Veil Of Greed: Hunt For The Numbers

Chapter 20: Protect Beach City From Novelww

Date: January 1st, 2023

"Happy New Year, comrades! Let's hope we live to see the whole year and beyond through together!" "I can't believe I agreed to stay up this late. I'm so tired but not because I want a nap. Ugh. Oh well, Happy New Year!" We just like for Workersmas have gathered together but this time, in a smaller group because not all of our comrades have dates that are identical to Miitopia, Earth, and Minecraftia's. That's just how it is. We've had a blast. This beats the ones with my family by a long shot. Instead of loud fireworks, we displayed magically and scientifically created projections on the walls of our base. Going outside was not an option. The Nazis still want us dead and we cannot afford to let our guards down, even now. The war still rages. The only reason we managed to have this party is because the Nazis are too traditional to skip out on this celebration. Because of this, most fighting has temporarily halted. But make no mistake, we're going to launch an invasion of Greenhorne as soon as we're done having fun. Sleep replacement potions are all ready to be consumed, A fact that Dominic forgot about. I don't blame him though. The snow that is clearly falling to the ground as judged by the systems that we have in the base will probably be coated red with blood in a matter of hours. However, Carlos who is charge for helping delegate missions at the moment shouts: "Everyone! I don't want candy! This is bad because it means I'm worried about something! And that something is a lot of trouble in Beach City from the universe of Steven Universe!" I reply while pulling out my sword and gripping it to kinda soothe my emotions that have now flared up as my hands shake: "The time has come! I was afraid of this! Damn it. Carlos, have you put together a team yet?"

"Not yet, I just found out!" "Now that's a causation for wanting a nap. Oh yeah, the sleep replacement potions. We better all drink them even if we're going on the stealth mission to cripple Nazi resources and forces in Greenhorne. Get to making a team. Adam, you should go. I need to stay here to work on finishing our plan to attack Greenhorne. You know that place better than the rest of us." "That was my plan." "Adam, would you want me to tell you who your teammates will be before you go there?" "No, there's no time for that. I'll learn when I get there." Carlos runs back to the meeting room. I go get my stuff together for the adventure after drinking a sleep replacement potion. The others stay in Miitopia(except Austin as I later saw for myself) to prepare for the attack and to get a little more fun and training in too. I say goodbye to the others after I'm ready and teleport to a location where there's most likely to be trouble: the beach where the house that houses the Crystal Gems is located. It's nighttime here too but it's so quiet. Too quiet. Why don't I hear any commotion? *Meanwhile at the first stop Steven Universe took after leaving everything he has ever known to start a new journey by car* "Greetings, Steven Universe. It's a pleasure to meet you." Steven turns around from the burger and fries he was eating with a Cola as a drink to find Pmurt Nedib smiling politely at him even though most of his features are obscured by a business style cloak: "I don't know you. Who are you?" "My apologies. I have struggled with a bit of a temper problem so I'm not used to casual conversation as of late. I've heard a lot about you. The unity between humans and gems you have helped foster is quite impressive and your powers are off the charts, son of Pink Diamond."

"H-how do you know about that?" "I'm rich. Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to give you something. Consider it a gift from someone who admires you. I know all about you. The people of Beach City sure love to praise you. And I can see why that is just by looking at you. *gives Steven 2 cards* Here you are. They may not seem like much but with them, you'll learn the truth of what lies beyond what you know. What lies far beyond the gem Homeworld. Now then, I have some important matters to attend to. We may meet again. A employee of mine is currently at Beach City to continue interviewing anyone who is still awake. He told me to tell you how much fun it is." The fascist leaves via portal. Steven Universe looks at the cards now with him in confusion. A shadowy aura erupts from them and he feels like his consciousness is getting tugged somewhere. Suddenly, a dark abyss appears before him and a mysterious voice says: "Steven Universe, embrace the power. Embrace it. Let the numbers take hold." "But I don't want power. I just want to go through the adventure called life. I want to make my friends, dad, and Connie happier for me and proud of what I do with my life." "We are aware but you mustn't doubt us or yourself. The desire is there. You want the power deep inside. You want to become stronger, Embrace it. Embrace the numbers. Don't question it. You'll become strong enough to defeat any threat to this world if you just seize the initiative." "I will become stronger and embrace the power. I, Steven Universe embrace the numbers." "Very good. Now let the numbers take hold at last. This is your new power and destiny." The diner Steven was eating at is destroyed as he transforms into a giant corrupted pink gem dragon once again. Pmurt Nedib has turned him into a lifeform of destruction.

Back to Swiftdrawer* Suddenly, the entire Earth begins to shake uncontrollably and violently. What is this? Just then, the other team members for the mission show up. Subaru, Dravise, Strag, Freep, Aporia, Austin, Maya, Poi Poi, and Asuka. "It appears that the ground is shaking unnaturally. It's coming from a large and massive source that is moving in our general direction." "You talk too much." "For once, I have to disagree, Subaru." "I'm used to earthquakes in the Underneath but this is too much for even me to handle. Is that a giant rock hurtling toward us? Freep, Shell Guard!" "This boulder needs some knocking! Here we go!" "You're not the only one with creatures to summon to help you in a situation. Meklord Army Of Skiel, I summon you along with Meklord Army Of Wisel, Meklord Army Of Granel, and Meklord Deployer Oblongata to help defend us further." "Watch out, Poi Poi! There are more rocks! Fine, I'll take them down! Cart Revolution!" "I summon Cyber Blader and Cyber Angels Benton, Dakini, Idaten, and Izana." "If you're going to do that then there's no choice but to add to the entourage! I will also skip the steps for explaining the summon requirements for a whole collage of artists. Come on out, the 6 I rely on most and bring torment to whoever is responsible for all this destruction!" "Emblem Charge!" "Speed Of Sound Hurricane!" "Bring on the storm, Sonic Dravise!" "Don't forget about me! I'm here too!" Austin, the brown haired and green eyed mii with pinkish skin wearing Heavy Metal style black threads with a hat screams at a rock with supersonic vibration type power. I get out my sword again and charge at more rocks that are coming our way: "They won't touch us! Not as long as I live! Haaaaa! Darkeye Slash! Darkeye Slash! Darkeye Slash! Darkeye Slash!" In the end, we manage to stop all the unstable rocks by breaking them and those of us who summoned monsters retract them for now by deactivating our duel disks.

The ground is still shaking but it's not as bad as before. Whatever or whoever is causing this has slowed down or calmed down. Aporia is a robot is a human mind who has a white bodysuit with a green pattern resembling part of Meklord Astro Mekanikal, a circular green thing in the middle of his forehead, red eyes, light skin, long pointy eyelashes and eyebrows, and long red and gray hair that has many bangs. Asuka has long dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, light skin, and the Obelisk Blue uniform of Duel Academia. It consists of a blue skirt with a light blue belt, white socks, blue boots, fingerless gloves, and a sleeveless white jacket with some blue marks on it. But before we can go find the source of the shaking, a bunch of identical looking figures with white bodies, glaring yellow eyes, and black chestplates with the logo for Novelww on them appear. Aporia is first to respond: "It looks like I have to show more enemies that I'm going to destroy them. I will now combine with my duel runner. *he quickly combines with his duel runner that matches his character design pretty well* Additionally, I summon Meklord Emperor Wisel Infinity, Meklord Emperor Skiel Infinity, Meklord Emperor Granel Infinity, and Meklord Astro Mekanikal. Unleash the power of Meklord and destroy those who stand in our way." As if mocking us, the army of Novelww creatures increases tenfold. I grit my teeth: "It's like a sea of them! Does Novelww want to interfere this much when they'd be perfectly happy with themselves by stealing the stories written by myself and countless others? They may attribute the authors but that's not good enough like I've said before. It hasn't even been a week since the eraser incident. But whatever, it looks like you're going to need some backup even with your Meklords, Aporia. I know how powerful they are but it won't be enough. You should try having them use Synchro Absorption even though our enemies aren't synchro monsters." "Good idea. I won't need anymore advice. Z-One and Paradox are gone but I will continue forward. It's the least I can for everything I have inflicted to Neo Domino and the Signers."

I nod in acknowledgement before easily dispatching several foes at once. They're firing weak eye lasers at us but they aren't individually strong. Before I can take down more, the main Crystal Gems run out of their house to see all this unfold. "What's going on here? Can we join? It looks like fun!" "Amethyst, don't run off on your own! Stay here! We need to look at the situation!" "Pearl is right. There is also the fact that the ground is shaking." "Aww man! You 2 are no fun! I can understand you, Garnet. But Pearl? I'm confused. Wouldn't you want us to attack?" "We don't know who's friend or foe. Until we figure that out, we're staying put." The Crystal Gems are a group originally formed to defend Earth from colonization by the gems of Homeworld. For a long time, Homeworld was great center of a massive empire grown by eradicating all organic life and growing more sentient gem life forms to serve Homeworld and conquer more planets. They are grown in large areas called Kindergartens. And they aren't the kind you send children to to advance them to a higher grade. It was established by one of the diamonds, part of the Great Diamond Authority who oversee all gem operations. Pink Diamond got her first colony. It was Earth but she fell in love with it so she had her Pearl, the 2nd in command transform into her while she took on the identity of Rose Quartz. This allowed her to fake her own death by having "Rose Quartz" supposedly shatter "Pink Diamond". Their revolt caused a great battle on a site that has become a weapon graveyard. From then on, Pink Diamond lived as Rose Quartz for thousands of years with Pearl by her side. Later, they were joined by Garnet who is a fusion between Ruby and Sapphire. The two accidentally fused together during a diplomatic event. Rubies are guards while Sapphires are members of the courts of the diamonds. They ran away so Ruby wouldn't be shattered and later joined the Crystal Gems. Amethyst is the last gem to be born on Earth. Due to this, she developed to be smaller and less strong than other Amethysts who are meant to be guards and generals(I think). She was found and joined the Crystal Gems.

In the modern era, Rose Quartz and the others came to Beach City and she fell in love with a musician known as Greg Universe. Together, they had a son named Steven. But because of the anatomical differences between humans and gems, Rose Quartz gave up her life to essentially become Steven. Steven was raised by Greg along with the Crystal Gems. After some years, they began taking Steven on all sorts of adventures and came into conflict with the Great Diamond Authority. It was a long journey where a lot happened. The Crystal Gems grew to include the likes of Peridot who defied Yellow Diamond by calling her a cold after she was reformed to be good, Jasper, and Lapis. There was also Lion, a lion who was saved from death by Rose and became pink and special as a result. Lars, a worker at the local donut shop was saved by Steven and created his own group with outcasts from Homeworld called the Off Colors. Steven was also heavily involved with the social life of Beach City and made a huge impact on the town. 2 years or so after convincing the Great Diamond Authority that he was Steven and not Pink Diamond and that they should do better, Steven had growing pains from puberty. His mental health deteriorated and his powers began going out of control and it got so bad that it took everyone who cared about him hugging him to revert him back from a giant corrupted pink dragon. Yes, gems get corrupted if they go through enough pain and despair. That's the general rundown of what has gone on. If you want to learn more, there's a Steven Universe wiki or you can just watch the show. Pearl's appearance is this: enderman like body shape, ivory color tone, light cyan eyes, pointed nose, thin lips, light coral hair, pink shoes, blue pants, and a turquoise jacket over a green shirt.

Garnet is really tall, has purple color tone, wears shades that are marigold and consist of 3 triangles, indigo rounded cube like black hair and pants, red, dark red, and magenta gauntlets with orange and yellow stars on them, red variation, black, and magenta shoes, magenta and large shoulder pads, light pink, magenta, and bright red almost Easter egg like chest, and blue/red-violet bottom shirt over the equivalent of a belly area. As for Amethyst, she has really long light lavender hair, dark indigo eyes, a curse that makes it impossible for her wiki page to load(just kidding), a sleeveless black and gray dress with black stars, ripped end of light gray, lavender color tone, a guitar pic shaped hole in her dress, and extra light lavender shoes. "Don't worry about figuring that out. The answer should be obvious. Has an army of identical creatures in large number ever been friendly? Not really. Anyway, hi Crystal Gems. Yes, I know everything about you but don't worry, you can trust us. Why? It's simple. These creatures are trying to reach Beach City from this very beach but we're stopping them! Witness my strength! I'll rip through a whole bunch of these creatures! They're not that strong alone at all. But as they say, strength in numbers. Extremely Risky Spin Slash!" A bunch of them fall at my feet. I yelled to make sure they heard me. I purposefully head closer to them which also means that some of the life forms are moving away from Beach City in pursuit of me. They hold a special anger towards me like their secondary objective is to avenge that damn eraser. "Wow! You're strong! I'm impressed!" "Don't spend your time complimenting others in the middle of battle! That's distracting or normally would be but I'm a very focused kind of person." "I admire your level of intelligence. You know what you're doing. I'll trust you for now if that's okay with Garnet." "Yes Pearl, let's do so for now. But if you or your friends do anything out of line, we will stop you." "Okay, that makes us allies now. Let's take them down. The biggest threat is yet to come. It's never easy with these kinds of battles." "But dude, what's with your getup? You look really suspicious!"

"This is part of how I operate. Besides, I don't always like having people know who I am. Where I come from, I have to keep parts of myself hidden from my own family to fit in with them. Mostly my beliefs. Unless I'm doing something really important or funny, I hate drawing attention to myself. That and by wearing this and then revealing my face, I create a psychological trust effect, it's quite paradoxical. Now as much as I would love to keep talking with all of you, we have thousands of enemies to take down. The enemy is clearly trying to wear us out and/or distract us from something else. As we speak, I continue to easily plow through these life forms." That satisfies the 3 of them for now. I guess the other gems are away or asleep. Little Homeworld is nearby, it's a place where gems learn to co exist with humans on Earth. Let's hope that their target isn't that location. There's enough crap to deal with as is. It's a little harder to fight than usual on account of the sand and the constant shaking that's started to get louder and intensify all over again. The source must be coming closer. And just when I thought things couldn't get more overwhelming, Yappa Yappa shows up: "Hello, Beach City! I'm here to kill anyone and everyone who stands in the way of my 'master's' plans! It's going to be so much fun! I'm going to enjoy killing all of you one by one as I take my time doing so! These disgusting creatures spawned from digital data coming from that Novelww site are really gross but they do help us out, intentionally or not! I'll kill them all last after I kill all of you!" "Yappa Yappa! If you want to kill anyone, kill me! I'm your biggest enemy apparently, the one you want revenge on the most! Come at me, I'm ready and prepared to try new tricks to put a stop to you! Duel disk go! I activate the action field Crossover! Next, I set the most creative Pendulum scale possible with these 2 monsters in my hands! And you know the rest so let me skip to the last step by summoning and activating cards as fast as humanly possible! And there you have it, 6 of my most trusted artist comrades! But I'm not done! It may be true that fighting you with several others alongside me gives us a serious advantage that I would die without but we can go further!"

"Yo, what's going on? You just summoned a bunch of creatures! How is that possible!" "I should have told you. Crap. We all come from different universes entirely. The Earth I'm from is being turned to hell by the shitty systems that hurt everyone but the top 1%! It's vile! It's horrible! I won't allow this one to fall to the same fate or worse! It's time to begin! I activate Fusion Recovery! Artistic Fusion is treated as Polymerization when it is in the graveyard. So I use Fusion Recovery to recover it and one fusion material. I choose to recover Artistic Fusion Markers. Now then, I will use the full extent of fusion beyond what is normally possible! I activate Artistic Fusion to fuse myself with all 6 of my artist comrades that are on the field!" The fusion portal opens and I happily jump up into it with the artists following right behind me. "Fusion with cards?! Say what?!" "How is that possible?" "Garnet, I have no idea. What I do know is that we must fight!" "Heck yeah we do! I'm sure they'll explain it all to us later! Let's go!" Seconds later, we have fused into one and become far stronger than we would be otherwise. Yappa Yappa grins: "You look like a walking void! I'm so jealous and disgusted but that changes nothing! I've been holding back for a long time! Not even Pmurt Nedib knows the full extent of my power! After you killed me and I was brought back and found the note that has kept waking me up from delusion so many times, I once again desired a piece of the Shadow! A fragment of that being who had dominion over darkness and negative emotions! So I did research and secret additional training. With all of that, I began a plan to take the power away from Pmurt Nedib! He doesn't even know a piece of the Shadow is no longer inside of him! The only reason he thinks he still has it is because I'm lending its power to him to keep up appearances! I don't even need my cards to kill you! This piece of the Shadow contains the most recent of his memories. The memories of the last trillion years! I have them all inside of me and that means I know all about your weaknesses!"

"What?! How did you even pull this off?" "A simple ritual even a inferior bottom tier freak could do without any trouble!" "Let's get this over with. I'd like to help defend this place from whatever is coming and these life forms." "Very good! I can't wait to kill you! I'll hurt you so bad that you will defuse and be left weak and worthless! I'm going to pummel you right as I begin slowly taking your life away! You'll be begging to be killed faster by the time it's too late for anyone to stop me from killing you! I'll kill your sanity too! There will be nothing left for you but despair! I'm going to have such a thrilling time now and it's all thanks to my careful planning and the lack of awareness from all of you! Your time is over! I will take command and become the leader of a new movement! The One Supreme World movement! I will return to my roots and destroy them only to build anew with resources from Pmurt Nedib's failure of a company! Pummeling Pitchfork! It is one of only 2 attacks you know of that I'm going to keep using! It's a new year in Miitopia right? Well, let me slaughter it before it truly begins!" "I won't let you kill us so easily! My personality is shining through this fusion only because the others trust me completely and wish for me to have control over this body. I won't let them down! Haaaaaa! You're not the only one with new attacks! Digital Crash! Nightmare Slice Assault!" Our attacks collide but mine aren't strong enough to win. I'm knocked back and cough up blood: "Oh look, fusion won't let you win this time! Brodmizame was my downfall for a while! Back then, there was no way I could ever hope to defeat a fusion so strong! But now, my power is far greater than ever!" We launch at each other with our signature weapons aimed for each other's throats: "I have to stop you, Yappa Yappa! And because you will never yield to compassion or exhaustion, I'm going to have to do everything in my power to kill you! Peace won't work on you, I know that now! Damn it! I wish I didn't have to do this but you leave me no choice! Drawing Devastation!" "I don't even need to use any special attack to stop this! I'm so going to relish in watching you bleed out as I make you scream!"

"Well, I'm far from dead so how's that working out for you?" He stops my attack with his left hand without even transforming it: "A attack of that level just brings you closer to squirming in place as I slit your throat apart!" "Damn. It's a good thing I haven't shown off the full strength of what I can do thanks to fusing with 6 powerful artists. For example, I use all overlay units to deal you 9000 points of damage." I reveal the full power of this fusion form and catch him by surprise. We remain in a locked confrontation for about 30 minutes silently trying to kill each other. The only noise coming out of us is from our weapons and bodies clashing through a myriad of attacks and so much more. But then, he shocks me: "I almost want to let you have a quick death now that you have survived for so long! But I think not! You're going to die now and slowly! Know why? I'm going to pummel you with the true power of this shard of the Shadow! A power that will allow me to advance my class!" "Since when did you get a class?" "Oh look, something else I never revealed! This is so much fun! I'm so jealous that I can't be shocked like you are right now! The feeling of shock is like a drug for me! It fills me with bloodlust and power thirst! I'm truly enjoying our battle now! Come at me with everything you have so I can crush it and make you feel the fear you do everything you can to avoid letting consume you! For someone like me, your world sounds wonderful! Power hungry humans getting away with killing so many other humans like it's no big deal! I want in! I know they'd let me kill for them only for me to kill them and take their power!" "What are you saying? Yes, that's rhetorical. Anyway, I'll give you what you want only because I haven't dealt any damage to you yet while you have hurt me a bit. I must try much harder to stop you. That's obvious now." My skill Artist's Eye activates: "I now see your one and only weak spot. Your eyes. I will aim for them. My connection to imagination has been greatly increased temporarily. This fusion will not last much longer. There is simply too much energy being used. We continue to fight even as we talk. One more attack is all I have before we defuse. I must use it. Take this! Infinite Pain!" Yappa Yappa doesn't even move: "Let's play catch or rather, let's play you lose!"

"Just how powerful are you? W-we can't hold this form any longer." We defuse and the artists immediately get sent to the graveyard with Infinite Pain being caught by Yappa Yappa and tossed back to me. My armor is barely able to stand up to it even with my sword and shield out as extra protection. All of my gear is heavily damaged. Puddles of my own blood fall to the ground. My vision is blurring, the air was taken out of me, everything hurts. I'm dying. My own attack.. My own attack. Yappa Yappa starts laughing as he comes over to me to finish me off: "It's over! I win and now I get to pummel and kill you! Your duel disk even deactivated by itself! There are too many of those creatures for anyone to save you! The best part is that Novelww hates me too and still helped me by accident! I would have been in trouble if they never showed up! Or at least, that's what I wanted you to think! It would have made little difference as to if you had help or not! Your life is over and I'll kill you in your world too next! Don't think I didn't notice your consciousness briefly switch to your other body before coming back into the one you're in now! I saw it and it's also why I was able to turn your own attack against you!" "Yappa Yappa!" "Oh it looks like he wants to see me before I kill you for good! I'll entertain him to keep up my act! Don't go anywhere or try anything because I will kill you no matter where you run and hide!" I have no choice but to stay put as he puts on a nice act for Pmurt Nedib's continued obliviousness. The pain is getting worse. It's hard to see anything now but at least I can hear well still. "Well well well, my most valued employee. Yappa Yappa, I see that you finally defeated Adam and there's no one to save him this time. Congratulations, let me give you your bonus for doing such a good job. You've been very excellent since I last had you revived from death. Your reward is this: die, traitor!" "So you overheard my words again? I was under the impression you left Steven to take care of business back at your office. I was wrong. Oh well, I'll still kill you! Adam! Get up! Now! I hate you with every fiber of my being and want to leave you there squirming as you bleed to death but I can't kill him alone! Healing Curse!"

All my injuries are healed by Yappa Yappa of all life forms. I get up and have a look of confusion that makes him so amused: "How entertaining! I've been waiting to confuse you this badly! Not sorry about your mask and cloak though! You'll have to get new ones made if we survive! I wish it didn't have to come to this but Mr. I'm so superior over here came much sooner than I thought! I'm so jealous of his timing! Yuck! Anyway, I healed you because to defeat high and mighty freak here, you need more than one person! And he hates you with a passion just like me so his thinking will be worse than otherwise! Healing Curse has tied our lives together! If you die, I die too and vice versa! It's the price for using the Shadow's power to heal someone! Now come over here and help me kill Pmurt Nedib! I know you want to kill him as badly as I do! In fact, I will immensely enjoy killing him quickly even though I love to drag out my killings for as long and painful as possible!" I grit my teeth and reluctantly go over to him. But as the fight begins, it ends. Pmurt Nedib somehow freezes us in place and kills Yappa Yappa gruesomely. He unfreezes me before trying to kill me too. I said trying to because it didn't go as he planned. By my own will, I refuse to die and cling onto my existence: "No. I won't die. Not here. Not now. I've come too far to lose like this. I won't let you or a soul binding curse kill me. I will not forget the sight of you killing Yappa Yappa so effortlessly and mercilessly. His body is all mangled into chunks thrown all over this area. When someone dies, their soul often departs their body and into another dimension for some time from a few seconds to eternity. I will not lose my connection to this body. As you were killing Yappa Yappa, I ate an HP banana that I pulled out when you weren't looking. We finally come face to face for a real confrontation and I want to wipe that smirk off your face so badly. I will expose your identity for real someday." He's taken aback by my actions so I breathe heavily and give off a look of intense focus and concentration that looks nearly powerful enough to rip through another's skull.

I look him in the eyes even as I lose more blood: "You have helped hurt so many people. I won't hesitate to kill you because it's the only option left to stop you for good. You don't deserve my mercy or care. You didn't let me save Yappa Yappa from himself. I won't let you live that down." "My valued employee. He has failed and betrayed me far too many times to count. Ever since I started trying to conquer other worlds, not a single mission has truly succeeded. They all have failed me. I'm so sick of all of this failure and you getting in my way. I could just exterminate you now and be rid of another freak who is destroying my status quo but I have a better idea. I'm going to take things indirectly direct. For now, I'll just leave you here suffering and try my backup plan. The plan I most wanted to try this entire time. Do you like irony? I do." He disappears through another portal and I collapse to the ground with some of these creatures slowly killing me and stepping off the remains of Yappa Yappa. I wallow in despair: "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" That alerts the others to my position and predicament. I'm too weak and hurt to even eat one HP banana, much less touch anything or poke anyone. Austin yells: "No holding back anymore! I have to save Adam! Move out of the way creatures, Austin is on the way to his friend! Extremely Way Out Of Tune!" His screaming echoes throughout the area and easily destroys hundreds of those creatures. With the opening provided, he rushes to my aid and holds out one of his HP bananas: "Here, Adam! Eat it! Eat it! I'm going to save you!" "Austin, I have no strength left and I can't move even if I wanted to. You should know by now when I can and cannot do something. We had a relationship going on for over a year." "Oh, sorry! I got too excited! I'll just feed it to you! Open wide!" I do the best I can to open my mouth as he shoves the HP banana into it. After seeing me unable to chew it, he pushes it so it would still get to my stomach eventually. After 20 seconds, the effects kick in and I regain all my strength as all my injuries are magically healed up. "Are you okay, Adam?" "No, Im not okay? Can you call for backup? I just can't bring myself to do anything like that. Not after all that I saw and felt."

He tries to but it doesn't work out: "Something is jamming the signal somehow! Grrrrrr! This is the worst! Come on, come on! I give up because this is pointless! *angry shriek* Im going to get whoever is behind this! But anyway, do you feel any better? I can stay here with you and we can just talk till you feel better. It's worked before." "Austin. No. We have to keep fighting. Pmurt Nedib has something worse in store." "Suit yourself but I'm worried! You aren't yourself! You're more serious than usual!" "Why wouldn't I be when all I can think about is pain! So much pain! The pain of being unable to trust my own family when it comes to caring and being kind, the pain of living in the hellhole called America, the pain of defeat, the pain of being unable to save someone corrupted by his own despair, the pain of knowing that I'm going to be targeted directly by Nazis in my world, the pain of realizing how much needless pain there is. I'm not okay! And I'm going to destroy every single one of these damn creatures! Maybe I'll find some satisfaction in such a repetitive and endless task! I can never be truly happy all the time, my world thinks I don't deserve that at all! I can never be truly happy knowing that the blood, sweat, and tears of innocents is expended just so a few rich bastards can have even more than they already have. Pmurt Nedib must die." Austin moves away from me, knowing that nothing he says or does will make me feel better right now. I turn my attention to the creatures that tried to speed up my demise and pick up my sword from the ground even though it is heavily damaged and my feelings are causing my body to shake intensely. "You. You tried to kill me faster! I must get rid of you right now! Maybe this will help me feel better about everything! You're just the appetizer while ending Pmurt Nedib is the finale dessert! Making him feel a fraction of the pain he has caused will be better than a frosted vanilla cake! So much better! I will make him hurt."

And so begins my blind rampage. I cut down creature after creature with my broken sword but there's no end to them. When I destroy 4, 6 step up to take their place. To make it worse, my armor, sword, and shield will shatter after just a few strong hits with them or against them. "There are so many creatures! What am I supposed to do?! Despair. Pain. It's all here! It's all here! PAIN! PAIN! Make it stop, make it stop, make it go away, make it go away! I will break anyone or anything that stands in my way. I'll break them with my very hands if I must. *puts away sword* Come here, you damn bastards! I'll destroy as many as you as I can! Make this pain end. Make it end! Get out of my way! I have to stop Pmurt Nedib! I can't allow him to crush anyone else! If he can do this to me, there's no telling what he can really do!" My blind rampage resumes as I rip apart creature after creature. The ground gets littered with more and more of their bodies. But it's the sound of explosions and screams that gets me to stop going on a rampage: "The town! They must have made it into the town! Noooo! Everything is going wrong and if it isn't going wrong, it's making me paranoid or it's PAIN!" I leap out of the swarm of creatures and run at top speed to the town where my fears are correct. Even my fear of a corrupted pink Steven gem beast. Corrupted Steven is far from here but he's so big, I can see him as a pink blob in the distance. Fighting take tears of anguish and strong emotion, I land myself into a whole group of these creatures near the boardwalk in the town of Beach City. "You damn creatures! How many of there are you? Do you keep coming because of all the data on that site? Leave these people alone! It's me who you want to hurt! Not them! Come at me, make me feel worse if it'll make you feel better and leave these civilians out of it! Ahahahaha! Despair! Sadness! Anger! Fear! Hatred! Pain! Come here so I can rip you all to shreds with nothing left to show for it besides your corpses piling on the street!" I see a family of 4 by a house in the distance being squeezed in by these creatures surrounding them on all sides.

I plow through the group I'm facing before running again to their aid. Upon reaching them and tearing apart the creatures one by one, I yell: "Evacuate! Get to safety! I feel so much despair but I won't allow them to make anyone else feel this way! This pain is not what you deserve! I'll take on the pain! I already feel horrible! What's a little more pain to me?!" They look concerned for my sanity but do in fact follow my words and get out of there asap. I crack my knuckles: "Now who wants som-" I watch as Meklord Emperor Wisel crushes all of the creatures I was about to fight with ease. Meanwhile, Aporia runs over a whole other group of them and looks at me: "I know that look in your eyes. The feeling of despair, of loss. My world crumbled before me several times when I was alive. I lost my family when I was but a child when THEY attacked, the love of my life was killed in our efforts to resist THEM, and then, no one was left but me, Paradox, Z-One, and Antinomy. Humanity went extinct when we died. But Z-One made sure we all had another chance to live as androids. When Yusei defeated me and Z-One destroyed me after I turned against him, I felt more despair. Even though I discarded my emotions, this still happened. Become stronger than your despair. Let it motivate you, let it give you another reason to smile when you can. That is what the Signers taught me. Think about what really matters right now and act like your best self." I sigh: "I have disgraced my role and title of knight again. You're right, Aporia. Thank you for bringing me back to my normal state of mind. I have to make up for my disgrace and I will start now. We should focus on evacuating the citizens to safe locations instead of fighting. Causalities will be minimized that way. In my insanity, I forgot all about the daggers I asked a blacksmith to forge for me from metal stronger than steel. I'll use those to fight. My sword can't handle much more and my armor is close to breaking as is my shield. My tactics have to change. My duel disk is dead." "I will also begin focusing on getting the citizens to safety. Let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way." "Agreed."

I take off and put away my armor before running with new vigor as I pull out my 2 new daggers which are coated in a toxin that was synthesized through the efforts of multiple individuals including Dominic. The substance is what Pirate Blaster plans to use to assassinate whoever leads the Nazis in Miitopia. I'll have to start coating my sword in it once I learn to handle much larger amounts of it. My gloves are resistant to the toxin. That's the only reason I can wield these daggers. Well, that and the toxin is a very slow acting agent. No one in BRAINS specifically specializes in toxins or poisons so it took a lot to concoct it all. I helped gather the required materials on a couple high risk hiking missions. To think that I would ever resort to using something like this. Not until this year did it even cross my mind to use acid or poison to kill an enemy. These are horrific times we're living in. With my 2 silver daggers in my hands, I run through more of the neighborhood in town, trying to find anyone who is still in it despite all the creatures. It isn't that hard between my substantially increased movement speed and keen observation honed from becoming an artist and training among other things. Some distance away from where Aporia got me back to thinking straight, I find so many creatures that there's a family trapped inside a burning townhouse connected to a few others because of them. It's quite the distance away but that was no issue for me. The family is of 3 members. It's hard to see what they look like. No, it's impossible but one of them is wielding a sword wearily which shaking with fear. Can it be? Steven's girlfriend Connie and her parents? Yes, I recognize the place now. I yell as loud as I can: "Listen up! I'll clear a path for you to get out but you need to be ready to bolt as soon as that's done! These creatures aren't strong alone but they can apparently start fires if there's enough of them around! Connie Maheswaran, don't be afraid! You wield that sword. Use it!" Without waiting for a response, I plow through as many creatures as I can but their numbers explode as more show up in the area. Damn it. It's going to be hard to go anywhere now. There's just so many of them.

I don't have any specialized attacks with my daggers, hands, limbs, or feet and my shield is too close to breaking so I put it away earlier too. When will this nightmare end? Wait, the toxin. More bodies of these creatures are melted away by the toxin, creating a dangerous and expanding pool of contaminated flesh or whatever they're made of. Contact upon said flesh will lead to the toxin spreading. There is a light at the end of this tunnel. Thank goodness but it is far from enough. It'll take too long to get rid of all of these creatures. I need to keep cutting through more and more of the, and be faster and more careful. Without my armor, those lasers sting a little bit and are doing minor damage to my Miitopian knight's robes. I always wear them underneath my armor. It's the smart thing to do. But I'm getting tired. Im not used to fighting with daggers in the least bit. They're far too short for my style, physique, and taste. I only got them out of necessity. If I were more comfortable with them, I'd use them regularly whenever my sword is broken or they're better for the situation or whatever else. That's my way. If my exhaustion keeps up, I will not be able to hold them off any longer and be crushed to death under their weight. I can't stop for anything, not even to put one of my daggers away. I'm stuck with my strategy and can't even jump into the air. My boots, the only parts of my armor I kept on as they happened to not break that much are being stepped on by these creatures. It's just constantly chaotic and the smell of smoke coming from the house is getting worse. I underestimated these creatures. Strength in numbers. But then, Connie rushes out of the house with her parents behind her as she slashed at creature after creature with ease. She quickly spots me: "Hey, are you the one who yelled a few minutes ago?" "Finally, some relief. Yes I am. Damn it. There are far too many of them. I'm stuck where I'm at. I'm not used to this kind of fighting. There must be tens of thousands of these creatures by now." "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there! Somehow."

Her parents unexpectedly get into the car that's parked in the driveway and drive into the creatures, crushing a bunch of them and causing a domino effect that knocks all of them down along with myself. "Or you could just thank your parents for doing that." Connie has black eyes, dark brown hair that extends pretty far down and is kinda shaped below her ears like a diagonal rectangle, a coral collared short sleeved shirt, gray pants, dark brown skin, and pink and white sneakers. Her father, Doug has tan skin, dark brown hair, black eyes, a pale brown jacket with fur inside and a patch on the left sleeve, black dress shoes, and pale navy dress pants. Her mother, Priyanka has brown hair, black eyes, tan pants, a pale blue shirt, dark red shoes, and dark tan skin. Her parents then move it back up before gesturing both Connie and I to get in. I get to my feet and easily knock down all the creatures that are just now getting back up before running on top of them and rushing to the car right as Connie herself gets in. Doug asks me: "Who are you? I've never seen you around here before. You must not be from around here." "You have no idea how right you are. It's a complicated explanation that I would rather explain after our lives aren't in grave danger. Peddle to the metal. We need to rescue as many people as possible. I'm Adam but I also often go by BlazeWarriorWolf and Swiftdrawer. As you can tell, I've been through a lot of battles. My scars prove it. But now's not the time for that. Just kick it into high gear. There are so many of these creatures. Clever of you to run them down with the car. Also, I should mention that there's a growing biohazard that is destroying more and more of them gradually over time. So yeah, step on it." And with that, Doug probably breaks several car laws by speeding it up and getting out of there. But then, we get blocked by a lot of creatures about 3 blocks away. Chaos Wolg speaks: "Let me out! Together, we can spread enough mayhem to stop them! It'll be fun!"

I put away my daggers and get out Chaos: "If you say so. Someone roll down the windows. I need a clear shot of these creatures." "Huh? Is that toy talking?" "We don't have time for you asking questions. Please do as Adam says or else we're doomed. The chaos that will doom us will not be fun. Also, I'm not a toy. I'm a B Daman. We'll explain later. Just trust us." The family all shrug and open all of the car windows. "B shots, ready, aim, Fireblast! Let's not waste time, Chaos! Emblem Charge!" "Ultra Devastating Crushing Bite!" "With a multitude of shots, an immense amount of passion and force will be exerted. Bring on the chaos upon those who dare inflict pain onto others for selfish reasons, Chaos Wolg!" We have evolved our special attack to not only fire multiple marbles per attack but to even do it curve shot style if needed. This knocks down all of the creatures in our way. I position myself to a regular sitting position and Doug probably breaks the speed limit again as we look around for anyone else who needs rescuing. However, no one fits that description as the others are near our location and obliterating the creatures now. Austin even summoned his best duel monster comrades including his number card. They are apparently protecting all of the residents of Beach City by forming a circular formation. We all get out of the car and I use Chaos Wolg's attack as much as possible to bring down more creatures. After that, Connie and I join the circular formation to protect everyone while her parents go inside of the formation upon realizing what the strategy is. But what we didn't know was how futile that was going to be when compared to Corrupted Steven. He's more than just a blob more in the distance. Now, he looks like a creature who is minimalist in design. The shaking of the ground has somehow not affected the current battle in a while nor any of the battles with these creatures I was in. Even so, we're really starting to feel them now. "We better take these creatures down but not use much of our strength doing so. We need to be fully ready for a much bigger and more dangerous fight that will more than likely level this entire town of Beach City. There's no choice. I bet I can use one Great Infernal Tornado Slash with my sword still. I have to risk it."

I do just that, putting away Chaos Wolg and drawing my sword. I run closer to the center of the creature horde by kicking my way through. After that, I try not to overdo it too much as I unleash my best attack: "Here we go! Great Infernal Tornado Slash! Haaaaaaaa!" A huge chunk of the creatures are torn and burned into nothing. I sheath my sword and run back to the circular formation. I then opt to use my fists again along with my feet and boots to take down as many of the remaining creatures left as I possibly can. But in a few minutes, that pales in comparison to Corrupted Steven who is crushing everything in sight. Cars, trees, buildings, roads, creatures, you name it. I swear a bunch under my breath. Subaru yells: "Stay alert everyone, it's coming right for us! Dravise, we have to surpass Kakeru in order to save everyone here from that." Connie replies: "It? That's not an it, that's Steven!" A collective gasp is heard and fear and confusion manifests in the people. "What's going on?" "What happened to Steven?" "That doesn't look like Steven!" "Aaaaa! We're all going to die!" Lots of screaming is heard from the residents. Austin yells above them: "Calm down! All of you, go to where Steven just moved out! You'll be safe there!" He adds but only loud enough to us making the formation: "I'm so ready to fight! This is awesome! It's been a long time since I've battled someone THAT big! Let's go, go, go!" "Austin! You're going to get us killed with an attitude like that! You know, something is wrong. And if I can sense it.. I can only imagine what you Crystal Gems are sensing and thinking." Pearl replies: "Well.. That's not Steven. Not anymore." "Pearl's right. I don't sense Steven in there. All I sense are 3 malevolent presences." "Yeah, I don't feel our buddy is around anymore. Oh, Steven! What happened to you?!" "No! Steven!" "I sense it too. But more clearly than any of you do. There's no despair, only hatred and greedy. This Steven you're talking about is still in there but his presence is faint. I also sense another presence. A presence that is also faint but full of love and compassion."

"It can't be. Rose?!" "Hold on, you're telling us that Steven's mother still exists inside of him as a consciousness?" "I do not know anything about your friend. I've been too busy writing the wrongs of my past and preventing what happened in my timeline to spend time learning about many other universes. Meklord Emperor Wisel, attack that creature. Skiel, Wisel, Astro Mekanikal, join Wisel on the attack." The attack does nothing. The 4 Meklords do no damage but go back on the ground, unscaved. That's good for us. Maya is shaking: "Poi Poi, I'm so scared! What chance do we have against that thing?" "Calm yourself. We need to be at our best to win. Freep, I'll use a relic that will multiply your size. Be ready to use Rolldozer." "Rolldozer? You got it!" Strag uses the aforementioned relic and Freep becomes the same size or so as Corrupted Steven. Freep then uses his Rolldozer attack. It involves him using his shell as like a bowling ball as he accelerates and spins rapidly. He puts all of his strength into the attack but Corrupted Steven isn't even fazed. Freep falls and exclaims as the relic wears off: "It's my noggin that's getting knocked. I can't fight anymore." "Freep, to the Dreamplane!" Freep returns to the Dreamplane and turns into a purple ammonite. Strag puts him away and says after getting out another dream creature's ammonite which is light blue in color: "With this ammonite, I imagine Epik!" A graceful light blue and blue bird appears before him: "Epik, can you help us lead this creature away from the city and towards somewhere more suitable to fight?" Epik nods and lures Corrupted Steven away some distance. And then, Austin pulls out his guitar and starts strumming a melody that floats all of us at an increasing speed to where Epik is leading Corrupted Steven. We land just in time for Epik to be hit sadly: "Epik, to the Dreamplane!" We all get ready to battle when we hear a voice. A all too familiar voice. "Greetings, unvalued freaks! I'm here to kill all of you and conquer this universe to expand the operations and profits of my fine corporation. You may have seen one of my former employees earlier today. I killed him. And Adam saw it, didn't you Adam?"

"You. Pmurt Nedib. Is this what you meant by indirectly direct? You killed Yappa Yappa gruesomely. I will never forget that image." "I should have known you would catch on so quickly. That's why I hate you so much in particular. Your preaching about revolution, unity, peace, love, comradery, friendship, the end of capitalism, stopping bigotry, and more has gone on for far too long for me to ignore. I have inhabited this young man's body. It was so easy. I just had to give him 2 number cards. That's all it took to turn him into a corrupted gem. Some of my power was put inside those numbers. The reason Yappa Yappa was so easy for me to kill was because I simply used the power of Steven and those numbers to greatly increase my power temporarily. But now that I have reclaimed the piece of the Shadow that Yappa Yappa stole from me and taken control of this corrupted vessel, I'm unstoppable! I was hoping to have the final confrontation later rather than sooner. But every time I had others do the dirty work, they failed. It doesn't matter who I hired, all of them went down again and again. Dark Vegan. Bling Bling Boy. Brain Freezer. Mr. Mittens. Yappa Yappa. Dragold. Gillusion. Destroyo. Thousands upon thousands of gullible military men. Failed. As you may understand, I am displeased by all of this. How can a bunch of inferior freaks who don't deserve to live subvert my every plan and defeat everyone I ever pushed tasks onto? I ran out of patience the moment I knew Yappa Yappa would betray me today. But now that he's dead for good, he's no longer of any use or concern to me. With this body, I am unbeatable." "Damn you. Pmurt Nedib. We're going to find a way to stop you. I don't know how but we will. I'm going to find your real body and kill you the first chance I get." "You don't understand, do you? I have fused with Steven's corrupted body and locked his consciousness along with his mother's consciousness away in a place from which you can never snap Steven out of no matter how many hugs you try."

Garnet replies: "You can tell us how impossible our victory is but we won't give up without a fight. Amethyst, alert all of the other gems. We won't be able to win with just us." "On it! I will be back soon! Just don't let me miss out on much of the action!" "That was a logical decision. You two are more level headed and fight more strategically than she does. That's not necessarily a problem of difference. After all, Pmurt Nedib knows exactly what he's doing. I know just exactly what kind of human he is. The worst kind. The kind that win many elections across my world because they're so manipulative and clever. We have a long fight ahead of us. Be prepared. Without my sword in play, our chances of winning are decreased by a significant margin." To be continued.

Outro: This chapter is awesome! Okay, I've had the Corrupted Steven thing as an idea to use for a while now. That was a major help in writing this chapter. As was having written Redundant Apocalypses Chapter 8 where I made fun of that damn website in a unique yet hilarious, confusing, and chaotic way. I hope you enjoyed the interweaving between different things in this chapter and I especially hope that the general background of the Crystal Gems helped you understand this better if you're never watched Steven Universe. We're just about at the halfway point of this story. Not quite there but we will be around chapter 22 or so. So yes, Pmurt Nedib stops bribing and paying people as much to do everything for him. They've managed to get the Nazi billionaire to get off his figurative throne of money and take direct action. Be prepared for more intense twists for now on. Don't worry, Yappa Yappa will return later in the story. You'll see what I mean in time. That's it, see ya next time!