"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Steven dug his hands into his hair in panic as he stared at the skull on Mayor Dewey's van. Connie cupped her mouth with her hand as she looked at the skull and Steven in disbelief.

"Th-th-that guy is already here!?" Connie fearfully asked as she went to Steven's side.

"What guy?" Mayor Dewey stopped crying to ask.

"Th-Theirs this assassin after me and the gems and he said that if we see these skulls it means his here!" Steven said holding back tears.

"WHAT!? Theirs an assassin, in Beach City!?" Mayor Dewey said in panic as he sweated profusely. He looked back at Steven with a concerned stare. "and he's after you?" Dewey questioned as he started to pace.

"I got to tell the gems that he's here!" Steven said letting Dewey process the situation.

"Good idea, let's go!" Connie said as she started to run but Steven grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Connie, you have to go home!" Steven said still holding Connie's arm.

"What? But Steven I-"

"No buts." Steven interrupted. "I don't know what this scary guy is capable of but he might see you as a threat to his mission and hurt you…plus he has something against me and the gems so it's our business." Steven said with the utmost seriousness. Connie considered his words for a moment and nodded she ran home, Steven heading the other way for the temple. Steven heavily as he ran, as he got closer to the temple he saw that their was skull paintings in places he didn't notice at first. Their was one in an alley, one painted on the road, on the side of the arcade and one on the Big Donut's dumpster which left Sadie to cleaning up. Steven's anxiety only increased every time he saw the skull. Steven got to the beach and fell to his knees in exhaustion.

*huff* *puff* *huff*

"Alright…come on Stevie, The gems are at a mission but you can get them back with the warp whistle, then you can tell them about the man, they'll scare him off and you can live happily ever after!" Steven said with tired optimism.

"Good plan."

"Thanks!" Steven's optimism was instantly replaced with paralyzing fear after he said that. A deep raspy voice, one he didn't recognized complimented him. He looked to his left to see none other then Chromeskull sitting on top of a large boulder.

"AHHHHH!" Steven yelled as he tried to run to the temple but was stopped by a gunshot that was just mere inches from hitting his foot, he covered his eyes from the sand the bullet caused to shoot up and quickly looked back at assailant with a smoking gun in his hand. He jumped from the boulder and landed on his feet right behind Steven, causing him to stagger and land on his back.

"Ah! Who are you, why are you doing this!?" Steven yelled with fear.

"I am Chromeskull and you gems are a threat to mankind's greatest aspect, their strength! I'm not going to let complicate us any further, either the gems go back to they're planet with your own kind, or I'll get rid of then myself, which includes you Hybrid!" Chromeskull said as his anger increased, Steven looked at him with wide eyes, he knew he was half gem so their was no telling what else he knew about him or the gems. Chromeskull cocked his gun and pointed at Steven but before he or Chromeskull could do anything…

"RAAAAWR!" A loud roar was heard as a pink sonar blasted Chromeskull, causing him to be blown back a long distance, he however was able to get his momentum back and land on his feet.

"LION!" Steven yelled and he hugged the large pink cat's mane in relief. Lion kept a pouncing stance as he angrily growled at the armored man. Chromeskull dusted off the sand from his body and angrily stared at the lion and Steven with his one visible eye.

"Hmmm, so this is the cat that I saw in the newspapers with the others, didn't hear anything about it having concussive roars…no matter, I'll take care of this pussycat and then I'm coming after you and you're posse hybrid!" Chromeskull said pointing at Steven. Steven continued to sweat as he hugged Lion and stared at Chromeskull, he wasn't sure if he was insane or if he actually knew what he was talking about, Steven hoped that it was the former. Still, Steven had fate in Lion as he ran towards the temple. Chromeskull didn't try to shoot at him or anything all of his concentration was on Lion. The two stared each other down as Steven ran up to the door and got inside the temple Steven's heart was practically shooting out of his chest, he crouched down and looked through the window seeing that Chromeskull and Lion haven't moved from their spots.

"Come here kitty, good kitty." Chromeskull said in a condescending tone as he patted his knees. Lion, as if he understood what he said ran towards Chromeskull, roared and pounced Chromeskull ducked under the Lion just in time, grabbed a circular object from his jacket and quickly stuck it to Lion's underbelly. Lion noticed this and looked under his stomach. A red light in the middle of the object started to blink rapidly and before Lion could react a large explosion engulfed him. The explosion was so loud that the people at Beach City's docks could have heard it.

"LION!" Steven yelled. After a few seconds, Lion jumped out of the cloud of smoke and sand and pounced towards Chromeskull. Steven was relieved that he was fine but he noticed that he was covered in scratches. Chromeskull, able to evade Lion again took out two pistols and started to shoot at him.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Chromeskull unleashed a semi-automatic flurry of bullets from his guns, Lion ran to the left adjacent from Chromeskull with the bullets coming up right behind him.

*Click* *Click* *Click* *Click* *Click*

"Shit." Chromeskull quietly cursed to himself as he placed his guns back into two of his many holsters knowing very well he couldn't reload faster then a Lion-like creature can pounce. Lion roared again, Chromeskull was ready to avoid it but the sonic roar opened a hole in the middle of the air and Lion jumped into it disappearing right before his eyes.

"What!?" Chromeskull ran from his position and looked frantically in all directions, confused by the periwinkle predator's disappearance. Before he could react a portal opened up from behind him and Lion's large claws clawed into his shoulder pads leaving marks and causing him to stagger as he disappeared into another portal in front of him. Chromeskull looked to his left shoulder pad and saw the deep claw marks.

"Teleportation and strong enough to cut through pure chrome…impressive." Chromeskull ironically complemented his opponent, Chromeskull wised up to Lion's teleport attack and held his fists up expecting another assault. He walked around, looked behind his back every so often. Lion jumped through another portal and swiped with his claws, Chromeskull blocked and was able to keep his stance from the attack but Lion's claws still left deep marks into his armor and jacket. Lion disappeared into another portal. This process repeated a few more times until Chromeskull came up with an idea. He grabbed two Automatic machine guns, aimed the guns at the ground and started to shoot, the sand shooting up into the air in a brown mist, Chromeskull then started to spin in place, not stopping the onslaught of lead causing more and more sand to shoot up in a blending spiral.

"RAAAWR!" Lion roared as he escaped from another portal, he was surprised to see that the attacker wasn't there, infact he couldn't see much of anything, sand restricted Lion's vision forcing him to squint, he tried sniffing to track him through smell but sand particles was the only thing that could enter his nose causing him to sneeze. Lion walked around the sand dune trying to wait it out then a beeping noise, one he recognized activated he looked to the ground to see a blinking red light.

*BOOM*

An explosion caused even more sand to rise into the air in a brown mist, the amount of sand was so large that it practically buried lion, he shook it off and backed away, another beeping noise was triggered and another spout of sand shot into the air. Then another beeping noise, then another and another. So much sand was being thrown into the air from the mines that it made Lion feel like he was into the middle of a sandstorm. Lion become so enraged that he shot multiple sonic roars in all different directions and escaping from the peering out of the misty mass.

"What's going on in there!?" Steven questioned with great concern as he watched from behind the window of the temple.

Back in the sand dune. Lion finally stopped roaring, he panted with tired breath as he struggled to see through the now deeper veil of sand. Unbeknownst to Lion a large black figure was creeping behind him. It jumped on top of him and wrapped it's large arms around Lion's neck. Lion panicked as he ran forwards, he escaped out of the blinding mass with Chromeskull right on top of him.

"You think you're the only one that can play mind games!?" Chromeskull screamed as he kept his iron grip onto Lion with one arm, with his other arm he took out a long rod from his leg, he pressed a button on it and the top exploded with blue electricity, he violently smacked the electric baton on the side of Lion's hindquarters. Lion roared with pain, he fought and bucked like a bull then with all of his might, Lion bit right into Chromeskull's arm and drew blood.

"AAAAAAH!" Chromeskull yelled with pain as he dropped his baton. Lion pulled his arm with force and threw him off from his back. Chromeskull landed on his floor but got back up holding his arm in pain, he looked to see that blood was profusely pouring from his arm.

"Ugh…whatever, I've had worse." Chromeskull got up, he and Lion stared each other with death in their eyes. Lion ran towards him but stopped and fell to forward. A great pain burned in Lion's legs making harder for him to run, multiple scratches across his body started to bleed with white blood. Chromeskull however, despite all of the punishment ran towards him with great speed and tackled the big cat. Him and Lion violently wrestled on the beach floor, Lion clawed and attempted to bite at Chromeskull. Chromeskull repeatedly punched Lion in the snout, he hit Lion so hard that white blood started to slightly pour from his nose and mouth.

With a final punch with his metal fist he hit Lion with so much force that he flew off a few inches away from Chromeskull and landed on his side. Before he was able to get back up Chromeskull wrapped his muscular arms around his fur endowed neck and started to squeeze tight Lion roared a sonic blast from his mouth trying to get away but the armored militant wouldn't let go. Lion attempted to rise and fight back further but as he was getting up, Chromeskull kicked his knee causing his leg to collapse and forcing him down. Chromeskull squeezed more and more until Lion started to chough up white blood, a much more vigorous amount then before, he eyes started to become white as he coughed more. Steven stared in utter distraught.

"NO LION, LION FIGHT BACK!" Steven yelled as loud as he can, pounding the window's glass as tears ran down his face.

"LION-"

*CRACK*

Steven went silent from the loud cracking sound. Lion dropped to the floor like a doll, completely lifeless. Chromeskull finally let go and got up, he placed his hands on his knees as he crouched down trying to catch his breath. His camouflaged suit was ripped off in multiple places, showing huge claw marks. Chromeskull tiredly turned around and headed for the Temple stairs but he was stopped by a whirring sound, he looked back to see that Lion's body was engulfed in a bright, white light then.

Poof!

Lion exploded in a large cloud of white smoke, the only thing that was left behind was a small ball of pink fluff. Chromeskull ignored the disappearance and strange object and walked back up the stairs, he reached to his back and pulled his sharp, longsword out from it's scabbard and held it in front of him. Once he got to the door he curled his free hand into a fist and angrily pounded the door.

"Honey, I'm home!" Chromeskull yelled with insane delight as he chop the door straight through the middle with his sword. He walked into the temple with the door in two halves behind him. The battle hardened man breathed heavy as he scanned the room. Their was no sight of Steven anywhere.

"Come out Hybrid, Theirs no point in hiding!" Chromeskull angrily yelled as he held his sword out.

No response.

"RAAAAH!" Chromeskull yelled as he held his sword up high, with both hands on the handle he sliced the tall lamp though it's thin body, sparks flying out from the wires.

"I SAID COME OUT YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Chromeskull didn't know it but behind a large pink door was Rose's room where Steven was hiding from the skeleton themed assassin, he could only cry for his fallen pet and from the threats of Chromeskull he was lucky that Rose's room was sound proof within the inside. Steven could cry as loud as his lungs could allow and Chromeskull wouldn't know.

"Alright…fine." Chromeskull said in a defeated tone, Steven stopped weeping for minute and placed his ear on the door.

"If you're not going to come out and face me, then I'm gonna make sure that your moms or whatever they are know that I was here."

*SMASH*

Steven jumped from the noises Chromeskull started to make, he started to trash Steven's own home and he felt completely powerless, it was fear that prevented him from doing anything.

*CRASH* *SMASH* *SLICE* *HACK*

Steven plugged his ears and tried to hold back more tears. After what felt like any eternity the noises of destruction stopped Steven however did not move from his crouched position.

"And I'll be taking these." Chromeskull spoke from the other side of the door. Steven didn't knew what he was taking but he didn't care, he just wanted him to leave.

1 Hour Later.

A whole hour has passed and Steven hasn't left Rose's room he sat their crouched in a feeble position. Trying to review everything that just happened. The man that the gems said held no threat almost killed him, succeeded in killing his pet, destroyed his house and stole something from it. He was…in every sense of the word scared. The Crystal Gems told him that he would be safe because they, including him were Gems and he was just a human. Then Steven heard a noise he was all too familiar, the sound of the Warp Pad staring up, the gems were finally back.

"Even if we were able to disable Blue Diamond's exoskeleton, how can possibly defend ourselves against…OH GOOD HEAVEN AND EARTH WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR HOUSE!?" Pearl yelled from the unimaginable state of their home. Steven ran out of Rose's room immediately to see them.

"GUUUUYS!" Steven yelled with unimaginable relief as he went to hug Garnet's leg.

"STEVEN!…what…what HAPPENED here!?" Pearl said practically shaking from witnessing the destruction. Steven didn't speak, he tightly hugged and dug his face into Garnet's leg small, whimpers coming from him.

"STEVEN!" Pearl screamed again demanding an answer. Garnet held out her hand signaling Pearl to stop, she crouched down and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Steven, can you tell us what happened." Garnet said in her calmest voice, Amethyst running behind Steven to put her hand on his back. Steven looked up, his face was completely red with large bags under his eyes. Pearl calmed down from seeing Steven in his distraught state.

"Steven?" Pearl whispered.

"It…was the man, the man did this." Steven said as he wiped his face.

"The guy from the video!?" Amethyst asked legitimately shocked.

"But that's not all." Steven said weakly as fresh tears started to leak from his eyes. Garnet wiped one from his face.

"What else did he do Steven?" Garnet said with Steven's face reflecting from her glasses.

"He…he…HE." Steven choked as he shook his fists with anger.

"HE KILLED LION!" Steven yelled with distraught. All three of the gems gasped from the news. Amethyst ran out of the temple and down the stares either to investigate or because she couldn't take the intensity.

"But how? that should be impossible!" Pearl said with disbelief.

"I was afraid of this." Garnet said fixing her glasses.

"Garnet?" Pearl said anxiously.

"You know how I'm able to foresee multiple possibilities of the future?" garnet asked both Pearl and Steven. Both said yes to her question.

"Their was one where he defeated Lion and I ignored it, I ignored it because I thought it was impossible even though my senses told me it was." Garnet said becoming visibly upset.

"It was my over self confidence that put you in danger and got Lion slain Steven. This is all my fault." Garnet said as she cupped Steven cheek with her hand. Steven looked down and put his hand on hers.

"GUYS!" Amethyst yelled as she came running back up the stairs. "Guys, Lion is okay!" Amethyst said as she stood at the now doorless entrance.

"WHAT!?" Steven yelled while Garnet goy up from her crouching position.

"Yeah, look!" Amethyst pulled out a pom-pom sized ball of pink fur, four small paws and a small, pink kitten face popped out.

"Meow" the little puffball mewed.

Steven smiled with tears in his eyes as he ran up to Amethyst and grabbed the small puffball that Lion has become.

"Lion, is that really you?" The chibified lion, which was more mane then Lion responded by licking Steven's nose. Steven smiled again and brought it into a light hug.

Pearl was smiling with relief to see Steven better, however she looked to Garnet to see her staring at the wall with her mouth gaping open.

"Garnet?" Pearl questioned with no response, she walked to her side to see what she was staring at and her face of curiosity molded into one of complete shock.

"NOOOOO!" Pearl screamed. Prompting Steven, with Chibi Lion in his hands and Amethyst to run to the other two gems, they all looked at the wall to see that their was nothing. But that was exactly the problem.

Rose's portrait and flag was stolen.

Next Chapter: Man Vs. Gem