Chapter 24
Too Far
It has been 3 days since Peridot told the group about the cluster and it has been 3 days since Pearl kissed Jet out of the blue. His mind was still on that, as he watched Peridot talk into her tape recorder, which Steven had given her. They were at the barn again, working on the concepts of the drill. They started on some of it, such as blueprints and the outer dynamics. Steven and Amethyst walked and stood next to him as Peridot continued with her conversation.
"Log date 2." She said, with an arm behind her back. "It's the third rotation of the Earth since an order of a... collaborative approach to stopping the cluster."
"I've finished modifying the blueprints of the drill head." Pearl said, walking towards them with the chalkboard. "Peridot, if you can come look at this." Peridot stopped the recorder and walked towards Pearl with a bored expression on her face.
"Remind me again why I should listen to you?" Peridot asked, with her hands folded. "Oh right..." She unfolded her hands and rewind the tape recorder. She then stopped it and pressed play.
"The Pearl here has exhibited a skill for engineering that I respect." The recorder played back in her voice. "But that doesn't explain the spontaneous singing, crying, singing while crying." Amethyst and Jet looked at each other then started to laugh.
"Why did you give her that?" Pearl asked, looking at Steven.
"Well, we did destroy all her stuff." Steven said. "I thought it might make her feel a little better." Garnet walked up to them with a straw in her mouth.
"Alright." She said. "I chased away those cows, let's get to work." Peridot placed her hands behind her back and glanced up at Garnet.
"Before we begin, do you mind un-fusing?" Peridot asked. "It's making me incredibly uncomfortable." The others glanced at Garnet with a look of worry on their faces. They didn't know how she was going to respond upon hearing that. She didn't say anything as she walked over casually to where Peridot was and gently picked her up.
"Hey!" Peridot said, as Garnet lifted her up. "What are you doing?" Garnet reminded silent, as she walked over to a nearby fence and proceeded to tie Peridot up, restricting her movements.
"What did I say?" Peridot asked as Garnet started to walk back towards the others, who sweat dropped upon watching that whole scenario.
"Do we really have to do that?" Steven asked.
"Her having free range of the place makes me incredibly uncomfortable." Garnet said.
A little time has pass since that little 'incident' between Peridot and Garnet and the others were pretty much doing their own thing. Garnet was relaxing a bit by the barn and Steven, along with Amethyst, was helping Pearl gather the necessary materials that she needed. Jet was mediating close to them. He was astro training himself, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The hand belonged to Amethyst and he opened one eye to see that Steven and Amethyst was next to him.
"What's up?" He asked, his legs folded while he was sitting on the grass.
"Nothing much." Amethyst answered. "We're about to see how Peridot's doing. Wanna join us?"
"Why not?" Jet responded, pushing him up. The now trio, went over to were Peridot was to see her struggling to try and reach the microwave. She managed to do so and kneel on the ground as to inspect it.
"Hmm..." She started as the trio approached her. "I just need some sort of leverage optimizer."
"Leverage optimizer?" Amethyst repeated with an eyebrow raised.
"That's what I said." Peridot said, looking at her in amusement.
"Oh... you mean you want a screw driver?" Amethyst asked, then she started to laugh a bit.
"Do you have one or not?" Peridot asked, getting slightly annoyed already. Steven saw that it was one that was out of her reach and he picked it up and handed it to her.
"Here you go." Steven said, with Peridot snatching it from him. Amethyst started to giggle a bit and Jet knew that she was up to something.
"Hey, Peridot. What do you call this?" Amethyst said, pointing to her nose.
"A sense sponge." Peridot said, looking at Amethyst in disinterest.
"Huh?" Both Jet and Steven said, a bit confused at what she just said. Amethyst started to giggle even more.
"Ok. What's this?" She said, pointing to her eye.
"Vision sphere." Peridot said.
"Peridot that's-" Steven started, until Amethyst stopped him.
"Wait, wait Steven." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Peridot... these?" She started to wiggle her fingers around a bit.
"Touch stumps." Peridot said, through gritted teeth.
"This?" Amethyst asked, point to her left foot.
"Gravity connectors." Peridot said, teeth still gritted a bit. She started to realize what Amethyst was doing.
"This?" Amethyst asked, pointing to her rear.
"That's your butt!" Peridot shouted, clearly annoyed now. Jet, Steven and Amethyst let out a roar of laughter at Peridot's expense. She gritted her teeth in frustration as they continued to laugh.
"Oh, man! Peridot, you're killing me." Steven said, still laughing a bit.
"I am not!" Peridot said. "That would violate our truce agreement."'
"No, no, no." Amethyst said, laughing a bit herself. "You're funny!"
"Funny?" Peridot asked, looking a tad confused. Pearl walked up to them with a tool in her hand.
"Peridot." Pearl started. "If you can get the magnetron out of that microwave, then we'll have everything we need. Well, except for the drill head of course."
"Why don't I get an injector drill head from The Kindergarten?" Peridot asked. The was a brief silence between the two before Pearl started to talk.
"Oh, well...I guess that's something you could try." Pearl said.
"She's not going to The Kindergarten without a chaperone!" Garnet shouted from where she was, causing them to look back.
"What?" Peridot asked, looking mildly offended. "You must be joking!"
"You'll know when I'm joking!" Garnet shouted once more. Peridot gritted her teeth but said nothing.
"Me, Jet and Steven can go with her!" Amethyst said, sitting on the microwave.
"We will?" Jet asked, raising an eyebrow. He would rather train than waste his time 'babysitting' Peridot. Amethyst shot him a mean look.
"Yes, we will." Amethyst said, causing Jet to sigh. He could disagree but he didn't want cause Amethyst to be mad with him. He remembered the last time that he did and he said that he didn't want her to feel that way with him again. Garnet was now making her way over to where they were.
"Yeah!" Steven said, throwing his hands in the air. "We'll keep an eye on her!"
"Approved." Garnet said. She shifted her attention towards Jet and Amethyst. "Keep her in line, you two."
"You got it!" Amethyst said, saluting her.
"Right." Jet said, nodding his head in agreement.
"Ugh." Peridot groaned.
It didn't take long for the group of 4 to get to The Kindergarten, as there was a warp pad not too far from the barn's location. Peridot lead the way to a broken-down injector and she pulled the tape recorder from her pocket to start recording herself. While she did this, Jet looked around the drill, inspecting it to look for a weak point. Steven had pulled himself on it and started to hit the drill with a rock. Amethyst was kicking it at the base of it.
"Log date 7 11 2." Peridot started. "The Amethyst, the Jet and the Steven have volunteer to help me dismantle this area 1 drill. How stylistically unpleasing, the newer ones have a nicer finish." Amethyst stopped kicking the base and noticed that Peridot was talking into the tape recorder.
"You making more nerd notes?" Amethyst asked.
"What is nerd?" Peridot asked, stopping her recording. Amethyst started to snicker at that. "Can you use it in a sentence?" Amethyst cleared her throat.
"Nerd." Amethyst said. "You are a nerd." She started to laugh at this and Steven and Jet walked over to where they were.
"Amethyst, cut that out!" Steven said, walking over to Amethyst side with Jet behind him.
'Dammit.' Jet thought as he folded his arms. 'I couldn't find an exact weak point without destroy it just yet. There is one though.' Jet was cut from his thoughts as he heard Peridot begun talking.
"As you can see, this planet is annoying and everything is annoying..." Peridot said, speaking into her tape recorder once more. "Among it transgressions, is a need for the Amethyst to ask permission from the permafusion."
"Permafusion?" Amethyst asked. "Is that what you call Garnet?" Peridot stopped the recording on the tape recorder once more as well.
"I can call her lots of things." Peridot stated, placing the tape recorder on the ground. "I can call her two things! Two clods!" She paused only to laugh. "Walking around like she's one clod!" Amethyst started to snicker at this.
"What's wrong with that?" Jet asked. Peridot shot him a look of amusement.
"She's not even fighting, you know! S-she, you know!" Peridot said. Jet raised an eyebrow and Amethyst started to laugh at this.
"You're a real gem, Perry!" Amethyst said, calming down at bit.
"Yes." She said. "I am a gem."
"Ok, Ok. Do Steven next." Amethyst said, pointing at Steven. "What's weird about Steven?"
"Where do I even being?" Peridot asked, causing Steven to widen his eyes. Amethyst had stars in hers. "He's some sort of hybrid abomination. I don't even understand how he functions. He organic half consumes so much energy that he has to constantly feed and he spends so much time expelling, that he has a whole room dedicated to it." Steven was blushing a deep red and Amethyst was howling up a storm with laughter.
"No! Something else! Talk about something else!" Steven said, flustered. Peridot took a glance a Jet, who was looking at her with his eyes slightly raise.
"Ah, yes!" She started. "The other hybrid. The same for Steven can be implied towards him as well. Except this one seems angrier than the other." Jet eyes widen upon hearing this. "From what I observed so far, is that this hybrid mostly spends his time-wasting energy and consuming more than Steven. I guess that is acceptable, considering that he spends that energy on what he calls 'training,' which looks like he's sleeping to me. Thus, wasting even more energy to begin with. I also-"
"We get it." Jet said, a vein mark appearing on his forehead. Amethyst was holding her sides at this point, the laughter getting to her. She even snorted a couple of times. Peridot folded her arms and took a glance at Amethyst, who was still chuckling a little.
"The strangest thing is, Amethyst, you think you have to listen to them!" Peridot said, laughing a little at this. "You're the one that should be in charge!" Amethyst laughed a little at that.
"Ha!" Amethyst said, placing a hand on her hip. "That's your best joke yet."
"No, really." Peridot started. "Pearl is a pearl, Garnet is a fusion and I don't even know what he is supposed to be." She pointed a Steven when she said that. "And he is 'unique' but indifferent." She pointed to Jet, who continued to stare at her with widen eyes. "You're the only crystal gem that's actually a gem."
"Umm...haa...what?" Amethyst said, a bit flustered.
"By standards, you outrank everyone on your team." Peridot said, clasping her hands together. "They should be listening to you. You're a strong, singular, fully functional soldier even though you're defective."
"Defective?" Amethyst said, her eyes widen a bit.
"What?" Jet said, his eyes widening too.
"Well, sure." Peridot said, a hand on her hip. "You're small."
"So?" Amethyst said.
"Well, you're not supposed to be." Peridot said. "Hold on, let me guess." She pointed to a hole in wall not too far from them. Peridot walked over to it and mentioned for the others to follow. Jet had a slight idea of where Peridot was going with because this is the area where Pearl and Amethyst duked it out before he had to intervene.
"This is the hole that you came out of." Peridot stated, looking at the small crater that was about Amethyst's height. Amethyst scowled at the place that she came out of, not being too fond of it. Peridot peeked her head inside. "It's too small, too low and the exit marks look about 500 years newer than every other hole." Peridot peered her head out and resumed talking to them. "This place must've been empty when you came out. No wonder you have no idea what you're supposed to look like."
"Peridot." Steven said, trying to stop her from saying some else. Amethyst did not look happy. She was scowling at Peridot, her fist clenched in suppressed anger.
"What was I supposed to look like?" Amethyst said, through gritted teeth.
"Well, you're a quartz." Peridot said, as she started to walk back to the injector drill. "They're huge, loyal soldiers. You should be twice your size, board shoulders and intimidating but you simply stayed in the ground too long."
"Are you saying I'm wrong?" Amethyst asked, as she watched Peridot take a seat by the end of the injector.
"Well, yes." Peridot said, as she started to laugh a bit. "When you think about it, it's kinda funny."
"Amethyst..." Jet said, looking at her with worried eyes. She looked as if she was about to snap.
"Hey soldier." Peridot said. "Maybe you can help me get this drill head off?" Amethyst didn't say anything as she summoned her weapon. Jet didn't know if she was going to attack Peridot or not, though if she did, he wouldn't blame her. She simply swiped her whip at the front end of the drill, knocking of the drill head in one clean swoop.
"See, look at that?" Peridot said, as she ran up to the drill head. "You can do everything that a normal quartz can do! Now, let's head back and shove this thing in Pearl's face." Peridot walked off, leaving the others to handle the drill. Jet picked it up with ease (thanks to his training) and looked at Amethyst with the same look of worry in his eyes.
"Amethyst, are you OK?" Steven asked, worried about Amethyst.
"Don't worry about it." Amethyst said, her teeth gritted in anger.
The trip from The Kindergarten was an awkward one. Peridot kept talking about gem differences and Jet and the others had no choice but to listen to her. Jet glance to notice that Amethyst was still pissed off at what Peridot had said but remained to keep quiet. Jet didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better, he wasn't so great at cheering people up. When they got back, Amethyst went over to the barn where Garnet and Pearl was and went inside. She folded her arms in frustration and Jet sat the drill that he was carrying next to Pearl.
"Oh, it's lovely!" Pearl said, marveling the drill. "To think that we'd be using the same technology that started all of this to fix it, this drill is pure irony!" Jet sweat dropped at this.
"Actually, it's mostly carbonate!" Peridot shouted, from where she was. Garnet had tied her back up to the fence and Steven was sitting right next to her. Jet sat next to Garnet and Garnet looked at him.
"What's wrong?" Garnet asked, noticing his demeanor.
"Nothing." Jet said, folding his arms.
"You're lying." Garnet said, folding her arms as well.
"Ah, right. That vision of yours." Jet said. "Well, Peridot said some pretty mean things to Amethyst. I wish I could cheer her up, even just a little."
"I see." Garnet said, her attention shifting to Peridot, who was shouting something about 'clods.' That didn't surprise any of them.
"Looks like she throwing another one of her temper tantrums." Pearl said, noticing what Peridot was doing. "I'm surprise you three made it out of The Kindergarten without driving each other crazy."
"Tch." Amethyst muttered from the barn.
'I gotta try to cheer her up.' Jet thought, getting up from his seat. Jet went into the barn and notice that she was leaning against the wall. She glanced at him and turned her head a little.
"Remember when I first meet you and asked where all of the crystal gems were as pretty as you?" Jet asked, causing Amethyst to blush. Jet barely could see it as her head was still turned. "Well, to me, it doesn't matter what you are supposed to be. To me, you are you." Amethyst turned her head to look at him.
"I remember that stuff that Topaz said." Jet continued as he placed his hands in his pockets. "About me being some sort of rare gem and how my gem kind was wiped out. I don't care about that because it doesn't truly define me. You shouldn't let what Peridot said define you. Besides..." Jet trailed off and stepped closer to Amethyst. "I like the way you are." Amethyst eyes widen and she went to wrap her arms around Jet.
"You suck at cheering people up." Amethyst joked, smiling a bit. "But thanks..." Jet smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Amethyst closed her eyes and puckered her lips, preparing for it until the sound of rumbling was heard. The two walked outside and the first thing they notice was that the drill was going haywire. Jet ran up to Peridot to try to see what was wrong.
"I was working on the drill when something just went wrong." She stated. "It's malfunctioning, it must be the wires." Jet was trying to figure out how to stop the drill without destroying it. Brute force was always his way out stopping things. While trying to figure out how to stop it, Steven jumped inside of the seated drill and was twirling inside of it.
"Wait!" Peridot said. "The panel inside-"
"It's OK, I got it!" Steven said, while he was spinning inside. The drill was spinning out of control and it was heading towards Amethyst.
"Amethyst!" Both Jet and Peridot shouted. Jet started to take off after her until a giant hunk of metal was heading towards him.
'What the?' Jet said, as he quickly summoned his weapon and sliced the metal in half. The two pieces landed on either side of him. 'It must've been the debris that the drill is slinging around. I got reach Amethyst before-' His thought was cut off as Peridot pushed Amethyst out of the drill's way. The drill stopped and Steven peered his head from the drill's seat.
"It's OK." Steven said, with swirls in his eyes. "I stopped it." Peridot landed on top of Amethyst when she pushed her out of the way. Jet found the sight to be erotic and he had to take a deep breath to stop his other 'partner' from getting excited.
"Umm, Peridot?" He heard Amethyst say. Peridot immediately got off her. Jet looked around and started to wonder where Pearl and Garnet was.
"We leave for one second and everything goes off the rail!" He heard Pearl say. He turned around and notice that Pearl and Garnet were heading in their direction.
"I blame the cows." Garnet said, folding her arms.
"No, it's fine." Pearl said, looking at the damaged drill. "We'll rebuild it better, we'll add seat-belts!"
The sun was setting and the crew decided to clean up the mess before nightfall. Steven, Jet and Amethyst was a little distance from the barn and they were picking up the debris there. Amethyst was picking up a tire and Steven had a shovel, patching up the loose dirt. Jet had a rake to smooth out the dirt that Steven was patching out.
"Hey, are you alright?" Steven asked Amethyst, causing her to look at him. "That was a close one. Good thing Peridot was there to save you." Amethyst scoffed and threw the tire behind her. Jet guessed that Peridot wasn't off the hook just yet.
"Yes, it is a good thing." Peridot said, spooking them a bit from her sudden appearance. Peridot glanced at Amethyst to notice that her arms were folded. "Listen, I... umm..."
"Spit it out." Amethyst said, causing Peridot's eyes to widen a bit.
"Ugh." Peridot groaned. "Why are you Earth ones so difficult?" She took out her tape recorder and pressed the play button on it.
"Log dat 2." Her recorded voice said. "This entire planet is backwards. There hasn't been one instance of correct behavior exhibited by any of these crystal gems. I have concluded that they are all defective...but I am no better." Amethyst eyes widen a bit and turned her head towards Peridot. "I failed my mission and now I'm working with the enemy and I can't even get that right. I have apparently hurt Amethyst's... feelings, which was not my intent. If I damaged my standing with the best gem here, then I have made a serious mistake. I'm still learning. I hope that you understand, I want to understand. I'm sorry. Peridot, sector 5, end log." She pressed the stop button on her tape recorder.
"Oh, Peridot." Steven said, causing Peridot to snort at him.
"Hey, umm... Peridot." Amethyst said, causing Peridot to look at her. "Thanks." Peridot let out a small smile at that. "But, you're still a nerd." Jet laughed at that and Amethyst walked off.
"I'll be sure to add that to my notes." Peridot said, a bit annoyed at the nerd comment.
