His Red, Her Blue || Max Mayfield

The Battle of Starcourt

Screams echoed through the empty space of Starcourt Mall as tears streamed down Eleven's face, while Cal was biting his lip, trying to hold in his screams. Everyone stared down at the duo as something inside El's leg and Cal's arm was moving.

"What is that?" Erica exclaimed, the strange thing inside of them squirming around.

"There's something in there." Dustin started cursing to himself.

"Keep them talking, keep them awake!" Jonathan said, quickly getting to his feet and running to the other side of the main area. He jumped over the counter of the Chinese restaurant, rummaging through the cabinets until he found a wooden spoon and a heated knife.

Mike helped El move to a more comfortable place as Max did the same with Cal, everyone watched in pure shock before Robin started to speak.

"It's, uh... you know, it's not actually that bad. There was a- the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire," she started to ramble, "this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee like six inches or something it was insane."

"Robin," Cal groaned out, turning his head towards the girl

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry,"

As if on cue, Jonathan returned about to help Cal when he stopped him, "Help her first." Cal said, doing his best to put up with the pain.

Jonathan nodded before kneeling Eleven's leg. "All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" he said, handing Mike the wooden spoon. "I'm gonna need you to stay real still, and you're gonna want to bite down on this okay?"

Cal looked over at Mike who was holding on to the other side of Eleven as the pain got worse around his wound. He slowly grabbed El's hand to try and somewhat calm her down.

Jonathan then took the knife, placing it just above the cut, hesitantly looking up at the others who were silent, frozen in shock and fear.

"Do it." Mike said with a gulp, Eleven gripping on to Mike and Cal's hand tightly.

Jonathan seemed to hold his breath as the hot knife punctured El's skin. The girl screamed as the knife slowly cut an exit for whatever was inside of her leg.

Cal turned away from the sight, feeling his throat tighten, along with his stomach turning as Jonathan put the knife down, hovering his fingers over the open cut. Suddenly, he let his fingers inside of the wound, groans and yells coming from everyone surrounding them. Jonathan's fingers roamed around, trying to find the source of excruciating pain, causing Eleven to scream out in pain even more.

"Jonathan!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Stop talking!" he replied, continuing to search around, but more quickly and aggressively which received a louder yell from Eleven.

"God damnit!"

Cal couldn't take the screams anymore, "No! Stop! Stop it!" He yelled, Jonathan quickly removing his fingers from the cut. "I can do it," He groaned, sitting up and staring at El's leg.

Cal looked at El, wanting her approval. El nods her head, "Alright, this is going to hurt." He said. Cal then held out his hand, taking a deep breath as he began to use his powers to take out whatever was inside of her leg. Her screams continued to echo through the empty mall, the creature inside the cut coming closer and closer to the surface.

With one final groan, Cal ripped the creature out of El's wound, holding it in the air. He looked at it before using his powers again, this time having the creature blow up.