Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any Non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.

Author's Note: I want to say thank you to every new reader whose attention I was able to grab. There are a lot of Steven Universe stories on here, many of them wonderfully written and well thought out with great ideas. May of them were by budding writers or seasoned writers behind them. With that I want to thank all of you for following and or favoriting this story. Many of you were wondering where Connie was? I try to give every character, series based or OC their fair share of time.

to quell the curiosity of my readers, this Chapter will be dedicated to Connie.

Story Tags: Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli, OC's, Connie Maheswaran Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Ruby, Sapphire, Peridot, Beach City, Gem Powers, Romance, Adventure, Comfort, Destiny.

Music Inspiration: "Delicious Smile" By: IS Infinite Stratos character song CD Vol. 3

Chapter 21: As Tough as Earth

Wednesday

May 13, 2016, 3:00 [Afternoon]

Palmyra, Maheswaran Residence

"I couldn't believe what my parents did. I knew they didn't like the crystal gems from the moment we had dinner with Steven and his dad. Sometimes I would hear them talk negatively about Garnet, pearl including, Amethyst.

But worst of all, they also spoke badly about Steven and his dad. I would hear them late at night saying that Steven was going to amount to nothing because he wasn't even in school. My mother called him a beach bum like his dad. My father sometimes wished I had met someone who was completely human. Had a promising future and at least had normal friends and a hard working father."

Connie was out in her backyard reading a book while sitting on a picnic table. It was particularly sunny out. So Connie opted to wear a sun hat. She wore a blue and white sailor styled dress with a white bow on her chest. She closed her book and looked up at the blue sky. Her book tab which had the image of a panda stuck out from between the pages at the top.

"But what they don't get is that Steven is human. He gets hungry like the rest of us, he cries and feels pain. He might not be in school, but he has a good reason. Someone like him wouldn't fit in school anyway. I envy him at time. He doesn't have to deal with kids who would be mean to him on his first day. I would know. many were mean to me in middle school. Better for him to take on the monsters who threaten the world, then having to deal with them in the hallways, restrooms, cafeteria and gymnasium."

"And I really don't care if my parents think he's a beach bum. That look fits him and his dad. Those pink slippers are cool. Mentioning Greg, he's got his own business, he can play the guitar and he hasn't let a lack of success get him down. I never thought I might get bored with reading. but my dumb parents took away my phone and computer, so there's no way I can speak to Steven."

Connie stood up from the picnic table and walked back inside of her home. She checked the time on an old but still functioning wall clock that ticked away in the silence of the living room. It was three twenty five, fifteen more minutes before she had to leave for her violin lessons. She received lessons from a friend of her mother who taught a small class of local resident teens with a nack for musical talent.

4:30 [Evening]

Returning back home with her father after her violin lesson. Connie removed the scrunchy that kept her dark brown puffy hair tied together behind her head. She reached around the back of her head and pulled it off. Her father loosened the tie around the collar of his long sleeve shirt.

"So good to be home, don't you agree sweetheart." Mr. Maheswaran asked Connie tiredly.

"You went to sleep halfway into my piece." Connie answered him.

"you've gotten better at least. I used to fall asleep in the first five minutes. Now it's after fifteen minutes"

"Dad!" Connie shouted, feeling insulted.

Mr. Maheswaran walked down the hallway and stepped inside of the restroom, closing the door behind him. Connie grabbed a two step ladder and moved it at the front of her kitchen cabinets. She stepped up on the small steps, grabbed a cup from the top cabinets where they usually were. With a cup in hand, Connie jumped off and opened her fridge. She pulled out orange juice and poured herself some.

"As soon as my dad falls asleep, as he normally does after returning back home from my violin lessons, i'm going to change out of my clothes and resume practicing my swordsmanship with my Zweihander and perfecting what I already know what to do with Commander Smoky's gem powers."

Connie drank her orange juice and placed the glass down on the kitchen counter. She brushed her lips with her forerarm to wipe away some of the juice still left on them. She walked up the steps of her house stairs and headed into her bedroom. She changed out of her current clothes and placed some casual clothes on. She went back downstairs and walked out to her backyard.

Maheswaran Residence, Backyard

5:10 [Evening]

Panting loudly and quickly. Connie was down on one knee catching her breath. She was surrounded by a light brown blocky aura that moved from one side of her body to the other. Connie kept her back turned to the back entrance of her home. Turning around slowly. Connie's entire right arm which was resting on her raised knee was made entirely out of Solid stone.

"Earth Method: Partial... Terra... physiology." Connie said in a ragged and exhausted tone.

"I have to keep...pushing it. Commander Smoky, I invoke your name to empower me." Connie pleaded quietly. She tightened her fist, clenched her teeth and expressed pain and determination. Her blocky aura flared up wildly. The blocky nature of the aura became more stable and became pyramidal in shape. The light brown Aura became darker. Connie pressed her stone had on the ground and sent out micro seismic waves.

"Earth Method: Earth Sight."

Through her eyes everything became black with white shaky outlines. Her visual acuity extended far enough to enable able to see the surrounding cities and towns. One of those cities was Beach City. Sending her mind through the natural vibrations in the earth, she traveled and stopped her minds eye on the beach facing the crystal temple.

Connie looked around and spotted Steven walking down the steps of his beach house. Lion followed him from behind. Connie smiled at this. but her smile turned into a frown when she saw Lapis fly out of the window of her own home.

"Why is she always with him. She's been with him ever since she came back. And steven-"

Connie's sentence was cut short when she saw Steven take a hold of Lapis's hand and walk down the beach with her. Lapis pushed some of her hair back against her ear. Connie tightened her fist even more, pushing her uncut nails into the palm of her hand which cut her; drawing blood.

"Connie Enough!" Commander Smoky's deep and powerful voice rang in her head.

"No! my parents told me that the relationship Steven and I had was done. They take away from me my phone and internet privileges. I thought that by the second day Steven would pay me a visit. He sent a pink pigeon to wish me well when I was in the hospital. Why hasn't he done the same thing this time. Oh my - do you think he thinks we're broken up?"

"Connie that doesn't matter at this point. We need to talk about a few things."

Connie removed her hand off the ground. Her Earth sight vanished and her normal vision returned to her. The sides of her eyes hurt, spasming. Connie groaned and placed her hands over her eyes and rubbed them.

"Connie, some of these Earth methods are a little too much for you to use. Let your body, eyes and mind acclimate first. Secondly, you remember that explosion that appeared three nights ago. That was no normal explosion."

"Yeah...i'm aware of the explosion. Astronomers and spokespeople from NASA said on television that it was the light from a massive star that exploded 1 billion light years away."

"That was a lie. The gem power I detected were from two powerful sources. One was from a male gem born from the mad goddess. The other was from Steven."

"From Steven? But how. Wait did you say a male gem? Why hasn't Steven tried calling me, I could have helped him-"

"No you couldn't have Connie. And I mean this in the kindest way possible. you would have only gotten in the way of the crystal gems and Steven's. You've made progress as my student and inheritor of my gemstone. But this gem that came down from heaven, he is not the kind of gem you would want to confront by yourself."

"So what good is any of this training if I can't even help the person who means so much to me."

"Connie, Don't cut your progress short. It'll be a long time before you can take on moon busters and planet killers. But right now, there are a couple of corrupted gems that are heading to Palmyra. The signatures of their gem vibrations tells me their earth based."

"How long till they get here Smoky." Connie asked her invisible mentor.

"Time estimation...in four hours." Smoky replied.

"That's at nine. My parents won't allow me to leave so late. But these things are headed to my hometown, and I swore an oath to this earth to protect this planet, my family and friends."

Connie took her time to catch her breath. She also needed to give her body time to prepare for a battle that will prove whether she's ready to assist the crystal gems and Steven in the future. Or if she was in over her head with all of this.

Palmyra

9:10 [Night]

Two hours after dinner ended. Connie showered afterward and pretended to get into her light blue nightgown and get in bed. But underneath her gown she had a yellow shirt with her blue overalls on. Her mother and father came in to give her as kiss. They told her she would get over Steven Universe and understand why they did what they did was necessary. When her bedroom door closed, Connie jumped out of her bed and locked it. She got down on one knee, placed her right hand on the floor and felt the earth's vibrations vibrating through the framework of her house.

This allowed Connie to listen in on what her parents were talking about. She heard their footsteps walk down the steps of the stairs. Using Earth Sight, she saw her mother and father taking a seat in the living room couch and turning on the flat screen HD TV.

"Connie hasn't said much about Steven since he left. Do you think she's finally getting it dear." Mrs. Maheswaran asked her husband.

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. I was going to return her phone back, but something told me not to. She's a smart girl, maybe to smart for her own good." responded her father.

"At least I'm smart enough not to quit so soon. Even if I fall on my face, at least I'm still moving forward." she thought in her head.

"Connie, the corrupted gems are outside the town. Remember the plan we came up with and keep your spirit strong. The human spirit is special, as it empowers my gemstone in a way magic can't mimic."

Connie stood back up, grabbed her peach colored tennis shoes from under her bed and slipped them on. She tied them and walked over to her window. She slid the window open and looked out into her backyard. She stood on the edge of her roof and looked down below. It was particularly windy tonight. She placed her hand in prayer and uttered the phrase.

"Earth Method: Metallization!"

Connie raised her arms and hands above her head. She inhaled and exhaled slowly. Her hands changed into steel starting from her nails down to her fingers. The cells in her hands and forearms changed their biological makeup from organic to inorganic. Her entire body changed from flesh to pure reflective steel. She gave herself some time to adjust to this change.

While her external body's composition might have changed, her internal organs and system did not. Connie took a diving position and jumped off the roof of her home. She started to rotate at a high enough velocity that air swirled around her like a tornado. She dove into the ground and rotated forward, she used her earth sight to find her way to the outskirts of Palmyra.

The Outskirts

9:30 [Night]

Even before she could dig herself out from the ground. Connie saw the images of two corrupted gems approaching. One took the form of a Large worm and the other was reminiscent of a Golem. Connie angled her direction upward and busted out of the ground, sending soil and pebbles up into the night sky.

Connie controlled her breathing and brought it down to a manageable level. The rotation turned her into a drill and her vision was still spinning. She blinked several times to do away with that effect. She waited for the corrupted gems to appear. She didn't have to wait for long. The ground began to rumble violently.

"Connie!" Commander smoky said loudly in her head. "Raise the earth in front of you, they made the gem signature of your gemstone. Their going to try to tunnel past you."

Connie stabbed her extended hands into the grounds and swiped them opposite each other. Her strength cracked the earth like a fracture appearing on window glass. Gas escaped. Connie grabbed the split earth and flipped it with all of her might. The corrupted gems tunneling underground, crashed into the earth wall Connie pushed down into the ground.

The ground shook. Then their was the sound of hissing. A cream colored see through worm with a segmented body shot out of the ground. A dark brown gemstone was located in it's mid section. The other corrupted gem rose out of the ground like a zombie that came up out of the ground.

The second enemy that showed up was a Golem made up of one large boulder that served as it's torso. Long skinny arms but large fists made up of stone. Its legs were made up of large boulders of varying sizes. It's head was a large upward crescent shaped boulder. There was a gray gemstone glowing in the center of it's torso.

"Connie! The worm is the slower enemy of the two. Focus on him last. the Golem before you is your main priority. Don't let his size fool you, he's a agile and powerful. This will be your test Connie. If you can protect this town before next dawn, my respect and more control over the power of your gemstone will be your payoff!"

Connie shuffled her feet on the ground, raising a mound that she used to surf on the ground. The golem took notice of Connie and raised his stony hands up and fired sharp stones at her like bullets. Connie who was still made out of steel, raised and closed her forearms up to her face and blocked the stone bullets. The stone bullets broke off and fragmented on impact with Connie's steel forearms.

Connie pulled her right arm back, with her hand balled up into a fist. The Golem ran towards her with the same intention. The two of them closed their distance between each other and collided fists. The potential energy released from the collision of fists released as a spherical blast of air and sound. The force sent a wave rolling across the ground.

Connie flew back, crashed and slid into the ground. The steel that made up her right arm showed signs of cracking. Connie tried not to spend time catching her breath whilst on the ground. Her heart started to beat faster, pumping more blood. her lungs took in more air for her red blood cells and released a lot of carbon dioxide.

"Oh gosh Smoky, I might-"

"Connie, listen to me. Ignore the pain and growing fatigue. You can do this, trust that brain and trust in my power."

The Golem who only skidded back on his heels from the collision. Took a look at his left arm and saw that it was shattered up to it's elbow. His gem allowed him to generate more stone from his body, growing a new arm and hand. He made a sound that sounded like a cocky chuckle.

Connie took off her lens-less glasses off and slipped them into the pockets of her overalls. She twirled her hands around and encased herself into a ball of earth several feet thick. The worm gem manifested giant mallet like arms on the sides of it's fat body. They were made from silver. He slid on his stomach and raised his arms and brought them down on Connie's defensive dome. Smashing them down repeatedly.

The golem rushed over to the sphere and punched at it with all of its might. Their combined attacks on the sphere gave off jackhammer like sounds. The sphere was tough, but it would not hold off forever. Connie needed time for her next move, for now, she grew twenty serpentine earth arms and hands from her sphere. The hands balled up into fists, pulled back and swung at the corrupted gem worm and Golem.

The giant fists pummeled the worm into the ground. The Golem fared a little better, deflecting the punches. Raising slabs of earth from the ground to act as shields for him. But the serpentine earth fists broke his walls and pummeled him into the ground too. While the fists kept the enemies busy, Connie was busy trying to manifest The knights armor worn by Commander Smoky. She was pushing herself past her current limit, tempting death.

The Golem punched away at the giant serpentine earth arms. Obliterating them. With itself free, it rushed over to help it's worm partner. The majority of the Golem's body was chipped away, only it's right arm was left intact and attached. It had used it's left arm as a shield to endure the savage barrage of punches.

Connie was finished. Her severely cracked spherical dome fractured and exploded. Connie wore Commander Smoky's armor, not one piece was missing. In her hands she held her diamond bladed Zweihander. panting very loudly, Connie rushed to end this fight as soon as possible. The Golem needed time to recover it's lost limbs, but Connie did not give him that time.

She ran forward and leaped upwards. she came down hard with the blade cutting the Golem in half. The Golem let out a deep groan when it's gemstone was cut in half. Connie swung the Great sword in several heavy sweeping motions. She cut the Golem down to size. Commander Smoky's sword was extremely enchanted, which meant anything cut by the diamond blade was non-salvageable. The Golem's gemstone light faded. Signaled it had died. She turned her attention to the worm who fired large fists made of stone.

Connie cut those in half when they came her way with ease.

"This ends tonight!" she told her slower enemy. Raising the handle of the Great sword beside her helm. Connie ended this fight before the light of next dawn created shadows.

Continued in Chapter 22.