Author's Note: Here it is at last, the first major fight of Progeny. The action resumes, the fights should be more intense than in Project but I'm not quite holding my breath on that until I get some response from these. Remember, if you're looking for a story that has a lot of gushy romance, go look someplace else or rent a chick flick. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.
Warning: language, violence
Duel for your Life
"What is this?" Father Maxwell asked aloud, staring at the five strangers that had gathered before his church.
"It's something you shouldn't be concerned about," Solo said evenly, his hands clenching into fists. "Get away from here, as fast as ya can. Me an' Duo will handle this."
Observing the blond's rigid form, the priest shook his and replied, "There's no need for there to be violence, child."
"Try tellin' that ta them," Solo retorted, his green-amber eyes focused steadfastly on the other boys. Raising his voice loudly, he shouted, "Duo! Get yer scrawny ass over here! We got company!"
"You don't really have much vocabulary, do you?" the Chinese boy asked.
"Yeah, and you got no sense of sanctity," Solo retorted.
His face creasing in a scowl, the Chinese youth replied, "How dare—"
However, Solo interrupted him. "This is a church, for Christ's sake! Ya want ta be responsible for blowin' this place ta shreds? Why don't ya ask your buddy over there what happened ta da other places we fought at." With a finger extended, he pointed straight towards Jason who didn't look ashamed at the accusation. Wufei, though, did look over at his compatriot, a look of contemplation on his face as he mulled over Solo's words. By then, Duo had arrived, his innocent side at least, but he was glaring at the other boys nonetheless.
"Very well," the Chinese boy said aloud. "We'll move to another location but we will duel, understand?"
"Crystal," Solo growled, his eyes fully amber.
"What?!" the short, fat youth suddenly exclaimed, looking at his Asian leader incredulously. "Who gives a fuck about this place? Why can't—"
"Shut it, tubby, you heard da man," Solo interrupted.
"Can't you use words to solve this?" Father Maxwell suddenly spoke up. "There's no need to fight to resolve your dispute, whatever it is that it may be."
"This doesn't concern you, old man," the Chinese boy replied. "This matter is beyond you."
"Don't you talk ta him like that!" Duo shouted at him. "Father Maxwell is a smart man! He's smarter than you!"
"I won't contest that with you," the Chinese boy said, "but this does not concern him at all. This is just between you two and us five."
"And me," Trowa spoke up, coming up from behind Solo and Duo, his hands clenched into fists as well.
"You also have no place in this," the Chinese boy retorted, scowling at Trowa.
"Don't judge a book by its cover," Trowa replied neutrally.
"If he wants to get killed, let him," Jason spoke up. "We're wasting time here; we just need to bring back those two and if that guy doesn't know how to mind his own damn business then let him learn the hard way."
"There is really no need for any of this," Father Maxwell said. "Why don't we all go inside and discuss this, rationally."
"Sorry, old man, but orders are orders," Jason shrugged.
"Then would you settle for somebody else?"
Stepping from behind the three boys and priest came James Maxwell, the man leaving his sanctuary for the first time in years as he step towards the other five boys.
"And who would you be?" the fat boy sneered.
"I'm guessing all of you are just like Solo, Duo, and Trowa over there," James began, "so allow me to tell you that I am the man who is responsible for everybody being where they are right now. I am the man who is responsible for giving you, all of you, the special powers that you undoubtedly possess as we speak."
"Are you high or something?" Jason retorted.
"Does being strapped down to a cold metal table sound familiar?" James spoke up, his voice uncharacteristically severe. "Do little needles and tubes injecting you with some strange liquid all the while probes stuck on your body shock you with full doses of unfiltered electricity ring any bells?" At his words, the five strange boys stared at him in shock. "Take me instead and leave them," James proposed. "Xavien would be more than happy to get his hands on me."
"Our orders were to retrieve two escapees, not you," the Chinese boy said firmly, getting over his shock quickly. "We have no business with you, so stand aside."
"I made that mistake years ago and look at what's happened," James replied, not backing down. "How many people, other that yourselves, have died on that table? Do you really think Xavien values any of you? At all? The moment he believes you are 'defective,' he will kill you and not give a shit about it. To him, you all are just things, weapons of war to be used and nothing more."
Silence reigned for a minute as the boys pressed their lips together, taking in James' words. Jason, out of all the others, seemed especially effected, his eyes betraying some thought or memory he had. However, the Chinese boy gathered his wits back together.
"I am honor bound to do what I was ordered to do," he stated. "There is no choice in this for me."
As James was about to protest, Solo came up from behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Just let it go," he said. "There ain't nothing that's gonna stop this from happenin'. Ya gave it your best shot. Now it's our turn."
"But…" James protested.
"No buts," Solo said. "Go back inside with Father Maxwell. We'll handle this."
Stepping ahead of the man, Duo and Trowa following after him, he said, "Let's do this thing."
Without a word, the Chinese boy only nodded and looked over at Jason. The troubled look on the other's face vanished and he summoned up the wind around them, engulfing all those who held power around here and taking them all away in a small tornado.
---
They were carried by the strong winds until they deposited onto a large barren plain in the middle of the American Southwest. Slight mountains could be seen off in the distance but other than the clear blue skies, there was nothing much to comment about the choice of battleground.
"I hope this place is up to your accommodations," the Chinese guy commented, not a hair out of place as he looked down on Solo.
"It'll do," Solo replied, cracking his knuckles. "Let's get this over with. It's almost lunch time so put up your dukes, Chinaman."
"The name to you is Chang Wufei," Wufei retorted, taking only a step forward towards the blond and stopping right there. "Since you're so impatient, come at me then."
"With pleasure," Solo said, starting a charge at Wufei with a fist cocked and eager to meet gut.
Eyes widening slightly, traces of red streaking quietly in the dark orbs, Wufei remained standing where he was, allowing Solo to close in and swing his first punch which was promptly dodged with ease. With the blond mere inches from him, he thrusted a hand out, the fingers and thumbs pressed tightly together, palm completely flat. The hand struck Solo on his left shoulder, a coolness consuming that part of the blond and actually feeling good against the heat of the desert in midday. Continuing to move as if unaffected, Solo threw another punch at the Chinese boy, his waist twisting to accomplish such a blow only for that to be dodged as Wufei ducked it, moving to a side. Wufei's other hand shot out, identical to his other hand, striking Solo's right side, sweltering heat pouring into that part of the blond's body. Wufei brought both of his hands back only to thrust them gracefully out again and again, alternating between the feelings of coolness and the heat as he dodged Solo's more wild blows. The feelings of hot and cold began to overwhelm the blond until he found himself tripping over himself and leaving himself open to another attack.
"Pathetic," Wufei spat as he brought a boot up into Solo's face, forcing the invulnerable titan down into the ground. "That wasn't even half of my strength."
Slowly lifting his head up, his face covered with gritty sand, Solo struggled with the sensations of dizziness and distortion, shaking his head harshly to accomplish that. Ok, that may not have been the best decision to charge that guy, especially since he had no idea of what he could do in the first place. Without warning, he felt something spasm in his stomach and the next thing he knew, he was barfing up that morning's breakfast onto the desert dirt. Holy crap, why was he so dizzy? Being heated up and cooled down so randomly was taking a toll on him already and he hadn't even landed a punch yet…
"Disgusting," Wufei sneered, raising another flattened palm. As the hand began to descend, Solo, still on his knees, bunched his leg muscles and shot away, the shot of pure cold missing him as he ran away from the Chinese boy. Surprised, Wufei shouted after him, "Coward! Where do you think you're going?!"
Solo was wondering that same thing. "What da hell am I runnin' for?" he muttered angrily to himself as he changed his course, his path curving back towards Wufei. Smirking, Wufei shot his hands out and brought them back one at a time, shots of cold and blasts of heat racing towards the blond and missing him. Keeping an eye on Wufei, Solo circled around him, Wufei's attacks missing him by inches as each one sent small clumps of earth into the air as they impacted the ground. Moving closer and closer to Wufei, Solo constantly altered his circular course, his running taking on spiral qualities. Figuring this out, Wufei stopped what he was doing and leapt at the blond to engage in more hand-to-hand fighting.
And Solo couldn't have been more happier at that as Wufei was now within arms length and begging to be pulverized. Swinging a fist out, Wufei ducked Solo's blow and sliced a chop into his ribs only for Solo to be unaffected by it. Not willing to let Wufei slip away, Solo bent his extended arm and brought his elbow down onto the head of black hair. Wufei's head shot down to the ground, his body following after, slamming into the unforgiving only to bounce up before falling back down to the ground again.
"How ya like that!" Solo crowed before taking on a more sinister mindset, his hands reaching down to grab onto Wufei and deliver more punishment.
---
Duo knew that the moment Solo and the Chinese guy started talking, a fight was inevitable. Who could blame him if he just tuned it all out? Then again, the Reaper side of him had taken over during their little flight in the whirlwind and had just stood there, bored out of his mind the entire time as if he was unimpressed.
Moving a crimson eye to glance over at Jason, the very guy who had moved them over here. He remembered him from Boulder, that was for sure, and it was a bit surprising to see the guy still around, or more importantly alive. How this guy had lasted as long as he did, the time wielder had no clue but just like that, he decided it was time to deal with Jason once and for all.
Bending over to pick up a small rock, he looked over at the Wind Master boredly and transported the rock through a passage of time so that it was just above Jason's head. Letting it go, he watched as rock and skull connected and Jason look around, searching for the culprit with a pissed off look. Duo tilted his head, motioning for them to leave to have a more "personal" talk just as the braided one noticed Solo charging at Wufei.
The wind picked up around the two and carried them away somewhat, placing both of them down gently and thus the two enemies stood, face to face.
"I noticed you have a bad habit of always popping up," Duo said casually, hands in his borrowed pockets as he eyed Jason with half-lidded eyes. "What gives? Too scared to actually fight?"
"Unlike all the others, I actually study who I am going to fight before engaging in battle," Jason replied smoothly, not in the least put off by Duo's comments. "In my opinion, knowing how your opponent fights is better than just going in blindly, just like how Solo is finding out the hard way over there."
Duo glanced over at his friend just in time to see him eat dirt. Shrugging, he said, "That's just how he is."
"I noticed," Jason drawled. "Why don't we skip the chitchat and get down to it? I haven't gotten my shot at either of you yet and I'm itching to see what you can do."
Smirking, he replied, "As you wish."
Throughout the small talk, Duo had built a wall of frozen time and with only the twitching of an eye, he blasted the wall straight at Jason, getting a direct hit on the other which sent him flying through the air. Caught off guard at first, Jason gathered his wits quickly and stopped himself in midair.
"Foul!" Jason cried.
"Oh really?" Duo snarked back.
"Really," Jason growled as he gathered the wind around him to form two large, transparent hands, the same ones that had torn a Ferris wheel off its hinges and had used it as a projectile. Those very hands now stretched out and extended towards Duo before clapping together. Duo raised up two walls of frozen time up to intercept the hands just as they were coming in. Duo gritted his teeth together as he managed to hold his walls up against the tremendous force that had almost slammed against him on both sides, which would have been a bad thing in the braided one's book.
The hands didn't stay there for long as they pulled back only to go for a different approach. One hand slammed against the ground in front of Duo, sending large amounts of dirt and sand to cloud his vision. Closing his eyelids to protect his eyes, he wasn't aware of the other hand coming down on him from above and like Solo before him, it was his turn to eat dirt as hundreds of pounds of air crushed him against the earth.
Dipping into his well of power, Duo warped the time around him just as he had done with the rock he had dropped on Jason's head earlier and transported himself out of there as he felt all the air in his lungs leave him. Jason, though, wasn't about to let him get away just so quickly. Seeing him warp away, Jason gathered the wind and blasted it out around him like a wave, the wind-wave slamming into Duo, who had reappeared to his right, and nearly crushing him under its force.
As he got back to his feet, he growled, "A little pressure," to himself as he extended tendrils of time to grab and tear out chunks of desert. Unlike previous times where he would whittle them down to become sharp objects, he threw the raw objects themselves at Jason who sent a gale of wind to intercept them and throw them back. Duo held through as an unlimited amount of wind pushed back against him, not allowing his chunks of landscape to move an inch. Growling in frustration at not being able to gain an upper hand, Duo blasted a tendril of time through the ground straight at Jason and causing the ground beneath him to buckle and loose his concentration. Putting all the power he could afford, he shoved the pieces of landscape at the other teen but Jason quickly retaliated as he sent another gust of wind that tore the chunks of earth into pieces, forming a small ball of skin-ripping wind to shield him against any debris that fell towards him.
Letting go of his power, Duo stomped his foot into the dirt childishly, not caring at all how it made him look.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Jason chuckled as he released his wind. "I watched you fight Dustin and Justin back in that little town. I know how you fight so you're just going to have to come up with something better if you want to get out of this, kiddo."
"And you are starting to piss me off!" Duo barked back at Jason.
"Ooh, like that's suppose to scare me!" Jason taunted, holding his hands up and shaking them mockingly.
"It should," Duo growled menacingly. "I'm going to turn each of your body parts into dust one at a time and make you watch as the blood flows into your missing limbs! You fucked with the wrong guy!" His hands assuming the position of fingers and thumbs pressed together, Duo created his invisible time "knives," the concentrated time distorting the space caught within them. Creating his nearly copyright conveyer belt of speeding time, Duo rushed himself at Jason, his eyes consumed with a crimson light.
As Duo began his rush, Jason took a page out of Duo's book and formed windy blades of air around his hands and crossed them in front of himself just in time to catch Duo's first time knife, twisting his body aside and barely missing the other knife as it thrust at him, aimed at his gut. Acting before Duo could pull back, Jason increased the speed of the wind that made up his own knives and began pulling the air around both of them into the blades. The pressure of rushing wind caused long cuts to open over the unclothed parts of Duo's body, the braided one using a barrier of time to force both of them away from one another.
Vanquishing one of his time knives, Duo pressed a finger up against a recently opened cut, pulling the finger away to look at the drop of blood that had stuck to it and watched it slowly trail down the length of said finger. Slowly, his eyes lifted up to stare back at Jason, a dark fury slowly gathering within those crimson irises until the braided one's temper finally exploded.
"Die," he hissed as he warped himself within a few feet in front of Jason, striking out a time knife at him which Jason blocked with a wind blade. Time and wind clashed but that was soon forgotten as Duo snaked out his other time knife and Jason adjusted his other blade parry the incoming blow. Duo then shoved Jason's other wind blade away and slashed at Jason's torso only for Jason to barely block it in time before it could slice through his uniform.
Taking the initiative, Jason pushed Duo away and sliced a wind blade downward which Duo spun out of the way of, swinging a time knife through the air to be stopped by the other wind blade slicing upwards to intercept. Eyeing this from the corner of his eye, Duo shook his head in an odd manner which sent his braid snaking through the air to smack Jason right in the face. Caught off guard, Jason was slightly stunned at such a blow which Duo took advantage of to try and slice Jason's head off. Fortunately for him, Jason had quick reflexes and ducked just in time, Duo's time knife only slicing off the tops of a few hairs as he knelt on the ground.
Duo growled as he slashed his other time knife downwards, Jason crossing his wind blades in front of his face to catch it. As he held it back, Duo smirked wickedly as he extended his other knife and sliced it from a side, applying steady pressure with his other knife to prevent Jason from shoving him back.
Seeing his demise coming, Jason let loose and released an explosion of wind that covered both of them and reached upward towards the sky, forming a twister.
---
Trowa rolled his eyes as he heard Solo say, "It's almost lunch time so put up your dukes, Chinaman." It figured that his blond companion would say something like that but it wasn't as if he minded it. It was refreshing some times to hear such things like chatter; it really lightened up bleak situations like these.
Glancing over at Duo, he noticed that the braided brunet was communicating silently with that wind wielder and he watched the two leave silently, leaving just him and Solo to deal with the other four. Speaking of the other four, Trowa noted that talks between Solo and the now-named Wufei were deteriorating quickly but that wasn't what was worrying the unibanged young man. It was the look of eagerness of the short, fat one as it looked like that one was ready to interfere with the impending fight.
Strolling nonchalantly over, he said, "Hey!" out to the chubby boy, capturing his attention immediately. Nodding his head to a side, he said, "You want to stay here bored or would you like to come with me and have some fun of our own?"
"An' what could your scrawny ass give me?" the fat boy demanded.
"You'd be surprised," Trowa replied enigmatically, his eyes twinkling. He glanced over at the remaining two boys, the short, scrawny one and the large, muscled one. Both of them didn't look like they would be doing anything so Trowa was going to take the risk in leaving those two alone for now. His eyes returned to the fat one just in time to see him give him a suspicious nod.
Nodding back, Trowa abruptly began walking away, the fat boy trailing after him. When Trowa judged that enough space had been put between them and the fight occurring between Solo and Wufei, he turned around to face his much shorter opponent.
"Is this good enough…" he trailed off, looking at the other expectantly.
"What are you lookin' at?" the other sneered, not understanding what the uinbanged youth wanted.
"What do you call yourself?" Trowa asked pleasantly. "I'd prefer it if I could call you by your name instead of calling you 'you' if that's alright. You may call me Trowa…" pausing, he continued, "Trowa Maxwell."
"The name's Mudball," the fat boy stated proudly, puffing his chest out.
Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Mudball, huh? Well then Mudball, let's begin."
"Yeah, let's start the massacre!" Mudball jested rudely, sneering at him.
Trowa only gave out a small smile and then called out to the plantlife around him. Immediately, roots and plants erupted from the earth around him, one being a root with an unusually sharp edge which he grabbed and pulled out. Mudball stared at him in shock for a few long minutes, trying to comprehend this. Then a cruel smile spread across his face and he said, "I guess this won't be borin' aftah all."
Extending his arm out, a large boulder blew out of the ground and into his hand, Mudball not in the least unbalanced by the incredible weight of it. Frowning, Trowa called out to the earth, hoping for a little assistance only to get a sorrowful reply that the earth wouldn't be able to help him out this time around. Mudball held more control over it and the earth had no choice but to respond to him. This fact alone would handicap his own abilities in this fight…
Well that wasn't good.
The plants screamed at him and he rolled out of the way just as Mudball's boulder landed exactly where he had just been standing. As he stepped onto the barren, desert ground, the earth itself became uneven, tripping the unibanged youth and almost sending him on a one-way trip to the ground. However, Trowa caught his balance easy and stayed afoot; he didn't spend all that time as a circus performer and didn't get anything out of it, you know. Then another shrieking scream alerted him to the fact that another boulder was flying at him and he brought his organic sword up, cutting the earthly projectile in half cleanly.
Mudball stared at that in awe for a moment before snarling and raising his arms up, the earth rumbling in response to the gesture. Pillars of rock grew rapidly from the ground, Trowa finding himself on one such pillar and fighting to keep his balance on it. Meanwhile, earth and rock began to cover Mudball's body, the fat youth's body becoming much larger until he had formed into a large ball of rock, one that began spinning in place, picking up speed right before it shot itself straight at Trowa and the multitudes of rock pillars around him.
Bending his legs, the former acrobat leapt off his perch just as the large Mudball-boulder ran into it, taking it down along with a few other of its fellows, the unibanged youth landing with only one foot on another perch. The Mudball-boulder made a U-turn, changing its trajectory so that it was coming back but Trowa didn't plan on it actually reaching him this time around. Calling on his power, a web of roots and vines erupted from the ground and wrapped around the rolling stone, stopping it in its tracks as Trowa leapt again, this time angling himself towards the boulder with his organic sword held up above his head and ready to slice.
Spikes grew out of the boulder, shooting out and ripping apart many of the roots and vines that were holding onto it. Seeing himself unable to stop before he would impale himself on said spikes, Trowa brought his sword down early and used it as a pole vault to prevent himself from becoming human Swiss cheese. Landing firmly on the ground, Trowa spun around in time to see the Mudball-boulder rip itself away from his roots and vines, the spiked boulder charging at him, threatening to make good on the promise of filling him with holes. Focusing, Trowa's eyes turn into a full brown just as an enormous tree burst out of the ground under the rolling rock and taking it up high into the sky.
Running towards the newly grown tree, Trowa jumped and grabbed onto a helpful vine that snaked down from a branch to meet him and shot himself up the tree at an amazing rate of speed. Effortlessly getting through the tree branches, which had helped him by giving him perches to leap higher, Trowa just about reached Mudball when the spiky boulder itself exploded, sending the razor sharp spikes at the plant master. Unfazed, Trowa sliced and cut to pieces any spikes that drew near but soon found out that Mudball was nowhere to be seen from the boulder's remains.
What…?
A scream from his tree alerted him to the fact that something very big and very large was heading straight towards him. He had just felt his foot leave the tree just as an enormous rock smashed into it. He was so close to the rock that it nearly scraped his face but luckily enough he had jumped just in time to avoid it. The tree, though, wasn't as lucky as it was crushed beneath the rock, its final cry nearly deafening to Trowa but something he managed to endure nonetheless.
As soon as he landed, he glared at the large rock but then noticed another rock attached to it and another one to that one. Taking it all in, he found himself standing before what looked like to be a mammoth rock monster that was easily a hundred feet high. Near the top, Trowa noticed that certain features of many different rocks drew close together to form a sneering face that belonged to a certain hillbilly Mudball.
As a steady wind blew against him and this Mudball-rock-creature, Trowa could only think one thing.
Well this can't be good.