APRIL? APRIL!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I have to wait for new episodes of Steven Universe for (at the time of posting this) three months? I'm so happy I decided to get the Lapis arch going on earlier than planned or I'd be screwed. Oh by the way new episodes of Steven Universe are coming in April. This chapter will also cover a bit of a plot hole I accidentally created a few chapters ago. *I DO NOT OWN EITHER POKEMON OR STEVEN UNIVERSE*
The heels of Blue Zircon echoed throughout the hallway of the Homewold palace as she approached her destination. Once she took a few deep breaths she entered the court of the Diamonds. Now trusted confidant of Blue Diamond, she watched as the meeting took place.
"Report Agate" Yellow Diamond commanded to projected message from Holly Blue Agate.
"My dear, gracious-"
"If you call me anything other than "my Diamond" from here on out, I will have you shattered!" Yellow finally exclaimed in impatience.
Holly Blue cleared her throat, "yes my Diamond. Jasper's strategy of taking down the Sinnoh region one city at a time is working perfectly your clarity, at this rate the entire region shall belong to us within a matter of days."
"For Jasper's sake, it better be. What news from the other lieutenants Aquamarine?"
"Hessonite is about to approach Mount Coronet to randevu with Jasper and Holly Blue. While Emerald is personally handling one of the, many, thorns in our sides as of recently."
"And you Giovanni, what news you bring of your modification of our master plan?"
"We will soon have to wait no longer, I have the best pokemon poacher hot on the trail to both Xerneas and Yveltal. Soon they shall be within our grasp and at our disposal."
He was interrupted by a loud explosion. He, Blue Zircon and a few other members of the high court ran towards the main hangar to investigate. They were greeted to the sight of the main warp pad used to transport the larger numbers of their troops to the Pokemon world was now burning to rubble. The leader of Team Rocket furiously pinned Zircon to the wall.
"Of memory serves, you have questioned the Great Diamond Authority in the past during the trial of the fat kid. Forgive me for roused suspicion of you being responsible for this."
She gulped nervously "I had absolutely no involvement in this act of sabotage, and I'm quite frankly insulted you immediately suspect myself of this act of would be treason!"
Giovanni seemed to believe it too, and released his grip on her, returning to the Diamonds to inform them of the bad news that inevitably set back the entire invasion. Truthfully, Blue Zircon had nothing to do with the demolition of the transportation pad. As she struggled to think exactly how she was now going to free Misty and Brock, something that was caught in the explosion caught her eye, it was the quick claw belonging to Hessonite.
Nearly all day, Steven paced back and forth impatiently like a kid on Christmas Eve. This was because, today was the day that he along with Ash and Connie, were going to surprise Lars by visiting him through Lion's mane.
"Geez Steven, it's not like Lars is going anywhere," Ash told him as they finished getting the care package Mr. and Mrs. Barriga put together for their starcrossed son.
"I know, I'm just really excited to be able to see them all again. Oh, what's taking Connie so long?"
The front door suddenly swung open, and Connie, donned in her sword inherited from Rose by her side. "Sorry I'm late, my dad kind of misplaced my sword while he was vacuuming and I had to turn my house upside down to find it. I hope I'm not too late."
"Nope, we're just about to head out." Ash answered her.
"Then let's go!" she said practically pushing him out the door to Lion, "Steven, come on!"
"Sorry," he said joining them with the care package in his hands, "just had to make sure I had everything. I bet you Lars will appreciate this package his parents put together for him. And MC Bear Bear to hug if he gets scared."
"I'm so excited we're finally going to have a space adventure all together. Steven, Ash and Connie-"
"PIKA!" Pikachu interrupted her, upset about being forgotten yet again.
"And Pikachu too,"
"I'm not too sure if this is going to be an adventure." Steven interjected, "Last time we saw Lars, May and Dawn they were huddled up in a dark cave fighting Jasper to defend some other Homeworld fugitives."
"Oh yeah," Connie said coming back down to reality. "Well, me and Doublade are ready for anything."
Now that the group was all prepared, they all approached the sleeping Lion on the opposite side of the porch. "Lion? You ready?"
The gentle giant slowly opened his eyes and lazily stood up. He then rolled over onto his back making a purring noise to expose his mane to them. Just as the three were overcome with the adorableness of the big cat's act, they quickly remembered their mission and shook it off.
"We have to stay on task." Steven told them, "everyone take a deep breath." The trio then took each other's hand and began to step into the void of Lion's mane. The bright light of the dimension of Lion's mane overtook them as the two boys lead Connie towards the pink oak tree across the matching pink tall grass. Once they reached their destination, the trio ducked down out the portal through Lars's hair. Instead of falling onto the ground of the caverns of Homeworld, they struck a hard floor.
"Steven? Ash?" their pink skinned friend asked looking very confused. Looking up at him, Lars now wore cape of sorts and was sitting in a large chair in the middle of the green, light room with May and Dawn both standing by his side.
"Lars?" Steven asked just as confused.
"May? Dawn?"
"IT'S OVER!" a voice neither recognized screamed. Turning around, they all saw the face of a Gem neither Steven or Ash knew staring at them from a monitor with furry in her face. "I've got you now you miserable off colors!"
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE US ALIVE EMERALD!" Lars exclaimed with a cocky smile.
"What is going on?" Steven asked.
"Captain," Padparadscha "predicted" from her seat in front of the others, "I'm having a vision! We're about to be discovered by Emerald!"
"Wait, Captain!?" Steven, Connie and Ash all excitedly asked.
"Thanks Padparadscha," Lars said sitting back down, "Flourite, how are the engines looking?"
They all turned to see the largest of the group ducking into a lower deck. "Let. Me. Check" the leisurely fusion of six slowly told them.
""Twins, fire up the nova thrusters!"
Sitting at the main control deck, the Rutile Twins began pushing buttons. "Yes Captain!" The left twin answered.
"Right away Captain!" The right twin complemented.
"NO!" Emerald screamed at them through the screen, "those are MY nova thrusters! That is MY ship!"
But Lars just ignored her all together, "Rhodonite, everything clear up ahead?" he gently asked the most sensitive member of the group.
"For now" she nervously answered him.
"It was a minor inconvenience when you stole my personal shuttle right in front of me and crashed it on Upsilon 9. It was an insult when you all impersonated imperial officers during a cosmic jubilee. But to steal my Sun Incinerator is UNACCEPTABLE!" Emerald continued to rant, Ash noting how the others were all giggling and mocking her as she continued her rant.
"If this ship means so much to you," Lars retorted, "maybe you shouldn't have left it unguarded in the docking bay of Klavius 7."
"THERE WERE SIXTY SEVEN ELITE CITRINES GUARDING IT!"
Lars looked at her a bit puzzled, "Oh. I didn't see them. No wait, I did!" he exclaimed returning to his smug look. "They didn't see us!"
Ash, still extremely confused as to what either was talking about, saw Emerald beginning to sweat with anger.
"I'll get you! I'll get you myself! I'll do it right now! I'll blow you all up to smithereens!"
"Good luck catching us. We stole your fastest ship!"
"The. Engines. Are. All. Set." Fluorite announced from the lower deck.
"Twins, hyperspeed us out of here!" Lars commanded.
"YOU WILL NOT GO AT HYPERSPEED!" Emerald screamed.
Lars rose his fists up, still with his smile on, cocked his fingers into guns, and said "Bingo, bongo" a final insult to his enemy.
"OFF COLORS!" Emerald screamed with a furry Ash hadn't seen since Jasper, before the signal keeping her on the screen was cut as the spaceship they were in jumped to hyperspeed.
Lars breathed a sigh of relief, "Man she's been on my tail since Sector 4, that's like three sectors ago, get over it right?" he joked.
"Lars!" Steven exclaimed hugging his friend. "I have so many questions! Uh, where'd you get this ship? And more importantly, where'd you get that cape?"
Lars chuckled, "Stole 'em"
"Steven. Ash." Fluorite asked rising up from the engine room, "Is. That. A. New. Friend?"
"Yeah! I'm Connie, happy to be aboard." she answered her with a salute. "So, you all must be Lars's crew."
"Oh, they're more than that. Without them, I'd still be stuck in a cave on the Gem Homeworld. They were able to figure out a way off that lame old planet. And Jasper would've totally caught us had it not been for May and Dawn."
"Well we never would have been able to steal a ship without Lars." Rhodonite said from her post, "He can slip past the scanners undetected."
"Her name is Connie." Padparadscha said.
"After we stole Emerald's personal shuttle we got off Homeworld and began to search for our families." Dawn explained, "during that time, in addition to stealing this ship from Emerald, we found out Homeworld was lying to us. They never had our families, I doubt they even know where they even were in the first place."
"And now a few stolen ships and a few other space crimes later, we're finally on a course towards Earth!" Lars excitedly explained. "You and Lapis won't have to wait for long, as the guest of honor, that'd be me, will be home soon." he said referring to the last thing Ash had promised him just before they went their separate ways.
"Oh that reminds me," Dawn asked with a look of excitement, "how'd the proposal go? What did she say? Be honest, how romantic was it?"
Steven, Pikachu and Connie turned towards Ash worried about how he was going to react. The defeated look he gave them was more than enough of an answer.
"Oh my gosh Ash, I'm so sorry that she said "no".
"It's not that Dawn, she actually said "yes." The problem is that Jasper is relentless, and sent a posse of Team Rocket agents, who happened to be old friends with an Axew to grind against me. So she ran, and left me behind."
"Gosh" Lars said not knowing what else to say.
"I'm so sorry Ash" Dawn said giving her old friend a hug with tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Don't be, Lapis still loves me as much as I love her, and she's now in the Sinnoh region with Cynthia trying to get back to me. Hopefully she'll return by the same time you guys get back to Earth."
As Pikachu and Dawn's Piplup reunited with each other and began communicating in their own language, Steven handed Lars his care package from his parents.
"Ash, we need to talk." May finally spoke up with a squeeze on his shoulder, "alone." She lead him away from the others down the ship towards another dashboard. "What I'm about to tell you I hope to keep between you and me, Dawn cannot know. I pass the time playing with this," she said presenting the board to him, "over time I discovered it's a communication pad of sorts. Yesterday I found a frequency from our friend Jasper, and I just thought you should know." Once she pushed a button, Jasper's voice came over the line.
"Tear Twinleaf Town to pieces!" the recording stated, "Find Lapis at any cost!"
The order ran his blood ice cold. "Twinleaf Town is in the Sinnoh Region, and I believe Dawn and her family are from there right?"
He nodded, but before he could think about how Jasper was uncomfortably close to Lapis again, an alarm rang throughout the entire ship. Rejoining the others on the bridge, he saw Lars was looking down at Steven's phone and crying in his seat with a large "WARNING" sign displaying all over the room.
"What's going on?" Connie asked.
"Captain Lars!" Rhodonite exclaimed, "a huge battleship is approaching fast! It'll be here in just five quads. What are your orders?"
"I don't believe this" Ash heard the once confident Lars say in a devastated tone still looking down at the phone. He now saw that he was looking at a photo of Sadie and his other friends together. "How the hell is she having such a good time without me?! Does she even know I freaking died out here?" he angrily asked completely ignoring the alarm.
Steven looked at him completely shocked "what? Of course she does! She's been worried sick!"
"Already three quads away!"
"What should we do?" Connie approached Rhodonite hopping for an answer.
"We could drop out of warp and ambush them, but that might be too risky. Or maybe we find a nearby planet to hide on? AH! I'm just not sure!" Rhodonite panicked.
"What do you usually do?"
"Usually?" the star crossed fusion continued to panic, "Usually we just follow Captain Lars's orders!"
"Captain Lars has taken so many risks on our behalf." Rutile retorted, "We need him!"
"Oh no! The warning alarm! We're in danger!" Padparadscha again "predicted".
"Do you hear that?" Steven asked grabbing his phone away from Lars, "your crew needs you!"
"You don't get it do you Steven?" he asked sounding rather upset "It should be me. I'm the one that should be hanging out with the cool kids! She's getting back at me for everything I've done!" he screamed while also crying.
"Do you really think Sadie is living her life just to get back at you?" Connie asked sounding incredibly offended.
"Why else would she be having so much fun without me?"
"Lars, of all the times you could've chosen to go back to your selfish ways, right now is the worst possible time!" Ash scolded his friend.
"Listen Lars," Steven finally spoke up, "life goes on, no matter what happens. Sadie was so upset when she found out you'd be stuck in space! She really misses you, they really miss you, but none of them can stay sad forever. She started hanging out with the cool kids. She quit the Big Donut all because she needed something to make her feel better."
"And look at you!" Connie added "Steven and Ash told me you'd be hiding in some dark cave on Homeworld, but you're not. You're out here fighting for freedom with your new friends in tow! Are you doing this to hurt Sadie?"
"No! I'm doing this because I have to. I'd never do this to hurt her. Because-"
"Because you're best friends!" Steven and Connie both exclaimed together as they fused.
"And best friends wouldn't do anything to hurt each other."
Before anyone could respond, Rhodonite got up and screamed in fear "It's here! An imperial warship has just caught up to us!"
"What?" Ash asked.
"Put them on screen!" Lars ordered while trying to recollect himself.
Rhodonite followed his order and put the approaching war ship on the screen. It resembled an enormous triangle like Peridot. "The Destiny Destroyer! Their main weapons are pointed right at us!"
Lars's smug smile from before returned. "Pulling out the big guns just for us huh? I'm almost flattered, With a ship like that, Emerald could wipe us all out in an instant. If she really wanted to."
"OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO!"
"Incoming message from the Destiny Destroyer!" Left Rutile announced.
"Put her on screen Rhodonite! May, Dawn, get the ship battle ready just in case!"
The screen turned back to Emerald laughing with glee, "did you really think I wasn't going to be able to track my own ship? The Sun Incinerator's specialized nova thrusters give off an energy signature I could recognize from the other side of the galaxy. Now surrender to me or be destroyed!"
Lars scoffed at her demands. "I'd never surrender to you! Blow us into stardust like you've always dreamt of".
Emerald only looked surprised at the group "V-very well then. Prepare yourselves for destruction!"
Ash truly hadn't felt fear in a long time, but faced with the prospect of what Lars was goading Emerald to do stirred a fear within him he hadn't felt in his life.
"Lars, what are you doing?!"
"Trust me, we'll be just fine. Now lower the shields!"
"But-" Rhodonite began to protest.
"The destroyer's weapons are charged at 90%" Left Rutile interrupted her.
"They're preparing to open fire!" Right Rutile joined her.
"Lower the shields! That's an order!"
Rhodonite gulped, "lowering shields"
Ash felt May grab onto his hand and squeeze it hard in nervousness. He squeezed back in a sign of support as they braced themselves. Stevonnie and Dawn joined them in a four way hug as Emerald fired. But when the lasers struck the ship, nothing happened.
"We're still, alive?" Dawn asked out loud.
"Twins, what's our status?"
"Our weapons and shields have been knocked offline, but other than that we're fine"
"But how? Why did the lasers barley graze us?" May asked.
"Emerald is about to attack! But she's going to miss on purpose!" Padparadscha exclaimed.
"Bingo bongo" Lars said in a conniving tone.
The front monitor buzzed and Emerald returned to the screen. "What do you think you're doing!?"
Her question was answered by Lars laughing in a mocking tone, "you really do have a heart don't you Emerald?"
"W-what?"
"You're not going to hurt this ship! You love this ship! It's your best friend. You'd much rather let get away than destroy it." Ash was honestly impressed by how much more confident Lars now was.
"Wow Lars I missed you" Stevonnie said.
Emerald balled her fist in rage, "you're right about that. I won't destroy my beautiful ship. But I will make it so you can't get away. Aim for their nova thrusters!" Under her order, the Destiny Destroyer began to fire at the smaller ship in an attempt to cripple it.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Lars ordered "If only our weapons were online."
"I think she's got us this time!" Right Rutile said in defeat.
"Unless we use that" the captain proclaimed.
"That!?" Rhodonite asked nervously.
"Not. That!" Fluorite slowly exclaimed from the lower deck.
"What's that?" both Ash and Stevonnie asked at once.
"The captain's experimental fighter jet that only he knows how to drive, but it's too risky!" Rhodonite explained.
"We're out of options"
"But Lars, your crew needs you on the ship!" Ash protested.
"You got a better idea Ash?"
"Captain Lars!" Stevonnie exclaimed with a salute, "permission to go in your place. If it's anything like driving a car I should be fine!"
"Permission granted! Take out Emerald's main cannons while we get our weapon systems and shields back online!"
"If Stevonnie goes, I go to!" Ash insisted, taking his place by their side. Then May took her place by Ash's side.
"Then I'm going with you!"
"I'm going to!" Dawn insisted.
"No!" May protested taking everyone else off guard. "Dawn, I need you to stay here with Lars and the others, they'll need you without me and these guys."
"May, you know I'm more than capable of-"
Before she could continue, May unexpectedly placed her hand softly her shoulder and pleadingly looked her in the eyes. "Please Dawn, just do this for me."
Dawn looked her in the eyes and gave an understanding nod, "okay." was all she could muster.
"Only one problem, there's barely enough room for two people let alone three and a Pikachu."
"Well I think I can come up with a way to lighten the load," Ash proclaimed taking May's arm softly. May quickly caught on and allowed the two to tango spin together, and after he caught her, the two fused. Now standing before them, was a seven foot tall humanoid with four arms, four eyes, May's red bandanna underneath their red cap similar to Ash's. They had a coffee brown outfit and a cream colored skin tone.
"Tiger's Eye" Stevonnie whispered in astonishment at the Ash and May fusion standing before them.
"Pika!" Pikachu exclaimed hopping onto Tigers Eye's shoulder and pointing towards their belt of pokeballs.
"What's up buddy?" they asked their pokemon.
"I think Pikachu wants to go with you guys no matter what, even if it means having to get into his hated pokeball." Dawn explained.
"Are you sure Pikachu?"
"Pika!" The determined pokemon nodded.
After returning Pikachu to his pokeball, Stevonnie and Tiger's Eye were absorbed into a chute through the floor.
"Fluorite, how long till we have full power back on our shields and weapons?" Lars's voice echoed across an intercom.
"Give. Me. Five. Minutes." The largest of the group answered him.
"Can they really fly it?" they both heard Rodonite ask.
"If anyone can fly it, I'm sure it's friends of our captain!" Rutile decreed.
"Good luck guys, come back to me" Dawn joked.
The two fusions dropped into a cramped space with a steering wheel, a gear shift and a series of monitors. "Woah, it is like a car"
Lars and Padarascha's faces appeared on the monitor "we'll watch your backs while you take out their guns! No launch!"
"Captain Lars is about to give the order to launch!"
"I know we just met and all Tiger's Eye, but you ready to do this?"
Tiger's Eye chuckled, "I was literally born ready."
The smaller craft launched and began to circumnavigate the Destiny Destroyer, Lars's instructions coming through the entire time.
"Get in close! They can't aim at themselves!" Stevonnie took advantage of this fact and swooped into close proximity to the blasters. They then launched the first missile and destroyed the weapons one by one. "That's it! Everything's fixed! Get back to the ship!" But just as the two began to turn back around, the last of the missiles fired from Emerald's ship, and struck the back of the ship.
Although the explosion rocked the entire ship, the pod remained in tact as it began a free fall onto the path of a nearby planet.
"LARS!" Tiger's Eye tried to communicate to the captain.
"You guys did it, Emerald is on the run!"
"Lars we're hit! Nothing's working!" Stevonnie panicked.
He looked at them shocked, "wha? Hold on, what's your course? We'll try to intercept y-" but the transmission was lost as the ship entered the atmosphere of the alternate world.
"Lars? What's wrong with you ship?" Stevonnie asked, only to be answered with a number of warning signs. "Oh, pretty much everything."
"At least the monitor works" Tiger's Eye tried to ease the tension. Only to be rewarded to the sight of the monitor shutting down as the ship lost power, and began to break apart. Fear and apprehension filled Tiger's Eye enough to cause the new fusion to defuse back into Ash and May as they were both ejected from the crashing pod.
"Hold on!" Ash screamed at his friend as she desperately held onto his belt. But as the two free fell, May's grip caused the belt to tear, and the two became separated, with Ash's pokemon now in May's possession. And now he knew, if he survived the fall, he was going to be completely alone on an alien world with no way back home.