"Wake up, outcast."

                I cracked my eyes open as Tyson kicked at my body. He noticed I was waking up and backed off.

                "Get up," he said. "We have to go in a little. You need time to shake off the sleep."

                I sat up and checked the time, realizing how late it was. Tyson was dressed in dark clothes, and he threw a pair at me. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and changed into the clothes, trying to stretch and wake myself up.

                Tyson seemed wide awake as he texted on his phone and moved around his bedroom. He tossed a pair of gloves and a ski mask at me.

                "A ski mask?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

                "You can chose not to wear it and let them see your face," he offered.

                "This seems more like burglary," I said.

                "We don't steal anything." He shoved something into a bag and secured it over his shoulders. "I'm not a thief. Just an...unpleasant reminder of consequences."

                He locked his bedroom door and pushed open his window. He swung his legs over it and gripped the edge, looking up at me.

                "Try not to fall," he said, and started climbing down the side of his house.

                I looked out of the window, watching the way he moved his body carefully, finding steady places to balance himself. I climbed out of the window and tried to follow his path, taking it slowly so I wouldn't fall and break my damn neck.

                When my feet hit the ground, I felt relieved beyond belief. I followed Tyson around to his backyard and we went off towards the trees, disappearing into the thick of them, Tyson seeming to know exactly where to go even in the dark.

                "You follow my orders in there, got it?" Tyson said. "I'm not getting caught just because you fuck up."

                "I won't fuck up," I said, despite my rapidly beating heart. This was really happening. I was really putting myself in this position.

                I clenched my fists and steeled myself. Someone had to stand up for victims. Someone had to show bullies they couldn't get away with what they did. I'd been passive since I got to Braxton, but maybe it was time to take a new approach.

                I mentally repeated that message to myself as we walked, strengthening my resolve to go through with this crazy revenge plan. Tyson seemed perfectly content to let us walk in silence, occasionally glancing back at my face and seeming as pleased as he ever got.

                We walked for a while before Tyson stopped and leaned against a tree. He pulled his sleeve back and checked his watch.

                "Quit checking your watch. We're here," Farren said, stepping up to us. "The twins are here, they're just stretching out."

                Tyson took something out of his bag and handed it to Farren. He handed one to me after fiddling with it for a moment.

                "Don't lose it," he said. "Bluetooth earpieces. That's how Connor will talk to us."

                I put it in my ear as the twins came over to us. Tyson handed the earpieces to them, too, before pulling on his gloves.

                "Everyone get ready. Con, you there?" he said.

                "Here." Connor's voice came faintly from the earpiece. "Let Nyssa and Talon go in first to get us set up with visuals."

                "That's the plan," Tyson said. "Let's go, everyone."

                We all pulled the masks on and Tyson led us until we reached a fence. We climbed over it and crouched behind a bush. Tyson motioned at the twins to go ahead and they moved forwards towards the house.

                I watched in amazement as they helped each other climb up the house. Nyssa got on her brother's shoulders and jumped so she could catch the edge of a window, hauling herself up. There was a landing in front of another window that she settled herself on, leaning over and taking Talon's hand. With her help, he hauled himself onto the landing, and the two carefully scaled the house until they reached a window. They fidgeted with it together until they managed to push it open and slip into the house.

                Tyson put his hand on my arm as if to keep me in place. His gaze was fixed firmly on the house.

                It was a few minutes before anything even happened. We were silent, waiting for any sign it was clear to go in the house.

                "I have a visual," Connor said. "They set it up in the hallway and the downstairs. I don't see any movement. They're opening the backdoor."

                Tyson grabbed my shirt and pulled me to my feet. We crept close to the house as the back door swung open, the twins standing there.

                "Farren," Tyson said.

                "Be careful in there," Farren said. "I can't talk you out of everything."

                "I don't need you too." Tyson hit him on the shoulder before dragging me into the house, closing the door and leaving Farren outside.

                The house was quiet and dark. Tyson gestured at the twins and they started walking through the house. We followed them, everyone careful not to make any loud movements.

                "TV is on upstairs. I think it's his mom's room," Nyssa said quietly. "Might cover any creaks."

                "Good enough." Tyson went up the stairs and listened closely. Sure enough, we could hear a TV coming from behind a closed door. It was faint and muffled, but there.

                "That one," Talon said, pointing at a closed door.

                "Hide. Outcast and I have this," Tyson said.

                The twins glanced at each other and shrugged, slipping into an open room and disappearing from sight. Tyson unzipped his bag and pulled several papers out, unfolding them. I realized some had words and some had pictures on them.

                Tyson carefully opened the door, looking relieved when it didn't creak. We snuck into the room, where a boy was asleep on his bed.

                "Marcus Crawford," Tyson whispered to me before moving around to a desk. He set one of the still-folded papers on it that had Marcus's name on it. He pulled tacks out of a side pouch of his bag and stuck several pictures to Marcus's wall.

                I squinted in the darkness to see what the pictures were. Several were Marcus drinking, but there were two of him pinning kids to a wall, about to punch one of the kids in one of the pictures.

                He tacked up one of the papers with words under the pictures. I couldn't make out the words clearly, but I had a feeling it was a threat.

                Tyson started backing up, but the floorboard creaked under his feet. He quickly dropped to the ground and hid himself under Marcus's desk, motioning wildly at me to hide.

                Marcus was starting to sit up, and I hurried to hide myself in his partially opened closet. I heard more creaking and a shocked gasp and the sound of papers being torn down.

                "Mom!" Marcus cried. "Mom!" His voice started to drift away as he left the room.

                I peeked out as Tyson darted from under the desk. "Stay hidden. We won't leave without you. Trust me."

                He left the room and I felt my panic growing as I heard another door in the house open. I looked around the small closet and climbed into Marcus's hamper, crouching down in it and trying to cover myself with his clothes.

                "-look in my room! Someone broke into my room!" Marcus said.

                "Oh my god," a woman's voice said. "Marcus, stay here. I'm going to call the neighbors."

                "Call the police!" Marcus said.

                "I will, but after I get the neighbors here. It'll take the police time to get here and I don't know if someone is still in the house!" she said, sounding like she was trying not to snap at him. "Just stay here and yell if you see anyone."

                More footsteps and then I heard shuffling around the room. My heart beat wildly against my ribs as I realized Marcus was probably checking his room for anyone hiding in there.

                I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as I heard the closet door open. Marcus shoved some clothes aside, and I knew he'd check the hamper and find me. This was it. My first break in and I was getting caught right away.

                But then the closet door shut. I opened my eyes, digging my nails into my palms so I wouldn't start freaking out. He really hadn't found me.

                There was a loud crash from downstairs and a scream. I heard a thump in the room and the sound of the door being yanked open.

                "Mom!" Marcus's voice cried, and then the sound of him running down the stairs.

                "Ty, go, go," Connor's voice said urgently through the earpiece.

                It was a moment before the closet door was opened. "Outcast!"

                I shoved the clothes off myself and Tyson helped me out of the hamper. We hurried out of the room and into the room the twins had hidden in. The window was open and Tyson hurried me out of it.

                Nyssa was clinging to the side of the house just under me. "Follow me. Don't fall."

                She climbed down and I tried to follow her and watch my grip. Tyson hurried down after us, all of us trying to go fast enough to get away but slow enough not to fall.

                We hit the ground and Nyssa took off running, Tyson and I following her. We hopped the fence and kept running until we'd hit a spot thick with trees and tall grass.

                "Fuck, I'm more worried about ticks than cops," Tyson said, trying to catch his breath. "Farren?"

                "Here," Farren said, hidden behind a tree. "Connor, where's Talon?"

                "I lost visual on him," Connor said. "He turned his earpiece off. He probably can't risk any noise giving him away."

                "He'll be okay," Nyssa said. "He's an idiot, but he's a quick idiot."

                I could hear sirens in the distance. Tyson checked his watch and anxiously looked back the way we'd come.

                "Come on, Talon," Nyssa mumbled, watching the path, trying to hide her anxiety.

                "I'm going back to check the situation," Tyson said.

                Farren caught his arm. "And what, get caught too? If Talon got caught, there's nothing to be done about it. Rather one than all. You go back there, and you'll ruin your future too. Don't throw away everything you've worked for."

                "Talon wouldn't get caught," Nyssa said. "I'll go back and check. I'm the quickest."

                "No one is going back," Farren said, shoving Tyson backwards. "We wait five more minutes and then we go, Talon or no Talon. We have a way we run things. Emotions don't make the rules, so cut them off and start thinking logically, all of you."

                Nyssa shot him a dirty look but didn't argue. Instead, she let her gaze drift back to the path.

                The sirens had gotten closer, so we all crouched down. Connor was silent over the earpiece, but I could faintly make out the sound of his rapidly typing on a keyboard.

                "It's time to go," Farren said. "Unless you all want to get caught, too."

                "You're just going to leave him?" I said, knowing it was logical but unwilling to do it anyways.

                "Would you rather we all get caught? Noble, but pointless," Farren said.

                "He's right," Tyson said, getting up. "Farren, where's a safe place to go and figure this situation out?"

                Farren thought for a moment. "Wherever you want to go. We have several spots. Any of them will do."

                Now Tyson fell silent as he thought. "We can go to the supply sheds at the field. Nyssa should go home in case Talon did get caught and the cops check her house."

                "Cops better not check our house."

                We all turned as Talon ran up to us, looking out of breath. "They didn't see me. It took a lot of hiding and one hell of a bizarre distraction from Connor, but I'm safe. Let's get the hell out of here."

                "Should've known it'd be you who'd make us all wait," Nyssa said, but the punch she gave his shoulder wasn't angry. Talon returned the playful punch.

                "Endearing. Let's move," Tyson said. "We're all going back home now that we don't need to have an emergency plan. I'm tired."

                We crept around carefully, keeping an eye out for any signs of anyone. We reached a section where everyone started to part ways.

                Tyson grabbed Talon's shoulder. "You're not completely useless. Congratulations."

                "I love being a distraction," Talon said, grinning widely. "Someone has to cover when your dumbass wakes the target up."

                "We can get all the information in the world on the target, but even I can't tell if they're a light sleeper," Tyson said, dropping his hand. "I need a long nap and a month long vacation after tonight. Get out of my sight."

                Tyson and I left the others, heading back towards his house. Tyson pulled the mask off his face and I copied him.

                "You say I'm not as good as I act, but you're not as bad as you act," I said.

                "And that means...?" He glanced at me lazily.

                "It means you're the kind of person who has everything planned out in advance. If things go wrong, you have backup plans for backup plans. You knew exactly where to go if someone got caught, but you played it off like you didn't to buy Talon more time," I said.

                "Now you're just making my hesitation into heroic compassion," he said. "Keep your ideas to yourself, outcast."

                "You came back for me," I said.

                "You're a risk. I couldn't leave you behind," he said.

                "Why can't you just accept that you're not a shitty person?" I said.

                He stopped walking. "Why did you want to join us? You don't seem too bothered to be a bully victim of Drew and the other mindless meatbags around the school."

                "Because I've seen what the result of bullying can do," I said. "I don't want money or anything. I just want to help people."

                "Ah, but the dilemma. Are we the bullies, now? I just broke into his house and blackmailed him. Threatened to release those pictures online and ruin his college acceptance chances if he doesn't quit his bullying. Does that make me just as bad as him?" Tyson said. "The questions revenge raises."

                "Two wrongs don't make a right," I said. "That's what we're taught our whole lives. But if two wrongs cancel each other out, is it really so bad? He did something bad, you did something bad, and it'll stop more bad things from happening. People can try to go through life doing the right thing and following the rules, but sometimes you have to slip to make things right. Whether or not it's the right thing to do...I guess that depends on the results. If he stops bullying, maybe it's not such a bad thing that you blackmailed him with his own actions."

                "This is a shitty world," Tyson said. "People do bad things and get away with them all the time. Power, money, connections. They get you everywhere. They put you above the laws and above morals. That is, until someone below the laws and below morals comes for you."

                He started walking again and I followed him. I turned the ski mask over and over in my hands. I'd almost been caught tonight.

                "So what happened?" I asked.

                "Marcus woke up. Nyssa got the window open for our escape while Talon snuck downstairs and made some noise to get their attention. I'm not sure how he got out. Connor probably hacked into something and made some magic happen," Tyson said. "Things go wrong sometimes. It's all about quick reactions and luck. Smart thinking, hiding like you did. You're not as helpless as I thought you'd be."

                It wasn't so hard for an invisible boy to hide. To stay silent even as my heartbeat thundered in my ears was a talent of mine that had saved me tonight. The slightest noise or movement could've given me away.

                We reached Tyson's house and he guided me back up and through his window. We both changed our clothes and Tyson hid everything before collapsing onto his bed.

                "I'm exhausted. Stay quiet and let me sleep," he said, rolling over and tugging the covers up to his shoulders.

                "Thanks for not leaving me," I said.

                "That's not staying quiet," he said, but he didn't sound annoyed.

                He was moody, rude, and had questionable morals. But he was a leader who didn't abandon the people that put their trust in him. There was a reason behind why he did all this, I was sure of it. But we all had our own reasons, and Tyson didn't seem like the type to share.

                I pulled the covers over myself and grabbed my phone. I looked at that message, reading it over and over and over.

                I did it, I thought to myself. I'd helped get back at a bully, and made a difference in a victim's life. Maybe I hadn't been overly useful, but if I kept at this with Tyson and his friends, I was sure I could play my part and make a real difference for these bullied kids.