American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

Air Ducts

Steve unscrews the cover of the vent and hands it to Dustin. "Flashlight. Thank you." He shines the light into the vent. "Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if any of you can fit in here. It's, like, super tight."

"Let's just try and see," Will says, stepping up behind Steve.

Steve shrugs, hopping off the ladder and letting Will climb up. Peering into the vent, Will's not sure he can even fit past his shoulders. He ducks in anyway, holding his breath as if that will make him smaller. He's surprised to find he can get his shoulders in until he tries to push forward. His shoulders won't budge. Trying to reposition himself, he ends up slamming his head on the ceiling of the air duct. "Ow!"

"You alright?" Steve calls.

"I think I'm stuck."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yes, Steve. Help me out."

Steve grabs onto Will's legs, yanks, and pulls him out of the air duct a little too hard, Will toppling onto Steve and both of them ending up on the floor. They groan as they get up, Will rubbing his bruised shoulders.

"Guess you can't fit." Glancing around at the six younger teenagers, Steve nods to Max. "What about you? I think you're the smallest."

Max shakes her head quickly. "No way. I'm not going in there."

"Why not?"

"I never agreed to investigating Russians. I'm just waiting to see if Billy's the new host or not."

Robin tilts her head. "Billy who? New host?"

"I'll explain later," Steve says. "Right now, we have to figure out what we're doing."

Will slumps against the wall next to Mike. "How are we getting to the secret room then if no one can fit in the vents?"

Dustin rolls his eyes. "We'll get into the room. Don't get ahead of yourself. I should've gone first. I can fit."

"Does it make a difference who goes first?" Steve says. "Like I said, it's super tight. I don't know if any of you can get in there."

Dustin lifts his head. "I'll fit. Trust me. No collar bones, remember?"

"Uh, excuse me?" Robin says as Dustin climbs up the ladder and into the vent.

"Oh," Steve says, "he's, uh... yeah, he's got some disease. Chry, uh... it's chrydo, um..."

"Cleidocranial dysplasia," Will, Mike, and Lucas say in unison.

"Yeah," Steve says. "He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo."

The boys and Max furrow their eyebrows at this. "You mean Gumby," Robin says.

Steve makes a face. "I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo."

"Steve, just shut up and push me!" Dustin calls from the vent where he's got half his body stuffed inside.

Steve turns around to Dustin. "Okay. I'll push you." He steps up on the ladder and shoves Dustin's legs upward.

"Not my feet dumbass. Push my ass!"

"What?"

"Touch my butt! I don't care!"

Will, Mike, Lucas, Max, and El burst out in laughter while Robin sighs at all of them, rolling her eyes. Distracted by Steve and Dustin's show of idiocy, Will doesn't realize Mike leaning to his ear until he's whispering in it. "I could have helped you up, you know."

Will wrinkles his nose. "What?"

Mike doesn't reply and is already looking away, staring straight forward at the opposite wall, but Will notices him mouthing "stupid" to himself.

Steve and Dustin continue to bicker, Steve climbing farther up on the ladder and trying to push Dustin into the vent. Will wonders what Mike's words meant. I could have helped you up, you know. What had he been getting at? Maybe Will is dwelling too much on meaningless words.

The others can't stop laughing until a bell dings at the counter in front. Robin turns to look out the window.

"Ahoy, sailors!" A girl's voice calls. "All hands on deck! Ahoy!" The dinging of the bell continues. "Come on. Get over here and serve me some samples."

Lucas raises an eyebrow and looks through the window. "Erica?"

"Lucas? What are you doing here?"

Before Lucas can reply, Robin sticks a hand out in front of him. "That's not important." She points to Erica. "Can you do something for us?"

Erica glances between Robin and her brother suspiciously. "Depends."

"Yeah," Lucas says, eyeing Robin, "depends."

Robin rolls her eyes, motioning for Erica to come into the back room. Erica obliges, entering swiftly and furrowing her eyebrows when she realizes how many people are in the room. "The hell?"

"So, the thing is-" Robin points to the open vent in which Dustin is climbing out of. "-we need to know if you can fit in there."

Erica crosses her arms. "Why?"

Steve steps forward. "We think Russians may be hiding something in a secret room here in the mall and going through those vents is the only way to get in."

Erica glances up at the vent. "Lemme see."

Steve hands her a flashlight, and she climbs up the ladder, peering inside. After a moment of looking around, she gets down the ladder. "I don't know."

"You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin asks.

"Oh, no," Erica says, shaking her head, "I can fit. I just don't know if I want to."

Robin crosses her arms. "Are you claustrophobic?"

"I don't have phobias."

"Okay," Steve says, "well, what's the problem?"

"The problem is I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica."

As Robin, Steve, and Dustin narrow their eyes at her, Will pushes himself off the wall and steps in front of her. She raises an eyebrow at him. "What? Is glory not good enough for you?"

"Glory?"

"Yes, glory. If you do this for us, you could very well save all of Hawkins."

Erica rolls her eyes. "Listen here, nerd, I don't think you fully comprehend what I would be sacrificing in order to crawl inside some stupid vent. It's summer. I have places to be, and things to do."

"Like what?" Robin scoffs. "You've been coming here every day to leech ice cream samples off of us."

"I'm still not hearing what I get out of it."

Will catches Steve's eye and mouths the words "ice cream" to him. Steve's eyebrows furrow before his expression changes to one of comprehension.