When I got to my front door, I opened it calmly. To my surprise, the girls were gathered in the living room, talking among themselves. I picked up a hint of worry on their faces, though the conversation cut off the second they saw me walk in.
"Hey, G-man!" Amethyst exclaimed with a mischievous smirk, noticing the donuts in my hands.
"Hello, Steven..." Pearl said, her voice soft and still a bit marked by what had happened days ago.
Garnet, on the other hand, just raised a hand and greeted me with her usual serenity: "What's good?"
I gave a slight smile and walked toward the kitchen, putting the donuts in the fridge. That move was enough to make Amethyst bolt after me, trying to snag one before they disappeared.
"You guys want some?" I asked, pointing at Amethyst, who already had one in her hand.
"No, thank you," Pearl replied with her usual formality.
"Give me one," Garnet said, looking at Amethyst.
Without hesitation, Amethyst tossed her a donut, and Garnet naturally absorbed it into her gem. I raised an eyebrow.
"First time I've seen you ask for something like that..." I said, throwing my hands up in a shrug, trying to make my point.
"I consume differently," Garnet answered, calmly adjusting her shades.
"Okay...?" I muttered, turning to Pearl. "And you? You want a donut?"
"No," she shot back immediately with a firm head shake. "Gems don't need to eat, and—"
But she didn't get to finish her eternal explanation.
A creature resembling a green-skinned worm, with snow-white tufts of hair sticking out of its back, suddenly dropped right onto Pearl's face. The silence in the room became absolute—so thick that even the crunch of the donut in Amethyst's mouth stopped for a split second. She didn't take long to burst out laughing at the bizarre scene, though.
"A gem... on your head!?" she wheezed, nearly choking on her second donut.
Pearl, snapping out of her daze, reacted instantly: with a smack, she flung the slug off her face, her brow furrowed in disgust. The creature crawled toward Steven, but with steady reflexes, I summoned my shield and slammed it down, pinning it to the floor.
The group held their breath, waiting to see the familiar light of a released gem... but nothing happened.
"Huh?" I muttered, confused, leaning in closer. "There's... there's no gem."
Garnet stood up, her expression turning serious. Her gauntlets appeared in a crimson flash, and with an agile move, she snatched another slug that had dropped onto her shoulder. She ripped it in two without hesitation... and to everyone's surprise, it vanished like a mere illusion.
"Outside. Now," she ordered firmly.
There was no argument. The four of us rushed out, and the warm sunlight hit our faces. In front of us stood a colossal worm—a beast that seemed to rise from the very bowels of the earth. Its body snaked around, and every movement made the ground vibrate beneath our feet.
"It's... kinda big," Amethyst commented, shielding her eyes from the light as if trying to joke around like usual.
"Should we attack it or just let it live with us as a pet?" I added from behind with a smirk.
"Don't even joke about that," Pearl replied coldly, her shoulders tensing up.
"There goes my giant pet..." I murmured with a hint of irony, trying to convince myself it wasn't that bad.
But before anyone could say another word, Garnet lunged forward, her gauntlets glowing intensely, heading straight for the gem embedded in the monster. The creature, sensing the danger, let out a deep roar that shook the air. Dozens of those smaller slugs began pouring out of the house, forming a twisted guardian army in front of it.
Amethyst tried to run and join Garnet, but several worms lunged at her, wrapping their slimy bodies around her arms and legs.
"Gross!" she yelled, struggling and tearing the slimy skin off with a look of pure revulsion.
I watched the scene closely, narrowing my eyes as if trying to recognize these things. "They look familiar..." I thought.
One of the worms crawled up to me. I watched it approach and, with a mix of curiosity and awkwardness, I reached out my hand.
"Hey there, cutie..." I whispered.
The creature opened its mouth and spat at me. Out of pure reflex, I dodged the slimy blast, which hit just inches from my feet.
Pearl, who was beside me, watched the scene with alarming rigidity. Our eyes followed the liquid's path until we saw the sand start to sizzle and melt, sinking as if a deadly acid were devouring it. We both slowly looked up, and the tiny slug gave us a look that, in my confusion, I could only describe as murderous.
"What the hell...?" I muttered, a knot forming in my throat.
"This is the slug Steven usually befriends..." I thought, but looking at the colossal one dominating the field, I realized this version was far from friendly.
Instantly, Pearl summoned her spear and, with a precise strike, poofed the closest creature. Without stopping, she ran toward Amethyst, who was jumping all over the place dodging jets of corrosive slime that were barely missing her hair.
"What is up with these things?! Do they have infinite spit?! Do they ever get tired?!" Amethyst yelled, a mix of frustration and disgust.
Pearl didn't answer; she just stepped up to her side. With perfect coordination, they started taking out the little monsters one by one until the ground was covered in glowing dust and not a single small worm was left moving.
I was lost in my own thoughts—in that moment of mental "schizophrenia" that sometimes grabbed a hold of me. I was still overthinking the slug. "Now that I think about it... didn't it have healing spit? I've never tried that power... maybe I'll try it later," I mused, trying to ignore the chaos around us.
Coming out of my daydreams, my focus shifted to Garnet. I could tell from a distance that she was struggling against the beast. However, something didn't click: her movements were too measured, too slow. Watching her closely, I realized... she was letting it win.
"Huh?" I froze, confused.
Garnet looked directly at me with that signature blank expression, as if her face were made of stone. And yet, a bead of sweat ran down my temple when I understood the hidden message in that look: She wanted me to help.
"Hell yeah... job experience," I thought, trying to hype myself up with a nervous half-smile.
Without hesitation, I ran toward her. Garnet, noticing my reaction, flashed a slight, satisfied smirk, as if she'd planned the whole thing. I could only give her a deadpan look back, with another bead of sweat rolling down my face.
The beast locked onto me, roaring with fury. Its body trembled, and in an instant, it started firing volleys of those tiny creatures directly at us. By instinct, I summoned my shield. In seconds, the surface was covered in green, radioactive slime that sizzled like acid on hot metal.
"Good thing... I remember my shield can tank this stuff," I murmured, trying to convince myself while the tension made me sweat even more.
I quickly expanded the shield, making it big enough to cover me completely. The slime pounded against it like an endless corrosive rain. Garnet raised her gauntlets toward the empty space, and I understood instantly. When the beast finally stopped its attack, I shrunk my shield and threw it into the air with all my might.
In that moment, Garnet launched her gauntlets with pinpoint precision, hitting the shield. Staying focused, I flipped the shield mid-air until it was horizontal.
The collision sounded like a thunderclap. The roar was so intense the ground vibrated beneath our feet. The shockwave shook the air, and the creature's scream echoed everywhere—a cry of pain that seemed to split the skies.
The creature roared, writhing in pain after the blast. Pearl, who had finished helping Amethyst, didn't waste a second: she summoned her spear and hurled it with impeccable precision at the monster's face.
Fate, as fickle as ever, played on our side... though not for the creature. Right at the moment of impact, the giant worm turned its head and locked eyes with the projectile. For a moment, I swear, I saw something impossible: a scowl of hatred... a whispered curse through its jaws before being pierced.
"Definitely my schizophrenia in full bloom," I thought, feeling like my mind was giving me powers no one else could see.
The spear went straight through the creature's mouth, grazing the gem hidden inside with brutal force. Luckily—or unluckily, I didn't know yet—it didn't shatter it. The worm's body glowed intensely and, in a flash, it was poofed.
In that same instant, all the small slugs that had come out of the house vanished like smoke in the wind. Amethyst, who was still surrounded and jumping to dodge corrosive slime, let out a long sigh as she saw them disappear.
"I swear, they get weirder every day..." she muttered, wiping her forehead.
"Definitely," Pearl replied, coming up to her side with a serious expression. "And the curious thing is that these different things always show up right when Steven joins the missions."
Her voice sounded more worried than usual.
"Come on, Pearl..." Amethyst replied, rolling her eyes. "Steven can hold his own. Remember? He's got Rose's gem. I'm sure it's got some kind of security code or something to keep him from dying."
Those words hit me hard. I stayed there thinking, scratching my head.
"Security code...? That sounds way too much like the Omnitrix..." I thought with a twisted smile. "Well, guess I'll have to test it out."
"Don't," Garnet interrupted suddenly, staring at me intently from behind her dark lenses.
"Huh?" I froze, my face turning into a totally disoriented chibi expression.
"Don't," she repeated with a firm voice. "It doesn't end well."
"Well..." I muttered, hanging my head, "there goes that idea."
Garnet adjusted her glasses calmly, keeping her eyes on me, and then briefly shifted her attention to Steven, as if evaluating him in a way none of us could fully understand.
"I'm not gonna do it," I repeated, now with beads of sweat rolling down my face.
Garnet gave a slight nod, her eyes hidden behind her shades. Her gaze moved silently to our surroundings, as if assessing the damage. I followed her eyes... and suddenly I froze, deadpan.
"T-the house..." I whispered, my voice cracking.
"We will fix it," Garnet replied, this time with a slightly more compassionate tone than usual.
"The ground..." I added, even more discouraged, pointing at the cracks and corrosive stains.
"That fixes itself," Amethyst chimed in indifferently, appearing behind me and stretching her arms like nothing had happened.
I gave her a side-eye, annoyed. "Damn green thing..." I murmured, remembering the worm.
Pearl, who already had the gem trapped inside its bubble, sighed with exhaustion. "Well, at least it looks like we've got some work to do."
Suddenly, my dad's van pulled up. The door opened and my dad appeared. He watched the mess around him in silence, eyes wide open. I looked at him and said with a half-smile: "I told you, didn't I?"
He just let a sweatdrop fall, shrugging his shoulders. "You're very specific, Stevo. Life is tough..."
I finished the thought in my head: But it'll be tougher once I find Blue Diamond, I added internally with a manic laugh that echoed weirdly in the silence.
The girls immediately looked at me with a "what the hell?" face, while my dad, more than used to my bouts of insanity, just stared at the remains of the house.
"Well... I'll help." His voice was calm, as if cleaning up ruins was just part of the routine.
"Let's begin," Garnet replied.
And that's how the rest of the day went: a green worm defeated, a talk that went nowhere, and my own schizophrenia keeping me company—because, in the end, I was still talking to myself.
End of Chapter 7.