I'd missed Dex more than any of my other teammates, for pretty obvious reasons. I missed the feeling of his lips on mine, the feelings of his hands on my body, and just the feeling of having him beside me. He'd always managed to make me feel safe whenever he was around.

And I'd kind of missed that feeling. That feeling of safety. After learning what I was, what I could do, the last thing I felt was safe. But with Dex there, I was starting to feel safe once again.

With Kristie out of the room doing who knew what, Dex had snuck in and we were now making out on my bed. His hands moved up and down my body as we kissed, which was something I wasn't used to but still enjoyed.

There were a lot of things I still didn't know. I was still pretty clueless about a lot of things. But I knew Dex would help me as much as he could with anything I didn't understand.

When the door suddenly opened, Dex and I didn't even have enough time to push away from each other. I was still on top of him, my skirt riding up as we turned our heads in the direction of Anthony, who had been the one to open the door.

"Why?" he practically whined as Dex pulled my skirt down. "You haven't even been back for twenty-four hours yet and you have to stuff your tongues in each other's mouths?"

"Dude, it's been three months," Dex objected, removing me from on top of him and placing me beside him on the bed. It was like I was as light as a feather. And to Dex, I probably was. "You're lucky all I'm shoving my tongue in is her mouth."

I blinked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Don't have him explain," Anthony sighed with a shake of his head. "You don't want to know."

"She's got to learn someday," Dex shrugged. "Better sooner than later."

"I'll leave you two to that conversation," Anthony sighed, turning back toward the hallway and beginning to close the door. "Hank and Nay want us all in the meeting room. They're about to give us our first mission."

And then he was gone, which made Dex practically flip me over so that I was now underneath him on the bed. He moved in to kiss me once again, but I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me. He stared back at me, surprised.

"We're needed right now, lover boy," I informed him, sliding off the bed and straightening out my clothes. The last thing I wanted was for Hank and Nay to think that Dex and I were doing anything.

He groaned, reaching out and wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back onto the bed with him. "Do we have to?" he complained.

I swatted at his arms, and this caused him to let go of me, though I didn't hop off the bed right away. "Yes," I answered, even though that should have been obvious. "You're not excited about going on a mission?"

Dex looked at me flatly. "I haven't been able to kiss you for three months," he reminded me. "That's much more important to me than any mission ever could be."

I rolled my eyes and hopped off the bed, though secretly I was happy that he had said that. I was glad that I was important to him, because he was just as important to me.

"Let's go," I complained, yanking on his hand.

He groaned, pushing himself off the bed and following me out of the room. "Are you that excited to see your boyfriend?" he questioned.

I stopped in the hallway, turning back toward him, completely confused by his statement. "Boyfriend? What are you talking about?"

"Anthony," Dex smirked, and my eyes went wide. "I mean, you did kiss him."

My entire face turned bright red. "Are you never going to let me forget that?" I practically squawked, feeling unbelievably embarrassed. "It was a mistake. I didn't want to kiss Anthony!"

Dex's smirk only grew. "Because you wanted to kiss me, right?"

"I'm feeling the urge less and less as time goes on."

"Somehow I don't believe that," he laughed, and we continued on our way down the hall toward the meeting room.

"Hey, there was a time when you actually thought I did have romantic feelings for Anthony and you got super jealous," I reminded him, and it was hard to believe that had been the year before.

Dex rolled his eyes at me. "It's not my fault you didn't understand what I meant!"

"It's not my fault you get easily jealous," I shrugged.

He glared at me. "I do not get easily jealous."

"Oh, please," I snorted, trying my hardest not to burst out laughing right then and there. "You were jealous over Anthony and you were jealous over Tom."

"I... I was... You don't..."

He was at a loss for words, and now I was the one that was smirking. It was actually really nice to be on this side of the teasing.

"I'm completely right," was the last thing I said on the matter before we made our way inside the meeting room.

"So nice of you two to finally join us," Nay frowned, clearly disapproving of the fact that Dex and I had taken so long to get here. It was all Dex's fault. "What were the two of you doing, anyway?"

I looked at Dex, trying to think of an excuse but coming up with nothing. "Oh... uh..."

Now I was the one that was at a loss for words. Dang it.

"Tongue-tied?" Anthony questioned, his arms crossed over his chest. "Wonder why."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and he did it right back to me. Hank and nay decided to ignore this completely as they continued on with what we had been called here for.

"Your first mission is something you've done before," Hank informed us.

"Oh, please, don't send us back to high school," I groaned. "Anything but that."

Nay shook her head. "No, not high school," she said, and I let out a sigh of relief. "Another bank robbery that will be taking place shortly."

"Another bank robbery that you know the time of?" Aiden asked, and I couldn't tell if he was impressed or frightened. "How are you guys getting this information?"

"We have our ways," Nay waved away, and that was all she was going to say on the matter. "And it's been quite some time since you five have had to deal with a bank robbery."

"Yeah, but after the last one, Malicius and Lynx showed up and ruined everything," Anthony reminded us, in case we had somehow forgotten.

"Yeah, well, we don't have to worry about them showing up this time," Aiden told us rather coldly.

Nay's face slowly turned white at Aiden's words, and I elbowed him in the side. He glared at me, rubbing the spot where I had hit him, but I regretted nothing. He could be such a jerk sometimes, whether he meant to or not.

"Anyway," Hank continued, also sending Nay's discomfort but continuing on anyway. "The five of you will go to the bank with RV and stop the robbers before they can accomplish their goal."

"Simple enough," Dex shrugged, seemingly already bored with this mission. "We did this before when we were weaker. How hard can it be now?"

"It may be true that you all are stronger, but this time, it's not just a random bank robbery," Hank continued, and now I couldn't help but grow slightly confused. "This time, it's going to be done by the Bandits."

Kristie's eyebrows furrowed. "The Bandits?"

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Because that's such an original name."

"Their name is not important," Nay snapped at him, clearly still annoyed over the comment he had made about Malicius and Lynx. "What's important is that they're going to rob a bank and we want the five of you to stop it."

"They're a notorious bank robbing group," Hank continued for her. "They've robbed countless banks and have gotten away with all of them. Not one member has been caught yet."

"We're unaware of any of the members except for one." Nay placed her hands on her hips as she continued to explain. "Casey Sawyer is the leader of the Bandits and is the only member we know by name."

"That's careless," I couldn't help but comment.

"That's awesome," Dex disagreed with a shake of his head. "People know his name, and because of that at least some people have got to know what he looks like, yet he still hasn't gotten caught? That's pretty badass."

"Please don't try and join them because you think he's so cool," I told him, half joking and half serious. It did kind of seem like something Dex would go off and try if he didn't have anything better to do. "We don't need a superhuman being a part of a bank robbing gang."

"Hey, I'd be an awesome bank robber," he tried to defend, and I didn't even know what I was supposed to say back to that. "I'd just turn invisible and they'd never even know I was there. I'd be rich."

"Stop putting ideas in your head," I snapped at him, annoyed that he'd even think that way. The last thing I wanted was for Dex to do anything evil. "You can't even turn other things invisible with you, except for the special fabric the clothes that the DAU gave you are made out of. And I doubt they'd give them to you so you can rob banks."

"I could always steal them," he shrugged, and I really was starting to hate this conversation. "I mean, if I'm gonna rob a bank, what's stopping me from stealing from the DAU?"

"Can we please get back to the mission at hand, please?" Nay inquired, clearly annoyed by the fact that we were getting off the subject. "I don't feel like discussing Dex's future bank robbing career."

"Well, if any money ever mysteriously disappears from a bank, you'll know where it is," Dex shrugged, just having to have the last word about it. "It'll be wherever I am."

Nay decided to ignore Dex now as she continued. "Casey Sawyer is ruthless," she said. "In every bank robbery he performs, he brings different members of the Bandits with him. Every time, there are hostages. And every time, he cuts one of the hostage's fingers off."

"What?" I practically screamed, slapping my hand over my mouth after I realized just how loud I had been.

"Why does he do that?" Kristie asked, seeming to be horrified just at the thought of it, and I agreed with her completely. This guy really was ruthless. Did he have any love or compassion in him at all?

"No one knows why," Nay sighed, and I could tell she was trying her hardest not to show her disgust in the matter to us. "It's just his signature so you know that the Bandits are the ones that have robbed the bank."

"It's always the same finger, also," Hank informed us, and I really didn't want to hear about this any longer. "It's always the left ring finger."

"The wedding ring finger," Kristie whispered.

Hank nodded. "Exactly," he said. "No one knows why it's that finger. We don't know if it was randomly chosen or if it has some sort of meaning."

Before any of us could say anything more, Nay began shooing us out the door. "You don't have much time before the robbery starts," she informed us, and I was really dreading having to intervene with this. "You need to be in the bank before they are, so hurry up and get in the RV."

My teammates said nothing and followed Nay's orders. As much as I didn't want to do this, I knew I had to. I was going to have to do a lot of missions I didn't want to do while I was in the DAU. I was just going to have to deal with it.

As we entered the RV, I nearly forgot one important detail about it.

The fact that it could talk.

"It's been so long since I've seen you all!" RV gushed, sounding genuinely excited that we were all inside of him again. "You have no idea how awful it is only being around this guy!"

We knew he meant Aiden, since his family was the one that owned RV. I couldn't help but laugh as the two began to bicker. Just like old times...

RV drove us to the bank, telling us stories about Aiden that our leader clearly didn't want being told, but that didn't stop RV in the slightest. I had missed him and his soothing English accent; it was nice to be back.

He dropped us off a few blocks away form the bank and we made our way over and inside. Unsurprisingly, the bank was just as quiet and calm as I thought it would be.

But I knew it wouldn't be this way for long. It was just a matter of time.

We made our way inside, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible. But that was kind of difficult to do when you're five teenagers in a bank with nothing to really do.

But we were only inside for a good two minutes before the doors suddenly burst open, six masked men making their way inside, each one of them holding a gun.

"Everybody, get on the ground! Get on the ground now!" one of the masked men shouted, and all the innocent people filling the bank began to scream as they dropped to the ground, terrified by the men before them.

A few lucky pedestrians were able to escape through the front door behind the group of Bandits, but they didn't seem to care about them in the slightest. They didn't care who the hostages were as long as they had hostages.

I was so busy watching the scene that I didn't even fall to the ground like the rest of my friends did. Dex grabbed onto my arm and yanked me down, and I fell to the ground beside him.

"Okay," he said, and though he was practically on top of me to shield me, he was talking to the rest of my friends as well. "What's the plan?"

"Do we have a plan?" Aiden asked, and I let out a groan and laid my head down on the floor. How had we been doing this for over a year?

The robbers continued to yell at the hostages, telling them to shut up and kicking them if they didn't do as they said. There weren't many pedestrians in the bank with us, only about six or seven. But that was enough for the Bandits.

"I could always just walk up to them like I did to the guy last time," Dex suggested, and I immediately grabbed onto him when he began to move.

"No way, I'm not letting you just walk up to them like you did last time," I whispered harshly, my grip on his tightening. "That was a stupid move, but that guy was clearly an amateur. These guys apparently know what they're doing."

I wasn't very afraid of them, really. They'd yet to kill someone, but that didn't mean that they were against murder. And I wasn't going to take any chances.

Some of the Bandits gathered all the hostages, including my friends and me, into a group in the middle of the bank while others went into the back for the money. I just sat there, wondering what we were supposed to do.

We were supposed to spring into action. We were supposed to do something. But all I could do was watch the three remaining members of the Bandits that were with us as they looked over the group of hostages carefully. I gulped, knowing exactly what they were doing.

They were looking for a victim. Someone whose finger they could cut off. My stomach dropped when I saw one of their eyes lock with an old woman's, a disgusting grin making its way onto his face before making his way over to her.

"You'll do nicely," he laughed, grabbing her by the hand and yanking her up.

The old woman begged and pleaded for them to spare her, begged anyone around her to help her, but no one did anything to help. No one wanted to be the one who stepped in and then got their finger chopped off because of it. It made me sick.

I couldn't let this happen. I wasn't going to.

"Hey," I called out, immediately getting every member's attention. "Leave her alone!"

The man that was holding the old woman up laughed, knocking her back onto the ground as he turned toward me. He smirked as he began to slowly make his way toward me.

I wasn't afraid. I wasn't scared of the gun in his hands, because I knew that it couldn't hurt me. Being an Ender meant I was bulletproof. But that didn't mean my friends weren't in danger.

"And just who are you, little girly?" this man asked as he continued to make his way toward us. "Trying to be a hero? Trying to be brave?"

Dex reached out for me, but I kicked him as a way to tell him to be quiet. He didn't seem happy about this, but he did as I told him to do.

I knew this man was Casey. I could tell from his aura and how the three other men with him clearly respected him. This was the leader of the Bandits.

"You got something to say, little girl?" he asked me now, still stepping closer.

I wasn't much younger than him, I could tell, so it bothered me slightly that he was calling me little girl. But that wasn't what was important, so I shook it off.

"Leave her alone," I snapped, unable to think of anything better to say. I was coming up with everything on the spot. "She did nothing to you."

Casey laughed. "What a boring line," he said, but that didn't deter me. "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Before I could even say anything else, he was pointing the gun at me and pulling the trigger. I could hear my friends all make some kind of noise of terror, especially Dex, even though they all knew that it couldn't hurt me.

The line of bullets went right past me, close to grazing my head. I knew that Casey didn't have bad aim; he was doing this on purpose. He was trying to scare me.

I didn't even flinch. Even though his mask, I could tell Casey was impressed.

He had no idea his gun couldn't hurt me. I had no reason to be afraid of him. I could do much more damage to him than he could to me.

"Forget the old lady," Casey laughed, suddenly reaching out and grabbing for my hair. He gripped it tightly and pulled me toward him so my back was now against his chest. "I think this bratty, loudmouthed brave girl needs to lose a finger! Don't you think, boys?"

The two other members of the Bandits laughed in agreement, and I flinched as he continued to tug on my hair. But that had been Lynx's weakness, not mine. And I wasn't about to let it stop me.

Without wasting a second, I hooked my foot around Casey's leg, tripping him effortlessly just as he pulled the knife out of his pocket. It hit the ground and went skidding across the floor.

He slammed to the ground but quickly rolled over and was back up on his feet in seconds. I pushed myself up as well as my friends got up and came to my aid beside me. All except for Dex, who was nowhere to be found. But I knew he was still there with me.

"You're all just a bunch of teenagers!" Casey laughed at the four of us, not intimidated at all by the two small girls and the two buff guys. Even if he could see Dex, I knew he wouldn't have been scared either. "What could you possibly do against us?"

He was right that we were just a bunch of teenagers, but he had no idea that we were so much more than that. And that was his downfall.

Suddenly, Casey stumbled back, as if he had been hit. And then I realized, he had been hit. Dex was still there, and I knew for a fact he wasn't just going to let someone shoot at me and yank my hair. He was going to protect me no matter what, even if he knew I could protect myself.

"What the hell?" Casey shouted as Dex continued to punch him as he was invisible. "What the hell is this?"

It took every fiber of my being not to laugh as Dex continued to beat Casey, who had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was quite a sight to see.

"Casey, let's just get out of here," one of the members said. Clearly he could tell that something was up that they didn't want to mess with. "They're not worth it. We got money and the cops are already on their way."

Dex stopped punching, as if to let Casey make his escape. He didn't seem to want to leave just yet, but I knew he was a smart man and the smart thing to do was leave. So he nodded at his men and they quickly made their way toward a back exit.

None of the hostages moved right away, in case the Bandits decided to come back. But after a good three minutes, we all decided that they were gone. Everyone was safe.

I could hear the cop cars rolling up outside, but it was too late. The Bandits were already long gone.

"They got away," Aiden sighed.

Kristie frowned. "Does that mean we failed?"

"I don't know," I shrugged just as Dex reappeared next to me once all the hostages began making their way out, no longer paying attention to us. I hugged him, glad he was safe. "And I don't care."

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So I realized that RV isn't in Offenders at all, which totally wasn't my intention, but he just wasn't needed since all they ever went to was school, which would be a little weird to go to in an RV. But don't worry, he'll be back a lot in this book, and I'm glad!

And Casey's... kind of important. If you follow me on Twitter (@MP13Girl), you'll know. I think. Unless you disregard my older tweets, which I don't blame you for. But yeah. Watch out for him... but not in this book.

Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)