2 Weeks later.

"Focus" Dr. Vahlen said "You need to focus or it won't work"

"Focus on what?" Maxim asked. He was in a circular room, lined with bare steel. There were re-enforced, one-way windows along the upper part of the wall, which Maxim knew had scientists observing, and monitoring the equipment, and his vitals. He'd been in this room, or one of the adjoining rooms, for 6 days now. And was going to be in here for at least a few more. He was being tested for Psionic powers, it sounded like something from science fiction, but, apparently humans could do that now. Well, some humans, anyway. They were testing to see if he had them, along with Aya and Karl, who were currently in one of the adjoining rooms, their bed rooms for the time being. The tests were very confusing, he still wasn't entirely sure what they were trying to get him to do, something about 'focusing his thoughts and emotions to cause confusion and mental damage to the target'. There was a captured Sectoid chained up on the other side of the room, and Maxim was supposed to hurt the thing with his mind. According to the mind of the Sectoid Commander they'd captured a few days ago, this was the easiest psionic power to master, and any further powers would manifest over time, and use of other powers.

"Anything, you just need something to focus your thoughts on. Just something with strong emotional context for you. A happy memory, a sad memory. Just something to focus your powers" Dr. Vahlen said, she was in the room above, speaking through a speaker. Apparently they didn't want to risk any personnel in the room, in case of 'Catastrophic overload of psionic powers', which Maxim assumed meant 'You explode your brain trying to explode the aliens brain', and that thought, as you could imagine, was making it hard to focus.

"Like what?"

"I don't know your memories. You need to find one yourself. A particularly good birthday for example. It doesn't even need to be that strong, it's just to allow you to focus"

"How do we even know I have these powers?"

"We don't"

"That's comforting"

"That's why we shall only continue for 4 more days. Afterwards, if none of you have exhibited any Psionic potential, The Commander will select 3 other soldiers who will undergo the training"

"And if one of us does?"

"Then they will undergo extra training, to allow them more control. And 3 others will undergo the training as well"

"Why?"

"Because we will want to have as many soldiers with Psionic powers as we can, they can be extremely useful when fighting the aliens"

"Alright... How do I do it again?"

There was an audible sigh over the coms, apparently Vahlen was getting frustrated. Understandable, Maxim was getting confused himself.

"Wait, let me, no I can-" the voice came out of the speaker quietly, as if the person was further back from the mic.

The mic was quiet for a few minutes. Maxim went back to trying to do the thing, but couldn't call back any serious memory to 'focus his thoughts and emotions'.

"Maxim" The voice of The Commander came over the speaker "There's a friend of yours who thinks he can help you out"

"Hey Max" Karl's voice came over the speaker "I think I get what they've been goin' on about. It's not about anchoring a memory, It's about understanding how to use it. It's very confusing, but I got it now. It's a game"

"How is it a game-Quiet. Let him explain" Vahlen and The Commander appeared to have difference of opinion.

"It works like that game you showed me a few days before we went in here, I can't remember what the name is, I've got a blank, but that doesn't matter. Psionic's work just the like the magic-stuff in that. I can't do it, I've realized that. But, you might be able to"

It took him a few seconds to realize what he was talking about "That is just, wow"

"I know. Now kill that thing with your mind"

2 Days later.

"This very strange... But kinda fun" Maxim said, as he used his powers to kill another Sectoid. He'd been practicing these powers for a couple days, and was getting very good at it. He could still only use the basic attack power, which causes damage to the target's mind, and disorientates them, if they survive. The damage was actually purely psychological, he just caused trauma to their mind, and, if the mind wasn't strong enough, it would kill them, if it was stronger, it would cause a physical weakness, as their mind tried to come to terms with what was damaging it. The disorientation was cause by him inserting a small amount of his perception into it's head, technically, allowing it to see through his eyes for a few seconds, but the mind would be unable to comprehend what it was seeing, so would merely suffer confusion. He had also learned a couple other things that he could do with the Psionics. If he focused, he could see through the re-enforced glass of the room he was in, to see the people behind, while doing this he could even look through clothes and skin, he could see the bones, veins, nerves, and muscle of his arm. Although he couldn't see through metal, or other substances with a similarly dense molecular structure, but glass, skin, plastic, etc. he could look straight through. It wouldn't be much use in combat, but it sure was fun.

"Well done Maxim" Dr. Vahlen's voice came over the speaker. Maxim looked up, and saw her standing there, through the reflective, bullet-proof glass. "You appear to have mastered the... What was It you called it?"

"Mindfray" Maxim smiled, he'd named it after the main hero of the game Karl had described which he used to focus himself, since the powers worked almost exactly like it did in that game

"Yes, Mindfray, you appear to have mastered it, and some side powers as well" No doubt referring to his x-ray vision, which they'd figured out he could do a few hours ago, while he kept following Vahlen with his head while she walked around the room while talking

"Well, Maxim, good news is, we only need to keep you here for a couple more days, just be to sure of course, before we will announce the news. The first human to develop psionic powers-" The Commander began, he had walked into the room while they'd been talking "Is a 23 year old, professional gamer from Birmingham, named Maxim Popov"

"Sounds a bit anti-climatic. You'd expect it to be a highly trained soldier, or some nut who'd been practicing for years"

"Now I'm not the only unexpectedly plain person here. Yipee" The Commander did a little jump and mock celebration. "Finally, after-" He looked at a computer screen "-8 months, 3 days, and 20, 8, hours. I'm not alone" He smiled "Sorry I can't stick around to watch you practice, but I have a lot of work to do as Commander of X-COM"

Maxim chuckled "Any more tests today?"

"Not right now. Take a break for a few hours. Then we'll be trying you against a more powerful alien" Vahlen replied

"Sounds fun" The door leading to his 'room' opened, and Maxim walked in. It was a metal box with a bed on one side. Maxim wished he'd been able to bring his games console, but the room didn't have any plugs, so that wouldn't have helped anyway. He had one of his portable game devices, but it was out of charge, and he had the same problem that he had with the console, there were no plugs, and he wasn't allowed to meet any of the others face to face, just in case he accidently used his powers and exploded their heads. He'd put his time to good use though, he basically spent his time working out, something he could never be bothered to do normally, but, the only other thing he could do was practice his powers, and he couldn't use Mindfray here, and all he could do with his x-ray vision was watch his own body work, and, as interesting as that was, it got boring after a while. He'd built up a lot more muscle over the last 8 days.

3 days later.

Maxim sat his room. This wasn't his 'room', it was actually his room. They let him out of the psionic training circle earlier today, and he'd spent the most of today catching up with the others. Neither Aya nor Karl had developed Psionic powers. While he'd been in the room, the engineering team had finished work on the Titan armour, a new suit of armour a lot tougher than any other suit of armour, that was fully sealed, so would protect them from any fire, or the poison spit of the thin men, unfortunately, Maxim wouldn't be getting one, he'd still be in the Skeleton Suit, but, if nothing went wrong, he'd never be in the line of fire anyways. They'd also made a couple S.H.I.V's, he didn't know what it stood for, but they were basically gun platforms on wheels, they had robots now. A group had saved a 'General Van Doorn', who was apparently same higher up on the council, that helped run the non-X-COM military against the aliens, to say thanks, he'd reassigned his bodyguard, Eva Solovyova, call sign 'Shield'. Maxim had talked to her for a bit, she was cool, a bit too serious though, but she was a cooler serious than Ryo, she didn't tell them to take it seriously, so she was alright. Other than that, not much had happened, no-one had died or been badly injured.

The best thing ever has happened. Maxim has Psionics. I'm so happy. I couldn't wait to write this part, I was too excited about how my version of Psionics would work, so we got 2 parts very quickly. I'm sure you won't mind getting more parts, and I want to play more, and don't want to end up too far ahead of the story. I don't know if Maxim will end up being the hero of the story, if someone else with more Will becomes a Psychic, they'll be the hero, just from a purely mechanical basis, but, I might still end up having him as the hero, just for story. But, Maxim will defiantly be on the final mission. Not sure whether to go for defensive or offensive powers for Maxim, It'll depend on how I'm feeling he's progressing in the story. Maxim, and anyone else who gets Psionics, will have their own little side powers, like Maxim's X-ray vision, they'll be little things that wouldn't influence any combat, but I'll give them all their own extra power(s). Maxim will probably develop more as well, again, not sure what, I like to see how things develop, it will also depend on how his powers are going in game as well, if he ends up not being very powerful, then I'm not going to go Mind Control, since it just wont be useful. I added in the 'it works like game', just to explain why Maxim is good at it, since normally, something like that would require focus and training, which Maxim doesn't have.