Hopper breathes heavily as anger fills his heart, grief. He needed to find her. She couldn't be dead. She couldn't be. Not until he sees a body. He gets to his feet and heads to the door, but everyone moves to stop him.

"No! No, Hop! You can't go out there!" Joyce says strongly.

"I need to get her. She could still be alive."

"Even if she is, you could get killed." She states. "We need to figure out a plan and get the hell out of here."

Bob turns towards Owens, "You know the building, how can we get out?"

Going for a map, Owens points at a certain area, "Look, this is us, and this is the nearest exit. But even if we somehow make it there, there's no way out." He says.

Everyone frowns at him, "What do you mean?"

"The locks are fail secure." Owens states.

"Fail secure?"

"If there's a power outage, the building goes on lockdown."

"Can it be unlocked remotely?"

"With a computer, sure, but somebody's gotta reset the breakers." Owens states.

Bob sighs in realization, "Where are the breakers?" He asks.

"Breakers are in the basement, three floors down."

Hopper turns and heads for the door again, but Bob stands in his way, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To reset the breakers and find Amelia." Hopper states.

"Okay, then what?" Bob asks.

"Then we get out of here."

Bob shakes his head, "No, then the power comes back on. If you wanna unlock the doors, you have to reboot the computer system, and then override the security codes with a manual input." He explains.

"Fine, how do I do that?" Hopper shrugs, thinking it was easy.

"You can't. Not unless you know BASIC." Bob states.

"I don't know what that means." Jim shakes his head, completely clueless.

"It's a computer programming language." Bob explains.

"Teach it to me." Jim says.

Bob scoffs, "Shall I teach you French while I'm at it, Jim? How about a little German? How about you, Doc? You speak BASIC?" He turns towards Owens.

Owens sighs, "No."

Bob scoffs again and sighs deeply, amping himself up, this was his moment now. It was up to him to save everyone, "Okay, I got this. I got this." He says.

Joyce shakes her head and moves towards him, strongly protesting, "No. Bob."

Bob holds her close, "It's okay. It's gonna be okay. Remember, Bob Newby, superhero." He chuckles lightly.

Joyce gives him a trembling smile and hugs him tightly.

Hopper grunts and moves the Barcade away from the door and slowly peeks out the door. He nods at Bob to follow him. Soon, they find a dead soldier and grabs his gun.

"Okay, grab his walkie." Hopper says as he gets the bullets for the machine gun.

Bob grunts and gets the walkie with the earmold. He yanks it out of the man's ear, wiping it down before puting it in his own ear.

"All right, you know how to use one of these?" Hopper asks as he holds up a hand gun.

Panting softly, "No." Bob says.

Sighing softly, Jim quickly teaches him his own basics, "Safety on. Safety off. Point. Squeeze." He says.

Bob nods, understanding, "Point and squeeze. Okay. Easy-peasy."

"If anything happens down there, I want you to come right back up. Right back here." Hopper states.

Bob nods, "And I'll find Amelia."

Jim swallows roughly and nods, "Please."

"Listen. Don't wait for me. As soon as I get those doors open..."

"I'm gonna get them out." Jim nods, understanding what he means, but he hopes he'll find Amelia before anything bad happens.

"Yeah?"

"I promise."

"Okay, well... I'll be in touch." Bob mutters and they both begin to go their own separate ways. Hopper heads back to the control room, even though he wanted to find Amelia, he didn't know where she was. He needed the power back on and the screens back on so he could find her. Bob headed down to the basement and finds the breakers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone was waiting impatiently for Bob to reach the basement safely. Hopper rushes back into the room, letting everyone know that Bob was heading towards the breakers. He sits on a seat that was propped against the door and waits. He rapidly taps his feet as time goes by. Soon, they look up as they see the lights flickering back on. Joyce gasps and rushes to the screens to see if she could find Bob. Hopper does the same to look for Amelia.

"He made it." Mike smiles at Bob as they see him down in the basement, rushing towards a computer.

Hopper looks at the screen where Amelia was last seen, his heart drops to his stomach when she wasn't there. But blood was.

"Oh, no. Oh, God, no." He whispers.

"Look!" Mike shouts and points at another screen.

Hopper snaps his head towards the screen and they all could see Amelia being dragged by a Demogorgon. She was alive! And fighting it as it runs through the hallways, gripping her arm.

Grunting, Amelia's body jerks in the creature's grip as he carries her through the hallways, her feet dragging behind. She punches the creature several times, but it wasn't going to give up.

"Let me go!" She shouts.

Owens frowns as he watches the sight. He didn't understand why that thing kept her alive. He eyes the path the monster was taking and realizes something. "It's taking her towards the gate. See?" He points the ways. "It's heading back towards the tunnels."

"Why is it keeping her alive? I mean..." Joyce stutters. "These things just kill. I never seen them keep their victims alive."

Mike's eyes widen and he looks at Will, "'He sees you'. That what he told Amelia. It wasn't the creature who said that...it was Will! He was warning her. He told me that he could feel that the monster wanted something. Something he wanted very badly. It wants Amelia!"

Hopper frowns at what Mike said. That thing wanted her? Why? He didn't have time to ask questions, he needed to get her back.

Amelia grunts as she reaches out for something to use to fight. She finally grabs a pen that was on the floor. She bites down on the cap, yanking it off and spitting it away, she takes the pointed tip and stabs the Demogorgon in the neck, twisting it till it roars and lets her go. She yelps in pain and grips her arm. She carried a huge claw mark over her shoulder. She gets up fast as the creature was distracted, trying to get the pen out of his neck. She runs down the hallway as fast as she could.

"Oh, thank god!" Joyce gasps as they watch her run for it.

Hopper sighs out a long breath of relief, but she wasn't out of danger yet, "Come on, babe, get out of there." He whispers.

Amelia runs down a hallway, heading towards the exit, hoping that Jim was down there, waiting for her. She gasps and skid to a halt when she hears growling.

Everyone watches her freeze and looks at another screen, "One of them is right around the corner." Owens points. "She needs to get in that closet."

"Come on, babe, look to your left. Look to your left." Hopper begs.

Amelia looks and sees a door. She slowly goes inside, trying hard not to make a sound. She pants as she was inside and slides to the floor. She freezes as she sees a shadow moving by the door and low growling. It was looking for her.

Amelia shuts her eyes, whispering in Latin to hide her blood from the creature.

Everyone watches as the creature sniff the floor. Searching for Amelia. Soon, it growls and takes off.

Amelia sighs in relief and burst into sobs as she brings her knees to her chest, hugging herself. She wanted Jim. Hopper sighs in relief, catching himself on the desk. He feels Joyce rub his back in comfort. He needed to get her. Now.

Owens rushes towards the microphone on the panel, "Okay, Bob, can you hear us?"

"Loud and clear, Doc. Can you hear me back?"

"We hear you." Owens says and grunts when Hopper moves towards the Mic.

"We found Amelia." Hopper states.

"What? She's alive?" Bob exclaims.

Owens moves towards the mic, "She's on the first floor, hiding in a supply closet. Not far from the exit."

"All right, give me a minute."

Furiously, Bob works on the computer, typing out different commands to get the systems working again. He sighs as he gets to the last command.

"Open sesame." He hits the button, and the computer begins to reboot. Soon all the electronic doors unlocked in the whole building.

Owens watches the screens and sees the doors opening, "It's open."

"Easy-peasy." Bob grins.

Hopper sees that the doors were opening, he sighs and chuckles in disbelief, "Son of a bitch did it."

"Right, I'll meet you outside."

Owens grins, "Nice job." But his grin falls when he sees a creature heading for the stairwell, right towards Bob. "Hold on a second, Chief." He says quickly, making Hopper stop from getting ready to leave.

Bob freezes from where he was before he could reach the door, "What's wrong?" Jim asks Owens.

"West stairwell's not clear anymore." Owens points at the screen.

"What's going on?"

"We've got some company." Owens says over the mic.

"Where?"

"The west stairwell."

"I got an idea."

Suddenly, they all watch Bob rush back towards the computers, typing in commands again.

"What the hell's he doing?" Hopper frowns.

Bob was going through the fire system and begins to unleash the sprinkler system.

"Okay. And splash." He hits a key, and the sprinklers go off down the hall where the creature was heading, but once it sees the water, it runs off back upstairs.

Owens sighs in relief, "Okay. Okay, that worked."

Bob grins, sighing in relief.

"Now, get out of there. Go! Go!" Owens urges him.

He didn't have to tell Bob twice; he grabs his mic and takes off...leaving behind the gun Hopper gave him. While Bob was heading back up, Hopper helped everyone get out of there.

Hopper grunts as he throws Will over his shoulder and grabs his gun, but Owens stops him.

"Wait a second, Chief?" He hands Hopper a walkie.

Hopper frowns at him, "What?"

"Take this." He hands Hopper a walkie.

Hopper was confused, "What are you doing?" He realizes he was going to stay behind.

"Any more surprises, I'll let you know. Go. Go!" Owens says, urging them all to get going.

Hopper sighs, hating that he was wrong about Owens. He just hopes he'll get out of here in time. Hopper goes out first, holding his gun up as he makes sure it was clear. So far so good, it looked clear. Mike and Joyce followed behind him. Bob was rushing up the stairwells, going as fast as he could to meet up with the rest.

Hopper pants, scanning the hallway as he searches for the supply closet that Amelia was hiding in. He couldn't see it. Where is it? Where is Amelia? Mike pants as he meets Hopper's pace.

"Over there!" He says.

Hopper gasps and rushes towards the closet door, he quickly opens it. Amelia yelps as she holds up a broom for protection, waving it around to attack.

"What you going do? Sweep me to death?" Hopper scoffs.

Amelia pants as she feels her arms go limp, the broom falls from her grip. She sobs in relief when she sees him. Hopper moves and gives Joyce Will to carry as he bends down. Amelia wraps her arms around Jim's neck as he picks her up in his arms, holding on to him tightly. So happy to see him. She couldn't stop crying.

"You're okay, babe. I got you." He whispers and rushes down the hall, "Come on." He rushes down the hallway with everyone following him. Mike rushes and opens a door for them. He looks around and sees it was clear. Everyone sees they were at the exit. Hopper rushes and gets them all outside, but once Joyce place Will on the ground next to Mike, she goes back inside and waits by the door.

"Come on, Bob. Come on."

Amelia groans in pain as Hopper places her down and moves her gently to exam her wounds, "Oh, Jesus. Oh, babe." He gently touches her shoulder, looking over the claw mark. Amelia yelps in pain. "I'm sorry. We'll get out of here and I'll get that cleaned up." He reaches up and rips the sleeve off his scrubs, he uses his teeth to tear it more, giving it some slack so he could tie it around her shoulder blade.

"Why did it let me live? I don't understand it. It killed everyone in that building. Why me?" Amelia whimpers and grunts as Hopper covers her wound.

"Don't worry about that now, babe. All that matters is that you're okay. You're gonna be okay." Hopper says gently and cups her face.

Suddenly, Bob finally makes his way towards the exit, slamming the doors behind him as the creature rams it with its body.

"Bob." Joyce sighs in relief, seeing Bob alive before her. He sends her a smile, but soon, the smile was gone when a Demogorgon pounces him from the shadows.

Joyce screams, alerting Amelia and Hopper. Joyce was frozen in shock where she stood as a creature hovered over Bob, holding him down. Hopper rushes into the building as Amelia follows behind him.

The Demogorgon rears his claws back and stabs Bob into his side. Bob screams in pain at the impact and Joyce screams and cries.

"Bob!" Joyce wails.

Hopper lifts his gun and fires, trying to miss Bob, but it did nothing to stop the Demogorgon. It growls in Bob's face, opening his mouth, ready to feast. Amelia places her fingers in her mouth and whistles loudly.

CRASH!

Growling loudly, Theo in demon-form, rams through the window, startling the Demogorgon from his feast and rushes to kick it into its stomach, making it fly across the room with a painful screech.

Bob groans in pain, clutching his wound as blood pours through the webbings of his fingers. He struggles to get away, but Theo reaches and picks him up.

"Friend..." Theo growls and carries Bob to safety.

"Bob! Oh, Bob!" Joyce sobs and follows Theo.

"Go! Go!" Hopper shouts and continues to shoot as more creatures burst through the doors. He helps Amelia stay back and protects everyone as he rushes them all out and slams the glass doors.

Suddenly, a car races towards the door and Jonathan sticks his head out, "Get in!" He yells. Theo moves and helps Bob into the car as Joyce gets into the back with him.

"Oh, Bob." She gently caresses his face. "We need to get him to a hospital!" She cries.

"No!" Amelia shouts. "No hospital. They won't be able to treat his wounds normally."

"She's right." Hopper says.

"He's going to die without help!" Joyce yells.

"I can help him." Amelia states. "I have stuff at your place. I can do it. Trust me."

Joyce sobs and looks down at Bob who withers in pain as he clutches his bleeding stomach, "Oh, god. Okay. Okay." She cries.

"Come on, we need to hurry." Hopper says as he helps her towards his truck. Mike gets into the front in Jonathan's car with Will.

As they sped off, meeting the rest at the Byers', Hopper stops at the security booth, seeing the rest of the kids. After leaving the Junkyard, Steve led the kids and Theo towards the Lab as they discovered that's where Dart was going. Home.

"Get in! Come on!" Hopper shouts and gets everyone into the truck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bob shouts in pain as Joyce and Hopper drags him into the living room, setting him down carefully on the couch. He yells and squirms as he clutches onto his wound. Jonathan and Nancy help Amelia into the living room, setting her down on the chair. She groans in pain as her arm and shoulder began to throb.

"How can we fix this?" Mike asks her.

Panting, sweat pouring down her face as Amelia weakly lifts her head towards him, "The Nine...sacred herbs...of Saxon. Ordinary herbs alone, but added together, they become a powerful detox that fights off any infection and heals any wound. Witches consider it a miracle to protect them from death. I have the herbs in my bag."

Joyce rushes and grabs her bag, dumping out several plastic bags and vitals. A marble herb grinder bowl and grinder wand.

"Okay, which herbs is it?" Joyce asks frantically as they all spread out the bags and vials. Seeing them all named.

Amelia sighs and swallows hard, "The first herb is Mugwort." She pants. "You must grind every herb until it's fine. Think of it as baby powder."

Everyone looks through every herb, "Found it!" Max says and holds up a plastic bag. Joyce grabs a handful and throws it into the bowl, grinding it as hard as she could.

"Second herb...Wegbrade." Grind...grind...."Lamb's cress." Grind...grind..."Nettle. Cockspur grass...Mayweed..." Panting... "Crab apple. Thyme." Amelia sighs, "And fennel."

Panting, they all managed to get the herbs grinded till they were fine powder, "Ok, now what?" Joyce asks.

"You have to bind the herbs with...Mel..." Amelia pants out. "Honey. Without it...the herbs could kill us. Honey acts like hydrogen peroxide on a wound." She weakly looks over to Hopper, "I'm gonna need your belt."

Hopper frowns, "What?"

Licking her lips, Amelia sighs, "Like I said...hydrogen peroxide. You know how that feels when you pour it over an open wound. This is gonna be ten times worse. Very painful, but effective. Something to bite on helps."

Joyce gets up and tears through her cabinets, she couldn't find any honey! She searches frantically and sighs when she finds a bottle. "Got it!"

Squeezing out as much as she could, she manages to get the honey all into the bowl. She grabs a butterknife and begins stirring the herbs together, binding them as one. Suddenly, the herbs glowed bright green with a loud shimmer sound, making everyone jump in surprise.

"Whoa!" The kids shout.

"Is... was that supposed to happened?" Joyce asks, afraid she messed up.

Amelia nods, "Yes. You did it. You managed to bind them perfectly." She sighs.

Joyce sighs in relief, "Ok. Um...How do I do this?" She asks nervously as she kneels next to Bob.

"Place the belt into this mouth first." Amelia says and Hopper moves to set it into Bob's mouth. "You're gonna need to hold him down as soon as you start spreading the medicine. It's gonna work very quickly."

Joyce nods, "Okay." She whispers. She sighs and lifts Bob's shirt, whimpering at the sight. She quickly begins to spread the herbs over his wounds. Soon, they being to glow.

Bob jumps and yells in pain, biting down on the belt. Hopper moves and holds him down as she continues to spread more.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Joyce whimpers.

Soon, she had enough on his wounds, and they continue to glow brightly. Bob grunts and screams behind the bit, struggling to get out of Hopper's grip.

Soon, he quietens down and his wounds begin to stop bleeding and slowly shrink till there was nothing there. Joyce gasps in wonder. She reaches and touches his smooth skin. Not even a scar.

"It worked." Dustin gasps.

Joyce sighs and sobs in relief. She gets up on her knees and kisses Bob's head, hugging him tight as he lies over the couch, limp in exhaustion, "Oh, thank god."

Panting, Bob holds on to Joyce, "Easy-peasy." He grunts out.

Joyce laughs tearily, holding on to him. She couldn't believe she almost lost him.

Hopper grabs the bowl and moves towards Amelia, "Give me the belt." He says and watches Mike moves to grab it. Hopper wipes it down and carefully places it in her mouth. He sighs heavily, not liking that he has to hurt her to heal her. She carefully places a hand over his, nodding at him, telling him that it's okay.

He sighs deeply and gets the knife and begins to spread the herbs over her wounded shoulder. The wound begins to hiss and glow as green steam forms around it. Whimpering loudly, Amelia screams behind the bit, clutching on to the chair's arm rest. Hopper grabs her hand, giving her support as she squeezes it tight. Bitting down hard, she yells as the herbs begin to heal her. Panting heavily, her wound was finally healed, but Hopper didn't let her go. He moves and drags her to his arms, holding her tight against his chest. Amelia sighs and lets the belt fall from her mouth as she rests against him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joyce helped Bob to rest in her bedroom. He was out once he hit the pillow. After being wounded, almost dying and then being healed beyond measures, he was exhausted. Joyce sat with him, holding his hand the entire time as he rests. Jonathan places Will on the couch, setting him down comfortably, whispering apologizes for not being there for him.

Everyone else sat in the kitchen and living room. Exchanging knowledge about what they learned about the monster.

"And then he said, 'He sees you'. That was Will warning you. The monster is watching you." Mike says to Amelia as they all sat in the kitchen.

"But why does it want Amelia?" Nancy stutters. "I mean...what makes her so important?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because she's a witch...maybe he sees her as a threat." Mike suggests.

"No, if I was a threat, that Demogorgon would have killed me. It was dragging me back to its master. Like a present." Amelia says.

"Maybe he wants to mate." Steve suggests.

"Ew!" The kids exclaim in disgust.

"No... you might be right." Amelia frowns as everyone looks at her. "We have a legend in my family. If powers from two different families combine, it creates a... a powerful point in space and time. And continues to grow. Both families' heritage will get stronger and stronger. Like the Big Bang of Wiccaning."

Mike's eyes widen, "He wants to breed...a whole race, strengthen and spread all over the world."

"And he needs Amelia to do that." Johnathan says.

Amelia shudders in terror at the thought. A monster needs her to breed his heir and become stronger. She grips Jim's hand as he places his hand over her shoulder. She couldn't let it get her. Theo meows as he jumps on the table, listening to what the humans were saying. How the monster wanted his family. He growls and hisses.

Meow...grrrrrr yowl!

"What did he say?" Mike asks.

Amelia sighs, "He said...'If that creature wants her...he'll have to go through me..." Grrrrr ...."'She's my family...she took care of me...saved me from the underworld'." Meow yowl! "'When I was dying and alone'." Meow... "'She is my family. Fuck what blood says. I'm not letting anything happen to her'." Meow... "'No one messes with my family and gets away with it'."

Everyone grins and reaches to pet Theo, "Yeah!" "You got that right, Theo." "We're with you, Buddy." Theo purrs, welcoming the pets. He meows softly at Amelia, swearing his allegiance to her and his protection.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hopper wastes no time and calls in the army, national guard, anyone who could help them and Owens, if he survived.

"Sam Owens. Dr. Sam Owens." He says to the woman on the phone. "I don't know how many people are there! I don't know how many people are left alive!" He scoffs, "I am the police! Chief Jim Hopper!" He shouts. "Yes, the number that I gave you, yes. I will be here." He sighs and hangs up the phone, rubbing his tired eyes.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Mike scoffs at him.

"We'll see." Jim says and moves to sit next to Amelia, pulling her close against him.

"'We'll see'? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike protests.

"We stay here, and we wait for help." Jim states strongly. He didn't want to take any more risks. Too many have been made already. He almost died, Amelia was almost taken from him, and Bob risked his life for Joyce. No more risks.

Mike sighs and looks over the puzzles that Bob brought to help Will. Bob was always so caring towards the boys. A nerd like they are. He's one of them and a friend. He almost died for them. He's right...Bob Newby, Superhero.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" He asks his friends.

"Really?"

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clark learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" He asks.

"Yeah." Dustin and Lucas nods.

"And now...he's one of us. A warrior against the Upside Down. He risked his life for Mrs. Byers and Will. He's a superhero. But it's up to us now." Mike states.

"What do you want to do, Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own." Dustin says.

Max frowns at him, "Demo-dogs?"

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words--

"Okay."

"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..." Dustin stutters.

"But there's an army now." Lucas sighs.

"Precisely." Dustin states.

Mike's eyes widen, "His army." He gasps.

Everyone turns to look at him, "What do you mean?"

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike says as he rushes to Will's room, grabbing the picture Will drew of the monster.

"The shadow monster." Dustin says.

"It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike explains.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?"

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything."

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve says, trying to catch everything that's being said.

"Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will.

"And so does Dart."

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clark taught us."

"The hive mind."

"Hive mind?"

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism. And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike explains.

Dustin's eyes widen at how familiar this was, "Like the mind flayer." He gasps and Lucas snaps his fingers at how right he was.

Nancy, Max, and Steve all frown at him in confusion, "The what?" "What?"

Dustin rushes towards a bookshelf in Will's room, the D&D manual of monsters and characters. He rushes back towards the kitchen, slamming it on the table and quickly flips through the pages till he found what he was looking for.

"The mind flayer." Dustin says.

Jim frowns as he looks at a picture in the book of a creature with an octopus head full of tentacles, "What the hell is that?"

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin explains.

Jim rolls his eyes, "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game."

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor--"

"Analogy." Lucas cuts him off.

Dustin scoffs at him, "Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" He waves him off, rolling his eyes, "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"He's right, babe." Amelia moves and looks at the book and compares it with the picture. "Wait a minute." She frowns. "It holds similarities to a demon called Sollas."

Nancy looks at her in complete shock, "A demon?" She scoffs.

Amelia looks up at them all, "Demons are real. Believe me. Look at Theo. Like humans, we all hold a balance of good and evil. But there are some creatures who only thrive on pure evil. Like Sollas. A creature with an octopus head that carried the tentacles of judgement, very much like the seven deadly sins. Sollas' like, um...prison guards of the underworld. Instead of imprisoning convicts, they imprison souls."

Dustin gulps in fear and everyone shares a look of terror. "Souls?" Steve's voice trembles.

Amelia nods, "That's right. Souls. It's what they hunger for. The more stains, sins, a soul carries...the tastier it is to them. Sollas was so evil, he killed his parents on the night he was born. But even being evil, he cares about balance even more than souls."

"So Sollas is like the dungeon master of the underworld?" Mike asks.

"Or a law keeper. But if you get in his way... he'll take you. Guilty or not." Amelia says. "Okay, class dismissed on that. Let's get back to the matter at hand. Dust, what exactly does the manual say about the Mind Flayer?" Amelia asks.

Stuttering, "It wants to conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin says.

"Like the Germans?" Steve stammers.

Dustin looks at him in disbelief, "Uh, the Nazis?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

"Uh...If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself. It wants to spread, take over other dimensions. We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

Everyone looks at them in shock. Jim sighs, rubbing his mouth. He was having a hard time swallowing this since they were depending on a game's manual But...in a way...it makes sense.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve laughs humorlessly and scoffs.

"Which is explains why it wants Amelia. With her...he's unstoppable." Mike states.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls. We win."

"Theoretically." Lucas adds.

"Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?" Jim asks sarcastically and grunts with Amelia slaps his arm.

Dustin chuckles at how silly that sounded, "No. No, no Fire-- No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because..." He is voice trails off as he stammers, "...because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it...It likes brains."

Amelia places her finger over her lips, "Dustin, shh, quiet time now." She says sarcastically.

Jim scoffs and runs his fingers through his hair, "What the hell are we doing here?"

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Mike says sarcastically.

"We are!" Hopper says strongly.

"How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike says strongly.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper shouts.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab. We know the monsters are gonna molt again. We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Mike says.

"They're right." Joyce says as she stands before them in the hallways, tired of it all. Emotionally done and angry at what is happening. She almost lost Bob. She's slowly losing Will. She cannot lose her son. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." She says strongly.

"Me too." Amelia nods and gets to her feet. "Too many lives have been lost already." She says.

Jim nods and pulls her into his arms, holding her tight as his chin rests on top her head, "Me, too. I'll be damned if I ever let that thing get of hold of you again. But the main question is 'how?'. How do we do that?" He asks as he pulls away and looks down at her, "We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

Mike moves towards Will, as he lies passed out still on the couch, "No. But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

Max frowns at him, "I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." She points out.

Mike smirks as an idea comes to mind, "Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." He turns and looks at Hopper, "If we put him somewhere, some place that's unfamiliar, he won't be able to find us. Like..." He looks around and looks out the window. "The shed!"