THE SUPER SPECIAL
ROBIN BUCKLEY !

☀︎

AS THE TWO GIRLS HAD RAN AS LONG AS THEY COULD, THEY STILL HAD NOT COME TO THE END OF THE HALLWAY. Things were beginning to look bleak as the two had panted breaths, slowing into a walk to catch their breaths and wait for the other three. Exhausted from their journey, Alex had carelessly sat herself down, leaning back up against the wall.

Placing her head in her hands, she had shut her eyes lightly, unsure if the soft voices that came and went in her mind had been there or if the pure exhaustion had her mind playing tricks on her. Sniffling her nose, she had lifted her head, letting it rest against the wall behind her as her brain had battled itself for control. When she had opened her eyes, she saw Robin sitting against the wall across from her, just as tired and out of breath. "I guess we're waiting," Alex said quietly. Shaking her head at Robin, Alex had realized her complete disbelief in her newest friend. "I can't believe you actually trusted us, look where that got you."

"You all trapped me in some sort of hell," Robin laughed.

Alex had returned the smile, but she would have taken another day in this underground Russian base than to what she knew was a real hell. Sometimes she could still smell the toxic air that filled the Upside Down, and it never did help that the feeling of the monsters inside still managed to create a chill down her spine. But that was behind her and she needed to press forward. "Yeah, well, now that sort of means you're trapped with all of us forever. We're kinda terrible at letting people get away from us."

Robin had smiled down to herself, picking at her nails as a means of distraction. She may have been out there and wasn't always afraid to say what was on her mind, but this was the first time she really felt she belonged in a group. What was hard was that she didn't know how to admit she felt the same without some sarcastic remark to follow.

"I'd be much happier not knowing there are evil Russians beneath our feet and slinging ice cream with your schmuck boyfriend," she said as she let her hands fall back into her lap. "I can't believe I could die here with Alex Henderson and Steve Harrington, who would have guessed?"

"Well, its been an honor knowing you. It was fun while it lasted," Alex said with a light hearted laugh. "But it is sort of trippy, huh? Turns out it would've been better for you if we weren't friends."

Robin couldn't begin to imagine how much better it could have been. Sure, she would be safetly above ground, clueless to the dangers that took place within Hawkins, but the people she thought she would never be friends with just before the summer started were now people she didn't want to imagine a life without. Sliding herself across the floor, she had sat beside Alex now, keeping her eyes down at her feet. "I'd still take whatever trippy shit you two got. It's been sort of fun, even if we might die in a secret Russian base. But there is one thing I still can't wrap my head around."

Confused, Alex had turned over to her in question. There were plenty of things within Hawkins that weren't so easy to understand afterall, and to single it down to one thing... How Robin understood anything about what they've been through and accept it was a miracle of its own. "And what exactly would that be? I mean, we got some possession by a monster from an alternate dimension, Dustin's an uncle to his pet... There's a lot that's happened that no sane person could understand."

"Somehow I understand all of that," Robin said in a laugh. Even she could not believe that it just seemed so natural now to understand the events that had happened to the group. "How did..." Her voice began to linger off in embarrassment before a nervous bubble of laughter had escaped her lips. "How are you dating Steve 'The Hair' Harrington? I-I mean, I heard the whole story, but... the King Steve everyone talks about, this isn't who that is. Not to mention you're nothing like what people say."

"Maybe because we aren't actually those people," Alex shrugged. "I don't know. I always knew that Steve's whole popularity contest he was apart of was all for show. And I guess he knew I wasn't the total loser everyone else thought I was. Plus it did sort of help to have life threatening events bring us even closer together."

"You're just not every other girl he surrounded himself with so, yeah, I'll admit it was weird when you guys came back to school a couple of days after Halloween together. I guess I mean you weren't some lame wannabe, prepped out cheerleader. Nothing like the girls he dated before."

"Nancy's not all that bad."

"Oh please. Can you get through a conversation without hearing me, me, me, me, me? Trust me, I saw it plenty in the halls when you'd be with her. You and Barb would be talking physics and Nancy would stroll up blabbing on about how Mr. Cool, slipped a note in her locker. God, then her friend disappeared and still she made it all about her. I mean, what a priss! You, yes you, Henderson, are cool."

There was an undying love that Alex had for Nancy Wheeler, but she could not deny there was always going to be faults in people she loved. In the end, Nancy was no longer that kind of girl that would spend an entire Saturday picking out a top for a boy. She had found her love and surrounded herself with people that she cared endlessly for. But it still put a guilty smile on Alex's face to see she wasn't being brought down for how perfect Nancy was and she just... wasn't. Instead she felt what it was like to not be put second to her. "Have I told you how much I love you, Buckley? My love might start to be obsessive and unhealthy. I'll be the monster in your head."

"I'll accept only because I might actually feel the same," she chuckled, linking her arm with Alex's. "Just tell me, does Harrington know you also sucked face with Billy Hargrove on Halloween or are we waiting for another dingus to slip up and tell him?"

Looking to her in shock, Alex's mouth fell open, "How the hell do you even know about that? I don't even know how to unleash that kind of information on him. He might just combust on the spot."

"It would be pretty hilarious though. I'm just happy you wised up and picked Harrington afterall. Billy's a grade-A asshole. He might get Tommy H. to back the hell off of you, but your dingus is taking on monsters that shouldn't exist for you. I mean, there's no competition."

"He is my dingus," Alex agreed with a smile to herself. When that smile had begun to fade, she had gave a small nudge to Robin, "And what about you? What do I have to do to give you your very own dingus? There's gotta be someone that would be lucky enough to fall for the super special Robin Buckley. Someone that could put my Steve Harrington to shame."

A sad smile appeared on Robins face as she looked back to Alex. She was desperate to tell the truth and allow someone to know the real Robin Buckley. And Alex had been endlessly open with her that she felt that she should return the same. But to Robin, everything that Alex had told her had made sense and sparked a sense of adventure. She wasn't sure if what she could tell Alex would have her understand. There was a chance she could push her away just by a single persons name-- or she could lie and possibly spare a friendship.

This is Alex Henderson, she thought to herself, if there was anyone that could understand even the most bizarre of things and roll with it, she was almost positive she could tell her she was from Mars and Alex would offer to build a rocketship just so she could find out more about the homeplanet she arrived from. Things were supposed to be easy with her-- at least she wanted them to be.

Biting her tongue, she let that hesitation hold her back from being her true self. The true Robin Buckley that everyone should see and love all the same. When she had seen the patient, yet giddy smile on Alex's face, she had released her tongue and let her cheeks turn a soft pink as she let the truth roll off her tongue so naturally. "Tammy Thompson."

There was a brief moment of silence as Alex had leaned back in surprise, "Are you shitting me? Tammy?" Scoffing, Alex had pulled herself back to Robin as she shook her head in disbelief. "This is unreal. Tammy, seriously? I would not have pegged you as wanting Tammy Thompson. I could see you a whole of a hell lot better with Tracey Reed. She's more you're style. Sure, Tammy is pretty, but no, I know Tracey would treat you right." Sighing, Alex gave a small frown of defeat. "But, whatever, if you like Tammy, I'll have to like her too. You put up with Steve so I'll return the favor."

Unable to comprehend the support and love that Alex had given, Robin couldn't hold back as a laugh had escaped her lips. Every bit of tension she had felt awaiting her response was washed away to see how open Alex had been to something that was different around Hawkins. Being open with her sexuality was different, but it was refreshing. Like a new start to her life where she got to be herself. And even so, she still could not understand how Alex could be shocked but not by coming out to her, but by the person she liked. Tammy Thomspon was her biggest issue, not in the slightest did she seem to care that Robin was lesbian. "You're really cool with it?"

Scoffing, Alex still was not letting go her own opinion on the matter. "Like I said, Tammy... she's whatever. I'll deal with a double date once you snag her. But yeah, who am I to judge? Like whoever the hell you want, doesn't change how I feel about you. I love you for you, not for who you wanna date."

"She liked your douchebag boyfriend, you know," Robin said in a small voice. Her heart ached as she recalled those days in Hawkins High, watching as Steve Harrington was completely clueless to the attention she had always wanted from Tammy Thompson.

Alex had pulled her arm in towards her, forcing Robin to have no choice but to lean into her. "She's blind," she whispered. "How could she not notice you when you're so you? You're practically perfect— your judgement is off since you trust us dinguses, but besides that, perfect."

"She likes morons that ask dumb questions in Click's class and get their stupid bagel crumbs everywhere."

"His stupid bagels with the stupid eggs and bacon," Alex said under her breath with a shake of her head. "I don't understand how he wanted to eat that every day, what a nerd."

"Trust me, I know," Robin chuckled. Feeling that sense of warmth, she had laid her head against Alex's arm with a soft sigh. "Just so you know, your dingus boyfriend didn't even notice her because he was too busy looking at you. So technically, you're the dingus who didn't notice someone special was looking at you."

"We're all a bunch of dinguses," Alex sighed, but her heart had soared at the thought of Steve Harrington only wanting to look at her. Even if she had him now, it was all the more reason to never let him go.

Before she could rest her head against Robin's, the footsteps of the three had approached and were not all smiles. Unamused to be ditched and to find the two resting while he had babysat, Steve came to a stop, hands on his hips. "What the hell?"

Letting one another out of their arms, Robin and Alex had gotten to their feet to continue on the path ahead, this time with the others. "It was your turn to babysit, dingus," Robin quipped, giving a small punch to his shoulder as she fell in line, walking right beside him. "Have fun?"

"No, no, I didn't," he shot back. "I've been walking this damn tunnel with these two morons after you two ditched me. It feels like we've gotten no where."

"I mean, you have to admit as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive," Dustin said as he kept his eyes forward. Only he could see the positive of such a journey when everyone else had wanted out of the tunnel without any thought.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. "This is a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

"They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners," Erica said. For a ten year old girl, she did love speaking her mind, and still Steve had seen that as mindblowing and slightly confusing. When he was ten, he was pretty certain he just wanted to hang out with friends and play baseball and not think twice about any commies. Erica just wasn't anything like him and he let that known as he looked down at her in confusion.

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin began but Alex was quick to jump in.

"Hell yeah," Alex jumped in. "They designed it to torture us. I mean, look at us. We're out of shape and..."

Holding up a finger, Steve had interrupted to make his point pretty clear-- he was very much in shape. "No, not we. I am..."

"Yeah, Steve, we know! You're not out of shape! You don't eat ice cream like the rest of us because you're a freak of nature! Sorry we eat mountains of delicious food and watch tv while you eat grass and run in circles!" Dustin yelled, the exhaustion getting the best of him.

"Dustin," Alex sighed. Wrapping an arm around his shoulders, she pulled him into her against his will while they continued their walk. "Do you need a ride on my back? You get cranky when you're tired."

"I'm fine," he mumbled, shaking her off. "And this isn't meant to torture us. Clearly they had intended on designing this structure for themselves, not for us to come walking in."

"Exactly. Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting cargo," Robin joined in. Though she did not ever plan on walking through a Russian base as part of her summer plans, she did however, have to agree with Dustin on how impressive this all had been. No one was the wiser of what sort of system they were running right beneath the feet of the people of Hawkins.

"It all comes in the mall like any old delivery," Dustin stated.

"Then its all loaded on those trucks and no one suspects a thing. I hate to say it, but it's pure genius. Minus the fact that we figured it all out incredibly fast," Alex agreed. Though she had said we, she had to give props to the three that even managed to get them this far. Without the brains of both Dustin and Robin, they never would have found themselves further than an untranslated code, and without Erica, they would have never discovered nearly as much as they had to this point.

There still was something that had been bothering Steve about the whole thing. An entire mall built for entertainment and a distraction. That was a lot of money and a lot of people needed to get it up and running. "You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" he asked the group.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something..." Dustin said. He couldn't exactly place his finger exactly on what that substance could have been, but given it had burned through the floor, he was certain that it was much worse than poison.

"What the hell is promethium?"

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin mumbled, bored with Steve's lack of knowledge the other four clearly had. He may have not been the brains of the operation, but she did sort of hope he could at least follow along with the rest.

Despite following along exactly to what the others were talking about, Erica grew disgusted, "You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill."

"No, no, no," Steve jumped in quickly. All of high school he had been branded as the King of Hawkins High. To finally be out of that popularity game, he still did not want to stoop as low as a nerd-- even if it was a ten year old girl who didn't even care about him to brand him as such. "No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?"

"Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten year old?" Robin teased.

"No, he lost those cool points from everyone a long time ago when he decided to fool around with Ms. Freaky-Deaky over there," Erica said, jabbing her thumb in the direction of Alex, "Then even more when he started hanging out with toothless."

Holding out a hand, Steve had put the conversation to a stop before it could get out of hand. Once Erica had started handing out nicknames to those around her, it was often very hard to calm her down on sharing her very vicious opinions. "Look, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus," Steve continued.

"Promethium," Alex corrected, "Prometheus is a Titan in Greek mythology... He stole fire from Zeus and the gods to give to mortals?" When all eyes stared at her in wonder she just continued on, "He was punished by being bound to a rock... got his liver eaten everyday... because it always grew back everyday? I mean... come on. Interesting shit." When everyone let out a collective sigh, Alex grew embarrassed and agitated, "I'm not a nerd, okay?"

"Whatever," Dustin began, "I'm just saying that it's probably being used to make something."

"Or power something," Robin suggested.

"Like a nuclear weapon?"

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon? That's great. Or instead we can sit here, talk more about that guy that gets his liver eaten and wait to die? Th-that'd be great." Steve had let his hands hit down to his side in annoyance, not seeing how they could keep on moving forward if they had known it would only lead to their death. In fact, he would rather be bored to death by useless knowledge than head towards any sort of weapon that could put them out of their misery.

Ignoring Steve, Alex re-entered the conversation. "But why would they ever want to build something here in Hawkins?" She had questioned herself out loud, springing Robin into sharing her own thoughts on how Hawkins was a town of nothing exciting. However, the three of Dustin, Steve and Alex had had turned their eyes up to the ceiling in thought, all thinking the very same as their pace had slowed down into a complete stop. Up ahead, Erica and Robin had bounced their own insults around about Hawkins for their own laughs.

"Oh my god," Alex whispered as she looked at each of them. Her mouth had stayed open in complete bewilderment. "We don't seriously think the Russians know about the Upside Down?

"They could," Dustin whispered, placing his hands on his hips as he looked to her. "What do we do?"

"What do we do?" she questioned back in return. "How the hell am I supposed to know that?"

"Because you knew that the Mind Flayers back," Steve whispered.

"What?" Dustin called out loud as he looked to his sister. "You didn't tell me that." The thought of his sister keeping something as big as the Mind Flayer from him was enough to have his heart crack under the weight of the pain. He had trusted her with everything in him and now he felt that secrets were going to keep them apart.

Holding out a hand, she had lightly touched his arm. "Dustin, listen, I was going to tell you when we got out of this hell hole. I needed your head on straight to help us get out of here. Unloading that on you, you'd freak out and you're the brains around here. We need you focused. There's nothing I can even do about it anyways, not until we get out of here at least."

"How do you even know he's back? Did he call you and try to get back together?" His teasing voice had Alex drop her hand off of him in annoyance, her lips forming into a thin line. The stress of being under Hawkins with no way of reaching the party truly had been enough, and for Alex to hold onto her own crushing secret for the time being to protect him meant that she was willing to put him first once again. However, teasing was never off the table. They always needed that laugh, even if it was at someone elses expense.

"No, he didn't call," she said sternly. "I just feel him. It's like this tingle down my spine and lately I've been getting these sharp pains in my head. But if he's back like I think, then he never left."

"Left Hawkins or you?" Dustin asked as he raised an eyebrow in her direction. It had been something that Alex had not thought twice about. She was certain he never left Hawkins, but to even consider that he had still lingered somewhere in there had created a paranoia that had her wishing she never kept it in for so long. And now with both boys looking to her, she now had nothing to say but one word that expressed her feelings quite clearly. "Shit."

Up ahead, Robin had caught on that she was now the one stuck with babysitting duties while behind her, the three huddled together in whispers. "I'm sorry, is there something you three would like to share with the class?"

Steve and Dustin had looked over to the two, unsure what they could say. Alex, on the other hand, had looked out to the floor in front of her, trying to piece everything she could together. If only everyone had been there or at least easy to reach. She would be able to bounce ideas off of Will, Eleven, Hopper, Joyce-- everyone in the party, even Lucas Sinclair (if he was willing).

But none of that had mattered, they were stuck in a Russian base with no current way out. When coming from Ericas's backpack had came a static hiss followed by a voice of Russian man had caused everyone to look towards it with no words spoken.

In a matter of seconds, the group had came back together, all huddled around as Robin took the walkie from the backpack and held it out for all of them to get a listen. It had been the same signal that they had translated and this time, they had heard it as a sign of hope.

"Wherever that broadcast is coming from, we're close," Alex whispered.

"And if there's one thing we know about that signal, it can reach the surface," Robin grinned. "Let's get the hell out of this shithole."

Packing back up the radio, the group was prepared to escape the Russian base. Only solving one problem would only lead them to another, something they may have not been ready to face. Alex was quiet as they began to continue their walk along the hall, lightly bumping her hand on the back of Steve's. He didn't take a moment to consider it as a mistake of walking too close. She had needed him and wanted to let him know in her own quiet way. Slipping his hand in hers, he had given her what she had needed for the time being. If it was all he could possibly do now, he was going to do just that.