Enjoy this all new, half baked chapter!
Franklin was the first to bounce into the control room of the lunar base, getting the first looks at the windowed view of the top of the spire. He was quickly followed by Steven and Peridot and then Alex before Pearl joined them at the control console Steven and Peridot had reached, running/bounding toward the centre of the room as Franklin and Alex both enjoyed the awe-inspiring view of the Earth from space.
Steven and Peridot reached the large seat, positioned at the highest point of the spire. There was a moment of bickering between the half gem and the Homeworld gem before more childish giggling ensued, they really where a couple of children that where guiding and running the show.
"You can't sit there, that seat is reserved for the highest ranking gems!" Peridot called to Steven, already seated in the stone throne.
"Well they're not here right now." He said, scooting over to make room for Peridot to join him, which she did, giggling mischievously the whole time.
"Что за вид! Я почти вижу мой дом отсюда! хе-хе..." Alex said, still staring at the phenomenal view with eyes wide and mouth agape.
Pearl didn't immediately translate what he said, rather she minded her own business until prompted by Franklin, which happened after a few seconds of silence.
*Ahem*
"Oh, yes sorry. He just said something about a nice view and home and so on, nothing important."
Looking to see the Earth hanging in the black sky, other stars had been blinded out by the intense sunlight, which Franklin could tell would give him some kind of cancer if he didn't pick up the pace on the mission. This sense of worry was only his, although it soon spread to the Russian as well when they began to notice the geographical differences of this Earth.
While North America and Western Europe looked normal enough, South America looked to have taken most of West Africa with it across the Atlantic ocean. Central Siberia also appeared to have a colossal crater, something the size of the gulf of mexico that was filled with the northern ocean.
The significance of the tectonic differences, the realisation that this really wasn't the same Earth they where born in began to strike at the two human refugees.
Franklin gently grasped Alex's arm, gesturing for them to join the others at the throne, where Peridot had begun to fiddle with the instructions and sift through the data for the Cluster's coordinates on a large holographic screen that floated in the air between the throne and the far side of the glass dome.
"A ha!There it is, buried deep in the Earth's mantle under the beta kindergarten in facet 5. It's the smaller of the two on that landmass, a fair distance further 'west' from the barn but now we should be able to drill as soon as we get back." Peridot proudly announced to the group, hitting a button to download the information to her gem.
As everyone sought to leave before anything bad could happen, Steven asked Peridot a question. "Hey Peridot, does this thing have any games?"
"Games? No, this facility was used to oversee the construction of the Earth colony."
"Woah, really?"
"Yes, look here." Peridot said, pressing a selection of keys and activating a 3-dimensional hologram of the Earth, a series of small red dots scattered around the surface.
"The structures here account for, maybe 5% of what was originally planned."
A series of shapes and designs began to flash onto the screen, showing a variety of familiar and unfamiliar structures to Steven and the others, attentions now fully encapsulated in the views of the hologram.
"What was the plan?" Steven asked, curiously.
"well, let's take a look." She replied, putting her fingers to the controls until she initiated the full transformation hologram video.
The hologram began to break apart, massive holes appearing in the planet's shape, forming massive spires and a perfect 3-axis orbit around the planetoid that remained.
A shocked gasp came from Pearl as she saw the damage of the proposed plans to the Earth's ecosystem and some looks of disgust from the soldiers. They didn't treasure this Earth like Pearl and Steven did but it was still their home, even if only for now, it was still Earth.
"Wow, look at this!" Peridot exclaimed excitedly. "89 Kindergartens, 67 Spires, a galaxy warp in every facet, efficient use of all materials! What where you thinking shutting this operation down! It could've been great!"
"NO YOU'RE WRONG!" Pearl shouted over Peridot's excited talk, shutting her down. "Rose Quartz believed that all life on Earth was precious and worth protecting." She exclaimed
"But think of the good it would have done, the gems made, our empire expanded!" There was a very high tension in the room that even Alex could see, regardless of his lack of what it was they exactly said. "And furthermore, Rose Quartz did a lousy job of saving this planet, There'd be no cluster if the Earth had stayed a colony and now there's no colony, there's going to be no Earth so thank you Rose Quartz, you doomed the planet!"
Peridot stood in the chair and awaited a counter argument but only received dangerous glares from Pearl and Franklin, who had taken his side with the protection of life. Steven saw this and tried to make for a calmer situation, opting to stand between them and to distract from her previous statement, a statement that directly insulted the past leader of the Crystal Gems and all that they stood for.
"Hey guys, let's just calm down and try to-" He was cut off by Franklin grabbing the small Homeworld gem by the shirt of her bodysuit and lifting her out of the seat, into the air.
"Listen here." He said, face so close to hers he could have headbutted her without a moment's notice, which scared Peridot as her gemstone was on her forehead and humans had been known to win fights by headbutting before.
"You are talking about things you do not understand in the slightest. This is not my Earth but I will stand for the protection of life everywhere I go, without prejudice and that includes against aliens like you that see out planet as nothing more than a truck stop to suck dry of resources before you move on to the next one."
"Please stop this, it's not worth it." Steven cried, it was enough to catch his attention.
They held eye contact for a few seconds until he dropped her in her seat without a care followed by him using the butt of his gun to break the control surface of the computer that suspended the hologram in the air. It fizzled out of perception and left the current state of the earth in space, still hanging in the void.
"What I say?" Peridot said as the humans and Crystal Gem departed the scene to go home. "I'm just stating a fact, the rebellion didn't really 'save' earth, it just delayed the inevitable."
Steven sighed. "That's not how they see it. The three of them all fought in some way to establish a safer Earth, they all lost good friends to that fight too. Pearl spent thousands of years tying to protect Earth... I thought maybe you would have understood why." He walked away down the stairs and toward the hovering staircase that would return them to the Lion that brought them here.
At the top of the staircase Pearl awaited everyone's return for the trip home as Franklin and Alex walked ahead. "Are you two still coming?" Pearl asked as it seemed Peridot was taking a slight bit longer than Steven to join the last ride off of the moon.
If she had been a second later, Steven would have gone to check that she was okay before she came running by him, hands awkwardly outstretched as she went. He saw a glint of something in her hand, possibly scavenged from the computer console that was broken by Franklin. For now, Steven just put it to his memory for later, maybe if he got a chance to talk to her directly she could explain it to him, or if the need arises, he could probably wrestle it from her without much effort. For now, he was going to keep quiet and keep it between himself and Peridot.
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Beach City - Day 4 - 10:53 Local Time
Amethyst was enjoying scoffing down the majority of the pizza, including the plate if she thought no one was watching while Kyle and Sam managed to enjoy a slice each; all the while sharing in conversation with the locals.
"So, what is it you do for money?" Sour Cream, one of the teenagers already present at the Pizzeria prior to the marines arrival asked.
"Well, we're soldiers. We fight other soldiers and people that pretend to be soldiers that go too far so that we can 'preach freedom to the poor countries of the world', even if it never works." Kyle responded, sarcastically voicing his disagreement with the principles of war, even if he secretly loved playing with the technologies and machines it put in his hands.
"That sounds bad man, wouldn't you rather do something better for everyone?" Sour Cream asked, a more worried expression on his face, as he felt concern for the people before him and their nonchalant attitude to fighting, which he didn't realise meant death as a common byproduct; his generation being the first one without any single instances of war on international scales and his lack of attention for any education in the history of the Earth.
"Well, what could I do? I mean its all well and good saying it would be nice to just 'have peace' but everyone wants a slice of cake and there just isn't enough cake to go around. Ever wonder why it's so easy to buy groceries? So cheap to fuel your car?" Kyle replied. He acknowledged war a means to gather resources from other nations and to push politics in the favour of the biggest army, even if the people that actually paid for it thought it was for other reasons.
"I don't have a car man, and as for there being peace, why not? You can't have it without trying for it and besides, we haven't had any wars for years now. The world is pretty chilled right now." The tall and lanky teen retorted. Kyle continued to forget that this was not his world, here the youngest war veterans would be in their 80s and the armies of the world would be very small and insignificant compared to his vision of the US military, the huge cash sink that it was, it still paid to keep a very large number of people and an even larger amount of equipment on standby and in development.
Amethyst thought about the possibilities of a dangerous situation arising from the armed men that she would rather she didn't have to restrain if they got violent and as docile as Sour Cream and Buck Dewey where, Kyle was certainly not a calm or 'chilled' person.
Sam also saw this and broke his considerably more diplomatic conversation with Buck Dewey to defuse the potential Kyle would have been bringing about.
"Sorry, Kyle's been eating too many fry bits lately, it gets his blood pressure way up and he can be a little temperamental when that happens." Sam interrupted, holding a fidgeting Kyle as he turned him to face him and hold him to a whisper. "You know these people aren't like the people back home and you know better than to try anything even remotely stupid like comparing them. Keep our secrets secret and keep it cool while I get the bill, then we are leaving and going somewhere else. Got it?"
"Didn't have to tell them about my blood pressure." Kyle muttered under his breath as his guiltily looked down at the floor.
Sam took that that would be it, it would end there and they wouldn't have another problem.
It would be nice to have a little R&R where I don't have to remind Kyle of how to piss in the bowl every goddamn time...
So, you guys wanna go and do something more fun than just eating?" Amethyst asked, trying to make it sound more upbeat than it really was.
"Sure." Kyle said, folding his arms, still a little sore from his telling.
"Well it looks like we are going... Somewhere else... It's been nice getting to know you and your situation, good luck with... Everything." Sam dismissed Buck, who had been patient enough to wait quietly as the exchange happened.
"Yeah, it been pretty nice getting to know about your situation... Good luck with the potato farms." Buck replied.
"Potato farms?" Kyle whispered to Sam.
"I told you it was important that they don't know the truth about us, it'll just be better if when this is all over, our presence doesn't result in unnecessary fear among the populace... That and as cool as it would be to be caught in a conspiracy, it wouldn't be worth it."
Somehow, the stranger on the laptop, wearing headphones managed to catch onto the word 'conspiracy' even in their hushed tone and quickly inserted himself into the conversation.
"Did you say 'conspiracy'?" He asked. He was big, well rounded and had a voice similar to Peridot's in that it was nasal but it had much more of a bass to it, more low and as the owner of the voice might describe it 'cool'.
"No, he said... Uhh... Cor, that's spicy?" Kyle replied, not too sure of what he was saying and showing, once again to Sam that Kyle had little to no sense of anonymity.
"well then, that's fine..." He said, without so much as a follow up question or even a glance back as he strolled back to his laptop on the table he originally sat at... Almost too casually...
Amethyst guided the two slightly confused marines out of the pizza house and steered them toward the far side of the city, reassuring them about the strange stranger.
"I wouldn't worry about Ronaldo, he's harmless enough... A little deranged at times but he's basically just a big nerd that wants to unravel all the secrets... Even the ones that don't actually exist..."
"So... He's like just about every conspiracy theorist on the internet, all rolled into one obnoxious and sweaty bundle?" Kyle asked, looking for confirmation on this topic.
"Yeah, pretty much. He kidnapped Steven once but that was just a massive misunderstanding and in the end, no one was hurt by the experience... Although it showed us just how much he depended on his own little world... It was just better to let him live in his own way like that, he's happy there."
"What if he tries to kidnap one of us?" Sam asked, doubting something like it would happen but he still didn't want to leave something as potentially real and possible as that to chance.
"We'll know where to look, if no one has seen you in at least 12 hours, we'll start looking and as for an escape plan, he isn't very tough.. All I can say is take it easy on him, he means well even if he is a massive nerd..."
They all walked on through the town until they reached Greg Universe's car wash named 'It's a Wash' which brought a slight chuckle to Sam.
"YO GREGORY!" Amethyst shouted to the older man sat in a folding chair just outside the building near a vibrantly painted van.
He woke from his daytime slumber to join the purple gem and her comrades, panting as he reached them. He wore jean shorts that appeared to be torn at the legs, flip flops and a white vest. He had very long hair, much like Amethyst's although he was balding at the top. Greg also had a bushy and short beard around his mouth.
"Hey Amethyst, I haven't heard from Steven in a few days. Everything okay at the temple?" He said, not yet paying attention to the soldiers.
"Yeah, we had a bit of... A new set of objectives... It's really confusing." Amethyst said, scratching the back of her head as she spoke.
Sam stepped forward to insert and introduce himself. "Hi there, I'm Sam Davis." He extended a hand for Greg to shake, which he gladly took.
"That's quite a grip you get there." Greg commented, holding his hand and flexing his fingers to check for damage.
"Yeah sorry about that, I guess I should have taken my... Uhh training into account when shaking people's hands." He replied with a slightly awkward, although genuine smile.
"Huh... So how do you and your friend know Amethyst?" Greg asked as he gestured to Kyle with an open hand for another handshake, this time ready for the squeeze.
Sam answered as he shook Kyle's hand. "We have been working with the..." He turned to face Amethyst. "Crystal Gems is it?" he asked, checking that he was correct in naming the group, which resulted in a repeatedly nodding amethyst. He turned back to Greg. "Anyway, working with the Crystal Gems because there is a very big set of problems that... That I don't know if I am allowed to tell you about."
Sam turned to Kyle, who shrugged his shoulders in his lacking of knowing what to say or do, it really wasn't his word that mattered, he was below Sam in rank. Sam and Kyle turned to Amethyst for non-verbal clearance, which she gave knowing Greg's relation to the Crystal Gems.
"We, that is Kyle here and myself are soldiers from another dimension... Our Earth has no gems but it does have a lot more war than this place, our group or squad was tasked with destroying a Russian and Chinese facility to stop the development of a potential super weapon... We where kidnapped in the process and held prisoner before being expelled into the warp as the gems know it. We barely managed to survive and then a bunch of stuff happened and then now happened and then I don't know what happened."
It was a lot to take in. He had heard and seen some strange things in his time in Beach City but this was not something he had experience with.
"So, what's your relation with the Crystal Gems?" Sam asked, Kyle turning to looking around awkwardly while quietly hoping they would eventually move on to something else soon, possibly to a theme park or arcade if there where such things around in the really very small city.
"Oh, I am Steven's father. If you already know a few things about the gems the you will know that there are no male gems, so when I fell in love with Rose, the old leader of the Crystal Gems, she had to give up her physical form in order for Steven to exist... I try not to think about it too much and while it hurts, I'm sure it hurts the others too, Pearl the most." He grew increasingly sorrowful towards the end of his explanation.
Amethyst shared a similarly sad expression, holding one arm with the other so as to comfort herself.
"I see." Sam commented, looking downward to the ground in thought as Kyle stood awkwardly to his side.
A few moments of memories flowed through the heads of the primary residents of this dimension and the soldiers stood in silence, thinking before they tried something that could damage any relations that may be forming.
"So, how long are you guys staying? If this isn't your world, I imagine that you would like to go home and see your families." Greg said, wiping a single tear from his eye and breaking the subject of the exchange.
"Well that's an interesting point, you see we need to make sure everything is okay here first, we're working with the Crystal Gems on this, helping to sort this whole situation before they help us with finishing our mission, that will likely mean we will never meet again... At least for a few years anyway... To be honest, as nice as the people and the scenery is, I think we all just want to go home and forget this every happened." Said Sam, speaking for his whole squad, feeling a little ashamed to have lost Neil on his first mission and while it was something of a special coincidence, it was still a fairly large blow.
Kyle interjected. "Looks like we could be going home in a matter of a few days, or we could be calling this place home... All really depends on what happens over the next few days. You know, weather we all die trying to get home or not."
"Why? What's stopping you?" Greg asked, enjoying the change of topic.
"The only way back is probably the same way we came in, which is in the warp and even then, we will need to get through the portal, through the massive underground facility full of Russian and Chinese guns and then out into the Saharan desert before we make radio contact (using a Jeep we no longer have) to call off an airstrike that will bury us in this place if we fail to escape... Then I guess you will be seeing much more of us around here..."
"Oh." Greg replied, feeling at least a little bad for their predicament, their battle against time...
"Wait, if you are so short on time, shouldn't you be working around the clock or something?" Greg asked.
"Well, not right now... We have done everything we can for the drill project, which you'll thank us for later. We still need coordinates from the moon so Franklin, our squad leader, Pearl, Peridot, a Russian that we found yesterday and Steven." Kyle carelessly spurted to Greg, who grew surprisingly worried very quickly and it wasn't without reason. Last time Pearl tried to get Steven into space, they almost died as their vessel exploded high up in the atmosphere, which Greg witnessed first hand.
To say he was uncomfortable with this notion was very true.
"WHERE ARE THEY." He said, grabbing the careless soldier by the collar and bringing him face to face. He had a panic in his eyes and a desperation in his voice.
"We believe that they are all safe and sound, they wen't there using a huge pink lion that sort of just lept through a portal." Sam's attempt at keeping the situation from sparking into something worse wasn't particularly graceful, proving to make the man hyperventilate as yet more things he was not fully aware of came into light.
He started to grow weak, knees begging to wobble uncertainly as he continued to breathe rapidly. Sam and Kyle held him as the really rather heavy set man began to collapse to the pavement side. The marines joined him on either side.
"They don't tell me anything..." He said to himself, head in his hands.
"Relax man. Frank doesn't tell us anything either." Kyle said, which didn't help at all, that was the man that was possibly leading their expedition out there and now it was the vengeful Pearl and the man he didn't know that where on another planetoid with his son, along with a gem he didn't know and a man that even the marines didn't trust.
He did the opposite of what Kyle asked, instead looking upward as he began to continue hyperventilating, possibly beginning to black out.
Then Sam slapped him across the face, snapping him back to reality, although whether that was much better was up for debate. "Get a hold of yourself man! There is no point at all in sitting here and passing out because you didn't see something coming! Come on, let's get ready for their return, they can't be much longer. Then you can have your say in this situation and this doesn't have to happen again."
Sam stood up and offered his hand to Greg, who looked up to him, taking his hand and joining the two refugees and gem on a a return trip to the barn so that he could meet the newcomers and to catch up on what the Crystal Gems had neglected to tell him.
"Wait, why are we walking?" Greg said as they began to walk, "I have a van!"
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"Why am I red?" asked Neil, looking to his hands which looked to be a few shades redder than he recalled, almost like they did when he did extensive exercises and could feel his heart beat in his finger tips. But Neil couldn't feel a heartbeat anywhere. His voice was coarse and rough, his throat still shifting and changing as it tried to find a stable form.
"Your body is now made of light that also has a mass, that light is projected from your gem which filters the colour. Your gem is red, you will be slightly red."
"Is it permanent?" Neil asked, still a little hoarse.
"It can be worked out, but it takes practice and focus. It's harder when you aren't used to having multiple colours so for one that was multicoloured your entire life, it won't be very difficult."
"Oh, good... Wait, how are we supposed to explain this to the squad? Knowing them they have already gone out on the town and killed enough brain cells to account for my loss of life."
"Good thing there are no alcoholic drinks available in town." Garnet replied, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall of the doorway, giving off a very casual feel. She didn't carry on talking and just left a slightly uncomfortable silence to fester between them.
Then Neil heard a voice inside of him but it wasn't his own voice, it was the voice of Angela.
Colours? What a wonderful and simplistic way of describing the abundance of light wavelengths easily accessed on this planet... Did you want help in being closer to your original colours? I could filter out some of the excess 'red' wavelengths and make you more like you where... Would you like that?
Yes, Neil thought in reply, Thank you Angela, it's good to know you aren't gone just yet, you had me a little worried that I wouldn't be able to hear your voice again.
With a few moments passed, he began to glow white in a fashion similarly to how he did when he first formed, only this time no shapes changed. The colours of pink skin, brown hair, even though it was longer than before, although still relatively short and even had some red highlights.
Highlights? Really? I didn't ask for anything like that... Why?
I thought it would look nice, I may have only just gained a sense of perception but that doesn't mean I can't have a sense of aesthetics... It looks good.
His uniform retained a little red hue, although it was fairly unnoticeable in lighting of the barn.
The white light faded and he looked to see his body looked, more-or-less the same way it did before the incident, minus the new hair and lack of a helmet.
"That was quick." Garnet commented, a small smile on her otherwise stoic face.
Neil looked at himself, patting his 'clothes' and checking to see how he felt in this new form. "Can I get a mirror or something?" He asked, hoping to get a better look at his face, silently praying for his face to be the same way it was before, it would at the least make it a little less awkward when the confrontation of him and the squad came.
She turned him to a mirror that was situated near a window, letting a fair amount of light in that greatly contrasted against the bright and sunny outdoors. He felt the light shine on his face, he could feel his clothes and skin warm up slightly from the intensity of the solar rays.
Looking into the mirror, he had to agree with Angela, the highlights did add a certain flair of personality to his otherwise standard issue haircut, although what was truly strange was that his usually blue irises where not blue anymore, rather they where now a selection of reds, banding from bright to dark along the surface of his eyes. He didn't have any pupils, which made the iris situation a little weirder still.
I always saw that the other gems had no pupils but I guess it'll get some getting used to, seeing it on my face and all...
You're welcome by the way... It takes a lot of effort to maintain all of those details for a first form and organic instructions are hard to read for gem projections...
Well thank you for the effort... I guess... I guess I'll just have to work with the iris situation...
Is it really such a problem? I think it's kind of traditional...
Neil pulled himself away from the mirror to rejoin Garnet, to follow what she had planned for him.
He walked into the middle area of the barn to meet her, still leaning against the door, holding it shut.
"So, what's this about training to be a gem? It can't be much harder than being a soldier can it?" Neil teased.
"We'll see about that." Garnet replied, her tone suggesting she had accepted a challenge of sorts from the gem before her.
Neil didn't know how to feel about what he could have just got himself into.
"So, what exactly can a gem do that a normal human can't?" Neil asked, genuinely interested in learning the factors that will be defining his existence for the rest of his life, however long or short it may be.
"well, you can a lot of things as a gem. For one you won't need sleep, food, water or even air..." Then Garnet's pace of speech picked up, "There's also the strength, speed, endurance, shape shifting, summoning a weapon, fusion and poofing... What would you like to cover first?" Garnet asked, almost too casually.
Neil knew what the first few things where but as the list went on, he began to wonder just what sort of mess he was in. Shape shifting was the point at which he figured things would only get stranger. He figured summoning a weapon was at the least similar to what Pearl did when she made a spear appear from nothing.
"What is fusion and poofing?" Neil asked, feeling sure enough to guess at what the other things meant.
"Fusion is where two or more gems unite into a singular form, melding their minds and bodies together and making them into more than the sum of their parts. Poofing is what happens to a gem if they sustain too much damage to their physical form. They become unstable and they retreat back into their gemstones to regenerate more effectively."
"Right, how long does it take to regenerate after being poofed?" Neil asked, feeling like it may be something relevant.
"Depends, Amethyst rushes her regeneration process and while it means she can take a matter of seconds, it isn't always stable and she may relapse, retreating back into the gem. Pearl takes her time, normally taking a few weeks before she returns." She considered Neil's case and reached the verdict that she really could not tell if he could be faster or if he could even reform like a normal gem. She chose not to speak.
He asked what sort of practice it would take to master such abilities, "So, do I just keep on trying? Do the powers reveal themselves to me when it's convenient for them? What do I do to kick start them?"
"You can't, just keep on living and doing things and eventually, you should have your abilities known to you within a decade."
"A decade? No big deal then?" He replied sarcastically.
"Not considering your lifespan is as long as you protect your gem from shattering. Which is like having your consciousness divided and split into fragments, which will never know what it is to be whole again... Try to protect your gem as best as you can because it is the only part of you that truly is you."
He looked down in thought.
Just keep on living, preferably finish this mission and eventually I will control these new abilities...
Only when I trust you to do it right.
So you are saying I can do these things now but you won't let me until you think I can handle it?
Pretty much...
Her voice seemed to giggle in laughter, finding humour in the fact that a soldier that has lived a life waits on the whims of a young, childlike consciousness.
His face contorted into a smirk and he made to ask Garnet for the ultimate question that plagued his mind from the moment he came back.
"What do we do about the others, how do we tell them I am alive? And a gem? It's going to be hard to explain something like this to captain Perrick..." His face turned to one of thought and worry, hoping that the malicious image of government intervention and secrecy of the possible processes were but tall stories told to scare people straight.
Garnet replied with a rather simple action, shrugging her shoulders. It seemed she either knew exactly what to do or had absolutely no idea. The notion of a leader that either knows everything with certainty or knows nothing would have been amusing, if it wasn't quite so worrying at the same time.
"Thanks..." He said, feeling thankful for the briefing on the new life he would be living, although sarcasm managed to worm its way into his answer, largely because of her limited helpfulness. "Well, how's the drill and warp situation going? How far have we gone?"
"Take a look for yourself," She said, opening the grand barn doors to reveal the gem drill, a green pod situated above a massive black drill head with three long, spindly legs protruding from the midsection that suspended the device in the air, pointing to the ground. It glistened in the late morning sun, the green hull and black plates shining in the light with a polished finish. "So, the others are either on the moon, getting coordinates for the drill or they are in the town, just minding their own business?" Neil asked, looking for confirmation.
"Correct." Garnet replied.
"And the cluster drill is finished, bar the coordinates of course." Neil said, speaking as though it was a question.
"Yep."
"So, who do you think will be back first? If they split up then there's a fair chance that they will be back at different times, right?"
"Well, it depends on whether they take the van or not." Garnet replied, sounding mildly unsure for the first time since Neil's first encounter with the gem.
"The van?" Neil asked, confused.
At this moment the question was answered by a look down the hill toward the town, where Neil heard, and promptly saw the van in question. It was brightly coloured, with many shades and patterns mashing around the hull. Neil could barely see the occupants of the vehicle that proudly read the words 'Mr Universe' in mock-eighties writing on the side, to be greeted with the image of Kyle, wildly grinning next to an older man, who must've been in his 50's driving.
"That van." Garnet replied, Neil looked at her with a face that spoke volumes of confusion, this time directed at Garnet, not the absence of a van.
"I'll explain later." She said as the van rolled into the yard where the two gems and drill waited.
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Kyle was struggling to keep the fits of laughter down from hearing Greg's musical history, in compact disk form, blasting from the speakers. Amethyst and Sam where sat (or rather crouched) in the rear part of the van, where a mass of clothes, musical equipment and a mattress resided. Sam laughed with the music, although he enjoyed the tune more than Kyle, who mostly laughed at the somewhat cheesy nature of the tunes. Amethyst simply laughed at the reactions of the soldiers to the tunes, finding the real amusement in the people around her.
"Who's that?" Greg asked, pointing to the figure stood by Garnet, hoping to distract the passengers.
The passengers looked to Garnet standing by someone, someone that shouldn't have been there.
"What the fuck?" Sam and Kyle simultaneously said, one speaking with fear and the other speaking in joy, both heavily laced with confusion.
"What?" Amethyst added, sounding almost afraid as her face dropped.
Greg had no idea what was happening but felt a little left out when it occurred to him that he was the only one that didn't have idea who the stranger was. He parked the van and the occupants piled out, eager to confirm their own theories.
Kyle ran right for the one he thought was Neil as Sam took cover behind one of the doors of Greg's van, taking his 44. Magnum out of it's holster and aiming for the stranger. Amethyst joined Sam behind the door, hoping to be in on whatever plan he had going.
Neil stood, a little shocked at the sudden arrival and having had no time to plan an explanation, a sheepish "Hi." Being all he could squeeze out of himself as Kyle neared.
"Wait a sec." Kyle whispered to himself, slowing his pace as drew to a stop a few feet away from Neil. His face contorted in realisation as he saw the reality of the man before him.
Sam and Amethyst where the only ones that remembered Neil's passing and his funeral that same morning and had payed attention to the alarm bells in their heads, sounds that Kyle was only just beginning to listen to.
Kyle pulled his sidearm and held it to Neil's face, the barrel being just a few inches from his forehead.
"Move and I'll shoot." Kyle said, a little more menacing than Neil was accustomed to.
"Yep okay, I get that you may be a little confused right now." Neil replied, sounding a little more sheepish than he would've liked.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" Kyle shouted, near hysterical with a manic look in his eye.
"Yeah, I remember... Hey Garnet, can you help me with this? Please?" Neil hoped for explanation from the giant gem, at least someone that the potentially lethal man might believe and if not the nutter with a gun, at least the gems might be able to help him.
"I would, but this is your ground. Give them the truth and all will be fine." She said as she gazed down at him, facing the human with a gun to his face.
Neil gulped and felt it go nowhere, not having a digestive system was never going to be something he could just get used to.
"I thought I was dead too, but it looks like... Like I'm a... A.. Gem. Now..." The words didn't want to leave his throat, he hoped the next sentence would flow more smoothly than the last one.
"Garnet thinks my mind, or spirit or whatever wormed it's way into the gem that killed me and incubated inside until the gem formed and let me take control. Shouldn't you be glad I'm back?" Neil said, feeling a little more confident now the hardest part of the confession had come out.
"I would be glad, if it wasn't for the... The eyes... They are kinda' freaking me out... Don't get me wrong man, it's great if it really is you that's back but.. How do I know this is you? How are we supposed to move on from this?" Kyle responded, letting his armed arm fall to his side.
Sam and Amethyst moved to join Kyle's side and now they stood on either of his sides, revolver and whip drawn and held to meet Neil's gaze.
"That is a little freaky." Sam commented, noticing the hues across Neil's form.
"Yeah, I think it's kind of a gem thing, not really something I can just stop and fix. I tried."
Amethyst decided it was her time to be of some use and tried to make herself useful. "If you're a gem now, that means you can do gem stuff... What sort of stuff can you do?" Amethyst felt a little like she could have said anything else and would have been more helpful but what she had said was said.
"Well, I managed to tone down the red from my.. Uhh, form? That's about it though, I only formed like 10 minutes ago so don't expect too much of me okay?"
"Can you stretch? Like this?" Amethyst asked, he arms extending into long, flailing limbs that waved and flapped around like eels.
Sam and Kyle jumped slightly at the motion, and even more so at the mischievous face she pulled in the motion. Neil tried to mimic the motion.
Okay, I need some cooperation here... Are you gonna let me do this or are you going to make this awkward?
...
I'll take that as a 'sure, no problem'...
He closed his eyes and put his arms out to his sides and began to move them, wiggling and almost trying to feel a flow of sorts as he went through the motion.
After a few seconds of the motion, mixed with a few strange noises that seemed to come from his mouth, he cracked an eye open to find that nothing had changed and he was putting a very strange movement on, that simply amused the marines and gem. The van driver cracked a smile and smirked at the man from a distance.
"Really, that's exactly what I was expecting to happen." Neil said, feeling a little defeated.
"Yep, it's Neil alright." Kyle said, finally putting his gun away, followed by the same motion from Sam and a similar one from Amethyst.
"Welcome back." Sam added, stepping forward and giving a rather formal salute before he grabbed him and tugged him in for a group hug of sorts between the squaddies. Moving Neil proved very difficult but that just lead to the hug forming around him instead of him falling into the group for the embrace. Each member subconsciously felt their fingers roll over the surface of his gem, acknowledging it's presence and it's importance. This was Neil now.
They all knew it was the same guy that joined them on the mission that was back with them, they couldn't wait to tell Franklin and get him back in the game. He was the sort to feel a real pain and sorrow at the loss of his friends and he played off of the strengths they gave him, this was going to be massive for him.
Thanks a bunch Angela...
You're welcome... It worked didn't it?
That was your idea of a plan?
I'll say it again, it worked didn't it?
I guess so... But please don't play that card with everyone... It won't always help...
"Well then." Sam said, taking command of the disorganised crowd, "Can't be much longer until the other get back, so I'd say its about time for lunch.
A cheer of acceptance from the crowd and they all set about the toughest discussion of the evening... What to eat?
A/N
*Whew*
That was harder than it should've been...
Anyway, I think that's the last of the pre-written stuff and I will be going on a long holiday to Holland on Friday so if there is no upload by then, you shouldn't expect one until early September... Sorry...
This chapter is not edited... Raw uploaded... I'll take care of it within 24 hours, I know I am being an absolute tumour about this but I thought being 3 days late was bad enough... It's not like I didn't re-write the entire second half twice or anything... (That makes sense right?)
Lastly, thank you all soo very much for all the support, favourites, follows and reviews, keep em' coming and thank you again... They really are the fuel for this story.
Thanks
Mein Kapatin