Safe to say, things went back to normal after the restaurant wars fiasco. Mr. Fryman and Kofi made good on their promises and stopped fighting and Steven shut down his restaurant. The kids, Steven and I were relieved to see things go back to normal after the hell the fathers did to not only their kids for the overwork they did, and to the citizens of Beach City for the… odd food items they've practically been cramming down everyone's throats.
Seriously, just hearing those names makes me uneasy at the sheer unhealthiness that they are. I've never really been a massive fanatic when it comes to counting calories, watching my weight and stuff like that. All the moving around, fighting, training and practice I've done all my life has pretty much kept me somewhat in a balanced health state. Plus I have to eat a lot, and I mean a lot more than a human does in order to compensate for my gem side and the powers I can use.
Okay, getting a little off track. Over a week has passed since we got the guys to put aside their differences when I said their kids were relieved things went back to normal, I meant for everyone. Turns out, the small conversation I had with Ronaldo's girlfriend worked because when Steven and I went to get some proper fries this time, we found the guy in high spirits. Turns out, his girlfriend came back and wanted a proper explanation as to how things went as they did. With vouchers from Steven and I, plus his little brother, and the fact that the Frymans and Pizza's are no longer fighting and inadvertently giving people food comas, or brands in the Pizza's case, I think she took him back. I didn't get the specifics but he was pretty happy so good on him.
Another thing that happened though was… well, turns out dreams and nightmares can sometimes get pretty real.
"Huh, now this is weird." I comment as I stare around at the weird new landscape. All of it seems really… cheesy. And not in a saying sort of way for a movie or whatever, I mean literal cheese, and pizza. I don't know. It's odd. "I will say, this is the first though."
"Marcus!" A couple of voices loudly call my name, making me turn around to see Steven and Kiki running up to me.
"Oh hey you two. Huh, I wasn't expecting either of you in this… weird dream place." I comment as I look around. When I look back at the both of them, they seem to have been staring at each other for a second before looking at me with uneasy expressions. "What?"
"Uhhhh, this isn't… your dream, Marcus." Steven slowly and uneasily tells me.
"Its… mine." And Kiki finishes.
"…" He looks at the two of them for a good long few seconds before slowly staring at Steven. "Did you seriously bring me into your mind again?" He deadpan asks. Steven meanwhile gives some nervous chuckles and embarrassingly rubs the back of his head. Seeing the obvious answer from Steven's nervousness, he puts a hand to his face and shakes his head. After he lets out a sigh, he looks back at them. "Alright, what's it going to be this time?"
Before they can properly begin to explain everything, movement and noises begin to be seen and heard all around them. The cheese all around them begins to take form and before they know it, the large cheese monster that's been tormenting Kiki and giving Steven a tough time makes its appearance to them all. "My nightmares have been messing me up a lot."
"So I'm here to help… well, we're here to help." Steven adds after Kiki quickly explains.
"Alright then, guess that's what we got to do." I say and pull out my swords.
"Aw come one Marcus! Add a little excitement to your arsenal!"
"Steven what do you… mean?" I begin to ask until I look over at him and notice he and Kiki pull out pizza cutters out of nowhere. "Huh, that's what you mean. Okay then." I let my swords disappear and go back to back to back with them as the cheese around us begins to bubble.
"You ready you guys?" Kiki asks.
I nod before with a flourish of my hands, two chakram blades with handles in the middle of them appear in my hands. "Ready as I can be."
"Time to cut the cheese. Shing!" Steven actually says the noise as he readies his weapon. "Sorry for using the same pun twice."
"That's not a pun, but I forgive you!" Kiki says and we have no more to say as what happens next is our enemy appears. Several arms made up of melted cheese suddenly appear from the pool around us and creep in to grab us. They don't get the chance as we begin cutting them mercilessly. Kiki and Steven do well with simple single swipes with their makeshift weapons while I make quick work with the hands coming for me, slicing them up with precise and quick slices, making the cut pieces fall back into the pool.
"Nice." I comment with a grin at how quickly I took them down. The grin doesn't stay though as my own friends let out murmurs of surprise as the arms we cut regenerate and more seem to appear. "Okay, maybe cauterizing them might work." I mutter to myself before with as strong as some throws as I can muster, I throw my two chakrams as hard as I can, chopping down a few of the arms before reaching behind me. With a flourish, a purple lightsaber ignites in my right hand and I hold it at the ready in front of me with my left hand holding a blue energy sword. The arms reform and as one, five arms thrust themselves towards me to overwhelm me. It's a simple matter of slicing three of them in one swipe with my lightsaber and my energy sword taking out the last two. A noticeable burn appears where they were cut and I see the cheese doesn't seem to be regenerating as fast. "Nice!" I loudly mutter myself at the result. Still, it doesn't last long as the stumps force themselves under the pool of cheese before over a dozen arms pop out all around us. "Oh, crap." I mutter uneasily.
"Huh?" Steven too is uneasy at the slowly deteriorating situation we are in.
"We can't keep fighting off the cheese. It just won't stop!" Kiki notes. Seems that just as we take down some, more just keep on coming.
"You're right! We got to find out where all this cheese is coming from!" Steven says.
"I'm open to ideas.. Watch out!" I loudly warn my friends as the arms decide to not wait anymore and attack us. Steven, Kiki and I get engulfed by the number of cheese hands, but they don't stop us as we burst out just in time with Steven having jets on his feet and I am now wearing a mech battle suit equipped with two gattling guns, boosters on its feets and back and blades under the wrists, allowing me to fly high and follow Steven who is carrying Kiki. "Well, that was a wash." I mutter bitterly at how we were overwhelmed so quickly.
"Look!" Steven calls out and points ahead of us as he lets out a gasp.
"Huh?"
"What's that?" Kiki and I say in confusion as a large mass of cheese begins to rise in front of us.
"Whoa!" Steven loudly explains as we watch the mass take shape and form into one of our heads.
"It's me?" Kiki says, much to her confusion. "Now, that is nasty." And then disgust.
"And a little creepy, if you don't mind me saying." I also add as we come closer and closer to the hole in its head. Looking back, I spot a couple cheese arms fly straight towards us while we were focused on the head. Turning myself around completely, I bring both my arms up and spray a ton of bullets at the arms, tearing them apart and making the pieces fall to the pools of cheese below. "And I don't think we have choice! Inside now!" I loudly tell them. They nod and we quickly push ourselves inside. When we enter inside, the majority of the inside is hardened crust while a large river of cheese comes out from under us. As we go over it though, I can't help but notice something in the cheese. "Wha…?" I mutter confused as I focus on it. Suddenly, something flies out of the cheese and I'm pretty sure I hear it make dolphin noises. "What the- AARH!" Before I can question it any further, something else suddenly slams itself right into my helmets faceplate, sinking razor sharp teeth right through the glass.
"Marcus!" I hear my friends call out but I'm too busy trying to tear this thing off my face. More teeth's and weight is added to me as I feel more of whatever latch onto various pieces of my armor. "Aah! Anchovies! And pepperanhas!" I vaguely hear Steven name whatever it is he sees but I'm very focused on the bastards on me.
Especially when I feel one of them latch onto one of my boosters. I let out a yelp as I go into a spin, away from the others as I hear them call out to me. "C'mon you stupid- Get… OFFFFF!" I yell and finally right the thing off me, along with a chunk of my helmet. Now that I can see again, I barely have time to bring my arms up as I find myself head straight for the ground.
It was not a soft landing whatsoever. "Ahhhh." I hiss as I peel myself off the ground and stand up. Immediately I go ahead and pull off the helmet and throw it away, finding that the lack of visor makes it useless to me right now. Looking down at the rest of me, I find the rest of the armor isn't any better either. "Great." I grumble as I watch the pepperanhas nibble at what they can.
*SHING*
With a few swipes of my blades, the offending cheese fish fall away from me into pieces, along with what's left of my armor. "Well that sucks." I mutter to myself as I tear the remainder and now useless pieces of armor and the weapons, since the gun barrels are torn apart along with the blades falling off. Now free, I take a look around and find that I am completely alone. "Steven! Kiki!" I call out to my two partners in hopes of getting something back.
A loud groaning noise that echoes off the walls was not what I was expecting to receive. With no where else to go, I decide to follow the sound and hope the others are at least in its general direction too.
As I begin to make my way through the winding tunnels, I'm stopped by several large blobs of cheese similar to my height. I don't know exactly what they are or for but I have an idea when they start to shamble towards, arms stretched towards, allowing small blobs of cheese to fall to the ground as they make their way to me slowly. I grit my teeth and tighten my fists. "Out of my way!" I shout and two weapons form in my hands. In my right, I hold onto a thin silver blocky blaster pistol and aim it forward while my left holds a kukri knife in the reverse grip, steadying my aim as I get ready to fight.
I blaster the first one in the face a few times until I collapses and move around it as I begin placing shot after shot into the remaining blobs. The ones that don't go down quickly enough I slice to smaller blobs with the kukri. Soon enough, I make it to the end of the hallway that leads to where the groaning was coming from with only two more blobs left. I pepper the furtherest one away with as many shots as I can while moving towards them before taking the Kukri and slicing the front of the closest a few times, slicing its arms off, then ending it by stabbing the knife right into its back and leaving it there. I drop the blaster after I put one more shot for good measure into the last one and walk into the massive cavern. I can't stay staring long as I spot Kiki and Steven by a pool of cheese with some of the cheese having latched onto Kiki. What makes matters worse is that there are more large blobs of cheese coming at them on land from behind and they are bunching up on them bad. "Steven! Kiki! RAAAH!" With a loud war cry, a blue aura forms around me as my biotics flare up. I activate the biotic charge and in a streak light I slam into the nearest blob closest to the two of them. With another loud cry, I jump into the air right where I stopped from the charge and execute a nova slam into the ground, knocking the enemy away and destroying the forms of a few of them. "Guys!"
"Marcus! Your okay!" Steven loudly and happily points out.
"Yeah!" I go to reply until a couple of the blobs begins to get back up near me. With a wide sweeping slash, I cut one blob in half using an Omni-blade and stab the second one straight on. "I am. Sorry, had to take a detour." I finish saying before looking at Kiki and seeing her struggle with the cheese on her. "Hold on Kiki. I got this." I tell her as large two-handed sword forms in my hands and I begin to bring it over my head.
"Wait! Don't!"
"Huh?! Why?" I ask incredibly confused as she yells for me to stop. When I do though, I notice the cheese that's holding her is actually shaped as someone. "Jenny?" Her sister, to be more specific.
"Marcus we… please just—" Kiki begins to say but more bubbling noises make themselves known behind us, interrupting her as we look to see dozens of more pools of cheese begin to form around us, and begin to take shape into the very same person that's holding Kiki. "Crud." She mutters before looking frantically at me. "Marcus, listen. Just trust us. Hold them off and we got this." She quickly tells me. I look at her unsure of her plan but Steven pleads with his eyes alone for me to let them do whatever it is they are going to do.
"Ahhhh Fine! You better be right about this." I quickly tell them and begin walking away
"Heeeeeey Marcus!"
"…" Okay, massive ten on the creepy meter, all the Jenny cheese clones greet me, as one, in a sort of freaky slightly seductive tone. "Kiiikiiii, what has your sister been telling you about me?!" I ask uncomfortably back to her.
"Nothing now focus!"
"Of course she doesn't." I mutter in annoyance at the answer. Despite the freakiness, I hold the handle of my sword tightly with both hands and get ready to fight. Seeing my readiness to fight, they drop the act and begin moving forward, slow like zombies, but do they have numbers on their side. "Hrah!" I yell and with mighty heave, I bring my sword in front of me horizontally, slicing a few of them completely in half. They don't scream out or anything like that, just simply let out low uninterested moans as they melt into pools of cheese again.
That's how it goes for a few swings, completely swinging left and right as they try to get close to me but only end up getting cut down to size, literally. However I'm not able to do this too often though as I hear worried gasps coming from my friends. As I turn to look at Kiki and Steven, my eyes widen when I see that several of the Jenny clones are starting to overwhelm them and Steven's having trouble keeping them back while Kiki is trying to talk to the first clone. "Guys!" I shout in worry. With big heave, I throw my sword as hard as I can to the largest but closet group to me and take some of them down. With my hands free, I begin to move my arms around me and as I do, something begins to form in my hands as I move. Something big, powerful…
*Shink*
And sharp. The devastating and destructive weapon belonging to the red reaper herself, Crescent rose is in my possession with the blade stuck in the ground and the sights of the customizable high-impact sniper rifle trained right on the enemies closing in on my friends. With a smile, I press the trigger and feel exhilarated when the high caliber bullet exits the gun and flies through the air in an instant, completely blowing apart a few of the Jenny clones in a row. "Steven! Kiki! Get down!" I warn them and cycle in a new round. Steven immediately shuts off his jets and falls to the ground while Kiki crouches as best she can while being held down but its enough. I send shot after shot straight at the enemy coming up on my friends, completely destroying and blowing apart the cheese clones with little effort, sometimes two or three at a part for either being too close or in a row. Either way, it takes several rounds but the ones posing an immediate threat to them are taken care of.
Now for mine. Just as one of the clones is about to grab me, I limbo under the limb and the scythe as well, grabbing it as begin to come up before spinning it around and slicing it to bits. Before the others can swarm me, I go into a whirlwind of chopping, slicing and decapitating anything that comes close to me. I slice one clone diagonally from bottom left to top right before bringing it down and cutting down two more. When I see a few them coming at me in a line, I twirl the scythe around until I am now aiming right at them. One round later, they splatter to the ground without issue.
As I swing the weapon around and get ready to bring down on the next one when all of a sudden, all the Jenny cheese clones let out loud long groans as they slump over. As they groan, the slowly right themselves up until they are fully standing up. "Okay, fine." They say in bored tones before as one, every single clone around us suddenly collapses into their own pools of cheese before disappearing entirely. Not only that, but the entire cavernous landscape around us begins to disappear and crumble as well. I begin to freak out at first but when the new environment we find ourselves in turns out to be but the night on a beach with columns of pizzas in the distance with no outward signs of danger, I relax.
"Huh… okay then." I mumble at seeing no more hostiles or cheese places around us. A quick look around and I see my friends happy with relieved looks on their faces. Whatever they did, it worked. I stab Crescent Rose into the ground and leave her there before I walk over to them.
Apparently what Steven had told me was that he had been spending days upon days in trying to help Kiki with her nightmares. Of course, this meant this messed up his sleeping for over a week, which is why I had to carry him back to his bed when he fell asleep talking to Jenny. I have to admit, Kiki looked pretty happy finally being able to run on her own time and I admire that. While Jenny's logic of running and taking pizzas at the same time may seem logical, in reality theirs a bit of a different feeling when it comes to running just to run, and running to do a job.
All in all, it was a freaky small adventure but a interesting change of pace to go along with it as well.
Now though, it seems something else is going on that I don't really feel like missing, nor would I want to in a million years.
"I'm starting to guess the surprise, Steven."
"I told you to close your eyes!"
"Hahaha. Sorry." Despite having her wings on her eyes, Lapis closes her eyes anyway. As it turns out, Steven decided to have a little surprise for Lapis as way to have fun and kind of make her feel better from what she's had to deal with before. After hearing the idea, I was more or less on board with it and am now jogging alongside the two of them as we race to the end of the dock.
"Okay, wait here." He tells her and goes over to his dad.
"Marcus?" Lapis suddenly starts moving her right hand up to grab me.
"Ah. Oh. Plah! I'm here Lapis." I quickly tell her after her search results in her running her hand all over my face. I quickly push the limb and hold it there.
"Oh good. You were quiet for awhile there." She says, not opening her eyes.
"Yeah well, haven't really had much to say. This surprise is all Steven's idea."
"Really?"
"Yep." After a few more seconds, I see the signal they give me. "Okay, you can open your eyes now… wings down too."
"Surprise!" Once she can see again, Steven and Greg yell out the word together. Before us is a big yacht that Greg rented out for the four of us to use and have fun on.
"Hm." Lapis hums at the surprise before we begin to walk closer.
"We bought a boat!" Steven loudly proclaims.
"Uh, correction. We rented a boat." Greg clarifies. "I may be rich, but buying a boat would be going a bit overboard."
"Ayyy."
"Ayyyyy."
"Ayyyyyyyy!"
Lapis and I look at each other confused at the constants Ayy's the father son duo say to each other. Well, her confused, me just a bit uncomfortable at the poor joke.
"Just a joke I picked up from some sailors. They have a surprisingly clean sense of humor." Greg explains how he learned it.
"Steven, who is this?" Lapis asks him, seeing as how they are the closest in terms of knowing each other.
"Ohhh riiiiight. You two never officially met before." I mutter out loud. 'Well, they did meet before but that was mostly a fight and he was hiding most of the time.'
"Uh, Greg Universe." Greg introduces himself as he takes a few steps closer and offers a handshake to her. "You broke my leg trying to use the ocean to fly back to your homeworld?" He clarifies where they somewhat met before.
"Lapis Lazuli. Nice to meet you." She answers back.
"…" The moment gets really awkward when Lapis doesn't reciprocate the handshake and Greg is left hanging. "Great! Well, I'll get the boat started." Greg immediately wanders off, not wanting the moment to last too long and heads onto the ship.
"Well, this'll be interesting." I think out loud.
"So what do you think?" Steven asks Lapis on the nature of the surprise.
"It's nice… but I don't know." She replies in an uncertain tone, even as she turns away from us.
"Look, Lapis, I know you spent a really long time fused with Jasper at the bottom of the ocean, but you're not Malachite anymore. And water is a part of who you are. You can't let one bad experience take that away from you." Steven does what he can
"It was more than one." She uncomfortably mentions.
"A long one… mostly." I add as well. 'Their was also the fact that she kind of took the ocean that one time. That wasn't a good experience I'm guessing.'
"Just give it a chance. I promise we'll make this the most fun you've ever had."
"I… I don't… deserve this." Much to our surprise, she hesitantly denies the surprise Steven got her, in which I agree with his choice.
"Of course you do!" Steven loudly declares to her that she does deserve it.
I decide to add a bit more context. "Lapis, remember when I had… transformed when the Ruby's came by?" I ask her. She flinches a little at the memory, which hurts, but she nods. "The others tried to knock some sense into me but failed. It was you Lapis that brought me back. It was you… that saved me." I tell her in the most sincere and grateful voice as I can muster. The memory of what I did, and almost did to everyone, still haunts me, but the fact that the blue gem in front of me was the one that saved me from doing so much worse is something that I am truly grateful for. Steven and the others hellped but for right now, this is for her. "You helped us, helped me, so please… can you let us help you, this time?" I ask of her. I can tell that she's still been a little… distant when it comes to the ocean and most large bodies of water in general. Water is her main power and she can do so much with it. She has to overcome it or else she'll forever be limited.
Lapis herself looks stunned at the words and doesn't know what to say. "We even named her Li'l Lappy." Steven adds soon after, gesturing to the boat.
As we look, we see Greg giving a thumbs up to the name on the edge of the boat. It would be better if the paper banner they got hadn't peeled off and showed the boats real name, 'S.S. MISERY.'
I give a deadpanned slumped look at the original name.
But this does get a reaction out of Lapis as she snorts and laughs good heartedly. "Okay. I'll give it a chance. But, just one." Without telling us, Lapis proceeds to grab me by the shoulders and start to pull me up with her wings. I in turn grab Steven as well, making him laugh as she flies us onto the boat with ease.
Once we get on, Greg speaks to us using the ships speakers. "You three ready to set sail?" Greg asks us from the cabin.
"Roger that." I answer, giving a salute in the process.
"Aye, aye, Captain!"
"Yes." Steven and Lapis also voice their readiness.
With the massive honk of the boats horn, Greg kicks us into gear. "Full speed ahe- Woah!" We would be going full speed if the ship wasn't suddenly jerked in place, along the sounds of woods tear as well. A quick look to the back shows that our Captain forgot to cast off with the cord that kept us docked, taking a large log of dock wood with us. "Ah, geez, you think anyone will notice?"
"Shhhhhh, just keep driving and no one will know." I tell him, before heading to the back of the boat and untying the now piece of driftwood.
We spend the next several minutes to half an hour boating away from Beach City to get deep into the ocean… and to get away from the broken dock.
"Wow, I think I did a number on that dock." Greg comments as he continues to drive. He then slows the boats speed before turning to the rest of us. "Maybe somebody else should take a shot at being captain. What do you say, Captain Lazuli?" He offers to Lapis as he takes off his hat to her.
"I shouldn't." She answers somewhat uncomfortably.
"Go for it, Lapis." Steven encourages her to do.
"It's not that bad." I encourage as well while at the same time trying to alleviate any discomfort she might have with being in charge of something.
"Don't put me in charge!" That surprises us a bit at the sudden outburst she says, which obviously means I failed in trying to help. "Oh, sorry. I mean, y-you shouldn't trust me with the boat." She clarifies at a more sedate tone.
We decide not to press the issue.
"Uh, that's okay." Steven drops it. "Don't worry about it. We can all be first mates, so there's no pressure. Only fun stuff today!" He tells her.
"He's right. Just fun, relaxing, peaceful time for us here." I say. This plan may have been all Steven's but I can definitely get behind not doing anything strenuous during this trip. She visibly relaxes at our words and smiles at us.
"Lapis, you can still wear the hat, if you want." Greg offers to her still.
"Thanks, but I'm not putting that on my body." She straight up tells him with a straight face. 'Oh right. Gems kind of make their own clothes.'
Nevertheless, Greg puts the hat back on. "Let's set a course for f-u-u-un!" He loudly proclaims as he points forward.
What transpires next is mix of different activities we take part in in hopes of lifting Lapis's spirts and just overall being fun to do. We decide to have some fizzy soda drinks in champagne glasses as a form of fun and feeling classy at the same time. Of course, Gems don't need to drink or eat food so while the rest of us drink, Lapis manipulates it a little with her powers. We also try to do a little suntanning but that doesn't work as Lapis is still weary of the of the open ocean. But she's as energetic and happy as they come when she pulls the ships horn repeatedly. Me, Lapis and Steven enjoyed it, although Greg had to cover his ears through most of it but it was nice seeing her enjoy herself. Afterward, we decide to talk to Greg, who bailed a little while after we used the horn to go fishing.
"Dad! Dad!"
"Hey, you three. Finally get enough of that horn?" He greets and ask us as we walk up to him while he's fiddling with his fishing pole. Pretty sure he rented that pole too.
"Whaaat?!" Unfortunately we may have had a bit too much fun with the horn as Steven loudly asks. I can't help but chuckle along with Greg as I pat the kids head. I have no such problem myself. You kind of get used to it when you've shot so many guns and heard so many explosions too.
"What are you doing?" Lapis asks him.
"Catching fish." He answers before throwing his hook into the water.
"Oh, I can help!" She happily says. Lapis then takes a few steps back, takes in a deep breath and concentrates. Our curiosity is peaked as to what she's doing but the second I feel a small rumbling sensation do I know exactly what she's doing. Back in the water that Greg was fishing in, a massive ball of water begins to lift out of the water and levitates in the air in front of us. The massive ball of water contains a ton of different fishes and aquatic life in its form.
"What the?!" Greg gasps out as he watched the whole spectacle.
"Woah."
"Damn Lapis… I never get tired of seeing your hydrokinesis." Steven and I mutter in amazement at her power.
"That's a pretty uh… fancy way of catching fish." Greg comments uncomfortably.
"That's 'cause Lapis is super strong!" Steven compliments her.
"Very… strong." I mutter while in awe at the mass of water. I still can't get over how powerful she is and how easily she's able to do this.
"Well, I, Uh, appreciate the gesture, but I-I think it would be safer to stick to the old-fashioned way of doing it." Greg is still uncomfortable with the whole thing.
"Oh, uh… sure." Lapis replies in a dejected and saddened tone and she lets her arms fall. Not a second later does the mass of water fall back into the ocean. This in turn causes a large ripple in the water that shakes the boat and makes it creak around us.
"Woah!" Both the father and son grunt out as they try to keep their balance amidst the rocking. I let out a grunt as I try to keep balance on my feet alone and eventually everything eases up for us.
Once the rocking settles, I lean in close to her, "Don't feel bad. He's a human. He's not used to anything Gem related." I see a small smile appear on her lips at my words, so I'm glad I was able to do something.
"Wow, Lapis! That was ama…"
*Pat*
"…zing…" Steven begins to loudly say until Lapis pats his head, calming him down and possibly not making a big deal of this.
"So, how do you fish the old-fashioned way?" Lapis asks him once Steven stops.
"Oh, it's pretty simple. You start with a rod, and you put a hook on the end of your line. And then, when you feel a nibble, you reel it in. And there it is. You've caught yourself a fish to eat!" Greg demonstrates as he explains to her.
"But why would a fish ever bite a hook?" She asks.
"You got to bait it. Put something on it you know it wants, like a worm or a $20 bill." I look at him weirdly at that last one before he turns back to the water. "Here, I'll show you." With a big swing of the fishing pole, he sends the hook flying in to the water. "Fishing." He declares, and we wait.
And wait… and wait… and wait. Time passes by in a very long and very slow pace as Greg continues to fish. Steven and Lapis get impatient, as do I. Stevens is quite obvious in his lack of patience when he collapses on the ground while Lapis and I are slumped over the railing. Her head is even laying against my arm and in any other situation I would probably blush.
Bu right now I feel like dying.
"When does the fish part happen?" Lapis asks, still slumped against me.
"Well, sometimes it isn't about the fish you keep, but the company you catch." He decides to get philosophical, I think. I don't know. I almost feel like shutting down like I do when my regeneration hits. "Woah! I got a bite!"
This new development perks Steven right up as he jumps up and gasps. The rest of us are interested in this as well and no longer do I feel like the dead.
"Lapis, here! Give it a try!" In an effort to give her something to do and some inclusion, he hands the fishing pole to her quickly. "Hold it just like that and reel it in slowly."
"Like this?" She begins to slowly reel it in.
"You got it. It looks like a big one!" Greg begins to say Everything looks to be going alright as she continues to reel it in, but suddenly her catch pulls with great force, making her grunt loudly.
"Lapis!" Both Steven and I suddenly call out her name as she's almost pulled off the boat and we go to her.
"Guys!" Greg follows.
They both grab hold onto Lapis and help her pull while I grab onto the pole just above her hands and aid her there. "Hold on!" I shout and to my amazement, even with all our help we are still having trouble holding on.
"You got it, Lapis! Reel it in!"
"It's… pulling… so hard!"
"What… the hell… is this thing?!" I manage to grunt out as we begin to pull with all our might. Seriously whatever the hell this thing is its able to go up against all of us in trying to pull us over. But we are able to keep steady and hold on. Lapis continues to slowly reel in her catch and barely, just barely, I think I begin to see something appear in the—
*SNAP*
"WHOA!" The force that everyone has been fighting against is gone all of a sudden. Meaning theirs nothing stopping us from pulling or holding us. Everyone goes flying backwards. I grunt with closed eyes as I slam into the wall of the boat and someone crashes into me from the front. Instinctively, I wrap my arms around them as we fall to the ground. Everyone is breathing heavily at the exertion and the sudden throw we were sent by into each other. After a few seconds of resting, I finally open my eyes and look down to see who I caught. "You okay?"
"…Yeah, I'm good." Lapis answers back, before letting out a small grunt and relaxing. "Thanks."
"No problem." I reply and let her go. "Guys? You good?" I ask the others. Steven gives me a thumbs up from laying on the ground while Greg groans as he stands up.
"Yeah, we're alright." He let out a depressed sigh as he holds up the broken fishing pole. "Looks like this pole rental turned into a pole purchase. But you did a great job tangling with that beast." He compliments Lapis as she gets up, who then lends me her hand to help me stand up. I give her a nod of thanks.
"Y-yeah. Don't worry about that one getting away." Steven says to keep her spirits up.
"Oh, thank you."
"Welp, that's my adventure quota for the day. I'll be at the controls. Holler if you need me." Greg takes his leave of us and goes up to the captains cabin. 'I think that's what its called.'
"Yes, sir! Lapis, what do you… Lapis?" Steven begins to say but it takes us a second to notice that she left. We don't have to look hard as we notice her sitting on a patio lounge chair near the middle.
Steven walks over to her while I can't help but stay staring into the water where whatever we almost caught disappeared. 'That… was no normal fish. Way too strong.'
I continue to stare into the water and look around to see if I can find any indication as to where that… thing is. Unfortunately, the water is completely bare and clear. I don't see any fish whatsoever or anything that points out as to what that was that was able to overpower us. After a few more seconds of continuous staring, I shake my head in defeat and decide to talk to the others.
"Ahh!" Or I would if something just didn't make the entire ship shake harshly. Steven falls to the ground while I brace myself on the wall of the ship and Lapis holds onto the patio chair. The shakes only lasts a few seconds before it subsides. "Ugh." Steven groans as he gets up. "What was that?"
"Did we hit a reef?" I question as well before more of the crashing and shaking happens.
"Ahh!" All three of us yell out as we almost fall yet again only this time, we are better prepared for it. Like before, it subsides soon after.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Steven replies to Lapis before looking to me. "Marcus?"
"All good here."
"What's going on?" She asks out loud.
"Steven! You got a moment?" Greg calls out for his son. Steven begins running to the back so he can find his dad, leaving Lapis and I alone. Instead of just sitting here, I go over to the side of the ship and begin looking down yet again.
"What's wrong?" Lapis asks as she comes up to me.
"Trying to see what it was that we just hit… or hit us." I reply while not taking my eyes off the water. "I first thought we hit a reef, but I don't see anything that looks like we hit anything. We're not even moving that much." I mutter as I begin to try to think of anything that might have happened to cause the shaking earlier. I'm not even seeing any fish. '…Nothing.'
Suddenly more rumbling happens again and I braces myself against the rail as does Lapis. Only this time, it feels like this is coming from inside the ship rather than from the outside. "Oh what now?" I mutter to myself at the continued shaking and rumbling that we've been hit with.
"Marcus! Can you come over here?!" Greg calls out. Looking to where he called me from, my eyes widen as I notice smoke coming from the back of the ship. I sprint towards them to find out what's going on. "This trip might be a little longer than we thought, little buddy." I hear Greg tell Steven just as I round the corner to them. The smoke billowing out is coming from the engine room and I have a bad feeling about this.
"What happened?" I ask.
"The engines busted. Your good with tech stuff and machines. Think you can take a look?" He asks me. Seeing as how he's not needed anymore, Steven walks past me over to Lapis while I take a look inside the door.
I back up as I get a face full of smoke and cough lightly while waving it away from me. "Oohh. Wow that's bad. Yeah, I think I might be able to do something. Keep an eye out for whatever it was that shook the ship and I'll see about jury rigging this thing."
"You got it." He gives me a thumbs up and goes over to the side of the boat. I take a deep breath and go back into the engine room.
A several minutes pass and the damage is not as bad as I thought. It runs out the motor was trying to spin so to say but apparently the propeller and rudder weren't exactly spinning or moving, which stalled the whole engine, even though it was desperately trying to go. Some gears primarily, along with some other moving parts, were blown and thrown off but luckily there were some spare parts here that I was able to use to replace the damaged pieces. Unfortunately, I had to make sure the engine is completely turned off or otherwise it'll completely break apart again.
"Ooohhh. Okay Greg. Engines fixed." I tell the guy as I walk with a bit of grease on my hands and face.
"That's awesome! I was really worried we'd be stuck here." He joyfully says but I'm not as relieved.
"Technically, we still are. When you were trying to make the ship go or move, did you notice anything odd?" I ask him. He frowns at the question at first but it barely takes him a second before its replaced with realization.
"Yeeeaaahh. I tried to turn the rudder before the engine blew up. You think that's the problem?" He asks.
"Most likely." I say before walking over to the edge. "Go back into the engine room and make sure everything looks and runs alright, as well as making sure the engine stays off. I'm going under to see what's directly going on."
"Alright, just please be careful Marcus. The weathers not looking so hot and I don't want you to accidentally get… hit by the propeller." He warns me but I simply wave him off with a smile.
"Relax man. I got this. Give me a few minutes and I'll find out the problem. See you in a bit." I bid him a short farewell and step off the edge. My whole body becomes submerged underwater and with my breath held, I turn around and look at the problem.
A big problem.
Already I can see how bad this is going to be. Somehow, a ton of seaweed and gunk has stuffed itself into propeller and completely stopped it from moving. I pull out my sword and get to work picking, pulling and cutting the stuff off so it can be used. As I'm clearing it up, I notice a couple things about it as I'm closer now. For one, the propellers have actually been dented and bent a little, which means something more than just soft seaweed hit this thing. The second, is that an old rope seems to have wrapped itself around the spinning blades first and had started to accumulate the oceans debris. It takes a bit more to pry that crap off but eventually its off and our means of moving ourselves is ready to go.
The rudder however is a slightly different story. More of that old rope had caught itself inside the rudder but that alone wasn't what was jamming the mechanism. No, what's messing it up is the piece of driftwood that that lodged itself right against it. Not the dock piece Greg accidentally tore off but an older rotted piece is what's jamming it. I quickly go over to the piece of wood and after bracing myself against the bottom of the boat with the piece in hand, it takes a little movement and wiggling but despite the slightly rudder in some places, I'm able to get both the rope and the wood out. As I let the pieces of debris float away to the bottom, I smile at the quick work and fix but something towards the front of the ship gets my attention. 'The hell?' Already I'm starting to feel the need to come up for air so I quickly swim my way towards the front of the ship. With a loud gasp of air as I surface, I take the moment to breathe while examining what go my attention. "When did we drop anchor?" I question.
"But it's not like that anymore. You don't have to be with Jasper."
"Huh?" I mutter softly to myself as I hear Steven, even over the storm that's approaching and the crashing waves from hear in the water while they are on the deck. As I do though, my blood unconsciously boils at the name he mentioned.
"That's not it. I… I miss her."
"What?!"
"Wha…" While Stevens answer is loud and confusing, mine barely a whisper even to myself, stunned, shocked eyes accompanying it.
"We were fused for so long."
"But… she's terrible!"
"I'm terrible!" My breath hitches at her words. "I did horrible things! I-I broke your dad's leg. I stole Earth's ocean! I betrayed Marcus and attacked him! Go on! Tell me I'm wrong!" She loudly demands and states in anger to Steven.
"Lapis…" I seriously consider climbing the chain right now. I want to get up there and tell her she is not terrible. She is not horrible and we forgive her for everything she's done. 'But if I go up now, then they'll see I've been eavesdropping here. Wouldn't that make things worse? Should I go from the back? What do I—'
*THUNK*
Jasper pulls her arm back, letting the now unconscious body of Marcus to slowly sink into the watery depts below. The massive and loud thunder strikes above and crashing waves muffled the sound of her slamming his face into the side of the ship… but she doesn't care about him right now.
Theirs someone else she wants.
Steven and Lapis look around frantically as the weather gets that much worse around them. However its when they look to the front when they see something emerge from over the side of the boat do they freeze up.
In all her ominous glory, Jasper pulls herself up onto the deck of the ship and stands at her full height, a mad look on her face as she eyes the one gem she's been looking for.
"Finally!" She proclaims happily with a demented smile on her face, thunder crashing behind her to make the situation even more unsteady for Lapis and Steven.
"Jasper!" They both loudly say her name in utter surprise at seeing her here of all places.
"I thought I'd never catch up to you!" Jasper says.
"You've been following us?" Lapis questions.
"I've been following you." The orange gem states in a low creepy tone to Lapis.
Lapis lets out a gasp as Jasper begins to move closer to them slowly. Lapis takes a step back in fear but Steven places himself in front of her.
"Stay back!" He states then summons his shield.
This makes Jasper stop for a second before she begins to laugh at the attempt of protection. "This dulled-down version of Rose Quartz works for you now? You're pointing that shield the wrong way. She's the one you should be afraid of." She says, motioning to the blue gem behind him.
"That's not true." Lapis denies it but seems just a hint unsure.
"You can't lie to me. I've seen what you're capable of. I thought I was a brute, but you… you're a monster." As Jasper speaks, she continues to wear that smile on her face and seems no less perturbed by the accusation of calling Lapis a monster.
"I…" Lapis begins to say but looks away, unable to finish what she was going to say.
"Lapis doesn't want anything to do with you!" Steven defiantly states, holding himself steady and ready to defend. "Marcus! Get over here!" He calls out to his brother as loud as he can, unaware of what happened under the boat.
"Heh, you mean that pathetic version of Jade? Don't you worry about him. He's taking a little nap." Both their eyes widen as Steven and Lapis freeze at the words Jasper says, wondering exactly she's implying by the person they care about… and why he isn't here or coming to them. "Besides, this is between… us!" In his moment stunned surprised, Steven is unable to properly brace himself with his shield as Jasper swipes at him with her arm, knocking him back and away from them as he goes flying away. He lands behind Jasper a little ways away and lays on the ground, groaning from the hit.
"Steven!" Lapis calls out to him at the hit he just took. Before she can try to help him, she grunts as Jasper grabs her arm and halts her movement. Before she can try to pull herself away, Jasper does something that truly confuses her: Jasper clasps both her hands onto Lapis's and even falls to knees.
"Let's be Malachite again."
*THUM!*
The weight of what she's asking is even more accentuated as thunder strikes the air, lighting everything up and shaking everything, and everyone.
"Why… would you want that?" Lapis very confused asks.
"I was wrong about fusion. You made me understand! Malachite was bigger and stronger than both of us! We could fly!" Jasper lists her reasons as to why she wanted to be the fusion again. In any other situation, this may be interpreted as a good thing, but the look in Jaspers eyes, the smile she wears, and the fact that this cocky headstrong and powerful quartz soldier is on her knees almost begging to become a fusion again is not good. Not good at all.
"Lapis, don't listen to her!" Despite his slightly injured state, Steven still manages to push himself up onto his arms and give some much needed and good advice to his friend.
"Stay out of this!" Jasper demands angrily as she lets go and stands to her full height.
"I was terrible to you. I liked taking everything out on you. I needed to. I-I hated you. It was bad!" Even with the interruption, Lapis manages to find her voice and explain as best as she can how fusing again would not be a good idea. The amount of angst, terror, rage that wormed its way through the two of them during that time has changed them by leaps and bounds.
For Jasper, her views of fusion for one has changed dramatically, who once hated and saw fusing as crutch now openly accepts it, especially if its with the gem who changed her. However, that change also came with a unnatural hunger for power, no matter the consequences, and no matter who she hurt, or who hurt her, to begin with.
For Lapis, her willingness to fuse has been replaced with a scar on her being, more mentally than anything, on any hopes of fusing in the future, as well as the fact that the one element she thrives in, the one piece of nature that she controls and can bend to her will, has been tainted.
Water was the tomb she was imprisoned in and whether she can fully embrace it ever again…. time will tell, as will now.
Despite the experiences they both had with the fusion, Jasper is no less put off by the idea of fusing. "It'll be better this time. I've changed. You've changed me. I'm the only one who can handle your kind of power." As she begins to say, she continues to walk closer and closer towards Lapis until her back's against the front of the ship's cabin, practically begging Lapis to fuse together again. "Together, we'll be unstoppable!" She proclaims one final time.
"…" For a second, Lapis thinks about it, for a moment, even considering of going back to how it was. However before she reaches a decision, she glances past Jasper to see Steven staring back at her. A worried look on his face further cementing her decision. "No!" She defiantly denies to fuse.
"What?" Jasper questions in disbelief.
"What we had wasn't healthy. I never want to feel like I felt with you. Never again! So just go!" Lapis states and yells at Jasper to leave.
"Lapis!" Jasper calls out to her one last time to try to convince her to go through with Malachite.
"She said, 'No!' Leave her alone!" Steven manages to get to his feet and moves closer to them with his shield, ready to force Jasper back if need be.
"This is your fault." Jasper angrily says as she turns around and glares hatefully at Steven. "I'll shatter you!" She shouts and begins to charging at Steven.
*… Thump-Thump…*
Before Lapis can do anything to stop her, thunder and lightning strikes the air around them harshly, making everyone recoil as they literally feel the loud 'booms' happen around them.
What's more that makes everyone freeze, is the ominous aura that weighs down on everyone. The storm doesn't let up at all, making Jasper look around and Lapis and Steven being to feel scared.
Jasper looks around frantically, trying to figure out the menacing aura they feel while Steven moves around and comes up to Lapis. They both hold onto each other as fear begins to overtake them. "Lapis? Wha-what's happening?" Steven asks with a slight quiver in his voice.
"I don't know. Stay close to me and we'll be…" Lapis begins to say until she loses her voice and her eyes widen. Stevens widens as well as they look on.
Jasper for her part is looking around still, until she stops and is staring in the direction of Lapis and Steven.
*THUM!*
Lightning strikes through the air, illuminating the boat around them… and revealing the shadow over Jasper. Ever so slowly, she begins to turn around until finally, she sees what's behind her.
*THUUUUUUUMMM!*
This time an even longer and more monstrous shock of thunder strikes the sky, bathing the individual in darkness, revealing to the others… an unrecognizable human figure, dripping wet, with red eyes.
When the lightning finally subsides, Jaspers eyes widen as she looks at his face.
Marcus stands there, dripping with water over his entire, fists clenched, body shaking, lips parted to reveal his tightly gritted teeth. The whole look itself conveys one thing, one ultimate emotion that he is feeling right now in this instance, staring down at the gem he despises above all else:
Rage.
Pure… unbridled anger, hatred that pours out of him, affecting the others.
*THUM!*
A thunder strike… and he's gone.
"Wha-?!" Jasper gasps in confusion as he disappears. Even the water that was dripping from his body from being submerged underwater stays just where he was before it falls back into the ocean. "Where did she go?! Where is she?!" She yells and looks around frantically for him. When she looks back to the others, about to demand them to tell her where he is, until she notices they are staring at the end of the boat at the nose. As soon as she looks, there he is, this time with neutral look on his face but the anger has no less dissipated. "Finally!" She shouts and takes a step towards him.
*THUM!*
Gone. She freezes up at the disappearance.
*THUM!*
*THUM!*
*THUM!*
Multiple thunder strikes light up the area. He disappears and reappears with each strike. Each time he does, he steps closer and closer to Jasper. She looks back and forth between the different places he continues to appear and disappear from, even trying to anticipate where he might appear next.
*THUUUUUUUUMMM!*
This time an extra long thunder strike illuminates everything, including Marcus as he's now running full sprint towards her from the nose of the ship. "C'mon then!" Jasper yells her challenge and runs to meet him as well. Both their right fists fly straight towards each other.
*THUM!*
*Wha- Huh?!" She asks confused as when the flash happens, he's gone and she misses, making her stumble a little from the miss. "Where did she—?"
*THUM!*
*SMACK*
"Arrghhh!" Before she can realize what happened, she's sent reeling back as a punch hits her straight in the face. This dazes her for a second but she shakes its off and looks forward angrily only to see him gone again.
*THUM!*
*SMACK*
Again, a thunder strike signals another punch, this time Marcus appearing for a second from her left and disappearing to her right.
*THUM!*
*SMACK*
This time from the right. Jasper reels around and tries to swipe at him.
*THUM!*
*SMACK*
She misses. He appears behind her and delivers a kick straight to her back. She cries out and falls to her hands and knees for a few seconds from the impact but she angrily gets to her and puts her back to Lapis and Steven. "WHERE ARE YOU!? SHOW YOURSELF! QUIT HIDING LIKE A COWARD AND FACE ME!" She screams to the heavens, her gem weapon forming on her head as she waits for him to appear before her.
*…*
*…*
*… THUM!*
*SHIINNG*
"AAAHHH!" Jasper yells in pain as something passes against her stomach.
*THUUUUUMMMMM!*
*SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING*
In a flurry of movements, faster than the others can see, barely making out shadow like appearance of Marcus. Jasper however, can feel it clear as day as his movements are followed by the feeling of blades raking against her body. It only takes several seconds but eventually it stops and Jasper is forced to take a knee and take note of her body. Nearly all over her body are sets of four red slashes that adorn her body, not enough to force her back into her body but enough to sting. "Grrrrrr." She lets out a low growl as she keeps her eyes trained to the deck of the ship. "You coward."
"Steven! Lapis!" Suddenly, Greg comes out from around the corner of the ships cabin and runs up to the two of them. "What's going on?! I heard yelling!" He begins to ask loudly over the sound of the harsh weather… but he doesn't get an answer. "What's wrong? What happened?" He asks in concern as he notices they haven't even looked at him, staring ahead of them with wide eyes. When he follows their eyes, his widens as well, which prompts him to move over to Steven and hug him close along with Lapis, doing his best to cover him for protection.
Jasper, after getting a moments chance to rest and recover if only a little, she gets to her full height and turns around. When she's now staring in the direction of the others, she simply smiles at the person between them. "Finally. No more hiding." She sneers with a wicked grin.
Marcus has his back to her, slightly hunched forward, face aimed to the ground but even without looking, everyone can tell the differences he now has. His hair has grown considerably, becoming long and thick, almost spiky as it runs from the top of his head to his lower back. His arms have also changed, resulting slightly thicker than his normal arms with black fur covering them. Ever so slowly, he raises his head, making his family flinch, before turning the top half of his body backwards to the right towards Jasper.
Red eyes pulsating stare back at her with malice as his lips remains closed but straight as he slowly brings his left hand up.
*SHINK*
With a flick of his fingers, reveals his clawed hands for everyone to see.
"Good." Jasper says with a sadistic smile as she sees his changed appearance. "I was wondering when I'd get to face your other form again." Her weapon forms on her head as she clenches her fists tightly, ready to go. "So go ahead! Finish changing so we can have a proper rematch!" She happily says as she punches her fists into each other.
This gets a reaction out of Marcus as his eyes widen as he begins to turn his body fully towards her. He lets out a grunt of pain as he places his hands on his head and grits his teeth. This in turn reveals the sharpened pointed teeth of his but only for a moment as he falls to his knees and groans while tightly pressing his hands against his head.
In the midst of a completely darkened place, it kneels on the ground, arms held tightly against its body as it waits for the opportunity to be free once again.
A wide grin spreads across its muzzle as it takes a step forward.
*TING*
It lets out grunt of pain as its forced back onto its knees. With a frustrated growl, it looks down and stares at the several wraps of chains adorning its entire body tightly. Locked together with some of the ends being locked into the floor right next to it and to varying lengths of distance from it all around.
However the biggest chains and obstacles that are holding it down is the two feminine figures standing on either side of it. It growls at the two of them in anger but they both simply tighten the chains they both are holding onto, binding the beast tighter. As before, not much can be discernable of the two shadowy figures, just that their different hair lengths and their both female.
But that means nothing to the monster as it realizes it can't move, or be free again.
With a defeated sigh, it lowers its head and growls.
"NOOOO!" With a voice that sounds like its two, one demonic, the other his own, he loudly yells, Marcus slams his right foot forward and swings his arms outwards. This causes an airburst of force to fly out around him, causing the wind to push roughly against everyone but its only an annoyance really. Everyone brings their arms up to block the air before looking back at him. He stares at Jasper with anger and points at her. "You will NOT be facing it again. Having you face it was a mistake. A mistake a refuse to make ever again!" He continues to yell with his two toned voice and finishes it with an arm swipe to the side. Next, he brings both his arms up, his left outstretched in front of him, his right curled right next to his head, both hands bearing his claws. "If you wanna fight… this is all your getting." He tells her.
Jasper scowls at the news. "Pheh!" She scoffs at him before getting herself ready to fight. "Whatever! Doesn't matter. As soon as I take you down, I'm going to shatter both you and Rose back there." Marcus's anger flares up. "It's because of the two of you that Lapis doesn't want to fuse anymore! You poisoned her mind and I'm going to make you pay! HRaaaaah!" With a shout, she pushes herself forward and in one bound she closes the distance to Marcus, her head pulled back with her weapon ready to cave in his skull.
Marcus himself retaliates by pulling his right arm back and punching her weapon full straight on. Jasper lets out a short cry as she's sent sliding back a few meters. When she stops, she shakes her head from the hit before looking back to see Marcus still in the same spot and punching position. Slowly, he pulls his arm back… and laughs. "… he he he he… hahahahaha!" He begins to full on laugh, creeping everyone out but also annoying Jasper at his laughing. Before she can try to retort and angrily attack him, he stares at her again, this time a smile on his face. "Ohhhh Jasper…" He begins to say in a playful voice, even giving her the look of one. "You can try to shatter me and Steven… but here's something that's going to happen to you…" With slowness in his movement, he points with his right clawed finger straight at her, specifically, her gem. All the while, a teeth filled grin with parted lips graces his face. "… I'm not going to shatter you."
"… What?" This actually makes her incredibly confused, as well as a little for the others.
"Oh yes, I'm not going to shatter you…" Then he brings all his claws forward and brings them down, as if one would claw a chalkboard. "I'm going to cut you." For the first time, her eyes widen and she flinches. "I'm going to chisel you." Her fists begin to shake just barely. "I'm going to strap you down to the point you can move your limbs at all. Then, I'm going to take a knife, something metal, anything really, and scratch your gem… while you watch." She's almost shaking now, making his grin grow wider. "And even when you can't take it anymore, even if you manage to destroy your form and get sent back into your gem, you'll be vulnerable. I can just tick away at it… tick… tick… tick…" He accentuates the last part by tapping his claw on the bridge of his nose, signifying Jaspers Gem placement. "And there will be nothing you can do to STOP ME!"
The sudden yell from him snaps her from her fear stricken state, replaced by anger. "I'd like to see you try!"
"COME ON THEN!"
"BRING IT SHATTERER!"
*THUM!*
"HRAAAAAHH!"
"RAAAAAAAHHH!"
Both combatants yell in tune with the lightning strike and charge each other. In a single second, the two of them close the distance with each other and hit each other yet again the same way as before.
*SMACK*
Only this time, as soon as her helmet impacts his punch, the part of the deck of the ship she's on cracks as she braces herself while at the same time she brings her right fist forward, gut punching Marcus straight in the stomach.
He lets out a grunt as he goes flying backwards before landing roughly on the ships deck. He rolls a few times from the landing before he digs his left claw into the wood, leaving deep scratches as it halts him from moving any further back. With a growl, he gets onto his hands and knees before charging towards her again. This time he brings his right claw around to strike her head. She can't dodge back enough in time as the claws rake across her weapon, leaving harsh marks in the weapons left side. She hits back by bringing right leg around into his side. He barely brings his arms up to block the kick that sends him sliding back until he hits the side rails of the ship. As soon as he brings his arms down, he barely manages to duck as her fist comes sailing towards his face.
She misses and bends the railing behind him instead. Marcus capitalizes on this by throwing himself into her stomach, wrapping his arms around her waist and pushing her back, even momentarily lifting her up as he digs his claws behind her and rakes his claws hard on her back.
"Arghhh!" Jasper cries out in pain but it only spurs her anger on even more. She locks both her fists together and slams them down hard into Marcus's back. This doesn't stop him at first but with repeated strikes she manages to wear him down until he stops pushing. As his grip loosens, she grips him from behind and delivers a couple knee strikes to his chest, dazing him enough to make him recoil. This time she grabs his head and headbutts him straight in the face with her gem weapon. He recoils harshly with a cry as he stumbles back from the hit before Jasper sends an uppercut straight to his chain, making him fly into the air for a few seconds and landing onto the deck in a roll. He groans as he rolls onto his curled up front. "Hm… had enough?" Jasper asks tauntingly as she breathes heavily.
Marcus for his part, begins to get back onto his feet with slow movements. While this new form of his may have given him the strength to match the Homeworld soldier, his speed has decreased significantly as a result because of it. That doesn't stop him and when he stands to his full height, he spits to the side and brings his arms up ready to fight. His left hand in front and open, baring its claws while his right closed fist is curled up closer to his face. He gives the barest of a smile towards his opponent. "I can do this all day."
This makes Jasper angry, making her grunt loudly and sprints forward. She pulls her head back as she charges him and gets ready to hit him again with it. Except this time, he's prepared for the hit. Just before she manages to hit him, he ducks under the weapon, crouches and twirls his body around to the right, Jaspers left, and brings his right elbow back into her stomach.
This makes her stop cold and let out a gag from the hit. He doesn't stop there however as he spins around and brings his left leg up into a kick. With a hard hit, he slams his shin into her stomach. This makes her grunt as she goes sliding back away from him. With a groan from the hits she goes back to trying to attack him as he does the same. They both move to close the distance with each other and Jasper goes for a right hook. Marcus easily ducks under the hit before letting loose a series of jabs from his right fist into her side but when she reels back to hit him with her weapon, he jumps back but at the same time, slashing her stomach as he pulls moves. She misses her hit and hunches forward from the series of hits she's sustained. Marcus isn't done yet as when she looks up to him, she's met with a fist to the face. She shouts as she's sent reeling back, grabbing her face upon instinct from the hit but this leaves her open. He spins around low the ground before using the momentum to send a kick straight to her chest using the sole of his foot. He delivers one final attack though as while she tries to recover from the hits, he plants one foot on the ground and launches himself a short distance into the air, sailing over Jasper as he brings his claw on the way down.
*SHING*
"Grhhh!" She grunts as the overhead slash onto the top of her weapon forces her to her knees and looking to the ground. She stares in that position for a tense few seconds as she regains her breathing. Marcus meanwhile stays standing in front of her, ready to go again. "… Why?..."
"What?"
*SMACk*
"Cruuhh!" In his moment of confusion as to Jaspers question, she manages to land a solid punch straight to his chest sending him sliding back and losing the air in his lungs. When he stops moving, he falls to his knees as he desperately tries to get his breathing back in order.
"I said… why?" Jasper asks again when she stands up. Even in his state, Marcus manages to look up and stare at her in confusion. "Why? Why?! Why did you leave?!" She begins to yell, even louder than the hectic weather around them. "You were supposed to be the best and you left during the war! Reports said you were enticed by HEEERRR!" With a yell, she says the last part and points to Steven. He flinches at the pointing, making his dad hug his son tighter and Lapis stepping in front of him for protection. When she sees what Lapis is doing, this only makes her even angrier. "Graaaaah!" She roars in anger as she grabs her face with both hands, her weapon disappearing from her head. "And why are you helping her?!"
Marcus finally manages to regain his breathing but he stays kneeled and looks at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?!" She asks in disbelief. She glances between Marcus and Lapis a few times before settling on him. "I mean why would you be willing to help a MONSTER LIKE HER?!"
*THUM*
The title makes Marcus freeze, the flash of lightning illuminating much around them as his eyes widen. He stares at her for a few seconds before slowly turning towards Lapis. She's staring at them with wide eyes utterly filled with fear and uncertainty. Being called a monster… is not something that Lapis takes kindly to, but for her to be called that in front of the people she cares most about…
He continues to stare at her a few more seconds before his look of surprise ebbs away. His vision falls towards the ground, staring at the wooden deck. "… Shut up…"
"What?" Jasper questions.
"I said, SHUT UP!" He yells at her, full force at her. He begins to stand as he continues, "You see her as a monster… BUT I DON'T!" He points a thumb to his own chest. "I know what a monster is and it sure as hell ain't her!" He yells pointing at Lapis
This makes Jasper growl as she stomps towards him, as he does the same to her. "What do you care about her?!" She shouts and goes to punch him. He ducks under the punch.
"Shut up!" He punches back, hitting her in the chest but she shrugs it off.
"What can you possibly offer her?!" She brings in a knee strike, hitting him in the stomach.
"I said shut up!" He shouts angrily before punching her in the stomach this time.
"What can a broken, old, cowardly gem like you do for her?!"
"I said- crah!" Before he can finish speaking, she interrupts him with a punch to the gut. This lifts him off the ground enough for him to almost cough up the contents of his stomach. He falls back down onto one knee with his hands wrapped around his stomach to prevent him from actually doing the deed.
"What sort of power, strength, anything could you possibly offer her that I couldn't?!" She punches him to the side of the head, his head jerks to the side from the hit before she brings a couple more punches and finishes it up with a strong left hook that sends him flying towards the others and rolling the ground.
"I said shut up!" He yells angrily, grabbing his head from the headache he was and his clenched eyes on one knee.
"Tell me! Why do you care about her?!" With one final breath, Jasper shouts her demand.
Marcus's eyes widen, his fingers press tightly to his head before the answer comes bubbling up into his mouth. Before he can even think of what he's going to say, he stands tall, glares at Jasper, his back to the others… and screams:
"BECAUSE I LOVE HEEEEEEERRRRR!"
*THUUUUUUMMMMM!*
Even with the lightning strike that shakes everyone, all ears are frozen in place at the words they just heard… and the fact that his voice is back to normal.
"…What did you just say?" Marcus's eyes widen at the voice. His eyes revert back to normal, and he turns around completely. In an instant his eyes lock onto her hers. Both he and Lapis are staring at each other, one in confusion… the other fear.
"N… N… No… N-no no… I didn't… I-I-I don't…" He begins to sputter and hesitate in what he's trying to deny. As he continues to sputter, his body slowly turns to the right, aiming towards the ocean so it keeps his body half turned to the right so half and half of his body is staring at his family and Jasper, but that's of no importance to him as he grabs his head, falls to his knees, and lets the memories begin to flood through his mind.
The first time I met her.
I return her smile. "Lapis huh? That's a pretty name."
The ship.
"I WILL come back for you!"
"I care about you Lapis. More than you think. I don't know what it was that I became but that thing doesn't speak for me!"
"But I'll be DAMNED if I let you die here!"
I even carried her at one point.
I took the hit without a care.
As the jagged piece of metal cartwheels through the air in slow motion, I do without thinking, twist us around.
The pain that follows is excruciating.
My whole body visibly jerks as the pipe lodges itself squarely in my back with a grotesque sound. My hands grip Lapis's shoulders painfully so but they let up as my legs start give out.
The beach after the crash.
"Don't… don't do this. Please I beg of you please don't do this. Don't go with her." I beg. Fusion isn't my area of expertise, not by a long shot, but I know of its significance. The idea of Lapis and Jasper… "Arrrrr!" I grunt as the last of my wounds start healing. "Just don't!" I yell again and stand firm with my hands clenched. I can feel everyone's eyes on me at seeing my wounds stitch up right before their eyes but I ignore them. "I'm sorry for what I almost did to you on this beach Lapis but please I beg of you! Don't go with her! Please for the love of everything in the universe don't go with her!" I beg of her. Tears are starting to fall from my eyes and everything feels numb. What I became still haunts me and I don't want my actions to be the cause for her to… to leave us. 'She can't… she shouldn't she…'
I begged her. I begged her so much. I didn't want to lose her.
…
And yet, she went… to protect us. A sacrifice, to protect us.
'Even after all that, one of my main focuses was to get back to her. When I was captured, it was her name that stuck to me when I unleashed that monster. I wanted to get out to find her!'
After I was interrogated.
'Lapis… ohhhh Lapis.' She's still out there. She's still trapped by Jasper whether she's holding her or the other way around, she's still trapped. 'I have to get out. I have to find her.'
'I worked to get her back! Radar! Sonar! Tinkering with as much of my gear as I can to find or make something that can help me find her! My rebreather is ready… but the Cluster… it halted everything! I couldn't look for her because even if I found her then the world would be destroyed.'
Everything I did… so much of what I did, was to help her. I didn't care about dying or getting hurt…
I just wanted…
"…her." The word comes out in a whisper.
The storms begin calm down. The noise of the crashing waves begins to subside and the thunder strikes diminish. That doesn't take away the dark clouds overhead, but it doesn't matter. "… I love her…" It comes out in a whisper to the others, but its loud to me. As my hands slowly fall away from my head, I feel them returning to normal, becoming my normal hands once again. "… I love her." I say again, still a whisper but just slightly louder. I go to one knee instead as my teeth return to normal. "I love her." I say louder. Placing one hand on the ground, I begin to push myself onto two feet while at the same time I feel my hair begin to recede into its former state. "I love her!" This time, the words come out louder, loud enough for the others to hear.
I don't care. For some reason, saying it… is a relief. So much so I can't describe it. I can't help but grin at the words I say before it morphs into a frown… towards Jasper.
With renewed confidence, I turn towards Jasper and yell: "I LOVE LAPIS LAZULI!" I shout it to the heavens. All this time, their was some inkling in my mind that this was the truth for me for a long time… but it just never clicked. Fighting for her now, against Jasper who wanted her… it just… hit true to me.
"… Wha… you… you…?" Jasper begins to sputter but I don't let her finish.
"And you will NOT be taking her Jasper! No one will take her from ME EVER AGAIN!" I scream and with a flourish I pull out both my swords and ready myself to fight. Lapis has been hurt a lot as it is, and the gem right in front of me has every intention of taking her back, to force her back into the prison that the two of them made together… only this time they'll use it for untold destruction, something that I know Lapis does not want.
I will not let her be forced away from me again.
Jasper doesn't like this declaration either, as she lets out a groan of anger and braces herself to charge me. "You little whelp! I'll shatter you!" She stomps towards me, ready to get right into it. I hold myself ready, my mind going through different scenarios, different techniques and ways of fighting to defeat her. To put her down, hold her and keep her from coming after us once and for all. I stand there, weapons held in front of me, ready to fight. She closes the distance, pulls her arm back into a punch as I pull my sword back to slash.
*CRASH*
"AAAAAAHHHHHhhhhhhh…" Before I can do anything, a massive wall of water comes up right in front of me. This freezes me as what follows is a long drawn out yelling by Jasper before it slowly begins to fade away until all that's left of noise if the creaking of the ship and the movement of the water. As the water in front of me falls back, I take a step back and let my swords disappear before examining at what just happened. Right in front of me a new hole has opened up in the middle of the ship, leading from the top deck to the bottom hull of the boat. As I look down the hole I can see the water already begin pouring into the ship itself.
"Hmmmm…" I murmur in contemplation. I was fully expecting myself to fight some more right now. I'm just a little surprised at the intervention.
"Are you okay?" She asks me, and while her voice is quiet, lacking in emotion, I can sense the hesitation she has for asking me.
"I am." I simply answer back. Now that the fight is over, even though it was cut short, I'm not sure what to feel right now, or what to do.
"Oh no." Another voice, this time I recognize as Greg's. He comes up to us along with Steven as we peer down at the gaping hole that's rapidly filling with water, along with the ship that's starting to list in the direction of the hole filling up. She took out one problem in one blow, but created another at the same time.
"What do we do?" Steven asks quickly, seeing as how the place we are currently standing on is about to be sunk.
"Lapis. Halt the water from coming in, push it back out, and freeze the bottom to prevent more water from coming in." I instruct her in a straight emotionless tone. There is a bit of hesitation, but eventually out of the corner of my eye I see her extend her arm out to the hole from just behind me to my right and the ship stops sinking before it reaches the top deck. We all watch as the water begins to recede back through the hole at the bottom, lifting us back out of the water until we are level again. To finish it off, the water halts past the hole and stops from rushing back through before a clear sheen of ice freezes over and completely covers the hole. The ice settles and she lets her arms fall back to her side. "Thank you." I say before I am now staring out towards ocean in front of us.
"Oooohh, well, looks like I just bought a boat." Greg mutters quietly at the new addition that took a piece of his fortune.
"… Sorry."
"Its okay."
After the small exchange, everyone delves into a small but nervousness silence. No one is sure of what to do now that the immediate threat to them has passed… except one. "Marcus?" Steven asks curiously as I begin walking towards the nose of the ship, sidestepping the hole I goes.
"Greg… take us home. This trip is over." I order. As soon as I step up to the railing, I stands there, hands pressed against my side… and just stare outwards. Already the weather seems to have calmed finally. Having sensed the dread of two foes locking in combat, the swirling pool of emotions emanating from all at seeing who they wanted and didn't want, now that this is no longer the case the stormy clouds from before begin to part and disappear, revealing the orange glow of the descending sun, signifying the time of dusk on the boats occupants.
Greg flinches at the order but nods nonetheless, turning around and heading back up to the boats wheel. All the while, he wonders if he can actually get the vehicle moving after the damage it sustained, but as he turns the engine on and hears it rumble to life, if with just a small catch in the machines gears, he sighs in relief at the fact they are no longer stranded. He lets out another sigh of relief now that he's able to turn the wheel. With the soft waves and low rumbling of the boats engine, those are the only noises that accompany us as Greg weighs anchor, turns the boat around and sets us course back to Beach City.
No one says, for everyone is unsure of what to say as we putter along back to civilization in silence.
'How could I have been so stupid?! Why did I say that?! Why the hell did I ever thing it would be a good idea to say that OUT LOUD?!' My thoughts are a buzz with loud angry voices of my own self chastising me. As soon as we had docked at the place we had left, it was already getting dark with clouds overhead. They didn't look like they were going to pour rain on us or strike lightning but they were still a little gloomy to look at. As soon as the boat settled, I immediately disembarked before heading straight home on my own two feet, despite the calls of my name from the others. I ignored them in favor of just going straight to my house, locking myself in, and stew in my own thoughts. Ace will be a problem though, as I pretty sure that pets, especially dogs, can sense the distress uneasy feelings that sometimes plague their owners and will do what they can to comfort their owners. I don't need comforting I just… I just…
Even as I fast walk my way up the hill, I can feel someone doing what they can to keep up with me. I can sparsely tell who it is but my want right now is to be alone and try and come up with solutions to a deal with the mess I landed myself in.
"Marcus." The voice is worried but firm in wanting to get my attention.
"Just leave me alone. I've messed things up enough as it is." I grumble back and increase my speed towards my home.
"Marcus!" They call again as they try to keep up. I ignore them in favor of just making it to my door and then slamming it shut and locking it. The hill soon ends and I make it to the door before pulling it open fast enough to almost tear it off its hinges. "Marcus stop!"
"I'm sorry!" I cry out, my voice threatening to break as I freeze in the doorway. "I'm sorry I said what I said. I shouldn't… I just… shouldn't have said anything. Especially to her!" I growl out the last part, anger laced in my voice at the memory of Jasper. "Just forget what I said and things can go back to the way they were before."
"Marcus…" The voice answers yet again, this time quieter as they make their way to me.
My fists clench tightly in frustration as my eyes close, tears threatening to flow forth as I turn around. "Please Lapis! I don't want to mess things up between up so can we just—!"
…
…
…
…
'… She's kissing me…'
That is the only thought I can muster. If I can explain the situation, its that somehow before I could finish speaking, I had suddenly found myself pushed a little further into my house and a body pressed up against me. My mind is completely blank right now, trying hard to comes up with some reason as and excuse as to why Lapis Lazuli is kissing me right now… but instead, a feeling is making itself known above all else.
Relief.
Even in my caught off guard state, my eyes are still open as I stare at her close close-eyed state… and its then I notice the tears running down her face.
Soon, my own eye lids close and I embrace her, as she does me. The kiss doesn't break, even as the door closes and tears roll down my own face.
Relief… has never felt better than right now.
Hoooooooo boy. This was… quite something to write. I at first was going to write out the Kiki pizza episode but then I realized that the man thing of the episode I wanted was the whole dream fight. So I instead opted to just put it into a flashback fight scene instead for this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it at least. I'm interested to see if some of you got the references I made with some of the weapons and equipment I had Marcus make and use. Those were kind of last minute additions I thought it would be an interesting thing to do.
Anyway, as for this whole chapter… wow. Went way longer than I first thought I was going to make it but nonetheless I am happy with how it turned out. From the interactions I had with Marcus and everyone one else to the fight, then the end. The fight was what I most excited for. Marcus hasn't had a rematch with Jasper since the first time they met (The helicopter fight doesn't count since technically he was also fighting Lapis too) and I wanted to do it right. I wanted to convey his feelings for the Quartz soldier and just how… livid he was with her and how much he really wanted to go up against her. He may have taken a more subdued lifestyle now since he hung up his guns but that doesn't detract his means of fighting whatsoever. Get him angry enough and he'll use whatever to make sure he beats the person he hates. Of course, he couldn't go overboard since he now has some hidden allies to help try and keep him in check. The fight… well I hope you all liked it as much as I did. Just the sheer amount of anger, tension and fear I wanted to put into it. Hopefully I did good with it.
Then… the end. For awhile now a bunch of you have asked me about pairings for Marcus and who he should be with. Some of you expressed one Gem, others another. Well, I think the kiss now has pretty much cemented Marcus's official pairing with one Lapis Lazuli. If there was anyone I think who would have been a good match for Marcus, I would have been her. Let's be honest, Marcus hasn't exactly had a good life to live and neither has Lapis. They now have people to turn to for help, as opposed to their lives before they met Steven… and each other. They've both felt pain beyond what anyone else they know has felt, even others they don't know, and maybe now… they can do what they can to make sure neither of them experience anymore pain, or at the very least lessen it.
Here are the review replies everyone. Thanks again.
Andohmygodcholesterol: Thanks. Glad you like it.
Kyrogue23: It was a nice episode. Just a simple filler episode that was quite interesting, especially Steven's tactics, and just how amazing cooks the Gems are.
Nitro zeus (ch. 25): I pretty sure I had named the shotgun he uses as a Mossberg at the very least then the SPAS-12. (ch. 50): No. Absolutely not. While I appreciate the advice and the idea, there are just some elements of my story that I will not change whatsoever and after everything I've placed regarding Marcus and his father, I'm not making any changes anytime soon and that's really not something I plan on doing anytime soon. I will give thoughts to some ideas whenever someone pitches them, but I'm going to have to decline this one. Sorry. (ch. 75): I've already named a ton of rifles and weapons as it is during the scope of this story and sometimes I don't want to through random weapon names in where the reader will have to look up the weapons in order to get an idea as to what the weapon looks like, whereas if I simply say something like 'gun' 'pistol' or 'rifle' it allows the reader to put in their own type of weapon they like. I'll take a look at them and see how I feel.
Miss Tri: Glad you liked them. I do what I can to incorporate different elements into the episodes to change them up. Even little things such as adding Lapis even though she was a part of the shows universe but not there originally. Considering Jenny's feelings for Marcus and his time spent with Lapis, I felt it was nice and possibly a good but awkward moment for them. As for the race, I did what I could to spice it up and I thought showcasing Lapis's… driving skills would be an excellent send off for the chapter, and I was right. It was satisfying to right his moment of anguish at seeing his car broken like that. And yes with Restaurant Wars, not much to say, not much changed, but some nice funny moments here and there to add.
Guest (ch. 1): … Uhhhhh… I'm not really someone who likes being demanded to review someone's story, especially by a guest, even if you put the number to your profile… so no.
Guest (ch. 74): Yes, that was fun of her to do. Her inexperience with driving cars just made it… fitting, especially for Kevins.
J4im3kill: Don't worry, I have the plan set up for how to deal with the Iron Kings when the time comes, though at some point Marcus will encounter some highly trained military soldiers eventually, so its not like he's going to know what it feels like to take on actual military rather than thugs, thieves, con-artists and the lot.
I thought you might like it. Wanted to give him the appearance of a tough guy bouncer with just a few clothing and accessory choices and now guns or swords. Because lets be honest that would be a little overkill.
I also want to say everyone that I'm sorry for how long this took. I have two reasons, maybe three, for having taken so long in writing this chapter out.
First reason, The Division 2. I was on the fence about getting the game since not a lot of my friends have it and I know having a squad is a pretty big thing when it comes to doing a lot of stuff. However after hearing the tons of reviews the game got, my own love for the first game, and the fact that one of my best friends online along with his brother said its a game they'll most likely get eventually, I figured "Hell yeah let do it." Already beat the main body of the game but now I have to deal with the Black Tusks everywhere and I tell you, it's a hell of thing having to take on these guys solo. Still, fun game and I love it.
Second reason, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Overall, truly an amazing game. Considering the It doesn't rely on overly powered leveled up kits, stats, weapons, armor and the like. No, in this game what gets you far in beating the bosses is your own self: YOUR skills, your strategy, being patient and know when to strike but at the same time being aggressive in order to overwhelm your opponents posture (Stamina basically I guess you could say), which when it breaks gives you the perfect opportunity to strike the deathblow. Sure you can get some consumable items and unlock some new moves and abilities but they primarily give you better opportunities to take down your enemies. In the end, it's all you and how you fight with what you gets that final satisfying kill to those bosses. It's been a few weeks since I bought the game and I have been investing heavily in reading guides to make sure I get everysingle item, best ways to exploit my enemies, and what I need to do in order to get the best possible ending to the game. Almost there to the end. I just have two more bosses to beat. Ones optional but sad, and the other isn't.
The somewhat third lesser reason is the fact that I've been exercising recently. I've been trying to get my cardio up and better improving my chances of running in 15 minutes or less so I've been doing some runs on a treadmill for the past few months. Lately though, I've decided to switch over to doing exercises focused around working the legs because while I know doing speed drills and jogging for long periods of time would help improve my run, my homes air conditioner has been on the fritz as of late and I don't really feel like trying to pass a mile in 15 minutes when the temperature in my home is freakin' 80 degress. Thats a temperature we never put it up to. Swear I almost felt like passing out a couple times considering the heat and how much I sweated. Not pleasant.
Anyhow, enough of my rambling everyone. Sorry for the long author note. Just wanted to let you all know my thoughts and reasons for the time spent on this chapter. Hope you all don't mind.
I'm also going to go away from this story a bit and work a little on my other stories as well. While I wanted to get more of this done, it's taken me longer than expected and its not fair for some of my other stories so I'm gonna write a few chapters for some of the others before returning back to this one. At the very least, I hope this chapter satisfies you all till I come back to it.
Thank you all for your continued support, and the support of those of you who are new and decided to take a chance with my story. Go ahead everyone and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish, but most of all, have fun reading, and have a great day each and everyone of you.
