308. Lucy's Her Daddy Now

308 / lucy's her daddy now

With El safely in Hopper's arms now, Mike began to explain everything that had happened—from the perspective of those who had not been taken hostage by the Russians.

"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins," he said, struggling to find the words. "It wants to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."

"And it almost did," added Nancy. "This is just a small piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" said Hopper.

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

"Yeah," added Lucas awkwardly, looking to Hopper, "and, ah... it sort of destroyed your cabin. Sorry."

"Okay," said Steve, spreading his hands, "just to be clear, this—this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El—it's some kind of gigantic weapon?"

"Yes," said Nancy.

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

"Yes!" said Nancy again. "Exactly."

"Yeah, okay," nodded Steve. "I'm just making sure."

"We kind of thought Lucy had been flayed," admitted Lucas, to which Max hit his arm as though he said something he should not have. "What? We did!"

"Me?" she said, incredulous. "Why?"

"Well, you know," said Max, tipping her head from side to side and not meeting Lucy's eyes, "it was Billy behind the flaying, and that other lifeguard went missing around the same time as you—"

"Heather?" choked Lucy. "Heather got—got flayed?"

"Er, yeah," said Leo, scratching the back of his neck. "But thank God you're okay, right? I mean, Russian torture is bad, but imagine getting melted and turned into some big flesh monster—"

"Are we sure this thing is still out there?" said Joyce, looking hesitantly from Leo to anyone else who would have the answer. "Still alive?"

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

Will raised his voice. "But if we close the gate again..."

Max nodded with him. "Cut the brain off from the body..."

"We can kill it," finished Lucas. "Theoretically."

Just then, the third man whom had arrived with Joyce and Hopper—the heavily mustached, annoyingly sarcastic man—returned from his corner of isolation. He has retrieved some papers and was now waving them in the air. Everyone crowded the table he slammed them onto and stared down at them: it was a map. A hand drawn diagram of a Soviet bunker.

He pointed to a room in the center of the map. "Okay, this is what Alexei called the Hub. Now the Hub takes us to the Vault Room." "Okay, where's the Gate?" said Hopper, following the mustached man as he pointed from room to room.

"Right here," he replied, pointing again. "I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the Vault Room. Maybe fifty feet, or so."

Erica scoffed. "More like five hundred. You're just gonna waltz in there like it's Commie Disneyland, or something?"

The mustached man seemed offended. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair," she replied in a matter of fact voice. "Who are you?"

"Murray... Bauman," he replied, stammering.

Erica rolled her eyes. "Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty four hours. And with all due respect—" she turned to everyone else "—you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

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

"Uh, I'm ten, you bald bastard."

"Erica!" said Lucas.

"Just the facts!"

"She's right," added Dustin. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to." He stepped forward and took lead on the map, pointing quickly from room to room; he took out a pencil from his backpack and began drawing on the map. "This room here, this is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that will feed into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. Now, it's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" repeated Hopper, in an incredulous sort of voice.

"Don't worry," said Dustin. "You can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your navigators."

"No," said Hopper immediately. "Nope."

Before anyone could argue with him, he stalked off to disarm the dead Russian soldiers. Erica and Dustin led the other kids away from the maps.

"That settles it," said Erica in a tone of finality. "He's gonna die. They're gonna die."

"Yep," said Dustin. "Most likely."

"But you guys survived," pointed out Leo.

"Barely," said Dustin. He paused. "We could have really used you guys down there."

"Could have used you guys up here, too," said Mike.

"Yeah," said Lucas, "we missed you, man."

"Big time," said Will, smiling.

They formed a group hug, Erica watching with disgust from just behind; the elder teenagers watched on from a few feet away, smiling.

"Missed you too," said Dustin, breaking free from the hug. "And I never got to tell you, I have a—"

"Hey, heads up!" Hopper called; he tossed Dustin a walkie talkie as he clipped a string of ammo to his belt. "You can navigate, but from someplace safe."

"It's not that simple," said Dustin.

Erica nodded. "The signal won't reach."

"Not with this," continued Dustin. "You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work you need someone who has both seen their Comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh wait—that's me."

"Ego," muttered Steve, shaking his head.

"If you want us to navigate," continued Dustin, "you got us. But we need a head-start—and a car."

Hopper nodded, wordless; he looked down to his pockets and retrieved a keychain from within them, raising his eyebrows and offering the keys out to whoever would take them.

"Aw, yeah," said Steve as he pushed the doors to Starcourt open, twirling the keys around his finger. "Yeah, this is what I'm talking about!"

"Todd-father?" Lucy read from the license plate, amused. "A yellow Cadillac called the Todd-father?"

"Screw Todd," said Steve, hopping in the driver's seat. "Steve's her daddy now."

"Did you just talk about yourself in the third person?" said Robin, climbing in the back.

"Did he just call himself daddy?" added Erica.

Steve ignored them both. "Alright, where are we going?"

"Weathertop," said Dustin.

"Weather-what?"

"Just drive!"

"Okay! Jesus."

He turned the car's ignition over and took off.

"Jesus, how far is this place, man?" said Steve, glaring out the windshield with a furrowed brow. The streets so far had been entirely empty of other cars; Lucy wondered if everyone was busy celebrating the Fourth of July.

"Relax," said Dustin. "We're almost there."

"Suzie must be pretty special, huh?" said Steve. "I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?"

"Nobody is scientifically perfect, but Suzie is about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be."

"She sounds made up to me," Erica said to Steve. "She sound made up to you?"

Dustin raised his eyebrows, leaning forward at Steve's lack of a response. "Why are you hesitating, Steve?"

"I'm—I'm not!" he replied defensively. "I think she sounds real! You know, totally, absolutely real."

"Left," said Dustin suddenly. "Go left."

"There's no road here!" protested Lucy, holding onto the dashboard.

"Turn left now!"

"Everyone hang on," instructed Steve; he whipped the Todd Father into a hard left, smashing through a fence on his way. "Henderson, where are we going!?"

"Up!" was his reply.

Sure enough, they were headed suddenly up a very steep slope. The Todd Father was already struggling at the angle. Lucy heard its engine roaring with effort.

"We're not gonna make it," said Robin.

Steve shook his head, determinate. "Yes, we are!"

"Come on, Todd Father," whispered Lucy, clutching her armrest.

"Come on, baby!" yelled Steve.

And the Todd Father did much better than Lucy had expected it to. Just shy of the top, the engine stalled out, stuck in the soft grass at the crest of the hill.

"No, come on!" said Steve again. He pressed his foot all the way down on the gas pedal, and Lucy could hear the wheels turning in protest, but the Todd Father was going nowhere anytime soon.

"I supposed the Todd Father has its limitations," said Robin.

Steve sighed and killed the engine, and they all hopped out. The good news was that they were not far from the top at all, so it was not hard a climb. At the very peak of Weathertop sat what looked like a miniature electrical tower, the control panel sitting and waiting for Dustin's return. At the very top of the antenna, a red light flashed on and off. Faintly, Lucy thought she heard Mike's voice cutting through the transmission, but Dustin changed the channel and searched until the static went away.

"Bald Eagle, do you copy?" he said into the radio. "Bald Eagle, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop. Do you copy?"

"Yes, I copy," came Murray's voice.

"Call sign?"

Murray sighed into the radio. "Bald Eagle."

"Please repeat."

"Bald Eagle! This is Bald Eagle!"

"Copy that!" said Dustin, grinning. "Good to hear your voice, Bald Eagle. What's your twenty?"

"We reached the vent. I'll contact you when I need you. Until then, silence!"

"Roger that, Bald Eagle, this is Scoops Troop going radio silent. Ten-ten, over."

They went only five or ten minutes without hearing from Murray, which Dustin spent interrogating Steve as to why he hesitated when confronted with the question of whether Suzie was real or not. Just as Steve began to lose his patience, the radio crackled to life again.

"Scoops Troop, this is Bald Eagle. I've reached the fourth junction."

Dustin and Erica referred to the map together, tracing it with their fingers.

"The fourth junction," said Dustin under his breath. "Alright, so if my memory serves, this is right after the My Little Pony thesis."

"The what?" muttered Steve.

"We went left," agreed Erica, "so he has to go right."

"Right," repeated Dustin. He raised the radio to his mouth. "Fly right, Bald Eagle. Fly right!"

"Roger that," came Murrary's sardonic voice. "Flying right."

The static picked up again as Murrary clicked off, and Robin turned to Dustin and Erica, intrigued.

"What's the My Little Pony thesis?"

"Don't get him started," said Erica bitingly.

"Get him started? Just tell me."

Lucy let their voices drone to the back of her mind as she turned over her shoulder and saw the horizon of Hawkins. Looking over Starcourt Mall, the lights were flickering wildly.

"Guys?" said Lucy worriedly. "Call them!"

"Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop? Do you copy? Over!"

He paused and waited for a reply, but none came. Instead the sound of monstrous shrieks echoed across the radio. Lucy felt as though she had been sucker-punched.

"Griswold Family, DO YOU COPY? This is Scoops Troop! Please confirm your safety!"

The response was more shrieking, louder and worse than ever. Lucy shook her head, sick with anxiety; Dustin continued calling for them over the radio to no avail.

"We have to get back there," she decided, and she took the keys from Steve's pocket and stalked back down to the Todd Father. "You guys, stay here, contact the others!"

"Where are you going?" called Robin.

"To get them the hell out of there!"

"Wait, Lucy!" Dustin tossed her a walkie talkie, then saluted her. "Stay in touch."

She nodded, then hopped into the driver's seat of the Todd Father. Steve climbed into the passenger's seat. She turned the key in the ignition and pressed down on the gas pedal, but the wheels stayed spinning in place; Lucy groaned and threw the car into reverse brashly, then kicked down on the pedal with both feet.

The car whirled into action. They went flying down the hill, screaming as they went, soaring back down the thick grass of Weathertop at an alarming speed. Lucy screamed, and Steve was shouting at her to stop before they crashed into the woods; She slammed onto the brakes at the last second. The bumper of the Todd Father tapped the tree trunk lightly, and Lucy and Steve knocked forward in their seats, groaning.

"Jesus, Luce," he said. "I haven't even put my seatbelt on yet."

The two of them buckled up because Lucy was nothing if not a safe driver, obviously. She tore off back down the empty roads, never having been more grateful for the lack of traffic in her entire life; they sped back the way they had come from in silence, Lucy not letting up from the gas pedal once.

The roaring and shrieks from the Mind Flayer grew louder and more unbearable the closer they got to the mall, and as the volume increased, so did Lucy's speed. She whipped into the Starcourt parking lot and found a horrifying sight.

The Wheeler Wagon sat unmoving, the hood of the car wide open as Jonathan worked on the engine. Nancy stood outside the driver's seat with her rifle firing round after round into the windshield of the approaching Camaro. Briefly, Lucy wondered who might be driving the Camaro—they were about to fly into the Wheeler Wagon which was full of passengers.

Then Lucy realized she did not need to wonder who was behind the wheel, and she knew how to stop him.

She pressed down on the Todd Father's gas pedal with as much force as she could muster, coming straight perpendicular to the Camaro; it was moving fast, but so was the Todd Father. Nancy was not moving from between the two cars. Nobody was getting out of the Wheeler Wagon. Lucy slammed the gas pedal to the floor of the car, and then screamed as the hood of the Todd Father collided with Billy Hargrove's Camaro in a wicked T-bone.

The Camaro stopped moving. Inside Lucy saw Billy's unconscious frame. Then the car burst into flames, and Lucy's knuckles unlatched from the steering wheel.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked her, taking hold of her arm.

She stared ahead in complete shock. "I think I peed a little again."

The monstrous snarling from before caught their attention, and they turned to see the Mind Flayer roaring as it began to emerge from Starcourt.

"Shit," said Steve.

Suddenly the Wheeler Wagon pulled up beside them. Nancy's window was rolled down. "Get in! Get in!"

They wasted no time in getting out of the Todd Father and climbing into the back of Nancy's station wagon. It was already pretty full, and the addition of Lucy and Steve did not help the situation; still, Nancy peeled off from the mall at once. Lucy glanced out the back window to see the Mind Flayer charging after them.

The walkie talkie in her lap crackled to life, and Lucy shared a curious glance with Steve at the sound of an unfamiliar voice over the radio.

"Dusty-Bun? Can you hear me now?"

"Dusty-Bun?" repeated the entire station wagon, incredulous.

Steve locked eyes with Lucy. "Suzie," they said together.

"Yes! I can! Okay, Suzie-Poo, listen," came Dustin's voice, crackling with static. "Do you know Planck's Constant?"

Suzie's arrogant voice came through again. "Do you know the earth orbits the sun?"

Dustin laughed. "Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a—what is it?"

Suzie paused before responding. "Okay, let me just be clear on this. I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know so you can—save the world?"

"Suzie-Poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as I can."

"You can make it up to me now."

"Oh, God, no," said Steve, disgusted.

"What?" said Dustin.

"I want to hear it."

"Oh, not right now," he said nervously.

"Yes, now, Dusty-Bun," she insisted, sounding to Lucy as though she were pouting.

"Suzie-Poo, this is urgent."

"Yes, yes, you're saving the world, I heard you the first time. But Ged is also saving Earthsea and he's about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off."

There came a click of the microphone turning off, but Dustin called for her again. "Wait, wait, wait! Okay. Okay, okay."

Silence fell in the car as a long pause came over the radio. Then—perhaps the very last thing Lucy expected him to do—Dustin returned to the microphone with a tune to his voice.

"Turn around. Look at what you see... In her face. The mirror of your dreams."

Suzie picked up now, sounding gleeful. "Make believe, I'm everywhere! Given in the light!"

Lucy glanced around the Wheeler Wagon to see her own absolute befuddlement reflected on everyone else's faces. The Mind Flayer was chasing them at an alarming pace; Hopper, Joyce, and Murray were infiltrating a Russian secret base; and Suzie and Dustin were harmonizing over the radio to the Never Ending Story song.

"...and what you see will be!" Suzie and Dustin sang together, putting their hearts and souls into their rendition. "Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds. And there upon a rainbow is—the answer to a never-ending story!"

They sighed into the radio and giggled together.

"Planck's Constant is six-point-six-two-six-zero-seven-zero-zero-four."

"You just saved the world, Suzie-Poo."

She let out a happy sigh. "Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-Bun."

"No, I miss you more, Suzie-Poo!"

"Miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy."

"No, I miss you more—"

"Enough," interrupted Erica's voice, and Dustin and Suzie's voices came to an abrupt end.

The only good news was that the Wheeler Wagon was still outpacing the Mind Flayer. Lucy forced the thought of Dustin's performance from her mind and watched the monster following her; but, as she watched, the Mind Flayer slowed to a stop. Then it turned around and began back toward the mall.

"It's turning around!" she informed the car.

"What?" said Nancy, eyes flickering to the rear view mirror.

"It's definitely turning around," confirmed Steve, staring back at the Mind Flayer.

"Maybe we wore it out," suggested Lucas.

"I don't think so," said Jonathan.

"Hold on!" said Nancy, and she pulled a 180 in the station wagon so that they were now following the Mind Flayer. She raced back toward Starcourt as quickly as the car could carry them.

"What's our plan here?" said Leo, as the car tore through Hawkins. "How are we supposed to defeat this thing without El?"

Lucas turned around in his seat to look at Steve and Lucy. He nodded to what they were sitting on. "Check it out."

Both of them glanced down, and Will and Leo peeked over the seat to get a glimpse, too. In the back of the station wagon, the boxes on which Steve and Lucy were seated were labeled with all sorts of adjectives and adverbs describing fireworks—awesome, unforgettable, perfect for the Fourth of July. Explosive.

"Fireworks," said Lucas. "Epic."

Nancy threw the car into park as they pulled to an abrupt stop outside Starcourt. They rushed inside together, the guys carrying the many packs of explosives. Lucas led them to the stairs leading to the second story above the plaza, but one look over the railing, and Lucy could not figure how they were supposed to win.

It was tragedy down there. The Mind Flayer took up the entire bottom floor of the mall, roaring, tearing down pillars and crashing through the ceiling. Lights flickered all around it. It screamed in what Lucy assumed was hunger, and perhaps excitement—down below, looking tiny compared to the sheer size of the Mind Flayer, Billy was carrying an unconscious figure. He laid her down on the floor before the Mind Flayer as though offering it a sacrifice.

El.

Billy knelt down to whisper something in her ear, then backed away; El attempted to scramble away but Billy caught her by the leg and dragged her back to the center of the floor.

"We're running out of time," said Nancy hurriedly. "Anyone got a lighter?"

"I do," said Leo, Steve, and Jonathan, and the boxes were distributed among them. Lucy helped Steve carry his load over to the opposite side of the second floor, still watching out over the railing to keep an eye on the Mind Flayer. All of its focus was on El, though. Billy sat over her now, holding her down. Closer now, Lucy could see tears streaming out of El's eyes, words pouring from her lips as she gazed fearfully up at Billy.

Suddenly a firework exploded right in the Mind Flayer's face.

"FLAY  THIS!" screamed Lucas. He threw another.

Steve and Lucy began lighting their own haul, letting the stem get burnt all the way to the quick before launching it from their hands so it exploded just as it hit the Mind Flayer.

"Hey, asshole!" yelled Steve, as a bundle left his hand. "Over here!"

Lucy grunted and tossed another explosive, lighting and throwing them faster than she could register what was happening below. The rain of fireworks could have felt like the Fourth of July celebration Hawkins threw every year, but the Mind Flayer roared in anger and reared one of its limbs toward the second floor. Lucy saw Will, Lucas, and Leo duck before it could hit them.

"We're almost out!" she told Steve, as she picked up one of the final few bundles in the box.

Steve cursed and held the radio up to his mouth. "Dustin! We're out of time!"

Over the radio, Dustin screamed at Hopper, Joyce, and Murray. "CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT NOW!"

The Mind Flayer grew more furious with every explosion, and Billy writhed in pain with it. El was still speaking to him. From the distance, Lucy thought he looked devastated. She gave another grunt and threw her final firework at the Mind Flayer, stomach churning—it would not be enough to kill it.

Max and Mike ran into the plaza, taking in the scene before them. Both had welts the size of tennis balls on their temples. Max took one look at Billy, standing from El's body and facing the Mind Flayer, and screamed.

The Mind Flayer reared a tentacle, extending it with the intent of destroying El, but Billy caught it before it could reach her.

Time seemed to stand still.

Each hit intended for El, Billy took; he screamed in pain, blood as black as ink pouring from his mouth and sides and everywhere the Mind Flayer pierced him. He fell to his knees; he managed to yell weakly for El to run. Another hit from the Mind Flayer went straight through his sternum.

"CLOSE IT!" Steve screamed at Dustin. "NOW!"

"BILLY!" cried Max, and Mike held her back before she could run forward.

The tentacles released Billy, and he fell to the floor; instead the Mind Flayer, feeling its end impending, roared in ferocity once more and threw its arms around. Lucy and Steve stumbled back as they crushed the railing in front of them. Then it let out a final shriek, growing unsteady on its legs, and tumbled over, falling flat to the ground, lifeless.

Via Chatter

Rocked the Mind Flayer's shit am I right

Also couldn't stop laughing at the idea of Dustin and Suzie singing that damn song. Like genuinely what a funny thing to happen. props to the Duffers