American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

Reunion

Will runs to his mom and engulfs her in a hug which Jonathan joins a second later. "We thought you were in Illinois," he says once they pull apart. "El saw you and Hopper going there."

"Oh, yes – yes. We were. There was something we had to find out. " Joyce squeezes his shoulders before her eyes narrow. "Sweetie, what happened to your neck?"

"Oh." His hand moves to cover his bruises. "Nothing. I'm fine. I'll explain later."

"Who did that to you?"

"No one, Mom. I said I'm fine. We can talk about it later."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Mom."

Behind them, Hopper helps El to her feet, and Mike takes her arm to steady her. Hopper looks around at the dead Russian guards and then at all the kids. "What happened here?"

Lucas huffs. "It's a long story."

"We'd like to hear it."

As Hopper and Mike help El to the fountain in the center of the food court, Will and Jonathan follow behind everyone else, sticking to their mom's side. "Who is that guy?" Jonathan gestures to the bearded man who arrived with Joyce and Hopper.

"That's Murray. He helped us figure out how to close the gate."

Will raises his eyebrows. "The gate? You know about the gate?"

"Yes, and how to get to it." Everyone gathers in a circle beside the fountain, Will staying as far away from Mike as possible.

"What do you mean you know how to close the gate?" Jonathan asks.

"The gate is underneath the mall," Joyce explains, "and if we can get there, we can close it."

"I'm getting the maps," Murray says, turning around and marching out of the food court.

"So," Nancy says, "does that mean Eleven doesn't have to close it herself? We can do it without her?"

"Yes," Hopper says, "but not 'we.' You kids need to get as far away from this as possible right now."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Max asks. "The Mind Flayer could be anywhere."

Joyce's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm sorry, the Mind Flayer?" She grabs Will's hands. "It came back?"

Will looks to the others before meeting his mom's eyes. "Yes, but it's different than last time. It created a monster."

"And that monster's still out there," Mike jumps in. "That's why we came here. To escape it and close the gate."

"Do you know why it came here?" Hopper asks.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike explains, "it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."

"And it almost did," Nancy says. "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asks.

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

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas makes a face. "Sorry."

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asks.

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

"But if we close the gate again-" Will says.

"We cut the brain off from the body."

"And kill it," Lucas says. "Theoretically."