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The Mind Flayer, according to what Billy told Eleven in her trance, was building something. And it was all for Eleven. What he was building was certainly unclear. It could've been an army, a weapon, or even a monster. "He's building it to stop Eleven." Will sniffed, in a disapproving manner. He couldn't believe that the Mind Flayer was still around, after all the shit she went through.
"Someone, somewhere, has to be fucking with the gate. Eleven closed the gate. She cut the brain off from the body." Corinna announced. "It sounds like a good idea and all to kill this new Mind Flayer, but I worry that if we kill this one, it'll kill his tethered, too. Including Billy."
"And if Eleven is the only one that can close it again, the Mind Flayer is probably going to be building something to stop her from locking him out again." Julez folded her arms across her chest, hiding her nervousness about the whole situation. They were coming for Eleven. And wherever she was, the rest of the group was by her side. She feared that the Flayer would have no hesitation to kill the rest of them, too, just for precaution.
"You guys hear that?" Nancy quieted the group from continuing their chatter. Corinna could hear explosions from outside the home, Hopper and El's home. She had almost forgot it was the Fourth of July. Fireworks were exploding in the night sky, lighting it up with red, white and blue colors. "It's just the fireworks." Jonathan shrugged.
"Billy," Nancy abruptly brought up his name again, "when he told you this, in your reality, it was here, in this room?"
El nodded. Everyone grew suspiciously quiet. Then, Corinna began to hear what Nancy was going on about. Rustles from the forest around them. Steps and other random noises that signified a presence outside of the home. Will even felt the presence with his sixth sense, placing his hand behind his neck. "He knows we're here." Will stated the obvious conclusion everyone had already jumped to.
Corinna rushed to the window, and the others followed her pursuit. She pulled open the curtains and squinted her eyes to look out into the forest. She spotted an enormous creature, like a huge tarantula, stomping through the forest right toward them. The beast was knocking over trees on its way to them. "Fuck." Corinna cursed.
* * *
Everyone readied themselves with whatever weapons they could get their hands on. They blocked all windows and doors with heavy furniture and stood in the middle of the room, then quietly waited for the arrival of the beast. Everyone's breathing was short and rapid, signifying that they were all on edge. Corinna gripped the axe she found on the patio and held it high, ready to use it when necessary. Julez stood by, her palms sweaty, with her powers ready to be used.
The house shook a bit as the creature neared it, then there was dead silence. Everyone scanned all the walls, anticipating the beast to come in from the sides. But, they were wrong. It attacked from above. Through the ceiling. One of its tentacles shot in, busting a hole through the house and reached from Eleven. Jonathan and Corinna slammed their axe down, over and over on the beast's limb. Only when El used her powers to constrain it, did it retreat back to its body. Then, another limb shot into the room. Charging full force at El. Then a second one joined in. Using every ounce of effort, El ripped the limbs off of its host.
Unfortunately, just as she was catching her breath, the tongue of the creature shot in and grabbed her by her foot. She was snatched upward, but Mike caught her and fought the beast trying to take her. Everyone joined in to try and keep her from being snatched up. Corinna tossed Lucas her axe and he went to work trying to hack the tongue that was gripping El. Eleven was screaming and everyone else was shouting orders to each other, but no one could hear over the roars of the creature.
Lucas managed to cut off the tongue of the creature, but there was one piece that remained glued to El's leg. Mike ripped it off of her, worsening El's pain as the tongue seemed to have teeth and it sliced her calf as it was yanked off. El let out a shriek of pain. She gasped for air and got up on her feet. She reached her hands high into the air and began to scream. Her powers were strong enough to split the beast in half, temporarily disabling the supernatural beast.
Everyone bolted out of the house and hopped into Nancy's car, escaping the beast for a moment. They stopped at a grocery store, one that was closed for the holiday, to tend to El's wounds. While they were there, Mike got a radio transmission on his walkie from Dustin. They figured out he was at Starcourt Mall, at the movies, and he, on the walkie, he seemed desperate for help. They presumed he had encountered the Mind Flayer as well, and needed to go save him. They weren't quite sure though, the walkie was choppy and too far out of range to hear properly.
* * *
Upon arrival at the very empty mall, the group spotted very peculiar men creeping about with their guns loaded and ready to fire. "They're in trouble. But not our kind of trouble." Corinna whispered to Eleven.
"I've got it." El nodded at her. She used her powers to create a distraction, she turned on the car horns of the display car in the middle of the mall. It was certainly a good distraction because it kept the strange men with guns looking at it for a good few minutes before Eleven could attack. They spoke in a strange language, one unbeknownst to Corinna. But, before Corinna could try an listen in closer, El used her powers to fling the car at the men, knocking them over like pins in a bowling alley.
From behind a small food stand, four figures' head slowly rose from behind to take a peak at their saviors. It was Steve, Dustin, Lucas's little sister Erica and a new face. Assuming from her outfit, she worked with Steve at the ice cream shop. They all ran to meet one another, with huge smiles crossing their face. "You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin chuckled, excitedly. He engulfed El in a tight hug, appreciating her heroism.
"Lucas?!" Erica exclaimed to her brother.
"What are you doing here?" Lucas furrowed his brows at her.
"Ask them. It's their fault." Erica pointed to Steve.
"True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our fault." Steve sputtered out, being accountable.
"I don't understand what happened to that car?" The new face asked, quite fearfully.
"El has superpowers." "I'm sorry?" "Superpowers. She used her mind."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked the new girl with a jealous look crossing her face.
"I'm Robin. I work with Steve." Robin introduced herself.
"She cracked the top secret code. Which is how we found out about the Russians. We have a full blown Red Dawn situation. This has everything to do with the gate!" Dustin shouted, trying to explain as fast as he could.
