Reused

"Okay." chimed Naomi the next Monday, the two in a side room & the stone woman with a vat of acid & hose at the ready. "So, acid Revenants are, uh - really common for some reason." (Natasha nodded, relevantly.) "How are you gonna counter that?"

"Um, can I check my notes?"

Naomi laughed. "No-no, c'mon. You can't check your notes in a fight, right? Think. You have lava, snow, and wind, right?"

"…um. Lava doesn't work because - if it's liquid, then it turns in to gas."

"Does it?"

"D-Doesn't it?"

"Do you want to test it?"

"N-No, um. Snow cools it down, but… then it just corrodes through the snow. And wind doesn't work."

"Are you sure about that?"

++++++

She had decided to give it as homework for Natasha, and was more structured the next day.

"Um, what are we doing today?" said Natasha as they walked up the steps to the second-year's building.

"Just some accuracy stuff." chimed Naomi. "I set up a, a bunch of targets for you to hit with your wind and stuff. Does that sound good?"

"Okay." Natasha nodded as a woman with a face permanently split by a scowl stepped out of the building, slime-like arms solidifying as she stomped past the two.

Naomi glanced back at her, and Olivia stepped out a few seconds later.

"Hey, Natasha." she chimed as she passed by.

"H-Hi." said Natasha, hoping Naomi wouldn't ask who she was.

"Come along!" shouted a Russian & female voice behind the two. "We don't have all day!"

"You have Viktoria?" said Naomi, glancing back.

It amused her how poor Viktoria's mentorship was likely going. From what little she had seen of her this year, she was probably grumbling about how no one was listening to all her answers to the world's problems. Naomi never did understand how a woman like that found anything happy.

"Yeeep." winced Olivia, vaguely waving to her. "Do you know her?"

Naomi frowned. "…I do. At least swap week is next week, right?"

"Yep. Someone else can deal with her for a week."

Natasha noted with some relief Olivia's breath was better.

++++++

Friday, the two were back in the room of acid.

"Ready?" said Naomi, aiming the hose at Natasha, full bag of Flickendecke's patches readied in her other hand.

"Yes." nodded Natasha, and in the next instant -

- a stream of acid shot towards her -

" - Meteorology!" she shouted, throwing a ball of snow forward; and in to the frozen projectile went the acid one end but not out the other, Naomi nodding as as she stopped the spray, only a few drops of acid hitting Natasha as the snowball hit the ground.

"Good job." chimed Naomi. "How'd you do that?"

"I formed - um, there was lava inside of it, so - the snowball can dilute the acid once the lava melts it." said Natasha, taking one of the patches. "Was that what I was supposed to do?"

"Kinda. But you have to throw it right at that angle to do that, right? That's a little dangerous to do in a real fight."

"…I know, but…" mumbled Natasha. It seemed to her she always had trouble thinking for herself.

"I mean, you did good! But I think you can just use your lava for it."

"…oh. Um." said Natasha. "I'm not really sure why the snow isn't melting, either."

"…um. It probably has to do with the temperature." smiled Naomi. "But that's good. I think you're almost ready, right?"

"I-I guess."

++++++

Saturday morning, Natasha woke up and went out to Naomi in the living room, dressed like Kate again.

"Um, what are we doing today?" she said.

"Just taking a break today." chimed Naomi. "Just uh - make sure you study your notes really hard today. You know what I mean?"

Natasha nodded, but frowned once she went back to her room. She didn't like surprises - it worsened her anxiety, and though she tried her best to study, it frustrated her not knowing what Naomi was up to now.

A few minutes later, Naomi knocked on her door and she answered it.

"We're responding to a call." Naomi smiled, gesturing for Natasha to follow her.

"W-We what?" panted Natasha, and Naomi nodded as they walked out.

"Don't worry. Just stay calm and remember everything we practiced, right?"

Admittedly, Natasha wasn't one to discount Naomi's authority, but what exactly had they practiced? "Are - are you sure?"

"Yeah." nodded Naomi. "Just one fight - I got a ton of patches to heal you, and it's way easier than you think, okay? Since you have a strong Revenant, too."

Natasha started to tune her out. Her teaching style was vaguely irritating, along with the constant reassurance - Natasha would've been fine hearing it once, but her mind was going in the other direction having to hear it so often. If she was one thing, it was -

" - ready?" said Naomi, pressing against the gas station's door, and Natasha nodded as she huddled up behind.

"R-Ready."

Avalanche's arm formed, and in the next instant -

- one punch bashed the door down, and in to the store swept the women -

' - fuck.' thought Naomi as soon as she saw their foe rummaging through the register on the other end. 'First fucking fight and - fuck.' "Natasha, be - be careful, okay?"

"O-Okay."

Naomi tapped Flickendecke's patches in her pocket, and in the next instant -

- she stomped down; a fissure shot through the floor and towards the man -

- who swept with the speed of light back against the wall.

'No underground stardust.' thought Naomi, and she heard something loud crashing outside; Natasha glanced back to see a meteor landing in the gas station's lot, stardust leaking out of its pores, and in the next instant -

- Naomi ripped the door off the ground and hurled it towards their foe; he instinctively threw his hand out as her stone fingers snapped -

- and the roof collapsed in on him -

- but the rubble floated around him like it'd hit a zero-gravity field, Naomi nodding with her theory confirmed -

- and she yanked Natasha with her just in time to avoid a meteor shower striking right where she'd just been; with no time to waste, she rushed down the aisle right with her protege-turned-cargo beside, Natasha shrieking as another meteor narrowly missed her -

" - can you do that?" said Naomi as they ran -

" - w-what?" panted Natasha -

" - make sure none of the dust hits us - use your wind, right?" said Naomi, store's wall up ahead as they ran, and in the next instant -

- one meteor smashed through the roof and landed right ahead of them -

- but a swift gust of wind blasted it right through the wall and outside; Naomi laughed as the two rushed through the sizzling hole and out to the lot, waiting until they were twenty feet away to turn. Whispering to Natasha for a plan, her protege nodded as Naomi aimed her stone palm back through the hole -

- and a dozen lava-infused stone bullets erupted from her palm, concrete fists forming in the walls to punch them further in -

- and Naomi laughed as she heard a shriek of agony a second later, then frowned.

"U-Um, should we go inside?" said Natasha and Naomi shook her head.

"No, he has a … zero gravity field, it shouldn't have - gotta be a trap."

Natasha nodding, the two backed up to the edge of the lot, tanks of petrol left & store straight ahead; Naomi's stone fingers snapped -

- and the entire store collapsed in on itself, bubbles of lava poking out of the concrete ruins.

'I made lava with Mia, but Natasha's heat… probably isn't strong enough yet.' thought Naomi, and in the next instant -

- a hundred meteors burst out of the rubble & in to the air, and as they started to rain down -

- Natasha blinked stupidly at them, barely hearing Naomi shouting for her snow -

- and a dome of snow formed over the two with a stone layer inside, extraterrestrial projectiles smashing through the snow but unable to penetrate the hard center; at Naomi's side, Natasha quivered -

" - it's - it's okay, just stay focused." nodded Naomi, patting Natasha's back as their stone igloo started to crack, superheated water leaking in -

- a gust of wind threw it back where it belonged outside, flying through the cracks -

- and Naomi paused as she heard the meteor shower suddenly halt outside, observing how sharp Natasha's wind had been when thinned. Being a good fighter required being a good observer, especially with a narrow Revenant like Avalanche. She snapped her stone fingers and the wall lowered, lot outside filled with meteors leaking stardust -

- and one striking the tanks of gas; the explosion erupted outward -

- the next scene was instant. A dome of stone burst up around them, and a dome of snow followed, another stone layer completing the frozen sandwich -

- and the two clutched their eyes & ears as the explosion tore through the entire lot outside, hundreds of meteors shattering the concrete with a horrific noise filling their ears as Naomi opened her eyes, Avalanche keeping the walls standing but starting to crack -

- and a blast of superheated water tore through and nearly melted her left eye out of its socket; she grunted as she staggered back and shoved Natasha to the ground, bits of concrete flying towards her eyes -

- but one snap turned them to dust before they could hit her protege, swift Flickendecke patch repairing her face before Natasha could see what the damage was. She snapped her fingers again and the stone walls went down. A demolished scene met her formerly melted stare, entire lot ruined and spikes of concrete jutting out of the ground -

- with their foe running away on a still-standing sidewalk left & a hundred feet away; the two rushed in pursuit, shattered concrete forming a bridge for the two as they ran.

'Why did she h-hit me?' winced Natasha, relevantly, and as they came up to the sidewalk -

- Naomi yanked Natasha back, and her stone arm snapped to stitch up the cracks in the pavement, nodding as the replaced concrete started sizzling and the two kept their rush going again.

"It's - he has some underground and - the stardust is really hot and reactive -" said Naomi - " - okay?"

"O-Okay." panted Natasha as they ran. A line of power poles was at their right, a hundred feet separating them & their foe; above, one meteor hit the line -

- and exploded in a shower of electrical sparks -

- but a geyser of dirt burst out of the ground and swallowed it alive, two catching pace to their foe turning left & rushing on to the road, the first of two in that direction.

"Ground beats electricity." chimed Naomi, relevantly. As their foe rushed on to the second road with another sidewalk ahead, Naomi laughed as she saw a truck approaching from the right; she stopped and flashed her badge to it, and as their foe hit the road running -

- a wall of stone burst up ahead, and in to the sudden barrier he stumbled -

- but Naomi sighed as the truck got caught in his zero-gravity field before it could ram him through, and in the next instant, a cloud of stardust formed in his hands -

- and in the next instant, a horrific shriek erupted from him as a spike of asphalt went all the way through him from below -

- which melted as a blast of Natasha's lava hit it, and off stumbled their foe, cursing as he hit the sidewalk gasping.

" - I - sorry! S-Sorry sorry -" panted Natasha -

" - it's cool." winced Naomi, figuring she had probably frustrated Serena a few times too. Inexperienced protege with her, the two ran after the man, and as they passed over the hole Natasha had melted, Naomi glanced down -

- and saw it was filled with stardust; one meteor formed above her -

- forcing Naomi to punch & shatter it before it could hit its temperamental child; Naomi winced as the immense heat melted the top layer off of her arm, stone sizzling as they rushed on to the sidewalk, turning to face their foe still slowly running fifty feet ahead, power lines at their left now.

She whispered another plan to Natasha as they kept their pursuit going, and as he threw another cloud of stardust back -

- a swift gust of wind blasted it away and in to his zero-gravity field, and as he threw another cloud of stardust back -

- a swift gust of wind blasted it away and in to his zero-gravity field. The two halted and frowned, and Naomi didn't understand what he was doing until she saw a bit of dust corroding a hole in the ground -

- and her realization was instant.

'He's creating an underground reaction.' she thought and glanced back to the gas station, seeing a bit of gasoline about to drip on to a bit of stardust, new explosion impending underneath them - ' - fuck, can't fucking stitch inside that field and -'

- a final cloud of dust hit the fuse -

- but the next scene was instant. Naomi ripped a power line out of the ground and swung it down -

- and their foe shrieked in agony as the enormous cloud of electricity claimed his entire body, charring his skin as he threw out another puffs of dust -

- but only triggered a second round of pain, screaming horrifically as his flesh burned; meteors began crashing through every line of power in the area, constant storm of electrical arcs erupting as the lights went down, a dozen meteors forming over Naomi & Natasha -

- but the next scene was instant.

" - Avalanche!" shouted Naomi, ripping a slab of concrete out of the ground and throwing it up, thin tubes forming to guide -

" - M-Meteorology!" shouted Natasha, swift gusts of wind sharpening as they flew through the tubes -

- and slicing every last meteor to bits & sending their corpses back towards the man, shards of meteorites flying in his zero-gravity field and slicing his face. Naomi laughed as a done of snow formed over him, trapping him in with the space rocks of his own design, cold barrier already starting to sizzle on the inside.

"Just keep it up." chimed Naomi. "He'll drown."

"O-O-Okay." panted Natasha, watching Naomi stomp, and sending a few shards of stone inside as they heard him gurgling to death within; no fun to waste, Naomi rushed up with her stone arm scraping the ground, spikes gathering on her knuckles for one momentum-fueled punch through the snow -

- that she didn't even need to see inside to know how hard it had landed, zero-gravity barely slowing her and a few teeth hanging off of Avalanche's fist. Field of gravity finally going down, she saw their for staggering back and collapsing to the ground -

" - S-Stardust -" he gagged, stardust covering his body & corroding through the ground, and in to the sudden burrow he fell -

" - Ava-"

- a meteor smashed through her arm & nearly snapped in half; she grunted as the immense heat melted through her stone, fingers snapping as their foe fell twenty feet underground -

- and a fist of hardened dirt burst through his back & out his chest in a geyser of blood, with his still-beating heart gripped between the dirt fingers, and they knew that he was dead. Naomi took a deep breath and applied Flickendecke's patches, new stone forming over her wounds as Natasha came up.

"I-Is that it?" panted Natasha.

"All good." Naomi grinned and pat Natasha's back. "Good job. First fight down, right?" She tapped her foot and the ground brought his corpse up to her, dirt fist still clutching his heart. "I'm gonna scan. Do you know what that is?"

"N-No."

Naomi started explaining it to her, and she thought about how many people had probably seen her standing still for that last minute. She wondered if anyone had ever looked so stupid in their first fight.