So this is an AU I had imagined. I used to be a nerd about chemistry when my class started on the subject of atoms. So I figured replacing the Gems with atomic elements.

The Mighty Atoms

The sun kissed Greg Universe's skin. He wasn't even doing most of the heavy lifting, but the heat made the temptation to go for a water bottle too great to resist.

"Phew, building a house sure isn't easy." He looked over the wooden structure half-finished in the cave formed by two of the hands of the giant woman statue. Truly a proud work, even though the Atoms had done all of the heavy lifting. But he'd damned if he wasn't going to help. "How is that ukulele treating you?"

Steven Universe, his little schtooball, didn't say a word. He just kept strumming.

"Hey, Steven!" greeted a sweet voice of a female figure of faded yellow-green skin. If you could call 'skin' to the surface of her body, which a thorough eye could tell was slightly buzzing. As if it were running electricity.

Also interestingly was a thin ring around her neck were 7 small orbs rotated, equidistantly.

"Hey, Fluorine. Great job out there." The adult greeted friendly, handing her a water bottle, which the 'woman' – Fluorine – handed to her shorter, stockier companion. Another 'woman' of black-coal hue. Like Fluorine, she had the same buzzing and a ring with rotating orbs. Though hers was around her forehead and it had only 4.

"Greg, did you give Steven that instrument?" Fluorine asked.

"Oh, yes. He's picking up things so fast I'm running out of things to teach him."

Another strange woman joined them, the tallest of the whole group. She had a cubical afro and large shades. Her whole body and suit was in shades of white. Unlike the other two she had no ring with orbiting spheres anywhere, though she did have two orbs half embedded in one palm, and six in the other.

"Steven you wanna play them the song you wrote?"

The little boy turned his head away, his cheek gaining a shade of pink.

"Come on, you wrote it for them." The father said patiently. He turned to the Atoms. "Seriously, he's really excited with moving in with you guys." He turned back to the child. "Don't you want them to hear it?"

"Go on, Steven." Spoke the tallest woman with the shades, Magnesia.

"Yeah, we'll like it, even if it's bad!" said the black-coal one.

"Carbon!" Fluorine chided, then sighed. "Well, it's true, though."

Encourage, the little boy took a deep breath and began strumming.

If you're evil and you're on the rise

You can count on the four of us taking you down

Cause we're good and evil never beats us

We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas

The small audience began clapping, incited by Magnesia.

We are the Mighty Atoms

We'll always save the day!

And if you think we can't

We'll always find a way!

That's why the people of this world believe in

Magnesia, Carbon, and Fluorine and Steven!

The Atoms joined in, one at the time. First was Magnesia. Behind her, two vague spectral figures appeared. Both short, one silver with a ring of two orbs and the other red with a ring of six.

I will fight for the place where I'm free

To live together and exist as me

Next was Fluorine while executing a graceful pirouette.

I will fight in the name of Hydrogen!

And everything that she believed in

Carbon brandished her whip and made a pose:

I will fight for the world I was made in

The Earth is everything I've ever known!

Finally, Steven bolted up and ended with:

I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be

when I'm grown!

His oversized shirt was lifted by the wind, showing the legacy of his mother; a single orb embedded where his nave should be.

Atom Classroom Short: What are atoms?

"Welcome to Atom Classroom. I'm Pearl, and today we're going to talk about what Atoms are." Said Chibi-flourine. "Simplified down to our basic form, Atoms are…well, atoms."

A chalkboard appears with 3 different Rutherford atom models, silver, red and black. If you don't know what that looks like, image google it.

"The core of our being is a nucleus, made of positive and neutral particles. The bodies that you see are made of negative particles – electrons – which are held in place by the nucleus."

The examples in the chalkboard turned into Magnesia and Carbon.

"Nice electrons." Carbon winked at Magnesia.

"I know."

Fluorine continued. "Though Atoms are extraordinarily resilient, as their electrons are tightly attracted to their nucleus, if they're seriously hurt, the electrons will scatter and the Atoms loses her physical form. Thus, becomes only its nucleus..."

To demonstrate the point, Magnesia knocked Carbon on the head, poofing her into an orb of black and grey facets.

"Now, the Atom will proceed to regenerate, by randomly colleting electrons from the environment around it. In order to prevent regeneration, the nucleus can be contained in an electron free container."

"Like a bubble." Magnesia made another demonstration by bubbling what remained of Carbon.

"It's important to remember that not all of our electrons make up our bodies." A circular ring appeared with spheres running on it like planets drawing an orbit around a star. "These are called 'valence electrons' and are the most outer shell of electrons an atom has. They are, so to speak, an excess of electrons which makes the Atom unstable, uncomplete. Alas, an atom has to exist with them and, unfortunately, cannot be thrown away..." Fluorine absently passed a hand over her own valence electrons orbiting around her neck. "The atoms that have no valence electrons are perfectly stable, but they are unique…and we're not talking about them here." She finished with a frown.

Magnesia intervened. "There are other ways for atoms to counteract the imbalance." She showed off the electrons embedded in her palms and winked behind her shades. "But that's for another class."

Carbon was unbubbled and reformed almost immediately. Specks of light gathered around the nucleus and made her new form.

"Not cool, Mag."

"Now, an Atom can regenerate as many times as it needs, as long as it remains undamaged. But if the nucleus receives a blow with too much force, the neutrons and protons that make it up will scatter, too. Thus the Atom suffers a true death." Fluorine finished. "And, on that cheery note, that's all for today's lesson."

Atom Classroom Short: Bonding

"Listen up, everyone! Today we are talking about…bonding. Atomic bonding." Started out Magnesia.

We cut to Magnesia dancing to the tune.

"Bonding is made when two or more Atoms combine into one molecule, like me. See, 'Magnesia' is just a nickname. My full name is 'Magnesium Oxide'."

Magnesia split herself into two smaller atoms: Oxygen and Magnesium, each with their own orbiting valence electrons.

"See, bonding is a form of stabilizing atoms by sharing electrons." The red Oxygen, dressed like a soldier said, sharing a dance with the silver princess-like Magnesium, who continued: "As long as the total amount of valence electrons is a specific number. In most cases like ours, there has to be a total of 8 summed electrons."

The two rejoin together into Magnesia.

"As a molecule, I am stable. Therefore, no valence electrons circling around me." She displayed her palms where the valence electrons of Oxygen and Magnesium were embedded. "For a bonding to be sustainable indefinitely, the Atoms that make it up must crave something else than feeling complete. It requires an emotional bond to sustain the bonding for long-periods. And in my case," she makes a heart symbol with her palms. "it's love!"

"So that's kinda like a fusion of Atoms?" Steven asked from his desk.

"Oh, no. Not at all." Magnesia shook her head, sounding a bit distress. "Fusion for atoms, also called 'Nuclear Fusion', involves Atoms been fused into one new Atoms, nucleus and all, rather than a molecule. This is exceedingly difficult, dangerous and impossible to revert. Once two Atoms are fused, their individuality is forfeited. And there is never any guarantee that the newly fused Atom will be stable. Because of this, Fusion is virtually unspoken of among Atoms."

"Sounds kinda scary." Steven said.

"It is." Magnesia nodded. "Though not as much as the other side of the coin of scary: fission. Fission is an individual atom splitting itself into two or more personalities. If fusion is extremely risky, fission is borderline suicidal as when an Atom splits, they become broken physically, mentally and emotionally. At worst, it's fatal and at best it's very crippling."

Steven gulped. "That sounds really scary."

Magnesia replied with her trademark blank look. "It is. Class dismissed!"

I chose the atomic elements for the Gems for a few loose parameters. First of all, they had to be able to bond into simple molecules, pairs of different atoms like MgO.

Amethyst – Carbon; because carbon takes on many forms.

Pearl – Fluorine

Garnet – Magnesia (Magnesium Oxide)

Ruby – Oxygen

Sapphire – Magnesium

Rose Quartz - Hydrogen

Now, there are no plans to make this into a story, in short or long-term, but I still have a few scenes to publish. Also, you may have noticed that by my version of Classrooms, there could never be a Hydrogen Atom with a physical form. Points for whoever guesses why.