Chapter 23

To the Barn

Jet was sitting at the kitchen counter with the other gems. His head resting in his hand as Peridot was explaining to the others about the cluster situation. He was a tad worried but his training with his master Sho has taught him that if he starts to panic, the battle is already lost. Peridot cleared her throat as she continued explaining the situation.

"As you see, I have no other options." She stated. "I have decided to share some important information to you crystal gems." She snapped her fingers and Steven was wearing a box over his body. He stood right next to her. "This is the Earth." She smacked the box, which showed a colorful image of the Earth. When she smacked the box with a fly swatter, she must've spooked Steven a little because he made an audible gasp.

"At the very center of the planet's core, lays the cluster." She explained. "Rotate." Steven shifted his body so that it showed on the box a picture of what looked like three colorful triangles, surrounded by a circle. "This is the cluster, a massive artificial fusion composed of millions of gems shards." The gems looked at each other, a bit of shock on their faces. "It has laid dormant for thousands of years within this planet's crust. When this gem activates and take it form, the result will be devastating. Now!" The box rotated showing the Earth again and the box started to shake and a green puppet monster of some sort came popping out of it, causing the gems to gasp in surprise.

"What is that?" Peridot asked, a bit surprised herself.

"It's the cluster." Steven said, though his voice muffled a little. Peridot hit the puppet with the fly swatter.

"It does not look like that." She said, placing her hand on her forehead. "But it is real and it can activate at any moment!"

"What a cluster." Amethyst said.

"That abomination must be stopped." Garnet said, folding her arms.

"But how?" Pearl asked. "We'll need to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth and it'll have to-"

"Hey!" Peridot said, interrupting her. "I wasn't finished speaking. What we need is to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth." Pearl scowled at this and Amethyst was smirking at Pearl. Pearl noticed and Amethyst immediately stopped. "It'll need to withstand up to 360 gigapounds of pressure and temperatures of 9,800 degrees."

"Well, we mustn't waste time." Pearl said, folding her arms. "We need to start finding parts for this machine immediately."

"Yes, obviously." Peridot said, rolling her eyes a bit. "We'll start by dismantling all devices inside this dwelling."

"What?" Steven said as Peridot hopped to where the stove was. She proceeded to the microwave and grabbed onto it.

"She's like a baby chimp like that." Jet said, watching her struggle to try to tear the microwave from its position. Amethyst heard him and started to laugh a bit.

"This primitive radiation contractor should come in handy." She said, finally ripped the microwave from its spot. She hopped from the spot where the microwave was and hopped into Steven's room where she held his T.V over her head.

"There's a remote chance that something might be useful in this primitive image cube." She said then she proceeded to smash the T.V. It split in half upon colliding with the ground. Steven couldn't take anymore as he ran up to her.

"Wait!" He said, sweating a bit. "I have a better idea that doesn't involve destroying the house."

"Classic Steven." Amethyst said, placing her hand on her hip.


The group warped to an area that seemed isolated. Jet looked around to noticed that they were in the countryside of Beach City. There were miles of green scenery and it reminded Jet of his travels. Up ahead of the was a decent size barn and that's where they were heading. Once in the perimeter of the barn, Garnet and Amethyst went off to inspect the area and the others went inside the barn to see if they can find any necessary part that they may need. Steven had been here before, along with Pearl, when he said he wanted to see what space was like. That adventure almost gotten himself and Pearl in danger and almost killed. He pulled out a chalk board from the barn and started to doodle on it. He had also pulled out a chair and sat in it. Jet walked over to look at the doodle.

"UUU Space Travel Gem Drill Division?" Jet read, while Steven started to twirl around in the chair. "What does the UUU stand for?"

"It stands for Universe and Universe Universal." Steven said, causing Jet to sweat drop. "It's a concept that I came up with."

"Umm, okay?" Jet said. Pearl and Peridot came out of the barn, they were talking about what they found.

"What we have in the barn should be adequate for us to get started." Pearl said, as Peridot and herself walked over to where Jet and Steven were. Peridot had her arms folded, as Pearl continued to talk. "First, I recommend we organize the component types and then assemble a rough blueprint based on what we have available." She looked at the chalkboard, which showed the UUU writing and a picture of Steven in a rocket.

"Sorry, Steven." She said, clasping her hands together. "It's a lovely drawing but it won't look like this." Steven frowned and stopped twirling in the chair that he was sitting in. Peridot picked up the chalk from the board and looked at it with a puzzled look on her face, as if she was trying to figure out what it was.

"Hmm...good." Peridot said, handing Pearl the chalk. "Yes, this is adequate. Thank you, you can go now." She started to wave Pearl off. Pearl raised an eyebrow.

"Eh...What?" Pearl asked, still holding the chalk.

"Umm... that will be all?" Peridot said, clapping her hands together. Pearl continued to stare at her, causing Peridot to lean towards Steven.

"How do you get her to leave?" She muttered loud enough that Pearl heard her.

"Excuse me?" Pearl said, placing the chalk back on the board. "I am not leaving." She folded her arms when she finished saying that.

"Yeah!" Steven said. "She's gotta stay and help build the drill thing, right?"

"No, no. You're confused." Peridot said. "A Pearl can't build a thing like this."

"Why not?" Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because Pearls aren't for this!" Peridot shouted. "They for standing around and... and looking nice and holding your stuff for you, right?"

"That's enough!" Pearl said, slowly getting angry at Peridot. "If we're going to work together, then you're going to have to listen to me."

"Listen to you?" Peridot asked, causing Pearl to look at her in surprise. "Did you teach her to talk like this?" She had asked Steven. Pearl gritted her teeth and had her fist clenched.

"What are you talking about?" Steven asked, his eyebrow raised.

"She's a Pearl." Peridot said. "She's a made-to-order servant, just like the hundreds of other Pearls that are shown off back on home world." Jet and Steven eyes widen upon hearing that.

"Wait...there's hundreds of Pearls?" Steven asked, staring at Pearl.

"Whoa." Jet said, looking at her as well.

"Well...Y-yes..." Pearl said, blushing from their stares.

"And she looks like a fancy one too." Peridot said, grabbing Pearl's ribbon. Pearl huffed in annoyance and grabbed her ribbon from Peridot.

"Hundreds of Pearls." Steven repeated.

"That's awesome!" Jet said, causing Pearl to blush even deeper.

"So." Peridot said, getting her attention. "Who do you belong to anyways?

"Nobody!" Pearl said.

"Then, what are you for?" Peridot asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Pearl, once again, let out a blush.

"Well." Peridot said, turning her back away from them. "You can belong to me for now." Pearl gritted her teeth once more. "Ha! A Peridot with a Pearl! What would they say back home?"

"Now, listen here you tiny twerp!" Pearl shouted. "In case you forgotten, you're on our turf now and I didn't fight a 1,000-year war for this planet's independence to take orders from the likes of you!" Peridot turned around, her teeth gritted.

"Excuse me?" She asked. "I am a natural technician and a certified kindergartener. I was made for this! You were made to take orders, not to give them!" The two were butting heads at this point, slightly growling at one another.

'Are they gonna fight?' Jet thought, his arms folded (it's kinda his thing by now).

"Whoa, whoa! Hang on, guys!" Steven said, breaking them apart. "Now, we can all agree that you're both good at building things so can't you just try listening to each other?"

"No!" They both shouted, causing Steven to back up a little.

"I am as good as building things as you, better even!" Pearl shouted towards Peridot.

"Ha!" Peridot scoffed. "Name one thing that you can engineer better? Go on!"

"Robots." Steven muttered loud enough for the rest of them to hear. He had stars in his eyes.

"Hmm?" Both Peridot and Pearl responded.

"Say what?" Jet said, looking at Steven in amusement.

"You should build robots." He said. "Giant robots. I see a race, a giant robo race...with prizes, giant robo prizes!"

"You mean like a competition?" Pearl asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah!" Steven answered. "To see who's better at building stuff!"

"What are these robots you speak of?" Peridot asked.

"I can answer that." Jet said. "They're like those marble enemies that you sent on us, only bigger."

"Ha!" Peridot snorted. "Building one of these robots will be easy!"

"Well, I can build one faster!" Pearl said, running into the barn.

"That's what you think!" Peridot shouted, running behind her. Steven ran after them in the excitement and Jet only turned around. Peridot and Pearl was ravishing through the barn, looking for parts to build their robot with. Steven had stars in his eyes as he watched them work.

"Yo!" Jet heard a familiar voice say. He turned his head to see that Garnet and Amethyst was approaching them. "So, how are the wonder nerds doing?" She was standing next to Jet with her eyes closed and her hands behind her head. Jet gently tapped her on the shoulder and she looked at him. He pointed to Peridot and Pearl and her eyes widen.

"Whoa!" Amethyst said. "What's going on? Are they building the drill?" Jet let out a sigh.

"No." He said. "They're building robots-" He was going to continue into he heard the sound of a loud drill go off.

"What did you say?" Amethyst asked as she covered her ears. Jet joined her, his ears starting to hurt from the drilling.

"I said." He said, shouting a bit. "They're... whoa!" He scooped up Amethyst in his arms and jumped out of the way. Heading towards them was a slender robot that rushed passed them. He heard someone cleared their throat and he looked down to see that Amethyst was looking up at him, a faint blush on her face.

"Sorry." He said, blushing a bit as he sat Amethyst down. "Instincts." He looked to see that Pearl had constructed her robot out of an old airplane. It had long, slender wheels and long slender arms. Pearl made the robot twirl a few times before making it stop. She looked down at them with a smirk on her face. She had changed her appearance to that of a speed racer outfit.

"Giant robot!" Steven shouted, looking at her. They heard the ground shake and looked towards the barn. A giant green foot hit the ground.

"Ha! Pathetic!" Peridot shouted as she stepped out with her robot. "Behold, I've built the ultimate power!" Her robot was shaped like a green diamond and it was shorter than Pearl's robot. In the center was an opening so everyone was able to see her. It also has metal claws and green stern robotic feet. Peridot looked up at Pearl in her robot.

"Hey!" She said.

"Mine's taller, I win!" Pearl said, making her robot rise its hand.


The crew was still at the barn and Steven was standing on a firm box. He was going to be the judge for the robotic competition that they were going to have. Steven was by the chalkboard with Jet, Amethyst and Garnet was sitting on some logs off to the side. Pearl and Peridot was standing opposite sides of each other, waiting for Steven to explain the situation.

"Ladies and Gentle gems." Steven started. "Welcome to the first annual robo Olympics!" Amethyst and Garnet started to cheer. Amethyst had a bag of popcorn and Garnet started to clap. Jet placed his hands on his knees, interesting in how this was going to go down.

"This competition will test our robo engineer skills and robo construction and robo piloting." Steven continued. "Whoever wins will be in charge of building the cluster, drill machine thing. Now, let the games begin!" Steven held up a sign that said 'balance' on it. Pearl smirked and made her robot balance itself on one leg. Peridot made hers stand on one claw until the rest of the body started to spin, causing her to lose balance. Steven had their names written out and he drew a mark under her name.

Steven held up another sign that read 'crushing' on it. Jet could hear Peridot laughing a little. She held up 2 boulders and crushed them with ease. Pearl struggled with her robot to lifted one. She held the boulder above her head and her robotic arms started to shake. The weight was too much for the robotic arms and the boulder ended up falling on top of her. Jet winced at that and looked over to see that Steven was placing a mark under Peridot's name. After checking that Pearl was OK, Steven proceeded with holding another sign that read 'ballet.' Peridot didn't know what that was, so she made her robot flail its arms wildly. Pearl smirked and made the robot twirl around gracefully. Jet looked, a bit mesmerized by what he was seeing. Steven nodded his head and placed another mark under Pearl's name.

Steven then held up a sign that read 'jumping' on it. Pearl made her robot jump up high, landing gracefully on its robotic feet. Peridot smirked and suddenly springs appeared on her robot's feet. She then proceeded to jump so high, that they could no longer see her. Pearl and the others sweat dropped at this and Steven placed another mark under Peridot's name. Steven held up another sign that read 'speed' on it. The two started to race one another, their eyes glaring on each other. Unfortunately, the two was glaring so hard at one another that they didn't notice the tree that was in front of them. They both didn't have the chance to react, as the robots slammed into the tree.

"Oh, ho ho!" Amethyst said, her mouth filled with popcorn. Garnet and Jet just looked at one another then back at what happened. Steven placed a hand under his chin. He then proceeded to write down 'tree' and placed a mark under it. Jet noticed and started to laugh at what Steven did. After checking on both Peridot and Pearl, the competition continued. They competed in other contest such as: a strength competition, rock-paper-scissors contest, a destruction contest and even going as far as to paint a portrait of Amethyst (which she didn't mind). Steven looked at each portrait and wrote down the word 'subjective.' It was getting a little late in the afternoon and the competition between Peridot and Pearl was coming to an end. There was a car in front of each of the competitors. Jet, Amethyst, Steven and Garnet were standing behind them. They got tired of sitting down after a long period of time.

"Alright, guys!" Steven said. "This is the final event!"

"You got this, P!" Amethyst shouted.

"Get it girl!" Garnet said.

"Yeah!" Jet cheered. Pearl looked behind her and smiled. She then proceeded to look in front of her, her eyes filled with determination. Peridot scowled at her and looked forward as well.

"Ready?" Steven said. "Set. Throw!" As soon as he said that, the two competitors picked up the cars and throw them as far as they could. In fact, the duo throw them so far that there was no telling where the cars ended.

"Whoa!" Both Amethyst, Jet, Garnet and Steven said. Steven and Amethyst looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders.

"You both get a point on that one." Steven said. Steven proceeded to walk over to the chalkboard to mark and tally up the score. The others were right behind him. "Umm... looked like the final score is... it's a tie! Well, that settles it, you both get to lead the project together!"

"No!" Peridot yelled, startling Steven a bit. "This isn't over! I demand we have a tie-breaker!"

"Ugh!" Pearl groaned. "Let's just give it a rest! That's it! We tied, we're the same. Let's move on." Pearl started to move away and Peridot grabbed her robot's arm and pulled her close to her.

"No!" Peridot said. "You're a pearl. You are beneath me! I'll always be better than you and nothing I've seen today will ever change that!" Pearl had her eyes closed as if trying to block Peridot out.

"Well..." Pearl said, slowly opening her eyes. "Have you ever seen a pearl do this?" She kicked Peridot hard, sending her flying. Peridot hit the ground, hard.

"So..." Peridot said, slowing making her robot get up. "Wanna fight? Good! We should've done this from the beginning!" She charged at Pearl, ramming into her. The two started to really go at it, catching Jet's attention even more. He couldn't help it, fighting is all that he'd known and he'd like to watch others fight as well.

"Stop!" Steven pleaded. "Giant robot shouldn't fight!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Amethyst chanted. Peridot picked up Pearl and threw her towards the others. Garnet picked up Steven and jumped out of the way. Jet and Amethyst did so as well.

"Pearl?" Steven asked, while Garnet was still holding him.

"I'm alright, guys!" Pearl said, getting up off the ground. "I've got this!"

"Be careful!" Steven said.

"Kick her in the butt!" Amethyst cheered. Peridot started to hit Pearl, but Pearl was able to block the hit. Peridot tried to hit her with her other robotic claw but Pearl grabbed it. The two was in a deadlock and Peridot noticed.

"This is pointless!" Peridot said, gritting her teeth a little. "There's no way you're gonna beat me! You're an accessary! Somebody's shiny toy! Where do you get off acting like your own gem?" Peridot managed to break one of Pearl's robotic arm. "You're just a pearl!"

"That's right!" Pearl screamed. She was close enough to Peridot's face. "I AM A PEARL!" And with that, she managed to punch Peridot across the face. The others looked in shock at what Pearl did.

"Whoa." Jet said, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Nice hook."

"Woohoo!" Amethyst cheered, her fist in the air. Peridot stumbled back a few feet, she was a bit dazed from the punch that Pearl delivered.

"What you're saying maybe true, but it doesn't matter." Pearl said, making her robot leap in the air. Everyone looked up in the air when she did. "I'm still gonna kick your butt!" She made a flying kick towards Peridot. Peridot smirked and caught her kick.

"Uh-oh!" Pearl said. Peridot proceed to smash Pearl's robot from side to side, making the gems wince each time that she proceeded to get slammed into the ground. Peridot stopped after about 4 rotations of doing this, leaving Pearl in a crater in the ground. She was groaning a bit and she had swirls in her eyes.

"Pearl!" The others yelled and they ran over to see if she was OK. Peridot hopped out of her robot and started to laugh. Her face was swelling a little from the punch Pearl had given her.

"Ha!" She said. "Victory is mine! Now, I'm the one in charge! Praise me, Praise-"

"Pearl, are you OK?" Jet asked, helping her get on her feet.

"I'm fine." Pearl said, taking his hand that he had outstretch. She pulled herself up and Amethyst ran up to hug her.

"Yeah, P!" She said, still hugging her. "That was awesome! You were hardcore!" She proceeded to punch Pearl in the arm, which Pearl winced at.

"Oh, really?" She asked, rubbing her arm. Garnet walked over to where Pearl was and patted her on the head.

"Oh, yeah." Garnet said.

"Hey!" Peridot shouted. "Why aren't you listening to me? I won, I'm the natural leader here! She just a common Pearl!"

"You're wrong about that." Jet said, defending her. "If Pearls are really what you say they are, then Pearl isn't common at all. From what I've seen, she's an excellent fighter and she knows how to build things. She works hard every day to become better than she already is. So, that's not common. In fact, that's amazing." Everyone was looking at Jet in amazement, including Pearl who had a very deep blush on her face.

"C'mon." Garnet said, breaking the silence. "Let's clean up this mess." She was smiling a bit from the words that Jet said about Pearl. They started to walk away from Peridot, leaving her standing there.

"B-But I won!" Peridot shouted. "What about the rules?" Garnet stopped walking and turned to face Peridot.

"Welcome to Earth." She said, causing Peridot to stare at her.


The sun was starting to set and the gems manage to clean up most of the debris that was left over from the battle. Jet was by himself, he had a wheel in his hand. He had his back turned away from the others and he felt a tap on his shoulder. That tap made him drop the wheel and he started to reach for his weapon.

"Easy." He heard a familiar voice said. He lowered his guard and turned around to see who was talking to him. It was Pearl and she was standing there with a blush on her face. "Why are you on your guard? It's just us out here."

"I know." Jet said, picking the wheel back up. "It's my instincts. Anyway, what's on your mind?"

"This." She said, as she leaned in to kiss Jet. Jet was caught completely off guard by the kiss and he ended up dropping the wheel yet again. Jet reluctantly pulled Pearl away from him and looked around to see if Amethyst seen them (or anyone else, really). It seemed that everyone was too busy to notice them and Jet let out a sigh of relief.

"Not that I mind, but what was that for?" Jet asked, a bit nervous. Pearl had a deeper blush on her face.

"Those words that you've said about me." She said, touching her lips. "They were very sweet of you. Do you really think that about me?" Jet smiled at that.

"Of course." He said. "I noticed how unique you are. You're a genius and-" She placed a finger on his lips.

"OK." She said, her blush still intact. "I get it. Thank you."

"No problem." Jet said, as he started to pick up the wheel for a third time. He let out a deep breath and Pearl noticed.

"What's wrong?" She asked, looking at him in concern.

"We just kissed." Jet said, looking at her. "Amethyst is not gonna like this when I tell her."

"It's OK." Pearl said, making Jet drop the wheel for the fourth time.

"Come again?" Jet asked, his eyes widen.

"I talked to her before coming over to talk to you." Pearl said, picking up the wheel. "She said that she can understand why I would want to kiss you. You have a charm about you that makes you attractive. If Garnet wasn't already in a relationship, she'd-" She stopped when she noticed that Jet's eye was twitching a bit. He found Garnet attractive, but the thought of her being attracted to him never crossed his mind. She was like the older sister he never had.

"Anyway, she was a bit hesitant about it at first but she agreed to let me kiss you." Pearl continued. Jet was at a loss of words. "Maybe, when the time is available, I'll finally take you up on that offer."

"Offer?" Jet asked, slightly confused at what she said.

"You don't remember?" Pearl asked, causing Jet to think a bit. He was scrambling through his memories until he stopped at what she was talking about. His eyes widen upon realizing what she was talking about.


Quick Flashback

"Good morning... Jet." Pearl said.

"Morning..." Jet said, not looking her way. He was blushing a bit. Regretting a little of what he did. It wasn't his fault though. Pearl just happened to spying on Amethyst and Jet's little love session last night.

"Umm..." She started to speak. Jet turned around to look at her.

"I'll just forget that you were spying, if you do..." Jet said. "But, next time do join us." Jet saw a huge blush appear on her face. He headed out the door, with a smirk on his face.

Flashback End


"Oh..." Jet said, casting his eyes to the side, blushing a bit. He was sweating a bit though, all of this surprising him. He looked at Pearl and she winked at him before walking off.

'Well...' Jet thought, watching her walk away. 'Looks like Pearl likes me now. This is weird and moving too fast...' His mind shifted to both Pearl and Amethyst, naked in the bed with him. A bit of drool started to fall from his mouth. He shook his head. 'Yo, mom was right. I am a bit of a womanizer.'