Vie For Power.

Jennifer's eyes widened in surprise and prompted a change of posture, standing up to get an elevated view of the foe. She grimaced at the furfuraceous skin illuminated by the porch light.

"Your ashes should have been scattered across the entire continent by now." she gritted her teeth and her hands balled into tight fists at her sides.

A smug half-smile stretched across the Daeo's ugly face.

"Is that how you were taught to address your elders? How rotten of you, child." a flash of fulgent yellow light caught her off guard and stung her eyes. "Wha-"

Jennifer wasted not an ounce of the opening she had created and immediately exploited it. Her movement was invisible to the naked eye and appeared as though she had materialised behind the Daeo's back, sword held high.

"You have no right to call me child, you old hag!" her grip tightened around the hilt and she growled fiercly. The blade left an arc of moonlight as she brought it down, severing the lengthy tail with much ease. Blood gushed from the exposed tissue like a brake pipe.

"Now you die!" She brought the blade up and drove it forward.

When she attempted the conclusive blow by running the Daeo through with the blade, the latter permitted it's success. The sharp steel dug deeper into its target's chest until it protruded out of her chest.

"Ooow, the agony! It hurtsss," she jested as hysteric fits of laughter rattled her chest.

The Daeo's furfuraceous hand advanced the blood stained steel and enclosed a fierce grip around the blade, "Hmph, what did you hope to achieve with such an inferior form attack little girl?"

Disbelief passed over Jennifer's face and flushed her face red. Her pupils constricted and her grip tightened upon the hilt of her chokutō. With an agitated tone she commanded, "Calcine," the steel gleamed a furious red as it heated and was instantaneously set ablaze.

"Grrrr!" she brought the blade upwards, the flames allowing it to sever through the bone and flesh of the Daeo without hassle before she leapt backwards, remaining airborne for mere seconds and landing several feet away from the amputated target.

"Ahh?" the Serpentine being turned to face her foe, blood seeping from both points of amputation and a vicious smile which widened to reveal her gleaming white fangs.

"So it appears you aren't the one trick pony I thought you to be," her vertical slit eyes closed in concentration. From where the arm should be sprouted a minute scaled version of her hand which grew rapidly until the entire arm had been regenerated. She clenched and retracted her fingers repeatedly to establish a familiarity between the new and old tendons. The process was repeated on her tail, all done with the same smug half-smile plastered onto her face.

Then, with a sadist's tone, she calmly said, "I'll enjoy dissecting you with my claws and eating every organ in your body. All while you writhe and thrash in agony." her forked tongue traced over her lips and went back into her mouth. "A tasty treat indeed,"

I forgot about the instant regeneration. If I come on too strong I'll wear myself out but she's not going to let me breath now is she? A shadow passed over Jennifer's face, both fear and alarm contouring her beautiful features only to be further creased by blazing ire. The sight of her efforts being undone so easily angered her further. She tightened her grip on the blade.

Wait a second. That's it! Breathing.

"You sick serpent," her sclera filled with red veins and her voice grew louder with each word.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR REAL THIS TIME!!" then she charged.

Back inside the Daniels Household, Dwayne still lay unconscious on the couch. His soft, rhythmic snores raising and lowering his chest respectively. Drip, pause, drip, pause again then with a final drip, Dwayne's lashes fluttered open. He groaned from the throbbing pain in his head and winced at the sharp pain that shot through his chest as he sat himself up to get a better view of the area. His vision was still blurry and all he could make out were various figures around him in what appeared to be a stadium.

"Finally," said a figure that was impossibly identical to Dwayne, the only difference being that he was entirely red and had yellow eyes that danced like fire. "The brat's awake."

From behind Dwayne, another identical double was crouched behind him. This one way pink and had serene jade eyes and was female. She helped up and embraced him tightly, "Oh my gosh! I can't beleive this is really happening! I finally got to meet you in the flesh!”

She smiled and giggled childishly. "Hellowzies, I'm Compassion and welcome to the Vie For Power!"

Another identical Dwayne gave himself a gentle slap to the forehead and sighed heavily, "I guess I'm Sarcasm."

His ebony eyes complemented his greyscale hue, "Also, that's Ire — he said pointing at the red double — She's Apathy — he pointed at a purple girl who sat cross legged, reading a book and seemingly detached from everyone else — that's Gaiety — he pointed at an orange boy who resembled Dwayne at age eleven — and the others will introduce themselves or whatever."

Compassion still had Dwayne wrapped in a tight embrace by the time he registered his surroundings and grasped some sort of understanding. "Hmmm," he said, trying to focus but failing dismally. "H-hey, Pink? I'd appreciate it if you. . .erm, let go of me." seconds passed and with an awkward smile he added, "No hard feelings."

"Fine," Compassion sighed, pouted in girlish frustration then released him from her arms. "Hmph, don't talk to me anymore."

"B–but your uhm, erm. . .breasts were straining my neck!" Dwayne's voice was sincere and had no tone of insult as he gave protest to the issues.

Everybody except for Apathy burst into fits of perpetual laughter when Compassion squealed and flushed fuschia, even Sarcasm gave a good laugh. A blue double of Dwayne as an infant crawled around them, enjoying himself.

"That's Melancholy, you're rarely ever sad so the poor guy's never had much time to grow." a chubby and seemingly older being with Dwayne's resemblance pointed his yellow finger at the innocent baby as it laughed, an adorable but heart wrenching sound. "By the way, I'm Paranoia, and that's Discontent — his bemused brown eyes indicated toward a green version of Dwayne at twelve years old — he's quite insatiable." he said and quickly turned to check for something at his back, shuddering at whatever it is he heard or felt.

"So why exactly am I he-" he was abruptly cut short.

"What about me? Where's my introduction?" even from the nosebleed this voice was loud enough to even tear Apathy's gaze from her book. An eerie black figure with no resemblance to Dwayne whatsoever leapt from his seat and landed onto the ground beside Dwayne, cracks and debris rising at his landing.

"What are you doing here?" snarled Ire clenching his fists, eyes burning with an intense blaze as he glared into the ebony figure. The others repositioned themselves so that they all surrounded the figure in a circular formation. Dwayne watched on from where he stood and was clueless of what to do which angered him slightly.

Back outside of Dwayne's mind and on the front yard, Jennifer's flames had engulfed several patches of the green turf. The sleeves of her blouse were torn, gashes made the Daeo trickled with blood and her face beaded with sweat. She was slumped forward, one hand on her shoulder whilst she took laboured breaths of exhaustion. "I told you old hag," with her forearm she wiped off the blood that trickled from her mouth. "With this trump card I declare myself the w—she coughed—. . .winner."

The Daeo gave a mocking chuckle as the last of the damage Jennifer had dealt on her disappeared. "I will admit only to the fact that you have managed to tire me out enough to slow down my regeneration," she took a deep breath and grinned smugly. "I too smell a victory and it unfortunately doesn't belong to you!" the monster unhinged her jaws and red particles of energy began swirling towards a central point in her mouth, slowly forming a glowing red aureole.

That's right, she thought, breathe it all in. She narrowed her eyes and most of the tension left face when the Daeo inhaled deeply. Not even the aureole bothered her as she was confident that her next attack would end the battle. "Tuh, at this point in time it doesn't matter what you do, my victory is inevitable." Jennifer's voice was stern when her eyes and hair coruscated once more as kaimei surged vigorously throughout her entire body.

——

Back inside Dwayne's head, the black figure strode straight towards the baffled Dwayne, fazed not even in the slightest by the looming emotions. "Get out of my away, tramp," he said then bumped Compassion out of the way and she stumbled back several steps. His face had phosphorescent white eyes and a mouth of similar property which formed a crooked grin.

Dwayne clenched his fists tightly, gritting his teeth as anger boiled his blood. "How dare yo-"

CLAP! The ear-piercing sound of flesh contacting flesh at high speed loudly filled the atmosphere. Dwayne even flinched at the decibels that almost made his ears bleeding. His eyes opened a second later to see Compassion's hand inches from Black's face, his head inclined toward the left.

"You slapped me?" Black questioned the obvious. His countenance was hard to read as he gently caressed his cheek. "I somehow find that uncommonly fetching," abruptly, his hollow white eyes widened until they joint to form a void of light at the centre of his face. The void began exerting an overwhelming centrifugal suction that began tearing chunks of the ground inside it.

Compassion was caught off guard and was about to be drawn in before Paranoia appeared in time to grab hold of her leg. The void widened an its strength doubled until Paranoia lost his footing and was drawn into the void.

A red figure resembling current Dwayne with caramel eyes flew from out of Apathy's entire being as if yanked by a rope. This figure was was fast enough to close the distance between it and Black within a heartbeat, catching Paranoia's lower body with a lasso of indiscernible material. With a mighty tug along with the momentum of his speed, he managed to free Paranoia who could not keep his grip on Compassion which left her at the mercy of the boundless space within the void.

A shard of pain cut agony into Dwayne's head, causing it to throb. He blinked back the nausea that threatened to empty his stomach then took a deep breath. "What just happened? Who is he?" Dwayne asked. When no answer came he looked tugged at the sleeves of the now azure being that stood where Apathy had been.

"Hmm?" was her only response as she watched the red figure with an indifferent countenance. She briefoy stared at the commotion then turned to face Dwayne, "We need to talk."

Ire bellowed in rage and rapidly launched myriad blasts of fire toward Black to make himself the subject of his attention. "Give her back you asshole!"

The blasts of fire were simply drawn into the void along with more chunks of the ground. Black didn't even bother to give any form of response except for strengthening the suction. As soon as it had strengthened, the suction ceased. The cackle of static, the smell of ionized air and Black's surprised grunt all culminated within a split second. Immobilized by the current coursing through his entire nervous system, he was assailable.

"Now die at the receiving end of my Deific Impaler," Red declared whilst he descended upon Black with a long drill tipped spear-like appendage of stone that enveloped his entire left arm. The apex entered Black's mouth and Red pushed down with all his might, impaling the throat of his foe and pinning him to the ground with it as it protruded out onto the other side. His unduly caramel gaze met that of the orange figure that stood a few feet from him, "Thanks, kid."

Gaiety gave a nervous nod but was satisfied for Red's gratitude. His mouth stretched into a toothy grin and he held a thumbs up. "Anytime!"

Ire picked up Melancholy and they both broke into fits of giddy laughter. Paranoia joined them together with a meaty hug.

"Woah!" Dwayne's eyes lit up with puerile elation and awe at the sight he had just witnessed. Without thinking, he wrapped the azure figure into an embrace. Her skin was so cold that it forced him to let go.

Nobody noticed until it was too late: lengthy black vectors that snaked up Red's entire arm and forced open his mouth, then with a loud slurping sound, Black was gone. Flashes of bloodstained memories, screams and murderous intent flooded Red's mind causing him to clutch and pull at his burgundy locks. He groaned in excruciating agony as two horns sprouted from his temples. The entire ambience changed, as if time itself were holding it's breath. As if he were mindless, Red glared directly at Dwayne, his body shaking with maniac laughter.