RED, trainer

LUX: RED

Say your goodbyes if you've got someone you can say goodbye to

Widely known as Red for his customary red hat and red-themed clothing, both of which he's sported since he was a kid. The name he was born with, however, is Russell Hansen.


Red was born 24 years ago on March 8 in the modest town of Pallet. He grew up alongside his neighbors Leaf and Blue, raised by a single mother after his father--whoever he was--walked out before he was born. It was in his early teens that the boy embarked on the traditional rite of passage, his Pokemon journey, thus beginning what is now practically a legend. Both his team and skill flourished quickly as he blazed his way through the Kanto gyms with his sights set on the Champion. He had never intended to become a hero--no, that had never even crossed his mind-- but when he stumbled across Team Rocket's nefarious plots, he had little choice but to rise to the occasion on his own and unaided.

Rise he did, perhaps a little too well or, looking back now, not well enough if Rocket's still around. In any event, Red's career as a Pokemon trainer culminated in his victory over the Team Rocket boss, the Elite Four and Blue, rival and present Champion. He was then declared the new champion of Kanto as well as, despite his protests, a hero for stopping Team Rocket. Like most teenagers, he enjoyed the novelty of fame. The excitement wore off quickly. Constant challenges, paparazzi everywhere, crazed fans--it became tedious, privacy non-existant. Shortly afterward, Red disappeared, never to be seen in the public light again.

Of course, most people already know all that. Perhaps a better question would be what he's been doing with his life since then. The answer? Up until the civil strife, not much compared to all that came before. Most of his time has been dedicated to training his Pokemon and himself, disguising himself on trips to town for supplies, occasional visits to his mother and attempting to keep up with news. Red stood by and watched as Lux steadily rose to power, releasing only a single statement that he believed in the new order's ideals before fading back into obscurity. If the group's increasingly drastic measures disturbed him, he kept it to himself.

Even in solitude, he made enemies: people who criticized the reclusive champion for not intervening when the Pokemon League began to abolish the old ways, for doing nothing when it instated its own untested, unworthy, Champion, and for lending his name to such a dictatorship--not to mention the remainders of Team Rocket who never forgot who first caused their downfall, and who saw the war as an opportunity for vengeance. Not that they could do anything to him, he was impossible to track down. Instead they set their sights on his mother, hoping to use her to draw him out of hiding. It didn't seem to matter that she herself was a Nox sympathizer, slipping information despite how closely Lux watched.

Red was not oblivious to the threats. Eventually he convinced her to travel to Unova to evade the danger from both sides. Neither of them expected that the ship she took would be subject to a devastating terrorist bombing, with the questionable excuse that Lux was secretly using the ship to ferry supplies and forces to other regions along the way. Red's allegiance has long since solidified.


What with how he abandoned his position and the new one put in place by Lux, his former title of Kanto champion is a hollow one. He's content with calling himself a Pokemon trainer, though some might argue ace trainer is more appropriate.


Lux. If one were to ask which side red would choose back before he became champion, he wouldn't have hesitated to say Nox. Now it's quite the opposite. It's hard not too become a little cynical after such a long period of solitude when all you hear or read about year after year are stories of this or that criminal group in so-and-so region taking over and coming this close to succeeding if not for a handful of kids being in the right place at the right time. He's become dubious that the same thing won't keep happening over and over again when everyone is allowed absolute free reign. In his mind, Lux's so-called tyranny is a necessary but temporary step that must be taken to stamp out those who would plot to destroy others' lives without regard for involving innocents.

▪ levelheaded
▪ independent
▪ observant
▪ experienced fighter
▪ resilient
▪ confident
▪ keeps his word

▪ blunt
▪ cynical
▪ aloof
▪ merciless
▪ hides emotions
▪ critical
▪ not very sociable
▪ distrusting

▪ solitude
▪ most pastries
▪ when there's a blanket of snow on everything
▪ lux's ideals
▪ his hat
▪ evening
▪ caffeine

▪ fame
▪ any crime syndicate, especially Team Rocket
▪ emotional confrontations
▪ seeming vulnerable
▪ hot weather
▪ being underestimated
▪ being touched

SECRETS:

▪ Values the lives of his Pokemon more than he does most people. Arceus knows he's been with them far longer than he has any one person
▪ His real name. Close to no one knows it, those who do never use it, and he probably won't respond to it.
▪ Has been targeted more than once in assassination attempts, starting not long after he first started getting involved
▪ How his mother died

POKEMON

WHO ELSE DO YOU PLAY?

n/a.

[b]POKEMON[/b], red as RED made by SPARK for PRE.