Chapter 10: Ronnie Anne the Brawler
As soon as the robot drew near, Ronnie Anne spied her opportunity. She took off in a sprint away from the barrier, u-turned back towards it, and right when she got close, she grabbed the edge of the barrier and pushed herself up onto it. This got the robot's attention, prompting it to swing towards her and aim one of its mouth cannons directly at her face. On instinct, she crouched down and pushed herself off into another jump, sending herself in an arcing path across the room and landing in a straddle position atop one of the cannons.
Sheesh. That would've been really painful if I wasn't a girl.
The robot just sputtered about in confusion, having lost sight of its target but lacking the capacity to recognize that she was right on top of it. Ronnie Anne was quick to capitalize on that moment; she turned herself around, balled her hands into fists, and started hammering as hard as she could at the cannon below her.
"Ronnie Anne, what are you doing?!" she heard Steven cry from afar. "Get down from there!"
But she paid him no heed, and continued to pound away, even as her fists started to grow sore and her skin started to peel and bruise from the impact. To her surprise, she actually felt the metal of the appendage start to bend and give way to her blows, which emboldened her to continue. Her assault was stopped short, however, when the robot spied Steven again and swerved towards him, bucking her off and sending her crashing down onto the floor below. A sharp crack echoed throughout the room as her knee collided with the floor, sending rigid shockwaves of pain up and down her leg. One glance down at the point of impact revealed blood seeping out of her knee and dribbling onto the platform. She grimaced, hissed and clasped her hand over the wound, desperate to keep herself from bleeding too much.
The next thing she knew, she felt two meaty hands hoisting her off the ground and holding her aloft. "Come on, let's bolt!" cried Steven, carrying her over towards Lion, who had just recently gotten up from his nap. Without so much as a grunt of effort, he hefted her onto Lion's back, and climbed atop in front of her. Ronnie Anne, doing her best to ignore the stinging pain in her knee, locked her hands around Steven's waist and hugged him tight, Lion reared back, let out a mighty roar and sprinted forward, belching out a portal of the same size and shape as the one that brought them to the cave.
Lion leaped into the portal, which took them through the same multicolored pathway that they went through earlier, before spitting them out onto the Beach City shore. Through sheer exhaustion, Ronnie Anne lost her grip on Steven, toppled off of Lion's back and fell butt-first onto the sand.
"Boy, was that close," Steven said with a deep exhale as he dismounted from Lion. "Gotta admit, it was pretty cool how you attacked that robot. But..."
His tone hardened as he approached Ronnie Anne, who was rocking back and forth on the dune, clutching her wounded knee and hissing. "...but you have to be a little more careful," he said. "You could've really gotten yourself hurt."
Ronnie Anne's cheeks burned with shame at having Steven chide her. She couldn't exactly argue with him, with the splotch of fresh blood seeping out of her knee serving as proof of how reckless she had been. She hadn't even intended on going on a mission with Steven that day, and she still managed to get herself hurt. Maybe Pearl was right to doubt her.
Steven crouched down to meet Ronnie Anne at eye level, and his hands started to drift towards Ronnie Anne's injured knee. "Here, lemme help you with that," he said, gently grasping Ronnie Anne's hands and guiding them away. Ronnie Anne, knowing that Steven was too strong for her to resist him even if she wanted to, decided to accept his help... though she probably wouldn't have if she knew what he was going to do next. With a concerning level of nonchalance, he licked his pointer finger and rubbed it back and forth across the affected area. Ronnie Anne, cringing from the sensation of Steven's saliva against her skin, kicked him in the chest and jerked away from him.
"What the heck was that?!" she yelled, swiping her fingers across her knee in an attempt to wipe it dry. "You mind explaining to me why you just decided to rub a loogie on my knee?!"
"I was trying to clean the dirt off!" cried Steven. "Do you want it to get infected?!"
"No, but it'd beat having you slobbering all over my... my..."
Ronnie Anne's rant tapered off once she noticed that the pain in her knee was starting to fade. A glance down at her knee revealed that the gash was closing up, as a new layer of skin was growing over it. In just a few seconds, it looked good as new - aside from the bloodstain left behind, that is. Ronnie Anne gave her leg a tentative shake, and found that her pain had disappeared completely.
"I... you... how did you do that?"
"I-I don't know," said Steven. "The gems told me that my mom had healing powers, but- RONNIE ANNE, LOOK OUT!"
Steven pointed in the direction of the ocean's shoreline. To their horror, they saw a portal opening up, similar to the one summoned by Lion. Out from the portal emerged their robot attacker, now with eyes flashing a furious shade of red. Lion leaped in front of the two children and stood his ground, growling at the attacker.
The robot, undaunted by Lion's threat, tilted its head downwards and readied one of its cannons - the one that Ronnie Anne had attacked earlier, if the sizable dent was any indication. Its eyes turned from red to blue as it fired off a ball of ice-spreading plasma...
...or tried to, at least. Thanks to the damage done by Ronnie Anne, its mouth-hole was now a tad too narrow for the projectile to exit, and it detonated before clearing the end of the barrel. In an instant, the robot's face was coated with a layer of ice, and it could do little but sputter and jiggle around erratically.
I... did I do that? thought Ronnie Anne, as her heartbeat started to decelerate back to a normal pace.
A second later, a shrill cry of, "STEVEN!" came from the other side of the beach. Ronnie Anne turned her head to see Pearl sprinting across the dune to meet them, with Garnet and Amethyst flanking her.
"Steven, what on earth is that?!" cried Pearl.
"I don't know! Lion took us to this weird cavern, and then it started attacking us, and-"
"Say no more," said Amethyst, assuming a battle stance. The purple gem in her chest started to exude a blinding white light, and she plunged her hand into it as if it were an open doorway. When she withdrew her hand, she was clutching a thick, jewel-studded, three-tailed whip, with arrow-shaped gemstones at the end of each lash. Without a moment's hesitation, she swung the whip forward, entwined the robot in her whip's leathery coils, and yanked it downward as hard as she could. The robot hit the beach with a bang, as its ice-coated surface shattered upon impact, sending sand, debris and ice flying every which way. As soon as the deed was done, the whip vanished into thin air.
"Thank you, Amethyst," said Garnet, brushing sand off of her face as she approached the two children.
"Y-yeah," said Ronnie Anne. "I guess we owe you one."
"Nah, no need to thank me," Amethyst said with a smirk and a shrug. "It's what I do."
"Well, 'what you do' is going to get you into trouble one of these days," Pearl said pointedly. "Hopefully, we'll still be able to identify who- or what - just attacked Steven and Ronnie Anne."
Pearl took cautious steps towards the downed automaton. "I'm quite certain that this isn't a corrupted gem," she said, "but then what could it-"
Her thought process was interrupted by a horrified gasp - courtesy of herself. "Wait a second!" she cried. "This is... this is the training robot from Rose's secret armory!"
She swung her head around to face Steven, giving him a wide-eyed, aghast look. "Why would Lion take you to the Armory?!"
"What makes you think I'd know?!" cried Steven, throwing up his hands. "I told him that he could take us anywhere, and he... and he..."
"Inside," Pearl demanded, pointing across the beach towards the temple. "You and I have a lot to talk about. And I'd appreciate it if you were a bit more careful about where you take Ronnie Anne."
Ronnie Anne winced. She feared that she would get some form of condescension from Pearl, but it stung nonetheless. What was supposed to be a casual day of fun turned into a humbling reminder that she was nowhere near ready to join Steven in his adventures. Steven, noticing Ronnie Anne's pained expression, gave her a sympathetic glance before turning back towards Pearl.
"But she helped!" he cried, prompting a couple of raised eyebrows from Ronnie Anne and a double take from Pearl.
"I beg your pardon?" Pearl asked.
"She helped fight the robot!" he said, cracking an excited smile. "She jumped on top of it and banged up one of its cannons! You should've seen it!"
"Oh, my," said Pearl, as she placed a hand over her gaping mouth. "Ronnie Anne, is this true?"
Before she knew it, all three of the Crystal Gems had their eyes focused on her, each of them awaiting her answer with bated breath. The sight of those fantastical beings looking at her in awe caused her heart to swell with confidence, erasing all traces of timidity.
"You bet it is!" she declared, slapping her fist into the palm of her hand. "Busted it up real good!"
"That's my girl!" Amethyst hollered with a pump of her fist. "Ron-nie Anne! Ron-nie Anne! Whoop whoop!"
Hearing Amethyst hype her up caused Ronnie Anne's smile to stretch into an ear-to-ear grin. In a fit of joy, she ran over to Amethyst and high-fived her so hard that her hand stung for a few seconds afterwards.
"Yes, we're all quite impressed by your feat today, Ronnie Anne," Pearl said. Ronnie Anne's smile shrank a little, as she could sense the incoming "but..." from a mile away.
Sure enough, the next thing to come out of her mouth was that dreaded b-word. "But..."
"I'll handle this," interrupted Garnet, walking over towards Ronnie Anne. Before she knew it, Garnet was upon her, towering over her and gazing down into her eyes.
"As Pearl said, we're all impressed by your performance today," she said, bearing a faint but noticeable smile. "You've shown courage and power far beyond what we'd expect from a human child."
She then crouched down to meet Ronnie Anne at eye level, and lay one of her large hands across Ronnie Anne's shoulder. "But I think we can make you even better," she said. "If you're up to the challenge, I can give you the training you need to fight alongside Steven. There's no telling what kind of danger you'll fall into next, and I want you to be ready the next time you do."
Ronnie Anne's face lit up; until this point, she had resigned herself to the idea that she would never get a chance to become one of the Crystal Gems, and now an opportunity was presenting itself to her on a silver platter. She was a little hesitant to answer, though, as Garnet had quite the imposing presence and the idea of having her as a teacher was a bit intimidating. Truth be told, she thought she'd be more at ease being taught by Amethyst.
But beggars couldn't be choosers, so she decided to take the offer as it was. "I'll do it!" she announced, beaming at Garnet.
Steven, overcome with joy, ran up to Ronnie Anne and lifted her into a tight bearhug. "You're gonna do great!" he squealed. "I can't wait to have you on the team!"
"T-thanks," uttered Ronnie Anne, squirming around in his grip. "J-just put me down, please."
Steven let out a sheepish giggle and dropped her on the dune. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm just excited for you, y'know?"
"I know, I know," she said, picking herself up. "Trust me, I am too. I can't wait to get started!"
Garnet gave her an appreciative nod. "Meet me at the temple tomorrow at 2:00. I'm sure you won't disappoint."
Pearl cast a worried glance in Garnet's direction. "Garnet, are you sure about this? Training someone so young?"
"I'm sure," said Garnet. "Let's not forget that you were only a thousand years old when you became a Crystal Gem."
Pearl's gaze drifted towards the ground. "That's true," she admitted.
"You needn't worry about us. I have absolute confidence that Ronnie Anne will make a splendid student."
Ronnie Anne's heart skipped a beat at Garnet's appraisal. She had never thought of herself as a fighter - a tough girl, sure, but not a combatant - so it flattered her to hear someone speak of her potential in such glowing terms.
"I suppose I should trust your judgment," said Pearl. "But for now," she added, taking Steven by the hand, "we have other matters to address. I'm quite certain that Lion didn't take them to the armory by accident."
With that, the five of them - Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Steven and Lion - began the trek home. Steven gave Ronnie Anne one last wave goodbye before Pearl guided him away.
Meanwhile, Ronnie Anne began to make her own way home, feeling so elated and anxious that she could hardly breathe. For the rest of the day, she'd daydream about all the trials and tribulations that were awaiting her at the Temple, and her upcoming evolution from a scrappy little girl into a bonafide warrior.
As she walked across the shore, she heard one last outburst from Pearl before the group was out of earshot:
"What do you mean, you have healing spit?!"
