𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 : 3.3k

☆゜·。。·゜゜·。。·゜★

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍, 𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 Steve and Robin in the bathroom, Steve wasn't nearly as distraught as Owen had imagined he would've been. He and Robin were settled on the floor of a single stall, slouching against the multi-colored tiles with laughter flowing easily. Upon seeing this, Owen felt the build-up of tension lift off of her shoulders. She had been expecting him to, like, lunge at her or something the moment she entered the room, but this was much more manageable. Still, she found herself anxiously tugging at a hangnail, too worried that she had permanently destroyed her relationship with Steve to even wince at the sting of it.

"Alright, bozos. Comedy hour's over. We need to find a way out of here now," Dustin announced. He looked around the collection of familiar faces, hoping that someone had an idea. Which, luckily for him, came much sooner than he had anticipated.

"My car keys should be in my bag that I left at Scoops," Owen mentioned, seeing the boy's eyes light up. She patted at her sides, feeling the unforgiving polyester costume beneath her palms. "The ol' Captain Banana Split Beard uniform doesn't come with pockets and normally, that would be annoying, but right now? Not too mad about it."

Erica nodded and rested her hands on her hips. "Alright, so we've just gotta get over to Scoops without anyone noticing and then get out to the parking lot... also without anyone noticing."

The muffled sound of people chattering could be heard just outside of the door. It must've gotten the cogs in Dustin's head turning and whirling, causing him to become visibly lost in thought. "I think I know how we can do that," he declared. He turned on his heel and headed towards the bathroom door with purpose laced through every step. This gave Robin and Steve little time to clamber onto their feet again, but they finagled it somehow — and they only knocked into each other once or twice in the process!

All five of their heads poked around the edge of the creaky bathroom door when Dustin slowly tugged it open. Sure enough, throngs of people were piling out of the movie theater, slurpees and boxes of candy in hand as they discussed whatever film they had just seen. It seemed like the perfect cover-up, a very widespread disguise of sorts.

"And... blend," Dustin murmured. Owen's lips curved into a smirk. Disappearing into a crowd was definitely something she could do. All of them filed out of the bathroom and instantly slid in between some dad in his plaid button-up and a group of teenage girls with big hair and blue eyeshadow. Shockingly, none of them even seemed to care about the group's pirate costumes and bloodied faces.

"Well, shit. That worked," Erica commented.

"'Course it worked," Dustin scoffed. "Now, we just need to make it over to Scoops and home sweet home, here we come."

Owen nervously peeked over at Steve, whose expression had grown understandably sour at the mention of Dustin's home. "Uh, Dustin?" he spoke up.

"What?"

"Yeah, we might not want to go to your house," Steve told him.

"Why?"

Steve was already cringing before he even uttered a single detail. "Well, I might've told them your full name," he confessed with a short, breathy laugh which entirely lacked humor. He couldn't even bring himself to mention that he gave them Robin's full name, too. Just the one fuck-up seemed like enough information at the time.

Still, Dustin's head spun around at the speed of fucking light. "What is wrong with you?" he hissed.

Steve nervously chewed at his lower lip and averted his swollen, discolored eyes. "Dude, I was drugged."

"So?" Dustin shot back.

"So?"

"So, you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man," Dustin insisted.

Owen couldn't help but roll her eyes, even if it made her head absolutely ache. "Oh, please," she groaned, glaring at him. "'Tough it out like a man'? Y'know, Dustin, I would've loved to have seen how you fared down there against Dr. Zharkov and his instruments of torture," she said with a taunting lilt in her voice.

Right as Owen experienced the return of her infamous danger-detecting shiver, Robin spoke up from the back of the group. "Guys?" She grabbed the kids while Owen's fingers nabbed the back of Steve's uniform and pulled him to a stop with her.

From over the moviegoers' heads, Owen could spot the distantly familiar faces of the Russian guards that had pursued them outside of the elevator. Their all-black outfits and hefty guns slung over their shoulders stood out like a sore thumb amongst the season's brightly-colored fashion. They were standing at every exit and 'checking bags' — some bullshit they made up to catch their teenage escapees, no doubt.

"Fuck..." Owen muttered.

"Abort! Abort!" Dustin whisper-yelled.

Goosebumps scattered across Owen's arms right as they all turned back towards the direction from which they had come. They ran back through the mall, darting between through the crowd in hopes of making their way down the escalators — only to be stopped by a couple of red velvety ropes strung in front of the entryways.

That horrible, sinking feeling still hadn't left Owen's stomach, though. She turned to steal a glance over her shoulder and spotted the guards weaving through the mall goers, scanning every face that they saw. They didn't have much time before they caught sight of them, so they needed to do something fast.

"Here. Down the middle," Steve urged, directing Robin towards the narrow area in between the escalators. Thankfully, she immediately understood what he meant and dropped to the floor, deftly gliding down the impromptu slide. Steve ushered Owen and the kids ahead of him, keeping eyes on the Russians. "Come on, let's go! Let's go!"

One-by-one, they each sped down onto the bottom floor and out of sight. They dashed across the darkened food court, the pink light emanating from Sam Goody framing them as they ran and matching the rosy tint on their cheeks. Although Robin was leading them towards the Scoops Ahoy, Owen had a sudden realization before they made it to the ice creamery.

"Hold up, Buckley! New plan!" she whisper-yelled, allowing the echoey room to carry her voice. "That's the first place they'll come looking for us."

That was all it took for Robin to pivot, scuttling behind the Great American Cookie instead and ducking below the counter. All five of them bunched under there together, keeping their heads down and their knees pulled against their chests.

The mall grew eerily quiet, then. Owen did the best she could to calm her breathing, the sound of her shaky breaths like blaring signals in her own ears. It didn't take long for the silence to become filled with heavy footsteps, so many footsteps. A man's voice rattled off something in Russian and the unknown of it all made Owen's heart hammer against her ribcage. This felt even more tortuous than being tied up in that barren interrogation room.

Dustin and Erica shuffled nervously beside her, their knees knocking against one another in the tight space. Owen peeked over at them right as a jagged shiver tore along her spine, splintering into a distinct ache at the base of her head. Owen's eyes widened, aware that that was never a good sign.

Someone must've seen them.

She heard a hushed voice mutter something in Russian just a few feet away, accompanied by the crackle of a walkie talkie. Owen may not have made it to college, but she was smart enough to put those two pieces of information together: One of the guards knew where they were and he just told all of his dumbass little friends.

Shit.

She needed to do something or she and all of her dumbass little friends were gonna die. Owen wasn't too well-practiced with her abilities, but she knew that being hunted by Russians in a Great American Cookie wasn't going to make tapping into them easier. So, Owen's eyes squeezed shut as she desperately tried to come up with anything that could buy them some time.

The first thing that came to mind was the field behind her Grammy's house. The breeze in her hair, the grass beneath her legs, the Sun against her eyelids. That feeling of solitude, of concentration... the first time she had summoned her powers on purpose. They weren't just some guardian angel that had shown up to save her just in time — no, she controlled them.

Faster than usual, the crackling electricity started in her palms, then spread easily throughout the rest of her body. Down to the very tips of her fingers, up past every hair that lined her arms, straight through her chest, like a dam had broken and flooded her with this feeling of immeasurable power. Carefully, with her eyes still shut, Owen reached down and placed her palms flat on the ground below. Then, with intention, she shot a thundering ripple right below the Russian guard's feet. The combination of strength and precision had him stumbling backwards, falling onto his back with a pained grunt.

When some of the other guards ran over to try and assist, they were met with fresh cracks tearing through the tiled flooring, heading straight for them if they didn't sidestep in time. One of them didn't and fell straight into the concrete-lined hole, the impact of his misstep making his ankle snap loud enough for all to hear. Owen winced at the sound, but tried to force herself to remain stoic and calculated with her every move.

This stoicism was swiftly brought under attack by the jarring, repetitive honking of a car alarm. She didn't do that. That wasn't her. Owen's eyes fluttered open as her head cocked, unsure where such a sound could be coming from — especially with it sounding so close. Like someone had... parked a car right there in the middle of the mall.

Owen heard the guards' distracted exclamations, giving her enough time to reach up and wipe the blood from her nose. But she hadn't even retracted her hand when a series of loud crashes and shattered glass rang out from behind the counter. It literally sounded like the food court was collapsing in on itself just a few feet away. She and the others huddled together, ducking their heads close to their chests to avoid any flying shrapnel, only for the mall to fall silent moments later. Practicing extreme caution, the Scoops Troop peeked over the countertop, spying between paper cups and the empty tip jar to see what had happened behind them.

There, in all its former glory, laid a fancy-schmancy display car, now upside down and emitting smoke from some mystery compartment. Loose car parts and rubble framed the spectacle, piled up around the vehicle. Along with it laid all of the previously intimidating Russian guards, their guns splayed across the newly destroyed flooring and pools of blood spreading outward from their bodies. It hardly felt real to see them in such a state with how fast it all had happened.

"Holy shit, Owen. Did you do that?" Dustin asked, totally in awe.

Owen was quick to shake her head. "No, that wasn't me..." she said, breathlessly.

Sudden movement in their periphery caught Owen's attention. Her gaze trailed towards the upper deck of the mall, only to feel as though she was hallucinating when she saw Eleven standing against the railing. Owen blinked a couple times as she tried to decipher if this was just a trick of the light or maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. But she really felt like she was in dreamland somewhere when the rest of their friends ran up alongside Eleven.

Mike, Will, Lucas, Max, Nancy, Jonathan...

Owen's heart sprung into somersaults when she saw her brothers step forward, their curly hair backlit by violet neon lights. It had been days since she saw those two knuckleheads and just seeing them then, several yards away, sent a wave of comfort tumbling over her. This, of course, was paired with confusion when Frank and that girl, Jodi, wandered forward not even a second later.

God, Owen had so many questions.

The two groups of kids scrambled to meet each other in the glowy center of the food court. Pure relief covered the Webb siblings' faces as they approached each other, the boys reaching her faster than the others thanks to their oddly lanky legs. Law and Gordon's arms wound around Owen, pressing painfully against her aching ribs, but she was feeling too euphoric to care. The three of them were all flailing arms over shoulders and faces nuzzled into necks, the horrors they had seen momentarily forgotten.

Dustin's cackling laughter could be heard beside them as he slammed into a hug with Mike and El. "You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" he exclaimed, his voice echoing through the empty mall.

"Lucas?" Erica gasped.

"What are you doing here?" he shot back with mild annoyance in his tone.

The little girl rolled her eyes and flung a hand in the Scoops Troops' direction. "Ask them. It's their fault."

Owen yanked away from her brothers and turned to the rest of the group with wide eyes, ready to defend herself before Steve spoke up first. "True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our fault," he nodded with hands propped on his hips. This confession earned questionable looks from the ones who hadn't been there, while Robin on the other hand was still eyeing the car and the torn up tile.

"I don't understand what happened to that car. A-And the floor. It's all–" she started, stumbling over her words.

"El and Owen have superpowers," Dustin told her. The ease with which he answered had Owen cringing internally; that was a pretty big piece of information to drop on the group so nonchalantly. She had been meaning to find a good time to tell everyone, but she only found that there was never really a good time to tell people that you were experimented on as a kid.

Out of the corner of her eye, Owen saw Nancy's eyebrows skyrocket. "Wait, what?"

Robin was quick to join Nancy in her confusion. "Yeah, what she said."

And while El's reaction was much more subdued — only a subtle lift of her head and widening of her eyes — she was just as interested to learn the news.

"Superpowers. She threw it with her mind and Owen made the Earth go all rumbly. C'mon, catch up," Steve huffed. Owen gave the group a sheepish wave of her hand, unsure how to act with so many eyes on her.

"That's El?" Erica echoed.

"Who's El?" Robin asked, still totally lost.

This prompted Nancy to finally speak up after examining Robin very closely. "I'm sorry, who are you?" she pressed, not wanting to seem too critical but failing miserably. Such a reaction thankfully went over Robin's head, though.

"I'm Robin. I work with Steve and Owen," she replied with a lopsided grin.

"She cracked the top secret code," Dustin clarified.

Steve nodded. "Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place."

"Russians?" Gordon blurted. He looked down at Owen, getting a closer look at the bruises and cuts that marred her face. "What Russians?"

Owen swallowed thickly and averted her eyes, aware that her older brother wasn't going to like this story. Her mouth suddenly went dry when she tried to find the right words to explain it all. "Uh..."

"We were literally captured by Russians... The Russians!" Steve bellowed over her shoulder, motioning to the men sprawled across the floor behind them.

"You were captured by Russians?" Gordon gawped, his jaw hanging open.

"Those were Russians?" Max questioned, viewing the situation much differently now.

Erica shrugged. "Some of them."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas spluttered, still not having wrapped his mind around his little sister's involvement in all of this.

Dustin's lips sloped into a frown as he glanced over at his friends. "Didn't you hear our code red?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't understand half of what you were saying!" Mike exclaimed, frustratedly.

"Goddamn low battery..." Dustin griped.

"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" Steve scolded. Owen couldn't help but smirk at his dramatics, all waving hands and unnecessary claps for emphasis.

"Well, everything worked out, didn't it, Steve?" Dustin fired back.

Law let out a long sigh. "Well, not everything..." he muttered. He peered over at Owen with a gloominess in his dark eyes. "We're pretty sure Diana was... absorbed by the monster."

But instead of mirroring his melancholy demeanor, Owen's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "The monster?" she repeated, hoping she had heard him wrong.

He awkwardly glanced around the collection of faces, trying to gauge if she was being serious or not. When it seemed as if she was, Law went on slowly. "Yeah... The giant, flesh-eating monster that's been devouring people all over town? I'm pretty sure it, like, ate my manager, Jerry, too but that didn't seem as relevant to you as Diana would be."

"Wait, how do you–"

"Jodi, Frank, and I followed Diana and Jerry to that old steel factory on Cherry Oak. They went inside and then a few minutes later —BAM! This gigantic monster burst out of the building and ran into the woods. Apparently, the thing has it out for El. Took a bite out of her leg and everything," Law explained, motioning to where the younger girl was propped up against Mike's side.

Owen's eyes didn't follow his hands, still locked in on the fact that there was a monster and they were pretty sure it had killed Diana. It just didn't sound right. Diana had always seemed untouchable, like this angel that had been put on Earth to float through the hallways of Hawkins High and teach English to a bunch of good-for-nothing teenagers. Stuff like this didn't happen to people like her — or it shouldn't, at least.

Something else must've dawned on him as a quick snap of Law's fingers echoed through the food court. "Oh! And remember that day you sent me to check on Billy Hargrove?"

Owen nodded slowly.

"Yeah, turns out, he's not in danger. He is the danger," he informed her, not noticing the way Max's shoulders drooped in the process. "He's been, like, possessed or something. El saw him in a vision."

Owen's eyebrows pinched together. "So did I. That's why I sent you over to check on him in the first place. He didn't seem... right," she told him. "But then I saw him again, while Steve and I were being held by the Russians. Do you think that could be related to El's vision somehow?"

"Knowing how things are around here, I wouldn't say it was a long shot," Nancy assured her. Although, the confirmation didn't make Owen feel any better. Seeing Billy Hargrove in a dream would've been bad enough, but possessed Billy Hargrove? So much worse.

"Okay, so wait. Let me get this straight... Russians? You said you guys were being held by Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas chimed in, still not over this bit of information.

"What are you not comprehending? Are we not speaking English?" Dustin retorted. "We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation."

"So, this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max asked.

"It has everything to do with the gate!" Dustin fired back.

Although she was doing her best to pay attention to their bickering, Owen was also trying to ignore the subtle ringing that had started in her ears. Her brows twitched downward as the sound grew louder, bringing goosebumps all the way up her arms with its shrill tone. Her jaw ticked and her eyes fluttered, fighting to stay present.

"Hey, are you okay?" Steve whispered, barely audible over the tinny noise in her ears.

"I-I can't..." Owen's head lifted just in time to see El collapse behind the rest of the group, her fall taking the screeching along with it.