THEY KICKED YOUR ASS
INTO DELUSION !

☀︎

TIME HAD CONTINUED TO TICK BY. The world could have stopped and the three would never have noticed-- not at this moment at least. Robin, Steve, and Alex had sat strapped together with drugs pumping through their system and they had felt fine. It was a strange feeling for the group. The panic had washed away, and the worry they had once held onto seemed to have vanished in thin air. It was exhilarating. It was enough to have them smile.

Alex had swallowed hard, resting her head back against Steve's as her eyes traveled up the ceiling. This Russian base was no longer scary, it was comforting. It wasn't too cold to have her on edge and it wasn't so warm she was uncomfortable. Everything was clean and tidied up. They could have cut her free and she would have never moved, stuck to her seat with a dopey look stuck on her face as if this had been the greatest day of her life.

Steve had felt almost too at ease. It was nice, but he needed to be sure that he was not the only one that had felt this way. "Honestly, I don't really feel anything. Do you two?"

"I mean, I-I feel fine," Robin whispered. Her eyes had shifted across the room but she saw no reason to panic. Perhaps this man truly was a great doctor and to question his abilities seemed almost unreasonable at this moment. She had only felt one thing, so why doubt it. "I feel normal."

Alex had not been so quick to answer as her attention had been brought somewhere completely different. She could swear the room was spinning and turning every which way, but the trick was, if she had focused on it, it would stop. It turned into a game for her-- try and catch the room before it could trick her once more.

Steve rolled his head over to look in her direction, but she had been lost. Her eyes were wide and unfocused despite her mind telling her this was the sharpest she had ever been. "Alex," he whispered softly. "Alex, are you alive?"

Never pulling her eyes off the wall, she had smiled when she had heard his voice beside her ear. "I feel..." her voice trailed off as her focus shifted for that split second and she finally pulled her eyes off the wall. "I feel fine," she whispered in a single breath of air.

"Yeah, I feel fine," he agreed then it all turned into a joke to him. "I kinda feel good," he mumbled. To the three, it had been the most ridiculously funny statement he could have made. All three had leaned their heads back against one another as they began to giggle at the idea of feeling this incredibly good. "Morons," he called out in his fit of laughter. "They messed up the drug."

"They messed it up!" Robin laughed. It had only sprung another group laughter that had the group calling out to the Russian guards that were nowhere near them, reminding them that they had been morons and they were only having a great time. It was until Robin had grown wide-eyed that she realized that maybe this was not how they would be normally acting. "Oh, no. There's definitely something wrong with us."

"Somethings wrong," Steve repeated in a small giggle.

Heart erupting when she had heard Steve's laughter, Alex had bit her lower lip, feeling the butterflies threaten to burst out from all the love she had felt inside. "Steve, guess what?"

"Hm?"

"We're adopting Robin. She doesn't have a choice anymore. We love her."

"Oh my God, I love that," he whispered, "Robin, we love you."

"Maybe something is just very wrong with you two," Robin whispered. Her smile, however, was a dead giveaway that this was all she had wanted. She may have been clueless about the events the kids had teased the two endlessly about, but she knew that those kids were people that Steve and Alex could never let go of. To be a part of that, was everything. It made her glad that there was something wrong with them.

The three had continued to laugh at the nothingness around them. Alex's head had turned down, looking down at her lap as she laughed to herself.

A buzzer had gone off and filing in had been the guards followed with Dr. Zharkov, case in hand. Steve and Robin had grown silent, their smiles falling into worried frowns, frozen as if they were afraid they would only be noticed if they had moved. Stepping forward, a guard had grabbed ahold of Alex's hair, lifting her head to be certain she was still alive. Little did he know, she was more than fine, still smiling. "Peek-a-boo!"

Erupting in laughs, Steve and Robin had forgotten all about their fears. Even as the doctor had begun to lay out his tools, they had never failed to find the fun in it all. "Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't like doctors?" Robin had questioned innocently but the doctor had been unfazed.

With the click of his boots, the guard had made his way around to Steve, holding his head high. Placing his hands behind his back, he had looked down on him as a means of intimidation. "Let's try this again, yes? Who do you work for?"

Nodding his head as he licked his lips, Steve prepared himself to try and fight back a laugh, "Scoops... Scoops Ahoy."

Scrunching up her nose, Alex had silently laughed to herself at his answer. It was extremely truthful and she knew he had hoped for him to say some military base that would give him what he had needed to better prepare for what was to come to this base. Only these three were barely making any money working at Scoops Ahoy and as a babysitter all summer, and still they had managed to stumble down here for free. The Russian officer was not amused, however. "How did you find us?"

"Totally by accident."

The Russian officer had narrowed his eyes at Steve, returning to standing tall. There was no chance that the three would be able to leave here with what he had seen as a lie of it all being one accident. Pulling his eyes off of Steve, he had locked in on the doctor, giving him the all-clear to proceed with what they had planned.

The doctor did not hesitate as he reached for his tray of tools, picking the one that he had seen as the best to begin. Robin and Alex had watched him curiously, their heads tilted off to the side as they tried their best to understand what he could be doing.

When the doctor had made his way over to Steve, Steve's eyes had grown wide, unable to take his eyes off the tool that was soon to be used on him. "What is that shiny little toy?"

Alex had sat frozen in fear, sitting perfectly still to be out of the doctor's mind. Out of sight, out of mind. It had seemed like a flawless plan until he had pried Steve's fist into an open palm. "Don't hurt him, doc," she whispered. "He can be sensitive."

Ignoring her soft pleads, the doctor had taken a hold of one of Steve's fingers, clamping his pliers onto a nail. Steve had no choice but to scream and beg the moment it had held on, hoping to escape with the tugs he had given to his hand. Unable to sit back and watch, Alex had closed her fists to protect her nails, hunching herself over as she yelled over Steve. "There was a code! We heard a code! Just stop, please!"

Turning his head, the doctor had loosened his grip on Steve's nail and looked to the officer in charge. Curious about this new set of information, he had held his hands behind his back as he made his way around to Alex. "Code," he repeated back. Moving one of his hands out, he grabbed her by her hair and lifted her head for a look into her eyes. "What code?"

"The week is long... the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. Blah, blah, blah," Robin called over to him. When he had dropped Alex's head, he had found his attention on Robin Buckley for some answers. "You broadcast that stupid spy shit all over town, and we picked it up on our Cerebro! And we cracked it in a day! A day! You think you're so smart but a couple of 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, suchka?" he yelled.

"Uh, Dustin knows," Steve said with a small laugh over his shoulder. "Yeah, Dustin Henderson, he knows. That's my girlfriend's brother. Right, Alex? Dustin is your brother, tell him."

"Dustin Henderson? It is your small, curly-haired friend?"

"Oh, curly-haired. Great hair! Small. Kind of like a 'fro. Yeah, that's him."

"Hey, Steve," Alex whispered with a worried expression. "Shut up."

Ignoring Alex completely, the officer had known that he was getting the answers he was looking for all thanks to Steve Harrington. All he needed to do was keep his focus on him and everything would be pouring out. "Where is he?"

"Oh, he's long gone, you big asshole. And he's probably calling Hopper like Alex told him to and Hopper's calling the U.S. cavalry," Steve drawled on with a small laugh. It had felt good to gloat but at a cost that would ruin everything. However, seeing that Steve had no care in ratting out her brother, Alex had seen no reason not to boast herself.

"And all of our kids, you son of a bitch! That's right. Father of too many children and guess what? All crazy. That's right, one drugged her brother and knocked him on his ass! She'll kill you too!" Alex screamed until she heard Steve's laughs, causing her to laugh just as loud.

"They're all 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," Steve called out before the laughter had once again consumed him.

"Is that so?"

Pausing his laughter, Steve still didn't bother to hide his smirk as he gave a calm shrug. "Yeah."

Everyone in the room had found themselves laughing but not all for the same reasons. Each had felt that the other had bested the other. In reality, the ones that had the reason to be laughing were Dustin Henderson and Erica Sinclair. Seeing that there wasn't time to go find help and get back to save the three, they had come up with a plan they felt was going to give them all a chance.

The laughter had stopped when the alarms had gone off, blaring throughout the facility. The Russian officer had felt his smile fade away as he looked towards the door in anticipation. Eyes lingering back towards the group, he had seen Steve give him a cocky smile.

"There's our kids, asshole," Alex said, causing the laughter to uprise again among the three. Leaving them behind with Dr. Zharkov, the officer had immediately dismissed himself to see what had been happening. The doctor anxiously held onto his tool as he looked to the door in hopes of the officer's return. However, when that door had flung open, it had been the fearless Dustin Henderson and Erica Sinclair.

Without any hesitation in his actions, Dustin had come in with a rod that at the very end acted as a tazer, however, this one was designed with enough strength to send a demogorgon to the ground. When he had hit the doctor in the chest with it, it didn't take long for him to crumble to the ground.

For a moment, the laughter had subsided between the three as they watched in utter shock at Dustin's bravery. That was until a collective group of smiles resumed on their faces when he had dropped the rod and turned to them with heavy breaths.

Dropping to his knees in front of Steve, Dustin began to work on his binds while Erica worked on Robins. "Hey, Henderson! That's crazy, I was just talking about you can you believe that shit? Mom and Dad are safe."

Glancing up to Steve, Dustin was at a loss for words. This was very clearly not the state that he had left them in. Given the blood and bruises that covered Steve's swollen face, he had come to one conclusion. "They kicked your ass into delusion, didn't they?"

Dustin's question was answered, but not in the way that he had expected. Erica Sinclair had moved on to freeing Alex, which had sparked a conversation for the rest to hear. "Oh, my god, Erica," she gushed in the giddiness of her voice. "You didn't kill my brother! Do you want a family? We'll adopt you. We already adopted Robin."

"No," Dustin whispered in disbelief as he rose to his feet. "What the hell did they do to my sister?"

Stretching out, the three had flexed their wrists, finally getting the chance to see one another face to face after what they had felt had been a lifetime. Alex had a bright smile when she had seen Robin, but when she had turned to Steve, her face had flushed into worry and panic. Reaching out, she had cupped his face in her hands. "Your beautiful face. They tried to ruin it."

Breaking her hands away from him, Dustin had tried to regather the group for more pressing matters. "Guys, cut the crap. We need to run, like, this second."

"Oh, oh," Alex groaned anxiously. Waving her hand out, she needed everyone to understand the struggle that had made her so deeply upset. "Can I please hold Steve's hand while we run? I'm just... I'm, like, not feeling good, man. I-I need him."

"I don't give a shit," Dustin stated sharply. Seeing this as a complete win, Alex had reached for Steve's hand to hold onto. Dustin had rolled his eyes as he ushered the three along with him and Erica. They had a plan set in motion that they had hoped would have been a lot easier for everyone to follow, however, after discovering new conditions, they had to make it a bit more pressing. "We have a car," Dustin called over his shoulder. "You three hop in the back."

"Oh, my god," Steve whispered over to Alex. "I think Erica should drive."

"I can drive fine though," Alex mumbled. Reaching her free hand out, she had tried to snap her fingers to get her brother's attention. "Give me the keys, man, I got this. I'm a pro."

"Give me a break. You can't even ride a bike," he scoffed. Hating to not agree with Alex, Robin had regretfully nodded her head in agreement. Given she had experienced an Alex Henderson bike ride her very self, she was very confident that she would not trust her behind the wheel.

Taking another turn, Alex had raised a finger in the air with her eyes shut, allowing Steve to lead her along with him. "I have a confession," she struggled to say. "I've got a lot of things happening in my head right now. It's pretty freaky."

"Because they did something to you," Erica snapped. "Now will you shut up?" Her question had finished just as she had come to a stop before the small red vehicle, but she had been far from done with her thoughts. "No one wants to hear about your problems when we're running away from some psycho commies. Now get in the damn car."

Alex had opened her mouth but when she had gone to speak, she had soon forgotten what the issue had been. For once, Erica's snap at her was somewhat amusing to her. A fit of laughter had come flying out of her mouth, only bringing along Steve and Robin to find it just as amusing. Crawling into the back of the vehicle, the three had not tried to contain their laughter.

Dustin and Erica had made their way to the front of the vehicle, turning the key and pressing down on the pedal for a clean escape. These two did not seem to find anything about this amusing. It was far from. They did, however, want to know what had been done to them in the time that they had been away.

After some driving though, the three did not see how this had all been funny. Dustin was an awful driver and with every sharp turn and random slam on the breaks, they were always colliding into one another or against the walls of the back of the vehicle. With another slam against the wall, Steve had held his hand to his head, "Jesus, slow down!"

Slurring her words together, Robin called out to him next. "Yeah, what is this, like, the Indy 500?"

"No, it's the Indy 300," Steve corrected.

"No, dingus! It's 500!" Robin yelled back.

Unable to accept any other answer, Steve raised three fingers in Robin's face. "It's 300!"

Willing to give in, Robin had put a stop to the fighting and settled on a compromise-- one that seemed very reasonable. "Let's say a million." The three had shifted their eyes around to one another, waiting for the other to break first. It didn't take much to have all three holding onto one another as they leaned back in amusement, in a fit of laughter.

Looking over to his left, Steve had felt the overpowering swell in his chest to see Alex laughing hard enough that her eyes closed and forced to lean into Robin for support. So captivated with love, he had leaned towards her for a kiss, but with the state of driving, each of them had collided their heads into one another.

"Jesus, Harrington, don't hurt yourself," Alex frowned. She had held a hand over her forehead, but her concern had relied on Steve and his already bruised face.

"I just wanted to give you a kiss."

"Well, don't hurt yourself for me," she argued. It just didn't seem worth it for him to cause more harm to himself just to give her a simple kiss.

"For you though!" Steve fought back.

Sitting back in defeat, Steve had given up on the kiss for now. Robin could only laugh at the disappointment that filled his face and how he had crossed his arms in frustration. Upfront, however, Dustin and Erica only cared about getting them back to the elevator and back into Starcourt. Erica was the first to spot how close they had made it to the elevator while Dustin still failed to let up off the gas. "Dustin, watch out!" Bracing herself, they had collided into a stack of barrels, using them as a means of coming to a stop.

Jerking around in the back, the three had been thrown off balance once again and fell into one another. Alex and Robin groaned in pain as their heads collided. "I'm sorry," Robin mumbled, rubbing her head with a frown.

"No, I'm sorry," Alex pouted.

Still holding on tight to the wheel, Dustin could feel his heart beating against his chest. It had been from pure excitement but also the disbelief that he had made it all the way there with very little harm done to them. "You guys alright back there?"

The three had only groaned in pain, holding onto their heads and sprawled across the back. It was a good enough answer to have Dustin turn back over to Erica with a simple shrug. "They're fine."

Erica rolled her eyes and hopped out of the vehicle to get them moving. It was only a matter of time before the guards would catch up and put a stop to their escape plan. Given the three oldest were incapable of doing much, she had taken a leadership position she had felt she deserved this entire time.

Opening the doors to the back, Dustin and Erica had urged the three to get out and follow them. Had it not been for their screams, the three would have laid back there the rest of the night.

Out first, Alex had stumbled forward, hitting her head on the top of the vehicle on her way out. Holding onto her forehead, she had allowed Dustin to guide her along by holding her hand. Her eyes had stayed shut as she felt this would help ignore the pain. "Ow, my head," she groaned.

Stumbling after the two, Robin and Steve had held onto one another's hands. Rolling his eyes at their behavior and knocking into him, Dustin had pulled out the keycard he had stolen. Putting it in, he had opened the doors to the elevator causing Alex's eyes to open in surprise. Extending her arms out, she had let go of Dustin's hand, "They finally open!"

Coming up behind her, Steve leaned over her shoulder and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before he had pushed his way forward into the elevator with Robin. Following everyone into the elevator, Alex had directed a finger at Steve, "I love you," she declared. "Daddy Henderson loves you."

"Do I deserve you, Henderson? Absolutely not," Steve laughed, knocking himself into the table.

"You guys are so gross," Robin chuckled as she wandered the room. What had stood out to her was the possibility of what she could do. Standing before all the buttons, she had begun to press them all. "Beep, boop!" She looked over her shoulder to Alex, signaling for her to join along up until Dustin had blocked her path. "Step away from the buttons."

Her eyes remained on him as she slowly pointed a finger in the direction of the button.

"I said step away," Dustin warned, however, Robin had seen it as a challenge. Over his shoulder, Alex had given her a thumbs-up, encouraging her behavior which resulted in her pushing the button once again. Both girls erupted into laughter as Dustin charged forward, swiping the keycard and pressing a button for it all to work.

With the elevator kicking on and launching its way back above ground, everyone had started to tumble into one another— especially the three that were still very much drugged up. When Steve had found a flat utility cart, it had turned into a game for them as a form of entertainment. Grabbing the handles, Robin encouraged Steve and Alex to hop on. It didn't take much for the two to hold onto one another's arms, attempting to keep each other up as Robin had swayed it around.

"Hey, it looks like you guys are surfing," Robin laughed. Steve and Alex immediately met each other's eyes with their mouths wide open in large smiles. It had been so insane and ridiculously amazing that they were immensely entertained with the idea.

While they messed around, having a blast pretending to surf, Dustin and Erica stood there with crossed arms, watching in annoyance. The two kids now knew that they have just become the babysitters all because they had left the three behind.

"They seem drunk," Erica said in question to Dustin. It was obvious from the start that the three had something very wrong with them, but it wasn't able to be discussed until they had a moment to stop running.

"Why would they be drunk? Alex doesn't drink, I don't think." Dustin questioned back innocently. His eyes traveled to each of the three with worry as it did seem like a possibility. It was a decent reason to explain why they had been so strange. It didn't give a good look to the three when Robin had given a hard jerk to the cart for some laughs, watching as Steve and Alex had tumbled off, falling to the ground beside one another.

Leaning up against the boxes that filled the room, Alex and Steve turned to one another in surprise by their wipeout. Seeing his opportunity to get some answers, Dustin quickly got to his knees beside the two. Laying a hand on Alex's forehead, Dustin shook his head as he felt the heat radiating off of her. "You're hot."

"Dude, I know, but that's your sister," Steve mumbled through some laughter.

"I mean she's burning up," Dustin explained with a scoff. Taking a hand to Steve's forehead, he gave a nod of confirmation. "So are you. One sec," he said as he took his hands, bringing upon Steve's whimpers of pain as he pried open one of his eyes for a better look. Dropping his hands down after examination, he turned to the most reasonable person in the room. "His pupils are super dilated."

"Maybe they're drugged," Erica offered as an option.

Mouthing hanging open, Alex looked around the room. "Are you... No. W-we would never!" Looking at Steve, she talked from the corner of her mouth but spoke just as loud despite her trying to keep it between the two. "Did we do drugs?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, dad? I don't do drugs. It's only marijuana," Steve mumbled, gently reaching out to boop Alex's nose.

"Oh my God, they're unreal right now," Dustin groaned.

Grabbing Steve by his cheeks to keep him focused on her, Alex leaned in close, "Grounded."

"No," he giggled, poking her nose once again. "You love me too much. If you tried to leave, I'd take your brother from you. Then you'd have to have me."

Wide-eyed, Alex leaned in until they were nose to nose. "You would never take him away from me."

Steve reached out, patting Alex's cheek with a laugh, "So cute that you think I wouldn't take your brother from you. You know what, Harrington—"

"You're Harrington, genius," Alex cut in.

"Wait... we're not married yet? I swear—"

Grabbing onto Alex's shoulder, Dustin had pulled her off of him to keep the conversation focused on what had mattered most. "What happened to you guys? Are you guys going to die on us?"

Sitting by herself, Robin twirled her hair with her finger as she gathered everyone's attention. "We all die, my strange little child friend. It's just a matter of how and when."

Dustin froze for a moment from her words before he had shaken his head to clear his thoughts. Turning back to Steve, he gave him a small shake to focus. "They're gonna be looking for us up there, so I need you to tell me where you parked your car."

Steve's eyes began to wander away from Dustin's as his mind had traveled somewhere completely different. "Oh, can we make a pit stop at the food court?"

"I would kill for a hotdog on a stick!" Robin called over. "Buy me one, Henderson?"

"I will give you so many hotdogs, Robin. So many," she called back.

Dustin began to snap his fingers in front of her to gain her attention back as well. "Hey, you, yeah, you mind telling me where he parked his car?"

"How would I know? I took the bus here because no one trusts me with anything. Mom's all, like, No, Alex, you'll crash. Well, screw Mom, Hopper told me I'm awesome and he's pretty much my dad. He doesn't know that though."

"He never told you that you're awesome," Dustin whispered.

"He could've," Alex whispered back. "But, yeah, I don't know where his car is. What I can tell you is..." Alex paused, silence filling the room in anticipation. "I love Steve."

"Thanks, we know that," Dustin said in annoyance. "Mind hitting us with any other groundbreaking information?"

"I love Robin," she whispered. "And I love Erica. And I love you because you're my little brother and you're, like, amazing. Even more amazing if you get us to the food court though."

Patting her face, he had brought her wandering eyes back to him to keep her focused. "Hey, I love you too and I'll take you wherever you guys want, just get Steve to tell me where the car is. Think you can do that?"

"Hey, Harrington," Alex said loudly as she looked beside her, right over to him. "Where the hell is your car? Tell me and I'll give you something. Whatever you want but keep it PG, my little brother is here and so is my favorite ten-year-old."

"A kiss?" Steve asked with wide eyes.

"All of the kisses."

Steve smiled to himself until realization dawned on him, "Uh-oh. The cars off the board. They took the keys. The Russians, they took the keys. Like, forever ago." Turning out his pockets, he showed her he wasn't lying but then began to laugh at his misfortune. "That's a bummer, right? I still get to kiss you, right?" Awaiting an answer, he watched as Alex sat up and began to crawl over to Robin instead. "Hello? Henderson?"

Taking a seat beside Robin, Alex had secretively given her a nudge. "What do we do now? I say we just get food and ditch the weirdos."

Walking over to her as the elevator came to a stop, Dustin towered above them with his arms crossed. "You're not ditching us. Now get the hell up and I'll figure something else out." Helping Alex up to her feet, he couldn't ignore the fact that Steve was still questioning the deal the two had made to get information about the car. "Are you going to kiss him?"

"He asked for Henderson and technically I'm not the only Henderson here so feel free," she smiled. Turning back around, she had extended a hand out to Robin which had nearly had her back to the ground. On their feet, the two girls had followed Erica out the door, leaving Dustin Henderson all alone with Steve Harrington.

Holding out a hand, Steve had waved it around as he groaned, awaiting some help. Taking his hand, Dustin had given a tug to get him up. Unsteady on his feet, Steve had looked over to Dustin with a small frown. "I'm not kissing you," he whispered. "I wanted to kiss your sister."

"I didn't want to kiss you either," Dustin said in disgust. Pushing Steve's back, he had forced him to follow after the girls. The night was still very much young and with a long way ahead of them. More than half the group had been out of their minds and the other two left to care for them as they planned the next steps. However, they had been free from the Russian base, but their luck was far from over.