Better babysitter // Steve Harrington x Reader //

toddfather

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world," Mike explained to us as we stood near the water fountain.

"And it almost did," Nancy said, crossing her arms. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked.

"It's big," Jonathan answered. "Thirty feet, at least."

"Jesus," I mumbled.

"Yeah," Lucas piped in. "It sorta destroyed your cabin...Sorry."

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this...this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic...weapon?" Steve questioned.

"Yes," Nancy confirmed.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal," Steve continued "the Mind Flayer made its weapon...with melted people."

"Yes, exactly," Nancy confirmed again.

"Yeah, okay." Steve shrugged. "I-- Yeah, I'm just making sure."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive," Max said.

"But if we close the gate again--" Will piped in.

"We cut the brain off from the body," Max added.

"And kill it," Lucas concluded. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" The man from before called, causing us to look at him. He was wawing the papers above his head as he walked toward us. "Yoo-hoo!"

The man whose name I learned was Murray led us to the nearest table, placing the papers down. Leaning to get a closer look, I saw that the papers were some sort of blueprint.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'the hub'." Murray pointed at the map. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"Right here." Murray pointed. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so."

"More like 500." Erica piped in, walking over to them. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked Erica.

"Erica Sinclair." She answered. "Who are you?"

"Murray...Bauman." He shrugged.

"Listen, Mr. Bauman," Erica continued. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray said in disbelief.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard." Erica snapped.

"Erica!" Lucas shouted.

"Just the facts!"

"No, she's right," I said before placing my hands on my hips. "If you go in there with his advice, you're all gonna die."

"But, you don't have to," Dustin said before walking over to the table. "Excuse me. Sorry, may I?"

"Please," Murray said sarcastically.

"Okay, see this room here?" Dustin asked before sitting down at the table and grabbing a pencil from his jacket. "This is a storage facility." He circled the room on the map. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me, Erica and Robin, we can show you the way."