'What a day.'
These three words were the only thoughts in his head as he slid his key into the keyhole and unlocked the door to his apartment. He then opened the door and placed his hat on the rack and made his way over to his desk, turning the lamp to get some light in his apartment.
He then tapped the answer button on his land line phone which beeped and answered. "No messages."
Well, he supposed he shouldn't have expected anyone to call.
Normally he'd have a tablet but he couldn't afford one at the moment so it was easier this way. Plus it saved him the trouble of dealing with spam and junk emails in the long run. Call him old fashioned but he doesn't even own a laptop.
Talk about being behind with the times.
Digging into his pocket he pulled out a small piece of paper with a phone number written on it, reading it over before he picked up the phone and dialed the number.
There was a ringtone for a few seconds before there was an answer. "Leave a message."
Okay, so it was her answering machine but he could do this.
"Hello, Bwen Hilda." His accent made it sound like he was saying 'Bwen' instead of 'Gwen'. "This is Elmer. I met you tonight at the bowling alley and I just wanted to say I had a really gweat time and I'd love it if you'd call me. My number is-"
BEEP!
He must have used up his time.
He quickly redialed the number and the machine answered. "Leave a message."
"555-3833. That's it, I just want to weave my number. Okay." He hung up and put his phone back in the charger and walked away…
Only to rush back to the phone, pick it up and redial the number again.
"Leave a message."
"I just got out of a serious welationship with a girl that turned out to be a wabbit, a Mobian wabbit not a weal one. That's why I'm acting so weird. It's not you, it's me. This is Elmer-"
BEEP!
"Doooh." He groaned at being cut off again and how much of an idiot he was making of himself over the phone. "Fudd."
Okay, this was not going as well as he hoped at all.
Talking about a relationship that turned out to be a Rabbit Mobian disguised as a woman?
What does that say about him?
That he's a gullible goof?
Maybe it would be better to just end it before it got anymore weird.
He redialed the number one last time and the machine answered again. "Leave a message."
"I don't think this is working out-" He started but was stopped when someone answered back.
"Elmer?" A female voice, matching the one on the answering machine spoke.
"Bwen Hilda?" He smiled; glad to have a chance to actually talk now. "Gweat-"
"Don't ever call me again." The woman on the other end said before hanging up, leaving a dial tone and a saddened Elmer Fudd.
A lone Hunter in his apartment, holding his phone and sad at the fact that he screwed up another potential relationship.
Maybe it would be better if he turned the light out and sit for a while in darkness.
If he was lucky a Grimm would come along and they could spend some together, trying to kill each other.
Xxx
"Oof, tough break there, pal." TOM remarked as the file showing Elmer Fudd's attempt at romance went down in flames closed. "A relationship can have its ups and can have its downs. The first step to trying to have one is usually the hardest because you don't know how to actually proceed. Ask them out, leave a number, wait for them to make the first move while wondering they have any feelings for you at all. It's hard but if you can take the jump, even if you don't know where you might end up it can be worth it in the end."
"He said, sounding like the voice of experience." SARA remarked, appearing next to TOM in holo-form.
"Hey." TOM retorted in mock hurt. "Anyways, the best advice is being confident at your own pace and hopefully the one for you will be there when you need them the most."
Just as he was about to sign off TOM and SARA heard a banging sound and looked up at the front viewing window of the bridge, spotting what looked like a small red skinned girl stuck to the glass. The girl had a gemstone where her left eye should have been and she glared at TOM and SARA before peeling off the window.
"…Hmph. That was unexpected."
Xxx
"We have a warrant for the arrest of one Julie Yamamoto." The police captain said, looking at Julie as she suddenly turned pale. "On account of destruction of public property, burning down several buildings and endangering lives."
"What?!" Ben and Gwen exclaimed, taken by complete surprise.
Julie stepped back, trembling now and she looked down at her hands, seeing smoke starting to rise. "It's not what you guys think!"
"She burned down her family home in Denver and fled, causing trouble everywhere she goes." The captain continued as two more officers approached, holding handcuffs.
"They were accidents!" Julie quickly said, stepping back as her eyes flared slightly. "I didn't mean to!"
"It's better if she comes with us willingly so we can properly sort this out." The captain advised.
"Wait. Are you asking her to come along so you can lock her up?" Ben held out a hand, ready to slam it down on the Omnitrix.
That question caused Julie to feel even more frightened as embers danced around her eyes.
"She caused a great deal of damage, cost people their homes and evaded all arrests and questioning. She can just be allowed to walk away." The Captain stated, crossing his arms. "Obviously she has some sort of fire Semblance that she cannot control. It's better if she's simply somewhere she can't harm anyone."
"Oh no you don't!" Ben brought his hand down on the Omnitrix as the police officers approached, turning into Heatblast. "You want her; you got to go through me!"
Julie watched in stunned silence as Heatblast stood protectively in front of her, staring the police officers down. Unbeknownst to them, two pairs of azure eyes watched from the trees, both grinning delight at the next phase of the plan. One leapt up into the air, with the sun at their back they grinned as a flash of rained down upon everyone, blinding them. The second pair of eyes leapt out, throwing explosives at the police vehicles and the Rustbucket.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The police truck holding the prisoners tipped over, smashing the door open and causing the prisoners to tumble out. The flash ended and when everyone opened their eyes they could see the destruction brought about while they had been blinded.
"Did they do that?"
"They tried to burn us!"
"Call for backup!"
"W-Wait a minute!" Heatblast held his hands up. "I didn't do anything yet!"
But the cops were not listening as they pulled out their guns, aiming them at Heatblast while Julie trembled behind him.
"Wait! He wouldn't do this!" Gwen called out, fearful they were about to shoot her cousin.
"Hands in the air and drop to the ground!" The Captain ordered.
Heatblast held up his hands, and slowly turned to Julie. "Hey, it's going to be all right. It's-"
BOOM!
There was blast between Heatblast and Julie, knocking them away from each other. Heatblast staggered back, dazed from the blast while Julie crashed into the ground, groaning.
"She's down!"
"Surround her!"
Julie looked up to see the police officers slowly surrounding her and looked at Heatblast. "Ben…You…You tried hurt me…"
"Wait, Julie. I didn't-"
"You lied to me!" Julie's eyes flared with the fury of a volcano as she stood up, a circle burning into the ground around her. "YOU LIED!"
BOOM!
There was another blast, a pillar of fire surrounding Julie that forced everyone back. In the midst of the blast Julie turned and ran into the forest, leaving a trail of fire behind her that touched tree branches, starting a forest fire.
"Julie, wait!" Heatblast called out, attempting to chase after Julie by following the trail of fire.
Only to be stopped by another flash of light from the sky that blinded him and everyone else. When the light cleared the trail was still there but Julie had vanished into the forest fire.
"Call for back up!" The Captain shouted. "Tell the fire fighters to being extra Ice Dust!"
"Julie…" Heatblast changed back into Ben as he stared sadly at the fire. "What happened?"
Max looked up at the sky, seeing the sun and frowned. "That…is a good question."
Xxx
"Excellent work, I and Am."
The Seer floating on the table showed Julie running as fast as her legs could carry her, no longer leaving a trail of flames in her wake.
"The name of the person who caused all those incidents was never released to the public…At least until now." Sammael propped a hand up, leaning on it as he watched Julie continued to run. "Run, little flame, run. In the end, no matter the path you are on it all leads back to me."
Xxx
Steven slowly opened his eyes with a ringing in his eyes. As he regained consciousness, he saw himself inside his bubble shield twirling and floating through space at a drastically fast speed with an unconscious Connie next to him.
"Oh, geez!"
He watched as Earth and the Shattered Moon shrank away in the distance.
"There goes the Earth…"
"Ugh…"
Steven watched as Connie slowly awoke next to him, opening her eyes and stared at him. "…Uh…Hi?"
"Wh-What…Where?" Connie slowly looked around. "Where are we?"
"Out in space." Steven answered. "We uh…We got sucked out into space after we-"
"Fused." Connie said with widened eyes as she stared at Steven. "We fused…But how? We can't have fused."
"Well, I think we did." Steven rubbed the back of his head.
"But that's impossible. Gems can't fuse with Humans. Gems can only fuse with Gems." Connie shook her head. "This is…This is crazy…Just what are you anyways? You are Human but you have a Gem and you can fuse with non-Gem…people?"
"I didn't know I could do that either." Steven shrugged.
Connie brought a hand to her head. "This is insane…Everything has been insane since I came here. Why has it been like this?"
"That's just how things on Earth are. Everything is changing, pretty much every second." Steven offered with a small smile.
"Changing? Is that what you call it? Monsters trying to kill you, creatures invading from other universes, a civilization hidden on a broken moon that wants to destroy you as much as Homeworld does and you can only call it change?" Connie questioned, staring at Steven as if he was perhaps crazy.
"Well we didn't ask for things to be like that but its how it just is." Steven looked around again. "Say, you wouldn't happen to see where Lunaris might be, would you? I know he got pulled out with us."
"Probably suffocated to death by now." Connie stated.
"Not entirely." Both kids screamed as Lunaris appeared before them in a blue bubble, projected from his Golden Dream. "Don't worry, I am not going to hurt you. Honestly I wouldn't bother using this bubble but I figured it and my advanced communications would allow me the chance to talk."
"Talk? We're floating in two different bubbles in the vacuum of space, where there's no sound. How can you even be talking to us?" Connie questioned.
"The same way Gems can communicate, even in space." Lunaris answered with a smile. "Gems are beings made of concentrated light and energy. They are capable of many surprising things, even being able to talk in space. Of course rather than convey sound that cannot be heard through a vacuum they instead emit an electromagnetic frequency that only other Gems can hear in a manner similar to radio, providing the illusion that they are talking normally as if they were on a planet and not in space. As for me, my kind has adapted to being to be able to actually survive in a vacuum for long periods of time so this bubble is not necessary for me."
"So why'd you use it?" Steven asked.
"To take this last chance to talk." Lunaris answered. "You managed to knock me out of the Gem base. You have my respect for that but fortunately my home is not in an abandoned Gem outpost. I simply come to say good bye before I return home and find a way to stop Earth's destruction from destroying my home since the Gems will have taken their ship to use it to find you. If you survive, I hope for your sakes we never see each other again."
With that Lunaris popped his bubble and his Golden Dream glowing, moving on its own as it pulled General Lunaris away from them and back in the direction of Earth and its broken moon.
"Well that was something." Steven could only say.
The two of them continued to float through space in silence.
Steven then took his phone out of his pocket in boredom. "What? No signal? Come on, I'm right by a satellite!"
As if to convey his point, a satellite beeped as it flew by.
"If I don't die out here, first thing I do back on Earth is change my phone plan."
"Just how do you do that?" Connie asked, confused and slightly angry. "Here we are, floating in space while that Lunaris fiend flies back to his home, leaving us here to die and you complain about your communication device?"
Steven could only shrug. "It's just a coping mechanism. Come on, don't you have problems on Homeworld."
"Nothing like this." Connie answered. "The most trouble I ever had was trying to keep up with my comrades in training class."
"Training class?"
"Yes." Connie rolled her eyes. "Where we are trained to be useful. Some are builders, some are caretakers and some are even warriors."
"And what are you?"
"You saw my sword. What do you think?" Connie sighed as she realized something. "I don't even have my sword anymore. It was sucked out into space with us."
"Well, there is always-GAAH!" Steven yelped as something collided with his bubble in mid-sentence.
It turned out to be a Ruby.
Not the Ruby that formed half of Garnet but the one Steven had labelled Doc.
The Ruby glared at them before sliding off the bubble and floated off into space.
"Oh right." Steven suddenly remembered. "The Rubies from that ship we took. The ones that Major Glory sent flying. He must have knocked them out of Earth's atmosphere."
The bubble collided with two more Rubies that had been holding each other. The impact sent both of them spiraling in different directions.
"Too bad we don't have the ship. We could have picked them up." Steven muttered.
"If you did that they'd try to kill you and steal the ship back." Connie pointed out with a scowl. "Besides, they already left me and Peridot behind once."
As much as she was raised to respect Gems there was a part of her feeling vindictive at seeing the Rubies floating helplessly in space.
"So now what?" Steven asked.
"Sit here and wait to die I guess." Connie sighed, sitting down next to Steven. "It's not like we can do anything else. I never thought it would end like this. All I cared about was having a chance to see the Earth one time, carrying out Blue Diamond's wishes and doing my part in the Empire."
Steven sat down next to Connie. "I just wanted to show everyone I could be the kind of Gem my mom could be proud of."
"You mean Rose Quartz?"
"Yeah…Is it really true? Did she really…Shatter someone?" Steven hesitantly asked.
"Everyone on Homeworld knows the story and the Gems, especially Blue Diamond have spent the last thousands of years mourning her." Connie answered. "Even Jasper, in her own way. She only came back to Earth for closure. Peridot wasn't around for that. She's an Era 2 Gem, made in the period following the Rebellion. Me, I was a descendent of humans taken off of Earth and raised in the Special Zone."
"What's the Special Zone?" Steven asked, wanting to know more.
"It's a pocket universe designed by Gems, with only a single planet and sun existing there. No other planets or galaxies exist there so we pretty much have that whole universe to ourselves. The Gems taught our ancestors literature, combat and everything we would need to look after ourselves. There's no conflict, no Grimm, and we live under the watchful protection of the Diamonds." Connie explained. "Pink Diamond started the zone because she saw how people were suffering because of the Grimm and when she was shattered Blue Diamond took it over. She looked after us and kept us alive and healthy after all this time."
Steven was quiet as he listening to Connie's life in the Special Zone. He wasn't sure what to make of all of it. Pearl and the other Crystal Gems would say the Diamonds and Homeworld were evil but even if they kidnapped Connie's ancestors does it really mean Connie is a slave like Lunaris said? Connie described how she was fed and educated which was something Steven was sure someone considered a slave would not be treated. And without any Grimm they didn't have to spend their lives fighting against monsters.
Maybe there was more to the Diamonds and Homeworld than what his mother and the others thought.
Or maybe Connie couldn't understand if she was a slave or not.
It was all so confusing to Steven as he tried to take what Connie was telling him and place it what the Crystal Gems had told him.
They believed the Diamonds were monsters but Connie considered them saviors.
Homeworld considered the Crystal Gems criminals while they fought to save Earth from extinction.
Who was right?
Who was wrong?
"Connie, I-" Steven was stopped in the middle of whatever he was about to say as the bubble collided with another Ruby, this time it was Eyeball.
"You!"
"Eyeball!"
Eyeball regained her balance and stood on top of the bubble. "This is a mess!" She started pacing around the bubble. "What'll I say in my report? How will I even make my report? This is a nightmare!" She stopped and glared at Steven. "And this is all your fault!"
"Whoa! Hey, no, it's not! You were trying to hurt my friends!" Steven argued. "And Major Glory was the one who sent you flying into space."
"You're lucky you're in that bubble or I'd pop you right in the face." Eyeball growled.
"Well, if you're going to be a grump about it, then we can just float in silence until we both die!"
Eyeball crossed her arms. "Sounds great!"
"Fine!"
"I can't wait!"
"Me, neither!"
Connie could only watch as Steven and the Ruby he called Eyeball turned away from each other. Seriously, was she the only one here with any form of common sense? She was about to say something when spark of light caught her eye.
"Hey look!" She pointed in the direction of the light, Steven and Eyeball following her finger. "Is that a ship?"
It was indeed a ship.
A giant green ship to be precise.
"It's an Emerald class battlecruiser!" Eyeball shouted with a big smile on her face. "We're saved! Over here!" She tried waving her hands get the ship's attention. "Hey! Hey! Help us!"
The ship made no effort to turn towards them, continuing on its path.
"Where is it going? Is it going to Earth?" Steven wondered.
"It must be. Earth is the only habited planet in the entire system." Connie said before correcting herself. "Right, the Moon habited too but they don't know that."
Xxx
On the bridge of the ship, Emerald watched as Earth came into visual contact. "We are approaching the Earth now."
"Good." Behind her came the Pearl of White Diamond. "Locate the Fire Elemental."
The screen zoomed down onto the surface of the planet, detecting the signature of the Fire Elemental.
"Fire Elemental located."
"Good." The White Pearl turned around, facing another Gem. "I am sure you are ready to meet your Elemental."
Behind White Pearl was another Pearl.
This Pearl had a gemstone on her forehead with pale orange skin, slightly darker shade of orange hair that fell down her shoulders and wore a white sundress that stopped her shins.
"Yes. I am ready to meet my Elemental." The Fire Pearl said with a hopeful smile on her face.
Xxx
Julie had taken shelter in a cave, gasping for breath as she sat down. Looking out at the burning forest Julie could only burry her face in her knees at the destruction she caused.
Everywhere she went, everything burned.
Maybe the cops were right.
Maybe she should be somewhere she can't harm anyone.
She looked at the tablet that had been given to her by Sammael…
Just before something came from the sky.
Looking up Julie spotted a white bubble land down in front of her cave and it dissolved, revealing two strange identical women.
"Fire Elemental." The white woman with a….crack over her eyes spoke. "Your presence is required."
"What?" Julie stepped back. "Who are you?"
The two women moved forward, coming closer to Julie as she raised her hands.
"Stay back!" Julie warned as her eyes flared. "I don't want to hurt you but-"
Whatever Julie had to say next was cut off as an orange bubble engulfed her and the Fire Pearl, taking them off the ground and into the air, followed by White Pearl in a white bubble.