What do you think? I think you're an idiot. (Dustin Henderson x Reader)

7: Indiana flyer.

Y/n's pov

Starcourt mall had closed long before we finished translating the rest of the Russian message.

"The week is long." We all read together. "The silver cat feeds. When blue meets yellow in the west."

We all stared at it in confusion and slight frustration.

"I mean, it just..." Steve pulled down the chain fence at the entrance to Scoops, officially closing it, aside from the fact that the mall was already completely deserted. "It just can't be right."

"It's right." Robin assured.

"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin said, walking beside me.

"How is this great news?" Steve scoffed, catching up to us and sliding in between Dustin and I. "I mean, so much for American heroes. It's total nonsense."

"Well, I don't think it's total nonsense." I said, biting my lip in thought. "It's way too specific. Like a... code or something."

"What do you mean 'a code'?" Steve pressed.

"I don't know, like a... secret-spy code or something." I half-joked.

"Yeah, a secret spy code." Dustin said to himself, nodding.

"That's a total stretch." Steve said.

"I don't know, is it really?" Robin contemplated in a major thought process.

"You're buying into this?" Steve asked incredulously.

"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian spy code." She said with a shrug.

"Yeah, Steve, come on, what did you think they were going to say? 'Fire the warhead at noon'?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"Exactly." Dustin said, with a smile as Steve struggled for something to say.

"And my translation is correct, I know that for sure, so..." Robin started.

"The Silver Cat Feeds, why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of the message?" I continued.

By now, Dustin was rubbing his triumphant smirk in Steve's face.

"Exactly." Dustin said again.

Robin nodded excitedly at me.

"And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow..sensitive?" She said.

"Exactly!" Dustin said for a third time.

"So I guess that confirms our suspicions, hey dust?" I asked, looking past Steve to my excited, enthusiastic and bubbly boyfriend.

"Evil Russians." He smiled.

Robin shook her head.

"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but yeah, totally. Evil Russians." Robin chuckled.

"So how do we crack it?" Dustin asked as we both looked to Robin.

"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin shrugged.

"A pattern." I nodded. "Right...like, maybe 'Silver Cat' is actually a meeting place?"

"Or a person." Robin suggested.

"Or a weapon." Dustin said, pointing to me and then Robin.

"It's probably going to take a super genius to crack, but-"

I stopped talking and glanced to the side, noticing that only two of my three friends were there.

"Where's Steve?" I asked.

All three of us spun around to see Steve standing in front of a mechanical horse ride.

"Hey, Steve?" I called to him, watching as he sorted change and dug through his pockets, a frown screwed onto his face."What are you doing?"

"Uh, it's-it's a quarter. I need-does anybody have a quarter?" Steve mumbled back to us.

"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin teased as we jogged over to him.

"QUARTER!!" Steve shouted impatiently and robin tossed him one, which he caught and swiftly bent down, inserting the coin into the slot.

"Hm. Nice mom reflexes." I complementarily joked, earning an eye roll from Steve as the mechanical horse sprang to life, the once silent mall now filled with its cheery music.

"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin asked when Steve just crouched in front of the machine, doing nothing.

Steve shushed her as Dustin and I chuckled.

"Would you three just shut up and listen?" Steve asked in irritated seriousness, the tone of his voice shutting both Dustin and myself up.

The four of us stood (more like crouched) silently, listening intently to the Indiana Flyer play it's elated tune of which I had heard so many times, thanks to it being a children's favourite of Starcourt.

But for some reason it sounded more familiar, like it had been planted in my brain from playing it over and over and over one day.

Wait.

"Holy shit." Dustin and I said in perfect unison.

I looked at Steve, then locked eyes with Dustin.

He turned and i unzipped his backpack, rummaging around for the tape recorder.

"The music." I said as Dustin took the backpack off and I dropped to my knees, as I was desperately fishing around for the small tape.

"The music!" I said again, finally finding it and holding it up, the backpack now completely in disarray.

I pressed play on the recorder as Dustin pulled me to my feet eagerly.

The Russian man's voice came through the speaker, along with the music that Steve had been so concerned about.

Dustin, Steve and I all looked to Robin, silently pleading for her to connect the dots in her head.

"I don't understand." Robin said.

"It's the exact same song on the recording." Dustin elaborated.

"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?" Robin questioned.

"Indiana Flyer? I don't..." Steve shook his head, looking unsettled. "I don't think so. This code, it... it didn't come from Russia."

"It came from here." Steve said, looking up at all of us with a mixture of emotions.

Disturbed, confused, anxious, tense, on edge, uneasy, concerned, exhausted, curious, worried, agitated, unsure, protective and scared.

I think we were all feeling the same thing, despite Robin not having witnessed or any knowledge about the two prior years, she seemed pretty onboard with us and not at all in disbelief.

"Son of a bitch." I whispered.

Word count: 974