Jean Grey (Joint Venture)

Jean Grey is a superheroine, a mutant who often serves as the avatar for the Phoenix Force. This is the Joint Venture Universe version of the character.

Early life
Jean Grey is the younger of two daughters to John Grey, a professor of Applied Sciences at Bard College, and his wife Elaine, a professor of classical literature. She and her sister Sara grew up reading adventures and fantasy stories, and Jean one day dreamed of being an adventurer in her own right. She would often act out her fantasies of heroism with her best friend, Annie Richardson, while her parents tactily encouraged this courageous, outgoing side within her.

Tragically, this age of innocence would come to an abrupt end when, during one such adventure game, Annie was hit by a car right outside the Grey family home. Jean immediately rushed to her side, and tried to help her friend, or at least comfort her. Suddenly, Jean found herself inside Annie's dying mind, watching the lights in her mind flicker out one by one, feeling her friend die in her mind, as well as in her arms.

Childhood trauma
This experience sent Jean deep inside herself, rendering her withdrawn, almost catatonic. She ate, she slept, she was in perfect health, but she did not engage with other people, even her own family. Desperate, her parents consulted their academic colleagues, eventually reaching a former pupil of John's, an itinerant young professor by the name of Charles Xavier. Using his telepathy, which he had kept a secret from the world at large, Charles reached into Jean's mind and coaxed her out of herself by helping her to deal with the trauma that had occured. He then revealed the truth to John Grey -- that Jean was in fact a mutant, born with powers that set her above and beyond other human beings. At first, Jean's parents wanted Xavier to seal away these powers, make Jean a normal human being, but Xavier refused. Her powers, he argued, were just as much a part of her as her body and mind. Instead, he offered to take her to Westchester, to his home, where he would help train her in the use and control of her powers, so that nothing like the tragedy with Annie would ever happen again. Reluctantly, her parents accepted, and Jean became Psyche, the first student of the Xavier Institute.

Charles Xavier's first student
Though training under Professor Xavier was difficult, Jean eventually learned to master her own telepathy, aided by the fact that Xavier was a telepath himself, and one of no mean skill. Her particular skill became the ability to erect psychic walls around her mind, so that she could have her thoughts to herself, and even shield herself against psychic attacks. Taking the name "Psyche" for herself, Jean applied herself to her studies, and even managed to do some good with them, purging her hometown of Annandale-on-Hudson of a malevolent entity that was keeping the town trapped in stasis in the years following Annie's death. Once Xavier had decreed her training complete, Jean returned home to her parents at the age of thirteen, a healed young girl able to keep her powers in check and live a normal, healthy life.

Telekinesis and the X-Men
Nearly four years passed peacefully after the end of Jean's tutelage. She had recieved a middle-school level education from Professor Xavier, and made it through her first few years of high school, becoming a member of the girls' volleyball team, acting in several of the classical plays she'd read as a child, and maintaining a high GPA at the Wlliam Shakespeare High School. These accolades earned her the nickname "Marvel Girl", which she disliked. Her sister Sara had married her high school sweetheart, Paul Bailey, and had twins, Gailyn and Joey. Jean adored her niece and nephew, and got along well with her brother-in-law.

Sadly, at the age of sixteen, this perfect world would shatter. A mutant terrorist by the name of Quicksilver abducted Gailyn and Joey Bailey from Sara's house, killing their father Paul when he tried to stop him. Quicksilver next set his sights on Jean, who was only able to stop him by manifesting a second power she had never been aware of: telekinesis. Though powerful, she was as untrained in its use as she had been with her telepathy, and so she took the initiative to again call Charles Xavier for help.

This time, Xavier did not come alone. Another new student, a young Kenyan woman named Ororo Munroe, came with him, introducing herself as an "X-Man". Charles explained that he was building a team of young mutants to combat mutant criminals like Quicksilver, and that Ororo -- called Storm -- was his first, and would be their leader. While Jean was apprehensive at first, she and Storm found that they had many things in common, and became fast friends, with Jean happy to introduce Storm to the pleasures and pastimes of Western civilization that she had denied herself for so long as a thief in Cairo, and a "goddess" in Kenya.

All too soon, Quicksilver would strike at the Greys again, though now he found himself vastly outmatched by the two powerful mutant women, who rescued Gailyn and Joey from where he had been keeping them. Unfortunately, they would in turn find themselves outmatched by Quicksilver's superior, the mutant demagogue known as Exodus, and would have to be assisted by Professor Xavier and his colleague, Magneto. Now fully aware of the threats mutants faced, not only from the possibiltiy of a bigoted humanity but from extremists within their own kind, Jean resumed the mantle of Psyche and joined the X-Men officially, becoming their second member.

Cyclops and Phoenix
Not long after joining the X-Men, Jean faced her first real trial by fire. Banshee, another of Xavier's colleagues and one of the Institute's staff, was captured by his corrupt cousin, Black Tom Cassidy, and Tom's partner in crime, the Juggernaut -- who, coincidentally, happened to be Charles Xavier's step-brother Cain Marko. The X-Men tracked them down to a secret laboratory beneath an orphanage in Nebraska, where Jean found one of the orphans, a mutant teenager named Scott Summers, being experimented on. Something inside him spoke to something inside her, and she freed him. He was reluctant to go with the X-Men at first, instead wanting to discover the fate of his brother Alex, but a fight broke out brtween the X-Men, Juggernaut and Black Tom, and their employer, another powerful villain named Mr. Sinister. During the fight, Jean found herself in single combat with Juggernaut, whose mighty blows were just barely being held back by her telekinesis...until she saw that the rest of the X-Men, and Scott, were on the brink of defeat. The emotions this stirred within her boosted her powers to an insane degree, and she underwent an astonishing transformation, transforming into the incredibly powerful Phoenix. As Phoenix, Jean easily defeated Juggernaut, and held Sinister off long enough for Scott's mutant power -- a devastating blast of force from his eyes -- to shatter him to pieces, which would eventually coalesce into a new body for Sinister's malevolent consciousness, but not before the X-Men made their escape. Jean reverted back into her "Psyche" costume after a short time, feeling her powers reduce to their normal level, but also felt a keen awareness that it could happen again at any time.

Further trials with the X-Men
To be disclosed

Powers
Telepathy: Jean's first power, and the one she considers to be the most reliable, is her telepathy. She can read minds, astrally project her consciousness outside his body, communicate across vast distances with words or images, link the minds of others through her own as a kind of "psychic switchboard", and influence the minds of others in various ways. Jean can also attack people's minds with "psi-bolts", which can stun, disorient, paralyze, cause intense pain, and even kill, though like her mentor, Charles Xavier, Jean is loathe to use her powers in this manner.

While telepathy is common in the Joint Venture Universe, each telepath takes a different approach to the use of their powers, practicing different specializations and excelling in different things. Jean is primarily an empath and a defensive telepath, and specializes in dealing with emotions, or manifesting her psi-powers in a number of protective ways:
 * Empathy: Jean, moreso than most telepaths, possesses incredibly strong empathic powers that enable her to sense the feelings, sensations, and emotions of others. She can also affect these emotions the way most telepaths can affect thoughts, though like affecitng others' minds through telepathy, Jean prefers only to do so in times of great need.


 * Telepathic Cloak: She can mask her presence and the use of her abilities from being detected by other psions and psychic entities, and extend these defenses to others around her as well. Cloaking via telepathy is not perfect, however, and powerful psychics may notice and 'see' through this ability.
 * Mind Cloak: Ability to rearrange the brain-wave patterns of mutants so their distinctive mutant thought patterns cannot be detected by Cerebro-type devices, or by other telepaths.
 * Psychic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield around her mind, or the minds of others, for protection against other telepaths.
 * Telepathic Camouflage: She can psychically alter the appearance of herself and other people by altering the perceptions of those around her. This can go so far as to make other people believe that the camouflaged people are not there (invisible). A limit, if one exists, is only imposed by the number of people she is trying to fool, not the number of people she is camouflaging, as exerting influence on more minds takes a greater toll on her.

Telekinesis: The second power of Jean's to manifest. She can generate psychokinetic energy, which enables her to levitate objects, propel or manipulate them however she wishes. She can stimulate individual molecules to create heat, generate blasts or bursts of telekinetic force, and erect protective shields. The upper limit of matter that she can affect is unknown.
 * Force Fields: She can create a telekinetic field to either shield her and her teammates or use it to lift multiple heavy objects at her enemy.
 * Telekinetic Flight: By concentrating on herself, Jean can use telekinesis to levitate and move through the air. It requires maintaining a certain level of focus, however, and the faster or higher she wishes to fly, the more she must focus her concentration; otherwise, she runs the risk of losing her hold on herself and either falling from the sky or colliding with something at high speeds.
 * Matter Transmutation: though it requires intense focus, Jean can manipulate and transmute matter on a sub-atomic level (e.g., turning wood into gold, plant into crystal, and cause physical bodies to disintegrate by altering their molecular structure, etc). Most often, she uses this power to tramsform her clothes, and sometimes the clothes of the other X-Men, into and out of their costumes.

Phoenix Force: When she becomes Phoenix, Jean greatly increases her powers by tapping into the life-force of the universe itself. Her already-existing abilities are ramped up to an impossible degree, and she also gains new powers, including (but not limited to):
 * Phoenix Effect: Phoenix often manifests her telekinesis as a psychic firebird, whose flames and talons can inflict both physical and psychic damage. Typically, it manifests as either a full raptor of human size or larger, or as part of a raptor, such as a claw or wings (depending on how it is being used).
 * True Flight: As opposed to Jean Grey, who must concentrate to levitate or fly, flight for Phoenix is virtually effortless, and requires almost no mental focus at all. She can also fly far faster and higher than Jean, even traveling into space and back with no ill effects, carrying as many 'passengers' as she likes.


 * Cosmic Pyrokinesis: Phoenix can create 'cosmic' fire under any conditions, even impossible ones such as in the vacuum of space or underwater. This fire does not require oxygen to burn, and burns so intensely that matter is consumed without by-products such as ash. Phoenix typically has control over his fire, and it only consumes what she wills. It is unclear whether this fire is an extension of her amplified telekinesis or a power unique to her Phoenix state. It is also possible that she creates her very powerful 'cosmic fire' simply as the result of being Phoenix. On a psychic level, the cosmic fire is a very literal expression of Jean's Phoenix form's stated purpose to 'burn away what doesn't work' and 'burn through lies'.
 * Telekinetic Sensitivity: Phoenix can physically feel the texture of objects she has a telekinetic hold on, feel when other objects come into contact with them, and probe them at a molecular level. Phoenix can use this power to identify if objects held by her powers contain unique properties or materials, or feel when two things which she has a telekinetic hold upon are similarly composed.
 * Neural Inhibitor/Jumpstart: Phoenix has the power to affect other mutants' abilities, either to take them away or increase their powers to incredible levels, much as her own powers are increased. This effect is usually temporary, and often wears off of its subject when Phoenix herself reverts back into Jean Grey.
 * Life-Force Control: As Phoenix is described as 'a primal force of life', she can fully control and manipulate life and death itself. On a practical level, this means Phoenix can either drain the life energy out of something living (in a manner similar to the "psychic vampirism" of Selene Gallio) or infuse something dead with "life force", not only bringing it back to life, but healing it completely of whatever killed it and even reversing its decomposition.
 * Cosmic Empathy: Phoenix possesses incredibly strong empathic powers that enable her to sense the feelings, sensations, and emotions of vast multitudes of others. While Jean herself is an empath, as Phoenix, her power is boosted in a way that allows her to "sense the emotional truth of things" on a cosmic scale, and handle the sensory input in a manner that does not overwhelm Phoenix as it would Jean at her base levels.
 * Energy Being: When Jean becomes Phoenix, her body converts from flesh and blood into pure psychokinetic energy. In this form, she is immortal, unaging, and possesses no need for food, drink, oxygen, or material sustenance of any kind. However, she does possess the need to consume energy to survive, and therefore can directly absorb, manipulate, generate, and fully control any type of physical energy, such as Cyclops' ruby-red-colored optic blasts, or the energy of a star. Psionic energy, such as that from a psychic blast, is equally viable as a source of nourishment.

Weaknesses
Physical limitations: Jean's Phoenix form is fantastically powerful, but transforming into it is temporary, and takes a great toll on her when she reverts back into her default "Psyche" form. The more energy she expends as Phoenix, the more weakened she becomes when she is again Jean Grey. In addition, while Phoenix is an energy being, Jean Grey is mortal, and can be hurt and killed like any other living being.

Concentration: To use any of her powers, be they telepathic or telekinetic in nature, Jean is required to concentrate on what she is doing. The level of required concentration varies -- a telekinetic force blast takes less focus than levitation, for example -- but if she cannot concentrate for whatever reason, or becomes distracted, her powers cease to function as she wishes.

Telepathic sensitivity: In addition to the mental focus it requires to utilize her powers, Jean must expend a degree of mental focus constantly on keeping her mental barriers up, so that she is not inundated with the thoughts and emotions of those around her. If her barriers are let down, or brought down by an external force, she can be overwhelmed by psychic impressions, often to the point of being disabled, and must concentrate to bring her mind back under control.

Emotional vulnerability: Jean's fine control over her powers, as herself and as Phoenix, is largely dependent on her emotional state. Specifically, if her friends, teammates, or anyone she cares for are injured, her power levels increase dramatically, but also become more erratic and harder to control. In extreme cases, Jean runs the risk of losing control of her Phoenix form and causing untold devastation