Author's note: To commemorate the end of summer break, I have decided to upload this chapter early. Enjoy!
Marble Madness
Steven and Connie let out an excited cry as they rode a large teal orb to a warp pad, Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire with them, nervous expressions on the three gems' expressions.
A few weeks ago, a large teal sphere had descended to Earth. For what reason, they didn't know. The Gems simply assumed it was hostile, going straight for the kill. Things were fine after that…until another came…and then another…and another, until it became a new one everyday. Soon, the Gems began to get sick of it, becoming frustrated with each attack. That was when Steven and Connie told them a plan then had come up with: to follow it to wherever it was wanting to go. Opal modified the plan by instead grabbing Steven and Connie and hopping on top of the large machine, Ruby and Sapphire following suit.
A bright light shines over a warp pad, Steven, Connie, and the Crystal Gems atop a large green sphere appearing. They were in a gray, lifeless area, still machines littering the small canyon. The sphere jumped down, running through.
Connie scooted closer to her brother. Something about this place seemed off. "Where are we?"
"Wow." Steven exclaimed. "Why did it take us to the gem growing place?"
"Wait, you've been here?!" Opal exclaimed.
Steven flinched. "N- No…"
"Steven, why do you know about this place?" Opal asked.
"W- Well, I…I um-" Steven wasn't prepared on how he should answer the question. Fortunately for him, the ball stopped suddenly, taking all the attention from him.
"Something's happening." Sapphire said.
Opal quickly grabbed Steven and Connie, jumping off of it, Ruby and Sapphire following suit. Opal landed and released the children, Ruby landing next to her as Sapphire slowly descended. All nine eyes were on the sphere.
The Crystal Gems watched as the sphere's legs floated to its sides and went inside of the machines body, leaving the body floating there. A small spark of electricity came from the bottom of the machine and a green pyramid shaped hole formed in the ground, the sphere morphing into a pyramid with the same dimensions. The pyramid lowered itself into the hole, giving off a bright yellow glow. As it stopped, it began sinking into the ground, leaving a long hole.
"Come on guys, let's go!" Steven said, grabbing Connie's hand, the two hopping in.
The group of three looked at each other nervously before following suit. They slid down the hole, finding their way to still sinking platform.
Eventually the makeshift elevator came into an area surrounded by strange tubes that held matter of some sort.
"I don't like this." Opal stated as she looked at the surrounding tubes.
Finally the pyramid made it into an underground room. The room was the color of the platform they were on. There were tubes all around the room, holding some the same sort of matter within them. The tubes all seemed to end at a hexagonal shaped room. Within the room was a smaller hexagon that held large crystal that a few smaller tubes were connected to. The centers of the edges of the smaller shape and the back centers of the edges of the room were connected by lines, slightly lighter in color than the rest of the walls.
The pyramid came to a halt, stopping in front of the smaller room. A short path came off the room and connected to the pyramid. Quickly, the teal and dark green diamonds lit up a yellowish green color, a line of the color traveling down the center of the walkway and through the lighter teal lines. After the yellow took over the dark teal lines, a light shined down and a small circular control panel with a yellow diamond at its center rose.
"Wow." Steven and Connie said in unison, the five getting off and observing the features of the room.
As they did, the bottom of the pyramid dripped down, releasing a sphere of the same color, four cylindrical legs sprouting from its main body.
The Crystal Gems watched as it made its way to the panel, the teal ball hopping up on top and letting its legs get in a similar position to fingers. Two screens formed on the slanted bottom walls of the room, various symbols appearing on them. Then, a third, holographic screen formed from the crystal, the screen filled with static.
"What?" Steven asked, only feel himself get grabbed again, Opal taking him and Connie out of the screen's view.
The static cleared quickly and revealed a green gem. The gem had yellow hair in the shape of a triangle. She wore a yellow visor, reminiscent of the one Garnet wore. Her gem was triangular as well, embedded in her forehead. The green gem looked to her left and to her right.
"Log date: 3 1 2. This is Peridot, performing Earth hub maintenance check up. Established gem projection link with control room. Plug robonoid has successfully landed on Earth and made it to prime gem control room in facet five." The green gem said. "Will now perform status check of Kindergarten." She said, the screen turning away.
"Peridot." Steven said, peeking over. He looked back to the group. "Her name is Peridot."
"But what does she want with the Kindergarten?" Opal asked.
"Wait, wait, wait." Connie said. "You call this place Kindergarten? Isn't that what young kids go to?"
Ruby growled. "I don't care if the name meets your standards!" She said in a hushed voice. "The point is that whatever this gem is here to do, it can't be good if it's here!"
"So, what are we going to do?" Connie asked.
"Alright." Sapphire said, demanding the team's attention. "We can't let her see us, so when she's distracted, Opal, you'll need to fire one of your arrows at the power source on the far wall. Nothing too hard."
Ruby, Opal, and Connie nodded.
"Steven, did you-" Sapphire paused, finding Steven gone. "Steven?" She looked over to find Steven approaching the large floating screen.
"Steven!" The team shouted in hushed tones.
"No accounting for all operational injectors. Checking for aberrations in the perimeter." Peridot said.
Two circles of light formed on the floor as two large hands rose out of them. The hands reached up and tapped the upper slanted walls with their index fingers, white circles with yellow holes forming from where they tapped, teal lines connecting the various holes for each individual circle. The hands arranged their fingers to fit in every circle at once and turned and yellow lines coming from the circle and ending on the roof. Openings formed where each yellow line ended and capsules came down.
"Ugh, this gem tech is simply archaic." Peridot said.
"I don't know, it seems pretty cool to me." Steven said.
The screen and hands paused for a moment, absolute silence coming from it. Then, everything the green gem had been interacting with cancelled, the monitor turning around to face Steven, Peridot wearing a surprised expression.
"Hi, I'm Steven." Steven greeted with a wave.
Peridot's expression returned to a more emotionless one. "It would appear there are an infestation of 'Stevens' in the Kindergarten."
"Stevens? No. No. I'm a human. My name is Steven."
Peridot gave a tired look to the hybrid, as if what he had just said was one of the stupidest things she had ever heard. "So, humans are still the dominant species on Earth?"
"Oh yea, there are lots of humans!" Steven chirped happily. "There's me, Connie, Pee Dee, Vidalia, Sour Cream."
Peridot gave an eye roll. "Fascinating."
"Alright, now it's my turn to ask a question. What are you doing here?"
"Hm, just picking up where we left off." The green gem said, the monitor turning away. As it did, one of the massive hands rose into the air, coming down towards Steven.
Steven's eyes widened in fear, the boy, flinching as he braced himself for impact.
"Wait!"
"Hm?" Peridot exclaimed, turning to the source of the noise, the hand's descent stopping.
"Leave my brother alone!" Connie called, to the side.
"Another human?" Peridot's expression became the same emotionless one again at the sight of the girl. "Why should I?" She asked.
Connie began to sweat nervously, looking around her. "B- Because…because…because…" Connie's eyes widened as they fell on the crystal, the girl rushing to it. "Because if you don't then I'll…start messing with this!"
"Please, you wouldn't begin to understand even the basics of our technology." Peridot said with an eye roll.
Connie gave a devious look to her. "Oh really, so you wouldn't mind if I did," Connie lifted her leg back. "this." Connie kicked forward.
"No, don't touch that!" Peridot commanded, reaching forward.
Connie stopped and gave a cheeky grin. "Oh, so you do care."
Peridot grunted. Outsmarted by a lesser specie. Not her best work. Oh well, now that she was caught, she was going to have to obey if she wanted to get this dumb mission done. "Very well human. I appear to have been caught, so I am forced to comply." Peridot said, raising the giant hand away from Steven.
Connie let out a sigh of relief. She had honestly not been expecting that to work.
"So, now that I have spared the Steven, you will leave, correct?" Peridot asked.
Connie thought for a moment. "What are you doing here?"
Peridot gave a glare to the girl. "I spared the Steven and you were supposed to not harm the power source."
"And have I harmed it?" Connie asked.
Peridot looked like she was about to give argument but quickly shut her mouth. "…No." She admitted.
"So, what are you doing here?"
Peridot maintained her tired glare for a second before her eye brows slowly rose a little. "Well…I guess there isn't really any reason why I can't." Peridot said. "Besides, it might be interesting to educate a lesser specie."
"Lesser specie?"
A thoughtful grin appeared on Peridot's face. "Yes, me educating another living creature. Sure, it is an organic creature, but this one seems to show some promise on a mental stance." She looked to Connie, trying her best to maintain a serious expression to hide her excitement. "Alright human, I will show you what I am currently studying." She turned to Steven. "And you might as well see this too."
Steven nodded, not about to object against the gem that had almost killed him.
Peridot looked the other way, making the hands return to the spots they had been before being disturbed by Steven.
"Alright humans, what you are about to see are merely experiments to test the concept and might be somewhat disturbing to you. Fear not, for they have no real minds to truly process pain."
Steven and Connie could already tell they were going to regret this decision.
Peridot turned the hands, the capsules lowering once more. "Behold, the cluster tests." When they were down all the way, Perfect turned the hands even more, the capsule doors opening to reveal creatures trapped behind a translucent barrier.
What they were was horrifying, a bunch connecting body parts. There were arms attached to other arms, feet attached to feet, hands with hands, and each was letting out a horrifying shriek.
"Ah!" Steven and Connie yelped, hugging each other as they looked on at the monsters above them.
Peridot however was unfazed by their appearances, simply looking them over. "Hm, it would appear they have emerged early."
"Wh- Wh- Wh- What are they?" Connie asked.
"Oh, merely merged gem shards from fallen members of a rebellion a long time ago. They have been broken and forced together in order for us to see the progress of the real cluster is doing." Peridot frowned. "Although, these may not be the best sources to use. These are rather small tests subjects. I'll go retrieve some of the larger ones to see if their progress is the same as these."
Peridot moved the screen and hands to go deeper into the room, only for a whip to crack, grabbing hold of one of the hands.
"Wh- What the?!" Peridot cried, looking to see who was responsible.
"No you aren't!" Opal cried, tightening her hold on the ship, a killer's glare in her eyes.
"A- A gem?! That's impossible! The Red Eye didn't report the presence of any gems on this planet!"
"That's because we destroyed it!" Sapphire cried, jumping out and ramming into the free hand, breaking it with one punch.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Peridot snapped.
Opal began to pull on the other hand, swinging it in a circle around her. "Ending this conversation!" Opal stated before throwing the floating hand down, it crashing into the power source, shattering it.
"Gr, I'm reporting thi-" Peridot began, only to be cut off.
Opal stood there, huffing angrily, glare still on her face.
"Guys?!" The twins cried.
"What did you do that for?!" Steven asked.
"We were getting information from her!" Connie added.
"Believe me." Opal said between huffs. "We have enough information to know that whatever she was doing here definitely needed to be stopped." Opal said, looking up to the screaming creatures above.
Author's note: For those of you wondering how Lion got the idea across that they grew gems here, it was pretty simple. All he really had to do was point at Steven's gem and then to the human shaped holes. Also, yea, the mini clusters have already been taken care of…or at least those really small ones have.