wires, steve harrington

twenty-seven.

dustin smiled widely, and meadow couldn't help but smile at the sight of the other kids.

they all ran over, meeting the group at the bottom of the stairs. "you flung that thing like a hot wheel!" dustin laughed, running over to eleven who was being held up by mike.

meadow made her way over to max, hugging her and giving will a hug too. "what happened with billy?" she asked max, seeing that eleven was clearly beaten up.

"he's flayed. well, he's controlled by the mind flayer."

she turned to steve. "what?" she looked back to max.

"it's a long story. what happened to you?"

"what are you doing here?" lucas asked his sister.

"ask them," she replied, pointing to steve, robin, dustin, and meadow, "it's their fault."

steve put his hands on his hips. "true, yeah. totally the. it's absolutely our fault."

"child endangerment." meadow nodded, using erica's phrase.

"i don't understand what happened to that car." robin said, not updated on the upside down or on eleven.

"el has superpowers." dustin explained, gesturing to the girl.

robin's brow furrowed. "i'm sorry?"

"superpowers." steve said. "she threw it with her mind. c'mon, catch up."

"that's el?" erica asked, pointing to her.

robin was still confused. "who's el?"

"i'm sorry, who are you?" nancy asked robin.

"i'm robin. i work with steve."

"she hacked the top secret code." meadow explained.

steve nodded. "yeah, which is how we found out about the russians in the first place."

"russians?" jonathan looked at him. "wait, what russians?"

"the russians!" steve said as if it was obvious.

max looked to him. "those were russians?"

"what, didn't you hear our code red?" dustin asked.

"yeah," mike said, "but i couldn't hear half of what you were saying."

"goddamn low battery." dustin cursed.

steve looked over at him. "how many times do i have to tell you with the low battery?"

"maybe if you hadn't been trying to use it when we were in the elevator-" meadow added, steve nodding his agreement.

"well, everything worked out, didn't it?" dustin defended himself.

"worked out?" erica asked. "we almost died!"

dustin nodded. "yeah, but we didn't, did we?"

"it was pretty damn close." steve argued.

"okay.. russians?" lucas said, still not over it. "as in.. they're working for the russian government?"

"what are you not comprehending?" dustin replied.

"the russians are trying to reopen the upside down." meadow explained.

"am i not speaking in english?" dustin continued. "we have a full-blown red dawn situation."

"so this has nothing to do with the gate?" max asked.

"no, it has everything to do with the gate, did you not hear me?" meadow replied, leaning against steve.