Steven was outside on the beach, trying to practice summoning his shield. At least, that was what he told the gems as well as himself that he was there to do he knew full well he was actually there hoping to see that girl again… but hey, he could practice with his gem powers in the meantime. Two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, he wasn't having much luck with either. His shield wasn't forming, and that girl hadn't shown up today either. Frustrated about both, Steven was about to head back inside of the temple, maybe another Cookie Cat would help him form his shield again he thought, when the sky turned a bright red.
Steven looked up in confusion, and gasped when he saw a giant red thing in the sky, blocking the sunlight. It looked like a large red orb, with a design forming the shape of an eye in the center of it, so large the design was even visible with how far away the thing was in the sky.
Steven ran to the house to get the gems, hoping they would understand what the thing in the sky was. He didn't find them in the house though, because they were already out looking up at the thing. He ran over to them, "Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, what's that thing in the sky?" He asked them.
"It's a Red Eye." Peridot said gravely, her tone alone letting Steven know that whatever that meant, it was not good. To explain better, Peridot formed her finger screen, displaying where the Red Eye was in the sky. "It's sort of like the monsters we fight, but it comes from out in space. It only has one directive. Lock onto its target and crash into it with enough kinetic energy behind it to send its target and everything else for miles to oblivion."
The finger screen displayed the Red Eye crashing down into the temple, and all of Beach City breaking up and falling away into the ocean. Steven gasped, and Lapis flicked one of Peridot's fingers out of place to kill the screen, "Are you trying to give him a heart attack?" Lapis questioned her, visibly upset by what she had shown him.
"What? We all know why that Red Eye is here. It isn't going to help anything to sugar coat it for Steven." Peridot said, though she seemed less sure of this when Jasper turned and glared down at her.
"Jasper, is that thing really going to crash into Beach City?" Steven asked. Jasper shook her head, "We aren't going to let it." Jasper said. "And how do you propose we stop it?" Peridot questioned, "Every other time this happened we had Citrine's cannon to…"
Peridot stopped mid-sentence, knowing her mistake without either of the gems needing to acknowledge it. She'd just broken the golden rule, she'd mentioned Citrine. Worse still, she'd mentioned her in front of Steven.
"Her...cannon?" Steven questioned. Steven didn't know a lot about his mother, just what his dad and the gems had been willing to tell him from time to time, how she had been a large, powerful gem, how she had saved the world with the others, how she was one of the kindest people in the world
But he had never heard anything about a cannon until now. Jasper sighed, seeing that the damage was done, "Your mother had a special cannon made specifically for situations like this. It fires light stronger than any weapon made on earth, stronger than any weapon made by us. It could take out a Red Eye with just one shot. But it's missing now… only she knew where it was. So we'll have to handle this ourselves. Lapis, throw me."
Jasper jumped into the ocean. As she did, Lapis controlled the water to form a large hand that threw Jasper up into the air. Jasper curled into her spinning dash attack and rocketed at the Red Eye. steven watched her soar up towards it, and smack against it harmlessly before falling off into the ocean.
Peridot formed her hand cannon and tried charging up a power shot to blast the Red Eye with, but if Jasper hadn't been able to break it, Steven wasn't sure she would either.
'Citrine's cannon…' "Maybe my dad knows something about it? He said mom told his all kinds of gem stuff back when she was around." Steven said. Peridot rolled her eyes at this, but simply said, "Sure, go check with Greg." if only to keep Steven preoccupied while she and the others handled the Red Eye.
Steven smiled excitedly, running off to go see his dad. Steven had never really understood why his dad didn't live at the temple, but he didn't really question it anymore. It was just how things were as far as he understood.
Steven ran up to the car wash, seeing his dad's van, a large, old vehicle that had been his dad's home for years now, and ran up to it. "Dad, there's a giant eye in the sky and we need a cannon to smash it up!" He shouted, knocking on the back door to the van. It wasn't the strangest thing he had shouted at his dad to wake him up, but perhaps the strangest that was true at the moment it was being said.
There were sounds of struggling from inside the van, his dad waking up in confusion from the noise, and then the back doors opened, Greg Universe stumbling out. He wasn't exactly a tall man, but he was large with what seemed to be a perpetual sun burn across his skin. He was bald on the top of his head, but had a long mane of hair going down from the back of his head.
"What's going on?" He asked groggily, his eyes widening when he looked up and saw the Red Eye, hearing the distant sound of a thud as Jasper collided with it and bounced off of it again. "Oh boy, more magical gem stuff?" He asked nervously.
Steven nodded, "The gems said they need mom's cannon to beat the Red Eye." He said, pointing up at the Red Eye. "Your mom's cannon…" Greg said, his expression going soft as he remembered back, "Man, I haven't seen that thing in ages, and I wouldn't even know how to use it if I found it."
"Come on dad, we gotta at least try." Steven said, "Beach City is gonna get smashed up if we don't." Greg sighed, "Well..I didn't exactly plan on spending my evening messing around with magical stuff, but you know what I always say, if every porkchop were perfect," "We wouldn't have hotdogs!" Steven finished the expression, Greg chuckling with a nod.
"Come on kiddo, if it's anywhere I know, it'll be at my old storage unit. She used to keep all kinds of stuff in there. Not sure why, she had a pretty awesome storage space of her own." Greg said as he got in the driver's seat. "She did? What was it?" Steven asked, getting inside the passenger's seat.
Greg chuckled, "I'll tell you about it later." He said, starting to drive off towards the storage units. As they drove, Steven looked out the window and saw the Red Eye. It was getting closer now, and was much bigger in sky now. It must have been at least the size of the temple statue Steven thought, and the eye...it made Steven uneasy, especially when he saw Jasper bounce off of it again followed by a charged shot from Peridot that did nothing.
Greg noticed Steven looking worried, "Hey, don't worry kiddo, your mother's cannon will get rid of that thing no problem. Citrine never let us down before.." he said, a somber smile on his face.
"What was mom like?" Steven asked. He had asked the question several times before and Greg was sure he would ask again later on. He didn't mind it. As painful as remembering her way, it sure beat the possibility of forgetting her.
"She was incredible. She was the strongest person I ever knew, even stronger than Jasper, Lapis, and Peridot." Greg said. "Even stronger than all of them combined?" Steven asked. Greg chuckled at this for reasons Steven didn't yet understand, "Well, not exactly," Greg said, "But they all followed her without question. As strong as she was, she was even smarter than she was powerful, and above all else, she was kind. She had everything kiddo, and when she formed you, all of that good stuff went right into you, with a little of me for the good hair." He chuckled, Steven laughing with him.
Soon, they arrived at the storage unit. Greg seemed nervous to actually open the thing up, and when he did, Steven saw why. The inside was a jungle of clutter, the likes of which even the bravest of explorers would be afraid to enter without a guide and a week's supplies.
But Steven didn't have a week, so he settled for Greg tying a rope around his waist so he could be pulled out if he got stuck inside or something. Steven crawled through the piled of old clothes, nicknacks, and merchandise from Greg's music career. "It's like a dad museum in here." He called back as he climbed deeper into the tunnel of nostalgia.
As he went, he found something that made him pause. It wasn't the cannon, far from it, but at the moment, it was just as interesting to Steven. It was a picture, wedged between an old mattress and a T-shirt shooter. It was a picture of Greg standing next to a tall woman with flowing yellow curls of hair. She wore a long white dress, with a small hole in the stomach to show her gem.
Citrine… Steven had seen her before, the gems had a painting of her above the doorway at the house, but this was an actually photo of her, her face in a wide open smile as she was caught mid-laughing fit from whatever joke Greg had just told her.
"Steven, you okay in there?" Greg called. "Y-yeah, sorry dad." Steven said, getting back on track. His eyes lingered on the picture for awhile longer before he moved on deeper into the storage space, trying to find the cannon.
Said cannon was found a few moments later when his head bumped against it. Looking up, there wasn't a doubt in Steven's mind that this massive yellow cannon with a design of the sun etched into either side with the sun beams meeting along the middle.
Steven untied the rope from around his waist and re-tied it around the cannon. "Got it, pull 'er out!" Steven called. Greg, having tied his end to the back of his van, stepped on the gas, pulling the cannon, and basically everything else between the cannon and the exit, out of the storage space, forming a large trash pile outside of it.
"Oh boy." Steven said when he saw the mess. "Hey, don't worry about it kiddo. After all, if every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs remember?" Greg said. Steven nodded. "Right, let's get this thing to the gems."
"Yeah, that might be a little trickier than we thought." Greg said, pointing to the van. Not only would getting it into the van be a trial in and of itself, but even if they did, they wouldn't be able to transport it, as pulling out the cannon and all the other junk had burnt out the engine.
Between Steven and Greg, they were just barely able to get the cannon into a wagon, and even then the bottom of the wagon bent down from the cannon's weight and threw sparks as they dragged it along the ground towards the beach.
They were moving with more urgency now, as the Red Eye looked close enough to the temple to have a conversation with, if it could even speak that it. They moved quickly, dragging the wagon across the sand, which left both of them sore in a number of places, and making it all the way to where the gems were standing.
"I think that one started to crack it." Lapis said hopefully as Jasper washed up on the shore, Peridot shaking her head cynically as she fired again to no avail. "We should have evacuated the city the moment the Red Eye appeared." She muttered bitterly.
"Guys!" Steven shouted, "We got the cannon!" All three looked over at Steven and Greg, their eyes widening in shock when they saw that they actually did have Citrine's cannon with them. They rushed over, the combination of Peridot's metal powers and Jasper's strength helping them get the cannon over to the edge of the beach.
The Red Eye was getting closer now. Steven could feel the heat coming from it as the red light it let off put an unsettling tint over everything in the area. "How do we turn it on?" Steven asked the gems. "We...we don't know." Lapis said, turning to Greg. "What? I don't know how to work this thing, I don't even know why Citrine left it with me." Greg said frantically.
"What!? How are we supposed to use it then!?" Peridot questioned. Steven stared at the cannon nervously, "Come on cannon, work!" He shouted, hitting the side of it. Unfortunately this did nothing but make the barrel of it tilt over and slam against the sand uselessly.
"It's gotta work!" Steven said, getting more nervous as the Red Eye got even closer; so close to the beach now that the sky couldn't be seen passed it. Steven felt tears start to well up in his eyes as the gems looked down, evidently having accepted defeat.
Steven once more kicked the cannon, though now he could summon no energy to the strike. "I-if every porkchop were perfect.." He muttered to himself, accepting his fate with the others, "we wouldn't have hotdogs.."
The moment he finished the phrase, the cannon began to light up, an aura of yellow driving back the red light from the Eye. the gems, Steven, and Greg all gasped as the top opened up, forming the shape of the sun and beginning to charge up with light.
Steven rushed to the front of it, trying to lift it up to point at the Red Eye. He could only barely get it off of the sand, but then Jasper grabbed on, then Lapis, Peridot, and even Greg. Working together, they got the cannon aimed at the Red Eye just before it fired.
The light it let off was blinding, and everything went white for several moments. Steven could have sworn, though, that he saw the shape of a tall woman through the light as it fired at the Red Eye, which seemed to explode entirely upon impact.
Chunks of red stone went flying. Most landed in the ocean, though a few did crash down on the beach and a few even landed in Beach City, smashing up a few cars and doing some damage to the street, but thankfully not actually harming anyone.
As the light faded, the gems started cheering, "Dude, you just saved most of Beach city!" Lapis congratulated Steven. "How on earth did you get it working again?" Peridot asked. "I just said that thing dad always says, about porkchops and hotdogs." Steven said, looking over at his dad, who was now looking up at the sky where the light cannon had destroyed the Red Eye, a few tears having built up in his eyes. "I told you Citrine never let us down.." He said with a smile, drying his eyes. Steven smiled, nodding in agreement as he wondered what Citrine would think of him.
Apologies if I was at any point a little too heavy handed with the foreshadowing, I just think there were a few points in SU that were foreshadowed yes, but foreshadowed bit too subtly, with I didn't even think was possible until the show came around. But hey, better to be too subtle than too obvious right? Oh, and just for future reference, I will not be doing a Momswap chapter for every single episode of SU. let's be honest, I know Recceba Sugarh claims there are no filler episodes, but there are a few episodes that could vanish from existence without changing the story at all, which, to me, is the literal definition of filler. Don't get me wrong, it's all good filler (Lars and Ranaldo episodes notwithstanding) but still.