Templeschool

16. Robolympics

"Ladies and gentle gems, welcome to the first annual robolympics!" Steven walked out of the barn, wearing a pair of aviators and holding an old microphone that Twoie had found in one of the junk piles in the barn. Steven had also found a whistle, which was currently around his neck.

Garnet and Amethyst cheered from the sidelines. "Woo!" "Popcorn!"

Steven stepped forward as he continued to address the audience. "This competition will test our Robo-engineers' skills, Robo-construction, and Robo-piloting. Whoever wins will be in charge of building the Cluster drill machine thing." He raised his free hand and swiped it down. "Let the gaaames begin!"

Twoie ran over to a bunch of cardboard slides and grabbed one labeled Balance. "Hey, Steven. What part of the human body is necessary for balance?"

Steven hummed then touched both of his ears. "It's our inner ears!"

The young boy laughed as he got a thumbs up from Twoie. "Correct! That was a hard one too! Remind me to treat you to the Big Donut for that." He held it up for Steven and their audience to read.

Steven whooped then turned to face the others so he could announce the event. "Alright! Whoever's robot can balance on one limb and stay up the longest wins! Ready? Go!"

Pearl stood on one wheel of her robot. Although it was a little shaky, she managed to keep the bot in one place. Peridot's bot, however, was unable to stay standing on its hand. She spun it around wildly in an attempt to show off but ended up slamming into the ground. Steven blew the whistle, ending the first round. "Pearl, one. Peridot, zero." Twoie called out as he held up the next board for Steven.

"The next event is Crushing! There are many boulders in this area! Whoever's robot can crush the boulders the easiest wins the next round!" Steven gestured to a pile of rocks that were lying nearby. Peridot gripped one rock in each claw and crushed them with ease. Pearl's bot showed difficulty with lifting the rock in the first place. She barely managed to get it above her. While trying to crush it in her hands, the boulder slipped, clunking her in the head and bringing the bot down.

Twoie tsked as Peridot laughed raucously. "That looks like it hurt. What do you think, Steven?"

His younger brother winced as he watched the boulder roll off of Pearl. "Yeah, but she's getting back up. Pearl's tough!" Steven blew the whistle again, while his older brother marked Peridot as the winner of the round.

Twoie glanced at the next board, frowning slightly at the word Ballet written on it. "Hey, Sunshine... Don't you think this is a little unfair?"

Steven blew the whistle for a time out and ran over to Twoie. "What do you mean?"

Twoie scratched the back of his neck. "I don't think Peridot knows what ballet is. This event is a bit biased in Pearl's favor. Why don't we just make a category for precision instead? That'd probably be fairer to both."

Steven hummed, trying to think of exactly what they could do for Precision. He nods for Twoie to rewrite the event and ran back to the center of the group. "Okay, the next event is going to be Precision! Each contestant must maneuver their robot through a small obstacle course that Twoie and I are going to build right now. The robot that gets through without damaging the course and without knocking into any part of the course will win this round."

The two brothers ran back into the barn and set up a crude obstacle course of parts. Twoie stuck several poles in the ground, fairly spaced, for the bots to go through. Steven set some large pieces of junk on the ground to be crossed over, and then they set up an A-Frame out of two metal sheets that they had Garnet melt together.