Crush Culture [M.Wheeler]

[54] MY LITTLE PONY

"I don't understand.  You've seen this before?" Robin asks as they run down the stairs in a hurry. "Not exactly." Steve responds. "Then what, exactly?"

"All you need to know is it's bad." Dustin yells. "Really bad." Nori nods. "Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad." Dustin continues.

"And you two know about this how?" Robin questions, looking to Nori and Dustin. "Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" Erica says, taking notice of a certain disappearance.

A when they look down at the floor, the only thing left was a blood stain, and no man. The alarm blares. "Shit." Steve runs to the door, checking the situation outside the room, though failing to go unnoticed.

He shuts the door. "Shit." He stands there for a moment, then begins to run. "Go, go, go, go, go, go!" He yells, the five of them running up the stairs into another room.

All the Russian scientists turn around, causing them to continue to run off to the side, and down some more stairs. Dustin shrieks, pushing a man in a hazmat suit to the side.

With the soldiers on their trail, they find themselves stuck at a dead end. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin screams. "This way!" Steve leads, pushing another man to the side and running down.

When more soldiers come their way, Steve stops them with metal barrels. "Come on!" They quickly run in through another door, Steve holding it closed. "Shit!"

When Nori makes it inside, she trips, falling straight down on her face. "Tiny, come on." Dustin helps the girl up, though now she had a terrible nose bleed, and a swollen lump on her forehead.

"Come on!" He calls out to Steve and Robin, who stood at the door. "Go! Just get out of here!" Steve shouts.

"No, Steve! I don't wanna leave without you!" Nori shakes her head. "No! Just go get some help, okay? I'll be okay!" He assures her.

Dustin jumps into a door in the floor. "What are you doing?! Go!" Steve and Robin yell. Dustin sighs, helping the worried Nori inside, then taking another glance at Steve and Robin.

"I won't forget you!" He pulls the door shut, falling inside. "Please be okay, Steve." Nori whispers, a tear rolling down.

***

"So, when we set fire to the hub, we drew the Demodogs away so El could close the gate." Dustin explains to Erica the story of what happened a year prior, while he attempts to stop the moving fan so they could manage to get through.

"But now, for some insane reason, the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it, which just destroys every thing we risked our lives for." Dustin adds. "Mike tried to talk to me the other day on the walkie talkie. He said they think Billy is flayed." Nori tells, causing Dustin's eyes to widen.

"And you kept this from me, why?" He asks. "I don't know.. he said him and the others were gonna take care of it!" She shrugs. "By the others, you're including Lucas?" Erica questions.

"Yes, of course." Nori nods. "So, all that shit that Dustin told me, and that shit that's happening right now, Lucas was there?" She chuckles.

"Yeah." Dustin says. "My brother, Lucas Charles Sinclair?" She continues, not believing it. "Charles?" Nori snickers.

"Yes!" Dustin raises his voice, frustrated. "I don't believe you." She refuses. "Wait, So you believe everything about El and the gate and the Demodogs and the Mind Flayer, but you question your brother's involvement?" Dustin furrows his eyebrows.

"That's correct." She confirms. "Makes total sense." Dustin remarks sarcastically, then brings the screwdriver back up to the fan controls.

"You need help, Dustin?" Nori offers. "No." He shakes his head. "Well, I mean, it's taking a while, so—" Erica cuts in.

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Dustin's voice cracks, glaring at the girl. "Alright, So if we don't find a more efficient method to stop these fans, we're never gonna find help, and your ice cream buddies are screwed." Erica sasses.

"Yeah, with that attitude, they are. And stop being so insensitive, that's Tiny's brother we're talking about, and we're trying to have hope." Dustin sighs. "No, she's right. We have to do this faster or else they are screwed." Nori agrees.

"See? I'm just being realistic. I mean, we've made it about point-three miles in nine hours." Erica continues, checking her watch. "Then we had to walk three hours down that tunnel, so I'd estimate ten miles back to the elevator, which should take us approximately twelve-and-a-half days." She crosses her arms.

"I'm sorry, what? You lost me at 'realistic'." Nori squints her eyes in confusion. "Did you just do all of that in your head?" Dustin inquires.

"I'm good with numbers." She shrugs. "Holy shit. You're a nerd." Dustin realizes. "Come again?" She chuckles in disbelief.

"You...are...a..nerd." Dustin repeats. Nori can't help but smile, watching in amusement. "Okay, you better take that back, nerd." Erica threatens.

"Can't put the truth back in the box." He shakes his head with a smirk. "But it's not the truth." She denies.

"Let's examine the facts, shall we? Fact one: you're a math whiz, apparently." Dustin states. "That was a pretty straightforward equation." Erica argues.

"I'm in ninth grade and I had no clue what you were saying the entire time." Nori points out.

"Fact number two: you're a political junkie." He adds. "Just because I don't agree with Communism as an ideology—"

"What does ideology even mean?" Nori questions, Erica rolling her eyes. "Fact number three: you love My Little Pony." Dustin lifts her bag.

"And what does My Little Pony have to do with this?" Erica takes her backpack away from him.

"Ah, let's recall the ponies' latest adventure, shall we? The evil centaur team and Tirek turns Applejack into a dragon at Midnight Castle, And then Megan and the other ponies have to use Moochick's magic to defeat his rainbow of darkness, saving them from a lifetime of enslavement. All the pink in the world can't disguise the irrefutable fact that centaurs and castles and dragons and magic are all standard nerd tropes." Dustin pauses.

"Ergo, My Little Pony is nerdy." He finishes. "Ergo, you, Erica, are a nerd."

"And how do you know so much about My Little Pony?" She grins, thinking that he would be embarrassed. "Oh, me and Dustin watch it all the time." Nori explains.

"Every Friday night, sister." Her and Dustin high five, then smile to Erica. "Because we... are nerds."

Just then, the fan stops, Dustin silently cheering to himself. "Let's go... nerd."