July 3rd, 1985

Beneath Starcourt Mall

"Clear, come on, let's go." Steve cleared us in a hushed voice, waving us to follow behind him out of our hiding place behind a large metal crate.

After walking down the hall for seemingly hours, we stumbled into the center or the hub of the Russian fortress.

Though a large empty space made up the center of the fortress, the room was cramped, crowded with soldiers, scientists, and guards at every way out. There was no need to be as quiet as were, the fortress was far from silent. Loud voices filled the room, speaking in thick Russian accents to one another or over walkies while their footsteps echoed loudly around us.

"That was close..." Robin whispered as we ducked behind another crate, cramming ourselves together uncomfortably in order to stay out of the guards' sight. "Too close." Dustin mumbled in response. "Relax, nobody saw us." Steve scoffed as he waved for us to follow behind him, ultimately ending in us squatting back down as a guard approached our hiding spot.

"Shit..." Steve muttered, running a hand through his hair as he tried peering over the edge of the cabinet. "I saw it!" Erica rushed in a hushed voice. "Saw what?" I questioned with a quirked brow, what could she have possibly seen in that one second. "First floor, northwest." She whispered in response.

Steve held in his scoff as he turned to face Erica, "And that means what, exactly?" He questioned.

"The comms room." She stated, leaning forward in her place to get in Steve's face. "You saw the comms room?" I questioned her quietly, moving her back into her place. "Are you sure?" Robin whispered as she peered past the side of the cabinet. "Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there." She informed us, causing Steve to scrunch his face in equal parts confusion and disbelief.

"That could be a hundred different things." Steve scoffed but Erica quickly shook her head at the response, staying confident with her observation and assumption. Turning to Steve with a frown, I nodded in agreement with the girl. "I'll take those odds." I mumbled softly, causing Steve to take in a sharp breath, his eyes boring into mine as if pleading for me to take back what I had said.

Peering back over the edge of the cabinet, Steve quickly turned to face the four of us. "All right..." He muttered finally before grabbing onto my hand tightly. "We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?" He questioned, waiting for us to agree with his instructions.

Once we nodded in agreement, Steve turned away from us, hand still tightly locked around mine before he led us through the center of the room, staying low and quickly ducking behind the next crate. Steve checked the coast before waving for us to follow behind him, the door was in sight, the only problem was the keycard lock.

We watched as a man in a white lab coat approached the door through the window that was connected to the comms room before swinging the door open and hurrying out, file in hand, giving us just the right amount of time to break-in.

"Let's go." Steve whispered, waving us toward him as he caught the door before it could close, rushing us inside the room before closing the door behind us. Letting out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding, I grinned up at Steve who kept himself planted in front of the door.

"Shit..." Dustin's voice caught both of us off guard, when we turned to look at what the other three had spotted, we found that their eyes rested on something in front of us. Well, someone in front of us.

Turning around, Steve and I came face to face with a very confused-looking guard, hand hovering over his holster as his eyes darted between each of us.

"Ступайте налегке!" Robin yelled out, holding her hand up at the guard as she quickly took a step away from us. The man's brow quirked in confusion, his hand staying in its place above the gun. "Ступайте налегке." She repeated again, this time gentler as she slowly approached him.

"Кто ты?" He questioned, shaking his head at the teen's words.

"Серебряный кот... Серебряный кот." She answered slowly, gesturing a hand at herself before waving a hand behind her. "Я не понимаю." He mumbled, continuing to shake his head in confusion. "Китай?" She added awkwardly, only this time the man's confusion melted away, now replaced by annoyance as he released a scoff, lowering his hand onto the gun strapped to his hip.

Steve yelled out suddenly grabbing all of our attention, turning to face him, we watched as he lunged at the guard while his defenses were down.

Pushing him backward onto the control panel, Steve attempted to land a punch on guard only for the man to quickly avoid the hit and push Steve away from him, throwing towards the opposite side of the room.

Throwing a punch at Steve, the guard narrowly missed as Steve fell backward on a separate control panel, watching as the man's fist nearly grazed him. Groaning in frustration, the guard latched both of his hands onto Steve's sailor uniform, bunching the material tightly in his hands before throwing him onto the ground.

Lifting Steve off of the ground with one hand, the man didn't anticipate Steve bringing his elbow back into his chest, quickly shoving the guard off as he grabbed onto the intercom receiver beside him, tossing it between both hands before slamming it into the guard's temple. If the hit wasn't enough to knock the guard out, him slamming his head against the corner of the control panel on his way down was.

The four of us stood frozen in our spot, watching as Steve panted in his place above the man's body, quickly running a hand through his hair as he dropped the receiver on the ground.

"Dude!" Dustin shouted suddenly, pulling our attention away from the guard. "You did it! You won a fight!" Steve released a nervous chuckle as he looked back down at the guard. "Jeez..." He mumbled, seemingly impressed with himself.

"How about we get out of here first and celebrate later?" I questioned, hurrying past Dustin and kneeling beside the guard to pull his keycard off of his belt loop. "What are you doing?" Erica questioned as she watched me with a furrowed brow. "Getting us our ticket out of here." I grinned before flashing the piece of plastic at her.

Erica released a scoff, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "You want to walk all the way back?" She questioned with a frown. "Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe." Dustin muttered sarcastically as he squinted his eyes down at the girl.

Rolling her eyes at the two, Robin wandered away from us and towards the opposite side of the room. "Have a picnic?" Erica scoffed, getting in Dustin's face. "We came here for the radio."

"This plan is way better. If I knew Steve could knock out a Russian, that would've been our plan in the first place." Dustin argued, causing Steve to furrow his brow and mumble, "Hey..." Under his breath.

"But I guess you're--" "Guys." Dustin's snide comment was quickly interrupted by Robin as she rushed back towards us. "There's something up there..." She mumbled, waving towards the stairs that lurked behind her, a faint blue light shining down its path.

Carefully making our way up the stairs, Robin held the door open for us as we hurried inside the room that was illuminated by a bright blue beam.

Breaking away from the group, I approached the window that overlooked the scene before us. To Erica and Robin, I'm sure they couldn't make out what they were seeing. It could only be described as a high-power energy ray, its beam focused on the stone wall before it. Its purpose was to get to whatever lingered behind it.

But Steve, Dustin, and I knew what lingered there. It made my blood run cold as I watched the crack in the wall grow wider and wider. That green substance that Steve had found was being used to power this machine. It was being used to open the gate.

"Will..." I whispered, quickly regretting leaving him at Mike's. "It's the gate." I whispered, turning to face Steve and Dustin who stood beside me while Erica and Robin peered out the other window. "The what?" Erica questioned, raising her brow as she glared up at the three of us, while Robin crossed her arms from behind her.

"We need to go." I rushed, pulling Erica and Dustin out of the room, Steve and Robin following close behind us. "I don't understand. You've seen this before?" She continued to question as we hurried down the stairs. "Not exactly." Steve mumbled, "Then what, exactly?" Robin questioned.

Shrugging his shoulders, Dustin answered her question plainly. "All you need to know is it's bad." He stated. "It's really bad." Steve mumbled. "Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad." Dustin added pointedly.

"And you know about this how?" Robin questioned, stopping me in place as I tried to avoid the question. "It... It's kind of a long story." I frowned, stumbling over my words as she looked between the three of us.

"Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" Erica's voice pulled us out of our current topic of discussion. Steve's eyes widened before he hesitantly looked to his left, finding that the guard was in fact missing, and all that remained was a few spots of blood on the floor.

"Steve, no!" I screamed, watching as he quickly ran towards the door, the sound of an alarm blared above us before a red light flashed across the room. But Steve didn't hesitate, throwing open the door to watch as the guards gathered around the injured man who pointed in our direction.

"Останавливаться! Останавливаться!" A guard yelled as Steve slammed the door shut. "Shit..." He whispered, staring at me with wide eyes. "Why are we just standing here!" Erica yelled as she, Robin, and Dustin rushed back up the stairs, Steve and I following close behind. "Move! Move!" Steve yelled out as we ran into the separate room, throwing open the door that connected to the room that held the machine.

Scientists stopped what they were doing, looking back at us in confusion as we raced past them and down the stairs to their left, the Russian guards following close behind us.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin screamed as we approached the direction of the ray, only to find that it was a dead end. Well, that wasn't completely true. We could always jump to what I could only presume to be our death as the space before the wall seemed never-ending.

Pulling Steve closer to my side, he quickly shook his head at the action. He wasn't giving up that easily. "Come on, this way!" He yelled, pulling me behind him as he spotted a lone staircase that led out of the room and down to an unknown destination.

A guard stood at the end of the staircase, blocking our way out only to be pushed to the side and over the railing by Steve. Hurrying down the stairs, a single door laid at the end of the hallway, it was our only chance.

Rushing to the door that thankfully wasn't locked, we hurried inside, Steve pressing his shoulder against the door just as the guards caught up with us while Robin, Dustin, Erica, and I looked for any way out of the room.

"A little help!" Steve yelled out, straining as he tried to keep the door closed. Robin and I were quick to help, pressing our backs against the door to keep it shut as the guards struggled to push it open. "Here! Come on!" Erica yelled as she pulled a grate off of the floor. "Come on!" Dustin yelled, waving us over.

"Go with them." Steve stated, his tone serious as he turned to face me. "What? No, I'm staying with you." I quickly shook my head as I pressed my back harder into the door. "Take this and get out of here!" I yelled at Dustin, throwing the keycard towards him, he quickly caught it before ducking into the vent. "Get some help!" I yelled as we continued to keep the door closed, watching as Dustin grabbed onto the grate. "I won't forget you!" He yelled out.

Just as Dustin slammed the gate closed, the guards succeeded in pushing us away from the door, throwing it open with such a force we fell to the ground with a harsh smack.

Pushing ourselves away from the men, Steve pulled me into his side as the soldier aimed their guns down at us.