Three-thousand, three-hundred and ten years prior to the adventures of our protagonists, there lived two brothers named Brandon and Boris Black. They were twins, who had no-one else but each other in their small town. They lived in a town called Notably Small Town.
The people of this town did not like the brothers that much, and this was because their reputation preceded them. It began when they were teenagers, during the mayor's annual walk through town parade. They had run out on the street in front of the mayor, and after the mayor had lost his temper at them, they mocked him openly. Five years later, and their actions that day still lingered in the minds of the town, who thought of them as brats.
The two of them did a good job of living up to that reputation. Their main hobbies were fishing, busking, and partying. The only person in the town who never grew tired of their antics was the village idiot, Norman.
The mayor sat in his house, watching as the streets were littered with ribbons by the two irreverent brothers. He thought to himself, these brothers know nothing of the seriousness of the world. To this day, I don't know whether to be mad, or to laugh along with them. He then heard the phone ring.
"Hello, this is the Mayor of Notably Small Town speaking."
"Interesting. So I am to believe your town is small enough to be notable? I may just have to pay you a visit," said a deep, rough, threatening voice.
"Who is this?" asked the mayor.
"You know exactly who I am. I terrorise your puny government and the world alike. My power is ultimate. Not even Merlin can stop me. I am the right arm of evil, Gospello."
The mayor's face betrayed the shock that went through him after hearing that name. Gospello, he thought. The sorcerer known as the "Mystic Menace".
The next day, the brothers were out fishing, having a laugh about their antics from the previous day.
"We painted the town good, didn't we Brandon?"
"We painted the town well, Boris."
Boris laughed at Brandon's sarcastic remark.
"Well, what's next for us? This whole irreverence thing is getting stale. I'm not even sure it's working. The town thinks of us as a couple of nuisances."
"Aye, but that won't last forever. Sooner or later, we're gonna teach these people how to have fun."
"Everyone's super serious. I can't figure it out."
"I know, right? You'd think we were the only ones in this whole world who can tell a smile by looking."
On the horizon, Gospello sailed aboard his boat made from psychic energy and sustained by magic.
"That island over there, it does look notably small... Perhaps I misjudged that foolish insect when he called it as such."
Gospello stood and thought about whether he should indeed pay the town a visit.
"Perhaps tomorrow. For their sake, I would hope their moods are appropriately low. Joy is a scourge upon the Earth."
Brandon and Boris were determined to turn the town's attitude around, and do it that day. The problem that they had identified was the lack of a plan. Today was no different, as they had yet to come up with a plan. As a result, the rest of their day was spent coming up with one, and they decided that they would have to put it into action on the day after.
As the sun rose on the horizon, Gospello appeared on his boat, and contemplated how his arrival would be met with scared fools begging for mercy. How predictable mortals are, he thought. I shall revel in their pathetic misery.
Brandon and Boris put the first phase of their plan into action. Step One: Leave posters around the town advertising a great treasure. After that, it was a matter of waiting until the people of the town saw the posters.
While the people did indeed see the posters, the two brothers did not have a chance to proceed to step two. Gospello arrived at the outskirts of the town and saw the posters.
"A great treasure? Are these manuscripts truthful? They say I should consult Brandon and Boris Black."
Gospello waved his hand and stated, "I summon forth from their natural places, Brandon Black and Boris Black of Notably Small Town." The brothers materialised in front of him, and were rightfully taken by surprise. He addressed them directly.
"You brothers are advertising treasure on this parchment. Lead me to it or I shall steal your souls and tether them to... erm, I'm getting ahead of myself. In short, show me the goods or suffer dearly."
Boris and Brandon looked at each other. "What do you think, brother? Out of towner or an uptight townie we've just never seen before?" asked Boris.
"Oh, he's definitely not from around here."
Gospello grew impatient with the brothers and repeated his statement. As a rabbit hopped in front of him, he looked down, and smiled evilly. "Let me show you what happens to those who disappoint me," he said. He grabbed the rabbit by its hind legs, and began to wave his free hand in a swirling motion.
Smoke began to cover the rabbit completely. After a few seconds, the smoke cleared, and now he held a carrot in his hand, holding it up by the carrot-top.
Brandon and Boris understood and looked at each other.
"That's a nice parlour trick, mister," said Boris.
"Say, is the rabbit up your sleeve?" asked Brandon.
"You foolish mortals! Lead me to the treasure at once or you will face dire punishment!"
"Can you believe this guy? What do you even want with the treasure anyway?" asked Boris.
"All spoils of this world belong to darkness. I am tasked with liberating them from the fools that seek to keep them."
"Ooh, dark magic. In that case, you should be letting us mortals have it. Is avarice not evil?" said Brandon.
"I have had enough of your games!" he paused, and then began to chant.
"Billowing up from the eternal fire, demons grant me the power I desire. From their minds into mine own, forge a path before unknown."
From this spell, he was able to look inside the minds of the brothers, and determine that the treasure was not of the material kind, but rather some sentimental words designed to make the townsfolk happier.
"It's worse than I thought. You heathens! Happiness is the most sickening thing that exists. For the heinous acts you have attempted to carry out today, I shall curse you. And this one will ensure your eternal misery.
"World above and world below, let my horrors befall them so. One shall be the monster at sea, the other the hunter, forever it be. No rest at all for their weary souls, not until one begets the other's fall."
With these words, the curse was effective. The brothers were transported into the middle of the Phobos Sea.
Brandon found himself wearing a fisherman's outfit and aboard a canoe. Boris found himself in the water, taking the form of a Kraken.
At first they wept, for they scarcely knew what had happened to them. Brandon made a promise to Boris that he would return home and try to find out what exactly had happened.
He returned home, only to find that there was no trace of Gospello, the posters, or even the townspeople. That is, until the townspeople came out of the shadows.
"Oh, hello there, fisherman," said a woman.
"Fisherman? It's me, Brandon Black."
"Should we know you? Because I don't remember you," said a man.
They don't remember me, Brandon thought. He then saw their faces. They were extremely sad, as if they had seen death itself. Well, no matter, I can try to gain their trust.
"If you're looking for a place to stay, don't bother. There's no point. We're all going to die anyway," said a woman.
"May I stay with you?" he asked Norman.
"There's no reason for me to object," he said, defeated.
Brandon followed Norman to his house, where Norman shuffled to close the door. Then he closed the windows. Brandon was confused.
Norman's eyes darted around the house, as if it were possible that someone may be watching.
"Brandon Black, my boy! It is good to see you!"
"Wait, so you're not affected like they are?"
"Gospello came and made everything miserable. But I... well, that's really only my business, but let's just say that some dumb spell isn't going to work on me."
"You're a lot smarter than I remember."
"Hm? Oh, yes, well, I only acted stupid for the benefit of the town. No point in being the centre of attention in a town that will hardly appreciate you for it anyway."
A look of dread then came across Brandon's face. He asked if Norman had just said Gospello had done this.
"Yes. Now, you can stay here with the mopey villagers or leave town, like I am."
"Wait, you're leaving?"
"Yes, I have an appointment on the third moon of Jupiter."
"There's the village idiot I know."
"I don't expect you to understand, everyone on this planet is a victim of circumstance."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's not my place to say. Now if you'll excuse me, I will be going now." Norman pulled from his rucksack a device resembling a metal hourglass. He pressed a button on the top of this device, and a sharp screeching noise was emitted. The device emitted an electromagnetic pulse, and he vanished.
Brandon decided that he would not freak out, considering everything he had witnessed that day.
The years went by, Brandon tried desperately to get his fellow townsfolk to care about his missing brother, but to no avail. In the year 795, the dark wizards were defeated by an unknown entity, and the government came into various territories to claim control. That included Notably Small Town.
An amateur mage that had been captured by the government was forced to undo any dark magic that he could. The town returned to their uptight ways, but the curse that affected Brandon and Boris, and the town's memory of the two, those were beyond the skills of the mage, and so remained.
Three years later, the invasion happened. Everything was bleak. Brandon Black had been wounded by fires and was dying. A government official promised to call for backup. He closed his eyes and felt himself slip away.
He woke up without a trace of the pain from his death. Medics expressed their shock.
"How did you survive?" asked one.
"I... survived?" asked Brandon. "I thought I died..."
"It's alright. You can return to the life you were living."
What life am I returning to, though? he thought.
It would be many years before he began to discover what life that was. He celebrated his one-hundredth birthday looking no older than when he had been cursed. He decided then to fake his death and pretend to be someone else. He did everything he could to disguise himself, but there were two things he could not rid himself of. One being the fisherman's coat that he was either to wear or keep in his possession. The other was his real name, Brandon Black. No-one knew or cared about who he was, but his name was Brandon Black.
Eventually he learned how to make it seem as if he had passed on his name and legacy to a son. For generations, he kept this up, and one day, in 1642, he visited his brother again.
"I have spent so many years trying to understand what happened to us," he told his brother.
Boris let out an inhuman sound, but Brandon heard his brother's mind say We were cursed, brother. And I know why you're here. You want to kill me, so that you can die. But I'm going to kill you first. After all, why should it matter who dies first? One of us has to die for this curse to lift.
It was then that their rivalry began, and Brandon Black, in all 'incarnations' became known as the Angler, while Boris became infamous as the monster of the Phobos, the Kraken.
Both were treated as minor threats by the government, and bounties were placed on both of their heads. While the Kraken's grew as it terrorised the sailors that tried to attack it or invade its territory, Brandon's infamy reset with each new 'generation'. The years passed, and the world continued to change. Most of it seemed like a blur to these brothers, who had been alive for centuries.
Sometimes, for a change, they would co-operate, and learn from each other, growing stronger and more resilient. Things seemed like they would repeat forever, even as Notably Small Town became the Town of No Peers. Even as he found out about the secret underground chamber. Even as he learned that the invaders would return one day. It seemed like nothing could surprise him.
That was, until the day that James and his crew of six other people helped him to fight off the invasion – one that only he and the organic androids saw coming.
He had finished telling his tale according to the details he knew about, and James affirmed that it was hard to believe.
"All those years, and you never left the Phobos?" he asked.
"Wait, that's what you don't believe?" asked Cameron.
"You had the opportunity to see the world, and yet you pre-occupied your mind with death? Surely you did not expect you would find the answers you seek on the only sea you've ever known. They could very well be somewhere else."
"If that is all that troubles you, I have an easy remedy," began Brandon. "Allow me to join you."
James nodded in approval, and Cameron, Patricia, Karnilla, and Persimmon expressed their shock. Crock and Milangelo started laughing.
"I am the 'Angler', Brandon Black. I am three-thousand, three-hundred and thirty years old. My most recent bounty was that of twenty-seven million onits. Happy to be of service, captain."