Chapter 5 Start of a Journey

{This Story will be ready to read on my p-a-t-r-e-o-n. If you wish to interact with the story more or simply support me the link is p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/TrikoRex. Be sure to remove the dashes. I hope to see plenty of you there enjoying this novel. 

Currently, there are 10 advanced chapters for you to read, I hope you enjoy them. 

I demand your power stones as I was deemed worthy by the singularity to present you with its hero's tale, so motivate me to write more and upload chapters faster.} 

~ 

~~~

"Bro you really that guy," Big Mike excitedly exclaimed with a massive grin on his face as he joined me in my celebration dance. Before I knew it, we were improvising a makeshift handshake.

"Yes sir, you're not so bad yourself Mojo Man," I replied feeling the need to return a genuine compliment to my first teammate in this life. Little did I know that I lit the boy's competitive spirit resulting in us spending a good two minutes just complimenting each other.

The only reason we ended up stopping our little back-and-forth was because we both realised that our compliments made no sense. From him praising my hops on the last dunk to later praising the fierceness of the LeBron's on my feet. I on the other hand started by praising his ruthless Iron Man-like playstyle to compliment his lustrous afro.

"Are the two of you done goofing around?" CJ exclaimed with a hint of impatience laced in his voice. Although he had a bright smile on his face, I could practically feel the annoyance Emanating off him.

"Haha Chill CJ, it's not every day I beat you in a match gotta enjoy it," Mike easily brushed off the tension with his warm personality. CJ couldn't remain mad faced with the big guy's personality especially when being praised by him.

"Your good kid how old are you?" He asked me opting to change the subject before things could get awkward again.

"Thanks, I'm 14 but I turn 15 next month," I answered him with a little uncertainty letting the reality of me travelling to the past settle in. Up to this point, it was more like a realistic version of a lucid dream. However, playing that game feeling my long-forgotten passion once again let the reality sink in.

"Okay, we are all 16 going into our junior year, oh by the way what school do you go to?" He responded with a smile on his spinning the ball on his index finger and impressively managing to keep it going.

"Really thought you guys were older and I'm moving down to Jacksonville Mom's got a new job down there," I told them gaining surprised glances from the two of them Even Jon a few meters away looked taken aback. I guess they weren't expecting to hear that I was moving five hours away.

"Dang and here I thought you could join our AAU team," Mike Dejectedly commented sounding genuinely sad about the fact I won't be joining their team.

I on the other hand was simply happy to see that basketball was still the same in this timeline. Making friends is just as easy as hooping together and letting your skill do the rest of the work. Makes me remember those days when I would just go to different courts to play with all kinds of people.

"Anyways are going to play another game?" Jon suddenly asked bringing me out of my nostalgic mood. His words quickly removed the sudden awkwardness that had been created as we quickly jumped into another match.

We decided to change teams for round two though as CJ and big Mike teamed up against me and Jon. Not going to lie, Jon can lowkey hoop Once he gets hot, he channels that white boy energy to knock down threes, and that is just one skill in his arsenal. He was like the second coming of Larry Bird without the moustache and trash-talk ability.

Naw I'm lying the boy is trash there is no other way to put it even if you tried. We got destroyed in that game with a score of 21:15 and his only contribution was a single three-pointer. I had to literally carry him on my back in that game just to keep the game interesting. The sad thing is that I can't even fault him for not trying after all he had a total of seven three-point attempts.

He kept bricking shots that Big Mike stopped closing him down and directly went to the basket to wait for the rebound. Honestly, if it wasn't for my new skills, especially my sixth sense that came in clutch I don't know how we would have managed to survive this game. After all, even though their friend's skills are questionable the two of them are the real deal.

For our age, that is, if they were to play past me before my injury, they might have to sue me for child abuse and they are older than me. That's tough but reality proved to me that right now I'm not as good as I think I am. Being healthy and young again I've started to subconsciously want to enter my best ever form from my past life and I'm just not there yet.

Even though I've got some skills from the system, but I still can't execute every move I want just yet. I guess I've got to thank the real-life park random Jon himself for allowing me to realise this as soon as possible. Another thing I noticed is that my shooting is horrendous like I've not got enough range right at this point. This has resulted in my gameplay becoming way too one-dimensional especially when CJ started figuring it out.

The only thing that really saved me was my ability to steal the ball and that my Mid-range jumper is cold. All I needed was a little bit of separation through a behind-the-back dribble and it was game over. Because as a defender once your opponent gets into their rhythm, all you can do is try and be enough of a nuisance and hope they miss.

However, with me getting into my zone since I was basically playing a two versus one, I couldn't let up on such an opportunity. Knowing I would get folded in two if I went to the basket with the big guy in there, I opted to fake a pass to Jon or a fadeaway midrange. With a bit of luck, this routine worked for a while until I was forced to go to the basket as CJ intensified his defence.

~~~

"Alright yall I have to head home now otherwise the warden will get mad," CJ said to the group after we just finished our sixth match. Hearing his words made me realise just how locked in I've been that I haven't even noticed the setting sun on the horizon.

Throughout our matchups, I've learned quite a lot about the three of them who have quite a peculiar friendship. For one like CJ mentioned his dad is awarded at the local correctional facility. Big Mike's Dad on the other hand is their AAU team's basketball coach. The funny thing is the fact that he used to be an inmate at CJ's Dads prison making it weird that he allowed his son to join the man's team.

Jon is probably the odd one out in their friend group and surprisingly it's not just because of his questionable basketball skills. No, what made him rich is the fact that his family is rich and just so happens to be a sponsor for their AAU team. When I found that out, I thought I had figured out why they are friends well until he threatened to slaughter them in 2K. If it was just him boasting it would have been fine but the fact that both Big Mike and CJ relented made me realise where the boy's true skills lay.

"That's cool let's just end it here for the day It's already seven pm and I've got some refuelling to do," Big Mike commented animatedly rubbing his stomach just to emphasise his hunger.

"Bet you just gonna go to uncle's chicken and chips," Jon Commented for the side not sounding impressed by his friend's dining habits.

"Well, what can I say it's the best chicken in town," he retorted with a proud yearning look on his face probably already imagining the taste of the food. Jon didn't seem to agree with his comment in the slightest judging by the disgusted face he was pulling.

"Cap we all know Joey's makes the best chicken and chips," He quickly retorted earning himself a glare from the big guy. Already used to the two of them constantly feeling the need to argue with each other I felt no need to intervene.

"You are white so wouldn't know good chicken if it kicked you in the face," Mike retorted with a matter-of-fact tone looking as if he had just stated a universal law. I guess he's not wrong since black people know how to season their chicken with just that little bit of heaven.

"Anyways little man give me your snap and I'll add you to the chat, just because you're moving doesn't mean we can't stay in touch," CJ commented prompting me to focus on him instead of the two troublemakers. Nodding in response I took out my old iPhone 5s and quickly added him on Snapchat.

~~~

[Ding: First match reward triggered double bliss]

Match Rating: B+

Result: W

Reward: 10 KP x2

'Huh, when did this show up?' this thought popped up in my head after seeing the system blinking after I left the park. It's quite convenient that it waited for me to stop playing and be alone before popping up. Deciding to check out what it's all about I opened my status screen.

---

[Status]

Name: Hakim Lyon

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 2000/July/19

Age: 14

Height- 5'7

Race- African American

King Points: 20

[Physicals]

[>Badges]

[>Missions]

[>lottery (looked)]

---

'Looks like the only thing that changed is that King Point tab," I murmured to myself after coming to a stop just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Which if you were to ask someone else, they would definitely agree with that notion after sporting me staring off into nothingness.

After a while, I realised that the KP could be used to upgrade various aspects of my abilities. Not wanting to upgrade my ball skills I decided to focus on my physical skill since I would receive a more comprehensive boost from them. What I didn't expect to see is two new tabs which could be a game changer for me.

.

.

.

.

To Be Continued...