July 4th, 1985

Starcourt Mall

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin yelled out as the party made their way down the escalator, following close behind them were Nancy and Jonathan. "I guess you were right about that lead, huh?" I questioned her before pulling both of them in for a hug. "Sadly..." Jonathan mumbled to me as I pulled away from them, watching as Dustin moved to hug El who clung to Mike's side.

"Lucas!" Erica cheered happily, running up to her brother who stared at her with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?" He sounded exasperated, waving his hands at her as he spoke. "Ask Nell. It's her fault." Erica pointed her thumb in my direction as I went to wrap my arms around El. "Absolutely my fault." I stated with a grimace as he met my gaze over El's shoulder.

"You are a terrible babysitter." His statement caused me to shrug my shoulders as I helped El back to Mike. "So I've heard."

"Wait." Robin's tone caused us to bring a halt to the reunion. "I don't understand what happened to that car." She stated, gesturing to the car that was currently smoking in the corner of the Food Court.

With everything that happened that night, Dustin was the first to figure that it was safe to let Robin in on the whole truth about our town. "El has superpowers." He stated simply, causing Robin's brow to furrow. "I'm sorry?"

"Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. C'mon, catch up." Steve brushed past her confusion, waving it off with the back of his hand. "That's El?" Erica questioned as she pointed at the silent girl. "Who's El?" Robin groaned. "I'm sorry who are you?" Nancy questioned, pointing a finger at Robin.

"She literally goes to school with us, Nance." I mumbled but Robin continued to introduce herself, "I'm Robin. I work with Steve." Robin grinned but Nancy only continued to stare the girl down.

"She cracked the secret Russian code," Dustin added in probably the most important fact. "Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians." Steve added.

Jonathan looked between the four of us with wide eyes. "Russians? What Russians?" He questioned hurriedly. "Wait. You didn't know about the Russians?" I questioned the two teens that I had been separated from. "These Russians!" Steve yelled, waving a hand at the dead bodies behind us.

"Those were Russians?" Max pipped up in shock. "Some of them." Erica shrugged nonchalantly. "What are you even talking about?" Lucas yelled out, after having not understood a single thing that had come out of our mouths. It was after all a lot to take in, but somehow not the craziest thing we've encountered.

"Didn't you hear our code red?" Dustin questioned, looking up at Mike in confusion. "Yeah. Couldn't understand what you were saying." Mike spoke as if he was tired of repeating the same sentence. "Goddamn low battery..." Dustin muttered to himself. "How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery!" Steve yelled at the boy.

Rolling his eyes at his older friend, Dustin just shook his head. "Well, everything worked out, didn't it?" He stated dumbly. "Worked out? We almost died!" Erica shoved her hand against Dustin's shoulder. "Yeah, but we didn't, did we?"

Scoffing at the two, I waved my hands at them to stop them from furthering their argument. "That's not the point, okay? We need to figure out what this all means. And how exactly is all of this connected back to the gate- El?" As I shifted my eyes over the group that had huddled into a tight circle, my eyes landed on the girl that had wandered away from us.

She wasn't too far but that wasn't the part that worried me. She had her hands tightly clasped over her ears, swaying in her place as she cried before she released a pained scream, falling to the ground with a soft grunt.

"El! El!" Mike yelled, reaching her before anyone else. Leaning over the girl carefully, pushing back the hair that had fallen on her face while she continued to release pained whimpers. "What's wrong with her?" Erica questioned as we all stood not too far from the two in the hopes of not crowding her. "What's wrong?" Mike whispered, worriedly scanning his eyes over her face.

"My leg... My leg." El cried, jerking in pain from her place on the ground. The party seemed to quickly understand what the problem was, Jonathan and Nancy quickly kneeled beside her left leg before carefully removing the blood-soaked bandage that was wrapped around it.

A large gash was revealed on the side of her shin, the infection already set in. Prominent, black veins spread from around the wound, while the skin around it was a mixture of deep red and dark purple. A large lump could be seen not too far from the injury, the only thing was that the lump was moving beneath the damaged skin.

"Oh my God..." Nancy groaned, placing a hand over her mouth in slight disgust with the rest of the group mimicking the reaction behind her.

Every time the lump moved or spasmed inside her leg, El would release a loud scream or cry at the feeling. "What is that?" Erica tried to examine El's leg a little closer but was pulled back by Lucas. "There's something in there." Mike stated, his tight grip in her hand was probably nothing compared to the way she clutched his. "No!" El cried, moving in her place as if trying to escape the pain that was attached to her.

"Keep her talking..." I stated, quickly moving away from the group as I realized what had to be done. "What are you doing?" Mike questioned before I got too far. "Just keep her awake, okay?" I yelled before running to the nearest restaurant. Jumping over the counter I quickly ripped open any draws or cabinets that I could see before finally stumbling on a knife.

Grabbing two plastic gloves from beside the stove, I quickly switched the burner on. With the blue flame ignited, I held the blade in the fire, my gut churning at what I was about to do. But there wasn't any other choice.

Grabbing a wooden spoon, I hurried back to the group, kneeling in front of El's leg before handing Mike the spoon. "I'm sorry... This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" I whispered to her, pulling on the gloves in the hope of not infecting the wound more. "Okay..." El cried as she stared down at me, clutching onto Mike for dear life.

"She's gonna need to bite down on that..." I informed Mike who continued to look down at the spoon in confusion. "Jesus Christ..." Dustin whispered anxiously, watching as Mike hesitantly placed the spoon between El's teeth.

Without another word in the hopes of ending her suffering sooner, I sliced through the healing gash as the lump continued to wiggle farther away from the wound. "Shit..." I whispered, using my other hand to stop the movements of the thing before sliding my fingers in between her skin. El thrashed against Mike and Dustin who held her down, screaming out in protest.

Every time my finger would slide against the creature, it would slide away, wiggling past my hand and further up her shin. "Oh, my God..." I gasped, looking up at El for confirmation to reach further. She nodded regretfully before I slipped my hand beneath the skin. "Shit, Nell!" Nancy yelled from beside me, almost jerking my hand out of place. "Shut up!" I groaned, trying to stay concentrated as my fingers grazed the thing.

But it was faster than me. Looking up at El, I shook my head. "I can't grasp it..." I whispered sadly as she slowly understood what I was asking her to do. "Can you do this?" I questioned softly before removing my hand. She nodded weakly, pulling the spoon out of her mouth. "I can do it..."

Pulling away from the girl, we watched as she stretched her palm over the creature before locking onto it with her mind. Releasing a pained scream, El used her power to drag the thing back to the gash, attempting to pull it through the wound.

From beside me, Will sobbed loudly as he looked down at the scene before him. "She's gonna be okay..." I whispered to him, wrapping my arms around him as he desperately hid his face in my neck.

The creature fought against her, latching to the muscle beneath her skin causing her to release a frustrated scream before finally ripping it away from her leg, levitating it in front of her as she continued to scream in pain. It had the body of a slug but its face opened up like a Demogorgon, pulling her hand back, El threw the thing away from us and into the center of the mall.

Meekly crawling away from us and back to where ever it came from, the mass was stopped suddenly by a boot crashing down onto it.

Our eyes traced up the leg that connected with the boot before landing on a beat-up Hopper, and behind him stood Mom and the man that had been responsible for the leaked tape on Hawkins Lab, Murray.

Silence filled the Food Court as we stared up at the three adults, chests heaving as we breathed heavily. "Stop... leaving us unsupervised." I groaned, pulling my bloody gloves off before approaching the three adults. "Now, Where the hell have you been?"

~~~

Regrouping in the center of the mall, after patching up El and calming down. The three separated groups merged into one, but first things first, we had to figure out what exactly was going on and how it all fit together in order to alleviate any lingering confusion. A long way of saying we had a lot of catching up to do.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike explained from the center of the circle. "And it almost did. That was just a tiny piece of it." Nancy finished for him, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

"How big is this thing?" Hop questioned, an arm wrapped tightly around El as the tired girl leaned into his side while Mom cleaned and patched up her leg. "It's big... Thirty feet, at least." Jonathan explained carefully. "Yeah, it sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas pipped up with an awkward smile.

Hopper clenched his jaw, staring past the group in disbelief. "Sorry..." He mumbled as Hop stayed silent. "Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve questioned with a furrowed brow. "Yes." Nancy answered quickly.

"But, instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people." He confirmed hesitantly as he scanned his eyes over the party. "Exactly." Nancy confirmed. "Yeah, okay... I-- Yeah, I'm just making sure." He mumbled.

Placing a piece of tape to hold the gauze in its place on El's leg, Mom looked up at the group with a frown. "Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?"She questioned in disbelief.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max answered, pursing her lips tightly together. "So, we close the gate again?" I questioned from my place beside Will. "We cut the brain off from the body." He confirmed. "And kill it... Theoretically." Lucas added before the sound of someone yelling from the opposite side of the mall stole our attention.

"Yoo-hoo!" Murray yelled at us, waving his hands wildly over his head, clutched tightly in his hands were dull, yellow pieces of notebook paper.

Waving for us to surround him, Murray laid the papers down on the nearest flat surface before gesturing to a neatly drawn map. "This is what Alexi called the hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room." Murray explained, dragging his finger across the paper. "Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper questioned, cutting right to the point.

"Right here..." He mumbled, circling his finger around the drawing of the machine that was opening the gate. "It's not drawn to scale but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so." He tried to estimate only to earn a scoff from Erica. "More like five hundred feet." She stated, walking up to the man with her arms crossed tightly.

"What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?" She questioned, her words caused Hop to raise his brow in either annoyance or shock, while Murray turned to face the girl. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" She questioned snarkily.

"Murray... Bauman." He stated, not understanding how this mattered. "Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty-four hours." Erica's words caused Lucas to squint at me before the girl turned to look up at Hop. "And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

Murray chuckled lightly before looking around the group that surrounded him, "I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" He questioned, annoyance evident in his tone as he stood from his place.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" Erica corrected him quickly. "Erica!" Lucas groaned at his little sister. "Just the facts!" She yelled back at him.

"She's right." Dustin suddenly spoke up, silencing the siblings. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to... Excuse me," Dustin approached the map. "May I?" He questioned Murray, gesturing to the drawing. "Please." Murray stated with a sarcastic grin.

Pulling the map towards himself before sitting down, Dustin pulled a pencil from his fanny pack before pressing the dull tip against the corner of the paper. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility." He explained, circling the blank square. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon." He finished before looking up at Murray.

"It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way." He offered simply with a wave of his hand, Erica nodding in agreement as the two looked up at Hopper. "You can show us the way?" He questioned the two.

"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your... Navigators." Dustin answered with a shrug.

Hop nodded slowly, staring down at the boy before speaking. "No." He continued to nod while Dustin looked up at him in shock. "Nope." He repeated with a false grin.

~~~

Jonathan, Nancy, and I stood in front of the Hot Dog on a Stick food stand, conversing on what exactly we could do now while Hopper, Murray, and Mom prepared to trek into the Russian base.

"You have a gun, right?" I questioned Nancy who nodded before pulling out a small handgun from behind her back. "Jesus... Sorry, not used to that." I mumbled before turning to Jonathan. "Mike and Max are taking care of El but one of us has to stay with Will, he's a wreck..." I mumbled the last bit to my brother sadly as our little brother had finally stopped shaking from the gruesome events that happened earlier.

"I've got him this far... I won't leave his side." He nodded in agreement while I pulled off my jacket, the blood that splattered up my sleeve quickly growing irritating. "How'd you know to do that? You didn't even hesitate." Nancy questioned, watching as I threw the ruined jacket to the ground.

Shrugging my shoulders, I smirked at the girl. "Oh, you know... I got an A in Anatomy and figured... what's the difference between dissecting a frog and a human leg." I frowned at the memory. "It was disgusting..." Nancy mumbled. "It was killing her, actually." I stated with a roll of my eyes.

As I thought over the gut feeling I had, my mind wandered to Billy and the accident in front of Brimborn Steel Works. "You guys, haven't heard from Billy... through all of this, have you?" I questioned awkwardly, hoping that I wouldn't have to answer any secondary questions pertaining to why I worried for the guy.

Nancy's eyes widen slightly before turning to face Jonathan who nodded awkwardly. "It got him... didn't it?" I whispered sadly, his screams still ringing in my ears. "How do you..." Nancy trailed off as Jonathan looked down at me with a quirked brow. "Outside Brimborn..." I whispered to the two. "Nell, how do you know this?"

Jonathan's question would remain unanswered as Steve and Robin suddenly jogged up to us. "Hop's gonna let Dustin and Erica navigate, but we can't do it from here." Steve stated, pulling us out of the previous topic. "So, where exactly are we going?" I questioned only for Steve to jingle the keys to a Cadillac in my face. "Up, apparently."

~~~

"Oh, man, now this..." Steve was delighted by the sight that lay before him as we pushed through the main entrance doors of Starcourt. Parked slightly crooked in front of the doors rested a pale yellow '84 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, the roof of the car pushed back to reveal the red leather interior. "This is what I'm talking about." Steve grinned rounding the driver's side before jumping into the seat.

"Toddfather?" Robin questioned Dustin and me while Erica followed close behind Steve. "Oh, screw Todd! Steve's her daddy now." He called out, rubbing his hands around the steering wheel. "Did you just talk to yourself in the third person?" Robin questioned with a quirked brow. "Did he just call himself daddy?" Erica pipped up, both questions going ignored by Steve.

Sliding into the middle of the backseat, Dustin and Erica sat on either side of me while Robin took the passenger seat. "All right, where are we going?" Steve turned to look at Dustin with a dopey grin. "Weathertop." He answered quickly. "Weather-what?" Steve squinted at the name. "Just drive." Dustin complained. "Okay, Jesus!" He yelled before reversing the car and speeding out of the parking lot.

~~~

Speeding through the empty streets of Hawkins should not feel this common. Tying off the scrunchie in my hair, a poor attempt at a ponytail to keep my hair out of my face since Steve refused to pull up the top, I looked around our surroundings. "Jesus, how far is this place?" I questioned Dustin, it felt like we had been driving in a straight line for at least an hour but that could just be the nerves stretching out time.

"Relax, we're almost there." He waved off the question while Robin turned to speak to him. "Suzie must be pretty special, huh? I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?" She questioned him, her brow furrowed. "I mean, nobody's scientifically perfect, but Suzie's about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be." Dustin grinned as he spoke of his girlfriend.

Erica scoffed at the description. "She sounds made-up to me. She sound made-up to you?" She questioned the three of us while Dustin glared at her. "I mean... Phoebe Cates already exists, so not too far-fetched." I mumbled awkwardly while Steve stayed silent.

"Why are you hesitating, Steve?" Dustin scoffed as he leaned closer to the teen. "I'm- I'm not! I'm not! I think she sounds real. You know, totally, absolutely real." Steve's voice wavered as he spoke, keeping his eyes locked on the stretch of road in front of us.