And now another Scarlet Pikachu chapter.

Chapter 37: Scarlet versus Mark

Scarlet's POV

As I shifted into my Pikachu form I couldn't help but grit my teeth in annoyance. I was annoyed at both myself and at Mark. I didn't want to fight. Truth be told I would have preferred to talk. Less blood would be shed that way, but he wanted a fight, and had forced my hand. If I ran away or didn't fight back I just knew Mark would harm my Pokémon. I could not bear that, and would not stand for Shocky or Crazefire to be left in Mark's hands. The others would fare decently without me, but those two depended on me so much. I opened my eyes, noticing the place we stood. It was a bare path of packed ground, surrounded by a ring of grass. I didn't get it. Why was there a ring of grass like this? I looked up at my brother and then looked behind him where Aster sat to the side, watching with a wry smile, as if she wanted the battle to commence immediately.

"We don't have to fight," I said to my brother. He bared his teeth as his rings glowed a bit.

"My rules, Scarlet, and this time we are going to finish it all." Crazefire moved beside Aster, glaring daggers at her.

"(If she dies,)" he said to the Disaster Pokémon, "(I'll kill you and Mark.)" She just tilted her head, her red eyes gleaming in amusement.

"(That's more cute than threatening.)" And then she suddenly head-butted him, knocking him unconscious. As soon as his tail touched the ground, his flame caught a trail on fire. It ran to the ring of grass and I smelled it before it all went on fire.

"Gasoline." Fire surrounded us both and I gazed at Mark in horror.

"You set this all up?" He just grinned back.

"I'll give you the first move. Don't disappoint me." I was horrified, absolutely horrified. What could I do? Fire burned all around me, no escape, no way out. My brown eyes filled with panic. What if he killed me and burned my body so there was nothing left? I bordered on breaking down, but at the last minute I steeled my mind and glared at him. It didn't matter if he was my brother, it didn't matter if he was related to me. He was my opponent. And I had to fight him. I felt electricity building up as I prepared to strike. It was really strong, almost like the rush of adrenaline had powered it up and made it even stronger than before. And when I unleashed a huge Thunderbolt, Mark didn't even move. He just took it and shook it off, grinning widely.

"You're so weak, I barely felt that!" He snarled, charging up a Shadow Ball. He fired it, and it went over my head, making me look towards it. I took a second Shadow Ball to the back. It didn't hurt as much as it surprised me.

"You bastard!" I snarled. "All you are is tricks, deception, lies, and hate! Not an ounce of honesty in you! You never play fair! You're probably lying about hating me!" I declared in anger, Iron Tailing him in the shoulder. He recoiled with a hiss, his teeth grabbing my tail and he twisted it, making me trip and fall forward. I could sense he was charging up another Shadow Ball, so I quickly rolled over, and it narrowly brushed my fur. It singed it a bit, but among the heat of the fire all around me it was nothing but a graze of warmth.

"Oh, I hate you, sister," he said. His voice was low, full of hatred. It was obvious how he felt." I hate you because of many reasons." I felt the air around me shift. The fire rose higher and I felt myself being picked up. I looked at him, and saw his glowing eyes before realizing he was using Psychic.

"I HATE YOU MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW!" He yelled and flung me through the fire into a tree. He then moved me back inside the ring and slammed me against the ground. I coughed and jerked a bit in pain, the wind having been majorly knocked out of me. It really was a bad idea to provoke his anger. I decided it might be best to just shut up. But that wasn't like me to just drop things. So with a shaky cough I opened my mouth.

"W-Why…?" The glowing died down, and now all he did was glare at me, Shadow Ball charging up. I fought to get up, and had to struggle to dodge as he fired multiple Shadow Balls at me. I used Thunderbolt to deflect several, but occasionally they'd still damage me, causing me to slow down and be hit more often.

"I hate you because they cared about you, but they never cared about me!" I shocked him good and hard in retaliation, but it only singed his fur. It was hard to tell anymore. Was he even hurt by my attacks? Or was he hiding the pain under hate?

"They?" I asked, wincing as my tail briefly got burned by a flame.

"Our parents. You being kidnapped ruined my life. All they did was worry about you. Years and years later they still talked, and I was cast aside… ignored… neglected!" I gasped, not sure what to say really.

"But even if that's true, it's not MY fault they acted that way!"I told myself mentally. But I didn't dare say it to Mark. He was too angry.

"I was a child!" I saw flickers of purple right before he slammed into me using Quick Attack and then used Psychic to slam me against the ground. It was really hard to keep a steady breathing rate with the breath being knocked out of me every other minute, and all this tossing and tumbling was making me dizzy. I was so angry, all that anger, it built up until finally I couldn't handle it anymore. I snapped and attacked him, clawing and tearing at him, knocking him off balance and then Thunderbolting the hell out of him over and over again, not caring if he felt it or not. In return he shot Shadow Balls at me from close up, hitting me hard due to how close we were. I smacked him across the muzzle with an Iron Tail, watching as one of his teeth got knocked out. But it also made him cough and snarl at me.

"You're blaming me for what our parents did after I was kidnapped? You're so stupid, you know! I don't care what they did, at least they were there! I grew up alone!"

"So did I! They were always ignoring me! They weren't there! They were off in a faraway place, talking about life with you and forgetting about me! They loved you more! I hate you for that!" he yelled back at me.

"Hate me all you want, I had no control over the situation and it's not MY fault that it happened!" He growled angrily and I saw Mark start charging up a Hyperbeam. I got scared, the flames rose up more, and his eyes were glowing as he made the fire become like a dome around us. I instantly freaked out, and charged him head on. I slide under him, Thunderpunching him in the gut. This caused the Hyperbeam to detonate prematurely, and we were both caught in the blast. He took the brunt of it, but I only got my tail and sides injured after being underneath him. I heard him coughing and suddenly was flung out from underneath him. Mark glared angrily, still coughing. One of his legs seemed severely injured and he was starting to show signs of bruising and wear all over. I stared at him and prepared to attack him again, hoping to get in a few more shots before he could retaliate. But right as I got close enough to hit him in the side with an Iron Tail, he grinned deviously.

"You'll die with me today, sister!" he said and his eyes glowed as he prepared to use Psychic to hold me back while charging up a second Hyperbeam. I prepared the most powerful Thunderbolt combined with an Iron Tail and charged at him, fighting and struggling against his Psychic attack. Our attacks canceled out and we were thrown to opposite sides. The fire was dying down and as we both stood there, staring at each other and sweating, bruised, battered, and damaged…

I heard the sound of laughter. I heard it before he did, because he showed no sign of having heard it. My eyes flickered as I glanced about to see where the noise was coming from.

It was Shocky. And an Eevee. They were playing and laughing a good distance away from us.

"Mark…" I said, surprised by how happy they were when they weren't far from this violent scene. "Is that your Eevee?" My eyes turned back to look at him in time to briefly see and quickly feel something stab me in the throat. I fell back, too shocked and injured to compute what had happened at first. For a few seconds it was all a rush, then my mind sharpened and I focused a bit. Whatever had hit me was hard, and full of energy. Eyes rolling as I struggled to figure out what had happened, I vaguely glimpsed a slight yellow color and my paws touched it as I began to bleed from the gash it had caused. It had a rock-like feel to it.

"A-A Thunderstone?"I thought in pure shock, unable to speak. It was hard enough to breath let alone speak. Suddenly, with shocking clarity, I realized why he'd done that. He had expected me to evolve on contact, but due to Jirachi granting my wish and it costing me my only ability to evolve… instead he'd just slit my throat. His plan on forcing me to take my stronger evolved form had ended up causing me to lay there on my back, dying. I could hear him shouting in surprise. He had not expected this I was certain. He'd expected spontaneous evolution. He had no way of knowing this would happen. My mind raced, or at least I think it raced. It's hard to tell if it was racing or just spinning in circles from the pain. I was so disoriented. Breathing was almost impossible. I wasn't choking or inhaling my own blood surprisingly. I had always believed that's what tended to happen when you took an injury to your throat.

"I suppose I was wrong about that…"

I had no idea how much I was bleeding, but my paws were covered with blood. I was lucky I wasn't dead yet, but I knew soon I would be dead. Most surprisingly, it wasn't even meant to happen this way. Mark had no idea I couldn't evolve, so this was all just a mistake really. He wanted me dead later on after we fought to the death. And now he'd lost that opportunity.

Suddenly I heard Crazefire curse at Mark. It was hard to tell what he said, but he was mad, and he had every right to be angry. I heard several footsteps getting closer. My eyes were getting heavy. I didn't like how heavy they were so I shut them. Vaguely, I heard other voices, and I felt the stone being yanked out of my wounded throat while things got fuzzier behind my closed eyes. Now even with shut eyes things were blurring and getting fuzzy in my head…

The last thing I felt was a searing pain as something blazing hot was pressed against my throat. The pain and blood loss was far too much for me to handle. I couldn't stand it. That was all I could feel and think about was the pain.

And then blackness and peace overcame me as I slipped away…

No... not Scarlet... She can't be dead... not after everything we've been through. Come on, Scarlet! You can make it! Please make it! Join us (hopefully all three of us) as we continue our fight in the next chapter of The Shifter Chronicles!

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