Gaming Brawl

What a very long day it has been. From fighting a giant lobster near the Crystal Sharp Island's beach towards one of the members being tangled to nearly suffocating from the slimy tail of an eel. Next, the team couldn't even find the gem they were looking for until one of them got knocked out cold with the gemstone hitting them on the head as it was stuck on the wall of the mountain on the island. The day had been very catastrophic and challenging.

"Finally. Home!" Steven shouted as he stepped off the portal and raced to his bed. "Home sweet home!"

The two conscious older gems gave a sigh of relief as they followed Steven's path with unconscious Amethyst laying on Garnet's back as she held onto her dangling arms. Garnet shook her head with a slight grin. "Indeed. Home."

Garnet walked towards the couch that laid beneath Steven's room and gently placed Amethyst on the cushion. The purple gem's eyes were closed and her lips were sealed, but her chest slowly raised up and down. Her gem would glow lightly in small phases as it did it's best with helping recover Amethyst.

"I don't understand her. She should have regenerated into her gem and take her time with recovering herself, but she's so stubborn. All she wants to do is prove how strong and durable she is. Typical." Pearl rolled her eyes as she rubbed her shoulder's bones and her neck. She was the one who almost got suffocated from the tail of the eel. The gem would shake and her skin was bluer as she was still in a bit of shock, but she continued walking with shaky legs.

"Well I think it's cool. She's trying to be strong like Garnet!" Steven happily exclaimed even with his aching back laying on his stiff bed.

Pearl shook her head and took a seat next to Amethyst's body. She looked down to her body and rolled her eyes then slowly rested her head back. Garnet was next to sit in between the two gems. She cracked her neck and legs then rested one of her arms behind Pearl's back. They were all quiet; no words were distributed amongst themselves. Steven looked up to the wooden ceiling of his home and deeply sighed, thinking of what to do. Judging from the sun setting on the horizon, they were sure it was six in the afternoon. Stars started to shine in the orange and light purple sky. Nothing could really be done at the time. He thought deeply and his mind wandered from place to place. Should he go to the Big Donut and mess with Lars and Sadie? Hang out with either one of his friends, Connie, Peedee, or Onion? Or yet, visit his father at the car wash and have a water fight? His father...

"Guys! I remember what my dad bought me yesterday!"

Pearl and Garnet looked up to Steven then towards each other, wondering what his father got him. The young boy quickly got up, despite his pain, and rushed towards his television. Sitting on top of it was a big square shiny box with Japanese written on it; it was a new gaming console. Steven couldn't read what was written on his console, but he smiled cheerfully and took the controller into his hands. Quickly, he pressed the button on his new game and turned the television on which painted the dark room with it's bright light.

"Hey guys. Want to play with me?" Steven asked as he looked down to the gems. His eyes shined and he pouted his lips, pleading the two to join him. That week he barely spent any time with the gems as it seemed that the week was hard on them with missions. The gems would return home beaten with piercing aches, not even having time to spend it with their youngest team member. This was the only time they had free and to relax with no worries.

"Sure, Steven. We'll spend time with you." The leader replied, grinning lightly to the boy. Steven gave a sign of victory. He scooched over from his bed, as he left space for Garnet to sit next to him.

"Is it that new thing you always wanted? Greg bought it for you yesterday right?" Pearl asked, resting her head on Garnet's shoulder.

The young gem nodded. "Yup. My dad bought it cause he said it was on sale and I helped him clean over thirty cars in less than one week!"

Pearl shook her head and started to close her eyes until she felt Garnet pick herself up. The red gem then made her way to Steven and sat next to him. Steven smiled and hugged her quickly.

"Thanks Garnet. You're the best." Steven told his friend. Below them, Pearl snickered and got up. She has always felt in competition with the gems because she wants to be seen as the best for Steven. The woman would easily get jealous.

"How about I join you two for a change."

She took her place on the floor and folded her shaky legs beside her, squinting at the bright light of the television. Her eyes adjusted to the vision of the strange Japanese characters with English translation beneath them.

"Gem-u?" Pearl raised an eyebrow and leaned back. "What?"

"Haha. You're funny cause you're pronouncing it wrong. It's Ge-mu!" Steven corrected Pearl, playfully ruffling her light orange hair.

"Well excuse me for not being able to read it right." She replied.

The three gems looked towards the bright blue screen, seeing the characters Garnet and Steven have chosen for themselves. Steven chose as a brightly colored man with an arrow and bow while Garnet played as a blue bunny with a sword. The two gems have begun their virtual quest. They were assigned to save a princess from the evil hands of a cold hearted wizard.

"Woo! This is exciting! Playing with you guys always makes everything a hundred times more fun." Steven complimented his two companions.

...

An hour and a half has passed since Garnet and Steven started their game. The room was completely pitch black with the only light coming from the television. Steven was hidden under in his blanket cocoon where he was snug while playing. Garnet would bite her lips and furiously tap the buttons on her control, getting a bit disappointed at the sight of losing. Pearl would randomly exclaim what they should do as if the characters could follow her orders, but she would snicker at each round they lost.

"That blue mammal was using the wrong technique. At that moment, she must make a brisk run and swiftly turn around, then impale her sword into her enemies' chest. Instead, she blandly jumps up and down then kills her victims with a quick blast to the legs." Pearl would comment with her slim eyebrows raised. "Garnet, would you mind that I play this next round since you're-"

Her words drifted off as she felt the eyes of Garnet stare at her. Not an expression was shone, yet with her tone of her voice it made the slim gem take back what she was going to say. "Pearl..." Garnet began.

Beneath them, someone woke up from their long recovery. Amethyst sucked her teeth as she ran her fingers through the large bump on her head. It ached her forehead and she groaned. She then slowly got up, struggling at first until she climbed up the stairs. Opening her mouth in a big yawn, she took her seat behind the playing gems and laid down on Steven's warm bed.

"Playing that new game huh?" Amethyst asked, resting her head on her hands.

Steven turned around at the sound of hearing her voice and gave her a tooth filled grin. "Great, you're awake. Want to play the next game with me?"

"You said I was going to play the next game!" Pearl retorted making Amethyst roll her eyes.

"Whatever. I'm beat anyway." Amethyst laid her head on the covers of Steven's bed, her head still hurting from the hit she received. She watched the game play until she fell asleep and missed her turn for playing.

Thirty minutes have passed and the game was not even close to being half completed. Garnet would lose at the same battle with a white bearded wizard which she would glare to through her shades. There were even times when she would furiously beat down the buttons until Pearl would take it before Garnet would break anything.

"Take your time with calming down, Garnet. I'll beat it for you." Pearl looked towards the screen, cracking her neck in preparation. She quickly pressed down the buttons and watched as her character swung her sword, causing some damage to the enemy.

"I can help you Pearl." Steven offered, but Pearl would shrug it off and continue to play. She would beat off any enemy that stood in her way without the help of Steven. He was close to giving up as he saw there was no use to playing if he was beaten to everything and killing enemies' henchmen.

Pearl on the other hand was enjoying seeing the antagonist die with a couple swifts of her sword. She progressed much quicker and felt a rush of excitement with each level she completed. One after the other, she quickly jumped from level to level with Steven walking closely behind doing nothing.

"Pearl...please let me fight at least once." Steven whimpered in boredom, but was again ignored. He groaned as he fell back, accidently hitting Amethyst on the head with his arm. She quickly woke up in pain. Amethyst sat with her legs crossed, holding her forehead as she tried to ease the hard sting of it.

"Ow. Steven! Be careful." Amethyst slightly glared at the boy. She looked to the other gems, but was surprised to see Pearl the only one playing the game with joy. Her eyes moved to Garnet as she shook her head at how into the game Pearl was.

"Is bird face hogging the game?" She asked with a grunt.

"It seems so." Garnet replied with her arms crossed.

All of the gems sat shoulder to shoulder as they saw Pearl was moving her arms in the air. She didn't even notice the insult Amethyst spat at her as she happily exclaimed, "I defeated you, you disgusting swine!"

Amethyst rolled her eyes again at the gem and blew her hair to the side. She knew this side of Pearl since she was the one who faced it the most. Pearl would be competitive and leave others as she would claim she could handle it by herself. In missions it would be the same, as Pearl just felt that she should always be right and would show signs of competing against others; especially Amethyst. The two wouldn't get along that well at times as they tried to prove who is correct or even lead the way to victory for their mission.

"Want me to play, Steven?" Amethyst asked with a quiet whisper into Steven's ear. "I can make Pearl stop playing."

Steven thought about it for a moment until he heard the loud voice of his game declare that with only four more tries of finding and fighting the wizard before he could be defeated which the game could be finished instantly. It was disappointing to see that his new game was going to be won by someone else.

"Fine." Steven spoke, handing Amethyst his controller. She smiled from ear to ear as she moved her thumb from button from button, catching up with Pearl's character.

"Woah there. When did you learn how to play like a pro, P?" Amethyst began to progress a conversation with Pearl.

The pearl gem gave a sigh of annoyance as she continued to loudly press the buttons. "It's not that hard Amethyst. The instructions are clearly shown on the monitor with -Yes, I earned another badge!"

Amethyst smirked as she sat herself up and paused the game, choosing the option to change character. "Oh really? I challenge you. We'll see who can defeat the most in this stage. But first, let me change my character."

She rolled her thumb on the analog stick and scanned through the variety of characters there was. Amethyst thought to herself as she skipped over the ones that barely had any use for her until she finally decided with a green frog that used their tongue as a whip. It was time for her to finally beat Pearl at something she knew she couldn't fail. "Let's go."

Pearl grunted as she continued to walk forward with her character, swinging her characters' sword around at every living thing until she stroke the bearded wizard. Her points grew every time she had defeated the evil man and his henchmen for the moment, but Amethyst discarded it. She followed Pearl's trail with no complain at all. Amethyst just grinned as she had a plan ready to defeat the competitive gem..

"Yo, hold up P. You're going way too fast. Hopper can't hop with your fast pace."

Pearl just ignored Amethyst and continued in her fast pace. This angered The purple gem a bit. Amethyst saw it as a sign to step up her game. She used the frog's tongue as a whip and grabbed the wizard before Hoppy, flinging them to the wall.

"Amethyst!" Pearl spat in disgust as coldly turned to face the purple gem; her score decreased with her loss.

Amethyst decided to return the same look as she leaned forward and glared Pearl right in the eyes. "Want to bring it on, P? I'll kick your butt in this game!"

Steven groaned in disappointment as he saw Amethyst plopping herself down besides Pearl and clicked her tongue. Amethyst forgot the favor she was going to do for Steven as she for once wanted to beat Pearl in something she was good at.

"Ugh fine. Just know you're wasting your time with playing against me."

The two gems fought each other in the game, but Amethyst would laugh as she would wrap her whip around Pearl's rabbit which would make her lose her health. Pearl would respond with swinging the digital sword towards Hopper, grinning at the damage she would cause. Pearl and Amethyst fought each other, spitting insults to each other but it will descend into a light laugh at the end. Garnet and Steven were surprised to see the direction this challenge went into. The red gem rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at their attitude while Steven raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Move, dumb wizard! I'll defeat bird face for you." Amethyst loudly said. The wizard still used it's powers against the two, but stopped. The two team members fought each other till their death; Pearl was the closest to meeting her character's doom. Seconds after noticing, Hopper defeated Hoppy.

"Yes! Take that Pearl!" The short woman nudged Pearl's shoulder with a fist. The pearl gem sat, dumbfounded.

"But-we are in the same team. It makes no sense." Pearl obliged.

"Well this game allows us to fight till the death, but we both will still see the game over screen so we both kinda lost." Amethyst sat back, leaning on Steven's bed. "Want to play again, P?"

Instantly, Garnet stood up and pressed the power button on the game system. She took the controllers from the two's hands and placed them on the device. "No. It's game over for the two of you."

She took the two gems by the collar and raised them. Pearl and Amethyst struggled under her grip, but gave up as Garnet took them away.

"You can play your game if you're not tired, Steven. If these two played all of it then we all get you a new game for it tomorrow. I'm going to have a word with these gems." Garnet assured the young gem as he stared at the three. "It appears that it's getting late too. You should get some sleep, Steven. Good night."

Garnet and the gems stepped inside the temple's doors and disappeared, leaving Steven alone. He looked to the lit blank television and thought to himself whether to play or not. After thinking, he shrugged and took the controller then turned the game on. He smiled to himself. Steven played until he was satisfied with his battle's victory, but it all ended with him falling asleep.

"Good job, player! You got a gold trophy!" The announcer repeatedly complimented the snoozing Steven as his screen blinked with a congratulatory message. "You earned it."

Okay, so sorry for this late release. I had it all done until my laptop lost the document so I had to write this all over again which sucks. Hope you all enjoyed this one-shot gift that I wrote for a friend; Jacmirie on deviantart. Check them out! They're amazing! I promised this long ago, but I finally got the chance to work on it this month. To my friend, I'm so sorry for how late it is. My life has been extremely busy so I'm so sorry. :(

I am working on other projects with other artists too. I'm even gonna work on an upcoming Gravity Falls and Steven Universe crossover with an other talented writer. Raising Steven is even gonna have some surprises as those who requested something for it will be done. Again, sorry for the wait. ^^;

PLEASE FAV/REVIEW/SHARE. THANKS! 3

-With love, Gem Goddess (GG)