Chapter 8

"What's got you so happy? You've been smiling for days." Lyn asked Alex as he relaxed in the lounge.

"I was able to get a few projects done." Alex stretched out while thinking of his completed anti-Diamond measures.

Making tech was not hard with his perks. Making tech that then in turn made more tech was still annoying though. He had managed to finish a few synthesisers that were pumping out pearl-communicators, or P-comms as he was now calling them, and his wrist-wands. Aquamarine won't be the only gem armed with those portable tractor beams now.

He was also glad that things were finally happening. Their observation of Yellow Diamond via the Spectres had shown that she had authorised the dispatch of Peridot's flask robonoids which had soon after been detected entering the solar-system. In a few days they will have found and repaired the Galaxy warp and Yellow Diamond would come to earth to 'Personally deal with the upstart Diamond.' Taking on one separated Diamond was likely going to be much easier than taking on all three. Alex had also prepared a few surprises for when she arrived and if it came to it then the ship was readied and stocked in case they needed to simply flee.

"And here I thought it was because you started getting laid." Lyn replied while sitting heavily on Alex's stomach.

"Ooph!"

"Make one comment about my weight and I'll hurt you."

Alex rolled his eyes and pushed her off his gut, which unfortunately had her sitting directly on his crotch.

"I heard you got to her first." He cocked an eyebrow at her.

Lyn licked her lips. "She was too cute not to take a bite."

"You're a bit messed up; you know that right?"

Lyn shrugged then laid down until she was literally laying atop him, her head on his chest.

"Does it bother you?" she asked in a small voice. "That I'm not real."

Alex sighed and wrapped an arm around her. "Honestly, no. I blame Seraphina for that."

Lyn relaxed into his arms. "What do you mean?"

"I might not originally have had a weird little sister, but I have the memories of one and you have the memories me as your big brother so I'm just going to choose that it's real, that my love for you is real… that we're real."

"Best big brother ever."

For a moment they just enjoyed the comfort of each other in a moment of silence.

"Are you rubbing my crotch?" Alex asked.

"…Maybe."

"And you ruined it." Alex sat up pushing Lyn off him.

Lyn rolled her eyes as she was pushed onto the couch proper. "Within a dozen or so jumps we'll be as powerful as Gods," she said, "Gods don't worry about little stuff like incest."

"But until then — no."

Lyn blew a raspberry at him. "By the way, are you busy right now?"

"Not particularly, why?" He had wanted to get started on some more ships but it could wait until tomorrow.

"Morrigan is off being all queenly on Danann and I thought we should grab Lapis and go out for some fun."

"Anything particular in mind?"

"There's a rave at the abandoned warehouse in Beach City."

"That could be fun. Music and dancing."

"Hot chicks and alcohol." Lyn added.

"You have a one-track mind, don't you?"

Lyn just shrugged. "So, you interested?"

"Fine. Let's get Lapis and go."

"Alright!" Lyn flew off the couch and ran off to the hot spring where Lapis had a habit of spending her time.

⦖⋄⦕

Zona Teal of the Clan Amazonite, First Sword of her people and War Chief in command of the Armies of Danann supressed a shudder as she watched the four abominations set the crystal statue on the courtyard's Warp pad and take position around it. Zona would not question her Queen but she did not like having to work with the dead creatures. Queen Morrigan had called them ghost-skeletons and Zona could see why: glowing green and modelled after the skeletal structure of humans; the abominations did present a ghostly impression.

No, what disturbed her most about the abominations was the red Gem set in one of the eye-sockets of each skull. Zona was not unaccustomed to the use of unenlightened Gems being used for one purpose of the other; but seeing them set within another creature, even a construct such as these, disturbed her in a way she could not describe.

A sound to her left saw Zona saluting with a fist over her heart as Queen Morrigan entered the courtyard with her Ladies.

"My Queen. The Trócaire is in position and awaiting deployment."

Morrigan smiled. The Trócaire was as beautiful as it was terrifying or at least it was so to any Gem who knew what it actually did. To all appearances it was a clear crystal statue of winged woman, holding aloft a scythe blade. The woman's crystalline face was set in an expression of sorrow and within its crystal breast a fist sized red Gem pulsed.

"We wait until Homeworld is unguarded. Testing indicated that it should overpower one diamond alone but two or more working together would be able to resist it." Morrigan commented quietly, either to the Amazonite or to herself.

Zona eyed the weapon wearily. Such an artifact had never been conceived of by Danann or by Homeworld.

"Another invention of your pet Diamond?" Zona asked. She didn't mind the Grey Diamond that Queen Morrigan had brought to the court. If anything, her gifts of disrupter blades and the schematics of new ships were much appreciated and her latest shipment of 'P-comms' and wands were already being passed out among the soldiers. But the Tuatha De Danann had survived millennia without a Diamond and would survive millennia more without one.

Morrigan scowled and let some ecto-energy flash in her eyes. "Alexa is a Lady of my court and is to be accorded the respect she deserves."

"Of course, My Queen." Zona bowed low.

"Leave me for now."

"My Queen." Zona bowed again and walked away. The Ladies in waiting also scattered.

Morrigan sighed. Who would have thought purchasing a Gem Colony of her own would be such hard work. She walked to the edge of the courtyard where a series of terraced gardens led down to the city proper allowing an unobstructed view over the gleaming city.

The Colony was a wonder to behold. Seraphina had taken the Celtic inspiration and ran with it. Both the Capital city and the planet itself was named after Danu, the goddess, and the Gems who occupied the city titled themselves the Tuatha De Denann or the children of the goddess Danu. The city, from above, appeared as a Celtic Dara Knot nestled in a lush green valley, the streets and buildings forming rigid squares and twisted loops.
Where Homeworld was all crowded geometric edges; Danann was hard lines meeting soft curves. The rigid nature of Gem architecture softened with in inclusion of space and nature. Unlike the Homeworld's colour scheme of primary yellows, blues, greens, pinks and whites, Danann was muted shades of grey, blue, greens, reds and brown which blended in naturally with the world around them.

It amazed Morrigan how much culture there was within the colony. It had grown from a lost settlement ship into a thriving society with its own history and mythology. The Gems were not the regimented cogs-in-the-machine of Homeworld society but each people in their own right, with stories and histories of their own. Most telling to their individuality was that the Gems of Danann each had their own name, even if they did structure themselves into Clans based on Gem type. Where Homeworld idolised the Diamonds and their strict caste system; the Tuatha De revered Danu, the goddess and the planet that gave them life and together they sought out art and freedom, individuality and personal honour.

Morrigan was pulled from her introspective mood by the tinkling sound of children's laugher as a handful of Gem children ran through the courtyard in play.

Gem children. The secret of Danann's self-sufficiency without the need of Diamonds of their own. It was commonly held that only a Diamond could create the proto-Gems that would develop into full Gems when seeded into fertile land. And that was true. Danann could not create Gem's as a Diamond would. Instead, they had found another way. At some point the Tuatha De had found that a fusion of two different Gems produced an excess in Gem energy. Normally this just boosted physical attributes or skills but often it was simply wasted during non-combat. Further experimentation had found that this energy could be directed to the growth of a new Gem using a seed fragment of a shattered Gem. What this meant was that if a cross-Gem fusion was to ingest a shard of a shattered Gem they would essentially become 'pregnant' with a Gem child. The energy of their fusion would grow a new gem around the shard for about a year and when the fusion was then undone the new Gem would separate from their parents as a new individual.

The process did have drawbacks of course. Unlike the mass-produced Gems of Homeworld, the child Gems were exactly that: children. Their forms looked much like an adolescent human and they displayed a certain lack of maturity. Additionally, unlike mass-produced Gems they were 'born' with only limited knowledge from the shard used for their creation and the experiences of their fused parents and thus had to learn and grow much like a human child would. It would take the children two to five hundred years to fully mature into 'adult' Gems; their forms changing to reflect their growth.

Additionally, not all shattered Gem shards could be used. The process would only work with the shards of Gem's who had lived for over one thousand years at the least. And only shards of a certain size could be used meaning that from one millennia old Gem: usually only five to seven Gem children could be born. This process of population growth was slow and time consuming but was also a process that held a great deal of respect and honour within the community. The Tuatha De would never shatter each other to increase their population but it was not unknown for old Gems to choose to shatter themselves to give life to the next generation. Additionally, accidents did happen and it was considered an honour to carry a shard of either a sacrifice or the fallen. The less spoken off method of procuring Gem shards was to take them from the enemy. The Tuatha De had undergone something of a population boom during the Gem rebellion when their agents had covertly gathered shards of the fallen Gem soldiers under the nose of both Homeworld and the Crystal Gems.

Morrigan smiled. It seemed that Seraphina had been inspired by her namesake in more ways than just the design of the city. The phantom queen of warriors and the bringer of death. It made sense that there was more than a touch of the morbid in her people's way of life. She chuckled as she remembered the look of surprised glee when she had handed over Alexa's previous gift to the court. It seemed there would be a few more Jaspers running around in about a years' time.

⦖⋄⦕

Alex, Lapis and Lyn appeared in the reconstructed lighthouse in a beam of warp-light. Alex had simply purchased the land through an online realtor. His 'Landlord's Game' perk allowing him a guaranteed sale as long as he paid one and half times the price of the property. His 'Real Esatate' perk then ensured that any land he purchased already came with a house or in this case a lighthouse. Lastly his 'Warp Grid' purchase automatically added a warp-pad to any property he owned. It tickled him pink to know that he had a warp point directly over the top of the Crystal Gem's base.

"Lapis should be fine but we look like kids." Lyn said as she stepped off the pad.

"You are a kid." He reminded her.

Lyn ignored him. "My suggestion is that we fuse together and enter as a taller individual."

"Would that even work unless I'm in Gem form? Because I was kind of hoping to be a guy tonight."

He had found that he had been gradually spending more time in Gem form than his other forms of late. Often because it was easier to interact with Gem-Tech as a Gem but also because being a Gem felt… well it just felt good. It felt strong and confident and sexy; which was weird but still true. Being a Gem was addicting and he had been trying to cut back, not to mention that he enjoyed being a guy when he was with Morrigan.

"It should work as I'm in my half-gem form and I give it a fifty-fifty chance on which gender we are." Lyn's face turned a little red. "Or maybe we'll be both."

"Fusion? Isn't that a bit indecent?" Lapis asked as she remembered her own fusion experience with Alex.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Right, well tonight is your night so we can fuse if you want to."

"YES!" Lyn jumped with a yell.

Alex raised his arms and shook his hips to the beat in his own head. Lyn glided around him tailing fingers along his chest and she swirled on by. Alex slid to the side with a spin of his own as Lyn turned her twirl into a graceful pirouette. She then ran at Alex who caught her by the waist and spun them around. As they twirled their forms turned to light and mixed together becoming one.
Alyn opened her eyes to see Lapis on the ground laughing her head off.

"You - guys – looked so — stupid." She said between gasping breaths.

Alyn scowled down at her… huh down. That was new. She used her crystal creation ability, and it was good to know that she had access to that even when Alex hadn't been Alexa at the time of fusion, to create a mirror of clear silica backed by thin reflective layer of pyrite.

Huh? She looked good! Where Alex had been all dark blacks and greys and Lyn had been white and rainbow gloss; now she was a mixture of the two. Her skin was pale and her hair was black with reflective striations of blue, green and muted yellow. Her eyes matched a Gem at her navel and sternum; grey with a burning fire of blue, green, purple and yellow within. Oh and female, definitely female.

Are we a labradorite? That's not how fusion is supposed to work. She thought to themselves.

Where Alex had worn black jeans and grey shirt with a dark jacket and Lyn had chosen to go in a short white bodice dress; now she was wearing tight black jeans, a charcoal grey bodice top and a short black jacket with a strange blue-green gloss. Alyn wiggled her toes… why did she not have shoes?

"Our dancing is perfectly normal, thank you very much." Alyn said as she pulled Lapis back to her feet.

On her feet again Lapis still looked up at Alyn and blushed. She only came to about chest height against the fusion. "So, what's it like?"

Alyn thought for a second. "Good. Great… Ok. It feels comfortable, like a hug."

Alyn's face split into a big goofy grin. "Hehe, I knew you really loved me." She rolled her own eyes. "Of course, I do."

Lapis just nodded. That matched the feeling she had with Alex when they were Alexuli.

Alyn grabbed a hold of Lapis and entwined their arms, leading her toward the rave. "Let's go have fun and then tonight we can share Lapis."
Lapis rolled her eyes at their antics as she was dragged along until what they had said caught up with her. "Wait, what?"

⦖⋄⦕

The rave was being held at an old, abandoned warehouse a short distance from the city and was used for various city projects. Despite there being a gaping hole in one of the walls, which the mayor of Beach City had never seen fit to have fixed, the place had been used as a wresting arena, a concert hall and an electoral propaganda warehouse at various points. The loud music and crows of people let them know that the rave was in full swing by the time they arrived. Sour Cream was pumping out some sort of new-wave elctro-pop, well at least that what the Lyn half of him was saying, Ronaldo was getting his funky groove on and the cool kids were dancing and grinding to the beat. There were also a bunch of new faces from out of town, dancing, mingling and chatting over the music.

"There's no security, we could have just come as ourselves." Alyn mentioned to herself. "Bah, let's just have fun!"

Alyn guided a nervous Lapis to the dancefloor.

"Are you sure we should be here. There's a lot of people."

"Hey," she said getting the blue Gem's attention, "don't worry about anyone else, it's just you and us."

"If you start singing, then I'm leaving."

Alyn laughed and started dancing with Lapis, just a simple shuffle to the music to get Lapis in the zone. Lapis emulated the fusion and her jerky movements became more fluid as she relaxed. Soon she was swaying and swirling her skirt as the two danced and circled each other a large grin on both their faces.

The other ravers gave them space, either too caught up in their own groove or too intimidated to interrupt two oddly coloured beauties dancing together. Well, that is until:

"Hey Girls. Get ready, it's Kevin Time." Some douchebag stepped in between them and started aggressively dance-thrusting at them.

The guy was a creep. The entire time he was dancing at them he was undressing them with his eyes except for the moments he had eyes closed in some sort of narcissistic bliss.

"Are all us guys like this?" Alyn asked herself. "Only most of them," she also replied.

Alyn's eyes glowed violet as she reached out with magic and undid the creeps belt causing his pants to fall to the ground. He tripped over his own tangled legs during a particularly aggressive thrust and faceplanted on the dancefloor. His leopard print underwear on full display with his ass in the air.

"Pfft." Lapis stifled a laugh though the surrounding dancers weren't quite so gracious and Kevin slunk off the floor to the sound of their laughter.

Alyn pulled Lapis in close and held her, the two swayed gently while she giggled into her chest.

"We shouldn't have done that." Alyn admitted.

"Did you see his underwear?" Lapis kept giggling.

"Oh yeah. I saw, in fact I'll likely need therapy."

That sent Lapis off even harder and Alyn joined her, the two laughing and dancing to the music.

About twenty minutes later they paused along with everyone else as they turned to the sound of a slap of a bare foot on stone. The Gems both watched as a caramel skinned goddess sashayed, twirled and leapt in a one-woman dance show of energy, sexuality and vigour.

"Oh god." Alyn muttered as she recognised the girl. "That's Stevonnie."

"Who?" Lapis asked unable to tear her eyes off the sexy figure.

"A fusion of Steven and his little girlfriend Connie."

"Is she alright?"

Stevonnie had finished her dance and was freaking out as everyone there just silently stared at her.

We are not letting that creep near such a hottie! Alyn heard her inner Lyn scream as Kevin sauntered up to the socially paralysed girl.

"Hey Baby. Get ready, its Kevin Time." He purred at the uncomfortable girl who was slowly backing away.

"You need to get new material." Alyn tossed at the creeper as she hooked her arm through Stevonnie's and pulled her toward Lapis.

"Dance with us?" she asked.

"Um… Sure." Stevonnie relaxed as Alyn and Lapis dipped and bounced to the rhythm.

Eventually Stevonnie let go and simply enjoyed herself dancing with the cool new girls she had met. It took a while but soon enough she noticed that it wasn't the rave-lights and that Lapis' skin actually was a uniform blue. Now that she was looking, she could also see that all three of them had Gems. Lapis on her upper back and Alyn on her sternum and navel.

"Oh my Cookie Cat! You guys are Gems!" she exclaimed.

"Are blue people common?" Lapis asked sarcastically.

"Took you long enough." Alyn said.

"What are you guys doing here? DANCING?" Stevonnie challenged over the music.

To her, Gems were both normal and also potentially dangerous. She still remembered and had nightmares of the Grey Diamond shattering the aggressive orange Gem.

"We're having fun?" Alyn replied.

Whatever Stevonnie was going to say next was interrupted by the sound of screaming from outside the warehouse. The three Gems shared a glance and ran to the hole in the wall only to be halted by the sight of two Gems outside. One was a bright yellow and towered over the other by sixty feet or more. She had a strict upright posture and held her nose in the air as if she could smell the humans around her and found them distasteful. To her side was a tall green Gem with triangular hair who was interacting with a holographic screen from her arm limb-enhancer.

"Sensors indicate that the renegade Diamond is within this building, my Diamond." She said subserviently to the large Yellow Diamond.

Alyn frowned; she didn't know what had happened. Peridot's repair of the Galaxy warp was still expected to take a few days yet, so why hadn't her Spectres at the Galaxy Warp notified her of any activation?
She pulled up a holographic interface from her P-comm and glanced over the latest messages. There was a note about Yellows movement to a Homeworld Warp pad but no note about the Galaxy Warp being activated. However Yellow had gotten to earth; it wasn't by the Galaxy Warp that was for sure.

Alyn growled to herself. What was the point of setting up traps if people didn't step in them?! She realised that the only priority condition she programmed into the A.I. had been to notify them if a Diamond had gotten to earth via ship or the Galaxy warp and neither of those conditions had triggered. She was going to have to rehaul the system to ensure such a stupid mistake didn't happen again.

"Come out, Grey!" Yellow bellowed and negligently unleased a bolt of yellow electrical energy at the building that scorched the wall and knocked scaffolding from the ceiling. The ravers were panicking unable to escape.

"This is strange." Peridot said as she refined her scanning equipment. "More detailed scans indicate that there is not one but two Diamonds within."

Yellow frowned. "Two? There must be some mistake. She must be using a defective signature masking device or some such."

That's new and not a bad idea. Alyn thought to herself as she started to automatically run through what it would take to build such a thing; both the scanner and a shield.

Yellow aimed her hand at the hole in the warehouse's wall and charged it with yellow energy, Stevonnie jumped through the hole in the wall and raised her mother's Rose-Shied.
The yellow bolt of electricity clashed with the pink shield with a resounding 'gong!'

Yellow growled at the sight of the shield of Rose Quartz. Now that her own aura had touched it, she could feel a familiarity that confused her at first until she realised that this must be the Flawed Diamond.

"I don't know how you got that traitorous Quartz's shield but it won't save you, Grey!"

Stevonnie looked out over her shield, her eyes wide with terror.

"What? Grey? I'm not—" She ducked again as another thunderous clash of light hit her shield pushing her back a few feet.

"I can feel your Diamond power from here!" Yellow shouted back.

Alyn used the distraction that Stevonnie was providing to cut a hole through the far wall of the warehouse with Lyn's rainbow aura blades. The multicoloured planes of force and light easily cutting through the stonework. The ravers poured through the newly made exit, quick to escape the violence of the Gem Battle.

"What should I do?" Lapis asked.

"Get out of here." Alyn told her. "You're no match for a Diamond."

Lapis hesitated but resolutely nodded and flew out the building on wings of water. She knew she would just get in the way.

Alex tried to break his fusion with Lyn only to find that she was holding them together with all her strength.

It's not safe. He thought at her. Screw safe! We have more options together. Can you take us ghost?

Alyn tried and found much to his surprise that she could in fact go ghost.

How?

You were human when we fused. We're both human and Gem right now and we both have the 'Accepting Physiology' Perk, you probably have access to all our abilities right now.

Alyn's frown morphed into a Cheshire worth grin. Well, that just made this much easier. She brought up her P-Comm and started sending targeting commands.

⦖⋄⦕

Stevonnie was not having a good time. The giant yellow woman was keeping her pinned with streams of yellow lightning. Sweat poured down her face as she struggled to keep her shield in place, knowing with a certainty that to drop it would see the death of them. The part of her that was Steven could not, would not allow Connie to be hurt. The part of her that was Connie stood firm with an iron resolve. Together they tapped into an inner well of strength neither had alone.

"You've proven your own flawed nature," Yellow gloated as she kept up her energy attack, "You tarnish the name Diamond."

Stevonnie was confused. She didn't know who this crazy Gem was but she assumed she was the Yellow Diamond she had heard about from the Gems when they spoke in hushed whispers. She didn't know why this Gem thought that Stevonnie was a Diamond but didn't think that telling her that she was Rose Quartz's son was going to help her any.

Yellow grinned viciously as the flawed Gem was pushed further back. This was much easier than she had anticipated. She didn't know why White had been so concerned about the appearance of the Grey Throne among their court. All Diamonds were One and through that White had tracked the power of the Grey Diamond to this miserable dirt-ball.
She was so distracted that she didn't even notice when shards of grey crystal slowly creeped up from the ground around her, boxing her in and creating layers of sharp crystalline walls around the area. Nor did she notice when they grew over her feet, trapping her in place.

Normal crystal, even the diamond this one was made of, would do little to ever withhold the strength of a Diamond. But this grey crystal pulsed with violet crackles of magic that renforced a concept on durability, of strength and indestructability into the sparkling grey stone.

Yellow's energy blast had just about overcome Stevonnie's defence when she was pushed forward from an energy blast to the back. She stumbled on the clasping crystal at her feet, more surprised than actually injured.
Stevonnie collapsed to her knees and dropped the shield when the attack let up. Yellow glared at where a glowing eyed Peridot stood with her arm raised up pointing her limb-enhancer energy blaster at Yellow.

"Are all Gems who set foot on this forsaken planet so traitorous or are you just cracked?" She growled.
Duplicate Alyn grinned from within Peridot. The overshadowing had worked without any issues. Peridot's mind was rigid and somewhat neurotic but it wasn't particularly strong.

"What did you hope to achieve with attacking me with such pitiful power?"

"Oh, no I just needed to distract you from looking up."

Yellow frowned and looked up to the night sky, her eyes widening in apprehension as beams of bright light converged in the sky above her. Each of the twenty-nine Pavilion in this hemisphere was directing its Light-cannon at the one that Alyn had directed overhead. That one unit would not survive the shot and would need to be replaced but for one shining moment it released the power of a hundred of Rose's Laser Light Cannons at Yellow.

Yellow attempted to move out of the way but was held firmly in place by the encroaching magic enhance crystal.

Behind Yellow; a ghost-form of Alyn with multicoloured ghost-flame hair and glowing silver eyes, scooped an exhausted Stevonnie up into her arms and burned open a portal to the temple with her ghost-portal ability. They stepped through and the portal closed a scant second before the beam struck.

The duplicate of her that was inhabiting Peridot phased the green Gem through the earth as fast as she could to escape the blast. It wouldn't overly matter if she didn't make it as ghost duplicates were only ecto-energy constructions and only existed until they either recombined with the original or perished. But it would be mean to let Peridot die.

The falling beam of light twisted in shape as it lanced towards the earth, forming first an abstract female form then becoming thinner and more pointed until it was a dagger of light that struck the restrained Yellow. The energy of the blast shook the earth and demolished the warehouse. The crystal walls glowed with violet light as the magic within them was consumed to keep them solid and thus contain the blast from the nearby City.

When the shaking of the earth subsided, Alyn-Peridot phased out of the ground. Where the warehouse once stood was now only molten earth. The entire area was a pool of slagged and glassed stone surrounded by a jagged broken circle of grey crystal. The magic empowering the crystal had been expended and she could see areas of it that was still cracking and crumbling from the heat.

She slipped out of Peridot and poofed the green Gem while she was still confused. She bubbled both Peridots Gem and her limb-enhancers and sent them back to the temple then flew over the slowly cooling ground until she reached the epicentre of the blast. There; in a mound of dirty glass, she found a cracked Yellow Diamond, damaged but not yet shattered. It amazed her that the Diamonds thought that Pink had been shattered by a Quartz but maybe they just didn't realise just how truly durable they were. She bubbled the still hot glass, Diamond and all, and sent it off to the temple.

Duplicate Alyn considered opening a portal but was running low on energy, instead she turned invisible and flew back to the Lighthouse to warp back to the temple.
She laughed as she passed the panicked crystal Gems rushing towards Beach City's new crater. Ah well, that's real me's problem, she thought to herself.

⦖⋄⦕

AN: Well... not much actually happened for a 5k word chapter.

I'm not sure why but I don't particularly like my writing in this one. It feels off.

Some my think that the fight was too easy especially compared to Jasper. Well those people would be right.

First I w0uld say that the Jasper fight was also easy and that it only lasted as long as it did because Alex was experimenting with his Diamond abilities. Here, he had time to prepare and set up things in advance. He also had access to two powersets at once and thus exemplifies the biggest plus and minus of Jumpchains and universal travel stories.

OUT OF CONTEXT ABILITIES ARE WAY OVER POWERED

That's not a critisim. It's just you're generally not going to find nice well written struggles in these types of stories without either totally NERFing your character or giving the canon characters in a Jump a rediculous boost.
Or you could commit the greatest crime of all.

PLOT INDUCED STUPIDITY.

I'm going to try and have my character think smart. I'm going to try and make any conflicts interesting but i know i'm going to fail. I came close to using plot induced stupidity here with the whole "sensors didnt seet this coming" thing but think overlooking a small programing error is still believable. (That'll get explained a little next chapter BTW)