Strawberry Field

"Jason, are you alright?" Pearl asked concerned.

Jason shook his head and swallowed the bile rising in his throat. "Yeah, I'm good."

No amount of training could have prepared him for the flightless, 'no gravity' feeling. This was something he'd need to experience more if he wanted to get used to it.

"You don't look good." Amethyst pitched in her two cents.

"Just keep in mind this will be your first, serious mission you two." Garnet warned. "You need to be ready."

"Yes, I'm ready." Steven excitedly declared while upside down. "I'm so ready!"

"Don't worry, I can handle this." Jason replied.

He came prepared with a pistol, pack of flares, and a combat knife. Even though he could summon swords, there were times when Jason liked to have a blade with him as well.

"Steven, you're going to make yourself sick." As Pearl moved to help Steven, the ukulele he brought hit her in the eye. "Why did you bring that?"

"I don't know!" Steven exclaimed anxiously. "I was excited, and its mine!"

He raised both arms which caused the ukulele to slip off and float up. Steven moved after it.

"Steven, get back here!" Pearl exclaimed worriedly. "You could get seriously hurt!"

"Yeah, be careful when…" Jason began.

He stopped as his eyes gazed upon the largest strawberry field he'd ever seen. Both in terms of the number of strawberries and how large they are. Steven suddenly fell from the air and landed on a strawberry, coating himself in juices.

"Steven, are you…" Pearl began.

"I'm fine." Steven quickly stated. "I'm just gooey." As he licked a little off his arms, butterflies covered him. "Aah! They're in my eyes!"

He continued to scream and ran around before tripping.

Garnet simply brushed the butterflies off him. "They're just butterflies, Steven."

Steven tried to laugh it off as he stood. "Well, they looked bigger when they were on my eyes."

"Steven, you're a riot." Amethyst laughed.

"I'm suddenly having second thoughts about bringing Steven on this mission." Pearl worriedly stated. "Jason I'm fine with, but…"

Garnet shushed her. "Just look at him." She pointed at Steven who proceeded to strike a pose. "Now, let's go find a gemstone."

Garnet proceeded to lead them down a path. As they walked, Jason took in the field because there were hundreds of different melee weapons littered across the entire countryside.

"This was once a gem battlefield." Pearl informed happily. "Now, its wild strawberries as far as the eye can see! Oh, that's what I love about the Earth! It is such a beautiful place. Maybe this will be a light mission after all."

Pearl bumped into Garnet who stopped before a giant, upside-down pyramid. "Maybe not."

She proceeded to summon a smaller pyramid and put it within a hole. It fit perfectly and the door opened, letting them in.

Gem Structure

The entire room was massive with weird carvings all over the place. Some depicted battles while others were depictions of specific gems.

"Woah!" Steven smiled. "Steven's the best!"

"'Steven's the best!'" His echo announced.

"Why thank you temple." Steven responded.

"You're a dork." Amethyst commented.

Jason grabbed a flare and slid it against the door to ignite it. The room was now illuminated, but the only thing of interest, besides the carvings, was a pedestal in the middle of it.

"Hey, what's that thing?" Steven questioned, moving towards it. "It's like a cool, floaty triangle."

"Whatever it is, you probably shouldn't touch it." Pearl warning was too late as the boy was already touching it causing the little triangle to flip, and the place to shake. "Steven, what have we told you about touching magical things!?"

"Definitely…always…never do it!" Steven replied.

Before anyone else could say anything more, they were sucked straight into a hole in the roof. The ground came up quickly, and the gems had no problem landing while Jason rolled into his landing, enabling him to soften the blow.

Steven landed flat on his stomach. The way they came was sealed shut before the entire room was suddenly engulfed in light from torches along the wall. As everyone looked around, they saw the walls were filled with doorways.

"Looks like we need to split up." Amethyst stated.

"Steven and I will stay here, where it seems to be safe, while you guys solve the mystery of this place." Pearl proposed while gently pulling Steven towards her.

"Wait, I want to help solve the mystery!" Steven exclaimed.

"Yeah, c'mon Steven." Amethyst picked him up over her head. "Let's solve the mystery."

"Yeah, mystery solvers!" Steven exclaimed.

"No, no, no." Pearl took him back. "You two are a disaster waiting to happen."

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Jason stated.

"Steven goes with me." Garnet ordered.

"Really? Awesome!" Steven declared happily.

"But remember, this is a serious mission." Garnet reminded.

"Understood. Serious Steven…" He looked at the white gem. "Pearl, can you put me down?"

"Oh, yes, of course." She complied, setting him down.

"I need to be standing or else it doesn't work." He put his arms completely outstretched before himself. "Serious Steven: Activate!"

He walked off with Garnet.

"With that decided, we should get moving." Jason walked towards a pathway alone. "The faster we get through this, the faster we find the gem and exit."

"Jason, are you sure you'll be alright alone?" Pearl called out.

"Don't worry about me." Jason replied. "I tended to handle many mystery situations alone." He stepped past the doorway. "I'm sure everything will…"

The door slammed behind him.

"Jason!" Pearl exclaimed from the other side. "Are you alright!?"

"I'm fine." He tapped on the door. "Looks like it's not budging. Once you go through one of the doorways, you're committed to it. Good luck everyone!"

"Good luck!" Steven/Garnet called out.

"See you on the other side." Amethyst stated.

"Be careful." Pearls warned worriedly.

"Thanks." Jason called back.

With the pleasantries out of the way, Jason lit another flare and dropped it just in case he needed to come back for some reason. He then moved down his path and eventually brought out his pistol to use its flashlight attachment.

First Room

Jason entered a room with stone figures all over it; however, they seemed to be set up with a purpose as sentries. The soldier had a theory and stepped out in front of the nearest statue. Its eyes glowed, and it charged at him rather quickly.

He lunged back to his original position and summoned his swords just in case he was wrong. Fortunately, his theory was right as the statue's eyes stopped glowing and it returned to its original position. He dismissed his blades.

"There are ten statues in total, and they are set up in a way to stand as sentries; however, there are blind spots." Jason thought. "Considering the door is open on the other side, the goal must be to use the blind spots to cross."

Jason took a deep breath to steadied himself before flipping through the statues' blind spots. At least, he thought there were blind spots given his military training. Granted, he wasn't a stealth operative, but the statues were set up rather rudimentary.

Eventually, he made it to the end of the room and entered the doorway. "That wasn't too difficult, but I imagine it becomes more so to those who actually activate the trap."

Jason dropped another flare as he walked along the hallway.

Second Room

When he came to the doorway of the next room, it was full of light with sections of darkness. That's all there seemed to be until he stepped into the light of the room and immediately felt a burning sensation from his gems. Thinking quickly, he lunged for the nearest darkness.

Instantly, there was a sense of relief as the soldier collected his breath. "That is a diabolical trap." Jason now saw a path of darkness which hadn't been there before. "Most would assume they could walk through the light sections, but the trick is to stay in the darkness as it keeps away the burning sensation and reveals a path."

Jason followed the path right to the door and walked through while leaving behind another flare.

Third Room

The next door came into view revealing a slopping room; however, nothing looked out of the ordinary save two, smaller paths that slopped along either side. The soldier didn't like this, but since he couldn't see anything peculiar, he decided to enter cautiously.

When he was a third of the way through, his right foot sunk a bit into the ground revealing he'd hit a pleasure plate. Upon hearing a rumbling behind him, Jason turned to see a large boulder coming down the slopping paths.

"That seems about right." Jason thought incredulously.

Throwing caution to the wind, he sprinted to the doorway as the boulder closed the distance between them through its growing momentum. The soldier made it to the exit and jumped on through moments before the boulder smashed into the doorway.

Jason sighed from his position on the ground. "That was something, but now…"

"Jason!" The soldier looked up to see Pearl had tun up to him. "I'm glad you made it!"

"Thanks." Jason stood and dusted himself off before looking at their surroundings. "Wait, is this the room we started from?"

"What's going on!?" Amethyst exclaimed before running through another doorway. "All these paths can't lead to the same place!"

Before Jason and Pearl could speak, Steven and Garnet entered the room. The magenta gem looked no worse for wear, but Steven's hair and shirt were singed.

"Garnet, there you are!" Pearl exclaimed as she ran over. "The doors and rooms here make no sense! They will all bring you here!"

Amethyst ran in looking haggard. "Get me out of here!"

She ran through a different door.

"There are sixteen doors." Pearl began. "We entered from the northeast and went through three consecutive rooms in a straight line." Amethyst returned with a bear trap on her head, which she removed as she ran through another door.

"Then, we arrived back here out the southern door which could only mean…Well, I don't know what it means! I…" Amethyst came back out contained within a block of ice. "This is a death trap!"

Pearl proceeded to chip the ice off Amethyst.

"I can't!" Steven exclaimed loudly.

"Steven." Pearl stopped her chipping to acknowledge the distraught boy.

"It's okay." Garnet tried to reassure him. "We'll find a way out."

"No, no it's not." Steven declared. "You were all right about me. I wanted to do this, but now I feel like I'm going to throw up. This is just like the teacups!"

"Oh Steven, I didn't really mean that." Pearl tried.

"Wait!" Steven had an idea. "What if this is just like the teacups? That's why we're getting lost. That's why I'm feeling sick. All the rooms are spinning us around, so we end up here!"

Garnet doesn't say a word as she moves over to the center of the room and proceeds to beat the floor, creating deeper and deeper divots in the concrete. The floor soon crumbled, and everyone fell through before landing on floating, upside-down pyramids spinning around.

Garnet and Steven land on one together, Amethyst in her ice prison slams into one breaking her free of it, Pearl landed on another, and Jason managed to latch onto one before pulling himself up. Pearl marveled at what they were seeing.

"This is unbelievable!" She brought up a projection of the place through her gem. "This gem-powered mechanism is manipulating the rooms above. Every room we entered spun us until we came back to the central chamber. It's just like the teacup ride at Funland!"

"Steven already figured that out!" Garnet yelled.

Pearl blushed in embarrassment. "Oh."

"Though Steven figured it out, it's not exactly like that." Jason thought. "Here I don't have to give anyone a number and tell them it'll be covered."

Steven noticed what they came for. "Garnet, I need to get off the ride now."

Garnet nodded before throwing him at the center obelisk. Steven put his hands on the gem and attempted to pull it out. It glowed and ejected itself causing the place to begin dissipating before simply exploding.

Strawberry Field

Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, and Jason all got up, with the white gem looking around. "Where's Steven? Steven!? Where is he?"

"Ahh, he's over here!" Amethyst called out.

Pearl immediately made her way over to Steven and bubbled the gem he was holding. "I'd say you handled that adventure very well."

"Yeah, nice job Serious Steven." Amethyst stated, as she helped him up.

"I prefer regular Steven." Garnet declares, as she gave him back his ukulele.

"Hey, my ukulele!" Steven declared before more butterflies swarmed him for that strawberry juice on him. "They're in my eyes again! Ahhhhh!"

He ran around a bit until Jason brushed the bugs off. "You alright?" Steven nodded. "Good." He patted the boy's back. "Now, let's go home. I could use a nap after this, and I think that show, 'Crying Breakfast Friends', is about to start."

"Wooo!" Steven whooped as he ran off to the portal, the soldier walking after him.

"He's a good man." Garnet commented as she, Amethyst, and Pearl watch them walk off.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool." Amethyst stated. "What do you think Pearl?"

"Well, he's certainly interesting." Pearl admitted. "I've never met a human that could be caring to his fellow people, yet ruthless and cunning should the need arise."


Marbled Gold: Yeah, even knowing where they eventually bring Lars, his earlier seasons are something else.