Part Four: Probing the Depths of the Human Mind
She was sure she was missing a couple atoms; they knew she didn't like non-magical teleportation.
She found her second mentor floating cross-leggedly over her mat. Julie silently laid out her own and assumed the same position although she stayed grounded.
It was along time before Gwen spoke, "Do you have any idea about what I'm going to teach you?"
"No."
"Ben is teaching strategy, Kevin will show you firepower; I'm here to give you the tools to master your mind, your fears. Plumbers have been known to go rogue from the stress, responsibility of their duties; their psyches couldn't handle it all. You are going to see many terrible things and so we're, the Organization and us three, are worried that you'll eventually snap."
Her eyes opened, revealing that they were just energy, "It is all about moderation and staying grounded; you're going to be invested with a great amount of power and influence but you cannot let it get to you, understand?"
"Yes."
"Good, today I'm just going to peek inside your head…"
"What?" Julie balked.
"I'm going to go through anything and everything in your head to see if you have anything anyone could blackmail you with or if you have any latent psychological disorders that could be activated under the wrong circumstances…Don't worry it should be painless…"
"Should?"
"Yes, side effects include; mild ditziness, mild headache, itchiness, premonitional dreams, oh and/or a bloody nose…"
"That's all." Julie muttered sarcastically before sighing and nodding.
"Good," Gwen nodded, turning to face her, reaching a hand to her scalp and stating, "Deep breath and don't fight me; this is going to feel weird…"
"How long should this take?"
Gwen shrugged, "Depends on the person. Kevin's head took me hours to get through completely but Ben only took me a couple minutes…Ssshhh…"
And so it began and it indeed it felt very strange. It felt as if someone was poking at her brain itself with a small needle.
"Stay outta my cerebral cortex," Julie snapped as her limbs twitched.
"Sorry, your brain is set up differently than ours it seems; can you pull up a memory, point me in the right direction…"
"My memory?"
"Yeah, we need to know everything from your past…"
Her cheeks colored and a very intimate memory popped up unbidden.
'No!' she thought desperately as she realized that Gwen would see it, 'Not that one!'
"Okay Julie," Gwen sounded as if she needed to vomit, "when I asked for a memory I meant something like your first bicycle ride or best game or…I did not need to see that…"
"Sorry," the human mumbled abashedly, her cheeks burning red, "I freaked out."
"I got it."
Julie's life flashed before her eyes, on fast-forward and without sound, she even saw her own birth; which was very odd to actually watch.
"Okay nothing there," her mentor muttered, receding from the memory section and heading out to the emotion control sections.
Julie was made to feel angry, depressed, cheery, embarrassed, jealous, and uninterested all within a single minute. When the manna left she didn't know what she should feel like and so simply settled on being annoyed as hell.
"Good, good. Now I need to check your pain receptors, see if they're normal or not…"
"Wait a minute; I thought this was supposed to be painless?"
"I lied," her mentor pronounced simply, "get used to it; people, even aliens, lie and we lie quite often. Hold on."
An electrical current ran through every nerve in her body, making her scream with pain as they sparked to life. The current ran its course before being directed back into the sender; leaving its victim panting and heart pounding.
"That isn't good," the redhead muttered, pulling a clipboard from nowhere and writing something, "we can have Cooper dull them…"