317 My SI Stash #17 - Stranger Gothic by gothicjedi666 (StrangerThings)

-Was kinda monkaW going into all of this but thankfully it's an AU Stranger Things fic that doesn't contain any lewding of the lolis/

Synopsis: Yet another new story because my muse is working me overtime, only without any pay. This story will be set in a version of the Stranger Things world only in the very early 90s, so as to age up certain characters, and I plan for some crossovers later with some supernatural elements. There will not be a harem in this story, rather there will be a romance between 11 and my SI.

Rated: M

Words: 22K

Posted on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13605662/1/Stranger-Gothic (gothicjedi666)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

Hawkins National Laboratory. Hawkins, Indiana.

Given that one day, I'd gone to bed as normal and then I'd woken up in a cell in a place that was completely alien to me, least at first, and that I'd found myself to be many years younger than I had been before, it was easy to understand why the guards around here could think that I was more than a little crazy. I'd started to wonder if the life I remembered living before my existence in this cell was the delusion. Which only made me appear crazier, and to me thinking that I was mad.

So I'd thought for a good long while, and this had resulted in me getting left alone for the most part, not that I really minded and I was a loner by nature. I suspected that I might have gone totally mad if I'd been allowed to simply waste away in my cell, but I'd not been left to die. I was too valuable to Project MKUltra to be allowed to die, so I might only be partly mad as I'd not always been on my own.

In my world, the project was a covert operation designed and conducted by the CIA that went on from the 1950s to the early 1970s, with the goal of developing mind-control techniques which could be used against enemies during the Cold War. The subjects, many of which were unwitting, suffered extensive use of psychedelic drugs, physical and mental abuse, sleep deprivation and malnourishment, among many other experiments.

I was not a historian or even an American citizen, but I'd been educated well enough and I'd read a lot so I felt fairly certain that the Watergate scandal involving President Nixon led to investigations into what the intelligence services were up to during the hight of the cold war and that resulted in stuff like Project MKUltra getting shut down. Maybe that was the case in my universe.

Well in this universe (that I knew to be the Stranger Things universe as the guy running things here looked very familiar and he had that TV villain vibe about him) the project had lasted well into the 1980s and from I'd been able to gather it had been going strong until rather recently. They had a number of just subjects, I was number 14 so there were at least thirteen others and maybe many more.

MKUltra might have started off doing mind-control experiments, but along the way, they'd discovered more about the human mind than they could have planned for. They'd figured out that some people had psychic potential, and now this part of the project, there was more to it than this place, was working on finding ways to use psychic powers as a weapon against America's enemies.

On paper that sounded rather cool, and it would be if not for the inhuman practices going on here. Because of the assholes in charge I got dragged out of my cell and tests were performed on me, and while this did allow me to practice with my powers, it did not mean that I enjoyed these activities.

As for my powers, they seemed to be based around mind control, as in with eye contact and a lot of effort I could not only read a person's mind I could make people do things that I wanted them to. Kind of like the Jedi Mind Trick, and like that power some people could resist it better than others and I couldn't get it to work on multiple people at the same time I had to maintain eye contact.

Over time listening to thoughts became easier and easier, even if it did give me headaches, and I'd learned a lot, such as the big news about the fall of the Berlin Wall, so it had to be the late 80s or early 90s, and since no creatures from the Upside Down had broken into my cell to murder me I figured that 11 hadn't ever made contact with the monster known as the Demi-Gorgan, or whatever it was those kids called it.

I'd tried to escape on my own, but my mind control power required eye contact and focus, and it's hard to keep eye contact with guards who all know not to look into my eyes and aren't afraid to hit me with batons, I knew this because I'd been knocked quite a few times by the guards. Which is rather foolish since I'm only valuable to them because of my mental talents.

The only plus side to all my alone time was that I'd been able to practice with my telepathy, and I'd discovered quite a few interesting things. First of all, men do not think about sex as much as you might think, at least not in this part of the world, they do think about sports a lot and stuff like beer, and that is very boring. But what mattered to me was that I'd be getting out of here soon enough as I'd learned that from the minds of others.

I'd learned how to drive people crazy by placing songs in their heads, and I knew songs that didn't even exist yet, and not knowing where the lyrics came from must be a real pain for my captors. Then I'd done stuff like make some of the guards think about them kissing other guards. I was fairly certain I'd driven one guy into quitting his job by whispering into his mind some encouragement into moving into the woods to escape the modern world, but all I knew for sure was that I'd never seen him again after pushing him to leave.

Of course, I'd tried to use this power to escape, more than once, but I couldn't control people that I didn't have eye contact with and planting thoughts to aid in my escape didn't result in much as only the guy running the place could authorise such a thing and he had the ability to resist my powers, and the guards did not let each other open my cell unless a certain doctor was with them.

When I'd first heard about the project getting shut down, having heard it in someone's head, I did worry for some time that someone was going to enter my cell and put a bullet between my eyes, but no we would be set free, everything would be put into mothballs and forgotten about, and this made the staff running this place more than a little mad since it meant decades of work had been for nothing.

I was pleased that I'd be leaving, as would 11, but I had no idea what the higher-ups were thinking about setting a couple of young adults (I looked to be about twenty if my reflection in the mirror was to be trusted) into the world with no eduction, although I did recall going to school, and no means of getting a good job. This was how you got supervillains. I did have a strong desire to avenge myself on the people who locked up children and experimented on them so as to turn them into weapons against the Russians.

When using my powers my mind didn't reach out or leave my body, I couldn't project my awareness or anything like that, at least not yet, there's no black void to wander around in, for me I hear thoughts like they are distant voices, but I hear them inside me as if my grey matter is picking up thoughts like how some machines can pick up signals and so I was able to hear 11 thinking and plant things in her mind like thoughts of freedom.

This didn't mean we'd ever really met, she was just aware of me, and she tried to reach out to me, but my powers hadn't reached the point that I could tell if she was seeing me. Now and again I did hear things and see something out of the corner of my eye, but that might just be my mind playing tricks on me. I still felt fairly certain that I must have gone la little loony while locked up here.

I had to keep trying to make a connection so that when we got out of here we wouldn't have to face the world all alone. Sure Eleven was timid, socially withdrawn and extremely cautious of other people, however, in the show, she would become fiercely protective and show great loyalty towards those who cared for her, especially to Mike whom she fell in love with, to the point of sacrificing herself to destroy the Monster when it threatened to harm her friends. That was the kind of friend I was going to need once we got out of here.

Besides, there were plans in my head that involved dimensional travel, if 11 could open a gateway into the Upside Down perhaps there were other places she could go to if she just wanted it badly enough and develop her powers, becoming stronger when using them. A long term goal, but it was something to aim for.

For now, I would just wait and practice with the minds I had access to, and when I did get out of here I would make sure that no one ever locked me up again.

(Line Break)

Hawkins National Laboratory. Hawkins, Indiana.

Eleven knew very little of the world outside her lab, and not that much about the lab, just the bits and pieces she had been able to glean through careful observation. She sometimes saw far off places as part of finding the people Papa sent her to spy on. She knew other children existed, though she had only ever met one other kid and that was when she was much younger and she only had vague memories of that other girl. Not that she was really a kid any more.

She'd not know that was anyone else like her in this world, or at least this was the case until Eleven discovered that actually there was someone else like her, who was also locked up here and tests were run on him as well. She'd discovered this when Papa, the only person who ever spoke more than a few words to her, had been walking her back to her room when they had to make a stop by his office so that he could quickly talk to someone on the phone about something that couldn't wait until later.

While she waited, standing patiently beside his desk, Eleven happened to spot a file sitting open on his desk. A few notes were written in Papa's handwriting in the margins and while 11 hadn't understood what the notes were saying as she couldn't read, but she'd seen an image the guy the file was about and she'd gotten the impression that he was somehow similar to her.

As it turned out he was and it had to be him who had reached out to her with whatever powers he had. Sometimes she heard a thought that didn't come from her and later when she'd used her own powers to find the person she'd locked up as she was, 11 had found the boy in his own cell. He was older than her, a man really.

She'd become a little obsessed with finding out more about this person who was like her, only they'd had no real contact so all she could do is go find him and spend a few moments every day trying to get through to him. Sometimes it seemed to work, he reacted as if he'd heard something or even seen her, but she'd couldn't maintain the connection, she would get too tired and the tests Papa ran took up a lot of her energy.

Maybe things would change soon Papa had told that she was going to have to leave her home and that he would not be going with her. She didn't understand why this was, or what it even really meant. She'd never been anywhere else other than here, at least as far as she knew. Where would she go? And why didn't Papa want her anymore? She'd done what he wanted, well nearly everything.

Things were changing, there were no more tests, and they stopped shaving her hair off, not that she minded that. She had proper clothes, even shoes, and what few things she'd been given over the years, little presents from Papa, they had been packed into a bag. That was all she had to show for nearly two decades of life not counting any files on her that the project kept in boxes to gather dust in some storeroom.

"Come on 11 its time to leave," Papa told her when he entered her room.

She had on her new clothes, and she was still getting used to them, and all her stuff was in her bag but she didn't get up off the bed. She'd often fantasised about escaping and going into the big wide world, and now that she had her chance to leave and go see it, she didn't want to rush off because she didn't know where to go.

That didn't stop her from being led out of the building. She didn't resist this, as she didn't wish to stay here, nor did she rush out since she had nowhere to rush off to. It wasn't until she saw the boy she'd been visiting, who was also getting escorted out, did she have any idea what to do next. She'd follow him and hope for the best, it would at least be better than just wandering aimlessly.

(Line Break)

Hawkins National Laboratory. Hawkins, Indiana.

"Go fuck yourself," I told the guard who slammed the gate on myself and 11.

With that man went back inside his booth and a few moments later I heard him start to make some funny noises. He was actually doing what I'd ordered him to do despite the fact that we'd remained in eye contact for only a moment and any command I gave didn't normally hold for long and he was still doing it. Thankfully he wasn't exposing himself in public. I didn't want to see that.

The only difference this time has been how angry I'd felt and I didn't normally get emotional due to the meds they'd had me on, drugs I was no longer taking, that had kept me calm and stopped me from trying to hurt people or myself. Now I was no longer on meds I might be able to fuel my powers with heightened emotions. Something to experiment with when I had the chance

"I don't know where to go," said 11.

Since I'd never seen this person outside of the TV show and this version of her was about twenty if I was any judge, we weren't exactly friends despite our efforts to make contact, but all we had in this world was each other, and I didn't think this young woman would do very well without someone to help her. Well, she did somewhat in the show, somehow, but she might have died in the woods if the Sheriff hadn't found her.

I would need her as my powers weren't great for hostile situations, but even if that wasn't the case I couldn't have left her here all alone, and it wasn't as if I had anyone else to talk to. Sure I could navigate 1990s American because while I was British the USA wasn't that different from the UK, everyone here would speak English, and unless television had really lied to me they exchanged goods and services for money like most other places, however, 11 could not.

As for the technology, that would be primitive compared to what I was used to, but not as bad as in other places in the world given that this was an advanced nation, and I was years ahead of anyone around here, so I'd adapt to stuff like mobile phones and computers faster than other people would. Heck if I could get my hands on a lot of money I knew that best things to invest in over the next decade and what technology was going to be left in the past.

"You can come with me" I offered the psychic girl.

This made her smile for a moment until she frowned again.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

That was a very, very good question.

"Well I guess we need somewhere to say and they did give us money for a taxi," I said.

Not that they'd called for one for us and we had no way of getting to a phone so giving us the money for a ride seemed rather pointless. Not that any of this could be considered a good idea. If I'd been in charge of this place I'd of had both 11 and I killed before burying our records. Actually, if I'd been in charge I wouldn't have experimented on kids in the first place.

However, instead of doing the smart thing and covering this all up, they'd let us go and they'd even given us our paperwork, birth certificates, medical records, albeit it censored ones, and all that stuff. I even had an ID declaring that I was twenty-one years old in case I wanted to buy beer or something.

"What's a taxi?" 11 questioned.

It was easy to forget that this young woman, who I assumed had been dressed in something fashionable for local people, had never lived outside of the lab, not that you could call that living. With her short hair and skinny body, she looked more like a boy than a girl, but she did have bumps on the front.

"Taxicabs are cars that you pay to ride in and the person who drives the car will take you where you want to go" I explained.

At least she understood that cars were a thing.

"Maybe there's a bus stop around here" I wondered.

She seemed to know what a bus was at least, or maybe she just didn't want to appear stupid by asking more questions.

"I guess we'll just follow the road and then look for some signs" I decided.

In the show, Eleven made to Hawkins on foot as a child so we should have an easier time of it, and she seemed happy to follow me, we even talked a little as we walked away from the lab.

"According to my ID, I'm John Doe" I read out, looking at my paperwork "How imaginative".

11 showed me her papers.

"What does mine say?" she wished to know.

I quickly read her birth certificate and ID card.

"You're Jane Doe, and you are twenty years old" I answered.

Before long we made it to a proper road which thankfully had signposts

"Hawkins is that way," I said.

It looked like a long way, but it wasn't as if we had anything better to do than walk.

"How do you know where to go?" 11 wondered.

"I read the signpost," I told her.

My next action was to point at the post.

"It says the name of the next place on this road, the town of Hawkins, and the number next to it is the distance in miles" I explained, "That's how far we have to travel to get there".

She still looked confused.

"How much is a mile?" she asked.

I needed a moment to think before I remembered.

"About 5000 feet," I told her "Or more than a thousand and a half meters, I don't remember the exact numbers. It never seemed important".

11 placed one foot in front of the other.

"A mile is very far" she stated.

I figured that she was imagining a lot of feet all in front of each other. How she knew numbers but not letters was a bit of a mystery. Maybe she didn't and really know and was just imagining it was a lot.

"The sooner we get moving the sooner we'll arrive," I said as if that was something meaningful.

(Line Break)

Diner. Hawkins, Indiana.

Upon arriving in town, and discovering that no one was going to give us a second look I took 11 to a diner and introduced her to the joy that were waffles, something I recalled from the show that she greatly enjoyed, and stuffing her face did make her happy. I'd never seen a women her age eat like this, and while I enjoyed some breakfast as well I was more sensible with my dining choices.

Not that I had to pay as I'd already Mind Tricked the waitress into thinking that I'd paid for everything. I felt a bit bad about robbing this place, and I might not have done it at all if 11 and were in any way prepared to live normal lives in this society. I'd surprised myself by how little it bothered me. All that time spent locked up hadn't just eroded the social skills I wasn't having much in the way empathy. Oh well, it wasn't as if I was Mind tricking people into killing themselves or hurting each other for me.

"This all seems right to me, but I never heard of a President Michael Dukakis," I said to myself "Pretty sure that the older Bush is supposed to be President in the late 80s and early 90s".

According to the paper and the radio, the history of this time as I knew it seemed to be mostly right. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and Eastern European countries were gaining independence. This President Dukakis guy was putting through measures that were in the process of diverting military spending into public services. I wondered how long this would last given the power of the Military-industrial complex who would be losing money because of these reforms.

"What are you talking about?" 11 wondered.

Given her isolated upbringing and lack of any real education, I didn't think she'd understand why I thought that a decrease in military spending would upset some of this country's most powerful and wealthiest citizens who were heavily invested in supplying America's war machine. Not that this was very relevant to us beyond the fact that MKUltra having been shut down to the intelligence services having their budgets slashed in favour of education programs and development of better housing for the poor.

"Nothing that needs concern you," I told her.

We had other things to worry about, such as finding somewhere to sleep tonight and keeping the hunger demon that was 11 well-fed. Also if someone decided that it wasn't a smart thing to have unleased two people with psychic powers and little in the way of social skills or morals upon the public, they'd send people after us and I'd need 11 to be at the top of her game, which meant keeping her happy and healthy.

Not that I could know for sure that anyone would be sent to deal with us. There were other psychics out there and at least one of them was a criminal they didn't seem to be doing anything about her in the show, and while it might seem reckless to leave us out here it would be far from the dumbest thing a government group has ever done.

"We need to find rooms for tonight at least," I said to 11 "I hope there is a hotel somewhere around here".

Mind tricking someone into giving us a free meal or a room would be simple enough, but I didn't think it would work forever, I'd have to make enough money to buy or rent an apartment, only I had no money or a job and to get somewhere to stay I'd need a down payment first, something I didn't have.

I did consider committing some major crime, like say robbing a bank, however, my mind control powers wouldn't work on security cameras and they'd have a lot of armed guards. So it seemed wise to think smaller, maybe empty the tills of some stores that didn't have good security, but it wouldn't be wise to do that near a place we wanted to live in, even if it was just for a while, and this seemed a good a place as any. Maybe 11 and I could go on a crime spree of some kind in a major city, something to think about, or steal from a rich person.

Another thing to think about was protection. Given how easily 11 became attached to people I felt sure she'd protect me, but I had too much male pride to want to depend on her, and she could be overwhelmed or taken by surprise, so it would good to get a gun. Not that I'd ever fired a gun outside of a video game.

Already I considered going off and trying to find Eight, 11's sort of sister, she had a gang and knew how to survive, but finding a small group of people in a massive city, assuming that they were still hiding out in cities by this year, would be next to impossible and rather dangerous if 11 couldn't do her remote viewing thing to find Kali. Still, it would be better to have some sort of plan rather than to wander aimlessly. Assuming that we couldn't build some sort of life for ourselves in this town.

Once she'd finished eating 11 and I began to wander around town, looking for hotel or a motel, something like that, I wanted somewhere clean and private so I could stash 11 there overnight and go hit a bar. I'd not sex in what felt years, although it may have only been months since I'd gotten laid and while I didn't intend to mind control anyone into sleeping with me, I didn't see the harm in making a single woman think that I was attractive and then letting things progress.

The only hard part would be sneaking away from my new best friend as she might not want to be left alone, and she couldn't really come with me if I was going on the pull.

(Line Break)

Motel. Hawkins, Indiana.

So far 11, or Jane to use her proper name, was enjoying the outside world, it had much better food than she normally got fed and there was much more of it. Then after a very filling meal 14, or John, had found them this motel to stay at for the night. He'd told her that it might not be very pleasant, but it seemed comfortable enough to her and this place had a thing called television, she'd been transfixed for hours, always changing channels as if she had to see everything that was on offer for her viewing pleasure.

11's favourite TV show so far was something called Cheers in which some strange people sat around a bar and talked to each other, and this was funny according to the people who couldn't be seen on the screen, and 11 had to wonder why 14 had left her alone to go to one of these places as she would have gone with him.

She'd happily do anything that he wanted since he'd been taking such good care of her. Without him 11 wouldn't have known where to go to get food, nor would she have known where to go to find a bed to sleep in, and he'd shown her the amazing thing that was called television.

Not that she had many ideas of what 14 would want her to do, she was trying to find out from the television, but it wasn't giving a lot of clear answers about what she and 14 should be doing. On the TV men and women did many things together, such as putting their lips together, something the girls very much seemed to enjoy, only some times this seemed to the wrong thing to do and the girl got upset.

That didn't make sense to the former test subject because if you like something you should just do it and the boys seemed to like it too. Quite a bit it would seem given how many people were doing it, and she'd noticed that people liked to talk and sometimes yell at each other, although 11 had no idea why, if you didn't have something important to say why talk at all?

11 watched many shows that evening, some of which seemed to care a lot about what kinds of food and drink she enjoyed and what clothes she wore, 11 didn't see the point of this as clothes were just something you wore so you didn't feel cold and 14 decided what she ate. Why couldn't he just decide for her rather than the TV?

She was fairly certain that not everything that is shown on the television was real, some of what it had to offer must be like the drawings she'd made and hung up on the wall of her room, made-up things, stuff she'd seen in her mind that only existed for her.

At least no men in scary masks had entered her room to try to kill her, this didn't seem like something that could happen a lot or there wouldn't be so many people around. Perhaps it was all made-up stuff, that would explain why some of the people in the shows looked too colourful to be real and did things she'd never seen anyone do. If they were real then she wanted to meet one of these Thundercats.

When it became late at night 11 heard something in the next room, that was where 14 would be sleeping, and she soon heard what sounded like a girl, and for reasons that she simply didn't understand 11 did not like that at all. Why did he need to show any attention to other girls? Why did he talk to them when he could talk to her? She listened to everything he had to say.

11 didn't need to sneak out of her room to see what 14 was up to with this other girl she just turned the TV off and settled down. She'd gone to see 14 this way so many times that it was easy for her, her nose rarely bleeds these days, not when just doing this.

Once she'd found 14 she saw him with this girl who was not her and at first, she thought they were just doing the kissing thing that everyone did on the television. Only they soon started doing more, and 11 worried that 14 was hurting this girl, only she looked happy with what John was doing, very happy, as did he.

11 felt a little upset by this as she wondered why 14 wasn't playing this game with her, but she was also very curious as to what it was they were doing, it looked like fun and she'd not seen this on the television. It really should be on the television as it involved kissing and more. She'd just have to watch 14 very carefully and figure exactly what this thing he liked to do with girls was and then get him to do it with her so that he wouldn't pay attention to any other girls.

Chapter 2

Bar. Hawkins, Indiana.

Since Hawkins was one of those stereotypical small American towns, that might only exist in this world and in fiction, every one of drinking age was either already married or had some other sort of partner, and so there were slim pickings here. Folks in a town like this not only knew each other but they had done for many years and likely would for the rest of their lives. Poor bastards, at least I'd always been aware that I'd been in a prison.

The only woman drinking by herself was a young redhead and while I much preferred brunettes I couldn't afford to be picky so I soon joined her at the bar. Given how she'd dressed up for this evening she was either waiting for someone or looking to be noticed, and judging by the way she had begun slumping on her chair I figured that she'd either had to wait a long time or no one was coming and that had made her depressed.

In my experience, it only happened rarely for the man to be late for a date, as women believed that it was okay for them to turn up late but got very offended if the man needed more time. In my view, this was one of many good reasons to stay single and to only go on the pull so as to get laid. This was what I had planned for tonight.

This was what I was going this night so I ordered a bottle of beer and then reached out with my mind to plant a thought about having a drink with this stranger in town into the mind of the redhead. I could have easily mind-controlled her more directly, but even if I didn't want to be a rapist, it wouldn't be much fun that way, and if she did have a boyfriend or something I didn't want that kind of drama in my life if he found out.

"I'm John" I greeted.

That wasn't my name, I had a real name, only that didn't feel right. I wasn't just some guy anymore. I needed a new name that would separate me from normal people. Something to concern myself with later on.

"Hi I'm Maxine," she told me "you can call me, Max".

Now that I'd seen her face I felt fairly sure that this was the Max from the show the girlfriend of Lucas, but it was more than likely that they weren't dating by this point as I wouldn't let my woman go off to a bar alone, that was a good way to get cheated on.

"So what's a beautiful young woman doing drinking alone?" I asked.

To rectify this situation I ordered her another drink. She accepted the beverage.

"I broke up my boyfriend for the millionth time" she let me know "He met someone else at college and now he's gotten some job with a computer firm like computers are the future or something".

Since I was from the future, sort of, I knew that they were the future and that within her lifetime she'd live to see phones and computers become one, and people would become enslaved to those machines, unable to function without being able to exchange with their friends every pointless thought that goes through their heads, and as a telepath, I knew exactly how meaningless most of what went through people's head actually could be.

Even this Maxine woman, who was somewhat of an interesting character in the show, when she was younger, was only thinking about her own unimportant life, she was understandable angry at her ex, but she gave no thought to maybe him having good reasons for not returning to this town. It did seem rather dull here and someone with computer skills could make a good living as it was very much a growing industry.

"So why are you here in town?" I was asked.

That was not an easy question to answer. I couldn't tell the truth, but I didn't wish to lie either so I had to be careful about what information I gave Max.

"Me, and a friend of mine, just finished doing some work for an intelligence service," I told Max "But the project had its funding cut so we're just looking for something to do".

I was attempting to be as truthful as possible.

"Aren't you a little young to be a spy?" Max wondered "I mean you have the James Bond accent, but he's a lot more mature than you".

I had to chuckle upon hearing that. I did sound very British, my accent seemed stronger than ever because of all the Americans around me.

"We were involved in research, we mostly just ran tests" I explained, "But the USSR collapsing there isn't as much need as there used to be for people like me".

None of what I'd told her was really a lie even I was leaving a lot out.

"So what about you?" I asked.

Some time passed before she replied.

"I work at a store," she informed.

Since there was no Mall in this version of Hawkins, as the Russians hadn't set up here, the shops here in town were doing well enough.

"I can't imagine that there are many career options in a place like this," I said.

No doubt she found this to be depressing and the drinking wouldn't help with that.

"My Mom says I need to find a man, and get married, have some children so I can live a life" Max let me know.

A little too personal to share with a stranger so I assumed that she simply wanted to share her woes with someone, and I was fine with that, I only had to pretend to care. That became somewhat hard to do when Max told me all about her asshole stepbrother who was alive in this timeline and had joined the army because he'd been the choice between that and jail time.

I would only listen and buy her some more drinks, not that I intended to pay for them, and I'd make Max an offer to come back to my motel room before long.

(Line Break)

Motel. Hawkins, Indiana.

Upon taking my shirt off I could feel the cool air against my skin. This motel was not only surprising clean and vermin free, which had been a very pleasant surprise, but it also had a fairly powerful AC machine, that kept the room comfortable despite how warm it was this evening. Well warm for me, I'd grown up in the UK so I wasn't as used to the dry heat as much people in other parts of the world.

"Do ever eat?" I was asked.

I was very skinny as while the MKUltra people had fed me it had never been enough and it's hard to exercise in a cell so I'd nearly wasted away. It showed on my body, and it was a big change from before.

"Not as much as I should," I said.

She didn't seem repulsed by the sight of me.

"Lucky for you I like skinny guys" Max admitted.

Max pulled me in for a kiss and grabbed the waistband of my boxers as I'd already taken off my jeans. The two of us made out for a few seconds and as we did that Max groped the bulge in my underwear. She was clearly very eager for this and while this was all about me getting laid it would be much more pleasant if she really wanted it too.

"You ready to fuck me?" she asked.

Upon hearing that I smiled and nodded, prompting Max to pull down her dress and lay it on the ground and since she'd gone without a bra I immediately lent down and sucked on her nipple, I was so eager that I even made a slurping and before long I moved over to the other breast. Her chest wasn't impressive, but her pale tits were pleasing to the eye and to my mouth.

Max moaned a few times and I could tell that she eas enjoying the feeling of my tongue on her nipple and the skin around it in her mouth. She tried pressing my head harder into her chest and this only encouraged me to spend even more time with my face pressed into her boobs.

When I wanted more I removed his face from her chest and my hands found the underwear she'd put on for a night out before pulling them down. Max was already more than wet enough to take my cock, but a little more foreplay wouldn't do any harm.

I moved my hand down in between her legs and rubbed her pussy for a while as she held on to me and softly whimpered into my shoulder. Then I stuck a finger into Max's wet pussy, making her moan rather loudly, but I didn't care of anyone heard, and neither did she.

She tried to pull down my boxers while I continued fingering her, and when she managed to get my cock exposed to the cool air she grabbed that part of me and then began to stroke it.

"Mmm that feels good, Max" I praised.

At this point, I'd forgotten to keep fingering her.

"I can tell" she replied.

Because I wanted to I smacked Max's ass, making her squeal or moan as my hands repeatedly hit her ass cheek. She started rubbing my cock faster and faster as I struck her backside, and I had to stop things here or the fun would be over for the night.

"Go lie down" I instructed, "Spread your legs".

That wasn't a mental command, and it didn't need to be, she was eager for this to happen, and she got to the bed before spreading her legs, making sure that I got a view of the fuckhole on offer. She was rather hairy down there, and that wasn't to my taste, but it wasn't as if I would be going down on her so I didn't let it bother me.

"You ready?" I asked.

Max nodded and then she moaned as I pushed the tip of my cock in her cunt, going further and further in until she was filled with my man meat, and this seemed to be something that she welcomed if the noises she kept making were anything to go by.

I gradually started thrusting into her as she rubbed her clit, moaning in pleasure louder and louder as I began fucking her rougher and rougher. Once I'd really gotten going she grabbed onto me as if she feared that I might stop thrusting into her, but she need not worry about that as I also found this to be very enjoyable.

"You like my cock, don't you?" I asked.

At first, I could not be sure that I'd even spoken those words out loud, but as it turned out I did as she soon replied.

"Fuck yes, fuck me harder!" she pleaded.

Those were the only things either of us said for a while as I sped up my thrusts as Max continued to rub her own clit with one hand while using her other to dig her nails into my back with so much force that you'd think that her grip on me was the only thing stopping her from falling to her doom.

I didn't notice any pain as I slammed my cock repeatedly deep inside her, letting my dick get as far inside the redhead's tight pussy as possible as. I started pounding her as hard as possible, and soon enough I felt that this was all about to reach its end.

"Fuck I'm cumming!" I yelled.

Max gasped and moaned, and then screamed as she felt my load fill her. I did try to say something more, but it came out as grunts and occasionally a growl, I was too invested in feeling the pleasure that came from emptying the contents of balls inside a nice, warm, wet pussy.

Once I was done I got off and Max collapsed next to me unable to move. Now that I was done using her I didn't care if she went to sleep or left. I just wanted to get some sleep.

(Line Break)

Diner. Hawkins, Indiana.

Once again Jane was enjoying the wonder that was waffles, as it turned out they came in different kinds and you could put all kinds of things on them, including syrups, and 11 had discovered that adding one than one kind of syrup wasn't so wise, but she'd never had a chance to learn this until now so it could not be considered her fault and the mess she'd made all ended up in her stomach anyway.

"You know there are other foods in the world" 14 mentioned to her.

While 11 normally listened intently to anything her fellow test subject had to say she found that this morning she didn't like 14 as much as she normally did. Jane had never really felt jealous before because jealously is about fearing to lose something or someone to another person, but until now Jane never had anything she would worry about losing.

That had changed, only she didn't really understand these feelings, she just knew that she didn't want her only friend showing other girls any attention and that he should only be with her. Sure that other girl had left last night, but she could come back and that would upset 11.

"Are you going to see that other girl?" 11 wished to know.

14 was too engrossed in what he called a newspaper to pay any proper notice to what Jane was saying, but she still got an answer.

"Don't think so I just wanted a one night stand?" he said.

So he'd just wanted to kiss and touch that woman with the red hair the one time?

"Why didn't you kiss and touch me?" 11 asked.

She'd never see 14 struggle to find words until now. He always seemed to know what to say and what to do.

"You need to understand sex before you can consent to do it with someone" he explained.

11 didn't know what this sex was exactly, but she figured it had to do with the kissing and the touching that the redheaded girl had liked so much.

"Teach me" requested 11.

14 took some time to think of what to say next.

"I guess someone has to tell you about the birds and the bees," he said.

Jane was confused.

"Bird and the bees?" 11 asked.

What did they have to do with kissing and touching? She'd have to find out more.

(Line Break)

Library. Hawkins, Indiana.

Since this was long before the Internet I'd had resort to finding paper records so as to gather more information on MK Ultra and there was a surprising amount on it if you knew where to look. I had to spend hours looking over newspaper articles on microfilm just like they did in on television. Until today I'd not even known that these things were real, but they were here.

Between what I'd found here and my own memories of the show I was able to piece together some of what had happened with MKUltra and Jane's family. I kept recording everything I could think of as truth onto a notepad. Including what happened to Jane's mother. I'd been able to get some information from reading minds while locked up, however, I still needed to know more.

So I'd written down that Dr Brenner had Tery Ives (Jane's mother) forcefully put through what appeared to be electroconvulsive therapy. The shocks fried Terry's brain and left her in a vegetative like state; alive, but her mind destroyed to such an extreme that all she could do was run certain events through her head on a loop. Becky Ives, her sister and Jane's aunt became Terry's caregiver after this incident.

In the show, because he thought Hawkins National Laboratory had something to do with Will's disappearance, Sheriff Hopper came to this public library in order to research past newspaper articles concerning the lab. Among the clippings, he discovered that Dr Brenner had been involved in MKUltra and accused of abusing his test subjects, something I'd seen first hand as I'd been one his victims. One of the earlier subjects was a woman named Terry Ives, who had attempted to sue Brenner for allegedly kidnapping her daughter.

After finding out that Will's body had been faked, Hopper went to Joyce, the mother of Will who was taken by the monster, to tell her everything he had discovered while investigating her son's disappearance. He showed her the newspaper clipping about Terry Ives and remembered the sighting of a kid with a shaved head at some diner. He'd then realized he had been inadvertently tracking down Terry's daughter the whole time. They decided to find Terry, hoping she could shed some light what was going on at the lab and help in the search for Will Meyers.

Upon arriving at Terry's residence, they were greeted by her sister, Becky, at the door. Before letting them in, she warned them that if they wanted to know anything they were too late. Joyce and Hopper attempted to question Terry about her relationship with Brenner and the lab but received no answers due to her being in a catatonic state by the electroconvulsive therapy.

Becky Ives explained to them about Terry's participation in Project MKUltra and the supposed effects it had on her. In hopes of "expanding the boundaries of the mind", participants such as Terry were given various psychedelic drugs, mostly LSD, and placed in isolation tanks, where they would become sensorily deprived. During the time she was undergoing these experiments, Terry was unaware of her pregnancy.

Jane's aunt believed that Terry had suffered a miscarriage, but not only had Terry believed that Jane was alive, which she was, but that she was also born with abilities, such as telepathy and telekinesis, and it was because of those abilities that she was taken to be used as a human weapon by the government, and this was all true.

As for Jane, since couldn't read she was looking at pictures in books as I worked. She did need to learn to read, but that would take time so it would have to wait.

"Is that Papa?" 11 wondered.

She'd started to show an interest in the newspaper articles and one of them did show a younger Dr Bremmer.

"That guy was never your father," I told Jane "He didn't care about you and never did what's best for you. A father looks after his children".

Jane pondered this.

"So you're my Papa" she stated.

That amused me.

"I'd prefer if you called me Daddy, but we can discuss that later," I said.

When she had more of an idea of why a guy like me would like her to say that.

"As for your real father I have no idea who he is," I told 11 "There's nothing in the article about him".

This was a little odd as you'd think that even if the parents of Jane Ives weren't together that they'd both want their child to be raised by at least one of them. He must be dead or maybe simply unaware that he'd gotten someone knocked up. Most humans were rather attached to their offspring.

"Who is that?" 11 asked me.

She was pointing at one of the pictures.

"That is your mother," I told her "Terry Ives. The man you call Papa took you away from your mother when you were a baby and did bad things to her".

Jane looked upset, and I could understand why.

"Is Mama here?" she asked.

Normally I'd just look someone up on social media and contact them on that site, but this was early days in the 1990s, so no one knew about social media, and the only way to find someone back then unless you had access to government records was the phone book. In the show, Hopper and Joyce Byers go to visit Jane's aunt and mother, and it doesn't seem to take them that long to get there, and Jane hitchhikes to her aunt's house in a truck so the Ives can't be that far away from Hawkins.

I managed to find an R. Ives in the phonebook and hopefully, this was a Rebecca Ives the Aunt of Jane Ives. If we found her and Terry Ives then 11 could lead us to Eight as she did in the show.

If my information was correct Kali had lived in London before she was abducted at a young age and she was taken to Hawkins National Laboratory. At the lab, she was given the number "008" and experimented on alongside Eleven for a time. Together, she and Eleven would play in a room in the lab called the "rainbow room". She was present that day Terry Ives came in looking for Eleven. One day, when Kali went to the rainbow room, she discovered that Eleven had been taken away.

Once Kali's abilities were strong enough, she used them to escape the lab. She found a new family and home but eventually lost them as they were unable to help her. She then began using her powers to get revenge on the people from the lab along with a gang of friends. I didn't think that Kali would be in prison as keeping someone like her locked up would be next to impossible, but she might be dead or have fled somewhere far from here. Like Mexico.

If she was alive it made sense for Jane and myself to go join up with her as if nothing else there was strength in numbers, and 8 had been surviving on her own for a long time so we could learn a few things from her, and she could teach Jane about relationships. Plus I wouldn't mind killing a few of those MKUltra fucks.

"Okay let's go see your aunt and mother," I said to 11.

I had the number and the street address from the phonebook. It would make sense to call ahead rather than just turn up, and then we could take the bus.

"We're gonna see Mama" stated 11.

Well, she wasn't my mother. I'd found nothing on me, and that made sense this couldn't be my universe and this was the wrong part of the world. Also given the year, there could be a very, very young version of me back home, and I didn't want to mess up his life so best to stay away.

(Line Break)

Ives House. Bloomington, Indiana.

While Jane talked to her aunt I was allowed to go through the boxes of files and clippings that Terry Ives had put together about MKUltra and other government groups that included research into psychic powers, aliens and the occult. While psychics were a real thing in this universe that didn't mean aliens and magic also existed, however, it would be wise of me to keep an open mind.

For now, at least, I was totally focused on finding out everything I could on MKUltra and the people who'd suffered because of Dr Brenner. I even learned more about Brenner. During the 1950s Dr Brenner was involved in the controversial Project MKUltra, a CIA-sanctioned research program designed to develop mind-control techniques in which the subject suffered extreme conditions at the hands of the researchers, including use of psychedelic drugs, physical and mental abuse, sleep deprivation, and malnourishment. His methods were barbaric, but he did get results.

In 1969, Brenner was brought in to overhaul the MKUtra testing at Hawkins National Laboratory, where he became the director. Brenner fired previous test subjects and implemented a shift from subjects from mental asylums and other facilities to college students. I didn't know why he'd aimed the group's attention to college students, but it had been somewhat successful.

What amused me about all that was, in the end, it didn't matter. All his work had led to nothing, no would believe in the existence of psychics even if he ever published his work and he couldn't do that as his work would be classified. Plus it was all done to fight the Russians who were no longer the Red Menace. It had all been pointless.

I also found who Jane's father was, a man called Andrew Rich, born on September 14, 1951, Andrew grew up with relatively well off parents who paid his way through college. According to Terry Ives's diary, they met through a mutual friend Stacy who introduced them at a party and they immediately hit it off. They had kept things causal between them with no plans for children or marriage, they weren't together for that long so it made sense.

After protesting Nixon's Address to the Nation on November 3, 1969, Andrew was arrested, jeopardizing his status as a student. Sometime later, Andrew was expelled and with his status as a student stripped, this made him eligible for the Vietnam draft. So poor Andrew was shipped off to Vietnam where he was killed in battle. He never learned of Terry's pregnancy before his death and while his name wasn't in the files Jane had been given when the project was shut down he had to be her father as Terry made no mention of any other man of importance in her life and there was a certain resemblance.

I really did feel bad for Jane, her Dad was dead, her mother might as well, no Grandparents either as her maternal grandparents in a car crash years before Jane was born and father's grandparents were also dead, I didn't know how they'd died, but if they'd been murdered by Brenner I wouldn't be surprised at all.

With the box in hand, I headed down to the kitchen to find 11 and her aunt chatting as Jane stuffed her face. 11 was a small woman and super skinny, so you had to wonder how she was able to store all that food inside her. I also worried about her health because I'd never seen eat anything that was sweet. I should introduce her to vegetables.

"I found what I needed Misses Ives, is okay if I take these?" I asked.

Somehow I'd figured that Rebecca Ives would be glad to be rid of them, and this turned out to be correct. The woman seemed more interested in chain-smoking than anything else. Her way of dealing with the shock.

"Is this the girl you saw when you tried to reach your mother?" I asked Jane.

After showing her an old photo of Kali, which was more than enough for 11 to led us to Eight something she got started on finding Eight, I reached out to listen to the thoughts of the two older Ives woman, I got nothing from Jane's mother, but Rebecca was worried about taking care of Jane while also taking care of her sister. It would be a big burden on a woman who already had to take care of a sister who could do nothing for herself.

"We can't stay here," I told 11 once she'd scouted out the location of Eight "Let's go find Kali, and we can come back to visit your mother another day".

Jane agreed to do as I wished, she was ignorant about so much, yet wise enough to know that she should follow my lead.

(Line Break)

Abandoned House. Seattle.

As expected I'd found Kali with her gang, which was comprised of a few people, some of which I'd seen the show and some I had no knowledge of at all. They were living in an old abandoned house in a part of the city that had clearly seen better days. Also, this was a different city than in the show I felt certain of that, they must move around a lot to avoid the authorities.

The gang members were all outcasts by the standards of the society they lived in. Kali looked after them, keeping them safe as best she could with her powers, and in doing so provided them with the opportunity to get revenge on those responsible for what happened to them. In return, the gang was loyal to Kali, following her orders. Which made me wonder if I could ever subvert her command. It didn't seem worth the effort.

Jane and I, who were both dressed to better blend in after I'd stolen us some new clothes, entered the large house that had been mostly cleared out, and the one called Axel pulled out a knife upon seeing us. The guy looked more or less like he had in the show, not one to change his style with the times it seemed.

"Walk away" he ordered.

I turned to Jane.

"11 please don't kill or badly injure anyone," I said to her "We're not here to start a fight".

Despite my words, the punk guy threatened us and my fellow test subject did not react well to this. She took control of his hand and made his knife get very close to his neck. While Jane was not a bad person she would defend herself and those she cared about with lethal force. She'd make the punk stab himself and not lose a wink of sleep over it.

When another guy when for a gun I kept my gaze on him before ordering him to drop the gun and to kick it over to me. He had no choice to obey as the emotions only made our powers stronger and this situation was full of tension.

"If I wanted any of you dead you'd be dead" I informed the gang of outlaws "I just want a word with your leader".

Kail soon appeared, and I noticed right away that she was an attractive young woman. She must be about thirty at this point, but she looked good for her age. She was starting at Jane and myself very intently, trying to make us see something, and I stopped her before anything happened to cause violence.

"Don't bother with that?" I told her "We have powers to and ours are a lot easier to use lethally".

Kali walked over to us.

"Don't hurt Axel," she said.

"Let the man with the silly hair go" I commanded 11.

She did and the gang of outcasts grouped together, not sure of what to do.

"You can all relax," I instructed, "If we were here take you in then we'd have an army of cops with us".

I reached into the backpack I'd gotten and dropped the files I'd gotten from Jane's aunt on the table. The group began to look through them.

"Where do you get all of this?" asked a woman who looked as if she badly needed a pair of hair straighteners "You with the government?".

If I had been there would be SWAT team and snipers surrounding the building.

"Jane and I have something in common with Kali," I said.

We both rolled up our sleeves to show our numbers.

"You escaped from Brenner?" Eight asked us.

I shook my head.

"No the project has lost all its funding, and they let us go" I answered.

I showed Kali the paperwork they'd given me.

"So what can you two do?" asked one of the outcasts, a rather large man.

Slowly I returned the man's gun to him. A risky move, but we needed their trust.

"I can do the Jedi Mind Trick" I answered.

Jane made a chair move with his mind and sat down on it.

"She can find people, all she needs a photo" I explained.

While my psychic talents had been useful so far, due to their use not being so noticeable, 11 had a lot more power.

"What do you want from us?" Eight asked.

My reasons were many and not so easy to explain. Jane's motivations were easier to understand.

"Payback for Momma," said 11.

"Among other things I want to kill the bastard who locked up and tortured for us for his project," I told these outcasts "But for now we'll settle for somewhere to stay. Brenner didn't do much to prepare for the big wide world".

Of course, I wanted much more than that, revenge would be sweet, only there had to be more than that. I wanted to master my powers and ally with others like me so that we'd be safe.

"There are others like us out there" I let Kail know "Even if I was the last to be found that's fourteen of us in total and three of us here then there can 11 more like us out there, and who knows what they can do".

I wanted to find out.

"So you want to join up" summarised Kail.

She looked at her people.

"Wait here so we can talk things over" she instructed.

Since 11 and I could only wait that was what we did.

Chapter 3

Abandoned House. Seattle.

"I just had a very, very long talk with Jane," Kali said as she sat down at the table in the dining room of this old and mostly forgotten property "Brenner really messed with her head".

While this house had been abandoned it still had running water and the lights were on because a member of Eight's group had done something to illegally hook the house up to the power grid, so I was able to keep going through the files and my notes from the library despite the late hour.

I'd started doing something like that thing you see on TV sometimes when a person had a board covered in pictures and news articles that get connected into some sort of pattern by some different coloured string. I'd not gone that far, but I must look at least a little bit obsessed.

What I wanted from all of this was to understand the true scope of MKUltra and learn about the people involved. If I wanted revenge then I needed to know who to target, to make sure that they were worth going after. It wouldn't be such a good thing if we hunted down and killed the guy who moped the floors or the woman who worked in the lunchroom.

"Glad to hear it" I replied, "She needs someone to explain the world to her".

I'd tried, but I didn't have a female perspective on reality, as such, there were things that 11 needed to learn about from another woman.

"She really likes you" Kali let me know "Likes you a lot".

That didn't surprise me to hear.

"I'm her only friend," I said, "so, of course, she likes me".

Aside from me, her only experiences with humanity that lasted more than a matter of a few seconds were the people who experimented on her or helped to keep her locked up. She was bound to latch onto the first person who was kind to her.

"No I mean she really likes you," Kail told me.

Again this wasn't shocking news. We'd become almost inseparable since we'd properly met, the only reason she wasn't here watching me work was because Kali had her attention as well.

"She has nothing to base her feelings on" I informed Eight "She never even had a friend until we left the lab, and she knows nothing of relationships".

Jane wasn't stupid she was just extremely naive about life. I didn't feel comfortable doing anything with her until she knew enough to make an informed choice about it.

"I'm not saying you should do anything," Kail said, "But you need to be sensitive about her feelings, and not go hooking up with more women in bars".

While that might have made 11 jealous I wasn't going to apologise for my one nightstand.

"I've spent... I have no idea how long locked up" I reminded Eight "So forgive me if I sought out a little company".

Kali frowned, but she didn't say anything, because she understood I hadn't been doing anything wrong.

"You and Jane might work out once she's learned a bit about men" my fellow test subject was now saying "Let me talk to her some more, and when she's ready you two can get together. You'd make a cute couple and she's found of you. I think she'd scare anyone else away".

I had to smile upon hearing in Eight's voice how much she cared for 11.

"You took on the big sister role easily enough" I commented.

In the show, because of their similar abilities and shared experiences at Hawkins Lab, Kali and Eleven quickly came to view each other as sisters. The two were shown to play together in the rainbow room when they were young (something that Eleven originally had no memory of). Following their reunion, Kali took her in immediately. During their time together, Kali became a mentor to her of sorts, teaching Eleven how to better control her powers by using anger.

Kali's true intentions for helping Eleven are mostly left ambiguous. A cynical person watching the show might think that she only wised to manipulate Eleven so she could exploit her abilities to make tracking down their targets easier. However, she appeared to genuinely want to help Eleven overcome her pain from the harsh experiences she had suffered. Though her methods for doing so were somewhat dubious, like when she made Eleven see an illusion of Brenner in an attempt to convince her to face her pain. Good intentions or not, when Eleven ultimately chose to return to Hawkins instead of escaping with the gang, Kali was visibly devastated.

While 11 was older in this timeline she was actually less able to handle people due to not having any experience without the outside world until very recently and she had no idea of what friendship meant. So I would have to be careful in not letting Kali turn her into nothing more than a tool for vengeance. This might seem wrong given that a big reason as to why I wanted 11 with me was because of her powers, and I wanted revenge as well, but I didn't want 11 to become a mass murderer.

As such, I was somewhat conflicted about the choices I'd made so far, but in the end, keeping Jane with me and seeking out Kali was for the best as 11 had a lot to learn about everything and Kali had been looking into MKUltra a lot longer than I had. Plus with our combined powers we could make everyone in this gang much safer.

"Jane is easy to care for," she said.

I too had found this to be the case.

"Fine, I'll wait until 11 is ready and date her" I agreed.

It wasn't as if I had any other options. I couldn't go around telling people that I was a freak and it wasn't good to hide that sort of thing from a partner, so that didn't leave me with large dating pool, and someone did need to look after 11 even if she did now have a big sister figure in her life.

"So what are you looking for in all this?" Kail asked as she came and sat next to me.

I showed her the file that Terry Ives had on her.

"If I'm number 14 and three of us are here then there are as many as 11 more test subjects out there" I explained to Kali "If the lab in Hawkins is just one of many then there could be many more of us. We could just be the 14 test subjects to have been in that one lab".

I pointed to the picture of Eight.

"11 found you just using an old photo so we can get images of other test subjects then she can find them all, assuming any of them are still alive," I told Kali "I want to know how they managed to avoid Brenner for so many years in case he comes after 11 and me. Maybe we can all look after each other".

My fellow psychic didn't seem concerned.

"14 I've been fine for years," said Kali "I can teach you how to survive".

That would be helpful and she had avoided getting killed or locked up somewhere for many years.

"If Brenner starts up the program again we need be somewhere he'll never find us" I reasoned "and we need to be able to fight back if sends people to drag us back to his lab".

Kali now did look somewhat concerned.

"Do you think he'll come looking for all of us?" she asked.

I didn't know for certain, but I felt it best to prepare for the worst.

"MKUltra has existed in one form or another for decades and someone could start it up again if they get the funding" I answered, "The kind of people who are willing to abduct and experiments on children aren't going to care who funds them, and if they do get the money they need Brenner will want us back under this control or killed if only so we can't work against him".

I had no desire to be locked up and kept sedated once again. Not that the sedating part had done me much harm. I guessed they must have weaned me off the drugs before I left the lab since I wasn't going through with withdrawal, or they'd given me something wasn't addictive.

"There are other ways to get the information you need," Kali told me "if you can read minds you just need the right heads to get into".

I could guess where she was going with this, and while it had been tempting to read her mind to suss out her intentions, that should wait until she was less alert.

"Get some sleep," advised Eight as she started to get up and leave the room "Tomorrow we'll go out. I want to see how your powers work in the real world".

I assumed she wanted to try training me to use my powers better, and do that she needed to understand them, so she would need to see them in action.

"You should sleep with Jane" suggested Kali "She'll feel better with you close".

I nearly protested, only then I realised that my fellow psychic really meant sleep with and just sleeping. It seemed like a good idea as otherwise, I'd be on the couch.

(Line Break)

Abandoned House. Seattle.

As Kali rested on the old bed in her room, which was up in the attic, she thought about the recent changes in her life and what they meant. The sudden appearance of 11 and 14 hadn't derailed things for her, at least not yet, but they were something that she would need time to adapt to.

Few things in life really surprised Kali, and she'd never hoped for much as she'd seen a lot of the worst things that the world had to offer, and she'd endured some of it first hand. Yet despite her losses, which included two families, one of which she'd been born into, she'd been able to make some sort of life for herself. Mostly it involved hiding out and trying to get some payback on the people who'd made her and others suffer so much, but it had been something.

Now all of a sudden she had new people in her life, not some rejects that she'd picked up during her travels, but people like her, freaks some would call them, and while it was nice to know that she wasn't the only person around who could screw with people's minds, she was more interested in what this meant for her crusade. It had consumed many years of her life and while some of her fellow outcasts hadn't made it this far most of them had been able to escape death or long term imprisonment.

These recent arrivals in her life changed things, with three psychics in the group they'd be much harder for anyone to hurt, and they would be able to do so much more. But that didn't mean that Eight, as she'd once been known, didn't care for the new folks. They were like her, victims of a man who only cared about what others could do for him, and that did unite them in a common cause: payback.

Aside from that, it wasn't as if they had anywhere to go. 14 the older and clearly smarter of the two, or least the better at planning, had been the one to figure out how 11 and he would find their fellow test subject. He was also a telepath so Kaii would have to be careful around him. Thankfully he didn't hear thoughts at random it took focus so she'd likely know if he was trying to read her mind she had experience in messing with people's minds.

Jane was the easier one to understand and deal with despite her ignorance of the world as Eleven only had two concerns in her life the, "bad men" who worked with Papa, and not getting separated from 14. Sure 11 wanted to hurt the people who'd hurt her mother, but she didn't seem to share the anger than 8 and 14 felt towards Brenner.

This could be something of a problem for 11 as intense emotion would help to fuel her powers, so she needed something to be angry about beyond a certain person not giving her all the attention she wished for. Not that Kali blamed 11 for this, Jane had been so cut off from people and so badly treated she couldn't possibly do anything other than latch on to anyone who treated her well. Somewhat like an abused puppy. Kail hadn't been so different once upon a time.

11 would need to learn to defend herself and find a reason to survive. Kai could give her all that and more. But that could wait until tomorrow, for now, she needed to get some sleep.

(Line Break)

Thrift Store. Seattle.

While 11 had gone for a more punk rocker look for her makeover, something that suited her, I'd entered this clothing store with other intentions. I wanted to go grunge rather than punk rocker as this was the very early 90s and the time of grunge.

Grunge fashion was best found in thrift-stores such as these and I well remembered the style even if I hadn't worn in many years. Men wore second-hand or shabby T-shirts with slogans, band logos, etc. A plaid shirt would accompany the T-shirt, along with ripped or faded jeans. Black combat-style boots, such as Doc Martens, would complete the ensemble. This was what I aimed for.

I'd always rather liked the style and clothing for it could be rather cheap if you knew where to look. Not that I intended to pay for anything and I could get away with that as mind control was my power. It also helped that while security cameras existed they were nowhere near as common now as they would in decades to come.

One of the biggest influences on grunge fashion was rock star Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the hugely successful band Nirvana. It is widely believed that Cobain represented the core of the grunge movement and the phenomenon of the grunge scene's influence. Something I'd admired about even though I'd not learned of his music until many years after he died.

Punk lovers, a few of which were in Kali's gang, usually wore a leather jacket, ripped jeans, a shirt without sleeves, metal chains, and dark clothes. In contrast, grunge rockers wore mundane everyday clothing everywhere. For example, Kurt Cobain, singer-guitarist of Nirvana, would just wear an oversized striped sweater, ripped jeans, a pair of Converse, and an unkempt hair when he went to perform. I was doing my best to follow the trend he set despite not really having the hair for it or much hair at all since they'd kept shaving it short at the lab.

As I looked around the store for more clothes which might suit me I thought about how this was a good time for me to have been freed in given that grunge music hadn't become too commercially successful yet and I'd enjoy the culture more before it became too mainstream.

I recalled that The Smashing Pumpkins started around this time somewhere in Chicago and they wouldn't produce their first album until next year so they'd likely be blowing the roofs of some joints in some easy to get into shows before they got noticed. I figured that I should take 11 to a show in case she got into that kind of music and we ever made it to that city.

Thinking that paused me in my tracks as I'd not considered doing anything of that kind with Jane until no, not something so date like. Mostly I'd wanted to keep her out of sight since she could not navigate the world as I could. But maybe with Kali and her gang around, she'd be able to adapt more quickly by having more people to learn from. Then we could do date stuff.

Once I had all my new clothes stuff into a bag I rejoined the rest of the group, who seemed to think that 11 was some sort of dress-up doll.

"You should let her pick out some clothes she likes" I suggested.

Kali's gang, a couple of whom did go for the grunge look, did start suggesting that 11 try on some flannel shirts, so I figured that no one was going to listen to me, and so I just waited for them to decide Jane's taste in fashion for her, not that 11 was really qualified to pick for herself since she'd not worn much in her life that wasn't a hospital gown.

"So anything else you need 14?" Kali asked me "Shopping is a lot easier when you don't have to run off after we've taken what we want".

Mind controlling shop keepers did make things easier for us, and I knew what else I needed to get my hands on.

"Weapons," I said, "my powers don't work on groups and I can't throw people around so I need something to defend myself with".

A gun would be nice, but until someone showed me how to shoot one safely I'd settle for a couple of knives.

(Line Break)

Abandoned House. Seattle.

Kali led 11 and myself, into the attic of the house where she slept and there were quite a few photographs that were tacked up on a wall. Some had black Xs drawn on them. I figured these people were dead, either because Kali and her gang had killed them, or because they'd died for other reasons.

"These are the 'bad men', as Jane calls them," Kali explained to us "The ones we believe are still alive. Do you know any of them?".

As Jane scanned the various photos I examined them as well, finding that most of them were unfamiliar. Except for a few, and there was one man who got 11's attention very quickly.

"Him," Jane said as she pointed at the picture "He hurt my Mama".

She was pointing at a photo from a newspaper article. The man show was bald, with a dark beard and when I checked against my notes I found that this Ray person used to work as an orderly at the Hawkins National Laboratory under the authority of Doctor Martin Brenner. He'd been in a somewhat high position in his workplace and was qualified to administer electroshock treatments at the mental asylum he used to work at before getting transferred the lab in Hawkins before he'd left the project.

"His name is Ray Caroll. And he did more than hurt your mother" Kali informed Jane as she took the photo of the wall. "The bad men like Ray, they know about us. It's made them hard to track. But maybe not anymore".

One day while he was working for Brenner, Terry Ives broke into the lab, forcing her way in with a gun. She searched the facility for her missing daughter, Jane Ives. She eventually found her daughter in a room where she was playing with Kali Prasad, our fellow test subject, but Terry was captured before she could retrieve her daughter. Brenner ordered Terry to be strapped to a table and forced to undergo electroshock therapy. Ray then proceeded to electrocute her until her brain was damaged, leaving her in an almost catatonic state.

Ray was also apparently in charge of maintaining order with the test subjects as Kali told us that he used to electrocute her with a cattle prod when she'd first started using her powers to try to escape. Taser and cattle prods were effective against psychics as using our powers required focus and it is hard to concentrate when on your on the floor having spasms. Something I knew from my own escape attempts.

"If I'm right then this Ray fellow left Hawkins after he got divorced and moved to somewhere in Illinois, where he lives with his two daughters" I read out from my notes "We need to make sure they aren't around when we go after this guy. Hopefully, they spend most of their time at their mothers".

I had no issue with killing this man since while he'd been ordered my Brenner to destroy the mind of Terry Ives he could have refused to do so or sabotaged the attempt or reported it to someone, even if he'd gone along with things due to fear of Brenner that didn't matter. The excuse 'I was only following orders' didn't hold up with me once you started torturing people.

"He hurt Mama" 11 firmly stated.

I saw Kali gave her sort of sister a rather solemn look and she gave Jane the photo.

"Then let's go hurt him back," she said, "Find him, Jane".

(Line Break)

Apartment Block. Chicago.

During the time it took to reach Ray Caroll's home, Kali had plenty of time to explain a lot about the world to Jane, and to she talked to me about how she used her powers, about how her emotions could fuel her mental efforts, she also explained how she used her powers to protect her friends. Kali wasn't stupid, she'd realised very quickly that with two more powerful freaks on her side we'd all be a lot safer, and that she had a lot more to teach us than better ways of using our gifts.

"We should case the place, stick to the routine," the guy called Mick said. "We have time".

Seemed smart to me.

"We also have these two" Kali replied while gesturing at me and Jane "Can you scout for us?"

A minute or so later, Jane opened her eyes and told us what she saw

"He's asleep and there's a television," she said.

"Well, is he alone?" Mick asked.

He wasn't in the show, but this was many years later.

"I saw him. No one else" she answered.

Everyone waited for me. Since I'd gotten out of the lab I'd been able to experiment more with my powers and when I listened to thoughts of many people it was like being in a room with a lot of conversations. You have to learn to focus on hearing each different person and thoughts with a lot of emotions in them were louder, or at least this was how my mind dealt with the information I was getting.

"It all seems calm," I told the group "but I won't know for sure until I get closer. When we're outside his front door I'll try again".

Kali smiled at me.

"It gets easier" she promised me.

A very short amount of time later, after I'd confirmed that there was no one else in the apartment, at least no one awake, we had Ray Caroll was sitting down in his living room chair, an expression of pure terror on his face as Kali removed her mask. She then nodded in silent instruction for Jane to do the same. I'd not bothered to wear the mask, having gone with sunglasses and a bandana, it worked better with my new grunge look.

"Do you remember us?" Kali asked,

Ray shook his head. The lights flickered, and I could hear Kali saying,

"What about us? Do you remember us, Ray?" she asked.

She didn't say that in her voice. It was the voice of a young child. Kali couldn't just alter what a person saw, but she could also make them hear things differently as well. I'd have to ask her if she could make people smell things, but later as this wasn't the time for me to be asking any questions.

When the lights came back on, Kali struck him across the face, and he collapsed onto the floor despite the fact that Kali wasn't a well-built woman and he was rather heavy. He was on all fours, and as he looked up at us he did so with a pitiful look, yet I did not feel sorry for him.

"Read his mind to be sure" encouraged Kali.

It was good to know that she wasn't blinded by a need for revenge that she didn't forget to make use of our talent to ensure we had the right person, although there seemed to be little reason for doubt. Perhaps some past mistake had made Kali much careful.

"Please. Please..." he begged.

"You. Hurt. Mama," Jane said coldly

She then flung him into the nearest wall, but not very hard as he wasn't knocked out or even winded.

"Wait, please. Listen," he said as he begged "I just did what he told me to do. He said she was sick!".

Kali and Jane did not believe this, and frankly neither did I. It sounded like one of the excuses of those who had committed war crimes.

"You had a choice, Ray. And you chose to follow a man you knew was hurting people" said Kali.

Jane held out her hand, she looked as if she was about to do a Darth Vader impression and I actually started humming the Imperial March for some reason.

"No, no, wait! Wait! I can...help. I can help you find him" pleaded Ray.

This guy was not going to die with any dignity.

"Find who?" Kali demanded to know.

"Brenner!" Ray shouted, his tone of voice telling us how desperate he truly was "I can take you to him".

We didn't need his help with that, the only reason we hadn't gone after Brenner directly was that we all knew that someone like him would be too well guarded. Until Jane and I had mastered our powers it would be too dangerous to go after Brenner in any direct way.

"Jane will find him," Kali said coldly. "Just as she found you".

Turning to the side she looked at her sort of sister.

"Do it, Jane. Do it!" she yelled.

11 hesitated, but only for a moment and then started using her mind to cut off his air supply.

"Not too quick" ordered Kali "He wasn't so generous with your mother".

Jane tightened her grip on him even more, Ray's eyes widening as he realized that she was not going to leave him alive. She didn't drag it out that much, and once the man had expired we got moving as by now one of the neighbours could have called the police.

(Line Break)

Abandoned House. Seattle.

Jane who wasn't exactly talkative at the best of times became even less of a chatterbox on the ride back here. I didn't think she felt guilty over killing that Ray guy, she didn't seem depressed or angry, perhaps she was disappointed in not getting to prolong the man's suffering. The only person she'd spoken much to on the return trip was Kali, who had been very pleased by what Jane had done.

With people taking turns doing the driving, which involved trying to teach me the basics on the way and only stopping for snacks and petrol, or gas as the locals called it, the trip back still took more than 30 hours, so it had been a long time to spend not talking much to Jane. Not that she ignored me, if anything she'd gotten more clingy, and I figured that she a lot to process about the world.

"It didn't help Mama," 11 said to me as we went up to the room we shared "Papa hurt her too".

While 11 and I weren't having sex, as I didn't think she was ready for that, at least not just yet, even if she had killed people, we were sharing a bed as she liked to be close to me, and I didn't mind either since unlike other women I'd slept with she'd didn't hog all the covers.

"None of us can help your mother," I told her "but we can stop Brenner from hurting anyone else by killing him".

Killing Ray didn't help with that, in fact, it could be considered counterproductive since if he learned of Ray's death Brenner might increase whatever security he around himself. Not that this was a good reason to have left Ray alone, he'd still brutalized Kali was she was younger and rendered Terry Ives to something barely above a drooling mess in terms of awareness.

"And remember that you and I are in danger as long as Brenner is out there" I reminded 11 "He might start his work again and want to lock us up like before".

Jane stripped off her clothes as I watched and because her thoughts were elsewhere, I didn't need telepathy to tell that, she didn't even notice how much I was checking her out, not that she would care. Once she did notice me looking she did care that her boobs were small, by now she'd realised that other women had larger breasts.

"Small," she said.

I smiled at her.

"Don't worry I'm a butt guy" I let Jane know.

Rather adorably she tried to look at her own backside without the aid of a mirror, but not for long.

"I'm too cold," she told me as she stood in front of me in her birthday suit "Get into bed".

It was adorable that she didn't want to go to bed without me in it, but I didn't get in right away, I had her put on of my t-shirts, it served well enough as a nightgown.

"Some girls like to wear their boyfriend's t-shirts to bed" I informed 11 "I don't know why".

It would help her keep warm along with my body heat and that was all that mattered. Once we got into bed Jane did her best to get as much contact with me as possible. Treating me as if I was sort of hot water bottle/ large teddy bear Not that I minded this, but it was a little odd to have returned to what passed for home after going a murder road trip. I didn't dwell on that for much longer, as I didn't feel guilty and I'd had time to process what I'd done, but also because Jane was moving around while rubbing against me.

"11 are you masturbating?" I asked.

I knew that women did jerk off, and I'd have girlfriends who'd even done it while I watched, and I'd done my fair share of dry humping when I was a horny teenager, but I couldn't recall a girl ever rubbing against me while touching herself. I really shouldn't have been surprised by this. Eleven had no modesty and with so little to do when locked up she was have gotten herself off quite often.

"Do you not want me to?" she asked, "Am I bad?".

The last thing I desired was to shame her and I could see the desire for my approval on her face. I didn't often listen to what 11 was thinking, and right now I had no need to.

"No it's fine" I assured her "Just don't do it in front of anyone other me".

Hopefully, Kali had explained about not doing sexual things in front of others. I didn't care if she fingered herself, but others might find it offensive and it was the kind of behaviour that got people's attention. Something we didn't want.

"Okay 14, I'll only do it with you" 11 promised, "I'm not bad".

Sometime soon I'd have to talk to Kali about this, as it was clear the Jane hadn't gotten all the details she needed from her new big sis, and then I'd handle the more practical side of Jane's sex education myself since I couldn't just give her a book on the subject.

"Do you touch yourself?" 11 asked me.

I figured that at least the very start of her sex education was going to start now, and I didn't see much harm in telling her about how men climaxed. Better from me than some guy who didn't know why she was ignorant about so many things and porn could be misleading.