DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon, Jessie and James, Ash and Misty, Giovanni, Domino, Blah, Blah, Blah. Here's what I DO own from this fic: The Red Rockets, The Green Branch Rockets, the characters of Annie Masterson, Ian Loomis, Severin Salyavin, Raven Koldron, Toby Matthews, Carrie Koldron-Masterson, Jason Calhoun, and Laura Cummings. The characters of Michael and Kat Morgan, Constance Conway, Li and Virginia Crandall, Kyle Ketchum, and Lunia Oak belong to the very talented Angela, and appear in her fic "Generation K" Many, many thanks to her for allowing me to use these characters once again. Thanks, Angela, you're the best!

PROLOGUE

The strip was blue. There was no denying it. There was no way to pretend that it wasn't. She was pregnant. The hand holding the strip shook slightly as the woman stared at it in disbelief. A whirlwind of emotion blasted through her mind . She had only slept with him once... but that had been enough, apparently. Slowly, ever so slowly, the disbelief and shock gave way to a quiet, unique joy she had never felt before. The woman looked around the small apartment that she had found for herself as a hiding place, a way to elude the forces that would surely be hunting her. Hers was a life devoid of total freedom now, as her plans to regain her freedom had been dashed by outside circumstances. Now, she existed as a fugitive from the very criminals whose ranks she had once been a member of.

The apartment was a cramped studio on the outskirts of Pallet Town, and the cautious ex-criminal was sure that it was the last place they would think to look for her. Slowly, the woman set the test strip down and walked to her living room, where a mirror hung on the otherwise bare wall. She looked different these days… her trademark red dress was not worn, and she hadn't worn her gloves or boots in what felt like ages since that night. To say the very least, it certainly had not been an easy move, distancing herself from the only life she had known since she was a child, and the sudden separation had made her more than a bit uneasy. However, her outwardly calm manner had always remained, as had her sharply trained mind.

The woman looked at her reflection with a half-hearted smile. In a soft voice, she addressed the woman in the mirror. "Well, you're pregnant." The reflection stared back at her, silent, passive, and uncaring. "Did you hear me? I said you're going to have a baby!" The woman stated, almost expecting an answer from the form in the glass. The woman stared at her reflection, silently cursing it for not holding the answer, the appropriate feelings for this moment. After a moment, her face softened, and she said again in a whisper, "a baby." This time, the statement was one of quiet awe, not just a statement of a cold, indisputable fact. The woman smiled tiredly to her reflection, and ran her fingers through her long brown hair. "Congratulations, Agent Masterson. It's a baby." Annie said with a world-weary grin.

Innocent Cry

By Allan North

PART ONE – THE GREEN BRANCH

Doctor Ian Loomis watched the woman leave his office with an evil grin. He had been informed by his receptionist a week ago that a new patient would be coming in for her first appointment today, a pregnant woman named Jan Masters who was concerned that she might be too old to have a healthy pregnancy. Ian hadn't batted an eye at the news, and he had brushed it off without a care. When Ms. Masters had entered the office, however, it was a different story. She was a woman of 49 years, past her childbearing prime but not so far past as to make it impossible, and had been dressed in jeans and a sweater. Jan Masters had been completely non-descript, but Loomis still felt there was something strangely familiar about this woman. It was during his first examination of her that he realized it, and knew it to be true even before his nurse had the early test results completed.

Jan Masters was a lie, and not a terribly clever one at that. This woman was Annie Masterson, and Loomis knew it. Masterson was a person that Loomis could never forget, no matter how hard he tried.

Loomis was a member of a special division of Team Rocket known as the Green Branch, a distant cadre of Rockets who had been trained to pose as professional members of society while still acting as undercover operatives for the Team. Before being promoted to the Green Branch and being trained as a doctor, however, Loomis had held a different position in Team Rocket… he had been an orderly at the dreaded Team Rocket asylum/unstable-agent-dumping-ground, The Resort. It had been there that Loomis had first encountered Masters- or more accurately, Masterson.

The elite agent had outranked him by years of experience, and yet a failure had thrown her into the world of submission that was The Resort. He had been one of the many orderlies who had been called upon to subdue her during many murderous outbursts, until she had finally been classified as psychotic and permanently locked away. It was then that he had requested the transfer to the newly formed Green Branch, and he had not looked back . After much pleading and training, he had finally been transferred away, and had existed since then more or less without worry, leaving the horrors of The Resort in the Orange islands where they belonged. Perfectly content, Loomis went about his life treating patients as a trusted doctor while still acting as a Team operative.

Then, a mere month and a half ago, a coded bulletin had come down trough the ranks of the Team announcing a serious problem; Annie Masterson, a highly unstable Red Rocket, had managed to do the unthinkable and escape from The Resort with the aid of another Red turned traitor named Salyavin. Salyavin was no longer an issue, the bulletin had said, but Masterson was still missing and considered to be a deadly threat due to her knowledge of the Team. Surprisingly enough, the bulletin did not end the way so many others had, with an order of execution on sight of the target, but rather with the explicit order that Masterson was not to be harmed or alerted to the fact that her presence was known. Rather, Giovanni himself was to be informed immediately without hesitation.

Loomis sat at his desk in his office with the door locked and reviewed the bulletin. He knew what he had to do. Ian reached for the intercom, and told his receptionist that he was not to be disturbed for the next half-hour, and to cancel his next appointment.

"Sure thing." His receptionist said as she went about canceling and rescheduling the appointment, thinking nothing of it at all. One of the beauties of the Green Branch was that even the underlings of the agents had no idea of their true nature, in order to create a plausible deniability in the event that the Green Branch agent were to ever come under suspicion. Loomis double locked the door, and then walked to the far wall of the office where a painting depicting a countryside hung. Carefully, Loomis removed the painting from the wall, revealing a small glass circle that looked like a peephole and a green button. Ian pressed the green button and leaned close to the glass circle as a beam of light completed a retinal scan of his left eye. From behind the wall, a computerized voice stated flatly, "Identity confirmed. Green Branch Agent Loomis, Ian. Clearance confirmed." With that, the wall slid silently open, and Loomis entered the small secret room. He approached the control console, and entered the communication codes. After a moment and series of muted beeps and computer tones, the large video screen flickered to life, displaying an image of a large tree with a big red "R" superimposed over the trunk. Then, the communication signal completed its route, and in moments the shadowed face of Giovanni appeared on the monitor.

Loomis bowed before the Boss, showing the utmost of respect for his superior. Giovanni was now in his 60's, and yet he still possessed every facet of his mental abilities and power that had been used to build his mother's empire into his own since he was a young man of 16 years. "Agent Loomis. Report." Giovanni stated. As always, the leader of Team Rocket was a man of few words when dealing with his underlings.

Loomis looked at the screen nervously, but replied with a calm, even tone. "Yes, sir. I have called to report the sighting of escaped Red Rocket Agent Masterson."

Giovanni leaned forward out of the shadows, and Loomis saw that his wrinkled face was tight with excitement and anger all at once. "Where?" he demanded simply.

"She has come to me as a patient, sir." Loomis hesitated for a moment before finding the nerve to continue. "She is pregnant." Ian finished.

Giovanni's eyes became wide. "Pregnant?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, sir."

"So. Escape isn't all she did with Salyavin, is it? Interesting…" Giovanni's eyes looked to the ceiling as he considered this and scratched his chin. "Loomis, unless I am mistaken, Agent Masterson should be 49 years of age now. Is that correct?"

"Yes, she is, sir." Loomis replied, unsure as to what his Boss was driving at.

"And in your opinion, could she conceivably successfully carry and deliver this baby?" Giovanni asked.

Loomis looked at his Boss with surprise. "Well, she is in good health, but any woman over the age of 35 is likely to have a troubled pregnancy, and the odds of successfully carrying a baby to term decrease with each year…"

"But could she do it?" Giovanni interrupted.

Loomis scratched the back of his head. "Well, in theory, yeah, with proper care, yeah, she could. Might be rough, but she could do it."

Giovanni began to smile darkly. "Sir, she has a return appointment in two weeks. Shall I arrange to have a team of Grunts here to grab her?" Loomis asked.

Giovanni didn't reply. He simply sat there like an Armani-clad Cheshire cat, stroking his own Persian with an evil grin on his face.

"Sir?" Loomis persisted.

Giovanni returned his attention to Loomis. "Absolutely not. Masterson is a trained Red. Even her advanced age would not hinder her escape from a team of Grunts."

"What is to be done then, sir?" Loomis asked.

"How is she paying for your services?" Giovanni replied.

"Government assistance under an assumed name. She was able to forge the documentation and get some health care coverage, but I don't see…" Loomis began.

Giovanni interrupted him again. "Excellent. Continue to see her as a patient. She is to receive the best care you can give. The baby must survive, and she must not become aware of who you really are."

Loomis looked at Giovanni with confusion. "But… why, sir?"

"The child of two Reds... Why the potential alone… not to mention the fact that the child is the offspring of Masterson… That child will be mine!" Giovanni said to himself in a power-induced daze. Visions of the child being raised as the perfect Rocket danced in his mind as Loomis watched the screen with more than a few misgivings.

"Sir, if I may…" he began uneasily.

"What?" Giovanni snapped, annoyed with Loomis' tone.

"Agent Masterson is dangerous. She's a crazy loose end. Shouldn't she just be taken care of?"

Giovanni glared at Loomis through the screen. "Are you questioning me?" he growled threateningly.

"No, sir. But if she were to discover this plan…" Loomis said shakily.

"She must not find out. That will be your job, Loomis." Ian looked at the ground. Giovanni had no idea what he was asking… "You're a Green Branch Rocket. You have been trained as a doctor and an operative in one of the most expensive experiments ever undertaken by Team Rocket. Now, we have an opportunity to test this experiment and gain an incredible asset. You are not allowed to fail." Giovanni finished forcefully.

"But, sir, what if she does figure me out somehow?" Ian persisted.

"Then you have terminated your position as a Green Branch rocket… and as a living member of the human race." Giovanni finished in a cryptic tone.

Ian gulped, his throat burning with dryness.

"I want that baby, Loomis. I want it alive and well and ready to mold. I will expect a report from you in two weeks after Masterson's next visit."

"Understood, sir." Loomis replied humbly.

"I warn you, Loomis, do not fail me. Rarely has so much ridden on one agent." The screen went black, and the image of the tree appeared again after a second. Loomis switched the console off, and walked back to his office. The door slid silently closed behind him, the panel blending with the wall perfectly. "Oh, damn. Damn, damn, damn…" he muttered as he reached to the bottom drawer of his desk for the bottle of tranquilizers he had been taking since his stressful days at the Resort. He popped the bottle open and immediately swallowed two of the small white pills. His stomach was full of butterflies, and he was sweating horribly. It had been over 20 years since he had encountered Masterson at the Resort, and yet she could still scare the hell out of him, even if she hadn't seemed to recognize him during her visit.

Silently, Ian wondered just how he would survive 7 months of seeing her as a normal patient, always keeping her training in mind, and always, always being careful to never let his true self show to her…

CHAPTER TWO: I THINK OF HOME