Pearls spear was coated in blood… His blood, and was currently impaling him through his lower stomach. Oh. I guess this is how he died. He heard a shrill scream behind him as the weapon instantly dissipated, finally allowing his legs to buckle as he fell backwards onto the ground, and began gasping for air. Earth's sky really was pretty, huh? He heard the pearl mumbling something, she sounded hysterical. Didn't he have some pretty important organs that couldn't be damaged? He should have paid more… Attention…
"NOOOOO!" He heard Steven scream, as the boy began to run towards his limp, bleeding body. Perry weakly raised his head, watching the boy lick his hand, only to slam it against the hole in his stomach before he finally blacked out.
The sound of clothes being torn was undercut by a sickly squishing noise, the second Pearl had impaled the Peridot they knew something was wrong. They didn't poof, they didn't… Oh stars, what had she done? It took her a few seconds to even realize something was wrong, the fact they just stood there, staring down at the spear that was shooting through their body, the horrid coppery smell that soon filled the air, and the blood that slowly trickled down her spear.
Steven's eyes widened, he saw the blank expression on Perry's face as he realized what had happened to him, and then he saw Pearl. Her face contorted from a smug grin to absolute horror once she had realized what had happened, her weapon disappeared almost instantly as she cried out in horror. The teenager slumped to the ground the second the spear was gone, and blood soon began to pool around him. Everyone else was frozen, Pearl was hysterical, and Steven began to feel his body move on its own.
"NOOOOOO!" He screamed, running towards the body. Nobody bothered to stop him, they were all staring at the aftermath of the scene that had just unfolded before them. Steven licked his hand, staring at the hole in the human's lower body. His powers couldn't fail him now, they WOULDN'T fail him now, he wasn't going to let Perry die.
He slammed his spit-covered hand against the human's body, and in an instant the hole seemed to repair itself, leaving only a small puddle of blood on the muddy ground as evidence that the human was even hurt at all.
"I-I DID IT!" Steven felt a massive wave of relief, nausea and anguish wash over him all at once, not really knowing who to direct it at. Pearl clasped her hands over her mouth, mumbling incoherently.
"H-He's not waking up." Pearl mumbled, motioning to the body. Garnet briskly walked towards Pearl, seeming to finally break free of whatever trance had recently been cast upon them. She placed both of her hands on her shoulders, and dissipated her Visor.
"Pearl. Listen to me." She stared down at the shaking gem, who slowly craned her neck up to look at the Fusion, "It was not. Your. Fault. He's going to be fine, he's breathing. But you need to calm down, this was all just a- Some kind of… Ergh!" Garnet broke away from Pearl, clenching her fists.
"Why would homeworld send a freakin' human here?!" Amethyst walked towards the group surrounding the sleeping Human, finally piping up.
"We don't KNOW!" Garnet's fists trembled, as she let out a shaky breath.
"If I- If I had gotten to them before Pearl, it would have been…" Garnet closed her eyes, briefly immersing herself in a future of herself attempting to crush the human into poofing. She returned to reality, summoning her visor with a wave of her hand.
"We should have listened to Steven. We're lucky Pearl was the one to land the finishing blow." Garnet turned to the group, Steven's gaze shifted from the still unconscious human to Pearl.
"Garnet's right, Pearl. You thought he was a Gem!" Steven began walking towards the still shaking, crying Pearl.
"Wait, that's a dude?" Amethyst once again piped up, only for Garnet to respond with a slap to the back of her head, "Ow…" She mumbled.
"It doesn't matter Steven, /I/ should I have listened to you instead of running off to try and- Oh stars, what would Rose think of me now?" Pearl fell to her knees in front of Steven, whimpering uncontrollably.
"It doesn't MATTER what mom thinks of you now Pearl, because it was an ACCIDENT! I know you wouldn't ever hurt someone on purpose Pearl, so please… Please just calm down." He started off shouting, before his voice slowly lowered to a whisper. He wrapped his arms around Pearl, embracing the gem in a hug.
"O-Oh Steven…" She wrapped her arms around him, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"I'm sorry you had to see all of that." Pearl stood up, ruffling Stevens hair. A warm smile spread across Stevens face, only for Pearl to continue to talk. "But it doesn't change what I did. I promise you Steven, I won't ever do that to another human again." She took a deep breath, and turned to the rest of the Gems who had huddled around his body.
"Uh, P? I think you might wanna change that promise you made to Steven." Amethyst was staring intently at Perry's head, clearly something having caught her attention.
"And WHY would I do that, amethyst?" Pearl crossed her arms over her chest as she approached the two gems.
"Because he's not a human." Garnet bluntly replied, motioning towards the presumed Hybrids head.
"What?" Pearl stared in utter disbelief at the green gem embedded in the teenagers forehead.
"B-But that's… Is Homeworld really doing this?" She muttered, glancing between an equally shocked Amethyst and an unreadable Garnet.
"Wait, wait- You're telling me Homeworld has HYBRIDS?! Like STEVEN?!" She pointed between Steven and the presumed Hybrid.
"That doesn't make any sense, why would Homeworld do something like this?!" Pearl's voice was raised and her hands clenched into fists.
"I thought you guys said Steven was one of a kind or something, and this had NEVER happened before!" Amethyst clearly sounded confused, her voice had a tang of anger to it.
"HE WAS! T-This isn't something they were doing, never in my life did I ever think Homeworld would… Would do this…" She mumbled, staring in disbelief at Perry's body.
"Well right now I don't know WHO to believe, did Rose know about this?! How many secrets was she hiding from us Pearl!" Amethyst Snarled, taking a step closer to Pearl.
"I- Well… Well it's just, you know…" Pearl's hand shot up to cover her mouth as she began to mumble incoherently.
"ENOUGH!" Garnet grabbed a hold of both of their arms. "We will discuss this later." Pearl felt Garnet's gaze linger on her for a little while longer than it should have.
"What are you guys talking about?" Steven asked, looking up at the group of Gems who were close to ripping each other apart.
"It's… It's nothing Steven. We just want to figure out what the heck is going on." Amethyst muttered, glancing between Perry and Pearl.
"I'm telling you I don't know ANYTHING about this Amethyst! Please don't do this in front of Steven!" She took a step towards Amethyst, causing Amethyst to let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Fine. I believe you Pearl, I'm sorry- This whole thing is just too freaking CRAZY to believe!" Amethyst grabbed a hold of Stevens hand, leading them back to the Warp. Steven obliged, feeling rather confused himself.
"Uh, can you guys grab his body?" Amethyst looked up at the two gems, both of them nodding before they moved to pick up Perry's body.
"Welp Ste-man, guess it's time to figure out what's going on."
Perry's body was sprawled out over the couch in the middle of the cabin, drool slowly falling from his mouth and onto the immaculately clean pillows. Pearl's nose was currently in the confines of a limb enhancer as she fiddled with wires and pulled various bits and pieces out of the strange device.
"Lapis was right, this technology far surpasses anything we faced in the War." Pearl grumbled, tossing a brightly glowing green orb behind her that Garnet instantly caught, and placed gently beside her, in a pile of various other dangerous looking objects ripped from the limb enhancer.
"So you can't get those things off of him?" Garnet asked, her arms crossed over her chest. She stood just behind Pearl, observing her as she worked.
"Ergh, it's like they're a part of him. I could try removing their main power source and the internal wiring, but that would just leave him with four heavy pieces of metal stuck to his body." A smug expression soon formed on Pearl's rather focused face, as she slammed the limb enhancers small hatch shut, "Which is why I decided to COMPLETELY remove all dangerous functionalities! Including all of his weapon systems along with that Pesky gravity beam!" Pearl beamed, clearly very proud of her handiwork, turning around to find both Steven and Amethyst staring down at the pile of glowing junk.
"Amethyst, do not eat that. You will explode." Pearl condescending spoke to Amethyst, who was staring intently at the recently discarded glowing green orb.
"You probably shouldn't have told her that." Garnet adjusted her visor, sighing after she saw the result of Pearl's comment.
"Aw heck yeah, watch me EXPLODE Steven!" She grabbed a hold of the ball with both of her hands, and lobbed it into her mouth. She swallowed, and began to glow a bright green. Her entire body proceeded to briefly swell to three times its size, before deflating back to normal. A large amount of green smoke flowed from her mouth, ears, eyes and nose.
"That was… Awesome…" She grumbled, falling back as smoke continued to exit her body.
Steven giggled, watching Amethyst continue to cough up green smoke.
"So uh, is he gonna wake up soon?" Steven leaned over the unconscious body of Perry, lightly poking his cheek.
"We don't know, but… We should really start discussing the implications of Homeworld sending a Hybrid here. Do they know about Steven?" Pearl found herself questioning out loud, sounding rather worried as she spoke.
"Probably not. He seems older than Steven, so whatever Homeworld's been doing, they've been doing before Rose created Steven." Garnet's gaze remained on Perry's body, she didn't bother looking at Amethyst when she began to talk.
"So… If he's like some weird scout sent here, doesn't that mean Homeworld probably has MORE hybrids?" Amethyst asked, causing Pearl to begin nervously clasping her hands together.
"Well. We don't know if this is just a fluke, or if he's a scout sent by Homeworld. For all we know, he could either be one of a kind or apart of an army of Hybrids." Garnet's tone of voice shifted from calm to authoritative, she clearly wanted to get the point of danger across to the other two gems.
"I-I thought more people like me would be a good thing, right?" Steven whispered. He flattened his lips against each other, noticing the Gems struggle to respond to his question.
"Steven. You're made of the love between Rose, and Greg. They loved each other, and created you because they wanted to. I can almost certainly tell you that this Hybrid wasn't. You saw Lapis's message that she sent to us, Homeworld is nothing like earth." Garnet looked to the rest of the gems, who all nodded in agreement with her statement.
"She's right Steven, Homeworld IS a terrible place. It's why we fought to protect this planet from it almost five thousand years ago." Pearl looked to Amethyst, who shrugged in response.
"Eh, I dunno much about these jerks Steven, but they're probably using P-Whatever his name is for their own EVIL purposes and crud!" Amethyst coughed up another large cloud of green smoke.
"But we can still help him right? We'll show him earth's a great place to live!" Steven stared up at the Gems, giving them his signature puppy dog eyes.
"I can't say no to those eyes Steven, but we need to extract whatever information we can out of him first before we let him wander off around town." Garnet turned her head back to face Perry, who had now started to groan.
"HE'S WAKING UP!" Steven shouted, he looked to the other three gems, who seemed just as worried as he was.
"We'll talk to him, just stay calm. Amethyst, tie him up." Garnet commanded the two other gems, who immediately got to work. Amethyst summoned one of her whips, quickly tying it around the presumed hybrid, while Pearl sat him upright, and took his visor off.
"Alright, get ready. We don't know how loyal he might be to Homeworld, or if he's been trained on how to resist interrogation." Garnet grit her teeth, cracking her knuckles as she approached the slowly awakening teenager.
He was slowly waking up, he felt like he had just been hit in the gut by an Amethyst, only their fist went straight through him. Wait, was he alive? Wow, now that's something he was NOT expecting. Oh crap, did these terrorists keep him alive to torture him for information?! His eyes shot open, revealing his worst nightmares to be true, finding himself tied up on a couch in the middle of a comfy looking home. Upstairs, Steven could be seen staring at some kind of primitive image displayer. Upon realizing he was awake, Steven turned the displayer off, and shouted something Perry couldn't hear over the slowly fading ringing in his ears. He felt like everything was spinning.
"Gargh, I thought I could TRUST you Steven, and now you're already betraying me?! Pull yourself away from that primitive image displayer and HELP ME!" He wriggled around in his restraints, eventually falling off of the couch and face-first onto the wooden floor. He heard footsteps rapidly approaching him, as the gems rushed out of their rooms to find him hobbling to his feet.
"Fools, you think you can TORTURE ME?! YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO RESTRAIN ME!" With a lot of effort, he managed to slink his way out of the whip Amethyst had wrapped around him, laughing maniacally he raised his right hand, pointing it at the group.
"CONTINUE TO STAND THERE DOING NOTHING, YOU SHALL SOON FACE YOUR DEMISE AT MY HAND-" He paused, looking down at his hand. He extended all five of his floating fingers, attempting to create the same ball of green energy he had done so many times more. The crystal-terrorists simply watched, the Amethyst even began to laugh.
"I made a few adjustments to your limb enhancers since we couldn't figure out how to remove them without hurting you, so now you're practically harmless!" The pearl smugly proclaimed, a wide smile spread across her face. She motioned to the left of the couch, where a massive pile of all of the parts she had gutted from the limb enhancers rested.
"NOOOO, MY MODIFICATIONS!" Perry screamed, rushing towards the pile, only to be blocked by a very familiar looking Spear. He slowly backed away, looking around the room for a means of escape.
"Those modifications took me years to make, where's my secondary energy core I made?! It's what let me create those awesome energy balls!" He desperately attempted to reason with the group, looking between them as the Amethyst nervously burped up some green smoke.
"I may have uh- Eaten it." She burped again, this time more green smoke coming out of her mouth.
"YOU ATE MY FUSION REACTOR?!" Perry screamed, only for the Pearl to take another step towards him.
"And you won't be getting any of your other "gadgets" back either, you're lucky we didn't disable your enhancers completely. So, are you ready to start talking?" She flourished her spear in her hands to the absolute horror of Perry, who spun around and began running straight for the door.
"Not so fast, gem-boy!" Amethyst cackled, landing in front of the door he was running towards, both of her whips now summoned. She cracked her whip inches away from his face causing him to let out another scream, turning around only to narrowly avoid being grabbed by Garnet, bursting through a wooden door and entering a strange, sterile room. He slammed the door shut behind him, leaning against it.
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME DEAD, YOU CLODS!" He shouted through the door, before he began to laugh maniacally. He heard shuffling around the door, as the group of terrorists regrouped.
"Isn't the expression you'll never take me alive?" Steven shouted through the door.
"SHUT UP!" He screamed, turning around to inspect the strange room he now found himself in.
"Should we tell them that's the bathroom?" Pearl looked to Amethyst, who shrugged in response to her question.
"I will not be broken by that filthy fusion!" Perry's voice screamed from the other side of the door.
"That's it, I'm kicking his butt." Garnet summoned both of her gauntlets, only to be barely held back by Steven.
"It seems I'm in some kind of… Strange human servicing room. If I had to guess, this room contains all of the essentials for a human to survive. Such as waste disposal…" He looked to the sink and turned the tap, causing him to become rather startled by the sudden rush of water. He stared at the empty bathtub, turning the tap on.
"A suitable pool to drink from…" He turned the tap on, and began to lap up the water that soon collected in the bathtub, before pushing himself up and away from it. He then turned to the toilet, scratching his chin.
"This clearly appears to be some kind of apparatus to properly clean the lower parts of the human body." He pulled the lever on the toilet, watching the water run down the sides of the toilet. "As I expected." He clambered into the toilet after raising the seat. He flushed the toilet again, slowly spinning around as he flushed it again.
"Uh, are you trying to flush yourself down the toilet in there?! I've tried, but it doesn't work!" The amethyst shouted to Perry. He felt something beginning to stir in his stomach, so he shot up from the toilet, the water sliding off his baggy water-proof jumpsuit.
He walked towards the mirror, captivated by seeing his reflection for the first time, completely lost in the sight of his own reflection.
"So we're not gonna just let them stay in the Bathroom right?" Amethyst looked to the rest of the small group that had gathered outside of Stevens bathroom.
"Well we can't just keep him outside on a leash, can we? Although… Hrm… Steven, do you think you'd be able to feed him and give him water?" Pearl placed a hand under her chin as she thought about her hypothetical plan.
"That's not a bad idea. It'd be a lot easier to question him if we gave him a reason to start talking, and I don't want to have to hurt him." Garnet looked away from Pearl, and back towards the door.
"Alright- Uh, what was his name?" Garnet looked down at Steven.
"P-17, or Perry? I think Perry's just a nickname though." Steven quickly responded.
"P-17, we've decided to stop fighting you! We're not going to hurt you either, but you have to promise not to hurt us, and come OUT of the bathroom."
"Hrmg… I'm not going out there, not UNTIL YOU do something for ME!" Perry stared at his reflection as he spoke, trying to look cooler and more angry while he shouted rather than cute and rather funny looking.
"Ergh, what is it you want?" The Pearl spoke through the door.
"WHICH ONE OF THESE MACHINES DO I USE TO DISPOSE OF MY WASTE?!" Perry screamed through the door, hobbling around the room, "BECAUSE I REALLY NEED TO RELEASE A LOT OF PENT UP WASTE!" He shouted through the door.
"USE THE TOILET!" Steven shouted through the door.
"WHICH ONE IS THE TOILET?!" Perry screamed back through the door.
"The one you tried to flush yourself down dude!" Amethyst shouted through the door.
"Uh-huh, I'll try my best…" Perry gulped, turning to the strange contraption he had previously attempted to use to wash himself in.
"Uh, is he alright in there? He stopped making any noise twenty minutes ago." Amethyst knocked on the door, getting no response.
"He might have passed out on the toilet if it was too much for him to handle, or he could have escaped…" Garnet unclenched her fists, slowly reaching towards the door.
"But what if he's still on the toilet!" Steven shouted, seeming rather panicked.
"That's just a risk we'll have to take." Garnet opened the door, summoning her gauntlets and-
Perry remained with their back turned to the door, oblivious to the group who had entered the room as he continued to make a variety of strange and goofy poses in the mirror. It was only when he took a step back the mirror was finally able to reveal the group behind him.
"EEK!" Perry spun on his heel, clasping his fingers behind his back as he began to sweat nervously.
"YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!" He shouted at the group. Garnet's gauntlets disappeared, and he was soon picked up and slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The honorary sack of potatoes was dumped outside of the home, next to a wooden post that had been driven into the sand. Pearl reached into her gem, pulling the old dog collar and a leash she had prepared earlier out.
"I always thought you might want a dog in the future Steven, so I was always prepared!" She reached towards Perry, clasping the collar around his neck as he thrashed violently against Garnet's grip.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, I'M FAR TOO INTELLIGENT TO BE RESTRAINED BY YOUR PRIMITIVE DEVICES! I'M A TECHNICIAN, NOT SOME PET!" The collar was firmly affixed to his neck, and the leash was tightly wrapped around the wooden pole by Garnet.
"This is your area," She motioned to the small patch of beach Perry was able to reach, "Your area will be expanded based on the information you tell us regarding Homeworld." She spoke with her usual, authoritative tone of voice.
Oh crap, this wasn't good. They wanted to know about Homeworld, they were going to wring him out for every useful bit of information he had ever heard and then toss him into the ocean to be eaten alive by avian creatures! He was going to die on this miserable ball of dirt and NOBODY COULD SAVE HIM!
"NO, YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, NOT TO THE AMAZINGLY INTELLIGENT PERRY!" He struggled against the leash in vain, the wooden pole only wobbling slightly.
"We'll be back in the morning, when the sun rises." Garnet pointed to the starry night sky, causing Perry to cackle in amusement.
"Please, you really think I'll crack after not even a SINGLE ROTATION of this planet?!" Perry began to laugh maniacally.
"You will however be allowed to use Steven's bathroom when you need to relieve yourself." Pearl quickly added as the group turned, walking back to the Cabin.
"Fine, leave me here you uh… Uncrystallized Gems! I'll be gone by the morning!" He smirked proudly, although his shouts drew no attention from the group as they re-entered the small wooden cabin.
"Hrmph, do they think I'm some kind of Sapphire? It'll only be a few hours until the sun rises, and I'll have plenty of time to escape in that time!" They clenched their floating fingers, and began to struggle against their leash, soon finding themselves choking from the amount of pressure that was being applied to the front of their neck.
"G-Grk…" He stopped pulling against the leash, gasping for air as he stumbled back into the sand, falling on his butt.
"This… May be a little harder than I first thought, at least without my tools. Ergh, this sand gets EVERYWHERE!" He kicked some sand up into the air, only for it to blow back into his now exposed eyes.
"GARGH, THOSE CLODS TOOK MY VISOR! MY VISOOOOOR!" He screamed into the night sky, while seagulls began to circle around him.
"T-The sun's rising!" Perry screamed, waving his arms around at the large number of seagulls who had begun pecking at his metallic arms and fleshy body, causing them all to fly off of him, and into the morning sky.
"FINALLY, THEY'RE COMING!" The sand covered teenager turned to the door of the cabin, watching it slowly open as THE FUSION walked towards him. She stopped a few meters away from him, crossing her arms and looking generally disappointed. He fell to his knees, clasping his floating fingers together.
"PLEAAASE LET ME GO, PLEASE! I JUST WANT MY VISOR BACK, AND TO GET OFF OF THIS HORRIFIC BEACH! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW!" He sobbed, falling face first into the sand only to continue sobbing.
"Okay. Your area has been expanded." Garnet grabbed a hold of the wooden post, and crushed it. She then tossed Perrys visor towards him, falling onto the sandy beach in front of him. He scrambled to pick it up, sliding it over his face.
"YES, FOOLISH FUSION, YOU HAVE ALLOWED ME FREEDOM AND EYE-PROTECTION!" He began to laugh maniacally, only to feel Garnet tug on his Leash.
"You'll be staying with me for a while, or if you don't want to listen to us we can always leave you out on the beach for another night." She firmly patted his back, as Perry's eyes widened.
He'd do almost anything to avoid spending another horrific night on this cursed land, even if it meant telling the fusion a few things about the Zoo.
"Fine, FINE! You WIN fusion, now take me to the rest of your terrorist conspirators so I may divulge whatever it is you so desperately want to learn about!" He shouted at the fusion, but his body was trembling with fear.
"You can call me Garnet." She tugged the leash, forcing Perry to stagger after her, towards the cabin.
"So he's willing to talk now?" Pearl was the first to say anything, all four of the crystal gems including Steven were currently staring curiously at the Teenager who sat on the couch in front of them.
"Your chairs are… Strangely designed" Perry muttered, shifting his body around on the couch.
"Wait uh- Shouldn't we be asking him questions now?" Amethyst questioned, looking around at the group.
"Oh, I have a question!" Steven raised his hand, Perry only gave him a confused look, before sighing.
"What's the question?" The captured human grumbled.
"Tell me about your moms!" Steven grinned widely, clearly not noticing the look of embarrassment that flashed across the teenagers face as he stared straight down at his boots.
"Moms…?" Pearl questioned, glancing at Garnet who was adjusting her visor.
"Steven, did you talk to him before?" Garnet asked without any malice in her voice, only curiosity.
"Uh, we talked. Sorta." He shrugged, picking up on Perry's now rather obvious blush.
"Steven… If he told you anything, then you HAVE to tell the rest-" Garnet was interrupted before she could finish her speech.
"Fine, I'll tell you about my caretakers!" He grumbled. Everyone leaned in towards him, eager to hear what he had to say.
"Where to start… I was born in the human zoo, and lived a normal life until I was two years old. That's when a Peridot noticed I was… Different…" He scratched the back of his messy hair, gauging the group for their reaction.
"T-The human zoo? Isn't that…" Pearl's hand shot up to cover her mouth.
"Pink Diamond's Zoo, we know. I didn't know it was still operational." Garnet grimaced, turning away from Perry.
"Even after all this time, they're still forcing humans to be attractions for their own sick-" Garnet's rant was interrupted by Perry.
"It wasn't like that at all, almost nobody visited other than a few sapphires or a curious Emerald. It was nice there, fruits and water, places for us to relax and sing... And well, I doubt most of the humans there had ever experienced pain in their lives." He grumbled, scratching his forehead. "In fact, they were a whole lot dumber than most of the ones I've talked to here, surprisingly." He shrugged, looking at the group.
"So what made you so different from 'em?" Amethyst leaned forward, clearly invested in whatever the Hybrid was saying.
"Well I told you, they noticed I was strange, I kept on fixing things and would constantly break out of the Nursery they kept younger humans in and end up crawling around the vents." He chuckled at the memory, before shaking his head.
"It started off as getting me to do odd jobs that none of the other Peridots wanted to do, and eventually I just sorta… Got better at fixing stuff, better at listening to Peridot, Prime and Square, and eventually got these limb enhancers installed."
"So why are you here?" Garnet asked, only for the presumed hybrid to let out a long, deep sigh.
"I'll get to that. But as time went on, I realized the zoo was just… Terrible. I hated the humans who lived there, and they hated me. I was terrible at being a human, and great at being a Peridot. So why not just become one full time? So I did. After Prime left Peridot was put in charge and-" Before Perry could continue, Amethyst interrupted him.
"Wait, slow down pal. Who's Prime, Square and Peridot?" Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him.
"They were my guardians, they taught me almost everything I know. Prime was a Peridot created in the PRIME kindergarten on earth, while Square and Peridot were both created in uh, less efficient kindergartens." He scratched the back of his head, hoping to move on from the subject.
"Less efficient…?" Garnet muttered, staring at the limb enhancers.
"You know, I was beginning to wonder why homeworld would create replicas of a Peridot's limbs for humans, but I'm beginning to think these are designed for gems rather than humans." Pearl stared at the pile of parts that had been slowly getting smaller as time went on, Amethyst was currently snacking on a processing chip from said pile.
"Of course! Homeworld must be running low on resources, so the gems they create need technology to aid them." Garnet slammed her fist into an open palm, the rest of the group seemed satisfied with this conclusion.
"Also, you called a Peridot "Peridot"?" Amethyst snickered.
"I've only ever known three of them! Do you want me to continue?!" He sounded rather annoyed by Amethyst's comment, and all three of them quickly nodded. Garnet placed a hand over Amethyst's mouth to her dismay.
"Anyway… I ended up getting- Getting this gem given to me by Peridot, after I decided I didn't want to be a human anymore. It's not real, it's just some weird computer thing or whatever that used to belong to PRIME before she got promoted." He looked up at the group, all three of them seemed rather shocked at the revelation.
"So you're not really a hybrid? You're just a human with a gem stuck to their head?" Pearl squinted at Perry, both she and Garnet seemed to still be on edge about the whole situation.
"I really am just some stupid, dumb human." He grumbled, holding his head in his floating fingers. Steven frowned, before placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Y'know, I'll still be your friend anyway Perry." He smiled at the teenager, and a small smile began to form on Perry's face as well.
"Thanks." He mumbled, pulling away from the child. Both Pearl and Garnet let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness, for a moment I thought Homeworld really had developed Hybrids! Oh stars, how lucky we are." Pearl turned to Garnet, who appeared to be adjusting her visor.
"Right, well anyway. After I stuck this gem to my head and got these cool new visors, I blacked out and woke up in the enclosure. I ended up walking out and talking to a c-couple of my f-friends…" He began to visibly grow sadder as he continued, beginning to stutter the longer he talked Everyone leaned further towards him, this caused Amethyst to lean a little too far and fall off of the stool she was sitting on.
"I uh- The station ended up getting hit by something, and I think all the other humans uh- Uh y'know." He nervously rubbed his limb enhancers together as he struggled to continue talking. Pearl took a step towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Garnet was the first to speak up.
"You've told us enough, you don't need to tell us anymore." She spoke with her usual authoritative tone. Perry clenched his fingers, and continued to speak.
"I-I uh, managed to wake up and found my uh- My friends on me. The guards I knew, a Carnelian and a Jasper. They were both uh- Both poofed, and cracked. I took them to a pod, an- An escape pod. I left. I saw the wreckage. I heard a signal from Peridot. I went to earth." He spoke in short snappy sentences as he began to hyperventilate, both of his hands grasped onto the couch's armrest, squeezing it as tightly as his limb enhancers would allow.
"Saw a lot of shards. Bodies. Blacked out for seven days. Arrived here one cycle ago." Tears began to flow down his face, despite the complete lack of emotion present in his voice. The gems stared at the crying human, not really sure what to say.
"It's over, you're not in that place anymore. Calm down. You're safe here. You're not there anymore." Garnet placed a hand on Perry's shoulder as Pearl stepped away, his breathing slowed, and his eyes cleared. He recomposed himself, and stood up.
"I have the gems with me." His floating fingers pointed towards the smelly old satchel nobody had bothered to remove.
"Amethyst, didn't I tell you to check his bag?!" Pearl squawked.
"Eh, I kinda got distracted by eating all that junk you tossed outta his arms."
"I got distracted by watching her eat it." Garnet said as she turned away from the two gems, looking back at Perry, who had now reached into the satchel and pulled out the two cracked gems. Holding them tightly against his loose fitting green jumpsuit.
"Please just- Please fix them." He looked at the group who had surrounded him, all of their faces seemed to be torn between what to do.
"Perry. If we're going to heal your friends, we need to trust you first. We can't risk you releasing either of these soldiers until WE can trust you." Garnet reached out, grabbing a hold of Perry's left hand, and gently pulling his fist into an open palm, revealing the two gems more clearly.
"Yeesh, now that's a CRACK!" Amethyst leaned forward, inspecting the near-shattered gems in Perry's hand. Perry turned to Steven, who gave him an apologetic look.
"I-I know they're your friends Perry, but we need to be able to trust you first if what Garnet says is true about them being strong soldiers." Steven's face was contorted, it pained him to not fix the gems right then and there, but he already saw what Perry could do fighting them alone.
"Gergh, then I'm keeping them!" He went to retract his hand, but Garnet firmly held it in place.
"At least let us bubble them, or they might end up being cracked even further." Perry looked up at the gem, knowing he really didn't have much of a choice in this situation.
"Fine. But the bubble stays with me." He grumbled, his gaze shifting to Steven.
"I'll bubble them!" Steven reached out towards the gems, and in an instant a pink bubble surrounded them. Perry grabbed a hold of the bubble, and stuffed it into his satchel.
"Well then, I suppose I'll just have to PROVE to you ALL that I can be the most TRUSTWORTHY INDIVIDUAL YOU HAVE EVER MET!" He clenched his fingers, leaping towards the small table in the center of the room.
"Be careful, we just fixed that!" Steven cried out, holding his head in his hands.
"Mark my words Crystal Clods, you will soon trust me with YOUR OWN LIVES, HAHA!" Perry broke out into crazed laughter, while Pearl cut the leash to his collar off of him with her spear.
"I think he'll be fine." Garnet smirked, glancing towards Steven, "You should take him to Beach city today, and introduce him to what makes earth so great." Garnet looked back at the madly laughing Perry, only for Pearl to butt in.
"Oh that's a wonderful idea Steven, I'm sure you can convince him that this place is far better than whatever Zoo he's been living in. He's practically harmless, but Amethyst should go with you."
"Alright! I get to watch the human from outer-space be weird with Steven!" She cackled, sliding up against Steven.
"Er… Maybe we should wait for him to stop laughing first." Steven mumbled to himself as he watched Perry continue to laugh madly.