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c h a p t e r f i f t y - t h r e e
"Okay, that is a lot to process," Suzie fiddles with her hands as she attempts to digest what Mike has just explained to her. "I mean, that might be seriously the craziest thing I've ever heard."
"I know, it's-it's hard to believe," Mike admits.
"But it's true. All true."
"Right," she nods, skeptically. "So, I dial into this computer and find a location, and at this location is the Nina Project?"
"Exactly."
"And the Nina Project is the code name for a video game?"
"No, it's not just a video game, it's a video game console."
"Big difference," Bianca adds.
"It's basically America's answer to Nintendo," Will explains.
"Americantendo!" Argyle interjects.
"That's a stupid name."
"Yeah, a really stupid name," Bianca gives a pointed look to him. "But it's 16-bit."
"Sixteen-bit?" she gasps.
"Sixteen-bit," Mike nods.
"Why have I never heard of it?"
"Because it's top secret."
"That's why we're doing this."
"Yeah, right, it's for the promotion. The first people to find the secret location receive a..."
"Americantendo?"
"Uh, an Americantendo," Mike begrudgingly agrees.
"So, you drove 3,000 miles over your Spring Break so I can help you get a new video game console no one has ever heard of?"
"Yes," they say in unison, blank stares on their faces.
"But it's not for us. It's for Dustin."
"Right, exactly, for Dustin," Bianca nods with a grin.
"Yep, it's for Dustin. It's for Dustin's birthday actually, which is uh..."
"In two months, three days, five hours," she responds, extremely quickly.
"I was gonna say that," Bianca jokes.
"Suzie," Eden barges into the room, annoyance in her tone. "I don't know what you're doing, but I am not spending the entire day babysitting. Pull your damn weight!"
"Language!"
"Oh no, am I gonna burn in hell now?"
"You tell her, Eden," Argyle wistfully remarks.
"Out of my room," Suzie pushes her out, locking the door behind her.
"Sisters, am I right?" Bianca leans forward, a grin on her face. "Okay, so can you help?"
"I would do anything for Dustybun," she sighs, making Bianca and Mike share a grossed-out look, hoping that this wasn't what they used to sound like. "But, I'm afraid there's been an unfortunate development."
"Define unfortunate," Bianca narrows her eyes.
"After changing Dusty's grade, I was wracked with the most awful guilt. Father could see my soul was tortured, and he wrenched a confession out of me. Not only was I breaking the law, I was dating an agnostic. An agnostic. I've never seen Father so angry."
"She is Mormon," Bianca whispers to Will as if this was the final indicator.
"Naturally, after learning the terrible truth, he confiscated my computer. And Father is not one to change his mind. I'm as likely to see it again as I am my poor Dustybun."
"Where is it?"
"His study. He uses it for work now, and Father's always working, and his door is, like, permanently locked. I'm really sorry. Truly. But it looks like you came all the way here for nothing."
Then, the power goes out again, giving her an idea. "Unless..."
"Unless?"
"There might be another way. But we're gonna need help. And I mean a lot of help."
"Lucky for you, you've got a zoo in here," Bianca grins. "And we happen to be great at espionage."
_____
Meanwhile, Eddie tells the group exactly what went down at Lover's Lake, perched on a rock as everyone surrounds him.
"When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh..." he takes a sip of water. "My walkie was busted. Drenched. So I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran."
"Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Nancy asks.
"Yeah, no. I know exactly what time it was. My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked," he removes his watch, tossing it to the brunette.
"9:27," she reads.
"Same time our flashlights went kablooey," Robin adds.
"Which means what, exactly?"
"It means I was right," Sam smiles proudly. "That light fiasco was Vecna attacking Patrick."
"Well, we're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks."
"And where he attacks from."
"So now, we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart."
"If he even has a heart."
"A stake? Is he like a vamp- Is he a vampire?" Steve questions.
"Too ugly for that," Sam shakes her head, shivering at the short glimpse of him she'd gotten in a dream.
"It was a metaphor."
"A bullet should work on him, right?"
"I say we chop his head off," Lucas suggests, making Dawn high-five him.
"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Sinclair," the blonde points. "I agree. All the stops."
"Yeah, yeah, all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the Upside Down," Nancy reminds them of their predicament.
"We need El to get her powers back."
"Even if she did, she's across the country, with our siblings, who apparently can't answer the phone," Sam adds, pointing between herself and Nancy.
"Everything was way easier. We had this girl, she had, like, superpowers."
"Yeah, uh, you mentioned her. Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?" Eddie draws attention to Dustin's pacing form.
"Cursed? No, no, he's fine," Steve shakes his head. "Mental? Absolutely."
"Yeah, and getting on my nerves," Dawn elbows her brother, earning a glare. "What is your deal?"
"Boom!" he shouts, slowly approaching and pointing a teasing finger at Steve. "Bada... Bada... Boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north."
"Seriously? You're serious?" Steve incredulously asks.
"Mhm."
"This is Skull Rock. Okay, you're totally, absolutely, 100 percent wrong. Right now!" Steve gestures to the huge boulder next to him.
"Yes. And no."
"There are so many things wrong with you," Dawn mutters.
"This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheeler's," he holds up the device. "It was correct when we got in the car on Kerley, but it started to slip the further east we went. Now, it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."
"So you're using faulty equipment, dude. You're still wrong."
"Except it isn't faulty," he sighs, wishing Bianca were here right now, as she would understand immediately. "Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?"
"An electromagnetic field," Lucas gasps.
"Yep."
"I'm sorry, I must have skipped that class?" Robin scratches her head.
"I second that," Sam raises her hand.
"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power. So either there's a super big magnet around here, or-"
"There's a gate."
"But we're nowhere near the lab."
"But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It has to be smaller, way less powerful."
"Snack-size gate."
"How? Why?"
"No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max and Sam from this curse."
"Wait, but if Eleven opened the original gate," Dawn looks up. "Who or what opened this one?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Come on," Dustin waves her off, beginning to go deeper into the woods.
"Where are you going?" Sam stands, as Steve shouts, "Hey, hey, hey, hey."
"What?"
"Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go on a hike in the woods."
"This little steel capsule might just be the key to saving Max, Sam, and Eddie. What say you, Eddie the Banished?" he turns to Eddie.
"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But uh, the Shire, the Shire is burning. So Mordor it is."
"What are they saying?" Sam whispers to Dawn.
"They're speaking nerd, I have no idea," she shrugs.
Everyone accepts that as a yes, while Steve whispers to himself, "What is Mordor?"
"I think it's a metaphor," Sam theorizes, as Eddie makes a quick return to the rock to grab his things.
"Get your stuff, dude, let's go," Steve scolds.
_____
Bianca was a humble genius if she did say so herself. She'd only admit to being an expert at two things, elementary astrophysics and tricking parents.
Exhibit A: All she needed was a little nudge from Suzie and she was commanding every unruly child in the house to take part in her plan to break into Suzie's dad's study.
"And now!" she whispers to Cornelius through a walkie-talkie.
"Cornelius!" Father exits the room, leaving the door open as he searches for the boy downstairs.
This gives them the perfect opportunity to run into the study, Suzie finding her place in front of the computer.
"And three, two..." Suzie counts, the lights coming right back on.
"Oh my God, way to go, Cornelius," Mike grins, and Bianca takes that as her cue that the rest of the kids were also playing their part.
"And we're in," Suzie announces.
"Holy sh- Heck," Mike immediately corrects himself. "Holy heck. You did it."
"Holy heck," Bianca snorts.
"Hold your applause, I don't see an address," she continues typing
"Office. Try office."
"What is all this?" she frowns at the seemingly neverending lines of code.
"Maybe it's hidden in the code somehow?"
"What you just said makes no sense."
"Like zero," Bianca adds.
"Hold your butts, I'll just trace the IP."
"The I-what?"
"The internet protocol address. It's a unique numerical lab given to all information technology connected to the internet," she explains, only producing more confusion.
"What's the internet?"
"Don't worry about it. It's just gonna change the world."
"Suspicious," Bianca narrows her eyes, checking her watch. "What's happening now? Based on my calculations, we're running out of time."
"I'm running the IP through a geolocation software. Basically a form of data mining," she continues to type, before clicking Return. "Bingo."
Surely enough, a line of coordinates pops up, and under it says, "Nevada."
"Nevada?"
"Can you print this?" Mike asks.
"No, my skills end at IP geolocation," she deadpans, clicking the Print button.
"You were being sarcastic."
"I love this girl," Bianca chuckles, hearing footsteps. "We should probably go now."
"Agreed," Suzie grabs the paper, leading them outside, where they walk right past her father on the stairs. "Hi Father, you look like you need a nap."
"Slow down!" he shouts, not even commenting on the four strangers in his home.
"Dustin's right," Mike accepts the sheet as they make it outside. "You're a certified genius."
"Like next level," Bianca agrees, face scrunching up as they approach the van.
Suzie's does as well, making her look around in confusion. "I think we just spooked a skunk."
"No skunk here," Bianca opens the back of the van, rolling her eyes at the smoke leaving it. "Just Purple Palm Tree Delight."
"Yo, my dudes. Any luck?"
"Thanks again, Suzie," Bianca sighs, turning to the brunette who was still looking on in horror. "It was nice to meet you."
"You too. Even if you guys are a bit... eccentric."
"We're eccentric?" Bianca furrows her eyebrows. "Right..."
"Good luck finding Americantendo!" she nods, ushering Eden out of the car.
"Good luck with the internet!"
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a/n: suzie is the realest