LiOn rolled over onto his back. Steven tackled him, then was hit in the face with a huge, metal paw. Being a ferocious Quartz warrior, Steven wasn't phased by this at at all, and he lunged at the metal beast with both hands to tickle his belly. LiOn squirmed and wiggled beneath him, making a lot of mechanical beeping noises and synthesised growls. Steven giggled as they continued to roughhouse on the porch, until he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
Some sort of crudely-built machine sat on the top of the cliffside across the bay. Beneath it, a small, green gem in metal boots paced back and forth.
She looked familiar, but he'd have to see her from the front to be sure. Steven squinted his eyes, waiting for her to turn around. LiOn used this distraction to throw him off his belly and run behind the house to chew on the steel fixtures that held up the back sunroom. Steven was too focused on the gem to really care. He continued to stare, and soon, the gem turned around, revealing the green glimmer of her gemstone on her forehead.
Steven recalled meeting a gem who looked just like her, gem placement and all, about a year ago at Blue Diamond's gala. He'd grown tired of holding his form as a party ornament during the hide-and-seek rounds of the festival games, and had snuck up on her.
He remembered her startled face well - long and gaunt with a triangular gemstone taking up almost her entire forehead. Most of all, he remembered those metal boots, one of which she'd left behind after she'd tripped and fallen on her face while running from him. He still had that boot, and had been intending to give it back to her. Now was as good a time as any.
Steven rushed into the house, then to his room to grab the boot he kept in his bedside drawer. He ran back to head to the door, but was stopped by Bill.
"So, where are you going with that?"
Steven gestured with his free hand to the cliffside. "That's her! She lost her shoe a year ago at the gala. I'm going to give it back to her."
"Are you sure that's the same gem? Gems of the same type tend to... look... alike." Bill said, then tried to backtrack as not to cause offence to Steven's gem heritage. "Not that they all look the same, they don't! I mean, but it can be hard to recognise them when you've only seen them once. Because they're not… er, human."
To spare his father from more humiliation, Buck cut in. "She's got two shoes. She doesn't need that one. We should tell the others."
"Maybe she'd like it as a spare?" Steven said, clutching the boot to his chest tightly. Jenny decided this was a good time to make a joke about as off-colour as most of the gems who inhabited Facet 9.
"What, you like her or something?"
"Y...Yeah? She seems like she'd be fun to be around." Steven stammered, deliberately misinterpreting Jenny's teasing as a legitimate question. "Her gem's on her head, so maybe she might be a bit like Pearl?"
Sour Cream, who was tinkering with the strange console he'd obtained during the last supply run, looked up from his little project to chime in.
"Just saying, it might come off as a bit weird that you kept her shoe for a year, and you're just going to give it back to her right now."
Steven gasped, then cringed. "Oh no! You're right! It IS weird!" He stared down at the boot in his hands, which was a lot lighter than it looked, and slightly bigger than his shoe size. "But I've had it for a year now, it'd be wrong not to give it back," he said to no-one in particular before pushing the door open and making his way over to the cliffside by the bay.
The more he thought about it, the weirder it seemed to him that he had kept a shoe, one this gem didn't need, for so long. Considering his mother owned a scrapyard, it probably would have made more sense for him to have handed it in there, as it was made of metal. Heck, how could he even really be sure this was the same gem?
He'd never seen a gem like her before or since the gala, and as he recalled, the gem he met at the gala wore Yellow Diamond's insignia on the centre of her bow tie, meaning she was from a Yellow district. Gems of the same type did look similar. It was possible her gem type just wasn't commonly seen in Blue districts such as Facet 9.
He was suddenly snapped out of his pondering when he heard a crackling noise from above. Just a few metres down the bay, the gem was still busy pacing and pondering. Above her, small cracks in the face of the cliff were beginning to appear. Those small cracks became larger cracks, exacerbated by the weight of the machine atop the cliff. It was going to fall, and fast.
No longer caring whether or not it was weird that he'd kept her shoe, Steven dashed towards her. He knew he had to save her before that machine fell. If he didn't have a gem to give the shoe back to, he'd never find out if they could have been friends. That, and he'd have a crushed gem on his conscience.
Reaching her just in time, he tackled her to the ground. A sheer pink sphere enveloped them, closing off just in time to shield them from the onslaught of rocks and metal that crashed down from the cliff.
Marvelling at the destruction surrounding the bubble, Steven almost forgot about the gem he'd tackled beneath him.
At least, until she released a shrill screech.
"GET OFF ME!"
Then, she bit him.
"Aaaah!" He jolted up, then backed away, causing the bubble to roll back slightly. "That hurt!"
Wincing, he rubbed his arm. Once he brought himself to look at it, he saw deep, red fang marks. Was she a beryl, perhaps? She'd certainly be the strangest-looking Emerald he'd ever seen. Of course, many gems around Facet-9 were off-colours, and he knew it was rude to ask a gem what she was, so he kept quiet and waited for a response.
"Well I had to get your attention somehow! My thrashing about clearly wasn't enough." She remarked sharply.
Standing up, she brushed herself off and squinted at the pink wall of the bubble. She glanced over at steven quizzically, then placed a hand on the bubble's interior.
"Huh, you don't look like a Rose Quartz." She gave the bubble a couple of knocks. "But I guess I don't look much like a Peridot, either."
Peridot. That's what she was. It explained the sharp teeth and hanging around a cliff face at least. She was right - none of the Peridots he'd ever seen looked a thing like her. They also had the power to move metal with their minds. He wondered if that was why she had metal boots on, and whether it had anything to do with that large metal object that almost fell on her.
Steven hesitated, stuttering over his words. He took a deep breath, then decided to break the silence by introducing himself.
"So, uh, my name's Steven. Steven… Universe."
"2F5L, 5XG."
"So, uh, what were you doing here?"
"I built a flying machine. I was aiming to have it go into space to send a message to any extraterrestrials." Peridot paused, then narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't look at me like that." Steven most certainly was not looking at her like that, but she continued nonetheless. "Aliens are real! It is highly statistically improbable that we're the only intelligent life in the entire universe."
She waved a tiny hand in his face. "Dismiss this shield."
"Ok, uh…" Holding his breath, Steven closed his eyes, concentrating on the bubble for a few moments before giving up. "I… can't?"
Peridot became tense, raising her voice. "Try harder!"
"I can't!" Steven bit his lip, then turned away. Then he got an idea."Hey, you're a Peridot. Can you use your powers to kick the bubble really hard with your metal shoe?"
Peridot slumped back against the bubble's interior, fidgeting and glancing at the ground. "I.. I don't have any powers." She trailed off, then quickly perked up. "...But I do have gadgets!" She patted the heavy-looking bag she held slung over her shoulder." I built each and every one of these all by myself. Who needs powers when you've got - " After rummaging about in her bag, she pulled out a long, clunky, spiked object. " - a harpoon gun!"
She pointed the gun at the wall of the bubble, then launched it, only to have it rebound and hit her in the face. "Ow!"
Being a sturdy Peridot, she quickly shook it off. Sliding back down the side of the bubble to sit, she grumbled. "If you can't do it, and I can't do it, then what are we going to do?!"
Steven shrugged. "I guess we'll have to go ask some other gems."
—
For hours, Steven and Peridot remained trapped in that bubble.
Jasper couldn't smash it. Lapis Lazuli laughed at them. Nephrite crashed two carriages into it and it didn't make a dent.
They were quickly running out of ideas, and a particularly bad one came to Steven's mind - Bismuth's Fun Palace. The rides there were frightening even to look at, especially the Dissipator and the Stone-Thrower. He'd seen disembodied gemstones of all types pouring out of the exit chutes at that place. In fact, that was the Dissipator's main selling point, hence its name.
Shortly after they arrived, two triangular green gemstones plinked out of the chute of the Dissipator.
Having lost what little composure she had, Peridot yelled. "Agh! Steven! This place is a cesspit of danger and chaos! Are you trying to get us shattered?"
While her panic was causing him to have second thoughts, Steven forced a confident smile. "Nope! I'm trying to get us out! Let's go!"
"Out of existence maybe…" Muttered Peridot, a sinking feeling overcoming her. She'd never purposely put herself in danger before, and she wasn't keen on doing it now, but he was right. They needed to get out of the bubble.
The best ride for the job was, of course, the Dissipator. Not only was it the strongest, fastest, and most popular ride in Bismuth's Fun Palace - tales of its thrills reached far and wide. Gems from all courts flocked to Facet-9 for a chance to experience it. Any gem who paid to ride was 100% guaranteed to reform by the end of it.
If this ride could destroy the forms of Sapphires and Peridots, it'd be their best shot at getting rid of that bubble.
They rolled up the pathway, and into the line for the Dissipator. As they waited, they desperately tried to ignore the odd looks they were getting from passing gems. The longer they waited, the more antsy Peridot became.
The bubble began to rock slightly. Confused, Steven looked over at Peridot, who was fidgeting about.
He was also pretty nervous, but having her shake the bubble was making it worse. He hoped they'd reach Bismuth soon.
—-
At last, Steven and Peridot reached the front of the line. The bright white smile that greeted them faded slightly when the large grey gem behind the counter spotted who was next. "Hey, Li'l Rose!" 'Little Rose' was what the local gems called Steven, as he was known for being the smallest of the Rose Quartzes who lived in Facet-9.
Unfortunately, he was also known for breaking almost everything he touched. Especially around the Fun Palace.
As the property's owner - and one of the few workers - Bismuth was well within her rights to be suspicious of Little Rose's latest scheme. Still, she kept up her cheery demeanour as she eyed the bubble. "You trying to protect the dissipator from you, ya little wrecking ball?"
Steven laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, no, we don't plan on staying inside of this. Can we get some tickets please?"
"You're going to have to get out of that bubble first."
"Uh, you see…" Steven paused, fidgeting a little. "I don't know how to do that."
"Suure. Just, come back later, alright?"
Dejected, Steven and Peridot looked at each other and left. On their way out, they spotted a maintenance door had conveniently been left slightly ajar.
As they strategically rolled the bubble through the door, Peridot forced herself to look away from the plunging tracks before them, clinging to Steven and digging her face into his shoulder. Steven placed an arm around her to comfort her, and peered down the dip. He gulped. No wonder she was so afraid.
He could hear the cart approaching, and was beginning to deeply question his own judgement, as well as Peridot's for enabling him. Even a brave Quartz warrior like himself wasn't brave enough to honestly think this was a good idea, but it was the only idea that came to mind at this point, and it was better than no idea at all.
He held his breath, then stepped forth, gripping Peridot tightly by the waist as to urge her to help move the bubble onto the tracks. Reluctantly, she complied.
When the cart collided with the bubble, it sent them rolling, knocking against the sides. While being thrown against the walls of the bubble, they could only catch a glimpse of the gems being dissipated as they rode.
The ride screeched to a halt, then the cart jerked upwards, the force sending them flying into the air, through a wall, and eventually into a ravine, where they became stuck.
Steven and Peridot pushed, shoved, and slammed their bodies against the inside of the bubble, but to no avail.
From the corner of his eye, Steven could see something moving in the distance. He lost his balance and fell, causing the bubble to lodge itself deeper into the ravine. It fell to the bottom, and they fell onto their bottoms.
They then heard a loud crunching sound. They turned to its source.
An Infected. It was a big one, too, with about twenty long, spindly legs which crashed and dug into the walls of the cliffs surrounding it. Its face was long and warped, yet vaguely resembled that of the human it once was, with two forward-facing eyes and a pointed nose above its perpetually open, dilated mouth. Its disconcertingly humanoid head swivelled around its neck, rotating all the way as its screams echoed off the walls of the canyon.
Peridot yelped and buried her head in her knees, concealing her face. Hearing her sobbing, Steven tried to comfort her.
"Hey, don't cry. Everything's gonna be alright."
Peridot scoffed. "I'm not crying, and everything is not alright."
The infected roared, shaking the ground with its sheer volume. Peridot hugged her knees tighter against her chest. "I'm gonna die here." She sniffled. "We're going to get crushed by that thing and it's all your fault!"
"But I saved you!" Steven protested. "The thing you had on the cliff was going to fall on you!"
Peridot raised her voice, a tinge of anger colouring her fear. "I would have barely felt that!" She wiped the tears she denied having from her face with shaky hands. "Your attempt to rescue me has instead resulted in both of our imminent deaths!"
Her hands balled into fists and her legs tensed. She took a deep, ragged breath. "All I wanted to do was go to space. And maybe meet an alien. But now I'll never get to bear witness to first contact with extraterrestrials because you decided that somehow being trapped in a bubble was a preferable fate to a knock on the head!"
She lunged forth, and struck the side of Steven's head with her fist - not quite hard enough to do any serious damage, but hard enough to cause him to yelp and recoil.
Standing up, she loomed over his confused, curled form.
"I hope you're proud of yourself, Rose Quartz Facet Steven Cut Universe!" She hissed.
Steven rubbed the side of his head. "It's… It's Facet, Universe. Cut, Steven."
"I don't care."
"Peridot…" He stood, reaching over to put a hand on her shoulder. "I thought you were going to get crushed by that thing you built, and I pushed you out of the way." He looked away. "And I dunno, maybe I shouldn't have, but-"
"You really shouldn't have." She shook her shoulder out of his grip, then crossed her arms.
"...BUT. I. I really wanted to meet you. To get to know you, you know." He caught her eyes, and maintained contact. "I first saw you a year ago, at Blue Diamond's gala. We were playing hide and seek. You couldn't find me for ages, so I popped out and scared you… and then you left this behind." He presented to her the shoe he had kept clutched within his right arm.
She swiftly took back the shoe. "It's not like I need it."
"Uh, you're welcome?"
"I thought you were carrying that around because you were obsessed with me for some reason." She slipped the boot into her bag, then sealed it. "And judging from today's events, I was right."
"But, I gave it back." Steven flashed a sheepish grin. It really was weird, it turned out, to keep a stranger's shoe for a whole year.
Peridot's frown softened, and she soon cracked a smirk. "You're not helping your case." She teased.
Suddenly, the bubble popped.
Screaming, Peridot grabbed onto Steven. "Put it back!"
"I'm trying!" He balled his fists and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on forming a bubble.
"Try harder!"
"I can't!" He stopped to gather his thoughts, then he got an idea. "Hey, you have gadgets, don't you? Do you have a grappling hook?"
Peridot nodded, pulling the aforementioned gadget from her bag. "Oh, of course!" She deployed the hook. It grappled onto a wall of the chasm, only for its cable to detach and fall. With a frustrated groan, she tossed the remains of the gadget to the ground, then kicked them. "Great. It's defective. Just like us!"
She then tossed herself to the ground, lying face-down in a slump of defeat.
"Maybe I can float us up?" Steven grabbed her wrists and pulled her up, then guided her hands to hold onto him. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, and did his best to think happy thoughts.
Throughout his life, he'd found a lot of his powers seemed to be connected to his emotions. The other Quartzes reckoned he just lacked confidence, and that this was normal for a young gem, but he knew it went deeper than that.
He thought of his mother. He could feel his form becoming lighter, and so he persisted. Rose Quartz. She always made it look so effortless, no matter how she felt. He wondered if he could ever get to that stage, to float and summon bubbles whenever he chose, regardless of the situation.
So far, he could spin-dash and summon his shield at any time, but floating was tricky. He had to be calm, which he wasn't at the time due to having a flustered gem clinging to him and an Infected approaching them. His form felt heavy again, and he didn't leave the ground.
Peridot was quickly losing her patience. "Is that the best you can do?"
"I can't help it! My powers are connected to my emotions!" Steven sputtered.
She laughed bitterly. "I guess at least I won't die alone."
"No, it's ok, I'll just try harder. We're going to get out of this together." Straining harder, he tried again to float. Happy thoughts weren't coming easily to him right then, and the gas he felt coming on didn't help. She was squeezing him so tightly. Gems didn't have these sorts of bodily functions, and he didn't want to have to explain farts to his new friend.
His new friend. He'd made a new friend.
With the exception of his mother, he didn't have anyone to hang out and do normal gem things with. The other Quartzes were friendly, but they'd all known each other for much longer than any of them had known him, and he always felt a little out of the loop with them. Sometimes he'd hang out with Jasper, but she was always hung up on Lapis, who was mysteriously never available outside of work hours. Nephrite was just weird. He liked her, but she was weird.
Now he'd met Peridot, and with her came another chance to finally bond closely with another gem. He thought of all the fun things they could do together - collecting crystal coral pieces on the beach, braiding each other's hair, trying their hand at each other's purposes as gems and laughing at how miserably they'd fail at it.
Warmth spread throughout his form, and it wasn't the gas. Slowly, he floated from the ground, lifting them both out of the chasm.
Unfortunately, the Infected had already reached the top of the cliff, and was staring down at them.
Steven grabbed Peridot's hand and ran.
"Where are we going?" She shrieked.
"My mom's scrapyard!"
"What are we going to do in a scrapyard?! I don't have any metallokinesis!"
"Yeah, but the scrapyard has obstacles!"
"Right! It'll buy us some time!"
The Infected accelerated, quickly catching up to the pair. For a creature that looked as if it's weight would break its legs, it moved awfully fast.
"Uh, I think we need to buy that time right now!" Steven yelled. Being unable to run as fast as him, Peridot was dragged along. Something within her clicked.
She needed to shed the extra weight she was carrying. Quartzes were strong, but that bag was heavy. After hauling it off her shoulder, she threw it at the Infected. She didn't manage to throw it far enough to land a hit, but she didn't care at that point.
Kicking off her boots, she lightened the load further. Without the extra weight, the two ran faster, and eventually made their way to the scrapyard - as did the Infected, soon after.
The Infected chased the two gems through the scrapyard, wrecking the wreckage around it. No matter how the pair scurried and weaved through the mountains of scrap, nothing was slowing their pursuer down. Its long legs would not trip, and its swivelling head made it difficult to leave its line of sight.
Steven and Peridot quickly found a small space to hide, and ducked in where the Infected could not reach them. It could, however, stare at them through the doorway of the discarded palanquin through which they squeezed.
Steven began to yell, "MOM! MOOOOOOOM! MOOOOM! MOOOM!"
"Why are you screaming that word?!"
"MOM!"
Suddenly, the Infected roared in pain, then swivelled its head to look behind itself. It raised from its crouched position to stand to its full height, and between its spindly legs stood a full-sized Rose Quartz in a white, lace-hemmed dress. Like Steven, her gemstone was on her belly. Over one of her massive arms sat a summoned shield, and in her other arm's hand she held a sword, which was dug into one of the Infected's many feet.
"Mom, you're here!" Steven cried.
Peridot raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two Quartzes. "Wait, that's 'Mom'?"
"I'll explain later."
"You two, go and get the humans. I'll hold this one off for now." The larger Rose Quartz spoke, then rose her shield. Sometimes she wondered if calling the Facet-9 quartzes would have been a better idea, but Greg's no-kill policy still stood years after his death. She was told these creatures were once of his kind, and she respected that.
Pulling her sword from the Infected's foot, she smacked its head away from her with her shield.
With the Infected in a daze, she withdrew her shield, sheathed her sword and spun on the spot. She dashed at the Infected, barely missing, but it was enough to taunt it into targeting her. Her diversion gave the two younger gems a chance to escape.
—-
The pair quickly made their way to Rose Quartz's office, where Steven activated the communicator on her desk.
"Hello? Bill? We need your guys' help right now! There's an infected down in mom's scrap yard; it's really REALLY big with lots of hands and legs! Mom's holding off for now… Oh, yeah. Thanks!"
He hung up, then turned to speak to Peridot, who was curled up with her knees bent up and her back against a wall. "Oh, hey. Are you alright?"
Peridot initially responded with a grumble, then after a few seconds, formed words. "What was that thing?"
Steven rubbed the back of his own neck, flashing an awkward smile. "Uh, you know how you said you wanted to meet an alien?"
Her eyes widened. "That was an alien? Is that what they're like?"
"Not all of them." He quickly added.
"So our planet is under attack." She said grimly. "I finally get to see aliens, and it's an invasion."
"Oh, they've been here for ages." He reassured, although that was one of the least reassuring things he could have said. She responded in kind.
"What?!"
"We take care of them."
"Who's 'we'?"
"The people I called just now? They're my family. They get rid of those monsters so nobody gets hurt."
Peridot rested her arms on her knees and her head in her hands. "I'm still upset to know that's what aliens are like."
"I guess you were planning on meeting friendly ones, right?" Steven grinned, pointing both his thumbs at himself. "Well you're in luck! I just so happen to be one!"
She shook her head. "No you're not, you're a Rose Quartz!"
"I'm half!"
"Half?"
He nodded. "Half human, that is!"
Hearing a commotion outside, he got up to have a look, then beckoned for Peridot to follow him. She did, and he pointed to the window.
"And so are they!" He gestured again for her to look, then clarified. "Uh, they're fully human. I'm the only one who's half."
Captivated by what she was watching, Peridot barely registered Steven's last sentence.
Gem-shaped machines formed around the bodies of vaguely gem-like beings, deploying all kinds of advanced gadgetry she could only dream of building herself.
She'd never seen technology that advanced in her life, and she presumed that anything able to build and use anything like that must certainly have the technology to travel through space.
Starry-eyed, she turned towards Steven, then leant in uncomfortably close. She held up one of his hands, then peered closely at it. He'd heard of Peridots doing this to gems who had just emerged. As well as being artificers and maintenance workers, Peridots were responsible for growing and raising new gems. Part of the job was to inspect gems for conformity to their type. Either she was prospecting him or she just had no sense of personal space. Possibly both. Not that he minded, being quite a touchy-feely gem himself, as most Quartzes were.
"...Your form. It's not photonic, but solid!" Dropping his hand, she stepped back, utterly dumbfounded by her discovery.
"I got to meet two aliens! Two aliens in the same day!" She squealed, then launched herself at Steven, squeezing her arms around him. Giggling, he returned the hug with full force.