Dark Phoenix: Into The Stranger Verse (Stranger Things)

CHAPTER 21

Chapter 21: Cramming And Planning

"MONSTERS exist?" Robin incredulously attempted to confirm the news they just dropped on them. She knew that she, Jean and Erica were clearly in the dark when it came to the information, as per their matching faces that held a mixture of disbelief and fright.

"Yup." Lucas gave a nod, popping the 'P' at the end.

Jean gulped harshly, recalling what she'd seen down in the Russian facility, what she'd sensed upon seeing that rift. All she could think of was how right she was when she deduced there was something sinister on that other side of the wall. But still, it was a lot to process. It was a nightmare that went beyond their reality. Even if their reality had people with superpowers, it was still too much.

"So you're saying that the real creature is in an alternate universe?" The redhead queried, her eyes calculative.

"Yup."

"And the one running around this town is just a proxy?" She continued, piecing everything together. So the monster was exerting its influence from all the way beyond that doorway. Jean wondered if it had telepathic abilities just like hers, but she was sure it was amplified and much stronger than hers if it can exert its control people from such vast distances.

This time, it was Mike who confirmed her questioning statement. "Yes. The Mind Flayer, it built this thing in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." He declared, and he watched as both Jean and Hopp's faces grew grim.

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

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked, wondering how much horrors his daughter suffered through while he was gone.

Gulping, Jonathan Byers remembered the gigantic creature. "It's big. Thirty feet, at least." He declared.

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry." Lucas hesitantly said to Hopper, grimacing as he did.

'So, no home to go back to. Cool.' Jean sarcastically thought to herself, crossing her arms in front of her as she stood between Maxine and Steve.

Steve -whose brain took a longer amount of time to comprehend what was going on- raised his arm in question. "Okay, so, just to be clear, this this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic weapon?" He asked, and Hopper was rolling his eyes at the repetition.

"Yes." With a hand scratching her forehead, Nancy nodded.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people." He said in disbelief.

Jean cringed as her imagination took her to an unpleasant imagery. But she was yet to know that her mental picture of the creature was nothing near as horrifying as it was in real life.

"Yes, exactly."

Steve gave an incredulous nod, glancing to an equally disgusted Jean. "Yeah, okay. I, Yeah, I'm just making sure."

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

Max nodded in confirmation to Joyce's question, sighing loudly. "El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." She replied, and watched as hope gleamed in Will's eyes.

"But if we close the Gate again-" He began, and the younger redhead was quick to continue his sentence. "-We cut the brain off from the body."

Jean found a small difficulty trying to catch up with their plan, but after recalling their prior explanation of last year's events -it being Will's possession and their way to end the Mind Flayer's invasion- she was beginning to make sense of things.