The Beach House, at this point anyway, was completely barren for the moment when Garnet stepped in. For the moment, it was probably a good thing that it actually was. That just simply told her that Amethyst and Steven had been and gone to complete their task given to them already. For the fusion though, it was hard to grasp what had happened over the last few months, and how much of a nosedive they've got hit with. They now had this giant weapon to deal with to top off what they already been doing, AND with two of their own missing as well. Obviously, this was something big, and despite the fact that she had just hid this away from them one way or another, Garnet knew that she was the only one with some proper knowledge about what this weapon actually is.
Probably good she came alone for this.
Garnet kept her own anger to her in the back of her mind, as she walked over to the back of the room, to the Gem Temple door. Heading in, the fusion was soon within the Gem basement. After venturing into the Gem chamber, Garnet started to look around at the various bubbled Gems around her. While many of them were still bubbled up, one of the bubbles still had a full bodied Gem in it. She was huddled up, her knees up to her forehead.
"Peridot."
Peridot turned around fast, still stuck in Garnet's bubble. She couldn't move the bubble around, or exactly move the bubble in anyway.
"Is it my one hour in the yard, as humans call it?" Peridot asked. She did feel like she was basically being locked up. At least if she was bubbled, she won't remember exactly what was going on around her, and time would fly faster, but her just sitting in a dark room, floating amongst other corrupted Gems, did make her feel a bit worse. Rather than say right away, Garnet simply hopped up, and grabbed the bubble gently to bring Peridot down to ground level. To make sure Peridot could understand her more clearly, Garnet took off her shades so she could see her eye-to-eye. The expression in her eyes showed that a grudge was still there, but not as deadly as earlier when she first bubbled her.
"Peridot, listen to me carefully. None of us had forgiven you, not yet. However, you're the only one who actually knows more about the weapon."
"I've been told a bit about it, yeah."
"Good. Better tell us exactly what you know Peridot. Or would you rather stay in here?"
.......
"Since it appears I have no further options, I've decided that it would be best to share some vital information to you Crystal Gems," Peridot said. She may feel powerful for the moment, but Garnet made sure to keep the girl up on a child leash she found in the barn. Silly, but hey, it works for her, and it's leather rather than metal. All the other Gems out at the barn stood and listened, as Peridot began with her presentation. Star Quartz, the only one willing to help out, came in with a cardboard box, with a number of pictures on it which Peridot took the time to draw out. It was no screen, but it had to do. Peridot also had a fly swatter as her 'pointer' to present the matter at hand. The first picture on the box simply showed the Earth on it, as Peridot swatted at it with her fly swatter.
"this is the Earth. Deep within the confines of the Earth's core lies , the Cluster! Rotate," began Peridot. Well, at least they got a name for this Geo-Weapon they're dealing with. Star Quartz did as she was told, and simply turned the box around to showed what seemed to be some spiked, multi-colored ball now inside a circle.
"This is the Cluster: A gigantic artificial fusion consisting of millions of Gem shards! It has laid dormant for thousands of years within the Earth's crust. Once it activates and regains its form, the result will be catastrophic. Now!" Peridot then swatted at the box again, getting Star Quartz to put her hand within the box, do take something from within the box and shoot out from the box, 'destroying' the Earth, and getting the main idea across. Garnet shuttered on the idea of millions of Gem shards being forced to fuse together. But when Peridot saw the thing Star got in mind ...
"What is that?!"
The puppet was a simple green puppet, buttons for eyes, and fake teeth.
"The Cluster," Star simply responded. Annoyed, Peridot looked away, swatting at it with her fly swatter.
"It does not look like that. But it is deadly, and it can activate at any moment!" Peridot concluded. So far though, the information wasn't exactly helping them all out too much on what to do.
"Yeah, ok, but how about some information that can help stop the Cluster? All you did was repeat what YD said," Bismuth pointed out. Peridot, trying not to get into even more trouble than she already had gotten because of this, Peridot cleared her throat.
"During its incubation state, it is left very vulnerable to outside forces, so our best cause of action is ... IS!"
Star rotated the box one more time, and the picture showed ...
"DRILL IT! We make a drill down, and crack it at it's source!" Peridot concluded. Garnet took a bit to think on the subject as the others took the idea into their heads. However, the idea that Peridot was in power kinda got to her at this point.
"Now, if you all follow me, we can -"
"Not so fast," Garnet finished, pulling back on the leash, reminding Peridot on what position she was in. None of them were willing to have her go off THAT easily. Next thing Peridot knew, the leash was tied up to the nearby fence, basically keeping Peridot still.
"What'd I say?!" Peridot asked, trying to get the leather straps off, but to no avail. Guess the green Gem was stuck ...
"Alright, Gems. Let's get to work."
~~~~~~
Steven and Amethyst were already out of Beach City by this point, continuing on their big hunt down. It really didn't take too long until the usual landscape turned from city, to countryside, and eventually to the forest. Trees were tall, green with life of spring, and many birds with their chicks were singing happily in the trees. Steven had the list up in front, and was walking over in front as Amethyst casually followed behind him with her hands behind her head.
"OK, let's see now. The first one should be around here somewhere," Steven said, looking around.
"It better be. This trip's got nothing but boring all over it," Amethyst commented, looking around. It was a nice sort of walk, but they came to fight monsters, not sightseeing. Amethyst walked up closer to Steven to check out the first creature, which didn't look very crazy as some further down.
"Wait, I think I see something up ahead," Steven said, pointing forward. As they continued going along, they soon began to get to a clearing in the forest. Nothing really seemed too spectacular about it: just a old tree with a stump next to it, amongst the tons of foliage. Honestly, nothing bad about it.
"Cool, we found a spot to chillax in. Come on, Steven, where's the surprise here?" Amethyst asked, bored out of her mind.
"Amethyst, this is our first monster - Garnet's not going to give us the hardest one first. Think it uh, like a video game."
"Yeah, well this gamer wants something to happen, soon. I'm just hoping Garnet didn't give us a ripoff," Amethyst said, as she sat down on the stump. Last thing she wanted was a mission worth nothing in the long run.
"Come on, ame -"
*whistle*
As if on cue, a long, single toned whistle rang out through the forest. It lasted for about five seconds, and from what they could see, they can't find any exact source to speak of. Amethyst got to her feet on hearing that whistle, trying to see where that whistle came from. After a while more, then came the sounds of rustling bushes close by. Soon, someone suddenly jumped out to confront them, wearing a plate mask with a green "jack-o-lantern" face. It was enough to make Steven jump back towards Amethyst, anyway. Unsure what to do, the two backed up until their backs touched a nearby log, where a hand suddenly grabbed Amethyst's arm. Amethyst yelped when she turned and saw another person there, this time with red face paint, and showing a smiley face with a tongue sticking out. The two were quick to go away from the log, Amethyst getting out her whip at the ready.
"I think you started something, Amethyst," Steven said, nervously. Before they could think of anything else, Steven looked up and saw someone was up in a tree, looking down at them, also with a plate mask, though hers seemed to be of a blue sad face. She jumped right down from the branch, landing right in front of them both. Amethyst was ready to fight, but Steven stumbled back into her, knocking them both over onto their backs. Looking at them, they were slightly shorter than they were, younger probably, but this was a bit out of nowhere for them.
"Hold up, you all. You wanna come at me, well then BRING IT ON," Amethyst challenged, getting to her feet, ready for a fight ...
Just to have them remove their masks, and showing actual smiling faces. No, they weren't here to fight exactly, but just to scare them apparently, and it worked.
After things had calmed down, Amethyst and Steven got a better look at who they were dealing with. For one thing, these all were kids. The first kid had a backpack, much like Steven, with a pink stripped short, green pants, and brown shoes. Pretty basic, expect for the fact that there actually was a little baby riding in the same backpack, with a bow on the baby's head.
The second kid, the one that came out of the log, had darker skin with brown, poofy hair under a yellow cap, with blue overalls over a green shirt, and rust red shoes. He also had a red scarf around his neck too.
The third kid, who jumped from the tree, had on a blue shirt with the collar folded down, with dark violet pants and a pair of brown shoes with yellow socks. With brown hair over her ears, she had a slingshot in hand, and a soup pot on her head. These weren't kids they recognized back in Beach City, Steven included.
"Oh. Uh, hi. Sorry for crashing in on your party, hehe," Steven said, a little embarrassed. Soon, they began to hear someone else coming over, someone they both had seen before a number of times in the past. It was actually Onion, and he seemed surprised, but happy, to see Steven and Amethyst come by.
"Hey, Onion. Do you, uh ..." Steven had his answer pretty much given to him when Onion himself went over to them, arms around two of the three kids. It didn't take much for Steven and Amethyst to realize who they were altogether.
"Oh, Onion! They're your friends," Steven realized. Steven and Amethyst never knew that Onion had a gang of friends of his own.
"Well what do you know? Onion's got himself a gang," Amethyst commented, nudging Steven.
"Garbanzo!" Said one of the kids. Guess it was time for some introduction.
"I guess you're Garbanzo. And judging by the baby looking like you, I say you're ... Pinto!" Steven said.
Baby Pinto smiled, telling the two that they got it right. Garbanzo and Pinto were good, now for the next two. Amethyst gave her shot at naming now.
"Ok, so there's Garbanzo, Pinto, and you're ..."
To help Amethyst out, one of the kids simply lifted his hat, showing a particular vegetable sitting on his head that had his name.
"Squash!" said Amethyst. Squash winked to her, Amethyst getting that correct. And now for the last girl. She simply banged her slingshot onto her pot helmet for her clue. However ...
"Slingshot!"
She banged her helmet again.
"Pot? Hat?"
She kept banging, getting more frustrated.
"Ok hold on, hold on." Amethyst tried to think, her hand spinning, and trying to think of a name. All that came out was "... Soup?"
She smiled, and blew a kiss to her. So they got the group fully identified: Soup, Pinto, Garbanzo, Onion, and Squash. The full Onion gang. For Onion himself, he was glad to see Steven. Onion, Garbanzo, and Squash went over to Steven first.
"Oh, you wanna hang out?" Asked Steven. Onion nodded yes, but Amethyst wasn't sure yet.
"Wait, wait, Steven we gotta monster to catch! What about our BIG mission?" Amethyst asked.
"We've been walking around all day, Amethyst. Besides you said this is a good place to chillax, let's enjoy it," Steven said. Amethyst didn't need very much convincing to really go along with Steven's plan.
"Alright," Amethyst said casually, shrugging. They were walking around for a while, and Garnet never said it had to be done immediately ...
~~~~~~
Back in Beach City itself, things seemed to be going along as normal as ever for some of the residents. With spring now around, and warmer weather coming about again, some of the stores along the boardwalk are getting a bit better business now. In the case of the Beach Citywalk Fries, business was going on up and up for different people ordering their share of the stuff. All morning, their breakfast specials had been doing good for a while now, with Peedee working the orders here and there as different customers came and went ...
"Boy, spring time's a rush this year," thought Peedee. Still, it was good business not just for them, but for the other eateries around town, including Fish Stew Pizza next door...
Why was that important? Well, as Peedee was working the orders, eventually only one customer was left standing over at the front, waiting to place her order. She looked average enough by the looks of it, brown boring hair, simple green clothes, that sort of thing.
"What can I get you?" Peedee asked.
"Well. What do you serve?" she asked, sounding innocent enough.
"Well, this is Beach Citywalk Fries. Our menu's right there," said Peedee, but he didn't go any further than that. However, the girl thought for a little moment before answering Peedee. He expected that she would order a hash brown, or something fry related, but she didn't look in the mood for either one of those things.
"Is there anything ... off-menu?"
Off-menu? That seemed like a rather odd question to ask, especially for a typical customer to a fry shack. Still, Peedee knew business is business, and one thing for a fact: the customer's always right. Peedee sighed.
"Well, give me a second, I'll see what I can do," Peedee said, going back into the shack. For the girl, she was in no hurry for her food, and waited patiently for Peedee to come back around. It did take a bit of time, but after a few more minutes, Peedee came back with something different: Mozzarella Sticks with dipping sauce.
"You want off-menu? Well, this is really off-menu. Good to fry something else for a change," said Peedee, as the girl took her tray of food.
"Thank you very much, sir," she said. The girl wasn't given a price, but she simply gave Peedee a ten before going away with her food. A decent pay for the Citywalk Fries. The girl took her tray, and walked down the boardwalk with it, but she didn't try to eat any of it just yet. She actually looked over to Fish Stew Pizza for a minute before she walked over in the direction. She took one of the sticks, dunked it in the sauce, and took just one bite of it when ...
"What is this?!" A man suddenly yelled. The girl stopped quick, and soon saw that someone was out to confront her. The man looked fairly old, dark skinned with brown eyes and dark brown hair, put up in a hairnet. The outfit was rather simple enough: sea foam shirt, brown shorts, white socks and tan shoes. By the look on his face, he looked pretty angry with her.
"Cheese ... bread ... sauce ... those are the main ingredients for a pizza! Where'd you get that from?" The man demanded. All the girl did, swallowing her piece, pointed over to Citywalk Fries. The man, for some reason, looked deeply suspicious.
"Infringing on my business ... I've been waiting for this day," the man noted, just before he raced on inside Fish Stew Pizza. Only for the man to put up a sign on the window simply saying: now selling Fries. It didn't take long until someone else came out. This person was a lot bigger than the first guy, strongly built in a manor almost like Bismuth. His hair was in bands, modeled to actually look like fries, with a visor holding them up. With rosewood eyebrows, a short dijon beard, and an outfit for a fry worker, it was clear on which side of the spectrum he was on. The other man quickly saw him as well.
"So ... it begins anew. Eh, Kofi?"
"Just like old times, Fryman."
"Kofi!"
"Fryman!"
The girl in between them was quick to sneak away as the two were pretty much ready for a fight to break out at any moment. While Peedee looked on from Citywalk Fries, Kiki over in Fish Stew Pizza saw the confrontation from inside the restaurant. Both sides hoped they wouldn't say it, but Mr. Fryman and Kofi were ready for it.
"RESTUARANT WARS!!!"
They said it, and they started it. As this was going on, that same girl hid herself off in a nearby alleyway so they wouldn't suspect it was her who actually did anything wrong. At this point though, it wasn't a human girl standing there. In a quick shift in energy, a particularly eerie snake was now hidden there! The snake couldn't help but snicker at the rivalry she had just started, as another snake slithered over to her.
"Oh, Acid, you were right. That should keep them plenty busy," said Cyanide, Acid also snickering as she watched the two men storm back to their establishments to kick off their war.
"If it's this easy to kick start a war here, then the rest of the town should be a cinch. Wouldn't you think so?"
"Of course. Care for a snack?" offered Cyanide, referring to the meal she got. Acid was happy to oblige, and took a single bite of one of the sticks, swallowing it easy. Her forked tongue licked her lips as they finished up the meal.
"Delicious."
"Tastes better after a job well done," said Cyanide. Acid and Cyanide both then simply slithered away, snickering to one another, as they left the Frymans and the Pizzas to their squabbling.
~~~~~~
With Amethyst and Steven, their time spent with Onion and his friends was a rather casual one. It may not get them closer to their first monster at the moment, but at least it can give them time to feel better with themselves, and rest up in case it does come around. As for what they were doing, most of their stuff was basically hanging out in the forest, Soup taking some practice shots at some placed cans set up by squash, shooting them with stones with some decent accuracy. Garbanzo and Pinto were gone for the moment, leaving Steven and Amethyst chilling out over at the stump with, well, nothing to do.
"Good shot, soup," Steven said, clapping alongside Squash. Soup smiled, and actually gave it to Steven to give it a try. Steven could get the idea right away, and went over to give it a try. Steven took a few steps back, over to where Soup was standing, and picked up a stone off the ground to use. Steven was not used to using slingshots, but Soup mimicked how she did it nearby so Steven could copy her. Steven took a bit to figure it out, and pulled back the slingshot, readying it to fire.
"Okay. Pull back, aim, and ..."
one shot, and the stone whacked on the log, hit up into the tree, and spooked a nearby bird. Steven didn't mean to, but Soup and Squash clapped for him anyway, to them the attempt being a good trickshot. Steven laughed a little more nervously, and only then did Garbanzu, Pinto, and Onion came back. Instead of a simple walk, the three came back driving what looked like a soap-box derby car, one that they fixed up to work properly, Pinto actually wearing a metal face shield, and holding a handheld cutting torch.
"Is that safe?" whispered Steven. Amethyst just shrugged, as Soup and Squash got their seats on the cart.
"Garbanzo!" said Garbanzo, as if presenting the car to them. It was neat for a bunch of kids to make with just some extra items they had on hand. Soup patted down next to her as an invitation for the two.
"Oh ... is there enough room?" Steven asked. Squash nodded, and Steven got up on the back of the derby cart. Amethyst just stood aside.
"You wanna ride, Amethyst?" Steven asked.
"Eh, nah, I'm good. I'll just check out here," Amethyst said simply. Onion and his group started to get the cart going, Steven sitting happily behind them.
After they left, Amethyst was simply alone by the tree, and now she officially had nothing to do. Why did she not take their ride? While they were off doing who knows what, Amethyst took a bit to check around the forest area for a few minutes: looking under rocks, climbing up trees, checking the bushes, but she found nothing except for the occasional bird in the tree. No Gem beast around from what she could find, and eventually she just stopped and laid down on the stump, looking up into the sky past the treeline.
"Oh, come on already. How hard is it to find this thing?"
As Amethyst just laid there for a while longer, keeping her gaze up at the sky, waiting for Steven and company to come back, or something like that to just happen. The purple Gem stayed that way for a bit until she began to catch something off in the brush. Some distant rustling caught her attention, but she figured whatever was there was probably some sort of squirrel, or rabbit or something, so she didn't bother all that much.
Then came the odd noise.
"Huh?"
The noise that came up sound like some sort of screeching insect, mixed with a high-pitched parrot caw. Obviously not a normal animal nearby. This got Amethyst interested now, as she sat up and looked off to that direction the sound was coming from.
"Ah yeah," Amethyst said, as she heard the rustling come closer and closer. The closer she heard it, the more excited she got, her smile bigger, and getting her whip out at the ready. Each rustle was a little closer, and the similar screeching ringing out time and again. Oh, the purple Gem was psyched and ready to go!
"Finally! COME AT ME, BRO!"
Soon, as if waiting to present itself, Amethyst's adversary came on out to confront her. Clearly not a normal creature by any means, the body completed in a indigo light, and in the shape of a scorpion! It had four stubby legs, a large set of arms and a curved scorpion tail. Its body had numerous crystal-like stones on it, which included one for a large eye, one for each pincer, and one on the end of the tail. There wasn't any specific gemstone to speak of, and unlike usual corrupted Gems, this creature had multiple gemstones on its body, though none that would specify the type of Gem it is. While imposing for a creature, as it gave a screech to Amethyst, there was one tiny problem ...
It was the size of an actual adult scorpion.
A.K.A., it was small.
"... No way," Amethyst dryly commented, as the tiny Gem scorpion moved up to her, hitting her leg with its tail and claws. No, they didn't hurt her at all, and it felt like a poke. Amethyst checked the list, as she picked up the creature like it was a dirty rag, and checked the picture that came with it.
Unfortunately, this was it.
"You gotta be kidding me," Amethyst groaned. The Gem scorpion wiggled a bit, trying to get loose, just to have Amethyst drop the thing down on the ground. The Gem scorpion crawled up onto the same tree stump, trying to look imposing to the purple Gem, but it wasn't working. Amethyst felt Completely shanghaied about the task now if THIS was what they had to face.
"What a rip," Amethyst just said.
~~~~~~
"Okay, here we go."
Meanwhile, further away from the forest, and unaware of the danger, Twilight Sparkle and Spike stood up at the front doors of the library. She tried up and down in Equestria's knowledge racks for some creature clues, but she hadn't yet tried any of Earth's literatures. Seeing a pony walk through the doors of a Human library was a little bit off, but it wasn't enough to stop anypony going in. The librarian chilled out to the service desk.
"Excuse me?" Twilight said. The librarian in charge glanced up, just to find that no one was there at first. The librarian glanced back and forth, until she looked down and saw the pony in question.
"... An Equestrian pony, right?"
"Yes, that's right," Twilight said, as she brought her frontal hooves onto the desk counter. Spike got off of Twilight's back so he wouldn't tumble off. The librarian looked down to see Spike as well.
"And he's a uh ..."
"I'm a Dragon," Spike said. The librarian thought for a tiny bit. There was a dragon poster up on one of the book shelves, and she used that to compare to Spike. She looked at the poster and to Spike, and back again. The dragon on the poster was a lot more fierce, realistic and fully grown, in a fire breathing pose ...
"Eh, yeah, ok," she simply said.
"Anyway, I was wondering if you might have some books in regards to any magical or mythical creatures, perhaps?" Twilight asked.
"Ninth row to your right, in the fantasy section," she said. The Alicorn nodded, and trotted over to the place as instructed, Spike following her. Before he could go, he too saw the dragon poster on the wall. He took a moment to look it over.
"Not bad," commented Spike, before going off to join Twilight. The librarian just went on as if nothing had happened.
Twilight and Spike soon got busy. Twilight's magic got to work and soon got some good stacks of books without knocking anything over off the other shelves. Spike got a good stack of books balanced up within his claws, bringing them over to a nearby table. The stack of books were about five books tall, and about four stacks each, so there was plenty of books to start looking through. For the next five to ten minutes, it was book after book, after book, and so far it honestly wasn't getting anywhere fast for them. Each book, for one thing, wasn't exactly the type of books Twilight and Spike had in mind. For type, either the books were purely fantasy stories, or were far too childish to be considered knowledge learners. Twilight went through about fifteen more books before she began to realize how much less things were actually going with this. It was as helpful as Equestria's books were, and that meant none at all.
"Here Spike, can you take some of these back?" Twilight asked. Spike, being the helper that he is, was happy to oblige.
"Sure, Twilight," Spike said. The baby dragon was given a decent sized stack of about twelve books, which was well over his head in height. It really wasn't anything new for Spike, as he started to walk over to the fantasy section, each step taken with some precaution. It was hard for him to see, so, it was expected. What wasn't expected was a wheel step stool right in his way.
You can guess what happens next ...
"Spike!" Twilight said, upon hearing the crash. The librarian was startled as well, and she quickly went over, just to see the baby dragon poke his head out of the book pile.
"You okay?" Asked the librarian.
"It happens all the time," sighed Spike. As he was getting himself out, another book, off the shelf this time, fell down and bounced off of his head. This book was a bit more interesting than the other books were, not seemingly childish or silly in appearance. It appeared to be a brown book, and rather thick in pages as well. The main picture on the cover of said book showed a unique display of some sort of chimera animal: head of a dragon, a horn of a rhino, front legs of a lion, back legs of a falcon, tail of a snake, and body of a lizard. The animal was in the sitting position, facing forward apart from the side facing head. Outta many of the books, this one was a eye catcher. The Alicorn levitated the book up to her viewing level, and as the librarian and Spike got the other books back on the shelf, she started reading through it. Each page of this book was more on point: informative narrative, various field notes, detailed anatomy pictures, and all sort of fantastic beasts and where to find them. This was EXACTLY the kind of book Twilight Sparkle was looking for! She kept looking through a number of pages, and she even found the very same insect beast that they faced during the Blue Moon, which the book had described as a "Remorhaz".
"Perfect! This is perfect! I'd like to check this out, please," Twilight said to the librarian. The librarian herself though looked at the book with more confusion.
"Eh ... actually, I don't remember stacking that one. Or having it in our library for that matter," the librarian revealed.
"So, can I just take this one then?"
"I guess so." There might be plenty of books, but if a book was not apart of the library, there wasn't a penalty for just keeping the book. Twilight was happy to hear that. With the number of nutty monsters they had been meeting, this could help out a TON! The happy Alicorn held the book up with her magic, as she began to go off until ...
"Eh, Twilight? You forgetting something?" Asked Spike, still putting books away on the shelves. Twilight blushed.
"Heh, oh yeah. Right."
She'll have to wait on reading the book for now.
~~~~~~
It took a while, yes, but Steven did eventually return with Onion and his friends to the forest. The ride around in the box derby car was pretty fun to do, and they came back to find Amethyst sitting at the stump, resting her head in her head, as the other one held a stick, poking at the Gem insect for the last twenty minutes, to have the bug just hiss and sting the stick with its tail. Bored as ever, this girl. Amethyst didn't take much time until she saw the group return, Steven the first to go over.
"Hey Amethyst. Who's your friend?" Steven asked, looking to the little Gem bug.
"Apparently, our target," Amethyst sighed, showing the list to Steven, just for the human to see the same Gem bug as the one on the ground. Steven couldn't see this as their target of monsters at all. Steven picked up the insect, letting it stand in the palm of his hand, as Amethyst had her hand over her eyes.
"I knew it was too good to be true. WHY would they even bother?"
"Come on, Amethyst. Here look, maybe it's not the same thing. The pictures not exactly the same," Steven said, showing the picture again. The picture exactly showed a similar Gem scorpion, but with some extra tails on the back. Before they could go any further about the subject, suddenly Soup was standing in between them, her pot off her head. Inside the pot, there was actually a number of different bugs crawling around inside. Steven seemingly had his bug, so Soup didn't bother him about it.
"You a bug collector, Soup?" Amethyst asked. Soup shook her head, though, and pointed over to others. Onion took a stick and was drawing out a box in the dirt, lining it up to make out a sort of racing path. Onion, Squash, Garbanzo and Soup had their bugs.
"A bug race!" Steven concluded. Soup nodded to confirm it. Not having anything better to do, Amethyst took a beetle from the pot, and they went over to the starting line. The bugs on the starting line included a beetle, a millipede, a ant, a ladybug, a centipede, and Steven's Gem scorpion. The race started just as the bugs were released, though many of the insects weren't exactly following the path laid out in front of them. The centipede and Steven's scorpion were at a close pace, leaving the other racers behind rather far. The scorpion though kept going forward, as the centipede took a u-turn, the Gem bug winning. Steven was happy for it.
"Yay, you won," Steven beamed, picking up the little guy. Amethyst was a little bit unamused by the concept, but seeing Steven happy was good enough. After the race was done, Onion started bringing Steven over to the stump with his little insect, placing the Gem bug down onto it.
"So what now?" Amethyst asked.
"Garbanzo," Garbanzo said, giving Steven what looked like a mallet. Rather confusing.
"Wait. What's this for?"
Soup looked down to the Gem insect, and she banged her fist into the palm of her hand, mimicking a hammer.
"W-wait. You all want me to -..."
Onion, Squash, Garbanzo, and even Pinto made the similar gesture.
They want him to smash the winning insect!
"But he won!" Steven retorted in shock. They kept giving the same gesture to him, Steven looking down to the Gem bug. On one hand, breaking someone because they won something was not only nonsensical, but a bit cruel. On the other hand, it WAS a target they had to handle, even if it was this weak. The Gem hybrid tried to get his reasons together, the Gem bug trying to look threatening by spreading its pincers and raising its tail at Steven. It just didn't feel fair. Amethyst though was more on the Onion side when it came to this.
"Come on, Steven, just hit it and we can move on," Amethyst insisted. Steven looked back to the Gem bug again, holding the mallet firmly in hand. The tiny bug still didn't seem to waver from its stance, Steven lifting up the mallet to hover it over the bug. Steven still felt a little bad for this, especially on such a tiny Gem, but as he was about to finish off the thing, Steven took a glance over to the others, and while at first their expressions were on him, and waiting for them to finish off the creature, Onion's gang began to calm down after a little bit, stopping their 'smashing' gesture. While many of their expressions were a bit unchanged overall, Squash actually had a slight look of worry in his face as they began to back away just a tiny bit. Steven and Amethyst were facing them, not the direction they were, so they didn't really had a clue what their deal was.
"Sorry, I-I can't. I gotta go - oof!"
Steven turned to go, but suddenly he ended up walking right into something. Something BIG. The second that happened, Amethyst and Steven saw what they were seeing. The creature Steven walked into, for one thing, was ginormous! One giant crystal eye staring right at him, three long tail stingers jutting out behind its round body, a set of large pincers with dagger-shaped crystals on each end, similar indigo light to the tiny Gem bug Amethyst found. The size was FAR more of a challenging, and imposing animal.
"OH yeah, now we're talking," Amethyst said, getting out her whip. Steven quickly backed away as fast as he could. This, he had no trouble with, as the little bug went over to the giant Gem beast. As it climbed up the beast's leg, it actually fused into the much larger Gem beast. All of the kids got together, as the giant Gem confronted them all, pincers raised and giving a similar bug roar, much more bellowing than the tiny bug's screeching. It was obviously ready for a fight, and Amethyst was more than willing to give it one.
Amethyst made her strike first with her whip, striking right at the Gem insect's back. The bug twitched on feeling the pain, but its attempts to attack Amethyst was a little hard to do. Amethyst's whips made attacking the Gem hard for the insect, since she kept herself too far away. Steven stayed with Onion and his friends just in case the scorpion tried to attack them. The scorpion kept trying to snatch Amethyst with its pincers, for strike her with its stingers, but Amethyst was moving a little quick for it.
"Boom!" Amethyst shouted, whacking the scorpion in the gem eye. The scorpion had enough with Amethyst. It finally got one pincer to grip the whips, and finally getting Amethyst still for a moment. One of the tail began to glow a little bit, and Amethyst made a barrel roll to dodge an oncoming laser beam! The beam struck the old tree nearby, leaving a scorch mark on it. A few more stray shots almost struck the others, Steven bringing up his shield to protect Onion's gang. However, Onion and his friends saw what happened to their tree, and they didn't like that at all. As for Amethyst, she tried another whip again, actually strong enough to whip off one of the scorpion's tails! The scorpion finally got a good grab of the cocky Gem, swinging her away into the bushes. This time, the tail that was struck and torn off actually grew back, back to full strength.
"Amethyst!" Steven gasped, running over to her. Amethyst was dazed, but she was alright over all. However, the large Gem insect was still flaming hot, and at the ready. However, that moment did end up giving Onion's group time to run off, but they weren't hiding for cover. They were finding a sneak attack.
Suddenly, the scorpion ended up pelted with Soup's slingshot action, a bunch of stones and pebbles banging and bouncing off of it. Not very painful, but still got the scorpion's attention focused away from Steven and Amethyst. Soup hid off back in a bush, as the scorpion slammed both pincers down into it like hammers, just to find that Soup was gone. As Amethyst and Steven looked, Onion and Garbanzo suddenly grabbed them both, and pulled them into the bushes, covering their mouths so they could be quiet. Onion brought his finger to his own mouth, as a quieting gesture so both can get the idea. The scorpion was still trying to find Soup in the bushes, but Soup was already far gone, showing up behind the tree alongside Squash. As the monster was looking, Squash lifted his cap, giving Soup the large squash under his cap. Stones were fine, but a squash would have some after effects with the shot. Soup loaded up the squash ammo to her slingshot, and Squash himself went off behind the tree as Soup gave a good whistle. The scorpion turned to the sound, just to be pelted by a squash, which smashed up and covered the Gem eye in squashed squash. The scorpion screeched, trying to get the stuff off of it, as Soup and Squash bolted away from the tree, Squash diving into a log, as Soup dove down behind it. In a panic, the Gem scorpion charged up the stingers and began shooting like crazy, beams of indigo light being shot anywhere and everywhere. Trees were being cut of branches, being weakened at the trunks, and birds were flying like mad away to avoid getting hit. The scorpion stopped finally, and the front claws got the squash off of its face, giving it some better vision. For the others, they stayed over in the bushes, but the scorpion could see where they were, and got a proper aim this time, aiming one beam at them! The beam went a little too quick, and aimed at Soup, but she made a rather gutsy, and fast reaction: using her pot as her reflector. Turned out, it was enough to shoot back the beam, and while it missed the scorpion, it did strike a rather weakened tree nearby. That one shot was strong enough to go right through it, the tree weak enough to finally topple! The scorpion moved in at them again, but just before it could do anything, the same tree fell right on down, and made that million dollar lucky strike: right down on all three of the scorpion's tails! That one strike severed all three tails at once ...
One screech later, the scorpion's entire body began to glow white for a moment, crystals and body disappearing from sight. While any normal supposed Gem beast would just explode in a cloud of smoke, reverting to their Gemstone, this one was a bit different. Instead of an explosion, it was an implosion: the light fusing up into a tiny ball, and only left a tiny crystal on the ground, not in a typical shape to a gemstone, and not looking like any crystal stone on the scorpion's body. This one was tiny, small enough for Steven to hold in one hand, colorless, and even transparent like glass.
"Well ... dang. OK then," Amethyst simply concluded. Steven picked it up, and bubbled it easily. One simple tap of his finger, and the bubble was gone and away back to the Temple. Course they had Onion and his friends to thank, since they got the thing handled basically.
"Onion, you and your gang are alright in my book," Amethyst complimented, playfully punching Garbanzo's shoulder.
"Garbanzo," Garbanzo said, smiling and returning the punch himself. As they were going on with this, Steven found the list on the ground nearby, unharmed on the stump, and he picked it up. Looks like that was one monster down, and plenty more to go. Soon though, the derby car was brought out again, and Steven and amethyst found a Deja Vu moment with the gang inviting them for a ride. This time though, Pinto drew a little picture for them, showing an ice cream cone with a metal on it. A little victory treat.
"You know what? alright then," Amethyst said, she and Steven going up and taking a seat on the derby car. Amethyst got Steven up on her shoulders, and soon, Garbanzo got the derby car on its way.
Next stop: ice cream victory break.