What does a strong heart mean?

Upon arrival, Steven would find his dad's van in its usual spot. But Greg wasn't inside. In fact, he was actually seen chatting up someone Steven had never seen before. It was a man who stood a bit taller than his dad. He had sleek, medium-length black hair and bright blue eyes. He sported a teal hawaiian shirt with khaki shorts and looked to be the same brand of sandals as his dear ol' dad. They were laughing which was a surefire sign that the guy was friendly enough.

When he was called for, the two men turned their heads to see Steven. Greg, of course, waved Steven over. "Steven!" he would exclaim. "You're up bright and early!" He rubbed the back of his head as he sheepishly faced the man. "Heh, my kid." He gestured to Steven. He walked over to Steven with a boisterous grin and his fists on his hips. "How's it going, bud?"

Greg chuckled. It had nearly slipped his mind! Good thing Steven remembered otherwise, he'd be in quite the pickle. But he acted like he remembered. "Course I remember, Schtu-ball! And you get to choose the movie AND what's on the pizza to boot! Just don't ordering any boots on the pizza, little man!" He winked just as the guy was being noticed and greeted by Steven.

"Oh, Steven! This-"

"Heya Steven; name's Laguna! Don't mind me! I'm on vacation and boy is Beach City sure a lovely little venue!" exclaimed the easygoing guy whose entire demeanor positively exuded cool uncle. "I won't keep your dad from ya; him and I were just catching up a little bit." He looked around as an errant breeze played with his hair. He sighed wistfully and looked up at the sky with a peaceful smile. Oh! He remembered something. He reached into a fanny pack on his person and produced a small wrapper the size of...a popsicle? It was in fact a popsicle! Greg's eyes lit up with wonder. Laguna then presented it to Steven.

"My treat. No cost. Think of it as a gift from your dear Uncle Laguna." he beamed as he squatted down to Steven's level.

"Is that...sea-salt ice cream?! Aw man...I haven't had one in years! You had one on ya this whole time?"

Laguna chuckled. "It's my last one til I go back to Sca-"

Greg's eyes widened as did Laguna's. He quickly looked to Greg who made motions with his hand flat across his neck and shook his head.

"Ssssssscaring up some more from my personal stores!" Greg breathed a sigh of relief as did Laguna. That was a close one!

The two men exchanged looks and while both smiled, Greg spoke up first. "Well, I'd never thought I'd get to taste one again and I didn't want ya getting your hopes up since uh...ppphew they're not easy to get, Steven. Beach City doesn't have them. Even the big City doesn't have them!" he looked at the treat and sighed. "Because once you've had one, it's something you wanna taste again and if I didn't have one after building this whole big legend about how their taste is nostalgic, relaxing, salty, sweet, and more... you'd be sad."

Laguna interjected. "Buuuut now that I'm around, I can bring in more from where I'm from! I'm honestly surprised Beach City doesn't have a staple ice cream place."

Greg shrugged and looked to Steven knowingly with a nod. "We don't...BUT we DO have a nice donut place down the way that could stock them!"

Laguna cackled. "Are you turning me into a delivery man, Greg? You already know I have a practically full-time gig but I'll see what I can do. But first things first." he looked to Steven then gestured with jazz hands to Steven. "It's up to the consumer! Go on and give it a try!" He then sidled up to Greg with a concerned look. "Uh...when did the ocean get stolen?" he whispered.

"It was a whole thing, Pretty scary stuff." Greg replied. They both looked to the horizon where the ocean was as Greg vividly recalled driving his van through the ocean bed...when the water was gone, of course! That was all pretty crazy gem stuff to say the least. But he knew Laguna got into even crazier stuff. Still, that whole ordeal was adventure enough for him. He'd take his chances here with water that only came out from a hose to wash vehicles with, thank you very much!

Greg eyed the sweet treat longingly. Did he really want a taste right now? He looked to Laguna who shrugged. "I mean, I'll be back here with a few boxes eventually. It's not like it's the last one in existence, Greg." posited Laguna. He then nudged him and chuckled. "It means a lot to ya, huh?"

He paused and recalled a simpler time. Rose Quartz. Ah. She loved those things too. Admittedly, he was never crazy about them at first. It was a few of his friends that got him into it. Namely Laguna alongside two others. Stan and Gordon. Those guys sure did love their ice cream. Back in highschool. Laguna used to bring those things of ice cream around after a long day and they'd just hang out. Eventually, they'd all go their own ways. Gordon moved to California to start a family. Stan had his brother in Oregon to look after. And Laguna was...well, Laguna.

That ice cream really does bring back memories. He reached down, pressed his fingers to the treat and pulled off a piece for himself, leaving Steven with half. "Ah! It's cold!" he exclaimed as he played cold potato with the treat in between his hands. Eventually, he shoved it into his mouth. He relished the taste of the treat from his past and stood there with eyes closed, eyes nearly welling up with tears. "Oh yeah...there it is." He smiled as an errant breeze swept his hair. Laguna watched the man relive his glory days with a pleased smirk "Hey Laguna..."

"Yeah, Greg?"

"Whatever happened to ol' Stan and Gordon?" asked Greg with a peaceful smile.

Laguna looked pained as he scratched the back of his head. "...Gordon, from my understanding, just went through a divorce and is separated from his wife who lives with their daughter, Sasha." Greg sighed. Yeah. That sounded like ol' Gordon. Laguna held up his hands as he tried to improve the mood with another brand of news, speaking excitedly. "B-But Stan is doing fine! He runs a tourist attraction up around Gravity Falls! We could all probably take a trip up there sometime!" he suggested.

Greg nodded and smirked with his fingers on his chin. "Hey yeah; that doesn't sound like a bad idea! But I got priorities here right now, eh kiddo?" he tousled Steven's hair, getting just a bit of the errant juice from the popsicle in it. "Oops! Uhh... sorry there, Steven!"

Greg chuckled. "Oop well then, good thing we're at a car wash!" he remarked as he went to fetch a nearby hose. "Can get you cleaned up in a jiffy!" His smile faded slightly when he recalled the faces of his old friends. "Oh, Gordon and Stan are real cards, Steven. Especially Stan!" He unkinked the hose as he went on with a little help from Laguna. "He could...talk himself out of...most anything...!" He tugged at the hose to get a knot undone. He held up his hand to his mouth speaking secretively. "Kinda like our resident mayor but better...but I'd take Dewey over Stan." With Laguna's help, the last and final obstacle keeping the hose from being instructed had been cleared. "Gordon eh...he's kinda like me. If he has a daughter, I'm sure she's just as big-hearted as you, little man!" He looked to Laguna to see if he could confirm but the man simply shrugged with an anxious smile.

He attached the nozzle to the end of the hose and sprayed a bit on his hands to get the last remnants of the sticky sweet juices from his hands. Handling ice cream bare-handed sure was a mixed blessing.

"Alright Steven, we have contact!" he declared whilst holding up the nozzle. He playfully squeezed the handle to let the hose unleash a gush of water upon Steven but not too much. He looked back to Laguna in realization. "Oh, hey! Wasn't that girl who was with you supposed to be back by now?"

Laguna rubbed the back of his head and looked into town with a slightly worried look. "Yeah..." he said with uncertainty "Though she can get easily distracted. And is kind've an odd duck." he admitted with no short amount of pride welling up inside and surfacing into a smile. "But she's fine just the way she is...despite all the worry."

The Guardian rubs his chin thoughtfully while Greg simply looked to the side, fondly thinking of the past and all that happened.

"Well, Steven...after we went our separate ways, we sorta just...lost contact." he shrugged apologetically as he loosely held onto the hose still. "Then your mother came into my life, shortly followed by you and boy, did my priorities change. Alot!" He admitted as he got ready to set down the washing implement.

"She's got a sweet tooth so maybe that donut place would catch her attention...but she also likes colorful things so that aquarium store too...." Laguna smiled nervously. "And music...and games..." he came to a realization on how well he knew this girl and stared into the distance at the town itself. She was going to be VERY distracted unless something dire happened. But maybe that was for the best. She deserved to have a bit of a break from all of their activity lately. "Well, least she's in a nice place to get distracted!" Laguna chuckled. An errand breeze swept by and with it came the scent of the salty, aquatic air of a city nestled next to a beach. Yeah. It was easy to get lost in your own senses here. Especially with such easygoing atmosphere.

There was a sense of something different there as well that Laguna picked up on. And very likely Steven would too. After all, a peaceful city's atmosphere didn't need much of a disturbance to know something was off. The sunny skies above became darkened by clouds. The breeze came almost to a standstill. It would seem as if a storm was on the horizon but the clouds above made no rumbling.

"A storm? Well, that's gonna put a damper on things." remarked Greg irritably, wrapping the hose up over his shoulder

Laguna looked up and narrowed his eyes. "...I don't think weather is gonna be the problem." stated Laguna cautiously. He looked out to the town and nibbled his lower lip. And today was just starting to get relaxing.

Greg chuckled "Right. Pizza. And the bits i-if there's time for that." he reminded himself. But Fish Stew Pizza was indoors and could provide cover for the rain...if there was indeed a storm coming. "On second thought, maybe just pizza then." He looked to Laguna who seemed off-put from the skies above. "You wanna come? Can probably find her on the way, if you're THAT worried."

Laguna snapped out of it and chuckled nervously. "Mmmm? Yeah oh what me? Worried? Pfft, nah! She can handle herself pretty well! Pizza uhhhh sounds good to me!" he replied hurriedly as his legs started taking him into town to follow after Steven. "Just uh lead the way there!" Despite all his assurances, he looked rather nervous as he glanced over to Steven then to Greg who shrugged and decided to follow.

As the three made their way into the town, they was something quite off. Usually, Buck Dewey and his crew would be cruising down the way enjoying their time out on the town. But they were nowhere to be seen. The quiet nature of Beach City would soon find itself disturbed as the cries of the townsfolk Steven had grown to know flooded from town. Greg and Laguna froze in place momentarily but only Laguna decided to continue forward albeit hesitantly. Greg would continue as well but only until Steven would pass him. He looked genuinely concerned and was about to reach out to stop him...but he knew that wouldn't do any good.

The closer they got to the middle of town, the more they could hear it. The sounds of combat? Was there someone here fighting? Their answer would soon come in the way of the very thing Steven saw in his dreams; Heartless. Moving Shadows darted across the way alongside various other creatures he didn't recognize bearing some sort of strange sigil on their bodies. But he wouldn't have time to admire them! They were after the friendly folk of Beach City!





Then, Laguna reached to his side. He looked ready to pull something out but then a voice rang out that made him stop. He held his hand to his head and looked slightly relieved but also frustrated just a tad.

"Mr. Lagunaaaaaa! Heartleeeeeeess!"





A girl wielding a weapon of some kind waved at Laguna from down the street. She looked to be smiling wide and brimming with excitement. Next to her, however, was someone else. Someone that no one, not even Laguna, would recognize. Steven, however, and possibly Greg would fathom a guess as to what it was at least.

A gem.



"I have help! She's helping me! There's lots!" she grinned, using her weapon to take down a swath of Shadows while the single-armed gem with her simply took their arm and swung it at the creatures to keep them at bay.

Laguna groaned "Yui, I...ugh...just...keep up the good work!" he hesitantly cheered with a thumbs up then looked to Greg and Steven. "Alright, you two. Head on inside. We got this out here."

Greg grunted and shook his head. "Are you sure? I can't leave a friend out here like yourself!" Greg looked worriedly to Steven then to Laguna then back to Steven whose shoulder his hand placed itself upon. The situation looked pretty bad. Steven was going to be in danger! Again! "C-Come on, bud! We better do as he says." He started to tug on Steven.