Scene #3311: A Deadly Game

Owner	Pose
Peridot	Peridot was not a happy camper. A day had passed since her encounter with Garnet. She had reformed in the clutches of the Crystal gems. She was hung in the center of the room. Suspended like an angry little pinata. Her arms and body bound by rope fixed to the ceiling. She had managed to get through a day of rough interrogation without cracking. Though she had to use every ounce of guile and treachery that was available to her to stave off the perma fusions tactics. It was the only thing she could do to buy time for herself. She just had to hold on. Jasper needed time to save her, she knew. She had told every lie that she knew Garnet would want to hear. She looked the part of someone being interrogated. The unyielding rope was beginning to bite into her skin. A blotchy bruise was just beginning to form around her neck. Her gaze was unfocused. She stared blankly at the wall. She was miserable, uncomfortable and bored.
Blurr	And today, guess who should show up to make her day even worse? None other than Blurr, the Autobot who had made all of this possible. Upon hearing that Garnet hadn't managed to crack Peridot just yet, he decides to take a shot at her himself. The blue speedster pulls into the driveway of the beach house, and quite suddenly that all-too-familiar holomatter avatar appears in the room with Peridot, a smug look on its face.
Peridot	Peridot's angry expression deepened. "Here to take your turn?" She asked. She was far smaller without her limb enhancers. Though Blurr couldn't see her arms, her legs dangled uselessly. It appeared as though her natural un-augmented form was much smaller than even a human. She looked like she had more in common with a halfling than any other gem Blurr had seen thus far. Pearl, Garnet, Jasper-- even Lapis and Sunstone all towered over her. Her expression hardened. "If the permafusion didn't get to me, -you- won't." Peridot was by default, more afraid of Garnet than the autobot. She didn't know how far the machine was willing to go, being unfamiliar with his kind... but she knew exactly how far Garnet would go. How far any rebel gem would go against a Homeworlder like her. Though Blurr's motives were comparatively unknown.
Blurr	"Wow, you're smaller than I thought you were," Blurr comments offhandedly, noting how diminuitive she looks without all her gadgets. Then he sighs. "Oh, is that what you think? Well you must not know me very well, then." Indeed, how can she know the kinds of terrible things he and his allies used to do, even to their own kind? He steps closer to her, pausing for a moment before continuing. "If you despise humans so much, why do you even stick around this place? I'm sure the Confederacy would be happy to transport you elsewhere if you wanted, why not pick a planet that doesn't have any sapient life on it? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the Crystal Gems trying to stop you, it's Earth -they- care about, you know. So what is it, Peridot? Why are you so set on fighting them, do you need to beat them in order to prove to your superiors that you're worth something? After all, without all your -gadgets-, you're nothing. Or is there something -else- keeping you here? Maybe you just enjoy watching the fleshlings scream and die at your hands? Maybe you find that entertaining."
Peridot	"They started this war." She comments. "It's all in the holo-logs. They started it by rebelling six thousand years ago.. and they continued that war when I came here as part of my job-- Beyond my job! I sent probes and machines to do the work remotely but they kept breaking them! So I had to come here in person." "But now I'm stuck here!" She wriggles a little in the rope, but that seems to only make them bite deeper into her skin, so she stops. It was raw, and getting worse by the minute. "The earth that came with me is full of gem tech that I intend on recollecting and completing my mission. There is no where else for me to go where I can continue my work." "If they would just leave -me- alone there wouldn't be a problem! I don't even care about this garbage planet or it's inhabitants. I set out to destroy them because I knew they would do -this-." She glances down at herself. "Because it's what rebel gems do, meddle in Homeworld affairs. And I was right!"
Blurr	"But why Earth?" Blurr presses further. "Why not send the drones elsewhere when the rebels kept destroying them? Wouldn't it be easier to just find an uninhabited planet? Why not pack it all up and take it away? You definitely aren't lacking in the drone department, for manual labor stuff anyway. What is it about this planet, right here, that you can't just haul off somewhere else?"
Peridot	"Despite how numerous they appear, I have a finite number of drones and the capacity to develop them." She responds. "You don't know anything about these archaeological sites, their importance, or even the difficulty and logistics in transporting them." She turned her nose up. "These crystal gems don't want us establishing contact with Homeworld. They made their decision, if Yellow Diamond was here, she would execute them all for their crimes and there is nothing I can do to change that. They'll never allow me to work here unimpeded." "And I don't even have time to go into the science behind Kindergarten. It needs specific chemical compositions in order to function. The Crystal gems are the ones who should leave and go live on an uninhabited planet. They are the ones breaking our laws."
Blurr	"You think you have to annihilate the humans here in order to save your own kind, but you -know- that isn't true! If you really wanted, you could ask the Confederacy to help you transport all your tech off-world! Hell, -I- have tech that could do it easily, I'm sure -someone- among you Feds does too!" Blurr retorts. "You're -obsessed- with this planet, and with fighting the Crystal Gems; you may be fooling yourself with all those lies but you're not fooling me." He folds his arms. "And do you -really- think that you're so much better than the Crystal Gems? You, who are willing to sacrifice an entire race of sapient beings to save your own, when there are clearly alternatives? They break your tech and break your laws, but if you had your way you'd shatter all of them, wouldn't you? What if another alien race superior in technology and lifespan, oh like say, Cybertronians, came and decided to make YOUR Homeworld theirs? What if they decided to destroy your civilization and massacre your people? Well you wouldn't be able to point any fingers, would you, because you believe in the -exact- same thing. Is that the kind of ideology you want to perpetuate? 'My race is superior to yours, therefore I deserve to kill you all so we can live here.' Trust me, -we- used to live by that rule, and look where it got us. Dead homeworld, and lots of -other- dead homeworlds."
Peridot	"You don't know anything about me." She answers. "None of this would even be happening, if those clods didn't pick this fight. I would have came here, completed my mission, and then left. In and out." "But, if what you say is true, then that is one of the main differences between us gems and you cybertronians. We know how to do this right. We've been doing it for a long time." She grins, her eyes narrowing. "You have this mistaken image that there is a massive war, that our forces are split down the middle. The civil war for this planet was nothing to over all scheme of things. We abandoned it, because it was more trouble than it was worth. A small splinter cell that was barely worth sending our armada after. It became a dumping ground for long abandoned experiments." "Homeworld is powerful. More so than you can imagine and we didn't get this way by being afraid to embrace our inherent superiority. If someone wants to try and knock us off our throne. They are welcome to try." "At the end of the day you should simply be grateful this planet actually isn't worth Homeworlds attention. But for my purposes, It has the perfect chemical composition to incubate the next generation of gems, and therefore that is what it shall be utilized for." "Anything else? you airheaded alloy?"
Blurr	"Oh, really?" The holomatter arches a brow at her. "Well I'll take that as an open invitation to stop by, we could always use more resources, after all." Is he serious about that? Maybe. But his face hardens once more. "But that's not the only thing keeping you here, is it? There are -plenty- of other planets with a similar geothermal composition, and you know it. You could easily ask the Confederacy to help you transport all your tech elsewhere, where you would never have to worry about the Crystal Gems impeding your work, but you -don't-." He steps closer, leaning in to stare straight into her eyes. "I don't want to hurt you, Peridot. Honestly." he says, lowering his voice threateningly. "But if I have to resort to more -physical- methods of persuasion, I -will-."
Peridot	"Again, you don't know what you are talking about. It's not just chemicals, there are specific magical properties inherent to this ground. We are magical creatures, and Kindergartens can only be created at sites that unified with that element from our world. Our options are very limited." Her tone darkens. "You think there is a simple solution to this problem because you are an idiot. An idiots think problems can be solved by throwing a lot of resources at it. I've exhausted my options I've had several meetings with Confederates big and small. The smart thing to do, is to release me. Then step back, and let me do my work uninterrupted. If you wish to aid my efforts, then by all means but know that Kindergarten cannot and won't be moved." Peridot furrows her brow as he looked her in the eye. "What can you do that the perma fusion hasn't done?"
Blurr	"Lies, all of it!" Blurr insists, growing impatient. "There's something on this planet that's keeping you here, and it's not just 'magical' properties or whatever! This is the Multiverse, damn it! There are -hundreds- of other Earths or planets just like it, that don't have anyone living on them! Or even if there aren't many right now, it's only a matter of time before there -will- be! But the lives of millions of sapient humans aren't -worth- waiting, are they?!" He grabs the rope that is tied around her body and pulls on it, hard. "What can I do? Oh, well we'll just have to find -out-, won't we? There was a -reason- why the rest of the galaxy where I came from hated and feared us."
Peridot	"I have more reasons to get out of here than you even realize!" She grits her teeth as her rope is tugged forward. Her legs kicking. Her upperbody had long gone numb. Garnet had made sure her binding was extra tight. Peridot's brows arched up. She seemed afraid, but she had a powerful defiant streak within her. Perhaps it was something inherent in all Peridot's. Or perhaps it was something unique to -this- Peridot. She was weak, and frail without her technology to support her. But still managed to posses the sort of arrogance you might expect someone far more powerful to posess. But, she doesn't say the tired old line. 'Do your worse.' For fear that someone might actually take her up on that offer. "But you and these gems are giving me ample reason to just sit back and let the cluster destroy you!"
Blurr	"What 'Cluster'." Blurr demands. "Tell me what I want to know, -now-. You can argue all you want, but in the end you know who's the prisoner and who's the interrogator, here. I could shatter you, right here, right now. Simple as a single supersonic emission. Or a -series- of short ones, because one burst might not -hurt- enough. The -only- reason you're -still- alive, is because you have information we need. Of course, I could always steal it myself, but that would cost time and resources. Whereas this only costs time." Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. It's likely he -could- shatter her easily, but would he really do such a thing? After all, intimidation tactics sometimes do work.
Peridot	"You think you can out-hack me?" She sneered. "Because you took control of my escape pod? It makes you no more gem tech savvy than if you grabbed a directional rudder in a human mobile! No one else on this entire planet but me is even remotely equipped to handle encrypted gem tech. You think these clods can handle it? They haven't even seen gem tech in six thousand years!" "Besides. You won't shatter me." She says, albeit with shaky confidence. A bead of sweat rolling down her face. "The permafusion.. the Pearl, they need me if they want their Steven back."
Blurr	"Steven? Ha, hate to break it to you but you're -hardly- in a position to bargain, Peridot! How about you tell us where Steven is, and everything you know about this 'Cluster', and we'll -let you live.-" Blurr scoffs at her overconfidence in her own systems. "And -you- think I couldn't? Sure, it might take me a while, but that doesn't matter because I have -friends- who could turn your encryption to nonsense before you even realized what hit you." He smirks, then. "Oh, you think I won't shatter you? Let's put that to test, shall we?" Suddenly, there's a low hum, an emission coming from the car outside. It slowly begins to rise in frequency, threatening to shatter the glass windows in the house. If it kept rising like that, it could even shatter -crystalline- structures, structures like a peridot. "Now let's try that again. Tell me everything you know about the Cluster. No more lies."
Peridot	Her brows arched up as she watched the sonic emitter and she began to squirm in her bindings. "You wouldn't even know what to do with the information if you had it! I'm the leading expert on the cluster, I know everything there is to know! By the time you corrolate.. study, decipher and read..." "I've read over a 100 years worth of logs on the subject! By the time you get around to doing that, it will be too late!" "Besides. You're bluffing." She went on, eyeing the sonic emitter. Though her gaze shifts to Blurr. "Garnet said.. that I would not be shattered." She squinted. That much had been true, though Garnet promised to do other terrible things to her- from which she had managed to buy some time. "You might talk a big game, but you aren't nearly as scary as she is."
Blurr	Blurr laughs derisively. "Oh trust me, I'm -never- too late. You think I read as slow as you do? You're -wrong-." The frequency of the ultrasonic emission continues to intensify. The glass in windows explode, shattering into a million pieces that fly in random directions. The sound is piercing now, rattling the very structure of Peridot's core and threatening to send it to pieces like the glass. "Who said I was trying to be scary? I'm just showing you what I'm capable of." he shrugs. "Did Garnet say that? Well, she doesn't know -me-. Like I said, there was a reason why everyone else where I come from hated and feared my kind. Never wanted -anything- to do with us." Higher, higher it goes. Would he really let it shatter her? It hasn't stopped yet. "You're running out of time. Better start talking while you still -can-."
Peridot	Peridot grimaced. She wanted to cover her ears, but her hands were still secured. She thrashed her head around. The lens on her visor was a sturdy material but it was beginning to vibrate. "You're awefully tough, against an unarmed bound opponet!" She shouted. "You get nothing if you kill me! Jasper will have no choice but to retreat to the Confederate Citadel. You'll never get the data. You'll never get the Steven no matter how fast you are!" Eventually her visor shatters, and she blinks as her face is exposed. Her eyes widening a moment. "If you kill me, you'll have the death of billions of earthlings on your head! But If you release me... I had already made plans to handle the cluster, before this ridiculous circumstance. It won't even be your problem! I didn't even consider using it as a weapon against you clods until you demonstrated you're willing to go.. -this far-." She indicates with her head, the room they were in.
Blurr	The emission stops intensifying, though it doesn't halt altogether just yet. "You don't know that. I don't think you realize how talented some of my friends are at hacking. But you're getting better, go on. I get that it's dangerous, and that it could be used as a weapon, but what -is- it, exactly, and where is it?"
Peridot	Peridot furrowed her brows. She looked around the room. Searching, almost, for Pearl or Garnet. Eventually her eyes settle once more onto Blurr. "That's all I'm telling you." She had the face of a scared gem, but also there was something else there, an increasingly growing anger. "You'll find out all about it, in the few fleeting moments before it destroys you. When I get out of here and let it run it's course... or if I don't. It'll happen anyway. And it'll all become pretty clear. " She started laughing.
Blurr	The avatar's expression darkens when she refuses to elaborate further. And when she starts laughing, he becomes even more infuriated. The frequency rises once more, though it seems more sporadic now and less of a constant rise, almost as if he's taken direct control of it. It's now holding at -just- barely below the perfect frequency to shatter a peridot. He grabs her neck and pushes her against the back wall roughly. "You puny, disgusting little rock! You think I won't shatter you, I -will- shatter you, and I'll do it piece by piece until you -crack-! If you let this weapon lose on these innocents, I will -make sure- we turn your precious homeworld into another one of -our- colony worlds! That is, if it even -exists- any more. But if it does, we -will- find it, I promise you."
Peridot	"Ahhh!" She shrieks out in unmasked pain as her neck is grabbed. Garnet had nearly crushed her wind pipe the day before, the bruise there had barely began to fully blossom and the area still hurt. Having it grabbed again exploded the area with burning pain. A few globs of tears pour out of her eyes, she was unaccustomed to this level of prolonged agony. "You--" She starts hoarsely, her eyes glassy and wet. "Not if..-- not if we-- take your planet first." The anger in her eyes was transitioning to hate. Lines creased under her lower eyelids. Her gem began to vibrate. The emitter was pushing the boundaries of what she could take. Blurr was faced with a clear choice. If he chose to continue, even at this frequency it could damage her gem at any moment.
Blurr	"No! That's where you're wrong!" Blurr shouts, sounding almost as anguished as she at this point. "We -have- no planet left to take, you -glitchead-! It's -dead-! Nothing but ruins and a horde of failed -experiments-! Monsters made from our own -kind-!" The holomatter begins to flicker--it seems at this frequency, even the avatar's projector has been affected. "Gah!" he lets go of her, finally, and the emission stops. "We are -not- done, Peridot. You have a choice to make. Give me the information I want, or -die- along with the rest of your pathetic Homeworld!" BLIP! And he's gone, the holomatter vanishing from the room without a trace.
Peridot	Peridot swung around like a pendulum when she was released. She desperately wanted to touch her neck, but all she could feel was pain. The motion of being jostled around so much causing her bindings to dig deeper into the already raw exposed skin on her arms. She was too hurt to taunt or offer anything in her defense. The pain from the rope was nothing compared the sensation on her throat. The burning feeling radiating in all directions, to her head, to her chest and shoulders. She wasn't sure if she could talk if she wanted too. She didn't want to move the area at all. Even her choked crying sounds hurt. Her visor was gone, once it shattered and fell away from her it had poofed into green smoke. She did not have the energy left to summon another one. And so, suspended from the ceiling. She tucked her knees to her chest, curling up into a little ball. It was the only posture that gave her any semblance of defense. However little it actually offered. Her eyes clenched shut, and she only sobbed quietly. She had won this particular game of chicken, but she did not feel like celebrating and had no parting line to spit after him. For the time being, all she could do was suffer as silently as possible.