My Dingus | Steve Harrington x Reader

Chapter Seven: Earth to Petey the Mallcop

We sprung into action and climbed onto the top of the elevator just as two men entered the room. We watched from above as they spoke to one another in Russian and loaded the boxes on a small cart before driving away. Steve jumped down quickly and just as the door was about to shut again, he stuck the cylinder underneath so there was a small crack for us to fit through.
"Let's go! Go. Go, go, go, go, go," he helped us through the crack. "Henderson. Go, go."
"Come on, Steve, let's go!" We watched as the cylinder began to crack. Steve quickly scrambled out of the elevator behind us. As soon as he did, the cylinder shattered and the green goo spilled onto the floor, corroding the metal.
"You still wanna drink that?" Robin looked to Erica.
"Holy mother of God!" Dustin exclaimed as he looked at the long passageway that lie before us. It was lit in a dim, blue light.
"Well...hope you guys are in good shape. Looking at you, roast beef." Steve patted Dustin's chest.
"Let's go, come on," I dragged Steve away from Dustin and down the tunnel.
"Why me?" Dustin frowned. We continued walking a bit until Dustin spoke up again. "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
"What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell," Steve raised an eyebrow.
"They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners." Erica replied.
"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." Robin jumped in. "Think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo. It all comes into the mall like any old delivery. And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."
"You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked.
"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." Robin thought for a moment. "It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."
"What the hell is promethium?" Steve looked between Dustin and I for an answer.
"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," I explained.
"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill," Erica groaned.
"No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right?" Steve argued.
"Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?" Robin smirked.
"No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."
"Promethium." Dustin corrected.
"Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure,
but whatever." I continued, "All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something...or power something."
"Like a nuclear weapon," Dustin suggested.
"Totally." I agreed.
"Walking towards a nuclear weapon...that's great," Steve muttered.
"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, but maybe that's it." Robin kept talking and Dustin, Steve, and I exchanged wary glances, falling back from the rest of the group.
"You think the Russians know? About..." I whispered to the two of them quietly.
"They could." Steve shrugged.
"So it's connected?" Dustin asked.
"Maybe," I frowned, deep in thought. Was this all connected to everything that had happened last year with Will Byers?
"How?" Steve wondered.
"I don't know, but it's...possible..." my voice trailed off.
"I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Robin and Erica had stopped walking and turned back to face us. Just then, we heard Russian words through bouts of static on the walkie-talkie. Dustin dug it out of his bag.
"A trip to China sounds nice. If you tread lightly," Robin translated. "It's the code. Wherever that broadcast is coming from..."
"It's close." Dustin finished her sentence. "And if there's one thing we know about that signal..."
"It can reach the surface!" I exclaimed excitedly. We heard the bustling of voices just ahead. We hid behind a wall as Steve scoped out what lie ahead. A few people and one of the vehicles drove by.
"Okay, clear. Clear, come on, let's go." He gave us the go ahead.
"Okay, that was close." I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Too close." Dustin added.
"Relax. All right? Relax. Nobody saw...Shit." Steve's voice was abruptly silenced as he saw the scene that lie before us. Hundreds of men and women in uniform crowded the room. Vehicles swirled around and harsh mechanical noises filled the air. We rushed to hide behind a box. I felt myself gravitate closer to Steve.
"Red Dawn." Dustin whispered.
"I saw it. First floor, northwest." Erica whispered harshly to Steve.
"Saw what?"
"The comms room."
"You saw the comms room?" He asked in disbelief.
"Correct."
"Are you sure?" He confirmed.
"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," Dustin protested.
"I'll take those odds." I looked at Steve. We were close and I could still smell cherries and fudge on him.
He stopped and watched the room of Russians for a moment. "All right. We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?"
We nodded and followed him.
"Move it. Let's go! Sh, sh. Come on." He watched and waited to direct us to follow him. We made it into the comms room and shut the door silently behind us. We all took a deep breath as we reached safety — or so we thought. After turning around, we quickly realized that we were not alone. A man in uniform spring up from his seat by the control panel and put his hand on the gun at his hip.
"Tread lightly! Tread lightly!" Robin began yelling at him in Russian. The gun clicked as he chambered a bullet and without second thought, Steve ran screaming at the man and tackled him to the ground. With a few punches, he had successfully knocked him out.
"Dude! You did it! You won a fight!" Dustin exclaimed in glee and pride at his friend.
"Jeez..." Steve looked down at the man. Dustin grabbed the key card that hung around his belt.
"Guys!" Robin called to us from a metal staircase on the far side of the room. "There's something up there." We followed her quietly up the stairs and the sound of a man speaking Russian on an intercom grew louder. The metal creaked beneath our feet and I winced at each sound, worried someone would find us. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found at the top of the stairs. Inside a bulletproof glass encased room, soldiers bustled about in radioactive material protection gear and respirators, gathered around a giant machine that was whirring loudly and shooting a glowing blue beam at a giant, red, writhing rift.

"Holy shit!"