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Guest Lapis Lazuli     It's been almost a week since Lapis and Peridot warped across into the cavern of horrible beasts. Things ended up a bit awkward after they'd returned and come through safely. After that, they returned back to the ship, where Lapis had momentarily disappeared. Whether she was in her room or just.. out.. she was gone and to herself. It was little surprise that she would, the warship being the only place she could really call home at the moment. It seemed that Lapis and Jasper still hadn't reconciled after the VR room incident. Things had just.. blown up.

    But no sooner than she had returned did Peridot request that she return to the lava warp pad, and she obliged.

    Now in force, three spherical orbs travel over the magma field, followed by an entourage of battle robonoids, armed with cannons and small arms components. Two pods were filled with compressed water and a stabilising agent of Peridot's design that raised the boiling point of the water. A small protection against the heat of the lava field. As the pods descend to their previous landing spot, Lapis stands up from the back of the pod that Peridot is piloting.

    "Isn't this Jasper's duty?" She intones quietly, asking why the behemoth brute isn't acting as bodyguard instead of her. They've returned to investigate the other side of the warp pad again, but is it really worth it?
Peridot     Peridot stood at the controls of the hover pod. Her holopad at her side as she made a few swiping gesture across it. "Jasper..." She started, patiently... It was difficult to say exactly. She had made Jasper ride in a pod filled to the brim with saucy meat. (While Peridot had opted to helicopter her way home) In truth, she thought Jasper might be a little sore over that.
    "...is being utilized at the moment for another important mission." She half-lied. "Besides, we can handle a few corrupted gems now that we know what we're in for." She started setting the pod down next to the warp pad they had discovered.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     When the warp pad slowly settles down, the rest of the 'fleet' follows par. Little robonoids unfold their stubby legs and fall into formation against the ships, slowly trundling on over to surround the warp pad ahead of Lapis and Peridot. As the steps to the main pod unfold, Lapis steps out and glances at the two pods that were following them. They open in kind, and water gushes out of them. The water itself is filled with sparkles that looks a lot like the bits contained in the robonoid goo.

    Immediately the water takes formation as it sizzles against the rock, taking the form of two water mimics. The two mimics advance and follow the robonoids to the pad. Lapis looks back up towards Peridot, as she'll be the last to get off the pod.
Peridot     "Heres the plan." Peridot started as she walked off the ship. "Robonoids in first. They form a defensive parameter. Then we go in." From her gem, a holographic display of the room they were in before shows up. Peridot and Lapis show up as a small figurines on pedastals, as though they were on a war-map.  Two staging areas, the one they were at now and a small distance away the other warp pad and its cavernous room.

    The robonoid figurines go in first, and are moved to the second room with the cat o nine tails. Immediately they begin firing at all angles, some of the cat figurines get poofed, some run away. At which point, the Peridot and Lapis figurines move forward into the monster den as well.

    "Our objective is to figure out what this location was utilized for in ancient gem society. We need to ascertain if its of any value to us what so ever. Once the forward post has been established, we will then investigate and handle any of these gems that stand in our way." And so, Peridot gestured forward with her hand, and a squadron of robonoids walked up to the holopad, and immediately set the plan into action.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis watches the map, eyes flickering over the different details as she tries to take in all of the details. It's not a complicated plan and she doesn't have much else to add, not being a strategist or tactician herself. The two mimics walk up to them and flank them to fortify their approach to the warp pad after the robonoids ascend and zap off. Once at the edge, Lapis stops and looks up to Peridot.

    "If one of us goes..." Poof. "Take the other and just run." Normally these things go unsaid, all gems know the value of preserving another gem's core. It's the only way they can die, and without a physical form, they're vulnerable.
Peridot     Peridot nods sternly. "Bubble the other, send them to the ship." She added. "Less risk. Less chance of losing the gem." She then took a few steps forward and stood on the warp pad. It was strange to think, somewhere on the other side of the world, there was an intense battle going on.

    After a certain span of time passed. Peridot nodded. "Alright, let's go in." She raised her arm and formed her hand into a blaster, already starting a charged shot. Two robonoids stepped onto the pad with them, and each took a spot besides each gem. Their interiors began to glow softly. Peridot didn't like to make mistakes more than once; these robonoids were their lanterns.

    Activating the pad sends the two of them back to that dark place. Now illuminated. They can see the tattered remains of a few robonoids, cracked and destroyed- but they can also see pieces of pink gems. The remains of some of the cats that got poofed. Peridot had her arm raised, but there appeared to be no contenders in plain sight. It's possible they retreated further back into the cavern. "All clear." Peridot started, taking a step off the warp pad.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis steps onto the pad with Peridot, momentarily taking her hand. When the beam of light connects to the warp pad, the mimics levitate a bit off the ground. In just a few moments, they're back in the cave. Both mimics drop a couple inches and stoically catch themselves. It's dark, but the glowing robonoids bathe the cavern in a warm, green glow. Without thinking about it, Lapis lets go of Peridot's fingers and steps off the warp pad by herself.

    Both of the mimics stay behind with Peridot as Lapis glances left and right, surveying the situation. When Peridot announces it's all clear, she nods, "I think so." Carefully she begins to pick up the pink gems on the floor, bubbling them in her blue bubbles and sending them off to the ship. They'll be useful later.
Peridot     Now that they have time to stop and peer around, they can make out a few interesting details. The walls of this cavern are engraved with art depicting the ancient gem society that lived here. Peridot walked along the wall, raising her hand to the old markings. It appeared to show a time before the rebellion. The height of gem society before it plummeted into chaos and destruction at the hand of renegade gems.

    "Fascinating." Peridot says out loud, somewhat awe struck. She tapped the side of her visor, causing a small blinking light to appear in the top right corner. Apparently she was recording, and documenting. "This is Peridot. Log date 345.v. Continued investigation of cavernous gem structure is already yielding new resources. The holo-text mentions structures like this. But, there is no documentation. If Homeworld is out there, and if we find it-- They are going to have to make new holo-text to add in the imagery I capture during my time stuck here."

    A shadowy figure dashes out of her peripheral behind the craggy stone. Peridot whips her head around, but nothing is there. She looks briefly to Lapis, as if to capture her presence. "Cavern is full of corrupted gems. My escort on this mission, Lapis Lazuli is here to assist this scientific expedition. Lapis holds the distinct position of being one of the few survivors of gemkinds brush with this cruddy planet."

    "We will continue to explore, until we know the purpose of this location." She mentions and walks further into the cavern. It appeared to be slowing upward from here, and getting brighter. Perhaps there was a surface.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis investigates off to the side while Peridot manages to delve right into archeology. Several gems all in all were poofed and bubbled. The water mimics continue to follow Peridot around. It's really quite impressive how they stay conscious of her behavior and move around her in such an inobtrusive way. Are they just controlled by Lapis' mind or are they autonomous? She's never actually revealed that fact.

    A small wave to Peridot's visor signifies her presence as Peridot mentions her, then she goes back to 'securing the perimeter', which is really just a fancy way of saying she's looking at the murals on the wall. Stepping away, something captures her eye, a couple vases in the corner. As she moves towards them, she moves further away from Peridot and into the darkness. When she stops in front of them, she gently places her hand on the rim of the face and peers inside at the cobwebs that've made their home inside. Empty. As you'd expect. But the vases themselves are covered in murals themselves, though it's too dark to read them this far away.
Peridot      Peridot moved about carefully, taking still snapshots of as much of the room as she could. Eventually she moved on, heading upwards into the upper levels of the area. Pausing as she waited for Lapis. She looked over her shoulder at the blue gem.. and for a moment, tapped her visor once more, the blinking light going away. She momentarily halted recording. She briefly glanced at her own hand. The glowing disconnected fingers floating in front of her.
    
    "You.." She started, looking back up and curling her fingers into a light fist. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before clearing her throat. Why had Lapis taken her hand? It was a gesture that Peridot hadn't even though much about when it happened... but.. "Er.." She went on, tapping her visor once more to turn back on the recorder. She didn't have time to think about it. She was on the clock.

    This time, another shadow darted around them, past the vases Lapis had been looking at, knocking one of them off their pedestal.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis turns to look at Peridot when she begins another sentence that appears to be directed at her. There's nothing that seems to indicate that she knows she flustered Peridot a little bit, just an innocent look back at her.

    The shadow skittering in the shadows causes her to snap forward just in time to step back from the vase while it falls. When it hits the ground, it shatters into a bunch of tiny shards and pieces, Lapis being the only person to see it before it was gone for good. Lapis lats out a little yelp of surprise, stepping back a couple more times to the edge of shadows. Turning quickly back to Peridot, Lapis shouts, "There's something else still in here, Peridot!" The mimics seem to get into a combat ready stance immediately. One forms a pike encrusted with watery gems, the other a chain whip since it seemed to work so well last time.
Peridot     As Lapis yelled, one of the beast leapt from it's hiding place. It appeared to pounce towards the blue gem with its feirce eyeless face, all nine of its tails lashing in every direction. It looked like it was going to go for a bite!

    Strangely enough, another beast also leapt out. It seemed to be far too much of a coincidence to have this ambush be spring all at once. Even the vase being knocked over. Was that a diversionary tactic? The beast seem largely uninterested in the mimics. Almost as though they couldn't even see them- but one thing was certain they could sense Lapis and Peridot.

    "Augh!" Peridot suddenly lets out a loud shriek of pain, as Lapis hears the crunch of metal, the splintering of glass. The second beast had been too fast for her, and latched it vice like teeth onto Peridot's forearm, partially crushing her armored hand. The fingers on that hand appear to visually 'glitch'  flickering a few times as their connection to their owner took some damage. "Ow!.. Ow! Ow!" She kicked at the creature trying to wrench her arm free.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Immediately the water mimics spring into action. Pike-Mimic moves forward with an upwards kick to force the beast off of Peridot, while the chain-mimic wraps its chain around the beasts neck to pull it back and hold it still for pike-mimic to stab. They are deadly efficient and work together as though hands of the same puppeteer. Their blank faces show no hint of emotion, fear, or concentration. Just puppets fighting.

    Lapis on the other hand has zero combat capability. She turns and brings her arm up to try and push the beast out of the way, but barely manages to get that far. The beast would land a solid bite on her arm and she topples over with it, bowled over by the force with a shriek of pain. Now she looks to be rather in distress, her face in serious concentration as she tries to fight off the beast while the mimics hold form.

    Bringing up her knee, she tries to jab it in the gut a few times, but would have little success doing that given how physically inept she is.
Peridot     As the mimic attacks the beast latched onto Peridot, it gets pushed away, but not before taking the most part of Peridot's armored arm with it. The is a shearing of metal and gemstone as it's separated from Peridot. The fingers on that arm suddenly lose their glow and fall to the floor uselessly like discarded pieces of chalk.

    Peridot's elbow was still encased in part of the armor, but nothing extended past it except wires which shot green sparks where her forearm once was. With a face full of fear she ran the opposite direction of the beast, to leave it to the mimics. Seeing Lapis entangled with the first beast she raised her other arm, the one still fully in tact and formed her blaster. She took a quick charge of it, and fired- herself being knocked off her feet from the sheer force of the blast- but she also managed to poof the beast, leaving a single gem falling to the stone floor in a clatter.
    
    The beast that took Peridots arm appears to continue being beaten by the water mimics, buying the two a small amount of time to think. "L-Lapis.." She squints one eye, biting her lower lip.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     The mimics continue beating down the nine tails. Chain-mimic yanks hard on the chain, tightening it around the beast's neck and exposing its belly as it struggles. Pike-mimic ducks under jabbing the spear right up into the beast's gem and through its tummy as chain-mimic lets go of the chain. A brutal execution that boofs the creature immediately. As the gem falls to the floor, the two mimics run back over to Peridot's sides and take battle ready positions, this time on watch for anything that might happen.

    For a moment, pike-mimic loses form, looking as though it might splash to the ground, but it regains and holds.

    At the same time, Peridot blasts the beast off of Lapis who makes a short cry in surprise as it poofs over her. She stays laying there, breathing heavily despite not needing air at all. Her eyes are wide and hair messy, arm resting on top of her halter top. It's torn up pretty bad and bleeding was looks to be some kind of blue blood. When Peridot calls out her name, she slowly sits up with her one good arm and looks over at Peridot, dark circles under her eyes.
Peridot     "That could have went better." Peridot says in a tired tone, as she raises her damaged arm. She delicatly taps and pokes at it with her one good arm. She looks over towards her lifeless fingers on the stone floor and then back to Lapis. She reaches out with her good arm to help pull her up.

    "These... beast are rather ferocious in nature. I wonder if they all knew each other before being corrupted..." She speculates.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis looks up to Peridot as she reaches up with her hurt arm. When pulled to her feet with it, she hisses a little bit and some liquid off her arm drips to the ground. It sizzles out of existence almost immediately, being some component attached to the corporeal body she projects. Right now, she's merely projecting damage, though the blood is very unlikely tied to any function of her body. Peridot has sustained far worse damage.

    "Maybe." Lapis replies, "They work together very well. We'll have to make sure to bubble --" Something drips on her and Peridot. She pauses, as this warm clear liquid drips again onto her arm. Looking up, she gasps and makes a scared little noise.

    Above them is a cat of ninetails that's rather larger than the others. It has a few back tentacles that are latched to the ceiling and its mouth is currently dripping on them.
Peridot     The mother cat hisses as it releases itself from the ceiling. She appeared to be the last of the beast that had taken a dwelling here as there were no others leaping out. She slammed into the ground kicking up a huge cloud of dust in her wake and roared, lines of spittle flying from her mouth.

    One of her many tails whipped forward and wrapped itself around Lapis's midsection snatching the blue gem and lifting her into the air.

    "Ah!" Peridot was still holding onto her hand when she is lifted and is plucked up with her as she doesn't let go. Fortunately for Lapis's arm, since the green gem had just lost a lot of weight due to her recent injury. Peridot hung in the air, suspended by the invisible tethers of energy on her good hand. She squinted looking up. "W-What do I do!?"
Guest Lapis Lazuli     Lapis cries out as she's lifted into the air by a tail. She doesn't let go of Peridot, hoping maybe it'd be enough weight to prevent her from being snatched, but instead Peridot is just brought along for the ride. She cries out as the strain increases on her form's arm and she struggles to hold on, "LEAVE! Get out of here!" She shouts at Peridot quickly in response.

    The mimics that had been waiting around just for this to happen react. The one with a chain whips out to grab Peridot around her midsection before whipping the length of chain again in an effort to fling her towards the warp pad. The pike mimic rushes forward, stumbling a little bit before acosting the beast with its pike.
Peridot     "Leave? I just got us all back together!" Peridot growled stubbornly. Her innate sense of cowardice conflicting with her mission parameters. "Stop trying to tear us back apart!" She managed, even though this particular situation wasn't entirely on Lapis's head. Peridot was venting. Though her swift kicks to the creatures tail proved fruitless.  Her efforts were interrupted by the whip suddenly wrapping around her. "What-- No!"

    She is flung through the air, landing on the warp pad in a crash. She sat up, just in time to witness something horrible happening. "No!" She reached out.

    The tail wrapped around Lapis's body lifted her up above the creatures mouth, and the tail began to squeeze, harder, and harder. It appeared to know what would happen. It seemed like it intended on crushing Lapis until she poofed, and then her gem would fall helplessly into its the creatures mouth, to be swallowed whole.
Guest Lapis Lazuli     "Just go!" Lapis shouts as she starts struggling against the mama's tails. The chain mimic runs over to the warp pad and activates it, connecting the beam of light to the pad as it begins to lift them. The pike mimic starts to destabilize as the creature squeezes harder and Lapis fights to free herself.

    Looking over to Peridot with gritted teeth, Lapis is crying as it squeezes her even tighter. "Peridot!" She screams out in desparation, "I-I changed my mind, I don't wan-" *Poof*

    Her body poofs into a small little piffle of smoke just as the warp pad will swish Peridot away. Sparing her from seeing the beast consuming Lapis' gem. The mimic next to Peridot destabilizes and falls into a puddle suspended in midair by the lifting force of the pad.
Peridot     And like a flash of light, Peridot was gone. Whisked away by the activated warp pad. The dry heat hit her in the face like a ton of bricks, compared to the cool damp cave. She sat there in stunned silence for a few moments. Lapis had done her job. She had protected her and got her out of danger.

    She looked down at the pad, her eyes glazing over with water. She had been whisked away right before seeing Lapis fall into the beast mouth. She started to activate the pad once more so she could go back and do something but... stopped herself. She looked at her broken arm, sheared off at the elbow. She had one good hand, and only  a few robonoids. She had no way of fighting the beast. It was neither smart nor logical, both of things Peridot desired to be. She slammed her hand down on the warp pad. "I'll come back for you." She said, hunched over on all three of her limbs, her forehead touching the pad. Her brows furrowed in determined anger. She was a conqueror. An invader of entire planets. She didn't get sad. She got even.

    She channeled the feelings of despair and hopelessness into anger. She grit her teeth, blinking away the tears before any could fall and she stood up. "I will come back... and she... that monster... It will rue the day she crossed Homeworld!" She started stomping towards her pod. First, she would need to get her muscle.