Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: Strong in the Real Way

Summary: Inspired by the mighty Sugilite, Steven and Dipper try to learn what it means to be strong by a group of rowdy manotaurs. Meanwhile, Mabel and Connie participate in a local street art contest.

Stars were already in Steven's eyes long before he and the Gems warped in to their destination. He wasn't brought on missions that often, so any time the Gems did let him come along for the ride, he readily leapt at the chance. Tonight's mission wasn't going to be anything too adventurous or dangerous–more of a routine inspection than anything else, according to Garnet. Even so, that didn't stop Steven from being beyond excited for it just the same. 

"Whoa…" Steven gasped, wonderstruck when they arrived. The sprawling sands of the vast desert stretched out beyond the warp pad. Amidst the expanse, a crystalline structure rose up high into the starry skies, practically glowing in the light of the full moon. From its tip, a thin beam of light stretched even higher into the sky, eventually disappearing into space altogether. It was truly an impressive sight, though Steven had come to expect nothing less when it came to the mythical locales the Gems took him too. "What kind of magical place of mystery is this?" he asked, craning his neck to stare at the tower's tip.

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" Pearl grinned, always eager to share Gem-related knowledge with Steven. "This was once a communication hub, used to send messages among Gem-kind! But lately, it's begun transmitting bursts of electromagnetic interference!"

"What's that mean?" 

"It's hurting television," Garnet explained much more simply. 

"Oh no!" Steven cried, alarmed. He leapt off the warp pad, running past the Gems as they headed to the tower. "We have to do something, guys! We can't let television die!" With a determined shout, Steven shoved his weight against one of the tower's load-bearing pillars. Despite his best efforts, however, the sturdy structure didn't show any signs of budging. 

"Sorry, dude," Amethyst hoisted him up and set him aside. "But we need a Steven at least…" She smirked mischievously, using her shapeshifting powers to turn into Steven, albeit a marginally buffer version of him. " This strong for the job!"

Steven gasped, amazed. "It's all the me I could be!"

Amethyst laughed, turning back to the tower as she gave it a hefty punch. A small crack rippled through it, but it did little else to wear the structure down in any sort of meaningful way. "Amethyst," Pearl spoke up, shaking her head disapprovingly. "We could be here all day taking these pillars down individually."

"Ugh," Amethyst groaned as she shifted back into her usual form. "I hate it when you're right, You get this look on your face–" She paused to meet the aggravatingly smug grin Pearl was sending her way. "Yeah, that's the one."

"What we need is a well thought-out plan…" Pearl began strategizing. She even went as far as using her gem to project a hologram for the sake of visualizing such a plan. Until Garnet unexpectedly shut her down before she could even start. 

"We don't need a plan. What we need is Sugilite. Amethyst, fuse with me."

"WHAT?" both of the other Gems exclaimed in equal shock. 

While that shock continued hanging over Pearl, Amethyst erupted into a joyful scream. "Yeah! Let's mash it up! Bigger! Badder!"

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Steven cut into Amethyst's bombastic celebration. "Are… you guys going to turn into a Gem fusion?" 

Amethyst only offered another elated scream as her reply. Steven quickly joined her; after how amazing Opal had been at the lake just a few days ago, how could he not be excited about meeting another fusion? Pearl, on the other hand, was far less enthusiastic. 

"Wait!" she interrupted, sending Garnet a pleading look. "Garnet, think about this. You and Amethyst can be a little, um… unstable when your personalities combine. We need to be careful in this situation. Why don't you fuse with me instead?"

"We don't need to be careful," Garnet said. "We just need to be huge ."

"Oh yeah!" Amethyst bounded after Garnet. "Let's wreck this joint!"

Steven made sure to get a front row seat as the pair began to synchronize. Very early on into their dance, however, Pearl rushed in and shielded his eyes, blushing profusely all the while. "Aw, c'mon, Pearl!" he whined, trying to push her away. "I wanna see!"

He managed to pry her fingers away from his eyes just in time to get a glimpse of the tail end of the ongoing fusion dance. Garnet swiveled her hips while Amethyst shook her shoulders about, grinning madly all the while. As Garnet opened her stance up, Amethyst ran into it, bringing both Gems together as the light of their emerging fusion shot high up into the air. A set of five glowing eyes appeared within that light, and as the new fusion fully stabilized, a sharp set of shades appeared to cover all but one of them. 

And just like that Sugilite was on the scene. 

She was massive , to say the least. She easily dwarfed Opal, standing tall and strong as she flexed all four of her powerful arms. Her unkempt hair ran long down her back, complimenting her bright violet skin and rugged attire. A loud, playful laugh rumbled across the desert from her sharp-toothed, practically twisted grin as she settled back into herself. 

"Ha! It's been a while!" she exclaimed, cracking her large knuckles. "I forgot how great it feels to be me!" 

" That's Sugilite?" Steven asked, amazed. He'd already felt small standing next to Opal, but compared to Sugilite, he and Pearl were downright miniscule. Not that Steven minded for how impressive the larger-than-life fusion was already turning out to be. 

"You got it, baby," Sugilite smirked, leaning a bit more down to his level. "Hey, Steven, wanna see something cool?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Then check this out," Sugilite rose back to her full height, calling upon Garnet's gauntlets. She punched her fists together, allowing Amethyst's whip to form and connect to the end of the now-joined gauntlets. She tossed her newly-created flail high into the air, letting it crash into the sand behind her with a resounding boom. Steven was nearly knocked off his feet by the quake, only barely maintaining his footing thanks to Pearl as he let out an excited laugh. "You like that, little man?" Sugilite asked him, grinning. 

Steven nodded vigorously. "Are you gonna smash stuff with your giant wrecking-ball thing?"

"That's the plan! Where should I start?"

"Do that one!" Steven pointed to the tower's nearest pillar. Sugilite didn't waste a beat, heaving her flail at the tower at full force. With one swing alone, she created a shower of rubble, putting a swift stop to any interference the tower was creating. Yet even though her work was already finished, Sugilite didn't stop there. Her rampage continued as she kept slamming her flail into the tower's remains, cackling wildly all the while. 

"Steven," Pearl grabbed him by the shoulders, already knowing well what was happening. She'd been around Sugilite more than enough to know exactly how uncouth and uncontrollable she could truly be. "We should go."

"What?" Steven frowned. "No way! This is awesome!"

Before Pearl could protest further, a large piece of the tower fell to the ground only a few feet away from her and Steven, narrowly missing them both. "Watch what you're doing!" she shouted at Sugilite. As usual, though, the fusion didn't bother listening to her as she continued her reckless onslaught. As enthralled by it all as Steven was, he didn't even notice the small rock heading his way until it struck him squarely in the forehead, knocking him to the ground. "Steven!" Pearl cried as she rushed to his side. As she helped him sit up, she made sure to spare a bitter glance back at Sugilite for her chaotic carelessness. "Ugh, you're just… too much!"

"Maybe you're just too little ," Sugilite taunted just shy of letting her flail fly again. 

Pearl jolted, disgruntled as she grabbed Steven and carried him off to the warp pad. "Steven, we're going."

"B-but I'm fine!" Steven pressed a hand against his injured forehead. "What about Sugilite? We can't just leave her here!"

"She can find her own way home," Pearl practically growled just shy of warping them both back to the temple. She did so just in time too as, only mere seconds later, Sugilite's rain of destruction came crashing down onto the warp pad, shattering it to pieces.

"And she was like 50 feet tall, at least , and she had this big wrecking ball thing that she used to smash the tower to smithereens!" Steven excitedly detailed his latest outing to the Gems with his friends the next day. He'd invited Dipper, Mabel, and Connie to join him at Greasy's Diner, less for breakfast and more so he could tell them everything there was to know about the mighty Sugilite. "You guys should have seen her! She was so cool and loud and fun!"

"I wish we could!" Mabel exclaimed, quickly catching Steven's practically contagious enthusiasm. "Can we go ask Garnet and Amethyst to fuse right now? I'm sure they'd say yes! I mean, look at how easy it was to convince Pearl and Amethyst to form Opal!"

"If by 'easy', you mean it took us nearly getting eaten by a lake monster, then sure, it was a breeze," Dipper deadpanned. 

"Aw, well… I'm pretty sure Garnet and Amethyst are still fused," Steven explained, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I don't really know where they are right now since me and Pearl left Sugilite in the desert last night. I'm not sure why, but I don't think Pearl likes her that much, even though she's way strong and super powerful!"

"Uh, as great as Sugilite sounds, Steven," Connie cut in, frowning. "I don't think any of what you told us explains what happened to your head there."

"Oh," Steven pulled the copious layers of bandages Pearl had wrapped around his forehead down to reveal the very tiny scratch underneath. "I got hit by a rock!"

The beat of awkward silence that passed was soon filled in by a round of laughter. Steven was the only one of the kids who didn't join in, failing to understand exactly what about his underwhelming injury was so funny. 

"It must not have been a very big rock," Dipper said, still chuckling. 

"Well… uh… there's… internal bleeding!" Steven protested, blushing. "My hurt is on the inside!"

"Steven," Connie was the first to stop laughing when she noticed just how embarrassed Steven really was. Instead, she sent him a small, good-natured smile, one that Steven didn't even attempt to return. "That little scratch didn't actually hurt you that much, did it?"

"It did when I got it…" Steven muttered, slumping low into his seat. "Oh, I might as well face it. I'll never be as tough or as strong as Sugilite! I'm soft…"

"Eh, don't sweat it, Steven," Mabel playfully elbowed her brother beside her. "It's not like you're the only one who's 'soft' around here."

"Um, what's that supposed to mean?" Dipper asked. 

"No offense, Dipper, but you're not exactly 'Manny Manington'," Mabel explained with a wry, teasing smirk. 

"Hey!" Dipper quickly protested, flustered. "I am too Manly… Manny or whatever it is you said."

"Mm, I dunno," Mabel mused, her grin widening. It was easy enough to get under Dipper's skin, and if anyone was a proud master of it, it was her. "I mean, you did have to ask me to help you carry those boxes into the shack the other day…"

"Oh, come on," Dipper crossed his arms, scowling. "Those boxes totally weren't even heavy. They were just, um… weirdly bulky! Yeah, that's it."

"Ok, 'tough guy'," Mabel continued goading. "Then how do you explain Grunkle Stan walking in on you singing 'Disco Girl' in the bathroom the other day?"

"Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed, mortified. 

"'Disco Girl'?" Connie asked, grinning in light amusement. "Isn't that by BABBA, that really popular Icelandic pop group?"

"Me and Amethyst heard that song while we were listening to the radio once," Steven recalled. "She said that the only people who listen to that kind of music are middle-aged, single women. And Pearl."

"Well, I wasn't listening to it!" Dipper argued a bit too forcefully. "It's not important anyway. I'm plenty masculine. You see this chest hair?" He pulled his shirt down a bit, revealing the completely bare chest underneath it. 

"Um… no?" Connie said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Ah! My eyes!" Mabel wailed, laughing at her brother's expense. "Put it away!"

"Aw, man…" Dipper muttered, embarrassed as he pulled his shirt back up. 

"Don't feel bad, Dipper," Steven said with a small, reassuring smile. "I don't have any chest hair yet either. But I bet I would if I were a really beefy tough guy! Then I could be just as strong and cool as Sugilite!"

"Well, I don't know about you Steven, but I already am tough and I can prove it," Dipper firmly asserted. He found a way to do exactly that as he spotted the "manliness tester" game sitting at the far end of the diner. A sign was attached to it, advertising a free pancake breakfast as a prize for anyone who could conquer it. "Prepare to eat your words, Mabel," he said confidently, getting up from the table. "And some delicious pancakes."

Steven got up and followed close after Dipper, wanting to try his hand at the machine himself. But the closer they got to it, the more doubts he began to have, especially when he noticed a handful of the diner's other patrons taking notice of their approach. "Uh… are you sure about this, Dipper?" he asked in a nervous whisper. 

"Come on, Steven, this is gonna be so easy ," Dipper said with a confident, almost cocky grin. That grin remained as he gripped the machine's handle and pulled it back with as much force as he could muster. While he strained what few muscles he did have, the light on the machine steadily began to rise up to the top result of "manly man"… before it quickly crashed back down to the lowest level of "wimp". 

"Aw, what?" Dipper frowned as he grabbed the small card the machine spat out. Instead of a coupon for free pancakes, it only showed the image of an infant and the emasculating message: "You're a cutie-patootie!"

"Aw, what a cute baby!" Steven exclaimed, though he quickly recanted when he caught the sharp look Dipper shot his way. "Uh, I mean… it's not that cute…"

"This thing must be broken," Dipper quickly, staunchly concluded. He tossed the card away, trying his best to save face as he turned back to the spectating patrons. "It's totally broken, guys! It's like, a million years old. Probably ran out of steam power or-"

He was suddenly cut off when boys suddenly found themselves abruptly shoved aside by Manly Dan. The burly lumberjack cracked his large knuckles as he prepared to take a crack at the machine, all but ignoring Steven when he spoke up to him. "Um… excuse me? But I was about to try-"

With but a simple nudge of his finger, Manly Dan not only managed to conquer the machine, but break it entirely. As it exploded, a shower of pancakes rained down onto the plates of the restaurant's patrons, who erupted into a round of excited cheers. "Yes!" the lumberjack cheered. "Pancakes for everyone!" 

Amidst the celebration, Steven and Dipper both shrunk back, humiliated. After such a disappointing display, how could they not be? If either of them hoped to prove their strength, they'd not only failed, but they were shown up completely, in front of a packed restaurant, including Mabel and Connie, to boot. "Uh, Steven?" Dipper whispered tensely, tightly grabbing his arm. "At the risk of embarrassing ourselves even further, I think we should go."

"Good idea!" Steven nodded, flustered. Without even sparing the girls a goodbye, they ran for the door, clumsily tripping over each other on the way out. While Mabel laughed as she watched them go, Connie couldn't help but wince instead. 

"Yeesh," she said, frowning. "What's gotten into those two? I don't see why they're so concerned about being so 'tough' and 'strong' in the first place."

"Eh, that's boys for you," Mabel shrugged. "They can get soooo wrapped up with being 'the best' that they don't even notice when they're being the worst ."

"You've got a point there," Connie chuckled. "I mean, it's not like we'd never get as carried away with anything as Steven and Dipper just did."

"You know we wouldn't!" Mabel raised her hand for a high five, one that Connie readily met. "Girls forever!"

On this note, Mabel dramatically downed the last of her orange juice. Connie did the same as both girls paid for their drinks and left the diner, heading toward town. "So, since the boys are, uh… busy, I guess," Connie began as they walked down Main Street. "What should we do for the rest of the day?"

"Oh, I know!" Mabel pointed to a growing crowd across the street. "Let's go see what that line over there is all about! It's gotta be for something good, like snow cones or catlympics!"

"Catlympics?" 

"They're like regular olympics, but with cats!"

"Right," Connie chuckled as they crossed the street together. They joined the back of the line, taking up a spot behind two other girls in front of them. Mabel was instantly intrigued when she noticed a lizard resting comfortably on the larger girl's shoulder. 

"Whoa!" she gasped, catching both girls' attention. "You have an animal on your body! That's the coolest thing I've seen all day! I'm Mabel, and this is my friend, Connie!" she brightly introduced them as Connie offered the pair a friendly wave. 

"Hi! I'm Grenda," the larger girl greeted in a surprisingly deep voice. "And this is Candy!" She motioned to the smaller, glasses-wearing girl beside her. She waved brightly, even despite the plastic forks attached to her hands. 

"Why do you have forks taped to your fingers?" Connie asked. 

"Improvement of human being," she explained simply, yet eloquently. 

"I'll say it is!" Mabel readily agreed. "I've gotta get me some of those! After we're done with whatever this line is, of course."

"What's it for anyway?" Connie wondered, trying to peer past the crowd to the front. At the very least, it was moving steadily toward a table manned by Mr. Smiley, owner of Funland Arcade. 

"The annual Funland Summer Sidewalk Art Contest!" Candy explained. Sure enough, the surrounding sidewalks were filled with aspiring artists, young and old, all already hard at work on creating their chalk creations. "The winner gets free arcade tokens for a year and a very shiny trophy."

"Oooooh my gosh!" Mabel clasped her hands together, delighted when she caught sight of the trophy sitting on the registration table. "It is shiny! And arcade tokens to boot–I could win so many stuffed animals from the claw machine with those!"

"That's why we're entering too!" Grenada boisterously exclaimed. "Oh! I have an awesome idea! What if the four of us all entered the contest together? Then we can split the prize and get even more stuffed animals!"

"Ah! It's like you read my mind!" Mabel squealed, beside herself with excitement. She grabbed Candy and Grenda's hands, all three of them bouncing up and down with glee over their newly-formed team. "Come on, Connie!" Mabel encouraged, holding a hand out to the girl. "You've gotta get in on this!"

"Eh, ok…" Connie hesitantly joined. "I'm not really that much of an artist, but I'll still help out where I can."

"Great!" Mabel cheered. By now, the girls had reached the front of the line, but just before they could register, someone else cut in front of them to beat them to it. 

"Uh, yeah, I'll go ahead and just take that trophy, thank you very much," the blonde girl smirked, holding her hands out expectantly. 

"Who is that?" Mabel whispered to Candy and Grenda. 

"The most popular and richest girl in town, Pacifica Northwest," Candy muttered, frowning. Pacifica's clothing was proof enough of such a claim; they were far more fashionable and expensive than anything any of the girls behind her could probably afford. 

"I always feel bad about myself around her!" Grenda wailed, shying away in shame-driven fear. 

"Aw, sorry, lil' Miss Northwest," Mr. Smiley chuckled, wearing his wide, usual grin. "But I can't just fork over the trophy. You've gotta enter the art contest and win-"

"Ha!" Pacifica let out a callous laugh as she spun around to face the girls behind her. "That'll be easy . I mean, who's gonna compete against me? Fork fingers? Lizard lady?" 

"Hold me, Candy!" Grenda cried, embracing Candy for emotional support. 

"Our kind isn't welcome here!"

Pacifica made a point of turning away from them triumphantly so she could register for the contest. Meanwhile, neither Mabel nor Connie were too impressed by the cruel display they'd just seen. "Where does she get off, treating people like that just because she's rich?" Connie asked, scowling. "Someone really ought to put her in her place."

"Don't worry, Connie," Mabel stepped up to the registration table with a bold grin. "I've got it covered. We'll compete–as a totally awesome team that's totally gonna win!"

" What ?" Pacifica glared over her shoulder, appalled by the very idea. 

"Hiya!" Mabel greeted her cheerfully, holding a hand out for her to shake. As far as she was concerned, if there was one sure-fire way to overcome a stuck-up snob like Pacifica, it was sheer, unbridled friendliness. "I'm Mabel!"

Pacifica simply turned her nose up at the other girl, refusing to so much as touch her hand. "That sounds like a fat, old lady's name."

"I'll take that as a compliment!"

"Hey," Connie sharply stepped in, glaring at Pacifica. "Why don't you back off?"

"Why don't you , glasses girl?" Pacifica retorted just as crossly. 

"Oh, wow, what a completely original insult," Connie rolled her eyes. "It's not like I haven't heard that one a million times before."

"Well, maybe you wouldn't if you didn't have those hideous things on your face."

"I literally need them to see!"

"Oooookay," Mabel stepped in between the quarreling pair. "I'm sensing a lot of tension here. Why don't we all just take a minute and get started on the contest? After all, there's nothing that relieves stress like drawing with sidewalk chalk!"

"Ew, and get my hands covered in all that colorful dust? I don't think so," Pacifica sneered. "Luckily for me, I won't have to. Unlike all you poor people, I've hired someone to do it for me. Jacques!"

"Oui , Mademoiselle Northwest?" A tall, mustachioed French man stepped up to the girl's side, toting two large boxes of professional grade sidewalk chalk. 

"You know what to do," she waved him off to begin 'her' art piece. "And remember what we talked about! I better not see a single smudged line or you're fired!"

"Oui, Mademoiselle ," Jacques nodded, rushing off to find an unclaimed stretch of the sidewalk. 

"Wait… did you… commission someone to do your work for you?" Connie asked, baffled. 

"Uh, duh," Pacifica checked over her nails, disinterested. "What, you really thought I was gonna get down on the dirty ground and do it myself? Please."

"Um… I think that's cheating," Mabel pointed out. 

"You're only saying that because you can't afford to do the same," Pacifica taunted. "Jacques is traditionally trained and he's even had his pieces hung up in the Louvre in Paris."

"What's that mean?" Grenda asked. 

"It means, none of you will ever be able to come even close to whatever he draws up. But it'll be funny to watch you try." Pacifica laughed callously, flipping her hair as she walked away from the group, all but confident in her victory. Even if it wasn't really going to be hers to begin with. "Good luck! You're gonna need it."

"Nice meeting you!" Mabel called out after her, smiling. 

Connie, on the other hand, was far less enthusiastic. She grabbed one of the free boxes of sidewalk chalk Mr. Smiley was providing for contestants, leading the way down the street and fuming all the while. "We'd better get started," she said, ignoring the other girls as they cheerfully followed, already coming with fantastical ideas for their shared project. At the same time, Connie dropped her voice down to a whisper, hissing between gritted teeth as she sent one final, bitter glare Pacifica's way. "She's going down ."

"One… t-two… t-t-three…"

"Two… three… f-four…"

"H-hey… Dipper…?"

"Y-yeah, Steven?"

"Are… are you making any progress?"

"Hold on; let me check." Grateful for the interruption, Dipper set the branch he had been trying and failing to bench press aside. Upon checking his chest, he was met with the same frustrating bare sight he'd found back at the diner. As it turned out, going out into the woods to "work out" as Steven had called it, wasn't really amounting to much so far. "No chest hair yet…" Dipper flopped back to the ground, disappointed. "What about you?"

Exhausted from the handful of pushups he'd done so far, Steven paused to check his own chest. "Nope," he sighed. Even so, he was quick to perk back up in the hopes of encouraging Dipper to do the same. "But we're just starting out. I'm sure that if we keep at it, we'll both be buff in no time!"

"More like in twenty years," Dipper retorted dryly. "What are we missing here? Is it physical, is it mental? What's the secret to being strong?"

"Maybe it's magical?" Steven suggested. "I mean, Garnet and Amethyst are already super strong, but they got even stronger when they fused into Sugilite. Maybe… oh! I've got it!" He gasped, running over to Dipper, grabbing his hands, and pulling him up to stand alongside him. "Dipper! We should fuse !"

"We should… what ?" Dipper asked, caught off guard. 

"Garnet told me the other day that I can fuse too!" Steven grinned, his grip on Dipper's hands tightening. "So if we fuse, then we'll be super strong, just like Sugilite is!"

"Uh, yeah," Dipper pulled his hands away. "Only one tiny problem with that, Steven. Unlike you, I'm not a Gem, so I can't fuse, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Steven slumped his shoulders. "I didn't think about that…" He took a seat on the ground, and as Dipper joined him, they both let out a long, shared sigh. "So I guess the only thing we can do is keep working out. We're bound to get stronger eventually, right?"

"At this rate? I doubt it." Knowing they both desperately needed a break, Dipper pulled out the bag of beef jerky they'd picked up on their way out to the woods for them to share as a snack. "We're gonna need some serious help."

Before either of the boys could dig into the bag of jerky, the ground beneath them suddenly began to tremble. Alarmed, they got to their feet as that shaking grew, watching with wide eyes as a herd of forest animals raced past them, trying to escape from something .

"W-what's going on?" Steven asked above the chaos. 

"Who cares?!" Dipper started when a fierce roar sounded out from somewhere beyond the trees ahead. "Let's just get out of here!"

As the boys turned to flee, they quickly found there was no clear escape as a tree toppled over onto their path, narrowly missing them both. Unable to do much else, they turned to face whatever danger was heading their way, all but clinging onto each other out of sheer fear. They had every reason to be afraid too as a burly monster burst out of the woods. Or rather, something somewhere between a monster and a man. 

He stomped into the clearing, letting out a roar that soon turned into a yawn as he easily picked up a nearby deer, using its antlers to scratch his back. Without much care, he tossed the creature aside before turning his attention down to the pair of frightened boys before him. 

"P-please, don't eat us!" Dipper pleaded.

"We don't taste good at all!" Steven cried nervously. "And I'm really chewy; not in the good way, either!"

"Yeah!" Dipper agreed. "And I haven't showered. And I'm all elbows! Elbows and grilse!"

"YOU TWO-" the manly creature bellowed in a deep, powerful voice. "Gonna finish that?" He pointed to the bag of jerky that had fallen to the ground between Steven and Dipper.

"Um… no…" Dipper frowned as he exchanged a confused glance with Steven. He tossed the jerky to the creature, who savagely tore the bag open and devoured the strips of dried meat as the boys stood by and watched curiously.

"Whoa…" Steven grinned, amazed. "He's so beefy! He reminds me of Sugilite!"

"I can't believe it," Dipper said, just as awed. "Part animal, part human. Are you some kind of minotaur?" 

"I'm a manotaur!" the creature roared. "Half man, half… uh… half taur!"

"Cool!" Steven exclaimed, his grin widening.

"So… did we like, summon you, or-" 

"The smell of jerky summoned me! JERKY!" The manotaur punched a nearby tree before smashing a large rock against his head in a show of brute strength. "YEAH!" he let out a hearty laugh before he stopped short, bending down to curiously sniff the boys. "I smell… emotional issues."

"Aw… you mean you don't smell the scent of manly toughness?" Steven asked.

"Nope; the only things I smell from you two are sweat and desperation," the manotaur said, crossing his buff arms.

"You got us," Dipper sighed. "We've got problems, manotaur. Man-related problems."

The manotaur nodded gruffly as he plopped down to the ground, patting his hairy leg. Dipper and Steven joined him, taking turns telling him of their lack of masculinity and all of the embarrassment and woes that came along with it. The manotaur nodded in understanding, surprisingly listening to all they had to say, even as their tale came to its anti-climactic end.

"Hey, you know, you seem pretty manly," Dipper said to the manotaur. "Maybe you could give us some pointers?"

"Yeah!" Steven chimed in agreement. "If there's anyone who knows about being tough, I'm sure it would be someone as manly as you!"

"Very well," the manotaur rose to stand. "I shall train you in the arts of manliness! Climb atop my back hair, children!"

Dipper and Steven exchanged an uncertain glance as the manotaur knelt down to allow them to scale his grimy back hair.They did so anyway, but before they could really even get a good hold, the manotaur began barreling through the woods at a thunderous pace, disregarding any obstacles in his path. The boys held on for dear life as they crashed through tree branches, soared over a sizable gorge, and finally crashed through the rocky side of a mountain through sheer force alone. Though they were a bit shaken up from the rough trip, both Steven and Dipper were quickly stunned by the place they now found themselves in.

The large cave they had smashed their way into was an absolute mess, littered with discarded bones and food scraps. It was also outfitted with an impressive set of barbells, a few dart boards lining the stony walls, and even a foosball table. All of these activities were being enjoyed by the countless other manotaurs dwelling in the cave, each of them as tough and macho as the manotaurs the boys had first met

"Whoa… This place is amazing!" Dipper said as he and Steven dismounted the manotaur's back.

"The gnomes live in trees, the merpeople live in the water… 'cause they're LOSERS!" the manotaur proudly proclaimed. "But we manotaurs crash in the MAN CAVE!" With another loud roar, he punched a nearby gong with his bare fist, catching the attention of the other manotaurs. "Beasts! I have brought you two hairless children!" he pushed both boys forward for the others to see. 

"Hiya!" Steven greeted brightly

"…S'up," Dipper said much more stiffly. 

"This is Pubetor," the manotuar began to introduce the others. "Testosteror… Pituitor… And I'm Chutzpar. And you two are?"

"I'm Dipper." He was quick to add a masculine addendum to his name as the manotaurs booed, clearly not impressed. "The… uh… Destructor?"

The manotaurs nodded in complacent approval of this title before Steven quickly came up with a title for himself. "And I'm Steven the Strong Guy!" he boldly proclaimed, much to the amusement of the manotaurs.

"Dipper the Destructor and Steven the Strong Guy want us to teach them the secrets of our manliness," Chutzpar informed the others.

"We really need your help, guys!" Dipper practically pleaded. "We're both seriously lacking in the chest hair department!"

"And we wanna get huge, beefy muscles, just like all of you!" Steven added, flexing to show his desire for toned, meaty biceps. "And like Sugilite. She's a really tough Gem fusion, just so you guys know."

"GEMS?!" several of the manotaurs roared in suddenly angry unison.

"What business do you have with those dainty, frilly Gems, boy?" Testosteror snarled at Steven.

"Oh, well I am one," Steven pulled up his shirt to reveal the gemstone on his stomach. "Well… half-one, anyway."

The manotaurs erupted into a round of disgusted groans and sneers at the very sight of the stone. "Ugh!" "Put that thing away!" "It's so sparkly and pink !" 

"Long have we manotaurs quarreled with the Crystal Gems," Pubitor bitterly explained. "Their girliness is an insult to our MANLINESS!" he shouted as he brutally punched Pituitor right in the face, only to get punched right back without even flinching.

"Oh, um… well…" Steven trailed off, unsure of how to defend himself or the Gems. He knew there were a handful of creatures in Gravity Falls they didn't quite get along with; he should have figured a group as downright different from them as the manotaurs would be one of them. Even if he still didn't really understand exactly why. 

"Well, Steven's only half Gem, like he said," Dipper cut in just in time. "So… that shouldn't really be that much of a problem, right?"

The manotaurs hesitated, muttering their dissent amongst each other as both boys anxiously awaited their verdict. Their discussion soon devolved into little more than a brutish fist fight, which was how the manotaurs solved most of their dilemmas. Eventually, the exchange of fists died down as the manotaurs apparently reached a consensus, which they finally relayed to Steven and Dipper. "After a lot of punching, we have decided to deny your request to learn our manly secrets."

"Denied?" Dipper repeated, dismayed.

"Aw… Why?" Steven asked with a disappointed frown.

"The keys to manliness are far too sacred and awesome to give out to humans, and especially to prissy Gems!" Testostoraur growled firmly while the other manotaurs nodded their stern agreement. 

"B-but what if we-" Steven began, though Dipper was quick to interrupt him as he acted on his newfound plan.

"Okay," he said, feigning acceptance. "That's fine with us. Obviously you guys must think it would be too hard to train us. Maybe you're not man enough to try."

"Not MAN enough?" one of the most burly manotaurs asked, clearly appalled.

"Destructor…" Chutzpar cautioned, though it was clearly already too late. 

"Not MAN enough?!"

"He didn't mean it."

"I have three Y chromosomes, six Adam's apples, pecs on my abs, and FISTS for nipples!" the enraged manotaur shouted as he glared down at the boys. "We're ALL more manly than you'll ever hope to be!"

"I-I believe you!" Steven stammered nervously.

"I don't know if I do," Dipper crossed his arms. "Seems to me like you're too scared to teach us how to be men. Maybe it's just too much of a challenge for you guys. In fact… it kinda seems like you're all a bunch of-"

"Dipper, don't say it!" Steven pleaded, worried. 

"Chickens," Dipper finished with a bold, daring grin. The insult hit home exactly the way he'd hoped it to as the manotaurs formed another quick huddle, ultimately changing their minds in the process. Anything to save their surprisingly fragile pride. 

"After a second round of deliberation, we have decided to help you two become men!"

"Men! Men! Men!" the manotaurs all chanted loudly as Steven and Dipper triumphantly high-fived. With the manotaurs finally bought in, their journey to manliness and strength would be all but assured. Or at least, that's what they hoped. 

"Thanks guys," Dipper said with a satisfied grin. "Whatever we have to do, we won't let you down."

"Yeah!" Steven added enthusiastically. "Just you wait! We'll be the toughest, strongest men the world has ever seen!" Despite his boldness, he quickly retracted this statement as the manotaurs all growled their mutual disapproval of it. "A-aside from you guys, of course!"

By now, the annual Funland Summer Sidewalk Art Contest was fully underway, with plenty of townsfolk out to take part in it. The local teens had teamed up to create their anti-authoritarian graffiti piece, Toby Determined drew a life-sized portrait of newswoman Shandra Jimenez, and Onion was hard at work on a startlingly realistic depiction of an explosion. Meanwhile, Mabel, Connie, Candy, and Grenda were bringing a colorful collage to life. There wasn't much cohesion to it, with each of them drawing whatever they wanted to, something that Connie quickly noticed and couldn't help but frown about. Especially when she peered over at the beautiful, lifelike landscape Jacques was sketching for Pacifica just a short way down the street. 

"You guys, we need a better approach than… whatever all of this is," Connie stood, brushing the chalk dust off her hands. She looked over what they had so far, from Grenda's poorly-drawn pack of puppy-butterfly hybrids, to Candy's attempt at a robotic horse, to the countless rainbows Mabel kept coloring over all of it. It was a mess to say the least, one that didn't stand a chance against the actual artist they were forced to compete against. 

"You're right, Connie," Mabel mused, accidentally smearing purple chalk across her face. "It needs even more rainbows!"

"No," Connie swiftly shot her idea down. "It needs to have some kind of theme, a hook. And it needs to be… I don't want to say better-drawn, but… yeah, it needs to be better-drawn, we really have to step up our game here."

"But I thought we were just drawing whatever we wanted, for fun," Candy stayed her hand mid-horse. 

"Yeah, ok, having fun is fine," Connie crossed her arms. "And we can have plenty of it after we win."

"Aw, that's cute," Pacifica spoke up as she passed by the group. "You actually think you have a chance at winning. Hate to break it to you, but I doubt that eyesore you have going on over there will impress anyone."

"B-but… we're working so hard on it!" Grenda protested, upset. 

"Oh, that must be why it's so ugly ," Pacifica let out a haughty laugh. "You ladies might as well enjoy your last glimpse of that trophy while you can. 'Cause it's heading home with me ."

"It shouldn't even be yours in the first place because you're cheating !" Connie shouted after her, though Pacifica paid her no mind. Instead, she returned to absently overseeing Jacques as he continued his work, still every bit as confident that she'd win. Connie, however, was ready to do whatever she must to keep that from happening. 

"Alright, you guys, no more playing around," Connie said sternly as she turned back to the others. "We've got to do better. We have to beat her!"

"Uh… ok?" Mabel let out a small, uncomfortable chuckle. "Or we could just draw and have a good time doing it?"

"Didn't you hear what I said earlier, Mabel?" Connie huffed. "This isn't about having a good time, it's about winning ! And about wiping that smug grin off Pacifica's face. Now, enough talking!" Connie got back down onto the sidewalk, furiously sketching out something she could only hope would bring their piece together. "Let's get back to work!"

Mabel, Candy, and Grenda didn't follow suit right away. Instead, they looked to each other with rising concern. Candy was the first to speak to that concern, dropping her voice down to a whisper in the hopes that Connie wouldn't hear. "Mabel, I think that Connie may be starting to get a little…"

"Carried away," Grenda finished, frowning. 

"Aw, nah," Mabel assured. "She's just excited about the contest! So what if she's being a little competitive? Everyone gets like that every now and then, right?"

"What did I just say?" Connie snapped at the trio, annoyed. "Less talking, more drawing!"

While Candy and Grenda exchanged a fretful glance, Mabel once again tried playing it off with a laugh. Still, even she couldn't deny her own growing worry. She understood Connie's frustrations with Pacifica; after how downright mean she'd been to all of them, Mabel wanted to see her taken down a peg too. But the way they were going about it, with such intensity and vitriol… she found herself wondering if perhaps they were going too far. If they'd lost sight of why they were even doing this in the first place. 

If Connie was pushing herself so hard for something that ultimately didn't even matter in the long run.

Pearl warped back to the temple, sighing tiredly after several hours of fruitless searching. Almost a full day had passed by now, and there were still no signs of Sugilite–or even Garnet and Amethyst's return. She'd even gone as far as trying to travel back to the desert, only to find that the connection to the warp pad there strangely wasn't working. While Pearl knew her teammates could hold their own, she still fostered at least a little concern for them. Especially when she remembered just how brash and volatile Sugilite, of all fusions, could be. 

As she returned to the temple, the first thing Pearl noticed was a trail of discarded clothes leading up to the bedroom loft. She frowned at the mess as she followed it to the base of the stairs, going mostly unnoticed by the pair rummaging through a pile of clothes at the top. 

"Steven? Dipper?" she called up to them, confused. "What are you two doing up there?"

"Oh, hey, Pearl-" Before Dipper could explain, Steven cut him off as his head popped up out of a pile of his own shirts. 

"Pearl! Have you seen my sweatbands anywhere? We need them for something really important!"

"I can't say that I have…" Pearl said, already picking up a few of Steven's stray shirts and folding them neatly. "What do you need them for so badly anyway?"

"For sweating!" Steven proclaimed, emerging from his pile again, this time with a pair of sweatbands in hand. 

"Uh… which we'll probably be doing a lot of while we're learning how to be real men from the manotaurs," Dipper elaborated.

"What?!" Pearl asked, alarmed. 

"Yeah!" Steven rushed down into the kitchen, stocking up on more jerky to help them stay in the manotaurs' good graces. "They're gonna teach us all sorts of stuff about being tough! We're gonna get supa strong! Like Sugilite!"

Pearl flinched as soon as she heard the fusion's name. Still, she quickly collected herself when she remembered the other problem now at hand. "Manotaurs?" she questioned, frowning. "How on earth did you two get tangled up with those brutes anyway? They're hardly a good source of advice, considering the fact that they rarely think."

"Oh yeah! They mentioned something about having some sort of rivalry with you guys," Dipper said. "What's the deal with that?"

"Well… it's not so much of a rivalry as it is… a mutual sense of contempt," Pearl admitted. "We try to get along with all of the various tribes and creatures of Gravity Falls, but the manotaurs have never been willing to meet us halfway. Apparently, they have a problem with our "girliness", whatever that means."

"Aw, come on, Pearl," Steven countered. "The manotaurs aren't so bad. Like we said, they're gonna help us be manly!"

"Yes… Well, maybe that's not such a good idea…" Pearl glanced away from the pair. 

"What?" Dipper asked, puzzled as both he and Steven finally picked up on her apprehension. "Why not?"

"Um… Well…"

"But Pearl," Steven protested zealously. "How else are we gonna become men?"

"You know, maybe being a… 'man' isn't the most important thing in the world," Pearl cautioned. "After all, you both are still rather young. You still have plenty of time to grow into actual men."

"Yeah, but that'll take way too long," Dipper protested staunchly. "We've gotta prove that we're strong now or else everyone will think we're wimps forever!"

"Oh, I doubt that,,," Pearl folded her arms. "Besides, there are many different ways of being strong…"

"But we wanna be strong in the real way!" Steven emphasized, not getting her point. 

"Yeah!" Dipper agreed with a confident grin. "Like men!"

"Yeah!" Steven launched into spirited round of cheering, which Dipper was quick to join in on as the two headed out the door. "Men! Men! Men!"

"Boys! Wait!" Pearl called out after them, though they hardly heeded her as they left to head back to the manotaurs. She didn't hold back a disdainful sigh as the door slammed behind them, turning back to the mess still scattered all over the house. A mess in more ways than one, really. 

She should have guessed that Steven would still be enthralled with the idea of being "strong" after Sugilite's wreckless display the previous night. What she couldn't have anticipated was someone as seemingly level-headed as Dipper to get wrapped up in that same mania too, and with the manotaurs no less. If they had only asked, she would have been more than happy to educate them both on a kind of strength that was far more than physical: strength of mind, heart, and spirit alike. But instead, they'd chosen brute strength, alongside the likes of the manotaurs and Sugilite; something that, as far as she had seen, usually only led to disaster. 

Unsure of how else to vent her frustrations, Pearl took to singing as she continued picking Steven's clothes up off the floor. Her voice belted out across the empty temple in a passionate tune, one that carried just how discouraged she really was. 

"Why do you have to look up to them? Aside from in a literal sense-"

"Don't you know that big comes with a bigger expense?"

That expense, as far as Pearl was concerned, was common sense. Something that both Sugilite and the manotaurs had barely a trace of, something that she only hoped Steven and Dipper could find before it was too late. 

"And can't you see that they're out of control and overzealous?"

"I'm telling you for your own good, and not because I'm-"

She sharply cut herself off, blushing. She didn't want to admit it, she never would. But deep down, she knew the truth; she knew just how inferior she always felt when stacked up against a fusion that was much more massive and mighty than she could ever hope to be. 

"I could show you how to be strong in the real way-"

"And I know that we can be strong in the real way!" 

Pearl paused, only for a beat as she stared back at the front door, a new idea striking her. While she couldn't very well stop Steven or Dipper in their foolhardy "manly" pursuits, the least she could do was follow along and make sure they were safe. Someone had to; she knew well from experience that safety, or even basic civility was far from the norm when it came to the brutish manotaurs. 

So she ventured out of the house, hoping to catch up with the boys as she planned to protect them both from a distance. And if she could, to save them from chasing a kind of strength that, at the end of the day, was ultimately nothing more than a show. 

"And I want to inspire you, I want to be your rock-"

"And when I talk it lights a fire in you…"

Upon their return to the Man Cave, Dipper and Steven found that the manotaurs had a complete "gauntlet of manliness" planned for them. As expected, each of their challenges were focused on physical strength or endurance, including their first trial of pulling the manotaurs' "party wagon" up a steep hill. As the boys went through each of these manly tests, Pearl was never too far behind, hiding behind trees or lingering just outside of the Man Cave. A wistful refrain of her song rang through her head while she watched, worried, as the boys continued struggling for what they were misled to believe was strength. 

"I can show you how to be strong in the real way."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she watched the manotaurs cover the boys in temporary tattoos or as they tried to glue hair to their bare chests. She'd always known the manotaurs were incredibly dense creatures, but their superficial views on masculinity were downright ridiculous in her eyes. Unfortunately, neither Dipper nor Steven seemed to think so as they followed their lead boldly and blindly. 

"And I know that we can be strong in the real way."

As for the boys themselves, they were actually having the time of their lives with the wild, eccentric, excitable manotaurs. True, their training methods could be seen as questionable, including the gator-filled obstacle course they made the boys run. Still, there was a refreshing sort of chaotic freedom to it all, one that they relished with each trial the manotaurs presented to them. And despite how difficult those trials may have been, they took them head on, just as any other "man" would. 

"And I want to inspire you, I want to be your rock-"

Of course, the path to manliness wasn't without a bit of pain. Neither of the boys were used to such strenuous activity, and Steven especially began to feel the burn as the day went on. In fact, he almost didn't reach the top of the cliff they were tasked with climbing bare-handed, only barely making it thanks to Dipper helping him out, despite the manotaurs' mantra of "every man for himself". Pearl nearly emerged from hiding when she noticed exhaustion beginning to wear both boys down, but in the end she refrained. This was a lesson they had to learn for themselves, after all, even if they had to learn it the hard way. 

"And when I talk it lights a fire in you."

After several hours and several manly challenges later, the manotuars finally led the boys back to the Man Cave for what they claimed would be their final test in manliness. Neither of them knew what to expect as they stood together in the cave's deepest chamber, awaiting further instructions about whatever supposedly deadly task they were about to undertake. Another gong sounded out through the candlelit chamber, calling everyone gathered to attention to witness this trial take place. 

"Behold our leader!" Chutzpar announced. "Leadertaur!" 

A rather old, somewhat small manotaur shuffled forward, his long beard grayed and his muscles nowhere near as impressive as those of his younger brethren.

"Aw… He's so old and wrinkly!" Steven gushed, grinning.

"So, is he like the oldest, or the wisest, or…?" Dipper trailed off. No more than a moment later, however, the old manotaur was suddenly captured in the jaws of a much larger, much more monstrous figure.

"Nah, he's just the offering," Chutzpar corrected. " That is Leadertaur" He pointed to the massive manotaur who had just devoured the elder whole, a fierce beast that was at least ten times as large as the other manotaurs and somehow even more masculine, if that was even possible. 

Both boys were awestruck and admittedly terrified as they craned their necks up to get the full scope of the manotaur leader. "YOU!" Leadertaur bellowed at the boys viciously. "You wish to be men?!"

Though Dipper answered to this question with a bold battle cry, Steven simply swallowed and nodded nervously, trying his best to hide the fact that he was trembling. Leadertaur seemed to accept this, however as he continued. "Then you both must do this heroic act. Go to the highest mountain and bring back the head of…" The manotaur leader paused as he suddenly let out a loud roar, reaching in between his toned pecs before pulling out a pair of crude spears. "The Multi-Bear!"

The other manotaurs let out a collective gasp as Leadertaur threw the two spears down at the boys' feet, providing them with weapons to complete this challenge. "The Multi-Bear?" Dipper asked, tentatively picking up one of the spears. "Is that some sort of bear…?"

"He is our sworn enemy!" Leadertaur growled scornfully. "Conquer him and your mansformation will be complete!"

"C-conquer?" Steven asked, taken aback. "As in… kill him?"

"Of course!" Leadertaur exclaimed as if it were obvious. "How else are you going to prove your manly strength?!"

Steven and Dipper exchanged an uncertain glance, neither of them too keen on the idea of actually taking out another living being, even something that sounded as frightening as the Multi-Bear. While Steven grappled with the idea in unsettled silence, Dipper spoke to their concerns first. 

"…I don't know, man…" he said with a hesitant frown. After everything they'd been through today, he wasn't very intimidated by the thought of facing off against the Multi-Bear as much as he was by the task of slaughtering it in cold blood. He knew well that being violent was all part of being a man, but as far as he knew, the Multi-Bear was innocent. Did he really deserve to be killed just because of some ongoing rivalry he apparently had with the manotaurs?

"Hey, Destructor? Is this yours?" Chutzpar called to Dipper from across the cave. He'd been rooting through the boy's backpack, finding, of all things, the BABBA CD he usually kept on hand inside of it. Dipper let out a frightened gasp as he quickly snatched it away, trying his best to hide his embarrassment as the other manotaurs began to murmur their dissent to each other over this choice of such feminine music.

"W-what? Are you guys kidding? Of course it's not mine!" Dipper exclaimed, hiding the CD behind his back.

"But Dipper, I thought you liked BABBA-"

"Ha! Yeah right!" Dipper forced out a laugh as he slapped a hand over Steven's mouth. "I don't know whose this is. I'm just borrowing, uh… I mean, it's a friend's! Yeah, not mine. Not mine at all…"

The manotaurs didn't seem to buy his weak excuses, instead shaking their heads with clear disapproval for both boys. Desperate not to be counted out too soon, Dipper acted quickly and on impulse, agreeing to their questionable final challenge before he could think better of it. "We'll do it!" he proclaimed, bravely raising his spear high. "We will conquer the Multi-Bear!"

"Uh… y-yeah…" Steven followed along with a half-hearted, feeble grin. "What he said…"

With their goal in mind, the boys set out with the manotuars cheering them on as they left the Man Cave behind. As they set out on the arduous path toward the mountains, a lone figure stood hidden in the shadows, dread steadily filling her at the thought of the dangerous, violent mission they'd been sent on. Still, Pearl dutifully followed them, hoping that they wouldn't go too far in their misguided mission. That they'd finally realize what real strength was before it was too late.

"Aaaaaalrighty, everyone!" Mr. Smiley announced over his megaphone. "Only five minutes left before judging begins! Put those chalk sticks to work on the final touches of your sidewalk spectacles!"

"Oh no!" Connie gasped, darting up from her work. For the past few hours, she'd been keeping the others on track to create an intricate, orderly forest scene, one that hardly captured much of the imagination of her teammates. Mabel, Candy, and Grenda followed her lead halfheartedly, sticking to the dull, natural colors and realistic designs she suggested instead of the bright, vibrant shades and inventive sketches they would have preferred. Still, as adamant about defeating Pacifica as Connie clearly was, they were hard pressed to protest her. Even if they'd stopped having anything resembling a good time a while ago. "We've got to hurry!"

"Eh, I dunno, Connie," Mabel frowned as she looked over their piece. "I think it's fine enough already. I mean, it's not as colorful as I would have liked, but it's still pretty good-"

"Pretty good isn't good enough to beat Pacifica!" Connie snapped, frustrated. "You know what? Here," she abruptly snatched the chalk right out of Candy and Grenda's hands. "Why don't I finish it? It'll be much faster."

"Aw, but we wanna help!" Grenda exclaimed, gruffly upset. 

"I know that, and I appreciate it," Connie said quickly, unsympathetically as she rushed through her chalk strokes. "But we're running out of time to win this thing!"

"Uh… Connie?" Mabel decided to voice her concerns. After keeping them to herself almost all day now, she figured it was about time she was finally honest, both with herself and with her friend. "Don't you think you're going a little… overboard with this whole winning thing? I mean, the whole reason we even signed up for this contest was to have fun, but this? Isn't really fun at all…"

"For the last time, it doesn't matter if it's 'fun'," Connie insisted sternly. "All that matters is showing Pacifica that she's wrong about us, about everything! Something that I wish you guys would take as seriously as I am."

"But you're taking it way too seriously!" Mabel argued just as adamantly. "You're driving yourself crazy and you don't even see it! Who cares if Pacifica wins and we don't?"

"I do!" Connie practically shouted, throwing her arms out wide. In her anger, she didn't even notice the cup of water sitting next to her, meant to help erase any potential mistakes in their piece. That is, until her hand knocked it over, sending water spilling out across their art and creating a smudged, smeary disaster in the process. 

"Yikes!" Candy cried, aptly alarmed. 

"Aw, man!" Grenda facepalmed. 

Connie jumped to her feet with a gasp, horrified at their now-ruined piece. "This… I… I didn't mean to…" she swallowed hard, refusing to let herself give way to panic. Something that was far easier said than done. "I-I can still fix this!" she grabbed her chalk, preparing to start all over again if she had to. "We can still win, I know we can-"

"Aaaaand time's up!" Mr. Smiley called, blowing a loud airhorn. "Chalk down, everyone! The judges will be around soon."

"Oh, I can't believe this!" Connie dropped her chalk, groaning in defeat. "This is all my fault. I ruined everything!"

"I wouldn't say it's ruined ," Mabel mused. "Just, uh… a little… drippy and messy. It almost looks kinda cool in a weird, abstract sorta way."

"It looks awfu l," Connie countered with a mournful sigh. "And all because I had to get so hung up on winning. And I think… that's the whole problem here."

"Yeah, no kidding," Grenda remarked, crossing her arms. 

"You did kind of get sort of… unhinged," Candy pointed out. "Just a little."

"But… we know why you did," Mabel placed a consoling hand on Connie's shoulder. "You had every reason to be mad at Pacifica for what she said about us. But going this far to get the better of her was… Well, remember what I said about the boys earlier?"

"Uh… about how sometimes when they try too hard to be the best, they end up being the worst?" Connie recalled, quickly understanding how that related back to her now. "Oh, yeah… That… pretty much sums up exactly what happened here."

The girls paused as the judges passed by their piece. As unimpressive as it was, they barely took the time to regard it, scribbling a few short notes down before moving onto the masterpiece Jacques had just finished creating for Pacifica. It truly was impressive, a stunning rendition of Gravity Falls from afar. Needless to say, the judges were duly amazed, duped into believing the wealthy girl had drawn it all herself as they lauded praise upon her for it. It wasn't long after that Mr. Smiley took to the megaphone again after the judges relayed the final results.

"Ladies and gents, looks like we have ourselves a winner!" he grabbed the trophy, holding it up high for the crowd to see. "Congratulations to Miss Pacifica Northwest!"

As the crowd applauded, Pacifica stepped up to proudly claim her prize. She cared little for the free tokens, or even the trophy itself as she instead soaked in the adulation her family was known for receiving. "Thank you, everyone!" she fixed the group of girls with a sharp, smug grin. "It just goes to show what true talent is capable of."

"More like what her parents' money is capable of," Connie muttered disdainfully. 

"Everyone is invited to the after-party on my parent's yacht!" Pacifica all but proved that point as she began leading the way to the lake. She stopped short in front of the girls, however, making a point of parading the trophy over them one final time. "Aw, what a shame," she sneered down at what little remained of their entry. "You know, I wasn't expecting much from you four to begin with, but this ? It's just plain pathetic." She laughed, influencing the crowd around her to do the same at the girls' expense as they all continued onward. "Better luck next time, losers!"

Unlike before, Connie didn't even have it in her to come up with any kind of comeback. Instead, she stayed put on the ground, staring down at their entry in solemn disappointment. "'I'm so sorry, you guys," she said softly, sadly. "I know you all just wanted to have a good time, but I wouldn't let you. I was so obsessed with beating Pacifica that I didn't even notice I was making all of you miserable . And in the end, it was all for nothing anyway."

She was more than ready to watch as the others left her there to wallow in shame, and she wouldn't blame them if they did, after how she'd treated them all afternoon. But to her surprise, that's not what happened, as Mabel extended a hand out to help her up instead. "I wouldn't say it was all for nothing…" she said with a small, leading smile. 

"At least we still got to play around with sidewalk chalk," Grenda shrugged. "That's always a good time; I mean, just look at how colorful my hands are now!" She held them up, showing off the rainbow of chalk dust coating them. 

"And now that the contest is over," Candy added brightly. "We can draw whatever we want! For fun this time!"

"Who needs a ton of money or some fancy French artist or even dumb old trophy when we've got each other?" Mabel finished warmly. "That's way better than any prize if you ask me."

"...Yeah," Connie couldn't help but smile as she took Mabel's hand. "I guess it is."

From there, the girls moved on from their ruined entry, picking an empty section of the sidewalk to start over from scratch. This time, none of them focused on trying to create a specific theme or follow any singular idea. They all drew whatever they wanted to, however they wanted to, talking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company all the while, just like they'd set out to do from the very start.

As the afternoon wore on, they continued to forge their newfound friendships through colorful chalk creations. And as they did, they all came to realize something important: why would any of them struggle so hard to be the "best" when sometimes, being the "worst" was way more fun ?

The trek to the Multi-Bear's lair was an arduous one, spanning across the vast forests and hills of Gravity Falls. While it barely even felt like a hike to Dipper, Steven struggled to keep pace with him for most of it. As a result, the boys hadn't gotten much of a chance to actually talk through the deadly mission they'd been sent on, much less what they'd have to do if they overcame it. But when they finally reached the dark maw of the Multi-Bear's mountain cave, Steven found he couldn't remain silent about his growing misgivings any longer. 

"Dipper…" he began as they stood within the threshold of the cave. "A-are you sure about this?"

"Of course, I am," Dipper nodded. The unsteady edge in his tone wasn't lost on Steven. "Now, come on."

"Wait," Steven grabbed his arm to stop him. "I… don't think this is a good idea. Maybe we oughta think a little more about this first."

"Think about what?" Dipper raised an eyebrow. "We know what we're here to do, so let's go do it already."

"But… I just…" Steven sighed, looking away. "This doesn't feel right…"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… is what we're about to do really worth it?" Steven bit his lip, nervous. "I know the manotaurs said they don't like the Multi-Bear, but does that really make it ok for us to just hunt him down and… end him?"

Dipper let out a small, forced laugh, trying his best not to show he was sharing many of the same doubts as Steven. "What? Are you serious? It's totally worth it. The Multi-Bear is probably some horrifying monster that terrorizes these woods for fun. Getting rid of him will be for the best."

"But what if it's not?!" Steven countered earnestly. "What if… what if the manotaurs were wrong? What if being a man isn't about being super macho or tough? What if being strong doesn't mean being mean ?"

"Oh, come on, Steven," Dipper called his bluff again. Even though he knew Steven was right, even though he knew so much about this was wrong, they'd worked so hard and come so far; there was no way he was backing down now. "I think the manotaurs know a thing or two about being manly. I mean, nobody's ever gotten strong from sitting around and just talking about their feelings. And besides, weren't you saying that you wanted to be super strong? Like Sugilite?"

"Well… yeah…" Steven admitted. "But at what cost? Hurting others doesn't really seem like the kind of thing that makes a man; it's the kind of thing that makes a bully."

"So what?" Dipper asked, much harsher than he'd meant to. "You're just giving up then? I thought you were with me on this!"

"I was!" Steven insisted, distraught. "But Dipper, this… this going way too far! I don't care if it means I'm weak or afraid, I just… can't go through with this. I won't. And you shouldn't either."

For a moment, Dipper nearly listened to Steven. He nearly put his spear down and turned back before he could go too far. But with his pride on the line, with every ounce of strength he longed to have at stake, he found himself slowly stepping forward instead. "Sorry, Steven," he barely spared a glance back over his shoulder, his tone cold and resolved. "But I have to do this."

"Wait!" Steven shouted after him as he ran headfirst into the cave. "Dipper!"

Despite his worry, Steven didn't follow Dipper into the cave, leaving him to face the Multi-Bear alone. Dipper figured that was just as well; Steven would only continue to try to change his mind, to sway him away from his ultimate goal. That goal, or rather, his target, soon became apparent as he noticed the large, unwieldy shape looming in the shadows behind him. His grip on his spear tightened as he spun around to face the monster when it out a fierce, echoing roar. 

As it turned out, the Multi-Bear was quite literally a "multi" bear. The fearsome beast was made up of several bears conjoined together to create a singular, bulky, malformed body. His multiple arms and heads only made him all the more imposing as he towered tall over the small boy standing boldly before him. 

"Bear heads, silence!" the central head commanded. However, the other heads apparently weren't as intelligent as one of them continued to roar, though it was soon quieted by an authoritative smack. "Child, why have you come here?"

"Multi-Bear! I seek your head!" Dipper brazenly proclaimed. He did his best to chase away his lingering apprehension, forcing masculine courage to take its place. "Or… one of them, anyway. There's like what? Six heads?"

"This is foolish!" the Multi-Bear bellowed angrily, his deep voice rattling the walls of the cave. "Leave now or die!"

Undaunted by this threat, Dipper took up an offensive stance as he pointed his spear at the Multi-Bear, setting his expression in an unwavering glare. "So be it…" the Multi-Bear growled as he rose to his full height, all of his heads roaring in violent unison. 

The Multi-Bear was the first to charge, though Dipper easily leapt out of the path of his sharp claws. From there, he grabbed a nearby rock, chucking it hard at the Multi-Bear's main head. With the beast dazed from the blow, Dipper rushed forward, hurriedly climbing up the behemoth's back. He made good use of his spear, shoving it against the main head's throat in an attempt at choking the Multi-Bear out. Despite the monster's best efforts to break free, he ultimately ended up losing his breath, weakly collapsing to the ground in surprisingly swift defeat. 

"A real man shows no mercy!" Dipper shouted, caught up in the rush of battle. He stood steady atop the Multi-Bear's fallen form, ready to finish the job and prove his manliness and strength at long last, until… 

"Very well, warrior…" the Multi-Bear sighed, clearly ashamed by his failure. "Victory is yours… But will you grant a magical beast one last request?"

"Uh… okay?" Dipper shrugged. After breaking into the creature's own home and brutally conquering, he figured he might as well give him that much in his final moments. It was only fair, after all.

"I wish to die listening to my favorite song," the Multi-Bear nodded one of his heads towards a tape player sitting on a nearby rock. Hoping that this wasn't some sort of trick, Dipper hopped off the beast's back and headed over to it, wondering what kind of music a Multi-Bear would be into. However, his curiosity was soon replaced with shock the moment he hit play and heard a song that he readily recognized: "Disco Girl".

"You listen to Icelandic pop group BABBA?" Dipper asked in disbelief as he turned back to the Multi-Bear. "I… I love BABBA…"

"I thought I was the only one," the Multi-Bear said. "All of the manotaurs make fun of me because I know all of the words to the song 'Disco Girl'."

"Oh, you mean: Disco girl …" Dipper began, singing along with the tape as the Multi-Bear joined in.

"Coming through…"

"That girl is you!" they both finished brightly. 

"This is crazy!" Dipper laughed, bewildered by this incredible coincidence. "Finally someone who understands!" His smile soon shifted into a regretful frown however as he glanced down at the spear still in his hand, reminding him of what he had come here to do in the first place. "Oh yeah… Uh, I guess I'm supposed to… kill you? Or I'll never be a man?"

"It's fine," the Multi-Bear closed his eyes, ready to die with dignity. "I accept my fate."

"R-really?" Dipper asked, more hesitant about this than ever before. He remembered what Steven said, how he'd questioned whether being a man really was all about mindless violence and brute strength after all. The manotaurs claimed those were the only things manliness were, and yet…

He shook his head as he made up his mind. There was only one option here, regardless of the consequences he could face because of it. It didn't matter if he was hailed as a true "man", whatever that really meant, or not. He knew what he had to do. 

So that's exactly what he did. 

Steven sighed as he paced just outside of the Multi-Bear's cave, anxiously waiting for either Dipper's return or a sign that he needed help. The sounds of the skirmish had faded quite some time ago, leaving only concerning silence in its place. He was nearly on the verge of venturing inside the cave to see what was happening when Dipper finally emerged, fortunately only a little worse for wear. 

"Dipper!" Steven rushed over to him, wrapping him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're ok! I was starting to think something had happened there!"

"I'm fine, Steven," Dipper assured, smiling weakly as they broke apart. "Well… physically, at least…"

"What happened?" Steven asked, though he was already starting to piece it together. He was surprised, and admittedly relieved when he realized the Multi-Bear's decapitated head was nowhere in sight. 

"I couldn't do it," Dipper admitted, rubbing his arm. "You were right; turns out the Multi-Bear didn't deserve it at all. I beat him and everything, but when it came down to killing him… it didn't feel right… I guess that really does make me a wimp, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" Steven asked, laughing. "Not even a little! I think deciding not to go through with it makes you even braver and stronger than if you actually had done it!"

"Yeah, well you know what will take even more bravery?" Dipper asked, unable to share Steven's smile "Standing up to the manotaurs and telling them they were wrong about everything."

"Well, no matter what happens, I've got your back," Steven threw an arm over his shoulder as they began to descend the mountain together. "And who knows? Maybe we'll end up teaching those manotaurs a thing or two about what being manly really means!"

"You two know nothing about being manly!" Leadertaur roared angrily. Upon their return to the Man Cave, Steven and Dipper made their stand, and as to be expected, the manotaurs were anything but happy about it. "You were told! The price of manliness is the Multi-Bear's head!"

"But is it, really?" Steven asked diffidently. 

"Listen, Leadertaur, alright?" Dipper began. "You too, Testostoraur, Pubertaur, and… I don't know, whatever your name is? Uh, Beardy?"

"It's Beardy," the heavily-bearded manotaur in question confirmed.

"You guys keep telling us that being strong and manly means doing all these tasks, and being aggressive all the time, but I'm starting to think all that stuff's malarkey."

The manotaurs let out a shared gasp of shock at having their staunch views challenged outright like this. Despite their surprise, however, Dipper doubled down with just as much zeal. "You heard me: malarkey. So maybe we don't have muscles or hair in certain places, and sure, when a girly pop song comes on the radio, sometimes I leave it on! Because dang it, top 40 hits are in the top 40 for a reason! They're catchy !"

"And maybe I am a Crystal Gem!" Steven added, proudly showing off his gem once more. "But you know what? I'm proud to be one! The Crystal Gems are really brave and smart and heroic, even if they are all girls! I don't see anything wrong with that, and neither should any of you."

"So… what are you two saying?" Chutzpar asked, narrowing his eyes at the boys. 

"We're saying that the Multi-Bear is a really nice guy," Dipper asserted. "And you're a bunch of jerks if you want us to cut off his head!"

"Yeah!" Steven firmly agreed. "He did nothing wrong! You guys just like bullying him because he's different from you. Why don't you actually try getting along with him? Maybe then you could all be friends!"

"NEVER!" Leadertaur shouted stubbornly. "We'll give you one last chance: kill the Multi-Bear or never be men!"

Steven and Dipper exchanged a hardened glance, not even needing to consider their choice. When it came right down to it, the answer really had been right in front of them all along. "Then I guess we'll never be men," Dipper said with calm finality. Steven added his agreement with a simple nod, knowing that the kind of strength that the manotaurs flaunted was only muscle-deep.

Expectantly, the manotaurs didn't respond well. They were quick to erupt into a round of disapproving boos and jeers, not that the boys paid them much mind as they began to leave the Man Cave behind. Despite the manotaurs' teasing, they both shared a smile, confident that they'd made the right choice and done the right thing, no matter how difficult it may have been.

"I can't believe we just did that…" Dipper said as soon as he and Steven were out of the Man Cave.

"We did what we had to," Steven shrugged, rubbing his shoulder to try and ease the soreness he was still feeling. "At least we don't have to do any more "manly challenges". I don't know how many more of those I could take!"

Dipper let out a small laugh, though it soon fizzled out into a wistful sigh. "You know, even after all that, I still can't help but wonder if we'll ever be strong in the way we want to be…"

"I think we will be, someday," Steven offered him a bright, encouraging smile. "We'll be strong together , and once we are, nothing will be able to stop us!"

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that, Steven."

"Huh?" The boys started, surprised when Pearl suddenly emerged from behind a nearby tree with a sheepish, yet satisfied smile on her face. 

"What the…? Pearl?" Dipper asked, confused.

"Hello, Steven, Dipper," she greeted cheerily, ignoring the bewilderment written all over both of their faces.

"What are you doing here?" Steven wondered curiously.

"Oh, well, I was concerned about the two of you hanging out with those brutish manotaurs, so I decided to tag along from a distance to make sure they didn't push you too far," Pearl explained. "But it turns out I had nothing to worry about! When given the choice between senseless violence and sound reasoning, you two made the right decision after all." She rested a hand on both of their shoulders, her already kind and supportive smile widening with what she had to tell them next. "I'm very proud of you both."

"Thanks, Pearl!" Steven grinned happily. "You were right all along; being tough and macho doesn't actually make someone strong. I only wish we had realized it sooner. Sorry for not listening to you earlier…"

"Oh, it's quite alright, Steven," Pearl assured as she fondly ruffled his hair. "I knew you'd figure it out. And even more impressive yet, you both did it all on your own too."

"Wait, so, not that this isn't really touching but… can we go back to how you've been secretly following us around all day?" Dipper asked, eyeing Pearl warily. "Because I think we really ought to talk about that."

"Er… well, you see, I-"

Before she could awkwardly elaborate, the ground suddenly began to rumble alongside the enraged shout echoing through the area. Alarmed, Pearl ran to the edge of the nearby bluff, Steven and Dipper not too far behind so they could all see the towering figuring rampaging their way. 

"What is that?" Dipper asked, baffled by the massive, four-armed woman storming through the woods. 

"It's Sugilite!" Steven announced with an eager smile. It was quick to fade, however, when he noticed the bitter scowl on the fusion's face as she continued shoving trees aside, easily topping them over. 

"I'm BORED!" she yelled, her voice booming angrily across the forest. 

"Y-you're back!" Pearl exclaimed. Despite her relief, she instinctively positioned herself in front of the boys, just in case. After all, when it came to Sugilite, she never really knew what to expect. 

"You left me behind!" Sugilite accused, glaring down at the much smaller group before her. 

"I just thought you didn't need any help!" Pearl tried to reason, even if she knew that Sugilite never listened. "Now, why don't you two separate and we can all sit down and-"

"NO!" the fusion threw her fist down at them, knocking them off their feet and nearly cruising them in her blind rage. 

"Listen to me!" Pearl quickly rose to stand. "You've been fused for too long! You're losing yourselves!"

"I AM myself, and I'm sick of being split up!" Sugilite argued stubbornly. "So you better get used to me, baby! 'CAUSE I'M HERE TO STAY!"

With another brutal shout, the fusion swung her lower fists out at the bluff, knocking off large chunks of earth as Pearl, Steven, and Dipper were forced to withdraw to escape her wrath. " That's what Garnet and Amethyst are like fused together?" Dipper asked, aptly frightened. 

"Yeah, but I don't get it!" Steven shook his head. "Why is she acting like this? Why is she attacking us?!"

"That doesn't matter!" Pearl said over the sounds of the destruction Sugilite was causing. "You two need to get out of here!"

"But we wanna help!" Steven insisted, ready to do anything to get Garnet and Amethyst to return to their senses.

"Yeah!" Dipper agreed just as brazenly. 

Pearl had no time to argue with them as another round of battle cries suddenly rose into the air. The clamor the fusion was causing hadn't gone unnoticed by the manotuars as they rushed out of the Man Cave, more than ready to confront the danger threatening their home head-on. "HEY! YOU!" Chutzpar shouted at Sugilite. "We don't care how big you might be; no woman is gonna come up here and wreck our turf! So beat it!"

" Your turf?" Sugilite retorted with a harsh scoff. "Yeah right! This place is mine now, boys, so why don't you beat it!? Or how about I just beat all of YOU!"

Without any effort at all, she grabbed a large boulder up from the forest floor and held it up high above her head, smirking darkly as she prepared to slam it down onto the manotaurs. Even with their muscles and spears, they quickly realized they were no match for the massive size and strength of the fusion. Which was why, in a rare act for the usually brave manotaurs, they all fled back to the Man Cave, right before Sugilite chucked her boulder after all of them, only narrowly missing as she let out a crazed cackle.

"Huh," Dipper said to Steven as they watched the manotaurs' cowardly retreat. "So much for 'a real man never runs away from a fight'."

With the situation only getting worse by the second, Pearl quickly decided to act. She rushed to the tip of the bluff, summoning her spear as she took aim against her own teammates, as much as she didn't want to. "WHAT?!" the fusion challenged as she glared down at the much smaller Gem. "YOU WANNA FIGHT TOO?!"

"You'll thank me for this later !" Pearl fearlessly leapt from her perch, only to be backhanded to the ground. She didn't give up though, picking herself up as she took to the treetops to get a better vantage point. Sugilite tried punching her away again, but Pearl outmaneuvered her, landing a high kick that knocked the fusion's shades off, revealing all five of her piercing violet eyes. 

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SOMETHING?!" Sugilite roared, catching Pearl by surprise as she knocked her skyward. From there, she struck the smaller Gem hard in the side, hitting her over and over again from there, with each blow more brutal than the last. "YOU! AIN'T! NOTHING !"

Her final kick sent Pearl crashing to the forest floor, her entire form screaming with pain. She was still struggling to pick herself up off the ground when she saw Sugilite summon her flail, which she didn't hesitate to viciously toss in her direction, thankfully missing her due to the cover of the trees. 

"Pearl!" Steven's concerned cry only barely reached her. Pearl didn't even have it in her to steal a glance up at him as she tried and failed to stand, desperately clinging onto her spear for support as she dug its tip into the ground. Shame swelled up inside of her as she looked back up at Sugilite, realizing that her team members were still in there and that there was painfully little she could do to separate them now. 

"I… I can't do this…" she muttered, her tears finally falling as she bowed her head in defeat. "I'm sorry!" she cried up to the two boys watching her from the cliff. "Garnet… Amethyst…" she choked on another agonized sob, this time for her maddened teammates. "I wasn't strong enough to save you… I'm not strong enough to do anything… "

"That's not true!" Steven countered, resolved to inspire her the same way she always inspired him. "Come on, Pearl! Don't give up! I know you can take her down!"

"Yeah, you gotta get up, Pearl!" Dipper encouraged just as earnestly. "Who else is gonna separate those two?!"

"I can't!" Pearl tearfully, woefully replied.

"Yes, you can!" Steven argued passionately, trying his best not to tear up himself. "You always know what to do! You gotta show her what you showed us! That you're strong, Pearl! Strong in the real way!"

Pearl drew in a sharp breath as she heard that phrase again, ringing through her far louder than any of the shame or sorrow overwhelming her. There was no doubt that Sugilite had ample amounts of physical strength, but without restraint and control, what was that strength really worth? And as Pearl realized that she had so much more to offer instead of muscles or brute force, she wiped her tears away, her confidence renewed as she smiled, ready to stand firm and defeat the rogue fusion once and for all.

"Hey!" Pearl called out to Sugilite, refusing to back down this time.

"WHAT?!" the fusion snarled down at her. "YOU WANT SOME MORE?!"

"Any time!" Pearl proclaimed as she summoned another spear. "You're no match for me! Not even CLOSE!" With this, she threw her spear up at Sugilite, landing a sizable cut across the side of her face. The fusion growled furiously as she threw a punch Pearl's way, but this time, she was more than ready to leap out of its path as she began to outmaneuver her larger opponent.

"Yeah, Pearl!" Steven cheered her on. Dipper, on the other hand, was no longer content to simply sit and watch this battle unfold from the sidelines.

"Steven, we have to help her!" he said, resolved as he began to put his newfound plan into action. "Follow my lead!"

At the same time, Pearl made good use of the one thing she had on her side that Sugilite didn't: speed. Using agile leaps, she made sure to steer clear of the fusion's attacks, all while trying to come up with a plan for defeating her. However, it seemed as though the boys already had that covered as they managed to distract Sugilite by launching a barrage of small stones her way.

"Wha-?" the fusion spun around after being struck with several rocks from behind, only to find Steven and Dipper throwing them at her from the cliff.

"Hey, Sugilite!" Dipper called out challengingly. "Bet you can't catch us!"

"You two?!" Sugilite scoffed. "Please! I'll crush you like the bugs you are!"

Knowing that they had to act now, Dipper quickly took Steven by the hand and practically dragged him off the bluff just before Sugilite could smash it entirely. Running as fast as they could, the boys hurried down the hillside, racing through the forest as the fusion began to peruse them with thunderous footsteps. Pearl gasped, alarmed as realized the danger they were in, and she didn't hesitate to give chase as well as she passed between Sugilite's legs, unseen.

"What are you two doing!?" she demanded as she joined stride alongside them.

"Don't worry!" Dipper reassured her a bit breathlessly as they charged through the woods towards town. "I've got a plan!"

Despite her reservations, Pearl decided to go along with whatever they had in mind. All the while, Sugilite continued to gain on them, her fury burning hotter than ever as she slammed her way through any and every tree in her path. "Get back here!" 

"Ha!" Sugilite laughed triumphantly as she tossed a tree forward. It crashed down just shy of the group, blocking their path forward and leaving them with no other way to escape. "Nice try! But running away ain't gonna save you now!"

"O-okay…" Dipper frowned as they all backed up a bit. "We may need to come up with a new plan…"

"I think I may have something in mind…" Pearl smiled as she looked over to the tall tree to her right. "You two stay down here and figure out a way to distract her. I'll take care of her once and for all."

Steven and Dipper did as she said, both of them splitting up to divert the fusion's attention. Sugilite let out another furious growl, refusing to be tricked again as she slammed her fists down at them, only narrowly missing them once more. Before she could try again, however, a spear sliced across her chest from above. 

Pearl stood atop one of the few trees that actually managed to stand taller than Sugilite, balancing on its point on her tip-toes. Sugilite took a swing at the tree, smashing it in half only after the Pearl jumped from it, soaring high over the fusion's head. Not letting her get away this time, Sugilite quickly tossed her flail up at her, only for it to miss its target and continue sailing high into the air above her.

"Is that all you got?!" Sugilite sneered as she raised her foot to crush Pearl underneath it. "You think that's enough to beat-"

The fusion was abruptly cut off when her flail suddenly fell back down from above, striking her squarely on top of her head. Such a devastating blow was more than even the mighty Sugilite could handle, despite all her bawdy bravado. In a massive explosion of light, she came undone as Garnet and Amethyst flew apart from each other, their wild, wicked fusion finally defeated and disbanded at last.

"Byeeeee, Candy! Bye, Grenda!" Mabel called out after her new friends, waving them a fond farewell. As the day began to draw to a close, the girls parted ways, though not before covering most of Main Street in a plethora of colorful chalk drawings. "See you for the slumber party next week! I'll bring the cupcakes and neon lights!" 

Connie chuckled as she waved goodbye to the pair as well. Still, she couldn't help but sigh as she and Mabel began to head back toward the woods. "Mabel, I'm really sorry again for what happened earlier," she said, earnestly apologetic. "You were right, I really was getting carried away."

"Aw, for the last time, Connie, you don't gotta worry about it!" Mabel assured, smiling. "Everyone goes a little overboard sometimes. Just look at how the boys were acting at the diner earlier!"

"Speaking of which…" Connie mused. "I wonder where they've been all day anyway…"

"Eh, they're probably out beating each other up in the woods or eating dirt or something," Mabel shrugged, unconcerned. "You know, normal boy stuff."

Before Connie could question her logic, a sudden quake rattled the street they were heading down, nearly knocking them both off their feet. "Whoa!" Mabel exclaimed, surprised. "What was that?"

"It sounded like it came from the woods," Connie turned in the direction of the forest, already leading the way there. "Come on, we should check it out!"

"Amethyst! Garnet!" Pearl raced over to her fallen teammates, who were both lying incapacitated on the ground in the aftermath of their defeat. Dipper and Steven joined her, both of them relieved to see that Sugilite had been taken down and torn apart. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah…" Garnet moaned, clearly worn out as she remained unmoving on the ground. "Sugilite just overworked our bodies… It's… a little painful."

"Ugh… I've got a monster headache…" Amethyst muttered, agonized. 

Pearl, however, disregarded their pain as she joyfully embraced them both, though she quickly released them upon hearing their unified groans of protest. "Whoops!" she laughed sheepishly as she allowed them both to rest and recover. "Sorry…"

"Pearl, you did it!" Steven congratulated enthusiastically.

"That's not entirely true…" Pearl said with a fond grin as she wrapped her arms around both boys' shoulders. " We did it."

Steven and Dipper exchanged a smile, finding room to be proud of themselves, even despite everything the manotaurs had told them. At the end of the day, they'd still found a way to prove their strength in a way that truly mattered. Not through vicious violence or wreckless destruction, but through unwavering courage and unending resolve instead. 

"Dipper!" Mabel suddenly emerged from the nearby fallen treeline, with Connie following soon after. "Whoa! You're a mess, bro-bro! And so are you, Steven!" she stopped short when she saw just how battle-weary they both were.

"What happened to you guys?" Connie asked, concerned. 

"Sugilite got a little out of control, so we helped Pearl defeat her so she could split apart!" Steven explained with a proud grin.

"What?! You mean we missed her again?" Mabel groaned, dismayed. "Darn it! Oh well… Maybe we'll get to see her next time!"

"Hopefully not…" Pearl muttered as she offered Garnet and Amethyst a thin, knowing grin.

"Well… Defeating a crazed Gem fusion wasn't the only thing we did today…" Dipper admitted a bit hesitantly.

"Oh really?" Mabel asked, intrigued. "What else happened? Fill us in on all the deets!"

"So that these half-man half-bull humanoids were hanging out with us," Dipper began, glancing away. "But then they wanted us to do this really tough, horrible thing, but it just wasn't right. I was actually going to go through with it, but in the end, I decided not to."

"It was really brave," Steven vouched when the girls shared a surprised, doubtful glance. "And definitely super manly if you ask me!"

"Well, it sure sounds impressive," Connie agreed, grinning. 

"Hm…" Mabel looked her brother over, not entirely convinced. At least until she spotted something he hadn't yet. "Wait a minute… Do my eyes deceive me? Dipper, I think you have a chest hair!"

Not skipping a beat, Dipper pulled his shirt down as he let out a gasp of pleasant surprise. "Oh my gosh! You're right!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "This is amazing! I really do! Take that, man tester! Take that, Pituitor! This guy has a chest hair!" However, he only had a moment to celebrate that hair before Mabel suddenly reached over and plucked it right from his chest.

"Scrap-bookertunity!" she cheerfully plastered the hair in her scrapbook, ignoring the look of horrified shock that her brother was giving her.

"Eh, it's ok, Dipper," Steven laughed, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "I still don't have any chest hair either."

"Well, at least I know I'm not alone," Dipper sighed, though he still smiled all the same. "So what did you guys do all day?"

"We played with sidewalk chalk," Mabel grinned. The chalk dust covering both her and Connie was more than enough proof of that.

"Aw, what?" Steven asked. "We should have done that instead. It sounds way more fun than all those 'manly challenges' we did!"

"Heh, yeah…" Connie exchanged a knowing, good-natured look with Mabel. "It was fun… eventually."

Pearl held her own satisfied smile as she watched the kids continue to converse, only for Garnet to softly speak up to catch her attention. "Pearl, we're sorry. We should have listened to you… You were right." 

"Yeah," Pearl nodded, her confidence and zeal quickly building. "Yeah, I was right, wasn't I?"

"Go Pearl!" Steven cheered, just as proud of her as she was of him.

"Come on!" Pearl declared to her listless teammates. "I feel great! Who's up for a mission?! Or…"

As she continued her cheerful rant, Amethyst and Garnet merely exchanged a passive glance, neither of them having the energy or really the right to derail her after Sugilite's rampage. "How long is she going to keep this up?" Amethyst asked with an exhausted sigh. 

"We deserve it," Garnet admitted. After all, if Sugilite had no mercy on Pearl, then it only made sense for Pearl to take no mercy on them. "Take it like a Gem."