NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: Chapter 21: The War of Corn and Melons
Summary: A simple bloody seed turns into a large bloody war.
"I thought you weren't eating greens anymore?" Amethyst heard the hoodie boy speak up. "You know, after the moss incident?" Pearl was rather upset that day when she learned Steven ran into something belonging to Rose without knowing what it was.
"That's the thing about melons, you eat everything except the green stuff!" Star justified as she bit into her own piece. "Plus it's so fun to spit the seeds." She demonstrated by spitting from three signs. "Yay-yeah!"
"That's nothing, watch this!" Steven-Quartz pointed to a can that was planted on a cone from far away, and shot a single seed, shooting it down flawlessly. "I'm the seed sniper! Nothing can escape my range!"
"Oh yeah, bet I can top it!" That Kelly girl took it as a challenge and slurped up a couple of seeds, spitting them out at another nearby can…though it missed and shot down the bird right next to it. "Oops."
"Solid power, but you gotta go for a bigger game than that. Just watch." Jana bit into her melon next, and shot directly at Marco's back. "Perfect."
"That's nothin, check this out." Amethyst demonstrated by eating the watermelon whole, crushing it inside of her, shifting her arm into a gatling gun, blasting seeds with raw power and speed as she drew her own picture into the wall. "Tada."
"Okay, one, gross. Two, ow! Three, gross." Marco groaned. Amethyst was pretty sure Pearl would've given the exact same reaction.
"So this is whatcha guys do when you're not fighting monsters or doing any of the boring princess royal stuff?" Amethyst asked.
"Yeah, just relaxing and hanging out." Quartz shrugged. "What do you guys do in your offtime?"
"I do this, Pearl organizes everything and makes compact schedules, Ruby trains, and Sapphire usually stays quiet and gazes out of the window …" She paused. "Or read sappy books." Amethyst was enterally confused why Garnet hadn't returned at all, especially with things being slightly better than they were for the past thirteen years. "Occasionally some of Pearl's junk falls into my room and I get to spend the day fishing it out of my stuff. Speaking of, here Jana." She tossed a sack to the girl.
Jana grinned and looked at it. "Oooh, rock shards. Is it a busted corpse of another gem?" The human girl did have a great sense of humor.
"Something like that. Pearl says those bring stuff to life or whatever. Didn't really pay attention to that in all honesty." Amethyst shrugged. "Figured if she lets it fall in my room, then it can't be that important."
"So how does the whole … lifespan thing work anyway?" Quartz asked. "Kinda confused about that in all honesty."
"You're born from the corpse of a planet, as an adult so you can 'do your job', then you just … exist forever until your gem breaks." She explained. "I think they 'might' be alive, but their minds are way too scattered for them to do anything about it."
"Wait, so if your gem is broken, you still live…but in pain?" Marco asked.
"Complete and utter agony. But it's fine, this rock is made of solid stuff." She pounded her chest. "I haven't cracked my gem in years." And hopefully it would stay that way, they didn't need to give Quartz a scare. "Now come on, I wanna see if one of us can hit that plane passing by."
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Marco pov-wakes up to see melons in the shape of Quartz planted in his backyard.
Marco took their sip of morning cocca, stretching as he was getting his brain moving. He saw his mom come in, humming a happy tune. "Morning mom, you sleep well?"
"Yes, and I see you kids had a busy day yesterday." She smiled. "Growing those watermelons out back."
"Growing what now?" Marco almost spat out his drink, but luckily he's had months of living with Star giving out shocking and surprising news to him to build up a tolerance.
"All the watermelons in the backyard. Your friend must have quite a green thumb, they're all shaped like little people." It was a rare time for Marco to be glad about his parents' acceptance to the growing oddities in their life, because it gave plenty of time to look at the situation with a calm and collected head.
Getting up from his seat, he walked to the backyard to see these supposed Watermelons, and found himself stepping on something squishy. Looking down, it was indeed a watermelon in the shape of Quartz, and the juicy insides made it look like he was on top of a corpse.
"Well I officially reached the peak of my disturbing sights quota for the week." He turned his attention to Star's room. "Star! There's a bunch of melons outside that are shaped like your brother!"
"Wow Marco!" The girl in question jumped down from her room. "I didn't know you liked Quartz that much."
"Would you be serious!?" He argued. "Why are they even here, how did they grow so fast?"
"Well we did eat a lot of Watermelons yesterday." Star looked over one particular one that was smaller than the rest of them. "Aww, it's a baby melon Quartz! So precious. I gotta send him a pic of this!" Star took a selfie.
A minute later, Quartz rode in on Lion with Kelly. "Whoa, you weren't kidding, they're all shaped like you, so freaky." She took a look at Star's 'baby melon'. "In a cute way though."
"Well the Rose Guard was known for being good with plants back in the day." Quartz looked at all the fruity clones as Lion started gnawing on one of them. "And Pearl did tell me she could've controlled them to a certain degree."
"These seem pretty dead though." Kelly poked one with a sword as Lion bit through the rind of the one in his mouth.
"Well they're plants." Quartz spoke. "It's not like we can just say 'wake up' and expect them to-" The one in Lion's mouth started to scream. "Or they're alive and just need to be scared!" Quartz rushed to the melon's aid, and pulled it away. "It's okay now, you're safe now." The melon hugged the boy in return. "Aw, they're friendly little guys."
"Of course, after all, they were made from the pure love of my brother…" She reached down to pick another one up, only for it to slap her hand away. "Rude. Quartz, control your melon children." The melons started to converge on her. "Preferably some time within the next ten seconds!"
"How am I supposed to-" He noticed one getting close, about to bite her. "Stop!" Quartz shouted, and to Marco's horror and fascination, they all stopped what they were doing, turning to him. "... Roll over?" They all complied, rolling over. "Play dead?" They went to grab wood, constructing a makeshift tombstone, digging a hole as one of them lay inside of it.
"Hey, they're more loyal than Lion." Marco laughed. This was oddly more enjoyable than he thought it was going to be. "If we just leave them alone, they'll probably just keep burying themselves." Sounded super dark, but it made the problem go away faster. "So who wants to go inside and eat some breakfast burritos?"
"No, I have a duty now." Quartz spoke. "I am the melon king, and I must help my people. Let's build a village!"
"Aw, baby's first kingdom." Star cooed at the sight, the baby melon resting on her shoulders clapping. "It shall be a kingdom of peace and prosperity that'll never know vio…"
Everyone stopped and paused when they noticed a munching sound. Turning around, they saw Tad with a knife in one hand, and some Melon 'guts' in another, with a mouth full of fruit. "Got hungry." The sight was nonetheless terrifying to witness.
The Melon Quartzes screams incoherently, pulling out wooden stakes as spears grabbing the man and tying him up. A few minutes later they all watched in mild fascination as the Melon people now circled a bonfire, chanting some sort of melody as they slowly cooked the dude alive, full tribal style. "Sorry Kelly." Quartz apologized.
"Nah, it's fine. Tad needs to work on reading the room better anyways." The green haired girl shrugged. "So, you have more coca inside?"
"Yeah, plenty for everyone." Finally, a relaxing morning. Hadn't had one of those in a while.
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"I'm telling you. Magic. Is. REAL!" Starfan13 shouted at the non believer. "It's been over four freaking months, and you still refuse to see it! What about that giant acid spitting bug that wandered the beach a while back?!" The beach he lived four freaking feet away from.
"Have you ever seen the movie aliens? Their entire premise is acid spitting giant bugs with shells stronger than steel." He argued. "We also have had plenty of sightings with aliens in human skin." Ronaldo was a moron. "And while you've been confusing fiction with fact, I finally have undeniable proof of the Snake People's existence!"
She looked at the photo he shoved in her face, where it showed off the bottom of someone's shoes next to a gray tail-like object. "Really? How is that undeniable proof? You don't even have a face!"
"If I took their face they'd track my location." If they were as high up as he said they were they would have killed him in his sleep already. "Now all I need to do is follow them down to their underground hideout and figure out why they've been trying to hollow out the earth!"
"If a giant meteor getting so close to the planet and completely disintegrating in thin air doesn't convince you magic is real, then what will?"
"It has to come up directly and punch me in the face for me to even consider…" That punch came sooner than she expected it to when something small and green tackled the blogger to the ground. "WHY!?"
"Ronaldo, hold still!" She took out her phone and pressed the recording button. "This is going to be epic when I post it!"
"Make sure…to get….my good side!" Ronaldo cried out from the burial of punches that he was receiving. "Mention…my…blog!" His priotorites were shot to pieces, but maybe he would actually learn something for once.
"No, my people!" She turned and saw-ohmygod it's Quartz Butterfly! The brother of Star Butterfly! "Violence is not the way!" And he was just as optimistically naive and cute as his sister said he was. The watermelons, who she just realized looked VERY much like the Quartz Butterfly in question, turned to the boy from another dimension, before going back to peling Ronaldo. "WHY!?"
"Rose's plants live for one thing and one thing only." A woman with pale skin jumped from out of nowhere and started smashing a couple of the melons with a spear, who started attacking her once she did. "And that's for fighting."
"Why would something be made specifically for violence!? That's just cruel and unusual!" The boy spoke. "Don't fight him. Don't fight her! Don't fight anyone!" They all looked at each other, before giving the boy a raspberry. "Come on, who chooses violence!?"
"Hey Quartz!" He turned, and … the most amazing and incredible and perfect woman in the world ran at them. Star Butterfly! "Messed with those shards with some corn to have my own kingdom like you, didn't work!"
"You messed with what!?" The pale lady shrieked, before thumping could be heard. From a distance, they all saw yellow figures in the shape of the amazing girl she went to school with, with torches and pitchforks. "Amethyst, when I get my hand on you, you'll…!" The pale lady screamed before she two were buried asmist all the punches.
"...So on the bright side, the baby melon is still with us." Star held out a smaller melon version of the cute boy. "So today has a few pros and cons." Star chuckled. "I mean, it's just a bunch of food fighting each other. What's so dangerous about that?"
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To my future people. I, Baby Melon, write to you from the past, detailing the great battle known as the 'food war'. The first day was the arguable worst, due to the chaos and newness to their existences, seventy percent of the town caught on fire. From there it was quickly divided into two sides.
The Melon Tribe, his people, were proud. They seeked honor and glory in combat. They knew very little else however, straying from the path of peace the great creator speaks to them about. He tries every day to quell the Melon Tribe's anger.
The Corn Monsters, the other side, was a different story. Tyrannical manipulators that seeked to enslave the ones that once ate them. Now with vengeance as they went on, creating weapons of mass destruction and torture that breaks what the red hooded one calls, the 'geneva convention'.
The fighting had broken many noble melon's spirit, some giving into the baseline nature and allowing themself to decompose and become one with nature once more. Other's have offered themselves as offerings to feed those caught in the crossfire, though more often than not, their offers were returned with faces of uncertainty and disgust
I myself have managed to live somewhat in comfort, in the presence of the almighty creator and the demon woman who created those monstrous corn foes. The two of them combined held such mighty and caring hearts. If not for the war, they would no doubt bring about an age of peace with their alliance.
The corn monsters have taken refuge within the cave the creator had described as the 'Crystal Gem Base', where a small sect of freedom fighters continued to hold their own, though not without casualty, as the purple one known as Amethyst was buried alive all but two days ago, and had yet to bloom back. The savagery of those devil corns knew no bounds.
He had an idea though. The kind ones talked of peace, maybe he could try and bring peace between the two tribes, create unity. It was a pipe dream, but surely his hope would inspire millions to come, and millions after them. Until one day, all living things lived in harmony.
"So can you understand anything he's writing?" The bushy haired woman that his creator held great feelings of affection for asked as they looked over his journal.
"Not a clue, they never learned how to read." His code was indecipherable to all but his fellow melons. One day, they would spread the word and teach it to all species everywhere across the universe.
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Kelly watched as Quartz held onto the broken Melon, Star silently glaring as her cheeks flared. "You all have commited a great sin … I have made you, and I will unmake you as well!" She shouted, rushing to the corn that had given them trouble for weeks and blasting them hard enough to drive fear into the monsters. "You will suffer the wrath of Star Butterfly, devil spawn!!"
The princess didn't even bother shouting the name of her spells, she just fired a giant laser that turned the corn into popcorn, but the corn seemed to be accepting of their fate. Something that Quartz took note off. "STOP!" Everyone froze. "You see it now, don't you!?" The prince turned to the melons and corn people. "You know what happens when you just fight aimlessly for no reason! People you care about, people that are innocent, pure, young, they get hurt, in ways that you can't fix!"
The corn and melon people looked to each other in shame, apparently soaking up the boy's words like water. "Baby Melon knew that." Star caught on to what her brother was doing. "He knew the only way for all of us to take a second to think clearly was to sacrifice himself! That's what your actions forced him to do!" She pointed to all of the food.
"This melon knew what true loyalty, and siblinghood meant! Something you should all know, since you all have a piece of us in you!" Quartz finished. "Now go! Think about what you've done! And don't come back until you understand Baby melon's sacrifice!" The Corn and Melon groups looked at each other, and began walking to the ocean, beginning a swim to the horizon as they all stared at the sight in silence.
"We just let multiple gem shards and a battle hungry group of melons roam free in the ocean." She could hear Pearl deadpan.
"Not like we were doing anything with those shards to begin with." Amethyst rolled her eyes, everything but her head was buried in the sand.
"Actually, I'm going to keep this one." Jana apparently watches the entire unfold, with a watermelon Quartz right by her side. "I think he likes me." Those words didn't sit right with Kelly for some reason.
"They'll be fine." Star and Quartz watched the melons and corn swim away. "If they're anything like us, they'll find a way to work together and make something amazing." Quartz said.
"It was wrong of us to try and establish our own kingdoms when there's so much we need to learn." Star continued. "They'll be their own people from now on,free to make whatever decisions they want."
"You know, despite the multiple fires and destroyed buildings, my house and the school were relatively unscathed." Marco spoke. "I'm just going to count today a win and hope nobody I care about got seriously injured."
"I think that crazy guy with a blog got sent to the hospital." Star remarked.
"Like I said, nobody I care about got hurt."
This was a weird day, and she had no idea what to think of it, especially with Star and Quartz looking conflicted about either eating the baby melon corpse or burying it. For sanity's sake, she hoped that they did the latter. She was just about to offer her condolences when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "So…you and ole Quartzy?" That Jana girl looked at her with eyes that just spelled trouble. "You two got intimate and made some magic together?"
"It was one night." She heard Tad speak up from her hair. "After that it just got awkward for everyone."
"It WAS awkward, now everythings fine." She ignored her boyfriend. "We're all friends, and that's what matters." Except Tad, but his opinion was irrelevant to the situation.
"How'd it feel?" Jana asked, getting closer than she was comfortable with.
"Close, very close." That's all she was willing to say out loud. On the inside, she thought it was one of the greatest feelings she's ever felt in her life. She felt warm, and comforted, and acknowledged for everything she was and had done, when the stress wasn't at the forefront at least.
"Hmm …" She looked over at the boy. "Hey Quartz, wanna fuse!?" The hell!?
The boy's eyes shot wide open, as he ran to the ocean. "Wait for me, my people!" Good for him, meanwhile, Kelly would just go ahead and bury herself right next to Amethyst.