Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Greatest American Hero

"Believe It or Not"

Look at what's happened to me

I can't believe it myself

- Joey Scarbury

When the lights went out in the lab, the darkness and silence were followed by a moaning roar that seemed to reverberate through the building. The creatures of the Upside Down were cheering in triumph, or so it seemed to Hopper.

He tried to think through the situation, to make a plan ... but how did you plan to get around a building full of things that had proven themselves to be more deadly than all the firepower that had been leveled at them so far? The only way was to be smarter than they were, to out-think them, and he wasn't sure he was up for that right now. It had been a long few days and he was tired and hungry and needed a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and to know that Eleven was all right before he could think clearly again.

Still, none of those things were going to happen while he was standing here. If he wanted any of that—or anything at all—he had to come up with a way to get out of here. And if he was getting out of here, so was Joyce, so were the two kids, and, yeah, so was Bob the Brain. Owens could fend for himself. After all, he and his people were the reason they were all in this mess to start with.

"Doc. You got a flashlight in here?" Hopper wished for his own clothes and supplies. He'd feel a lot better with his hat on. "And maybe ..." He looked around. If this was the security office, with the monitors, maybe they had other useful things. "Maybe a map, or some schematics?"

"Huh? Yeah. Yeah, okay." The doctor roused himself from his own fears and started hunting through shelves in the very faint light that came in through the windows. Eventually he got his hands on a flashlight, handing it to Hopper, who held it while he rifled through some more drawers. "Ah. Okay," Owens said in a stronger tone, pulling some papers out of a file. He spread them out on the desk, digging a red marker out of the desk drawer. He made a mark on the top paper. "Okay, this is us." Finding the next in the stack, he circled another spot. "And this is the nearest exit. If we can somehow make it there, there's no way out."

"What do you mean?" Hopper asked him.

"The locks are fail-secure."

Joyce frowned. "Fail-secure?"

"If there's a power outage, the building goes on full lockdown."

"Can it be unlocked remotely?" Bob asked.

"With a computer, sure, but somebody's got to reset the breakers."

Hopper recognized immediately who the somebody would have to be. He didn't mind going, really—anything would be better than sitting here helpless. "Where are the breakers?"

Owens turned back to the maps. "The breakers are in the basement, three floors down."

Without another word, Hopper headed for the door.

"Hey!" Joyce called behind him.

"Where are you going?" Bob demanded.

"To reset the breakers," Hopper snapped. What did they all think he was doing?

But Bob wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Okay, then what?"

"Then we get the hell out of here!" Could they stop asking him stupid questions and just let him go already?

"No, then the power comes back on," Bob said. "If you want to unlock the doors, you have to completely reboot the computer system, and then override the security codes with a manual input."

Well, they didn't call the guy Bob the Brain for nothing. Hopper hadn't thought about all that. Still, none of this was getting it done. "Fine, how do I do that?" he asked impatiently.

"You can't! Not unless you know Basic."

"I don't know what that means."

"It's a computer programming language," Mike explained.

He moved toward Bob. "All right, teach it to me."

Bob rolled his eyes. "Should I teach you French while I'm at it, Jim? How about a little German?" Turning to the others, he asked, "How about you, Doc? You speak Basic?"

Unsurprisingly, Owens didn't.

Nodding, having known the answer before he asked, Bob said, "Okay. I got this." He looked up at Hopper, repeating the words steadily. "I got this."

Finally it dawned on Hopper what was happening. Nerdy Bob was the only person who could get them out of this mess. Well. How the tables had turned.

Joyce had moved toward Bob, throwing herself into his arms. Hopper couldn't help but watch as Bob wrapped his arms around her and held her as if she was the most important thing in the world to him, as if he was going to take care of her. Maybe he would. Maybe he could, Hopper thought for the first time.

"It's okay," Bob said to her. They clung to each other, and then Joyce moved back, letting him go. Bob held her hands, reassuring her again. "It's going to be okay." She nodded. "Remember, Bob Newby, superhero." Joyce managed a smile at that, and then Bob turned to Hopper. "Let's do this."

Hopper nodded, cracking the door open enough to see. The hallway was cleared. He didn't know where the things had gone, but they were going to come out as soon as there was movement in the building. They had to get as far as they could as fast as they could.

He led the way toward the stairwell. They dragged the body of a fallen MP into the stairs with them, stripping it of its walkie and gun. Making sure the gun was still in good working order, Hopper held it out toward Bob. "All right, so, do you know how to use one of these?"

Bob looked at him. "No." The fear he had hidden so carefully in front of Joyce was coming out now, in the quaver in his voice and the sweat standing out on his face and the shallowness of his breathing.

Of course he didn't. Hopper gave him a quick tutorial and hoped he would remember it when he needed to use the thing. Not that the gun had helped the MP, but sometimes it helped just to have the weapon.

Hopper threw the MP's rifle on over his shoulder. It really did feel better to have the weapon. "Anything happens down there, come right back up."

"Come right back here," Bob repeated. "Listen. Don't wait for me. Soon as I get those doors open—"

Looking him in the eye, Hopper made the promise. "I'm gonna get them out. I promise."

Satisfied, Bob turned and started down the stairs. Hopper watched him go, thinking about all the times he had made fun of this little man, all the times he had looked down on him, and how wrong he had been all along. When it counted, Bob had found the courage, and Hopper respected that. He wished him well.

Getting to his feet, he hurried back to the others. They were going to need him to get through the rest of this night.