"Atta girl," Abby said. "You've got him."

Dan couldn't catch up to him in time to stop him from passing the ball, but she didn't slow. She slammed into the dealer hard enough to send them both sprawling. Jackal fans roared in outrage, demanding a card for that trick, but the referees didn't move. Body-checks were only legal when played by or against players who were carrying the ball, but allowances were made for hits that happened in the first two seconds after the ball left a player's net. Officials knew sometimes athletes were simply going too fast to stop in time. It allowed a loophole for spiteful collisions like Dan's, but that only made the game more fun for the fans.

Aaron was small enough he could get duck under his striker's arm. He intercepted the ball in an impossible move and kept spinning back to face home court. He passed the ball to Andrew without slowing and was back on his feet a heartbeat later. Andrew hit the ball with an underhand swing to clear it out of home court. The ball bounced off the ceiling and fell back into the fray.

"Move it, Foxes!" Wymack roared.

"Let's go, Foxes, let's go!" the Vixens called out further down.

The crowd picked it up and echoed the chant back to the cheerleaders. The other subs joined in, but Neil was numbed into silence by the speed and skill of the game.

He'd watched his teammates fall apart to in-fighting all summer long, but now he finally saw them as a whole. As much as the Foxes disliked each other at times, they disliked their opponents more. They were still too fractured to be truly great, but they were good enough to give him chills. Neil finally understood how the Foxes made it to third place last fall and scored a spot in championships.

Unfortunately, Breckenridge was better. Twelve minutes into the game they finally broke the Foxes' defense line. A Jackal striker caught the ball and carried it right into Aaron. Aaron was bulled over, giving the striker a straight path to the goal, and all of the Jackals crushed forward inside the first-fourth line. The striker got dangerously close to goal before taking a shot. Andrew snapped it right back at him, bouncing it off his helmet. The Jackal dealer caught the ball next, and Dan was a second too slow to stop him from aiming for the goal. Andrew deflected that shot as well, but the Jackals were pressed too close for him to clear the ball. He aimed high, but Gorilla was close enough and tall enough to snag it from the air.

"Get it out of there!" Wymack yelled at the wall.