Dragontitan: Steven's gonna be petting Lion a lot in this fanfic, so brace yourself. ;)
coronadomontes: Gracias.
Steven was sitting up in his bedroom loft, playing Bash Brothers Melee on his Dolphin. He watched the screen intently as he mashed the buttons on his controller, trying hard to beat his opponent.
He was very close to knocking his opponent off the screen when suddenly, the opposing figure used an energy beam attack to knock Steven's character at least 300 feet away from the platform they were fighting on, leaving him to plummet to his doom. The words Knock Out! flashed on the screen in bold red letters.
"Aw man!" Steven groaned. "I was so close that time too."
Just then, he heard the sound of the Warp Pad activating, and went downstairs to meet with the rest of the Crystal Gems, who had recently returned from a mission. "Hey, guys! How was your mission?"
"Pretty good," Amethyst replied. "Ruby punched a Rough Gem's head off." And she held up the head of a black, vaguely reptilian Rough Gem.
"Whoa!" Steven gasped in awe as he looked at the Rough Gem's disembodied head. "Really?!"
"Yep," Ruby answered proudly. "Just gave him a couple of these." And she summoned her gauntlet and threw a couple of punches at the air in front of her to demonstrate.
"Whoa... I wish I could've been there to see the fight! You guys should've let me come!"
"Steven, you haven't even fully figured out how to summon your weapon yet," Pearl gently chided him. "Until then, the four of us can handle the fighting."
"But I was the one who defeated the Rough Nephrite when I first summoned my shield! You all saw it!"
"Yes, but only because the Rough Nephrite went into a state of shock," Sapphire reminded him.
"Because I summoned my shield!"
Ruby sighed and put a hand on Steven's shoulder. "Listen, kid. We all know how much you like being involved in Gem stuff, but until you've figured out your powers, the fighting part of it just isn't for you."
"You're probably right," Steven admitted. "But I still wanna train and become super strong like you, Ruby!"
"Like me?"
"Yeah! You're so awesome and tough and cool! I wish I could be like that!"
Ruby gave him a flattered smile as she unsummoned her gauntlet and put her hands on her hips. "Well, if you want, we could go out and train right now."
Steven gasped as he put is hands to his cheeks. "Really?"
"Sure! Like my old mentor said, there's no better time to start building on your strength than when you're young."
"Alright! Let's train!"
Steven and Ruby were now standing on the beach in front of the Crystal Temple.
"Alright. Now since you're just a beginner, I'll start out easy on you," Ruby explained. "But don't think just because I'm going easy on you now that this'll be too easy later on. The point of training is to improve your skills and get stronger, and you can't do that if you stay at the same level all throughout. Now are you sure you're ready for this?"
Steven pumped a fist in the air. "Yeah! Enter the tiger!"
"Enter the tiger?"
"Yeah. That's Captain Tiger's catchphrase in Bash Brothers Melee. He's pretty strong too."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "Let's just focus on training, okay?"
"Aye, coach! Where do I start?"
"Well, how about you run a few laps around the beach? That seems like a good place to start."
"You got it!" Steven promptly began running around in circles on the beach. Ruby watched him intently.
"C'mon, you can do better than that. Let's see you put some muscle into it!"
"But I'm already doing as best as I can."
"Well then you'll have to do better than your best! C'mon, faster! Harder! You don't get results if you don't push yourself!"
Steven started running harder than he had previously. "How's this?"
"That's it! Don't wimp out!"
Steven panted hard as he became short of breath. His muscles began to ache as he kicked his legs as hard as he could. "I'll... try hard... not to. Enter... the tiger." Then he fell over onto his hands and knees as he lost his stamina. With his brow covered in sweat, Steven breathed deeply through his mouth, trying to get as much air into his lungs as he could.
"What happened?" Ruby asked as she ran over to him. "You were doing great just a few seconds ago!"
"I'm sorry. My lungs just feel like they're on fire."
"Listen, kiddo." Ruby got down on one knee. "You can't let a little pain get you down. You need to work through it if you ever want to become stronger. Remember, no pain, no gain."
"Got it..." Steven struggled to lift himself off the ground before his sore limbs gave out underneath him and he fell to his stomach. Lion, who had previously been lying in the shade of the Temple, walked over to the boy and sniffed at his face before licking his cheek. "Ugh, Lion." Steven feebly pushed Lion's nose away with his hand.
The door to the beach house opened as Sapphire came out onto the porch, with Amethyst and Pearl peeking out. "We're just checking to see how training is going," Sapphire said.
"Why's Steven on the ground?" Amethyst asked.
"Everything's fine," Ruby assured them. "Steven's just been doing some running."
"My muscles hurt pretty bad," Steven said. "But that's okay, because I'm getting stronger."
"Well, you should definitely rest if you're in that much pain, Steven," Pearl told him. "You don't want to strain yourself."
"Pearl is right," Sapphire said. "You can continue training tomorrow."
Steven tried to push himself to his feet before he fell back down. "Could someone carry me? I'm too sore to move."
Ruby picked him up and carried him back inside.
-The next morning-
Steven was fast asleep in his bed when suddenly, he was woken up by Ruby shouting into a megaphone. "Get up, Steven! We've got training to do!"
"Ruby?" Steven sat up with a stretch and a yawn. "What time is it?"
"6:00 AM," Ruby answered. "Now get dressed and get your butt outside!"
Steven got out of bed. "Can I at least have breakfast first?"
"You can eat later! Now let's move! Go! Go! Go! Go!"
"Okay!" Steven scrambled to get dressed as Ruby continued to shout at him.
"C'mon! Faster! We don't have all day!"
Steven hastily put his sandals on before he tumbled down the stairs. "I'm okay, I'm good." Then he stood to his feet and ran out the door.
Steven and Ruby were now standing by some large rocks near the Temple.
"Alright! Now, today, we're gonna be lifting some rocks. We'll start you off with this one right here," Ruby patted on a rock that was roughly the same size as Steven. "then we'll work your way up to that one over there." She pointed to a large boulder that was about as tall as Greg's van, and twice as wide.
"That one looks pretty big," Steven pointed out.
"Which is why you'll be starting out by lifting the smaller ones first," Ruby told him. "C'mon, you can do it! Enter the tiger, right?"
"Yeah." Steven went over to lift up the rock, which he struggled with.
"Come on, put your back into it!"
"I've... rrgh... got this." Steven lifted the heavy rock over his head. His limbs quivered, threatening to collapse underneath the rock's weight. He was forced to drop the rock on the sand when his arms gave out.
"Good job, kid. You held that rock in the air for a good seven seconds. Now let's see you lift that one." Ruby pointed to a rock that was slightly bigger than the first one, about the size of Amethyst.
"Can we take a break?" Steven asked. "My arms feel like jelly."
"A break?! But we're just getting started! You can't quit on me now! If you quit on your mentor, you quit on yourself! You don't want that, do you?"
"No."
"Then get over there and pick up that rock!"
"Okay." Steven rolled his shoulders and clenched his hands into fists. "I can do this." He walked over to the rock and spit on his hands before rubbing them together, and crouched down to lift it off the ground. His face reddened as he grunted with effort. This rock was much heavier than the first one, though that might be due to how weak his arms felt after holding that one over his head for so long.
Just then, Sapphire and Pearl went outside to check on them.
"Steven!" Pearl cried as she ran over to him. "What do you think you're doing? You're going to hurt yourself trying to lift that boulder!"
"It's fine, Pearl," Ruby assured her. "Steven's been doing some weight lifting."
"Yeah," Steven said as he struggled to lift the large rock. "No pain, no gain."
"Steven, stop it." Pearl said as she gently pushed Steven away from the rock. "I know you want to get stronger, but overexerting yourself isn't the way to do it. Now, how about you come inside and have some breakfast?"
"Okay. I am pretty hungry anyway."
Pearl led Steven back into the beach house, and once Ruby was sure they were out of earshot, she asked Sapphire, "Do you really think I'm making him overexert himself, Sapphire?"
"A little bit, yes," Sapphire said.
"I mean, as Corundums, you and I are pretty durable Gems, but Steven's half Diamond, so he should be way tougher than any of us, right?"
"But he's still half human." Sapphire grabbed Ruby's hands. "While he is stronger than a normal human, he still has many of the same weaknesses as one. There's never been anyone like Steven before. We don't know what he could be capable of in the future."
"Still, it wouldn't hurt to help him unlock his potential. I'll just keep training him and see what happens."
"I'm afraid it might end in one of you getting hurt." And with that, Sapphire went back inside the house, leaving Ruby alone to think about what her partner just said. She hadn't wanted to get Steven hurt, but Ruby didn't really care if she herself was hurt. After all, she would take it like the soldier she was born to be. But if Steven were ever to get hurt, especially by her hands...
The red Gem was taken out of her thoughts when Steven came back outside and ran over to her. "Hey, Ruby! I'm ready to continue training."
"Great, kid. These rocks aren't gonna lift themselves."
Day after day, Steven kept training with Ruby. He'd spent a lot of time running, lifting rocks, running while carrying rocks, climbing (occasionally while also carrying rocks), even sparring with Ruby in an attempt to get him to summon his shield or activate some other Gem power he had yet to hone. And after every training session, Steven would end up sore and exhausted, and one of the Gems had to carry him inside to rest.
Steven lay in his bed, fast asleep.
"Steven!" Ruby's voice boomed over the megaphone. "Come on and get dressed! We've got another day of training ahead of us!"
"Ugh..." Steven sat up on the edge of his bed. "Ruby, I know you wanna help me get stronger, and I know I wanted to get super strong in the first place, but do we really have to train today? I've worked myself to the bone on the beach for six days already."
Ruby turned off the megaphone and set it down on the floor. "We're not training on the beach. The Solar Spire has a great arena for us to practice sparring in. We're gonna go train there."
Steven groaned quietly. "Alright. I'll get dressed and meet you on the Warp Pad."
The Crystal Gems warped to a spacious arena that was suspended in the air. There were six tall marble pillars standing at the shorter sides of the arena, three on each side, and some bleachers sat at the left side of the Warp Pad. Pearl, Amethyst, and Sapphire went over to the bleachers and sat down.
"You ready, kid?" Ruby asked Steven.
"I guess," Steven tiredly replied. "Enter the tiger."
"Okay." Ruby walked over to the far side of the arena, across from the Warp Pad. "Let's see what you got."
"Go, Steven!" Amethyst cheered from the bleachers.
"Be careful!" Pearl called out.
Steven got off the Warp Pad and ran over to Ruby with his fist raised to punch her. She blocked the attack by grabbing his fist with her right hand. "Is that really the best you got, kid?" Ruby pushed Steven back as she let go of his fist. "You're acting like you don't even wanna lay a hit on me!"
"That's because I don't."
"Well you'll have to hit back if someone hits you. That's how real fights work!" And Ruby summoned her gauntlet to throw a punch at Steven, which he successfully dodged. "Hey, look at that! I guess some of that training payed off, didn't it?"
"I learned from the best."
"I'm flattered. Let's see if you can dodge this."
Ruby threw a roundhouse kick near Steven's abdomen, which he blocked by grabbing her ankle, and then threw her over his shoulder.
The rest of the Gems gasped.
Ruby chuckled. "I've taught you well, kiddo, now let's see if you're ready for the real deal!" She stood up and reared her arm back, pointing her gauntlet at Steven. The gauntlet glowed, but instead of disappearing, its form swelled to the size of her torso.
Steven backed up a few feet away from Ruby.
As soon as Ruby threw her fist forward, her gauntlet flew straight off her hand toward where Steven was standing.
Steven ducked out of the way just in time, and Ruby's gauntlet flew into one of the pillars and exploded into a cloud of red light upon impact, leaving a large crack in the pillar. Steven looked behind him to see what happened, and gasped when the pillar toppled over, threatening to crush him.
"Steven, look out!" Ruby ran over and pushed Steven out of the way before the pillar fell to the ground of the arena, leaving behind a sizeable cloud of dust and debris. When it settled, Steven stood to his feet, dusting himself off and coughing into his fist.
Pearl ran over to him and smothered him in a hysterical hug, crying her eyes out. "Oh, Steven, thank goodness you're alright! I almost thought I'd lost you!"
"Pearl, it's okay. I'm fine," Steven assured her while giving her a comforting pat on the back.
The rest of the Crystal Gems went over to the collapsed pillar to see that Ruby was trapped underneath it, and they all worked together to lift it off of her. There was a collective gasp as everyone saw that Ruby's left foot had been broken off at the shin, a cyan liquid slowly oozing out of the holes.
Ruby sat quietly on the arena's bleachers as Sapphire reattached her foot, the blue Gem's fingers lightly tracing the crease where the body part broke off. Steven sat beside her as he held her hand.
"It's very fortunate that it was only your foot that broke off," Sapphire told her.
"I know. I guess I should apologize for being so brash." Ruby turned to Steven. "To you, Steven. I shouldn't have been so hard on you in the first place."
"It's okay," Steven assured her. "I had fun training with you. Even if I got a little hurt in the process."
"No, it's really not. I should've known you couldn't keep up with the Ruby way of training." Ruby looked down at her left leg. "I mean, I'm tough, but I'm not invincible. I couldn't imagine what could've happened to you if I hadn't pushed you out of the way of that pillar in time."
"You know, if you want, maybe we could try sparring some safer, less physical way until your leg is all healed."
"What way is that?"
Steven and Ruby sat up in Steven's bedroom loft, playing Bash Brothers Melee on his Dolphin. They both mashed the buttons on their respective controllers as they tried to knock one another off the arena. Steven, who was playing as Captain Tiger, launched a powered kick at Ruby's character and sent them flying off the screen. The words Player One Wins! flashed on the screen in bold red letters.
Ruby groaned in irritation at losing. "How are you so good at this game?"
"What can I say?" Steven replied. "I know my craft. Want a rematch?"
Ruby gave a relenting sigh. "Why not?"
