After testing his powers and getting a slight sense of where his level was, Jhonatan wondered how he could improve. He planned to train the traditional way, like in a gym; progressively, he would increase the weight load he carried and controlled with his telekinesis.
But unfortunately, there's a problem with that. How could he train his powers without drawing Dr. Brenner's attention? He truly had no desire to be marked and vigorously hunted by Brenner after escaping, just as Eleven had been. He preferred to be more like Eight; even though she had been pursued for having powers, it wasn't a relentless hunt—after all, her powers weren't that strong, so she wasn't as necessary to Brenner.
Jhonatan spent some time racking his brain, but unfortunately, it was useless: there were no ways to train his telekinesis discreetly. "Damn Brenner, why the hell does he need so many cameras inside this room!?" Jhonatan cursed mentally, looking at his room full of cameras.
After the children's daily power testing, everyone is taken to lunch and sent back to their respective rooms. And at that exact moment, Jhonatan was in his room and only now realized that there were two surveillance cameras there. One was in the upper right corner, behind his bed, and another above the entrance door.
"Should I escape soon? The more time I spend without training my powers, the worse it will be for my future self."
"But if I run away now, I'll have nowhere to go, let alone a way to feed myself with this weak telekinesis," he thought seriously, torn between staying and leaving.
"Wait... Who said I need to train with a physical object?" Jhonatan suddenly had a mental flash. "What if I use psychometry to create a non-physical training area in my own mind!?"
Jhonatan suddenly lay down on the bed and thought: "If this actually works, it would be like killing two birds with one stone: I'd train my psychometry and my level of telekinetic control."
"Well, it doesn't hurt to try; it's my only option for now," Jhonatan finished his reasoning, closing his eyes.
Jhon then entered the mental domain of his own mind. Upon entering, he found himself in a completely pitch-black place. "If I imagine a memory of an existing location and try to maintain it here as a setting, would it work?" he wondered.
Jhonatan used his most recent memories—to avoid the mental fatigue of searching deep within his mind—and used the laboratory's training area. After that, he cleared the place completely with his mind, leaving a white space with a mirror on the wall.
With a thought, he brought in weights of various types and sizes, but none over 100 kilograms; even though the weight wasn't real, using their size to achieve good telekinetic precision was useful. It would cause extreme mental exhaustion—training precision with such large objects in his own mind—and there wasn't much space in the room either.
He also tried to avoid and even isolate as many of his other memories as possible; after all, any interaction with past memories causes mental exhaustion, and he is only a 7-year-old child. "There, it's ready," Jhonatan said, looking at the scene.
In the setting, weights from 5kg to 100kg were lined up side by side. A bit past the weights, several circles hung by strings were in the room. They would be used to pass the weights through the circles. Several wooden boards also lay on the floor in the corner of the white room. Their sides were closed, and the tops were completely open. Inside the boards, several rows of mazes could be seen; in the center, there was a small metal ball.
The purpose of these boards was also to train telekinetic precision. Their use consisted of moving the ball through the mazes to the exit without hitting the sides. Of course, the better Jhonatan became, the harder he would make it, moving on to a larger board with smaller paths.
After completing the room, Jhonatan didn't waste much time before starting his test. First, he trained with his board; he took the smallest board with the largest paths, moving the ball with some difficulty. He continued this for 10 straight minutes; during those 10 minutes, he got the hang of it until he finally passed without difficulty. He moved on to the other board, larger and with narrower paths. On this one, he spent around 20 minutes, and even then, it wasn't enough; because it was so narrow, the metal ball kept hitting the walls.
But his progression was notable and fast; this would only become more evident over time. After those 30 minutes of training, Jhonatan stood up from the floor and felt something sticky dripping down his philtrum. He wiped his hand over it and saw blood.
"It seems this is the maximum time I can stay here for now. Better get out soon," he said, tilting his neck up, seeing the place start to go dark.
In reality, he opened his eyes and felt a slight headache, but nothing too strong; blood was also dripping from his philtrum, just like in his mental domain. "I think I'd better rest for 20 minutes before starting my physical training," Jhonatan thought.
That's right: in addition to telekinesis training, Jhonatan intended to train his physical body; a man's primary home is his body. Jhonatan also believed that the stronger his physical body, the more pressure he could withstand from the telekinetic rebound. And he wasn't wrong: when his body uses mental strength, it also passes a certain amount of pressure back to the body; so, in a way, the stronger the pressure supported, the stronger the generated telekinesis.
This is only true, of course, if your mental strength is capable of generating that telekinetic force. In other words, your body is capable of receiving the pressure that your full mental capacity has. For example: Eleven in season four has the capacity to lift 5 tons with some difficulty, but in reality, her mental strength isn't limited to just that; if her body were able to support a portion of the mental strength her brain handles, lifting even 7 tons wouldn't be impossible.
Twenty minutes quickly passed, and Jhonatan began his workout; he got out of bed and dropped to the floor in a push-up position. In his past life, he also trained daily; nothing too heavy, but better than most people. First, he did 3 sets of 10 push-ups, then 3 sets of 20 squats, and 3 sets of 20 sit-ups. After the workout, his small 7-year-old body was sweating vigorously since it was the first time this body had done any kind of exercise. He felt a lot of difficulty, but over time the body would get used to it, and he would increase the intensity.
He sat on the floor for a while, reformulating future plans; finally, after a bit, he felt rested and decided to take a shower. Something not shown in the series is that they had practically everything inside a room to live well. There was a minibar with plenty of drinks, like natural juices to enrich the body, water for hydration, and tonics for body aches—especially for the headaches the laboratory children frequently felt.
Each room also had a bathroom; access was through a door on the back wall. But, of course, the bathroom was also monitored, except for the toilet and shower, which were covered by small blue curtains. But it was such a small space that it was practically impossible to plan anything in that tiny area.
Jhonatan took his shower and, right after he dressed, the guard knocked on his door. "Ten, come out, it's time for afternoon interaction," the fat man's voice sounded again, just like in the morning. "I'm coming," Jhonatan replied.
Then, with his hair still slightly damp, he left his room. Again, he saw the same familiar scene of several children waiting patiently in front of their rooms. The fat man who had knocked on his door was now knocking on Eleven's door, who was apparently just waiting for the call and quickly left her room. Upon exiting, she saw Jhon standing there waiting like the others. Jhonatan noticed her and greeted her with a wave. Eleven's eyes brightened, and she waved back.
Quickly, all the children were called and lined up in single file, from the lowest number to the highest. Eleven was once again behind Jhon. Jhon noticed her behind him; she seemed a bit hesitant to call him, but she obviously wanted to talk. Without making her think for too long, Jhon decided to start the conversation himself.
"Hi Eleven, how was your rest? Was it good?" he said, turning his back to Number Nine, who was in front of him. Eleven seemed surprised by Jhon calling her suddenly, but quickly her confused eyes changed to eyes of joy. "Um, it was great!" she replied happily, closing her eyes while nodding, and continued: "And you, Ten, did you rest well!?"
"Better than well, I'm still full from the two helpings I had at lunch." Jhon held his stomach as if to say it was stuffed. Eleven let out a light laugh and said: "I told you not to eat so much, you had already eaten two snacks at breakfast!"
"You're right, next time I'll listen to your advice, heheh..."
While Eleven and Jhon talked happily, someone else had a face as grim as a coffin watching that scene. "I can't let her form strong bonds with anyone here; if she starts liking someone, my plan to use her to escape won't work."
The person who wasn't happy at all with the interaction between Eleven and Jhon was none other than Henry, or rather, Vecna. Number One had long been looking for ways to escape that hole where Brenner had put him. But with the chip that limited his powers in his trapezius, it was impossible for him to do anything. So his plan was to trick Eleven—the weakest, loneliest, and apparently the most influential of the children.
"Should I start my plan earlier? If I do it now, there's a high chance of failure, and if I fail, I'll be electrocuted by that thing again..." One ran his hand over his neck as if he could still feel the sensation of the electric shocks. "Dammit, Ten has been here for a year and had never interacted with Eleven; why did he suddenly decide to get close?" One made a sour face while thinking.
Jhon, who was quietly enjoying himself with Eleven, felt a slight intent of hostility coming from behind him. He turned his body and head, meeting the eyes of One, who was looking at him with a scowl. "Has he already seen me as a threat to his plans?" Jhon was startled when he saw One looking at him with hostility. Jhon quickly pretended not to see and turned back to Eleven, who hadn't noticed anything. "It seems I'll have to act with caution around Eleven..."
After the line moved, all the children were taken to a room that was once again white. In this room, there were walls with boards used exclusively for drawing, and in the center, some round tables for those who wanted to sit and play card games. Jhon pretended to play and consequently invited Eleven to play with him, specifically with a soccer ball that was in the corner.
Time passed slowly, and before Jhon realized it, 3 months had gone by. Jhon's life had been quite peaceful in the meantime. In the morning, Jhon would wake up, take care of his basic needs, and stretch quickly. He was called for breakfast like the other children; after eating with Eleven, they were guided to the training room, where he trained his telekinetic strength and always remained discreet so as not to attract Brenner's attention.
After the morning training, the children were taken back to the facility's dining area for lunch. After that, everyone rested in their rooms—unlike Jhon, who used this time to train in his mental domain and took the opportunity to do physical training. In those three months, his telekinetic control capacity increased several times because of his ability's progression rate.
After the rest, everyone was called back to the interaction area, where Jhon took the opportunity to pay attention to One, who didn't look like he would wait much longer to put his plan into action. He seemed very impatient. After the interaction, every Wednesday there was a mental combat session, where Jhon took full advantage to train his telekinetic strength. Due to his progressive telekinesis ability, his strength also increased significantly, but of course, only Jhon knew how strong he really was. After that, all the children had dinner and finally went to sleep.
But today was different. Jhon was finally determined to leave today; his strength and telekinetic control were already good enough for him to survive outside. Jhon didn't plan to take Eleven with him, and the reason is simple. First, Eleven has such great hidden potential that she is capable of opening a portal to the Hellscape dimension, so it would be impossible for her to lose to One when he acted. Second, Jhon didn't know if Eleven would be able to find another catalyst to release her potential other than seeing One killing the children and trying to kill her. Third, Jhon was afraid that if he escaped with Eleven, One would mark him for ruining his plans; and when One eventually escaped—and he surely would one day—he would go directly after Jhon for frustrating his quick exit. Fourth, it would be hard enough escaping alone, let alone with someone else.
And why doesn't Jhon try to kill One? Simple: it's impossible. One's powers come directly from the Mind Flayer; even if he managed to kill One, he would likely perish alongside him. "I don't think it will take long for One to come up with some crazy plan to escape and end up killing everyone here," Jhon spoke to himself. "It's time for me to get out of here, I'll follow what I planned," Jhon finished his reasoning while getting up from his bed.
It was already night, and few guards were on night watch. Jhon, already standing, went to the door and tried to open it, but as expected, the door was locked. Already anticipating this, Jhon began punching the door with the heels of his hands, drawing the attention of a guard nearby. The guard approached the door and, in an angry tone, said: "What do you want, Number Ten!?"
"I think I'm feeling sick, I'm short of breath and weak, help me!" Jhon said, shouting while pretending to lose strength in his voice. After that, he went completely silent, leaving the guard worried. "I'm coming in, Number Ten, I'll take you to the medical wing!" the guard said hurriedly. He pulled out a bunch of keys and grabbed the one labeled "Number 10." After opening the door in a rush, the first thing he saw was Jhon drooling on the floor, simulating shortness of breath. He leaned down to pick Jhon up but suddenly had his neck snapped.
Jhon quickly stood up as he saw the guard fall and took the opportunity to search for an access card on the body, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy, since the guard only had the room keys. Without wasting time, he took the gun the guard had and positioned it in his hand; he then covered it with mental force so that when he fired, the telekinetic strength would absorb part of the weapon's recoil. Jhon wasn't an experienced soldier, but as someone who had served mandatory military service, he knew how to use a gun.
Jhon would try not to use the gun much so as not to alert the guards, but how naive he was to forget that everything he did was monitored: a camera recorded him 100% of the day. The guard watching the cameras had already alerted all the guards in the area. Jhon advanced slowly, trying to remember which path One used to try and escape with Eleven. He remembered that in the series, Eleven ran to the right side of the infirmary and there found a door with "EXIT" written above it. "If I follow the same path, I'll just need the access card," Jhon thought as he kept walking.
He hadn't walked for long when he heard the footsteps of other guards. Jhon wasn't afraid of other guards appearing; in fact, he was afraid that other guards wouldn't appear. His plan was to get the access card from the first guard, but since he didn't have one, he'd have to get it from another. Seeing that guards were coming, he took the opportunity to run. He ran toward the training room, turned left, and ran a few more meters until another guard appeared.
Using the pistol, he shot directly at the guard's chest, who had no time to react; his job was only to contain whoever tried to escape—he wasn't allowed to kill the children under any circumstances. The gun's recoil didn't affect his hands much since the weapon was coated in telekinesis. Jhon searched for an access card on this guard and this time wasn't disappointed, as the guard actually had a small white card hanging around his neck.
He took the card and kept running; on the way, he encountered two more guards. This time, Jhon was almost caught, as one of the guards had a tranquilizer gun. Upon seeing the first one, Jhon quickly shot him, but the second was also fast enough to fire the tranquilizer, which was intercepted by his telekinesis, stopping it mid-air. Using telekinesis, Jhon redirected the tranquilizer and hit the guard, making him pass out.
Right after passing the guards, he saw the door labeled "INFIRMARY" and kept running. He quickly came face to face with a door that said "EXIT." He opened the door with the card and found a staircase; without wasting time, he followed the same steps as Eleven and went down. Not long after, he came out in the same place Eleven did in the series; he spent a few seconds trying to locate where that drainage pipe was and finally found it; the pipe was hidden among several heavy boxes and was only big enough for a child to fit.
While he was clearing the front, he heard the sounds of people rushing down the stairs and hurried even more. Using his powers, he cleared the boxes and broke the iron cover. He squeezed inside and began to crawl; to avoid being hit by a tranquilizer while crawling, he used telekinesis to keep a small wooden box pressed against the front of the pipe. When he was already a few meters from the start, he felt someone exerting pressure on the wooden box, but he kept the mouth of the pipe firmly sealed.
Jhon, feeling he was far enough away, let go of the wooden box, his nose bleeding a little and his head aching from the effort.
After 15 minutes at most, he came face to face with the end of the pipe, finding himself outside the Hawkins Laboratory.
He slowly climbed out of the pipe, breaking another iron cover that stood in his way in the process. Drenched in some kind of black water, he stood up slowly, looking at the light brown leaves typical of the Hawkins forest.
"Yes! I actually made it! I couldn't stand looking at that damn white room anymore!" Jhon shouted with joy, as small tears began to well up in his eyes.
"I'd better not stay here for long; they're definitely after me," Jhon thought to himself.
Without wasting any time, he quickly ran into the deep forest, admiring the landscape.