Steven would never out loud admit that he was afraid, especially when he has companions that were likely just as scared as he was. Over time, he learns to swallow his own fear and puts on a brave face, his first instinct is to always protect his friends.
"This place gives me the creeps too," Billy spoke beside him, eyeing him carefully as they walked down the line of several houses that happened to suspiciously looking the same.
"I don't like this place either," Tommy adds, pouting. "I really miss Westview."
Before Steven thinks to cheer him up, the boy quickly zips ahead of them in super speed, disappearing to a blur at the edge of his vision.
"So, uh…did you guys always have powers?" He asks Billy while squinting his eyes over the horizon where Tommy just disappeared.
"Tommy got his before I did. He was too excited to get more chocolate when we were trick-or-treating," Billy tells him. "I think he's coming back."
Upon arriving, Tommy ran two laps around them before skidding to a halt beside his brother.
"Billy, our house changed location again!" He whines, swaying slightly from the sudden stop. Steven watches him place a hand on Billy's shoulder, trying to balance himself.
"What do you mean 'changed' location?" Steven raises a brow in question, alarm bells ringing in his head.
"It means our house is gone from where we left. Duh," Tommy blew his bangs in annoyance, rolling his eyes as if that was a normal occurrence.
Steven turns to Billy, hoping for an answer.
"Mom says she's working on it," Billy says quietly, nervously fiddling with his fingers. "But she tells us not to worry if we got lost because she knows how to find us."
"Wait…your Mom?" Steven repeats, blinking at them both. "Your mom is moving…your house?"
Billy just silently stares at him while Tommy shrugs, hands in his pocket.
Now he's even more confused. What does that even mean? A small part of him felt relieved that maybe it wasn't his powers that were acting up, despite not having full evidence yet. He's not entirely sure what's really happening. Did his Mom have any flashy new powers that were only now developing? He still can't tell if he was dreaming or not, and the absence of his gemstone was still concerning. He's beginning to think that he should just ask the other Diamonds of Pink's other abilities, maybe make them write a pamphlet that could guide him in the future.
For now, though, he'll try if his other powers still work.
"Okay, I'm gonna go take a quick look, you two stay here." He tells them, feet spreading apart as he crouches down, preparing to launch himself in the air. When he took a jump, he didn't soar as he'd hoped, but instead, gravity pulled him down after taking three feet off the ground.
Steven lands on his face, the chorus of laughter coming back in echoing waves.
"Were you gonna do a somersault or something?" Tommy's voice came from his side.
"No," Steven groans, raising his head to mildly glare at the boy. "I was going to float several feet in the air just to see where we are!"
"I'm sorry, Steven," Billy whispers to him remorsefully. "I think Mom is too busy to see us right now."
Steven frowns at that. He gets up, patting dirt off his clothes, and sternly looks at Billy.
"What kind of powers does your Mom have? Is she why I'm here?"
"I can't…I don't know." Billy looks down on his feet in shame. Steven feels a bit bad for prying, but he has to know if their Mom could somehow be responsible for all of this and where exactly he fit in the puzzle.
"You mentioned that your Dad was a gem earlier, right?"
"No, I said that he was a robot. He just has one on his forehead." Tommy corrects him, arms folding in front of his chest.
"Well, gems 'technically' are robots! They're programmed to do stuff and things like that. Maybe…maybe your Dad just didn't explain it properly." Steven spreads his hands in further emphasis. "Do any of you know Pink Diamond?"
The twins shook their heads.
"Or maybe Rose Quartz! It could either be from the two. Maybe your Dad has been wronged by them and somehow your Mom is taking revenge for what she did?" He puts a hand under his chin, eyes looking up as he contemplates a bit. "I mean, who knows how many more people Mom has wronged, right?" He chuckles nervously, his hand gripping his hair.
Tommy gives his brother a quizzical look before leaning closely to whisper in his ear.
"His thoughts are all jumbled. He's stressed out, Tommy."
"Okay, I'm sorry for freaking you guys out." Steven quickly apologizes to them, seeing how they seem more uncomfortable now. "That wasn't cool to dump my uh, issues…over my Mom on you like that."
"Yeah, okay, cool," Tommy replies nonchalantly. "If you're done breaking down, you wanna come with us to see what's outside of town?"
"Outside of town?" Steven repeats hesitantly.
"If Mom keeps relocating our house to avoid us, maybe we can get her attention if we disrespect some of her rules," Billy explains.
"I already broke one earlier when I took a peek at that far edge!" Tommy adds in confidently, pointing over the horizon. "Didn't even notice while I took a quick jog."
"Won't you guys get in trouble?" Steven asks them. He's still pretty much in the dark about their mother, and he doesn't really want to get them punished by helping him.
"Nah, we can handle it," Tommy assures him. "Mom doesn't really get mad at us for too long."
The speedster brother then gave them both a smirk, his hands outstretched.
"Now give me your hands, children. The cool twin will gladly give you the most 'exemplary' tour of your lives!"
"You learned that from Dad one time and now you use it to make your sentences sound 'cool'." Billy deadpans.
" 'Cooler'," Tommy emphasizes.
"And yet I'm the 'dorkasaurus-rex'?"
"Uh, guys," Steven interrupts them, giving a small smile in return. "I'm ready when you are."
"Oh, do pardon me. Where are my brother's manners?" Tommy exaggerates while Billy gives him a hard glare.
Steven is no stranger to super-speed. It was one of his power boosts when he started inheriting his Mom's Diamond side more. He takes Tommy's hand and allows himself to be dragged by the kid. He didn't really remember getting sick when he was running faster than Jasper, but right now, as the three of them zipped across the blur of houses and trees, he started to feel a bit nauseated. He thinks Tommy should practice on his breaks. The second he stopped running, all three of them tumbled ungracefully to the ground, eating dirt and grass in the process.
"Ow, that hurts…" He hears Billy grumble beside him, meanwhile, Tommy was quick to recover.
"Sorry, guys! Steven was kinda heavy to drag along."
He raises himself from the ground, partly scowling at Tommy and spitting grass out of his mouth.
"Anyways, here we are!" Tommy proclaims, a hand raised to his side.
As Steven got up, he was welcomed by the most peculiar sight. He was partly reminded of Rose's room malfunctioning when he gave too many requests at that time. Just outside the neighborhood, was complete and static red. Near where the ground ends, he sees it glitching as whatever magic or technology tries to expand it. For a moment, a road manifested to connect near the welcoming sign, glitching from different textures to different shapes to permanently becoming non-existent.
Steven looks around more across the expanse of whatever red energy was before him. Several maple trees, he figured, glitched into existence. He sees it being weaved together by red energy into creation, detail by detail before it was arranged to a particular location somewhere on the side. Another group of trees, he thinks is birch, popped opposite from the maple side, arranged in an order.
At that moment, Steven hears the hum of energy and static growing loud. A wide-open road was glitching into existence, appearing as transparent and slowly becoming more vivid and solid. The ground shook as said road and trees permanently took place. Steven keeps his balance, then checks if Billy and Tommy were okay.
"Are you guys alright?" He asks in alarm, still shaken.
"Oh, sweet! More places to explore!" Tommy replies, raising his hands excitedly.
Steven turns to look back at the open road, solid and so life-like. He notices the trees on the side were more in numbers, and he thinks he sees other varieties were created aside from the maple and birch group he saw earlier. The expanse of red was pushed back to the edge. He guesses that, whatever it was, it wasn't done constructing things yet.
"Well, now I'm pretty sure this isn't my doing…" He trails off hesitantly, looking up and seeing a full-blown sky above him instead of that static energy encompassing outside of town.
Steven didn't know how or when it happened. Everything was still black-and-white just as he remembered, except for whatever red magic that was until he blinked and suddenly everything popped into color.
"I don't like this," He hears Billy say. Steven sees him looking worriedly at the Welcoming sign.
THERE'S NO HOME LIKE
EASTVIEW
WHERE YOUR DREAM HOME COMES TRUE
POPULATION: 6
Except, under the population tag, the number occasionally glitches, going from six to ten to fifteen, and so on.
Steven quickly turns to Tommy, who yelps in surprise as figures of people glitch around them, still looking very transparent as if they weren't properly made yet. He goes to shield the twins behind him, as more people are glitching into existence. Steven can hear him chatter, yet he couldn't quite make out what they were saying as it still sounded like garbled noises from a very bad TV.
He tries to summon his shield in case they were hostile, yet nothing manifests.
"Uh, what do we do now?" Tommy asks from behind, gripping Steven's jacket and eyeing all the newcomers that pass them by.
"It's okay," He assures Tommy, now reaching for both of them behind his back. "Everything is gonna be okay. They don't even look like they're hurting us." He adds, watching as the newly manifested people were all going into Eastview. Steven notices a car glitching in front of them and quickly pushes the boys to the side.
H̸̫̑e̸̜͛y̶͍̓!̷͚͊ ̴̺̕w̴̬̑a̵̟͝t̵͚̓c̵̞̈́ḧ̷̞́ ̷̭̑w̵͎͗h̵̻̽ḙ̵̔r̸̞͗e̴̗̽ ̷̜̎y̵̹̚o̴͖͗u̶̟͠'̴̜̊r̸̀ͅè̷͓ ̵̬͘ǵ̷̫o̶̻̐i̷̟̊ǹ̶̖g̸͘ͅ,̷̇ͅ ̴͎̈́ḯ̴̠d̶͓̽í̵͕o̷̩͝ț̸̃s̵̼͘!̵͍̍
A man yells at them, voice echoing, and throwing his fist outside his car window before driving inside Eastview, still glitching.
ATTENTION!
All former Eastview residents are required to
stay inside their homes. The outskirts of Eastview
Is being constructed as we speak.
"Hey! That sounds like Dad!" Tommy pipes up as he helps Billy to stand, while Steven immediately ushers them away from the road.
"Your Dad?" He repeats, looking worriedly at the onslaught of people and cars that keeps manifesting.
"Is he part of this?!" He yells over the continuous chatter and hum of energy that grows louder around them.
ATTENTION!
All former Eastview residents are required to
stay inside their homes. It is not safe to venture
outside of Eastview. Please return to your
Homes immediately.
'I think that's Mom telling us to go back.'
Steven hears Billy's voice in his head, loud and clear. He dismisses how strange it was, feeling very concerned as Billy covered his ears with his hands, eyes glowing blue.
"Billy!" Tommy shouts, grabbing his brother by the shoulders. "What's wrong?!"
'Everything hurts.'
Billy grits his teeth, shutting his eyes.
'Everything is so loud.'
Steven rushes over to him, kneeling down to meet his eyes.
"It's gonna be okay, Billy! We're gonna get you out of here!" He assures him, but the boy merely whimpers in response.
ATTENTION!
Please return to your Homes immediately.
Steven quickly scoops up Billy in a bridal carry in his arms, thanking his luck that he was strong enough to carry him. He signals Tommy to move as they both evade people that were popping left and right.
"Where do you think your house is now?!" Steven yells as he hurries to a run, eyeing the houses in Eastview rapidly multiplying.
"I don't know!" Tommy replies back, easily catching up to him. "Mom usually just brings us back to the house!"
"Can you carry your brother?"
"I can just drag him no problem!"
"No!" Steven shouts back at him. "Your brother's hurt. You need to carry him! Just run somewhere far away from here! Maybe then, he won't be able to read everyone's heads!"
Steven was beginning to run out of breath. At this point, he concluded his powers were nowhere in sight, despite Billy telling him that his gem's energy was faint.
"Moooooooom!" Tommy yells to the sky in desperation. "We need your help! Please!"
At this rate, Steven thinks it was hopeless for Tommy to run with Billy. The town was filling up exponentially fast. He feels like they were running in circles and if everyone is piling in, he doesn't want them both to run where that red energy was.
Feel free to play this in the background while reading this portion. It makes everything better :)
Due to his panic, he accidentally stumbled onto someone. He crashes to the side, yet Steven makes sure to protect Billy from the fall. He sees Tommy stopping in his tracks, gaping at something━
No.
Someone.
Steven observes two people glitching in front of them. Unlike those who were rushing to pile inside Eastview, they looked incomplete, glitching in red all over, their voices still unrecognizable. The two in front of him seemed to morph into complete detail.
He watches in awe as the red energy shimmers, the two newly-manifested people taking their complete form.
The first one, Steven notices, was a man probably in his late 40s. He was wearing a uniform, somewhat. A black sleeveless suit with a maroon arrow pattern and a zip down the front. On his chest to the right, was a logo he doesn't recognize that looked like an eagle. Steven was slightly alarmed by the arrows he carried, but based on his expression, he figures that he wouldn't attack them just yet.
He hopes he wouldn't, considering how he doesn't have his powers right now.
Beside him, was a woman with long, wavy, and bright red hair. She was in a tight black suit, and Steven mistakes her for a spy, somewhat.
Billy woke in his arms, eyes still glowing blue, and were intensely staring at the man and woman in front of them.
"Well, I'm glad you cleared that up kid." The man says, cautiously putting away his arrows. He quickly turns to look at Tommy, who is still frozen on his spot.
"You boys got your mother real worried sick. What were you doing outside of town?"
"Go easy on them, Clint. I'm sure there's a perfect explanation as to why." The woman tells him, yet she eyes Steven in a way that was calculating his every move.
Steven gulps from that response, still somewhat hugging Billy from protecting him during his fall.
"Uh…I…I'm Steven Universe?" He smiles nervously at them, hoping he looks harmless enough to their eyes.
The woman eyed him for several moments before crouching down. He still hasn't gone up from the ground, yet he tries to meet her gaze as best as he could.
"Hello, Steven. I'm Agent Romanoff but you can call me Natasha." She tells him. "And with me is Agent Barton. We're currently Eastview's security team, the Avengers Watch."