SOFIA walked into Scoops and went straight to the back and found the four people she was looking for.

"Great, now that Sofia's here. I can tell you all what my brother and I have noticed." Dustin continued. "So there's this keycard and that keycard opens the door, but unfortunately the Russian with this keycard also have a massive gun. So, whatever's in this room, whatever's in those boxes."

"They must not want anyone to find them. They must be dangerous." Sofia concluded Dustin's observation.

"Totally dangerous, like a weapon of some kind that only they know how to use maybe or something worse." Ryan added his thoughts.

"There has got to be a way in." Robin said her thought aloud.

"Well you know..." Steve blew in his hat. "I could just take him out."

Sofia scoffed at his sentence. "Yeah, as if you could knock him out Steven." She made fun of him with her Russian accent.

"I could so knock him out." Steve argued.

"Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you actually won a fight?" Dustin questioned Steve.

"He hasn't no, but me, yes." Ryan smiled.

"And it was a good fight too as a matter of fact, I actually won tons of fights if you know what I mean." Sofia looked at Ryan, who was already staring at her.

"Sofia cmon, we all know what you mean." Steve sighed.

"Well actually I don't." Robin piped in.

"It's actually better and safer if you don't know band buddy." Ryan told Robin.

"I'm also in the band, did you forget Ryan?" Sofia asked him.

"Yes, yes I did." Ryan told the truth.

"Wow," Sofia put a hand over her heart.

Sofia tuned out of the conversation and was watching the boys in amusement till Robin tugged on her shoulder and pointed at the vent and the two girls ran out of Scoops, Robin taking some of the tips and ignored their calls.

The two were on Robin's bike as Sofia began to watch the scene around her.

People walked on the sidewalks, some were in cars. Birds were up in trees, being friendly with one another.

It was perfect, too perfect.

Suddenly Sofia groaned and almost fell off the bike.

Memories came flooding in. She saw Billy, Billy Hargrove and he knew her, the real her.

"You shouldn't have done that Sofia, you know you shouldn't have." Billy grabbed Sofia's arm and held a tight grip.

"Let me go." Sofia warned.

"You hurt me, I get to hurt you now." Billy's veins turned black, he still kept a firm grip. "Remember me?" Billy let go and watched her fall, a smile lacing his face.

Sofia screamed as she fell, when she hit the floor. She wasn't in Hawkins anymore, she was in the upside down.

But she wasn't alone. She turned around and was face to face with the mind flayer but it wasn't in its shadow form like last time. It was different, very different.

"We are going to end everyone you love, starting with you." The mind flayer whispered.

"No, this isn't real." Sofia told herself.

"It is very much real." Billy was infront of her again. "It won't be much."

"Get away!" Sofia pushed him away with her mind.

Sofia gasped as she wiped the blood off her nose.

"Sofia, you alright?" Robin asked.

They got off the bike.

"Uh yeah, yeah." Sofia lied.

《~♡~》

Sofia and Robin came back into Scoops Ahoy's with maps of Starcourt Mall and its air ducts.

"It's fascinating what twenty bucks can get you at the county recorders office." Robin laid the map on the table.

"Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints, like it has every single room including the one we're in." Sofia added.

"Not bad." Dustin complimented the two girls on their smartness.

"So, this is us, Scoops, and this is where we want to get." Robin explained by pointing the stuff out on the blueprints.

"I mean, I don't really see a way in." Steve looked at the blueprints.

"Well obviously there isn't Steven, if we were to go through the doors." Sofia pulled the blueprints off the table to reveal the air ducts blueprints of Starcourt Mall.

"Air ducts." Dustin finally got a hold of what the two girls were saying.

"Exactly." Robin went to get a marker and began to draw on the blueprints. "Turns out, this room needs air just like any old room." Robin went to explain.

"And these air ducts lead all the way." Robin began to mark the way. "Here."

Couple of minutes later, Steve was trying to push Dustin into the air ducts, while at the same time Erica Sinclair began to ring the bell and that's when it hit Robin, they needed someone smaller.

...

The four kids were now trying to convince Erica to do their little mission while Steve went to put more fudge on Erica's ice cream.

"And you say this guy is armed." Erica said.

"Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin reassured.

"Cause he'll be knocked out."

"Out cold, Russian guard zero, us one." Sofia added.

"And booby traps?" Erica asked them.

"Booby traps?" Robin asked in confusion.

"Lasers, Spikes in the walls?" Erica explained.

"What?" Robin laughed lightly at the young girl's response.

"You know what your half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica asked the three kids. "Child Endangerment."

"We'll be in radio contact with you at all times-"

"Ah, ah, ah, Child Endangerment." Erica cut the Buckley girl off.

"Erica? Hi. uh, we think these russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm.. Don't you love our country?" Dustin asked the young Sinclair.

"You can't spell America without Erica." Erica smirked as she started to drink her float.

Sofia looked at the girl before smirking lightly. "I like the way you think young Sinclair."

...

Erica was currently climbing the vent, while the rest of them were outside waiting for her to come through the doors.

"Commence Operation Child Endangerment." Erica said.

"Can we maybe not call it that?" Robin suggested.

Sofia shrugged. "I don't know about you guys but I like the name."

"You're crazy Sofia, it's a bad name and you know it." Dustin looked at Sofia for a second and went back to looking through the binoculars.

Sofia grabbed a granola bar and started to eat, Dustin looked at her in annoyance.

"Where did you get that?" Dustin questioned.

"I got it from your house, your mom's nice Dustin." Sofia answered.

Dustin looked at her in disbelief. "You went to my house, how did I not see you?"

"You were sleeping." Alex stated. "But these are pretty good." Alex pointed to the granola bar.

"Ryan, did you know about this?"

"What, no I literally had no idea." Ryan

"Ryan, tell your dear old brother the truth."

"Fine, I did know about it but I wasn't there!" Ryan exclaimed. "I was doing something."

"More like doing Evelyn." Steve joked.

Ryan's face blushed a dark red, Dustin laughed lightly at his brother's face.

"But these are so good." Sofia commented.

"I know they are, give me one." Dustin said.

Sofia. grabbed one out of her pocket and gave one to Dustin.

"Wait Sof, Can I have one too?" Steve asked.

"Sure I guess." Sofia tossed him one.

"You want one Robin?" Sofia asked holding a granola bar in her hand.

Robin shook her head. "Nah, those taste gross."

The Hendersons and Sofia looked at Robin in disbelief while Steve was in his own thoughts.

"I'm kidding calm down." Robin had her hand out and caught the granola bar.

...

Steve was cutting the box open, Steve turned the latch, it opened and the group looked inside. "That definitely not Chinese food." Steve said.

Sofia nodded slowly in confusion to what those things in the boxes were.

"Uh, maybe you should, you know, stand back." Steve suggested.

Sofia, Ryan, Erica, and Robin stood away from Steve as Dustin stayed in his spot.

This led to Dustin and Steve bickering but it ended when Dustin said, "If you die, I die."

Moments later, "Press the buttons Dustin." Sofia said with anger starting to become evident.

Steve approached Dustin and began to press the buttons with him.

"Oh shit." Steve said as he noticed that they were going down.

Mira Speaks

I'm back and better than ever fr also we'll get more info on Nataliya in the upcoming chapters so that's exciting, now I gotta work on biology, I got a test tomorrow :((