#i have her limbs all drippy because it's fun that way :) she's just. shaped water

[smile-files]

fear the tear

[psychosistr]

FOWL Facets- Chapter 3

Summary: Left alone with nothing else to talk about, Gandra gets Loony to tell her how exactly she and the rest of the team know Blue Diamond’s strongest and most prized lapis lazuli so well.

Notes: Okay, getting into some backstory finally with this one!

-First Chapter-

Once Domino’s gone, Gandra looks at Loony from her spot against the wall. “So, what’s the deal with you three and this Liquidator guy? I heard he’s Blue Diamond’s favorite lapis lazuli, but I’ve never heard anything about him working for F.O.W.L.”

Loony has a confused look on her face before the realization seems to dawn on her. “Oh riiiiiiiight, that was before you joined.” Her body returns to its usual proportions so that she’s standing by Gandra properly again. “Before the war, Liqui used to go on missions with us all the time!”

Gandra raises an eyebrow curiously at the statement. “So he is a F.O.W.L. agent?”

“Nope.” Lonny shakes her head. “He never joined F.O.W.L., but he does know about it.”

“Wait,” Gandra just looks even more confused by the spinel’s explanation. “If he’s not an agent, then why did he go on missions with you and the guys?”

“Because we were friends!” Loony answers matter-of-factly with a smile. “The four of us used to have so much fun…”

A planet lay in ruins, looking as if it were the scene of a horrible, destructive war. Buildings had been leveled. Bodies lined the streets and fields- all filled with bullet holes or lying with crushed limbs and necks. A good portion of the planet was on fire while the rest had been flooded under their planet’s own sea water.

On the planet’s surface, though, there were only two groups fighting: One was a large army of organic creatures with orange skin, multiple limbs, and three eyes- although their army was huge and their weapons fairly advanced, the bodies strewn across the planet all seemed to be that of their own kind. The other was a small group of four gems venturing further into the enemy’s territory, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.

At the front of the pack, Loony leapt and stretched all over the battlefield, drawing the enemy’s fire. “Bet you can’t catch me!” She teased, sticking her tongue out at them.

The soldiers tried to fire their weapons at her, but the glowing red shots just bounced off of her skin harmlessly. While they were distracted by Loony, however, the other gems were able to take out the soldiers from behind.

“Incoming!!” One of the soldiers shouted in fear as a blinking red egg-shaped crystal was thrown at them.

The soldiers tried to scatter, but, before they could get far, a large white barrier began to close around them, forming a dome that trapped many of them inside with the crystal. They tried desperately to break through the barrier, both from the inside and the outside, but it was no use. The shield held strong, not even cracking when the crystal turned completely red before detonating in a blinding red light, destroying everything within the dome in a controlled explosion.

“A warning would be appreciated next time.” Domino snapped his fingers, finally letting the barrier drop to reveal the smoking crater within. “I could have made it bigger- then we would have gotten more than half of them.”

“Dom, Dom, Dom,” Steelbeak shook his head from where he stood next to Domino on a floating diamond-shaped platform made of black energy. The melanite’s beak was shorter with a smoother look to it back then. He also sported a yellow bowtie instead of a black one and his eyebrows were a bit less defined. “You’re thinkin’ too small, snowflake. Killin’ ‘em all at once is too easy.” He lobbed another glowing crystal at the scattered soldiers, watching as Domino once again formed a white dome-barrier around the organic creatures to ensure their death. “Where’s the style? Where’s the pizzazz? Where’s the FUN?” He pointed down towards the fourth member of their group on the ground below them, leaning closer to his partner to speak in a conspiratorial whisper. “Besides- we gotta keep someone entertained, right?”

Domino glanced down, watching as the water along the battlefield began to recede in preparation for what was to come. “You do have a point there.” He brought his fingers to his beak and whistled, gaining the attention of the spinel still playing around with the soldiers and their futile attempts to shoot her. “Loony, time to go!”

Loony stretched her head up above where her body was grabbing and throwing the organics aside with ease, making it easier for her to shout over to Domino and Steelbeak. “Awww, already?”

“ ‘fraid so, Loons.” Steelbeak nodded behind her poignantly. “It’s drippy’s turn t’ play.”

Loony turned her head to see behind her, her earlier pout quickly turning into an excited smile. “Oooh, that’s gonna be a BIG one!”

With a flick of his fingers, Steelbeak summoned a series of slightly smaller black diamond-shaped platforms between them and Loony. The stretchy spinel was able to stretch and flip up the panels with the ease of ascending a staircase, joining the other gems on the bigger platform high above the battlefield. She got up there just in time, it seemed, as no more than a minute later a roaring tidal wave washed over the ground below them.

Standing on top of the wave was the Liquidator- a tall, buff, intimidating being that looked like a dog made completely out of water with a tear-drop cut royal blue lapis lazuli gemstone visible in his right hand. His outfit consisted mainly of a long royal blue colored robe similar to a yukata with midnight blue trim and a subtle rippling wave-pattern in sapphire blue throughout the garment that culminated around a shining blue diamond-shaped insignia on his chest, the outfit tied shut with a dark oxford blue sash at his waist. The whole outfit appeared to be made of the same water as his body, constantly moving and rippling at the same rate as the rest of his form with the bottom of the robe just being part of the puddle connecting him to the massive wave below him.

The battlefield became part of the ocean that had claimed the planet in virtually no time at all. With a smirk on his face, Liquidator made the water beneath him rise up so that he was level with the other gems. “Feeling drained? Stressed out from the daily grind of grinding down planets for your diamonds and/or shadowy organizations? Then relieve your stress with the fun new game literally sweeping the nation: ‘Skarwal Shooter’!” He did a grand gesture to the drowning soldiers in the water below them. “Grab a gun, line ‘em up, and take a shot at these realistic moving targets! Fun for the whole crew- guaranteed or your money back!” He controlled the water and the bodies in it, juggling them in the air and spinning them around in whirlpools.

“I wanna play!” Loony watched the flipping and flying targets with a look of pure glee and excitement on her face.

Steelbeak chuckled and touched the gem on his chest with both hands. One hand pulled out a gleaming silver tommy-gun with a jet black grip and matching stocks, while the other pulled out a matching long-barreled .38 revolver. He tossed the revolver to Loony so she’d have a weapon of her own, keeping the tommy-gun hoisted up on his shoulder. “Ya know, Liq’s, it’s a good thing we DON’T get paid, or you’d end up with half our money!”

“More than that with the games he talks you two into.” Domino shook his head with a roll of his eyes, pretending to sound annoyed but the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes was undeniably fond.

“Ah, the downsides of being a convincing salesman in a society with nothing to sell.” Liquidator chuckled, forming a chair out of the water under him so he could watch the other gems have their fun shooting at the struggling soldiers before joining in as well- shooting bullets made of ice from the tip of his finger while pointing it like a gun. “Still, there are a few things in life we can enjoy- even if I can’t take your paychecks!”

They all smiled and grinned in their own ways while picking off the last of the soldiers, enjoying their sadistic version of “shooting fish in a barrel”.

Hours later, after double and triple checking that the last of the organics had been wiped out, Loony led Liquidator through the ship with her hands covering his eyes. “Alrighty, Liqui, just a liiiiittle further..and remember, no peeking!”

Liquidator chuckled at the spinel’s antics, but obliged and kept his eyes in place behind her grey-gloved hands. “You have the Liquidator-brand 100% peek-free guarantee…but that guarantee is good for a limited time only, so act now.”

“Okaaaaayyy, now!” She removed her hands from in front of his eyes, finally allowing him to see again.

“??” When he opened his eyes and looked in front of him, Liquidator saw the hall holding the other gems’ rooms. His eyes widened when he saw that the door at the end of the hall, which had previously been left blank, now had an image of his own gemstone embedded in it. “Is..Is that…?”

“Yep!” Loony grinned as she grabbed his hand, guiding it over to the panel by the door.

When his hand touched the panel, the door slid open, allowing them to walk in together. He saw Domino and Steelbeak waiting inside, both looking pleased at his reaction.

“Told ya we’d get ‘im good with this one!” Steelbeak grinned smugly, his arms folded in front of his chest. “He didn’t see it comin’ at all!”

Domino sighed and shook his head with an exasperated smile at his partner’s attitude. “That IS the point of a surprise..” He looked back over to Liquidator. “So, what do you think?”

Liquidator looked around the room, fully taking in all the little details. As with most of the rooms, there wasn’t a lot of furniture, but there was still a table carved from light blue crystals with matching chairs that were made to look as if they were carved from ice. The left half of the room had been converted into a small pool filled with crystal clear water, the bottom of it lined with glowing blue crystals that bathed the entire room in a soft, ethereal glow. What made him smile the most, though, was that on the right side of the room on the wall above the table and chairs was a holo-disk displaying an image of the four of them after their first mission together: Liquidator standing in the middle of the image with his arms crossed, Domino on his right, Steelbeak on his left, and Loony stretched up behind him with her hands making shapes behind Domino and Steelbeak’s heads so they looked like they had mammalian ears.

He looked at the trio of darker gems with a grin that was even brighter (and far more genuine) than the one he’d had earlier on the battlefield. “Nine out of ten royal blue lapis lazuli’s agree: This room is perfect.”

“You’d better not be that tenth one, Liq,” Steelbeak teased the lapis lazuli with an equally bright grin. “ ‘cause we ain’t redecoratin’! You’d better appreciate this- we don’t go around givin’ just ANYONE a spot on the crew, ya know?”

“I know.” Liquidator’s grin softened into a smile. “And I appreciate it.”

They all shared a smile over the blue gem’s words. He only dropped the salesman-talk when he was being genuine, something they’d come to understand after many missions together.

“We need to celebrate!” Loony jumped up, wrapping her arms around Liquidator and leaping at the pool. “Pool party!”

They landed with a big splash (a bit too big for Liquidator NOT to have been a part of it). The resulting wave went far enough to wash over both Steelbeak and Domino.

“Hey!” Steelbeak scowled when he got soaked from head to toe, trying to shake the water out of his comb. A mild glare was added to his expression when he looked at his partner and saw that the snowflake obsidian was completely dry thanks to a thin, translucent white shield encasing his entire body. “Really? Ya couldn’t’ve got me, too?”

“I could..” Domino side-eyed his partner with a teasing smirk when his barrier dissipated. “But where’s the FUN in that?” He paraphrased the taller gem’s words with a quiet chuckle.

“Oh, so you actually LIKE havin’ fun, huh?” Steelbeak’s eyes briefly flicked to the pair in the pool, the two gems grinning as they returned the unspoken sentiment in full.

“Well it IS a party, after all.” The loon missed the conspiratorial glances around him. “And what better place to have fun than a party?”

“Yeah, you’re right, it IS a party.” Steelbeak grinned down at the other gem, subtly moving one hand behind his back. With a flick of his fingers, a small black diamond appeared under Domino’s feet. “A POOL party.”

Before the obsidian had time to react, the diamond shaped platform tilted upwards at an angle, sending him off balance. When he tried to regain his footing, he ended up stepping on one of Loony’s outstretched arms and falling backwards into a small wave generated by Liquidator- the wave quickly drawing him back so that he ended up in the pool alongside the other two occupants.

“……” Domino had ended up at the bottom of the pool before slowly floating back to the top, lying on his back on the water’s surface as he calmly spit a small stream of the liquid from his beak. “Alright…” He closed his eyes for a moment, his expression neutral and unreadable as he stood and retrieved his hat from where it was floating nearby. Once it was back in its proper place, he opened his eyes and looked at the rest of the ship’s small crew with a smirk. “If that’s how we’re going to play...” He withdrew one of his pistols from his gem, the barrel inside turning an icy blue color.

“Ice bullets!” Loony shouted while jumping out of the pool. “Run!”

They all ran away from the pool, laughing at the impromptu game of (literal) freeze-tag that had begun. It was a fun and fitting way to welcome their newest official member to the crew…

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End Notes: This part was a lot of fun to write ^^ The battle scene from the past put all of their skills to good use while the scene with Liquidator’s room got to show a more relaxed side of the team- a good work-life balance, at the end of the day.