Worry not on those fronts; they will be answered later in the story. Just wanted to do an overview there with as little spoilers as possible.
I'd hate to rant here, but why do people keep doing this? To put it simply, when you write up a concept for us to judge, the main point of doing that is to figure out whether or not it'd be good. If you leave out something pretty important (even by
not using the spoiler tags we have for your convenience), the people you're asking will write it off as a plot hole and say your idea won't work.
With that being said, yes, I'm one of those people who are tilting their heads a little at your concept. It's a pretty cool idea to have a band be the main characters, but it doesn't quite make sense for an evil team who wants the legendary beasts to send someone outside of their organization to do it. And the people they're sending have apparently no training experience, either, so it's like sending a drunk frat boy off to perform brain surgery. I'm sure you've got an epic explanation behind
why they chose to do this, but without it, it shouldn't be surprising that your proposal strikes a number of people as a little iffy.
And that really goes for anyone who posts an idea in Writer's Lounge/this thread. If you're going to do it, make sure you provide as much information as possible (even using the spoiler tags if necessary) because, really, if you don't, you're not going to get the answer you're looking for.
So I had an idea for a fan fic before, and after revising I think I'm ready to pull it off. Without giving out too much...
The story is about a gang of Pirates, the Sea King Pirates to be exact. The story takes place in a Pokemon only inhabited by Pokemon, like in the mystery dungeon games. The plot is set off when the world council ( an alliance of the political leaders of this world, the central Government) strikes a deal with these Pirates. On their end of the deal they must do what they do best, and hunt down the greatest treasures in the world, The Essences.
Why are these lowly sea thieves chosen for the task? In addition to many little political details, this pirate crew was the first to do something many thought were impossible; they've actually managed to find one of these treasures and now have it in their possession.
And that's the basics of it. It'll be very action and adventure oriented with plenty of crew bonding.
It sounds like an interesting premise -- one that reminds me a lot of
The Pirates of Dark Water.
(Screw One Piece.) And I'd hate to be brief, but for once, there's nothing I can suggest beyond what I've told you in your villain thread.
In fact, in light of this, I encourage you
more to think outside the box and figure out a villain who doesn't stereotypically scream "villain." The reason why I say this is because your premise is (despite the fact that it reminds me of something else) pretty original, so you'll want to avoid a cop-out by going with a predictable villain (read: a Pokémon people think is evil). Of course, the villain is all up to you, and as I've said, you'll want to aim for developing the role itself before figuring out which Pokémon would fit it best.
Good luck, and I hope to see it in the main forum soon.
Also, I'm not advertising this as a Pokemon fic. It'd be an original fic, with lots of names/places/geography lifted from Pokemon (the eight ruling nobles are directly named after the Kanto gym leaders, their cities' names and locations are lifted straight from the game, Team Rocket's activities in Mt. Moon, Lavender Town, and Saffron and Celadon Cities are all exactly the same).
Considering the fact that your concept is essentially completely original (besides the structure of the league -- which, really, won't necessarily ring many bells in your reader's heads if you put enough creativity in masking it), it
would actually be better to just drop all the names. Otherwise, if you label this as original fiction and attempt to use the canon characters (or their names), you'll still be called out for a lack of creativity because people will read that as you stealing characters for your original work.
Beyond that, it has a very
Ranma 1/2 feel to the structure, but I get the feeling it should be interesting as a serious fic, too. A little like
Mortal Kombat or
Street Fighter. It will be interesting to see what kinds of techniques you come up with in this new form of martial arts, particularly to make the battle against Misty difficult (considering you've mentioned that one in particular).
There's not much market for original fiction of non-professional quality, even when given away for free.
Yes, there is. You just have to
look in the right places.