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El, the Fire-Starter.
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When she'd been in California with Will, Jonathan and Joyce to make a fresh new start away from Hawkins, which haunted them with so many truly dark memories, she had found video stores that were bigger than the tiny one in Hawkins. Even to this day, Eleven genuinely didn't know for sure exactly what Joyce needed to say or do to make sure Dr Owens was aware of what they were doing so then the government wouldn't get it into their collective brains to come and kidnap her, but she was relieved she could finally walk down a street without fearing about someone coming for her.
Okay, she missed her powers. She had become so used to them that she had used them for relatively mundane reasons, like closing or opening doors, summoning things into her hands or sending them away, or fighting Demogorgons to closing the Gates leading into the Upside Down. At first, she had assumed with them no longer dominating her life, she could finally live the life she wanted. But she missed her powers; it was annoying absently lifting her hand to close her bedroom door, only to realise it wasn't happening and having to get up and do it herself.
Her school enemy, Angela who had begun bullying her for reasons beyond Eleven's comprehension had made her question why she had wanted a normal life in the first place.
Anyway, while she had been perusing the video stores with Joyce, Will and Jonathan when the latter wasn't doing whatever he was doing and coming back stinking (El really did need to know what 'high' meant) before she had come across a movie titled 'Firestarter.' Doing some checking, El had been in two minds about actually watching the movie, which mirrored her dark past so well. But in the end, something compelled her to get it.
By the end of the week, El had been so creeped out by the startling similarities between herself and Charlie McGee.
Both of them were girls.
Both born from parents who'd taken part in illegal experiments that were top secret, sanctioned by a shady organisation.
Both stalked by someone obsessed with them.
Both of them had powers generated by the mind.
The organisation who'd been behind the experiments then pursued her, Bad Men with guns.
Their mother loved them, but both of their parents eventually died because of them (Eleven knew it was because of her that Terry Ives had died inwardly, but the flashes she had of her mother were all she had left, and they were better than nothing).
Kidnapped at young ages; but where Eleven had known nothing but the Lab, Charlie had seen the world, she'd been raised by her father.
Finally, they used their powers against their enemies.
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When she got her powers back, El made sure to practice them; she was a year out of practice, and they felt unusual, almost as if she had lost something but something new had taken their place. It was hard to explain, even for her. Inspired by Charlie, El had Argyle stop the pizza van (a part of her idly wondered how he'd explain that, but decided it wasn't her problem), and she got out and stood in front of a cactus.
"El, what are you doing?" Mike called.
But El ignored him as she focused on the cactus in front of her, picturing it exploding with fire. She pictured the inside of the cactus heating up before the fire started…
At first, nothing happened. Out of the corner of her eyes, Eleven noticed Jonathan, Will, and Argyle watching her stumped, before the fire started.
"Whoa!" Will jumped.
Mike gaped at it and glanced between the burning cactus and Eleven. "Did you just do that?"
Eleven nodded.
"I didn't know you could do that," Mike went on.
"Well, I can now. It's just mind power; I just pictured what I wanted to do, and I let my mind do the rest," Eleven replied.
"Cool."
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As the pizza van went down the roads, they occasionally stopped and she began setting other things alight. Eleven felt her proficiency growing as she kept practicing. She found it easier if she pictured the air heating up while inner fires grew inside her target, but with more practice she found the process speeding up.
Further inspired by Charlie in the movie, especially at the end, Eleven tried beginning to conjure balls of fire which she could throw with her mind.
Okay, it took her a while, but once she created her first fireball which was only the size of a tennis ball, she considered it a win. She would just need time to practice making them bigger, that was all.
-8-
When they discovered Hopper was still alive, and that Joyce and Murray had found him in Russia, of all places, and they reunited with Dustin, Erica, Robin, Steve, and Lucas again, Eleven showed them her new power. She chose a few trees out over at the edges of the abandoned Hawkins Laboratory for the demonstration, she had to get the horrifying and ghastly sights of the Upside Down invading the real world out of her mind.
Concentrating her power once more on the trees, El pictured the trees catching fire. Picturing the air around the trunks heating up while picturing the fire inside sparking, and getting out of control, Eleven watched in satisfaction as the trees exploded in flames, smiling as she heard the sounds of amazement behind her.
"Any idea what else she could do?" She heard Steve ask; she was sure he hadn't meant to speak that out aloud, but Eleven smiled and chuckled nonetheless.
"Why don't we find out?" Eleven asked philosophically.
She would end this.
She would stop Vecna, and now she knew she was partly responsible for his creation into the monster he was, she would make it a top priority. And she would do all she could to help Max. There was no chance she was going to let her friend hurt anymore.