I was still paranoid over the Russians. When I got home I paced my room. I was hoping that tomorrow everything would be fine. We were all in the back room of Scoops Ahoy as Dustin was giving us the run down. "That key card opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever's in this room, whatever's in those boxes, they really don't want anybody finding it." He said to us and there had to be another way.

"But there's gotta be a way in." Robin said to us all.

"Like a vent or something." I said to them as Steve blew into his hat.

"Well, you know...I could just take him out." Steve said and I had to stifle my laugh. There was no way he was doing that.

"Take who out?" Robin asked and I looked at him.

"The Russian guard." He said to us and I put a hand on his.

"I'm liking the confidence but it won't happen." I said to him. I was hoping he really wouldn't do that.

"What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It's easy." Steve said and it wasn't that easy. They we're armed.

"Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?" Dustin asked him and Steve looked at him.

"Yes, Dustin, I did. And that's why I would be sneaking." Steve said and I couldn't help but smile a little at that. It wasn't gonna work.

"Ah. Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you ever actually...won a fight?" Dustin asked him and he hadn't. So Steve had no chance with this one.

"Okay, that was one time- -" Steve started and I shook my head.

"More than that." I said to him and looked at Dustin. 

"Twice. Johnathan. Year prior?" Dustin said and that's when Steve looked at him.

"Listen, that doesn't count." Steve said but I didn't. It was still a fight that he lost.

"Why wouldn't it? Because it looks like he beat the ship out of you." Dustin started and I looked at Robin shaking my head. Just like that the boys were bickering again.

"It was..." Steve started to say.

"You got a fat lip, crooked nose, swollen eye, a lot of blood..." Dustin continued and I looked around the room. Tuning them both out.

"Y/n, that just might work." Robin said and I saw what she meant. The vent. We went around the other side and she got some cash from the tips jar.

"Hey, Robin! Y/n! Hey, what- -what are you doing?" Steve asked her and I looked at her as we were leaving.

"I need cash." She said to him simple as that. He didn't need to ask questions.

"Well, half of that's mine. Where are you going?" He asked her and I looked at him with a smile.

"To find a way into that room, a safe way." She said to him and I looked at him. He wasn't impressed by this at all.

"I'll come together just trust me." I said to him and I then looked at Robin again.

"And, in the meantime, sling I've cream, behave, and don't get beat up. We'll be back in a jiff." Robin shouted and we were gone. Off to do the next thing. We went into town to require some tools. Mainly a blueprint. We then made it back to the mall. "It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorder's Office. Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints." Robin said to us.

"And isn't this the best thing ever." I said to them all. Dustin looked at Robin and I with a smile.

"Not bad." He said to us.

"So, this is us, Scoops, and this is where we want to get." Robin said as she pointed it out on the blueprints.

"I mean, I don't really see a way in." Steve said as he looked at them.

"That's what you think." I said to him with a smile as we looked at the map.

"There's not, if you're talking exclusively about doors." Robin said to them as she turned the next page on the prints.

"Air ducts." Dustin said to us and I looked at him with a smile.

"Bingo." I said to him with a smile. I could see that Steve was still working it out.

"Exactly. Turns out, this secret room needs aid just like any old room. And these air ducts lead all the way...here." Robin said as she drew a red trail on the map. We then looked at the vent. Steve took the cover off and passed it down.

"Flashlight." He said as the screwdriver was in his mouth. Dustin then passed him the light. "Thank you." He said as he looked in. "Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know if you can fit in here. It's, like...super tight." Steve said and I looked at it.

"I definitely won't." I said to him.

"I'll fit. Trust me. No collar bones, remember?" Dustin said as Steve came down the ladder. Passing the flashlight to Dustin.

"Uh, excuse me?" Robin asked and I looked at Steve. He needed to do his dad-splaining.

"Oh, he's, uh...Yeah, he's got some disease. Chry...uh, it's chrydo, um...something. Yeah I don't know. He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo." Steve said and he sounded just like a dad with all that.

"You mean Gumby." Robin said correcting him.

"I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo." Steve said and I looked at him.

"Gumbo is food." I said to him while shaking my head.

"Steve, just shut up and push me!" Dustin shouted down to him.

"Okay." Steve said to him. "I'll push ya." He said before he started pushing Dustin's feet.

"Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass." Dustin said to him and I was close to laughing.

"What?" Steve asked him. I bet he never thought he'd have to do that.

"Touch my butt! I don't care! Come on! Harder! Push harder!" Dustin shouted and now I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm pushing!" Steve shouted at him and I just laughed harder.

"You're playing with my legs." Dustin said to him.

"I'm not playing, I have terrible footing." Steve said to him and I saw Robin shake her head.

"Come on!" Dustin shouted at him.

"I'm gonna just shove you, ready?" Steve asked him and this was just comical. And I was loving it.

"Just shove me?" Dustin asked him confusedly.

"One, two..." Steve continued down before shoving Dustin. This wasn't working at all.

"Shit." Dustin got out.

"That work?" Steve asked him and I heard the door go.

"One more time." Dustin said to him and I saw Erica at the counter. I then looked at Robin.

"Ahoy, sailors! All hands on deck! Ahoy! Come on. Get over here and serve me some samples." She said. Robin and I then looked at each other. She'd fit. We brought her behind and she looked around at the gap. "Yeah, I don't know." She said to us all as she got off the ladder.

"You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin asked her and she leaned on the table.

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." Erica said and she was definitely going to be a pain to get onboard.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked her, that's the only thing I'd understand.

"I don't have phobias." Erica said and why didn't she want to do it. She'd be ok.

"Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve asked her and I wanted to know.

"The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." She said and this would take a lot. Free ice cream and a lot of it. We all sat in a booth waiting to know her answer. She pushed the float back that she had.

"More fudge, please." She said to Steve. "Go on." She said and waved him away.

"All right. You see this? This is the route you're gonna take. Then we just wait until the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door." Robin said to her showing the blueprints. Hopefully she'd agree now.

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?" She asked us and that was the plan indeed.

"Exactly." Robin said and Erica hummed in response.

"And you say this guard is armed." Erica said to us and he was but she'd be ok. Didn't need to worry at all.

"Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin said to her and I looked at her with a smile.

"You'll be ok, you don't need to worry." I said to her with a nod.

"And booby traps?" She asked and I shook my head.

"Booby traps?" Robin and I asked her.

"Lasers, spikes in the wall?" She asked and this was just getting ridiculous now.

"What?" Robin asked her with a smile.

"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment." She said to us and maybe it did but she'd still get something out of it.

"We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time- -" Robin said to her before she was stopped by Erica.

"Ah, ah, ah! Child endangerment." Erica said to her and that wasn't technically a lie. But she'd be okay.

"Erica? Hi. Uh...we think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin said to her and we should hopefully be able to turn this around now.

"You can't spell 'America' without 'Erica.'" Erica said before she slurped her drink and she was right about that.

"You would be right." I said to her with a smile and a nod.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's, uh, totally true. So, so don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America...Erica." Dustin said to her giving her a speech.

"Ooh! I just got the chills. Ohm yeah, from this float, not your speech. Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?" She asked us and of course we knew what that was.

"Yeah." The three of us said to her.

"It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life." She said to us as she ate her cherry.

"Where is Steve?" I asked before I stood up and went to find Steve.

"How's the negotiation going?" He asked me and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"She's only doing for free ice cream." I said to him and he shook his head.

"Are you serious?" He asked me and I nodded at him.

"She's doing it for capitalism." I said to him as I picked the float up and took it back to the table. When everything had been closed up. The five of us remained. We'd given Erica a radio and sent her on her way.

"Erica, do you copy?" Robin asked her and hopefully she was ok.

"Mm-hmm. I copy. You nerds in position or what?" She asked us and we were. Outside and ready to go.

"Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you're got the green light." Robin said to her and I was hoping that all of us would be ok.

"Green light, Roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment." Erica said and I shook my head at that. She had a sense of humor.

"Can we maybe not call it that?" Robin asked her and I quite liked the name.

"See you on the other side. Nerds." Erica said and that was it. Radio silence for the time being. "All right, nerds. I'm there." Erica said to us after a while and I was glad that she was ok.

"Do you- -Do you see anything?" Robin asked her and hopefully she could. Some kind of answer.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." Erica said to us and that's all I wanted to know. They were still there.

"Any guards?" Robin asked and hopefully there wasn't.

"Negative." Erica said to us.

"Booby traps?" She asked her.

"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" Erica said making me smile. She had another point there.

"Th am you for that." Robin said and it went silent again. Hopefully she would get us in.

"I'm in." She said to us and I smiled.

"Oh, God." Steve said and that's when the doors opened. Out walked Erica.

"Free ice cream for life." Erica said and I smiled. We then entered into the room. Opening the boxes. Steve opened one and there was a box inside. He unscrews the lid and the air hissed as it came out of it. There were four more chambers in there.

"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve said and he looked at the four of us. "Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back." He said to us all and most of us got back. Apart from Dustin.

"No." He said to Steve, I knew that was coming.

"Just...just step back, Okay?" Steve asked him as he put his arm out to push Dustin back.

"No." Dustin said to him. And that duo was back again.

"Step back. Seriously." Steve said but we all knew that he wouldn't.

"No! No! If you die, I die." Dustin said it went silent quickly. I wanted to know what Steve was thinking.

"Okay." Steve said and he started taking one out. That's when we saw a green substances in a tube.

"What the hell?" Dustin asked. I didn't even know what that was.

"What is that?" Robin asked.

"I don't even want to know." I said and that's when there was a rumble. It couldn't be an earthquake.

"Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin asked us all and I wasn't liking this at all.

"Booby traps." Erica said and there was then a mechanical noise.

"You know what? Let's just grab that and go." Robin said to us and Dustin started to push the button.

"Which one do I press, Erica?" Dustin asked her and surely it should be pretty standard as to an open door button. But clearly not.

"Just press the damn button, nerd." Erica said to him and she would just say already. I didn't want to be trapped in a metal box.

"Which one? I'm pressing the button, okay?" Dustin asked her and it couldn't be that hard.

"Press 'open door'." Erica said to him and that was the most obvious.

"I'm pressing 'open door'." Dustin said and that's when Steve went over to the panel.

"Just open the- - Press the other button." Steve said and I looked at the mess this was turning out to be.

"Guys, let Erica do it." I said to them. She was the only one I believed in.

"Out of the way so she can push the button- -" Robin said but nothing. We both looked at each other. We were never getting out of here.

"Would you stop?" Steve asked Dustin.

"I'm trying to." Dustin said to him and I just put my hand to my head.

"Would you let me just do it? Would you stop?" Steve said to him and I hated this. In this very moment I wished that I was never involved in the plan.

"Just open the door!" Robin shouted and that's when we all heard a clang. The doors slammed shut and soon we started going down fast. We screamed the whole way day.

"Oh, shit!" Steve said as we went down. Robin and I held onto each other and I put another hand on Erica. I had to make sure she was ok as well. All I was hoping for was that this wasn't be how we'd all go out. In a elevator of all things.