A few days pass in good spirits for us. Steven and Connie were giddy for a good long while after the utter annihilation we basically did to Kevin. The look on his face when he was forced to watch Lapis drive off in his car, small screeching noises accompanying the car from the back being totaled. To be honest I wasn't put off by that. Wasn't really going to drive the car anytime soon so I can set it to being repaired by the droids I have online in the meantime.

Lapis liked going as well and thanked me for taking her, and I was happy she got to go out and had a good time as well. Not a whole was done for her but she liked it nonetheless, especially since it didn't end as chaotic as our excursion to Empire city.

Now with that done, things have calmed down again. Steven and Connie are happy, the gems are hanging out at the temple, and right now I am just happy with the peace, as well as the free time I have.

"Give… me… the…"

"Just hurry up and say it, Steven."

"Mm, Actually… what else you got?" One such time used for the free time has to be with me and Steven deciding to head to the boardwalk and get something to eat. Since we're half gems, of course we have to eat a lot more than most other humans to make up for our increased physiology and powers. Can't tell you how much money Steven and I have gone through in order to keep us fed. So much so that we've pretty much been labeled as 'best customers' for practically all the restaurant and food places on the boardwalk considering how much we eat.

"You two could order actual fries." Peedee proposes we do. Steven decided to do things a little differently this time around and here I am being tug along.

"Nah. Let's really try and shake things up today." Steven says, then throws his arms in the air. "I want to order 'off-menu.'" He says the last part with finger quotations.

This causes Peedee to let out a sigh. "You always order off-menu, Steven. What about you Marcus?" He asks me.

I shrug my shoulders, "Oh I'm just here for the ride."

"But I rode with you." Steven points out, then literally points to my most recent new formerly-Kevin's yellow car. The back is still a bit crumpled up but at least I was able to get the metal to fixed where it would interfere with the wheels, axle and pretty much anything that would mess with driving it, as well as making sure theirs no grinding noise. Surprisingly, no one yelled at me for driving my car on the boardwalk. I guess because the mayor does it on occasion that people don't really mind.

"Figure of speech Steven." I tell him as I pat his head as I turn to Peedee. "Basically, I'll take whatever you get him."

"Alright. Let me see what I can find. I'll be back in a sec." He sighs and goes off to look.

"I really appreciate it!" Steven calls out to the kid with a smile then turns around, staring at my car. "Sooooo… how is it?" He says with wide grin on his face.

From what he's looking at, I don't have to guess what he's talking about. I turn to the object in question as well and smile with him. "It's an alright car. Not exactly something I would have bought in the first place but hey, I'm not complaining winning the thing."

Steven nods in agreement. "Yeeaaahh, that was a fun night."

"Guys! Check this out!" Peedee suddenly calls out, shifting our attention back to the counter and the new aroma we smell. "Boom!" He places two trays down.

"You serious?" I exclaim in surprise at the surprising but not unwelcome off-menu item.

"Mozzarella sticks!" Steven names the item as he and I grab the trays. "With all the fixin's?!"

I waste no time in getting one of the sticks and dipping it into the marinara sauce and biting. "Mmmm! Oh yeah, definitely the fixin's." I say as I savor the piece of food. 'Damn, forgot the last time I had some of these. Awesome.'

"I can't believe it either!" Even Peedee is surprised at what he whipped up for us. "They were way back in the freezer for some reason. Feels good to fry something else for a change."

"Thanks, Peedee."

"Seriously, thank you." Steven and I both thank the kid as we walk away with our food. "Good call on the off-menu order Steven." I compliment him as I take another bite.

"Thanks." He replies and bites into his own, making a long strand of cheese appear between the rest of the stick and his lips.

"Steven! Marcus!" Suddenly, a loud angry voice calls out our names alongside a door slamming open. "What is this?!" None other than Kofi walks up to us in a less than happy mood.

"Um…" Both Steven and I hum in confusion with our mouths full while at the same time I am trying my hardest to think of why he's angry with us. 'I swear their hasn't been an gem attacks or anything gem related, or me related, that has done anything to his shop.'

"Bread… cheese… sauce! The basic elements of a pizza!" We look down at our food as he points out his ire. "Where did it come from?" He demands. Steven points to the fry stand while I stare at it. "Fryman… infringing on my business. I have been ready for this day!" Kofi mutters in a threatening tone. Before we can even say anything, he suddenly walks back to his store and puts up a new sign.

"Now serving… fries?" Steven reads confused in a slightly muffled tone from his mouth still full.

I swallow. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" I mutter.

"So…" A new voice appears, this one belonging to Mr. Fryman, who stares intently at Kofi when he steps out. "It begins anew. Eh, Kofi?"

"Just like old times, Fryman." Kofi replies. The two then proceed to stare intently at each other.

"Kofi!

"Fryman!"

"Res-tau-rant wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-r!" They both begin to yell each other's names before making some sort of declaration.

Steven and I watch the two confused. "… Did we stumble upon something big?" I whisper to my brother carefully.

"I don't know." He shrugs and finishes his bite he's had in his mouth. I too shrug my shoulders and continue eating.


You know, at first when I heard the declaration, I didn't think much of it at the time. Same with Steven as we simply finished our meals and went back home to chill out and enjoy the aftertaste of our new confections we ate.

Now though as ours have passed, I realized I grossly underestimated how bad things were going to be. Later in the day, Steven and I finding ourselves hungry, we step out of my car and glance around at the sheer mess we've stumbled upon. Fries, ketchup, pizza slices, bread sticks, and people are seen lying down on the ground. Normally I would find cause for concern for the people but its easy to hear that they are simply groaning from apparent stomach aches. In our focus of the ground, I barely have the time to dodge a swooping seagull as it takes a bread stick off the ground. For some reason, as Steven and I pass a shirt shop, the employee seems to be hiding in fear, then a random person passes by us, muttering something about 'too many carbs.' "This is… weird." I mutter, stepping over a pizza and mentally moaning in sadness at the waste of food.

"Yeah. I wonder what happened?" Steven asks but I don't have the answer. However, something else gets his attention." Hey, what's that?" He points forward. What's weird about what we see is the fact that theirs some sort of pizza mascot standing outside Beach Citywalk Fries, a place that's not really meant to sell pizza. Curiosity gets the better of us as we walk up to the person. Its when we get closer do we find out who it is exactly. "Peedee?"

The kid in question looks at the two of us before looking away in disgust. "Don't look at me you two." This makes us look at each other in confusion before Steven walks up and places his hand on the mascots shoulder.

"But…" Despite his attempt to comfort, Peedee freaks out and lets out a small yell.

"I said, don't look at me!" He says again loudly. We flinch at the outburst but we press on so we can get some answers.

"Peedee," I lean to his side a little so he can see me. He glances at me for a second before again averting his eyes from me. "What happened? What's going on?" I ask.

"I violated the food treaty." He tells us finally. However we are still confused by this.

"What do you mean?" Steven asks."

"Years ago… My dad and Kofi signed an agreement to not steal each other's business, but when I fried up those mozzarella sticks, I re-ignited the hot oil of war." He tells us in somber disappointed tone. This is even more obvious when he sighs and puts his hand on his eye. Steven and I can't help but feel bad about him too. Afterall, it must suck being the person who caused an old war, so to say, to be reignited.

Steven sighs. "Don't blame yourself. We were the one who wanted to shake things up." He tried to comfort the pizza mascot wearing kid.

Peedee Oh, yeah. It's your fault.

"Well geez man don't make us feel even more guilty." I mutter quietly as I rub the back of my head. Still, it does make him feel a little better so, whatever.

"Hey, you two!" Suddenly Mr. Fryman comes out and greets us enthusiastically. I'll admit, I may have jumped a little and I would have taken out my guns until I remembered that I don't carry my guns anymore. 'Maybe a tazer?' "As valued customers, I want to know your thoughts on a new menu item." Mental contemplation aside, he asks of us as he pulls out a… pizza? "Deep-fried Pizza!" He proclaims proudly and shows us an indeed a pizza slice that has been deep-fried.

Steven and I stare at the piece of food that… really doesn't look all that appealing. "A-actually, could I just get some fries?"

"Make that two." I agree with Steven. 'Anything… that isn't… that.'

"Sorry, we're all out of fries."

Okay, now that gives Steven and I pause. "What?! Even the bits?!" Well, me pause and my brother loudly exclaiming in horror that his favorite snack food is no longer being served.

"We have pizza bits now." He tries to alleviate Steven's worries by showing him a tray of pizza version bits.

"But how can you guys be out of fries?" It doesn't work. "This is the fry shop! You're Fryman! Look at your hair." Steven makes some good and valid points.

"What about my hair?" He asks and before we can answer, he turns around as Ronaldo begins to complain about the wifi or something.

"Is he serious about the hair?" I whisper to Steven.

"I'm not sure. Is it really just… coincidence?" We shrug unsure about it, but still confused, before Ronaldo comes skating out of the building with a bag of food in hand, none too pleased with his job no doubt. Steven decides it's a good idea to get going, from the look guilt I see him sport, so we walk away into Fish Stew Pizza where we Kiki is taking orders and Jenny is behind the counter.

"Jenny? What- Wha- what are you doing?" I ask really confused now. Practically all the time I've been to this place its like once in a blue moon do I see her working the counter.

"You're working the counter?" Steven asks.

"I know right?" She replies in a bored but equally annoyed tone. She always was the more laid back of the two siblings and preferred to do her own things. Working the counter at her family's restaurant was not one of them. "Things have been crazy since the war has been back on! The phones have been ringing off the hook." When she says the last part the phone does go off.

"I'll get it!" Kiki calls out and picks up the phone. "Thanks for calling Fish Stew Pizza. We do fries now."

'Fries?' I think confused and turn to Jenny.

"Anyway, I'm obligated to tell you about our special new menu item." She begins to say and takes out a pen and notepad. "French-fried pizza with French-fried crust and twice-baked French fries on the side." She sighs. "'Cause we do fries now."

'Oh… oh god. I feel like having a heart attack.' All this deep fried stuff and new French fried food is making me uneasy just by listening to the names.

Steven and I share uneasy looks. "We'd just rather have our usual—"

"Steven! Marcus!" Kofi appears from behind the counter.

"Oh. hey, Kofi."

"Hello." My greeting to him is short mostly for the fact I do not like the look on his face.

"Before you place your order, you must sign…" He gunts as he picks up a big stack of papers. "These papers… and pledge your allegiance to Fish Stew Pizza!" He proclaims proudly. Already this is giving me red flags about this new deal. "Not only that, you'll be issued a brand-new, permanent, V.I.P. pizza-eater card!"

Kofi takes out a branding iron that says VIP on it, steaming hot. "Aahh!"

"Oh hell no!" The red flags I mentioned, fully up and flowing in the wind with a siren to accompany them. I waste no time in grabbing Steven and picking him up over my shoulder before bolting out of the store.

"Hey you guys! Come back!" Fryman comes out and is running towards us. "Hey, y-you forgot your pizza bits!"

"What? Aah!" We begin to back away but Kofi comes out again with the still hot and sizzling branding iron.

"Wait! Let me reward you two for being such good customers!"

We look back and forth between the two for a second until I spot my car nearby. 'YES!' I move faster than humanely possible before throwing Steven in through the open passenger window and I slide along the hood of my car before sliding into the driver seat. A second later and my cars engine springs to life. Before we can go, just when Steven pulls up his window, Fryman and Kofi are there with creepy smiles on their faces and their items in hand.

"Steven!"

"Marcus!"

"Punch it!" I follow Stevens advice preferably and immediately put the pedal to the metal in reverse. My tires screech loudly, kicking up a large cloud of smoke, making the two store owners back away coughing before the tires gain traction and we zoom away from them backwards. As soon as we get far enough away, I flip myself around and go forward without missing a beat and breaking every speed limit from here to my house to get away from where we just were. Soon enough, we manage to make it back to my house and park just outside my home. After the impromptu escape we just made, and fast, we lay back in our seats and sigh in content that we weren't just branded.

After several seconds of silence, I turn to my brother. "Hey, you okay?"

"What have we done?" He whispers in a low tone. I just let myself fall limp in me seat in relief he's unharmed.


Okay, apparently he was taking it a bit hard than when I initially thought at first towards the whole "war" we kind of restarted by accident.

"Thank you all for coming." So here we are, me, Steven, and the kids of the competing restaurants are gather in his living room as he walks in front of them, with me sitting off to the side. "Ronaldo… Kiki… Jenny… and Peedee, I've called you all here tonight because…" He takes a dramatic turn and slams his hands on the table. "This war between your parents has to stop!" He declares loudly.

"Steven, how do you think we feel?! Do you know how many metal concerts I've missed because of this war?" Jenny complains.

"How many?" Her sister asks.

"Mm, like… one?" We give her deadpan look at the answer.

"Do you know how much blogging I haven't been able to do?!" Ronaldo has other concerns though as he slams his fists on the table in anger.

"I don't, but this is all our fault." Steven says and points to both he and I. The others look at me, making me shrug my shoulders before he continues. "If only my taste buds weren't so adventurous. I promise to find a way to work this out."

"I just asked for whatever he was having, but yeah, we gotta do something to get things back to the way they were before." I comment.

"How? There's no end in sight to all this fighting."

"Hmm. We need to stop this hate with some sort of opposite of hate." Steven begins to think on what to do before he suddenly gasps out. "Ronaldo!"

"Hmm?"

"Kiki!" He calls her name.

"Hmm?"

"You're sitting next to each other." He points out for some reason.

Both Kiki and Ronaldo look at each other confused before back to Steven. "Where are you going with this, Steven?"

"You guys should pretend to be in love! There won't be any time for fighting if your families have to plan a wedding together." He proposes.

Everyone looks at him confused, then to each other. "Why them?" Jenny asks.

"I've read stories of how families who hate each other could come together in peace if a member from each side love each other." Steven says. "Marcus showed me."

This makes them look at me. "I've read a lot of stories, and played a lot of video games." 'I've kind of needed something to keep my attention because of my… recent changes.' "Plus, Peedee is too young, and something tells me you're not in the market to find love right now." I add with a smirk towards Jenny. She turns away from looking at me, and I think she mutters something but I can't tell what.

"Well… I guess we could try? Anything to get this war over with." Even so, it sounds like Kiki is on board with the idea.

"All right! We'll fight this war with the power of love!" Much to Stevens joy.

"No way! We can't do this because I… have a girlfriend."

"Ck!" Unfortunately, Ronaldo has some objection to the plan, who's answer I have to suppress a laugh for.

"Where's she at, though?" Somehow, Jenny too doesn't believe it.

"You said what I was thinking." Peedee says, who was the only person in the group who could have confirmed if Ronaldo really did have a girlfriend, but he doesn't know.

"Okay, you don't have to pretend to get married. Just pretend to be in love long enough to get this feud over with." Steven clarifies what needs to be done.

"I… got a bad feeling about this." Ronaldo voices his displeasure of the plan, but is good with going through with it.

"Shut up, Ronaldo! Nothing bad is going to happen, and you'll get to spend time with the cutest girl in Beach City." Jenny tells him. Considering she and Kiki are twins, I think she was also complimenting herself in a way too.

Still, even though this may be a long shot to do, there is a chance that this might work.


It didn't work.

Okay, turns out Ronaldo wasn't acting when he said he had a girlfriend. What happened was, the plan was going smoothly, Ronaldo came out of nowhere, a bouquet of roses in hand as he proclaims his love for his 'darling' Kiki and she 'swooned' at the gesture. Bring in the parents and they see that their two kids have eyes for each other's. Not wanting to get in the way of love, they decided to go ahead to a truce so things wouldn't be ruined for their kids.

And then things tanked downwards hard. Ronaldo's actual girlfriend Jane comes up, sees her boyfriend professing his love to someone else and gets angry. He has to explain to her why he was doing what he was doing but she wouldn't have any of it, breaking up with him on the spot. Seeing as the love was a lie, Fryman and Kofi broke the truce and reignited the war again, much to our disappointments, but none more so than Ronaldo who was crying about losing Jane.

I'll admit, I'm not overly fond of the guy, but even he didn't deserve to his lose his girlfriend over a simple misunderstanding. I did chase after the girl when she ran crying and did what I could to convince her that it was all a ploy and Ronaldo still had feelings for her.

She was still depressed when I left, but hopefully she'll at least talk to him later.

Anyway, now we are back at Stevens house where we are trying to brainstorm some new ideas. Peedee's seated on the stairs, Kiki, Steven, and Jenny on the couch, I am leaning against the wall while Ronaldo walks around crying and texting on his phone, no doubt still bummed out about Jane.

"Ugh, what are we gonna do?!" Jenny angrily and annoyed at the failed plan.

"We need something more… foolproof without as many holes where things can go wrong." I voice my opinion. Honestly the love plan would have worked if we hadn't assumed that Ronaldo was lying about his girlfriend, as well as the fact that she just so happened to come upon us when we were putting the plan into action.

"Hmm… Peedee said the last time the war ended because your dad and his dad came together to sign a treaty. How did that happen?" Steven asks to everyone. It's not a bad idea. If whatever it was the first time that got them to sign a treaty worked, then theirs no reason we can't replicate it again to get them to stop this war.

"Well, you know where Suitcase's Sams is? It used to be a restaurant called The Everything Buffet." Kiki tells us. 'Huh, must have been before I got here because I don't remember that whatsoever.'

"Oh, yeah! They sold everything!" Jenny says as she remembers.

"But it wrecked the boardwalk's economy! Not one store could compete. But just when everyone thought all hope was lost, our dad and Mr. Fryman teamed up and ran them out of town." Kiki informs us of what happened.

"Hmm." Steven hums as she thinks on this new information.

"You got something?" I ask him.

He turns around after my question and smiles at me. "Another restaurant eh? I think I have a plan."

'Lets hope it's better than the last one we did.'


The day passes to dusk, the night just barely creeping in.

The plan everyone agreed upon has already been put into place and right now, its just a matter of waiting for the two most important people to arrive.

Even though both fathers send small glares at one another, both Kofi's family and Mr. Fryman's family await outside the beach house, a cardboard sign in front that says "Steven's." They don't wait long though as the person the new restaurant is named after opens the door.

"Welcome to the Grand opening of Steven's. Right this way." Steven greets them in a snazzy white suit and holds the door as he points his customers to their seats. Mr. Fryman goes ahead and removes his cap as a sign of respect and manners for the place.

"Hmph, nice Ambiance." Peedee comments.

"Ahem! It's all right." Mr. Fryman comments as well.

"There are not enough tables!" Kofi is not wrong in his comment as there are only two tables in the place for them.

"There are just enough tables, daddy." But that's all they need, as Kiki says.

The Frymans go ahead and take their seats at the closest table while the Pizzas take their seats at the only other table in the room.

"Hello, gentlemen. May I take your order?" The gems really will do anything for their hybrid family members because both Steven and Marcus, mostly Steven, asked them to help with the restaurant and they agreed. So Garnet is wearing a suit in the back, Pearl is taking orders in a waiter uniform, and Amethyst is wearing a chef's hat, the restaurants designated chef.

"I'm full… of sadness!" Ronaldo says and begins sobbing uncontrollably before he slams his head down on the table.

Mr. Fryman glances at his son before focusing on the menu items, since that's what he's most interested in. "I will have the Fantastic Fries." He orders.

"Order taken." Pearl says s she writes it down in her notebook. Next she walks to the Pizzas' table.

"I bet they're not as fantastic as ours." Fryman boasts to his son Peedee, since the other one is still sad and crying.

"And for you?" Pearl asks the second family.

"I will have the Pizza Bagel." Kofi orders. Pearl rights down the order and walks away. "I doubt a pizza bagel can beat pizza that isn't on a bagel. He he." Kofi boasts as well before finishing it with a laugh.

Back with the gems, Pearl hands Steven the orders. "Ah, let's see. Wonderful, two of our best dishes!" He says happily.

"Our only dishes." Pearl points out, but that's neither here nor there. They just need these two dishes.

"Amethyst, order up! Fire one fry and one pizza!" Steven calls out to her and claps his hands twice.

"Yes, chef!" The purple gem acknowledges what he said and begins turning on their kitchen appliances. Without missing a beat, both Amethyst and Steven get to work in making the dishes, vegetables being cut, different types of sauces used and applied in the proper ways. It doesn't take too long for them to finish up the others at the same time.

"Here's your order, sir." Pearl says as she places the pizza bagel dish in front of Kofi before walking off to the other table.

"Heh, pizza on a bagel, indeed." Kofi scoffs at the odd food made.

"And for you, sir." Pearl gives Mr. Fryman his dish of fries.

"Uh, can I get some ketchup?" He requests.

"Sorry, no additions or substitutions."

"Ha! This place is all talk! You can't have fries without ketchup." Mr. Fryamn blusters, already seeing how bad this place could be and proceeds to eat a fry. "!" His eyes widen as he is suddenly stricken with disbelief. "The ketchup… is inside the fries!?" He voices in utter disbelief at the way they incorporated ketchup into the dish. Seeing his reaction, Steven smirks at having been able to best Fryman so quickly. Only one other person now is needed so Steven looks over at the Pizza's table,

"There's cream cheese in this pizza bagel." And smiles even more at the surprised close-eyed look on Kofi's face. "It adds a whole other level of flavor! And with pizza on a bagel, you can eat pizza any time!" He surmises loudly.

"It's amazing!"

"It's genius!" Both fathers voice their surprises and amazement at the food items they just enjoyed. Seeing that both restaurant owners are in awe at the food of the new restaurant that put their foods to shame, both Mr. Fryman and Kofi look at each other and with a silent nod in agreement before they stand up and the two then angrily approach Steven.

"Ah, gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed your meal. Is there something I can help you with?" He asks them in a calm tone with a smile on his face.

"Steven," Mr. Fryman accentuates what he's going to say next by cracking hi knuckles, "We didn't want to have to do this, but…" Mr. Fryman begins to say menacingly as he brings his hands up.

In an instant, Steven holds up his right hand in a halting fashion. "Also I'm obligated to tell you that there will be no fighting or hostile actions taken on our restaurant grounds. Should they come to pass it will be taken care of by our security."

"Security?!" Kofi scoffs in surprise and disbelief. "What security?"

"Yeah, I don't see anything here." Fryman agrees as the both of them look left and right.

"The gentleman right behind you." Steven waves his hand forward with a smile towards them.

"Behind u- Aah!" Both fathers let out uncharacteristic yells as they look behind to see someone standing behind them who wasn't there a second ago. Even their kids are surprised by his sudden appearance.

Marcus stands there behind the two fathers, a menacing but still neutral look on his face as he stares at the two of them. To add to the aura of fear he's giving off, he's also wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, where you can barely see the tint of his red eyes behind them, a thick black leather jacket with spikes on his shoulders, thick black leather gloves, black jeans and black steel toed combat boots. He stands there with his arms against his side in a neutral stance. "Is there a problem gentleman?"

"Whoa." Jenny whispers in awe at his sudden new appearance as opposed to what he usually wears.

Both of them look at the 'security' this place has, before they both chuckle and give Marcus small smiles before letting out a couple of soft chuckles. "Alright, listen kid. We know your strong, your powerful…" Fryman begins to say as he places one hand on Marcus's shoulder.

"But theirs two of us and one of you." Kofi finishes and places his hand on Marcus's other shoulder. "And… we're adults here."

"…" Marcus doesn't answer, instead glancing down with his eyes at the arms on his person before staring at the two men in front of him.


5 seconds later…

"Oooowwww!"

"Owowowow! Okay okay!"

"We give! We weren't going to do anything!"

"We swear!"

In just a few seconds, both food vendors were on the ground, lying flat on their fronts with one arm each twisted behind them straight up, both arms held by Marcus's hands as he stands between the two with a neutral look. The Crystal Gems are not surprised, even Steven as he gives a levelheaded stare at the two of them on the ground, but the subdued individuals kids are all staring in surprise and awe at how fast things changed… except Ronaldo who only glanced for a second before returning to crying in his arms, muttering something about how they now feel his pain.

"Please! We just wanted you to shut this place down!" Kofi manages to say despite the position he's in.

"What's this? You want me to close my lovely establishment?" Steven asks in mock surprise, then waves at Marcus a little. He takes the signal with a nod and lets the two men go, who both let out sighs of relief before getting to their knees in front of Steven.

Mr. Fryman has his hands clasped in front of him. Kofi does the same. "Steven, we're begging you!"

"We can't compete with a place like this!" Kofi pitches in his opinion as well.

"You'll drive us out of business!"

"There's already a line!" Fryman points out, literally, at the door. Over to the screen door shows Onion standing on the other side, fork in hand. Marcus crosses his arms and stares at the kid with a critical eye.

"I'll close up shop under one condition." Steven tells them.

"Anything!" Both men loudly say at the same time.

"Stop this foolish war!" Steven wastes no time in telling them his condition loudly. "Cook for yourselves and the good of the boardwalk! No more cooking out of hate and spite."

Seeing the condition is a simple one for the two, both men smile at each other. "Let's just do, what we do best!" Kofi states.

"Agreed!" Mr. Fryman agrees before both men then hug each other in agreement.

"Yeah!" Peedee, Kiki and Jenny all let out the same word of joy at the plan having come together and got their parents to work together.

"Good job, daddy." Jenny tells her dad.

"Do you hear that, Ronaldo? The war's over!" Mr. Fryman calls out to his son as the rest of the kids embrace their fathers. Ronaldo, still crying, gives a thumbs up in response.

"Finally." Marcus groans as he spits out the toothpick into the trashcan and take the sunglasses off before taking off the red colored contact lenses as well. "Seriously Steven, I thought I was intimidating before. Can't believe you wanted more." He grumbles the last part to himself as he rubs his eyes. 'When Steven decided that I needed to be a bit more… rough in appearances in order to sell my security guard/bodyguard/bouncer job or whatever he wanted me to do exactly. Make sure everything was okay bottom line basically. Honestly I thought the appearance alone would have dissuaded them from lowering their guard on me, but I guess not.'

"Glad that's settled." Steven says with a smile at a job well done. Now things can go back to normal for everyone. He turns to the other Gems in the kitchen. "Y'all help me clean this place up."

"Sorry. We on break." Amethyst states bluntly, which prompts her and the full gems to walk away.

"… Marcus?"

"Sorry." Marcus answers as Steven sees him standing on the warp pad. "Have to feed Ace." And just like that, he's whisked away to his home. He gets off the pad and walks into his house and begins turning on the lights when he closes the door. Dropping off his jacket on the nearby coat hanger, he walks over to the living room and sits on the couch next to Ace, in which the German Shepard is lying down in contented happiness, having finished off eating his food that Marcus had left before they started the fake restaurant thing. He only glances up when Marcus enters but is still laying down. As soon as Marcus sits down, he glances at Ace before looking at an end table on the side of the couch. He reaches over, grabs the bag of dog treats before fishing one out and placing it in front of Aces muzzle. "There. Fed." He grins before grabbing the TV remote and turning on the TV.

Ace meanwhile, sniffs the treat a few times. He then slowly inches himself forward, not bothering to get up all the way, and sticks his tongue out at the treat. He laps the food item a few times before he finally gets a hold of it and pulling it into his jaws. Once he finishes it up, he lays back down and watches the TV with his master.


Okay, shorter than normal, but then again not much I could have done to stretch it out, nor did I want to. Anyway, the special thing I had planned that was taking up all my time on this story rather than me working on my other stories is coming up soon and I want to get to it sooner rather than later. So chances are people I'm probably going to skip the next episode of 'Kiki's Pizza Delivery service' and get down to 'Alone at Sea', since I already moved 'Monster Reunion' up in the order table. I don't see a lot happening in that episode that would give Marcus a chance to properly put himself in besides maybe the dream states. So what I'm probably going to do is simply include a slightly lengthy flashback scene of Marcus helping Steven and Kiki defeat her nightmares once and for all.

And being that it's a dreamscape place where anything could pretty much happen, and being that Marcus is a gamer and anime watcher, he may make some weapons out of thin air when helping the two of them, and some of them may seem familiar. It's in a dream people, give me the chance to go a little crazy when not in the normal plane of existence.

Anyway, here the reviews:

Andohmygodcholesterol: No problem! Hope you like the rest as they get published.

JustinTheSpider: I'll take your word for it. I'm not much of a car enthusiast, hell even my mother knows more about cars than me, so when you say things like that, I'm sorry but I don't know the exact finer points when it comes to cars. Still, I will look up and refer to others when it comes to something I don't know a ton about, whether it's cars, vehicles, more advanced pointers of firearms and weapons, different anime and so on.

J4im3kill: Don't worry my friend. I have no intention of stop working on this story anytime soon, maybe take a break from it every now and then to work on my other stuff, but overall I'm going to keep working on it for as long as I can. Thank you for your words and I hope the rest of the chapters I make in the future are to yours and everyone elses continued satisfaction.

We're getting to a big point in the story here people. Something I've had on my mind for a long time now, constantly writing, thinking and wondering when or if I'll ever get to this point in the story.

And now, thanks to all of you who are currently reading this right now… thank you. Thank you all of you for being here, for favoring, for following, for reviewing, and for reading. I can't express my gratitude for your continued support all of you, so instead of just saying it, I'll just write it.

Soon… will be the turning point everyone. Hope you all will have fun reading it as I am to be finally putting these into my story. Until next time everyone, have fun reading, and have a great day.