Chapter 11: The Perilous Avalanche

The island of snow was a beautiful sight to behold. The mountains and hills were covered head to toe with the stuff and Steven, being a stereotypical little kid, was naturally in heaven.

The crew had left the Going Merry docked with Zoro watching it by himself. He asked Damian and Steven if they wanted to stay and train with him, but both turned him down. While it was expected in Steven's case, the bomb-man seemed rather protective of his former partner. It turned a few heads (specifically Sanji's), but they traveled out regardless.

As Dalton (the head of the townspeople) was explaining where to find the doctor that could help Petrea's condition, Steven was presently making snowmen with Usopp, Luffy, and Genevieve, who had been convinced to try to paint their frozen creations.

"My Snowzilla is going to utterly destroy yours, Luffy!" Usopp announced confidently.

"In your dreams!" Luffy stuck his tongue out at him. "Genevieve, can you color his head purple and his chest black?"

The painter got to work while Usopp started requesting his own color selection. Steven meanwhile, concentrated hard as he finished his snow person. He used his hand to finish drawing a face into the snow and merely smiled.

"Woah, Steven! That came out great!" Luffy said in amazement. "What do you call it?"

Steven just kept looking at the figure and wiped at his eyes for a moment. The snow person looked to be a figure with sunglasses and a giant afro. Just as he was about to answer, the other Straw Hats finally noticed their absence inside. "GET IN HERE, YOU IDIOTS!"

"Ahh! Scary Nami!" Luffy, Usopp, Steven, and even the normally stoic Genevieve cried, running inside, leaving the three unfinished snow people to guard the house.

Like three of the people Steven missed most.

*AGITR*

Garnet sneezed without warning, allowing her to be hit by a robotic alien creature.

"Garnet, what are you doing?!" Pearl called out from her own fight. "You had that thing cornered!"

"It...it was nothing!" the Gem shook it off. "These things are nothing compared to the likes of Peridot's abominations!"

"Do not under estimate the forces of Aku, strange alien woman!" the samurai, whose fight they interrupted in their later trip through the Belly Bag Badge, yelled while engaging his own enemy. "If we are to survive this fight, we need to be focused...and Samurai Jack is always focused!"

With that, he used his sword to slice the beast in half and went to join Connie's fight, passing by Greg, who had kept himself hidden.

"Next place that we see that has a sword, I'm getting one," he was muttering aloud.

'Steven...I know I just felt you,' Garnet thought to herself. She punched her opponent away from her and tried yet again to look into the future. Sadly, all she could see was snow and a desert. 'We won't give up...' "We won't! Ha!"

Using her rage, she jumped back in to defeat all the enemies in their path. The sooner they were taken care of, the sooner their quest could resume.

*AGITR*

Inside the small house, the pirates and Dalton were huddled around Petrea, who was placed in the bed. She was bundled up and shivering. Steven couldn't help but notice that Sanji and Damian were at either side of her exchanging glances.

"See that castle up there?" Dalton pointed to a small building on the highest mountain in the distance. "That's where Dr. Kureha lives."

"How convenient," Sanji sighed. "So, how does one go about calling her?"

"You don't. She comes down when she wants to and heals people as she goes along. She's a wonderful doctor, especially for being 140 years old, but she's incredibly eccentric," Dalton explained.

"HOW IS SHE STILL ALIVE?!" Nami yelled.

"The Gems are over 5,000 years old!" Steven chimed in. "Maybe she's an alien too!"

"I DON'T THINK SHE'S AN ALIEN!" the navigator retorted.

"So how does she get down here then?" Damian asked. "Fly? Devil Fruit?"

"A reindeer-pulled sled, actually," Dalton admitted. "That's what everyone says at least, hence the witch moniker."

"That sounds like the Joyful Seasonal Plum from the Crying Breakfast Friend Winter Jubilee!" Steven's eyes widened. "He would come down and stop all the other Crying Breakfast Friends from crying just for one day and..." He stopped his excitement when he realized that he was just confusing everyone.

"...'Crying...Breakfast...Friends?'" Dalton asked. "I can't say that I follow."

"...yeah, sorry. My bad," Steven said dejectedly. "So...how long until the doctor comes from her castle?"

"She comes and goes of her own free will. There's no telling when she will come down."

Luffy assed the situation for a moment and decided upon the best course of action: slapping the slumbering Petrea in the face. "Yo! Get up!"

Both Sanji and Damian went to lunge at Luffy before Steven instinctively put up a bubble around the three. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

"What...what...?" Petrea managed to get out.

"The doctor is on top of a mountain. I'm going to carry you there."

"WHAT?!" everyone in the house yelled.

"That will just make it worse! She can't handle the extreme weather out there!" Nami tried explaining.

"Please reconsider! You don't know how cold it can get out there!" Dalton added.

"I can help!" Steven raised his hand. He then clapped his hands and his bubble appeared from his gem. "My bubble can keep the cold out!"

The boy looked to his captain, who nodded. "What do you say, Petrea? Can you handle it?"

"We'll...have to try, won't we?" she smiled weakly. "Guess my...my life is in your hands, 'Straw Hat.'"

"And mine!" Damian grunted, walking forward. "I'm not letting you guys go up there alone!"

"Well it's a good thing I'll be with them, so don't worry about it!" Sanji interjected, giving Damian the evil eye. "I would rather die than let a beautiful woman go up the mountain without a PROPER escort!"

The former Mr. 5 got in his face. "What do you mean by 'proper?!'"

"I think you understood perfectly well, shithead!"

"Cursing!" Steven cried.

"Look, if you are all going to be idiots and not think it through, why don't you just both go?" Usopp groaned in disbelief. "Engaging in a match of egos isn't going to help Petrea, is it?"

"Fine!" they both looked away from each other.

Steven turned his head from Sanji to Damian before realization struck. "You have a crush!" he told them both in a singsong voice.

"SHUT UP!" they yelled in unison.

*AGITR*

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Steven yelled. "I feel like my mind is on fire!"

After strapping Petrea to Luffy's back (and been given a lowdown of the local area by Dalton), Steven had formed his bubble around the five of them and they started off. However, Steven had not anticipated the fast speeds Luffy was running at. As such, the boy and the two men were forced to keep on their toes and, in the case of Steven, keep complete concentration.

"You're doing great, Steven!" Luffy laughed, picking up the pace. "We will get there in no time!"

"I hope so!" Steven cried frantically. "How are you two?"

"I feel like a small rodent!" Damian grumbled and he tried to keep his footing.

Sanji merely laughed. "Please! I'm handling this like a pro! I'm...oof!" They had hit a bump, causing Sanji to hit the wall of the bubble.

"You were saying, eyebrows?" Damian laughed at his misfortune before falling on his face as well. The two men growled at each other before scrambling up, making sure not to be carried away with the ball.

"Don't hit the walls, guys! It's hard to keep it together!"

As Luffy's speed increased, so did Petrea's breathing. The males knew it was better not to acknowledge it and to keep moving along. In order to keep himself focused, Steven did what he did best: he sang.

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening! A beautiful sight; we're happy tonight! Walking in a winter wonderland!"

"STOP SINGING!" Sanji and Damian yelled at the same time.

"Wait!" Petrea managed to get out. "I...I like...I like the singing..."

"Steven, what are you doing?!" Sanji admonished him.

"How could you be so rude as to stop singing! You need lessons in etiquette, kid!" Damian added.

Steven looked confused before finally figuring it out. "Is that your dream, Damian?! Do you want to marry Petrea?"

"NO; THAT IS NOT MY DREAM! STOP ASKING!"

"I don't get it. Where did you get that idea from?" Luffy asked, clueless as ever.

"Just...just stop," Damian pleaded.

After some time (and many more snow related songs), they came across a tiny white rabbit. Steven started to coo. "Aww, look at the bunny! It is adorable!"

It was then that the bunny decided to bare its fangs and started to lunge for the ball. "Ahh! Bad bunny! Run away!"

"No, run at it!" Luffy said, taking control. The bubble ball hit the creature and sent it flying away. However it shortly proved to have been a mistake as older, larger bunnies arrived. The crew kept on going past them but in their anger, they started hopping up and down.

Thus began an avalanche.

"AHHH! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!" Steven cried. "WE ARE GOING TO BE TRAPPED!"

"If you act like that, then we will!" Luffy smirked. "We've just got to plow through it!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" the three conscious people yelled at once.

"Look! There's a cliff!" Sanji pointed. "If we stay under there, we might get lucky!"

The group scurried toward the aforementioned cliff, but it was no use: they could not escape the avalanche. However, the cliff proved to be a good call, as it allowed the ball to ride the top of the snow as opposed to being buried underneath.

But they were not the only ones who could ride the snowfall.

"These rabbits just don't quit, do they?!" Sanji freaked out when more of the creatures came at them.

"What did Dalton call them? Laphans? Lapins?" Luffy tried to remember.

"Lapis?" Steven offered.

"How are you so calm during an avalanche?!" Damian wondered.

Before anyone could answer, the rabbits started to attack the bubble. At long last, Steven's will gave out and his protective barrier shattered. Everybody started flying in various directions.

The problem was Petrea. The second the cold air hit her nose, she started to cough again. With a single loud burst, she flew high up into the air, snapping the binding that tied her to Luffy. With her weight constantly changing, she started to float away, much to the fear of the men, who now had to deal with the lapahns directly.

"Luffy! Steven! Get her back down here!" Sanji yelled. "Shithead and I will stop these damn rabbits!"

"Wait...what?!" Steven cried, taking everything in at once.

"Go get her, kid!" Damian picked his nose and flung it at the lapahns. "We've got this!"

In an instant, the two men and the rabbits engaged in combat and we lost in a sea of white. All that was left flying Luffy, Steven, and the near out of sight Petrea.

"SANJI! BOMB-GUY!" Luffy yelled. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"Luffy, we need to get her down! Can you stretch to her?!" Steven asked worryingly.

"I can't! She's too far! Can't you send her in a bubble or something?!"

Steven concentrated with all of his might, but he could not produce a bubble large enough to surround her. As such, Luffy and Steven were now encased in a bubble, flying in the exact opposite direction.

"What are we going to do?!" Luffy panicked.

"Wait..." Realization dawned on Steven. "Grab my hands!"

"Why?"

"Throw me over there and I'll bubble her myself!" the half-Gem was determined.

Luffy nodded and grabbed him. As the two were falling, their hearts and wills were both in the same place. Their desire to save Petrea was strong and etched into their minds. It seemed like the two were in sync.

Then Steven's gem began to glow and the two beings were encased in light.