Steven's serious mission
Chapter 1: Impatient morning
The sun rose over the calm oceans of the Atlantic, its light reflected off small waves making them seemingly sparkle, and revealed the many layers of the planet's atmosphere, the light crept over the water and slowly approached the peninsula of Beach City.
The light reflected off the many walls of the buildings and the various metal structures in the city, shadows grew and the grass of the cliff gained energy as it absorbed suns warm rays, small-unnoticed confetti sized pieces of the long crashed space craft glinted green in the dirt of the crater.
It entered the roof windows of the house of the half Gem, Half human Steven Universe who snored softly under his covers, illuminating him and, facing the windows, heated up his face making him whine uncomfortably, his face scrunching up into a slight grimace.
Looking through his closed eyes, all Steven saw was the orangeish red of his eyelids, His eyelids twitched before they slowly opened.
Morning.
"Wait. It's morning?" Thought Steven as his vision cleared and he rubbed the gunk from his eyes.
"Its morning!" Yelled Steven immediately lifting himself from the comfortable bed he was laying in and jumping out of it.
The day before, Steven had been told that for his great work chasing down Peridot in the ancient Spacecraft he was allowed to join the Gems in a mission no matter the danger, excluding missions in environments such as the bottom of the ocean of course and provided he understood the responsibility, the danger, and the challenges. Never wanting to be left behind he believed he could without fully understanding what they meant.
Steven knew missions could get tough but he still doesn't understand the full dangers or the concern in his dad's voice when he asked him about "Gem stuff" before the return of Home world.
He thought that with the Gems by his side this would be a piece of cake.
Steven quickly took off his sleeping pajamas and put them in his closet before putting on his regular shirt, jean pants and sandals before running down to the temple door.
The door opened through Garnet's door the 3 Gems came out of the door expecting Steven.
"Hey Guys!" Exclaimed Steven not expecting their sudden arrival before knocking.
"Howdy" said Garnet.
"And how are you this morning Steven?" Said Pearl in greeting.
"What's up little man?" said Amethyst.
"We heard you from the temple!" said Amethyst, "You loud boi!" she added.
"Oh." Said Steven chuckling and blushing from embarrassment, "Sorry."
"Someone seems excited today." Said Pearl to the rest who looked at her before looking back to Steven.
"It isn't about excitement" said Garnet in her stoic demeanor," The upcoming objective could be very dangerous you must be serious." She added.
"Oh, yeah." Remembered Steven.
"Hey Steven do the thing!" said Amethyst.
The Gems looked at her
"What thing?" replied Steven with a puzzled look on his face.
"You know!" said Amethyst readying her funny voice," Serious Steven. Activate!" she said copying his moves before laughing.
Steven blushed remembering when he did that.
"I still prefer regular Steven" said Garnet.
Steven smiled up at Garnet.
"Yeah, me too." Said Amethyst.
"So do I" said Pearl in agreement.
"Ok lets go!" said Steven remembering what makes this day so special.
Steven ran to the warp pad and stood there while the other Gems walked past the pad and Pearl did the dishes.
Steven was confused.
"Guys! Don't we have to go to a mission?" Steven yelled.
Pearl laughed, "Aren't you forgetting something?" she said.
Steven gave her a puzzled look before his stomach growled and he felt the unmistakable sensation of hunger in his stomach.
Steven put his left hand on his stomach, "Oh. Yeah." He said chuckling nervously.
Steven walked over to the kitchen where Pearl put out a box of rather bland looking oat cereal a gallon of milk and a clean, dry bowl with a spoon.
Steven poured the cereal and the milk while Pearl put the items away one by one.
"Food comes first Steven, you do need plenty of energy for the day ahead." Said Pearl.
Steven supposed it could wait for breakfast and some cartoons, he walked upstairs turning on his Tv and placed the cereal on his bed and ate it.
"Steven! Be careful with the bed sheets!" Said Pearl predicting tougher to remove milk stains.
While Steven ate Pearl came out with Peridot's escape pod connecting the wires to the warp pad and while not too determined anymore, using the mechanism to capture Peridot simply for Earth's safety.
Garnet watched with her arms crossed, she didn't completely forget about what Pearl did but was more forgiving after understanding her personal situation and lack of self-esteem.
Amethyst was bored, she wasn't desperate enough to watch that weird cartoon with Steven but she found no interest in this it just brought recent bad memories.
After Steven finished his breakfast, put away the dishes, and was distracted by cartoons the sun was higher in the sky and the house was no longer as bright and orange as it was originally.
Steven ran down to the Gems who stood around the pod.
After some problems connecting the second wire Pearl finally did it causing a spark to fly up.
"Oh!" exclaimed Pearl.
Steven instinctually flinched at the sudden spark.
The machine burst to life the holographic screen displayed information in the alien written Gem language and had a hand pad and more information.
Pearl placed her hand on the pad and her eyes turned an unnatural blue and alien words scrolled quickly in them.
Pearl felt like the machine was part of her body all this information in her Gem all these commands! She was still getting used to this as the last time she used a complex computer from home world the commands were executed by simple keyboards similar to modern human technology, the machine told her Peridot's exact location on this average sized rocky world the continent humans called "South America" the jungle known as "Amazon" a location not too far from the ruins of a Gem ship, an ancient SOS signal beacon station made in case things went wrong during the war.
Pearl projected the location on her Gem.
"Peridot is here" said Pearl.
"Wasn't she there last time?" said Amethyst.
"It's a little to the left." Said Garnet.
"Whatever." said Amethyst.
"What are we waiting for?" said Steven excitingly.
"Lets go get the rest of her." Said Pearl.
"We are already one step ahead," said Garnet smiling.
They laughed while Amethyst groaned.
"I can see where Sardonyx gets it" thought Amethyst.
Steven ran to the warp pad and the Gems followed walking.
Pearl thought about the massive dangers possibly she thought about Bot flies, parasites, tropical diseases, dirt and grime, washing those sandals and more.
"Garnet are you absolutely sure that we should throw caution into the wind and let Steven come?" said Pearl worrying.
"Steven needs this, he is a teammate and we will protect him." Said Garnet.
"But Garnet are you sure!" said Pearl looking down at the curly haired boy who looked up curiously at her.
Garnet looked into the future and saw a bad yet good outcome that might bring them closer together but it was too cloudy to detail.
"I'm sure," said Garnet.
Pearl had a bad feeling she always does, "Its just Peridot" "What could go wrong?" she thought letting out a worried groan.
"Yeah Pearl I'm a Crystal Gem!" said Steven.
"Yeah! Go Ste-van!" said Amethyst ruffling his hair.
The pad glowed the Gems were engulfed in a blue light pillar that weaved through dimensions to arrive at areas instantaneously, Steven wondered how the Gems knew where to go and remembered that he just needed to think about the place maybe that's how.
What will Steven and co encounter? And what is Peridot planning?