[ Location: Sattler Quarry ][ Date: April 14th, 1985 - Sunday Afternoon ]
It was hot. Not just "warm for April" hot, but the kind of sticky, oppressive heat that makes your shirt cling to your back like a second skin. The air shimmered above the asphalt, distorting everything into a mirage.
The entire "Super-Party"—the Hawkins crew and the Derry refugees—had invaded the quarry.
Steve Harrington was posted up on a lawn chair like he was guarding the crown jewels instead of a bunch of nerds. He had enough white zinc on his nose to paint a fence and was wearing oversized aviators that screamed "I'm trying too hard."
"No running!" Steve shouted, pointing a finger at Dustin, who was definitely running. "And keep it down! I'm trying to relax! This constitutes my break time!"
"You're not my dad, Steve!" Dustin yelled back, launching himself off a rock. Splash.
I stood at the top of the cliff. Forty feet. Looking down, the water didn't look like water. It looked like concrete painted blue.
Next to me, Richie Tozier was adjusting his swimsuit. It was a striped, one-piece monstrosity that looked like it had been stolen from a 1920s silent film.
"Nice outfit, Tozier," I deadpanned. "Did you rob a museum on the way here?"
"It's vintage!" Richie sniffed, adjusting his glasses. "It accentuates the calves. The ladies love the calves."
"The ladies are laughing at you!" Max shouted from the water below, shading her eyes.
"They're laughing with me!" Richie yelled back, though his voice cracked.
I looked down at the water again.
'Time for a physics check.'
I just focused on the feeling in my gut.
'Gravity Well. If I increase my density right at the moment of impact... I shouldn't break my legs. I should just displace a lot of water. Like, a biblical amount.'
"Canonball!" I yelled.
I jumped.
The wind roared in my ears. Gravity grabbed me, pulling hard. I fell fast. Too fast.
Right before I hit the surface, I clenched my mind.
'Heavy.'
BOOM.
It was an eruption.
A wall of water, ten feet high, exploded outward from the impact zone. It surged across the quarry, a mini-tsunami washing over the rocks.
It hit Steve.
"GAH!" Steve sputtered as his lawn chair was washed backward into a bush. His sunglasses floated away. His perfectly styled hair was instantly ruined.
Dustin screamed, treading water as the waves bobbed him up and down like a cork. "That was a Crazy! You broke physics!"
I surfaced, shaking wet hair out of my eyes. "Physics is just a suggestion to me, Henderson."
[ Location: The Rocks - Lunch ][ Time: 1:30 PM ]
We dried off on the sun-baked rocks, eating sandwiches that were slightly squashed.
"So," Bill stuttered, looking up at the cloudless sky. "It's... really nice here. Q-Quieter than Derry."
"For now," Mike muttered around a mouthful of chips, dark circles still bruising his eyes.
I sat a little apart from them, staring at an oak tree near the edge of the clearing. I wasn't being antisocial; I was grinding.
'Hive Mind Control.'
I reached out.
I listened.
I connected to five squirrels in the branches.
The mental noise hit me like a slap.
It was a chaotic, screaming mess of instinct.
NUT. CLIMB. ITCH. NUT. HAWK? NO HAWK. NUT.
'It's like listening to five Richie Toziers at once,' I thought, massaging my temples. 'Focus. Filter the noise. Isolate the command channel.'
"Attention," I projected. "Target: The Cooler."
The squirrels froze mid-twitch.
Their chaotic thoughts silenced, replaced by a single, cold directive.
TARGET ACQUIRED.
"Watch this," I whispered to Robin, who was reading a book next to me, looking bored out of her mind.
"Watch what?" Robin asked, flipping a page. "If you're going to do a magic trick, make it good."
The squirrels moved.
Squirrel Alpha and Bravo dropped onto the rocks near Steve. They started chattering loudly, staging a fake fight over an acorn.
"Hey, shoo!" Steve waved his hand, distracted. "Get away from the chips, you rats!"
While Steve was busy yelling at nature, Squirrel Charlie rappelled down the side of the cooler. With dexterous little paws, he unzipped the bag. He grabbed a Coke can.
"He's got the package," I whispered.
Charlie scurried back up the tree.
Alpha and Bravo vanished.
Steve turned back to his cooler. "Hey! Where's my Coke?"
He looked up.
A squirrel was sitting on a branch, holding the red can, looking down at him smugly.
"Did that rat just steal my drink?" Steve asked, bewildered. "Is that normal in Indiana now?"
The group stared at the tree.
Then they turned to me. I was grinning.
"You..." Richie pointed a shaking finger. " Are you Snow White. But evil."
"I prefer 'Beastmaster'," I winked.
"You are the weirdest kid I have ever met," Robin said, shaking her head. But the corner of her mouth twitched up.
[ Location: The Ridge - Away from the Group ][ Time: 2:00 PM ]
I lay back on the rock, closing my eyes against the sun.
'Remote Viewing. #$ror '
My vision shifted. The darkness behind my eyelids dissolved.
I was looking through the sky.
The blue faded.
And behind it... was the Macroverse I guess.
It An Infinite and chaotic void.. It was a sea of orange fire. The Deadlights. Writhing, screaming energy that existed outside of time.
'The walls are not that thin but,' I realized, a cold sweat breaking out on my skin despite the heat. 'Hawkins, no this world is like a blister ready to pop.'
I pushed my vision further. Deep into the orange void.
I saw shapes. Massive, incomprehensible shapes drifting in the Deadlights.
A Spider, vast and spindly, weaving webs between galaxies.
And far, far away... a Turtle.
A shell the size of a universe, drifting lazily, ignoring the chaos.
'The Maturin. The Enemy of IT.'
It was beautiful and terrifying.
It made Vecna look like a microbe.
"Vivan?"
El's voice snapped me back.
The sky returned to blue.
The birds were singing. The orange fire was gone.
I sat up, gasping. My heart was racing like I'd just sprinted a mile.
"You okay?" El asked. She was standing over me, dripping wet, water beading on her skin. She looked concerned.
"Yeah," I lied, rubbing my chest where the Magic was pulsating to keep me calm. "Just... dizzy. Too much sun."
'We aren't just fighting monsters in our world,' I realized, looking at her. 'We are ants living on the skin of something much, much bigger.'
'This world is much more complex and scary than I originally thought'
[ Location: The Picnic Table ][ Time: 3:00 PM ]
I sat with Robin while the kids played Chicken in the water.
"So," Robin said, pulling a cassette tape out of her bag. "I listened to your 'mixtape'. The Russian one."
"And?"
"And it's not a code," she said, tapping the plastic case. "It's a schedule."
"Explain."
"The words," Robin lowered her voice, leaning in. " 'The Silver Cat Feeds.' 'Blue and Yellow meet in the West.' I thought it was poetic nonsense. But then I looked at the delivery trucks behind the mall."
She pulled out a notebook.
"Silver Cat is a delivery company. Lynx Transport. Their logo is a silver cat. They deliver to the mall every Tuesday and Thursday."
"And Blue and Yellow?" I asked.
"The clock hands," she whispered. "8:45 PM. When the mall closes. Vivan. They're broadcasting a delivery schedule."
I looked at her.
' The Russians are smuggling Promethium into the mall at night.'
"You're a genius, Buckley," I said.
Robin preened, flipping her hair. "I know. I'm wasted on band practice."
"We need to see what's in those trucks," I said darkly. "Tonight."
[ Location: The Shallows ][ Time: 3:30 PM ]
I watched El and Beverly Marsh floating in the shallow end.
They were talking quietly. I focused my Telepathy just enough to hear the surface noise, making sure they were okay.
"My dad..." Beverly was saying, staring at the ripples. "He... he worries too much and sometimes he gets so angry t-that he..."
"Papa," El whispered, her face darkening. "Papa was bad too, he made me... hurt people."
"Mine too," Beverly said. "Sometimes, the people who are supposed to protect you... are the monsters."
El looked at Beverly.
She reached out under the water and took her hand.
"No, not alone," El said firmly.
"No," Beverly smiled, a sad, broken smile. "Not anymore."
Max splashed over to them. "Hey! Less trauma bonding, more chicken fights! I'm undefeated! Who wants to lose next?"
The tension broke and they laughed.
I watched them, satisfied.
'The life isn't just about romance,' I thought.
[ Location: Walking Home ][ Time: 6:00 PM ]
The sun was setting. The day was over.
As I walked down my driveway,
I felt a burning sensation in my pocket.
It was... heavy.
Greedily heavy.
I stopped and opened my Inventory.
The Philosopher's Stone.
It wasn't red anymore.
It had absorbed the ambient energy of the Deadlights I had accidentally channeled during the fight in the Steelworks.
It had eaten the "Fear" residue.
It was now a deep, swirling Purple.
[ System Alert: Item Evolved! ][ Item: The Stone of Avarice (Grade: Legendary/Cursed). ][ New Ability: Transmute Fear to Currency. ]Effect: The Stone absorbs ambient fear/terror from the environment and converts it into System Points. (Current Rate: 10 Points/Hour in Hawkins).
[ New Ability: Transmute Reality (Equivalent Exchange). ]Effect: User can sacrifice System Points or Stats to temporarily warp reality (alter probability, matter, or time).
I stared at the purple stone pulsing in my hand.
"Wait," I whispered. "I can literally monetize trauma hahah"
I looked at the darkened town of Hawkins, where the Mind Flayer was plotting and Pennywise was hunting.
"Lloyd is going to propose to me," I muttered, pocketing the stone. "I'm going to be the richest wizard in the apocalypse."
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