9. hide and seek

As Eleven sat down in front of the television for hours, looking for any of the victims, or Billy, to no avail, but a few arguments, debates and Mike admitting he loves Eleven, they finally have a lead.

After witnessing Billy's memories, Eleven finally reaches the source, the place where the flaying occurs and started, in a now closed down Brimborn Steelworks, as Jonathan looked for its address on the yellow pages. They immediately told her to get out of that memory, but before she could, the flayed Billy entered her mind, and now knew where the group was hiding.

A distraught Eleven finally reaches the real world, screaming in fear, as Mike reaches for her, and hugs her. As the group all looked at her, with concern.

"He said he was building something. That it was all for me." Eleven informed, as the group listened intently. "Building something... Is he talking about the Flayed?" Max asked, confused.

"He must be..." Nancy responded. "So, he's building an army, just like we thought." Lucas thought, as he paced around.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread." Mike stated. "He's building it to stop Eleven." Will added.

"Last year, El closed the gate on him. I have a feeling that pissed him off." Mike continued, as the rest agreed. "Like, royally." Lucas says, looking over to the boy.

"And the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him, but if she's out of the way-" Mike says, as Lucas supported his theory. "Game over."

"He also said he was gonna kill all of you." Eleven says, looking at everyone in the room, as they all looked at her, with a gloomy expression, as an awkward silence and tension is shared in the room.

"Yeah, well, that's nice." Max says, as Clemency puts both her hands in her head, turning her back at the group. Ignorance is definitely bliss, she thought to herself. She thought, if she was never as curious, or as caring about her family, she would have not gone through, or if she just stayed away from Hawkins, her life might suck, but not as worst as having creatures targeting her ass, but she is already here, and she knew this all, and she knew dawn well, she is in for a much wilder ride.

As Clemency is questioning her whole life, and existence, Nancy suddenly heard faint screeching noises that made her stand from her seat, and looked out the window, as the rest followed her tracks. "Nancy? What's the matter?" Clemency asked her sister, as she looked back at her, with questioning eyes. "Do you guys hear that?" She quietly says, and shudders, as she looks back out, as Clemency furrowed her eyebrows and stood up, finally realizing the sounds.

"It's just the fireworks." Jonathan reasoned out, as Nancy quickly looked around and looked at Eleven, as Clemency closely watched her.

"Billy... When he told you this, it was here, in this room?" Nancy recalled, as Eleven nodded in response, as the others looked confused.

"Shit..." Clemency says, as they looked at her. "What?" Mike nervously asked, as she turned to look at him. "I think he's on his way..." She says just as Will felt it, backing up Clemency and Nancy's suspicion, "He knows we're here."

The group hurriedly went out of the cabin, where they saw the huge creatures, shaped like the mind flayer but in physical form, breaking off the trees on its way. They made their way to put up blocks on the windows, as the eldest teens got their own weapons, in which Clemency grabbed an axe, like Jonathan, while Nancy had a shotgun.

The group gathered around, as Clemency looked around, in terror. Breathing heavily from the anticipation of what might happen to them, when suddenly a long, arm-like thing with claws quickly went inside, as Eleven protected the rest of the kids, as the claw tried to grab them.

Jonathan and Clemency, both quickly swung their axes, hitting the thing, struggling at the power of the thing, but as they pulled their axes off of it, the creature shrieked, as it changed its direction to them and flung them on the wall, making Nancy step in, and shot the monster, thrice, but then she run out of bullets, as the claw-like creature approached her, as Clemency struggled getting off the floor, she looked in horror, seeing her sister, but just before the monster could hurt her, Eleven used her power to stop it from moving, even an inch towards Nancy, and cutting it's grabber off of it's entire body, as it fell to the ground, and shrieks.

But just as they thought it's over, another arm made a hole in the cabin's wall and approached Eleven, but she quickly stopped it, just as another arm attacked and she did the same. Holding both of it with all her might, and cutting both the claws off of it's arm, but another arm went in, through the roof and behind Eleven, so sudden that it started everyone in the room, and it grabbed Eleven by her ankle, making her fall on the ground, and before it could pull her away, Mike hurriedly grabbed her arm, preventing her from getting taken away, as the rest of the group helped him, while Eleven screamed in agony.

Nancy quickly loaded the shotgun, as Jonathan hurried her. Looking around, Lucas grabbed an axe, Clemency grabbed her own and the two swung it to the creature, as it roared at them.

The arm eventually got chopped off, but the claw still held Eleven's ankle. Mike quickly grabbed the thing and pulled it off of Eleven's leg, making her scream in pure agony.

The creature roared, and Eleven stood up, and used her power to split the monster's face in two, but only for a short time, as they quickly got out of the cabin, helping a limping Eleven, onto the car and drove off.

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All Clemency wanted was a peaceful summer, and this is all she got? She thought to herself, that should not have gotten a job and just have fun, or relax before this whole new battle they have to face. What was she supposed to do, she thought it was all over.

The group broke inside Bradley's Big Buy, to find stuff to clean up Eleven's wound. Finding the rubbing alcohol and gauze pads, they gently sat Eleven down. "Okay. Lemme see." Nancy says, as she rolled Eleven's pants, the wound bleeds out, making the group winced from the sight, and Clemency's legs felt weak. "Shit." Max says as she saw it closely, while Eleven groans from the pain.

Nancy immediately opens the gauze pad and is about to put it in the wound, but Max stops her, as she was doing it wrong. "No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." Max informed, as Max looked at her, surprised. "I skateboard. Trust me."

"It's also just common sense..." Clemency added, as Nancy glared at her, making her look away.

Max hurriedly told Mike to stop the bleeding, by holding a gauze pad on Eleven's wound and putting pressure into it. She then told the group to get soap, water, towel and a bowl.

Just as Clemency finds a bowl, she sees Nancy and Jonathan as they are finding soap. "Hey." She greeted, as Nancy pursed her lips at her sister, who sighed in response.

"How are you holding up so far..." Nancy asked her and she sighed. "To be honest, I think I'm going insane, but well, I'm trying to keep it together..." Clemency chuckled out, nervously, as Jonathan sighed. "Well, you're actually doing a great job."

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As Steve, Dustin, Robin and Erica hides, and the Russian Guards approached their hiding spot, as they pointed their guns, all of a sudden, the car's alarm behind them started wailing, and honking, making the guards turn and looked at it in confusion, but as they looked up, there they saw Eleven as she used her powers on the car, with the rest of the group are behind her.

Eleven threw the car at the Russian guard, as they flew from where they were standing, and the car got destroyed.

The Scoops Troop slowly emerged from their hiding spot, seeing what happened, with their mouths agape, as they slowly turned their heads and finally saw the rest of the group. They quickly ran and gathered up.

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin laughed out and cheered as he hugged Eleven.

"Lucas?" Erica asked upon seeing her brother. "What are you undoing here?" He exclaimed upon seeing his sister. "Ask them, it's their fault." Erica blamed the elder teens and Dustin, pointing at them.

"True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely out fault." Steve says as Clemency approaches him, surprised at what happened to his face. "Oh my God, Steve, you got beaten up again?" Clemency exclaimed, as Steve gave her a deadpanned look. "Hey, I won the fight this time though-" He says but she interrupts him, "Oh really?" She doubtingly says.

"I don't understand what happened to that car..." Robin says, still not having a single clue on what really is going on. "El has superpowers." Dustin says, pointing at Eleven, as Robin looked at them with knitted eyebrows. "I'm sorry?"

"Superpowers. She threw it with her mind. C'mon, catch up." Steve added.

"That's El?" Erica asked, excitedly. "Who's El?" Robin asked, feeling very lost.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy asked Robin, as she turned to look at her. "I'm Robin. I work with Steve." She introduced herself. "She cracked the top secret code." Dustin informed, looking over to Robin.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place-" Steve added, as he got interrupted by Jonathan. "Russians? Wait, what Russians?"

"The Russians!" Steve exclaimed, pointing at the men, dead on the floor. "Those were Russians?" Max asked in shock.

"Some of them." Erica continued, as her brother looked at her confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Wait- is that why you were trying to get Erica to go into the vents last time I saw you?" Clemency asked, as Mike looked at her and raised his eyebrows at her. "You knew this whole time?"

"No! Because before they could explain their plan, I got called to Wyatt's, and my boss fired me-" She explained, as Mike interrupted her. "You got fired?" And Clemency rolled her eyes at him.

"Okay, that's besides the point-" Clemency says as Dustin interrupts her. "Wait, you guys didn't hear our code red?" Dustin asked in confusion.

"Yeah, Couldn't understand what you were saying." Mike reasoned out, looking over to Dustin. "Goddamn low battery." Dustin exclaimed, as Steve scolded him. "How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" He yelled as he hit his hand, getting his point across.

"Well, everything worked out, didn't it, Steve?" Dustin stated, as Erica looked over to her, furrowing her eyebrows. "Worked out? We almost died!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, but we didn't. Did we?" Dustin says, as a matter-of-factly. "It was pretty damn close." Steve added.

"Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas asked, as Dustin raised an eyebrow at her. "Really, Lucas? That's surprising to you, when a lump of walking grinded meat isn't?" Clemency added, as Erica looked at her, confused. "Wait- what walking grinded meat?" She asked, as Clemency's attention went over to Eleven, who's slowly walking away from the group, and furrowed her eyebrows as she approached her, and gently held her shoulders, as Eleven slowly covered her ears. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Eleven looked over to her, but suddenly collapsed and Clemency quickly caught her and slowly laid her down, as the others approached them. "El!" Mike called, as Eleven whimpered from the pain coming from her wound. "What's wrong with her?" Erica asked, as the group surrounded her.

"My leg... my leg." She says, as the older teens removed the gauze and checked her wound, the group looked in disgust, as her wound seemed to have something moving in it that made the pain even worse, as she screamed in agony.

"Need you to stay real still." He says, as he proceeded earning looks from the group, as he cut the knife onto Eleven's skin, she started to scream out of agony, making the rest wince, cringe, and feel sick, as Jonathan proceeded to dip his hand inside Eleven's open wound, trying to remove the moving thing inside, making Eleven feel more pain, and to no avail. Eleven eventually stopped him, as she told him she could do it herself, by using her powers instead.

With all her might, she did her best to finally remove the thing inside her skin, as the glass wall behind them came crashing down, Eleven took the thing out and threw it.

As they all had their attention towards the thing suddenly, Hopper, Joyce and Murray finally showed up. The group fills them in with the details on what they are fighting against. As they make a plan on both fighting the mind flayer and shutting down the machine that is opening up the gate.

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