"Where's Peridot!?" Lapis asks terrified.
Garnet shrugs. Amethyst looks down at the sand.
"We... Don't know..." Pearl says defeated.
"Don't know!" Lapis yells. She points at Pearl. "She was right with you!" She then points at Garnet. "You can see the future! How can you not know!"
"Hey! We're tryin' alright!" Amethyst yells back.
An argument breaks out between Amethyst and Lapis. Greg and Pearl try to calm them down but both fail. The yelling back and forth continues until Garnet has enough. She grabs them both by the backs of their heads and smacks their heads together. "Fighting isn't going to find Peridot."
At this point, Steven hears Mr Fryman. "Ronaldo! Ronaldo! Peedee, have you seen your brother?" Steven's mind flashes back to the Sneople incident a few years back.
"Pearl!" Steven says loudly, like he's got an idea. "Did you find anything else?"
"Well, pieces of uncooked potato." Pearl explains. "But I doubt that has any relevance."
Steven ignores everything Pearl says after 'potato' and pulls out his cell phone. It goes to voice mail.
"Well. Ronaldo isn't answering his phone." Steven says.
"You mean that fry kid?" amethyst asks.
"Yeah." Steven says. "This wouldn't be the first time he stole somebody."
"True." Pearl says. "He did kidnap you once, and he did seem distraught during the debate."
Lapis grabs Steven by the shoulders and shakes him. "Steven! Where would he go!"
"Woah-oah." Steven is being shaken a little too hard for his liking. "The lighthouse! Probably! He practically lives there!"
Water wings erupt from Lapis's gem, and she rockets into the air towards the lighthouse. She never let go of Steven.
"Oh dear..." Pearl says concerned.
Garnet smiles.
Amethyst notices and looks at Garnet quizzically. "What're you smiling about?"
Garnet doesn't respond.
With a startled jolt, Peridot came too. It was dark, but without even activating the light from her gem, she knew what was going on. The awkward jerking motions. The feel of scratchy fabric all around her. The entirety of her weight resting on her head...
"I'm upside down... In a bag..." Peridot thinks. "... And I'm being abducted... Why doesn't this bother me?" Vivid images spring to life life in her mind. Images of her being crushed by an incubator drill, shocked, poofed, smacked in the face, falling face first, being hunted down by Homeworld drones, the Cluster, and various other terrifying experiences. "Oh... Right... I'm used to it."
[[Flashback]]
Peridot remembered being backstage. Pearl had just left to aid Mr Smiley in equipment repairs when Peridot heard someone making strange noises. She went to investigate.
"You're not supposed to be backstage." Peridot said as she turned the corner to be sneak attacked by an unknown assailant.
Peridot let out an "oof" and fell back into the sand. Standing over her was Ronaldo with an uncooked potato in his hand. Before Peridot could get up, Ronaldo had his knee on her gut. With all of his weight on her, she couldn't get up, let alone yell for help. Down came another swing of the potato. Then another. Then another.
Peridot remembered hearing a crack, then everything went black.
[[End Flashback]]
Peridot hastily reaches for her forehead and feels her gem. It's intact. She breathes out a sigh of relief. "It must've been my visor..." Peridot thinks. "Heh... And Steven says that I don't need gem protection now that I'm a Crystal Gem. But I should probably bask in my glory later. First I need to get out of this..."
Peridot hears the sound of a door opening and then slamming shut. Follows is the telltale sound of a deadbolt being locked. Peridot's bag gets dropped, and she hits the floor headfirst. Even though that hurt, she grins menacingly and snickers. She has a plan.
As soon as Ronaldo begins to untie the string on the burlap sack, Peridot does a handstand and kicks upwards. The bag falls around her as her kick connects and hits Ronaldo right under the chin. His teeth clash together and he falls back onto his butt. Peridot then rolls out of the handstand and back onto her feet. She runs for the door... But can't open the deadbolt. Its locked. She turns around and meets Ronaldo's glare with her own.
"I bet you don't know where we-" Ronaldo begins to explain as he stands up. Peridot cuts him off.
"We're in the lighthouse." Peridot states, still glaring. Ronaldo looks shocked. "The room is round and the light is right up there!" Peridot points up at the light. "You've got to be dull as dirt to not put that together!"
Ronaldo completely gets caught off guard by that but composes himself while adjusting his glasses. "Ok. So you do know where we are. Clearly your mental perceptiveness is on par with my own." Ronaldo states with arrogance.
Peridot is still glaring daggers at Ronaldo. "Did you just insult me?"
"No, no, no!" Ronaldo says apologetically breaking composure. "I simply meant that you're intelligent. Which makes sense. I mean, only a highly intelligent race would ever see Earth as a threat and come to destroy it."
Peridot groans in frustration and pulls at her already messy hair and begins storming around. "Why do people keep saying that!" Peridot yells. "I was doing my job! I came to check on the Cluster! It was going to destroy the Earth! Not me! Then I assisted in its destruction! But do I get a thank you!? Do I get praise!? NO! Its always: 'You tried to destroy the Earth!' Or 'You want to reactivate the Kindergarten!' Or 'You forgot to cancel the 30 day free trial!' I DO GOOD THINGS TOO!"
Ronaldo laughs an insane laugh. Peridot stops her tantrum and looks terrified at Ronaldo. His phone goes off, playing the theme to The Walking Dead.
"I get it! You're pretending to be relatable! Causing me to drop my guard! Well that's not gonna work!" Ronaldo says hysterically. Peridot shudders. "I know why you're really here! How the Rock People want to hollow out our Earth and take the resources for themselves!"
Whoever called either hung up or the phone went to voicemail. Ronaldo picks up a baseball bat and approaches Peridot.
"How you plan to over throw our world leaders and replace them with puppet governments! The world is blind! But not me! I see you for what you really are!" Ronaldo lifts the baseball bat over his head. "Only I can stop you!"
As Ronaldo swings down with the bat, Peridot rolls to the left. Ronaldo breaks through an end table. There's nowhere to run and Ronaldo smiles as he slowly approaches Peridot. Peridot lets out a scream and instinctively kicks her leg up. It connects with Ronaldo right in between the legs. Ronaldo's eyes widen and tears begin to roll out. He drops the bat as he grabs onto his groin and falls sideways onto the floor in a heap.
Peridot doesn't have time to celebrate her victory before a pink bubble crashes through the side of the lighthouse, sending debris everywhere. The bubble dissipates as the dust settles. Standing there is a very angry Lapis Lazuli holding an equally angry but also terrified Steven.
Before Lapis can do anything to the incapacitated Ronaldo, Peridot running hugs her. Lapis's anger fades when she sees the bruised but safe Peridot around her waist. She hugs Peridot back and smiles.
Steven looks down at Ronaldo with pity. He looks like he's about to say something, but he gets pulled into the hug before he can.
As Steven, Lapis, and Peridot are enjoying their group hug, Ronaldo lets out an incredibly high pitched whimper. Water extends from Lapis's gem and picks up a piece of a plank and chucks it. It hit Ronaldo's head with a thunk.
"What was that?" Steven asks.
"Oh, nothing." Lapis says with a smile.
((Yeah... Ronaldo deserves that. Kidnapping, attempted murder, improper use of potatoes. The man is clearly a danger to himself and those around him. Peridot did what was right... And what many of us have probably wanted to do ourselves.
Writing this brought up a very interesting point... Can gems lose consciousness? They don't exactly have the same bodily functions and weaknesses we do. So it could be assumed that they can't be concussed, don't have pressure points, and can't lose consciousness... Then I decided that I was probably thinking way too deep into it and decided to just run with the black out angle. I can always think about the effects of blunt force trauma on a gem body later. There's Ronaldos that needed to be kicked.
As for an update on story progression. I have one major chapter left that I plan to do after this. I'm going to get that done sometime before May 8, 2016. Then I'm going to keep the survey I posted last chapter up until May 9th, 2016 Midnight Eastern time. After that I'll tally the results up and write the final "epilogue" chapter that includes the results of the election. That'll be done the 10th and then we can all enjoy In Too Deep on the 11th! Woo!
After that, I have other projects, most work related, others I've been pushing off. I'm going to work on those before I start up another work of fiction... Which I certainly plan to. Not sure what genre yet, but an idea will come eventually. If not... Well... LOOK! A DEMON DUCK! *hides*))