Chapter Twenty-Four: Powers Argument

(E Pluribus Unum, Pt. 2)

***

Alistair was a jumbled mess of nerves in the form of a person.

He'd been that way since they left the hospital and went to the Hopper cabin—it was too risky to go back to the Wheeler residence, not with the terrifying development of the Flayed in vivid, gory forefront of everyone's memory. When they entered, Nancy and Jonathan told them what happened—how their boss and Heather's father, Tom, and their co-worker, Bruce, had been the Flayed who killed everyone on that hospital level and let Mrs. Driscoll go, and how they killed them... only for them to melt and combine into that monster.

Alistair had listened, trying to hide his shudder. No wonder the ghosts were so panicked. To not only lose your mind, but now your body to the Mind Flayer... it was a fate worse than even death.

But now, after that and the decision El would try to find the people they knew for certain were Flayed—Billy, the Holloways, Mrs. Driscoll, Bruce—tomorrow, everyone decided to try and sleep. If they even could.

Alistair rested his head against the couch, bracing himself for a sleepless night. Hugin rested in Alistair's curls, the undead bird determined to fulfil its promise of not leaving Alistair's side anymore. Not that Alistair would protest.

As he closed his eyes, focusing on Lucas' snoring—the girls had grouped together in El's room, Nancy and Jonathan were sleeping on Hopper's bed, and Alistair, Will, Mike and Lucas were in the living room. Will was next to him, and Mike was on his other side, while Lucas was on the couch above him.

However, before Alistair could, he felt a nudge in his ribs. Turning his head, he saw Mike there, as he murmured, "Can we talk? Me, you and Will?"

Alistair blinked in surprise, but nodded, elbowing Will and making him wake up, looking at Alistair in bleary confusion.

"Mike wants to talk," he whispered, and that cleared the fog away.

The three boys got up, heading outside for some privacy.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Mike sighed and said, "I'm sorry."

Alistair blinked as Will just stared at Mike, as if not expecting that. Taking the silence as a wordless answer to go on, Mike continued, "I'm sorry about the campaign, guys. It was cool, and neither me or Lucas shouldn't have been eager to leave it or finish it so quickly. I'm really sorry."

"It's fine," Will mumbled, looking down. "You were right. Things are changing, for all of us. I guess I shouldn't have expected we'd just keep playing D&D in your basement forever."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop entirely. I love D&D, I still do. I just got..." Mike replied, and Alistair supplied with, "Girl-obsessed and a jerk?"

Mike laughed. "Yeah, that."

Looking at them, he offered, "And I guess when this is over, and Dustin comes back from wherever he is... we play the campaign again. For real."

Alistair and Will looked at each other, before Will said, "Okay. Let's do that."

Mike grinned, but he faltered as he apologised, "And I'm sorry, Will, for what I said. I was being an absolute asshole, and I'm really sorry."

Will's face shuttered as Alistair now remembered what Mike was apologising for.

"It's fine," he mumbled, shuffling.

Alistair frowned, but Mike seemed relieved.

"Are we good?" he asked.

Again, Alistair looked at Will, before they nodded.

"Yeah, we're good, man," Alistair said, and Mike let out a tentative smile. Alistair and Will returned it as Hugin croaked, the displeasure Hugin had for Mike fading away.

"Come on. Let's head inside. I want to at least try and pretend to get some sleep," Alistair said, and Will let out a hollow laugh.

"I don't think any of us are getting sleep," Will mumbled, but they headed inside, back in their spots, something fractured mended now.

And as Alistair's eyes fluttered close in an attempt to actually try and sleep, he didn't notice how close he and Will were now.

Or that at some point, Will's head rested on his shoulder.

***

Never in his life did Alistair wish for coffee more than he did now.

If he had caffeine flowing through his veins along with blood, then maybe he could have the energy to focus on what was happening. But he didn't, so Alistair was forced to be a sluggish zombie, watching as Mike paced a hole in the floorboards, eyebrows drawn together in worry.

It was the next day. Everyone had gone to change into new clothes—Alistair glad he'd gotten an extra shirt before he left days ago, now wearing a faded graphic tee with his shorts and black Converse with the ghosts and skeletons—and then come back to the cabin, where El went into her room with pictures of the Flayed, with a blindfold, a radio to provide static and tissues to wipe the blood away from her nose as she searched. That part had worry itch at Alistair, remember the countless warnings his grandmother had given him and Rowan about overexerting their powers, but Alistair guessed El would know her limits.

It didn't stop his sluggish mind from worrying, as it didn't stop Mike worrying, especially when it had now been a good few hours since El began searching.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long," Mike said, looking at the closed door to El's room, worry on his face for his ex-girlfriend.

"Mike, you need to relax," Max said, exasperation in her voice.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?" Mike worried.

Alarm bloomed on Lucas' face. "Oh, shit. Is that, like, a real thing?"

Cami shrugged as Max replied with a roll of her eyes, "No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike shot back.

"No, I just mean you're worrying over nothing. El would know her own limits," Max argued back.

"Yeah, but what if she pushes them too much? What if something bad happens to her and she does get brain damage?" Mike countered.

"Let's ask the other person here who has powers," Cami suggested. Turning to Alistair, she asked, "Al, do you think that might happen?"

"I... I don't know. I mean, me and Rowan always get tired when we overexert our powers and we aren't able to use them for a while till our batteries are charged up again," Alistair answered honestly, shrugging.

"See, Mike? There's nothing to worry about and El should decide her limits," Max said.

Alistair frowned. "Yeah, Max, but we—"

"Yeah, but she still can't keep going forever! Al himself said he and Rowan get tired when they use their powers for too long! It's not good for her to be in there for too long!" Mike shouted back.

"She's her own person who can make that decision for herself!"

"I know! Does that mean I shouldn't worry about El pushing herself too far?!"

Alistair sighed, rolling his eyes. He did not have the energy to deal with this.

"I'm leaving," he muttered, getting up and heading over to where Nancy and Jonathan were, calling up every business that sold fertiliser, gardening and cleaning supplies or at least chemicals. Will was also with them, and Alistair stood beside him as Nancy muttered, "It doesn't make sense."

Alistair looked to Will, who mouthed, 'They didn't find anything', as he now registered the phone on the holder, the phonebook with X's crossed through it, as Jonathan asked, "What part of any of this makes sense?"

"There's a pattern, okay? A consistency to their behaviour," Nancy countered. "They've been feeding on these chemicals since this started, and... what, they just stop, out of the blue?"

"Maybe they have all the chemicals they need. Maybe they've all turned into those... things," Will hypothesised.

"Then how come we haven't seen any more of those creatures?" Alistair pointed out, arms crossed.

"But what about the source? I mean, did the Mind Flayer just suddenly stop infecting people?" Nancy argued. "And even if the Flayed are monsters now, why can't El find them or we haven't seen them, like Al said?"

Will shrugged, but before anything could be said, Mike and Max charged in, Cami and Lucas trailing behind as Max asked, "Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us? Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit," Mike retorted.

"It's not bullshit, Mike. This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass," Max retaliated.

"El dumped you?" Nancy questioned, eyebrows raised in shock. Alistair had forgotten she and Jonathan didn't know.

"Yeah. It was pretty public," Alistair confirmed, right as Mike said, pointing to Max and Cami, "Yeah, because she and Cami are conspiring against me. They're corrupting her."

"When did I get involved with this?" Cami questioned as Max countered, "No, enlightening her. The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."

"She's risking her life for no reason," Mike argued.

"For no reason? Mike, the Flayed are out there doing God knows what," Nancy reminded.

"Killing, Flaying..." Lucas listed.

"Drinking chemicals..." Cami pitched in.

"Transforming into monsters," Will added, and a queasy look came on Cami's face as she mumbled, "Don't remind me, Will."

"And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us," Nancy pointed out, Max nodding and agreeing, "Exactly, thank you."

"And she is her own person," Nancy went on.

"Exactly."

"With her own free will."

"Exactly. El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her," Max said, glaring at Mike.

"I don't think it's about trust. I think Mike should be worried," Alistair interjected. All eyes turned on him as Alistair went on, "Max, Mike, if you let me continue earlier, I would have said that our grandmother warned me and Rowan constantly about us overexerting our powers. She told us our powers are like muscles—the more we use them, it's like we're using another muscle, and us training them was training and strengthening that muscle. But if we push too far, too much, it would be like damaging that muscle, maybe even irreparably, especially if we don't let our powers rest and give them the chance to recover. El knows her limits, sure, but I think Mike is valid for worrying about El pushing herself too far by looking for the Flayed constantly and damaging her powers beyond repair by doing this and not giving herself a chance to rest and recover."

"Exactly! Thank you, Al!" Mike exclaimed, before he turned to Max and asked incredulously, "And you wanna talk about trust, really? After you and Cami made Eleven spy on us?"

Shock exploded like a bomb from what Mike revealed as Alistair gaped at Cami, who looked guilty as Lucas questioned, "Wait, what?"

"Oh, Max didn't tell you? And Cami didn't tell you either, Al?" Mike asked.

Alistair shook his head as Lucas said, "No."

"Your girlfriend and Al's ex used El's powers to spy on us," Mike revealed and Alistair's eyes widened in shock as Max defended, "No, no, no. I did not make her. It was her idea."

"For the record, I thought it was a bad idea," Cami said.

"And why are we even talking about this, seriously?" Max asked.

"Doesn't seem like a problem we should worry about right now," Alistair muttered.

"Yeah, who cares?" Will concurred.

"I care!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Yeah. I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy," Mike accused, glaring at Max.

"We were just joking around," Max reasoned with a roll of her eyes.

"Wouldn't it've been so funny if was taking a massive shit or something?" Mike argued.

Cami wrinkled her nose as Alistair rolled his eyes and Max said, "You weren't."

"But what if I was?"

"Then gross!"

"Seriously Mike?" Nancy said exasperatedly.

"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers. In fact, how careless all of you are except for Al," Mike said. "You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the Flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan, because I love her and I can't lose her again."

Stunned silence radiated as they all stared at Mike, at the confession he let slip. Alistair gaped and Cami looked torn between shock and grinning, as Lucas smirked and everyone else just stared at Mike, as he too realised what he just said.

That was when the door creaked open and El appeared.

"What's going on?" she questioned, frowning, the blindfold hanging around her neck, a trail of blood leaking from her nose.

"Nothing. Nothing," Mike hurriedly said—obviously not ready to let El what he just said. 

"Just a family discussion," Lucas told her.

"Oh," El said. She paused before revealing, "I found him."

"Found who?" Nancy questioned.

"Billy," El answered.

They all looked at each other. El had found Billy.

Now, they just had to determine what he—and the Mind Flayer controlling him—wanted him to do.

***

Hehhheheh >:)

Yep, Mike apologised! I felt like a proper apology needed to be said between Will and Mike, so I was too happy to write it here—along with Mike affirming he still likes D&D, especially with Hellfire next season

Yeah, the scene about El's powers... I love Max, I love her and El being a great duo, but I think Mike was very valid for worrying about El pushing herself too far looking for the Flayed, so of course Alistair would agree with Mike there on that front

And yeah, we're getting near to the end... just you wait to see what I have planned >;)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!