Steven and Amethyst were running towards the Beach City Fries, "Hey Fryman!" the boy said when they stopped, and he placed his hands on the counter top, "give me The Bits!" Steven said. However Mr Fryman frowned, "Steven, we're closed" he said. Within the boy's mind, Sadness pressed a button to send a wave of disappointment through the boy, "awe, what?" he asked. Suddenly Amethyst slammed her fists on the counter, "give 'im the bits! The bits! The bits! The bits! The bits!" both Steven and Amethyst began chanting, and Joy couldn't help but get caught up in it.
"Okay, okay, take it easy on the counter, will ya?" Mr Fryman relented, before going off to get the Fry Bits for the Human/Gem hybrid. Steven and Amethyst turned to each other, "yes!" they declared together, before giving each other a high-five. "I can give you actual fries if you want" the fries stand owner said, placing the fry bits into a take away bag. Joy pressed a button "just the bits please" Steven replied happily. Mr Fryman handed the bag to him, and Steven grinned, "thanks" he said. As they began to walk away, Steven and Amethyst ate the Fry Bits together. All the emotions looked out the window, to see that Amethyst Island was running well.
"Well, at least everything's going well today" Joy proclaimed, as she turned to look at Cookie Cat Island, which, in the weeks since Steven had been unable to eat his favorite treat, had begun to fall into a state of disrepair. She sighed and closed her eyes, until she felt a hand softly rest on her wrist. Joy looked down to see Sadness looking up at her with sympathy in her large blue eyes, "there's nothing we can do" she said. Joy nodded, "I know, anyway, let's focus on eating our Bits" she replied, as everyone turned their attention back to the view screen. "Ah sunset, my favorite time of day, the sun goes down, and the second sun gets bigger and bigger in the sky" he said. Anger raised an eyebrow, "uh, joy?" he asked.
Amethyst burst out laughing, "yeah, that big-ass second sun-*gasp!*" she cut herself off as she turned forwards, "oh no! what is that doing here?!" she demanded. Steven swallowed his mouthful of bits, "what is it?" he asked curiously. Suddenly the purple Gem picked him up. Fear slammed on the controls (do you see the pattern here?) and Steven cried out, first in slight fear, then in disappointment, "ah, my bits!" he exclaimed as Amethyst carried the boy away.
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As they ran over to the beach, Amethyst called out to them, "Garnet, Pearl!" Pearl turned to face them, "we saw, some of us are trying to protect humanity- where were you?" she asked in slight frustration. "Eating Fry Bits" Amethyst answered simply after she'd put Steven down. The thin Gem groaned and placed a hand to her forehead. Joy's curiosity won out and she pressed a few buttons, "can I see?" Steven asked curiously. He went up to the telescope and looked up, "woah!" he exclaimed, as the ball in the sky opened and seemingly looked down at them, "It's a giant eyeball, awesome!" he exclaimed.
"Not, awesome, it's a Red Eye!" Pearl explained in frustration. Fear began panicking and Steven placed his hands on his hair, "a red eye! It's going to infect us all!" the boy cried. "That's pink-eye Steven" Garnet explained calmly, as Amethyst laughed. "It's going to crash into Beach City, and crush us! Along with a bunch of innocent people! We have to stop it!" Pearl explained. "What are we going to do?" Steven asked. "The only thing powerful enough to destroy it," Garnet began, adjusting her visor, "is the Light Cannon that belonged to Rose Quartz" she explained. "My Mom?" Steven asked, as all his emotions looked at each other. "If Rose was here, this would be so easy!" Amethyst moaned.
Pearl looked up, putting a hand to her chest, "I know," she said, looking back down at the two shortest members of the Crystal Gems, "but she's not, and the Cannon is missing," she placed her hand on her chin in thought, "we'll have to find another solution". Joy suddenly gasped and ran to Steven's idea basin and took what looked like a light bulb out, "I've got it!" she exclaimed, placing the bulb into a hole in the console. The light bulb lit up and was drawn into the hole, showing that Steven had taken the idea. "If it belonged to my Mom, I bet my Dad knows where it is" he said. Joy pushed a button, that caused Steven to get Starry eyes again, like he always did whenever he was excited about something.
"He can help us save the day!" he proclaimed excitedly. Pearl frowned, "Greg is, nice, Steven- but I doubt Rose would entrust someone like him with such a powerful weapon" she replied. Amethyst placed one hand on the boy's shoulder, "your Dad is kind of a mess Steven" she said bluntly. Anger fumed, "what! What gives her the right to say that about our Dad!" he exclaimed, standing up from the couch where he'd been reading The Mind Reader, the title of which read: 'Beach City's destruction imitate, now it's Steven's turn to save the day!' . Before he could get worked up about it, Pearl had already cut in with a hiss: "Amethyst!" "I'm just sayin', even if she did leave it with him, he probably broke it, or lost it, or dropped it in the ocean by now" the purple Gem listed on her fingers.
Garnet nodded, "true". Joy began working again, "no way, I bet he's just keeping it somewhere safe- I'll go ask him!" he said optimistically, as he began running off to his Dad's Carwash. Garnet walked over, stopping the boy in his tracks, "we can handle this Steven" she said. The tallest crouched slightly, "ready" she said. Amethyst nodded and Garnet picked her up before leaping into the air and spinning around to gather momentum. Then she threw the purple Gem towards the Red-eye. Amethyst yelled as she sailed through the air and hit the piece of Gem Tech hard. Steven and his emotions winced as the other two Crystal Gems watched where the second shortest had fallen into the water, "uh, I'm gonna go" the boy said as he hurried away.
Pearl waved him off, "okay, good luck" she replied distractedly.
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The boy banged on the back door of his fathers van, "Dad, It's me! Dad! Are you in their?" he called. Within Steven's mind, Fear frowned, "hey, Joy, I don't think this is such a good idea- I mean, what if he's trying to sleep?" he asked. Joy rolled her eyes, "even if he is, It's not like it would do any good! You heard what Pearl said! This Red-eye thing could destroy the city and everyone in it! we need to find Mom's Light Cannon so we can save everyone!" she replied. Anger growled, "this isn't getting us anywhere, let me do it!" he exclaimed as the others stepped away from the control panel.
Walking up to it, Anger adjusted some things, then shoved the levers on the control panel forward. This resulted in Steven becoming frustrated, and he began ramming the door of the van with his shoulder repeatedly, "wake up! We have to save the world!" he called, before climbing on top of the van. Fear began panicking, "no! no! no! this is dangerous! It's too high!" the purple emotion exclaimed. Anger rolled his eyes, "oh please, Steven's room is higher off the ground than this!" he replied in annoyance. Steven jumped up and down on the roof multiple times, before falling onto his back.
The Alarm activated then and Joy took over, "this should wake him!" she exclaimed, making Steven smile. Sure enough after a moment of muffled shuffling, Greg Universe burst out of the back of the van, "who's their!? I have a waffle iron!" he exclaimed, brandishing said cooking implement. Fear squeaked and hid behind Joy, who began pressing buttons and levers. "Dad, it's me" Steven said as his father turned to him and dropped the Waffle Iron with a clang. He blinked sleepily, then shut off the car alarm, "Steven?" he asked. Said boy climbed down from the van and walked over to his father, before giving him a hug. Joy smiled as another yellow memory rolled into place, among other yellow, red and purple memories from that day. "I almost waffled your face!" Greg exclaimed as he pulled away. "What are you doing up so late?" the man asked.
"What do you mean?" the boy responded, "the sun just went down an hour ago" he explained. Greg smiled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his head, "it was a slow day at the Carwash" he explained. "Anyway, what's up? Just needed to see your old man? Pal around and learn some lessons about life?" he asked, placing his hand on his sons shoulder. Fear then took over, "okay, I think we need to stick to the problem at hand, so I'll handle keeping Steven focused on the disaster we're facing" he said. "No! I need the Light Cannon that belonged to Mom! To blow up that eyeball" Steven explained. "Eyeball?" Greg asked, confused. "That!" the boy replied, pointing towards the beach. Greg looked, and saw said eyeball, with what looked like Amethyst flying through the air towards it while yelling.
She hit it and bounced off, falling into the ocean once more. Greg turned back to his son, "wait, is that a magical thing? The Gems told me not to get involved with magic stuff, i-it could be dangerous, or interfere with what's left of my hair" he said. "But they need mom's Cannon, you've gotta know where it is" he said, as his father picked up his Waffle iron and put it back in the van. Joy ran to the shelves and picked up lots of imagination cartridges, before hurrying back to the console and placing the first one in it's slot, "like a cave dungeon," the first cartridge depicted a rock cave with lots of traps and dangers. Fear whimpered. "Or a Cloud fortress," the second cartridge showed a huge castle made of clouds floating in the sky, "or in a clam at the bottom of the ocean!" the third imagined scene showed a giant clam underwater opening up to reveal a beautiful mermaid sitting in said clam, and holding a big pink cannon in her arms.
Greg put his waffle iron back into the van and closed the doors, before he turned back to face Steven, "well, I don't know about all that, but I have an idea where it might be" he replied, smiling slightly.
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Steven and Greg walked up to a big building. Joy hit some buttons, and Steven gasped and ran excitedly towards it, "a magical storage unit!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Heh, not exactly, but some would say there's magic inside!" Greg replied with a short laugh and a wink. He came over, "it's just a shed I use to keep things that don't fit in the van," the man explained, reaching down and unlocking the door, before pulling it up, "if it's anywhere, it'll be in here" he explained.
Steven walked inside and looked for a way past all the boxes. Suddenly one stack trembled and fell over, causing Fear to let out an "eep!" and push a button that made Steven step backwards. Joy then pressed some buttons and pulled some levers, which gave the boy a burst of optimistic determination, "if I'm going in there, I'm gonna need some gear!" picking up a torch that had rolled out of the pile and a sock that was on the floor, Steven made a makeshift diggers helmet. Disgust rolled her eyes, "uh, Joy, you do realize that you just made Steven pick a dirty sock up off the floor and he now has that sock tied to his head, right?" she asked in boredom.
Joy waved her off, "oh, stop nitpicking, he looks cool!" she exclaimed, pulling a lever, making Steven grin excitedly. Greg tied a long cord around the boys waist as a path back outside, "here I go!" the boy exclaimed, before turning and starting to climb into the unit, "good luck!" Greg said. Steven crawled under a long piece of wood, and Joy's eyes lit up, "whoa" they both said, as the boy stood up again and looked around. "Cool! It's like a dad museum!" he exclaimed excitedly. As he went deeper into the shed, Steven had to squeeze between two mattresses. Disgust shuddered, "uh, Joy, you do know how much bacteria is probably in these things, right?" she asked. Fear began flailing his arms around in a panic, "we're going to die!" he cried.
Joy sighed, "Fear, we're not going to die, and Disgust, it's not like it can be helped," Suddenly her eyes lit up when she saw something on the view screen, "their it is!" she exclaimed, making Steven excitedly run over to a cylindrical looking object and pick it up. Unfortunately the force he was using, made the boy fall on his bum. Unfortunately, it was just a bag of golf clubs. Steven turned back to look behind him, "do you golf?" he asked in surprise. His dad's voice drifted to him through the unit, "eh, I like to think of myself as someone who would Golf, eventually" he replied. The boy replaced the bag and continued looking. Suddenly Joy saw another object that was cannon-shape nearby. She pushed a button and Steven went over and pushed the stuff sitting on top of it off, "yes!" he exclaimed, however his excitement turned to disappointment soon after when he saw what it was: "a drum" he sighed.
Steven went to continue through the storage unit, but Joy stopped him and he went back over to the drum and hit it's surface once. Out the window of Headquarters, Music island lit up slightly and the drum that was their representing one of the instruments that Steven knew how to play, gave off a low beat, mimicking the sound of the drum on the outside. The boy continued digging through one of the piles, tossing each one aside when he saw that it wasn't what he wanted. Soon Steven found a box with a bunch of CD's in them. Joy pressed some buttons, "hey, there's a bunch of copies of your old CD!" Steven called. Greg groaned, "oh man, I couldn't give those things away!" he called. Joy pushed a button and Steven placed one of them in his back pocket. "You know, when I was a one man band, I traveled the whole country" Greg explained. Anger sighed, "we've heard this same story a hundred times, I'll tell him to bug off!" he exclaimed, going over to the controls.
Joy stopped him, "let's not be rude now, why don't we do it together? A little exasperated happiness?" she suggested. Anger shrugged, "okay" so the two of them worked the console. "I know Dad" Steven replied. "When I came to play a concert here in Beach City, no one turned up except-" Joy pressed a button, "an alligator!" the boy exclaimed. "No, it was your mother" Greg replied. Steven crawled across the ground, "I know!" he said with a laugh.
"We were always together after that, until she gave up her physical form to bring you into the world" Greg said. Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass caught their attention. Steven moved his knee away from a photo frame to see a picture of his dad and mom together, with Rose Quartz's eyes closed in peaceful serenity, and his father with half a hotdog sticking out of his mouth. Greg continued talking, "I don't know what a magic lady like her ever saw in a plain old dope like me". Sadness sniffled, while Fear gave a small shriek. Both emotions began pressing buttons and pulling levers. Steven gasped, "Uh, Dad, I broke a photo!" he called.
"It's okay buddy! If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs!" Greg replied. Suddenly a pink glow caught Steven's attention. Turning to the source with a gasp, Joy lit up and quickly pressed a button, "the Light Cannon!" her host exclaimed excitedly. "Dad I found it!" Steven exclaimed, quickly tying the cord securely around the cannon. "Get the van!" he called. After about a minute, The Light Cannon was pulled out of the shed- along with everything else in front of it, which was everything. Both Steven and Greg ran over to it, "this thing could save the city! We've gotta get it to the beach!" he exclaimed.
"How?" Greg asked, "it's too big for the van!" Just then an old wagon rolled back down to them.
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After Greg had tied the wagon to the back of his van, both males worked together to lift and carry the extremely heavy cannon over to said wagon. Within Stevens mind, fear was biting his fingernails, "be careful Joy! The weight of this thing could break Steven's feet if he drops it!" he exclaimed in worry. "It's just a few more inches" Joy replied, as they all focused on the screen. "Easy does it!" Greg said, before both dropped the Cannon into the wagon. Unfortunately with how heavy it was, it broke right through the bottom of the wagon and hit the concrete underneath it.
Disgust scoffed, "nice going, now we're back where we started" she said. Steven and Greg looked at each other. They began to drive down to the beach, the whole time the cannon was being dragged across the pavement with a horrible, fingers down a blackboard scrapping sound. Fear was panicking, "we're going to break it, then the city will be doomed!" he cried. Joy shook her head, "no, no, it's a magical weapon, I'm sure it would take much more than being dragged across the ground to damage it" she replied. Steven turned in his seat in the front of the van to look out the back window, "is it gonna be okay?" he asked.
Greg shrugged, "if every pork chop were perfect-" he started, "we wouldn't have hot dogs!" Steven cried. Greg looked out the front window at where the Red-eye had gotten progressively closer to the planet, "that things gettin' huge, it's freakin' me out!" he said. "Can't the van go any faster?" Steven asked. Greg floored it and the engine made a grumbling sound, "this is faster!" he cried. Steven decided to put his father's CD into the player and sang along to the words. Disgust groaned, "seriously Joy? You just had to put on Dads old CD? It's not even a good song!" she cried. Joy danced around, "well I like it!" she replied.
The song ended just as they reached the Gems. Garnet and Pearl looked over at the van, then down at the ground as Amethyst washed up, "throw me again! I think I'm cracking it!" she cried excitedly. They turned as Steven got out of the van and waved excitedly, "hey guys!" he called, as Greg removed the Light Cannon from the old wagon. Pearl gasped, "he really had it!" she said. Amethyst stood up, "we're saved!" she exclaimed. It was then that the Red-Eye began to exert a gravitational force, pulling in stuff from all over. "We have to use it now!" Garnet exclaimed, as all three of the Gems ran over. Pearl touched the Cannon, looking for a way to turn it on, "I don't know how it works, it was Roses!" she exclaimed.
Steven turned towards his father, "Dad, how do we use it?!" he asked. Greg shrugged. Pearl looked at the boy, "Steven, this is serious!" she cried, then gasped, "the gem! You have Roses gem!" she exclaimed, picking him up and rubbing the boy over the cannon. Disgust groaned, "do they really think it's going to work like that?" she asked. Fear was panicking again, "well we have to figure out how it does, otherwise we'll all be gonners!" he cried. Suddenly the van, the cannon and Steven began to get pulled towards the Red-eye, "I got this" Greg said, unhooking the cord from the van, only for the van and Greg himself to be pulled across the sand, "oh, no, maybe I don't!"
Steven looked at the cannon, "please work! Unlock, activate, go, please!" he begged, banging on it with his fist, "everyone's counting on you, you can't just be useless! I know you can help!" he cried. "It's okay Steven, we'll figure out something else, something even better!" Greg called. Fear worried his bottom lip and pressed a few buttons, "r-r-right! If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs" Steven replied. Suddenly the Light Cannon began to glow and open up like a flower. "It's working!" Pearl cried. Suddenly it fell flat on its front. The Gems gasped. Fear let out a little shriek, but Joy directed Steven over to the front of the cannon, "come on! We can't give up! We're so close!" she cried.
Using his Gem strength, Steven began to lift the barrel of the cannon. Suddenly it lifted faster. The boy looked behind himself to see all three of the Gems helping him hold up the cannon, "Steven!" Pearl exclaimed, "this is it!" Amethyst cried, "brace yourselves!" Garnet called. The cannon fired, letting out a pink blast of light that first took the shape of a rose, then turned into a woman with her arms outstretched. The blast hit the Red-eye, which cracked and exploded. Pieces of the Red-eye fell all over town, and the concerned citizens all ran out of the way. Fear gasped within Steven's mind. On the outside, Amethyst turned to the boy, "Steven! You just saved most of Beach City!" she exclaimed. "Sorry about that!" the boy called.
Mr Fryman's car alarm went off, and the man called out: "what!" Pearl turned towards the human-Gem hybrid, "how did you get it to work?" she asked. "I just said that thing that Dad always says" Steven replied. "You mean that thing about pork rinds?" Pearl asked, but Garnet placed a hand on her shoulder, "hot dogs" she corrected. Greg stared up at the sky with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes, "Rose" he said, wiping his eyes. Just then the tide came rushing back in and swamped them. Amethyst started laughing and Steven joined in. Greg's van washed in, then floated out again, "my van!" the man exclaimed, "I live in their!" Both Steven and his father waded out through the water to try and reach it, "oh, geez, wait! Wait! Wait!" Greg called.
To Be Continued