Escape ~ S.Harrington

88} Popcorn and Venomous Words

"Okay, the goal is simple," Joyce started to explain to everyone as they sat in WSQK together, "We get Will close to the hive mind. Once he is, he jacks back in. Only this time he doesn't go after a demo. He goes after Vecna. One blow takes him out, ends him, ends his army, ends this nightmare. That's it. So... What do you think? What? Any ideas, thoughts? There's no bad ideas."
"I mean, I think it's, uh, a great plan," Robin shifted the ice pack on her forehead, "Uh, I mean, it's a... it's a great plan, right? Hey," She stared at Alice.
"Yeah, no. It's... it sounds great to me," She replied, very unconvincingly, "I just- I can't believe you took the demo out with your mind, cous. That's insane!"
"I mean..." Will blushed.
"Three to be exact," Mike bragged.
"Simultaneously," Lucas smiled.

"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!" Murray chuckled.
"A real-life wizard," Robin looked at him with pride radiating off of her.
"A sorcerer, actually," Erica corrected, "His powers are-"
"Innate," Mike nodded at her, "Yes, thank you."
"What does that matter?" Lucas scoffed.
"It matters!" Erica and Mike snapped back.
"Guys, I appreciate the praise," Will ran a hand through his hair, "But that wasn't all me. Yes, I took control, but only because Jenna guided me. I couldn't have done all of that without her. Sure, I could've figured out how to tap into the hive mind, but I would've never been able to do all of that on my own."
"Yeah, but-" Mike started to say, but got cut off by Joyce.
"We need to get back on track, guys," She sighed, "Anyways, I'll go first. We could build another telemetry thingy. And then we could find El and Jonathan and the others, and hope they have a track on Vecna."

"Dustin hand-built that tracker himself. I have no idea how it works. Only he and Jenna do," Mike explained, "Maybe we could put our heads together and try to figure it out, but it'll probably take..."
"Days,days that we don't have," Lucas groaned in frustration.
"What if we put Will in the back of the van and drive him around like a human antenna?" Robin threw out.
"What?" Will squinted at her.
"She said no bad ideas!" She defended.
"Okay, what else?" Joyce continued to push, "Come on, guys, what else? Anything. Anything."
"Is anyone else starving?" Murray held a hand to his grumbling stomach.
"Finally someone mentions that!" Alice stood up and beelined it to the kitchen, "I haven't eaten in hours!"

She grabbed a huge box of snacks and dumped them out on the table for everyone to dig into.
"Bugles?" Murray held up a box.
"The world is ending," Joyce frowned.
"Precisely," He shot her his normal cheeky smile, "The human mind needs energy and nutrients to sustain focus and creativity. Hmm? Eat."
"Wanna split a pack?" Lucas waved a pack of popcorn in Alice's face.
"I'll never say no to that offer," She slung an arm over his shoulder and watched as it started to pop in the microwave, "Wait a minute..."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Oh, one hundred fucking percent!"

"We've got it!" Lucas and Alice ran into the main area.
"I've got it!" Erica came barreling in at the same time, "Okay, I'll go first. Dustin is MIA, but his mentor... is not," She held up a picture of Dustin and Mr Clarke.
"Mr Clarke?" Mike laughed slightly.
"He's the biggest nerd in Hawkins," She continued, "he taught Dustin everything he knows. If anyone can build a new tracker, and build one fast, it's him."
"That could work," Mike nodded.
"Yeah, but that'll just take time," Lucas butted in.
"Our plan is faster," Alice smirked.
"Bolder."
"Better."
"As we were heating up our delicious popcorn..."
"I thought about Billy in the sauna."
"What? I thought about Will when we got the mind flayer out of him."
"We heated him up to activate the particles, right? they were dormant, just like these kernels," He held up a piece of popcorn, "Just like the particles inside the demos Will killed."

"If we wanna bring them back and reactivate them," Alice took the piece from Lucas and shoved it in her mouth, "We just have to heat them up. There a 50,ooo watts of perfectly good to use electricity flowing through that tower out there."
"If we pump the dead demos with electricity, shock those particles back to life, and voilà, we've got ourselves an instant hive mind."
"Sounds good, but how does that get Jenna back to help me?" Will flicked his eyes between the two.
"We're using electricity," Alice elaborated, "If we're pumping electricity of all things into the hive mind that Jenna's also connected to, it's pretty much guaranteed to summon her to some extent."
"You two idiots want to Dr Frankenstein a dead demo and summon Jenna at the same time?" Erica scoffed, "That's your big idea?"
"Your plan is slow as shit," Lucas rolled his eyes.
"Your plan is stupid as shit," She shot right back.