[CLOSED] RED CHAIN MUTATIONS - RERECRUITMENT

The young boy chased after the two grey Pokemon, giggling as he does so.

"Slow down Frey!" Gene shouts at the faster of the two Minccino as they begin to get ahead of him. Of course, Gene wasn't worried about the two of them at all; the most dangerous thing in Eterna was the occasional angry Pineco, which both of his Pokemon knew to keep a wide berth from.

Gene stops running for a moment, panting as he looks around the small clearing he was in. Freyja and Balder were nowhere in sight. Gene sighs, falling to take a seat on the ground before laying on his back, staring up at the small patches of light shining through the canopy. The boy relaxes for a moment until he hears rustling in the bushes nearby. Gene is too slow to get to his feet and catches a flying Minccino to the face, just as another slams into his legs from behind, the surprise combo taking Gene to the ground with a cry that quickly turns into a giggle as his two tiny Pokemon attempt to pin him. Even with the element of surprise the Minccino siblings didn't have a chance against the significantly larger boy.

After wrestling for what seems like hours Gene was once again laying on his back in the clearing, gazing up at the sky, although this time two grey bundles of fur were curled up under his arms

"Watch your step," Gene says to the woman, helping her over the broken tree. "Storm downed quite a few trees, so be careful," he says as the woman steps back onto the ground, before looking forward at an almost unfamiliar forest. Whatever had fallen from the sky a few weeks ago had done a number on parts of the forest. Entire trees had chunks missing, and more than a few had fallen completely. The normal trail through the forest was a bit of a mess, so Gene was taking one of the many back trails he knew so well.

"Magni, you okay?" Gene shouts back at the Shieldon slowly lumbering behind them, a small girl clinging to his domed head.

"Are you sure he's okay carrying her?" the older woman asks, looking fondly at the little girl. "She's more than capable of walking," the woman adds guiltily.

"Don't worry about him," Gene says, using his handaxe to remove a branch obstructing his path. "He's slow, but he can carry damn near anything," Gene says, before catching himself. "Sorry, darn," he hastily corrects, hoping the small girl hadn't heard him. Judging from the way the small girl was now chanting 'damn' over and over again, that was a lost cause. Gene turns away from the woman's scowl, focusing on the path ahead of him until a panicked scream causes him to turn around.

Both Magni and the girl seemed to be entangled in vines that were dragging them into the underbrush. The Shieldon was struggling mightily, but quickly losing ground.

"Run!" Gene shouts to the woman, releasing Balder in a fluid motion as he runs towards the girl. He briefly wonders what kind of Pokemon could be causing the attack, but that thought gets pushed down as he closes in on the vines. One hits him straight across the face, but Gene is able to grab the young girl, flinging her to the mother as hard as he can. Another second later Gene has returned Magni, and was sprinting after the woman until a vine wraps around his ankle, pulling him to the ground. Gene struggles, trying to cut himself free, but the vine was too far away, and dragging him too quickly.

Seconds before Gene is dragged into the underbrush Balder leaps forward, tail slicing clean through the vine, freeing Gene, only for a half dozen other vines to coil around the Minccino, the grey Pokemon vanishing into the underbrush without a trace before Gene has a chance to react.

"BALDER!"

Gene took a long drag on his cigarette before holding it out for Sif, the Houndoom eagerly taking a drag itself. Gene reaches over Mangi's head to offer the Bastiodon a drag, only for the Pokemon to snort. Gene shrugs and reclines further on his Pokemon's back, blowing a few smoke rings out. While normally he wouldn't smoke on the road, Gene's nerves were a little high today. Every bump in the road caused his small metallic path to bang against Magni's stony hide, a constant reminder that something was very much wrong with him. His only hope was to get Rowan to help him, but why in the hell would a Pokemon Professor take any interest in a random kid from Eterna? It wasn't like Gene was going to crack the cure for the mutant Pokemon. Hell, he could barely use a computer, much less whatever crazy tech they make you use to fix Pokemon.

Gene sighs as he finishes the cigarette, tossing it on the ground. Sif swallows the smoking butt whole, causing Gene to roll his eyes, until he sees Sandgem town looming on the horizon.

"Showtime," the trainer mutters, looking down at his grungy, torn clothes as he sees other trainers approaching, some in finery, some in strange clothing, but almost all better dressed than he was. He was going to make a hell of a first impression, wasn't he? Still, somewhere deep inside Gene feels the tiniest spark of hope, the first he'd felt in a long time. He'd expected a few people to answer the call, but this was more than he could have hoped for. With all these people, they had to find a way to put things right.

Gene reaches into his pocket, pulling out a worn, empty Pokeball with a faded black "B" drawn on it.

They better find a way to put things right.