Hi! Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out but I've been trying to figure out how I was going to go about this one.
Y/n's pov
"The Mind Flayer." Mike explained. "It built this monster in Hawkins to stop El- to kill her and pave a way into our world."
"And it almost did." Nancy agreed. We were all gathered around the water fountain in the middle of Starcourt, listening intently. "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked. He sat across from the fountain on a plant box, El laying on his lap with a cup of water as he pressed a wet towel to her head.
"It's big." Jonathan said. "Thirty feet, at least."
"Yeah." Lucas nodded. "It sorta destroyed your cabin... Sorry."
"Okay, so, just to be clear," Steve said from where he stood next to Robin who was sat on the edge of the water fountain. "This... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?"
"Yes." Nancy said.
Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... With melted people..."
"Yeah." Nancy confirmed impatiently. "Exactly."
"Yeah, okay." Steve shrugged, making me shake my head in slight amusement. "I- yeah, I'm just making sure."
"Are we sure this thing is still out there- still alive?" Joyce asked, her face dripping with concern.
"El beat the shit out of it." Max said. "But, yeah, it's still alive."
"But if we close the gate again-" Will started.
"We cut the gate off from the body." I finished, jumping into the conversation.
"And kill it." Lucas said. "...Theoretically."
We all sat in silence, trying to think of a half decent plan when someone shouted from behind us.
"Yoo-Hoo!" We all turned to see Murray Bauman, the man that had helped Jonathan and Nancy get the truth out about the lab when Steve, Dustin, Lucas, Max and I were all looking for Dart.
Murray was holding papers and waving his arms in the air. "Yoo-Hoo!"
He waved us over to a table where he placed the papers down, all of us crowding around. Hopper and Joyce hung over his shoulders, looking down at the papers. I squinted down at them, noticing they were blueprints, not unlike the ones Robin had gotten days ago.
"What are those for?" I asked Murray.
"The Russian base." He answered.
My eyes widened. "You're not seriously planning on going back in there, are you?"
Hopper looked at me with a designated sigh. "What other choice do we have?"
"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'The Hub'." Murray said, moving his finger to hover over a room on the blueprint that I assumed was the entrance point. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asked.
"Right here." Murray said, pointing to a different room. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room- maybe 50 feet or so."
"More like 500." Erica corrected, the sass excruciatingly evident in her voice, stepping forward with her hands on her hips and her eyebrows arched. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
Murray stared at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" She asked.
He blinked. "Murray... Bauman."
"Listen Mr. Bunman," Erica sassed, putting her hand up to stop him from talking. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."
"I'm sorry." Murray cut in, offended. "Why is this four year old speaking to me?"
"Uh, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Erica said.
"Erica!" Lucas spluttered at his younger sister in disbelief.
She crossed her arms. "Just the facts!"
"She's right." I chimed in. "If you go down there with this plan, you'll either die or be held captive and be drugged, and Robin, Steve and I almost did both, so you may want to listen to us, Mr. Bauman."
"Sorry, may I?" Dustin asked, squeezing past me to get to the blueprints.
"Please." Murray sneered, standing back.
Dustin sat down and pulled the papers towards him. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility."
He circled the box with a pencil and looked up. "There's a hatch in there that feeds into their underground ventilation system."
He drew a line across the paper to another box.
"That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." Dustin said.
"You can show us the way?" Hopper repeated, staring at him.
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... Navigators." He said.
"Uh, yeah, no." Hopper said, shaking his head at Erica and Dustin. "There is no way in hell, either of you are going back in there."
——
"Well, that settles it." Erica said as she, Dustin and I watched Hopper pick up a gun. While Hopper, Joyce and Murray gathered weapons from the unconscious Russians, everyone else was busy distracting themselves.
"He's gonna die. They're gonna die." She said in defeat.
"Yep." Dustin agreed.
"Most likely." I said from where I sat beside them.
"You guys survived." Lucas said from behind us where he, Mike and Will stood. Max and El were talking a little ways away.
"Barely." Dustin said. "Y/n, Robin and Steve aw only alive because we saved their asses. We could've really used you guys down there."
"Could've used you up here, too." Mike said.
"Yeah, man." Lucas nodded. "We missed you, dude."
Dustin stood up and they all hugged as I watched with a smile and Erica faked a gag beside me.
"Get in here, Y/n." Mike said with a big smile, looking over Lucas's shoulder.
"No, guys. I don't want to interrupt the bro hug." I laughed.
"Come on, Y/n! Interrupt the bro hug!" Will chuckled.
"Okay." I obliged with a smile, walking over and joining the group hug.
"I feel like I'm ruining the moment." I said after a pause of silence.
"No way! Me, Mike and Will haven't seen you in forever!" Lucas objected.
"Yeah, you two were trapped in a goddamn secret Russian bunker!" Mike added.
"It's Mike, Will and I, Lucas." I corrected.
"Same old Y/n." Lucas smiled.
I laughed. "Remember when it was just us five."
"How could we forget?" Will teased.
"The good old days." Dustin joked with an exaggerated reminiscent look on his face.
I whacked him lightly with a snicker. "Yeah, when I had to deal with you four animals on my own." I rolled my eyes playfully, unable to suppress a grin.
"We really missed you guys." Lucas said.
"Yeah, big-time." Will agreed.
"I missed you guys too." Dustin said.
"Big-time." I added with a soft smile.
I ducked out of the bro hug as the four of them kept hugging and went over to El and Max.
"We missed you too, Y/n." Max said as I walked over to them. "We were super outnumbered by the boys."
"It was awful." El nodded.
I laughed and walked over to them, hugging them both. "I missed you both, as well."
"Never do that to us again, all right?" Max asked.
"Alright." I smiled.
"Promise?" El asked.
"Promise." I agreed.
We continued hugging until Erica ruined the mood.
"Please don't cry, nerds." She said.
"Erica." Lucas snapped at her as we all separated.
"Keep saying my name, see what happens." She sassed.
"Hey, heads up." Hopper suddenly called, drawing our attention to him. "You can navigate, just from someplace safe."
"It's not that simple." Dustin said, catching the walkie that Hopper threw to him.
"The signal won't reach." I elaborated.
Erica pointed to the Walkie "Not with this, anyway."
"You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russian's radio tower." Dustin said. "But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered, handcrafted radio tower. One preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait, that's me."
"If you want us to navigate, you got us, but we need a head start." Dustin finished.
He glanced at Steve and I.
"And a car." He added.
Word count: 1440