Friday — 5:12 A.M.
Location: Roosevelt High — Gym Storage Room
Ethan was still trembling.
Not from fatigue. Not from pain.
But from what he saw before waking up—SyncStrike disintegrating into binary dust, the Ascension League fracturing like a mirror under a sledgehammer, and above it all… a voice:
"You shouldn't have touched the root code, boy."
"Now you'll feel what it's like to be erased."
He blinked. Zaire, Micah, and Devon were crouched around him.
"You good?" Zaire asked, hand on his shoulder.
Ethan wiped dried blood from under his nose. "No."
Devon was typing furiously on a laptop tethered to three signal-jammers.
"GhostStorm infected four Sentinel satellites before the loop kicked us out. Their counter-AI's rebooting. We have maybe24 hours before they isolate the virus."
Micah stood guard near the door, hoodie pulled low.
"Unless they kill us first," he muttered.
Zaire scoffed. "Kill? Bro, this ain't a spy movie."
BOOM.
The back door to the gym exploded inward.
A figure stepped through.
Black trench coat. Cybernetic sneakers. Pupils glowing silver.
[SYSTEM SCAN: UNREGISTERED PLAYER – SENTINEL UNIT-51]
Codename: "DrillGod"
System Status: Full Cortical Override — Combat Mode Active
Objective: Extract GhostPlay Origin or Terminate Source
Micah whispered, "Okay, maybe this is a spy movie."
Friday — 5:18 A.M.
Location: Roosevelt Hallways
The fire alarm was blaring.
Sprinklers hadn't gone off, but the entire school echoed with chaos.
Devon and Zaire flanked Ethan, helping him toward the back exit. Micah stayed behind, slapping a GhostPlay chip against the wall.
"Detour Loop" Activated — faking heat signatures in multiple directions.
But DrillGod didn't fall for it.
The sentinel moved without noise, his cyber-soles nullifying footfall. He kicked down a hallway door with such force that the hinges twisted like tinfoil.
His voice was a modulated buzz.
"You broke the threshold. That makes you a contagion. Contagions get purged."
He raised a palm.
A glowing ball of energy?
No.
A basketball.
But it was wrapped in pulsating electric force—his weapon.
He launched it at the wall. It ricocheted.
Devon screamed, "DOWN!"
It embedded into the metal locker next to Ethan's head, melting the steel.
"Bro—" Zaire muttered, "they gave this man a murderball."
5:25 A.M. — School Courtyard
They burst through the back exit.
Outside, the sky was still dark purple, the dawn not yet breaking.
A black van sat parked on the street.
Devon pointed. "That's ours! Go!"
Suddenly—
BZZZZZT!
Micah froze in place. His legs spasmed. He fell.
A thin needle stuck out from the side of his neck.
"Micah!" Ethan dove.
[DRONE ALERT – SNTL AERIAL MARK III]
Mini-drones hovered silently above, each the size of a clenched fist, carrying sedative rounds and audio scanners.
DrillGod stepped out into the courtyard, ball in hand.
He dribbled once.
The sound echoed like thunder.
"Play me," he said. "Or your system dies with him."
Ethan's system kicked in.
Emergency Mode Activated — GhostPlay IRL Combat Sync
Combat Court Type: STREET LEVEL
Court Construction: Visual Overlay Projected
Tactic Model: Chaos Burst
1v1 Initiated. First to 5.
Zaire yelled, "You can't play this freak—he's wired like a walking nuke!"
Ethan nodded. "Exactly."
He stepped onto the cracked court.
Game on.
IRL COURT COMBAT: ETHAN VS. DRILLGODFirst Possession: DrillGod Ball
DrillGod moved like oil in fire.
His first dribble caused a sonic spike.
Ethan's system read him—but only after the move completed.
He drove left.
GhostPlay screamed:
ERROR: Prediction failed.
Ethan pivoted just in time.
But DrillGod spun behind the back, lifted, and slammed the ball so hard the asphalt cracked.
1–0.
Ethan Ball
Ethan activated Echo Read.
But the real world was chaotic. No sensors. No perfect lines.
Compensating...
New Mode Activated: Urban Instinct Grid
The system created a 3D map of dirt, loose gravel, wind drift.
He baited right, pulled back—and let gravity do the work.
As DrillGod lunged, Ethan stepped forward and launched a high-arc shot that kissed the rim and dropped in.
1–1.
DrillGod Ball
DrillGod vanished mid-dribble.
No—he sidestepped using a system-boosted footwork patch.
GhostPlay scanned and barely traced the foot pressure heat.
Use Chaos Pulse NOW
Ethan sent an emotional spike into the system—irrational fear, projected like white noise.
DrillGod flinched for 0.2 seconds.
Ethan planted.
Stole the ball.
He sprinted.
Leapt.
Laid it in.
2–1.
Zaire whooped. "He's cooking him!"
Next Possession — DrillGod snaps back
His system overclocked.
Heat spike detected — user at risk of neural collapse
DrillGod ignores warning.
He charges—shoulders down—rams Ethan midair and dunks violently.
Ethan hit the ground hard.
2–2.
His vision blurred.
Devon screamed. "GET UP!"
Ethan saw a flicker.
In the HUD: GhostStorm node detected… inside DrillGod's code.
He's infected.
But it's dormant.
Time to awaken it.
Final Possessions
Ethan stood.
Bleeding. Gasping.
He tapped into the buried GhostStorm thread and whispered a phrase:
"Your system is lying."
DrillGod twitched.
For 0.1 seconds, his motor output stuttered.
Ethan surged forward, passed around the back, then threw it off the wall.
It ricocheted perfectly.
He jumped.
Tip-in.
3–2.
DrillGod snarled. His skin pulsed under synthetic veins.
He grabbed the ball and charged blindly.
GhostPlay calculated his path—then ran a reversal.
Ethan ghosted behind him.
Stole it.
Now the court was his.
Final Sequence: GhostPlay Override
Launching: Courtstorm
Flashes of every play Ethan had ever run flooded the system.
A symphony of every moment he loved the game.
He stepped back.
Launched a jumper.
DrillGod reached—too late.
Swish.
5–2. Ethan wins.
Aftermath
DrillGod's knees buckled.
His system flickered.
Then a voice came through his comm:
"Abort. The boy's beyond sync. Target extraction failed."
He collapsed.
The drones vanished.
The van screeched toward them.
Micah woke up coughing. "Did… we win?"
Ethan fell to the curb, breathing like a dying man.
Zaire grinned. "You just beat a robot hooper on concrete, bro. You're not human."
Devon pulled out a hard drive. "And I ripped his infection node. GhostStorm is evolving."
Ethan looked at the rising sun.
"No more hiding."
"This war's public now."
[CHAPTER COMPLETE: THE COURT OF SHADOWS]
GhostStorm Infection Level: 19% Global
Sentinel Status: Full Activation
Next Phase: Ascension League Retaliation Event — "Blackcourt"