Hopper

'So, there you have it General' I said to the man looking directly back at me. 'The thousandth time you heard the same tale. Want me to tell it again?'

'No, that will not be necessary' said the General in his usual Russian drawl. He said something in his native language and the guards grabbed me. I was taken back to work and greeted with the solid pain in my body. What I guessed was a few days went by the same in this godforsaken camp. Work, eat, try to sleep. Over and over again. But then one morning, the guard opened my door, but I wasn't led to my usual work conditions in the snow. I was led back to the interrogation room. I had never been back this soon after a previous visit. As I was walking, I heard what sounded like a helicopter approaching and land somewhere in the camp.

The General came in sooner than expected, accompanied by two guards. We exchanged our usual unpleasantries and he asked me to tell the story again. I was getting really sick of telling it, so I shouted at him to 'Go to hell' which earned me a hit with the butt of one of the guards' guns. So, I reluctantly told him the story. What happened after was something I could never have predicted. After coming to the end of the story yet again, and he said something to the guards in Russian. But they didn't grab me and haul me off to my cell or to go back to work. Instead the two guards just left. This was a first. I heard a small crackle as the camera in the room appeared to power down. It's head just dropped, the red light that always illuminated it no longer on.

'What's going on?' I asked, staring at the General.

'You'll see soon enough' he said to me, and silence followed. After what seemed like eternity, but was in reality a few minutes, a guard came in and said something to the General in Russian. 'Da' was his response and the guard brought in two more chairs.

'Are we expecting guests?' I asked the General, trying to sound sarcastic.

'Indeed, we are' he replied. 'And ones you know very well'

My mind immediately went to El. 'If you've touched her, I swear I'll-'

'Don't worry, we have not touched your daughter or any of her friends, well not yet anyway' he said, with a chuckle to himself.

'If you even lay a finger on her, I will hunt you down and kill you like an animal' I whispered to him with all the anger concentrated into those words.

'I don't doubt it' came a voice from the open door to the interrogation. I hadn't even realised it had been opened.

Standing there, in all his 6'3 frame with his glistening white hair and piercing blue eyes, was Dr. Martin Brenner.

'What the hell are you doing here?' I snarled at the man who had now taken a seat.

'I'm here to negotiate your release back into America. So, play nice or you might never get to see your precious little El ever again' he replied, smiling a huge, cruel smile. 'Oh and of course I'm here to help my Russian friend here with any research or information he needs about the Upside Down. Isn't that right General?'

'Da' was the reply from the smiling General.

'Now then let's get down to business' said Brenner, and in walked what looked like his assistant with a briefcase and planted it on the table.

Brenner

'Now then, let's get down to business' I said, as my assistant came in and put the briefcase on the table, the echo adding to Hopper's clear and utter disbelief at my arrival. 'God, that man was so stupid' I thought to myself. 'I mean how does he even function with such a small brain stuck inside that cranium of his. Anyway, I have to appear to want to help him, this plan depends on him getting out of here as quickly, and quietly, as possible.' I returned to the conversation, ready to discuss our plans going forward. I stood up and began to speak.

'As we all know, our countries are not on the best of terms right now' I began. 'But for now, we have to put those hostilities to one side as we face a danger that is not of our world. The Upside Down is a vast alternate dimension which seems to have mirrored our own world. Both of our countries have experimented with the Upside Down, and we both have collected substantial research into this environment and its creatures. Now there has come a time when our research must be brought together. I am no longer under the employ of the United States government. They believe I am dead. You can ask Hopper for any information on that.'

He promptly held up a middle finger at me. I ignored it.

'This is going to require close cooperation, communication and patience from ALL sides in order to make it work.' I made sure to stare at Hopper when I said this.

'However, before we start working, we have some demands that you will have already been aware of, but for the Chief's purpose, why don't we go over them.

'Go to hell, you bastard' was his response. I once again ignored him.

'Number one, if any evidence comes to light about this, we never worked together and there was never any link between us. Number two, you send us some of your scientific staff to work back in America, and in exchange we send you some of ours to come and work in Russia. Number three, once our research has been concluded, all records of our cooperation will be destroyed. And number four, Hopper will return with us back to America today.'

'We agree to all your demands' was the General's response and he got up and shook my hand. This was going to be a good alliance, for everyone's sake. 'Although' he added. 'I will miss mine and the Chief's little conversations.'

'Like hell you will' said Hopper, still sitting in his chair.

A few hours later, after more conversations and finalising all our preparations, we prepared to leave back to America, with our extra passenger in tow. 'This is going to be interesting' I thought to myself as our helicopter rose away from the Russian camp and away into the setting sunlight.

Cal

I had arrived back in Hawkins last night and I was on my way to surprise Mike and the others at the campsite where they had spent the night. I wanted to hang out with them. It had been tough trying to settle into a normal life after having spent basically my entire life being trained as a human weapon. I had mastery over nearly every fighting style known and could wield any weapon put to me with extreme accuracy and technique. My favoured weapon was of course my shrinkable staff, but Lucas' Wrist Rocket came a close second. It was a great slingshot and had served me well when Lucas had given it to me in the hospital. I was hoping to get in some more practice with it later on after I had seen them all.

I walked up the hill that led to the site they had picked out and started to pick out some of them in the distance. They had my back to me, and they all seemed to be looking at something in front of them. As I got closer, I heard what appeared to be shaky breathing and crying. I sped up my pace, ready to extend the spear I held in my hand. And then I saw what they were crying about. Stood in front of me was Sophie. The only other remnant of the Hawkins experiments on kids, besides Eleven. The only one who knew the hell we went through in there. I nearly dropped my spear, but my senses kicked in and I extended my spear. In a series of manoeuvres that went by so quickly I don't think any of the others caught what I did. I ran at Sophie and pushed Mike away, who was standing next to him. I brought my spear horizontally across her chest and pushed her backwards against the closest tree at considerable speed, but so that it wouldn't hurt her, too much.

'Who are you?' I demanded. 'Are you one of Kali's visions?' She was silent and frozen. 'Speak, or suffer the consequences of silence' I said, getting ready to strike her with my spear.'

'Cal, it's me' said Sophie, startled and starting to cry. 'Don't you remember. It's me Sophie'

'It can't be you' I said back to her. 'You're dead. Now reveal your true nature or I will be forced to take action.'

'This is my true nature. It really is me' she replied. 'What can I do to convince you?'

'You can tell me the final thing I said to Sophie before she died' I replied. 'Only then will I believe it really is you.'

'Cal, what are you doing?' said Dustin from behind me.

'Leave it Dustin' I called back to him. 'I've got this.' Then I turned my attention back to her.

'So, what did I say to her?' I asked, pressing her for a response.

'You told me that no matter what happened there on that night, that you would always look out for these guys and that you would always remember me.'

'That's not all of it' I said back, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

'And you said you would never stop loving me, even in death' she replied, tears flowing down her cheek.

'Oh my god, Sophie' I said and pulled her in for a hug before our lips managed to find each other, just as they had done before. We stayed in each other's arms for what seemed like an impossible amount of time before I felt a tap on my back. It was Mike and he wanted me to allow Sophie to see all her other friends. Once she had caught up with everyone, including an extremely tearful reunion with Max, she asked the question that we had hoped would never come.

'Where's El?' she asked, her wide eyes scanning our face for answers.

'Sit down, Sophie' said Max. 'This is gonna take some explaining.'

El

I stared at the massive amounts of students that were currently all congregating into the building that was my new school. I knew that there would be a lot of people, but this was more than I expected. I heard the horn of Joyce's car beep as she waved one more time and drove away, her car reflecting the sun until it was no longer visible. I turned back to the entrance, and then looked over at Will. He looked as nervous as me, if not more so. He grabbed my hand, and we took our first steps into the school that would house us for the foreseeable future.

The atmosphere inside was enthralling. There was so much noise and so many people. In the end, we managed to fumble our way to the principal's office so we could get our introduction to the school. We were given our schedules, we shared classes which was good. We even had the same homeroom which I was really looking forwards to. Once we had finished up with the principal, we headed down to homeroom to meet our classmates and our new teacher. Her name was Miss Carter and she seemed really nice. She had brown hair, glasses and didn't look older than 25. Will and I took our seats near the back and tried to get ourselves comfortable in our new surroundings.

Once homeroom had finished, we started to get up to leave. After we had left the classroom, a girl approached me. She was wearing glasses, had shorter hair than most, kind of like mine and had an extremely cheerful and bubbly atmosphere surrounding her. It was almost like an infectious happiness. She reached out her hand and said 'Hi, I'm Stargirl. Stargirl Caraway.'

I opened my mouth to ask her about the name, but she read my mind.

'The name is of my own design. My real name is Susan, but it sounds so pretentious and well everyone just seems to call me it. Even the teachers. I got it for being a kind soul and just doing things differently. Not in a standout way or a 'hey look at me I'm quirky' kind of thing. I just do what I do when I do it and it seems to work. See you at break.' She skipped off into one direction, unaware that I had no idea where I was going. Will quickly found me and directed me to our first class which was 'Algebra.' The day went along a lot less eventful than anticipated on my first day at a new school. I guess all the action would have to wait. Not that I was complaining. I already had enough action in my life, and I hoped no more was coming…

A/N: Thank you guys so much for the support on this story. It has been unreal. So I posted two chapters in two days for you as a reward ha ha. Anyway, if you guys can spot the link to another YA fictional project I have published, you have my respect. Anyway, hope you enjoy and keep safe.