Chapter 3 - "ZlanderCon"


ever since their birthday, Steven was thinking about that place in the mountain, how magical it seemed, how many rooms it has.

"I've gotta tell Dad about this place!" he thinks to himself, he has probably seen the place.

after he and his brothers finish brushing their teeth and eating breakfast, he runs up to Greg.

"Dad!" he grabs the end of Greg's shirt and shakes it a bit.

"yes, shtuuball?" he chuckles a bit, "what's been on your head nowadays?"

"Dad, remember how Uncle Andy took us to that weird area inside the mountain?"

He knew he was going to talk about this, "um, yes, what about it?"

"well I was thinking like... you've been there, what made you not want to go anymore?" He asks, nervously.

"well uh, let's see." Greg clears his throat, "tall thing, tall blue...? no, Tall cyan creature."

Steven lets out a high pitched gasp, "AN ALIEN?"

"what? I mean, probably."

"oh my gosh!"

"but it's a LONG time since I've seen that... thing, it's probably gone by now."

Greg takes a sip from his tea, almost forgetting that he was holding it to begin with, "that doesn't mean you should go there, still."

"aw, why not?" Steven whines, crossing his arms.

"you need an adult to go with you, silly."

"you're an adult, can you go with us?"

Greg almost spits out his tea, "um, sure." he puts the teacup down,

"They didn't look like much of a threat anyway, sure it's tall, but also pretty skinny, at least compared to me."

"When should we go?"

"We can go right now if you want, right after I... Okay, we can go right now."

Greg changes his clothes and so does the 4 brothers, and grabs a flashlight, might be dark in there.

they arrive at the top of the mountain, it's chilly, but also sunny here, it still gives that weird feeling though.

"now where was it? you said right next to a rock?"

Tim points to the rock with the diamond symbol, "this one, Zack touched it and it moved!"

Greg glares at it for a second, and thinks to himself, "of course there is a diamond on it, why wouldn't there be?", losing his smile and growing a frown.

"Okay, so I did this and this and..." Zack says as he repeats what he did last time, stroking along the outlines of the symbol.

the rock begins to shift backward, showing the staircase to the strange room.

they all walk down and kind of admire it, It feels familiar, to Greg anyway.

and when they all arrived there, he understood why.

"a warp pad?" he lets out, "I-i mean."

"what's a warp pad?" Joey asks, "and how do you know what that is?"

"it's uh... nothing, especially since it looks broken."

Steven runs over to the warp pad and gives it a little look, "it looks like a little scratch though!"

"that's not just a scratch though."

Steven inspects it a bit more, "Okay yeah, you're right."

the place is kind of bright, despite there isn't any light source, it does look like there's a turn on some sort of light.

"Okay, what else is there? it can't just be a warp pad." Greg says, but he's kind of hoping that it is just a warp pad.

"There are 4 doors here, and another that leads to a staircase." Tim answers.

the staircase is actually kind of dark, Greg turns on his flashlight and steps down.

"you boys stay behind me, okay?"

this part of the area is a lot scarier, there are fewer vines here, but more cracks on the walls and floor, it's been damaged heavily.

"Maybe I should've brought flashlights for all of us." Greg thinks to himself.

they all reach a large open area, with weird bubble things floating around.

"OKAY YUP." Greg turns around, "this is stuff we shouldn't be messing with."

meanwhile, the brothers awe at the weirdness of it, floating objects, with rocks in them.

"This is stuff we should be messing with!" Joey shouts.

"Hey Dad, I like this one, help me reach it!" Steven jumps up and down, excitedly.

"uh, Okay, I don't think it's anything dangerous."

Greg lifts Steven up with his shoulders, Steven grabs a bubble with a blue/cyan rock in it, looks a Zircon.

"Okay! one is enough."

"look at this!" Steven hands it over to Tim, "it looks kind of like mine." Tim says, looking at the blue gem in his chest.

"Dad! look, it's kind of bouncy"

Steven & Tim throw it back and back at each other.

"be careful!" Greg states, "it might break or something!"

as soon as he said that, Tim misses and the bubble breaks on the ground, freeing the Zircon.

"K-k-kids!" Greg yells, "stay away from that thing!"

"oh no! it's a rock!" Joey jokes, "come on, Dad! what could some rock do?"

then the Zircon starts floating into the air, creating a humanoid-looking silhouette.

"IT COULD DO THAT!"

all of them step back, as the rock falls into place on the creature, it's tall, with shades of cyan and blue, with black eyes and light blue pupils.

the creature looks around, confused, it notices the 5 humans staring at her, her eyes widen, and stares back.

"i-it's that thing I saw..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

they all scream and run away in the opposite direction.

Steven turns around for a second and sees the creature running too, but it looks like it's dizzy.

Steven stops and calls the others, "uh- guys? guys!"

"STEVEN! COME ON!" Zack yells, "IT'S GONNA- gonna... get you...?"

"yeah! it's not coming after us, it's hiding!"

"why?"

they both just stand there, confused...

"well," Zack continues, "Joey, Tim, and Dad already left, we should go too."

"But Zack!" Steven complains, "I don't think it means harm, we should follow it."

"why?"

"cause it might not be mean... we should apologize."

Zack frowns, "again, why?"

"how'd you feel if a bunch of people screamed at you because you look creepy?"

Zack hesitates for a moment but nods in agreement.

"where do you think it went?" Steven asks.

"I'm pretty sure it's this way, follow me."

they go back to the large open area, and they can see blue footprints of some sort, they begin following it.

"Hello!" Steven shouts, making an echo around it, "tall guy- gal, whatever, are you here!?"

"I'm not sure if shouting will help." Zack whispers.

"It will trust me!"

Zack sees the creature at the corner of his eye, it's trying to hide, but the legs are sticking out.

"psst, Steven." Zack whispers, "I see them, over there, now what?"

Steven stretches and takes a deep breath, "now, I talk to it."

"oh shoot."

"um, hi." he starts off, the creature flinches in fear, shaking all over the place, "my name is Steven, I'm sorry for screaming at you back there."

the creature doesn't react, "y-you can come out now, we won't hurt you."

the creature stops shaking a bit and looks at the 2 kids.

"we're not bad guys, I promise, you promise too, right Zack?"

"u-um, yeah, yes."

the creature stands up, still keeping its distance.

"you understand what we're saying?" Zack asks, confused.

the cyan creature nods, stroking its own head.

the creature makes a high pitched noise, trying to speak, but nothing comes out.

"oh um, is this your home?" Steven asks nervously.

it nods side to side, as a way of saying no.

"do you have a home?" Zack asks, the question makes the creature do a sad frown, it nods side to side.

"aw, we can help with that!" Steven reaches his hand out, "follow me!"

the creature's eyes widen, and gives a confused look, but accepts.


"what if that thing got them? what if they're being dragged away?" Greg repeatedly thinks to himself.

"It's Okay, Dad! they have been through worse, I think." Joey says, "and even then, the creature looks kinda weak soo..."

"I NEED TO GO BACK!" Greg yells, "YOU TWO STAY HERE, I'M GOIN' IN-"

as soon as Greg said that, he looks over to the rock and sees Steven & Zack coming out, but he also sees Steven... holding hands with the creature?

"uh- Steven, what are you..." Greg struggles to find the correct words.

"BRO! you made friends with it?" Joey awes.

"um, yeah! her name is Zircon." Steven replies.

"I guessed the name by the look of the gem on her chest." Zack adds.

"sh- gem... Steven, I'm not sure if you should be uh..."

"But DAD! she doesn't mean any harm, she doesn't even have a home!"

Zircon looks at Greg and tries to smile, but it ends up looking awkward.

"I mean... not all gems are bad, I guess..." Greg thinks to himself, "fine, but how do we help her?"


they arrive back home, with Steven still holding Zircon's hands.

"This is our home, we live here and stuff." Steven smiles at Zircon, "I'm sure there's room for y-"

"I LEFT THE DOOR OPEN!" Greg shouts, running to the house.

"um, yeah... I'm sure there's room for you, our house is a little big, if that makes sense." Steven chuckles a bit, Zircon gives a high-pitched "hm" as a response.

"Okay! everything is fine, no one came in and stole our stuff!" Greg sighs.

"Okay, stubes, you should go back in and rest, school is tomorrow. I'll find a place for er uh... Zircon to stay."

"Okay, I'll be back!" Steven and his brothers head inside.

Greg thinks about how he is inviting a Gem, to his house, just because his kids told him to do so.

he glares at Zircon, it- she's a lot less scary than he remembers,
still kind of scary though, 170 cm tall, sharp-ish teeth, black eyes,

she's not scary when she's just... standing there, confused.

"uh hey..." Greg barely spits out, Zircon turns to him, "I have an important question... um, are you a crystal gem?"

Zircon eye's widened, but she grows a slight smile, she nods up and down.

"Oh." Greg feels relieved, "that's good to hear, you're welcome to stay."

Zircon gives a thumbs up, and a high pitched noise that kind of sounded like "thank you!"

Greg isn't sure on how to act, but it made him smile, "uh-yeah! you're welcome!"

Greg clears his throat, and gulps, "come in!"

Zircon steps inside the house, surprisingly able to fit in,

she looks around and sees, a nice kitchen, and a living room.

"so, this is our home, do you need anywhere to sleep?"

Zircon nods as in no.

"oh yeah, gems don't sleep. you can stay in the living room if you want."

"Okay." Zircon says, or that's what it sounds like at least.

"Dad!" Steven says, walking up to them, "Zircon needs food, right? me and Zack can give you stuff if you want"

"No, Steven, she doesn't need to eat."

"oh yeah, she's probably some sort of alien, how about some tea?"

"I-" Greg pauses for a moment, "would you like to drink?"

Zircon gets confused, she shrugs a bit.

"well, I'll get you some tea!" Steven smiles, then heads to the kitchen.

Zircon follows along, really interested in what this "tea" thing is.

"Okay! here." Steven hands Zircon a mug of black tea, "if you don't like it, it's OKAY! we have u-uh green tea and stuff!"

Zircon carefully grabs it and takes a sip, she makes another high-pitched sound and grins heavily.

"Woah! I think she likes it!" Steven laughs, Zircon nods in agreement.

"I didn't know gems like to drink. are you a British gem?" Greg asks.

"gem? well, she is a gem!" Steven and Greg laugh, Zircon tries to laugh along but does it awkwardly.


"This is the worst time to study!" Joey complains, "we have an alien in our house, shouldn't we be focusing on that?"

"Relax, it's not like anything bad is gonna happen, Dad will take care of it."

"Tim, I just think we should be... I don't know, talking to it or something."

Zack sighs, "yeah, but about how Dad wasn't surprised when he saw the alien stuff inside the mountain?"

"he did say he and Andy had weird adventures." Tim says, rubbing the back of his head.

"didn't he say in one of them he fell in love with an alien lady?" Joey says, "and she was too inhuman for him or something."

they all chuckled at the irony of that phrase, Steven does too as he heard it right before entering, "guys! looks like things are going good for Zircon!"

"that's good, I want to ask her stuff!" Joey grins, "I think we should only ask her yes or no questions." Zack adds.

they all start to study for school, but it's going to be hard, they invited an alien to their house,

they're going to think about it all day long, it's not like today's test is hard though, so they could put it on hold.

"OKAY! that's enough tea for today" Greg giggles, "I want to ask you a 1 or 2 more questions, which should be easy to answer."

"do you know who Rose Quartz is?" he starts off, Zircon nods.

"Alright, that one is obvious, but you never know!"

"Are you an alien from space!?" Joey jumps right into the conversation, Zircon flinces, and just nods super fast.

"hey snooball! it's rude to just to ask questions like that out of a sudden."

"Okay, sorry."

"Anyway, are there any other gems here?" Greg continues, Zircon nods side to side, but she isn't sure, so she shrugs.

"oh, that's great."

"Dad, what's a gem?" Tim asks, scaring Greg, "where did you come from? you should be studying-"

He sighs, "I guess, they're like aliens, that's all."

"really?"

"Yes..." Greg pauses, "all you need to know at least" he mumbles.

"you should give her a tour, who knows how long she has been in the mountain?" Tim says, Zircon gets sad at the last part.

"Okay, follow me, Zir!"

"you kids stay here and study, though," Greg adds.

"aw fine, but you should show Zircon the restaurants!" Joey suggests.

"I don't know if they allow aliens."

Greg steps outside along with Zircon, "I honestly don't know what to tell you, but maybe I can show you some gem related places."

Zircon slowly nods, "look, I don't know why you can't talk or why you look so messed up-"

Greg pauses when he realizes the frown Zircon is making because of the last bit.

"u-I I'm sorry, I'll do my best to help you." Greg reaches his hand out for, Zircon smirks and reaches her hand out too, they made a little handshake.