After a long day's drive around the countryside, Ben and Steven were looking forward to getting to their motel room. Sure, they'd get to rest up, but today, they had another thing to be excited about. Although, an actual bed for once was nice too, so after getting their key, Ben and Steven practically ran to their room.
"I got the corner bed!" – Ben yelled as he ran inside, threw his shoes off while running, jumped over the bed in the center of the room and slammed himself onto the bed that was standing in the corner. The bed gave a dangerous creak under his weight.
"Well, okay, as long as I get to be the first one in the shower." – Steven calmly said as he picked Ben's shoes up, one of which had wound up in the corner, and the other barely missed the TV on the dresser, and put them neatly under the coat hanger. He did the same thing with his and got his well-used pink flip-flops that barely fit his shoe size anymore out of his backpack after putting the backpack down on the bed that Ben had designated for Steven. He took his jacket off, folded it neatly and put it on the chair next to his bed, grabbed his towel, cosmetics bag, spare underwear and stepped into the bathroom.
"Ha! Sucker." – Ben thought to himself. What did it matter who showered first? In the meantime, he oriented himself to find the most comfortable position on the bed, first laying on one side, then another, then going back to the original position because it'd be better for watching the TV. Hands behind his head, one leg bent. Though, then realized he should have probably gotten the TV remote before settling in this comfortably.
Without hesitation, he slid two fingers across the Omnitrix dial to activate it, picked the alien he had in mind (after having to scroll through like 20 of them) and pressed it. As Spidermonkey, he webbed the remote, pulled it back and detransformed, and even though he had to peel the webs off the remote now, it was still better than having to get out of bed.
"Hurry up, Steven, the show starts in 15!" – Ben yelled to remind him. While he waited, he flipped through the channels. Yet another old Vincent Van Ghoul horror movie, a Harrangue Show broadcast that didn't involve him for once, the new episode of High School Heights ("They're still making that show? How did they not run out of storylines in like 7 years?" – thought Ben)… Eventually, he settled on that Canadian channel. It was that teen camping show Steven had told him about.
"Yo Steven, I think your Canadian show is up right now!" – Ben yelled so that Steven would hear it in the shower.
"Camp Pining Hearts? The original or the reboot?" – Steven asked, though his voice was muffled and covered by the sound of hot running water.
Ben watched as the campers went around the forest taking selfies with wild animals.
"The reboot!" – Ben yelled.
"Yeah, the reboot sucks! Don't judge the whole show by what you see there!" – Steven yelled in the shower.
Ben continued watching as one of the girls chased a turtle around, only for it to start kung-fu fighting her.
"Yeah, I think I've seen this show before." – Ben yelled so that Steven could still hear him. "I used to watch this when I was at my friend J.T.'s house in second grade. I liked it how they voted on who to eliminate at the end, it was totally dramatic."
"What did you say at the end there?" – Steven yelled.
"I said I liked the elimination ceremonies at the end!" – Ben yelled louder.
"I don't think I heard you very well. Did you say elimination?" – Steven yelled.
"Yeah!"
"What elimination?"
"You know, when they bring out the marshmallows at the end." – Ben tried to recall.
"Hold on, I might not be hearing you very well. I'm almost done."
"Hurry up!" – Ben yelled as he watched the girl kill the turtle and get eliminated for it. "The broadcast begins in 2 minutes!"
"I'm out, I'm out!" – Steven slammed the door open and ran to his bed, his towel sliding down off him. He put on his fresh pajamas and slid comfortably into the bed, even though there was a possibility it could have had bedbugs.
"Oh, man, I've missed this feeling. Okay, did I miss anything?" – Steven asked.
"It's starting now!" – Ben told him as he switched the channels back to Channel 6.
The Ultimate EXposure into started playing, with the X dramatically coming into view.
"I am Diane Farrah, and you're watching Ultimate EXposure. You already know most of the next generation of superheroes, such as Ben 10, Generator Rex, or the Powerpuff Girls, however, today, we are giving you the first ever scoop into the hometown of one of the newest heroes to pop onto the scene. I am talking, of course, about Steven Universe, who seems to be travelling with Ben Tennyson right now in various states. And even though we don't have him here in today's show, we're going to take a look into his alien world right here on Earth!" – Diane Farrah explained as the camera panned to reveal various sci-fi looking buildings near them, as well as alien life-forms out in the street.
"This… is Beach City, Delmarva, a town that has been attracting various alien life-forms known only as "gems" for years now, and has become an intergalactic hub not too different from Bellwood's Undertown as well as a place for integrations between human and alien cultures. Here's one now!" – she exclaimed as she ran towards one of the gems, with the camera promptly following her.
"You know, Undertown is what gave me the idea to create Little Homeworld in the first place." – Steven told Ben as they watched the camera chase a random gem that got spooked and started running.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Like I was thinking of something like that for a while, but after those Incurseans invaded and revealed Undertown to the Earth I thought maybe I could do something similar for the Gems." – Steven went on.
"Cool. You never told me that."
"Excuse me, are you the Ultimate Exposure crew?" – a new voice sounded over the TV. Steven gasped out of excitement, as he knew exactly who that belonged to.
The camera turned around to a tall, pale and slender gem with a pointy nose.
"Hello, I'm Pearl. I'll be one of your guides for this interview. If you would all please follow me." – she formally said as she led Diane Farrah and her cameraman. The camera panned across Beach City's boardwalk, going past Beach Citywalk Fries, Fish Stew Pizza, with the Big Donut being far-off in the shot and the tall, green hill even farther away. Various people and gems appeared in the shot as well, almost all of which Steven and only some of which Ben recognized.
"Thanks to our GHEM program, that's with an H…" – Pearl explained as they went along – "…various gems have been learning how to integrate into human society by taking up human jobs. If you would just follow me…" – Pearl explained as she led the crew to a bakery named "Spacetries", ran by Blue Lace Agate.
"Helloooooo, Blue Lace!" – Pearl cheerfully greeted her as everyone came in. The camera panned to see all the delicious pastries Lars' store had to offer.
"As you can see, the shop is ran completely by a gem. The shop's owner is actually in space himself because…"
"Yeah, I'll have three of these Black Donut Holes." – the camera guy started casually ordering.
"Not now, Darryl!" – Diane Farrah grunted as he punched him in the shoulder.
"Alright, on with the tour." – Pearl said awkwardly.
"Miss Pearl, how long have gems been here, exactly?" – Diane shoved the microphone into Pearl's face as they walked along.
"Just Pearl is fine, thank you. But that's a very good question." – Pearl said enthusiastically. "Gems settled the planet over six thousand years ago, however, for the past 5,000 years, the only active gems on the planet were myself, Garnet, Amethyst and Rose Quartz."
"Gems live that long?" – Diane asked, impressed.
"Indeed." – Pearl confirmed with a confident nod.
As they were talking, a large figure climbed out of the window of Beach Citywalk Fries and slumped onto the ground, then sprang up and ran straight towards the camera.
"FINALLY, THE DOCUMENTARY CREW I REQUESTED FOR KEEP BEACH CITY WEIRD!" – Ronaldo yelled obnoxiously, as he always did. "I can finally spread the deep macabre knowledge of the weird to a larger audience!"
"Fryblood?" – Pearl asked him sternly while grabbing him by the collar.
"Yeah?" – Ronaldo asked meekly, hunched over despite being taller than Pearl.
"Out!" – Pearl sternly pointed away and Ronaldo obeyed, with his head hung in disappointment.
"So, um, where does Steven Universe come into play?" – Diane inquired.
"Erm…" – Pearl hesitated. This was a topic she never liked to talk about, especially not in front of millions of viewers! "You see, he's the son of Rose Quartz, our leader. However, Rose had to give up her physical form to give birth to Steven, so she is no longer with us."
"Interesting… so you mean to tell me that humans are compatible with gems? Watch out, ladies, you've got some interstellar competition!" – Diane turned to the camera.
"Yes, but as I said, in order to give birth to a human, a gem would have t-" – Pearl reiterated herself, but was cut off by Diane.
"What I want to know is, where are you hiding all the male gems? If the female species are anything to go by, our viewers would definitely want to see them!"
"Well… Gems aren't exactly "male" or "female"." – Pearl explained to her. "Since we are manifestations of minerals in the form of light, we don't have a gender. The only exception is Steven himself, of course, since he has an organic body."
"Interesting. So Steven Universe is one of a kind in the whole… universe." – Diane concluded.
"That's right."
"How did it feel to lose your leader, the person you placed the most trust in, and have her taken away by a human, only for her to be replaced by a completely new person that you didn't even know at the time?" – Diane asked Pearl, shoving the mic in her face, awaiting the answer.
"I, uh, erm… If you'll follow me to this part of the beach, I can show you the Crystal Temple, where the three of us Crystal Gems, and formerly Steven, reside." – Pearl continued on.
"Formerly? Do you mean to tell the viewers that he's left his hometown for good?" – Diane inquired.
"He… He left to travel on his own and explore the world."
"Was it hard for you to let him go?" – Diane questioned her even further.
"I… I feel like that's a bit personal, don't you?" – Pearl awkwardly tried to shrug it off.
"Okay, let's change the subject. Do you have any kind of comment on the kaiju attack that happened here in October of last year? Does it have any relation to the gems and their activities?"
"OH, LOOK, HERE'S THE TEMPLE!" – Pearl said, frantically ignoring that question outright. The camera panned to the giant, half-wrecked statue of Obsidian as Steven felt a rush of nostalgia coming over him. Never did he expect to miss the face of the giant woman carved in stone above his home.
"Each of us, the Crystal Gems, has had our own sanctum in our temple that only our gemstones can open." – Pearl continued explaining. "However, they are too dangerous for humans, and as such, Steven spent his childhood here, in the beach house. However, there is a reason as to why I brought you here. If you would just please step onto the platform right here…" – Pearl said as she pointed to the warp pad.
After all 3 of them were on it and the only thing left for the camera to capture was the empty room, Pearl warned them – "You may experience mild disorientation, feeling of weightlessness, or nausea. Please keep your hands and other body parts inside the light stream." Suddenly, the camera's view was enveloped in a stream of blinding white-blue light, and before they even knew it, a whole new alien view came into view.
"Ugh, what the hell was that…" – the cameraman muttered.
"Please, warn us if you're going to do something like that." – Diane asked Pearl. Though, Pearl's satisfied smile remained unchanged.
"And this is what you all have been waiting for!" – Pearl proudly declared as she showed the view of Little Homeworld with her hand.
"Excuse me, sir?" – Diane Farrah stopped one of the passers-by wearing a red Hawaiian shirt. Steven yelled "Hey!" out of shock, as the person was pretty unexpected. He looked at Ben, whose face was brightened up with excitement. It was, in fact, his very own Grandpa Max.
"Sir, what do you think about gems coming here and living freely on Earth?"
"Well, I think it's a wonderful idea that gems and humans are getting along after all the conflict the two worlds have been thr…" – Max answered, but stopped mid-sentence as he saw Pearl signaling him to cut it out. He realized it was probably not a good idea to talk about the gems invading and colonizing Earth just like that in front of millions of viewers. "I mean, there have been hard times for both gems and humans, but I feel like both species have a lot to learn from each other." – he tried to save the interview and awkwardly left.
"And exactly for that reason, gems come from far and wide to experience lessons about Earth culture. Here's one now!" – Pearl tried to use Max's interview to transition to the topic of Little Homeschool. She pointed at where one of the classes was supposed to be held, but it was just a bunch of people that just seemed to be laying on the ground.
"Um, Amethyst?" – Pearl asked, a bit hesitant, being on TV and all. Amethyst was sleeping on the ground, snoring with her mouth open.
"AMETHYST!" – Pearl yelled.
"Wh- I'm up! I'm up!" – Amethyst jumped awake. "Pearl! You know it's one of my sleeping classes today!"
"Amethyst, did you forget we're leading a tour today?" – Pearl gritted through her teeth quietly while subtly nodding her head towards Diane and the cameraman.
"Oh, crap, that was TODAY? Well, heh, you guys just got first-hand knowledge of one of the classes I teach here at Little Homeschool. You see, gems don't need to sleep, but it feels so good to turn yourself off for hours at a time that we Crystal Gems felt it be a necessity to teach all these poor sleep-deprived gems what it truly means to lie around and do nothing." – Amethyst went on. "I mean, look at them. Some of these guys are sleeping for the first time ever in their several thousand year old lives." – she added as the camera zoomed in on the various gems that were sleeping in various awkward positions.
"Come! I'll show you guys around Little Homeschool!" – Amethyst took over the tour. "So, Little Homeschool is a big part of Little Homeworld. It was actually Steven's idea, so we all have him to thank for this."
"What I don't understand is, why Earth? Why are so many gems incentivized to come here of all places?"
"Well, it's all thanks to Steven that Era 3 began and all those corrupted gems got uncorrupted. And since there were a lot of gems that needed a new direction in life, it only made sense for them to find it here on Earth, by integrating with human culture."
"Hey, there's your grandpa again!" – Steven pointed out at the TV screen. Indeed, Max Tennyson could be seen, talking to a group of people.
"Yeah. Yeah, it is. Wait, aren't those two… Sour Cream and Spodumene?" – Ben pointed out, looking closer, and both him and Steven looked each other in shock.
"I'm afraid you're gonna have to fill me in on some of the details here. Era 3? Corrupted gems?" – Diane asked Amethyst to explain.
"You guys don't know about the Rebellion?" – Amethyst deadpanned.
"The Rebellion? Sounds interesting!"
"So, like, 6,000 years ago, the Diamonds, that is to say, the leaders of all gems, started colonizing Earth in order to harness all of its natural resources, but then Pink Diamond, whose colony it was supposed to be, realized how precious organic life was and how the colony was putting it in danger, so she assumed the disguise of Rose Quartz and rebelled against them. The rebellion lasted like a thousand years and ended when Pink Diamond faked her own death so that the Diamonds would leave the Earth alone, but before they did that, the Diamonds put one huge blast at Earth that corrupted all Gems except the three of us into hideous monsters. Oh, they also put a geoweapon in the Earth's core. But I wasn't even, well, "born" back then for any of it." – Amethyst explained it all in quick succession. "And so sixteen years ago Rose had a baby but to have the baby she had to give up her form so she's kinda like dead but a part of Steven now. The Diamonds wanted revenge for Pink but Steven convinced them that he was himself Pink Diamond and they stopped trying to colonize the Earth and also cured all the corrupted gems. That's pretty much it." – Amethyst sighed after such a long exposition.
"I, uh… wow. So the gems are like… invading aliens out to destroy humanity?" – Diane Farrah tried to piece it together.
"WERE. Don't worry, it's all cool now."
"And these… Diamonds?"
"They're still there. I mean, what would we do with them? But don't worry, they're all cool too.
"You mentioned something about a geoweapon?" – Diane recalled.
"Okay, I think that's enough from Amethyst for today." – Pearl came back into view, putting her hand on her mouth and pushing her out of the shot. "Your guide for the rest of the show will be Garnet!" – Pearl told them as the camera moved to a tall, dark-skinned gem with square hair and cool shades. "Amethyst! I can't believe you told them all of that just like that as if it was nothing!" – Pearl could be heard scolding Amethyst as she led her away.
"Okay, erm… Mrs. Garnet." – Diane began, noticing the rings on her hands.
"Let us get on with the tour." – Garnet awkwardly said, somewhat breaking her cool character due to… stagefright?
"This is the armory." – Garnet pointed in one direction at Bismuth's tower. "This is the greenhouse." – she pointed in another, where Peridot and Lapis Lazuli could be seen, explaining agriculture to other gems. "Any questions?"
"Yes. What is the current political status of the Earth in Gem Homeworld's eyes?"
"Independent former colony." – Garnet flatly answered.
"Do you think there's a risk of potential future conflict?"
"Not in the slightest."
"What do you think about gems, as illegal aliens, taking over humans' jobs that they need for livelihood?"
"Beach City was massively understaffed before the founding of the gem population."
"Is there any system in place in case any gems decide to attack humans?" – Diane continued pressing.
"Yes." – Garnet firmly said. "They'll have to deal with me." – she cocked her fist and summoned her impressively heavy gauntlet, complete with the spiked knuckles.
"Will the gems offer some of this massively advanced technology to advance humanity if you truly want to promote cooperation between the two species, especially to make up for what you may have done to Earth in the past?"
"…" – Garnet paused. "That depends if humanity is able to handle it." – she didn't crack.
"And with that, our tour came to an end. However, there's still much to talk about. Tune in next time for Ultimate Exposure for more information about the gems and the implications of coexisting with our would-be conquerors!" – Diane Farrah said to the camera.
"Oh. She knows exactly what she's doing here." – Ben remarked.
"Yeah, I really didn't like how she kept focusing on the invasion part." – Steven told him.
"She's doing the exact thing Harangue does, but I'll give her props for doing it a lot more subtly. She wants to create outrage so people talk about it for longer. Watch." – Ben told Steven as he changed the channel to show the Harrangue Show.
"…indeed, instead of demanding reparations from the invading species that tried to wipe out humanity, Ben Tennyson and Steven Universe would have us thanking them and letting them build cities on our landand integrate them into our society, slowly taking over human society from the inside. Soon, you'll all be in danger of getting fired and replaced by cheap labor by creatures with superhuman abilities that don't need to sleep. Is this the America that you want to live in?!" – Harangue went on another tirade of his.
Steven sighed of disappointment, while Ben just shook his head.
"Okay, now, you might have it a teeny bit worse than I did." – Ben admitted. "It's only a matter of time before they dub you a genocide apologist.
"A WHAT?!"
"Yeah."
"Any idea on how to fix it?" – Steven asked Ben for advice.
"Maybe have another show there that will portray it in a positive light? – Ben suggested.
"I thought THIS was gonna be that show!" – Steven yelled in frustration.
"Yeah, she was all passive-aggressive about the whole thing. Well, you shouldn't worry too much. The media will find a new thing to talk about pretty soon, and you'll be back to being a "literally who?". Trust me." – Ben confidently assured Steven.
Even though he wanted to believe Ben and his attempts to cheer him up, Steven knew that this would just be yet another thing that he'd constantly have to worry about, even if he wasn't in Beach City anymore.
And here is chapter # 11. Since the whole point of the road trip is for Steven to be away from Beach City, I couldn't naturally put the main Crystal Gem trio into the plot. Well, I could do a story that there's some big impending danger and it's absolutely imperative that Steven helps, but I don't want to use plot tools like that just to show Pearl, Amethyst or Garnet. But a couple months ago, around the time I wrote the Generator Rex crossover that introduced the idea of the public attention on Steven (along with Things That Go Bump in the Knight), I realized that I could send the Ultimate EXposure crew (from Generator Rex) down to Beach City to interview them, and Ben and Steven watching the interview would be a good enough reason for the Gems to show up.
The writing of this chapter was somewhat hectic because I got a head start on the motel part of it at the beginning of the month, hell, last month, but couldn't bring myself to write the actual interview for a while. Then I had a big exam on the 26th that kept me busy, but I thought "yeah I'll still have 5 days to finish, no worries", but then i remembered it was February and I'd only have like 2 days, but this year's a leap year so it's actually 3 days... Well, what's done is done, and I made it within the deadline. But I would still rather have better time management.
Next month... ohohohohohoho...