Dustin presses his face to the glass as he looks on at the sight in front of us. "The gate."
"I don't understand. You've seen this before?" Robin asks as we hurry back down the steps to the comms room.
"Not exactly," I hesitate.
"Then what, exactly?"
"All you need to know is it's bad," Dustin answers.
"It's really bad," Steve backs him up.
"Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it
kind of bad," Dustin continues.
"And you know about this how?" She asks.
"Guys, she's part of our team now. Just tell her!" I say. "Robin, remember when I was missing all those days of school a little while back?"
"Yeah. You said you were sick."
"We were actually—"
"Um, Steve?" Erica asks, cutting me off. "Where's your Russian friend?"
The spot on the floor the man lied on is empty except for a small drop of blood. The man Steve knocked out is no where to be seen. Sirens start blaring and strobe lights flash. On the other side of the walls, guards shout things in Russian.
Steve rushes to the door and looks out, then slams the door shut. "Shit. Go, go, go, go, go!"
We turn around and run down a hallway, but don't get far. I stop, making everyone collide with me.
Blocking us at the other end of the hallway is a guard. He's taken by surprise by our sudden appearance, but quickly recovers. A bunch of Russian starts flying out of his mouth. Questions, I imagine, but I have no idea what he's saying.
"Steve, knife," I barely whisper.
Steve leans down a little to whisper in my ear. "He's got a gun."
"I'm aware of that, thanks."
With tiny movements, Steve quietly unzips my backpack and starts digging through it. "Let me fight him."
The Russian man becomes on edge. He speaks into his comm on his shoulder, no doubt telling the others where we are.
"No. It's my turn." I hold my hand behind my back and Steve discreetly puts my knife in my palm. "Get down when I say so," I warn them.
The guard advances, still demanding things of us in Russian.
Please hit somewhere, please hit somewhere, is all I can think. In one swift motion I throw the knife and say, "down!" and we all drop to the floor.
The knife imbeds in the guard's shoulder. He fires the gun, but the bullet whizzes over our heads. He groans in pain, muttering what I assume are curses in Russian under his breath. The gun falls out of his hand.
"Go, go, go," I tell the others.
The sounds of a mob of guards rumble down the hallway in the direction we just came from.
We run.
"That was so awesome!" Dustin beams through his panting.
The others nod in agreement.
"Thanks!" I breathe out.
"Here." Steve stops at a door and quietly turns the knob. We sneak into the room.
Now, we find ourselves in a room full of Russian scientists sat in front of control panels. They all turn to look at us and we take off again, running down a staircase to the left.
Guards chase after us, shoving the scientists out of the way. Dustin screams and pushes a man in a full hazmat suit out of our path.
Of all the the places we could've ended up, we've ended up right next to the machine and the gate to the Upside Down.
We're forced to stop running, reaching the end of the metal platform and being cut off by the laser from the machine. The whole machine radiates with power. Hot air blows off the rotating turbines.
Dustin looks over the edge and starts panicking, screaming, Holy shit! repeatedly.
"Guards! Go!" Erica yells.
"This way!" Steve takes off down some metal steps, descending below the platform. He pushes some stacked metal barrels onto some guards, knocking them down and blocking their path long enough for us to get by.
Our fast footsteps pound on the hard floors. We run as fast as we can through a set of doors and into a quieter room. Steve slams the door shut in our pursuers' faces and the two of us hold our backs to the door firmly as the guards' vibrations shake the door, trying to beat it down.
"Robin!" I shout.
She runs over to us and helps me and Steve hold the door.
"Come on!" Dustin calls to us, waving us over. Erica has already entered a vent, while Dustin is about to.
"Go! Just get out of here!" Steve yells at them.
"Come on, now!"
We struggle to keep the hoard of guards out. Dustin meets my eyes, pleading for me to have some sense and drag Steve and Robin with me to the vents, and all of us escaping together. But I don't have any sense. If I did that, the guards would be on top of us in seconds. We'd all get captured.
"It's okay," I tell him. My voice comes out surprisingly soft, despite the terror in me. Tears swell up in my eyes knowing good and well this is most likely the last time I'll ever see him again.
"No!"
"Get out of here, now!" Steve grunts. "Just go get some help, okay?"
Dustin hops down into the vent and steals one last look at us. "I won't forget you guys!" He swings the vent cover down and him and Erica escape... I hope.
The guards power through the door, sending Steve, Robin and I to the ground. All the guns aim at us and we hold our hands up in surrender.
✶
TW: Torcher
✶
My shoes squeak against the hard floors as I'm dragged down the hallways. When I realize going limp isn't going to stop the Russian guards from carrying me, I begin flailing all my limbs as hard as I can and screaming.
"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" I kick at them and twist my arms.
More guards appear to restrain me.
I've already been separated from Robin and Steve for questioning. They asked me the standard—who am I and who do I work for. I couldn't exactly hide that I worked at Scoops Ahoy since I did still have on the uniform. They also went through my backpack and now know my full name and address from my drivers license.
I know what's coming next—it happens in every comic book, movie, and TV show. If the questioners don't like your answer, they torture you until they get the truth.
My attempts to fight them off are fruitless. Not only are my hands tied together, but I've been stripped of my knives and backpack as well. I'm defenseless. The two burly guards who have a hold of me have got to be at least twice my size and with huge muscles.
I'm thrown in a room and land on my chest, knocking the wind out of me. I lie on the floor with my now aching chest.
"Steve? Steve?" A beautiful, familiar voice says. I want to break down and cry in relief of how happy I am to hear that voice.
But then it hits me. Steve? What's wrong with Steve?
"Robin!" I push myself up, but what I see makes my heart sink and the bile in my stomach surface.
She hovers over Steve's body, tapping him and trying to wake him. His body doesn't stir. He lies on the floor limp.
I crawl over to him and roll him on his back. His face is beaten to a pulp and bloody. Really bloody. "Steve!? Steve, wake up!" I shake his shoulders.
The door opens and another guard walks in.
I look up at the man. "What did you do to him?" I demand, standing up on my knees. The man punches me in the face, sending a searing pain through my jaw and knocking me down. Robin catches me before I can hit the floor and pulls me away from the man. The man says something in Russian and the guards start grabbing us.
"Don't touch me!" Robin says, trying to jerk free.
"Let me go!" I grunt, attempting to break free from the man's grip.
We're all three thrown in chairs with our backs to each other. A thick belt is tightly strapped around our upper bodies, binding us all together. Robin and I struggle, still trying to break free.
"Steve, wake up. Steve?" She tries again, getting no response from Steve.
"What the hell did you do to him!" I scream, my body thrashing against the belt. Red and purple lines are left from the friction and strain.
A guard grabs Steve by the hair and forces his head back, exposing his neck. He eyes Steve like he's planning what method of torture will take the longest to kill him—and cause the most suffering.
"Don't touch him," I snarl.
The guard clicks his tongue and lets Steve's head fall back down. "Feisty little girl."
I was surprised that he spoke English.
"Steve, you have to wake up." I try pushing my body on his to wake him up. "Steve? Can you hear me?"
Three guards remain in the room with us. The one in front of me begins putting on an exam glove and walking over to me. "I think your boyfriend need a doctor." He circles us, stopping in front of Robin and bending closer to her face. "Good thing... we have the very best." He looks back at the other guards and they all begin to laugh. When the man turns back to Robin, she spits in his face.
He's frozen for a moment in disgust, then pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes her spit from his eyes and face. He glared at her, but she doesn't back down. Her piercing blue eyes stare him down. She lifts her chin as if daring him to try something.
The man shakes his head. "You are going to regret that, сука." He straightens up, mumbling something else in Russian to the others, then they all head for the door.
"Bastards!" Robin shouts, squirming around.
"You fucking bastards!" I scream as the door shuts. "Let us out!"
✶
Robin and I don't stop screaming for help for one second, except for when we devised 9% of an escape plan that can only be brought into motion when Steve wakes up.
My back vibrates when Steve softly groans. "Hey, would you stop yelling?" He mumbles, his words slurred.
"Oh, my God, Steve," I breathe out. "Are you okay?"
"My ears are ringing, and I can't really breathe, my eye feels like it's about to pop out of my skull, but, you know, apart from that, I'm doing pretty good."
"Well, the good news is that they're calling you a doctor," Robin says.
"Is this his place of work?" Steve looks around.
The room is dim and shadowy. There are white LED's diffusing a little soft light into the room. There's an exam table and a chair that looks like one a dentist would have you sit in.
"I love the vibe," Steve says. "Charming."
I can't help but laugh in relief that he's okay. "Right? So gloomy..."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Robin says. "So, okay, while you were snoozing, y/n and I came up with part of a plan. Do you see that table over there to your right?"
I feel Steve's head look to his left.
"No, your other right," she says.
"Oh." He looks the other way.
"And do you see those scissors?" I ask.
"Uh-huh."
"Yeah, well, we think that if we move
at the same time, we could get over there," Robin continues, "and then maybe I could kick the table and knock them into your lap."
Steve catches on. "And I could cut the binds."
"Exactly. And then we could all get out of here," I finish with forced optimism.
The plan sucks big time. Assuming we got free, we would still have to sneak out past an army of heavily armed Russians. The probability of success is about a million to one, but we have to shoot our shot. If we don't try, we will certainly be stuck in here forever.
"Okay, yeah, we can totally do that," Steve agrees. "Those morons. They left scissors in here?"
Robin laughs. "Yeah, morons."
"Total morons!" I chuckle. "Okay, so, on the count of three, we're gonna hop."
"Okay, good, hop on three," Steve repeats. "I gotcha."
"Yep. Ready," Robin says.
"All right. One, two, three."
We all hop, scooting our little cluster about one foot closer to the scissors.
Robin gasps. "Okay, that worked. All right. Uh, let's try again."
"Right." I nod, preparing to hop again.
Robin starts the countdown. "One, two, three."
Using all the strength I have left in my legs, I push off the floor. We move about another foot closer.
"Holy shit, this is gonna work!" Robin exclaims.
"Don't jinx us!" I warn.
"Okay, sorry. Ready? Okay, one, two, three."
Our last kick and we topple over. My legs fly over my head as I fall backwards screaming. "Robinnn!"
Steve and Robin hit the floor with a loud thud. My fall is cushioned by their bodies under me. Robin's body starts trembling with sobs.
I stare up at the gray ceiling since that's all I can see. "Robin, don't cry. It's going to be okay."
Her body continues to shake. But instead of wet cries escaping her lips, it sounds more like a laugh.
"Are you laughing?" Steve asks.
She starts laughing her ass off. "Yeah."
"Jesus!" Steve mutters.
Then I start laughing.
"Not you, too."
"I'm so sorry!" I laugh harder. "I mean, it's just kind of funny how this all worked out!"
"Right?!" Robin says. "It's just... I can't believe... I'm gonna die in a secret Russian base with my best friend since middle school and Steve 'The Hair' Harrington. It's just too trippy, man."
I wheeze. "It's SO trippy, oh my God, Robin. It's trippy."
"We're not gonna die," Steve tries to reason. "We're gonna get out of here, okay? Just... You gotta let me just think for a second."
"You know, Steve," I begin, "I remember a short time ago, I was shouting at Jonathan to beat your ass because I didn't like you." I shrug as if it's no big deal. "Robin didn't like you. Me and her would talk about how we didn't like you—"
"Okay! I get it!"
"But then I got to know you. The real you. After you..."
"Changed," he finishes for me.
"Yeah. You used to be a big asshole, but somehow you were still 'King Steve'. All the girls loved you. All the guys wanted to be you. I never understood why people would idolize someone like you. But now that I've seen who you've become... Over the past few months and years, I've realized you're good, Steve Harrington." I stare up at the ceiling still. "You're actually a really good guy."
He's silent for a little while.
"Being all those things isn't all that great," he admits. "Seriously. It just baffles me. Everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it's all just... Bullshit. But I guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right?"
I close my eyes and let out a sigh. "I hope so, because it looks like we've messed up pretty big since we're all tied together in a secret Russian bunker under the mall, good as dead."
Robin laughs lightly. "At least it can't get any more messed up than this."
"I wish I'd been friends with you guys back in school," Steve confesses.
"What?" I ask, taken by surprise.
"It would've been fun if we had all hung out back then. Maybe you guys could've helped me pass some classes. You could've knocked some sense into me sooner. Maybe instead of being here, I'd be on my way to college right now."
I smile to myself at the thought of being friends with this Steve back in high school. Back then I really only had Robin, and then once the supernatural shit started happening, I got closer to Nancy and Jonathan. But it would've been nice to have good Steve back then.
"And I would have no idea that there were evil Russians beneath our feet," Robin says, "and I would be happily slinging ice cream with y/n and some other schmuck."
"And I would probably be up there with the kids right now, doing whatever they're doing. Dustin would've come to me anyway with the Russian code, and I would've done all I could to help him with it, but I never would've allowed him to come down here. Not just us two and Erica alone. No way." I turn my head to my right, catching a glimpse of Steve's fluffy hair. "But I'm glad I'm down here with my schmucks."
"I liked being one of your schmucks," Steve says. "It was fun while it lasted."
I nod. "It was."
A buzzer sounds and a metal door opens. Footsteps approach us. One of the guards from earlier hovers above me and laughs. "Where were you three going?" He clicks his tongue while shaking his head.
We're put upright again while the other Russians work around us. Some scientists are brought in with bottles and syringes and some other things.
The man bends down in front of Steve's face. "Try telling the truth this time, yes? It will make your visit with Dr. Zharkov less painful."
A man walks past me, approaching Steve. The man holds a weird injector gun thing in his hands, which starts making Steve nervous. "Wait a second. Wait. Hold on." He screams. "Okay! Wait, wait, wait! What is that thing?"
"It will help you talk." He grabs Steve's hair and holds his head back as he raises the injector gun to Steve's neck and sticks it in. A loud, painful cry comes from Steve.
Robin and I are next. They inject whatever that blue liquid is in us and then leave. I lean my head back against Steve's, staring up at the lights that seem prettier than before. They're all white like snow... Ah, snow. Annoying and fun at the same time. I remember sledding down Dustin's drive way with the Party several years back.
"Honestly, I don't really feel anything," Steve says. "Do you guys?"
"I mean, I... I feel fine," Robin answers.
"Yeah, totally," I say. "I feel completely normal."
"I kinda feel good," Steve says and we all three start laughing.
Robin leans her head against mine. "Wanna know a secret?"
I laugh. "Yes! Tell meee!"
"I like it, too!" She says. All three of us burst into fits of giggles. "I feel good."
"Morons," Steve giggles. "They messed up the drug."
"They messed it up!" I throw my head back cackling.
"Morons," Robin shouts. "Hey, morons!" She laughs some more, making us all laugh.
"That's such a funny word," I say. "Moron. Moooooroooon!"
Steve laughs at me. "Morons!"
Robin looks at the ceiling. "Moron! Mor... Hey!"
"Whoa-oh!"
"Oh, no. There's definitely something wrong with us," Robin realizes.
"Something's wrong," Steve repeats.
"Something's so wrong!" I wheeze.
The doors open and in walk the guards again.
"Uh-oh, time for a shake down!" I laugh. "Shaky shaky shake down. See if I'm hiding any weapons. And I am!" I try to bring my arms up to flex my guns, but then remember my arms are tied down.
One of the doctor scientist men starts lying scary tools on a silver table. One of the tools is a big sharp knife.
Robin sharply inhales at the sight of it. "Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?"
"Let's try this again, yes?" The Russian guard man asks.
Steve nods slightly. "M-hmm."
"Who do you work for?" He asks Steve.
"Scoops," he states casually. We all burst into giggles. "Scoops Ahoy."
The man doesn't laugh with us, and I don't understand why. Steve's freaking hilarious.
"How did you find us?"
"Totally by accident," Steve admits.
The man tells the doctor something in Russian and he picks up some kind of pretty, shiny tool that also looks scary. It looks like pliers.
"What is that shiny little toy?" Steve asks.
Robin watches him walk over to Steve. "Where you going with that, doc?"
"Is that real silver?" I muse. "Hope you're not secretly a werewolf, Steve."
Steve starts totally freaking out behind me, making me wonder if he actually is secretly a werewolf. I wouldn't be surprised if he was. The thought of that actually seems normal compared to the stuff that has happened in the past.
"Whoa, whoa, hey, hey," Steve screams. "Wait! No! Wait! Wait!"
I can't see what's happening, but Steve sounds like he's in pain. I can't stand to hear it. I can't stand to hear his screams of agony.
"There was a code! We heard a code!" I rush out.
"Code," the guard repeats, walking over to me. "What code?"
"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. All that shit. You broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town, and we picked it up on Cerebro, and we cracked it in a day thanks to..." I look back at Robin, trying to come up with a code name for her, "Bob- Bobin. She's a genius."
"A day!" Robin repeats. The man walks over to her as she talks. "You think you're so smart, but a few kids who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day, and now, people know you're here."
"Who knows we are here, сука?"
"Uh, well, Dustin knows," Steve says.
"Steve—" I try to warn him to use a code name for Dustin.
"Yeah, Dustin Henderson, he knows."
"Steve don't—" I begin.
"Steve!" Robin whines, throwing her head back in exasperation.
"Dustin Henderson," the guard man repeats. "It is your small, curly-haired friend?" He circles back to Steve.
"Oh, curly-haired. Great hair. Small. Kind of like a 'fro. Yeah."
"Where is he?"
"Ohhh, He's long gone, you big asshole. And he's probably calling Hopper, and Hopper's calling the US cavalry. They're gonna come in here, commando-style, guns a-blazin', and kick your sorry asses back to Russia. You're gonna be two pieces of toast." We all laugh our heads off at Steve's big monologue.
"Isn't commando when someone's naked?" I ask, and burst into laughter. "Just picture it! Guns and no clothes!"
Robin starts giggling like a maniac.
"Is that so?" The guard gets all up in Steve's face, keeping very close eye contact with him.
"Yeah," Steve says.
The three of us can't hardly breathe from our laughter.
I glance over to the guard man, seeing how close he is to Steve's face. "Oh, my God, Bobin, are they gonna kiss!?"
She snorts. "Are they!? I wanna see it!"
The man pulls away from Steve and steps back, leaving both Robin and I disappointed.
"Oh!" Robin says like she just remembered something. "Y/n, I think commando is when someone doesn't wear underwear..." she says through her giggles.
"Oh, my God, really!? Who would do that?" I throw my head back. "Imagine the chafing!"
All three of us wheeze from laughter.
The sirens start blaring and the Russian man's face falls to the floor with a frown.
I fake pout at him. "Aw, did big bad Russian man think we were lying?"
The man rushes out of the room, leaving us with the doctor.
Dustin charges through the door, holding a fancy electrical stick. He jabs it in the doctor's chest, electrocuting him so badly he falls to the floor, what I'm hoping is dead.
"Heyyy! Henderson!" Steve cheers as Dustin undoes our binds. "That's crazy, I was just talking about you."
I furrow my brows. "Rusty Dusty what are you doing here?"
Dustin's in an urgent haste, as his fingers fumble with our binds to undo them. "Get ready to run."
A/N
If anyone's looking for a REALLY good Steve fic, check out
Really? ||Steve Harrington x Female Reader|| By SheeshBeWithYou
It's really well written and an overall amazing fanfic.