Crush Culture [M.Wheeler]

[53] ELEANOR IS STRONG

The five of them find themselves in a more crowded space, which only rendered the situation more stressful.

Steve peers over a corner, checking for any sign of soldiers. "Okay, clear. Clear, come on, let's go." He whispers, leading them along the way.

"Okay, that was close." Robin comments. "Too close." Dustin adds. "Relax. Alright? Relax. Nobody saw..." he trails off as he turns a corner, finding the heart of the base.

Russian soldiers and scientists stood at every corner. "Holy shit." Nori breathes out. In a panic, they crouch behind a large red cart.

"Jesus!" Steve comments. "Red Dawn." Dustin points out. "I saw it. First floor., northwest." Erica states. "Saw what?" Steve questions.

"The comms room." Erica explains. "You saw the comms room?" Steve furrows hais eyebrows. "Correct."

"Are you sure?" Dustin chimes in. "Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there." Erica nods. "That could be a hundred different things." The blonde girl beside Dustin argues.

"I'll take those odds." Robin glances at Steve, who sighs, shaking his head. Slowly, they all peer over the edge of the cart, trying to find any possible way to get to that room.

"Alright. We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?" Steve instructs. "Okay." Slowly and carefully, they all follow him, before speeding into another room just as the door opens.

Once they're inside, they notice something which brought worry into their eyes. There was a Russian sitting at the desk. The man turns around, eyeing the group curiously.

Slowly reaching for his gun, Robin cuts in. She begins to say something in Russian, which was actually part of the code, though the others didn't know that.

They just assumed she knew what she was doing, when in reality, she had no clue whatsoever.

The man squints his eyes in confusion, seemingly asking her a question. She gestured something in return, continuing to spit out none sense. 

"This is dumb, I can just turn into him and fight him or something." Nori whispers. "Remember what happened last time you scared someone with a gun, Nori?" Dustin shakes his head, glancing down at her hip.

She sighs, standing back. Unconvinced, the Russian man reaches for his gun a second time, but before he could pull it out, Steve yells, charging at him.

They throw each other around. It seemed that the Russian soldier definitely had the upper hand, as he was completely beating the shit out of Steve.

Steve manages to elbow the man, then take one of the metal phones, slamming it across his head, resulting in his forehead colliding with the desk, then the ground.

Steve breathes heavily, running a hand through his hair. "Dude! You did it!" Dustin exclaims. "You won a fight!"

"I didn't know you had it in ya, Steve." Nori claps, grinning from ear to ear. Steve laughs softly, amazed by himself.

Dustin quickly reaches down, uncoupling the man's keycard. "What are you doing?" Erica questions. "Getting us our ticket out of here.

"You want to walk all the way back?" She says in disbelief. "Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe." He responds sarcastically, approaching her so he was towering above.

"Have a picnic? We came here for the radio." Erica yells. "Well, this plan is way better. If I knew Steve could knock out a Russian, that would've been our plan in the first place." Dustin argues.

"Guys." Robin walks in, grabbing their attention. "There's something up there." She motions up the stairs.

Quickly they all follow her, entering another room, and peering through the windows.

"Holy shit." Dustin comments, staring ahead at the large, bright, and frightening machine, which was aimed right at an opening in the wall.

"The gate." Nori shakes her head. "It's opening."

***

Meanwhile, Nori's walkie talkie would not shut up back at Scoops. "Nori, Nori, Nori, Nori. What happened? Did you die? Please, you can't ignore me forever." Mike sighs.

"You are so annoying, Mike. Let the girl live her life." Max comments, rolling her eyes. "I wanna know where she is, at least! She and Dustin have been M.I.A for far too long." He says.

"She broke up with you. Get over it."
She shakes her head. "I can't just get over it, it happened less than a week ago." Mike raises his voice as he sits in the waiting chair at the hospital.

"I just want to know if she's okay." He groans, leaning his head down into his knees. "She's Eleanor Harrington, of course she's okay." Will cuts in. "Yeah, she's, like, a total badass." Lucas agrees.

"And she has powers." Max adds. "Eleanor is strong." Eleven concludes, stepping forward. "Yeah. I know.. I know all that." He nods.

"So stop worrying about her. She'll turn up." Max assures.