After Pearl was relieved at my lie, we got to work gathering all the armaments that the Iron Kings brought. From the usual assault rifles, shotguns, SMG's and rifles they brought, I got a ton more explosives for me to use from frags, stuns, flashbangs, and rocket launchers. Thankfully, I had Pearl go first with nothing to make sure Steven wasn't there when I was bringing the stuff over. He wasn't so after we quickly explained to Garnet and Amethyst, which the former was troubled by the news and Amethyst almost went ballistic at the idea that her birth place was some kind of battlefield, they helped move all the new gear into Pearls room until we could find a proper place. After we drove the vehicles the kings used next to the warp pad, I field stripped all but one for anything I could use from filters, spark plugs, gas and any wiring I could use for any of my vehicles in the future should they need them. We later gathered the bodies in one place for me to deal with later.
After we were done for the majority of the day from those tasks, I had to rest because my injuries were starting to catch up with me. It was mostly the rush of adrenaline that made my injuries seem not as severe as I first thought. After a diagnosis I've suffered a few fractured bones on my ribs and arms so I'm not able to go on any missions or do anything too strenuous to fully break them. That means I've missed a few things as well with the others. For one thing, Steven went to some scary movie party over at the lighthouse with Lars, Sadie and Ronaldo for and things didn't go as planned. For one thing, apparently some dormant gem creature was living in the basement of the lighthouse and was after Lars for something he did so long ago. It took over and reanimated some scarecrows and bats to attack them and in the end, Steven was able to bubble the gem and store it away so it couldn't be antagonized anymore. Apparently it still held a grudge for Lars even after all these years.
Next, a blizzard rolled into town for Christmas and snowed us in pretty hard. It was even worse when Connie was hanging out at the beach house when the blizzard rolled so she needed to get home ASAP. I couldn't go out and take her so Greg was the only one who could. It was weird because at first Steven was so excited to have Connie stay over during the blizzard but when Garnet kissed his forehead, his idea did a complete 180 and he immediately took off to get Connie back home. After he left, I asked Garnet what happened and she answered with a smile, moving her visor, and two words: Future Vision. I shook my head at the idea and went back to resting. I was hoping for some sort of Christmas festivity but since the gems don't believe in that type of stuff, we didn't get any decorations. Nor could I go out and get some because I was still a little tender with my injuries, plus the blizzard was pretty sudden so we didn't have time anyway. Another issue that came up was when the gems wanted to destroy the galaxy warp using some explosive device they had called the 'shooting star' as a means to hold back Homeworld if they want to try to repair the Homeworld Warp but I put a stop to that. I worked on the wavelength for the Homeworld Warp and changed it so that even if its repaired, I deactivated and encrypted it so no one but us can use it. Considering my skill and results with the robonoids, they didn't argue much. Still uneasy about it but I'm kind of looking towards the future possibility's too.
Something also happened at the storage unit that Greg owns. Apparently he decided to get rid of his stuff there for some New Year's resolution and enlisted Steven, who enlisted Amethyst, help in getting the stuff out. Don't know the specifics of what happened but after New Year's happened and the fireworks went off, which Steven, Pearl, Garnet and I got to watch with other residents of Beach City, Amethyst showed up at the temple looking down and asked the other gems and I if we could help clean the storage unit. We agreed and while I couldn't do much heavy lifting, I brought my truck so we could put everything in it and transport it to the temple, which Amethyst was nice enough to agree to put all the stuff Greg didn't want any more in her room.
Throughout some of these times, and the times between each of these events, I spent a lot more time on my robonoids and got to working fiddling with them for the tasks I had in mind. I was able to upgrade them a bit on the use of their goo applications for things that could be a bit more mundane and useful for me. See, when they try to repair whatever object they are told to repair, they have to break tiny pieces of the item in question to reform it properly, similar to a bone that wasn't set right. I upped the breakdown part of the goo when they use it, essentially making it into a sort of acid when used. I also added a function for them suck up any excess goo on the ground to be used for quicker applications later, and to reform the items material for later use. I took all of the robonoids I had with me to the Kindergarten and had them break up a large deep plot of land to lay the bodies in. I'm not gonna say I haphazardly threw them in because I'm not that horrible. I laid them down at the bottom with dignity and let my droids, as I am now calling them, reform the dirt over them and smoothening it out, making sure it doesn't look like several dozen bodies are placed there. After that, I had them breakdown the vehicles into their barest materials and store it so I can make them into something else I can make do with later on.
I've also hacked my way into access for any security cameras in town as a way to keep an eye out for anyone in town that may be suspicious looking. Until I can get my own personal cameras up, I've also written a facial recognition software on the cameras and linked it to the different criminal databases, so that way if anyone comes into town with a criminal record, I'll be alerted to it.
With how much info the Iron Kings know about me and the people I know, I need to plan and think of my next move, especially when it comes to my human friends.
For now though, things haven't really escalated to anything super major so it's a pretty chill day for me.
*Boom*
Mostly.
"What the…?" I begin to question from my place on the couch at the noise until the gems barrel past me outside. Following after them, we push through the door and I immediately spot the water has been disturbed by something.
"What was that?" Amethyst asks. At first, there's nothing but the water soon starts rumbling.
"There!" I quickly point to the area it's originating from. To our surprise, and mine especially, a giant robonoid rolls up onto the beach and grows its feet. 'Holy… that thing is, what? 10 times bigger than my smalls ones.'
"Ha!" Before anything could be said, Garnet jumps off the balcony straight for the robot, who is walking towards Steven and Connie.
"Damn." I quickly turn and duck back into the beach house.
The giant robonoid machine starts advancing upon both Steven and Connie, who were both originally just reading some books until the robot fell from the sky. Before it can get close to them however, Garnet lands in front of the machine and holds it back, halting its advance.
"AMETHYST! PEARL!" Garnet calls out her fellow gems names.
"Huuuuuh—" Answering her call, the two gems jump and proceed to fall from high up in the sky, heading straight for the hostile machine. "Yaaaaaah!" With a fierce cry, the two of them slam into the machine, creating a small explosion that forces Steven to bring up a bubble to shield him and Connie.
Once the dust and smoke dissipate, Steven lets the bubble fall. "Connie, are you—"
"Get ready, we're not done." Garnet interrupts Steven as more rumbling comes from the water. A second robonoid came down with the first and begins to emerge from the water. Once it fully emerges from the water, she gets ready to attack.
*BANG!*
Someone else beat her too it. The machine gets hit from a large caliber round and instantly showers the area in that goo it breaks down into when damaged. Quickly following the smoke trail, Garnet smiles as she sees someone at the balcony with a rifle. The figure drops down and jogs over to them.
"You okay?" Steven asks Connie to make sure she's alright.
"I love hanging out at your place!" Instead of a regular human being freaked out at the scene that played out in front of them, Connie is happy and amazed at the display.
"Really?" Marcus asks sarcastically as he walks casually to them with his Barrett in his hands. "Usually whenever you see a couple alien machine explode into goo, people tend to freak out at that." He almost steps in a puddle of the goo but steps over it. "I thought we were done with Peridot?"
"Wait, that was—" Steven begins to ask.
"One of Peridot's machines?" Pearl finishes his question and nods. "Yes I think so, only… this is different." She looks to their most experienced gem on the subject of advanced gem tech. "Marcus?" She says his name in a questioning manner in hopes that he can elaborate. Unfortunately, he shakes his head 'no.'
"Sorry. These things look similar but I imagine they work on a different level. Unless we can somehow deactivate these things if more show up and I can hack it, I'm in the dark." He explains.
"That's true… we've never seen them this big before." Pearl answers with a thoughtful look.
"Or this gooey!" Amethyst chimes in, head to toe covered in goo.
"Amethyst, we need to be careful. I've seen what that stuff can do to things." Pearl says, no doubt referring to the acidic nature I did for my robonoids and their goo. Amethyst however just snickers and gets a mischievous look on her face as she stares at Pearl. "Oh no! Don't you dare get that stuff on m!" She says, slowly backing away from the goo covered gem.
"Goop hug!" With her intentions made clear, Pearl freaks out and runs away from the goop hug. Amethyst chases her. "COME HERE, PEARL! I love you, Pearl!" They run a little ways away from group.
"Peridot. Is that the Gem you told me about? The one that's trying to come to Earth? And the one who's robots you stole?" Connie directs the last question to Marcus, who nods.
"Yes, it was." He answers as he slings the rifle across his back.
"We stopped her before but, I guess she can still shoot stuff here from space." Steven says as well. Both he and Marcus walk over to Garnet, who is inspecting the remains of the machine she held onto. "So... what do you think it was here to do?" He asks her.
"We destroyed it." She answers bluntly as she picks up a piece of the broken robonoid. "That's all that matters." She hands their expert on robonoids the piece of the machine. Steven nods in agreement.
"Hmmm, interesting. These ones are so massive the counter measure didn't fully dissolve all of it… or maybe its on some other type of system I don't know abou—"
"Goop hug!"
*Splat*
Amethyst comes out of nowhere and hugs Garnet, splattering the large gem in the goo. The sudden slap against each other also sent a small glob of it flying right into Marcus's face, stopping his out loud contemplation. Pearl approaches covered in goo, having gotten hugged by Amethyst, and looks bashful. Garnet casually pulls her in so they can all have a goop hug together.
"Bleh." Marcus wipes the goo from his face and looks annoyed.
"Is that a XM107 Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle?"
His annoyed look turns to a wide grin as he steps next to Connie and places a hand on her shoulder. "Have I ever told you how awesome you are?"
After those first two robonoids fell to the planet, I've kept my Barrett close by since its round are a guaranteed hit to destroy them in one go. You know, in case more appear.
*Boom*
And that's paranoia check one.
"What the—?" Steven exclaims in confusion at the noise while I get off the stool and away from my laptop.
The gems all rush out of the temple. "Something entered the atmosphere." Garnet informs us before they take off out the door with me trailing behind, hefting my Barrett with me.
"Up there!" Amethyst yells as she points upwards. We see something falling from the sky but heading in a far off direction. Lifting my rifle to my eye, I aim down the scope to look at the falling object.
"It's another one of those shooting things!" Pearl says. She's right as I zoom in and spot the familiar looking material the robonoids are made of. I trial it down until I see it land on an island very far away that I can barely see through my scope.
"It landed on an island. I don't know which." I inform them as I bring my rifle down.
"Mask island." Garnet answers. "It's the only one in that direction. Come on." She orders and we all take off towards the warp pad inside.
"Connie, I'm gonna call you back." Steven says to the girl on the phone before hanging up and getting on the warp pad with us. The warp pad activates as we are transported to the island.
As we land on mask island, I tumble roll forward and immediately check the area for any sign of the robonoid. A few yards away, it moves around and about, looking for something. "There!" I aim in the direction of the machine, getting the others attention.
"Is it… looking for a warp?" Pearl asks out loud, mostly wondering about its intentions but we aren't gonna get an answer.
"We have to stop it! Marcus!" Garnet calls my name. Getting it, I rack the bolt handle and loud a round into the rifle as the machine heads straight for us. I pull the trigger.
*BANG!*
The weapon discharges, almost making me stumble back but my strength allows me to stay standing and firm. Like before, the round rips through the machine and destroys it in a small shower of goop.
"Yeesh… What are these things trying to do?" Steven asks.
"… huh, you know, we don't know." I answer as I walk back to the others.
"It's not trying to do anything now." Garnet answers firmly on the subject. With nothing else for us on Mask island, I step back on the warp pad. "Nice shot." She compliments me and taps my shoulder.
"Thanks."
With that, we head back home and hopefully be done with this.
I was wrong.
At least two more of those things have entered earth's atmosphere in the last few days and its annoying. The gems and I are annoyed to hell and back because of the frequency these things are falling and its weighing on us.
"Stop! – Coming! –Here! – You! – Stupid! – Balls!"
Some more than others.
After the sixth one fell, the gems are so annoyed at them that they haven't killed this one in the desert outright. I'm standing a little bit away awkwardly holding my rifle as Pearl sits on top of the thing, stabbing it in the head repeatedly to no effect.
"Yeah! Let it out! Get crazy!" Amethyst has her whip wrapped around, pulling it back to keep it in place while Garnet is pushing against it as well
"Guys, guys, guys! Stop!" Steven runs past me, flailing his arms in an attempt to get their attention. It works as they all freeze and stare at the kid. "How many more of these things are you gonna have to fight?"
"We don't know!" Pearl says loudly, clearly stressed about the whole thing and I don't blame her. I'm a bit rundown as well. "They just keep COMING and COMING and we don't even know what they ARE! We don't know anything!"
"…" We both stare at her because of her rant. "That's okay." Steven says with a smile, much to her confusion. "I don't know anything all the time, it's like my whole life. But I have you guys to tell me about tell me about Gem stuff, Connie can explain what familiars are—"
"Isn't that a creature you summon that does your bidding?" I ask.
"Dad tells me weird dad stuff," He continues, ignoring me. "And Marcus can teach me about computers and weapons."
The others stare at me for a second. I shrug my shoulders unsure. 'He hasn't really asked… but I can see the interest at least.'
"But nobody knows what these things are here to do." Pearl continues to voice her unsureness about the machine.
"Well, it probably does." Steven points to the machine she's on top of.
"What?" She asks in confusion.
"Care to clarify?" I ask as well.
"We should follow it and see where it goes."
"Are you NUTS?!" Amethyst asks in disbelief.
"Who knows what could go wrong?" Pearl says as well.
"We can't keep fighting these things forever. Well, we can...but I don't want to." Garnet groans out.
"Yeeeeaaaah, I gotta agree with her." I chime in. "While it would be a risk, I don't like the idea of fighting these things every other day. I think we can all agree that it'll get tiresome." I raise a good point on the matter. While it would be safe in continuously fighting them, the tiring effect we would have from fighting would be brutal over time.
"Agreed. Let's do it Steven's way." Garnet is on board with the idea.
"Yeah! Let's follow the funky flow." Steven happily says as he waves his arms around. I slap my hand on my face at his carefree attitude about the situation.
"We're dead." Amethyst proclaims.
"Let's… just get going." I groan out. The others let go of the machine and they all climb on top of the machine. However there is a problem that comes with that. "Hey! There's no more room. What am I supposed to do?" I ask to no one in particular.
"You got two legs right? You can walk." Garnet casually says with a smug smile.
"But—"
"Mush!" Steven pats the top of the robonoid, signaling it to start moving. Before I can finish my protest, the large machine jerks forward, jostling its occupants and trudging away from me. "Uh-heh-heh. Woohoo!"
"Hm… oh sure, make the human-gem do the walking. Just because I like a more hands on approach most of the time doesn't mean I like menial labor…" I grumble to myself as I walk after them.
We come out of the warp tunnel.
"Oh god!" I loudly groan at the place we appear in.
"Oh, why here?" Pearl voices my exact feeling at being back here at the Kindergarten. "This site has been damaged enough by the Gems that were incubated here 6,000 years ago! That's it! It's confirmed. These things are up to no good!" She says and begins to summon her spear. I admit it, I'm getting an itchy trigger finger at this thing leading me back here.
"Wait! We don't even know what it's doing here? Can't we just... see where it wants to go?" Steven manages to stop us from tearing this thing a new one.
"Garnet?" Pearl and I look to the defacto leader of our group for an answer. I can go either way.
"Hmmm… Steven's way." Garnet thinks for a second but consents to continuing on with what we were doing before.
"*Sigh*" Pearl sighs and lets her spear go, which slowly retracts back into her gem.
"Whoa!" The others say in surprise as the machine jumps off the warp pad and its elevated position before walking off. I jump down as well and quickly catch up to them.
The others begin talking amongst themselves about something or more than likely what this robonoid wants but I kind of block out their conversation. I'm too busy looking around and keeping an eye out for anything that might attack. Since paranoia is pretty large part of me, and since it was barely over a month ago that this place was nearly my grave, and it WAS a grave for a few dozen gang members. Thankfully, right now we're nowhere near the grave site I made but if we go deeper into this place, we may come upon it.
I'm glad I decided to clean up the aftermath of the fight, otherwise I can't even imagine the amount of emotional scaring that Steven would have endured if they were still here and rotting. 'I still can't underestimate the Iron Kings. While I've got Beach City somewhat secured now, this fight kind of proved that they are pretty versatile in their movements. They kept tabs on me after I left the city and it was then that they decided to make their move. Hopefully since none of their men are gonna report back, and considering how many have gone dark, they'll leave me alone…' I shake my head at the thought. 'Yeah, chance of that happening are pretty lo—' "Oof!" I grunt out as I slam into the back of the robonoid. It stopped walking for some reason.
"Why'd you stop, li'l buddy?" Steven asks it.
"Something's happening."
"Oh boy." At Garnet's words, I take a step back as she, Steven and the others jumps off it next to me. Before our eyes, the ground in front of the robonoid breaks away into a sort of pyramid shape to it. Next, the machine itself floats up and remolds itself into the same shape as the ground.
"Yesss!" Steven says happily at seeing some progress be made on the robonoids, and how it's all thanks to his idea. The robonoid lowers itself into the ground and pushes the rest of the ground away, going deeper and deeper into the ground like an elevator. "See? I knew we'd find something cool... Let's go!"
"Wait, Steve—! oh great." I try to stop him from jumping in after the machine, especially since we don't know what's down there, but he goes on in without a care. "Ah screw it." Shrugging, I drop down as well, sliding down the incline till I hit the moving elevator right next to the kid. The others drop down next to us.
"Hey guys! Going down?" Steven jokes about our ride but the gems are fixated on something. And when I see what it is, I understand why. "Are you okay?"
"What is all this?" Pearl asks as the walls around us are no longer dirt but instead we stare at the weird thick green wires adorning the area around us.
"They look like… power cables." I answer. They look at me curiously. "Maybe?" I look at them. "This place was used to make gems, correct?"
"Yeeeaaahh." Amethyst confirms it.
"Well, maybe these… controlled the production of the gems in this area. These wires go all over the ground." I say as I point to some of the wires that dig into the ground around us. "That's just my theory anyway. If we come upon a sort of terminal or computer, I may be able to hack into it and find out for sure what's going on." I explain my plan. To be honest this is just speculation at this point. For all I know this is just some secret fall bunker Homeworld could have built as a contingency. Like I said though, if I can get to some sort of computer, I'll be able to find out for sure. Maybe even use some of this tech to my own ends.
Our makeshift elevator stops at the bottom of some room. At first everything is dark but as soon as it connects to a sort of bridge section in front of us, everything turns on, giving off a bright green light around us. A panel begins to rise out of the center of the section of the room in front. I hear some kind of sound under us. Stepping over to the edge, I see a robonoid has appeared under the platform we are on. I train my sights on the little guy as it crawls up on the bridge and over to the elevated control panel. Curiously, it crawls up and places itself on the control panel like a hand. "What?" I question but before I can get an answer, a transparent monitor appears above the room before turning to static. "Crap. Hide!" I loudly whisper to my friends. Static screen means something is trying to be shown on it and with how Homeworld seems to be, I don't think its going to be a tutorial on how to use the Kindergarten. I grab Steven and Amethyst before jumping off the platform and out of sight. Garnet and Pearl jump down as well just as the static disappears.
"Hmm…" I hear someone hum nearby. Looking to the others, I signal for them to stay down and quiet while I check it out. "Established Gem Projection Link with control room."
"Peridot?" I whisper to myself as I climb out up the small rocks as quiet as I can. 'What's she doing back here?' I think as I poke my head up. She doesn't notice me as she has her back to us.
"Plug Robonoid has successfully landed on Planet Earth and entered Prime Kindergarten Control Room in Facet Five." She says, most likely to one of her log dates. 'Plug robonoid? Must be what the giant one is called.' "Will proceed to perform status check of Kindergarten."
I hear the others whisper about something behind me but its nothing directed to me so I keep my attention focused entirely on Peridot. From what I can tell of what she said, what she's doing, it leads me to believe that maybe she's planning to reactivate this place. 'What would that accomplish? Looking to make an advance force for them to come back?' You know, that would actually be pretty smart. In any war scenario, if you could somehow make troops behind your enemies lines, that would split them up on two fronts. No matter how big an army is and by splitting its attention, you could slip your forces in undetected through the cracks and cause hit and run tactics. Problem is, they wouldn't need to do hit and run tactics. All they would have to do is send a few dozen gem soldiers and machines against us and their overwhelming numbers would probably destroy us. 'I should probably come up with some type of defensive/offensive system for me to use against Homeworld if they decide to full on attack.'
"Steven!"
"Huh?" I say confused at the loud whispering voices of my friends from behind. I look at them but their looking at me with fear etched onto their faces.
"Now accounting for all operational Injectors. Checking for aberrations in perimeter."
I turn my attention back to Peridot and to my horror, and it explains why the others are freaked, is that Steven standing out in the open behind Peridot's screen. Two giant floating green robotic hands come out of glowing circles in the ground before they activate more control panels and these cylinders eject from the ceiling. "Geez, Steven." I mutter to myself at the child's carelessness. I sling my rifle on my back before quietly climbing onto the green floor and crouching towards him. 'Alright, just grab him and get back before Peridot notices.'
"Ugh, this Gem Tech is simply archaic." Peridot comments on the gem tech here, focused entirely on her work.
'Almost there… almost there…' I think as I stretch my hands out to grab him.
"I don't know, I think it looks pretty cool." My entire body clenches hard at Steven's voice. The same happens to Peridot somewhat as she stops her self-talking, cancels the panels she has open and turns around, staring directly at us. "Hi! I'm Steven."
"…" I'm caught like a deer in some headlights. Very slowly, pull back from Steven before moving into a standing position. 'This is a first contact situation… do not piss her off.'
"There appears to be an infestation of 'Stevens' in the Kindergarten." Peridot says. From I can tell, I guess she doesn't see humans on a daily basis.
"Daw, I'm not so bad once you get to know me!" Steven says with a smile. I however remain firmly standing, acting as dignified as I can given the situation.
"And how many more Stevens are present in this area? Just the two of you, I hope." She mutters the last part to herself but its loud enough for us to hear.
"Two of us? Oh hey Marcus!" Steven finally notices me standing behind him and joyfully calls out my name, making me flinch a little.
"Marcus?" She says my name in a confused tone.
I let out a sigh before breathing in deeply. 'Well, I had to talk at some point.' Clearing my throat, I speak. "Uhhh, hi. I apologize if we… intruded on your work. My name is Marcus, and my friend here is named Steven, as you no doubt already know." I calmly explain to her as I move side-by-side to Steven, placing my hands behind my back. "And to answer your earlier question, no there is no one else here." I say, lying about the gems hiding nearby, obviously.
"Nee-ah, that's a relief. So tell me, have Stevens and Marcus's replaced humans as the dominant species on Earth?" She questions us, much to my confusion. 'Wait, does she thing we're separate species? Why would she… Oh right. Gems are called by their crystalline made up name. She is a gem, but called a specific subspecies gem, AKA a Peridot.'
"Oh no," Steven begins to say. "There's lots of humans, there's my dad, Connie, Lars and Sadie, the mailman, Onion... I think... lots of people." He counts off all the people her mentions on his fingers.
"Hmm…"
"What he means, is that the both of us ARE human, but we are called Steven and Marcus as a means to differentiate us from the many other humans that inhabit the planet. To avoid confusion." I quickly add the last part.
"A logical approach."
"Thank you." I nod at her words. It's not like I want to suck up to her but if she has access to troops, like more powerful versions of these robonoids, I don't want her to suddenly start dropping them anywhere on the planet. I don't want NASA getting warning signs on their radar at a dozen unknown objects falling from space. Nor do I want to go hunting like I did before I met the gems.
"Now we get to ask a question, what are you doing?" Steven cuts into our conversation. Hopefully his harmless question won't raise her ire.
"Hm, just picking up where we left off." She answers as she turns her screen around, going back to fiddling with the controls of the place. Soon one of her robotic construct hands floats above us and forms a fist. 'It raised her ire.'
"Whoa!"I push the kid away from me and brace myself.
*Slam*
"Grrrrrr!" I growl out as the thing slams on top of me. I move onto one knee as I'm nearly crushed by the thing but I remain okay.
"What are you doing?!" Steven quickly asks her in surprise.
"Dealing with some pests. Just submit and it'll all be over soon." She casually says without looking back.
"My ass…!" I bring myself lower to the ground, "I'll subMIT!" I push the hand off of me. When it comes back down, I bring my fist into an uppercut and punch it hard, cracking the outer layer of the construct. "Yeah, I am not going down just yet."
"Such a nuisance." She says and waves one of her hands in front of her.
"Alright," I bring myself up and get ready to shoot. "Ignore this you— Ah!" Before I can fire, the second hand wraps itself around me and lifts me up, making me drop my Barrett at the same time.
"Now, if you don't mind. I need to get back to work and I could do without the distractions."
"Distract this!"
*Shink!*
Pearl lunges out and throws her spear at the hand wrapped around me. The spear lodges into the joints of the fingers, making them open up and let me. "A gem!" Peridot turns her monitor back finally and says in surprise at Pearl's presence. I drop to the ground and roll forward, picking up my rifle at the same time before flipping the safety off. Steven and I move back just as all three of our gem friend's jump into view. "Ah! More? But the Red Eye didn't report the presence of any Gems on this planet!" Peridot informs us in a surprised tone. 'Red Eye?... That was one of the things that alerted me to the gems in the first place.' I recall the notification I got before I shipped off to Beach City.
"That's because we destroyed it." Pearl informs her as she materializes her spear back into her hands.
"You what? But the records say that Gems were wiped out on earth... wait a minute…" She says after a moments contemplation. "You're the ones that have been destroying my Plug Robonoids... are you the reason the Homeworld Warp is down again? Is THIS your bizarre icon?" She almost yells as she brings up the image of the 'Crying Breakfast Friends sticker' she took from the Galaxy Warp. "Is this your strange tool?" Next she brings up my Colt Anaconda.
"Hey!" I yell, catching her attention. "That's my gun."
"Your gun?" She sneers the word.
"Yes. My gun. A projectile based weapon that generates an immense amount of force and damage in a tiny package." I explain.
She looks bewildered at the object she has after my explanation. "HOW?"
"Let me show you." With that said, I bring my rifle up and aim at one of the tubes. Pearl takes the initiative and covers Steven's ears just as I pull the trigger.
*BANG!*
Due to the close and compactness of the room we are in, the sound of the round being fired reverberates all over the place, making everyone's ears, except Steven's ring loudly because of it but they quickly recover. One of the tubes breaks into a shower of glass, making Peridot turn her screen to the destroyed power tube before looking back at us.
"Uhrooh! Why do you keep destroying my THINGS?!" She yells and growls out angrily.
"Because we are the Crystal Gems!" Pearl announces who we are with determination. "We're still alive, and we're still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!"
"The Crystal Gems?" Peridot asks in confusion, almost like she never heard of the term.
"Brush up on your history sweetie." I say with a smirk, making her blush. "I'm sure somewhere in your archives will they tell you of the 'infamous' Crystal Gems. Or should I say traitors to you?" I say the last part with a smirk. The others jump up and start attacking Peridot's hand constructs. I don't bother shooting because I don't want to hit any of my friends, and it looks like they don't need any help.
"Stop! How dare you? I'm doing this one way or another. You're just... making it... really... difficult!" Peridot tries to stop them from attacking but their too strong. Soon, she's left with one hand.
"Amethyst, now!" Garnet orders her teammate.
"Destroy!" Amethyst yells as she uses her whip to grab the hand and throw it at the power source, breaking it.
"I'm reporting this!" Peridot yells to us just before the screen she's on shuts off. Then the rest of the room goes dark as well, all the power shutting down.
"Is it over?" Amethyst asks.
"Yeah, it is…" I answer, then I sling my rifle on my back. "For now."
The Gems however don't may too much attention to me as they walk over and stare at Steven, AKA the person who started this whole thing. "Okay... I, I might have gone a little too far this time." He says with an embarrassed head scratch. 'Oh boy… he's gonna get it.' I think as I walk over to the platform that was once the Plug Robonoid and pull out my phone.
"Well, Steven you weren't completely wrong. We learned something new because of your decisions." Garnet tells him.
"Alright!" He cheers triumphantly.
"But yeah, this was a pretty bad idea." And she promptly crushes his spirit.
"Aw man…" He says sadly.
"Marcus, what are you doing?" Pearl asks me, prompting everyone to shift their attention to me.
"Just making sure…" I begin to say as I check the wifi connections in the area… and I'm right. "I am right. As expected, Peridot cut her connection to the Plug Robonoid here." I turn off my phone and turn to them with a smile. "And you know what that means?"
"New toys for you to play with?" Amethyst asks with arms crossed.
"Correct." I walk past them and spread my arms out to the control panel and broken power core in front of me. "So MANY new toys for me to play with." I say with much enthusiasm. This place was untouched by me and the others and with the terminal here, I may be able to get some info as to what Peridot was exactly doing. Not to mention… I'm really liking these power cords all over the place, plus the power core pieces in front of me look salvageable enough for me to make use of. I was thinking for power for my home I would use and heavily upgrade some generators, but gem power core sounds better.
"You enjoy this too much?" I hear Garnet say but right now my mind is sort of in its own world at this point.
"Yeah… a little bit."
Well, he's got new access to gem tech for him to use. A new type of robonoid to make use of and much more for him to work on.
And Coldblue… I'm sorry to hear that life is being troubling for you. I and I'm sure others in the reviews will no doubt admit that you have been the most consistent with reviews for my story and I thank you for that. I hope things get better for both you and everyone else reading this entry.
Thank you all for your continued support, Happy Holidays and have fun reading.
