Well... Here he is, walking down the streets of Hawkins with a sharp gaze of a black cat, his sharp green eyes stared into the night as he gathered as much information from everywhere as he could. Well, he was in US of A it seems, which made it less enjoyable for him until he thought of the inflation in the future and shit... Well, there were also great movies in the 80's, like The Shining, or Star Wars, or maybe even Friday the 13th? He doesn't remember well when those movies were released and he's most definitely too worried about food to care at the moment. 'I think stealing is easy when you can just turn into someone else and enter the store. It was easy to be unseen, mostly because he was a cat and a black one at that, the superior breed of cats.
Well, in his not so humbled opinion- he had a black cat in his past life, he loved the little bean, that's why he saved her first and ended up dying because of it. 'Well, should stop reminiscing a out the past...' He walked on top of the low walls that surrounded a house and acted as a fence, his eyes met another's as a female cat that seemed to be in heat approached and he did the only thing he knew: Ran. From his back, a pair of black bat-like wings bursted out of his back as he flapped away in the night sky, a bat-cat flying until he landed on top of another house, making sure to avoid any source of light before his body grew feathers and he became a raven. 'My names 002... Can't tell people my name's a number, but maybe i twinkle with it? Like... Zero Zero Two, Ero Zwo? No. Eroz Tro... No. Eros, isn't he like, the God of Love?' All Gods in the Greek Mythos can shapeshift, if he wants to name himself after a god he needs to find the one that works for him, even though he thinks he wants another name... 'Welp, will cross that bridge once i reach it.' He decided not to bother with a name, after all, he was terrible at naming shit.
'Should really get some combat experience, there's people with power in this world, never know when some apocalyptic shit may happen.' But far away from here, they must've found out that he disappeared- After all, it's been a whole ass day since he left! 'Might as well get used to hunting, can't always steal shit from markets' And eating raw meat doesn't sound that bad when he's an animal! He can take his time on finding ways to use his power, since he can think of a few, like using barriers offensively and shapeshifting into monsters. 'Can i do this...?' He might as well try, right?
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Living as an animal was harder than he thought, mostly because winter was coming and he had zero idea on what to do! The coldness wasn't unfamiliar to him, because one of the punishments he had to endure was being locked in a freezer, which he survived because of course he would and he learned that frostbite is a pain in the ass to deal with, mostly because his cells would freeze and he would slowly die before coming back when more cells took the place of the ones gone or the ones gone came back by some miraculous reason. His body grew fur and his paws pushed forward as he transformed into a wolf, he didn't remember whether there were wolves in Indiana or not, and he didn't care as he ran through the woods of this place, which was starting to become as white as snow! He wanted a few things in this life for now: Safety and Revenge.
Safety was his first priority, and to acquire safety he needed power, and to acquire power he needed to adapt to many things. His body grew in size, he wanted to know how big his body could grow at his will, and he ended up being a 7 feet tall and 10 feet long black wolf, which was a monstrous size when compared to the animal's average of 2.7 feet tall and 5.2 feet long. 'Well... This is interesting.' He felt stronger, faster, and a little more aggressive, but much more... Lonely? Yep, Lonely it was. 'Strange.' His body shrank down to the normal wolf size before he attempted the in-between shifting of one's body, which meant he was becoming a werewolf! 'It's easier than i thought.' And it truly was, his body became humanoid in shape, fingers with claws and fur on his body, the only thing he didn't change was his age- It might sound dumb, but he wanted his body to grow naturally, something made him stop whenever he thought of aging himself up, i don't know, it felt... Wrong.
Maybe that's the limitation put on him? He had no clue, but he had time, and he felt that as he aged he would grow. In power and maybe more? Yeah... Maybe more. 'Well, time to do the body horror shit.' From his back, he made these large bones grow, it hurt to grow them but he did so and he felt kinda hungry after he did, but it seems that his Regenerative Healing Factor cannot affect his hunger, which lingered for a few moments before it started to grow- He needed to eat something, anything at this point, and he needed energy! The fastest method of transportation he had was flying, which he used to go to the nearest source of reliable food he knew of: The supermarket in Hawkins, his body shrank to the size of a small bird, which shouldn't be in Indiana at the white of winter, but he didn't care at the moment. His body might've adapted to the cold, because he felt a heat within that spread over his body, keeping him warm even though there was no fur covering his weak bird body in this winter, only pathetic feathers that were freezing.
Well, not anymore now.
'Maybe i should take a white form.' His feathers shifted from their usual black into a white, it was snowing so he might as well camouflage, right? 'Better.' His whte feathers made him look more like a dove, and they made noise whenever he flapped his wings, so he had to adapt if he wanted to be silent- An owl. They are silent flyers!
And indeed, owls are silent when flying.
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He really out did himself when he tried to immitate Wolverine from X-Men and literally put molten iron into his body- It hurt like hell, but he learned something that day: He can temporarily (for now) infuse his body with inorganic matter to make his body stronger! It was really interesting to eat rocks, they tasted weird sometimes, but he could use them to make his body into rocks, or lava if he really tried but it would hurt him a little. He moved into the town's quarry after a local hunter saw him in his unnatural form as he was training and shot him, the asshole ended up losing his left hand since 002 was petty like that! He only took the form of a large centaur-like moose man with large antlers on top of his head and a few extra feet holding a staff made out of his own bones! I mean, his body was covered in white-red snow thanks to his blood that still was attatched to the staff and his back? Yes. Did he look like a monster out of a nightmare? Yes he did, but he stood there, not moving, the hunter didn't need to stop and shoot him!
But thanks to it 002 learned another way to use his shape-shifting: Scattering. His body transformed into a swarm of moths that flew towards the hunter, one of them transformed into a giant maw of a beast that bit the guy's arm, taking his hand with it as the moth flew away. It was interesting having his body transformed into several different beings. He tried it with other forms and found out he had a limit for it: He could transform into several smaller beings if he wanted to, but only into things smaller than he is, so insects, birds, and small mammals were his target- He could see from their eyes, hear from their ears, and feel what they felt because they were part of him, he had deep control of them ss he wished because they were part of him. It was weird but awsome, he soon started to use such power to scout and find more about things- Crows scattered from his body when he wished, to scout the sky. Rats to scout the ground, and insects to scout the underground!
Easy.
Well, not really, but it's getting easier.
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Have you ever wondered if Nature was... alive? Because as it turns out, it very much was. It happened when he was in his human form, sitting on the ground as snow melted around him, his body always warm and... Slightly burning? Yes, but like, in a comfortable way? It doesn't make much sense but he liked how his skin was almost red, and to match his almost demonic appearance he made himself look like a demon by growing a long tail and horns on his forehead just for the... What's the word again? Asteric? Aesthetic? Sthetic? He doesn't remember and e doesn't care for the moment, because his long pointy ears and large teeth were growing at his will.
And then it happened.
He felt this wave, almost like water, rushing through his body and felt a call, a call for something that he followed- His feet touched the ground as he kept walking, naked in the mid of a forest, his skin red as his hair was on fire, which was as cool as fuck. 'What is this?' He felt it once again, like a mother calling for their children who was lost, desperate and seeking. 'It's close...' He felt his body walk through a thin layer of energy before- He stood before a broken, destroyed, and utterly burned old oak tree. He touched it and- Memories came to his mind, the last wish of a dying Treant, a being born from Nature and made to protect it. The seed it planted was given to 002, who thought of refusing before seeing a possible future for this world:
Darkness, a storm brewing in the distance, ash falling from the sky and flowers withering before dying, a large, red lightning bolt flashing in the distance. He blinked and everything was back to normal, the white of the snow around him was beautiful and he had been given the opportunity to choose: Did he wish to be the one needed the most? He thought about it, in this world he had no purpose, and maybe he'll regret t but for now... he said yes. The seed in his hand glowed with green life, and a single phrase was echoed within his mind: Nature Is Alive.
A simple phrase with such deep, deep meaning that he couldn't fully understand- He knew one thing: He received a title from nature itself, a tilte others held, but unique in its own way: Champion of Nature. Due to this title, nature listened to him when he spoke, which led to him saying a single word: "Bloom." and watch in wonder as the fallen guardian rose once again, well, this time the tree stump simply bloomed in spores and mushrooms of various sizes and colors- Hey, he might as well eat it, right? And he did, by transforming into a fox, since they are immune to most poisons and toxins that mushrooms have, interestingly enough his body did not stop burning and his black fox form was on fire, the flames mostly focused on the tip of the tail as he excitedly ate the mushrooms that were given by nature. The phrase [Nature Is Alive] was deep because it meant everything nature had to offer was, in a way, alive! The wind, the seas, the ground, volcanoes, trees, animals- Alive in a way that they had spirit, souls, the Native Americans knew of this!
He accepted becoming the Champion of Many Forms, there were other champions of nature, some chosen by nature and not given the chance to accept it- Champion of the Storm, Champion of the Flood, Champion of the Drought, Champion of the Heat, Champion of Winter, Champion of Decay... They were all champions, all champions of nature, and they all had the ability to talk, communicate with nature, and some had the ability to physically change nature in a way, like how 002 managed to make mushrooms bloom from the withering corpse of a great old guardian, which he did not know was an interesting ritual to take part of that being's power that nature itself approved of... Let's just say next time he transforms and has to physically change his body to hide the long floral tattoo on his left arm will be interesting.