Name: Julian Keller
Codename: Hellion
Alias: Scion (House of M)

from: Beverly Hills, LA, California
current location: Xavier Institute in Westchester
current status: Student, team leader of the Hellions squad

age: 16
hair colour: Black
eye colour: Blue, occasionally brown (blame the colourists)

powers: Highly skilled telekinetic

Family: William Keller (father), Elizabeth Keller (mother), James Keller (older brother)

History: Not much is known about Julian's early history. What we do know is that he was born in Los Angeles in a fairly normal family. He had an older brother, James, and his parents worked hard to make their money. Six months before he turned eleven, his parents made only $30.000 dollars a year. Apparently, they made a deal of sorts with a shady figure called the Kingmaker, who granted them success, as only a few months after that their business went international. By the time Julian turned 12, they had enough money to spend no less than $10.000 on his birthday party. With a big house, a pool, and a butler, there wasn't much more that Julian could desire.

Some time after that, his mutant powers manifested. His parents did not deject him for this, but they did desire he kept it a secret. They had a name to protect, after all. Julian disagreed, saying he shouldn't have to, and ended up attending the Xavier Institute.

Here, he brief run-in with a girl named Laurie. While playing frisbee, the frisbee ended up near her, and he asked her if she wanted to join in. She declined, but he persisted and she ended up walking away. This caused some bad feelings on Julian's side, and to this day he dislikes Laurie severely.
(Note: the guy in this issue, New Mutants (v2) #2, was indeed Julian, as confirmed by the writers.)
When a girl named Sofia came to the school, Julian was asked to show her around. They clicked nicely and he felt very attracted to her but his obvious dislike for Laurie, Sofia's room mate and best friend, ruined his chances early on.

Julian and Sofia proceeded to have a love/hate relationship, with feelings of mutual attraction between them but several conflicting factor in their personalities and surroundings making it difficult for the two. Julian gained a small following and a few friends around the school. He formed a brother/sister relationship with Cessily Kincaid, an Irish-American girl composed of a non-toxic sort of mercury, and found friends in Victor, Brian, Santo and Josh.

When Josh heard about Magma being in a coma, the two boys decided to check it out and see if Josh could heal her. This worked, but Magma left the school immediately and they were both badly injured in the process - only through Josh's healing powers, they managed to survive.

The nurse, Annie, got caught under some debris, and Julian wanted to leave as soon as possible so that no one would find out that they were the ones that had done it, but Josh convinced him to help get the debris off her by saying that they could be heroes. They both received a week of detention for their acts, but Julian, since he'd already been in trouble before that, got another week on top of that.

During a frisbee game with Josh, Victor, and Santo, Julian encountered a Japanese girl outside of the gates. She requested to be let in, as she needed help, but being unable to understand her properly (she was speaking very fast) and finding her disgusting, Julian didn't help her. He claimed this was in part because it was Parents Week, and since he was already in trouble, did not want to anger Jean-Paul (his advisor at the time and thus in charge of his detention) further by allowing a 'bag lady' to ruin the whole thing.

Part of their punishment consisted of helping out with the Parents Week preparations; Julian was in charge of registration. When Jean-Paul came to check up on him, he said that it was unfair that he had to do this, since he wasn't even a part of this. He lied, saying that his parents did not even want to see him. Taking pity on him, Jean-Paul offered to take over registration. Julian bragged about this to Victor, admitting to him it wasn't true and that his parents were just skiing in the alps.

Not long after that, Julian requested to change advisors; instead of Jean-Paul, he wanted Emma, who had already agreed to take him on. Jean-Paul agreed because he thought that Emma, having been a villain before, might be able to keep him on the right path.

When, through his new advisor Emma Frost, Julian found out that Josh was a former Reaver, he grew enraged and attacked the boy. Their respective friends and supporters joined in, and they eventually had to be separated by Xi'an and her powers of possession.

One of the things Emma allowed her charges is choose their own codenames. Julian chose the name Hellion, something she initially disagreed, but then allowed.

Some time later, the student body was split up into squads. Julian, Santo, Cessily, Tag, Jay, and Sooraya became the Hellions, Emma Frost's squad. It wasn't long after that that their squad and that of the New Mutants got into a fight. Because of their rivalry, Scott chose them to be the first squads to participate in the field day.

While Julian took a number of risks, resulting into the capture of Cessily, they did end up winning. While he was in the air, keeping Sofia at bay with his telepathic shields, he explained to her why he won and she lost; he made use of tactics, but she played it all by heart, using zero strategy.

When Kevin's murder on his father was being investigated, the school was filled with rumours about him and he was shunned. Julian thought that was nuts, climbed onto his table in the cafeteria, and held a speech in which he explained the situation from his point of view. He compared what Kevin did to what people like Ben, Noriko, Dallas and Sofia did before they came here, and declared everyone terrible mutants for gossiping instead of helping one of their own.

While some of the students agreed with him, the staff still didn't, and Kevin was taken away. Julian, still vehemently disagreeing with this, decided to go and get him. All of the Hellions, except for Jay, agreed to come. Julian then managed to convince Sofia to join them.

At the metro station, where agent Pierce and Kevin are waiting for the train to come, Kevin went to the bathroom and the Hellions preparde to help him sneak out. Just as they were about to, the New Mutants (alerted by Jay) arrived to stop them. The two groups ended up fighting, and Sofia re-joined the New Mutants. The New Mutants won, but the F.B.I. was already seconds away from interfering, so it was a fairly useless fight.

Probably somewhere around this time (it is unclear as it happened in a different comic from the one he usually appears in, New X-Men), Julian was bugging Josh at the Grind Stone, the local coffee shop. Suddenly, Kurt teleported in, took Julian and reappeared in a van with a few others to help out at a local hospice. He struggled at first, but Dani reprimanded him. Later, when he cut in line at the barbeque, Warren and Sam taught him a lesson.

When Jeffrey Garrett's ghost was haunting the New Mutants, one of the things he did is have their lunch table disappear, then crash into them. Julian was suspected of doing this, and got reprimanded by Scott, who held him responsible for any trouble the New Mutants will get into because of that. So, when the New Mutants went out to look for the ghost, and were teleported to high above the lake by him, Julian saved David from crashing into the water (which would have been very harmful from such a height) at the very last second.

The New Mutants (minus Laurie and Josh), David's sister Kim, and Julian went to look for tombstones at the graveyard to find the ghost's name. They were interrupted by Dani and Xi'an, who told them what happened. Later, when Sofia decided to have a séance to try and put the ghost to rest, Julian joined in. The séance went successful.

After Julian heard about what happened between Josh and Rahne after Kevin outed them, he commented on it loudly in front of both Josh and Laurie, who hadn't heard the news yet.This broke up their relationship.

After Jean-Paul's death at the hands of a brainwashed Wolverine, Julian and Sofia talked for a while. They went flying and talked about about Jean-Paul, their first flying class, and some other things. They really connected during this. Later, Sofia overheard a conversation between him, Brian, and Santo in which he said he wouldn't be going to the memorial, acting like he didn't care about the whole thing anymore. He still visited the memorial secretly, flying in the distance. Sofia caught a glimpse of him, but didn't alert anyone else to it.

Julian tried to convince Sofia to go to the dance with him, but she declined. So, instead, he hinted at doing something with her in the summer holidays. At the dance, Julian showed up with the three Stepford Cuckoos, but didn't spend much time with them before asking to dance with Sofia. He invited her over to his house with him in LA, but before she had the chance to answer, their dance and conversation were cut short by Laurie using her powers on David. This caused quite a ruckus.

When the Blob attacked the school, Julian and the Hellions agreed to cooperate with the New Mutants and Stepford Cuckoos to put him down. Julian managed to contain him in one of his forcefields for a short while, then Brian tagged him and had the Blob run from them. He was then taken down by the Stepford Cuckoos and Laurie. The police arrived to contain the situation, and Julian helped them lift him up.

Julian invited Sofia over to his house again, but she declined, saying her plans to spend the summer with Laurie and her mother would be happening after all. She was still interested in spending time together some other time, however.

At this same time, the tension between the various New Mutants exploded fully and Sofia expressed her worry over her group. Julian comforted her, saying it wasn't not her fault -- and that if anyone could fix it, it'd be her. They finally kissed for the first time. After, Julian quickly made up an excuse and left, clearly uncomfortable.
The Hellions came out as the winners of the Field Day program, but much to Julian's dismay, Emma was unable to make it due to X-Men business. At the prizegiving ceremony, Julian was even more pompous than usual.

With Sofia unable to make it, Julian instead invited the Hellions to his house in LA. At the airport, however, they ran into trouble due to Cessily and Santo's extreme physical mutations. They fought with the security guards at Julian's orders, and eventually it all got resolved by a phonecall he made to his lawyer, who in turn contacted homeland security to take care of it all.

So, the Hellions made it onto the plane and arrived in LA safely. As they arrived to his house, however, Julian was surprised to find that his parents were still present. They immediately want to speak with him, alone. Separated from his friends, his parents confronted him about his behaviour at the airport and the way he used their contacts.

They clearly disagreed with his choices and wanted for him to be more like his older brother, James. They regretted that he had to go to the Xavier Institute and wished that he would have more sensibility and hide his powers. They concluded the conversation by saying that they reworked their will, and instead of splitting their assets, James will receive it all.

After his parents left, the Hellions went to check up on Julian and found him in a room that was a complete mess, clearly a result of his telekinesis. He denied he felt badly, but admitted that his parents disinherited him. With badly hidden anger, he decided to look through their computers to find some dirt on them.

They found out about the Kingmaker and in how short a time his parents gained their fortune. Curious, the kids dug deeper and decided to summon the Kingmaker for themselves. Initially, nothing happened, but the next day they were paid a visit by him, and were each granted one wish.

Sooraya did not buy it easily, and so they all agreed on a testing period. Julian wished for fortune and glory (the basics), and with the aid of Brian and a reporter also working for the Kingmaker, accomplished this by saving the governor from a sniper. He was completely sold on the man from then on.

So, when their testing period had ended and they had to do a job for the Kingmaker in order to receive their wishes permanently, he had no problems with it. Their assignment was to take something from a company called Genetassist, supposedly to protect it from thieves. It went successful and they defeat edPaladin and Diamondback, who claimed that it was a weapon and that they were hired by SHIELD. Julian did not believe them.

Kevin persisted, however, and shortly before they had to hand the case in, Cessily agreed to open it to see what's inside. Turned out it was indeed a biological weapon. The Kingmaker arrived and explained what's happening, admitting that Kevin was right. Regardless, Julian still wanted to live up to the contract. Seemingly not caring whose hands it would end up in, he handed over the case, despite the concern of his team mates.

He only asked for one thing: for the contracts to be destroyed. He claimed not to want to be tied to anyone. The Kingmaker agreed, and the second the contracts were destroyed, Julian ordered the Hellions to get the case back. The Kingmaker beat them all easily and the kids were left behind, knocked out. Some time later the police arrived, but Brian tagged himself and scared them off. Julian transported them to the airport, where he figured the Kingmaker must be headed. They cut him off on his way there.
Santo stopped the car by standing in front of it, and Julian lifted it up in the air, then crashed it back to the ground next to the Kingmaker. They managed to disarm him and for a moment it looked like they'd won -- but then the Kingmaker threatened to electrocute Cessily. Kevin came to her rescue and threatened to kill the Kingmaker. Once he released Cessily, Julian blasted him out of the way. Santo proceeded to sit on him, and they won the fight.

The government arrived and took the case from them, but not before Julian made sure the computer files inside were damaged and that Kevin had made the biological weapon inside useless. (Not that it wanted to make Diamondback date him any more. *g*)

Julian talked to his parents, who were pissed off that he made it to the newspapers (courtesy of the Kingmaker's connections). They warned him that he's a powerful man, and they can't protect Julian from him. He reminded them he kicked the Kingmaker's butt, and that his parents shouldn't be the one protecting him, but the other way around. Unlike them, he's always there for his family.

He returned to the Institute, and talked to Emma about what happened. She was proud of him and the group; they'd been tempted, but came through in the end. She'd make heroes of them yet.

Post-House of M, Julian turned out to be one of the few mutants at the Institute to keep his powers, along with nearly the entire Hellions squad (Brian being the sole exception). What his reaction is to the mass depowering is anyone's guess.

To be continued in: New X-Men: Academy X #21



too much information: In the possible future shown in New X-Men #10-#11, when David supposedly had his mental blocks removed, Julian was still in charge of the Hellions. 18 years from now, they'd be 'freedom fighters' - declared the nation's greatest threat. He and Sofia were married, but because of his 'career choices', she eventually put an end to it. When Laurie, Sofia, Noriko and Jay try to stop President Alleyne, Sofia was injured. Julian gets shot by Bishop in an attempt to get to her, and she then appeared to die in his arms. Enraged, Julian "finished" it, but we never actually get to see what happens beyond an explosion of sorts.

house of m: In the alternate reality House of M, created by the Scarlet Witch, Julian was part of the SHIELD Junior Agents, called the Hellions. In this reality, he dated Sofia, also part of the team, and was called "Scion" because he was never mentored by Emma, and thus had no reason to choose "Hellion". When terrorists attacked the New Mutant Leadership Institute, the Hellions interferde. Julian still appears to lead the group (probably as a co-leader or something to Dani), as he gave the other agents orders.

The mission went successful. Afterward, he and Sofia lounged on the couch, watching some television. Dani called them in for a meeting, where Illyana Rasputin, their newest agent, was introduced. Julian wasn't impressed and initially didn't want her on the team, but changed his mind after she took him on a short trip to the base of an active volcano. The team (minus Noriko) then went to Japan on a mission.

They got teleported right into the middle of a group of human terrorists. Julian ordered Everett to duplicate his powers and protect one of the scientists involved with Project Genesis, and started attacking people himself. When Illyana killed one of the terrorists, he called her on it. The team fought for a bit longer until Sofia managed to end the battle in their favour.

They talked to Emperor Sunfire, asking for more information about Project Genesis, since that's what the terrorists were after. He denied it was anything but a program for recycling waste into usable food, and was quick to accuse Julian of possible treachery for doubting him. Julian reassured him he's 100% behind him and Magneto. The Hellions were allowed to check out the facility to try and find out why the human resistance movement. Everything seemed in order, but things didn't entirely add up, since that would be no reason for the humans to attack it. Julian was the first to suggest Emperor Sunfire might have lied to them.

Laurie's mole status allowed them to find out about the location of the terrorists. With this, they also found the New Mutants (and Noriko, who was working with them). Julian said they were making a huge mistake, and the two groups started to fight. Sooraya hindered Julian's ability to use his telekinesis properly. Noriko then forced Illyana to take them all inside the true Project Genesis building, where it turned out the government is forcing humans into mutants. Julian said that changes everything, and urged Dani to take action.

Laurie's pheromones set the two groups up against each other. Julian and David went up against each other; Noriko quickly joined the battle to help David. Illyana decided Julian needed room to work, and teleported them all to the vulcano she teleported him to earlier. Once there, he nearly blasted David into the lava, but rescued him again at the last moment. He may never have liked him, but he didn't want him dead. Plus, they're on the same side now.

With the pheromones worn off, they quickly teleported back to Project Genesis to try and put a stop to the situation there. It turned out to already have been contained. Still, some of the terrorists still wanted to fight and both Sophie and Max were murdered. Julian goes berserk over Max's death and snapped the neck of the terrorist who did it.

Sofia and Julian got a brief chance to talk; he felt like a bad leader, and she assured him this wasn't the case. Next, Julian took apart Project Genesis, as his telekinesis was the strongest weapon they had.

Outside, Emperor Sunfire and his men awaited, having taken down all of the human resistance movement. The remaining mutants discussed what to do, and the decision was made to get the victims of Project Genesis out. The mutants themselves decided to stay behind and make one last stand as a distraction, and to make it more difficult for this whole mess to be covered up.

Sofia and Julian worked together to tear down the two massive statues of Magneto and Sunfire outside. Sunfire's men and the combined New Mutants and Hellions rushed towards each other for a final battle... and the House of M was reverted to the normal reality, without anybody remembering what happened there.