Chapter 23: A Stellar Brawl

At the same moment that the escape pod containing Steven, Lars, and Jasper landed at Red's satellite station, the Sun Incinerator was making its approach. The eight gems inside were completely silent as their towering red target. They already knew this was a risky operation, but the added risk of Lars being separated from the bunch and thus put in far further danger than originally intended meant that all of them were all the more nervous even with Peridot's assurance that the pod would arrive in the same place.

Adding to the dread was the fact that nothing stopped them from reaching one of the many ports along the station. There were no force fields, security checks or even other gems patrolling the bay. They hoped it was because the other three had made their distraction and not because the megalomaniacal Diamond saw them coming.

"Does… anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" Amethyst asked the group. Some of them gave her looks of mutual concern, "Yeah I thought so…"

"Alright, once we land," said Garnet as Pearl landed the craft, "Everyone except Padparadscha and Fluorite disembarks. We need to stick together here and make our way to this place's control room."

"Then, I hack into Red's systems," said Peridot excitedly, "Who knows what kind of critical information she could have?"

"Just be sure to keep your head in the real world for now," said Lapis. Soon the ship's landing ramp was open and the main Crystal Gems set foot into the port. The lack of any sort of alarm from their arrival made them all the more nervous.

"This doesn't feel right…" Pearl stated.

Nodding to this statement, Garnet then said, "Agreed. Somehow I get the feeling they're expecting us."

"That or Red's so overconfident that she doesn't care," said Bismuth.

They proceeded out of their landing zone and down the hall where, soon enough, they ran into their first obstacle as a pair of quartzes spotted them. Much to their confusion, the pair did not raise an alarm of any kind but just attacked them on sight. While they were quickly dispatched by the group, it raised more questions.

"Okay, that was just too easy," Amethyst pointed out.

"Agreed," Peridot stated, "Something else is going on…"

The group met similarly low resistance as they continued on with little more than scattered squads of gems, never more than four at a time, and the occasional junction that led to a dead end. Despite the relatively calm trip, their nerves only grew as more and more they felt someone was playing an elaborate practical joke at their expense.

And then, just to really rub in that feeling, Red Diamond appeared behind them.

"You all appear lost," she said casually, "Would you care from some directions?"

"Ach!" Amethyst was the first to react, trying to use the flails on her whip to hit her… only for the blunt object to literally go straight through her.

"Oh come on!" groaned Lapis, "A hologram?"

"You didn't think we were tracking you this whole time?" the virtual pearl asked, "You give us too little credit."

"So now what?" asked Bismuth, "You gonna sound the alarm and let the whole base know we're here?"

Just as the blacksmith said that, an alarm began blaring and the hologram seemed distracted before refocusing on them. "Alright, so your little diversion worked. The orders are already out to send more gems to the lower repair bay, but don't think you've escaped."

The hologram vanished and soon the Crystal Gems realized that their mission was now really beginning. They made their way up several levels and found far more resistance as a squad of eight guards met them head-on.

"Give up!" demanded one of the guards, "We have you outnumbered!"

Immediately Bismuth took up a combat stance, followed by everyone else.

"You first," she said in a simple tone. The two sides then charged at each other and soon the corridor became a battleground. Even if numbers were not on their side, the Crystal Gems proved more than enough to overpower the guards. Between Peridot using the metal hallway itself as a weapon, Lapis' intangibility from the MDM and the other four being more seasoned warriors, the rebels were soon alone in the corridor once again. "Alright Gems," Garnet stated, "Let's keep moving!" the others nodded more or less and they followed her down the corridor. The group soon found that Steven and Jasper's distraction was well underway as few other gems stopped them while a few even ran past them on their way down to a lower level. Finally, the six rebels arrived in what appeared to be the central power source of the station. A massive red orb made of energy floating between two columns sat in the middle of the towering room with conduits running from the base of the center into the wall.

"Well, looks like we found the right place," said Lapis, "But now what?"

"Peridot, start working on those computers," said Garnet, pointing to the workstation near the center, "The rest of us will guard the place to make sure no one gets inside."

And then, just as if they were jinxed, a series of ports opened up along the wall revealing dozens of gems each that began pouring into the room. It took little time for them to be surrounded on all sides.

"It's a trap!" Peridot said as she observed the enemy soldiers.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Amethyst in a deadpan tone. Before any fight could break out, though, several quakes suddenly rocked the room and brought everyone to a standstill...

The transformed Red Pearl and Captain Stars wasted no time going for each other's throats. The four-armed gem literally lunged and planned to crush his windpipe, but the fusion was more than ready. He leapt away from her lunge and then ricocheted off the wall to slam both his fists into her side.

"Nice try," he said as the beast picked herself back up, "But you'll need to be a lot smarter than that."

Red Pearl growled in frustration as she opened two of her hands and let loose twin jets of razor-sharp wind, but the captain had a plan for that too. He summoned a pair of barriers in front of him that stopped the blasts dead in their tracks and let him run between them to reach his foe. The pearl tried lashing at him with her tail, but that didn't work as he was able to grab at the tail safely. He then used his immense strength to pull at the tail and fling the servant gem over his head. While she landed on her feet and arms, the blow made cracks in the floor and shook the entire station.

"And you're gonna have to be a lot stronger too," boasted Captain Stars, "You sure you don't wanna have a warm-up?"

The creature slowly got up upon hearing that. She let out a loud roar! This only made Captain Stars give off a lighthearted smirk in her direction. He dashed right at her this time, barely giving her a moment to breath before leaping into the air and aiming a falling kick straight at her back. She managed to leap back up in time, but this caused him to go right through the floor and fall into another ship bay. Red Pearl wasted no time leaping after him and trying to shred him to pieces. He managed to leap to the side then he summoned his sword and shield…

Only a different weapon popped out. The shield looked unchanged for the most part, but he noticed that now the blade of his sword was sticking out instead of the handle. His hand gripped the center of the shield and found five more blades popped out to make the once-defensive weapon look like a giant throwing star.

The monster looked less than impressed as she lashed her tail at him while also blasting him with an air jet, but he was quick enough on the draw to jump over the one attack, block the gust with his new weapon and then send it flying in one movement. The new weapon spiraled through the air, a high whistle forming as it streaked through the air before it sliced one of Red Pearl's arms clean off.

"Okay…" he said with an even bigger smirk, "I can work with this. You, on the other hand, look like you need some help." He then brandished the weapon again, grinning arrogantly, "Last chance to back out."

The Gem creature merely growled in anger at the fusion as her arm regenerated, who merely had a look on his face and said, "Suit yourself." He ran over to recover his new toy before charging at Red Pearl again. He quickly found that he could will the blades to spin even when on his own and turned it into a makeshift chainsaw that forced Red Pearl to use all four of her arms to just barely block the weapon. She managed to catch him with her tail, but that only let him slice that off the stinger. He then put the weapon away and grabbed the monster by two of her arms before flinging her into another wall. She tried to get back up again, but this time he summoned a spiked bubble around himself and rammed into her with enough force to send her through the wall, even more satellite ships waiting for repair and even a few gems who had not cleared out the area. It only stopped when he reached what seemed to be the outermost wall of the station as instead, the entire structure began to tilt from the force of his charge.

These tremors were felt by the other Gems who wobbled as the floor shook a bit too hard.

"What is going on!?" Pearl said, shocked at the damage that was automatically happening around them. Monitors along the wall were smoking and the power core above them was beginning to flash an even darker shade of red.

"What did you traitors do?!" demanded one of the guards, "Did you plant bombs or something?!"

"Not quite," said a gruff voice from the entrance before bowling over several gems to reach the center of the room. Jasper then stood up and faced the others who all gawked at her.

"What did you do now?!" insisted Lapis, "We said make a distraction, not tear the place apart!"

"Too bad," Jasper snapped back, "At least you got your distraction!"

Suddenly another violent tremor was shaking the ship. "Yeah! We can tell!" Amethyst said in a deadpan tone.

"Well, better not blow it then!" said Bismuth as she charged forward and hammered another gem in the face. Realizing they had a golden opportunity on their hands, the others all jumped into the fight. They dominated the room for a few minutes as their opponents, even outnumbering them five to one, were too shaken from all the quakes to put up much resistance. By the time most of them got their heads on straight, almost a quarter of them were bubbled. Once the rest started focusing on the actual fight, things got much harder as the power room descended into a warzone while the base began to slowly turn as an even bigger brawl occurred several stories beneath them.

Captain Stars kept drilling Red Pearl into the wall until something else caught his attention from behind. One of the many robonoids from the bays he smashed through had followed him through and revealed a laser. He was not worried about the damage until it started blasting it back towards the rooms he passed and soon dozens of machines provided the monstrous pearl with backup.

He still was not phased as he summoned dozens of barriers to form a dome over himself and his main opponent, but soon stopped when Red Pearl picked up his bubble in all four of her hands. Even as the spikes dug into her palms, she squeezed the bubble as the robots began to open fire on the barrier between them. Between the barrage of laser fire against his shield and the pressure on his personal defenses, the captain spontaneously cut both powers as he leapt into the air.

The monster briefly thought he was retreating until he suddenly appeared behind him and literally flew into the ceiling with her tail in his hands. The robots continued to fire, but now they blasted Red Pearl while he made his way to the high ceiling and threw her into it and onto the next floor.

"What the heck is Steven doing!?" Pearl asked with panic and worry as everything shook even further!

"If this keeps up," said one of the guard gems, "This whole place will fall apart!"

Everyone from both sides grew nervous upon hearing that. Then another tremor sounded out.

"Uh…" Amethyst began, "Did that sound… closer…?"

Thud.

Thud.

CRASH!

Red Pearl and Captain Stars ended up bursting through the wall from the room next door. When the group heard the constant shouts and roars now sounded clear as day, everyone started panicking especially as a giant pink blade flew clean out of the wall and sliced through half a dozen enemy gems, poofing them all successfully before stopping. The Crystal Gems, recognizing Steven's shield, were filled with even more questions until the captain himself came through the same wall.

"Okay…" he muttered, "You actually got one on me. But next time I'll-"

"STEVEN?!" shouted the Crystal Gems minus Jasper. She was more preoccupied with Red Pearl's eye peering through the hole she made with his body.

"Questions later!" said Captain Stars, "You all need to leave. This fight is way too intense for anyone else!"

"But Steven, or whoever you are," insisted Pearl, "You can't be serious!"

"I'm completely serious! That monster's not gonna stop until I put her down and I can't do that with you all in the way!"

"He's got a point," admitted Garnet, "This place will be out of commission soon if the damage keeps up."

"No way!" protested Lapis, "Steven, we can't just abandon you!"

"This team sticks together!" agreed Bismuth.

"What would we do if you didn't come back?!" cried Amethyst.

"I know…" the captain said, all his bravado gone for a moment, "But I have to do this. That thing is Red Diamond right-hand. If I beat her, maybe that'll get Red Diamond to back off. I need to do this alone, you guys."

Red Pearl watched the whole thing as the enemy gems quickly stormed out of the room, recognizing the fight was too much for them. Her eyes then turned to Peridot, the techie's eyes more concerned with the fusion than her. She raised one of her hands to the same whole and sent a blast of razor wind right at her back.

"Look out!" said Jasper as she ran for her one-time comrade and tackled her to the floor. The blast his Jasper instead and sent both gems slamming into the opposite wall.

"Peridot!"

"Jasper!"

When both of them stood up, it was obvious neither of them were unscathed. Jasper's back was riddled with cuts from the intensity of the wind and Peridot was shaking like a leaf while keeping her hands over her gem.

"That's it, we're going," affirmed Garnet. While the other gems heeded her words, Captain Stars had his head down as Red Pearl's fists broke through the wall completely. She was about to pull the other fusion along, but his feet were planted to the floor as he stared ahead.

"Garnet, get out of here," he snarled, "I'm finishing this."

Red Pearl seemed amused by the threat and roared at him as she entered the room fully. Suddenly, Captain Star's face… looked murderous… "You think that's funny?!" he screamed, "Let's see you laugh when I rip your head off!"

He let out a splitting scream as his entire body started glowing a radiant pink until suddenly he was consumed by it. The floor began to crack underneath him as he stared his four-armed foe down with a hot pink aura now surrounding his entire body. His muscles tensed slightly and his face was contorted into an expression of pure rage, eyes focused directly on Red Pearl.

"Everyone, get out," he said to the Crystal Gems behind him. All of them stood there, completely dumbstruck, until he suddenly snapped.

"I said get out, NOW! I'm going to lose it soon and I don't want to break any of you by accident!"

Everyone looked at the captain in concern. Garnet though took one look at Steven, frowning as she did so, then nodded. "Alright," she said, then to the others, "You heard him, let's move!"

"What!?" Jasper said in shock, "But-!"

"Come on!" Garnet said, ushering them away from the area.

Red Pearl watched them go, half-tempted to chase after them instead until Captain Stars grabbed her by the neck.

"You wanted my attention? Congratulations, you've got it."

He flung her over his back so she landed face first into the floor where the captain then summoned another giant shuriken and tried to nail her with it while she was down. Unfortunately, she managed to deflect it with her tail in the nick of time and then was ready to pounce on him. Much like Onyx, she charged at him on all fours and managed to be fast enough to slash him across the chest. While not enough for any lasting injury, it did make his temper even worse.

He angrily growled at the vicious servant before him. He rose and then began to charge at the creature. Red Pearl thought she was ready for a head-on assault, but was taken off-guard when he slid under her and took out two swords to slice her underside. She managed to flip over in time to avoid disembowelment, but she still reared back in pain from the attack. Captain Stars, however, felt no sympathy as he leapt up and kicked his enemy in the face at blistering speeds to the point where several footprints were embedded on her face when she finally managed to swipe him away.

And yet he did not smirk or show any arrogance. Only pure, seething anger, he then summoned his weapon again. He threw the massive blade at her right as she was distracted, but she fired off all four of her air cannons in a concentrated blast. While Captain Stars was surprised to see his weapon lose momentum and get blown away, he was not the least bit deterred. "You really think that'll stop me!?"

As the massive air blast came closer, he held out his hands and let loose a blast of hot pink energy to match Red's attack.

"Did you forget I'm part-Diamond?!" he yelled as their blasts struggled, "Nothing your insane boss can do to you will beat me!"

With one final push, his energy surged right through her blast and sent her flying into a wall. Much to her horror, she also saw all four of her hands had been blown up by the blast. Feeling she had finally bitten off more than she could chew, Red Pearl turned tail to run but Captain Stars was not having any of that.

"This ends now," he whispered as he prepared one final attack. He raised a hand in the air and formed and condensed as much energy as he could gather into a glimmering pink sphere the size of his head. He crushed it in his fist, changing it into a mass of particles, before flinging them right at the retreating Pearl.

"You're not hurting anyone else!"

The mass of energy flew right at her, giving her just enough time to turn around and see the scattered blast approaching her. She raised her still-reforming arms as one last defense before she was engulfed. When the light cleared, Captain Stars watched as Red Pearl opened her eyes and saw that she looked none the worse for wear. As her hands finished reforming, she cackled in glee thinking his attacking failed. She was about to charge once again, but then felt a stabbing pain in her lower right hand. She tried looking at it, but soon it burst into sparkles before she could even move it. She screeched in pain from the sudden explosion of energy as the same happened to several other parts of her body. Then in a matter of seconds she poofed, her form finally dematerializing until only her gem was left behind.

Seeing this, Captain Stars slowly began to calm down a bit, "Serves… you right…" he said, finally panting from some exhaustion. He wasn't done yet though, as, still with a serious expression, he began to approach the gemstone, intending to bubble it…

...Right before an explosion rocked the room! His blast ended up also hitting the energy core in the center of the room, setting off a chain reaction that was slowly destroying the ship before his very eyes!

"Well, the base is destroyed," he thought optimistically, but then realized something else. "THE GEMS!"

He completely forgot they were still inside! The fight completely consumed his attention and with the damage he already made on the lower levels, there was no telling how long it would be before the whole place collapsed. He took one last look at the red gem still sitting on the floor, but immediately decided keeping his family safe was more important. He summoned a bubble and then bolted out the door, rolling through the corridors as fast as possible while trying to keep from damaging the place further. As chunks of the floor fell out from behind him and explosions kept sounding off from every direction, he felt the chances of the team making it out worse and worse.

Meanwhile… the gems in question made it to the hangar, where they saw the destruction unfold right before their very eyes. Sections of the wall were breaking off and they saw a few of the unluckier soldiers stationed here scrambling for either a transport ship or an escape pod.

"Everyone, get on!" said Rhodonite, "This place will fall apart any minute!"

"But what about Ste- I mean, that new fusion?!" argued Pearl, "What do we do? Let him get blown into space?!"

"I mean, he seems pretty tough," said Amethyst, "Maybe he could…"

"Do NOT joke with me on this! If he gets hurt, I'm going to find Red Diamond and shove my spear right into her-"

"Pearl, come on, this isn't helping!" said Bismuth from the gangway while Garnet, Lapis, Peridot and Jasper already were inside, "We won't be able to do a thing for him if we all get blown to bits!"

However the group saw someone running in the distance. A pink bubble was running towards them… "Wait," Amethyst said, "Is that…?"

"Guys, get out of here!" shouted Captain Stars as he knocked aside any rubble and fleeing gems in his way, "This place is going down!"

Thankful that he was still alive, but still panicking about the destruction, the Crystal Gems, Off-Colors, and Jasper followed him back into the ship.

There Captain Stars began to pant a bit, in a mixture of exhaustion or fear. Just as he made it to the ship, his body briefly turned into light before revealing an exhausted Steven and Lars.

"Come on, dudes!" said Amethyst as she hoisted them both by the shoulder, "No time for slacking off now!"

They were eventually inside the ship, abruptly dropped by Amethyst, who then said, "Let's blow this dump!"

The Off-Colors wasted no time getting the ship powered up and soon blasted out of the gates just as a massive chunk of ceiling flattened where they were docked. Peridot and Jasper looked out the viewport just as the base finally exploded completely, debris being flung for miles while they saw dozens of escape pods flee in multiple directions.

Lars looked at the scene in shock, "Whoa… I… Steven and I… did all that!?" He was almost speechless! He knew from Rhodonite and Fluorite that fusion was impressive, but this was unreal! He almost could not wait to fuse again, but that changed when he saw Steven. The older teen was lying face down on the floor of the ship.

"Steven?" asked Bismuth, "You okay, buddy?"

"No…" he muttered, "I can't believe I did that."

"Well," spoke Garnet, "It was only partially you. That's the thing about fusion: you do things you'd never do when you're alone."

"Yeah but I feel like… it was mostly ME who wanted to do those things! I mean, Captain Stars really wanted to pound on Red Pearl and- and NOT care about the consequences."

"You were just trying to protect Peridot," Garnet explained further.

"Steven, protecting your friends isn't wrong," defended Lapis, "We'd all do the same thing if that freak wasn't so overpowered."

"But what about you guys?" he rebutted, "The whole place almost blew up with all of you still in it!"

"We went into this knowing it was risky," said Jasper, much to everyone's surprise, "The chances of getting blown up were there long before your fusion got involved." She looked at her student, hoping that statement would help him cheer up. He lifted his head for a moment, but remained still.

"Steven?" the hybrid turned to look at Lars, who was rubbing the back of his neck for a second, "... I'm just glad we made it out alright. Is that good enough?"

Steven looked at him for a while and said, "Y-Yeah… I guess you're right."

"Exactly," assured Garnet, "We did what we came for and no one got hurt from it all."

"You've got a point there," said Lars, "I've had my share of close calls and it got the Off-Colors in trouble a few times. It's not exactly easy, but you just gotta move on from it."

"You think so?" asked Steven.

"I know for a fact that I needed time to unwind when I used to work for Homeworld," said Peridot, "No better relaxation than manning gem extractors…"

"Whatever floats your boat, man," shrugged Amethyst.

"Relaxation huh?" Steven said, deep in thought, "... Yeah, that actually sounds like a good idea. I need a break from… all of this."

Some of them gave him a look of concern, others gave a look of agreement, but all saw he had something of a point. It still had not been long since his panic from awakening his pink form and now to throw on accidentally endangering his entire family onto the pile made everyone agree he needed some distance, not from them, but rather from the dangers that these missions would put him through. Plus, after over a year of helping out the Crystal Gems and ending the conflict with Homeworld, they felt he deserved something of a vacation.

Meanwhile in deep space, in the ruins of the space station… A lone gemstone drifted among the rubble. While it had some hairline fractures along its surface, it was relatively intact. It was not long before a small red pod flew in and carried the gem away in a tractor beam back to Red Diamond's flagship.

Once it reached the ship, the pod raced straight towards Red Diamond's laboratory where the deranged scientist was rewatching the battle between her right-hand gem and the enraged Captain Stars, completely enraptured.

"To think… His potential goes so far…" she muttered to herself, "He actually beat her." Before she could decide if that was more exciting or worrying, the pod flew in front of her face with Red Pearl's gem in tow. The Diamond snatched up the stone and proceeded to send a small pulse of her own energy into it to revive the pearl for a few moments to fully assess the damage. While her body started to reform as usual, something was clearly wrong as the half-formed shrieked before fully forming. The Diamond experienced a rare moment of shock seeing her once-proud servant with one of her arms missing and multiple scars along her body.

"My Diamond…" she whispered painfully, "My deepest apologies… I failed. That last fusion proved too much even for your augmentations."

"It will be alright, Pearl. Some of the blame… Is mine."

"W-What?"

"All of these straightforward attacks have failed. Abducting him, blatant ploys, and even espionage all failed. I need to be more strategic here… But for now, my biggest priority is making an even better body for you. You've done well, Pearl. That will be all."

Soon, the energy infusion ran out and the maimed pearl was only a damaged stone again.

Red Diamond knew she had to change gears. And soon, she would have a new plan, a different plan, and hopefully, a plan that would succeed...