After being adopted by the elderly couple, Jhon began living with them daily.
He usually helped James, the old farmer, by tending to the crops, scaring away pests, and doing other necessary tasks.
With Denise, the old lady, he helped her from time to time—washing dishes, cleaning the house, and assisting her in the kitchen.
Jhon also made good use of his free time to train his powers. He would move quite a distance away from the house and enter the middle of the forest.
This way, he trained without being bothered by the elderly couple, who also didn't ask many questions about what he was going to do there. They just thought he was playing, after all, he never got hurt going a little ways into the forest.
In this manner, 8 months had passed since Jhon escaped from Hawkins Lab.
During that period, Jhon had completely healed his broken hand, without it taking a full month for the recovery. After all, it wasn't a very serious fracture, and since he was still in a growth phase, bone healing was much faster.
His hair, previously shaved down to the scalp, was now relatively long, with his bangs reaching the middle of his forehead. Jhon wore his hair loose, without combing it, giving it a messy but attractive look.
He had also started training his powers daily during this time. He mainly trained his telepathy, an ability he had no way of using in Hawkins Lab.
Now, he could train it on animals.
Jhon usually used his telekinesis to pull birds to his hand, and once they were in his hand, he applied telepathy to them. With his progression ability, each bird whose mind was invaded made his telepathy stronger and stronger.
He reached a point where he could easily project images into the minds of the small birds.
After that, he continued increasing the level of the animals he applied telepathy to, setting the birds aside and now using small rabbits.
After easily managing to invade a rabbit's mind to project images, transmit thoughts, and even break its mind, he moved on to larger animals, like dogs.
It's worth remembering that invading a being's mind is different from breaking its mind. Jhon has the capacity to invade and break the minds of beings with weaker minds than his, but there's no need for that. His telepathy can evolve simply by performing a mind invasion.
When Jhon could easily enter the minds of large animals like dogs and cats, that was when exactly 8 months had passed.
His telekinesis had also evolved during this time. He was now able to lift 140 kilograms, though with some difficulty and not for very long.
He trained his telekinesis just as he had planned back in Hawkins Lab: progressively increasing the weight loads as if he were really in a gym. It might not have been the best training method, but it was one that produced results in those 8 months.
If he had to face that damn puma again now, it wouldn't be a complicated fight for Jhon at all.
His psychometry had also been used a lot. He used it to train the precision of his telekinesis.
However, there was no longer any need to use psychometry for that, since he was no longer in Hawkins Lab, but he preferred it this way—because with psychometry, he could train two things at the same time: his psychometry and telekinetic precision.
As these 8 months passed, it was already December, and today was his birthday—December 2nd, his 8th birthday.
Jhon knew that if he was already 8 years old, it wouldn't be long before Eleven also turned 8 and Vecna tried to deceive her—that is, if it hadn't already happened.
But he didn't worry about it, because it was already expected and there was no way for him to prevent it.
The elderly couple also knew that today was Jhon's birthday, because once Denise casually asked and Jhon told them.
They decided, without asking Jhon, to take him to town to a small restaurant to celebrate.
Jhon seemed hesitant about the idea, but seeing the elderly couple so excited, he couldn't refuse.
After getting dressed simply, Jhon and the elderly couple set off for town.
Hawkins Lab, 2 hours later…
Inside Hawkins Lab, Dr. Brenner was sitting in a chair, looking impatient.
Beside him, a beautiful middle-aged woman noticed the impatience on Brenner's face but remained composed.
"Brenner, why are you so obsessed with Subject Ten now?" she asked calmly. "You always treated him like a lost cause."
"You don't understand, Connie. After the boy's escape, I went to check the security cameras in his room and I noticed something…" He paused, building suspense. "There, I saw that the boy is capable of accessing psychometry."
"He would pretend to lie down as if going to sleep, but whenever he woke up, his nose was bleeding. That's a sign of accessing psychometry."
"Alright, but couldn't the boy just have been trying to use telekinesis on something? We both know the boy was terrible at telekinesis. Maybe he was training," Connie Frazier countered Brenner's arguments.
"Impossible. He's a natural telepath. He almost never gets nosebleeds unless he's forced to the absolute limit of his powers. I have no clue how he got these abilities, but he could be just like One: he received his powers straight from the source, Dimension X."
"I never took him seriously until I saw him accessing psychometry. His powers were very weak—you know that. Very different from when One acquired his."
"What intrigues me is that when we brought him here, he didn't have the ability to use psychometry. I know that. We used drugs that prevented him from lying."
"Furthermore, his blood tested different from One's. His blood doesn't have the capacity to create other telepaths…" Dr. Brenner leaned back in his chair, looking thoughtful.
"This makes me want to capture that boy as soon as possible. Maybe we can uncover his secrets this time and find out if his powers are natural or come from the Upside Down. And perhaps we can replace One with him. One has been acting strangely lately." He murmured the last part, finishing his explanation without noticing he was already talking to himself.
Dr. Brenner was now completely absorbed with Jhonatan, because in his first days at Hawkins Lab, every kind of test had been performed on him.
However, nothing was revealed in any of the tests. It was as if he were just a normal boy with natural telepathic powers.
But now Brenner was almost certain that the source of Jhonatan's powers was the same as One's, since he was capable of using psychometry and perhaps even telepathy, considering the similar abilities.
He didn't know how Jhon had managed to keep this hidden from him, and that made him even more intrigued.
While Brenner talked to himself, Connie was no longer listening. She was leaning against the corner, cleaning her silenced pistol, when suddenly hurried footsteps came from outside the office.
Without much suspense, a large, fat man burst through the door without even knocking.
"Sir! We found an elderly couple with a suspicious boy!" the fat man shouted into the room.
"Are you sure?" Dr. Brenner seemed surprised by the abrupt entrance and asked seriously.
"Yes, sir. This elderly couple is known in the local trade area for selling corn," the man said, pulling out a notebook.
"From what the investigation team discovered, the elderly couple has a 14-year-old son, but the boy with them is a child around 7 to 8 years old in stature. And that matches the description of the profiles we were looking for."
"Additionally, the elderly couple lives in the rural area of the town, 7 km from the lab." The man finished speaking and closed the notebook.
"That's the description that matches his information the most. This time, I think we really have him." Brenner gave a creepy smile and turned to Connie. "Connie, go and bring the boy here. And stay alert—we don't know if he's been hiding his strength all this time."
"Understood," Connie said without another word.
She then put away the cloth she was using to clean the gun and left the room with the fat man.
Meanwhile, Jhonatan, who was returning to the countryside with the elderly couple inside their pickup truck, now returned with a calm mind. After all, apparently he hadn't been discovered by anyone from Hawkins Lab.
"Did you have fun, Jhon? What did you think of the cake?" the old lady asked calmly from the front seat of the truck.
"I liked it a lot—it was really good. Thank you for doing this for me." Jhon was naturally very happy with what they had done for him. He was only worried about what could happen if he were discovered.
"No need to thank us, little one. You've made our lives so much happier since you arrived," the lady said with a smile on her face.
The old man, who was driving the truck, didn't say much but silently nodded in agreement.
After the brief conversation, the old man continued driving until they reached the couple's farm.
Jhon quickly got out of the car after arriving at the farm and went to Branquinha.
"I'm back, Branquinha. I brought some lizards for you," Jhon said while looking for the small snake.
After searching for the snake for a while, Jhon finally found her on the living room floor. But she wasn't alone: the little white snake was accompanied by another white snake.
This other corn snake was also white, but it had small black markings in certain areas.
"Another little snake? You must be the small Loki that Grandma mentioned." Jhon approached the little snake, trying to pick her up.
The snake, who didn't know Jhon, instinctively backed away.
Jhon then used his telepathy to invade the little snake's mind and transmitted words to her: "Hello, I'm Branquinha's friend."
Loki was startled by the sudden voice in her head and became even more surprised that she fully understood what the other party said.
Branquinha seemed to understand what happened and quickly tried to explain to Loki. After some time of communication between the two snakes, Loki finally understood.
He seemed to set aside his reluctance and approached Jhon along with Branquinha.
Seeing the two little snakes approaching, Jhon extended his hand with a closed fist and opened it.
There were three small lizards that Jhon was now holding with telekinesis.
Seeing the three lizards, the two little snakes advanced and ate the small reptiles.
"Jhonatan, what are you doing there?"
With long strides, Denise arrived behind Jhon and saw two small snakes feeding.
"Loki!" Denise shouted.
Upon seeing the small white snake with tiny black scales, she broke into a big smile.
"You finally decided to come home! You have no idea how worried I was…" Denise, with difficulty, slowly tried to crouch down. Jhon, noticing the old lady's effort, stood up while lifting the two small snakes in his hand, preventing Denise from crouching.
Denise understood the gesture and picked up little Loki.
Loki, paying no mind, let himself be picked up while still eating the small lizard.
Soon after the small reunion, old James entered the house and also recognized little Loki.
Since he had never liked animals like snakes, he didn't pay much attention but wasn't annoyed either. He was happy for his wife.
With great joy, after petting the little snake for a long time, Denise released her and went to do her afternoon chores, leaving Loki with Branquinha and Jhon.
Because snakes don't have very high intelligence, long-term communication was tiring for the small snakes. So Jhon, in turn, also left them in peace.
As someone still constantly evolving with his powers, he decided to return to the forest for a bit more training.
Passing through the corn plantation on the farm, Jhon walked a few more meters until he reached the forest behind the farm.
There, on top of a tree, he saw a small bird. Using his telekinesis, he attracted the bird to his hand and entered its thoughts, communicating with it.
"So, do you still remember the order I gave you?"
"Orders? What orders, big bird!?" the bird asked, confused.
Jhon released the bird, which then flew to a different tree.
"It seems that even though they remember me, because of their low intelligence, they can't follow orders," Jhon said out loud to himself. Then a small realization hit his mind: "Maybe a regular bird can't follow commands, but a crow certainly would. But they're very intelligent—there's a good chance they won't follow me willingly."
"I could try trading small portions of corn with them, and in exchange, they could patrol the surroundings. It's worth a try."
With that thought, Jhon decided to wait for a while between the forest and the corn plantation.
After not waiting long, he saw a pair of crows approaching.
Waiting for them to get closer, Jhon raised one fist and, with mental force, pulled one crow to his hand.
The crow tried to struggle, but it was in vain—it was completely immobilized.
The other crow, seeing its companion immobilized, charged at Jhon, trying to peck him, but every attempt failed against a protective barrier that covered the part the bird always tried to hit.
Not wanting to scare the crow too much, Jhon entered the immobilized crow's mind and explained the situation to it.
As Jhon had predicted, the crow—much more intelligent than other types of birds—quickly understood the situation.
Without hesitation, it agreed.
It didn't know how that being could communicate with it, but between stealing food and risking death, it preferred to receive daily portions in exchange for doing just an occasional patrol around the farm.
Jhon released the crow that had spoken with him and let it explain the situation to its companion, who also liked the idea but was still annoyed by the approach.
To really test if the crows understood commands, Jhon had one of them patrol around the property once.
Five minutes after leaving, it returned.
And incredibly, the crow could actually relay everything it saw. It quickly described what it had seen around the farm and what could be a certain threat.
"Besides that, I saw two other creatures similar to the creature you have here in this yard coming toward the farm."
"Creature? Are you talking about the car with the pointy front!?" Jhon asked, his worry overflowing.
"Yeah, it has a pointy front. It's definitely almost the same creature I see around here," the crow confirmed Jhon's suspicions.
Without thinking twice, Jhon said he'd bring the agreed-upon payment later and quickly ran back to the elderly couple's house.
"Damn it! Did they find me? Was one little outing really that problematic!?" he shouted and wondered to himself until he reached the house.
Seeing that no cars had arrived yet, he entered the house and called the two elderly people.
James, who was in the living room carving a small wooden utensil, turned around and saw Jhon sweating—not from exhaustion, but cold sweat.
"Jhonatan, what happened!?" The old man's eyes wavered as he asked.
"I don't have time to explain, but we need to get out of here fast. Where's Grandma!?" Jhon gestured hurriedly, leaving the old man with even more questions.
Even if it was a huge coincidence that these cars were coming here right after they left to celebrate his birthday, he preferred not to risk it and decided to lead the two as far away from that place as possible.
"D-Denise is in the kitchen…"
Even without knowing Jhon's intentions, James pointed toward the kitchen, revealing where Denise was.
Jhon ran to the kitchen and gave her the same vague explanation he gave James, quickly pulling her toward James. When he reached James, he also grabbed him by the arm, trying to lead them to the car.
On the way, he also saw the two snakes and picked them up, putting them in his pocket.
As the three people were leaving the house, two black vans stopped around the elderly couple's pickup truck.
"W-what are those vans!?" the old lady stammered, taking a small step back, clearly frightened.
James followed with another question: "Jhonatan, do you know who these people are!?"
"It's kind of complicated to explain right now."
While Jhonatan was still speaking, Connie and ten more people emerged from the vans—five from each vehicle.
"Finally found little Ten?" Connie asked, stepping out of the vehicle, the last of the ten to exit.
"It really is the little rat," one of the henchmen said, staring fixedly at Jhon.
James took a step forward upon seeing the malicious look from the man who had just spoken and said: "Who are you people and what do you want with Jhonatan!?"
While the old man was still speaking, Connie raised her silenced pistol and fired without hesitation toward James's chest.
With great mental reflex, Jhon activated a force field where the small bullet was heading, using it to ricochet the bullet to James's side, making it pass just grazing his ear.
"Agh!"
With a clearly surprised expression, Connie showed a look of interest upon seeing Jhonatan do that.
"Who would've thought you already have the ability to deflect bullets. Brenner will be pleased to hear this!"
James, now beside Jhonatan, took two steps back and fell to the ground with an incredulous look, shouting: "What… what the hell was that!?"
"Shoot them both. Don't give him time to use his powers to kill us."
Connie, as a strategist who had participated in countless operations, quickly devised a plan to contain Jhonatan.
With Connie's command, the shooting began.
On one side was Denise being targeted, and on the other, James.
Jhonatan, with all his mental strength, deflected every bullet coming toward the two elderly people. None were aimed at him—all followed only two paths.
Seeing that the bullets were focused only on the two of them, Denise, with trembling legs and using her last remnants of courage, hid behind Jhonatan.
After hiding behind Jhon, the bullets coming her way stopped, now focused only on old James.
He was completely in a trance, unable to think properly, and remained motionless on the ground.
The bullets that had previously targeted Denise now focused on old James, overloading more and more the barriers Jhonatan was creating with each wave of shots.
While Jhonatan focused on defending James, a tranquilizer dart came toward him. Since he wasn't expecting it, he lost focus for a moment, activating the force field in front of himself but failing to create one for old James.
The old man was hit by three darts before Jhonatan resumed protecting him.
The shots, with no intent to kill, only hit non-lethal areas, since the old man was a weak point to exploit.
"Ten, surrender and we can spare the old folks. Otherwise, they'll both die and you'll still come back with us anyway," Connie said confidently. She was certain there was no way for Jhonatan to escape that situation.
Jhonatan knew she was lying about sparing the elderly. Once they had seen his abilities, their lives were already doomed.
And even if they didn't see it, the simple fact that they wanted to keep them quiet meant they would already be killed.
"I wish you could see yourself right now, little Ten. Your nose looks like a little mud puddle!"
Trying to distract Jhonatan, Connie continued with her preferred taunts.
While continuing in that standoff, Jhonatan finally had to face the possibility he had been trying to avoid in his mind.
Sacrifice old James and kill Brenner's agents, or be captured.