Ness and his friends continued to pursue the Thief. Every so often, they would come across a rather long stretch in this bizarre new world where few if any shadows decorated the landscape. Jeff suddenly rued his decision not to pressure Poo into joining this jaunt; Poo's ability to take on another's form would have been much appreciated. But things were as they were; it wasn't as if he had a time machine. Readily available. In fact, the Four were about to come across a particular stretch of the labyrinth where they found themselves that had been developed in such a way as to ensure the non-existence of shadows. Each recognised the shape of the labyrinth as being a rather flattened parabola.
"Perfect," muttered the bespectacled boy genius. "By no fault of our own, we have surrendered the one advantage we had in this game of felid and murid. Cat and mouse," he hurriedly clarified after receiving strange looks from Ness and Paula.
"We have no choice, though," murmured Paula. "We'll have to sacrifice the element of surprise unless we want to guess which way whoever we're chasing went at the next fork we come across. It's not something I would have ever liked to have done, but we can't always have what we want."
"Paula's right," Tony said. His face was flushing a slightly deeper red than were the faces of his friends, and he was also panting somewhat heavily. Taking a deep breath, he attempted to recover from the fatigue now striking him. "We're going to have to run. And maybe we can catch him then."
Jeff looked inquisitively at his long-time friend. Tony's eyes seemed a bit paler than they usually were, Jeff observed; Jeff's brain registered the fact that Tony's face was visibly many shades of red darker than either Ness' [a pale scarlet] or Paula's [a flattering crimson] were; and the way the sun, or what served as the sun in this bizarre otherworld, bounced off their heads made it clear to Jeff that Tony was sweating rather profusely. Instinctively Jeff recalled the times Tony had helped him in the past, both actively and passively. Jeff knew what he had to do.
"Tony?" he asked, leaning down to face a now-hunched-over Tony. Jeff's heart sank when he saw that in addition to their unusual paleness, Tony's eyes were looking red-rimmed and a little dry. A pitying pang stung the prodigy as he took in Tony's hair: normally a dusty shade of brown, the sweat Tony had exuded during their walk had accentuated the black nature of his hair. It's almost as black as Ness' hair is! thought a panicked Jeff.
"Yes, Jeff?" Tony's voice, a bit panicked yet strangely calm, only served to compound the agony through which Jeff was putting himself over the state of his friend.
"We're going to stay here until you feel ready to go on." Jeff's voice was firm and stern, atypical to his reclusive personality, but these circumstances were far from typical.
"But Jeff," Ness responded, "if we do that, we'll lose that guy who we're following. And if we do that, we might not be able to get back home."
"Ness, was I speaking to you?" shot back a very irritated Jeff. "I don't seem to remember addressing that comment to you." Ness raised an eyebrow slightly, and was opening his mouth to fire at Jeff with a retort of his own when Jeff continued speaking. "In fact, I wasn't speaking to you. I'll stay here with Tony. Ness, continue on with Paula; we'll catch up once Tony's recovered. Go!" He shooed the two away.
"How are you going to be able to find us, though?" Paula asked as she walked backwards, heading away from Jeff and Tony but keeping the two in sight. "Surely, there'll be more than one fork on the path our prey is following. And if there is, we can't break in two so we can help you."
Jeff scrambled to a sitting position from the slight slump he currently held. He stuck his feet out before himself and pulled first his shoes, then his socks, off. He tossed them to Paula. "There. That's an extra four forks. That ought to be enough."
"See you later!" Ness called as he and Paula ran off. For a second, Paula turned back for one final look at Jeff and Tony. A smile was at her lips; tears were in her eyes.

"Jeff, I can't believe you're doing this," Tony struggled to say. His voice was cracking from dehydration.
Through his glasses, Jeff's eyes smiled. "It's not that great of a sacrifice. Compared to everything that you've done to help me, this is just a couple of snowflakes in a blizzard. Besides, just consider it part of my payment for our friendship."
"Aw, thanks..." heaved Tony just before his mouth completely dried out. "Gaw wawer?"
Jeff rummaged in his pockets and the small backpack that he carried on his person for something liquid. "Here," he said, handing a bottle of water to his friend. "It's a bit warm, though."
As the water sloshed down Tony's throat, the exhausted youth sighed, enraptured by what he perceived to be the nectar of the gods. For a few seconds, though, the water stung as it hung on particularly parched sections of his mouth and throat. Tony drank the entire bottle in about fifteen seconds.
"Wow, you must have been thirsty!" exclaimed an eager-to-make-small-talk Jeff.
"Are you sure you're your father's son?" Tony shot back, a faint smile coming to his lips. "I wouldn't call that a 'smart' comment by any definition of the word. No, wait, maybe I would."
"If I were a less-smart man, I would take offence at your shot at me, Tony," Jeff retorted. "Then again, I might anyways."
"Oh, you wouldn't!" Tony mumbled. He wiped his forehead with the left sleeve of his school uniform. "You're just joking."
"Am I?" Jeff crossed his arms and stared as sternly as he could at Tony. The deep opacity of Jeff's glasses did not, however, compound his mock anger; it served entirely to make Jeff seem even less serious than he was. Taking an unspoken cue, Tony served up a massive one-liner, terrible as it was:
"No, wait, you're not. I'd have to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on you, then."
The utter "brilliance" of that mutterance took five seconds to be processed by Jeff's brain. Another five seconds passed before Jeff's brain formulated a logical response to that.
"Earth to Jeff..." Tony mouthed in the meantime. Jeff fell down. "No, not Jeff to Earth; Earth to Jeff," Tony corrected.
"Oh, be quiet, Tony," Jeff said. Well, tried to say. Talking with your mouth planted on the ground and partially filled with whatever small things were on the ground isn't exactly the best thing to do. It came out more like "Moe meek I Italy."
Tony climbed to his feet, ignoring the slight fatigue which still dogged him. He walked over to Jeff and, with an impish smile, grasped Jeff under the shoulders. He then lifted Jeff up.
"Come on Jeff, it couldn't have been that bad a joke. Right?" Silence. "Right?"
Tony's eyes took on a frantic tinge. His voice reached a frenzied panic. He immediately moved his hands from under Jeff's shoulders to above them, then began to shake his friend furiously.
"Please tell me you're joking," he choked. Jeff's face instantly melted into a smile.
"What's that, you say you're choking?" The two boys erupted into laughter.
For a second, in the midst of their chucklefest, Tony happened to gather his wits long enough to take his focus off the choking-joking wordplay. To clear the tears of happiness from his eyes, he blinked a few times. Then he looked behind Jeff. Unbeknownst to him, Tony's face paled.
"Tony, what's wrong? Sunstroke, hyperthermia?" wondered a concerned Jeff.
Tony opened his mouth to speak, then decided that he was too miserly to talk, even considering its price. He squatted down slightly, then leapt at Jeff. As Jeff's back met the ground, Tony felt a sharp, rapid breeze pass over his back. Once friction had eliminated their momentum, which was perhaps two seconds later, Jeff hardened his harsh glare at Tony.
"What was that for?"
"Sorry," apologised Tony. "But someone was firing at us."
"Firing?" echoed Jeff. "What are you talking about?"
Tony rolled off Jeff and pointed. "There, where the smoke is. Something was fired from behind you and crashed there."
Jeff struggled to his feet, then walked over to where tiny wisps of smoke rose from the ground. He carefully surveyed the situation. After ten seconds had passed, Jeff took off his hunter-green-coloured jacket and stuck his hands into the sleeves. Then, as Tony perceived it, Jeff squatted down, stuck his hands (still in the sleeves of the jacket) into the ground and pulled something out.
Tony stuck his hands into the pockets on his slacks and walked over to where Jeff was now standing up again. "What'd you find?" Tony asked.
"This." Jeff turned around to face Tony, then opened his closed jacket. Tony looked at what was on the jacket curiously.
"'Video relaxant'?" read Tony. "What the heck is this?"
"I'm not entirely sure, myself," Jeff replied. "But it looks like a portable television, wouldn't you say?"
"I guess," mumbled Tony. "I wonder who sent it to us."
Jeff used one of his sleeved hands to turn the bizarrely named device around until he could find some sort of interface. The interface, of course, happened to be on the opposite side of the relaxant. He pressed one of the four buttons there.
Nothing happened.
He pressed a second button. Nada.
Jeff's eyes narrowed and his index finger moved to another button. 0 for 3.
"Argh!" yelled an exasperated Jeff. Strike four, you're out!
Jeff's anger reached the boiling point, and he forcefully threw the video relaxant away. Landing with a perceptible thud, the relaxant shattered into pieces. More smoke emanated from the relaxant as it lay, broken, just as it had when it travelled downwards from wherever it had been sent. Sensing that Jeff was growing highly angry, Tony sought to alleviate his friend's frustration.
"Forget about that relaxant, whatever it was. I'm feeling better now." Tony gave a weak smile, then continued. "Let's catch up with Ness and Paula. The sooner the better, I guess; you're looking a bit hot under the collar." He started heading off in the direction that Ness and Paula had taken. "Come on!"
Begrudgingly, Jeff started off after him.