3rd Person P.O.V.

Homeworld:

It's been a week after the mess with Spinel and she's doing fine on Earth with Steven. Not too good since Pink is there. Batman was called to Homeworld by the three Diamonds just to talk.

It was an odd gesture of them to call him just for that. They normally call him for meetings or when there's trouble. He equiped his suit and was on his way.

He walks into the Diamond Authority room and the three Diamonds and Alison were the only gems in the room. Not the other pearls, just the Diamonds and Alison.

(Batman) What's this about?

(White Diamond) We noticed something interesting about your old suit. Alison discovered it, actually.

White held his cowl to the suit he wore before he got his new one.

(Batman) What is it?

(Yellow Diamond) There's a certain feature inside the cowl that intrigues us.

Alison put the cowl on and pressed a button on the side of it. The eye holes of the cowl she's wearing glew white.

(Yellow Diamond) That. It shows a new perspective when activated to the wearer.

(Blue Diamond) What is it?

(Batman) It's Detective Mode. It's meant to help me scan and locate humans, gems, items, objects and things that can't be seen naturally.

Each of the Diamonds took turns wearing the cowl, seeing what Batman sees when he activates Detective Mode. First it was Blue, then White and it ended with Yellow, who still has the cowl on (she took off her helmet before equipping the cowl).

(Yellow Diamond) Surprising that human technology could ever have this. And here I thought their technology was primitive.

(White Diamond) It's very, very interesting to have.

(Blue Diamond) Can you tell us how to make it, please?

(Batman) It doesn't require materials on Homeworld. It can only be made on Earth.

(Yellow Diamond) Could you create something like that for us?

(Batman) It would be difficult. I could only create a pair of goggles for the three of you. Remember, it's not a toy to play with.

(White Diamond) Very well.

(Batman) I'll get back to you.

(White Diamond) Another thing.

(Batman) What?

(White Diamond) Could you... remove your mask?

(Blue Diamond) We recently learned from Alison that's not your real face.

(Yellow Diamond) It would be an honor to see your real face.

He didn't know whether to do it or not. They know his real name, and they wouldn't tell anyone else. But taking off his mask would be a sign of trust.

Does he trust them? Not very much because of their past, but he trusts them enough to at least talk to them sometimes. The one Diamond he trusts the most, which isn't much but better than a little, is White Diamond.

It's mainly because she promised not to tell the others about his hallucination. He sighed.

(Batman) Fine...

He pressed a button and his mask loosened up to where he can take it off like a helmet. He takes it off to reveal his true face. The three Diamonds were taken aback from how he acted looked.

He looks so different without it. He has black hair with blue eyes. His jaw and chin are the only thing they could see that would tell them he's the Batman.

(White Diamond) You look so... different.

(Blue Diamond) Like another individual.

(Yellow Diamond) It must certainly be difficult for those on Earth to know who you are.

Alison was the only gem who hadn't responded to him taking his mask off, mostly because she saw his face first. Batman puts his mask back on after the Diamonds got a good enough view of it.

(Blue Diamond) I love your eyes.

White cleared her throat, despite not having one.

(White Diamond) Wayne, one last thing.

(Batman) What?

(White Diamond) Could you... perhaps spar with us?

(Blue Diamond) It was Yellow's idea.

(Yellow Diamond) With the suit and combat, it would be a treat to see how it handles a Diamond.

(Batman) Just you three? What about Pink?

(Blue Diamond) Pink isn't much of a fighter.

(Yellow Diamond) Neither are you.

(Blue Diamond) You are correct, but I try, nonetheless.

(Batman) Fine.

Alisom clapped her hands together.

The Chamber:

Alison was in the little room with the invisible window to look through at Wayne and the Diamonds. No one uses weapons, that's the rules of the match. Batman took off his belt and placed it to the side.

He doesn't have to worry about them trying to use it. It won't open to anyone else other than him, unless they use high extreme electricity (Yes, I watched that show). He cracked his neck, loosening it up before the fight.

The three Diamonds looked confident. Batman used Detective Mode to see.

Identity: Yellow Diamond.
Condition: Calm.

Identity: Blue Diamond.
Condition: Nervous

Identity: White Diamond.
Condition: Nervous.

So, Yellow is the only one who isn't nervous about this.

(Batman) Bring it on.

He playfully taunts. This is something they'd never expect. He can hear Alison laugh from the other room.

Yellow charged first. She jumps and does a spin in the air to kick him. He caught Yellow's ankle and she lands on one foot, balancing herself somehow as he's holding her leg.

She's vulnerable at the moment. He kicked in the middle of her legs and she clutched the area as she fell down to the floor. Blue ran at him and tried to punch him but he tripped her.

He could've broken her arm, just like he would've if a common hoodlum on Earth were to attempt to attack him. And like earlier with Yellow, he could've turned her leg until it broke. This was odd of him to not want to do it.

This is coming from the man who is perfectly fine with breaking bones of humans, and gems don't have bones and breaking their limbs wouldn't effect them very much, especially since they can poof and reform back to normal. But Diamonds are very durable so breaking them until their form poofed would be the most difficult thing he'll do, if he wants to. The Diamonds also noticed his restraint of brutalizing them.

It was oddly touching for them. White  tried to strike him from behind but he retaliates with a counter. She threw a right hook, he pushed her hand way with his right hand, turned his back so he can hit her abdomen with his eblow, and finally he turns around to get a direct uppercut to her chin.

Yellow gets back up and tried to do a simple jab at him to catch him off guard. It works when she hits his chestplate and tried to attack him with the other hand. He caught her other hand and hits her abdomen with his free hand.

She involuntarily leaned forward and he wrapped his left arm around her neck. Then he immediately slammed his back against the wall along with Yellow's head that's under his arm. Luckily for Yellow, her helmet absorbed most of the damage so she wouldn't have a headache for the next few hours.

Blue tried to attack him while he was busy with Yellow but it was too late when he finished hitting Yellow against the wall. He runs up the wall and lands on top of Blue. Then, he slammed both of his hands right at her collar bone would be if she were human, and above her gem.

Blue was down. White came at him with a hook but he grabbed her arm and her thigh before he leaned forward to lift her on his shoulders. Once she was on his shoulders, he slammed his back against the same wall he slammed Yellow into, but leaned back so his shoulders would hit the wall.

But White took damage from the wall inside of him.

Joker: WWE sure puts a lot of ideas of violence in our head.

(White Diamond) Be quiet!

(Yellow Diamond) Who are you talking to?

(White Diamond) Nothing.

White nearly gave away the secret.

Joker: Shh! Quiet, or you'll ruin everything!

White gave the ghost a glare. How does Wayne put up with it? It looks so real and like it's actually there, when it's not.

Going back to reality, White was on the floor and watched Batman go up against Yellow once again. White noticed Yellow's helmet is dented. This time, Yellow looked hesitant on making her next move.

The first time she tried to attack, she got hit in the pelvis. Second time, she got the top of her head slammed against the wall. It was no surprise that she wasn't too eager to potentially get hit or slammed.

Batman just stood there, watching her trying to think. If he were to move, Yellow would jump back, he can tell by her body language. White noticed that they're both stuck, kind of.

Batman won't move, and Yellow is too nervous to move. White could use this as an opportunity to strike. She gets up as silently as she could and carefully stepped close to him, not making a sound.

Yellow took notice of White trying to sneak up on him. Yellow then tried to move closer to redirect his attention to her in case he were to turn his head around and spot White. White reached towards Wayne, thinking she'll entrap him with her arms and leave him vulnerable for Yellow to attack.

When her hand was inches away from his cowl--

Joker: Bats, behind you!

He quickly turned, grabbed White's wrist and forcefully pushed White at Yellow. She clashed into the younger Diamond and they both fall to the floor. It's obvious to know who won this sparring match.

[Speaker] Marvelous!

Alisom spoke through the speaker. The door opens and there's Alison behind it and is smiling ear to ear. She claps happily at Batman's success.

(Alison) I'm proud of you!

She pats his cowl, hand in between his pointy ears. Yellow and White stood up and brushed the dust from the floor off of them. Blue gets up and rubbed her chest in pain.

(Blue Diamond) And I thought you couldn't get any better at fighting us. Imagine how worse it would've been if Pink was here.

(Yellow Diamond) Speaking of her, how is she on Earth now that she is forced to reside with her former playmate that hates every fiber of her form?

(Batman) Fine. I can't say what's going on exactly. You have to ask Steven or Pink about that.

Joker: Say, White, how did it feel to get body slammed?

She doesn't answer, trying to ignore the ghost.

Joker: Oh, giving me the silent treatment, eh?

It walks to Yellow and Blue and put it's arms on their shoulders, pretending it's a buddy to them.

Joker: These two are friends I could count on. At least they'd respond to me when I talk to them.

This was very hard for her to ignore it.

(Batman) White.

He redirected her attention from the ghost.

(White Diamond) Yes?

(Batman) My belt.

She looks down to see his belt next to her foot. She leans down to pick it up and hands it back to him. He clips the belt back on.

He goes to leave. The Diamonds return to the duties, still bruised from the sparring match. Alison went back to the room she's placed in with Batman's cowl of his old suit in her hands.

She placed it on the armor stand, respectfully. She gets on her toes to stand high enough to kiss the cowl, leaving a black lipstick print on his cowl that would be difficult to see without looking too close. She's grateful that she has black lipstick to match her her secondary color of her form (she's black and white).

She never felt so proud and grateful to be a pearl to probably the most powerful creature of Homeworld. Her feelings are quite immeasurable to pinpoint exactly how she feels of her master. Pearls, normally, are supposed to feel grateful to be serving a Diamond or a high ranking general, but The Batman is the most highest honor any pearl could ever get.

That, alone, already raised her feelings high, but the fact he isn't much demanding, checks with her in person or through communicator, leaves stuff with her to fiddle with if she's bored and he trusts her enough to take off his mask when he's in the room with her. How lucky is she to have a master like that? She even heard the other Pearl's chat amongst themselves to hear they envy her.

She sits back in the chair and watches the screen of the reports she has to deal with. She quickly does them and gets done with them fast. She discovered a loophole with the reports.

All she has to do is speak what she thinks in the reports to answer any question and she has a mechanism to write down what she says in gem.

Elsewhere:

(Jasper) I found this?

(Pearl) What is it?

(Jasper) Some fabric that dropped from the top of the Palace tower. It's writings is about the Batman.

She reads the paper after snatching it from Jasper.

(Pearl) Oh, this... this is perfect!

(Jasper) What? I don't get it?

(Pearl) This tells us how the Bat thinks.

(Jasper) So?

(Pearl) So, it tells us how to counter his moves.

She continued to read the paper.

(Pearl) Now, we know how to beat the Bat!

End of Chapter 23

4/27/2021