▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʀᴜssɪᴀɴs ꒱


❝ CONDITIONED TO RESPOND
TO ALL THE THREATS ❞

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

"Negative five bottles of beer not on the wall, negative five bottles of beer! Don't take one down or pass it around, negative six bottles of—"

"Can you stop? It doesn't even make sense anymore!" Erica complained hotly as they made their way down the long hallway.

Jessie huffed. "Well I don't see you coming up with any bright entertainment ideas!"

The point was, they'd been walking for what felt like forever. Every time it seemed like there was no more tunnel, it continued beyond the horizon. Dustin was the only one still mildly interested in their hospital-like setting. "You have to admit as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."

Steve gave him an incredulous look. "What are you talking about?" He gestured to the hallway. "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, it's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

Erica shrugged. "They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin put in. "They developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," the curly-haired boy agreed.

"And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."

"You think they built this whole mall so they can transport that green poison?" Steve asked.

"Yes," Jessie answered immediately, "but it's probably more than just poison."

"Yeah," Dustin added. "It's like promethium or something."

"What the hell is promethium?"

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin explained.

Erica put her hands on her stomach. "You're all so nerdy it makes me physically ill."

The older boy became defensive. "No, no, no. Don't lump me in with them! I'm not a nerd, alright?"

Robin raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old?"

"No!" he denied quickly (a little too quickly in Jessie's opinion.) "I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."

"Promethium," Dustin corrected him. "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."

"Or power something," Robin offered.

"Like a nuclear weapon."

"Totally."

Steve sighed. "Walking towards a nuclear weapon. Great. That'd be great."

"But if they're building something, why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously, of all places. At the very best we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland. . ."

Her words faded into the background as Jessie thought about Will's visit from only days before:

"Wow," he slumped back against the chair. "What would Russians want to do with Hawkins?"

Jessie's tone took on a very sarcastic note. "Hmmm. Let's think. What super-secret evil lab experimented with children to give them superpowers? They can't possibly be interested in the Gate that we closed last year!"

Behind her, Steve and Dustin paused to have their own realization. A sense of deep foreboding— followed by a thrill of excitement that something was finally happening— filled her. What if what they were building was something to open the Gate?

Robin noticed that the three were lagging behind and turned to face them. "I'm sorry, is there something you three would like to share with the class?"

Before they could answer her, the walkie talkie buzzed to life. They rushed to open Erica's backpack and the older girl pulled it out. After opening the antenna, she listened to the message carefully. "It's the code."

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from—"

"—it's close. And if there's one thing we know about that signal. . ."

"It can reach the surface," Dustin finished.

"Let's go."

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Finally, they came upon the central hub of the underground base. It bustled with activity but it was almost strange seeing so many people when it had just been them for so long. They quickly crouched behind a collection of storage items.

"Okay, it's clear. Let's go," Steve said after a moment.

"That was close."

"Too close," Dustin agreed.

"Relax. Alright? Relax. Nobody saw." They began to move again in an effort to get to their destination but more soldiers walked around the corner. Steve ducked again. "Shit!"

"I saw it!" Erica exclaimed. "First floor, northwest."

"Saw what?"

"The comms room!"

"You saw the comms room?"

"Correct."

"Are you sure?" the curly-haired boy asked.

"Positive. The door was open for a second and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there."

"That could be a hundred different things."

"I'll take those odds," Robin said softly.

Steve shook his head and sighed, but they peered out from their hiding spot regardless. He paused a moment before he spoke: "alright. We're gonna move fast and we're gonna stay low, okay?"

He held up a hand for a second until the coast was clear. Then, they quietly ran across the open space to the comms room. 

"Go!" the older boy whispered as he opened the door to usher the group in. Too focused on meticulously closing the door, he didn't notice that they had company.

Robin began to speak the code in Russian: "tread lightly." The soldier paused so she repeated the words. "Tread lightly."

"Who are you?" the soldier responded.

"Silver cat. Silver cat."

"I don't understand."

As the girl tried one more time, the soldier became tired of her efforts and began to reach for his gun. Before he could get very far, Steve let out what could be called a war cry as he launched himself at the man. He tackled him into the console and they watched as the teen began to wrestle with him. For once, it seemed like luck was on the boy's side and he wasn't as easily defeated as he'd been in the past.

Finally, he grabbed the soldier's radio from the console and spun around before he whacked the man on the head. He crumpled instantly and (unfortunately for him) hit his head once more before he landed on the ground. Steve stood above him, breathing heavily.

"Dude, you did it!" Dustin exclaimed as he beamed at the older boy. "You won a fight!"

Steve smiled rather modestly as the curly-haired boy went to take the key card from the soldier. Erica watched him disbelievingly. "What are you doing?"

"Getting us our ticket out of here."

"You want to walk all the way back?"

"Well, we can hang out for a bit, relax. Have a picnic maybe."

"Have a picnic?" Erica demanded. "We came here for the radio."

"Well this plan is way better," the boy argued. "If I knew Steve could knock out a Russian that would have been our plan in the first place."

Robin caught their attention from the stairs and turned to them with a serious expression on her face. "Guys, there's something up there."

Jessie followed the others up to the door which opened with surprising ease. The next room had another entrance, this time with larger glass panels that they could all see through. Two scientists sat at a desk that overlooked the viewing area which showed the source of the pulsing blue light. A cylinder— hundreds of times larger than the ones holding the green substance— fired a laser into what appeared to be a solid wall but it was really. . . the Gate. 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

What followed next was quite possibly the least-fun game of chase Jessie had ever been a part of. As they raced up and down flights of stairs, her heartbeat increased rapidly and her breath quickly shallowed in her chest which seemed to grow tighter the longer they ran. Soon she was gasping for air and it looked like the Russians weren't giving up anytime soon.

By a stroke of luck, they ran into a back room that was connected to the vent system. As Steve encouraged the younger members of the group to escape, he and Robin leaned against the door to keep their pursuers out. Jessie wasted no time in following his direction and dropped down next to Erica. Dustin joined them shortly and the gate clanged shut, but they didn't stop there. Instead, she forced herself to follow the pair despite feeling like her lungs would give out any minute.

While they ran to safety, Erica and Dustin had enough breath left to spare and began arguing about the best way to save their friends. She tuned them out in favor of focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. They finally stopped in front of a large fan that blocked them from continuing further.

Jessie collapsed next to them and breathed heavily, causing the younger girl to give her a wary look. "Dora the Explorer over there isn't gonna pass out on us, is she?"

"What?" Dustin asked distractedly before he glanced over at her. "Oh, no. She's always had a problem with running." Since he was used to her reaction, he carried on: "so, when we set fire to the hub, we drew the Demodogs away so El could close the Gate. But now, for some insane reason, the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it which just destroys everything we risked our lives for."

"By we, you're including Lucas?"

"Yes, of course."

"So, all that shit you told me Lucas was there?"

"Yeah."

"My brother, Lucas Charles Sinclair?" Erica repeated as she struggled to believe her brother's involvement.

"Yes!"

"I don't believe you."

Jessie ignored the rest of their discussion as she focused on getting her breathing back under control. The black spots that had threatened her vision moments earlier no were no longer there and she wasn't gasping as much, which was a good sign. As her normal ten-minute recovery period drew nearer, Dustin reached forward and pulled the cover off a panel to rip out the pile of wires that powered the fan.

The blades ground to a halt and he gestured forward. "Let's go. . . nerd." He glanced over at the brunette. "Ready?"

"Just about," she replied as she stood and turned her attention to Erica, "and just so you know, Dora the Explorer is Latina, not Filipino."

[edited jul. 2022]