It was just another average Saturday morning in Beach City, Delmarva. The sun was shining, the birds were shining, the restaurants on the boardwalk were getting ready for any lunch-time customers, and there was a battle with a giant monster raging on the beach.

All told, a fairly average day.

The monster was bounding up the beach that ran along that massive ridge with the giant statue, kicking up sand as it stomped the ground repeatedly. It was a bit bigger than average for these kinds of monsters, about the size of a large truck and colored an off-green and starchy white. It charged along the beach on six legs, headed for the end of the peninsula.

At least it was until a pair of rocket-powered fists smashed into its face.

Recalling her weapons, Garnet leapt at the gem monster, taking advantage of its dazed state to grip the two large tusks growing out of the monster's face. Gritting her teeth slightly, the Crystal Gem gave a massive heave. The monster was just a bit too heavy for her to throw, but Garnet was able to flip the monster onto its side.

"Pearl! Amethyst!" Garnet called out.

In response, two figures leapt high into the air, descending on the monster.

Pearl had her spear fully extended, angled downward to hit her target with maximum force. Amethyst had shifted into her Purple Puma form, falling with her knees tucked in. Both Gems impacted with enough force to crater bedrock. However, the Gem monster was merely put in a large amount of pain.

A short distance away from the ongoing battle was a large rock jutting out from the sand. Crouched behind those rocks were two boys whose hair bore an uncanny resemblance to the French fries their family prided themselves on.

"Come on, Ron. Let's go already. We have to get back to the shop." Peedee Fryman groaned in annoyance to his older brother, who was currently almost halfway over the rock in an attempt to get a better view with his camera.

"Silence little brother! Do you even have an inkling of how often an opportunity likes this comes aroun-GAH!" Renaldo Fryman made a fairly sad attempt to sound dramatic before he pulled his body passed half-way over the rock, at which point gravity took over and sent him down the front of the rock to faceplant into the sand.

"Yeah. I'd say about once a week." Peedee drawled as he walked around the rock, looking quite annoyed as he took in his brother getting up on his hands and knees to continue filming. "Now come on. Dad needs the fry oil we left at the Big Donut." Though even as he groaned at his brother's antics, Peedee made sure to cast a glance towards the ongoing battle.

He might be annoyed at his brother electing to drop everything and charge off to document this fight as soon as he heard it start five minutes ago, but Peedee was also quite wary of the situation. Sure, weird stuff like this happened with such frequency that the people of Beach City barely raised an eyebrow at it, but Peedee was under no illusions that this meant stuff like this was nothing to worry about. Unlike his brother, who seemed to possess the survival instincts of a lemming, Peedee knew full well that these monsters were dangerous with a capital D, and the best thing to do was simply stay back as far as you could and let the Gems handle it.

"But I must document as much as possible! Who knows what could become relev-Hey give that back!" Renaldo went from 'dramatic' to 'pouty' in one second flat as Peedee yanked the camera away from him.

"I kinda doubt you're missing much, considering the fight's over." Peedee gestured over to the monster, which was now on its side, its legs trussed up in Amethyst's whip. The purple Gem was gingerly poking the monster's underbelly while Pearl stood on top of the monster, poking it's scaly hide with her spear. Garnet stood nearby with her arms crossed, kinda like she was waiting for something now that Peedee thought about it.

Then the monster roared. Roared like no creature Peedee had ever heard before. It sounded like the roar of a hurricane. And just like a mass of hundred mile-per-hour winds, the monster sent the three Gems flying.

Renaldo gave a loud whoop of excitement, which Peedee thought sounded more like a dying, beached whale than anything else. "Ohmygosh! I've never seen a move like that before! Peedee, gimme' the camera! Peedee?" Peedee wasn't answering, instead staring at the monster. Renaldo turned back to look at the monster.

The monster that was currently looking directly at the two fry boys. The monster that was looking none too happy.

The small part of Peedee's mind that was not paralyzed with fear came to the conclusion that the monster really didn't like the sound of a dying, beached whale.

The monster snorted. Then it charged.

The brothers started screaming.

As futile an attempt as it might be, Peedee thought he'd have at least tried to run. But somehow, his feet were rooted in the sand. That, and his brother was clinging to him, screaming/sobbing.

'This is it. I'm going to die.' Peedee thought as his eyes scrunched shut. 'I'm going to get ripped apart by a giant monster because my idiot brother couldn't stop stalking the weird alien ladies.'

Somehow, he always knew that was how it was going to end.

The gem monster charged the two fry boys at full speed… and ran headlong into a translucent pink wall.

Peedee, realizing that he and his brother were in fact not being gored by a horrible monster, stopped screaming and opened his eyes to see their rescuer.

A massive pink shield held on their left arm, an equally massive and equally pink sword held in their right hand, standing almost a full head taller than his older brother, long, dark and poofy hair that waved about in the ocean breeze, wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a red, yellow-star-marked T-shirt that seemed just a bit too small for them.

Stevonnie let loose a battle cry as they gave a mighty shove with their shield, sending the monster flying.

"You two okay?" Given a momentary reprieve, they turned to check on their two friends.

"Yeah. We're o…" Peedee trailed off as he noticed his older brother didn't seem to realize that they had been rescued and was still screaming/crying/whimpering.

"Uh, we're going to be okay."

Stevonnie gave a small smile before turning to see the monster getting back to her feet where it landed some distance away. Right, Serious Time.

"Get out of here. I got this."

"Right." Peedee got up and with strength that belied his small frame, pulled his older brother to his feet and began leading him away.

Knowing that there were no longer any distractions, Stevonnie could focus fully on the monster. They'd actually been observing the fight so far. Stevonnie was still pretty new at this and they wanted to get a good analysis on what they were facing.

Highly aggressive. Prefers using claws for close-range swipe attacks and using horns for charges. Has a tendency to use a leaping attack mid-charge when angered.

Heavily armored on the back, face and along the tail. Might be too thick for the sword, considering Garnet and Pearl weren't able to punch through it. The belly however…

Stevonnie's lips curled into a smirk. They had a plan.

Dismissing the shield, they held their left hand up as the monster face towards them.

"Heeerree Kitty Kitty Kitty…" Stevonnie made a 'come at me' gesture with their hand along with a fair approximation of Amethyst's most annoying taunt voice.

The monster growled, then snorted as she padded her front feet on the sand.

And that means she's angry. Perfect.

With that thought, Stevonnie gripped their sword with both hands.

The monster charged, and Stevonnie charged right back at her.

In what seemed like just a moment after she started running, the monster suddenly leapt into the air. Claws outstretched and horns pointed downwards, she was poised to land directly on top of the strange gem.

Or at least she would have if Stevonnie continued forward at their current velocity.

Gotcha!

And with their next step, Stevonnie shot forward in a blur, easily five times faster than they had been running, with their sword held high.

Passing directly underneath the monster, the sword cut a line perfectly down the middle of her unprotected belly.

The monster exploded into a cloud of smoke, with nothing more than a gemstone dropping onto the sand.

With a flick of their wrist and arm, Stevonnie returned the sword to its scabbard on their back. Turning around, they knelt down, reaching for the green gemstone on the sand, a translucent pink bubble appearing around it as their hand approached.

Stevonnie brought the bubbled gem up to look at it for a moment before it vanished, sent off to the Temple for safe-keeping.

They let out a long breath as they stood back up.

Stevonnie proceeded to squee and do a little dance.

"Oh man, that was so COOL!"

A purple blur smacked into them.

"You're dang right that was cool!" Amethyst grinned as she hung off of Stevonnie's shoulders. "Actually, no. That wasn't cool. That was AWESOME!" Her grin only widened.

Stevonnie grinned back as they continued their little dance, Amethyst bouncing around in tune on their back. Stevonnie remembered how Amethyst would celebrate with Steven after a successful fight, sometimes dancing around or Amethyst tossing Steven up into the air. Since Stevonnie was about twice Amethyst's size, the purple Gem changed up that routine. Now Amethyst tended to glomp Stevonnie and hang off of them like an excitable spider-monkey while Stevonnie would do a little victory dance.

"Yes, that was very impressive. Nicely done Stevonnie." Pearl said as she and Garnet walked up. The pale Gem started to move her hand up towards Stevonnie's head, before correcting herself and giving them a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Pearl's so used to giving both Steven and Connie affectionate pats on the head, she occasionally forgot that Stevonnie is taller than her.

"We knew you could do it." Garnet on the other hand remained the tallest member of the team, so she could still give Stevonnie a congratulatory ruffling of the hair.

"Thanks guys." Stevonnie grinned back, basking in the thrill of a victory and the appreciation of their friends. They'd developed a real appreciation for these emotional highs. They needed all they could get these days…

"Well then!" Pearl clapped her hands together, "Now that we got this little errand taken care of, we should probably be heading back to the barn. That drill's not going to finish itself."

"Yeah," Stevonnie replied, remembering the bigger job they were part of, "wonder if Peridot's gotten lonely without us."

"HA! No way!" Amethyst spoke up from Stevonnie's back, "I found another season of that Camp show in my pile yesterday. Gave it to Peri last night. She probably hasn't even noticed we're gone!"

"Heh. I wonder if she's working on another flow chart on how 'compatible' Percy and Pierre are." Stevonnie chuckled.

"Knowing her, she probably has an entire presentation ready for us at this point." Pearl sounded simultaneously annoyed and amused at the ex-Homeworld Gem's newfound obsession with a Canadian Soap Opera.

"Stevonnie," Garnet said as the group turned to head up the beach, "did you get everything you wanted?" the taller fusion asked the shorter fusion with a 'I know you forgot something, but I'm phrasing this reminder as a question so you don't feel bad' look.

"Gah!" Stevonnie snapped their fingers in realization, "I forgot the doughnuts! Be right back!" They charged off down the beach to where they dropped their backpack full of doughnuts, pastries and a couple other foods they'd gotten during this little errand. They slowed as their realized something else.

"Uh, Amethyst," Stevonnie glanced over their shoulder, "I'm going to need my back er… back."

"Hey man, don't sweat it," Amethyst replied, "I got this." Stevonnie noticed that at some point, the two purple arms gripping their shoulders had become two purple straps. Craning their neck further, Stevonnie could see that Amethyst had shapeshifted herself in a fairly good imitation of their beloved Cheeseburger Backpack.

"See? Don't worry about it! Just dump all that food in here and I'll keep it nice and safe." The Amethyst-pack opened the 'zipper' part of herself. A part that was pretty obviously also her mouth.

Stevonnie said nothing and just raised an eyebrow.

"Ehhh?" Amethyst tried very hard to speak without moving her mouth too much.

Stevonnie looked back.

"Ehhh?" Amethyst tried again.

Stevonnie just looked back, making it clear they weren't buying it.

"Eh. Guess it was worth a shot." Amethyst grumbled as she reverted back to normal, dropping to the ground.

Stevonnie couldn't hold back the chuckles anymore.

"Hey, if it's any consolation, I think Steven might have fallen for that one." They gave Amethyst an apologetic pat on the head.

"Well I guess I'll have to remember to try it on him when he gets back."

But as Amethyst spoke, she sent Stevonnie a look. A questioning look. Not an accusatory look or a judgmental look. Just a look that conveyed a simple, unspoken question.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll fall for it." Stevonnie replied, giving Amethyst a look they hoped answered that question.

That yes, Amethyst would be able to try that prank on Steven.

He just needed some more time.


AN:

What? Were you expecting answer up front? Now where's the fun in that? :D

For a while now, I've been very intrigued by the idea of Perma-fused Stevonnie. We hardly ever see them as their own character, rather than just as extension of Steven and Connie, so I'm excited to explore just what kind of distinct personality Stevonnie could have, and what effect their presence could have on events going forward.

The other big idea driving this story is the concept of two characters staying fused because they NEED to for some reason. As you can probably guess, the situation is quite a bit more complicated than just Steven and Connie deciding they really like being fused and wanting to stay that way.

And yes, this story is starting sometime between 'Log Date 7 15 2' and 'Super Watermelon Island'.