Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Sixty-One: Big-Time

We all gathered in the food court to fill everybody in on what had been going on. Apparently, Dad, Joyce, and Murray Bauman had met the man who built the laser gun, a man by the name of Alexi who had been killed my Germans at the Carnival, while the kids had been running from this new monster that they and Jonathan and Nancy had discovered separately, the kids by their investigation of Billy, and Nancy and Jonathan through their investigation of an old woman who was possessed like Will had been last year. And you know...Steve, Robin, Erica, Dustin, and I trapped in a secret Russian base, being tortured and interrogated.

I stood beside Steve, him rubbing a hand between my shoulder blades as El laid on a bench, her head on Dad's shoulder and her newly-bandaged leg in Joyce's lap.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike explained, "It build this monster here in Hawkins,  to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." 

"And it almost did," Max added, "That was jut one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Dad questioned.

"Its big," Jonathan reported, "Thirty-feet at least."

"Yeah...it sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas told him. "Sorry." 

"Ok, so just to be clear," Steve stated, "This...this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, its some kind of gigantic...weapon?"

"Yes." Nancy confirmed.

"But instead of screws, and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon...with melted people."

"Yes, exactly."

"Yeah, ok. I-yeah, I was just making sure."

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

"El beat the crap out of it but yeah, its still alive." Max answered. 

"But if we close the gate again..." Will prompted.

"We cut the brain off from the body." 

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

"Yoo-hoo!" We all turned around as Murray walked towards us, waving papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo!" 

~~~

We all gathered around a table in the food court, where Murray laid out a hand drawn map.

"Ok, this is what Alexei called 'The hub'. Now 'The Hub' takes us to the vault room." He explained.

"Ok, where's the gate?"

"The gate is here." I pointed to the giant contraption in the middle. 

"I don't know the scale on this, but I think its fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty-feet or so."

"More like five-hundred," Erica corrected, "What, you're just gonna waltz in there like its Commie Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

"Murray...Bauman."

"Listen, Mr. Bunman,  I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that hole for fort-eight hours, and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." Dad furrowed his eyebrows, looking at me. I nodded.

"She's right." I said.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray questioned. 

"Um, I'm ten you bald bas-"