Young God

And I've been sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool
For a while now, drowning my thoughts out with the sounds
But do you feel like a young god?

You know the two of us are just young gods

Dani's in a daze as Eleven grabs her bracelet off the sink and tosses it at her, the younger girl then dragging her out of the bathroom as Dani shoves her bracelet in her pocket. Dani's mind seems to be in a fog until she feels her left wrist being turned over and Max's exclamation of holy shit snaps her out of it. Dani's freaked out expression then meets Max's astonished one, the red head then smoothing out her expression to one of acceptance and understanding.

"Hey. It's fine," Max says. "There's a group of us that know about Eleven. If you're like her, they'll be just as supportive of you. We've never actually met another like her."

"E-Eleven?" Dani frowns. "You let them call you by your designation from them?"

She shrugs. "My name is Jane, but I didn't find out until after. I'm used to Eleven, but they all call me El. It's nice."

Shakily breathing, Dani leans against the wall and places her hands on her knees. "This is not happening. This can't be happening," she mumbles.

Max quietly groans and rolls her eyes. "You're freaking out over nothing. Just go see Hopper. He'll explain everything. You don't have to worry about anymore scientists or doctors. That's all been taken care of."

"W-What?"

"We need to see Hopper," Eleven says again. "Trust me."

"Who the hell even is this Hopper person?" Dani wonders, her voice a little pitchy as she stands tall once more.

"The Chief of Police. He's El's legal guardian now."

Dani looks at Max in surprise, then to Eleven who's smiling and nodding. "You know what? Fine. Fine," she says again while clearing her throat. "My dad works at the police station too. Lets just go and get this over with."

"As much as I want to see and hear everything, my step brother should be picking me up soon," Max says as she trails after them. "Promise you'll tell me everything?"

Eleven happily agrees as Dani worries her bottom between her teeth, she putting her sunglasses back on to shield the uncertainty warring in her eyes. Max is still trailing after them as Dani heads towards her car, and a car honking just several yards away startles her. Max scoffs and mumbles something about her idiot step brother, and Dani chances a look at the blue Camaro's driver. The first thing she notices is the smoke wafting from the guy's mouth as he hangs out the driver's side window, cigarette dangling from between his fingers, and his lips twitching into a smile as he lays on the horn until Max yells at him.

Dani rolls her eyes behind her sunglasses. "What a charmer."

"Don't let him hear you say that," Max grumbles. "He'll take it as invite into your shorts." Dani flips the guy off when she finally makes it to her car, her lips twitching against her better judgement as his laugh rings out loud enough for her to hear. "Anyway," Max says. "I should really go before he gets mean. I want to know everything tomorrow."

"Sure. Hopefully I'm still here by tomorrow." The younger girls go quiet and Dani glances at them. Shoulders dropping, she quickly explains. "My dad's really protective. Anything that has to deal with.. you know," she mutters and flashes them her tattooed wrist, "freaks him out. He'll want to put as much distance between me and them."

Before they can assure her that everything is going to be okay, an engine revving stops them. Tires screech and then Max's step brother's car slams to a halt right in front of them. "Hurry the hell up, Max. I got shit to do other than waiting on you." Max sighs with a roll of her eyes, she giving up and stomping towards the passenger seat of his car. His gaze darts towards Dani, his smirk coming back in full force. "Hey. I'm Billy."

"And I really don't care." His smirk only widens in response and Max's wary expression morphs into confusion at his amusement. Dani quickly unlocks her car, she sparing the red head one last look. "Bye, Max. Eleven will tell you everything tomorrow if I can't." The red head quickly nods as she buckles herself in, her step brother peeling out in the parking lot before driving off. Dani frowns after the blue car, dropping into the driver's seat of her own car before leaning over to unlock the door for Eleven. Or Jane. She wasn't really sure what to call her, but it seemed the girl actually preferred her numbered name.

Then once situated and making sure the younger girl is buckled in, Dani starts her Firebird and guns it out of the parking lot.

The police station comes into view not even five minutes later and once again Dani feels as if she's in a daze. She and Eleven make their way into the station and the receptionist happily greets them, but before the girls can say anything Nathan Lewis is intercepting them.

"Dani? Is everything okay?" Nathan glances between the girls and the receptionist, he telling the receptionist that he'd take it from there while escorting the girls aside.

"Uh. Yeah, dad. We, uh, we need to speak with Hopper. He's.. Jane's legal guardian or so I'm told."

Nathan glances down at the girl by his daughter's side, he rubbing at the scruff on his face with a sigh. "Jeez, Dani. What happened?"

"Not here, dad. Please."

Nathan seems to see something in his daughter's expression, his own expression tightening before nodding. "Follow me." Nathan leads them to the Chief's office, he knocking twice on the open door before letting the girls enter first.

Jim Hopper glances up with a smile, said smile vanishing when he sees his charge. "What's going on?"

"This." Eleven thrusts her arm out, wrist up and tattoo for all to see.

"Jesus, kid. What the hell?!" Hopper jumps up to his feet just as Nathan inhales sharply. "What did I say about-"

Dani thrusting her own arm out hesitantly cuts Hopper off, his eyes immediately zeroing in on Dani's own tattoo. "Hi. I'm Nine."

"Dani!" Nathan scolds.

"Wait. What?" Hopper glances between the three occupants of his office.

"We're leaving. Now." Nathan grabs his daughter by the arm, he turning and dragging her with him.

But just before he can get anywhere near the door with Dani in tow, the door slams shut and the blinds fall to cover the windows. "Please don't," Eleven quietly muses.

Dani and Nathan whirl around, but it's Dani who asks, "Did you just..?"

Chief Hopper groans as he falls back into his seat, he reaching for the tissues on the corner of his desk and tossing them to Eleven whose nose is bleeding. "Jane has.. an array of abilities. We're still learning what she can do, but the more prominent power of hers is telekinesis."

"Jesus," Nathan breathes in awe. Or horror. Dani's not too sure. She glances at her dad and when she sees that he's not going to bolt, she walks closer to Eleven. And seeing as his daughter isn't as freaked as he expected, Nathan takes a seat across from his boss. "Okay. So.. you're either laying down low like us or you and your daughter made a deal."

Hopper scoffs, not bothering to correct the daughter comment. "There had been a deal, but the CIA didn't keep up their end of the bargain. All you need to know is that Project MKUltra is over and done with for good. You and your daughter don't have to look over your shoulders anymore."

Nathan's shoulders droop and Dani exhales shakily. "Is it really over?" Nathan asks, staring at his daughter as several emotions war over her features.

"Yeah." Hopper leans back in his chair, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "Before you ran, did you know what their end goal was?"

"They mentioned something about opening a door," Dani mutters quietly. "But I- my powers weren't useful to them."

"Well apparently Eleven's were," he says. All eyes dart to Eleven and she shrinks under their gazes. "Since her powers deal with the mind, they put her through some cruel experiments where she ended up making contact with a creature from another dimension. No one knew at the time, but Eleven making contact with it opened up a portal."

"No fuckin' way."

"Dani," Nathan quickly scolds. "Language."

Hopper's lip twitch. "Anyway.. Jane was able to defeat the main monster that came through, but in doing so it sucked her into that dimension until she found her own way out hours later. A new scientist was appointed leader of the project, but he didn't condone experimentation on children. In fact, all he wanted to do was study Jane and a boy who'd been kidnapped by a monster to see what being in that place did to their bodies."

"But I hid. Hopper helped hide me." Eleven then looks to Dani. "I ended up running away and I met another of our sisters. She had 008 tattooed on her. She could manipulate what you saw- make it seem like something was there when it wasn't."

Dani's eyes widen. "Is she around? Did she-"

"I left her too. She and her friends used her powers for bad things. I couldn't stay, so I came home."

"And it was a good thing she did," Hopper picks back up. "Apparently the CIA continued messing with the gate that led to the dimension the kids dubbed the Upside Down, and that world started leaking into ours. More monsters came and we had to fight all over again."

"Is this place even safe?" Nathan huffs. "I moved here expecting a fresh start for a couple years before we up and moved again."

"It's safe. Eleven closed the gate for good and I had a friend in the government that I contacted to look into the laboratory that had been doing the experiments. Those who weren't killed by the monsters were taken into custody and the government weeded out everyone else. The lab has been shut down and hasn't been messed with since. Trust me, I'd know. I check up on it every now and then." Dani shifts uncomfortably, her gaze darting between her dad and Chief Hopper. When her dad doesn't have anything else to say, Hopper looks at her. "So what are your capabilities, if you don't mind me asking."

"Oh." Her gaze darts to her dad once more, he sighing and shrugging as if telling her to go ahead and tell them. "I can manipulate and travel through shadows."

"No shit?"

"No shit." Dani flashes the Chief a small smile at her father's noise of indignation and a moment later the lights in the room dim. Hopper's eyes widen, even more so when he glances to the corner of his office where it seems far darker than it should be. Dani walks over to it, placing her back to the shadow before walking backwards and disappearing into it.

"What? Where'd she go?"

Eleven's eyes dart all over the room, she noticing a spot on the wall behind Hopper getting darker. Dani steps through, smile widening as she taps Hopper on the shoulder and he jerks in his seat. Eleven's eyes sparkle in wonder.

Nathan's lips quirk, but before anything can be said about his daughter he's speaking out. "I want to see this laboratory for myself. I want to know that it's been shut down and that Dani doesn't have to worry."

A moment passes and then the Chief is agreeing. "Sure. Yeah. Lets go." He looks to Eleven, but Eleven's still staring at Dani. "Uh, do you think you can keep an eye on her?" He asks of Dani, gesturing to the younger girl who's staring at her with adoration in her eyes.

"Oh. Yeah. That's fine. I'm sure she wants to know more about my past and what not."

"Thanks."

"And I'll fill you in on our experience with these people." Nathan sighs, taking a stand. "Lets go, boss. This almost sounds too good to be true."

Chief Hopper leads the way out of his office, Nathan trailing after him and the girls behind them. An excuse is given to the receptionist for Hopper and Nathan's sudden urge to leave, and Dani takes Eleven back to her car.

As soon as they're buckled in and on the road to Dani's house, the older girl asks, "So what do you want to know?"

"Were you born with your powers like me?"

"No. My mother gave birth to a normal baby girl, but she bled out before the doctor's could stop it. My father attempted to take care of me, but the death of my mother made him lose his mind for a bit," she admits with a frown, concentrating on the streets she's driving down. "The State ended up taking over custody of me and from there that's where things get complicated. There was an apparent mix-up and I got sent to a new family facility instead of the actual baby they wanted. Only instead of a family facility, they sent me to a lab where they injected me with all sorts of serums and drugs, and my powers came to be that way."

"How did you get away?"

"My dad actually," she chuckles. "Long story short, once he got his act together and realized his baby girl wasn't actually his baby girl he hired a detective of sorts. They looked into my time under the care of the State and any other babies that had been adopted out or sent to a different facility. They tracked me down, loaded up on some blackmail to make lots of threats with, and since my powers weren't worthy of the lab's time they gave me up without a fight."

Eleven frowns. "You were lucky."

"I guess. They kept an eye on me though, to make sure we didn't talk or that my powers didn't grow into something more useful. My dad got tired of it and we started moving around a year later after I had turned fourteen."

The girls fall into a comfortable silence on the rest of the drive to Dani's house, Dani then leading Eleven into her domain. The younger girl seems uncomfortable, but Dani tries to put her at ease as much as she can.

After passing her a can of Coke, Dani asks, "So who all knows about you? About the monsters and everything."

"Max, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will-"

"So basically all the kids I met at the movies?"

"Yes. Will was the boy who got kidnapped and then possessed," Eleven tells her. "His mom and brother know too- Joyce and Jonathan. Mike's sister Nancy knows and Steve too."

"The ice cream guy at the mall?" Eleven nods. "Aw. He was cute." The younger girl chuckles and they lapse into silence once more, Dani letting her mind go crazy with the thoughts that she and her dad might actually be in the clear now.

A few minutes pass and then Eleven's asking, "So can I tell Max and the others now?"

Chuckling softly, Dani gestures to the phone hanging on the wall. "Sure, kid. Go nuts." Eleven immediately stands to start making phone calls. "But please no visitors today. I have a lot to wrap my mind around and just want to unwind."

"Okay."

Her first phone call is to Mike and Dani grins as she hears the exclamation of surprise through the phone's speaker.

Dear Lord. She was going to have a lot of insistent little assholes banging down her door and it was going to be all her fault.