Lore Before The Legend #11: Mercenary Bands max out at 16 members at a time, enough for four different teams of four to be on a mission at any given time. This rule came into play in the Age of Reshiram, the age previous the Age of Mew, when a Mercenary Band tried to systematically take over the UGM using their massive numbers to win elections. They were caught, Branded, and eventually all killed, but the scare was large enough to prompt the UGM of the time to create the 'Merc Max Rule' as it has come to be known.


Flying Province: Cloudfront City: The R&R Shop: Age of Mew: Year 656: Reshiram's Truths and Roygbiv Rumors

"R&R…" Jaune said as he, Zack, Magdalene, and Catlyste all went into the shop.

"What does it stand for?"

"Why are you asking me?" Zack asked back.

"The owner's names…" Catlyste said quietly as she looked up and down the display of items.

"You looking for something in particular?" Magdalene asked.

Catlyste nodded.

"You gonna….tell us what it is…?" Zack asked.

Catlyste nodded again.

"Well, what is it?" Jaune asked, rather excited. "It's a rare item, right? Please tell me it's a rare item!"

Catlyste pointed.

"That." She said.

The other pokemon followed her finger to a book.

"A book?" Jaune asked, a little underwhelmed. "Man, those aren't rare...Hell, in the Psychic province alone there's at least 2 billion."

"Hyperbole much?" Zack asked him.

"What's a hyperbole?" Jaune asked Magdalene.

"A large exaggeration." Magdalene quickly answered Jaune's question before walking up to Catlyste.

"Why do you want to get that book?" She whispered. "What's in it?"
"It's called Reshiram's Truths." Catlyste said. "It was allegedly written by the legendary Reshiram himself, and helped facilitate the Age of Reshiram."

"That was the age before this one, right?" Magdalene asked.

Catlyste nodded.

"Right. Before that team of women mercenaries from the Psychic province defeated him and brought about the Age of Mew, our age, and the first age since before the UGM to not be dictated by religious propaganda."

"But...why do you want Reshiram's religious texts?"

"For two reasons…" Catlyste said. "One is practical, while the other is more...personal."

Magdalene sighed. "I won't ask you about your personal reason, since it isn't my place, but I would very much like to know the practical reason behind purchasing this book."

"Well…" Catlyste explained. "This book is a collection of prophecies written by Reshiram." She paused and looked Magdalene in her galactic eyes. "And I believe that we might have stumbled into one of the later ones. It talks about seven sinners awakening a living nightmare using identical talismans strewn about The Known World."

"I see…" Magdalene nodded. "And you think this might be referring to the Roygbiv Thieves."

"Well…" Catlyste admitted. "I'm unsure, but it might be worth mentioning that directly before that prophecy, is a smaller one, that we have both experienced."

"We have?" Magdalene asked.

"Again, it's vague." Catlyste said. "But it goes something like this: 'A Fire Type, my chosen champion, will descend upon your world and establish a Mercenary Band with the name of another.' and if what we heard about Conlan is true…"

"Ah…" Magdalene said, understanding Catlyste's reasoning. "So that's why…"

"You ladies going to buy something, or are you just making your boyfriends wait by the door?" An Unfezant from the behind the counter asked.

"B-b-boyfriend?" Magdalene's already red face somehow became even more red.

"N-no, Zack and i aren't… um...I mean...it's not I...I mean...Um…"

"None of us are together like that." Catlyste answered the Unfezant with a straight face.

"My apologies then." The unfezant shifted to a more polite tone. "But your friends do look quite about ready to leave. They have already purchased a good amount of food and healing items, as well as a statuette of Nezarix. Lucky kid that Chespin, that's the only statuette of its kind in the world."

"Did Jaune just spend our money on a useless toy?" Magdalene asked in a whisper.

Catlyste looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Zack disciplining Jaune.
"Don't! Buy! Stupid! Shit!." Zack said with each smack on Jaune's head.

"I think we won't have to worry about it again…" Catlyste said back to Magdalene before returning to her conversation with the Unfezant at the counter.

"I'd like to purchase that Reshiram's Truths book, please." She said as she pointed to the book.

"Very well…" The Unfezant said as he bent down, opened the case the book was being kept in, and brought it back up to the counter.

"That'll be 1500 poke."

"That much money?" Magdalene's eyes went wide.

"It's a rather old book." The Unfezant said. "It took Raine and me a lot of time to translate it into the modern language we speak today, so of course I want to make sure my wife and I get our money's worth for the work we did."

"It's fine." Catlyste said quietly. "I have the money saved up from my old job working for Kauffman and Farman."

"So...The R&R stands for…?" Magdalene asked the Unfezant at the counter.

"Well, that's the initials of my name as well as my wife's name. You could call this store Raine and Rey if you really wanted to, but we prefer R&R because it can also mean rest and relaxation."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Rey." Magdalene gave a small bow with her head. "My name is Magdalene, this is Catlyste, and those two over there are Zack and Jaune."

"It is nice to meet you as well." Rey smiled back. "May I ask why you might be buying this book?"

"Well…" Magdalene said. "We recently ran into one of the Roygbiv Thieves and-"

"Say no more." Rey held up a wing, and turned to dig through a drawer behind him, before pulling out some sheets of paper.

He cleared his throat before reading the one on the top of the pile.

"I am sorry, but I cannot just give any information away about the amulets, especially not to strangers. I hope you understand. Please know that I am busy with this shop and do not wish to attract any trouble. My wife would be very cross if that were to happen. If you truly wish to know more about the amulets and what I believe them to be for, seek out Blood's Island Chasm, in the northeast of the Poison Province. At the end of that dungeon, you should find the answer you seek. I however, will not tell you anymore, since you are strangers, and I do not believe I can trust you just yet. Now, if you could please leave, I have decided to close up shop early."


Fire Province: Capital Town of Lightgrasp: UGM Hall: Age of Mew: Year 656: Aaron Meets Others Looking To Join

"Let me get this straight…" Henry the Heatmor said behind his front desk, as not only Aaron, recently returned to the Hall from the Frozen Occult Catacomb, but also three other pokemon were looking to join Team Moonbrand, all under the somewhat correct assumption that it was a new team filled with rookie mercenaries. "You...all four of you...want to join Team Moonbrand?"

All four of them nodded silently.

"Hmm…" Henry hummed as he searched through what seemed to be a logbook of some sort.

"It says here that the leader is in...Frozen Occult Catacombs…"

"Yes." Aaron said. "That was for a mission request I sent out so that I could leave. That place is like a maze."

"Well, if you're a rescue, and you're claiming Conlan already gave you permission, right?"

Aaron nodded.

"In that case, I think these other three are your problem now, Moonbrand rookie." Henry said almost too cheerfully as he pulled the shutters down over his desk.

Aaron turned to the other three pokemon.

"So let's see what we've got here…" He looked over the pokemon looking to join.

In the center was a female Roserade, on her left, a male Meowstic, and on her right, a male Buizel.

"You." He pointed to the Buizel on the Roselia's right.

"What's your name kid?"

"B-Brad…" The Buizel answered. "I want to join as more of an item gatherer and weapons maker, because I think this team could probably use one…b-but! But! I'm not like, that weak or anything like that. I can hold my own in fights if I have to..." He was speaking rather loudly, as though he hadn't learned what an 'indoor voice' was.

"Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute…" The Meowstic said as he gestured towards Aaron, completely unafraid of the size difference and type disadvantage should what he say be taken the wrong way. "This guy only just became a member of the team, he's practically in the same boat as us, you don't have to sound so nervous…"

"Name?" Aaron shot a serious glance at the Meowstic.

"I'm Milo." The Meowstic said as he gave an amiable grin, and addressed not just Aaron, but Brad and the Roserade woman as well. "And don't let the glorious navy blue coat with white accents fool you, I'm only half-Meowstic. My father happens to be a Lucario, and I'm following in his footsteps as an explorer, and so far, everything I've seen has been so much cooler than just hearing about it back home, and I thought, well, if I can help people, make money, and explore on top of all that, then boy, I should really find a Mercenary Band that could use me, and it looks like this one is just taking anybody."

"I'll be the judge of that…" Aaron said, refusing to yield any sort of welcoming emotion to Milo, more out of wanting to maintain the powerful and cold steel-type image he wanted others to see him as.

"I should mention…" Milo said, realizing exactly what Aaron was doing. "That because of my lineage, I also have the ability to sense auras...and you...I'm absolutely positive that you're just going to let all of us join, at least temporarily, until this Conlan character returns."

Aaron was about to say something, when Milo raised one of his paws. "No worries bro, I'll go look for missions we can do."

He was almost out the double doors when he turned around.

"Um...this is embarrassing but….um...where do they keep mission boards for starting teams?"

"Sheltered little-..." Aaron said under his breath.

"You can check downstairs of this building." The Roserade finally said in a helpful and cheery voice. She radiated a sweet fragrance as she pointed towards the stairs leading down to the next floor of the hall.

"Thank you very much miss….um…"

"Oh, no 'miss' please. You can just call me Rose."

Believing the fact that Aaron hadn't yet given any objections to the three of them joining to mean that he had already approved of them as members, she turned to both Aaron and Brad as she continued to speak.

"I'm looking forward to working with you all, very much. Together, I believe we can make the world a more delightful place."

"Wait a minute…" Aaron said to everyone as they all started to head downstairs. "I never said that I could just let you guys on the team…"

They were all downstairs. The only one who could have possibly heard him was Milo, who already seemed to excited to care about 'facts'.

"We steel need to test your metal!" Aaron gave a double pun, before letting out some laughs.

The shudder of the front desk slid open.

"Tough crowd huh?" Henry asked.

Aaron began to hurry towards Henry angrily when he realized that Henry had caught him telling a bad joke in what he thought was solitude.

"Aaannnd closing back up…" Henry said as he pulled the shutters back down.

As he heard Aaron, reluctantly, stomping downstairs (not through anger, just because he was a large Aggron, and couldn't really tiptoe), Henry took out a rusty old Mercenary Band badge of his.

"Sorry about that…" He said. "I had to stop because the noise that was covering our conversation had ended, but I'm alone now, so we're good."

"That's great." A voice sighed. "But what are we going to do? You said it was a Roygbiv thief? That team can't handle fighting the Roybiv Thieves, granted those seven aren't anyone too threatening like the Accolytes, but I still don't think I approve of-"

"I know, I know…" Henry said. "But, hear me out here...If we can create a scenario where a mission calls for the capture of one of them, we can bring them back here, and we can keep them in the...Subterranean District of town…We might be able to get enough information to get one of the Specialist Bands from Stoneshear on the case…"

"But there's no way Aerona would...wait...no, actually, I take that back. I have an idea. Thanks Henry, keep up the good work!"

"You too, Leader." Henry said.

A ringing of a bell was heard.

"Someone's returned to the Hall, I've gotta go." Henry hung up the phone, opened the shutters, and saw the two twin Litleo siblings scurrying around.

"Hey! I said, you can't run around in here! Either go upstairs to your mother's office, or play outside!"

"Okaaaayyyy…" The Litleo twins giggled as they rushed up the stairs.


Ice Province: Frozen Occult Catacomb Final Floor: Age of Mew: Year 656: VS Blue

"Okay…" Conlan said as he, Rudo, Hilbert, and Charlie, all came up towards a sleeping Beartic, clutching an amulet in his hand.

"I can't see from here…" Conlan said to Rudo. "Is that the-?"

"Yeah, I think that's the same type of amulet from Spark Tower!" She said, excitedly.

"Shhhh!" Charlie shushed Rudo. "That dumbass is sleeping. We have the perfect opportunity to take the Amulet from him if we just-"

"Hyaaaaaahhhh!" Hilbert charged for the hand holding the amulet.

The Beartic let out a loud snore, that echoed through the frozen room so roughly that icicles began to fall from the ceiling.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Conlan said as Hilbert just barely dodged an icicle in time.

"Leave, Now!" The Beartic snored again.

The ice above Charlie was beginning to melt.

"Charlotte, lookout!" Rudo called.

Charlie looked up just in time to see the Brine attack.

"Shit!" She cursed as she dug through the ice and the water from the brine began to follow her.

"Charlie!" Conlan called down the hole in the ground.

"He's using Sleep Talk!" Charlie yelled as she appeared from the ground and lunged at the Beartic who simply rolled over to avoid being hit.

The water that was following Charlie, came out of the same hole that she had.

"Haaahhh!" Charlie shot a Hidden Power attack at the water following her, and it all seemed to be absorbed by the green energy she had emitted.

"Sleep Talk?" Conlan asked. "Then…We have to fight him?"

"Hyahhhhh!" Hilbert charged at the Beartic again. "

"I said...Leave!" The sleeping Beartic smacked Hilbert to the icy ground without any problem.

"The fuck is with this guy?" Hilbert asked.

"I am Blue, of the Roygbiv Thieves…" The Beartic answered as more icicles began to fall from the ceiling.

"Hilbert look out!" Conlan called as he himself just barely dodged one of the falling ice spikes of terror.

"Yeah-yeah-oooowwww fucking hell that hurt!" He shouted as his cloth was ripped off by an icicle he had failed to notice.

"Oh fucking...that is fucking it!" He said. He charged for Blue again.

"Hup! Hyaaah! Hup!" Rudo was meeting the falling icicles head on, and smashing each one with her fisted up paws but she could only focus on the icicles in her general vicinity.

"Conlan!" Charlie shouted at Conlan. "Hilbert looks pissed! He's going to get crushed if he tries to take on a monster like that by himself! You're the leader of this team, do something!:

"Rudo!" Conlan said as he just barely dodged another icicle. "Blue's going to attack Hilbert once he gets too close. Think you can distract him so that doesn't happen?"

"What do you have in mind?" Rudo asked.

Conlan glanced up at the perpetually freezing and falling icicles.

"Alriiiighhht." She smiled as she realized the same plan.

"In that case, why don't you join in?"

She tossed Conlan the One-Use Disc.

Conlan grinned as it disappeared into his hand, and his mind was suddenly flooded with the knowledge of how to use the most brutal wake-up slap the world had ever seen.

"Now!" Conlan yelled as he noticed Hilbert getting close to Blue, slicing through the falling icicles like they were nothing more than butter.

"Up…" Rudo jump up towards a falling icicle as Conlan began to run towards Blue head on.

"Hah!" Rudo Force Palmed the large ice spike towards the sleeping Beartic.

"Hmmm…" Blue gave a mumbled snore. "I…..said….Leave!" He yelled as, surprisingly, he stood up, and punched the icicle that Rudo had shot his way.

"Hyaaaah!" Hilbert yelled as he led a large Night Slash attack across Blue's right eye all the way down to his jaw, leaving a large amount of blood on the right side of his face, plenty of which was dripping onto his chest.

"Yaaahhh!" Conlan's Wake-Up Slap paw collided with the left side of Blue's face, Conlan's eyes widened as he saw that he and Hilbert collectively had hit hit with so much force that Blue had unintentionally released his grasp on the amulet.

"Rudo!" Charlie yelled, as it was closest to Rudo now.

Rudo quickly grabbed the artifact and, as Blue fell to the ground, unconscious, Rudo also fell.

"Rudo?" Conlan asked, shocked as he ran up to her.

He looked over her for bruises, but besides the few she had already received earlier, she looked fine.

He held his head to where he assumed her heart would be.

"Oh, thank goodness, she's still breathing…"

"Maybe it's the amulet?" Hilbert posited.

Conlan took the Amulet out from Rudo's hand, and instantly fell asleep as Rudo woke up to find him on top of her.

Her aura sensing appendages stretched back towards the floor of the cavern.

"C-Conlan…?" She asked nervously.

"It's that amulet…" Charlie said to Rudo, pointing to the amulet he was holding. "It makes whoever is in possession of it fall asleep, permanently apparently…"

"P-permanently?" Rudo asked nervously, before quickly taking the amulet back from Conlan, and falling right back asleep again.

"Ugghhh…" Conlan groaned as he stood up.

"Yeah, I think it's the amulet too." He said. He picked the sleeping Rudo up and through some sort of flexible miracle, reached into his bag and pulled out his Leader's badge. "Alright...I think I speak for all of us when I say that we should turn this amulet in to B or whomever we give these things to right away, and that we never come back here ever again."

Charlie and Hilbert both wholeheartedly agreed.

As the four of them left the dungeon, Blue regained consciousness.

He called Indigo, who was over at Blood's Island Chasm. "Hey, Indigo…" He said. "It's Blue."

"Blue?" Indigo asked. "Did you get the amulet?"

"Well...here's the thing about mine...It was the Serenity Amulet, so I won't personally be delivering it, but a naive band of Mercs will eventually make their way there, and we'll be waiting for them when they do."


AN0: OCs, OCs, OCs, OCs, Boy do we have quite the group debut today!

Rey(and his family when they appear) was submitted by Tambry96bj, thanks Tambry(Can I call you Tambry?)

Brad the Buizel was submitted by Gogoat, Thanks Gogoat!

Milo the Meowstic was submitted by Lord of Dong, Thanks Lord of Dong!

Rose the Roserade was submitted by Lucariofan115, Thanks Lucariofan(Can I call you Lucariofan?)


AN1: The wait was longer because I had finals. But again, I want to state that even though they're over and i can write more, don't expect me to just pump out chapters. (We're kinda going for a good quality story, and while I'd love to toot my own horn, I can write pretty well, pretty fast, but if I write too fast, it won't be nearly as pretty)


AN2: Four more OCs left to join the team (And three of them will be joining rather soon), and once they do, No one is safe anymore. This like, entire Roygbiv Thieves Arc is Child's Play compared to what's in store. You've all been warned.


AN3:

For those of you that don't mind/would like your OC bonding with other OCs(both platonic and romantic) Or becoming friends with Conlan or Rudo, If you're ever wondering about how well your OC is getting along with another team member, there are two ways to find out. You can PM me and I'll tell you the rank of Closeness between your OC and everyone else on the team, but also, if I feel like characters have spent enough time together to become closer, you'll start seeing Support Conversations (Think Fire Emblem Fates (or Awakening if you want), only more ranks of closeness.)

It starts at E(acquaintances), then D, then C, then B, then A(friends with possible romantic interest in each other, this is the earliest a romantic relationship can be started), then S, then Y(this is the highest rank they can be and still feel completely platonic about each other, consider it a BFF thing. romantically, it represents a growing amount of sexual tension between the two characters), then X(this is the highest rank they can be without being together, and it signifies an abnormally large amount of sexual tension between them,), and finally M(bf/gf, or a married couple if they're old enough for that.)

You'll see examples of these next chapter, so if you don't get it, don't worry. You will soon.


AN4: OCs, Missions, Dungeons, you all know the drill, right?


OC submission form:

Name of Oc:

Sex and Species:

Role:

History:

Personality:

Other/Anything Else Doobop Should Know:


Mission Request submission form:

Mission Name:

Mission Dungeon:

Mission Sender:

Mission Type:

Mission Rank:

Mission Reward:


Mystery Dungeon submission form:

Mystery Dungeon Name:

Mystery Dungeon Province:

Total Number of Floors:

Full Dungeon or Part of a Larger One?:

Description of Dungeon:(atmosphere, and what a Mercenary Band should expect to see)

Dungeon Boss: (Say 'no boss' if the Dungeon has no Boss)


That's all for now guys! Thank you for reading! ^.^