Disclaimer: I own nothing that has to do with Steven Universe or any other cartoon shows.
Same Day: Hospital
Hallway
After escaping SHIELD headquarters, Steven and Mabel disguise themselves in civilian clothing, wearing hoodies to hide a bit of their faces. They then go back to the hospital to retrieve the flash drive that Steven hid in the vending machine.
Steven and Mabel casually walk down the hospital hallway, passing doctors and nurses. They go up to the vending machine and see all the bubble gum packages and the hard drive gone.
Steven and Mabel share a confused look before looking back. They see Marcy and Pacifica appearing behind them, chewing some gum, wearing normal clothing, off the reflection of the vending machine window.
Steven and Mabel turn around to face them. They wait a couple of seconds for a doctor to walk by before Steven, in anger, grabs the girls' shoulders and pushes them into a room behind them.
Hospital Room
Steven pushes both Marcy and Pacifica into an empty hospital room. Mabel follows them and closes the door. Steven pushes the girls against the wall. Marcy hisses in pain at the contact from her bruised ribs to the wall, still sore from being in two car accidents the day before (From Chapters 8 and 9). She also has stitches on her right temple, a cast on her left hand/wrist, and painkillers for her bruised ribs.
Steven ignores Marcy's hiss of pain, pushes his hood off his head, and demands the two women in anger, "Where is it?" He's asking about the hard drive. Mabel silently watches them and out the window of the room to the hallway for any sudden interruptions.
Marcy answers vaguely as she glares at Steven, "Safe."
Steven demands, pushing Pacifica and Marcy harder to the wall, "Do better." Marcy's face twists in pain, but she tries to hide it.
Pacifica looks at Steven sternly, "Where did you get it?"
Steven demands back, "Why would I tell you?"
Marcy holds her casted left hand/wrist to her chest as she stares at Steven, figuring it out, "Rick gave it to you. Why?"
Steven ignored Marcy's question and demanded to Pacifica, "What's on it?" He looked at Pacifica because she had downloaded the files to that hard drive.
Pacifica answers Steven truthfully, "I don't know."
Steven angrily pushes Pacifica harder to the wall, "Stop lying."
Pacifica narrows her eyes as she says in defense, "I only act like I know everything, Steven."
Mabel speaks up as she walks over to them, standing on Steven's right in front of Marcy. Steven stands mostly in front of Pacifica, "I bet you knew Rick hired the pirates, didn't you?"
Marcy and Pacifica blink, surprised. Pacifica realizes and says, "Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty. Rick needed a way in, so do you." She looks between Steven and Mabel.
Steven angrily grabs the two women tighter to the wall, "I'm not gonna ask you again."
Marcy, breathing out in pain, takes a moment before she tells them, "I know who killed Rick." Steven, Mabel, and Pacifica look at her, surprised. Steven relaxes and lets go of the two women. Marcy shifts slightly off the wall, explaining, "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe they exist. The ones who do call them the Diamond Soldiers." Mabel crosses her arms and glances out the window to the hallway before looking back at Marcy, "They're credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."
Mabel is unfazed and raises her eyebrow questioningly, "So they're a ghost story."
Marcy sighed and then explained, "Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot at my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff." Marcy blinks as she remembers that night, "I pulled us out. But the Diamond Soldiers was there. I was covering my engineer, so they shot him straight through me." Marcy pulls up her shirt a bit to show them the bullet wound scar on the left side near her stomach and hip. Steven, Mabel, and Pacifica look at her scar curiously, "Soviet slug." They look at her, "No rifling." She states with a hint of sadness, "Bye-bye, bikinis."
Steven tells Marcy sarcastically, "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Marcy smiles faintly.
Marcy tells Steven seriously, "Going after them is a dead end. I know. I've tried." Marcy takes out the flash drive from her pocket and holds it up toward Steven. She looks at Mabel, "Like you said," She looks at Steven, "They're a ghost story."
Mabel gently snatches the flash drive from Marcy before Steven does. When the other three look at her, Mabel shrugs and says simply, "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."
The Triskelion: S.H.I.E.L.D.
Headquarters
Inside: World Security Council Meeting Room
General Nathan is holding another virtual meeting with the World Security Council, standing in front of the 4 chairs that are spread out in a row with 4 large glass windows/half tubes. The 4 hologram World Security Council sits in their seats in a row.
Nathan paces as he explains, "Rick Sanchez was murdered in cold blood. To any reasonable person, that would make him a martyr, not a traitor."
Councilman Rockwell speaks up judgmentally, "You know what makes him a traitor? Hiring a mercenary to hijack his own ship."
Councilman Singh tells Nathan, "Rick Sanchez used your friendship to coerce this Council into delaying Project Insight. A project he knew would expose his own illegal operations. At best, he lied to you. At worst..."
Nathan asks the council as he cuts Singh off, "Are you calling for my resignation? I've got a pen and paper right here."
Councilwoman Hawley speaks up, and Nathan looks at her, "That discussion can be tabled for a later time."
Nathan looks at the council with his hands on his hips, "But do you want to have a discussion?"
Councilman Rockwell tells Nathan, a bit smugly, "We've already had it, Mr. General." Nathan looks at him, "This Council moves to immediately reactivate Project Insight. If you want to say something snappy, now would be a good time." Nathan stays silent and looks away, with a faint smile growing on his face.
Mall
Steven, Mabel, Marcy, and Pacifica go to the mall, all disguised as normal civilian attire. They're walking together, passing people who are oblivious to who they are. Steven wears a cap and glasses, Mabel wears a beanie and glasses, and Marcy and Pacifica wear hoodies with their hoods up, Pacifica's face more visible than Marcy's.
Pacifica tells them, "First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk."
Steven looks around, "If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off."
Inside: MAC Store
The four go to a Mac store to use one of their computers. Mabel stands by a laptop, using her hacker skills. Pacifica is on her left, looking down at the screen. Steven is on Mabel's right, also looking down at the screen. Marcy is standing beside Pacifica, looking around and on guard for anything.
Mabel explains as she types, "The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are."
Steven asks Mabel, "How much time do we have?"
Mabel continues to type, "Uh... About nine minutes from..." She pops the flash drive into a MacBook Pro laptop, "...now."
Outside: SHIELD Headquarters Bridge
4 SHIELD SUV vehicles drive out of the SHIELD headquarters garage in a straight line, close together.
Inside: Mall
MAC Store
Steven, Pacifica, and Marcy stand around Mabel as she continues to hack the SHIELD flash drive. Mabel says as she types fast, "Rick was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." She gets frustrated by it.
Pacifica asks Mabel, "Can you override it?"
Mabel types faster, "The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me." She adds, annoyed, "Slightly."
Outside: Street
The 4 SHIELD SUV vehicles stop beside the mall. Jasper and her STRIKE team get out of their cars. Jasper pulls out her gun, cocks it, and puts it in her waistband behind her back before they all head inside.
Inside: Mall
MAC Store
Steven, Pacifica, and Marcy are still standing around Mabel as she continues to find out what's on the flash drive. As she gives up fighting the AI that keeps blocking her out, she types fast, saying, "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."
A male Apple employee walks up to them, "Can I help you guys with anything?" Steven steps forward to block Mabel as she continues to type on the laptop.
Marcy looks at the employee as she turns her back to Steven, pressing her back against his chest, "Oh, no. My friends was just helping my fiancé and I with some honeymoon destinations." Mabel rolls her eyes as she hears Marcy.
Steven smiles and awkwardly hugs Marcy from behind, "Right. We're getting married." Marcy is good at covering the stitches on her head.
The male Apple employee smiles, "Congratulations. Where do you guys thinking about going?" The employee steps closer to see the screen, but Steven and Marcy move closer to Mabel, blocking the guy's view.
Steven looks at the monitor and sees the signal traced to somewhere in New Jersey. Steven answers, "New Jersey."
The male Apple employee nods, "Oh." The employee looks at Steven for a moment. Marcy and Steven panic momentarily, thinking that he will recognize Steven as Captain Universe. Then the employee says, as he points to Steven's glasses, "I have the exact same glasses."
Pacifica says with sarcastic enthusiasm as she continues looking at the laptop screen beside Mabel. Her back is basically pressed up against Steven's back, "Wow, you two are practically twins."
The male Apple employee laughs, "Yeah, I wish." He holds his hands up and dramatically bows a bit as he steps back, "Specimen." Steven nods while Marcy smiles, "Uh..." The man slowly backs up and tells them, "If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." He holds up his employee badge.
Steven nods, "Thank you."
Hallways
Jasper and her STRIKE team are looking for Steven, Mabel, Pacifica, and Marcy inside the mall.
Inside: MAC Store
Steven looks at his watch as he stands beside Marcy. He tells Mabel, "You said nine minutes, come on."
Pacifica tells Steven calmly as she looks at the laptop screen, "Shh, relax."
Mabel quickly finishes typing and presses the last key before saying, "Got it." She finds the signal is coming from Wheaton, New Jersey. Mabel looks at Steven as he leans closer to the screen, "You know it?"
Steven tells Mabel, "I used to. Let's go." Steven pulls the flash drive out of the laptop, and they quickly walk out of the store.
Hallway
From right to left, Marcy, Pacifica, Mabel, and Steven walk in a line. Steven looked around, observing his surroundings, and found a few familiar people from SHIELD, "Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage with Pacifica. You two hit the south escalator to the metro." He talks about Mabel and Marcy; knowing Marcy's still hurt and wants nothing to happen to Mabel, but knows Pacifica is up to fighting anything.
Marcy quickly tells Steven as she hooks her right arm around Pacifica's left arm, "Shut up and put your arm around Mabel. Laugh at something I said."
Steven asks Marcy, confused, "What?" Two agents are coming straight towards them while they look around.
Pacifica tells Steven, "Do it!" Steven quickly puts his arm around Mabel's shoulders while she does the same around his waist. Marcy and Pacifica huddle closer to them as they all look down and walk forward normally. They laugh, successfully walking past the two agents undetected. Steven stops laughing and looks over his right shoulder at the agents.