My standard disclaimer:
All Marvel characters belong to Marvel. I make no money off them although I wish I did. Juli and her family are mine. They are loosely based on myself and friends of mine. They know who they are. Any other resemblances to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. I make no money off these stories so I ask that if you want to take them or write a story with my characters, that you ask first.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock and blindly slapped at it to shut it off. I poked my head out to look at it and groaned. No one in their right mind would be up at 5 AM unless they absolutely had to be. I tried to remember if I had an early class or work. Nope. I started to go back to sleep when I took another look at the room. My walls weren't white. Where were the cats? I groaned again as I realized that I was in New York at the Xavier school and today was the first day of my training. Whatever that means.

I sat up and stretched. I had picked yesterday to come and start my new life and had timed it so that I arrived just in time for a funeral of all things. Yeah yeah..Like I planned to arrive then? I sighed and went to my closet. Still, it hadn't been all bad. I got to wander in the woods. Oh yeah..ran into that Irish guy..what was his name? Sean Cassidy that's it. He seemed allright. He had been nice about me running into him the way I did.

I pulled out a pair of jersey shorts and an oversized t-shirt. I had been told to wear comfortable workout type clothes for today. I went to the bathroom and 20 minutes later was dressed and showered. I wondered what kind of training I would be doing. I assumed that the professor would want to test the basic abilities I had. I just hoped he didn't make me lift the same weight things over and over. I had mastered that years ago. That was a concern of mine. Mama had been working with me since I manifested. I had done a lot of work with her and could do quite a bit with my powers. But that would wait until after I saw how this first training went. My next thought was to find breakfast.

I walked down the main staircase and into the main hall. This place was huge. It seemed like my whole first floor could fit in this one room, and that was no small feat. I found the kitchen after a few moments and was faced with a dilemma. I did not feel comfortable just raiding the kitchen when I had just arrived. I didn't know the rules of personal food or which cabinets were fair game. I felt a presence arrive and turned to see Jean standing in the doorway. I had to shake my head. Even at 5:30 AM, she was perfect. Every hair in place, her gold and blue body suit showing off her perfect body, and oh lord..she was smiling. {Aggghhhh! She's perky! Please Lord make her unperky..} She asked me if I wanted some coffee and I was grateful. Caffeine was always good. She bought over a plate of bagels as well and I took one thankful that I did not have to start hungry. She sat across from me and watched me still smiling. I started to feel uncomfortable and I squirmed slightly. She took it as nervousness, which was fine with me. Then again, how could she understand? I bet she never had a bad hair day, or had her face break out or wore braces.

She started to tell me how nervous she had been when she had arrived here. How she was the only girl. So what? I wonder what she would say if I told her that I had played ice hockey on an otherwise all male team who had not taken to the idea of a woman playing hockey and constantly body slammed me in an effort to get me to quit? Or what about if I told her how I was hit all the time? Being the only female in a group of 4 guys that later became your best friends was nothing. At least they had been friendly. {Enough with the self pity Juli. You never allowed it before, don't start now.}

I mentally shook my head and finished breakfast. Actually she wasn't bad. It was just I could not see us having much in common. I honestly could not see me going shopping with her nor could I see her riding bareback through the woods and enjoying an Indian story session. We just seemed to be from two different worlds that would never quite meet. I took my plates to the sink and washed them and put them in the dish rack.

I followed her down into the sub basement. Along the way I recognized the med lab where I had apologized to Remy. I quickly looked away still feeling ashamed of myself. If Jean noticed anything, she didn't acknowledge it and continued to talk about the facility. I only half listened to her as most of what she was saying was in my handbook. The other half of my mind was focused on trying to figure out what they were going to have me do and what kind of uniform they would be putting me into.

Jean stopped at a tall metal door and punched in a number on a keypad. We stepped into a room that looked like the control room at NASA, and she went top one of the work stations and began typing. I was startled from my observations of the room by her voice telling to get undressed. She explained that I had to have a retinal as well as a body scan. It was for security reasons and would prevent me from being detected as an enemy. These scans would allow me access to the main gates as well as the medical lab. I hesitated. I never undressed in front of anyone, not even in gym class. I failed gym as a result one year. She saw my hesitation and pointed out a screen that I could stand behind. I still did not like it, but I went behind this screen and slowly started to pull off my shirt keeping my back to her. I heard her give this little squeak like sound and knew that she saw the scars on my back.
"Juliana! What are all those marks?"
{Should I tell her the truth? No. Think fast} "I got knocked around a lot. I was a tomboy as a kid. Still am I'd say. Played a lot of rough sports growin' up. Hockey, lacrosse, tae kwon do. Dat sort of thin'. Plus workin' in my pere's vet office, I tended t'get scratched and bit a lot."
She accepted my explanation without a word. I was grateful, because I really did not want to explain that one of the scars was actually a knife wound and a lot of the others were from beatings. I did not want her pity. Hers or anyone else's. She did the scans and I prayed they would go fast. 15 minutes later, I stood in this giant empty metal room where everything seemed to echo. She had me do some lifting, asking what the highest weight limit I had reached was. I worked on some control by moving objects around very narrow confines as fast as I could, without hitting anything.

3 hours later, she said I could stop and I collapsed to the floor. I had never had a workout like that. I was exhausted, but it felt good. It was more mental than physical. I had pushed my limits today and it felt so good. I felt like the string on a bow when its first pulled then released. A sort of twangy feeling. Jean excused herself to go get the results that the computer had been tracking. Apparently, those scans that had been done also fed into a program that could measurer my power levels. I had been doing some work with my empathics as well as the TK and telepathy. Mere had not been able to really figure out a way to test how I could read emotions, so that power was relatively untested. I continued to sit on the floor waiting for the results. Jean came back into the room followed by the professor. He held the results and looked well, shocked is how I would describe him. He told me that my results showed that I was an alpha level. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the strongest, my psionic abilities had ranked me as 10 in telepathy, a 8 in empathics and a 6 in telekinetics.

"This is unusual Juliana. Most multiple psionics such as you do not posses more than 2 abilities. Some, such as Jean, posses telepathy combined with telekinesis. You however, are an empath as well. Your scores also indicate a great deal of potential to achieve higher power levels than you curently possess. Only myself and Jean could be considered more powerful at this time. I am assuming that this is due to the lack of formal training until this time. I must also say that that I am impressed with your ability to control your powers with the informal training that you did have."

"I..I don' know what t'say sir." The news stunned me. I knew enough about mutations to know that I was unusual, but to be that powerful? I have to admit I was a little scared at the thought of being that potent. I had a temper as it was. What if I suddenly lost it? I would just have to be more careful about not losing my temper.

"What I would like to do is run some tests if it is acceptable. You appear to have done a great deal of work before you arrived. Who did you train with before?"

"My mere mainly. Just simple things. How much can I lift..how far can I read thoughts. Dat sort of thing. I also did research on my own. I found dat I can shut off de pain sensor in de brain by accident. I refined it while workin' as an EMT."

"You have remarkable control. You do realize, that pisonics have a particular responsibility in using their powers?"

"If you mean bein' careful 'bout walkin' in uninvited, or not probing into personal matters, Oui. I was taught from de day I manifested dat dere only two reasons t'walk in uninvited: If dey a danger to demselves or a danger to others. Any other time you should get permission. When workin' as an EMT, I always got permission. I always explained what I was doin' an' dat de relief was temporary."
"I see. Tell me..why did you shut off the pain sensors at all? Why not just use pain relievers?"
"We couldn't use drugs at de scene because drugs can mask true injuries. Injuries dat could be fatal. But, by shuttin' off de pain sensor, I could get information and not interfere wit' treatment. I always turned it back on when we got to de ER. I did it primarily wit' little kids an' de elderly, 'cause dey needed to be calmed more."
Professor Xavier nodded in agreement. "Interesting. And you were accepted as a mutant on the squad?"
"For de most part, Oui. You always gonna have some dat fight. Dem we just didn't use my abilities on."
"Were you able to tell who was biased and who was not?"
"Sometimes. When a person is in pain though, de mind is focused on dat, so it hard t'tell."

He studied me for a moment. I had tried to answer his questions honestly, but I could hear the testiness creeping in as I spoke. I suppose it was just that I did not want to get too involved. I did not want too much revealed about me. Not until I had learned about the others here first., Just in case.

"Juliana, I would like to study these results, then meet with you this afternoon. I would like to work with you on developing a specific plan for your particular abilitiies as well as test your physical abilities. I would like to see you in my office at 2:00. Until then, you are free to do anything except leave the campus grounds."

I watched him float out of the room. I could tell that he had heard my voice take on that slight edge. I almost laughed at his orders not to go off the campus. I never really asked permission to go anywhere. I just had to leave a note and take my pager. For now, I would be good and play along, just until I saw what this place was all about. I followed Jean up the stairs. She kept on a rambling about the school and the students here. I only half listened as fatigue was starting to overtake me. We parted at my room and I sank onto the bed. I was exhausted mentally and physically. I wondered vaguely if there was a bathtub in the place, but was too tired to ask. I forced myself to change out of my sweaty workout clothes and into a pair of shorts and a fresh shirt. I wondered what my results said. I would have loved to read them myself. I was not exactly looking forward to meeting the professor that afternoon. Something told me that my attitude would be one of the discussion topics. I had a feeling that hockey practice was a cakewalk compared to what I was going to be doing in a few hours. After that morning's session, all I wanted was to sleep for a few days. I compromised on a few hours. Something told me I would need all the strength I could get. Setting the alarm for 2 hours, I crawled back into bed and fell into a deep exhausted sleep.

Another Portal - Back to the Void