If you haven't read the second chapter since it was first uploaded, you may want to check it or you may miss a part of the story/ witness unintended continuity issues and think I am a terrible writer... Don't worry, I am just a terrible schedule maker. Might want to re-read the last chapter (just the second half should be enough) to keep updated on the story.
P.S. If you feel like being a part of this story, I could really use a cover image! Let me know with private messaging or reviews if you have a picture for me!
The Beach House- 17:13 Local Time
It only took Peridot about 4 seconds to jump onto the kitchen counter and begin dismantling the microwave for its components.
The crystal gems watched in amusement as the small green creature latched onto technology and pulled things apart like a sort of angry green leech, Steven however was less keen on having his home destroyed by the actions of a new friend; even if that friend didn't actually know what a 'friend' was.
The squad sat in the living area, some with bemused grins and others scratching their heads, struggling to get the magnitude of the situation around their heads. After all, what do they prioritise? They are still on the mission, even if it had gone rather off course and the weight of their escape rested on what they prioritised. Should they work with these alien creatures to help them save their world before hoping for a returned favour or should they go their own way and try to solve this problem themselves?
Franklin made the call.
"Alright, listen up." He said, standing above the other marines and even still above most of the shorter gems; halting them in their actions varying from pulling open a television to cleaning up the mess from the last few pieces of ex-kitchen appliances.
"We have a problem with this schedule. Peridot-" he said looking up to the loft to meet her somewhat uneasy gaze. "-Can you give me an idea on how long something like this might take? I get that it's urgent but so is our mission and it may be the weight of your world resting on this but it's also the weight of our world resting on us making it back in time."
Garnet made no shift in her character, staring blankly from behind her shades and still standing in the same pose she first held when Peridot began her explanation. Amethyst had moved for the fridge and despite still facing the large white cubicle, she held a solemn look on her face. Pearl was moving to clean up Peridot's most recent mess and she contained and equally understanding look on her face.
Peridot didn't care much for this Earth, yet alone this 'other Earth' where gems supposedly never existed and humans where so many times more likely to kill each other anyway but Steven made up for her lack of empathy with his heart pouring for them, while he appreciated having the extra help, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he felt responsible for the demise of so many people, so many contented families that where, at this very moment minding their own business, not asking for anything but to have a happy and peaceful life together.
Pearl, Amethyst and Steven looked to Garnet with awaiting gazes, all hoping for answers from the towering woman, which she failed to provide. She just silently gazed onward, locked in thought.
Then she shrugged.
There was no wry grin to complement it, no other expression or action to suggest it wasn't a big deal. This was a big deal and it was a big question. They all needed each other and they needed to do something or they would lose both worlds. Then she said something.
"I don't know what to do, but we need to do something."
Peridot simply didn't notice the tension in the room and set back to prying open the television before Steven could stop her and halt her rampage through his home. "Stop! I have an idea that doesn't involve destroying the house. Why don't we go back to my Uncle and Aunt's barn on the hilltop and use the stuff they have there instead!" Steven said, triumphantly as he held his arms in the air. "And as for you guys, I know you just wanna go home right now but we can't help you right now." His arms fell to his sides and a solemn look took over his face. "I really want to help you guys, we owe you after all, for what happened in the Kindergarten and we will repay you-" A small tremor took over the exchange, shuddering the foundations of the home before it quickly died out. Peridot made for the cover of Steven and held him closely, in an attempt to comfort herself.
Steven knew what to say to move this on, after all they couldn't spend the rest of Earth's time waiting for each other to make the decision and it looked like neither Garnet nor Franklin where going to take the lead.
"We need to stop the cluster, it can't be too hard to stop the Cluster if we work together and besides, we're all in this same boat for now; the last thing we need is to divide our attention and ignore each other."
He had everyone's attention, Garnet smiled at him in her casual, cool way and gave a thumbs up in approval to his taking charge of the bad situation.
The soldiers were also looking to Franklin to get his approval on who to listen to; after all, where they really going to put their assigned mission to the side and help these alien beings save their world over the Earth they knew so much better, the Earth they called home?
Franklin knew they knew nothing of this world or of how to get back, he knew they had no choice but to take whatever help they could get and if his squad saved another world in the process, even better.
"Good enough for me." He said, gaining a sigh of relief from the squad as they let go of the breaths they didn't realise they had been holding.
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The Hilltop Barn- Day1- 17:24 Local Time
The soldiers knew there were too many people to fit them all on the warp pad at once, being 4 human soldiers- with a full kit, a demigem child, 3 large gem women and a small Homeworld gem technician.
They would have to split up and take separate trips.
Garnet, Amethyst, Peridot, Franklin and Sam took the warp trip to the hillside barn that belonged to Steven's Aunt and Uncle, who had passed away many years ago and was new the property of Greg Universe, the father of Steven.
They where followed by Pearl, Kyle, Neil and Steven. These two soldiers seemed to take up more space than the others, which was a rather annoying effect of them carrying the most explosive of any single squad member.
Steven's Aunt and Uncle had always been massive aviation enthusiasts and so, had a large barn that was packed with tools and parts that where designed for the purpose of building and repairing aircraft, although with enough ingenuity, anyone could make anything from the mass of materials, electronics and tools that lay dormant in the grand red residence.
After the fiasco involving Pearl and her previous attempt at breaking away from the gravitational bonds of Earth, to once again venture out to the stars in which she almost made it, Steven learned something about doing something like this, when doing something big. -almost making it was about as good as not even trying- this time they where going down and the group could not allow a failure on this mission, the stakes where high and they only had one shot.
They can't afford to fail.
After Kyle managed to find a suitable bush to complete the ritual of egesting his stomach, now an increasingly common theme to his travelling via warp pad, Neil saw the proud red structure resting atop a hill. It was surrounded with rich pastures of grass that waved in response to the wind, gently breezing through the area; which the four men couldn't help but appreciate in some way.
There was a rich, fresh countryside smell and, despite the time growing toward the inevitability of night, everyone took a moment to take in the atmosphere, to enjoy the location and take some pleasure in the beauty of the scene... That was occasionally broken by the broken gurgle of Kyle from behind the bush.
When he was done and Pearl had gotten over the notion of what he had done behind the bush, it was time to get to work. Neil went over to see Sam was looking through his scope to get a view on the surrounding area. "There's some cows out a ways, but other than that I can't see anything but green fields and some trees in the distance."
"I'll take care of them." Said Garnet, coming from seemingly nowhere, which scared Sam out of his tunnel vision and into a confused and mildly agitated stare. She didn't reply to the gaze but rather continued to look outward into the fields.
In the other direction, there was a cliff that sloped down toward the sea and Beach city itself, meeting at the dunes that buffered the ocean from the sidewalks, which on the far side lead to another cliff that rose to a top with a small lighthouse atop. The squad had been informed during their transit that the temple would be barely visible, though still very present opposite the city.
After the brief exchange, Sam decided to rejoin his squad and found that the new alliance they had going was congregating at the grand doors to the brightly painted building.
Above the archway there was a wooden sign that read "UUU Space Travel Agency" which bemused the human technician as it was so poorly made that it sounded like something a father and son might do over an otherwise boring weekend, although asking about it only prompted a mildly embarrassed expression from Pearl and Steven, who both had a mutual desire to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Peridot stood on a wooden box to gain some height, although some characters present where still taller than her, regardless of the box. "Greetings fellow beings that desire to save this planet from The Cluster. I do not care what your reasons for being here are, although I do care about how helpful you are going to be to our efforts, so please, if you cannot do anything to aid our mission. Then please, just go."
No one left, it wasn't like the only ones that could even consider her offer had anywhere to go away to anyway. They all stood there, although a few more members had crossed arms and slightly annoyed looks on their faces than before.
"Good. Let us begin."
She turned around to face the grand doors and made a rather pathetic effort to open them, only to have Garnet open them for her. The doors swung open and the inner shambles that remained from their last visit gained another exposure to the shallowing sun. A whistle of admiration was heard from Kyle, who stood behind most of the marines and gems, but wished he could have a front row seat.
Kyle had an affinity for workshop projects, his garage wasn't where he stored his car or his junk, rather it was a small factory where he could make almost anything from spare parts and scrap. He was adept in welding, mechanical engineering, electrics, electrical engineering and vehicular maintenance. So seeing a workshop with this much space, this many parts... It was enough to get him giddy with joy. He felt his shoulders slump and his gaze simply ceased to look blindly into the room, he began targeting key pieces of equipment, tools and materials.
Then he was caught up from his maddened frenzy by the voice of his CO calling his name. "Kyle! Get back here, we are not making super smoker grill here, we need a plan." Pearl had moved into the space with a calm and pleased face, seemingly unfazed by Kyle's small fit, and moved to pull a large chalkboard out and into the open.
Steven set about doodling things on the board as Pearl handed a piece of chalk to Peridot, who proceeded to teat her without so much as a grain of dignity, dismissing her like a servant girl.
"You can go now."
A moment of confusion between the two ensued, Peridot expected the servant girl to just go and look pretty, Pearl expected an immediate apology, or at the very least a joke, like the sort Amethyst might pull. Neither got what they where hoping to get.
"Excuse me?" Pearl said, a vibrant bead of disgust in her voice, which Peridot completely failed to pick up.
"Oh, I said you can go now."
She clapped her hands in the fashion of a master dismissing someone beneath them, which was at least amusing to the marines stood idly by as she was considerably shorter than Pearl. Peridot turned to Steven, who had placed himself on a swivel stool and was now watching the exchange.
"How do you get her to leave?"
Steven replied. "No, she can't go, she's gotta help with the drill thing, right?"
"No no, you're confused. She's a Pearl. A pearl can't build a thing like this."
"Why not?" Said Franklin, stepping forward and making his contribution to the exchange.
"Because Pearls aren't for this! Pearls are for standing around and looking nice and holding your stuff for you. Right?" She spoke like she wasn't entirely sure herself but she had always been told these things, this was 'just how it works' after all wasn't it?
Pearl was pinching the bridge of her nose and the squad started to feel a little less easy about the green thing. It was clear that the other gems present also disagreed with the Homeworld technician.
"That's enough. If we're going to work together, you're going to have to listen to me." Pearl spoke. Peridot stood for a second, her mouth hanging slightly open.
Then she laughed. "Listen to you?" She chuckled some more before turning to Steven. "Did you teach her to talk like this?"
Steven was not as infuriated as Pearl, although was considerably more confused than the marines, who had already started to get some ideas on what was going on.
Neil suggested that there could only be so many varieties of gemstone and if there was supposed to be a species of gemstone beings, surely there would be thousands, possibly millions of the same kind of gemstone, almost like the many races of humans, commonly set apart by their country of origin.
"What do you mean?" Steven said, being the only one present that did not catch on to what Peridot was suggesting.
"She's a Pearl." She said, matter-of-factly. "She's a made-to-order servant just like the hundreds of other Pearls being flaunted around back on Homeworld."
"Wait, there's hundreds of Pearls?!" Steven said, growing weaker in the voice as he spoke and came to understand the implications this would have had. He was not aware of the fact that the Pearl before him was one-of-a-kind, a unique, rather aged and experienced Pearl that had existed for millennia without the hard-set rules of Homeworld but it was the image of so many Pearls all doing things like cleaning and teaching him things that truly set him into a state of awe.
"Well, yes." Pearl said, blushing slightly. The marines seemed to be the only ones to take mental note of the fact that her cheeks blushed a lighter blue, rather than red. They then proceeded to brush this fact under the rug as it appeared to be a fairly useless, although mildly intriguing piece of information to Franklin and Sam in particular.
Before Pearl could continue in her explanation, Peridot had managed to get behind her and start stroking at the fabric she had tied off at her back. "And she looks like a fancy one, too."
"Hundreds of Pearls." Steven said quietly to himself, looking up from his fingers with a rather blown-away expression on his face.
"So, who do you belong to anyway?"
"Nobody!" Pearl replied, snatching her tail sash back from the feeling fingers of Peridot.
"Then what are you for?" Pearl looked a little shocked at this. Before she could even open her mouth Peridot filled the space with more degrading talk.
"No matter, you can belong to me for now." She gave a short, abrupt laugh at the situation before continuing. "A Peridot with a Pearl? What would they say back home?"
Pearl was done finger scrubbing the end of her tail sash and snapped at Peridot. "Now listen here you tiny twerp. In case you've forgotten, you're on our turf now, and I didn't fight a thousand year war for this planet's independence to take orders from the likes of you!"
Peridot was done getting backtalk from the Pearl. "Excuse me? I am a natural technician and a certified kindergartener. I was made for this, you where made to take orders, not to give them!"
Neil stepped up to try and diffuse the situation before things got violent, stepping between the two. "Guys guys guys. Can't we put our differences aside, just while we build the drill that's going to save this planet from total annihilation?"
"NO!" Replied both parties at the same time, a unanimous decision to continue the battle.
"Name anything, I can build it." Said Peridot.
"I can do it too, better even!"replied Pearl.
"Robots." Steven said quietly.
No one else was talking so they all heard him say it, they just didn't know exactly what he said.
"Giant robots. You two should build giant robots. For a competition, a giant robo-competition. With prizes, giant robo-prizes." There where stars in his eyes, he seemed to be quite excited with the notion of this actually happening.
"You mean like a competition?" Pearl said, slightly confused and caught off guard from the notion Steven had put forward.
"What are these 'robots' you speak of?" Peridot said.
"They're like those funky marble things you where sending, only bigger! And you can ride them!" Steven followed his explanation with a small demonstration of him moving his arms around in a style reminiscent of an old robot, complete with sound effects.
At this point Kyle was about to burst with excitement. He loved construction work, he liked what he saw in the barn and any chance to have free roam over the bounty of resources here was something he wanted to take part in.
Peridot broke Steven's demonstration. "Ha! Building one of these 'robots' will be easy!"
"I can do it faster!" Pearl shouted, already running into the barn to begin construction.
"That's what you think!" Peridot retorted.
Kyle nudged Steven to get his attention. "Hey, can I join in?"
"Yeah! Why not?"
Kyle's face lit up. He had that buzz in his eye that Sam and Franklin knew all too well. He was going to start something that would never truly end.
Before they new it, Pearl was already done, speeding out of the barn sat atop two long, thin legs on wheels. She did a ballerina twirl and came to a stop. Pearl lifted her hair as she stood from the cockpit of a small plane that had the legs and two tubular, spindly arms with hands that had stubby, articulate fingers also protruded from either side of the body.
Before long, Peridot came out of the front door in a large green diamond shaped robot with her cockpit situated in the middle. It also had two sets of far shorter arms and legs, although they looked like they where far more heavy duty than what Pearl had produced. It didn't have any fingers, but rather a set of large heavy duty crusher claws. It was, however, far shorter than Pearl's robot.
Pearl looked to Peridot's 'vision of ultimate power' and raised a robotic arm. "Mine's taller, I win."
Then Kyle came out, or I suppose flew out would be the technical term.
He bad built a small gyro-copter with two mechanical arms attached to act as landing gear. They where far less articulate than the gem's ones but they did have a variety of gadgets attached, from a blow torch to a flash light, to magnetic grips and he even mounted his rocket launcher under the cockpit.
Kyle had that crazy look in his eye again. He flew circles around the grounded group and evened out his ride when he reached pearl's height.
Over the loud noise of his greasy machine, he shouted to her. "Hey, what are you doin' tonight? Cause' I am winning this competition!"
Pearl took a moment to consider why she didn't attempt something similar to a helicopter, but she wasn't about to loose to a single human technician that had a few minutes to throw together a functioning, flight capable vehicle with some primitive robotic arms, although she did admire his ingenuity. Even if his design looked brutally simple and rushed.
Peridot was frustrated by this. She wasn't told that flight capable machines where valid options, she felt cheated. "I call for a disqualification!" She shouted over the rapid thump of the helicopter blades. Steven was enjoying the sight too much however, even if it was reminiscent of the glider-plane he and Pearl made many months ago at the very same site; this wasn't a bad part of the memories he had here. This was a good memory when he, pearl and his dad all got along and made some great progress, having many laughs in between tests.
"Denied." He shouted, raising a hand in denial.
Peridot was about to consider some sabotage but then she saw the variety of challenges that had been brainstormed for the robotic showdown. Things would be at the very least, interesting.
The first challenge was a test of throwing objects, most namely cars. Pearl grabbed one and spun around a few times before throwing it really quite far, seeing it breach the treeline at the end of the far end of the field. Then Kyle used the magnetic grips to latch onto the roof of the car, only to find that it was a little unstable. The rotors had a hard time lifting the increased weight and he had to have a run up to get any momentum into the object, which landed about a third of the way up the field with a pathetic thud.
Peridot grabbed the car in one massive claw and proceeded to launch it beyond the horizon, which made most people slightly concerned and worried for what they had allowed her to construct. "Victory is mine!" She proudly proclaimed over the background noise of the repeating rotors.
A small tally chart line was put under her icon on the chalk board and the next challenge was to come. It was jumping.
Pearl was, again the first to go, she gracefully flew just above the barn itself, landing on the opposite side to see Peridot waiting for her to finish. Peridot launched herself from a few massive springs in the bases of her robotic feet, which propelled her high into the air, where she briefly met with Kyle, who managed to stay above her without any real strain.
A point to Kyle.
The next challenge was a sprint, which Peridot desperately tried to win but failed when her stubby little robot legs failed to keep up with Pearl's wheel-oriented transport. Even Kyle had a hard time keeping up and ultimately couldn't make the machine move any faster without tipping it into the ground, nose first.
A point to pearl.
Now, Steven had a more delicate challenge, where an egg had to be carried in a spoon along a track, without breaking. This was hard for Peridot who had nothing but large crushing claws and a lumbering stride. For Kyle it wasn't easy with his more primitive robot arms, although his machine vibrating intensely with every second made this whole challenge a difficulty for him. Pearl had far greater stability, which allowed her to hold a heavy advantage here.
Another point to pearl.
The events continued to pour through, the gems and squad letting a load off for a moment before they began the extensive work that would soon follow. The crystal gems rooted for Pearl and the squad all cheered Kyle on, even though they knew better than to encourage this kind of behaviour in Kyle. Peridot didn't have any of the same positive pressure but she didn't need their admiration just yet, she was going to show them how great she was by beating them at their own game.
The sun began to fall into the gaping maw of the horizon and the sky turned a sorrowful blue/black, with the moon and stars lighting the world around them. The night was never really an actual night, it never fell to total darkness and it never prompted anyone into stopping for the night, they wanted to be ready to lead the group in the morning.
They all slept around a campfire that they made in the main yard in front of the barn. The flames licking at the night sky as ashes and sparks danced around the group, enjoying the serene chaos that was the campfire while the only people insane enough to build machines continued to battle it out, lit by the night sky.
The sun began to rise and the others awoke from their slumber under the stars to find the machines still testing each other. Kyle was the only non-gem competing and while Steven, Garnet and Amethyst all questioned how he managed to stay so focused over such a length of time, the marines simply brushed it off for military training, his natural affiliation for sleep deprivation and the fact that he was in a desperate competition, he would never give up if he still stood a chance.
And it looked like it could still be anyone's game- they where all neck and neck.
"ALRIGHT!" Called Steven over the rumble of mechanical activity. "We need a tie-breaker, a single challenge that will separate the kid-bots from the man-bots."
Neil whispered something into the ear of the young boy and his eyes grew starry with the impressions of the idea.
"Okay, so what the final challenge will be is the ultimate test of your machines and their pilot's focus." The two gem pilots looked to Kyle with slightly worried expressions, they had never seen a human with such a desperate will for success and while Pearl almost felt like the disgruntled man should receive some credit for lasting as long as he did, Peridot did not share the notion, she wanted victory and no less.
Kyle looked more insane than ever, he had dropped his hat, wearing only the goggles and headset while his bagged and bloodshot eyes wildly darted from place to place. Pearl and Peridot couldn't help but feel a little admiration for his dedication, even if it did worry them a little.
"What you have got to do is make it down the cliff to the temple, take a piece of broken stone from the temple and being it back. The point is not only to bring the stone back the fastest but to bring a big enough piece back, the bigger the piece the more it is worth."
The trio all seemed to agree this was going to be a fitting challenge for them,a test of long distance travel and transport where size matters. Peridot would have to bring a lot of stone to stand a fair chance against the others, Kyle would have to be fast to make up for his pack of any real means of carrying large stone objects beyond a certain weight and Pearl would have to find the sweet spot between either side, being fast and finding the stone the right size.
Steven stood at the start line, where the machines lined up and awaited the trigger, a down-hill dash before a flat sprint across the beach city dunes to reach the temple, a scavenger hunt for the perfect rock and a return journey to cross the finish line.
"Ready, Set. GO!" Steven shouted over the sudden roar of mechanical activity and the floury of movement that left a massive dust trail behind.
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The Hilltop Barn- Day 2- 09:12 Local Time
It was anyone's game. A three way tie and while Steven just wanted everyone to get along and work together, everyone knew it would only hamper their progress if any resentment was left behind; they needed to wrap this up and finish this tournament before they wasted too much time.
Kyle went in for a nose dive down the cliff, sacrificing his elevation for immense speed before pulling up and carrying that momentum for a massive skip across the dues of the beach, reaching the temple in a matter of moments. He was the first there by a long shot, but Kyle knew he would need to keep up the pace if he wanted to win, as Pearl had already begun the dash across the dunes.
Peridot had only managed to get most of the way down the cliff although a feeling that she had stumbled rolled most of the way down was present in Kyle's mind. He got out of the gyro-copter and saw the grand eight armed statue that held the beach house. He took a short second to just look at it before remembering his objective. He scrambled for a rock of decent mass and found one about 20 Kilos heavy. He used the chopper's two arms to grasp and hold it. He wasn't too sure about how secure it was going to be but it was going to have to do for now.
Just as he rounded the corner for his return trip, pearl dashed forward and narrowly missed a head-on collision between the two. Peridot was nearing the middle of the beach. He needed to hurry up.
He was slower on the return, not having the same transfer of momentum and carrying more weight so it was now that he noticed some of the residents of Beach city watching him fly past. He saw that they all looked fairly normal, they seemed human. They where the first humans he had seen beside his own squad since leaving his Earth. He continued to push onward, he was going to ask a few questions when he got back about what exactly was different about this world from his own.
When Kyle reached the base of the cliff, he looked back and saw Pearl heaving a large boulder with her mechanical limbs, the thing had to be at least 5 times bigger... it was easily going to outweigh him, he needed to outpace her. Peridot had just cleared the cliff to reach the temple beach and while it looked like he was going to be first across the line, Kyle knew better than to push his luck.
Kyle revved up the hill to the finish line and Pearl was not far behind, picking up the pace as she moved faster along the ground, even with the increased weight.
Kyle was first across the line as he put his rock on the ground and settled the vehicle, leaving just the distant growls of Pearl's and Peridot's machines as they raced to reach the hill.
Garnet picked up his boulder and held it above her head. "Hmm. 21.3 Kilos." She said before dropping the rock and letting it embed itself in the ground.
Pearl was next, she was still travelling at full speed as she crossed the line, even if it was a full 20 seconds later. Kyle didn't realise just how slow things really where when watching like this. Pearl's rock was picked up by Garnet who held it overhead and said "I would say, 40.9 Kilos."
Pearl was more than a little disappointed, the rock was huge when she picked it up, how could it not weigh more?
Then she saw that there where parts of the rock scattered down the hillside, it had crumbled under the rapid motion of shacking and jumping... And the rocket Peridot had fired at it to reduce it's value to the Pearl. Peridot was most of the way across the beach, it turning out that legs are better for traversing the sand than wheels, as she dashed along with a boulder that must've been at least 3 times larger than Pearl's before it was scattered.
If Peridot had cheated and tampered with her rock, it would not be long before Pearl found out and when she did.
There would be hell to pay.
Peridot dragged her boulder up the hill, she knew that she wasn't racing anyone now but still acknowledged that she would be penalised for a slow delivery. Garnet tried to pick up the boulder for weighing but settled on looking at it and turning to the group to say "It's big."
Peridot began to use the mechanical fists to pump at the air while taunting supremacy over the other competitors, neither of whom took well to the action, being highly irate and tired of her incessant rambling.
Pearl moved her machine to Peridot to claim foul play to her face.
"I'm calling cheating! Peridot sabotaged my rock and made it worthless! I should have been able to claim a first place victory over her."
Peridot cut her celebrations, she would have just continued to taunt and celebrate but the lack of any associated joy from the spectators lead her to believe that this was going to hamper her success. It seemed that Steven saw the situation getting increasingly dangerous, what with Peridot moving her machine to face pearl and proceeding to belittle her... Again.
"It's just as I expected, I would never loose to a Pearl and a human." She laughed insultingly "I mean come on! Who seriously thought this was going to end any other way?"
Kyle wasn't just slightly hurt by this, he felt betrayed. Surely he had gained some respect from Peridot but she talked about him like everything he had proven with his ingenuity and dedication was pathetic, below that of what Pearl had achieved. Even with the fact that Kyle had functioned without a break, without food, water or rest overnight in a competition that had taken a strain on him that no gem could have possibly understood, with the exception of Steven.
Steven saw the confrontation before him and made for a breakup before things could get violent.
"Guys! Giant robots shouldn't have arguments! Look, Lets just consider the times involved and see what that does to the results!"
They weren't buying it. Kyle was now trying to fly in Peridot's face to get his words in, arguing alongside Pearl in this case.
The squad watched in awe, they had never seen giant robots before their visit to this planet, yet alone giant robots having an argument that could turn violent. Even Franklin didn't know what to do, there was no point in trying to stop Kyle now he was in his seat or he would get bitter, much like the time he found a very illegal shotgun on the battlefield and proceeded to abuse it and take down enemy tanks and even a jet with it. They had to wait until debriefing for them to finally get him to let it go for its destruction.
All they could do was watch and hope he didn't end this world prematurely.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Cried out Neil, who had not known of Kyle's involving with the grenade shooting shotgun. Neil stood next to Steven, who had stepped forward to deliver his message. "Peridot, just admit it, we saw you do it."
Pearl looked triumphantly at Peridot, who shrank slightly in her cockpit before re-seating herself to sit a little higher and retort.
"No one said I couldn't use anything in my arsenal to help me win!"
"And no one said I couldn't just kill the competition but I didn't break that unspoken rule! Generally, you don't fire rockets at other competitors, you sack of shit!" Screamed Kyle, a man known to fire rockets at other soldiers on the battlefield, irrespective of how the they moved around the area.
Peridot didn't take kindly to this... She glared at him and moved toward him so that their cockpits where face to face, the pilots at arm's reach of each other.
Then Peridot slowly leaned into his personal space, invading his cockpit, while remaining on her own. She spoke softly and tenderly, barely audible over the noise of the helicopter blades and the engine still powering them.
"You are... Such, a maSSIVE CLOD! I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS SUCH A THING AS A CLOD AS BIG AS YOU ARE, FOR A MEATSACK, YOU DO A FINE JOB OF-"
Kyle snapped, he punched her in the face. Right now, he didn't care about how small she was, how old she was; he had no idea. He just had enough.
Pearl gasped for a moment, then cheered in encouragement before moving to join the mechanical melee. Steven shouted discouragement for these actions, as did Neil, who seemed to prefer maintaining a reasonable team and somewhat disliked the idea of Kyle getting just crazy enough to fire the rocket tube under the chopper's cockpit. Neil went for the radio contact with Kyle to try and convince him to stop.
"Kyle! Its Neil, Listen to me, you have got to stop now, before things get out of hand."
At first nothing happened as Kyle flew around in tight circles, trying to get repair tool runs on the hull Peridot's machine. Then he levelled out and gained some height before a response came through.
"Good morning!" The voice was that of a mock-secretary taking notes for her boss. "This is the office of Kyle Davis, please leave a note at the sound of the tone!" Then the disconnection tone came through, he had cut communications with the ground crew.
"He just cut the comms!" Neil shouted to his squad mates, they didn't give him any orders but rather continued to watch the one sided brawl ensue. Peridot tried to block the incoming strikes but things weren't going her way, every time she moved to swing at Pearl's machine, she glided to the side and every time she went for a swipe at the gyro-copter, it was either too fast or she was stopped by pearl's intervening. She had to stop this somehow.
Peridot had no other weapons in her arsenal, but that didn't stop her from making a new weapon for herself to use.
"HEY PEARL!" She shouted over the noise, hoping it would carry. "YOU ARE THE WORST SERVANT GIRL I HAVE EVER SEEN, YOU ARE SUCH A DULL CLOD, YOU MAKE THAT CLOD OVERHEAD LOOK PRETTY SHINY!"
Pearl didn't think that poorly of Neil, but she still had a few reservations about humans being above her, if it wasn't because she was already engaged in a rage-filled batter-fest she would've reconsidered her next move.
Pearl gave an infuriated growl and screeched a rage-filled response. "I AM A PEARL AND I AM GOING SHOW YOU WHAT THAT MEANS!"
She lept high into the air and did a forward flip to swing her right wheel-foot into a high momentum dive for Peridot. Peridot waited until the perfect moment, a second too early and she would miss and Pearl would get an idea on what she was trying to do, a second too late and she wouldn't have a chance to try it again.
She clasped her claw over Pearl's right leg, stopping her dead overhead. A wicked grin grew on Peridot's face and pearl realised her grave mistake all too late.
Peridot took the end of the leg and grabbed the other leg, holding them in one claw. She then shook Pearl out of the cockpit and began to swing the now driver less robot around like a bat, eventually swinging and hitting Kyle's chopper, causing him to loose control. He lost power and began to plummet from the sky, spinning as he went.
Slamming into the ground, the squad wondered if he was going to walk from a crash like that. Then a dark silhouette against the flaming wreckage could be seen heaving something from the crash came stumbling over to the middle of the main site for this battle.
Kyle had disconnected his SMAW rocket launcher from the chopper and readied it for a shot at Peridot. He was consumed with something.
Possessed.
It was known among Sam and Franklin alone that when he made something, he was totally and completely proud of it, he would be willing to do anything to protect it from anyone's harmful grasp or careless stupidity; a likely reason for why he could never hold a relationship for longer than a week before someone left in a fit of rage and misunderstanding.
This chopper was his baby, the first thing to give him a reasonable sense of security and joy since he landed in this hole of a world and the green woman that stood before him, clad in a monstrous green diamond suit and stood in the robot that had killed his joy.
Neil should've known better than to disturb him in this state but he knew for certain that this would only worsen their situation. He sprinted over to Kyle, who was fully fixated on the taunting menace that stood over his comrade, passed out after being flung from the cockpit. Kyle pulled the trigger and the flame began to spew from the exhaust of the weapon just as Neil tackled him.
The rocket moved far off course and struck a cow that had wandered back onto the fields after Garnet had scared them off. This made Steven sad.
"STOP!" Steven cried.
Everything just halted, Peridot didn't notice the missile fly to her side but heard this call of distress. Kyle and Neil where about to start their own brawl when they both heard Steven and stopped to look at him, to listen to him.
"ALL I WANTED WAS FOR ALL OF US TO GET ALONG AND HAVE A GREAT TIME, AND ALL I GOT WAS TWO NEW FRIENDS AND SOMEONE LIKE A MOTHER TO ME TRY TO KILL EACH OTHER!" He began to let his voice drop, as did he allow the tears to flow from his eyes.
He blinked a few away and weakly continued voicing his disagreement with the combat.
"I just wanted us to get along. I wanted us to have some fun and get to know each other a little better. We're supposed to helping each other!"
Neil looked to Kyle who seemed more fatigued than ever, he had deep, dark bags under his bloodshot eyes and a slightly pained expression on his face.
Then he began to do something none of the squad mates had ever seen him do.
He began to cry.
Kyle grabbed hold of Neil in an embrace and began to sob into his chest, slumping against him. Neil just held him and tried to ignore the absurdity of the whole situation, he felt his emotions twinge slightly but managed to keep a strong face on, after all he hadn't lost anything of particular value, nor was he as lost as Kyle seemed to be.
Peridot heard this and felt bad for Steven, something she was not at all used to. She had only just gained this new friend recently and so to fail him felt bad. She felt herself sink slightly into her seat, eventually turning to hiding in the cockpit and sobbing to herself quietly. Pearl had regained consciousness and had managed to catch onto the second half of Steven's speech but that was all that she needed to hear. She took her responsibilities very seriously.
She knew Steven was an impressionable young boy and that she should have known better than to let old Homeworld grudges get this far out of hand. She had responsibilities as did everyone else and she felt as though she had failed.
Kyle cleaned himself up and looked to Neil to see him looking at him tenderly, with almost mothering eyes. This was disturbing to Kyle, he wasn't fully sure why he was crying in the first place, it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Kyle gave him a bland look, now he had gotten over the loss of his chopper project and was done feeling sorry for himself, he had to say something to Steven.
Breaking the bond between soldiers, he spoke in a hard tone, like he was a stern father in a father-son relationship, "Speak a single word of this to Sam and I will gut you alive and make you into my next project."
Okay, maybe not quite a father-son relationship, maybe more like two brothers, a larger brother that had to stay tough for the little one, but in this case it was hard to tell who was who.
Kyle had no real contact with Steven prior to this so did not truly understand why he felt such a sadness when he failed the young boy so badly.
"I'm sorry little man. I guess I got a little too dragged into the competition. I didn't even want to lead the design! I don't know how to build a drill! I mean I just wanted to make something cool. I guess what I am trying to say I am sorry I ruined this for you, I should've known better than to let things get this far out of hand."
Kyle left and Pearl stepped up to have her words with Steven. She kneeled down to his level and put a hand on his shoulder. "Steven, I-" Her eyes began to well up but she was quickly cut off by a hug from Steven, who was just glad she was okay for now.
.,.,.,.,',''','.','.',.','.','.,,.,.,.,
Peridot sat, huddled in the hull of her machine, unmoving as of the end of the conflict, only detectable by the faint sobbing and sniffling heard from inside.
Kyle was the first to come out to see where she had disappeared to, or rather had not moved from.
He looked in through the hull window and found her on the floor, he wanted to comfort her, it was the least he could do for trying to kill her.
He clambered into the machine and curled up in the opposite corner of the cockpit, which was strangely spacious. Peridot was the first to speak.
"What do you want you meat clod?" She was still teary, trying to stifle down her emotions to make herself seem stronger. Then he moved next to her, he joined her on the floor and hugged her closely.
At first she began to retreat as she didn't know what to do or what this was but then she began to like it, it began to feel nice, warming and comforting.
"Sorry for trying to kill you over a competition." He said to her, not sure about the sincerity of how he said it. She still wasn't sure about this, if she wasn't in such a state, she would have told him to get out so she could crush him. But right now she didn't know what to do. She needed to say sorry to Steven and to Pearl for putting them all at such risk and for letting her Homeworld brainwashing get the better of her.
But most importantly, they had wasted enough time bickering over who should be the one to design the drill, they never got that task over with and now they where a day down with nothing to show for it but a large mound of rubble and an explosively dispersed cow.
"Appreciated." she replied. "You're not a bad technician, for a human."
A/N
I am soo sorry for that... I can't write action scenes for shit... I mean really, if you want me to, I will re-write that to be better, have continuity, less confusion... It would delay the story by a fair bit but if it was as cringe worthy as it felt to write, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.*
*fun fact, that was the only time I have ever accidentally hit the caps-lock key and thought That's not bad...
As for Kyle and Peridot, we shall see what happens between them, in case you couldn't tell, I thought Peridot and Kyle would get along the best on long term, as they are both technical savants and are kind of paranoid about something (or at least psychotic) but don't take that as a guide for what may end up going with them... Even I don't know yet...
The next chapter will have some pretty big development and could be a big... and I mean BIG one. The first chapter alone was 9,000 words and this next one could be upwards of 12,000 (could be a little less or a lot more- like 24,000 more... I know right?)... Let me know if you would rather this was divided into two or even three sections. I expect that this whole story could end up being about 50,000 words or maybe something like 60,000 words in the case of a large finale...
Remember! If you want shorter chapters more often (and I suppose it makes editing a whole lot easier) then let me know! Otherwise I will continue to write things with a minimum of 6,000 words a piece!
Let me know if you would look forward to any specific things in the story or just have any ideas for what could happen/what you want ot happen and special thanks to:
Pink Power- Thank you so much for being the first to comment, don't you worry, we haven't seen the last of the RF just yet...
FrankTheKiller155- Wow, thank you so much for the review, I was thinking the same thing but then I found that when no one is around to make the content I want, it's easier to make it myself, even if I can't enjoy it quite as much.
and the Guest- Thank you very much, it's a pleasure to have pleased you.
You have helped make this story even better and you have made my day with your presence on my page.
Thank you.