Chapter Text

It was finally here.

Steven had been waiting for an eternity, to him anyway, for this day. Saturday, the day Connie didn’t have to go to school. Sure it had only a week, but to Steven, not seeing Connie for that long was torture in its wickedest form. He had eagerly been waiting by the door for nearly two hours, fantasizing about all of the fun that he and Connie were going to have today. They had decided to spend the day at the arcade. It wasn’t Connie’s first choice, but Steven had convinced her that she would have a blast.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The long awaited sound rings clear as day through Steven’s ears: the firm knock at the door signaling someone requesting entry. Connie was only able to knock once before Steven had flung the door wide open, nearly ripping the screen door right off its hinges. Not only did he answer her beckoning call faster than she could’ve said his name, he nearly tackled her to the ground.

“Ah! Steven, what are you doing?!” Connie screeched, now being crushed in a deathly tight bear hug from Steven.

“Oh, sorry, sorry. I’m just soooooooooo excited to see you! It’s been forever!” Steven gushed brightly.

“It’s barely been a week Steven, you’re exaggerating.”

“Well, there hasn’t been very much to do around here. The Gems have been a lot more busy than usual. They were gone for almost two whole days in a row! I got really worried a couple times. I even went to look for them once.” Steven recalled.

“Woah, why were they out so long? Was it more gem experiments? Something to do with the Cluster? Oh my gosh, was it Homeworld?!” Connie began to panic, the mere thought of more Homeworld Gems caused her to become slightly more than a nervous wreck.

“No no no, everything’s fine Connie, really! Calm down!” Steven couldn’t stand to see Connie nervous like this. It was almost as bad as when she was sad. It hurt Steven, more than likely more than she was hurting herself. Can anyone really blame him, though? Connie was his best friend in the whole world. She meant everything to him.

“Okay, okay. I’m calm now, I’m calm. So, if it wasn’t any of that stuff, then what were they doing all that time?” Connie was rather relieved that whatever the Crystal Gems were doing had nothing to do with what she originally thought. However, she was still curious as to what would be severe enough for the Gems to leave Steven at home all by himself for days on end. Sure, they’ve left him alone before, but not for this long. Someone always stayed back with him if he didn’t go on the mission himself.

“Well, it’s not as bad as what you said, but it’s not that good, either. You see, some weird stuff has been happening at a few of the places Gems used to go a long time ago-“ Steven began.

“You mean, like the Sky Spire where Pearl trains me?” Connie questioned but immediately regretted it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.” She quickly apologized.

“It’s fine, Connie. I don’t mind. How would you have known what I was talking about if you didn’t ask?” Steven gained a slight chuckle from Connie at saying this. He continued,

“Like I was saying, weird things started happening. A bunch of gem mutants were kinda, attracted to them? I don’t really know how to explain it, and neither do the Gems. Everywhere they went, there were hordes of ‘em, at least that’s how Amethyst described it.”

Connie was puzzled by his explanation. Why would they be attracted to the Gem monuments? She had never heard of anything like that happening before. She wondered what could have been causing these phenomena. Maybe some gem artifact? A powerful gem mutant? Or, maybe some kind of-

“But you’re not here to talk about that kind of stuff. Today is the day that me and you play games until our eyes fall out, or at least until I run outta quarters.” Connie does so much already, this was her day off and Steven was going to make sure she had fun. Steven snapped Connie out of her train of thought, not wanting her to dwell on whatever was going on with the gem mutants. He mentally chided himself for even mentioning it.

“Well Steven, you know we won’t do very well in a battle if we don’t have eyes.” Connie joked, causing Steven to laugh, her following suit.

Connie tried to object as she wasn’t all that fond of the public gaming scene. The noisy kids, the sticky floors, and questionable bathroom; not exactly her idea of a good time. She loved playing video games, especially when it was with Steven, but she always got so worried that onlookers would make fun of her if she did poorly, or if she made a goofy comment while playing. She never told Steven this, of course, because she knew he wouldn’t have wanted to go anymore. She knew he loved the arcade, so she didn’t want to keep him from going, even if she wasn’t going to enjoy herself all that much.

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After a short walk from the Temple, the pair arrived at their desired location: Funland Arcade. As Steven led Connie inside the establishment, they both plastered looks of confusion on their faces. Usually, the arcade was packed on a Saturday. Kids didn’t have to go to school, so they would come here to kick back, relax, and blast a few zombies to bits. However, the arcade was barren, not a soul in sight. Steven was about to suggest they go somewhere else, thinking Funland Arcade was closed for some reason. He quickly dismissed that thought.

“All of the lights and games are on, and the background music is playing, but no one is here to enjoy the games.” Steven thought out loud.

“I know. It’s kind of creepy, in a way.” Connie responded, commenting on how eerie the abandoned establishment looked.

Just as they were about to leave, they heard a familiar voice boom to them,

“Well hey there, Steven! Long time no see. Where’ve ya been, kid?” It was Mr. Smiley, the cardinal owner and maintainer of Funland Arcade. There would be no reason for Mr. Smiley to be at the arcade if it was closed.

“Hey Mr. Smiley. I’ve been pretty busy lately, that’s why I haven’t been able to come around.” Steven kindly responded.

“Um, where is everyone? Is the arcade closed today? He continued

“No we’re open, but I’m not sure where everyone is. I heard a group of kids talking who passed the arcade without even looking in. They were talking about this group of kids who recently moved to Beach City.”

“We got some new arrivals?! I had no idea! I should go find them and give ‘em a proper welcome!” Steven was giddy at the thought of making some new friends.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Steven. Those kids are bad news. They just moved here, and they’ve already made a pretty rotten reputation for themselves. They beat up some poor kids that were here earlier this week. When they came to the arcade, I didn’t notice anything off about them. That was, until they started tormenting my customers.” Mr. Smiley said with a deep frown and anger evident on his face.

“Oh my gosh, that’s horrible! How could someone do something so cruel?” Connie gasped.

“That’s what I though. I yelled at them to leave, and thankfully they did without me having to make them leave myself. I called the parents of the few kids they hurt. What was really shocking was they weren’t just playing rough or anything; they really wanted to hurt those kids. One of them had to go to the emergency room to get stitches in a couple places. Since they just moved here, there’s no way they knew each other, so why would they be so mean? I just don’t understand it.” The man replied sadly.

“Hm, maybe I should try and find those guys and explain to them that what they did was wrong. I’m sure they were just messin around. I bet they played like that wherever they lived before they came here. I just need to tell them that they’re being too rough.” Steven pondered, his voice containing traces of happiness spurred on by the thought of not only making four new friends, but to make them better people as well.

“Steven, it’d be best just to stay away from them altogether. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Connie worriedly said to Steven, who still looked ready to hunt the kids down and give them a piece of his mind.

“I agree with your friend there, Steven. These boys are bad news. I’d hate to see you get hurt, too.” Added Mr. Smiley.

“But what they did wasn’t right, and I’m sure that they didn’t really mean to hurt anyone. I can’t just let them go around hurting little kids, especially if they don’t know they’re doing anything wrong. I have to tell them that they can’t be so rough to the kids that live here.” Steven rebutted, feeling mildly offended that his friends thought he wouldn’t be able to handle a couple of bullies. He was a Gem, for goodness sake! He hadn’t even planned on confronting them in a violent manner. If it came to that, he would have just walked away like his friends had advised him to.

“Steven, let’s just forget about them and play some games. Come on, that’s what you wanted us to do today, right?” Connie nudged, desperately wanting Steven to feel happy again.

“Hmph, fine.” Steven muttered with crossed arms with a disappointed look set on his face.

Ugh, she’s right. She’s always right. Why is it that I’m never the one that’s right or the one giving advice? Steven begrudgingly thought to himself.

“You two have fun. I’ll be in the back doing some inventory and restocking if either of you need anything.” Mr. Smiley said before strolling off towards the back of the arcade.

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Steven and Connie played happily for a couple hours, Steven quickly forgetting all about those hooligans. The pair had separated, moving on to different games. Soon enough, they were each on opposite sides of the facility.

At around three o'clock, the nearly empty building gained four more members. They were four boys, all around the twelve to fourteen-year-old range, and were all stronger than the average child of their age. They were also the reason why the arcade was so empty; they had claimed it. Anyone who dared to enter their domain was swiftly and brutally dealt with. Thinking everything was still clear from yesterday’s “events”, the four turned to leave. Right before the leader of the pack was able to grasp the door handle, a loud voice was heard from across the arcade.