Here it is everyone, the chapter i've been very excited for. In fact, when I first started writing this I actually started at this chapter so this is the one I got a lot of planning to. You'll get a little bit of everything this story is about in this chapter, so I do apologize for the length. *STEVEN UNIVERSE, POKEMON AND ALL THEIR CHARACTERS ARE NOT OWNED BY ME.
The car wash was closed all day because of a dead racoon in the main water tank causing a bacterial infection of the water, so Mayor Dewey ordered it closed while a cleaning crew cleansed the entire wash. Steven was hanging out with Connie, and the Gems were too busy worrying about Peridot, so Ash originally was planning on just having a quiet day to himself at the barn, maybe even train with Sceptile a little, but Greg had other ideas, as he invited Ash to lunch at Fishstew Pizza of course he accepted.
They walked down the boardwalk, Ash noticed Greg still had a limp from when Lapis broke his leg. "How's the leg holding up?"
"Barely notice it," he said as they entered the restaurant. Greg selected a booth while Ash placed their order to the teenage girl running the counter.
"Universe!" he heard a loud voice with a thick nigerian accent shout from behind the counter as a tall, dark skinned man with a ridiculous haircut exited the kitchen and approached the table Greg was sitting
"Hey Kofi"
The man Ash assumed was Kofi slapped him on the back laughing obnoxiously. "Where is your boy? I've been looking to personally thank him for returning the ocean to us! This Spring Break was great for business and i wouldn't have gotten it without him"
Ash examined the "great business" Steven brought in by looking around the dining room to see that Greg, that creepy man with an eyepatch Ash had seen walking around town and himself were the only customers
"Quite the lunch rush" he whispered to the girl running the counter causing her to chuckle, before Ash could finish ordering, Kofi suddenly appeared behind him
"Kiki!" he shouted at the girl "this boy and Greg's lunch is on the house! As my thanks for helping our city!"
Of course Kofi's definition of an on the house appreciation meal was water with unlimited refills, a few slightly stale breadsticks, and a cheese pizza with no toppings, but Ash couldn't complain.
"So how's Pearl's improvements on the van treating you? I mean when Lapis trashed it I had my doubts it was ever gonna run again."
"Aw she runs like a dream" he boasted taking a bite of pizza "if i'd known Pearl would've built her so good i would've asked your space girlfriend to trash it earlier"
As soon as he said "girlfriend" he could feel himself blush. Desperately trying to change the subject he pointed out something that had been bothering him "i think it's kind of weird, Pearl fixing your van for you like that, i mean she doesn't seem to like you that much." hiding his blush with a napkin, pretending to wipe pizza grease from his face
Greg took a sip of his water and his grin from causing Ash to blush disappeared. "She's just still holding onto bad feelings for me about Steven's mom"
Being as ignorant as ever, Ash asked him the stupidest thing he could've possibly asked "was she, upset you chose Rose over her?"
"WHAT!? NO!" Greg exclaimed loudly causing the creepy guy and Kiki to look over to their booth. Bringing his voice to inside level he corrected Ash "no, she's mad because ROSE chose me over her"
This new information caused Ash to nearly choke on his water "wait, Pearl is?"
"Yea. how did you not know that?"
"And she was?"
"Yes she was in love with Rose. And i remember throughout our entire relationship, she held angst against me for it. But the connection between me and Rose was true. I remember when i first met her, I knew it was meant to be. I just couldn't her out of my head, the mere thought of her name caused me to blush, heck she even made it into my dreams."
The connections to what Ash was going through about Lapis were uncanny. And Ash knew Greg was looking at him trying to see his reaction.
"Steven and Amethyst told me" Greg suddenly said
"Told you what?" he asked playing dumb
"About how you act whenever Lapis comes up in a conversation, plus she did call you cute"
"Greg I"
He chuckled, "don't worry about it Ash, I'm just pulling your leg. But if that makes you uncomfortable i'll stop. So tell me more about those pokemon gyms you were telling me about yesterday"
They sat at the booth for nearly four hours talking, sharing experiences and just making each other laugh. Ash actually wound up enjoying the few times he spent with Greg. He never really had a father figure to look up to, Professor Oak was a mentor and Brock was his best human friend, but he never had an actual father figure in his life before he started working for Greg. the sun was starting to set and Kofi told them it was closing time, they thanked him for the food and reunited with Steven outside. Walking down the beach, Steven started describing Peridot to them.
"Her head is seriously a triangle?" Ash asked through laughter
"I know right?" Steven said as the two boys began laughing again at the description of the menacing Peridot. Their joy was interrupted however, by a loud, echo that seemingly came out of nowhere. They all covered their ears to block out the noise as windows began to shatter and weak wooden objects splintered under the pressure of the noise. "Is that a giant hand?" Steven asked pointing to the sky.
Ash and Greg looked up to see a enormous green hand pointing down at their location inching closer and closer. Ash was half expecting to hear "PREPARE FOR TROUBLE!" At the sight of the ridiculous craft up above. But then he remembered Team Rocket wasn't here, and Peridot and whatever alien gem soldiers onboard meant business.
They ran down the beach to see the Gems stacking some sort of canon onto the beach.
"It's Peridot" Pearl said with a worried tone
"Lapis said she was coming back to earth with reinforcements" Garnet added
"Wait what!? When did you guys talk to Lapis?!" Ash demanded
"Oh that's right, I think you were working. Like two days ago, during the meteor shower, we picked up a transmission from her warning us about Peridot." Amethyst explained
"We decided not to tell you so you wouldn't get your hopes up that she'd be back" Garnet finished.
"That thing looks dangerous, the townspeople are probably gonna panic" Greg changed the subject
"You're right Dad." Steven concurred taking out his phone "time to call in a political favor" he tried his best to sound serious as he pushed his finger on his contact list "Mayor Dewey, it's me Steven Universe!" There was a brief pause before he said "listen, the hand in the sky is very dangerous and the Gems will need the city evacuated to stop it. Thank you" he said hanging up.
"When did you get the mayor's phone number?" Ash asked him
"He gave it to me after I helped with the blackout" once again, Ash felt he had missed out on everything while at that barn. "When was there a blackout?"
The Mayor stayed true to his word, as his over-the-top truck went flying down the streets, his intercom system had been changed to repeat "evac Dewey" over and over, Ash also began running back to the barn to prepare.
He threw open the barn door, Pikachu greeted him but immediately sensed there was something horribly wrong. Taking his pokemon with him, he rushed back to the beach the gems were sitting, but Greg and Steven were gone. "Where's Steven?
"We sent him off with Greg, Peridot and the rest of Homeworld are far too dangerous for Steven" Pearl explained.
"Oh, well why didn't you send me off too?"
"Because," Garnet replied "we've seen you're fully capable of defending yourself Ash, and if this is our last fight, then we're honored to have you as a Crystal Gem Ash Ketchum"
Ash couldn't believe it he felt honored. "Garnet i don't know what to"
"Here it comes!" Amethyst shouted it to them as the hand entered the lowest level of the atmosphere.
Pearl and Amethyst began to dance, Ash was confused at first but then recognized it as Opal's fusion dance as a light encircled the two and the giant woman stood in their place. She combined Pearl's spear and Amethyst's whip into a large bow and arrow. Pulling the light string, she fired an enormous arrow at the hand. Ash coughed at the small sandstorm created from the explosion. As the dust settled, they all looked at the ship to see. Nothing happened.
The ship began to land as the Gems drew their weapons. "At least Steven is safe" Garnet said
"Hey guys!" they heard the familiar voice of Steven Universe come from behind them. Opal defused from the shock
"What are you doing? Get out of here!" Pearl commanded
"It's too lt!" Garnet shouted as the ship finally landed "just stay behind us"
The Hand Warship landed on the surf of the beach. A globelike object exited the wrist and rolled down the fingers until it reached the end of the index finger, which dropped it to the ground and it unrolled to reveal three figures standing on it. The first Ash instantly recognized, as Lapis Lazuli, she had an intense look of worry in her eyes, especially after noticing Ash. The next one Ash noticed, was more robotic with a serious look on her face, but what stood out about her was her triangle shaped hair, "that must be the famous Peridot i've heard so much about" he whispered to himself. The third and final figure stood in between Peridot and Lapis. She was a large, brute that gave a Machamp a run for it's money.
"That's them alright" Peridot said in a nasally yet serious voice "they're the ones who keep ruining my machines"
The monstrous gem looked down at them in disgust "this is it?" she asked
"Jasper!" she cried "they keep interfering with my work!"
Jasper grunted at Peridot's complaining before turning her attention back to the five heroes standing on the beach "looks like another waste of my time. Hey!" she commanded Lapis, dragging her by the arm as she wrenched in pain "this is there base?"
Lapis took a single look at Ash before she sadly looked to the ground "yes"
"And neither of you saw Rose Quartz? What a shame, i was looking forward to beating her into the ground. But this is all that is left of her army? Some lost defective Pearl?" she said referring to Pearl, "a puny, overcooked runt?" referring to Amethyst, "and this shameless display?" calling out Garnet. She then noticed Ash and Steven for the first time "what are those?"
"The short one calls itself "The Steven" but i've never seen the one in the blue jacket before" Peridot explained to her
"Those two are just humans!" Lapis intervened trying her best to protect her friends, "they're no threat at all! They're not one of them!"
"I know what humans are" Jasper berated her, "and you don't need me for this, just blast them with the ship" she commanded as she began to return to the ship. A horrified look formed on Lapis's face as Peridot opened the weapon controls from her levitating fingers that had turned into a monitor.
"Firing" she said as the hand made a finger gun shape and began glowing from the tip of its index finger
Realizing there was no hope, Ash turned to Pikachu "you ready buddy?" he asked his best friend "pika pi" he sadly said
"Steven get out of here!" he heard Garnet in her desperate try to get him to safety.
"No! I'm a Crystal Gem to!" he shouted as he ran directly in front of the Gems with the laser firing at him the exact moment. Ash braced himself for the end as the blast struck Steven, but then, it was reflected off him. Ash saw that he had summoned the biggest shield he had ever summoned, and it had just saved his and the other Crystal Gem's lives.
Jasper stared shocked at the situation "that shield. That symbol! You! You have the power of Rose Quartz!"
"Now do you believe i needed protection?" Peridot nagged
"Rose! Why do you look like that? Why are you so weak?"
"DON'T HURT THEM!" Lapis intervened
"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS!?"
"It wasn't relevant to the mission!"
Jasper answered this by striking her across the face with her palm. Ash balled his fist seeing Lapis being hurt by this brute but at the moment there was nothing he could do. "Forget the mission! Yellow Diamond needs to see this: thing" Jasper commanded while Lapis slowly got back up.
Before Ash or the others could react, Garnet threw herself at Jasper. She knocked her away with headbutt, then took out what appeared to be a taser. What had Ash worried were Lapis and Peridot's first instincts to back away from it, and lunged at Garnet, striking her in the chest with the device. Garnet's entire body glowed, as to everyone's horror, she began to fall apart. Her glasses fell off her face allowing Ash to look her in the eye before she completely disintegrated.
"I was there you know" Jasper monologued to Steven "i was there during first war for this garbage planet, i fought your armies, i respected your tactics, but this" she lifted Steven by the collar of his shirt "this is sick! Look around you Rose, your base taken, your armies decimated, YOU HAVE FAILED!" and with that, Jasper smashed her head into Steven's making an audible cracking noise. Steven slumped down unconscious as Jasper dropped him.
Peridot began firing green lasers from her robotic arms at Pearl and Amethyst, leaving Ash alone to face Jasper. After seeing just how insane Jasper was, Ash felt he had no choice as he pulled out all five of his remaining pokeballs and summoned them all at once.
"STARAPTOR, BRAVE BIRD! CHARIZARD, FLAMETHROWER! SCEPTILE, LEAF BLADE! PIKACHU, IRON TAIL! GLALIE, ICE BEAM! GRENINJA, WATER SHURIKEN!" he commanded his friends to use all at once.
Jasper grabbed Staraptor by the throat and began to squeeze. Before she could finish the bird off, Sceptile began slashing at the gem, using her free hand, she grabbed Sceptile as well using both pokemon as a shield against the flamethower and ice beam. She then threw them at Charizard, who dodged it, and Glalie, who was struck. Charizard then tried a bite attack with Pikachu's iron tail, Jasper grabbed Charizard by his face, nearly breaking the pokemon's jaw, and threw him as well. Pikachu swung his tail while Jasper's back was turned, she was taken off guard by his small stature and actually knelt down in pain.
"Alright Greninja, finish this!" with that, Greninja glowed a blue light until he assumed his Ashninja form and summoned a large star of water throwing it at the downed Jasper. But as it reached her, to his shock, it stopped and began to turn around back at him. He saw Lapis's arm reached out, a look of guilt was on her face and he heard her say "i'm sorry Ash" before the blast struck Greninja, Pikachu and himself. He felt an immense pain in his stomach, he couldn't tell if it was from Lapis's betrayal or from the actual blow, but he knew he was in bad condition. As he fell into unconsciousness, he witnessed Lapis being thanked by Jasper with another blow to the face. She lifted her up and carried her to the ship as Ash felt his eyes close and he lost all consciousness. A slew of emotions running through him that he couldn't identify.