𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱: 𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬
❝sʜᴇ sʜᴜᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ᴅᴏᴏʀ!❞
𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒, 𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 furrowed her eyebrows. she wasn't on the couch back in mike's basement. instead she was inside of a white room, sitting at a metal table. she looked around the room, her eyes landing on the window that was to her left. she was confused to see that it wasn't her reflection in the one sided window. instead, it was eleven's. the sound of a chair scraping front of her made arlo flinch, her head snapping forward to see a man with white hair sitting.
"i said are you ready to start, eleven?" the man asked, arlo - eleven nodding her head.
the girl closed her eyes as she sucked in a deep breath. she opened them, her eyebrows furrowing when she saw that she was no longer in the white room. she was now being led down a hallway, two guard holding her by the arms as she tried to get out of their grip. screams left her mouth as she looked back at the man with white hair.
"papa! papa!" eleven cried, hot tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked back at the older man.
the two men threw her into the room, quickly shutting the door behind her. eleven whimpered when the room went completely dark. suddenly, eleven was no longer in the dark room. she was now back in the same place that she - i mean, arlo had dreamt about the night prior. arlo looked down to see that she was back to herself, wearing a pair of jeans, some converse, and a pink blouse. she looked around, a red lightning bolt flashing through the sky as thunder clapped, making everything around turn red for a few seconds before it went dark again. she wanted to move, to go explore, but it was like her feet was glue to the ground.
"arlo!" a familiar voice yelled, making her snap her head towards the direction that it came from.
"will?" she mumbled, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked around.
"arlo! help me!" will continued to scream. "it's gonna find me! help!"
"h - how do i help?! i don't know what to do!" arlo yelled.
"find me! you gotta find me!"
"how?! how do i do that? where are you?!" arlo asked in a panic, starting to look around frantically. when she didn't get an answer, her stomach dropped. "will! how do i find you?! how do i find you?!"
instead of will voice making another appearance, the sound of a creature growling took it's place. arlo felt her stomach churn as she slowly turned around. she saw some kind of doglike creature a few meters away from her, her eyebrows furrowed as she took in it's features. it's head wasn't shaped like a dog's. in fact, it wasn't shaped like any animal head. it just looked like. . . an oval? before she could do anything, the creature started sprinting towards her, it's mouth opening up as a roar left it. arlo's eyes widened when she saw that the mouth was now in the shape of a flower, razor sharp teeth poking out. just as the creature was about to attack, arlo jumped awake on the couch.
she looked up to see that she was staring at the ceiling of mike's basement, trying to calm herself down. she was breathing heavy as beads of sweat dripped down her head. her eyebrows furrowed when she felt a cold hand holding hers, making her look down to see eleven sitting on the edge of the couch. arlo quickly pulled her hand away as she sat up, looking at eleven with slightly wide eyes.
"what are you doing? why're you holding my hand?" she quizzed
eleven didn't answer, instead she just moved towards the other end of the couch. arlo watched as she grabbed mike's walkie and started to play with it, changing the frequency and stations of it. the harrington girl furrowed her eyebrows as she remembered the first part of her nightmare, the part where she saw eleven's reflection instead of her own. how could that have happened? it was like she was inside eleven's own mind, living her nightmare.
"do you, uh. . . do you know a white room?" arlo questioned, bringing her knees up to her chest as she stared at eleven. the quiet girl nodded her head, continuing to play with mike's walkie. "do you know somebody named papa?" the name made eleven freeze, looking up from the walkie and at arlo. "was that your dream? was that a memory? why was i reliving your memory?"
eleven didn't answer. arlo didn't know if it was because the girl didn't know that many words or if she didn't have an actual answer, but either way, she didn't speak. instead, she went right back to playing with mike's walking. as she did that, arlo just stared at her, feeling the same weird feeling still flowing through her body
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❝𝐖𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 av club after school. that'll give us at least a few hours for operation mirkwood." mike explained to his friends, the four of them being huddled up around the small table. arlo nodded, bringing her hand up to wipe her tired eyes.
"you seriously think that the weirdo knows where will is?" lucas asked, his eyes landing on eleven before he looked back to the three in front of him.
"just trust me on this, okay?" mike told him, to which lucas nodded. "did you get the supplies?"
"yeah." the sinclair boy nodded, turning around to grab his bag. "binoculars. . . from 'nam. army knife. . . also from 'nam. hammer, camouflage bandana. . . and the wrist rocket." he listed off as he placed each item onto the table. arlo nodded her head at the boy, proud that he brought protection.
"you're gonna take out the demogorgon with a slingshot?" dustin questioned, obviously not impressed with lucas' weapon of choice.
"first of all, it's a wrist rocket." lucas corrected. "and second of all, the demogorgon's not real. it's made up. but if there is something out there, i'm gonna shoot it in the eye. . ." he continued, pulling back at the bands before he let go. "and blind it."
"dustin, what did you get?" mike asked, turning to face the curly haired boy.
the henderson boy grabbed his bag and tilted it upside down, letting all of the contents inside fall onto the table. "well, alrighty. so, we got nutty bars, bazooka, fez, smarties, pringles, nilla wafers, apple, banana, and trail mix."
"seriously, dust?" arlo asked, looking at the boy with furrowed eyebrows.
"we need energy for our travels. for stamina. especially you, arlo. you haven't been sleeping for weeks now. we don't need you passing out from exhaustion." dustin reasoned, making the girl smile a little. " and besides, why do we even need weapons anyway? we have her." he pointed out, pointing over to eleven.
"she shut one door!" lucas reminded.
"with her mind!" dustin shot back. "are you kidding me? that's insane! imagine all the other cool stuff she could do. like. . ." he continued, going over to pick up a toy version of the millennium falcon, turning to face eleven. "i bet. . . that she could make this fly! hey. hey. okay, concentrate. okay?" with that, he dropped the toy, it hitting the floor. he then went to pick it up. "okay, one more time. okay. use your powers, okay?" he then repeated his actions, the toy falling to the floor once again.
"i have a headache." arlo mumbled as she turned around, placing her head onto lucas' shoulder.
"idiot." the sinclair boy muttered, making sure not to move since arlo's head was now on him.
"she's not a dog!" mike told dustin as he picked up the millennium falcon.
"boys! arlo! time for school!" karen yelled from upstairs, making the five kids look towards the basement door.
that made all of them pack up their stuff and put their jackets on. lucas and dustin ran up the stairs, mike and arlo staying behind. mike zipped her jacket up before she placed her book bag on her bag, turning to see that mike was talking to eleven.
"just stay down here. don't make any noise, and don't leave. if you get hungry, eat dustin's snacks, okay?" mike told her.
"michael! charlotte!" karen called.
"coming!" mike yelled towards the door before he turned back to face eleven. "you know those power lines?"
"power lines?" eleven repeated.
"yeah. the ones behind my house?" mike further elaborated.
"yes."
"meet us there, after school."
"after school?"
"yeah, 3:15." mike nodded. when eleven didn't say anything, he came to the conclusion that she didn't know what he meant. he went to go take his watch off his wrist before he gently placed it around her's. "when the numbers read three-one-five, meet us there."
"three-one-five?" eleven repeated.
"three-one-five." mike confirmed. "come on, arlo."
"see ya later, el." arlo mumbled, sending the girl a wave as mike ran up the stairs. she smiled when eleven waved back, a small smile on her own lips.
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𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐒, trying to find the right ones that would fit inside of lucas' wrist rocket. the boys were doing the same thing, asking each other if they were the right size. arlo was kinda in her own world, starting to feel delirious because of the lack of sleep. she didn't really hear what the boys were saying, only handing lucas rocks that she'd think would fit into the wrist rocket. she was actually the only one that were finding the right sized ones, lucas taking them and stuffing them into his jacket pockets. mike could see that the girl was barely paying attention to them, seeing the tired look on her face.
"so, do you think eleven was born with her powers, like the x-men, or do you think she acquired them, like - like green lantern?" dustin asked his friends, making arlo look over at him.
"she's not a superhero. she's a weirdo." lucas deadpanned, earning an eyeball from arlo. she handed him another rock, the sinclair boy grabbing it and putting it into his pocket with the rest.
"why does that matter? the x-men are weirdos." mike quickly defended. arlo smiled at that, liking how fast he was to defend eleven. it was obvious that he was starting to develop a small crush on her.
"if you love her so much, why don't you marry her?" lucas teased, making arlo's smile widen.
"what are you talking about?" mike questioned. arlo never understood how someone could be so oblivious to how they feel.
"mike, seriously?" lucas asked. "you look at her all, like. . . 'hi, el! el! el! el! i love you so much! would you marry me?'" he mimicked, pulling mike into a hug before he went down on one knee. dustin and arlo laughed at that, nudging each other as they did so.
"shut up, lucas." mike scolded, obviously annoyed with his friend.
"yeah, shut up, lucas." a voice appeared, making arlo's smile drop from her face, being replaced with a small scowl as she looked to see troy and james walking towards them. "what are you losers doing back here?"
"probably looking for their missing friend." james answered, a smile on his face. arlo's jaw clenched at that, hating the fact that he found a missing person funny.
"that's not funny. it's serious. he's in danger." dustin said.
"hate to break it you, toothless, but he's not in danger. he's dead. that's what my dad says. he said he was probably killed by some other queer." troy said before he started laughing, james joining in. arlo glared at the both of them, feeling that dark energy inside her start to grow.
"come on. just ignore them." mike told his friends, picking up on how arlo was basically killing the two bullies with her eyes. he started to walk past troy, but the boy quickly stuck his foot out. this made mike go falling to the ground, a groan leaving his mouth as his chin hit a hard rock.
"watch where you're going, frogface." troy told mike as he turned around and started walking away, troy following.
"you alright?" lucas asked mike as him and dustin helped him up.
"yeah." the wheeler boy nodded, rubbing his chin slightly.
the three boys turned to look at arlo, who would've jump at the sight of one of her friends being hurt. but when they saw her, they were surprised to see some kind of shadows appearing around her hands. she glared after the two bullies that were still walking away, holding her hands up towards them. the boys' eyes widened, all three of them running over to her and pulling her into a more secluded area. arlo snapped out of whatever trance she was in, looking at the boys with furrowed eyebrows. she then felt the energy that was coming from her hands, making her look down to see the dark energy surrounding them. her eyes widened as she started to panic, the boys pushing her into the little shed that was by the bleachers. the three boys and girl started screaming over each other, not exactly sure what they should do.
"arlo! arlo! what the fuck is going on? how are you doing that?" dustin asked in a high pitched voice.
"i - i don't know! i don't fucking know! how do i make it stop?! how do i make it stop!?" arlo yelled, flicking her hands in an attempt to make the black energy go away.
"how are we supposed to know? you're the one that has the power, arlo!" mike reminded.
"m - maybe it has something to do with your emotions. you - you hate troy and james, so maybe your anger towards them made it come out." lucas suggested, making dustin and mike nod in agreement. "try thinking of happy thoughts. something that calms you down."
"okay. okay, okay." arlo mumbled, closing her fist as she did the same with her eyes. she sucked in a breath as she thought about the four boys she considered her brother, trying hard not to think about how one of them was lost somewhere. she then thought about steve, all the time that they've spent together. her mind then went to molly ringwald, thinking about how she looked in spacehunter: adventures in the forbidden zone.
arlo furrowed her eyebrows at that, a warm feeling appear in her stomach. she opened her eyes at that, confused on why she was feeling like that. she didn't dwell on it though, looking down at her hands to see that the dark energy had vanished. she smiled, looking back up at her best friends to see that they were all looking at her with shocked looks on their faces. "if you guys don't close your mouth, flies are gonna get in."
"you have powers?!" mike asked once he finally process everything that just happened. "why didn't you tell us you have powers?!"
"i just found out when you did!" arlo yelled.
"our best friend is a fucking superhero!" dustin exclaimed, bringing his hands up to his head as he laughed.
arlo blocked out her friends celebrating the fact that she had powers, looking down at her hands with knitted eyebrows. "well. . . that's really fucking new."
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daij speaks!
kinda hate this chapter. but i didn't know how else to write it. i feel like it's all over the place and that's what's bothering me. but i don't have the energy to go back and try to fix it again. so uh, have this.
i hope u guys enjoyed