𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

027. So Mordor It Is.

    

     "BADA BING bada boom, there she is, Henderson." Val had caught up to Steve and Dustin quickly as they go through the bushes. "Skull Rock." The Harrington glanced back to the pair behind him. "In your face, man. In your stupid little cocky face." Steve says as he stood before the rock, hands on his hips and Val stood, looking at Dustin.

"Doesn't make sense." The boy spoke. "Yeah, yeah." Steve moves his hand like he's holding a puppet making Val furrow her brows, a bit confused. "Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. You just can't admit that you're wrong, you little butthead." Steve told Dustin as Eddie jumps down behind Val and the Henderson boy. "I concur."

The trio spun around. "You, Dustin Henderson, are a... total butthead." He says as Val let out a soft sigh of relief. "Jesus, we thought you were a goner." Dustin embraced Eddie who just gently pats his back. "Yeah, me too, man. Me too." Dustin pulls back and looked at Steve, smiling as Val rushed over next, throwing her arms around Eddie with a big smile on her face. Eddie hugs back, his arms tight around her waist as his eyes met Steve's, the other man just nodding with his hands on his hips and making an awkward face.

"I was so worried for you." Val pulls back slightly, hands on the tall boy's shoulders now. "Well, I'm fine. Don't worry your pretty little head for me, Val." He smiles faintly and she just sighs as Nancy and Robin reached them, Lucas and Max not fair behind the pair. "You okay?" Robin asked Eddie who just nods. "Yeah, man, yeah." He says then looked at the bag in Nancy's hand who the girl now extends out. "Here. For you." She said rather quickly.

"Thanks..."

The girls and the boys all stood together, except for Dustin who's pacing back and forth for some unknown reason, in front of Eddie who's crouched down and had just finished munching on snacks and drinking some water from the brown bag, as he explains everything from the night before to them. "When I got to shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh... my walkie was busted, man. Drenched." He explains, glancing away. "So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently." He looks up, smiling at them as Val furrows her brows, frowning.

"I ran." He chuckles and Val just glanced down. "Do you know what time this was? The attack?" Nancy now asked. "Yeah, no, I... I know exactly what time it was." Eddie starts unlatching his watch. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." He said, holding up the wristwatch before tossing it to Nancy who caught it quickly, holding it up to her face.

"9:27."

"Same time our flashlights went kablooey." Robin says who Val now glanced at. "Which means what, exactly?" Steve says, glancing at Robin then Valerie. "That surge of energy? It was Vecna attacking Patrick." She says, putting her hands on her hips which she then dropped quickly, realizing she was like Steve, they spent too much time together.

"Well, we're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks." Robin says, looking at her girlfriend who softly nods. "And where he attacks from." Lucas said, his hands also on his hips. "So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart." Max tells them.

"If he even has a heart." Robin says and Val shrugs, glancing at her. "A stake? Is he like a vamp-- is he a vampire?" Steve asked Max quickly, looking straight her. "It was a metaphor." The redhead explains. "A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie says and Lucas glanced over at him. "I say we chop his head off." He says and Val nods. "Or we set him on fire." She said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I'd say all of the above, but we can't do any of that until we find a way into the Upside Down." Nancy tells them. "We need El to get her powers back." Max says, glancing down. "Everything was way easier. We had this girl. She had superpowers." Steve looks at Eddie who glanced at him. "Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her." He interrupts before glancing away as Val sent him a look so he just furrowed his brows at the girl.

Steve glanced between them now as Val just sent him a small smile before looking at Eddie with seriousness. "Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?" He asked and they all finally look at the boy pacing back and forth, muttering quietly to himself as he did so.

"Cursed? No, no." Steve quickly answered, looking over at Dustin. "He's fine. Mental?" He says then looked at Eddie. "Absolutely." He says and Val chuckles then flinched because Dustin shouted, "boom!" It echoes through the woods as they all looked at him.

"Bada... bada... boom." He pointed at Steve who just looks confused. "I was right. Skull Rock was north." Dustin pointed to the structure around them. "Seriously? You're serious?" Steve asked and the younger boy just nodded, humming. "This is Skull Rock. Okay?" Steve exclaims, gesturing to the rocks behind him and Eddie. "You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now." Steve says as he points to the ground.

"Yes. And no." Dustin simply says and Steve looks away, covering his face. "Oh my God." He whispers. "This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheeler's." Dustin says as Steve looks over, nodding softly. "It was correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. And now it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was." He raises the compass to the group, showing them.

"So you're using fault equipment, dude. You're still wrong." Steve gestured to him. "Except it isn't faulty. Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?" He asked the boy who looked over. "An electromagnetic field." He pointed to Dustin who turns to the others. "Yep." He says, smiling at them.

"I'm sorry. I must've skipped that class." Robin says and Val looks at her girlfriend. "In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power." She said and Robin furrows her brows at her girl. "When you talk nerdy, it's hot but I still don't understand." She said as Val just smiled softly, rolling her eyes at that.

"Okay, what she's trying to say is there's either a super big magnet around here," Dustin gestured around them, "or..." he pointed at them. "There's a gate." Lucas says so Dustin looks at him excitedly, pointing at his friend. "But we're nowhere near the lab." Nancy says as she looks at Dustin to her right.

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful." Dustin tells them as Robin glanced over at him.

"Snack-size gate." She says and Val glanced at her, smiling. "How? Why?" Steve asked quickly. "No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse." Dustin says then turned away, about to leave. "Where you going? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." Steve stopped the younger boy quickly.

"Eddie's still a wanted man." He gestured to the older as Val nods. "Steve's right, we can't just go for a hike in the woods with cops after him." She said and Dustin raised the compass. "This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie. What say you, Eddie the Banished?" He asked as they all quickly turn back to look at Eddie.

"I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea." Eddie said as Val and Steve both nod in agreement. "But, uh, the Shire..." He then says, glancing up, "the Shire is burning." He said as Dustin started hopping up and down so they all look at him. "So... in nerd terms, that's a yes?" Val says as Eddie slowly stood up, sighing softly.

"So Mordor, it is."

Eddie brushed past between Nancy and Val, the others quickly turning to leave. "What is Mordor?" Steve asked, looking at Val who glanced back at him, chuckling as she reached out to take her girlfriend's hand. Eddie went rushing back, "get your stuff, dude. Let's go." Steve tells him as Val watched them with a weird grin on her face so Steve sent her a look. She giggled quietly, quickly looking back to the front as they follow after Dustin.

authors note the lab scenes were kinda cool imo but i really did not care for that storyline one bit even though it was important to learn about el's past in a way lmao