"And then she said she was sorry too, before shoving me off!" Connie exclaimed. "And that's why we have this new slide."

"And Sunshine was really cool and got us this dirt from the set!" Steven grinned. He was referring to Sunshine Justice, the woman who had been dating his father for quite some time now. She did everything she could to make Steven happy, even spoiling him despite him saying he was fine. Lately it had been by letting him have leftover things from her clients stage shows, she was a talent agent.

Steven peered down the edge of the crater that sunk down for quite a while before stopping at a Connie-shaped rut. He slid down it with a happy yell, putting his hands up for a while until he fell straight into the rut.

"Steven! I told you to wait!" The girl laughed as he crawled back up. "I have to fill it in a little!"

"Okay!" Steven huffed, helping her shovel it in some more.

They were quiet for a moment before Steven looked at her. "You're doing the squishy face."

Connie's face fell before looking at him in confusion. "What's the squishy face?"

He dropped the shovel and suddenly clapped his hands on her cheeks, making her laugh as he squished them. "You always do the squishy face when you enhale super sharply! And I know what that means!"

"Okay, you got me." Connie giggled, pushing him off. "I may have been thinking about Homeworld a bit… Ever since 7XR left, I keep asking myself if she ever found her team again and contacted Pink Diamond or Rose."

"But you guys destroyed the location controls in there after you returned, and Amethyst told us that 7XR doesn't have the directions to Homeworld memorized, she wasn't even the one flying the ship most of the time! I bet she's gotten herself lost." Steven mumbled, trying to reassure her.

"That somehow makes me feel worse…"

"Me too."

Suddenly, Connie's phone rang and she picked it up. "Hey, dad!"

"Hey pumpkin, guess who has another job in Beach City tonight?!"

"Oh my gosh! Really?" Connie gasped happily. "I get to come too?"

"If you wanna!"

"Come on what?" Steven asked in confusion.

"A stakeout!" Connie said with fierceness, her eyes turning to diamonds.

"A stakeout?! I've always wanted to go on one since you told me about the last one!" Steven cried. "Imagine what stories we could hear about your dad's love life and past tonight! Hopefully he can squeeze it all in before I have to go…"

"I'm sure he-!"

"Settle down!" Doug laughed, hearing them gushing. "It's probably only a kid loitering like last time. It is at Funland after all. But I suppose Steven could come too."

"Stakeout!" The two kids cheered.

Steven, Connie, and Doug all sat in the dark car that night, waiting for anything to happen. The kids had spent a lot of time on their new 'slide', having every Temp and living watermelon try it out and seeing their reaction.

Doug noticed the kids were getting bored despite having raided his disguise box. They had been sitting there now for quite some time.

"Hey Doug! Can you tell us one of your stories?" Steven asked suddenly. "With a song?"

Doug laughed. "I think I left my guitar at the station, the guys can't get enough over there."

"Oh, we could get it for you!" Connie suggested. "It's only a few streets down after all."

"A few streets down in the dark!" Doug cried. "Who knows what's lurking in there?"

"Maybe a cat?" Steven asked with a shrug.

"I'll get the guitar, I'll only be a few minutes." Doug swore before getting out of the car.

Connie and Steven sat together in the back, looking out the back window after him. They stared into the darkness with worry.

Suddenly, a sunglasses' wearing face popped up in the window, sending them both screaming in panic, hugging each other. After a few moments though, Steven realized who it was. "Sunshine!"

The two got out of the car to see the short woman who looked like a popstar despite her age.

"Party time's over, you two! Steven, it's time for dinner, little man!" Sunshine told him with a smirk.

Steven whined slightly. "But I'm not hungry! And even if I do get it, Connie packed granola bars! I can't go home yet!"

"Steven, we're both going to flip if you get into some night time dangerous situation with your swashbuckling girlfriend again." The woman sighed. "We may seem chill about it, but-"

"We're fine!" Steven cried with desperation, blushing slightly. "And Connie's not my girlfriend…"

"Ms. Justice, first of all, thank you for the dirt! Second, I assure you this nighttime stakeout is completely and utterly saf-!"

Connie was interrupted when they heard a loud crash, making them all jump.

The girl quickly grabbed the two flashlights from her dad's glove compartment, giving one to Steven and using the other to shine over to where the noise was.

"What in the world…?" Sunshine whispered, seeing the remains of part of the chain-link fence. She picked up a link and frowned. "This doesn't look cut at all, it looks ripped through…"

Connie felt her stomach drop. "T-There's a tool that can do that, right?"

Steven suddenly ran in the park from the front gate, calling. "We'll catch them, Sunshine! Real quick, promise!"

"Steven!" The two women cried, racing after him.

Steven stopped after running for about a minute, picking up a piece of red fabric from the ground. "What's this…?"

"Steven, come on man, we'll let diamond daughter's dad get this crook, that's his job!" Sunshine told the boy as she and Connie ran to him.

Steven shook his head. "No, no! We can do it together!"

They suddenly heard another loud crash and they spun around, pointing their flashlights to the noise.

The light cast a shadow of what looked like a child. They quickly ran off.

"Wait up!" Steven called after her.

The three chased the shadow before sliding behind a booth.

The boy shined his light but there was no one there… "But they were just here!"

Sunshine suddenly turned her head the other way. "Is that… music?"

Connie and Steven followed her to find the Funhouse of Funland was now very faintly playing music from inside. In the dark, the place looked terrifying with the smiling clowns and mirrors that glinted in the moonlight.

Steven gulped in worry but ran in anyway, determined to find this escapist.

"Steven, wait!" Sunshine cried, running after him into the house of mirrors.

Connie was about to follow them but the door suddenly slammed shut behind Sunshine. "W-What?!"

She jiggled the handle, trying to open the door but it was locked. She pounded on it. "Sunshine! Steven! Are you okay?!"

There was no answer from either and Connie began to worry. The way the fence had been torn through, the mysterious locking… What if this bandit wasn't what they originally thought?

Doug had returned a few minutes after the three had chased the suspect and was horrified to see Steven and Connie missing. "Kids?! Where are you?!"

No one responded.

The man hurried to his car, dialing Connie at once. "Pick up, pick up!"

He didn't notice three shadows watching him from afar.

Connie felt the vibration of her phone and went to grab it when a shadow whooshed by her, snatching it away. "Hey!"

There was a giggle from the one who had stolen her phone, the person's voice sounded familiar, like… No, why would she be here and stealing from her?

The girl ran after the shadow, determined to get her phone back. It led her to the merry-go-round. Connie smiled, seeing her phone sitting on the saddle of the front-most horse. She grabbed it and was about to call her dad back when the attraction suddenly roared to life.

Connie gasped in shock, holding onto the fake horse as the ride got faster and faster. She then saw a glint off a unicorn's horn a few horses in front of her, the keychain shaped like a mirror, the one to the Funhouse no doubt. "What's that doing here?!"

As she tried to stand on the horse to her better vantage, she didn't see two tall shadows run away from the scene sharing identical smirks.

"Steven? Where are you, buddy?" Sunshine called, lost in a maze of mirrors.

"Sunshine!" Steven cried, running to her.

Sunshine hugged him in relief. "You scared me, you gotta stop running into trouble or your dad's gonna run outta family!"

"I'm sorry… I just wanted to find that crook." Steven sighed. "... cause… I wanted to do something nice for you."

"Me?" Sunshine asked in surprise, looking around even through there wasn't anyone else it could be. "But I'm… and you're…!"

"Yeah, I know. It's weird for me too, to like you after you came into my dad and I's life, but you've been doing so much good for both of us, it's hard not to!" Steven grinned weakly. "You know, you don't have to try so hard to get me to like you, I already do!"

"Who said I was trying hard?" Sunshine asked, trying to seem calm and chill.

"Um, the gifts you always give me, the tickets to all your clients' shows, even ones you don't have under you, picking up doughnuts every morning?" Steven shrugged. "Even chasing after me when I was being dumb.. You didn't have to do any of those things… You're not my mom, not replacing her, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be in the void she left. You don't have to give me anything to prove it."

Sunshine felt tears in her eyes. "Y-You really mea-?"

Suddenly in a blast of light, the mirror beside them shattered.

They gave yells in shock and Sunshine grabbed Steven's hand, pulling him backwards through the maze, hopefully to where they had come from, the yellow blasts always shooting just behind them barely missing them each time and leaving all the mirrors shattered.

Steven saw a way out of the room in one of the shards and pulled Sunshine to it. "Come on!"

Steven leapt onto a rope, swinging across a ball pit before turning to see the blast had hit the rope just after he released it, setting it aflame. Sunshine leapt into the ballpit, swimming across it to get to the boy. He pulled her out and they narrowly avoided another shot.

"Who is doing this?!" Sunshine cried as they kept running.

"I don't know-!" Steven ducked, hearing the laser come shooting at him. "We gotta get outta here!"

Connie leapt from horse to horse, the merry-go-round making her feel sick as it spun faster than she knew possible. She resisted the urge to jump off the ride like she was prone to do at Funland, instead striving to snatch up the key that was just within her grasp. She finally grabbed it and launched herself off the ride, landing epicly as she always did nowadays.

The girl ran down the parkway and was surprised to see that a gun from one of the shooting stands was missing. She wanted to investigate but remembered her task and returned to the Funhouse.

She unlocked the door and swung it open. "Steven! Sunshine, I'm here! Where are you?"

Suddenly, a dark shadow fell over her with the amusement park gun in their hands. The girl gasped in horror, turning around to see the one that supposedly had caused all this… "Wait… ONION?!"

Indeed it was. The little boy looked up at Connie with surprise as she emerged from the shadows and his gun lowered quickly. He ran up and suddenly tugged on her cheek, as if check she was who she said she appeared to be.

"Wha-Hey! That hurts!"

Onion looked sorry but relieved and hugged her. "Oh, buddy… It's okay! It was only Steven, Sunshine, and I! You must've thought some bad guys were on your trail, huh?"

Onion looked around, holding onto her still before nodding.

Connie carried the shaking boy out and placed him down on the ground at the center of the park.

"Connie!" Steven yelled.

He and Sunshine joined her and saw Onion there.

"Um, who is this strange child?" Sunshine asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Onion, what are you doing here?!" Steven asked. He then saw the amusement park gun and gasped. "Wait a second, you were shooting at us?!"

The boy looked at the gun and then shook his head, looking shocked that Steven would think he'd do that.

Sunshine took the thing away and fired it off, it gave a similar blast. "Uh-huh… Listen kid, I get you were scared, so I'll let it slide. This gun is probably harmless anyway…"

Steven took out the fabric swatch he had found earlier and they matched it to a missing piece in the little boy's tight-wearing foot. "Huh…"

"As for the fence, I have seen him break through my screen door." Connie shrugged to the other two as they lead Onion out of the park. "I guess it was nothing but Onion, wait til Dad hears about this!"

The girl then winced. "Oh no! I forgot to tell Dad where we went!"

They ran back to the car to find Doug leaned over a tire of his car with concentration. Connie couldn't see exactly what he was doing. "Dad?"

The man startled before looking up with a shocked face that faded to a smile seeing the girl. "Connie! Thank goddess you're safe! I was going to go hunting for you guys but our wheel blew out!"

Connie hugged him tightly. He seemed surprised at it. "Uh, what's this for?"

"It's a sorry, we shouldn't have left the car." Connie muttered.

"We found the culprit!" Steven cried.

"Oh, did you?" Doug asked, looking surprised.

Sunshine patted Onion on the back. "Just a silly kid. I already let him off the hook, officer, sorry."

"Ah, that's alright, he's just a child." Doug smiled. He put his arm around Connie. "Say… since our vehicle is out of commission, you mind giving us a ride home?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I may have forgotten to restock the spare wheel."

"Hop in, Universes!" Sunshine replied with a grin.

They did so and Connie waved goodnight to Onion who stared at her with slight worry as they drove away.

The boy then felt the looming shadow of a large group of various sizes fall on him and turned around in horror.

Sorry this took SO LONG! Classes are crazy and I had so many ideas for this chapter (The weird name is actually just a line from 'You are my Sunshine'), but it finally came out as I wanted it too! I bet you're wondering, just who are these shadows?! I'd love to hear your theories!