The warp pad lit revealing Steven, Lapis, Blue Pearl, Soren, Amethyst and Pink Pearl. They had just been sent on a mission by Pearl. They all stepped off of the warp pad and looked at their surroundings. They were on the top of a mountain and it certainly felt like it. The air was cooler with the mountain in the middle of the ocean.
"Where are we supposed to go to again?" Amethyst asked looking around.
They were in the middle of no where.
"We're supposed to find this cavern somewhere in this mountain," Blue Pearl said with a soft smile on her face, "Pearl said it was on the side of the mountain and not in the water."
They scaled down the sides of the mountain carefully while Lapis flew around looking. Amethyst shifted into a bird to help look a little faster. The water below was a deep blue and even for the mountain being tall, they could see whales below swimming around. Pink Pearl dropped down a feet when her foot swung in some.
Pink Pearl swung her foot again realizing that she had found a hole in the side of the mountain. She jumped down landing easily and looked around. She popped her head out seeing the rest of the Crystal Gems that were sent on this mission coming down. She leaned out as far as she could.
"Hey guys I think I found the cavern," Pink Pearl called.
They all looked down to see a small ledge expand a feet with Pink Pearl standing by it. The rest of them made their way down and walked into the cavern. They walked in a little further to see it was a drop down in. It was hard to tell how deep it was and it might be unsafe to jump.
"We found it, now all we need to do is find a way down," Soren said giving Amethyst a look.
Amethyst summoned her Whip, "I think I got it covered."
Lapis grinned, "I do as well," she said as her wings spread out.
Steven got onto her back and she held onto Blue Pearl's arms. She zoomed down the black hole leaving the other three behind. Amethyst pulled out a whip and grabbed Pink Pearl's waist. Soren wrapped his arms around his short girlfriend and she cracked the whip at a tree then jumped down after it wrapped itself.
Amethyst managed to scale down faster than she thought making the whip grow longer as long as she needed. She let go of the one and pulled out another whip grappling onto a rock. Pink Pearl and Soren jumped down then she did. Lapis, Steven and Blue Pearl stood there waiting for them.
They headed into the deeper part of the cavern looking around with the little light they had. The area was moist and cold. The place looked full of old human looking designs and things instead of gem tech. Steven touched some of the walls then a few of the statues that were around. They ended up stopping to see Steven inspecting more of the things around them more and more.
"Is Pearl really sure that this place was inhabited by gems? It looks more human than anything," Steven commented.
"A long time ago before people existed, gems were here. They are the ones that influenced the first human beings and after time passed, it showed more and more until the Gem War," Blue Pearl said with a smile.
"I have to admit too this place does look really old," Soren said, "It looks more like a human hiding place than a gem's hiding place."
They continued on walking until they came across barrels and crates that looked from the 17th and 19th century.
"Um... if this was for gems, why is that there?" Steven asked.
"Well, I had heard from Pearl and Onyx that this was rumored to ave pirates stop here and use this place to hide out if they could get to it safely. Someone probably escaped from pirates too at some point."
"That's really cool."
"I heard there was gem pirates too," she added with a smile, "It would've been cool to meet one."
"What are we looking for again?" Steven asked after a little while.
Soren answered, "We're searching for a Whetstone. It's just a rectangular object that's made of a mix of solid stone known as Lonsdaleite and Diamond, it's used to sharpen up weapons."
"Legend has it, that if a Gem sharpens their weapon with that Whetstone it would leave a clean cut in anything, except for Gems... of course," Amethyst said.
"Who was the one that made the Whetstone?" Lapis asked, taking Blue Pearl's hand.
"Back long ago when the Earth was new, I've heard from the Gems that a Gem named, Benitoite was the creator of the Whetstone we're looking for," Pink Pearl said, "From what they said, she had the Whetstone hid and put away here in the mountain where no other Gems, not even the Diamonds would find it."
After Pink Pearl finished speaking, they soon found themselves inside of a large opening inside of the cavern, seeing another opening in the wall that led to the outside. It was covered in a couple of trees and vines to keep it hidden. Much to their surprise there was water there was also a ship on a rocky land. It looked old and it was covered in seaweed and other plant life.
"Do you think pirates could have taken the Whetstone back when they around?" Steven asked staring at the broken ship.
No one had thought about that until now. They looked at each other without another word and continued towards the abandoned ship. Everyone got up onto the deck of the ship and were met by what looked be treasure left behind along with a few skeletons of the crew, which kind of disgusted the six of them as Steven held close to Lapis and Blue Pearl as same did for Pink Pearl who did the same to Amethyst and Soren.
"What happened to them?" Lapis asked grimacing from the sight before them.
They looked some more and noticed that other than the skeletons and treasure, they spotted a couple of their weapons which look to have been used against them. Some of the skeletons have the weapons through their bodies. Sometimes they all forgot humans were fragile, mortal beings.
"From the looks of it some of them either lost to a fight or passed from the lack of rations."
"Does that mean some of them died from hunger or dehydration?" Pink Pearl asked.
Blue Pearl nodded.
"That's so horrible," she said softly.
They continued to look for the Whetstone, looking through the treasure which were piles of gold coins, cups and a few other things... but no Whetstone. Sometime after that, Soren suggested that they should look inside the captains headquarters. They all shrug and agree to it.
As they got inside of it, they soon found the room with a few crates, drawings of maps, a few paintings and what look to be artifacts. After seeing this Soren noticed the Whetstone on a table in the center of the room making him smile.
"Hey. there's the Whetstone."
Before he could grab it and bony human looking hand came out from before the table and grabs it. The six of them were confused and shocked by this. Humans didn't come back alive after they died...
"Why is it alive? I mean moving?" Steven asked as it rose off of the floor gripping onto the Whetstone tightly.
"Wait is that the Captain?" Soren asked and Pink Pearl nodded.
"I guess so, looks like he's not going to give up the Whetstone without a fight."
The captain's skeleton looked down at the Whetstone and then placed it inside of it's torso between his ribs. It ended up pulling out a sword and sharpened the blade against the stone before holding it out to fight them. Everyone summoned their weapons and began defending themselves against the dead pirate captain. Soren made a face.
"Is it... is the captain getting bigger?!" he asked.
The others realized it was getting bigger and Soren kicked out the captain's door. Everyone headed out onto the deck with the now seven foot skeleton coming after them. Steven used his Shield to block off the captain's attack, knocking it backwards and Lapis formed water around her fist. She used it to hit the skeleton but it only passed through its body. It stood there for a few seconds before looking up at her.
Lapis looked at her teammates then back at the captain with confusion on her face as to why it didn't work. It should've done some kind of damage... She brought the water back for the second time but it ran and swung it's sword at her, making her jump backwards to dodge the attack. Both pearls used their spears to block the attacks before it sliced both of their spears in half, making them vanish before knocking the two back of them back.
It was about to land the finishing blow on them but Amethyst used her Whip to wrap around the Captains waist and it looked at her.
"Yo. If you have bone to pick with my friends and girlfriend, you have to deal with me."
Amethyst yanked back on her whip, spinning the Captain Skeleton before it was severed in half at the waist and it hit the deck. It tried standing back up with the swords in its hands, a blade came down and pierced through its back. It turned it's head around to see Soren. The skeleton started to shake making a chattering noise then it's head laid back and fell to the ground motionless.
Soren let out a sigh, relieved the fight was over with but then something strange happened. The skeleton poofed, confusing the six of them before seeing a Gem next to the Whetstone. Soren picked the two up he bubbled the Gem with a confused look on his face that matched everyone else's.
"So that meant that the captain was really a corrupted gem?" Steven asked.
"I guess so," Soren said sent the bubble back to the Temple.
"I thought it was strange a human skeleton could come back alive," Lapis said with a worried smile on her face and everyone laughed.
"Well, we got what we came for..." Soren said looking down at the Whetstone, "Let's head back home. Are you guys ready?"
Everyone nodded.
"You really think the skeleton was a corrupted gem?" Amethyst whispered to Soren.
"I guess. It's better to think that than think it came back from the dead."
"I wonder why it ended up looking like that than like the usual ones we saw."
Soren shrugged and they warped back to the beach house in Beach City where everyone else was waiting for them.