Garnet served the tennis ball and slammed it over the net. She'd been at it all morning; a client had abruptly canceled their appointment, so now she had an empty block of time in her schedule. It was just as well; it was a cloudy Saturday, and it looked like rain was coming in.
She threw one more tennis ball up in the air… Then bolted for the chain-link fence. She scaled it quickly and ran right into a black SUV whose occupants were starting to pour out of the doors. Garnet, of course, was not going to wait.
She held out her fists, feeling the power coursing through them and slammed it into one of the opening doors. The vehicle rolled over not once but twice as its armed occupants screamed at the sudden change in juxtaposition.
She gave a quick smile at the victory and attempted to bolt for the nearby woods only to be surrounded by two more SUV's and a black town car. Garnet wouldn't be able to get out of this one unscathed.
"I think that's enough, my dear." It was painful, every muscle, tendon, and bone seized in place. Garnet began to sweat as a light blue halo of light surrounded her. Dread ran up the column of her throat; Garnet recognized the voice. Aquamarine, one of the most ruthless and cruel agents the Authority had to offer.
The tennis instructor grit her teeth as a tall, bulky operative in a black pantsuit, and spiky short platinum hair walked up and roughly put her in cuffs.
"Put a full harness on this one, Topaz, we wouldn't want any more damaged vehicles."
… … … … … … … … …
A double shift. She had to work a freaking double shift! Why couldn't the manager hire any reliable help? Amethyst grumbled under her breath as she brought the trash out to the back alleyway behind the bar.
She kicked a plastic crate over to the dumpster and tossed the garbage bags in. "This sucks," she muttered as she hopped down. One day she would have her own bar and wouldn't have to deal with bad hires. Amethyst just wouldn't tolerate it. It'd taken her years, but she had a tidy nest egg in the local bank, soon she could have her bar on the beach…
"Funny, you should have thrown yourself in there, because that's where you belong." A woman stood in front of Amethyst, not too much taller than herself in a pleated skirt and blazer. She saw a blue flash and reacted instantly.
She did a forward roll and grabbed her attacker's arm tossing her over her shoulder. The woman in the blazer landed eight feet away in the dumpster, hard, making a loud metallic bang.
Amethyst just grinned as she looked over her shoulder, "Don't know who you are, but I always take out the trash bitch-"
The bartender wasn't looking where she was running, and someone else (someone large) grabbed her by the front of her shirt, lifted her up, and smashed their head into her face.
Amethyst saw stars, then blackness.
… … … … … … … … …
"Did you get everything on the list?" Pearl asked Steven while cocking a critical eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, pretty much. Umm, but there's some weird stuff on it." The 12 year-old sat on an old wooden crate, kicking his legs. He had his cheeseburger backpack sitting next to him as he watched one of the seagulls on the dock warily.
The willowy woman pursed her lips and held out a hand while resting the other one on her hip. Steven gave a small frown and pulled the battered school supplies list out of his back pocket.
It was pretty standard; markers, crayons, scissors, protractor, solar calculator… One package of #3 pencils pre-sharpened. Unusual, but not impossible. 15 glue sticks… (15!?)
"Gluten-free paint!? Are they serious? This is seventh grade! Nobody should be eating paint!" A blotchy blush rose across the woman's cheeks as her pale blue eyes narrowed.
"I guess they just want to make sure?" Steven offered, trying to be positive. Pearl sighed and smiled ever so slightly; her boy always looked for the positive in every situation.
"Did you take all your medicine this morning?" She folded up the list and carefully placed it in the pocket of her apron. Pearl checked her watch, 20 more minutes till her break ends; two more hours till her shift ends.
She leaned on the crate that Steven was sitting on and brushed some curls behind his ear. She always felt especially guilty on the days he was on his own; everyone had to work today, leaving the boy to his own devices.
"Hear me out Pearl; ever since I learned I had powers and started using them? I haven't had any bad headaches. Besides, those pills make my stomach upset sometimes," The woman nodded and looked out over the docks watching the fishing trawlers move.
"It makes sense, I've known others who had similar symptoms when their abilities first emerged." She looked back at Steven.
"Really!? Like who?" The boy had stars in his eyes.
"Rose did for one, she used to get them all the time."
"You knew mom before she had her powers?" Pearl hummed.
"I met her just as she was coming into her abilities. She was a special lady, your mother."
"Rose Quartz was special because she managed to escape the law for as long as she did. She was singularly gifted in that respect; I'll give her that much." Pearl's head snapped up as a figure in a black duster, and Kevlar armor walked down the docks towards the pair.
"Steven, run! Go to your dad's carwash now!" Pearl grabbed Steven and set him on the ground while pushing his backpack into his arms. Her gaze never leaving the figure standing on the docks.
"Wha-Blue? What are you doing here?" Pearl's head swiveled over to Steven then back to Blue Diamond.
"Steven, you should listen to Pearl. You shouldn't be involved, you should go to your father's where you'll be safe." Blue glanced at the boy, her gaze softening for just a second before turning back into jagged ice.
"Blue, what's going on?" The 12 year-old clutched at his backpack but made no move to leave.
Pearl had no idea how her Steven knew Blue Diamond (honestly it was giving her heart palpitations), but she needed him to leave. Now.
"Steven, go. I don't know how you met her, but this woman is dangerous." Another quick glance towards the boy, the look was caught between panic and anger.
"I'm dangerous? Me?" Blue's voice raised a few octaves as an azure corona enveloped her left hand. Her arctic colored eyes glowing brightly. "You are the one that killed Carissa, my daughter! And I'm dangerous!?"
"Run!" Pearl pushed Steven into a nearby sandy bank as she ran and dove off the side of the docks underneath them. She might be able to lose Blue Diamond in the darkness, but she wasn't sure. God, she hoped Steven ran away…
It was low tide, the wet sand and seaweed made for poor movement, but it was the only shot Pearl had. "You can't hide from me! I will find you, murderer!"
Murderer? Pearl was a murderer, the nerve! The Lt. Colonel had taken far more lives than Pearl ever had. The sound of wood violently breaking and splitting interrupted her thoughts. Blue Diamond didn't even bother going around to the side, she just cut through the sun-bleached walkway. The dark and salty wooden labyrinth was now awash in an eerie azure glow as Blue Diamond began prowling for Pearl.
The willowy woman took a deep breath in and bent the light around her. She'd be much harder to spot now.
"I did no such thing! I wouldn't dare touch a hair on her head. Your daughter deserved better, she deserved to live her own life!" She shouldn't be talking, but Pearl couldn't help herself.
"Really!? Is that why you killed her and then pushed her car off a cliff!? Your fingerprints were all over the scene of the crime!" Blue Diamond raked the area with a blinding white-blue beam of energy. Pilings burned and toppled over as the walkways above crashed down nearly on top of the pair.
This had to stop now, there may be people nearby and then… God, Steven… He had better not be up there.
Blue Diamond had no idea that Pearl was behind her, she could slip away. But she would destroy this area just to get at Pearl. She had to face the Diamond.
Pearl let her camouflage ebb away and kicked colonel in the back of her left knee, then did a roundhouse kick to the right side of her head. She landed face-first into the wet sand and gravel. Now was her chance she bolted for the bottom of an embankment, but an energy bolt hit her square in the back. She flew forward, landing on her stomach; air was having a hard time getting into her lungs.
"Oh no, you don't, you're not going to get away this time!" Pearl felt herself being wrenched up by her collar then slammed against a nearby piling. She began to punch desperately against the Diamond's side, but it was as if nothing could stop this woman. Blue Diamond's left hand wrapped around Pearl's neck and squeezed.
"You cannot fathom how much I've mourned! What decades of grief has done to me!" Pearl's vision began to blur, and darkness crept up on the edges. She felt something "pop" in her neck; Pearl may not make it through this fight…
"Stop!" A young, clear voice rang out. Slowly fingers loosened from around Pearl's throat, and she took a desperate gasp.
"Don't do this, Blue! Let her go! I don't want to fight you, but I will if I have to!" The restaurant manager's eyes were still blurry from lack of oxygen. Still, she could see a brilliant magenta light coming from her left side.
"Steven? How…?" The Irish accent was ragged and confused; the boy's powers were an anomaly. There was one chance.
There was a pistol holstered to the colonel's side, Pearl grabbed it while simultaneously shoving the other woman away. She flipped the safety off and aimed the gun right at the Diamond's head as she squeezed the trigger.
"Pearl, no!" A bright pink shield flew and hit Pearl, knocking her off balance. Her shot went wide, just missing the colonel.
Steven had thrown his bulwark with such force that it broke two pilings before embedding itself into the ground and then dissipating. Both Pearl and Blue Diamond stood gaping at the young man.
"Stop it, you two, just stop it!" His face was red, and he was in tears. Pearl opened her mouth to say something when a loud snap made the trio look up. The section of the docks they were under was coming down fast.
The piling next to Steven toppled over, it was going to crush him! Pearl screamed; she was too far away to save her baby. But Blue Diamond wasn't.
She leaped just to the side of the boy, sand and gravel spraying upward as Blue caught the falling debris. Just in time…
"Get him out of here! Go!" Blue Diamond screamed at Pearl.
The thin woman didn't think twice, she grabbed Steven and jumped up a nearby embankment. She managed to get herself and Steven to the relative safety of an adjacent concrete walkway. The entire section of the docks they were fighting under wholly collapsed.
"Blue, no!" The boy screamed and tried to go back down, Pearl held fast.
"Steven, stop!" The boy flailed, and Pearl finally let go.
"Looked what happened! All this because you were fighting, why were you fighting!?" She had never seen Steven so angry before. Red-faced and tears streaming down, landing on the front of his shirt.
"Steven…"
"Is it true what she said? Did you… Did you hurt her daughter?" His voice was rough and scared and angry; so many emotions.
"Steven, there's a lot that you don't understand right now." It sounded so lame, pathetic. It was the truth, but it seemed so inadequate to describe what was going on.
Sudden shifting could be heard from the wreckage below. Pearl went to grab Steven but found that she couldn't move all of a sudden.
"Hey, lemme, go!" From the side, a large woman with short-cropped hair had grabbed Steven and was holding him fast.
"Finally, we have all of the Crystal Gems. And a bonus Gem to boot." Aquamarine walked in front of Pearl, a smug smile painted on her face.
"White Diamond will be very interested in this boy. Ha, a boy Gem… who knew." An armored black transport van drove up the side of the docks along with two other SUVs.
… … … … … … … … …
The debris shifted once again, and a black-gloved hand grasped the edge of the dock. Blue Diamond gingerly pulled herself up from the wooden kindling below. She was covered in sand, and blood trickled down the right side of her face.
"Ah, Lt. Colonel Diamant, we have everything under control up here as you can see." Blue Diamond simply glowered at Pearl as she brushed her silver locks over her shoulder. (Aquamarine was still holding her in a stasis field.) But she stopped short when she saw Steven.
"Release the boy; he had nothing to do with this." Topaz made to put the boy down, but Aquamarine put up a hand, halting the soldier.
"The boy assaulted you, he's an accessory. Plus, he has powers? White Diamond will want him questioned at least." The diminutive woman squared up against Blue.
"I'm in command of this operation, and I'm ordering you to let the boy go. Are you questioning my authority?" Her voice was pure ice, and her eyes radiated a dangerous glow.
"White Diamond has sent me along to be at your disposal, but she also sent me along to make sure you were making sound decisions." Aquamarine sniffed and looked over at Steven and Topaz.
"Everything was fine until this point. I'm sorry, Lt. Colonel, I'm going to make a judgment call and supersede your order to let the boy go. We're taking him into custody to the old naval base along with the other Crystal Gems."
Blue Diamond clenched her jaw, there was nothing she could do at the moment. She would have to play along for the time being. She could reason with White when they got to their base of operations. Blue turned on her heel and walked over to the Topaz soldier.
"I'm sorry, Steven, I'm so sorry. I didn't want you involved, but we're going to fix this somehow, I promise." She reached out to brush away the boy's tears, but he simply turned his head away.
Blue Diamond's heart shattered.
