"JAM BUDS FOREVER!" shouted Connie as she cut through the chest of the holo-pearl right in front of her with her sword while they were offguard, causing it to vanish instantaneously. Steven soon blocked an incoming attack from another holo-pearl with his shield. The two fought back to back, being so entwined in combat that it didn't take much time at all to finish off the last one that was summoned. Pearl, quite impressed in how the two have improved over years of fighting homeworld, soon summoned a few more and let the two brawl out one last round before returning to the temple.
After the fiasco of Spinel's invasion, Pearl thought it was a good idea for all the crystal gems, including herself, to keep up routine combat training. They never knew when another gem might disregard the diamonds new alliance with the group and attack earth. At the moment, it was Steven and Connie's turn, the two often fighting as a team due to how well they fought at the others side. Connie's intelligence and knowledge on sword-fighting, along with Steven's many abilities as a half-gem and shield made the duo very fearsome in tag-team combat.
Part of Connie's shoulder-length, dark hair was held back with a clip, her bangs moved a bit behind her ear as to aid in improving her sight. She wore her typical training outfit, the one she had obtained after her first few days of sword training, years ago. It was a purple, sleeveless fighting outfit with a v-necked top and a red bandanna around her waist. When she used that special sword of her's made by Bismuth, she looked almost unchanged over the years of change and growth that they all faced.
While Steven, in his salmon colored sandals, blue jeans, pink varsity jacket with white trims and black shirt, featuring its yellow star left him a very recognizable and new look. He rarely wore any other pair of clothes, just like how he had multiple pairs of the same red t-shirt when he was 13 and 14.
At last, the last holo-pearls were defeated. Pearl swiftly gave them a round of applause causing Steven to jokingly bow in her direction.
"That was marvelous, you two!" she shouted, wearing her poofy, cyan blazer, with its yellow star on the back, teal-blue top, indigo leggings and light pink ballet flats. Her sky-blue eyes seemed to beam with joy as she smiled. It was one of the few things that haven't changed, along with her ivory skin, slender, tall build, and her peach hair, which resembles a pixie-cut in the front, but led to a point in the back. Her oval, white, facetless gem still resided on her forehead, as it always did.
"It wasn't us who was marvelous its the teacher, for she's the one that taught us everything we know." replied Connie as she strapped the sword on to her back.
"You two have grown so much. I can't really take all the credit for that." Pearl motioned for the two to follow her as they went up the steps, beginning to exit the sky arena. "I wasn't sure initially if you two were ready, but..."
"Ready for what?" asked Steven, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms, and unlike the other two, then jumping off the platform and floating down to the warp pad instead of taking the stairs.
"Garnet foresaw something this morning, something that was going to happen somewhere called Madison." Pearl went on, stepping on top of the warp pad alongside the two teenagers. "You wouldn't happen to be aware of the city, would you?"
"Nope" said Steven, shrugging his shoulders.
"I think I have.. it's in New York, right? My dad said he had a job there one time, a bit before I was born." She didn't bring it up often, or her parents, but her father, Mr. Maheswaran, was still a private security guard.
Pearl solemnly nodded. "Me, Amethyst and Garnet have to check up on Little Homeworld. We were hoping you two could go in our place." The warp soon activated, a pale blue light shooting up off of the edges, causing the 3 to float ever so lightly.
When they landed on their feet and the light vanished, they were on the warp pad back in the temple. "Surely you two are responsible enough to go out-of-state, right?"
"I'm sure we'll be fine, Pearl. We may not have our drivers licences yet, but taking Lion would be faster anyway." Steven responded.
"Did Garnet happen to tell you about what kind of mission this would be?" asked Connie, as she stepped over and sat on the couch, placing her sword so it leaned on the wall close by. "After all, New York is at least a few states away from Delmarva. I didn't think anything even related to gem-kind happened outside of beach city."
When thinking about it, it was a fairly safe assumption on their part. From the Cluster, to the Diamonds and even to their recent attack from Spinel- things that could have affected the entire world, it was all staged in Beach city. Not only was it the home, of not just the crystal gems now, but for all they had known, every gem on earth through Little Homeworld. They never saw that the news had gone out across the US. The idea that gems, maybe even gems that were still corrupted and out of beach city, in somewhere as populated as New York, could be very disastrous.
"Not much.. something about it being similar to Lapis's old situation." replied Pearl. It was a ominious answer, due to how many "situations" Lapis had gone through. "You two better get going. After all, we don't know the exact measurement of danger, but we are aware its very dire."
"Alright. We'll see you later Pearl!" said Steven, as he waved goodbye and went out the screen door.
"Bye Pearl!" said Connie, soon following suit to Steven after grabbing her sword, the two going down the steps to find Lion, leaving Pearl to sigh to herself, silently wishing them luck.
