31 | DOPPELGÄNGER

Electricity blasted through the air in a torrent of blistering energy, lighting the land aflame as it struck its desired targets. Raw, bloodcurdling screams of pain tore from the charred throats of the Thunderbolt's victims. They threw themselves to the earth and rolled, but their excruciating agony only intensified. A golden tiger of primal fury snatched one of his flaming victims by zir legs then flung him at a challenging Altaria. The stench of burning flesh and the sound of pained screeches heightened.

Calico threw herself behind a shed and out of the Guardian's sight, hardly able to breathe through the billowing smoke. Her Dark magician form allowed her to blend into the shadows more easily, but she didn't dare take any chances when facing Raikou. The blasted beast had charged her crew on the outskirts of Dead Man's Coast near a village with a killer vengeance. She had no idea how many men and Pokémon she'd lost already.

All around her, the world was consumed by flames set ablaze by Raikou's Thunder attacks. His power devoured the ruins of the abandoned town and left blackness in its wake. Those ashes whipped through the hot wind and stung Calico's eyes. She hadn't the voice to curse; she hadn't the choice to breathe. The massive, lurking figure of the Guardian froze her still.

Raikou prowled past her, his entire body crackling with vicious sparks. A deep, hellish growl rumbled in his chest. The orange fire cast a demonic gleam onto his feline pupils as he sought more of her men to maul and murder. Scarlet stained his snow-white snout.

Calico's jaw clenched. On the other side of the coastal village was the port the Zoroark's Deceit was docked in. Raikou stood between her and her ship. The mangled bodies of the dead littered the main road, and collapsed buildings left no room for her to take a detour. The Guardian knew the isle better than her; if she became lost within this land, he'd find her and finish her off. She'd have to force her way through.

Keeping her voice low and steady, she ordered the companion beside her, "Distract the brute. Keep 'im busy 'til the ship's gone. You can catch up later."

The black fox at her side nodded. Zo had never been one to question Calico's demands.

She narrowed her eyes into slits. "Now."

The Zoroark crept out from behind the shed and stood off against the Guardian. As soon as he made eye contact with Raikou, his appearance began to warp. Disgustingly. Zo's muscles pulsated as his skeleton crackled. Ivory canines curled out from his red gums, bright against his onyx-turned-gold pelt. A plume of thunderclouds encircled his strained neck. Zo, in his Raikou form, released an ear-splitting roar.

Raikou flinched, stunned by the Pokémon's sickening illusion. Zo took the opening. Caterwauling, he charged the Guardian with his claws glowing violet. Too quick for Raikou to dodge, Zo raked him across the face with the Night Slash. Another roar erupted—Calico wasn't sure if it was Zo's or Raikou's. She hadn't the time to find out.

As she raced for the Zoroark's Deceit, the cacophony of brawling titans haunted her. The ground trembled beneath their roars, and the storm-infused sky turned white. Lightning strikes rained down upon the earth and exploded on impact. Calico's heart stopped beating as a fiery bolt lanced towards her.

A deafening crack of thunder detonated.

⚔️

"That storm is awful. Imagine how loud it is over there if we can hear it all the way from over here," Cyryl complained after zie'd jumped at the last clap of thunder.

"Hopefully the scouts return soon," Lang replied with a slight sigh. "Whatever fit Raikou's currently going through has to end before we head out of here."

Omar nodded. "Yeah, storm sailing isn't fun."

"Aye," August added emptily.

She stared at the pearly horizon while wearing a vacant expression. Even if they could hear the catastrophic storm booming some knots away, it was impossible to see past the sea of fog cast to protect Shaymin Island.

In her peripheral vision, August glimpsed the concerned looks sent her way. Her company had accepted the resolution August and Gracie had come to the day before, and none of them tried to dissuade her. She appreciated how they knew this wasn't their decision. Ever since the grim announcement, the camp had been cloaked in silent grief. Most of it came from August, she'd admit that much. It was why her group refused to leave her alone and filled her mind with empty thoughts as they rambled about anything and everything. Distractions worked best for the pirate.

She tore her gaze from the sky to stare at Lang as she asked, "Will the Shaymin be fine when we leave?"

"Of course," the nurse reassured, pride shining in her eyes. "I taught them all I could think of when it comes to the illnesses they've been facing. Their healers are trained, their gatherers know what herbs to harvest, and, most importantly, they know how to tend to medicinal plants now. There's no need to worry about them."

Cyryl fidgeted, twirling the rings on zir fingers as zie shifted foot to foot. Zie smiled strangely as the motion failed to match with zir fearful antics. "Let us hope we've done enough here to sway Chief Sassafras' mind. We only have two more days to accomplish our goal."

The crushing weight on August's shoulders enlarged. 48 hours wasn't nearly enough time to convince an entire species to help the people who'd nearly caused their entire demise. Even her wishful thinking apprentice could see it.

"We can ask to stay here longer," Omar suggested, the tone of his voice reflecting the anxious atmosphere. "If we have more time then we can do more things. We can, um, build them houses or something like that."

"We'll think of something," Lang said, close to sounding desperate. Silently, August could practically hear her adding, 'We have to.'

Thunder erupted once more, cutting off their conversation. Still, there was no stormcloud in sight. It unnerved August how blue the sky was with its fluffy, white clouds and always shining sun. The joyful scenery didn't match the all but tangible strain suffocating the isle. It gave false hope; it concealed danger. Nerves prickled her skin like needles piercing flesh; her instincts screamed at her something terrible was going to happen. Sudden horror struck her chest as she identified this sensation. She'd felt it once before in the dead of night—the night Wes was murdered.

As soon as she recognized the dread swallowing her stomach, the small group of Shaymin scouts broke through the fog barrier. August grabbed her spyglass and aimed it at the flock. She inhaled sharply just to find herself short of breath. Ash coated their snow-white fur. Where there was smoke, there was fire. Where there was fire, there was chaos.

"Something's wrong," she said, pocketing her device while rising to her feet. "They've got ash on them." She started towards the great wisteria tree where Chief Sassafras rested, needing to hear the intel the scouts carried.

"Ash?" Cyryl repeated as the group followed August at a hasty pace. "Was there an accident? Were they struck by lightning?"

She snorted, aggressively shoving branches out of her way as they took the heavily wooded path. "You think they'd get hit by Raikou?" Her grip on a fern slipped, clammy with sweat. It smacked Cyryl. "Shit, sorry."

Omar took the lead, clearing a path much cleaner than the pirate's. He guessed, "Maybe Raikou's storm lit a fire. His rainclouds can stop it."

"I think there's more than that," August returned with a shake of her head.

"Do you know something we don't?" Lang accused, suspicion brewing in her gaze.

"No, I don't." She tried to grasp for words to convey the logic behind her turmoil, but she came short. "I just feel that something's wrong. It's in my gut. My gut feeling's never wrong." It'd saved her skin countless times in the past; she had no reason to doubt it now.

Past the curtains of lavender flowers and the ring of Shaymin officials dressed in crowns, the company lodged themselves in the midst of commotion. The Shaymin scouts bristled their fur as they barked their messages to Chief Sassafras, their ears folded backwards and tails lashing in agitation. The longer they spoke, the worse August's dread became. Unlike the others, she saw past the chief's calm guise and knew he was just as panicked as the onlookers encircling him.

"What's wrong?" Omar asked.

The shipbuilder's loud and rich voice caught the Pokémon off-guard. For a split second, the scouts appeared as if they would attack him. August shielded him at once with her hand on Risk's hilt, her molten glare daring the Shaymin to act. Chief Sassafras rose to his feet and emitted a low growl. The scouts backed down immediately.

"There'll be none of that," he scolded, the edge in his words as sharp as a knife. "Now isn't the time nor place for that sort of behavior, especially considering the danger we've learned of today. You'd be fools to spill anymore blood on this red night." He lifted his chin and ordered, "Melody, show them what you've brought."

One of the scouts dipped her head in a bow then picked up a piece of cloth in her maw. She dropped it in front of the group, and August bent down to grab it. Her fingertips grazed green. Time slowed down to a crawl. Each second was a lifetime as she grasped the unmistakable, emerald-toned sailcloth. The corner was colored black.

A world away, she caught Chief Sassafras explaining, "...those lightning storms are a product of Raikou's determination to protect the Life Flower... the scouts assured me that no human nor their Pokémon made it close to the Lost Woods."

Blood roared in August's ears, drowning out bits and pieces of the chief's words. Calico was nearby. She'd almost reached the Core Gracidea. But that wasn't what Calico wanted. It couldn't be. Calico wasn't the kind to believe a rumor involving the location of a magical flower. Her former captain would never navigate Dead Man's Coast for a fairytale. Calico sought treasures she knew were real. Treasures and targets, she'd tell August. Targets.

August flinched as Cyryl gently shook her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. Zie gestured to the volatile Shaymin.

Chief Sassafras repeated sternly, "Do you know those humans?"

Licking her dry lips, she answered, "Aye. They're familiar."

"Who are they," he questioned, "and what do they want?"

A hundred pairs of eyes burned into August's being. Curious, confused, bewildered, betrayed. She pretended she didn't see Gracie peering out from behind Privet. He'd protect her from the truth August spilled.

Bracing herself, she answered, "They're the damndest pirates o' them all: the Zoroark's Deceit. Captain Briley Calico's their leader. An' she's after"—her heart skipped a beat—"she's after me."

"A pirate's after you?" Lang and Cyryl repeated, horrified.

Chief Sassafras ignored their outcry, solely focused on August as he said to her, "You do know what this entails then, yes?"

She matched his glower, an icy expression freezing over her flaming face. "Aye. You want me gone. She doesn't want the others, though. Only me." She gestured to her company. "They got nothing to do with it; they can stay. You owe them two days, remember?"

"We're not leaving you," Omar interjected, offended by the proposition. "If August goes, we go with her. Like a team."

She glared at him and retorted, "Shut it. You have a job here, an' it ain't done yet. You've got things left to do."

Omar latched onto her arm, his hold tight and firm. "If you go out there, you'll die."

She scowled. "I'm lucky I've lived this long."

"And you're going to live longer." He faced Chief Sassafras and declared, "I'm going with her."

"And so am I," Cyryl joined in, hooking August's other arm around zirs. Up close, zir face was pale with fright yet zir eyes were dark as they were full of determination. "It'll take more than a pirate to pry us apart."

Panic churned within August. She was putting more people she cared about in harm's way. In Calico's way. She snapped, "You can't."

"We can," Omar countered, "and we will."

"You have until sundown to decide what you'll do," Chief Sassafras said, pausing their fight. "When the full moon reaches its highest point in the sky, it'll be time for you to leave. Now I must ask you to excuse yourselves from this meeting; my flock and I must discuss."

August regretted looking over her shoulder as she departed the wisteria tree for Gracie's tear-stained face stared back.

⚔️

Three hours. It took three hours between the meeting with Chief Sassafras and the sun beginning to set for August to recount the most important parts of her life story to her companions and explain how things had come to be this way. She had no reason to hide it anymore, not when she was greeting death at its door.

Born to a rich, military family whose house laid beyond the woods, she lived beneath her sister's shadow. She stole a cursed weapon from them to sell it for gold and buy her sole friend some shelter, but she failed. Fear carried her to the clutches of a ruthless captain and her twin brother who'd died paying for the madwoman's sins. Thrust into a position of power, August abused it and stole from her captor while running away to keep a thought-to-be-dead Pokémon all for herself.

Now look at me, August mused as she watched everyone process her upbringing. Look what I've become.

She decided she'd given them enough time to think and finished, saying, "That's why I need to do this. I have to meet Calico."

"Hypothetically speaking," Lang said, rubbing her temples out of stress, "if you were to challenge your captain to a fight to the death, how in the world would you go about doing it when there's a whole crew on her side?"

August chewed on her inner cheek. She hadn't gotten that far. "I'd take out the crew with Black Powder. Seal off the lower deck. If Raikou got Calico good, she'd be too scared to sleep."

Cyryl's brow furrowed, and zie pointed out, "Then the rest of her crew would be scared, too. Truth be told, I doubt anyone would be able to sleep after that."

"Then they'll be tired an' weak," August said. "Even easier." As to make her point, she crossed the camp then dumped a pile of logs onto the campfire. Risk brought the fire to life with a simple flick of the wrist, and she commented, "I'll light them up, easy as that. You saw the Black Powder sticks in the Underground. With that an' Risk, the ship won't stand a chance. It'll sink then an' there."

Omar shook his head, his movements stiff with his frustration and disappointment. "You know it's not that easy. I know it's not that easy. You're fighting pirates."

"Pirates with a magician captain at that. If your Captain Calico's anything like how Angeleyes was, August, I'm sorry to say that I don't believe you'd last long, even if you still had two good feet." Cyryl smiled sadly. "You need our help."

"Your help's needed here," she returned.

Lang rose from her spot on the ground to stand above August and say, "As sweet as your sentiment sounds, us staying behind won't do you any good. You're obviously going to have to be led off the isle on White Lightning because Pidge isn't strong enough to carry heavy things that great of a distance. I'm certain your pirate fiends will be able to see the ship when it's sailing back. They could send a Taillow or whatnot after it and learn of Shaymin Island's whereabouts through this careless selfishness. Now, is that what you want? Do you want to lead pirates straight to this miracle Shaymin colony?"

"You would know if you were being followed."

"By a trained spy? I doubt it. You're much too generous to think so."

August opened her mouth to counter that the Zoroark's Deceit harbored no Pokémon spies only to stop short. There was one exception. He was the Pokémon Calico had named her ship after. The Zoroark's illusions made him a perfect candidate for Calico's undercover missions; she'd use him to check on potential mutinies for her. People, Pokémon, it didn't matter. Zo could conceal himself as anything.

Gazing at the bright red-and-orange embers of the fire, August tensed. She knew that color palette all-too-well; it matched the colors of the missing Pokémon whose irregular behavior had disturbed her.

"Kaso was a spy," she breathed out, chills running down her spine. "Kaso was Zo."

Omar blinked. "Kaso was what?"

August ran her fingers through her hair. It was so obvious now. "Shit, shit, shit. Kaso was Zo, Calico's Zoroark." Her speaking pace quickened as she voiced her thoughts aloud, "That's why Kaso changed so much when we left Nightkeep. It wasn't the shrooms killing the Pokérus an' letting Kaso live, it was Zo killing Kaso so zie could take zir spot an' live."

"Wait, could you slow down?" Lang pled, struggling to keep up.

Breezing past her, August rambled, "That's why Kaso left when we got to Verelum: Zo was going back to get Calico. She wanted to fight us while we were docked." Goosebumps speckled her skin. "She doesn't just want me dead. She would've fought earlier then."

All those nights ago when she'd wondered why Calico hadn't gotten her already had led back to one person whose sadistic pleasures were etched into her memory. His whispers had finally made their mark and tainted the wicked captain. He wasn't dead, not if his words lived on like this. Martim Vaz was alive.

She revealed lowly as her body went numb, "Calico wants to make a show to punish me. Right in front o' everyone. It'd stop her fear o' mutinies forever."

"We'll outrun her," Omar comforted, instantly distressed by her ghoulish reaction. He nodded to himself. "White Lightning's the fastest ship in the sky. They won't be able to catch us."

Run. August had been running her whole life. Running from fights, guards, thieves, mercs. Running from family, responsibilities, her future, her past. She'd yet to outpace her past. No matter how hard or how fast she pushed herself, it always caught up to her in the end.

"No," she said, clenching her fists. Her fear combusted into flaming ire she'd felt towards Calico her entire life; she had nothing left to lose when facing her now. "I'm done running. If I run now, she'll just get me later. She doesn't give up. I won't give in."

"Then we're coming with you," Cyryl said, nodding in unison with Pidge as the Pidgeotto swooped in to perch beside zir.

Omar slid on his King's Gauntlet. The violet veins of the glove illuminated. "You can have your fight with Calico. We'll get the rest."

Lang began directing Nuri and Marley to gather her bags of herbs then turned to say, "There's no sense in running into a battle you know you're going to lose. It's time to prepare a proper strategy."

"As a team," August muttered to herself, truly understanding the warmth of the term as it filled her with hope. They were right, she supposed. She couldn't defeat Calico alone. But she wasn't alone anymore. Fire blazed in her eyes, deathly and furious. Watch it, Calico. You've got hell to pay.