"Marcus, are you alright?" Pearl asks me.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Just peachy." I try to reassure her when in reality I'm not. I mean, it's not every day one goes through an interdimensional warp pad that sends them flying several hundred miles per hour through space to get to your destination.
Also the flightless 'no gravity' feeling adds to the uncomfortableness as well.
"You don't look good." Amethyst pitches in her two cents.
"Well I'm sorry I'm not a extraterrestrial warrior from space." I say with crossed arms but immediately start flailing them a bit when I start tipping. "I've never dealt with anti-gravity situations before."
"Regardless, this is going to be your first serious mission, you two. You need to be ready." Garnet warns Steven and me.
"Yes! I'm ready, I'm so ready!" Steven excitedly says from upside down.
"Oh, I was born ready." I reply. I came prepared this time with my M4 with its red dot sight, and two magazines taped together to allow me to quickly reload. I grabbed a pack of flares for me to use as well as a combat knife with a sheathe on my hip because that's quicker to pullout than my own swords, just in case.
"Steven come on, you're gonna make yourself sick." However in Stevens hurry and excited state to get under way, he grabbed an item which quite frankly I think won't be much help, especially since it just 'thunked' Pearl in the eye when she was helping Steven right himself. "Why did you bring that?"
"I don't know! I was excited, and i-it's mine, and I like it!" he says anxiously with raised arms. Unfortunately this only allows his Ukulele to slip off him and float up. "Huh?" he notices and proceeds to climb up to grab it.
"Steven get back here! You could get seriously hurt!" Pearl tells him.
"Yeah, man. Be careful when going too-" I float towards Steven to grab him and pull him back but before I could, I suddenly find myself in mid-air. Gravity filled air. "Whoa!" I suddenly fall like a rock towards the ground and end up hitting something surprisingly soft. I bounce off the item and roll a little on the grounds thick brush. "Far."
"Steven! Marcus! Are you-!" Pearl quickly checks Steven before moving onto me.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I say while getting up. "I just landed on a… strawberry?" I ask in disbelief as literally the biggest strawberry I've ever seen broke my fall. It's now got a very discernible and crushed part to it now but one could probably still find it edible.
"I-I'm fine too! I'm good, I'm just.. gooey." Steven reassures them too. He also looks to be covered in strawberry juices, which he proceeds to lick off a little. Suddenly he's attacked by butterfly's. "Aah! They're in my eyes!" he continues to scream and run around us as we just watch. Then he trips and falls onto some soft grass in front of Garnet.
Garnet simply brushes the butterfly's off of him. "They're just butterfly's Steven."
"Well, they looked a lot bigger when they were on my eyeballs." He says as he gets up and tries to laugh it off.
"He's not wrong." I say and take off my rifle. "Especially if someone saw that one episode of Spongebob." I mutter under my breath. 'Wormy.' I can't help but shiver at the memory.
"Steven, you're a riot." Amethyst comments.
"I'm suddenly having second thoughts about bringing Steven on this mission... Marcus I'm fine with but-" Pearl worriedly starts to say before Garnet stops her.
"Shhh… just look at him." She points to Steven, who proceeds to strike a pose. I chuckle and shake my head at how he looks. "Now let's go find a gemstone." Garnet proceeds to lead us down a path.
As we walk, I decide to take in the scenery. For as far as I can see, all I spot is just thick brushes of leaves and giant strawberry's. Normally people would immediately brush this off since its just fruit, no matter how big, but what I find most interesting is the fact that there are literally hundreds of different melee weapons littered across the entire countryside from swords, to spears and maces.
"Unbelievable, this was once a Gem battlefield, now its wild strawberries as far as the eye can see! Oh, that's what I love about the Earth!" she happily exclaims as she does a little twirl.
"Yep, if there's one thing mother nature is good at," I vault over a giant strawberry, "It's reclaiming her land. After all, all the City's and infrastructures humanity has made over the decades have to be maintained carefully over time. Otherwise grass like this," I reach down and tear out a handful, "Will chip through the concrete and steal, throwing years of work out the window." I say as I let the grass blow away in the wind. It's still interesting and cool when you think about it. We have all this super tough, strong concrete and steel to use yet after only a few years, grass and other parts of vegetation could find the tiniest cracks they have and completely force them open and apart. You never really know at first glance that such fragile grass can be so destructive given enough time.
"Earth is such a beautiful place. Maybe this will be a light mission after all. Oomph!" Pearls sudden grunt points me back to the front of the group, finally taking notice of the giant upsides down pyramid before us.
"Maybe not." Garnet shoots down Pearls declaration. 'It's never an easy mission.' Garnet proceeds to summon some sort of item in her hands. Taking a closer look, it's the same shape as the pyramid itself. She proceeds to place it in some sort of hole, a perfect fit for the item as the door opens.
"Woah!"
"You got that right, Steven." The entire room we go into is a massive expanse with weird carvings all over the place, some depicting of battles while others probably are depictions of specific people
"Woah!" Steven yells again. "Steven's the best!"
"'Steven's the best!'" Before I could ask him why, an echo comes back.
"Why thank you, temple." I smile and pat his head as I walk in.
"You're a doof." Amethyst comments from behind me. I grab a flare and slide it against the door, making it burst into a bright light, effectively freaking everyone out besides Garnet. The room illuminates with red fire before I toss it in and turn on the flashlight attachment of my rifle and start looking around.
So far, the only thing of interest in the room besides the wall carvings is some sort of pedestal in the middle of the room. "Hey, what's this thing? It's like a cool floaty triangle thing."
And Steven's right next to it.
"Whatever it is, you probably shouldn't touch it." Pearl warns him as Amethyst yawns.
"Yeah, Steven. Be careful what you touch. Place like this is bound to be booby-"
*Rumble*
Before I can finish, the entire place starts to shake as the gems run over to Steven. "Trapped." I move over to them as well.
"Steven! What have we told you about touching magical things?" Pearl yells to him over the loud rumbling all around us.
"Definitly… always… never do it!" Before anyone else can say anything else, we all suddenly become weightless before we are sucked straight into a hole in the roof. As we are quickly pulled through a narrow corridor, I hold my rifle in my left hand while I summon one of my swords in the other. I try to stab the walls around us to catch my sword in something to stop me or to jam it into the stone itself. Nothing works but it does slow me down with my sword making loud scratching sounds as I continue to fly up, which after we went in felt like we were falling down.
The ground comes up quickly so I throw my sword and grip my rifle tightly. I hit the ground hard on my feet but I quickly roll forward lessen the damage. All I feel is a slight soreness in my feet in my crouch. 'That was close.' Releasing a breath of air, I stand up and take a look around, immediately spotting the others are with me as well. My flare from earlier followed us and taps on the ground as well next to me.
The entire room is suddenly engulfed in light from both my flare and torches as all around us they catch ablaze. With the light now eliminating us, I turn off my flash light. With a look around, all the walls are completely filled with doorways.
"Looks like we're gonna have to split up." Amethyst says
"Right. Steven and I will stay right here where it seems to be safe, while you guys go and solve the mystery of this place." Pearl proposes while gently pulling Steven toward her.
"Wait, I want to help solve the mystery!" Steven however doesn't want to stay.
"Yeah, c'mon Steven, let's solve the mystery." Amethyst agrees with him and picks him up effortlessly over her head.
"Yeah, mystery solvers!"
"No, no no-no-no. You two are a disaster waiting to happen." Pearl grabs him back, holding him against her torso. I sigh. 'This is getting us nowhere. We should get moving soon… Although I will agree with you Pearl on the Amethyst-Steven duo team.'
"Steven goes with me." Garnet orders. I smile at her declaration. 'Well there's an idea.' I think as I shine my light down the dark hallways.
"Really? Awesome!" Steven is no doubt happy with the turn of events.
"But remember, this is a serious mission." She keeps him on track.
"Understood. Serious Steven!" I don't know what he's planning but it doesn't look like it's going to work with him being carried by Pearl like that. "Pearl, can you put me down?" he asks her.
"Wha-? Oh, yes, of course." She complies and gently places him down.
"I need to be standing or else it doesn't work. Serious Steven: Activate!" he declares with his arms completely outstretched in front of him, walking with them still up. I continue to look as he walks past me.
"Alright. With that decided, let's get moving. The faster we get through these, the faster we find the exit and get out." I say as I head for the nearest door.
"Marcus! Are you sure you'll be alright alone?" Pearl calls out to me.
I turn around but continue to walk back, "Relax Pearl. I've dealt with mystery situations like this before. Not as big but still in the blind just the same. I'm sure everything will be just-"
*Slam!*
"Fine." I say to the stone wall in front of me. Looking around, I find myself in one of the doorways.
"Marcus!" I hear Pearl on the other side followed by some rapid tapping. "Are you alright?!"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I tap the wall a couple times. "Looks like it's not budging. Whoever's going with who, is staying them. Once you go throw one of the doorways, your committed to it. Good luck everyone!" I yell back.
"Good luck." Steven and Garnet wish me luck.
"See you on the other side." Amethyst calls.
"Be careful." Pearls warns worriedly.
"Thanks." I call back. With the pleasantry's put of the way, I move the only way I can: Forward. I light another flare and drop it at my feet so I can find my way back in case I have to back track. I shoulder my rifle with the light still on to illuminate my path as I move. For a little bit the hallway is still the same over and over again but the wall I walk up to gives away for me.
My first obstacle apparently is a large room with what looks like Ice littering every single point of the floor. Like the whole floor is completely frozen over. Beyond that, nothing seems out of the ordinary.
"No way it's that easy." Carefully moving, I reach forward and tap the barrel of my gun on the ice.
Nothing happens but it is definitely ice and slippery.
"Some type of balance test?" I question to no one in particular. Racking the bolt back on my M4, I grab the 5.56 mm out of the air. Flicking it into the air a couple times, I slide the bullet along the ice slowly.
The round scraps along the ice until it settles on the ice motionless. Waiting a few seconds, nothing happens.
"Seriously can't be that easy." I check my combat knife on my hip and make sure it's ready for me to pullout and use in a moment's notice should I need it. With that, I carefully make my way forward, checking my surroundings in case some sort of ice monster suddenly appears out of the ground to kill me. 'You never know.' Walking across the ice is a bit tricky because it's so slippery but it isn't long before I make it to where my bullet rests. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary about it, I pocket the round and sling my rifle. "Seriously. What type of trap is this? There's nothing. What? Expecting me to slip and break my- FUCK!"
*SHINK!*
With fast reflexes I am proud as hell to have, I am now hanging over an expanse of spikes littering the next floor under me with my knife jammed to the hilt in the ice. Taking a second to catch my breath, I look around and find out what exactly the trap is now. There are long columns of ice all connected in lines and pathways around the room while the rest are completely hollowed out. Looking back to where I walked from, it was pure luck that the solid pathway was roughly in a straight line to where I am now. "So… that's how you wanna play, huh?" I ask the world because that's what got me in my position right now. "Classic 'the top area all looks the same but one wrong step sends you to your grave' shtick right? Well no dice. I've had practice." Swinging back and forth, I manage to propel myself up and catch the top of the floor before pulling myself up. Reaching back I pull my knife from the wall. "Thank you video games." I compliment as I wipe the knife off my sleeve. "But the thing with games and real life," I grab the bullet I threw earlier and toss it a couple times for me to catch. "I have more options." With that said, I roll it across the ground where I last saw the most solid path. It goes for a few feet before the ice suddenly cracks under it and sends it below. "Gotcha." I walk along its path, until I stop where I fell. From there I grab my rifle and start sweeping it along the ground, making sure to keep a firm grip on it so I don't lose it but firm enough on the ground to trigger the collapsing ice.
I'm in the room for a few more minutes with a sore back from being hunched over but I finally make it to the next door. "Phew. Man that was crazy. A little time consuming but alright none the less." I start walking through the next hallway to my next obstacle, dropping another flare as well. The door comes into view, same as the last one. "Alright, what now." Looking into the room, it seems just as unassuming as the other room except no ice. This time the walls are all completely smooth with no carvings whatsoever. "Let's what you got for me." I say as I stroll to the center of the room. Nothing happens and I see the other door completely open. "Still too easy." I comment and start walking to it. 'Pretty sure as soon as I get close to the door it's going to-'
The door slams shut and I hear mechanical 'whiring' and 'clicking'. "Knew it."
*Shink*
Something briefly flashes through my vision. My sunglasses break in half and fall off my face. Looking down to my ruined glasses then to the right, I see an arrow embedded in the ground. Following its trajectory, I find a part of the smooth wall gave way to a square hole with an even smaller hole in it before it closes. I accidentally take a step back.
Something gives under my foot. 'Pressure plate.' More holes open up.
"Shit." After I curse, I jump back as arrows litter the spot I was just at. However more of the ground gives way and before I know it I'm running and dodging like crazy, tripping more and more pressure plates as hundreds of arrows trail me. 'Fuck! What the hell do I do?! Is there a button I need to press or… wait.'
AS I continue to dodge, I notice that wherever a group of the arrows come from, a hole opens up on the opposite wall, revealing a glowing button. "Well, I got nothing else to lose." Taking off my rifle, I switch to single fire, aim and shoot the first button I see. My aim is true and the panels associated with it lock-up. "Gotcha now." I continue to move and shoot more and more buttons, lessening the amount of holes trying to kill me. 'Alright… I got this now.'
"Argh!" My cockiness however proves my undoing as pain immediately shoots through my shoulder, forcing me to roll on the ground a little. I hesitate only a little before I bolt onto my feet again to continue dodging. I move and look towards my right shoulder to find an arrow jutting out. To clarify, my gems are on the outside of my shoulders, pointing away from me while the arrow is jutting out of my shoulder from in front of me. Without time to properly take out the arrow, I just grab it and pull it out in one go. "MMMMM!" I grunt loudly in pain but I ignore it and continue moving. .Tossing the arrow away, I grip my rifle and I look around again. To my horror, the previous panels that were locked up are open again and firing. 'Shit. Have to do it all in one go or they reset.' With my goal firmly set in mind, I start to defeat this trap. I focus solely on shooting and moving, completely ignoring the pain in my shoulder as I hit buttons left and right. There are so many of the buttons and I manage to take note that as more and more panels close, the arrows start to shoot in more concentrations of the remaining holes. It isn't until there's one panel left shooting a continuous stream of arrows that I defeat the obstacle with a cost. I shoot the last button, stopping the stream of arrows all together but I stopped just enough that an arrow finds its home in my side, making me crouch in pain.
I hear more mechanical 'whiring' and I look up to my happiness that the door to the next hallway opens. Not wanting to be here anymore, I get up right and take off. As soon as I make it through the door, drop my rifle and collapse onto the ground. With deep heavy painful breaths, I prop myself against the wall to examine myself. The pain in my shoulder throbs a bit but that's not what I'm worried about. Looking down, I see an arrowhead peaking through the flesh on the right side. Looking a bit closer, I breathe a sigh of relief albeit a little painfully as I notice the arrow only hit soft flesh. 'Can't move with this in my side all the time. It could tear up my insides and who knows what I'll be facing next. I don't know how long these arrows have been in storage and I don't know if they're poisoned. I need to move now.' With my decision firmly set in mind, I gently move myself onto my knees. I grasp the shaft of the arrow behind me with my left hand and the arrow itself with my right. The wound throbs with the slight movements of my touching them but I prepare myself for the worst.
*Snap*
"Ahhhh!" I groan out as I snap the arrow off the shaft. With a deep breath, I pull out the shaft as well. "AHHHHHHH!" I yell even louder. Tossing both away, I lay back against the wall with heavy breaths of air. Taking a moment to collect myself, I examine my wounds. To my dismay, both wounds bleed fairly quickly but not enough to cause blood loss unless I were leave them like that for hours at least. 'Shit… need to stop the bleeding…possibly prevent infection as well… but with what?' My thoughts start to run wild with options until one sticks firmly in my head to my horror. At the thought, my eyes widen as I slowly reach behind me and grab the two items in question.
With a flick of my wrist, the flare sparks to life as I grip my knife tightly in my other hand.
Pain. That's all I'm thinking right now as I hobble towards the next obstacle. I was forced to cauterize my wounds with the burning blade that's now resting back in its sheathe. I'm severely in pain right now but now I don't have to worry about lasting permanent damages to me in the future and I won't have to worry about blood staining everything I have or screwing with my progress. If I have to grab anything in the next obstacle, I don't need bloody fingers to grease my grip.
The door comes into view. In the next room, the walls aren't in a triangle but parallel to each other. "Let's get this over with." I mutter and walk in. It doesn't beat around the bush this time as the door immediately slams shut and the walls begin to close in. "Man, this cliché of a trap." I say. As the walls slowly close in, I start looking around and see if there's anything that even hints to an off switch. The side walls are out of the question and so are the doors at the end of my hallway of doom. However I spot a tile on the ceiling slightly jutting out. With nothing else around, that's my goal. I grab my rifle and fire at it, only to see the bullet ricochet off. 'Damn. Gotta figure out a more direct way.' Slinging my rifle, I look around some more. I try to wall jump off the closing walls but my wounds flare up too much for me too concentrate. "Damnit. What else?!" I growl in frustration. Soon the walls are close enough for me to touch them at the same time. 'That's it!' With a smile, I place my back against one of the walls and my feet on the other. I shimmy my way up the walls until I manage to make it to the ceiling. I punch the tile just before the walls manage to squish any part of me. I slide down the walls as they retract and land with a grunt. I look towards the opposite wall and see the door opening. "Finally." Making my way through the door, I hope in my head that that was the last one. 'Please follow the rule of three. Please follow the rule of three. Please follow the rule of three.' As soon as the door opens, my mood deflates considerably. Not only does the room look exactly like the one we were in before we went into the doorways, but that theory I proven true as I see the flare still lit in the middle of the room. Slowly limping over to it, I reach down and grab flare, desperately hoping that it's a figment of my imagination and that it'll disappear.
It doesn't.
My rifle clangs to the ground just as I hear another door open. "Phew! Now that that's over, let's see where- Marcus!" I hear Pearl run up to me from behind. "I'm so glad you made it! How did-" she trails off as she sees my beaten form and carrying the flare. Her eyes widen at the glowing object. "Is that…?"
"Yes." I wearily say. "It's the exact same flare I used at the beginning when we first entered." I look straight into each others eyes, our blue eyes staring at each other. "We went in a complete circle."
She looks down, trying to contemplate what she found out. Another door opens, diverting our attention to Amethyst walking through. "Man, that was a hassle. 'Least now it's over with." She takes notice of us. "Hey guys! Glad to see you made it! Now we just need to…" she rails off as she takes note of our expressions. "What's going on? Geez Marcus. You look like you were thrown in a wringer." She says. I toss the flare to her where she easily catches it. "What's this?"
"The flare." At her confused expression, I clarify. "Specifically, the flare I used at the very beginning of this place."
"What?!" she exclaims in surprise as he drops the flare.
"We went in a complete circle Amethyst." Pearl tells her.
"No way!" she tries to object and takes off into another doorway. As that one closes, we hear another door opening. It's Steven and Garnet. Garnet is no worse for wear but Stevens shirt and hair are lightly singed.
"Garnet, there you are! The doors and rooms here make no sense, they all bring you here!" Pearl runs over and proceeds to inform them on the situation.
Amethyst runs back in looking haggard. "Get me out of here!" she yells and runs back in.
"There are sixteen doors, and we entered from the northeast and went through three consecutive rooms in a straight line..." By this point in Pearls deduction, Amethyst returns with a bear trap on her head, which she removes and runs through another door. "But arrived back here out the southern-most door, which could only mean... well, I don't know what it means! I-" Amethyst comes back in but this time frozen in a block of ice. "This is a death trap!" Pearl breaks down and proceeds to chip the ice off Amethyst.
"W-What do we do?" Steven exclaims loudly as I move over to Amethyst and join in the breaking. Too weak to summon my sword, I use the butt of my rifle to chip away the ice. Lighting a new and my last flare, I push it against the ice in hopes of melting it enough to break it. "I can't!" Steven exclaims loudly.
"Steven." Pearl stops her chipping away to acknowledge the distraught boy.
"Its okay." Garnet tries to reassure him but he will have none of it.
"No, no it's not, you were all right about me. I wanted to do this so bad, but now I feel like I'm gonna throw up. This is just like the teacups!"
'The teacups? I remember that. My part of the ride slammed into that Arcade place.'
"Oh Steven, I-I didn't really mean that." Pearl attempts to apologize.
"Wait! Ah! Wait you guys, what if this is just like the teacups? That's why we're getting so lost. That's why I'm feeling so sick. All the rooms are spinning us around so we end up here!" I stop my hitting and turn back to him. 'It's an idea. Explains why we ended up back here so easily.' Garnet doesn't say a word. She instead moves over to the center of the room and proceeds to beat the floor, creating deeper and deeper divots in the concrete until the floor starts to crumble.
I lose my grip on my rifle and flare as we all fall through the broken floor to land on floating upside down pyramids spinning around the room. Garnet and Steven land on one together, Amethyst in her ice prison slams into one, breaking her free of it and grabbing onto another one next to it, while Pearl lands on another as I grab the edges of it. She quickly reaches down and pulls me up onto the platform with her. She looks to me and I give her a nod in thanks. She looks around to see the intricate workings of this place.
"This is unbelievable!" she starts as she brings up a projection of the place through her gem. "This Gem-powered mechanism! It's manipulating the rooms above. Every room we entered spun us until we came back to the central chamber! It's just like the teacups ride at Funland!"
"Steven already figured that out!" Garnet yells to us.
Pearl blushes in embarrassment. "Oh." She simply says and hides her projection as she looks down.
"Hey." She looks at me. "It's not exact… but it's close." I say in an attempt to reassure her. She smiles at my attempt. My attention shifts from her to the gem throwing the human sized missile at the center pillar. "The hell?" I question. She shifts her attention as well to what's happening.
Steven lands on the center obelisk and try's to rip out the gem in the center but he seems to be having trouble. I grab my combat knife and flip it around so I am holding the blade. "*Whistles* Steven!" he turns to me. "Use this!" I throw the knife. It twirls through the air until it stabs itself next to the gem. He grabs it and proceeds to try and chisel it out of its place. The top of the obelisk suddenly spins around; distracting Steven enough to where the gem he's holding onto glows then ejects itself. Before we know it, the entire place begins to glow and dissipate as they get sucked into the gem.
I wake up looking into the bright sky as I lay on a soft bush with something on top of me. Looking down, my eyes widen to see its Pearl. Before I can do or say anything, she suddenly jerks awake, noticing she's on me as well.
"Hey."
"Ah!" she squeaks and quickly jumps off me. "I'm so sorry! I-I-I didn't mean to-!"
"Pearl."
"…Yes?"
"It's alright." She relaxes at my words. "It's all good. No harm no foul." I say and try to get up but the pushes thorns hook into my clothes. "A little help."
"Oh! Of course." She agrees and extends her hand, which I graciously take and allow her to pull me up.
"Thanks."
She nods at me before frantically looking around. "Wait! Where's Steven? Steven?! Where is he?"
"Ahh, he's over here!" Amethyst calls to us. Pearl immediately makes her way over to Steven and bubbles the gem he's holding.
"Ah, I'd say you handled that adventure very well." She says as she sends it away with a flourish.
With a soft chuckle, I make my way over to a nearby stone and lay myself against it. Right now I'm sore as hell from all the dodging and running I did, the slight loss of blood has tired me out more than I anticipated and my closed wounds throb.
"They're in my eyes again! Ahhhhh!" Steven yells as he gets attacked with more butterflies. He runs around a bit until he falls right next to me. Reaching over, I gently brush the butterfly's off him and pat his back.
"You alright?" I ask. He looks up to me and nods. "Good." I reply and gently lay back against the rock and close my eyes.
"Hey, Marcus. You alright?" I hear Amethysts voice. Opening my eyes, I see the gems standing over me with Pearl holding my rifle to me. 'Huh. Thought I lost it.' Grabbing barrel of the gun, I place it on the ground and try to push myself off the ground. I would have fallen if Pearl hadn't caught me.
"Thanks." I say as I stand to my full height.
"No worries."
Taking a look around, I fully see we are back in the strawberry fields and there is a large crater close to us with rubble all over the place. "So what did happen?" I ask.
"The temple exploded." Garnet nonchalantly replies.
"Ah. Enough said." I confirm with a nod. I turn around and see the warp pad some distance away. "Alright, I don't know about you, but I wanna get back home." I say and walk towards it.
"Show us your injuries."
I stop at Garnets words. Slowly I turn around to see them all standing with worried looks on their faces. "Nothing get by you, huh Garnet?" I say with a smirk.
She only shakes her head no.
I sigh, "Very well." I place my M4 on my back gently lift up my shirt to show my side wound. Steven and Amethyst are horrified, Pearl places her hands over her mouth with wide eyes, and Garnet only grimaces. Placing my shirt down, I stretch the neckline of my shirt to show the shoulder wound. Their looks intensify. "I wasn't as fast as I thought when it comes to arrows."
"Oh my." Pearl exclaims and moves over to me, examining my injuries. "And you didn't think to tell us?!" she scold me loudly, making me flinch.
"It wouldn't have mattered much. We have no supplies, no medical equipment, and you guys would have focused more on me than actually getting us out." She looks away because she's knows I'm right. "I'm sorry I kept you guys in the dark but I stand by what I did."
No one has a retort for my explanation except Pearl. "You are a stubborn human, you know that?" she says with a frown and crossed arms.
I smile, "Just one of my many traits." That gets some of them to chuckle. "Now, if you want to make sure I'm 'really' alright. Let's go." I nod towards the warp pad.
"Sounds good to me." Amethyst says as she passes by me.
Before I can move forward, Steven taps me. I look towards him to see him holding my knife to me. "Oh. Thanks man." I take and sheathe it.
We all begin making our way back to the pad while Pearl stays close to me in case I collapse or fall.
"I'm sorry."
I turn to Steven. "Sorry… about what?"
"For setting off the trap. If… if I hadn't touched the triangle… then we wouldn't have had to split up and you wouldn't…" he tries to say but it sounds like he's going to burst into tears any second now.
"Hey hey hey hey." I say as I gently kneel in front of him. "Look at me." He picks up his head and I can see tears pooling at the sides of his eyes. "Whether we liked it or not, that trap was getting set off. There was nothing in that first room we went into that could have led us to the gem. We needed to set off that trap." I firmly tell him, not wanting at all any blame to befall on him.
"But-!"
"He's right." We look to see the gems staring at us. "That room would have given us zero indication as to where the gem would be. We needed to go through that in order to find out about the gem in the first place. It was inevitable, with or without you." Garnet explains.
"See." I place my hand on his shoulder, "Look man, this isn't my first rodeo and I've suffered worse. I know you didn't mean for this to happen and I don't blame you at all alright? You're too good of a person to wish harm on me like that. I 'know' you didn't mean too." I do what I can to make him feel better.
He gives me a smile and wipes his tears, "Okay."
"Good." I pat his shoulders and stand up. "Now c'mon, lets get home so I can get some rest and you can probably catch an episode of that show you like so much. 'Crying Breakfast Friends' or something like that?"
"Wooo!" he woops and takes off to the portal and walk after him, the pain starting to subside. 'I really don't get that show.'
"He's a good man that one." Garnet comments as she, Amethyst and Pearl watch the two walk off.
"Yeah. Definitely much cooler than Greg." Amethyst comments. "What do you think Pearl?"
"…"
"Pearl?" Garnet looks to her friend, who snaps out of her daze at the mention of her name.
"Oh! Yes?" she quickly asks.
"You alright, P?"
"Yes, yes I'm fine just…"
"Just what?" Garnet asks.
"Just… he's so interesting. Never have I met a human so… caring yet at the same time could be so… ruthless and cunning should the need arise." Pearl answers and crosses her arms. "He is something."
"Yeah," Garnet says as she walks after Steven and Marcus. "He sure is.
"Enough talking! I'm hungry." Amethyst yells as she sprints after them.
Pearl stands there, staring at the human-gem duo, but mostly Marcus with a hint of worry in her heart as she catches up to them.
Still surprised how long this is but not deterred from it. I was pretty excited for this one for quite awhile since I started writing this story. I was mostly excited because this would be a time for Marcus to show his skill with his rifles but I'm more than a little surprised at what I came up with in terms of Marcus's obstacle rooms. In any case, because of his injuries, I'm more than likely going to have him sit out a few episodes so he can recover. Which ones?
Wait and find out. However that also presents a new situation that I may use in the future. At some points when an opportunity presents itself I may have Marcus sit out a few episodes here and there so I can progress the storyline a little more quickly. It's not that I won't find content for me to use during all the episodes but I don't want to take the chance of at some point completely falling out of interest in writing just because I'm not where I want to be. I especially want to get to the end of season 1 because from there I have some pretty good ideas I want to make a reality but I really don't want to end up getting bored and stop writing before then. I did that before with another story not on this site a couple years back and it still aggravates me that I never got to finish it. I hope you guys understand.
If there's an episode you guys really want me to use in the future, send me a PM or say it in a review and I'll see what I can do. No guarantees but at least it gives me an idea.
Also note, if wasn't obvious enough, I don't use proofreaders and I don't fully reread my work. I get bored looking through it all again and it should explain to you all at some points where there are grammar errors and such. I'm not too beat up over it since its because of that that I'm able to get these out so quick.
With that said and done, have fun reading.
