The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

38

The food court was probably Matteo's favorite place in the entire mall. But something he loved even more than the food? Watching Erica chew out the man in the tank top.

"Okay this is what Alexei called the hub" The papers he'd gotten were spread out on a table. Everyone mingled close, not daring to wander away. All of them were still trying to figure out a way to beat this thing. "Now the Hub takes us to the vault room"

"Okay, where's the gate?"

Hopper, Joyce and the man were hunched over the papers. Matteo guessed they were floorplans of the Russian base.

"Right here" The man pointed onto the paper, "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the Vault room. Maybe fifty feet or so"

Matteo couldn't help but scoff.

Things may look small on paper, but he'd seen the long hallways and gigantic rooms for himself. Erica seemed to share the sentiment.

"More like five hundred" She corrected, stepping forward. True to her words, she'd requested more free ice cream from Scoops Ahoy. For a beat everyone just stared at her in bewilderment. Matteo frowned at them. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair" She said, putting her hands on her hips. "Who are you?"

It seemed even adults weren't above cowering in front of her. She just had a terrifying aura, like any moment she could choose to end you, but she thought you weren't worth the effort. Even though she was a whole foot shorter than Matteo, she still managed to look down at everyone.

"Murray..." The man hesitated, "Bauman"

"Listen, Mr Bunman" She held up a hand sassily, "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for more than 24 hours. And with all due respect..."

She turned to all the others, not sounding very respectful at all. "You do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die"

Hopper scrunched his eyebrows. If the word "dad" was illustrated in a dictionary, it would look like him.

"I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?" Murray scoffed. Matteo didn't like his tone at all.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard"

Matteo's eyes widened so much, he thought they might fall out. Even Steve snorted next to him. The three of them, including Robin, looked at one another, proud of their kid.

"Erica!" Lucas hissed.

"Just the facts!"

"She's right" Dustin came to her defense, "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to"

He walked up to the table, looking much more mature than he had a week ago, "Excuse me, sorry, may I?"

Murray didn't look too happy about it, but he grumbled out a sarcastic "please" and let Dustin take a seat at the table. He took control of the map, pulling it closer to himself. Erica also joined his side while the others looked at them in confusion.

If there was ever a use for Dustin's vest, it was when he pulled out a small pencil from a pocket. Matteo had to admit, however ridiculous he looked, at least it was helpful.

"Okay, see this room here?" Steve, Matteo and Robin shifted closer to see Dustin draw a circle around the room. "This is a storage facility"

Erica was right, the map was definitely not up to scale and it didn't even cover half of the whole thing. This "Alexei", whoever he was, hadn't drawn the holding cells or the doctor's room or any of the hallways. If the adults had gone in there with no prior knowledge, they really would die.

So they had to be smart about this. To kill this Mind Flayer and to sever the head from the body, they had to close the gate and to close the gate they had to destroy the cannon and to destroy the cannon they had to sneak into the Russian base. All of which they wouldn't be able to do if they were dead.

"There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon" Dustin drew a straight line to the room Matteo unfortunately recognized. The cannon Alexei had drawn was all too familiar for the scoops troop. "It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way"

"You can show us the way?" Hopper was obviously not very keen on the idea and while Matteo didn't like it very much, it was the only way.

"So you guys were in the underground ventilation shit when we explicitly told you to go get help?" Matteo frowned, imitating the way his mom would always put her hands on her hips.

"It all worked out in the end" Dustin defended himself. "And don't worry, Hopper, Joyce and... uh Murray can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be their— navigators"

Dustin and Erica nodded their heads in unison.

Matteo almost felt bad when their faces dropped as Hopper shook his head. Almost. Because it was one thing to survive down there once, but to go there again? That was stupid.

"No" Hopper, Matteo, Steve and Robin spoke in unison.

"I finally get the appeal in being a parent" Matteo grinned, "It's so fun to deny children things"