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"NO, NO. LIKE I SAID, I... I'VE TRIED EVERYONE." JOHNATHAN SPOKE ON THE PHONE, EVERYONE BUT ARGYLE SURROUNDING HIM. "Yeah, TWA, Pan Am, Eastern." El watched intensely, desperate to reunite with her brother before he gets himself killed genuinely this time. "No, it doesn't have to be a one-way." Johnathan huffed. "I'll take one seat, if you have it. I mean, please, there has to be something you can do." El turned around, her thumbs fiddling together mindlessly. "One of our family members is really, really sick, and I don't know if she's gonna make it through the night." The elder Byers lied, El catching sight of something. Walking over to it, no one noticed. "Is there any way that you could just... No." Johnathan's voice faded as El stared up at a billboard, seeing a rusted over family pointing at a view. "I can't call back." Johnathan admitted, El staring at the little girl on her mother's back. A boy stood next to them, laughing gleefully.

"What did they say?" Mike asked, Johnathan shrugging. "Earliest they could do is tomorrow." He huffed, Will letting his head fall back in exhaustion. "No. That's way too late." Mike let out, Johnathan nodding in agreement- "Hey, dudes?" The three looked to Argyle, him nodding to the phone. "Ask 'em if we can ride in the baggage compartment." He stated, Johnathan stepping forward. "The baggage compartment?" He asked, Argyle shrugging with a grin. "We'd suffocate." Mike put it plainly, Argyle looking to him. "Dogs ride in there all the time, man. They don't suffocate." Argyle shot out, the three boys scoffing at him. "I found a way." Everyone turned to El. "A way to protect Max. From here." She spoke,

everyone glancing to each other.

☆

"THIS IS MAX." EL DREW A STICK FIGURE ON THE DUSTY, PIZZA VAN WINDOW, EVERYONE SURROUNDING HER. "When One attacks, he'll be in her mind. But I can do that too." She drew out her words, Argyle following only that. "I went into Mama's mind, into Billy's. I can go into Max's. She can carry me to Vecna. I can piggyback." El announced, drawing herself in Max's mind bubble. Turning around, El continued "I can protect her. From One. Fight him from here." She announced, Argyle humming. "Mind fight. Righteous." He yelled unintentionally, Mike ignoring him. "You really think this could work?" He asked, El looking to him. "A bathtub would help." She spoke, Argyle humming loudly. "Yeah. Gotta be clean to enter the mind." He agreed, Johnathan turning to him. "What? No. It's a sensory deprivation tank. It helps her calm down and focus on her powers." Mike defended, Will looking between him and El. "We just passed a motel." He announced himself, Mike nodding. "Yeah, but they won't have enough salt." The boy reasoned, Argyle's hand landing on his hips.

"Well, how much salt are we talking here, my dudes?" He asked, everyone looking to him. "Well, depends on the size of the tub, but a lot." Johnathan answered, Argyle looking to El. "Does 600 pounds suffice?" He asked, Mike looking to him. "You know a place that has 600 pounds of salt?" He asked, Argyle saying nothing. El tensed when he stood ahead of her, outstretching his arms to meet her width. "Let's see... yep." El flinched back a little once Argyle stretched it arm out to meet her height. "Yep. It'll work." He grinned, El fed up. "What will work?" She asked, Argyle smiling. "I know of a magical place that has all you need, my brave, little superpowered friend." He let out proudly, nodding to the boys around him. "That mind fight is on." The boy started to get into the van without another word. "Vámonos! Let's go! Pronto!" He urged,

everyone hurrying to follow.

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ERICA RUSHED OUTSIDE THE CREEL HOME, READY TO INITIATE PHASE ONE OF THE PLAN. A man walking his dog stopped to watch the girl quickly climb up the rusty play set, glancing between her and the Creel house. His dog whimpered, the man huffing before walking past fully. A gunshot hit a figure, Jason clicking his gun again as he practiced his aim outside Benny's. He continued to shoot other figures, hitting them all in the head. Dogs barked as he glanced over his work, the boy tiredly reloading his gun. "Hey!" A teammate ran out of the restaurant, facing Jason's back. "I think we got something." He announced, Jason sighing. "Send Ryan. I don't wanna waste any more time with bullshit leads." He spoke mindlessly, the boy behind him shrugging. "I don't think you'll wanna send Ryan on this one." He spoke, watching Jason turn to him. "You know the murder house on Morehead?" He asked, Jason nodding.

"Yeah? What about it?"

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"OKAY, AND, UH, WHO EXACTLY IS THIS MYSTERY WOMAN?" MURRAY ASKED, THE GROUP WAITING FOR WHEN YURI FIXED KATINKA. "Not sure." Dmitri answered, Hopper huffing. "I mean, she wasn't exactly Miss Talkative." He spoke, looking away as he and Joyce matched coats. Whilst they were... speaking, a woman rang them, them getting little to no information. "You know? I spent five minutes trying to convince her I was real. I'm supposed to be dead, remember?" Hopper asked, Murray listening silently as did everyone else. "Anyway, I finally get around to half-convincing her, she starts to open up a little, then she says that she's... a friend of the doc's. I told her I am too but she said he's indisposed." He shrugged, Murray confused. "Indisposed?" He asked, Hopper looking to him. "It gets worse. She said the doc's with the girl. And the girl went off to fight some evil in Hawkins. Then they all went off-grid. The doc, the girl, everybody." Hopper spoke lowly, Murray perking up. "'The girl,' meaning... El." He added, Hopper nodding.

"Yeah, it has to be." He spoke, not wanting to believe his own words. El was in Hawkins, fighting whatever evil faced her... alone. She didn't have the help of her brother or father. She was alone. And in danger. "This is your daughter, American?" Dmitri asked, leaning forward as Hopper hummed. "Mh-mm." He spoke simply, staring ahead. "And they're not alone. Joyce's kids are with 'em." He announced, Murray looking to the woman. She only sighed, looking to the floor as Murray hummed. "Okay, I... I see the mood here is bleak. And understandably so. But I do think we need to consider the very real possibility that this mystery woman is, in fact, KGB." Murray let out gradually, looking to Hopper. "And she's-" "No." Joyce interrupted, the man looking to her. "She's telling the truth. When we were in the lab, those particles we saw, they were alive. And if they're alive, that means a gate's open in Hawkins." She announced, the men looking to her, this all being a new language to Dmitri. "'Gate'? What does this mean?" He asked towards Hopper, him huffing. "It means we have to go home right now." He spat, walking towards the window.

"What is taking so long? I thought you said he was close." Hopper complained, Murray nodding as both him and Dmitri followed Hopper. "Yeah, close to sabotaging us, you mean." He corrected, the three watching Yuri fix Katinka from outside. "We think he's playing us again." Dmitri announced, Hopper looking back at them. "So put a goddamn gun to his head." He spoke, Dmitri shrugging. "And then what? He just spits out more lies." He shot back, Murray humming. "It's moot anyway." He let out, Hopper taking deep breaths to calm himself. "If your kids are truly in some kind of imminent danger, even if we were to leave at this very moment, we wouldn't make it in time." Murray continued to announce. Joyce watched Hopper light a match. "The earliest we'd get there is late tomorrow." Murray informed, Joyce staring at him. "No, we... we don't have to make it back. Not tonight." She let out, seeing everyone's eyes on her. "Whatever this evil is, we know it's connected to the hive mind. And now we know that part of that hive mind is in Russia."

Joyce continued, Hopper watching her. "So we don't need to get back to Hawkins to fight it." She spoke, Hopper humming. "All we need is to destroy those particles." He added, Joyce nodding. "And if we're lucky, it'll hurt it enough to give the kids the upper hand." She summed up, Murray looking between them both. "Wait, time out. We're talking about the particles inside the prison?" He asked, Hopper not saying no. "The prison that we just narrowly escaped from-" "We broke out. We can break back in." Hopper stated, moving past Murray as the man urgently followed. "Jim! The entire Soviet army is looking for us." He reminded, Hopper nodding. "Sure. And we'll be exactly where they least expect." He opened a crate, grabbing guns for everyone. "All right. There is a fine line between courage and stupidity," The man failed to catch all of the bullets, Hopper not listening. "and this falls very far on the side of stupid. This is Dirty Dozen stuff. Except there are, uh, four of us." Murray spoke, Hopper observing a gun.

"Three, actually." He corrected, turning to Dmitri and Joyce. "Breaking back in's gonna be easier than breaking back out. Which is why we need an airlift. Which is where you come in." Hopper walked towards Dmitri, the man staring at him. "I don't care what it takes. You get Yuri in line and you get that bird in the air." He ordered, Dmitri nodding. "On it." He spoke, walking out of the building. "Yuri mentioned something about a flamethrower, right?" She asked, Hopper moving back to another crate, opening it to find the weapon. "Oh, yeah." He spoke,

"This'll do just fine."

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"SURF'S UP, MY DUDE." ARGYLE GRINNED AS HE WALKED AHEAD OF THE GROUP INTO THE PIZZA RESTAURANT, THE BOY AT THE COUNTER TURNING TO THEM. "Uh, whoa. Nice shirt, my dude." The boy chuckled, Mike realising he was a carbon copy of Argyle. "Thanks, my dude." Argyle smiled, El watching over his shoulder curiously. "Uh, listen, I would love to feed a fellow Surfer boy," The boy gestured his hand, El's head tilting. "but kitchen closed, like, five minutes ago, so no more pies tonight, man." He finished, Will exhausted. "That's all right, my dude." Argyle chuckled, "We're not here for your tasty pies. You see this weird girl behind me?" He asked, El perking up. He looked to her, El smiling a little. "She needs a tub with a bunch of salt to we can enhance her psychic power so she can save the world from this super bad dude." He summed up, the boy taken aback. As anyone would be. "But to make this salty tub, we require your kitchen." He shrugged, watching the boy behind the counter nod.

"Well, it's just, uh... I'm supposed to meet Chaz at Taco Bell in, like, ten. So..." He spoke, Argyle getting tired himself from this conversation. This boy was high out of his mind, shrugging as he struggled to keep his left eye open. "My dude." Johnathan began, El looking to him. "We're not asking you to help for free. You ever partake in..." Argyle felt his friend dig through his front pocket, pulling out a blunt. "Purple Palm tree delight?" He held it up, Will sighing as he looked at the boy over the counter. "It'll make all your troubles float away." Johnathan was really selling this weed, the boy entranced by it. "Like the seed pods of a dandelion in the wind." He smiled, holding it out to him. The boy took it, El pleasantly surprised as Will scoffed. "Oh, my God." He whispered, watching Johnathan escort the boy out of the restaurant.

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"NOT BAD." EDDIE OBSERVED HIS AND DUSTIN'S WORK AT BOARDING UP THE UPSIDE DOWN VERSION OF HIS TRAILER, THUNDER BOOMING. "Not bad at all." Dustin added, the two smiling to one another. "Now for the fun part." Eddie spoke, the two rushing inside. Eddie stopped himself, seeing his guitar. "It's like... she was destined for an alternate dimension. What do you say, Henderson?" Eddie spoke, looking at the boy through the grimy mirror. "Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?" He picked up his guitar, a smile on his face. "That a rhetorical question?" He asked, watching Eddie put the guitar on him.

"Let's do it."

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[2100 words!]

Hope you enjoyed!!!

Byeee!