# SU: Human Tutor #
It has been a few weeks since the Jasper incident. The gems have put away the majority of the remains of Peridot's ship in an undisclosed gem location, not all of it was though, but they decided to say it was destroyed in the atmosphere. Unbeknownst to them, they were all going to have someone unexpected enter their lives.
Steven was texting Connie about what he was doing at home, mainly just eating or re-reading the no home boys as he was still grounded from watching TV. He and Pearl were home alone as Garnet and Amethyst were looking for Peridot. Pearl was left with Steven in case anything bad happened to him, now that there was a loose homeworld gem on earth, none of the crystal gems were to be alone.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Pearl stood up and from the top half of the door saw a man in what resembled SWAT uniform, only it looked like it had more electronic devices built into it. On hos shoulders were two compartments that were short, but were as long as his shoulders. His torso piece held several belts holding knives, bandoliers with several ammo clips, a pad with several buttons on it, holsters, hand sized pockets, and a longsword on his back. Anything below his chest she couldn't see. He had long black hair similar to Steven's dad, a brown eyes, smooth tanned skin, but what struck out most was he had a black and blue eyepatch. Pearl decided not to open the door, as the man didn't exactly look like he was going to be to selling cookies. "Can I help you?" Pearl asked cautiously.
"I am here to see Steven Universe, is he home?" The man said, he sounded so convincing, not a single ounce of threat was in his voice. Pearl,was examining the man, he looked like he was in his mid twenties. This, however, didn't change Pearl's intuition of the situation.
"He's not home at the moment" Pearl lied, "and I don't think he should see you." She said with a tone that said she was standing her ground. "Now leave." She asserted. The man kept looking at Pearl.
"Well, I'm not leaving, I asked you for the truth and you lied." he said. "Look, I am here to do a job, it's in the best interest of Steven that I talk to him."
Steven was listening in on the situation a few feet away. The man saw him, Pearl noticed his pupils move and knew he saw Steven. She began to tense up and got in a defensive stance.
"And why would that be?" she asked, keeping to her position.
"I am here to be his human mentor, I was paid by someone in Beach City to be a human guardian for Steven and am here to do that. The person who hired me was worried that he might grow a biased opinion in favor of the gems. As you do Pearl." He said without moving an inch. This began to make Pearl a little nervous, first of all, this man is dressed like a killer and says he is going to teach Steven. Second, she didn't feel that this heavily armed man would teach anything to Steven. Third, he made a good point, Steven knew more about Gem culture than human culture. But what bothered her most was the biased comment and the fact that she knew his name.
"What are you talking about? I protect humans on a daily basis you-you-" she stuttered, so the man cut her off.
"Yes, you do, but what do you know about humans, your notions of humans are only based on cavemen who only had sticks, stones, and fire as technology." Pearl was shocked, he knew about her opinions of humans. "You think that all human beings are weak, and require your protection. But trust me, humans are very capable." He said, his tone only rising slightly.
"I-I" she stuttered again, Steven was now worried about what might happen, "It doesn't matter, as a Crystal Gem it is my duty to protect this planet from threats off world." She said. "And we are more than capable doing that and teaching Steven ourselves." She said with confidence. She lost that confidence when she saw the man smile.
"I don't doubt your skill, but I am saying that humans are not as weak as you make them out to be, how about a wager," this made Pearl draw her weapon. "if I can beat you in a fight, then you let me to talk to Steven. If you beat me, I'll never come back." This made Pearl more confident as she knew that her skills were far superior than whatever human skills existed. "So what do you say Pearl?" He smirked, as if already knowing her answer. Pearl spinned her spear and pointed it at him to show off her skill.
"Human male! I accept your challenge and assure you that I will be victorious." She said.
"Good." he said before pulling out a device with a button on it and pressing it. Pearl heard fast and loud beeping before the realization dawned on her.
"Steven, take cover!" yelled Pearl. Steven flinched at her yell.
"Huh?" he said. The man yelled at Steven.
"Do it!" So Steven, as fast as he could, took covered behind the kitchen counter, just then, the front door exploded. The man stepped back, but the impact pushed Pearl back and some splinters from the wood landed on her, she was still standing, however, and charged at the man with her spear forward, the man locked his elbows over the guard rail, pushed up and as Pearl approached, he kicked her on the chin. He kept going back was free falling to the ground, Pearl recovered and in anger and disbelief jumped at the man with the intention of stabbing him in a non vital, but painful area. The man, however, pulled a whip out from his hip, whipped it up, catching Pearl's leg. Pearl He gasped, then the man used both arms to fling the whip downward toward the ground, forcing Pearl to land harshly before him. As the man was still falling, he pulled the sword from his back with his right hamd and reached into a pocket and threw smoke pellets down at Pearl with his left. Pearl grunted as she forced herself up, as she got up she saw 3 black balls fall around her and went up in smoke on impact around her. However she saw the man coming down on her with his sword drawn. She held her spear out vertically and blocked his attack as he came down. His sword was double edged, with part of one side being serrated. Pearl did a split to lower herself and her opponent with the force of his attack, she spun her leg toward his and swiped him off his man, rolled back and as he stood up, Pearl ran at him put her spear on the ground, put her weight on it and pushed forward and kicked the man backward several feet onto one of the the support beams of the deck. She stopped for a moment to take a breath as the man was still standing, she charged her spear and sent a bolt of energy toward him, the looked down and saw Steven's skateboard, stepped on the edge of it and it jumped up just in time to take the bolt of Pearl's attack for him. The man threw a knife from one of his belts at Pearl, she blasted it with another bolt, the man soon started running at Pearl, his free hand pressed a combination of buttons on his chest. Suddenly, the compartments on his right shoulder opened to reveal 3 holes, all of which shot out small missiles at Pearl. The man kept running at the same speed as the missiles toward Pearl, whilst spinning his sword back and forth between his hands. Pearl knew she had to get rid of the missiles first, so she fired three consecutive bolts at each of the missiles, she was about to charge her spear for another blast, but the man was already in close quarters with his sword coming from the side, she blocked it and was about to counter with her own attack when she realized the man had a jambiya knife close to her throat. Pearl was clearly, surprised by this, and was visibly sweating. The man smirked at her.
"But how?" Pearl asked, obviously angry at the fact that she lost. "Gem fighting skills are supposed to be superior than human ones," she was visibly angry now. The man sighed, sheathed his sword and knife, and began walking toward the house. "Stop!" Pearl yelled as she made her spear disappear. "I still insist that you stay away from Steven." she demanded more than insisting.
"No. I beat you fair and square, now I will talk to Steven, as was our wager." He said with a tone that refused no for an answer. He then stopped and his eyebrow shot up as if he remembered something. "Silly me, I forgot my cluent wanted to give you something." From one of the compartments of his torso, he opened it and pulled out a pearly white rose and handed it to her. "My client insisted i give this to you specifically." Pearl was speechless, she looked at the rose, with confusion, and her cheeks blushed their sky blue color. "Well, now that that's done," he turned toward the house, "I will now speak to Steven." he began to walk, "you might wanna be there, it might interest you what i came here to tell him." he said, and with that, Pearl walked behind him toward the house.