The future has fangs
Colleseum AU timeline. Set post SUF 3k words.
Chapter 1 : You missed a spot.
It's quiet. Too, perfectly, quiet. There is not a bird in sight nor a single pitter of rain on the windowsill. The night is clear and crisp, sky sporting speckled stars like jewels, and the moon shone brightly.
Connie awakens with a flinch as bright pink light assaults her sleepy eyes. Lion, barging into her room via warping. Dropping his heavy head onto her lap as she sits up.
"Again?" Connie asks, exasperated on noticing the time. "Lion it's not even 3am, I have to study tomorrow." She sighs, roaming a hand over his silken fur. "You can't keep waking me like this or I'll be sending you home to sleep with Greg."
He mowls softly, licking at her open palm with hardly any effort, forcing a creeping smile onto her face despite her eyes rolling. "Alright, fine, come on."
A 'poff poff' of her hand hitting the airy duvet spurs him up and onto the bed. The mattress sounding its strain with a heavy groan. His padded paws kneading eagerly at the foot of her sleeping space before settling down with a wide but silent yawn…
The morning comes swiftly. Lion's heavy body scrambling down off of Connie's bed would have been enough to wake her, but to top it off he kept pacing the room and pawing at her covers. This had been going on for a little under a week now and the break in schedule was really getting to her system. She almost fell asleep during dinner yesterday. It was a disaster.
He glowered and grumbled while she got changed, clearly riled up about something and scratching impatiently at the clean carpet.
"Hold on, let me grab my bag. Steven won't start without us, Lion, you know that." Her soothing did little to quell his enthusiasm, however, tail flicking back and forth until she was finally ready to leave. They were so behind schedule...
Warp-riding with Lion was always exhilarating, regardless of how many times she had done it before. It could be nauseating to some people, but luckily Connie was one of those special few. Not many humans could tolerate gem nonsense like she could- even Greg suffered from time to time and he had been exposed to it much longer than she had.
On straightening her bag strap and climbing up, the loud space-bending roar wobbled a few innocent stuffed animals sitting on her nightstand. In a matter of moments the whole room had dissolved from view, her hands gripping the thick fur of Lion's mane. A brief, indescribable second of weightlessness… and then the heavy 'THUD' of their landing. Gravity was suddenly back, almost twice as heavy as before, as his paws thundered across dirt ground. Slowing to a trot, walk, an eventual halt.
As she reached down to pat his shoulder, the realisation that they weren't outside of Steven's current bed and breakfast set in. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she sat upright and twisted to look in all directions. It was densely packed forest on all sides. "Um. Lion?" Connie's tone held a bit of bewilderment but no accusatory notes. "Where are we?"
Lion rarely warped to the wrong place… and even more scarcely did it without having a reason. Her hands retreated to the strap of the large bag that weighed heavily on her shoulder. She slid off of the big pink cat's back to stand on her own and look around.
Lion breathed in short, rapid, breaths. Searching for something in the frosty morning air. The taste of damp foliage and a slight breeze lingered in the woods. Ears picking as they filtered out the white noise of the rustling leaves and Connie's boots grinding up the grit beneath them.
She opens her mouth, ready to ask Lion if they could leave, but was cut short as his loud bellowing howl interrupted her train of thought. Lion repeatedly called out, pausing to listen for something after each one, before marching onward. Connie hadn't heard any replies to Lion's shouting, but clearly he did, trotting through the undergrowth with heavy steps.
Thinking quickly, Connie rummaged through her bag to find her phone. She Jogged to keep up with Lion as the cellular device latched onto a signal. Thank goodness Peridot had made adjustments, or she might have been out of luck.
Several texts pinged onto the screen, one after another, clearly having been delayed from delivery by her phone being off in her bag all morning.
[Good morning!]
[Food is going to get cold, haha.]
[Connie?]
[Connie is everything ok?]
It's Steven. Of course it was. She was late, and not responding, who knows how worried he might be by now. Stumbling awkwardly over a fern, she taps at the on-screen keyboard.
[Steven! Lion warped me into the middle of nowhere, I'm so sorry we're late.]
[You're worried about being late in the middle of nowhere?]
[Instead of worrying about being lost?]
[It’s just a bad warp, I think.]
[Where are you, can you describe it?]
[Forest. Lots of trees, lots of bushes.] [hold on.]
[???]
[Hey, a landmark! There's a big rock here, really tall, with smooth straight sides. Looks like a broken obelisk. There's a few deep scratches in the corner.]
[Wait, that's not far from here]-
Connie's gaze snaps up from her phone to the pillar as an overwhelming sense of danger grabs at her shoulders much too late. Something large barrels into her side, knocking her to the ground. The phone clatters off of pebbled dirt.
Sucking air through her teeth at the grazed skin along her palms, she scrambles to flip onto her back and face the threat head on.
Something tall and wide looms over her with a heavy growl. The sound was grating, like stone being dragged across a marble floor, every hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Its head eclipses the radiating daylight, fur glowing gold from behind. A stretched shadow blotted out the warm rays of sun. It raised a heavyset paw, ready to bring it down atop Connie's chest. But at the last possible moment she snaps back to attention, rolling out of the way as it slams into the ground with enough force to shake the earth.
A roar interrupts the scuffle, Lion springing out of a wall of foliage to tackle Connie's assailant while she gets back on her feet. There's a violent blur of fur and claws before the both of them roll in locked combat through the densely packed ferns and out of sight. Her heart thunders, adrenaline finally reaching into her bones to provide a sudden buzz of energy, the scrapes and scratches along her knees and arms deadened and numb.
She can still hear Lion and the giant creature crashing through the trees. Her mouth runs dry as she scrambles to pick up her shattered phone and desperately try to turn it on. To no avail. The screen, voided beneath a webbed shattering of glass, was far beyond use.
The forest hisses with the beasts' battle as Connie drags her foot across the forest floor, gouging a deep arrow into the pebbly soil in the direction of the uproar; sprinting off through the undergrowth soon after. The fresh air of the low hanging trees would have been nice if it wasn't clouded by an ever so subtle metallic stain in her bruised nose. Ears trained in on the yowls and growls of Lion’s struggles against the creature whose rampant swipes had left large, splintered trenches in a path of heavily leaning trees…
The hurried crunching of Steven's flip flops almost drowned out his huffing and puffing as he sprinted through the trees, an arm raised up in front of him to keep swatting branches and nosey brambles out of his way.
Connie had stopped responding to his texts, something that normally he would chalk up to her being busy… But the past few nights he had been haunted by unearthly howls and distant thunder. The stone column Connie described set off a varied array of red flags. It was nearby, not visible from his bed and breakfast window, but close enough that the grinding crunches of breaking stone had been keeping him awake all night.
An eerie silence closed in around him as finally the treeline gave way to a small opening where the midday sunlight came beaming down bright and fierce. The towering shadow of the stone pillar, exactly as he had imagined it. Stretched up to the canopy above with just a slight lean to one side. A lower corner, around at his head height, had large chips missing. Carved out with reckless dismissal. This must be where Connie was before she stopped texting back…
His heart hammered, imagining the worst. But, after taking a second to catch his breath, he knew she would be alright. She was strong, smart, brave… and something aching at the centre of his chest understood she would be ok.
The spinning thoughts took an abrupt back seat as something on the floor caught his eye - Little flecks of glass, but more importantly, a neatly scrawled mark in the dirt. Big and easily visible in the darker soil under the deadened leaves, a clear arrow pointing out toward the opposing treeline. “Of course! Arrows, Connie, you're a genius!”
One led to another, and another, each getting smaller and more hastily scribbled. Though he focused on trailing the breadcrumb line a few sights and sounds didn't go unnoticed. It felt as though the woods themselves were trying to smother him, keep him from moving forward. But his desire to confirm Connie's safety was keeping it at bay.
A piercing roar undermined his growing unease, replacing it with dense, unbridled determination as he closed the remaining gap at full throttle. He practically explodes from the tree line and out into an open clearing, not putting time nor thought into what he was doing.
Connie stood battered and bruised on one side of the clearing, firmly holding Rose's greatsword out in front of herself in a threatening manner. Her hair had been ruffled up at the sides, adding more volume at the cost of looking a mess.
"Steven, look out!"
WHAM
His shield clanged as something hard and blunt rammed into it. Sandals skidded and dug into the loose dirt as, finally, he put a face to the threat he'd been waiting to see.
A beast, its form wild and unruly, stood snarling and poised ready for another hit. The burnt orange fur covering its body donned a thick mane of dark browns like a ragged cape draped over its face, shoulders, and back. The front pair of legs held large muscular paws while the back held less impressive but still dangerous two-toed hooks.
In its mouth was the real prize. Hanging down beside its chin on either side sat two long, curved fangs, glittering and gleaming under the blinding sunlight. A gemstone. Striped like the rest of its body but richer in colour.
Steven heaved the creature off of him, struggling from the weight for only a few seconds before it retreated. It gives Connie just enough time to start running over.
Her movement clearly caught the beast’s unseen eyes as it reacted with a volatile pounce. Only to yelp when another of Steven's constructs, a hexagonal patterned wall, crashed into its side - throwing it off course to tumble into the dirt.
"A corrupted gem?! I thought you'd dealt with all of these!" Connie gasped, finally getting to Steven's flank to brandish her weapon once more in the gem’s direction.
"I guess there's still some we haven't found yet…" He panted, an air of uncertainty to the reply. Had they really missed one? Were there more? If it's this aggressive, why hadn't they heard of it before now?
His theorizing was cut short when the gem, finally back on its feet, began to pace menacingly ahead of them. Steven's hands, usually steady, began to tremble. Every muscle in his chest seizes up on spotting the large, limp shape the gemstone beast was guarding.
Lion. Tired and ragged with visible scratches along his short velvety fur, one of the most prominent of which had been partially hidden by his thick, petal pink mane. He shifted occasionally, dragging his chin along the floor to try and see Steven, one eye squeezed shut to avoid a headache.
The sight had distracted Steven, flung his mind out of the present and into a stagnant void. Enough so that as the beastly gemstone approached Connie was the first to make a move in retaliation.
A wide sweeping arc from Rose's sword clashed with the gem' s muzzle in a harsh slash, forcing it up onto its hind legs. A startling screech, close to painful, jogged Steven from his stupor in time to see the creatures razor claws headed for Connie's face.
"STOP!"
The floor cracked under the force of his yell. Shattering stones and sending spiralling cracks racing through the clearing. A fluffy or birds erupting from the canopy to flee the sudden blast. Connie flinches, covering her ears, the absence of ambience afterwards was almost nauseating. Her shoulders had tensed, head turned away and ready to bear a cut...
But… she wasn't hit.
No. Instead the gemstone simply stands. It glares down at her with it's outstretched paw still raised for a moment until finally lowering. The beast staggers a weighty step backwards before thumping back onto all fours with no signs of hostility. It was… whining. Soft and quiet, almost unbearable in the deafening silence.
Steven shuddered from head to toe, staring wide-eyed at the space between Connie and the monster as if seeing something else in their place. His skin, radiating a vibrant pink, shuddered. Eyes clouded with a build up of tears that threatened to fall.
"Steven?"
Connie's soft, concerned, voice brought his shattered shaking breaths back from the brink of choking. As if realising he'd begun to glow he closed his hanging mouth and swallowed hard. Clearing the sweat from his palms by repeatedly gripping and letting go of his jacket.
His arms tore themselves from their rigid positions, a hand coming up to ruffle at his curly hair to ease some tension. "Are… Are you-"
"Yes. I'm okay Steven, it…. listened to you?" Connie interrupted, both trying to stay defensive to the skulking gem and sound supportive toward Steven. It’s not an easy act to juggle as she skirts towards him with an outstretched hand. She waits patiently as he hesitantly took it and squeezed softly, as if checking it was really there. "We need to get to Lion..."
"Lion,” he parroted back at her. A heavy weight had settled on his shoulders, staring at the now-pacing gem whose whines had become loud enough to consistently hear. Lion had managed to drag himself from the floor and prop himself up behind the pacing beast, still looking a little worse for wear.
"Hey! Back away. Go on, get away from him!" The authoritative drive to his tone caught Connie a little off guard after what had seemingly been a lot of worry a moment ago. But, looking as though it understood the orders, the gem began to move aside. Staying as far away from them as possible, muzzle trained on Steven as if transfixed… or terrified.
The interlocked pair make a beeline for their pink friend, Connie not once taking her eyes off of the gem as Steven lets go of her hand and throws himself at Lion's mane. He hugs him thoroughly before trying to heal some of his more serious scratches first.
Most of them close just fine, and only a fraction of those had been bleeding at all. Lions after all do have very thick and loose skin for this exact reason. But the deeper, slightly staining, mark tracing down his jawline and into his neck ruff quickly became harder to care for when Lion suddenly jerks away from Steven's hands. He stands up fully and shakes all of his messy, misplaced fur.
"Lion, wait, I've still got to do this one-" Steven huffed, again licking his hand and reaching for Lion's chin only to have him growl and pull back a second time.
Immediately after the deep rumble escapes his throat, the big cat winces horribly. He brings his head down into his own mane in an obvious show of pain and chuffs out quiet murmurs of affection into Steven's chest as he presses his nose up against the boy's shirt. He exhales loudly with a pitiful look.
"Connie, I don't know if Lion can take you home. He won't let me heal his neck and I think making loud noises is hurting him."
Her brows shot up in surprise. She breaks off her staring competition with the restless beast to run a hand over Lion's soft, cushioned muzzle. "Oh, Lion. You did your best, I'm sorry I couldn't join the fight sooner, you were just trying to help." She muses regretfully, scratching behind his ear as he purred a wheezy off-tune purr.
The tender moment was ruined shortly thereafter as rustling in the trees caused every hair along the saber-like gem's spine to prickle. For the first time since Steven had spoken to, it its hidden gaze snapped away from him and towards the leaves. Scanning over the tree line behind them in rushed glances before turning tail to flee and thunders off into the woodland.
Steven tenses, ready to give chase, but Connie's scraped up hand lightly rested down on his shoulder. Against all better judgement, perhaps they should let it go for now...
They'll meet again. He was sure of it.
