It was a beautiful morning in Beach City. Connie opened the window to gaze at the rising sun.
"Everyone's out," Connie said to herself. "I guess I'm making us breakfast."
Connie quickly gathered up the stuff she needed to make make breakfast and laid them out on the counter. She popped a few waffles into the toaster.
Connie walked over to the temple door and knocked. "Tourmaline? Holly?" she called. There was no response.
Connie walked back into the kitchen and stacked the waffles on top of one another. She then placed a couple bags of microwave popcorn into the microwave.
Connie sat in the middle of her room.
"3…2…1…" Connie said. "Warp in." Nothing happened.
Connie plopped onto the ground with a sigh. "I guess they're still out saving the world," Connie said.
Connie took a bottle of syrup and covered the waffles with it. She grabbed the popcorn from the microwave and covered the breakfast with the popcorn.
Connie opened the front door. "Tourmaline? Skinny?" Connie called. No one appeared, and no one responded. Connie stepped back inside of her room and closed the door.
Connie walked over to the breakfast and covered it in a large bit of whip cream on top. She grabbed one strawberry that she was sure was ripe and carefully placed it on top of the bit of whip cream.
"It's done!" Connie happily exclaimed as she held her finished work up in the air.
Connie sat the breakfast sown and sighed. "I wish the gems were here," Connie said. "They'd probably like this. It's like it's a mix of different meals all brought together. Kind of like our team. It's a… together breakfast."
Suddenly, the warp pad went off. Connie turned to see Tourmaline standing on the pad.
"Good morning, Connie," Tourmaline said.
"Oh, Tourmaline," Connie said. "You're just on time. I finished breakfast. It's a new recipe I tried out. You know it brings a whole bunch of different flavors together kind of like us since we're all different. I call it the together breakfast."
"Connie," Tourmaline said. "as much as I would love to stay and chat, I can't."
"Aww," Connie said. "Why?"
"I must burn this," Tourmaline said as she unrolled a black scroll with weird markings in it.
"Woah," Connie said. "That's so cool." Connie snapped a picture of the scroll with her phone.
Tourmaline grabbed Connie's phone. "I'm terribly sorry, Connie," Tourmaline said. "But your phone must now be disinfected, and the only way to do that is to burn it." Tourmaline turned around and opened her temple door. Connie tried to chase after Tourmaline as she entered her room, but the door closed.
"Aww man," Connie said. "I just downloaded the latest episode of Under The Knife." Connie started to walk back to her breakfast when the door suddenly burst open.
"'Sup, Connie," Skinny said walking through the door.
Connie suddenly noticed there was discarded whip cream on the floor. "Skinny," Connie said. "Look out for that…" Before Connie could finish her sentence, Skinny had already slipped up on the whip cream and was stumbling towards the counter.
"No, no, no, no," Connie said as she caught Skinny just before she could fall onto the together breakfast.
"Skinny," Connie said as she helped Skinny back onto her feet. "You need to be more careful. You almost ruined our breakfast, and you could have hurt yourself."
"Sorry, Con…" Skinny was interrupted at the sound of the temple door opening. An orange line zigzagged down the door.
"Hey," Skinny said. "That's my door." As she finished her sentence Holly walked out the door with a strange gadget in her hands.
"Oh, Skinny," Holly said once she noticed the gem. "There you are. Care to tell my why another one of my gadgets was in your room…again?"
"How should I know?" Skinny said crossing her arms.
"Oh, please," Holly said. "You stole it."
"I did not," Skinny said. "You just want to blame me for you misplacing your things."
"Whatever," Holly said. "It's in the past. I forgive you." Skinny groaned. "By the way, I hope you can still find that little treasure of yours."
"What?" Skinny said. "You didn't. Oh, come on. I just found that, Holly." Skinny ran through the temple door and into her room.
"Wait, Skinny," Connie said as she tried to chase the gem only for the temple door to close in her face again.
"What's the matter, Connie?" Holly asked as Connie walked back over to the kitchen.
"I wanted all of us to bond in an effective way to strengthen our relationship as a team, so I created a new dish I call Together Breakfast. But everyone is so busy with gem-errands that no one has time to eat it."
"Oh, that's nice, Connie," Holly said opening her temple door. She walked into a dark room that illuminated in neon blue lights as soon as she walked in.
"What?" Connie said. "I worked too hard for this food to be spoiled." Connie quickly stopped the temple door before it could close and squeezed herself into the room.
Connie took a good look around the place. The room looked to be a couple stories tall with all sorts of gadgets and weapons adorning the walls. In the middle of the room was a tall, black pillar that, like the room, had blue neon symbols all over it. On top of it was Holly quickly tapping away on holographic screens.
Connie could see that every time Holly pushed a button or made a stroke on the screens, something in the room was rearranged.
"There we go," Holly said with a grin. "Everything is back in its place."
"Woah," Connie said with diamonds appearing in her eyes. "This is so cool."
Holly gasped and turned around. "Connie!" Holly exclaimed making the hologram screens disappear. Holly stopped her boot on a button on the floor of the pillar she was standing on. A ramp formed, which wrapped around the pillar. Once the ramp was fully formed, Holly skillfully slid down it and came to a stop directly in front of Connie.
"What are you doing in here?" Holly asked. "You know it's dangerous for you inside the temple." Holly raised up her hand as a sparkle appeared from her index finger, and the temple door opened.
"I just wanted you to try some of my breakfast, but your room is way cooler than my dish," Connie said placing the together breakfast on the floor and walking around the room.
"Connie," Holly said picking up the breakfast. "I'll eat some of your breakfast, but you have to get out of here before you get hurt."
"Wow," Connie said looking at a red button the size of her head. "What does this do?" Connie started to reach out.
"Wait! Connie, don't touch that!" Holly exclaimed. Too late. Connie pressed the button. A red laser shot from the ceiling and was headed for Holly. She quickly ducked down, throwing the breakfast up into the air as she did so. The laser hit the breakfast causing it to turn into dust.
"Whoops," Connie said. "Sorry, Holly."
"That's okay, Connie," Holly said getting up and dusting herself off.
"What was that?" Connie asked.
"Disintegration ray," Holly said. "A little something I've been working on."
"That was so awesome!" Connie said. "What other gadgets do you have in here?"
"I really don't think you should see anymore," Holly said. "You should head back into the beach house."
"Awe, come on," Connie said. "Please. I want to see more. It's so cool." Connie looked at a green button that was slightly smaller than the red one. "Is this one another weapon?"
"Well, no," Holly said.
"So, there's no harm in pressing it," Connie said as she reached for the button.
"Wait! Connie, that's the…" Holly tried to say. Connie pushed the button. The large pillar in the middle of the room sunk into the floor, and a hole appeared in its place. The floor slanted down and the hole started to try to suck things in.
Holly quickly hung onto a pipe on the wall. "…the disposal shoot!" Holly finished.
Connie desperately tried to hang onto something, but she completely lost her grip and fell through the hole.
"Connie!" Connie heard Holly exclaim as the hole closed and she fell through the darkness.
Connie suddenly felt herself land on something soft. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt so heavy. She suddenly felt a pair of hands shaking her.
"C'mon," someone said. "Get up, Sleeping Beauty."
Connie finally opened her eyes to se Skinny sitting next her.
"Skinny?" Connie asked getting up and rubbing her head.
"Well, it's about time you got up," Skinny said.
"Where am I?" Connie asked.
"You're in my room," Skinny said. "Your lucky I learned to keep the pillow pile underneath Holly's disposal shoot. And she says I'm not organized."
Connie got up and carefully climbed down the pile of pillows she landed on.
"Woah," Connie said as diamonds appeared in her eyes again. Skinny's room looked a lot like a large cave. Placed around the entirety of the room were piles of junk, which surprisingly looked somewhat organized. All along the walls were bright orange crystals.
"Pretty sweet, huh?" Skinny asked jumping down from the top of the pillow pile.
"I had no idea you had this much stuff in here," Connie said.
"Yep," Skinny said. "Been collecting for years. It's so hard to keep track of it all, though, with Holly Blue always rearranging my stuff if she thinks I stole one of her dumb gadgets. It's not my fault that her stuff is always falling down her disposal shoot."
"Wait," Connie said inspecting a pile. "What's that?" Connie leaned in to get a closer look.
Suddenly, a snake popped up out of the pile. "Snake!" Connie exclaimed running away with the snake on her tail.
"Connie!" Skinny yelled out as she chased after her.
Connie continued to run until she jumped and gripped onto a pink, glass pole.
"Gotcha!" Skinny exclaimed grabbing the snake and chucking it all the way back to her room. Skinny looked around at where they were. "Hey, wait a second."
"Connie!" Holly exclaimed appearing on the other side of the room.
"Holly?" Connie said.
"Oh, Connie be careful," Holly said.
"Huh?" Connie asked looking up. At the top of the pole she was gripping to, Connie could see a giant heart made out of pink crystal with tubes made of the same material reaching out to more rooms in the temple.
"You really shouldn't be here," Holly said. "This is the crystal heart. It's connected to the most dangerous parts of the temple. Hold on tight and don't look down."
Connie suddenly turned her attention to where the floor should have been only to see what looked like an endless hole that was pitch black. Connie felt herself slip as slid down the pink, crystal pole. She passed through several strange rooms until finally she came to a stop in a room that was mixed with the colors: green and pink.
Connie looked below her to see Tourmaline in front of a lava pit. Tourmaline pulled out Connie's phone, snapped it in two, and threw both pieces into the boiling lava.
"Aww," Connie quietly said as she watched.
Tourmaline then took the scroll and slowly lowered the bottom of it into the lava. The whole thing immediately caught fire and turned into smoke. Tourmaline immediately bubbled the smoke.
Connie slid down the rest of the pole until she reached the ground.
"Connie," Holly whispered grabbing Connie's shoulder. "We're getting you out of here."
"Come on," Skinny whispered.
"Wait, what is she doing?" Connie asked a little too loud. She quickly covered her mouth.
Tourmaline looked at the group behind her with a gasp. The bubble suddenly faltered. Tourmaline was quick to try and steady it. The three gems were quick to run to help Tourmaline.
"What's happening?" Connie asked.
"Connie, you've got to get out of here!" Tourmaline exclaimed.
"But…" Connie tried to say. Before she could finish her sentence, the bubble burst, the smoke was set free. Tourmaline quickly summoned her shield. "It's trying to escape! Force it back!"
The smoke approached Connie. Skinny leapt forward and cut off it's smoke arms. "Get back!" Skinny said.
Connie looked beside her to see that the snake from before was back. The smoke suddenly shot strait for the snake and disappeared inside it. The snake twitched.
"Snake?" Connie asked.
The snake suddenly grew larger and larger. It's fangs grew longer. It's eyes turned a glowing red. Its tongue began to duplicate until their were two tongues in its mouth.
"It's taken refuge in organic matter!" Holly exclaimed.
The giant snake spit a load of venom at he gem, pinning her to the floor. "Agh!" Holly exclaimed. "It's horrible!"
"I got this!" Skinny said as she charged at the beast. The snake wrapped its tongue around her and trapped her in its mouth.
"Spit her out!" Tourmaline yelled throwing several metal spikes at the snake. It was easily able to dodge all the spikes. It suddenly wrapped its tail around Tourmaline preventing her from being able to summon her weapon or get free.
"Hey you!" Connie yelled at the snake. "Over here!" The snake came closer. Connie quickly focused and aimed her hands to the floor. "Please work. Please work," Connie thought to her self. She opened her eyes to see the floor was completely covered in ice. She saw this as her opportunity. Connie quickly started to push the snake towards the lava pit. "Have a nice hot dip," Connie said as she pushed the snake into the pit.
The snake screeched out in pain as it returned to its smoke form. Tourmaline was free from the monster's tail and caught Skinny as she fell from the snake's no-longer-existing mouth.
"I'm okay," Skinny said.
Holly finally escaped from her imprisonment in the snake's venom. She walked up to the lava pit to join the others."
Connie sighed. "Man, I hate snakes."
The whole group laughed. "So do we, Connie," Tourmaline said with a smile patting Connie on the head.