Three weeks later — actually it was three hours, but it felt like three weeks — I joined the other five members of Cheesy Goodness at the source of our namesake: Marto's Pizza Den. There had been all manner of offical activity and post-game procedure to complete, but now we were free to follow a more personal ritual: eating as much as we could. It was public knowledge that we liked to eat at this establishment after games, and Marto let us have the place to ourselves until dawn in return for the positive publicity. That let us talk freely without being recorded or interrupted.
We sat together in a booth. I was sandwiched between Skids and Broth Ra, and opposite us Swipe She slouched between Punnt Dro and Scaff Jur.
"That was some amazing teamwork, through the whole game and down to the last minute," Swipe was saying. "If not for the glue gun Scaff built, Punnt making the pass to the octoling look like a genuine scoring attempt, Liberty subverting the octoling, Broth keeping everyone in top form, Skids' accuracy with a stolen weapon to knock our ball in, and Drift's hexes tying everything together, we'd have lost that."
"And your planning and training," Skids added. "All those drills were vital!"
"Yeah," I agreed.
Across from us, the others continued their own private but heated argument about pineapple. My side of the table continued to ignore it.
The next fresh, hot pizza arrived and we indulged in the cheesy goodness without speaking for a short time.
Punnt finished first. "So good!" dro said, licking dro's fingers. "So Swipe, do we have a chance at taking the championship win?"
Swipe's answer was as blunt as a chroma ball. "No."
Nine eyes swiveled to stare at Swipe. "What do you mean no?" We each asked variations on that question, but Skids was loudest.
"We're a new team," Swipe said. "In the past thirty-five seasons, new teams have won the championship only four times."
"That's better than ten percent," I said, trying to find any sliver of hope.
"We're also a Wonambi team," Swipe continued.
The next pizza arrived, delaying the next question. Broth paused in ra's eating to ask, "How is being a Wonambi team a problem?"
Swipe continued carefully chewing while considering the wording of she's answer. "Wonambi teams have also won only four of the last thirty-five season championships."
"So that's more than ten percent again, right?" Punnt asked. "Does that add up to more than twenty percent? Or is it ten percent of ten percent?"
"More likely the latter," I said. "But we only have four wins for each case. Without knowing how much they overlap we can't make a prediction."
It was Skids who provided that information. "There's no overlap. Wonambi's wins have all been by a well-seasoned team. The same team with the same players, in fact. It was Utter Chaos, and their final championship title was twenty years ago. That was after a close loss the prior year, following three consecutive wins. Thall are a completely different team now, of course."
"That's right," Swipe said. "Utter Chaos's first championship win was the third time thall played the championship, and thall's sixth season as a team."
"So you're saying we'd be the first new Wonambi team to win the championship," Scaff said around a mouthful of pizza.
Swipe shook she's head. "I'm saying Wonambi hardly ever wins the championship, and then only with an experienced team who'd been playing casually together for years before becoming professional. We should count ourselves extremely lucky to have come this far. I'm not just saying that. I truly mean it. If there wasn't a tie when Utter Chaos was knocked out, we'd have lost. If it hadn't been our ball the Mighty Honks used to knock Utter Chaos out, we'd have been stuck like Baking Time with no chance to get the five point bonus. If Glorious Feint had pulled further ahead, we might have still lost when we knocked out the Shadow Runners. Or we could have continued in a four player game, which we would have lost to Glorious Feint for certain without the Runners balancing them out. If the game had gone much longer, the Mighty Honks would have drawn us into another penalty shot, and that would have ended badly. If we'd been any slower knocking out the Runners, thall would have won first. If Skids had mistimed the final shot, sa would have given the Honks a free point instead of knocking our ball in for the win. If anyone had realised what Drift was up to, thall would have been all over heem. That cat's out of the box now. I could easily list more ways we might have easily lost, but you get the idea."
"There's no way I could have missed that final shot," Skids said with utmost confidence. "And are you sure anyone's uncovered what Drift was up to with Liberty?"
Swipe pointed at the magical information display on the wall to our right. Skids' right and mine, not Swipe's.
CHAOS MASCOT FAILURE CONFIRMED AS FAULTY WIRING! SECRETS OF CHEESY MASCOT EXPLAINED! TTTTT RAILS AGAINST JUNOK SA FOR NOT PRONOUNCING FOURTH T!
"Ah. But we won this game against incredible odds, so we could do it again, right?" Skids with the casual air expected of someone whose fingers were covered in cheese.
Swipe let out a heavy sigh. "Wonambi is universally acknowledged to have the worst chroma teams. We have the largest population of any hive, but we have no specific focus. So we can expect to be facing five teams each better than Utter Chaos on a good day, and I can guarantee none of them will have faulty wiring."
Skids conceded the point with a slow nod. "Yeah, Tjukurrpa and Gulidang hives have already finished thall's championship selection series. Gulidang's Blue Lightning are a strong team with a solid record and extreme weapons, and Tjukurrpa's Dreaming Eye are scary good. But Ganayanda have the most wins in the last thirty-five years. Which ever team thall put forward will be a major contender, but we can only hope it's not Demonstration Domination. But on the other hand, anyone who can defeat DD could probably sweep the field with us. It all depends on what demon research projects have yielded the best results in recent years. Ganayanda are highly mascot focused, though the mages supporting thall's mascots are always top tier."
I put up my hand to halt Skids' torrent of words. "Enough spiraling into doom, Skids. Leave the rambling to me, alright? And wouldn't mascot focused teams be our best matchup? A stronger mascot is a stronger ally for us."
Skids seemed to pale momentarily, but it was Swipe who answered. "Don't imagine you have any hope of subverting Ganayanda hexwork. Or messing with anything out of Tjukurrpa. That will only end with your mascot under someone else's control."
"Liberty is a Ganayanda demon, actually," I said.
"All mage-controlled demons are—" Swipe began to explain, as if I didn't know.
"I mean, a current experimental project, not the usual mass-hexed sort," I quickly clarified.
"Do you think that will help? You can be sure that every line of every hex you've cast to that demon is already on the scryers of every hexmage on a chroma team in Ganayanda," Swipe said harshly.
"How... You think hall have a hex that's spying on Liberty?"
"Absolutely."
"But..." I wasn't sure what I wanted to say, but I definitely wanted to protest.
"Just enjoy your pizza and worry about that later," Swipe said. "We all did work we can be proud of today, and this is a time of celebration."
Between Skids and me, Broth made a disgusted sound. "What's the point of being in the championship game if we have no hope of winning?"
To my surprise, it was Punnt who answered. "We do what we can to prove that we belong there. We put up the best fight we can, make thall work for every point, and show that we're not an embarrassment to our hive. And maybe, just maybe, we'll have a chance to knock out a leader and change the outcome."
"Well said, Punnt," Swipe agreed. "Even if we don't score very high, we'll be demonstrating high level play and exceptional sportsmageship. We may not be the best but we'll be as ready as is possible. It will be an honour competing beside each one of you. And when all is said and done, remember this: We're in it just for the pizza!"
"For the pizza!" we echoed.
"For cheesy goodness!"
"For cheesy goodness!"
"And for ice-cream after!" I added. Some of the flavours were even better than the pizza, in my experience.
"For ice-cream!" the others echoed.
"And for a chance at getting better lab equipment." That was Broth, who was often complaining about such shortcomings.
"For better equipment!"
"And for better tools," Scaff added.
"For better tools!"
Skids was next. "And time off to take trips!"
"For time off!"
We wordlessly agreed that was enough chanting for a while, and resumed consuming our pizza.
"Speaking of time off," Scaff said as our server began distributing bowls of ice-cream, "do you know where you're headed for your next big topside adventure?"
"Maybe out west to Hillbrake?" Punnt suggested. "Or all the way out to Nesquay on the coast, and Awaba Lake while you're nearby?"
I was a little surprised by that. I hadn't known Punnt knew so much about Pure geography. On top of that, it had been a long time since I'd heard anyone speak the names of any above-ground cities. I still thought about my family in Forrester's Crossing every day, and sometimes wondered what hook-handed Timothy Douglas was up to in Deepbloom. However, I had not thought much about 'my people' as a whole since integrating with the mages of Wonambi. Even thinking about the Great Maker usually led me to doubts and confusion. I often found myself fearing that something terrible would befall me, wondering whether it already had, and being angry at people who had probably lied to me all my life.
"Drift? You're drifting," Swipe said, pushing my ice-cream bowl forward. "You'll want to eat that before it melts, and you should really be paying attention to Skids."
"Hmm? Oh, right." I stuffed a spoonful of the sweet frozen treat into my mouth and turned to look past Broth at my friend.
Skids took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "There's no need for me to try searching for my past in any of the Pure cities," sa said while staring at the middle of our table where someone's scryer showed the pizza den's menu. "I... This may be upsetting to hear but... I... I'm..."
Broth gave Skids' closest hand a squeeze. "Whatever it is, it's alright. We joined the team knowing where you might be from, and where Drift definitely was from."
"It's worse than that though," Skids admitted, staring harder at the menu. "I'm from the... the Titans." The final word was a soft as the tip of a feather, but still as sharp as a quill.
Blessedly, no one else had ice-cream in thall's mouths.
I wasn't struck speechless, but I didn't have anything that needed saying. Perhaps I could say something supporting, but I wasn't sure that Skids would welcome my interference. Waiting to see how the others responded was the better choice, but I still felt uncomfortable saying nothing.
Broth was the first to speak after the long silence. "You were born... there... but you don't have any...?"
"Augmentations?" Skids filled in, causing Punnt, Scaff and Broth to flinch. "No, or we would have known where I was from soon after I was found. I looked into what we know about the Titans, and it's a clear fact that they don't augment anyone under eighteen years old, except in cases that threaten physical or mental health. In those cases the augmentation experts will work with the kids directly to determine what they need, making sure they're not being pushed or hindered by... well I guess most of you don't understand the concept of 'parents' but Drift's were rather... Sorry, I got off track. Anyhow, I was determined to be around that age when I turned up here, so I figure that whatever happened to me to erase my memories and drop me here likely started before I turned eighteen."
I remembered the day I'd turned eighteen, though it had gone mostly unobserved. Mages were decanted from growth pods at the start of each month, so there were only twelve birthdays here, and they were not individually celebrated. Skids and I had gone out for ice-cream and chatted a little about my life, which had been nice.
"But you were still... born from Titans," Punnt said. "I've heard all sorts of weird stories about 'designer babies' and stuff."
"There's nothing 'weird' about Skids, however sa came into this world," Broth said firmly. "I would know. And even if there was, it shouldn't matter."
"Yeah," Scaff agreed. "A person's a person. So long as that person isn't trying to hurt us, we're cool. But... Skids, are you saying you want to go back there? To the Titans?"
Skids sat up straight and looked directly ahead. "Yes. I want to go back and find out who and what I am. And yall are welcome to come with me."