Twenty-four: Brace For Impact
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The three girls were at Y/n's house, all peacefully sleeping.
Max's back was facing Y/n, and Y/n's arm was wrapped around Max's waist. Their legs were entangled, and
Y/n's head rested on top of Max's. El had her back facing Max with the redhead's arm resting over her.
Their pleasant sleep was interrupted by Lucas's voice through Y/n's walkie.
"Y/n, you there? This is a code red. I repeat, this is a code red."
Y/n was pissed when she had to let go of Max to turn off her walkie. She reached behind her to her nightstand and grabbed the radio. "Shut. Up." She said bluntly before turning it off and wrapping her arm back around Max.
The contact never failed to give both girls butterflies, no matter how many times they would cuddle. Every single time, both girls got butterflies.
Then the phone rang. Harshly slammed the blankets down next to her, and walked over to the phone with hard, heavy steps.
"I'm sleeping, go awa-"
"Y/n?"
"Dustin?"
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El had gone to Mike's to see if what was going on and if it related to Billy and his odd behavior. Y/n and Max had decided to go to Scoops Ahoy because of the intriguing news they received. Dustin said that they translated the Russian, and then Robin cracked it.
So now Max, Y/n, Robin, Steve, Dustin, and to their utter surprise, Erica. The young Sinclair's presence made Y/n question how she even got here. "Wait, Dustin, why didn't you want the others here?"
"Because you two are the only ones that didn't ditch me on the hill the other day."
Y/n gave a single nod. "Right."
"More fudge please." Erica told Steve as she pushed the ice cream sundae in front of her towards the boy. Max let out an annoyed sigh and rested her head on Y/n's shoulder. The two girls's hands were connected with interlocked fingers under the table. Robin gave a suspicious squint and a smirk at the two girls before raising her eyebrows with a face that said 'Anyways...' and turning her head back to Erica to explain the plan.
Said plan was that Erica would take a certain path through the air vents - as she was the only one that would fit - and arrive inside a Russian base to then open the door for the others. They would go inside, find out what was so important about the base, and stop the Russians from whatever they were planning.
Easy!
"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like? Child endangerment." Erica told the teens.
"We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time-"
"Ah-ah-ah." Erica interrupted Robin. "Child. Endangerment."
"Erica." Dustin started, getting the young girl's attention. "We think these Russians are planning to do great harm to our country. Don't you love your country?"
"You can't spell America without Erica."
Max and Y/n lifted their heads to look at each other, exchanging confused glances.
"Uh- yeah, oddly, that's... Totally true. So do it for your country. Do it for your peers. Do it for America... Erica." Dustin spoke.
Erica stopped the slurping and looked at Dustin. "Ooh. I just got the chills." She said, causing Dustin to smile proudly. "Oh yeah." She chortled. "From this float, not your speech." She finished, and Dustin's smile fell. "You know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"Mhm."
"It's that people should be rewarded according to how much value their contributions are. And it seems to me that my ability to fit into that little vent is very valuable to you all. If you want me in that vent, you got me. But this U.S.S Butterscotch must be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream... For. Life." Erica finished before dramatically eating the cherry off her ice cream.
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Y/n sat on a rooftop, looking over at this secret Russian bunker. "You see it?" Robin spoke to Erica through the walkie-talkie.
"Yeah, I see those stupid boxes you're all excited about."
"Anyone there?"
"Negative."
"Booby traps?" Robin asked for the fun of it, earning a smile from Y/n.
"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?"
"Now all you have to do is get in the room so you can open it from the inside." Y/n explained, leaning over to Robin so shr could speak unit the radio."
"Alright. Commence operation: Child Endangerment."
"Could we not call it that?" Robin asked into the walkie.
"See you on the other side, nerds."
Not long after Erica said that, the doors to the base opened, revealing Erica inside. "Free ice cream For. Life." Erica said from below.
!!!
The group now found themselves in the room, surrounded by boxes. "Nice job, kid." Y/n smiled, holding her hand up. Erica gave a victorious smile before giving Y/n a high-five.
Steve opened up a box, revealing another box inside, except this one was metal. "Hey, you guys might wanna step back." Steve told them, and everyone backed up besides Dustin. "No."
"Dude, just back up."
"No."
"Just-"
"Dustin, just-" Y/n butted in as she reached for Dustin's hand to pull him back.
"Dustin-" Max joined
"No!" Dustin refused, removing his hand from
Y/n's grip before turning back to Steve. "If you die, I die."
"...Okay." Steve said before twisting a handle on the metal container. Y/n squeezed her eyes shut and mentally prepared herself for whatever might happen. Impact, a loud noise, anything, really. Nothing happened, and Steve lifted a cylindrical container from the box. It was filled with some weird green substance, and it looked like it came from a comic.
"Well, that's definitely not Chinese food." Robin said, causing Y/n and Max to look at her. Robin looked back at the girls before glancing down at their joined hands, then back at them with a knowing look. The two younger teens looked at their hands before letting go of each other's, avoiding eye contact with anyone as their faces heated up and both turned red. Robin smirked before turning back to face the box. "Let's take this and go." She said, grabbing the the container from Erica.
Dustin walked over to the panel with a bunch of buttons, but when he pressed 'Open Door', nothing happened. "Hey... Hey, guys? Erica? It's not working."
"Just press the button, nerd." Erica told him. "I'm pressing the button!" He informed her. "Press open door!"
"I'm pressing open door!"
"It's not working?" Y/n asked. "No! Nothing's happening." He told the girl. "Move." Y/n demanded, walking over to Dustin and shoving him out of the way. Y/n pressed the button reading 'Open Door', and nothing happened. Dustin moved her out of the way and continued to press random buttons. "Dustin, we don't even know what those other buttons do." Max spoke up. The curly headed boy continued to mash random buttons, ignoring Max's statement.
But after Dustin pressed a certain button, a metal barrier came down, blocking every wall, locking everyone in.
"Shit." Y/n muttered before the room started shaking. The shaking got more and more intense before Y/n looked down and saw floors passing faster each time as she felt wind blowing from under the door. She looked to Max and grabbed her hand. "Brace yourselves!"
Y/n shouted, pressing herself against a corner. The hand that was holding Max's was now entirely around the redhead, and her free hand was placed on the back of her neck, protecting her brain stem. Max looked at the girl before copying her actions. "Protect the back of your neck!" She screamed, causing Robin and Erica to listen and follow the instruction, but Steve and Dustin were too busy panicking. Y/n couldn't really blame them.
Y/n reached forward to grab Erica, pulling her to the corner with her and Max. Max put the arm that wasn't holding her neck over one of Erica's shoulders, protectively keeping her close.
Y/n squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for impact when it finally came, Y/n drifted forward a bit just to slam against the wall, hitting her head and immediately losing her grip on Max as everything went black.
a/n:
This chapter was longer, so, hope you liked it! (Robin knows 💀)
1425 words.