The game was fast and furious, with each team working to keep the ball in motion. According to Fede, a point was scored whenever a team succeeded in bouncing the ball into the opposing team’s end zone, or whenever the opposing team failed to return or pass the ball after one bounce. Since the game was over as soon as one team scored seven points, I’d thought it would be relatively short. But I’d underestimated the skill of the players. They seemed to have unlimited stamina, to be able to keep running at breakneck pace without pause. Since cybernetic enhancements were prohibited at the national finals level, I guessed that they were all physical adepts—or that they’d been pumped full of adrenal boosters and pain inhibitors prior to the game.