↣ 𝘌𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢

Kathleen sat in the chair's corner and observed as Steve pushed ice cream in the direction of the child. When Erica told Steve to go back and get more fudge, Kathleen had to force to hide her smile. the young woman was a hustler, and Kathleen admired her for it.

Erica was being directed where she needed to go by Robin, who took the map. "This is the route you're gonna take. Then you'll knock out the grate, jump down, open the door." Kathleen nodded and bit into her ice cream cone, she wasn't really going to sit there and listen without something to eat.

"I mean if you want to do it that is, we're not gonna force you to." When Kathleen spoke, the other two turned to look at her. "I'm not gonna force a child to do something they don't want to do." she defended herself.

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica questioned as Robin nodded along. "And you say this guard is armed?"

"Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin explained, trying to make the situation less frightening.

Erica nodded slightly before another thing pondered her mind. "Okay- and what about the booby-traps?" She asked. They all looked at each other in confusion over the so called ' booby-traps '

"Lasers, spikes on the walls?" Erica started to list them off, Kathleen started to think a little bit not having any thought of Russians hiding anything dangerous in their secret room's in a child friendly mall.

"You know what this half-backed plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica asked, Kathleen took another bite of her ice cream, waiting to hear the sassy response. "Child Endangerment."

Kathleen choked a little from the response as Robin started to backtrack, she tried to say it was completely safe but little miss her way or no way didn't want to hear a single thing.

"I mean she's got a point." Kathleen mumbled.

"Erica? Hi. Mm...we think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin asked. Kathleen looked over at him in confusion, wondering how this would entirely help their case. Also what was taking Steve so long.

"You can't spell ' America ' without Erica." She took a sip of her drink rather loudly. Kathleen knew it was already a yes, but she felt Erica was just playing with them.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's, uh, totally true. So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America.. Erica." Dustin said, Erica wasn't really paying attention to whatever he was talking about a focused on her drink.

Erica looked up at him with a smile. "I just got chills." Dustin smiled, looking pretty proud of himself until Erica opened her mouth to talk again. "Oh, yeah from this float, not your speech. Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?"

"Yeah?" The three of them nodded, wondering where this was going.

"It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So do you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream... for... life."Erica ended her speech, popping a cherry into her mouth for a dramatic ending.

Kathleen stared at the girl in admiration. She had to hand it to her the girl knew what to say and do. She might have been against the fact that they asked a little kid to do their job but if Erica was willingly to take the task then all she had to do was follow.

"So what did I miss?" Steve asked as he arrived back at the table.

Kathleen, Steve, Robin and Dustin were all waiting on the rooftop. Waiting for Erica to communicate with the walkie-talkie they set up. "Erica, Do you copy?"Robin asked as she talked through the radio.

"𝘔𝘮-𝘏𝘮𝘮." She replied back. "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

Steve rolled his eyes at the comment, while Kathleen started to enjoy her little commentary. "Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light" Robin said.

It was quiet for a second before Erica spoke up again. "𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 , 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵." She said, Kathleen so wanted to introduce the girl to Eddie, maybe humble him a bit.

"Can we maybe not call it that?"

"𝘚𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘴." Kathleen noticed the way Steve and Robin looked at each other, a little self doubt filled her heart wondering if maybe she was looking in the wrong direction.

Kathleen started to get a little nervous when their wasn't any communication from her until finally she spoke up. "𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦."

"Do you—Do you see anything?" Robin asked, clearly in shock that she had actually made it their.

"𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘹𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵."

"Any guards?" Robin questioned.

"𝘕𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦."

"Booby Traps?"Robin joked, Steve looked at her confused. Kathleen smiled remembering their conversation earlier.

"𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘬𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘴, 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺?" She replied sarcastically causing Kathleen to giggle a little. After all of this, she was taking the girl out for ice cream and to talk crap about other people. Erica was becoming her favorite. "𝘐'𝘮 𝘪𝘯."

Steve sighed in relief, Kathleen put a hand on shoulder and squeezed it slightly. A couple seconds had passed before the doors opened up with Erica walking out with pride, they all smiled impressively at her. "Free ice cream for life."She reminded them in her sassy way.

⇅

Everyone flocked around the box as Steve opened the flaps to see what was inside, only to discover a metal box sitting within. It was obvious that it wasn't a takeout food box, so Kathleen took a step back in case something went wrong. They were all anxiously peering inside as Steve twisted the cap off. It featured what appeared to be tubes. "That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve said.

"Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."As he ushered them back, Steve murmured, and Kathleen grabbed Robin's hand, yanking her slightly back along with Erica. Steve and Dustin began to dispute over it since Steve was obviously displeased with Dustin. When Kathleen started to shake, Robin noticed it and looked down at their intertwined hands.

"Hey, it's okay." Robin murmured. The blonde/blue-haired girl gave her a comforting smile and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

"What the hell?" Steve turned one of the capsules once again, revealing a tube filled with a green, acidic liquid.

They all looked at the it. "What is that?" Robin addressed the one question that was on everyone's mind, but Kathleen turned away because she thought she would throw up. she let go of Robin's hand, a little bit disappointing the other girl.

Everyone briefly fell as a result of the rook's brief shaking before stopping.

"Was it just me, or did the room move?"

"Booby traps." Kathleen tightened her grip on Robin's hand when Erica muttered.

The group began to panic as the room moved once more. "You know what? Let's just grab that and go." As Steve started to close the box, Robin snatched the green capsule. Kathleen made sure Erica and Dustin were following them.

"Which on do I press, Erica?" As he fixed his gaze on the pad in front of him, Dustin questioned.

"Just press the damn button, nerd." Kathleen closed her eyes in fear, and Erica replies that it was obvious that everyone was trying to escape.

Dustin began repeatedly pressing the same button. Kathleen moved cautiously away from the wall. I want to return home. She began to experience some claustrophobia. Realizing there was no escape and that this object was not allowing them to leave. Steve relocated Dustin so he could take a turn as Kathleen began to panic.

Kathleen opened her eyes and a loud clang noise was made, grabbing everyone's attention. Before the power went out and the room started to violently fall downward, everything was quiet. Steve caught Kathleen as she collapsed into his arms and held onto her firmly as everyone started to shout.

As she closed her eyes, she felt tears beginning to form in them. They were falling quickly, and nobody was thinking about where it may end up at the time.

_________________
Author's notes

We are slowly getting there, the Scoop Troup is in trouble, Kathleen relationship with Steve is very brother and sister love as I have said before they're will not be a love triangle.

Shout out to my favourite people.norasnetflix RuffieRoseStories arsvenal kiesluverr KleeAlise11 andorss

Well that's all from me. I hope to see you in the next update