1A/N: Hello guys and welcome to another installment of "The Defective Gems!" I know it's been a while since I have updated any of my stories but please bear with me. I'm starting college a little early to get a head start in my degree but it has been good so far. My little message on my profile still remains in effect because I don't know when I will be able to post any chapter for any of my current stories, or publish a new one, this co-written story included. However since my friend and I are writing this together (me being the editor), there are unedited versions of the future chapters on the app "Amino" or more specifically, "Gem Amino for Steven Universe." My friend posts the unedited chapters there under the name "SuperGogito" if you want to take a look at them before they end up here. That's all for now, enjoy the new chapter!
Chapter 2: The Intimidating Jasper
"Fighting is my life, it's where I fight my heart out, it's what I was made for!"
It has been thousands of years since the end of the gem war and both Pearl and Period have chosen to remain on earth and keep it safe from any harm while keeping their interactions with humans to a bare minimum. The two gems have learned a lot about this planet and are still learning something new. Pearl sets out on missions by herself or occasionally with Peridot to either contain monsters, retrieve artifacts, patrol the planet, or save humans. The duo have been doing these missions for thousands of years now and today was no different.
They actually had settled down at an abandoned house that was still in good condition, Peridot's run down ship landed not too far behind. They were in the middle of a huge countryside clearing, with a huge lake taking up most of it.
Today's mission was to head towards the woods in a nearby town where there has been corrupted gem activity lurking in the forest. "Alright! Today's mission should be a piece of cake, capture a corrupted gem before it disturbs any locals." Pearl said to herself as excited as she was. She was about to head to a warp pad but before she did she then quickly wanted to check in on Peridot who was always working on..something. "Hey Peri! I'm leaving for another mission but I'll be back, do you need anything?"
"No, not really just be careful out there Pearl, wouldn't want you to get poofed now would we?" Peridot says jokingly as he appeared to be working on his limb enhancements.
"Very funny Peri! I can handle myself out there after all…I can always count on my scythe!" Pearl replied saying.
She then summoned out her trusted weapon through her glowing gem located on her chest. From her gem came out a long staff with two diamonds located on the top and bottom of it, the top diamond on the staff then manifested to a long curved shaped blade capable of cutting almost anything down to size. With her weapon fully formed, Pearl swung it in the air a few times sounds of what seemed like the air itself was being sliced to demonstrate its potential.
"Hah! You see Peri, I was just trying to prove a point cause after all I am the leader of this team!" Pearl said to Peridot in a serious tone. Pearl headed out to the warp pad "Alright, I'm off," she said as she waved goodbye to her friend. The warp pad glowed and then zapped Pearl through a beam of light to her destination.
Finally a beam of light came from the sky and shot down Pearl to the other warp pad located on a hill. She then got her thoughts together and looked around to find a giant field and a town located towards the right along with the forest located on her left.
"Hmm... okay I'll just head towards the forest because that's where the signal came from originally. I have to be careful though, who knows what kind of corrupted gem it is, hope it's not too big." Pearl said to herself and made way to the woods alone. A few hours had passed and Pearl was in the woods searching for the corrupted monster.
"Where is that thing! I was sure it was around here somewhere!" Pearl yelled out in the woods as her cry echoed through each tree before sighing. "Well there is always a chance that it could have been a false alarm or the gem moved to a different location, I may as well head be-" Before she could finish her thought aloud, a ferocious wild wolf leaped out and pounced on Pearl slamming her to the ground. Pearl quickly summoned her weapon and blocked the wild beasts mouth from biting on to her face with the handle. Pearl noticed that the wolf was an abnormal sized with blue fur and a tear-shaped gemstone on its forehead.
The struggle was too much for Pearl as her strength was slowly weakening with each passing second. She cursed to herself for letting her guard down, but just before this corrupted gem could sink its sharp razor fangs into Pearl out of what seemed like nowhere a fairly tall orange woman who was dressed in leather armor bull rushed the corrupted gem away from Pearl and slammed it towards a tree. Pearl in shock got back up and saw that the corrupted gem was dazed to where she looked at the orange lady and yelled at her saying, "Hey! What do you think you're doing!? Get out of here! It's not safe for a human like you to stay here!" Pearl spoke in a panicked voice
The orange prepared-for-battle lady quickly looked over to Pearl and rudely replied back saying "Yeah right, I saw you let your guard down, just before you were attacked, I'll handle things from here."
Pearl with a very surprised face looked at the lady in shock, then, annoyance, and lastly anger as she exclaimed "Excuse me!? Why the nerve of you! Where are your manners!?"
Just then the corrupted gem regained its composure and set its sights on the newcomer. Then the mysterious woman ignored Pearl and looked over at the corrupted gem and summoned what looked like spiked wolverine like claws that appeared over both her arms
"She's not human at all!" Pearl realized.
The mysterious woman and the corrupted gem then charged at each other, weapons and wolf claws out respectively. Pearl saw the mysterious woman then jump high, too high for an average human and then landed right on the corrupted gem with a fierce drop kick on the corrupted gem's body. It collapsed on all fours as Pearl watched the stranger gave a brutal beat down towards the monster incapacitating it with blow, after blow, after blow. The stranger finally finished things as she stabbed it with her claws to finish off the creature causing it to poof, becoming just a blue tear-drop gemstone. She then looked a bit tense and was about to lift her foot to crush the gem but before she could Pearl grabbed her arm.
Pearl then said "That's enough! I have some questions about your choice of fighting and almost shattering that corrupted gem!" Pearl said in anger, before slightly calming down, "But first things first, I have to send this gem home."
"Home..?" The tall woman replied confusion plastered on her face.
"Just watch," Pearl said she let go of the stranger's arm and then carefully picked up the gem with both hands and formed a sky blue bubble around the gem. Pearl then moved her hand to the top of the bubble as it flew high up into the air and vanished.
Pearl then looked at the stranger and said, "Now with that done, who are you? What's your name? How are you able to do all that stuff? Because to summon a weapon out of thin air…"
The stranger replied saying "My name's Diana."
Pearl with a confused look on her face looked at Diana and said "Hold the phone, that can't be because that's just an earth name and frankly you don't look anything like a human! I mean you're super tall and your skin!" Pearl examined to the mysterious woman named Diana. Pearl narrowed her eyes at her mysterious companion before her eyes widened in realization, this woman was none other than a Jasper.
This particular Jasper was mainly orange skin with a few red stripes and slashes over her face, arms, and legs. Her physical appearance like other Jaspers is tall, thick, and mostly muscular, a true force of nature not to be reckoned with. Pearl then remembered that Jaspers come from a fierce warrior race of quartz gems, who fight on the front lines and live for battle ready for a long war ahead. This Jasper's hair was very big, long, and messy. Her hair color has a rather beige color, her eyes were yellow and had a vicious look to them, and her nose was simple and small. Pearl noticed something closer to the center of Diana's chest, it is hard to make out but her gem was there, an orange diamond-shaped jasper with red and orange clashing colors over it.
The gem itself however was mostly covered by her attire which looked rather rough and intimidating, she had shoulder pads over what appeared to be leather armor over the top half, she wore leather armored shorts that were worn down with scratches and tears on them, it was clear to Pearl that this 'Diana' had her fair share of battles of her own. She was bare foot with just some leather straps over the heels and towards her knee, she also wore what appeared to be sports tape wrapped all over her hands and wrists. Reality slowly sunk in for the blue Pearl and stared at this new predicament in which Diana became really annoyed at.
"Hmp! What's your deal are you just gonna stare all day or do you have something to say?!" Jasper said to Pearl in an irritated tone.
Pearl shook her head snapping out of her daze before, pointing directly at Diana/Jasper with shock clearly on her face and exclaimed, "YOU'RE A GEM?!"
A/N: Aaaaaaand, that's a wrap for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed this story so far, please leave review, follow, and/or favorite this story! I hope to see you next time!