Days…
Steven hasn't mentioned the pocket dimension to the gems since he thinks it isn't that big a deal. Jason internally disagreed, what with Rose's things in there, but he respected it as the boy's choice to make. Tye also sent men to look at the cliff, and they would soon be getting to work.
They'd determine how far into the cliff they could go without disturbing the temple, reinforcing the ground to ensure stability, and putting in protective measure. Despite being more durable these days, Jason wasn't going to argue.
The last thing he wanted was for his newly built home to crumble and/or risk the lives of Steven and Connie. While they were at it, the men would be carving out his underground section, which would have ample space for vehicles and work.
Meadow:Day…
The Crystal Gems were on their way home from their latest mission.
"I can't believe that went so well!" Pearl exclaimed happily.
"It was kind of great when you hit that corrupted gem with your spear, and it went 'bing-bong!'" Amethyst stated before making an explosion sound to emphasize what happened.
Usually, the two were at each other's throats, so this was a nice change of pace.
Pearl blushed at the compliment. "Well, the way you circled around it almost looked like strategy."
"Well, you know…" Amethyst blushed back. "I can do that stuff too."
"You two certainly performed well." Jason complimented.
"Wait up!" Steven exclaimed, he and Garnet emerging from the field of flowers. "Sorry I couldn't help much. I think the flowers are making me…" He sneezed on Garnet's hip. "Sorry, Garnet."
"I'll live." She told him simply.
"Oh Steven, you're supposed to sneeze into your antecubital fossa." Pearl informed.
"My what?" Steven asked as they got onto the warp pad.
"Your elbow." Jason cleared up.
The boy looked down curiously at his elbow while the pad activated. As they were moving, Steven's allergies began acting up.
"Do it at Pearl!" Amethyst exclaimed.
"Steven, your fossa!" Pearl cried.
"Pearl, you know he doesn't get the technical terms of things!" Jason scolded before Steven sneezed loudly, propelling himself up and his head out the tunnel's barrier. "Steven! Someone grab my ankles!" He looked at Amethyst. "Sorry about this."
Before she could speak, the soldier planted his feet on her face and pushed off. Someone grabbed his pant legs as he grabbed Steven. It happened to be Garnet, who helped pull them back in.
"Steven." Jason brought him in close to check him over. "You alright bro?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Steven replied while shivering.
"You have to be careful." Pearl warned. "It's dangerous to stick your head out of the stream."
"There's not much air, and it's very cold." Garnet further explained, flicking frozen snot off his nose.
"You guys, I saw something out there!" Steven exclaimed.
"What?" Pearl asked curiously.
"Something warping!"
"Steven, that's not possible." Pearl denied. "Is your vision blurry from the pollen?"
"I can see perfectly, Pearl?" Steven replied while squinting his eyes. "I know there's something out there!"
"You're sure?" Jason questioned seriously, to which the kid nodded. "This could be bad."
"There's nothing out there, Steven." Garnet stated. "There hasn't been anything else for a long, long time."
"If I remember correctly, wasn't I something you guys have never seen before?" Jason corrected.
The gems look at each other.
"Amethyst, why do you have a shoe print on your face?" Steven asked.
She shifted her attention to the other hybrid and glared. Jason glanced off in another direction, minding his own business.
Beach House: Morning…
After they got back home, the gems congregated to the temple to possibly speak about what Steven could have seen. Based on their expression, and tone of voice, Jason assumed they'd end up putting it on the kid's imagination or allergies making him see things.
That kind of annoyed Jason because this wasn't like any other possible situation from the past. Steven seemed positive about this and a little shaken. Regardless, the hybrids were rather sleepy, and the gems did leave them suddenly. As such, they ended up getting some sleep.
Suddenly, there was screaming which woke the soldier and put him on alert until Garnet spoke up. "See what you did? Now you're not getting any cookies."
"What?" Jason asked in confusion as he stood up.
"Cookies!" Amethyst exclaimed. "I'll take 'em!"
The purple gem happily grabbed the tray and proceeded to scarf down the cookies.
"Slow down, Amethyst." Garnet warned.
"Guys." Jason walked over. "What's going on?"
"I'm sorry for the water Pearl and waking you Jason." Steven voiced tiredly. "I just, I guess I…"
"…didn't sleep." Garnet figured.
The kid let out a yawn. "Maybe."
"Oh, Steven." Pearl stated worriedly as she wiped some water out of her eyes. "This isn't about the thing you think you saw outside the warp stream yesterday, is it?"
Pearl tensed as Amethyst chucked the empty tray of cookies away, making a loud sound in the process.
"But it was real!" Steven exclaimed firmly. "Something was warping somewhere in the warp stream!"
"Listen." Pearl placed her hands on his cheeks. "Nothing on Earth can use the warps but us. Do you understand?" Steven didn't believe her. "Steven, nod in agreement if you understand."
"Pearl, lay off." Jason stated. "Even if he believed, Steven couldn't nod with you holding his head."
"I'm confident Pearl is right though." Everyone looked at Garnet. "But if it'll make Steven feel better, we can go check."
Steven nodded sincerely at that.
Meadow
"Nothing unusual." Garnet declared before Steven sneezed. "Bless you."
Geode
"The storm is still gone, but that's to be expected after last time." Jason commented.
Sky Spire
"Whoa, that's something!" Amethyst declared, as a little bit ahead of them, Steven Jr., the goat, was confirmed to be a daughter because she was on the ground with a couple goat kids prancing around. "Heh, Steven Jr.'s been busy which makes you a grandpa!"
"Congratulations." Garnet rubbed Steven's head.
"Hey!" He shook her off. "We're getting off task here!"
"We've looked all over!" Pearl declared in frustration. "There's nothing out here to find!"
"Can't we just give Steven the benefit of the doubt and treat this seriously?" Jason questioned.
"You can't really believe this Jason?" Pearl questioned.
"When it comes to the defense of Earth, I'll believe in anything." Jason retorted. "If there's even a chance something could cause trouble, it's worth checking out."
"Nothing on Earth can use these warps but us!" Pearl reminded.
"Humanity's Defense might." Jason argued. "They're using gems to power themselves up, so there's nothing saying they can't use them to move around."
"Yeah, or what if it came from space?" Steven added.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous." Pearl dismissed.
"Then, how did gems originally come to earth?" Jason questioned. "If you didn't come from space, I suddenly have many questions about that space adventure you tried to take Steven on."
"I…I don't appreciate your tones." Pearl replied annoyed.
Galaxy Warp
"These are the warps which once connected us to other planets." Pearl walked towards the Homeworld Warp. "If something tried to come from space, it would be through here. But wait! This warp pad is broken and marked inactive."
"That doesn't really disprove anything." Jason retorted. "To my knowledge, gems first had to land on Earth before gem stuff appeared. Something could have landed on Earth and used the very warp we came on to move around. Again, there's Humanity's Defense.
Even then, there's no telling if more warp whistles, like the one you gave Greg, exist on this planet. I mean, gem stuff is just out there for the taking. Look, if you three don't want to believe it, return home. You can go about your work while I help Steven."
Steven moved to Jason's side and looked up at him. "Thank you for believing me."
"Come on Jason, you're not helping Steven feel better." Pearl voiced. "All you're doing is riling him up."
"Pearl, what are you doing?" Jason questioned. "Steven is right here, yet you're patronizing him to his face. I was under the impression that the five of us are a team. I thought that was a point Garnet made when you all formed that secret team.
On that note, what are you doing Garnet?" Jason asked. "We're all part of the same team. Isn't Steven feeling so strongly about this enough for anyone else to think maybe, just maybe, something is up? That Steven might have seen something?"
Steven spoke up. "I know I saw something."
"And I know you didn't!" Pearl denied.
"How would you know?" Jason questioned. "You can't know for a fact what Steven saw because he was the only one out there. Look, this is getting us nowhere, so I'm making a division. Anyone who believes there is even a chance Steven is right can stay. The rest, go home."
"But…" Pearl began.
"Let it go, Pearl." Garnet halted the pale gem. "Jason is right. Arguing is getting us nowhere, so let's go with his plan." She walked over to Steven's side. "If you want to return home, do so."
"Ugh, I can't believe this." Pearl crossed her arms. "Fine, let's hear the plan to catch this elusive thing Steven saw."
"Garnet and I will keep an eye on the Galaxy Warp." Jason stated. "If something comes from space, there's a chance they'll end up here. You, Steven, and Amethyst need to keep an eye on the warp at home. If nothing happens tonight, we'll discuss a game plan tomorrow."
Everyone agreed, even if some were a little more reluctant.
Night…
It was night time, and to Jason's knowledge, Steven, Pearl, and Amethyst should still be guarding the warp pad back home. Garnet and Jason sat at the Galaxy Warp, keeping an eye out.
"So Garnet, what made you change your mind?" Jason asked curiously.
"I realized you were right in more ways than one." Garnet replied. "The warp pads could very well not be ours alone to use. Additionally, we should have more faith in Steven since he is a Crystal Gem just as much as any of us."
At that moment, the warp pad was activated. Garnet and Jason got into defensive stances while hoping this was just their friends coming to check on them. To their dismay, about a dozen spherical glass spheres emerged. Each suspended on light green cylinders.
Rather than attack, they walked by the two Crystal Gems before moving to the Galaxy Warp. They started spraying some sort of viscous liquid on the pad. The warp pad activated again, letting out another dozen spheres which join the first dozen.
"What are they doing?" Jason asked.
"I don't know." Garnet admitted.
They approached the warp and saw the spheres were coating the pad itself. It was filling all the cracks, nooks, and crannies. The warp pad activated again, getting the pair's attention, only for the rest of Crystal Gems to emerge with a busted sphere.
"What are they doing to the Homeworld Warp!?" Pearl asked in surprise.
"We have no idea." Jason responded.
They started coming by in droves and completely ignored us in favor of the pad." Garnet explained.
"There's so many of them!" Amethyst exclaimed before the Homeworld Warp shined as good as new. "They fixed it!?"
"What does that mean?" Steven asked.
"I…don't know!" Pearl replied uncertainly.
Before they could contemplate anymore, the Homeworld Warp activated.
"Hide!" Jason loudly whispered.
He rolled behind a large column of stone while Garnet grabbed the others and jumped onto another tall column of rock nearby. She hung off it, with her gauntlet dug deep into the stone. The warp dissipated revealing the being who used it.
It was a tall, green gem. This gem looked around and tapped their foot on the pad while everyone peaked out at her. The gems light green digits were floating and formed a hexagonal screen. She used the last digit to start manipulating buttons and sliders.
"Log date 3 12. This is Peridot performing earth hub maintenance check." She stated.
"No doubt about it." Jason thought. "That's a gem…A Homeworld gem."
"Warp repair a success, and all 79 flask robonoids are accounted for, according to data readings." Peridot stated, causing Jason to look at the group as they held up the busted one. "Now to access the domestic warp." The gem stopped upon seeing Steven's Crying Breakfast Friends sticker. "This site may have been compromised."
She peeled the sticker off before walking back onto the Homeworld Warp. She then placed a green disc on the pad and warped before the device started to beep. That sent red flags through the soldier's mind. He ran from the cover, grabbed the disc, and threw it as hard as he could.
By the time it left his hand, the beeping was more rapid. Once it was over the water, there was an explosion. It wasn't a combustible explosive but something else. The soldier looked around at the robonoids, which were now just walking around.
"They're coming back!" Pearl was freaked out and fearful. "I can't do this! Not again!"
"We're dead! We are so dead!" Amethyst cried hysterically.
"They're really freaked out about this." Jason thought as he walked over.
"Was that another gem? Where did she come from? What was she trying to do?" Steven questioned.
"Yeah, what's going on? We could really use…" The soldier's question died out as the maroon gem walked up to the Homeworld Warp. "Garnet?"
"It doesn't matter." The maroon gem summoned her gauntlets and made them several times bigger before smashing them down on the Homeworld Warp, shattering it. "She's not coming back!"
Jason's eyes shifted to the robonoids just as Garnet's did. "Hold it!"
"Don't stop me, Jason." She declared.
"I can't let you do this Garnet." Jason walked over. "I can't let you destroy them."
"Why?" Pearl asked.
"Don't you see?" Jason questioned. "These things are robots. Devices and gizmos to be tinkered with. If I can take control of them, I can use them for who knows what."
"No." Garnet denied.
"I'm not asking for your permission." Jason glared. "Look, I'm not going to repair the warp pad, if that's what you're thinking, but this is modernized gem technology. With the enemies we're facing, we're going to need all the help we can get."
Garnet doesn't change her expression throughout his explanation. The others looked between them, worried this might be another Lapis situation. Jason moved to stand before the robonoids and made it clear he was not going to back down.
One Week Later…
The gems conceded to letting Jason keep the robonoids, with the catch being he wasn't allowed to take them back to the temple until he found a way to deactivate them or mask their signal. That's how he ended up staying at the Galaxy Warp for the past week with a sleeping bag.
Fortunately, Steven was more than willing to bring him meals. From what he could remember, the screen Peridot used had wavelength signals on it, meaning it could be a communication factor. That was the main basis of research into how to work them.
He also spent time analyzing their goo. Most of it was made of some sort of viscous liquid, so it can help latch onto stuff for the other thing it's made of to work. The other half was composed of thousands of microscopic nanobots that come together to do what they're told.
With seventy-eight active robonoids, it was a simple matter to dissect the seventy-ninth broken by Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl. That turned up little, so he grabbed an active one to hack. With no discernable ports, he worked through it with a small radio antenna and laptop.
Then, it all came down to writing up a program to search for any radio wavelengths that these things might be generating. If these guys followed Peridot using some sort of wireless signal, he could find it, hijack it, and maybe give orders to them.
Galaxy Warp
"Alright, let's see what we got here." Jason muttered.
After activating the program, and searching for any sort of signal, the soldier was shocked at the sheer amount. None of them were of human origin, except his phone. As he investigated the, it began to make sense in a way. He knew it was his moms' gift at work.
Further investigation revealed the signals were destination points for the warp pads. He saw the one labeled 'Homeworld Warp' but it was grayed out. That was plain to see as it had been destroyed by Garnet. He eventually found the two signals to isolate.
"Alright, my phone and the robonoids." Jason thought. "All I need now is connect them and take out all other sources. Then, I should have control over them rather than corralling them into the pens I have now." He smiled at the achievement. "Connection established."
"What connection?" Pearl asked.
"Hey guys." Jason turned to see the rest of the Crystal Gems, who'd arrived on the warp. "I managed to tap into the signal these robonoids use to take orders and connect it to my phone with a secondary connection to my laptop."
All the robots turned to said laptop.
"Nice work Jason." Pearl congratulated.
"Yeah dude." Amethyst patted his back.
Steven gave a thumbs up.
"Now that you did, I want you to…" Garnet began.
"Way ahead of you." Jason interrupted as he turned to his laptop. "Interesting. It seems when Peridot took off, she severed her connection to the robonoids right after. Most likely because she thought they would be destroyed when her EMP went off."
"Can you mask their signal?" Garnet asked with crossed arms.
"Let me see…" The soldier worked at it. "Here we go. I don't have to mask their signal." He smiled. "All I need to do it fake their deaths."
He changed all the robonoids' status' to destroyed before immediately hiding their status and having it display correctly for him. From now on, only his phone and laptop could pick up the signal. What's more, his phone took priority in their settings with the laptop being secondary.
Beyond that, he immediately implemented voice recognition, his voice, to take supreme precedence while password locking any functions connected to them on both devices. Couldn't be too careful, what with the human and gem enemies they had.
"Alright, everything's set." Jason informed. "No one else should be able to access these little guys or check their status since I code-locked them. I also changed them to being destroyed as well, so unless someone actively sees them walking around, they'll believe they're destroyed."
"Good." Garnet nodded and relaxed at the news. "I'm sorry if I've been a little…blunt with you about these little guys." She picked one of them off the ground, and it crawled to her shoulder. "We just can't take the chance of Homeworld finding out we're still here."
"I get it." Jason nodded. "I'm just thankful I got the chance to work on them."
"Thanks Jason." She replied with a nod.
"What can you do with these little guys?" Steven inquired.
"Well, let's see." Jason swung back to his computer. "I've got multiple, simple commands such as hold position, follow, deactivate, and activate. I can tell them to go to a specific position, attack, or fix a specific item."
"So, on top of being able to fix the warp pads, they can fix anything?" Pearl asked.
"In theory." Jason admitted. "The 'fix' command has a subfield. Currently, there is only one pre-set object that the robonoids could repair, and its warp pads. Provided I get all the data of something, these little guys could then fix it."
"Amazing." Pearl stated in awe at the idea. "I can't believe just how much gem technology has advanced." She picked up the one on Garnet's shoulder and examined it. "We never had anything like this before or during the war."
"That's right." Garnet agreed.
"Well, any form of technological advancement can occur if enough time passes." Jason commented. "By the way, the robonoids have facial recognition software, so I've taken the liberty of uploading pictures. This sets who to regard as allies or enemies."
"That was informative, but it's getting late." Garnet stated. "We should probably turn in. Come along Steven."
"Coming!" He called out before jogging over to them.
"Are you coming, Jason?" Pearl asked.
"You guys go on ahead." Jason stated. "There are still a few things I need to work out in their coding, so I'll just turn in here one more night."
"Alright then." Pearl nodded and walked to the others on the pad. "Don't stay up too late."
"Before we go Jason, you can bring them back to the temple whenever you're ready." Garnet informed.
Jason smiled at the news. "Thanks Garnet."
dindagangleader14: Ah yes, the debut of her.
Guest: Thank you.
