The Pros had come a season early, and his team was incomplete and a shadow of where he wanted it to be to compete with the big fish and spread the benevolence of Nurgle. This was of no consequence to the boss however, he had merely congratulated Thunden on a season well done and passed his commands for Season 8.

A season well done?!?!? Thunden wasn’t so sure. Sure the Widowmakers had won a quarterfinal but the semi final loss to Doneagle and his Midnight Howlers was a painful defeat for a season that promised so much. They had even beaten the Howlers during the season but the two teams were well matched and Pappa Nurgle had left the Widowmakers at their mercy. Doneagle being feted whilst Thunden again took an early season break… a well done season indeed.

His erstwhile brothers in the Horsemen cadre had also excelled. St Bernie of Buffon had truly had a great season, making the finals through adversity but again coming up short against the confounded Doneagle. VPowerV and Mad Rand the Very Mad had also had respectable seasons and remained on course to fill the pros with rot in Season 9 as per the plan.

As he climbed into his waiting carriage to take him back to Brixton Academy… he wondered… he had always been his own coach. Had he swapped his independence with the Titans in return for platitiudes from a rarely seen money man? Perhaps the time was ripe for a change…

When arriving at the Widowmakers camp for the first time, he had been devoid of emotion, the rawness of what happened when leaving the Titans still fresh in his memory. He hadn’t bonded with the team prior to the start of Season 7 and maybe that showed in the play. However, over the season, he had started to admire this team of Nurgle upstarts. So many of them had been the targets of hateful comments from opposition fans, players and coaches simply because they chose to follow the favour of Papa Nurgle over say… Sigmar? Or Khorne? He had in fact rescued Ded Zeppelin from a hate filled Freak Show and given him a life in the Widowmakers as his first rookie signing in Season 7.

Ded Zeppelin had still not developed as he’d have liked but he could sense it was close and kept faith with the sticky big guy. Other characters were coming to the fore… Sabbath the pestigor who thought he was an elf, he loved nothing more than dodging his way in between the claws and hooves destined for his face and surprising them with an upper cut of his own on route to the end zone. Faith No More… the misunderstood Nurgle Warrior who was never given much time by his own mother, so now looked to spread the love where he could with the appendages Pappa had blessed him with. Terrorvision, the brooding silent one, never spoke he was fully engaged in his Nurgtendo Gameboy… Thunden never had the heart to tell him he was awful at it with those claws. Not to mention the self-inflicted casualty caused by a particularly obstinate bogey.

There were others too, the ludicrously juvenile, Green Day, who’s favourite thing was just to run around asking people if they wanted a letter posted and then giving them a free stamp. Stoned Roses, the seemingly docile pestigor who turned into a killer on the pitch and then retreated to his zen garden once the game was done.

Thinking about the team, he realised that somehow… he had started to care.

If he cared for the fate of these guys who had been put upon most of their poor diseased lives… then could he in good conscience just take the pay check and subtly go about doing the mans work? Or… could he work from the inside… and then break the chains…

Much to ponder…

First though… the White Owlz and the familiar Coach Stu (recently named the False King) were the issue, but after… there would be time for… a decision.