Stevie forms the Super Friends, or, how Carver inadvertently ended up babysitting teenagers and yelling at
dead people.
⚠
Steven Universe spoilers
If clothes made the man, Stevie must have seemed like a completely different person from the previous week. Last week, she felt like a diamond, uncomfortably pushed into a role she had no desire to perform. The leggings, the tights, the heels, the wig, and the silk pink embroidered clothing.
Stevie was partial to the color.
Usually.
Now that she was back to herself? Stevie seemed much more relaxed. This was the girl who had battled monsters and gems all of her life in flip flops. She was wearing a blue pair of them now, along with loose fitting jeans, and a black t-shirt that was at least a size too big for her frame— she’d left the pink bomber jacket in her room for now. Maybe the color could take a break.
She was not sure what she was expecting from Carver the new week, having seen him dressed in pirate attire, but it was not the leather jacket and combat boots. In her mind, vampires wore crushed velvet old timey jackets and riding boots and lace shirts. Not that she could really picture Carver in that sort of attire, either.
With the black leather jacket, the hair with just the touch of faded pink, he reminded her of that girl Pearl had a crush on. The girl that had more than an uncanny resemblance to Stevie’s mom. That was two associations too many, and Stevie tried to smile and push those thoughts way, way down so that they couldn’t bother her again.
The smile to Carver was mostly to cover up her nerves, anyway. They were still waiting on Billy— or Pedro as he was going by— except now Stevie was an accessory to the lie about his identity.
No worries. Just another thought to bury deep down and never think about ever again.
Stevie barely kept from pacing but she wasn’t exactly able to stand still, either. She crossed her arms, drumming her fingers against them, still forcing herself to act like everything would be fine. This was just another mission, like the hundreds of other missions she’d been on since she was a kid.
Meeting Stevie at her room just required Carver to leave his own room and move through the shared space of the quad to Stevie's door. He didn't care about the living space situation (aside from the weekly need to board up the windows). It was an odd coincidence that Stevie was one of the people he was sharing a living space with, though.
Seeing Stevie more comfortable in her normal attire made Carver feel more comfortable as well. The pirate costumes had been a bit much on everyone. Carver wasn't exactly one for dressing up anyway. That was shit the dusty ancient vampires did. The ones who'd been alive longer than anyone really had the right to be.
He slumped into a chair, slouched, legs spread. In fact, he draped one leg over an arm of the chair (he had no problem making himself comfortable right away). He was accustomed to gathering with people to plan fights. Those fights weren't usually against ghosts, however, and he wasn't sure what exactly he could do to a ghost. Would Daunt work? He sure fucking hoped so.
"This shield of yours. Where is it?" The fact that it was a construct of her powers had missed him entirely. He rested his head on the back of the chair and curled up one side of his mouth into that smug half-smile he sported so often.
"And where's this Pedro guy?"
“Oh,” Stevie said. The closest Carver had come to seeing Stevie use her powers was when she turned glowing and pink as an emotional response to was when she’d shoved him into Lion’s head to keep him safe from the sunlight.
Stevie held out her arm and a pink shield with a rose centered on it appeared. The shield itself was translucent like quartz, too solid to be glass, and it had flashed, almost like a digital image loading at high speed, accompanied with a brief chiming sound which also sounded as though made from a computer.
“I can make bigger shields, but if we’re fighting in doors, this is probably easier.” Another flash, the same quiet alien chime, and the shield was gone. “I was mostly thinking of trying to bubble the ghosts? It’s what we used to do back home for gems that were corrupted.”
Stevie held out her hands, and created a perfectly round, pink translucent bubble in demonstration. It wasn’t any bigger than a volleyball. When she dropped her hands, the bubble vanished. “You have to open the bubble on purpose, so they should hold.”
When Carver mentioned Pedro, Stevie frowned slightly. She hoped Billy was okay.
Carver took his leg off the arm of the chair, putting his foot back on the ground, and leaned forward with interest as Stevie demonstrated her powers.
"Not bad," he said with a nod as she showed off her shield. He'd never encountered many mages or blood sorcerers, he wasn't accustomed to seeing abilities like this. But he didn't let the awe show on his face.
He stood up from the chair when Stevie created one of her bubbles and he reached out to touch it. It didn't seem like anything that would hold a ghost, but if Stevie had used this before, then he trusted it would work. Like or not, he already trusted her and he wasn't entirely sure why. She just didn't seem like a dishonest person. She reminded him of Annabelle in that way.
"I don't know if I can compel ghosts. I've never tried it before. But if it works, I could maybe coral them? I don't know if you need them to walk into the bubbles or how that works, but." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and rolled his shoulders in a shrug. He knew he was really here more for backup than anything else.
The look on her face when he mentioned Pedro didn't go unnoticed, but he didn't say anything else. He guessed they would just stand around and wait for this guy to show up.
Billy hadn't intended to dawdle. His whole thought process was that he needed to wait until he was certain his new housemates were far enough inside of the suite, either behind closed doors or further inward, that should any ghost try to come in? He could slip out with a flash of speed and slam the door behind him quickly. He'd not wanted to draw attention to himself, however, in this attempt and so he was sitting on the edge of the couch with his hands clasped between his knees which were bouncing uncontrollably from the need to just go. He needed to get out of the room and to try to do something.
He wasn't built for sitting around.
When finally the coast was clear enough he leapt from the couch and dashed to the door, going so fast it would have been unnoticable if one had blinked. The door was yanked open and just as he'd planned? Slammed right behind him.
And then he was off through the hallway, a red blur with a rush of adrenaline and minor fright propelling through him, until he arrived at Stevie's door just moments later. He knocked. "Let me in, let me in!"
Thankfully, no spooks had leapt out yet but he was casting his gaze back and forth as a precaution.
Stevie looked like she was about to say something to Carver when she heard the knock on the door. She was on it in an instant. It hadn’t occurred to her that let me in, let me in! would match up with someone who had the appearance of Billy, but not so much Pedro.
Nor had she really warned Billy that they would be joined by a third.
“Oh, hi Pedro,” Stevie started out by saying. Totally casual by her estimation. Not suspicious at all. Just being real cool about introducing her good friend Pedro to her new friend Carver and everything was completely normal and nothing about that was weird at all.
She’d closed the door quickly after Billy entered. “This is Carver. Carver, this is Pedro. Carver is a vampire and he might be able to compel ghosts to let me bubble them. Isn’t that great? Pedro is…”
Stevie paused to try and think what to say about Billy. Though she hadn’t told any outrageous lies, she was also terrible at hiding the fact that there was something. Lying wasn’t really a thing Stevie did.
“...He’s really strong and fast.” She wasn’t sure if saying anything else was too much, and so Stevie left it at that.
Carver glanced over at the door when he heard the knocking, but he let Stevie answer it. Since it was most likely Pedro after all. He tilted his head slightly, eyebrow raised, as the way she spoke to the person on the other side of the door. He couldn't quite see Pedro, but Carver could hear everything.
He closed his eyes for a moment and tuned out everything else. He could hear the rapid stuttered way that Stevie's heart beat. He opened his eyes and smiled to himself. She was terrible at lying. He wouldn't call her out on it, though.
Instead, Carver dropped himself back into the chair, leg slung over the arm of it, and gave a little wave to Pedro when he walked in.
As soon as the door was opened, he sped in. Not quite as fast as he'd gone to get out of his suite or through the hall but certainly faster than most or than he'd chosen to be on a regular day out. Of course, if it was a regular day, he'd have come as his actual self instead of his super powered one.
"Hi," he began with a tilt of his head, immediately picking up on the emphasis of his name, before his gaze moved away from Stevie over towards the rest of the room. Ah. A hand lifted with an accompanying, goofy grin.
He'd still not chosen just yet whether to come clean to everyone. He had been planning to continue thinking it over and then the ghosts happened. "Oh, really? Mind powers? Neat." There was a sage nod as he said this and it was clear he actually did think it was cool.
"Super fast," he emphasized after Stevie introduced him and he took a few hops over to Carver, extending his hand, as he continued to ramble on. "And hey? If the compelling trick doesn't work, maybe I can shove the bubbles towards the ghosts? Have them get trapped before they know what hit them."
“It doesn’t really work like that,” Stevie said, but not wanting to discourage Pedro, she added, “But I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
Now that the three of them were there and together, it was probably time to come up with their strategy. Connie would have been good at this. For all of Stevie’s so-called leadership, she’d fought with the Gems as a team so much there wasn’t usually a lot of talk beforehand. They’d always worked as a team.
“Right, so we wait in this hallway first and see if any ghosts show up? Clear up as many as we can? Carver can try to compel and I can try to bubble? If that doesn’t work, we’ll meet outside the main entrance of Butler and try something else?”
That was more or less a plan, right?
"...Is that a plan?" Carver furrowed his brow and looked at Stevie, unconvinced. Not that he knew the first thing about fighting ghosts.
"We're just going to stand around and hope some ghosts happen to wander our way?" He dropped his head back against the chair. "Shouldn't we be more proactive? Go to them?"
He turned his attention then to Pedro, eying the young man in his tight red supersuit and white cape. "Is this guy for real?" Carver snorted and draped his arm over his forehead. What on earth did he get himself into? He shook his head and got up from the chair. He clapped Pedro on the back.
"Come on, Super Dork."
Carver stepped past both of them and out the door.
"It doesn't?" He asked, looking over his shoulder towards Stevie, with a slight frown. He didn't exactly know what Stevie had intended with the bubbles. He just knew he'd made a promise. He was staying with Stevie. If Stevie happened to go out, well, he couldn't break the promise to Professor Waugh, now could he? "I didn't spot any on my way here but to be fair I was going real fast..."
He turned his focus back to Carver, his extracted hand being pulled back. "What? You don't like capes?" He was used to the commentary. It barely phased him.
When the man clapped him on the back, he pivoted back towards the door, moving to follow but his gaze moving towards Stevie. "If we're trying to clear them out, we could move towards the grounds and focus on any that are between here and the mess hall. That'll make it easier for others to do the supply run." He paused, face scrunching up as he considered, "Though other ghosts could easily make their way back to the area after we do..."
Stevie decided the best way to defuse any potential bickering between Carver and Billy was too hum loudly as they entered the hallway before calling out, “Well, I sure hope we don’t run into any ghosts because that would be too terrifying. Yep. The one thing that really scares me are sad dead people.”
Eh? Eh?
The temperature started to drop. Stevie shuddered and wondered if maybe she should have brought a jacket but looked to see if her running a distraction worked between the two of them.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Carver said in response to Pedro. "More might follow, but we can't just let the ones who are out run amok. I'm sure someone's already gone to the source, right?"
He turned his head to look at Stevie, confused. That was definitely a tactic for luring ghosts.
And apparently one that worked, if the raised hairs on his arms were any indication. He looked around the hallway, but didn't see anything but his two companions. "I think we have company."
The corner of his upper lip curled up, revealing a fang. It was like showing he was armed and ready for a fight. Not that he could bite a ghost, but.
Billy's attention snapped over to Carver and there was a genuine smile at the response. Not that coming up with ideas was a weakness of his but it'd been awhile since someone had felt one of his ideas was good. "I don't know. It was one of the floors, wasn't it? Everyone talked about the second floor," he considered. Maybe they could go there later on?
Still, he felt the drop in the temperature and conversation slipped from him as he moved to focus on the surrounding area.
For now, he remained close to the other two, but he was ready to lift off the ground if needed. It could prove to be a useful distraction if Carver's plan didn't work.
“Wait. We do? Where?” Apparently Stevie didn’t know the lore about ghosts making things colder around them. She was still glancing up and down each side of the hall when an invisible force slammed into her and threw her into one of the walls on the far end of the hall, cracking the drywall.
The half gem grunted with surprise, but immediately bounced back onto her feet, barely dazed as a huff of breath exited her lungs. “I’m okay!”
She hadn’t really accounted for how they were supposed to fight an invisible ghost. That kind of felt like cheating.
It probably didn’t say anything good about the ghost that it had picked on the smallest and youngest looking one among them first.
"I'm not sure, I think it might be-" Carver was cut off by the ghost shoving Stevie into the wall.
"Stevie!" He growled. What the hell were they supposed to do about an invisible ghost? He could still try Daunt, but he ran the risk of terrifying his companions and not the ghost. He looked back and forth between Stevie and Pedro.
"Close your eyes, both of you," he commanded and waited for them to comply.
His eyes grew darker and he bared his fangs, looking around the general vicinity, hoping to hit their undead friend with Daunt. It was a discipline that made the target terrified, but also made them comply with whatever he said.
"Show yourself," he growled. It was the only way he would know if it worked.
Billy's focus snapped over to Stevie and he moved to take a step in her direction but she quickly was bouncing back to her full height. A frown set heavily on his features. He wasn't going to feel bad about attempting to shove a ghost into a bubble at this point if they were going to go around shoving others into walls.
But then Carver was giving them an instruction and his attention went back to the vampire. The question of 'why' was practically waiting to be spoken but Billy thought better of it. They didn't have time and he didn't know Carver's abilities. He'd trust him at face value.
He shuffled closer to Stevie before he shut his eyes.
Stevie closed her eyes, despite wanting to know what was about to happen. She’d have to ask about it later. Maybe he glowed? Somehow that didn’t seem right, but it was the image that popped into her head regardless.
Another low, guttural growl pulled from Carver's throat, his hands flexed in and out of fists. "Show yourself!" He commanded again, his voice louder, deeper, dripping with the centuries of anger that fueled the curse of the Cainites.
"Now!"
There was a soft shimmering etherealness as the ghost took on a human form. She looked so small and frail, and genuinely terrified of the vampire, but Carver wasn't fooled by her appearance. He held onto his rage like a lost love and snapped his attention to Pedro and Stevie.
"Alright. Time to bubble this asshole."
Billy lept, just slightly, at the sound of Carver's voice but he ensured his eyes remained shut. Fists were clenched at his side in anticipation. It was only when he heard the statement, clearly not directed to anyone but the pair, that he opened his eyes.
There was a shift in his expression as he watched the ghost. Maybe the other ghosts were more frightening but this one just looked scared. His gaze pivoted to Stevie.
At least if they put her into a bubble, she wouldn't be 'busted' or anything that sounded damaging. "You've got this," he said towards Stevie encouragingly.
Stevie had made larger, protective bubbles for herself. She’d even manipulated them with spikes, using the momentum of her body like a giant, living mace. She’d survived the void of space in such a bubble. She’d put dozens of corrupted gems into smaller bubbles.
But she’d never done such a thing to a ghost, or started out with a bubble so large. Not by herself. Sure, she’d helped bubble the cluster, but that had been more of a group effort.
Stevie held out her hands and expanded them. It took effort and care, enveloping the ghost in a perfect pink sphere. But it was too large for her to hold, not with her not inside it herself. Her hands were extended and she was still holding on. She just needed to make the bubble smaller.
It started to shrink, and the ghost inside it collapsed into a small, twinking phantom light. She hoped it was asleep. Despite being thrown in a way that would have done a lot of damage to a normal human-- Stevie still had powered drywall on the back of her black t-shirt-- this had taken more out of her and she let out a long exhale. Stevie wasn’t mad at the ghost. Maybe the scared, fragile looking appearance was a trick, but so what? Stevie felt sorry for it anyway.
She couldn’t help herself.
Stevie was shaky on her legs as she got up and approached the pink bubble which floated in midair. “Um. I guess we need to store this somewhere.”
She was still catching her breath.
Carver's features softened as the bubble emerged and enveloped the ghost. His jaw slacked and for once he allowed himself to show how impressed he was. Everything vampires did seemed so violent and here was this small, young girl with a humane solution to their problem.
"Should we bring the bubble to the second or third floors? That's where the ghosts are supposed to be, right? Where the barrier was to keep them."
“Oh, I was thinking we could keep it in the living room. That way none of the ghosts can mess with the bubble and we can keep an eye on it with any other ghosts we bubble. It’s what we did back home with the corrupted gems before we were able to heal them.”
The hallway was warmer now, but Stevie realized a jacket was probably going to be required for any potential ghost hunting.
“I mean, we didn’t keep them in the living room, but we had a spot in the Crystal Gem hideout where we kept them.”
Stevie never ceased to amaze Billy. Excited by magic in general, his expression grew into one of pure amazement at what she was capable of doing right in front of him. Sure, his powers were cool, but most of them were common in his world.
He'd never known anyone to be able to heal with spit or contain entities to bubbles like they were some good Witch.
"If it gets to be too many in ya'lls space, we can put some in my suite, too." He didn't know how his new roommates would feel about it but surely they'd not protest keeping people safe without the aid of violence?
Carver pondered for the moment, wondered if the other quad mates would mind, and ultimately decided he didn't care.
"Yeah, alright. We can keep them in the living room I guess. If nothing else, they will all be gone after the reset anyway." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug and walked over to the door, opening it for Stevie.
"You can do the honors." It was not likely anything would happen to him if he touched the bubble, but he wasn't going to find out.
Stevie glanced at the bubble and then into the open doorway into their shared living space. She waved her hands over the small bubble where it shimmered and disappeared. The bubble then reappeared in stasis near the ceiling of their living room and Stevie’s brows went up, pleased that had worked. The sound that had accompanied the bubbling and its blinking in and out of space was the same sound Stevie made when she summoned her shield.
“Okay, I should be able to bubble ghosts and make them reappear back here without having to take them directly.”
In the future, finding ghosts or fighting them might not be so easy, but looking between the three of them, and knowing they had other friends that could help, Stevie felt good about their options.
Billy craned his neck forward to look into the open doorway. Seeing the bubble hanging around the ceiling felt something close to hope and his grin widened. If they could make sure Stevie was safe and she could put more ghosts into the bubbles? That would keep everyone else in the dorms safe until the reset.