Steve led El and Will out of the bedroom and took up his previous position on the landing, sitting down behind the barricade against the banister as they crouched close to him. Refusing to give in to the rising anxiety he was feeling, he took one of their hands in each of his and sank into the half state he needed to heal them if necessary. 

There was a loud smash and the sound of wood breaking, but Steve did his best to ignore it. He wasn't the muscle this time. He had to concentrate and leave that to other people. Nothing outside was important, only El and Will.

When the nerve tingling electricity of El's power ran down his spine, he knew it had begun. Will's fire soon joined it, and Steve had no time to even think of anything else.

At first it had to have been small things the pair were taking on. His instincts urged him to help them heal themselves, but that didn't last long. Sound was coming at him from all over the place, but it was all just noise as he refused to focus on anything but his task. Will was the first to need more than assisted healing and Steve jumped to it without hesitation.

He could feel the pressure building in both his young friends and he concentrated on countering it. When El finally had to push hard too, Steve felt it like a stab behind his eyes. Casting aside the pain, however, he let his instincts lead him as he did what he had to do. It was all encompassing and the connection he had to the real world dimmed even further.

It was frightening, because he had no idea what was going on around him, what was happening to the others, but he held firm. That El had done this so many times, saved them so many ways at such risk to herself, blew his mind. From the inside he could see exactly what she had risked each time she had put herself in harm's way to save and ungrateful world.

If Steve had anything to do with it, she wouldn't ever be put in such a situation again. Not that he had time to think about that at that moment.

When his connection to El and Will snapped, his mind reeled. He was yanked backwards, hitting the wall hard and the real world slammed back into his awareness. He blinked open dazed eyes to find a man in combat gear standing over him.

"There's more than one of them, repeat more than one," the man was saying into a radio.

Before Steve could so much a move there was a snarling growl from behind him and a dark shape leapt over him, taking the soldier over the landing banister to the floor below. Steve scrambled to his knees, looking through the bars to see Eddie dragging the semi-conscious soldier off the couch where they had landed and throwing him at the wall like some kind of superhero.

When Eddie looked up at him, Eddie's eyes were blazing red and full of fury. The man now on the ground, lifted a handgun, firing at Eddie, but Eddie was too fast. Eddie snarled, showing long white fangs and attacked again.

Steve wanted to watch, he wanted to stare, because avenging angel Eddie did something to his insides, but he dragged himself away.

El already had blood pouring out of her nose as she pushed another soldier backwards, and Will was looking as dazed and confused as Steve felt, clearly having been dragged along the landing. Steve could not reach them both, there was too much space between them, so he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, concentrated, and hoped.

He'd never tried to heal anyone without being in direct physical contact with them, but it was a desperate time. He felt for El and Will, reached for them and the familiarity he had been so focused on. It was like walking through fog. He knew they were there, could feel them close by, but he couldn't quite find them.

Knowing that they needed him, he pushed, hard.

He found El first, as if she had materialised out of the confusion and he wrapped his power around her. The damage she had done to herself was raw and new and he smashed through the invisible barrier once more, healing it without hesitation. Almost as if that was the push he needed, Will coalesced in his awareness as well. Nothing could have stopped him as with laser focus, he returned to his task.

The real world was irrelevant. Time had no meaning. All there was, was healing.

When El and Will joined forces, it was like an atom bomb went off in Steve's head. The gestalt ripple of their power exploded down his spine. He had no idea what they were doing, but he knew they were doing it together. It hurt in a way he couldn't really explain. It was surreal.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed the pain aside. It was irrelevant to what he needed to do. He only prayed this would be over before any of them ran out of strength.

"Executive order 9177 Alpha, stand down, repeat, stand down. Leave the premises immediately."

The loud announcement in Owen's familiar voice even made it through Steve singular focus. Not that he remotely reacted to it. Not until the torrent of El and Will's combined power receded from his awareness. Only then did he dare to allow the real world to seep back in. He could hear booted feet on wooden floors, people moving, breathing, but no voices.

It almost didn't feel real when he finally opened his eyes.

Steve blinked blearily, dragging himself to his feet using the landing banister and looking around. Everyone looked shellshocked and on edge, holding weapons in white knuckled grips, but everyone was still standing.

"Anyone hurt?" he asked loudly, because he didn't care how close to empty he was running, if one of the party needed help, he was going to give it.

"All in one piece over here," Dustin called back from beside Mike.

"We're good," Robin said, where she was standing very close to Nancy.

"Fine over here," Jeff spoke up for his little group.

"Hopper got shot," Erica said in her usual put upon tone.

"It's just a graze," Hopper said immediately, glaring at their youngest member. "Seriously," he added, looking straight at Steve, "it bled a little and it's going to bruise really badly, but it's nothing to worry about."

"Let me see," Joyce said, making her way along the landing to where her other half was standing.

Hopper sighed but let her check his arm.

"He's right," Joyce announced, at which point Steve relaxed.

He looked round to where Wayne was still behind him, and at some point Eddie had rejoined his uncle.

"All good," Wayne said.

When he glanced over at his mom, she gave him a small smile and nodded.

The house on the other hand was a mess. Steve had missed most of what had caused it, but there were bullet holes in one wall and one of the couches. Several cushions were way beyond repair. There was blood on the carpet, both on the landing and below. The coffee table was broken in half. There was debris everywhere. The front door was hanging open, it's lock completely totalled. And there were two unconscious men in combat gear just lying around where their comrades had left them.

Steve felt absolutely no urge to help them whatsoever.

"Steve," El said quietly from beside him.

He turned in time to see her sway slightly. Before she could fall, he wrapped his arms around her, and she sagged against him.

"Deep breaths," he said.

She had blood beneath her nose, but it wasn't fresh, and he could feel she wasn't hurt. Whatever he had done to be able to heal El and Will without touching them, it was still there, only fading slowly.

"Tank is empty," she said, "sorry."

"No need to be sorry," he replied.

What he really wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms, but he was pretty sure that would end badly for both of them.

"Let me," Eddie said, appearing at his side.

El looped her arms around Eddie's neck as he hoisted her into his arms, resting her head on Eddie's shoulder, so Steve acquiesced.

"You okay?" Steve asked quietly.

Eddie gave him a curt nod. He looked completely normal again. There were layers to the response, but they had no time to unpick them yet.

"Will, how are you doing?" Steve asked, even though he could feel Will was not physically hurt.

The kid was clinging to the banister the way Steve had been when he first stood up.

"Could use a sit down," was the honest response.

Joyce swooped in before Steve had a chance to do any more.

"Everyone stay where they are," Hopper said, before anyone else could move. "I'm going to check what's going on."

In other circumstances, Steve might have objected to Hopper going alone, but he didn't want to be more than a few feet from El and Will, just in case. None of them had much left, but in an emergency, he was pretty sure they could pull off at least a distraction.

Hopper walked down the stairs, staying close to the wall, and watching the front door carefully. Steve kept his eyes on the older man as he sidled up to it and quickly looked out. The way the tension leaked out of Hopper's shoulders almost immediately was a good sign.

"About time you got here," Hopper said to someone Steve couldn't see.

"We came as soon as we got your call," Owens' voice came back. "Is everyone safe?"

"Come and see for yourself," Hopper said, standing back.

"Here."

Steve turned to find Robin had ignored Hopper's instruction and was now standing next to him. She was holding a tissue.

"Thanks," he said, remembering why he could taste blood.

He quickly wiped his face and nose.

"Good God," Owens said, and Steve looked down to see the man standing in the hallway.

"We were thinking something similar ourselves," his mom said from her vantage point.

"Mrs Harrington," Owens said, and Steve wasn't overly shocked the man knows who his mother was. "I'm sorry we were unable to make it sooner."

"Everyone downstairs," Hopper said as more people appeared at the door.

"Does anyone require urgent medical assistance?" Owens asked.

"Only those two," Hopper said with disdain, indicating the fallen soldiers, one of whom seemed to be stirring.

Steve made himself walk past Owens as if he was perfectly fine like most of the rest of them. He carried his bat, swinging it idly as if it had been his weapon during the confrontation. There was blood all over his shirt, he just hoped everyone outside the party who saw it would assume it was someone else's. However, there was no hiding Will's exhaustion.

"We intercepted Colonel Sullivan's comms," Steve heard Owens say to Hopper quietly. "Am I to assume when one of his men reported 'there's more than one of them', he was talking about young Will?"

"And if he was?" Hopper asked in a much less friendly tone.

Steve carried on walking, because otherwise he would have caused a blockage, but he kept an eye on the two men as he entered the main living room. Owens had his hands up in a surrender gesture, but Steve couldn't hear what he was saying anymore. That Will had been exposed by what had happened did not sit well with him, and he couldn't help wondering how long it would be before someone realised he was part of the deal too.