Back at the Byers household, Sloane stood on edge. Sure, they were safe from immediate danger, but there was no telling what would come next. She was just thankful she had Elliot and Nancy by her side. As much as she hadn't wanted her brother to get involved, she was just glad that if he was he was going to be with her. Nancy was off comforting Jonathan who was, in turn, comforting his younger brother, Will. Sloane wanted to go over there, but part of her felt like she was intruding. Jealousy was not an emotion she knew well and she knew she would have to get used to the idea that Nancy and Jonathan were friends. Nancy was not something for her to win and Nancy had made her feelings very clear for Sloane so there was no need for her to feel insecure.

The police chief, Sloane had learned his name was Jim Hopper, but he was often referred to by his surname, was on the phone with someone, sounding frustrated as he recalled the situation at the lab. Meanwhile, the rest of them just stood around, waiting. Sloane didn't know what they were waiting for, but it couldn't be anything good.

"Are you gonna tell me the real reason you got involved with all of this, Elliot?" Sloane whispered harshly, making sure nobody else could hear their conversation. Everyone was consumed in their own actions, so it didn't matter much.

Elliot sighed, "I mean, Steve and I kind of have like... a thing going on. We're friends. Ever since he stayed the night after the party we just kind of... clicked. Anyway, it's complicated."

"This whole stupid town is complicated," Sloane sighed, giving her brother a stern look. She may be younger, but they had both been hurt too many times to count. Both by each other and by others around them. She hoped the onslaught of disaster could be a turning point for them and their relationship. "But whatever's happening, be careful and always do what's best for you."

"I could say the same thing for you," he scoffed and she knew he was right. No matter how secure things were with Nancy, this was high school, after all.

Before their conversation could continue, Sloane heard yelling from the kitchen that sounded like it was coming from Mike, "We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

Sloane had met Mike only a few minutes ago, but she could already see how passionate he was about both his friend, Will and the monsters they had to fight. Apparently, this wasn't the first time the kids had been caught up in this. She knew with a pang in her heart that these kids had all been forced to grow up too fast.

"We stay here and we wait for help," Hopper spoke firmly. Mike went silent as the man walked away.

Sighing, the blonde walked over to the boy sitting at the table, speaking gently, "Hey, Mike, right? I know I don't know you guys all too well, but I'm good friends with your sister and I know a lot about what you guys went through last year. I know it may not seem like it now, but putting you guys in more danger -- even though we know you know how to hold your own -- isn't worth it right now. Your friend, Will? He's been going through hell and it'll be that much worse for him if any of his friends get hurt. I'm not a fighter, I'm gonna be honest with you, but sometimes waiting is just for the best."

Hoping she got through to him, she realized she was sorely mistaken. "We can't let those things roam around town! Waiting is stupid when we're the only ones who know enough to do something."

"I hate kids," she muttered to herself, nodding but not responding to Mike, "This is why I hate kids."

So, they returned to the silence. Nancy walked over to Sloane with a half-hearted smile, entangling just their pinkies together in a brief show of intimacy. They didn't know what they were waiting for. For the phone to ring, maybe.

After a moment, Mike stood and picked something up in the living room. "Did you guys know Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"

"Really?" Lucas asked. Sloane didn't know who Bob was, but judging by everyone's solemn expressions, she could only assume he had bitten the bullet because of the happenings in Hawkins.

Mike continued, "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right? We can't let him die in vain."

"What do you wanna do, Mike?" Dustin asked in an exasperated tone. It seemed the other kids were on the waiting page as well. "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-Dogs on our own."

"Demo-Dogs?" Max asked.

"Demogorgon. Dogs. Demo-Dogs," Dustin explained. Those must have been the creatures that were running rampant in the lab. Sloane was lucky she had yet to run into one and she hoped she never would. She got shivers just thinking about it. "It's like a compound. Like a play on words--"

"Okay," the girl said with wide eyes, as Dustin sighed.

Looking as though he was remembering something, the curly-haired boy spoke again, "I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..."

God, Sloane had no idea who that was either. She needed some sort of crash course in whatever the hell these kids had going on while she, Nancy, and Jonathan had been out of town because she was sick of feeling confused.

"But there's an army now," Lucas finished Dustin's sentence with a somber look.

"His army," Mike muttered as though something clicked in his mind.

Steve looked over at him with a confused expression, "What do you mean?"

"His army," he repeated, "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too."

Mike ran off to explain something to the other kids and Steve, but Sloane stayed behind in the kitchen. She hated being so confused. First, it was a Demogorgon, then Demo-Dogs, and now some sort of Shadow Monster? She heard mutterings of a Hive Mind, but she would be lying if she said she was making sense of anything they were saying.

"What the hell did I get myself into?" she asked Nancy with a small pout, sounding exasperated.

Then, Dustin slammed a Dungeons and Dragons book onto the kitchen table with a page flipped open. They all crowded around him as he explained, "The mind flayer. It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its own true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."

"Oh, my God," Hopper intruded, "None of this is real, it's a kids' game."

"No, it's a manual and it's not for kids," he argued, "and unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor--"

"--Analogy," Lucas corrected, earning a glare from Dustin.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine, an analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Looking at the manual, Nancy asked, "Okay, so this mind flamer thing--"

"Flayer," Sloane corrected at the same time as Dustin.

Nancy sighed, "What does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race."

"Like the Germans," Steve asked, trying to relate it to WWII, Sloane guessed.

Looking at him with a furrowed brow, the curly-haired boy asked, "The Nazis?"

"Yeah, yeah, the Nazis, yeah," Steve corrected. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Elliot smile endearingly. Ah, so that's what he meant by 'it's complicated.'

"If the Nazis were from another dimension totally."

"So this thing," Sloane interrupted, "It's controlling its armies, what? Through Will? Like possession? Or is Will just one of the pawns?"

"We think the mind flayer is using Will as a physical form to control its armies, yeah," he clarified and Sloane nodded, "He's a vessel, more or less. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread," Mike continued, "take over other dimensions."

Lucas intruded with, "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

"Great, just great," Sloane mumbled, holding onto Nancy's hand just a little bit tighter.

Steve had a similar reaction, sighing and walking away from the table exclaiming, "Great, that's just great, Jesus."

Elliot walked over to Steve and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Sloane made a mental note to bring that up later. There was certainly a difference between messing with each other and being a source of comfort, she knew that from experience.

"Okay," Nancy began, "so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls," Mike finished.

"What about Will?" Sloane asked, her voice concerned as she looked over at the boy sleeping on the couch. "Don't we need to get it out of him before we can kill it?"

"Precisely," Mike nodded.

Grabbing the manual from Nancy, Hopper asked, "Great, so how do we kill it? Like throw fireballs at it or something?"

"Roll a Nat 20," Sloane said with a scoff, earning a confused look from Nancy and Elliot, "What? I know some D&D terminology, sue me."

"No fireballs or Nat 20's, I'm afraid," Dustin explained, "Uh, you summon an army of the dead, because, uh... zombies, they don't have brains and the mind flayer, it uh, likes brains."

"We don't have an army of the dead," Hopper spoke, sounding exasperated, "What the hell are we doing here?"

Dustin sighed and exclaimed, "I thought we were waiting for your military backup!"

"We are!"

"How are they gonna stop this?" Mike asked and he had a point. Maybe this kid was smarter than Sloane gave him credit for. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!"

"Can we just calm down for a second?" Sloane exclaimed, her voice tired, "This is hard enough without the constant infighting! Yes, we may have a military backup on the way, but we don't have an army of the undead, and no backup is for sure! We need to figure out a solution that a) keeps all of us safe, b) keeps Will safe, and c) will get you two to shut the hell up and stop fighting. Got it?"

"Do you have any ideas?" Mike turned to Sloane, but his voice was calmer than when it had been directed at Hopper.

Matter-of-factly, she retorted, "No, but I'm tired of witnessing moody teenager and high-and-mighty cop throw down. So, chill the hell out, let's think about this logically. What do we know affects this mind flayer thing?"

"We know it's killed everyone in the lab," Mike contributed.

"We know they're going to molt again," came Lucas's part.

Finally, Dustin looked around at the drawings covering the walls, "We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town."

"Great!" Sloane exclaimed, "So let's get to brainstorming on how to take this thing the fuck down."

i think this scene would be so much better if we simply... let finn wolfhard say fuck, but that's neither here nor there.