𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙄𝙣 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨 || 𝘔𝘢𝘹 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥

𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

𝐓𝐰: 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

"Yeah, I don't know."
"What? Don't know if you can fit?" Erica turned to Sky, "I can fit, I just don't know if I want to." Everyone held a questionable expression, "Are you claustrophobic?" "I don't have phobias." "Okay then what's the problem?" Sky just sat down and sighed, she already knew what Erica was going to say. "The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." They all turned to each other trying to find the answer Erica wouldn't give them. "Just give her the ice cream." Sky kept her head down while speaking. "That's all she wants." Robin and Steve turned to one another and sighed before going to the front. "Thanks Sky." "Yeah, sure." The rest of the kids walked out the back and to a booth, waiting for Erica's ice cream. Slowly but surely Steve and Robin pushed bowls of ice cream towards her. "More fudge please." She pushed the ice cream back towards Steve and flicked her hand. "Go on." Steve grabbed the bowl and walked back over to the counter. "All right. You see this?" Dustin started showing Erica the blueprints, "This is the route you're gonna take. Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door-" "Then you find out what's in those boxes?" "Exactly." "And you say this guard is armed?" "Yeah but he's not gonna be there, trust." Erica eyed Sky before nodding and turning to Dustin and Robin. "Booby traps?" "Booby traps?" "You know, lasers? Spikes in the walls?" "What?" "You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment." Robin tried to argue, "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time..." "Ah, ah, ah. Child, endangerment." Now Dustin was trying to argue her, "Erica? Hi. Uh... We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" "You can't spell America without Erica."

The group turned to one another with wide eyes, "That's, true. 100% true." Sky spoke for once. "So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do it for America, Erica." "Ooh! I just got the chills. Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech." Sky had to stifle a laugh but she didn't do it well. "Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism.
Do you know what capitalism is?" "Yeah-" "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream, for life." Sky and Dustin turned to Steve and Robin as they hesitated to agree, but eventually they did. They planned it out right then and there, Erica was going to go through the vents, get into the room, and open the door while the others stayed on top of the roof communicating and waiting for her to give them access to the room.

•••

The group started walking to the roof, Steve and Robin in front and Sky and Dustin behind them. "So, how's everything with you and Suzie?" Dustin turned to her. "I thought you didn't believe in her?" "Of course I do, I had some doubt I'll be honest, but I've now realized that you wouldn't lie about something like that. So spill." He smiled, she was the only person who ever asked him about the relationship. "We're good, amazing even. We usually talk to one another when building stuff, but besides that it's awesome." "That's great Dustin, I'm glad you were able to find someone." "Yeah.... How about you and Max?" Sky's smile was pulled down into a frown, "We're good, I think? I called her like two nights ago and I think she's mad at me." "Why?" "Well, one I think she's mad that I didn't tell her or El that Mike was at the mall, and two I don't think she likes me and Liz being friends." Dustin's eyes grew wide. "You're still friends with Liz?" "Yeah. We have the same classes so it's nice to be able to do projects and homework with someone who has the same assignments, it just makes sense. We also have the same home life so it's easy to talk to one another." "You and Max have the same home life, why don't you talk to her?" "I do! I do, it's just... I don't know. I find it harder to talk to her, she's great to talk to don't get me wrong, it's just sometimes she doesn't say the right things and can make it worse." Dustin only hummed, he didn't know what it was like to talk to Max so he couldn't really give his opinion.