My Name Is Viktoria Petrovna Zamolodchikova

The following Monday, the new pair separated at the arena.

"Everyone ready?" said Naomi in the second-year line, looking down at her tablet as they nodded. "Coolio. Uh, so I have... Olivia."

"That's me." chimed Olivia, waving as she went off with Naomi. "Bye, Natasha."

Natasha smiled, but saw a second-year woman frowning at her, then glancing at her tablet.

"Natural Disaster." she said in a heavy Russian accent. "Come." (Natasha came.) "My name is Viktoria Zamolodchikova - Toxicity."

'Oh no.' thought Natasha. "Natasha Flagg - Natural Disaster. M-ma'am."

"Mmhm. Your Revenant is Meteorology - control over weather. You were born on April 4th, 2002. You have a latex allergy, think that I'm Russian when I was born in Belarus, and you lived in Michigan until you were ten years old-"

"-I - wait, how do you know that?"

"It's part of my Revenant. Be glad I'm not penetrating too deeply."

Viktoria glanced to her protege Olivia, and sighed to see her still looking at Natasha.

'Two weeks in and she's already trying to be plucked. She'll end up with every woman on campus's fingers inside of her if I don't watch her.'

"Come, let's train. Do what I tell you to do." she said, walking to the wall.

She was not a woman of a playful nature. She'd never done alcohol or drugs, and she took it as a rigid law that if something tasted good she should spit it out.

"What weather can you cause from here?" said Viktoria, pulling a list of natural disasters from her pocket & handing it to Natural Disaster. She had already learned every Revenant in Natasha's year, and had papers for every possibility.

"…um… I-I can do lava, snow, and - and wind, I think."

"And the others?"

"…um. I'm - I'm not really sure, sorry. I'm just - kinda inexperienced and stuff so I - I, yeah."

"Everyone starts inexperienced. It's whether you have the head on your shoulders to use it, yes?"

Natasha nodded, hoping Viktoria couldn't read her mind too deeply. She demonstrated her elements, and Viktoria's eyes never moved. Natasha saw her already as a personification of the type of mentor she had expected from Urasaria, critically judging her every move and lecturing her later about her errors.

"Is that your elements, then?" said Viktoria. (Natasha nodded nervously.) She checked off a few lines on her paper. "Three, then. Presumably you'll grow in to the others, if it is control over weather. Did you have it since birth?"

"No, um, ma'am, they - they used something on it to make it weaker."

"A professional Revenant, then. Give me a minute to write this down."

Natasha glanced back and saw the doors open, then looked away as a white-haired woman wearing an obsidian beak came inside. Viktoria bowed her head as she walked up.

"Everything alright?" said the woman.

"Yes, President Swarm. We were going to train for the next hour and test her Revenant. Is there anything I may do for you?"

Her deferent tone amused Natasha, but she noted up close there were dark purple marks underneath the obsidian mask's eyes.

"…er, no, that's alright." nodded President Swarm. "I was just checking on everyone."

"Thank you." nodded Viktoria, and the mystery white-haired woman went off.

"…uh. Was that Mia?" said Natasha.

"President Swarm, you mean. She's a good woman, a good hero, and a good president."

Viktoria knew absolutely nothing about Mia, and had said the same about Matoi last year. She figured people ended up where they ought to be in life and had little desire to question authority. Unbeknownst to her, Mia would've hated this in her.

She saw some other mentor & protege pair giggling and shook her head. What an unfortunate fact that most mentors were poor at their jobs - all she had to do was take a look at the leaderboards to confirm it. Otstoy was hardly a Revenant that should've done well, but no matter, she'd mold Natasha in to shape & hope some of it solidified before she went back to Naomi.

◆◆◆

The next morning, Viktoria had requested Natasha meet her in a sideroom in the early morning, and Natasha had been grateful not to run in to Olivia on the way over. Olivia had spoken to her plenty in her classes, but something always seemed ulterior in her motives.

"Ah." said Viktoria as Natasha walked in, list on the wall & four mannequins in the room. "Ten minutes early. Here. I spent last night drafting these up for you after yesterday. Do them for me."

Natasha nodded. She had woken up enough in the early morning back when she was first gaining her muscles, sacrificing her sleep for size and a squat rack she didn't have to share with anyone.

"Um, start with this one, right?" Natasha pointed to the leftmost mannequin and Viktoria nodded. "Meteorology!"

She aimed her palm forward -

- and a geyser of lava melted the mannequin to ash. Nodding to Viktoria, a jet of snow erupted from her palm -

- and coated the second mannequin white, ice crystals already forming as she aimed for the third -

- and a blast of wind tore it clear in half & threw it across the room, Viktoria nodding as she stepped away from the fourth.

"And the last one." she said, and Natasha nodded, clasping her hands together.

"…um. Okay. Meteorology." she said, and in the next instant -

- a coat of lava covered her left arm; a coat of snow covered her right -

- but she sighed at no water coming, two halves barely steaming at the center. "I - fuck, um - sorry."

"Try again."

Her lava & snow disappeared, and as they reappeared -

- a gust of wind blasted her steam away -

- with no damage done to the mannequin.

"I-I'm sorry, I -" - she winced - " - I don't think I can do that one, um."

"Are you certain?"

"I - I can try again, I guess."

More lava & snow formed, and in the next instant -

- a gust of wind blasted a dual jet of lava & snow in to the mannequin, and Natasha sighed as it melted&froze. "I - can I try it on the snow one? The water jet?"

"Go ahead."

Another dual element failure, and Natasha winced as she looked away. "Sorry, I'm just - h-having a lot of trouble for some reason and, u-um - I don't know if I can do that y-yet. S-Sorry."

A bit of guilt came over Viktoria, but she quickly waved it away. There was no need to develop emotions towards her protege or anyone else's - better she maintain her objectivity.

"...it's impossible." said Viktoria. "Intentionally impossible - I was testing you to see how you would do with it. Lava does not interact with snow in that way - it's very slow to melt. You can look up videos of this later."

◆◆◆

The following day, Viktoria had asked Natasha to meet her in an alley outside of Urasaria, and was holding a tin of food when she arrived. Natasha saw grey plugs of slime in her nose as she stepped up.

"Are you hungry?" said Viktoria, nasally Russian accent.

"Um, I - I guess so." shrugged Natasha. "A little bit."

"Good." said Viktoria, handing the tin to her. "I won't make you eat it. Open it once I'm far away."

"Uh, what?" said Natasha, and Viktoria walked to the other end, nodding with fifty feet separating the two. Natasha opened the tin, and in the next instant -

- she gagged & staggered against the wall, putrid smell entering her nostrils as she dropped the tin and the fermented fish fell out - " - w-w-what the f-fuck -"

" - Surströmming." said Viktoria as Natasha vomited, swift geyser of lava dissolving her bile. "Don't destroy it, or you'll be eating it."

"W-What the f-fuck?!" Natasha gagged, heaving as she leaned against the wall. Her head and stomach reeled with sickness as Viktoria continued.

"This is your punishment."

Natasha heaved again, barely able to breathe.

"You haven't done anything wrong, however," said Viktoria, "which is why I'm doing it. Most people do punishment backwards - they do it after their protege has already fucked up. Doing it now ensures you'll avoid it in the future, yes?"

Natasha tried not to curse under her gasping.

"You may destroy it-"

- and a geyser of lava with the speed of light burnt it to ash. Natasha glanced at Victoria, and staggered quickly out of the rotten fish's range once she nodded.

"Good." said Viktoria, pulling the plugs out of her nose. Natasha realized her thumb had been missing until she placed the plugs back on. "Come, let's get away from the smell and go hunting."

Natasha nervously followed, and spoke once she could again. "W-W-We a-are?"

"Yes. I saw you have one fight under your belt - far too few. Your Revenant isn't weak. Why has Naomi not taken you out more?"

Natasha didn't like the tone she took in 'Naomi'. "Um, it's not - it's not her fault, I just - I just get anxious."

"Can you follow orders?"

"Y-Yes."

"Good. No surstromming to feed to you, then, Ms. Natural Disaster." Viktoria smirked. "We'll be patrolling near Perdido Street. Have you checked your map?"

"Yeah." Natasha nodded. "Um, there's a gym there I used to go to."

"Then you know how bad the area is. Follow every order I tell you, and take care for property damage." The two walked.

"Um, there's professionals that repair that though, right?"

"Yes, after they've left someone's house demolished for a year. Most of them were only hired because they were born when there weren't any good hosts around. Now they sit and collect government paychecks, while we do all of the actual work out of our shitty little homes. You can't trust them for anything. As I said - no property damage."

"Um - right, sorry." said Natasha, though she disagreed with Viktoria. Sure, there were bound to be a few lazy people just as in any job, but that wasn't any reason to not still rely on the system & try to improve it how they could; which, admittedly, she had no clue how. Better than the private alternative.

Viktoria said nothing as they walked past the row of buildings, but Natasha was grateful she didn't try to make any more conversation. Nothing unnerved her quite so much as small talk, and in the next instant -

- Viktoria put her ear out as they heard something collapsing in another avenue, then screeching concrete and crashing walls -

- and with no time to waste, Viktoria rushed up the sidewalk with the corner up ahead; anxiety in her step, Natasha followed her as they turned right, then made another right in to the left side of the avenue -

- right in to a midair car flying towards them -

" - Otstoy!" shouted Viktoria, hands extending out -

- and the next scene was instant. Her arms turned to sticky yet solid slime, catching the projectile -

- and hurling it off to the side as Natasha rushed up behind, huddling close with her nerves already shot -

" - lava wall - right!" shouted Viktoria, and a dozen jets of lava burst out of the road right -

- meltng the flying automobile in to molten metal as the two stepped left & against another building, seeing their foe stepping out of the ruins of an apartment complex across the street, ahead with 150ft separating the two.

"It bounced back." muttered Viktoria, relevantly. "He couldn't have thrown it himself - his Revenant launched it. Do you remember Otstoy?"

"U-Um, k-k-kinda." winced Natasha, two rushing forward as Viktoria whispered -

" - I can turn my body in to slime. Follow every order I give you." said Viktoria as the two ran. Natasha nodded with some relief, and in the next instant -

- something started ringing ahead, and the sidewalk collapsed as a fissure shot through the ground towards them -

- but a swift slimehand brought them to the left wall & above, Viktoria pulling Natasha with her as the slime brought them above ground, sidewalk collapsing below with another slimearm wrapped around Natasha. Viktoria started mumbling again -

" - only the sidewalk is collapsing, see? Not the road. It's specific."

"O-Okay." winced Natasha, gasping in Viktoria's grip as the two hung, and in the next instant -

- the building started vibrating, and Viktoria's grip staggered for an instant -

- but another slimehand kept them safely attached to the wall as she grunted and threw her legs around Natasha, building vibrating and walls shaking; Viktoria glanced left and saw a window that wasn't shaking to the beat, and in the next instant -

- another vibration nearly threw her off -

- but she wrapped her legs tighter around Natasha as her slimehands dug deeper in to the wall - " - I don't want us to - be one hundred feet fucking below -"

" - I-I - o-okay -" winced Natasha, trying not to blush -

" - spray your lava in that window!" shouted Viktoria, and in the next instant -

- a jet of lava burst in through the window and made the room molten, but Natasha stopped her flow a second later - " - w-wait, won't that -"

" - I already c-checked." grunted Viktoria; Natasha nodded as she set her hand back to work -

- and a gust of lava & wind tore through the room she couldn't see inside, vibrations stopping once she felt she'd hit something important, two steadying but still attached to the wall. Across the road, they saw their foe rushing past the corner left & on to another sidewalk; no time to waste, Viktoria braced her slimeleg against the wall -

- and a kick sprung them right over the road, slimetentacle grabbing a lamppost to slow their fall -

- but it collapsed as soon as she touched it; Natasha shrieked as her face met the pavement as she landed, groaning as she stood and saw Viktoria hit the ground running ahead. Gasping with no rest, a gust of wind upped Natasha's pace as the two hit the corner, rushing past one street-sign -

- that exploded in to a hundred shards -

- and Viktoria shoved Natasha to the ground as her entire body went to slime; and in to the slimewoman went the projectiles -

- but out the other end they ejected, holes left in her slime healing as a true Terminator might. 75ft separated them & their fleeing foe as they kept their pursuit going, seeing him take a right turn ahead & in to another avenue: slimehand forming, Viktoria smacked the wall at their rights -

- and another slimetentacle brought both of them to the roof this time, Otstoy slightly vibrating as Viktoria spoke as they hit the ground -

" - it's frequency - he manipulates frequencies, vibrations, things like -"

- and the entire building shook again; sudden balance lost, the two started staggering -

" - find the speaker!" shouted Viktoria as the roof filled with bad vibrations below; Natasha groaned as she felt her legs turn to jelly -

- then shrieked as she fell on her back, vibrations entering her skin & heart rate rising -

" - use your lava!" shouted Viktoria -

- and the next scene was instant. A coat of lava enveloped Natasha and burned a hole through the roof; in to the sudden burrow she fell -

- and another -

- and another, falling in to a bed of snow at the bottom floor of the room she'd found herself in. Wincing with no rush, she rushed out and to the lobby, forgetting Viktoria's warning against property damage as she came up to the front doors, gust of wind blasting it off its hinges as she rushed outside -

- just as Viktoria landed beside her, Natasha nodding as they met up and looked up the avenue. A row of buildings was at their right, no new vibrations entering their hearts but no sight of their foe.

"U-Um, where - where next?" panted Natasha and Viktoria frowned, gesturing for Natasha to follow her as she rushed up the sidewalk, checking every building they passed.

"…we can't get a vantage point, and..." Viktoria glanced back at her tablet on her back as they passed by a gym with solid-black doors. "…they'll know the Revenant, but…"

"I - wait." panted Natasha, pointing to the gym - " - I - their doors are usually glass, but -"

- Viktoria glanced back and nodded, and the two rushed up to the changed-color doors, frequency having been changed; no time to waste, Natasha pulled open the doors -

- and frowned as they only budged a few inches, grunting as she yanked again -

- and remembered they were push.

A little proud of her new host strength, she shoved them open, and in to the gym swept the women; Viktoria turned as soon as they stepped inside -

- and two Otstoy-punches shattered the two speakers that'd been turning the doors black; she turned to see a weight rack at their left and their foe gasping for breath 50ft away, and as the two rushed forward -

- the two staggered back, heartbeats rising as a speaker appeared on the ceiling above; one slimetentacle shot towards it -

- but couldn't reached it before Viktoria & Natasha started coughing up blood, vibrations hitting their chests and quickening their heartrates as they stumbled again -

" -s-stay still!" panted Viktoria, placing her slimehand on Natasha's chest -

- and the next scene was instant. Fingers turning to slime, pieces of Viktoria entered Natasha's pores -

- and the woman gagged like one renewed as bits of slime calmed her heart down. Groaning, Viktoria punched through her own chest and massaged it back to normal (as a time-stopping marine biologist might), and threw one 100lb up to the speaker that shattered it like a plate. Ahead, they saw their foe running away and rushed in pursuit, and as another speaker appeared on the ceiling -

- a terrible noise flooded Natasha's ears, drowning out Viktoria's voice as 30ft separated them and he lunged towards the back wall -

- just in time for a chill wind to freeze his leg solid, and as his head turned -

- a 100lb plate smashed his skull in to a red & white sandwich with metal in the middle, one last speaker appearing on it -

- as a final plate crushed all the air out of him & threw his ribs out of his back, and they knew he was dead as he didn't hit the ground, deafening noise fading.

"…-sn't hard, was it?" said Viktoria as she stepped past Natasha. "Some bit of scum off the streets to start the day off with."

"U-Uh, y-yeah." nodded Natasha. "S-Sorry, j-just - just tense and yeah and kinda nervous and yeah."

Viktoria shrugged. She never tried to understand what problems infested others' lives to make them act certain ways - she maintained herself in the present, dealing with whatever was given to her. "Breathe deeply, then. It'll be like riding a bike for you eventually. Give me your wounds."

Natasha gave her her wounds, trying not to feel pieces of Viktoria enter them.

◆◆◆

Friday afternoon, Viktoria crouched down on a bank floor to scan.

"Good job." she said. "You did most of the work there. See this interface?"

"Um, yeah." said Natasha.

"It automatically allocates a point to you and myself - but here, you did most of the work, so I will give you my point."

Natasha frowned. Viktoria was supposed to be impossible to please, and she'd been assuming the last week that she wouldn't have been satisfied with anything. Why couldn't she just have kept it up & let her be right?

"Come, I'll call a taxi for us." said Viktoria, and the two walked out to the streets. "I'll have a report written up for you by next Monday. You have good discipline and you're willing to follow orders - better than most first-years - but you should be more forceful with your mentor. If she's not taking you out, then you need to show her that you're willing to fight..."

"...regardless," said Viktoria once they got out & to Urasaria's gate an hour later, "your Revenant is very broad. It could be very strong. I'd consider it a failure if you weren't three-star by the end of the year."

"Okay." nodded Natasha, and Viktoria figured she had stopped listening three minutes in.

Viktoria scanned her badge and the two walked down the hall.

"Olivia might already be waiting for you at home." she said to Natasha, who tensed. "Perhaps with a bit of flowers and chocolates."

"U-Uh. I dunno, um."

"It's none of my business what you two get up to - I was simply your mentor for swap week. But I'll tell you this much - if you're thinking about drinking water, I would suggest a fresh spring instead of a glass stained by many lips. … And by the way. Your personal information was given to me when I was assigned to you."