Dragon Titan 1: I'm glad you liked it.
So, apologies if this and the last chapter are a bit short compared to the last few. I've been kept busy by other stuff that's been going on.
"Thunder roared all throughout the quiet house, which was completely dark, only illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning that appeared outside Melissa's bedroom window. The thunder outside was drowned out by the deafening pounding of her own heartbeat, which grew ever louder as-"
Connie and Steven's reading was interrupted by the sound of the Crystal Gems warping back to the Temple.
"The Gems are back!" Steven announced unnecessarily. The two children walked up to the Warp Pad to greet the Gems.
"Hello, Steven," Sapphire said, looking at the boy before turning her gaze to Connie. "Hello, Connie."
"Oh, Connie!" Pearl exclaimed in surprise. "What brings you here?"
"Steven and I were just reading the first chapter of The Outer Connection," she answered.
"It's really good!" Steven said excitedly. "It's about this girl who learns that she can talk to ghosts, and there's this whole underground society of vampires and ghouls and stuff, and her dad gets kidnapped by the leader of the vampires and she has to team up with the ghost haunting their attic to save him!"
"The author is gonna be at the library doing book signings, and I wanted to bring Steven with me so we could both meet her."
"Cool," Amethyst said. "We were just gonna go fight a giant Rough Malachite that's attacking a nearby island."
"That sounds really cool!" Connie exclaimed in excitement. "But we really should get going right now if we wanna make it to the library on time." And Steven and Connie made their way out the front door.
"Okay!" Ruby called after them as the Gems started warping away again. "We'll see you kids later, and we'll make sure to bring back some Gem parts to show you!"
Steven and Connie were walking to Connie's bike, which was parked near the slope that connected Steven's front porch to the beach below the Temple. Connie kicked in the kickstand and walked the bike out towards town.
"Okay, if we leave right now, we'll be able to get there before the line gets too long." Connie turned her head to look at Steven. "How good are you with standing on the back spokes?"
"Actually, I was thinking we could ride to the library in style." Steven cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "Lion! Where are you?! Come on out, wherever you are!" The two kids looked around, no Lion in sight. "He doesn't always come when he's called."
Just then, Lion came running toward them at top speed, stopping and sitting down right at their feet.
"Hey, boy!" Steven scratched Lion by the ears. He then turned to Connie. "You can pet him if you want."
"Are you sure he'll let me?"
"Sure! He lets me pet him all the time."
"I don't know, Steven."
Lion yawned and lay down on his stomach, looking up at the girl expectantly. Connie slowly reached out her hand and pet the pink feline's soft, furry head.
"He's really soft," she said with a smile.
"Hey, Lion, do you wanna take us to the library?" Steven asked him as he climbed onto his back.
Connie climbed on and sat behind Steven. "I've never ridden a lion before."
"I've ridden on Lion lots of times, and I can tell you it's a lot of fun." Steven patted a hand on Lion's side. "Come on, Lion, let's go." At that command, Lion stood up, stretched a bit, and started running.
Steven and Connie quickly became frightened as they saw which direction their mount was running towards. "Lion, no! The library's not in the ocean! Turn around!" Steven tugged at Lion's locks in an effort to get him to turn, but it was no use. They would soon be going for an unwanted swim. Or that's what the children had thought, until they realized that there was no splash. Steven looked down to see that Lion was actually running on top of the water. It was like the last time Steven visited Pearl's room. Only the water in there was solidified by Gem magic, and the ocean wasn't, so what was going on?
"Your lion can run on water?!" Connie asked, apparently as surprised as he was.
"Apparently!" Steven said.
Then, Lion roared loudly, firing a shockwave from his mouth that turned into a round portal, which he jumped into with the kids still on his back.
Suddenly, they were flying through a bright, blue and white void full of stars.
"So not only can you run on water, but you can fire magic portals out of your mouth too?!" Steven asked his pet. "What other magical stuff can you do that I don't know about?!"
They were soon approaching another portal, which led them to somewhere they've never been. A splash was heard as Lion landed on his feet and skidded forward. Wherever they were, it looked like they were inside a cave; large stalagmites jutted out of the floor, which was covered in water, and sharp-looking stalactites hung from the ceiling. In the center of the floor was a large, round, stone platform. Lion walked up the small flight of steps that led to it, then sat down on his haunches.
"What is this place?" Steven wondered out loud as he and Connie climbed off Lion's back.
"Could this be one of those Gem places you and the Gems always tell me about?" Connie asked him.
"Probably."
"It's so cool. Sometimes I wish I had your life."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you get to go on all these exciting missions and look for mysterious magical artifacts with the Crystal Gems, and meanwhile, the most exciting thing in my life is tennis." She pretended to swing a tennis racket. "Forehand! Backhand! Overhead Death Strike!"
Steven laughed in response. "Tennis sounds pretty exciting to me!"
Connie gave a chuckle of her own. "I actually made that last one up."
Just then, the platform they were standing on glowed light pink, and up from the center rose a hand-shaped pedestal. The children walked over to inspect it, and saw that there was a symbol similar to the rose design on Steven's shield on the center of the "palm".
Steven turned to Lion. "Lion, normally I'm all about Gem stuff like this, but why exactly did you bring us here?"
"What if he brought us here for a reason?" Connie suggested. "Like this is some kind of mystical Gem training thing to help you on a magical destiny quest of some kind?"
"You think so?"
"Maybe. How about you try putting your hand on the pedestal and see what happens?"
"Okay." Steven did as was suggested, and the pedestal and the platform both glowed bright pink.
"So that happens."
Steven tried to pull his hand off the pedestal, only to find that it was stuck on. "Huh?" Steven pulled again. "I-I think I'm stuck! Help me, Connie!"
Connie pulled on Steven's arm in an attempt to help free his hand from the pedestal, but it was no use. "I guess we'll just have to chop your hand off and call it a day."
"What?!"
Just then, a white, cylindrical case emerged from the surface of the platform, opening up to reveal some axes that were floating vertically side-by-side.
"Hey, look! Axes!"
"No! No axes!"
Then the case closed and sunk back in the ground.
"I guess this thing is voice-activated."
"Say another command!"
"Okay." Steven cleared his throat into his free hand. "Let me see everything this place has." At that command, more white cylinders rose around them, opening up and exposing various weapons and artifacts.
"Whoa! Look at all this cool stuff!" Connie began walking around the platform to get a closer look at everything she can. "Here's some swords! And some old suits of armor! And a statue with spikey chain balls! And a... giant penny?"
"I'll bet it's worth way more than a regular penny," Steven said. "I mean, that would just make cents." He and Connie laughed at his joke.
"Okay, this was great, but we really should get going to the library if we wanna meet Lauren Zeitgeist and get my book signed. I'm probably not supposed to be here in the first place anyway."
"I want you here," Steven said. "Well, not here here. Lion probably wants me here, but I want you with me. And I want us to hang out more often when we both have the time; I can go over and watch you play tennis, and you can come over to my place and watch me and the Gems deal with my magical destiny training."
Suddenly, the platform and the pedestal both lost their pink glow, and Steven stumbled backwards and fell on his butt as the pedestal sunk back into the platform, along with most of the artifacts that had been brought to view. Stone triangles about three feet high rose from the platform in a spiral pattern. A large, cylindrical object with three cannons on its bottom, which was the only artifact to not disappear, started floating, its two "eyes" and the crystal shards on its top glowing a bright white.
"Um, Steven..." Connie said, her voice quivering a little. "Do you think we should be scared?"
"Maybe. I don't know." Steven looked at Lion, who stood to his feet while staring at the artifact. "Lion doesn't seem scared of it, but then again, he is a magical pink lion, so there's probably not much that can-" He was interrupted when the artifact made an odd crackling noise as its "eyes" and shards glowed bright yellow, a ball of pure electricity firing from one of its cannons directly at the group and exploding upon impact with the ground.
The two children screamed as the three of them ran and hid behind two of the stone triangles, Lion following Steven. "Okay, I think we should be scared."
The artifact slowly floated forwards as it continued shooting from each of its cannons in a pattern, its shards and "eyes" glowing a different color depending on the ammo it fired; electricity - yellow, ice magic - light blue, fire - red.
"What do we do, Steven?!" Connie cried.
"I don't know!" The half-Gem boy turned his attention to Lion. "Lion, we need you to get us out of here! Please! You're our only hope!"
Lion stood up and backed up a few inches from Steven.
"Lion?"
Lion bowed, with his his head down and one paw out in front of him, and his mane started glowing. Slowly emerging from the glowing mass of fur was the magenta hilt of a sword. Before he could really think about his actions, Steven grabbed the hilt and pulled out a large sword with a pale pink blade.
"You had a sword in your mane this whole time?! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Steven!"
"Connie!"
The artifact started glowing light blue, and fired a ball of ice magic from another of its cannons.
"Don't worry! I'm coming!" Steven slipped on the ice from the blast and fell over on his stomach. He pushed himself to his feet and continued running to his human friend. "Lion gave me this sword." He showed her the sword he grabbed from the big cat's mane. "I think he wants me to try and fight that thing."
"Can you?"
"Pearl's been teaching me how to swordfight lately. We haven't gone over much yet, but I have a good grasp on the basics."
The artifact floated closer to them, preparing to shoot a fireball at them.
"Well you'd better put what you've learned so far to good use, because whatever that thing is is coming closer!"
"Right!" Steven held the sword out in front of him, nearly dropping it as his hands started slipping. "Ah, I've never used a sword this big before!"
"I'll help you!" Connie stood behind Steven and put her hands on the sword's handle. The fireball that was generating in the artifact's cannon shot out at the children. "Overhead..." The children worked together to lift the sword's blade into the air, the fireball colliding with it, but not dissipating. "Death Strike!" The children worked together to swing the sword down, launching the fireball back at the artifact. The fireball flew into one of the artifact's cannons, and the artifact exploded in a spectacular cloud of dust, fire, smoke, and electricity. Steven and Connie stood awestruck at the sight.
"Just like tennis practice..." Connie whispered. "Except it isn't at all like tennis practice."
Lion walked over to them and lay at their feet with a yawn. Steven put the sword back in Lion's mane, and he and Connie climbed onto the feline's back. "Hey, Lion," the boy said. "do you wanna take us to the library now?" Steven patted his side, and Lion stood up, stretched, and roared up another portal to jump through.
They jumped from the portal to the front of Beach City's library. The sky was noticably a bit darker than before they headed off, but that didn't matter at the moment.
"About time you decide to take us to the library," Steven remarked as he gave his pet a hug. "You're a handful, Lion, but I still love you." And he gave him a kiss on the nose.
"Come on," Connie pulled Steven by the hand into the library. "We gotta get in there quickly before Lauren Zeitgeist leaves."
When they went inside, they saw that there was barely anyone around. Connie walked up to the front desk. "Excuse me. Is Lauren Zeitgeist still here?"
"No, I'm afraid not," the librarian said. "She just left 30 minutes ago. But if you want, there are plenty of her books for you to check out in the young adult section."
Connie sighed in disappointment. "Come on, Steven, let's go." And the two children walked out of the library.
As they were riding away on Lion, Steven said "I'm sorry. If I hadn't insisted we ride Lion to the library and gotten you caught up in my magical destiny stuff, then we might've gotten there on time for the book signing. I don't know why you wanna hang out with me."
"I don't know why you wanna hang out with me!" Connie said. "I'm just so... uninteresting compared to you! You're a half-alien half-human with magical powers, who lives with four other magical aliens who protect the planet from destruction on a near-daily basis, and I'm just plain old Connie."
"You're not plain, you're awesome!"
"Really?"
"Yes, really! You've introduced me to what's probably the coolest book series ever, and even though I've never seen you play, I bet you're really great when it comes to tennis. And if I remember clearly, you did help me beat that robot shooty thing back at that cave Lion took us to."
Connie smiled and blushed. "Yeah. I guess I did, didn't I?"
"You sure did! That was the best Overhead Death Strike I ever saw!"
Connie giggled. "Well, thanks. That was pretty great, huh?"
Lion lay down as they reached the Temple. The two children climbed off his back, and Connie went over to her bike.
"Well, good night, Steven," she said as she walked her bike out to more stable ground. "I really should be getting home now."
"Okay. Bye, Connie."
"Bye!" And with that, Connie rode away from the beach.
"Wait until the Gems hear about what happened today." Steven went in his beach house and closed the door behind him.
Lion lifted his head up and looked at the moon as it perched over the ocean, a big, white semi-circle in the night sky. He then rested his head on his front paws, and went to sleep.
