Grace woke up the next morning with an aching back, courtesy of the chair she had restlessly slept in all night. Popping her back, she looked around the room, seeing that everyone else had already gotten up. She heard voices downstairs and decided to go see if there was anything to eat for breakfast. Last night's excitement had made her hungry.
When she arrived in the kitchen, Grace saw that everyone was awake except for Rafe. Everyone had a plate of what looked like Eggos. Her suspicions were confirmed when she watched Steve (alive and unharmed, surprisingly) take another box of frozen waffles out of the fridge, sticking four more Eggos in the toaster.
Hopper and the younger girl, who hadn't spoken a word since Grace arrived, now that she thinks about it, are both eating an Eggo monstrosity, while everyone else just had maple syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries on theirs. However, as she continued watching, she saw Steve pull cream cheese and ketchup out of the fridge, setting them on the counter next to his plate, before opening up the pantry and grabbing a jar of peanut butter. At this point everyone in the kitchen stopped to watch what the heck Steve was doing. All their questions were answered when he began spreading all three ingredients onto his waffle.
"Oh my god!"
"Dude, that's the most disgusting thing-"
"I think I'm going to throw up."
"Ugh, that is so gross. And wrong, just- just wrong."
"No it's not."
Everyone's heads whipped around to the doorway of the kitchen where Rafe was leaning against the doorframe, a dark scowl on his face. No one had even heard him come in.
"What?!" he snapped, and everyone went back to their food. Steve, however, was watching Rafe closely. He reminded him of Billy, but at the same time they were different. Rafe didn't seem mean, just… angry. Steve was intrigued now, and was determined to figure him out.
Suddenly, a bowl of cereal was thrust under Grace's nose, startling her.
"Here," JJ says with a small smile, "It's the last of the cereal. Steve really wasn't prepared for all this company, WERE YOU CUPCAKE?" he shouts the last part.
Steve scowled at him with a mouth full of ketchup-covered waffles, "shut up!"
JJ chuckled and shook the bowl a little bit, signalling for Grace to take it. Looking into the bowl, she saw that it was Honey Nut Cheerios, her favorite. She took the bowl over to the table and sat down to eat, enjoying every bite.
When everyone was done eating, Hopper stood up, a serious expression on his scruffy face.
"We need to come up with a plan to get rid of those things. Any suggestions?"
"I thought this was all over with the Mind Flayer," Joyce muttered tiredly.
"We don't even know what's going on. But they're destroying the whole town. There are very few people still alive and we need more information before we can come up with a way to defeat them," Pope explains logically. (Alright Mr. Spock)
Hopper nodded, deep in thought, "Okay, we should send out a group to look for survivors, another to find the source of this new invasion from the Upside Down, and a third group coming up with a solid plan."
Everyone nodded along, agreeing with that plan.
"Wait, hold up. You mean you're just going to send a bunch of people out in the woods where those monsters are roaming about? Are you insane?!" Rafe shouted.
"Last night you were the one who wanted to go out in the middle of the night, 'where those monsters are roaming about.'" Mike sassed. (we love sassy Mike)
Rafe stalked across the room, getting all up in Mike's business, jabbing a finger in his face. "You watch your mouth, you little shit." he growled.
Suddenly, Rafe was thrown across the kitchen by an invisible force, his back slamming into the opposite wall.
The room went dead silent, everyone's eyes moving to where Eleven stood. She wiped off the blood coming from her nose before turning around and calmly strutting out of the room.
"Damn," Rafe's dazed voice whispered, drawing everyone's attention back to him, "that's one badass chick you got there." He chuckled a little before pulling himself up off the floor, ignoring Steve's outstretched hand. He didn't even acknowledge the fact that she had telekinetic powers.
"Okaaaaay," Hopper said awkwardly, "So we should get started as soon as possible. So split yourself into groups or whatever."
Dustin immediately darted to Steve's side, in a way that looked like a small child rushing to his mother. (JJ already gave him a lot of crap for being a mom to a bunch of twelve year olds, when they were, in fact, fourteen and Steve really had absolutely no control over them.)
Sarah, John B, Pope and JJ formed a group, JJ grabbing Grace along with him into the group. Kie looked thoroughly put out, as if she wasn't always welcomed amongst the Pogues. For some inconceivable reason she went to stand in the corner with Nancy and Jonathan. Rafe didn't move from his spot against the wall, automatically putting himself into a group with Steve and Dustin, who were closest to him. Mike, Lucas, Max, and Will were grouped together with Joyce and Hopper. It went unspoken that El would be a part of their group.
"Okay, Harrington's group will go look for survivors. Heyward, your group will be coming up with a plan of action. My group will investigate and try to figure out what's going on. And Byers," Hopper finished off, "you three do whatever you think needs to be done."
"Wait, so we're doing this now?" Max asked.
"Yup, go get dressed kid." Everyone looked down at themselves to see that they were all still in their pajamas.
Once they were all dressed, they dispersed, three groups leaving the house, Steve's with two backpacks, a bat full of nails, and a grouchy Rafe, Hopper's with a superchild, three backpacks, and an emergency stash of Eggos. The third group, Nancy's, left with nothing but some extra jackets and flashlights, as well as Jonathan's camera. The fourth group stayed in the living room, already mapping out the things that they knew about these creatures, brainstorming ideas. (JJ's were entertaining, but very unhelpful) (That's my boyyyyyyy)
[Steve's group]
"I'm just saying, I think our group should have a name, like the Rescuers, since, you know, we're looking for survivors, and rescuing them, and-"
"Henderson, I would really appreciate it if you stopped talking, like, right now." Steve interrupted.
A few moments of silence settled between the group, the only sound to be heard was the crunching of leaves as they walked through the woods of Hawkins. Rafe, who had been walking slightly behind the two suddenly pushed through them, bumping them aside and walked on.
"Dude, wouldn't it be crazy if we, like, found one of these suckers?" Dustin broke the silence, his voice full of curiosity.
"What? Oh, you mean the creatures that can rip your face off in one bite? The creatures that contain inhumane amounts of bacteria in their saliva that would give you diseases for days? Oh yeah, totally fun." Steve responded sarcastically. There was a reason Max, Lucas, Mike, Will, and Dustin called him Mama Steve behind his back.
"Germaphobe." Dustin shot at Steve. Steve was about to make an "epic" comeback when Rafe held up his hand, signalling the group to stop.
"You got something big guy?" Dustin gasped in fake mockery. Rafe glared back at Dustin, but shook his head.
"Nah, I just had an idea. What if we get pieces of meat, make a kind of, like, trail, and we lead the monsters into a trap, where we kill them all."
Steve groaned and shook his head. "Done that already, it nearly ended in some of us dying, and just as a reminder, we're supposed to be looking for survivors, not fantasizing about… killing stuff, so if you could please stay on track?"
Rafe's intense grey eyes drilled into Steve's. "Sure thing… boss", and with that he continued walking on. The group trudged on in awkward silence, until suddenly, a scream pierced the air.
Dustin's eyes widened. "Oh shit!"
Steve started running. "Hurry it up fatass!" he called back to Dustin. "We got a life to save!"
"I'm trying!" Dustin shrieked. "And I believe the correct term is curvy!"
"Shut up Henderson!" The two guys ran towards the screaming voice that would pierce the air every few seconds, not realizing that Rafe had not been following them. The screaming grew louder as they got closer to the Quarry, the shrill noises turning into words.
"HELP! Oh my god, SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP US!" someone sobbed. Shrill screaming followed as Steve and Dustin heard the high pitched (How would you describe the sound that the demodogs make?) (like a REeEeEeEeEeE… or it's like a really high-pitched shriek) (?ￂﾠ yeah) clicking/shrieking of a demodog and their legs moved faster.
The boys burst out of the woods to see two girls cornered by a demodog, one of them holding a large stick out in front of them like a weapon and growling at the demodog while the other had her leg crushed under a boulder at the bottom of the cliff above the Quarry.
"ROBIN?!" Steve shouted as he recognized his coworker and friend trapped under the boulder.
"Steve!" she called out desperately. The blonde girl standing between Robin and the demodog let out a sharp yelp as the demodog launched itself at her, pinning her to the gravelly road.
Steve rushed to knock the monster off of her, swinging the nailed bat with enough power to make any major league baseball player jealous. The demodog yelped as the bat made contact with its uglyass body, skidding across the ground and away from the girl. Dustin ran to help her up before the demodog decided to attack again while Steve tried to free Robin's crushed leg.
The demodog was back on its feet and ready for more, so Steve had to leave Robin and keep it away from everybody. Dustin and the blonde struggled to lift the boulder off of Robin, and she let out a piercing scream as it was moved off of her leg, grabbing the attention of the demodog.
"No you don't!" Steve said, swinging the bat at the monster. (MAMA STEVE TO THE RESCUEEEE) He swung again and again, never giving the demodog enough time to recover. Sweat formed on his brow as he beat the monster to death, chest heaving as it died.
Turning back to Dustin and the girls, he helped them move the boulder off of Robin and helped her stand, letting her lean on him to keep off of her damaged leg.
"Dude, we gotta take you to the hospital. That leg looks bad." Steve said in concern.
"Shut up Dingus, I'm fine." Robin snapped.
"Hi! I'm Dustin," Dustin was talking to the blonde girl, sticking out his hand.
The girl smiled, "I'm Autumn, Robin's younger sister."
"You have a sister?!" Steve asked, this being news to him. Looking at the girl, he saw all of the similarities between the two of them. They both had lots of freckles and had a similar build, though Autumn might've been a little shorter. Their eyes were shaped the same and they both had long eyelashes, though while Robin had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, Autumn had dirty blonde hair and bright green eyes.
As Steve looked closer at Robin's sister, he noticed something off about her smile. He thought her canines looked a bit sharper than was normal, but Autumn's head whipped towards him as if she sensed his thoughts and her smile immediately disappeared. Robin, sensing the tense situation, began talking.
"So what brings you out here?"
"We're looking for survivors," Dustin answered, going on to explain the events leading up to her rescue.
"Do you have room for two more?" Robin asked, still leaning on Steve for support.
"Sure, it's just Steve, Rafe and I right now and you know, the more the merrier, except for, you know, we're searching for survivors in an apocalyptic town."
"Hey, wait," Steve said, "Where is Rafe?"
Steve and Dustin looked around, coming to the realization that Rafe hadn't followed them when they ran off to save the girls.
"Well shit," Steve said.
"Hey, what if the demodogs get him? That would be-" Dustin started.
"Awful."
"Awes-" Steve cut him off with a firm look.
"Awe-awful. Yeah, that's totally what I was going to say. Yup." Dustin nodded.
Steve sighed. "Let's go find that crazy bastard."
The four of them turned back into the woods to look for Sarah's psychotic brother. Just as they were about to set foot into the forested parts of Hawkins, Autumn spoke up.
"Do you have anything of his?" She asked quietly.
Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "No, why?"
She shrugged. "No reason."
"Okaaaaaaay," Steve gave her a weird look and continued on, though he was weighed down by Robin.
After a while, Robin began to pant heavily, gasping in pain every now and then.
"Woah, Robin you alright?" Steve asked in concern
Robin glared up at him. "My leg was just crushed under a boulder and I almost got eaten by a demonic lizard-dog. WHAT DO YOU THINK?!"
"Have you always been this good with the ladies Harrington or is she just special?" A sarcastic voice came from behind them.
Steve whipped around, accidentally letting go of Robin in surprise.
Leaning against a tree a few feet away from the small group was Rafe, looking chill yet intimidating at the same time.
"Dude, how long have you been standing there?" Steve asked.
Rafe shrugged. "You and Curly over there just ran off, towards the sound of a person in trouble with absolutely no sense of self-preservation. So I just thought I'd wait here for the two of you to get back."
Steve looked at him with wide eyes. "You do know that there are monsters roaming this forest and you are weaponless, right?"
Rafe shrugged again, leaving Steve to wonder about his sanity. (This is Rafe, he lost his sanity a long time ago.)
Steve sighed, looking down at his worn out shoes. It was then that he saw Robin sitting on the ground, glaring up at him.
"Oh, sorry." Steve helped her back up, letting her lean against him once more. Autumn and Dustin smiled in amusement when Robin smacked Steve across the back of his head.
"Okay, we should probably head back. It's getting late and Robin needs to get her leg taken care of." Dustin said.
Steve nodded. "Alright, let's go."
He led the way through the forest back to his house, nearly dropping Robin multiple times, much to the amusement of Rafe, Autumn, and Dustin. At one point, the group were walking down a steep incline that was slick with mud and Autumn slipped, knocking into Rafe and Dustin who then crashed into Steve, causing him and Robin to go tumbling down the hill. This resulted in a lot of cursing and laughing, though they quickly silenced themselves when they remembered that the Demodogs could hear them.
Almost an hour later, the group made it to Steve's huge house and pounded on the door.
[Hopper's group]
El and Mike were walking slightly behind Hopper and Joyce, whispering and giggling to each other. Hopper glanced back at the two and silently groaned. "SIX FEET APART YOU TWO!" he yelled back at them, smirking, though they couldn't see him as he was facing the front.
"WHAT?!" Mike protested, his voice slightly cracking. Lucas and Will nudged each other, thoroughly enjoying the free entertainment they were getting. Joyce, in the front, grabbed Hopper's arm.
"Lay off on them, Hop," she said gently. "They're just kids."
"Dad, please," El softly said. Hopper looked back at the two young teenagers, standing hand-in-hands. He tensed slightly, but realized all eyes were on him. He looked like the bad guy. And he hated looking like the bad guy. He stared at Mike, and finally managed a grunt, and kept walking on. Mike and El immediately relaxed, worried that Hopper was going to give them a long lecture, as he so loved to do. Joyce quickened her steps to catch up with Hopper.
"Hop, what was that back there? You-you act as if Mike and El have just started dating. I know you're protective over her, but really Hop, Mike is a good kid. He'll take care of her in-in danger", she stammered, noticing Hopper's face that was hardening.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand, Joyce," he said roughly.
"What, you don't think I don't worry about what could happen to one of my children at any given moment? You don't think that I wish I could put Will in a bubble, and keep him safe forever? I know how you feel, Hop. But we have to let these kids breathe. God, they've been through so much… so much. The least we can give them is a little bit of freedom and let them experience happiness."
Hopper stared straight ahead, rifle slung over his shoulder, looking like he was ready to kill anything and everything in his path. Truth was, he was fed up with this demogorgon business. He wanted El to live a normal life. And he knew that could never happen as long as these monsters were around.
He longed to keep his beloved El safe, and the only way he could think of to do that was to shield her from everything that brought her happiness. He knew happiness was only short-lived, and he didn't want her to be disappointed when she realized that hard truth herself. But he couldn't deny that what Joyce said was true. He glanced back once more at El and Mike, noting for one of the first times ever, how happy they looked together. He sighed heavily, realizing that Joyce was right. Joyce. He glanced over at the auburn-haired woman, and smiled to himself. He admired her wisdom and how she always kept him grounded. His bad mood having dissolved, he knew it was time to leave behind the constant tornado of worry that swirled around inside him. Everything would be alright. (You just gave Hopper more depth and character in these two paragraphs than he got in all of season three)
After walking for some time in silence, due to the tense situation, the group finally came across something. Right as they entered a clearing, Joyce gasped, grabbing Hopper's arm, catching the attention of the 5 teenagers in the back who had been quietly discussing (*cough* arguing *cough*) which band was better, The Beatles, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, Guns N' Roses, or AC/DC. (I love all of those bands!) Right in the middle of the clearing lay the misshapen body of a young boy. He looked around 15. Hopper, being a sheriff, quickly ran over to investigate. The rest of the group stayed back, nervous at the sight of the dead body. Hopper examined the body, sighing heavily when he was done.
"Kid's long gone. I'm guessing 2, 3 days, judging on the way it reeks. Body's begun deteriorating. Poor kid."
Eleven took a hesitant step towards the body, seeing something that Hopper had missed.
"Here," she said, pointing to the neck of the boy. "Teeth marks."
"Why're they so small?" Mike asked hesitantly. "I mean, this is a fucking-"
"Language!" Hopper reprimanded him. (Okay Steve Rogers) (Hopper would be the kind of guy to have a jar where you had to put in a dollar each time you swore loll) (Oh he definitely would, but he'd be the one who would have to put the most money in the jar)
"Oh, right, sorry," Mike rolled his eyes, "This is a freaking alien monster type thing. Why the hell would a creature that's killed so many people have such fucking-"
"LANGUAGE!"
"OHMYGOD LET ME FINISH!" Mike yelled in annoyance. Lucas and Max nudged each other, barely containing their laughter.
"Oh shit dude, Mike's about to get his butt whooped," she whispered to Lucas.
Hopper's temper flared up. "You know what Mike? I think we've heard enough from you."
"Wait what?! At least let me finish! I swear I won't cuss, I'm sorry, I'm just a little on edge right now," Mike held his ground. Hopper glared silently at him, Mike taking the silence as a good opportunity to finish.
"As I was saying… ok, so does anybody else find it weird that the Demagorgans have killed so many people, but based on the tooth marks from this body, they're extremely small. Teeth that small shouldn't be able to kill people so quickly, or even at all! Guys, think about it," he looked around at the group. "This is our first bodily evidence. I think there's something more to these monsters. There's no way those tiny teeth could kill a whole person. I think that there's something else going on that we haven't faced before, or there's some type of venom in their teeth. And I think we need to figure out which one of those things that is real quick." The group all looked thoughtfully at Mike. The group let this new information sink in, similar to the way the sun was beginning to slowly sink into the horizon.