Chapter 12: Ash vs Xero
"I am Lord Xero, and I'm here to kill Son Goku..."
The words that the tyrant spoke caused Ash's eyes to widen.
"K-Kill Goku...?" Ash repeated in a hushed tone, like he couldn't believe the words.
As the exact concept of exactly what Xero said registered in his brain, Ash got a little defensive. "Why? Why do you wanna kill Goku? What did he do to you?" Ash asked.
Xero's eyes narrowed as he looked at Ash.
"Why should you care, you brat?" He asked, shooting Ash with a dose of killing intent, which almost made him falter.
"I-I-I'm not l-letting you anywhere near Goku!" Ash cried defiantly, cursing the fact that his voice seemed to betray him, making him stutter in his declaration. It sounded more pathetic than threatening, really.
A brief look of surprise crossed Xero's face before he gave the trainer an evil glare, his lips twisting into a foul grin.
"Oh, so you know who I'm looking for..." He said in a tone that sent shivers down Ash's spine.
Xero suddenly hopped down from the rock he was perched on and landed on the ground, level with Ash. He then began to approach him, his talon-like feet making heavy shuffling sounds.
Ash tensed his body and kept his guard up, that was something he'd definitely need to do if he wanted to get out of here alive.
"My two brothers...my father...met their ends at the hands of Son Goku. I...can never forgive him for that!" Xero explained as he got closer.
Ash, for the umpteenth time for that day, was confused. This was the same person that had just destroyed a ship, filled with his own men. He didn't seem the type to care for family. He also remembered that when Goku told him of his past battles, it was another person that defeated King Cold, Frieza's father. It wasn't Goku, however, it seemed that Xero was not aware of that.
"He humiliated them, my race...me! I have needed to bear the shame of those humiliating defeats on my shoulders. Those fools were killed and left me to bear their shame. I hate them for that...and I hate Son Goku for leaving me with that burden of dishonor even more!"
The tyrant was clearly getting agitated, and he stopped moving to stare Ash down.
"I couldn't care less that they're dead, if they were weak enough to be killed, then they deserved it, but they were supposed to be invincible! Unkillable tyrants! Unconquerable pillars! And now, I'm the last one, and I'm going to do what they all couldn't."
The killing intent increased, causing Ash to stagger a little in his footing, the malice that he was sensing, coursing through his body.
"Now...boy...I'd be willing to spare you if you can tell me where Son Goku is." Xero offered out of nowhere.
Just by looking into the crimson red eyes of his enemy, Ash could tell he was lying. Xero would kill him if he got the information. This guy was clearly a monster.
Too bad for the invader that Ash's resolve didn't waver. If anything, it became stronger now that he was fighting to protect Goku...even though protection was something he didn't really need.
"No! I'm not letting you get near him, you gotta go through me, and I'm not just gonna let you pass by without a fight." Ash retorted, glaring back at Xero.
The red eyes narrowed even further at Ash's declaration.
"You've got a death wish, have you?" Xero grumbled as he raised his index finger.
"I'll just find him myself then..."
The tip of his finger began to glow a light purple, before a thin beam shot out, heading at supersonic speeds towards Ash's head.
Ash gasped as the beam raced towards him, quickly closing the distance between the two fighters.
Acting on instinct, Ash flashed his head to the side to avoid the beam. He could feel the heat on his skin as the attack barely missed him. That attack was fast!
The beam hit the earth a few meters behind Ash, leaving a circular, smoking hole. Ash gulped, imagining for a spit second that hole in the ground could've been in his head had he not dodged.
Xero's eyes switched from being narrowed, to being wide open.
"He...He dodged my beam...no...he's at a power level of just forty, he couldn't have. It must have just been bad aiming by me..." He thought as the mere idea of someone dodging his Death Beam was simply ludicrous.
"I..."
Xero's attention was brought to what Ash was saying.
"I...won't let you win! I'll fight you, and I'll win!" Ash yelled at the tyrant.
The trainer's brow furrowed a little.
"Let me tell you something...Xero...right? Son Goku...the person that you're looking for..."
Ash took a deep breath.
"...I'm his student! So, if you lose to me, you have no right to fight Goku!" He declared.
A very audible gasp left Xero's mouth as the new information was thrust upon him.
However, that shock was short lived as the tyrant's sneer returned.
"Hm, this is turning out, even better than I hoped...what better way to destroy a warrior, than by rolling his apprentice's head at his feet?" Xero said.
Ash snarled at the tyrant and threw all caution to the wind, figuring that it'd give him an advantage if he acted offensive without warning. He leapt forward shooting a high velocity punch.
Xero was not fazed by the sudden assault and blocked inward with his right forearm, spinning around with a reverse hook-kick to Ash's face. The trainer let out grunt as he managed to step inside the scything kick, grabbing ahold of Xero 's knee and allowing his own momentum to carry him around, and then threw him off.
Xero backflipped in midair, and hovered a few meters above the ground, before charging back at Ash. He lashed out with a roundhouse kick, which Ash was able to duck under, before shooting his leg upward in a split-kick. Xero, anticipating the kick the moment he missed, caught the blow intended for his jaw with crossed forearms. Even so, the kick still propelled him upward a significant distance.
Ash followed Xero up into the sky and resumed the fight.
"Th-This is intense, I'm barely keeping up!" Ash thought as he blocked a kick that came from his left side.
"This doesn't make any sense. He has a power level of forty, there shouldn't be any way that he can fight like this, even in my first form...Did my Scouter malfunction?" Xero thought as he spun away from one of Ash's retaliating punches.
The two fighters separated from each other for a brief moment after their skirmish.
"Tell me, boy...your power level is a measly forty. I could've decimated people with a power level of 20,000 with the exchange we just had. You're somehow suppressing your power against me, aren't you?" Xero said, reaching up and tapping the button on the side of the Scouter, making a series of yellow numbers and digits show up on the red screen.
Upon observing Ash's power level, he found that it had jumped up to about 300 during their quick gauging of the other's abilities.
"So...how about you fight me with all your strength, make this a bit interesting before I kill you." Xero proposed as he turned the Scouter off again.
Ash growled. This guy wasn't taking this fight seriously at all!
He raised his hands, palms facing the tyrant, and began to let out a barrage of bright blue ki orbs.
"Pathetic..." Xero muttered as he easily batted away each of the energy orbs, sending them either into the sky to dissipate, or into the ground to explode.
Ash clenched his fists, this wasn't working. There needed to be some way for him to get inside Xero's defenses...there just had to be.
Meanwhile, about half a kilometer away, Goku, along with everyone else appeared via Instant Transmission. They were perched on the edge of a rocky cliff, having a good view of the landscape. In the distance, they could make out the figure of Ash, and another figure, presumably the invader, hovering in the sky.
"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried in concern as he attempted to dash over to help his best friend.
He was however, held back by Goku.
"Pikachu, you can't interfere, you'd be killed, and if not, a burden." He said seriously, looking into the pokemon's worried eyes.
He gave Pikachu a comforting glance as he looked back to the battle.
"If he needs me, I'll step in, I promise." Goku said.
Ash's eyes widened as he felt a multitude of ki signatures appear half a kilometer away from him. Goku and nearly his friends were there, as well as all his pokemon.
But he couldn't react to that, not visibly, for if he did, Xero would notice. It was a good thing this guy couldn't sense energy without that device on his head. This fight was between the both of them, he wasn't dragging his friends into it, especially not his pokemon.
Pokemon...
That was it!
Ash just needed to treat this fight like it was a pokemon battle. Although it obviously wasn't, he was thinking more along the lines of strategy and being a clever and unpredictable opponent. If there was one thing Ash had over all else, it was being an unpredictable pokemon trainer.
Now if he just thought about this as a pokemon battle...only with people and to the death, he could probably garner a few advantages.
Rushing forward, he shot out a punch which Xero easily blocked with his forearm. Ash grinned as he then used the punching fist for grabbing and pulling away the arm. Using his other hand, he created a ki sphere and attempted to shove it into Xero's midsection.
This attempt failed however as Xero was able to send it away, using his knee.
What the tyrant didn't expect was for Ash to use his raised knee as a springboard and push of into a wide arc backflip, barely missing the left side of his face.
It wasn't until Xero noticed the lack of a red hue of the world that he realised what Ash had actually been aiming for.
His Scouter...
Ash had backed off a fair distance, casually tossing the scouter that Xero was previously wearing into the air before catching it back in his hand a few times.
"Give my Scouter back, you brat."
Ash grinned at his opponent and held up the device.
"Oh, you mean this thing?" He asked.
He held out his hand, like he was intending to give the Scouter back, until he curled up his fist, shattering the device in his hand. The tinkling of the glass screen echoed around the area as sparks and wires danced around Ash's fist.
Xero watched with extreme anger as his only method of locating energy signatures was crushed before him.
"Whoops! Did I break it? Sorry..." Ash said in a taunting tone, further angering the tyrant.
"But it's no big deal right, I mean, you could always just get another one from your ship...oh wait a second, no you can't 'cause you blew it up!" Ash continued to taunt, dropping the remnants of the now useless Scouter.
Xero's teeth was bared in a vicious snarl and his anger was wafting through the area.
What was even worse was that he was probably right, there would most likely be some backup Scouters back in the ship, but he didn't think he'd need another one, so now he was completely Scouter-less and unable to detect energy.
Of course, he decided to direct his anger at Ash, who was partially to blame as well.
A pink aura surrounded Xero and he shot towards the trainer.
"Here we go..." Ash thought as his own aura surrounded him. He blasted off into the same direction Xero was coming from.
As the two got closer and closer, Ash's perception got slower and slower, like time had begun to spin irregularly in his point of view.
As the fighters were inches away from each other, Ash shifted his aerodynamics slightly by twisting his body. He grinned as he watched Xero's look of shock as he spun to his left, a technique that Ash used in his battle against Roark, the Oreburgh City rock-type Gym Leader.
As he passed the charging tyrant, he was able to shoot his hands out and grabbed his tail.
Time resumed normally as Ash quickly twisted his body to the right as hard as he could. Naturally, the tail, and by extension, whatever it was attached to, came with him.
Ash then rotated on his X-Axis, quickly gaining speed and momentum. The mountains and moonlit plateaus quickly becoming a blur to both Ash and Xero.
Finally, Ash put a great deal of effort into his final turn and let go of the tail, sending Xero crashing down into a cliff face, creating a loud crashing sound and causing stone to break away from the cliff and fall to the ground.
"Coooool! Did you see that Trunks?" Goten asked, in awe.
Trunks grinned at his friend. "I think we all did." He said.
Piccolo looked on in amazement that this kid was holding his own against a Cell-level villain.
The namekian looked to Goku.
"The Dragon Throw, that's your grapple, right Goku?" He asked.
Goku looked towards Piccolo and nodded.
"Yup! Let me tell ya, it took a while for Ash to get used to that technique without feeling nauseous."
He then looked back to the fight.
"But combining that spin to catch that guy off guard, it was real clever." He said.
"It's a technique that Ash used in his pokemon battles." The voice of Lucario chimed in, gaining everyone's attention.
"You get in close when both battlers are on a linear path and then spin to the opponent's side, catching them by surprise, and allowing you to hit them with an attack from behind." He explained.
He had never actually seen the attack incorporated into a pokemon battle before, but from what he'd been told about Ash's previous battles, it was pretty much just like this.
"Tch! How does adding techniques from pokemon battles to real one's help in the long run?" Vegeta asked.
Lucario grinned in reply.
"I'm not sure about the long run, but it does help, because Ash just landed the first solid blow." He said, knowing so after sensing both fighters' aura.
Ash let out a breath as he watched the rocks crumble around where he tossed Xero.
"First strike...goes to me..." He thought as the dust settled from his opponent's collision with the cliff.
Quickly sensing his enemy's ki, Ash got into a fighting stance again and waited for him to emerge.
The fighting stance was lost however when the ki Ash was feeling began to rise, and rise to a SCARILY high level, far surpassing his own.
The earth began to rumble and a torrent of energy exploded out of where Xero landed, reaching as high as the cliffs.
That was all Ash could realise before an intense pain hit his body.
Xero had emerged from the dust and struck Ash before he could even register the tyrant moving. A fist was buried into his stomach, which caused Ash to spit out globules of saliva before being sent careening backwards.
"PIKAPI!" Pikachu cried out.
The others winced as they watched Ash take the hit.
Pikachu once more attempted to get over there, but was stopped by Goku.
The electric type looked at the saiyan.
Pika Pika Pica Pikachu Pika Pikachu Chu Chupi Chupika Pikachu Pikapi Pikachi Cha Pika! (You'd said you'd help Ash when he was in trouble! He's in trouble now! Hurry up and help him!)"
Temporarily confused as to what Pikachu was saying, Goku looked to Lucario for a translation.
He sighed as the Aura pokemon decoded what Pikachu said.
"Pikachu, you can't just fret for every single hit that Ash takes. You need to believe in him, that he can get up and keep fighting. You can do that. You two are best friends, right? Then believe in him. It's ok to be worried for him, just don't lose your faith in him." Goku told Pikachu.
The electric type sighed and looked back to his trainer.
"Gaaah!" Ash gasped in pain as he hunched over, cradling his stomach, which Xero had receded from, only to hover above Ash and try an axe strike, which the trainer noticed just in the nick of time and blurred away.
He reappeared a few kilometers away to try and get the pain to abate.
Eventually, the pain faded, but not before Xero managed to catch up with him.
It was then Ash noticed that Xero was...different...
His appearance had completely changed.
His jacket had been completely blown off and his body had gotten significantly bulkier, to an insane degree. The horns that were on his head grew upward and became pointier, looking like the horns of a devil. Two elongated spikes sticking out of his shoulder was also something new that was added to his appearance
While Xero was a little taller than Ash was already, he now towered over him like a fox to a rabbit.
Most worryingly of all however, was the fact that his ki output was incredible, and he wasn't even using any ki attacks
"Impressive, is it not?" Xero said, opening his arms out as if to showcase his new appearance.
"My race is far too powerful in our normal forms, so we control it by reducing our power into weaker forms. What you've been fighting until now was my first and weakest form. This is my second form, and I've got a final all-powerful form that comes after this one."
Then to Ash's great disgust, Xero reached up and snapped the spikes off of his shoulders with seemingly no pain, making sounds that Ash really didn't want to remember.
"Let it be said that I don't need this form to kill you, but I can end you in my preferred way with it." He said as he brandished the spikes he just ripped off his shoulders and brandished them like they were daggers. A weird looking facemask covered his mouth from the sides of his head.
"Prepare to die, brat!"
Ash gulped. This was really, really bad! This power was not something he could fight against with just strategy alone. He needed some more power. Those spikes were particularly dangerous and he could tell it would hurt if he was stabbed, or even scratched by one.
Ash sighed, it was time to use it.
Reaching for a familiar object on his back, Ash braced himself, knowing that the fight was just getting started.
Pulling out the Power Pole, he extended it to a fighting length and held it in front of him in a bo stance.
"Here we go..." Ash thought.
"Kaioken!"