Team Universe

When I started writing this fic, I had resigned myself to the possibility that I might actually be bad at it, or that people might just not like the way I write. But I had so many ideas about this story, and I just had to put them out. So I threw myself into the line of fire and bared my passion to the internet.

I was not prepared for how much praise I would receive. And I know; having eight reviews isn't really that big of an achievement here on fanficnet, but each and every one of them was positive.

I had no idea that people would really enjoy this! This was just something weird my brain came up with one day and wouldn't stop bugging me until I put it to paper. And yet, here I am, with eight wonderful reviewers (so far) just three days into this story's life.

Thank you to Potat0s0verlord, Morvank, Zaravan, Dante Watterson, superfanman217, Speerut, ZidanReign, and Guest #1 for reading and reviewing my story, and I hope you will continue to find my work interesting enough to keep reading.

Now, without further ado, chapter 2 of Team Universe.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or locations portrayed in this work; all characters and concepts belong to their original owners. Cover art belongs to the amazing Ace Florins.

Now loading… epsd_laserlightcannon

"Amethyst, hurry up! We gotta get there before sunset!"

"I'm comin', I'm comin'!"

Steven and Amethyst ran up the beach under the heat of the late-afternoon sun that was swiftly descending below the waves. A short distance ahead of them, Demo and Pyro jogged at a mild pace-their companions' short legs working in their favor. All four of them were making their way to a small stand just a stone's throw away from where the sand transitioned into blacktop. The reason for their hurry was quite simple; they wanted fry bits.

"Mr. Fryman's gonna close up shop real soon! Guys, we need to hurry!" The half-Gem pleaded, pushing himself even faster.

"It's alright, laddie!" Demo called as he pointed to a small building. "Scout's already caught 'im!"

Indeed, the Bostonian had rushed ahead of the quartet with the intent of catching the proprietor of the fry hut before he could shut down his business for the night. Scout was easily the fastest out of the five of them, so it made sense for him to go ahead. Currently, the agile mercenary was standing in front of a small shack. Perched on the room was a wooden sign shaped like a pod of French fries with the words 'Beach Citywalk Fries' painted on. It appeared as though he was arguing with someone.

"…already told you, we're closed."

"Don't gimme that crap! I was here before ya turned that little sign over."

Steven ran up to the counter and slammed his hands down on the plastic board (lightly). "Hey Mr. Fryman! Give us the bits!"

Mr. Fryman turned away from his little argument in surprise when the young man spoke up. "Steven! I'm sorry, but as I was telling your friend here," Scout blew a raspberry, Fryman frowned. "We're closed."

"Aww, what?"

"Oh, come on!"

"We just got here, dude!"

Pyro looked over to the sad expression on Steven's face; the utter dejection displayed for the entire world to see. They saw the frustration and disappointment in Scout, Demo, and Amethyst. As a promoter of fun and joy, Pyro could not stand for this.

The firebug slammed its fists down on the counter, startling everyone present. "Mvvn mm mhh hhtts!" Pyro huffed through its rebreather mask. They then proceeded to chant-mumble in time with their whacks on the plastic counter, "Mh hhtts! Mh hhtts! Mh hhtts!"

For a moment, Amethyst, Scout, Demo and Steven were too surprised to act. Then they looked at each other and grinned.

Amethyst slammed down in time with Pyro. "The bits!"

Scout joined in. "The bits!"

Demo and Steven as well. "The bits! The bits! The BITS! The BITS! The-!"

"Okay, okay!" Mr. Fryman finally relented, bringing pause to the quintet's protests. "Jeez! Take it easy on the counter, will ya? I'm not sure it can take much more of that." He then moved to the back of his shop and began messing with the fryers.

"Yes!" Everyone cheers, exchanging high fives, low fives, and a couple too-slows just for good measure.

"You know," Fryman says as he hands two bags of fry bits to the small group, "I can make you guys actual fries if you want."

"Maybe later," Steven says as he and Pyro each grab a bag, "But just the bits for now, please. Thank you." He stands to the side and allows Demo to step up and give Fryman his payment, plus a tip.

"'ey, uhh…" Demoman whispers to Fryman, sure that his group had moved a short distance away, "Call us if ye have any problems with the counter, yea?"

Fryman looks at the one-eyed demolitions expert for a second. He then smiled and waved him off. "Aw, don't worry about it; you probably didn't even do anything to damage it anyways. Thanks for offering though."

"Thank ye for puttin' up with those blockheads," Demo grins and thumbs over his shoulder before turning and running after his family.

Fryman sticks his head out of the small window and waves to the group, who are swift to return the gesture.

Steven opens his bag and offers it to Amethyst. The purple Gem grabs a small handful and stuffs them into her mouth with a muffled 'thanks'. Pyro holds their bag out to Scout and Demo; the two mercenaries alternating between grasps for the greasy treats. The firebug grabs a single frybit and-after regarding it for a moment-mashes it into its mask's grill.

No one gives this a second glance; this is how Pyro normally eats, after all.

Scout sighs as he looks at the bits of fry in his hand, "Nothin' quite like fried food to get ya relaxed…" The Bostonian tossed a few up and caught them in his mouth.

"Mmspssllm mmt ssnnsstt." Pyro says through its potato-and-grease clogged grill, looking up at the sky.

Steven takes a deep breath of the sea air. "Ahh, sunset, my favorite time of the day. When the sun goes down and dips into the ocean, and the second sun gets bigger and bigger in the sky…"

Demoman busts out into laughs, "Aye, that big ol' second sun moving closer and closer-" The Scotsman's eye pops open and he looks at the sky. "What the bloody…?"

Smack dab in the middle of what should have been a shadowy sky is a large, white orb that glowed with an intensity similar to that of the sun. As the quintet looked at it, they could just barely notice how it seemed to be moving closer and closer. Scout, Pyro, Demoman and Steven were all confused.

Amethyst, however, was not. The purple Gem let out a surprised gasp when her gaze fell on the orb. "Oh crud, what the heck is that doing here?"

The others turned to regard the short warrior. "What is it?" Steven asks.

She responds by picking the boy up over her head and running towards the Temple.

"Whoa, what the-HEY!" Scout yelled as he dove and caught Steven's bag of frybits. The half-Gem lost his grip on them once he became an unwilling passenger. The Bostonian glared at the Gem's retreating form, "We paid good money for these bits! You're just gonna throw 'em away?"

"Sorry!" Steven's voice called.

"Not you Steven! Ugh…" Scout stood up and dusted himself off, "Well whateva that thing is, it must be a pretty big problem if it got Amethyst to forget about fried food." He placed the fry bits into his ever-present bat bag and offered it to Pyro.

"Nno kddnn," Pyro mumbled as it tucked its collection of fry bits away as well, "Wn shhdd gho."

"Yeah, I'm going ahead; I can probably catch her." Scout gave his teammates a two-fingered salute, "See ya!"

Demo reached out to his teammate, "Scout wait! We should probably stick togeth-aaaand he's gone. Bloody little bunny…" The Scotsman glowered at the sprinting figure.

"Hmph." Pyro agreed.

"Alrigh', let's go get 'im. And maybe beat some sense into that thick skull o' his…"


Sniper grimaced as he stared through his high-powered, telescopic scope at the object of the Gem's worry. Everyone (save Steven and his little group) was gathered out on the beach and looking up at the pale orb as it moved forward at a snail's pace. Pearl, Engie and Spy were all using high-powered telescopes (Engineer patent pending) while everyone else opted to just stare at it. The commotion had started when Garnet had suddenly sat forward from her position on the couch and say, "We have a problem,". Then everyone had looked outside. Beyond that, Pearl had classified the device as a 'Red Eye', a type of Gem scanning technology used to determine possible colonization sites. Neither she nor Garnet could discern why exactly it was here or what it was scanning for, but it was clear that the Red Eye was bad news.

You know, since it was going to crash into Beach City at a high enough velocity to level everything within a hundred-mile radius.

Medic, standing between Engineer and Garnet, shook his head, "Zhis is not good…"

"Look at the size of it," Pearl breathed as she stared into her telescope, "I had no idea these things were so big."

Spy adjusted the zoom on his telescope, "From what you have said in the past, it's been a couple millennia at least since you won your rebellion. The other Gems have probably upgraded a lot of their technology since then."

"True…"

Engineer grumbled aloud from his telescope, "Dammit, I knew I should've gotten started on that anti-spacecraft cannon sooner…Take care of this 'Red Eye' likety-split…"

"Guys! Guys!"

Everyone stopped looking at the Red Eye and turned to Amethyst's voice, where the very Gem was running towards them at top speed.

Due to her short legs however, Amethyst's top speed wasn't all that impressive. Especially considering that Demoman and Pyro were catching up to her. Scout was already by her side by the time she had reached the group out front.

Pearl turned and gave them a frustrated glare. "We noticed. It's a good thing that some of us are trying to protect humanity." The pale Gem turned her gaze upward to the just-arriving Demoman and Pyro, "And where were you four?"

Amethyst-still holding Steven-sets the boy down on his feet and looks shamelessly at the taller Gem, "Eating fry bits."

Scout pulls out the two unfinished bags from his pack, "Want some?"

Pearl blanched, "Uh…no thanks."

"Oh…may I?"

Scout hands a bag over to Medic who is quick to share it with Soldier and Heavy. "Is good." The Russian comments as he tosses a few into his mouth.

Soldier sighs as he holds up a single frybit, "Greasy, fried potato pieces that have absolutely no health benefits whatsoever. The true American food." He pops it into his mouth.

Spy sneers at them, "I can't believe you'd poison yourselves with such garbage."

"Just because you don't like 'em, Frenchie, doesn't mean you have to ruin it for the rest of us."

Spy shot Scout a glare.

"Hey, what are you guys looking at?"

Steven, curious as always, moves over to Pearl's telescope and peers into the lens. Almost as if it were waiting for that moment, the Red Eye opened its outer shell. Now uncovered, the Red Eye looked very much like a giant, flying, disembodied eyeball peering around at everyone in disdain. The Gems all gazed at it in fear. Steven stared at it in amazement.

The mercenaries all flinched reflexively.

"IT'S MONOCULOUS!" Demoman cried, pulling out his grenade launcher from his dimensional pouch and taking aim, despite the fact that his grenades couldn't hope to reach his target at this distance.

Engineer is quick to do damage control. He jumps over to the Scotsman and lays a hand on his weapon's barrel.

"Woah, there Demo, just calm down; it ain't that monster. It's just some kinda Gem-tech that has a…disturbing likeness."

The Scotsman looked at Engineer as he processed his statement. He then looked to the Red Eye and back. "Oh."

"I kind of wish it was…" Pearl said worriedly, "It'd be much easier to deal with than this."

"Are you guys talking about that giant, cursed eye you fight every Halloween?" Steven said, still looking through the telescope, "That's awesome!"

Pearl whirls on the young boy, "It is NOT awesome! It is the opposite of awesome! It's a Red Eye!"

Steven gasps in fright and backs away from the telescope, "Aaah no! It's going to infect us all!"

"You're thinking of pink eye, Steven." Medic comments, earning chuckles from Heavy, Soldier and Amethyst.

"A Red Eye is some kind of Gem scanning tech." Engineer adds, "But why is it on a collision course?"

"It might be a glitch, or they might not know Earth's trajectory," Pearls says as she paces, "But what does it matter why? It's going to crash into Beach City and crush us, along with a bunch of oblivious humans! We have to stop it."

*cough*

Pearl stops and turns to the mercenaries, who are funnily enough human, and sees an expanse of exasperated looks. She quickly tries to backpedal on her comment.

"Oh, I um…I didn't mean that all humans were…you know that-"

"It's alright Pearl." Engineer said, "You didn't mean anything by it." He then turns to the approaching Red Eye and scratches his chin. "But the question still is, how are we gonna handle this little problem?"

"The only thing powerful enough to destroy it," Garnet spoke up as she adjusts her visor, "Is a Light Cannon that belonged to Rose Quartz."

"My mom?" Steven asked, looking up at Garnet.

"Ughhh," Amethyst groaned, "If Rose were here, this would be so easy…"

"I know…" Pearl said angrily, before stopping and softening her voice, "I know…but she's not and the cannon is missing. We'll have to find another solution."

Engineer sighed, "Really wish she let me take a look at it when it was still around. I might've been able to build a substitute…"

Everyone fell silent for a moment as they remembered the great, powerful, and kind woman who brought them all together.

"Wait a minute…"

The mercenaries and Gems turned to Scout, who looked uncharacteristically deep in thought. He scrunched up his face and tapped his forehead, as if he was trying to remember something. The Bostonian regarded Pearl for a moment. "What…exactly, did this 'Light Cannon' look like?"

Pearl blinked, "Oh, well…" A blue-white hologram came to life from Pearl's Gem as she created a visual aid for her explanation, "It had two pink legs spaced laterally from each other; a rose etched into the design. The main body of the cannon was a lighter white-pink and was perfectly cylindrical down to the base-"

"I'VE SEEN THAT!"

Scout was smiling and pointing frantically at the holographic picture of the Light Cannon, bouncing in excitement. Immediately, Pearl is upon him.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm definitely sure! I've seen this Light Cannon before!"

"Where?!"

"It was…" Scout seemed to literally deflate; his smile disappearing and his body becoming unnaturally still, "Oh…"

Pearl takes this the wrong way, "What's the matter? Is it broken?!" She says frantically.

The runner shakes his head, "No, no it's fine. At least…I think it is. It's just…" Scout fidgets, almost as if not wanting to talk about it, "The last place I remember seeing it…was with Greg."

A small "Oh" escapes Pearl as she finally understands. The Gem backs away and looks around to the other mercenaries.

None of them meet her gaze, each one somehow managing to look in a different direction.

It was understandable; talking about Greg was still a bit of a tender topic, sometimes even more so than Rose Quartz. While the Gems and mercenaries had advanced warning that their leader would be departing with the birth of her child, Greg's death had been so sudden. He didn't even die protecting his son; Steven was back at the carwash in the care of Engineer when Greg's van was waylaid by some idiot running a red light.

By the time the mercenaries had arrived on the scene, there was nothing Medic could do. A service was held with the Gems and mercs in attendance. Steven, far too young to understand words or the implications of death, somehow still understood that it was a sad affair and had cried for hours afterward.

The mercenaries weren't terribly saddened; it was a horrible tragedy, yes, but the mercs had accepted that a lot of people they knew would be dying one way or another. They didn't exactly have a way to relate, since respawn and their severely lengthened lifespans made them just as difficult to kill, if not more so, than the Gems. The mercenaries had understood this and came to grips with it. Not that Greg's death wasn't devastating, but it certainly wasn't as traumatic as it could have been.

So soon after losing their leader, the Gems lost one of their bridges to humanity. Garnet wasn't extremely affected; she hadn't really had a very strong opinion of him one way or another. She was still devastated yes, especially since Steven had now lost his father as well as his mother, but she recovered quickly.

Amethyst had been worse; she was great friends with Greg, and often spent hours with him just goofing off. Losing both him and Rose caused the young Gem to leave the Temple in devastated frustration. It took Scout several months before he could coax her back, and even then she was still depressed for a time.

Ironically, Pearl was affected the most. It was clear from the very beginning that the pale Gem had thought of Greg as nothing more than a passing fancy, a phase that her great and beautiful Rose was going through. As their relationship became increasingly serious, Pearl viewed the human with a venomous disdain; how dare he even stand near her wonderful Rose? He shouldn't be looking at her that way, only Pearl was allowed to look at Rose that way. Things came to a head when Rose made The Announcement. Giving up her physical form just so that another small, short-lived human can be brought into the world? Pearl had laughed it off. When it was clear that Rose wasn't joking, Pearl had nearly skewed the musician in front of everyone. Only Garnet was able to hold her back, she was so furious. Rose had been driven to tears at this. It had taken a while, but Pearl had finally accepted Rose's decision; yet not without harboring a vicious, powerful hatred for Rose's 'pet' human.

When Rose had…passed, Pearl had turned all her bitterness, resentment, frustration and despair onto Greg, because no matter what the pale Gem told herself, she could never force those emotions onto the tiny, half-human, half-Gem child that had once been her dear Rose Quartz. Pearl had spent long days in the Temple, mourning, and always found a way to escape whenever Greg visited with baby Steven. After a few months, she had started to recover. Pearl still hated Greg, and used him as a conduit for her soul-crushing despair, but she was slowly beginning to wean herself of that particular bitterness.

Then Greg died.

The moment Pearl had heard the news, her whole world came to a screeching halt. She felt numb, hollow, even. The alabaster Gem refused to believe a word of this lie; of course Greg hadn't died, the others were merely trying to get her to reconcile with the human and finally meet the child, face-to-face. She had yelled at Engineer for using such a cruel and underhanded trick to manipulate her and told him to leave. Pearl didn't believe anything the mercenaries told her about Greg's demise.

That is, until she saw the body.

All of those powerful negative emotions that had once been focused singularly on Greg were now without an anchor. As such, Pearl inadvertently turned those emotions inward, and they were made worse with the knowledge that now Rose's child had neither a father nor a mother to help guide him in this world. Pearl felt sick to her nonexistent stomach. She could burst unannounced into screams and start crying, but also sit silently for hours on end. Sometimes she felt like going on solo missions for the rest of her life, sometimes she felt like she never wanted to leave her friends' sides. Nothing gave her joy; everything Gem-related conjured up memories of Rose Quartz-her dear, beloved Rose, and everything human-related made her think of Greg-a sweet, short-lived human who cared too much for the people around him. Every time she remembered how awful she had treated Greg, Pearl felt like throwing up. Yet Pearl persevered. It wasn't easy; every day seemed more emotionally taxing than the last, and being surrounded by the mercs only made it worse.

Then Engineer had asked her if she would come to Greg's funeral, and Pearl had broken down in front of him.

She had to go, how could she not? Even Gems understood the severity and finality of death, and had once orchestrated great ceremonies for warriors and nobles who had been shattered. Pearl felt as though this was her last chance to say something to mend what bridges she had burned. A last chance at some sort of redemption in Rose's eyes.

But when she saw Greg laying there in the casket, dressed up and looking like he could have just been enjoying that human pastime known as sleep…there were no words good enough.

Pearl thought that no words would ever be enough.

Throughout the whole ceremony, the pale Gem had felt as though she was merely ordering herself what to do, rather than be the one to actually do it. You have to greet all of these humans now, Pearl. You have to follow the human preacher now, Pearl. You have to walk out to the graveyard now, Pearl. You have to put a rose on his casket now, Pearl.

Only after Greg had been lowered into the earth and everyone had returned to the Temple had Pearl finally let her tears flow freely.

She had eventually recovered from the ordeal, but never completely, and any mentions of Greg stirred up those familiar and disgusting feeling of self-loathing.

The alabaster Gem shook her head to clear her thoughts; she couldn't focus on that now, she needed to think of a way to stop the Red Eye.

Pearl turned back to Scout to ask him exactly where he had remembered seeing the Light Cannon, but for some reason her voice refused to work.

Garnet unintentionally came to her rescue, "Do you remember where you last saw it?"

Scout looked at the tall Gem as if he had just awoken from a dream, "Whuh?...Oh, yeah right right, sorry. The last place I can remember seeing it was when we helped him move a bunch of stuff into his storage unit for safekeeping. He didn't wanna lose anything, right? So I'm moving all this sh-stuff…" Scout gives a sidelong glance to Steven, "…and I see this weird crystal-lookin' thing. At the time I didn't give it a second thought, cuz' Greg liked to collect weird things. But now you're talking about Rose having this Light Cannon, and I can't help but think, 'was that it?'."

Garnet is quiet for a while, "It's certainly possible that Rose entrusted the cannon to Greg."

"Yeah, but why?" Amethyst interjects, "Greg was great and all, but he didn't know anything about Gem stuff. Heck, he avoided it whenever possible. Why would she give him a super-powerful weapon?"

Steven, who had been quiet for a short while, spoke up, "Maybe she thought my dad could keep it somewhere safe?"

"Possible." Garnet says.

"Either way," Engineer says, straightening up, "Someone's gotta go check out that warehouse; we still pay the monthly fees, so everything should still be there."

Scout is quick to step up, "I'll go. I'm the guy who last saw the thing anyway."

"I will also go." Heavy moves next to Scout. "Cannon is big; may need bigger man to lift."

"Eh, me too; I'm not much use to ya here." Demo says, packing his grenade launcher away.

"I'll come with you," Sniper walks over with a set of keys in his hand, "We can take my van."

Pearl stays quiet for a second, wringing her hands in silent indecision, before moving to stand next to the gathered mercenaries. "I-I'm coming too."

Her confidence wavers for a moment as everyone else gives her quizzical looks. The pale Gem flushes and raises her chin, "W-well, it's a sensitive and delicate piece of Gem technology! What would happen if one of you were to accidentally hold it the wrong way and it activates in the middle of Beach City? I should come with you just in case-after all, Rose trusted me the most."

Gradually, the others stop giving her odd looks. Engineer keeps staring at the Gem for a little while before he finally nods, "Alrighty then, the rest of us will stay here and work on a plan B just in case the cannon isn't there-"

"It is!"

"-or if it's broken," The Texan ignored Scout's outburst, "And we can't activate it. Yes, Steven?"

The half-Gem lowered his hand and fidgeted a bit in place when the others turned their attention to him, "Can I...um…" He looks up at Engineer with pleading eyes, "Can I go with them?"

For a split second, everyone freezes. The group was careful to not talk about Greg too much in front of Steven, similar to how they skirted around the topic of Rose Quartz. While this was certainly effective in avoiding awkward topics and conversations, it only made the young Gem even more curious about his parents. Steven was savvy enough to avoid asking direct questions about his father and his mother, but that didn't mean he had no interest in learning about them. So he tried to learn all he could in small amounts-a little bit here, a little bit there-so that he didn't make his family feel uncomfortable.

And here was an opportunity to learn about both his father and his mother at the same time.

Engineer was the first to recover. He coughs into his hand to clear his throat, "Uh…any particular reason why you wanna tag along?"

"Well," The half-Gem kicks the sand, "I mean, you guys are all doing something to help stop this Red Eye, and I figure that I can help by going with them to look for the Light Cannon. I don't think I'll be of much use to you guys if I just stand around here waiting."

Pearl often forgot how similar Steven was to his mother…

Before anyone else could act, the alabaster Gem walked over to Steven and ruffled his hair, "Of course you can come along, Steven." She says softly, "You'll be a big help."

Scout is quick to follow up, "Hey, maybe your magic bellybutton can find the thing."

"That's not exactly what I meant…" Pearl comments dryly.

Steven, however, is elated. He looks down at his gem in amazement, "Can I do that?"

"Steven, gems don't work like that."

"Aw, but it would be so cool! Like, the closer I got to the Light Cannon, the brighter my gem would glow! Like a gem-metal-detector!" The half-Gem holds up his shirt, making "weeee-wooo" sounds similar to a metal detector as he walks back and forth.

The mercenaries and Gems laugh lightly at Steven's antics; even in the face of their likely demise the child could make them laugh. He really was one of a kind.

"Okay," Engineer says, clapping his hands to draw attention, "You guys better head out now; it should be at least an hour 'till that Red Eye gets too close for comfort. We'll work on a contingency plan just in case."

"A contingency that involves ROCKETS!"

Before Engineer could stop him, Soldier pulled out his Bull Mutilator 6000 and began charging up the weapon's secondary mode of fire. After a brief moment, the launcher discharged a massive bolt of plasma-propelled energy directly at the Red Eye. The patriot lowered his weapon, allowing the steaming and sparking weapon to cool down. He grinned maniacally and lifted his helmet so that he could better see as the destructive payload sped towards its target. There was a muted bang as the bolt hit the Red Eye dead-on.

It had absolutely no effect.

Soldier frowned and dropped his helmet back over his eyes. He looked back down at his launcher and turned it over in his grasp.

"…I'm gonna need a bigger launcher…" He grumbles to himself.

Spy rolls his eyes, "Really?"

Soldier whips around and sneers at the Frenchman, "At least I'm trying to do something you French-tart maggot!"

"Don't sweat it Solly," Amethyst says as she walks over to Garnet, "We got this. Plan B?"

Garnet nods, "Plan B."

The tall Gem then picks up Amethyst and jumps into the air, executing a perfect quintuple-flip at the apex of her leap and pitching the purple Gem at the Red Eye. Garnet sticks the landing and Amethyst flies towards the Gem scanner with all the force of a thunderbolt thrown by a furious god.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!"

*gong*

Everyone except Garnet and Steven winced and hissed sympathetically as Amethyst peeled off the Red Eye and fell into the ocean.

A less sympathetic man might compare it to how a bird would peel off of a window after flying blindly into it and flop onto the ground.

"…We should get going." Heavy whisper/rumbles after a moment. Sniper nods.

"I'll go warm up the van." The Australian says, going to do just that

Engineer waves over his shoulder, "Good luck." He then pulls out his PDA and starts typing commands into it, conversing with Medic and Spy about where and what to build. Soldier and Pyro listen in, but don't really contribute ideas of their own.

Standing off from the mercs, Garnet stares at the six individuals moving to the hidden garage behind the cliffs, keeping a particularly close eye on Pearl.


Sniper's van rolls at a moderate pace through the streets of Beach City, careful to mind the turns due to the small trailer hitched behind it.

A few decades ago, Sniper's camper van was a small one-or-two man vehicle that could arguably hold up to six people-two in the front, four in the back-with some squeezing. Heavy, due to his girth, counted as about two-and-a-half people, so transportation might have been an issue.

However, after their secession from Mann Co., the mercenaries realized that they would have to rely on about three vehicles for day-to-day transportation (vehicles were harder to get during the 1970's). With the RED truck situated to hauling weapons and ammo, and their Red Bread van more useful for covert ops, Sniper begrudgingly allowed Engineer to retro-fit his van for transportation. The design and materials upgraded in accordance with human advancements in technology, and Engineer always was a few steps ahead with his access to Gemtech (he was careful to not make the van too advanced-looking).

The result was a rather clean and advanced camper van that was twice as long as its original design. Heavy armor plating reinforced everything except the windows-which were custom-made by Engineer to be the most bullet-resistant glass in the world-and the tires-which could self-inflate and seal off breaches should they be punctured. Everything on the van was made from self-repairing materials, so bullet holes and explosion damage would disappear after a time. Hidden turrets were laced all around the van at strategic points to ward off vehicle pursuits.

But the greatest strength of the van lay in its spaciousness: aside from the driver and passenger seats up front (which was separated from the rest of the van by a windowless door), the entire interior of the van relied on pocket dimension technology.

It was harder to create a pocket dimension for a medium-sized van than it was to create one in a small bag or satchel, but Engineer was creative. The interior of the van was the size of a small house; with the first room serving as a kitchen/living room/command center (the fridge and cupboards had pocket dimensions as well), the bathroom having multiple stalls so nobody would have to wait, and the bedroom having five sets of bunk beds and an offset operating table that doubled as an infirmary.

It was a perfect mobile barracks for the mercs when transportation by teleporters was not an option.

"How're you holdin' up back there, mates?" Sniper calls back from his position in the driver's seat. Scout is reclining in the passenger seat next to him, messing with the collector's bobblehead on the dashboard.

"We're fine lad," Demo answers, "Keep yur eyes on the road."

The Scotsman was leaning back in one of the nine leather seats surrounding a circular table in the center of the van. At the center of the table there was an inactive holo-projector. Two seats to his left sat Pearl, back perfectly straight and legs crossed yet somehow looking the picture of serenity. Steven had planted himself between them, slowly spinning on the rotating seat with a goofy smile.

On the other side of the room, Heavy was rummaging around in the fridge. After a brief moment of rustling plastic and clicking ceramic, the Russian emits a pleased "Ah-ha!" and emerges from the icebox, six plates balanced on his giant arms. He walks over to the table and sets one down in front of Demoman ("Thank ye."), careful to not disturb the perfect setup of the Sandvich. Heavy sets a second plate down in front of Steven ("Thanks!") and another in front of the currently unoccupied seat on Demo's right.

After carefully looking at the other three in his hand, Heavy picks one out from the rest and carefully places it in front of Pearl. The Gem opens her eyes and looks down at the Sandvich then gives Heavy a quizzical look, "Is it…?"

"Yes," The Russian says, pointing one gigantic finger at the toothpick in the center, "Is marked out from rest."

The toothpicks in the other Sandviches all pierced an olive before sticking into the white bread, whereas the toothpick in Pearl's Sandvich was topped with a plastic-you guessed it-pearl.

Back when Heavy had started making his amazing Sandviches during the Gravel Wars, Medic had been quick to catch on how the confections actually managed to heal wounds when consumed. In response, he charged the foodstuffs with a quick blast from his medigun. This drastically increased the Sandvich's ability to heal and also merged food with energy for the first time. Over the course of their employment at Mann Co., the crew of Team Fortress experimented with many different types of food and how they interacted with energy. The result was a vast array of snacks that actually made the mercenaries stronger on the battlefield.

Of course, when Engineer heard that Pearl actually enjoyed the taste of several types of human food (tea, pies, etc.) but abhorred the digestive process that followed it, the Texan had made it his personal mission to create an entirely energy-based food. Why? Because he felt like it. Also because it was a unique and interesting challenge for him and he wanted the Gem to experience the holy grail of food that is the Sandvich.

After a couple weeks of failed experiments and the extermination of self-aware meals, Engineer and Medic had created the world's first energy-based Sandvich. There was no actual organic matter present in the meal. These Sandviches were useless to organics-they taste good, yet provide none of the nutritional value from normal Sandviches since they just dissipate once consumed-but a foodstuff based entirely out of energy was great for a Gem's physical form. Once the Sandvich is consumed, it dissipates into energy that a Gem can absorb. If they were in peak condition, it still served as a pretty tasty junk food.

Pearl had been skeptical at first and was unwilling to try and put herself through that 'horrible' process known as digestion, but she eventually caved when Rose had asked her to 'just try it'. She grimaced the entire time she held the Sandvich and closed her eyes before she bit into it.

Scout was lucky enough to catch a picture of the expression she made once the flavor hit, because from then on Pearl was very careful to school her features whenever she partook in the 'guilty pleasure' known as the Sandvich. Even so, Amethyst and Scout had teased her for days afterward. For special occasions, Engineer would fix up energy-based meals for Pearl so she wouldn't feel left out. (She really didn't, but she very much appreciated the Texan's efforts.)

Pearl smiled when she noticed the little marker denoting her Sandvich as different from the others, "Ah, I see. Thank you." She then removed the toothpick, picked up the Sandvich, and took a small bite, all with her characteristic poise.

Heavy nodded and went to deliver the remaining Sandviches to Scout and Sniper in the front. For a short while, the only sounds in the room were the happy chews of three individuals enjoying a delicious snack.

"Sho," Steven began when the silence stretched on, "Whu-"

"Steven, don't talk with your mouth full," Pearl admonished lightly, taking hidden pleasure in the warm sensation she felt in her stomach when the bite of Sandvich dissolved into energy.

The half-Gem swallowed, "Sorry. I was just going to ask, what exactly does this Light Cannon do?"

"I've been curious about that meself," Demo added, "Does it fire a great big cannonball, some kinda energy pulse or…?" He trailed off, taking a bite of his Sandvich as he waited for Pearl to answer.

Pearl furrowed her brow as she thought of how best to explain the Light Cannon; there haven't been any Red Eye attacks since the late fourteenth century, so of course the mercenaries haven't seen it in action.

"Well," She began, setting down her now-empty plate and clasping her hands together, "When activated, the cannon releases a continuous blast of light energy in a direction. The cannon doesn't stop firing until the beam hits a target, at which point the cannon cuts off its energy blast and goes dormant once more." Pearl supplements her explanations with a holographic projection of the Light Cannon firing at a (much smaller) Red Eye. Demoman, Steven and Heavy-who had wandered back in during the explanation-look on in amazement.

"Woah-ho-ho!" Demo says as the Red Eye in the projection just explodes, "That's some serious firepower!"

"Is biggest gun." Heavy adds, taking a bite of his Sandvich and chewing quieter than normally.

"It looks AWESOME!" Steven exclaims, stars in his eyes.

Pearl smiled lightly, "A projection doesn't really do it justice," The Gem says, "You need to see it in person. It's one of the most beautiful and amazing things I've ever witnessed." She sighs, fondly remembering the times she's seen the cannon in action, "Hopefully Scout's memory is correct and the Light Cannon is at this…storage unit; if not, then…"

"Hey hey hey, now," Demoman says, drawing Pearl out of her thoughts, "Scout's a lotta things. A…lot o' lot o' things, actually," The Scotsman scowls for a moment before shaking his head, "But I very much doubt that the lad's lyin' about this."

Heavy finishes off his Sandvich and nods, "Scout is little man, but little man has good head. He remembers things most of us forget. Only Spy is better."

"Aw, thanks big guy!"

The four turn to see Scout and Sniper emerge from the drivers' seat. Scout takes the two empty plates in his hands over to the dishwasher and tosses them in. "You do care about me!"

"Do not make me regret it," The Russian warns, a wry grin giving away his joking nature, "We are at destination then?"

"Yeah," Sniper answers, opening the exit door and walking out, "But we better get going, I don't think we have too much time left."

The others quickly vacate their seats and follow the Australian outside. Everyone not wearing sunglasses shields their eyes at the sudden shift in light. Pearl is the first to recover and looks in the direction of the approaching Red Eye. She gasped. "Oh no…"

The others turn and follow her gaze. Heavy frowns, "Is not good."

In the middle of the sky, the giant eyeball had nearly tripled in size from when they six had last seen it. It wasn't exactly a positive note.

Sniper pressed two fingers to his ear, activating the concealed communicator, "Oi truckie, we just arrived. What's happening down there?"

"We're working on it." Came the slightly static-y reply.

Suddenly there was a loud sound-similar to the hissing one heard when they launched a firework. As they watched, a great mass of rockets sped out from the beach directly at the Red Eye. Behind the explosives, Amethyst was flying through the air again, releasing her trademark war cry. The rockets exploded against the Gem device two seconds before Amethyst made contact. From their position, the results of the attack were very much the same as before.

"Anything?" Sniper asks into his communicator once Amethyst had splashed back into the ocean.

"Dang it, no effect." The adults sigh at this depressing news, "I'm starting to think that cannon's gonna be our best bet. Check back in when you determine that it's there or not."

"Gotcha, Sniper out," The Australian cut the call and turns to the rest of his group, "We'd best a move on mates. Scout, get that door open."

The Bostonian tips his hat, "Sure!" and rushes over to the steel door of the storage unit and starts picking the lock. He cracks the lock in under a minute and pulls the shutter up.

Scout then looks inside, "Oh crap."

The locker is completely stuffed with boxes. Like, completely stuffed. Worse-than-Amethyst's-room, stuffed.

Okay that last one wasn't true, but you get the idea. Pearl twitched involuntarily when she saw it, but quickly suppressed that particular sensation.

Scout looks around at the mess in front of him, searching for a box that he could remove safely. He touches one that he thinks is perfect, and immediately causes a mini-garbage avalanche.

Demo whistles as he looks at the mountain of clutter, "This might be harder than we thought…"

"Ugh," Pearl groans, "It will take hours before we clear out this storage unit!"

Steven stares thoughtfully at the small opening Scout had created, "Maybe we don't have to…"

The adults watch as the half-Gem picks up a nearby sock, flashlight, and a series of extension cords. Before they could even ask him what he was the doing, Steven ties the flashlight to his head with the sock. It was actually kinda adorable.

He then wraps a bunch of extension cords around himself like a belt, and offers the other end to Pearl.

"I'm going in." He says with all the seriousness of a heart attack.

The adults just stand there for a moment, watching this kid with a flashlight tied to his head with a stretched-out sock and extension cords wrapped around him like a lifeline about to dive into a cluttered storage unit. Acting like it was some big monumental moment in his life.

Of course, the adults break down into laughing fits-Pearl included- for a few seconds. When they look up again, Steven has the biggest crap-eating grin on his face.

"Oh, Steven," Pearl says, grasping the other end of the cord and wiping a tear off her face, "You're too much."

The half-Gem shrugs, "I try." He then walks over to the small opening, flicks on his flash-light helmet, and crawls through.

"Woah, cool!" He says after a moment, "It's like a museum!" Steven continues crawling deeper and deeper into the storage shed, careful to not step on anything breakable, "Oh-found something!"

Demoman raises an eyebrow, "Already?"

There is a sound of things being moved around in the shed, and Steven huffs, "No, wait…sorry false alarm," A pause, "…Did my dad golf?"

The adults all look at each other, "Uh…I don't think so, why?" Pearl asks.

"I just found a bag of golf clubs."

"He had a bag of golf clubs just lying around?" Sniper mumbles, scratching the side of his head, "Huh."

Steven is quiet for a little while; the only sounds coming from the shed were the shuffling and clicking of junk being moved around.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Steven exclaims, and the adults hear junk being moved around quickly. "Is this a…" There is a sharp discharge of air.

Scout bends down to the opening and sticks his head through, "Hey kiddo, what's up? Find something interesting?"

"Did you find the Light Cannon?" Everyone silently urges.

"My dad had a t-shirt cannon? That's awesome!"

Quiet groans circle through the group at another false alarm. Pearl looks back and forth between the shed and the Red Eye, "That's nice, Steven," She calls, "But we need you to find the Light Cannon, remember?"

"Oh yeah, right. Sorry, I just thought that…huh."

Steven goes quiet for a little while; completely quiet, as if he isn't moving. Pearl speaks up, "Steven? Is something wrong?

The half-Gem remains silent, and the adults begin to worry, but Steven finally answers.

"I just…I found a box of CDs in here…'Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart, by Mr. Universe'…Guys?"

Demo coughs, "Uh, yeah laddie?"

"What…what was my dad like?"

There it was, The Question, and at possibly the worst time too. Everyone had been preparing for a moment like this, but that didn't mean that they were ready. Pearl in particular felt that she would never be ready. Four mercs and a Gem all look at each other, wondering how they could answer, and even if they should answer.

Heavy makes a decision and steps forward.

"A good man," He rumbles.

'A better man than we.' The Russian thinks bitterly before pushing that train of thought away, "Not special, like us, but a good man still."

"Bloke loved music; heck, he was better than truckie on the guitar." Sniper says, leaning against a wall.

"He was always up for a good time," Scout remembers fondly with a smile on his face, "But he was always responsible enough to make sure we didn't take it too far."

"If ye were in a bad spot, he'd make time for ye. He was a real great guy." Demoman thought, omitting the fact that he had used to drink with the man.

Pearl was quiet for a long time, listening to the mercenaries relate tales of their times with Greg, trying to paint as accurate a picture of the man as possible. As they continue to add to a very long list of experiences, the Gem starts thinking about what she could say that wouldn't feel like a lie.

'I hated him, I pushed him away for years and treated him like garbage…' The Gem thought morosely, 'I never really did get to know him…but what do I tell Steven?'

'The truth.' Pearl realizes. She closes her eyes and smiles sadly.

"…He loved your mother very much."

The mercs turn to the Gem in astonishment; out of everyone, Pearl was the least likely to sing Greg's praises, and yet that was exactly what she was doing. Hell, she was acknowledging Greg's love of Rose!

They were further astonished as she continued; "Everything Greg did…he did it for Rose. And Rose…Rose loved him for it. If Rose was sad, Greg was there to cheer her up; and he always did, no matter the circumstances. He was just an ordinary human, but he tried his best to help us out whenever he could. And when Rose and Greg were together, you could tell that they were…" Pearl swallowed in her suddenly dry throat, "You could tell that they were…made for each other…"

It physically hurt to admit that; and for the whole world to hear no less. Pearl presses her fists to her breast, trying to stifle the constricting feeling in her chest. A droplet of water lands on her hand, and when it is joined by two more, the Gem realizes that she is crying. Pearl rubs her eyes with a hand, trying not to be so self-conscious about how much of a mess she looks like right now…

The Gem is startled out of her reverie by a large hand gently patting her back. Turning her head, Pearl sees Heavy giving her a gentle look as he comforted her.

Normally, Pearl only had extended physical contact with Engineer, Spy, and (if things were bad enough) sometimes Medic. Normally, Pearl would have shied away from the gentle giant's touch and made the whole situation more awkward. Normally…

Normally, Pearl wouldn't have admitted that Greg and Rose were right for each other, but it seemed as though things weren't going normally today. The alabaster Gem settles into Heavy's comforting touch and just relaxes there for a second, "And he loved you very much as well, I'm sure of it."

Pearl opens her eyes and looks at the other mercs. Demo is giving her a gentle smile and a knowing look. Sniper tips his hat at her as he leans on the wall. Scout-tactless, brash Scout-is giving her a wry grin and a thumbs-up. For how crude the gestures are, Pearl feels touched by them; here she is, a millennium-old, super-powered Gem warrior being comforted by four pseudo-humans who she has sworn to protect. It'd be funny, really, if it wasn't quite so sobering.

Steven is quiet for a while as he digests what the adults said about his late father, "…Wow. My dad sounds…pretty cool."

"Heck yeah, he was," Scout says, trying to shift the mood before it becomes too depressing, "He had a great sense of humor as well, I think you inherited that from him."

Sniper chuckles, "He was just as insufferably optimistic too."

Everyone else laughs a little at this, even Pearl, who has now moved out of Heavy's grip with a quiet "Thank you". The Gem wipes the last traces of tears from her eyes. "Greg had this weird human saying that I'm pretty sure he invented himself. He always used it whenever something didn't go exactly as planned," She taps her chin, "Wasn't it about…pork rinds?"

"I think it was about pork chops and hotdogs," Demo says, scratching his eyepatch, "Lemme see if I can remember…'If every hotdog were perfect…' Wait, no it was 'If every pork chop were perfect...'."

"'We wouldn't have hotdogs.'" Heavy finishes, "Is about making something good out of bad situation. Always found it funny-"

"Guys! Guys!" Steven yells, interrupting the Russian mid-speech. Everyone turns their attention to the storage unit, "I think I found it!"

"Wait, for real?" Scout says as he stands up, "No joke?"

"Yeah! I'm sure it is! It looks exactly like the Light Cannon in Pearl's projection!"

Demo cheers and claps his hands, "Good job laddie!"

"Very good!"

"Heck yes!"

Pearl stands still, smiling softly, "Excellent job Steven!" She calls, before looking back down at her feet. He really did keep it safe…

"Okay, now we just gotta get it out! One sec…" Steven goes silent for a moment as he moves some things around in the shed, "Alright! I tied the cords around the cannon. Just hook it up to the van and pull it out!"

Heavy steps forward and grasps a section of the extension cords in his large hands, "Is no need for that; Pearl, Demoman, help me with this."

The two take up positions next to the large Russian and each take a portion of the cord. Demoman looks back at the other two, "We go on three! One…two…"

"THREE!" And they start pulling on the cord with all of their might.

Demoman, clearly the weakest of the three, is still fairly strong. Even before his augmentation, he had to lug around two very heavy launchers and their large ammunition. Not to mention the huge swords and shields that he also carried from time to time. Heavy is the undisputed strongman of Team Fortress; the large Russian weighing almost twice as much as Demo and-contrary to popular belief-that weight consisted of mostly muscle. He had to be muscular of course; firing that huge minigun day in and day out without hurting himself. Not only that, but when the other mercenaries would prefer a knife, a shovel or some other melee weapon, Heavy just charged in with his bare fists, slugging enemies hard enough to kill them in a single hit. Pearl, while not possessing as much pure strength as Garnet or (maybe) Amethyst, was still a Gem. With her superhuman strength, she was able to pull more weight than Heavy.

So when the three of them yanked on the cable at once, they began to pull the Light Cannon out of its cluttered prison. Careful not to tear their tether in two, the Gem and mercs began to slowly back up when they felt the boxes begin to give. A few more steps and a couple extra yanks for good measure, and they were making good progress; slowly extricating the cannon from the mess. The cluster of garbage eventually gave out on stubbornly remaining in position and was gradually pulled forward. They kept pulling for a little while until Scout called out for the three to stop.

Heavy grunted and released the cord in his hands, "Didn't even break sweat."

"Speak for yerself, ya great big beast…" Demo said, wiping a few droplets of sweat from his brow.

Pearl stared at the large amount of unorganized objects outside, in a pile, that she had helped create. Something felt fundamentally wrong in her being at the sight of this clutter. A quiet scream threatened to escape her throat.

The pale Gem shook her head and crushed that incessant inner voice telling her to clean up that mess this instant. "I'll fix it later." Pearl mumbles to herself like a mantra as she moves around to the back of the pile, Heavy and Demo right behind her.

At the rear end of the colossal mess, Pearl finds Scout, Sniper and Steven all admiring the Light Cannon. She had been certain that Greg had possessed Rose's keepsake when Steven announced its presence in the storage unit, but seeing it in front of her was still surreal. That familiar pain of knowing that Rose loved this odd human more than her reared its ugly head again. Pearl swiftly buried that pain and continued forward.

"So…here it is. Rose's Light Cannon." Pearl says in a whisper.

Scout turns to the Gem and grins, "See, I toldja I knew where it was! Why ya gotta doubt me?"

Pearl rolls her eyes, "I didn't doubt your memory, I just-"

"Doubted the accuracy of my memory?"

"Scout, shut up," Sniper interjects as he looks away from the Light Cannon to the Red Eye-'It's really close now.' Pearl thinks-and then back to his van, "We gotta get a move on."

Pearl nods and goes to stand at one end of the Light Cannon. She bends down and grips the base in her hands, "Heavy, could you give me a hand with this?"

The Russian nods and crouches down to pick up the other end. After a quick one-two-three, the duo hefts the Light Cannon into the air and swiftly moves it over to the van's attached trailer. They set it down gently, and are pleased when the structure buckles only slightly under the weight.

"Great job guys!" Steven cheers, giving the two a double-thumbs up. Heavy and Pearl smile at the child's heartfelt praise.

"Thank you Steven, but we should be thanking you for being the one to find the Light Cannon in the first place." Pearl says as she steps over to Steven and ruffles his hair. The half-Gem sticks his tongue out in a happy smile.

"Yo, what about me? Don't I deserve some thanks too?"

Pearl shakes her head, but a smile cracks her annoyed façade, "Fine Scout, I suppose you do deserve some form of appreciation."

The Bostonian grins, "Yeah, that's right! Scout helped save the world once again. Oh, wait, lemme get my camera out, I need to record this ta' show the guys-"

"Get in the van you git." Demo says as he pushes the runner towards the vehicle, cutting off Scout's moment. Pearl, Steven and Heavy all snigger at the Scotsman's handling of Scout and the Bostonian's petulant complaints. They pile in to the van as well, and Sniper-still smiling at the others-hops into the driver's seat. He starts up the engine just as he activates his communicator, "Truckie, I got good news; the Light Cannon was in the storage shed. We're bringin' it down right now."

"Great! I don't wanna rush you fellas, but we might not have too much time left before the Red Eye reaches us. We'll see if we can delay it a little more."

Sniper frowned at Engineer's report, "We can get there in five minutes, hold on." The Australian presses the gas pedal a little harder than he should, and has to swerve a few times to avoid crashing into stop signs and pedestrians.


In the main room of the van, kept safe from the sudden shifts in momentum by dimensional shock absorbers, Steven turns over a small case in his hands, scrutinizing it. Scout, heedless of the nuances of personal space, looks over the half-Gem's shoulder.

"Whatcha got there little man?"

Steven turns to Scout, only slightly startled, before turning back to the case in his hands and frowning, "…You know how, back in the storage shed, I found a box of CDs my dad made? Well…" The young boy holds a CD case, a very familiar cartoony visage on the front cover, "I kinda…took one of 'em with me. I was thinking, since my dad was a pretty good musician, that we could listen to it on the way home?"

Scout, knowing exactly what the song on that disc entailed, turned to the others in the room with an uncertain expression on his face. Demo and Heavy look at each other for a moment, shrug, and then turn to the last person seated at the table.

Pearl wilts under the three gazes; no she did not want to hear a song in which Greg would go on and on about how he wasn't exactly the greatest guy for Rose, but she still loved him anyway. Besides, even Greg had agreed that this particular song was not his best work, despite the fact that Rose seemed to adore it. The Gem was ready to shake her head and say no when a thought occurred to her.

Aside from a few testimonies from his 'family', Steven had no idea just who his father had been as a person. Seeing the trove of treasures in his old storage shed had given him a bit of insight, but not much, especially considering that most of the stuff in that shed wasn't indicative of Greg's character. What kind of person just hoards a bag of golf clubs and never uses them? And then Pearl had another thought. Steven had never even heard his father's voice, or rather; he doesn't remember the times he did. The few CDs and old songs that Greg recorded were the closest thing the half-Gem had to hearing his father speak. Would she really deprive him of this just due to what was essentially a petty jealousy?

Of course not; Pearl nodded to Scout. The Bostonian looks surprised-he should really have gotten over it by now, today has just been a string of firsts-but turns back to Steven and gives him a smile.

"Sure thing pal, how 'bout you lemme throw that thing in the player for ya?"

The half-Gem's face looks like it could split in two with the magnitude of the grin he has when he hands the CD case over to Scout. The Bostonian, using some of his characteristic flair, pulls the CD out of its case onto the tips of his fingers and flicks it into the holo-projector on the center of the table (it doubles as a music player). The projector takes a moment before it accepts the CD, and it is a few seconds more before the track starts playing.

It is somewhat crude, a bit self-deprecating, and absolutely hammy. Pearl feels somewhat sad, and a little angry, when she hears Greg go on about driving his van 'into your heart', whatever that meant. It definitely isn't one of his better works, and the Gem is quick to turn her nose up at it (figuratively, of course). But then she looks at Steven, listening intently to the lyrics and trying to gauge his father's character from those alone. The half-Gem then starts bouncing and bobbing in time to the music, getting a feel for the rhythm, and mumbling the words under his breath in an attempt to memorize them. Pearl can't stay upset at this, especially when Scout, Demo and Heavy try to get Steven to join them in a little dance-along to the music (the mercs were all surprisingly adept at synchronized dancing, even Soldier). She smiles as she watches the four of them enjoy their little moment together.

And, if the Gem is being honest with herself, she can't but feel a little bit of herself in the lyrics of the song. She was but a pearl; a servant, a trophy, nothing more than an object. And yet, Rose chose Pearl to be her confidant.

Her Pearl.


Meanwhile, things weren't looking so good for Beach City. The Red Eye was now close enough to the beach that it had bathed everything in a pale white/pink light. The citizens of the boardwalk had finally realized that something may be wrong, and they made the wise decision to start evacuating. On the beach, near the Crystal Temple, six figures were trying to delay the Red Eye's approach by any means possible.

Medic and Spy went over what data and information they had received from their previous attacks on the Red Eye. Their conclusion? They weren't doing anything to damage it.

Pyro stood between them, soundlessly staring into the Red Eye as if its piercing, soulless gaze alone would be enough to turn the Gem scanner away. It didn't appear to be working, but the firebug refused to turn from the device (it probably wasn't blinking either).

Soldier held a Bull Mutilator in each hand and periodically fired a double-burst from his weapons once they had reloaded. Since he had all the time in the world to line up his shot, he didn't have to worry about recoil. Sadly his attacks appeared to be ineffective, a fact that was quickly beginning to infuriate the patriot.

Garnet, having thrown Amethyst a short while ago, stood like a statue as she gazed into the erratically twitching pupil of the Red Eye. The Gem peered into the future and tried to discern the most likely outcome of today. But it did little good as she saw only two possibilities; either the others would return with the Light Cannon and activate it, or they wouldn't, and Beach City would be destroyed.

Engineer was furiously setting up more and more level 4 Specialization: Rocketburst Sentry Guns along the beach, with level 4 Amplifiers spaced in between to multiply the damage of each gun's twelve-rocket burst. The Texan ran back and forth, madly whacking each and every building to get them to build/reload faster. Once they were all ready, Engineer pulled out what appeared to be a joystick with a small radar dish in front of it. Every Sentry he had built on the beach immediately switched to 'Wranglin' mode and acquired the target Engineer was pointing out. The Texan pulled back the joystick on the device and a deafening bang split the air as every Sentry Gun fired at once. Engineer held down on the joystick until every last Sentry beeped the 'empty clip' alarm. The Red Eye appeared to be slightly singed on one point, but that was all. Engineer let loose a string of colorful curses as he put his Wrangler (v3.8) away and returned to whacking the buildings with his wrench to speed up their reload time. No matter what they did, nothing seemed to be effective against the Red Eye, even critically charged rockets didn't scratch the surface. The Texan was seriously considering an evacuation of the Temple/Fortress when a familiar car horn broke his concentration.

Everyone on the beach turned to see Sniper's van, tugging a trailer holding what looked suspiciously like a cannon, come barreling onto the sand and tear through the dunes towards them, honking all the way.

Amethyst, who had just been washed back to shore, looked up to Garnet expectantly, "Hey, throw me again! I think I'm cracking it," When the tall Gem didn't respond, Amethyst looked up the beach to the van, "No way…"

"They made it." Garnet said with a small smile.

"YEEE-HAWW!" Engineer cheered as the van passed by his position and parked just north of the shoreline. Soldier had dropped his ineffective launchers and was fist-pumping rapidly. Medic and Spy had started their way over to the van and were ready to provide any assistance they could. Pyro was bouncing up and down in place, clapping its hands giddily and giggling like a mad-(insert noun). For a moment, everything looked as though it would be alright.

Then the Red Eye crossed a certain threshold and activated a type of vacuum, sucking in vast volumes of air. Those on the beach hunkered down and held onto their hats for dear life. Engineer's buildings were safe; they had automatically dug themselves in when they sensed a change in wind speed, but the same could not be said for the beach house. Boards of wood and shingles peeled away from the outermost layer of the home and were swept up into the pupil of the Red Eye. The air was filled with sand and dirt as gusts of wind vacuumed indiscriminately. More boards of wood and plaster were sucked away from the stores on the edge of the beach; Pyro had to jump out of the way of a flying 'Beach Citywalk Fries' sign to avoid being bisected.

Seeing this, Sniper quickly kills the engine and leaps out of the van. He runs to the side door and rapidly bangs on it three times in succession, "Let's go lads, c'mon!"

As fast as possible, the occupants of the van exit and step onto the sand. They stare in fear at how close the Red Eye is and the devastating effect it's having on the beach and nearby shops.

"Very bad!" Heavy shouts, grabbing Pearl's arm and pulling her to the trailer, "Come! We must hurry."

The Gem, a bit flustered at being snatched up like that, quickly finds her footing and nods, "Y-yes, of course." They hop up into the trailer and cart the Light Cannon down to the beach, plopping it in front of Engineer's rocket array. Everyone takes a moment to regroup there.

"Ve have to activate it now," Medic yells over the cacophony of violent winds, "If it gets any closer, zhe debris from an explosion vill still level zhe city!"

Garnet turns to Pearl, "How do we fire the cannon?"

Pearl runs her hands up and down the sides of the Gem weapon, trying and failing to find some kind of hidden switch, "I-I-I don't know! It was Rose's, she never told me how it worked!" The alabaster Gem stops as a flash of realization crosses her features, "Rose…Steven!" The boy jumps a bit when he hears his name yelled, "You have Rose's gem! If anyone can activate it, you can!"

Steven lifts up his shirt to peer at the five-facet pink gemstone, when his sense of gravity suddenly shifts.

"That's it!" Amethyst shouts as she lifts Steven over her head and carries him over to the Light Cannon.

"Amethyst, what are you doing?!" Pearl shouts.

"I don't know! Something!" The purple Gem yells back as she starts rubbing Steven-belly first-all along the length of the cannon. When nothing happens, she changes her position and angle several times, "Ugh…c'mon!"

Eventually, Soldier moves over to the purple Gem,"Stop that!" He growls.

Amethyst just groans and lets go of Steven, leaving the young half-Gem to hang on for dear life, "Fine, just throw me again!" The shorter Gem moves towards Garnet when she is stopped by a gloved hand.

"There's no point!" Engineer cries, "Nothing else we've done so far has had any effect! That cannon is our best bet, we just hafta figure out how it works!"

"No no no, the VAN!"

Everyone looks over to see Scout, Sniper and Demoman trying to keep the Australian's van from sliding any further into the ocean. Garnet, realizing the importance of the vehicle, leaps over and grabs hold of the rear bumper, keeping it from moving any further. The suction of the Red Eye is getting deafening now; the mercs and Gems all grabbing onto something to avoid being caught up in the storm.

Steven sees all of this from his position on the cannon, a pit opening in the center of his stomach as his fear and worry threaten to overcome the young boy. In desperation, he starts banging on the Light Cannon in an attempt to get it to fire.

"Please work! Unlock?! Activate?! Fire?! PLEASE!"

Nothing happens, Steven spares a glance around to check on everyone's condition.

Pyro is hunkered down behind the cannon along with Amethyst, Pearl, Soldier and Heavy. Medic, Spy and Engineer have taken refuge among the Texan's many buildings, which are now struggling to remain upright. Garnet is still holding on to the van-which Demo, Scout and Sniper are hiding behind-but even with the Gem's mighty strength, the vehicle still threatened to be pulled into the ocean.

"It's okay Steven!" Pearl says from her position behind the cannon, forcing a smile onto her face, "We'll…we'll think of something else! We always do!"

"H-hey, yeah!" Amethyst says, giving a smile of her own and trying to keep the stammer out of her voice, "We've come out of worse situations okay, don't worry little man!"

"This is nothing compared to the Great Dustbowl Defense of '68! We won't let this maggot eye beat us! I REFUSE TO LET IT BEAT US!" Soldier screams in defiance of the Red Eye.

"Will think of other plan, Steven." Heavy reassures.

"Nnd tt'll bnn evrnnn bttrrr!" Pyro mumbles as it gives the half-Gem a thumbs up.

The Red Eye inches even closer now, and smaller boulders are now being picked up into the whirlwind. From the shoreline, Garnet grunts in effort as she tries to keep the van stable. One of Engineer's Sentry Guns is torn free from its position and flies into the maw of the Red Eye. Everyone buckles down as the winds increase in intensity.

Witnessing this, Steven becomes even more frantic, "Everyone's counting on you! I know you can help! I know you want to help! You can't just be useless!" He begs the cannon, grasping tightly to it as if it were a lifeline, "…I can't be useless. I have to help my family! So please, just work! Or-or tell me what to do, and I'll do it! Give me a sign, some kind of message or reaction or glow-"

Suddenly, Steven remembers something-a slight hint he had received back at the storage shed when he had still be looking for the Light Cannon. The half-Gem stares down at the pale surface of the cannon and runs a hand over it, 'Maybe…?'

'Well,' Steven thinks to himself, 'The worst that could happen is it not activating' So he leans in close to the cannon and says, in almost a whisper, "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs."

The Light Cannon blazes to life in a burst of bright pink, chasing away the harsher tones projected by the Red Eye. Everyone turns away from approaching eyeball and instead watch as the top of the Light Cannon splits apart and spreads out, looking very much like the flower of its creator's namesake. From the very center, a small protrusion emerges. Due to this drastic change in shape, Steven loses his grip on the cannon and falls to the ground. But the young boy couldn't be happier; he had done it! He had activated his mother's cannon and saved Beach City! "It's activating!" Pearl says, just as awestruck as everyone else.

Then the position locks on the cannon popped out, and the barrel of the Gem weapon fell nose-first onto the sand; pointing at too low of an angle to strike the Red Eye. Everyone gasps in astonishment.

But Steven refused to let it end like this. He rushes around to the front of the cannon and lifts it up all by himself-tapping into that latent Gem strength of his. Yet, the half-Gem was not strong enough to hold it all by himself, so he turns around in surprise when he feels a large portion of the weight disappear from his arms.

Behind him stood Pearl, and Heavy, each supporting a portion of the cannon's weight in their arms. On the other side of the cannon were Amethyst, Soldier and Pyro, doing the same for the other side of the cannon.

"Steven!" Pearl says, smiling at Steven and filling his heart with joy, "You did it!"

"Great job cadet!" Soldier cheers from his side of the cannon, Pyro chiming in with a burst of happy giggles.

"This is it, guys!" Amethyst says, and everyone turns their gazes forward to the Red Eye, staring at it with fury.

"INCOMIIIIIING!" Heavy shouts just as the Light Cannon finishes charging up and fires.

At first, the beam of pink light is just that-a beam of pink light-but then the light shifts and changes, taking on the form of a rose with two helixed vines rotating slowly around the main body of the beam. Before it makes impact, the light coalesces into the form of a woman with a hand outstretched; several smaller beams of light surrounding the woman's visage. And then the light hit the Red Eye.

Almost immediately, the Red Eye explodes outwards into many smaller shards of Gem tech that fly in every direction.

"Debris!" Garnet warns the others as the rubble threatens to damage Beach City.

"I'm on it!" Engineer says as he whips out his PDA and presses a single button, changing the targeting mode for his Sentries. The turrets respond to this order and each aim at a different piece of flying rock. They fire a full payload at each-sometimes two-before acquiring a different target. Now broken apart, depowered, and already damaged by Rose's Light Cannon, the chunks of Red Eye shatter easily from the crit-boosted rocket bursts. All in all, it only takes twenty-six total salvos before the more dangerous debris are nothing but powder.

For a while, there is only silence as everyone on the beach registers the situation. Then that silence is broken when Soldier saunters over to Steven and gives him a slap on the back, laughing all the while.

"Excellent work Steven! You and Engie over there saved all of those civilians! And with little to no property damage as well! I'm actually impressed!"

Steven rubs his back and smiles appreciably up at the patriot, "Thank you! It was really you guys who helped me fire the Light Cannon though."

Pearl looks from Steven to the Gem weapon a few times in slight confusion, "How did you get it to work?"

"I just said that thing that you guys told me my dad always said."

"…The saying about pork chops and hotdogs?"

"Mhmm," Steven says as he nods seriously, "When you guys said it at the storage shed, the Light Cannon glowed pink for a bit. That's actually how I found it. So I thought; maybe there was something important about the saying. And uh, well…I guess it was!"

Pearl absorbs this for a moment before sighing to herself and smiling softly, "I suppose so," She then turns and looks at the fading light one last time, subtly wiping a tear from her cheek as she did so.

'She really did care for him…'

"Hey-hey-hey! Lookit this little guy over here, saving all of our sorry butts!"

The group by the cannon turns to the approaching quartet of Scout, Demo, Sniper and Garnet (who is still pulling the van around by the bumper) when they heard the first speak, "I didn't doubt you for a second!"

"Liar," Garnet said as she walked past, "Where do you want me to put this?" She asks Sniper.

"Ah, just set it by the road; I'll drive it to the garage later." The Australian waves her off.

Garnet shrugs and starts pulling the van back to the edge of the beach, careful to mind her step.

Amethyst turns to Steven and gives him a friendly punch in the shoulder, "Scout's right though! You totally did save our butts dude!"

Steven blushes a bit at the praise, "Aw, it wasn't anything really difficult…"

"Don't sell yourself short, Steven," Pearl said as she ran her hand over the Light Cannon, "We wouldn't have found the Light Cannon, nor would we have figured out how to use it without your help. You did an excellent job."

"Pearl is right, you deserve a medal!"

"Steven is credit to team!"

"Sweet!"

"Huddah!"

"Aye, lad!"

Pearl smiles as she watches Steven's face slowly heat up from the praise of the mercenaries and Amethyst. She then turns back to the Light Cannon and regards it for a moment.

'Now where exactly are we going to put you…oh, that reminds me, I need to clean up that mess from the storage unit earlier as well…'


"Well, hello there beautiful. What's such a good-lookin' weapon like you doing all the way out here?"

"Engineer, you know I'm your friend, but we are not going to take apart Rose's only Light Cannon just for the sake of science."

"But…but we could probably make it even better!"

"I said no, Engineer."

"Alright, fine. The study's off, Medic."

"Ach, I told you ve should have just stolen it…"

"Ex-CUSE me?!"

"Oh, you shouldn't have said that."

"Ja, that thought has crossed my mind."


AN: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You knew this was going to happen! You knew what you had signed up for when you starting reading a fanfic on Steven Universe! You might have thought that I'd save the sad moments until later on in the series, and you would be right.

But wait a minute; an episode where Greg Universe is a titular character? Gee, I wonder how the characters would handle the fact that Greg is dead. So this is my solution as to how things might have went if that were the case.

To those of you who say 'How can Greg's death be a more sensitive topic that Rose? Rose was with the Gems for thousands of years while Greg only knew them for a few decades.' I rebuke you with this; Greg didn't just die, he died only six months after Rose in a freak accident. Unlike how Rose gave the Gems and mercenaries advanced warning of her demise, Greg's just happened. And Greg is really dead, not 'kinda-sorta' like Rose who became a part of her son, but completely dead, as in departed from this world. So yeah, talking about Greg might sometimes be more sensitive than talking about Rose; sometimes, but not every time. Rose was still more influential to the Gems, and even the mercenaries, so she will obviously receive the most angst-related chapters, but certain chapters will relate to how the characters deal with Greg's death as well.

Also, the part about Pearl feeling sick about how she treated Greg when he was alive is what I believe the actual character may feel should Greg have passed on so soon after Rose. Think about it; if one were to focus all of their negative emotions onto a person for stability, but then that person dies not too long afterward, how would you feel? I know I'd feel pretty shitty about the way I treated them when they were still alive. In my opinion, that's how I imagine Pearl reacting should Greg have died when he did in this fic.

Oh, and concerning her admission that Greg and Rose were right for each other, that doesn't necessarily mean that Pearl won't be feeling Rose-related angst, far from it. This is just introducing the fact that Pearl also has to deal with Greg-related angst as well. Keep an eye on this trope; it might pop up again for different characters.

In my opinion, Greg would probably have gotten along pretty well with some of the mercs, considering how well he and Amethyst knew each other. Scout is a prime example, so is Demoman, Engineer definitely, Heavy maybe, and to a lesser extent, Pyro. The others are either a) too standoffish (Spy, Sniper), b) too maniacal (Medic), or c) Soldier (Soldier) to form real close bonds with Greg, but they still liked and/or appreciated him. Scout probably would be the one to remember where the Light Cannon was if he helped move it (which he probably did) since Scout in-game is all about memorizing little paths or tricks to use against stronger opponents.

Oh, and the part with the Sandviches just popped into my head when I was writing the rough draft. At first I was gonna have Heavy offer a Sandvich to everyone and Pearl would reject his offer because y'know, she hates digestion. But then I thought, "Hey, if Engineer could build all this crap, and is good friends with Pearl, why not have him make some kind of 'artificial food' so she can eat without having to digest?" And it works, because Engineer can literally make anything. Also, Sandviches; not even Pearl is immune to their allure.

Don't worry about the mercenaries not having as big an impact this chapter; their effects on the future will be slow to start, but soon enough you'll see them.

Anyways, that ends chapter two of Team Universe. I hope you enjoyed and/or were saddened by it, either one works really. Join us next time to see Steven attempt the Lunar Sea Spire test once again-but under different circumstances-, and witness the mercenaries meet an old, familiar foe on the battlefield once again.

Reviews, please! Your words only grant me more power!