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Chapter 3: Corrupt Beast

World: ???

In the center of a dark room, a green glowing object was illuminating what looks like a ceremony with four elders praying. Three old men were circled around the object humming a chant while an elderly looking shaman woman was praying.

“Corazon, find the crystal. Hear our prayers.”

Suddenly the old woman’s hands began to glow as she observes them. “Finally, the world has been found.” She took a deep breath. “Gather the soldiers, we must leave and find the chosen one of that world, before Maskus retrieves the crystal.”

World: Beach City and Beyond

“MmmmmM! These burgers are the best.” Mayor Dewey said at a grill operated by Harold Smiley.

“Don’t thank me, thanks these bad boys!” Smiley patted the propane tanks. “Best propane in the world!”

“Why yes they are!” Mr. Dewey winked. “Sure am glad the company that provides these wonderful tanks are native here.”

“Mayor Dewey, no they’re not.” Smiley corrected him. “They’re headquarters are in the Keystone State. You know, the one with square pizza.”

“Oh.” Then Dewey walked away, only to fall right into an open manhole, with Onion running away. The small boy passed by Garnet, who watched the event unfold.

“Hmmmmm.” Garnet was deep in thought as she walked around Beach City, seeing other activities and some mishaps.

“This shouldn’t be happening.” Garnet noticed Pearl and Amethyst watching some jugglers.

“Juggle this!” Amethyst threw them a bowling pin. “Now this!” She threw an orange. “Now this!” A plate. “Now this.” A bowl of pudding. “Now this!” A dog. “Now this!” and finally a porcupine.

Seeing what came naturally, Garnet spoke with the annoyed Pearl and laughing Amethyst. “I’ll be right back. Going to run to the temple real quick.”

“O.K., and I’ll deal with Amethyst.” The irritated Pearl said.

“Try finding me first!”

Pearl noticed Amethyst wasn’t standing next to her anymore and was nowhere in sight. “What the-Amethyst!”

Pearl ran off and bumped into Connie with her parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran, have you seen Amethyst?”

The couple shook their heads no. “Sorry, Pearl. I didn’t see her.” Dr. Priyanka said, while Amethyst pretended to be a snowman in the background. “But we must thank Steven for his gift to our daughter Connie, it’s so fascinating. Perfect for the science fair.”

Pearl looked at Connie excited mood as Doug Maheswaran examined the crystal for himself. “This won’t turn into some Gem Monster, would it?” he asked Pearl for concern for his daughter’s safety.

“Positively. I’ve studied it myself.” Pearl gestured to herself. “And I’ve trained Connie enough to handle any threat towards herself.” Pearl and her student bowed to each other.

“And it has been an honor, Master Pearl.”

“Hey, we’ve trademarked the word ‘Master’!” shouted someone who was quickly quieted in the background next to Amethyst.

“Woah, nice hiding spot. Whatever the heck you guys are!”

“Yipe!”

The owners of that yipe was quickly relieved when Pearl ran towards Amethyst. “There you are!” Pearl shouted as Amethyst shifted back and gave chase.

Connie parents just watched the Gems’ shenanigans talk place from a distance. “I have to say, those Gems are unique, and yet very good ….. well Gems.” Priyanka said. “Connie.” She kneeled down to her daughter. “I’m very glad you’ve met them.”

Connie felt a little sheepish. “Well you should really thank Steven.” She held the crystal close. “If he wasn’t so friendly and nice, I would have never made friends with them.”

“We get it, people ship you two kids!”

“Get back in the snowbank! Hunter #80!”

Back in the house, Garnet entered inside and took two quick glances. “The close is clear.” In a bright light, Garnet split in half and both Ruby and Sapphire appeared.

Ruby and Sapphire hardly separate. The only recent time they did so willingly was to trick the Homeworld Rubies who they believed were looking for Peridot.

This time however, Ruby paced around the room impatiently as Sapphire sat on the floor, quietly and motionless.

They’ve been like this for at least ten minutes before Ruby finally spoke. “Well, anything?”

Sapphire shook her head no. “I am sorry, Ruby, but I cannot see any future events. Not even a single stream.”

Ruby pulled her hair in frustration. “Why is that?! This never happened before besides ….. did Pearl trick us into fusing again?!” Ruby’s red tone turned darker as she clenched her hands, ready to crush anything. “I swear if-”

“Now now, Ruby.” Sapphire calmed her town with a peck on the cheek, easing the Gem immediately. “No one had done that to us in recent time. But when Pearl did, the visions I failed to see are the ones that involves Peridot’s finding.”

Sapphire walked to the window to see the beautiful snow-covered beach with the wind blowing and the light snow drifting in the air.

“In my entire existence, I always had the ability to see the possible futures. But right now, it is as if time itself stood in place.” She placed her hand on the glass as a bird flew down. “But nothing is frozen.”

“There is something frozen.” Sapphire looked at Ruby looking serious. “The snow.”

Sapphire, despite the situation at hand, let out a small joyful laugh. “Oh Ruby.” Sapphire checked her palm to examine her gem. “This is still serious, my gem is still intact and yet …….” She took a deep breath and sat on the sofa. “Why is this happening?”

Ruby sat right next to her, scratching the back of her head to think. “Well …. What if some evil Time Lord or something is messing things up?”

Sapphire smiled. “Now you sound like Steven.”

They laughed together, but eventually quite down, wondering what to do.

“So ….. should we tell Pearl and Amethyst about this?” Ruby asked Sapphire.

“It is wise that we should, so they would not rely on us for any surprise attacks.” Sapphire looked at Ruby in the eyes. “But we should not inform Steven. We do not want him to worry on such a joyful day for humans.”

“Good point.” Ruby looked down at the floor. “Well maybe Steven will do something crazy that ends up fixing all this, which is pretty much how it always goes.” Ruby recalled some instances Steven managed to them out of some situations like with his Cheesburger backpack, the escape from Jasper, and mostly how he won over both Peridot and Lapis. “Am I right, Sapphire?”

POOF

Ruby’s eyes shot right open looked right where Sapphire sat, only to find some weird dark and long thing sticking from the wall!”

“Ahhhh!” Ruby fell over and gave the thing a better look, a strange shadow arm with Sapphire’s gem in its hand. “Sapphire!” Ruby’s gauntlet formed as she was about to pounce, only for more shadow arms to appear and grabbed Ruby still.

Her body temperature began to rise as the arms began to burn. “Oh you don’t like this! Well you had it-” Ruby was then hit in the gem with one of the arms with glowing green fingers. Ruby didn’t know why, it felt like a very weak gab done by a human, but she felt very weak and her temperature returned to normal.

She nearly lost consciousness before one of the hands moved in front of her face. The palm of the shadow arm opened to reveal a green eye staring right at her.

Fear took over Ruby for a split second before the hand lunged at Ruby’s hand and took the gem, causing Ruby to poof.

The arms disappeared, leaving only two to hold the gems of Ruby and Sapphire.

“Hm, that wasn’t very difficult at all.” From the ceiling, someone dropped down, hitting the wooden floor with metal covered feet as a brown cloth covered them. “I too am curious about your future visions, Sapphire.” Two cloth-like hands grabbed the gems as the shadow arms phased away. “Perhaps it’s the doing of the Cross-Over Crystal.”

The intruder moved his cloth hands around the gems and covered them into two green-crystal orbs.

“That seems like an unusual bond you two share, as if you’re opposite genders of organic beings. But why should I, Master Maskus, ponder long for this, when the worlds are now closer in our grasps.”

Maskus looked towards the door of the temple itself and walked towards it. “Interesting, this appear to be a doorway, and yet …. I feel something ……”

Maskus tried opening the door with his cloth-like hands. With no budge, he laid six more cloth hands and tried to force the door open, but it did not move.”

“Guess I’ll have to do this.” He held out one of his cloth hands and a portal appeared. He walked through it and found a room filled with bubbled gems. “My first try and I already discovered their t-treasure room.”

Maskus examined each gem floating in the room. “What some unusual looking gems …… perhaps this is some sort of prison.” He looked at each gem and decides to pop one at random.

The gem dropped to the ground and the bird-like gem monster that Peridot caught appeared. It shrieked at Maskus and charged after him, only to be poof from a spike that was shot at it.

Looking at the bubbles, Maskus held out his hand and covered the gem with his own created bubble, which had a dark aura around it.

“Not at strong as I was hoping.” Maskus looked around all the gems. “They can all be useful, but if I took all, then someone might notice too soon.” Maskus looked at the gems of both Ruby and Sapphire. “Let alone they won’t find their friends here just by calling out.”

Maskus skimmed through all the gems. “And I cannot just test each one. Eventually they may find this world as well.

Maskus turned his attention to one particular gem, an orange quartz.

Maskus seemed very interested in this particular one. “So many of them, they are beasts. But this ….. this seems younger in some way.”

Maskus looked around the quiet room. “Let’s see what potential you have.”

Back at the boardwalk, a creature stood on top of a building, watching everyone exchanging gifts, laughing, playing, dancing, and talking to friends.

“They seem so nice, such a shame we have to interrupt their fun.”

“Scouter #52.” #52 looked around to see two other creatures that look similar to himself. “We’ve just heard from Maskus, he’d found an ally.”

“Really?” #52 spoke softly. “That was quick to find a villain in this joyful town.”

“Well the ally isn’t all brains.” One said to #52. “Come, Maskus wants us to reveal ourselves soon.”

#52 nodded as it glanced at the people one more time before walking with the others.

At the Festival, everyone was getting very interested in Connie’s new gift. She wanted to see her parents right away to put it in the car for safe keeping. After speaking with Pearl, the eyes of others caught the crystal’s welcoming glow. Soon more and more people gathered around Connie, asking what it was and where it came from.

Connie’s felt a bit overwhelmed by everyone’s attention, but soon Steven came in and answered everyone’s questions.

“I found this at an old temple and thought I might give it to Connie. Pretty nice, huh?”

“I say it is.” Mayor Dewey came into the scene. “That priceless artifact must be …. Well priceless!”

Connie and Steven looked at the crystal with sparkling eyes.

“Really?!” Steven asked in awe. “Now it’s a super present!”

“Super Present?” Connie felt the feeling of being a lower friend to Steven again. “Well …. Which is why I’m gonna treasure it even more.”

“Why is it glowing?” Peedee asked. “You know Ronaldo is gonna try dissecting it. He’s been talking about some Diamond Authority and a green zoo hating person lately.” Peedee looked around. “Say, where did Romando go?”

After a while, Pearl came by with Amethyst. “Now say ‘sorry’ to the nice people wasting a potential fighting strategy for a simple game.”

Steven waved to them and he and Connie escaped the crowd. “Hey Pearl, hey Amethyst. Have you seen Ronaldo.”

“No, thank goodness.” Pearl said as Amethyst poked her ear. “So how is Gift Festival going on?”

Steven was just as energetic as always to tell Pearl all he did like help out Peridot and Lapis, play games, hung out with Lars and Sadie, and even played a song with Greg while Greg’s cousin Andy DeMayo joined in.

“Did you know that Uncle Andy can sing backwards? I didn’t know that. Apparently all you need to do is drink a lot of grape juice to do it.”

“Yeah.” Greg came in and rubbed the back of his head. “Grape juice ….. no really, it was actual grape juice. Have no idea why he acts that way.”

As Steven talked, Connie caught something at the corner of her trained eye. “What’s that?” Connie noticed an unusual decoration at the side of the store. She could have sworn nothing was there before. It looks like a two foot tall mask in the shape of an upside down triangle with curves, with huge eyes, an X shaped mouth, and long black hair sticking out from around it.

“What’s ya lookin at?” Steven asked.

“That thing there.” Connie pointed at the mask “Is that a traditional decoration?”

Steven rubbed his chin. “I never seen it. Must be new.”

Connie stared at the mask for a while. “Something about it seem ….. unnatural.” Connie turned to Steven. “I could have sworn I saw it moved.”

“Oooo weee oooooh.” Steven said in his sci-fi voice, getting a giggle from Connie.

Steven took an interest in it and wanted to see it for himself, but the work of a Crystal Gem is never done when he heard a sudden cry of a beast.

“What in Beach City was that!?” Dewey asked in shock as Pearl and Amethyst looked around.

“That must be another Corrupted Gem.” Pearl stated as Amethyst swiped Dewey’s megaphone.

“Listen up, Beach City. Get the heck outta here!”

The people were very quick to take Amethyst’s warning, from past experiences. However the cry of the beast was heard again, sounding closer than before.

“Hit the deck!” shouted Sour Cream as a white blur rolled pasted the humans and crashed into a stand with Dewey merchandise.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Dewey collapsed to the ground, weeping. “They-They could all play music, written by me-he-he!”

Ignoring the broken man, Pearl took a look at the orange skinned and white haired beast as it stood up and roared at them. She drew her spear from her Gem, ready to fight. “Amethyst, distract the Gem while I go for the soft belly.”

Pearl heard no response.

“Amethyst?”

Amethyst looked at the creature with pure shock. “T-That’s Jasper!”

“Jasper!?” Steven, Connie, and Pearl shouted.

“How’d she escaped?!” Steven asked as Connie ran to her parents.

“Mom, Dad. That’s a Corrupted Gem! You have to get out of here!”

Her parents where just as shocked as the other humans running in fear, but the idea of their daughter joining in on the fight shook their souls.

“Y-You are not fighting … that!” Doug took his daughter’s wrist.

“But Dad! We’ve talked about this.” Connie pulled away. “I’ve fought a Gem Mutant to protect mom! Steven and I can handle it.”

Dr. Priyanka and Doug felt conflicted, but the roar of the wounded Jasper broke their concentration.

“We can handle Jasper now!” Amethyst said with joy as she spun around Jasper, angrily confusing it.

“That’s right.” Pearl shot several beams at Jasper’s head. “She’s a mindless monster now. If she was uncorrupted, that would be a different story. She could easily throw us at those buildings and hold you two hostages in exchange for Steven, and perhaps Connie.”

“Not helping, Pearl.” Steven said as he blocked Jasper’s claws with his shield. “Pearl, I got her. Aim for anywhere except her Gem nose.”

Pearl and Amethyst were ready to attack, but Jasper surprised them by shrieking at them with a horrible volume.

“Ahhhh!” Both Gems covered their ears. “Well this is new.”

“Whaaaaat?” Amethyst asked, blocking her ears.

“Amethyst, not now! I can’t hear you!” Pearl shouted.

Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran slowly stood back as the monster seems to be overpowering them. “Connie, we should-” Doug’s jaw dropped as he stood there and watch his baby girl dashing towards the beast with Rose’s Sword in hand! “Connie!”

However he was suddenly surprised and if he wasn’t aware of it, impressed, to see her jump on Steven’s shield to slice the monster in half, but instantly went back to fear when Jasper took one look at Connie and jumped back several feet.

Connie was surprised by the sudden retreat, but landed on the ground perfectly.

Jasper snarled at both Connie and Steven, scratching the ground like a bull ready to charge.

Connie readied herself as Steven and the Gems joined them, but Jasper suddenly stopped acting aggressive. She stopped scratching the ground and sat down like a trained dog.

“Huh?” Steven asked as the heroes confused glances at each other.

They stood there for a while and noticed Jasper not doing a thing.

“What’s up with her?” Amethyst asked Pearl.

“She’s acting as if she’s waiting for a command.” Connie said, still keeping her eyes on her.

“Maybe she wants a treat?” Steven suggested. “Hey Japser! Wanna big juice steak?” Steven called out to her.

“Roaaaar.” The sound of a lazy creature was heard from a close distance.

“Oh now you show up, Lion.” Steven folded his arms at Lion who just walked into the scene. “And where’s Garnet?”

Pearl and Amethyst also realized that their fusion friend isn’t with them. “Yeah, she’s missing the action that just paused.” Amethyst said, gesturing to the quiet Jasper.

Pearl looked concerned. “Yes, last I heard from her, she said she was going to the ….. temple!” Pearl jolted up. “Garnet went to the Temple, and now Jasper’s here!”

Steven became severely worried. “Did something happen to Garnet?”

Before they could say anything else, Mayor Dewey started running around in a panic. “Help! We’re being invaded by trib-”

Suddenly Jasper gave a horrifying different roar as she herself started flashing green slowly.

The others were taken back by this, but failed to react when Jasper’s speed suddenly increased as she pinned Dewey to the ground and roared at her new prey.

“Mayor Dewey!” Steven shouted in fear. “We’ll save you!”

Jasper looked at them and gave them another sonic screech which halted them in their track. Running on pure instinct, Jasper saw her foes stunned and looked at Dewey with the desire to feast.

“Wait, wait! I’m the mayor! I can give you anything! Like a free tongue presser! Or popsicle sticks as the young hipsters call them.”

Dewey closed his eyes, ready for his doom, when suddenly a beam was shot at Jasper.

Jasper took a few steps back and released Dewey, who quickly crawled away like a rat. She scanned her surrounding, and was then bombarded with green lasers shooting directly at her.

Steven and the others rubbed their ears and saw that Jasper was being attack from several directions.

“Look!” Steven pointed around. “Those guys are shooting lasers at her!” The heroes watched to see several small creatures running towards Jasper. “What are those?”

“Are they more messed up Gems?” Amethyst asked Pearl.

“None I have ever seen before.” Pearl examined the small creatures running around and scratching Jasper. One shot a green laser at her with its mouth, but Jasper then swopped them up into the air as it turned its direction to the heroes, only for more creatures to lunge onto her face.

“Well whatever they are, they must be on our side!” Steven said with joy.

“Steven …..” Connie noticed the creature’s structure. They were all two foot tall with what looks like masks for heads. And they were just that, masks for heads with limbs. Connie recognized the mask easily with its downward triangular shape with large eyes and X shaped mouth. Two small green pupils could be seen in their large black eyes as they attacked Jasper with their black raptor-like claws. Their feet also appeared bird-like, modern birds to be precise, with the same matching color as its claws. The back of the creatures were just a patch of black hair sticking out, shaking from the fate they’re taking part in.

“That’s the same mask decoration I saw at the corner!” Connie pointed out. “I knew I saw it moved!”

“Really?” One of the masked creatures stumbled to the grounded and landed next to the heroes. “I was hoping you didn’t see me moving.”

“Why’s that?” Steven asked.

“Weee …. Noticed that thing coming towards the city.” The creature pointed at Jasper who was having a difficult time dealing with the creatures. “Didn’t know if it was some pet, protected species, so we thought we might watch it …… heh.” The creature shrugged out of sheepishness. Huh, so sheepishness is a real word.

He quickly stood up and bowed. “I am Scouter #52. At ….. well I would usually say ‘your service’ after ‘at’, but I pledge my allegiance with another.”

“And who might that be?” Pearl asked. “And another question, what are you?” she asked assertively.

Their attention turned toward Jasper as several energy spheres were stuck on Jasper from above.

“Him!” #52 pointed at person floating down like an angel with long sleeves floating in the air.

“Who’s that!?” Pearl and Amethyst drew their weapons. “Are you all from Homeworld!?” Pearl glared at #52, which frightens him a bit.

“Homeworld? I heard of nothing called that.” #52 turned to the person. “But trust me; he is someone you want on your side.”

The heroes looked at the person standing before them. He appears to be wearing a brown cloak with spiked shoulders, metal feet, and long sleeves which looks like have four hands on the ends of each. Maskus took a step around to reveal his face in the twilight. He was indeed a menacing looking figure to the Crystal Gems. His brown cloak had green strips around the bottom of his cloak and on the sides, a familiar looking green eye symbol can be seen on his chest, and the most striking feature, his serious and angered looking tribal mask with glowing green eyes.

“I must say, you are all incredibly powerful.” The person bowed to them. They all took notice of how his sleeve bends when he bow, there was no arm in them whatsoever. “You would have conquered this beast easily.”

Jasper swatted all the masked creatures away and ran towards Maskus.

Maskus did not turn to Jasper. With a smug smile on his face, Maskus held his left arm behind him and his hands stretched out and grabbed a hold of Jasper’s face.

With his other arm, he created another green energy sphere that quickly turned into a sphere. “But I feel an urge to take this one down myself.”

Maskus aimed the spear at the face of Jasper and threw it directly at her.

Fearing that he may shattered Jasper, Steven covered his eyes until he heard a poof, and the sound of something dropping in the snow.

“What an interesting Gemstone.” Maskus picked up Jasper in one piece, much to Steven’s relief. Steven’s eyes widened when he encased the gem with a green bubble of his own.

“That …. Was so cool!” Steven wanted to meet the hero, but Pearl stopped him.

“Steven, you don’t know who that is!”

#52 walked over to the person and presented him with a bow. “That was indeed your most finest strike, Master Maskus.”

“Maskus.” Steven said in aww. “Wait, Mask-us. That’s not a very clever name.”

Lion then roared.

“Oh, yeah. I named you just ‘Lion’.” Steven smiled bashfully. “Jokes on me.”

Who is this mysterious person that saved the Crystal Gems? ….. wait, don’t look at the old story! We already know he’s a bad guy! Don’t skip to that chapter! Get back here you little …. You’re staying? Good. ….. wait, I won’t be able to hear you. You’re probably just ignoring this as I write this! Well technically you won’t see this until it’s all typed and posted.

Oh well. Whos’ dat? What’s next? What he do with Garnet? Where are Peridot and Lapis? Seriously, why do shows always recap what questions everyone is obviously asking themselves? O.K., they probably don’t do that anymore, whatever.

End of Chapter

Prev.

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Chapter 3: Corrupt Beast

World: ???

In the center of a dark room, a green glowing object was illuminating what looks like a ceremony with four elders praying. Three old men were circled around the object humming a chant while an elderly looking shaman woman was praying.

“Corazon, find the crystal. Hear our prayers.”

Suddenly the old woman’s hands began to glow as she observes them. “Finally, the world has been found.” She took a deep breath. “Gather the soldiers, we must leave and find the chosen one of that world, before Maskus retrieves the crystal.”

World: Beach City and Beyond

“MmmmmM! These burgers are the best.” Mayor Dewey said at a grill operated by Harold Smiley.

“Don’t thank me, thanks these bad boys!” Smiley patted the propane tanks. “Best propane in the world!”

“Why yes they are!” Mr. Dewey winked. “Sure am glad the company that provides these wonderful tanks are native here.”

“Mayor Dewey, no they’re not.” Smiley corrected him. “They’re headquarters are in the Keystone State. You know, the one with square pizza.”

“Oh.” Then Dewey walked away, only to fall right into an open manhole, with Onion running away. The small boy passed by Garnet, who watched the event unfold.

“Hmmmmm.” Garnet was deep in thought as she walked around Beach City, seeing other activities and some mishaps.

“This shouldn’t be happening.” Garnet noticed Pearl and Amethyst watching some jugglers.

“Juggle this!” Amethyst threw them a bowling pin. “Now this!” She threw an orange. “Now this!” A plate. “Now this.” A bowl of pudding. “Now this!” A dog. “Now this!” and finally a porcupine.

Seeing what came naturally, Garnet spoke with the annoyed Pearl and laughing Amethyst. “I’ll be right back. Going to run to the temple real quick.”

“O.K., and I’ll deal with Amethyst.” The irritated Pearl said.

“Try finding me first!”

Pearl noticed Amethyst wasn’t standing next to her anymore and was nowhere in sight. “What the-Amethyst!”

Pearl ran off and bumped into Connie with her parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran, have you seen Amethyst?”

The couple shook their heads no. “Sorry, Pearl. I didn’t see her.” Dr. Priyanka said, while Amethyst pretended to be a snowman in the background. “But we must thank Steven for his gift to our daughter Connie, it’s so fascinating. Perfect for the science fair.”

Pearl looked at Connie excited mood as Doug Maheswaran examined the crystal for himself. “This won’t turn into some Gem Monster, would it?” he asked Pearl for concern for his daughter’s safety.

“Positively. I’ve studied it myself.” Pearl gestured to herself. “And I’ve trained Connie enough to handle any threat towards herself.” Pearl and her student bowed to each other.

“And it has been an honor, Master Pearl.”

“Hey, we’ve trademarked the word ‘Master’!” shouted someone who was quickly quieted in the background next to Amethyst.

“Woah, nice hiding spot. Whatever the heck you guys are!”

“Yipe!”

The owners of that yipe was quickly relieved when Pearl ran towards Amethyst. “There you are!” Pearl shouted as Amethyst shifted back and gave chase.

Connie parents just watched the Gems’ shenanigans talk place from a distance. “I have to say, those Gems are unique, and yet very good ….. well Gems.” Priyanka said. “Connie.” She kneeled down to her daughter. “I’m very glad you’ve met them.”

Connie felt a little sheepish. “Well you should really thank Steven.” She held the crystal close. “If he wasn’t so friendly and nice, I would have never made friends with them.”

“We get it, people ship you two kids!”

“Get back in the snowbank! Hunter #80!”

Back in the house, Garnet entered inside and took two quick glances. “The close is clear.” In a bright light, Garnet split in half and both Ruby and Sapphire appeared.

Ruby and Sapphire hardly separate. The only recent time they did so willingly was to trick the Homeworld Rubies who they believed were looking for Peridot.

This time however, Ruby paced around the room impatiently as Sapphire sat on the floor, quietly and motionless.

They’ve been like this for at least ten minutes before Ruby finally spoke. “Well, anything?”

Sapphire shook her head no. “I am sorry, Ruby, but I cannot see any future events. Not even a single stream.”

Ruby pulled her hair in frustration. “Why is that?! This never happened before besides ….. did Pearl trick us into fusing again?!” Ruby’s red tone turned darker as she clenched her hands, ready to crush anything. “I swear if-”

“Now now, Ruby.” Sapphire calmed her town with a peck on the cheek, easing the Gem immediately. “No one had done that to us in recent time. But when Pearl did, the visions I failed to see are the ones that involves Peridot’s finding.”

Sapphire walked to the window to see the beautiful snow-covered beach with the wind blowing and the light snow drifting in the air.

“In my entire existence, I always had the ability to see the possible futures. But right now, it is as if time itself stood in place.” She placed her hand on the glass as a bird flew down. “But nothing is frozen.”

“There is something frozen.” Sapphire looked at Ruby looking serious. “The snow.”

Sapphire, despite the situation at hand, let out a small joyful laugh. “Oh Ruby.” Sapphire checked her palm to examine her gem. “This is still serious, my gem is still intact and yet …….” She took a deep breath and sat on the sofa. “Why is this happening?”

Ruby sat right next to her, scratching the back of her head to think. “Well …. What if some evil Time Lord or something is messing things up?”

Sapphire smiled. “Now you sound like Steven.”

They laughed together, but eventually quite down, wondering what to do.

“So ….. should we tell Pearl and Amethyst about this?” Ruby asked Sapphire.

“It is wise that we should, so they would not rely on us for any surprise attacks.” Sapphire looked at Ruby in the eyes. “But we should not inform Steven. We do not want him to worry on such a joyful day for humans.”

“Good point.” Ruby looked down at the floor. “Well maybe Steven will do something crazy that ends up fixing all this, which is pretty much how it always goes.” Ruby recalled some instances Steven managed to them out of some situations like with his Cheesburger backpack, the escape from Jasper, and mostly how he won over both Peridot and Lapis. “Am I right, Sapphire?”

POOF

Ruby’s eyes shot right open looked right where Sapphire sat, only to find some weird dark and long thing sticking from the wall!”

“Ahhhh!” Ruby fell over and gave the thing a better look, a strange shadow arm with Sapphire’s gem in its hand. “Sapphire!” Ruby’s gauntlet formed as she was about to pounce, only for more shadow arms to appear and grabbed Ruby still.

Her body temperature began to rise as the arms began to burn. “Oh you don’t like this! Well you had it-” Ruby was then hit in the gem with one of the arms with glowing green fingers. Ruby didn’t know why, it felt like a very weak gab done by a human, but she felt very weak and her temperature returned to normal.

She nearly lost consciousness before one of the hands moved in front of her face. The palm of the shadow arm opened to reveal a green eye staring right at her.

Fear took over Ruby for a split second before the hand lunged at Ruby’s hand and took the gem, causing Ruby to poof.

The arms disappeared, leaving only two to hold the gems of Ruby and Sapphire.

“Hm, that wasn’t very difficult at all.” From the ceiling, someone dropped down, hitting the wooden floor with metal covered feet as a brown cloth covered them. “I too am curious about your future visions, Sapphire.” Two cloth-like hands grabbed the gems as the shadow arms phased away. “Perhaps it’s the doing of the Cross-Over Crystal.”

The intruder moved his cloth hands around the gems and covered them into two green-crystal orbs.

“That seems like an unusual bond you two share, as if you’re opposite genders of organic beings. But why should I, Master Maskus, ponder long for this, when the worlds are now closer in our grasps.”

Maskus looked towards the door of the temple itself and walked towards it. “Interesting, this appear to be a doorway, and yet …. I feel something ……”

Maskus tried opening the door with his cloth-like hands. With no budge, he laid six more cloth hands and tried to force the door open, but it did not move.”

“Guess I’ll have to do this.” He held out one of his cloth hands and a portal appeared. He walked through it and found a room filled with bubbled gems. “My first try and I already discovered their t-treasure room.”

Maskus examined each gem floating in the room. “What some unusual looking gems …… perhaps this is some sort of prison.” He looked at each gem and decides to pop one at random.

The gem dropped to the ground and the bird-like gem monster that Peridot caught appeared. It shrieked at Maskus and charged after him, only to be poof from a spike that was shot at it.

Looking at the bubbles, Maskus held out his hand and covered the gem with his own created bubble, which had a dark aura around it.

“Not at strong as I was hoping.” Maskus looked around all the gems. “They can all be useful, but if I took all, then someone might notice too soon.” Maskus looked at the gems of both Ruby and Sapphire. “Let alone they won’t find their friends here just by calling out.”

Maskus skimmed through all the gems. “And I cannot just test each one. Eventually they may find this world as well.

Maskus turned his attention to one particular gem, an orange quartz.

Maskus seemed very interested in this particular one. “So many of them, they are beasts. But this ….. this seems younger in some way.”

Maskus looked around the quiet room. “Let’s see what potential you have.”

Back at the boardwalk, a creature stood on top of a building, watching everyone exchanging gifts, laughing, playing, dancing, and talking to friends.

“They seem so nice, such a shame we have to interrupt their fun.”

“Scouter #52.” #52 looked around to see two other creatures that look similar to himself. “We’ve just heard from Maskus, he’d found an ally.”

“Really?” #52 spoke softly. “That was quick to find a villain in this joyful town.”

“Well the ally isn’t all brains.” One said to #52. “Come, Maskus wants us to reveal ourselves soon.”

#52 nodded as it glanced at the people one more time before walking with the others.

At the Festival, everyone was getting very interested in Connie’s new gift. She wanted to see her parents right away to put it in the car for safe keeping. After speaking with Pearl, the eyes of others caught the crystal’s welcoming glow. Soon more and more people gathered around Connie, asking what it was and where it came from.

Connie’s felt a bit overwhelmed by everyone’s attention, but soon Steven came in and answered everyone’s questions.

“I found this at an old temple and thought I might give it to Connie. Pretty nice, huh?”

“I say it is.” Mayor Dewey came into the scene. “That priceless artifact must be …. Well priceless!”

Connie and Steven looked at the crystal with sparkling eyes.

“Really?!” Steven asked in awe. “Now it’s a super present!”

“Super Present?” Connie felt the feeling of being a lower friend to Steven again. “Well …. Which is why I’m gonna treasure it even more.”

“Why is it glowing?” Peedee asked. “You know Ronaldo is gonna try dissecting it. He’s been talking about some Diamond Authority and a green zoo hating person lately.” Peedee looked around. “Say, where did Romando go?”

After a while, Pearl came by with Amethyst. “Now say ‘sorry’ to the nice people wasting a potential fighting strategy for a simple game.”

Steven waved to them and he and Connie escaped the crowd. “Hey Pearl, hey Amethyst. Have you seen Ronaldo.”

“No, thank goodness.” Pearl said as Amethyst poked her ear. “So how is Gift Festival going on?”

Steven was just as energetic as always to tell Pearl all he did like help out Peridot and Lapis, play games, hung out with Lars and Sadie, and even played a song with Greg while Greg’s cousin Andy DeMayo joined in.

“Did you know that Uncle Andy can sing backwards? I didn’t know that. Apparently all you need to do is drink a lot of grape juice to do it.”

“Yeah.” Greg came in and rubbed the back of his head. “Grape juice ….. no really, it was actual grape juice. Have no idea why he acts that way.”

As Steven talked, Connie caught something at the corner of her trained eye. “What’s that?” Connie noticed an unusual decoration at the side of the store. She could have sworn nothing was there before. It looks like a two foot tall mask in the shape of an upside down triangle with curves, with huge eyes, an X shaped mouth, and long black hair sticking out from around it.

“What’s ya lookin at?” Steven asked.

“That thing there.” Connie pointed at the mask “Is that a traditional decoration?”

Steven rubbed his chin. “I never seen it. Must be new.”

Connie stared at the mask for a while. “Something about it seem ….. unnatural.” Connie turned to Steven. “I could have sworn I saw it moved.”

“Oooo weee oooooh.” Steven said in his sci-fi voice, getting a giggle from Connie.

Steven took an interest in it and wanted to see it for himself, but the work of a Crystal Gem is never done when he heard a sudden cry of a beast.

“What in Beach City was that!?” Dewey asked in shock as Pearl and Amethyst looked around.

“That must be another Corrupted Gem.” Pearl stated as Amethyst swiped Dewey’s megaphone.

“Listen up, Beach City. Get the heck outta here!”

The people were very quick to take Amethyst’s warning, from past experiences. However the cry of the beast was heard again, sounding closer than before.

“Hit the deck!” shouted Sour Cream as a white blur rolled pasted the humans and crashed into a stand with Dewey merchandise.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Dewey collapsed to the ground, weeping. “They-They could all play music, written by me-he-he!”

Ignoring the broken man, Pearl took a look at the orange skinned and white haired beast as it stood up and roared at them. She drew her spear from her Gem, ready to fight. “Amethyst, distract the Gem while I go for the soft belly.”

Pearl heard no response.

“Amethyst?”

Amethyst looked at the creature with pure shock. “T-That’s Jasper!”

“Jasper!?” Steven, Connie, and Pearl shouted.

“How’d she escaped?!” Steven asked as Connie ran to her parents.

“Mom, Dad. That’s a Corrupted Gem! You have to get out of here!”

Her parents where just as shocked as the other humans running in fear, but the idea of their daughter joining in on the fight shook their souls.

“Y-You are not fighting … that!” Doug took his daughter’s wrist.

“But Dad! We’ve talked about this.” Connie pulled away. “I’ve fought a Gem Mutant to protect mom! Steven and I can handle it.”

Dr. Priyanka and Doug felt conflicted, but the roar of the wounded Jasper broke their concentration.

“We can handle Jasper now!” Amethyst said with joy as she spun around Jasper, angrily confusing it.

“That’s right.” Pearl shot several beams at Jasper’s head. “She’s a mindless monster now. If she was uncorrupted, that would be a different story. She could easily throw us at those buildings and hold you two hostages in exchange for Steven, and perhaps Connie.”

“Not helping, Pearl.” Steven said as he blocked Jasper’s claws with his shield. “Pearl, I got her. Aim for anywhere except her Gem nose.”

Pearl and Amethyst were ready to attack, but Jasper surprised them by shrieking at them with a horrible volume.

“Ahhhh!” Both Gems covered their ears. “Well this is new.”

“Whaaaaat?” Amethyst asked, blocking her ears.

“Amethyst, not now! I can’t hear you!” Pearl shouted.

Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran slowly stood back as the monster seems to be overpowering them. “Connie, we should-” Doug’s jaw dropped as he stood there and watch his baby girl dashing towards the beast with Rose’s Sword in hand! “Connie!”

However he was suddenly surprised and if he wasn’t aware of it, impressed, to see her jump on Steven’s shield to slice the monster in half, but instantly went back to fear when Jasper took one look at Connie and jumped back several feet.

Connie was surprised by the sudden retreat, but landed on the ground perfectly.

Jasper snarled at both Connie and Steven, scratching the ground like a bull ready to charge.

Connie readied herself as Steven and the Gems joined them, but Jasper suddenly stopped acting aggressive. She stopped scratching the ground and sat down like a trained dog.

“Huh?” Steven asked as the heroes confused glances at each other.

They stood there for a while and noticed Jasper not doing a thing.

“What’s up with her?” Amethyst asked Pearl.

“She’s acting as if she’s waiting for a command.” Connie said, still keeping her eyes on her.

“Maybe she wants a treat?” Steven suggested. “Hey Japser! Wanna big juice steak?” Steven called out to her.

“Roaaaar.” The sound of a lazy creature was heard from a close distance.

“Oh now you show up, Lion.” Steven folded his arms at Lion who just walked into the scene. “And where’s Garnet?”

Pearl and Amethyst also realized that their fusion friend isn’t with them. “Yeah, she’s missing the action that just paused.” Amethyst said, gesturing to the quiet Jasper.

Pearl looked concerned. “Yes, last I heard from her, she said she was going to the ….. temple!” Pearl jolted up. “Garnet went to the Temple, and now Jasper’s here!”

Steven became severely worried. “Did something happen to Garnet?”

Before they could say anything else, Mayor Dewey started running around in a panic. “Help! We’re being invaded by trib-”

Suddenly Jasper gave a horrifying different roar as she herself started flashing green slowly.

The others were taken back by this, but failed to react when Jasper’s speed suddenly increased as she pinned Dewey to the ground and roared at her new prey.

“Mayor Dewey!” Steven shouted in fear. “We’ll save you!”

Jasper looked at them and gave them another sonic screech which halted them in their track. Running on pure instinct, Jasper saw her foes stunned and looked at Dewey with the desire to feast.

“Wait, wait! I’m the mayor! I can give you anything! Like a free tongue presser! Or popsicle sticks as the young hipsters call them.”

Dewey closed his eyes, ready for his doom, when suddenly a beam was shot at Jasper.

Jasper took a few steps back and released Dewey, who quickly crawled away like a rat. She scanned her surrounding, and was then bombarded with green lasers shooting directly at her.

Steven and the others rubbed their ears and saw that Jasper was being attack from several directions.

“Look!” Steven pointed around. “Those guys are shooting lasers at her!” The heroes watched to see several small creatures running towards Jasper. “What are those?”

“Are they more messed up Gems?” Amethyst asked Pearl.

“None I have ever seen before.” Pearl examined the small creatures running around and scratching Jasper. One shot a green laser at her with its mouth, but Jasper then swopped them up into the air as it turned its direction to the heroes, only for more creatures to lunge onto her face.

“Well whatever they are, they must be on our side!” Steven said with joy.

“Steven …..” Connie noticed the creature’s structure. They were all two foot tall with what looks like masks for heads. And they were just that, masks for heads with limbs. Connie recognized the mask easily with its downward triangular shape with large eyes and X shaped mouth. Two small green pupils could be seen in their large black eyes as they attacked Jasper with their black raptor-like claws. Their feet also appeared bird-like, modern birds to be precise, with the same matching color as its claws. The back of the creatures were just a patch of black hair sticking out, shaking from the fate they’re taking part in.

“That’s the same mask decoration I saw at the corner!” Connie pointed out. “I knew I saw it moved!”

“Really?” One of the masked creatures stumbled to the grounded and landed next to the heroes. “I was hoping you didn’t see me moving.”

“Why’s that?” Steven asked.

“Weee …. Noticed that thing coming towards the city.” The creature pointed at Jasper who was having a difficult time dealing with the creatures. “Didn’t know if it was some pet, protected species, so we thought we might watch it …… heh.” The creature shrugged out of sheepishness. Huh, so sheepishness is a real word.

He quickly stood up and bowed. “I am Scouter #52. At ….. well I would usually say ‘your service’ after ‘at’, but I pledge my allegiance with another.”

“And who might that be?” Pearl asked. “And another question, what are you?” she asked assertively.

Their attention turned toward Jasper as several energy spheres were stuck on Jasper from above.

“Him!” #52 pointed at person floating down like an angel with long sleeves floating in the air.

“Who’s that!?” Pearl and Amethyst drew their weapons. “Are you all from Homeworld!?” Pearl glared at #52, which frightens him a bit.

“Homeworld? I heard of nothing called that.” #52 turned to the person. “But trust me; he is someone you want on your side.”

The heroes looked at the person standing before them. He appears to be wearing a brown cloak with spiked shoulders, metal feet, and long sleeves which looks like have four hands on the ends of each. Maskus took a step around to reveal his face in the twilight. He was indeed a menacing looking figure to the Crystal Gems. His brown cloak had green strips around the bottom of his cloak and on the sides, a familiar looking green eye symbol can be seen on his chest, and the most striking feature, his serious and angered looking tribal mask with glowing green eyes.

“I must say, you are all incredibly powerful.” The person bowed to them. They all took notice of how his sleeve bends when he bow, there was no arm in them whatsoever. “You would have conquered this beast easily.”

Jasper swatted all the masked creatures away and ran towards Maskus.

Maskus did not turn to Jasper. With a smug smile on his face, Maskus held his left arm behind him and his hands stretched out and grabbed a hold of Jasper’s face.

With his other arm, he created another green energy sphere that quickly turned into a sphere. “But I feel an urge to take this one down myself.”

Maskus aimed the spear at the face of Jasper and threw it directly at her.

Fearing that he may shattered Jasper, Steven covered his eyes until he heard a poof, and the sound of something dropping in the snow.

“What an interesting Gemstone.” Maskus picked up Jasper in one piece, much to Steven’s relief. Steven’s eyes widened when he encased the gem with a green bubble of his own.

“That …. Was so cool!” Steven wanted to meet the hero, but Pearl stopped him.

“Steven, you don’t know who that is!”

#52 walked over to the person and presented him with a bow. “That was indeed your most finest strike, Master Maskus.”

“Maskus.” Steven said in aww. “Wait, Mask-us. That’s not a very clever name.”

Lion then roared.

“Oh, yeah. I named you just ‘Lion’.” Steven smiled bashfully. “Jokes on me.”

Who is this mysterious person that saved the Crystal Gems? ….. wait, don’t look at the old story! We already know he’s a bad guy! Don’t skip to that chapter! Get back here you little …. You’re staying? Good. ….. wait, I won’t be able to hear you. You’re probably just ignoring this as I write this! Well technically you won’t see this until it’s all typed and posted.

Oh well. Whos’ dat? What’s next? What he do with Garnet? Where are Peridot and Lapis? Seriously, why do shows always recap what questions everyone is obviously asking themselves? O.K., they probably don’t do that anymore, whatever.

End of Chapter

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