A variable attack is an attack when two characters are doing a supermove at the same time.
You can do it by pressing down foward hardpunch+hard kick at level 2 to do an automatic one.
The other way you can do it is by press down back hard punch+hard kick but your gonna have to do the supers your self and your gonna have to be at level 3
What happens is that both of your players perform a supermove that does twice the amout of damage