"Do you… have any fours?"

"No, Padparadscha. That's a different game."

"Oh. Go fish?"

Lars sighed as he moved his bishop diagonally three squares.

"I knew you were gonna do that!" – Padparadscha exclaimed. "I can see every one of your moves!"

"Yeah, after I make them." – Lars thought to himself. "Maybe trying to teach them Earth games wasn't the best idea."

The door to the interior of the ship suddenly opened. Finally, some news, thought Lars, as he jumped up to see what was going on. Ben and Steven were back.

"Were the Diamonds any help?" – he asked them.

Steven sadly shook his head.

"Of course they weren't." – Lars sighed.

"Well, we need to figure out something." – Steven stated. "Maybe you met someone in space that'd be willing to help?" – he asked Lars.

"Not for free." – Lars shook his head.

"Hi, Grandpa, it's Ben." – the two of them heard Ben say as they were discussing. He was speaking into the Omnitrix like it was a call on a smartwatch, which it basically was.

"Hey, Ben. How are you? How's the road trip going? Say hi to Steven for me." – Max's voice was heard over the Omnitrix.

"Pretty good, pretty good." – Ben answered, though somewhat avoiding mentioning their problem head-on.

"Hi, Mr. Tennyson! We saw you on TV!" – Steven enthusiastically greeted the old man.

"Oh, hi, Steven. I didn't say anything too bad about the gems, did I?" – Max asked, referring to the interview he got ambushed by at Little Homeworld.

"Nah, Amethyst said way worse stuff, so don't worry." – Ben assured him. "So, uh, the reason I'm calling is that we've got a… small problem…" – he sheepishly told Max.

"What is it?" – Max immediately asked. Not sternly or angrily, he just wanted to know how he could help.

"Well, there's this former gem colony that was taken over by the Incursean Empire that we drove away." – Ben explained. "Now we're thinking they might strike back, so we need backup…"

"That's gonna be a little tough, Ben. We're supposed to be staying away from the Incurseans after the treaty. But… I'll see what I can do." – Grandpa Max told them. "What's the name of the planet?"

"Fulmas." – Ben told him.

"Fulmas?" – Max repeated. "Now that's a lot harder. That entire sector is in a no-Plumber zone. In fact, you're not supposed to be doing anything there, either. Has the leader of the planet officially requested Plumber aid?"

"Nnnnno." – Ben awkwardly told him. He knew where this was gonna go.

"The High Override said he didn't want any interference from the Plumbers." – Steven admitted.

"Then there's really nothing we can do. I'm sorry, but there's Plumber regulations…" – Max regretfully told them.

"Dangit." – Ben said out of disappointment.

"And Ben…" – Max continued.

"Don't try to talk me out of helping, Grandpa!" – Ben protested in advance, thinking Max would tell him to stay out of this planet's business since it'd be breaking the rules. "I don't care if the Plumbers can't help, I'll-"

"Relax, I wasn't gonna try to talk you out of it. I know I can count on you to do the right thing, even when the world is telling you that you shouldn't." – Max told him. There was a fondness for his grandson in his voice, and a certain pride that he came out this way. "You and Steven do what you have to do."

"Thanks, Grandpa." – Ben said, relief having come over him. He was hoping for help, damn what High Override said, and even though the Plumbers couldn't help physically, he was glad that Max gave him a few words of encouragement.

"Bye, Mr. Tennyson!" – Steven said as Ben hung up.

"Dude, he told you you could call him Max since day one." – Ben told him.

"I don't know, it feels weird calling your grandpa that." – Steven shrugged.

"So, no Diamonds and no Plumbers?" – Lars asked them, grounding the conversation to the problem at hand. "Anyone else we can ask for help?"

"Well, I've got one more bright idea." – Ben said. This one was a bit more out there, and not as useful as an entire fleet, but it'd be something. He activated the Omnitrix's communicator again.

"Hey, Rex, it's Ben. I'm with Steven. We need your help, are you down for a space adventure?"

"No puedo, bro, I've got my hands full down here on Earth." – Rex said while grunting. The noises of a battle could be heard over the comm. "Van Kleiss is somehow back and I could actually use some-"

Ben hung up.

"Maybe we should see if he needs help?" – Steven asked him.

"He'll be fine. It can't be as big as a space war." – Ben casually said. Rex could handle himself no matter what Van Kleiss could throw at him, he thought, and they were more needed here.

"We'll have to go to High Override and tell him we've got nothing." – Lars reminded them.

"Yeah, I guess." – Ben said with disappointment.

"As expected, the Diamonds are of no assistance." – High Override concluded upon hearing what Ben, Steven and Lars had to say. The boys couldn't tell if he was mad, disappointed, disdainful or indifferent. He stood up and looked through the window overlooking Electric City, though, his reflection was staring back at them.

"There's gotta be some other way we can help, right?" – Steven suggested. He was still deadest on helping fix this mess, even if the High Override himself wasn't too keen on keeping him around.

There was a pause. High Override was seemingly thinking of something for them to do, but Ben couldn't help but shake the feeling that he was intentionally stalling for suspense to keep them on their toes.

"If you insist… there is an immediate problem that you could volunteer for." – the High Override finally told them.

"Okay…" – Ben said, somewhat warily. "What can we do?"

"The chain of supplies on Continent 03 has been disrupted. A colony of minecrawlers have been terrorizing the workers in the mines at the gem colony, diminishing resource returns. Until now, it was only a minor nuisance, but an entire shipment is missing now. I can't risk sending any more fulmini down to their nest, only for them to be lost. The crawlers feed on them. I'm sure you…" – Override paused. He seemed to have hesitated in saying the following words, as if he didn't really mean them. "…renowned heroes, such as Ben Tennyson, are up for it. I need you to stop anything that might be interfering with the miners."

Lars audibly groaned when High Override used Ben as an example.

"And if we recover that shipment, you'll be able to use those resources for help in the battle?" – Steven asked him.

High Override answered with a slow, deep nod.

"Okay, then." – Steven gladly responded. "So, how do we get there?"

A quick ride along the Fulmas electric rail system was all it took. The continent in question was not far away, and the tram went almost as quickly as the electricity itself that the planet seemed to live and breathe with, so the space-faring trio was soon on the scene.

"Whoa." – Steven said as they looked around. "It's an entire gem settlement!"

The trio gazed at what was undoubtably a little piece of Gemworld, right here on Fulmas. A large mass of gems was walking around the colony – Quartzes carrying cargo, Bismuths doing metalwork, and Peridots overseeing everything through the consoles on their limb extensions. There were towers and buildings, the designs of which matched the gem structures that Steven himself had seen both on Earth and off-world. Heck, he even studied some of those before so that they could accurately portray gem culture in the structures of Little Homeworld. In fact, this whole place seemed like Fulmas' very own Little Homeworld. Although, there were more fulmini visible here than humans back on its' Earth counterpart.

"Look! They've even got an Earth Spire!" – Steven pointed out at the tower in front of them that was sticking out of a fissure in the ground. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that it was suspended mid-air. Steven had seen the Lunar Sea Spire and the Sky Spire on Earth, and other Earth Spires just like this one on other planets as well.

"An Earth what?" – Lars asked.

"A Spire. It's where all the aristocratic gems used to hang out back on Earth."

"Wouldn't that make this one a Fulmas Spire?" – Ben pointed out.

"No, I mean Earth, as in, soil, not Earth, like our planet Earth. That's just what they're called." – Steven pointed out.

"If it's supposed to be for aristocratic gems, then why is it full of fulmini?" – Lars then pointed out. The others noticed it too – there were fulmini guards all over that place. They were easy to distinguish as guards, as their electricity cracked a distinct cyan blue, different from the green and yellow on normal fulmini or the charged purple on High Override.

"Um, hey, excuse me." – Steven tried asking one of the busybody Peridots. She stopped to talk to them, though kept an impatient look on her face. "What exactly is up with the fulmini guards in the Spire?"

"I am extremely busy to be discussing such trivialities. You are distracting me from important work." – the Peridot rudely replied as she rushed away.

"Wow, that was rude." – Ben pointed out.

"Peridots can be a bit… dismissive sometimes." – Steven defended her attitude, even though she was long gone.

"Even against you, Steven? Aren't you their new messiah or something?" – Lars pointed out.

"Yeah, that is weird. I guess she didn't recognize me."

"Hey, which way to the mines?" – Ben tried asking a large Amethyst worker, who was hauling a crate so heavy that even she was having trouble with it. Since she was going so slowly that they could freely hold an entire conversation before she passed.

Ben also noticed that she was much bigger than the Amethyst he knew best. He was aware that she was the odd one out, but it was still hard to get used to the large Amethysts.

"I'm going that way right now!" – the gem responded without stopping. "Gotta get this equipment over there, see."

"Okay, let's go." – Ben said as they followed the Quartz. Though, they had to walk, slowly, and wait for the Amethyst to carry the heavy box. Eventually, Ben got impatient and activated the Omnitrix, turning into Humongosaur. He plucked the box out of the Amethyst's hand, who looked up in awe, and carried it for her. It was so heavy that even Humongosaur had to put in effort, but not enough to slow him down.

The massive transformation got glances from everyone, but apparently, they were too busy to linger.

"Say, who the heck are you guys, anyway?" – she asked them. "How can you shapeshift like that? You ain't a gem, are ya?"

"I'm Ben Tennyson, the cosmic hero. You haven't heard of me?" – Humongosaur asked her, somewhat disappointed. Though, he couldn't blame a gem for not knowing who he was. They were pretty isolated from the going-ons of the universe until very recently.

The Amethyst shook her head.

"Well, surely you know him, right?" – Lars pointed at Steven.

She stared thoroughly at Steven's face from up close. Steven was reminded of his own Amethyst's antics.

"Nope. Don't ring no bells." – the Fulmas Amethyst shook her head.

"Steven Universe?" – he desperately specified.

"Mmmmm… nope."

Steven was flabbergasted.

"Well, we're here." – the Amethyst then said. "Thanks for the help, big guy." – she told Humongosaur and patted him on the back… of his leg. She then dropped off the box at a large pile of boxes, grabbed another one from a different pile and took it away.

The three of them stared at the huge entrance.

When you think of a cave or a mine, you'd imagine a narrow opening in the cliff, or a small hole in the wall. Ben, Steven and Lars were all imagining something along those lines, but instead they were met with a massive opening in the mountainside that was big enough for even Humongosaur go into and then some, and wide enough for several people to go in at the same time. Two rows of gems and fulmini alike, one of them going in, the other coming out, were lined up next to each other at the entrance. There was a magnetic rail lined along the ground, which pushed away some of the cargo they were carrying. This was the biggest resource mine on all of Fulmas, after all, so of course it would be big and full with workers. And in front of the entrance were two fulmini guards on each side, holding metal glaves with the sharp tips that looked like they were made from the same energy as the fulmini themselves.

"Okay, come on. Fulmas needs its resources." – Ben said as he detransformed from Humongosaur.

"Hold on, you guys. Something is off about this place." – Steven told them. "With the fulmini, and the gems here ignoring me… doesn't it seem a bit off to you?"

"Maybe…" – Ben and Lars both said at the same time. Both of them had noticed other suspicious details about the planet and its ruler as well.

"Okay…" – Steven stopped to think. "What we could do is you two head into the caves and I'll ask around this place." – Steven suggested.

Ben and Lars looked at each other.

"Go in with this guy? Really?" – Lars said, pointing with his thumb over at Ben.

"What is your problem, man?" – Ben exasperatedly asked him. "Yeah, I don't think that's such a good idea." – he agreed with Lars on this, at least.

"I actually think it's a great idea." – Steven retorted with a mischievous smile. "Oh, hey, Amethyyyst!" – he then ran off, following the Amethyst from before, leaving Ben and Lars to stand in front of the mine's entrance alone.

"Okay, then…" – Ben said to Lars. "Let's go."

"Ladies first." – Lars jokingly told him with a smirk. Ben rolled his eyes as he entered.

"Do you have clearance to enter?" – one of the mine guards unexpectedly stopped them.

"We're here on High Override's orders." – Ben explained to them.

"And do you have any credentials to back that claim?"

"Uhhhhh…" – Ben got stuck. High Override never mentioned they'd need any sort of pass to enter.

"Listen, bub, High Override gave us an extremely important mission to find the minecrawler nest." – Lars stepped in. "So do you really want him to find out you're wasting his time, our time, and everyone's time by holding us up here?"

"Whatever." – the guard groaned, who clearly couldn't be bothered to do a check on them anyway.

"Word of advice." – the other guard mentioned before the guys went in. "If you're really going into the bottom level of the mines, you'll have to be careful in there. They've been abandoned for a very long time."

"I can't believe you made that work." – Ben whispered to Lars when they went out of the guards' earshot.

"Dude, it works even when I'm lying." – Lars smugly boasted. "Like, all the time."

Soon after entering, they realized that some of the workers going into the mine were getting into a designated elevator for descending down the shaft. The others that were carrying boxes would pile them onto a much larger platform for delivering cargo. Obviously, they went with the former. And the elevators themselves also seemed to be made differently from fulmini technology – both Ben and Lars had seen enough of it to recognize gem workmanship.

The descent took longer than expected and was somewhat claustrophobic, and the fact that they had to get out all the way down at the bottom level, deep in the planet's core, didn't help. They were also the last to get off.

"So do you have any idea where to go now?" – Lars asked. Ben shook his head.

The chamber they entered definitely resembled the mines more than any other. It was wide, illuminated well by glowing neon-like rods, and supported by big, thick, strong beams. There was another magnetic rail along the floor. Though, for all the people going into and out of the mine at the entrance, no one seemed to be on the lower levels.

Ben and Lars walked forward, looking around. There were other, smaller passages branching out, but they had decided to follow along the main one, instead.

"Hey, Lars?"

"Yeah?"

"This place looks like we've been walking in the same spot this whole time."

"How is that possible? We're going in a straight line." – Lars dismissed it.

"I know it's not, it just looks like it. Everything looks the same."

"Yeah, I don't think they're about to start decorating a mineshaft, so probably not." – Lars responded.

"And anyway, we could be stuck in a time loop, you know."

"Time loop?" – Lars skeptically asked him.

"Yeah, walking on the same spot over and over again, and each time we pass it, time rewinds and puts us back."

"Why would there be a time loop in a random cave on Fulmas?"

"I'm just saying it's possible." – Ben shrugged.

"And it's also possible we find Blue and Yellow Diamond down here practicing their Fusion dance. Not gonna happen, but it's possible." – Lars dismissed Ben's thought.

"I know it's not, I'm just making conversation." – Ben mumbled, discontent with Lars' response.

Though, the awkward silence didn't have to last long because they heard footsteps, accompanied by a voice coming towards them.

"The quota for this week has been raised by 40% and we've suffered another attack… does the High Override think we're ALL made of taydenite?!" – someone was frantically mumbling to herself. Namely, a Peridot. She was walking while staring into a holo-screen and failed to even notice Ben and Lars.

"Uh, hi." – Lars said to notify her they were there.

The Peridot got startled at the unexpected noise, but quickly regained her composure and looked at them with an annoyed face.

"You again? What are you doing down here? This area is for the workers only!" – she sternly told them. Apparently, it was the same Peridot as the guys met earlier. "Get out! Now!"

"We were sent down here by High Override to help with the crawler attacks." – Ben quickly explained to her.

For a moment, the Peridot froze her face, processing what this meant, and then she immediately brightened up.

"Well, why didn't you SAY so? I- we could use the help around here." – Peridot happily told them.

"We? You're the only one we've seen so far on this floor." – Lars mentioned.

"Yeah, most of the workforce was relocated to other levels. You see, we broke into a chamber that's dangerously close to a minecrawler nest. They must have found some sort of passage or hole that we still aren't able to locate, and they've been coming on from there ever since. They keep attacking and dragging away the Fulmini guards. It seems that they're this species' natural predator, but that hasn't stopped them from attacking gems, either. So, work here was considered too dangerous." – the Peridot explained. "It's enough that I have to get down here to check up on the integrity of the structures. And apparently, High Override can't spare the manpower to help with the problem, so he sent you two." – she added with a certain smugness.

"So is there anyone else left here at all?" – Lars asked her.

"Just one." – The Peridot laconically answered.

"One?" – Ben repeated.

"What kind of person can work down here all alone?" – Lars added.

"Oh, you'll see her alright. That's who you have to find." – the Peridot told them, and she seemed to have a smug satisfaction of keeping them in the dark about this. Was this really worth stretching out the dramatic suspense?

"Well, are you gonna take us to her, or no?" – Ben impatiently asked her.

"Do you think I have the time for that? She's in the chamber 27-R14-AV. To get there, you have to take the fifth turn to the right, then go forward, take the left fork, and it's gonna be… shouldn't you be writing this down?"

"Are we supposed to go left or right?"

"I think it was right?"

"We went right the last time!"

"Yeah, she told us to take two rights in a row!"

"We already took two rights!"

"Did we?"

"She was right. We should have written it down."

The two boys had gone from wide, brightly lit and secure tunnels to low and narrow, dimly-lit passages. They had explored all sorts of chambers, like long, low-hanging tunnels where they had to bend their heads or narrow rooms with tall ceilings, and even a massive cavern that was winding down over an underground lake that had water dripping into it. Even the support beams went from strong and thick to somewhat frail-looking, as if they were about to give at any moment. And after making it into this labyrinth so far, it seemed like they were about to get lost, if they weren't already.

"Oh, forget this." – Ben finally said, tired of this claustrophobic maze. He put two fingers on the Omnitrix dial and it split apart, revealing the holographic alien selection menu that glowed green and illuminated Ben's face.

"What are you doing?" – Lars disapprovingly asked him. "We can find it without your stupid watch!"

"Relax, will you?" – Ben responded. "I got this."

The aliens scrolled by as Ben looked for the right pick. Cannonbolt… Ball Weevil… Whampire… Chromastone… finally, he saw the one he was looking for and carefully pressed the dial so that it wouldn't accidentally turn him into the wrong alien.

A flash of green brightened up the cave as Lars watched Ben Tennyson's transformation from up-close. Though, the light was so blinding that he barely made out anything. Once he could see clearly again, a furry orange dog-like creature was standing in front of him.

"What are you gonna do? You don't even have eyes!" – Lars pointed out.

Wildmutt growled at him, urging him to be quiet. Then, he "looked" around.

While it was true that vulpimancers didn't have eyes, their other senses more than made up for it. The gill-like slits along their necks could detect smell from very far away, and they also had amazing sonar hearing, able to recognize soundwaves as they reflected from their surroundings. Especially in a cave like this, it was much easier to find out where any sort of noise would be coming from. So, despite what Lars thought, Wildmutt was the perfect alien to find their goal.

Ben turned his head around, carefully looking for the right spot to register the soundwaves with Wildmutt's noise receptors.

CLARGSH

CLARGSH

CLARGSH

There it was. Wildmutt could sense rhythmic pounding of something sharp against the cavern walls, sending shockwaves all around. With each hit, some sort of small crumbles fell down onto the ground. That must have been who they were looking for.

Without even a warning, Wildmutt started sprinting towards where the sound was coming from, prompting Lars to follow on foot.

"Hey! Wait for me!" – he yelled as he ran behind.

The two of them retreaded old paths that they had already passed through, which seemed to have been chosen wrong. At each crossroad, Wildmutt stopped and listened around to make sure he was going on the right way. The noise of the pounding was getting stronger and closer, and at this point, Wildmutt could even make out the rough outline of the person he was looking for through his sonar senses.

He was closer… just a little bit further and…

Suddenly, the Omnitrix detransformed him while he was running on all fours, knocking him off-balance and causing him to faceplant down onto the ground, sliding forward. After a couple seconds, Lars caught up with him.

"And that's why you should have waited." – Lars commented as Ben spit out the dirt.

"Whatever. I found her, didn't I?" – he brushed off the remark.

They were so close that even a non-vulpimancer ear could hear the knocks against the wall. And soon enough, there it was.

They saw one of the biggest gems they had ever seen, short of only the Diamonds. Not even Jasper – the biggest one Ben could remember now, or the Fusion Topaz that Lars had seen before could compare, and it made them wonder how exactly could she fit through some of the narrow passages they had seen until now. Her gem status was easily recognizable even from the behind, as her gemstone was on her back. As for her body itself, it seemed to have been made from some sort of turquoise diamond-like hard material, not too different from Ben's diamondhead. Even her outline seemed to be chiseled – her limbs and torso resembled polygonal prisms more than they did cylinders. Her hand was morphed into the shape of a pickaxe that was mining a vein of ore that seemed to look like just like her, and the shards she had mined out were strewn across the ground.

Neither Ben nor Lars had seen this type of gem before, but Ben recognized her from somewhere else. The material, it looked just like…

"Taydenite?" – Ben guessingly said.

It seemed like Ben hit it right on the money. The gem stopped mining and finally took notice of them, turning around. Her face was what the expected from the rest of her body – square, chiseled jaw and a straight nose that resembled a right-angled triangle. Though, the gruff, unwelcoming stare she threw at them unnerved them a little.

"We're here to look for the minecrawler nests. The Peridot we met on this level told us you could help us with it." – Ben explained their situation to her.

Without a verbal response, Taydenite started walking. At first, they thought she was leaving them, but then she bobbed her head to the side to gesture that she wanted them to follow her.

"Okay, not big on talking, I guess." – Lars shrugged as they followed her.

"Hey, you ARE Taydenite, right?" – Ben eagerly asked her as he walked next to her. She gave a single slow nod. "That's awesome! I guess you're the only thing they have here that can effectively harvest taydenite ore. They are probably making so much money with you, you know that, right? Heck, I know a guy that would just love to meet you." – he rambled on. "I mean, talk about being made of money! You're probably indestructible. Is that why you're the only one that can work down here?"

She nodded again.

"You're the one that should be up there on the surface fighting the incurseans. I don't think they've got anything in their armada to beat you."

"What I do… is mine." – Taydenite spoke for the first time, throwing Ben somewhat aback. "That's all there is to it."

"How long do you work down here?" – Lars asked out of curiosity.

"I'm always here." – Taydenite flatly responded.

"Don't you ever rest, or go to the surface?"

"Don't need to. Don't want to." – she responded.

Ben and Lars looked at each other in awe. This one was a model worker.

Taydenite led them to a large chamber, so tall that they couldn't even see the ceiling in the dark. Water was dripping down the walls and forming stalactites as well as stalagmites, and good for you if you know which is which. There were special crystal mounds lining the walls, glowing ever so slightly in the dark. The chamber wasn't completely even, either – there was a chasm to the side that didn't have a safe way down, and the walls sometimes seemed to form narrow passages out, both on the ground and high up in the walls.

"So how long until we-" – Ben was impatiently about to ask, but his question got answered before he even got to finish it. Several giant six-legged ant-like alien creatures were coming their way. They really did seem native to this planet – their forms resembled the fulmini somewhat, being made out of what looked like stone, but their insides glowed and crackled with electric blue energy. They also had massive pincers on their mandibles, which gave them a dangerous and predatory look. There were a lot of them too – at least six, or that's how many they could make out in the dark.

Taydenite morphed her hands into two massive sledgehammers, Lars reached for something within his trenchcoat, while Ben – as always, put his hand on his left wrist and let the watch work its magic.

The room lit up with green energy, and the entire chamber was almost briefly visible, including more of the minecrawlers coming in, but Armordrillo was ready to take them all on.

The creatures started coming closer, and Lars pulled out a ridiculously long laser pistol and started shooting at them. Taydenite was knocking them away one swing at a time, and Armordrillo, well, he grabbed on and started jackhammering it until its armor cracked apart and all that was left was the electric insides, which squirmed out of the way and ran away.

"Uh-oh! There might be too many for us! And they're all coming from different directions!" – Lars yelled as he kept shooting, though his lasers kept getting reflected by the monsters' armor. "We gotta get our backs to a wall!" – he told the others.

"And let them corner us? No way!" – Armordrillo retorted. Though, Lars slipped away from the horde and moved closer to a cave opening so that he'd narrow them out to one by one. He was trying to aim for the spot between the mandibles – the mouth, which was bound to be unprotected by the shell.

Some dirt fell down from the ceiling all around them as the chamber shook, signifying that it was not gonna last on them.

"And stop pounding them!" – Lars added. "You're gonna make the entire cave collapse on us!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do, just swing my arms around?"

While the two were arguing, Taydenite was diligently knocking the crawlers around without wasting words.

"Lars!" – Ben yelled, noticing more crawlers coming down from the ceiling. "They're coming from above you!"

Meanwhile, Lars was doing an excellent job at keeping the crawlers in front of him at bay, but hadn't noticed the ones from the ceiling above him, and by the time he did, it was too late. Ben had no other choice but to jackhammer the ground to knock the insects off the wall, but in doing so, he upset the balance of the cave. Something heavy was falling down, and a lot of it – boulders. Not only that, but the fallen down minecrawlers were now swarming around Lars, who couldn't fend off all of them even with the second laser gun he had pulled out.

Running forward, Armordrillo knocked away the creatures with his massive arms and grabbed Lars, pulling him away into the chamber next over.

"Dude, let me go!" – he yelled, but it's a good thing Ben did that, since they barely managed to dodge the fallen chunks of earth and rock, but what they did ended up sealing their exit into the large chamber. Taydenite was still fighting the crawlers on the other side, but Ben and Lars? They were now stuck in the passageway, cut off from their way back.

Welcome back, everyone, to the continuation of this story.

As you can see, the Fulmas arc is still going strong, though, we're taking a bit of a backseat from the Incurseans to let them see Fulmas for themselves. It's necessary for us to see what they're fighting for, don't you agree? And I get to use the 4 page doc I wrote for Fulmas lore, and there's still more of it that I wanna showcase in the future.

You probably noticed that Steven was written out of the story halfway through the chapter, more or less. Well, I wanted them to split up and have each of them their parts of the chapter, with Steven exploring the Gem Colony on Fulmas with the new Amethyst he had met, but the chapter ended up not having enough space for two storylines in the back half of the chapter. Hell, I had to end the Ben/Lars part earlier than I was intending to, already.

And as for Ben/Lars, there definitely is some dislike between them, mostly on Lars' part, so separating them from their buffer (Steven) and sealing them deep in some mines felt like the perfect way to resolve the situation. That was another reason why I had Steven split from the rest of the group.

I also originally had a version of this chapter where Spinel followed Ben and Steven and joined the rest of the crew, and instead of no help whatsoever, Homeworld would inadvertently actually provide help, albeit in the form of one single Gem. Though, I thought about it, and after the initial interactions with Lars, I couldn't really think of anything relevant for Spinel to do in the rest of the story arc besides just follow Steven along, so I decided to cut her. I'm sure I'll have her show up in the future but for now that's all.

Not to go all review beggar on you, but I would like to remind you all that I value your opinions on my story and would like to hear the positives, the negatives, the suggestions and the demands. I love seeing reviews pop up and reading about what people actually think about my story.