Chapter Text
After everything that happened, even after watching the Upside Down completely fly out into endless space, Dustin swears to them he saw another Pollywog. Mike didn’t believe that. He was there, standing in front of that gate when it collapsed, when they killed Vecna in the Abyss. It just didn’t seem that likely.
They had searched all of the most likely places, after obviously not finding a Pollywog, and ended up at the borders of Hawkins. They’d spent most of their summer searching, and they’d come up with nothing.
The building they were in now, some recently closed technology-design building, still had most of the white and blue paint left on it. They hadn’t cared to read the logos, since it wasn’t a generally important building. It still had some missing persons posters from years ago, that wasn’t all that scary anymore, knowing they could’ve died when the earthquake hit.
“Remind me again where the so-called Pollywog was?” asked Lucas. He was most fed-up, wanting nothing to do with the Upside Down ever.
“I told you already, I saw it jumping into one of the street drains.” Dustin huffed.
Lucas rolled his eyes and shined his flash light in a different direction.
“What if we just left this one? We already searched most of Hawkins.” Will shrugged, offering to go home, something Max and Lucas were about to jump at before, “No. We need to make sure.” Dustin said. “We check this one, and we’re done. Just one more building couldn’t hurt.”
“Yes, it could.” Max mumbled beneath her breath.
Mike giggled when Dustin whirled around and glared at her, before they too joined in the giggling. Mike began walking up the stairs to the second floor lobby, it being dim with damp carpet and wooden desks arranged in a box pattern. As he walked farther in he heard someone else follow him up.
They walked around a corner, the light from one of the only open windows shining onto a desk with a small computer, one that probably didn’t even work, and a pair of weird goggles connected to the computer by a wire.
“What is that?” Dustin asked.
“Probably some computer prototype.” Mike guessed. “Let’s keep looking.”
Dustin walked over to the goggles, picking them up above his head and peering inside. Mike came over and shined his flash light inside, revealing a screen. On the small screen was lettering he couldn’t read with such small pixels he couldn’t believe it to be real.
“Damn. That’s a lot of pixels. That's not your ordinary Nintendo.” Mike gasped. “Come on, let’s keep looking.” He heard everyone else enter the room.
“Hold on,” Dustin said, bringing the goggles closer to him, before pulling the strap back to place it on his head.
“Woah, woah-” Max came forward, holding it in the air. “That thing could probably shock you, in the eyes. I don’t want to drive you to the hospital.”
“Relax.” Dustin said, pulling it away and placing it on his head. He turned around to face the rest of the group. “Volia,” he said. “See nothing to-” His body fizzled out of view in a split second and disappeared, the goggles dropping to the floor.
They stood before it, panicked, wondering what the hell just happened.
“What the-” Will started, and “Where’d he-” Lucas said, and “I told him-” grumbled Max all came at the same time. Followed by Eleven, stepping forward and picking up the goggles.
“Wait- Eleven don’t touch that thing it could-” Mike reached towards her as she slid the goggles over her eyes. He felt her cool skin for a second before she too disappeared.
“Maybe they’re not dead?” Will guessed. They all turned to him. “What? With all the crazy shit we’ve seen I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“He.. makes a point.” Lucas sighed, before stepping forward and picking up the goggles. “I mean, we all find out? Could be a leftover portal?”
Lucas, then close behind him was Max, then Will shrugged and disappeared as well. Mike stood staring at the goggles for a moment. What was he supposed to do? Maybe all his friends were dead and he should go tell their parents that they died searching for something they knew was gone? Or should he go with them and hope it doesn’t lead to death? But if he dies, who'll tell them? He removed the notebook he’d forgotten from his backpack, writing a small note to put on the pile of their stuff for anyone who finds them.
Mike sighed, acknowledging this may be his last day alive, and picked up the goggles and slid them onto his head as well, disappearing as saturated colors flooded his vision.
–
Dustin blinked away at the initial bright lights, his eyes finally adjusting. The word around him was.. incredibly weird. He was standing on a stage that had no wooden looking texture but felt like wooden, and the floor everywhere else was like a chess board. There were giant colorful blocks, flower pots, bubbles and eyes thrown around in random areas.
Colorful buildings lay scattered around the floor, having pathways around but none very coherent like streets. Beginning on his left was a massive blanket fort held up by pillars, then a smaller pillow fort, then a spiral staircase, a book shelf filled with snow globes, and finally a colorful bar made of multiple crazy shapes. Behind the bright red counter was some sort of toy.
The toy, person, thing(?) had the head of a pink triangle and body like a yellow bean with orange spots. They had four arms of varying sizes and shapes coming from the bean, with a necklace-like tag shaped like a star on their chest, and two asymmetrical antennae. Sitting in one of the chairs who was talking to them until Dustin appeared, was a sad theater mask with the body of ribbons. Both wide-eyed and mouths- well the triangle didn’t have a mouth- open.
“Hey, is this the afterlife?” Dustin asked calmly, causing the two of them to look between each other before walking up.
“N-no. Actually, you’re-” the ribbon person was interrupted by someone else popping up next to him, that person had disconnected body parts and two long whiskers.
“What the..” she said, her voice sounded strangely familiar.
“Oh my god! Two at once!” the ribbon person shouted, smiling and bringing her ribbon hands to her face.
Before he could ask anymore questions three more people blinked in quickly. Some blocky robot with a jacket, someone that looked like a living shoe, and the most human looking one he’d seen, one just wearing a hat and t-shirt.
The triangle looked between them, “Should we start talking or wait a second?” they asked the ribbon person.
After a brief pause, someone else appeared, a taller person that looked like they were entirely ink with small spots floating by their feet(?) and small white eyebrows that when relaxed looked angry.
They waited for another moment.
“So uh, you’re not dead.” the triangle person reassured them. “This is The Amazing Digital Circus. You put on the headset and are trapped in a video game.”
“A video game, like Pac-Man?” the ink man said.
“Uhh, sure?” the triangle shrugged. “I’m Zooble.” They stared at Zooble in confusion. “Um, my uh- real name is Riley.”
“I’m Zoey, but um- everyone c-calls me Gangle.” Gangle said, voice definitely higher and quieter than Zooble’s.
“Well hi, I’m Dustin.” Dustin introduced himself.
“Dustin!” the ink man shouted. Dustin looked over confused. “It’s me, Mike?”
“Ohh!”
“You all know each other?” Zooble asked.
“Yeah.” Mike said happily, before looking over at everyone else. “Which would mean, Will?” he asked the closest one to him, who appeared to be Will nodded. “Max?” She nodded. “Lucas?” He raised his hand. “And..” Mike turned to Eleven. “Eleven?” She nodded.
“So we’re not dead!” Lucas threw his arms up. They all congratulated themselves on being alive.
“Anyway..” Gangle started. “Now that we’ve got everyone's names, do you um, want a tour?” Most of them nodded. Zooble nudged Gangle’s arm. “At least before Caine finds ‘em.” they laughed.
“Come on,” Zooble said, leading them off the stage and towards the big blanket fort.
“Over there is my bar, for when we feel like having a drink.” Zooble pointed at the place he first saw them. “That’s where Caine leaves most of the adventures,” They pointed to the snowglobes. “That’s Kinger’s pillow fort, and finally.” They moved their hand from pointing at the pillows to standing in front of the large entrance.
Dustin peered in, and hundreds of glowing eyes opened and stared at him. Before a large, sharp-edged rabbit creature stepped closer, but not out.