Howlite`s speeder spewed blue flame as she powered through the hills, soon coming upon the glowing wasteland of the Kindergarten. Behind her, three other Gems were on speeders, awaiting command. The wind blew in their hair and they wore serious faces, their speeders were wired so that they wouldn`t make noise, for this was a spying mission. The Kindergarten was located in the shadow of many cliffs, inside the cliffs were holes where Gems emerged, and little unnoticed holes were the perfect hiding spot.
"I have found a hidden opening, just follow me." Howlite whispered into her holographic screen to communicate with her fellow Crystal Gems. She knew of a crack in the cliff wall where they could hide.
"You heard her, let`s move out." A voice replied, and it was a familiar voice to many, of the stablest fusion in the Crystal Gems...Garnet.
"Aye aye." Another Gem responded, Howlite recognized it as the Gem she sparred with as Benitoite.
They came to their rendezvous spot and parked their speeders. The group of Gems walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down the precipice to see their entrance into the Kindergarten, an unexplored crack in the scarp walls, unpenetrated by injectors or emerging Gems. Howlite leaped off the cliff edge and clung to the wall of the sheer surface with the help of her knives, she dangled for a few moments before quickly climbing up the wall and into the crevice. She held out the thumbs up signal and her friends made their way into the crevice without being spotted.
"Howlite to Flourite, we have reached the rendezvous, repeat, we have reached the rendezvous." Howlite whispered into a communication device on her arm. Flourite was a communications officer and technician back at base.
"I guess we just sit and watch." The Gem who sparred with Benitoite said.
"No kidding, that`s what spying is, Diopside." Another Gem, the fourth Gem of their quartet whispered.
"Oh, don`t even think about going at each other, especially you, Spinel." Garnet said in a scolding fashion.
"Ssh, they`re training some Quartz right now, we could get a taste of their battle tactics." Howlite called her group to order.
Down in the Kindergarten, 4 dark grey, broad-shouldered, Quartz awaiting command from a blue commander Gem. They were lined in a perfect line, side by side with perfect posture. The officer stood with poise in front of them, and soon another Gem joined her, a green one.
"Today we will be learning a new tactic, one that has been around for centuries, this tactic is all about teamwork, and it doesn`t work if you are not in perfect sync with each other." The blue Gem said with amazing enunciation.
"I think I know what they`re doing..." Spinel whispered.
"Quiet." Garnet scolded.
"It works like this, everyone pick a partner you trust." The blue Gem ordered. Each gem turned to their partner of choice.
The blue and green Gems did a quick waltz and they fused into a stable fusion that looked very similar to Garnet, except the fusion had four eyes instead of three. It had a color palette of lime green and purple, and the fusion quickly summoned a morning star.
"See? If you work together, you are stronger. This is called fusion, and when faced with a strong enemy, you may use this tactic. Now, in order to be an even stronger fusion, you have to add more Gems. Everyone fuse with your partners, hustle!" The fusion ordered.
The Quartz quickly fused with their partners to create bigger, stronger versions of the Quartz they were. The fusion who was commanding them smiled at the result, Quartz that were bigger than even stable fusions.
"Now, fusions, fuse with the fusion next to you." The commander fusion said.
The giant quartz did a quick dance with each other, forming an even bigger quartz that was about the height of one of the injectors, with muscles that could destroy whole spaceships. Most of the group in the crevice gasped quietly, including Howlite.
Spinel lightly chuckled. "I bet you are hating this right now, Miss 'Made of Love'." She turned to Garnet.
Garnet`s eyes narrowed under her visor and everyone could feel the annoyance of Garnet, it seemed to radiate off of her, which it probably was, knowing Ruby.
Everyone focused back again on the giant Quartz, who had now summoned her weapon, a large flail. Howlite had never seen such power before, sure, she knew fusions were powerful, but she never knew they had this kind of potential. The Quartz, on the commanding fusion`s orders, spun her flail and flung it against the cliff wall, too close for comfort near the crevice in which Howlite`s group resided.
"I know a few of us are going to be back tomorrow, but I think we`ve seen enough for tonight, knowing we were almost smashed by some crazy fusion." Diopside said. "No offense, Garnet."
"It`s fine." Garnet replied.
Howlite pulled out her communications device. "Flourite, this is Howlite reporting back, we have almost been spotted and/or harmed during the mission, we request your permission to head back to base, as a precaution. We have retained some information on Homeworld`s..newest battle tactic."
"I got you Howlite, come on back." Flourite responded.
Getting out of the Kindergarten was a harder task than getting in. It took careful planning, exceptional stealth skills, and just a little bit of luck, especially when a giant Quartz with eight eyes was nearby. Howlite pulled out two throwing knives and twirling them in her hand as she scaled the cliff wall. Her team had gear that could help them climb without knives. She figured they could scurry up to wall within a minute, no one would notice them, and the darkness was their ally.
"Okay, everyone, on my signal, we move one by one, climbing up the cliff wall back to our speeders. Don`t look down, and don`t dawdle, our lives and cover are at stake. I`ll go first, and the rest of you use your climbing gear, you know what I mean, gravity suits, suction gloves and shoes, and if all else fails, I have a rope on me." Howlite whispered.
"That sounds like a pretty solid plan." Diopside added.
"What if they catch us?" Spinel asked.
"Just do what we do best...survive. If you happen to get captured, then play dumb, act like a scout who has no idea about the inner workings of this thing, and don`t talk about Operation: Orosu, at all costs!" Howlite said.
Everyone grunted and nodded in agreement.
"Let`s do this." Garnet said, slamming her fist into her palm.
Howlite peeked out and scanned the area, the fusions down in the Kindergarten were still preoccupied, so Howlite dug her knive into the cliff wall and quickly ascended back to the top of the cliff. Garnet peeked out of the crevice and Howlite signaled that it was safe. Garnet used a suction mechanism on her gauntlets to climb up the wall to Howlite. Spinel and Diopside followed, all without grabbing any unwanted attention.
"That could`ve gone a lot worse." Diopside said, smiling with satisfaction.
"How is this good? Now Homeworld is using fusion to their advantage, advantages we have never used. We have to tell Rose and hopefully this tactic will be used by our troops. I`m pretty sure Smoky Quartz Alpha isn`t the only one of these fusions they`re gonna train." Howlite said, her voice hard with seriousness.
"Calm down, Tech Eyes, we`re out and we`re heading back home." Spinel patted Howlite`s shoulder, talking in a nonchalant mocking tone.
"Yeah, tell me that when you`re shattered by an Alpha Quartz in battle." Howlite growled.
"Let`s just get back, they could probably here you quarreling all the way back at base, let alone right here in the Kindergarten." Garnet said, walking to her speeder, the other Gems followed.
Howlite got on her speeder, deep in thought. As she lead her group home, she couldn`t help thinking that the peaceful, playful atmosphere of the base made her forget what she was in, a war. Fusion was always a fun, romantic thing to her, only restricted to people she trusted, and by people she trusted, she meant Sodalite. Now she was faced with the cold truth that fusion wasn`t just a thing of love anymore, it was a thing of death, destruction, war.
The group finally reached the base, their speeders slowing to a halt as they parked, the blue fire died down as the speeders powered off. Howlite and her group hopped off.
"I see ya, welcome back to base." Flourite said through Howlite`s communication device.
Howlite and Garnet looked at each other. "I think we should tell Rose together." Howlite advised.
"Agreed, let`s go." Garnet nodded as the two Gems walked to Rose`s room. The other Gems, Spinel and Diopside, went their separate ways.
Howlite was worn out from the spying mission, and the fact that she and Sodalite were going to have to get up early tomorrow made her grumpy. The door to her and Sodalite`s room flung open and the weary Howlite began to take out her braid. Sodalite always loved Howlite`s hair at night, it was long enough to drag on the floor (A reason why she chose to braid it every day) and it was in smooth, beautiful crimps, Sodalite liked to run her fingers through it while humming.
Howlite plopped down on the bed next to Sodalite, who had woken up just to see her.
"Tired, huh? How was it?" Sodalite asked.
"No one got hurt." Howlite said quietly.
"Did you see anything interesting at the Kindergarten?" Sodalite`s voice went down to Howlite`s volume.
"Operation Orosu is going to be way harder than I thought." Howlite whispered.
"Why?" Sodalite asked.
Howlite was silent, she just looked down and away from Sodalite`s eyes.
Sodalite grabbed Howlite`s face by the chin and forced her gaze towards hers. "What happened at the Kindergarten? You can tell me." Sodalite`s voice was her usual, gentle piano tones.
Howlite closed her eyes. "They used fusion, they fused four Quartz together to make an Alpha Quartz, with the power to destroy spaceships. It`ll be like nothing we`ve ever seen."
"We can master fusion, Garnet can do it, Rose can do it, we can do it, and I`ve seen many others. This could be a good thing, at least we get to fuse more often." Sodalite grinned.
"It`s not how I want it though, we`re supposed to fuse because we love each other, because we trust each other, we aren`t supposed to fuse out of cold blood." Howlite said quietly, her eyes still closed.
"Ah, you`ve been hanging out with Garnet too much." Sodalite said, running her fingers up Howlite`s arm.
"Sodalite, now is not the time for jokes, this is serious. I know deep down you feel the same." Howlite opened her eyes and looked at Sodalite with a hint of a scolding attitude.
"You`re right, I`m just trying to make you smile, I love it when you smile." Sodalite grinned and grabbed Howlite`s hand.
Howlite blushed and a smile began to appear on her face.
"That`s it!" Sodalite smiled wide and hugged Howlite. "Look, Rose will get this under control and everything will be fine. Tomorrow we`re going to have another set of prisoners off of my hands, and I`ll be back doing raids and spy trips by day and being with you by night like we always have." She whispered into Howlite`s ear.
"You`re right...and we should probably get to sleep." Howlite said.
"Yep, I`m always right, aren`t I?" Sodalite laid back on the pillow.
"Ah shut up!" Howlite said, laying back on her pillow, she punched Sodalite playfully on the arm.
The two laid in the bed facing each other, looking at each other.
"Don`t worry about the Kindergarten any more tonight, okay?" Sodalite whispered.
"Of course." Howlite replied.
"Good night, Howlite." Sodalite yawned and closed her eyes, she drifted off into sleep.
Howlite rolled on her back to stare at the ceiling, she kept looking at her partner with worry as she was haunted by what she saw on her spying trip, the thunderclap of the flail hitting the cliff wall, shaking what seemed like the entire Earth. The way the fusion cackled with its sharp fangs and the crazed look in its eight eyes, like a deranged spider. Howlite had always struggled sleeping because of her augmentation, and the more she thought about the Kindergarten, the more she heard Sodalite`s reassuring voice in her head. She eventually drifted off to sleep with those rivaling thoughts...
In the beginning: *cue Mission Impossible music*
Hey guys! Sorry about all the mushy romance stuff with Howlite and Sodalite, don`t worry, the snuggly duckling train will be slowing down soon if not stopping.
Only a few chapters left until Rhodonite reforms! I have to ask, what do you guys theorize about how this little miniseries ends?