Missing Peace: Chapter 39
Pearl danced away from swing after swing of the massive weapons her Quartz attackers were flailing at her. On the other side of the tussle, Amethyst did the same, weaving between the much larger Quartzes with ease. While they were holding off their adversaries for the time being, both knew that this couldn't go on forever. Sooner or later the sheer numbers of their foes would tire them out. To make matters worse, the fact that these Quartzes were even here meant that Facet 31 had detected them somehow. Garnet had contacted the two just after the Quartzes appeared, but had gone radio silent soon after, so Pearl and Amethyst were none the wiser as to how they had been found out. However it had happened, they knew they needed to reach the human hostages quickly. If the Crystal Gems' cover had been blown, the humans' lives could already be in jeopardy, and the Quartz attackers could easily just be stalling for time until Facet 31 could carry out whatever it was that they were planning on doing with the zoo.
Pearl surveyed the ongoing battle. Amethyst was holding her own, and so far the Quartzes' attention was either on her, or Pearl. The instant the Quartzes had first showed up, Pearl had shoved her human allies, Dalton and Li, through the nearest doorway. Though the Quartzes had caught the group by surprise, and thus must have seen all four of them, a quick head count of the enemy by Pearl revealed that seemingly none of them had chosen to pursue the humans. Pearl and Amethyst had been keeping the pressure on hard enough that the enemy hadn't been able to spare any soldiers to do so. Pearl hoped to herself that the two humans were smart enough to lay low and stay out of trouble until she and Amethyst could fight their way out of this. If they could fight their way out of this.
As Pearl parried another blow, an idea came to her. However, it wasn't one that would work in the pink metallic corridor in which she and Amethyst were currently fighting. "Amethyst!" she yelled over the sounds of grunting and clashing metal "come to me!" Amethyst gave her a nod, and quickly rolled herself into a flaming pinwheel, screeching between the Quartzes until she was back to back with Pearl.
"So… what now P?" said Amethyst nervously, as Quartzes advanced on the pair from all sides.
"We need to get into the human enclosure" replied Pearl, also glancing at the advancing guards.
"Uh, yeah, I know, but we can't exactly get to the entrance right now" Amethyst said incredulously.
"Actually, I was hoping you could help me out with that" said Pearl, subtly gesturing with her head towards a point on the ceiling. Amethyst's eyes darted up to it, and fell on a support beam that looked as though it had been installed as part of Facet 31's extensive modifications to the zoo.
"Ooooooh, I feel ya" said Amethyst, realising what Pearl had in mind. Swinging her whip, she forced a couple of the Quartzes to duck out of the way. Swinging again, higher this time, she managed to coil the end of her whip around the beam. "Ha-ha, nice shot" mocked a Rose Quartz. "Actually" replied Amethyst with a smirk, "it kinda was." Grabbing Pearl's waist with one arm, she tugged hard on the whip with the other, and pushed off with her feet. She flung the two of them into the air, letting go of the whip's handle as she did so. Once they were a couple of feet in the air, Amethyst grabbed a point higher up on the whip. Its sharp crystalline protrusions dug into her hand, but it would take more than that to dissuade her. The force of her jump sent the two Crystal Gems swinging above the head of the Quartzes. Letting go at the apex of the swing, the two landed a few metres beyond their attackers, and immediately bolted for the human enclosure, with the Quartzes in hot pursuit.
Finding the entrance pipe, Pearl and Amethyst dashed towards their destination as fast as the enclosed space would allow. Being Gems, the station's automatic processing systems didn't try to chip them or don them in outfits as it had done for Steven on their first visit, but progress was still slow. Fortunately, it was slower for the Quartzes, who were large enough that they were forced to crawl to follow the pair. Reaching the enclosure, Pearl and Amethyst burst out of the lake in the habitat's centre, and clambered to shore. Pearl's eyes scanned the enclosure around her. The place was well lit, a pleasant temperature, and was lush with vegetation. It was downright idyllic, but it was also empty. There wasn't a single human in sight. "I was worried this might happen" Pearl said, turning to Amethyst, "Facet 31 must have already moved the humans, or worse."
As the two Crystal Gems stood side by side in the empty enclosure, the Quartzes closed in on them again. Some were walking ominously out of the lake, while others were coming from different directions, clearly having flanked around to the enclosure's other entrances rather than pursuing their targets through the tunnel. "Heh, nice try" said one of the Rose Quartzes with a smirk, "but now you're cornered. You were never going to get away from us."
Pearl's mind was still racing with thoughts of where the humans might have been taken, and what she should do next, but she knew that right now, she needed to focus on the problem that was right in front of her. "We didn't need to get away" she said, her expression shifting to a confident grin. She and Amethyst side-eyed each other, both knowing that the other was thinking the same thing. Pearl turned back to the Quartz. "We just needed to get you somewhere with a higher ceiling." Before any of the Quartzes could figure out what was going on, Pearl gave a showy twirl, before dropping into Amethyst's arms. A bright flash of light filled the enclosure, as the Quartzes shielded their eyes. When they were able to look back at where their targets had been, Opal stood in their place.
As the more than ten-foot-tall fusion stared them down, the Quartzes looked nervously at each other, before one of the Rose Quartzes spoke up, exasperated: "Stop standing around you rocks! We can do that too!" The slower thinkers among them looked slightly surprised, before one of the Amethysts replied "Oh. Oh yeah!" More flashes of light filled the room. Once they died down, Opal was surrounded by four Quartz fusions; two Rose Quartz, two Amethysts; each one about equal in size to Opal herself.
Opal glanced from enemy to enemy as the enlarged Quartzes plodded towards her. A smile spread across her face. "Let's dance."
Pushing off with both legs, she jumped high into the air, and over the head of one of the fusions. Summoning her spear and whip, she twirled in the air, combining them into her bow with a quick motion of her arms. As she twisted to face the fusion she had just jumped over, she drew back her bow. Time seemed to slow as she hung in the air, an orb of light and wind forming around her. Her knee-length hair billowed behind her as a glowing blue arrow formed within her bow. Still in mid-air, she released the shot. The arrow glowed with almost blinding brightness as it soared towards an Amethyst fusion. It struck squarely in the chest, before exploding in a pulse of light. The fusion was poofed instantly, and four Amethyst gemstones dropped from the resulting cloud of violet smoke, landing with thuds in the soft grass.
Opal landed gracefully about twenty metres away, and turned to face her remaining enemies. Clenching their teeth angrily, they charged at her, their weapons raised.
Dalton and Li stood pressed against the walls on either side of a metallic sliding door. Just a few minutes previously, they had been trudging along with two of the Crystal Gems, with the intention of reaching the enclosure which they believed may have contained Facet 31's human hostages. Things hadn't gone to plan, however. They had been spotted somehow, and in the ensuing chaos, one of their Gem escorts, Pearl, had shoved them through this door and shut it behind them. The pair of humans had stood on either side of the door as they listened to the fight raging on the other side. Now, though, it seemed as though the combatants had moved off. Just moments ago, the humans had heard the thunderous footsteps as the bulky Gems had run off down the corridor, presumably in pursuit of Pearl and Amethyst. Now, Dalton and Li were alone, and left with the daunting prospect of figuring out what to do next.
"Well, now what?" asked Dalton, talking as much to himself as he was to Li.
"I say we change objective" replied Li. "Those Gems sounded like they were heading towards the human enclosure. We'll never get there now."
"And what's you alternative?" said Dalton incredulously, "that we go after the first facet 31 agents we see? This was the only part of the op that had any chance of being non-combat. Neither of us stands a chance against a Gem in a fight."
Li bristled at Dalton's rebuke. He knew that the American's was only trying to keep them both alive, but frankly he was just getting in the way. Li had all the tools he needed to carry out his mission; he just needed to get away from Dalton long enough to do so without tipping him off. "Well" he said, losing his patience somewhat "I would much rather take my chances than sit uselessly in this room until Facet 31 decides to send soldier after us, so you can either come with me or not, Mr President."
"Then I guess we're going together" said Dalton in a show of bravado. "Splitting up right now would just be asking to get killed."
It took all of Li's willpower not to scowl. He had a job to do, and this naïve politician was making said job very difficult, and was proving near-impossible to shake. Still seething internally, he headed back to the door, and activated the panel beside it. Pearl had locked it behind them, presumably to protect them from the Quartzes, but fortunately, thanks to the program developed by the small green Crystal Gem; Peridot, he believed; overcoming the lock was a trivial process. As the door slid open, Li peered left and right down the corridor, and, once satisfied that there were no Gems nearby, quietly stepped out into the hallway. Dalton followed behind; eyeing Li suspiciously when he was sure he wasn't looking.
Try as he might, Dalton just couldn't get the measure of the man. Li had been assigned to this mission as an observer, predominantly because the international community no longer trusted Dalton's own judgement. But what did that mean? What had Li been asked to do that the UN didn't feel Dalton would be willing to do himself? The thought weighed so heavily on Dalton's mind that for a few minutes he paid little attention to where Li was actually going. He simply followed him as he wound his way through the metallic pink corridors of the zoo. It was only when the pair stopped to wait for a couple of Amethyst guards to move off that Dalton stole a look at the map Li was carrying. The Diamonds had provided the entire team with copies of the zoo's floor plan, stored on Gem tablets that allowed them to track their own positions. A quick glance at the two dots representing Li and Dalton revealed that they were now in the vicinity of something called the "main power distribution node." Dalton narrowed his eyes. Why would Li have led them here? Their job was to look out for human interests, and, in the case of this mission, that meant rescuing the hostages. How did messing with the zoo's power supply help humanity?
"Mr President" said Li, speaking in a hushed whisper, "can you move up to that next corner and make sure those guards are out of earshot?"
"Sure thing" Dalton replied, though he doubted that Li didn't already know the answer. Neither of them had scouted ahead at any of the other corners they'd come to. It seemed likely that Li just wanted out of the way for some reason. Lifting his own tablet in front of his face, Dalton watched Li in the reflective screen, and sure enough, as soon as Dalton reached the next corner, Li bolted into the room to his immediate right, and shut the door behind him. Dalton spun around, and sprinted to the door. He found it locked, but quickly circumvented the issue using Peridot's program, just as Li had done before.
As he swung the door open, he found Li stood next to a colossal bundle of cables and wires which formed an ugly ball in the centre of the room. The bundle's cables protruded in six directions, vanishing into the floor, ceiling, and each wall. Some cables were as thick as a man's torso, while others were as thin as a pencil, but each throbbed with a warm pink glow. This must have been the node mentioned on the map. As Li approached it, he reached into his suit jacket, and pulled out a device; one which Dalton recognised all too well.
"Mr Li" Dalton said with a steely tone "why do you have a Diamond Line communicator?" Dalton knew that The Diamonds had given those communicators only to the world leaders present at the Beach City conference, so what the hell was one doing here?
"Ah, Mr President" replied Li, trying his hardest to mask his surprise that Dalton was already back from his scouting assignment "President Liu gave it to me before we set off. I thought I should contact the Diamonds and inform them of the fact that our Crystal Gem friends were detected by Facet 31. I imagine they would want to know."
"Mhmm" Dalton said with a raised eyebrow, "and I suppose you had to be in this specific room to send that message? We could have done that from where we were, but instead we spent valuable time coming here, so why don't you tell me what's really going on?"
Silence passed between the two men for a few seconds, as they eyed each other up. In an instant, each one noticed a change in the other's eyes. In unison, they pulled their pistols on each other. Dalton had reacted almost entirely on impulse. He had been in enough combat situations to recognise the look in a man's eyes that preceded the drawing of a weapon, and his old training had kicked in. Now that he and Li stood with their weapons raised though, he couldn't quite believe it was happening. Eager to get some sort of answer, he spoke up: "Look, I don't know what's going on here, but I figure if what you're planning to do is so important, you can't afford this delay as much as I can. Heck, I can stand here all day if I have to." Of course, doing so would mean that both he and Li would likely be captured by the first Gem to walk through the door, but Dalton considered that option preferable to the currently unknown quantity that was Li's elicit plan.
Li sighed, keeping his weapon trained on Dalton. He sensed that he wasn't going to be able to fight his way out of this. After all, even if he did manage to get a shot in, he risked getting hit himself, and if he did, there would be little chance of his completing his mission. What would become of humanity then? Resigning himself to the situation, he conceded that there was no choice. He was going to have to bring Dalton in.
"Alright" he said, holding up the communicator for Dalton to see, "here's what I was sent to do…"
Author's Notes: Aaaand I'm back from my time off! Sorry for the wait, but now that I'm back I hope to do these every couple of days again. No promises obviously, but
that's the hope. See you next chapter!