It was late in the afternoon by the time Steven, Connie, and Amethyst got out of Funland. The park was open for several more hours at least, but there was a birthday party to attend.
Steven loved his birthday weekend; junk food and rides the first part of the day. Barbecue and family and friends with a bonfire on the beach, the last part of the day. It was, in Steven's honest opinion, the perfect day.
The group made the trek back towards the beach house, happily joking and tossing a miniature football around that Connie had won at one of the game booths. Connie was so cool, he'd first met her at the local elementary school this past year.
Her mom, Dr. Priyanka Mashewaran, had just started working at the local hospital. Before moving here, though, it sounded like Connie moved around a lot for her dad's job, she didn't have any friends. Steven was more than happy to be her first best friend. The two were like peanut butter and jelly after that day.
They were going to hit It's A Wash and hitch a ride back with Steven's dad in his van. The boy was excited, he hadn't seen his dad all day. He tossed the small football in the air, caught it, and turned.
"Hey, Amethyst! Go long!" He threw the ball towards his guardian; despite her stocky build, she was super agile, like a cat. She would have caught the ball too, except for the mailbox that got in the way. The ball smashed into the metal box with a loud clang.
"Duuuuuude... That's not good." Amethyst said with a nervous grin, it was noticeably bent on its flimsy steel post. She looked around quickly as Steven and Connie walked up.
"Can you fix it, Amethyst?" Steven asked, while the short woman appraised the damaged property. She bent it back into a relatively straight position.
"No prob Steve-O, good as new!" The group started walking away when the mailbox fell over completely, making an obnoxiously loud banging noise on the cement sidewalk.
"Everybody run!" Amethyst yelled. The trio ran, giggling all the way to the car wash, where Greg was out front putting up the water hoses for the day.
"Schtu-Ball, happy birthday! What are you up to, you rascal?!" Steven barreled into his dad's beefy arms as Greg swung him around in a bear hug. He set him back down and gave his son a whiskery kiss on the forehead.
"Awww, daaaaaad!" The boy wiped off his forehead, and Connie laughed at the exaggerated motion.
"So, what were you guys up too?" The older man said he flipped over a plastic bucket inviting Connie to have a seat as Steven and Amethyst sat in the back of Greg's van.
"Vandalism!" Steven said with a toothy grin.
"Wha-what?" Greg's voice raised a few octaves as he looked over at Amethyst.
"Naw, music man, it was an accident. We may have knocked over a mailbox with a mini football." She said, swinging her legs over the back bumper.
"Oh, you mean the one about a block away? That thing falls over at least once a week, the house is for sale, so nobody is living there. Whoever buys it is going to have to replace that thing." The older man shook his head, waist-length hair swaying with the motion.
"SO," Greg looked directly at Steven. "We got only the finest of hot dogs for the barbecue tonight, and all the fixings for s'mores." He walked over to his Steven and ruffled his hair. "Any headaches?"
"I've got a little one, it's not bad. I took my pills this morning." The old rocker nodded and beamed at Steven.
"Let's see this mailbox destroying, mini football before we head to the beach, Connie!" Greg ran across the front lot of the carwash as Connie jumped up and tossed the ball.
It was caught with no effort; the older man then tossed it to Steven, who in turn threw it straight up in the air for Amethyst to catch. She then chucked it back over to Connie, who was just a hair ahead of the ball. It bounced awkwardly on the cement and ricocheted into the street.
"I'll get it!" Connie yelled with a huge smile on her face, she ran out just as a full-sized pickup truck was turning the corner.
Steven's eyes grew wide. It was strange, he felt all the muscles in his legs as he started to run. He felt the rubber on the soles of his sandals gripping the sidewalk. Both his dad and Amethyst were screaming, something... He had to get Connie out of the way.
Steven saw the shocked expression on his friend's face as he pushed her out of harm's way. Then he saw his reflection in the bumper of the truck, the smell of burning rubber as the breaks squealed. He threw up his hands in a feeble attempt to protect himself when a strange pink light erupted from somewhere. Then darkness.
… … … … … … … … …
The waiting was the hardest part. Greg sat in the waiting room corner next to a vending machine with his head leaning against the wall behind him. The smell of hand sanitizer and disinfectant filling his nostrils.
The hospital was new-ish, back in the 1980's you had to go to the next town over if any sort of major medical issue happened. But in the mid 90's, a hospital was built in the "new" part of town. Beach City locals call it New Beach City, where all the law firms, business headquarters, and such existed. (It was still pretty small.)
The elephant in the room (the thing that Greg wasn't sure how to breach), was what he and Amethyst had seen. The magenta-colored barrier that his son summoned out of nowhere, milliseconds before the truck hit and shattered the barrier. The pair hadn't spoken to the others about it yet.
His little boy was still hurt despite the last-second save. He was flung several feet backwards, his little body not moving, bleeding from the head. Thankfully Connie was just fine; she just had some scrapes and bruises.
He shook his head and looked over at Amethyst, she was pacing near the admissions counter. Garnet and Pearl sitting just a couple seats away from Greg. Pearl had her face buried in Garnets's shoulder, a tissue held in one hand.
The emergency room doors opened with a hiss, and Dr. Mashewaran stepped out. Greg stood up immediately, and Amethyst stopped her pacing. Garnet and Pearl stood up as well.
"Mr. Universe, Steven is just fine. He's got a few stitches and a concussion, but he's good. He doesn't even have any broken bones." The doctor came over and placed her hand on Greg's shoulder as all the tension drained from him.
"Oh, wow, that's... Wow." He placed both his hands on Priyanka's shoulders. "Hey, listen I'm really sorry this happened, I'm always telling Steven to look out and-"
"No, it's alright, Mr. Universe. It's a damn miracle. Both our children are safe and sound." She looked away for a moment, Connie's mom was shaken up too. She gave Greg's shoulder a squeeze before letting go.
"When can we take him home?" Pearl said, holding her hands to her chest, Garnet wrapping her arm around Pearl's shoulder.
"I'm getting the discharge papers ready now. You can go and see him in a minute. It was a close one, but everyone is going home tonight." Dr. Mashewaran said as she walked back through the doors into the triage area.
There was a long relieved pause as everyone collected themselves. Amethyst shuffled over to Greg and looked at him.
"We should probably say something... Honestly, I don't know anything about this stuff, I only know what Rose told me." The older man said softly.
Amethyst gave Greg a knowing look, "Hey, did you guys see the truck that hit Steven?"
"Amethyst! I don't even want to think about that right now! Let's just get Steven and go home." Clearly, Pearl didn't want to think about what could have happened.
"No, it's kind of important Pearl... Garnet." Greg said, looking at the two women. Garnet stepped in closer as Amethyst pulled out her phone and pulled up the pictures of the vehicle that had hit the poor boy.
The pickup truck was a wreck, it looked like it had hit something far larger and far stronger than a 12-year-old boy. Its hood was crunched all the way back to the windshield, the engine and radiator clearly visible.
Garnet took the phone from Amethyst and stared, Pearl had her hand splayed across her mouth.
"It's a miracle he survived." The tennis instructor was in awe at the damage.
"Steven, he... He put up the some kind of energy barrier. It looked a lot like the one Rose used to generate." Amethyst said, looking away sharply.
"That's impossible! He's a boy, the mutation only affects the XX chromosome!" Disbelief coloring Pearl's voice.
"Look, I know what I saw, okay! He put up Rose's shield, Greg saw it too!"
"Pearl, there's no way Steven could have come out of that the way he did otherwise. He used some sort of power to save himself. It looked a lot like Rose's powers." Greg scratched his chin and looked at the women in front of him. They were all legal guardians of Steven's. He cared for each one of them (even Pearl, despite her bitterness towards him).
"Let's just focus on getting him home for now. We'll delve a little deeper into this in the morning." Garnet finally said, looking up. A nurse was approaching with some paperwork. The conversation they were about to have would need to be in private. Greg was sure Garnet was going to tell Steven about who they really were.
… … … … … … … … …
Steven woke up to thunder and rain beating against his window. He lay in his bed for a short while, contemplating the storm. He felt sore, and his head hurt (especially above his left eyebrow, where several stitches were). It was still dark outside, the lightning occasionally flashing, revealing the beach below.
Steven finally looked at his Cookie Cat clock on his nightstand; 05:13, it was early. Pearl would come out of her room soon, she had to supervise the purchase supplies from the docks every day for her job. She would come up and give him a kiss on the forehead before she left. She's done it every day since he could remember.
Questions rolled endlessly through his head; what was that pink light that he made? Did it show up because he was in danger? Could he do it again? Did he make that light, shield, thingy himself?
A sharp peal of thunder rolled through the air, startling the young man from his thoughts. His dad mumbled something unintelligible on the couch below the loft. (He told Steven he wanted to make sure he was okay, so he was going to couch surf for the night.)
Shortly after, he heard the soft rattle of a door opening and then closing. His father mumbled something else, equally unintelligible, and Pearl gave an irritated sigh. Steven wouldn't have realized she was almost at the stairs if she hadn't reacted to the sleeping man on the couch.
He looked over as Pearl stepped up into the bedroom loft.
"Steven, it's early, baby. You should go back to sleep." She half-whispered and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Storm woke me up. Do you have to go to work today?" Steven already knew the answer, but he was nothing if not an eternal optimist.
The thin woman pursed her lips and turned on the small lamp that sat on the nightstand. The soft orange light revealing dark circles under her eyes.
"You know I do," Tenderly, she brushed the boy's unruly dark curls off of his forehead, careful not to disturb the bandage over his left eye.
"But I'll try and slip away after morning prep is done at the restaurant." A crack of thunder and a flash made the pair pause their conversation.
"I'm going to wait a little bit for the storm to calm down, though." She added, looking worriedly out the window.
Steven gave her a tired smile and scooted over a little bit. Pearl shook her head and gently smiled back, reclining next to him. She wrapped a thin arm around his little shoulder and buried her nose in his messy hair.
"Pearl? When the truck hit me, I-I made a light come out of my hands... I don't think I'd be here if that didn't happen. All I knew was that I had to save Connie, and this shield appeared." The boy knew that his best friend was just fine. He asked last night, and Dr. Mashewaran said she was doing much better than he was. (He was totally going to call her today, just to be sure.)
"What was that?" A flash of lightning cut across the sky.
The willowy woman adjusted herself, so she was on her side, leaning on her left elbow, her hand cupping Steven's cheek. Her light blue eyes piercing the boy.
"Garnet wants all of us together so we can talk about this. But I'll say this; you're special, Steven." Pearl looked out the window as another bolt of lightning arched across the early morning sky.
"Oh, it seems silly, I've said this before. You're my special little boy!" Her eyes had tears in them.
"But you're special in a whole different way now. You're mother, Rose could make barriers like that too..." She leaned over and gave Steven a soft kiss on the forehead.
"My mom could do that!? How?" He sat up rather suddenly then winced when his head throbbed.
"Shhh, we'll all talk about this later, Okay? What I want you to do today is stay in bed and rest! I promise to explain what's going on when we all get together tonight. Garnet and Amethyst will too." She pulled the blankets back over him and straightened the collar on his pajamas.
"Looks like the rain has almost stopped. Do you need anything before I leave?" Pearl stroked Steven's cheek with her thumb.
"I need you to have a good day!" The boy said with a smile.
Pearl shook her head and gave him one more kiss as she got up. She straightened her shirt (ever the perfectionist) and turned the small lamp off.
"I mean it, I want you to rest today." The tone was stern, Pearl meant business.
"Yes, ma'am."
"You're dad, and Amethyst are going to be here today if you need anything, alright?" Steven gave a slow nod and made himself comfortable.
Satisfied that the boy was settled in, Pearl carefully walked down the steps so as not to disturb the occupant on the couch.
He watched as she grabbed an umbrella and put on her windbreaker, she turned and gave him a final wave. A flash and a violent crack of thunder resounded through the house and sky. Everyone jumped, including Steven's dad. He screamed and fell off the couch.
"M'okay!" Greg said as he stood up in his boxers and t-shirt. He was still mostly asleep.
"That's great, Greg. Steven, you're father is fine if you didn't hear that. In fact, I'm sure the whole house heard that." Pearl said tartly as she opened the front door.
"Nice cherry boxers, by the way." Steven laughed, and Pearl winked at him as she walked out the door.
His father padded over to the end of the staircase, muzzy with sleep.
"S'okay Schtu-ball?"
"It's okay, dad. Go back to sleep, it's just the storm." Steven said, chuckling.
