After Eleven and her group met up with Robin, Steve, and Nancy, they had a brief argument and exchange before deciding to head to Hawkins Middle School first.
Upon arriving at Hawkins Middle School, Robin and the others got out of the car. From the trunk of Steve's sports car, they took out prepared weapons—leftover props from when they last went to burn the tunnels with Richard. There were two machetes, a shotgun, and a baseball bat. Additionally, a large piece of equipment inside caught Chief Hopper's attention.
He saw Robin strap on a fuel tank backpack, which was connected to a flamethrowing hose. No matter how you looked at it, it looked exactly like a flamethrower. Chief Hopper's mind was a mess for a moment before it clicked. Pointing at the flamethrower Robin had taken out, he asked, "Was this brought over from Richard's house?"
Robin nodded with a smile. Since they happened to drive past Richard's neighborhood, they stopped by his house to grab this gear, thinking it might come in handy.
Chief Hopper didn't say anything more. He just felt that Richard was a truly dangerous fellow with such impressive hands-on skills. When Robin first pulled out the flamethrower, he thought it was a genuine military version, only realizing it was homemade upon closer inspection.
Nancy gave the shotgun to Chief Hopper and then handed a baseball bat from the very back of the trunk to a bewildered Steve.
Steve's eyes widened. "Why are you giving me a baseball bat?" He had wanted to take the shotgun, especially since he was the one who brought it from home.
Nancy gave a slight smile and gently stroked his chest almost flirtatiously. "I'll need you to provide close protection for Mike and the others in a moment. It's better to leave the shotgun for the Chief to use."
"Indeed," Chief Hopper said, feeling deeply gratified. Children shouldn't be playing with guns.
"No, Nancy, what did you just say? You want me to look after Mike and the others?" Steve turned back to look at the entire group of teenagers, who were grinning and baring their teeth at him. His eyes widened even further. "How did I suddenly get demoted to babysitter?"
"With great power comes great responsibility," Robin said with a laugh, patting Steve on the shoulder. "Man, you're our final line of defense. You're crucial."
Steve wanted to argue, but before he could say more, he caught sight of several pairs of headlights projecting from not far away. This meant the group from The Lab was chasing them again. Their faces instantly paled. They quickly ran into the gymnasium, pulled the doors shut, and locked them from the inside.
The people from The Lab got out of their cars and quickly noticed Steve's sports car parked at the gym entrance. They rapidly surrounded the front and back doors, preparing to breach from both sides.
One group of federal agents moved exceptionally fast. Although their arms were all in casts, they were still full of professional spirit, determinedly gripping their weapons at the front lines of their mission.
Agent Connie Frazier still felt a faint ache in her hands, and her eyes were filled with resentment. She wished she could shoot that little girl who did this to her on the spot, but she couldn't. So now she thought that, at the very least, she would kill a few of the girl's companions to vent her anger.
Finally, Agent Frazier and her team, who were leading the charge, spotted the two groups that had split up. Without hesitation, Agent Frazier led her team to pursue the group with the children. As she rounded a corner and saw the terrified faces of the teenagers, a chilling murderous intent flickered in her eyes.
Eleven seemed to notice Agent Frazier. Perhaps because the enhancement of her superpowers had given her an explosion of self-confidence, she suddenly decided not to hide anymore. She whipped around and, with a telekinetic palm thrust, slammed the group of federal agents—who were about to fire—against the wall, pinning them there so they couldn't move.
Facing the group of terrified, pleading federal agents, Eleven didn't hold back like she had earlier that day. She aimed at each of their necks and, with a snap of her head, easily took all of their lives.
Eleven's friends and Steve, who was leading them, were stunned. Only then did they realize that the silent girl who always seemed harmless was actually a teammate with such freakish abilities. Those guys with guns were no different from small fry in her eyes.
"I want to fight." Eleven looked back at everyone. She had run so many times; this time she didn't want to run anymore. She was going to face the people who brought her fear head-on!
The teenagers looked at each other and then whispered "Cool" in unison, following Eleven's pace.
Steve, burdened with the mission of being a babysitter, suddenly felt his role had become somewhat useless. He looked at the baseball bat in his hand, swung it at the air, shrugged, and said, "Seems like there's no chance for me to shine?"
After making that remark, Steve decided he couldn't let his guard down. He quickly gripped the bat tightly and followed. If Eleven wanted to deal with the enemies ahead, he would be responsible for guarding the rear—at least setting an example as the older kid.
And so, Eleven, with her power fully unleashed, was almost like a god of war. Those gun barrels aimed at them had their directions shifted by telekinesis before they could fire—Shooting at teammates or simply hitting the floor. Without exception, every shot missed. Before the enemies could react, Eleven snapped their necks with her mind.
Soon, nearly half of the thirty-four armed personnel sent to retrieve Eleven—including nine professionally trained federal agents—had been easily dealt with by her.
Eleven didn't walk fast. On one hand, her legs were short; on the other, she was also looking for Dr. Brennan. She wanted a final confrontation with the man who had caused her over a decade of pain, the one who had destroyed the image of a "father" in her mind.
Buzz, buzz, buzz... However, right then, a sudden change occurred. The lights around the basketball court in the center of the gym began to flicker and flash wildly. This eerie situation was familiar to everyone in the gym.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Chief Hopper, who was using his shotgun to deal with pursuers, also happened to notice the anomaly with the lights. The two young women beside him also looked alarmed.
"Blood and living people," Hopper whispered, recalling what Richard had said. "The Demogorgon from The Upside Down likes bleeding living things. That beast really did sniff out the blood and come over, just as Chade said. I don't know if I should thank it or not."
Hopper glanced back. His group had unknowingly been backed into a dead end.
Roar!
A moment later, a monster's roar suddenly rang out. It burst through the wall of the corridor behind the gym and immediately pounced on the armed personnel attempting to intercept Hopper's group. Those personnel fired their pistols frantically, but due to their lack of experience fighting monsters, they missed almost all the weak points, giving the monster a chance to counterattack. With several lunges, its petal-like head snapped and bit, and its claws flailed wildly. The humans, trapped in the narrow space and unable to dodge, became playthings easily killed by the monster.
Hiding in a corner, Hopper and the two girls had long since held their breath in tension. Only after confirming that the killing-frenzied monster had moved away did they dare to peek out. Forcing themselves to endure the visual shock of the horribly mangled corpses, the three of them crept away. Next, they needed to meet up with Eleven, find a chance to strike back at the people from The Lab, and deal with the monster from The Upside Down.
While a high-stakes shootout was playing out in the Hawkins Middle School gym in the real world—along with the sudden appearance of a monster—Richard and Jonathan, who had entered The Upside Down, had also made their way to the school's counterpart there.
According to Eleven's hint, Troy should be here now. Richard silently prayed that this minor character wouldn't just die like that. He hoped that Troy, who was enduring Will's original suffering, would also enjoy Will's protagonist plot armor and hold out until he and Jonathan could rescue him.
"Why is The Upside Down exactly like our real world?" Richard and Jonathan cautiously explored Hawkins Middle School. Jonathan arrived at the classroom where Will and the others had their classes; having been to this room before, Jonathan felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Richard frowned slightly. He didn't know either, but he soon discovered some unusual information on a desk in the faculty office. It was the desk of Greg, the science teacher Mike and the others liked most. A date marked with a red 'X' indicated that the time in The Upside Down was November 9th, rather than the 22nd in the real world.
Jonathan was also baffled by this, but Richard looked thoughtful. "That day... seems to be the day Troy and his friend went missing."
"Why is that?" Jonathan felt a chill run down his spine, sensing something fishy.
Richard shook his head. "Let's set aside our curiosity for now. The gym is the only place left to check. Maybe Troy is there."
The two of them turned and headed to the entrance of the Hawkins Middle School gym in The Upside Down. Both felt a slight sense of unease and trepidation because the gym looked extremely dangerous. Conscious vines seemed to have taken root and grown extensively from inside the gym; several large vines had even grown out through the doors and were crawling along the floor.
Richard warned Jonathan that these vines were alive and possessed a hive mind. To prevent alerting the vines and having them signal their presence to other monsters in The Upside Down, they had better not touch the vines before rescuing Troy. If they weren't careful, they could be ensnared, and those vines were not easily broken by human strength alone.
Jonathan indicated his understanding and chose to follow behind the agile Richard.
Initially, the path through the corridor leading to the central basketball court wasn't too difficult; both could find enough footholds. But when they actually stepped out of the corridor and into the court, they couldn't help but be shocked.
Many vines were twisted and intertwined into a massive bundle, like a tree trunk, extending upward to about the height of a backboard. Several corpses of humans and large animals hung desiccated among the dense vines, and Troy, his fate unknown, was bound helplessly among them, his eyes rolled back.
Gigigigi—
Just as Richard and Jonathan were about to move in to save him, Richard suddenly heard a chorus of strange biological cries coming from all around. Following one of the sounds, he gasped. He saw a giant spider with facial features extremely similar to a Demogorgon's mouthparts, staring at them from the darkness with several eyes emitting an eerie red light. And there were about twenty such spiders, large and small, scattered throughout the entire gymnasium.