The Jaspers' ship touched down in front of two pink pyramids in the middle of the desert, Steven's voice echoed out as the door opened and dug into the dirt.
"The ship is really a giant ass?"
"It's a pair of hips with legs and, yes, a butt."
"Honestly, it could be worse." He muttered, his eyes coming to rest on a large, brown gate that was adorned with a pink star. It rested between the ship's knees.
"You two get the ship out, I need to check out that door." Steven said, leaving them and walking forward towards the gate. He could see a massive lock resting on it as he got closer.
"Secure." He mocked, kicking the gate and shattering it. Steven walked into what seemed like Rose's junkpile, Lion was laying in the sand among everything.
"Is this where you always go?" He asked, more to himself than Lion. He glanced over into Lion's disinterested eyes before scanning over the piles of junk.
"Pink really went all out on the Quartz bit, huh." Steven observed, kicking one of her piles, a VHS tape falling onto the sand.
"For Nora." He reads out loud as he picks it up, pressing it into Lion's mane for later. He felt the sand behind him shift, so he turned and looked up to see a massive pair of pink legs.
"This is better than I imagined, enjoy your nap." The teen called back to Lion, walking back to the Jaspers. Pressing his hand to the ship, a door in the heel opened up.
"I'm afraid to ask, but does this thing have a hanger for your ship?"
"Yes.'' Jasper confirmed as the lift rose towards the cockpit, a large diamond shaped door opening to reveal a raised walkway with two massive thrones resting on each side. He walked forward, stepping onto the pedestal, pink pants forming over his jeans.
"Like always, it's all in the hips." He took a step, the ship responded by copying his movements. Steven raised a leg up above his head to test the ship's flexibility, and when it copied that, he set it down again. Giving one last test, he stretched his leg out to the side of the ship, which it followed again.
"Alright, Skinny and Jasper, go get your ship. We're done here for now." They nodded, knowing arguing with him would do no good. He waited for the alert that told him they had left and watched their ship rise in front of him.
"Do try to keep up!" He said, his voice echoing out of the ship as he took a step forward and pushed off of the ground with one leg, the ship taking off and flying into the sky. The Jaspers followed right after him. Steven flipped in the sky, kicking off of the moon and ricocheting back towards the earth. He pushed himself back to the moon and used the ship's navigation system to aim for the Sea Spire, leaving two footprints on the lunar surface. He could see the Jaspers' ship trying to keep up with him. The hybrid flipped the feet, which were heating up as he re-entered the atmosphere, and touched down in the water with a loud boom. The water immediately began steaming at the ship's heat.
The ship's interface disappeared as Steven stepped off of the platform and walked to the elevator, taking it up to the platform above the ship's hips. He looked to the Spire, watching as Lapis' form grew larger as she carried Peridot over to him.
"Steven!'' Lapis said, greeting him excitedly as she set Peridot down. She floated gracefully with her water wings and soared right in front of Steven's face.
"Is this your ship?!" The blue gem asked, looking around at the platform.
"It is now. Peridot, this ship's been buried for, what I assume, thousands of years. Want to take a look at it?"
"Obviously, it's the only leg mech ever built! Built to support the full weight of Blue and Yellow Diamond's hand ship, not to mention White's head!" She shouted, stars in her eyes.
"The Jaspers should be catching up soon, has Bismuth been behaving?"
"She's strange. Refuses to do what she's supposed to and she spends all day making weapons." Peridot answered, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, she's good at that," he heard the Jaspers' ship landing by them and didn't bother to turn around.
"They're getting better at that." Lapis chipped in, setting herself on Steven's shoulder and banishing her wings.
"It's a hard ship to hide without burying it."
"Steven!"
"My Diamond!" The Jaspers called in unison, running up to him.
"Great time, Jaspers."
"Nice flip," Skinny replied, smirking.
"I missed the Moon Base." He shrugged in response, walking towards the Spire. The Jaspers eyed Lapis on his shoulder but quickly followed after him.
"Peridot says that the Sea Shrine has finally appeared, want me to tag along?" Lapis asked him as he continued walking.
"Sure, you can keep me from getting crushed by the weight of the ocean."
"That's the plan; hold up the ocean while one of the Jaspers grabs the wrong hourglass," she said, giving them a side eye over his shoulder.
"What's that supposed to mean, Lazuli?" Jasper growled out.
"What do you think it means?" She asks innocently, causing Jasper to growl again, angry but not able to attack her while she's sitting on her Diamond's shoulder. Steven walked across the newly constructed bridge that led into the Spire, where he noticed a massive pink drill resting on metal supports.
"Squaredot, progress report." Steven called out, said gem turned to face him while hanging from her limb enhancers, her fingers in the form of a blowtorch.
"We are almost done, we just need to secure the best drilling site. The Amethysts are already on their way," Squaredot reported.
"The Beta Kindergarten should be uninhabited. I'll go there once I get the hourglass."
"We will move the drill as soon as it's ready, my Diamond." He hummed, turning and heading towards the warp pad.
"Jasper, you stay here and help the Peridots get the drill in place."
"Yes, Steven." She agreed hesitantly, knowing that she couldn't argue.
"Great." He, Skinny, and Lapis stepped onto the warp pad and vanished in a pillar of light, reappearing under the sea in a glass dome. They all moved forward, scanning the suspiciously large amount of eye catching hourglasses. His eyes landed on the true one he had seen in the files.
"Found you." The pink teen said, walking towards it. Skinny and Lapis followed after him, Skinny's eyes left his form and were drawn to a funky looking hourglass nearby.
"A whole lot of trouble for something so unassuming, look how much cooler this one is!" She said, holding it up for him to see.
Steven groaned as the dome fell away, Lapis bringing up her hands to hold back the water as the dome started to shatter. Skinny yelped in surprise, dropping her hourglass onto the floor, Steven shoved the true hourglass into his pocket and placed Skinny under one arm, Lapis under the other, and leaped over onto the warp pad as the weight of the ocean crushed the room.
The trio appeared back in the Spire shortly after, Steven dropped Skinny and Lapis from their positions under his arms. Lapis stopped herself from falling to the floor with her wings.
"I don't like being trapped, Skinny. In fact, I hate it. Don't do something like that again." Lapis spat, glaring at her. The orange gem nodded, keeping her head down.
"Ok, Beta Kindergarten, let's head out." Steven said, turning and walking towards where the Jaspers had come from earlier. He found their ship easily, the door opening for them as Steven shrunk down to sit in the pilot seat, Skinny and Lapis following him in.
"Mind if I tag along?" Lapis inquired.
"I don't." The door slammed shut and gravity shifted, the ship almost instantly appearing in the Kindergarten.
"Wow, that's new." Lapis said, leaning on the wall.
"You're just old." Steven quipped, standing up and walking out of the ship and into the desert, seeing the walls of familiar colors.
"Pretty coloration,"
"Thank you, my Diamond," Skinny said, using his title and not his name.
"Where did you come out?" He asked her, curious.
"I'll show you." She replied, leading him to her hole on the wall.
"This place has some character, the other Kindergarten is too uniform." He stared at the hole for another moment before walking farther into the Kindergarten, freezing in place when he stopped in front of what he assumed was the hole Jasper emerged from.
"Did she emerge flexing? Explains those arms, good for her."
"She did, she stayed a few minutes longer than the rest of us. The Peridot cried when she saw her, she was glad to have one perfect Quartz to offset the rest of us defects."
"You are not defective." She didn't respond to that, so Steven moved on, walking further into the canyon in search of the Famethyst. They passed some Jaspers in their holes on the wall, some sideways or upside down.
"I feel secure." Lapis snarked from behind him.
"They're trying," he tells her, watching as one of them noticed him and elbowed the one next to her, all of them scrambling out of their holes, some falling far.
"Hello, Famethyst."Steven greeted, coming to a stop in front of them.
"Hello, Steven." They say back in unison.
"Is Beta secure?"
"Yes." One of them yelled up at him.
"Alright, good job, you can go back to whatever it was you were doing." They turned away from him and he watched as one of the Amethysts clasped their hands together to launch a Jasper into the air towards their hole.
"There's no water for miles." Lapis said despondently at him, staring at the orange wall as if it had insulted her.
"We're in Arizona, Lapis, of course there's no water, this place sucks."
