A/N: Hey guys. Sorry for the slight delay, so here's an early release of Chapter 9. It was recently finished, but the reason I was hesitant to post it is because it's only about 1/4 of the length of the usual chapters, and the reason it's like that is because it's main focus is music and art, which something that can't be done in . Most of the story in general is designed to be read on Archive Of Our Own as a way of getting around 's limitations, but the art I made for that chapter isn't complete.

But I decided to release it now to avoid any further delays, especially as the second semester starts. I might edit this chapter to include a prompt for you guys to check the new chapter out when I DO upload it there.

I'll feature the song right at the beginning so you too can look it up and read along.

*****UPDATE JAN 16/16: The Achive Of Our Own version is up! Please search it to see the neat thing I added to it.*********

*Underworld- Two Months Off

Chapter 9: 9 Minutes Off

"It is done."*

The words from Garnet's mouth echo through the others' conscience. A familiar sense of barely contained joy runs course through their little carbon bodies. They can smell fresh balloons, and they can feel a playful percussion that signals the start of something new and exciting. Curiosity reaches its peak. They can feel the percussion playing in their ears. Steven, Gumball, and Anais's fingers start to move. The park crew exchanges looks as they begin to move, and even Lion starts to stare wide-eyed with his ears twitching.

Small feet rush towards the as more of Garnet's words speak, but are too distracted by the boundless possibilities in their minds to listen. Her voices only echo through their ears and they only hear word salad. They continue to run forward, and the park crew joins them. The strange percussion rings on, and excitement rings in the air. Eventually, the Gems themselves make their way to the Rooms.

The kids plainly understand one fundamental thing: it's time to play. Time for fun.

New doors swing and slam when they begin to travel to each Room in each floor. A brief crash course is soon learned when they notice the doors in the floors and ceiling are far apart, as its structure was built to accommodate the big scale of their contents. They jump high with ease to reach each door on the ceilings, travelling quickly from each Room to Room. Darwin winds up learning the crash course in a literal sense when he fails to open the ceiling door in time. This does not stop him, even with a black eye and some teeth missing. Soon, disorganized, colored blurs zoom out through the tower, each finding their own place.

In the Electronic Room, Anais toys around with some synthesizers. Speakers that ring out throughout every corner of the tower, filling it with the increasing energetic melody. Her fingers travel to produce a starry theme, increasing in volume each time. Doors keep slamming and happiness is expressed fiercely. The sound intensifies and Anais begins to feel a certain threshold, introducing a second, sillier sounding theme that begins to overtake the original. Anais starts to smile, feeling energized by the music. In the Dance Room in the same floor, Pearl notices an unusual talent coming nearby as she start to practice her rapid ballet to the increasing rhythm and melody. She figures she will take care of that later on.

Rigby admittedly had only wanted to find the Video Game Room, instead finding himself in the LED Room. The pattern on all walls ceiling and doors are the same moving mesmerizing colors, unclear as to where up, down, left, and right is. Rigby, standing in what he assumes is the 'ground' turns in all directions with eyes as big as baseballs, staring at the hypnotizing patterns on the walls. He quickly loses his sense of direction, making light yelps of both bewilderment and awe on being unable to tell which way is up. He feels as if light is being brought in. Suddenly, a door next to him opens. Rigby watches Darwin zooms by, greeting him happily in near-zero Gravity before "floating" towards the door on the other side and exiting through it. Curiously, Rigby "walks" over to the door Darwin came from and opens it. He immediately feels himself falling straight into the Cosmic Golf Room in low gravity, instinctively grabbing a nearby orange club and hitting a bright green ball underneath the black light and green stars, standing on top of a round, blue 'planet-like' surface.

The little ball travels to the Room next to it, the Metal Room. The ball bounces off the aluminum walls, before hitting the ceiling and dropping onto the Statue Room. The ball quickly rolls around the inside of the spiral structures, before dropping onto the Jungle Room.

Amethyst, swinging on a vine, swiftly kicks the little ball, sending it up from the Statue Room back into the Metal Room. She swings across the Room while guffawing, with Lion playing and rolls around. Amethyst swings towards the Castle Room and kicks open the door, where Pops tries on a king's crown and shoots him a quick 'YO!'. With a grin, she swings into the Rock n' Roll room, shouting towards Skips whom has a saxophone in his hands. She swings again with force, releases the vine, and slides onto the icy rink of the Ice Room next to the Room. In a swift motion, she opens the door in a large, ice-less circle in the middle of the rink and drops onto the Rave Room, where she begins to dance along with Mordecai and Penny. The ball, now bouncing faster in the Metal Room without losing momentum, assists the percussion bouncing along the chrome-sprayed pots, pans, and cowbells.

Mordecai then exits the Rave Room for a moment and opens a door to the Balloon Room. He is greeted with the sight of dozens of colorful floating balloons and some grey ones; silver clouds floating gently in the air. Mordecai holds an overinflated, mirror-like balloon in the tips of his feather fingers, just as the smaller grey balloons float in front of it, arranging themselves to produce a pareidolic image, sporting an expression of surprise.

In the Spotlight Room, Garnet stands perched in a catwalk, with colorful spotlights and projectors with patterns shining on the walls. Steven, Gumball, and a newly-arrived Darwin are in a state of euphoria, dancing along with the melody and bouncing until their throats are dry. High Fives are exchanged between them, while Garnet begins to move the spotlights. The rhythm starts to change and makes loud periodic bangs. Darwin shuffles, Gumball taps both feet and claps his hands to the beat, and Steven begins to run.

Steven slams into a wall where the wall door normally should have been. This brings him back to reality, trying to register what happened. The percussion stops and the starry theme returns. Garnet turns to Steven, and hops of the catwalk to attend him. She begins to explain.

"There are two Rooms on this floor that don't have doors, and they're inaccessible." There is a small pause as the melody is altered. "We don't know what they are, and we don't remember building them… our work was very, very fast, and it was almost all a blur. But I know it's nothing you should worry about. We either don't ever visit them, or you might let yourself get drawn in."

Garnet taps Steven's shoulder and he scratches his chin pensively. The silly theme returns, and Anais is completely into it as her fingers press into the keys rapidly. It then takes Steven a moment to realize he is indeed in the 36th floor. Traveling around the Rooms, climbing through the doors in the floors and ceilings is quicker than he thought. As he wonders what could be the mystery behind the doorless Rooms, he turns around to find Gumball with his face scrunched up in absent-minded confusion and squinting VERY closely. Steven almost reels back.

"Dude…" he almost whispers, while puckering his lips upward. He lifts a hand to point at Steven, starting to smirk. "Did you know your hair's shaped like a rose…?"

Steven is startled; he reaches up to touch the back of his hair to feel a familiar flowery texture under his curls. As he does, Gumball grins and bobs his head to the rhythm. Steven then starts to laugh, and Gumball starts to laugh right back. They both start to laugh harder, and their feet tap as they regain their energy, preparing to dance again once the rhythm drops. Gumball jumps up, and starts bouncing along with Darwin. Steven soon begins to move his arms and his legs. Suddenly, he's completely forgotten as to what he was curious about. He joins Gumball and Darwin in their free dances, having the best time. Garnet looks down at them and cracks a small smile.

Rigby manages to stumble into the Rave Room after traveling a maze. Amethyst sees him, chuckles, and pulls him towards her and Mordecai. She takes both their hands and "waltzes" with them at the same time, mixing her partnership moves with club dancing with controlled proficiency and wildness in her style. Mordecai and Rigby are almost in a daze, overtaken by her skill. Penny floats, and runs along the walls in glee, the strobe lights shining all around them in the beat of the rhythm, reaching down to give the three of them a high-five. Pops pulls a string and blows the small cannons which explode into confetti, and he laughs and claps joyfully. Skips decides to play his saxophone some other time, so he sits in the chair, and simply bobs along to the beat. The Metal Room starts sounding, and Pearl resumes her improvised dance to the unconventional melody. Lion starts to sprint and leap across the Rooms. Steven, Gumball, and Darwin continue to jam wildly among each other and bouncing, as the music starts to reach its threshold once more.

The rhythm's periodic bangs return for the finale. Gumball, Steven, Darwin stomp their feet and headbang to the beats. Penny, Amethyst, Mordecai, and Rigby do the same. Then Anais, as she brings the melody to an end and Pearl prepares to strike a pose.

The melody stops.

The pots and cowbells started clanking wildly immediately after. The repetitive rhythm continues with its energy and the sounds still run through the tower. Tired and happy, the residents continue to dance, not bothering to know what's making that beat. Lion stops running, stopping in the Paint Room. He sniffs the air and his ears perk up suspiciously. His eyes glow as he tries to pinpoint the source while making paw prints on the floor with red paint. But before he can go out to search, the rhythm slowly starts to fade. The little ball lies on the ground of the Statue Room the whole time, it's surface blank, but still somehow in surprise.

A/N: By the way, I started a forum! Go to the Forums, under CartoonsSteven Universe and look for The Toon Tower Forum. I don't get why there isn't a crossover option, so Steven Universe had to be. It's still in its early stages, so it's not very big at the moment, but check it out if you will. Be sure to also check out the Tumblr blog: type Toon Tower on Google, and it should be the first result.