The four of them made their way into the Lab reception area. Thankfully it was empty, with the exception of the receptionist working behind her desk.
''Take out the cameras,'' Hopper instructed Eleven through gritted teeth. El obliged, her eyes darted around the ceiling, cracking the cameras one by one. Unfortunately, she used a little too much force on one of them, causing it to split in two. The front part of it came down on the floor in a loud crash.
''What in the hell?'' exclaimed the receptionist, rising from her seat. She glanced between the four of them with fear in her eyes. ''Who are you people!?''
Eleven took two step towards her. "We're not going to hurt you, okay?" The receptionist shrieked when El fixed her telekinetic hold on her, forcing the woman to slap her own hands over her mouth. She continued to scream, but the sound came out muffled.
''Now, Mike!'' commanded El.
Mike ran over to the receptionist, producing a roll of masking tape from the front pocket of his hoodie. He wound the tape around her head, securing the woman's hands over her mouth.
''I'm really sorry,'' he told her, an uneasy expression on his face. ''We just can't afford to have you call security, or the police.'' The woman began to sob, looking pleadingly at Mike as he continued to wind the tape around her.
''Know where the keys are for this door?'' Hopper asked her, pointing to a nearby broom closet. The woman nodded vigorously, motioning to her top desk drawer. Mike rummaged through it, eventually pulling out a set of three small keys.
''One of these?'' he asked her, holding them up. She nodded.
''Which one? Point it out with your nose.'' He held the set closer to her face, and she pressed her nose against the smallest of the three. Mike ran over to the broom closet to unlock it.
''Again, ma'am, we're really sorry about this,'' apologized Hopper as helped the receptionist from her chair and lead her to the broom closet. ''We should be back in about 30 minutes. I promise we're not going to leave you like this.'' Panicked, her eyes widened when she realized they were going to lock her in. She fought against Hopper's grasp, shouting and crying, but it was no use. Mike shut the door and locked it behind him.
"Well that's something I never thought I'd do," he murmured, placing the keys in his front jeans pocket.
Hopper turned to Linda. ''Where's the telecom room? We have to take out the rest of the cameras."
''Right here on the first floor,'' she replied. ''Let's go.''
They made their way down two sets of corridors, with Eleven blowing up every camera they passed on the way. Upon reaching the telecom room, El used her powers to unlock the door.
''Unplug every single wire,'' instructed Hopper as they rushed in. They all got to work, undoing each wire from its respective socket. The various TV's and computer screens went black one by one.
''Good. Let's go find Owens.''
They hurried back to the elevators. Linda pressed the button over and over until the elevator dinged to a stop. Two men stepped out in lab coats, eyeing them suspiciously until the doors closed.
''Should I have taken them out?'' asked El, turning to Hopper.
''I don't know...''
They arrived on the eighth floor. The dimly lit corridor was eerily empty, except for a woman entering a room at the very end of the hallway. They waited for her to disappear from sight before stepping out of the elevator.
''Is it just me, or this could have gone a lot worse,'' whispered Mike as they made their way to Dr. Owens' office.
''So far so good,'' replied Hopper in a hushed voice.
The four of them lined up side by side along the wall before entering his office. ''Go,'' mouthed Hopper to El, and she rushed into his office.
''Jane,'' said Owens, immediately rising from his desk, alarmed. ''What are you doing here?'' El used her powers to strip him of his lab coat, making it fly into her hand.
''Saving my life,'' she replied, using her powers to back him up against the wall. ''Now!'' she yelled. Hopper, Mike, and Linda rushed into the room, closing the door behind them. She tossed the lab coat to Linda, and Linda quickly put it on.
''Nice to see you again, Dr. Owens,'' said Mike as he not-so-delicately slapped a piece of tape onto his mouth.
Dr. Owens mumbled furiously through the tape, desperately trying to free himself from Eleven's telekinetic grasp, to no avail. He looked from Hopper to Mike to El, eyes widened in panic. Hopper took a few steps towards him, and crouched down to his level.
''You only have yourself to blame, Doctor,'' he said, pronouncing each word very clearly as he looked him straight in the eye. "We could have done this the easy way. Make sure you think about that while you sit here." He grabbed Dr. Owens by the arm and threw him back into his chair. Mike got to work on taping him to it.
''Gonna need this, thanks,'' Hopper said, unclipping Owens' access pass from his belt and handed it to Linda, while El disconnected his computer and phone. Dr. Owens could only stare at them, dumbfounded as they rushed out of his office, ready to take on the final part of their plan.
Hopper shut the door behind them. ''Okay. Restricted section.''
''20th floor,'' said Linda. ''Come on.''
By some miracle, they made the short jog to the elevators without encountering anyone in the hallway. They were silent as the elevator made it's way up, all of them praying they wouldn't have to stop on the way to let people on. The elevator came to a stop at the 18th floor with a loud ding, and the doors opened. Two lab employees, a man and a woman, stood before them, visibly confused at the sight of Hopper, El, and Mike. After a brief moment of hesitation, they stepped in.
As the doors closed, the man reached over to press the 20th floor button, and froze when he realized the Restricted Floor button already been activated. Alarmed, he barely had the time to share a look with his colleague before El and Hopper pounced. Hopper covered the man's mouth, backing him into the corner of the elevator, while El used her powers to disable the woman. Mike went to work on them, and within 20 seconds they had reached the 20th floor, both of the Lab employees detained with their hands behind their backs and their mouths covered. They ran to the nearest office, which was right across the elevator, hostages in tow. El unlocked the door, and all six of them hustled into the room. The lab employees stared at them in shock, but surprisingly kept quiet.
Hopper reopened the door ever so slightly, wanting to check that the corridor was still empty. There was no one, except for two guards on duty standing before two very large glass doors at the end of the long corridor.
''Is that the Restricted section?'' he whispered to Linda, motioning for her to come have a look.
Linda took a peek through the crack. ''Yeah, that's it.''
Hopper shut the door carefully. ''We're gonna have to take out the guards.'' He removed the man's lab coat to put it on, then unfastened his access pass and clipped it onto his belt.
''They're armed, so we'll have to do it quickly. El, slide their guns over to me and Linda, then you take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right. Mike, you know what you have to do.'' Mike nodded firmly.
''On three. One, two, three…''
All four of them rushed out of the room. They made it about halfway across the corridor when they finally caught the guards' attention.
''Hold!'' one of them called as they approached, lifting his gun. El outstretched her hands towards them, calling for their weapons with her mind. They whipped out of the guards' grasp and slid over to Hopper and Linda.
''Bitchin','' came Mike's voice from behind her, referring to her old saying. El flashed him a quick smile before shifting her focus back to the guard, backing him into the wall with his hands over his head. Hopper advanced on the second guard, gun pointed straight at him. Mike ran over to the guards and began taping their mouths, then hands. Hopper grabbed
''Let's go drop them off," he instructed, leading the taller, bigger guard back down the hall to the office where their two other hostages were being held.
Linda pointed her gun to the other guard's back. ''Move it. Let's go.''
They obeyed. Once they had made it back to the room, Hopper made them sit, and Mike began to tape their ankles to their respective chairs.
''You stay here to keep an eye on them. Call us if you need help,'' Hopper told him, tossing him a walkie-talkie. El turned to her father, a panicked look on her face.
''What? We're not leaving him here!''
Mike pulled her into a hug, then carefully took her face in his hands. ''El, you have to. I'll be fine,'' he assured her, softly brushing her cheek with his thumb. She leaned into his touch.
''I don't think like it...''
Mike offered her a weak smile. ''Me neither, but we have to do this. Go. Go kick ass.''
She tried to return his smile. ''Okay.''
''Mike, if we're not back in 20 minutes, leave. Immediately. Do you understand?'' asked Hopper. Mike nodded in return, but they both knew there was no way in hell he'd leave without El.
El bit her lip, unfastening Mike's old watch from her wrist and handed it to him. She grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Mike responded by grabbing her by the waist, pulling her body closer to him as he kissed her back passionately, not caring that there were 6 other people in the room with them, including her father.
Hopper rolled his eyes. ''Guys. Let's go. We don't have time for this." El shot him a look, reluctantly letting go of Mike. He grabbed her arm as she walked past him.
"Be careful," he pleaded, looking straight into her eyes. El gave him her best reassuring smile.
"Promise."
The three of them walked back out into the hallway. El's heart sank to her stomach about ten steps later, already worried sick about leaving Mike behind. She tried to push her fears aside and focus on the task at hand. They would hurry and find her file as quickly as possible, then go back for Mike. And then they would get the hell out of the Lab, and never, ever return. This, she promised herself.
Back at the large glass doors, Linda slid her pass under the access card reader. The light went from red to green, and the doors slid open.
El gasped when they entered the Restricted Section. The place was as big as a school gymnasium, maybe even bigger, with rows upon rows of shelves stacked with boxes and drawers.
Hopper appeared next to her as he studied the room. "Jesus...'' he whispered, mirroring her own thoughts.
"Come on," said Linda as she walked past them, and in that moment, El realized how fortunate they were to have her on their side. Never in a million years would they have been able to find her file in time without Linda's help.
They followed Linda down several rows of shelves, turned right, then left twice. They went up a flight of stairs, and ended up before another glass door that led to some sort of computer lab. Linda scanned her pass again, and pushed open the door. She sat down at the nearest computer.
"We'll need Owens' all-access pass for this," she told Hopper. He unclipped it immediately, handing it to her.
"What are we doing in here? Shouldn't we be looking in those boxes?" he asked her, perplexed.
"You got all night?" she countered, glancing at him over her shoulder. "No way, it would take too long. Plus, they don't keep the MK Ultra subjects' files on paper. Not since what happened a few years back. Too risky.''
Hopper nodded. "Makes sense, yeah."
Linda typed away. She had to scan the card twice, and enter a bunch of numbers from Owen's ID pass before she could finally access the file.
Linda beamed at Eleven. "Bingo! Ives-Hopper, Jane. Got it!"
El was so relieved, she thought she would cry. Her dad let out a laugh and pulled her into a hug, holding her so tight she could barely breathe. They both jumped when they heard the printer start, and for a second El thought Hopper would shoot the damn thing.
Hopper wiped the tears from his face. "I don't even know how to begin to thank you, Linda."
"You can thank me later when we're out of here," she responded, offering him a small smile.
Suddenly, El had an idea. "Hey, Linda - maybe we could print out a couple more files. You know, as evidence for our lawsuit."
Hopper turned to look at her, stupefied. "You're a genius, kid."
"Okay, but only a couple more. We have to get out of here," said Linda.
There was only one other person she remembered from her time at the Lab, her childhood trauma having blocked out the rest of her memories. It was her sister - not biologically by any means, but in every other sense of the word. "Start with Kali Prasad," she instructed Linda.
Linda typed in Prasad into the computer and a picture of a younger Kali appeared on the screen, followed by 10 pages of medical script. "We've only got time for one more...''
"Terry Ives," said El, a lump in her throat. She looked over at her dad. "I need to know the truth. I want to know exactly what they did to her."
Hopper pulled her to his side and placed his arm around her. "It's okay, baby. It's the right thing to do."
They waited in silence as the printer worked on overdrive, spitting out page after page.
''Come on, come on,'' whispered Linda, nervously drumming her fingers on the desk. After 10 excruciatingly long minutes, their work was finally done. Linda made a few clicks on the computer and logged out, while El grabbed the papers from the printer.
Linda turned to face them. ''We have to get out of here. Now.''
They jogged all the way back to the corridor, and headed for the office where Mike was holding their hostages captive. El knocked on the door.
''Mike, it's us!''
The door flew open immediately. Mike stood before her with hearts in his eyes, overcome with relief that she was safe. ''El...''
Their bodies slammed together as they immediately embraced each other in a tight hug. She allowed herself to rest her head on his chest for a few seconds, squeezing him with all her might before Hopper interrupted them.
''Let's go! Let's go!'' he called to them, holding the elevator doors open.
The rode down in silence. As soon as they had stepped foot onto the first floor, the alarm went off, causing them to jump.
Linda covered her ears with her hands. ''I forgot how loud that thing was!'' she shouted.
Mike ran over to the broom closet and unlocked the door. He helped the receptionist to her feet and reached for the pair of scissors on her desk, cutting her wrists and ankles free, and removed the tape from her mouth.
''Really sorry about all this!'' She opened her mouth to speak, but they were already out the door.
''Freeze!'' Two guards appeared before them the moment they walked out into the parking lot. ''Stay where you are!''
All four of them rose their hands in the air. El squinted at them and jerked her head to the side, causing their weapons to fly out of their hands. They landed on two separate cars somewhere in the parking lot, one of them crashing through the windshield. Car alarms went off in the distance. The guards shared a panicked look.
''Get down on the ground right now, hands behind your head, and you won't get hurt,'' said Hopper, advancing towards them. The guards obeyed immediately.
Then they bolted towards Linda's Rabbit.
''Go, go, go!'' cried Linda from the passenger seat. Hopper stepped on the gas pedal and the car screeched to a start. At the gate, El used her powers to blow the doors wide open, and they were off in a flash.
Shortly after the Lab was out of sight, Linda burst into a fit of giggles. Seconds later, all four of them were howling with laughter.
''That was crazy! Crazy!'' cried Linda.
''I can't believe you guys pulled that off,'' replied Mike.
''We pulled it off,'' corrected El, lacing her fingers through his as she lay her head on his shoulder. The fight was far from over, but things were finally looking up.