"The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world." Mike explained, the group huddled around the fountain in the middle of Star Court. Max sat with El and Hopper, Rocky in his moms arms as he laid on her shoulder.

"And it almost did. That was just one tiny piece of it." Nancy spoke alongside her brother.

"How big is this thing?" Hopper looked at the teens in questioning.

"It's big." Jonathan nodded his head. "Thirty feet, at least."

"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas frowned over at Hopper, an apologetic look across his face. "Sorry."

"I couldn't even beat it up." Rocky pouted.

"Okay, so, just to be clear, this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic...weapon?" Steve gave an odd, questionable look.

"Yes." Nancy nodded.

"But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon... with melted people." Steve confirmed, the odd tone in his words still there.

"Exactly." Nancy agreed.

"Yeah, okay. Yeah, i'm just making sure." Steve nodded his head in confirmation.

"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asked, confusion across her face with deeply frowned eyebrows.

"El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive." Max shrugged from in the middle of Steve and Lucas. Rocky looked at her.

"But if we close the gate again-" Will began.

"We cut the brain off from the body." Max rose an eyebrow with a nod of her head.

"And kill it." Lucas grinned. "Theoretically."

"Yoo-hoo !" Murray called, running their way and flapping the papers in his hands. He slapped them down infront of them. "Okay, this is what Alexei called the hub. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper leaned over him.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so." he explained, circling his finger around the small map.

"More like 500." Erica added in, getting a weird look. "What? You're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

"Punch him in the face!" Rocky encouraged.

"Rocky!" the group scolded him.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray looked down at her.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" she gave him a sassy look.

"Murray...Balman." he hesitated, staring at the young girl.

"Listen, Mr.Bunmam, i'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but i've been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die." Erica looked around at the group with a point of her finger.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray stood up straight with a wave of his hand.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!" she snapped upwards to him.

"Erica!" Lucas scolded her with a look of disbelief. Rocky hid his snort with a cough.

"Just the facts!" she yelled back at her brother.

"She's right. You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me." Dustin nodded his head, looking down at the map. "Sorry, may I?"

"Please." Murray gave a dramatic nod, scooting away sarcastically.

"See this room here? This is a storage facility." Dustin pointed down to one of the boxed off areas. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

"You can show us the way?" Hopper rose his eyebrows.

"You can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit." Dustin went back to his original plan, nodding at the sheriff. "We'll just be your navigators."

He stared at the two a second. "No. Nope."

"Maxamine." Rocky walked her way with a cherry coke in hand. "I brought you something for doctoring my hand."

"I only take cash." Max said in return.

"Well, this is just a down payment." he cracked her a grin as Max rolled her eyes and took it. "I also wanted to say that... if you need to talk."

"What a statement." Max flashed him a sarcastic smile as Rocky tilted his head at her, a knowing look in his eye. "I'm okay."

"Yeah, duh." he nodded with a little wink. "But, if you ever feel like you're not...."

"I'll be sure to come talk to you." Max gave him a minor smile as they sat side by side, sharing a cherry coke.

•

kylie speaks

does he like cherry cokes bc
cherry's are red and max's
hair is red or does he just like
the taste? we shall never know.