Chapter Text
The trio sat at the RV’s small table. Three plates of what they assumed was food was in front of them, though it hardly looked the part.
“So uh… what is this stuff again?” Ben asked his grandpa.
“It’s a classic Tennyson family recipe!” Max said, “Frog brain pasta with squid ink sauce! I used to make it all the time for your dad and uncle, I’m shocked that you haven't had it before.”
“Maybe because dad didn’t want to poison me,” Ben said under his breath.
“Oh come on Ben, it’s probably not that bad,” JoJo said, she scooped some up with her fork and took a bite, and immediately she regretted her choice, “J-Jesus christ…”
“I tried warning you,” Ben said, “Grandpa’s cooking can be… really weird.”
“Well I for one am always willing to try new things,” Steven said.
Jolyne grabbed his arm, “Steven no… you don’t understand.”
Steven shrugged and took a bite, he chewed a bit, and swallowed, “Eh, it's not bad.”
Ben looked at him in awe, “You truly are the strongest of us.”
While the kids were dealing with their meals, Max sat down in the driver seat and started up the RV, "Well kids, once we make it through this forest we'll be on our way to Washington!" Max said, "it shouldn't take us too long so make sure you eat up before we get there!"
As the RV started moving, the strange food wobbled in a disgusting way. Ben gagged while Steven kept eating, “Dude how can you keep eating that stuff?”
Steven gulped and looked back to Ben, “It’s not much worse than some of the stuff I’ve seen Amethyst eat,” He said, “There was one time where we found an old burrito in her room, from a Mexican seafood restaurant that closed five years ago…”
“Mexican seafood?” Ben asked, but before he could get an answer, they suddenly heard a loud pop, and the RV shook. Max stopped on the road.
“What was that!?” Ben asked.
Max put his head in his hands and sighed, “Sounds like a popped tire, luckily I have a spare in the back…” He walked out and took a look. The three tires on the side were completely deflated, “Great…”
“What’s wrong Mr. Tennyson?” Jolyne asked.
“Three popped tires,” He let out a groan, “I should’ve seen it coming, I didn’t change out the tires before this trip, looks like I gotta call roadside assistance… and I thought we'd be able to get there quickly…”
“Maybe I can go Upgrade and fix it up?” Ben asked.
“No… that’ll just be a temporary fix, we might as well get this over with,” He grabbed his cell phone and dialed a number.
Ben let out a sigh, “Well, I guess we’re stuck here.”
“It’s not all bad!” Steven said, “Look at this beautiful forest we’re in! Maybe we can look around! Find some animals, plants, and bugs!”
Ben sighed, “Boring, dude.”
“I mean what else are we gonna do?” JoJo asked, “Might as well look around.”
Max leaned against the Rustbucket and groaned as his phone played a low quality rendition of some pop song, “You kids go on ahead, this will be a while…”
Steven grabbed Ben’s hand, “C’mon! It’ll be fun!”
Ben reluctantly followed, “If you say so…”
The trio walked through the forest, Steven stopped to see every plant and animal on their path. He soon got dirt on his hands and leaves stuck in his poofy hair, "Ben this isn't boring at all!" He held up a rock, "Look how cool this is!"
Ben chuckled, “Wow, he’s really having fun isn’t he?” Ben said.
“He spent his whole life in the same little town,” JoJo responded, “Of course he’s enjoying this.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Ben shrugged, “This wilderness stuff just never really appealed to me.”
Steven knelt down and took a look at a batch of flowers, “Wow… these are so pretty!” Then, he heard rustling in a bush. He got a bit closer,
“Steven! Get back!” Humungousaur slammed into the monster making it tumble back.
The monster’s quills pointed forward, as it hissed. Humungousaur hesitated, allowing the monster to pounce past him and grab Steven in its mouth.
He struggled to break free from its grasp, “Ah! Put me down, I'm not food!!” He yelled as the creature ran deeper into the woods.
“Steven!” Ben looked back at JoJo, “Go get Grandpa! I’m gonna get Steven!”
“R-right!” She ran back from where they came as Humungousaur dashed into the woods.
JoJo tumbled out of the woods, Max was still on hold, “Jolyne? Where’re Ben and Steven?”
“There was some kinda gem monster! It took Steven!” JoJo said, “We gotta help them!”
“Right!” Max set his phone down and followed JoJo back into the woods, the hold music still playing.
“Do you know what direction they went?” Max said.
“Um,” She looked around, and saw tracks on the ground, “This way, I think,” she followed the trail with Max close behind.
“Ben! Steven!” Max called out, “Where are you two!?”
“Guys! Are you two okay?,” JoJo yelled, “We gotta find them…”
A growling sound came from behind them, and the gem monster tackled Max and he tried pushing it off of him.
“Max!” She yelled, “Stone Free!” Her stand unleashed a powerful blow into the monster’s face, “There’s the monster, but where’re Ben and Steven?”
“It must have a nest or cave nearby,” Max said, lifting himself back up.
Jolyne and Stone Free got into a fighting stance, “Max, let me deal with this thing…”
“You’re not doing this alone JoJo,” Max said, “I may be old but I’ve got some fight in me!”
The Gem creature charged at Jolyne, who narrowly dodged to the side. Stone Free quickly extended a rope to one of its legs, making it trip. The creature snarled at her, and tried running back at her, but was met with a right hook to the face from Max.
The monster stumbled around, dazed by Max’s attack, as Jolyne and Stone Free tangled it up in more threads. The creature snarled and struggled to break free but couldn’t.
“Alright big guy, time to end this!” Jolyne said, pulling even tighter on the creature, but it still struggled and fought back.
“We need to poof it,” Max said, he started pushing the tangled up monster toward a tree, “JoJo, help me out here!”
“Right,” She started shoving it into the tree, right into a rather sharp branch. They slowly shoved the monster into the branch as it cried out in pain. Eventually its form dissipated into a puff of smoke, leaving only its sharp, jagged gemstone.
Jolyne let out a sigh and sat on the ground, “My god, now what do we do with this?” she grabbed the gemstone.
“Keep it tied up in your threads, that should keep it from forming for now,” Max said, “Once we find Ben and Steven we need to call the Gems so they can deal with it.”
She did as he said, tying the Gem up inside of Stone Free, “I don’t get it, I thought they’d be close by, that was the same Monster that took Steven…”
Just then, they heard another creature growling. A near identical Gem monster appeared, looking directly at Jolyne, or rather, the Gemstone she was holding
“I think that explains that,” Max said.
Before they could react, the monster fired a barrage of quills at them.
“We need to get out of here!” Max grabbed JoJo and ran off with her.
Humungousaur was chasing after the creature holding Steven, “Put him down you oversized pincushion!”
“H-hey,” Steven said, “If you put me down I’ll give you the snacks in my backpack!” Steven tried pushing himself out of its jaws with no luck, “I uh… I appreciate that you’re not hurting me… that much.”
Humungousaur tackled the monster and it spit Steven out, “You big prickly jerk! Why’d you try kidnapping my friend?”
“I don’t think it talks, Ben,” Steven said.
“Well, I still want answers!” Humungousaur yelled.
“Okay, maybe let’s calm down a bit,” Steven said, “ We should probably just poof it and make our way back to the RV.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re-” Ben looked behind Steven, seeing a group of glowing eyes behind him, “S-Steven! Look out!”
“Wuh? AH!” Ben picked him up, as a group of three more corrupted gems pounced near them, “It's a whole family of Gem monsters!”
“And I think they’re not too happy with us!” Humungousaur put Steven on his shoulder and ran off, “I don’t know how much time I have left, and I don't think I can take all of these guys at once!”
“What are we gonna do?” Steven said, “The Gems aren’t here. We can’t handle these corrupted gems on our own!”
“Grandpa and JoJo shouldn’t be far,” Ben said, “Let's track them down before we fight these things.”
Jolyne and Max were hiding out behind a tree, Max attempted treating Jolyne’s wound, “Doesn’t look too serious, the venom should run its course in a few hours.”
“Ugh, we don’t have a few hours,” Jojo said, wrapping her arm up with Stone Free’s threads, “We gotta take down these monsters!”
“You’re in no condition to fight right now Jolyne,” Max said, “We need to find Ben and Steven, and get out of here.”
“These monsters could hurt people!” JoJo said, “We gotta get rid of them!”
Max sighed, “You’re right, if we don’t get something done about this, someone will get hurt by these things.”
As they were talking they heard booming footsteps and the snapping of branches. Max got into a fighting stance, and JoJo summoned Stone Free. The thunderous stomps got closer and closer, until eventually they saw a giant silhouette burst through the forest, and trip. They then realized who it was.
“B-Ben!? What the hell are you doing stomping around like this!?” Jolyne said.
“There are… so many Gem monsters,” The Omnitrix beeped and he transformed back to human.
“We know,” Jolyne showed the tied up gemstone, “We took one out earlier, but another showed up and paralyzed my arm.”
Steven grabbed her arm, “Oh no! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Steven,” She said.
“Once the Omnitrix recharges, I’m gonna try and take out as many of these things as possible,” Ben said, “I don’t want any of you getting more hurt than you are now.”
“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Jolyne said, “These things are too tough for us.”
“I dunno… Fasttrack might be my best bet, or I can try and knock ‘em all out with Pesky Dust?” Ben said.
“You aren’t going to do this alone, Ben,” Max said, “If we don’t do this together things could get worse!”
“Yeah… okay okay you’re right” Ben said.
“We gotta be careful about this,” Steven said, “Once we poof them I gotta put them in a bubble or they’ll reform eventually, but I don’t know if mine are as strong as the Gems’.”
“It's worth a shot,” Ben said, “We should take on one at a time, Steven will stick close to JoJo and I, while Grandpa distracts them. Sounds good?”
They all nodded, Max left cover first, letting one of the gems notice him. It charged off after Max.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
Another corrupted Gem burst through the woods, catching everyone off guard. it tackled Ben and snarled in his face. It seemed particularly mad at him.
"Dude if you're so mad at me for poofing your friend then you should've been a little nicer!" He pulled himself free and rolled out of the way. Just as the Omnitrix flashed green, "Perfect timing, you're going down!"
He smacked the watch and in a green flash he transformed into Ditto.
"Erm… I was going for something with a bit more punch but… I can make this work!" He said, "Or should I say WE can make this work!"
Ditto duplicated himself into three Dittos. Two of the clones ran behind the beast, while the other stayed in front of it.
It looked between the Dittos, and growled in confusion before going after the ones behind it.
"What's your plan here Ben?" Jolyne asked.
"We just gotta confuse the big guy until we get into a position where we can poof it!" Ditto explained, "rinse and repeat until we get 'em all, now come on!" He followed behind the beast and signaled his friends to follow.
The Dittos in the lead looked behind him, "I can keep this up much longer than you can big guy!" They started getting a bit out of breath, "I hope at least…" the other said. They then screeched to a halt. Another creature stood in front of him, "Yikes!" The two Dittos ran in opposite directions. The monsters chased after them.
The lead Ditto stopped, "Grandpa, JoJo, you go follow me, Steven, we'll go after the other me."
"Wait, which you are we…" Steven scratched his head, "This is so confusing."
"Just follow me!" He grabbed Steven's arm and ran off.
"Let's go, Jolyne!" Max said he chased the second monster with JoJo close behind.
The monsters were much quicker than the two of them. Thinking quickly, JoJo shot a thread and tied it around the beast's leg.
"I'm getting too tired to chase it down, it must be this venom in my system," JoJo said, "If I use my thread we'll be able to at least figure out where it's headed."
Max looked at her, "Are you sure you don't want to rest for a moment? You're really pushing yourself JoJo…"
"I'll be fine! I just need to push through this!" She said, "I don't know if we can do this without me…"
Max stopped running and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Jolyne, just wait a minute." He knelt down and looked her in the eyes, "I know you want to help but your safety is important too. Ben and Steven can definitely handle things."
Jolyne sighed, "I know. I just feel like I need to use my Stand to help you, all of you," she looked down, "I just want to do all I can for you guys. These past few weeks have been some of the best of my life… I’ve never had friends like all of you…”
Max smiled, and gave her a hug, "I'm glad you feel that way JoJo."
Jolyne returned the hug, but stopped for a moment, "hold on," Jolyne listened through her thread, "Oh my god…"
"What is it?"
"Unless I'm hearing things… I think there's a whole colony of these things. I can't tell exactly how many but… it sounds like a lot," Jolyne said.
"Oh no… Ben and Steven are in trouble!" Max said as he picked up Jolyne and followed her thread.
Ditto and Steven were getting exhausted. Steven was gasping for breath.
Ditto fell over, “I think… I’m getting tired from the other Dittos running around…”
“Ben!? Are you okay?” Steven asked.
“I don’t know… it's like… something bit me!” He said, “Oh no, the monster!”
“Is it trying to eat you?” Steven asked.
“I-I dunno! I hope not!” Ditto said, “Gosh I don’t even know what would happen if it did…” He pondered for a moment and then shook his head, “We gotta catch up with the other mes before something worse happens.”
They dashed toward the monster, not knowing of the whole colony of creatures they’re approaching.
Max and Jolyne made it to the monster colony. They hid behind a bush and investigated.
“Looks like the Dittos already made it here,” Jolyne said, “But I don’t see Steven.”
Max rubbed his head, “I always get so confused when Ben turns into that one…”
“Hey, watch it! You realize we all feel each other's pain right?” Ditto yelled at himself.
“Yeah, exactly! If you get hurt doin’ something stupid, we both feel it, doofus!”
“So each of us can’t handle this… but maybe…”
The two Dittos perked up, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Obviously!” The other responded.
“Two Dittos may not be enough, but TEN Dittos might!” The two Dittos said in unison, then each split into five more copies, and all jumped on one of the monsters. The monster growled and stumbled around, completely blinded by the big stack of Dittos on its face. The monster ran into one of the others, causing a lot of anger and confusion between them.
It was then that Steven and the original Ditto made it to the commotion, seeing a ton of Dittos dogpiling a monster, over 10 other monsters surrounding them.
The first Ditto stared at the situation in front of him, “That's a lot more than I expected…” He said.
“Wait a minute, some of them aren’t attacking,” Steven said, “They look… scared.”
“What? How can you tell?” Ditto asked.
“The ones the other yous are fighting are just trying to protect the others!” Steven said, “They’re scared of us!”
Ditto looked at him, “Are you serious?”
“We broke down right next to their home, and broke into their personal space,” Steven explained, “They think we’re attacking them!”
Ditto slapped himself in the face, “You gotta be kidding me! Well now what are we supposed to do?”
"Maybe we can apologize?" Steven asked.
Ditto raised an eyebrow, “Steven. They’re animals… I think.”
Steven sighed, “But I don’t wanna hurt them!”
“Steven. THEY wanna hurt us! It’s self defense!” Ditto argued, “Besides, if we don’t poof them someone else could accidentally anger them!”
“Yeah, you’re right I guess…” He looked around and gasped, “Wait, JoJo and grandpa Max are here!”
“What!?” Ditto looked where Steven did, his clones were still fighting one monster, but the one Max and JoJo followed caught on and spun around to approach them. It snarled at them as it approached, “We gotta get them! NOW!” The main Ditto jumped out of hiding and charged at the monster.
“Wh- Ben! Wait!” Steven stumbled out of the bushes and fell on his face, but immediately got up and continued chasing him.
The main Ditto duplicated himself five times, and lunged onto the monster’s tail. They pulled it away from JoJo and Max.
“C’mon you guys! Pull!” The monster dragged on the ground and grunted angrily.
Jolyne tried getting up to help, but fell to her knees, Max helped her up, “Jolyne, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”
“I don’t care! I gotta help!” She tried summoning Stone Free but it was barely even visible, “Ugh, damn this poison!”
“Doncha worry JoJo! We got this!” Ditto said. A beeping sound came from all of the Dittos, a chorus of “Uh oh” rang out, as the Dittos all flew toward each other, and flashed back into Ben.
“Aw man! Why now!?” Ben yelled. The monster he was dragging pounced at Ben, he rolled away, and ran to Max and Jolyne, “We gotta go you guys!”
Ben and Max helped JoJo up, but she was too weak to even stand. Another Gem Monster approached them, cornering them.
Steven saw his friends in danger, he started panicking, “Ben… JoJo… Max…” He started running toward them without a plan, just raw emotion fueling him.
“Woah, Steven! You summoned your shield!” Ben yelled.
“I-I needed to save you! The Omnitrix timed out, and Jolyne is too hurt to fight!” Steven said. The monsters all pushed against the shield, snarling and biting at it, “Augh, I can’t hold it!”
Cracks formed on the shield. Just as it shattered, something fell from the sky, and a cloud of smoke surrounded the monsters. A shockwave knocked over the heroes, and pushed away the monsters.
Garnet zoomed off, and drove her gauntlet through one of the monster’s heads, making it poof immediately. Garnet quickly bubbled and sent it off. Another jumped at her, it tried biting her but she managed to hold its mouth open, and threw it at another monster, she let out a flurry of punches at them. They poofed and their gems warped away. Five more charged at Garnet. She chopped down a tree with a single punch and picked it up, she swung it like a giant baseball bat and crushed the rest of the monsters. She finally bubbled the last of the gemstones.
“Dude, Garnet is so cool,” Ben said, watching in awe.
“How did you know we were here?” Steven asked.
“I was in the Burning Room and saw a new bubbled gem appear, in a pink bubble. As soon as I saw that, I realized you may be in trouble. There’s a warp pad nearby, it looks like I got here just in time.”
“It would’ve been nice if you got here before one of those got me with its quills,” Jolyne said.
“We’re glad you helped out in the first place Garnet,” Max said.
“I’m sorry guys,” Steven said, looking down.
“What? Why?” Ben asked.
“I got caught by that monster in the first place, none of this would’ve happened if I was more careful.”
“You couldn’t have known they were here Steven,” Jolyne said.
“Besides, we all woulda been toast if it wasn’t for that last minute shield save!” Ben said, playfully punching Steven in the arm, “You did great man!”
Garnet knelt down, “Steven, I’m so proud of you. It's only been a few weeks since you left but you’ve grown so much!”
Steven smiled, “You really think so?”
“Of course!” Garnet said, “You managed to bubble a Gem and summon your shield in the same day, maybe soon you can reliably use your powers on command!”
“Yeah man, who knows, maybe you’ll be cooler than me some day” Ben joked.
“By the way, Max, you may want to go back to your phone soon,” Garnet said.
Max lit up, “Oh! I completely forgot ” he got up and ran back to the RV, leaving the kids with Garnet.
“I’ve missed you alot Garnet,” Steven said, “I feel kinda bad just leaving now.”
Garnet smiled, “It’s been very different without you Steven, we’ve all missed you, especially Pearl,” She gave Steven another hug, “The summer won’t last forever though, you’ll be back with us soon enough!”
“Yeah, I’ve been having so much fun with Ben and Jolyne, but I’m excited to get back to Beach City too!”
“Now lets get you all back to the Rustbucket. Jolyne are you alright?” Garnet asked.
“Yeah… I think I’m getting better," she said.
They slowly made their way back, by the time they did Max was done with his call, “Ugh, finally. Roadside assistance should meet us here in a bit, you kids can go ahead and wait inside.”
Steven gave Garnet one last hug, and met his friends in the RV, “Bye Garnet!”
Garnet waved, then pulled Max aside, “I need to talk with you for a minute.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s been an increase in… Activity from space,” Garnet said, “I didn’t want to worry the kids but… a Red Eye appeared in Beach City the other day.”
“What!?” Max said, “Are you all okay?”
“We dealt with it, Greg managed to find one of Rose’s Light Canons. But I’m worried about this and the drones… we may be facing an invasion again.”
“We need to be ready if they do,” Max said, “Gosh, I can’t imagine why they’d want anything to do with Earth after everything… Unless,” He looked at Ben through the window with a hint of worry, “Make sure to keep me posted, no matter what, we need to keep the kids safe.”
“Of course, stay safe Max,” Garnet said, and she jumped away in a flash.
Max nodded, and waited for roadside assistance.
The mechanic removed the RV’s tires, “Sheesh, what happened here man?”
“I guess they were just worn out,” Max fibbed, he assumed it was the Corrupted Gems at first, however after a closer look he saw that damage was different than he expected. Instead of holes from the Monster’s quills, it almost looked like a precise strike, a straight gash, with edges that looked almost like they melted with some kind of acid, “what the hell happened here…”
“What was that?” The mechanic asked.
“Nothing, just thinking out loud,” Max said, “So uh, how much will that be?”
“Looks like your insurance covers this, so once I put the new one on you’ll be good to go!”
“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver!” Max said. He went back to waiting, a feeling of worry settling within him.