Well, my laptop died. Now I've gotta use either my phone on the google docs app or my terrible desktop that doesn't even register Microsoft office. So these chapters might take some more time until I can get a new laptop. I am SO excited for the Ruby and Sapphire wedding! And I know June is pride month so I might be a little late to the party, but this chapter includes my own contribution to honor it. *Hint, hint* *POKEMON AND STEVEN UNIVERSE ARE NOT OWNED BY ME*

Landing on the familiar path of Route 2 of the Unova region, Iris gave little to no time for Dragonite to adjust himself to his new environment before returning him to his pokeball and rushing towards the city. The sun had already set, and the streetlights were beginning to light up along the walkway. As she reached the entrance to the Striaton City gym, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the large "closed" sign on the front door.

"What?!" she angrily asked aloud. She then took a closer look at the sign.

"Attention trainers. Due to international incident, this pokemon gym is hereby closed indefinitely and all pokemon league activities are suspended until further notice."

"Oh you're kidding me." she thought before she began to pound on the doors. "Cilan!" she called out, "I know you're in there!"

"Hey!" a familiar, female voice called to her. Iris turned to see the Striaton City Officer Jenny was standing behind her. "Curfew is at seven, what are you doing out here?"

"Curfew?" Iris asked confused. "Where are the gym leaders?"

"Skipped town. Heard they all took off to Sinnoh with some girl. Now-"

But before Officer Jenny could question her any further, Iris brought out Dragonite once again and quickly took off.

"Hey stop! You're under arrest!" Officer Jenny screamed as Iris ignored her.

May slowly opened her eyes in the area of the Sun Incinerator she called a bedroom to the sight that always made her day every time she saw it. "Morning." she softly told Dawn lying next to her. After their last encounter with Ash, May had followed his advice and opened up to her. Much to her surprise, Dawn returned her feelings and the two were now in what they could call a relationship given their current situation.

Dawn smiled at her. "You sure it's morning?"

She chuckled, "You know what I mean. Come on you, Lars is gonna need us on the bridge."

As May took her girlfriend's hand, Dawn couldn't help but notice the distracted look on her face as they made their way up. "What's wrong?"

May sighed. "Sorry. I just, I just keep worrying about what my parents are going to say when we tell them. I mean, your mom already knew about you well before we got taken by Homeworld. But-"

Dawn scoffed in amusement. "Please, I think everyone knew well before. Well, maybe not Ash, but then again I could've written it on a piece of paper and he still probably wouldn't have gotten it. Right Piplup?"

"Pip-Piplup." her free roaming pokemon agreed.

Her amusement quickly faded when she saw the worry still locked on her partner's face. "Hey," she softly said as she embraced May, "This is who you are, and if your family doesn't accept who you are then they're not worth having in your life." Looking into May's trusting eyes, she then leaned in and kissed her meaningfully.

May was a bit taken aback at first because she had never been kissed by a girl before, let alone anyone. But the passion and trust Dawn put out to her began to fill her entire spirit as she began to happily return their first kiss. And as she did so, everything felt just right. As if she just knew this was what was meant for her.

"Now come on," Dawn whispered as she pulled away, "Lars probably needs our help on the bridge."

"Captain's log!" They both overheard from the bridge, "I think it's friday. I've ordered Rhodonite to do a spectral scan of the system. Hopefully one of these asteroids has the flotanium deposits we need to get our warp engines back online."

"Captain," Rhodonite interrupted timidly, "should one of us be writing all this down?"

Before Lars could respond, the tip of his hair glowed to imply something was coming through. Sure enough, a small envelope shot out.

"What now Steven?"

"Is that a letter?" May asked as Lars picked it up.

"Dear Lars, hows space? Is it still big? You don't have to answer that right now, this is a letter! Since you're away from home, I thought I'd fill you in on what's been going on in Beach City. Everyone misses you soooo much."

"Since Sadie's been rocking out with the band, it's just Serena and Clemont to open the Big Donut..."

"Alright Deoxys! Use psychic!" Steven called out.

"Greninja, double team!"

Steven's Deoxys floated upward and began to charge its attack from the pink colored gem in it's chest. Unfazed by the impending attack, Greninja relied on it's speed by leaping further in the air than Deoxys, and created at least thirty duplicates. Seriously confused, Deoxys threw the charge at a random group of the clones. Unfortunately for Deoxys, these weren't the correct one.

"Now Greninja, use aerial ace!"

"Deoxys, even the field!" Steven commanded, taking a page from Ash's book. Deoxys quickly created it's own copies quickly enough so that Greninja's attack struck the wrong copy.

Ash couldn't help but grin at how far Steven's training was taking him, but he knew that the battle was only just beginning. "Alright Greninja, use water shuriken on all of them!"

Greninja took little time to charge it's water attack, instead deciding to deploy smaller, quicker spurts of water at his opponent in every direction, stopping only when the real Deoxys was left.

"Zen headbutt!"

Changing to it's attack forme, Deoxys charged directly towards Greninja for a full frontal assault. But Ash knew what to do.

"Ready Greninja?" He asked his loyal pokemon.

"Ninja!" The water type answered confidently. In a flash, he drew a veil of water across his entire body, the bond between pokemon and trainer manifesting itself into its Ashninja form.

"Alright, use water shuriken!"

Instead of its multiple, small spurts, Ashninja allowed the attack to charge until it matched his own body length. Both Steven and Deoxys were taken aback by the raw power before them they were both too late to stop the attack from hitting its mark dead on.

"Deoxys is unable to battle!" Gary announced from the boardwalk, "Ash and Ashninja are the winners!"

Both returned their Pokémon as the small crowd that had gathered to watch began cheering.

"Been awhile since I've had to bust out Ashninja. You and Deoxys are really stepping up in your training." Ash complimented him.

"Aw shucks." Steven answered blushing in embarrassment, "You're just saying that."

"No I'm serious. Now come on, all that training really raised my appetite. Let's get a donut."

"Might wanna put a raincheck on that donut Ash." Gary said pointing towards the Big Donut. The line for service was already out the door and had curbed the front patio.

"Ah!" Ronaldo groaned in annoyance as he joined them "I know Sadie quit a while ago, but why isn't Lars here to pick up the slack and help out Serena and Clemont!?"

Steven and Ash both gave each other an awkward look, trying to silently ask each other which one was going to tell him. Steven eventually lost the battle of wits.

"Uh, Ronaldo, Lars is in space."

Ronaldo stared at them blankly before breaking out into a fit of ignorant laughter. "Good one Steven! I really needed that!." The three just stared at him in silence, causing him to realize what was really going on. "YOU'RE SERIOUS!?"

"Don't you remember when just about everyone in town was abducted by Gems?" Ash asked. "Mayor Dewey had to give all those speeches about it?"

Ronaldo crossed his arms with the same condescending tone Ash hated about him. "Do you believe everything the government tells you?"

"We're the ones who told the government!" Steven protested.

"Wait, so that means? So Lars is really in space!?"

They all shook their heads.

Ash was actually surprised when Ronaldo began to tear up. "Is, is he in danger!? Surrounded by aliens?"

"All of the above."

He looked down defeated. "This is a nightmare..." But any remaining respect Ash had for Ronaldo quickly vanished when he immediately threw his fists to the sky in rage. "...I'm the one who should be in space!" he screamed dropping to his knees crying, causing the line of people waiting at the Big Donut to embarrassingly look over in their direction. "Why does Lars get to be whisked away into the infinite cosmos on an adventure of a lifetime!? It's so ironic it hurts my soul!"

"Because if you were out there Ronaldo, you'd be dead within two days." Ash mocked him.

"Wait, didn't Lars die within two days before he was revived?" Gary asked.

"Gary, you're not helping."

"Morning Universe, Ketchum." former Mayor Dewey said depressedly as he entered the area as Steven tried to calm Ronaldo down.

"Oh, good morning." Steven said trying to be polite.

Dewey turned his attention to the busy Big Donut, "glad to see at least one thing around here still works."

"Okay, I think Mr. Smiley is calling me." Gary said trying his best to escape the awkwardness of both Mr. Dewey and the still crying Ronaldo.

"As far as local politics go, Mayor Dewey isn't the mayor anymore. There was an election and Nanefua won with her platform of working together..."

After Steven and Ash managed to finally beat the long line and get some donuts, they made their way down the boardwalk to Fishstew where Mayor Nanefua had called an emergency meeting with the Gems and Greg to discuss the impending Homeworld invasion. To Ash's annoyance, Ronaldo and Mr. Dewey invited themselves along too.

"So, we are all in agreement yes?" Mayor Nanefua asked the group after showing her proposed hideout shelters. "In the event of a gem-related emergency, everyone should go to the newly designed shelters."

"Me and Garnet can take care of food rations." Steven volunteered. "Anyone know a good non perishable brand of Chaaaaps?"

"You could also put some pizza ingredients on ice, just in case." Garnet suggested.

"That's a great idea Garnet! We can ask all the local restaurants to pitch in food in case we have to hide for awhile."

"These all seem like great plans," Mr. Dewey interrupted the meeting with his head on a table sitting with Greg and Ronaldo, "but how are you going to get in contact with everyone when there's an emergency? This may be a small town, but it's a big small town."

"Oh!" Jenny exclaimed from behind the counter, "Mayor Gunga, I could drive you around while you use the loudspeaker to spread the word through town."

"Cheese on bread! That's a good idea!"

"And while Jenny does that," Kiki said from a table with Pearl "I can take to the boardwalk and let all the businesses know what's up."

"And, as soon as we know of any impending danger…" Pearl excitedly said "I'll give everyone a call on my cellular phone!" she exclaimed pulling out a cell phone.

Ash couldn't help but chuckle under his breath at Pearl's excitement, especially knowing the people whose numbers Pearl had in the room were Steven, Greg and himself. But Kiki was quicker to the punch to bring Pearl down to reality.

"It might be easier if you just send out a mass text."

"What number do I call for mass text?"

"Oh my gosh Pearl, is this your first cell phone?"

"Maybe." she answered her with a promiscuous smile.

Mayor Nanefua coughed to change the subject. "Is there anything we can do to beef up the town security?"

"It'd be nice to have some kind of lookout." Greg stated from his seat. "Maybe I'll buy one of those high powered telescopes for the lighthouse or something."

"I VOLUNTEER!" Ronaldo screamed into Greg's ear excitedly. "I LOVE LOOKING OUT! IF I CAN'T BE IN SPACE THEN I CAN AT LEAST LOOK AT IT!"

"And I guess when Ronaldo puts out the call, I can round up all the teens Pearl and I have been training to get ready for battle." Ash volunteered. Though he immediately regretted saying that in front of Ronaldo.

"Wait, everyone else has been getting trained as a Crystal Gem?! How come I wasn't!? I wanna join Ash's cool strike team!"

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Ash thought to himself as he quickly tried to come up with an excuse to keep him away. "Sorry Ronaldo, but you're already on lookout."

"This is beautiful!" Mayor Nanefua exclaimed. "Ronaldo, great, you're on lookout duty. Kiki, Pearl, you're in charge of communication. Steven, Garnet, you record our rations. Ash will rally the troops. And Jenny and I will spread the word about the plan. Now, everyone is helping to make the town safe."

"Everyone, except me." Mr. Dewey spoke up.

"Aw." Garnet gave sympathy to the sad man.

"Ohh, you made things awkward."

"Sadie Killer and the Suspects are still going strong. They're gearing up for a huge show right here in Beach City. I hope you can make it back in time to see them play..."

After the conclusion of the meeting at Fishstew, Greg began making calls and to everyone's luck, found a company that would install a fully operational telescope and managed to take Ronaldo with him, getting him out of Ash and Steven's hair. Now the two had made their way to Sadie's house to help the band prepare their next music video.

"And then, just as the chorus is finishing up," Sadie explained, "I'll grab this fake, yet very realistic chainsaw, and then Steven will hit me with the lights, and then we'll all scream!"

"AH!" the rest of the band emitted playfully.

"And then I'll come out!" Mr. Dewey said in a mock ghoul voice with a white bed sheet with two holes in it was over his face to look like a ghost. "Oogity boogity!"

"I don't think you get it Dad. We're going for "scary" scary. Not "ha ha" scary." Buck explained to his father.

"Ooooooooooooooo", Mr. Dewey called out one last time before taking the sheet off defeated. "Oh alright. I just wanted to help."

"DID YOU CUT HOLES IN MY BED SHEETS!?" Sadie furiously asked.

"Jamie the mailman, in addition to being trained by Pearl and Ash to be a great member of the team, is making a lot of progress establishing a local theatre scene. He's done a bunch of one man shows. And has even started teaching improv..."

With the insane day over, Ash, Steven, Pearl and Serena were now seated on the beach as the evening show of Jamie's improv club. Following their entrapment in the barn, Peridot decided to follow Amethyst and James's advice and try new things to get over Lapis leaving. Now the three were apart of a weekly improv show under Jamie's direction.

"People of Beach City!" Jamie announced from the stage to the audience that only consisted of the four, "Are you ready to laugh your butts off?"

"WOO! I am!" Steven called as Ash and Serena clapped.

"We've got a killer lineup for you tonight! So please welcome the Beach City Laugh Guards!" With Jamie's cue, Peridot, Amethyst, James, Barb Miller and Mr. Smiley all entered the stage with him wearing matching turtleneck sweaters. "Now all we need to get started is a single word from the audience."

"Steven!" Pearl called out.

"We do a scene about Steven every week!" Peridot answered her slightly annoyed.

"Well I think those scenes are good." Pearl rebutted her.

While it was obvious Ash and Serena were there to support Jamie, Steven on the other hand was heavily invested in the improv. "Uh, spaghetti, no uh, uh, car? No, no that's not good, uh, oh! How about plumber?"

"I heard plumber! And now the Beach City Laugh Guards will perform a completely improvised scene, based on the word plumber." Jamie announced.

"No, do Steven."

"Wait, cats!"

"And no more suggestions for the rest of the show!" With the snap of his fingers, Jamie set the scene up for Amethyst and Barb as he, James, Peridot and Mr. Smiley sat down.

"Thanks for coming out on such short notice. My sink is clogged!" Barb told Amethyst.

"Welp, looks like we're gonna need one of…" she began to shapeshift into a toilet plunger, "...these!" While Steven burst into laughter, it clearly didn't impress Jamie.

"No, no ,no cut, stop. Notes, Barb I love how you set up the scene. Amethyst, you don't have to become a plunger, just pretend to have one. Observe and learn!" He began to fumble his arms around and making a noise similar to an injured pokemon while pretending to hold a plunger.

But Peridot wasn't buying it at all. "That's way too confusing! You could be holding anything!"

"I'm holding a plunger!" he angrily answered her.

"Oh, I thought you were holding a long, skinny, submarine sandwich!" Pearl heckled, causing Ash to laugh.

"Pearl, Ash, be nice."

Peridot made her way to Barb, still holding plunger Amethyst "It's obviously much more clear if you can see the actual plunger!"

"She's got a point dude."

Peridot chuckled "Looks like I improved improv!"

From behind a door prop, Mr. Dewey called to Mr. Smiley and James "Psst, did I miss my cue? Oh whatever." he said entering the scene covered in sweat and a nervous smile on his face. "Hello ladies, it's me! The waiter in this restaurant! Can I offer you some more, worms?"

Sensing the complete destruction of the scene, Jamie struck a jazz hands pose "And, blackout!"

"It was better than last week" Pearl whispered to Steven and Ash.

"Anyways, my dad is still rich even after buying that telescope, so he's been trying out rich people sports. He and Garnet have been playing tennis over the weekends."

In the morning, Steven and Ash were both standing in front of the car wash as Ash was running his shift. Because of the slow morning, Greg had invited Garnet to play a round of tennis on account there were no golf courses in Beach City. Greg was running back and forth struggling to keep up with Garnet's aggressively powerful play.

"Garnet, this is a little intense for a warmup. Maybe we could try a light volley?"

"This is light. Being rich has made you weak."

Just as Ash and Steven thought they had escaped Mr. Dewey's constant butting in from yesterday, guess who showed up?

"Oh hey, tennis! Room for one mo-" he asked just as Greg missed Garnets serve and it struck him in the face.

"I know you don't need to eat anymore, but I thought you'd be interested in the local french fry scene in Beach City. Peedee started his very own food truck. He's not old enough to drive yet though, so it's kind of just another fry stand."

"Hey guys, what'll it be?" the young resturanture asked them.

"What you've got?"

Well, I deal exclusively in tater tots now."

"That's great Peedee! Can I get the bits?"

Peedee looked at him confused. "Uh, why don't you try the tots? They're the fry of the future."

"Do the tots have bits?"

Peedee sighed "I'll get you the bits."

"Love the truck Peedee." Ash complimented him. "Nice touch with the giant potato."

"Oh thanks. It actually used to be the mayor mobile, I just painted over Mayor Dewey's head. It's a good thing that his head was so big and lumpy. Yeah the new city board practically just gave it to me 's like they wanted nothing to do with it 's been great for me since Nanefua became mayor."

As Peedee explained to them the story of his truck, the familiar face behind the truck sadly eating tater tots on a bench caught their attention. When he saw he was being watched, Mr. Dewey stood up and walked off.

"Oh no, Ash come on." Steven said practically dragging him off.

"Alright I've got the bits." Peedee announced to no one "Steven? Ash?" He again sighed in annoyance.

"Mayor Dewey wait!" Steven called out.

"Remember Universe, it's just Mister Dewey now."

"Come on Mr. Dewey," Ash said trying to help. "I've noticed that all day yesterday you were following us with a big smile on your face. After Garnet hit you with that ball you've been nothing but frowns. What's wrong?"

"You know, seeing my old Mayor Mobile turned into a giant potato, made me realize that nothing was like it used to be. My old life, my old citizens, they've all changed. They've all outgrown me I suppose."

"Well of course everyone's changing. Nothing can stay the same forever." Steven reassured him.

"You know what I miss the most about being the mayor? The little things, getting dressed and ready for work, walking down the boardwalk seeing everyone's faces. Knowing I had a place in this town. I used to look forward to it every day. Just like the people of this town used to look forward to getting their morning donut in a timely manner. Guess no one gets what they want."

But an idea finally came to Steven. "Wait Mr. Dewey, I have an idea!"

"And so, Serena and Clemont got Mayor Dewey a job at the Big Donut to pick up the slack. It seemed like the entire town showed up for his first day. The whole thing has given him a new sense of purpose. He even let me name a donut after you, it's a pink donut with pink sprinkles. I call it he Pink Lars. Even though you're in space, there's still a part of you here. In sweet, delicious, donut form. You gotta try one when you get back. Anyway, hope this letter finds you in good spirits…"

Lars looked up from the letter in his hands to the top of his head to see Steven was actually reading the letter to his from his hair.

"...Love, Steven."

"I, appreciate the letter Steven, but why'd you write this when you were just gonna tell me everything in person anyway?"

"Sometimes, it's nice to be read to."

"You realize I don't know who half these people are right? Like, who the heck is Peridot? And what the heck is an "Ashninja"?"

"Oh yeah, I guess you two haven't met before. Ash and I will have to introduce you when you get back to Earth."

"Uh, thanks again for the letter Steven. And tell Ash to keep his head up."

Steven gave him a thumbs up and returned through his head. Lars pocketed the letter just as the alarm began to sound.

"Rhodonite, what's going on?!"

"Captain, unknown force dead ahead!" she panicked.

"We're caught in it's gravity!" Right Rutile revealed.

"We. Don't. Have. The. Engine. Power. To. Escape." Fluorite said from the engine room.

As the mystery object appeared on screen, Lars saw it was an enormous cloud of white energy, similar to that of a black hole.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Lars screamed as the Sun Incinerator began to descend into the void.

Sitting around the campfire, the "Crystal Gems Two", all were laughing at the story Jessie and Meowth were sharing.

"So after we find out that little Misty is in the bikini contest, Jessie and Jimmy BOTH enter the same contest to beat her. And James, he actually wears a damn pair of inflatable boobs. And do you know what he tells Misty after showing them off?" Meowth asked.

"This is the best part" Jessie commented while snickering to herself.

"He starts jiggling them together in front of her face, and says "Maybe someday when you're older, you can have a set of knockers as big and beautiful as mine!"

This set the entire group into a roar of laughter.

"I never knew that side of James." Lapis said through her signature giggle snort.

"Yeah," Jessie said "The best part of working with him is-" but she stopped whatever she was about to say and her happy face turned to shock and fear.

"Jessie, what's wrong?" Lapis asked.

Jessie could only point directly behind her with the same horrified look. Everyone turned around to see what she was looking at and all grew the same look of shock. When Lapis finally turned around, she felt nothing but fear and shock when she saw the person she never thought she'd see again standing in the woods almost directly behind her.

"Hey Lapis. Long time no see."