It had started like any other day. Steven got up, brushed his teeth, got dressed and went to the big donut to get some breakfast. Later, he and Connie were going on a gem mission. He couldn't wait. However, when they warped he was confused to find himself in a large city. "Um, Garnet?" said Connie, just as confused," Why are we here? "" I have detected a dangerous gem artifact nearby. We need to find it before someone gets themselves hurt. " Unfortunately, when they found it, it was in the hands of three teenage girls. The artifact in question was some kind of chest, with 3 differently colored gems and an engraving of what looked like a frog. As the girls began to open the box, all the gems rushed forwards to try and stop them. Seeing they were too late, Steven quickly bubbled himself and the others, along with one of the human girls. A white light enveloped all of them and everything went dark.
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Sprig was bored. Hop Pop had left him and Polly in the cart to go shopping, and had left Polly, the baby, in charge because Sprig was "irresponsible". "Wish there was some way to prove I'm not such a goof up." he said glumly to Polly. Suddenly, Wally, the town weirdo, came running out of the woods, screaming" Monsters! Monsters! " As the rest of the town gathered, a panicked Wally started rambling." Th-theres monster in the woods! I seen em, I seen em! " Mayor Toadstool, in an attempt to deescalate the situation, said "Now, now, summer down Wally. Just tell us what you saw." "Oh, they was horrifying!" Wally replied, walking over to a bush. "They had huge heads, weird, stubby bumps in the middle of they faces, and horrifyingly long spindly legs!" He made a replica of one of the monsters out of sticks and leaves. The townsfolk gasped, horrified. Mayor Toadstool saw an opportunity. " Well, we better catch these things! Because for Mayor Toadstool, your safety comes first." he said with a wink. "Well, it's the responsible thing to do!" noted Wally. At the mention of responsibility, Spring's face lit up. "Polly, I just had a great idea. I'm going to catch these monsters and save the town!" "Uh-uh, no way. Hop Pop told me to make sure you stayed in the cart. YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T TAKE ME!" she shouted, flexing her admittedly impressive muscles. Sprig groaned in annoyance. Then, he got an idea. Pulling some candy from inside his jacket, he said" Oh oh oh, Polly, Look! Candy!" Then he dropped it on the floor with a raspberry. "Bribe accepted!" Polly yelled, jumping out of her bucket to eat the candy. "Let the monster hunt begin!" cried Sprig excitedly, jumping out of the cart. "Don't die!" Polly yelled after him as he entered the woods to track down the beasts. Sprig searched the forest high and low, until he found what looked like a footprint. "Seems the beasts roam these parts…" said Sprig as he looked around. "Probably a good place to- AHH!" He was cut off as he was brought up in a snare by his ankle. Suddenly, the bushes started to to rustle. Out stepped a figure that perfectly matched Wally's description. She was dirty and had a makeshift spear. "Caught ya! Thought you got the best of ol Anne, eh? Well you didn't." she said sounding slightly crazed. A voice from behind her called out "Who are you talking to Anne?" "Just the thing that's been stalking us!" "Ooh ooh I wanna see!" the second voice called out. A second creature, similar but smaller, ran out of the brush. "Ah! It's a whole colony! Well I have bad news for you beasts. I taste terrible!" Sprig said. "What!" said the smaller one, clearly distressed, "Anne, wee we going to eat him?" "What? Ew, no, gross dude." Unconvinced, Sprig said "you tried to eat Wally!" to which the tall one replied "I tried to ask 'Wally' for help. He ran off screaming the second he saw me!" "It's true!" added the smaller one, "I heard it!"" That does sound like Wally…" conceded Sprig, now feeling slightly guilty. Suddenly, a roaring sound came from the woods. " It's back!" squeaked the small one. "We need to get the gems!" "Good call!" replied the tall one as they ran off. " Wait!" yelled Sprig, "What's coming back? Where are you going?" As he said this, he began to struggle to get out of the snare. Getting desperate, he began trying to bite through the rope. "We gotta help him!" shouted the small creature, turning around. As they ran back, the small one summoned a pink disc of some kind, which he used to cut the rope holding Sprig up. "Come on, let's go before-" "No time to talk!" yelled the tall one picking Sprig up. The creatures, with Sprig in tow, dove into a hollowed out log. "You- you saved me!" cried Sprig in amazement. "Your- your not monsters at all! Your heros! Ugly, ugly, ugly heroes!" "Call me ugly again and maybe I will eat you." Anne replied playfully. "Ha! Your not gonna eat me! You got names strangers?" The small one jumped in. "I sure do! I'm Steven Universe, and I'm a member of the Crystal Gems!" He struck a pose. Then, a worried expression suddenly came to his face. "And I'm Anne-" started the tall one. Before she could finish, Steven cried out "The gems! They're probably so worried!" Anne facepalmed. "Ugh, you're right. We should get going before Pearl decides to skin me alive. Sorry- uh, what was your name?" "It's Sprig!" "Sorry Sprig, we should get going." Steven's face suddenly lit up with an idea. "Ooh, ooh! You should come with us! I'm sure the gems would love to meet you!" "Ok!" Said Sprig, following the strange creatures who had saved his life deeper into the woods.
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"They've been gone far too long…" fretted Pearl, pacing in front of the cave they had been living in. "Ooh, I knew we couldn't trust her!" "Calm down Pearl." said Garnet. "I'm sure their just fine." Just then, Steven came running into the clearing. "We're back!" he called. "Hey Ste-man!" said Amethyst. "Yo, Connie, their back!" Connie came out of the cave. "Where's Anne?" "Oh, she's-" he started, before what appeared to be an anthropomorphic pink frog jumped through the bushes. Pearl jumped and pulled out her spear. "What is that thing!?" she shouted, terrified. Anne came out of the woods behind him. "Whoa, whoa he's cool. Chill Pearl." Amethyst snickered at this. "He's 'cool'?! He's a frog person! He could be dangerous!" "I'm not dangerous!" "IT TALKS!?" "Of course I can talk. I'm normal. You're all the freaks. Where'd you come from anyway?" "Another universe." deadpanned Garnet. "Do you know how you got here?" Steven looked like he was about to answer when Pearl suddenly stepped in front of him. "Not really!" she said, slightly frantic in her tone. "Huh." "I still don't think we can trust him…" Pearl whispered to Garnet. Unfortunately for Pearl, Sprig overheard her. "What? Does this look like a face that could deceive you?" he said, trying his best to look cute. "Pearl, if he's a local, then he might be able to find us food." Connie pointed out. "Oh, you need food? Well why didn't you say so!" asked Sprig, as he ripped some bark off a log to reveal a plethora of different insects. "Maybe something else?" Steven suggested gently. "No bugs eh?" asked Sprig. "We'll have to hunt around."
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Hop Pop walked out of the store, humming a happy tune. He quickly noticed the townsfolk, congregated with torches and pitchforks. "When I say kill, you say them!" shouted Mayor Toadstool, leading a chant. "Heh, another day another mob. Come on kids, time to-" he paused as he turned around. "What the!?" To his horror, he found Sprig gone and Polly nearly passed out from eating too much candy. "I don't have a candy problem, you have a candy problem!" she said defensively. "Polly, where's Sprig?" "Uh, something something monsters, something something woods." "Oh, if your boy went into the woods, then he's as good as eaten." interjected Wally. "Those beasts will devour everything in their paths." "Not on my watch!" cried Hop Pop, grabbing Polly and jumping into the woods. "Hang on boy, Hop Pop's a comin!" The crowd shouted and ran after him.
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Sprig dumped a bucket of various edible plants he had found in front of the humans and half human. Picking one up, Anne took a tentative bite. "Hey, this is pretty good!" she said with surprise. "Really? Then gimme!" shouted Amethyst, who snatched the root right out of Anne's hands. "Amethyst!" Pearl scolded, "Leave the food for the humans! They need it to survive!" "Aaw, but P, I'm hungry!" "Pearl is right Amethyst." Garnet interjected. "Ugh, fine." said Amethyst, reluctantly handing the root back to Anne. "Soooo…" Sprig began, an inquisitive tone in his voice, "What the heck are you?!" "Well, me, Steven and Anne are human- well Steven is half human, and he's also half gem, which is what Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet are." explained Connie. "So Sprig," questioned Steven, "Why were you in the woods all by yourself?" "To prove that I'm responsible!" Sprig replied with an enthusiastic swing of his arm. "Oh, and how were you planning to do that?" asked Pearl, suddenly interested. Remembering the answer, Sprig's expression fell. "Uhhhhh…" Before Sprig could think of an answer, Wally popped out of the bushes and yelled "There they are!" The rest of the townsfrogs emerged from the woods, surrounding them. As they closed in, all the Gems summoned their weapons. Pearl opened her mouth to say something, but Amethyst cut her off. "Yeah, yeah, you told us so. Now c'mon! Let's kick some frog butt!" As they went to do just that however, they were ambushed from behind and tied up. Sprig tried to stop this, saying "No! You got it all wrong!" but it was to no avail. Hop Pop walked up and slapped Sprig on the shoulder. "Ha ha, you caught the monsters! Sprig I'm impressed." Clearly hurt Anne said "Dude, what the heck! You set us up?" "I told you we couldn't trust him." Gloated Pearl. "Not the time!" Anne snapped back. "No no no, this wasn't my plan!" Sprig insisted. Suddenly, a roar from the woods caught everyone's attention, as a praying mantis the size of a car emerged from the bushes. All the townsfolk gasped in fear. "Hurry! Everyone, mantis formation!" yelled Mayor Toadstool. The townsfolk stacked themselves into a pyramid. The mantis, seemingly afraid, backed off. As the frogs began to celebrate however, a much bigger, scarier mantis flew in behind them. The mantis screeched and began attacking. The frogs in the pyramid were immediately sent flying like bowling pins. Garnet suddenly flexed and snapped the ropes binding her. She summoned her gauntlets and launched herself at the mantis. Meanwhile, Sprig started to undo Anne's bindings. "What is this, another trick?" Anne asked suspiciously. "I'll distract that thing! You untie the others and get out of here!" He suddenly ran off towards the mantis as it slammed Garnet through several trees. Sprig fired a rock into the beast's eye with his trusty slingshot. Unfortunately, all this served to do was anger it further. It swiped its claw down, ready to smash Sprig into a pink paste… when Anne suddenly jumped in front of him and held it back! Turning around, Anne yelled "Do something!" "Oh, right! On it!" Sprig said, grabbing the rope that previously bound Anne. He ran around the legs of the mantis, tying them up in the rope. He then jumped all over its body, completely encircling the mantis. Both he and Anne pulled on one end of the rope, and as the Mantis fell, Garnet finally recovered and punched it over the trees. "We did it!" exclaimed Anne and Sprig simultaneously. "Up top!" said Anne, holding up her hand for a high five. Sprig returned it with his tongue, causing Anne to remark on how gross that was. "Uh, guys? Still tied up." said Amethyst from behind them. "Oh, right!" said Anne, going to untie them. However, Garnet held up a hand. "I'll do it." she said, as deadpan as ever. She walked over, and easily snapped all of their bindings. "Well, now that that's settled, what the heck are we gonna do with these things?" said Mayor Toadstool. "Maybe we oughta run em outta town, just to be safe. Let em be someone else's problem." The townsfolk, seemingly agreeing with this sentiment, surged forwards. The gems summoned their weapons and assumed defensive stances. Running between the two groups Sprig yelled out "Stop right there! They aren't monsters! Their just lost, and they need our help. We should take care of them." "Are you crazy?" retorted Mayor Toadstool. "Yeah," agreed Wally, "what if they go nutty tomorrow and start eating people?" "Not gonna happen buddy." replied Anne. "Don't worry yourselves silly!" said Hop Pop. "I'll keep an eye on em. All of em." He added with a pointed look at Sprig. Throwing up his hands in defeat, Mayor Toadstool conceded, saying "Have it your way Hoppediah Plantar, but I don't like it." With a sad expression, Sprig turned to Hop Pop. "Guess I'm back to causing trouble for the family again, huh?" "Trouble? Sprig, standing up to that angry mob to help these creatures out was some of the bravest and most responsible stuff I've ever seen." "That was pretty cool Sprig. It was also really dumb!" added Polly. "Yes, really really dumb." agreed Hop Pop. Sprig gasped. "You think I'm responsible?" "Well yeah I mean just this one time-" "Yes!" "Well don't get carried away-" "Big win!" "That was heartwarming," Pearl said condescendingly, "but we should be on our way. Would you happen to have a map?" "Oh, a map won't be enough. This here valley is surrounded by mountains that are impenetrable this time of year." said Hop Pop. "It should clear up in a couple of months!" Sprig added. "But until then, if you try to cross the mountains-" "you will die." "Are you telling me we're stuck in this crazy place for two months!?" Anne asked. "Where are we gonna stay!?"
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Later, Hop Pop, Anne, Connie, and the Crystal Gems were standing in the Plantar's basement. "All righty, kitchens upstairs. Breakfast at sunrise, sharp." Hop Pop told them as he left by way of the ladder. "Ok, thank you!" Steven said enthusiastically. Anne, Steven, and Connie set up bedrolls while the gems explored the room. "Hey! Getting comfy?" Sprig asked as he appeared in the door. "Brought some toys to keep you company." He dropped a bunch of stuffed toys on the ground. "I'm too old for these. Oh, except for this one." he corrected as he picked up a stuffed bird. He kept specifying toys he was not too old for until there were none left. "I'm glad you're living with us, monsters." he said to Anne with a smile. Smiling back, she replied "Yeah, me too, weird little frog boy." "Ok, good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite. Seriously, they can drain a body in seconds." As Sprig left, Pearl began to panic at this new information. While Steven and Connie tried to calm her down, Anne pulled out the music box. She opened it, only for nothing to happen. She repeated this several times before giving up with a sigh. Seeing this, Steven walked over to her. "Looks like we're gonna be here for a while." "It's ok Anne," Steven said, in an attempt to cheer her up, "We'll get home eventually!" "I hope so." Anne replied as she put the music box away.