Dawn was barely breaking throughout Beach City, streaking the sky in orange, red and blue colors. Pearl was the only one awake in the whole Temple while everyone else was sleeping. She was busy reading when she was alerted by a signal coming from somewhere on the planet Earth. She slid off the bed and stood up. A picture of Earth was displayed before her with a red dot flashing and making a low beeping sound.
Typically, the dots were always black showing for corruptions and the dark blue were for gem aritfact disruptions but never red.
Is this... is this what I think it is? I can't even remember the last time we an actual distress signal.
Her pale blue eyes were wide with disbelief.
"I have to wake everyone up," she said aloud as she turned to look at the sleeping forms of her husband and girlfriend.
It was barely seven in the morning when Pearl finally got everyone up even though some of them didn't want to get up but she had expressed with concern it was very important. Everyone had gathered in the living room looking at Pearl who looked very worried. Everyone listened to her as she explained why she had woken them all up.
White Pearl asked, "Wait, there was a what?"
Pearl told her and others, "There was a distress signal here on the Planet Earth and it was contacting us from my room in the temple."
Amethyst and the other looked surprised.
"So...There's another Gem here on Earth?" Peridot asked looking at her girlfriend.
"Yes there is apparently," Pearl said nodding.
She started tapping her chin while she disappeared into thought for a few seconds.
"But where is it coming from exactly?" Soren asked.
Pearl walked over to the closet and pulled out the chalkboard. She started drawing Earth and then drew out the United States with the states all drawn out too. She made a colored in white circle on the far west part of the US.
"It was coming from somewhere over here on the Earth in this Valley located in California."
The others looked at the area as Amethyst squinted at it for a second, "Wait, I think I know that place?"
She looked closely before realizing as she said wide-eyed, "That's Death Valley!"
Lapis asked making a face, "Isn't that place dangerous because of it's high heat temperatures?"
Pearl nodded worriedly, "Yes...But I'm sure we won't have to go through it. From the signal, it looks like it's coming from a nearby cavern that's in the valley. It used to be an entrance leading to an old Gem Base back thousands of years ago."
"So...If there's a Gem Base, then that means there's Warp Pad that can get us there," Steven asked hoping their leader would say yes instead of them having to walk through the heat.
Pearl nodded.
"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Pink Pearl asked, "What if they sent someone here thinking we would go help them and trap us?"
"Pearl already thought the same thing but... if it isn't then it's someone who really needs our help. If it is someone after us, then we defeat them to keep our home safe," Onyx said smiling, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder.
"Well, despite the way it looks, are we ready?" Pearl asked.
Everyone nodded. Even though the mission seemed sketchy they had to do it and there was nothing else they could do. Everyone gathered onto the warp pad for Death valley.
X
They warped to the base in Death Valley. They stood on the Warp Pad for a few minutes realizing they were no where near the entrance. It was dark and a lot cooler than they all originally thought. Steven and Lapis touched the walls of the cave but it was cool as can be.
"I thought this place was going to be as warm as it was outside?" Soren asked.
"I think the Gems that worked here installed a cooling system to prevent anything from being overheated by the heat outside in the valley? But there's no automatic turn on or off when it gets warm. How's that possible?" Pink Pearl said as she touched the ground.
"Do you think it could to be the Gem that's possibly still here?" Amethyst asked.
Soren and Pink Pearl shrugged.
The Crystal Gems walked through the cavern until they reached what looked like a balcony floor. It revealed a metallic hallway. It was some of the strangest places they had seen. There were bits of light illuminating the area down the hallway. Pearl looked at everyone with a determined look on her face.
"This place is built so weird," Blue Pearl whispered.
Lapis nodded in agreement as they came to the railing of the balcony.
"I guess this really is a balcony. I thought it might stairs," Yellow Pearl said.
"I was wondering the same thing honestly," Peridot said, "This place is really nice for being in a cavern for so long."
"Let's get down there," Pearl said as she jumped off first making a smooth landing.
Everyone followed suit. Once everyone was down on the bottom floor, they looked around a little bit. Pearl stood in the middle of the floor studying everything making sure there wasn't any traps there just in case. Or even a corruption hiding the shadows to ambush them.
"Let's head to the left," Pearl announced.
Once they started down another hallway, Onyx walked up beside of his wife.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" he whispered.
"I'm pretty sure it is. I've been hearing a faint sound like beeping but it is getting louder."
Everyone stopped when the floor began to shake softly then it intensified slowly for a few minutes. They looked around wondering what it was then looking at their leader. The floor shook again but a lot more softer this time then it stopped.
"What was that?" Peridot asked, as she shifted slightly in her girlfriend's arms.
"It could be an earthquake. We are in California," Steven said shrugging.
The rumbling started up again shaking harder than before.
"No... that's no earthquake. There's pauses in between the rumbling even though it is very brief. It feels like... footsteps?" Pearl whispered loudly.
A weird scraping sound came next then the shrill sound of metal being ripped apart. None of them had noticed the metal door in the hallway before and now there was a giant hole where the door used to be. A giant creature came out of it looking like it was made of rock. When it got closer they could see it was a corruption of a bulkier gem and it's gem placement was on left eye.
It's body was covered in rock like spikes and it's arms seemed to have more than the body as it slumped forward staring at them. The gem glowed ocean blue as it stared down at all of them. It just stared at them for a few minutes without making any movements or sounds making it eerie looking.
"Uh...I think we found out who's been sending the signal," Steven said nervously.
The Crystal Gems backed up one footstep before the corrupted gem let out some kind of weird groan before it started going towards them. Everyone summoned their weapons and it charged faster at them. Everyone started to split up as soon as it started pounding it's fist against the ground. The thing was a lot smarter than they had thought.
It started blocking any kind of attack they threw at it. The skin it had was almost too tough to break through to get some hits on it. It started shooting rocks at them stopping them from getting any closer to fight it. Lapis and Garnet seemed to be the only ones who could anywhere. Lapis drenched the rock and Garnet hit the creature a few good times cracking and chipping rock off.
It threw everyone out of the way and got close to Steven. It stared down at him for a minute before bringing it's fist down. Steven summoned his shield over his body. The corruption's rocky fist collided with the shield making a ringing sound and pebbles were thrown all over the place. A cloud appeared and it's gem hit the ground.
Jewel looked down at the gem seeing it was octagon shaped and it blinked at her. She picked it up. Everyone gave a sigh of relief and they headed back for the warp pad. Just before Jewel stepped onto the warp pad, the gem glowed brightly and she could hear a soft voice making her smile. Peridot looked back at her girlfriend seeing the smile on her face. Jewel bubbled it and sent it back to the Temple.
"Are you ok Jewel?" Peridot asked looking slightly concerned.
"Yes...Just...That corruption we fought, it- she was a talking to me...After we defeated her."
The others looked at her a bit surprised.
She...Talked to you?" Pearl asked making a concerned look.
"What was she saying, before you sent her back to the Temple?" her father asked.
"She said she was sorry for communicating to us through the signal. She wanted help to stop her Corrupted form because it was planning to escape this place. She didn't want anybody or anything to be harmed."
"Did she say anything else?" White Pearl asked as Jewel stepped onto the warp pad with everyone else.
Jewel nodded, "Yes. She thanked us for stopping her and that it was an honor fighting one last time."
"Well...That's good to hear," Pearl said with a relieved smile.
Jewel nodded with a big smile on her face as they got onto the warp pad and warped their way back home to the Beach House after completing the mission.