He spared one second to look for Kevin and one more to calculate his throw. On his tenth step he fired the ball at the away goal wall. All those long nights learning Raven drills from Kevin had to pay off here. The perfect rebound wasn't just about getting the ball to the right racquet; it was getting there at the right angle so Kevin wouldn't have to aim. Kevin just had to bring his racquet back on the catch and fire straightaway. It was the same trick the Raven strikers had been pulling all night, but the Ravens weren't ready to see it from Kevin and Neil. Jean and the goalkeeper thought they had more time to react, but Kevin wasn't waiting. The Raven goal lit up red when Kevin slammed the ball against it.

The reaction from the stands was wild enough it almost drowned out Matt's excited yell. Neil saw the Fox subs and Vixens celebrating at the edge of his vision but he couldn't take his eyes off Kevin to look at them. He and Kevin met on their way back to half-court and clacked their sticks together almost hard enough to hurt. Kevin's smile was fleeting but fierce. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. It was the first sign of approval Neil had gotten from him since they'd met and Neil felt it like an adrenaline boost.

Finally getting on the scoreboard reenergized the entire team. The next time Riko took a shot on goal Matt tripped him. A couple seconds later they were fighting, and the game ground to a halt as the referees ran to break it up. Matt got yellow-carded for throwing the first punch, but the furious look on his face said Riko started the fight. Neil didn't know what Riko said to set Matt off, but he couldn't believe Matt let his temper get the better of him. A foul gave Riko a penalty shot. The teams lined up to watch it happen, and Andrew missed by half an inch.

The game's sportsmanship died with that shot. Neil lost track of how many times someone hit the ground in the final twenty minutes of the half. By the time Neil got elbowed in the face at the forty-four minute mark, every player on the court had a yellow card and one Raven had been kicked off with a red card.

The referee who carded Johnson called Abby on the court when he saw the blood on Neil's face. Exy helmets had protective shields to cover players' eyes and noses, but Johnson got under it with an upward swing. Neil's gloves were too bulky to do much more than smear the mess around, but Abby brought gauze with her. Her tight expression was at complete odds with how carefully she wiped his face. This was her fifth trip onto the court so far and she wasn't happy with how violent the game was getting.