FLAME vs. FULLMETAL REDUX

The site chosen for the duel was an open area used for military exercises and target practice. Even if the two Alchemists had a free-for-all there wasn’t too much they could destroy considering it was starting off pretty well trashed already. Edward noticed there were many places one could use as cover, which was a lot better than the last time. The open parade ground that had been the site of their last duel had no official places to hide in. Edward was liking the look of things. Having places to secret himself from Mustang’s fire blasts was a good thing.

“I might actually have a good chance,” Edward remarked to his brother as he surveyed the playing field.

Alphonse gazed around uneasily. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Edward ignored him. The two Elrics met up with Major Hawkeye and the men from their unit who were looking around trying to figure out where they could watch the duel without getting fried.

“Think you can take him?” Havoc asked.

“That old warhorse is going to get broken today!” Edward teased.

Havoc sucked on his cigarette and commented. “I hope you plan on doing more than just insulting him to death.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a physical contest for a reason Havoc,” Edward pointed out. “To lead in the state military you don’t need to be a genius. You just got to have an ego the size of the Pacific and a bigger mouth than me.”

“Everyone has a bigger mouth than you, Edward,” Havoc remarked. “Actually a bigger everything than you!”

“Fuck you, Havoc,” Edward snapped his eyes flashing. He hated all the short jokes.

“Are you ready to get your buns toasted, Fullmetal?” Mustang taunted as he arrived.

“Unlike the last time, Hot Stuff, I’m ready for you,” Edward said.

“The little man has a plan?”

Edward ignored the reference to his size and shot back, “I’m putting you out to pasture, Mustang!”

Some of the Colonel’s men snickered. They were used to the verbal duels between these two Alchemists. It was going to be interesting to see them facing off using their powers. The last time they fought it was like seeing a train wreck. Horrifying but so cool you couldn’t look away. Last time Hughes had been the one to adjudicate the battle. This time that duty fell to Major Riza Hawkeye.

Major Hawkeye stepped between the two Alchemists saying, “Okay, boys, here is the deal. There will be no damaging of government property and that includes the two of you! The first one knocked out or otherwise rendered incapable of using his Alchemy is the loser. Understood?” Both Edward and Mustang nodded and she continued, “You’ll start from opposite sides of this practice field. When I blow my whistle, come out firing.”

That suited both of them just fine. Edward volunteered to take the starting position on the far side saying, “Don’t want Mustang to drop from a heart attack! Winning this by default would be a hollow victory!”

“I hope you like potatoes, Ed. You are going to be peeling a lot of them after today!” Mustang threatened.

“And the girls are gonna go wild when they see you jogging around the parade ground wearing only a thong!” Edward yelled back from halfway across the field.

“I’m going get that little shit!” Mustang fumed as he took his place on the field.

Alphonse had joined Edward on his jog across the field. He was going to watch the proceedings from Edward’s side and be there to bail out his brother if things got out of hand.

“Getting the Colonel sore at you now was not very smart Ed,” Alphonse told him.

“No, if I get him so mad he makes a mistake I can nail him!” Edward said then added as he fished the bottle of water from its hiding place inside Alphonse’s armor, “Time to put my plan into motion!”

“If you miss, then it’s all over!” Alphonse said in a worried voice. “He won’t show you any mercy.”

“This fight isn’t to the death, Al, just to the total incapacitation of one of its participants,” Edward reminded him. “The worst he can do is knock me into next week. The only bad side of my plan is I have to do this old school. And I know I will barely have a minute at most to draw my circle and charge it up. This is going to be tight.”

Alphonse crossed his fingers. “Good luck brother.”

Edward gave him a wicked grin the thumbs up sign before calculating what covered area on the battlefield he could sprint to with minimal risk of being picked off by Mustang’s fire blasts. He saw a likely spot less than fifty feet away and mentally prepared himself to sprint. He could see Mustang in the distance standing out in the open completely unafraid of his much younger opponent.

Good, thought Edward. He’s not near anyone else so the water bomb will hit only him.

The sound of Major Hawkeye’s whistle was Edward’s call to action. He took off like a shot out of a cannon, making a mad dash for the thick piece of wall he intended to use for cover while he cast his circle. Mustang saw him go and began snapping off fire bombs trying to hit him with the spheres of doom but Edward was out of range so the shots kept going wide. Edward made it to the protected area and quickly began to draw the circle. He knew Mustang saw where he had holed himself up and would swiftly close the distance between them so he had to be both quick and accurate with his casting.

He placed the water bottle in the center of the Alchemy circle and dropped his hands down along the outer edge to charge it up. As the circle glowed with power, Edward heard the sound of footsteps approaching him at a rapid pace.

This had better work, Edward though to himself as he saw the water consumed in a haze of blue mystical energy that shot up and out towards the field.

The next thing Edward heart was the unmistakable sound of water splooshing on someone and then a long string of the most colorful epithets Edward had ever heard in his life.

“Damn,” Edward said to himself. “And people say I have a foul mouth!”

Edward came out from behind the wall commenting, “God, Colonel! Watch your language! Don’t you know there are impressionable young children around here?”

Mustang’s entire front was soaking wet. His fire starting gloves were wet which rendered them useless. His hair was dripping and he looked like he was about to explode.

“You…little…bastard.”

Edward made an O with one hand and held up a single finger with the other saying, “Round one. Fullmetal one, Flame nothing.”

Mustang angrily yanked off the gloves and his wet jacket. He checked the back of his pants and was glad to find they were dry. The pack of matches he had in his pocket was still good and he was glad he had brought them along. He had a feeling Edward would do something like this so he had the matches as a back up plan. Edward may have thought he was down but he was nowhere near out.

“Very clever,” Mustang conceded in his usual emotionless voice. “But why do I have a feeling you just blew your wad.”

Edward did start off with his best attack but he was still full of ideas. “Well, I wanted to start things off with a bang. Give my fans something to cheer at.”

“I have only one thing to say to you,” Mustang said as he fingered the matches getting one in position to strike. “Run.”

Edward saw the matches almost too late. He dodged out of the way in time to avoid being leveled by a fireball almost as tall as he was. “God dammit, Mustang!” He cursed as he ran once again dodging fireballs. “What are you trying to do? Kill me?”

Mustang made no comment but kept up the barrage. He knew it was only a matter of time before he floored the runt. Edward tried to get behind yet another one of the partial walls but missed and instead got flattened by one of Mustang’s fireballs. For all their seeming intensity, it felt like he was hit by a bowling ball as opposed to a ball of fire. It still stung but Edward doubted he would have anything more than a few blisters in the spot where the shot connected. Mustang was powered way down, something Edward was thankful for otherwise he would be an ash of his former self.

Edward rolled over onto his stomach and got his hands together to retaliate. He let go a wall of concussive force, the power of the energy wave lifting up the ground and hurtling it along like a giant wave of dirt, grass and stones. Mustang tried to dodge the wall of earth but it was like trying to evade an ocean wave when you were hip deep in the water. It connected with him knocking him on his face. He was covered in dirt, stones and grass and he seriously intended to stick Edward with the dry cleaning bill for his uniform.

Mustang pulled himself to his feet but before he was completely up a metal foot connecting with his bottom knocked him back down. Edward leapt on him in an attempt to keep him pinned but Mustang was much larger and stronger than Edward and knocked him off. The two of them were too close to fight using their Alchemy so the battle became one of hand-to-hand combat skills. Both of them were agile and adept fighters but their styles were vastly different. Roy fought commando style, attention focused on finding a weakness to exploit and then striking that vulnerable area. Edward, on the other hand, was skilled in the eastern style, which stressed speed, agility and striking for maximum effect.

The two of them, despite their style differences, were very well matched. Mustang was surprised that Edward was that good at hand-to-hand fighting. He had seen Edward fight after converting his auto-mail arm into a blade and also with the Alchemical spear he was fond of using. But he hadn’t seen him do any bare knuckle bruising and it felt awkward to be duking it out with him in this fashion. However, the terms of their contest was until one of them was unable to compete any longer and, at the rate things were going, it looked like it would be more stamina than skill that determined the winner.

From the sidelines Alphonse could tell that Edward was beginning to tire. He was still managing to evade the worst of Mustang’s strikes but the fact more and more of them were beginning to connect was a bad sign. Edward could handle himself in a street brawl but he was a much better Alchemist than he was a fighter. Alphonse winced when he saw Edward manage to get a clean shot at Mustang and strike the Colonel in the gut and then get his striking hand twisted and pinned hard against his back. Having his human arm twisted behind his back to almost the breaking point dropped Edward to his knees. From the look of things Alphonse sensed that the match was going to end here and now.

Edward tried to use his free hand to force Mustang to release him but it was useless. The more he struggled the worse the pain got as Mustang worked on that pinned arm.

“You’re breaking my arm, you asshole!” Edward said hotly.

“Concede and I’ll release you,” Mustang replied in that smug tone of his.

Edward tried again to break free but Mustang caught his other arm and shoved Edward face down in the dirt. Edward was kept down by Mustang’s full weight on top of him. With his hands pinned spread apart Edward couldn’t use his Alchemy to break free. He was spitting out dirt and grass and was exceeding pissed off at the man lying on top of him. Mustang was doing everything he could to make things uncomfortable for Edward, even go so far as to press himself in lewd ways against him.

From the sidelines the fight looked like it had taken a decidedly different turn. The way Mustang was laying on top of Edward it looked like he was attempting to do a whole lot more than just hold him down in the dirt. Edward’s bucking around trying to get himself free only made things look worse.

“Hey, I know Mustang liked the kid but I didn’t know he liked him THAT way,” Havoc commented.

“They are not doing anything, you pervert!” Hawkeye snapped.

“Not now, but wait until Mustang gets him back home!”

“Pig!”

The others snickered knowing full well their boss was an opportunist when it came to getting his needs fulfilled. It was also well known that Mustang secretly wanted to have his way with Edward, if only because it might be a way to shut the kid up for a while. Hawkeye knew Mustang got around but she seriously doubted he would ever lay a hand on Edward. For all of his sass and savvy, Edward was still only sixteen years old and not worth the jail time.

After ten minutes of watching Edward desperately try to get free and listening to the smutty comments of Mustang’s men, Major Riza Hawkeye decided to call an end to the duel. She blew her whistle and started out across the field towards the two Alchemists.

Mustang and Edward had both heard the whistle and they stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of the sound. They saw Hawkeye approaching them and giving them the signal to stop.

“Guess she thinks you’ve had enough,” Mustang commented as he released his hold on Edward.

“Yeah, well, I’M not done with you yet!” Edward said clapping his hands together. However, before he could get off the spell Mustang knocked him out cold with a quick boot to the temple.

“Well, I’m done with you,” Mustang remarked dryly as he surveyed Edward’s motionless body. “For now…”
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NEXT chapter gets to the NAUGHTY BITS!!!