The chapter's finally here! Happy Late Pearlmethyst Week 2k17 and Forth of July, everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed them both to the fullest.
Today was a special day; Steven could feel it. The sun was rising, birds squawking their special song, the waves were calm; - yes- it would be a very good day today.
Steven climbed up the side of the sofa to rest upon his knees on the soft material of the cushions. Before him, the slim glass framing the bay window reflected the pink and purple rays of the early morning dawn. Unhooking the latch on the window, Steven threw the window open to reveal the sparkling image playing about the beach.
Wait, he realized; something... something was missing from this picture. After briefly mentally rechecking everything, he found what he was looking for. Mentally facepalming, he shouted,
"The gems! Of course!"
However, when he looked around the small house area, he found nothing. Confused, he called out,
"Ruby! Sapphire! Opal?" There was no answer.
'That's weird.' He thought, 'The gems would almost always be already in the kitchen, cooking food, by the time he awoke in the morning.'
But then he quickly realized, "Everyone's out; guess I'm making us breakfast." He murmured.
Not long after, he found himself in the small kitchen, amongst a mess that would make Ruby proud, and Opal scream. Not that he paid attention anyway; he was too busy making a masterpiece.
After he shuffled through the cabinets, knocking most of the other contents out, he walked over to the countertop, and placed three different items on its surface; Wafl's, Pop-Pop's, and a bottle of maple syrup.
Grabbing a can of Whip It Up from the refrigerator, he placed several Wafl's into the toaster and waited. Not even a second later, they popped up from their respective spaces, only to be grabbed in mid-air; one falling over onto the counter after being missed. He placed the Wafl's disorderly onto a glass plate and popped open the bottle of syrup. Haphazardly, the sticky liquid fell upon the waffles, dripping over and off the sides.
Taking a break, he walked over to the temple door, temporarily tripping upon the warp pad, he banged upon its smooth crystal-like surface. Only hollow-echoed sounds followed his actions.
"Sapphire! Opal! Ruby?! Is anyone home?"
Still, no one answered him. Deciding to stop, he turned around, making his silly (serious?) face #15 appear over his features; hands on his hips. Silly face #15 was always the gems' favorite; it even made Sapphire chuckle.
'Oh well. Back to making breakfast.'
He placed three bags of Pop-pops in the overhead microwave oven and pressed the popcorn button on the keypad to heat them. Soon enough, the oven beeped, and three steaming hot bags of popcorn fell out of the appliance.
Grabbing the bags of Pop-Pops, he carefully opened them, attempting not to burn his fingertips in the process. When he managed to pry the paper open, he poured the contents of the bags over the now-sticky waffles.
This time, he sat before the steps to the warp pad; optimistically awaiting their return. Quickly becoming bored of idling, he counted down the seconds until they would come back.
Holding his arms out before him, he yelled, "One! Two! Three...Warp in!", before pushing his arms above his head to greet them.
The warp pad was still not activated, and the house was still empty. Flopping on the floor tile, he groaned loudly, disappointed.
"Ugh... guess they're still out saving the world." Pushing himself up, he returned the kitchen once more. Grabbing the can of Whip It Up! from its place next to the toaster, he shook the can. Upon hearing its satisfying rattle, he pressed upon the tip and swirled the fluffy cream upon the top of the popcorn-covered-waffles.
Upon the sight of his breakfast masterpiece, a cheeky grin grew upon his face.
"Look at you! You are out of control!" He gleefully whispered to it.
Walking over to the screen door, he promptly threw it open, a hand cupping the side of his mouth as he shouted to the beach.
"Opallllll! Sapphire?"
Once again, he turned back into the house and quickly shut the door behind him.
Walking over to the basket of fresh strawberries on the kitchen surface, he grabbed the ripest one from the top and brought it over to his dish. Quickly becoming serious, he squinted his eyes as he tried to find the perfect spot to place the small fruit. Lowering it onto the pile of whipped cream, he became gleeful once more and picked up the plate.
He raised the plate with a huge smile, and shouted, "It's done!". Placing it on the surface again, he let his smile drop, and he leaned across the counter with a sigh. Looking up, he realized,
"That thing's too good for me to eat alone... It's a... Together Breakfast!"
[Roll credits.]
The warp pad finally activated, scaring him to the point that he fell off the surface of the countertop. Standing up, he came face-to-face with Opal, still shimmering in beautiful sparkles from the trip.
"Opal! Finally!" Picking up the dish, he ran over to the gem.
"Check it out! It's not exactly healthy, but it's in a stack!"
Raising an eyebrow, Opal did not seem to understand where he was going with this.
Stating with an exaggerated expression, he said "So, I guess you could say, it's a... Balanced breakfast?"
Opal did not seem entirely amused, staring at him with a half disappointed, half 'I-should-have-seen-this-coming' expression.
Worried, he quickly revised his statement, "Y'know, like, I made us all breakfast! I thought we could eat together- like- like best buds!"
Sadly, the large gem replied, "Sorry Steven. I can't stay. I have something to attend to inside the temple. Maybe later?"
She walked over to the door and placed the odd purple scroll under her bottom right arm. Her top set of arms reached up to the sides of her face, her hands cupping around the curved top of forehead gem. Her bottom set of arms did something similar, placed around the top of the jagged edge of the gem in her chest.
Both of her gems began to glow brightly, the purple and pale blue circles housed in the arms of the rounded star upon the temple door glowing in correspondence; opening a door to the Burning Room. Two thick, rectangle-like lines sprouted from either side of the door. The top lines were the same color, a bright rosy-hot pink. However, the bottom lines were different. The bottom left line, a slightly darker hot pink; and the bottom right line, an almost burgundy hot-pink red. The four lines traveled diagonally towards the center of the door, meeting each other at the middle. The top lines formed a sharp angle, whilst the bottom lines continued their journey down the door, reaching the bottom, and opening to reveal the room in question.
"Aww! What do you have to do in the temple?" Steven whined pitifully.
The tall gem turned back to him, pulling the scroll from underneath one of her four arms. She unrolled it carefully, explaining,
"I have to burn this, Steven. It's dangerous."
Ignoring the gem, he stared into the scroll, entranced by the many whispering voices that attacked his ears. Pulling out his phone, and taking a picture of it, he answered, "Cool!"
"Wha-? No! Not cool!" She replied, grabbing the phone from him. "Great! Now I'm going to have to burn this too! You will not be getting this back!"
She shouted to him over her shoulder, walking through the door, phone and scroll in hand. Steven ran after her, but it was too late.
"Noooo! My apps!" He cried, pulling up his shirt and pressing his gem into the door. "Door. Open, door!"
The door did not open for him.
'Ugh! You never work when I need it.' He thought, walking back over to the plate of food.
Only for the temple door to open seconds later, a short red and tall purple policeman dressed in low-collar shirts and small shorts, with hairy legs, sunglasses, a mustache, and a police cap to come bursting through, water guns in hand.
"DUMB POLICE!" They shouted in unison. The red one continued,
"Uhh, you're dumb!" He said to Steven, firing off a shot at the plate of food.
Gasping loudly, Steven threw himself in front of the dish, yelling "Noooooo!"; wetting the middle of his shirt in the process.
The policemen both let out laughs, shapeshifting their bodies back, to reveal Ruby and Opal wearing the same silly outfits. Opal with her hands raised to her mouth, attempting to stifle a sweet giggle, and Ruby letting out a few tears as she laughed; loud and brash.
Between her laughs, the red gem got out,
"Man... We totally got you! You should've seen the look on your face!"
Getting up from the ground, Steven walked over to the closet under the stairs annoyed, and murmured to the gem,
"Ohh! I knew it was you!"
"Pfft! How?" She replied.
"'Cause that's a water gun! And I'm not dumb!" He answered, taking off the wet shirt and placing it in the closet, and replacing it with a clean shirt.
"Aw. You're right." The short gem agreed.
"No, you're not. You are the smartest little boy I know!" Opal chimed in.
"Hey, Steven! You got something on your shirt!"
Looking down at the new shirt, he gave a short "Huh?", before he was blasted with a stream of water once more.
"Hey-!"
"Ruby! Don't terrorize him!" Opal shouted as she began to spray him in the face.
The stream of water ceased as Ruby was distracted by a sound coming from the temple door. Recognizing the pattern of a transverse fiery red line in a left-leaning diagonal direction spreading across the door, she dropped the gun, shapeshifting back to her original form, and shouted,
"Hey! That's my door!" Running over to the door upon seeing a familiar dark blue gem floating out of the room, a silver and blue sword in hand.
After reaching the angered red gem, Sapphire replied, with a simple,
"Why hello, Ruby."
"What do you mean, 'Hello, Ruby'?! What were you doing in my room?!" The gem responded annoyed. Floating to the floor, Sapphire turned to look at her,
"I was looking for my sword. To put it simply."
"Why were you looking for YOUR sword in MY room?" Ruby, after crossing her arms, began tapping her foot on the ground, leaving smoking burnt footprints on the tile.
"I found what I was looking for, did I not?"
"Are you actually accusing me of taking one of your dumb swords?!" Ruby answered crossly.
"Ruby! Sapphire! That's enough!" Both gems jumped suddenly, turning to the large gem with guilty looks on their faces.
"My apologies Opal. I only froze her room afterward, because I saw it was a danger to Steven." Sapphire responded, stiffly.
"You did WHAT?!" Ruby shouted, running off into her room.
"Wait! Ruby!" Steven attempted to run after the gem, only for the door to shut in his face.
Sapphire, not phased by Ruby's reaction, returned to Opal. "I thought you were destroying the Spirit Scroll?"
Opal, upon realizing her grave mistake, gasped,
"Oh no... I forgot!" The four-armed giant woman rushed into the temple, the door closing soundly behind her.
"Opal! Not you too!" Steven cried, watching the door close to a shut. Sapphire, realizing his inner turmoil, questioned,
"Is something the matter, Steven?"
"I wanted us all to have breakfast together! So, I made Together Breakfast! But, everyone keeps leaving!" He explained.
"I understand. But, I must leave as well, I need to replace my sword, now that I have found it. I am sorry."
Sapphire opened the door to her room in the temple, a pattern of icicles fell in a right-leaning diagonal line to the center of the door. This pattern of icicles continued from the center to the bottom of the door in a straight line. Frost-like patterns surrounded the lines made of icicles, swirling as the door began to open; revealing a large dark cave of blue magma. Pools of ices could be found in the middle of the magma, the walls the cave surrounded by triangular, blue crystals.
The blue gem floated into the room, stopping over the blue magma, and disappearing under it's current.
Gasping, Steven shouted, "Oh no! Not you too!" Grabbing his Together Breakfast, he told himself, "I can't let this become Together Brunch!" Rushing to the door, he managed to push his arm through the door before it closed, still holding the plate of food. He struggled to pull the doors apart and managed to push himself through the opening.
Staring at the room before him, he watched in awe as Sapphire appeared from under one of the pools of ice in the cave. Pulling up the edge of her beautiful gown, she revealed her small blue feet, wearing small dark blue flats. She performed a beautiful twirl and ended in a small, but sweet curtsy. Her head bowed, a surplus of several swords, knives, daggers, and sharp knuckle dusters appeared in an organized system before her. Looking around for the right casing, she found the right scabbard sheath and replaced the missing blade.
She was promptly interrupted by a brief, "Hey Sapphire!".
The blades and other weapons fell upon the ice's surface, as a distressed Sapphire replied "Steven! What are you doing? You know you can't be in here! It's too dangerous inside the temple!" Opening a door to the house, Sapphire prompted him to exit the room.
Ignoring her request, Steven looked back over to the gem, answering,
"We're going to have a nice Together Breakfast. I don't care if I have to get my shoes wet!" He followed by jumping into the pool of magma, only to realize the magma was freezing cold, and seemed more like a magma slush.
"Steven! You can't just jump in frozen magma! You need to leave!" She yelled.
Shivering, he replied,
"D-d-do-o-nn'tt wor-rr-yy! I'll br-rri-ngg ii-ittt ov-errr-rr to y-oo-uuu!" He finished as he began to swim through the large lake of magma.
"S-see! Sm-mm-aalll do-ggi-ee pa-pa-ddlless fo-rrwarrd-dd!" He continued, only to quickly realize he was about to fall over the side of an half-ice, half-magma waterfall.
"O-oh n-noo! D-d-doggi-ee pa-ddlee-e revve-eersse! Re-eeverseeeee!" He yelped as he fell down the waterfall.
"Steven!"
Still attempting to paddle backward, he continued his way down the extremely cold waterfall, soon realizing that the waterfall was somehow moving in different directions. Struggling to keep the breakfast in one piece as he was jostled, he managed to let out a,
"Keep it together breakfast!" Before falling into another large pool of frozen magma. He was washed up on a ground of rock, sharp crystal prisms extruding from the ground. It was much, much warmer in here, he realized. Looking up with a groan, he was greeted with a sight of another cave, however, this one was much more like what one would expect the center of the Earth to look like. The walls and ground were made of igneous and sedimentary layered rocks, red crystals could be found surrounding the room, and magma flowed through cracks in the floor and surrounded the room in the walls. Rocks could be found dispersed around the room, and fire seemed to sprout from the corners of the cave.
Looking around, he found Ruby, melting a patch of ice on the wall, flowing magma soon replacing it.
"There. Much better." She said to herself.
Walking over to her, he called out,
"Ruby!"
She looked over in his direction, responding, "Oh, hey, Steven! Did you fall down here from Sapphire's room? Man, she's always blaming me for taking her things! It's not my fault her stupid stuff always fall down here!"
Curious, Steven asked, "Really? Stuff like what?"
"Stuff like you!" She chuckled, picking the boy up with one arm. "Guess you're going to have to go with all the other stuff!" She laughed, chucking him into a pile of rocks.
"Ugh, isn't this horrible? She froze over everything! It's taking me forever to melt it all back."
"It looks fine to me! Burning hot, like always, right?"
"If you say so, bud." She answered, stepping on a sheet of sleet and watching it dissolve into smoke.
Turning back to him, she realized, "Hey, what'ca got there, Ste-man?"
"It's a Together Breakfast!"
"Awesome! Can I have some?" She replied, reaching to the plate and sticking her finger in the whipped cream.
Snatching the plate out of her grasp, he yelled "Nooo! It's for everyone to eat together! That's the essence of Together Breakfast!"
"Almighty then! Why don't we go see what Opal's up to then?" She suggested, sucking the whipped cream off the tip of her finger and walking to another entrance to her room.
"Okay!" He jumped off the pile of rocks and began to follow the red gem.
Turning to the half-human, she placed her hand on his head, and ruffled his hair, "Tag! You're it, buddy!", she yelled before sprinting off.
"Hey!" Steven shouted in response, running off after her.
Running as fast as his stubby, stocky legs would take him, he made his way down a glowing tunnel, with lit red pipes extruding from the rock, after her.
"Wait, Ruby! We have to eat it together!" He shouted after her, right before he found himself running upside down.
Sparing a glance to the dish, he watched the food fall victim to gravity, beginning to fall off the plate. Quickly, he pushed the plate back against the waffles, and flipped the plate in hand, pulling the breakfast back right-side-up. Continuing along the path Ruby led him down, he flipped the plate once more, to prevent the food from falling again as he returned to running right-side-up.
He looked back up, returning his attention to the red gem who was now running backward, her arms wrapped around her middle as she laughed and playfully mocked the boy.
"How are you letting me outrun you, Steven? We both have short legs!" She jeered at him.
Ignoring her jokes, he instead looked ahead to where the tunnel made way into an endless space with several rock-like platforms. Running past the gem in her distracted state, he spared one hand to tap her arm, and yelled "Tag!".
He ran to the end of the tunnel, and paused looking at the space before him. Turning his head back, he heard an annoyed fiery gem making her way down the narrow hallway after him.
"Steven! Get back here! We're not done with this game!"
"Just... hold... on!" He responded, leaping across the platforms without a second thought.
Returning his focus to where he was currently going, he spotted a rock platform leading into another tunnel similar to the one he just exited.
"An exit!" He gasped, letting out a woo as he jumped down to the final platform.
Catching each piece of the falling breakfast symmetrically on his small glass plate, he gave a short woop, "Skills!", before running down the hallway; Ruby hot on his tail.
The square-haired gem managed a perfect somersault over the few platforms, and ran into the tunnel after him.
"I'm warning you, Steven!"
"Ruby, you're completely missing the point of this!" He answered, making his way into a room of glowing, peach, crystal like-tubes. Running over to the one in the middle of the room, he latched his body onto it, breakfast held tightly in his right hand.
The gem stopped abruptly, hands held in surrender as she spoke.
"Woah. Steven, wait-!"
However, she was soon interrupted by the voice of a certain light-blue haired gem.
"Steven! I knew that you would be here!"
Turning to Sapphire, he grinned, "Sapphire! Sweet! Two-outta-three."
Surprisingly, the gem walked over to him. Worried, the blue gem slowly moved towards the half-human, arms opened in a 'come here' gesture.
"Steven! You have to get down from there! Be careful!"
"Why?"
Taking a second, he looked up, after hearing a strange noise above him.
"Woah..." He gasped, looking at a giant crystal heart-like object with crystal tube protruding from its sides.
"You two shouldn't be in here! You should know better! This is the Crystal Heart! Don't you know it's connected to the most dangerous parts of the temple? Ohhh, I should have seen this coming!" The cold gem reprimanded them, upset.
Once again, she attempted to grab Steven from the tube, instructing him to not look down. Of course, that was exactly what he did.
When he saw that below him, was an endless dark abyss, he began to struggle. Startled, he started to fall down the tube into the abyss, both Ruby and Sapphire attempting to grab him before he disappeared altogether.
Screaming, he slid down the side of the crystal tube through the darkness, only pausing when the dark space suddenly made way to a calming pink room seemingly made of fluffy pink clouds and soft lights. For a while, Steven calmed down, the room giving off an atmosphere of something warm, comforting, and oddly familiar to him.
"Oh hey, this isn't so bad!" He stated, only to be thrust back into darkness, dimly lit by the glowing crystal tube. Screaming once more, he added,
"Nevermind!"
The fall finally seemed to stop, as the tube curved to the left, and his quick descent stopped. Looking around the warm room, he noticed a figure out the corner of his eye. Turning to it, he noticed Opal walking over to a pool of what seemed to be burning lava, spooky scroll and small phone in hand. Taking the phone, she held it over the fire, only to pause, top right hand tapping her chin thoughtfully. Seeming as though she made up her mind, he brought up her bottom left hand to hold the phone with both hands, and snapped it in half, before for dropping it into the molten liquid. Groaning sadly, Steven continued to watch her.
Taking the scroll in her hands, she unrolled it above the lava pool. As her gems glowed, she let go of the scroll, and lowered to the top of the lava. Flames began licking at the bottom of the scroll, and the tall gem encased the burning artifact in a large pale purple bubble, watching it burn away. Steven, focused on the scene in front of him, began slipping down the crystal tube once more, this time hitting the hard tile of the Burning Room.
Seconds later, Ruby and Sapphire landed beside him, Ruby softly ending a somersault, and Sapphire having simply floated down.
Turning the boy, the blue gem grabbed his arm, whisper-shouting,
"Steven! We are getting you out of here!"
Ruby added, "C'mon!"
Loudly, he responded, surprising the gems "Oh! This is great! We're all together!"
Not realizing the gems' attempts to shush him, or Opal's startled gasp, he continued.
"We can finally eat! I mean, we don't have any forks-, but we could use our hands!"
Ignoring him, the short gems walked over to the taller gem to help her contain the expanding bubble.
"I'm not going to judge!" He finished.
Struggling to maintain focus on keeping the danger trapped in the bubble, Opal grit her teeth and called out to Steven.
"Steven, you have... to go!"
"Okay, wanna meet in the kitchen?" He responded.
Distracted once more, the bubble morphed unnaturally and burst. Smoke exploded throughout the room, engulfing the gems.
Summoning their weapons immediately, Ruby instructed the gems,
"It's trying to escape! We gotta push it back!" She yelled, running to the smoke monster, and punching it with her gauntlet.
Unfortunately, the smoke only grew as a result, forming a fist that almost crushed the half-human boy; had he not run. Almost caught by the monster, Opal jumped into save him, bow drawn at the ready, firing off several bursts of light at the smoke as she forced it back.
"Get! Back!"
To her right, Sapphire summoned her crystal knuckle dusters, digging her flats into the ground, she aimed a good punch to the center of the smoke, the monster shrieking and shrinking in response. Once more, Ruby jumped in front of the blue gem, assaulting the monster with brutal, relentless punches.
Before anyone could act, the monster let out another shriek, swimming around Sapphire, and smacking into the unexpecting boy behind her.
"Steven!" All three gems cried in unison before the smoke monster seemed to encase itself inside his breakfast dish.
Groaning, the boy opened his eyes and glanced at the plate in his lap. For the first few seconds, the food seemed normal. That was, until it began to warp and morph unnaturally.
"Together Breakfast?" Steven asked fearfully. Not long after, the dish morphed into a large monster, bending to shriek in hs face, knocking him on his back.
Before it seemingly tried to eat him, Opal threw a charged spear in its side made of cream.
"It's taken refuge in organic matter!" The monster turned to the purple gem, charging an arm made of syrup at her.
Sidestepping the attack, the gem dodged its attack, and the monster unexpectedly smacked into the body of a small blue gem behind her.
"Now it has all the power of a breakfast! We have to destroy it!" Ruby answered.
Now pinned to a wall, Sapphire was encased in spreading cream.
Monotonely, the gem added, "This is horrible."
The monster snapped Opal's spear in half, before Ruby attacked it once more, gauntlet now stuck in the sticky cream. Grabbing the arm of the red gem, Opal slowly dragged her out of her trap.
Sadly, Steven cried, "I didn't want this!"
Pushing the plate holding the monster away from him, he continued, "I just wanted to eat together like-, like best buds!"
The cream snaking up her arm as Opal struggled to pull her free, Ruby yelled to him.
"Steven! You have to get away!"
"But my breakfast-!" The monster expanded, shooting a giant waffle at the two gems, sticking them to the wall.
Startled, Steven became upset. Pushing on the monster, he forced it back with a cry.
"That's enough! I, don't care, if you are the most important meal of the day!" He pushed the monster into the lava pit, catching it on fire. "I need you to bring us together! Not to tear us apart!" Finishing his rant, he pushed the monster into the pit, the entire thing bursting into flames.
A gauntlet pushed through the waffle on the wall, ripping part of it out. Grasping onto the waffle, Ruby crawled out from behind it, Opal falling out rather ungracefully behind her. Sapphire also managed to break free, ripping her arms and dress out of the sticky cream. All three gems made their way over to him, worried looks crossing their faces.
Huffing breathlessly, Steven apologized to the gems. "Sorry guys. I guess I dreamed too big."
Opal placed waffles into the toaster oven, pulling it's lever down and waiting. Ruby threw several bags of popcorn into the microwave oven, closed the door, and pressed start. The waffles popped out of the toaster, both grabbed by a large purple hand, and brought over to a plate with two stacks of waffles. Sapphire floated over, syrup in hand, and poured the bottle's contents haphazardly upon the surface of the breakfast food, coating it in sticky brown liquid.
Behind her, Ruby came to the plate and poured the now cooked bags of popcorn over the top of the waffles, the snack landing perfectly, encasing the waffles. Next, Opal took the can of Whip It Up! and poured a perfectly even pile of cream in the middle of the waffle stacks. Once again, Steven walked to the counter, ripest strawberry in hand, and perfectly placed it in the pile of cream. Finally, the new and improved Together Breakfast(TM.) was finished.
"It looks great! It's even more together; and even more breakfast!" The boy smiled.
The three and a half gems looked to the breakfast satisfied. Suddenly, their stomachs began to grumble and gurgle unhappily, not too joyful about entertaining the idea of actually eating the sweet and salty monstrosity they created.
Voicing his thoughts, he added, "Uh, I don't think I can eat that."
"Let's order pizza instead." The red gem suggested.
The rest of the gems nodded, mumbling incoherently amongst themselves in agreement.
"It did try to kill us." Sapphire added monotonely.
It's finally finished; all 5,103 words of it. I'm sorry that it's so late and overdue. I hope you all enjoyed. Now that I have finally finished this chapter, I will (hopefully) be able to update more regularly.
There are a lot of things I want to share with you guys, (including some important information about this chapter), which will all be included in the next Author's Note chapter, that will be published after this chapter is posted. It will include many ideas/theories I had for the AU, and explain some details that may otherwise not make sense for you.
After that, the next chapter will most likely be based upon the episode Bubble Buddies. (The episode Frybo will not be written because the situation (in the Opal AU) would not occur as it would have in the original universe. Cat Fingers will also not be written because it mainly focuses on Steven and his developing powers, rather than the gems, therefore, it would most likely be the same story as the original.)
Thank you for waiting for this chapter, everyone!
-Syn