Time for a fight between an Iron Man knockoff and a three-armed waterbender!
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Have I ever mentioned I loooove writing for this show? Endless possibilities!
The silence between the two sides was deafening. The other Crystal Gems gaped at how suddenly this new fusion appeared while Brookite looked offended before her expression turned to a condescending smirk.
"Really? Just like that?" she questioned, "You believe that you can beat me?"
"Dude, is your hearing bad?" Moonstone asked.
"No! I was just-"
"Actually, you don't have ears. How come gems don't have ears?"
"Intentional design choice," informed Peridot with a grin, clearly enjoying the show.
"Silence!" ordered Brookite, blasting Moonstone in the face with a repulsor. While the fusion was hit and send flying back, his foe was stopped when a water chain suddenly grabbed her by the neck and yanked her backwards.
As the two flew away from each other, Amethyst ran up to the Crystal Gems still on the platform Lapis made and planned to start running them back to shore now that Brookite was distracted. The only problem was the suited gem appearing before them in a flash.
"Where do you all think you're going?!" she yelled, subtly rubbing her neck from her surprise attack. She was interrupted, however, when Moonstone flew down from above and slammed Brookite into the ocean again. While she was down, he shaped the water around her into a box only barely bigger than the gem herself.
"There," the fusion sighed, "That ought to keep you chilled out down there for a little bit." He then turned his attention to the Crystal Gems.
"Now to get all of you home!" Moonstone proceeded to form a bubble large enough to hold all of the gems, meaning with Fluorite it had to be several hundred feet around.
"Which way was land again?" he asked Amethyst. She pointed west and with a simple push the bubble went rocketing off towards the coast with all of them in it.
"Phew, now they're all safe…" mumbled the new fusion to himself, "I know they wanna help, but I need to take this whack-job alone. I just hope I'm not making a big mistake here…"
Before he could ponder any further, Brookite came roaring out of the water again. Any pretense of being professional she had looked completely gone as she madly stared at the fusion in front of her.
"You… You're toying with me! Do you think you can win by just restraining me?!"
"No way, but I needed to get the other guys out of here first. Now that it's just us, I can go all-out."
"Please! As if you can stop me from accomplishing my mission!"
Moonstone did not wasting any time as he flew forward and smashed both his right hands into Brookite's face. He tried to follow up with a kick, but the other gem dodged and landed a punch straight to the fusion's navel. From there, they went into a frenzy of blows feeling up each other's defenses until suddenly Moonstone flew up and away from his opponent. Brookite stared at him for a moment before realizing something.
"You're wings… Where are they? That Lapis had wings deployed at all times when she was flying!"
"Hm?" he asked, "Oh, don't know. Guess I can just fly without 'em. I'm still kinda new at this."
The nonchalant tone in his voice made Brookite's temper flare up. She propelled herself up to his level and prepared to fire a point-blank repulsor blast but was stopped when two more water chains erupted from below and grabbed onto her legs. This time, though, she would not fall for the same trick. She used her other hand to blow the restraints away while still inching closer to Moonstone's face. What she did not see coming was a sky-blue shield appearing on the fusion's only left arm and swatting her away.
As Brookite was launched, Moonstone was not idle as he flung the shield towards his foe. As it flew, he willed water to surround the flying disc and soon had the edges sharpened so the shield was now a eight-feet wide aquatic buzz saw. When Brookite saw the disc heading at her, she assumed it was a blunt object and planned to stop it with her hands. It was only a split-second reaction after feeling her hands begin sliced apart by the blades that let her blast it apart with her repulsors instead of being sliced clean in half.
Brookite's hands may have been briefly mangled by the encounter, but they healed quickly as her core was still intact. With a renewed sense of anger, she flew back into the fray only to be stopped when several smaller tiles of water about the size of her head were flung at her. Some nimble flying let her dodge them, but soon they were coming at her from multiple angles. She was forced to stop and block the ones she could not dodge. While she managed to stop all of them through either punching, kicking or blasting them away, she could not stop Moonstone from soaring with a pair of gauntlets and smashing them into her. Rather than let her fly away this time, the fusion followed after Brookite and kept belting her with his armored fists even as she went underwater.
Farther and farther they sank into the depths until finally Brookite struck back. Her foot lashed out in a rising kick hard enough to send Moonstone flying clean past the ocean's surface. The fusion tried to prepare for the next attack, but something struck him in the side. When he turned, he saw nothing but air even as another blow hit him in the stomach. Soon he was being assaulted from every side by invisible blows which only stopped when he summoned a light purple bubble around his body.
Brookite then appeared out of thin air with some of her usual ego back. "So… You can't fight an opponent you can't see."
"And you can't stand the fact that I'm still here," taunted Moonstone back, "What happened to all the professional stuff?"
"Perhaps I got too riled up before, but rest assured I haven't forgotten about your friends."
Moonstone summoned a whip in each hand and became more serious himself. "You want them? You'll have to split me up and end us first."
He lashed both whips out at frightening speed, but Brookite flew backwards out of their range. He snapped them again and, much to her surprise, they began growing longer. Water was gather all around both weapons until his whips were almost a hundred feet long and yet he was still swinging them at nearly the same speed. After several seconds of being sliced and beaten by the massive weapons, she managed to catch them both in her hands. Brookite was about to counter when suddenly Moonstone flicked both his wrists and all the water the whips collected began peeling off the weapons and flying at her in two ever-growing blasts. Brookite raised her hands and managed to blast them apart, but the force of their explosion sent her flying.
It took several minutes, but soon the Crystal Gems did indeed find land. Their bubble transport quickly popped once it ran into a sand dune and left the group stranded on a beach.
"Alright then," said Garnet, not wanting to waste any time, "I recognize this place well enough. We're on the southeastern coast of the States. Terrain's a bit different, but there should be a warp pad not too far away from here."
"Um, Garnet?" asked Rhodonite, "I don't mean to question your leadership, but what about the Sun Incinerator?"
"Yeah! We can't leave such a valuable piece of technology behind!" affirmed Peridot, "I never even got to toggle with the weapons!"
"I'm sure Lapis can recover it once the fight is over," said the fusion, "Besides, I agree that it needs some form of upgrade. If one gem managed to take the ship down, we seriously need to consider some modifications."
While some of the gems began following Garnet as she headed inland, Pearl stared out into the ocean. Despite being hundreds of miles away, she could still swear she could feel Moonstone and Brookite duking it out.
"Hey," said Amethyst, breaking her friend's trance, "You know they've got this, right?"
"I realize that," answered Pearl, "But after everything I've seen, I know to never count anything as a certainty. Steven and Lapis are formidable on their own, but they're… inexperienced."
"Maybe, but that's not gonna help them. I wanna run back out there and help too."
"You think maybe Opal could turn the tide with them?"
"As tempting as that suggestion is," said Garnet walking up to them, "We need to leave it to them. We've put all this time into training Steven and Lapis to a lesser extent. It's time to do the hardest part for any teacher: letting the students go."
Both of the other gems wanted to argue, but they both worked alongside Garnet long enough to know she was right. As new as Moonstone was, they had to leave the work to him for now. Instead they focused on finding their way home and regrouping so that when, not if, Moonstone succeeded there would have to be a plan to move forward.
While the Crystal Gems made their way back home, the maritime battle between two flying foes continued. Both sides wasted no time flying straight at each other and grappling with each other. This was all a ploy by Moonstone to send several watery knives into Brookite's back, but the Homeworld super soldier turned around just enough so the fusion had to cancel his own attack lest he get impaled.
Both gems broke apart from each other again before Brookite went for a stealth attack again. She grinned as she rippled into invisibility right in front of the fusion before he suddenly flew away. The professional thought Moonstone was trying to outmaneuver her, so she arced in midair and came at him again. She nailed a fist into his shoulder, but suddenly thousands of tiny saltwater droplets flew up from beneath them. Moonstone flew away again with the droplets surrounding his body, keeping Brookite tense for some sort of counterattack. Instead he simply flew in random patterns away from her. She tried coming at him again, this time from below, but somehow, he caught her fist and quickly fired all the droplets around as if they were liquid bullets.
As Brookite reappeared while being blown back by the sudden attack, her mind was blown. "How?! How could you possibly see through my suit's stealth cloak?"
Rather than answer, Moonstone just laughed in her face before summoning a spear in his left hand and a pair of gauntlets on his right hands. The fusion flew forward and tried to stab Brookite. When she dodged, he tried punching her with both armored hands in the same movement. With a newfound sense of grace, the fusion was on the attack and only stopped when a point-blank repulsor blast to the torso ended his deadly dance.
Their stalemate went on longer than any of them could count. Minutes passed as each of them went at it again and again with Moonstone's versatility matching Brookite's highly honed technology until finally the two began to get exhausted. They floated apart from each other, panting but no less willing to fight. They said nothing for several moments until the Homeworld gem could not take it anymore.
"This… This can't be happening. You've stood up to everything! What are you?"
"Huh?" replied Moonstone, "I'm… just me."
"That's not an answer! Your cunning, your drive, your raw power… It matches mine."
"Thanks… I guess."
"You 'guess?!' I am-"
"Some elite gem whose probably killed a whole bunch of innocents because White Diamond told you to, yadda yadda yadda, I get it. Would you mind… just shutting up? Please?"
And that was it. Brookite's composure had been getting more and more frayed as the fight went on and that was now approaching half and hour. Her professionalism was her entire persona, that of a refined operative above the billions of gems in service to the Great Diamond Authority. While there were no other indispensable gems aside from the three matriarchs, she was the closest exception. That composure that made her who she was had finally broken. She looked down for a few moments before looking at Moonstone again and laughing.
"Fine… I'll be quiet. Soon the only thing you'll be hearing is your own screams…"
Brookite vanished again, prompting Moonstone to pull the droplet maneuver again. Before he could even do that, though, he was sent flying into the sky and then sent rocketing back down almost as fast from a pair of unseen blows.
He looked up to see his attacker but saw nothing but air. And then he could not see anything clearly as he was blasted to the side. When he finally came to a stop, he finally saw Brookite clearly and noticed that her plasma suit had changed from silver to gold.
"This… Is me using the suit to its fullest capabilities," she chuckled insanely, "I hope you love this ocean because your shards are going to be buried at the bottom of it!"
Moonstone just barely managed to dodge as she raced in and tried to bowl him over. Even as she missed, the force of her flying by nearly sent the fusion sprawling. That left him wide open as Brookite tried blasting him in the back. A water wall appeared between the gems out of reflex, but it was blown clean away by the attack and soon the three-armed gem was flying against his will yet again.
"O-okay…" he stammered to no one, "This is bad. I need to stop this but how…"
"YOU WON'T!" answered Brookite from a few inches in front of his face before kicking him hard enough to leave an imprint of her foot on his stomach. The fusion yelled in pain as he felt the pale blue gem in his navel shudder from the attack while rocketing into the sky. She tried attacking him from behind again, but this time he managed to stop her by turning and blocking. It still felt like trying to stop a falling meteor, but he managed to hold his own long enough to speak.
"Your suit… How'd it get this stupidly powerful?! And why-"
"Didn't I use it from the start? Because it has one little drawback: it's tapping into the light of my gem."
"WHAT?!" He was so surprised that he completely let go and left himself open to Brookite literally pounding him back down to Earth.
"You're the first one who's ever made me use this suit to its fullest and it makes me incensed! I am among the most privileged servants of the Diamonds! I completely every mission flawlessly! Now why don't you make like a nice little assignment and LET ME FINISH YOU!"
She roared the last few words while charging up another unibeam. This one made her body glow like a miniature sun that promised to wipe Moonstone off the planet. The fusion crumpled to his knees on the water, a sense of dread overwhelming him as he began talking to himself.
"I… I can't do it! I'm still not enough!"
"Don't talk that way! We can still salvage this!"
"How?! She just said she's willing to die for this!"
"I know… And it's so sad…"
"What are you talking about? I don't need to be going loco now!"
"All the gems on Homeworld… They're all just slaves."
Brookite was completely unaware of the fusion's one-person conversation. Instead she laughed as she felt power like never before course through her as her blast neared its completion. Any second now she was blow those two away and finally have her mission fulfilled. She was about to fire when suddenly Brookite stood up.
"I'm sorry," he said morosely, "I want to help you, but I can't."
"What are you babbling about?!" she asked, "Is that your final words?!"
"No… I just apologized. You're so sad. You, Aquamarine, Jasper, those Rubies, all of you are just pets to the Diamonds. They don't care about you."
"I know that! All of us know that, but that's what we're made for! We are just extensions of the Diamonds' unyielding will!"
"I know now… When I'm done here, I wanna finally go to Homeworld and smack the Diamonds myself…"
Brookite was ready to release her final attack but was taken aback by Moonstone's words that she forgot. She was also startled to see massive ripples in the ocean begin to spread from the fusion's feet as his speech continued.
"Peridot, Adamite and Cinnabar, even Lapis… All of them thought they just had to serve the Diamonds or die. Well you know what? I'm fed up with it! Steven's tried to reason with the Diamonds, but they won't stop! So I'm not gonna stop until this whole planet's safe and that starts with putting you in a bubble!"
Before Brookite could retaliate, an utterly gigantic tidal wave appeared from behind Moonstone out of nowhere. The crashing wall of water did not touch the fusion, but it crashed right on top of her. She was forced to return all the gathered energy to her suit in order to fly away, but Moonstone was not having it. He deployed a set of wings from his back, sky blue with a slight pink tinge under the light and flew with great enough speed to clock Brookite before she could even react.
The pair both went flying as Moonstone then made an enormous cube of water bigger than Steven's house, engulfed Brookite in it and then flew at near sonic speed to send it flying for thousands of miles over open water before crashing into a random island so hard the cube detonated. While jostled from the blow, Brookite stood up after her explosion and stared at Moonstone standing five feet from her.
"You… You've been holding back," she muttered.
"Your mistake was threatening my family. Doing a job is one thing, but destroying something like that and having fun with it? Not cool, dude."
Brookite suddenly spasmed in pain, reminding her that now she was on limited time. She could feel her essence slowly being sapped by the plasma coating her. She flew at him with the speed of a bullet, but Moonstone just dodged and then whipped her in the face. They went back and forth at it again, once again evenly matched. The fusion was now throwing around far more water than before, however, and soon that began to overwhelm his opponent. Between throwing gigantic water shapes at blinding speeds or summoning smaller projectiles by the thousands, the once confident soldier was back to being on the receiving end of several painful attacks.
It soon became apparent, much to Brookite's complete disbelief and disgust, that she would fail her mission no matter what. She was taken out of that thought when Moonstone suddenly formed an odd-looking board on her feet and then appeared to be skimming along the top of the water. As he rode this new board, she noticed two things. First was the gradually growing wave that was forming underneath him. The second was that he seemed to be laughing.
Brookite's anger spiked to a new high as she charged straight at him, intent on sending him to the other side of planet. Instead the wave suddenly sprouted multiple spikes that nearly impaled her and forced her to flee. She tried flying in from behind, but the wave still seemed to notice her and fired off liquid blasts that kept her at bay.
"What's the matter?" said Moonstone as he made the wave curve as it grew to twenty feet high, "Can't handle my surfing?"
Brookite screamed in fury as she sent both her hands forward and fired off the biggest repulsor blast she could. Moonstone suddenly made his ever-growing wave go on ahead of him and powered through the blast before resuming his place on top with his surfboard as it grew to fifty feet high.
"No!" demanded Brookite, "I won't fail! I won't be defeated by a renegade fusion!"
She tried powering up one final unibeam, even if that meant completely siphoning all of her life force, but that went out the window as a massive fist punched several hundred feet away as the wave rocketed towards her. Now it was growing visibly by the second while Moonstone stood on his right hands and whooping like this was the most fun he had ever had in his life.
It was not long until suddenly the swell became a full-blown tidal wave that literally gripped Brookite by the back and ground her into the ocean surface for miles on end as it only got bigger. To make matters worse, Moonstone was still quite aware of his surroundings despite his obvious fun and was summing smaller waves to crash into her along with dozens of projectiles to further beat her down. Once the wave had grown to several thousand feet high and almost a mile wide, Moonstone finally leapt off the crest. As he fell past the once-proud soldier, now only able to groan in pain, he said the last thing she expected.
"I'm sorry this had to happen…" he said earnestly, "One day, I hope we can put aside our differences. I know Steven, Lapis and the other Crystal Gems want it too."
Brookite tried to reply, but soon the massive wave began to engulf her from all sides. Soon she was the center of a massive water sphere hundreds of feet tall and just as wide across. Since she was still processing Moonstone's words, she barely paid attention that the orb was exerting enormous pressure on her whole form. The fusion actually compressed the water on a molecular level and was gripping his hand before suddenly letting it open.
And with one final scream, Brookite was the nucleus of an aquatic explosion with all the force of a traditional kaboom. Even with the protection provided by her suit, her body was long past its limit and she was finally reduced to a brown gemstone bobbing in the water. With a flick of his wrist, Moonstone brought the stone out of the ocean on a platform and held it in his hand. He formed a periwinkle bubble around it before sending it off to the temple before finally heading for dry land.
The other Crystal Gems waited at the temple in suspense. It did not take them long to warp home, but the half hour that passed since their return gradually became torturous. The house was dead silent the entire time save for the sound of Pearl pacing back and forth as she minutely tidied up random areas to keep herself occupied. The rest of them stayed inside save for Adamite who stood waiting for Lapis outside with her eyes constantly on the horizon for any sign of her return.
When she spotted a speck appearing miles away, she quickly went inside to inform everyone. Soon the entire Crystal Gem team stood on the sand to see Moonstone touch down with Brookite's plasma suit held in his right hands. Cheers went up from the entire crew as the fusion gave them all one last smile before finally splitting up into Steven and Lapis. Even as they were panting, they both looked immensely relieved.
"Well done," said Garnet as she helped her shaky ward to his feet, "And I'll have to thank Moonstone personally the next time I see him."
"Yeah… He was pretty fun…" said Steven, "But not for a while… It was really intense too."
"Lapis?" said Adamite as she helped the blue gem stand, "How do you feel? Can I… help you in any way?"
"Nah, but thanks for the offer. I'm just gonna rest for a while."
"Understood. I'll ensure that no one disturbs your relaxation."
Lapis looked confused for a moment before shrugging and heading inside for a much-needed nap. Adamite waited a moment before following her inside and leaving Cinnabar more sure than ever that she needed to speak with Garnet about this. The rest of the group, however, were more thrilled that Brookite was defeated.
"Man, that gem was one tough customer," said Bismuth, "But it makes me wanna work even harder to beat those uppercrusts!"
"Agreed," said Rhodonite, "I need to redouble my sword training."
"And as soon as the ship gets back here," assured Topaz, "We're gonna fix it up and make it better than ever! Right, Peridot?"
Rather than answer, however, the green gem was more concerned with Brookite's suit. She had never laid her eyes on such advanced technology before and was literally drooling at the thought of all the experiments she would run on it.
"Come with me, my little marvel," she whispered to it passionately, "We've got a lot of alone time to spend…"
She then picked up the suit, easily balling it up and carrying it despite it being twice her size, and scurried inside cackling in delight.
"Peridot will be quite preoccupied," said Padparadscha, "And I'm guessing she'll be unavailable for the next few days."
"I'm guessing a full week," said Amethyst.
"Try two or three," said Rutile in stereo.
"My money is on a full month!" said Pearl, much to everyone's amusement. While the group laughed, the knowledge that many of the satellites needed to be taken care of loomed over them. Even still, they let their worries fall away for the next few minutes and enjoy their latest victory against their toughest opponent yet.
And so Brookite is defeated and the Crystal Gems may have lost their ship, but now have that same suit to play with! What will become of it? Find out next time!
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!