The pawn shop was dirty. That was the first thing Anne noticed when she walked in. "All right Anne, you can do this." she told herself, looking up at a fancy looking music box.Glancing over her shoulder, she made sure the elderly cashier was still asleep, before grabbing the box and putting it in her backpack. Her friends encouraged her from the window as she walked out of the store. Later, she and her friends were sitting in the park, opening the box for the first time. As they did, a group of strange people ran up to them. She suddenly found herself inside some sort of pink bubble, and as a bright light came from the box… she woke up with a start. "Guys, guys, I just had the craziest dream. I was trapped in a world of frog pe- Oh." She stopped talking as she saw the Plantars staring at her and her new "friends". (She still wasn't sure what to make of the gems. At least Steven and Connie seemed nice enough.) "Right." "Hey guys, sleep good?" Sprig asked enthusiastically. "Oh, they did!" said Pearl. "I must say, it was quite fascinating to watch someone other than Steven sleep for once!" "I'm sorry what?" Polly asked incredulously. "Oh, uh gems don't need to sleep, so they just kinda… stood there all night." Steven explained. "You don't sleep?" Sprig asked, moving to get closer. "Careful boy!" Hop Pop said, stopping him. "They could be hungry." "For your guts!" Polly finished. "Dude, relax. I am not going to eat something that clearly doesn't bathe. Besides, they don't even need to eat!" Anne added, gesturing at the gems. "Fair point." conceded Hop Pop. "See? Told you they were harmless." Sprig said. "Well I wouldn't say-" Pearl began, before being stopped by Garnet. "We will not harm you or your family unless you attempt to harm us." she reassured. "Hmph. For now." Hop Pop said disbelievingly as he left. Brandishing a rolling pin, Polly said "Just give me an excuse to use old Doris here." before following Hop Pop. "I think the little one wants to kill us." Anne noted. "Yup." Sprig agreed cheerfully. "So! You must all be so excited to be trapped in another world. Very jealous." Sprig fell backwards onto Anne's bedroll. "Heh. It's not all that. I miss my home. And my stuff. And especially… my friends." She grabbed a picture of her and her friends and looked at it sadly. "And I most certainly am not excited!" Pearl added. "How are we supposed to defend Earth if we aren't on Earth!?" "Weeelll…" Sprig said, suddenly having an idea, "I don't know how to help with that second one, but I could be your friend! It might help make you less homesick!" "Yeah, me too!" Steven agreed. "And me!" Connie joined in. "You?" Anne asked in surprise. "Me!" Sprig confirmed. "You?" "C'mon, it'll be fun! What did you do together?" "Everything! Marathon dumb tv shows, drink boba till we vomited, hung out at the beach." "Oh! Me and Connie did that last one too! Though to be fair I live on the beach…" Steven added. "Oh! We've got a lake! Would going there make you feel less homesick?" After comparing Sprig and the exited duo of Connie and Steven to photo of her friends a few times, Anne said "You know what, let's do it!" And so they all got ready for a beach day. The gens had gone upstairs earlier, and Hop Pop was trying to figure out why the gems didn't eat. "Are you full? Are you on a diet? ARE YOU HUNGRY EXCLUSIVELY FOR FLESH!?" "No, I keep telling you, we simply don't require sustenance in order to survive." Pearl said in an exasperated tone. The kids excitedly ran towards the door, only to be stopped by Hop Pop. "And where do you four think you going?" "We're going to the lake!" Sprig answered, snapping his shorts and immediately regretting it. "Why? You want in? You wanna come?" Anne asked. "Absolutely not!" Hop Pop yelled back. "Look, you three, your new, unsettling, strange, bizarre, gangly, horrifying-" "Thanks we get it!" Anne interrupted. "Point is, the frogs in this town can be pretty small minded. And paranoid. We just need to give em time to get used to ya. I think it's best you stay put!" With this, he pulled out a golden key and locked the front door. "But-" Steven began, but Pearl stopped him. "Sorry Steven, but I'm with Hoppediah on this one. It's just too risky!" "Thank you Pearl. Now, I'm gonna go into my study to get a little reading done. Don't do anything stupid!" Hop Pop added as he closed the doors to his study. "Speaking of stupid… where did Amethyst run off to?" Pearl said as she went to find the purple gem. "Ugh, adults are all the same. Curfews. Rules. Old." Anne complained. "Yeah, looks like we're stuck here. Ooh, I know what'll be fun! Let's try some of Hop Pops pain peppers! So hot they'll make you wish you were dead!" Sprig said, opening a barrel to reveal large, bright read peppers covered in bumps. "Oh, like fire salt!" Steven said excitedly. "Wait Steven if Amethyst is missing and there's a hyper spicy thing in the house…" Connie began before she was cut off by Pearl screaming. "We should… probably leave them alone." "Well, guess it's our turn!" Sprig said, holding one out to Anne. "No thanks, I'd rather go to the lake!" "What? But Hop Pop and Pearl said-" Yeah Anne, Pearl usually knows what she's talking about." Steven agreed. "Sprig, Steven, Connie, do you wanna know the best thing about friendship? When you've got your friend by your side, anything is possible." "She has a point Steven…" Connie said reluctantly. "See? She gets it. Whatever you want, a real friend will help you get. And you know what I want?" "The lake!" Sprig said, newly enthused. "Yup. Now let's go rob an old man!" Everyone paused. "Yeah that didn't sound as cool as I wanted it to."
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As it turned out, Hop Pop slept with his eyes open. This made stealing his key very easy. Unfortunately, as they went to leave, Garnet cleared her throat. Everyone froze. "Be safe." She said with a thumbs up. And so, the kids found themselves at the lake. "It's so pretty!" Steven said with stars in his eyes. Unfortunately, as they all ran to get in the water, they came across a hastily written sigh that read "Don't swim". "This was not here last week." Sprig noted. "I know exactly what's going on here." Anne said with complete confidence. "Some jerk just wants this beautiful lake all to themselves." "I dunno Anne…" Connie said, "This sign looks like it was made in a hurry, almost like whoever made it was scared of something…" "What if it was another big monster?!" Steven said. "Or maybe, they just had bad handwriting!" Anne argued. "Come on, don't be a buzzkill." However, as Anne dipped her toe in the water, Steven threw up a shield in front of her and Sprig pulled her back with his tongue. "Hey, what gives?" "Something isn't right Anne!" Steven insisted. "Ugh. I thought you were trying to be my friends." "We are!" Steven insisted. "And as your friend, I can't let you put yourself in danger!" "Well that's not what friends do! Don't you remember? Friends help each other get the things they want!" "Huh?" Steven said, confused. "Look, if a friend likes a pencil case, you get it for them. If a friend likes your new shoes, you give them to her. And if a friend wants you to steal a crazy music box from a thrift store, even if you really don't want to… you do it, okay? Cause if you don't, they might not want to be your friend anymore." Steven looked horrified at this and dropped the shield. "Fine." Sprig said, walking away. "Fine." Anne replied. "Wait, no, guys!" Steven began. Suddenly, Sprig came running back and jumped in the lake. "Ah yeah! That's what I'm talkin about!" Anne yelled, jumping into the lake after him. "You guys coming?" Anne called back to Steven and Connie. "Steven, we should go with them. They might need our protection." Connie rationalized. And so, the four played in the lake for hours, any misgivings long forgotten. Until, that is, the flexing competition. As Anne took a picture of Sprig, a shape rose out of the water behind him. A giant water snake had risen out of the water! "Get behind me!" Steven yelled, pulling his shield from his gem. As Steven held the snake off, Sprig and Anne started swimming for the shore, while Connie looked for something to use as a weapon. Unfortunately, Steven must not have looked very appetizing because the snake swam around him and went after Anne. Her hands not being webbed, she had fallen behind. Sprig dived to save her, just getting out of the way. Suddenly, a flash of pink light came from above the water. As they surfaced, they saw a tall… woman? Probably? Standing where Steven and Connie were before. In one hand it had a stick, and in the other Stevens shield. As the newcomer fought the snake, Anne and Sprig hopped onto a Lily pad. "Well, that explains the sign." Sprig noted. "Sprig, I'm just slowing you down buddy. Get outta here. This was my fault anyway. I should've listened to you and Steven." At this Sprig punched her, yelling "Friend punch! Never! I'm not about let my first real friends get eaten. We're in this together!" At this point, the tall stranger was running towards them, yelling "This is so much more difficult than fighting corrupted gems!" As she(?) reached them, Sprig jumped on Anne's head. "I have a plan! Stand up!" When Anne complied, Sprig said "When I count to three, duck!" "What? Are you crazy?!" "Just trust me!" As he said this, the mysterious stranger reached them, the snake hot on their tail. "Alright, one. Two. Three!" As he said three, the snake lunged for Anne, but got Sprig instead! "Sprig!" The stranger cried. "Vengeance!" Anne yelled, taking the stranger's stick and smacking the snake with it. But suddenly, the snake regurgitated Sprig in a barf of flames! "You're alive!" Anne said, catching him. The stranger sighed with relief. Looking up at the snake, Anne saw that it was still breathing fire, clearly in pain. "What the heck did you do to that thing?" The stranger asked. Sprig pulled out a pain pepper he had in his pocket. "So hot they'll make you wish you were dead!" "You little genius you!" Anne said. "Ok, nobody died, we're all very happy, but let's get the heck outta here!" the stranger said. Suddenly, the snake roared again. "Good call!" Anne said as they all swam off. Once they were back at the shore, Anne looked the stranger up and down. Then she gasped. "Your human! How did you get here? Do you know a way back? What did you do with Steven and Connie?" "Oh right, I forgot you don't know me yet. The names Stevonnie! I'm a fusion of Steven and Connie! It's a gem hybrid thing." "Your kidding." At this, Stevonnie began to glow and split back into their parts. "You are a strange child Steven Universe." "Yeah, I get that a lot."
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Later, back at the house, Hop Pop woke up to find his key gone. He immediately started panicking, fearing the worst. However, he found the kids in the basement playing a board game, while Pearl scolded Amethyst and Garnet watched from the corner. "You guys been here all day, huh?" "Sure have Mr Plantar!" Steven replied. "Garnet can vouch!" Garnet simply gave a thumbs up at this. "Oh, by the way Hop Pop, we found this on the floor." Anne said, pulling out his key. "You must've dropped it." "Dang shallow pockets. Well you get what you pay for…" Hop Pop mumbled as he left. "Aha!" Polly yelled, jumping in on them. "Oh, hello Polly!" Pearl said cheerfully, before turning the presence of a baby in the house into another excuse for why Amethyst's behavior was wildly inappropriate. "Your not gonna eat us, are you? Not even gonna try?" "Sorry?" Steven said, slightly confused. "Dis-appointing." With that, Polly left. Anne turned to the others. "Hey, sorry I almost got us killed today." "Are you kidding? That was the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me!" Sprig said. "Plus, the practice fighting organic life forms was good." Connie added. "Yeah! My heart was pounding faster than dragonfly on a sugar rush! In fact… I'm feeling a little… sleepy…" As he said this, Sprig passed out. Steven and Connie went to talk to Pearl about something, and with the privacy that left her, Anne pulled out her picture of her friends. "Sasha, Marcy, I hope you guys are ok. Because I am."
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"Take at look at this, please, Sasha." the toad held up a yellow shoe. "It was found far from here, in the south forest. Now we know that you've been lying to us." Sasha glared at him from inside her cell. "Now we know that there are more of you."