Here we are everyone, the official beginning of our tale of adventure, heart, love, and friendship. This tale takes us to where worlds collide in both the worst and best possibly way. Can our, depending on who you ask, favorite pokemon trainer finds any way to make his predicament work? *pokemon and steven universe are not owned by me*
The evening spring air had a fine chill to it as it caressed Steven Universe's face. It was the beginning of March which meant that it was sweater weather in the morning and evening, yet if you wore a jacket in the middle of the day you were going to die of heat stroke. He stood at the edge of the deck of his home with Pearl. She held a small electric box in her hands that she was still trying to get working.
"Oh for pete's sake, Steven could you please get me the screwdriver from the counter inside? I just can't get this device to work", the tall gem asked him.
Steven obliged her request and went inside. He turned toward the kitchen counter that held the screwdriver she requested. He also noticed Amethyst chowing down on what appeared to be several sandwiches combined into one ultimate sandwich. Garnet was also sitting at the bar stool counter, she handed Steven the screwdriver before he could even ask for it.
"Thanks Garnet, so what is that thing that Pearl's working on outside?"
"That Steven", Garnet replied, "is a gem tracer. We'll be using it to tack down any anomalies that might be corrupted gems in the area."
"Yea", Amethyst interrupted, "that way we can strike it first before it can hurt others".
"Neato" he said. And with that he went back outside and handed Pearl the screwdriver.
"Thank you Steven, now if I just adjust" before she could finish her sentence the device came to life and displayed a variety of blue and red colors everywhere "now all we have to do is wait for a corrupted gem to be nearby, and we OHAUGH!"do is wait she was interrupted by a loud impact noise down by the beach, as well as a near blinding flash of white light.
Garnet and Amethyst burst out of the front door
"What the heck was that!?" Amethyst shouted
"Calm down Amethyst, i'm sure that whatever it was has a natural ex-"
"Pearl I think someone on the beach was caught in that!" Steven interrupted Pearl
"What?" she was all she could say before turning to see Steven running down the beach to what appeared to be a human lying face down in the sand.
Everything was fuzzy and dark in Ash's field of vision. He could barely hear over the ringing in his ears. As he opened and closed his eyes he felt something extremely cold rush over him.
"Water?" he whispered as he felt his surroundings. The ground he was laying on was coarse and rough.
"Sand? Where-" another large wave washed over him causing him to hack and gag out the salt water that made it into his open mouth.
Once the wave had retreated back into the sea, he looked forward a little into the distance. Lying a few feet were Pikachu and his backpack. Looking further down, his suspicions were confirmed that he was lying on a beach. The only question was what beach was this, and how did he get there?
"Steven get back!" he heard a woman's voice from behind him. He also heard several pairs of footsteps in the sand. His back was turned toward the voices and he couldn't see who was coming to him.
He felt a pair of hands grab him and turn him onto his back. He stared up into the face of a pudgy faced boy who looked to be roughly younger than him.
"You ok?" the boy asked looking down at him.
Before he could answer, he saw that there were three women running toward them. The thinnest of them ran straight past them and he saw her pointing a weird, red and blue flashing box at pikachu, who was still on the ground.
"Hey what are you-" Ash shouted trying to get up and confront her, but his limbs were still asleep, and fell down face first into the sand.
"It's not a corrupted gem" he heard her say to the other women.
The boy once again helped him up, "we can't just leave him here"
"Stevens right", the tall red one said, "let's get him to the house"
"Garnet you can't be serious", the thin one that examined Pikachu interjected, "I mean we've never met him before"
"Pearl this human needs help"
"Yeah come on P" the shortest one added, "besides look how cool his yellow rat is" she told the one he could guess was Pearl
The red one who Ash figured was Garnet finally took matters into her own hands, she reached down and lifted Ash out of the sand with one arm and began marching him toward a beach house up towards a large hill on the edge of a cliff behind them.
"what the heck are those things around his belt?" the boy asked, walking behind Garnet, Ash could see he was now carrying his backpack.
"Beats me" said the shortest one who was also walking behind them carrying Pikachu. Pearl was walking all the way behind and appeared to still be upset about Garnet going against her request to simply leave him on the beach.
Garnet threw the screen door open and dropped him down onto a couch. The home was a studio style home with what appeared to just be a single bedroom, a kitchen and a sitting room that Ash was in. The short one put Pikachu on the chair next to the sofa and Steven got him a tall glass of water, which Ash downed in an instant.
"More" was all he could ask the boy, to which he obliged his request "thank you"
"My name's Steven"
"Ash"
"Nice to meet you. I like your pet"
"He's not my pet, he's my best friend."
"Uh ok then"
"How did you wind up on the beach?" Garnet asked
"I don't know, I was at the pokemon center and then-"
"Pokemen what?" Pearl interrupted
"You know, the pokemon center? The place where trainers rest both themselves and their pokemon?"
"Dude i'm still stuck on that "pokemon" line" the short one said, "you sure you didn't hit your head or something?"
"No, look at pikachu over there, he's a Pokemon. Pok-e-mon. You mean to tell me you guys don't have those here?"
Steven shrugged.
"Well Pikachu, I have a feeling we're not in Kanto anymore".
By this point Pikachu had jumped off the chair and into Ash's lap
"So who are you guys anyway?"
"We are the Crystal Gems!" They all shouted in union taking him by surprise.
"Garnet" the tall, red one said, confirming his assumption of that being her name
"Amethyst", the short one who brought Pikachu inside said
"Pearl", the tall one, who didn't seem to like him, joined in.
"And Steven!" Steven excitedly proclaimed
"We keep this city safe from the corrupted gem monsters that plague it" Garnet also added, at this point he was pretty sure she was the leader of the group.
"Well it's nice to meet you all, my name's Ash Ketchum, and this little guy here is my best friend Pikachu, he's one of my Pokemon.
"What exactly are, Pokemon?" Steven asked while petting Pikachu's head
"Well, where I'm from, Pokemon are basically animals with amazing abilities. And people like me, they catch, train, and take care of them. And there are mega tournaments you enter with them and you battle against other trainers."
"So, it's like dog fighting?" Amethyst retorted
"No it's not like that at all, battling strengthens your bond with your Pokemon. You become best friends, just like me and Pikachu."
"That's so cool!" Steven shouted.
"Yea I've got a bunch more with me, but they're all pretty big, I'll show you later if you want tho"
"Well that's nice and all" Pearl said finally joining the conversation, "but how did you wind up in that large flash of light and wind up here?"
"That I don't know"
"Garnet what do we do, if he really is from another world we can't just leave him". It was at this point he noticed that Pearl always seemed to come to Garnet. Confirming his thoughts about her being the leader of the group.
"You're right, we can't leave him on the streets"
"He can stay with us!", Steven shouted, "he can sleep on the couch for a few days until we can find him a home!"
Garnet turned from Steven back to Ash, "would that be ok?"
He was a little uneasy, it was almost like Garnet knew he he was going to accept. Besides they were right, he couldn't just sleep on the streets, "ok then".
"Yay sleepover!" Steven excitedly proclaimed
Ash chuckled at Steven's childlike happy-go-lucky attitude. "Yea, and I'll maybe show you the rest of my Pokemon in the morning"
The night went on with both parties telling each other about their adventures, about how Ash saved his world on multiple occasions, he left out the times he died for Steven's sake, and how the Gems had protected the Earth with their magic.
At around 10:30 was when Garnet told Steven to get ready for bed. He hurried into the bathroom and began brushing his teeth.
Garnet and Amethyst told Ash goodnight and retreated into a back room, while Pearl began gathering spare blankets from the wall closet for Ash.
"I really appreciate this", he told her. Garnet was pretty easy to talk to, and Amethyst and Steven both seemed pretty fun, however he still felt a little awkward around Pearl, she seemed more uptight than the others
"It's no problem Ash" she said "and I must apologize for trying to leave you on the beach earlier, I thought you were dangerous, and I take safety very seriously, especially for Steven".
"I understand"
She smiled at him as she finished laying down a blanket onto the couch and began to walk toward the room Garnet and Amethyst retreated to. Steven came out of the bathroom and embraced her in a big hug.
"Goodnight Pearl" he lovingly told her as she tenderly hugged him back. Ash only watched with a little bit of guilt, his mom would've hugged him like that, and thought of how worried his mom was for him sank in.
After Pearl turned off the lights and left the room Steven hopped into his bed above the couch. "You're gonna show me your other Pokemon in the morning right Ash?"
"Sure pal"
"Well goodnight Ash, night Pikachu"
"Good night Steven", he then turned to Pikachu snuggling up on his chest "goodnight Pikachu"
"Pika-pi" the Pokemon said sleepily
He laid his head down onto the pillow turning his head could hear the relaxing ocean breeze through the windows. "Definitely not going to have trouble sleeping tonight" he thought to himself as he closed his eyes. Knowing that tomorrow was going to be a big day, new world, new faces, new rules.