"The next words out of your mouth better be that you understand, Liza or so help me-"
"I understand" Liza nodded, fingers crossed behind her back.
~x~
In which Liza Henderson fights against the Upside Down with the help of her friends.
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~x~
When Erica, Steve and Dustin caught up with the girls, they all had annoyed looks on their faces. They weren't pleased with the fact that Liza and Robin had run off, leaving them behind and causing them to worry about if they had been caught. Steve placed his hand on his hips, his lips tugged down into a frown.
"Thanks for leaving me on babysitting duty." Steve grumbled. Liza let out a chuckle, pushing herself off the wall and going over to her boyfriend with a smile.
"You are the World's Greatest Babysitter." Liza pouted playfully, patting her boyfriend's cheek. "Who else would have done that?" Steve tried to keep his face stern but the way Liza's blue eyes pierced him made him melt.
"It feels like we've gotten nowhere." Steve groaned, pulling Liza into his side and burying his face in her hair. "Feels like we have been walking for hours." Dustin and Erica nodded in agreement.
"I mean you have to admit." Dustin spoke, looking around the halls. "As a feat of engineering alone, this is pretty impressive."
"It's a death trap." Steve scoffed, resting his chin on Liza's head so he could join the conversation. "No stairs, no exit, just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."
"They're commies." Erica rolled her eyes. "You don't pay people, they cut corners." Liza shrugged, agreeing with the girl.
"To be fair to our Russian comrades," Robin spoke up. "I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking."
"The car I heard!" Liza gasped, catching on to what Robin was getting at. "They drive through the tunnels!" Dustin looked between the girls, the cogs of his brains started turning as well.
"I don't understand." Steve grimaced.
"Think about it, they developed the perfect system to transport cargo." Dustin began, coming to stand between the two people who were thinking the same as he was. He felt like maybe a mind meld would happen if they stood beside one another. "It all comes in like a regular mall delivery."
"Then they load it on the vehicles and no one thinks it's weird!" Liza pointed at her brother who nodded frantically.
"They just weren't expecting a bunch of kids to be smarter than them." Robin grinned, Dustin and Liza smiled back. Dustin mentally high fived himself, his mind meld had worked.
"You think that they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asked, he was trying to get on the same page as the others.
"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. With the way it burned Liza?" Dustin glanced down at the burn mark on his sister's leg. "It's gotta be something much more valuable like Promethium or something. . ."
"What the hell is Promethium?" Steve asked. Liza rolled her eyes, she knew what it was. She had been reading comic books since she was a child.
"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborgs bionic and cybernetic components." Robin mumbled from beside Dustin. Liza winked at her friend, who sent her one back.
"You're all so nerdy it makes me physically ill." Erica gagged.
"No, don't lump me in with them." Steve whined. "I'm not a nerd." Liza wrinkled her nose at his protest.
"Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten year old?" Robin teased, causing Steve to glare at her.
"He lost cool points when he started hanging around Demon Spawn and Toothless."
Liza narrowed her eyes at Erica. Calling her a name was one thing, but making fun of Dustin - especially for something he couldn't control - that was too far. Steve, sensing his girlfriend's mood change, held her tighter against him.
"I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus." Steve argued. Liza snorted, making Steve raise his eyebrows at her. "What?"
"Pro-me-thi-um." Liza said slowly. "Prometheus is a Greek myth."
"I'm just saying that it's probably being used to make something." Dustin spoke up, bringing the conversation back to its original topic.
"Or power something." Robin added on.
"A nuclear weapon?" Liza suggested. "But then again, Hawkins isn't exactly a threat to Russia."
They had begun walking again, all lost in thought about why Russians would choose their podunk town. Everyone was unassuming and most people ran off the same routines that their parents did before them. They didn't have a military presence and their Police Chief was Jim Hopper. The most exciting thing to happen in the town was. . .
"Oh fuck." Liza gasped, stopping in her tracks as the realisation fell over her like a bucket of ice water. Everyone turned to look at her, confused and worried as to why she had stopped. Steve, Dustin and Robin ran over to her, Erica just stood in her spot, not really caring about Liza and her outburst.
"What is it, Liz?" Robin whispered. Liza swallowed thickly, clutching onto Steve like he was a life line.
"What's the one thing that has happened in Hawkins that would draw people here?" Liza asked hoarsely. The boy's eyes widened as they caught on.
"The Upside Down." Dustin felt like the floor was ripped out from underneath him. "Shit."
Liza wanted so desperately to see the other kids, Joyce, Hopper, Nancy and Johnathan. If the Upside Down was the reason the Russians were here, that meant it wasn't over and the others needed to know. Liza also wanted to wrap them all up into her arms and hide them away from the monsters, the upside down and now stupid, evil Russians.
"Like. . . the creepy other dimension you guys have been to?" Robin asked, getting three nods in response. "Great, awesome."
"Uh, guys?" Erica called to the Scoops Troop. Eyes glancing back at her backpack which had staticy Russian coming through. It put all the motion back into Liza as she ran over and grabbed the walkie out of Erica's bag.
"We must be close to where the broadcast comes from." Liza huffed, eyes wide as she looked at the others.
"And if there is one thing we know about that signal. . ." Robin continued.
"It can reach the surface." They spoke at the same time, matching smiles now plastered to their faces.
