Meanwhile, a rather pesky Gem was toying with the Quartzes. This Gem had pale green skin, brown hair that was in a tight, high ponytail. She was wearing dark green, baggy yoga pants, and a light brown, high-necked, cropped top. She ran around barefoot, her bright green eyes with a crazed look in them, and she had a ray gun dangling from her utility belt, which sagged on one side. She was the kind of person who pick-pocketed people, talked smack to Quartzes, Jaspers, and other authority figures, and was a sneaky mercenary for anyone who paid the right price. One of her friends was conversing with two Quartzes to distract them whilst the pale green Gem sneaked around back and stole all their currency, as well as ammo for their ray guns.
The green Gem, however, accidentally nudged one of the Quartzes' belts in the process of taking their ammunition, causing the two to turn around abruptly and flick on their gem destabilizers.
The pale Gem slid and ducked underneath each strike at her with a gem destabilizer, afterward, she jumped up off the ground, and the two criminal Gems started running away with their take. The Quartzes ran after them, shouting at them to stop, and shoving anyone who got in the way.
"Stop, thief!" They called in their deep, masculine voices.
The pale green Gem cackled. "I think not!"
The two thieving partners kept sprinting until being stopped by a ledge that dropped almost fifty feet. The only way to get across the chasm was by bullet train, and the tracks were right above them. The city had many trenches like that, from past warfare or mining, so the street just dropped off there.
"What do we do?" The green Gem's brown and gold partner asked.
"Not sure, Tiger." The green Gem looked frantically around, and she noticed a bullet train coming their way, along with the two Quartzes lolloping towards them.
The train was about to go over their heads, and the green Gem decided to take a chance.
"Jump, now!" The green Gem shouted as she leaped over the chasm and grabbed onto a loose wire dangling from the bottom of the train. The brown Gem, Tiger's Eye, caught onto another loose wire and the two dangled from the wires. The obviously angered Quartzes growled and cursed at the two thieves as they cackled.
"Maybe next time ladies!" The pale Gem jeered.
"See you never, and don't worry, we'll put your money to good use...in the intergalactic black market!" Tiger's Eye shouted, which made them angrier. Tiger's Eye looked at the green Gem. "Nice one, Gaspeite! I would be lecturing you about your awful belt nudging, but that escape was excellent!"
"Why thank you! Besides, I'm the one lecturing you, you work with me and I get to control you." The green Gem, Gaspeite, smirked.
"Yeah yeah, now where's my share?" Tiger's Eye asked, holding her palm out impatiently.
"Yeah..." Gaspeite tugged at the neck of her shirt nervously. "No hard feelings, you gotta understand, it's pretty rough out here." Gaspeite reached down for her gun with one hand, pulled it out of her belt with a twirl and shot the wire that Tiger's Eye was holding, causing her to fall into the chasm. "Oh yeah, thanks for helping me out!" Gaspeite shouted down at Tiger's Eye, smiling mischievously.
"GASPEITE! I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS!" Tiger's Eye screamed in anger.
"Right, IF YOU SURVIVE!" Gaspeite shouted back before Tiger disappeared into the blackness of the chasm, and Gaspeite chuckled evilly to herself. She cruised on the train for a little bit, but she got a rude awakening when she saw that she was heading for a tall metal communication pole. Thinking drastically and a little irrationally, she pulled out her gun again, and shot through the floor of the train while moving, she quickly climbed into the ship, much to the panic of the tens of Rubies in the car. Luckily, the train reached the station quick enough that the Rubies had no one to report to, and by the time someone got to a Quartz or Jasper, Gaspeite was gone, on the run again.
Gaspeite lived in an alley in between an apartment building and an interior designer's office, but she liked to move around. She couldn't afford to stay in any of the apartment buildings, so she slept under the cover of a makeshift house of plastic, cloth, and other discarded items. She stared at how much money she made, and it wasn't ever enough to buy good living space, but enough to buy a new gun at the black market. She smiled and slept with that happy thought, not ever feeling any guilt for what she did to Tiger.
Gaspeite suddenly felt a tight grasp on her arms and her body getting lifted up off the ground. Her eyes flashed open to realize she was being seized by two Quartzes, one in which was one she was running from that day. It was still dark, and the only light in the alley was the blaze of the city lights, moonlight, and the dim, glow of the Quartzes's gem destabilizers, which also hummed with teeming energy.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Gaspeite shouted and squirmed in the Quartzes's grip. She was kind of short and weak compared to the Quartzes, she was only slightly bigger than a Peridot and her squirming was about as effective as a little kid kicking and screaming in the arms of her parents.
"The Diamonds wish to speak to you." One of the Quartzes said, tightening her grip on Gaspeite's arm.
"Aw, geez. Let me guess, Aventurine Quartz? I recognize that dark green color anywhere." Gaspeite tried to change the subject.
"Save it, anything you say can and will be used against you in court, remember that." The Aventurine Quartz grunted.
Gaspeite groaned and squirmed the whole way to the palace, trying to escape, but to no avail. The two Quartzes kept dragging her through the palace by her arms whilst Gaspeite kicked and cursed. Anyone who passed the three Gems in the hallway stared, giggled, scoffed, or all three, and the Quartzes simply replied with a "Yep, this is completely normal." look, even though inside, both were really annoyed. They reached the throne room, opened the doors and threw Gaspeite to the middle of the room, where she landed on her face with a thud and a muttered curse.
"Hey! Watch the merchandise there!" Gaspeite shouted irritably.
"Be careful with our guest." Gaspeite could hear the cool, smooth voice of White Diamond.
The Quartz bowed and apologized, then exited the room and slammed the doors behind them.
"Stand up, a weak mercenary is futile to me." Yellow snapped.
Gaspeite stood up and stuck out her chest. "Weak? Not at all. I'm only the best mercenary on Homeworld!" She tried to flex what little muscle she had, but to no avail. Her arms were like green noodles.
"Don't try to flatter yourself. We've seen what you are capable of, and we demand that you work for us. It's a matter of life and death of life as we know it on Homeworld." Yellow said.
"Depends, name your price, and I'll see if I'm willing to accept," Gaspeite replied nonchalantly, studying her nails.
"Don't act like you're the one in control here!" Yellow slammed her fist on the armrest of her throne, the loud metallic clank echoing violently in the room. "You have a long list of felonies under your name, and I could just execute you right now!"
"Gee, you cook up so much stuff in those labs of yours, and yet you still haven't created a much-needed chill pill for yourself," Gaspeite said coolly, still looking at her nails.
"Don't mouth off to us...do you want the money or not?" White Diamond asked.
"Of course, I do, but I have standards," Gaspeite said.
"Our offer is this, 5,000,000 Homeworld credits, a place to stay in the palace, and a royal pardon for all your crimes." Yellow offered, smiling devilishly as Gaspeite's eyes grew wide.
"I'm listening." Gaspeite replied quietly.
"See this?" White Diamond walked down her stairs, so did Yellow Diamond, to show Gaspeite a copy of the propaganda letter Moonstone and Rhodonite wrote.
"Oh, that old thing? That's some good stuff right there, it made my day." Gaspeite said.
"I need you to find and kill whoever wrote this letter, and in the most ingemane way possible," Yellow ordered, her tone hard, like iron.
"Alright, I'm in," Gaspeite replied, she was getting ready to strut out the door before White stopped her.
"Not like that you're not," White said.
Gaspeite remembered that most Peridots, or small gems altogether, had to wear limb enhancers. Limb enhancers had many purposes, such as making you bigger, stronger, and adding different functions to your body, like creating holograms with your fingers, weaponizing your hands, and even doubling as a new, portable way of transportation. However, according to all the people she has talked to, limb enhancers were extremely uncomfortable and hard to get used to. White and Yellow walked her to a laboratory full of different kinds of limb enhancers. Gaspeite had to try on different limb enhancers for twenty minutes before finding a perfect fit. With the new enhancers, she had to change her entire outfit to match the enhancers, and she had to test out all the features for 10 more minutes. Her friends were right, limb enhancers were uncomfortable, and she couldn't sleep that night. She had to go and look for the authors of the propaganda letter, so she walked the streets tired and clumsy, constantly tripping on the metal, stilt-like extensions of her legs and figuring out how to hold stuff with levitating fingers.
"I'm not mean. I'm a thousand years old, and I just lost track of my moral code."
-Marceline the Vampire Queen
Meh, I felt like it fit. Behold, Gaspeite! The tiny, but mighty mercenary who is off to go and get the foul person who wrote that horrible (Yet true) propaganda letter. Or not... Who knows?
I kind of imagined her to be completely anti-authority and her voice sounds a lot like...a female version of Bill Cipher mixed with Peridot and Marceline. She isn't afraid to mouth off to the Diamonds, and I plan to have a lot of fun making up witty comments for her. :D
What does everyone think of our new character, Gaspeite?
(Ooh, P.S...All Gummed Up, Cry For Help, and The Mercenary Part 1 and 2 have been sitting in my inventory for a while...so if you're keeping track of my writing skills, these probably stink compared to some of my later stuff like Death By Glamour, and Story For Sodalite. Or not..who knows?)
Btw Happy Leap Year! Boing!