⚠️: mentions of drugging (truth serum) with one very brief mention of needles, implied torture w/o details. (all canon) if you wish to skip, just jump to the next chapter when the scene cuts to Robin and Steve as it starts very soon after they are introduced here

📝: I don't want to start any Billy discourse today or... at all really but I just felt like I had to disclose that me following the plot of the show does not equate me making any statements towards Billy's character cause I know the moment I do that's gonna start a war in the comments which makes me tired enough. I have my opinions on him but again, that'll just start shit but how I wrote this scene (aka how it was presented IN THE SHOW, like how i tackle any other scene) does not automatically represent my feelings towards a character/scene

❓️: top three cosmic moments?? 🤔

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

Static. That's all there ever was.

In a matter of time, the obnoxious coat of static returned to the air of the Hopper Cabin with a simple click of the television dial. With all (but most) discussions aside over an impromptu and makeshift mid-afternoon lunch for all, El promptly returned to the floor just beneath the TV.

As she prepared herself for her next journey, she was privately reminded of her days shut inside, searching for her friends in her loneliest of moments. The thought of what she was about to do did in fact twist knots in her stomach, or however Y/n had said it. But she knew with complete certainty she could stand to. If it meant finding the source and stopping the Flayed—if it meant protecting the ones she cared about, then so be it.

"El," Mike's soft whisper reached her ears just as she pulled the checkered headband from her hair. Lowering himself to the ground beside her to match her height, Mike spoke with as little influence as he could muster. "I know you think you have to do this, but you don't,"

Yet unseen from her spot on the floor just across the coffee table, Max scoffed noiselessly to herself at his attempts. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but having just spoken to El only moments ago as she saved a spot for Y/n, she couldn't help but feel part of her heart sink as Mike stole her away yet again.

"It's just, you've only done this before once. A-and you're mom--," Mike quickly interjects himself when he sees the almost wary look in her eyes. He didn't know if it was directed at himself, or her her plan, but he was too afraid of messing up again to not try and correct himself. "She loved you and wanted you to know what happened. But Billy's mind, is sick—diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him,"

Had he gotten through? Mike wasn't at all sure, and he was less convinced by the second. It was the clench around his heart and lungs tightening with every thought that drove him. He could see that now. And what he thought at first to be a contemplation on her face as he spoke had quickly revealed itself to be the misty eyed result of mourning she was burying within her at the mention of her mother.

"He can't hurt me." She states, her tone almost dipped in warning. "Not in there,"

"We don't know that,"

Mike is grateful for El and her ability to detect the fear behind his eyes and voice. For no sooner had he uttered the words did she turn fully to him, taking his hand carefully in her own to lock his gaze in hers.

"Mike," her voice was soft and light, like a feather. It was pleading. And that grip on his heart shifted into guilt. "I need you to trust me."

A blush returns to his cheeks when his eyes drift over to Max—only just now sensing her prying ear. But all she can give him is a harsh look, screaming for him to answer the girl they both cared for. Doing what he could to clear his head of all anxious thoughts, Mike gave El a nod.

"Yeah," he agrees. "just be careful."

El gave his hand one last thankful squeeze as he rose from the floor and returned to the recliner, not at all aware he wasn't the only one with a flutter returning to his heart. The headband and photograph quickly reclaimed their place as El's priority, and as she ran the muted pink, blue and gold splattered fabric between her fingertips she was certain those days of isolation were over.

The footsteps she heard treading back in from the kitchen only confirmed this. Y/n, Lucas and Will had returned to El's side, (nearly) completing the set and putting to bed any lingering unease she was alone in this world. And as she secured one of the first gifts she had ever recieved around her eyes to begin her journey, El thought to herself just how drastically her life had changed in such a short amount of time.

But that begged the question, if not in the farthest, darkest corners of her mind: just how quickly could it be taken from her?

The answer wouldn't find her, not immediately.

For just when she thought the cold unknown of the void had been chased away by her friends, El found herself wandering the black chasm with a pit in her stomach and chill up her spine she knew far too well. The water she treads felt somehow hot and cold all at once; two conflicting temperatures existed together rather than as a whole—in this case, the usual lukewarm she could barely distinguish from her own body. It only made her want to get out of here faster.

That was until she finally spotted something in the distance.

A figure, his hands folded on his knees as

he sat unnaturally still and calm—something El had never seen Billy. The steps she treads to his bedside grow heavier and heavier, and so too sits the weight on her heart. With every step, the imaginary water at her feet grew colder and colder, sending jarring chills traveling up into her bones.

He was staring right through her. Waiting for her.

And yet much like her attempts with Mike and Y/n, even Billy didn't seem to notice her when she reached his side. His darkened, sludge-shot eyes were still locked

dead ahead on his bedroom door. He hadn't blinked, his shoulder had barely moved to breathe—even with the thin whisps of sunlight sneaking their way past his drawn curtains and warming his burning skin. He was completely unmoving, trapped within a trance.

It was up to El to wake him.

She savored every moment of her safety as she drew in a shaky breath, a whirlwind of possibilities flying through her mind. And then she took his hand.

Slipping her palm into his own with great caution, she begged her mind not to think of the last time his hands were on her—hurling her across the room and into unconsciousness. All the more reason to remind herself why she was here and what she was doing.

Relief swept over her in a flash when his hand easily went into hers without a fight. He wasn't responding, but he wasn't fighting her presence either. Maybe he needed a little push. To know she was there.

Billy.

He felt a call somewhere deep in his mind. From a girl he had encountered before. A girl his sister knew. A girl The Voice hated. One he had hurt before, but that might have been a dream.

Can you hear me?

Billy can't remember the last time he had been allowed to sleep. So many times things had just blurred together in a black haze—moments where he'd dream strange dreams only to realize he couldn't remember ever going to sleep. And this. This was one of them. And this had happened before. She had happened before. She sometimes intruded on his dreams and the Voice didn't like that.

I want to see.

She says. Her voice matches the blurry picture that had just appeared in his peripheral vision. It was her. The girl he hurt—the girl he was expecting. She was sad. She was sad and worried, and reaching out to him. Billy doesn't understand why he's supposed to hate her but he does.

I want to see what happened.

Billy hates her because He hates her. And now she has found him. Just like He said she would.

His misty eyes meet her own and for only a moment hope fills El's chest. And his sudden iron grip on her forearm just as soon snuffs it out. She yanks and tugs trying to wrench her arm free but his grip just tightens as he seethes up at her.

Her struggles carry through with her even outside the void where everyone watching comes alive with worry.

"Something's wrong," Mike pales.

But no one can stop it. Not even El,

and certainly not Billy who remains unblinking as he keeps her tethered. Panic has completely consumed her heart thanks to the familiar grip, instantly awakening the small, fearful girl she had been so many years ago.

But El knew better. El knew better than to ignore that little girl cause that little girl got out. She fought and screamed and yanked and clawed, and then she fought some more until she was finally free.

Now she was free in all the wrong ways.

He had finally let her go and she had gotten her wish, but El knew at once it hadn't been by accident. Everything was wrong.

The world was falling away from beneath her feet and any and all sense of her metaphysical self was falling with it. Like some tide was ripping her out to sea, but she didn't have the time nor the attention to ask herself why she knew what a riptide was. But it had caught her, and it was all she could do but scream an empty cry for help as Billy's mind swallowed her whole.

The grip of the Mind Flayer had broken free from the barriers of his mind and was coursing all throughout his body, the dark mass staining the very blood in his veins and poisoning his system.

He had evolved past his shadowy form, yet he always lurked in darkness. He was darkness. His features remained spider-like, six long legs as tall as the ceiling it was now scraping, branching out into smaller tendrils like one grotesque, haunched tree.

El could see it as clearly as Billy had that day. She could nearly feel the fires of the sauna and Y/n's powers igniting in his bloodstream as if it were her own pain.

But it wasn't. She was still falling. Slipping deeper and deeper into his subconscious where Billy's poisoned memories passed her by in a blur.

As he watched the life drain from her eyes, he hissed to the one he had been waiting in agony for all these months his final greeting--

All Tom Holloway could do was peer up at the snarling monster from his one uncovered eye as he feels the icy darkness envelop him completely.

Some of them painfully familiar. Some of them new.

El flinched as he whipped around to face her, sunken, darkened eyes widening as they pierced her own.

He watched in a mixture of fear and hatred as she joined her friends in mounting their bikes. And for a moment, the small, dying part of Billy tries to understand why until he loses himself in another unfamiliar memory.

--You.

His pupils dilate and closing in around them are several black veins that cloud the whites of his eyes as he remembers.

El jumped back when a girl shot up from within so suddenly. It was Heather.

--You!

El watched helplessly in horror as Heather was pulled into the deep black abyss of her watery grave, crying out for help.

He had not uttered a word to her but she still heard it. A force so strong and revolted—so concentrated—she could feel the thought in her bones.

You.

There was that word again. Even as she felt herself slip away, the pain from that word alone outshines all darkness being presented to her.

It all happened so fast, even in the moment and he was left but nothing but the horrifying image of a bloodied tentacle attacking his face.

Darkness. That was all that was left after the distorted voice died out with the rest of the booth. His eyes flew everywhere, but not for long. An impossible chill fell over his already frozen body when he realized what was so wrong.

The fears.

A blood-curdling scream tore from his throat as his fingers burned; they were in searing pain as they clung so desperately to the iron doorway where they eventually lost their battle.

The fire. El felt it all. But nothing could have prepared her for the--

--lurch in his gut when the car spun out, followed by a searing pain in his temple that spread throughout his skull in a dull ache.

She had felt what she first believed to be the collision with his spun-out car but what was instead something much more real.

In her long and frightening fall, she had finally landed. She lay blinking up at a baby blue sky with a sun that threatened to blind her with its rays. But she never felt the impact. Come to think of it, she couldn't even feel the biting cold of the water lapping over her body and threatening to pull her away. Nor could she smell the mixture of shellfish and salty sea air on the breeze. And apart from the roaring of the water and the squawks of the seagulls taking off all around her, El swears she can hear the distant and fading voice of a woman somewhere close by in Billy's mind.

As she slowly pulled herself up, she notes the presence of water clinging to her body and the crunch of wet sand grains under her hands and knees. It's all she can make out. But the sight before her... El never thought she'd see such things in her lifetime; she was crawling on a field of sand that surrounded her on almost all sides. But before her—stretching out to what looked to be the ends of the earth and coming all the up to just to greet her was something she thought she'd never live to see; the ocean.

At that moment, a familiar voice broke through and she had never been more grateful.

"El," Mike eased. "Are you okay?"

The girl before them all had eventually slowed her breathing, but the despair was still carved into her features. "Are you okay?" He asked again, growing fearful. El drew in a shaky breath before them all and answered in a small, broken voice.

"I'm oka-y,"

"What's going on?" Mike asks.

"I'm... on a beach,"

"Okay, I may be dense," Lucas quipped, a wary edge in his voice despite his joking tone. "but last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins."

Max turned from her boyfriend and back to her friend with despondency. "What else do you see?"

"A woman,"

She was standing tall just across the sand, smiling against the sailing winds that whipped all around her.

"She's..." Breathtaking is the word El would have used had she known it. This woman, whoever she was, completely mystified her. "Pretty."

A small, saddened smile she couldn't explain crept across her face. Everything about this memory was wistful and sweet and perfect.

"I think..." It held the comfort of home. "I think she's looking at me."

El knew as she stood across from this mysterious woman that they didn't know each other. This wasn't her memory. But everything about it was so much more realistic than last year. And it didn't change the fact El felt a burst of warmth leaking out from her heart as this woman's laugh rang out over the roar of the waves.

Everything about this moment begged for El to soak up every moment like it would be the last. Perhaps it was thanks to Billy's subconscious, or it was simply a product of the atmosphere but she was fairly certain she would remember this for years to come; the sunhat hanging at her side in her left hand, its long and beautiful blue ribbon dancing in the wind. The flowing white sundress she wore came all the way down to her ankles as it whipped at her legs, but the thing El thought was so fascinating about it was the simple flower woven in on the front of her chest and forearms. It was so simple and elegant.

This woman was practically jumping for joy. "Woo!" She cheered. "You did it!" She was too preoccupied with cheering, she didn't seem to care the sand-covered sandals dangling from her fingers were ready to slip from her grasp at any moment.

A small pair of feet padding up the sand behind her alerted El to the young boy passing her by. He carried a large surfboard that wobbled him as he ran but what stood out to her most was the toothy grin splitting his face. This was the one who the woman was truly cheering on. This was the one she was so joyous for.

"I see... a boy,"

The boy chucked the surfboard into the sand, forgotten, and ran up to the woman bursting with glee.

"Did you see that?" He cried.

"Yeah, I saw that!" The woman placed a gentle hand on the boy's wet and blonde locks and pulled him close to place a fierce kiss on his forehead.

"That was at least seven feet," the boy declared in pride.

The boy, El was realizing, looked far too familiar. And it only made sense who it was, given who's memories she was in. Perhaps it was the disorienting shift that threw her off at first. Or maybe it was the fact she had never thought to picture him at a time in his life when he seemed so happy.

The woman did little to hide the concern laced within her laughter. "I don't know what it was, but it almost gave me a heart attack."

"Ten more minutes?" he pleads.

There's something that flashes in her eyes, something El has always been able to recognize. She knew fear well, and this woman was packing it away in the stalled moments it took her to decide. Her confidence had been cut in half. Her happiness siphoned away, but she put on a false smile for the boy anyway. But how many more could she manage?

"Yeah, okay, ten more minutes," the boy beams at her answer and zips back to the abandoned surfboard at El's feet. "But any longer than that and Dad's gonna get mad, okay?"

"Okay!" he chirps.

That fear is clearer than ever in the woman as the familiar boy, back now turned, runs home to the waves. And at this moment, it's just enough to loosen her tongue and confirm El's suspicions.

"Billy? Watch out for rip currents!"

The water lapped at his feet as he clutched the board tight. The grin he wore as he looked back at his mother was earsplitting. "I know," he reassured her.

The boy—this wide-eyed, giggling young boy standing before El...

"It's Billy," she concludes.

Behind her, something shifts in Max. "It's California," she says, almost as if to the others. "It's a memory,"

A young Billy Hargrove. A friendly Billy Hargrove. In the short time, she knew him—or heard of him—none of these possibilities ever occurred to her. That he was ever one of these things in his life. And certainly, never, a Billy Hargrove so carefree and happy.

And there he went, sailing off back against the water in search of his next wave, his mother left to her worries on the sand. It was all that was left of the little perfect bubble.

The far-off rumble of thunder was quick to pop it, pulling El's eye farther down the beach.

"I think I see it," she says finally. "The source,"

The atmosphere throughout the entire cabin immediately shifted. She had accomplished what she had set out to do, just as everyone there believed she could. But as that quiet crept back in and burrowed into the air, making room for the nerve-splitting ring in their ears, they couldn't help but wonder to themselves: would she truly be safe from him?

She wouldn't admit it, even to herself, but it was a question that was now seeding itself in her mind as she disappeared into the scarlet storm gathering in the distance.

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

How did he get here? Seriously, how in the hell did Hopper get here? How had this become his life?

When he accepted the job as Chief of Hawkins, sure he expected to deal with calls like petty theft, maybe even a ticket or two. Once, he even found himself a glorified secretary patching Eleanor Gillespie into animal control when that owl tried to nest in her hair.

But he never, not once, could have seen himself here: holed up in a conspiracy theorists' (an actual buddy of his, now) hideout in Illinois with his high school crush and waiting for the secret government contact of his to call him back so they could inform him of the infiltration of secret Russian soldiers into their town that was now attempting to reopen the gate to another dimension full of monsters that his adopted psychic daughter had fought so hard to close. Phew. A real mouthful, right? Well, that's what the cigarette was for.

Of course he wanted to get moving, but that wasn't currently an option. Did that matter right now? No. Both Joyce and Murray had very different opinions on his plan of action that Hopper would hear plenty about, whether he wanted to or not.

"You compromised me, Jim," said the man, finally beginning to break from his stunned daze. "You do realize that, don't you? I-I'm gonna have to relocate."

"How long do we wait?" Joyce was already standing over his seat on the couch, her patience non-existent.

"As long as it takes," he answers, tucking the lighter back into his shirt pocket.

"How can you just sit there being calm?"

"I am not calm!"

"Our kids are in danger!"

"You said they were at the festival!"

"Which is like...! Ten minutes from the gate!"

That damn, dumbstruck look on Hop's face tells her all she needs to know: he's set in his decision. But so was she.

Joyce throws her arms out in a huff and storms for the phone.

"What are you doing?"

Like hell he was gonna gamble with her boys—with any of those kids.

"Joyce–!" She picks up the phone and angrily swipes at the rotary dial, and Hopper hurls himself out off the couch with gritted teeth. "What are you dOINg?!"

Elsewhere, in an undisclosed location, the red light blinks a second time. The man stationed before the lineup of no-dial telephones—each one marked with a designated (coded) call sign, picks up the phone labeled--

"Philadelphia Public Library"

Joyce easily ignored the look Hopper was giving her as he towered next to her and answered the man on the other line, remembering the call sign Hopper had given.

"Yes, hello," she said stiffly. "Uh, this is ah, Antique Chariot's partner... Wheelbarrow,"

Hopper stalked off several paces in silent disbelief, raking his hands through his hair. Murray, all the while, pouting at the dining room table and zoning out. He didn't really care what else happened at this point.

"I don't think Antique Chariot properly conveyed the urgency of our situation--" Hopper found himself back at Joyce's side, squatting down in anger and shaking his fists.

"--What. Are. You. Doing?!" He whispered.

Joyce covered the phone with her hand and hissed right back. "We can't just sit around and wait for a call!" Her efforts to muffle her words, however, had failed.

"Ma'am, I'm gonna need you to stay calm,"

He soon felt regret for those words. And a little fear. For he had yet to find himself standing in the way of Joyce Byers and her children's safety.

"No. Don't you dare patronize me! I don't who you are, if you're some glorified secretary or what. But if you don't want to lose your job, here's what's gonna happen: When I hang up, you're gonna get up off your ass, and you're gonna go find Owens and tell him what's going on. We don't have time to talk about it and neither does he. He's gotta get to Hawkins, and he's gotta bring his men RIGHT NOW! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Needless to say, he had no desire to make a mistake like that again.

"Y-yes ma'am,"

"Thank you!" She fires back, the hard edge still stuck in her voice. "And-- good day!"

The second the receiver returned to the phone, Hopper was already scolding her.

"It's been exactly one minute Joyce,"

Again, Joyce didn't care. He could pitch a fit all he wanted. But these were their children they were talking about. And not just her boys, not just his daughter. The Wheeler kids, The Sinclairs. And Joyce knew for a fact through her friend Claudia that she would be there with Y/n and Dustin too. Hell, the whole world was at stake if it was true the gate was being opened again. And she wasn't about to let everyone's hard work from previous years go to waste.

So with no remorse, she pushed his large frame out of her way and made her way across the room. "That's one minute too long,"

Hopper and Murray watched in growing defeat as she stirred a sleepy Alexei from sleep. Figures, any trace of anger was gone as she spoke to the man and attempted to sign to him their need to leave.

They were disappearing down the front hall, leaving the two men no choice. Hopper throws his arms up once in defeat before he follows and wonders to himself yet again...

How the hell did he get here?

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Honestly, I don't really feel anything,"

To say Steve felt anything other than the still throbbing of his swollen eye and the many welts across his body was in fact, a bald-faced lie.

Ever since those guards came back with the Colonel—and that so-called doctor with the funny blue medicine—things had been...weird. And a little fuzzy?

It didn't feel like anything at first. Nothing but painful anyway. A giant needle to the neck will do that to you though.

But the guards had long since left and Robin and Steve—both of which were back in their chairs upright, at the very least—sat in a sluggish haze waiting for the inebitable. Inevitable? Whatever it was, they didn't immediately realize it had already kicked in about five minutes prior.

Their limbs felt looser and their entire bloodstream felt like it was vibrating and a~ny previous worries sort of slipped into minor inconveniences.

So... nope. No, Steve didn't exactly feel anything alarming in particular.

"D' you?"

D' you? That was such a... open-ended question, wasn't it?

"I mean, I..." God, why was Robin so... relaxed? "I feel fine. I feel normal,"

"Yeah, I feel– I feel fine,"

Just what happened– What just happened? Like it was his brain going too fast for that–that mouth of his.

Maybe she didn't catch it.

Ahh who cares? That's wasn't the worst problem they had at hand, logically he knew this.

"I f-kinda feel gouud," he said, making an 'o' with his lips.

Pfft. Whoops.

Oh good, Robin was laughing with him. Heh. Yeah, this was pretty funny!

"You wanna know a secret?" She giggled.

Steve giggled with her. "What?"

"I like it too!"

God, why were they so worried? Fuckin– this was hilarious! Being scared before seemed just embarrassing now. Like, why were they so worried? That's what they wanted to know.

"Morons," Steve slurred through more laughter. "They messed up the drug,"

"They messed it up!" They totally did! Robin's stomach was hurting in laughter and everything... ugh, everything like her head felt heavy and kept dropping on Steve's head. But it didn't matter cause those morons-- it messed up. "Morons!"

"Morons!"

"Hey, morons!"

"Morons! MORoNS!"

"WoAH!"

So much giggling. Robin actually can't-- well-- hardly recall a time she giggled this much. For only a second, a sober thought breaks through, but she's still too giggly to care about it.

"There's definitely something wrong with us,"

Heh-heh. "Summnn's wronng,"

Suddenly, the door flew open with quite an obnoxious buzz either of these unwarrantedly intrepid Scoops Ahoy employees could have done without. That grumpy older man—a Colonel was it?—had returned with his men. One of which was now standing off to the side and laying out an assortment of things they couldn't see on one of the shiny metal tables.

But all Robin could think of as she got her first good look at the Colonel when he strolled past her was giving him her best glare. Oh yeah, she was totally giving it to him now, he had to be SO scared and wondering why she wasn't intimidated by his little games and--

How funny this little girl was, the Colonel had half a mind to laugh. Recoiling into the young man's back as he circled back to the boy like she was repelled with magnets. Her gaze trained on him wide and bug-eyed and never blinking. Safe to say the serum had kicked in. But would the young man be smart enough to tell the truth this time?

The look on Steve's face gave away his thought process: the seriousness of the situation was starting to settle back in. And hey, what were those tools for?

Robin battered her wide and reddening eyes, feigning innocence. "Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?"

"Let's try this again," the Colonel all but purred as he stood, palms folded behind his back, before Steve. "Yes?"

His bloodshot eyes loosened so much they were practically going two directions, Steve nodded without thought. He wasn't really listening if he was being completely honest. He was too busy prodding at the inside of his cheek with his tongue to grasp the severity of the situation and-- oh shit. Shit! This was fucking bad, wasn't it? How did he not realize this?... His lip was gonna need stitches! Dammit.

"Who do you work for?"

This was it. The big question. The answer these imbeciles had endured hours of interrogation, torture, and now drugging that would surely haunt them for the rest of their lives—however much of it was left—to protect. Information that could save their entire operation. The Colonel could practically see it in the palm of his hands, he HAD them. He–

"...Scoops," The girl threw her head back with a long wheeze at his answer, which only made him laugh to himself more. "Scoops Ahoy,"

More noiseless, breath-stealing laughter.

The Colonel grit his teeth. "How did you find us?"

"Totally by accident,"

Pfft, morons. Didn't they hear the first time? Shit, this was so funny. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be, but it was. Their stomachs were beginning to hurt from suppressing their laughter and-- hey what was he saying?

The Colonel, who was clearly displeased with their behavior, had said something to the man at the table in Russian. The man nodded and picked up what looked to Robin like a shiny pair of pliers and made his way over to Steve.

"Where are you going with that, doc?" She mumbled hazily.

"What is that shiny little toy?" She heard Steve ask in the same instant. What came next, she couldn't quite make out from where she was sitting but she knew it wasn't good. "Woah, woah, hey, hey. Wait! No! Wait! Wait!"

Okay, sober thoughts returning. Sober thoughts returning!

"There was a code! There was a code, we heard a code!" She found herself screaming.

"Code?" The Colonel tsked as he made his way over to Robin. "What code?"

"'The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west', blah blah blah," she drawled. It actually made her laugh again. "You broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town and we picked it up on our Cerebro and we cracked it in a day. A day!"

The man's eyes tightened steadily into a seething glare as Robin continued.

"You think you're so~ smart but, a couple of kids who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day and now people know you're here--"

"--WHO knows we're here, little bitch?"

Ha! Does he really think they'll just tell him? The drugs weren't that strong! Heh, yeah it probably gave them way~ too much unearned confidence, and that little lab coat Doc had was looking pretty ridiculous but that doesn't mean they were just about to hand over--

"Uh, well, Dustin knows--" Steve hiccups.

Sober thoughts!

"--Hey Steve," she whirled her head to face his in a masked panic.

But Steve was lost in his own little world. Figures this dingus couldn't handle his truth serum.

"Yeah, Dustin Henderson--" "--STEVE-UH!--" "--he knows,"

A poisonous smile curled the Colonel's lips upon hearing this. "Dustin Henderson." Hands still tucked behind his back, the man stalked back to face the latest squealer with a knowing look in his eye. "It is your small, curly-haired friend?"

This time, a wide, loopy smile came to Steve's. "Oh, curly haired. Great hair. Small. Kinda like a 'fro. Yeah,"

Robin was beside herself with panic tied to this moron.

"Where is he?"

Her poor, poor dingus, lost in the sauce, her muddled brain thinks miserably. At least Robin had one hand on the wheel (for now) but Steve was just falling deeper and deeper. Poor poor dingus. And poor poor Dustin.

Steve laughed another dizzy laugh. He did his best to squint through the weird, shapy blur spinning over his eyes and laughing at Mr. Colonel and how he kept shrinking and growing in size like some funhouse mirror.

"Oh, he's long~ gone ya big asshole," Steve giggled. "And he's probably calling Hopper'n Hopper's callin' the U.S. Calvaryy'heh," More slurred laughter. "They're gonna come in here, commando-style, guns 'a blazin', and kick your sorry asses back to Russia, you're gonna be two pieces 'a toast'aheh,"

Okay now THAT was pretty funny, Robin couldn't deny it. She was wheezing again, along with Steve as the two dissolved into mindless, open-mouthed laughter. Hell, even the Colonel found it funny!

"Is that so?" He had asked, lowering himself down to Steve's eye line.

Well, duh. "...Yeah!" The Colonel looked up at the man (pliers still in hand) and the two shared a gleeful laugh of their own. These so-called Scooper Troopers truly thought someone was coming to save them.

Little did the Colonel know just how well his truth serum worked.

A familiar alarm to have landed themselves in hot water in the first place sounded a second time. Every head in the interrogation room whipped to the only door that led out into the hallway where the sirens wailed all throughout the base.

There was an intruder.

Two pairs of wide eyes fell back on a still very inebriated Steve, drunk on truth serum and an overabundance of confidence. He met their eyes with a smug lick of his bloodied lips and a cocky shrug that screamed "what'd I tell ya?" before the Colonel and his guards fled out into the hall to investigate.

The alarms were much louder out here thanks to the shrunken hallways, but that also meant it was harder for someone to hide. As he and his men turned the corner outside their command facility, he was less than pleased to find a gathering of his soldiers cluttering up the hall.

With one command, they scurried out of his way and at attention, fearful of what he was about to discover. He realized the room reeked of smoke and char just seconds before he laid eyes on the culprit. There, in the center of the hall, was a gaping hole in the floor roughly two feet wide that stretched down for miles. The edges simmered and broiled—almost as if the floor had been eaten away by acid.

Steve and Robin on the other hand, who had been left in the care of the Doctor essentially sat twiddling their thumbs, impervious to the chaos unfolding outside the door. But wait... Robin swore she could almost make out a distant voice. Almost like an odd sort of battle cry, if she had to guess, growing louder and louder as it approached—

The door was thrown open and charging in for the rescue, guns 'a blazing, was none other than Dustin Henderson and Erica Sinclair. The cattle prod in Dustin's hand was thrust right into the Doctor's chest before anything could be done, and Dustin, who was just now beginning to realize just what he was doing watched wide-eyed (still screaming) as the man convulsed uncontrollably. In less than a moment, the man collapsed, unmoving, unresponsive on the floor, his arm flipped up over his head.

"H-hey! Henderson!" Steve cheered. His lazy smile quickly fell into a thoughtful frown at the unusually lucky timing. "That's crazy, I was just talking about you,"

Dustin gratefully discarded the cattle prod on the ground in exchange for the task of loosening the binds on Steve's wrists, his heart thundering in his chest.

"Oh, my God!" Robin chuckled, thoroughly impressed. Erica was already making quick on her binds.

Dustin looked up at them each with stern eyes, a feeling somewhere deep in his gut worried getting these two to safety would somehow be the hardest task yet.

"Get ready to run,"

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Lifesong - Ukraine Relief:

"For the last 20 years, has brought holistic, Gospel-centered care to orphaned and vulnerable children and families across Ukraine.

Our team partners with State-run orphanages to reach children with after-school programs, day centers, camps, job skills training, and transition homes. We also support crisis families and encourage local adoption efforts. Beyond this, we develop businesses to create jobs and help the ministry become self-sustaining.

With the current conflict in Ukraine, our team is shifting and expanding its ministry to best meet the needs in and surrounding Ukraine."

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International Rescue Committee:

"Over 5.5 million refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine. The IRC is on the ground in Poland supporting displaced children and families with vital supplies.

Your gift will help us provide food, medical care and emergency support services to families whose lives are shattered by conflict in countries like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Please give what you can today."

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UNICEF - Donate to Ukraine:

"As tensions rise in eastern Ukraine, UNICEF ramps up efforts to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of children and families whose lives and futures hang in the balance. How UNICEF is working to ease extreme hardships brought on by seven years of armed conflict and to meet urgent and escalating needs for safe water, health care, nutrition and protection."

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