Rule number one: I will use female pronouns to refer to the gems, as they are canonically referred to with female pronouns and it has never once even been implied in the show that they're genderless. Let's face it, the gems are female, they're only called genderless so certain things can get passed the censors. Rule number two: I'm going to seriously nerf both Jasper and Lapis for this, for obvious reason. I'll also be scaling up Peridot. Rule number three: Yes, things are going to be changed around here and there. Yes the three homeworld gems do have direct parallels to the three crystal gems, but if a story calls for it, I could have the character standing in for Amethyst take the place of the one standing in for Garnet, as a random example. With that cleared up, let the story begin proper.
Steven walked across to the street towards the beach. More specifically, he walked towards the trail leading to the giant statue carved into the cliff that overlooked the ocean. The statue was of a woman with eight arms stretching out away from her body, and two different faces, one looking out over the ocean, and one looking down over the entrance to the temple within.
It was within this temple that Steven lived, along with his family. At the moment, Steven was in a relatively bad mood, as his favorite snack food had been discontinued from the Big Donut, Steven's favorite place in Beach City to get a snack. He was hoping that his family could help cheer him up. Instead, when he opened the door, Steven was attacked by a giant bug.
Steven jumped in surprise, falling onto his back as the large, green, multi-legged monster crawled on top of him, its large jaws snapping at Steven and causing the green goo dripping from its fangs to splash across the floor, burning small holes wherever it landed.
Steven yelped in fear and tried to crawl back away from the gem monster, then sighed in relief when he saw two coils of water wrap around the bug monster and pull it off of him. "Sorry about that Steven," Lapis, a blue skinned, blue haired girl with a matching blue dress, said as the wings of water that sprouted from the tear drop gem on her back pulled the monster in and sent her flying against the room, "These Centipeetles got inside the house while we were out training."
"They were probably trying to get inside the Temple." Peridot, a tall, green-skinned woman with a large mess of yellow-green hair that formed a triangle, giving her the appearance of a oversized tortilla chip. She had a similar triangle shape on her forehead, though that was her gem, and her arms and legs were covered in green metal. Her fingers weren't even attached to her hand. The five light green cylinders that acted as Peridot's fingers usually hovered around her hands.
Now, though, one stood straight out, the other four tilting against it, a ball of energy forming around her hand and firing at the Centipeetle Lapis had thrown against the wall, causing it to vanish into thin air in a puff of green smoke.
"Um, guys, these things don't have any gems in them." Lapis pointed out, her wings lashing out to smack another Centipeetle out of the air before it could jump at Peridot, who had turned her hand cannon on another. Now that Steven looked around, he saw that there were quite a few of the gem monsters in his home, crawling and biting and spitting.
Among them was Jasper, the third of the gems. She was the tallest of all of them, standing at nearly seven feet tall with a heavily muscled, light orange body with long, white, semi-spiked hair flowing down from her head. In place of a nose, she had her own gem, and she wore her helmet, a large orange covering with a sledgehammer-like front for attacking.
All three of them were powerful, possibly the most powerful on the planet. Granted, aside from the mindless gem monsters, they were the only gems on the planet, but it still counted. Any one of them could defeat all the centipeetles in the house in one blow, Lapis with her control over all water, Peridot with her control over all metal, and Jasper with her pure strength. They only held back so they wouldn't damage the house.
"If they don't have gems, then they must not be the actual monster," Jasper said, picking one up and breaking it into two over her knee, causing it to poof as it separated into two, "These are just drones. The real gem monster must be somewhere outside the temple. We'll need to go find her after we finish off the drones."
"Can I help?" Steven asked excitedly as he watched Jasper slam her head down, the centipeetle it connected with poofing instantly. "It's probably best if you stay behind for now Steven," Lapis said, using her water wings to shield her body from the acid being spit at her as Peridot fired another blast, poofing the one spitting and two more with it.
"Lapis is right, you still don't have full control of your powers," Peridot said, "Or any control of any powers really." She said nonchalantly, not catching herself until she'd already said it and noticed Steven's face fall. "Steven, I only meant that-"
"You're powers will kick in sooner or later," Jasper said, "Just be patient, and wait here while we handle the missions for now. You'll be ready one day." Jasper, Peridot, and Lapis all went for the door to go searching for the real centipeetle.
Lapis, though, stopped for a moment at the door, "We'll help you with your powers later, right now, there's a surprise for you in the freezer." She said with a kind smile before leaving with the other two.
Steven smiled, glad he had the gems. Jasper didn't say much, but she almost always said the right thing when she did. Peridot said the wrong thing all the time, but she always meant well. At least, Steven thought she did. Lapis was definitely the easiest to get along with though.
Steven opened the freezer and looked inside, his eyes widening in surprise and excitement when he saw the frozen treats inside. Cookie Cats, his favorite snack. Steven wasn't sure how the gems had gotten so many, enough to almost entirely fill the freezer, but he wasn't about to question it when he could instead be eating.
He opened the snack and leaned back against the fridge as he started eating the cat shaped ice cream cookie. The snack helped Steven stop thinking about his lack of powers and ability to help his family fight the gem monsters, and he just relaxed as he continued to eat.
That is, he relaxed until he noticed the bright yellow light coming from underneath his shirt. Lifting it up in curiosity, Steven's eyes got even wider when he saw that his gem, a yellow citrine, had begun to light up the same way the other gem's did when they summoned their weapons.
"Oh man oh man oh man!" Steven said excitedly, practically jumping up and down in excitement as he watched the glow start to form something. Wanting the gems to see, he rushed outside after them, following the sounds of battle to the other side of the statue where he found the gems.
In front of them was another centipeetle, this one several times larger than any of the others, standing so tall that the three gems wouldn't match its height standing on top of each other. Lapis was holding it in place with a giant hand made out of water the was reaching out of the ocean, Peridot was charging up a powerful blast from her hand cannon, and Jasper was jumping up and headbutt the creature's head down so Peridot could finish it off.
Steven rushed forward, "Jasper, Lapis, Peridot, my gem is glowing!" He shouted excitedly. All three gems turned to look at Steven, seeing that his citrine gem had in fact lit up with yellow light. "Woah! Cool Steven!" Lapis said, the hand of water dropping as her focus dropped. The centipeetle hissed, spitting acid at Jasper. Peridot, panicking, fired her blast as Jasper so she wouldn't be in the way of the acid.
The centipeetle hissed loudly, crawling into the sand and tunnelling away before the gems could catch or follow it. Steven winced when he realized that he had just caused them to mess up the mission, and even worse, by the time they came over to him, his gem had stopped glowing.
"I-I'm sorry guys." Steven said, looking down as the gems approached. "Hey, it's okay Steven," Lapis said, "And besides, your gem was glowing! That's huge!" "As inconvenient as the timing was," Peridot said, "This is the first time your gem has ever reacted to anything. It was a logical choice to show us before it died back down."
Jasper nodded, "We'll get the centipeetle before it can cause too much damage. It wants in the temple, so it'll be back before it goes anywhere else. Peridot, any idea when she'll be back?"
Peridot held out her hand. Four of the fingers formed moved, forming the sides of a square and causing a sort of screen like a computer to form between them that she accessed with her one remaining finger. "According to her pattern, she won't be back until tomorrow. She's only attacked once per day since she appeared. We've got some time to prepare."
"And some time to help Steven with his gem." Lapis added, Steven smiling. Peridot grumbled slightly, but couldn't argue now that Steven was so excited, "Right, that to. Lapis, you talk to him first while I try to figure out where the centipeetle will attack from."
Lapis nodded, walking a little closer to the ocean to talk with Steven. "So, how did it feel when your gem started to glow? Like, what were you thinking about? Did you see anything forming?" Lapis asked.
"I was just eating a Cookie Cat and thinking about you guys." Steven said, not seeing how either of those could possibly trigger anything important like a gem weapon, "What's it like whenever you summon your weapon?"
"Well," Lapis said, her wings sprouting out from her gem, "It just sort of happens you know? I don't really think about it at all; it's like second nature. Same goes for controlling water. Nothing to it but to do it." She said, holding her hand out towards the water and causing a wave to hold perfectly still before jumping into the air and crashing down, splashing them both.
Steven laughed with Lapis as they began playing in the water, but he wasn't sure he quite understood what Lapis meant. How could do something without even thinking about it? It was so confusing, and only got more confusing when he talked to Peridot about it.
"My hand cannon isn't my gem weapon, just something I learned how to do," Peridot explained, "I don't really have a gem weapon. But I do have my metal powers, which have saved me numerous times in the field." She said.
"Cool, how does it work when you control metal and stuff?" Steven asked. "Well, it's a matter primarily of focus." Peridot said. "I focus on the metal I'm trying to control, on the enemy, on the other gems, on everything. I reached out with all of my senses and once and then," Peridot held her hand out and causing the fence that ran along the edge of the beach to curl up into a ball before straightening back out.
Steven understand what Peridot meant, but he wasn't sure he was even capable of focusing on one thing that closely, let alone everything. Not to mention that her and Peridot's advice seemed to contradict each other. More confused now than ever, he went to Jasper.
"How am I supposed to focus on everything and nothing at all at the same time?" Steven asked her. Jasper shrugged, "Maybe you shouldn't do either. Whenever I need to summon my weapon, I just think about what I need to do, why I'm doing it, and then," on cue, Jasper's orange helmet appeared.
"What it takes to summon a weapon or use powers can be different for every gem. I know you might be frustrated, but think of it this way: yesterday we didn't even know if you would ever have any powers. Now, we know you will. But you've gotta be strong and learn how to use them. Think you can do that?" Jasper questioned.
Steven nodded, "Yeah, I guess so. Thanks Jasper." Jasper nodded, "Let's head back to the house, it's starting to get dark out."
Steven and Jasper headed back for the house, only to hear a familiar high pitched hissing as they did. Looking up, they gasped when they saw that the centipeetle was back early, and was currently wrapped around that temple's statue, hissing down at them challengingly.
"Steven, go get Lapis and Peridot, hurry!" Jasper said, picking up Steven and chucking him back over the fence as she jumped at the centipeetle, her body forming a ball and spin dashing at the monster. Steven knew Jasper was strong, but there was no way she could handle a monster that size all on her own, not while she was right next to temple and wouldn't want to damage it.
He ran down towards the water where he knew Lapis would be, but stopped when he heard Jasper grunt in pain. The centipeetle had basically just knocked Jasper out of the air, causing her to crash down into the sand. The giant bug monster had hurled a rock down at her, trapping the large orange gem in place as she opened her large jaws, about to spray acid.
Now, Jasper might have been able to get up and avoid the massive wave of acid that was about to rain down on her long enough for Steven to go get Lapis and Peridot, but he was absolutely not about to risk it. Not with even a single member of his family in danger.
His gem began to glow again, though this time, he didn't even notice it as he ran back towards Jasper. "Steven, run!" She shouted as she tried to lift the boulder off of her. The rock was moving sure, Jasper was insanely strong, but it wouldn't be off of her in time to avoid the acid.
Steven kept running towards her, jumping in front of her as the acid came pouring down. He'd closed his eyes, not sure what he had been expecting to happen. But, to his surprise, he didn't die violently by acid melting.
"Steven...your weapon.." He heard Jasper say. Opening his eyes, Steven was shocked to see that he had blocked the acid, all of it, from touching himself or Jasper. In front of him was a large, round shield with a yellow citrine symbol in the center.
The centipeetle hissed in anger, but before it could attack again, a hand of water grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground where a fully charged blast from Peridot hit her. Jasper moved fast, jumping up and leaping off of Steven's shield for extra momentum before bringing her helmet down hard on the monster, causing it to poof in a cloud of green smoke.
A green orb-like gem fell to the ground. Jasper picked it up, a yellow bubble forming around it before Jasper tapped the top, causing it to vanish. "You did it!" Steven said excitedly, the shield vanishing. "We did it?" Lapis questioned, "Steven, what about you with that shield!"
Steven blinked, suddenly realizing that he'd actually done it, he'd summoned his shield. He held out his hand, trying to summon it again, but nothing, not even a glow. "It's okay Steven, you did incredible." Peridot said, "You saved me." Jasper said with a proud smile, "we just took care of the easy stuff."
Steven smiled, "I've got a shield.." He said to himself. It wasn't the weapon he had been expecting, but he couldn't imagine anything being a better weapon now. He wasn't sure why the three gems, especially Peridot, seemed so star eyed about it, but he figured they must just be really, really proud of his weapon.