There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

EIGHTY THREE

Shock Jock

Hawkins Lab was just as creepy, if not more, in the Upside Down than it was in the Rightside Up. Cat stopped in her tracks as the group of five entered the lab's lobby. She hadn't been back to that particular building since that fateful November 4th, 1984- three long and eventful years ago- when she'd watched poor, innocent Bob Newby be mauled to death by the Demodogs while they tried to do the same to her. The once deep, long, but now faded scars that littered her back and shoulder began to tingle, reminding Cat of the events as her eyes stayed glued to the spot on the floor where she'd almost lost her life.

"Well, this looks really promising." Steve uttered, voice dripping with sarcasm as the group continued across the large, empty entryway.

"We're in the lobby." Dustin sighed, rolling his eyes at the older boy.

"And... where are we going exactly?" Nancy asked.

"Right. Like, what is it we're looking for?" Jonathan added as the three older members of the group gathered around Dustin.

"You've all seen 'Return of the Jedi', I hope?"

"Yeah, that's the one with the teddy bears?" Steve asked for clarification.

"Ewoks." Both Dustin and Cat corrected at the same time, Cat's feet glued to her spot by the main doors as the overwhelming feelings of a panic attack began to take over her body and flood her veins.

"Yeah, it's the best one."

"Is it?" Nancy questioned, her eyebrows furrowed. So far, in between their various tries of saving the world and fighting off inter-dimensional monsters, Cat had only managed to get her friends to sit through all three of the Star Wars films once. Steve, however, was always eager to rent out the whole trilogy if he and Cat both had a free weekend. Their favourite evenings were always the ones where they could watch a movie together (especially a Star Wars film), and sometimes Claudia and Dustin would join them and they'd make it a family movie night. They'd not had a family movie night in a long time, what with the crawls taking up a lot of their evenings. Plus, Dustin refused to be included like he used to- deliberately putting distance between himself and his sister and her boyfriend since Eddie's momentary death, and now, coma.

"No, but every child loves it, so tracks." Dustin commented, his words a deliberate jab at Steve. "In the film, if you recall, the rebels need to destroy a second Death Star, but it's surrounded by a protective energy shield, which is created by a shield generator." He explained.

"Yeah, cool." Steve mumbled, shining his torch across the vine covered walls. "Thanks for the summary of a movie we've all seen."

"It's an oddly relevant movie, Steve." Dustin quipped. "Look, I think this circular flesh wall is Vecna's version of an energy shield, except it's not sci-fi. It's supernatural, created by Vecna's dark magic. And this dark magic shield is what's preventing us from reaching him and saving Holly. But if my math is correct, the generator for the shield has to be in this lab."