Sterling's saga continues, both making allies and putting them in a tough spot.

Thanks to Anonymous13423 Jason Blade WyldElyn and FadedForest whose characters feature here, in this story set in the FBA world.

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10:45 pm, Spokane, Washington, August 14, 2015

“Well, this has got to place.” Jon said as he walked up to a front of a local sports bar just about a half away from the hotel he was staying at.

He looked into his phone just to double check he didn’t mess up his directions.

The place was packed, but in the distance, the Meerkat could recognize the now familiar group sittin on a booth, adding way more noise to the bar’s already lively atmosphere

Jon had a small come across as he walked towards him. He lifted one of his paws in the air as he called out, “Yo what up Sterls!!!!”

Jon was already in a pumped up mood, due to his success in both verticals jumps. Knowing that his current place in the standings have him in the top 10 really gave the meerkat something to smile about. He then sat next to loudmouth rocker, giving him fist bump.

“Good you brought yer ass in here! What’s the situation?” the New Yorker asked, raising his hand, waving in return.

“Heh, nothing much man. Just showing them scouts and scrubs how to kill it like a boss!” Jon said with a smile, also greeting fellow draftees Derek Kim and Tryce Mallark. He had a hunch they were at least on good terms with the polecat. Seems it was gonna be a fun meeting.

“Kickass. Sit down ordered a bucket for all...” he invited. Jon helping himself to one beer.

“So where’s this guy you were talking ‘bout Derek?” asked the primate to the avian.

“Oh he’ll be here soon…” replied Derek coolly. He then spotted someone entering the bar. “Yo, Matt! Over here!”

The weasel spotted the kkachi, walking over to the group. He was a tad taken aback by the variety of faces at the table, especially the divisive polecat.

“You sure this guy’s good DK? Trustin’ yer call fully here, I want right-minded players overall” Sterling whispered.

“Trust me, I’ve watched him play, this guy is serious,” Derek whispered back. “Definitely one of the best this draft class if you look past the gigantic bubble that is Twitter.”

"Oh I know about him. But I skipped him cuz I don't think he'll agree to us... Well, if he does, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, top 5 starting line here," replied the mustelid as he pointed to the 5 players, Matthew now closer and sitting down. "Sup Matt?"


He glanced at the polecat, not the one to speak to him a lot before, but he wasn’t as abrasive to him for some reason. “All good Sters… So good place Derek, and somewhat of a bunch here, no? Never guessed you were pals...” the weasel spoke.

“I get that a lot,” said Derek. “But he’s really not so bad once you get to know him.”

“Once you get to smell him though...” Tryce quipped, ‘whispering’, to the table’s laughter, except for the slight elbow Sterling gave the gelada. But all in all, it was still funny. The group drank, ate and talked over the events of the days. Once things came soon to a close, Sterling spoke up to the group, especially to both swingfurs.

“So guys, you know we cool and all that shit, but you know there’s a reason as clear as day why you here...”

“You… texted me?” spoke the weasel.

“To get fall out drunk and rock hard?” Jon said shrugging a bit with a smirk on his face.

“Before you do!” Tryce laughed aloud.

“Yeah yeah, THAT and something I need to tell ya both… Ya know you fucking rock the court no? Ya ain’t here to fuck around, no?”

“Of course not!!” The meerkat replied. “Don’t know about Matty here, but I came to be one of if not the BEST out on the court in this generation!!”

“Oh screw off skins! That is MY mission here!” Matthew replied to both the polecat and the meerkat.

Jon laughed aloud and said, “Good, can’t be livin’ the scrub life. You gotta be hungry for it!!! And trust me, the hunger is definitely there when it comes to this Kat!!!”

“So you guess you know about those who… just aren’t as deserving? Those who haven’t shown that fire and we don’t think will? Those who just… aren’t made for the league?”

Matthew whistled “Yea… don’t wanna be a punk but… there are one or two...”

“That’s kind of an understatement, ya know that, right?” said Derek.

Jon nodded. “Yeah I know there’s quite a bit of guys in this pool that aren’t really cut out for the game ya know? Like that other Kat Niko, or the domestic mexican kit Ricardo.”

“Papi’s boy?” he elbowed to Derek as he replied to Jon.

“Heh yep.” Jon chuckled a bit.

“But yeah… You wonder why he hang around so much. Is because we take the game seriously. Francois, Micah, Morgan, Misha, that rich fucker, that other dumb big guy, the dick sucking bird, they DON’T. They’ll get in the FBA sure, but they are what is killin’ the FBA. This league ain’t fucking basic skills and friendsies. This league is for those who work hard, play hard and will do all the shit possible to be here while keeping it real. That’s what the greats do. And what those other guys do… you can ask the undrafted...” Sterling grinned, his snagglefang showing.

Jon crossed his arms and nodded with a serious look. “You’re right man, can’t be any truer than that. Only the people with the real heart of the game can stand out. You can’t go around trying to get the most friends, ya can’t being a fucking groupie. You have to stay ahead of the game, stick out and show off what ya got. That’s just how it is.”

“Tell that to them,” nodded Derek. “I plan on hopefully blowing up the combine... I’m not letting anyone get the best of me if they actually don’t step up.”

“Hey DK, when all else fails, just blow Vic Vos’ dick a bit more am I right?!”

Jon couldn’t help but bust out in laughter. “Oh shit, you fucking wrong for that.” He said pointing to the polecat.

"HEY! I bet the guy knows just how to gargle his balls right after all this fucking time, am I right? Desperate bitch..." He gave a high five attempt to Jon.

Jon shook his head a little, but gave the high five anyways. He admits that it was bit harsh, but he know it was just too good to leave him hanging.

"Yeah,but point of this whole thing is. I got that fire, Tryce here got that fire, DK here got that fire... Talking a bit we think you got it as well. If you stick around, we can show ya the ropes and makin' you see you can do this shit...Hell we can make a sweet starting line, what ya say to that?"

Matthew was suspicious. He knew the loud, boisterous mustelid could be a handful to be around, but he did make some good points. He just shot a look at him until Jon broke the silence.

“I don’t see why not. I mean hell, we know that we have a huge shot at making the 24, and we know we’ll do everything we can to not get overlooked. So why not stick around and show the true dominance we got to offer?” He said.

"I mean. You Jon, you got the fucking 90's Huntsville thing in the game. Now if that ain't the most metal thing in basketball, the fuck it is?"

"Maybe you want to be the second coming of Jake Masters?" asked the avian.

"How did ya-?"

"That ain't a basic technique" Tryce chimed in. “Derek here can pick styles over easy.”

Jon nodded with a smile,impressed by the group. “I’m in.” he said convinced.

"Why not? I'm serious about this too! Sign me up!" Matt grinned.

Sterling nodded. "Looks like we got ourselves a deal. Remember. Keep with us and you'll end up pretty fucking grown as a player in no time... To rock this shit and become the best this year?" He raised his bottle.

Jon lifted his bottle as well while the others followed. “Let’s rock this shit hard!!”

The now formed group drank simultaneously. A bit impressed as they saw Sterling proceeding to tilt the bottle up and downing the rest of it completely.

“Godammit Sterling!” Tryce laughed.

“Hey! We got a fucking solid starting line here! I wanna see us fucking make it! Am I right?”

“Cheers to that!”

And as such the group became both acquainted, bonding over food, booze and disdain for fellow players in the draft class.

The night was pretty much over, all the now “good clique” members getting ready to rest and face another day at the trial of fire that was the combine. Matt and Derek long gone, Tryce just leaving, only a polecat and a meerkat remained. As much as he thought Jon was cool, there was… something… he couldn’t put his finger on it...

“Psst...Jonny...” the mustelid called, arms crossed, leaning against a wall.

The meerkat looked over at Sterling, his eyebrow raising a little. He slowly walked up to the polecat as he placed his paws in his pockets and asked. “Yo man, what’s up? Need anything?”

“Need to tell ya a thing about this clique thing we agreed on earlier...”

“Yeah… what about it?”

“Tell me again how you got started in this FBA thing? Where you signed up? Who’s your connection?” the mustelid asked.

Jon gave him a suspicious look, it was a little out of the blue to be asking him something about how he ended up being in the pool in the first place. Especially from a guy he thinked, really doesn’t care that much about how someone else made it to this opportunity. Still, he knows that it could help strengthen the trust between the two.

He took a small breath and cleared his throat a little bit. “Alright man.”, Jon said. “But I’ll try to cut the story short.”

“Go on...”

He nodded, “Well, at first I wasn’t really thinking too much about the entering my name in this shit. After I graduated though… I didn’t really have any solid plans. That’s when a close friend of mine brought it up. At first I thought it was crazy, a Kat coming from a school barely anyone has heard of. Then.. I started thinking, ‘Why the fuck not.’ That’s when I put my name in the draft. Course after that, I decided to go to the Santa Ana and visit the Spectrums facility… Kind of got lost on the way there. Heh... that’s when I met Salts, and the friend I mentioned earlier talk some shit and it ended getting me in a 2 out of 3 game of 21. Course, I beat his ass. Then I was approached by that Agent that lives in that area, Trivol. He offered me to be his client, and I accepted it. I mean sh-”

That’s when Sterling made a face, showing both aversion and disagreement. If anything he was pretty expressive, at least enough for Jon to pick it up.

“Uh… something the matter?” the meerkat asked with a confused tone.

“Yah, I just knew you had fucked up somewhere. I had a gut feeling that someone your caliber had a thorn on his side...” he shook his head, long hair following suit to his motions.

“Thorn on my side?” Jon asked. He was really confused on what the polecat was saying. What did he actually say that caused the bigger fur to question him?

“Face it Jonny, you obviously have the old FBA style and some fucking balls to call shit how it is… but some things gotta change for you to really make the statement you’re here to win. Now I see where are the basic ties...”

“Wait… the hell are you talking about? What exactly did I say to make you have that conclusion?” Jon said, in a slightly aggravated voice.

Sterling uncrossed his arms to gesture. “Why in the world… would you accept THAT agent out of everyone else? The fucking Trivol cult, really? Really...”

Jon stared at Sterling with a little disbelief. “You gotta be kidding me…” He said. “You’re throwing the book at me for choosing an AGENT??? Come on man, does it really matter. That has nothing to do with on the court.”

“It will impact it anyways. There you got a STRONG basic connection that’ll bring ya down. You’ll get associated, your stock will plain DROP. And even then, obviously he’s biased to the basics and the fucking dicksucker..”

“What? Micah? He isn’t bias-”

“Then when was the last time he called ya?”

Jon didn’t say anything. If he was honest with himself, he knows that Triv haven’t been able to contact him in god knows how long. Yet, He’s been able to put a good amount of his focus with Micah and Morgan. He looked down, with a small but noticeable frown on his face.

“That fucking long, huh? Tsk tsk...” he shook his head.

The meerkat sighed a little, and slowly looked back as he crossed his own arms. “Maybe you’re right… Still… You have to realize what you’re position you’re throwing me into. You’re telling me to dump him TWO weeks before the draft? That’s like… Vegas telling the entire world that they’re not bothering with Barbie EVEN though they know they have the money to keep him.” He said.

“Eh, no. That’s a team kicking a good player just because. Basic move. What needs to happen here is viceversa. Dump the lousy, lazy, biased agent and get another one. Hell there’s a lot to choose from. DK’s pops, Billy King has been cool as shit too...”

“Still, throwing him away before a major event like that… That can make a guy look bad...no matter who the agent is…” Jon said as he close his eyes deep in thought. He then opened them again and stare right back Sterling. “At least give me by the end of the combine to make a decision. That’s all I ask.”

“Time is ticking Jonny boy. You know this NEEDS to be done in order for ya to make it happen. Plus, is not like he’s the best agent if he keeps track of only Micah. Yeah, that I can bet. Ask him how was his phone call today…”today” any day. And so I will ask you a very fair question… How was your phone call with him today? Quickly.”

Jon sighed and leaned against the wall as he looked down with an upset look on his face. “He then turned to Sterling again, and repeated. “Before the combine is done… I’ll give you my answer…”

"I know I'm right. You know so too. Talk to DK. He'll hook ya up with an agent in no time! Get it Jon. You rather be associated to the guy who sucks Vic Vos' dick to get fame or to serious fellas to actually care about the ga-?"

“Look Just!!… Just give me some time to think about it alright.” He said.

“End of combine. You got ‘till the end of combine. Deal?”

“Deal….”

He nodded and walked past the meerkat, tapping his shoulder as he walked away to the hotel, leaving a stone-faced Jon there to digest the thought he was given.

Jon just stood there for a few minutes, trying his best to cope with what just happened. ‘Dump Trivol or Be Like The Rest’ ran through his head multiple times. He then started to walk over and lean against the wall, sliding to the ground as clenched his fist. He took a small breath and looked up into the midnight sky, gently whispering to himself. “What am I gonna do….”