Heart of Gem

Chapter 1

My Story

Have you ever asked yourself the question of "Who am I?" Or in my case "What am I?"

The sun has started to rise upon a small town in the land of the Nevada desert. A small green sign is shown saying the words:

WELCOME TO SANDLOT CITY

That is a question I have constantly been asking myself. The reason being…I am not even fully human but I don't know what else I could be either.

As the sun started to shine upon the town, it shined onto a small dark green house with an American flag in its front lawn.

Soon the light shined through one of its windows, the window belongs to a person room. The room looked to belong to a guy as it's wall were colored green and had odd knick-knacks adored on it wall like, skulls, robots and etc.

The sun then soon shined down on the bed of the owner, waking the person sleeping underneath the covers.

The person grumbled as he slowly sat up from his bed. The person was a teenager looking to be around 17 years of age, with normal white skin and black hair with faded green highlight on the tips of his hair. What stood out the most about this teen were his two different colored eyes, the left eye being green and the right being red. Along with his eyes was an odd gemstone embedded where his heart would be. The gem was a mixture of green and red.

That's me, yep, I look kinda weird with those eyes and gem, but I happened to like being different. My name is Matthew Mercury. I am 17 years old, live in a small town in Nevada with my adopted father and…Am not entirely human.

Matthew procced to stretch his whole body before he procced to get dressed. Before he did however, he smacked a small yellow radio on his nightstand and music procced to play.

(Insert 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton)

You see, that gem on my chest isn't an accessory. I was apparently born with it, not only that but I have also shown to have super strength, reflexes and agility above that of an average human, I also happened to have a quick regeneration as well though not to the point of healing complete limbs. Just healing small cuts in mere seconds and the like.

After a while Matthew opened his door and dashed down the steps to his home's kitchen. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a water styled t-shirt.

He quickly dashed by an older man wearing a green housecoat and had a military cut. He was reading the paper as he lifted a plate of toast and eggs. Matt quickly passed by him grabbing the plate.

"Thanks dad, bye dad!" Matt said as he literally devoured the plate instantly and dropped the plate in the sink before going outside.

Matthew dad procced to shack his head and drink from his coffee, "That kid and his energy…"

That is my dad or adopted dad. Marcus Mercury. He was once apart of the military till he managed to earn himself enough for an early retirement. You see I was left behind at an orphanage when I was first born. Marc and his wife adopted me at a pretty early age since then. Though Mom passed away 2 years ago sadly.

Matthew quickly grabbed a skateboard in his homes garage, opened the garage door and procced to ride down into the small town he lived in.

The town I live in is called Sandlot City, it…pretty much lives up to its name being sandy here. It is a small enough town that almost everyone in it knows each other. The people here are friendly enough…well almost everyone.

As Matthew was riding, he saw up ahead a police office beside a vehicle. This police office was tall, and very well fit. He had black skin, a small beard and had the look that said 'Cross me and you're going straight to jail'

"Park wrong in my town huh, I'll show you…" The police officer grumbled under his mouth as he was writing up a ticket for the car's owner.

"Yoink!" Matthew shouted as he passed by the officer, snatching the notepad from him as he continued to write on his own hand.

"Huh?! What the?!" The officer said as he finally realized what happened and looked back at the perpetrator.

"MATTHEW! LET GO OF MY NOTEPAD NOW!" The officer shouted in pure rage. His rage only increased when he saw Matt had dropped the pad into a gutter and laughed away.

The officer gripped his metal pen with both hand till he snapped it in half, letting ink explode all over his face. "CURSE YOU MERCURY!"

That…Is Officer Danny Danner, ever since I could walk out of my house, he has been on my case since then, trying to get me arrested or throw the book at me or whatever. Luckily, he is very easy to anger and not too bright.

Soon enough Matthew started to come up to a small diner on the corner of a street called 'Street Side Steve's'. As soon as Matthew entered the building he was already being shouted at.

"MATT! About time you got here, put your apron on and get to work, C'MON!" An obese man wearing a wife-beater shirt and a cook's hat can be seen shouting from the cash register.

That is Steve, don't let his attitude and appearance fool you, he is one of the nicest people I know in this town and a good pal to me and my best friend, considering he let us work for him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the routine boss." Matthew said as he went to the back, hung up his stuff and put his uniform on.

As he was doing so he was met with another teenager that was roughly the same age as him, cooking food in the back.

The teen had dark tanned skin and black hair that was fashioned into short chin length dreadlocks underneath the dark blue beanie he wore. A barley visible Stache and soul patch can be seen on his face. He was wearing the same workers uniform as Matthew.

That is my best friend and closes pal in the world. Alejandro Doronaro or Al for short. We met in kindergarten when all others made fun of me for my weird eyes and hair, but he complimented me saying it looked cool, since then we have been through thick and thin with him even trying to help me discover my heritage. He is also VERY smart with technology and stuff.

"Yo amigo. I got some big news for you. You're never going to guess." Al said with a wide cheeky grin on his face.

"You finally got a girlfriend?" Matthew said with an equally cheeky smile as he stared back at his friend.

"Bro if I can get one then you can too and vice-versa. No that's not it…" Al said as he leaned in on Matthew and started to whisper.

"I got the door open bro." Al whispered which made Matthew widen his eyes.

"You didn't…" Matthew asked, not sure if you heard his friend right.

"I did." Al said as he grinned widely which Matthew matched with his own.

"THOSE ORDERS AREN'T GOING TO COOK THEMSELVES! MOVE!" Steve shouted as he slammed a few pieces of paper on the cook's counter.

"We'll talk more after work. Don't want to make Steve any angrier than he is." Matthew said as he started to get to work.

Time flied by as day turned into the evening with the sun setting. Showing that another normal day was just ending.

(End Song)

Both Matt and Al are seen exiting the restaurant with Al wearing more casual clothing. He was wearing a simple dark blue t-shirt and baggy jeans. His beanie still placed atop his head.

"So, tell me how on earth did you do it?" Matthew asked as he started walking backwards while face his best friend.

Now you may be wondering what me and Al are talking about. You see ever since we have lived here that have been some ruined doors hiding in the desert, that just refuse to open. There are images of being with what looks like gems on them, so both me and Al figured it might be related to me.

"Honestly it was just a stroke of luck. Found a patterned device that doesn't properly react when being used, hence why it was so hard to find it. Did a few patterns till I finally got a link. We got the day off tomorrow so we should head out there then." Al explained as he pulled out his phone to show an image of four dirt covered diamond shapes on a pedestal.

"YES! Finally, I hope there are some answers in there." Matthew jumped in the air with excitement.

"Woah, chill out dude. We have no idea what to expect in there. You got your thingy?" Al asked as he pointed at where Matthews gem was.

Matthew gave Al a deadpan look. "It's not a 'thingy' Al, it's a weapon and of course I have it. It's apart of me."

Al just chuckled, as he knew his friend knew he was just poking fun at him. "Cool, I'll bring a few stuffs as well just in case. We meet up at dawn?"

"You know it, the sooner the better! Night Al!" Matthew said as they reached his home and he ran up to it and entered.

Matthew's dad was sitting in a lazy boy chair watching a sports game as Matt came in. "Hey sport, how was work?"

"You know the usual. Me and Al are heading out tomorrow morning. So, don't worry if I'm not here if you wake up." Matthew said as he started to head to his room to prepare.

"Now hold up. You boys better not being going to those ruins again. What did I tell you about there being nothing there?" Marcus said as he got up from his chair and stopped his son.

"I know dad, don't worry, Al thought he spotted a jackalope and wants me to try to find and catch it with him." Matthew lied through his teeth.

Marcus didn't look convince as he had his arms crossed but sigh in acceptance. "Well okay, if you say so. I just worry about you is all."

Matthew smiled for two reason, one that his lie worked and two the affection his dad had always shown him when he first came into this family.

"I know dad, and I do appreciate all that you and mom have done for me. Don't worry me and Al will be safe." Matthew said as he had his hand at his door and looked ready to go to bed.

"Okay then. Have a goodnight and bring me a photo of the little bugger if you do spot it." Marcus said as his son nodded and closed his door to his bedroom.

Once in his room Matthew fell on his bed while grasping his chest. "AH! It's hurt to lie to him!" Matthew said as he faked being in pain from his own lie. Unaware that his stepfather was listening to him from behind the door but did nothing to stop him.

O-O-O

The next day both Matthew and Al are shown to be standing in front of a large set of double stone doors that are hiding among some sand and under a ledge of rocks that covered it from most view. The pedestal that Al showed is right beside it. Both wearing backpacks with items in them.

The doors themselves were very weathered but it did show two images of humanoid beings with what looked like gems on each of the one hand shown.

"So…This is it huh?" Matthew said in a very nervous tone.

"Yep, after 10 years of finding this thing we finally have the means to get in…You ready?" Al asked his best friend as he approached the pedestal.

Matthew remained still till he took a deep breath and looked back at his friend with determined eyes. "Ready."

"Okay lets Golpe(blow) this bad boy!" Al said as he pressed the bottom diamond which glowed pink briefly, then the right one which glowed blue, left yellow and finally the top one which glowed white.

Once the pattern was imprinted the area started to shack as the doors slowly started to open.

"Whoa…" Matthew whispered to himself as both him and Al entered the ruins, ready for whatever they had to face.

As the two entered they could barely see anything, that is until Al pulled out a lantern and lit it which tuned out to be pretty bright.

There memorial on the walls were pictures, of what looked like a civilization. Beings worshiping large ones and other images that looked like a war happened and…

"Spaceships? Are they…Aliens?" Matthew wondered as he got a closer look at one of the images which showed some of the beings making a diamond shape with their arms. Matt tried to do the same, but it just hurt his arms.

"Bro…If that's true then ET ain't got nothing on this." Al said as he raised the lantern up to disciple an image of a woman with a sword and shield pointing it at one of the larger figures.

But as he got closer, he felt the stone tile he was on start to sink along with a click, which meant only one thing to him and Matt.

"You didn't…" Matthew asked, not sure if his friend really did what he did.

"Ah…" Al started as the ground literal gave out underneath them and they fell. "MIERDA!(Shit)"

After a few seconds of falling Matthew was the first to land, luckily on his feet while Al fell on his stomach.

However, rocks and stone continued to fall. Seeing the danger, Matthew reached for his gem and procced to pull something out of the gem itself.

What he pulled out was a large 3 prong, red and green bladed boomerang with a safety handle on each prong for the user to hold.

Matthew raised the boomerang up and then threw it, it soared through the air, cutting through several of the dribbles that were falling towards the two.

Once safe the weapon returned to Matthew who caught it easily in his right hand. "Shesh that was close. Did you seriously activate a trap?!"

Al could only smile meekly at Matthew accusation. "Heheh…Sorry man. Whoa…Dude look."

Matthew looked where his friend was look and even he was surprised by what he was seeing. There past a doorway was what looked like a lake of lava and in the center of it all was a statue of a giant stone woman.

"Now that's a big lady." Matthew said as he whipped his forehead from the heat from the lava.

"I'll say…Yo look!" Al pointed out a large pillar from within the statue, a small doorway can also be seen from the statue as well.

"I bet that's how we can get out of here. But how…" Al pondered then he notices some low hanging pillars from the ceiling.

"Think your weapon can get those?" Al said as he was pointing up at the pillars.

Matthew looked up at the pillars and then looked back at his friend with a smile. "You bet I can. Now…Watch my swing!"

With that Matthew swung his arm as hard as he could and let the boomerang fly off into the air. Soon in managed to cut down three pillars and returned back to its owner just as the pillars landed into the lava, slowing sinking into it.

Matthew and Al took this chance to jump and run across the pillars before they fully submerged into the lave.

"Hot, hot, hot. OH, IT'S HOT!" Matthew shouted as he could practically feel the lavas heat around him.

"NO SHIT! JUST RUN!" Al shouted as he felt the heat even worst then his friend.

Soon enough the two managed to reach a solid pad on the statue head, where a door in it's mouth lead.

"Whew, talk about 'out of the frying pan' Lets go man." Al said as the two approached the door that lead to the statues head.

As they entered the were met with a large computer screen and keyboard. Matthew just stood still as he was surprised by what the two are seeing. "Terminal huh…Yeah I think whoever was here was defiantly aliens."

Al walked past his friend and approached the keyboard as he started to fiddle with it.

"Let's see if we can get anything out of this." Al said as he got the screen to light and started to look through what was on it.

Matthew walked behind his friend and crossed his arms. "So…Understand what's it's saying because I don't speak alien."

And Matthew was right as whatever language was on the screen wasn't a language he knew, or even earth knew that he was aware of.

"Not a clue but I am copying and pasting all I can onto a disk this thing has…" Al said as he continued to work.

As he was Matthew felt that it was oddly getting hotter than usual. When he turned around, he knew why as the lava was slowing seeping into the room, they were in. The head was sinking!

"CRAP! Dude hurry up, lava hightide is coming!" Matthew shouted as he rushed his friend.

"Just…a…little…more…and…there!" Al announced ad a disk popped out of the computer and just in time as Matthew picked him up and he rushed towards the other door in the room which lead to an elevator.

The doors to the elevator closed just in time as the lava splashed again it. Matthew and Al were breathing heavily as the felt the elevator was taking them up.

"Well…that was fun." Al said with a somewhat cheery mood.

"Yeah if you like to go swimming in lave. Let's get out of here as soon as we can, I think we got enough 'research' with that disk." Matthew said as he pointed at the disk that was in Al hands.

But suddenly the elevator stopped as he came to a shacking stop. Before the two could wonder why it stopped the two started to lift from the ground.

Outside it was shown that the pillar the two were in had broken down on its own weight and was starting to fall forward.

"SHIT!" Matthew shouted as they ground hard. Luckily the elevator broke open for them to escape out of.

"C'mon Al, let go!...Al?" Matthew looked behind him to see that Al had fell backwards and hit his head on the wall, knocking him out.

"D-Damnit! I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO MADE THIS CRAPPY PLACE!" Matthew shouted as he picked Al up and slung him over his shoulder as he started to run across the pillar to the area they once fell as it was the safest place.

The pillar continued to sink into the lave, so much so that Matthew feet started to burn, just as the pillar was fully submerged Matthew managed to jump to safety.

Matthew was breathing heavily, soon he regained his state and then checked the condition of his best friend.

"Al, Al, come on wake up!" Matthew said he shook his friend to try and wake him up.

Matthew looked all around him in panic, the ceiling was starting to fell down on them with the lava just waiting form them to slip up and fall.

"Damnit…This is all my fault. 'Explore the ruins' I said 'find out if I am related to it' I wondered. If this is what was going to happened, I never would have made you come here!" Matthew yelled out as he cried a bit. He then notices a large piece of dribble falling right towards the two.

Matthew barely had any time to make a run for it and so he did all he could and just closed his eyes and screamed.

Matthew remained still, just waiting to be crushed…But he relaxed a bit when he didn't feel anything. Instead he heard a voice.

"Are you two okay?" A woman voice called out. Matthew was confused by this as he opened his eyes.

There standing before him welding two heavy looking red gauntlets that had a yellow star on them was a very tall woman. She was wearing red clothing along with matching skin which was odd to Matt, had a black afro like hair and was wearing a pair of yellow glasses that hid her eyes from view.

What really caught Matthew off guard was that she was holding the large boulder that was falling towards him…with one hand!

"Wha…How?" Matthew stumbled with his words, not sure what to even say.

"I asked are you two okay?" The woman asked as he casually threw the rock away from them all and into the lava.

Matthew shook his head to wake himself up after he heard he talk again. "Y-Yeah, I am at least but my friend hit his head and passed out."

"I see…" The woman said, she then suddenly picked up both Matthew and al in each arm.

"What the?" Matthew asked, wondering what was going on.

"Hold on." The woman said as he jumped high into the sky, like VERY high and started to jump on the falling dribbles to reach to next floor.

Soon enough the woman managed to get the two safely on the floor they were previously on. She then calmly walked back outside and let the two go onto the ground.

"That was…Wow!" Matthew said, not sure what to really say to what he just went through. The woman only smiled a little at the compliment.

"Aye, my head. What did I miss? Whoa giant woman!" Al said as he started to wake up and jump back a bit from the women's appearance.

"Al, thank god your okay. This woman just saved our lives she…I'm sorry but I don't think I caught your name?" Matthew said as he realized they never introduced each other yet.

"Garnet." The woman now known as Garnet said with a nod.

"Garnet? Like in the gem? That's cool. I'm Alejandro but everybody calls me Al for short. Thanks for saving us." Al said as he put his hand forward to shack, but Garnet didn't seam to either notice it or not know what to do.

"And I'm Matthew, and I am so glad you were there to save us. Why were you there anyway?" Matthew wondered, not that he was against her being there.

"I'm was here to retrieve something…A beetle so to speak when I found you two." Garnet said as she turned towards the ruins and looked ready to go back in.

"A beetle? Is it kinda blackish green with a gemstone on it's back and has no wings?" Al asked Garnet out of the blue, which made he stop in her tracks.

"Yes…It is." Garnet asked in a somewhat surprised tone as she turned to face Al.

"Oh, then you must be looking for Romeo. Yeah found the little guy a few months back while researching the ruins. Never seen a bug like him but he is very emotional for a bug. Likes jellybeans too which is odd for a beetle." Al started to explain the pet he has had for the past few months.

"Seams to take a liking to me too whenever I am over." Matthew said, giving his own input as well.

"Take me to her." Garnet said in a very serious tone which caught the two-off guard.

Garnet remained still for a moment as if processing what she just said. "If you don't mind."

Al wasn't sure if he should bring this woman back but then again, she did just save them from a lava dip. "Yeah sure, let me just swing by my place to get him…"

After Al said this, he got onto his bike that he used to ride here and took off, leaving just Garnet and Matthew alone.

"So…" Matthew said, as he wanted to break the silence between the two. "I have to ask, how did you do all that, stop the boulder and jump like that?"

Garnet turned towards Matthew and just stared at him, which felt like she was boring a hole through Matthews soul. Which was making him pretty nervous under her gaze.

"Matthew…Have you ever wondered who you are? Or more like what you are?" Garnet said which caught Matthew completely off guard.

"I…" Matthew said but couldn't continue as he wasn't sure what to say yet as he was still in shock at what she said.

"Go to Beach City…There you'll find some of the answers you have been seeking. The Crystal Gems will be waiting." Garnet said with a small smile as she showed Matthew the gems on her hands before suddenly jumping off towards where Al went.

Matthew could only stare at where Garnet left, flabbergasted at what she just said. Matthew didn't know how long he stood there till Al came riding towards him.

"Dude, that girl needs a chill pill. She comes jumping out of nowhere, told me to show Romeo, took him and then left. Didn't even let me say goodbye and…Dude, you okay?" Al started to ramble on but stopped when he saw the look on his friend's face.

"The Crystal Gems…In Beach City…I'm not alone." Matthew said slowly as a smile started to form on his face. Finally…Finally, he will know who and what he is.

"…Where?" Al asked with a frustrated tone, having missed what happened with the two.

Just a note, I do not know how to speak Spanish, so I used a translator to do some of the words. So, if it is wrong then I am sorry about it.

So, I had this story in mind for quite a while now but had a bit of struggle for the actual introduction chapter aka this one. But after reading Vendicor own SU (A Tale of Jade) story and seeing the upcoming movie. So, I decided to get my act together and get to work on this story. I will be going back and forth with this one and my other story so there will be some hiatus at some points. I just hope everyone will enjoy this story just as much as the original. BYE!

p.s Yes I am naming the heaven and earth beetles Romeo and Juliet. Deal with it lol