"Yeah, the kid's right," Jake said, walking over to Reno. He put his arm around Reno's shoulders. "I may have only joined these kids a short time ago, but I too fight for-"

Jerry suddenly ran away so fast he literally created a dust outline in the shape of himself and Reno. By the time the Elf realized it, Jake was carrying Reno and running down the side of the cola bottle volcano so fast he was kicking up a large dust trail.

"Kid, sorry to break form like that, but something's off," he explained to Reno. "Not just the better part of valor and all, but if she's that strong, she's certainly holding back. I saw the others, but for some reason, I can't see Thomas. Something is really wrong.

"Right now, we need to regroup and plan. We're going to head for Thomas, see if we can't get some more numbers to boost our situation."