winterzwiebel: Jo, nach der Veröffentlichung des Kapitels is mir das mit dem Beetle auch eingefallen ^^
Enjoy this one :)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and I write for my own pleasure and that of the readers.
"Michael, will you stop?" Karen smiled at her son's efforts.
"They'll be here in three days, mom." Mike pointed out. "I want it to be perfect."
"You'll have ten weeks together, I think you get enough chances to get it perfect." Karen smiled.
"I can't thank you enough for allowing her to stay for that long." Mike hugged his mom.
"Please, if I hadn't done that, you'd probably followed her to Chicago." Karen chuckled and sprinkled some seasoning on the food.
"Probably." Mike smiled.
"HOLLY, TED, NANCY, LUNCH!" Karen shouted, handing Mike his plate and that of Holly, while she carried hers, Nancy's and Ted's.
"Meat loaf again?" Nancy sighed, seeing the meat on her plate.
"Meat love is great." Mike grinned and dug into his food.
"So, Nancy, what will you do during Jonathan's time here?" Karen asked her oldest daughter.
"While he's here, we're going to have fun?" Nancy smirked. "But when we go to Chicago, we want to look at apartments that would allow me to quickly get to college and him to quickly get to work."
For once, Mike could eat his food in peace, Karen deciding to needle Nancy with incessant questions about her upcoming college plans. After they finished eating, Mike helped his mother do the dishes but before they could finish, someone rang their doorbell.
"Mike, it's for you!" Ted called from the door. "Your friend Max."
"Hey Max, I thought we'd meet later." Mike said to his friend who had a serious expression on his face.
"We need to go somewhere." Max said seriously. "Can you get Nancy too?"
"What's this about?" Mike asked.
"No idea, but it's important." Max said evasively. "About our shared experience."
"Wait here." Mike said, accepting her words and going up the stairs and knocking on his sister's room. "Nancy, you need to drive us somewhere."
"Where?" Nancy looked at him.
"No idea, Max wouldn't tell but she says it's important." Mike told her. "About our shared experience."
"I see." Nancy nodded and followed him down the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Karen asked from the kitchen.
"To the arcade, if that's okay." Nancy lied.
"Have fun." Karen shrugged.
"So, care to tell me what's so important?" Nancy asked Max once they were in her car.
"Drive to this address." Max said, giving Nancy a piece of paper with an address on it.
"Seriously, you're freaking me out." Nancy said.
"Please, you'll learn everything once we're there." Max pleaded and with a sigh, Nancy gave in.
"There?" Mike wondered after a twenty minute drive, where Nancy stopped at an old warehouse.
"Yes." Max nodded and got out of the car.
"Isn't that Jonathan's car?" Nancy wondered, seeing several other vehicles already in front of the building.
"Please, get inside." a man in a suit told her, his demeanor making her follow his direction and he came in after the group was in.
"El!" Mike gasped when he saw her sitting next to a dark-skinned woman who was equally surrounded by four others.
"Mike!" El shrieked and ran to him, jumping into his arms and pressing her mouth on his.
"I thought you were coming in three days." Mike managed to say between kisses.
"Dude, that begins to get tiring." Dustin scoffed from the side, Mike seeing his friends for the first time and also noticing Nancy sucking face with Jonathan.
"Is that what we look like?" Mike pointed to the other couple.
"You look worse." Will chuckled.
"How did you get here?" Mike asked his friends.
"Jonathan got us." Lucas told him. "No idea why, though. But I think those are the guys who will explain."
"Who?" Mike asked and turned around, seeing a pair twins with huge muscles, and three older men, two of whom were wearing suits.
"Now that everyone is here, I think introductions are in order." Bryan said and pulled back his left sleeve, showing his tattoo. "My name is Bryan Templeton, I'm a CIA agent and interrogator and I'm also known as One. My powers consist of hearing people's thoughts, I can put suggestions in people's heads as well as knowledge transfer into and out of my brain."
"You can hear people's thoughts?" Mike asked surprised.
"Yes, I can hear what you think." Bryan nodded. "So, me being here with all of you is kinda uncomfortable for me, since you all think different thoughts. For me, it's like you're all talking at the same time, never finishing a sentence."
"Then what I'm thinking right now?" Axel scoffed and looked directly at Brian.
"Your direct thought is that I'm full of crap." Bryan chuckled. "But what your mind is also shouting continuously is that you hate my guts because she smiled at me when I shook her hand. You love her." he added, pointing at Dottie.
"HA!" Mick laughed, while Dottie looked away embarrassed.
"Get out of my head!" Axel demanded.
"I'm not in your head." Bryan shrugged. "It's you who's shouting it at me."
"And what do you mean with suggestions?" Dustin wanted to know.
"I can make people do things with certain words." Bryan told him.
"Bullshit." Axel scoffed again.
"See, Axel, do you not think that a talent like this is good to have on hand when you try to make people understand?" Bryan said to him.
"That sentence didn't make any sense." Axel shook his head but walked to the nearby wall and, to everyone's surprise and laughter, did a handstand against it.
"I see what you did there." Kali laughed and finally, Axel realized what he was doing.
"Dammit, get out of my head." Axel complained.
"See?" Bryan smiled as well. "Lets continue the introductions please."
"I'm Tim Steeple, this is my brother Tom, and as you can see, we're twins." the left twin said, exposing his forearm to reveal a 003, his brother doing the same and showing a 004. "Our ability is to communicate with each other telepathically over any distance. And our physical strength is quite enhanced."
"How enhanced?" Funshine asked.
"We could throw you back and forth like a beach ball without any problems." Tim winked at him. "Or balance you on one hand."
"My name is Brandon Harper." the next in the circle said, also revealing his forearm with a 006 on it. "I'm a doctor. I can diagnose any disease just by being close to people and heal them with touch, though the latter severely weakens me."
"So, you're a real life Jesus?" Mick gasped at him.
"I'm Kali, and I'm number eight." Kali said, forestalling any reply from Brandon. "I can make people see things."
"So, illusions?" Tom asked.
"Yes." Kali nodded.
"I'm Jane." El introduced herself by using her birth name and showing her arm. "Subject eleven. I can do telekinesis and I can find people."
"Find people?" Tim looked at her.
"Image supported geolocation." Bryan translated, having gleaned that from her when he had gotten the knowledge out of her brain. "Give her a picture of a person and she can find them."
"Okay, now that we all got to know each other, why are we here?" Mick asked, addressing the elephant in the room after everyone else without numbers had introduced themselves.
"What I'm about to tell you stays in this room, understand?" Bryan looked at them, seeing the group around Kali rolling their eyes. "I mean that. This is national security and if you talk to anyone about it, you're subject to treason charges and summary execution after a short military tribunal."
"Alright, alright." Axel lifted his arms in surrender.
"Last year, the Russians infiltrated this town." Bryan pointed to behind him. "They had built a machine to reopen an interdimensional gate under Hawkins lab that Jane had opened by accident a few years ago but closed a year later. The Russians were already trying to open a gate in Russia but they were unsuccessful, at least in keeping it open."
"So, what concern is that to us?" Funshine wanted to know.
"The Russians are still experimenting with it and now they know that it works. It's only a matter of time before they're successful." Bryan explained. "We need to stop them."
"Are you appealing to our love for our country so we help you?" Axel scoffed. "The country that seemed to have forgotten us?"
"I'm not stupid enough to think that you would help out of the goodness of your heart." Bryan chuckled.
"We do." Tom said, Tim nodding too.
"So, what's in it for us?" Dottie asked him.
"The Russians have an American prisoner." Bryan looked directly at El. "His name is James Hopper. I think you know him."
"Dad?" El teared up.
"Jim is alive?" Joyce gasped.
"Yes, and we're going to rescue him before we destroy the Russians' machine." Bryan nodded.
"We're in." Max stated, the group nodding.
"Me too." Brandon agreeing.
"I'll help." Kali said. "If only to see my sister happy."
"Thank you." El smiled warmly at her.
"So, what do we get?" Axel asked.
"How about full pardons for everything you have done so far?" Bryan suggested. "Clean slate for all of you. No prosecutions for the dozens of thefts and the eight murders you've committed."
"You know?" Kali gasped.
"Given that the people who died were all people associated with Hawkins lab, it wasn't that hard to deduce." Bryan said.
"If you are like us, why are you working for the government that tortured you?" El wanted to know.
"The government never tortured me." Bryan said. "When my powers manifested, I was six years old. I was approached by government agents who promised my parents to take care of me and they did. My parents were always allowed to visit me, I was allowed to visit them. It was more like a specialized education than confinement. The only thing they did that you could see as torture was giving me this tattoo to identify me when they found the others but they used local anesthesia to do it. I was fed, I was well cared for. I lived in a large apartment within the base, I had a bed, my own bathroom, plenty of food. I could leave regularly."
"We couldn't." Kali said. "We were kept in cells and if we didn't do what they wanted, we were tortured, physically and mentally."
"I know." Bryan nodded. "But that was Brenner's doing. He went rogue with his methods long ago. Hawkin's lab wasn't even supposed to have you there, it was created for genuine research."
"What happened to the others?" El asked. "The numbers that aren't here."
"The others died." Bryan shrugged, seeing the apprehensive looks on the other's faces. "They weren't killed. According to the logs, they expired when their powers got out of control and destroyed them from within."
"I find that hard to believe." Kali said.
"Really?" Bryan looked at her. "Imagine Jane unable to control her telekinetic powers and she accidentally pulls a car on herself at high speed? Or collapsing a building and it falls on her. In this case, they were trying to use their powers but either their brains couldn't handle that or they died as a result of what their powers caused."
"I get it." Kali accepted.
"I can confirm the death of project seven." Brandon interjected. "I watched him die when he lost control over his powers."
"What exactly do you need us to do?" Funshine asked.
"That depends." Bryan said and turned to El. "Jane, can you open the gate to the other dimension again?"
"The Upside Down." El said quietly.
"I'm sorry?"
"It's what she coined it, the Upside Down." Mike repeated. "It's because it's like a dark version of Hawkins."
"Not just Hawkins." Marcus said. "The Russians are trying to open gates and have succeeded for short times and I doubt that they see a dark version of your hometown."
"But since your adoptive father has somehow ended up in the hands of the Russians, we speculate that either distance and time or both work differently in that dimension. Jim Hopper certainly didn't walk the way to Russia without food or water while hurt." Bryan added.
"And with all those monsters over there." Dustin interjected.
"I think I can open the gate again." El nodded.
"Though I don't think it will stay open." Joyce interjected. "The Russians had kept it open by shooting a beam of energy into it and once the machine was destroyed, the gate closed immediately."
"That's where one of them would come into play." Bryan pointed to the twins. "Their physical strength could be enough to hold the gate open."
"So, you want to send the rest of us to Russia?" Dustin asked incredulous.
"Only as many as Miss Prasad can hide from the denizens of that dimension." Bryan nodded.
"Then I'd suggest as few as possible." Kali threw in. "Too many people would tax me too much, especially if I had to do it for a long time."
"But how would we find our way?" Mike asked. "I mean, lets say, we simply walk east and reach a gate that allows us to get into that facility. How would we come back? I doubt I know where west is when we get back into the Upside Down from the Russian side."
"I have an idea about that." Bryan nodded. "I can suck knowledge from your brain and put it back in. I think I could use that power to connect you and Jane, since you two have strong feelings for each other. Jane could act like a lighthouse for you. It would only be temporary but I think it would be long enough for this mission."
"So, the team going to Russia would consist of three people." Marcus said. "Mike to act as guide and beacon reader, if you will, Tom or Tim, depending on who stays here, to carry the bomb and of course to hold the gate on the Russian side open and Kali to hide them. The return trip would be with four people, if Jim Hopper is still alive. And Mike, it would be faster if you walked northwest, the way is shorter from here to Kamchatka."
"I would supply you with several syringes full of epinephrine, in case one of you gets incapacitated." Brandon added. "And since I learned about this mission, I created a concoction that would counteract the various types of serums that the Russians tend to inject into prisoners, either to make them talk or to keep them sedated."
"I don't know how to give a shot to anyone." Mike told him.
"That's not so difficult in this regard." Brandon replied. "You need to inject those directly into the heart. The concoction has to go into the bloodstream, so you can also simply slam the syringe into his chest."
"I don't think I can do that." Mike gasped.
"You will have to if you want this mission to be successful." Brandon shrugged. "I suggest you learn until the mission starts."
"How?" Mike asked. "I doubt anyone here would be willing to lie down so I can hammer needles into their chests."
"Count me out." Dustin shuddered.
"I can get you a dummy that's a good representation of the human body, with the resistance of the chest cavity and so on." Brandon said.
"And I will give everyone the knowledge of the weapons we're using." Bryan said. "You will experience some bad headaches once I pushed the knowledge inside your brains but they will last only for an hour or so."
"Alright." Mike nodded, accepting the charge, the others as well.
The following days went in a flurry of preparations. To hide their undertaking, the boys claimed to have a little camping trip, with Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan as well as Robin and Steve acting as chaperons for the teenagers. When they picked up their tents and sleeping bags from their respective homes, Mike and Dustin got food baskets from their parents, giving the group at least some better food than the canned stuff the agents had brought.
In several more briefing sessions, the boys had explained what kind of beings the demogorgons were and how they could be fought and Joyce had told them about her experience inside the Upside Down. Bryan, accepting their words, brought in crates of weapons for them to fight and to their surprise, it wasn't guns but crossbows with metal-tipped bolts as well as a large harpoon for Funshine, his strength making him the only one capable of using it since the twins had other tasks.
Bryan had used his powers to give everyone the knowledge to use those weapons. What he couldn't teach was marksmanship, so the assembled group used the time to practice, shooting bolts at targets at ranges and angles that were expected. Steve kept his nail bat on hand, thinking it prudent to have a close quarter weapon available if needed and Robin let him teach her how to use it properly.
Mike had asked Bryan for more than just the knowledge he needed for the mission, wanting to learn proper fighting techniques and after a bit of hesitation, Bryan had given in, pressing his hand against Mike's head and pumping knowledge into his head that had caused him to experience a ten-hour headache that was the worst pain he ever experienced in his young life but for this ten hours of agony, Mike got combat knowledge and was now able to speak Russian, which could help him once they reached their destination.
On the fifth day after their first meeting, the group assembled in the gate room in the bowels of Hawkins lab. Joyce looked in surprise at the room, the last time she had seen it was when she blew up the machine. Now it was cleaned and the observation room had been replaced by gantries, allowing people to take an elevated position.
Brandon handed out some pills to the group going to Russia. From what he had told them before, Mike knew that these would keep them awake for up to five days if taken regularly, though doing it for that long would have a pretty damaging effect on their physical and psychological health. Mike hoped they wouldn't have to take them at all, since El needed to stay awake as well to keep her signal going for Mike to see.
Robin, Steve, Dustin, Lucas and Max would take position on the upper gantry, while Will, Jonathan, Nancy and Joyce would be on the lower gantry. Kali's group placed themselves on a side gantry, Funshine hefting his weapon while Mick would act as his loader with Axel and Dottie also carrying the same crossbows the others had. Each group had mattresses and sleeping bags on their gantries, so some of the group could sleep for as long there wasn't a danger coming through the gate.
Brandon took up position in the antechamber, out of harms way, only to join the fight if his powers were needed. El's place was a round pedestal in the middle of the room, with Bryan taking up position in front of it to use his abilities to protect her. As for the twins, a quick game of rock, paper, scissors resulted in Tim being the one staying in the lab, holding the gate open while Tom would accompany Kali and Mike while also carrying the bomb.
"Is everyone ready?" Bryan asked, after seeing Mike fuss around with his hazmat suit.
"How can we be sure that this suit will fit Hopper?" Mike asked, pointing a thumb to the backpack strapped to his back.
"We used the information from his file and what you guys told us his gut has come out." Marcus told him. "Also, I doubt the Russians will have fed him well, so he's most likely lost a few pounds."
"And are you sure that this taser stick you gave me will work against those creatures?" Mike went on.
"Since I have no idea what these creatures even look like, much less how they react to electricity, no." Bryan shook his head. "But a stun baton is easier to carry than a crossbow. With luck, you won't have to use it. Kali should be able to hide you."
"And if not, this baby will surely take care of them." Tom grinned, holding his nail gun up like a duelist would a handgun.
"El, ready?" Bryan called to the girl, who was standing near.
"Ready." El nodded and joined them, pressing a kiss to Mike's lips. "For luck."
"Now, close your eyes and concentrate on your feelings for each other." Bryan told them and pressed his hands against their heads, closing his eyes as well.
Mike felt as if someone was digging into his brain, a feeling not unlike the one he had felt when Bryan had pumped all that knowledge into his mind. Clenching his teeth, he felt like sitting in a dentist chair, pain lancing into his skull as Bryan rapidly shuffled knowledge between them, using that technique to connect their minds together. It took three minutes but suddenly, the pain subsided and while still keeping his eyes closed, he could see El's presence next to him as if she was a flood light shaped like a human.
"I can feel him." El said in wonder.
"Good, now get on the platform and open the gate and try to keep it small." Bryan nodded, proud that his plan had worked. "Tim, get on the gantry and get ready to hold the gate open if it closed on its own."
"On it." Tim nodded and climbed the ladder to where he needed to be.
El stuck out her arm, concentrating the same way she had when she had closed the gate. She felt the pressure of the Upside Down against the wall and tweaked the veil between the dimensions, feeling a tear form. Concentrating hard on it, she felt it weaken further and then rip open, the wall cracking and crumbling as the tear in real space became visible and larger.
"Alright, that's big enough!" Bryan shouted as Tim stepped into the breach, pressing his arms against the edges of the tear.
"Guys, please don't take too long." Tim said from above. "The push is pretty strong."
"We'll do our best." Mike nodded and stepped into the breach, feeling as if he walked through mud as he traversed the threshold.
"Jesus!" Kali gasped when she came after him.
"Wow!" Tom gasped as well after he appeared in the Upside Down. "This is really fucked up."
"Northwest is this way." Mike pointed and started walking. "Now I only have to keep El's image behind me and we shouldn't get lost."
"Are those the eggs Joyce told us about?" Kali asked, seeing the ovoid objects, several of them open.
"I think so." Mike nodded. "We shouldn't touch them."
"No argument from me." Tom shuddered, having never expected this.
The small group kept walking, not too fast but also not slacking off, knowing that Tom's sibling was having a hard time keeping the gate open. Mike kept El's image behind him and continued to put one foot in front of the other, feeling his legs beginning to burn. They walked for what felt like hours, though the passage of time could barely be seen in this realm, with its constant darkness and almost suffocating pressure.
To their surprise, they remained undisturbed. No demogorgon or demodog came across them as they walked, nor did the being they dubbed the mind flayer make an appearance. Mike doubted that Kali would be able to hide them from it if it showed up, given its power and size so he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best as he picked up the pace.
"Dogs!" Tom suddenly whispered.
"Stand absolutely still." Kali ordered them and she began using her powers.
The dogs came closer still, their flower heads close to the ground as they sniffed for prey. Kali looked directly at them, feeling fear going through her body as she beheld the weirdness of those creatures, who still came closer.
"Is it working?" Mike whispered.
"I think they can smell us." Kali whispered back.
"Through our hazmat suits?" Mike wondered.
"Maybe they're smelling our equipment." Tom suggested and hefted his nail gun. "Mike, get ready."
Mike nodded and gripped his stun baton harder, hoping that it would be enough. The dogs continued to come closer until they were close enough that Mike could see their teeth between those flower petals that made up their heads. One came closer to him, its head moving left and right as if to look for the object that caused this strange smell. Tom pointed his nail gun at the dog further away, following it with his aim and waiting for Mike to make his move.
"Now!" Mike hissed and shoved the stun baton against the dog in front of him.
The dog yelped in surprise as Tom shot the other with his nail gun, hitting it right in the throat, the dog collapsing immediately. The one in front of Mike kept twitching, only stopping when Tom put a second nail into its head, causing it to finally lie still. They looked around, looking for more of them and when they couldn't find any, Kali stopped using her powers.
"What are you doing?" she asked when Tom lifted one of the dogs, using his strength to rip its head clean off.
"Hiding our scent." Tom replied and began rubbing the severed head along his hazmat suit.
"Good idea." Mike nodded and held up his arms so Tom could to the same with his suit.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Kali almost gagged when Tom closed in on her with the severed head, letting the man rub it across her suit as well.
They started walking again, time going by. At some point, they started to feel the exhaustion set in and they all took one of their pills and ate an energy bar, downing all of it with several swigs of water from their canteens. After closing their suits again, they continued walking west, feeling refreshed as if they just had slept for ten hours.
"Wow, I need some of those pills in my life." Tom joked, feeling the effects.
"I doubt they're in any way healthy." Mike chuckled before hearing a low rumbling. "Do you feel that?"
"Earthquake?" Kali wondered, putting her hand on the ground.
"I don't think so." Mike shook his head.
"Lots of feed moving fast." Tom said, his own hand on the ground. "I stood on the side of a track when a dozen horses galloped past and it felt like that."
"There!" Mike pointed forward, seeing several dozen demodogs and even a few demogorgons coming closer.
"Shit!" Kali cursed and hid them with their powers. "Move behind that boulder!"
The trio hid behind the large rock, which was overgrown with vines like everything else in this realm seemed to be. For several minutes, they waited until the horde came close enough to make out its members, and Mike gasped at the amount of creatures. To their relief, the entire force sped past them, not a single dog even looking at them.
"That was lucky." Tom sighed in relief when they could see their backsides, Kali dropping her powers again to avoid getting too tired.
"I wonder where they are going." Kali mused.
"Maybe to the gate into our world that we opened?" Mike suggested.
"Shit, we should hurry." Tom cursed.
Filled with a sense of urgency, the three of them began walking west faster now, almost running. Tom gave no indication that the heavy bomb strapped to his back was tiring him out and followed Mike and Kali as they led the way. They again walked for what felt like hours but suddenly, Mike noticed a change in their surroundings, the sick trees getting more and more sparse before they were on what was essentially a steppe with a strange powder on the ground.
"I wonder what that is." Mike said, touching it.
"It's like ash." Tom nodded, picking some up.
"When the people in the lab were trying to contain the gate, they frequently used fire to keep the
tendrils at bay." Mike told them.
"So maybe the Russians are doing that too and even going into his place to do it?" Kali suggested.
"Which means, we should be near that gate." Tom nodded. "Guys, look around."
"There." Mike pointed to a dilapidated wall.
"That's the gate?" Kali wondered, looking at the small red spot.
"It feels the same like the one we went through." Mike nodded, sticking his fingers into the red, jelly-like mass. "We won't fit through there, though."
"Leave that to me." Tom smiled and punched the concrete wall around the red area, large chunks falling off.
Tom continued for several more minutes, creating a gateway large enough for them to walk through. Then he stuck his fingers into the hold and began to pull, his teeth clenching as he widened the gate from fist-sized to head-sized and making it larger and larger until he could pass through. Kali stepped through first, using her powers to hide herself but when she saw nobody in the room, she stopped using them once again and called for the others to come through.
"Alright, I'll hold the gate open." Tom said and took the bomb off his back. "Kali, you need to set the device while Mike goes out to find their friend."
"Okay." Mike nodded and moved towards the door while Kali placed the bomb on the machine and pressed a button, causing a spray of gas exiting it as Tom took up his place between the sides of the gate, preventing it from closing again.
Mike left the room and took off the helmet part of his hazmat suit to be able to hear noises around him. He quietly hurried along the hallway he found himself in until he reached an elevator and a stairway next to it. Since he didn't know what floor he had to go to, he stepped into the stairwell, moving up the stairs until he reached a door, which he opened slowly to peek through, only to find another hallway with several doors.
He continued on, climbing more floors until he reached a large open area with what looked like hundreds of doors close to each other. He surmised that this was the cell area where the prisoners were kept and he wondered how he was supposed to find Hopper, since looking into each cell through the small viewing slit was impossible in the time he had.
"кто ты?" came a question from a Russian guard. "что ты здесь делаешь?"
"Михаил Уилер." Mike replied to the question, simply using the Russian counterpart of his name and a free translation of his last. "Мне приказали получить американца."
"По чьим заказам?" came the next question, about who gave him the authority to get the prisoner.
"От генерала конечно." Mike replied, hoping that he had put enough exasperation into his voice that the Russian believed him. "Где он?"
"Подписывайтесь на меня." the soldier nodded and led Mike to the elevator, riding up three floors and after walking past several doors, during which Mike took out his stun baton, stopping at a particular one. "Мы здесь."
"Спасибо." Mike thanked him with a smile and rammed the stun baton against the soldier's chest, the man stiffing up and shaking before crumpling to the ground.
Mike rummaged through the guard's pockets until he found a set of keys, putting one into the lock after another until he had found the correct one. He unlocked the door and opened it, finding Hopper lying on a small bunk, his eyes closed. He gasped at his appearance, Hopper's former mass almost gone from lack of food and his face full of cuts and bruises.
"I found Hopper! He's awake but unresponsive." Mike whispered into his radio, Tom relaying the message to his twin who told the group.
"You need to inject him with the serum they gave you." came the relayed order through the speaker at his ear.
Wincing, Mike dug out the syringe from the pocket they had put it in and after a few seconds of hesitation and moving the fabric of the prison uniform aside and clearing the needle of air, he rammed it into Hopper's chest, hoping he did it right and pushed down the plunger until the barrel was empty. Hopper gasped for air and his head turned to Mike and then he started humming, his eyes going everywhere at first but then falling on his rescuer.
"You look like a boy I know." Hopper chuckled and his head rolled around.
"Guys, he's awake but not really able to get up." Mike said into the microphone attached to his helmet.
"Mike, you need to get his heart rate up, so the compound starts working." he heard after a few seconds.
"Hopper, get moving." Mike ordered, shaking the man, even slapping him.
"Five more minutes." Hopper moaned, mirroring what El often did when she was woken up too early.
"Get his heart rate up." Mike muttered and got an idea."Chief, can you hear me?"
"Mike, is that you?" Hopper asked, his eyes trying to focus on the tall boy in front of him.
"Chief, me and El are back together." Mike started, Hopper getting quiet as he listened to the words entering his ears. "And I took her virginity last Christmas. It was awesome. And since then, we've been doing it at least twice a day. We also restored your cabin and use it as a love shack. Doing it on every surface available, most often your lay-z-boy."
"Hrmph." Hopper growled, his eyes wide and his face turning red.
"Until three months ago that is. El got sick in the mornings and she missed her period and then we found out she's pregnant. But I don't think I can handle being a father at my age so I'm thinking of running away and... hrghl!" he suddenly stopped when a big hand closed around his throat and he felt his feet leaving the floor.
"I'm going to kill you!" a suddenly very awake and very furious Jim Hopper yelled as Mike tried to reach the Chief's wrist. "I'm going to rip off your fucking dick with my bare hands and feed it to you before I'll disembowel you with the rustiest knife I can find and then I..."
"Chief!" Mike wheezed and found the spot he was looking for, squeezing hard.
"OW!" Hopper cursed and let go of Mike, his hand suddenly numb.
"Chief, calm down!" Mike cursed.
"Calm down? You have the gall to tell me to calm down you little piece of..."
"Chief, El's not pregnant!" Mike shouted, causing Jim to stop. "And even if she were, I'd never leave her. I love her. But I needed to get you agitated and it worked. Now, can we get out of here?"
"We're going to talk about this later." Hopper threatened.
"Here, I think you know how to use this." Mike said and handed Hopper the bag he had carried all the way.
"Where did you get this?" Hopper asked when he found some clothes and a disassembled M-16 rifle with grenade launcher, which he quickly put together before taking the magazines and the three grenades, loading the rifle with each and packing the others away into his pockets after putting on the pants and jacket.
"We'll explain later." Mike pleaded. "Ready?"
"Ready." Hopper nodded. "You got a plan to get out of here?"
"We need to get down into the room with the gate." Mike said and looked into the hallway, finding it empty except for the still stunned guard.
"Did you do this?" Hopper asked, looking at the prone man.
"Yeah." Mike nodded, showing him the stun baton that he had used on the the man and shocking the prone guard once again for good measure.
"Hey Wheeler." Hopper said as they started walking.
"What is it?"
"When you said that what you told me was a joke, how much of it?" Hopper asked.
"I'm sorry?"
"You said she's not pregnant and you'd never leave her." Hopper clarified. "What about the rest?"
"Uh... we... uh... well, your cabin is still destroyed." Mike deflected. "We can talk about this later."
"Oh, we will." Hopper growled. "Right before I kill you!"
"Mike, are you there?" a voice from the helmet speaker startled them.
"Yes, Tom, we're on our way." Mike spoke back. "I got Hopper. Set the bomb timer."
"Get a move on, there are Russians in here and Kali is getting tired." Tom told him. "She set it to five minutes."
"Got it." Mike said and hurried on, leading Hopper into the elevator and hitting the lowest button from where they used the stairs again to reach the lowest level of the base.
Mike led Hopper into the hallway and their luck held until they reached the antechamber of the gate room where several Russians were milling around. Hopper mentioned for him to stay quiet and surveyed the scene, seeing five soldiers and a scientist in the chamber, the scientist talking to one of the soldiers and pointing to the monitors, shrugging his shoulders. Hopper had no idea what they were talking about but it probably had something to do with the dark-skinned girl he saw standing inside the chamber through the windows, who was wearing a hazmat suit as well and holding her arms up with blood trickling out of her nose.
He couldn't see the gate but he saw the girl opening her eyes, seeing them both and nodding. Mike got up and before Hopper could stop him, the boy he was going to kill soon mentioned for him to be quiet and started walking slowly towards the double doors leading into the room with the gate. Full of confusion he got up as well and followed Mike, walking as slow as possible but to his surprise, none of the soldiers reacted, even when Mike opened the door.
Once they were inside, Hopper was greeted by a scene of more Russian soldiers standing around, confused scientists and a man who looked like a bodybuilder in another hazmat suite holding a dimensional gate open with his hands while the dark-skinned girl mentioned them to move faster, sweat pouring from her head and blood dripping from her chin where it had collected from the droplets exiting her nose.
"Hurry!" she pleaded but as soon as Hopper and Mike were past her, she collapsed and it took about ten seconds for the Russian soldiers to react to the fact that there were four extra people in the room and the extra-dimensional gate they have tried to manipulate for years was actually open.
"Get your asses through the gate, we have thirty seconds!" Tom yelled from the gate and Hopper sprayed the room with bullets and a grenade while Mike picked up a barely conscious Kali and tried to push her through the dimensional portal.
The surviving Russian plus those who ran into the room began firing back, their bullets causing sparks when they hit a metallic surface or a crunch when they impacted on concrete. A pained yell made Hopper turn around and he saw Mike look at him with an expression of pain and confusion, three red spots appearing on his chest before his eyes glazed over and he stumbled backwards into the gate.
I got a visit today again from that guy that I and most others hate. Cliff Hanger is now here again. And he might stay for a few... weeks.
Muahahahaha *evil laugh*
But still...
Review please or Cliff Hanger will really stay for a few weeks :D
PS. I have no idea if my Russian is any good, my Russian language skills are school level and that was 21 years ago, otherwise it's all google translate ^^