After they'd found Rachel – almost fully in elephant morph, and being chased by the Veleek – Tommy had taken over driving duties from Marco. He'd demorphed beside Jake, who'd gone into his tiger morph at the same time so at least one of them had been able to leave the truck behind and draw the Veleek off, staying in the cab while Jake had gone into the back. Then he'd leaped out of the truck, leaving them to pull out onto the highway without him.

"Well, at least this is a smoother ride than last time," Cassie said, though she was facing the back of the truck, looking out the back windows, when she did.

The Veleek was still on their tail, so he couldn't really blame her for that, though.

"Sure, rub it in," Marco grumbled. "You know that thing is catching up to us, right?"

"Yeah, I can see that," he said, steering into a clear lane and then pretty much standing on the accelerator pedal, sending the truck lurching forward down the highway and away from the Veleek.

The sounds of the other cars all around them, all of those people yelling and honking and waving fists and middle fingers at them, drove Tommy to bite his lip. Once Jake was finished morphing, he wouldn't be actively drawing the Veleek's attention anymore, so that meant that whoever morphed next would be in even more trouble.

"All right, it's been five minutes," Marco said. "Whoever's going next should start morphing."

"You should go, Marco," he said, turning to look over at the younger boy.

"Because there's no way you're letting me back behind the wheel of Cassie's dad's truck again?"

"Yes," he said, in response to Marco's strained, teasing grin.