Chapter Five: The Execution

Miyamoto awoke the next morning at 7:00, when the bright rays of the sun poured in through the window of her suite and spilled onto her face. She opened her eyes, squinted and closed them again. For a moment, she had the urge to get up and check on Musashi, change her diaper, get her a bottle… then she remembered where she was.

A quiet groan escaped her as she sat up and let the thick quilt that had been covering her fall into her lap. Sleepily, she walked over to where Virgil had set her two trunks the night before, and popped one open. From inside, she pulled out a fresh uniform dress and slipped it on. Miyamoto walked to the bathroom, and felt the cool tile under her bare feet as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. The reflection showed an agent who was in a place she didn’t want to be, chasing shadows and smoke and nothing more. However, beneath that awareness burned the knowledge that in 1 month- a mere 30 days- her whole life would be changed yet again… honestly employed, a loving mother, raising her beautiful daughter with her sister in Fuchsia City. It was that knowledge that gave Miyamoto the strength to smile and the courage to proceed with the day. She smiled to her reflection as the reached to her head and started to brush her hair. 30 minutes later, Miyamoto stepped out of her suite, dressed in her white thigh-high boots, uniform dress, and white gloves. She locked the door behind her, and walked to the elevator to go to the first floor. When she got to the elevator, she found Virgil waiting for her, holding a cup of coffee and obviously awake on caffeine.

"Virgil!" Miyamoto said with surprise. "Are you shadowing me or something?"

Virgil smiled at Miyamoto, completely unaware of the orders that would soon end her life. To him, she was just another visiting agent to whom he had been assigned to look after. However, Virgil had to admit that this agent was unlike any other visitor he had been told to look after in the past… she was completely beautiful and sweet. Oh, she certainly had the air of Team Rocket’s unique brand of militarism about her, but Virgil could tell that she didn’t really see it as so many others saw it… as a license of total authority and power. "I was assigned to you as a helper during your stay, Ma’am." Virgil replied. Commander Evans told me to meet you here this morning and escort you to the lobby to meet your expedition team."

"Oh. Well, thank you." Miyamoto replied with a smile. Virgil blushed ever so slightly as he pushed the button for the elevator. Miyamoto noticed this, and suppressed a chuckle. The young White Rocket had a little crush on her! "So do you know the agents who will be joining me?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, Ma’am." Virgil replied quickly. "Your team is made up of Agent Mogren, Agent Carroway, and Agent Hansen."

"Please, call me Miyamoto." Miyamoto said with a smile. Again, she noticed Virgil’s cheeks blushing a bright red. Miyamoto couldn’t get over how cute and sweet it was. "Can you tell me anything about those agents?"

The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened. Virgil and Miyamoto stepped out, and began to walk down a hallway that led to the main lobby of the Andes base. "Certainly, Ma- um, Miyamoto." Virgil replied. "Agent Hansen is a White Rocket. She’s been here for about a year. Agents Carroway and Mogren are both Black Rockets. I’m not sure how long they’ve been here exactly, but I know that Agent Mogren and Commander Evans are very good friends." Virgil paused as Miyamoto took this in and nodded. "Miyamoto? Can I ask you a question?" Virgil asked nervously.

Miyamoto stopped walking and looked at Virgil. "Yes?" she asked.

"Well, I know you’re here to check out that tunnel to look for remains of the Lost City of Mew." Miyamoto nodded. Virgil looked at the ground. "I feel so stupid asking this… but do you think you’ll find anything?"

"I don’t know." Miyamoto replied. "I don’t really think so, but, well, who can say?"

Virgil nodded. "It’s just that I remember my mother telling me stories about the Lost City years ago when I was a kid… It was my favorite story, but I never believed it could be true, and now… well, I just think it’d really be something to find, don’t you?"

Miyamoto smiled. She remembered when she still thought like Virgil, still believed in magic and fairy tales, still believed in things like buried treasures and lost cities, and the romantic tales of Mew. "If the legends are true, it certainly would be something. A whole city of just Mew…. Just imagine what it must have been like." She said.

Virgil smiled broadly as they continued to walk down the hall. In less than a minute, the were in the main lobby of the base, and Miyamoto saw Evans and the other agents waiting for her. The other three agents were dressed in their long coats (Mogren and Carroway in black, Hansen in white) and wearing large backpacks , ready to begin the expedition. Miyamoto realized she had left her long Andes base coat back up in the suite, but saw that Evans had one waiting for her. Miyamoto and Virgil approached the agents, and Evans smiled at her. "Thank you, Virgil. Go back up to Agent Randwhyte’s suite and make it up for her." Virgil nodded and turned around to head back up to the suite, smiling at Miyamoto as he did.

"I trust Virgil is performing to satisfaction, Agent Randwhyte?" Evans asked.

"Yes, he is, sir." Miyamoto replied. "He’s doing an excellent job."

"He has the makings of a good agent, even if he is rather easily excited." Evans said, dismissing the matter with that. "This is your expeditionary team, Agent Randwhyte." He said, gesturing at the three agents in coats. "This is White Rocket Lisa Hansen, Black Rocket Steven Carroway, and my closest lieutenant, Black Rocket Sean Mogren." Miyamoto smiled and shook hands with the three Rockets, sensing a warm welcoming feeling from Hansen, indifference from Carroway, and a strange coldness and disregard from Mogren. Miyamoto chose to ignore it, smiling at the three agents.

"Nice to meet you all." She began. "I’m sure we’ll have a productive time together." The three agents nodded with tight smiles.

"Now then, you four will begin your expedition today and report back to me by 1700 hours with your progress. I’ll relay it back to Madam Boss, and we’ll get her recommendations based on what we know at that point. Any questions?" Evans said, clapping his hands together.

Miyamoto shook her head and looked at the others, who simply looked back, their faces showing that they had no questions whatsoever. Henry smiled and handed the long black coat to Miyamoto. "Then good luck, agents. Proceed."

Miyamoto slipped the long black coat on and reached for the back pack that had been set at her feet by Evans when she had arrived. She looked inside it quickly as the other agents stood waiting without saying a word. Realizing it had ground markers, tracers, provisions, and some emergency medical supplies, Miyamoto closed it up and slung it over her shoulders. She then turned to the other agents and smiled. "Everyone ready?" The other agents nodded. "Anyone need to make a pit stop first?" Miyamoto asked with a grin.

Lisa chuckled at this, but a sharp look from Mogren quickly silenced her. "I’m certain that we are all ready, Agent Randwhyte." He said curtly. "We are fortunate enough to have a break in the weather. I suggest we move now while it lasts." Mogren’s tone told Miyamoto that his words were hardly as much a suggestion as they were an order. Sighing inwardly to herself, Miyamoto reminded herself that there were only 30 days as she nodded in reply and led the way out the door, leading the way to the shaft she had marked on her map of the base.

Twenty minutes later, they were on the very outskirts of the base, where a makeshift barricade, half buried in snow, had been set up to block agents from entering the shaft that led down into the mountain. Miyamoto led the group to the opening, and reached to her backpack. From inside, she drew a long black metal flashlight, and turned it on. The high powered beam cut through the darkness of the shaft and illuminated the next ten feet of the shaft, which Miyamoto noted was sheltered from the wind and free of snow. She turned back to face her companions. "No agents from this base have been down there?" she asked.

Carroway shook his head. "No. Madam Boss forbid us from entering it." He replied.

"Not that we didn’t want to." Lisa chimed in. "I remember the day we found the shaft and the artifacts… It was so exciting." Lisa wasn’t lying on this point… it had been very exciting, and she had been full of hopes and dreams that they really had found the Lost City. However, when Sean had come to her the previous night and explained the situation, she realized that there really couldn’t be anything in the shaft, not if Madam Boss had ordered an execution down there. Oh well, she thought, It’s time I stopped believing in such myths, anyway. She had accepted the mission, and was now playing her part expertly, knowing that this may well be the mission that would get her promoted to Black Rocket.

Mogren smiled, a smile colder than the snow around the group. "You’re the first agent to receive clearance to enter, Ms. Randwhyte. Lead the way." The mission was going perfectly. In an hour, he knew Miyamoto would be dead. Miyamoto, completely unaware of her impeding death, proceeded to lead the way down into the shaft.

Not far away, sheltered in a well concealed bunker, Evans watched the group enter the shaft through a small window. He then turned his attention to four blips on the small tracking unit he had with him as they moved along a small map of the shaft. He had outfitted their packs with tracers, and was able to know when they would be far down enough to issue the recall signal to Mogren’s silent pager. Then, when they were out and clear, it would all be over. Across the room from him, Black Rocket agent Raven Kaldron checked the weapon she had chosen for the job, a compact lightweight bazooka. Silently, efficiently, she reviewed the weapon, checked the alignment of the aiming scope, and checked the 4 small rockets she would soon load into the weapon and fire to cause the avalanche. She smiled to herself as she ran her fingers over the four cylinders, relishing their superb deadliness, and thinking of the mission she would soon carry out. What a story this would make to tell her little 5 year old niece Annie…. She glanced up at Evans, who sat in a chair, silently watching the blips on his tracer unit.

In the darkness of the shaft, Miyamoto led her party by the light of her flashlight. It was a good working light, but it couldn’t hope to properly illuminate the shaft, and Miyamoto began to wish she had never accepted the mission in the first place. Silently, she reminded herself of the payoff for the month, that beautiful thought of life with Musashi, and found the will to keep moving. However, all of her research, not to mention the cold wind and snow flurries of the Andes, had done nothing to truly prepare Miyamoto for the tunnels and caves she now found herself in. Outside her circle of light, pitch black darkness surrounded her. Although they had not gone down too deeply into the earth, the light of the sun and the dull howl of the cold wind outside had been replaced with a darkness and the sound of a slowly dripping underground stream. Save that, the only sound she could hear were the quiet steps of Mogren, Carroway, and Hansen behind her.

Despite the sound of the three agents behind her, Miyamoto felt alone-as if she had been transported to some strange alien world with nobody else there- not even her darling Musashi. Miyamoto swallowed hard and fought back a small tear as the thought of such a world ran through her mind.

Meanwhile, Henry sat in the outpost, still watching the progress of the group on his tracer. Of course, he didn’t have an accurate map of the tunnels and caves, but he could tell from the tracers how deeply into the caves the party had gone, and he had every confidence that Carroway’s tracking skills would enable him to lead Sean and Hansen when he issued the silent recall signal to their pagers. It was going to be all too easy to kill Miyamoto – she was far too trusting for a Black Rocket. It wouldn’t be long before Henry would send the signal, and then… well, it would all be over, wouldn’t it?

Henry glanced over at Raven, who sat patiently in the corner, idly playing with the belt on her long black uniform coat, her weapon ready and armed. She stared ahead with almost soulless eyes, ready for the execution that lay ahead of her. Henry turned his attention back to the tracking unit and saw that the expedition party was now 50 feet below the ground level into the tunnels. Henry smiled darkly. It wouldn’t be long now.

Running her hand along the wall, Miyamoto stared ahead into the darkness. Just what the hell did Madam Boss expect her to report on, anyway? There was nothing down here at all except for cold and darkness. With each step, Miyamoto could feel her annoyance with the whole situation growing. The Lost City of Mew… smoke and legends, nothing more. What was running through Madam Boss’ mind, anyway? Sheesh. That was when she felt something in the wall… an indentation. Intrigued, she turned her flashlight toward what her hand had felt. It was a carving of Mew embedded in the rock. If only for a second, Miyamoto’s heart fluttered.

In the outpost, Henry looked at the monitor. 100 feet below. It was time. "Agent Koldron." He said simply.

Raven looked up. "Yes, sir?"

"Move into position and stand by." Henry said. Raven nodded, picked up the bazooka, and walked out through the heavy bunker door. Once outside, she took her position on a cliff overlooking the entrance to the shaft and began to aim her weapon as she settled into a crouch. Inside the bunker, Henry watched Raven take her position through the small window slit. He reached for the remote transmitter and pressed the button, sending the silent signal to Sean, Carroway, and Hansen.

"Sean! Steven! Lisa!" Miyamoto called a second after the three agents had felt their pagers vibrate on silent mode, telling them it was time to pull back out of the shaft. The three agents joined her, led by Mogren.

"What is it, Randwhyte?" Mogren asked, searching for the chance to ditch Miyamoto.

"Look! It’s a carving of Mew!" Miyamoto replied excitedly. "Proof of a tribe, at least."

Mogren looked at the carving, unimpressed. He was sure it was only proof of a tribe of Mew and nothing more, totally worthless to him… or was it? Of course! This was it! His window of opportunity had opened! Motioning for Carroway and Hansen to follow his lead, Mogren stepped forward with an excited look on his face.

"It is! A stone carving… this could be one of the signs!" Mogren said, trying to sound genuinely interested. Behind him, Carroway and Hansen stepped forward, excited expressions on their faces.

"This must be documented for Madam Boss. Miyamoto, why don’t you explore further, and we’ll stay here and record what we can of the carving." Mogren said, an evil glint in his eye barely hidden by the darkness.

Miyamoto smiled at Mogren. Once again, she felt energized and excited about this mission… Maybe there was something special down here… something wonderful and magical. Miyamoto nodded at Mogren. "Right. I’ll go on ahead. Just catch up when you’re done." Mogren smiled back at Miyamoto and watched her head off deeper into the shaft excitedly as he turned back to face Carroway and Hansen.

"Should we document this, Sean?" Carroway asked, wondering if Mogren had been serious at all.

"Nah. Just evidence of a Mew tribe. They’re a dime a dozen. There’s evidence of them all over the world. The important thing is that this is our chance. Now, while, that bimbo is down there, we get out . Lead the way, Steven." Sean replied curtly.

With that, Carroway turned around and led the three quickly and quietly back up the tunnel. In the bunker, Henry smiled as he watched Miyamoto’s blip continue to descend as the others headed back up to the surface. Henry picked up his radio and told Raven to get ready, to start her countdown when the group of three was safely out.

In the tunnel, Steven, Sean, and Lisa ran quickly up the shaft, trying to put as much distance between themselves and Miyamoto as possible. Before long, they saw the light of the shaft opening up ahead. Steven climbed out first, then turned to help pull Lisa and Sean out. As soon as they were out, Lisa pulled a bright orange marker flag out of her pack and waved it in the air. Raven saw it, and responded by waving her own bright red flag. The signal had been given – the three were out. Now they had two minutes to get in the clear, and then Raven would fire her four rounds, nicely sealing Miyamoto in the cave with a wall of snow. There was no turning back now; the execution was on. Sean, Steven, and Lisa ran faster than they had run coming up the shaft, racing out of the clearing to the safety of the bunker where Evans stood waiting for them.

Down in the shaft, Miyamoto’s light showed her that she was coming up on a solid wall. A dead end, it seemed, and a major disappointment after finding the carving. Deciding to take a closer look, Miyamoto stepped closer to the wall and shone her flashlight on it. She was surprised to find another indentation here – though this one was no carving of Mew – just a simple rectangle. Discouraged, Miyamoto leaned back against the wall to rest for a minute before heading back to rejoin the others. That was when it happened. When she leaned back, she heard the sound of stone scraping against stone. The indentation wasn’t a carving… it was a switch! Miyamoto straightened up and stepped back, turning around quickly. The large stone adjacent to the wall she had leaned on was sliding back, like a massive door. Miyamoto’s mouth hung open as she stepped through the open doorway and shone her beam of light into the hidden chamber. Inside, a domed cavern ceiling stretched up a good 150 feet or more, into the base of the mountain, and many structures carved from the rock, some tall and some small, stood covered with carvings and ancient symbols. Miyamoto was filled with giddy disbelief as she shone her flashlight over the carved symbols and they glittered in the light with golden sparkles. She had found it…. She had found the legend…. She had found the Lost City of Mew. Scarcely able to believe her eyes at all, she turned around and ran out of the chamber and began to run back up the narrow winding shaft to where she had left the others about 5 minutes ago.

At that moment, Raven’s watch quietly beeped. The two minutes were up. The three agents would be in or near the bunker by now and it was safe to fire the rounds. Raven smiled as she took her aim at the snow banks above the shaft opening and fired. She loved this part of the job. Raven quickly reloaded and fired again, then again, then once again as she fired the final fourth rocket. The rockets found their target swiftly, hitting the snow and rock with muted explosions, and caused the snow and rocks to fall in front of and into the shaft.

Miyamoto, halfway back to the point where she had left the others, felt the vibrations from the explosions and looked around frantically, thinking at first that the vibrations were an earthquake. However, she soon realized what was happening when she saw traces of snow falling down the tunnel. Snow this deep in the tunnel… it could only be caused by a lot of snow falling into the entrance of the tunnel.

Miyamoto prayed that she was wrong in her guess as she ran back up the tunnel and came face to face with the wall of snow that had fallen down the shaft. It was then that Miyamoto fully realized that the vibrations had not been an earthquake, but deliberate explosions – explosions intended to seal her down here. Miyamoto grasped blindly for an answer, a way out, and then realized that there was none to be found. When she fully realized this, Miyamoto fell to the ground, her body wracked with violent sobs of anger, despair and sadness. Miyamoto held no delusions – she knew she was going to die. Alone, forsaken, betrayed… and the biggest torture of all, she was going to die without ever seeing her beautiful daughter ever again. The tears came like a river now, as Miyamoto curled into a fetal position and kept screaming between sobs, "Noooo…. My baby… I love you, Musashi… I love you…."

Meanwhile, up by the ceiling of the tunnel high above Miyamoto, two big blue eyes surrounded by pink fur stared unblinkingly down from the darkness at the sobbing Black Rocket. Telepathically, the form in the darkness sensed her despair and the worst sadness of all that Miyamoto was feeling – that she had lost her daughter forever. Slowly, the floating figure emitted a low, mournful cry – "Meeeeewwww." A tear ran down the Mew’s cheek – a tear of pity, sorrow, and compassion – for the Mew also knew what it was like to lose a child; She had herself when the Day of Ending had come for the city. Silently, the Mew cried golden, sparkling tears that fell to the ground and mixed with Miyamoto’s tears as two mothers mourned their loss together, and the two – the rarest Pokemon of all time and the Team Rocket Agent – were as one, united in sorrow.

Chapter Six: Fate