Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.
Author's Note: With Connie and Lapis already introduced to one another, Lapis's feelings for Steven are in a Grey area. Still, the Party has to continue on. But arriving to Beach City are Men in Black. Their purpose for this visit, locate and recover The parts of the gem Star ship that crash landed on the beach.
Tags: Steven Universe, Connie Maheswaran, OC's, Lapis Lazuli, Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Beach City, Gem Powers, Romance, Adventure, Comfort, Destiny.
Music Inspiration for Chapter: "Rhythm of The Rain" By: The Cascades
Chapter 11: Recovery
Thursday
7 May, 2016, 12:20 [Noon]
Beach City, Crystal Temple Beach
Steven was lying down on his own lounge chair next to Greg. He had on a pair of sunglasses aviators to cut down on the level of brightness the surrounding sand, was reflecting off of it. Steven tried to smile and enjoy himself. But that cold feeling he felt from Lapis earlier, he was feeling it right now. Lapis appeared to be relaxing back on her lounge chair. But her aura had extended itself over to Steven, Greg didn't appear to feel anything; but Steven felt it as the winds themselves.
Greg raised his shades and rested them on the top of his forehead, he turned his face and looked over to Steven who kept his hands behind his head. He saw that his son was trying to relax, relaxing and having fun came naturally to Steven. But this was different.
"You alright there kiddo?" Greg asked Steven.
"What? Yeah I'm alright dad."
"You sure, cause it looks like you've got something on your mind. Wanna talk about it?"
"Maybe later. Excuse me, I need to talk to Lapis."
"Sure thing Steven." Greg responded.
Steven shifted to the side of his Lounge chair and stood up. He walked around his father and stopped along the side of Lapis's lounge chair. Steven then lifted up his aviators and looked at her. Lapis kept her eyes closed, she knew Steven was standing next to her. She pretended not to notice him, turning her face off to the side. But it was she who was finding it difficult to concentrate on trying to ignore Steven.
"Lapis...I'm Sorry. I'm sorry you had to see that." Steven told her, Sincerity behind his voice.
"What do you have to be sorry about, she's your girlfriend. It's only natural you would want to express how much you love her, to her. And some people sacrifice their own freedom, so others can keep theirs."
Steven's brows furrowed, a saddened and guilty look came over his face. That was a jab that hurt, there was not denying it. Still, Steven extended his hand to Lapis. Lapis opened her eyes and turned her attention to Steven. She looked at his hand, then at his face. Steven looked truly repentant, Lapis couldn't turn his hand or him away. She took his hand and stood up from her lounge chair. She followed Steven to where he wanted to take her.
Over on to the other side, Connie sat down cross-legged and listened to Pearl who was telling her about her responsibility to helping Steven and the crystal gems in their fight against corrupted gems and home-world gems. She showed Connie how she pulled out her weapon from her gem, showed her how she fired blasts from her spear and her fighting style. But when Connie showed Pearl how she manifested Smoky's weapon, it was a new take on the abilities capable of half human-gems. Connie pushed her hands inside of the sand, her hands in addition to her arms were encased in stone armor. She then pulled out the Zweihander and rested the diamond blade on her pauldron.
Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl were more than amazed. They were downright astounded. Pearl tried to hold up Connie's weapon, but the moment she held the grip; she was pulled right down to the ground.
"My goodness! Garnet give me a hand here!" Pearl told Garnet.
Garnet went over and manifested her gauntlets. She bent down and gripped diamond blade, but pulled away from cutting herself.
"Ouch...That blade Pearl, it cut through my gauntlets."
"Are you alright?" Pearl asked, releasing her hold on the Zweihander.
"This sword is Extremely Powerful and completely Enchanted. I'm not surprised, this is the weapon of a Commander. A commander of Earth, Stone, Minerals and Metals. Connie, do you understand the immense power you have been handed over?"
"I'm taking things slowly Garnet, and I do know about Commander Smoky's power. He defended an entire planet, the red planet, all by himself when all of his comrades fell to Taffeite's army. That's power that deserves respect more than adoration."
Connie turned around and looked around for Steven, but he had vanished. He was resting back on his lounge chair the last time she remembered. She Dematerialized Smoky's Zweihander and went over to Greg to ask him if he had seen Steven.
"Hey Connie, what's going on." Greg asked Connie.
"Mr. Universe, where did Steven go. Wasn't he just here?"
"Oh, Steven went over to swim with Lapis. I saw them walking inside of the Ocean, but I don't think I saw them surface. Oh no, Steven!" Greg said loudly, alarmed and worried about his son.
Connie stepped in front of Greg with her hands wide apart. "No Mr. Universe, let me look for him." Connie's gem started to glow. She raised her hands up, the surrounding sand around her and below her feet rose up out of the ground, and covered Connie. Her arms, legs, back and her entire body was covered in clad Stone armor. Around her head, Connie wore a bulb like helmet with a circular center covered in glass.
Connie wore what was basically a vintage diving suit. A long pipe made out of stone, remained open from it's end and only grew longer and longer the moment Connie went running into the ocean. The open stone pipe acted as the air supply for Connie.
Walking further into the ocean, Connie spotted Lapis floating and laughing. Steven wasn't swimming, rather flying around her. His head was encased in an air tight pink bubble. Lapis appeared to be controlling Steven's movements, keeping her hands pointed at him and spinning around.
"Faster Lapis! C'mon faster! I want to feel like a torpedo!" Steven egged Lapis on.
The more Connie watched Steven laugh with Lapis, the more she felt something heavy develop on her chest. More like inside of it, nonetheless, she knew it was jealousy. Connie raised her right hand up, and spoke.
"Earth Method: Reach Out from Down Under" (1)
A large stone hand and arm rose up from the ocean floor under Lapis, that grabbed Steven's leg and pulled him over to Connie. Lapis was taken by surprise by this, she turned around and saw Connie inside of her Earth made diving suit. Lapis frowned at Connie and extended her arm forward at her. Forming around Connie were fists made out of water. Connie noticed these arms forming around her, and had a counter Earth Method for it.
"Earth Method: Conglomerate Stronghold!" (2) Connie clapped her hands three times, raising several walls of conglomerate stone that shielded her and Steven. The walls were continuously being reinforced with more and more stone. Lapis's water fists fired off and punched all over the walls.
Steven broke away from the earth hand Connie created, and pulled his leg free. He saw that he was surrounded by walls of stone. The loud banging he heard from outside of them, being caused by Lapis.
"Connie what's going on." Steven asked. [Bang, Bang, Bang]
"I'm saving you, that gem is crazy Steven." [Bang, Bang]
"She wasn't hurting me Connie, she was just playing with me. Now she's mad. Let me out of here Connie."
"What? No, she'll hurt you Steven. Darn, she's really strong!"
Steven swam over to Connie and hugged her. His action caused Connie to lower he defenses, Lapis saw this and fired off a few water fists from her gem. But Steven raised his Shield up and deflected all of the attacks. Lapis stopped her attack and flew over to Steven and Connie.
"You! Why did you take Steven away from me!"
"From you? He's my boyfriend! And I don't appreciate you manipulating his movements like that."
"You guys-" Steven spoke, but was cut off.
"I don't appreciate you pulling him away from me when I wasn't doing anything wrong with him. If anything, you were the one who almost hurt him when you grabbed him with an earth hand method. Steven, tell her I wasn't doing anything bad to you."
"No Steven, don't speak for her. Tell her you don't want her playing with your life so carelessly." Connie replied to Lapis.
"Carelessly? It was me who kept Jasper locked away for two whole years. She was planning on breaking away from me and killing rose (steven) and the rest of the crystal gems. I didn't mind if she took care of the others, but Steven, I...i...cared enough to give up my freedom. Would you have done the same thing!"
Steven blushed and looked over at Connie. Connie took a moment to gather her thoughts. When it seemed like Connie could not come up with a counter argument, she opened her closed eyes and spoke.
"No, I wouldn't do the same thing. I would do more! I would have kept my self trapped with jasper my entire life. I would have killed Jasper when I felt my time was coming. I made a solemn Earth oath to protect the ones I love and to combat corrupted gems, that also includes Home world gems."
Connie and Lapis stared at each other, intensely. Steven swam over and took his spot between them. He looked over to Lapis and told her calm down. He turned over to Connie and told her to surface back up with him. Connie turned around and walked back up the offshore bar up to the foreshore. Lapis was visibly angry and anooyed, but she too followed the two teens back up to the shore.
Beach City, DE
Parking their cars at the ends of streets that faced the boardwalk. The Men in Black finally arrived in town and gathered around the leader of this mission, he went only by the name of 'Samson.' samson gave the men in black their orders and told them to spread out and search for any and all traces of alien debris. Samson was a bi-racial man, he was 43 years old and stood at six feet tall. He leaned back against his car and pulled out a tablet. He turned it on and swiped his finger up and down. He was looking at a report from two years ago of when the ship crashed.
"There were days and nights when the local gem aliens, accompanied by Rose's son, looked around and picked up the debris of the crashed alien ship. The chances of finding any debris is a low possibility, but chances increase exponentially when you go around the hill and look into the home of Rose Quartz."
"The home of rose quartz, otherwise known as The Crystal Temple the chance of getting into a fight is almost certain. But, Rose quartz was a ally and cooperated with the U.S Government and all of it's agencies. That gives us rights to any and all information or items that could help our species."
Samson turned off his tablet and walked over to the beach, his team mates were already spread out. They stopped by businesses, at the homes of residents and in the local natural areas like the emerald hills and the beach. Agents stopped by The Beach Citywalk Fries, The Fish Stew Pizza, Beach City Funland, Big Donut and It's a Wash.
Big Donut, Beach City
A Man in Black entered the Big Donut and spoke to Lars and Sadie about the Gems and Steven. Lars didn't share anything about what he knew about the gems with the agent that stopped by. Sadie followed Lars's lead and said absolutely nothing to the man in black.
"What do you know about Steven Universe, have you any knowledge of Rose Quartz."
"Look pal I just said I wasn't going to answer any of your questions. Unless I see some sort of badge or papers, I'm not saying squat."
The man in black looked over to Sadie, then looked over at the employees room door.
"Do you mind if I take a look inside of the Employees room."
"Why? There's nothing in there," Sadie answered.
"That's fine, I have a master key." Said the Man in Black.
"Hey! My partner just told you that there wasn't-" The man in black walked around to the back of the counter, and pushed Lars off to the side.
Sadie caught Lars and watched the man in black pull out a black small square. He pushed a button on it and out came a two inch blank stick of silver. He pushed the blank key inside of the employees room door keyhole and turned. He pulled out a flashlight and saw something amazing, piles of Gem warship debris were stacked in the corner of the room. The man in black pulled his phone and spoke using the walkie talkie app.
"Samson, I have located some gem warship debris."
"You're not the only one, seems those gems got the whole city to hide some of the less functioning and important parts of the downed ship. I'm heading over to The Crystal temple to recover the most important parts."
Sadie, like Lars heard everything that was being shared between this man in black and his superior. She decided to say something to this stranger.
"Who are you, what are you people doing here in Beach City."
The man in Black produced a large plastic see through box from somewhere unknown, which he used to place the gem warship parts inside of it. He stopped filling the box long enough to answer Sadie's question.
"It's clear that we're not alone on this planet or in this galaxy. These gem aliens, as much as they may preach about protecting this planet, their good deeds cannot erase the damage their kind has done to our earth. When Rose Quartz died, along went the protection our planet needed."
"But Steven Universe is Rose's son, he's this planet's shield."
"So you do know a Steven Universe. We were watching what went down here two years ago, and that boy has not shown any promise. If our planet is heading towards a war with an advance extraterrestrial race, then we don't have time to spare. If Steven falls, then we as the human race have to defend our only home."
The Crystal Temple, Beach City
The man in black grabbed the plastic box and carried it outside of the Big Donut. From a bird's eye view. Men in black, in groups or solo walked out of the businesses and mayor's building with several parts of the downed Gem Warship. Samson arrived on the Beach and walked around to the Crystal temple. He was stopped by a fence that was meant to keep trespassers out. He looked through the fence and saw The crystal gems, Greg, Connie, Carlos and Steven Universe.
Garnet noticed Samson watching them and signaled to everyone to stop what they were doing. Greg looked over and saw Steven walking over to Garnet with Connie and Lapis by his sides. Pearl and Amethyst, Carlos also went over to see who this Man in Black was, and if there was something they could do for him.
"Who are you, why have you been standing there looking into the other side."
"My name is Samson. You must be Garnet." Samson replied.
Garnet was visibly surprised. Samson looked over to Pearl and Amethyst and addressed them by their names. "Pearl and Amethyst, it's a pleasure to meet all of you."
Steven walked up to Pearl, but Pearl kept him back. Carlos came up from behind Pearl and wrapped his arms around her waist. Greg kept Connie and Steven behind him, or close to him.
"How do you know Pearl's name." Carlos asked Samson.
Samson watched Carlos, a human embracing Pearl, a Gem in a tender and defensive manner. He surmised that they were in a romantic relationship, much like Rose and Greg Universe were in the past. Samson adjusted his shades, rested his hands behind his lower back and spoke.
"My name is Samson, I belong to an agency of The United States. As you may or may not know, My government has been in communications with Rose Quartz and a Half human-gem for the last forty years. Right up to the point when Rose passed away."
"You're a liar!" Pearl shouted. Carlos whispered into her ear to calm down and listen.
"It's not a lie. Are you forgetting that you're aliens, living on planet earth inhabited by human beings. We know about what happened here two years ago. We know that that blue gem standing behind Steven came on a Gem Warship also."
Samson was talking about Lapis, who kept her eyes on Samson the whole time.
"So you know what happened, big deal." Amethyst chimed in.
"That's just it Amethyst, it is a Big Deal. Your leader is no longer around to ensure the safety of this planet and it's creatures. We know the home-world gems that came here two years ago gave you all trouble. Imagine am invading force, you'll all be mowed down like blades of grass."
"You're wrong!" said a voice from behind the crystal gems. "Steven!" said both Lapis and Connie.
Steven pushed past Pearl and Amethyst. He showed himself to Samson who knelt down to look at Steven at face level. Samson removed his shades, Steven took two steps back when he saw that Samson's left eye was missing. A thick scar ran down over his closed eye lid down to his cheek.
"The son of Rose Qaurtz. Steven Universe, it's an honor to meet you. How much of your mother's gem power do you have under your control."
Steven punched his hand against his other palm, and fired up his pink aura. He erected his mother's shield which appeared on the forearm of a large ethereal pink arm that sprang out of his aura. The other ethereal arm held on to his mother's sword. Samson stood up, amazed at what he was seeing. He placed his shades back on and fixed his tie.
Steven undid his aura and the shield and sword. He placed his balled up hands on his hips. Connie went over to him and hugged him. Samson noticed the gem on the top of her left breast, his focus went over to Carlos who looking at him. Samson smirked and chuckled.
"What's so funny." Connie asked the MIB.
"You, you're a half gem like Steven. We have two human men who romanced two gems, one surprisingly managed to make a child with one. And one, well who knows if a child will come out of that union. You're progress is amazing, but a far cry from what your mother could do boy. Let me ask you gems something, where are the most important parts of the downed gem warship."
"We destroyed them." answered Pearl.
"You're lying. Garnet, we know has the ability of future vision. She knew just as the agencies in this country that your only hope of counteracting a Home-world gem attack was the construct weapons and defenses from those parts. So let me ask again, where are the most important parts of the downed gem warship. Lie to me, and I;ll have that temple carpet bombed. All I need to do is make one call."
Garnet looked surprised, she never expected Samson to know so much about them. She looked over to Amethyst, Pearl and Steven and Connie. Pearl placed her hand on top of Steven's head. Steven looked up at her and nodded his head. Pearl smiled down at Steven and lifted her head and turned to garnet.
"Wait here, we hid most of the parts in the temple. You can find the rest hidden inside of Greg's storage locker."
'Wait, you hid alien junk inside of my lock up storage? Without telling me." Greg said.
Samson contacted his people to search the U-Store after locating it on a map.
When Samson received the gem warship parts from Garnet, he told samson what was on his mind.
"If my mom were here, she wouldn't let you people get away with this."
"If you're mother was here, she would agree with what my people are doing. I hope for the sake of this planet, you're able to live up to her full power. Tell you what, that lion that she received from us, there's more to him that just using him for storing your clothes and soda cans."
Steven was spooked, how did Samson know about Lion. He knew too much, or maybe it was he who still knew to little.
Continued in Chapter 12, 'Stone Secrets.'
(!) "The Numbers I placed next to Connie's Earth Methods are to help me remember the start, finish and list of 'Methods' available to her."