Chapter 20: The Rescue And The Parasite

SCOOPS Troop walked side by side as they reentered the full movie theater. While Dustin hurried back to his original seat, Jean stopped in her tracks once she saw two vacant ones in the front, so she immediately sat down. Steve who was a few paces behind her was about to drop and sit beside her, but he was beaten to the punch by Erica who quickly plopped down beside Jean.

Steve paused and stared at the younger girl who just stole the seat he so desperately wanted to be in -by Jean's side, especially after their almost kiss in the bathroom stall.

Robin had to hide her amusement, covering her mouth with her palm and faking a cough before walking away to sit next to Dustin.

Jean turned her head up to see a very displeased Steve standing on his feet, his hands rested against his hips, as if silently telling Erica to get up. But the ten year old wasn't planning on moving. She looked up to the frustrated guy and waved a dismissive hand at him. "Go on. You're blocking the movie." She sassily told him before averting her gaze back to the film.

Jean couldn't help but giggle upon seeing the look Steve had, it could only be interpreted as; I'm never having kids if that's what they're really like. She sent him a sympathetic smile, but he just huffed and turned around. He then stomped like an angry child and plopped down by himself, begrudgingly waiting for the movie to be over.

Jean followed him with her eyes and smiled giddily to herself as she redirected her attention back to the screen.

"So," Erica Sinclair began, snapping Jean from her romantic thoughts. She whipped her head in her direction, perking a brow.

"You have superpowers." Erica stated.

Jean pursed her lips. "Umm.."

Erica turned to her and declared how she knew. "Dustin told me."

The redhead exhaled sharply, awaiting for the younger girl's nervously response. "And?"

"And I'm disappointed."

Jean furrowed her eyebrows at her, her face scrunched in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You could've done so much with yourself. Become a famous mentalist or something. Do you know how much money they make? Instead you're babysitting a ten year old." Erica incredulously spoke, and a hint of mockery could be detected in her tone.

Jean chuckled. Although the girl's words held truth to them, she'd never considered utilizing her powers for her own personal gain. It seemed morally wrong to her for some reason. "I happen to like hanging out with you." She chirped, displaying a sickly sweet smile gracious her cheeks.

Erica turned away, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She, too enjoyed Jean's company, and now she thought she was even more cool when she found out about her abilities -not that she'd ever tell her.

"I know." She confidently said.

~~~

Once the movie was over, they had to wait for the perfect time to exit, Dustin peeked outside the theater doors with a jagged breath, and once he saw the large number of people roaming the hallways, he knew it was go time.

Everybody murmured and whispered how good the movie was, but Jean didn't even fully comprehend what she was watching half the time. As she waited for Dustin to give them the okay to start leaving, she stood by Steve's side, clutching on his wrinkled sleeve.

Erica looked around, as the five of them shuffled along the rowdy crowds, camouflaging themselves in their presence. "Well, shit, that worked."

"Of course it worked. We just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come." Dustin grinned, thinking optimistically.

Steve glanced to Dustin with wide eyes, realizing what he'd done in his drugged state. "Uh, Dustin?"

"What?"

"Yeah, we might not wanna go to your house." Steve mumbled, averting his eyes in shame from the younger boy.

"Why?"

"Well, I might've told them your full name." He confessed, and Robin chuckled.

Dustin spun his head around, his eyebrows shooting to the top of his forehead at his words. "What is wrong with you?" He accusingly asked. And Jean looked slightly taken aback.

"Dude, I was drugged." Steve defended.

Dustin rolled his eyes at the older male. "So, you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man."

The redhead shook her head. She didn't think it was right to hold something that was beyond h8s control against him. "Didn't you see how giddy he was? They had no self control."

Dustin scoffed, leading them to mall's exit. "Yeah, no shit. He almost kissed you when you were unconscious."

Jean's eyes went as wide saucers, the news taking her by surprise and she almost halted in her steps. "What?"

Steve glared at Dustin, feeling betrayed for ratting him out. He pursed his lips, looking over at Jean. "He's joking." She didn't have time to retort or to get made once the blonde spoke.

"Guys?" Robin choked out. She pulled her friends back with timorous hands causing them to stumble on their feet.

Jean's green eyes searched the premise, and they landed on the Russians that tried to capture them earlier on the loading dock. She instinctively staggered back with Steve dragging along with her.

"Abort." Dustin mumbled, but as one of the men who had a ponytail glanced at them, the boy became more frantic. "Abort!"

The group shifted backwards before shifting into a hurried sprint, shoving people out of their way. As they rushed, Jean's hand that was once grasping Steve's sleeve had slipped into his larger hand and he held her firmly pulling her behind him.

"Shit!"

They came to dead stop in front of the dormant escalators, but as Jean looked over her shoulders and found the Russians hot on their tails, they decided to improvise. Robin was first to wiggle her way into the skinny space between the two escalators. With a wide grin, Jean followed, planting herself in the railing. Under different circumstances, this would've been fun, Jean thought.

As they navigated their way downstairs, in just a couple of minutes, the mall closed and the crowds that once protected them vanished and moved to the parking lot.

Men dressed in black carrying massive guns were stalking towards them.

The Starcourt mall was now in complete lockdown and lit aglow in the darkness, the neon lights illuminating in the shadows. The vacant mall was eerie with its silence and the group dashed across the polished floor of the the first level while also trying to maintain their stealthy status to hide from the guards.

Jean and the rest panicked, but they saw their saving grace in the Great Cookie, deciding to hide beneath the counter and their sneakers squeaked along the floor. "Everyone, get over here." Robin instructed.

The five of them crouched in the comforting darkness of the empty food court, but as the menacing sound of footsteps approached, their blood went cold.

While Dustin, Erica, Robin and Steve could only close their eyes and wait to be caught, or worse like get shot at, Jean had a different thought all together.

The telepath sucked in a breath, her heart drumming loudly. "El's here." She declared in a whisper. Steve and Dustin's heads whipped in her direction.

"What? Really?" Steve asked and Jean gave a nod of her chin in response. She could sense Eleven's powerful mind approaching and relief draped over her like a cold breeze on a hot summer's day.

In the next moment, the display car started wailing, the horn honked and the whole vehicle began to tremble as if an earthquake was hitting the ground below. Out of nowhere, the car smacked into another food outlet, skewed with twisted metal and shattered glass.

There was a prolonged silence, and then Dustin's head was first to pop up, and he found his friends on the second level. Jean and the rest were quick to follow and when she spied Eleven's face, her heart launched. "El," She breathed out.

The party dashed for their friends, taking the non-working escalator to get to the foodcourt.

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin exclaimed, jogging to his friends with excited laughter falling from his lips.

Seeing the redhead running to her with a wide grin, the brown haired girl could only reciprocate the expression. "Jean," Eleven breathed out, while she was half-carried by Mike. Jean went straight to her, the sight of her was of sweet relief, but as she got a good look at her, this turned into concern.

About to hug her, Jean instead coiled back at the sight. She looked exhausted, to the point where she was unable to walk on her own. There was bruising on her face, her eyes bloodshot, her nose bleeding. "El, what the hell happened?" She worriedly asked with a deep frown.

Mike and El exchanged glances, and the boy pursed his lips, unable to explain. "It's..a long story."

Their conversation was cut short once the rest of the troop had joined them.

Erica looked to see her nerdy older brother, and her face scrunched. "Lucas?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked, her ams flailing about in confusion.

With a smirk, Erica Sinclair shrugged pointing her finger at the rest of the Scoops troop. "Ask them. It's their fault."

Lucas turned to see a nervously shifting Steve and Erica's shameful babysitter. "True, yeah. Totally true. It's absolutely our fault." Steve admitted, looking down in embarrassment. Jean pursed her lips, her guilt resurfacing for letting the ten year old get involved. "Mostly mine."

Robin who was still recovering from the car throwing incident, glanced back at it, her face perplexed. "I don't understand what happened to that car."

"El has superpowers like Jean." Dustin declared, snapping his fingers at the girl bleeding from her nostrils. And Robin just incredulously nodded.

Jonathan scrunched up his face, seeing new unfamiliar faces. "Jean?" He repeated in a questioning manner.

Said girl raised her arm to identify herself. "That's me."

The boy gave a polite nod and introduced himself. "Jonathan." He said, and wondered why her eyes flew open once she'd heard his name.

"Oh." She mumbled in realization, seeing Nancy, Mike's sister, with the guy she left Steve for. She was snapped out of her thoughts with Erica's loud soft pitched voice.

"That's El?"

"Yeah I think so." Robin replied.

Jean once again tuned out their chatter when a low humming sound began ringing into her ears. Her eyes narrowed, her nose pinched as she attempted to identify the source. She stepped away from the group, her temple beginning to ache as the droning sound intensified, and then her green eyes landed on Eleven's panting form.

"El? Eleven, are you okay?" She weakly asked, approaching her.

All Eleven responded with was a groan, before she collapsed and fell to the ground. Jean gasped and immediately ran up to her side, followed by Mike and the rest.

"El! El!" Mike called out, turning the girl so he'd see her face. Jean was crouching by his side, just as perturbed as the teenage boy.

"What's wrong with her?" Erica curiously asked, glancing between her brother and Jean.

"What's wrong, El? Can you talk?" Jean calmly asked, but she was panicking on the inside.

Eleven sucked in a stabbing breath, head falling back against the cold floor. "My leg. My leg."

"Her leg."

The teenagers all surrounded her in the food court, looking on with sympathy and cringed facies.

El panted, she was wrenching and twisting in agony, and whimpers fell from her lips as she did.

"Let me see." Jean said, bending by the girl, edging up one leg of her pants to see the damage. Jean scrunched her nose at the sight. Blood had soaked through Eleven's skin and was still oozing freely. The area around the ripped flesh was congested and sore. Blood wept from the nasty wound, sliding down El's leg.

But that was nothing compared to the sight of the swelling beginning to move. The flesh sizzling over it.

Jean gasped. Something was moving in El's leg, stuck under and twisting beneath her flesh. It was omething that gave off the same chaotic feeling Jean had around that 'Gate'. She'd sensed the pulsating, furious and angry storm before, too.

Around that time when Billy told her to stay away from him.

"What is that?" Erica grimaced, snapping Jean out of her thoughts.

"There's something in there!" Mike cried to his older sister, his tone distressed.

As that thing moved even further, painfully stretching and moving beneath her skin, Eleven wailed, losing sight of her surroundings.

"El! El!" Mike yelled, trying to keep her focused on him.

Jean wheezed at the sight but she kept a calm facade to soothe her tortured friend. "El! El, stay with me, okay?" She said, reaching out to hold her cold hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

And then Eleven released an ear piercing scream.

Jonathan gulped thickly, getting up to his feet. "Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?" He commanded before sprinting across the food court.

"Jesus Christ." Dustin swore under his breath, his eyes wide with fear like the rest. The panic was surging through the group of kids, which was understandable. This was way out of their league, Jean thought.

"Hey, hey, hey. Stay with me. Okay, El?" Jean rambled out frantically, het fingers around El's, while Mike held the pained girl's other hand. "Focus on my voice." She said, watching as Steve and Nancy helped Eleven into a better position.

"Let's get her on this side, on this side."

"Easy, easy, easy, easy."

"It's, uh, you know, it's not actually that bad. There was a The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, - six inches or something, it was insane." Robin babbled, her eyes jittery. She was still standing up, the sight proving to be too much for her, and it was causing her hysterical ramble.

Steve calmly, and sternly told her to shut up.

Jonathan Byers dropped to his knees, holding see-through plastic gloves, a wooden spoon and a gleaming carving knife. Jean's breath hitched at the sharp object. "All right, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" He said after sucking in a nervous breath.

"Okay." Eleven weakly sobbed.

He nodded towards Steve, Jean and Mike, gesturing for them to hold her down. "Stay still. And here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" He instructed, offering her the wooden spoon.

Undeniably, Dustin was the only kid verbalizing his panic, while the rest were quietly freaking out. "Holy shit. Holy shit!"

"Do it." Mike shrieked, squeezing his eyes shut.

Tears glistening in her eyes, Jean cringed as she saw the teenager line up the knife over El's wound and then cutting into her skin. The girl wailed and wailed, fighting against the hands that kept her in place. With a grimace, Jonathan dropped the knife and dug his gloved fingers into the wound, searching for the parasite with unsteady hands.

The amount of heightened pain, anxiety, dread and fear all of them radiated was hitting Jean's mind like a truck.

"Jonathan!" Nancy yelled, shaking her head.

"Stop talking! Goddamn it!" Jonathan snapped, fighting through the situation, hoping it would be over soon.

But Eleven couldn't take his invasive search, so she spat out the spoon, getting up. "No! Stop it! Stop! Stop!" The wounded girl moaned with each painful movement, but she was still fighting against the agony. "I can do it. I can do it." She grunted, trying to push Mike and Jean away from her, but they wouldn't budge from their supportive proximity.

The group watched with heavy hearts as the fourteen year old extended her hand, using her telekinetic powers to pull the creature from her leg.

"God! God!" She groaned and screamef in pain.

Although it was El who was removing a vermin-like creature from her leg, her flesh tearing, Jean was suffering just the same.

A sharp pain shattered through Jean's skull, like a shard of glass penetrating through it and reaching into her brain. She shuddered, white spots appearing in her vision and her face scrunched at the spiking ache.

She released a short breath, feeling a familiar heat rising in her head and replacing the throbbing pain.

Preoccupied with Eleven's predicament, no one saw how her eyes changed from their usual translucent green to a pure amber color.

The large glass windows of all the adjacent shops all shattered into small shards.

The party scattered away as glass rained on them. They'd all assumed it was Eleven who was still screaming that induced that powerful display.

It wasn't.

Jean flinched and snapped out of her daze, her eyes returning to their normal color (not that she noticed their change) and she saw the parasite being wrenched from El's limb. It was monstrous and evil.

Eleven continued to scream as she disdainfully lifted it with her abilities, and tossed it across the mall's glass-covered floor.

It still had fight in it as it chittered, screeching away from them, crawling painfully. But it didn't go far as someone's boot squashed it flat, its insides gushing on the ground.

Jean's heart swelled with relief upon looking up to see who it was.