Chapter Text
Mike is laying on his back, glaring at the ceiling.
“They better figure something out,” Mike announced to the room. “Find something we’re capable of doing. I need to get outside, I’m sick of sitting in this damn basement.”
“Oh no, how terrible,” Eleven said, deadpan from across the room. Mike turned to look at her. “Being stuck in Mike Wheeler’s basement, unable to leave or do anything? Can anyone imagine? Can you believe how awful that would be?”
“Okay, okay I get it,” Mike grumbled. “This is some sort of karmic retribution.”
“Well can it be just for you since you’re the one who decided to stow away a superhero girl when you were twelve?” Nancy asked. “I want to go out and punch something.”
“It’s your basement too,” Mike shot back and Nancy threw her hands up.
“I didn’t even know she existed, how am I getting roped into this?” Nancy asked.
“Wait, Eleven stayed in your basement?” Erica asked and Eleven nodded.
“When they found me,” She clarified. “I wasn’t allowed out though.”
Erica gives Mike a weird, grossed out look.
“Creepazoid,” She said and Mike sat up.
“It wasn’t like that!” He defended.
“Keeping little girls locked in your basement, not a good look Wheeler,” Argyle commented and Mike’s face flushed out of embarrassment.
“I was twelve!” Mike cried. He turned to Will for help but Will just shrugged at him.
“I mean-” He began but Mike cut him off by groaning loudly and flopping backwards onto the ground.
The room laughed at him and Steve methodically cracked his knuckles as he looked towards the stairs.
“Do you think they’re making any progress?” He asked to the room and Nancy shrugged.
“I mean it’s been what? Like two hours?” Nancy asked. “I’m smart, Steve, but these kids are little geniuses. I don’t entirely understand what it even is that they’re doing, but I’m gonna assume it’ll be a lot longer than a few hours.”
“Technically we’re lucky if Dustin figures this out in a week,” Mike commented. “He’s trying to get a read on his DNA, which is still new science to us and he’s working with middle school lab supplies, so it’s probably gonna take forever.”
“Great, so what happens if Munson doesn’t have that long?” Steve asked. “I mean, he’s already lost his shit once and if he is a honing beacon, then what?”
“Well, we’re not just throwing him out to fend for himself,” Mike said defensively, glaring at Steve.
“I didn’t say that,” Steve argued back. “Look, I’m worried about him, okay? About all of our safety but if Vecna or whatever is finding shit out about us through him, is that safe?”
“He can help us,” Lucas chimed in now. “Like when Will was dealing with the Mind Flayer, he can spy for us.”
“Yeah? And how exactly did that go?” Steve asked and received a few glares in response, causing him to sigh heavily. “Look, I’m not trying to cause any problems, just- Let me know the plan? You all make fun of me for not knowing shit so fill me in! Let me know shit!”
Mike and Lucas share a long look and sigh.
“The plan is a lot of workshop right now,” Lucas explained. “Right now, we need Dustin to find out molecularly what has changed. Once he does, we as a group can run a few equations, see what can interact and change him, what affects him positively, see how we can change a sample test back.”
“Yeah and after we figure that out, it’s just a matter of putting it into effect.” Mike said, nodding a little. “But this shit is a lot of testing, we don’t even know how or why he’s changed, if the change is surface level or truly molecular, how fast it’s accelerating, and what can interact with it to reverse the effects that’ve been caused.”
Steve nodded slowly as they spoke, sucking on his teeth for a moment and Robin chuckled.
“How much of that did you actually process?” Robin asked. “Or is that pretty head of yours only good for showing off that sweet ‘do?”
Steve flipped Robin off with a snarky grin before turning back to Mike and Lucas, sighing heavily.
“So what I’m gathering is basically it’s gonna take a shit load of time?” Steve asked and they nodded in unison. “Great, just- Say that next time.”
“Well that was the plan.” Mike grumbled and Lucas chuckled.
--
“Okay, so do you two have some secret plan I’ve been unaware of this entire time?” Murray asked, sighing heavily once they were secure in his bunker. He has his hands on his hips and looks at Joyce and Hopper expectantly.
Joyce and Hopper share a look before turning to Murray.
“There’s no plan,” Hopper informed, grumbling almost as he crossed his own arms.
“So then what’s with all the we’ll share with you’s to the kids?” Murray asked. “Is this a cry for help? It’s a cry for help, isn’t it?”
“I have theories,” Joyce said and Murray scoffed.
“Theories! Theories, just great. Hey, Jim, do you hear that? We’re saved, Joyce has theories!” Murray’s tone was dripping in sardonicism and Joyce rolled her eyes.
“Well it’s more than you have,” She rebuttaled. “And I’ve been directly involved in this for longer than you, so you should listen to me.”
“Well, I’m listening.” Murray said, gesturing for her to go on. “What’re your theories?”
“So,” Joyce turned and rushed over to their maps laid out on the table, picking up a marker and beginning to scribble. She marked out four X’s and then drew lines, almost connecting each one. She pointed at the map to gain the two men’s attention.
“Vecna opened the four gates, right? We know that, when the fourth one was open, it split the town down the middle like this,” She draws another line connecting from Patrick’s death and Chrissy’s. “There’s branches from the other kid and Max, but the main chasm was here. There’s a circle going around connecting all four, trapping everyone within the main area of town. Now this becomes a main problem for us because the moment those gates close, we’re stuck.
“We won’t be able to get into the main fight, won’t be able to get into the Creel House or almost anywhere inbetween. I think, even though it may be dangerous, that we’ll need to move into the center of that circle.”
“Wait, you want us to go into the hell circle?” Murray asked, looking down at the map curiously. “Look, we’re safe at the Wheeler den, far enough away from all of this that nothing can even touch us.”
“We’re too far away from the fight,” Joyce pointed out. “And this? I think he’s locking us out for a reason, trying to make sure we stay away from where he’s weak, keeping us away enough so that we can’t hit him where it hurts.”
Hopper sighed heavily, running a hand down his face.
“We don’t know the real limits of what he’s blocking off,” Hopper pointed out. “The circle might be bigger than this.”
“And it might be smaller,” Joyce pointed out and then connected each X together as loosely as possible. Murray snorted next to her and she turned, raising an eyebrow.
“You drew a penis,” He remarked and Joyce looked back at the map, then deadpan at Murray. “What, excuse me to have some humor in light of the apocalypse, okay?”
Joyce ignored his comment and then drew their attention back to the map by tapping it with her pen.
“I think Steve’s house might be a better bet. It’s closer to the action, within the predicted circle but far away enough to still be considered safe.” Joyce informed. “And it’s bigger, enough space for everyone to move around and the Harrington’s have good security.”
“Okay, okay I had been considering relocating to Steve’s house but it’s out of the question now.” Hopper said and Joyce scoffed at him.
“Why? What happened that took his house off the list?” She asked.
“The gates.” Hopper said, eyebrow raised. “Look, you heard the kids, that gate at the middle school was one El opened years ago.”
“What does this have to do with Steve’s?” Joyce asked.
“Steve’s pool is where Barb went missing,” Hopper pointed out. “And if it’s where she went missing, there’s a gate.”
“That’s not entirely true.” Joyce said, though her expression faltered for a moment. “Will said he was taken in the shed, but there was never a gate there.”
“Not a permanent one, but there was one at some point for both of them to get through.” Hopper said. “And I don’t think Vecna really cares how strong or weak a gate was, I think he’s just opening them all.”
“Okay fine, going under the assumption then that there was a gate opened in Steve’s pool,” Joyce shook her head. “We’d still be safe.”
“Joyce-” “No, listen. Unless he has some other pool I’ve been unaware of, Steve’s pool is outside. If we reinforce every window and door, every entrance like we did at the Wheeler’s, it wouldn’t matter.” Joyce said. “It’s still safe and it’s closer to where we need to be.”
“It’s risky.” Hopper said and Joyce shook her head.
“Everything is risky at this point, Hop.” Joyce said. “I want our kids safe, but I also want them to be happy. They’ve been trapped in that basement for months, Hop. They’re teenagers, kids, they at least deserve more space, privacy. Erica deserves to go to bed without Lucas shoving her feet in her face, Eleven deserves to have space to express herself, Nancy and Jonathan deserve space where they can be all in love and happy without four teenage boys calling them gross every five seconds.
“I know you want to keep everyone safe, and I do too. But they need this, okay? And I understand the risk, I’m not ignoring the risk, but please? For the sake of the kids just consider it before you completely give up. And again! We aren’t even 100% sure that there will be a gate in his pool.”
Hopper ran a hand down his face, silent and thinking and Joyce gave him the time to mull over the thoughts.
Murray sat down on the couch, watching them as he opened a bottle of miscellaneous alcohol he grabbed from god knows where.
“We need to drive around town,” Hopper said. “Mark down where every single gate is. Keep track of what is and isn’t active, where we should worry about. Depending on whatever data we collect from that, I will maybe consider packing up and moving over to Steve’s.”
Joyce gave him a small, victorious smile, nodding.
“That will be a group,” Joyce said, writing something down to her side on a notepad. “We can send them out tomorrow. It’ll probably take all day.”
“I know neither of you actually care for my input,” Murray began, now eating chips from a bag. Joyce gave him a weird look for the random acquisition of the snack. “But we should also send a group to do the same for the Upside Down.”
“What? That’s too dangerous.” Joyce said and Murray gave a look to Hopper.
“No, I hate to admit it, but I think he’s onto something,” Hopper said and Joyce turned. “When Steve and Dustin went to find Eddie, Steve said the Upside Down was practically empty. There’s still things creeping around, but most of them are up here.”
“Makes sense,” Murray said. “All their food is up here. Besides, a group for the Upside Down can help us. If they deem that using the Upside Down is actually easier to travel than here, that can help us get a one up on Vecna, like the tunnels.”
Joyce nodded and wrote something else down on her notepad.
The three of them then spend the next few hours talking about any possible theory they could pull from their ass. Anything they think might be happening, anything they can think of to help.
When they finally return, all the kids are waiting expectantly downstairs, wondering if any of them were going to get the chance to leave anytime soon.
The moment they descend down the stairs, almost a dozen pairs of eyes lock onto them and Hopper sighed heavily.
“We’re going to break you guys up into four groups,” He informed and the room exploded into hushed cheers and excited rambling. “Don’t get too excited, one of the groups is staying here.”
“How is that a group then?” Mike demanded. “That’s just- That’s just doing what we do everyday!”
“This group will stay to protect the house, make sure no demo-whatevers try to get in because we won’t be able to keep the doors locked with this many people out. If there’s an emergency and you need to rush inside, having all the doors quadruple locked is a hazard. So the group staying will be doing a bit more than normal.” Hopper explained and that settles them all.
“So what’s going on then?” Jonathan asked his mom. “Did you guys figure anything out?”
“No,” She admitted. “But hopefully each group will figure things out on their own, we’re going to need one group to drive around with Hop and mark out where every gate is. It’ll keep us alerted about what areas are the most dangerous and where to expect danger. Another group will do the same, but in the Upside Down.”
The kids turn to each other with bright eyes, clearly excited to get out of the damn basement and back into action.
“What’s the last group then?” Argyle asked, raising his hand up high like he was in a classroom, but speaking anyway.
Joyce smiled. “The fourth group will be coming with me. I’m going to swing by Melvald’s, grab some of the radios they have there and try and get into contact with Dr. Owens.”
Will and Eleven perk up slightly at the mention of Owens.
“Are you sure he’s even still out there?” Eleven asked, nervous. “After... NINA, I was sure they had... killed him.”
“We don’t know that for sure.” Joyce said, kneeling before Eleven, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “And if he is still alive, he’s one of our best bets for getting outside help.”
“If he is out there, wouldn’t he have seen the news?” Will brought up, shrugging a little. “Would’ve come to help already.”
“He might not know we need help.” Joyce said. “We’ve handled crazy things before without him, maybe he doesn’t know.”
“Or maybe he’s dead.” Will stated and Joyce sighed, reaching a hand out to Will now.
“Hey,” She said gently. “We gotta have hope, okay?”
Will said nothing but shrugged and she sighed, pulling away from the two kids and standing again to address the room.
“So, who will go with me to hit up Melvald’s?” Joyce asked, hopeful and Jonathan stood up.
“I’ll go,” He offered immediately and Joyce smiled. Jonathan gives her a gentle teasing smile back. “You can barely work a camera, mom, someone’s gotta help you work the radios.”
Joyce’s smile only grew wider and Robin stood up too.
“I’ll go with you guys too!” Robin said. “Just in case we come across any interference or anything. I was in the AV club when I was in high school and we figured that sort of stuff out. I may not look it but I’m a little bit of a genius myself, you know. Tech whiz, you might need it.”
“I’ll go too!” Lucas said, jumping to his feet. “Same reason.”
“Wonderful!” Joyce said, relaxing a little. “The more people we can have working on the radios the better. More signals to try and find to contact.”
“You guys will need someone to watch out.” Nancy chimed in now. “To have your backs while you’re all working through that.”
“Thanks Nance.” Jonathan said with a smile to his girlfriend and Nancy smiled back.
“Okay, I think that’s enough people going with Joyce.” Hopper interrupted. “We need some people for the other groups.”
“The Upside Down was one of them, right?” Eddie asked, standing a little tense as he spoke and Hopper nodded. “I mean, I think it would make most sense for me to go there then, right? Since I can go pretty much undetected.”
Hopper stared hesitantly at him, then Joyce. He was worried about that exactly, in fact. Sure, Eddie going to the Upside Down made sense, unless he was somehow some sort of tracking device. Whoever went with him could be dooming themselves, stuck in Vecna’s territory with him knowing their every move.
Joyce was hesitant too, but she also knew that Eddie would be able to move around the Upside Down with ease, and he’s been there since they lost him, so he clearly in general knew his way around. That and in the grand scheme of things, if he was a honing device, it’d be best to have him not with any of the other groups.
“Look,” Steve said after a long beat of silence. “If Eddie goes to the Upside Down, I’ll go with him. I was able to sort of figure out how to calm him down before, I can do it again.”
Steve rested a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, nodding at him and Eddie nodded back, relaxing a little and Hopper watched the interaction with careful eyes, noting the way the dark black veins crawling up Eddie’s neck lightened the slightest, the way the bat like ears hidden amongst his voluminous hair shrunk a little. Noted how just existing near Steve seemed to appease Eddie, even if so slightly.
“Okay,” Hopper settled, nodding. “Take one of the kids with you, better to travel in packs of three in case one of you gets hurt.”
“I’ll go!” Dustin said, jumping to his feet before anyone else could even try to volunteer. “I mean, come on, Steve barely knows what he’s doing half the time if I’m not there to watch out for him.”
“Watch it.” Steve said sternly and Dustin just grinned at him.
“Fine, that works out best.” Hopper agreed. “Now who’s going to come with me to map everything out?”
“I’ll go!” Eleven said, raising her hand and smiling up at her dad. Hopper looked slightly hesitant, definitely having wanted El to stay back with home base. However Joyce shot him a steady glare and he knew there was no point in fighting, so he just smiled down at the girl.
“Okay, at least one more person then.” Hopper said and Will’s hand shot up.
“I’ll go!” Will said. “I can draw up a pretty good map of the town, accurately mark down whatever we find to make it fit to scale, less confusion for reading it that way.”
“Alright,” Hopper agreed. “So then-”
“Wait, if they’re both going, then I’m going too.” Mike butted in and Hopper turned to give him a long sharp glare. “You need me. Will and Eleven don’t know where every gate is, I do. You might drive right past a potential gate spot and never even notice. And then the map is screwed and there’s no point really.”
Will and Eleven nod at Mike’s reasoning, turning to Hopper, who turned and gave Joyce an annoyed expression. Joyce grinned.
“He’s right, Hop.” Joyce said. “You gotta take Mike with you, the only other ones who know where the other gates are, are Dustin and Lucas, but they’re already in other groups.”
“So we trade.” Hopper said. “Lucas can come with us and Mike can go with you.”
“Sure, but only if Lucas is okay with that.” Joyce said with a sharp grin, turning to the other boy. “Lucas, do you want to trade groups?”
Lucas stared wide eyed at them, looked at Eleven and Will who raised an eyebrow, curious at him, looked at Hopper who was giving him a desperate please agree look, looked at Mike who had crossed his arms, glaring at him as if daring him to agree.
“Yeah, that’s not my mess.” Lucas said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. “Ima just stick with Ms. Byers.”
Joyce smiled and Mike nodded while Hopper looked completely and utterly defeated.
“See? You have to take me.” Mike said with a shit eating grin and both Eleven and Will tried to hide their amusement as Hopper groaned.
“Fine,” Hopper grumbled and the three teens all cheered.
“Wait,” Max spoke up. “Can I go with one of the groups?”
Murray, Joyce and Hopper all shared a hesitant glance with each, and then looked at the others.
Max frowned at them all. “I can hear you being weird,” She informed. “Guys, come on, please?”
“Max, honey,” Joyce started. “It’s best if you stay here, okay? We’re all going to be moving around a whole lot.”
“I can keep up!” Max argued. “I know you’re all worried and shit but I can still do things!”
“We need a group to stay here.” Hopper said. “And we’ve already decided that you and Erica will be part of that group.”
“Hey!” Erica shot to her feet, enraged. “Don’t forget who helped save all your old asses when those Russian commie bastards were invading!”
“But you’re still a kid.” Hopper pointed out. “Your brother and everyone else is already on thin ice, you are not coming with any of the groups.”
“That’s so not fair!” Erica shouted. “You don’t see me pointing out that you’re geriatric and a liability, do you? This is discrimination! Against the young and the disabled.”
“She’s right!” Max shouted. “Look, we can help! We can help just as much as the rest of all of you!”
“You can’t see,” Hopper pointed out. “Or walk. I’m sorry Max, I know you’re smart, I know you can help, but right now we need to be able to focus on the issues at hand.”
“Wow,” Max said, voice full of disdain and then she looked vaguely around the room after noticing her friends had all been quiet. “None of you are gonna back me up?”
“Max,” Lucas began, tone heavy and unsure and Max scoffed. “You died. Okay? If it was up to me, even if you were perfectly able to see and walk, I wouldn’t want you back out there after that. Not so soon.”
“Well good thing it’s not up to you then.” Max snarked and turned. “Dustin? El?”
“They’re right, Max.” Dustin said, nervously. “It’s better if you stayed here.”
Max looked heartbroken and she turned to Eleven, her last hope for help. Eleven frowned, a deep, sad frown. There were years of grief and despair etched into the grooves of her lips, a frown no child her age should have to bear, yet she did. She says nothing, but moved, shuffling over to Max and resting her hand on Max’s.
Max’s jaw clenched and she looked down at Eleven’s general direction. No words were exchanged between the two girls, only the soft gentle touch of Eleven’s hand. Max ducked her head, scoffing meanly, shaking her head, but she said nothing to Eleven, simply turning back to the others with unfallen tears in her eyes.
“You all suck.” She informed meanly. “You know that, right? That you all absolutely fucking suck.”
“My decision will not change.” Hopper informed, and the tension in the room was thick as Erica crossed her arms and glared at them all defensively at Max’s side.
“Oh shit,” Argyle suddenly spoke up. “That means I’m staying too right, cause I didn’t claim a group? Can I still claim a group?”
The tension in the room got thicker.
“Argyle,” Joyce began. “Sweetie, you haven’t... You haven’t handled any of this sort of stuff yet. You aren’t prepared to deal with the craziness of it all.”
“But I helped with those scary government baddies.” Argyle said, now frowning too and Max scoffed. “I’ve not even smoked today, I’m good. Like real good to go.”
“You guys are such liars!” Max shouted accusingly. “We’re not here to protect the house, we’re all here because you think we can’t keep up!”
“That’s not true.” Joyce said, shaking her head. “We need people to stay here, to protect the house, we trust you guys to be able to do that.”
“But you also don’t want us in the way.” Max stated. “Face it, you know that’s the truth. The kid, the crippled and the stoner. You expect us not to realise what’s going on?”
“It’s not like that.” Hopper argued. “We want you to be safe, but we still trust you to protect the house.”
“Really?” Erica asked, disbelieving. “That’s why you’re leaving Murray with us, right?”
“Hey, I’m staying because they trust me to be able to work well with you little twerps.” Murray said to her.
Erica laughed. “You don’t even realise.” She said, shaking her head. “I’d feel sorry if you weren’t so stupid, you bald headed bitch.”
“You can laugh all you want,” Murray said. “But we’re staying because they trust us to protect the place.”
“No,” Max said, shaking her head. “You’re our babysitter. They don’t trust you either, that’s why you’re staying back while they both go out.”
“That’s not true.” Murray said and turned to Joyce and Hopper, Hopper who’s expression has now become indifferent and Joyce who’s intentionally avoiding eye contact. Murray frowned. “That’s not true, right Joyce?”
Joyce opened her mouth, then closed it, then shrugged.
“Murray,” She said slowly and Murray’s mouth dropped open.
“Omigod! You don’t trust me!” Murray shouted. “After everything we’ve been through, really?”
“We trust you!” Joyce said empathically. “Trust you so much to stay and watch guard! You know, no one else will keep the fort locked down like you will!”
“I can’t believe this.” Murray said, shaking his head. “I went to Alaska with you.”
“And you were wonderful.” Joyce said with a wince. “I need you to stay here with them. I need all of you to stay home and keep the place on lock down. I trust you all with a gun, to hold your own.”
“If that were really true we’d be out there with you!” Max shot back and Joyce sighed.
“Look, you, Erica, Argyle and Murray are all staying here.” Hopper said, tone harsh. “End of story, no debating. You don’t like it you can go find another place to bunker down for the fucking apocalypse, go it?”
Max glared towards him while Erica crossed her arms with a firm pout. Argyle swallowed thickly, sighing as he sort of gave up, sinking into the couch and Murray grumbled under his breath.
“Wonderful,” Hopper said sarcastically. “My team, we leave tomorrow at 6am.”
“What the shit, why 6am?” Mike argued. “This isn’t the army!”
“We leave at 6am because I said so.” Hopper said. “Joyce and I’ve been tracking the demo-beasts schedule and they’re less active around early morning hours, which will be the safest times for us to travel about. Got a problem with it, you can stay.”
Mike crossed his arms but stayed silent.
“Radio team we leave at 10.” Joyce said with a kinder smile. “Melvald’s isn’t too far, we’ll have to take two vehicles though, in case we need space for gear.”
“I’ll wake you two whenever I’m ready to go,” Steve said to Eddie and Dustin, who both laughed a little.
“We’re going to be well awake before you, Steve.” Dustin teased and Eddie grinned.
“Leave him be!” Eddie said fake dramatically. “He needs all his hours of beauty sleep.”
“Okay, fuck you guys,” Steve rolled his eyes and Dustin laughed harder. “Fine, wake me up when you’re both geared to go.”
“My team don’t even bother waking up.” Murray grumbled spitefully. “May as well sleep the day away.”
Hopper sighed heavily but clapped his hands, gaining everyone’s attention.
“Now that that’s settled.” Hopper groaned. “Let’s get lunch dinner figured.”