It have passed at least 5 weeks since the incident of the Cluster and the self destruction of the Kindergarten. Connie had learned swordfighting thanks to Pearl and Steven, who was his idea in making Pearl train Connie swordfight. Connie is now an expert at swordfighting and Steven began his training to swordfight as well. Not only that, but Steven has finally mastered the ability to summon his Shield at will.
He also learned more about his mom and the Original Crystal Gems thanks to the story his dad, Greg told him about how he found out the fusion powers since he saw how Steven and Connie fused turning into Stevonnie. Now... Greg has grew more closer to Steven and also Connie offering any advices to her when it comes to human beings and Gem stuff.
Also Ronaldo had released his video project called: Rising Tides, Crashing Skies. He putted everything that he recorded thanks to his camera into this video. It included a footage of the giant hand spaceship of Peridot landing on the beach, a big explosion, the meeting of Peridot, Lapis, and Jasper and also showing a photo of the little piece of that giant spaceship that he found on the beach. Even though he uploaded the video 9 days ago no one has view it yet, except for Steven and the Crystal Gems therefore making only 1 view to the video.
Not only Steven grew more closer to his family, but also did Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper who were once Homeworld Gems now they are Crystal Gems. Thanks to Peridot trust towards the Crystal Gems, they learned more about Homeworld and manage to destroy one of the most horrible and worst places for not only human kind, but also to Gemkind. After the destruction of Kindergarten, Peridot smiled more often and had more fun with Steven. She tended to get annoyed by Amethyst since sometimes she pull pranks to her and tease her like she does to Pearl. Sometimes Peridot followed both Steven and Lapis on their walks of BSFB, and have fun with both of them. In the time elapse of five weeks Peridot has now builded like 10 robonoids and was almost done getting rid of the remaining debris that she still has; she also manage to make Peri jr. work more appropiately and it doesn't have so much malfunctions or errors. Still, some of her robonoids still need some fixing or repairing to do.
Lapis still remained closer, if not much closer to Steven. She still feels a little bit uneasy when she is around of Jasper or the Original Crystal Gems trio. Even if she feels awkward around them, she sometimes make pranks with Amethyst and Jasper. In some ocations Lapis teached Steven some cool tricks about swimming and she often play with him and make water figures to entertain Steven. When Connie visits Steven, Lapis uses her hydrokinesis powers and make playground made of water for them to play with ther swimsuit. Sometimes in the night, Lapis goes on a nightwalk and finds some crab shells grabbing them and taking them to the house to show it to Steven. Right now, she has a collection of 10 crab shells (including the one Steven gave her) and every day she wears a different crab shell as a necklace.
Jasper has showed a soft side in the past 5 weeks, but she still retained a cocky, short-tempered, reckless and a funny personality. She hangs out more with Steven and Amethyst. She hangs with Steven when it comes to eating, sometimes sleeping, or Steven hiding in Jasper hair...sometimes he tends to be in her hair for a long time. She hangs out with Amethyst when it comes to making pranks. She tends to prank Peridot. Jasper is fond of the tigers ever since Steven show her a documental about the Tigers, Puma and Lions; in some occations Jasper and Steven plays pretending to be a tiger with her acting like a tiger and Steven acting as her little cub. Mostly of the times Jasper challenges Garnet to a friendly rematch fight against her, in which Garnet always responds yes thinking it would be a great training session for her and learning more to think propertly instead of charging without thinking like she did when She fought her for the first time. Sometimes Garnet teach her new moves in which Jasper sometimes use, but Garnet blocks it easily. Everytime Jasper challenges Garnet always is the winner, but Jasper takes it nice and she had vow to defeat her one time.
Everyone was having a good time. However Garnet knew that one day they will need to go on a mission and learn fusing and trusting each other as a REAL team. She also knew that having 3 gems on Steven's room is too much for the house. She thought it would be a good idea for Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper to have their own room so they can put their own stuff in there (especially Peridot and Lapis) and have all their own space.
One day Garnet finally discovered a corrupted gem and thought it will be the perfect opportunity for the three of them to go on their first mission.
Inside of Steven's House (2:20 P.M)...
Steven was talking over the phone with Connie.
"Okay... so you are going to come here tomorrow, right?" said Steven talking to the phone.
"Yeah, I'll bring our fanfiction of Unfamiliar Familiar to think of Chapter 14." responed Connie.
"Okay... See you tomorrow Connie." said Steven as he pushed a button seemingly ending the conversation. Then Steven putted the phone where it belonged.
Then Steven saw one robonoid coming on his direction holding his third book of Unfamiliar Familiar.
"Oh! Thanks Flasky. I'm gonna need to read a little bit to get inspired on our fanfiction." said Steven while grabbing the book. The robonoid returned to Peridot who was sitting on the couch with her laptop made of her fingers open, apparentely searching something.
"Was it you that commanded Flasky to give me the book?" asked Steven since Peridot robonoids don't do anything unless Peridot commands it.
"Well... I heard you talking with your friend known as Connie about a fanfiction called Unfamiliar Familiar and I saw this. I thought you need it for something." said Peridot.
"Well... thanks Peri." said Steven as he went to the couch and sitted down, opening the third book of his magical book that Connie gave him.
Then Garnet's door room opened and revealed Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst.
"Crystal Gems! I need to say something." said Garnet. Then Lapis who was floating inside Steven's House landed near Steven and Peridot.
Peridot remembered that Jasper was outside training. She went outside to call Jasper and saw that she was making some exercises of abdominals.
"Hey! Jasper!" shouted Peridot loud enough for Jasper to hear her.
"What is it?! It better be something important!" said Jasper still doing abdominals exercises.
"Garnet, has something to tell us so get a move on!" responded Peridot.
Then Jasper stopped her exercises and jumped with full force and landed near Peridot surprising her.
"AAHH! Watch where you're landing next time!" shouted Peridot while entering the house.
"Hey! At least I didn't squash you foot like last time." said Jasper with an annoyed tone while doing the same. Then both of them went towards Steven who was sitting on the couch along with Lapis and saw Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst standing in front of them
"Now that we all here theres something I need to say." said Garnet while adjusting her shades while Peridot and Jasper sitted down.
"I have located some corrupted gems on a Forest with big trees and many different paths." said Garnet. This surprised Lapis and Peridot a little bit.
"Its a good opportunity for the three of you." said Garnet while pointing to Lapis, Peridot and Jasper.
"So... this will be like our first mission?" asked Peridot.
"Yes. All of us are going on the mission. The reason why Pearl, Amethyst and me are going as well is because we are going to see how the three of you handle the misison." said Garnet.
"And Steven. Would you be so kind to explain them how the missions work?" added Garnet. Steven suddenly got stars in his eyes and let out an exited sigh and standed in front of Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper making a somewhat commander posture.
"All right! Since this is your first mission I'm going to explain some things about it. First of all, We are going to work as a team okay? The missions is about getting these corrupted gems on a bubble without broking or at least cracking their gemstone therefore making them poof to their gem (or at least thats what I think). If we see any of our teammates in trouble don't doubt on helping them. Also if by any chance there is an abstruction or a giant monster that is either too big or powerful then fuse! Don't doubt it, just fuse because it will be awesome and cool to see new fusions." explained Steven with big stars on his eyes.
Lapis and Peridot got a surprised face since they still feel uneasy on hurting other gems, but just like Steven said its about getting these gems into a bubble without breaking or cracking them unlike what Homeworld did and go as far on forcing them to fuse with other gems. Jasper standed up.
"We got it. Only making them retreat into their gem and thats it." said Jasper while cracking her knuckles with a cocky smirk.
"So we can go now, right Garnet?" said Pearl.
"First of all, is everyone ready?" said Garnet before going to the Warp pad.
"If it doesn't bother you, I'll prepare my robonoids for this task." said Peridot as she standed up and went towards her robonoids who were all turned off.
"Peridot. If you are planning on bringing any robonoid be sure to bring only two. Also don't forget to make sure they work propertly." said Garnet.
"I understand." added Peridot. Then Peridot tooked out one little control from her gem. Then she pressed a green button of the remote control and it make Peri Jr activate. Then she grabbed Peri Jr. and Flasky since that robonoid was still activated.
"All right, I think both of you will be just fine." said Peridot.
Then Peridot went towards the Warp Pad along with her robonoids who were following her, where everyone was waiting for them go.
"All right Steven, activate it." said Garnet with a little smile. Then Steven make his trademark pose before activating the Warp Pad and put a little bit of force since this time he is warping 7 people. Suddenly the Warp Pad finally got activated and warped them towards the Forest where the corrupted gem was located.
At the Forest...
The Warp pad was located before the Forest entrance and suddenly began to glow. Steven and the Crystal Gems finally arrived and were very surprised to see huge and gigantic trees.
"WOAH! Those trees are very huge! I think they are like the size of Sugilite!" said Steven with big stars on his eyes.
"All right. The gem should be at the end of the Forest." said Garnet while stepping out of the Warp Pad.
Everyone proceed to do the same and followed Garnet. Soon enough the Crystal Gems entered the Forest and saw how immense were the trees, they barely could see the top of these trees. Later the Crystal Gems encountered a place with 4 different paths.
"Great! Now what?" said an annoyed Amethyst.
"What is it? Are we lost?" asked a confused Steven.
"Actually if we make one mistake we might get lost. These place is called: Lost Woods. During the war, we used to hide a lot of bases here since mostly of the gems that tried to enter here got losted and never found any of them. The only way to get into the end of these forest is to choose correctly one of the path, but only Rose and a few of her friends manage to do it. If you choose bad then you will return from the beginning, but not before the entrance. I don't know how exactly these gem got into the forest." explained Pearl while showing a mini hologram of what she just explained with her gem.
"Well, why don't use Garnet's future vision?" suggested Steven.
"Steven, Future vision doesn't exactly says what it will happend. It only gives me multiple paths and roads with different possibilities so therefore using future vision on Lost Woods would be a terrible choice." explained Garnet.
"I say we just smash these trees and problem solved!" said Jasper while summoning her Crasher Helmet and dashing at full speed towards one tree.
"WAIT! JASPER!" shouted Pearl trying to stop Jasper, but was too late. Jasper crashed on one of the giant trees and it didn't do anything to the tree. Instead it was Jasper who got hurt after doing in that, not only that but in the process it also broke her helmet.
"AARGH! What the heck are these things made of?!" shouted Jasper with an annoyed and angry tone while touching her head.
"These trees are unbreakable. Rose made it with a combination of one of the powers of our fallen comrades." explained Pearl with an annoyed face.
Lapis and Amethyst tried their best on not to laugh of Jasper failed attempt. Peridot however was examinating the trees trying to find any clues. Unfortunately she didn't found anything. However she began to examinate the different paths and found something very weird. In one of the paths her laptop began to recieve strange and omnious sounds.
"I found something!" shouted Peridot. Then everyone began went towards her.
"What is it? Did you find anything?" asked Garnet.
"Well it seems that this path has some sort of strange sounds that my laptop can recieve. It could be a hint." answered Peridot.
"What do you think it is?" asked Lapis.
"I think it must be the gem we are looking for." suggested Amethyst.
"But how is possible that Peridot device could percieve such a thing?" asked Pearl trying to process everything since she isn't very fond of Modern Gem technology.
"I don't know, but I think we should choose this path then." said Garnet.
"What?!" said a surprised Amethyst.
"Uhhh... I don't want to interrupt, but we aren't going to find anything if we stand here doing nothing!" said Jasper as she went towards the path that Peridot's laptop percieved the strange sound.
"Wait! Jasper!." said Steven as he followed Jasper.
"STEVEN!" shouted both Pearl and Lapis immediately running to him, indirectly following him too.
"Well thats a thing." added Amethyst. Later, Garnet did the same and so did Peridot along with her robonoids.
This path was covered in mist and big trees that obstructed the view of either the left and right side. Not only that but also the forest become even more darker. Steven manage to catch up with Jasper like everyone else did. It seems that they got out of the path.
"Steven! Don't do that again! You might hurt yourself or get lost!" said a worried Pearl.
"Oh, theres nothing to worry about. Besides, look! We made it!" said Steven as he pointed that now the place had different surroundings yet four different paths.
"How do we know?" added a confused Jasper.
"Well... to be honest I don't know." said Steven while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Steven is right. We made it. According to my laptop it seems that the noise isn't affecting it. It seems that it disappeared." said Peridot while examinating the new different paths recieving nothing of sound.
"Ugh! This is complicated!" said Amethyst while throwing herself on the ground seemingly giving up.
"Don't whine. Peridot." said Garnet.
"What is it?" asked Peridot.
"Is there anything that we can use as a clue?" asked Garnet.
"I'm afraid that no." responded Peridot.
"Hmmm... Crystal Gems! Make sure to find any clue. Maybe it could be a hint to see where we are going next." ordered Garnet.
Then everyone proceed to do what Garnet said. Every single of them began to look, but sadly they couldn't found anything.
"Ugh! If we could just see the light of the sun then..." said Lapis with an annoyed tone, but stopped when she looked up and saw that three trees have the same pattern of branches yet one had different branches. Lapis immediately summon her wings and fly upwards to see it more clearly. She could notice that these trees are very big since it took her at least one minute to see it.
She noticed that this four trees were standing at the side of the paths therefore making all clear now. She fly downwards to tell them this. She finally landed.
"Hey! I found something." said Lapis. Everyone follwed up and gathered where Lapis was.
"What is it?" asked Garnet.
"I just found out that these trees has the same pattern of branches however, that tree doesn't have the same pattern. So maybe it could be that this path it could be the correct one." said Lapis while pointing three trees and then the different tree.
Garnet decide to enter first to see if Lapis theory was correct. She enter it and never returned. Steven began to worry and he along with Peridot and her robonoids and Lapis entered the path. They also didn't return, however Pearl, Amethyst, and Jasper decided to do the same. They enter it and exited and saw that it was the correct path showing that Lapis theory was correct. Now this place is more darker than the one before. It seems that its getting even more darker everytime they get through the correct path.
"Ha! Who is the smartest now?" said Lapis bragging to Pearl since she is known as being the smartest gem of the Crystal Gems along with Peridot.
"Hmmph! Well... its seems that the only way to get through this forest is too find any sort of difference of the paths." said Pearl.
Everyone proceed to do it and search any sort of difference that could make them advance to the next path. Thanks to Pearl, Steven, and Garnet they manage to get through three paths and finally made it to a more clearer yet having four different paths. It seems that this it their last one.
"Well... We finally made it!" said an exhausted Steven.
"Not yet Steven. We need to get through this path and thats it." said Garnet.
"How are you so sure this it it?" asked Jasper.
"Well the path is a little bit more bright meaning that this is the end of Lost Woods." explained Garnet.
"Any luck yet?" asked Amethyst.
"No." said Peridot examinating the four paths recieving nothing.
"I didn't found anything." said Lapis as she landed near Peridot making disappearing her wings.
"Nothing." said Steven as he check out the ground.
Suddenly Jasper was tired and annoyed by all this complexity of different paths and finding that gem.
"ARGH! THATS IT!" shouted Jasper as she throwed a powerful punch on one of the trees.
"Jasper!" shouted Pearl with a little bit of an annoyed tone.
But it was too late and she landed the punch on the tree, but unlike last time this tree didn't hurt her; in fact... the tree recieved a crack. She was very confused by this and decided to investigate the tree and found out that this tree it was ordinary.
"Huh? It didn't hurt her?" said a confused Pearl. Then Pearl decided to try slap another tree and this time Pearl got hurted and the tree remained untouched meaning that Jasper discovered a difference.
"Owww!" shouted Pearl while rubbing her hand. Amethyst bursted out with a big laughter after seeing how Pearl intended to hurt the tree.
"BWA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh man! That is hilarious!" said Amethyst still laughing so hard.
"AMETHYST!" shouted Pearl.
"Hey! Quit your bickering!" said Jasper.
"She is right. We got the difference now we can advance." stated Garnet as she walked towards that path with the ordinary tree while everyone do the same.
Pearl and Amethyst got an annoyed face while Jasper only showed a cocky smirk to them.
"I can't help to be awesome." said Jasper with a cocky smirk.
"(Says the gem who got her head owned by a tree.)" thought Amethyst while laughing a little bit.
At the end of the Forest...
Steven got very excited when he saw the end of the Forest. It showed three bases of the Crystal Gems of thousands of years ago.
"WOW! Look at that! Its so cool!" said Steven with a big smile and stars on his eyes.
"But... where is that gem? It suppose to be here since we didn't saw it while we were on the paths." said Pearl trying to see where it was the corrupted gem.
Suddenly four dark portals appeared out of nowhere and revealed four monsters that looked the same. This monster was all green with a little bit of yellow mixed with purple and have distortioned face with sharpy teeths and big claws, and also it had tree characteristics such leaves on its head and roots in its legs. One of the monster launched a powerful yellow energy to the Crystal Gems while the other three monsters disappeared from the portal. Steven manage to summon his shield and protect the Crystal Gems from the attack.
"THEY ARE FOUR OF THEM?! Garnet! You said it will be only one!" said Lapis with a nervous and scared tone.
"Its only one! I don't know why they are four of them!" said Garnet while summoning her gauntlets.
"Don't lose the focus! I think that the other three are fake ones!" suggested Peridot.
"Then how do we know which is the real one?!" asked Jasper while summoning her Crasher Helmet.
"The same way we discovered the real path!" responded Peridot.
"Uhh... theres one problem. And that problem is that how EXACTLY we are going to discover that if it keeps attacking us!" shouted Amethyst while summoning a pair of whips.
"Don't you see?! The real one attacked while the fake ones just retreated on their portals." explained Peridot.
"But we may attack the wrong one!" said Pearl while summoning her spear.
"I think its better if we separate and let Peri tells us which one is the real one." said Steven still protecting the Crystal Gems with his shield.
"Sounds good to me!" said Jasper while jumping out of the shield and charging in front and wait where exactly the monster will appear.
"Come on! Whats the delaying?! We need to execute the plan right now!" shouted Jasper trying to get the Crystal Gems to act as fast as possible. Then everyone proceed to do the same.
"Everyone separate! Steven, if theres any trouble then use your shield! Peridot stay behind to tell us where is the real monster!" shouted Garnet as she began to run.
"I understand!" said Peridot as she stay there along with her robonoids.
Everyone got separated, Jasper was on the upper-left, Pearl was on the lower right, Garnet was on the upper right, Amethyst and Lapis was on the lower left, while Steven remained a few inches away still with his shield summoned. Suddenly another four dark portals appeared around them and the same monsters appeared. Peridot began to see if any of the monster was ready to attack, then she saw that the monster on the that was on the upper left side began to charge another energy attack while the other three disappeared.
"Jasper! Its the one infront of you!" shouted Peridot.
"Finally! I get to let out all of my steam!" said Jasper as she took a fighting stance. Then the monster launched the energy attack, but Jasper counterattack it by punching the yellow energy sending it back to the monster hitting successfully making the monster disappear on another portal.
Then another four portals appeared and Peridot saw that the monster on the the lower right began to charge and launched another energy attack but this time it was bigger.
"Pearl! Your turn!" shouted Peridot.
"I won't let you do that!" said Pearl as she counterattack the yellow energy with her spear, but the monster didn't commit the same mistake and attacked the energy attack sending it back towards Pearl.
"What?!" said Pearl with a surprised tone and face, but she acted fast and counterattack it once again this time sending the energy attack much fast hitting the monster successfully making it disappear.
The four dark portals once again appeared but this time above of them.
"What?! Oh no! Lapis! Use your wings!" shouted Peridot.
"All right!" said Lapis as she summoned her wings and fly upwards at full speed.
"Peridot! Which one of them is the real one?!" asked Lapis while preparing her own powerful attack of water. Then Peridot saw that the one from the left side preparing to attack while the others disappear.
"On your left!" shouted Peridot.
Then Lapis fly to the left side at full speed still holding a ball made of water on her left side. When the monster was ready to launch its energy attack it was interrupted by Lapis who manage to hit the monster with her own ball made of water hitting its face then all suddenly that little ball covered all the body of the monster and the water heated up. Then Lapis with all her strength throwed the monster covered with hot water making it crash into a wall resulting into a big explosion of heated water poofing the monster on the process.
"How do you like that?" said Lapis still with her wings summoned. Steven got very excited and suprised by seeing the attack of Lapis as well as everyone. Lapis fly down and landed near the gem of the monster. Garnet followed her and bubbled the gem transporting it to the temple on the process.
"WOAH! THAT WAS SO AWESOME LAPIS! HOW DID YOU DO THAT AWESOME, COOL, AND AMAZING ATTACK?!" asked a happy, and excited Steven with big stars on his eyes and his mouth all open up from the excitement.
"Heh, you like it? Well you... first with one of my hands I gather a small ball of water that fits in the palm of either of my hands, then if I hit my enemy with it...that small ball of water heats up and covers all the oponent launching them in the process until crashing with something making it explode in a big and powerful explosion, if it doesn't hit anything then the water just explodes in the same way, but crashing it with someone makes it more powerful and cool to do." explained Lapis while making another small ball made of water that fits in her palm of her left hand.
"Thats awesome!" said Steven still with big stars on his eyes.
"Yeah... it was very cool." added Garnet.
"I'll admit, its not bad." said Jasper as she disappeared her helmet.
"Now that ugly-o is in its bubble, we can return home now?" asked Amethyst.
"Yeah. Everyone did a good job. And I mean Everyone." said Garnet as she looked Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper.
At Steven's House (5:30 P.M)...
Steven warped everyone back to the house and Garnet went to her room to put the subdued monster where the others corrupted and bubble gems are.
"Oooh man! Today it was really exhausting." said Steven as he laid down on the couch very tired.
"It seems that for the first time my robonoids are unharmed for the first time on doing such a task." said Peridot as she checked her robonoids to see that they don't have any damage.
"You gotta admit though, Lapis attack was pretty rad." said Amethyst while getting some food from one week ago.
"Yeah. But I bet I can do it ten times better and with a cool fire effect." said Jasper while showing a cocky smirk.
Then Garnet's door room opened and revealed Garnet. Garnet went towards Lapis, Peridot, Steven, Amethyst, and Jasper.
"What is it Garnet?" asked Steven.
"I just want to tell Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper that they did a great job on today's mission and I'm very proud of them." said Garnet.
"I agree. It was simply amazing and suprising how easily the fight was with that monster." added Pearl.
"Well, you already heard from me that the three of you were pretty awesome." added Amethyst while eating the food that she left there one week ago, much to Pearl disgust.
"I already know that Lapis, Peri, and Jasper did a great job and I'm pretty amazed by seeing how all of you work out together as a team." said Steven while hugging Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper.
Lapis, Peridot and Jasper hugged Steven at the same time and smiled.
"Uhh... guys? You are kinda squashing me." said Steven trying to breath.
"Sorry, Steven." said Lapis while breaking the hug along with Peridot and Jasper.
"Also I want to tell you something very important for the three of you." said Garnet.
"And what is that?" asked Peridot.
"We would like to make a room for the three of you." said Garnet while looking at Lapis, Peridot and Jasper.
Author's Note: Aaaaaaand just like I promise here is the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I do. Anyways this is the first time I write a chapter involving a fight, so it might be little bit off, but thats because its my first chapter that has a fight scene it. And I mean a long fight scene.
Anyways, Thanks for reading this fanfiction, I hope you guys like it! See ya in Wednesday.
Bonus Points if you guys finds out the three references I did there. I'll give you one hint: One comes from an anime.