Looking over the railing of the ship they were all riding on – well, all of them except for Tobias, considering the kind of constraints he was operating under without the ability to morph – Tommy found himself smiling softly as he stared down at the small wavelets covering the whole stretch of ocean he could see from over the railing. It was really calming, something he could appreciate even more, considering what he and the rest of the Animorphs had been forced to deal with the last time they'd tried to go down into the ocean.

"Hey, Tommy, it's time for us to get going now," Cassie called.

Tommy smiled. "All right, I'm coming."

The five of them all made their way up to the railing, Tommy loosening himself up as he followed the rest of his friends out to the side of the ship.

"Tommy, would you mind looking out for Marco again?" Jake asked, turning back to look at him with an earnest sort of look on his face.

"Yeah, I'll take care of him," he said, putting his right arm around Marco's shoulders, even as the younger boy turned to smirk back over his shoulder at him.

They all managed to get themselves over the side of the ship and into the ocean quickly enough, and Tommy looked out for Marco just the way Jake had asked him to, and the six of them were soon all gathered together in their respective dolphin morphs.

(Everyone okay?) Cassie asked.

Keeping a lid on his giddy dolphin brain as well as he could, Tommy added his own confirmation alongside the rest of his friends.

(Well, that was fun,) Marco groused. (Let's never, ever do it again.)

(Yeah, let's hope we don't have to,) Tommy found himself agreeing, even as Jake asked Cassie just where it was that they were going to be headed next.

The ominous presence of a helicopter in the sky above them – though far enough away that Tommy could at least hope that none of their sensors would notice anything out of the ordinary – reminded all of them, even as they breathed deeply and prepared to dive, that there was a time limit hanging over this whole mission.