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BOTH HOPPER AND SEB WATCHED AS JOYCE LOOKED AWAY FROM THEM, TWISTING THE KEYS. Immediately looking to his father, Seb understood the man's signal as he literally pointed to the gate's direction. Rushing in that direction, Seb felt his legs failing on him, his eardrums being burst by the explosions behind him. Hopper crossed his fingers as he ran, praying that both him and his son made it. The explosions caught up with the two of them, Seb's grunts being silenced by the large explosion of the machine.

☆

HOURS LATER, THE GATE HAD BEEN KEPT OPEN BY MULTIPLE MONSTER KEEPING IT THAT WAY UNTIL IT FINALLY CLOSED, HOPPER'S EYES OPENING. The immense pain in his back and all over his body made the man's breathing ragged as soon as he woke up.

Seb.

Looking to his right with only his head, the pain increased in his neck as he saw Seb laying there. The boy's closed eyelids were facing him, blood from his mouth pouring onto the ground below him. He was barely recognisable with all the blood and ash that covered his face. He was deathly pale, Hopper grumbling in worry. The boy wasn't moving. "No..." Hopper murmured out, his voice croaked as he urged himself up, ignoring the shooting pain that came with it. The man limped over to his son, dropping to his knees to hold his shoulder. "Buddy, wake up..." Hopper's voice croaked, worry flooding his mind. There's no way he made it and Seb didn't. "Seb." Hopper urged, brushing the boy's hair back from his forehead. Staring at the boy's eyelids, he watched as there was some slight movement occurred behind them.

"Please, Sebastian." Hopper gasped out, dropping his head to the floor as he missed the boy's eyes fluttering open. A groan made the man look up quickly, meeting eyes with Seb's. Relief flooded the man, kneeling closer to the boy. "Shh, you're alright." Hopper assured as he weakly held Seb's head to his chest. The two sat in silence for a while before Hopper silently held Seb's shoulders and helped him to sit up. The boy hadn't said anything yet, Hopper examining his face and rubbing the blood off with his already dirty sleeve. "Are you okay?" Seb whispered, Hopper nodding. "Don't worry about me. Let's get out of here." The man's speech became clearer as he spoke more, Seb nodding as he stood up weakly. The two had had time to adjust to their surroundings, Hopper urging Seb up some ladders.

Pushing the boy up, Seb sat down breathlessly as he faced the stairs, grabbing his father's hand once it was in view. Pulling himself up, Hopper's face dropped when he came face to face with three Russian's behind Seb. Of course the boy couldn't notice them, his sense of surroundings and direction were utterly demolished by what had just happened. Hopper was about to signal their presence before they did themselves, whacking the end of a gun across Seb's head. Knocking the boy out, Hopper quickly looked to where he landed, the Russian's smiling at him. "Where do you two think you're going?" He spat in Russian, Hopper staring up at him in utter fear,

before he was knocked out also.

☆

SEB'S EYES FLUTTERED OPEN ONCE MORE, TO FIND HIMSELF RESTRAINED IN A MOVING VEHICLE. His vision was restrained by a blindfold over his eyes, as to not show the boy where they were taking him. Where was Hopper? Where was he? How long had he been knocked out for? Who was taking him?

What is going on?

A guard noticed his change of breathe, immediately looking to his comrade. They were on edge the whole van ride, the three in the back having their guns pointed at the boy at all times as he travelled in a separate van to Hopper. One more guard sat in the front of the van, a driver getting them to an airport. "Check him." One guard uttered in Russian, the other two looking to him. "What?" They asked quickly, the guard nodding to Seb. "I think he's awake." The Russian quickened his speech, the other two terrified. This boy could easily kill them with a snap of his finger, this being the reason as to why Hopper's van was a head of theirs and Seb's van was more armed with men.

"You look." One guard shot back, the other agreeing. If he was so sure the boy was awake, why doesn't he check it out? Huffing lightly, the guard pointed to their guns, the two nodding and keeping them pointed at Seb's head directly. Lightly untying the black blindfold from the back of Seb's head, the man held onto it and they watched as it revealed Seb's closed eyes. Flinching, the guards waited silently for any sign of consciousness, Seb not showing one. "Great. Stop being so scared." One guard spat, their guns still at the boy's head. "Put it back on." He ordered, the man sighing. To be honest, they had no accommodations nor adaptations to aid themselves if Seb, or Subject Seven, misbehaved in any way. So if he woke up, they'd all be dead.

Straightening the blindfold in his hands, the nervous guard looked up, meeting Seb's eyelids. Making sure the blindfold was straight across the young boy's head, one eye opened...

bright red.

"Shit!" The guard yelled, Seb turning his head to the left quickly as the man's face appeared in front of his. Gunshot's sounded at the same time towards the two, hitting the soldier in the head before not hitting Seb at all. Too stunned by killing their comrade as he fell onto the van floor with two bullet holes in either eye. The guard in the front opened a hatch connecting the back and the front of the van as the driver's heart rate increased rapidly. The guard watched as Seb's hand reached from behind him, restrained as the gunshots the men kept on shooting shot up away from their intended direction, creating holes in the roof of the vehicle. "What is going on!" The guard yelled from the front of Hopper's van, the guard picking up the radio.

"He's woken up!" The man yelled, meeting eyes with Seb as he had pure venom in his eyes. Pulling out his pistol, he dropped the radio, the driver and the guard from Hopper's van glancing at one another before speeding ahead. There was no way they were getting out of this alive. And if they did, they'd be injured. Flicking his head to the right, Seb sent the pistol's bullet flying through the head of the driver, causing the van to swerve off of the long road. They were in the middle of nowhere, driving to a specific place. Falling off of the road, Seb's restraints continued to rattle until they snapped, everyone in the van grunting as the van rolled sideways off the road. Looking through the wing mirror, Hopper's guard watched the disaster.

They had stopped a great distance away from the van, the doors busting open as Seb fell out. Crawling his way out, he pushed his legs apart to untie the rope. The guard at the front of the van stumbled out of his side too, the driver dead in his own seat. "Where is my father?" Seb croaked out, meeting eyes with one of the two guards that had stood up to meet him. They were both limping, Seb breathless as his wrists were adorned with one heavy duty handcuff each, the guards getting out new guns. Of course they equipped new guns, with Seb they had to in case they intended stand a tiny chance with surviving. The boy's hands glowed bright, his nose producing new blood as his eyes shone more. Metal rung as the boy thrusted his hand towards the guards, shooting one of them back onto the van.

A sickening crack was heard, the guard still standing flinching as his comrade made no sound of pain to him. He was dead. Hiding behind the van, the guard at the front of the van jumped when his comrades body fell in front of him.

Mangled.

"Where is he!?" Seb yelled as loud as he could, tears streaming down his face. People were trying to take him away. Trying to separate him from the rest. "Tell me!" Seb spoke weakly, seeing Hopper's van stopped far ahead of them. Looking back to it, the guard facing Seb held his gun to Seb's face again, the two a distance away from one another. Trying to move to it, the guard that was hiding shot up, shooting the boy in his left leg as he stumbled. His hand immediately went out once more, long red tendrils attaching to both men and shooting them forward as Seb cried. The utter emotional strength of the boy caused both men to be shot towards the van Hopper was in, the guards making sure he wasn't awake.

The man was out cold.

Falling down to the ground, the van set on fire, Seb watching it breathlessly as the guards scraped across the road. "Go!" The guard yelled in Hopper's van, Seb sobbing more as he watched the van speed away quickly, getting smaller and smaller. "Please..." The boy murmured as the van went out of sight.

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"THE DEVIL HAS COME TO AMERICA. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, AT FIRST REGARGED AS A HARMLESS GAME OF MAKE-BELIEVE, NOW HAS BOTH PARENTS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS CONCERNED." EVERYONE LISTENED INTENTLY AS HE READ OFF THE MAGAZINE. "Studies have linked violent behaviour to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice, sodomy," Eddie Munson listed in a voice far deeper than his own. "suicide, and even-" He slapped the magazine down, revealing his face to his lunch table. "Murder!" The Hellfire club laughed at the magazine's exaggerated accusations. "Shit, he seems really revved up today." Dustin spoke as him and Mike watched from afar, tray lunches in hand.

"He's always revved up. We'll just... act casual." Mike spoke, the friends nodding to one another. "Casual." They chorused, walking to the table and taking their seats. "Society has to blame something. We're an easy target." Another member of the club next to Dustin sighed, Eddie nodding. "Exactly. We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game." Eddie sighed sarcastically, angered by the magazine. "But as long as you're into, band!" Dustin flinched lightly when Eddie stood on their table, walking down it as his voice raised to a yell. "or science, or..." He pointed to each table, sneering at one. "parties," He scoffed, the people on the table flipping him off. "or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!" Eddie made sure they heard him, Jason Carver standing up.

"You want something, freak?" He immediately stood up for himself, Eddie making his hands turn into devil horns as he spluttered his throat, chuckling. Grinning at Jason, the captain just walked away, uttering at how much of a prick Eddie was as the man turned back to his own table. "It's forced conforming." Eddie shrugged, walking back up the table to his seat. "That's what's-" He jumped down which frightened a girl with her lunch. "killing the kids!" He yelled in her face, the table laughing with him. Calming down slightly, Eddie gestured for two cheerleaders to walk ahead of him, the two doing so quickly as to not be a target of his outbursts. "That's the real monster." Eddie sat back in his own seat to many people's delight around his table. "So, uh, speaking of monsters," Dustin spoke up, stuttering when Eddie looked to him quickly.

"Uh, Lucas has to do his, uh, balls-in-laundry-baskets game." Dustin tried to ease the tension, Eddie picking at his meal. "So," Dustin looked to Mike, laughing nervously as he continued. "He's not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight." Dustin shrugged with a smile, the club looking to one another annoyed. "And I know there's no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him. So, me and Mike, we were talking," Dustin made it very clear that it was both him and Mike, not just him. "shooting the shit, and we were thinking that maybe we might..." Mike got fed up, huffing. "Postpone." He finished Dustin off, causing the table to have a uproar. "Postpone? You can't just drop this on us!" "Over my dead body!" Were both heard as Dustin flinched, Eddie eating a grape.

"Shut up!" He barked, everyone looking to him. "You're saying Sinclair's been taken in by the dark side?" He asked both boys, Mike shrugging. "Uh, something like that." He answered, Eddie chucking his grapes at the two. "Something like that?" He spat, both boys flinching. "Jesus Christ." Dustin let out, Eddie unfazed by Mike's sharp glare once his hand uncovered his hair. "And rather than find a sub for him, you want..." Eddie stopped slightly, as if the sentence made him physically sick, "you want to postpone 'The Cult of Vecna'?" Eddie spat, Mike sighing. "I don't want to postpone it. We don't want to postpone it." Mike signalled to both him and Dustin, Eddie getting up once more. "It's just that, you know, most of the subs will be at the championship game." Mike informed, Eddie turning to them quickly from his spot.

"Oh, it's the championship game?" He asked, Mike and Dustin staying silent. "...yeah." Mike let out cautiously, Eddie humming. "Can I level with you? Jeff graduates this year. Gareth's got, what? A year and a half?" The man estimated, pointing to each member of his campaign. "Me," Eddie rounded the table once more, stalking towards the two boys. "I am army-crawling my way towards a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final," Eddie suggested, doing a tiny dance as he walked around, "I'm gonna walk down that stage next month," The group laughed at his antics. "I'm gonna look Principal Higgins dead in the eye, I'm gonna flip him the bird," Eddie was very expressive with his speech, 'flipping the bird' to the wall. "I'm gonna snatch that diploma. I'm gonna run like hell outta here." Dustin laughed as Eddie did a silly run away.

"Didn't you say that last year?" Gareth asked, Eddie looking to them. "And the year before?" Jeff added on, Eddie nodding. "Yeah, yeah, and I was full of shit." Eddie told them as he walked closer to the table again, everyone smiling at him. "This year's different. This year is my year. I can feel it. '86 baby." Eddie smiled towards the table, meeting the exact same expression from his peers. "You know what that means?" Eddie asked Mike and Dustin, them both shaking their heads. "It means you boys are the future of Hellfire." Eddie wrapped his arms around each of their shoulders from behind, the two grinning. They admired Eddie greatly. He was what they aspired to be later on in life. "I knew it the moment I saw you." Eddie reminisced, shaking Dustin's shoulder.

"You sat on that table right over there, looking like..." Eddie tried to find the words, guiding the two to look at a table far from the Hellfire table. "looking like two little lost sheep." The man pretended to be sympathetic causing the two younger boys to laugh once more. "You were wearing a Weird Al T-shirt, which I thought was brave." Eddie nodded to Dustin, Mike smiling at the two. "Thank you." Dustin whispered as to not break the moment, Eddie whipping his head towards Mike. "Mike, you were wearing whatever shit your mommy bought you from the goddamn Gap." Eddie let out, causing everyone to laugh. Before Eddie forced the two boys up, everything went silent. "And we showed you, that school didn't have to be the worst years of your lives, right?" Eddie confirmed, keeping a tight grip of the two boys.

"No." Mike let out, terrified which made Eddie nod. "Okay, no, no." He confirmed as he guided the two away from the table. "Well, I'm here to tell you that there are other little lost sheepies out there who need help." Eddie informed slowly, Mike leaning in to hear the boy. The three watched as new students sat on the table they sat on once, Eddie humming. "Who need you." He told Dustin, turning them both around, "And all you guys gotta do is get your Bo-peeps on," His tone got harsher as he turned them back around and shoved them away from him,

"and go find one!"

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I like this chapter ngl

there's so much to write about so these chapters will be longer than my origional ones :)
which also means they'll take longer to write and publish, sorry!!
I also just realized I fed you false information about what is happening this season with Seb...

well, SURPRISE!!

Anyway,

[2832 words!]

Hope you enjoyed!!

Byeee!