What happens next is less expected. The sloth swipes back, attacking Jinx with extendable hooked claws.

I yelp, but Jinx darts out of the way just in time. His electronic fur stands on end, and he hisses with anger.

“Aero, help Jinx,” says Tobias.

Like in baku battles, the two bakus work together, perfectly synchronized. Outside of the battle arena, Aero isn’t free to attack the sloth directly, so instead Tobias instructs him to flap his wings violently in his direction, creating enough of a distraction to cause the sloth to lose focus on Jinx.

Jinx doesn’t have the same restrictions as Aero. He uses the momentum shift caused by the distraction to push the sloth completely off balance. Although the sloth has long limbs, he’s not able to right himself quickly enough to prevent his leash from detaching from Monica’s ear.

Monica doesn’t move, allowing the action to unfold all around her, until the sloth falls—when she automatically reaches out to catch him.

The boys step forward then, grabbing Monica beneath her arms.

Jinx settles on Monica’s shoulder in the sloth’s place, and although it sends a stab of jealousy to my heart, he looks as if he’s about to leash up to her.

But then he pulls back.

>>Stop that sloth!

I run around the boys, darting toward the sloth, preventing his attempt to lunge forward toward Monica. I don’t want to grab him directly in case he turns those claws on me, so instead I grab hold of the carpet he is standing on. I drag it back so he slides into the other room, and I slam the door over the loud baku howls of alarm. How very un-sloth-like.

Also, not very “content.”

Maybe Eric Smith’s code isn’t perfect after all.

With the sloth safely out of commission, we hurry to the front door.

All in all, it’s taken us about an hour.

So far, so good. We should make it back in time to stop the convention after all.

We head down the path leading through the village, Aero flying ahead of us. I’m next, then Monica, then the boys. Jinx is still balancing on Monica’s shoulder, and now that she’s not connected to her baku, she seems happier to follow us. My mind races to figure out the next step of the plan. We had been so focused on finding Monica, we hadn’t really given enough thought to the logistics of what we should do once we had her.