-//-

It was hard enough to get Gar to grant him a mission. His hours of asking, whining, demanding, and begging to be doing SOMETHING beyond clean up shop would have driven weaker Agate’s to their weapons to reprimand the hyperactive Amythest.

But Gar wasn’t just any Holly Blue Agate.

“For Pete’s sake Amko, pay attention!” Catching him by the coller, Amko found himself wrenched away from the Lava he’d been about to clean the swords in/ The handles bubbled beneath the surface as Gar pulled him aside, still reprimending him. “You know you can only handle Lava as Kaio!”

“R-right.” Swallowing thickly, he squeezed his fingers, blinking at the ash dusting them. “I kinda forgot that.

A weary sigh sounded off behind him as his hands were examined for damage.

“Amko.”

Man, did the floor always have this many patterns in it? He could follow the lines for hours without looking up. Particularly into reflective shades that seemed to peer at the core of your gem.

“I know your worried.” The voice was unusually soft, and his chest twinged at the blank space on his chest.

Yep. VERY fascinating floor plans. Strange how they got all fuzzy all of a sudden. Especially when he felt the far larger hands release his own and grab his shoulder.

“I’m fine.“ He muttered, voice cracking into a growl partway through. Shifting his weight, he forced himself to look up into the worried shades with an indifferent shrug. “I just forgot I couldn’t touch lava, okay. I’m fine.”

Amko didn’t apreciate the disbelief in his gaze. Setting his jaw, he waited for his lecture.

Instead, Gar simply nodded.

“Alright, I have a mission for you than.”

Head snapping up, his mouth opened, tongue loaded with questions as Gar raised a hand.

“But- it’s not a solo mission. You need be a team player on this.”

Shutting his mouth, he pressed down a scowl before nodding. Team player. Fair enough. Amko didn’t have the best history with solo missions after all. Enide was busy on a separate mission with Red Zircon and Sterling, leaving Radiquoise open. Probably busy sulking a bit about RZ hanging out with Enide for some reason.

Gar walked down the aisle ways, leaving Amko to half jog behind him.

“One of our Techies need help accessing the old communications tower to ensure that it’s functioning properly. While we don’t want the Diamond’s eavesdropping on us-“ Gar took a moment to compose himself- adjusting his tie irritably at the thought of his former superiors. “we still need to be able to communicate amongst ourselves. You’ve got to make sure the area’s safe enough to do their thing uninterrupted. Got it?”

“Yep- nerd protection duty.” He nodded solemnly, cracking a small grin at his exasperated frown. “So, who am I babysitting? Radiquoise?”

Reaching into his pocket, the agate pulled out the gem in question.

“Got poofed about 15 minutes ago.”

“What?”

“The pepple’s lucky he’s not shattered.” Tone a dry mix of stirred unimpressed frustration, Gar gently placed the turquoise in his cubby and tucking it in a blanket. “According to Calcium, Petrified Wood bet he couldn’t juggle 5 laser swords at one time.”

“But he can’t juggle- nevermind.” He changed subjects at the warning look. “So, Sparko than?”

“Still undercover as Brass.”

“Oh.” Furrowing his brow, he scraped the recesses of his minds for names and faces. That had always been more Ruko’s thing. He was the social butterfly, where Amko was the sarcastic moth. though to be fair, the amount of people Kaio knew wasn’t exactly easy to keep track of.

“Jethro, than?” Amko asked, palms to the ceiling as he gestured for a clue. “Is he back in town?”

“No.” Face schooled into careful neutrality, Gar ;ed him to the parking lot. “You’ll be working with Dendydot.”

Amko’s feet came to a record stop, spine straight as a ruler as he stiffened.

“What?”

“I said, ‘You’ll be workin-”

“I HEARD what you said!” Amko snapped, shrinking back as he remembered he was talking to. Twisting his vanbraces by the spikes, he continued awkwardly. “Er, sir. But, you do understand our... history.”

“Yes, but both of you have changed since then.”

“Somehow i doubt that.” Glaring at the now obvious vehicle, his eyes twitched before turning his gaze back to the shades above him. Scrunched in sympathy, Gar squeezed his shoulder, the pressure stabilizing against the hot fury seeping from his gem.

“I wouldn’t ask this of you if I thought she hadn’t,” Gar’s look turned pointed. “or that you were unable to handle it.”

“Red Zircon.” The Hue Trooper snapped to attention lazily. Sighing, the agate rubbed pinched the bridge of his nose. “We still need to find  Radirquoise, can you watch Kaio?”

“Yeah sure Gar, but Mr. Laffy Taffy over there seems to be doing a pretty good job watching himself ” Grinned, she jerked a thumb towards the fusion in question.

Lowering his fingers away from the shades, he watched the fusion in question stumble unsteadily in the waves, enraptured by his latest discovery. Fluffing the red-purple strands of hair covering his face, he oohed texture, running it through his fingers.

Gar’s mustached twitched above a fond smile, before the bitterness of the situation tugged him to reality.

“Just... Keep him away from trouble okay? He deserves at least one of his first experiences to be fun.”

-//-

The Bodega Gems got struck with a Gem rejuvenator, leaving few to pick up the pieces of the reset Gems. 

Blue Agate (Mr.Gar), Sterling Silver (Carol), Red Zircon (Red Action), and Dendydot (Dendy) are among the few not hit. 

However, no one’s entirely sure how to reverse the effects of such a device. Dendydot’s working on it, but between the excess of clueless quartzes needing direction and the damage done to the Plaza, she can only do so much at a time. 

Meanwhile, Red Zircon’s attempts to get Gems (particularly Enide) back to normal make her realize that a LOT of them need Kaio to return to themselves. 

Unfortunately, Kaio is currently blissfully ignorant of what’s going on around him.

Agate is VERY tired. 

Without Lighting