At this point, the case seemed pretty one sided. There was little chance of recuperating from the illegal activity and lies the Diamonds had performed.

However, the defense was not done with their trickery quite yet. It was their time to call a witness onto the main stage. If they were going to win, they would have to hit these rebels where it hurt.

The Zircon started: "I call my first witness...or should I say: "witnesses" to the stand! Ruby squad XTS1!"

Toaster perked up immediately, as she looked around the room in excitement! The Gem proceeded to spot her old squad of four...and a brand new Ruby (probably to take place in her absence).

Toaster began to shout! "HEY! HEEEY! MY OLD PLATOON! HEY GUYS! IT'S ME! OL-56."

None of the Rubies acknowledged their own friend. The entire group stared at their feet in shame.

Toaster tilted her head in confusion. "I don understand." She turned her head to her Keronian friend. "Gamma! Gamma! I got my birthday wish! Look! It's my old platoon! Why won't they look at me Gamma?"

"I'm...not sure Toaster..."

The Zircon began to question the group as a whole: "Ruby squad XTS1, are you familiar with Ruby OL-56?"

The group nodded silently.

"Could you point her out?"

The group pointed at Toaster unanimously.

"-and, would you care to share what you know about Ruby OL-56?"

The squad suddenly began to mumble horrific things:

"She...she was a BAD Gem."

"Yeh. No one liked OL-56."

"She was the worst Gem evers!"

Toaster stared at the group in shock. She began to wail with tears in her eyes. "Wha?! Wha?! Th-that's not true! We-we were friends! We're still friends!"

The group continued:

"She was annoying. Always putting dirt in her pocket space!"

"Y-Yah!"

"N-no good!"

It was about this point when Toaster noted something...odd. Her old platoon began to cry. She knew her friends better than anyone! OM-58 was biting her bottom lip- a bad habit that she would practice when lying or nervous.

OP-60 was twirling her thumbs- another bad habit.

Toaster couldn't handle it. The little Gem stood up and imediately began to interrupt the trial: "HEY! HEY! Council Lady! Something's wrong!"

The Zircon turned to the out of place Toaster, most annoyed. "Do you quite mind?! Interrupting the defence! Really!"

"But...but...something's wrong! OP-60 is twirling her thumbs, and OM-58 is biting her lip! They only do that if they are lying or nervous!"

Curious, The councilwoman asked several of her guards to check the squad and the surrounding area, to see if Toaster's brief outburst had any leverage. Sure enough, each Gem in the group had a nearly invisible, electric shock anklet on their leg! The dinosaur-like aliens proceeded to cut the anklets off of the Rubies...resulting in the group tumbling and jumping away from the floating platform as quickly as possible!

The raptors gave the Zircon a nasty look. "I-I had no clue they were cuffed like that! Honest!"

It was at this point that the reptiles noted a similar cuff around the Zircon's leg. They cut this cuff off as well, before the Zircon followed suite, and bounded away to the nearest Diamond-free platform in a hurry!

Aparently, both the defense's main witnesses (as well as their lawyer) were being held hostage!

The crowd gasped in shock! Even the orange Keronian lawyer seemed surprised!

"Ugggh..." Blue Diamond covered her head with her hands in embarrassment. Deep down, she KNEW it was a bad idea to have her sister assist with the defense team. The Gems now had NO witnesses and NO lawyer. Blue Diamond looked down at her Pearl, and had an idea...

Blue Pearl was shaking with fear, violently, as she stood at the lawyer's post. This job was WAY beyond her knowledge. Even so, Blue Diamond encouraged her Pearl to: "Try her best!"

"Erm...uh...erg...the-the Ruby? The...other Ruby?" The Pearl mumbled.

Toaster pointed at herself with curiosity.

"Y-yes...yes...you..." the servant nodded.

Toaster went to the hot seat, feeling slightly bad for the Pearl.

"H-hello. Uh...why did you...threaten Yellow Diamond? With her own Pearl's distruction and...such?"

"Well, I overheard that my Diamond was not only going to shatter me when she got back to Homeworld, but was also looking FORWARD to it!"

"Oh! That's...that's not good...erm...uh...so you were very scared?"

"YEH! It was scary!" Toaster nodded.

"I see..." Blue Pearl looked at her master for assistance. The Diamond signaled for the Pearl to continue. Perhaps random bantering could reveal something substantial.

"So...Keronians! Yes! Are...they not slimy and awful?"

Toaster shook her head. "Noes...Gamma and his family are really nice! Gamma protects me, and cares about me, and makes sure that I am always calm and happy! He is a wonderful ma!"

"Ma?" The Pearl was confused by the word.

"Yeh! My mother!"

"Moth-or?"

"Yeh! Yeh! Gamma's my mother now!" Toaster's eyes sparkled like Christmas lights! The Blue Pearl persperated heavily...

There was a unified "DAAAAWWWW!" among the entire alien crowd. Toaster looked around in confused enthusiasm!

"Ugh. This is going nowhere." Blue Diamond put her hand on her head in stress. "Councilwoman?!"

"Yes?"

"If it pleases the court- I would like to take a recess until us- the defense, can procure a new lawyer?"

The leader thought about this for several seconds. "I'm going to allow this. We will meet back here tomorrow morning!" The woman banged her gavel. "Court adjourned."

There was an imediate bustle of all the alien leaders walking back toward their rooms. In addition, Garnet was quick to get Connie back to the room as fast as possible.

Several hours past.

Connie was laying in the room, on her bed- deep in thought about how the day had gone. She was attempting to sketch some of the aliens she had seen in her sketchbook.

She was somewhat frustrated that the lobby was considered too dangerous to explore...

"Knock! Knock!" Pearl chirped with happiness as she entered the room.

"Oh...hi Pearl." Connie responded in a sad drone.

"Now, what's with THAT attitude?! You haven't even seen the surprise I bought for you from the...GIFT STORE!" Pearl nearly sang the word "gift store" as she held up a colorful bag.

The human lifted her head in mild curiosity.

"Now, Zed specifically informed me NOT to bring souvenirs back to Earth...but...but...I JUST COULDN'T HELP MYSELF! Look what I found!"

The Pearl lifted an odd-looking book device from her bag. It had a MASSIVE "Don't Panic!" printed on its front side. Connie was unsure what the thing was, but was happy her friend could get so excited over such little things...

Pearl's enthusiasm wained as she saw Connie's confused expression. She attempted to explain the novel's significance: "It's the THIRD edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!" It just got released recently! I only have the FIRST edition!"

"Woopee?" Connie seemed...unenthusiastic.

"Perhaps I should show you! Look! It serves as an alien encyclopedia!" She opened up the book, and showed off a screen placed on the inside.

"A-him! Book, show me the entry for: "Gems"!"

The novel made some odd sounds, before coming to the "Gem" entry. The book began to speak:

"Gems are an invasive species of alien. They are a wonderful example of what would happen if your grandmother's jewelry box suddenly became sentient, and attempted to attack your face. While most of these creatures are hostile, the exception is a handful- the Crystal Gems specifically- that recide on Earth. This small group is incredibly friendly and intelligent. They also have a Pearl who can brew one of the best cups of tea I've ever had. (See: "The Best Tea in the Universe" for further details!)

...

Connie waited for the entry to continue, but it stopped...quite abruptly. "That's it? That's all it says about Gems? What about the Diamonds, and Homeworld, and all that other stuff?"

"Oh, you can always ask the book specifics about other things if you wish...but DID YOU NOTICE?! The author liked my tea!" The Pearl had stars in her eyes! "He only visited us ONCE! He must have REALLY enjoyed the fact that my tea was homemade!" The Gem looked into the distance with admiration!

Connie couldn't help but smile. "Good for you Pearl!" The student praised her teacher. As the Gem sat down, and began to ask the book about updates on alien history.

Meanwhile, Acapella, Toaster, and Gamma were dealing with problems of their own. The trio had entered their room, only to find an odd infestation.

There were three obvious bumps hiding under all three of the bed's sheets. There was also a mysterious overturned box in the middle of the floor that had appeared during the trio's absence. The last intruder didn't even try to hide. There was a Ruby curled up in the closet: her hands over her hair and her eyes closed. The small Gem figured if she couldn't see anyone, no one could see her either.

"WHAT THE?!" Accapella glanced around the room unamused. "What is this?!"

"What do you mean?" The box on the floor inquired.

"No one's here!" Stated one of the lumps in the bed.

"Oh for STARS sake!" Accapella went around the room and exposed each Ruby one by one.

Soon the entire platoon was standing in the middle of the hotel room looking quite sheepish. Aparently, the entire group was able to sneak into the room by all pretending to be Toaster forgetting her room key repeatedly.

"What are you doing here?" Acapella was not amused.

"We don't wanna go back to Yellow Diamond!"

"Yeh!"

"She's really scary...and mean!"

The group nodded in agreement. Toaster seemed...conflicted at this recent development. Normally, she would be overjoyed at the sight of her old platoon, but...they had said SUCH mean things in court...

"Are you alright OL-56? You seem so quiet..."

"Yeh!"

"What's wrong OL-56?"

"My name is Toaster now...and you guys said a lot of mean stuff about me today. It hurt my feels..."

The squad answered:

"We HAD to! They were going to shatter us!"

"Yeh!"

"Those anklets we were forced to wear would've shocked our form if we told the truth!"

Toaster thought about this for a bit, before nodding in agreement. "Ah! I see! I forgive you then!"

The squad embraced happily for the first time in a very long while! Toaster giggled slightly! "I was so worried about you guys!"

"We were all really sad...Yellow Diamond said she had shattered you!"

"Naw! Toaster's ok!"

"Toe-sir?"

"It's a nickname!"

"I want a nickname!"

"Me too!"

As the group bantered, Acapella and Gamma stood, slightly perplexed. They had absolutely no clue what to do with this massive herd of Rubies.

"Stars...I can barely handle ONE Toaster...I don't even want to know how we are going to manage SIX of these idiots..." Acapella groaned.

Gamma sighed, completely stressed out. "Well, we can't send them back to Yellow Diamond...that would be suicide!"

Ruby OP-60 suddenly piped up: "We heard what you said about the Keronian being your ma! I...don't quite know what a "ma" is, but I want to be cared for, and kept safe too!"

"Me too!"

"Perhaps the Keronian can be ALL our ma!" In a sudden amount of excitement, the entire platoon looked in Gamma's general direction. The frog gulped in nervousness, before all the Rubies shouted: "MA!" at the same time, and began to smother the frog with affection!

"AGGGPHH!" Gamma struggled to keep his head above the crowd, as the massive herd of Rubies attempted to hug him. The frog was suddenly plastered in the most uncomfortable of situations, as he experienced bones snapping, dehydration, and third degree burns from every angle!

"ACAPELLA! HELP!" Gamma shouted desperately! The tall Yellow Pearl managed to rummage through the massive crowd before picking Gamma up by the scruff. She held the poor Keronian high above the bouncing Rubies, before quickly tossing him in the bathroom. The Pearl shouted from the other side of the door: "Lock the bathroom door, and draw yourself a bath to heal Gamma! I'm going to call Garnet to see what we should do from here!"

There was a distinct "click!" of the door being locked, and the sound of the bathtub being filled.

Acapella ran to the room's phone quickly...

"Incoming call!"

A pleasant voice interrupted Pearl's reading. Garnet stood up: "I'll get it. It's for me anyway..."

Garnet answered the holo-phone to the most amusing of panoramas. Acapella seemed to be in the middle of a crisis, as she looked at the screen with desperation! In the background were a massive crowd of Rubies curiously examining new objects, breaking things, and placing char marks everywhere!

"Garnet! H-HELP!" The Yellow Pearl shouted desperately!

The fusion chuckled in amusement. "Just do the same thing we did with Gamma when he snuck into Homeworld!"

"HOW?!"

"Put that voice and massive spatula you have to good use!" Garnet hung up.

Acapella looked around the room in a panic.

"LAAAAAAAAA!"

In an instant, all the Rubies fell asleep. Yellow Pearl summoned her spatula and separated Toaster from the rest of the crowd. She really did not want to hurt any of Toaster's friends...but managed to dissipate all the platoon's forms as painless as possible using the pressure of the spatula. Acapella quickly bubbled the massive group of Gems, and stored them into her pocket space.

"Mercy..." Acapella layed down in one of the charred beds...completely exhausted.