Chapter 1: The Crystal Gems
Her lecture left me very informed about what Gems are, albeit a bit more detail than I probably needed, I understood just what she was trying to tell me. I nodded to myself as I thought about what I could do with this knowledge.
"So... Pearl. I can summon a weapon?" Extending the question I looked down at my gems, "...Why would I need one?"
She lightly placed her hand on my shoulder and gave me a sincere expression, "It's a long story... but I'm telling you right now that you will need to defend yourself when the time comes. I feel it's only a matter of time before-"
The screen door slammed open, and a young woman burst in. Her long white hair flew back as she skid into the kitchen. Her clothes were a purple tang top that seemed just ever so slightly too large for her, and a black spaghetti strap undershirt. A purple gem on her upper chest was revealed to me by the gap her shirt made. She pushed her hair away from her left eye as she took a few deep breaths; she seemed as though she had something urgent to say. Her white boots and black fitting pants didn't make her seem any more mature.
"Oh Amethyst! This is Azurite and he's-" Pearl was cut off.
The young woman spoke with a somewhat brazen voice, "It's Steven! Some giant rock monster came out of the ground and... Daaah!" Her fingers gripped into her hair.
"W-What!?" Pearl yelled, and her hand instinctively went to her open mouth as Amethyst quickly fell suit outside. A loud yell was heard followed by a thud.
"We should go help too! Right?" I said hastily moving towards the screen door.
Pearl grabbed my arm, "N-No! It's to dangerous! Besides... Me, Amethyst and Garnet have definitely got this under control."
A loud bang was heard from outside followed by a young male's scream. We both jumped in our shoes before instinctively going to investigate the situation outside.
The screen door squeaked open as we both went onto the wooden balcony. A long and somewhat wide beach stretched before us which was the bridge between the small town to the right and the deep ocean to the left. Looking up around the house I could see that it was located on a huge carved out cliff. The lines of the carvings made what looked like a beautiful woman with four arms. Albeit worn down from time the sentiment was still in tact.
Looking back at the beach I could see the town curves back from another small cliff before wrapping around to a beautiful pier. The scenery was interrupted, however, by a huge monstrous being.
Right as I noticed the monster, it roared and consequently caused me to lose my footing. My hands and arms breaking my fall.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" I yelled as Pearl leaped from the balcony onto the soft sand. "Pearl?" I slowly got back up and watched over the balcony as the Gem ran towards the monster; pulling out what looked like a blue lance from her forehead. "...W-What?"
"Garnet, Amethyst!" She yelled as the two other Gems quickly came out from behind large rocks on the beach.
I watched as the two other Gems summoned their weapons in a warm glow. Quickly Amethyst pulled out what looked like an equally purple speckled whip which matched her Gem, and Garnet punched her fists together causing what appeared to be gauntlets on her fists.
In awe I watched them get into formation, and subsequently attacked the large blue monster. Garnet quickly leaped into the air as Amethyst wrapped her whip around the monster's leg-pulling it down- and Pearl firing little bullets of light at the monster's sides. Finally, Garnet came down with a super fast and decisive punch onto the monster's mid-section. The monster appeared as though it were hurt, but somehow managed to recover quickly from the blow.
Something strange happened with the monster as it seemed to ooze black sludge. Small tendrils and arms started to form around its sides. It began to transform. The black sludge completely covered it's body, and the arms quickly threw away Garnet in a whipping action as if she were a ball. Her body tossed deep into the sand with a loud thud.
As the monster continued to recover strangely, its mouth opened to ooze out more black sludge and let out a loud roar. The sound vibrated thoroughly through the wooden platform and my feet were carried and thrown off balance causing me to tumble backwards.
I could feel the wood starting to give way, the creaks and cracks made audible noises, and I found myself quickly falling to the sandy earthly ground. The wood around me in pieces now with sharp planks and miscellaneous objects midst all the wreckage.
My now sandy hands slowly brought myself back up, and quickly finding myself in the active zone.
Well, I'm here now. Either run or...help? What can I do...? I fervishly thought to myself; sweat falling down my cheek. What did Pearl say? … 'I'll have to defend myself...' Her words echoed in my mind.
The monster smashed the ground again, and the Gems were knocked over once more. It was as if the monster had foresight and knew where their attacks were coming from.
"Garnet, Amathyst...!" Pearl called out, but was returned with no response. The black goo of the monster started to create spires in the ground that sprang up as the Gems attempted to get closer. I watched as Garnet attempted to punch through the monster's spires but it appeared to have no effect. With her gauntlets getting stuck in the goo, she became unable to move.
I looked down at my wrists, and imagined what I could use to fight. Nothing happened of course, but I couldn't start fighting without a weapon, could I?
The Gem that was called Amethyst looked over at me from across the beach, fighting back the oozing goo with her whip, yelled out, "Get out of here man!"
I shook my head, and started to run towards the main monster. I could feel the ground shift under me, and as if I knew it was about to happen, I jumped out of the way to dodge the protruding oozing tentacles. Suddenly, I felt this energy around my arms before suddenly a pair of metallic blue swords appeared for me. Naturally, I took hold of them as they became completely solid. The blades seemed to give me the strength to cut through anything. My elbow pulled down on an obstructing oozing blob, and the blade followed through with a satisfying slice, and cut it in two. I kept running; with the wind whistling by, and the Gems slowly recovering to get back in action, I regrouped with them near the monster.
It let out a loud roar once more, but we stood our ground. The Gems looked at me, and nodded confidently before looking back at our foe.
I held up my arms up in front of my chest, and crossed them in defense-the blades pointing away to block any attack. Pearl took her lance and moved into a more offensive stance. I watched as Garnet and Amethyst followed suit. An arrogant smirk on my face I nodded. My body felt warm when I was around them in this way. I felt like I could take on anything.
Garnet's voice commanded us, "Everyone, move!"
All of our legs carried us in different directions as we all narrowly escaped the monster's underhanded attack from below us. Garnet, from the left side, flanked the gigantic monster and smashed the ground to create a disorientating shockwave. Meanwhile, Amethyst, from the right side, whipped the monster and purposefully got her whip stuck. She appeared to grip it hard before sending what seemed like a purple pulse of electrical energy into the monster itself. Pearl on the other hand moved swiftly to the back side of the monster, and appeared to charge her lance. The lance glowed beautifully before she forcefully stabbed it into the ooze. It exploded on impact.
It wasn't enough, not yet. The monster was damaged, but there was nothing else the gems could do. My arms slammed and sliced into the monster, and through its moving tentacled arms, but it wouldn't go down.
A final slice into it's body proper, and I found myself getting stuck in the ooze. My hands felt the ugly gross feeling surround them. I could feel my fingers slide around, but my arms were kept in with a powerful suction. It was only a matter of time before my whole body was sucked into the powerful ooze. I struggled, pulled, and try to fight my way out, but it was all in vain. The last thing I could hear was Garnet calling my name as my body disappeared from her view.
…
It was darkness for miles. There was nothing for me to see, nothing for me do. The light had been sucked away just like my body. My mouth tightly closed I tried to make more room for myself. There had to be a way out of this.
What...? It's like... a hard liquid.
My body slowly crawled through the darkness. My eyes scanned for any visible light, but what was there was swallowed up by the dark. Just an endless abyss it seemed before I heard a voice.
It was a child's voice. A voice calling out for anyone to hear him. His voice sounded scared and confused, but determined to find someone in this darkness.
"Is anyone there?!" I yelled out, crawling through the thick darkness. "I could hear you!"
The child spoke once more, "Yeah! Whoever you are, come closer!" He seemed really excited to hear someone.
As I got closer to the voice, I noticed a small pink glow that illuminated a small area. Almost like a lantern of sorts it seemed there was a small shield over a young man. Barely making out what the boy looked like, I smiled warmly as I was able to move more the closer I got. His shield seemed to push away the darkness to make a small room of sorts.
I knelt down next to the boy to make more room and to have us at an average eye level-even though I was still a bit taller than he. "Hello, uh... ...Are you Steven?" I gave him a small smile.
"That's m'name, don't wear it out!" His innocent eyes looked up at me with a cheerful smile, "But uh... How do you know my name?"
I chuckled, "...Garnet told me. Heheh. My name is Azurite. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Steven put out his hand with a warm smile. Naturally, I took his hand and returned the gesture. Albeit a bit awkward for a moment, as our hands just hung in the air untouching.
"Uhh... You're supposed to shake hands with me." The boy took my hand of his own will and shook it up and down decisively. "See? ...Agh, your hands are cold!" He immediately let go of my apparently cold hands.
I looked at him inquisitively before examining them myself. My hands seemed to exude this white cold off of them. Like ice creating a fog in spring, my hands seemed to create a small cloud of cold. Slowly I touched my own face, and found them to be not quite so cold as they appeared.
"Is this another Gem thing?" I looked at my right gem in the dim pinkish light. It didn't seem out of the ordinary. "Steven?"
Steven's eyes twinkled with delight, "You're a Gem!?" He took my arm and closely examined the rock embedded into my flesh. He let out an excited sigh. "Ahhh! Another Gem friend! ...haha! Gem Friends!" His enthusiasm was not fallen on deaf ears.
He's different from the other Gems. He feels... like innocent love. But something else too...
I was a bit disoriented by this sudden change in atmosphere. One minute I feel like I'm all alone, and the next I feel as though I'm with a friend I've known forever.
"So...Uh, Steven, do you have any ideas on how we're going to get out of here?" I looked around, but it was still just darkness to greet me like an old friend.
He looked around, but didn't seem to come up with anything. "I've been trying for about an hour now since that big monster sucked me up." He sat on the goopy floor. "...It's a gem monster, but I wish I never found that rock..."
"Gem monster?"
"Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst told me that Gem monsters are monsters that are these like...corrupted Gems that are beyond help or something. I gueeess that means if your Gem gets damaged enough or something else, then you become something like this big guy."
I clenched my teeth for a moment before slowly recovering from the shock. "O-Oh. That's...something. Heh." I thought for a moment, and tried to find a solution for our problem.
"They usually have Gems...but I didn't see where it went when it went kabloom." His hands quickly raised up to accent what he was saying.
"It has a Gem? Hmm..." I continued to think about what we could do. I felt around the sticky walls of the enclosed space we were in and pushed through to see if there was anything else. There didn't appear to be anything in sight, however. "Do you think that we could find the Gem and do something to it to let us out?"
Steven thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion, "Uh-huh. I was thinking that too, but then I realized I couldn't breathe when I tried climbing through that stuff." His frankness pierced me.
"Ehh... Breathing..." I looked at him, then at the wall. "How about I go look? I bet it's just up a ways."
Steven looked at me as if he came up with the best idea of his life. "I know! I'll make a shield for us, and float us up!" He smiled, and pulled me closer to him before dissipating the shield he had above him, and creating what seemed like a pink bubble around us. "Hahaaaaaa!" He put his arms up in triumph.
The bubble didn't move for the moment as the walls closed around it. The thick goo unable to pierce the bubble shielding us pushed up on it. Slowly but surely it pushed us upward like an elevator.
I smiled at Steven; happy that he was able to come up with something so simple but practical. "I...probably should have came up with this sooner, but, well, 'if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs.' Huhahaha!" He chuckled at what appeared to be an inside joke. I could only look in delight as the bubble hit what looked like a rock.
"Is that the Gem, Steven?" My hand pointed at the rock.
He nodded decisively, and looked at me. "Ok... Now what?"
"H-Huh?"
"I can't get the Gem with all of this goopy stuff crushing me... I need your help this time." He looked at me with a serious expression. "Please."
I took his hand, and nodded. "Mm. Yes, I understand."
Nervously, I watched as Steven lowered his shield. The goo around us like a sink drain came in and covered our bodies. It seemed almost crushing, but I could still move around a little bit. My hand still holding Steven's in a trusting bond, I slowly pushed my way upwards. The goo around us was really heavy, but my spirit would not fade away.
My left hand felt around the hard stone above us, and I forcefully pulled our bodies around it. Through the thick ooze we found our way around the Gem of the monster. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel Steven's hand slipping away from mine. I clenched my teeth at the thought of his life being expelled from existence.
Having just met this young man I felt almost conflicted why I felt so responsible for him. At the same time however, he's given me such kindness and sincerity. It was so genuine, so warm that it stuck to my heart like glue.
The rock was squeezed under my hands as I attempted to destroy it. The rock's density proved to much for me however. My hands started to sting, and I grunted in frustration.
"No! Please! Just...Stop!"
Something wet fell down my face as my hands gripped the rock tightly. A tightness was knotted in my chest as I clung to the floating rock. I closed my eyes as my hands felt as though they were burning into the rock. No pain was felt, but the feeling was undeniable.
Suddenly, I heard this loud crackling noise. Like stone cracking and shifting against each other at a quick rate. Slowly I opened my eyes to find a glassy dome had surrounded me and Steven. It's blue crystalline coloration shimmered in a faint sunlight; the rock I was holding, now turned to a duller version of the walls, seemed to be the cause of it all.
I looked down at Steven, whom was recovering from the lack of air, and smiled in relief, "Steven, you're ok!" Albeit noticing that I was floating in the air, "Uhh... How do I get down?"
Checking my immediate surroundings it was as if the monster was frozen, but it didn't seem cold. However, upon attempting to check my hands my body suddenly felt gravity. I heard Steven yell for my safety but it was too late. As if someone was pulling me down, I fell to the same level as Steven. The air quickly rushed passed my face before my backside finally hit the floor clean. A sharp pain went up my back, but it didn't seem fatal.
Steven quickly ran to my side, "Oh no! Are you alright?!" I winced looking back up at his worried expression.
"I think so..." I slowly pulled myself back up to hear a cracking noise. "...uh."
I looked behind me to see the damage I had caused. The glass like floor had cracked and split, and seemed to creep all around us. The crack followed all the way up the ill fated walls until it reached the top. Altogether, it split open and the sunlight blinded us both. Again, I felt the rushing of wind again, but this time someone was there to catch me.
In a swift movement, it was Garnet and Pearl who jumped into action to save us from the crashing ice and stone. The light blinded my eyes and only revealed a silhouette of Pearl for me.
Pearl and Garnet landed softly, and set us down accordingly. Pearl was the first to speak, "Steven, are you alright?" She was stern in a way that seemed as though she thought that he would not have been given the circumstances.
"I'm fine." He smiled at me, "Thanks to this guy over here!" Running over to me he chuckled, and finished with a friendly pat on my arm.
I blinked at the pat, and chuckled nervously. "Oh, it was nothing. Haha... I totally knew what I was doing. And it's Azurite." Giving him a small nervous smile I pat his head.
"So where are you from, Asher?" He looked up at me with innocent eyes. I clenched my teeth and looked back at Garnet.
She shrugged.
Where am I from? It's anyone's guess right now, but... does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? I'm...me. Right? Yeah. Knowing about my past would be nice, but it's not something I want. I want... to live. I want to see what's ahead of me. I could feel something inside of me change. Like the blessing of life, the sun beamed down a glorious light upon my face. I felt warm. It felt kind and gentle, but powerful and restrained. I accepted it. I think I understand now.
Turning back at Steven, I tried to give him the most honest answer I could, "I have absolutely no idea, but... it doesn't matter, right? I'm here, and I'm ok." I tried to think of the positives. "I'm here... with, Steven, Pearl, Garnet, and... Amethyst! And we're ok!" I looked off into the waters.
Steven chuckled, and grabbed my hand. "Just be true to yourself, and... we'll find a way together!" He proudly put his hands on his hips with me.
Garnet put her hand on my shoulder for a friendly gesture, but didn't say anything. Her face, at about the same level as mine, was warm and filled with true compassion.
Amethyst came around in front of me, and looked me over. "So, new guy huh?" She eyed my Gems. "...two." I cocked an eyebrow.
Before I could ask why she was giving me a weird look, Pearl interjected our moment. "Wait! How did that monster freeze up?!"
I crossed my arms as Garnet let go of my shoulder to go investigate the large rock-looking Gem. "Well, let's see. Me and Steven got up to the Gem, and I was able to grab hold of it. Then it sort of just...froze?"
"Froze..." Pearl pondered, but only for a moment. "Well, anyway... You both did great." She beamed.
Steven beamed back at her. We all stared at the ocean for a moment with Steven. It seemed so peaceful and so beautiful. The sun just starting to get ready for sunset; we stood together in peace. Our eyes scanning the horizon before feeling a slight tremor.
"What was that?" I asked everyone.
They all replied at once, "Malachite."
"Oh." I looked at the ocean again before realizing how weird of an answer that was. "Wait, what?"
End of Chapter 1.