Author’s note: I have been wanting to write a sequel to Generation K for a while, and I’m so glad that now I have the chance! This story takes place directly after Seleulc2’s fic, “Innocent Cry”. All praise for the fanfic goes to Jesus, for apart from Him we can do nothing! Thank you!

“I am the vine, you are the branches if a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Disclaimer: I don’t own Team Rocket or any of that copy-written stuff. And I don’t own Annie or Cherish Masterson, Laura Cummings, or the idea of Red Rockets/The Resort. Credit for that goes to Allan. Many thanks Seleulc2!!!

Dare to Hope

Part 1

It was surprising. No, it was more than that. How about absolutely beyond belief?

I didn’t know quite what to expect when Michael asked me to meet him at Mount Moon that day. I prayed that he was not going to ask me to come back once more to Team Rocket. Never again did I want to return to that place of horrible memories where I was reminded of brokenness and failure. Honestly, I was hoping for a, “Hi Katastrophie, I just missed you and thought we should get together.”

But no. I should have known better. Unfortunately, he was never able to appear without a reason. At least this time however, he was not asking me to make a life or death decision. In several ways though, this was even more shocking than before.

All of my life my parents, Jesse and James Morgan, had told me stories about a woman whom was the greatest adversary they had ever faced. She was blinded by her hate for my father and, soon after, my mother as well. She had tried more than once to murder them both before being declared insane and thrown into a Team Rocket prison called The Resort. My mother despised her with every part of her self and soul while my father (though acting like he wasn’t) was always terrified of her very name.

I never knew what happened to this person. I didn’t even know if she was still alive after so long at The Resort. Then suddenly Michael appears with a request. Not only has he very calmly brought her along, but my parents too stood tranquilly next to her as though they had been friends for years and years.

Red Rocket Annie Masterson was now to be my ally.

I whole-heartedly believed the story my brother told me of how it came to pass that her life had experienced a turnaround, but still it was unreal for her to be walking side by side with my friends and I now. The day before I had known her as an enemy of the worst kind and today she was a friend in need.

“We’re almost to Cerulean,” Kyle announced after what really didn’t seem like a long time walking. “But I better warn you Annie, my parents can’t know you’re from Team Rocket. They’ve always been rather against that little organization.”

I nodded in agreement and looked to our newest member. “That’s right. We’ve spent the last six months living at their gym and they don’t even know about me.”

For a reply she only nodded, looking content just to rock the baby in her arms back and forth a hundred times.

“But you don’t have to worry too much,” Lunia put in. “You see, after trekking around for five and a half years we decided to take a well-deserved break to just stay in one spot. Lately though, we’ve been getting restless and eager to get back on the road. We were planning to leave in a couple days.”

Kyle said, “That’ll give you time to get some supplies for…what’s your baby’s name?”

“Cherish,” Annie answered proudly. “My daughter’s name is Cherish.”

“Right… Do you have any money?”

“A little.”

I turned to my boyfriend. “Your mom and dad love children don’t they? I’m sure they’d be glad to help out.”

“Whatever,” was his short response. I could tell that he was less than thrilled about this entire ordeal. He never had been one to warm up to new people easily, and now we had one older member and a noisy baby (as he saw it) to get used to.

As we approached our destination I even heard him muttering something along the lines of, “Four females…what have I gotten myself into?”

Soon we were walking down the gravel path that lead to the Cerulean City Gym. I still laughed every time I saw the ridiculous building. It was colorful and showy, but I must say, the giant Dewgong on its roof topped everything off. It looked far from a professional gym.

Mrs. Ketchum had come to meet us at the main entrance.

“Oh sweetie you’re back!” she chimed happily at her son. Then she noticed Annie. “Good heavens, who is this?”

Kyle was about to introduce her when the former Red extended one hand and said, “Anne Masters.”

I looked at her curiously before realizing that it was probably best to not reveal her true name to the public just yet.

The orange-haired woman smiled returned the handshake. “Pleasure! I’m Misty.”

“Anne is an old family friend of mine,” I told Mrs. Ketchum. “She’ll be going on with us for a while.

Beaming, her eyes were fixed on Cherish. “Splendid! And who may I ask is this lovely child?”

“This is my daughter Cherish,” Annie said softly, as though she was still getting used to the idea herself.

For the remainder of the day, Kyle’s mother fussed around Annie and the baby, always asking if she could do anything for either of them, telling her husband, Ash, to find and set out their son’s old crib, asking Lunia and Kyle to prepare a room for the two guests, and inquired upon me to run an errand to the convenience store down the road for diapers.

She provided me with a 20-dollar bill and said, “Get as many as you can dear!”

So soon I was heading back out again down the gravel path. By then the sun was setting and stars began to dot the sky above city lights. As I reached the sidewalk of the main street I noticed that it was unusually deserted. Never the less, I hummed to myself carelessly as I passed under the light of a street lamp.

Then all of a sudden I felt a strange, eerie, cold chill ooze down my spine. Surprised, I stopped and looked around.

Everything seemed to be in place: the occasional car passing by, the stores along the street beginning to close their doors, a few Hoot-Hoots waking from their day long naps. But something somewhere did not feel right.

I continued on, leaving the light and entering a shady patch of the sidewalk. In the corner of my eye I thought I saw a shadow moving across the street, but when I turned to look there was only the darkened silhouette of a tree and its leaves swaying in the wind.

I hurried into the light cast by the next street lamp, half expecting something to happen. But startlingly, all was quite still in Cerulean City. Nonetheless, I quickened my pace and soon the convenience store was in sight. I tried to block out nervous thoughts entering my mind, keeping my focus on the lights of the shop. Practically dashing down the road, I arrived at my objective and threw the glass door open so hard I was afraid it might break.

The store clerk glanced up at me, “Er- can I help you?”

I found myself embarrassed. I was being stupid. There was nothing wrong out there. “No thanks, I um- just need a few things.”

I began to relax as I purchased as many packs of diapers as I could with the money, then walked almost calmly back down the street.

When I was halfway back to the gym, I heard a noise… a shoe grinding on pavement behind me. As soon as I turned to look, I saw nothing at all. Upon uneasily resuming my walk I heard it again, only this time over and over like footsteps. Too afraid to look back now, I went faster and faster, but so did they. I sprinted to Kyle’s home, down the path and through the main door at last, slamming the door behind me. I almost knocked the startled Mr. Ketchum over.

“Um, hello Kat. My goodness you ran that errand quickly. Are you alright? You’re out of breath.”

“Yes,” I heaved, handing him the diapers, “I’m just fine. Where are Kyle and Lunia?”

“In his room I believe, but are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

“Everything’s great!” I shuffled hastily off to Kyle’s room, leaving the black-haired man staring puzzled after me.

I did not even bother to knock before bursting through the door and closing it tightly behind me. My two friends looked up from the card game they had engaged in.

“Kat? What’s wrong?” Lunia asked in wonder.

“Where’s Annie?” I whispered.

“In her room feeding Cherish. Why?”

“Can she hear us?”

Kyle shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Good. I don’t want to upset her.”

“What’s up?”

“Some one followed me home from the store,” I said even more quietly. “I never saw who it was, but I have a horrible feeling that it was a Rocket.”

Kyle leaped to his feet. “What?! How could they already know where Annie is?!”

“That’s what scares me. Domino must have search parties all over Kanto. And she knows my family was helping Annie. It’s not a hard connection to make. For her sake and ours, we have to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Where could we go?” Lunia inquired. “If that slime is crawling all over the place, how can we hide?”

After a moment Kyle replied, “I have an idea. Listen, there is going to be a big tournament in the Orange Islands next week. I could tell my parents and Annie that I want to compete in it and we have to leave now. But really we could go to one of the smaller, less known islands down there and hide out.”

“Perfect!” my female friend cried. “That sounds like a plan! But of course you know that you can’t really compete, right Kyle? I mean we couldn’t risk revealing ourselves like that.”

“I know.”

She seemed unconvinced. “You sure? ‘Cause I know how much you’d like to battle in a competition like that, and it would be just like you to use this as an excuse to get there.”

“I’m sure. But it might not be a bad idea to bring a few experienced pokemon just in case we do run into some Rockets… My family has an expert in the field.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Just what pokemon are you thinking of?”

But his only response was a smile.

The next morning we each sat down to eat with the Ketchums and a very tired looking Annie.

“Cherish give you a hard time last night?” I asked her.

The woman rubbed her eyes. “Yes. There were several times that I just couldn’t get her to stop crying.”

Kyle’s mother grinned. “Babies tend to be like that, bless their little hearts. When Kyle was young, let me tell you…”

My boyfriend cleared his throat. “Mom, Dad- I’d like to tell you that I’ve decided that my friends and I are leaving today. I want to compete in the Orange League Tournament.”

“Excellent!” Ash Ketchum cried. “I battled in a league over there once and won it! I know you’ll do well!”

His wife seemed less excited than he. “But why do you have to leave today, honey? Are your friends alright with this?”

“It sounds good to us!” I piped in. “Right Anne?”

Her brown eyes were curious, but she complied, “Sure…”

“The tournament starts very soon,” Kyle explained, “I need to get there and enter as soon as I can.”

“How do you plan to get around?” His mother questioned. “The islands are small and that type of competition takes a lot of traveling, I remember.”

“Well that’s where you come in.” He straightened up in his chair. “Mom, I want to request use of your Lapras.”

“My Lapras? But I need it to battle my challengers!”

“You have Golduck, Starmie, and lots of other good pokemon. We need a way of transportation that we can carry in something like a pokeball. Lapras is full-grown and awfully fast. Please Mom? We need her.”

She only sat and blinked for a minute before softening and smiling like a mother. “Alright Kyle. If the tournament starts that soon you may not be gone that long anyway.”

“Thank you.” He then turned to his father whom was just taking a bite of his scrambled eggs. “Dad? There’s one more thing I’d like to ask. The competition has gotten very challenging over there. I hear some of the best trainers around are entering. If I want to last long and keep the Ketchum name alive in the Hall of Fame, I’m going to need the best of the best pokemon. I want to take Raichu.”

Mr. Ketchum’s food caught in his throat. Coughing, he beat one fist on his chest then took a large drink of milk. He put his glass down loudly. “You- you want who?!”

Kyle was getting less forceful now. “Raichu. He’s the greatest. Undefeated since he evolved.”

“And?”

“And-and I’d like to use him.”

“Are you serious?!”

“Yes Dad. I’m requesting the use of your best pokemon.”

“Are you saying the ones you have aren’t strong enough?”

“I’m saying I want a sure fire back up. Are you saying that you can’t be strong without Raichu?”

“Of course not!”

“Then why not let me take him?”

“Because! Think how long you might be gone!”

“Mom just said that it probably wouldn’t take very long.”

“Well-well…”

Mrs. Ketchum put one elbow on the table and leaned her head on her palm, quite amused. “Ash?”

Everyone held their breath in their throat and their eyes on him.

He looked around at his audience noting the unspoken sense that he was alone in his argument.

“But-“

With a growl of frustration he slapped his forehead. “Fine. You have permission to take Raichu, but you’ll have to ask him first.”

Kyle grinned. “Thanks Dad! We won’t let you down!”

His last line was so heart-felt that it made me nervous. As we left Cerulean City later that morning I whispered to him so Annie wouldn’t hear, “You do remember that you’re not really competing right?”

“Er…of course.”

My senses were as alert as they could be as we traveled; listening, watching, waiting for a sign that we were being followed. But thankfully none came. Our journey to Pewter City was suspiciously successful. The only draw back came as we next headed into Viridian Forest. Annie was tired from lack of sleep the previous night an walked slower than the rest of us.

Lunia and I slowed to her pace but Kyle stubbornly maintained his speed until he was so far ahead that he had to stop and wait for us to catch up. The Raichu stayed at his heels although it looked like it would rather have been with the rest of us.

“Must we not go any faster than a Slowbro?” he asked annoyed.

“Must you not have any manners?” I replied back at him.

“What? I want to get to the bay in Pallet Town tonight.”

“Pallet? Tonight? Are you crazy? That sun is nearly set.”

“So?”

“So the rest of us are tired. We’re making camp here.”

“Fine,” he snarled.

“Honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten in to him,” I muttered to Lunia. “All of a sudden he’s impatient and irritable.”

But the worst was yet to come.

Cherish cried all night again, no matter how many times Annie sat in the cold grass and rocked her. Lunia even tried once, singing and cradling the little baby, but nothing helped. Kyle laid on his sleeping bag with his pillow rudely over his ears until finally she fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

The former Red slept, too, in a sitting position so her daughter would have a place to rest.

Just as I was about to join my travel members in blissful sleep, I felt it again. A cold chill running from my neck down to my lower back. I gasped and sat upright. Looking around in the darkness proved to be a fruitless effort, so I got up and walked carefully around the camp, searching behind every tree and groping blindly to make sure everything felt as though it was in place. When I came to Kyle’s dozing form I whispered to the pokemon next to him, “Raichu.”

The electric mouse perked its ears then looked up at me. “Rai?”

“Do a teensy thunder shock for me so I can have a look around.”

It obeyed at once and created enough of an electric field around itself for me to see the camp. Not a leaf in the foliage was unturned. Perhaps I was just imagining things.

But as Raichu ceased its attack, it came yet again. This time at the exact moment that I felt the chill creeping along my spine, Cherish suddenly burst out crying. Annie suddenly jumped awake and commenced in cradling her baby again. “Shh, Cherish, shh. Please sleep baby.”

I was beginning to become unglued. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but I knew that something was. If someone was there, they were doing a wonderful job of hiding. I felt like crying myself. This was almost as bad as that night that I sat awake, waiting to be assassinated by Li and Virginia. Only this time, I had no idea what to expect.

Whether it was because of Cherish crying or my own anxiety, I slept very little that night. We were all relieved when the sun had risen and a new day was to begin.

Kyle, Lunia, and I had eaten a light breakfast and were giving Annie a few minutes alone to feed her baby when my male companion exceeded the limit of my nerves. He repeatedly glanced at his watch and said, “What’s taking her so long?”

Lunia frowned. “Give her time. We’re not in THAT big a hurry. What are you so upset about?”

Instead of answering he stared down the path we were following towards Viridian City.

“Kyle…” I breathed as if reading his thoughts. “You really do want to compete in the Orange Islands tournament, don’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“But this whole thing was your idea! How can you be so selfish? We agreed that you couldn’t really enter because we can’t risk revealing ourselves like that right now! Team Rocket knows I’m with you and they’ll find out that Annie is with me!”

The expression he gave me next was not the loving one I used to know so well but one of a cruel, hardened heart. “Then maybe I shouldn’t be with you.”

Disbelief overcame me. “What…?”

“Look -both of you- we’ve spent the past six years together. I think it’s time to grow up and go our separate ways.

Lunia’s frown turned to a scowl. “So! Your pokemon and your battles have become more important than your friends!”

He returned her glare. “Those are your words, not mine.”

“I don’t believe it!” She screamed furiously.

At first I was simply paralyzed with shock. Then my hands clenched themselves into fists and began to shake with anger. “Not so fast,” I said through clenched teeth. “I believe you owe me something.”

I knew that this would bring the truth out. When Kyle and I had first met, we placed a bet on one of his pokemon battles with five dollars as the prize. He lost and I won the money fair and square, but he would always find a reason to not give me what he owed. It was my motivation to start following him around until we eventually became friends. Whenever times were tough or we had a disagreement I would remind him of the five dollars that were our original reason for being together.

On every occasion in the past, it strengthened us, but now he just stood there, looking nastily down at me. Finally he reached into his pocket and pulled out a five-dollar bill. It was the same one that he had given me when I had to leave him and go back to Team Rocket, it was the same one that I had returned unto him when I came home to my friends, it was the sacred one; the special one. But all that meant nothing to him now for he took it and crumpled it into a pathetic wad before throwing it in my face.

“C’mon Raichu,” Kyle muttered to his pokemon as he turned and walked straight away without even looking back.

It hesitated, looking sorrowfully up at me for a second before slowly following its master.

I was quite firm and stood my ground until he was well out of sight. Then, as if something had snapped, my knees gave away and I was on the ground, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Putting one hand on my shoulder, Lunia bent down beside me. “I can’t believe he did that,” she said like the best friend she was. “You deserve better.”

Just then Annie approached us looking a bit concerned. “What’s wrong?” she asked, stepping through two trees and onto the patch of grass in which we resided.

“Kyle left!” I sobbed. “He’s gone and I don’t even know why! He’s been drifting farther and farther away…” I suddenly stopped as I realized a certain fact. Pointing at the ex-Rocket I cried, “Ever since YOU came!!”

Masterson appeared not to be phased. “Alright then. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”

Like she was a mirror image of Kyle she turned and walked straight away, exactly as he had.

“Kat…” Lunia said with a little hint of disappointment in her voice, “you can’t blame this on her.”

I resumed with my tears and spat, “Are you going to leave me too?!”

“Of course not,” she replied soft and tenderly.

The two of us sat there for an hour as I cried and she patiently waited for me to be calm. At long last my eyes ran out of tears to shed.

“Are you ready?” my friend asked gently.

I nodded sadly and she helped me to stand. We continued on the dusty, rocky path to Viridian. Seeing that I was taking slow, small step and was walking with my head hung, Lunia remarked, “You know, I don’t think any one is really to blame here. Maybe none of us got enough sleep last night. Maybe we are all just tired and irritable. I don’t know. But one thing is for sure. What Kyle did is not Annie’s fault. In all seriousness, what do you think your brother would say if he knew you caused her to leave; unprotected and all alone with her baby?”

Her words hit me pretty hard. What would Michael think? Here he and Dad asked me to watch out for Annie and instead I had made her go off on her own for no reason. Something terrible may have happened between Kyle and I, but I still had a task to see through.

I ran my fingers through my red ponytail and admitted, “You’re right. We need to find Annie.”

“Good!” Lunia exclaimed. “I miss Cherish already. But I doubt they would be traveling to Viridian City. Isn’t that where the Team Rocket Head Quarters is? I know you mentioned that once.”

I sighed. “Good point. That means she could be anywhere.”

Whatever my companion said next I did not hear for all at once the same cold, anxious chill that I had felt twice before consumed me. At the same moment the sound of a baby crying sounded in the distance. Cherish felt it too. This time I was absolutely sure that something was not right. In fact, something was terribly, horribly wrong.

In a heartbeat I was tearing through the forest after the sound of Cherish’s bawling.

“Kat? Wait! Where are you going?” my friend called while dashing after me.

If I had been sure myself, I might have told her, but all that came to me was that there was trouble, and I needed to be there. I blindly chased the baby’s cries until long after my breath caught in my chest and began to run a race of its own. At long last I saw a figure in the distance among the trees. Drawing closer proved that it was clearly Annie, back facing towards me. She had apparently stopped to try and calm her daughter.

The shiver never left my backbone, causing my anxiety to increase to a maximum and call out, “Annie! Get out of there now!” I wanted her to run with Lunia and I. We could go to anywhere as long as it was not here.

Startled, she looked back at me with an expression of bewilderment. “What the heck are you doing?”

What proved to be both the climax and the end of my run happened then as I finally reached the woman, and pushed on her back to try and get her to scamper away with me. But she only took one step forward then resisted against my hands in misunderstanding. It was this step that saved her life. For at that moment a gunshot was fired from somewhere in the woods. Had she been standing where she first was, the bullet would have hit her full force, but instead there was a slicing sting across my back.

Instinctively, I screamed in pain and sank to the ground. Annie stared at me in disbelief and Lunia shouted confused words of worry. I was never quite sure what they were. Between my hard breathing and whirling thoughts I did not know what exactly was happening. But one thing was clear; Team Rocket was certainly out there, and they had tried to kill Annie. Another attack would not be far off.

Even though my vision was blurry and my arms ached, I pushed myself up and engaged in running again.

“No wait! Stop!”

The wound on my back felt less than a gunshot. It felt more like someone had drawn out a whip and given me a lash. I pretended that this was what really happened as I sprinted along so that maybe my mind would believe it and I would have the strength to do what I was hoping.

I stopped in a clearing after a minute of running to catch both my breath and my thoughts. What exactly was I hoping to do here? Stop the Rocket…with what? I was completely unarmed.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you, sweetie.”

A cold metal was suddenly pressed against the back of my neck. Whether I was following orders or just to scared to move I was not certain.

“Good,” said a woman’s voice.

The mysterious individual freed her gun from its deadly position, however it was still targeted at me as she started to amble around into my vision. The green-eyed female wore a Red Rocket uniform (no astonishment there). Her curly, light brown hair was tied back in a low ponytail. The handle of the long shot gun in her hands was fancily engraved with the name: L. Cummings

Though she was not much taller than myself, I felt like a small child staring horrified up at the monster under the bed.

“I don’t know how you did it,” Ms. Cummings said casually as I tried not to let her see that my knees were shaking, “but somehow you always knew that I was there. You could always guess when I was about to launch the surprise attack that I’m famous for. And now you’ve ruined my easy, definite shot at Masterson. All of Team Rocket has been ordered to find her and bring her in, dead or alive, so I was going to kill you all and take the baby anyway. May as well start with you, here and now. But first…enlighten me… Why do you care so much for the one agent who has had an undying hate against your parents for two and a half decades? A year ago she would have killed you without a second thought of it. Why are you willing to be scrapped by a bullet instead of letting me shoot her today?”

“She’s…changed now…” I muttered, trying to be brave.

“How can you be sure?” the barrel of her gun fit under my chin as she continued. “What if Masterson is deceiving you and your family so she can make her deadly move? She was a Red for years. She’s bound to be excellent at playing fronts, being in disguise, baiting her victims. Perhaps you’re allowing yourself to be lured into a trap.”

This was something I had not considered that was indeed plausible. Though I had to think…after all this time if Daddy trusted her…and Mom and Meowth…and Michael. Not much could get past my brother. Even by the slimmest chance that Annie fooled him and all the others, there was one thing that kept me standing there before a killer, about to loose my life but firm in stature and belief. I nobly replied, “She might be. You’re right, I can’t be sure. But either way, I will not let my family down again.”

The agent shrugged. “Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore. You’ll be dead.”

As she raised her gun to my forehead an odd thought came to my mind. It was a memory from long, long ago.

“You’re so pathetic! I can’t believe it! You were born into Team Rocket, you’re 8 years old, and you don’t even know how to hold a pistol!”

“Leave me alone Li… I’m trying my hardest.”

“’Trying?’ How many summers of camp is it going to take for you to get it? You don’t belong here, baka. Someday I’m going to be an assassin an’ hunt you down! Ha ha! Yeah! I’m going to kill you, you little ‘Katastrophie!’ Ha ha!”

“Hey! Lay off my little sister Li, or you’ll wish someone would hunt YOU down!”

“Oh yeah, Mikey? And why is that?”

“’Cause what I’ll do to you is much worse!”

“Thanks, big brother.”

“Stay away from those twins, Katastrophie. They’re nothing but trouble.”


Then another memory flashed by. This time a much better one. A little boy with floppy, messy brown hair and eyes like the sea. He had markings on his cheeks that almost made it seem like he needed to wash his face.

“My name is Kyle Ketchum.”

“I’m Katas- uh, my name’s Kat.”

“Nice to meet you, but I better get going. I have to face the Astrolight City Gym leader for my first badge!”

Bet you five dollars you loose.”

“You’re on!”


Time had literally stopped as next my mind recalled the feeling of drowning lungs, and a body prepared to give up when suddenly I was coughing up water.

“Kitty Kat? Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

“Where are you?”

“It’s okay, I’m right here.”

Lunia’s voice added, “I’m here too.”

He was smiling. “Welcome back.”

“What happened? How am I still alive?”

She explained, “We saw you go over the waterfall, but we had to wait until those two creeps were gone. Naturally, both of us we worried, but Kyle got a little excited. He just dove straight in after you! I held onto my Murkrow’s feet and had it aim a whirlwind attack at the ground. I landed on the bank just as Kyle found you and pulled you onto the shore. You weren’t breathing so he-“

“That’s enough Chaos!”

“What?! I’m just telling her what happened…”


Then came a very recent image.

“Then maybe I shouldn’t be with you.”

“What…?”

And then the memory of a slicing pain across my back that returned me to the gruesome reality. My injury still throbbed, Kyle was still gone, and I was still about to be murdered. Uh-oh. My life had flashed before my eyes. This was it. I was as good as dead.

Strangely enough, my killer seemed to be as frozen as I. She stood with her shotgun aimed perfectly so that one movement of her finger would easily annihilate me. However, instead she was a statue whose eyes were far off and pondering.

Just then those eyes grew wide and her mouth stretched into a scheming smirk. “No…” she said. “No, I have a much better idea.”

She grabbed my arm and before I could even try to get away there was an extreme bash on the back of my head. In what little consciousness I pertained, I perceived that I fell onto the ground.

Ms. Cummings’ voice barked into a communicating device, “Laura Cummings to base. I need a helicopter as soon as possible…I’ll get to Viridian City in no time, pick me up there…requesting passage to The Resort…”

Soon after there was no sight and no sound. All that remained was pain and darkness. Then only darkness, then nothing at all.

“Katastrophie Morgan, eh? Ah, yes. She’s been a runaway and a troublemaker from the start. I can’t understand why they didn’t bring her in sooner.”

“Where shall I put her, sir? All the cells have at least one inmate by now. Many have two. Some of the larger ones even have three crammed in them.”

“I don’t care, Grunt 53. Put her in with another Morgan. I’m sick of having new nameplates made.”

“Yes sir.”

There was the smell of a shirt that had not been washed in days. The faint scent of familiar cologne lingered somewhere. And a hint of old gunpowder from a revolver that was a favorite but barely ever used.

This was the smell of a person that I knew well. But at the moment I couldn’t identify them. My head was spinning and my thoughts were jumbled. The cut on my back continued to ache while my stomach felt nauseous.

Someone’s hand was slowly stroking my hair. When I groaned and blinked open my eyes, it stopped.

“Take it easy, Katastrophie. It looks like you were hit pretty hard.”

Ah. My brother’s voice. We were both on a hard, cold floor, leaning on the wall behind us. I picked my head up from where it had been laying on his chest and tried to look around. Wherever we were, it was dark. So dark in fact that I couldn’t see anything in the least and for a moment feared that I had gone blind.

“Your eyes will adjust soon. Lay back down.”

I did. When I opened my mouth and asked, “Where are we?” I found that my voice was raspy and coarse. So I had to cough and clear my throat.

Michael waited and then answered, “We’re in a cell at The Resort.”

The Resort? No! How could they have taken me here? I had not done a thing wrong! I wasn’t even on Team Rocket anymore!

“I’m here because there was no way Giovanni and Domino could forget that the Morgans turned against them to help Annie.”

“Mom and Dad are here too?” I asked, already feeling like my sanity was slipping away.

“Yes. And Constance and Meowth as well.”

“They took Meowth?! Even though he’s a pokemon?”

“They put him in a pokeball and tossed him into the cabinet with all the other confiscated items. It’s the same as prison to that poor cat.”

“But- why am I in a cell with you? I thought inmates were doomed to solitary confinement.”

Michael sighed. “Team Rocket has plunged very far in a very short time. Giovanni has never been beaten so badly. He’s not dead after all, just paralyzed from the waist down. The man has gone literally insane! After he sent an entire squad of agents to arrest us all and throw us in here, the whole Resort thing has gone to his head. Any Rocket who so much as looks at him or Domino the wrong way is detained and brought here. Why, by the number of new prisoners that pass by the cell every hour I’d say that almost seventy-five percent of all of Team Rocket is in here. And that’s not even counting the ones caged up on the floor above us. I heard two guards talking and saying how they’ve run clear out of places to put people. Inmates have had to double up and share a cell. Usually, the first free one the Grunts can find. Just luck, I guess, that they put you with me. Maybe they just didn’t want to make a new nameplate.

“But how did you get sucked into this anyway, Katastophie? Can’t they just leave you alone? And what about Annie and Cherish? Are they alright?”

I began my explanation from the moment I had last seen my brother at Mount Moon to earlier that day when a Red Rocket had tried to kill me but changed her mind.

“I don’t remember anything after that,” I concluded, “but I still don’t know why I’m here instead of dead.”

From where I lay, Michael placed his arm over my shoulders. “If those are the choices Little Sister, I’m glad you’re here.”

Smiling, I nestled my head further onto his chest. “Me too. Michael…why do you think I would get that weird chill sometimes?”

“That actually surprises me quite a bit,” he answered. “It’s something I’ve only heard about. They say when an agent has been with the team for so long that they know nothing else, they can recognize all shapes and forms of trouble so well that they are able to tell when it’s coming. A sort of feeling.

“Cherish, the child of two Reds, would cry whenever she felt the chill; she was trying to warm you that trouble was coming even if she didn’t realize it, which means that the Boss was right. She would have made the ideal agent someday. Now you on the other hand, a failed Rocket (no offense), have it at a young age and with little experience. You both somehow acquired it at birth. Yours was just manifested later in your life. The fact that you have this talent tells me that all along you’ve had the potential to become an amazing agent.

He paused. “But I’ve been your sun block. You grew in my shadow and were expected to do things my way instead of your own. If it wasn’t for me you probably would have been great. If it wasn’t for me, you could’ve had everything on Team Rocket.”

This was a lot to take in. In a matter of minutes I had gone from being the worst thing the team had ever seen to having the potential of the best.

I wrapped both my arms around Michael’s middle and squeezed him. “I’d rather have you.”

He responded by stroking my hair again. I could have sworn I felt a drop much like a tear hit the top of my head, but I knew that if I asked my big brother about it he would say that the ceiling was wet or a small storm cloud had formed inside the room. He, the tough Red Rocket, always refused to admit that he ever cried. According to him, he was the perfect baby in his younger years; not one tear shed. (My parents begged to differ.)

We stayed like that in silence for quite sometime. There wasn’t much else to do in our 7’ by 7’ cell. As my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I was able to make out a small, metal cot to our left and a stainless steel toilet to our right. A single light bulb that was not in use hung overhead. It must have been controlled by the outside.

All of a sudden that light was illuminated. Michael and I both automatically squinted at the prompt brightness. The huge steel door to our cell was oddly starting to beep.

“Uh-oh,” my sibling muttered, “they’re entering the code to open our door.”

He sat straight up and seized both of my shoulders to look me in the eye. “Listen Katastrophie, no matter what they do to me don’t try to stop them. And when they come to you, be strong and don’t struggle.”

I blinked at him and cocked my head, confused. “Michael what are you…”

The large door swung outward. Outside our cell waited a guard of The Resort whom held a peculiar metal rod in one hand. With the other he pushed and elevated steel table on wheels into our room. His expression was bitter and relentless as he pointed to Michael.

“Get on Morgan.”

My brother closed his eyes for a moment then stood, looking more determined than I had ever seen him before. With pride and purpose he laid himself on that cold, metallic table.

The guard opened a small, square window in our cell door then pushed a button for it to close. Now, with only the yellow light bulb like a spotlight above Michael, I could only sit and watch in horror as the rod was activated and electric sparks began to sputter at its end.

Wearing a look of neither sorrow nor pleasure, the employee of The Resort started jabbing my sibling’s arm until it clearly pulsed painfully with electricity and reacted in spasms.

I did not understand why they were punishing him when he had committed no crime! I couldn’t bear to just sit and watch him be tortured!

“No!” I jumped up and screamed. “Stop it! Stop it! Leave him alone!”

Gripping the guard’s arm, I tugged at the rod, trying to take it away. His response was a nasty scowl. Then with great force he shoved me onto the little cot against the wall. In the midst of it, the back of my head smashed against the bricks, in the exact spot where I had been knocked unconscious before.

As my eyes stung with hot tears, I blindly reached back to feel the wound. My hand was dashed with blood when I brought it down to look at it.

“Oh I’m sorry,” the guard said in a sarcastic tone. “What is it you didn’t want me to do? This?”

He took the rod and pressed it full against Michael’s chest, sending sparks flying all over his body. Despite how strong my brother was trying to be, even he could not help but to cringe and call out with hurting.

A throbbing sensation was working its way through my head and down my neck. I heard myself whimpering and crying, “Please stop! Leave him! Please just leave him alone!”

But flashes continued to soar all about my poor brother’s form until suddenly our door swung open again. This time another man appeared, dressed identically to the present guard.

“What the heck are you doing, Jackson? We’re already behind schedule by two cells.”

Finally, the rod was lifted from Michael and its holder turned to face the newcomer. “So? Since when do we have a schedule?”

“Since we have hundreds of inmates!”

“But I’ve only done one of them!”

“Forget it. We have too many now to worry about each one.”

“Fine.” He carelessly pushed the limp Michael off the table and wheeled it out of our cell. The window and the door were closed, the light bulb went off, and they were gone. Just like that.

The once so proud and respected Red Rocket Michael Morgan was now cast aside like an old, dirty newspaper with yesterday’s news. He was either unconscious or close to it seeing as how he remained crumpled on the concrete floor, his only movements being involuntary spasms from his limbs.

I had never felt more helpless in all my life. I fell onto the floor and cuddled up beside him, ignoring the pain in my head and the many static shocks that came from touching him.

I had lost everything. Everything. Kyle had left me, I would probably never see Lunia again, my entire family was imprisoned and doomed to a terrible life, and my own freedom had been snatched right out from under my nose for seemingly no reason at all. I no could no longer find any hope inside of me to visit. None at all.

I hardly even noticed that my face was wet with tears until all of a sudden they ceased to flow. A realization had come to my mind. One that I would cling to with my very life. There was one person who had mastered Team Rocket, conquered The Resort, and even gone as far as to push Giovanni to the point of insanity. I did have one and only one hope. Any chance of my survival lay in the hands of Annie B. Masterson.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author’s note: Okay guys, you’re going to have to give me some time to get Part 2 in here. But it’s coming, I promise. Thanks for reading so far!!