Nora clenched her fist harder than necessary, feeling the tension build in her knuckles as she stared up at the sky. High above, tearing through the clouds, a trail of white fire was fading away, the result of the extreme speed of that damnedly annoying object coming from the [Homeworld].
The damn thing had not hit anything yet, but it would soon. Whether it landed on some blind stretch of coastline, in the ocean, or anywhere else completely at random on the planet.
A growing hint of irritation crossed her mind before she simply sighed, letting the air out with a mixture of resignation and annoyance. Then she shot Connie a brief, slightly awkward glance. No words were needed. That single look only meant one thing: I've got work to do, again.
Connie, for her part, spread her hands in a casual gesture, exaggerating the movement to make it clear that she did not mind in the slightest and understood perfectly.
Nora nodded to herself and immediately broke into a full sprint toward the nearest portal.
Because, if I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am when it comes to things like this, judging by its trajectory, the Robonoid should crash somewhere near Mask Island.
It took only a few miserable seconds for her to reach the temple portal, already feeling the flash of teleportation activating beneath her feet.
And apparently, I wasn't the only one on the team focused on cleaning up this damned mess. The moment she stepped out of the portal, blinking against the light, she found the rest of the Crystal Gems already fighting one of the two Robonoids. Yes, I said one of two.
She smacked herself loudly across the face, feeling a little, no, correction, very fed up with, well, all of this.
Letting out a frustrated huff, she summoned her shield in a vibrant neon-pink flash and immediately launched into a swift flanking maneuver toward one of the Robonoids, slamming into it and knocking it cleanly to the side.
The impact was the perfect signal for the team to move.
Amethyst reacted almost instantly, wrapping her whip around the machine's metallic frame and yanking hard, leaving it completely exposed and off balance. A second later, Garnet finished the move with a high leap, using gravity's momentum to drive both fists straight into the annoying thing and shatter it into a thousand pieces. The destruction ended in an explosion of sticky blue liquid that refracted through crystal fragments, just like every Robonoid had done so far.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye while Pearl darted back and forth, distracting the remaining Robonoid to keep it from interfering with the attack.
For a moment, Nora seriously considered ending things quickly with a well-placed shield throw aimed at the last Robonoid.
But then I stopped to think for a second.
I stood still as I watched the object trying to evade them and move directly toward the temple portal. At the same time, I processed Pearl's own words as she kept it at bay, while Amethyst cut off one of its escape routes and Garnet stopped beside me, strangely thoughtful. She probably already knew what would happen next, or what exactly we were about to say.
"Could it be looking for a portal?" Pearl asked aloud, directing the question to no one in particular.
She voiced her doubt while forcing the thing to the ground with a pair of incredibly fast spear thrusts, while Amethyst was already grabbing her whip and using it like a cowboy's lasso.
"Who cares? We're gonna destroy it anyway!" Amethyst exclaimed without overthinking it.
She yanked the Robonoid upward and then used it like a wrecking ball, smashing it straight into the ground and instantly breaking it apart with the familiar sound of crystal and metal crunching together, scattering that same strange liquid everywhere.
What Pearl had just said was only one more confirmation among many, especially now that I was thinking about everything much more clearly.
Well, I think we can solve this whole problem with the next Robonoid.
So I prepared myself for a discussion about risks I knew none of my teammates would normally be willing to take.
"Girls," I called firmly, drawing everyone's attention and immediately cutting off the argument that had already started brewing between Pearl and Amethyst, though this time it was less intense and without nearly as much theatrics.
"We can't keep doing this. I mean, sure, we could keep destroying them one by one, but I don't think any of us wants to spend the rest of our lives doing that. At this rate, if more of them start arriving at once, we'll eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers."
I spoke quickly, letting the words spill out while the rest of the team stopped and gave me their full attention.
Pearl was already opening her mouth, ready to object or launch into one of her usual speeches about safety, but Amethyst was much quicker to cut in first.
"Alright then, what exactly are you suggesting we do?" she asked with a grimace while shaking off and cleaning her whip of the sticky crystalline liquid before continuing.
"You said it yourself not long ago. These stupid things keep showing up nonstop like some damn plague that we know absolutely nothing about."
The moment she finished speaking, she earned Pearl's stern and disapproving glare. Though we all knew it was not because of what she said, but because of how bluntly she chose to say it.
"Well, that's completely true. We barely know anything about these things aside from the obvious fact that they're trying to reactivate the portals," I said calmly, laying out the facts before presenting my real idea.
"So instead of destroying them, why don't we follow one and see where it wants to go by using the portals ourselves?"
I paused deliberately, holding my breath as I waited for their reactions, expecting the usual collective disapproval that tended to follow my riskier plans.
But, to my pleasant surprise, that did not happen at all.
Maybe it was because, a few weeks ago, we had been far more stressed and desperate while searching for just one of these things without even knowing whether they were real. Now we spent our days destroying them as if it were some kind of sport.
Part of it might have been that they now took my words and strategies much more seriously than before. Or maybe it was simply the physical and mental exhaustion caused by these machines.
Whatever the reason, they stood there in silence, considering my idea as something that actually made quite a bit of sense.
And so, with a silent agreement and a mutual understanding between all of us, we settled on a plan of action.
When the next damned marble arrived on Earth, we would not stand in its way, nor would we stop it.
We would follow it closely and put an end to this whole affair once and for all.