Gathering Thunder

The strangers who have stopped Connie and Lucy in the woods lead them into a cave, where Sam Johnson and Billy MacPherson finally explain the mystery. They belong to a revived group called the Israelites, first organized by Whit years ago and now restarted by Jack Allen. Disguised in robes, young people including Erica, Charles, and Courtney secretly answer Odyssey's vandalism with random acts of goodness. Billy, one of Whit's original Israelites, leads the group, and Sam has kept its work secret because that is one of its rules.

Billy asks Connie and Lucy to join. Lucy's connection with the Odyssey Times could help, and the Israelites need more people because they have learned that the Bones of Wrath plan to strike the War Memorial. The girls agree. That night, the Bones cover the memorial with eggs and tomatoes, but an observer reports them to the police. When the vandals flee, the robed Israelites arrive carrying soap and water and clean the monument before the damage can remain.

Bart Rathbone's unseen superior is furious that the Bones have failed again. He replaces Rodney as leader with a hardened young man called Jellyfish, who immediately takes command of both Rathbones. Jellyfish arranges for Bart to deliver a television commentary blaming Tom Riley and Odyssey's economy for the vandalism. Bart even uses poor sales at his own store as evidence, turning the destruction his side has caused into an attack on the mayor.

Jellyfish recognizes that someone inside the Bones must be warning the Israelites. He announces that their next target will be Whit's End and takes the gang to a crowded movie, where plenty of witnesses will remember seeing them. Butch secretly meets Sam and reveals that Jellyfish has taken over. Sam worries that spying has become dangerous and urges his old friend to stop, but Butch wants to help because the work matters. He warns the Israelites about Whit's End.

Jellyfish has anticipated the warning. At the last moment, he sends only Rodney, Rusty, and Butch out through a theater bathroom window and changes the target to Edwin Blackgaard's Harlequin Dinner Theater. The remaining Bones stay behind, creating an alibi for the whole gang. Jellyfish also catches Butch trying to telephone Whit's End, and he has already learned that Butch once knew Sam and that Sam's stolen bicycle somehow came back from its hidden cave.

While the Israelites wait uselessly at Whit's End, the Harlequin suffers the worst damage yet. The next day, the gang's movie alibi initially seems to clear them. Butch explains the trick to Sam, Connie, and Billy. They realize Jellyfish has probably used the attack to test for a spy and order Butch to stay away from them. Butch refuses to return quietly to wrongdoing. Returning Sam's bicycle has made him question why he ever joined the Bones, and doing good with the Israelites has shown him how different his choices can be.

As Butch leaves the cave, Jellyfish and Rodney confront him. Sam later finds Butch at home with a black eye, a swollen lip, and bruises from a beating by the Bones. Butch accepts responsibility for ever joining them and warns Sam that the conflict is no longer a harmless contest of good deeds. “You're in a war,” he says.

Butch tells the police everything, but witnesses place the Bones at the library during the beating, giving them another alibi. His frightened and angry parents blame Jack for allowing their son to act as a spy, although Jack had not arranged it. Shaken by the harm Butch has suffered, Jack shuts down the Israelites and forbids the young people from continuing. Billy believes their retreat means the Bones of Wrath have won.