*。☆。
★。＼｜／。★
˚ ₊ ♡ ❰  CRUEL SUMMER ❱
*✧ ─── ❝ ❪ HIDDEN IDENTITY ! ❫ ❞
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˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ SEASON THREE ☀️ ⁺⑅

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SUPER FREAKS SERIES ⋆ 🚲.
♯ ❝ WHERE DID YOU GET THAT ! ❞
CHAPTER EIGHT ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
˚ ₊ ♡ 1985, July 1st ─── episode four
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MILO HAD TO ADMIT, JUMPING ON HIS BIKE TO AVOID ARGUING WITH HIS DAD, HAD BEEN ONE OF HIS LESSER TOUGHT OUT PLANS. NOT THAT HE ACTUALLY EVER REALLY THINK THINGS THROUGH, emotions ruled most of his actions. And for that exact same reason Milo found himself stopping in front of the apartment building next to Melvad's. He wringed his hands nervously, suddenly doubting his decision to follow after the brunette girl.

He couldn't really show up unannounced, especially after his own dad had demanded for Juno to leave without so much of an explanation.

Nervously stepping up to the front door, Milo raised his arm the ring the doorbell.

He waited a couple seconds before the familiar sight of Juno's mum appeared in the door opening. For a moment she looked confused at the sight of the blonde teenager, looking quite dishevelled, and sad? She could not be sure, but she noted he looked far more demure than he did when she had previously seen the kid.

"Milo? What are you doing out so late?"

Milo cleared his throat awkwardly, "I...erh had a fight with my dad."

Claire's face softened tremendously as the boy spoke softly, but before she could say anything Juno emerged from behind her, already dressed in comfier clothes. "Milo?"

She pushed passed her mother to look at her friend in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to say sorry." He paused as Claire gave him a strange look, "For my dad." He added. "He should not have made you go without a reason."

"Why did he?" Juno queried, "make me go, I mean?"

Milo opened his mouth, ready to tell her the real reason, only to remember Juno was not part of his world. Of the Upside Down, strange powers and deadly monsters. "I-I can't say. I'm sorry."

"Why don't you come inside?" Claire offered after a beat of silence, "It's getting late. You can stay the night here if you'd like?"

"I can?"

"Of course." Claire affirmed and even Juno cracked a smile to offer her agreement to the idea.

"Thank you." He breathed out, suddenly far more joyful than when he arrived at the Carlton home.

"I'll go put the kettle on for some tea-Juno can you get the air mattress from the attic?"

"Will do mom." Juno nodded, before latching onto Milo's arm to drag the blonde boy with her. "Let's go. Before she start the interrogation." She giggled as she dragged the boy up the stairs, while he stumbled over his own feet to keep up with her quick pace.

"Are you alright?" Juno wondered after they slowed down, "It looked like pretty big fight when I left."

"I don't know." Milo admitted truthfully as he followed Juno up the last set of stairs where the attic was.

"It will sort itself out." Juno promised, "It always does."

Milo does not tell her the last time his father and he argued, the blonde was kidnapped and gone for over a decade.

"Ah-ha!" Juno exclaimed happily pushing away some boxes to reveal the air mattress. "Let's get this bad boy to the my bedroom!"

Milo laughed at the girl's enthusiastic demeanour as he followed after her like a loyal puppy.

"Please forgive the mess, I'm still in the middle of decorating the place." Juno warned jokingly as she pushed her bedroom door open to reveal, like she said, a very messy room.

The place was decorated with numerous posters and fairy lights strung around an iron bedframe. Multiple carton boxes where stacked against the wall and a small baby blue desk was filled to the brim with little knick-knacks. There was one little plant placed on her nightstand that looked like it could use some water.

"That's Erik." She grinned when she saw him looking at the little houseplant.

"You named the plant?"

"Of course I did." She nodded as if it was obvious.

"Right..." Milo looked unsurely around the room, not really knowing what he should do.

"I'll go see if I can find you something to sleep in." Juno suggested and the blonde nodded before taking a seat on the chair next to Juno's desk. "Be back in a second."

Milo nodded once more before focussing his gaze on the little knick-knacks on her desk. Carefully picking up a little keychain that looked like some weird sort of monster. It was a hot pink colour, and had soft fur attached to it.

"Horrendous little thing isn't it?" Juno voiced, and Milo jumped in surprise by the girl's quick return. "My mom go it for me when I lost my teeth on a playground swing. I didn't stop crying until I had it in my hands.

Milo laughed, deftly placing it back where he found it.

"We are a household of woman...so this is the best I could do." Juno grinned widely, holding up a large faded green shirt. "I'm just happy mom likes baggy shirts. And this is the largest pair of sweatpants we have. But even if we did have men's, you are like a freaking giant."

Milo laughed, thanked her softly before grabbing the clothes from her soft hands.

Juno grinned in return, but her eyes widened when Milo, without thinking twice about, unbuttoned his patterned blouse.

Her cheeks inflamed instantaneously and she ducked her head shyly when she noticed he also went to pull his shirt over his head. But she only did so for a moment, before she dared to look back up at the half dressed boy.

"W-where did you get that?" Juno's eyes were wide in fear as her gaze become fixate don the Milo's wrist, or more importantly, the tattooed number zero etched on his skin in black ink.

"I-I." His heart started to race, and his hands became clammy under Juno's hard stare.

When he did not say anything, Juno's tense posture slouched, almost in defeat. "He actually did it." She whispered, more so to herself than to the boy across from her. "Dad did it."

"Dad?" Milo's face scrunched up, and he almost fearfully scooted away from the girl.

"Brenner." Juno elaborated nervously, slowly, as if not to scare him, she pushed the sleeve of her long sleeved shirt up to reveal something Milo would never have expected.

Tattooed there, just like himself was the number zero, only unlike his, Juno's was sporting a large black line right through it. "It didn't work on me." She stated softly, tracing her fingertips over the numbers.

"You know about it?" Milo's head was racing with all kinds of thoughts, raking his memory of Brenner's facility in the hopes of remembering the girl in front of him. But there was nothing.

"I was two." Juno explained, "I don't really remember any of it, my mum, she does though. One day she found out what dad was doing, and took me and never looked back."

"She hated that she had to leave her hometown. She loved Hawkins, and when we heard, that h-he died." Her voice cracked. "Mum was determined to go back. She changed her name, and our last name, to make sure no one would remember her, or link us back to all the horrible things he did."

"What are you kids up to?" Claire suddenly appeared with two cups of tea, but frowned when she noticed her daughter's sleeve rolled up before her eyes settle on Milo, half naked nonetheless, but her gaze was drawn to the very same thing Juno had uncovered only moments before.

"Oh my god..." She spoke startled, the cups of tea falling from her hands as the landed on the ground. "Y-you are one of them."

Juno quickly sprung to her feet, "He actually did it. And by the looks of it, Milo was his first success." She rushed the words out as she pulled Milo up with her. She held his arm up, making sure the thick black coloured zero was on clear display.

"It all makes sense now." Claire's hands shook as she cautiously grasped Milo's wrist, "The home schooling, the protective dad, the limited vocabulary." Tears gathered in her eyes. "He took you...w-when did he take you?"

Milo felt a lump form in his throat. "I don't remember it, my life before Dr. Brenner." He began softly and ignored the small sob that escaped Claire. "But he, he took me when I was four years old. It took some time for my powers to surface..."

"When did you get out?" Juno whispered, clutching his other hand.

"Last year." Milo replied, "I helped Will. He was stuck...in Upside Down." He racked his brain for the right words. "I can get my mind in Upside Down, and keep my body here."

"I am so sorry." Claire cried out.

"It is okay." Milo assured her. "Met my new sister there."

"El is also an experiment?" Juno gasped, "El... Eleven?"

"So many children's life ruined." Claire whispered in disbelief.

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˚ ₊ ♡ 1985, July 2nd ─── episode four
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THE NEXT MORNING, MILO FELT COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED, AFTER THE CARLTONS-WELL BRENNERS, HAD UNCOVERED THE TRUTH, THE TRIO WENT TO THE LIVING ROOM, WHERE CLAIRE BREWED another batch of tea, while Milo started to retell every little bit of his experiment life. From the torturous training in Brenner's facility, to his powers and travels to the Upside Down where he had found Will. He told them about how he had formed a close-knitted friendship with Eleven, until their bond developed more into a brother-sister dynamic. He tried to brush over the fact that he had almost died because of his connection with the Mind Flayer, but Claire immediately caught on and demanded that the boy left nothing out. She wanted to know what her terrible husband had done, or let into this world.

It had felt incredible to tell people about his life story, which he told them right after finishing. He was not permitted to tell strangers, and explained that is was the reason his father had demanded for Juno to leave. Milo Hopper was dead to this town, and his identity could not be compromised.

Claire had cried for a solid part of his whole story, repeatedly apologising for her ex-husbands crimes. And when he was done, the woman in return told him all about Brenner and what led him to experiment on children.

It had been a heavy, and emotional night, but not once did Milo think about his argument with Jim...or to let him know where he was staying the night.

"Do you copy? This is a code red. I repeat this is a code red."

Static crackling woke Milo from his slumber. Sluggishly her sat up on the air mattress, while he noticed Juno do the same on her own bed. "What was that?" The brunette frowned in confusion.

For a moment, Milo was confused too, before he remembered the walky-talky stuffed somewhere in his bag. He was happy he remembered to take it with him when he stormed out of the house yesterday.

"Milo do you copy?"

Rushed, Milo pushed his duvet away from his body, shivering from the sudden temperature change as he ran towards his bag.

"Dustin?" Milo pressed the button.

"thank god." Dustin breathe out, before unrecognisable voice mixed in with his own. "Shut it Steve."

Milo frowned as arguing continued and he exchanged a look with Juno.

"Dustin? Code red?"

"Oh right! Look I didn't want to bring you into this, but Steve demanded we bring one of you superkids with us." Dustin rattled out, "He's probably scared to go after the Russians alone."

Milo frowned as more arguing ensued.

"Milo, hey!" Steve voice echoed through the walky-talky, "We need some help here. Remember the secret Russian code? Well we decoded it. And they're hiding right here at Starcourt Mall. But they have big, big guns. And we don't. So we could use some help."

"You know I don't have offensive powers?" Milo inquired.

"well whatever, you can do shit, and we need all the help we can get." Steve countered. "So meet us on the roof of Starcourt Mall ASAP. Over and out."

"Steve?" Milo frowned. "Steve are you there?"

Only static followed.

"Did he say Russians?" Juno whispered with wide eyes.

Milo could only nod, as he rushed around the room to gather his clothes.

"Are you actually going there?" Juno screeched in surprise, averting her eyes again when Milo redressed himself in the clothes he wore yesterday. "Big guns. They said big guns Milo!"

"They're my friends." He countered as he went for the door. "I have to help them." He spoke up determinately.

"Well in that case." Juno squared her shoulders. "I'm coming with."

"Are you sure?" Milo asked softly, "It could be dangerous."

Juno's eyes flickered around her room before falling on the metal baseball bat in the corner. She quickly reached for it before turning to look at Milo with a confidant glint in her eyes. "I can be dangerous too."

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surprise?! anyone see that coming? there are little
hints sprinkled in previous chapters 😜