Episode 4: Together Breakfast
The sun was creeping over the horizon. After being sick the past few days, Peter was delighted to find that his sinuses were clear and his fever was gone when he woke with the sun.
Peter found he was alone that morning. There were no Gems to come and greet him or check on his well being. So, he decided to plan a little surprise.
Peter headed into the kitchen and a few minutes later, had a massive stack of waffles sitting in front of him. He stared over at the door that lead to the inside of the temple. He wanted to share his creation with the Gems. After a while, Peter got up and knocked on the door himself.
"Pearl, Topaz, Turquoise?" he called out, hoping someone would hear him. "Is anyone home?" When there was no response, Peter headed back into the kitchen.
Peter added a bag of popcorn to the waffles. When he was done, he stared at the crystalline warp pad.
"One, two, three: Warp in!" Nothing happened. Peter sighed. "I guess they're still out saving the world."
During his wait for the Gems, Peter added more to his breakfast, including a can of whipped cream and a strawberry on top.
"It's done!" said Peter proudly. No one was there but himself to say anything. He sighed, leaning up against the counter. His eyes fell on the breakfast he had made. "That thing's too good for me to eat alone. It's a... 'Together Breakfast'. I wish the Gems would hurry up and-" Peter was cut off by the sound of the warp pad activating. In warped Topaz, carrying a dark colored scroll under her arms.
"Topaz!" Peter called out before Topaz could enter the temple. He took the breakfast from off the counter and rushed over to her.
"Good morning, Peter," said Topaz. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" Peter shook his head.
"No. I'm feeling a whole lot better. But…" Peter held up the breakfast stack. "Check it out! It's not exactly healthy, but it's in a stack, so I guess you could say, it's a balanced breakfast?" Topaz gave no response to Peter's joke. "I made us all breakfast. I thought we could eat together. Like, like a family!"
"As much as I vant to, I can't stay," said Topaz. "Zhere's stuff to do to inside zhe temple." Topaz turned to the temple door, holding out her gems to the star shaped lock. The two green and dark blue gems on the bottoms lit up at her touch, opening the door.
"Business? Like what?" Peter asked.
"I have to burn zhis." Topaz unfurled the scroll to show Peter. Mystic symbols were drawn all over it, and Peter could hear whispering coming from the scroll.
"Cool!" Peter took a picture of the scroll with the phone he had in his pocket. Topaz snatcged it away before he could see the licture.
"And now I have to burn zhis, too," she said simply before heading backing into the temple. The door closed behind her.
"Topaz!" Peter put the breakfast back on the counter. He ran back to the door, trying to get it to open as Topaz had. His gem produced no glow, and his mother's gem on the lock didn't light up. "Door, open, door!" Nothing worked. Peter looked down at his gem as he walked away from the door. "You never work when I need it."
Peter had just reached the kitchen again when the front door opened. Turquoise rushed in, carrying a water gun in her hands.
"Dumb Police!" she shouted. "You're dumb!" Without looking at where she was aiming, Turquoise fired a stream of water towards Peter's creation. Peter jumped in front of the water blast to keep it from hitting the breakfast. Instead, it hit his chest and soaked his shirt.
"Oh man, I totally got you!" Turquoise laughed. "You should've seen the look on your face!" Peter walked over to the closet, digging around for a clean shirt. "Uh, shouldn't you be in bed, sick nugget?" Peter shook his head.
"No," he replied. "I'm feeling a whole lot better." Turquoise walked over to him.
"You've got something on your shirt," She said. Peter looked down at his shirt. Turquoise hit him with another blast of water and laughed. Peter pulled off the wet t-shirt in exchange for a dry one.
As he pulled the shirt over his head, Pearl emerged from the temple from Turquoise's room. She held a sword in her hands. Turquoise dropped the water gun when she saw where Pearl had come from.
"Hey, that's my door!" Turquoise exclaimed.
"Oh, Turquoise, there you are," said Pearl, taking note of Turquoises presence in the room. "Care to explain what one of my swords was doing in your room?"
"Uh, duh. Having a sword party," said Turquoise as if the answer was obvious.
"Oh please, you took it!"
"I did not!" Pearl narrowed her eyes as she stared at Turquoise. "I swear, this time I didn't touch it!"
"It's fine," Pearl sighed. "It's in the past, I forgive you." She turned back towards the temple. "Also, I cleaned up your awful, awful mess. You're welcome."
"You did what?!" Turquoise shouted. "I have a system!" She ran into the temple. The door sealed shut behind her.
"Turquoise, wait!" Peter called out, but it had been too late. The only one who had heard him had been Pearl.
"What's the matter, Peter?" she asked. "Are you feeling alright? Your illness isn't getting worse is it?" Peter shook his head.
"No. I'm fine but…" Peter trailed off as he walked over to the kitchen counter. "I wanted us all to have breakfast together. So I made together breakfast. But everyone keeps leaving." Pearl was already at the temple door.
"That's nice," she said as she opened the temple door to her room. She hadn't even been listening to Peter.
"Oh no, not you too! I can't let this become together brunch!" Peter grabbed the breakfast from off of the table as Pearl entered the temple. He ran towards the door. He held the door open long enough for him to slip inside of Pearl's room.
Needless to say, when Peter entered Pearl's room he was left speechless. He had never been inside the temple before.
Pearl's room was of crystal pools and rushing waterfalls. It was calm and peaceful. Peter found it a bit strange, since Pearl rarely ever went in deep water.
Pearl herself was up on a higher waterfall, surrounded by her swords. She replaced the missing sword she had retrieved from Turquoise's room back where it belonged.
"Hey, Pearl!" shouted Peter. Pearl lost her concentration at the sound of Peter's voice. The swords dropped into the water. Pearl whirled around.
"Peter!" she yelled, a majority of it done by surprise. "What are you doing in here? You know it's dangerous for you inside the temple!" Peter was to determined to listen to her.
"We're going to have a nice together breakfast, even if I have to get my shoes wet," he said before stepping into the pool created by Pearl's waterfalls.
"What?! Get out of there!" Peter ignored to demands of his guardian.
"I'll swim it over to you." Peter began to swim over to the center where Pearl was. As he got closer, a waterfall opened below him and began to pull him with the current.
"Peter!" Pearl shrieked. Peter fell down the twisting waterfall, moving every which way before he landed in the bottom pool. Lucky for him, both himself and his breakfast creation had been unharmed.
Peter swam up to the edge of the pool. The new room he was in was in need of cleaning. Mountains of various objects were stacked on top of one another, weaving in-between smaller pools. Peter pulled himself up on the edge of the pool. He could see kicked over a smaller stack of junk.
"Better…" she said with a satisfied smirk.
"Turquoise!" Peter shouted as he ran up to her. Turquoise turned around.
"Oh, hey, Peter. Did you come down the waterfall?" asked the teal Gem. "Pearl gets so mad that I have her junk, but it's always falling down here."
"Junk like what?"
"Junk like... you!" Turquoise picked up Peter without hesitation or a second thought and tosses him a junk pile. Turquoise sighed as Peter climbed down. "Isn't it awful? Pearl organized everything."
"Still looks messy to me," said Peter.
"Thanks. I try. Boom!" Turquoise kicked small pile over. That's when her eyes got sight of the breakfast. "What's that Peter?"
"It's a together breakfast," Peter answered simply.
"Alright, snacks!" Turquoise made a grab for the food, but missed when Peter pulled it out of her reach.
"No! It's for everyone to eat together. That's the essence of together breakfast."
"Come on, Peter! You know that none of us are going to-" Turquoise stopped midsentence when she saw Peter's hurt expression. "Wait, I didn't mean-"
Peter took off running down a corridor. Turquoise raced after him.
Peter ran. He didn't know where he was going, and frankly he didn't care. He could hear Turquoise's steps and voice from behind.
"Peter, wait!" Turquoise called, trying her best to get him to slow down or even come to a stop. "You can't outrun me, and we both know it!"
Peter didn't listen to her. The only reason he did end up coming to a stop was when he ran into a room full of floating platforms.
"Peter!" echoed Turquoise's voice. Peter began jumping across the platforms. By the time he reached the final one, Turquoise had caught up to him.
"Come back! I didn't mean it!" she began jumping towards him. Peter started running again.
"You don't get it!" Peter shouted as he ran into a room full of tubes. He tooked a jump, latching onto one of the tubes. Turquoise caught up to him once again, coming to a screeching hault.
"Hey, wait a second!" she said, her tone full of alarm. At that moment, Pearl entered from the other side of the room. She looked just as worried as Turquoise.
"Peter, there you are!" she said. Peter's mood lightened.
"Two out of three," he muttered to himself.
"Peter, be careful!" Pearl shouted. Peter snapped to attention.
"Why?" He followed Pearl's gaze to what laid about him. It was a giant heart made of crystal.
"You really shouldn't be in here, this is the Crystal Heart. It's connected to the most dangerous areas of the temple!" Pearl's voice cracked near the end of her sentence. "Hold on tight, and don't look down." Unfortunately, Peter did the exact opposite of what he had been told. He stared down the empty chasm below him. His grip loosened and he slid down the tube- or vein- and down into the abyss with Turquoise and Pearl shouting after him.
Peter shut his eyes tightly as he slid down into darkness. He didn't open his eyes until he slowed to a stop. Warmth hit his face. He looked at the new room he was in.
It was rocky, and several crystal veins were plastered to the walls. Hundreds of different colored bubbles were suspended in midair, each of them holding a gem. In the center of the room was a crater filled with lava.
Topaz stood by the lava, holding the scroll and Peter's phone. She snapped the phone in half and dropped it in. With determination, Peter slid down the vein. Topaz took out the scroll and begins to burn it within a bubble. From above, Turquoise and Pearl dropped down with a near silent tap.
"Peter, we're getting you out of here," said Pearl in a harsh whisper.
"Come on," said Turquoise in at the same volume.
"No!" said Peter, raising his voice to a yell. "I just want us to be all together!" Topaz jumped. Her bubble flickered, the smoke caught in it almost escaping. While the other Gems froze like deer in headlights, Peter remained oblivious to the obvious. "We can finally eat! I mean, we don't have any forks, but we can use our hands!"
"Peter, you can't be in here!" snapped Topaz as she tried to keep her bubble stable. "It's too dangerous for you!"
"Okay, want to meet in the kitchen?" Topaz's bubble popped.
In the next instant, the smoke monster escaped and expanded. Gems summoned their weapons. Turquoise and Pearl pushed Peter behind them.
"It's trying to escape! Force it back!" Topaz ordered. The Gems leapt into the fight, pushing the monster back and dealing damage the best they could. The smoke whizzed around the room before settling it's target as Peter. Peter ducked down. Inside of hitting the half-Gem, it hit the breakfast creation. Peter was knocked to the ground.
"Peter!" shouted the Gems.
The breakfast plate shook as Peter scrambled back towards the Gems.
The breakfast transformed into a massive monster of its ingredients. It wrapped Peter in its syrup. Pearl stabbed its arm with her spear. Peter dropped to the ground.
"It's taken refuge in organic matter!" she exclaimed. The monster turned on her and struck. Pearl became encased in a gooey mixture of whipped cream and syrup
"Now it has all zhe power of a breakfast," Topaz said, finishing Pearl's statement. "Ve have to destroy it!"
"Get me out of here!" Turquoise turned her whip towards the mass trapping Pearl, multitasking between cutting her free and fighting the monster.
"I didn't want this!" cried out Peter. "I just wanted to eat together like, like a family would!"
"Peter, you've got to get away. Now!" said Topaz. She hit the monster, but only got her arm caught in its mass. "Go!"
"But-!" The monster launched a giant waffle at both Topaz and Turquoise. It forced them back, and trapped them against the wall. Peter got to his feet.
"That's... enough! I... don't care if you... are the most important meal of the day!" Peter said as he dashed forward. He ran into the monster, using his strength to force him backwards. "I made you to bring us together... not to tear us apart!"
Peter pushed monster one final time. It fell into the lava. The monster shrieked as it burned. The Gems cut themselves free as Peter collapsed in front of the lava pool as the Gems crowded around him. He looked up.
"I'm sorry," he told them. "I guess I dream too big." The Gems exchanged looks with each other before looking back at Peter. Topaz held out her hand.
"Let's see if ve can make zhat dream a reality," she said. Peter took her hand and stood up.
"And let's get you cleaned up…" Pearl added, tugging on Peter's syrupy sleeve.
As soon as Peter was clean once more, he and the Gems recreated the breakfast he had made, twice in size.
"It looks great! It's even more together and even more breakfast!" said Peter, a whole lot lighter in tone. However, no one touched it. They were all unwilling to even touch it.
"I don't think I can eat this," Peter said at last.
"Let's order a Chinese food," Turquoise said. Both Peter and Pearl nodded in agreement.
"It did try to kill us," added Topaz.
In the next episode, Peter helps someone with their horrible job by using a magical gem shard that can bring clothing to life.
