Joanna's change

The blanket was not very big, but it was more than enough to cover two children, so they sat a little closer together.

Joanna sat down on the carpet, her shoulder pressed against Lin Mo's arm.

Then she pulled the other side of the blanket over, covering them both.

Lin Mo looked down at the blue fabric over his legs, a little surprised. She had not attacked him for touching the blanket, nor had she simply accepted its return. She had shared half of her most precious possession with him.

Silence filled the Observation Room.

Barbara was the first to react, excitement in her voice.

"She's sharing. An unexpected choice. Joanna has accepted Lin Mo into her safe space."

Vogelbaum slowly approached the glass. For the first time, his eyes held a surprise he could barely conceal.

Over the past three years, Joanna had never willingly shared her blanket with anyone. Even a caregiver reaching out to touch it would put her on guard immediately.

Yet now, she had covered another child with it herself.

Beneath the blanket, Lin Mo turned to look at Joanna.

She did not look at him. She simply hugged her knees and sat quietly beside him.

But their shoulders were pressed tightly together.

Lin Mo remained silent too. What did this mean? Had she accepted me?

Or did she see me as... one of her own?

His sluggish brain was not about to work it out anytime soon. Still, her gesture brought a faint smile to his face. This was a good outcome for him, too. Just moments ago, he had been struggling to figure out how to get closer to her. Now, it seemed he no longer needed to.

He certainly was not going to be stupid enough to push the blanket away. After pretending to hesitate, he raised a hand and pulled the fabric slipping off Joanna's shoulder back into place.

Joanna looked up at Lin Mo again...

The second contact experiment that day ended without a single act of aggression.

The struggle over possessions that the researchers had prepared for never happened either.

They had originally wanted to test whether Joanna would attack Lin Mo to protect the blue blanket.

Instead, the answer they received was this:

She was willing to share it with him.

After the experiment ended, Vought Researcher quickly adjusted the original plan.

Joanna and Lin Mo's meetings also increased from once a week to once every three days.

Each session gradually lengthened from the initial twenty minutes to an hour.

Lin Mo understood what Vought really wanted: to use him to keep Homelander under control. He did not necessarily consider that a bad thing. It meant Vought would tie the two of them together, which aligned with his original goal.

Besides, over the following weeks and beyond, for some unknown reason, he was allowed to spend longer aboveground each day, getting a little over an hour of sunlight.

Though puzzled, Lin Mo did not push his luck by asking for more time. At Vought, he was still nothing more than an outstanding test subject.

The extra sunlight also made his strength grow rapidly. He figured that, at this rate, another five or six years of sunbathing would probably let him unlock Super Vision and super hearing.

Once he had Super Vision, Heat Vision would not be far behind. Who would not want to fire deadly beams from their eyes in a fit of anger, killing anyone with a glare?

And so Lin Mo happily lost himself in those fantasies.

Meanwhile, Joanna, who was Homelander, attacked her caregivers noticeably less often after their second contact.

It was not that she had begun to trust them. Rather, she was gradually learning to control her strength before reaching out.

When a caregiver put food in front of her, she no longer grabbed their wrist outright. When researchers examined her pupils, she no longer immediately swatted the equipment away because the light irritated her.

The improvement was not enormous, but for Joanna, whose care had previously been almost impossible to provide consistently, it was enough to excite the entire research team.

An even more obvious change occurred at each meeting. The moment the isolation door opened, Joanna would hurry into the Game Room.

She paid no attention to the new stuffed toys and colored pens in the room. Instead, she immediately sought out Lin Mo, seated in a corner.

First, she stood in front of him and watched him for a few seconds, making sure his face had not changed.

Then she reached out and gently touched his wrist before sitting down beside him.

Once, Vought deliberately dressed Lin Mo in a dark blue outfit and changed his hairstyle.

Joanna visibly paused upon entering. Rather than approaching him immediately, she stood several meters away and observed him for a long time.

Only when Lin Mo raised his hand and told her, "It's me," did she slowly walk over.

Vought tried other methods as well.

For example, Lin Mo would enter the room several minutes later than scheduled, while Joanna had already been brought into the Game Room early.

The surveillance footage showed that she did not play with any toys. She simply stood by the door, staring in the direction Lin Mo usually appeared from.

But when several minutes passed and the door still had not opened, her heart rate began to climb, and her fingers gradually curled tight.

Only after Lin Mo entered the room did the readings show her heart rate gradually returning to normal. Seeing her like that left him both helpless and heartbroken, so all he could do was spend some time playing with her. After that, though, he kept feeling that the way Joanna looked at him had changed.

From then on, Joanna gradually developed a fixed routine.

Whenever she entered the Game Room, she would first find Lin Mo, look at his face, listen to his voice, and touch his wrist.

Only after completing those actions would she start paying attention to anything else in the room.

Lin Mo did not discourage the habit. For a child who lived knowing that anyone around her might suddenly disappear, repeatedly checking was not unreasonable. It was simply a sign of how insecure she felt.

To her, Vought's caregivers were all temporary.

Some worked for a week, some lasted a month, and some refused to enter the room again after their first injury.

She did not know where they went, and no one explained it to her. All she knew was that whenever she woke up, she might see a completely unfamiliar face.

So she had to make sure Lin Mo was still there, that he had not disappeared like everyone else.

"What do you want to play today?"

Lin Mo asked her this once while sitting in front of a pile of newly delivered toys.

Joanna sat beside him, hugging her blue blanket.

She looked at the blocks, puzzles, and stuffed toys on the floor without answering. She did not know how to choose. Play had never been a part of her life.

Vought had given her toys, but they had mainly been used for tests.

Tests to determine whether she had a color preference, or whether different shapes would trigger her abilities.

Whenever she touched an object, the people behind the wall recorded data. If the object broke, the experiment ended. No one sat beside her and explained the rules of a game, much less played with her.

Lin Mo picked up a little red car and smiled.

"Then let's have a race."

Joanna looked at him and asked curiously.

"A race?"

"We see whose car gets over there first."

Lin Mo pointed to the other side of the room. He picked out a little blue car for Joanna and placed it in her hand.

"You can't throw it."

"You have to put it on the floor and push."

Lin Mo patiently explained the rules to her, only stopping once he felt he had covered enough.

He let out a weary sigh inwardly. Lately, even he had felt like crying in frustration. Being stuck in Vought's Bunker all day, with nothing to do for fun aside from the occasional trip up to bask in the sun, was honestly driving him stir-crazy.

Joanna looked down at the toy car in her palm.

Her fingers were noticeably stiff. With just a little pressure, the car would break like the red block had last time.

Lin Mo demonstrated first, placing his car on the carpet and giving it a gentle push.

Its wheels turned, and it rolled a little over a meter.

Joanna watched the car for a while, then crouched down to imitate him.

Her first push was too gentle.

The car moved less than ten centimeters.

She looked up at Lin Mo again, a little lost.

"Push a little harder," Lin Mo encouraged her.

Joanna pulled the car back.

But the second time, she used a little too much force.

The blue car shot forward like a bullet and hit the opposite wall, leaving a crack in its front end.

Joanna went rigid. Staring at the cracked front of the car, she thought the experiment was about to end.

In her experience, once a toy broke, the door would soon open, and she would be taken back to her old room.

But Lin Mo simply walked over and picked up the car.