Steven exited his part of the temple, wearing a red helmet and holding a bike. He walked down the stairs, doing his best to keep it stable using the small ramp on the side. Meanwhile, the gems walked up to the temple from the beach after inspecting some strange rumblings. "No, no, it can't just be random earthquakes, they're way too frequent..." Peridot grumbled towards Lapis, inspecting some obscure but evidently relevant data on her screen. Lapis shrugged.

"I dunno...we never did get a gem from the island, right? Maybe it came back?" Peridot shook her head. "No, it's only been a day. A gem a tenth of it's size wouldn't be back yet, let alone one that big." The ground shook violently, sending Steven and his bike careening down towards the sand below. Thankfully, he had a blanket of water cushioning his fall.

"Geez, dude, careful." Lapis said, dispersing the water back into the ocean. Steven walked back towards his bike and picked it up. "And, uh...is there a reason you're trying to ride a bike on the beach?" Steven propped his bike up with the kickstand and leaned against it, trying to look cool. "You know, just going for a leisurely ride." Lapis smirked. "On the sand?" Steven nodded, still doing his best to look cool.

Lapis shrugged. "Alright then, Fonzie, you go do that." Steven hopped on his stationary bike. "I'm so cool, I even know what you're talking about." Steven attempted to kick the kickstand up to ride, but the bike, Steven in tow, simply fell over. Lapis stifled a laugh. "You, uh, need some help?"

Steven got up and took his bike with him. "Nope, I'm fine, thanks." Finally, after much difficulty, he managed to "speed" off, away from the gems. "By the way," Lapis called from behind him. "Fonzie is from a 1970's sitcom." "I knew that!" Steven called back.

Connie sat on the beach, nose deeper in her book than the Marianas trench was in the ocean. She heard what sounded like struggling coming from in front of her, but she nevertheless wasn't particularly interested in what was going on. Surely the kid was fine, she would be able to tell if something was wrong. Eventually, the struggling stopped, and she heard something hit the sand. "Smooth ride!" Pause. "Five speeds..." If Connie could give a negative shit, she would. "...Hand brakes!..." Did he actually think he was doing something? "Electric blue finish with a tiger bell?" she heard a dinging sound, presumably form the aforementioned bell. "I bet a lot of kids would love to ride this bab-wooah!" Connie heard a crash and looked up to see both a kid and a bike lying on the beach floor. To be fair, he didn't seem to be lying about the bike, at least. It was pretty good. The kid who owned it didn't seem to care that much, though, considering the fact that he freaked out and ran away.

Steven slammed the door behind him and barricaded it with his body. He turned to the gems, all huddled around the window, leaning over a small bench. "Hi?" Steven said awkwardly. Jasper turned towards him slightly confused. "While I'm glad you seem to have found a meat child of like age with which to converse, running away at her noticing you seems to me like an inefficient tactic."

"Y-you guys were watching!?" Steven said, flustered. "Well, yeah." Lapis said. "Did you think we were all inspecting to make sure the window was still transparent?" Steven blushed. "Sooooooo~!" Lapis said, reclining onto the bench. "What's her name?"

Steven glanced around awkwardly before shrugging. Lapis scoffed. "Well, this just will. Not. do." She punctuated these words with shakes of her head. "We're gonna have to go introduce you to her properly." Steven sighed. "Okay. But first, I need to find some materials." Lapis raised an eyebrow and watched as Steven ran towards the refrigerator. "Oooooookay then."

Steven opened the freezer and took out a light-up bracelet. He placed it in his pocket and walked towards Lapis. "I'm ready."

"Hello, my name is Steven! Hello, my name is Steven! Hello, my name is Steven!" Lapis gently hit Steven on the shoulder. "You don't need to act all suave, ya goof, just talk to her like a human being." Steven sighed and walked up to Connie. "Hello." Connie looked up form her book at the space-intruder. "My name is Stevahhhhh-" this was interrupted by a sudden tremor, knocking off a chunk of hair from the large statue looming above the temple. Steven tackled Connie in an attempt to get her out of the way, and closed his eyes.

Eventually he opened his eyes, only to see him and Connie surrounded in a pink tint. He heard a muffled version of Lapis' voice freaking out from the inside. "Uhm, hi, my name is Steven." The bespectacled girl adjusted her glasses slightly. "Uh, Connie. Connie Maheswaran." Steven walked back slightly, giving Connie room to stand up.

"So, uh...is this...normal?' Connie asked, inspecting the bubble. "Uh...no. Not really. This is new." they heard a muffled slamming sound coming from not too far away. "Well..." Connie said. "Can you get rid of it?" Steven shrugged, and stopped the ground with his arms outstretched. He tried this a couple more times, to no avail. "Nope. Guess no-oAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" All of a sudden, he and Connie were soaring through the air.

Lapis stood aghast. Somehow Steven had managed to summon Rose's bubble, and she highly doubted he knew how to disperse it. "AaaaaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OH GOD, PERIDOT'S GONNA KILL ME! AND JASPER! AND MY OWN SELF LOATHING FOR LETTING THIS HAPPEN! Calm down, Lapis. Calm down. You can fix this. Somehow. Just...go get Peri! She'll know what to do!" Lapis slowly backed away from the bubble, before breaking into a full sprint towards the door. She slammed it walking in, frantically looking around for Peridot. Unfortunately for her, all she could see was Jasper, reclining so hard into the couch she was surprised it wasn't breaking.

"I don't understand what you like about these shows, Lapis." Jasper said, referring to a sitcom playing on the TV. "The jokes aren't even funny." Lapis groaned. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT STUPID SITCOMS, JASPER!" "It's no-" "WHERE'S PERIDOT!?" Jasper shrugged. "Probably in her room, working on her stupid little robot things." "BUT I CAN'T TALK TO HER IN HER ROOM!" Jasper covered her ears-or where they would be, where she not a gem. "Geez, Lapis, you don't need to shout. What's wrong?"

Lapis pulled a blind down and pointed towards the bubble. Jasper walked over to the window and stared at the bubble. Jasper chuckled and cracked her knuckles. "It's fine, I know what to do. Things like this just require a personal touch." Jasper calmly walked towards the bubble, Lapis silently freaking out behind her. Jasper saw Steven doing some weird pose, and decided that was as good a cue as any. She wound up and whacked the bubble, causing it to fly away towards the big donut. Lapis froze immediately, and Jasper followed suit. "Oooooooohhhh...that...was not as good an idea as I thought at first."

"-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The bubble made a loud thumping noise as it hit the top of the big donut, eventually landing on the concrete and stopping at a railing between the ledge and the ocean below. Steven and Connie breathed a sigh of relief, as Lars and Sadie came out of the store to inspect. "Oh boy..." Sadie said, putting her head in her hand. "Good thing this was a slow day."

Sadie whacked the bubble with a hammer, while Lars watched on, laughing at Steven's situation. "Wooo, is that your love bubble? That you made because of your loooooooooove?" Sadie groaned. "Lars, stop being a jerk and help me!" "I am helping!" Lars said adamantly. "I'm helping Steven on his da-" "OH MY GOD LARS, SHUT UP!" Lars stopped in his tracks, as Sadie seethed from the other side. "Get. Me. A. Drill." "Yes'm." Lars said, awkwardly walking into the store.

"That's Sadie and Lars." Steven explained. "Do they...like each other?" Connie said, eyebrow raised. "Uh...most of the time?" Steven said, shrugging. They heard a muffled drilling sound coming from the right side of the bubble, and turned around to see Sadie attempting to break through the bubble. The bubble, however, didn't relent, and the drill bit slowly began to bend. Sadie looked at the bent drill quizzically, before dropping it on the ground. "We need a new drill, Lars." "I-I'll go throw this away!" Lars said, scrambling over towards the broken drill. "Sorry, Steven." Sadie said. "Hopefully you'll figure something out."

Steven put his hand to his chin. "You know what? I think I have an idea."

"Beach...City...Fun land?" Connie asked. Steven nodded. "A lot of horrible accidents happen here eve

ry day. So, we just need to be part of one!" Connie looked at Steven worriedly. "This is a bad idea, Steven." Steven waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine, trust me. I know what I'm doing!" Steven rolled the bubble up to the top of some stairs leading to a rollercoaster called 'the appalachian.' "So, we just roll down onto the ramp when the cars come, and when they hit us, the bubble pops, and we're free!" Connie facepalmed. "And what happens after the bubble pops?"

Steven thought for a second, before walking to the back of the bubble. "It made more sense before I thought about it." Unfortunately, a sudden tremor knocked Steven and Connie onto the tracks, starting them rolling towards the rollercoaster. Mr. Smiley attempted to stop the train before the bubble was hit, but he was too late. So, for the second time today, Connie and Steven were launched up into the air.

"Steven.

Steven, open your eyes, we're not dead."

Steven opened his eyes, to see that they were engulfed in water. "Buuuuut that might change. We need to roll all the way to the shore. Wherever that is. So...fun." Steven stood up and pulled his jeans up slightly. "Well then, better get a-rollin'!"

Before he could out his words into actions, however, a large translucent worm with a gem in it's mouth swam overhead. "Wuh-oh..." Steven said worriedly. "What? What's wrong?" Connie said, looking towards Steven. "I think that's a gem monster. They...don't like people." Thankfully, the monster ignored the two children and went for some glowing kelp. "Oh, good! It only eats glowing stuff! And we don't glow."

This optimistic thought was interrupted by the worm violently digging through the ground, causing a massive crack in the sea floor, through which Steven and Connie fell.

After the impact, Connie slowly stood up. And started cackling. "Oh. Okay. It's fine! This is fine! We're only trapped on the bottom of the ocean! Everything. Is. Great. You know, I'm gonna die here at the bottom of the ocean, either through drowning or starvation, and it's gonna happen while I'm some random loser who sits on the beach and reads sometimes! And nobody's going to care except my parents, because they're the only ones who even know my name! ISN'T THAT GREAT!?" Her rant was interrupted by a soft, pinkish-red glow.

"You know," Steven said. "I've seen you before. At the fair, one year ago. I was on the car wash float. You dropped this-" He presented a light bracelet. "-I wanted to give it to you, but you had left by the time I was done with the parade. So, I saved it in the freezer, just in case I saw you again."

"For a year?" Connie said, laughing.

"Well, yeah..." Steven said blushing. "Look, my point is, I know your name, and I like you. So...you at least managed to make one friend before the end.

Connie sighed and took the bracelet, placing it on her arm. Suddenly, the water around the bubble started rumbling. "Do you feel thaaAAAAAA" The water around them suddenly collapsed into a pocket, and she and Steven were launched into the air. They landed next to Lapis. "Okay, good, that was actually you. Was kinda worried I'd just dug up a huge pearl or somethin'."

"Pearls don't have heat signatures, Lapis." Peridot said. "Or at least not these ones..." She grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, ya big nerd. I was making a joke." Peridot sighed. "Okay, Steven, other child, stay away from the edges of the bubble." Peridot's fingers detached, causing Connie to happily back into the center of the bubble, and Steven would have done it anyway. Peridot's fingers electrified and the edges sharpened slightly-more like a drill than a knife. They started spinning, and punctured the bubble, causing it to pop. Steven and Connie fell on their butts, and Peridot brought her fingers back to her hands. "voila! One popped bubble, two free children. I'm great." "Dooooooooooork!~" Lapis called from behind her.

The ground suddenly started rumbling. "Here comes the worm! Everyone get ready! Steven, Steven's friend, your getting ready is getting inside." "Awww, maaan." Steven groaned. Connie seemed perfectly content to follow Peridot's orders to the letter, but before she could, the worm bust through the ground, almost swallowing Connie. "AND HERE SHE IS!" Lapis yelled, whacking it with a solid glob of water. "It wants shiny things!" Peridot yelled, shooting it with balls of electricity.

Jasper punched the worm, causing it to recoil. "I hope my fists are shiny enough for it, then!" She reached into the worm's mouth and pulled out a gem, causing the worm to poof. Jasper bubbled the gem and sent it to the room with the rest of them, and walked up to Connie. "Welcome to the life of a gem, meat child. If you wish to be friends with Steven, get used to it."

Connie turned to Steven. "Steven?" Steven turned back towards her. "Yeah?"

"I...I don't think I like your moms."