Chapter 1
"Steven! Are you ready yet? You don't want to keep Connie waiting." Pearl yelled upstairs to Steven's living area as he was packing for a hike with Connie's family. "Hold on! I'm almost done!" Steven called down. After a couple minutes, Steven ran on downstairs with a huge smile on his face like usual, "Wow this is going to be exciting Pearl! It's just going to be me, Connie, and her parents!"
"Eheh, Steven, you know that Connie already enjoys having you as a friend. You don't really have to try and have her parents like you too." Pearl responded, holding her hands together. "But I wanna Pearl. I mean, I sort of feel bad for getting Connie's parents involved in so much danger regarding the Corrupted Gems, the Mutant Gems, and all that. I wanna show them the non-Gem side of me, the human me~!" Pearl laughed lightly at Steven's enthusiasm, rubbing his head, "Okay okay, you made your point Steven. Go and have fun, me and Garnet will have dinner waiting for you back home." She patted Steven on his back, gently nudging him out the door where Connie was standing on the beach and her parents' car was up on the hill leading up from the beach.
The car drive took about an hour or so towards Beach City's Natural Park which was secluded in a nice, mountainous forest. Steven was so excited he was actually bobbing up and down in the back seat, making Connie laugh from how childish he looked, but that's why she enjoys hanging out with him. "Alright you two, we're here at the camping grounds." Connie's mother spoke back, "Now if you two want to go off hiking by yourselves, stay on the designated hiking trails. Understand?"
"Nnngh, yes mom." Connie groaned, not really enjoying her mother's daily, safety lecture. "Of course Mrs. Maheswaran~!" Steven however, couldn't really think any less. "Alright then, as long as you two get it, have fun." Mrs. Maheswaran smiled immediately before Steven and Connie ran on out the car doors to get started on their little hiking fun.
About a half an hour has passed as Steven and Connie were walking up one of the hiking trails. "So Steven, what exactly did you bring along?" Connie asked.
"Well everything I ever need is right here in the Cheeseburger Backpack." He held his backpack out in confident triumph. "Haha, you say that with such conviction Steven. Is the backpack really that good?"
"Oh Connie, the Cheeseburger Backpack helped me and the Gems on numerous occasions. It's like our lifeline~!"
"Okay~! Well let's see what's in there then?" The two sat down on the trail as Steven opened up his backup, throwing out things as he listed them, "Hmmm, flashlight. Bug Spray. Oh~! Bits~!" Steven started eating the wrapped up Bits he got for this trip, "Blow up, water-raft." Connie laughed even more at Steven's naïve nonchalant attitude at some of the generally, unneeded supplies he brought, "Oh! And let's not forget Bear Mace!" Steven shouted out, holding up the Bear Mace. "B-Bear Mace?" Connie leaned back a little worried, "Steven, you really don't think we'll encounter a bear here do you?"
"Oh come on Connie, I've taken on Corrupted Gems on a daily basis. What's the worst that could happen?"
Just as Steven said that, the tree line near them was knocked over as a massive, Kabuto-inspired, Corrupted Gem roared out from behind the toppled trees. Steven gasped, "Run!" He took Connie's hand as they started to run on back to the campsite, "W-Wait Steven, my parents are back there!"
"O-Oh right!" Not wanting to endanger the Maheswarans, Steven and Connie broke off from the trail and headed into the thick tree lines the Kabuto Corrupted Gem, following right behind, knocking trees down left and right. While on the run, Connie's foot got stuck on a rugged, tree root and tripped over onto the ground, "Ah! St-Steven!" Connie called out. Steven turned to see that the Kabuto was about to strike down on Connie. Reacting, Steven stepped out in front, ready to form a bubble. As the Kabuto Gem struck down, Steven didn't feel the impact of the attack. Looking up, Steven's eyes widened in response to the sight.
Someone was blocking the Kabuto Gem's horn attack, someone who was decked out in a grey hoodie with a black, coat on top of it. But that wasn't even the stranger part. The stranger part was that the Kabuto's horn was actually being held in place from what seemed to be a giant, Skeleton Hand, holding onto the Kabuto Gem's horn from behind. The hooded person looked back at Steven and Connie, showing them one of his eyes from underneath the shadows that his hoodie projected. It was a sickly, dark-green color that seemed to have glowed underneath the shadow of his hoodie. He nodded his head over to the side, telling Steven and Connie to move away from this area. Steven merely nodded in response, taking Connie's arm around his shoulder, "Th-Thank you." Once Steven and Connie were out of sight, the hooded boy glared back up at the Kabuto Gem as his eyes turned from the dark-green, to a crimson red.
The skeleton hand pulled back even more on the Kabuto Gem, making it fall on its back as it struggled in vain to try and roll over. With the advantage now his, the hooded boy leaped up into the air, gripping onto what seemed to be a curved dagger, almost like a sickle. In one, quick strike, he dived down, slicing right through the Kabuto Gem's soft underside, making it poof back into its Gem state. Steven and Connie merely watched in awe at how strong this person was, "St-Steven, who is that?"
"Don't look at me. B-But from experience, only Gems really have the power to take on a Corrupted Gem by themselves."
"So wait, you're saying this guy here is a Gem?"
"It could be the only explanation." Steven looked back over in time to see the hooded boy pick up the Gem and start to clench his grip around it, looking like he's about to crush it, "No! Wait!" Steven sprinted right over to the hooded boy and snatched the Gem out of his hand before he could do anything. After doing so, Steven bubbled it and sent it back to the Crystal Sanctum, much to the hooded boy's dismay, "What the heck?" The hooded boy immediately drew his dagger again, facing Steven, "Whoa whoa wait! I don't want to fight!" Steven waved his hands in front of himself quickly, not wanting to have a confrontation. "How were you able to do that?!" The hooded figure lashed out, seeming to be startled from Steven's little bubble trick. "Oh, y-you mean the bubble thing?" Steven started off, "D-Don't worry, it's nothing harmful. I just sent the Corrupted Gem there back to our base."
"Our?..." The hooded boy seemed confused, still holding his dagger up. This made Steven even more anxious, wanting to find a way to make the person stand down, "Um…um…My name is Steven!"
"What?..." The hooded boy tilted his head.
"I-I said my name is Steven. What's yours?..." The hooded boy's eyes narrowed at Steven before standing straight up again, lowering his weapon, "…Zircon…" Steven finally sighed out in relief. "So Zircon…um…that was pretty cool what you did there against that Corrupted Gem." This only made Zircon stare at Steven even more, "How do you know about the Corrupted Gems?..."
"Oh that's easy!" Steven lifted up his shirt to show Zircon the Rose Quartz on his stomach, "You see I'm a Gem! Although, technically a half-Gem. I work alongside Gems who defend Earth, known as the Crystal Gems~!"
"The Crystal…Gems?...Wait. You just said you're a half-Gem?" Steven nodded at Zircon's question. Afterwards, Zircon turned around, dropped the coat he was wearing and lifted the back of his shirt up. No wonder he had himself fit in such heavy, concealing clothing. His skin was a pale green and looked as if he had green veins appearing all over his body. The icing on the cake though was that in the middle of his spinal area, a green gem-stone with red blotches in it was embedded in him, "N-No way. You're a half-gem too?" Steven stood back shocked since Zircon's gem didn't have that faint glow that the other Full-Gems had. Pulling his shirt back down and placing the coat back on, Zircon faced the two. "So if you're a half-gem, that must mean that your mother was a Gem!"
"I guess…" Zircon shrugged his shoulders, not really seeing why Steven is bringing this up. "Who was your mother Zircon~!" Steven gleefully asked. "Wh-What?!" Zircon jumped back, shocked at how forward Steven was. No one has ever asked him anything like that before. "Ngh…well if you must know…tch…" He held his head as if he was in a concentrated thought. His eyes looked back up, "Her name was Bloodstone…"
"B-Bloodstone?" Steven leaned forward.
"Connie! Steven!" The Makeswarans voices could be heard off in the distance.
"We're over here!" Connie yelled out. Moments later, the Maheswarans arrived, "Oh thank god! You're alright!" Mrs. Maheswaran gasped out, "We saw a huge ruckus going on in the direction you guys were hiking in and immediately ran over. What happened?"
"Oh everything is ok now Mrs. Maheswaran! You see Zircon here-" When Steven turned to introduce Zircon to the Maheswarans, he was baffled to see that Zircon has disappeared, "Wh-Wha? But he was just-"
"Don't worry about it, I think we spent enough time out here as it was. Let's head on back." Mr. Maheswaran spoke, obviously paranoid about another bad thing happening. So everyone packed up and headed on back to Beach City.