At five-thirty Wymack ordered them enough food to feed a small army. The Foxes sat in a circle to eat but didn't speak. Only when they'd thrown their trash away did they finally look at each other. Dan pulled the Ravens' roster out and began going over it, but by now the Foxes knew all of the Ravens' names and numbers by heart. They'd been studying the Raven line for weeks, watching old games and memorizing statistics. They'd watched recordings of past Raven games to get an idea for how their opponents played and looked for any weaknesses they could exploit. They'd come back empty-handed. The only chink in the Ravens' armor was Kevin's absence.

Kevin tried explaining Raven synchrony earlier this week, but Neil almost wished he could forget that story. Ravens came to Edgar Allan University for one reason only: to play Exy. Every athlete Coach Moriyama accepted was expected to sign to a professional team upon graduation. School was a secondary concern for all of them. They were all enrolled in the same undergraduate degree and took their classes together in groups of three or four. They weren't allowed to go anywhere without taking at least one teammate with them. They weren't supposed to socialize with anyone outside the team.

They didn't even live in the student dorms, but they didn't live where everyone thought they did, either. Edgar Allan was a smaller university than Palmetto State, with fewer sports and more arts programs. One perk they offered was interest-based housing in lieu of general dorms. Sororities, fraternities, and larger clubs could all petition to have special living arrangements. The Exy team had a house of its own, but the Ravens only slept there when keeping up appearances.

Evermore wasn't on school grounds for a reason. It belonged to Edgar Allan, but it doubled as the national team's stadium. Because of its dual purpose Evermore was built with extra amenities: towers for celebrities and the ERC, lounges for high-profile guests, and spacious living quarters for visiting teams. Those quarters were built underground beneath the court floor, and that was what the Ravens used as their dormitory. That was where Riko and Kevin grew up.

If the Ravens weren't in class, they were expected to be at Evermore. They lived and breathed Exy on a scale no other team could or would. Their intense lifestyle, forced integration, and vicious punishments put them on a whole different scale than any of their opponents. They were, in short, the complete opposite of everything the Foxes knew and understood. Tonight's game pitted a hive mind against a fractured bunch of rejects.