Harmony Gems

by Nova Arc

House Guests

If Nox was anywhere near as powerful in the dream world as she was in the physical plane, then this was one mist they'd rather not go to their heads. The golem she had possessed was a powerful one. It's thick armor could withstand shots from Amber's plasma cannon and hits from Tourmaline’s hammer. Its right hand was a fist that could bust a hole through a Gem warship and the left was a set of claws that could rip through a dragon's scales; and she was using them.

“HA! How d’you like me now?!” she yelled as she swung her claws at Amber's head. Amber ducked, but the massive fist slammed into her chest before she even saw it coming. Tourmaline took the opportunity and took to the air.

“Peekaboo,” he said as he brought down the hammer, “I see you!” However, the hammer stopped just before it landed on her face, stopped by the fist, which had made a u-turn and caught the back of the hammer. Nox grinned as she flung him away with a flick of her wrist.

“Nice try,” she said, “but with a body, I'm even more powerful. No more scattering and having to reconstitute. That was a pain.”

“And so is this.” That was the only warning Amber gave before hitting Nox at point blank range with a massive plasma beam. Nox and the beam crashed into the wall on the far side of the room. “You are NOT leaving this room, Nox.”

“Oh?” Nox grinned and raised her arms. “Did you honestly think that physical strength is all this body had going for it?” The horns on the Nox’s head began to glow slightly with dark blue electricity arcing between them. The energy gathered in the middle in a sphere and began to grow until it was about the size of a small basketball. “Yeah. I can do this too.”

Amber braced herself and put up a force field. “Oh, a force field,” Nox said, feigning disappointment. “Whatever shall I do? Oh, I know! How about THIS!” Nox tilted her head back as she fired. Amber watched in confusion as beam went up. But before she could ask what, the beam hit the ceiling. Chunks of rock crumbled to the ground. Amber and Tourmaline jumped out of the way as pieces of the ceiling began to fall.

Amber looked up and stared in shock at the fairly large hole above them. Then looked back down at a grinning Nox. Then back up. Then down. “No,” she said. Nox shifted. “No,” she repeated. Nox shifted again. “Don't you-” Before she could finish, blue lines on the body Nox possessed lit up and she began to levitate. “I SAID NO!” She pulled up the cannon and fired repeatedly. Multiple shots ripped across the room towards Nox, who weaved through the attacks as she made her way up.

“Sorry, clods,” Nox said, “But there's a lot of land up there I haven't touched. So see ya!” And with that, she vanished into the smoking hole above.

Amber looked up in shock. Her eyes glowed in anger as she turned to face Tourmaline. “Get Dawn and his friends back to a safe place and find Fulgurite. I'm going after Nox. Obsidian will probably be there to intercept her.”

Tourmaline nodded and walked towards the door where Dawn and the Crusaders were hiding. He knew better than to question Amber when she was like… this. “Okay kids,” he said, “Time to leave the war zone.”

“WAR ZONE?!” Applebloom yelled in shock.

“Yes,” Amber replied. “That's what happens when you learn about a psycho, evil, nightmare-inducing monster a week late,” she snapped. She groaned and waved her hand and Tourmaline got the message.

“Okay, come on. Let's go,” said Tourmaline as he escorted them out.

---

Back at the temple, Amber paced the room impatiently.

“Amber, relax,” said Fulgurite. “You know you don’t always think straight when you’re angry.”

“I’m not angry,” Amber said. “I’m frustrated. There’s a difference.”

“Not that much of a difference,” Obsidian said. Amber glared at him. “Look, our priority right now should be to find out where Nox is. If she was able to take control of a golem that advanced in such little time, she couldn’t have had enough time to get a complete link.”

“Meaning she isn’t at full fighting strength yet,” said Fulgurite.

“Well, if what we saw back there wasn’t full fighting strength, I don’t think we should wait to find out just how strong 100% strength is,” said Amber.

Just then, Tourmaline walked in.

“So, I dropped Dawn’s friends off back in the town,” he said. “Judging by how worried Applejack and Rarity looked, I thought I’d forget to tell them about how they were in the armory when Nox attacked.”

“Well, the less they know, the better,” said Obsidian. “Which is what I’ve been saying for over 1500 years, but somehow, it didn’t make sense until we had an experimental living weapon on the loose.”

“Now’s not the time for this, Obsidian,” said Fulgurite. “Right now, we need to focus on tracking down Nox… Um… Anyone know where to start?”

“Nox would most likely go looking for a power source that can help kickstart her new form,” said Amber. “She only used physical attacks when she fought us; no illusions, no trapping us in dreams.”

“Which means she can’t use her normal powers without leaving her new form exposed,” said Obsidian.

“What makes you think so?”

“When Nox was first field tested, she was given a physical form she could use to interact with the physical plain. Since she was still in her prototype stage, she was never given 100% power, so she could never use her powers without exiting the body, which left it unprotected from enemy attacks.”

“Since she’s practically comprised of dust, even a strong breeze could take her out of the picture,” said Tourmaline. “Actually, if they had vacuum cleaners back then, that would have done the trick… Why did making those take so long?”

“Getting back on point,” said Amber, “Nox should be our top priority.” Suddenly, the ring at the root of her ponytail began blinking. “As soon as we take care of that.”

“What is that?” asked Tourmaline.

“It’s a sensor I set up in one of the Gem ships I salvage scrap from,” Amber explained. She brought her goggles over her eyes as a stream of information ran over the inside of the lens. “Huh. It seems to be coming from inside the Gem ship, but it’s partially buried underground.”

“Okay, so corrupted Gem that looks like a mole?” asked Fulgurite.

“Maybe. Guess we’ll have to find out. Let’s go, Ful.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Tourmaline asked as Amber and Fulgurite headed towards the warp pad.

“Um… just… do what Obsidian is doing,” Fulgurite said, gesturing toward a meditating Obsidian. “Good luck,” she giggled as they were warped to the beacon’s location.

Tourmaline looked carefully at Obsidian. “Something tells me you’re working on a way to find Nox while they’re gone.”

“And you’re going to help me,” Obsidian said.

Tourmaline gasped. “Are… are you asking for my help?” he asked.

Obsidian knew he wasn’t seriously that surprised, though. “Only because Amber and Fulgurite left before I could ask.”

“Yeah right,” Tourmaline said, grinning. “So, what did you have in mind?”

---

Amber and Fulgurite appeared at their destination, which was around what looked like the deeper parts of the Whitetail Woods. Directly ahead was the remnants of a crashed Gem warship. The massive green structure was shaped like a pyramid with a flat top and had several cracks running along its length.

Amber put her goggles over her eyes and scanned. “Well, something was definitely here,” she said. Through her lenses, she could see the bright red footprints highlighted by the HUD. “Weird.”

“What?” asked Fulgurite.

“The footprints. They don’t look like they belong to a corrupted Gem.” Amber looked around. “Come to think of it, no corrupted Gem I’ve seen is this sneaky. I mean, only tripping an alarm? No smashing? No ransacking? It didn’t even smash the wall to get into the ship.”

“You know, not every corrupt Gem is a raging mass of destruction and chaos,” Fulgurite noted.

“I know, I know. Come on, let’s check it out.” Amber approached the ship and pressed her hand against the surface. A bright white ring appeared on the surface around her hand and a whirring sound was heard. The whirring then changed to a beeping.

“AMBER! MOVE!” Fulgurite tackled Amber to the ground just as the ground beneath the latter exploded. The two got up and stared at the small crater in the ground.

“Okay, what is it with everyone and explosive traps?” Amber grumbled. “This is the third time this week!”

“Someone really doesn’t want us in there,” said Fulgurite.

“A lot of people really don’t want us in a lot of places,” Amber deadpanned. Her body began to glow slightly and morphed into what could only be described as a shapeless blob. In this form, she slipped in between a crack in the hull and opened the “door” for Fulgurite.

Once inside, the hole sealed shut behind them. Amber found a control panel and turned on the lights in the room they were in, which appeared to be some kind of storage. They made their way through the ship, looking around. So far, the ship seemed intact. If anyone was in there, they hadn’t been there for long.

They didn’t have to search long before they heard a shuffling noise, followed by the clanging of something falling against the crystalline surface. The two Gems glanced at each other before getting into their battle stances. Following the echo, they came to one of the rooms in the ship that had been sealed. On the locked entrance was a note: “VITAL DATA STORAGE: DESIGNATED GEMS ONLY!!!”

They made their way inside as Amber began hacking into the ship’s systems. Soon, an opening appeared leading into a room filled with massive blocks of crystal with circuit lines pulsing and pinging. The server room was one of the most important parts of a Gem ship. It was where everything the crew had experienced was recorded: landing sites, recordings, plans; it was more or less a portable data bank for off-world missions. So why would any Gem be in here?

The question was soon answered by a whizzing sound, like electric sparks going off. Fulgurite extended her hair and Amber activated her arm cannon as they stepped around and a figure came into view. It had bright yellow skin and yellow hair with blue highlights at the ends. It wore a red jacket open over a white shirt and black tie, black pants with a black belt, and black shoes. On its back was also a line of about eight small, black spikes running down its spine which were glowing with a faint blue aura. The figure had it’s right hand on the control platform, which was blinking as a holographic screen in front of him rapidly scrolled through information.

“Hey!” Amber’s voice jolted the figure back to reality as its hand left the platform, causing the glow on the spikes to fade and vanish. “Who are you and what are you doing? No one is allowed inside this part of the ship; not even me, and I helped build some of it!”

“Well not no one,” said the figure. “The sign says, ‘Designated Gems,’ doesn’t it?”

“So, you’re a Gem? That explains how you got in here, but what make you think you fall in that category?” Amber asked, taking aim and charging up a shot.

“Well, information is my business. Literally. You of all people should know this, Amber.”

Amber jumped at hearing her name. “Wait, wha- How? You didn’t even see me!”

“No. But the cameras did. And I saw their footage.” Amber looked at the walls and saw a dome-shaped protrusion she could only guess was the camera.

“So you saw us come in?”

“Honestly, I was expecting someone else. Sorry, if the pulse bomb caught you instead,” he said.

“Who did you think was coming?” Asked Fulgurite.

“Well, unlike you, I still have some allegiance to Homeworld.” Amber’s grip on her cannon tightened and electricity arced more violently around Fulgurite. “But, like you both, I’m not really a Diamond fan.”

“That’s not exactly comforting,” Fulgurite said.

“Neither is you pointing a plasma cannon at me.”

“That depends on what end you’re on,” said Amber.

“Okay, look, I’m not a huge fan of violence either. So put the hostility away and let’s talk before one of us does something really stupid.”

“The only stupid thing I’ve already done is not vaporising your diamond-wearing butt the moment we walked in here.” Amber did a scan on her goggles and found something strange; all the ship’s security protocols had been disarmed; no distress beacon, no security drones, not even an alarm was active. Fulgurite was fast, but this had all been done before they were even in the server room! “So, give me reason not to right now. Who are you?”

The figure turned around, his yellow diamond-shaped belt buckle coming into view, as well as the oddly-shaped gem in his right palm. “My name is Bismuth. I’m a friend of one of your friends.”

---

Dawn lay in his bed back at home. He felt bad for not telling Amber about Nox the day they saw her. Although, in his defense it was either tell Amber he went somewhere he shouldn’t have and get in trouble or not tell her and get in trouble when she finds out. But if he had come clean, Nox wouldn’t have escaped. In short, feeling responsible sucked as much as feeling helpless; getting grounded for it just made it suck worse!

Dawn took his phone out of his pocket, grateful that Amber at least let him keep his phone; probably wouldn’t be so lucky if it was Obsidian. Sadly, Amber, being a tech genius, locked all the games on his phone. She then took away his console, banned him from TV for seven months (one month for each day he neglected to share the information he had) and restricted him from going further than a hundred meters from the temple.

“She said I couldn’t see them, but at least she didn’t say I couldn’t talk to them,” he thought as he typed.

Dawn B: Anyone there?

It didn’t take long to get a response.

AB:Yep.

LeBelle: Yeah.

Scooter_Lover9: Not like there’s anything better to do with my Saturday.

AB: Did you get in trouble?

Dawn B: Like you wouldn’t believe!

Scooter_Lover9: How bad is it?

Dawn B: Well, They’re all mad at me for not telling them, but I can’t blame em. What about you guys?

AB: Grounded 4 a week

LeBelle: 2 weeks. Rarity completely flipped when she found out!

Scooter_Lover9: No practice with Rainbow Dash for a week!

Dawn B: No TV, games, missions, or visiting anyone: 7 months

AB: Whoa

Scooter_Lover9: Is that even physically possible?

LeBelle: Wow. Sry, Dawn.

Scooter_Lover9: Yeah. If I hadn’t pushed you to it, we wouldn’t even be involved in the first place

Dawn B: NP. Thinking about it, if we hadn’t seen it the first time, then gone back, we wouldn’t even know about Nox

AB: So +ve and -ve. Just feel bad you got it harsh.

Dawn B: It’s fine. Maybe when Amber cools down, I can go ask Fulgurite to ask Amber to consider cutting it in half

AB: Hope it works out

Scooter_Lover9: Me 2

LeBelle: Me 3

Dawn B: Thnx. GTG. Don’t want to risk phone!

AB: Gud idea

LeBelle: C ya

Scooter_Lover9: L8trz

Dawn smiled and put the phone back in his pocket. He got up and walked over to the window to watch the wind blow the grass, causing a mesmerizing wave of various shades of green. The coolest thing was how a single patch of grass didn’t seem to change with the waves; it maintained its color. Dawn stared at the odd patch for a while. Then, he saw Obsidian come out of the house and walk toward the field. He stared for a while at the grass. Then, in the blink of an eye, summoned his sword and slash out, a wave of heat cutting through the grass. That was when the patch moved; right out of the way of the attack.

“Who are you?” Obsidian asked, summoning his second sword. The patch began to ripple as a figure faded into view. It stood a little bit taller than Amber with a slim figure. It had green skin and a thin build with green eyes, with slits for pupils much like a reptile. His hair was a bit scruffy and short, an odd ring of hair around his ears, connecting his sideburns to the back of his head. His outfit was a light green sleeveless bodysuit with dark green on its lower legs and upper body. A light green “V” was printed on the front and joined to the one on the back with a gemstone, a hexagonal green stone, sat just above his ribcage, when the point of the “V” was. He also wore a white headband with a "radioactive" symbol on it, and both his arms were bandaged up to the elbows. The figure was also very silent. “I asked a question. Don’t make me ask again.”

The figure looked around. “Huh. It ain’t so different here,” the figure spoke in a rather gruff voice. “Except that magic seems to be pretty common compared to Earth. And they managed to not try to drive themselves to extinction with some of the dumb stuff they create.”

Obsidian’s interest was piqued by that. “You came from Earth? Are you from the Kindergarten?”

The figure walked forward. “I knew there was a temple around here somewhere. And where there’s a temple, there’s a warp pad.”

“You’re going to need permission to use it,” Obsidian said, taking a fighting stance.

The figure raised an eyebrow. “Okay. I’m using your warp pad,” he said, continuing forward. Obsidian used his blade to block the Gem’s path. But the Gem grabbed Obsidian’s arm and flung him into a tree, knocking it down in the process. Dawn gasped at the sight of such a relatively smaller Gem being able to move that fast, let alone fling Obsidian across the field like an old toy.

But Obsidian wasn’t down yet. One of his blade began to heat up and morph until it became a blob of magma attached to the short remnant of the solid blade. The magma crashed down in front of the Gem and surrounded him. Obsidian clenched his fist, hardening the magma into a solid rock dome prison. But it didn’t hold. A scratching sound could be heard inside and soon the whole mass crumbled down around him. The Gem rose from the rubble and on his right hand was a set of three shiny green, serrated claws attached to a white gauntlet on his lower arm. The figure turned to look at Obsidian, his eyes burning with an unnatural fury as he lashed out with his claws, a wave of green energy knocking Obsidian further back.

The Gem turned around in time to see Tourmaline swing his mighty hammer at his head. He ducked under the swing and swept Tourmaline’s feet off the ground before hitting him with another green beam, this one emanating from his Gemstone. The figure walked toward the temple as his weapon vanished.

Again, he was interrupted, this time, by a giant, molten hand grabbing him. He looked down to see Obsidian, the path behind him that was caught in the blast was completely void of anything other than dirt, but the ground beneath him was burned pitch black with the heat he radiated, the magma lines in his armor glowing intensely. Not wasting any time, he pulled back his arm, the magma extention doing the same, and flung the Gem like a tennis ball, his green figure vanishing into a ping of light in the distance. Obsidian sent the arm back into the ground, which was scorched with embers still glowing.

He looked around and surveyed the damage and sighed. “I hate out-of-town house guests.”

---

Amber and Fulgurite warped into the temple with the third Gem standing behind them.

“You won’t believe all the crazy stuff that’s happened,” Amber said. “Nox is not gonna be easy to track. She doesn’t exactly have a bioelectric signature or life force Fulgurite or I can track.”

“Well, that’s why Homeworld locked her up,” said Bismuth. “But maybe…” Bismuth’s train of thought was disturbed by the sight of a familiar Gem in armor resembling an active volcano sitting cross-legged in the middle of a circle of scented candles.

Amber noticed where he was looking and smiled. “Oh, Obsidian,” she called to get his attention. “We have visitor!”

“I. Hate. House guests,” he grumbled.

“He says he know you~!”

“Who could that possibly-” Obsidian cut himself off at the sight of the yellow Gem.

“Hey, Obsidian,” said Bismuth. “What’s it been?” Obsidian just stared. “What’s it been now? Three thousand years?” He added with a sheepish smile. Obsidian walked over to Bismuth, his eyes caught sight of the diamond-shaped belt buckle as he approached. Then something unusual happened. Now normally, if Obsidian didn’t like something, he made sure he had no part in it. This time was different; this time, he punched Bismuth in the face, knocking him over the warp pad.

Tourmaline walked out of the kitchen with a bag of mini tacos and stumbled into the scene. Then, he made a wise decision: he said, “Nope.” Then turned around and walked away.

Author's Note:

Well, this took forever! Sorry for the wait. Episodes'll be coming out a bit slow until school's out, so please bare with me.

So, some new Gems, and a few more of them on the way!
Bismuth belongs to The Hat Mann.
The other Gem... well, you're gonna have to guess who that is. Note: It may not be as obvious as you think; you may be close, but you might miss something. Would the owner of said Gem refrain from making this knowledge public! Thanks. I really wanna see they get so close, but not close enough!

Comments

[WezzaHD]

Nice to see another chapter, a well as other gems.

[The Hat Mann]

Glad to see this story alive friend!