"PERI! PERI! PERI!"

Amethyst steps off the warp pad with Peridot on her shoulders, looking dazed but grinning. They're closely followed by Steven, Lapis and Connie, still chanting. Garnet watches, unfazed, from a stool in the kitchen as Pearl walks over looking shell shocked.

"Garnet," she says, gripping the leader's arms, "Peridot has a gun. I got everyone home before anyone was shot. I think it would be safer if we trained her in a controlled environment to prevent-"

"HEY!" Amethyst shouts from the doorway, Peridot still on her shoulders, "Let's go set up a shooting range on the beach!"

They disappear out of the door to whoops of agreement, and soon Pearl and Garnet are left alone in the house.

"...Oh my stars," Pearl mutters weakly.

"Come on Peri, let's see it!" Amethyst insists.

"You can do it!" Steven adds.

Connie backs off a few feet. "My parents say I should keep a safe distance from guns."

"Alright, target's up," Lapis says, landing beside her green friend, "I wanna see this thing."

Peridot takes a deep breath and reaches to her forehead. Once again a bright light momentarily obscures her vision and she feels her weapon beneath her fingers. She grips it, pulls, and gets her first proper look at it. Small, black, with a dark green grip and a yellow star emblazoned on each side. Having absolutely no knowledge of firearms, she could say nothing else about it.

"Pretty cool," Lapis comments.

"SHOOT SOMETHING!" Amethyst yells.

The group turn to look at the makeshift target on the side of the cliff: Steven's shield, suspended with Amethyst's whip from Lapis' training sword, which is embedded in a crack in the rock. Peridot raises the gun in both hands, closes one eye, and pulls the trigger. A bullet bounces weakly off the rock, hits the sand and disappears in a wink of light.

"That was close!" Steven says enthusiastically, "a little to the left."

Peridot adjusts her aim and fires again.

"A bit to the right!"

Once again she aims and fires. The bullet hits the shield just off the centre - and rickochets straight into Lapis' arm.

""HOLY SMOKES!" The blue gem yells, stumbling back a step and grimacing, "geez Peri, that thing packs a punch!"

"Are you okay?!" Peridot asks anxiously, her pistol disappearing in a glow of white light.

"I'm fine," the blue gem replies, covering the wound with her other hand and managing a smile, "this is nothing compared to my inner pain."

The group arrives back in the house only a tad less enthusiastically then how they exited.

"Hey guys," Bismuth greets them, looking up from the book she had been reading, "uh, Lapis, can't help but notice you've got a bit of a hole in your arm there."

Lapis shrugs in response. "It happens. Did you hear about Peri's-"

"Let me tell her!" Peridot cuts in. She runs up to the stool next to Bismuth and clambers up beside her, slamming her gun onto the counter with one hand.

"Look at this!"

"Is this- Did you summon your weapon?!"

Peridot nods, grinning.

"Wow, you really did it! Always knew you had it in you, Tiny!"

She wraps one arm around her little friend and aggressively ruffles her triangular hair. Peridot lets out a startled squeak, and a gunshot sounds from under her hand. Everyone stares wide eyed as the bullet winks out of existence, embedded in the wooden support beside the counter. Peridot hurriedly takes her hand off the pistol.

"Well, this is quite something," Bismuth remarks, picking it up.

"Be careful with that!" Connie advises as the blacksmith examines the firearm.

"Relax, this thing is Peridot-sized. I couldn't get my finger in there if I tried." She hands it back to its owner. "I guess you don't need that blade anymore, huh?"

"Yeah, but one of the holograms kinda hit it off the sky area," Peridot admits, "sorry."

"It's alright, Tiny, it was just a placeholder 'till you managed to get your own. I can take that sheath off your hands though."

The conversation is cut short by the warp pad activating, Pearl and Garnet materialising in a stream of light.

"Oh thank goodness," Pearl sighs, "you gave up that silly- oh my stars, Lapis, your arm!"

Once again, Lapis shrugs. "I got a piercing."

Pearl walks over, summoning a small roll of medical tape from her gem and grabbing Lapis by her intact left arm to pull her over to the sofa. The blue gem shoots her friends 'help me' looks as Pearl wraps her upper arm in tape, all the while ranting about irresponsible training.

"Honestly, what a stupid idea! You're lucky it wasn't Steven or Connie, not everyone is composed of hard light, you know! And what if someone's gem had been hit? Amethyst, I blame you for this, it was your idiotic idea!"

"That's fair," Amethyst shrugs.

"How did this even happen?!" Pearl continues, "I know that Peridot at least is smart enough not to shoot a gun at her friend! Garnet, I thought you said they'd be fine!"

"I expected that at least one of them would remember that the shield is reflective."

"I didn't think that included bullets!" Steven cut in, "Bullets don't usually reflect!"

"Bullets aren't usually hard light constructs," Garnet points out.

"Oh. Right."

"Light construct or not, they're still lethal!" Pearl interjects, seemingly eager to continue her lecture, not noticing Amethyst ushering Peridot, Steven and Connie towards the door and motioning for Lapis to follow.

"Okay, I think that's enough tape!" Lapis says with a hint of annoyance, standing up.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere in that condition!" Pearl announces, pulling her back down.

"What 'condition'?! I'm fine!"

"A hole through your arm is not fine! You're staying here! And as for the rest of you-"

She turns around to see nothing but empty space where the four smallest crystal gems had been, the door slightly ajar.

"Oh, not again!" she moans.

"Bloody clods left without me!" Lapis yells from behind her.