The beacon from the Warp Pad made the shadows of the Kindergarten flicker before returning to normal as it deactivated. Amethyst stepped off the pad and leaped down to us, her expression agitated.

“Any luck?” I asked, already knowing the answer from the look on her face.

“Still fighting,” she mumbled. Amethyst blew a lock of hair off of her nose, keeping her eyes turned away. “They’re just sitting around right now, but they’ll blow up any second. Same as usual.”

I sighed and slumped against the mangled remains of an Injector that had been destroyed and stripped of its drill years ago. As I closed my eyes, I heard “I’m really sorry.”

Opening my eyes, I glanced at Mo sitting on a rock a short distance off. After our confusing interactions, the three of us trekked back to the Warp Pad, continuing the cycle of checking and waiting that Amethyst and I had started when the arguing began. Amethyst had volunteered to peek in immediately once we arrived, leaving me with Mo for an awkward period, even if it only was a minute or two. In less than a week, Mo had gone from a friend to an enemy to… whatever she is now. We haven’t really had time to iron out specifics. She’d barely said a word since joining us, and I couldn’t think of what to say.

Amethyst set a bag of snacks she snagged from the kitchen between us. Inside was a half-empty CHAAAPS bag and an old box of cookies. “Pearl hasn’t exactly stocked up since… this all started,” she explained, casting a brief look at Mo, who seemed to slump when she noticed.

I opened the cookie box and pulled out a stale snickerdoodle. “We can work with this. It’s a bit old, but I bet it tastes fine. After all, if every porkchop were perfect-” I took a bite, pain flaring from my teeth as they meet what felt like stone. I yelped and threw the cookie away, hearing land with a solid thud against a rock, undamaged.

“What were you saying?” Amethyst drawled as I covered my mouth. I could already feel my healing powers numbing the pain, but the surprise lingered.

Mo rose and picked up the opened box. Examining one of the sides, her brows creased. “You know these are from, like, two years ago, right?”

“Two years? Amethyst, where did you get those?” I asked, still absently rubbing my jaw.

The purple Gem shrugged. “I hid them a while back and forgot about them. I figured, ‘why not?’ Isn’t that the thing? Food gets better with age?”

“That’s wine,” I corrected. My hand nudged the bag of CHAAAPS, peeking inside to see the dwindled contents. “These wouldn’t even last through one bowl of dip. What are we going to do now?” With nothing to eat, there was little else to do in a place like the Kindergarten. Snacking was more for the sake of just doing something than actually managing hunger.

“We could go buy more stuff,” Mo suggested, setting down the box of wizened cookies. “I know a place pretty close if we took that train that runs nearby.”

“We don’t have money,” I pointed out. I hadn’t brought any cash and I knew Amethyst didn’t carry any. One of us would have to warp back to the Temple and grab some, but neither of us had the energy to do that and possibly walk into more screaming.

“I have some.”

“You do?” Amethyst’s brow rose at Mo’s statement. “Why?”

“It’s always a good idea to have a little something on you,” Mo explained, pulling at her jacket to reach into a pocket that must have been hidden inside. After rummaging for a few seconds, she pulled out a money clip that was absolutely swallowed by a wad of cash!

“Where did you get that?” I exclaimed while Amethyst went “Oh, mama!” She took the lump of cash and weighed it in her hand, whistling as she did. “You could knock someone out with all this dough! Where’d you get this?”

“I invested.”

“In what?” I asked, still shellshocked by her causal flaunt.

“A bit of everything, I guess,” She took back her clip and tucked it away in her jacket. “I’ve been in and out of the market since before the federal bank was even founded. Not enough to get noticed, but I still have a good sum on my side.”

“So you just keep all that on you?” The only time I’d seen money like that was when my dad got that check from Marty. I know that was much, much more than what Mo showed us, but seeing physical cash felt much more impressive. “Wouldn’t a credit card be easier?”

“Credit cards are pure con and scum that I wouldn’t go near for all the money in the world!” Mo bristled, a plume of smoke rising from her hair. She caught herself, took a breath, and ran a hand through her hair until the smoke dissipated. “Sorry. I just hate those things.”

“I have a feeling you’d get along well with my friend Connie. She likes stuff like the economy.”

“I’d love to meet her. That is, some other time,” Mo’s mood was visibly slipping back down, but she sighed and shook her head. “Anyway, let’s get something to eat.”

We agreed and let her take the lead out of the Kindergarten. One step back over and I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the world. After spending so much time around the barren landscape, it was jarring to see a field of flowers with butterflies flapping from petal to petal. Amethyst paused beside me, drinking in the same view. Mo, though, was completely unfazed. She’d taken several steps before she realized we weren’t beside her. “Are you guys coming?’ Mo called to us as we were distracted. We quickly caught, the moment of mesmerized staring over.

We retraced familiar steps to the tracks that would carry the train we used to carry us from and to the Kindergarten. When the next one rumbled passed, the three of us hopped on and got comfortable in a car of haybales. For a couple of hours, we rode in either silence or with simple chitchat. It wasn’t much; mostly we talked about random stories or funny accidents, which we had enough of to spare. Eventually, Mo saw some sort of landmark and told us it was time to go. We jumped off and Mo set on walking, Amethyst and I right behind her. The area was rather flat, with a few hills changing up the landscape occasionally. After cresting the side of one of these hills, I looked down and saw a building. It was a giant, rectangular structure with a gigantic parking lot spread out in front. Several cars were already parked between yellow lines, and people walked to and from the building with carts or plastic bags.

“Here we are,” Mo chirp, a genuine smile curving her mouth. “Same as always.”

“Wait, is that a…” I squinted at a sign above the entrance of the building. Large purple letters with a navy outline stood out against the black backdrop of the parking lot. “PricePal!”

“A what now?” Amethyst asked.

“My dad told me about these! They’re like grocery stores, but a lot bigger! And they have clothes, and TVs, and a whole bunch of other stuff! The food is supposed to come in big bulks, too!” I know it’s just a store, but I’d never been inside a PricePal before. There weren’t any stores anywhere near Beach City, and the few times we had driven by we were usually too busy to stop. And besides, you need a… membership… “How are we going to get anything in there? We aren’t members?”

Mo stuck a hand in her jacket and pulled out a plastic card. The purple and navy logo of PricePal was on the front, along with the words ‘Membership Access’ printed along the bottom. “I’ve got that covered. Let’s go.” She began the trek down the hill. I shot a quick glance at Amethyst, who shrugged, and then we were following her.