Author's Note: At last, the chapter all you action junkies have been waiting for. The first real fight between our superpowered boys takes place at last. I'd like to give a big thanks to shinigamiinochi for helping out with my OC dilemma and another thanks to Nebelkind for trying to help as well. I still wait for the OC you're working on. However, I am still in the market for more OCs so if any of you care to help me out, please don't hesitate. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence

Brain vs. Brawn

Never before had Kid Duo ever seen his idol, the one person that he admired and looked up to, look so fierce as he did in the instant he cracked his knuckles. Even from where he stood, Solo's green eyes flashed to their ominous amber and Duo gulped nervously.

He almost felt sorry for that other boy, what's his name, Isley! Really, he did.

However, as Solo began to tense in preparation of a fight, Duo tried calling to his other, the one he could always depend on to handle scary situations like this. Much to his dismay, his other was…sleeping…at least, that's what it felt like.

If he was scared before, now he was terrified. Always, whenever he had needed the other him, he was there, ready to take over. Now, however, he just couldn't be bothered.

Solo launched himself straight at Isley, a fist cocked back and eager to hit the other boy brutally. In the next second, Solo was suddenly flying off into a different direction, straight into one of the buildings on either side of the road. Duo winced. Even he could have told Solo that running at Isley wasn't the best strategy.

"Pathetic," Isley stated, unknowingly agreeing with Duo's own thought.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Solo did not coming raging out of the building like Duo thought he would. Even Isley was frowning as a look of concentration came upon his face, trying to determine where Solo was and what he was up to by locating his source of thought.

Eyes widening suddenly, the street beneath Isley's feet fractured and crumbled, the surprised boy falling into the resulting hole. A few seconds later, Duo could have sworn he heard a loud smacking sound followed by Isley's body shooting out of the hole and landing a ways down the street, bouncing on the pavement like a rag doll. Jumping out of the hole was none other than Solo, a shit-eating grin splitting his face.

"How's that for pathetic?" the amber-eyed blond taunted.

From the distance, Duo could see Isley's head snap up, soon followed by the sudden explosion of earth caused by the telekinetic shockwave shot at them, the street rupturing like a wave was passing through it. Calling upon what knowledge he had of his own powers, Duo created a barrier of frozen time to meet the psychic shockwave, not only succeeding in stopping the attack dead in its tracks but also capturing the raw mental energy within it.

He heard Solo let out a breath of relief at the unexpected aid. From where he was, Isley was staring in shock, unbelieving that his own attack had been stopped. With the force of his will backing him, Duo used his barrier offensively, sending it straight at their attacker. Since Isley couldn't see time like a car or a building, he was thus defenseless as frozen time collided with him, bringing with it his frozen psychic shockwave. Needless to say, the telekine—whatever he was took not only the brunt of Duo's attack but his own as well.

Solo whistled. "Good move, Kid."

Duo found himself blushing at the praise.

---

Pushing himself up from here he landed after that last blow, Isley found himself truly furious, not only at the two rogues but at everything. He was not built for this type of combat nor was he able to take on this much physical damage without being severely crippled by it.

He was going to have to turn the tables and do so quickly. He couldn't let this conquer him so easily. Maybe he should show those two what he could really do…

Scanning his eyes at his surroundings, he read up local advertisements, the names of stores, even license plates on cars that had yet to become casualties of this fight. As these knew bits of knowledge entered his brain, he could feel with a shiver going down his spine that his power was not only recovering but growing. Closing his eyes, he began to focus his power into a single point in his body so that when he unleashed it, the amount of power that would be at his beck and call would be equivalent to that of a nuclear bomb.

When his eyes snapped open once more, they were no longer their plain brown but ice cold blue.

---

"I don't think he's getting' up," Solo commented, his eyes squinted and his hand acting like a visor where it was perched on his forehead. "Whatever ya did, it really did something ta him."

Duo only nodded, unsure. The braided boy wasn't as sure as Solo was when it came to fighting so his confidence wasn't exactly high.

When the two nearest lamp poles uprooted their selves from the sidewalk, being held up over the ground by an invisible force, Duo knew that his suspicions of this fight not being over were confirmed. But that wasn't the worst, oh no. Isley also returned, hovering in the air as little blue bolts of electricity surrounded him like an aura. The severe expression on Isley's face was not reassuring, not one bit.

Quickly, Solo raised his fists back up, ready to rumble and Duo focused on controlling his powers while crying out internally for his unresponsive other.

"Are you afraid?" Isley's quiet voice asked ominously. "You should be. You have no idea of what I'm about to do to you."

"Why don't ya just shut your trap already?" Solo challenged.

Isley's blue eyes snapped to Solo and suddenly, the blond's body began to tremble, even as his hands rushed back to cling to his head in agony. When those eyes snapped over to Duo, the braided boy soon learned what it was that Solo was experiencing as immense pain throbbed in his brain, tearing apart all his mental capacities into shreds. The pain was taking over all of his senses, keeping him from even thinking a thought. Like Solo before him, Duo's hands clutched at his head but unlike the blond, Duo crumpled down to his knees, curling into the fetal position in a desperate attempt to relieve himself of the pain.

Solo was still on his feet and even though the intensity of the mental pain Isley had projected into his mind had diminished a bit, it was still powerful enough to keep him from rushing the prick. Seeing Duo collapse as he did was just another spark in the bonfire that was raging inside him but he…just…couldn't…do something…

Then he was hit by something solid; one of the floating lamp posts to be precise.

"Home run!" Isley crowed as the blond crashed through building after building until he bounced upon the pavement of another street, finally stopping after skidding straight into a moving car.

Metal crumpled behind him and the fine particles that were once part of the car windows and windshield erupted out into the street. Despite all this, the only pain Solo felt was in his head; his body just felt maybe a little numb-like but there wasn't a scratch or bruise on his skin from all that.

He pushed himself away from the twisted remains of what used to be a police car. For a second, he wondered if the guy still driving it was still alive before his old street habit of "fuck the cops" came back and he discarded that concern instantly.

"Wow, you're still moving."

Looking up with a scowl, he saw Isley floating there and behind him, floating as well but still curled up in the fetal position, was Duo. The blond narrowed his eyes.

"It's gonna take more than that ta hurt me," he declared heatedly.

"Is that so?" Isley said airily, a malevolent smirk growing on his face. "How about we see exactly how much you can take?"

"Gladly!" Solo snarled as he grabbed the ruin car behind him and threw it at the other boy, not caring about the injured driver still inside.

---

Downtown had never looked this rundown in ages. Yet the destruction that Dorothy encountered as she arrived at the scene struck her with fear. She could see people that she had known all her life lying on the broken up road, bleeding and crying out in pain.

It was a horror she had never imagined in her wildest dreams.

Boulder was a small town in the middle of nowhere and because of that there wasn't enough medical attention that could be given in a scenario like this. There was only one doctor in the whole town and three nurses at the most. There was also the police who were there trying to maintain some semblance of order even though they were completely out of their league.

Dorothy had always wished for something exciting to happen, whether to her or to this town, but this was just too much. What could have caused all this?

"Dorothy, I need you to move for me," she heard an authoritative voice say to her, a voice that she had heard all her life since childhood but now it seemed so far away, so surreal as she continued to stare at the nightmarish scene before her. "Dorothy, snap out of it girl! Dorothy!"

Jumping slightly, she found herself back in control of her body, the chief of police himself in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, his face showing concern. "What were you saying?" she asked as she cleared her muddled mind.

"I need for you to get away from here," the man instructed, no humor anywhere in his voice.

"What caused all this?" she demanded, gesturing to the horrors before her.

"I don't know myself," the officer replied. "I keep hearing about three boys doing impossible things. All I know is that these boys, if that is what they are, are on another street or something. Now please Dorothy, go on home and lock yourself up there. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir," she answered and turned away to leave. Glancing back, she saw the chief of police had shifted his attention elsewhere. Taking the opportunity, she began to dart to a side street that led nowhere near her home. However, that was when she was intercepted by Relena and Heero.

"Dorothy? What happened here?" she heard her best friend ask her, her face unnaturally pale. Relena's face had a look as if she had recently vomited.

"I don't really know," Dorothy told her. "I heard that some boys are responsible for this."

"Who were they?" Heero demanded, his hands balled up into fists.

"That's what I'm going to find out," Dorothy said. "You want to come?"

She only stayed long enough to see Heero nod at her and she was off. She didn't have to look back to see that not only was Heero following her but Relena as well.

---

It hurt even to think, Duo found, and he remained curled up into a ball, hoping to somehow ignore the pain, as if that would do him any good. He couldn't feel the street against him, on any side, but his head hurt him too much that he didn't bother to figure out what was going on.

He could hear the grunts from Solo as his only friend fought with this horrible boy named Isley. He could hear things ripping apart, things being crushed, things being broken, but he didn't pay any of that any mind. Sure the pain in his head had dulled somewhat but it wasn't like he experienced psychic attacks every day.

He could only hope that Solo could put a stop to this so that the pain would stop, that is, if it could be stopped.

---

The sounds that Duo heard around his mental pain were not far off from the truth. It seemed that everything was tearing itself apart with the intent of trying to tear Solo to shreds. Sidewalks erupted into a haze of rubble that was thrown at the blond soon followed by pieces of surrounding cars that had managed up to this point to survive only to be torn apart and thrown at the long-haired teen.

And all this was being done with the power of Isley's brain. Go figure.

But if there was one thing that Isley was, it was definitely smart as he soon realized that small projectiles would not work against Solo. Much to Solo's dread, the nearby buildings began to rip to pieces, those pieces were much bigger than Solo himself. Now how would he survive this attack? Well, he'd have to settle for something simple. Every time a chuck of building got too close to him, he'd punch it and shatter it into smaller piece with Isley would discard, deeming them unnecessary.

The only objects that didn't shatter into unusable pieces were the mostly intact cars which would only fly away a short distance, dents in their metal exteriors being the only sign of damage, before Isley regained control of it and sent it right back at him. When batting away one automobile, the vehicle didn't go too far as it smashed into a building that was oddly modern in town that had that old feel to it. What did that mean? Well, there was an amazing explosion of glass if you were wondering and each and every jagged shard of glass was caught by the power of Isley's mind.

Well, shit.

Slamming his foot onto a specific point in the street, Solo caught the flipping manhole cover and used it as a shield to defend himself from the barrage of glass shards that Isley through at him. It wasn't as if he was afraid they would hurt him or cut his skin; it was more like he wanted to protect his hair. Like hell he would risk letting it get cut up by something like glass.

"C'mon Solo, is that all?" Isley drawled as soon as the glass shards stopped hitting his makeshift shield. "I'm getting bored here just watching you."

"Maybe if ya let me hit ya then ya wouldn't be so bored," Solo snapped, glaring at the other boy over the manhole cover.

"Why would I do that?" Isley countered.

"Maybe because you're acting like a pussy and using your mind powers all the time," Solo retorted and threw the manhole cover at Isley like a Frisbee. Yawning exaggeratedly, Isley didn't even bother to raise a hand up as he swatted the cover away with his mental powers.

Growling, Solo kneeled down and stabbed his fingers into the street, forcibly pulling two chucks of the road off the ground to use as projectiles against the telekinetic. There too were also deflected and this time Isley really did yawn.

"Is that all you have left?" the boy demanded.

Clenching his fists, Solo just settled on glaring at the boy.

That was all the blond would be able to do as Isley held his hands out in front of him, focusing the blue blots of mental energy that was surrounding him until there was a violet, shining orb concentrated between the hands. Grinning wickedly, Isley fired a violet blast at Solo, the blond jumping out of the way in the nick of time. From the way the street trembled beneath him, Solo supposed that it had been a good idea to move. Unfortunately, he was a bit too caught up in his thoughts as another violet blast was shot at him, impacting him directly in his chest. However, there was no explosion; the invincible blond finding himself being held up in the air as his body was surrounded by the violet energy.

The energy held him in midair for only a second before it slammed him into the nearest building only to stop him short with some invisible barrier most likely formed through Isley's mental powers, the force still holding immediately sending him into another direction without a second's respite. His body was tossed through the air like a rag doll over and over again and always flinging him in a random direction, sometimes actually hitting one of the buildings, sometimes the street, other times just the same force that was holding him up. In no short time he began to think he was a baseball from the way he was being thrown about. Why did he think this? Well, maybe that had to do when the pressure the invisible force lightened slightly but then crashed into him harshly. He barely felt his body breaking through yet another wall nor did he feel his body ricochet off the polished wooden floor that was no longer clean and shiny. In fact, the one thing that clued him in that he was indoors was the fact that he was slowly sliding down a brick wall, gravity taking its sweet time dragging him back down to the floor.

Blinking dazedly, he noticed that the hole he had made in the front of the building practically encompassed the entire wall. From this enormous entrance, he watched as Isley entered the building, a smug smile on his face. Duo's small body was still hovering over the floor due to Isley's mind keeping him afloat but as soon as the tall boy got into a respectable distance from Solo, he tossed Duo's small form into an undamaged wall carelessly.

"Are you ready to give up yet?" the boy taunted.

In answer, Solo only spat at him, surprised that there wasn't any blood in his spittle. His face contorting into a furious scowl, Isley forced his powers into Solo's mind, causing untold agony in the blond's head. The whole world was becoming distorted; because of the pain he couldn't tell which way was up and which was down, whether or not he was propped up against a wall or the ceiling, if he was feeling anything at all other than the pain. He was taking long, loud gasps of air when Isley decided to let up on the incredible mental pressure but he still kept Solo's mind under his mental thumb.

"Had enough yet?" Isley inquired, speaking as if he was talking about the weather.

Solo only answered with a groan of pain.

Smirking, Isley said, "I think you have had enough. Time to be getting back home."

"W-wait," Solo managed to croak out despite the fog of pain that clouded his mind. Through the quagmire, he managed to latch onto a thought, one that he desperately did his best to hide from the telekinetic telepath. "C-can't I have a last w-word?"

"Always having to get the last word, eh?" Isley commented with a chuckle. "I guess I can grant you that."

Mustering the strength still left in his body, Solo managed to wheeze out…something. Isley frowned and demanded that he repeat himself. Feeling the agonizing hold on his mind lighten as Isley's instinctual curiosity got the better of him, Solo managed to say a little louder what he wanted to say.

"Jeepers…creepers…where'd ya get those…peepers…"

"What?" Isley frowned, staring at Solo as if he lost his mind.

Continuing heedlessly, "Jeepers…creepers…where'd ya get those eyes?"

Isley's patience was running thin by this point. Solo had to have lost his mind. What he was babbling about was utter nonsense! Maybe he shouldn't have gone so hard on him…

Suddenly, he felt a stab of…something pierce through his thin body. Air! He couldn't get enough air in his body… What was…happening to him?

Telepathically, he scanned the room, trying to find the source of this attack when his mind encountered a void, one that held only death in it and it was focused solely on him.

That was the last he saw in his mind's eye as his whole world exploded into nothing but dust.

---

Just like that, all the mental pressure was gone. Solo found that he could breath easier now and he took a long breath of air…

…only to start hacking up a storm as he got a lungful of dust.

However, he wasn't the only one suffering as there was another source of coughing. It seemed even in death Isley was trying to hurt him somehow but as the dust cloud that was once a living person began to settle and clear away, Duo became visible to Solo's eye, the braided one still coughing.

It was with a sense of relief when he saw Duo's crimson red eyes bore into him, even thought the face they accompanied was anything but comforting.

"Solo," Reaper Duo began ominously, "what the fuck is going on here?!"