To say things are awkward… again, would be a massive understatement. Pearl and I haven't even acknowledged each other since the 'incident' and I really don't blame her. What I did was just… wow. I mean the beautiful comment sure but… that kiss? Yeah no that was utterly stupid on my part. I do like Pearl, I like how she looks, I like her spirit and I love all the things she's done for me since I've been here. The times she's given me pointers on sword fighting as well as all the times she's patched me up whenever I got hurt. The chances of… something happening between us… I wouldn't be opposed to it. I still can't believe just how stupid and excited I was at the time that I just… Ugh. That was not subtle at all.
Everyone has given us awkward stares and looks here and there, me mostly for obvious reasons, so in an effort to distract myself from the situation, I've been pouring over new devices for me to make. For days I've spent developing new IED's with varying explosive capabilities and ranges, as well as different ways to set them off, whether by remote with my phone, proximity, timed or on impact. I even decided to make mobile bombs using various remote controlled toys. Steven at first was happy to see them, I gave him a couple, but the rest were for me to use. I've set some up to be used on ground based all-terrain toys, some boats, even a few helicopters as well. I made the explosives on them similar to C4 so I made sure to keep the detonating charges locked up along with the replicator. It's a nice thought but one I need to be careful with.
I also decided to work on that rebreater unit I was thinking of making when I went up that water spire. I took the basic sketches for a scuba gear and started fiddling with ideas for how to make it compact and for the device to reuse as much air as possible for when I breathe. I need to make it so that should I be in a situation where I can't breathe, I need to be able to slap it on in an instant to give me enough time to properly breathe in a new area. I'm focusing mostly on the explosives right now so the rebreather is only in its rough draft stage.
In any case, we still have jobs to do so after a week of nothing happening, the gems decided to check up on an area they know of. The warp tunnel around us dissipates and I immediately move forward and check the area around us, making sure we're clear of hostiles. "Clear." I call out as I take in where we are. We now find ourselves on some type of plateau-like building area in the middle of the ocean with an unobstructed view clear into space with several other warp pads around us; most of which are destroyed, as well as a much bigger one in the middle that's broken as well.
"Woah." Steven is in awe at the location we reside in.
Garnet walks over and steps on another warp pad. "Inactive." She calls out. Steven walks over and grunts as he slaps a sticker of that crying breakfast friend show he for some reason likes on the warp pad she called out.
Amethyst jumps onto a different warp pad. "Inactive!" Getting what they're doing, I move to another warp pad as Steven slaps a sticker onto the inactive warp pad.
"Inactive." I call out, prompting Steven to slap a sticker on my pad.
"Inactive." Pearl calls out hers in a disappointing manner. He then runs over and slaps a sticker on the warp pad she's standing on.
"Do we have to check all of them?" Amethyst proceeds to groan out at the apparent unnecessary action we are taking. "They're all still inactive, like always."
"We need to make sure." Garnet says as she walks away to another set of pads.
"Expecting trouble?" I ask her as we walk together.
"Don't you always?" she retorts.
I give her a nod, "Touché."
"I've never seen so many warp pads before!" Steven says out loud and pulls out two stickers. "I hope I have enough of these Crying Breakfast Friends stickers. Where do all these warp pads go, anyway?" He questions and to be honest, I'm curious as well. After checking on the next to warp pad, I make my way over to another.
"Well, Steven, these warp pads were used to travel off-planet." Pearl begins to explain to him about the pads as she sits down. 'Off-planet warp pads? Wow, eat your heart out NASA and everyone who wants to go off-world.' "They were our connection to the Gem Homeworld and to Gem-controlled planets all over the universe."
"Wait! To Homeworld! One of these could take us to Homeworld?!" I ask in surprise.
"Ye-yes." Pearl asks hesitantly, still not looking at me after my brash action last time. "T-the middle one. There." She points to the large elevated middle warp pad.
In an excited manner, I sprint over to the pad and jump onto the top of it, not bothering to use the stairs. As I step onto the middle of it, I feel all eyes on me as I concentrate to activate it. Nothing happens. "Damnit." I curse and stomp on the warp pad before letting out a sigh. 'So much for visiting Lapis.'
"You mean if these were working, we could go anywhere we want in outer space?" Steven gasps with stars in his eyes, indicating he's excited about the possibility of other worldly planet exploration.
"Yeah... we could do that if they weren't all busted." Amethyst quickly crushes his daydreaming.
"It's true. The galaxy warps have all been inactive for thousands of years." Pearl further accentuates the hopeless situation.
"Can't we fix them?" He asks hopefully.
"… No." Garnet in her usual blunt tone says.
"Damn." I mutter to myself and look at the warp pad at my feet. I can't tell how this thing works exactly and as much as I want to gut it open and see what makes it tick, I don't want to permanently destroy a pathway to a location we can't get to by any other means.
"It's fine." She says with a slight chuckle that I call fake. "I'll always have my memories of other worlds. But now I'm here... on Earth... Forever." She finishes saying with an expression and tone of both seriousness and sadness, further proving to me that she is not fine.
"With me!" I smile at the kids attempt to cheer her up.
"Right." She agrees with him with a simple pat to his head. "With you. It really is incredible out there, though. I wish you could see it, Steven." She says in a hopeful tone towards the stars. I can't help but stare into the sky as well, thinking about the possibilities of space travel and planet exploration.
After Pearl finishes her reminiscence, Steven pulls out a Crying waffle sticker and walks to the elevated warp pad I'm standing on. He looks to me for confirmation on the pad. I give a sad nod and he slaps it on.
Since our trip was somewhat fruitless, we all decided to go and do our own things. The gems went back into the temple while Steven took off to go hang out with his dad. I decided however to go test out some my RC explosives to make sure their working right. The explosives are still on them so I can account for the weight but without the detonating charges, they can't go off. See as with regular C4 explosives, what most people know about explosives, when something goes boom you usually think all you need is enough fire or force to make it ignite. C4 however requires an electric current if you want to make it explode. You can't just shoot it, burn it or hit it and make it explode. No, you need special detonator charges attached to it to make the block explode. That's what I was going for with my IED's, specific ways to blow them up so no one would accidentally set them off. *Cough* Steven *Cough*.
The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly for me as I first test out my RC air toys. Most of them worked alright but I should increase the power behind the engine of the spinning blades so they could take the weight of the extra explosives as well as any strong winds that could suddenly pop up. Don't want them to do a nose dive away from my target should a gust of wind appear out of nowhere. Now it's late in the day and right now I'm testing my ground ones.
"Alright, good movement. Nice turning speed but how good is sudden incline change?" I ask myself as I use one of the monster trucks. It works well on the rough ground but I need to take into account of possibly jumping over some objects. "Hm?" I question a plank board that is precariously set up like a ramp. "You'll do." I drive the truck up the ramp and it slightly slows down going up the ramp but also spins in the air once it leaves the board. "Hmmmm." I walk over to the RC and pick it up before examining it for damage. I find none so I go back to contemplating. 'Increased engine power, obviously, find a way to dampen the sound, balance out the whole thing to make sure it doesn't spin out like that again in mid-air…'
"Marcus!" I look to the side at my name calling to a sight that widens my eyes. "Look out!"
"Shit!" I drop down the ground behind the rock and ramp as Steven in a handmade boxcar comes barreling at me.
"No shame! Aah!" I hear him yell before there is a loud crashing sound. I cover my head in preparation for the impact against me but I feel none. Looking up, I find the rock that was used to prop the ramp up took the brunt of the makeshift missile towards me, completely destroying the ramp and the cart is completely shattered into a million pieces.
"What the hell was-? Steven!" I yell as I spot the kid several yards from me lying on the ground. I drop my RC and sprint over to the kid before sliding next to him. "Steven! You okay man?!" I ask frantically.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm good." He assures me that's he's not hurt. I let out a sigh of relief before helping him to sit up. "Darn, we failed." He says sadly while looking at the destroyed cart.
"Failed? Dude, what just happened? What was that?" I ask in a bewildered tone while gesturing to the broken debris.
"A spaceship!"
"…" I raise an eyebrow in question at his answer. "A spaceship?"
"Did you really think this was gonna work?" Pearl asks the father-son duo while gesturing to the chalkboard of their plans, which to me doesn't look like anything to do with space flight.
"Mnh-mnh-mnh." The two of them hum an 'I don't know' to the gem along with shrugged shoulders. I shake my head at their work on their spaceship.
"Here, look." She proceeds to show them a real spaceship drawing and planning on the chalkboard. "You need smooth, curving surfaces. Otherwise, you're never gonna get enough speed to break Earth's gravitational pull. Probably swept-back wings for supersonic flight, airtight cockpit with ejector seat, and we'll need some serious engines, or maybe rockets would be better." She lists out the things needed to make a spaceship.
"I vote rockets!" Steven immediately votes on what he wants.
"Whoa, whoa. Hold on a sec." Greg immediately gets ups and says in a disbelieving tone. "We're not actually talking about building something like this, right?" He asks. I shrug my shoulders but Pearl seems a little different on the matter.
"What?! This?" She gestures to the chalk drawing and laughs. "Of course not. That would be ridiculous. I mean, yes, theoretically, it's not a stretch. You've got plenty of spare parts here, albeit for incredibly primitive propulsion-based space travel. The idea is ludicrous. It would never work, althoooough several humans, a monkey, and a dog did make it into space. I don't know why I've never even thought of it before. This could actually work!" She goes from disbelieving the whole idea to finish saying it with much enthusiasm.
"Uh..." Both father and son say in unison, unsure on how to answer. They look to me for clarification but shrug no.
"Hey don't look at me."
"I hear what you're saying, and I agree-" She ignores the unsure feeling in the air and goes back to the issue at hand. "It would be incredibly dangerous; a fool's errand." She goes on and picks stuffing out of a chair. "This chair is disgusting. But aren't the true fools the ones who don't seize an opportunity, despite all the inherent risks? And I'd be able to show Steven the wonders of the cosmos! And maybe just for a second, from a distance, I could see what's been going on without me." Steven pokes out from behind his chair with stars in his eyes, obviously very supportive of the idea of space travel, and breaks through Pearls skepticism. "All right! let's do it!" She agrees very much.
"UUU, space travel! G-o-o-o-o-o!" Steven proclaims loudly. He jumps out of his chair and proceeds to pull his dad into the barn to gather supplies.
Pearl picks up a clipboard and proceeds to write things down on it. "Anything I can do?" I ask her.
"Oh! Uhh…" She stammers a bit with a blush adorning her features. "Go into the barn and start taking stuff out. I-I need to take into account of what we have." She quickly orders me.
"No problem." I agree and walk into the barn to help the others in gathering supplies. At least she's trying to speak to me but still uncomfortable. I don't want to make things awkward around us and if I could go back and take back what I did, I would. That was a risky move I did and I deserve the consequences. I feel her eyes on my back as I walk to the back of the barn.
Greg and Steven already begin moving parts out of the tool shed as well as me. Pearl soon after starts to use drills, screw-drivers, and blowtorches various things together in order to start building a spaceship. I stay out of her way so she can focus on the build as I continue to move things around; mostly stuff I can tell that would be well needed in making the ship. She also tests out an engine at point, which is actually acting like a real jet engine, at least until it flies out of its restraints and blows up in the air. After that she starts mixing various chemicals together to get a proper accelerant fuel source to use for the jet because as we know, regular gasoline isn't gonna cut it.
Later, much of the day is past and the sun is starting to set. To properly test out the engine she is planning to use, Steven was tasked with flying in a small seated glider.
"Wah-o-o-o-o-o-o-oo!" I faintly hear Steven cry out in joy as he continues to fly around.
"Ground control to mach 2. Come in, mach 2. How you doing, buddy?" Greg uses a radio to contact his son while Pearl jots down some notes on her clipboard and I keep an eye on our pilot using some binoculars.
"Aah! aah-aah-aah-aah! Wow!" Steven's reply is insistent mutterings of joy.
"You think we're taking this a little far?" Greg asks.
"We're not even close to being done." Pearl informs him and jots some things down.
"We're not?"
"It's space Greg." I say to him, not taking my eyes off the binoculars but I know he's looking at me. "We don't go far enough, we don't go at all."
"Okay, Steven. Go ahead and bring her down." Pearl calls to him using her headset.
Our pilot brings the glider in low to the ground before managing to land the thing just as the engine backfires, the wings collapse, and the seat ejects Steven a couple feet forward. "Ugh! Whoo!" He happily yells out with his arms raised. 'Not much of an ejection seat.'
"Was it supposed to fall apart like that?" Greg asks Pearl as I put away the binoculars.
"Don't worry. This was just to test my engine concept. I'll work out the kinks in the next one." She tries to assure him everything is good.
"Hang on. Hang on. Next one?!" But she fails.
"Is there a shop in town that carries F-1 single-nozzle liquid-fueled rockets?" She asks him nonchalantly.
"You really are serious!" Greg acts in surprise.
"Of course! Now, any ideas where?" She asks him with a smile. The man just gives her an open mouthed stare with a slow head shake meaning no. She grimaces at the lack of knowledge and turns to the only person she knows who could know.
"Um, Marcus?" I look over to my name being called. Pearl still hasn't gotten over me and I don't blame her. "D-do you know where we-we could get those types of rockets?" she stammers to ask me while also not looking directly at me.
"Hmmm." I place a hand to my chin and think of where we could get those types of rockets. "Those types of rockets are typically used by NASA for shuttle launches and such, way far away from us and in no way we could finish it within a week if you expect me to go, get one and come back." I inform her, much to her dismay. "If you want, I'm sure I could probably steal some parts from a military base somewhere and make our own make-shift engine."
"No!" Greg shuts down that idea.
"Great!" She ignores him. "We're also going to need a space suit for Steven so he doesn't freeze or explode." She lists off the other item we need. Steven imitates an explosion despite how bad that would be.
"Whoa. You are not taking him to space." Greg decides to put his foot down on the issue.
"Yes, I am." She says still with the smile on her face, not really taking into account of just what Greg requested.
"No! I'm not allowing it!" He stays firm on his choice.
"But why? This is why we founded Universe & Universe."
"That's what the U's stand for?" I ask them out of the blue. I never did get an answer as to what the U's stood for.
"Steven, you're grounded."
"What?!" He asks in surprise.
"C'mon man. Doesn't that seem a little-"
"No, no. I mean you're grounded. You don't get to leave Earth." Greg clarifies in the middle of my input.
"Oh, well that makes sense."
"Oh." Steven and I get what he means. "What?!" The kid asks in surprise again.
"As C.E.O. and supreme space commander, I hereby ground this astronaut and cancel this mission." The 'CEO' states firmly.
"Aw, man! Stupid company by-laws." Steven pouts.
"Hey! Who made you C.E.O.?!" Pearl demands of him.
"He did." Greg motions with a tilted head towards Steven. He looks nervously at Pearl for his distribution of power towards his father.
"Fine. If neither of you will help, I'll just do it by myself-! Not like it'll be much different." She mutters as she angrily pushes them away and stalks off into the barn.
"Pearl!" Steve calls out to her but she slams the barn doors shut.
"I'm sorry, bud. Sometimes you just got to know when to bail." Greg apologizes to his son while I sigh and shake my head.
"Let me see if I can talk to her." I tell them and walk to the barn doors.
"Uhh, Marcus, are you sure? I mean the two of you haven't really been… you know?" Greg tells me uneasily while he nervously scratches his head.
I tilt my head down and let out a heavy sigh at the tenseness between Pearl and I. "Yeah, I know. But the fact of the matter is that we need to get past this and this should be a good opportunity to do so." I tell them. This whole situation between Pearl and I sucks but if we are going to continue working together, we need to get past this.
"Good luck." I hear Steven tell me as I grab the barn doors.
"Thanks." I reply and step inside, closing the doors behind me. I immediately spot Pearl rummaging through some stuff nearby. "Hey Pearl, listen I hope you understand why Greg is-"
"Please, don't speak to me." She bluntly interrupts me, much to my surprise.
"Wha-? Listen! I'm sorry for what I did to you and I'm sorry but-" She stands up and turns to me.
"I don't know what… "Signals" I've given you in our time working together but if you think I'm going to reciprocate any feelings you may have for me to you… Your sadly mistaken." She roughly tells me with a stern look.
"Feelings?! Look I'm sorry for what I did! That was a stupid move on my part but-"
"Obviously." She turns away with a scoff.
My eyes widen at her attitude. "What the hell is your problem?!" I stalk up to her and grab her arm. "What did I do to get you so-?" She shakes my arm off and roughly turns back to me.
"I don't want anything to do with you that way! Not after-" She freezes before she can finish what she's saying.
"Not after… what?" I question. She turns away from me and walks away but I grab her shoulder to stop her. "Pearl, what-"
She shakes my hand off her shoulder and gives me a sideways glance, "I'm not falling… in love… with a killer like you."
I tense up at her accusation. I never told her about what I did when I was helping humans. The only killing she knows about is- "Is this about those gem monsters?"
She turns away from me and clenches her fists.
"I thought we were past this?" I ask her sternly. "Why bring this up no-"
"You don't understand, do you?" She asks me.
"What?" I ask.
"Those… monsters… aren't monsters. Their gems."
"Uh, yeah their gems. I see the things they drop when we defeat them."
"You ignorant stupid-"
"Hey!" I yell and turn her around. "What the hell are you-?" I stop as I notice the tears brimming on her eyes. "Pearl?" She pushes me away.
"Those monsters… were… gems… Us." She gets out.
"Wait what?" I question what she means.
"Don't you get it?!" She yells at me. "Those monsters aren't just monsters like in your games, mythology or animals! Their corrupted gems!"
I take a moment to process her words. 'Wait, corrupted? Then that means that they weren't originally…' "Wha-what do you mean?" I ask her, almost afraid of her answer.
"Those gems, the ones that we've been fighting, the two dozen gems you destroyed… they were formally gems like me, Garnet, Amethyst… even you." She answers me, telling me what I fear. Taking lives is something I'm no stranger to… but I've never killed a sentient gem before.
"Y-you mean… I've…" I stammer a little.
"Yes… You've killed gem people." She bluntly tells me, no longer dancing around the issue. I stand there stunned at the new info she just gave me.
'All those monsters I've fought… used to be… oh god! The Obsidian gem…' I remember the gem monster and its lackeys that night when Pearl rematerialized. The gem it had looked like an Obsidian gem but not perfect resemblance. Now it makes sense.
She walks past me to the pile of junk. "Nothing will happen between us." Is the last thing she says before she goes back to working on the ship.
I don't know how long it was I was standing there but eventually I slump out of the barn, intent to be alone with my thoughts.
Nighttime has already befallen upon the residents of the barn, some sleep peacefully, others… not so much. Greg is sleeping in his truck and mutters in his sleep. Steven however sleeps on the ground in his caterpillar-like sleeping bag, until a finger pokes him awake.
"Wha?" He asks while groggily waking up.
"Shh!" Pearl quickly shushes the kid before he can make too much noise. "Want to see something really cool?" She asks him excitedly. Steven immediately agrees at the idea of seeing something cool. The two of them silently stalk their way to the front entrance of the, passing Greg's van with the man inside as he mutters in his sleep some more.
"No. Don't give him the banana. That's what he wants."
The two of them make it to the front of the barn doors and Pearl grasps the handles to the doors. "Presenting the brand-new ballistic-flight-capable Universe Mach 3!" Pearl excitedly tells the kid as she opens the doors with a flourish.
Steven gasps loudly at the new spaceship before him. "Spaceship!" He yells excitedly and runs around the machine laughing happily.
"Wait, Steven. Keep your voice down." Pearl tries to calm down the excited kid to keep him from waking the others up.
"Whoa!" He either ignores her or didn't listen because he continues to be excitedly loud before spotting something on the side of the ship. "It's even got the logo from the van!" He points out.
"And if your dad asks, we'll say we borrowed it."
Steven agrees with the idea before jumping into the spaceship. "Whoa. Look at all the buttons! I must press them all." He says.
"If you want, Steven, we could take her out for an engine check." She proposes to him and with a quick move, she uses her gem to change her clothes into that of a spacesuit. "It'll be quick." The kid nods excitedly at the idea of going into the air. "Great!" she happily says and goes up the ladder. She places herself into the only seat in the cockpit before picking Steven up and placing him in her lap. "Okay, now let me just check to see if all systems are green…" She trails off as she presses some buttons. Steven gets off her lap and peaks over the side of the ship.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Ahh-Mmmmm!" Steven begins to scream at the head that suddenly popped over the side but Marcus covers his mouth before he can wake up the sleeping father. The muffled screaming lessens more and more until he finally calms down after knowing who is in front of him. "Hey."
"Hi."
"What are you doing here?!" Pearl asks him crossly.
"Oh I was just coming by, sulking and thinking about my life, planning to grab my explosives and head home, when I spot a peculiar sight: Two people stalking around the barn like they're trying to do something… quiet." Marcus says as he fully climbs up and sits in the cockpit with a backpack on.
"So?" she asks him as Steven takes his place on Pearl's lap again.
"And it looks like you guys are doing something that you were expressly told not to do."
"Maybe…" She crosses her arms in a questioning manner to the guy. "What are you going to do about it?" she asks as Steven looks between the two of them.
"I'm staying right here until you guys leave." Marcus gets himself comfy and sits firmly in the cockpit.
The two o them stare at each other, waiting for one or the other to break. Steven remains impassive and just switches from staring between the both of them.
"…"
"…"
"… Okay!" Pearl happily says and slams her fist on a button.
"What?!" Marcus says in surprise as the entire machine starts to rumble and move forward.
"Pea-a-a-a-rl!" Greg yells loudly, immediately blaming the gem for the missing tires and missing piece of the side of his van where the logo was. He jumps out of the van and moves to the front of the barn, immediately spotting the giant ship pulling forward as he spots his son in the ship. "Steven, what are you doing?!" He yells to his son but is too late. The spaceship's engine rev loudly before a loud boom is heard and the spaceship lifts off into the air, knocking Greg to the ground from the force of the ships engines.
"Wow!" Steven voices his awe at seeing everything from so high from above and laughs a little. "Marcus look! You can see the temple!" He points to the ground.
"No no! I'm good." He replies while holding very tightly to whatever's around him. "Pearl I'd like to ask why you didn't add more than one chair?"
"Well it's not like I was expecting anyone else to rudely interrupt our departure!" She replies in an annoyed tone.
"… And that's my fault because?" He asks her.
She looks at him crossly before going to retort, "Hey, can you hear me?!" However before they could continue arguing, the walkie-talkie goes off, Greg's voice on the other end. "Where do you two think you're going?!"
"Hey Greg!" Marcus calls out lazily.
"Marcus?! What are you guys doing?!"
"Hey, Dad, guess where I am." Steven lightheartedly asks his dad, despite how freaked out the father actually is on the ground.
"I know where you are! It's where you're going that concerns me!" He screams through the electronic device.
"Don't worry, Dad. This is just a quick test flight." Steven casually tells his dad.
"This will be perfectly fine. Just a pop over to the nearest star system-"
"Excuse me?!" Marcus yells out in surprise at the idea of going to a new star system.
"I'll give him back in 50 years." She continues, not acknowledging what Marcus said.
"50 Years?" Steven asks Pearl, making sure he heard right while Marcus remains stunned at the info.
"What?! I'll be dead in 50 years!" Greg yells. "Pearl, you bring him back right now, or I'll-" Pearl simply turns off her end of the transmission.
"Pearl, I'm not supposed to go."
"Yeah, I'm with him on this one." Marcus agrees with Steven. Unfortunately, she ignores them and remains rooted to the trip.
"Pearl!" Steven tries to get her attention again.
"Oh, this is so exciting! Steven, you're gonna love it." She says and begins to play on piano keyboard she installed as a makeshift console. The notes make the usual noise but this time they activate the afterburners on the ship to gain speed. "Hang on tight!" She warns them as the ship gains more speed.
"Mm!" Steven grunt as he's pressed harder into Pearl.
"Oh man!" Marcus grunts as well as he slides back a little, placing on the side outside of the chair. The ships gains even more speed as it continues to climb the heavens. Soon they pierce through the clouds and the dark blue of the night turns to black with bright spots, revealing the vastness of space.
A piece of the spaceship tears off the ship itself, flying past and nearly sheering off the glass cockpit. "What was that?" Steven asks her, not really sure what that thing was but Marcus knows, that's why he's digging deep grooves into the chairs arms with his fingers.
"Peeeeaaaarrrrl…" He says the pilots name warily. "Did you prep this ship for atmospheric re-entry?" Something else tears off. "Did you even prep it to leave the planet in the first place?!"
Alarms begin blaring throughout the cockpit. "Pearl!" Steven calls out her name in uneasiness.
"We can make it. We're almost there." She responds in a dreamy voice, the prospect of going to space rewriting any form of worry she might have at the ship getting destroyed.
Even more of the spaceship begins to fall apart, adding even more worry to the human-gem duo in the death machine. "Pearl!" Steven tries to get her attention again.
"I'm gonna show it to you." She continues to be oblivious to the situation at hand.
"Steven…" Marcus gets the kids attention. "She isn't listening. We need another way to get her attention." He tells him.
"Uh... Uh..." Steven quickly looks around the cockpit for anything that might help as the blaring alarm continues. He finds a lever and grabs it.
"Wait, Steven! What are you going to-?" Before Marcus can finish, the kid pulls it, blasting the window covering the occupants of the ship off, exposing them to the air and sending them flying out. "Oh god!" Marcus yells as he's almost sucked out.
"Marcus!" Steven cries out his friends name as he's almost torn away from them but the guy grabs the headrest of the chair.
"Steven! What are you doing?!" Pearl asks him in surprise, finally breaking out of her dreamy-like state.
"We need to go, Pearl! We're not gonna make it!" He pleads to her as more of the ship continues to tear off.
"But we're almost there!" She tries to argue to keep on going while staring into space.
"C'mon Pearl!" Marcus yells to her through the wind blowing hard against him. "It's hopeless! Not with the state the ship is in now!"
"But-"
"Pearl!" Steven pulls her view back down to him, making sure she hears what he's going to say. "I know you miss space, and I know you worked hard, but sometimes... you just got to know when to bail." He quotes his father, knowing full well that the plan is not going to work anymore.
She looks at space for a second before closing her eyes and pulls a lever on the side of the chair they're all either sitting in or grabbing onto, ejecting them out of the spaceship just as it explodes.
"Nooooooo!" Greg cries out as he watches the ship containing his son explode. He hastily scans the sky with his binoculars. "Please, please, please, please, please." He begs, hoping to find his son. He finally spots two sets of parachutes high in the sky, one of them he sees is connected to a chair with Pearl and Steven coming back down to Earth. "Ahhhh. Ohhhhh. Ohh, this kid's killing me." He gasps out breathlessly, happy to see his son alive and well but tired at the stress. "Ughhhh!" He groans out and lies down on the ground, very tired from the emotional turmoil he went through.
"I'm so sorry. I almost got us killed." Pearl tells her passenger with tears threatening to break through her eyes.
"I'm used to it." He nonchalantly replies.
"That's not something to be used to Steven!" The two of them look over to see Marcus floating down a few yards away from them on his own parachute. "Especially your age." He adds.
"Oh Marcus! I'm so sorry about before! I didn't mean to say those things about you! I just-" She tries to apologize to him, very sorry about her actions to the hybrid while her views at the time were blinded at the chance to go to space, but he holds a hand up, stopping her.
"We'll talk about it later!... Preferably not almost half a mile above ground." He says as he looks down.
"That's a good idea." Steven agrees with the paratrooper and makes sure he's firmly seated with Pearl. She settles into the seat as well, making sure her passenger doesn't fall out as well as her.
After a few moments of silence, Marcus breaks it. "Pearl, I know you were so fixated on going to space but you had to have realized the fragility of the ship as well as taken into account of atmospheric re-entry, right?"
"The ship was solid enough built! I guess I was just so excited to go to space that I relied more on luck at that point. I'm sorry." She explains.
"Ehh some people are just that driven like that. Next time we can- Whoa!" Marcus I rudely interrupted as a large gust of wind catches his parachute and sends him flying back and away from the others.
"Marcus!" The others call out to him as the wind sends him flying up and away from them.
"It's fine! I'll just be… a little late for dinner!" Marcus yells loudly to them as he's carried away. "See you guys at home!" He finishes yelling as he's pushed out of speaking distance.
"Bye!" Steven bids his friend goodbye as he's carried far out of Beach City. "He'll be fine."
"He usually isn't." Pearl comments on their friends wellness, especially throughout the time they've known him.
"But he always gets better."
"…True." Pearl concedes and lets them both fall to ground gracefully in silence.
For a few minutes, they fall silently until Steven speaks up. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you go to space, Pearl. We'll get there someday. I promise." He sincerely says to her.
"You know, I think I'd rather be here on Earth." She says to him as they look at the planet they slowly float down to.
"With me!" Steven happily adds with a smile.
"Yeah. With you." She says with a smile and hugs the kid closely to her.
Some minutes pass in silence again, nothing else striking up their interest.
"Why didn't we get blown off with Marcus?" Steven asks the older gem.
"I imagine we're heavier than he is. Our combined weight, plus the chair, we can't be as easily thrown off course like him." She explains to her curious companion.
"Oh… I wonder how's he doing?" He asks.
"I'm sure he's fine. He's survived a lot worse." She points out.
"Yeah, he has. He did fall all the way down from the top of Lapis's tower." Steven remembers when Marcus pushed him to Connie and Lion, making sure he was safe but putting his own self ins more danger.
"Yeah, I guess he did." She says with a smile, sure of herself that he's alright.
"This sucks!" I comment loudly. The wind knocked me I don't know how far away from Beach City and now I'm tangled up in a bunch of trees. "I can take on a few dozen feet tall monsters, faster than the eye could blink opponents, armored to hell and back enemies… but I can't overcome Mother Nature..." I contemplate things for a few seconds as I dangle high above the ground. "… Yep, that's about right." I grumble to myself. After a minute of hanging around, making it obvious that no one is coming to help, "Whelp, I'm bored." I voice my mood on the situation and summon my swords in both hands. Crossing them in a scissor like formation, I cut some of the cords holding me up. "Yes!" I look down. "No."
*Thud*
"Ow." I say out loud as I lay on the ground. "I did not think this through." I say to myself. Soon after, I pull off the straps I have on me before dropping them to the ground and taking out my phone. "Now where am I?" I pull up the map function and triangulate my position. A couple minutes, I find that I'm a few yards away from the nearest road but I'm almost two mile out from home. "Oh god. That's how far I went?" Pointing myself towards the road, I begin my trek towards it. After a few minutes of walking and trudging through trees and bushes, I find myself on a paved roadway. The entire road is very quiet without a single car in sight. "Crap." I look down at the map again and find where I need to go.
"Well, no sense idling."I say and turn left before I start my walk back to town in the dead of night.
Well, I'll say that was interesting. I hope I did alright with this chapter for you guys. I wasn't too keen on the confrontations there but I needed to kind of get this chapter out soon for you guys to let you know that for the next few days I'll be taking tests and that I'll also be playing Mafia 3 a lot. So expect a slight delay for my next chapter. Hopefully this story is going to take a turn that you guys support or at least are alright with. I also kind of wish that some of you who are my guests would be able to make accounts here in fanfiction so I could properly respond to your reviews. For example, you coldblue. Never had I have anyone review my story with as many words as you have coldblue. I may not have mentioned you recently but I appreciate your questions and what you think on the matter of my work. I appreciate everyone's words when directed towards this story, both the guests and all of you with accounts.
I hope I continue to impress you guys with my work from here on out.
Well, that's all I wanted to say really. With that I'll-
I continue walking down the road for half an hour, the only thing making a sound is the crunch of my feet on the pavement and the chirping of crickets.
*Scrrreeeeeech*
And the sound of tires screeching along the rode.
"The hell-?" I question at the loud noise. To my right a black van stopped right in next to me. Before I can react, two guys jump out of the side door and grab both my arms. "Hey!" I yell as they grab me. Not caring who they are, I head butt the one to my left, making him let go. With my free hand, I punch the one on the right in the face. He grunts as he lets go and a third guy jumps out. He goes to punch me but I redirect his attack and kick him in the stomach. One of them wraps his arms around me from behind and another comes at me from the front. I jump up and kick him against the van before flinging my head back and smacking my holder in the face. He lets go and bring my right fist back and punch him straight in the face. He goes down easy and I go to deliver another to knock him out.
*Zzzztt-zzzt-zzt-zzt*
"Arrrrgghh!" I yell loudly in pain as I feel bolts of electricity flow through me in my neck. My entire body goes weak as I fall to the ground unconscious.
"Argh! Son of a bitch!" One of the guys who got head butted groans out. "Little mother-!" He goes to kick the down kid but one of his associates stops him.
"Hey! Hold it! The boss wanted him in one piece. That means no bruises." He sternly tells him before putting away his taser and looking to the other guys who got punched. "Type him up then get him inside." The man nods before pulling out some zip ties and restraining the kids hands and feet. "C'mon lets go." He pushes the head butt guy into the van as their target is loaded in. He goes around the van and gets into the passenger seat.
"It's him?" The driver asks. The passenger pulls out a picture of a face. Looking into the rear view mirror, he sees the face is an exact match to the photo he's got. To make doubly sure, he pulls out another photo of a Jade gem.
"Show me his shoulder." He orders the guys in the back. They pull the guys jacket off slightly before lifting a sleeve and showing what they needed to see. The green gem is there clear as day and a match to the photo. He nods, signaling the guys to let him go. "It's him. Let's go." The driver nods before shifting gears and driving off. The passenger pulls out a disposable phone and types in a number. The phone rings a few times before someone picks up.
"Do you have him?" A gruff voice answers.
"Yes sir. Both photos are a match. We'll bring him to the safe house and then prep him to bring to you."
"Good." The voice on the other end says. "This has been a long time coming. Make sure he gets here in one piece. I want to talk to him personally."
"Yes sir. We'll get him there as soon as we can."
"Very well." The voice sighs heavily. "I want that bastard to tell me to my face what the hell happened to my brother. Get it done."
"You got it." Both guys take the phone away from their ears and click the phone off, or slam it down onto the receiver.
…
… Huh, guess I wasn't finished. Sorry to leave you hanging like that. Who is this mystery organization that wants Marcus, huh?
I know that… but you don't. Sorry again for the future delay but Mafia is pretty damn fun.
Some of you also asked for when or if Marcus would be dealing with a human problem as well as the gem problems. Well, looks like you guys got the premise for something to come. I hope I do good.
With that, have fun reading, and I'll also leave you with one final thing:
Prepare to meet… The Iron Kings
