[A few minutes earlier, right after the 4th quarter started]
Nash grabbed Hina and pulled her aside, his hand digging into her hip to keep her on the edge of her emotions.
"Listen, for the next bit, I need you to mark Seth as much as you can," he told her. "Just fuck up his game and give me some room to breathe. That should be enough."
Hina bit her bottom lip. She started sliding her fingers up his arm, feeling his muscles.
"My... you know I love how much you trust me, right?" she giggled. "But let’s be real, do I look like the Messiah to you? You know I’m never gonna stop him. I don’t move like you do. Nobody moves like you, Nash. It’s just impossible."
"I’m not asking you to stop him, I’m asking you to just slow him down," Nash replied. He used his thumb to trace slow, teasing circles on her hip. "Just enough so I can do the rest. I don’t think he’ll be much trouble for a moment."
Hina looked up at him, searching his eyes. When she saw that look of total confidence, that "I’ve got this" vibe, her nerves just melted away. He knew exactly how to push her buttons.
"That’s why you gotta do what you do best: play dirty," Nash continued. "Seeing how he finished the last quarter, I’ve got a pretty good idea of where his head is at. You can handle this. You’re my girl, aren’t you? Use that infinite capacity for malice of yours to shut him down."
"My girl..." Hina practically drooled. Her breathing was already getting shallow, her chest heaving up and down, her tits straining against the fabric of her jersey. "My, my... give me one good reason not to just jump on you right here and now."
Nash smirked. Worked up and desperate, just what he needed from her.
"I don’t know, maybe because of all the horror I’m gonna put your ass through once this is over?"
His hand slid down from her hip and gripped one of her cheeks hard, squeezing the firm, juicy flesh of her ass. Hina let out a strangled little moan, her back arching instinctively as she pressed her rear deeper into his palm, wanting more of his grip.
"Mmh... Nash..."
"Give it everything you’ve got," he whispered directly into her ear, "show them what my sexy girl is all about."
He gave her ass one last, hard, bruising squeeze before letting go, leaving it shivering and bouncing slightly under her jersey.
Hina took a deep breath, and it was almost like steam was coming from her lips because her breathing had become so ragged and hot.
"You better be ready," she breathed. "Because I’m gonna make you pay this whole play of toying with my needs so hard you won’t even know how to walk straight."
Nash just gave a cocky side-smile.
"Whenever you’re ready."
The moment Hina stepped back onto the court, she was a different person. The bubbly girl was gone. She wasn’t hopping around or chatting anymore. Her gaze was locked on Seth with an intensity that was honestly scary.
[Zone State activated]
Back to present
Hina was in the zone, but Nash was a bit surprised for a second. Only the Zone was active, not Beast Mode. That was weird because he was sure he’d hit the right triggers to get her hyped up. But he shrugged it off, that would at least mean that she would last more than two minutes, he’d see how it played out.
And what played out for the first few minutes was that Seth hit a literal wall of jiggling flesh.
Seth got the ball and tried his usual move, step, dribble, shoot, but Hina was already there. She was cutting off every single angle before he could even open them. She wasn’t completely stopping him, she wasn’t that strong yet, but she was slowing him down, forcing him to adjust and rethink everything. And in this game, stealing half a second was like finding a virgin in a brothel.
Seth finally shot, but he was off-balance because of her pressure. The ball hit the rim and bounced out. Just another miracle for Seth’s list of fails.
Rei grabbed the rebound and zipped it to Nash who brought the ball up the court, caught Alicia’s eye on the wing, and threw a simple pass. Alicia did two quick dribbles and fed it to Kai right under the hoop.
Two clean points.
[Colossus 68-95 Blacklist]
On the next possession, Hina closed in on Seth again. Her body was practically glued to his, and it didn’t even look like proper defense anymore, it was more like she was moving like an idiot just to distract him.
Seth groaned, it was so annoying. He tried to shake her off with a crossover, but the bimbo wouldn’t let go. He forced a shot, but it was too short and rushed, landing straight in Rumi’s hands.
Rumi found Nash, who passed it back to Alicia. Alicia took one step behind the arc and nailed it.
[Colossus 68-98 Blacklist]
Thirty points gap. On the Colossus bench, the coach was rubbing his temples in stress. In the stands, the home crowd was starting to whisper in desperation.
But Seth wasn’t the type to just give up, and even worse, he had good eyes.
He changed his tactic, stopping looking at Hina or Rumi and started targeting his dragon directly, Nash. He’d noticed something, a tiny hesitation in Nash’s footwork during the last defensive rotation, plus it was weird that Hina suddenly came on him when Nash was doing so good.
There had to be the reason, and the most logical was...
In a war, everything was fair game. Showing weakness was a death sentence, and Nash hadn’t hidden it well enough.
There was a simple call for the ball and a quick one-two with Cross. This forced Nash to switch onto him, sprinting from one end of the court to the other to close the gap. Nash made it, but barely. His chest was heaving way more than he wanted it to be as he slid back into position.
Seth noticed, and he smiled.
For the first time in the match, maybe the whole season, he actually smiled.
Got you.
Next possession, he isolated Nash. He sized him up for a second, then exploded into a sprint straight to the hoop. Nash tried to recover, but for the first time today, he wasn’t fast enough to close the gap.
[Colossus 70-98 Blacklist]
It was just one play, but the image of Nash struggling for air sounded like an alarm for the Colossus team.
"Wait... he’s... yes! He’s... guys, he’s tiring out!" Kael shouted as he ran back on defense. "Look at him! He’s gassed! This is our chance!"
On the very next play, Kael got the ball way behind the arc. Nash, still catching his breath, arrived a fraction of a second too late to contest the shot.
[Colossus 73-98 Blacklist]
On the Blacklist bench, Dahlia had stopped breathing normally. Her tablet was shaking in her hands, her eyes glued to the scoreboard.
"This is exactly what I feared... but you never listen to me..." she trembled, "We should have swapped him, even for just five minutes... he’s never gonna... why didn’t I... damn it..."
"Dahlia," Victoria said without even looking at her. "Breathe."
"I am breathing, but he isn’t!" Dahlia shook her head.
Cross took advantage of the momentum, forcing contact with Rei under the basket. He grabbed an offensive rebound and slammed it home without hesitation.
[Colossus 75-98 Blacklist]
Then Seth did it again. He isolated Nash, exploiting that tiny lack of strength in his legs.
[Colossus 77-98 Blacklist]
Suddenly, Blacklist’s lead didn’t feel absolute anymore. The Beast was exhausted, and the Colossus was charging back.
[Colossus 80-98 Blacklist] Kael hit another one from deep.
The lead had dropped from twenty-seven to eighteen points in just a few minutes. The Colossus fans were exploding, screaming and chanting Seth’s name. On the Blacklist side, it was dead silent, hell was greeting them after the promise of heaven.
"Fuck," Jaz whispered, her fists clenched on her knees. "They’re actually coming back."
"Nash looks exhausted... We need to sub him out," Aiko muttered.
"He can’t be cooked... he said he’d recovered..." Chio murmured, though she didn’t sound like she believed it.
On the court, Nash felt the weight of every single sprint. The strain of using the Zone was piling up in his legs, and his breathing was becoming a nightmare to control. He looked at the clock. He thought he’d recovered enough with Chio, but he was way off. One single quarter had burned through all his reserves.
Damn it, he thought, how wasn’t that enough? This is... The worst... Shit, I can’t let it go like this...
There wasn’t much time left. They were so close to pulling off the impossible.
He had to risk everything.
He signaled Rumi and Hina over to him during an improvised timeout, using the same tactic he did to Hina, and pulled another booster.
[Beast Mode Activated]
[Zone State Activated]
When they returned to the game, the energy shifted. Rumi started dominating the game. In a single possession, she drove through Cross, Hall and Vex, finishing with a powerful layup that almost knocked the hoop over.
[Colossus 80-100 Blacklist]
The lead stabilized, behind, Hina now managed to really go toe to toe with Seth in term of power and secured the defense for a while.
But the efficiency of the Rumi/Hina duo came at a massive cost in energy. As the final eight minutes approached, both girls started to wobble. Their movements lost precision, and they were gasping for air after every play. The Beast Mode had reached its limit.
Dahlia didn’t wait for things to get worse. She was already tapping her tablet to prepare replacements.
"Rei for Rumi!" She announced.
Rei stood up without a word. Then, Dahlia hesitated, her stylus hovering over the screen.
"And for Hina... Nia?"
Nash was about to nod by reflex. Nia was the safe bet. With her, they could keep the defensive strategy going. If she and Rei hit Beast Mode, then Hana or Aiko, after substitutions could follow, and they’d likely hold the lead until the end by combining Beast Mode and the Zone.
But there was one huge problem: Nash himself. He was absolutely done. He was a freaking carbon omelette. How could he possibly lead the offense if his lungs were on fire?
His gaze drifted to the bench. He saw Aiko. She was sitting stiffly, her fist clenched on her knee, staring at him with an intensity Nash knew all too well.
He changed his mind.
"No," Nash said. "Aiko."
Aiko froze, turning her head toward him as if she hadn’t heard correctly.
"What? Me?!"
"Yep," Nash confirmed, wiping sweat from his eyes with the back of his wrist. "You."
"But..." She looked at Nia, then Dahlia, then Nash again, hoping someone would tell her it was a mistake. "You were going to take Nia, right? She’s way better than me at distributing, she, "
"That’s exactly why I’m taking you," Nash replied, "Listen to me for a second. Right now, I’m exhausted. I’ve been running since the start, and the other team knows it, that’s why they’re targeting me. If I put Nia in, we have two distributors and nobody to finish the plays. I’d be forced to carry everything again, creating and scoring at the same time. My legs can’t take that."
He looked toward the opposing bench.
"But with you, it’s different. You know how to score. You can create your own shot, and more importantly, you can put it in the basket. If you’re on the court, I don’t have to force every possession. I can go back to being a distributor. I give the ball, I position myself, and I breathe. I can actually recover while playing, and you can do the dirty work up front."
His eyes narrowed.
"Besides, Seth humiliated you, right? I haven’t forgotten that, and I know you haven’t either. I’m not letting anyone else finish this fight for you. The last eight minutes belong to you. Go out there and play like you’ve got nothing to lose."
No one spoke, no one tried to intervene. They all watched them, and Aiko stayed frozen for a moment. Then, she stood up slowly, her legs feeling a bit shaky.
"Go get ’em," Nia said, placing a hand on Aiko’s shoulder with a warm smile. "Make him pay for all of us."
Rei, already standing, held out her fist. Aiko bumped it.
"We’re with you. Let’s take our revenge," Rei said simply.
Aiko felt something tighten in her throat, then climbing to her eyes, but she refused to let it out. Not now, not like that, not in front of everyone. The next time they’d see her tears, it would be after a huge win, and this game was exactly this.
She took a deep breath, feeling that familiar rage bubble up, the same rage that had lived inside her since the night Seth had humiliated her in front of everyone, making her feel smaller than she’d ever been. She welcomed it, she let it take over.
When she stepped onto the court, she wasn’t smiling. She didn’t say a word. Her eyes were locked onto Seth across the hardwood.
[Zone State Activated]
I’m going to make you eat dust.
Seth didn’t even notice the change at first. He was too focused on the score.
The game resumed, and the real money time began. Kael grabbed the inbound and threw a precise pass inside to Hall, who converted easily.
[Colossus 84-100 Blacklist]
Then Kael, way behind the line, hit an impossible shot that somehow went in.
[Colossus 87-100 Blacklist]
Alicia answered immediately. A quick inbound, a relay from Nash, and a clean three-pointer that didn’t even touch the rim.
[Colossus 87-103 Blacklist]
Seth took the ball, planted his foot, and fired from mid-range without hesitating.
[Colossus 89-103 Blacklist]
Then it was Aiko’s turn.
She caught the ball on the wing. Seth sprinted toward her almost instantly, as if he’d sensed something in her attitude that actually deserved his attention. Aiko didn’t budge an inch. One dribble, a sharp fake to the right, and then she leaped. The shot was gone before Seth could even adjust his position.
[Colossus 89-105 Blacklist]
She didn’t scream, she didn’t celebrate. She just stared at Seth for a second too long before heading back to defense.
Seth looked back at her, a little confused. Not because of her look, but because he had actually been dribbled. Seth Vane got tricked by the lead singer of Baby-Boom. One hour ago, it would have been the surprise of the year, but thanks go Nash, people got so used seeing him be dribbled that they acted like this wasn’t one.
But one thing was sure: this girl wasn’t the same shit he had played against till now.
Kai followed up on the next possession with a fast drive through the paint, scoring despite the contact.
[Colossus 89-107 Blacklist]
On the other side, Rei blocked a shot attempt by Cross, swatting the ball out of bounds. Then Vex finally managed to block a shot by Kai, his massive palm slapping the ball away before it could reach the hoop.
Possessions were flying by now at a crazy pace. Each team answered point for point, and neither side could actually pull away. It wasn’t a massacre anymore. It was a real clash of Titans, and the crowd stopped cheering, everyone was just stunned by what they were seeing.
This was probably the best match of Breakball in the history of the Under League.