It was then Champ's turn to tell one of the gems the plan. Thankfully, they choose him one of the nicer ones for him. After all, Stine claimed Dennis, a protagonist from Night of the Living Dummy 2, who defeated Slappy in the end, was based on this gem. He seemed pretty nice enough, with that child-like wonder, purity and personality that Stine described him with. He carefully put the book on the floor, then he began fidgeting with his tie a bit, releasing some of his nervous energy.
He watched as an orange hologram soon formed, showing the gem. He had dark orange, messy hair, which if Steven or Connie were there would have compared it a bit to Lapis's, light orange skin, with lines going down the sides of his mouth's just like the other's, (except 'Rhonda'). His attire consisted of a simple orange turtleneck sweater, which partly covered up the gem on his neck, dark orange pants, and even darker shoes. He had a slight gap in his teeth, giving him an even more youthful visage. The only thing really strange about them were the eyes, which behaved almost like googly eyes, one pupil going up a bit more than the other.
"Hi! What's your name?" The gem quickly asked as he waved his hand, so far giving the warmest greeting of the three recruits. Rhodochrosite sat in the back at Pyrope's side, eating a bit of chocolate Zach got her from the kitchen as a way to keep her 'entertained'. Pyrope just seemed to be reading the very manuscript he was trapped with out of boredom, like it was some form of magical spell book he was trying to master and became obsessed with. Stine had watched all of the interactions, praying to himself everything would go as Zach had planned, while the other two teenagers started making friendly conversation in the background about their lives... until the author stopped them, not fond of any form of relationship that may come from the neighbor's boy and his own daughter. Then the two just sat in awkward silence.
"Hi. my name's Champion." the teenager then politely stated.
"That's a good name. I'm Beryl. It really is great to meet you!" the orange gem said, giving off large amounts of joy. His voice sounded faintly like the character Goofy's, but also really did fit the image of a youthful being.
"It's nice to meet you two... s-so... uh... how do you feel?" Champ asked. He didn't want to just spring the idea on to the gem. He preferred trying to ease into it.
"Good, good... you?" Beryl then inquired.
"...well, outside of three gems having escaped, and the possibility of Madison being destroyed, I'm doing pretty good..." Champ stated out of fear of the impending situation. He really was terrified of the idea of his home being destroyed by beings he'd never even heard of until that day. Really, who wouldn't be?
"that's good- wait... what?" the gem questioned, caught off-guard by the boys statement.
"that's u-uh... actually why we um... have you ever heard of Zircon, Spinel or Agate?" the boy nervous asked, beginning to mess around with his suit once more. The last name seemed to make his blood run cold... if he had blood. (Would it be light for a gem? does it even matter? no? fine, fine. Jeez, no need to make a fuss.) "We're trying to get gems t-to come out of their books and help us... uh... get them back. In return they get freedom." he then explained, insuring Beryl fully knew of the situation.
"A-Agate?..." the gem stuttered out, tugging on his turtleneck a bit, turning back to see all the others behind him, which seemed to put him at ease, but not much. "I u-uh... shucks, I don't know..."
"...Are you scared of him?" Champ asked, noticing how Beryl was almost mirroring his own fiddling with his attire. Beryl simply nodded in response.
"I.. I'm not on good relations with him.." he then added, not wishing to go into much detail.
"...I'm scared two, if that helps." he stated, looking the gem in the eye, letting a bit of confidence build up inside.
"...Really?" the gem asked, calming down even further. Champ nodded.
"My parents... named me Champion out of high expectations. Th-their so... smart and athletic, barely scared of anything... I... I'm practically t-the opposite.. I've always been scared of so much of everything... but... mostly, I'm terrified of letting them down. " he vented, feeling as if he could practically share his entire life with this gem. Zach had no idea about any of that, and in a way, he could relate to Champ. His dad was a hero before he perished. He could never live up to that, just like Champ probably didn't feel he could live up to his parent's anticipations for him. Hannah was able to imagine how that felt, her dad being a famous author, but being a half-gem mostly secluded for her life made it tricky to be able to fully relate to Champ's feelings. Stine, however, felt almost ashamed that he thought the name was silly after hearing that... almost. Rhonda and Pyrope on the other hand, didn't seem all that affected.
"...I.. wouldn't know what that's like, but... from what I can tell, you're a great person." Beryl reassured. It was true. He really did seem to be a very nice person in Beryl's eyes, I'll be it he views everyone as nice... except Agate. "...This must be really important, if you're getting over your fears." he then added, smiling a little.
"I... I just don't want anything to happen to my friends." the teenager said, mustering up a bit of bravery. He was still scared out of his wits, yes, for what would we be without our comic relief, but he now had a reason to stay around and stay strong... friends. Friends that could be hurt if he didn't try to help. If he just... ran off and hid, like the coward he was.
"...I'll help, then. I don't want anyone to get hurt, either." Beryl said, then added "After all... I like you humans. Your able to be so unique from either, so nice, so creative... so different and.. so incredible..."
The hologram soon vanished, leaving Champ to pull the gem out and set it down. A slight smile found itself on his face as the gem glowed, forming an exact replica of the form in the holographic screen.
"So..." the gem turned around, examining the attic with a bit of curiosity. "...Is there anyone else that's coming to help us?" the gem asked, having already seen Rhodochrosite and Pyrope.
"J-Just one more" Champ said, looking over at the last manuscript at his side...