Full Summary: The Legendaries of the world can't compete against the human race's sheer advancements in technology. With limited options and even less time on their side, the Legendaries make their choice and decide to put their faith in 84 humans. Can humans handle the powers gifted to them by the strongest beings of the pokémon world or will they abuse them? Will the humans marked by the Legendaries fight against the Legend Hunters and risk becoming targets themselves?

Word Count: 3,168

Arc 2: Introductions

Chapter 6: Stifled Starts

Date: January 31st

Time: 9:00 am

You've seen Pallet and the Kingdom of Rota in Kanto but what's happening in the region of Unova? You've seen a floating city and know that most of the cities are up in the sky and a few have not advanced, mainly remaining as they were thousands of years ago. Now, let's see a different type of soaring city.

Virbank City was one such city that was constructed differently than the other floating cities of humanity, as it isn't floating in the sky but instead floating on the ocean, keeping its connection to the ocean. It has several large docks all around the city. This city takes its name to heart, the city has winding waterways that raise and lower automatically creating makeshift elevators to get to the lower and upper levels of the town and can even shift the water's current in the opposite direction whenever it is needed. There are even a few waterslides at the top of the upper levels of the city that are connected to each level of Virbank, four slides that are off limits to anyone who isn't a registered trainer, a fisherman or a Marine Officer as they lead straight out to the ocean from the four major points of north, south, east and west. Virbank is advanced just like the other cities, but it doesn't use hover vehicles, it doesn't even sell them, as it has no need for them. They have their own modes of transport usually in the form of using water pokémon such as lapras, dewgong, lantern and a few others for when they need to go to other areas of the city. The other way is to walk because there are plenty of walkways, stairs and bridges that lead to the upper and lower levels and across the many channels of water that reside in the city, or one can go from region port to region port which is the faster method of travel than the other two methods if someone is in a rush, and there are a lot of indoor and outdoor ports one can use scattered all around the city. The homes, gym building, laboratory, school, stores, restaurants and shops are all made of white marble with various colored accents of ocean blues and sea greens decorating the white marble, the roofs followed the same color schemes of the accented colors.

Two new trainers were in the midst of conversation as they exited the branch laboratory that wasn't nearly as grand as the one in Nuvema Town, as it didn't float above the city like Nuvema's lab did, nor did it need a region port to connect it to the rest of the city. It was located next to the school separated only by a courtyard, this was done deliberately so that it could be accessed during school hours by teachers or students who needed the lab assistants help or a student and their chosen starter were having too many issues and the student wanted to get a different one, either the same starter as the one they were giving back, one of the other two starters or they no longer needed the starter they had picked with because they were getting their own pokémon.

The lab was mainly used to take care of the starters that the students would receive when they turned ten and started their careers as trainers, coordinators or one of the other careers such as being a breeder, a racer or a researcher. It was also where a few of the assistants at the lab stayed because it had living quarters for the staff and not everyone wanted to deal with commuting to work from their apartment or house or just simply didn't want the hassle of renting an apartment or buying and dealing with the upkeep of a house.

As the two trainers left the large three-story building, which was made of white marble with sea green accents that matched its roof, and cut across the courtyard to the main school building that was longer than the laboratory as it was made up of several buildings and had a different structure than the lab. It was made of white marble but had ocean blue accents and slanted roofs. The school grounds were surrounded by walls and a gated entrance. Only those who were students and staff were allowed to enter the school, but this could be bypassed if one had permission to enter the school grounds or had a visitor's pass.

"You know," One of the trainer's started, taking a glance back at the school gates that were already closing after they'd made their way past and were no longer in the motion sensor's path. "It's a good thing your parents let your little sister stay home today, Marcus. School really should get canceled for the lower grades, it's not fair for those that have siblings in lower grades and either have to say their goodbyes the night before, early in the morning or the new trainer/coordinator has to wait until they get out of school to say their goodbyes."

"Yeah…" came the sighed reply. His mind miles away from the conversation. Likely thinking of the worst possible scenarios. "It's not going to be easy for her, now that we graduated too."

Trying to brighten the other's downtrodden mood by suggesting, "Perhaps your folks could look at homeschooling?"

Marcus continued to walk along the edge of the large canal that flowed past their school and kicked a pebble out of the sidewalk, watching as it bounced and rolled off the edge into the canal with a plop as it hit the water below, "You know we can't do that. Homeschooling isn't cheap." His eyes wandered over to his reflection as it settled and no longer rippled from the small waves the pebble made. He saw a young man with short brown hair, bangs that are parted to the left, gray eyes, wearing a plain black t-shirt with a red hooded sleeveless jacket that had an orange sun on the back and an orange zipper over it, beige shorts held up by a purple belt with a silver clip that housed his six pokéballs and his portable barrier, and finally black socks peeking out from the mouth of a pair of lilac trainers with black laces. He'd purposefully left his bag at home as he was going to return home to grab it and say goodbye to his family before leaving.

Marcus' gaze shifted to the reflection of his friend walking on his right, he didn't need to turn his head to see his expression, it was written on his reflection's face anyway. The worried frown did nothing to hide the annoyance in his spring green eyes, his wavy light green hair was down to his cheeks in the front with a few longer strands reaching below his jawline. He was wearing a black, white and gray plaid shirt with an unzipped, hooded black jacket with a teal hood, accents and bold white letters on the right arm that read "Theater Starless" on it with two thick teal lines underneath the words, gray cargo shorts with darker lined pockets and a teal belt that held his black and teal accented pokéballs and portable barrier, followed by white socks covered by black and teal trainers. "It wouldn't be so bad if you'd all let my family help you."

His right hand reached up and fiddled with the silver star necklace that sat around his neck. He frowned at the other's choice of words, "You and your family already do too much for us already." Marcus was quick to counter.

"Yeah, once every blue moon when your mom and mine run into each other at the grocery store and your mom lets mine buy your groceries." Matt complained a bit too loudly, but it was fine, no one was on the path to overhear them much less about the noise the other was making.

"You and your brother bought all my traveling gear just last week in case you forgot!" Marcus was quick to point out and tacked on another string of expenses that the other's family had paid for. "And don't even get me started on the phones and airpods your parents bought us last year."

"Those were graduation and early birthday gifts. It doesn't count."

"It doesn't count!?" Marcus parroted back, his passive-aggressiveness starting to show. "Do you know how expensive that kind of stuff is?"

"Of course, I do, I helped pay for it by getting a part time job." Matt huffed, crossing his arms. "What I mean is, if you, your parents, your older brother or your little sister tried to buy it, that price would have been double or even triple the normal cost."

"Yeah, because the people in this city hate my father and they jack up the prices to ridiculous amounts and are offscouring us even though he did nothing wrong. You can't save everyone, it's just impossible. Especially when you're up against a gigantamaxed 'mon like he was. Yes, the marine officers arrived to help but the yacht had already been destroyed by then and they had to settle for battling and distracting it, because trying to contain it was out of the question! It was all so that my dad and a few of their officers could try and rescue the survivors but it was too late for so many of them, they were already dead due to not only the beast's rampage and the destruction and sinking of the yacht but their own intoxication." Marcus hissed in quiet frustration, only to freeze in his tracks as the gate swung open again to let out more graduates.

"Exactly." Matt was quick to agree, lowering his voice before he dared to continue to avoid being overheard by the other graduates that were passing by, talking over each other in their excitement. Matt was pleased that they didn't try to start anything, they were clearly too hyped up about finally leaving the nest to care about the ones they usually belittled and bullied. "The people here might be too stupid to see the truth because they want a scapegoat to blame or simply don't want to admit their children's alcoholism is partly to blame for their deaths." Matthew placed a hand on Marcus' shoulder, his expression shifting to something lighter, more somber. "Helping you out is the least we can do. After all, if your dad hadn't been there that night, my brother would have been buried along with all the others."

Marcus winced at Matt's bluntness, but he wasn't wrong, Marcus couldn't fault him for the truth, he'd admitted to just the same. "I know and we're thankful for the help, support and friendship that you've all given us. None of us want the masses to turn on you like they did us."

Matt shrugged his concerns with a smile. "Don't worry, we know what we are getting into. If that does happen, then we will just deal with it, or we'll move and we'll find a way to help you guys get out of here too."

What annoyed him was Matt's suggestion wasn't as far-fetched as it sounded, especially with what Matt's mother did for a living, she worked as a tech designer for Nathienal Collins' company. The very same company that made the flight suits and armor for the Flight Officers and their pokémon. The Marine Officers had been given the same respect and the same technology, except their suits and gear were made for underwater travel, depth pressure and allowed them to breathe and see underwater no matter how deep into the depths they went. The aquatic pokémon were given similar lightweight, depth pressurized armor that became bioluminescent after sunlight no longer lit up the ocean. Unlike the flight officers, they were restricted to water pokémon only. Their gear was made for helping lost, damaged or stranded ships and boats get to port, water rescues and treasure hunting for sunken ships, poachers who'd hunt wild pokémon both on the seas surface and under the ocean's depths and more mundane tasks such as removing trash and debris from the ocean, docks and beaches. The Marine Officers worked closely with his dad, the harbormaster and the other dock hands. Marcus couldn't be faulted for steering the conversation elsewhere. "Have things gotten worse for you outside of school since you started hanging out with us?"

The shift in topic was something Matt took in stride. He shook his head as he answered, "No, we are still treated like we always have been. The people have started to pity us since the Gigantamax incident and give us discounts on food, clothing and other necessities. Even the technology is sold at a discounted price."

"That's good at least."

"I suppose it can be." The green haired teenager paused as they reached one of the arched bridges that connected one strip of the town to the other. "Alright, well I'm going to have to head that way, so want to meet up at the north entrance? Just text me when you're heading that way."

"Sure, that works. You going to take the slide down?"

"Of course, it's way too fun not to take, plus we won't be back for who knows how long! We should enjoy one last ride."

"You can ride it on your own. Who knows how long it'll take for me to get down there anyway."

Matt held out his fist, "Well, here's hoping your dad's already at work."

Marcus knocked the others fist with his own. "Hopefully but with my luck he'll have gotten the later shift."

With that said the two friends split ways, one heading across the bridge and the other turning sharply on his heel and headed left, down a bustling street that was filled with people, and he slipped through the thong of people with practiced ease.

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I had fun writing it. Figured I'd take a different approach with Virbank. I will mention you in the next author's note in chapter 7 to whoever can correctly guess where this city's inspiration came from! Have fun guessing! I look forward to seeing your answers!

I hope I wrote Marcus correctly, Alpha? I know Matt wasn't planned, honestly, I hadn't expected to make him have such a big role, but I figured why not? I Thought Marcus and his family could use a friend and a few helping hands given everything that they're going to go through. I know I haven't shown his family yet, but they'll show up in the next chapter that I have planned for Marcus, which is Chapter 10. I figured it'd be better to save the family interaction for the next chapter because of how long this one got as these chapters aren't meant to be too long.

Can I just say how proud of myself that I am? This story started in September of 2021, in that year. I was working on chapter 1; I didn't like where I was going with it and changed it for the better. I posted chapter 1 and ended up editing it and fixing it within hours of posting it and made it better than it was. Then I got chapter 2, 3 and 4 all out within months of each other! Yes, I edited chapter 4 and took out the second half of it and plan to post it in a later chapter to better fix the fast pacing of the story. On top of that I have outlined and planned up to 17 chapters (technically 14 as chapters 5 and 6 have been completed and chapter 8 is already finished). But can't I be proud of what I've done and how far I've planned for this story to be? Yes, chapter 17, barely scratches the surface of what I have planned for this story, honestly chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 is where things start to get interesting and the last two chapters are where the Legend Hunters are truly brought to light, and you'll get to see some more of them.

Now then I feel like I need to explain this again. Legendaries and mythical Pokémon are both called legendary Pokémon. This was done to simplify things for myself and for the rest of you. Plus, the main evil are called the Legend Hunters. In no way wound they call themselves the "Legendary and Mythical Hunters" partly because it's a mouthful and because Legend Hunters sounds cooler, and I don't need to call them LMH or something equally stupid when I can just abbreviate them LH or call them the Hunters for short. I digress, this was mainly done because this story is set so far into the future that it's literally the year 13,365. Of course, history has been rewritten and changed after so long. I will be doing a lore reveal of how and why this has changed sometime during the capture arc (and will be mentioned again by Cecilia as she educates Kasei), in a history lesson that Cecilia (and Kasei) learn about because they'll be living and learning with the ancient history that is taught in the Kingdom of Rota. This will be done more as a way to get to know each other and to help Cecilia to understand the modern history of the world.

There is a lot of lore that I haven't gotten to expand on yet, much less get the opportunity to explain but I will do so as soon as the opportunities present itself for a history lesson in the story done by the characters rather than just said or explained by me.

Remember to read and review. I don't write for ghost submitters.