hey guys! here's the next chapter for the story enjoy!
it was early in the night and I was out on the beach with Greg and Steven. Greg played the guitar a little and Steven applauded "woo hoo!" Steven yelled clapping. "That sounded great!" "yeah Greg your pretty good" I said with a thumbs up. "Ahh thanks! I'm thinking about calling it water witch" he said putting his hand in the air and moving it to the other side. "cool" Steven said in awe. "And check this out. I can add some vocal distortion too" Greg said pulling down a mic. He switched a dial "Steven, your dad's a robot now" Greg said with a robot voice. "And now that I'm a robot things will better and colder, please forgive me for being an amazing machine" Greg finished. "I cant stay mad at my robo-dad" Steven said putting his hands on his cheeks. "Wheres this energy coming from Greg?" I asked. "Actually I was inspired to write some songs after the ocean got sucked into space a while back" Greg explained. "The ocean did what now?" I asked immediately. "Yeah! Awhile before we met you I set free someone named Lapis Lazuli. And she wanted to go home so she took the ocean to get to space... are you okay?" he asked. Tears ran down my face as I was reminded of way back then... "uhh Obsidian? Hello?" a hand was being waved in my face. "Huh? What?" I said snapping back to reality "are you alright?" Steven asked once more. "Yeah I just got reminded of someone I knew". Just then a loud distorted sound echoed through the beach. "What is that?!" I asked covering my ears. "Maybe its some feedback from my guitar" Greg replied going over to check his equipment. He fiddled with some switches and knobs "its not us" he finally said. "Then where is it coming from?" Steven asked. I think is coming from the temple" I concluded. "Lets check it out" Steven said as he started to run up there. "Wait up!" I said running after him.
We opened the door and the sound go a million times worse "whats happening?!" Steven shouted. Its the wailing stone!"she answered "Make it stop!" Amethyst said falling over. "It just activated by itself!" she finished. Garnet put it on the floor, summoned her gauntlets and placed one on top of the wailing stone pressing the button. We all sighed "crisis averted" I said with relief. Garnet lifted her hand up and the wailing stone activated again. Pearl walked up "stand back!" she said as she bubbled the stone. "Alright now we can-" she was cut short because the stone's sound broke the bubble. Steven ran over to it and stuck his arm in. it stopped for a moment but then he opened his mouth and a modified version of the sound came through. I grabbed a bunch of couch pillows and walked over to Steven. I pulled him out and shoved one of the pillows in and it stopped the noise. I proceeded to cover it in pillows and then I walked over to Garnet "when were you even going to tell me that you had a wailing stone?" I asked her. "I guess it just slipped my mind" she said shrugging. "I haven't heard a wailing stone activate since we used them for the rebellion, and I've never heard it sound like that!" Pearl stated in pure confusion. "Someone is sending us a message. Or at least that's my guess" I concluded. "Who?" Pearl shouted "We've rounded up all of the wailing stones on earth, and we're no sending this message to ourselves... unless" she turned to Amethyst. "Is this a prank?" she said looking pretty pissed. "No! I want it to stop! I don't like it!" Amethyst said covering her ears still. "If its not coming from earth then the next logical source would be... from space" I deduced. "Is that what some gems sound like?" Steven asked. "No we should be hearing a voice but I think the signal is to advanced for the wailing stone to process" Pearl answered. "Well what if we ask Greg? He knows audio better than any of us" I said making a point. "I don't know, I mean Greg is a good guy but should we really be asking him for help?" Pearl asked casting some doubt. "Do you have the audio equipment for this?" I shot back. She looked away and didn't respond "didn't think so" said with a sense of victory. "oh got told by the O-man" Amethyst blurted out with a smile. "The what?" I asked now a little confused. "Nothing" she said giggling. "Okay... anyway lets go to Greg" I said pointing at the door.
"You guys need help with audio?" he asked. "Yeah and since you have all this equipment I thought you were our best chance" I explained. "Well you came to the right place the Lubids audio condenser 6-80!" Greg said holding up a rod with a giant sponge on it. "its got warm tones without too much top-end" he explained although I didn't really know what he was talking about. "Plus its got a huge sponge on it" Amethyst said pointing out the obvious. "I know! Isn't it awesome?" Greg said with sparkles in his eyes. He walked over the wailing stone that Garnet had brought out and pulled out the pillow. The sound waves pushed Greg back a little but he regained his stance and shoved in the sponge. He started to turn some knobs and flip some switches as he explained what he was doing, however I still had no idea what the hell he was talking about. "Do you really thing that a signal this advanced would compatible with your analog devices?" Pearl asked Greg. "I doesn't matter, he has the best shot of figuring it out" I answered for him. "Well, here goes nothing" Greg said right before he pushed a button. The sound came out but I a gazillion times worse than it was before. "Make it stop!" Amethyst screamed. "You can do it! Your the audio dadio" Steven yelled to give Greg some encouragement. "yeah!" Greg shouted. He then went back and fiddled with some more switches and knobs. The sound became quieter and sounded better. "It sounds like music" Steven stated in awe. "Yeah! that's sounds nice! Yes! woo hoo!" Greg shouted. "But its not supposed to be music. It supposed to be a message!" Pearl exclaimed. "Alright give me a second" Greg said as he pushed a switch up. "Its changing" Greg exclaimed. "It sounds almost like a voice" Steven said. "Almost got it!" Greg said as what sounded like a distorted voice almost came in the speakers just before it cut off. "What happened?" I asked as I saw smoke coming from the front of the van. "It looks like the van's battery couldn't handle all of this" Greg said looking disappointed. "I knew this wasn't going to work! There's just no way Greg's stuff could interface with ancient gem technology" Pearl stated with her arms crossed. I got pissed "Pearl could you stop saying negative things that hamper our progress? Do you have anything that could do better then this?" I asked in a small rage. "No but I told you this wouldn't work" she said standing her ground. "didn't you hear Greg? All he said was that the power source went out. Its mot a matter of technology its a matter energy!" I argued back. "Well I'm not staying here" Pearl stated. Garnet walked over and picked up the wailing stone "its okay Greg you did your best, we'll figure something else out" she said putting her hand on his shoulder. "back to the temple!" Garnet said as she jumped away. "what a waste of time" Pearl said before jumping. "See ya later Gregery" Amethyst said before she jumped as well. "Ah come on guys" Steven yelled at them before he tried to jump with them but failed. "I'm sorry Steven , I'll go talk to them" I said before I jumped too. I landed on the porch and went in the door "hows it coming?" I asked Garnet who was sitting at the bar staring at the stone. She looked up "not well since its only been a minute" she replied. "Okay smart-ass" I said with a smile. She returned it "I know" she said with a giggle. "Where's Pearl?" I asked her. "She's over there" Amethyst said with a bunch of food in her mouth and pointing at the stone. "Thanks but next time can you finish eating before you speak please?" I asked her politely. "Oh" she finished swallowing "okay sorry!" she said wiping her mouth. "No need" I said before I walked over to Pearl. "So hows it going there P?" I asked behind her. "Ah!" she jumped "you scared me" she said before returning back to studying the stone. "That doesn't answer my question" I stated. "I have no idea what to do! We just don't have the technology for this signal" she said still studying the stone. "Great" I said sarcastically before walking away. "Well its probably going to be a while before we get anything done" I said sitting next to Garnet at the bar. "What do you expect? We are cut off from home world so we don't have their tech or the knowledge on how to use it" she stated calmly. "True but I still think Greg has the best chance at deciphering this message" I pointed out. Just then Greg came bursting through the door "I just wanna help just gimme another chance!" he shouted. "Greg its okay" Garnet said calmly. "No its not!you guy don give up on anything but me! Its not like I can make it any worse!" he pointed out. "Well he has a point. There isn't much he could do to make it worse" Pearl said. "I'm with you, lets go" I said walking out the door. I started to walk away but I heard them talking inside so I stopped to listen "you know sometimes he's a little to easy to convince" Pearl said. "Yeah I know, he was like that before as well" Garnet replied. "one day its going to get him killed" Pearl said back. "I think he knows that" she said with an under tone of sadness. "Anyway lets get to the van" she said getting up from her seat. "crap" I whispered to myself as I jumped off the porch and landed at the van
the others came to the van a little bit later and Pearl popped the hood. She attached some battery-jacks to the battery and the other end to Garnets hands "go for it" Pearl said as she raised a thumbs up. Garnet shocked the cord "okay Amethyst, now" Pearl told Amethyst. "never started a car with a key before" she said before turning the key. The car started "Heh that's way easier!" Amethyst laughed. "the battery is ready to go!" Pearl shouted from the front of the van. "The wailing stone is ready" Steven stated. "ready with the video cord Steven?" Greg asked. "ready" Steven confirmed. He plugged the cord into the port on the television and static came on the screen. "Is that it?" Pearl asked. "Just a second" Greg said concentrating on the the equipment. The static started to change "i hear something" Steven said quietly. "Come on..." Greg said working hard. The static changed suddenly to... Lapis Lazuli " Steven!" she said. "Lapis?" he asked back. "I cant believe I did it!" Greg said obviously looking happy. "I cant believe my flipping eyes!" Pearl admitted. "Shh! Listen up" Garnet told the others. "I hope your able to hear this. Theres a gem that's looking for you. She even knew your name! I don't know how, I didn't tell her I swear! Shes on her way to earth, and shes not alone! Steven, home-world isn't what it used to be. Everything here is so advanced! I cant even begin to understand it! There's no way anything on earth could stand against it. Please, don't put up a fight! It will only live up to devastation!" she said before the screen went back to static. I fell to my knees in tears "its Peridot, she must be talking about Peridot" Pearl said staring blankly at the screen. "Shes coming for us" Amethyst screamed obviously in fear. "Lapis... she sounds so unhappy" Steven said to himself. I stood up and put my hand on his shoulder "don't worry, she's tough. Trust me I know her" I said assuring him. "whew" Garnet said randomly. "We did it" she stated. "What" Pearl asked. "We got the message" Garnet replied fixing her glasses. I caught on "shes right we got the message" I stated. "but-" Amethyst tried to plead. "Its. Got." Garnet said bearing her teeth.
I walked towards the beach-house as Steven and Greg started to play with the voice changer and the gems argued on what to do. I started to think of Lapis but I shook my head "it seems the past really is catching up with me huh, Sphene?"
I hope you guys like it!this story has been so much fun to write and I love the feed back you guys give me! So thanks!. Remember if you have some advice or some criticism about the story please don't hesitate to comment. Thanks in advance and see ya next time.
-Joe