Dark Phoenix: Into The Stranger Verse (Stranger Things)

CHAPTER 24

Chapter 24: Awakened In Time For Battle

MAX Mayfield had always felt unfortunate.

She'd come from a broken home. Her mother decided to marry a physically and emotionally abusive man, and a broken brother came along with him. She was then forced away from her father and moved to a town where she knew absolutely no one.

Even after she'd made friends, she wasn't easily accepted by all members of the Party at first. And when she'd found out about the Upside Down, it was later than everyone else so she wasn't able to fully comprehend and take it in like the rest did.

Then, everything became alright. She was dating the boy she liked, El was finally warming up to her. She had both Jean and Eleven for girl friends.

Max felt content. Even her strained relationship with her brother became a lot better..

That was until the Mind Flayer possessed Billy, and she was about to witness him being killed. Almost.

She ran into the mall to see the creature stabbing a tentacle into Billy's side, and its teeth bit into him instantly. But Billy was still holding onto the first one, still pushing, still screaming. Protecting El.

Another tentacle came around to his other side, biting, angry and painful, and it cut his scream off abruptly. The pain forced him down onto his knees and he started screaming again, black blood coming out of his mouth.

Billy slipped a little. He looked down to catch himself, and everything sounded echoey and far away, like he was underwater, but he could almost hear Max screaming his name.

Everything was in slow motion to Maxine as two more tentacles went snaking out towards her brother. He seemed to let go of the main one he'd been holding back, too weak to fight anymore.

The orange haired girl saw the creature rearing the main tentacle, the one that came out of what seemed to be its mouth. It was aiming for something. This was the killing blow.

All Max was thinking at the very moment was that; he was going to die, and she was going to see it.

Billy screamed; louder and harder than he had in his entire life, collecting the years worth of suppressed hate, anger, pain and fear, and he poured it all out into a scream that he was sure would be his last one.

Once the tentacle lunged at him, it was gone, just as fast as it came. It never touched him.

Something was happening.

The deathly extension of the biomass was suddenly reduced to ash. The disintegrated particles flew in the air and dissipated like they'd never existed to begin with.

Billy then stopped screaming. He noticed that the mouths of the tentacles attached to his sides were..loosening.

Eleven, Mike and Max were also right there to see it. The extensions of the grotesque dropped away from the blonde and didn't move to reattach themselves to him. They lay there, and the creature started to sway on its many feet.

The monster started wailing and stumbling like it's been hurt, like it was afraid of something.

Come to think of it, Max had caught the sight of something glowing that floated in her peripheral vision, but she hadn't paid it much thought at first. With the events that transpired, she couldn't have cared less if a firework was sparking in the air, above the mall's shattered skylight.

She only presumed it was fireworks. Crimson ones.

But as the creature turned its back on them, turned its back on Eleven -the girl it so desperately wanted to kill- Max's full attention was drawn to where the Mind Flayer was growling at.