Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Jason followed Dr. Patricia as she lead him outside of the room where he had been spending the last few days in eating and training.

He was so happy to be able to get a change in scenery \'It\'s crazy what a new look can do for you. That room was starting to feel like a prison.

A weird prison where they force people to eat ungodly amounts of food and watch footage of old basketball games.\'

After a few minutes of walking and some elevator rides later Jason was lead to a new room. After walking through the doors Jason saw that it was a large practice area that had multiple courts inside of it.

Jason looked around and saw that Kyle and the others were there already. He thanked Dr. Patricia before making his way over to the boys.

Rudy punched him playfully on the arm as soon as Jason walked over "Well look who\'s here. We thought that you would be MIA for the group training too."

Kyle laughed "Yeah, we haven\'t seen you at all during the past few days Jaya. We thought that you might be too busy with whatever it is your doing for your training."

Jason shook his head "Trust me, I wish I could have joined you guys these past few days. The training regiment that they\'re putting me through is hell.

I\'m glad that half of the days are going to be group training." Kyle looked at Jason with a confused expression on his face.

\'I\'ve never heard Jason complain about training before. He\'s the kind of guy that loves pushing himself to the breaking point.

What kind of hellish training are they putting him through?\' Jason then looked around "I see Monty and his boys but where are Golden Oaks and Central Park?"

3D spoke with irritation clearly attached to his voice "You\'re asking the same questions as us man. We been waiting here for like ten minutes now."

Danilo added "So much for following a strict schedule and not holding the camp up. This is complete bullshit.

Jaya got chewed out just for asking to take a quick break but these guys hold us up for over ten minutes and we\'re supposed to just wait for them?"

Alex put his arm over his brother\'s shoulder "Nothing we can do about it Dlo. Best not even stress about it.

I mean it is Golden Oaks and Central Park. What\'s Nike going to do to them? They can\'t threaten them with not sending them an invite next year.

Those are the two best middle school teams in the entire country. If they don\'t go to the camp then their docu-series that they shoot every year would get no attention."

And so Jason stood with Kyle and the others as they waited for Golden Oaks and Central Park to show up.

As he was waiting Jason decided to use the reward that he had gotten from the system after he had completed the Rucker Park mission.

After maneuvering around the system a box that was wrapped up like a traditional birthday present appeared in front of Jason.

Seeing as how no one else reacted to the floating box in front of him Jason assumed that he was the only one that could see it.

He tried to open it with his mind but no matter what he tried he couldn\'t get it to open. Jason sighed as he reached out with his hand and touched the floating gift box.

Kyle looked over at Jason "What are you doing?" Jason let out an awkward chuckle "Just stretching hehe."

Kyle shrugged his shoulders before looking away. Jason felt relieved that Kyle let it go so easily. He then watched as the top of the gift box popped open.

Confetti blew out from the box and rained all over Jason and the other boys.

[Congratulations! You have earned a badge upgrade for a random badge!]

Jason was ecstatic after finding out what the reward was. He then waited to see which badge he had that would end up getting the upgrade.

[Clamps (Silver)->(Gold): Increases your ability to stick with your defensive assignment. Also improves your ability to recover after being broken down on defense.]

Jason almost jumped in excitement after seeing that it was the Clamps badge that ended up getting the random upgrade.

During the state tournament his Clamps badge had gotten the upgrade from Bronze to Silver. But that was also the last time that Jason had gotten the chance to play any meaningful basketball.

Meaning that he hadn\'t had the chance to grind and improve that badge. But now that the random upgrade had ended up upgrading Clamps Jason was excited.

\'My first Gold badge that isn\'t Ironman! And it ended up being a badge as important as Clamps! Thank god, for a second there I was nervous that the random upgrade would end up being wasted on a badge like Hustle.\'

Jason then opened up the system and took a look at all of his badges.

[Ironman(Gold): Gives you a tougher body. You will be less likely to experience an injury as well as recover from injuries at an improved rate. Effectiveness decided by badge rank.

Defensive Anchor (Silver): Your presence on the court inspires your teammates to do their best on defense. Your teammates will be more focused on the defensive side of the ball.

Your teammates will play defense with more energy and be less likely to commit small mistakes. Effect only applies to teammates while you are on the court.

Lock Down Defender (Silver): Lowers the effectiveness of your opponents offensive badges and increases your ability to not fall for different fakes and moves.

Clamps (Gold): Increases your ability to stick with your defensive assignment. Also improves your ability to recover after being broken down on defense.

Pick Pocket (Silver): Increases your ability to steal the ball away from the ball handler. Decreases your chances of being called for a reach in foul.

Hustle (Silver): Increases your chances of success when diving/fighting for loose balls. Slightly increases rebounding.

Workhorse (Silver): Lowers the affects of fatigue on your performance. Allows you to play at your optimal level for short moments when low on stamina.

Ankle Breaker (Silver): Increases the effectiveness of your dribble moves in breaking down your defender.

If you manage to make your defender fall or stumble you will get a momentary boost to your shot making.

Tight Handles (Silver): Increases your ability to dribble through traffic without losing the ball. Decreases your chances of having the ball stripped away while dribbling.

Dimer (Silver): Slightly increases your ability to throw accurate passes. Gives a slight boost to your teammates scoring ability if they attempt to score right after receiving a pass from you.

Pick and Roll Ball Handler (Silver): Increases your ability to pass to the roll man during a pick and roll.

Also slightly increases your scoring ability momentarily after coming off a screen after performing a pick and roll.

Floor General (Bronze): Your presence on the court gives your teammates the confidence to perform to the best of their ability. Your teammates will be tuned in on offense.

Your teammates will gain a small boost to their offensive abilities and be less likely to perform small mistakes. Effect only applies to teammates while you are on the court.

Sniper (Silver): Gives a slight bonus to your ability to make shots from the three-point line. Slightly lowers the energy used to attempt a long distance shot. ]

Just as Jason was off in his own world admiring the badges that he had earned so far the door to the training area swung open as two groups of boys walked in.

Jason saw a familiar face as Amarion lead one of the groups \'That must be Central Park. Now that I think about it I think I remember seeing them when I played against Amarion at the Rucker.\'

Dr. Patricia frowned as she walked toward the researcher who had accompanied the two groups to the training area.

"They were supposed to be here over fifteen minutes ago. What the hell happened?" The researcher nervously responded "S-sorry Dr. Miller. I tried to bring the boys over but....

They said that they wouldn\'t move on to the next portion of training without a session of massage therapy first."

Dr. Patricia ground her teeth as one of the veins on her head swelled up "What? Are you serious!?" The researcher hurriedly nodded his head "I tried to tell them that everyone was waiting for them but they wouldn\'t listen.

I called and asked the higher ups about it and they said to just go along with whatever they wanted. They said that we should try our best to make them feel comfortable."

Dr. Patricia put on a bone chilling smile "Oh really? A huge multi billion dollar company like Nike is bending over backwards just to make a bunch of snot nosed brats happy?"

The researcher didn\'t say anything. Seeing how sorry the researcher looked Dr. Patricia decided to drop the subject.

"Go on. Do whatever it is that you have to do. I\'ll take over from here." The researcher smiled for the first time since he had walked in.

"T-thank you Dr. Miller." He then walked out of the training area in a hurry. She then made her way to the front of all the boys.

"Congratulations boys. You finally showed up. Now that you\'re here we can finally move on with the training."

None of the boys from Central Park or Golden Oaks seemed to care that she was indirectly calling them out.

Patricia had to hold in her anger as she tried to move the training along "From now on personal training will take up only half the day.

The other half will be spent here as we have you all participate in group training." Before she could even continue she saw a hand shoot up.

She looked over and saw that it was Amarion "Yes? What is it young man?" Amarion confidently said "If we\'re going to do some group training why don\'t we start off with a quick five on five?"

He then pointed at Jason and his group "Except for a few of us we are all top ranked teams in the country.

If they want to hang with the big dogs then they should prove that they got the bark to match."