Coral Avalon
It was crowded in the shawarma place.
That’s because Coral Avalon had a lot of friends in strange places.
It only took him a fifteen year layover and a lot of obstacles and hardships, but the Crownless King finally won his first singles match in PRIME. He also won his first pay-per-view match in PRIME.
It wasn’t his first victory in PRIME, though.
Because he was, forever, a Blue Rogue.
The party of Avalon was full of past and present.
The Blue Rogues were eight people. You had the actual team, Coral and Allen. Then you had what Allen liked to call “the Posse”: the three members of Mega Job, the Falk Brothers, and Alexandria Malone. Together, the eight of them ruled the tag division in PRIME for several months before everything fell apart at Colossus IV… and it wasn’t just because Olsig and St. Romani had beaten them for the belts.
It’d been a very long time since all eight of them were together again.
The Falk Brothers, who retired from wrestling years ago due to many unfortunate incidents that involved Robert Falk’s mounting injuries and Scott Falk being… Scott, were a study in contrasts. Robert was a mammoth of a man, nearly as tall as Stanislav, who’d been rather ravaged by Father Time in the last fifteen years. Even carrying the shield for the entrance was becoming a bit much for him. And Scott… well, he’s Scott. Maybe a little mellower since getting blackballed from the industry, but still very quick to anger. Maybe he’s small in more ways than just his height.
Alexandria Malone was there with her husband, Simon Knox. Alex had transitioned well into a life outside of wrestling, if the pantsuit and somewhat professional look were any indication. And even though Simon hadn’t been able to fully use one of his arms in several years, he looked equally as impeccable in his sharp suit and sunglasses. Alex had found a second life working with the old Princes of New England and with Mega Job, helping to produce the cartoon that had given a new life for many of these erstwhile wrestlers.
They were surrounded by three very curious men in suits that, while tailored to fit them perfectly, also didn’t fit them at all.
Those three men?
They’re Mega Job.
They’re Beef, El Janito, and Steve.
No one knows if those are even their real names.
No one knows where they came from.
No one knows why none of the three have aged a day since they first appeared in the IWO Minor League, almost twenty-three years ago.
In fact, it’s better if you didn’t ask questions about Mega Job.
Stop asking questions.
Now.
Why are you still asking them?
Shit.
That’s a question, too.
No more questions.
The last of the Blue Rogues to talk about was “Codemaster” Allen Brown.
There’s a long-standing rumor that Allen Brown hasn’t wrestled in PRIME since 2007. Entirely true. After the Rogues lost the tag titles and everyone except Mega Job was fired, he came back for the Jewel in the Crown, bringing all of his friends with him. He donned a mask, fought Titan St. James and Brandon Youngblood, and then was gone again.
If you’ve seen Codemaster since then, it’s probably one of the guys that he allowed to take the gimmick since then. Coral Avalon had even teamed with one of them as a version of the Blue Rogues in Bang! Pro Wrestling, becoming the first Bang! With Your Partner champions in company history in the process.
Since he got out of wrestling, Allen found himself in the burgeoning world of Twitch streaming. Since then, he’d slowly built out a large following. Long years gaming casually but professionally. All the Dark Souls bosses that killed him. All the sick Marvel vs. Capcom combos. All of the threatened friendships in trying to become the Super Star in Mario Party. Allen had built out a niche as someone who built a community just by being himself instead of what his father wanted him to be – a wrestler.
He still had plenty of love for the friends he had in wrestling, though.
Like Coral.
Things hadn’t always been as copasetic between the Crownless King and the Breaker of Kingdom Hearts as they were today. The circumstances of Coral’s release in PRIME followed by not being called back when the Rogues briefly returned without him were a bitter pill for the then-Kleptomaniac to swallow. It took a few years for the hard feelings to pass. Nowadays, when Coral wasn’t busy and their schedules aligned, he’d drop in on Allen’s streams.
While Coral didn’t stream himself, he’s too busy for that, his Twitch handle was the same as his Jabber one – “CKAvalon”.
Joe Fontaine and Sid Phillips occupied a little corner to themselves. Both felt like they should let Coral have his space with all of his old friends. They weren’t going to say “no” to shawarma though. Neither would Soren “Captain Justice” Knox, who sat with them contently without his American mask on. Neither would the JBDs, who were inexplicably also here despite not being invited or asked to attend. Neither would Simon Tillier, who only tagged along because it was the right thing to do for the poor guy after the circus act he’d been forced to attend this whole time.
And finally, there’s Annabelle Avalon.
She was never a Blue Rogue.
She was never a wrestler.
She wasn’t even all that keen on shawarma.
Yet as the only “honorary” Blue Rogue, the light of Coral Avalon’s life would always be there.
The Avalon party all sat and ate together. They laughed, and there was merriment all around. There were toasts to each other, most of all to Coral for defeating GREAT SCOTT. Hopes and dreams for the future, and for each other.
Here’s the thing.
Life’s about rolling boulders, to forever try to achieve our goals and dreams.
Yesterday, Coral Avalon took his first step up the hill.
Today, it was about celebrating taking that step.
Tomorrow, everything might just fall down that hill again.
And the day after that, Coral would climb back up.
Next year, he would do everything he could to finally make it to the top after all these years.
The Crownless King did not need a crown to prove that he was a king.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep trying.