Steven awoke the next day, with a dull ache behind the gem in his forehead. At first he couldn't distinguish the events of the day before from a particularly vivid dream. As he stepped from bed and made his way down the stairs the memories didn't become hazy the way a dream would.

"So I guess that really happened." He said with a sigh, rubbing sleep from one eye.

"Uh yeah, yeah it did." Amethyst was reclining on the couch, head propped up by one hand doing her best to worry from her voice, though when he turned to her he could see that concern in her eyes. "So, you cool dude?" He nodded and looked around, sunlight streaming in the windows telling him it was close to noon.

"Guess I was out for a while." He headed to the bathroom to freshen up, and by the time he stepped out in a fresh pair of clothes the throbbing in his head was beginning to subside. Only then did he finally noticed just how quiet the house seemed to be.

"Where's Rose and Garnet?" He remembered how angry Rose had been, how worried Garnet looked.

"Rose said she was going to get stuff ready in case peri-dork shows her ugly mug around here again, and Garnet was. . .Garnet she didn't really say anything before warping out." Steven nodded as his stomach grumbled aggressively. He looked down, holding a hand to it before looking back to Amethyst

"I think I'm gonna grab a bite in town, you wanna come?" Amethyst shook her head and stretched dramatically.

"Nah I was just hanging out until you woke up, I got a bunch of junk in my room that needs de-organizing." He chuckled and waved as he made his way out the door, and she headed into the temple.

Steven made his way out, and leapt up onto the railing of the stairs leading down to the beach. With a shift of his body weight he was sliding down, wind whipping his hair back as he laughed. At the last moment he threw himself forward to rotate once in the air and come down squarely on his feet. Looking back up he marveled at how easily he'd managed to get down like that, even a few months ago he wouldn't have even attempted it, now it was second nature.

He found himself noticing little things like that all the way into town. The sandy incline did little to hinder his now limber legs empowered by the gem strength he could freely tap into. How the training with the holo pearl made him so aware of his surroundings; Sounds, sights, even smells coming together to paint a picture of the world more vividly than he would have been able to imagine before.

As he passed the big donut he waved to Lars and Sadie who were both cleaning tables outside and chatting with each other. They had been spending more time with each other since that first trip to the island. He found his mind wandering back to that day, and as he walked he held out his hand, light from his gem shining into his palm to produce a miniature version of his memories.

". . .Where's the teleporter thingy." Lars asked looking around frantically. Sadie looked as if she might say something before Steven stepped up and tugged a few palm fronds out of the way to reveal the warp pad.

"That's weird." Looking up then back at the pile that had obscured it. "It doesn't look like these fell from any of the trees, I mean you'd notice so many of them right?" Sadie lowered her head, cheeks burning an intense crimson as she bit her lip and rubbed at her arm.

"I. . .I hid it." They both turned to her, anger and confusion warring on Lars' face, Steven simply stayed silent watching the two of them. "I knew you were just gonna bail, and I kind of panicked. I hid the warp pad so that you would have to stay, just for a little while, just for like a day. I knew you needed this, and you won't let me help you, why don't you ever let me help you?" By now tears dominated the corners of her eyes as she looked up at Lars. For a moment he looked as if he might explode, fury plain on his face. Then he softened, his shoulders slumped and he took a step forward, arms moving around her to pull her into a hug.

"I know. . .I know you mean well, but. . .I don't know I just never feel right, and it's easier to not try than it is to do something and risk getting it wrong." They stayed like that for a while before Sadie, returning his embrace finally spoke.

"You're right though, if there's really some kind of monster here we should go, I wouldn't ever want to put you in danger." Lars took a step back and nodded, his attention suddenly pulled away by the rasp of metal on stone as Steven produced his Katana from his gem.

"If the gem creature does come back I can protect you guys, but really me and all of the gems didn't find anything here, it might have swum out to sea or something. You could stay." Lars looked at the sword held with such confidence, then down to the phone still clasped in his hand, then over to Sadie.

"I guess. . .it couldn't hurt to spend one day here, you know I heard buck was taking a break from social media, could give us something to talk about." Suiting his words he turned his phone off and replaced it in his pocket. They spent the whole weekend on the island, Steven fast forwarded through the parts where he stood guard, recalling the feeling of pride he had watching over his friends, and blushing at the memory of the two of them making out on the warm sand.

Then as it began to rain on the last day the creature attacked. Steven rushed the two of them towards the warp as it attacked, but Sadie slipped down into a mud pit that had formed. Before Steven could even act Lars was sliding down the side, and tossing rocks to pull the creature's attention. A few seconds later Steven was down the pit as well, placing himself between the monster and the two humans. As Lars boosted Sadie up the side Steven struck, his weapon slicing deep into the gem creature's form destroying it's body leaving just the gem behind.

He quickly bubbled it and turned to find Sadie pulling Lars up the side. It didn't take much effort for him to get up and help pull him the rest of the way. Since then they'd returned to the island a few times, though days when all three of them were free was becoming harder to come by.

By the time the image in his hand had faded he had reached his destination. Petey was running the window as usual, looking bored, as usual. He brightened slightly seeing Steven approach.

"Hey Steven, I just put in a fresh batch of tots and fries so it'll be a couple minutes before I can serve anything, I could give you the bits from the last batch if you want." Motioning to a small tray of discarded potato leavings. Steven waved a dismissive hand.

"Nah I can wait, I'm really in the mood for some tots with that firesalt mix." Petey rolled his eyes.

"You only like those because call them that the "Steven Special." Steven beamed nodding shamelessly.

"That is true yes." They both snickered as Steven leaned against the counter. Another flare from his Gem began playing the scene in front of them how the special got it's name.

". . .When I told my dad I wanted to be part of the fryman family business I didn't think it meant being stuck in a sweaty old costume." Steven nodded at that.

"I know what you mean, when I first asked the gems to take me on missions it usually meant that I was stuck standing behind Garnet or letting Amethyst do all the fighting. Until this one time we were all stuck in this upside down pyramid, and none of the Gems could figure out how to get out, but I did. After that they let me take the sea goddess statue to the top of the lunar sea spire. . ." He trailed off seeing the bewildered look on Petey's face and blushed. "All I mean is that sometimes you can't just wait to be given more responsibility, sometimes you gotta prove you're ready for them." That seemed to spark something inside Petey.

"Yeah, you're right I need to show my dad I'm more than just a filler for a suit!" His eyes shone with stars for a moment before swiftly vanishing, excitement turning to concern. "But how?" He was silent for a long moment.

"Well. . .I proved my way worked better on some stuff, maybe you could do the same." Petey smiled wide exposing his one missing tooth.

"That's it, I'll add a new item to the menu." Excitement returning only to falter once more. "But how am I gonna figure out something new when I'm stuck wearing this suit the whole time. . .I wish it could do the job on it's own." Steven scratched under his chin a moment, then snapped his fingers.

"Maybe it can, take the costume off." As Petey removed the fryboy costume Steven concentrated on the gem in his forehead. "I don't have a lot of practice at this so it might not work but. . ." Before he could finish a hologram of himself, eyes vacant and translucent blue appeared. "Yes! Holo Steven put on the frybo costume." Wordlessly the hologram obeyed. "Now do a little dance." The hologram in the costume obeyed once again, flailing it's arms and hopping from foot to foot. Mr. Fryman emerged at that moment, Petey ducked behind a Steven as his father complimented his double and returned to work.

"This is great! Now we just need a kitchen to work on the new menu item." Steven nodded, ordered the hologram to get people to eat french fries and motioned Petey to follow, leading him down the beach to his own kitchen. Amethyst lounging on the couch as usual munching away at some Chaaps.

"What up Steve-o, what are you doing with naked frybo?" Petey blushed and glared at her before Steven answered.

"Oh Petey and I are just working on a new thing for them to sell at the fry stand." Amethyst nodded with only vague interest.

"Sweet let me know if you need a taste tester" Before dumping the rest of the bag into her mouth.

"Alright, let's get started, let's see what we're working with." Petey and Steven began rummaging through the cabinets, fridge and freezer for ideas at just what they could make to impress his dad. Unfortunately what they came up with was not a whole lot. "All you've got is frozen waffles, popcorn, chocolate sauce, cheez whiz, black eyed peas, half a pizza and some tots." Steven sighed looking over everything.

"Yeah, it was Amethysts turn to do the shopping this week." The purple gem shot them finger guns and winked. "are you sure there's nothing you can make, maybe you could sell cheesy popcorn?" He asked hopefully holding up the whiz and kernals.

"No, if it's not something potato based my dad won't even consider putting it on the menu, I guess that leaves us with the tots." Petey looked between the tots, the cheez whiz, popcorn and the rest of the ingredients. "Maybe. . .Hey Steven you ever have Wind City style popcorn?" Steven shook his head confused. "Basically it's just a big bag of chocolate and cheddar popcorn, it sounds kind of gross at first but it tastes amazing.

"So you do wanna sell popcorn?" Petey shook his head and snatched the cheez whiz and chocolate sauce. First he defrosted the tots, then injected each one with the cheez baked them and coated them in the thick fudgy sauce. When they were finally ready he offered one to Steven and they each took a tentative bite. Both their eyes went wide and the amazing mix of salty and sweet before gobbling the rest down.

"Yo these are dope." Amethyst said drawing their attention as she shoved a fist full into her mouth. "They juth ned on. . ." She gulped them down. "They just need one thing." Producing a vial of firesalts she poured it over half the tray. Then taking another she popped it into her mouth. "Perfect." Steven and Petey looked at each other and then splitting one of the new ones they tried it.

Petey's scream was muted by the gout of fire that roared from his mouth. Steven was managing a little better, hiccuping little flickering flames as Amethyst fell to the floor laughing.

"You should see the looks on your faces!" Petey ran and stuck his head under the faucet, pouring water down his throat and extinguishing the flames. Steven ran to the freezer to empty and entire ice tray into his mouth which hissed and steam as they melted down his throat. When they had both recovered Steven chuckled, but Petey was fuming.

"You could have killed us!" Amethyst rolled her eyes tossed another fire salted tot into her mouth.

"Relax frybro, I only put on like the littlest amount of the stuff, wouldn't have done any harm." Petey sighed in resignation shaking his head.

"I kind of liked it." Steven chimed in, which earned him a thumbs up from amethyst.

"Well at least you didn't ruin the whole batch, come on Steven we gotta have my dad try these." Petey stuffed the unsalted tots into a plastic bag and headed for the door. Before following steven took a bag of the firey ones and gave chase. Petey was practically bounding with excitement as they headed back to town. Steven munched, now acclimated to the firesalts as he kept pace with him. Before they reached the fry stand however they were met with the sounds of screams.

When the stand finally came into view there was frybo holding Buck Dewey by the shirt, shoving a wad of fries down his throat while Mr. Fryman tried to pull him off.

"Steven you gotta make that thing stop." He nodded, and focused on dispelling the hologram, but it was true he had little experience with them, and no matter what he did the thing persisted.

"I can't, it's like it has a mind of it's own. . .he is frybo now." Petey looked back and forth in a panic trying to find something, anything to stop the monster with when he heard his father's voice.

"I'm sorry, I know I pushed you too hard, I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did. The truth is you're a valued member of this organization, and I'm proud to call you my son." Frybo turned, beginning to force feed Mr. Fryman now. Petey's eyes locked on the bag still in Steven's hand, he snatched it and ran forward dumping the rest of the fire tots into his mouth.

"Hey Frybo I've always hated you!" The holo Steven turned to look at him just as he unleashed a belch of hot flames that swiftly took hold on the suit. It stumbled back, releasing it's victims, and as the material turned to ash the hologram below also lost cohesion, blinking out, leaving the costume to fall into a burning heap. "Dad are you okay?" Petey asked through chapped lips and smokey hiccups.

Mr. Fryman nodded, coughing up the wad of fries in his mouth. "I guess it was time to send Frybo off anyway." His eyes shifted down to the plastic bag still clutched in Petey's hand. "What was that you ate to beat him?" Petey looked down and shook his head.

"Those were. . .a prototype, these are the finished product." Tentatively he held the bag out for his father who reached in and took one. He chewed slowly, savoring the flavor before slowly looking up to meet his son's eyes.

"These. . .these are amazing, we gotta put these on the menu!" At that the ringing of a bell behind him disrupted Steven's concentration and the holograms faded away.

"Order up, one spicy Steven special." Petey always kept some firesalts, the tinest amount of which he mixed with cinnamon and sugar to top the spicy version of the recipe.

"Thank's Petey, say hi to your dad for me." Steven waved and made his way to a nearby bench, deciding to simply sit, and enjoy a simple quiet sunny day.