Chapter 41: Unison
Henry, Ana, and Mythril dash out towards Dredd while Jace and Vayne go for another clash. Vayne shifts their right arm into a curved blade and thrusts it towards Jace. He tilts his neck to avoid the blade before sliding across the shiny, slick floor. Underneath the blade, Jace swaps his arm to Freeze and aims directly at Vayne’s head. He fires an icicle thick enough to truly cover their head, making them recoil from the sudden impact. During this opportunity, Jace gets back to his feet and winds back his left arm before swapping it to Burst. He throws the punch forwards, connecting with the ice surrounding Vayne’s head. It shatters and melts, leaving Vayne and the immediate air around them damp. Jace smiles and swaps his arm to Bolt before raising his left arm and extending only his index finger and thumb in the shape of a finger-gun.
Jace: “This should look familiar.”
He fires a small bolt of lightning from his finger before it quickly evolves and strengthens due to the conductive materials in its proximity. The shock from the bolt leaves Vayne discombobulated for a moment.
Jace: “Now, let’s try this super element again.”
With his finger-gun still raised, he closes his eyes and tries to concentrate on blending the elements again. He’s soon interrupted by the sound of feet dashing off the floor. He opens his eyes only to see Vayne hurtling at him with the end of a flail for a hand. Jace instinctively punches forwards and clashes with the spiked ball.
Vayne: “Does that not hurt?!”
Jace: “You won’t be hurting me again.”
He leans into the punch before drifting to his right. The shift of force causes Vayne to lose balance for a second while Jace ducks below them. With a swap to Burst, Jace sends his arm flying back towards Vayne with a rocket-powered back fist. It makes contact with Vayne's cheek before making them skid and tumble across the floor. Jace stands back up with his head raised high. He begins to walk towards Vayne.
On the other side of the room, the trio gets into formation. Mythril outspeeds the others before coming to a sudden halt. He sprouts two Aura arms and extends them to his sides. Ana hops onto one arm and Henry to the other. They spring off of the arms with a little extra help from Mythril before greeting each other in the air.
Ana: “You better make this one count.”
Henry: “Me?! What about you!?”
Ana: “Psh, I got this. Just make sure to keep up with me.”
Ana forms a Pulse crystal in her right hand as Henry manifests an Aura stinger to his left wrist. They descend from the air at the same time and attack simultaneously. The sharp pain from Henry along with the blunt force of Ana’s attack rattles Dredd for a second, but they can’t focus on it for long as Ana’s Pulse detonates, scooting them a few inches backwards. Ana and Henry land behind them and while Henry does a somersault into a stand, Ana does a somersault and uses the momentum to shift herself back towards Dredd like a track athlete before dashing off towards them again.
Henry: “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”
Dredd grunts and drops their arms before changing them into massive guillotines. With a yell, they raise their arms up with tremendous force.
Mythril: “Ana! You’re letting the adrenaline get to you!”
Ana: “Sheesh, men can’t trust a woman to do anything.”
She laughs to herself as she flips and twists her body to avoid the guillotines. The worst damage they do is give her a microscopic hair-trim. She grabs Dredd’s shiny dome of a head and uses the momentum to swing herself above and over them before using all of her strength to focus in on a quick handstand. She then lets gravity do the rest of the work as she starts to fall out of the handstand. Instead of landing, she shifts her weight and drives her knees into their chest. She then kicks off of their chest, leaving some Pulse behind for extra insult to injury. It detonates as Dredd is sent into one of the walls.
Henry: “Did you-“
Mythril: “How the-“
Ana: “Told ya I was gonna take them down.”
Henry: “Y-Yeah, well I helped!”
Mythril: “Me too!”
Ana: “You two have been spending too much time with Jace. Speaking of, how is he doing?”
She turns around and notices Jace walking towards Vayne. With a smile, she turns back around to the other two.
Ana: “I was hoping those androids would be a lot tougher, oh wel-“
Suddenly, she’s struck by a massive arm-hammer. It immediately knocks her off of her feet and into a wall. The other two look back in utter horror.
Dredd: “Simple tricks won’t work on me forever.”
They look down at the other two. Mythril looks over at Ana and then back to Dredd.
Mythril: “You’re dead.”
Henry: “Don’t get ahead of yourself, this guy’s really dangerou-“
Mythril: “YOU’RE DEAD!”
Mythril slams his Aura arms down to the ground to propel himself in Dredd’s direction. He winds back both sets of arms and begins a barrage of punches. Whether it’s flesh or Aura, Mythril uses everything to bring Dredd down. During the assault, Dredd manages to grab Mythril’s head and begins to raise it up high. The force of the grab causes Mythril to lose focus on his attack and more on his survival. He struggles to break free as he tries to use both sets of arms to pry Dredd’s fingers off of his head.
Henry: “Dammit!”
Henry leaps up and dashes towards the two. He stomps down on the ground and leaps towards them. He grabs onto the arm grabbing Mythril and sighs.
Henry: “Please don’t taste awful.”
He reels his head back and opens his jaw as wide as it can go. He crashes his head and teeth back down on Dredd’s arm before chomping it off. Mythril is immediately freed as he stands back up and Dredd reels back from the pain and overall suddenness of the attack. Henry stands back up and spits out the part of Dredd’s arm he bit off.
Henry: “Tastes like iron. Not the blood kind though. Gross.”
He sticks out his tongue in disgust. Behind him, the giant rises once more. Instead of attacking, they turn their gaze to Vayne.
Dredd: “Vayne! It’s time!”
Vayne: “We’re really losing that badly?”
Dredd: "Whether we are or not, this fight needs to end now!”
Vayne: “Might as well give these dorks a show before we give their heads to our boss.”
Dredd: “Group up.”
Suddenly, Vayne springs up and runs to the center of the room at the same time as Dredd. Mythril grabs Ana and wipes off some of the rubble from her shoulders. She smiles weakly and gives him a thumbs up. Together, the 4 regroup in front of the chromatic duo.
Dredd: “Now, how does this work again?”
Vayne: “Oh, it’s easy! We just have to dap each other up as hard as we can! The more force, the more successful we’ll be!”
Dredd: “What is a dap?”
Vayne: “You’ve never dapped someone up?”
Dredd: “You’re speaking gibberish to me.”
Vayne: “Just smack my hand as hard as you can, like this!”
Vayne extends their arm out and rotates their entire body about 90 degrees before reeling their arm back just a bit further. Dredd nods and mimics the same motion.
Henry: “Shouldn’t we be stopping this?”
Ana: “If this makes them stronger, then I want to see it.”
Henry: “You just left a dent in a wall!”
Ana: “So? I’m back and ready to fight now!”
While they argue, Dredd and Vayne rotate their bodies back and with a whip of their arms, they lock hands. The clap echoes throughout the room as the two begin to spin around. As they spin, they begin to get closer to each other. The force and speed of the spin makes their bodies morph together before a deep red energy envelopes them.
???: “There we go! No unnecessary dances or tacky jewelry involved!”
The figure shoots into the air before releasing the red energy. It rumbles and shakes the entire room before coming to a stop.
Mythril: “Who…are you?”
???: “We suppose we should name ourselves, but what would work best? Dreyne? Vayedd?”
Jace: “You won’t get the chance to name yourself!”
???: “Now hold on, let’s think about this.”
Henry: “Those names are dumb!”
???: “You’re right. We shouldn’t be trying to combine our names because while we are now one being, we are still Dredd and Vayne. Call us…DreddVayne.”
