Dragontitan: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Guest: Yeah, that is how it be sometimes.

Steven and Amethyst were standing on the beach with an important goal in mind. Steven was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, per Amethyst's suggestion.

"I don't know about this, Amethyst."

"You got this, Steven! Just play it cool." Amethyst nudged him towards a dark-skinned girl who was sitting on the sand and reading a book. He took a deep breath before slowly walking over to her, shoulders arched and elbows bent. He cleared his throat and said:

"Hey. You come around here often?"

The girl looked up from her book. "What?"

Steven's face took on a bright red hue. "Um... I mean... Ah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The boy covered his face and ran off back to his beach house.

"Dude, what are you doing? All you had to do was talk to her!" Amethyst ran after him.


Meanwhile, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire were inside the beach house, discussing the recent wake of a new Rough Gem that was on the attack. "I've never seen one so big before," Pearl said. "What are we going to do when it reaches Beach City?"

"We'll fight it, of course!" Ruby replied. "We've encountered tougher enemies before, haven't we?"

Steven ran inside and quickly shut the door behind him. He made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh as he sunk to the floor.

"Oh, hey, kid," Ruby greeted. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Steven replied, standing back up and taking off the leather jacket and sunglasses he was wearing. "Don't worry about it."

Then Amethyst came in and said "Steven's been trying to talk to a girl on the beach. He thinks she's real cute."

Steven's face flushed red again. "Amethyst!"

"Oh, really?" Pearl prodded, bending down to Steven's eye level. "So, what's this girl like? Is she nice?"

"I haven't talked to her yet," Steven answered shyly, putting his sunglasses in his jacket's pocket and hanging the jacket on the coat rack. "I don't really know what to say to her."

"Start by introducing yourself," Sapphire advised. "Then let things flow naturally from there."

"Yeah, and ditch the jacket and glasses," Ruby said. "You should just be yourself. That's how I won over my precious Sapphy." Sapphire smiled and kissed her on the cheek in response.

"Thanks, guys. I'll go talk to her." And with that, Steven went out back to the beach with his confidence restored.


Steven was now walking towards the girl, who was still sitting there, reading her book. Steven cleared his throat and said "Hi, my name's Steven."

The girl looked up at him. "Hi, Steven. My name's Connie."

"Nice to meet you, Connie." Steven sat down in the sand with her. "So, what are you doing out on the beach by yourself?"

"I don't really have any friends," Connie answered sadly, casting her bespectacled eyes down at the sand. "We move a lot because of my dad's security guard job, so I never really got the chance to make any."

"Well, we can be friends."

"Really?"

"Of course! It's always nice to have someone to hang out with when you move to a new place, right?"

Suddenly, the ground trembled beneath them.

"What was that?" Connie asked.

"I dunno. Probably some kind of Gem monster! Let's go ask the Gems about it!" Steven grabbed Connie's hand and they ran back to the Crystal Temple.

"Who are the Gems? What Gem monster?"

"The Crystal Gems are a group of magical alien warriors who fight enemy soldiers and monsters from their home planet. They let me come on missions sometimes."

Steven and Connie got to the front of Steven's beach house when the door flung open and the Gems all ran out with their weapons. Sapphire turned to Steven and said "Steven, a Rough Kunzite has come to wreak havoc on Beach City. Be sure to keep your new friend safe." And with that, she went after the rest of the Gems.

"You wanna watch the fight?" Steven asked Connie. "From a safe distance, of course."

"I don't know. My parents don't really let me watch that kind of stuff."

"Come on, it'll be cool! At least until the monster is killed, but I usually look away when that happens."

"Well, I guess, as long as we watch from a distance."

"Great. Let's go." Steven grabbed Connie by the hand and led her to the top of the cliff the Temple was carved into. "We should get a good view of everything from up here."


The two new friends looked down at the beach to see the Gems fighting a large, lamprey-like monster with six stubby tentacles around its circular mouth. Its long body was a pale lilac color and though it was hard to see its gemstone from where they were standing, it appeared to be located just below where its chin would be.

They watched as Amethyst used her rolling attack to try and stun the beast, to little avail as it just lunged at the group with its mouth wide open. Pearl sliced off one of its mouth tentacles with her spear, which only served to agitate it more. Ruby's gauntlet flew off her hand to form a fist-shaped missile aimed at the monster's face, only to dissapear in a burst of red light when the beast bit on it with its sharp, saw-like teeth.

"It looks like this fight is gonna last a while," Steven said. "You wanna come in my house and get some snacks?"

"Okay." Steven and Connie made their way down the cliff before the Rough Kunzite took notice of them and flew towards them with all of the intent to devour them.

"Run!" Steven grabbed Connie by the wrist and they ran away from the monster as fast as they could. They ran until they reached the Big Donut, Beach City's resident donut shop. "In here!" Steven opened the door and he and Connie ran inside. Steven leaned against the door while Connie rested her hands on her knees. They were both panting from exhaustion.

"We should be safe in here for right now," Steven said between breaths.

"Hey, Steven!" Steven recognized the voice as Sadie Miller, one of the Big Donut's employees. "Who's your new friend?"

"Hi, Sadie. This is Connie. She just moved here."

Connie shyly waved at the older blonde girl. "Hello."

"Cool. You guys want anything?"

"Two jelly-filled donuts please. One for me, and one for my friend."

"Oh, no. I don't want anything," Connie said. "My parents don't let me have anything with trans fats, artificial flavoring, or excess salt and sugar."

"Really?" Steven asked incredulously. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure the Big Donut has something without any of that stuff."

"All we really have is water," Sadie said. "Would you like a cup?"

"Sure," Connie said.

Sadie served them their respective orders; one jelly-filled donut for Steven, and a small paper cup of water for Connie. "That'll be $2.99 for all of it."

"Thank you." Steven and Connie were just about to tuck in when the Rough Kunzite suddenly burst in and charged at the two kids with the Gems close behind it, still wielding their weapons. Steven slapped a 3 dollar bill on the counter before he and Connie took off running out of the Big Donut's fire exit, the Kunzite flying after them and the Gems giving chase. Sadie just stared in shock at the resulting damage before calling her co-worker over.

"Hey, Lars? You should probably come look at this."

The lanky Filipino teen in question came in from the break room, not having heard the commotion with his earbuds in. "Yeah, what is it?" Lars took a look around, and he let out an inarticulate scream of shock. "Again?!"


Steven and Connie were running for somewhere else to hide, apologizing to a few townspeople as a few mailboxes and trash cans were knocked over in the chase. "Steven, why is that thing chasing us?!" Connie asked.

"I don't know," Steven answered. "What I do know is that it's pretty big, and if we slow down for even a second, it'll probably eat us. But I think the Gems can get it under control. They seem to know a lot about this type of stuff. You should really get to know them. They're really cool!"

"Sounds like you have a lot of respect for them, huh?" Connie replied.

"Of course I do! They're the protectors of all life on Earth! And that includes you. I was instructed to keep you safe, and that's what I aim to do. Now, come on!" Steven grabbed Connie's hand and started running to his left, the beast tailing close behind them.


They kept running until they reached the junkyard, and hid in one of the scrapped cars. "Okay, so we just gotta keep quiet, and maybe it'll leave us alone. I'm sure everything will turn out fine." He noticed that Connie was sitting in a fetal position, crying with her face buried in her knees. "Are you okay, Connie?"

"I don't know," Connie took off her glasses and wiped her eyes. "How do I know everything will turn out fine? How do we know if that thing's not just gonna try to eat us again? My parents are gonna be worried sick when they find out I'm gone. What's worse is that they'll probably be the only ones who notice my sudden disappearance because they're the only people who care about me!"

"That's not true! I'm sure there are lots of people who care about you."

"Like who?"

"Well... I care about you."

"Stop right there, you monster!" They heard Pearl shout. They looked out of the window to see four of the Crystal Gems, Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, and Sapphire, standing there with their weapons out. (Except Sapphire because she has no weapon) "We're not letting you lay a tentacle on those children!"

The Rough Kunzite roared and lunged at them. Luckily, they all jumped out of the way before the Kunzite could do any damage. Pearl shot a laser out of the blade of her spear at the Kunzite midair, making a sizeable crack in its side. "Nice one, P!" Amethyst complimented as she used her whip to grab a nearby engine which she chucked at the monster, only for it to flick the engine back at her with its tail, though Amethyst was able to dodge it by rolling into a ball.

Meanwhile, Sapphire quickly glided over to the car Steven and Connie were hiding in and told them "It's okay. We have this under control. The two of you get to someplace safe." Steven and Connie obeyed and ran out of the car to find somewhere safer to take cover. They looked around, scanning for the best place to hide until the Rough Kunzite had been dealt with. They decided to duck behind a large pile of rubble.

Steven tried to think of something to say to Connie to try and break the ice, since they didn't really have the chance to earlier. He noticed the glow bracelet on her wrist. "So... I like your glow bracelet."

"Thanks. I got it at the parade the other day."

"I think I saw you there with your parents. I was riding on the car wash float. Did you see me?"

"Oh yeah! You had bubbles in your hair!"

Steven blushed and giggled, brushing his fingers through his curls. "Yeah. I was going for a scrub brush look."

"I really wanted to see you again. I've seen you with your friends a few times while I was in town. I thought you were really cool, and I wanted to talk to you and get to know you. But I could never work up the nerve to approach you, so I just sat on the beach and read."

Suddenly, a scrapped car flew through the air and landed on an old car that looked like it was made in the 60's. One of its headlights turned on, (Only one because the other was broken) and the Rough Kunzite flew towards Steven and Connie's hiding place. They clutched each other in fear before seeing it flailing around with both cars in its mouth, tearing them to bits as it apparently tried to eat them.

"It likes shiny things," Steven mused. An idea formed in his head as he glanced at a large, rectangular device with a red button next to it. "Connie, give me your bracelet."

"What for?"

"I have an idea. Stay here. I don't want you to get hurt." Steven took the glow bracelet out of Connie's hand and ran out of their hiding place over to the Gems. He whistled to grab everyone's attention. "Hey, Kunzite! I've got something shiny for ya!" He waved the bracelet in the air, and the Kunzite lunged at him as he ran off taunting, "Can't catch me!"

"Steven, what are you doing?!" Pearl cried as she and the rest of the Gems ran after them. "Are you trying to get eaten?!"

"It's okay! This is all part of my plan! One of you guys go over to the car crusher so you can crush the Rough Kunzite, then Beach City will be safe and sound again!"

"Will that work?" Ruby asked Sapphire.

"It's highly probable that it will work, but the rough Kunzite will need to be incapacitated first."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem!" Steven ran over to the car crusher and stood at its entrance, waving the glow bracelet in front of it with the intent to lure the Kunzite in. "Here, Kunzite, Kunzite, Kunzite! Come and get it!" The Kunzite lunged toward the bracelet with it mouth open, only for Steven to pull it away as the beast was frozen solid by Sapphire's ice magic when its head was in the car crusher's opening. Pearl then ran over and pressed the button, crushing the frozen Kunzite's head into a pile of rubble, ice chunks, and cyan liquid. Of course, Steven looked away while covering his ears, not wanting to see or hear the monster's demise.


Connie peaked out from her hiding place to see if the coast was clear, then walked over to the Crystal Gems, who were congratulating Steven on his plan. "So, thanks for keeping me safe. I really like how your idea turned out. You have to admit it was really smart!"

Steven blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks. Here's your bracelet back." He handed Connie back her bracelet, and she handed him a piece of paper. "What's this?"

"It's my phone number. That way you can call me if you ever want to hang out again. In spite of almost getting eaten by a giant lamprey monster, I had fun today."

"Dude, you got her phone number!" Amethyst exclaimed excitedly. "She totally likes you back!"

Steven blushed harder. "Amethyst!"

"Hey!" Ruby punched Amethyst in the back with her gauntlet. "Quit messing with him."

"Jeez, sorry."

Steven slapped a hand to his forehead as he remembered something. "Dang, I just remembered I could've summoned my shield to protect you!"

Connie's eyes widened. "You have a shield?"

"Yeah! You weren't there for it, but I learned to summon my Gem weapon while Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst and Pearl were attacked by this huge Rough Nephrite."

"It's true," Pearl told her.

"I can show it to you right now." Steven lifted up his shirt to expose his gemstone. "Shield, activate!" Nothing happened. Steven sighed as Connie stifled a giggle. "Well, it was round and pink and had a rose design on it. It was really cool! You seriously should've seen it!"

"Well, I should be getting home," Connie said. "My parents will be worried sick if I'm late." And she ran off to the bus stop.

"Bye, Connie! It was nice making friends with you!" Steven waved her goodbye as he and the Gems began making their own way home.

"It was nice making friends with you too!"

As soon as Connie was out of earshot, Pearl began prodding Steven with questions. (She felt it rude to pry while Connie was still around) "So, tell me. What's Connie like? Did she tell you her favorite kind of tea? How does she feel about the art of fencing?"

"Yeah, I kinda wanted to know that too," Ruby said. "Does she take any fighting classes? 'Cause I happen to know a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat."

"Ugh, not you guys too!"

"Come on, we're curious!" Pearl insisted. "You really should tell us everything."

Steven just groaned as the Gems kept asking him questions all the way back to the Temple.