"You two enjoy your day, we'll be back by tomorrow morning." Pearl said to Steven and Connie as the three gem warriors stepped onto the platform in the middle of their home.
"But we want to go with you guys!" shouted the young man while Connie nodded her head by his side "I can bubble and use my shield! Connie's really good with a sword now! We can handle ourselves!"
"Steven…" Garnet began, pausing for a moment to look down at the boy with the puppy-dog eyes "…no." she finished, along with an immediate activation of the warp pad.
The young boy simply stood there with his mouth agape, staring at the light fading. His face slowly began to form into a defeated look of disappointment as he looked back to Connie who instead simply shrugged and smiled. Connie had told him that she wanted to share in the experience of going on a mission with the Gems and in his naivety he actually thought that Garnet, Amethyst and Perl would allow for the tag along. They said nothing when his dad and Connie joined them in dealing with the whole "missing oceans" mess but it seemed like he had hoped for too much. The worst part was the feeling of having disappointed Connie.
"It's OK Steven. We can do lots of other fun things." Connie spoke softly with a genuine smile on her lips "I brought a book about gems, wanna read it?" she asked while shuffling inside her backpack and taking out a thick book with several gems on the cover.
For a moment, Steven simply stared at the cover of the book, but then something seemed to click inside his mind "That's it! I know what we can do." he shouted, grabbing Connie's hand and pulling her toward the door to the temple.
"Steven! Wait! Where are we going!? Your mom's room again?" the girl asked confused.
"Yes! No! I mean…I want to show you something, but we need to go through the room first!" the boy said filled with glee as the pink gem on the door began to glow and the entrance revealed itself to them.
The two kids ran aimlessly around the pink cloud filled room. From Steven's description to her, the two had to look for a crystalline pipe that went into the lower levels. After a while of searching, it was Connie who had the idea of Steven actually asking the room to reveal the pipe to them. With a smack to his own forehead, Steven asked for it and immediately the clouds began to shift, parting and revealing the pipe coming down from the sky and into a hole. Without skipping a beat, the young man jumped on the pipe and began sliding down, calling out to Connie to do the same as his voice began to fade. With a nod, the girl closed her eyes and grabbed a hold of the pipe, following her friend.
Connie had felt herself stop eventually, but kept holding on to the pipe, not wanting to risk letting go and falling to her death on what she knew only as a bottomless pit. It was only when Steven called out to her that she finally gained the courage to open her eyes and look around. The two of them were in a hot room with a red hue all around them. At the center of the room was what seemed like a pit of burning coals, which provided the light but most striking were the things that floated above her head. Remaining there in air were several pink bubbles with gems inside.
"This place is amazing…" Connie said, her eyes sparkling as she looked over every gem "Look! There's the gem from that worm thing!" her finger rose toward one of the bubbles closer to the ground which contained the red and white gem of the worm monster they fought when they first became friends.
"No!" Steven suddenly shouted, stopping Connie from touching the bubble "Don't touch the bubbles! If they break then the gems might regenerate and you never know what might come out."
"You told me they are gems too right? Like the Crystal gems? So why are they monsters?" Connie asked, her hand already flipping through her book on gems.
"They told me these gems are corrupted." Steven answered "Once a gem becomes corrupted, they turn into a monster. We're looking for a way to get them back to normal."
"Can't you heal them with your spit or your mother's fountain?"
"Nah, doesn't seem to work like that." he answered, with a disappointed look on his face.
"Is that a bag of chaps?" Connie suddenly pointed out, a finger aimed toward the bubble with a bag of chaps inside, right next to another bubble with a green orb.
"Yea! That's Centipeetle's!" he shouted excitedly while running toward bubbles and gently cupping his hands under the one with the green gem.
"Come again?" she asked, confused.
"She's my monster buddy. I tried to tame her a while back but it didn't work out that well." he paused for a moment, bringing down the bubble and staring at it with a smile and stars in his eyes "But she saved my life, so I think I finally go through to her." his eyes moved up and suddenly widened when they see Connie trip as she walked toward him.
The young girl's shoe was caught on a tile and stumbled forward. Steven quickly rushed forward, lifting the bubble with the green gem with one hand while grabbing Connie with the other. The pink bubble pressed again another above their heads as Steven focused on keeping Connie from landing on her face. Using Steven as her support, she managed to avoid falling to the ground but both of them immediately look up when they hear a popping sound.
A green sphere fell next to them while Steven's eye briefly caught something black drop right between him and Connie, however only the sound of the green gem hitting the floor could be heard. When Steven looked down, the only things his eyes could catch were their feet and shadows. Immediately he looked back toward the green orb. Nothing happened.
"Huh…probably still regenerating." Steven said with a frown as he picked the darkened gem up in his hands "Shame, I wanted her to meet my first friend." his head turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Connie smiling, he smiled back and rebubbled the green gem "I'll see you later." and with a whisper he pushed the bubbled back next to the bag of chaps.
The rest of the day was spent cataloging the different gems with the help of Connie's book. The two kids walked around the room, pointing out the large variety of gems they could find and writing it all down on a list. Unfortunately their fun was cut short when the Crystal Gems arrived earlier than anticipated. Connie was sent home soon after while Steven spent a few hours listening to Pearl ramble on about how dangerous it was to take Connie there and how they could have freed a dangerous gem monster.