002 - Steve Harrington

The Battle of Starcourt

A boot stomps out the small fire and the one on my hand goes out as well. El sits up, out of Mike's hold and takes a look for herself.

The boot belongs to Hopper. He's accompanied by Joyce and... Murray Bauman?

**

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike says as all of us huddle around.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy says.

"How big is this thing?" Hopper questions.

"It's big. Thirty feet, at least." Jonathan says.

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas says to Hopper. "Sorry." He apologizes after seeing the look on Hopper's face.

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?" Steve asks.

"Yes." Nancy confirms.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people."

"Yes, exactly."

"Yeah, okay. I- Yeah, I'm just making sure." Steve says before taking a seat next to me on the plant bed.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asks.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max says.

"But if we close the gate again-" Will begins to say.

"-We cut the brain off from the body." Max cuts him off.

"And kill it." Lucas says. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo!" Murray says from behind us, gaining everyone's attention. "Yoo-hoo!" He repeats as he waves papers in the air. He gathers Joyce and Hopper around a table, and slams down the homemade blueprints of secret Russian lab. "Okay, this is what Alexei called "the hub." He says pointing to a spot of the blueprint. "Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper asks Murray.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so."

"More like 500." Erica speaks up and Murray looks at her baffled. "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" 

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" She asks sassily.

"Murray... Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman," Erica says causing Steve and I to chuckle lightly. 

"Oh, no she didn't." I chuckle.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to do things," Erica continues. "but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asks sarcastically.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"She did!" Steve and I say laughing, not caring who hears us this time.

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." Dustin says. "Excuse me. Sorry, may, I?" He asks Mr. Bunman.

"Please." He says sarcastically.

Dustin and Erica take a seat at the table. "Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility." Dustin says circling the point on the blueprint with his pencil. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon." He says drawing a line across the blueprint. "It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."