CHAPTER 41
RED DAWN

THEY met each other down at the food court, whispering a series of, Thank, Gods, and flinging their arms around each other. Veronica almost couldn't believe that Nancy was there, but her friend had never been one to ignore a mystery for long. It was practically part of her job description. Veronica brought her into a tight hug, tugging Jonathan into her embrace as well, while muttering, "I can't believe you guys are in this shit again."

"What can I say?" Nancy shrugged, glancing at Jonathan once Veronica leaned away. "Strangeness seems to follow all of us."

Steve approached the teenagers and ran a hand through his hair. "You got that right."

Looking over her shoulder, Veronica watched Dustin engulf an injured Eleven into a short hug. The neon lights around them flickered once El was near. "You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" He giggled in her ear.

Lucas' mouth dropped as he spotted his sister in the crowd. "Erica," he breathed, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"Ask them!" She said, pointing to the employees of Scoops Ahoy. "It's their fault!"

"True, yeah. Totally true," Steve agreed. "It's absolutely our fault." Veronica nodded along with him.

Robin kept turning her head back to the smoking car across the food court. She blinked, not believing her eyes. "I don't understand what happened to that car."

"El has superpowers!" Dustin grinned proudly, pointing to Eleven with his thumb.

Robin narrowed her eyes. "I'm not following."

"She threw it with her mind," Veronica explained, tapping one of her temples. "Trust me, it's hard to wrap your head around. But it's real."

Erica's mouth went agape. "That's El?"

"Who's El?" Robin continued, and Veronica quickly pointed to the short brunette.

Nancy raised a brow towards Robin. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm Robin," she introduced, shaking Nancy's hand. "I work with Steve and Veronica at Scoops."

"She cracked the top-secret code!" Dustin boasted. "Which is how we found out about the Russians, blah, blah blah."

Jonathan stepped forward. All the voices were starting to make Veronica's headache resurface. "Russians? What Russians?"

Max looked back at the group of men bleeding out on the floor of the food court. "Those were Russians?"

"Just a few," Veronica muttered.

"Didn't you guys hear our code red?" Dustin directed towards his friends.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but we couldn't understand what you were saying."

"Goddamn low battery!"

Steve groaned, lifting his head to the ceiling, "How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?!"

"You didn't tell me jack shit, Steve!"

Veronica raised her hands. "Hey, hey, hey! Can we just focus? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation here!"

"Okay, so Russians," Lucas repeated, trying to comprehend the situation. "As in, they're working for the Russian government?"

"Does any of this have to do with the Gate?" Max pressed on.

Dustin's eyes went wide. "It has everything to do with the Gate."

Veronica turned her head, realizing that El had walked away from the group. She narrowed her eyes and watched the Girl Wonder plugged her fingers into her ears, tears dotting her lashes. Veronica nudged Steve's arm, "Um – guys –"

Eleven was already falling over, hurling herself to the ground, as loud groans left her lips. The group of teenagers dashed over and kneeled by her side. Mike screamed her name and asked what was wrong, but all he received was a string of whimpers as a response. Steve tried to shield Veronica away from the scene with his shoulder, but she shoved him away slightly. Veronica shook her head once she saw El convulsing on the ground, prompting her to ask, "What's wrong with her?"

"My leg," El cried. "My leg."

Nancy reached out and spotted a bandage wrapped around Eleven's leg. She quickly tore off the Ace wrap, revealing a large, shiny bump protruding out of El's ankle, leaking fluids from the small crack down the middle. The whole group screamed with disgust, some even attempting to swallow down vomit. Veronica could've sworn she saw something move inside the wound.

Eleven screamed as the pain got worse and worse. Her flesh sizzled and hissed. Jonathan ran away from the scene before Nancy could ask where he was going. Mike noticed the wound moving too, and he whispered, "There's something in there."

"Keep her talking, Mike!" Max shouted, tears pricking her ocean blue eyes. "Keep her awake!"

"I don't know what I'm doing!" He exclaimed as Eleven continued to wail in agony. Mike wiped at his eyes when he looked down at her distressed state. "Hey, hey, hey, El. Stay awake. Stay awake."

Steve unlatched his hand from Veronica's and appeared behind Eleven. "Let's get her on this side," he suggested, hauling her to the right with his hands under her armpits.

Jonathan came back in an instant with supplies almost falling out of his grip. He threw them to the ground with a clang before picking up a knife. Veronica noticed it had a blue hue at the end of it, meaning that Jonathan had placed it under a flame for a short time. "Okay, El," he breathed, holding the knife out to the wound. "This is gonna hurt like hell. I'm gonna need you to stay real still." He placed plastic gloves on his hands and gave her a wooden spoon to bite down on, before finally digging into the bump.

Eleven's shriek was muffled by the wooden spoon. Robin couldn't bear to watch, choosing to clutch Veronica's arm and hide her eyes in her coworker's shoulder. All Veronica do was stare at the fallout, watching Jonathan's face contort with a mix of fear and concentration. Blood was pouring onto the floor as Jonathan dug into the wound with his two fingers, but he couldn't find anything. Nancy was screaming for her boyfriend to stop, but Jonathan wasn't giving up that quickly. He searched through every crevice and came up with nothing.

"Stop!" Eleven cried, sitting up straighter. "I can do it."

She took a sharp intake of air and held out her hand, using all the strength left in her mind to pull the creature out of her. She grunted and screamed, but she refused to give up. Blood drizzled from her nose like a current. Her shrieks were so loud that they broke glass behind them, causing Veronica to jump away and turn to Steve. He gave her that look again, the look that it was going to be okay. She sure hoped so.

With one last pull, the creature screamed as it was forced out of Eleven's leg, levitating in the air. Veronica felt the bile rise in her throat as she whispered, "Holy shit." Robin was looking now, eyes widening at the sight in front of her.

Eleven bawled and threw the creature across the room, allowing it to drop to the floor with a loud squelching sound. She panted, watching it crawl away with impressive speed. It was going back to its home, to be with the others. Veronica didn't want to know what the home looked like, but maybe she didn't have to, because a large foot was stomping down on the creature, stopping it in its tracks.

Veronica blinked, not believing what she was seeing. Chief Hopper stood before them, a grim expression on his face, while Joyce Byers and Hawkins' favorite loon, Murray Bauman, followed him from behind. But it was the sight of her dad with two healing black eyes that made her heart almost leap out of her chest, suffocating her ribcage.

She walked forward, pursing her lips. "Dad?"

Edward smiled, "I guess the nightmares never end, huh?"

•••

Hugs were definitely in order. Though they did not have time for a reunion, the teenagers still took a few minutes to gather their bearings and embrace the adults that had saved them. Veronica almost didn't believe her dad was really there until she hugged him and felt the tight embrace she knew so well. He hugged her the same way he did after her mom left. When she changed herself after Louie's disappearance, Veronica never thought she'd hug her dad like that again, but she needed to now. Oh, God, did she need to.

The whole group assembled after their mini-reunion. The kids gathered near each other, while Eleven was laying on Hopper's chest with a bag of ice placed on her head. Veronica planted herself beside her coworkers and friends, but Edward seemed to notice just how close his daughter suddenly was to her ex-boyfriend, and found himself sending Steve Harrington a glare. The teenaged boy simply knitted his brows in confusion.

"So, where do we start?" Mike asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world."

Nancy agreed and pointed a finger in her brother's direction. "And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it."

"So what you're saying is that this thing is even bigger than a demodog. Excellent." Veronica stated with a roll of her eyes. "How big even is it?"

Jonathan scratched the back of his head. "It's big. Thirty feet, at least."

She closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing on her lids. "Jesus Christ," she muttered, and finally opened her eyes when she felt Steve's hand clasp around her own. There he was again – being the hero – and Veronica felt the icky, childish butterflies form in her stomach. Edward narrowed his stare towards Steve once again.

"Okay, so, just to be clear," Steve began, holding out a hand. "This big, fleshy, spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic weapon? But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people?"

"Yes, exactly," Nancy replied.

Steve looked around at the group. "Yeah, cool. That makes a lot of sense."

"He's still alive and out there," Will said solemnly, "but if we close the Gate again –"

"We cut the brain off from the body," Max finished.

Lucas nodded. "And kill it. Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" Murray Bauman screeched, waving spare pieces of notebook paper in the air. Veronica raised a brow. "Yoo-hoo!"

Robin glanced to her coworkers. "Why is there a bald, homeless man talking to us?"

"Heard that blondie," Murray spat, slamming the papers down on one of the food tables in the food court. "Gather 'round."

Veronica squeezed herself into the circle as Murray laid out the ripped papers across the small table. Small, detailed line drawings covered every inch of the paper. One sketch looked exactly like the laser beam they saw underneath Starcourt. She pointed it out to Steve, causing his brows to cross.

"Now, this is what Alexei called, 'the hub,'" Murray explained, pointing to a drawing that resembled the center of the Russian base. "The hub takes us to the vault room. The Gate is located right here." He smacked a finger towards an illustration of the laser beam. "Right next to the key. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room. Maybe fifty feet or so."

"More like five hundred," Erica scoffed as she approached the adults. "What – you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" She twirled one her braids with a smirk.

Murray cocked his head to the side. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair," she answered, raising her chin. "Who are you?"

"Murray Bauman."

Edward ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. He silently wished Alexei was there to help more, but their friend had passed under Murray's watch. Edward shook away the memories and sighed, "We really don't have time for this ..."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," Erica continued, "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for more than twenty-four hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you –" She glanced to the other three adults in the party. "– You're all gonna die."

Lucas sighed loudly. "Erica, stop!"

Veronica tapped the intricate drawing before them. "She's right. The whole place is like a maze. You're basically traveling down the nine circles of Hell."

"You all may die, but you don't have to," Dustin added, pulling out a chair from the table and plopping himself down in it. He looked up at the adults with hopeful eyes and plucked a pencil from a spare pocket in his vest, circling one of the rooms on the map. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system." He drew a line across the whole map. "That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Hopper crossed his arms over his chest.

Dustin grinned big. "Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your ... navigators."

Hopper looked to his deputy, and then to Joyce, who both seemed fairly convinced that these two kids could do a good job. The chief turned back to Dustin and Erica, a false smile lifting at his lips. "No," he finally replied with a chuckle. "Nope. No way."

"Then you're gonna die," Erica disputed.

"Let's stop wasting time, everyone," Hopper said, completely ignoring Erica's comment. "We gotta take the weapons from these Russian shitheads for defense. Trust me."

The group followed Hopper's orders, searching the Russians' pockets for any weapons they could find. Hopper and Edward took care of the rifles, and Veronica ended up finding a bunch of switchblades in the spies' pockets. She thought they looked cool and almost debated on keeping one for herself, until her dad snatched it away with a scowl. Hopper did his best to focus on the weapons check, but it was becoming insanely hard with Dustin yapping in his ear about how he needed a navigator. Eventually, Hopper had to give in, but not without Dustin explaining that the radio frequencies weren't as simple as it seemed. They needed a better signal.

While Dustin continued to hound the chief, Steve took to standing by Edward to speak with him on something personal. Steve cleared his throat to get the older man's attention, but Edward was too focused on counting the number of weapons they collected to hear him. The teenaged boy sighed, nudging Edward's hip to finally get his attention. Edward turned with a jolt, lifting a brow at Steve's sudden appearance.

"You know, sir – um – Mr. Moreda," he said, clearing his throat once more, "I've been doing my best to take care of Veronica –"

Edward's mustache twitched. "Mm-hmm, I've heard that before."

Steve laughed nervously, unsure of what to say. Thankfully for him, Veronica appeared at his side, sending her ex-boyfriend a look that urged him to leave while he could. Steve took the hint before stepping away to talk with Robin. Veronica smiled softly and paced towards her dad, noticing how much taller she had gotten compared to him.

"I can't believe this is happening all over again," she whispered, running a hand through her disheveled ponytail. Veronica could hardly look him in the eye. "You need to move out of Hawkins while I'm away. It's not safe here anymore. You need to –"

Edward shook his head and placed a strand of hair behind her ear. Veronica's stare fluttered back to him. "It's going to end the same way too: with us winning. Okay?"

She nodded, even if she didn't believe it.

"Do me a favor," he muttered, pausing as he rested a hand on his belt. Her brow crinkled, a puzzled expression crossed over her face. Edward slid the handgun from his holster and held it out to her. "Take this. Use it if need to."

Veronica froze. She was almost scared to touch it. "You never let anyone hold your pistol," she said, bewildered.

"Yeah, well," he shrugged, "at least I know that you know how to use it after you stole it to kill a stuffed animal once."

Her lips quickly formed into a frown before she allowed a chuckle to leave them. Just the memory of it still made her laugh.

Edward held it out further to her. "It'll give me some peace of mind. Take it, and this too," he added, clicking the belt off of his hips and slipping it onto her waist. It was a little big, considering it was a men's size, but it stayed on her hips while hanging slightly to the left. Edward shoved the handgun into the holster before should say no.

Dustin's voice suddenly reached her ears again, and both she and her father turned when he said, "We need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russian's radio tower. And also a car, preferably with a teenager to drive it." Dustin eyed Steve and Veronica with a grin plastered on his face.

Hopper slapped a hand over his eyes.

"Wait, wait, wait," Steve interjected, approaching Veronica's side with Robin in tow. "What are we getting roped into now?"

He sighed, exhausted at having to repeat himself again. "In order to have a good signal, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. And who is that?" He tapped his chin. "Oh, wait. That's me! So if you want us to navigate, we need a head start. Got it?"

Robin wrinkled her nose. "And you're making one of us drive it? No way, dingus."

Dustin sent them a wide smile. "Wait until you see the car."

•••

Steve twirled the pair of car keys around his finger, throwing open the doors to the main entrance to the mall with ease. Parked outside was a shiny yellow convertible, top-down, practically waiting for a few teenagers to take the wheel. Veronica could spot Steve's car parked across the lot. She was thankful that she wouldn't have to conjure up all her hotwiring knowledge again now that they had a ride. Steve whistled once he caught sight of the car waiting idly outside the mall, "Oh, man, now this is what I'm talking about!"

Both Veronica and Robin eyed the license plate with narrowed eyes. It had no numbers, just the letters, TODFTHR. Robin's expression twisted. "Toddfather?"

"Oh, screw Todd!" Steve replied, hopping into the driver's seat. "Steve's her daddy now!"

"Never call yourself that again," Veronica quipped while sliding into the passenger side. Her new belt was suddenly weighing down on her hip. "Just drive."

Dustin and Robin jumped into the backseat, squishing Erica in the middle. The younger girl raised a brow at Steve's comment and gripped the two front seats, bringing herself close to Veronica's ear. "Did he just call himself, Daddy?"

Veronica made a zipping motion with her hand as Steve revved the engine. He turned around in his seat to ask Dustin, "Alright, where are we going?"

"Weathertop," Dustin answered without hesitation. "I'll be your guide."

Veronica turned her head, watching the lights of the neon Starcourt sign glimmer in the distance. The tires screeched as Steve drove farther and farther away, but she knew they'd be back at that hellhole soon enough, she just didn't know what it would entail. Her adventure during the Halloween of 1984 gave her answers, but the mission of Summer 1985 might just change her forever.

Before this summer, Veronica didn't know what she was doing with her life. She was a Bluebird. She was a Brownie. She was a Girl Scout Cookie. But after tonight, she might just become a hero.

•••

A/N: The end is near 🤓

( made by JustSav )