Onyx: Stories From Midtown

Chapter 15A - training & Chapter 15B - the volcano crisis.

training.

Onyx walked through town with a bag filled with many weapons. She arrived at the park and she fell down into Gwen's secret hide out. "you all right?" Gwen asked helping her to her feet. Onyx just nodded and put the weapons down. "why are we here?" ted asked. "I just had a bad feeling that something's going to happened, we need to be prepared." Onyx explained. "is that why you have so many weapons?" Amy asked. "Shure is, I want you all to pick one and I'm going to teach you how to use it." Gwen then raised her hand. "what's up Gwen?" onyx asked, "I've still got my bow, do I stick with that or..." "yes, in fact you can help me teach." Everybody grabbed a weapon, but ted. "are you going to grab something?" she asked, "I've got all I need right here." She said punching into his hand. "suit yourself." Onyx said.

Everybody selected a weapon that they thought would work for them: Gwen still had her bow and Elizabeth grabbed one as well, Brian took a crossbow, Amy grabbed a slingshot, Olivia grabbed a scythe, Jessica grabbed an axe and ted just wanted to punch something. "isn't this place a little too small for something like this?" Elizbeth asked "I've got to agree there." Amy added on. "all right, come on. I know a place." Onyx said as they all walked through town and to the mountain of granite dungeon. "all right split into two group, Gwen you've got long range and I've got close quarters." She said and Gwen pulled Elizabeth, Brian and Amy. "are you three ready?" she asked to what could be best described as "eh". "all right, who's first?" she asked as Olivia swung at her. She instinctively pulled out a shield at the back of her head and Olivia flew off. "guess you are." She said helping Olivia to her feet. "you need to be careful with your swing as it's easy to be thrown off balance with a scythe. You need to plan your swing carefully." Olivia seemed to take the advice and she was more careful with her swing.

Onyx kept on blocking with her nearly indestructible shield. "you're doing great, but you need to practice your swing. Why don't to go and practice it over there." She said and Olivia went to where the trees where she would practice her swing. "all right, Jessica, do you want to come up here?" "I don't know, are you Shure it's safe?" "I've gone sledding, down a mountain on this thing, it's fine." Onyx responded, "all right." Jessica responded picking up the axe and swinging at onyx. She could tell that Jessica was furious and swinging without thought. This was unlike what should usually do, and onyx questioned her about it. "I won't disappoint her again." "who?" onyx asked but then she ran off. Onyx caught up and sat down with her after telling everyone else to continue.

"you want to tell me what's going on?" "aren't teachers meant to not care about this sort of thing?" "good thing I'm a tutor." Onyx responded making Jessica give a week smile. "I'm not doing so good in school and my mom is disappointed in me." Onyx understood what the issue was and tried to find the right words. "your grades don't reflect out as a person." "what?" Jessica asked "something my brother told me. Realistically grades don't matter after collage." Then they took a deep breath. "can I be honest with you; I'm dealing with something myself." "what is it?" Jessica enquired. "I'm not doing this based on a feeling, I'm doing this based on something that happened to me last week. I've been working on the portal and when I took a nap, I saw something happened. I can't tell if it was me hoping for the best or if it was something more." Jessica didn't ask any further questions but instead she just asked, "what was he like." "he was caring, he always helped me out when I needed it and he cared more about me than anything else. I knew this when he let himself die to save me when he could have run me out of there himself, but he didn't, he stayed down there to minimise the blast." She said tearing up.

"I wish had that same connection with my mom but all she cares about Is my grade because 'my future is more important than my now.'" They both sat there for another minute before heading back where they found that granite was there. "so, you put this class together?" he asked onyx. "yessss..." she said slowly waiting for the trouble she was about to get in. "good idea, I can tell that's something is coming, and I think that making everybody prepared is a good idea." He said she smiled before he cut back in "isn't it getting a little late to keep going safely?" "you right, class dismissed." She said and everybody went back home. When onyx went back home, she went to her room and went into the group chat. 'how did your parents take it?'

'my mom liked the idea.' Amy said, 'my parents already knew about me training.' Gwen reminded Gwen 'my scythe has to stay in the basement but otherwise the adoption centre likes that I can defend myself, even if it took some convincing.' Oliva texted 'my parents know something is going to happen soon, so they want me to be prepared.' Brian texted. 'my mom just wants me to be the best.' Jessica texted and while she could see that ted was reading, he didn't respond. She untied her ponytail and got ready to relax when she noticed a glow from her window, the glow of lava.

the volcano crisis.

She ran out of the house and tried to stop the flow of lava with her powers, but it was too much to handle so she decided to split it off to let it cool off. It hardened and it became rock. She could hold what left off and she ran inside where ruby was trying to stop the flow. Onyx realised that she had one option to stop all of the magma. She took the fire core, she gained a faint red gradient, and she calmed the magma down to the best of her ability, she saw the ginger hair on his head, and she handed him back the fire core. "what happened?" onyx asked "it was the pressure of the volcano, it built up to hard and it all released at once. I tried to stop it but, as you saw, I can't keep them back." While explain, onyx just looked at her hand and wondered why the gradient was so faint.

"so, it's solved now right?" she asked "it should be, but I can't be to Shure. If it blows again, it may be impossible to stop it again. Even with your power boost, besides it looks like that's failing you." Ruby commented. Onyx changed the subject "you have the same ginger hair as aqua. Are you two related?" "she's my twin, everybody who was brough onto the core program where orphaned siblings. Haven't you noticed that." "nooo..." onyx said avoiding his gaze, and her own embracement "well, you're and diamond's parents are dead, my mom should be dead, and granite and pearl's parent died in a house fire caused by a volcano. Why do you think he wouldn't come over here?" she was dumbfounded by the question and she waved him goodbye before going home.

When she got to the house, she found aqua asleep, a rare sight, and pearl called her. "hay pearl, what's up?" "we saw some lava flowing from the volcano, is everybody all right." "yeah, I just had to go and stop the lava and ruby told me about how everybody on the core program where orphans. Is that true?" "he told you about what happened to my dad's, didn't he?" Pearl asked in a tiered tone. "he did, although he didn't say dads." "yeah, it was a few months before we were all taken in by the king that is now dead, and for good reasons. We lived in a near an inactive volcano and while granite and I was staying with some family friends it blew it's top and the town was destroyed, our dads with it." "I'm so sorry." "it wasn't your fault; I just wish I could have done more." "don't think like that. Trust me, it will drive you to do things you're not ok with." "like remaking a portal?" pearl asked

Onyx stopped talking for a minute. "this suit is more than just a suit; it's been detecting the same signature as the when the portal was opened the first time." Pearl explained. She took a second then she explained the dream she had. "so you think you dreamt of the future?" pearl asked "I think it was more than that, I was seeing it from a third person perspective and it was decorated in a way that I didn't know of until I went snooping from what pictures remained later that day." She explained. "look, I'm coming over in two weeks whether you like it or not." "how about you join this little program I've started." "what program." "a program to help my friends learn how to use weapons to defend themselves." "I'll bring Jake." She responded as she was called off the phone. Onyx sat there and thought about the future for the first time I a while.