-As before, I own nothing from the cartoon Steven Universe, except my own OCs Kunzite and Hiddenite.-
The two gems and their solid black foes met in a clash. The beast of the two swung its arms wildly and undisciplined at Kunzite, whom had to dodge every swing rather than block them.
'He's strong, but he's slow; I must to find some sort of opening,' Kunzite thought.
Hiddenite on the other hand was forced to keep her distance as the insect kept spewing its acid at her. Everywhere the acid hit slowly but surely ate away at what ever substance it hit.
"Ugghh, that stuff smells foul," she spoke out loud, "Alright, if that's the way you wanna play, I've got a trick or two as well!" With that the gem on her chest began to glow and then suddenly she slowly turned transparent until she all but vanished completely.
The insect twitched its head back and forth, rapidly trying to find its invisible foe. It would spray its acid here and there for good measure, but all it ever hit was the walls and the floor.
Suddenly, its head was impacted from its left side. Jerking it back it tried to snap at whatever hit it with its mandibles, but it grabbed only empty air.
"No, over here!" The insect snapped its head to the right, only for it to be smacked hard by an unseen fist. The spiked fist however found itself buried into the insect's right side mandible, forcing Hiddenite to drop her disguise.
"Hey, let go!" she cried. The insect pulled around hard to release itself, but the fist held fast. It even tried to snap at the gem using its rear set mandibles, to which Hiddenite was forced to jump back and forth as best as she could to avoid.
Finally, grasping the end of the point with her free right hand, and securing her left foot against the base where the mandible met the head, Hiddenite gave a mighty pull, and the piece snapped off with an audible snap. Both of them stumbled back and soon faced each other again. Hiddenite looked down at the black, pointed trophy that adorned her left silver-knuckle, pulled it loose and threw it to the ground.
Looking back up at her foe, she was surprised to find that from the stub where half of the insect's mouth used to be, slowly but surely a new one was somehow regrowing. In just a few short moments, an entirely new mandible had regrown in its place.
"What the...?" Hiddenite said out loud, "You break off part of them, but they just grow back?"
Kunzite wasn't faring any better than her sister. The beast was simply swinging its powerful arms at her too fast for her to make any kind of offensive maneuver of her own.
"Hiddenite!" she called out, "This beast is giving me more than I can handle!"
"Quick, back to back!" her sister replied, and the two joined each other with their backs nearly touching. On either side of them their solid black foes eyed them down almost hungrily.
"Okay, so if you cut off a part of their bodies, they just grow right back!" Hiddenite told her sister.
"Grow back? As in they regenerate?"
"Yeah, that too."
"That would mean... just how much of their body can regenerate?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean there must be something to them that gives them regeneration."
"Well, it's worth a try, but didn't you say you were having trouble?" Hiddenite looked over her left shoulder at the black hairy beast. It began to jump in place and grunt in sort of a tantrum fashion.
"Perhaps we should switch opponents," Kunzite suggested. With that they quickly pivoted around each other so they now faced their opposite enemies.
'This big ugly brute? This will be easy...!' Hiddenite thought readying her fists.
'Hexaped, front and rear mandibles, armored body, acidic secretions... yes, this can work.' Kunzited thought, crossing her blade-tonfas They both then launched at their new opponents.
Hiddenite easily blocked a reckless overhead right arm swinging down on her with her elbow, and with her other elbow she jabbed it hard into the creature's gut. The beast recoiled hard from the impact but Hiddenite pressed her counterattack. She roundhouse kicked the creature in its head, various tiny cracks heard told her that she may have cracked the creatures head and maybe even knocked out a couple teeth.
Kunzite danced-dodged elegantly around the insect as it futilely spewed its acid at her. When she got close enough she swung her blades at the insect's head. It's head was knocked aside, but it faced her again and again. This time with widened mandibles it attempted to grab her whole. Kunzite crossed her arms so her tonfas provided cover against the grip. She gritted her teeth and grunted as she held fast against the insect trying to throw her from side to side.
Kunzite suddenly saw more acid dripping from its oral cavity, and quickly kicked her leg up beneath the creature's head. She was free from its grip and used the momentum from her kick to backflip.
The insect suddenly swung its other end mandibles at the pink gem. Quickly, Kunzite twisted herself to roll over the incoming attack and quickly stabbed the blade end of one of her tonfas into the tail before it left her completely. With minimal resistance it pierced the armor and dug deep into the ground beneath.
The insect let out a very painful clicking noise from the sudden change in its momentum. It then tried to free its rear end from the tonfa-anchor, but the weapon held strong in the ground. Kunzite quickly used her other tonfa and buried that one into the creature's front head. The insect now was pinned on both ends to the ground and was not able to move much of anything save for snapping its mandibles and wiggling its legs.
The pink gem moved to the front of the trapped creature and with nimble fingers, located a weak, soft spot within the creature's chitin armor. Her fingers dug deep in and within the black, viscocus liquid found what felt like the cord that acted as the creature's spine. She ripped hard, snapped the cord, and the insect fell still in an instant.
Kunzite took a moment to catch her breath, "Well, that should at least stop it for a moment." She then retrieved her tonfas from the ground and deactivated their blades.
The other beast was clearly dazed at this point, simply trying to get a new bearing on its surroundings. It never got the chance however as Hiddenite shoulder charged it with her right side while she fitted the blades on her left spiked knuckle around its neck. She charged hard, pushing the beast back until they both slammed into the wall with a vibrating thud. The blades imbedded themselves into the the wall, effectively locking the creature in its place.
Hiddenite then quickly removed her hand from the knuckle and was able to step back. The beast flailed its arms around helplessly, trying to free itself, but the weapon held itself firm within the wall.
"Yeah! Not quite so tough now, are ya?!" Hiddenite couldn't help but taunt. The beast roared defiantly in response. Hiddenite cocked back her other arm and shot it hard into the beast's chest. There was a splatter as her fist seemingly punched through very thick liquid instead of a solid body.
"What the- disguisting..." Hiddenite grimaced, her fist twisting through the disgusting insides feeling for something, anything that could be keeping this monster moving.
Finally her hand closed upon something hard. With a mighty yank, she pulled her hand and whatever it held out of the creature's body. The beast roared helplessly as whatever was removed from it so forcefully apparently gave it life. Without it, the creature's movements began to slow drastically and Hiddenite noticed that the creature seemed to be... oozing.
She finally looked down at what it was she removed. Covered in thick oozing liquid was a small light blue glowing shard that seemed to hum in her hands very faintly.
"So this little thing... controls it?" She said, looking back up the body that had just a moment ago tried to kill them. It now oozed uncontrollably down to the floor in a giant liquid mass.
She heard the sound of footsteps approaching her, and Hiddenite saw Kunzite join her.
"Kunzite, are you alright?" she asked.
"I suppose so," Kunzite replied, "A few cuts and bruises here and there but nothing too serious. You?"
"Same here," she said, removing her knuckle from the wall and looking down at the mess on the ground. "That ugly beast just turned into a messy puddle when I pulled this out of it." She showed her sister the glowing shard, who then took it in her hands.
"Interesting..." she said, turning it and probing at it with her fingers, "feels not only exothermic, but seems to give off its own light..." she looked on at the strange orb in her hands, unaware of what was happening behind her.
The insect somehow regain its feet very slowly and began to advance towards the unaware pink gem. Hiddenite suddenly saw it behind her.
"KUNZITE! LOOK OUT!" she cried out. Kunzite started to turn around, but Hiddenite shoved past her and tackled the insect. Firmly grabbing it by its head she wrestled the creature to the ground until she held it face up. The creature flailed its legs back and forth and snapped both its mandibles, but Hiddenite held strong.
"Kunzite! Do something, I can't hold this thing forever!" the green gem exclaimed.
"R-Right, hold on!" Kunzite quickly ran to assist the green gem. She planted her foot at the base of the rear mandibles and this time using smaller blades on the shorter ends of the tonfas, into two sides of the creature's soft underbelly. The blade easily sliced through the insect's underbelly with near-surgical precision.
The head of the insect began to thrash around more violently, apparently aware of what was happening to it. Hiddenite punched both of her brawler-knuckles around its front mandibles and just like the beast, locked them into the ground. Removing her fingers from the weapons, she got off the insect and found that it could not move its head anymore.
"Alright Kunzite, have you got it open?" she said, rejoining her sister.
"Yes Hiddenite, now where do I find it?" Kunzite asked.
"Feel around somewhere in its chest area!" Kunzite dug her hand through the hole in the armor she made. Feeling around in the thorax through thick and viscous liquid, she finally found a solid object that felt like it didn't belong. She yanked it out of the insect, and the creature's clicking of terror began to weaken and slow down. Just like with the beast, the insect's body began to ooze and melt into a black mess.
The two sisters finally stepped away from masses of liquids that tainted crystalline ground and were able to catch their breath.
"...Alright ...in all seriousness, that was definitely a good work out," Hiddenite said, stretching her arms around.
"But what were those things?" Kunzite asked.
"Whatever they were, they're the first living, moving things we've encountered in a long time."
"Walking, hostile constructs made nearly entirely of some sort of liquid is not exactly what I'd refer to as a sentient lifeform."
"They walked around and made strange noises, one of them even spit acid; that's about as real as it gets to me," Hiddenite crossed her arms over her chest.
"But still, both were animated by these shards,"Kunzite looked in her own hand at the orb she now was holding and held the two side by side, "These almost look like they're pieces of... something," she said.
"Kunzite, I'm a little worried," Hiddenite said, "I mean the first creatures we've seen and encountered in a long time try to kill us? How do we know there aren't more of them?"
"I would say we handled ourselves fairly well," Kunzite pointed out.
"Yeah barely, I mean next time, if there is a next time, we might not be so lucky."
"What are you saying sister?"
"I'm saying that it might not be safe out here anymore," Hiddenite said, "Maybe I should keep scouting outside... by myself, just to make sure there aren't more of them."
"Hiddenite..."
"Come on sis, deep down you know I'm right," Hiddenite looked at her. Kunzite looked around at their fallen foes, and finally gave a sigh.
"I suppose so," Kunzite conceded, "It's just that... well, look at how much we've discovered in just a short amount of time, and then suddenly we have to stop."
"It's not permanent, it's just to make sure we'll be safe."
"Yes yes, I understand that... alright, let's return."
"Great- oh wait, I better not forget that Moon Beetle!" Hiddenite quickly returned to the top of the altar.
Kunzite turned towards the exit to the cave, but suddenly in her shift in momentum her hand lost grip of one of the shards. It fell to the ground right towards the black puddle that used to be a killer insect. The moment the two made contact, the puddle began to quiver and reform.
"What-" Kunzite said, then realized quickly what was happening. She jumped down, wrapped her fingers around the still-exposed gem shard, and removed it from the liquid. Almost immediately the liquid stopped moving again.
"Geode, that was frightening," Kunzite said, her heartbeat racing again, and turned to her sister, "I think it's best if we take these shards with us as well."
"Good idea," Hiddenite replied. She picked up the still-bubbled Moon Beetle from the altar recess, and finally teleported it back to their hut. Kunzite did the same with the two gem shards and the two of them cautiously exited the crystal cave and began their trek back to their safe-hut.
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In the orbit above the moon, the black humanoid figure continued to hover in place. Its massive black wings would slowly flap up and down occasionally. The figure slowly began to drift out of the eclipsing shadow and into the light of the gas giant.
The figure measured at least ten feet tall from head to foot, while its wing-to wing width measured about fifteen feet. It was clad in a large, bulky armor covering the entire body save the head, with thinner mesh at its body joints. Its entire head was concealed in a black helm with a visor that didn't reflect light.
The figure put its hand to its chest as it suddenly felt something.
"... so, my Spawns have fallen..." the figure's teeth gritted, "...no matter, it confirms it; you are here Spodumene, and I will find you..."
The figure then crouched down in mid-space, and shot itself forward towards the moon towards the same spot it had shot its Spawns.