It's me, BaguetteMan, back again with another longfic. Time to see where this one leads me. Enjoy.
Prologue - One Small Discovery
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Eight year old James Murrel was climbing the stairs of his grandfather's attic. His short, blue tentacles bobbed up and down on his head as he ran up the stairs. He giggled lightly as ran. The young inkling boy had never been allowed in the attic, but today his grandfather let him go upstairs.
Usually, when young James tried to open the door to the attic, his grandfather would grab his wrist and say, "No, James, you aren't allowed to go up there yet." But today, James opened the door, and nobody stopped him.
Once he reached the top of the staircase, he looked both left and right, seeing that there were rooms on both sides. His eyes wandered back and forth until he saw something in the room on the right.
"Ooh! Boxes!" James said aloud. "I wonder what's in them!"
The boxes piqued James' curiosity, and the young boy strolled over to them. He kneeled down next to an unmarked box, and opened it. To his surprise, it contained several of his grandfather's old weapons. Among them were a Clash Blaster, an Aerospray PG, and an Undercover Brella.
James examined the weapons, noticing that the models of the weapons were nothing like the ones he'd see on television. The Undercover Brella had several holes in it, and was very worn out. The Brella itself had faded to a shade of yellow, due to spending several years in the box. Although he tried to be careful when handling the weapons, the handle of the Aerospray broke off when he picked it up.
Sighing, James picked up the broken weapons and returned them to the box. He fit all of them in, albeit a bit messily, and closed the lid. As he looked away, a small box on the floor caught his eye, and he picked it up. The box was very small, only a tiny bit larger than his hand. Written on the front of the box was a date, dating back to almost fifty years prior. He opened the box and looked inside.
On the very top of the box, he saw a printed picture of an adult male inkling wearing a black suit, and an adult female inkling wearing a large white dress. The two were holding both of their hands together, and looking into each other's eyes. James flipped through the images, seeing that they were all similar to each other; the same two adult inklings, wearing the same clothes.
'Is that grandpa and grandma?' James wondered. 'That must have been a long time ago.'
When he was done looking at the pictures, he carefully put them back in the box and closed the lid. He put the box on top of the box of weapons and stood up. His eyes darted around the small room, and he saw a box that had writing on the front of it. This made him very curious, and he walked over to it.
The floor of the attic creaked beneath his feet as he walked. When he got close enough to read it, the box had a word on the front of it that he was unfamiliar with, so he sounded it out with his voice.
"Meh-more-ees?" James said, confused. "What does that mean?"
He thought back to school, and the vocabulary lessons his teacher had taught him.
"Meh-more-ees," His teacher had said. "Are thoughts that are from our past."
The young boy opened the box, curious as to what his grandfather had been keeping in the box. A cloud of dust came out of the box, causing James to cough a few times.
When the dust had settled, he peered into the box, seeing a newspaper lying on top. The blue haired boy pulled the paper out and squinted at the headline.
"Taylor Coralle becomes the first player to reach three… th- thousand X rank power." James read slowly. Beneath the headline was a picture of a young adult, younger than twenty-five years old, celebrating. The young man in the image had long, orange tentacles that went all around his head, and his blue eyes gleamed in the sunlight as he put his hands in the air.
James studied the image, looking at the inkling celebrating in joy of his apparent victory. A different inkling in the back of the photo was very clearly frustrated, demonstrated by him throwing his weapon on the ground.
"Taylor Coralle… who is that?" James asked aloud. "I've never seen him before."
He pulled another newspaper out of the box, and looked at the headline. It was different from the previous one, and James read it out loud again.
"Coralle sets a new record for splats in a match in a mi-mira-clee match against La-la-gardes, Planker, Reefton, and C-Clamsingt-ton." James read, struggling to pronounce some of the words.
The picture was a close-up shot of the same adult inkling aiming his E-Liter and peering through the scope. James was in awe of the boy in the picture. He put the newspaper on the ground and continued looking through the box. Beneath the newspapers was a
He ran through the old bedroom that contained the staircase, and from the bedroom through the hallway and into the living room, where his grandfather was sitting.
James' grandfather was sitting on a brown sofa chair near the back of the room, facing the television. He was watching a tower control match that was part of the Inkopolis Battle League. The older inkling looked very bored while watching the match play out.
The sound of James' feet while he was running alerted his grandfather of his presence, and the older inkling looked over and saw his grandson running towards him.
"Why, hello there James, what do you have there?" The grandfather asked, noticing the newspaper in his arms.
"I was looking through the boxes in the attic and found this," James explained, handing him the newspaper.
James' grandfather examined the front page of the newspaper, putting on his reading glasses to read the headline.
"My, I haven't seen this in fifty years," He said. "This brings me back a long time." He reminisced as he took a sip of the coffee that was on the table next to him.
"Grandpa, who is Taylor Coralle?" James asked.
His grandfather nearly choked on his coffee when he heard James ask him that. He put his cup on the table to the side of the chair and looked the young boy in the eye.
"You're telling me they don't teach you about him in school?" The old inkling asked doubtfully.
James shook his head no.
"You're telling me you don't know even the smallest amount about Taylor Coralle?"
James again shook his head no. "I don't know who he is, grandpa."
His grandfather reached to his side and pulled up a small chair.
"Have a seat, James." He said, patting on the seat. "Let me tell you the story of the best player to ever step foot on the battlefield: Taylor Coralle."
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Just a short introduction to the story. Most of the chapters aren't going to be very long. Maybe 2,500 words or less. I won't bore you guys with long chapters.