"Alright, come on, come on, come on! Shhh!" Iris whispered, urging her friends over with a quick wave. Today, they were going on a dangerous mission, one which not all of them might escape alive, but it was imperative that they try. This mission, dangerous as it was, was an obligation to friends. It was a quest for freedom! Even if only for a little while…

"We gotta make this quick, and we gotta make this quiet!" Iris murmured as soon as her companions were with her. She brought the three of them into a huddle with her and she began to whisper instructions. "Storm, you just wait in the car for us and be ready to take off as soon as we're ready. I'm going to play the innocent one and distract our quarries. Clover and Aiden, you guys have the most dangerous and imperative task of all…"

The purple-eyed girl trailed off to keep them in suspense, but Aiden couldn't wait any longer.

"We get to break them out!" he cried excitedly.

"Shh! Not so loud!" Iris warned, though there was no one around to hear them. And, if anything, calling the huddle made them look more suspicious than if Aiden had shouted their entire plan.

"Ooops," Aiden played along, covering his mouth. Storm, meanwhile, rolled her eyes in disdain, thinking the whole thing was a bit of an overkill. But at the same time, she agreed that the mission was important. It was the only reason she'd allowed herself to get suckered into it at all. Had she not thought it important enough, she would've just stayed home and let Iris deal with it.

"And if we get caught?" Clover asked, blue eyes shining excitedly.

"Then we run like heck! We scatter in all directions and Storm will drive around and pick us up at the next block!" Iris answered with equal verve. "We'll be like thieves in the night! Breaking in and whisking away our imprisoned friends before vanishing like we were never there! And if any of us is caught? Well, then we will still carry on, gladly throwing life and limb to the wind! We will honor whoever falls by finishing the mission regardless of who gets out alive and who does not!"

"We won't leave a single trace behind," Aiden agreed solemnly. "And we will finish this quest no matter the cost to us!"

"Ok, does the mission have to be this complicated?" Storm finally interrupted, rolling her eyes. "All we're doing is giving some of our… less than fortunate friends a lift to the pride parade! It's not like any of us are going to die picking them up."

"Of course it does!" Clover answered passionately. "We are fighting for our comrades' freedom!"

"Yeah, but there are so many easier, faster ways to do that," Storm countered. "All this 'give me liBigbyy or give me death' crap is a bit over the top."

"Nonsense!" Iris smacked the blond's arm lightly. "Vive la révolution!" she cried, and Aiden and Clover echoed the battle cry.

"Good grief," Storm sighed, shaking her head.

ooo

"Alright, commence part one of "Operation: Liberation Gets Bold Today"!" Iris muttered as she, in the shotgun seat, scoped out the first house on their list. The list, as Storm had mentioned earlier, contained the names of everyone who wanted to go to Pride but were unable to due to unaccepting families. But Iris was having none of that. Today, she and her three friends were going to go from house to house and rescue each and every person from their bigoted families and take them all to Pride!

Normally, Iris believed in listening to parents, but when it came to things like Pride, she was willing to bend and break rules if helped closeted people escape bigoted families, even if it was only just for one day. Alongside abuse cases, it was one of the rare times Iris would advocate against obeying parents. Iris was honestly willing to go as far as breaking in to rescue her friends, she'd meant that quite literally. Sure, it was illegal, but in her opinion, it still wasn't worse than trying to suppress a child's gender or sexuality just because it wasn't "normal".

"Wait, "Liberation Gets Bold Today"?" Storm snorted as she drove up to the first house. "What's with the fancy terms?"

"Take the first letters of the operation and say them out loud," Iris replied. LGBT.

"Stupid pun," Storm rolled her eyes.

"Well, I wanted it to be symbolic!" Iris whined. Storm chuckled dryly. Iris was too much sometimes, but she loved the girl dearly.

"Ah! Here we are! Pull over!" Clover waved suddenly. She was navigating. Storm obeyed, parking on the curb.

"Ok, you all know what to do, right?" Iris whispered eagerly as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Yes!" Aiden and Clover chorused, getting hyped up again. Iris turned to the one person who hadn't said anything.

"Ok, fine, whatever," Storm sighed. "Just go before someone asks what we're doing!" She unlocked the doors and her three passengers shot out of the van faster than a bullet from a gun. Despite herself, Storm laughed. The three were foolish and immature, but they had good intentions. And admittedly, Storm did support their cause.

"Knock, knock!" Iris sang as she pounded on the door. The first people to answer were a middle-aged couple.

"Hello, who is it?" they asked.

"Iris Long! A friend of Hathaway, from school! I was wondering if we could hang out?" Iris put on her best puppy-dog eyes. She knew full well that these people didn't approve of her because she was a 'radical homosexual', but she wasn't asking to hang out with Hathaway because she thought they would agree. She was asking so that Aiden and Clover had time to sneak around the back and help Hathaway climb out of their bedroom window and sneak down and out.

"Oh. You." Hathaway's parents crinkled their noses at Iris.

"Yup!" Iris answered cheerfully, still grinning up at them.

"Listen, we'd love to have you over, but Hathaway is busy right now, so maybe you should come back another time," Hathaway's father spoke first, his tone very unwelcome and unfriendly.

"Awwww, ok…" Iris pretended to heave a sad sigh. "Well, thank you for your time, anyway."

"Hmm…" Hathaway's father narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but Iris didn't care. Every second he lingered, the more time Hathaway had to flee.

But, not too much later, Iris heard a honk. That was the signal meaning that Hathaway had successfully snuck out.

"Oh! That's my ride! Guess I should go!" she said, sprinting off the porch without another moment of hesitation. Hathaway's parents watched her go, frowning in disapproval, but they were more than happy to shut the door on Iris and get back to their lives, far away from her.

"Thanks, guys!" Hathaway sounded relieved. Today, an armband with the male gender sign was upon Hathaway's wrist.

"No problem," Clover, Aiden and Iris all replied. "We're glad you could make it!"

"There are suits for you in the way back," Storm added.

"Really?" Hathaway's face lit up like the sun and Storm nodded. "Oh, thank you all so much!" He looked close to tears, but that was because he'd been feeling like a man all week, but his parents, of course, forced him to continue to present as a girl.

While Hathaway clambered into the way back, where suits and boyish clothes did indeed wait for him, Iris checked the next name.

"Ellie Drake," she said. Ah, poor Ellie… She was rather young, a few years younger than Iris! But she was already in the process of transitioning. It was just a shame that her parents weren't supportive. They weren't quite as antagonistic as Hathaway's, but they weren't very pleased to watch their son turn into a daughter. It was not what they had given birth to, so, in their eyes, it was wrong. And they'd also argued that Ellie was just too young to know! But the way Iris saw it, none of that mattered. Nobody ever asked a cis person how they knew they were cis, so why do it to trans people?

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Drake!" Iris greeted Ellie's parents innocently.

"Hello?" Neither of them recognized her.

"I'm Iris Long! I'm one of the peer tutors for… Elias." Iris felt guilty using Ellie's deadname, but it was necessary in this case.

"Ah! What's up?" the Drakes greeted Iris warmly.

"I was wondering if… he wanted to hang out. Grab some lunch?" Iris put on her sweet face again. This time, unlike with Hathaway, the Drakes agreed quickly. This meant Aiden and Clover didn't even have to try and find Ellie's window to rescue her. Instead, they exited the premises at once while the Drakes went to go find their kiddo.

"Hey, Ellie!" Hathaway greeted as soon as Ellie was in the van with the rest of them.

"Hathaway! I didn't know you were coming!"

"Of course! These guys even got me the right clothing!" he plucked at his suit, having covered it in rainbow stickers just to customize it.

"And we got you dresses," Iris agreed, looking at Ellie.

"Or you can use mine!" Hathaway offered, gesturing to the pile of clothing tossed casually in the back of the car.

"Oh! Goodie!" Now it was Ellie's turn to don her Pride gear.

The third person on the list was Princeton Cross. He, like Ellie, was trans, and fairly young. But unlike Ellie, he was lucky enough to have a very supportive family. The only reason he was on the list was because his fathers were out of town, and his sisters had other engagements. This meant he needed a lift. But because he didn't need liberation, when Iris reached his house, he was chilling on the porch.

"Hey guys!" he grinned as he vaulted into the van.

"Hi Princeton," everyone else replied.

"That was easy," Aiden joked as Storm pulled out of his driveway and onto the fourth person of the list: Avalon. Their family was actually fairly queer friendly, but they weren't too keen on their child being nonbinary. They were ok with trans if it followed the binary, but as soon as any other gender was mentioned, they'd scoff and insist the youth of today were just making up genders at random.

"Hello!" Iris smiled cheerfully as Avalon's parents answered the door.

"Hey, Iris!" they smiled, very friendly with her. "What brings you here?"

"I was just wondering if Avalon could hang out today?" she asked.

"Ah, well, Avalon is actually busy today," Avalon's mother answered. But from the way she was suddenly unable to meet Iris' eyes, Iris had the sinking feeling that this was nothing but a lie. Probably, they already assumed Iris wanted to take Avalon to Pride, and the reason they didn't want that to happen was because they didn't want Avalon to steep themself deeper into the whole "nonbinary nonsense", as they called it.

"Ah, well, that's ok!" Iris shrugged cheerfully. "We can always hang out some other time! But I hope you've been well?" By engaging in small chatter, Iris kept Avalon's folks distracted just long enough for Clover and Aiden to do their thing!

"I can't believe you guys actually came!" Avalon laughed in delight as Clover and Aiden tossed a grappling hook up to them. They hooked it tight on the windowsill and slid down from their bedroom to the backyard. Once they were on the ground, they flicked their wrist and unhooked the rope.

"Time to roll out! Go! Go! Go!" Aiden whispered. Then, with Clover in the lead, the other two sprinted from the yard and climbed over several fences to reach the street corner where Storm was waiting.

"Let's GOOO!" Avalon cheered as they crawled into the van. "Oh! Hi Ellie! Nice dress! Where'd you get it?"

"Thanks," Ellie grinned, flattered. "And Iris got it for me, actually!"

"We got more Pride gear in the back," Iris agreed as she returned to the van as well, feeling only slightly guilty about duping Avalon's kind parents.

"Oooh heck yes!" Avalon dove into the backseat immediately.

There were a few more people on Iris' "Liberation Gets Bold Today" list and, with each of them, she would distract the parents while Clover and Aiden would help their kids climb out of their windows and then over, through or around fences while Storm would pick everyone up. In the van, clothes were swapped and binders and flags were handed out. Makeup, pins, jewelry and other bling also got distributed. Soon, the van was alive with laughter and music. It was a hot, sweaty, crowded ride over, but it was so worth it!

ooo

"And here we are!" Storm sighed in relief, parking her van and being the first one out of it.

"Woo hoo! "Operation: Liberation Gets Bold Today" was a success and we all survived!" Iris cheered, the next one out of the van. Everyone else echoed her cry and raised their flags as they clambered out of the van, one by one.

"But we do have to get everyone cleaned up and home at a decent time," Storm reminded all of them.

"Oh, right," Iris wilted and everyone else also looked concerned. But Storm's grim expression quickly changed into a smile.

"Well, there is a middle phase to "Operation: Liberation Gets Bold Today" that we forgot," she said.

"Oh?" Iris was genuinely surprised.

"Having fun at Pride, of course!" Storm grinned, gesturing to the fairgrounds waiting up ahead. Spirits bolstered once more, flags were raised as the gaggle of friends raced towards the gates.