54Jasper… the bane of so much, the cause of so much pain, right there.
I can't help but let out a small growl of anger as I wish to rush her right then and there. But I reign in my anger and pull us all behind the cliff so we don't get spotted.
"Jasper!" Similarly, Amethyst is also angry at seeing Jasper before us but I take special precaution to keep her from rushing.
"What is she doing?" Peridot asks as he peeks out carefully.
"She's been collecting monsters."
"Didn't you say she took the gem monsters from the north? You know your mission with Connie?" I ask him quietly.
"That's right! And then those same monsters appeared at the beach and attacked us!"
"Shh!" I quickly cover his mouth with my free hand, my other hand holding my double-bladed swords against the rock we are hiding behind.
"Pipe down!" Jasper yells out, followed by her kick a growling Snow Monster gem in its cage, making the others gasp in shock but me crossly staring at her. "You take orders from me now! You used to be a Quartz too, didn't you? What happened to you?"
"Does she not know about the corruption?" I mutter quietly.
The Snow Monster simply growls back and slams against the metal bars in fury. "Tch. Disgraceful. I can't believe I've resorted to recruiting you freaks!" She scoffs in anger. "You're almost as bad as that Crystal runt. Just look at you. This planet ruins everything! Well, haha, except for me." She boasts and I can hazard a pretty accurate guess as to which Crystal gem she's talking about. I glance out the side to see Amethyst staring angrily at Jasper. I lay my sword against the rock and pull up my gauntlet.
"We should contact reinforcements. Tell the others what we found." Peridot proposes, already pulling up comms on her gauntlets.
"Way ahead of you." I reply and start trying to get a signal. I grimace as communications are cut off. "I'm blocked."
"Me too. Could be this canyon we're in." She comments as she looks around at the large rocks walls surrounding us.
"Maybe the metal on the walls too. Pretty sure I saw a sandstorm in the distance too." All that coupled together and our regular means of communication are not able to get us a link. While our gear is state of the art compared to human standards, the elements and the geography are something we really have no control over.
"We should get out of here then, go through the warp pad and come back with the others." Peridot and I nod in agreement at Steven's plan. "C'mon Amethyst."
"…"
"Amethyst?" When Steven calls her name out in confusion, we all look to see our purple gem friend is gone.
"Amethyst you—!" I have to shut my mouth harshly in anger before I scream for her while Steven and Peridot silently scream in horror.
"Amethyst!" Steven calls out for her again, quietly but still with a little bit of volume. We look around frantically trying to find her, only to find her in the worst position we can think of.
"She is making it really hard for me to keep liking her." I grumble as I watch her edge herself along a ledge above Jasper herself.
Meanwhile Jasper is still taunting the monster locked away. "I'll never let this planet twist me like it twisted you. Your weakness embarrasses Homeworld. You suffer because it's what you deserve!" I mentally groan at the sheer absurdity and callousness she is exhibiting. From everything mentioned about the corruption, this isn't exactly something they can literally help. "We all only get what we deserve. Right, Amethyst?!" We gasp as Amethyst has been made, which is obvious because when she gasps, she slips off the ledge.
"Agh!" And lands hard on the ground behind Jasper.
"Great." I groan and grab my sword. My pistols don't have the firepower to take her down so its going to have to be melee fight to take her down.
"What do you want, runt? You here for a rematch?"
"I'm here to win!" She calls out in determination as she gets up.
I'm about ready to go out but Steven grabs my arm. "Wait here." He whispers and runs out.
"You were fated to lose, the moment you came out wrong!" Jasper insults her.
"That's not true!" Steven calls out as he runs up to Amethyst's side.
"Rose. Of course." Jasper mutters in disgust. "Your lackeys never stray far. And why would they? They have no place in this, or any world!" She yells.
"What do you mean?!" Steven asks confused and I'm curious by what she means too.
"Every Gem is made for a purpose: to serve the order of the Diamonds. Those who cannot fit inside this order must be purged!" She goes off on some brainwashed sermon, making me look at her in disgust as I glance to Peridot, show shakes her head at the speech. "To come out misshapen, to reshape yourself outside your purpose, and to defend this ruined worthless planet, is a disgrace!" She shouts out triumphantly.
"This planet isn't all bad!" Peridot can't help herself as she timidly states, much to my surprise as I continue to stay hunkered down behind the rock, as does Peridot when she realizes what she did and hides again but the damage is done.
"What are you doing here?" Jasper asks out loud to the green gem.
"I'M A CRYSTAL GEM NOW!" She shouts out confidently before ducking back. I have to admit, I'm happy to hear her say that. Despite everything, I'm pretty sure this is the first time she's met Jasper after crashing onto the planet and so on. Jasper doesn't like hearing this as she summons her crash helmet. I'm about ready to jump out as Steven summons his shield.
"I'm not afraid of you! I've got metal powers! I'll show you!" This time Peridot jumps out and tries to use her metal powers to yank out a piece of metal on the ground in order to use it as a weapon, and demonstrate her new powers. Of course, it doesn't go as she planned because she doesn't have near as much control over her powers because she can only just barely move the metal, not actually lift the heavy piece of metal.
We all watch her embarrassingly struggle to lift the piece. "Aw, jeez." Amethyst groans at the poor display.
"In a moment!" Peridot tries to keep going but its futile.
"Anyone else got somethin' to say?"
As she says that, I let out a sigh and push myself up. "Yeah!" I shout and walk out from behind the rock. Just like that, her calm confident demeanor melts away as it transforms into anger as she sees me.
"Jade…I should have known you wouldn't be more than ten feet from Rose. Always following her around like a loyal dog. Pathetic."
"Gotta come up with more insults Jasper." I comment as I step off the ledge, landing roughly with my knees bent on the sand before standing up and walking towards Steven and Amethyst. "Your getting stale."
She growls at that and moves herself into a combat ready stance. "Oh I'm going to enjoy beating you once and for all."
"NO!" Amethyst suddenly shouts, much to everyone's surprise as she stares angrily at Jasper. "Your fighting me! Not him! Not them!" She shouts the last part as she pushes Steven back and away from her. "All of you stay out of this! This is my fight!" She yells and lashes her flails into the sand to her sides, kicking up a large dust cloud but it quickly dissipates.
The rest of us make no move to help her. If she wants to fight on her own, that's fine. We'll be ready in case things go wrong.
Jasper sees this and lets out a frustrated groan before letting out a low chuckle. "Okay fine runt! If you wanna get beaten so badly, then I'll oblidge." She then gets a sadistic grin as she stares directly at me. "But if you think I'm not going to accommodate the rest of you, then you've got another thing coming."
Immediately I don't like the way she says that, and its proven true as soon as she finishes saying that she turns around and slams her helmet into the rock wall. Almost instantly cracks in the wall begin forming, avoiding the part of the wall that the snow monster is a part of but traveling elsewhere. It takes me a second to realize exactly what's going on.
She's freeing her army.
"Oh my god." I mutter in horror. Steven and Peridot also notice it as well, Amethyst just simply ignores the implication and focuses on the Quartz in front of her, gripping her flails tightly in preparation.
Meanwhile I watch as the spiderweb cracking on the walls continues all over the wall, connecting into the various makeshift prisons she had setup. As soon as they connect to the bars she made, the monsters within begin slamming into the bars, further cracking the already weakened wall, slowly breaking themselves free.
"Oh no." Steven mutters, scared at the sheer number of enemies we are just about to face.
"Commander, what do we do?" Even though she asks me in my rank, I can tell she's worried as she holds her revolver in on hand and activates the blaster function on her gauntlet in the other.
I try to come up with a plan, my mind racing as try to analyze the situation and the best course of action for us to do. With each passing second more and more of them are busting down their bars and about ready to break out and charge us. I look at Jasper, then Amethyst, then the monsters, before looking at Peridot, then finally landing on Steven.
A plan forms. It's not the best but I'm running out of time. "Steven," My brother perks up as he looks at me as I whisper to him. "Find a corner in the wall and hunker down. Use your shield to cover yourself. Watch Amethyst and be ready to help her when she needs it. You and I both know she's going to need it." He looks down at what I mean but gives a firm nod and runs to the wall, finding a corner to hide in and make himself less of a target. Amethyst is running on anger and vengeance right now. Jasper is too strong for her and will most likely need help to deal with her, as much as she wants to boast about being able to fight her alone. "Peridot," She looks at me as hold my sword in one-hand, lifting it up and preparing myself. "We need to keep their attention away from the others. It's going to take everything they have in order to fight Jasper so we can't afford for them to be interrupted by these things."
"How do we do that?" She asks as one monster roars one final time and charges its cage.
"By making them angry."
Just as I say that, some all red lion-like monster busts down it's bars, roaring as it does. That's signal as Amethyst launches her quick attack at Jasper, surprising her and getting the first hit in. Meanwhile I grab the middle of my double-bladed swords and throw it like a javelin spear directly at the monster. It barely makes two steps before it my makeshift spear runs through tis body, destroying it and poofing it in a second. As more and more monster break out, I grab my pistols and get ready to fight.
Several monsters bust out of their cells and lets out roars before charging the various people in the area. Immediately I open fire, sending several rounds at the multiple monsters. Some of them who were going after Steven, Jasper and Amethyst immediately turn their attention on us when I hit them a couple times. My bullets don't have the penetrating power to destroy their forms but its enough to piss them off.
"Peridot! Get ready!"
"Roger!" She replies and pulls her weapons. Once they get closer, we attack.
Peridot flies up using her boosters as a couple monsters try to catch her. Her revolver has more penetrating power than my pistols so if she aims in the right spots she's able to take them down, namely the face area. Her blaster is still similar to when she had her original limb enhancers so while it can't do a lot of penetrating damage, they can do a lot of electrical damage and shock the monsters into submission. One monster she blasts in the face, hitting into its roaring mouth and poofing it, while shocking the other monster and forcing it to convulse from the electrical shock.
I holster my pistols and duck under a leaping monster. As it flies over me, my swords form in my hands, cutting deep into the soft underbelly of the monster and breaking its form. I throw myself forward and out of the smoke cloud and roll before bringing my swords up in a cross, stopping another from stabbing me with its claws. Scissoring my swords, I cut off its arm, or leg, whatever it had claws on, eliciting a scream from it before I stab my right sword forward into its head, silencing it and making it disappear.
I jump back as another tries to rip me asunder with a claw attack from my side but I manage to dodge it. When it comes to bring its blade like claws on me, I block with one sword and stab it with the other at the same time. When its gem falls to the ground, another monster comes barreling towards me, roaring as it does. I look down and notice a couple gems lying on the ground. I side kick one and send it sailing through the air before it plonks the monster right in the face, making it flinch as it continues to run up on me. One simple sword swipe and it moves past me, crumpling to the ground before coming to a stop and poofing. When another one charges at me, as soon as it roars, I kick the second gem. This time, it goes flying right into its mouth. It stops as it cough harshly to dislodge the foreign object, until I flash forward in an instant, my sword aimed forward and stabbing it right between the eyes. It's still for a second before it poofs into dust, both gems landing on the sand safely.
I sigh and step out of the cloud and look around. Steven is close by and ready to help Amethyst, when she needs it, which she does from the lack of injuries on Jasper and the tired state Amethyst is in. As I look at Peridot, "Take this!" She shouts as she shocks one monster, making it roar in pain as its stunned before she places her gun right to its face and pulls the trigger, destroying its form. As another monster charges at her from the side, she curses and boosts herself away but her foot catches onto a rock. She yelps as she falls backward onto the sand, grunting as she does. When she opens her eyes does the monster slam both its arms onto either side of her and roaring right in her face. I'm about ready to intervene until she brings on her legs up and presses it right to its face, activating the booster as she does. Searing hot burns appear on its face as she goes full blast, making it yell as it grabs its face. She follows up by sending both her feet this time slamming right into its hands covered face, forcing it to recoil back and away from her. She grunts as she pulls her revolver up and fires once, ending its form.
She breathes heavily from the exertion so far. "Peridot!" I shout at her, making her look at me. "You good?!"
"Affirmative, commander!" She replies as she flips open the cylinder of her revolver, emptying it of its cases before using a speed loader to add new rounds in.
A cry of pain can be heard, forcing me to whip my head around to see Amethyst go flying back and landing roughly on the ground with a groan.
"Amethyst!" Steven cries out as Jasper begins walking towards her.
"You never had a chance." She continues to put down the purple gem as he stalks up to her. I'm about ready to charge until I notice Peridot having trouble dodging some monsters and is about to get overrun, especially when I see more monsters about ready to break out. Grunting in frustration, I look around for anything to help Steven and Amethyst quickly. "Steven!" I shout at my brother, making him turn to me. I point upwards with my sword towards a part of the rock wall above the two fighters. He looks up to see the large injector precariously hanging on the wall. He smirks and tosses his shield at the machine. It hits one of the legs, knocking it off and loosening the machine from the cliff.
"Heads up!"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
Both Jasper and Amethyst mutter in confusion before looking up, just barely giving them the chance to jump out of the way, allowing the fallen injector to crash land right where they were. I smile at Steven's action and helping Amethyst.
"Marcus!"
I swivel around at Peridot's call out. A monster is right behind me, bringing its claw right onto me. My left sword comes up and I barely manage to block the strike but my sword is thrown from my hand. I lean back from another strike but as its reeling back for another slash, my left fist comes up into a powered strike and smacks hard into its face. It lets out a cough and groan from the hit before I quickly silence it with my right sword. When it poofs into dust, I heard the grunting sound of Peridot amidst the smoke.
"Perido- Oof!" Just as I call out to her to ask her if she's alright, a green blur comes flying out and slams into my chest. I instinctively wrap my arms around it and hold on tight as I go sliding back several feet. Taking a second to regain the breath in my lungs, I look down to see an equally more dazed Peridot on me. "Peridot, you okay?"
"Arhhh… buah… yeah I'm good commander." She mutters after she shakes her head from the hit.
I smile at seeing her no worse for wear. We both look up and grimace to see several more monsters already slowly stalking up to us, crouched down, claws, paws and fangs beared and ready for a reason to pounce on us. Subtly we both get ready to pull up our weapons… until we hear the sound of a small explosion going off. We turn to see a familiar cloud having appeared somewhere in front of Jasper, right where Steven and Amethyst would be.
My eyes widen and worry begins to overtake me at the implication as I stand up, still holding Peridot as I do.
Our worried looks turn to confusion and shock as we see a new figure standing in the smoke, one that looks familiar, but also not.
"What the—?" I mutter.
"What… a beautiful day!" The new person shouts in joy, three arms going up in a stretch, her big black and purple form examining herself. Already I can see an orange shirt on her, and some familiar pants as well.
"They… no way." I mutter in disbelief.
"Huh? Who are you supposed to be?!" Jasper asks in anger. While I hate her, I kind of want to know as well.
"Oh yeah, who am I now? I feel like Amethyst knows this." She mutters to herself.
"They fused?" Peridot mutters confused. I look down, and she looks up, as we stare at each other. "But… I don't… I thought you needed to dance to fuse?!" She shouts in surprise.
I'm about to say differently, until my thoughts return to the day Pearl and I fused. "Huh… no, you don't."
"Marcus!" Peridot suddenly shouts. I was so surprised by this change of events that I didn't notice one of the monsters jumped into the air and is heading right for us, four long bladed claws poised and ready to rend themselves through the both of us with ease. Without thinking, I wrap my arms tightly around Peridot as she latches onto me, pivoting around on the balls of my feet until my back is to the monster. I ready myself for the oncoming pain as everything turns into a familiar white flash.
"I think a Rose Quartz, and an Amethyst… make a…" The new fusion gem in front of Jasper mutters in curiosity, trying to figure out who she is as she summons Steven's shield and throws it up in the air. Next she summons Amethyst's whip, jumps into the air and grabs the shield with her whip, combining the two weapons into a yo-yo like weapon. "…Smoky Quartz." She states her name with a smile.
Jasper stares angrily at the new fusion gem.
Before they can do anything, a smaller explosion can be heard with roaring nearby. Both of them turn to see one of the corrupted monsters flying through the air towards a dust cloud. Just as it passes into it though, it sails straight through and slides on the sand on the other side. It looks confused for a second before turning around and roaring one more time.
*Shink*
Marcus's single sword comes flying out and stabs into the monster. However it doesn't stop there and actually is thrown with such force that it actually runs itself through the monster. It flinches from the stab but that's enough for its form to be destroyed. The sword sails through the air and heads straight for the rock wall… until it stops. Jasper and Smoky stare at the sword in confusion as it seems to float in mid-air until it suddenly flies back to where it came from. Their eyes were so focused on the sword they didn't notice the pale green hand extending from the dust cloud. The sword lands right into the outstretched hand of the person in the cloud.
"Wow, that was close."
A new feminine voice says. She twirls the sword around before slicing through the air with one swipe, dispelling the cloud around her, revealing herself to everyone around.
A pale green lady stands there, a few inches shorter than Smoky. Her hair consists of a darkish lime-green hue done up in a rounded out triangle shape. Green eyes try to blink away the confusion in her as she examines the rest of herself. The black and green V-shape of Peridots chest can be seen on the new gems chest along with the holster for Peridot's revolver, with Marcus's black jacket worn over it, having shifted to accommodate the new gems form as well as parted on the shoulders to reveal the two Jade gems she has. Along her arms are the different gauntlet devices that both Marcus and Peridot had worn and used repeatedly. Black pants are worn next, stopping just short of her shins and revealing the green leggings underneath, ending in Marcus's dark green combat boots with Peridot's boosters wrapped around them.
She shakes her head a couple times, dispelling any dizziness she had before taking a look at one of her outstretched arms, then the other, before sticking her legs out one at a time and taking an affirmative shrug. "… Okay… this happened. Wasn't expecting this." She mutters.
"Whoa! Holy cow! You fused! That's amazing!" Smoky bounds up to the new gem, her weapon curled up behind her, startling the new gem for a second at the extreme closeness of her.
"Arhhhh!" They both turn as Jasper stomps once furiously in anger and glares angrily at the new situation. "Is fusion the only trick you Crystal Gems know?!"
Both fusions look at one another before turning back to Jasper, Smoky smirking and chuckling as she does.
"Well, its not the only trick, but we've got plenty of tricks in our arsenal. Right?" She pats the green fusions back, almost toppling the poor girl to the ground at the strength of the hit.
"Graaah! Who are you supposed to be anyway?!" Jasper angrily demands, pointing at the green fusion.
A look of confusion falls on her as takes a moment to think. "Who am I?" She mutters under her breath. She looks at Marcus's sword curiously before letting it go, allowing it to float in front of her as it twirls around this way and that. "Huh, I've got the skills of Marcus, the focus and adaptability of his mothers gem, yet…" She summons his other sword in mid-air, raising her other hand and moving her fingers around, spinning that sword as well before crossing the two into an X in front of her. "I have the cunning and expertise of Peridot. Together… I'm not sure who I am, but…" She gets a large in on her face as she thrusts her arms outwards, sending the two swords out and stabbing into two more corrupted monsters that were stalking up to them. She smiles at the takedowns but frowns as the previous monsters they defeated begin the reform, getting back into the fight and ready for another fight against they opponents. "I think you can call me…" With a determined grin, her arms outstretch towards the rock walls all around them where the makeshift cells were made for the monsters. Her fingers tremble as they curl in, like she's straining with something. It's revealed what she's straining with as several metal bars that were still stuck in the rocks break out and fly towards her, before stopping in mid-air all around her. Her eyes close as she concentrates, bringing her hands closer in front of her as she looks like she's straining to hold something in front of her. Further looking can see that the metal bars are shrinking, morphing and shifting into new shapes, eight in total around her. When she's finally done, the metal bars have been changed to look like replica's of Marcus's swords.
Her eyes shoot open, her grin back as she swings her arms around in front of her, manipulating the newly made weapons around her like a fan of deadly blades before poising them in the air behind her, making all ten weapons into an arch of blades behind her. "Call me… Olivine… or Olivia, either or." She giggles as she lets her arms fall but the weapons stay floating behind her.
"So… cool." Smoky has literal stars in her eyes as she gazes and gushes at the new gem. Jasper lets out a growl of frustration at this. "So," Smoky begins to say as she steps up to the gem again. "Who do you wanna take on first? Her?" She points her thumb towards Jasper, who spawns in her crash helmet and gets ready to charge. "Or them?" She then points to all the dozens of monsters about ready to pounce as well.
"Ahhh, we got them. You take care of grumpy pants over there." She lazily gestures to the orange gem, causing her to scream in anger and charge them.
"Cool beans. Oh hey! Have you ever seen the move 'sink the dink'?" She asks in fauz curiosity, right before her yo-yo flies out behind her and smacks into Jasper, sending her flying backwards.
"No… but now I did." She share a laugh at that before they turn their backs to each other and poise themselves. "Good luck." Olivia tells her as she squares her feet.
"Back at you." Smoky gets a determined look about as they both jump away from each other, creating a mini divot in the sand and ground as they both engage their opponents.
Olivia brings her blades as she flies through the air, Peridot's boosters activating and allowing her to better control her trajectory and descent. A monster jumps through the air, intent to catch her in mid-air but with a wave of her arms, her fan of swords slices out from behind her and cuts the monster cleanly in half, blowing up in a puff of smoke. She lands on the ground, creating a small crater as she hits the ground. Two more monsters charge her but she doesn't move, instead flexing her fingers in a specific way. Right as they are about the land their hits, her blades strike down from behind her, having hid in the cloud and lagged behind before hitting the monsters intent to hurt her. With another wave of her arms, they pull themselves out of the ground and resume their place floating behind her. She smiles as she holds out her hand, the monsters gem she took down in the air landing in her palm. "Perfect." She bubbles the gem and sends it off.
*ROOOAA—*
*SHING*
Another charges but is easily dispatched with a flick of her wrist. She grabs the monsters gem and bubbles that one before sending it away. She steps up to the other two gems from the others she took down and bubbles them away. From there it's a simple step dance for her, when more of the monsters move to destroy her, she simply flicks her arms, hands and fingers as they move, destroying their forms and allowing her to grab their gems before sending them away. Those that get too close she simply ducks, pivots, pirouettes and jumps over their attacks before sending more of her blades into them. She flows between them all, taking down dozens of monsters until theirs a lull in the fight. A quick glance to the others shows Smoky having Jasper on the ropes but she sees that the rest of the monsters which are simply half a dozen left free while many more are still trapped. They actually seem to be scared, slowly walking back and ready to make a break for it. "Oh, we can't have that now can we?" With a smile, she pulls out Peridot's revolver and aims at one of them. It notices the intent and turns around to run.
*BANG*
The gunshot rings out, sending the bullet flying out and impacts the monster, destroying its form.
But she's not done yet. Her free hand comes up and with a grunt of concentration using her metal powers, she catches the bullet in flight, not stopping it but instead changing its direction. A streak can be seen as she swings her arm wide, sending the bullet careening towards another running monster, destroying its form before going for another target, then another, and another, until all of them have been dealt with. Once the final freed monster has been dealt with, she sends the bullet straight into the ground, impacting harmlessly and without anymore chance of hurting anyone.
She looks around at the destruction all around her and lets out a sigh. "Phew, that was something." She figuratively wipes her brow with a smile on her face.
"Olly watch out!" A shout can be heard. Hearing the familiar voice, on instinct Olivia jumps backwards, narrowly avoiding a spinning Jasper as she does her spin-dash attack and just narrowly misses the fusion, sending the orange gem careening into the rock wall. Olivia deftly lands back on her own two feet and stares at the impact zone where Jasper hit. She looks around for Smoky, only to see her slowly lowering herself down right next to her, having just before used her yo-yo to hang on a rock jutting out of the wall to avoid Jasper and call out the warning. She gives the green fusion a smile and happy to see she was able to avoid the hit.
"Olly?" Olivia deadpan asks.
"It just came out." Smoky shrugs nonchalantly.
"Mmm." She hums and squints her accusing eyes at Smoky before turning away.
Cracking can be heard. They both look towards the front again and watch as the impact site where Jasper hit is starting to form cracks along the wall, a lot more than before and almost every makeshift cell is compromised. Several are still intact but more than a few are already busting out and running, having seen the fight beforehand and how one-sided the fight was for the corrupted monsters and the green fusion. "No!" Jasper cries out once she's done spinning, looking on in shock as all her hard work is crumbling before her eyes. "My army!" One particular monster that she caught however is not a corrupted monster. In fact, its another one of the fused gem mutants. It drops down and stumbles a little onto its knees and multiple hands.
They stares at the mutant for a second until they notice that Jasper is making a beeline for the corrupted snow monster still trying to bite its way out of its cell.
"Hey, check this out." Smoky boasts to her friend before sending her yo-yo out, making it catch onto a large tall rock formation and swinging it around, slamming into Jasper a couple times, making her stumble. Smoky jumps away from her fellow fusion, heading to Jasper again and hitting her some more before missing her last hit as Jasper dives away.
"Aw, leaving so soon?" Smoky moans in her handstand. Olivia jumps forward and lands next to her friend, now finding things more tense and worrisome as the gem mutant gets up, seeming to fixate on the green fusion as Jasper grasps the bars on the cell.
"I… will not be beaten by more fusions!" She declares and grabs onto the monster.
At first theirs nothing, until they see the familiar glowing effect appearing over the two of them.
"What the…?" Smoky mutters in confusion at what she's seeing.
"Nooo…" Olivia is mostly in disbelief the lengths Jasper is going for in order to try to beat them.
By the time the fusion is done, Jasper has now turned into a bigger six-legged zebra-like Jasper and laughs as she examines her new form. She slowly begins stalking towards them. As she does, the gem mutant lets out a roar of anger and stalks towards them too.
Olivia and Smoky both look warily at the two opponents before glancing at one another. "Okay, I'll take care of cranky." Smoky volunteers to take on Jasper.
"Right, besides I'm pretty sure that gems angry at one of us specifically." Olivia nods and takes some steps away from Smoky, to allow the both of them space to fight their opponents. Smoky pulls out her yo-yo while Olivia sends her blades forward. The gem mutant lets out a guttural growl as it charges angrily at her, using its multiple arms to bat away the blades just before they hit. Olivia curses and pulls up her revolver, firing her last five shots at the mutant. The mutant brings its arms up as a shield in front of it, protecting the majority of it as the rounds impact it, injuring it from the impacts of the bullets but is still angry enough that it doesn't care and continues running. "Crud." She mutters just as the monster has made it to her, arms pulled up and ready to crush her.
She jukes to the right, dodging the crushing attack as she slides on the ground. Another arm comes flying towards her and she jumps up over the swinging appendage. As she does, she goes for a mid-air roundhouse kick to what can be assumed is its head. The mutant grunts from the impact but Olivia is ready to move still as it goes to hit her again. Using her boosters, she executes a nasty backflip kick right to the underside of its head and sends it flying into the air. While its momentarily airborne, she uses her metal powers and pulls back her blades before sending them into the air. The mutant is unable to do anything as several of Olivia's blades stab into various parts of its bodies. The mutant doesn't immediately break apart though, instead screaming in anger as its arms try to tear out the blades. Olivia grimaces and throws her arms to the sides, tearing the mutant's body asunder.
The same cloud appears as its form is destroyed. Olivia lets out a breath of air and extends her hand, grabbing the gem as it falls to the ground. She stares at the mix matched gem for a second before sending it away.
She doesn't have long to contemplate anything else as a large gust of wind hits her, making her look towards the other gems fighting. To her bewilderment, she watches as Smoky is using three of her yo-yo's this time and seems to be spinning them around at breakneck speed, creating a small tornado of air mixed with dust, dirt and sand with the Quartz fusion spinning in the middle of it.
The Zebra Jasper begins to unfuse in the middle of the tornado The Snow Monster tries to escape, but Jasper herself tries desperately to hold her back together.
"We could beat them! If we stay together!" Jasper tries to reason. It seems to work for only a second as they begin to fuse again, but it fails as the tornado dissipates, making the two start to falling towards the ground, both fusions watch as Olivia walks up to Smoky, who is sitting on a broken Injector and watches the two fall.
"Rreeeeeeeow… Kapow!" Smoky makes the noises of them falling and hitting the ground before throwing her arms wide in exaggeration. "Great job Smoky, oh, thank you, thank you Smoky." Olivia gives a deadpan look at the three armed fusion as she shakes her own hands in a congratulatory way. Olivia shakes her head with a tired smile.
Back with Jasper, the Snow Monster jumps up onto its feet and bounds away, revealing a groaning Jasper it landed. Olivia is about ready to try to attack the monster but shakes her head at how tired and weak she's starting to feel, and not wanting to bother as she sees Jasper.
"Nobody I fuse with… ever wants to stay." She mutters almost sadly, right before she begins to laugh hysterically. While Smoky is busy doing her little victory dance, Olivia is staring at Jasper warily, not wanting to let her guard down at the now seemingly unstable gem.
Things take a turn for the worse as Jasper seems to grunt and growl in pain. Olivia's eyes widen as Jaspers left forearm seems to change, taking on a teal green color and growing spikes too.
"No…no no no no… Smoky."
"Thank you Smoky!"
"Smoky!" Olivia crossly replies her fellow fusions name before giving her a Charlie horse on her leg with a swift punch.
"OW! What?!" She asks annoyed and angrily. Olivia points forward, stunned at the transformation she's seeing. When Smoky looks, now she sees it in fear.
"It's…"
"The corruption…" Smoky begins to say before Olivia finishes, a slight tremble in her voice. "It spread to her… it…"
Suddenly their concentration and comradery loses focus. They both begin to glow and shift, until both of them become unfused.
I let out a deep breath as I fall to one knee.
I groan a little at the experience and shake my head to get my bearings. When I do though, I watch in worry as Steven gets up to go to Jasper. Amethyst holds him back but I shadow step forward in front of him, ready to stop him from going any further still. "Hold it."
"Steven, be careful." Amethyst warns him.
"But this just happened. Maybe I can do something!" I look down at Steven incredulously, not really believing the fact that he's still asking to save her. "Jasper, it's okay. I'm here."
"Rose…" In lots of pain and anger she growls out the name as she attempts to suppress the corruption and glare at Steven. I widen my stance as Steven edges closer, ready to move at the barest hint of movement from her.
"I'm not Rose, I'm Steven, I just wanna try and heal you." He tries to placate to her. He licks his palm with his healing saliva and moves to touch her arm. It takes the barest split of a second before her angered face turns to fury and her arm comes up.
My afterimage appears behind me as he move forward and grab Steven, pulling him back just as Jaspers new claws cut my shirt instead. "Steven!" Amethyst cries out shocked at the attack on Steven. He looks stunned as we both stare at the tear on my shirt and the slightest cut on me but not bleeding. I let out a menacing growl at the Quartz and form my swords, along with Amethyst pulling out her whip and Peridot walking up, reloading her gun as she does and aiming it at Jasper. We both share a subtle look, and a firm nod with each other before focusing back on the soon-to-be corrupted gem.
"Stop!" Steven steps in front of us, arms stretched out as he moves to keep us from charging the gem we all hate. We grimace at the stop but soon look on in confusion as someone is chuckling, more specifically, Jasper.
"I see how you do it now, Rose. You want Gems after they're worthless, you wait until after they've lost. Because when you're at the bottom, you'll follow anyone. That makes you feel like… less of a failure." She looks up and gets a sadistic grin as she stares at Peridot.
"Hah! Just look at this one! You've stripped her of almost everything! Her limb enhancers, her status, her dignity."
"I still have those things." She answers in a hard tone, finger on the trigger but not backing down from the put down by Jasper.
"How can you side with Rose Quartz?! Why? Why protect this useless shell of a planet? How could you possibly have all those things still!"
Peridot purses her lips in annoyance as she speaks, "This planet is not a shell, there's so much life. Living here, that's what I'm doing! I'm living here, and so are the beings that live on this planet! I was just a Kindergarten engineer back on Homeworld, not in command of anything but my robonoids! Always taking orders from the Diamonds because they made me, taking orders from other gems… like you." She smirks as she says that last part, making Jasper growl at the reverse positions they are in, with Jasper on the ground and Peridot standing above her. "I was just another Peridot back on Homeworld but here…!" She looks up at me, her commander, in which I look down at her with a smile, which she returns, more enthusiasm and joy in her voice. "I'm in command now! I am now in a position to GIVE orders! To create new technology to my gems content. Stuff I never would have thought of back on Homeworld, nor they would have cared to even think about trying on Homeworld. Always doing the same thing over and over again. Conquer, expand, conquer, expand, it's the same thing we've been doing thousands of years and you can't deny Homeworld is getting desperate to get the resources to keep up with the current army." She points and accusatory finger at Jasper, who looks away in disgust. "Here though, I can take things slow, enjoy the little things, think before I act and plan before I do anything, and get help when I need it! He is the one who commands me!" She shouts as she points to me. "He is the one who has earned my respect! Not the Diamonds who won't lift a finger to help me!"
"Ha!" Jasper laughs loudly, a demented smile on her face as she seems to find what Peridot said comical. "Help you?! Why would the Diamonds even bother to send precious resources to help someone as insignificant as you?!"
"…" Peridot's anger dissipates, a look of sadness and sorrow now on her features as her arms drops, staring at Jasper. Steven and I look worriedly at her, worried that what Jasper said got to her. I'm about ready to end Jasper until Peridot gives a curious look to the left, then to the right as she examines our surroundings. "… Doesn't look like they want to help you either."
My eyes widen at her words. I have to keep from laughing and grinning like an idiot at the look on Jaspers face as shock can be seen written all over her. Oh how I wish I had a camera to capture the look on her face.
"I called them you know. Asked for assistance. Sorry again about that." She apologizes to us, which we nod back, remembering her deception when she snuck that communicator from the moon base. Told Yellow Diamond the situation and everything. Thing was… Yellow Diamond didn't want to send any backup, not for me, not for Lapis… and not for you." She states in an even tone, keeping her voice level to not antagonize Jasper, who by the way is shaking and digging deep gouges in the ground with her fingers. "You're not special Jasper. You're a powerful Jasper, maybe the most perfect Quartz Gem I've ever seen… but your not special to the Diamonds." She says in a sad tone, before she begins to smile. "Marcus, and Steven Universe, can see your special. They can see your potential. They saw mine and let me live here, they let me find myself on this planet, even helped me find out how I can control metal. Me! A regular Peridot compared to others." She smiles as she shakes her head and holsters her gun. "Don't you see, the point of being here is to be free, Earth… can set you free."
Not gonna lie… I almost feel like tearing up from that. While I'm not liking the idea of Jasper being on our side, I'm not going to step all over her speech right there. This is some growth right there compared to when I first met her, how cold, annoyed and calculating she was, to now the loud, boisterous and excited Gem she is now.
Even Steven smiles in joy at Peridot's revelation and what she says, however it doesn't do much for Jasper's corruption as it continues to worsen.
"Earth… is a prison. I got out because I'm better than this place." Jasper is still spouting her anger, even as the corruption continues to slowly take hold.
"It's getting worse." Steven mutters in slight worry.
"I only came back to finish you off!" She shouts at Steven.
"Try not to move!" He takes a step forward to help but I grab his shoulder to stop him. He looks to argue but Jasper starts yelling again.
"You can't manipulate me, Rose Quartz!" She points an accusatory finger at my brother. "Not like all of them!" She adds as she sweeps her arm to me and Peridot, making us growl in anger.
"I-I'm not manipulating, I'm trying to help!"
"Help…? Help?!" Jasper looks taken back by what he's saying but this only fuels her anger. My hands curl tighter on my swords in preparation, just in case. "I've been fighting from the second I broke free of the Earth's crust, because of what YOU did to my colony! Because of what YOU did to my planet! Because of what YOU did to my Diamond!" She is blistering angry right now before she glares at me. "Why are you helping her?! You were given to my Diamond! You were supposed to protect her! Why didn't you?! You were the best! You served the best!" No longer am I wary but now confused by what she's talking about.
"Wait, I was given to Yellow Diamond?" I can't help but ask.
The look on her face is one that will stick with me, the momentary confusion right before she drops the bomb about us.
"Wha-Ah…! No you traitor! YOUR DIAMOND! WHITE DIAMOND! You were supposed to protect MY DIAMOND! HER DIAMOND! PINK DIAMOND!" Her rage beyond anything I've ever seen as she screams at us. With her last conscious thought, she yells out who our Diamonds are:
Jade's Diamond, White Diamond.
Rose Quartz's Diamond, Pink Diamond.
Steven and I stay stunned looking at her as she finishes transforming. She doesn't have much more to say, just groaning and grunting in pain as she changes fully. Her body shifts and changes, bulging up and gaining mass to it as she turns into a true monstrosity with the same familiar spikes adorning her body as most corrupted monsters have. No longer do I recognize her as she grunts, her body now similar to that of the other Quartz's she had that were corrupted. She only takes a second before she zeroes in on us, and charges.
*SHING*
I'm not distracted for long, her roaring doing what was needed in order to snap me and the others out of it. My instincts kick in as she's just about to hit us, my swords swinging up and cutting through her body with ease. She freezes for just a second.
*Poomf*
The dust cloud appears and disappears as I slice my swords through the air again, dissipating it and revealing her gone, except her Gem. I sigh as I stare at her, the temptation to shatter her clear as day for me. I've done it plenty of times to other corrupted Gems in the past. Now would actually be for pleasure instead of as a sense of duty.
I don't do it though. Instead, I step back and let Amethyst move forward, who grabs Jaspers Gem and cradles it while on her knees.
"Come here, sis." She bubbles Jasper's gem and sends it away.
It takes a second for it to it all of us. Jasper has been bubbled. She's been corrupted, but most of all, she's been bubbled.
As Steven walks up to Amethyst and she leans against him in exhaustion, I let out a sigh myself and sit down. Not really bothering to find a comfortable spot to sit, just dropping in utter exhaustion. I lay on my back, staring up at the sky as I contemplate what just happened.
Steven and Amethyst fused.
Peridot and I fused.
A lot of the corrupted monsters and at least one gem mutant were bubbled and sent away.
Jasper is done. We beat her, she corrupted herself, and now she's bubbled.
I take the moment to close my eyes and just let the mental weight lift off, no longer searching, waiting, and wanting to capture her, now that she's already captured.
As I lay there, I don't notice the others lay down as well until they do lay down next to me.
"… So…" Steven mutters in wonder.
"… So…" Amethyst adds after, not sure what to say.
"We all fused." Peridot bluntly says, no malice in her voice but not exactly joy either.
"Yeah, we did. How was it you three?" Amethyst asks with a smirk.
"It was so cool!" Steven giddily states, his arms thrown upwards before slowly lowering them back down to his sides.
"Still crazy." I mutter with a soft chuckle.
"It was… weird. Really weird." We listen as Peridot recounts what she thinks of the ordeal. "I was there… but also not. Bah!" She lets out a scoff and crosses her arms. "Still prefer to keep me to myself to be honest."
"Same here." I nod in agreement.
"Still on that?" Amethyst mutters with a cheeky smirk as she sits up.
"Still prefer to keep all of me to myself thank you very much." I reply and push myself back to my feet. "Doesn't matter now. We did what we came here to do, plus more. Let's get back to the others and let them know the situation." I tell everyone. As much as everyone would want to just sit here and rest, I would prefer to get back home now rather than later and let them know about the freed corrupted gems. With various groans, they get back to their feet and we begin making our way out of this god-forsaken canyon. "And please don't mention mine and Peridot's fusion, especially to Lapis."
"Why?" Steven asks.
"Do I really need to specify why involving the topic of fusion and some of her closest friends and family?" I give a wide-arm sweep over me, Steven and Peridot. Instantly, everyone gets uncomfortable looks and nods quickly right after. "Didn't think so." We walk in silence as we make our way back to the warp pad and back home.
Now that we are walking on the familiar green hills, everyone's excitement over the situation starts to flow forth.
"When we get to the barn, I'm building a giant metal yo-yo! Amethyst, Steven, you'll have to catch and throw it for me." Peridot excitedly tells them, eliciting some chuckles from us. Apparently seeing the duo fuse and using a giant yo-yo as a weapon inspired her for some more meep-morps to make.
"Easy Peridot. Let's get back and rest up. That impromptu mission left me wiped." I let out a small yawn, just a little bit tired at how quickly everything went from a scouting mission to find this Kindergarten to a fight against so many enemies.
"Same here. I don't wanna do anything for like a month." Amethyst mutters in agreement with a small dreamy smile about her, loving the idea of crashing out as well.
"Uh…" As soon as we crest the hill leading to the barn though, things are… different than when we last left.
Namely, theirs the fact that Pearl and Garnet are here at the barn with Lapis, along with several other uninvited guests.
The Ruby squad from before is here, trapped in water bubbles erected by Lapis in mid-air
"Ugh…"
I feel a migraine coming on, matched by Amethysts irritation by this new development.
Whelp, I'm back, for what good I can say.
Sorry again folks for the very long overdue chapter, but in all honesty my writings of this story were diminishing slowly as I kept writing all my other stories so on and so on. Some of you may have seen my new My Hero Academia story and frankly, I needed that. Writing that new story, for so long and continuously really got my writing flow going again. I can't tell you how elated I was feeling at the sheer amount of content I was putting out compared to my usual update timeframe. I had gotten in MHA and the ideas for the story were hitting me left and right and at the down feeling I was getting when I was writing some of my other stories, I realized I needed something new. Something else to get me motivated to really get into my writing again.
Writing my new My Hero Academia story 'Their Guardian' was exactly the kick in the pants I needed. Now that I've realized for myself that I CAN write these words so quickly, I think it safe to say that writing prowess will be improved compared to how slow I was last year.
Patriota1993: Yes the story came back… for a short time. Sorry again for the long gap between chapters.
Light Seeker 001: That's something to think about, Marcus is doing what he can to protect Steven but in his efforts, he may have unintended consequences and effects for his family down the line that he never wanted to happen.
For the fusion, well I think this chapter will speak for itself.
For the MHA story, if you haven't already read it, I'm focusing on the anime but I am reading and adding bits of the manga here and there into it as I write it out.
Marbled Gold: Yeah, I liked their interaction too. I wanted to get their relationship dialogue down pat and I think I did pretty good considering, as well as the others reaction to Marcus and Lapis flirting with each other.
Thanks again for checking out my MHA story. Been a big help hearing the feedback.
NJred2000: I can't say for sure that that's something that won't happen, but its definitely something I really don't want Steven to have to do, to take a life and all for any reason. However ideas spring up as I write and time passes so I might surprise myself with it but so far I don't have much on that subject.
When I started writing this chapter again, I was debating on the idea of Marcus fusing again with anyone, and frankly the situation with Jasper, the monsters, and Peridot kind of melded together and gave me the idea of how to go about making their fusion, their look, the serious and calculating attitude, and their weapon. Since Peridot doesn't actually have a weapon herself she can form like other Gems, I decided to get a little… creative in how she can incorporate her metal powers in the fight and I think I did alright. I actually got a little bit of the idea from Penny from RWBY and how her swords float around her and all. Also sorry for not being more descriptive about the corrupted monsters but I really didn't want to waste any time coming up with who knows how many new monster designs when they are going to only appear for a few seconds. I hope your imaginations will be enough to formulate something.
Still, I hope I did alright at the sudden fusion. Some people mentioned how they wanted or were wondering when Marcus was going to fuse again and this situation seemed like the best moment for him and Peridot to get into the fusion game. Because of her serious ways most of the time, and the fact that she fused with someone she respects, and of course the situation with Lapis and all with fusing, its safe to say I think she would be alright with brushing this under the rug for now.
Not much more to say now, with this chapter done, I plan to give some more love to some of my other stories and so on. Sorry again for the long time since this story was updated but it was a refreshing and exhilarating feeling working on my MHA story. Check it out if you haven't already.
Take care everyone. Thank you all for your continued support. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish, have fun reading, but most of all, have a great day all of you.