(Spring, 1977)
Well, as it turns out, being a champion of Nature also meant he had to actually do some things to help nature! 002 could explore the world at will, since the visiom he received was really strange and he did not know where it was, but he did need to protect natuee from dangers such as, i don't know, a bunch of people setting fire to the forest!? "The beast lives here, in this forest, but with God's help we'll save this city-" Ah, he forgot, people here are really superstitious it seems, because fire really does save a town! It's not like fire will spread over, it's not like spreading gasoline in the recently wet ground from the snow that melt as spring came will help, right!? Please notice the sarcasm, thank you. "What the fuck are these fuckers doing?" At the age of 10, the very angry 002 had to act quickly, he couldn't call for a rain because he was in no way strong enough for that! (It's hard enough to heal a tree from parasites, imagine calling rain from the heavens)
But, thankfully the 100 people that were gathered here stopped as they heard the siren of a police car- Like, these people even brought their fucking children here! -that came in their direction, stepping out of the car was the man he could not recognize, but he was old and from where he could see (A.k.a, on the branch of a tree, had taken the form of a raven with yellow eyes) the guy was old... Like, really old. "Well, hello there fellas..." The old man had the sheriff badge on his chest, followed by two other policemen: "So, what do we have here...?" He started to look around for anything, he received a call from Joyce Byers about a gathering of people who wanted to set fire to he forest, the one leading it would be her husband, Lonnie Byers who lost his hand in an accident with his shotgun or something similar and blamed it on a monster in the forest. She said he had left the house drunk that day too, which just made her think that he might've hallucinated whatever happened that made him lose a hand, mostly because he kept talking about moths and a creature with bone for weapons and a man who was a horse with antlers.
And seeing the man with only one hand before him, he knew that he was not fine- He might've manipulated the people with their fear, but he can't fool him. "Lonnie." Greeting the man, the Sheriff sighed as he turned to look at the people by the edge of the forest with his eyebrows raised: "What is going on here?" He already knew, of course, but asking was the same as getting them to confess their crime, and setting a forest on fire was very much a crime! "We're here to..." E tried to come up with a lie on the spot, but his supporters doomed him as one of them said: "We're here to get rid of the devil!" Followed by thr crowd screaming things like 'Yeah' and 'Let's get rid of the devil of the forest!' which had Lonnie sighing: "Look, chief, i know what i saw on these woods and I'm here to get rid of it!" The sheriff could only sigh as the man pointed his non-existent hand towards him: "Look, Lonnie, we can't let you do this- We can't let any of you do this, this is a literal crime against nature and I'd have to arrest all of you... But since there's not enough space back at our old jail, I'll let all of you go if you all just go home... Now." It was all it took for the people who were gathered here as a group to leave, they were afraid of whatever was there in the forest, but not enough to go to jail!
Lonnie, however, looked around as his support was diminished by the Sheriff's one word- the man had the respect of the town alright, more than Lonnie at least because the whole town just left. "Look Sheriff, i know you don't believe, not everyone does but just let me show you-" He tried to say something to the sheriff, his lighter easily lit when he flicked it and was about to drop it- well, until a black bird swooped down and caught the lighter from the hands of Lonnie Byers, the raven cawed and the people left felt like they've angered it because there were other cawing ravens, and soon enough a flock, a rave, a treachery, or an unkindness of ravens gathered on top of the trees and all watched the people below. "Get out!" The raven screeched, its voice was like a man's voice screaming: "GET OUT!" "GET OUT!" "GET OUT!" Soon, the entire flock was screaming and raging on the people there, throwing rocks and sticks at them while they screeched.
To say it was creepy was an understatement.
Everyone ran, Lonnie looked back at the forest and saw red eyes staring at him from deep within it, the eyes blinked before he saw a shadow walking back into the darkness. He walked back, going back to his car as the sheriff and the other policemen also did the same. It was creepy to watch the ravens fly away into the forest silently, one of them holding the now closed lighter of Lonnie Byers.
-Scene Cut-
It didn't take long for someone to come back- Four moths later, Lonnie Byers was back, and he had bought his son with him for some unknown reason, The boy was 10 while 002 was 11. His swarm of butterflies flew around the forest, he made sure one of them landed on the tiny bag Jonathan Byers was carrying without them noticing: "Now that we're here, I'm goig to teach you how to be a real man." Lonnie sighed out in a true old mentality for 002 who was very much of the 2000's, but this might be an opportunity to try new things he learned in constant communication with nature? Maybe. "I'll teach ou how to hunt boy." Well, that isn't so bad! 002 knew that hunting isn't against the laws of both men and nature, so he only kept a little bit of that on his mind as he focused on his home- A large hollow tree in the middle of the forest, he knew this wasn't actually a nice home but he didn't care, here he could learn from nature about what he could do to protect it and help it, and he was also learning how to use his connection to nature better. 'Plus, it's kinda peaceful here...' And hidden too, peaceful and hidden, and here he learned that his swarm and shapeshifting could be used in rather unique ways such as making his bones into nails, or whenever he eats iron and transforms part of his body into iron he can make weapons out of it too.
It's strange, but he is learning how to make his body into non-organic materials like water and other elements at will, since he can do that with fire... Partially do that with fire, he can set himself on fire if that counts? Anyway, he learned some ways to shift and shape his limbs to make weapons, he learned how to shift into other animals, mix their their physiology at will, and he even learned he could transform himself into plants! It took him a while to change back the first time he did it, he still did so. His tattoo on the left arm was simple yet beautiful, green vines wrap around his whole arm, from the shoulder to the wrist, and on the vines there's pink flowers that blossom in thr spring, green leaves in the summer, yellow-orange leaves in the autumn, and empty in the winter.
It's an interesting tattoo.
He was weaving plants, since no longer he needed to speak to make the plants do his will, when he heard a gunshot echoing in the forest and on his mind: "Got one." His vision soon shifted to the Byers, Jonathan and Lonnie stood there, the boy was terrified while the man was smirking at the poor rabbit who he had shot, he got surprised for a moment by the gunshot so he switched his vision to the insect on the tree beside the Byers duo, but seeing that the boy was not hurt he went back to trying to transform the tulip into a daisy, shifting the flower's whole existence. He might've gotten lost on his focus, only coming back to his mind when he heard the cries of a small child, his sight instantly snapping to the Byers only to see the man holding a knife and a bunny by the ears: "C'mon Jonathan, kill the fucking rabbit." He gave the knife to the trembling hands of the child, who didn't take it, angering the man more: "Don't be such a sissy, take the knife and kill the fucking rabbit, easy!"
"Bu-But dad! I don't want to-" His sobbing was cut short when the man sighed deeply, looking down at the knife on the ground he picked it up and made the boy hold the knife by grasping the boy's hand himself: "Now, kill the rabbit!" The boy shook his head and 002 just raised an eyebrow at it: "Fucking soft, are you a fucking faggot boy!?" Shouting that, he pulled the boy's hand holding the knife into the body of the grey rabbit, who died in a pathetic little squeak: "There! Wasn't so hard was it?" The boy didn't stop crying however, only cried harder as he saw the little grey rabbit on the hands of his father, dead. "Shut up, stop crying like a little bitch and man the fuck up! Come, let's go home, or I'll fucking leave you here." And true to his words, he left, not caring that his small 10 years old son was having trouble keeping up with him as his tearful eyes and the darkness of the night made it harder for him to see. Lonnie was a bad man, that has already been established here, but leaving your crying child in the darkness of a forest just because they couldn't keep up with you? That was cruelty.
'I should really have my ravens peck his eyes out.' 002 rumbled, scratching his wrist where his number would be burned and tattooed, which was just a nervous tick nowadays, since he could simply will tattooes to appear on his skin as he wanted. He sighed when he heard the kid cry out: "Dad! Wait up!" As the man walked through a tree and was gone, the kid lost him and if left to wander the forest he would end up hurt or worse. "Yeah... Guess it's my job as a guardian of nature to guide the kid home." I mean, he wanted a purpose in this life, didn't he? His body scattered into several black ravens that flew in a flock towards the Jonathan Byers kid, who was running away in fear from the shadows, hand still bloody from killing that bunny 'So, should i approach this carefully?' He remembers tales of spirits of the forest taking different form to different people- Spirits of the forest, or as he knows them: Chimeras.
They are born from nature- Chimeras take human forms as they are born, but once their power awakens they can take animal forms, and with practice, mix them to make new forms. Just like 002, they can also have a deeper connection with nature, controlling it like he does. He learned of such beings once his connection to nature was deep enough, nature just info dumped him with some shit that he needed time to process, so he is going to some places on earth before coming back to here since he thinks he'll be needed here. The things he learned from nature were stored within his mind, and it'll definitely take some time to process it- Like, he knoes people from this world will be born with abilities randomly in the world, some can be acquired by stimulating the gene within in a life or death situation, others by more long-term ways such as stress, trauma, and prolonged pain. Which is why he was surprised to learn that this body he came to be in, had in fact, powers of its own!
The ability to Shapeshift, Create Shields (and protect his own mind), and the Regenerative Healing Factor were all from him, they can with him- the ability this body had? Adaptability, the more he is exposed to some foreign situation, or if something happens to him, depending on the stress of the situation his body and mind will adapt to it.
And here he thought it was him unconsciously using his shapeshifting abilities to adapt to things...