A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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The group walked through the long hallway, never turning a corner, just continuously walking in the damn straight line. Ryan studied the ceiling before shifting her gaze to the long pipes that lined the walls. It was industrial, she had to give the Russians that. Industrial and such a pain in the ass.
"I mean, you have to admit," Dustin spoke up, staring up at the ceiling as he walked in between Robin and Axel. "As a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."
"Yeah, sure." Ryan snorted. "Long hallways that lead to nowhere and an elevator that doesn't have any speed control."
Steve nodded in agreement by her side, "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."
"They're Commies." Erica scoffed in between her and Robin. "You don't pay people, they cut corners."
Steve glanced over at Erica with an expression of disbelief before shifting his eyes to meet Ryan's. She just shrugged, biting her lip to keep from laughing. She didn't know why he was surprised at her attitude, he dealt with the kids every day, they all had an attitude.
"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking." Robin spoke up. Everyone shifted their attention to her as she continued to talk. "Think about it, 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."
"It would've been nice if they left one of those little cart things for us to use to get around too." Axel all but whined. "Not for us specifically, but to make it easier on those other guys."
"It's not like we're running a marathon, Axe." Ryan rolled her eyes. Axel was never the best athlete. He could throw one hell of a punch, but when it came to actual sports, that was usually Steve's area of expertise. However, the whining was getting them nowhere. "We're just walking, geez."
"It would be faster with a cart thing." He muttered under his breath.
Steve rolled his eyes, changing the subject as he glanced back at Robin, "You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?"
"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison." Dustin said before Robin had the chance to answer. "It's gotta be something much more valuable, like promethium or something."
Steve shifted his attention to Dustin in confusion, "What the hell is promethium?"
Ryan opened her mouth to explain when, to her surprise, Robin answered, "It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components."
Dustin turned to look at her in a mixture of surprise and awe, then back at Ryan with an impressed grin. Axel laughed a bit, shaking his head. She didn't know why she was surprised, Robin was one of the biggest nerds she knew her own age— aside from Eddie Munson. Hell, the only reason she knew about Cyborg was because the kids were obsessed with the comics. The comics in her room usually featured Wonder Woman.
