Terror on Zendikar

Two is Better than One (usually)

Munda silenced the group. Jace and Gideon were among the party. The Eldrazi advancement had been mostly Scions, with a few Skimmers. Jace saw it before anyone else. In his mind, he saw a vision. Running over a hill was a group of elves, one of which Jace knew as a fellow planeswalker. Not far behind them were two towering monstrosities of Eldrazi. The two were huge, but not titans. Both  were definitely part of Ulamog's brood, distinguished by the trademark bone-like structures that Ulamog's spawn always had. Jace alerted the group of the small band of elves and the beings pursuing them. Munda gave orders. "You men to a vantage point." He pointed from group to group giving specific orders. Jace began constructing an illusion to distract the alien creatures and told Munda to get a rescue group to gather the elves. Jori En contacted Jace through telepathy. Most merfolk scholars like herself know telepathy. "Jace, those beings are the Twins. Although not titans, the Twins always attack together. Cooperation is their style. If one is readying and attack, the other is already swinging. Take one out and both fall." Jace muttered a "Thanks" to the scholar and continued with the illusion. 

High above, Nissa saw the manta ray getting closer to the Twins. She immediately knew what was happening. "Get to the group of men on the other side of this hill," she yelled. Knowing that the mind mage Jace was here gave Nissa some comfort.  She again summoned the Awoken World to help distract the Twins while she and the others ran for safety. Leaping over the hill, she saw a small army of Allies and recognized the blue robe of Jace. She also recognized the Akroan armor of Gideon Jura, and felt even more relieved. Behind her, the Twins rambled closer, the ground under them turning to bone and marrow. The Skimmer they had killed had strayed from the pack of Scions that attacked the Allies, and helped lead the Twins to the search party. Rolen had shouted to run before one of the Twins slammed Rolen into the ground with one of its huge tentacles. Rolen was immediately turned to dust. The party ran without looking back and were lucky that the Allies had been not to far from Bala Ged. Nissa realized that she had made it to Jace and the Allies and turned around ready to fight. The Twins, still preoccupied with the illusory manta and Ashaya, had been distracted long enough for the rest of the party to get to safety. At the base of the two behemoths, Spawn and Scions were beginning to rise from the bony waste left behind. "Ready for some fun!" Gideon had moved up to speak with the elf and mind mage. "As ready as I'll ever be." Nissa's reply was flat. The two began running as Jace conjured more illusions to distract the new Spawn. 

Around the two walkers were a multitude of the Spawn the Twins had attracted. Gideon swung his sural while Nissa raised her staff. Spawn after Spawn, Scion after Scion, the two made their way towards the Twins. Jace rejoined them by teleporting. The three looked up. The Twins stood tall, around 50 stories of pure desolation. The bones, flesh, and tentacles of Ulamog's brood stank of putrid wasteland. The walkers jumped up the first of the two, slashing and hitting on the way up. Jace began using his mind magic to manipulate the Eldrazi, causing the thing to sway. Nissa engulfed it in vines, thick with thorns and poisons. Gideon hacked away with his sural. The being swayed before the three walkers were airborne. The other Twin had struck its brother in order to save him. "Jekyll is a madman." Gideon and Jace both looked at Nissa with inquiring faces. "What? I decided to name 'em to make it easier to distinguish the two. That one's Jekyll, and this one is Hyde." "Whatever!" Gideon shouted as they made their way back up. Realizing that the walkers were struggling, Munda called all of the Allies forth to shoot at the gargantuan beasts. 

From out of nowhere, the Twin opposite the walkers, Jekyll as Nissa called it, burst into flames as a phoenix flew through the thing's rib cage. Then, a loud voice seeming to come from in the phoenix. "The cavalry is here. Didja miss me boys!?" Inside the phoenix was a pyromancer known as Chandra Nalaar. Gideon shouted back, "Good to see ya. We were just about to take these suckers out." Then, a large crack as Jekyll hit the ground below. As soon as Jekyll hit the deck, Hyde was on his way to join his brother. Once the Twins were on the ground, a resounding cheer came from the Allies. "Hey guys!" Chandra's cheery voice echoed as she flew down to the others. "Didja miss me?" Chandra was a planeswalker who always tried to see the lighter side of everything, often the jokester of the group. But when she got angry, and that happened a lot, you wouldn't want to know her. "What's up?" Nissa asked, while calling off the vines she had brought up. Chandra responded at lightning speed like she had just had cofee. "Well, I was in the area and heard some fighting. So I thought to myself, better go find out what's up. I called up Fawkes here, flew a few minutes before I saw these two." At this, she gestured to Jekyll and Hyde. "I told Fawkes to slow down so I could think for a minute. I had two choices, either come fight these things and risk death, or head back to Valakut. I told Fawkes to keep going because this looked like more fun. And...there's the bonus of finding you guys here. Speaking of, why are you all here?" Jace stood in silence, his face in his hand. Gideon stood in amazement of how fast the pyromancer had just spoken, half of the words uninterpreted by him. Nissa just nodded. Munda appeared behind Jace. "Friend of yours?" he asked in his commanding voice. "Unfortunately." Jace's response was close to a tone of something rehearsed. "So what're we doin' next guys?" Chandra asked. "I'm ready for whatever, and seein' as how you're all here, let's go have some fun." Jace simply held his face again. Gideon responded, "Well, looks like we have another helper. Nice of you to join us Chandra." The group, along with the elves and the Allies, headed back to the encampment for the night.

                                                                                      *    *    *

The demon lord stared thoughtfully at a group of Spawn and Scions frozen in place. They were of Kozilek's brood, as the trademark crystalline structures of Kozilek were ubiquitous in the area. As of this moment, Ulamog was the only one of the three titans that was awake and wreaking havoc. Kozilek and Emrakul were still imprisoned. "I must be getting close," the demon lord said with a newly found smile on his face. He had plans, and those plans would ultimately lead to a destruction of lives.