Steven Universe

”Wooaaaah..” Steven brought his hands up to his face in awe. His attention was then snapped to Sardonyx and Alan.

"Uuuh, hey guys, maybe you shouldn't be fighting." He hustled over to the two with a concerned expression.

"STEVEN BE CAREFUL!" Pearl summoned her weapon and ran up beside the boy in a paranoid rush.

”Hm.” Garnet still wasn’t impressed by Jade. ”Why have you not regenerated until now?

Amethyst was standing with her arms crossed, not too impressed either. So far all of the other gems they met were hostile, how could they be sure these two were any different? Though, it was still kind of nice to meet one that wasn’t corrupted.

Sardonyx sat cross-legged on Alan's gut, "Uhm, can I please get up?", he asked.

"No."

Alan sighed, "it's getting kinda hard to breath."

"Well that's just too bad, then...", she told him, "Tch... You can tell your Pearl to back off y'know!"

Jade smiled at Sardonyx and Alan before turning back to Garnet, "An interesting question.", she said cheerily, "You see, when our temple was buried, we tried to dig our way out for at least two centuries before giving up, and we sort of just slept after that. Until you all reactivated our warp pad, that is."

”I’M NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES.” Pearl barked, continuing to act as defensive as possible towards Steven.

”Guys, please…”

”Hm…” Garnet began, putting her weapons away. Suddenly the banging at the door began again, but more intense than before. ”Well, we can worry about our mission later. Right now there are more important things to discuss.”

Pearl snapped back at Garnet. ”Garnet, you can’t seriously be thinking-“

”We’re warping back to the temple.”

”Wooaaah, hahaha! Been a while since we’ve had visitors like this!”

”Garnet, please-“

Garnet looked directly at Pearl. ”I’ve got this under control.”

Jade's eyes lit up at the prospect of another temple, "So, you mean this was a localized event, there are still other temples on Earth?" Jade clapped her hands, "Oh goodie!", she said, "we can return home and report our findings on this planet's inhabitants! Following your lead! Come on Sari."

Sardonyx stood and followed next to Jade.

"Wait, you guys're just gonna leave me here with angry boulders banging on the door?", Alan shouted.

"Yep. Sorry humie, but humans can't use warp pads.", Sardonyx said with a lopsided grin.

Steven was confused at what Sardonyx said. ”Huh, what! Of course they can!” He ran over to Alan and started to tug towards the pad. ”C’mon!”

Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst looked at each other hesitantly at Jade’s words.

The door was starting to dent in at the forces banging against it.

”We’ll discuss it later, come on!”

Once everyone was aboard, however tight of a fit it was, another intense light carried them off.

They arrived back at the temple, which was left exactly how Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst remembered it, but might’ve caught the other two off-guard with its… human touches.

”Alright, here we are! Steven sprang out and waved his arms about. ”OH, maybe I should give you a tour of this place, uh…” He turned around and started pointing at different parts of the house. ”That’s my room over there, and that’s the kitchen, there’s a porch right outside there, and…”

As he continued his list, Garnet coolly stepped off the warp pad and sat down on the nearby couch. Amethyst and Pearl followed.

”Alright, now tell me,” Garnet turned to face the new gems, ”Where exactly in history did you leave off at?”

Alan, panting, fell to the floor upon reaching Steven's home. Having just experienced his first warp, his eyes were wide, and he puked up his breakfast. "Ugh! Keep it in your stomach, Human!", Sardonyx shouted.

"Ugh... Sorry.", Alan said, "Carrots... Why's there always carrots? I didn't even eat carrots..."

"Ugh!!", Sardonyx yelled, "Keep it in your stomach, human!"

"Oh, don't be so mean Sari,", said Jade, leaping gingerly over Alan's small puke puddle, "I seem to recall you retching more than he is, and don't even eat a breakfast." She stepped in front of the coffee table, as Sardonyx turned away and huffed, blushing from embarrassment. "It appears I don't understand your question, Miss... Garnet, was it? I believe one of the Diamonds was in power, but that's the last time we reported in. It's hard to stay in touch with Homeworld giving our research such little funding. I keep telling them we need to track these creatures's evolution.", She said.

"They seem to be getting smarter with every new generation. Walking more upright, coming down from their trees more often, and I think I even saw one using a stone to sharpen a stick."

“Oh, SHIT! Hahaha!” Amethyst laughed at Alan’s mishap. ”I’m not gonna’ be the one to clean THAT up!”

”Amethyst!” Pearl barked, narrowing her eyes at the purple gem. ”Maybe… you should. I’m always the one cleaning up after Steven. It certainly wouldn’t hurt for you to clean up a human mess every now and again!”

”Tch.” Amethyst rolled her eyes and looked away. ”Yeah, yeah.”

”Uumm… Steven gingerly walked up to Alan, looking concerned. ”Would you like some water… or something?”

Garnet, meanwhile, was keeping her attention set on the new gems. This was a rather tough situation. They needed to know what had happened, of course, but it was tricky guessing how they would react to finding out.

She let a moment linger after Jade finished speaking. Then, pushing up her shades, she simply replied ”You’ve been gone for a very long time. Homeworld no longer has control over this planet.”

Pearl and Amethyst shared a nervous glance with each other.

"No, I'm, I'm fine...", Alan said, breathing heavily, "Just get me a mop, or a towel or something so I can clean up..."

Sardonyx looked at the human creature kneeling on the floor next to her, clutching it's stomach and wiping its mouth as it rose shakily. Even after his bout with the subterranean residents of the temple, and dealing with warp sickness, it was still operating independant of the others. Perhaps it wasn't so weak as she thought.

Begrudgingly, she offered her hand to it. Alan accepted the help graciously, but not eagerly. "Thanks...", he said.

"Yeah, well don't mention it...", she pulled him hard, baring her teeth and giving herself fangs for emphasis, "Seriously, don't.", she said.

Suddenly, they both turned to Jade who'd burst out laughing, "You mean they actually sent an occupational force to this backwater?!", she howled, "Sari, get this! Homeworld actually sent a force to control this place! Oh, I can't imagine the locals were too pleased about that!" Jade snorted, her peals of laughter ringing of the walls like chimes.

Pearl’s expression turned anxious. ”Er, no, that’s not quite…”

”We are not associated with Homeworld. Homeworld has nothing to do with this planet anymore. Nothing at all.”

Steven was busy digging a mop out of an over-stuffed closet nearby.

"What the hell are you talking about?", Sardonyx asked, "Homeworld controls everything, and it Isn't like the locals have anything that could combat gem technology."

Jade turned to her sister, "They might not have had the technology while we were studying them, but we slept for many thousands of years, so who knows what they developed in that time?!", Jade giggled and clapped her hands, "Oh, I can't wait to see what their ingenuity has developed!"

"Hmph,", scoffed Sardonyx, "Well, if Homeworld has nothing to do with this planet, then why are you guys still here? And why didn't they tear down the warp-net when they left?"

Meanwhile, Alan found a napkin in the kitchen and wiped his face. He took the mop Steven offered him and leaned down, "What the heck are they talking about?", he asked Steven.

There was a pause. Pearl was awkwardly playing with her fingers and Amethyst was kicking her feet up like a child anxious for class to end.

Steven lit up at Allen’s question. ”OH, they’re talking about how my mom saved planet Earth!” He exclaimed excitedly. ”If only you’da seen it! Actually, if only I’da seen it.” Steven’s eyes darted around. ”But I hear it was really cool!”

Just then there was a sound at the door. The gem’s heads snapped in that direction and saw a purple figure sheepishly peering in through a tiny opening. Her eyes widened in response, and she nervously looked down for a bit before completely opening the door and stepping in. Once in, she took a moment to hastily shift her footing around and straighten out her knee-length hair.

Finally, she took in a deep breath, met their gaze, smiled, and began.

”Um, haha, hi there. Sorry to intrude, but-“ she scanned the outside area behind her, then shut the door, ”I, er, was, was, hoping to have a, um… oh, what’s the word?” She mumbled quietly to herself a bit before snapping back up. ”Anyway, um, Homeworld’s back.”

The three other gems leapt to their feet with weapons drawn. ”WHAT!?”

”UM WELL, not back back more like… someone’s back. And… it just looks like, um, looks like she’s looking for s-something.”

"Oh yeah," Alan said, "I think I remember reading a book about that..." He walked over and started mopping, "Wasn't there like, a huge war or something with hundreds of thousands of deaths and stuff?"

"That's why there's ruins in the middle of my grandpa's alfalfa fields."

Suddenly, the door opened and a purple girl stepped inside. She said something about a homeworld and the three women that had rescued him from his subterranean fate materialized weapons into their hands and jumped up, running outside. Jade and Sardonyx followed their newfound allies, followed closely by Steven and Alan, who still held the mop.

”Homeworld hasn’t learned its lesson, huh? We’ll show them!” Amethyst punched a fist into her other hand, ready to go.

”Steven, stay inside. We’ll handle this.”

”Aww, but I did so well last time!”

”Steven’s right. He’ll be fine.”

”Yay!”

Flourite was following behind everyone, and quickly weaved her way back to the front.

”Um… she’s not here anymore. Well, I don’t know where she is. But I do know where her ship is.”

She led the group to a small vessel sitting on the beach. It was very similar to Peridot’s escape pod, only slightly larger and more oval-shaped.

”Well, we’ll have to be on the look-out, that’s for sure. In the meantime-“ Garnet lifted the spacecraft up, ”I’m confiscating this.”

”It’s kind of odd she would just leave it out like this.” Pearl looked around, as if expecting the outsider to jump out at any second.

”I guess she thought no one would notice…” Flourite looked back at the two new gems. They seemed to be… different from the other three. And, in fact, Flourite had heard of there only being three gems in total at this temple, and only three other gems left on Earth at all. Oh well, maybe she just missed some info.

"Oh my... They must have really wanted this world, sending such advanced technology. Although, I did imagine as much. This world's unique geology is perfect for incubating young gems. Its sun provides jist enough ambient radiation to speed up the process by up to two years!", Jade clapped happily, " Oh, I knew someone would appreciate my research!"

Sardonyx glared at Jade, "yeah, but this means your precious hoomens are in danger. Homeworld has never had a particularly friendly attitude towards indigenous species in the past, why would they start now?"

"Who knows? I heard that that Rose Quartz girl was gaining support, perhaps she was successful and now she controls Homeworld? She has always been sympathetic towards carbon-based lifeforms."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, Jade.... Tch... What're you looking at, Bluie?" Sardonyx said with a scowl.

Alan nudged Steven, "Dude, what the heck is that thing? Is that a giant Egg? It looks like a giant egg. Why is there a giant egg on the beach?! Dude, I am freaking out. I'm from Empire city. I left because it was too fast-paced, I came to Beach City to slow down... This is not slowing down!"