Steven was on his way home, looking down in disappointment. After learning that his favorite snack, an ice cream treat called Lion Lickers, had been discontinued, he just wanted to go home and talk to the gems about it. He crossed the street and walked passed the long torn down fense onto the beach, and made his way to the giant, eight armed, two faced statue of a woman that was carved into the cliff overlooking the ocean.
Said statue also had the entrance to the temple, and by proxy, Steven's room, right beneath it, one of the two faces of the statue always looking down at the entrance as though watching over it. Steven walked up the steps to the temple and walked inside. The moment he did so, he was tackled to the ground.
Steven yelped in surprise and fear as the strange monster wrapped around him, four tendrils squeezing his arms and legs as a large fanged mouth snapped at his face. The creature looked like some kind of plant, and Steven squirmed to get away from the bizarre gem monster.
Thankfully, before the creature could bite Steven's head off or strangle him with its tendrils, it was grabbed around the middle by an armored hand and pried off of him. "Sorry Steven," Ruby, one of the three gems who lived with Steven, said as she threw the creature across the room, throwing a fireball at it from her gauntlet. She was short, less than an inch taller than Steven, with red skin, a simple red t-shirt and shorts, and a red bandanna tied around her almost square looking hair.
"These Slinkers got inside your room while we were out training." Ruby said, her gauntlet heating up as fire surrounded her fist. She punched another of the Slinkers, causing it to poof into a cloud of mist, though confusingly no gemstone came out of it.
As Ruby noticed this, looking down at where the gemstone should have landed, she didn't notice the Slinker about to drop down onto her from above. Fortunately, before it could grab her, it was frozen by a blast of icy air from Sapphire.
The blue haired, blue skinned gem wore a matched blue dress and white gloves, so only her face was usually visible, and right now even it wasn't as she had her shades over her eyes. She stood at about the same height as Ruby. She used the shades to focus her future sight power and target Slinkers before they even knew where they were going to attack. When she was locked on, she held out her hand and fired another jet, freezing two more Slinkers in their tracks. "They were probably trying to get into the temple through here." Sapphire said.
"Uh, guys," Ruby said as she poofed two of the frozen Slinkers, "These things don't have any gems in them. What's it mean Opal?" She asked, turning to the last of the three gems.
Opal stood at nearly seven feet tall, and light bluish/purplish skin and her long platinum hair in a ponytail. She wore long purple pants, with a light blue top that seemed to end in something like a dress below her waist. Her arms looked quite large, which was attributed to their ability to split from two arms into four whenever Opal needed them to. She held a bow and arrow, firing arrows of light at the many Slinkers infesting the room.
Most noticeably, she had two gems on her body, one on her forehead and one in the center of her chest. Ruby and Sapphire both had gems, in their right and left palms respectively, but Opal was the only gem Steven had ever seen with two gems, which he figured was just because she was the strongest. Then again, these three were the only gems he had actually seen.
"These are just the drones," Opal said, "The Slinker mother must be somewhere else. These are a distraction." Opal fired an arrow that didn't even seem to hit anything, just burst into rays of light that spread out everywhere, poofing the remaining Slinker drones into many clouds of dark blue mist.
"That was awesome!" Steven said with an excited smile, "Why don't you guys ever let me help you out with gem stuff? I'm a gem to right?" He questioned, lifting his shirt to show the pink quartz gem in the center of his stomach.
"Of course you're a gem Steven, but you still aren't ready Steven," Sapphire said calmly, "You haven't even been able to tap into your powers yet, let alone summon a weapon. Until you can defend yourself, it wouldn't be a good idea for you to try fighting monsters with us."
Ruby's gauntlet vanished off of her hand, and Opal's bow disappeared as well, but Sapphire always left her shades out, as she didn't like not having her future vision focused at all times.
Steven sighed, leaning back against the wall, "I guess you're right." He said in disappointment. Ruby smiled, "But we've still got a consolation prize for you!" She said excitedly. "Look in the freezer." Opal said with a matching smile.
Steven, confused and curious, went over to the fridge and opened the freezer door, his eyes widening in surprise and excitement when he saw that inside were dozens of his supposedly discontinued Lion Lickers. "Wha!? I thought these were discontinued!" Steven said.
"We heard that to," Opal said, "So we went out and stone a bunch for you!" Ruby said. "Correction, you went out and stole a bunch, me and Opal paid for them." Sapphire said, crossing her arms. "Yeah, with money we stole." Ruby said. "We didn't steal it, we won it fair and square." Sapphire said, getting annoyed. "Right, fair and square. Using our gem powers in a contest against normal humans. Totally not theft." Ruby said, making her point.
Sapphire took a deep breath to calm herself, not wanting to get into another argument with Ruby right now. Ruby just chuckled at her victory as Steven opened the Lion Licker and started to eat the ice cream bar, leaning against the fridge as the familiar taste relaxed him. The sounds of Ruby and Sapphire's bickering as Opal just enjoyed the show faded away, the Lion Licker theme from the commercials playing in his head.
It wasn't until the gems all went silent that Steven became aware of them again. They were all staring at him, and he wasn't quite sure why, until he realized that his gemstone was glowing. His gem was trying to summon a weapon, the blade of a sword started to form, but it faded before it could form and the pink glow from his gem died back down.
"W-what? No, no! Come back!" Steven pleaded desperately, shaking his stomach in an effort to make his gem start to glow again. Alas, no glowing returned. "Nooo! I finally got it working! You all saw it right?" Steven questioned, hoping they all knew he wasn't making it up.
"We saw it," Ruby confirmed, "You were about to summon a sword." "He's got the sword.." Sapphire repeated, though she seemed almost to be speaking to herself. Steven wasn't quite sure what Sapphire meant by 'the' sword, but he was excited to have seen what his weapon would be. "It looks like you won't have too much longer before your powers really do start to manifest." Opal said with a smile.
"But I don't want to wait, I want to help you guys fight and stuff!" Steven said. "We understand Steven, but you've got to be patient," Sapphire said, "You'll be able to summon your weapon and access all kinds of powers eventually, and until then, we can help you learn to control them."
"Really?" Steven asked excitedly. The gems had never actually offered to help him learn this stuff, because until now, they weren't sure he would ever need to. This was the first time Steven's gem had ever shown any kind of activity, and now that it had, they all saw the potential of a strong gem fighter in him.
"So, what's it like for you to summon your weapon?" Steven asked Sapphire. They were out on the cliff above the temple statue, looking over the ocean, the place where Sapphire always came when she wanted to meditate or try and see further into the future. The gems had decided to take turns talking with Steven, as all three of them trying to tell him how gem powers work would be a problematic situation at best.
For the exercise, Sapphire had removed her shades, showing Steven her one, singular blue right right above her nose. Steven didn't see it often, so he still found it kinda hard not to stare at it whenever it was out.
"It's all about focusing Steven," Sapphire said, "Listen to the wind around you, be aware of the track of fate, how it can be altered ever so slightly by one's actions, be prepared to accept all consequences for every action you make. If you're focused and in balance with the world around you," Sapphire's left hand passed over her face, her shades appearing and covering her eye, "Then summoning your weapon is a simple matter. The same principle can be applied to the use of your gem powers. They're different for every gem, unique and in need of inner focus for the gem using them."
Sapphire held her hand up in the air. Steven felt the sunny day become cold around him, several ice crystals appearing as the water within the air froze to form them. All fell to the ground, forming a perfect circle around Steven.
"It's all about keeping balance with yourself and everything in the world around you." Sapphire said with a smile.
"Did she do the ice crystal thing?" Ruby asked Steven. They were inside the temple, as Ruby liked it better than being outside. For someone who lived right outside the beach, she seemed to hate the beach a lot, particularly the water.
"Uh..yeah." Steven said. Ruby just shook her head, "For someone who can see the future, she sure repeats herself a lot. Look, all that 'focus and be balanced' stuff is nonsense. Take me for example. I don't need to focus in all things around me to summon my weapon or my powers. I just do it."
To prove her point, Ruby held out her hand, her gauntlet summoning instantly around her hand, and catching fire just as quickly. She threw the fireball up into their air, catching it with her other hand. "See? Nothing to it at all, it's just about doing it without thinking." Ruby said, squeezing her hand around the fireball to make it disappear.
"How am I supposed to focus on everything, and just do it without thinking at the same time?" Steven questioned Opal. They were outside on the beach, next to the temple and in front of the water, where Opal went for target practice.
"You probably can't," Opal said, "Every gem is different remember? For example, I don't 'become aware of everything' or 'just stop thinking about it altogether'. For me, it's an in the moment thing. I just think about what I need to do, what my goal is, and," Opal's bow appeared in her hands, "Simple as that for me, but that's just me. It could be completely different for you. Same thing goes for powers. Just because it worked for one gem doesn't mean it'll work for everyone. You need to find what works for you."
Steven nodded his understanding. It was still a little unsure about the whole thing, but it was more than he had understood up to that point. As he went back to the temple, Opal continuing her target practice, he thought about what might work for him. This thought process led him to think about what he had been doing when his gem first started glowing.
Realizing that it had first happened when he had been eating a Lion Licker, he quickly rushed inside the house to get another, certain that it would help him summon his weapon. He went quickly to the kitchen and grabbed a Lion Licker from the freezer, pulling the wrapper off and beginning to eat it frantically.
It tasted delicious, but his gem didn't start glowing again. He sighed in disappointment. "Oh come on, why isn't this working?" He questioned himself. He didn't have any answers for it though, and just lowered into a sitting positioned on the floor.
He looked up at the painted picture that had been hanging above of the doorway as long as Steven could remember the house itself being there, a portrait of his mother, Rose Quartz. Steven still didn't fully understand why his mother wasn't around, just what the gems had his dad had told him, about how she had needed to give up her physical form in order for Steven to be born with her gem.
Steven wondered if he would ever be able to make the gems feel like Rose had done the right right thing in giving up her gem for Steven. His depressing train of thought was interrupted however, when he heard the sounds of a struggle coming from outside.
Steven quickly rushed outside to see what the problem was, and gasped when he saw it: the Slinker, the real Slinker. It was much, much bigger than any of its drones had been, and its plant root-like tendrils had already ensnared Ruby and Sapphire, both of whom were trying their best to escape, but not having much luck. Only Opal wasn't get caught, gracefully avoiding the Slinker's tendrils and snapping jaw as she summoned her bow and started firing.
None of her arrows seemed to do much damage though, and Opal and Steven both quickly realized that she would need to get a shot into the creature's mouth to poof it, which wasn't going to happen while it was focused on Opal.
Steven didn't hesitate to do what he did next. He ran forward, jumping over the side of the stairs and crashing into the Slinker. The Slinker hissed in anger, all her focus now on him. Steven only realized that his brilliant plan may have been a bit flawed when he was entirely ensnared by the creature's tendrils and being lowered into its mouth.
Before it could snap him up though, Ruby and Sapphire, who had been freed when all the Slinker's attention turned to Steven, jumped into action. Ruby threw a fireball at the Slinker's tendrils, making it drop Steven. She jumped up, catching and throwing him out of the Slinker's mouth as she summoned her gauntlet to hold the Slinker's mouth open. Sapphire sent a blast of cold at the Slinker, freezing it in place as Opal charged up an arrow. When the Slinker was frozen with her mouth open, Ruby jumped out of the way, letting Opal get a direct shot inside.
The Slinker poofed in a cloud of purple smoke, a smooth, blue gem falling to the ground near where Steven had landed. He picked it up as the others rushed to him. "Steven that was awesome!" Ruby said, punching him in the arm affectionately, though with her hand still hot from throwing a ball of fire, it hurt a bit more than she probably meant it to.
"Steven, that was insanely reckless, do you know how many chances there were for that to go wrong!?" Sapphire questioned, though before she could actually start listing off all the possible alternate futures where Steven's plan went horribly wrong, Opal reminded her that they were living in the one where it hadn't. "Steven just completed the mission for us." Opal said warmly.
On some level, Steven understood that Opal would have probably found a way to save the day without him, but for the moment, he just relished the fact that he had been able to help the gems, even without being able to summon his weapon.
For obvious reasons, I won't be doing a Switchverse version of every single episode of Steven Universe, just episodes where I think a switch would be interesting; like any and every episode featuring fusions for example.