The Crystal Gems had just gotten done with another monster hunt, the first one that Steven got to take part of. (Or rather, the first one he got to watch up close under the supervision of Sapphire, as he was still having trouble controlling his Gem powers.) The location was a small, remote island somewhere in the Pacific, and the Gems had to exterminate a Rough Aventurine that was slaughtering the native life. Ruby was holding the Rough Gem's upper half over her head. "Okay! Time to break this Aventurine into bits so we can bubble it and send it to the Burning Room." And she threw it back down on the ground, summoned her gauntlet, and promptly started punching it to smaller pieces. She was almost like a jackhammer with how she went about breaking it up. She deactivated her gauntlet, and scooped up some of the pieces in both hands. Then, a bright red bubble formed around the pieces, and the red Gem tapped the top of the bubble, causing it and the Gem bits it contained to disappear.

Steven's eyes went starry. "Whooooaaaa. How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"What you just did with the bubble and the making the Gem pieces disappear."

"Oh. That's just a typical Gem ability. All Gems can do it."

"Can I try?"

"Knock yourself out."

Steven walked over to the pile of Aventurine pieces to scoop some up. He held them in his hands, trying to concentrate on forming a bubble. His belly grew warm as his gemstone glowed a bright pink, and suddenly, a small, pink bubble formed around the Gem pieces he was holding. "Hey! I did it!"

"Excellent job, Steven!" Pearl congratulated.

"Now just tap on the top of it to send it to the Burning Room," Amethyst instructed.

Steven did as he was told, and the bubble disappeared, presumably back to the Burning Room. "Whoa!"

"Now, let's head back to the Temple," Sapphire said as everyone walked back to the Warp Pad and warped home.

"Man, today was great!" Steven chirped as they arrived in the beach house. "Well, except for the part where you guys killed the Rough Aventurine. But other than that, it was a great day! I even learned a new Gem power!"

"So, you think you're gonna go tell all your friends about it?" Amethyst asked with a smile.

"Great idea, Amethyst! Hey, Ruby, can I go in the Burning Room and get my bubble?"

"I'll grab it for you. We don't want another lava hand incident, do we?"

"No, but I'll be careful this time. I promise!"

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him a bit before relenting. "Okay. But I'm going in with you."

"I can live with that." And he took Ruby's hand and walked to the Temple Door behind them. Ruby held out the gem in her left palm, which glowed along with the red stone on the door to open it. Instead of Ruby and Sapphire's room, the Burning Room appeared on the other side, with its big glass tubes and lava pit in the middle of the floor. The two of them made their way in, ad Steven looked up to see Gem bubbles of different colors and sizes suspended in the air. Most of them were pink, but many of them were also white, red, blue, and purple. He pointed to one of the pink bubbles that were closer to the ground. "Look! I think that one's mine!"

"Yep. Lemme help you up there so you can grab it." Ruby picked the half-Gem boy off of his feet and threw him into the air like a softball. Steven screamed as he flew towards the pink bubble before grabbing onto it and floating back down with it in his grasp.

"Thanks, Ruby."

"No problem, kiddo."

"I'll just be out showing this to everyone." Steven ran right out of the room and made his way to the beach house door. "Don't worry! I'll be careful not to pop it!"

It was a slow day at the Big Donut. Sadie slumped at the front counter bored while Lars was asleep with his feet up near the cash register. If there were any customers, Sadie would wake him up and tell him to do his job, but there weren't any today, so she wouldn't bother. What she wondered was why they even had to come to work in the first place if no one was coming to buy anything. Then the front doors flew open and Steven made his entrance, holding some kind of pink orb.

"Guess who just bubbled some Gem bits for the first time?!"

"Um, you?" Sadie guessed.

Lars could be heard mumbling in his sleep, "Hrmm, Steven."

"That's right!" The younger boy approached the counter. "Me and the Gems went to an exotic island where a Rough Gem was attacking the native life. So naturally, we had to stop it."

"That's nice, Steven. You want anything?"

"I'm thinking spicy pretzels with cheese sauce on the side. You know I like to dip."

"Okay. Let me grab that for you." The blonde tried to step over her sleeping coworker before losing her balance and falling on top of him. Lars did not wake up happy.

"What the hell, Sadie?! I was taking a nap!"

"Well don't sleep at the counter while I'm trying to work!"

"How about you not work at the counter while I'm trying to sleep?"

"You're not supposed to be sleeping on the job anyway! You could get fired!"

"I don't care. I'm sick of this place. I wanna go somewhere different, somewhere I won't have to deal with annoying customers and coworkers and bosses breathing down my neck all the time."

"Hey, I know!" Steven suddenly piped up. "We can go to that exotic island I was just talking about."

"The island where you and the Gems killed that Rough Gem?"

"Yeah, that one."

"I don't know, Steven."

"Don't worry! I'm sure it's perfectly safe now. We can just step on the Warp Pad in my house and I'll warp you there."

Sadie considered this. "It might be fun. And tomorrow is our day off."

"Hard pass," Lars said.

"Come on, Lars. Where's your sense of adventure? Besides, didn't you just say you wanna go somewhere different?"

"Fine. But if it sucks, I'm out."

Steven led the two teenagers (well, older teenagers) to the Temple and opened the door to his beach house. "After you, milady."

Sadie did a curtsy to humor him. "Thank you, good sir."

Lars, who thought he was too cool for such a thing, just said, "Whatever."

Steven closed the door behind him as he ran up the stairs of his loft to grab some camping gear, then quickly padded back down to the kitchen to grab some snacks. He nodded to the Warp Pad. "We use that crystal platform there to warp from place to place when we go on missions. I can warp you guys to your vacation island, and you can just relax and not worry about work."

Lars and Sadie stepped into the cyan crystal platform, Steven joining them soon after. "So, how does it work, Steven?" Sadie asked.

"You just have to think about where you wanna go, and then you're there. It's magic!"

"That sounds cool."

"Okay! Here we go!" Steven closed his eyes as he warped his friends to the island. "And here we are! Isn't it nice or what?"

"Yeah," Sadie replied as she looked around. "I can't believe you actually took us here with your thoughts."

"This is too weird," Lars said. "I wanna leave."

"Come on, Lars." Steven pulled on the older boy's arm. "Give it a chance. You might really like it."

Lars begrudgingly considered this. "Well, I guess I did say I wanted to go somewhere different. Fine. But if I die here, it's your fault."

"That's the spirit, Lars!" The three teenagers stepped off the Warp Pad and walked around the island, looking at the ocean waves that lapped at the pure white sand, the rocks were various shades of blue and purple, and the foliage was a lush shade of green, more rich than the plants back in Beach City.

"This place is beautiful!" Sadie chirped.

"It's a beach." Lars said. "We live on a beach."

"But this is a magical beach!" Steven pointed out. "There are a lot of harmless Rough Gems living here that are really cool." A small, blue, lizard-like Rough Gem with feathers sprouting from its back walked up to him. "Like this little guy."

Sadie cooed at the creature.

Lars didn't look amused. "Yeah, no. I'm totally out of here." And he just walked back to the Warp Pad.

"Lars, wait!"

"If I'm gonna be bored out of my mind and potentially die of magical weirdness, I'll go to work where I'll get paid for it." The Filipino stepped on the crystalline surface. "Now how do you work this thing?"

"You just think about where you wanna go, then the Warp Pad lights up and takes you there," Steven answered as he scratched the Rough Gem under the chin.

Lars closed his eyes and put his middle and index fingers to both temples. "Take me home." He opened his eyes to see that he was still on the island. "Take me home." He then stomped his foot. "Take me home!" He then shouted in frustration. "Steven, why isn't it doing anything?! Did you break it or something?!"

"No, I don't think so. Maybe only Gems can get the Warp Pad to work."

"Well, how about you get over here and take me back to Beach City!"

"Lars, come on. You're not even giving this island a proper chance. Let's do some more exploring, and if you don't like it, I'll take you home."

"I already don't like it."

Sadie walked up and pulled him by the arm. "Come on, you haven't even seen the whole place. It could be really cool!"

"Fine, whatever, let's go."

Steven, Lars, and Sadie walked around the island looking at all the plants and other natural structures, which were all okay in Lars' opinion. They were kind of cool, but not the coolest thing ever. Then they came across a waterfall flowing out of some giant mountains with pink and purple geode-like structures in them.

"Whoa!" Steven cried. "Check it out! A real live waterfall! That's pretty cool, huh, guys?"

"Sure is!" Sadie agreed.

"Yeah. I guess it's kinda cool," Lars murmured while looking at his phone, which wasn't getting a signal, but he didn't want to look like he cared.

"I knew you would like it!" Steven remarked.

"I just said it was kinda cool. That doesn't mean I like it."

"Of course it does! Come on! I'm sure there's even more cool stuff over here!" Steven ran off to a nearby grove, and the two Big Donut employees followed him. They stopped at a patch of watermelons growing wild on the island. "Hey! Check it out!" The half-Gem ran over and grabbed one of the melons. "There's a whole patch of watermelons over here!"

"That's weird," Sadie mused. "I wonder who grew them."

"I'm sure they won't mind if we take some for ourselves. Does anyone have something to break them open with?"

"I mean, you could just grab a rock," Lars pointed out.

"Good idea, Lars! I'll go do that." Steven went over and picked up a decently-sized rock, which he used to break his watermelon into two, which subsequently broke into four, then eight. He then picked up a piece and took a bite from it. "Mmm! This is so good!"

"What's the big deal?" Lars asked. "It's just watermelon."

Steven grabbed another piece for the older boy to take. "Try it! It's delicious!"

"Fine." Lars took a bite, and his taste buds went wild as they were hit with a sweetness Lars never tasted in a watermelon. "Wow. I mean, it's okay. It's watermelon."

Sadie took a piece and took a bite. "Oh, wow! That is delicious."

"I told you!" Steven said with a bright grin. "Who wants to have a seed spitting contest?"

"No thanks."

"That sounds like kid stuff."

"Suit yourselves." Steven spit some seeds onto the ground.

Lars took another bite of watermelon and thought of some recipes he could try with the fruit. He could try making a cake, or maybe a cocktail, or even ice cream.

"This would be pretty good in a fruit salad," Sadie said.

"Or maybe a cake," Lars said before he realized it. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"I think you did," Steven said.

"Uh, I meant that sarcastically of course." Lars ran a hand through his ginger mohawk and chuckled uneasily. "I mean, making cakes sounds lame, right?"

"Not at all," Sadie said. "I think making cakes sounds pretty cool."

"Really? Uh, yeah, I guess."

A few more hours went by on the island, and Steven, Lars, and Sadie had a lot of fun. They walked around looking for Gem creatures, some docile, some a bit more aggressive, they made flower chains and crystal necklaces, they ate more watermelon, they built a campfire and made s'mores, set up the tent Steven packed, and Steven played a song on his ukulele before they all headed to their tent to sleep.

The next morning, Steven woke up to the view of a small, humanoid figure with a body type similar to his own, as well as some bumps on their head that resembled his curls. When his eyes adjusted to the morning light, he saw that the humanoid had dark-and-light-green-striped skin and small, beady, blinking eyes that were their only facial feature. Then he noticed that there were about five more of them standing there as well.

Steven rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't just dreaming. He then reached out the touch the humanoid close to him, and felt that their skin was cold and smooth, like a watermelon rind. Then it dawned on him. "You guys are watermelons!"

Lars stifled a yawn. "Steven, what the heck? I'm sleeping here."

"Sorry, Lars. It's just that these watermelons that look like me came into our tent."

"What?" It was then Lars noticed the watermelon Stevens, and sat up screaming. "Okay, that is way too weird!"

It was now Sadie's turn to wake up and stifle a yawn. "What's going on?"

"I have children," Steven beamed. "Lots of beautiful, watermelon children!"

"What?" The blonde girl rubbed her eyes. "How did that happen?"

"I don't know. I guess it's got something to do with my Gem powers."

"Well, they are pretty cute."

"Whatever," Lars said as he got to his feet and stretched. "I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go grab some breakfast." He started to walk out of the Hut when he realized something. "Wait. Those guys are made of watermelon, right?" The lanky teen got a devious smirk. "So there shouldn't be anything stopping me from having them for breakfast." And he grabbed one by the arm with the intention to eat them. Steven was quick to put a stop to it by grabbing the watermelon Steven's other arm.

"Lars, no! Don't eat my watermelon children!"

"They're fruit, Steven. They're supposed to be eaten."

"They're still people," Sadie countered. "Kind of. We're not eating them."

"Fine. We're not eating them. Then what do we eat? I'm starving here."

"Don't worry!" Steven announced. "I've packed plenty of snacks for this trip." He dug in his cheeseburger backpack and took out some bags of chips. Lars took one of the bags and started noshing greedily.

Steven then turned his attention to the watermelon Stevens and cleared his throat. "Attention, watermelons! I am your creator and friend, Steven. Now, I'm sure you're all at least a little confused, maybe even a bit scared. But worry not, I am a benevolent father, and I will be merciful as long as you follow these simple rules; Rule number one: Do not harm anyone unless it's to protect yourselves or someone else. Rule number two: Always treat each other with kindness and compassion. And rule number three: Always wash your hands after using the bathroom." The watermelons just stood there and stared at their progenitor. "That's it. You're all free to go now." The half-Gem boy waved them away. "Go! Run, and be free!" The watermelon Stevens ran out of the tent and just did whatever. Some of them wandered around the island, some of them lay on the ground, and some of them rolled around. It was then Steven noticed that there were a lot more of them than he thought, at least ninety of them, he guessed.

"Okay, I don't think this was how any of us imagined our vacation turning out, but I'm sure they won't be any trouble."

Lars and Sadie just watched the watermelon Stevens move. "Well, they don't seem to be doing anything we should be worried about," Sadie said.

"So, what do we do now?" Lars asked.

"I guess we could just do all the stuff we did yesterday," Steven suggested. "You know, make jewelry, play music around the campfire, tell stories, but this time our new watermelon friends can join us!"

So they all went about doing their activities for the rest of the day, with the watermelon Stevens joining in; they went fishing with makeshift fishing rods, made more necklaces and flower crowns (which Steven thought the watermelons looked adorable dressed in), and swam around a bit in the shallow water around the island. Lars and Sadie hadn't packed swimsuits, but Steven convinced them it was okay since they could change when they got home. Steven taught his creations how to play some water games like Marco Polo.

"So you close your eyes, and then you chase each other around while the player who has their eyes closed says 'Marco,' and the one who doesn't have their eyes closed says 'Polo.'" Steven just then remembered that they didn't have mouths. "Or maybe not. But that's okay. There are other games you can play in the water. Like Chicken. That's where you get on each other's shoulders and try to knock your opponent in the water." He then called to Lars, who was floating on his back. "Hey, Lars! Wanna come play Chicken with us?"

"No, I don't."

Steven paddled over and pulled on the older boy's arm. "Come on. It'll be fun!"

"Get off me!" Lars yanked his arm back, and Steven gave a startled shout as he fell over in the water. The younger boy soon stood back up and coughed into his fist.

The watermelons stopped what they were doing and approached Lars, grabbing his limbs and holding him under the water while he flailed around in desperation.

"Wait, stop! What are you doing?! You're not supposed to hurt anyone unless... it's to protect yourselves or someone else." It was then Steven realized that his watermelon clones might be hurting Lars to try and protect Steven. "Guys, I'm fine! Lars didn't hurt me! I just fell in the water! Stop attacking him!" He and Sadie pulled some of the watermelons off their friend, but more of them just swarmed around them.

"There's too many of them!" Sadie cried.

Lars popped his head from the crowd to gasp for breath. "I never thought I'd die by being drowned by watermelons!"

"I said stop!" Steven wailed. "Why aren't you listening to me?!"

"We need to start fighting back!" Sadie said. And she grabbed one melon by the arm to whack another. The rest of the watermelons started swarming her instead as she ran onto dry land.

"Sadie!"

"Steven, this is all your fault!" Lars barked. "If you hadn't taken us to this dumb island in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Of course, Steven hadn't known that the island grew watermelons, nor had he known that he would grow watermelon clones using his spit, but he wasn't in the mood to argue. "You're right, Lars. I'm sorry. Now come on! We have to help Sadie!" Steven grabbed Lars' hand and ran after the watermelon horde.

The next thing they saw was Sadie trying to fight the watermelons off with a large, pointed stick. She managed to slice a couple of them in half. But that didn't deter them from fighting back with everything they had.

"Sadie!"

"Guys!"

"Don't worry! We're here to help!" Steven lifted his shirt. "Now if I could just summon my shield."

"No time!" Lars picked up a rock and ran over to the crowd. "Just grab whatever you can get your hands on!"

"I really didn't want it to have to come to this, but you've left me no choice!" And Steven ran into the watermelon horde and shoved one watermelon onto another, prompting them to start fighting each other. Two watermelon Stevens tried to pull them apart, but then they turned to fight them instead. Then more watermelons started fighting one another until they quickly realized how pointless it was and stopped, standing around and looking amongst themselves. Some of them patted each other's shoulders and hugged each other in apology.

"Now do you see what senseless violence brings?" Steven asked, prompting them all to look at him. "Look at all of this carnage!" He gestured to the dismembered watermelons lying on the sand. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves! You've just broken two of three rules I've laid out for you, and some of you ended up getting badly hurt! What if that were one of my friends, or even me? Then what would you do? Are you proud of what you've done?" The watermelons all looked down at the sand in guilt. "My friends and I will be leaving now, and I want you to stay on this island and think about what you've done today!"

After packing up everything he brought to the island, Steven and his human friends stepped on the Warp Pad to go home. "This vacation was pretty exhausting, huh?"

"Tell me about it," Sadie said.

"Still," Steven said. "I'm gonna miss my watermelon sons. We should come back and visit them sometime."

"Not in a million years," Lars said.

Steven gave a chuckle as he warped them back to his beach house.