Beach: Night…
The idea that actual Homeworld gems were coming was jarring. Regardless, Jason never turned tail from any prior enemy, and he wasn't about to start now. Especially with how badly they freaked out Lapis. They may not have known each other for long, but he came to care for her.
Realistically, it was but one more reason on his ever-growing list of why they were his enemy. Tye had already left that morning. While they had no idea when the gems would arrive, he'd already called in for the soldiers who would aid the citizens in getting out of the city.
As for what Jason was doing to personally prepare, he was making sure every weapon was ready and gearing up a vehicle for the eventual confrontation. He was also reluctantly helping the gems with a plan they were focused on.
"Jason, is the robonoid ready?" Pearl called out.
"Yes." Jason sighed as he stalked up to her with one of his droids under his arm. "By the way, it's no mere robonoid anymore. This is my droid."
"Yes, we know." Amethyst groaned. "You won't shut up about it, and you've said that about a hundred times."
"I'll keep saying it because I don't like this." Jason voiced.
"You've said that the same number of times as well." Garnet pointed out.
"Doesn't make it any less true." Jason grumbled.
They decided if Peridot were to use more types of robonoids against them, they'd need some sort of way to disable them in one go. Considering Jason was the only one with Robonoids, they'd decided to make them a sacrifice for the greater good.
"Regardless…" Pearl attempted to take the droid, but Jason refused to let go resulting in a struggle until she managed to take it. "We have everything needed for the experiment and Steven is home fast…"
She suddenly stopped and everyone turned to look at Steven. "Hey guys."
"Steven, its way past your bed time." Pearl declared. "You should really go back to the house."
"What?" Steven asked. "I don't want to miss…whatever this is. What is this?"
"Pearl got lonely, so she made herself a robot friend." Amethyst snarked.
"Hey, they're my droids!" Jason yelled. "After this, none of you are allowed to have them again!"
"If this robot disruptor fails, we'll…" Pearl began.
"Pearl, don't you dare." Jason growled. "Peridot abandoned them, so they're my babies now. If you continue that sentence, I will let them cover you in goop and stick you to the ceiling."
Pearl cleared her throat. "This machine here should produce a localized energy blast, so when Peridot shows up to…meet with us, we'll have something that can knock out all her robonoids." She dropped the droid before the make-shift EMP. "Everything's as it should be, correct?"
"Yes Pearl." Jason stated. "I removed the upgrades, revoked my security measures, replaced the old ones, and set it to its factory settings. It's just as it was when we first encountered them."
"They have factory settings?" Garnet asked confused.
"Surprisingly, yes." Jason replied calmly. "I didn't expect gems to have such a thing with this level of technology."
"Stand back everyone!" Pearl instructed.
With a simple press of the button, the machine started rumbling and shaking a bit. Then, the little, smiling ball on top of it popped and sent a wave of energy in all directions. The force of it sent everyone flying back.
"We did it!" Steven cheered loudly as the droid seemed dead.
Then, the droid jumped onto his feet and walked idly around.
"Yeah!" Jason exclaimed happily, causing the gems to shoot him annoyed looks. "Keep that up and I'm finding what each of you are proud of with the intent of destroying them. See how you feel when I destroy a pile of junk, a sword, and I'm not sure about Garnet, but I'll find it."
The gems all looked away from him, and the soldier picked up his droid. Amethyst groaned and flopped onto her back.
"Well, you knocked out all the lights in town." Steven pointed out in hopes of lifting their spirits.
Jason looked back at Beach City. It had power just a second ago, but now the whole city was shut down. Usually, in the dead of night, you'd see street lights and some porch lights on.
"Wow, he's right." Jason stated. "You took out the whole thing."
"Steven, that was not the point…" Pearl began to point out what was supposed to happen but sighed instead. "Alright, that was a start!" She was trying to be chipper. "Now, I'm going to need to take some parts out of the washing machine. Steven, you'll have to do laundry at Jason's."
Jason ended up just going into the temple with them and sleeping on the sofa.
Morning…
When morning came, Jason found out the city was still out of power; however, his house had been shielded from the EMP. It was all thanks to the power source the World Army had installed within, coming from what gem tech they'd been able to scavenge themselves.
Jason ended up keeping the lights off to prevent people from asking how his home still had power. Until he knew what the damage was, it was best to keep this on the down low. He even locked up the place before heading back to the temple.
As he entered the beach house, Steven trudged down the stairs. "Morning Steven."
"Mm-mmm." Steven greeted.
He went over to the fridge, opened the freezer, and let out a wide mouthed yawn as he pulled out some microwaveable food item. Pieces of ice fell off, and it looked slightly damp.
"Steven, the power's still…" Jason began, only for the hybrid to ignore him and place his desired food item in the microwave. "Oh, okay then."
When it didn't work, Steven was annoyed. "What's wrong with the…Ow!" He yelped before groaning as he accidently pressed the open button, causing the door to swing into his face. "What is the meaning of this!?"
"Steven, the power's still out." Jason informed. "No microwavable anything for you."
"Still?" Steven questioned and received a nod. "Aw man."
"Don't worry, I'll go into town and see if there's anything else we can eat that wasn't spoiled by the power outage." Jason offered.
"Thanks Jason." Steven stated before there was a knock at the door, prompting him to answer it. "Mayor Dewey?"
"Hello young Universe." Dewey greeted. "Are any of your sisters home?"
"My sisters?" Steven asked in confusion.
"Your caretakers!" Dewy exclaimed. "You know…the tall one, the purple one, and the hot one."
"The tall one…Garnet. The purple one…Amethyst. The hot one…Pearl?" Jason groaned at himself. "Ugh, why did I even bother devoting brain power to figuring that out?"
"Look, the power is out, and I've been mayor long enough to know they had something to do with it." Dewy stated.
"My sisters?" Steven was still confused.
"Is there anyone else I can talk to about this?" The mayor asked.
"Jason!" Steven called back.
The soldier joined him at the door.
"You! You live here!?" Dewy questioned shocked. "But I thought your house was finished?"
"That doesn't mean I'm not welcome here." Jason stated. "Steven is like a little brother to me. Wait, why am I even explaining myself to you when I don't care what you think? Look, what do you want?"
Jason had a very negative opinion of this politician after he almost ran down Steven. Granted, the boy hadn't been paying attention, but he was on the boardwalk. A boy should not be run over in a no driving zone even if he isn't paying attention.
"The city is still without power, so I've come here to find out how long until it comes back." Dewy declared. "Don't try to deny anything. I know for a fact when danger or odd things happen, it usually ends up here."
"Hey Pearl!" Jason called back.
"Coming!" Pearl joined them. "Oh, how can I help you?"
"Beach City is currently experiencing a wide spread power outage…" Dewy began.
"Oh, don't worry about that," She interrupted. "The power should be back on as early as tonight or as late as never."
"What!?" Jason questioned shocked.
"Never coming back!?" Dewy exclaimed.
"Yyyeeeessss?" She phrased her answer as more of a question at the awkwardness.
"No, no, no! It must come back!" Dewy declared. "The people of Beach City can't handle a situation like this. They need their electronic distractions, so they won't know this town is a magnet for disaster."
"Oh, don't be dramatic." Pearl voiced. "I saw humans get on fine without power for millennia. You even used to hunt and gather. What happened to that?"
Jason sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Some humans might be fine in this situation, but things aren't like you remember. We got smarter; utilized our intelligence to make our lives easier. Not everyone has those skills anymore."
"That doesn't make sense." Pearl retorted. "You have the skills."
"Pearl, I just told you not everyone lost the skills." Jason informed. "Soldiers, survivors, and so on have kept up; however, your average civilian would be hard pressed."
"Oh." Pearl got it.
"Listen, you don't understand." Dewy interrupted. "Sure, things seem calm now in the light of day, but when the sun goes down, the town follows!"
"He's right." Steven sided with the mayor on the subject. "Mayor Dewey, this is our responsibility, so we'll help you clean this mess."
"No, we won't!" Garnet called out from within the house, giving Pearl the excuse to head back in.
"We'll…" Steven began.
Jason slammed the door. If things really did get bad, he'd step into help, but it would not be on Mayor Dewy's behalf. The last thing he wanted was anything he did accredited to that man.
"I'll help you clean up this mess." Steven declared.
"More power to you Steven." Jason thought before joining the other gems.
"What was that about?" Amethyst asked.
"The mayor came by to ask for our assistance in repairing the town's power." Pearl explained.
"And Garnet was gracious enough to deny the man our assistance." Jason declared sarcastically.
"Did you want to help?" Garnet asked.
"Nah, I don't like him." Jason replied.
"But you let Steven go along with him?" Garnet questioned.
"Relax, he won't let anything happen to Steven." Jason informed. "That guy's got his reputation to consider. If he lets a kid like Steven get hurt, not only will he have to deal with us, but the town would come down on him to."
"I guess." Amethyst stated.
"Anyways, have anything for me to do?" Jason asked.
They looked at each other for a second before thinking over their own plans.
"I have an idea." Pearl came up with one.
Night…
Jason never saw the laser light cannon in action, but from the description of the Red Eye, it felt good to get the Quartizine Trio from Rose's armory. Jason strapped them into a metal conveyor belt under the balcony. When the enemies arrived, it would be a press of a button.
They'd then move into firing position. Once he was done, Jason went up to his home and retrieved his SUV before driving around the city. He wanted one last lay of the land, just in case this coming battle spilled out into the city.
This was home turf, so anything he could turn to their advantage would be worth it. It took most of the day, but the soldier felt more confident. He had places where he could stand his ground, with routes he could take to fall back.
As he was making his way home, Jason could hear angry, distant voices and banging metal. He drove off in that direction and parked near the boardwalk before moving behind a large crowd. The people seemed to have gathered in front of Mayor Dewey's campaign van.
They were rocking it back and forth before ultimately succeeding in tipping it over. Steven ran in and got atop the tipped over van while the crowd cheered. Jason jogged a little closer just in case the crowd decided to attack the kid in their excitement.
"Everyone, please!" Steven exclaimed, silencing them. "The power might not be back on tonight. It might not even be back on for even a year." The crowd started to get rowdy and were overall shocked. "But I know you're all going to be okay because I know each one of you.
You're smart, tough, and resourceful. You all care about each other more than you care about microwave dinners, video games, or being able to see in the dark. I know it'll hurt your business. I know it'll hurt your lives, but are we really going to hurt each other?"
Jason smiled proudly. "That kid is really has matured so much."
"Of course not!" Steven continued. "We'll face the night together and survive because we are the light of Beach City!"
The crowd cheered until the mayor got out of his van and stood next to Steven. "Yes! Thank you, Steven. I couldn't have said it better."
"Don't try to worm your way out of this!" Nanefua declared.
"It's okay!" Steven managed to calm down the crowd's rising anger. "Mayor Dewey was hiding things from you, but he did it because he didn't want you to worry!" The crowd started murmuring in agreement. "He was just sheltering you from the truth because…he loves you."
As the crowd started cheering the mayor's name, Steven jumped down and ran to Jason. As he stood in front of the soldier, the boy didn't say anything for him to understand.
"Let's go." Jason patted his back. "It's time you got your answers."
Beach House
As soon as the soldier parked, Steven jumped out and ran up the stairs with Jason following. They saw Garnet on the sofa, Amethyst lounging beside her, and Pearl working on her machine.
"Oh, hey you two." Pearl greeted idly before focusing on her device.
"Um, do you guys want to talk?" Steven nervously asked.
"And why would we need to do that?" Pearl questioned nervously.
"Hey Steven, you still owe us a game of cards." Amethyst attempted.
"Yeah, get in on this." Garnet voiced. "You too Jason. We could use more players."
"I don't want to play cards." Steven voiced firmly. "I want to talk about Peridot."
"Oh, well…"
"Pearl." Jason interrupted. "Steven has matured more than you guys think."
"Yeah, I know it's not fine." Steven added. "I know you don't want me to be scared, but just tell me the truth!"
The gems looked at each other, quietly contemplating what it is they should do.
"Sometimes, not knowing is worse than knowing." Jason stated. "No matter what it's about."
"Peridot is coming." Garnet finally admitted. "We don't know who or what she'll be coming with. She's a modern gem with modern gem technology that's bound to overpower us. Even with some modern gem tech on our side, we're at a disadvantage. The truth is, we're scared."
Jason always knew how bad things seemed. "Outnumbered, outmanned, and outgunned…even if we got the World Army with us for their arrival, it could all be for not. Even so, they served better rallying forces and preparing, our potential defeat serving as a learning experience."
"We've been scared before, right?" Steven asked, bringing everyone out of their slump. "None of us know what's going to happen, but that's okay because we can figure it out together."
The Gems and other hybrid looked at one another as they took in the kid's words.
"It's true." Jason thought. "We're always in the dark. Corrupted gems, Homeworld tech, human, or humanity…we're surprised more times than I can count. The Gems never thought they'd meet someone like me.
When Garnet and Amethyst formed Sugilite, they had no idea she would run rampant, or Pearl and I would fuse. I never knew there was a human run organization using shattered gems to grant power. The same could be said about the Kindergarten and Lion."
This time, there was a difference. All of them knew Homeworld was coming, and the best thing to do was prepare as much as possible. Everyone shared a nod in agreement before the lights suddenly turned back on. With the power back on, things seemed to be looking up.
Da Lone Ranger: I can't remember where or who I heard it from, but apparently Rebecca Sugar came out saying Pearl did home school Steven. There also might be a comic out there that said it instead and had Steven accompany Connie to school. There he took a test and aced it, though that might also have just been a rumor I heard. Regardless, with the human element coming up more, it's only natural that Steven would come to benefit from that. As for the government part, thank you.
dindagangleader14: Alright, I understand about the guest thing. As for how events line up here, I tend to just follow how the wiki has it lined up. So while in theory different from how you experienced it or it was shown on TV, to me no future events have been inserted incorrectly.