Ch. 10

Broken noses, cause of testicle trauma

A/N: I'm making a discord for those of y'all who would like to discuss/give me suggestions to improve. Also, I'd probably just have sessions where we just chat about ideas, I'd post teasers, character drafts, etc. I don't expect a lot of people to join. (Especially cause I know people who CAN'T join the server for both of our protection. If that's you, cool. I really don't care. This is to help anyone who would like to have some input or help me out.) BTW: under the laws in my country, (US) I am a MINOR. That means I am under 18. Keep that in mind. (Just don't be creepy, guys, okay?) Most of the chats would be voice, so there's that. I'm not going to show my face, probably. I want a healthy environment, if you feel someone or something doesn't make it feel that way, DM me on Discord, or PM me on this site. I will look into it.) /PPbbpK6

(Continued flashback from ch.9)

Murray's hideaway, 1986

Hopper pulled up in his truck, cut the engine, and exhaled heavily. 'This is going to be a long 20 minutes,' he thought.

"Alright, kids! El, wake up! We're here!" Hopper said, smacking the steering wheel. Mike slowly unclenched his fingers from the sides of his seat.

'Huh,' Hopper thought. 'Maybe I drive that fast all that time when he's in the car. It ACTUALLY got him to be quiet after the first 20 mins.'

Then Mike began to turn from white to green, and Hopper rethought that policy as he hoisted Mike out the window so he wouldn't ruin the upholstery. Once Mike finished, the three of them approached the hideaway and pressed the buzzer.

"Look at the camera! The camera! To your right, above you!" came the customary rude welcome that always filtered from the speakers. After Mike finally looked at the camera, the door opened, and Mike found himself staring down a shotgun barrel.

"Who the hell are you, kid?" Murray asked Mike, staring him down intensely.

"Mmmmike wwwwheeler." Mike stammered, looking nervously at the shotgun. "Could you put away the gun, please?"

"No! I will put it away when I don't think you're a possible alien or Russian assassin. " Murray said to Mike, before turning and saying, "Hi, Jim," to Hopper with a pleasant tone and a smile. "Come in, kid. You haven't tried to murder or mind-control me yet, so you're probably either a brainwashed or parasitically implanted spy, not working for Russians or aliens, or they simply put trackers and microphones on you. Let's sweep you all for bugs, then." With that, he swept past and headed into the house.

20 mins later,

"Hmph! Goddamn it! Looks like he's clean." Murray said.

"Alright! Time for training! Jim, you're with Mike today. I'll take El." Murray said, clapping his hands. "Here are your training outfits." Murray laid out 2 skin-tight jumpsuits for El and Mike. "They're form-fitting, so don't wear anything except underwear. They fit almost anyone automatically, as long as you use the correct variant. You two have child sizes, but it's looking like you might need to upgrade soon. Oh, before you ask, Mike, I designed them myself."

"Hey!" El protested, "You couldn't have gotten them nearly as form-fitting without me."

"El helped with some of the material synthesis. My little biochemical genius!" Murray said fondly to El, ruffling her curly hair. "You were such a rascal. I told her not to touch my project, although I know she had a penchant for biochemistry, I didn't think she was ready. She was, 8, I think? I walk out for 10 minutes, come back, and my working chemical formula has been completely erased, and El is scribbling a new equation on the board! I about had a stroke! I had spent 2 years on the formula, and made minuscule progress, that I thought had just been wiped away completely. Then I took a closer look at what she was writing, and it blew my mind! A doctorate in organic, inorganic, and biological chemistry, 25 years of experience, and what I couldn't do in 2 years, an 8-year-old figures out in 10 minutes. I had let her read my notes the day before, and had educated her on what I was doing, so she knew literally everything about what I was doing, but STILL." Murray said, eliciting laughter from El and Mike. "We really should get going, though. Chop chop! We're wasting daylight!"

9 hours later, 10 PM

Mike and El staggered into Murray's kitchen, barely able to stand. "Tsk tsk, El! You've gotten soft! Last I saw you, you could go for 3 times that long." (They've only been sparring for the last 3 hours, the other six were warmups, drilling, and conditioning) Murray scolded El, eliciting a scathing look from her, but nothing more, as El was too tired. "Tomorrow, you guys are training against each other, so rest up. Mike, prepare for a beating." Murray said, gathering the dishes from dinner.

The next day, 5 am

El awoke to the banging of pots and pans. "What the FUCK Hopper! It's 5 am! Lemme sleep!" She shouted, before pulling the pillows over her head.

"Get up kid. Breakfast is over in 10 minutes, and you're not going to want to train with no food." El heard a voice that was NOT Hopper's say.

Confusedly and groggily El began to sort through her memories of yesterday, then said, "Uncle Murray?"

"Yep." He replied, adding quickly before she could rush out to breakfast in a t-shirt and underwear, "Loverboy will be out there in a bit too, by the way," causing El to skid to a stop, shout,

"GET OUT, SO I CAN DRESS, THEN!" slam the door, throw on the first pair of clean pants she saw, and run to breakfast, where she shoveled huge mouthfuls of food (bacon, sausage, eggs, etc.) into her mouth. Mike didn't know whether to be in awe at the sheer volume of food she could consume, or be horrified at how savagely she was eating. Probably a bit of both.

"Alright! Breakfast is over. Get in your jumpsuits, and meet me in the sparring hall. We're going to drill against dummies after we warm up. In a couple of hours, we'll have a 20-minute break, then we'll move to conditioning. Three hours of that, then a 10-minute break. Two hours of drilling against partners, which you two are sparring partners today. 30-minute break. Then, we fight for real for 4 hours. Followed by a 1-hour break, then we start over. Speaking of WHICH, if I see any STATIC ELECTRICITY forming from the friction of your bodies, I will dose you with cold water, and let you short circuit! Am I CRYSTAL clear on that, you two?" Murray finished, asking Mike and El, who both flushed and nodded.

"Good. So you won't start fooling around during training?" Murray asked the young couple.

Mike and El shook their heads vigorously, flushing even redder, if possible, than before.

"Excellent, because this shit might save your goddamn life one day, which it CAN'T DO if you two are too busy FEELING EACH OTHER UP TO LISTEN!" Murray shouted, before telling them to be on the floor of the sparring room and running in 10, he'd see them in 30 minutes, as he wanted to get a nice, filling breakfast, and take a hot, relaxing bath.

"If you two are going at it, either somewhere else, or GOD FORBID IN THE SPARRING ROOM, I will put a shotgun blast RIGHT though your head, Mike. Am I clear? I don't really care about the PDA as long as I don't have to witness it, but when you disrespect and disregard my instructions, you put El's life in danger by making her less prepared for any danger she might encounter, and THAT, THAT more than ANYTHING, I have ZERO tolerance for. Is that clear? Yes? Then what are you still doing standing here? GET YOUR ASSSES MOVING!"

El and Mike scrambled towards the sparring room as the last echoes of Murray's voice bounced off the walls.

5:30 PM, sparring room

"Alright, you two. Time to beat the living shit out of each other! I'm joking, by the way. Keep the harm to a minimum. No hits in between above mid-thigh and below the belt. Looking at YOU, EL. No hits above the neck, either. Everybody knows the rules? No playing chicken either. Don't fake hits to a forbidden area. I will beat the SHIT out of EITHER of you for pulling that shit. Am I clear?" Murray asked, replying

"Good. You may begin," when Mike and El nodded. Mike and El bowed and began circling each other in a sinuous, deadly dance. (By the way, mike does martial arts of some form, so he has some prior experience, but Murray has mastered pretty much every combat/fighting style, and martial art, and he's El's trainer, so she's much better than him (technique-wise.)) El rushed toward Mike and executed a series of kicks at his chest, which he narrowly dodges, landing and rolling to his feet. "Come on, Mike. Actually, fight me. Stop being such a pussy!" El taunted.

"Respect your opponent, El!" Murray interjected.

"Just telling it how it is, Uncle Murray. I'll apologize when he proves it's not true, AND when he doesn't need to cry to the teacher for help." El replied, causing Mike to become PISSED OFF. His face turns a SOLID RED, and you could hear his breathing from across the room, which was 20 feet at its smallest.

"A pussy am I, El? I'll show YOU a FUCKING PUSSY!" Mike shouted before running at El, launching a flurry of punches and kicks at her face and gut, a drive so severe he causes her to back up and stumble, which messes up her blocking and a Superman punch from Mike slips through her blocking and hits her right on the nose, breaking her nose. El gets knocked flat on her back and begins to cry. Hopper and Murray run into the ring and check that El is okay, before turning to Mike, who is also checking on El. Hopper grabs Mike and slams his face STRAIGHT INTO THE CONCRETE WALL, which doesn't break his nose, for the reason of he didn't hit his nose. He did get a cracked cheekbone and the WORST black eye I can pretty GUARANTEE you have ever seen. Hopper then sucker punches Mike in the stomach, saying "If you EVER DARE do anything like this AGAIN, even by accident, I will put you in TRACTION, you PIECE OF SHIT, am I clear?" Meanwhile, El has been helped to her feet by Murray. She walks over to Mike, still doubled over from Hopper beating the crap out of him, and straight-up PUNTS him in the balls. (She didn't knee him, she didn't kick him, she pulled her foot back and punted him in the balls, just like football (American or otherwise)). Mike clutches his testicles and falls to his knees as El stalks away from him. Mike then looks up and sees Murray standing over him.

"Don't worry, kid. You've suffered enough today. I'll deliver my promised beating tomorrow." Murray said, eliciting a

"Thanks, I guess?" from Mike.

(End Flashback)

Mike's room, 1987

'That fight right there marked the start of all our serious relationship problems.' Mike thought. 'Once I broke El's nose, we never really got back on track. Don't suppose it matters now, though does it?' That thought sobered his attempt at waxing philosophical.

Then, he was interrupted from any opportunity for more brooding by a knock at the door.

End Ch. 10

NEW PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT/AN: THE WEED THAT EL SMOKES IS 80'S WEED. THAT HAD WAY LESS THC, SO WHILE IT WAS STILL BAD FOR YOU, IT WAS SIGNIFICANTLY LESS SO. NOW WEED WILL MESS YOU THE HELL UP. DONT DO IT. Also, I can hear you saying, "But if it was still bad for you, and El claims to get extremely high every day, how is she not getting messed up?" The answer is that she smokes in public, never in private. She only does it to provoke Hopper. When she doesn't want to do that, she doesn't get high. She was EXTREMELY exaggerating her drug usage there to make Mike look bad. Also, some characters, (not main ones) will use some harder drugs. Honestly, that will probably only be ecstasy. THAT IS A DEADLY AND EXTREMELY ILLEGAL DRUG. EL ONLY PRODUCES IT BECAUSE SHE IS BEING THREATENED WITH SERIOUS PHYSICAL HARM. THE CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT PRODUCE THIS DRUG ARE JUST AS OR MORE DANGEROUS AS THE USAGE OF THIS DRUG. IT IS FOR SURE MORE ILLEGAL THAN THE USAGE OF IT. LIKE, DEA BLACK-OPS UNITS WITH MACHINE GUNS KICKING DOWN YOUR DOOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT ILLEGAL. Simply put, don't use or produce any illegal drugs, and I KNOW you know not to, but just DON'T, okay? Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now. That was mainly for legal reasons. I DO NOT ASSUME ANY LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM YOUR PRODUCTION OR USE OF ANY ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES.