SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

make the move

"IT'S A MONSTER FROM AN UNKNOWN DIMENSION."

Dustin explained rapidly, excitedly. "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic powers."

"Oh, my God..." drawled Hopper. "None of this is real, this is a kids' game!"

Dustin looked offended. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids, and unless you know something we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"Analogy," Lucas corrected.

Dustin rounded on him. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about— FINE. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Nancy shook her head, trying to understand. "Okay, so this mind flamer thing—"

"Flayer. Mind Flayer."

"What does it want?" she finished, frowning.

Ginny leaned over the table to look at the picture in the manual, as Dustin continued. "To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race."

"Oh, like the... like the Germans?" Steve asked.

They all looked at him, frowning. He looked stunned.

"You mean, the Nazis?" Dustin asked.

Steve still looked kind of confused, but he nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, yeah, yeah— the Nazis."

"Uh... If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally," Dustin said, trying to give him some sympathy. "Uh, it views other races, like us, inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike added.

Lucas nodded. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

Steve shook his head, brandishing his hands. "That's great. That's great that's really great..." He turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Ginny grabbed him by the back of his collar, slinging him back to the table as she asked a question.. "So, the Mind Flayer is the brain, it controls everything... If we kill it, it'd everything it controls?"

Dustin nodded. "We win."

Lucas shrugged. "Theoretically."

Hopper took the manual from Nancy, saying, "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?"

"Ha, fireballs, no, no fireballs," giggled Dustin. "Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... it likes brains..." He shook his head. "It's just a game, it's a game," he admitted.

Hopper threw the book onto the table angrily. "The hell are we doing here..."

Dustin narrowed his eyes. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup—"

"We are!"

"Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike asked fervently. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper shouted.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab," spat Mike.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again," said Lucas.

"And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," finished Dustin.

"They're right," said a soft, injured voice.

Ginny jumped, turning to see Joyce standing in the hall. Her hair was a mess, her cheeks tear-stained. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."