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Admittedly, it was a little awkward when Jonathon called her for help. She’d made a fool out of him at Scoops in front of all of his friends, had gotten him fired from his job, and to top it all off, he was apparently under the impression she’d gotten back with Steve only hours after they broke up.
So the fact that he called her of all people was…astounding, if Nancy was honest.
She was still kind of angry, and in half a mind to just hang up on him without even hearing what he had to say (that was what Erica was telling her to do anyways), but when he started questioning Mike’s safety, she was far more inclined to hear him out.
“Why wouldn’t Mike be safe, Jonathon? What do you know?” She interrogated. Dustin perked up in the background of her vision, looking worried.
“I don’t know! He and Will were just going on and on about the Mindflayer.”
“We got rid of the Mindflayer. El closed the Gate!”
“You think I don’t know that?!” She had to held the phone away from her ear as Jonathon started to shout.
“Jonathan!” She cut off his tirade. “I am five seconds from calling Mike myself on Cerebro and asking him instead!”
Jonathon sighed. “Fine, fine. Back to the kids, then.”
“That would be nice.”
He heaved a heavy breath like he was gearing up the nerve to say something big. “They were saying that Max’s brother Billy is flayed.”
“No!”
“I know. And it’s worse. They-well, we-think that Driscoll is too.”
Nancy thought of the horrible moment when she saw Driscoll eating fertilizer in her basement, eyes wild and mouth open in a snarl. She shivered.
“Why do you think that?” Why wouldn’t they?
He hesitated.
“Jonathon!”
“I’ll…I’ll tell you later. Just meet me and the kids at the hospital.” The line went dead, and Nancy numbly jammed it back onto its base. For a moment, she just stared at the wall. This was supposed to be over; the Gate was closed. This was supposed to be done with. There were no more demodogs or gross black vines or problems at Hawkins lab.
After Bob died and El showed up at the Byers’ with slicked back hair and punk makeup, Nancy had been sure she could go back to normal.
And sure, cracking codes wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t anything to do with other worlds, right?
Only now, maybe it was.
“What’s a Mindflayer?” Robin asked, raising her hand like she was in class, and Nancy startled, turning back around. Erica and Robin looked confused, and Dustin and Steve were grim.
“Isn’t El that weird girl Lucas hangs out with?” Erica asked, wrinkling her nose sassily.
“Yes,” Nancy answered, completely ignoring the first question. Russian codes and secret rooms were one thing, but bringing two more innocents into this mess? It would be like Bob all over again…
Or Barb (hollow pools haunted her dreams every night).
“Back to my question,” Robin cut in, and Steve rolled his eyes.
“That’s not important, Robin!”
“I kinda think it is. It sounds creepy and everyone but me and the four year old girl knows what it is.”
“I’m twelve, you band nerd!”
“What’s going on?” Dustin interrupted. “What was Jonathon saying about Mike?”
Nancy pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to ward off the onslaught of unwanted questions. “He said that Mike and the others did some Sauna Test at the public pool, and they think Billy Hargrove is flayed.”
Steve just stared at her, shellshocked.
Dustin was rambling. “Billy? As in Max’s brother Billy? As in the guy who tried to kill Lucas and Steve? That Billy-“
“YES THAT BILLY!” Steve shouted, and Dustin’s mouth snapped shut.
“Wait, someone tried to kill my brother?” Erica interjected. God, Nancy was getting a migraine.
“Yet again,” she said. “Unimportant at the moment.”
“What d’you mean ‘flayed’? Like…” Robin trailed off. “A McDonald’s fish sandwich?”
Steve groaned. “That’s filleted, you moron.”
“Shut up, dingus!”
“Guys!” Dustin cried, and finally the noise died down. “I think we have some explaining to do.”
———
Robin lifted her head from her hands. “So…to summarize the absolute bullshit you just spewed,” she smiled sarcastically. “Hawkins is attached to an alternate world where creepy faceless monsters pop through and eat people and cats, and/or take over their minds. Do I have that right?”
Dustin nodded. “Pretty much, yeah.”
Erica snorted. “And you’re telling me that MY brother helped? Nuh uh. I call bull.”
Steve crossed his arms. “So you believe the parts about alternate worlds, monsters, and a lab full of freaky, telekinetic child armies, but you don’t believe that Lucas helped?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t believe any of it,” Robin cut in.
Nancy acted without thinking. “We can prove it.”
Steve and Dustin both blinked at her like she just suggested group cliff diving.
“How?” Robin narrowed her eyes.
“Come to the hospital with me. Jonathon said Mike and the others are going to try and get in to see Driscoll, who might also be flayed. And if that’s not proof enough, El will be there.”
“El, the superhuman fourteen year old who can snap peoples’ necks by moving her head?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“This is a bad idea,” Dustin cut in. “Like majorly bad. Robin’s inexperienced. She’s a rookie.”
“So?” Nancy asked.
“You know who else was a rookie? Bob!” Dustin was nearly shouting again. “And Barb-“ he cut himself off, but it was too late. Steve glared at him.
“Dude!”
“Sorry.”
Robin looked a little pale. “Oh. You…I forgot you were friends with Barb.” Suddenly, she looked less skeptical. As though she thought Nancy wouldn’t ever make up a story about her friend’s death. As if Nancy hadn’t already practically murdered her, anyways. Hadn’t helped to think up the coverup story about the gas leak.
“We can’t just ditch the air duct plan,” Steve interrupted Nancy’s staring contest with the floor, thankfully filling the awkwardly thick silence. “There’s still Russians running around our mall passing secret messages like middle schoolers, so…”
“He’s right,” Dustin agreed eagerly. “Jonathon and the rest of the Party will just have to make do on their own. They have El anyways. She’s our secret weapon. If anything, we’re the ones who need backup.”
“Or I could just take Robin with me and you guys could continue your plan.”
“WHAT?!” Steve and Dustin shouted in unison.
“You’re not going alone,” the former started.
“I won’t be alone. Robin will be there.”
“What about us?” Dustin gaped. “That leaves only three kids against an assload of Russians! With guns!!”
“You think “a rookie” and a reporter are gonna make much difference against trained soldiers?” Nancy snorted. “Yeah right.”
She then turned to Robin. “Let’s go.”
Steve swore under his breath. “I still don’t like this.”
———
Jonathon stepped into the elevator with Nancy and Robin, eyeing up the latter like he wished she weren’t there.
“So how’d you know about Driscoll?” Nancy asked stiffly, not looking at him.
He cleared his throat, nervousness in his gaze. “I…I did some thinking and decided to talk to Driscoll again last night.” Oh so he DID believe her then. “Same time that the kids did their test on Billy, she started seizing and there were black veins on her skin. Just like Will’s last time.”
Robin shivered.
“So what then?” Nancy asked. “You just decided to suddenly believe me after everything?”
“Nance-“
“I don’t want an excuse, Jonathon. I want an apology.”
He sighed, clearly exasperated. “I’m sorry, okay? I should have listened.” That wasn’t even near the ballpark of sincerity.
“I want you to mean it.” Nancy felt bad that Robin was stuck in the middle, because she looked uncomfortable, but there was nothing else to do but try and talk this out a little. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to work together.
Silence reigned. No new apology was issued. That was answer enough.
———
“She’s gone,” Nancy gasped, staring around at the wrecked hospital room. There was an overturned case of flowers, and bedsheets kicked off all over the floor, a nightstand haphazardly pushed aside by the doorway. The lamp was broken, and it was dark.
“How does a psychotic, garden-fertilizer-hopped old lady just disappear?” Robin asked, and at least she was now on board with the craziness that was Hawkins, Indiana.
“Leave it to Nancy Drew to solve the mystery!” A sing-song voice teased from behind the three of them, and they spun around to see Bruce from the Hawkins Press. She’d know that voice, that awful nickname anywhere.
Only it wasn’t quite Bruce. There was a glint in his eye…something…malicious.
“He’s flayed,” Jonathon hissed.
“No shit, Sherlock, he’s covered in blood!” Robin hissed back hysterically, backing up.
“RUN!” Nancy shouted, just as Bruce lunged.
———
Bruce wasn’t alone. Nancy and Jonathon’s ex boss Tom Holloway, Heather’s dad, was also there, covered in blood from his dress shirt to his leather shoes.
Within seconds, he’d beat Jonathon into the ground with a stool to the back (her own spine ached just thinking about it) and again in the head. That left Nancy, and okay, Dustin might’ve been right about Robin being an amateur…
And the Mindflayer was the real deal, even when confined to a small human body instead of its usual shadow form.
Tom had Robin by the throat in a death hold, strangling her with one hand while her fingers scraped at his wrists and her feet dangled helplessly.
Bruce was trying to get through the door Nancy had locked him behind, the hinges starting to give way beneath his superhuman strength.
Yet again, she didn’t think. She just grabbed a pair of scissors from an overturned medical cart and dashed at Tom’s back, trying not focus on Robin’s blue lips or wide, fearful eyes. It was just like Barb; another best friend lost because Nancy wanted for too much.
Barb died because Nancy wanted to be with Steve and the popular kids, and now Robin was gonna die because she wanted to investigate her little case. Pathetic.
She channeled her anger into her hands and thrusted the scissor blades through Tom’s chest, a sickening squelch reaching her ears. Robin gasped as she was dropped from his iron grip, bruises already purpling on her throat.
Tom turned to face Nancy as if he was about to start on her next, but then he collapsed. The pounding on the door stopped too, as though Bruce had collapsed as well (thank God for the hive mind). Robin was gasping for air like a fish out of water, and Nancy helped her up.
“Are you alright?”
Robin nodded shakily, looking braver than Nancy felt, even after all these years. “Yeah, yeah I’m good. Thanks to you,” her voice was a little raspy. “That was badass by the way.”
Nancy smiled wanly. “You won’t think so once you meet El. She takes it to a whole new level.”
Robin looked as though she were about to say something, but they were cut off by an odd gurgling sound. They looked down to see Tom, his body seizing and his skin bubbling and turning weird colors.
Suddenly, he exploded into a mound of flesh and muscle and snapped bones. “Oh God!” Robin screamed, scrambling back and dragging Nancy with her. The pink flesh blob started slowly oozing towards them, more of it coming from underneath the door where Bruce had been, and of course, that was when Jonathon chose to wake up.
He stumbled upright groggily, his eyes unfocused…until they set sights on whatever Tom was now, just as he…MERGED…with Bruce (Nancy gagged).
“What the hell?!” He shouted at the two girls.
“We’re screwed,” Nancy breathed, and Robin nodded.
Great, at least they were in agreement.
———
Nancy ran one way and Robin ran the other.
Truth be told, Robin was new to this whole lab rat/Close Encounters situation, but she was sure she was catching on fast. She knew when to run, for example, and what was considered stranger than normal, even for Nancy and Jonathon.
Exhibit A: the flesh blob who ate everyone.
Part of it-maybe Bruce, maybe Tom, maybe a bit of both-broke off and followed Nancy, while the other half chased Robin down. And okay, it wasn’t a fast blob, but it was gross and creepy and Robin was still in her Scoops uniform (yes, with the sailor hat), so she wasn’t exactly in the ideal running outfit.
Not only that, but after only five minutes (it felt like a million years) she hit a dead end. And icing on the cake? She tripped on an overturned gurney and slammed into the hospital tile flooring, her knees scraping open and her nose smacking down hard.
It wasn’t like she had time to recover from the pain though, because the Mindfilleter (screw you, Steve) thingie was practically on top of her. She scrambled to her feet, kicking the gurney at the blob, as if that would slow it down in the slightest.
Finally, Robin grabbed up a scalpel from the pile of scattered, bloody-fingerprint-stained supplies and pointed it at Tom/Bruce (Truce? Brom?).
“Yeah, t-that’s right, pal! I have a deadly weapon and I’m not afraid to…” she sighed, laughing hysterically at herself. “Poke you with it, because this is honestly useless.”
It oozed closer, ignoring her all the while, and Robin was just beginning to send her prayers skyward, when suddenly a broom flew handle first and hit right in the middle of the blob.
The blob turned as though to look at the broom thrower. Robin looked up, her gaze settling on a shorter, red haired girl about Dustin’s age, a defiant look on her face. Behind her was another girl of the same age with short, brown hair and very colorful clothes that Robin was sure had been pulled right off a mannequin at the Gap.
“A broom?” Robin asked before she could stop her mouth from moving a mile a minute as usual. “Really? You couldn’t find something at least a little pointy?”
The red haired girl scowled. “Who the hell even are you?”
She had a point there. Who was Robin to think that she knew anything about this? Hearing Steve and Nancy talk about Christmas lights and Dustin about fleas and acrobats and tightropes…it wasn’t the same as staring death right in the face.
“I’m Robin!” She shouted back, as if they should know who she was, or as if there wasn’t a body-fluid-ooze in the middle of the hall between them.
“Well, “Robin” get out of the way!” The girl called back, and she stepped aside for the other girl who stared at the oozing blob that looked like it couldn’t decide who to seep towards first. The girl thrust out her hand, her eyes dark under the glitching fluorescent lights, and screamed a scream full of guttural rage.
The blob picked up off the floor and hit one wall, then the other, then the ceiling, jarring a few tiles loose. It was like the girl was puppeteering it.
Robin backed up a step, but the redhead was waving her hands at her angrily, so she hurriedly dashed past the flay-thing and over to the two kids (were they really the kids in this situation if THEY were saving HER?).
Panting out a breath, Robin didn’t get to say anything before the redhead jerked her aside and the blob came scrambling past, hissing away from the other girl.
Robin looked at the brunette in awe as she wiped a trickle of blood from her nose, looking exhausted. So this was El. The girl who could open Gates and close them and banish demogorgons and make things happen with her freaking mind!
Until then, Robin had held out just the slightest shred of skepticism over the whole thing. Maybe Steve had organized some elaborate prank with the hospital…maybe the ooze was a bunch of yogurt and fruit pieces…
But El, El was real. And she was insanely badass. Nancy was right.
….Nancy.
Shit.
“Where did that blob thingie go?” She asked.
The redhead rolled her eyes. “The Mindflayer? It went that way.” And she pointed where Nancy had gone.
“Nancy!” Robin went to run down the hall, but El grabbed her wrist.
“Too dangerous.” Her voice sounded a little funny, her sentences simplistic and stilted like she wasn’t used to talking so much.
“Yeah, especially for Nancy,” Robin pushed. Nancy was her new friend, who apparently thought Robin was strong enough to handle all of this. She didn’t want to lose her. Not to mention, Steve would be destroyed if anything happened to the girl he gave moony-eyes at when she wasn’t looking.
“What about Nancy?” Three boys came running down the hall towards them from the elevator, one of whom looked vaguely like Erica, so it must’ve been Lucas. The other two she guessed were Mike and Will.
“Where is she, Max?” The black-haired one closest to El asked, and the redhead, Max, cringed.
“She’s about to be eaten by a giant flesh monster.”
The boy, presumably Mike, gave her the epitome of a what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you look, and Robin felt that they’d all been standing around for far too long. This was why she didn’t get along with kids like Steve did.
“Guys! Less talking, more running!” She ordered.
Lucas glared at her. “Who even are you?” Why were they all so determined to waste time with formalities and introductions?
“I literally serve you ice cream every time Steve sneaks you into the movies!”
“Why are you here?” Will cut in.
“She is right,” El interrupted. “We need to stop the Mindflayer.”
It must’ve meant a helluva lot more when she said it, because everyone jumped into action and started sprinting down the hall. They met up with Jonathon halfway, and somehow Robin ended up at the front of this ragtag group, right up there with El and Max, speeding through the torn up halls. They followed the red trail the Mindflayer had left on the floor, finally reaching a locked door that the blob was sliding underneath.
“Nancy!” Mike shouted, and yeah, Robin had kinda forgotten he was her younger brother. Sue her, she was still getting used to the group dynamics.
Jonathon was slamming a fire extinguisher against the glass pane so he could unlock the door because of course Nancy locked it, probably frantic and frightened and out of her mind.
“Oh, move,” Max groaned, shoving him aside so she could kick at the door. Without thinking, Robin took a place at her side and started throwing herself against it. Maybe El helped a little with her mind powers, or maybe Robin and Max were just a damn force to be reckoned with.
Either way, the door busted open to the now fully fused Mindflayer, which had teeth and weird leg things and God, it was disgusting and scary. It was over Nancy, who was on the ground, screaming a scream they couldn’t hear over the deafening roar of the monster.
Max was right; she was about to be eaten. Or absorbed, or flayed, or fish-sandwiched, who the hell even knew at this point?
“Nancy!” Jonathon screamed, and though it was the most awful time, she couldn’t help but think that he didn’t deserve to sound so worried. He gave up his chance when he refused to acknowledge the sexism in a workplace they shared. He lost that right when he pushed all of the blame onto his girlfriend who only wanted to help.
If some guy did that to Robin…well that was part of the reason she liked girls. True they could be bitchy, but at least they weren’t misogynistic douche bags.
El jumped into action immediately, Mike and Max both holding her up so she could channel all of her energy into flinging that thing across the room. Nancy was up on her feet as fast as possible, shaking and trembling and eyes shining, her arms hugging herself. Robin crossed the room to her, not caring about the giant fleshy spider being beat up by a teenage girl or the yelling (it was terribly high pitched) children telling her to “stay back, whoever you are” (seriously, she wore a name tag!).
And then Robin and Nancy were holding onto each other, and El was screaming with blood streaking from her nose and Max was throwing things and shouting insults like the Mindflayer was a schoolyard bully, not an alternate-world-creepy-crawly with the ability to steal your body and your mind and your LIFE.
They made quite the team, huh?
Exhausted, El collapsed again Mike, and the Mindflayer started to race towards the kids again, and then Nancy and Robin started throwing things too, and Max pulled Will out of the way just in time.
They all scattered as Mike tried to keep El safe and conscious at the same time, eventually ending up with him holding her up by Max, Nancy, and Robin in the center of the room. It charged at them again, and El shoved Mike out of harm’s way, and then the other three girls were holding her up as she screamed as loudly as she could, her hands thrown out in front of her. Then Nancy was screaming too, and Max was yelling something, and Robin started screaming (she didn’t know why; maybe it was contagious, or maybe to feel like part of the team).
Robin almost felt the push too, and the Mindflayer definitely did, seeing as it roared like a lion as it slammed through the thick wall and out into the world below. It had gone right through several inches of concrete and stone and drywall like it was butter; El was damn powerful.
And they were all panting as if they’d helped her push the thing away.
As if they’d done anything but run and scream and buy time and panic.
Steve wouldn’t be pleased; Nancy looked like she’d been through the meat grinder.
“Well that went well,” Max snarked, helping El sit as Mike looked over Nancy for injuries (Jonathon looked a little put out where he was standing by Will).
Robin laughed wheezily, maniacally, almost. “I’ll say.”
Lucas and Will and Mike all exchanged looks, before glancing back at Robin.
“We…” Mike cleared his throat. “We still have no idea who you are.”
Robin was about to strangle him, and Nancy huffed a tired laugh. “Welcome to the club, Robin.”
Lucas snapped his fingers. “Robin! That’s it!”
“Dude, it’s literally on her name tag.”
“Shut up, Max.”