Disclaimer: I don't own "Zatch Bell" and related characters and themes. Isildar and Yomi and their attacks are mine. Any relation to another's character is coincidence.
Zatch Bell
Sound Showdown
It was just a normal afternoon. Since Kyo was just doing homework again, Zatch went out with Ponygon to try and find his book owner, again. The two were running around the square, asking everyone they saw "Does this book look familiar to you?" or "Hey, want a pet?" Zatch went up to ask a kid when something smacked his head. He flew onto his face, a large lump rising on the back of his head. Ponygon rushed over to help him. "Menumenumey?"
"I'm fine, Ponygon," Zatch said as he sat up and scratched his sore head. "What hit me?" He looked down and found a rock with a paper tied around it. "Who could have thrown that?" he asked to himself. He looked, but no one appeared to notice him. Curious, he untied the paper from the rock. "Hey, it's a note, Ponygon!" He read over it quickly and gasped.
Zatch burst into Kyo's room. "Hey, Kyo." He tripped over a book on the floor and fell on his face yet again.
Kyo looked up from his computer. "Oh, hey Zatch. What do you have there?"
Zatch stood and waved the note to Kyo. "It's a note. Someone threw it at me on a rock."
"A rock? Let me see that?" He took the note and read.
"Zatch,
I challenge you to a battle. Meet us outside the city in Quarry 3. Bring your owner.
Isildar"
He crunched up the note in his hand. "Well, if it's a battle they want…" He looked down at Zatch. "Then it's a battle they'll get." Zatch smiled big and nodded his head.
The quarries were just outside of the city. In the 80's, marble was discovered, so several quarries were dug to harvest it. They had been abandoned for years and most of them had been filled. Quarry 3 was one of those that hadn't.
Zatch and Kyo walked down the ramp along the wall leading to the lowest level. Two figures were already standing there. One was tall, probably the human, with short, dirty-blonde hair and a long face. His face had a somewhat soft look, but with a hint of anger or hate of some kind. The other was short, about Zatch's height, obviously the mamodo. The mamodo had legs that were completely red up to the waist; the upper half of his body was completely blue. His head was solid colored; his hair seamed to mold into his head. The eyes were the most prominent detail—large blood red irises around tiny pupils. Each wrist supported one of two golden bands with short pipes protruding outwards. They sort of reminded Kyo of old pipe organs. There were similar bands around his ankles.
Zatch and Kyo stopped a good fifty yards away. "Welcome to the battlefield," the mamodo said in a nonchalant voice. "I am Isildar."
"Nice to meet you," Kyo answered. "Are we going to continue the pleasantries or battle?"
"My, anxious, aren't we?" Isildar turned his head slightly. "Ready, Yomi?" The human nodded his head. "You'll have to excuse my friend. He's not much of a talker."
Yomi pulled out Isildar's spell book, navy blue in color, and opened it as it began to glow. "SOUNUS," he cried.
Tiny puffs of air started firing out of Isildar's wristbands. With each one, a sharp note rang out. "They are like pipe organs," Kyo thought. "But what do they do?" Kyo suddenly felt something cut his arm. He flinched a bit. He looked down and saw a thin gash in his shirt and a bit of blood dripping through. Something else cut his leg. It wasn't that painful, just annoying. He looked at Zatch. He already had several cuts on his arms and legs. It didn't seem to faze him at all. "Is that the best you got? A few cuts?" He opened Zatch's book. "Get ready, Zatch," he whispered. Zatch nodded. "ZAKER!" A bolt of lightning flew from Zatch's mouth.
"GOROMECH!" Yomi answered. Isildar threw his hands forward, fists together. Suddenly there was an enormous blast of sound. Kyo clenched his ear. "A sonic boom?" He could almost see the air ripple. Suddenly the zaker attack flickered and died. "I get it. The sonic blast disrupts the attack. A good defense spell."
"Alright. Now you'll see what we've got."
"STRACORM!"
Yellow energy balls formed around Isildar's hands. "An energy spell," Kyo realized. Isildar started pumping his arms, throwing the energy. Zatch and Kyo threw up their arms to protect their heads. But nothing happened. After a few seconds, they both looked up. Isildar had his hands over his head. He was laughing. "Huh?" The looked up to see six energy disks flying around overhead.
"Try some of this," Isildar screamed as his hands dropped. The disks stopped circling and dropped towards Zatch and Kyo. Kyo lunged forward, grabbing Zatch and rolling away as the ground erupted behind him.
Kyo got up onto one knee. "You ok, Zatch?"
"I think so."
"STRACORM!"
They both looked up to see Isildar firing more energy disks into the air. "If we jump before he fires, we should be able to dodge it." The two groups stared at each other for a few seconds, Kyo on one knee, ready to jump. Isildar dropped one hand. "Now!" Kyo and Zatch split up and the attack feel harmlessly between them.
"Look up," Isildar called with a laugh. Kyo looked up. Three energy disks were still flying over his head and three over Zatch's. He looked over to Isildar, who still held one hand over his head. "Next time, make sure you avoid the whole thing." He dropped his other hand and the disks fell.
Kyo let out a small scream as the disks scored a direct hit. It wasn't as painful as he thought it would be, though. "I guess he had to use some of the energy for the first attack," he thought as he crouched on one knee in the smoke, panting. "Zatch, are you ok?"
Zatch was suddenly right beside him. "Don't worry, Kyo. He missed me. Are you alright?"
"I think so." He tried to find Isildar, but the smoke was too thick. "I have an idea that might catch them off guard."
"SHERAZO!"
Both of them turned their heads. "Looks like they cast another spell," Kyo said. Zatch nodded his head. "We don't know what it does yet, so let's go. Aim for the source of his voice."
Zatch turned his body. "Let's go."
Kyo opened the book and put his anger into it, channeling his energy. "ZAKERUGA!" For a while, Zatch just stood, motionless. "What's going on? Zatch should have launched the attack by now."
"Aren't you going to say the spell, Kyo?" Zatch asked.
"What? But I already have!"
The smoke cleared away. Isildar stood in the same place, arms crossed now. "You know, these spells are a funny thing. If Zatch doesn't hear the spell you're casting, he can't use it."
Kyo stood. "Yeah. So what's your point?" "What's going on? Is he trying to give me a lesson?"
Isildar laughed. "So all I have to do is prevent Zatch from hearing what you say."
Understanding flooded Kyo's mind. "I get it. You're a sound mamodo. And that first attack you used was concentrated sound coming out of your arms!"
"At last, you've wizened up. But that still doesn't mean you can stop us. Yomi."
"SARAS LETOMI!"
Isildar's eyes slowly closed until they seemed to vanish. Other than that, nothing happened. "Be careful, Zatch," Kyo whispered.
In a flash, Isildar was directly in front of Kyo with his fist driving into Kyo's stomach. He gasped as the air was pressed out of his lungs and he fell to the ground.
Zatch spun around. "KYO!" Isildar spun and had a fist in Zatch's face before Zatch could say anything else. The force shoved Zatch off balance and he fell on his back as he skidded several yards.
Seeing this, Kyo tried to get up. "ZATCH!" A foot landed on his cheek hard and forced his head back into the ground.
After the pain subsided somewhat, Kyo opened his eyes. Isildar was standing over him. "You guys are pathetic." He turned around and walked off. Kyo tried moving again, but could barely lift one arm.
Zatch shakily climbed onto his feet and jogged over to his friend, where he fell onto his knees. "Are you ok, Kyo?"
"Not really." Kyo noticed that Zatch's back was torn and slightly bloody. He also had a stream of blood falling from his nose. "I should be fine once I get my breath back." Just then, something caught the corner of his eye. A hole in the quarry wall. Kyo remembered back to when he had researched the quarries. (He always did before a battle) It was probably a tunnel connecting this quarry to another one. "Come on, Zatch," he said as he started to shakily stand. "We've got to get out of here."
"What? You're leaving? I can't let you do that with your spell book." Isildar sneered for what must have been the hundredth time. "We might as well finish this."
Isildar's book glowed again. "YOROTENK!"
Isildar held his hands out in front. Kyo opened Zatch's book, just in case. He could see energy building in Isildar's wristbands. With a low shriek, several energy beams shot out backwards. Zatch lit up a little. "Ha! That won't hit us at all!"
"Don't be so sure," Yomi said, speaking for the first time.
The beams, well behind Isildar and Yomi, quickly curved outwards. Soon, they were headed straight back at Zatch and Kyo. "RASHIELD!" Zatch pulled up his electric shield just before impact. With a shove, the beams were hurled back to the thrower.
"GOROMECH!" Isildar boomed the beams out quickly. But Kyo didn't see this. By that time, he and Zatch were halfway to the quarry wall.
Several minutes later, Zatch and Kyo were still navigating the underground passage. It was very dark and wet, and neither of them could see very well. Zatch fumbled on a rock and almost went down. Arms flailing, Kyo managed to grab him. "Be careful, Zatch. We don't want to make any noise in here," he whispered.
"Why not?" Zatch whispered back.
"Sounds echo underground. And since he's a sound mamodo, he can hear everything we say." Kyo stopped dead as a cold realization hit him. "Zatch, we gotta move!" he screamed.
"What? I though you said to be quiet?"
"Just run!" Kyo grabbed Zatch by the arm and started to sprint down the tunnel.
"GOROMECH!"
Kyo could see a light up ahead around a corner. "Perfect." Kyo whipped around the corner and pressed himself and Zatch against the side wall. Just as they did, a giant plume of smoke and sound erupted out of the hole they just left. "That was a bad choice," he said as he caught his breath. "I led him in there where his sonic boom could be amplified."
"Hey, Kyo. There's a ramp." Zatch was pointing toward an earthen slope that led up and out of the quarry. "Let's go," he said as he started to run off.
"Hold on," Kyo said. "We're not done, yet."
Isildar and Yomi walked out of the tunnel. Kyo was standing out in the middle of the quarry, Zatch at his side. "Welcome back," Kyo called over. "I think it's time we ended this battle."
Isildar laughed. "What are you talking about? You probably don't have enough energy to do anything."
"Oh, really?" The book in Kyo's hand glowed bright red. "Let's go, Zatch. Our newest spell. GENREIZU ZAKERU!"
This only further amused Isildar. "You fool. We can just destroy your spell like the rest."
"Maybe," Kyo called as Zatch pulled the huge turret out of the ground. "But only if they were all coming at you."
"What's that?"
"Look at the walls," he instructed with a nod.
Isildar looked up. The walls were just rock with…sparks? He flipped through the spells of Zatch's that he knew, which was all of them since they had been watching the pair for some time. When he finally pieced it together, Isildar felt something that he hadn't felt in a while…fear. "It's their zaguruzemu spell."
"FIRE!" The turret let loose with about eight bolts of lightning. Each of them soared over Isildar and Yomi's heads to smash into the wall. The energy, which Zatch had put into the wall earlier, also erupted into a sea of explosions, blasting chunks of rock from the wall.
The rocks fell around the team, throwing up billows of dust. "What's going on?" Isildar shouted. "I can't hear them."
"I can't see anything," Yomi answered.
"Now to finish this. BAO ZAKERUGA!"
He heard THAT, and it drove home a spike of terror. Isildar looked into the sky to find an enormous dragon of lightning glowering at him. He screamed as the monster dove.
Kyo and Zatch couldn't see if the spell hit, but it was safe to assume that it had. Just to be sure, they waited until the dust cleared. Yomi was lying unconscious amid the rocks and Isildar couldn't be seen. But they both did see burn marks, most likely Isildar's book. Kyo let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness that's over." He wiped several trickles of blood off his face. That would take a while to heal. "Great job, Zatch."
"Thanks, Kyo. You too." Suddenly, his stomach let out a large rumble. "Hey, I just remembered that I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."
Kyo checked his watch. 1:02. "Well then, let's get something to eat. How 'bout some yellowtail?"
Zatch's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "YELLOWTAIL? LET'S GO!" He turned and bee lined it to the ramp, leaving a trail of dust.
Kyo stood there a little shocked. "Zatch!" he called. "Aren't you even tired?" But he was already to far away. "Oh, well." Kyo put the spell book away and tried to jog after Zatch.
ENDSpecial thanks to my friend Carl, who is my main reviewer and idea pool.
Thanks to you for reading my first fic. If I get a lot of good reviews for this one, then I'll upload what I have of my "Code Lyoko" fic. If not, then you may never see my work again. It's up to you.
Please keep all flames down to first-degree burns. But please give me criticism, as it helps me improve.