Freshwater made her way deeper and deeper into the Kindergarten, ducking behind corners whenever she came across more of those cursed broken robots searching the place. Against her better judgement, she and Hessonite had decided to split up because for some reason the flying machines thought she was defective and wouldn't hesitate to lock onto her gem and attempt to shatter her.

After the latest flying object had passed her, Freshwater heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed before continuing on, squinting in the darkness. She found it really hard to imagine that this place had been alive at one point, and that all the gaping holes were once filled with gems about to spring forth and fulfill their purpose.

Freshwater sighed as she came to a halt in front of a large rock. Sitting on top of it, she put a hand to her visor, pressing the button that displayed a holographic displayal of her reports. The gem pursed her lips as she pulled up a map of the area. According to this, she had searched every nook and cranny of the place, but still. No Off-Colors.

Growling in frustration, the gem dissipated the hologram and stood, crossing her arms and contemplating her next plan of action. She should probably searhch for Hessonite right now. No doubt the Elite was looking for her.

"Oh! You have unfused!"

The gem froze when she heard the sound of muffled voices….below her? Looking at the rock quiczzically, the gem raised an eyebrow as another voice answered her, but the gem was unable to make out the words.

Stooping low, Freshwater shoved the rock away, surprised when she saw a large hole below it. Peering into it, she held her breath as the gems spoke.

"We don't like to." A Ruby guard was saying, her arms crossed across her chest bitterly. She was holding the hand of a Pearl, and the two gems were talking to – a fusion? No, not a fusion. It appeared to be two Rhutile gems fused together at the hip.

"But we had to." The Pearl was saying, lightly running a hand through the gem's curly hair. "We saw a Hessonite guard up there, and I think she's looking for us. There's no way an eite gem would just be walking around up there!"

"I think she was chasing after another gem, actually." The Ruby guard said, leaning into the gem's touch. "We saw a Pearl duck out of the way of one of the killer robots up above, so she may be like us."

The Rhutile guard's eyes widened. "Oh, that's awful! We have to go bring her down immediately, then. Come, before it's too late." The gem said, raising her head fretfully, surprised when she locked eyes with a Pearl staring above her.

"Oh, is this the gem you were referring to?" Rhutile asked, her eyes lighting up as the other gems looked up as well.

"Oh, yes! Come down here, we swear it's safe."

Freshwater gawked at the gems below her, the Rhutile especially sending her into a state of shock. Two gems. Fused at the hip? They both talked separately, and appeared to even have their own personalities. But….they were joined at the hip?

"It's okay!" one of the heads said, giving her a smile. "Yeah, you aren't the only one who's wrong." The Pearl agreed, squeezing the Ruby's hand who nodded, the two gems fusing immediately and leaving a magenta fusion standing in their place, staring up at Freshwater with a bashful smile.

"See? We're all Off-Colors down here."

Freshwater put her hand to her chest. It was almost too much to bare. "There are…more of you?" Freshwater asked, cocking her head ot the side. The fusion nodded. "Oh, yes. Now come, before more of those robots come and cross you off the face of this Kindergarten."

Freshwater bit her lower lip. A quick attack wasn't going to work. The Off-Colors appeared to have banded together in some kind of make-shift crew, and probably wouldn't go down without a fight. Looking over her shoulder, Freshwater nodded before hopping down into the hole, stumbling when she barely managed to land on her feet.

"So. What's your name?" The fusion asked, backing up slightly and awkwardly running a hand through her curls.

"We're the Rhutile twins and this is Rhodinite." Freshwater nodded at the introduction. "I'm Freshwater." She said simply, looking above. This was no good. She'd have to give Hessonite an update on her current situation, but for now she had to stick with the Off-Colors.

"So? You said there were more of you?" she said, turning back to the two gems.

….

"Stop groaning so loudly." H11 said, laying on top of Lion's back and scratching the animal behind the ears.

"I can't help it." Johnathon said, sighing as he squinted at the sheet music in front of him. "I have to learn this rift, or it's going to kill me."

"Why don't you ask Steven? He's good at guitar, and he has his ukulele." The blonde said, closing her eyes. D13 nodded in agreement, sitting next to Johnathon on the blanket they had lay out on the beach. "They're out teaching the humans how to fish." Johnathon said bitterly, sighing as he put the instrument in his case. "Why are you so hellbent on figuring that thing out, anyway?" H11 asked.

Johnathon looked away, picking the case up and standing. "It's just…..i feel really bad about what we did to Kevin's car." He admitted, rubbing his neck sheepishly. The siblings exchanged a look and D13 snickered.

"D13's right." H11 said, nodding. "Jerk deserved it."

Johnathon cocked his head to the side. "How? He didn't provoke us."

D13 scoffed and rolled his eyes. "He yelled at us for like five minutes." H11 pointed out. "Yeah. After he saved our lives by wrecking his car." The siblings didn't look convinced. "Okay, but what does that have to do with you wanting to perfect that bass rift?" H11 asked, giggling as Lion arched his back, sending the kid toppling into the sand.

"Oh, yeah. See, Steven said he knows these kids around town who really like playing their insruments and were all thinking about forming a band. Bands can make Earth currency by performing, so I was thinking if we banded together and got really good, we would eventually have enough Earth currency to pay that guy back."

"You really think you know enough about guitar now to join a band?" H11 asked quizzically as she and her brother followed Johnathon into town. Johnathon shrugged. "Mr. Universe says I'm learning really fast. Plus, Steven says one of the kids we can talk to plays guitar, so I can learn more from him. Anyway, you're asking too many questions. You in or out?" he asked, turning to the two as he stopped outside of the Big Donut.

H11 and D13 exchanged a look before shrugging. "Eh, I don't see why not. I'm stuck on a planet that I know exactly nothing about. Might as well join a band." Johnathon grinned. "That's the spirit!" he said, pushing the door open ad heading inside. "One of you can probably learn to play the keyboard! It's really cool."

"I wanna sing. D13, do you wanna play keyboard, or whatever it is?" H11 asked, looking at her older brother. D13 shrugged. "Sounds like a yes to me." Johnathon said, putting his case down.

"What are you troublemakers talking about now?" Sadie asked, giving the trio a small smile and elbowing Lars awake. "We're gonna start a band!" H11 said excitedly. "Yeah." Johnathon agreed. "To raise money to help fix that guys car." He said, nodding.

Lars grumbled something under his breath as he stretched. "Yeah, well good luck with that." He muttered, stretching. "With a car that nice, you'll probably have to get at least one gig a day for the rest of the year. And I'm not talking opening for shows. I mean real live full hour-long performances."

Johnathon's face fell as Sadie nodded. "It's true. Kevin's car is really expensive, and like I told the jerk last week. You guys won't be paying for it. After all, you are just kids."

"I don't know why you're so worried about it, kid." Lars said, rolling his eyes. "Mr. Universe has already payed for the damages, and then some. Kevin's probably wished he would have almost wrecked years ago."

"Oh, yeah. Mr. Universe is loaded thanks to that commercial he did forever ago." Sadie said, nodding and giving Johnathon a small smile. "It's still really nice of you to want to repay him, though."

H11 deflated. "So….no band." She said, looking up at Johnathon. "I don't see why we would need one now." Johnathon said, shrugging. Sadie arched an eyebrow. "For fun?" she suggested, dumbfounded. "Trust me, if I could drop my job at this place and perform in a band, I would." She said, staring out the window wistfully.

"So why don't you?" H11 asked, confused. Sadie snorted. "Because if I do then I'll be leaving this place in Lars's hands. And trust me. We don't want that."

"Hey!" Lars said, offended.

"Well, we better be going then." Johnathon said, picking u phis case. "Oh yeah, before I forget! Do you guys have any idea where I can find these people? We're looking for new band members." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper, handing it to Sadie.

"Buck, Kiki, Sour Cream, and Jenny? Well, Kiki and Jenny work at Fish S-"

Sadie's explanation was cut off when Lars grabbed the paper from Sadie's hand, reading it in disbelief. "You can't talk to them." He said bluntly, sweating nervously as he clenched the paper in his hands. "And…why not?" Sadie asked, dumbfounded at Lars's reaction. "Becaiuse these are the coolest kids in Beach City, Sadie!" Lars said, holding the palper in one hand and gesturing to it with the other.

"According to you they are." Sadie said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, if that were the case, so what? I'm sure they wouldn't mind at least helping the newcomers of beach City." Lars groaned. "Sadie, they're a couple of kids. You really think they'll want to even be seen with them?"

Johnathon flinched at that. "Well, no harm in asking, is there?" H11 said, grabbing D13's hand and pulling him to the door. "Thanks, Sadie! Here's a tip, since we didn't buy anything!" Johnathon said, reaching into his pocket and quickly throwing a wad of cash onto the table before following the siblings out the door.

Sadie rolled her eyes as Lars groaned and slammed his head on the counter. "We really have to teach these kids to count cash." She said, picking up the wad of 20 dollar bills and putting them aside for when they came back for lunch, only leaving a single twenty dollar bill in the tip jar to be split between her and her shift partner at the end of the day.