Back at the Beach House, everyone was in the living sitting in a big circle playing go fish with multiple decks of cards with the exception of Pearl, Yellow Pearl and Onyx. Everyone was laughing and horsing around when Jewel was staring at the Temple Door. She had glanced over a few times until Peridot finally noticed her doing it, wondering what was on her mind. Peridot placed a hand on her girlfriend's leg and smiled at her.

"Are you ok, Jewel? You've been staring at the door for a while."

"I am. I was wondering about Mom, Dad and Yellow Pearl. You know…. What they're doing in there and wondering something wrong has happened. Maybe because I'm nervous but it seems they've been in there a while."

"Well-

The door lit up the room with bright, white light revealing Jewel's parents and Yellow Pearl. Everyone stopped playing to look at them wondering what the news was. They headed over to the Warp Pad and stood there as everyone watched them in silence. Steven stood up and scratched his head.

"What's the mission Pearl?" he asked curiously.

She smiled at him thinking about how he was always curious, knowing something was up.

"There's a corruption loose in one of the really old gem locations by Beach City. We need to find it with some caution and stop it before it heads over here and hurts people. We have to be careful because it is underground and there may be limited light down there. The place is old and it could fall apart at any time."

Everyone nodded in agreement and stood up. Everyone piled onto the Warp Pad preparing for what would be ahead.

X

X

Everyone stepped off the warp pad carefully. It was hard to tell where they were at exactly. The area was so dim, it felt like it was nightfall already. No one dared to make big steps without looking closely at the ground just in case. Amethyst groaned out loud, slightly annoyed that her vision was limited.

"Where are we? I can barely see my own feet!" she said with annoyance in her voice.

"Well… It's simple really. We are underground."

"I thought maybe we would have to walk to the underground area," Steven asked.

"Is it underwater?" Lapis asked trying to listen.

"No… Not all of it. This is the Underground Subterranean. It was once inhabited by many Gems who tried to see if it was possible for a Gem to be injected into this area. For some reason, the Gems grew faster here than the Kindergarten's above ground. It was a strange idea here, but once the place emptied out, it became abandoned."

White Pearl turned a little bit, "If this is the underground then why is there a small bit of light in here?"

Everyone kind of turned and looked at Soren who was giving off some light. He chuckled a little seeing that everyone was looking at him and he was giving off the light without realizing it.

"Oh! Want me to give out a little bit more light?" he asked with a smile.

They nodded, forgetting that they could barely see each other but he proceeded to light up the area. The area lit up with a red light. Amethyst and Pink Pearl smiled at him lovingly.

The area lit up with reddish glow. Everyone looked around taking in the new surroundings since darkness was there before. The area was rather large. It was like a big room instead of a tunnel and it had tunnels spreading out in five different directions but it was hard to tell if they led to different rooms as well with it being so dark.

"Soren, can you walk beside me so you can light the way?" Pearl asked and he nodded.

Pearl looked everyone else with a serious look, "Okay everyone…. Follow me and we'll be able to make it to the main area but we must stick together. Once we find the Corruptions, we can fight but please be careful. The ground might be unstable due to the Gems that had emerged all those years ago."

They walked through a tunnel then another room then through a smaller looking tunnel. The walk seemed to be taking forever. It also didn't help they weren't hearing any noise and it was hard to tell if they were going straight or further into the ground. Suddenly Pearl heard up her arms then put a finger up to her lips staring at them.

No one had noticed that they came to a cliff and there was hard drop off. They all looked down seeing it was dark and no one could tell what was down there. Even Soren's light wasn't bright enough to light was down there for them.

"Pearl… are you sure this is the right way? How much longer until the main room?" Onyx asked.

Pearl smiled.

"This…this is the main room?" he asked quietly.

"Yes. I am sure of it. There's a wick around here… Soren can you light it with your fire please? If it's not too much to ask?" she asked.

Soren gave her a thumbs up but he stopped and looked around.

"What's that noise?" he asked.

"Hm?" Pearl asked.

"It sounds… like breathing? Heavy breathing…"

Pink Pearl shuddered because now she could hear it. Everyone could hear it now. The sound was distorted and it was hard to tell if it was close by. Yellow Pearl looked around wondering too but it was too dark to tell. Soren located the wick with the glow of red coming from him waiting for Pearl to tell him to go for it.

"Is it the Corruptions?" Peridot asked.

"It might be. Light the wick, Soren."

Soren did as she asked even though she looked unsure herself. The breathing was creepy and loud. It sounded like the creature itself was right beside of them. After he lit one wick, several more caught fire and lit the room. There were shards of gems everywhere embedded in the walls. There holes and Homeworld machinery stuck to some of the walls. There were more tunnels too but what really caught their eye what was in the center of that bottom floor.

It looked like a giant Dung Beetle as long as a millipede but it was huge. It was curled up in a ball with its countless weird looking legs. It raised its head and stared at them. It had two large red eyes and it let out a loud, angry hiss before getting up. It started to crawl around with its body taking up most of the room. It was going to be hard to fight without much room.

"Attack!" Pearl yelled and everyone jumped down.

The corrupted gem crawled up the wall some as everyone landed on it. Despite the fact it was creepy looking, its coloring of sky blue mixed with yellow and purple was quite beautiful. No one was able to see it's gems yet meaning they could be on the legs or underneath it, on its stomach. Everyone had barely got ready to attack when it raised the upper part of its body and slammed its front legs into the ground.

Everyone fell over and scrambled to get up as it reared up again ready to attack. Everyone summoned their weapons and charged in, jumping into the air as it slammed its legs into the ground again. They all seemed to have the same idea, as they started slicing legs off everywhere but no Gem was found yet. It was strange possibility that it had only with it being so big and powerful on its own but it wasn't unheard of.

Every single one of them had forgotten that the area there wasn't stable. Some tunnels in the areas behind them collapsed but it was hard to hear with the commotion going on. Lapis felt something hit the top of her head but she thought it was a rock that got tossed at her but then it happened again. She stopped and grabbed the stuff in her hair seeing the dirt and gem shards. She looked upward to see the ceiling was beginning to crumble quickly.

"Pearl! The ceiling is starting to collapse!" Lapis cried.

Pearl looked up and grinned, "Everyone! Aim for the ceiling then move out of the way! It'll fall on the Corruption!"

Everyone did as they were told and thrust their weapons towards the ceiling as hard as they could. All the weapons embedded into the ceiling and it started to come down in big chunks, hitting the corrupted creature in the process. It hissed angrily and tried it's best to get away but it's big body was already anchored down. Its shell started to crack from the heavy hits and weight. It poofed finally and Amethyst caught it with her whip. It landed in her hands with a smile on her face.

Their problems weren't over yet.

"The entire place is falling apart!" Yellow Pearl yelled.

Pearl nodded and looked around, "Everyone! To the warp pad before the whole place crushes us and the warp pad!"

"Agreed!" everyone yelled in unison and they took off as fast as they could go.

Within a few minutes they made back through the original tunnel they came through when large rocks collapsed in front of the entrance. Soren, Amethyst and Pink Pearl barely made it through when it was sealed off for good, sighing in relief. They jumped onto the warp pad and returned back home in one piece. Everyone looked tired and dirty but they were happy.

"Well done everyone! It was a bit of touch and go but made it through that tricky situation in one piece!" Pearl said with a confident smile.

They agreed with her, ready to relax for the rest of the day. It would be a matter of time before the next one would show up, but they would be as ready as they could be.

Sorry about the error! Something happened with my laptop!