The Soul Gem

Coordinate

The Crystal Gems took Ermac to the Sky Arena. They intended to teach him how to coordinate his footwork to help him figure out how to help him fuse. Which based on what his Ruby told the gems, was going to be difficult.

"What is our first lesson?" Ermac asked the gems, walking around the Sky Arena sort of like how Steven did when he was first taken to the arena.

"Your first lesson is learning how to feel the rhythm dude," Amethyst said as she made her arms wavy with her shapeshifting. Ermac tried to mimic her wavy arms, his own shapeshifting making his form look crystalline and jagged.

"Okay. First lesson, learn how to get into a consistent beat," Pearl said, pulling a boom box out from her gem and setting it down on the ground. She turned the volume up to maximum, so Ermac could hear the music from where he stood.

"We'll start with a simple beat rhythm. Tap your right foot to the lower toned beats, tap your left foot to the higher toned beats. Okay?" Garnet instructed to Ermac. He gave a solitary nod, with a thumbs up before Garnet leaned down and pushed the play button. It was a recording of amethyst playing some drums, a low tom and a high tom in alternating fashion. With every beat of the two drums, Ermac tapped his feet in the order that Garnet instructed him to. The recording finished after about a minute, and Garnet rewound the tape but had it paused.

"Alright Ermac. Now with every low beat, move your right foot back and recenter. For every higher beat, move your left foot forward and recenter. Understand?" Garnet instructed Ermac. He gave another thumbs up, and Garnet replayed the audio. Ermac got his feet mixed up a few times, but he got himself readjusted and righted his footing. The audio finished, and Ermac seemed a bit embarrassed at his rather childish mishap.

"It's alright Ermac. Believe it or not, Steven actually had problems learning how to do this sort of choreography too. It's all a learning process!" Pearl said, like an encouraging mother to a discouraged child.

"No big deal 'Mac! We all mess up!" Amethyst said while relaxing on a cloud that she...ripped from the sky or something. No one's actually sure where she gets the clouds from. Garnet took out the cassette of Amethyst's drums, and the fusion had this smirk on her face. She pulled another cassette tape out of her right hand's gem, this one having a flame design with a grill design on the back of it. She snuck the cassette into the boom box and closed it, rewinding the tape to the beginning.

"Alright Ermac. We're going to get a bit more...complex," Garnet said with a twinge of humor to her voice.

"Complex?" Ermac asked in confusion.

"Just let your body go on autopilot. Gems naturally synchronize to rhythms. Just imagine that you're in a small circle with...eight multicolored dots. You'll get this in no time," Garnet told the amalgam. Ermac gave a hesitant thumbs up, not sure of what Garnet had planned. Garnet had this smile on her face, presumably from Sapphire's side as she hit play on the Boom Box. From the speakers erupted this insanely high speed drumming rhythm with a whistle thay accompanied it. Immediately Ermac went stiff as a statue, his gem immediately turning to a swirling of the dark blue of a Sapphire and the dim red of his normal gem.

"Wait...is that-" Pearl began.

"Flambèe," Garnet replied with a smirk as the gems observed what Ermac would do. The gems watched as the collective's body began moving in erratic dance motions that were somehow in sync with the song.

"Whoa! Look at him go!" Amethyst cheered as Ermac jumped and spun and did varying examples of extravagant footwork. When the song shifted to a slower speed for about 10 seconds, Ermac's body slowed to a near gravity defying robot dance. Then the song kicked back into gear, and Ermac kicked it back to high gear too. Strangely enough, Ermac's erratic dance were following Garnet's 8 colored dots in circle formation. Each beat he followed in a concise circle around him, as if Meat Beat Mania had been turned into a dancing themed rhythm game. To the gems Amethyst in particular who was more familiar with the style, it had looked like Ermac was doing some form of breakdancing.

The song ended, the blue swirling vanished and Ermac suddenly fell flat on his back from being dizzy.

"How did you know that would work on him?" Pearl asked Garnet.

"When I got stuck playing that game, Sapphire loved using Future Vision to figure out what would happen next. I was a slave to the beat, so if there was any way to get the idea of following a rhythm into Ermac's body. It was Meat Beat Mania," Garnet explained to Pearl before walking up to Ermac and checking on him.

"That was evil. However, we understand that it was to help us incorporate a sense of harmonic muscle memory into ourself. So we forgive you," Ermac said as he stood up, using Garnet as a brace to make sure he didn't fall over again. His collective stability was thrown off with the rapid movements he just underwent.

"You think you get the gist of it?" Garnet asked Ermac, who had regained his composure. He gave a nod, while fixing his black hood and his face cover. Both of which getting jostled and uncomfortably shifted by the time the dancing had finished. Amethyst ran up to Ermac, jumping on his back and hopping onto his shoulder.

"Dude that was awesome! Give it a bit more work, you'll be fusing with us in no time! Hey, I call dibs on your first fusion. Alright?!" Amethyst said.

"Well you can get that chance right now. He's more or less learned how to handle a singular rhythm. Now he needs a crash course in synchronization with another gem," Garnet told the hyperactive Quartz.

"Aw yeah! Come on 'Mac attack! Let's do some dope fusion!!" Amethyst cheered as she jumped down from his shoulder, pulling Ermac to the center of the sky arena. In their minds, a song had started for them to dance to. Amethyst began, a free spirited dance that went along with the unheard song as her gem glowed a bright purple. Ermac had a bit of trouble initially, before quickly catching a certain beat and flowing with it. Doing spins and twirls on his hands and arms, transitioning to fast and almost floaty footwork.

His gem began glowing green, as the two gems began coordinating with each other. Ermac and Amethyst mimicking certain movements of each other perfectly, before Ermac tossed Amethyst into the air. Her spinning as a white ball of her hair, as the amalgam gem did one more high speed windmill on his hands. As Amethyst came down, he quickly transitioned from his hands to spinning on the balls of his feet with his arms out. As they collided, their forms turned to bright light that melted into each other. The light went from bright white to a deep purple as their gems also changed color to reflect the new form the two had taken.

"Well this should be interesting," Pearl said in anticipation for what they'd look like.

"Now comes our answer," Garnet added as the light faded and the form of their fusion was revealed.