Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any Non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.
Author's Note: with Homeworld's first attack causing panic, death and destruction all over the world. There's only one person who can put a stop to it.
Story Tags: Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli, OC's, Connie Maheswaran Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, Bells, Whistles, Citrine, Peridot, Beach City, Gem Powers, Romance, Adventure, Comfort, Destiny.
Music Inspiration: "Caradhras" by: Two Steps from Hell
Chapter 36: Death of The Green Sun
Saturday
August 22, 2016 8:30 [Night]
Above Earth Orbit
Flying out of the earth at hyper sonic speed. Commander Soren looked like a rocket launched by NASA, and a comet similarly. A long brilliant fiery tail formed behind him from the atmospheric drag he made in his Hyper sonic ascent into the heavens. Flying past the dark green clouds and seeing the green color of the earth's atmosphere slowly turning black. Soren cocked his right fist back ready to destroy the Green Sun. with a stoic face, he uttered the words "Commanding Fire Method: Sun Buster Punch!"
Soren's entire Right arm and fist became shrouded in Black Fire. That black fire gradually enshrouded his entire body. From the point of view from the moon, a long streak of 'black light' flew towards the small green orb of luminescent energy above the earth. The black light turned into a massive Disembodied Jet Ash black Fist of Black Fire. It swung upwards so fast, some light and plasma from the sun was sucked in from the sheer velocity of the speed the fist that punched through the green sun.
The Green Sun glowed intensely before firing out several rings of green light all around it. Several gigantic explosion took place above the earth. What remained after the explosion, was a cloud of green dust and sparkles of green mutagenic energy that fell down to the earth like snowflakes.
Hovering in the same spot where the green sun was located at, Commander Soren's armor and pancho were partially melted and burned. But overall, Soren was unscathed after that mini supernova like explosion.
"That takes care of the Green Sun. but these clouds and sparkles of energy are going to slowly sink down into the earth's atmosphere, where it'll come down as rain and cause this mess to last for months, even an entire year. In that time the planet's tree life and animal life will be beyond rescue, it'll be the end of this beautiful lonely planet. The things I do for my ancestral mother."
"Fire Sealing Method: Star Core Shell." Commander Soren pointed his open left palm over to a distant rogue sun outside of the solar system. he pulled it in slowly. The seriousness and level of concentration in Commander Soren's face showed just how difficult of a task this was.
"First to speed up that foreign star's nuclear fusion until it burns itself out." several hundred million miles away, the rogue Star being pulled over by Commander Soren was burning up its all of its energy so fast, it expanded into a red giant that began to emit clouds of ionized gas. Soren sped this process up, which normally would have last for tens of thousands of years to only a few hours.
With the Nebula's ionized gas completely safely emitted out, the brilliant light display it gave of several light years away, had faded. Now the only thing left was the physical steaming husk of the once proud brilliant star. Soren pulled in the steaming rocky husk in only as close enough as Jupiter. With the wave of his finger, he sliced the dead star's core telekinetically and opened it like a four sliced orange. Now turning over to the green space dust hovering around the earth, using all of his telekinetic might, he gathered all of the green space dust and directed it away from the earth and over inside of the core of the dead star.
He closed the star core telekinetically when all of the toxic radiated dust was inside. He flew over to the star core and welded the cracks and fracture lines using temperature vision for a double safety measure. Temperature vision consisted of three states. Everything which is Hot, Cold and Neutral. With the fractures and cracks welded shut, and ensuring that the harmful radiation would never leak out again. Soren fired the sealed star husk out into space, far away from the solar system. Soren took a sigh of relief and gathered energy that he expended from the Sun.
"Where did that beam come from. There are no Homeworld warships or Outposts in this Solar System, at least none that I can see or know about." Soren asked himself.
On Neso, Neptune's Moon. The quad radar dishes sank back down into the asteroid and powered down, so as to avoid detection from scanning eyes of a commander.
Town of Palmyra
9:10 [Night]
When Soren blew the green sun up. A brilliant green flash in the night sky shined, and a thunderous blast reverberated all across the world. The explosion was strong enough to rumble the earth, which in turn caused the tides of the seas to become agitated which rose and fell, eventually forming tsunamis that unfortunately caused death and destruction to coastal cities and towns around the world. Although, the degree of damage and death varied from continent to continent.
Connie, like everyone on earth, saw the green flash of light and felt the rumbling of the earth. She also covered her ears when the thunderous roar of the explosion above the earth reverberated everywhere. But she was to busy concentrating on finding her parents and Thomas's father, the mayor to divert her attention somewhere else.
Battling their way through plant monsters, tree monsters and more terrifying monstrosities across town, Connie and Thomas pushed ahead to the Hospital. But before the young couple could enter the hospital, hundreds of living vines punctured out from under the asphalt street and wrapped around their shins and pulled them down on the ground.
Connie was pulled down under the ground, while Thomas was smacked down on the ground repeatedly in an arch movement over and over before being let go, and flying into a parking lot and tearing through several parked cars and trucks that exploded.
Underneath the ground, vines constricted around Connie tightly hoping to crush her to death. But thanks to her quick thinking and battle advice from her mentor Smoky, Connie was in no danger. Her entire body was encased in a compacted layer of granite rock, which did not appear on her until she was struck hard enough by an enemy.
Several vines were coiled around her arms and body, trying with all their might to crush Connie. While the vines were busy with Connie, Her sword and shield disappeared the moment she dropped them. this was a safeguard to prevent anyone other than her from picking them up and hurting themselves or others. Connie's Granite armor was tough, with only a few fracture lines appearing around her arms and back.
"You stupid vines! You're going to have to squeeze a lot harder than that! Earth Method: Bedrock Jaws."
Pushing out of the soil and hard rock around Connie were several crocodiles skulls and jaws made of solid rock. Their large maws opened up and clamped down on the vines coiled around Connie. They pulled and tore into them, freeing Connie. She pressed a kiss on the snout of one of the stone crocodiles before digging her way out of the ground. She left the stone crocs to handle the vines beneath the streets of Palmyra.
Resurfacing back above ground, Connie dusted herself off and looked for Thomas. By this time Palmyra was now mostly a ghost town, with only a few sounds of gunshots, molotov cocktails breaking on impact and the growling of flora monsters roaming around.
"Connie!" shouted a voice from across the street.
Connie turned and saw Thomas walking over to her. His stone armor was covered in the blood of plant monsters and scorch marks. In his gauntlets he dragged the dead bodies of two sunflower monsters. Through Thomas's eyes he saw Connie running over to her, covered in dirt and dirt stains. He released the hold on the leafy hands of his dead foes and rushed over to Connie. The young couple reunited with each other with a hug.
"You Ok Connie?"
"I'm fine Thomas. No problem. How about you?"
"Oh well I just got tossed around like a rag doll, then crashed into a couple of cars which resulted in them exploding. But your armor held up better than I thought."
"What did I tell you Thomas, Magick. Now c'mon! We need to find our parents."
Palmyra Hospital
Manifesting her Diamond sword and osmium shield, Thomas punched through the chained doors of the hospital entrance doors. Connie rose a wall of earth to close the opening behind them when she and Thomas walked further inside. It was to prevent more of those monsters from coming inside to kill possible survivors.
The halls of the Hospital were without power, and if they were, they only flickered on and off. They flickering of light revealed blood stains on the once polished marble floors. The bodies of doctors, nurses, civilians who came inside seeking shelter littered the floor. This worried Connie gravely. Could her mother had also succumbed to the same fate. Was she perhaps too late?
"Help!" "Someone Help Us!"
There were still people left alive inside of the hospital! But that meant there were also monsters inside.
"C'mon Thomas!" Connie ordered.
The couple ran and made a turn on the main hallway. Some doors were barred from the outside, and others were broken down in rooms with blood pooling out into the hallways.
"Mom! Moomm! It's me Connie!"
"...Connie..."
"Mom!?" Connie yelled in response to her name being called. It sounded faint. But not far.
"Connie...look." Thomas tapped Connie on her shoulder and pointed a finger over to a seven foot tall cactus monster, which was dragging Priyanka across the floor. When the giant cactus monster noticed the duo not far from it. It let go of her. It growled deeply like a grizzly bear.
Priyanka rose her head up only slightly to look at her daughter. She stuck her hand out as if to ask her to help her. The cactus monster rose his right arm up. Sharp spines rose out of it.
"Connie...i love you baby!" Priyanka declared tearfully. The giant cactus brought down his hand with a mighty crash.
Expecting to see a bloody mess under his stub of a hand, the monster saw that it had only smashed the floor. He looked puzzled. Looking around at the three hallways around it, it noticed that Connie and Thomas had vanished. Then... it saw nothing but blackness. Connie appeared behind him where she sliced it's head off and then went crazy with slicing and dicing it up into bite size pieces.
Thomas held Mrs. Maheswaran who was slunged over his shoulder. She was hurt and unconscious.
"Connie it's dead. Connie alright you got em!"
"I know I Got him! That thing almost killed my mother!" Connie snapped at Thomas. She brought down her Zweihander down on the eviscerated cactus monster over and over until her Bloodlust subsided.
"Connie! If we don't hurry, you're dad and my father are also going to be killed. Now let's go."
Connie brought down the diamond blade once more on the body of the dead mutant creature. She knew Thomas was right. She was just glad she was more than fast enough to save her mother from certain doom. But, searching for her dad and the mayor was something she knew she had to do alone.
"Thomas, listen I appreciate you coming out here to help me find my mother. But I'm going to have to ask you to take my mother back to my house. I want you to stay with her and keep her safe. I know you can handle yourself Thomas. But i'm going to have to go at it alone from this point. I promise you that I'll find our dads and bring them back. All of this that's going on, it's not going to last for much longer. That explosion earlier was the work of someone I know."
"Connie, are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure. Please keep my mother safe. And don't worry about having to figure how you're going to get back inside of my house. Just press your gauntlet on the wall and it'll let you inside. Magical signature and all that. Now Go!"
Thomas nodded and reluctantly turned around and ran outside of the Hospital with Mrs. Maheswaran in his arms. Now that she was alone, in the privacy of a flickering hallway, Connie let her emotions pour out. she fell on her knees and brought her hands up to her crying eyes.
A powerful gust of air blew all throughout the hospital hallways, swinging dangling flickering fluorescent lights. Connie felt the rush if air blowing against her. She heard footsteps walking closer to her from the hallway behind her. She rose up on her feet and manifested her Zweihander. She saw the shadow of this mysterious person on the wall in front of her. It wasn't a monster, so it must have been someone human.
When the shadow disappeared from the wall in front of her and the footsteps made a turn. Connie's ready and agitated face turned soft. A smile came across her face when she looked to see that it was Carlos Montoya who had come to Palmyra.
"Thought I recognized a very Hard and rocky presence here. Hello Connie, need some help?"
Connie chuckled, "Like a snake taking on a mongoose." she replied.
Town of Yellow Seed
The northernmost town of Yellow Seed had set up stiff resistance against the plant monsters. A town which was located at the base of some forested mountains and surrounded by woods, it was the most republican town in the liberal east coast. Men and women prided themselves in being hunters or just being big gun enthusiasts. The towns people had set up "cheval de frises" at every entrance and exit point in town. They were portable wooden and metal frames covered with spears and spikes.
But just in case those were breached, miles of welded metal fencing with thick bundles of razor wire on them were set up ten feet behind the cheval de frises. Friends and neighbors, employers and employees rallied together at different points in town. Some in the mall, others in the police department, fire houses, playgrounds, stores and schools.
When Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire arrived to Yellow Seed, the streets were nearly empty of people. But there were bodies, mamed, torn and shredded bodies of all sorts of flora monsters. banana monsters which were among the many dead monster bodies lying around, were peppered with bullets holes.
"All this eerie quiet is really creeping me out." Amethyst shared with the group.
"Tell me about it. By the looks of the fortifications this town set up, it looks like it held up quite nicely. Thought there are some breach points down that street, and that one far ahead of us. Where are all the monsters, apart from the ones already dead." Pearl said.
"Huh, guess we're not needed here. Looks like people have this place on lockdown." Ruby input.
"FREEZE!" shouted a male voice from behind the group. Pearl turned and watched a group of men in hunting clothes and ghillie suits, aiming shotguns, rifles and magnum revolvers at them.
Ruby took the threat seriously and jumped in front of Sapphire. "Point that stick somewhere else or else I'll be blowing all of you to straight to the moon." ruby smacked the barrel of a rifle pointed at her down on the ground.
The weapon was smacked out of the handler's hands and smashed apart on impact with the ground. This angered the other men who cocked their weapons and were preparing to fire. Sapphire grabbed Ruby and turned her around. She pulled her partner in closer to her where they changed into light and reformed into Garnet.
"Garnet!" both Amethyst and Pearl said together at the same time upon seeing their old comrade back.
Garnet saved the reunion for later and manifested her gauntlets, which she used to press down on the ground to form an energy barrier around her team. The people of Yellow Seed took several steps back when they saw the electrical like bubble surrounding the crystal gems.
"People please! We're not your enemies. A very special person sent us here to help you good townspeople with the problem affecting the whole world. We're not responsible for what's going on, but we can help you people."
"Piss off. We got this problem under control, we don't need help from some pale looking dancer, a big amazon and a tiny angry purple looking boy."
"Boy?" Amethyst echoed the man's word irritatingly.
"Garnet undo the barrier so I can kick this guy's a-"
"Amethyst that's enough! You're going to have let it slide." Pearl told her.
outside of town, the sound of loud rumbling started. They came in pairs of two, a pause, and then started up again. Like giant footsteps.
"Everyone Shut Up!" garnet shouted angrily from behind her barrier. "Listen." she told not just her team but the people of Yellow Seed.
The group of men listened and felt the ground rumble under their feet. Something big was coming to town, and it sounded like the footsteps originated from the Omnivore Forest just north of the town. Everyone stared at in the direction of the rumbling foot steps in anticipation, wondering what the heck was coming for all of them.
Men dropped their guns and bottles of whiskey when the most hideous and tallest beast they have ever seen came into view. It was as tall as a skyscraper, composed entirely out of wood. Its branches were filled with leaves and fruits and hanging vegetables. All around the main trunk were wooden tentacles, opened mouth with sharp teeth and eyeballs. Tongue occasionally flicked outside of the many mouths around the trunk of the giant tree demon.
Garnet undid her barrier and told Pearl and Amethyst to get ready to fuse, but Pearl who was worried for her and Carlos's child developing inside of her, declined to fuse. Garnet looked disappointment and told Amethyst to get ready to fuse.
"Oh Yeah it's bashing time!" amethyst said excitedly.
Town of Oakheart
Having erected pockets of Telekinetic domes around the town of Oakheart, Admiral Bells and his wife, Citrine fought hard against scores of tree monsters and vegetable creatures which had overrun the town. The pockets of telekinetic energy were packed with the townsfolk to scared to fight. They were packed with mothers and children, or fathers with their children. Sometimes whole families.
The domes looked like a mixture of plastic and glass, it was see through like glass, but extremely tough like plastic. Admiral bells flew around town slicing up every plant monstrosity he set his sights on. The advantage of telekinesis was that it was a power no one could see, at least no one but a commander or powerful gem hybrids.
Telekinetic energy was as malleable as clay and fluid as water. It was powered by the mind, and used the natural forces of the earth to be used as a weapons that spanned a small area or wide spanning. It was offensive, defensive and supplementary.
Citrine, like her fellow crystal gems and Soren, shared similar powers and abilities. But some were unique to each class of gem. And there were some which were very rare and found in a select few in their respective classes. The yellow gem radiated with terrifying levels electrical energy. She exuded so much, the weather itself had changed. Black cumulonimbus clouds formed over the town. Thunder rumbled and lightning struck.
When Commander Soren passed on some of his own yin and yang energy to balance out her magical core, she unknowingly received a hefty boost to her average level powers. She levitated above the town, directing lightning bolts down on gangs of tree monsters and on a mob of sunflower, roses, dandelion and orchid mutant monsters.
But even with reasonable resistance from the police and armed citizens, there seemed to be no end to this chaos. But there was a silver lining to all of this. The number of mutated foliage and flora coming into town from the surrounding landscape appeared to be diminishing. These battles was now a matter of attrition.
Emerald Hills
9:55 [Night]
Encircled by a horde of all kinds of monstrous flora and foliage mutant monsters, Steven and Lapis acted as bait to take off some of the pressure from Beach city. From a top down view, Steven punched and kicked all forms of mutated flora monsters away from him, sending them flying in all directions. Steven showed off hyper increased levels of speed and strength. He was so fast, he left three after images each time he moved to a new spot, it left the enemies confused. When they attacked an after image in one spot, Steven was clearing out a field of plant monsters in another.
Steven's punches and kicks, elbow strikes and spinning back kicks obliterated large trees which rushed towards him. Each pulverizing blow sent shock-waves through much of the still unchanged woods of emerald hills. Lapis who was floating above the ground with the aid of her water wings, acted as air support for Steven. But while Lapis paused on firing bullets made of water to watch Steven fight, she was shocked and amazed.
Steven's movements were swift, thought out, planned and ferociously fast. In fact, he was too fast for even her to see clearly. When an enemy tried to punch or grab him, he moved to the side, and trapped their wooden hand or leaf arm in between his arm and body, and kicked them. The enemy which was either turned to dust or changed into a green pile of plant mess was sent flying back, striking enemies behind them; clearing out several rows.
And if his punches did not end them, then the shock waves produced from the impact of his punches, kicks and the rest of his blows tore and shredded enemies on the sides. Seeing Steven form her point of view, she felt terrible about initially wanting to keep Steven under her mentor ship instead of under Carlos's. Nothing that she had planned could have produced the same results as right now.
"Magick Method: Man of Lightning!" Lapis heard Steven shout. "Lapis! Fly back home, now." Steven warned her.
Lapis looked up at the night sky and saw purple, green, blue and white light flash from within the clouds. Thunder began to rumble. But upon closer inspection, inside of the clouds Lapis saw the silhouette of a giant standing on the clouds with drum under his arm, and several orbs of light hovering behind him. The giant stepped forward, revealing itself.
It was a demon, or something that looked liked it. It wore glowing green silk pants and armored shinguards and gold bracelets around it's ankles and wrists. Its gray skin was aglow with lines all around it's electrically charged body. In its hands it held onto a pair of golden rods. When it directed both of its rods down all over emerald hills, the orbs of light behind him fired one million lightning bolts down on the plant folk in the hills and those swarming around the protective dome over beach city.
Lapis flew towards the ocean for safety and watched multicolored lightning bolts being fired at terrifying speeds down on Emerald hills. The crackle of thunder and flashes of lightning temporarily turned night into day. The Lightning demon was the source of light, a "night sun" so to speak. Emerald hills, the surrounding area of beach city were being struck with repeatedly with bolts of lightning that sent dust and debris everywhere.
For five straight minutes the demon in the sky did not let up its attack, until it finally did only after firing the last bolt of lightning. With it's task complete, it brought the golden rods to its sides, crossed his arms over his chest and lowered its head. It's image of luminous aura vanished. Rain followed after the lightning demon's departure.
Lapis looked everywhere and saw no signs of plant folks anywhere near beach city and emerald hills. Steven did it. Steven cleared beach city of danger. Steven levitated out of a leveled emerald hills and appeared out from the dust and smoke. He flew over to Lapis who was still taking in everything that had transpired before her.
She felt Steven's hands on her back and under her legs. Her water wings vanished and she was taken back down to the ground in Steven's arms. Lapis turned to him and looked at hi face. He looked so serious and agitated, gone was that soft and carefree boy who she met years ago. Or so she thought.
"Did my hair frizz up by any chance Lapis?" he asked her innocently.
"Um, just a little." Lapis answered.
"Ah shoot. Well I guess that's what happens when you stand near so much electricity."
"Steven, shouldn't we go help the others?"
"They have it under control. Besides, I have to wait for Soren to come back so I can start healing the earth. That guy Soren," Steven chuckled, "he was holding back power when we fought. Not even a mini sun stood a chance against him."
Crystal Temple, Beach City
11:55 [Night]
Returning back to the Crystal Temple, Lapis and Steven waited on the sandy beach. Peridot who was left in charge of watching Whistles, stepped outside of the beach house and walked out onto the front deck where she watched Steven and Lapis standing together in the rain. Peridot had a baby carrier strapped on to her. Baby whistles suckled on his blinking bib and touched Peridot's face with his furry hands.
"Steven universe. He single-handedly took care of the creatures threatening Beach City. And that rebel, commander Soren, he did away with the energy sphere of mutatagenic radiation above the earth. But guess what you furry hybrid, how well will your friends or that clod Soren be able to handle the Crystal Skull. Heh heh heh. what a fight that will be when it comes."
Descending down on the beach, Commander Soren landed in front of Steven. Soren took a moment to scan of the area and was surprised to see that no enemies were left.
"You took care of the plant folks all by yourself Steven. I'm very impressed."
"I didn't do it alone though, Lapis had me covered."
"Steven" Lapis said his name. she sounded hurt by Steven's modesty.
"Steven, it's time. I hope your mentor has prepared you for this. By the time you're finished, you're either going to be extremely fatigued or dead."
"Let's go Soren. My friends need this. The world needs this" he told the tall steaming gem.
Lapis stepped back and watched Steven levitate off the ground with Soren. The two continued to hover higher and higher. Only until they were small glowing specs up in the atmosphere, did they take off at hyper sonic speed. Soren's fiery aura trailed behind Steven's pink one.
Flying to the heartland of The United States, Steven and Soren landed in a small town which was experiencing the same chaos as east coast cities and towns. Focusing the full might of his raw magical power into the earth, Soren stepped back and watched Steven's Pink Aura manifest around him. It was nothing he's already seen before.
But what he hasn't seen what happened next. Steven's flame like aura became solid and cylindrical. It expanded high up into the night sky. Several pulsing waves fired from Steven up the pink energy cylinder which pierced the night sky. Storm clouds formed not just in the town where they were, but formed in every major city in the U.S, Canada and Mexico. Steven's eyes opened up from keeping them closed. Beams of light fired from his eyes as thunder rumbled above them.
Lightning flashed and thunder cracked loudly. The first drops of rain began to fall in town. On closer inspection, the rain was not clear like normal rain. It was pink and tasted a bit salty. It was like the heavens had a spilled glass of pink lemonade up there, that fell and came down as a heavy shower.
Soren held a hand up and watched the pink rain droplets splash down on the palm of his gauntlet. From the small pink pool of water on his gauntlet, Soren watched the plant folks freeze in their tracks around him. They looked up at the sky as the pink rain fell down on their faces and rest of their bodies.
Steam began to come off of them the longer they remained frozen. large round grapes, apples, oranges, plums, trees and flower folk deteriorated slowly. All across north america plant folks began to die off, those still growing out from the ground stopped and melted, becoming new nutrients for the land, seas, lakes and rivers.
"Steven Universe, you keep surprising me more each time we're together." he thought to himself.
Monday
August 23, 5:50 [Morning]
Hours went by for Steven who took on the arduous task of healing the world's oceans and continents from the plant scourge which had plagued the earth and it's people for a couple of hours. But sadly, there was nothing Steven could do for the people who lost their lives either fleeing the monsters or fighting them. There was no magick in his arsenal strong enough to bring the dead fully restored to life.
Meanwhile, Soren hanged back and oversaw Steven's mission. He made sure to lend Steven power in case it looked like he needed it. But he never needed any, not once. The amount of power he expended performing the same technique on every continent and ocean, was above what a Commander like himself could do. Even though Commanders never run out of energy, Steven power was more 'weighty' and raw.
Returning back to his home, Steven was welcomed by applaud and cheering from his friends, father, mentor, Lapis and the good people of Beach City.
Beach House
Steven and his friends returned back home after celebrating outside by eating and drinking. Soren waited patiently inside of the beach house. Pearl, Steven and Carlos walked inside laughing and with confetti on their heads and shoulders.
"Commander?" Pearl uttered, surprised.
"Congratulations Shield of Humanity. Not to burst your bubble, but this was only the first wave out of an uncertain number of waves. I could not pin point exactly where this weapon is hidden. It could have been fired from outside the solar system, further or perhaps even as close as from your planet's moon. The real attack from homeworld will be much...more unforgiving. Yellow diamond has several hundred fleets of warships and dreadnoughts ready to hyper-jump here. So whenever the next attack may come, please, before that let me take you to meet three thousand gems who have been patiently waiting for orders."
"Commander Soren, Steven been through a lot just like everyone else. Let him rest before he meets with them."
"Pearl's right Soren, I just want to lie down on my bed and let my stomach digest all this food I put inside of it. Let's talk later."
Steven, pearl and Carlos walked past Soren who felt a little insulted. Right now there was nothing he could do except hunker down with everyone else and just wait for the next attack.
Next in Chapter 38, 'Darkness Sets In.'