When I reached my front door, I opened it calmly. To my surprise, the girls were gathered in the living room, chatting among themselves. However, I noticed a slight concern on their faces, though the conversation immediately broke off when they saw me enter.
"Hey, old man!" Amethyst exclaimed with a mischievous smile when she noticed the donuts in my hands.
"Hey, Steven," Pearl said, her voice barely soft, still marked by what had happened a few days earlier.
Garnet, on the other hand, just raised a hand and greeted with her usual serenity:
What's up?"
I smiled slightly and walked into the kitchen, putting the donuts in the refrigerator. The movement was enough for Amethyst to run after me, trying to grab one before they disappeared.
"Will you guys have some?" I asked, pointing at Amethyst, who had already grabbed one.
"No, thanks," Pearl replied, as formal as ever.
"Give me one," Garnet asked, looking at Amethyst.
Amethyst, without hesitation, threw her a donut, and Garnet absorbed it naturally into her gem.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
First time I've seen you ask for something like that... I said, raising my hands in a puzzled gesture, as if to emphasize my point.
"I consume differently," Garnet replied, calmly adjusting her glasses.
"Okay...?" I mumbled, now turning to Pearl. "And you? Do you want a donut?"
"No," she replied immediately, shaking her head firmly. "Gems don't need to eat and..."
But she didn't get to finish her endless explanation.
A worm-like creature with greenish skin, snow-white tufts sticking out of its back, suddenly fell onto Pearl's face. The silence that reigned in the room became absolute, so dense that even the crunching of the donut in Amethyst's mouth stopped for a second. She, however, soon burst into laughter at the strange sight.
"A gem... on your head?" she giggled, almost choking on her second donut.
Pearl, snapping out of her daze, reacted immediately: with a swipe of her hand, she blew the slug off her face, frowning in disgust. The creature crawled toward Steven, but he, with quick reflexes, summoned his shield and dropped it on top of it, crushing it to the ground.
The group held their breath, expecting to see the familiar light of an unleashed gem... but nothing happened.
"Huh?" Steven muttered in bewilderment, leaning toward the others. "No... there's no gem."
Garnet, with a serious expression, sat up. Her gloves appeared with a flash of crimson, and in one swift motion, she caught another slug that had fallen onto her shoulder. She snapped it in two without hesitation... and, to everyone's surprise, it vanished like a mere illusion.
Outside now, she ordered in a firm voice.
There was no reply. The four of us hurried outside, the hot air of the sun hitting our faces. In front of us rose a colossal worm, a beast that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth. Its body wriggled, and every movement made the ground beneath our feet vibrate.
"It's like... big," Amethyst commented, raising a hand to her eyes to shield her from the light, as if trying to joke casually.
"Should we attack it or let it live with us as a pet?" Steven added from behind with a smile.
"Not a chance," Pearl replied coldly, tensing her shoulders.
"I lost a giant pet," Steven muttered with a hint of irony, as if trying to convince himself that it wasn't such a big deal.
But before anyone else could add a word, Garnet leaped forward, her gloves glowing brightly, heading straight for the glittering gem embedded in the monster.
The gem, sensing the danger, roared with a deep sound that shook the air, and immediately dozens of the creatures began pouring out of the house, positioning themselves in front of her like an army of writhing guardians.
Amethyst tried to run to join Garnet, but several of the worms launched themselves at her, wrapping their slimy bodies around her arms and legs.
"Yuck!" she exclaimed, struggling, tearing off her slimy skin with a grimace of revulsion.
Steven watched the scene intently, squinting his eyes as if trying to recognize the creatures.
"They look familiar..." he thought silently.
One of the worms crawled toward me. I saw it approaching, and with a mixture of curiosity and clumsiness, I reached out.
Hey, pretty... I whispered.
The creature opened its mouth and spat me out. Purely on reflex, I dodged the slimy discharge, which landed just inches from my feet.
Pearl, who was standing next to me, watched the scene with alarming rigidity. Our eyes followed the trajectory of the liquid until we saw the sand begin to sizzle and melt, sinking as if a deadly acid were devouring it.
We both slowly looked up, and the tiny slug returned a look that, in my confusion, I could only describe as murderous.
"What the fuck...?" I muttered, a lump in my throat.
"That's the slug Steven usually makes friends with..." I thought, but as I looked up at the colossal slug that dominated the field, I realized this version was far from friendly.
Immediately, Pearl summoned her spear and, with a precise movement, slashed away the nearest creature in a flash. Without pausing, she ran toward Amethyst, who was jumping from side to side, dodging jets of corrosive slime that grazed her hair.
What's wrong with them? Do they have infinite slime? Do they never tire? Amethyst shouted, a mixture of frustration and disgust.
Pearl didn't respond; she simply stood beside her. With precise coordination, the two began finishing off the small monsters one after another, until the ground was covered in luminous dust and not a single lesser worm remained moving.
I was lost in my own thoughts, in that moment of mental schizophrenia that sometimes gripped me. I kept mulling over the slug. "Come to think of it... didn't it have healing slime? I've never tested that power... maybe I'll try it later," I mused, trying to ignore the chaos around us.
Snapping out of my thoughts, my attention shifted to Garnet. From a distance, I could tell she was at a disadvantage against the beast. However, something wasn't right: her movements were too measured, too slow. Watching her closely, I realized... she was letting herself be defeated.
"Huh?" I froze, confused.
Garnet stared directly at me, with that characteristic expressionlessness, as if her face were made of stone. And yet, a drop of sweat trickled down my temple as I understood the hidden message in that look: she wanted me to help her.
Damn... work experience, I thought, trying to gather my courage, with a nervous half-smile.
Without hesitation, I ran toward her. Garnet, noticing my reaction, gave a slight, smug smile, as if she'd planned the whole thing. I could only stare back with a dry expression, another drop of sweat running down my forehead.
The beast fixed its eyes on me, roaring furiously. Its body trembled, and in an instant it began firing bursts of those small creatures directly at us.
Instinctively, I summoned my shield. Within seconds, the surface was covered in green, radioactive slime that sizzled like acid on hot metal.
The good thing... is that I remember my shield can handle this thing... I muttered, trying to convince myself, as I felt the strain making me sweat more and more.
I quickly expanded the shield, making it larger, enough to cover me completely. The slime pounded against it like an endless, corrosive rain.
Garnet raised her gloves toward the void, and I understood instantly. When the beast finally ceased its attack, I shrank my shield and threw it with all my might into the air.
At that moment, Garnet projected her gloves with pinpoint precision, slamming into the shield. Concentrating, I spun the shield mid-flight until it was horizontal.
The impact echoed like thunder. The roar was so intense that the ground beneath our feet vibrated. The shockwave shook the air, and the creature's scream echoed throughout the space, a roar of pain that seemed to split the heavens.
The creature roared, writhing in pain after the roar. Pearl, who had already finished helping Amethyst, didn't waste a second: she summoned her spear and hurled it with impeccable precision toward the monster's face.
Fate, capricious as ever, was on our side... though not for the creature. Right at the moment of impact, the giant worm turned its head and fixed its eyes on the projectile. For a moment, I swear, I thought I saw something impossible: a snarl of hatred... a whisper of a curse passing through its jaws before it was pierced.
"This is definitely my schizophrenia at its peak," I thought, feeling the schizophrenia giving me powers no one else could see.
The spear pierced the creature's mouth, swishing with brutal force against the gem hidden inside. Fortunately—or unfortunately, I didn't know yet—it didn't split it. The worm's body glowed brightly and was pummeled in a flash.
At that same instant, all the small slugs that had emerged from the house vanished like smoke in the wind. Amethyst, who was still surrounded and jumping to avoid blasts of corrosive slime, let out a long sigh as she watched them disappear.
I swear they're getting rarer every day... she muttered, wiping her forehead.
"Definitely," Pearl replied, arriving at her side with a serious expression. "And the funny thing is, these different things always appear just when Steven joins the missions."
Her voice sounded more worried than usual.
Come on, Pearl," Amethyst replied, rolling her eyes. "Steven can defend himself. Remember? He has Rose's gem. I'm sure it must have some kind of security code or something to keep him from dying."
Those words hit home. I sat there thoughtfully, scratching my head.
"Security code...? That sounds too much like the Omnitrix..." I thought with a crooked smile. "Well, it'll be a matter of testing it."
"Don't do it," Garnet suddenly interrupted, staring at me through her sunglasses.
"Huh?" I blurted, standing still, with a completely bewildered chibi expression.
"Don't do it," she repeated firmly. "It won't come out right."
"Well," I muttered, lowering my head, no idea.
Garnet calmly adjusted her glasses, without taking her eyes off me, and then shifted her attention slightly to Steven, as if sizing him up in a way neither of us could fully understand.
"I'm not going to do it," I repeated, now with beads of sweat running down my forehead.
Garnet nodded slightly, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses. Her gaze moved silently around, as if assessing the damage. I followed her with my eyes... and suddenly I was petrified, with a poker face.
"T-the house..." I whispered, my voice breaking.
We'll fix it, Garnet replied, this time with a slightly more sympathetic tone than usual.
"The floor..." I added, even more dejectedly, pointing out the cracks and corrosive stains.
"That'll fix itself," Amethyst chimed in nonchalantly, appearing behind me as she stretched her arms as if nothing had happened.
I glanced at her in annoyance.
"Damn green thing..." I muttered, remembering the worm.
Pearl, who already had the gem trapped inside her bubble, sighed wearily.
"Well, at least it looks like we have some good work to do."
Suddenly, my father's truck pulled up, and the door opened, revealing my father. He silently surveyed the mess around him, his eyes wide. I stared at him and said with a half-smile, "
I told you, didn't I?"
He just let a drop of sweat fall, shrugging his shoulders.
You're so specific, Stevo. Life is hard... I'm done thinking about it. But it'll be even harder when I find Blue Diamond, I added in my head with a maniacal laugh that echoed strangely in the silence.
The girls immediately looked at me with a "what the hell?" expression, while my father, well used to my bouts of madness, simply stared at the remains of the house.
Well... I'll help you. His voice sounded calm, as if cleaning up ruins was part of his routine.
Let's get started, Garnet replied.
And so the rest of the day went: a defeated green worm, a conversation that led nowhere, and my own schizophrenia accompanying me, because, in the end, I was still talking to myself.
End of Chapter 7.