Yes that is correct, I've combined three episodes into one! The reasoning behind this madness is because "Love Letters", "Joyride" and "Catch and Release" are three of my favorite episodes from season two, and i really wanted to have Ash experience all these stories before the drill building arc. So I do apologize for the length of this chapter. *I DO NOT ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS OF STEVEN UNIVERSE OR POKEMON*
Greg had given Ash a few days off work knowing he was going through a traumatic experience. He was currently on the beach with Amethyst and Pearl picking up pieces of the destroyed ship. Garnet, on the other hand, was in the ocean searching for Lapis and Jasper, Ash had sent Greninja to go with her. Sceptile and Charizard were really the ones lifting heavy blocks, Ash was put on Steven watch by Pearl. He had been helping lift smaller pieces before Connie showed up and asked to hang out. Because he was technically in charge of Steven he allowed it while Pearl and Amethyst were off on the other side of the beach. Ash was also working picking up on the opposite side of the cliff the Temple was located.
"Good job Charizard and Sceptile, i think that's the last of the pieces in this section. I'd better go check on Steven before Pearl finds out i left him." He returned the two back into their balls and turned around to quickly reach the foot of Steven's front porch. He saw Steven and Connie talking to the mailman, there was a large pile of packages in front of them.
"Hey guys" he said "you order something Steven?"
"Yep, Ash this is Jamie"
"hey " he said shaking the teenage mailman's hand
"Greetings Ash" Jamie the mailman said in a dramatic tone
There was a small awkward pause as Jamie made the handshake longer than it should've been. Despite the oddness of him, he seemed to be a nice guy.
"Oh hey it's Garnet" Connie said breaking the silence
"Whose Gar-" Jamie began to ask as he turned to watch Garnet and Greninja exit the water. Ash returned the water frog into its pokeball thanking him for his work.
"Any luck finding her?" Ash asked her despite already knowing the answer
"Not yet, and i searched the bottom of the ocean for at least the past 5 miles"
"How, how did you swim to the bottom of the ocean?" Jamie bumbled
"It was easy" Garnet answered "i'm a really. Good. swimmer"
Ash turned to see Jamie looking at Garnet with his eyes expanded greatly, his knees were shaking, and his face was turning a bright pink. He was giving Garnet a look Ash had seen a million times before on Brock, "oh no" he thought to himself as he expected the mailman to get down on his knees, professing his love for her, the Croagunk would poison jab him or Misty or Max would drag him off by the ear. But instead, Jaime just stared at her with the same look on his face.
"Well i better get back to helping pick up these pieces." the leader of the Crystal Gems said as she turned back to the beach.
Jamie stayed until she was gone and balled his fist into the air dramatically looking at the sky. "Oh yea that's a Brock moment alright" he thought watching the mailman take his sign sheet and leave.
"We'd better all get back to cleaning" he said turning to Steven.
"Alright see ya later Steven" Connie said.
They worked far into the day removing the debris. Afterward, for Steven and Ash's sake, the Gems decided to call it a day and sent them both home once the sun started to set. Ash was having absolutely no sleep that night knowing Peridot could be watching, so he decided to walk the beach for as long as possible before he got tired, he found himself walking all the way back to the Temple. Looking up, he saw two figures walking around the outside of Steven's house looking in. Thinking they were trying to break into his house, Ash and Pikachu knelt down and crept along the edge from a distance. They both walked to Steven's bedroom window and began throwing something at it. Ash decided now was the best time to strike, jumping out at the two and began throwing punches. He found his hits being blocked by a pizza box.
"Jeez what's up with you man?" the one holding the pizza box asked him in a deep voice.
"Guys?" he heard Steven ask them all from his window
"Steven, do you know these guys?"
"Yea they're my friends"
"Oh," he said turning to to two teens "sorry guys i thought you were trying to break in"
"It's alright" the other one said in a monotone voice, it's pretty cool knowing you care about Steven that much."
Looking at the two teens, Ash could've sworn he was looking at Garnet and Pearl as they both looked almost exactly like them.
"Name's Buck" the one who looked like Garnet said
"They call me Sour Cream" the Pearl lookalike holding the pizza box said. Ash couldn't tell if that was a nickname or his actual name
"I'm Ash, and this is Pikachu" he said
"We were just trying to make him laugh" Buck said "I wanted to make him laugh, in the pizza rain"
"Is that a reference?"
Buck basically ignored him "we were gonna see if you wanted to hang out. You're friend can come to, he seems pretty cool"
"But it's night time, night is for dreaming"
"Night's really just whatever you want it to be" Sour Cream responded "times and illusion"
"You're done working for the rest of the day right?" Buck asked him, "well now it's time for Steven to be Steven, and Ash to be Ash and have fun with their friends," This actually sounded really good to Ash, he didn't know many teenagers living in Beach City besides Lars, Sadie and Jamie, Sadie and Jamie were nice, but they weren't really people he would hang out with, and he already knew he didn't like Lars, but Buck and Sour Cream seemed like nice guys, and they seemed fun to hang out with to.
"Sure, i'm down to hang if Steven is"
"Cool, let's have some fun" Buck said "Jenny's waiting for us in the car"
The four boys walked down the porch and Ash was greeted to the sight of a convertible sitting in the road away from the beach, he saw another teenage girl sitting in the driver's seat. The car itself was decorated to look like and actual slice of pizza, he had seen the same car sitting in the parking lot of Fishstew pizza the day Peridot attacked, the day he lost Lapis. "No, stop thinking about her" he said in his head, "you're here now, you're going to have fun with your new friends"
"Hey whatup Steven!" he heard a girl's voice from the car, he assumed she must be Jenny, "hey i know you!" she said referring to Ash "you work at the carwash don't you?"
"Yea i do. I'm Ash"
"Jenny"
"So i take it you work at Fishstew?"
"Yea, my dad's the owner, so i get to use the car. Hop in guys!"
They let Steven ride shotgun with Jenny, Ash sat in the back between Sour Cream and Buck.
"Buckle up boys" she said as she drove the group from Steven's home, through the city into the surrounding farmland
"Breathe deep Steven!" Buck said "it's the smell of freedom!"
Steven took a deep breath in "freedom smells like pepperoni", he said referring to the pizza smell coming from the pizza stench.
They all laughed before Sour Cream stepped in "you know what food doesn't smell like freedom? Fish"
"What do you mean?" Ash asked him
"Oh boy, here we go" Jenny said
"I just don't get what's wrong with wanting to be a DJ, but my step dad was all on my case today again saying "WRA WRA WRA WRA!" Don't you see i don't want to be a fisherman stepdad! Everyone knows you can't rave in a raincoat"
Before Ash could ask him why he had said what his step dad had told him the way he did, Buck stepped in
"At least he's only on you about one thing, my dad is on me about everything because I'm the mayor's son. And i'm like you can't tell me what to do, because i'm the mayor's. Wait" he said as he realized he contradicted himself.
"Well you don't know what it's like to have a sister. I don't understand why I have to always explain how I'm the evil twin and she's the good one. Like don't ask me for help with your stupid homework, I'm at a metal concert."
"That's tough" Steven said "a while ago, my dad and the Gems grounded me from TV"
"Hey I didn't ground you and I'm a gem now to" Ash corrected him
"Well yea, but you get what i'm saying Ash, and besides, recently
"Well yeah, but you get what I mean Ash. Besides, recently, i found out them Gems are all alien rebels of an alien race that wants us dead because they think we're they took me hostage because they thought i was my mom, which i guess i kind of am? I wish i could talk to Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl about it but i think they blame me for not having her around anymore."
The car went dead silent. "That's heavy" Jenny said.
"Well since we're sharing" Buck said "you got anything you want to get off your chest Ash?"
He thought if he wanted to share what had been bothering him with complete strangers, but the others shared their grievances, and they all seemed to support each other so Ash felt comfortable telling them. "Well earlier this month, Steven and I saved this alien girl from a mirror prison, she was the reason why the ocean disappeared on spring break. anyway , she started flirting with me i guess, and next thing i know i'm head over heels for her. Then she leaves to go back to space, and returns with those aliens that kidnapped Steven he mentioned. I tried so hard to get her to make the right decision, and eventually she did, but now she's imprisoned again, and this time i can't help her. Even worse she's now trapped with a person who hurts her, hurt Steven, hurt me. And the worst part is, i can never tell her how i feel about her, not now."
"Wait!" Steven exclaimed, "you love Lapis!?"
"Pika!?" pikachu, who was sitting in his trainer's lap
"That's right, you two weren't there when i confessed it to Amethyst"
"You told Amethyst but not me?"
"She basically already knew" he shrugged
"Well i definitely don't envy you two" Jenny said from the front
"Yea if i had to go through what you are, I'd turn to fishing just like tha- THAT!" Sour Cream shouted pointing into the cornfield next to the road causing Jenny to slam on the breaks
"WHAT!? WHAT DID I HIT!?" she screamed with great concern
"Glowing" he said pointing to the thing he was seeing. There was a green colored glow from the field. "Let's check it out"
They drove into the unfenced crop as far as they could before they reached a clearing with a large crater in the center. In the crater was a green spacecraft.
"That's Peridot's ship!" Steven said getting to the edge to get a better look. Sour Cream threw a rock at it.
"Ok we'd better get out of here" Ash said looking around out of fear the green gem could attack at any minute.
"Aw come on Ash this thing is so cool!" Jenny said as she took a few selfies with it. "Steven get in on these"
He watched Steven get into the crater nervously with the other teens and began taking selfies with them, slowly losing his nervousness about it
"Ash really it's empty. Come on take one with us"
Ash found himself wanting to, yet he felt the need to check to make sure Peridot wasn't around before he could let his guard down. "In a minute, i've got to take a wizz" he said as he retreated into the surrounding forest. He walked around the entire perimeter of the fence before coming across a clearing with a few tall bushes surrounding it. In the darkness he could've sworn he saw a triangle shaped object duck into them. Not wanting to alert Peridot of his presence, he didn't allow to shock her, instead he grabbed a large tree branch and approached the bush he saw it go into. He felt his heartbeat speed up as he was about to bash the branch into the bush, but he stopped when he saw a large, diamond shaped flare appear in the sky from the field. He turned to the bush and said "i know you're in there, consider this your lucky day" as he put the branch down and headed to the field.
The escape pod was operating. It was shooting lasers, missiles and some sort of mystery goo at the three teens, who were running for their lives scurrying around the field. He also saw that the rest of the Gems were there now as well.
"What did you guys do?" Ash demanded to know.
"I dared Steven to get into it, then it started shooting at us, and then they showed up!"
Ash turned and saw to his horror that the gems were attacking the pod, with Steven in it. "Guys stop!" he screamed to no avail as Amethyst grabbed it with her whip and Garnet began pulling it closer to her to deliver the finishing blow.
"STAY OFF MY PLANET!" she shouted as she began to swing her gauntlet into the machine. Ash leapt in to try and defend Steven, but Jenny had already beaten him to it.
"STOP!" she said getting between the fist on the ship "Steven's in there"
Taking a closer look, Garnet threw smashed open the pod, freeing Steven from his gooey prison.
"What were you doing in there Steven?!" Pearl shouted
"Yea we almost sliced and diced you" Amethyst said
"Steven I'm very disappointed in you" Garnet said
"Hey lay off him!" Jenny screamed getting between the Gems and Steven
"It's not his fault!" Buck added joining her
"Just let him be a DJ!" Sour Cream shouted at them temporarily forgetting whose guardians they were yelling at "we just wanted Steven and Ash to have some fun! I don't know about how Steven being his own mom works, or Ash's dream girl being at the bottom of the ocean works, but it sounds like they've got a lot on their minds"
"I'm sure what you're having them do is important, but everyone needs a break once in awhile" Jenny concurred
"They've got a point guys" Ash finished the argument out
The Gems turned to each other "maybe we have been really hard on him lately" Pearl suggested
"Plush Steven did just break us out of Space Jail" Amethyst agreed
"Steven, you're ungrounded" Garnet said after a brief silence
The group took a few selfies on Jenny's phone until they told Steven it was time for bed, as the Gems technically had no power over Ash, he decided to continue hanging out with the cool kids a little longer, joining them at the 24 hour taco truck down by the Beach City pier. Looking at Jenny's phone he saw it was close to midnight. After scarfing down his fourth taco, Ash felt something was incredibly wrong, and it wasn't the four extra large tacos with extra guacamole he had eaten. He wished his new friends a goodnight as he began going home to the barn, but he still felt in his gut that something was terribly wrong. He walked down to Steven's house and slowly opened the door, just in time to see the Gems rushing to the warp pad. A heavy storm began to roll in as it began to rain.
"I felt something was wrong" Ash told them "what's wrong?"
"STEVEN'S GONE MISSING!" Pearl screamed
"And someone used the warp pad" Garnet added
"It must've been Peridot" he realized "She must have followed us from the field"
"Stay here while the rest of us go after her, in case Steven comes back" Garnet commanded him. And with that, they were gone leaving Ash and Pikachu all alone in the temple. He sat down on the couch and waited.
After nearly thirty minutes, the warp pad began glowing, and he saw the Gems, with Steven, return.
"Steven are you ok!?" he asked his friend with concern "wait, where's Peridot?"
"Garnet took her down with the "bear hug of doom!" Amethyst exclaimed excitedly, "now we've got her in the bubble room"
Ash looked at his short friend "you alright bud?"
"Yea, i'm fine. I'm gonna go to bed" he said in an odd tone.
After he left the room, the rest of the Gems sat down at the kitchen table discussing their next move "one down, two to go" Pearl said. "Our next strategy should be to locate Malachite"
"And rescue Lapis" Ash added
The Gems looked at each other, then back at Ash. "Ash" Garnet said "Fusion is a complicated process, if two gems are completely compatible together, like Ruby and Sapphire, then the long term fusion is stable and in sync, but Lapis and Jasper, they are definitely not compatible with each other, Malachite is unstable, even with Lapis in control. And the effects that will have on the gems fused. Lapis and Jasper will might not be like how you remember them."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm just saying, Lapis might not be herself the next time we see her. I'm not saying that she will be, but i am saying that she might be hostile, she could not remember you, she could even be irreversibly insane"
Before Ash could process this new information about fusion, he heard a running sound from behind him, then a familiar, nasally voice shouted "FREEDOM IS MINE!" Quickly turning around, he saw Peridot standing with her back facing them. She slowly turned to look at the gems with a terrified look on her face.
"Wait!" Steven shouted getting between them, but it was too late. THe gems drew their weapons and assumed battle positions. "RETREAT!" Peridot screamed as she got down on all fours and scurried to the door, only to find Pearl and Garnet blocking it. She then tried the window in Steven's room, only to find Amethyst blocking that, she lept down from the room, landing face first on the floor. Ash knew he couldn't use his pokemon out of fear he'd hit Steven or the Gems, so he took the opportunity, and leapt on top of her, pinning her to the floor. To get a better grip, he moved his elbow across her face. An act he regretted, as Peridot sunk her teeth into his arm.
"AH!" he screamed in pain, punching the little green gem in the face trying to get her off. Eventually she let go, and scurried into the bathroom, closing the door.
Garnet, Amethyst and Steven crowded around the bathroom door while Pearl examined the bite mark on Ash's arm
"Yo Ash did she actually just bite you?" Amethyst asked her with a small grin
"YES SHE BIT ME!" he screamed in rage at his friend "this isn't gonna get infected or something is it Pearl?"
"Of course not, Gems can't carry diseases" she assured Ash.
Once the swelling died, they joined the group surrounding the bathroom. They could hear the toilet flushing from inside
"If you're trying to flush yourself down the toilet, it won't work, trust me i've tried" Amethyst told her through the door.
"How did she escape?" Pearl asked
"It was me" Steven confessed "i freed her"
"WHAT!?" they all said in union "why?"
"Because she knows something, something that's made her scared"
"We duh, homegirl knows we were gonna mash her to a green pancake" Amethyst snarked
"Amen to that" Ash agreed
"Not cuz of us! Something called, the Cluster!"
"That's new" Garnet remarked
"THAT'S RIGHT YOU DIRT BOMBS! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S COMING!" Peridot barked from behind the bathroom door
"I'd hate to say it, but if she has information, the only way we'll be able to get it, is to keep her like this"
"Wait we're just gonna let her live in my bathroom?" Steven asked
"Well have you any other ideas?"
"She could live at the barn with Ash" he suggested
"Yeah. no" Ash immediately shot down the idea.
"Steven, you better go off to bed, we'll all discuss this in the morning" Garnet said sending him to his room Ash decided to stay behind and sleep on the couch.
"I thought she was taller," he asked Pearl before she entered her room
"She was, those robot limbs weren't part of her, those were simply enhancements to protect a powerless, pathetic, little Gem."
"I HEARD THAT!" Peridot screamed
Pearl and Amethyst retreated to their rooms, Ash began assembling blankets on the couch, although with his recurring Lapis nightmare combined with Peridot was a mere few feet away, he doubted he would get any sleep that night. Garnet tucked Steve in and kissed his forehead goodnight. She wished Ash goodnight as well, but before she could leave to her room as well, they all heard a familiar voice outside in the rain
"GARNET!" the voice shouted "GARNET! WHERE ART THOU MY SWEET SCORCHING SUNBEAM!?" they heard the voice of Jamie the mailman outside. Steven and Ash ran to the porch to see him, in his uniform standing in the rain, professing his love to the Gem
"What did you and Connie say to him?" Ash angrily asked Steven causing the boy to look at him in shame
"Garnet! I've read thine letter and i understand! Thou hast returneth mine heart! You like mine hair just as i adore yours!"
"I like you hair to Jamie, do you wanna marry me?" Ash shouted sarcastically at the pathetic Shakespearian mailman.
"Ah young masters Ashton and Steven. Pray thee, where is Garnet?"
"She's not coming! Jamie you don't understand!' by this time Garnet had joined them outside
"You've come! You can tell them all the beautiful things that you wrote to me in your missive!" he said as he removed a piece of paper from his pocket
"I didn't write that" she nonchalantly said
"Connie and I wrote that letter Jamie! We just wanted to let you down easy!" Steven confessed
"Wilt thou not scorch me mine darling sun?" he asked Garnet one last time
"I will not. Nor will i ever be interested." Garnet told him, the mailman's eyes became clouded with tears, he shouted something Ash didn't understand, and ran off crying. The trio walked back inside the house as Ash got back onto the couch bed. Garnet looked at Steven, then left without saying a word.
"Who was that clod?" the boys heard Peridot ask from the bathroom.
"Nothing" Ash screamed to the bathroom. Truthfully, he was more worried than ever, Peridot was now their prisoner, this Cluster they now had to worry about, the information Garnet gave him about Malachite, but even worse was how Jamie had acted to Garnet and the parallels he noticed about him and Lapis, and Jamie and Garnet. Was he really acting like that over her? Even if Lapis did think he was attractive, did she really feel the same as he did about her?
"Today was crazy" was all he could say to Pikachu before he began his Peridot watch for the night, while Steven slept feeling guilty about what he had done