Chapter 6:

It was the following day after Steven's little picnic with Connie. Now he was sitting at the foot of his bed playing his video games. In just three levels, Steven will finally beat the meany fox that has been terrorizing the citizens of Gumphule. The TV screen flashed red with Fatality! in bold white writing after Steven accidentally missed a jump. "Aww man!" he complained.

Suddenly, Steven heard the sound of the temple door opening. After exiting his game, Steven stood up and headed downstairs. Garnet emerged from her room and walked right up to Steven. "Hey Garnet!" Steven exclaimed. "Are we going on a mission?"

Garnet look down at the boy in curiosity. "How did you know what I was going to ask you?" she asked.

Steven slightly shrugged and said, "I dunno. Lucky guess."

Garnet then told him to prepare and dress accordingly since they were going to a dark cave in a mountain. Steven raced up into his room again to prepare. He slipped on his snow jacket that was in his closet and put in a flashlight amongst other things into his cheeseburger backpack. Right after that he took his phone out of the charger and proceeded to text Connie. Hey Connie! I'm going on another mission so I might not be able to answer the phone. 3 you and take care.

Almost immediately after, Connie responded. Ok Steven, please be careful! love you too!

Steven then shoved his phone into his back pocket and jumped down the stairs. He walked up to the other 3 gems that were waiting for him on the warp pad. "Ready!" Steven exclaimed.

All 4 crystal gems then disappeared in a flash of white and reappeared in a cave. Garnet was the first to speak up. "Okay, listen up. There is a corrupted gem somewhere in here and it's making the integrity of this cave unstable. If it collapses, so does half the mountain. The best way to find it is for all of us to split up."

Pearl perked up after hearing this. There was no way she was going to let Steven go alone. He just learned how to summon his shield and is highly untrained for this. Before she could add her own input though, Garnet stated, "The decision is final Pearl. No arguing. Amethyst, you go to the left. Pearl, you go straight ahead. Steven, go to the right. I'll go look outside." Three of the four gems then separated to look for the beast on their own, leaving a very confused Pearl by the warp pad.

As Steven was walking down the narrow corridor, he whipped out his flashlight from his cheese pocket. He shined the light from side to side every so often in hopes of seeing the beast but to no avail. Steven kept trudging on through the cave for what seemed like an eternity. To pass the time, Steven pulled out his phone to see if there was any service. There wasn't any signal though to his disappointment.

He instead put his phone back into his pocket and continued to search. Steven then entered a massive room with walls that illuminated in the darkness. Amazed by this sight, he put away his flashlight into his backpack again and wandered into the middle of the room. Dead end, I should go back to the warp pad now, Steven thought.

Before he could he leave the room though, a long vine wrapped around his torso and dragged him back to the middle. Steven screeched in surprise at the sudden contact. As he turned around, he saw the gem monster he's been searching for coming out of a brand new hole it just created.

Steven quickly summoned his bubble which effectively cut off the vine that was trapping him. Then he deactivated it and instead summoned his shield. He attempted to block off the monster's attacks whilst he yelled for the gems to help him. Right before Steven could try to fight the beast himself, he heard heavy footsteps coming towards him.

Distracted for a second at the thought of the gems saving him, he let his guard down. The monster quickly acted on this by ensnaring Steven in it's vines and squeezing as tightly as it could. As the other 3 gems appeared to Steven's aid, Steven let out a loud yelp before he poofed into a massive cloud of pink and retreated into his gem for the first time.

A/N: New Chapter! I needed a little drama and suspense, soo here it is! Find out if Steven regenerates or not in the next chapter. Or it could be in the chapter after that. It depends. Anyways, Please Review!

-ComputerHogger