Chapter 1: The Light
Pearl's spear flew through the air and expertly pierced the large, swollen figure that had previously been in a divebomb toward the Crystal Gems. Within moments, the figure shuttered and exploded in a puff of dust and feathers, temporarily impeding the Gems' vision.
"Get ready," Garnet commanded through the corrupted gem viscera. "There's bound to be more where that came from." In one fluid motion, she clenched her fists and summoned her gauntlets, compelling the remaining Gems ready their respective weapons. This was supposed to be nothing more than a routine sweep over what had been a long inactive access point in a dried up riverbed, and she had no desire to waste time on a few stray monsters. The group effortlessly fell into battle formation: Pearl and Amethyst collapsed behind Garnet while bracing each other's backs, forming a triangle shape. The trio stood as impossibly still as only beings without the need to breathe could. Soon the dust settled, revealing absolutely no impending threat bearing down on them.
Amethyst broke first, shoving her whip back into her gem hastily. "What gives, man? Those birds too chicken to fight us or something?"
"Amethyst, don't be so impatient," Pearl chided, but stashed her weapon all the same. "These creatures always travel in large groups. We need to remain vigilant." She paced the perimeter of the ancient river and suddenly stiffened. "Wait, where's Steven?"
"Here I am!" hollered Steven from behind an overgrown bush on what used to be the riverbank. "And I don't think we'll be seeing any more bird things, either. Look—these must have been her eggs!" He popped up from behind the bush, a misshapen mass of twigs and feathers raised above his head. Nestled on top were several blue-and-gold-speckled eggs, each about the size of a pinecone.
Pearl clapped her hands on her hips. It wasn't uncommon for Steven to disappear during missions, but it never failed to test her nerves. "Put those down—they could be dangerous!"
"But Pearl!" he whined, "we can't just leave them here. They haven't even hatched yet."
"Good call; we should squash 'em!" Amethyst teased. "Oh, I know, let's go egg the mayor's house!"
Pearl shot Amethyst a withering look. "We will do no such thing."
"Bubble them and we'll deal with them later. We need to get moving," Garnet demanded, heading off the tension stewing between the two. If there was one thing Garnet had learned in the several thousand years she had spent in the company of more outspoken personalities, it was how to intervene before petty banter devolved into emotional fallout.
"Aww, okay. Into the bubble you go, little guys." Steven focused intently on the nest in his hands. A sparkling pink bubble materialized around it with a soft blup and off it went to join the rest of their hodgepodge gem artifact collection. When he finally looked up, the Gems were already on the move.
Pearl was deep in conversation with herself by the time Steven had caught up to the group. "And why would a creature pick this location of all places to breed? It doesn't make any sense. There are no natural resources to support such growth." If anyone had answers, no one offered them. Steven, being the ever-imaginative, eagerly helpful child he was, couldn't resist a hypothetical challenge. But to the Gem's delight, his stream of thoughts was abruptly halted by an eruption of light in the distance. Somewhere, in this vast wasteland of sun-baked stones and weeds, a warp pad had activated.
The glow hung in the air like a thin curtain, it's ribbons so opaque they looked like you could reach out and grasp them. Unlike the glittering blue streams of light the pads usually produced, this one was gold and distorted. If Steven noticed the uneasy glances being exchanged around him, he was too enthralled by the golden spectacle care, and so he darted forward, eager to reach the warp and check it out.
The golden aura had dissipated long before the Gems reached the pad, but they didn't need to see it to know where to go. Further up the river was a well-worn footpath that wound through a sandy embankment. There, among a few skinny trees and clumps of grass sat the warp, looking as frail as the foliage that surrounded it. It was remarkable how seriously in disrepair it was; cracks spidered across the sides of the crystal platform and the edges were almost entirely chipped away. At its base grew sickly-looking algae that was starting to creep into the more accommodating crevices. To Steven, it looked more like a sad, weathered slab of concrete instead of a majestic portal-making machine. He circled around the platform, eying it suspiciously, but no matter which way he looked at it, it was still just a normal warp pad.
"How is this warp still active? Just look at it! It's a mess!" Pearl reached down and brushed her slender fingers across the rough surface. Loose shards of crystal worked themselves free under her touch and skittered about. Even though she knew this particular warp had been inactive for hundreds of years, it was a shame to see it so ruined. "Do you think Peridot could be responsible for all this damage? It wasn't like this when we checked on it fifty years ago."
"No." Garnet adjusted her glasses and said nothing else. Pearl knew it highly improbable that a Homeworld Gem would willingly vandalize a warp, but the damage was too severe to not consider it a possibility, especially now that the transmitter had obviously been altered.
"If not her, then who? Someone must have activated it," she pressed.
Amethyst yawned loudly. "This is booooring. Why don't we just use it and see where it goes? If it takes us to Peridot, I say we kick her butt once and for all."
"That would be highly irresponsible," Garnet stated. "We don't know if it's still capable of transporting us whole or if we'll end up in pieces like that time in Zerza Nine. We need to destroy it so that whatever was using it can't come back." With this, she raised her fist-turned-gauntlet and brought it crashing down into the platform. Aside from exacerbating the spread of a few existing cracks, its condition remained unchanged.
And then the warp activated.
A blinding flash of light shot out from every crevice, bathing the immediate vicinity in warm, golden rays. When it finally receded enough for anyone to open their eyes, the world around them was dark.
"Ahh! Help! I've gone blind!" Steven cried, waving his hands in front of his face.
"You're not blind, Steven. Your eyes just haven't adjusted to the dim light yet," Pearl said flatly.
She was right, as usual, and it wasn't long before Steven was able to make out each of his fingers in the low light. When he pulled away his hands, he saw they were on the outskirts of a forest near a quiet highway. A nearby sign read, "WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS."