One

Chapter Nine - part three

Phina was trying her hardest not to die with laughter. Dustin was very excited about the dead Demodog in the living room. He made Steve pick it up in a blanket while he took everything out of the Byers' fridge to store it in.
"Shut up," Steve glowered at Phina, a glare on his face.
She raises her hands, "I didn't say anything."
Steve playfully glares at her, "maybe, but I know what you're thinking, asshole. Shut up"
She grins at him and tilts her head cutely, "bite me, Harrington."
Dustin sighs, shaking his head as he turns towards Steve, "it should fit now."
Steve gives him a look of exasperation, "is this really necessary?"
"Yes, it is, okay," Dustin answers, "this is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog!"
"All right, all right, all right," Steve sighs as he walks towards the fridge, "but you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, all right?"
He lifts the creature into the fridge and it's head slams against the side. Phina laughs sharply and almost falls off the counter she was sitting on. Steve tries to shove it in again but it doesn't work.
"Christ," he groans, "help me out?"
"What am I supposed to do," Dustin asks.
"Get the door, man," Steve grumbles as he pushes the Demodog into the fridge more.
Dustin grabs the fridge door, "all right, I got the door."
Steve tries to pull back from the creature and the slime on it gets all over his arm, "Ew! Jesus-"
"God," Dustin yells.
Steve quickly pulls away from the creature and he and Dustin slam the door shut which makes the entire thing shake. They both stare at the door for a moment and then Steve puts his hand on Dustin's head, patting it like a dad would a son.
"Phew," Steve sighs.
Phina grins at the two of them. She thought it was cute that Steve and Dustin were getting closer. Steve looks over at her and rolls his eyes at her grin. She enjoyed that little show a little too much.
"I'll rub this slime on your face if you don't wipe that grin off your face," Steve jokes, gesturing to the slime on his arm.
She grins wider, almost like a cat, "I'll burn you."
"Point taken," he nods, a smile now on his lips.
From the living room, Lucas's voice says, "Mike, would you just stop already?"
"You weren't in there, okay, Lucas," Mike fires back at him, "that lab was swarming with hundreds of those dogs."
Dustin rolls his eyes, "Demodogs!"
"The chief will take care of her," Lucas says, ignoring Dustin.
"Like she needs protection," Max mumbles.
Steve, Phina, and Dustin walk into the living room. Phina had given Steve a rag to wipe off the slime from his arm
"Listen, dude," Steve says to Mike, "a coach calls a play in a game bottom line, you execute it. All right?"
"Okay, first of all," Mike says, clearly annoyed, "this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."
Steve stammers, "so my point is..."
He pauses and they all look at him, "right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do."
He throws the towel over his shoulder and Dustin speaks up, "that's not entirely true. I mean, these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."
"So, if we get their attention," Lucas continues.
"Maybe we can draw them from the lab," Max adds, looking up at Lucas.
"Clear a path to the gate," Mike says.
"So El and Hopper can get in," Phina says.
"Yeah, and then we all die," Steve counters, looking at all of them with a look that said, are you even hearing yourselves?
"That's one point of view," Dustin argues.
Steve shakes his head, "no, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact."
Mike pushes through Steve and Dustin, "I got it!"
He walks around a corner and they all follow him. He kneels down and points at a spot on Will's map that covered the walls of the Byers' house.
"This where the chief dug his hole," Mike says, "this is our way into the tunnel. So..."
He stands up and walks over to another piece of the map, "here, right here. This is like a hub."
He stands over a place where a giant blue area was, "so you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire-"
"Oh, yeah," Steve says, one hand on his hip as he points, "that's a no."
"The mind flayer would call away his army," Dustin says, ignoring Steve.
"They'd all come to stop us," Lucas exclaims.
"Then we circle back to the exit," Mike plans.
Steve leans towards them, "guys."
"By the time they realize we're gone-"
"El would be at the gate-"
"Hey!" Steve claps to get their attention. "Hey! Hey! This is not happening."
"He's right guys," Phina says.
"But-"
"No, no, no," Steve yells, "no buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing."
Phina crosses her arms over her chest, "it's too dangerous, guys. Steve's right, it's our job to keep you guys safe. I'd be damned if I let you guys go with me."
Steve whirls around on her, "with me? No, no, no, you're not going down into those tunnels either! We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting here for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"
"This isn't a stupid sports game," Mike yells.
"I said does everybody understand that," Steve yells back, grabbing the rag of his shoulder and pointing at Mike, "I need a yes."
All of them turn towards the sound of a loud engine. Max instantly runs over to the front window and jumps on the couch to look through it, Lucas following her lead.
"It's my brother," Max says as the engine grows louder, "he can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us."
The engine revs a few times before the car screeches to a stop in front of the house.
"Stay in here," Steve orders all of them, "I'll talk to him."
Phina glares at him, "like hell I'm staying here, Harrington."
Steve knows not to push her when she gets like this so he just sighs and looks at the kids behind her, "stay hidden you dipshits."
Phina and Steve walk out the front door and close it behind them. Steve stands slightly in front of Phina to hide her from Billy's view. The boy mentioned slowly gets out of his car, a cigaret lit between his lips as he looks over at them, leaning on the roof of his car.
"Am I dreaming, or is that you, Harrington," he asks.
Steve has his hands on his hips, "yeah, it's me. Don't cream your pants."
"And is that the gorgeous freak of Hawkins behind you," he asks as his gaze turns to Phina.
"Better watch what you say, Hargrove," Phina snaps, "I'd hate to make do on my promise."
Billy throws his jacket off his shoulders and Steve walks towards him, sensing the trouble that Billy wanted to start. Phina catches up with Steve with her arms crossed.
"What are you doing here, amigo," Billy asks, his eyes turning back to Steve.
"I could ask you the same thing," Steve says with a fake uninterested tone, "amigo."
The two stop a few feet away from Billy, "looking for my stepsister. A little birdie told me she was here."
"Huh," Steve hums, "that's weird. I don't know her."
"Small. Redhead, bit of a bitch," Billy says, glancing over at Phina, "not to be confused with this beauty right here."
Steve glares at him, "doesn't ring a bell. Sorry, buddy."
"You know," Billy sighs, "I don't know, this... this whole situation, Harrington, I don't know. It's giving me the heebie-jeebies."
"Oh, yeah," Steve asks, pushing Phina back a little, more for Billy sake than hers, when he feels heat start to radiate off her, "why's that?"
Billy pulls the cigaret out of his mouth, "my 13-year-old sister goes missing all day. And then I find her with you, and the freak of Hawkins, in a stranger's house. And you lie to me about it."
Steve chuckles lowly, shaking his head, "man, were you dropped too much as a child, or what?"
Billy chuckles and runs his tongue across his teeth as Steve continues, "I don't know what you don't understand about what I just said... She's not here."
Billy uses his cigaret to point past Steve and at the house, "then who is that?"
Steve and Phina whirl around to look at the window. All of the kids are pressed up against is and they jump away when they see the teens look at them. Phina wants to strangle all of them.
"Oh, shit," Steve slowly turns back to Billy, "listen-"
Billy pushes Steve and he falls to the ground, hitting his head.
"Steve," Phina yells but Billy shoves her away from him and she falls too.
"I told you to plant your feet," Billy growls at Steve and he kicks him in the side when he tries to push himself up.
Billy walks past them and towards the front door. Phina pushes herself up and glares at the back of his head. Vines start to crawl over the ground towards him slowly.
"Phina," Steve groans, "don't."
The vines retract quickly as Phina comes to her senses. She couldn't reveal herself to Billy, or anyone for that matter, not if she wanted to live a normal life ever again, not if she wanted to stay out of places like Hawkins Lab.
Phina rushes over to Steve, "are you ok?"
He groans as she pulls him to her feet, "not important right now."
He grabs her arm and they run into the house hearing yelling from the kitchen, "you are so dead, Sinclair! You're dead."
Steve lets go of Phina as he grabs Billy, spinning him around to face him, "no... you are!"
Steve hits Billy with a punch that used his full weight, making his entire body spin to the side. Phina goes behind him and grabs Lucas, pulling him to the rest of the kids. Billy laughs maniacally as he turns towards Steve.
"Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh," Billy yells, "I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about."
Steve doesn't flinch as Billy gets closer to him, he only hardens his gaze and sneers as he pushed Billy back, "get out."
Billy reels back and swings at Steve who dodges beneath his arm. As he comes back up, he hits Billy across the jaw and sends him back into the table.
"Yes! Kick his ass, Steve," Dustin yells.
"Get him," Mike yells.
"Murder the son of a bitch!"
Steve hits Billy again and he falls backward and leans on the sink, his teeth covered in blood.
"Now! Now!"
"Get that shithead!"
Billy laughs, throwing his bloody face towards the roof.
"Kill the son of a bitch!"
Billy grabs a plate off the counter and smashes it over Steve's head.
"Steve," Phina yells.
"Billy," Max yells.
Steve stumbles towards them and Billy walks towards him, rearing back for another hard at Steve. Phina grabs the kids and pulls them away from the fight. Steve stumbles into the living room and Billy stalks towards him. He grabs Steve by the shoulders and Steve squirms in his grip.
"No one tells me what to do," Billy growls, bitch-slapping Steve across the face.
"Steve," Phina yells again, not knowing what to do without revealing her powers.
Steve is sent to the ground as Billy yells, "Whoo! Get up!"
He stalks towards him and gets on top of Steve. He throws a powerful hit across Steve's cheek and then another one. Left, right, left, right. Blood spews from Steve's mouth and Phina's vision goes red.
The kids' yelling goes deaf in her ears as she feels something snap within her. It's like a dam has broken and power floods through her. Her hands twitch at her sides, her nails tingling as they go from normal, short, stubby things, to sharp thorns growing from her skin. Her eyes feel like they are burning within her skull, the emerald that had been referred to as flame go black as the depths of the sea. She stalks forward, the kids backing away from her, not in fear, but in the realization that she was a bomb about to explode. Her new talons drip with a toxin, nothing that would kill, just subdue, as she raises them above Billy. Time slows as she sinks her talons into Billy's neck, the toxin taking effect immediately. She rips her hand back, leaving four deep gashes.
Billy stumbles to his feet, turning to look at the girl. Fear shoots through him at the sight of her. She looked like a demon had taken over her body, her eyes black as night, her hair entwined with thorn laden vines. Whatever she put in him, he swore it was making him hallucinate. He falls backward, away from her. It draws her eyes towards Steve, passed out on the floor.
Slowly, the red in her vision leaves and the talons retracts, leaving her short fingernails in place. The black in her eyes changes back to the normal emerald as she stumbles towards him.
"Steve," she whispers, falling forward, the world turning black instead of red.

-2293 words-
Ooohhh, badass Phina coming out to play, and all for Steve ;) I hope you liked this chapter and are ready for the next four!
-Morgan