3. a great first impression

As they all went to the Byers' house, they created a plan to fight the thing, that they now called as the mind flayer, that possessed Will, through him, because everything is connected to it, the same as the vines, the demo-dogs and even the demogorgons.

They did it by setting up the Byers' shed and covering up the walls. Sticking everything they have found to be able to completely cover up the wall, for a possessed Will to not realize where he is.

As Clemency rummaged in the trash, Nancy looked over to her as she walked her way to the shed, and she saw Steve, covering up the walls.

"Hey." She called Steve as he turned his attention to her.

"What you did, uhm, helping the kids... that was... really cool." She says as she smiled softly."

"Yeah... Those little shits are real trouble, you know?" Steve replied as he looked back at the wall, and continued covering it.

"Believe me, I know." Nancy says, then there is an awkward silence shared between them, until Steve spoke.

"Also, sorry for bringing Clemency with me." Steve softly apologized as she looked back at him, and smiled to herself.

"Well, I just know she will eventually find out anyway, and she always liked to try and get herself involved in things when she could." She says, as Steve chuckled softly and sighed.

"Definitely."

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As Mike, Jonathan, Joyce and Hopper looked at a possessed Will tied in a Chair at the shed, Clemency and the rest of the group stayed at the house.

Clemency approached her sister, as she leaned her back on the wall next to the telephone.

"Hey, I know this isn't the right time to say this, but I just... If you ever need someone to talk to, or if something's troubling you, I'm here... Just talk to me, okay?" Clemency says, as Nancy awkwardly smiled at her.

"I'll try."

As the two sisters shared a moment, everyone in the house got startled as the lights started flickering, Clemency and Nancy both looked at each other with widened eyes and walked over the window to look towards the shed in worry.

"What's happening?" Clemency nervously asked Nancy, as she looked at her, nervously.

Suddenly, Hopper went inside the house from the shed and hurriedly grabs a pen and paper, "What's going on?" Clemency asked him as he walked past her.

"What happened?" Dustin asked as Hopper sat down and started writing.

"I think he's talking just not with words." He explained, as Clemency peeked to look at the paper.

"Is that morse code?" She asked as the kids nodded at her, and Steve leaned in her side, confused.

"You know that?" He softly asked, as she stared intently at the paper.

"No." She quietly says.

The morse code that Will says is 'here' letting them know he's still there and trying to reach them. The team at the shed played Will's favorite song, 'Should I stay or should I go' to help him communicate with them better.

Through the help of the whole crew, telling Will some beautiful memories, they are able to figure out Will's message, which is 'CLOSEGATE.' But as they were trying to understand what it meant, the telephone suddenly rang which startled everyone, and unfortunately, Will heard as well.

Clemency ran to the telephone, and accidentally cut the cord, and she looked over to them with widened eyes. "I didn't mean to..." She says as Nancy just stared at her, surprised.

"That's fine." She says as she looks over to the others, and as Clemency dropped the telephone at the table.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked nervously as they all looked at her.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Steve asked. As they're all startled by the screeching noises in the distance.

The group from the shed, with an unconscious Will, hurries back to the house. They all gathered up and readied their weapons, pointing towards the door, waiting for an attack.

They're all startled by loud thudding coming from outside, not knowing what is currently going on out there, as the sounds seemed to move, and the group followed it's movements.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked as they heard rustling by the bushes outside.

The sounds kept moving, groaning sounds coming from the creature, as the group readied themselves for what is to come. When all of a sudden, the creature got thrown inside the house, and they all screamed out of terror. But then they realized, the thing seemed to be dead.

"Holy shit." Dustin says, as they all walked towards the demo-dog's lifeless body on the floor.

"Is it dead?" Max asked as Hopper pointed his gun at the creature, slowly approached it, and gently kicked it with his foot. The thing really is dead, but all their heads turned back at the door as they heard sounds outside, as the lock suddenly opened itself, and they all pointed their weapons back towards the door.

As they kept themselves guarded, suddenly the door opened slowly, as a girl came in with blood dripping down her nose, Clemency looked over at the other people in the room, and noticed how some seemed shocked, some seemed glad, all and all, they all seem to know her.

Suddenly, Clemency's attention went to her brother, as he smiled at the girl with tears in his eyes, which made Clemency's heart break a little seeing her little brother cry, which was not a sight she often witnessed.

As the two reunited and hugged each other, Clemency smiled at the sight of the two, though still not having a single clue on who the girl exactly is, because all this time nobody told her.

"...Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asked Eleven, as Hopper stepped in and Clemency looked at him, confused.

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper suddenly says as he approached the girl, and the others looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"The hell is this? Where have you been?" Hopper asked the girl as she looked at him with a scowl.

"Where have you been?" She asked him back, as Hopper pulled the girl in a hug. Mike looked at Hopper in realization, that he had been hiding Eleven, and he hit the man out of anger.

"Mike!" Clemency scolded, as she looked at the boy, and got startled as Hopper grabbed her brother by the collar, pulling the kid closer to him.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper sternly says as he took Mike with him, and Clemency followed their tracks and they walked off.

"What just happened- Also, who's the girl?" Clemency says looking over her sister as Nancy looks back at her.

"That's Eleven, and she has powers. She is the one who killed the thing." Nancy says as she pointed at the demo-dog, as Clemency looked at her, mouth agape, and Nancy just nodded.

Eleven walked past Max and stopped as her eyes fell to Clemency, she approached her as the sisters looked at her confused.

"I saw you. From the picture." Eleven says, as Clemency slowly looked over to Nancy, questioningly.

"Oh, the one at home." Nancy says, as Clemency nodded and looked back at the girl, smiling softly at her and walked off and approached Joyce.

‧₊˚

As the group found a way to back Eleven up, but also to prevent Will from dying, Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan took him to a place he didn't know to remove the mind flayer inside Will by using heat, as Eleven went back to the lab to close the gate with Hopper.

Clemency and Steve stood as the baby sitters of the rest of the kids left at the Byers' house.

"Are you really gonna put that thing in the refrigerator?" Clemency says in disbelief as Dustin looks over to her.

"Yeah, is this really necessary?" Steve added.

"Yes, it is, okay? This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog." Dustin argued as Clemency rolled her eyes at the kid, and as Steve sighed.

"All right, all right, all right. But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?" Steve says in grimace, as he approached the refrigerator and put the demo-dog inside, with a lot of struggle as Dustin helped him out, and Clemency shook her head, looking at the thing in disgust.

Clemency noticed Mike kept pacing around, worried about Eleven, as Lucas looked at him.

"Mike, would you stop already." Lucas says in annoyance, as Clemency approached her brother and gave him a glass of water.

"Have a sit Mike, you need your energy, we might still be in grave danger though we aren't in the frontlines." She says as Mike sighed.

"But, that lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs-" Mike argued as Dustin cut him out, catching his and the rest's attention.

"Demo-dogs!" He yelled as Mike rolled his eyes at him.

"The chief will take care of her." Lucas replied.

"Like she needs protection..." Max says quietly as Clemency and Lucas look at her.

As the kids argued and Clemency just watched, Steve walked in. "Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right? " Steve explained, as Clemency and the rest of the kids looked at him with knitted eyebrows.

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench." Mike argued.

"So my point is..." Steve says, as they all stared at him in awkward silence.

"Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do." Steve added as he hanged a cloth by his shoulder.

"That's not entirely true..." Dustin says as they all look over to him. He explained that they could draw the creatures away from the lab if they got distracted during the fire created when they were about to be attacked in the junkyard, to do it, they plan to enter the tunnels through the hole Hopper dug into, all the way to the hub, to set the thing on fire, in which of course, Steve did not agree to, because it is a huge risk, and he is in charge in babysitting.

"Hey. Hey! Hey! This is not happening." Steve yelled, interrupting the kid's meeting, as they all looked at him. "But-" Mike argued but Steve cuts him off.

"No, no, no, no, no. No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan to do. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?" Steve stated, as the kids all looked disappointed, then looked over to Clemency, staring back at them questioningly.

"Oh, no, no, no. Don't look at me. I won't back you up, kids." She says as they groan in disappointment. When suddenly, they are all startled by a loud engine outside, as Max hurriedly runs to the window. As Steve and Clemency looked nervously at each other.

"Shit... Don't tell me that's who I think it is..." Clemency says, as Max looked over to them, horrified. "It's my brother..." Max says, making Clemency hold her head in frustration, as Steve looked over the window.

"He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us..." Max says, as Clemency and Steve looked at each other.

"Guys, get off the window." Clemency says, as she and Steve went out to talk to Billy, as Billy got out of his car, as he smoked a cigarette. She is scared, she just knew this would not work out.

"Am I dreaming, or is that you, Harrington?" Billy scornfully asked, as Steve looked at him sternly. "Yeah, it's me. Don't cream your pants."

"What are you doing here, amigo?" Billy asked as the two approached him, looking over to Clemency and smirking at her, as she looked at him with grimace. "I could ask you the same thing, amigo." Steve asked back.

"I see you're now doing the other Wheeler." Billy teased, as he looks Clemency from head to toe.

"I'm actually looking for my stepsister. A little birdie told me she was here." Billy stated, as Clemency tried her best to not look too nervous. "Huh, that's weird. I don't know her." Steve responded.

"Small? Redhead? Bit of a bitch." Billy described

"Doesn't ring a bell. Sorry, buddy." Steve says, but Billy kept trying to manipulate him into admitting Max is with us, as Steve obviously kept insisting she isn't. But turns out, the little shits are looking out the window watching the whole thing go down as Billy suddenly pushed Steve, accidentally taking Clemency with him during the fall. As the two struggled to get up, Billy went to the house.

Clemency hurriedly took out her revolver and went inside, as she went in she heard the kids screaming for Billy to stop, she hurried to see what the commotion was about, as it turns out he had grabbed Lucas by the collar of his jacket and pushed him to the cabinet.

"Get off of the kid, or I will shoot you." Clemency yelled at Billy, as he glared at him. Billy, still holding Lucas, slowly turns around and scoffs.

"Wheeler? Pretending all brave, but I know you wouldn't shoot me." He mockingly says, as he let go of Lucas and slowly walked towards Clemency. "Oh, I definitely will." She says, as he cocked the gun, and kept it pointed towards Billy, as he just chuckled at her.

"If you shoot me, you might graduate high school later than you already are." Billy says, walking closer to her, as she smiled at him maniacally. "Do you really think in this sort of situation I still care?"

Just as Billy is about to launch towards her, Steve throws a punch at him that makes him fall to the ground, as Clemency quickly pointed the gun down so as to not hurt anyone.

"Don't you dare touch a single hair on her." Steve says, as Billy easily got off the floor and laughs.

"Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about." Billy says, as the two continue with fighting.

Billy was able to pin down Steve, that made all the kids and Clemency panicked, she quickly raised her revolver but before she could cock it again, Max stopped her.

"No, you don't have to shoot him." Clemency looked at the girl confused, as she quickly grabbed the syringe and quickly stabbed it on Billy's neck, startling him, as he stopped and looked. All of them looked with widened eyes, and mouth agape, as Billy stood up looking at his stepsister, slowly feeling the drug in his system.

"The hell is this? You little shit what did you do?" He asked, feeling the dizziness, as he grabbed the syringe off of his neck, and slowly approached Max, but quickly collapsed on the ground before he could reach her, as he laughed maniacally. Max quickly looked at the side, as Clemency followed where the girl was looking at, which is the bat with nails, as the girl quickly grabbed it, and swung it by her shoulder.

"From here on out, you leave me and my friends alone. Do you understand?" Max threatened as she looked down at Billy..

"Screw you." A drugged Billy says, as Max swung and hit the bat in between his legs as a threat, as Clemency proudly looked at her and smiled, as Max pulled the bat back up.

"Say you understand! Say it! Say it!" Max yelled as everyone in the room looked at her, terrified, yet amazed.

"I understand." Billy quietly says, with his eyes almost closed. "What?" Max asked, as Billy repeated himself and sighed. Max quickly grabbed Billy's keys and went up to the group. "Let's get out of here."

"Wait- but what about Steve?" Clemency asked, panicked. As they all looked at her.

"We're taking him, obviously. Also, can you drive?" Dustin says, as Clemency shakes her head receiving confused looks from the kids. "You know how to use a gun, but not drive?" Mike asked. As he gave his sister a judging look, which she shrugged in response.

"I'll drive. Let's go." Max says, as they helped Steve out of the floor and followed Max. "Wait, have you driven before?" Clemency says, worryingly, as Max pursed her lips. "In a parking lot, yea." She says, as they all furrowed their eyebrows. "Well, at least I can drive, okay?" She argued as they just all went with her and as they went to Billy's car.

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