Question Nerves of Steel

Nina's a locked-in-syndrome case, or something. That's different!

Wow. ... Annoying younger siblings are a trend... Wait... If she's a mutant, what about her siblings?

... How did Faulkner actually find out about Nina?

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The title makes sense now!

Shipping Nurse + Faulkner... But if that were gonna be a thing, Nina would have detected it?

The crush is cute!

And here I thought the supervillain was gonna take Nina as collateral or something, for some reason...

Hey! It's the Liberty League again! A.k.a Liberty Legion?? Interesting.

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Adonis being a perv again... Where did this guy get Dev-tech? How does the daughter feel about her dad going on a revenge plot?

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I wonder if LL are more suspicious of Nina than she thinks? Going to their base isolates her, and puts her in their territory...

Hope Faulker makes it out of this alive! Cool to see a techie doing good!

Nina Martinez and it sounds like she has been through a lot to be in this state. That severe of burnout, burned out her powers almost entirely and her nervous system, leaving her paralyzed, that is a nightmare. Only able to listen to what is around her, and I thought Puppet had it bad.

10 year old little sister Julia and brother Miguel, at least she has family. Projective telepath able to make others hear her thoughts as long as they are within 5 feet of her, if only there was a way to boost that. Ugh, Miguel treating her like that when she can't do anything for herself, what an ass. Arrrgh! Her mom seems a bit dense, putting the TV back on to what she hates.

Mister Falkner might be able to help her, why do I have a bad feeling about this. A devisor, wonder if his process will work on Nina or just break her heart as it fails. *jaw drops* Used himself as test subject to fix his damaged spine, dang. Ah, he wants to prove his tech can repair anyone by using the most difficult case, Nina, as a test subject, makes sense.

Geez, Miguel was a jerk even before Nina became paralyzed. 3 weeks ago with 2 days for tests, just how long does his process take. *eyes bug out* Good thing she can't feel that, giant needles into the bone, *cringes* Nanotech, techno-organic implants, dang, growing the cybernetics directly inside her. Mary Albright, private nurse, at least she knows not to make Nina nervous, Falkner needs to be taught bed-side manners since he has no medical degree. Whoa, already time to turn on her new nervous system, *crosses fingers* Yes! She can feel her body again, so happy for her.

Joking already about being able to play the piano, Nina is in good spirits. Already able to twitch her fingers and toes, something most of us take for granted. Uhm, the bank and late on one of his payments, why do I think he took money from a loan shark and it is a lot worse than missing a payment to the bank. Plus he was outside the 5 feet range of Nina's projective telepathy, don't tell me her new nervous system is also affecting her power as well.

Great progress with the physical therapy for 2 days, plus she can speak again, yay! Hehehe, smack Miguel upside the head, long time coming for jerk brother. Grandpa who is Mexican on dad's side of the family, Scottish granddad and Brazilian Grandmom on mother's side, interesting.

Whoa, integrates with the immune system so it sees the implants as part of the body, impressive. Qualify as regen 1, possibly 2, now, that is a big boost from no regen. And my guess was right, her old powers are slowly returning, excellent. 15 feet projective telepath range, what it was before burnout, plus receptive telepathy coming back as well. Oh boy, worse than I guessed earlier, borrowed money from a female supervillain who sounds like she has a reputation.

2 more days and already that much more progress, extremely impressive. Seeing things from her perspective, makes you realize you don't know what you have until it is gone. Floating in the air! Short range TK with PK shell, nice. No powers testing before the burnout, she in for some "fun". Psyber, cool codename alright.

However, Mary just gave Falkner a wry look. "Do you just stand around near doorways, listening in until you hear an opening for a dramatic entrance?" Falkner gave a look of mock surprise. "How on Earth did you guess?" Then he gave a wink and a grin, adding, "I just love a good dramatic entrance."

I like him, he's silly.

Oh boy, Nina developing a little bit of a crush on Falkner. Eye color didn't change when she manifested, that's interesting. Getting used to all the changes her body has undergone in the last 3 years. Metal disks on the spot right before her wrists, small detail for regaining her freedom. Whoa, all those places with silver metal disks, including her whole spine. Oh boy, her crush is more than little. Calling her home and talking to her mother in her own voice for the first time in 3 years, got me tearing up along with her.

7 more days and she is running on a treadmill, dang. Wish everyone could recover that quickly. And just a few days more to get back to where she was before, so glad Falkner's treatment worked. Interesting variation on TK/PK and how hers works. With the kind of stuff mutants encounter, I would want more protection over strength from a PK shell. And so far so good, it would be such a letdown, for Nina and me, if something goes wrong with the implants.

Mental exercise to keep Nina out of his head, Falkner is one sharp cookie. Thinking the supervillainess will kill him, maybe someone [perhaps Nina, perhaps not] can help, just how deep in debt is he. Ouch, found out afterwards the person who gave him the loan is a supervillain, poor guy. Something dangerous to help, not wishing Nina to do it, yikes.

Give her something else she wants, I really don't like the sounds of that. Information on superheroes who are after the supervillainess, he wants Nina to read their minds, no, bad idea, very bad idea. And Nina says she will do, if this supervillainess finds out how he got the information, she might just take Nina by force and make her work for her.

Milwaukee Wisconsin, and she is walking alone, *groans* *facepalms* She said one of the dreaded phrases you should never say. The Liberty League, spying on them is a very bad idea. Autograph signing event to keep the public and government happy with them, okay. Force Majeure, The Gentleman, The Bronze Lady, Adonis, oh god, this is before he is murdered. And Twist, wonder if any of them will catch Nina reading their minds.

Nothing but static from Twist, Adonis, don't tell me The Gentleman cast a spell or Bronze Lady created something to shield their minds. And static from Force Majeure as well. What the! She picked up someone plotting to kill Adonis, unexpected. That kind of expression while staring at Adonis, that is brutal. Great, what is probably a devise blaster, all because Adonis was with the man's daughter from the sound of it.

Ouch, Twist sprayed in the face with something and causing that kind of pain. Dang, Nina stepped up and disarmed the attacker, sending the gun flying. Great, panicking woman causes Nina to let the gun go and drop right back in the creep's hands. Ouch, blasted in the side, gun must be powerful to hurt Adonis. Ouch, at least Nina got her PK shell up before that hit. And blasted again because she prevented him from murdering Adonis, poor Nina.

Great, in a hospital being poked and prodded by doctors and nurses who have no idea what her implants are. *sigh* Wanting to keep her hear for 'observation', great. Going to run for it only to have Force Majeure, Adonis, and the Bronze Lady show up to see her, rats. Along with Glow from the description. Super Star tracking Torment in Green Bay.

And they buy her excuse, Glow pointed out she might be a cyborg, sharp as always. Grrr, Adonis using his power on her, sometimes it's hard to feel bad he dies later. She can pick something up from Glow, but static from the others still. Joking about the implants and then telling the truth in a roundabout way, Nina is very trusting. Home schooled and some of the Liberty League tutors Glow, was wondering about that.

Nina bluttering that out, good thing Glow isn't suspicious of her. Ah, magic charms from the Gentleman, very smart. And yup, the guy earlier tried to kill Adonis for deflowering his 'sweet and innocent daughter', Adonis causes the Liberty League a lot of trouble. And the cover story is still holding, for now. All that info on Glow and her mother Super Star not being with the Liberty League anymore, oh boy. Dinner with Glow and her sister, this will be interesting.

The Flying Stagg, nice name for a brewery and restaurant. Mutant friendly and strictly neutral, nice. Twist there as well, this is going to get awkward at this rate. Dinah looking at Nina like that and grilling her on who she is. Rachael jokes about her parents not naming her Glow. Boy, it could get old having to tell her story over and over again.

Nice to see good-natured teasing among friends. Nina not wanting to be reminded of the hell she lived in for 3 years, wanting to move on. Oh boy, telling them about Falkner might not have been a good idea. And they want her to show Mel her powers, wonder how that would go. A tour of Liberty Island and power testing, boy, she got a lot more than expected from this trip. Oh boy, still going through with the plan, Nina is going to feel horrible by the time this is all done if she keeps this up. I hope by the next part she is able to figure out a better way to help Falkner.

OH! ... Forgot to mention. ... Pk only coming back with nerve restoration... Meaning there are PK projection systems throughout the body?? ... More info for mutant specialists!

And Ironworks would be able to move Nina like a puppet? ... And Faulkner too?

... Wait... Full nanobody if she gets injured enough and the nano grows throughout her body?

... Cyborg meetup? Whisper + Hive + Nina + Shebot + ???

Whose the mysterious backer supervill?? ... Lol if it's Ironworks.

She's a she... Freya? ... She's gotta have a lotta cash? ... Independent or part of a group? Syndicated or not?

Emotions about the story... When I read the beginning, I knew she was gonna gain mobility again or something... It's really hard to have a story with a protag that's just pinballing everywhere from outside forces, with no control...

Some cool bits are when Nina enjoys having sensations, even unpleasant ones!

... Faulkner's nanos can't be weaponized? Or does the supervill have no need for weapons? Gotta check.

How would the nanos react to being hit by energetic weaponry??

First, Adonis gets shot by an outraged father, but not fatally.

A week and a half later he is murdered by an out of control MCO agent (as described in "Round and Round")

Coincidence? Curse by another victim? Or something else entirely?

And Glow, in her anger, makes a supervill ... Sorta.

... Mary... What's her goal in all this? I guess the perks are pretty good, Just a baseline, perhaps? They've been working together for 2 years? What has she done in all that time?

Paradigm, where have I seen that name before? ... And I got her confused with Hexagon...

How many people does Paradigm have?

PK / Tk explosion... New power unlocked! ... Paradigm's defenses aren't as good as she thinks?

Glow will report back to the Liberty League and they'll do a rescue??

... Might Lodestone make an appearance? ... How does she get to Whateley??

... What's Mel's power??

... Gotta reread the Tether stuff...

Paradigm is JerkRabbit's old flame, and also a semi-nemesis of Imp. The only reason she doesn't hate Imp directly is that she was able to take JerkRabbit's part of their paired power gems, and now has a more complete set, making her far more powerful than she used to be. It's those powers she "accidentally" killed Faulkner with.

The main base destruction she's referencing is when Imp and Superhawk obliterated it to save Melissa.

She actually has a pretty substantial number of followers.

The really scary part about Paradigm is that none of her power gem abilities have anything to do with ESP or mind control. She convinces her followers of her ideals through normal means and psychology. That's why she wants a PDP.

Falkner had her stay in that kind of a place, questioning him more and more. Thinking he is using her crush to manipulate the poor girl, but hope I'm wrong. Seeing that ship for the first time, I would love to see a drawing of that. Twist with Glow, Bronze Lady talking to Glow's mom, hope she isn't being over protective. Trihoptor, fitting name.

Dinah trying to talk the Bronze Lady into teaching her how to fly it, oh boy. Liberty Island is a giant barge, interesting.

"Enter freely and of your own will," Twist added with a smirk.

I like her, she's silly. Force Majeure talking with Super Star, guess she has recovered. And Super Star jumping to conclusions about what Pinball is up to and thinking Sphere is a clone, oh brother.

At least Sarah is easy-going about her true identity being outed. Eww, the way Adonis talks about Nina, makes my skin crawl. And still thinking about digging up information on the team, Nina, you need to question Falkner more. Basic powers testing, wait till she gets to Whateley. Huh, Twist the best to work with to test her telepathy, didn't see that coming. No ESP power, wonder what it would manifest as if she she had it.

Unbalanced Package Deal Psychic, interesting, wonder why her TK/PK part is stronger than her telepathy. Interesting theory by the Gentleman, burnout could have done a lot to her powers, will be interesting to see how they grow and change, if they do. Okay, learn how they interact with her implants, I hope they don't interact badly over time.

Sparring with Glow, this is going to be 'fun'. And Glow starting off with a weaker blast to test Nina's limits, wonder when she will hit them. None of Glow's attacks getting through Nina's PK shell, dang. 20 minutes and Glow kept teleporting away, so stalemate. Snickerdoodles, yummy.

A teenage girl who hasn't been able to go to a mall in year, hide your credit cards! Glow, Dinah, and another girl, shopping trip with 4 girls, uh oh. Mel, ah, we might have a normal day without some random supervillain attack.

"Prepare to be assimilated," I announced cheerfully. "Resistance is futile."

Nice Borg reference. And the more you meet people who know Adonis, the more you don't like the creep.

Bwahaha, both her sister and best friend teasing Glow about like romantic comedies now, poor new girl hasn't even jumped into the deep end of being a girl yet. Boy, keeping the secret that Glow used to be a boy from Nina is harder than you think. Ouch, sore subject still about their mom not being around much. And telling the tale once more, wait till she gets to Whateley, wonder how many times she will have to explain her history to others.

At least Nina is more moral than some of the other telepaths we've met, not wishing to read her friends thoughts. And no sooner do I say that than her teenage curiosity kicks in and she picks up something from Glow. And the mood is ruined, rats. At least the thought of snickerdoodles cheers Glow.

Bus breaks down and an hour late for their meeting, door wide open, no, no no! Falkner dead, his neck broken, no, whoever did this needs to pay! I was so wrong, he was in debt and scared and now he is gone. And now Nina is running, scared she will be blamed and having lost the man who gave her back her life. Talk about heartbreaking.

On the streets for the night, drunk idiots trying to force themselves on her, if not for her powers it would have ended badly. Calling Glow and getting her to meet with her, still fearing whoever killed Falkner will be after her next. Poor Nina, in such a panic and not thinking clearly, know what a panic attack is like. Darn it! Glow finding out the truth about Nina, knows she is in danger, and tells her to go in anger and fury.

Leaving Glow in tears, this is heartbreaking to watch. Mary calls and knows about Falkner, saying Nina should come there because it is safe, why do I suspect something is wrong. Going to meet Mary at a motel room she rented, Having to tell the tale and relive finding Falkner's body again, ouch. Wait, what! If she had been there on time, 'she' wouldn't have killed Gerald. They were going to hand Nina over to the supervillainess, from the sounds of things.

Mary betrayed her! Locked up in a strange room, in an unknown place. Paradigm, that psycho! Now I really wish Imp had done something more to deal with her. Figures, Mary works for her and has for some time. Can't read her mind, room reinforced so she can't use her powers to escape, ugh.

Oh great, Paradigm is a fanatic. She wanted to use the tech to control people, really wanting to see her put down now. She did this to Falkner because of losing her base to Imp and friends, okay, psycho is too kind a term for her. She didn't care about information on the Liberty League, Falkner, you idiot, what did you do. Great, he pulled a gun on her and she 'overreacted'.

And she wants Nina because she is a telepath, never a good thing. All those things she wishes to change, she is the worst kind of fanatic, taking a good cause and going way too far. She wants to alter the minds of politicians, business leaders, and religious leaders so they will work towards improving the world instead of profit or power. The ends don't justify the means, imo.

Blackmail and mind control, Nina isn't going to work with her but Paradigm has planned for that. A devise to destroy the techno-organic implants in her body, Paradigm is evil! Poor Nina trapped, being blackmailed, and lost her first friends in years. Unless Glow somehow finds out and changes her mind about Nina, things are dark for her.

Paradigm didn't get the mind control power gem that Jerk Rabbit used on his "mouse kids." I believe that Imp destroyed it.

Ouch, blaming herself for Falkner's death. Paradigm is a scarier than I recall, the way she is manipulating, or trying to at least, Nina. Have to wonder if Tina and others are just that naïve about Paradigm, that drawn in by her rhetoric, or brainwashed somehow. Mary having the gall to show her face to Nina after what she has done.

And she believes Paradigm is a good person who just wants to make the world a better place, questioning all this loyalty more and more. Mary trying to manipulate Nina like this, saying she is being selfish, sickening. Mary needs to take a long look at herself and Paradigm, the means don't justify the ends.

Yikes, fears manifesting in nightmare, I can relate. Mary helping Nina get out of there, is this a true change of heart or a trap to further manipulate Nina. Sounds like Mary is trying to do right by Nina now, but knowing Paradigm she has contingencies in place in case of betrayal. Guard asleep, looks good so far. Aerosol can of knockout gas, very nice. Just outside Hartland, dang, a lot less distance then I thought they took her. Free and on the run, Mary thinking she can tell Paradigm Nina mind controlled her, that seems like it will backfire.

Milwaukee, wonder if she will see Glow again or what might happen while there. Nice endurance training for distance flying, have a feeling it will come in handy in the future. Darn, wishing to apologize to Glow about everything, yet doesn't know how to contact her nor where she lives. 40 something guy following her, uh oh.

Great, gets away from the guy only for Paradigm to show up, one of her people who was searching for Nina. Blackmailing her with the EMP device again, Paradigm is a coward and bully. At least Nina figures out Paradigm's bluff, she has to be bluffing, fry the implants and Nina loses most of her powers again and would be useless to her.

Paradigm a telekinetic and can teleport, just great. Ouch, force blast and slammed into the ground. D'oh! Throwing Paradigm with her TK into an oncoming car and it barely hurts her. This fight is almost one-sided, Nina can't escape and can't hurt Paradigm enough to make a difference.

Glow to the rescue, her energy sword actually hurt Paradigm, yes! Glow holding her own, Nina distracting Paradigm, then Ginormous shows up, yay! Paradigm scared off and Nina breaking out in tears and saying she is sorry, just perfect.

Taken to Ginormous' apartment, no place safer I can think of right now. Good thing Rachael and Sarah saw Nina being chased by Paradigm, things would have been a lot worse otherwise. Boy, hearing the truth of everything and Sarah just comes over to give Nina a hug, good woman.

Darn, by the time the Liberty League is back in town from the mission Paradigm might have cleared out. *facepalms* This is the incident with Pinball and Sphere, talk about a lot of misunderstandings and misinformation. Glow opening up to Nina about how she was kidnapped by a supervillain to get at her mom when she was a kid, shows she trust Nina a lot.

Ouch, finding out Adonis died and who killed him. Super Star suggesting they put Nina in jail, ugh, high and mighty, self-righteous b. And taking out her frustration over Adonis' death on Sarah, thinking he might be alive if she had been with them. At least the others are being reasonable about the whole situation, especially the Gentleman.

A plan to deal with Paradigm and find out the extent of her new powers is definitely needed. Please let Paradigm's base not be completely cleared out yet. Paradigm has taken Nina's family hostage, any of them die and Paradigm better be killed as well.

Flying in two trihoptors, hope Paradigm doesn't do something desperate when she detects them coming. Twist saying Nina and Glow will stay with the trihoptor, yeah, like circumstances will let that happen. Bwahahaha, a blank training uniform for Nina, Glow knows her new friend too well to think she will stay on the sidelines when her family is in danger. Knows due to explain with what happened to Mel and their dad.

Hehe, love how Glow thinks, use the adults fighting as a distraction to slip in. Dang, the team having a hard time dealing with Paradigm. Slice through the door, and hope Nina is right about her family being kept in the same area she was. Her short-ranged telepathy is very handy, already located her family.

Mom rushing over to hug Nina, tears in Nina's eyes, wonderful reunion. Grabbing Julia into the hug and then punching Miguel in the arm for all the times he was a jerk to her, priceless. Intro everyone to Glow, while they need to get moving before Paradigm comes back or realizes what is going on.

Nice use of TK to disarm and slam the guards unconscious. D'oh! Fight moved to where they are exiting the building, can't catch a break. Now trying to get her family to safety with the fight around them, only for Paradigm to notice them, good grief. Using her TK to take Nina's Mom hostage, biggest coward ever. Nina attacking in anger only get knocked back, things aren't looking good.

Force Majeure and Super Star attacking forces Paradigm to release Mom, Ginormous catching her. And of course Paradigm goes back to the EMP device, coward through and through. Back and forth TK with the EMP device, Twist blasting Paradigm in the back, only for Paradigm throw a small car to force Super Star having to save her teammates. If only the Liberty League or Nina knew about Paradigm's Power Stones, they might figure out how to depower or at least weaken her.

Grabbing Julia with her TK, Nina reacting to save her sister and blasted by the EMP device, please let this not be the end for Nina. Noooo! Her implants are fried, not this, Paradigm deserves death for doing this. Unless Falkner made them self-repairing somehow, wondering about that myself.

Paralyzed again and unable to do anything about it, poor Nina. The Bronze Lady, the Gentleman, and Dr. Keller examining her, hope they can help. Healer and bio-gadgeteer with medical degree, if he can't help Nina it is bad. *bangs head on table* Darn it, why couldn't they have met Dr. Keller and have him treat her first. All that and Mary is Nina's only hope now, oh boy.

Ginormous, Glow, and Dinah looking at Nina with pity, ouch. Nina thinking she will be like this for the rest of her life, I seriously hope not. Miguel hitting on Glow and working up the nerve to hit on Twist, oh brother. One spirit who likes showing different faces, interesting. Glow going into detail of the trauma she endured at the hands of the supervillain, ouch.

And the biggest secret of Glow's is out to Nina, true friend there. Glow is one of the more complex, mentally and emotionally, characters, we haven't seen a fraction of her yet I suspect.

"I wanted you to know," she told me with a serious look, "that I know what it's like being trapped in a hell you can't escape from. I know what it's like, having a condition that makes it impossible to have any kind of normal life. And I wanted you to know...that there is hope. That things can get better."

Got me tearing up here. What the what! Did Glow do something, did Nina trigger something or were the implants designed to repair themselves over time like I suspected.

Basketball, Glow and Mel against Nina and Dinah. A party with Sarah, Twist, Bronze Lady, and Nina's Mom. Ah, partially right at least about the self-repair, suspected it with them being techno-organic in nature. Fun game between friends and Mom happy to see her playing like this again. Mom making friends with Sarah, all this talk of Nina being happy here and having friends here, now this I didn't expect. Staying there so they can help Nina with her powers, her mom is cool.

Staying in the spare bedroom at Sarah's place, can't find a better offer than that. Call home and Mom coming to visit quite often, it would give her time to spend with Sarah as well. Bwahaha, going back to school, Mom had to spring that one on her, it can't all be fun. Super Star as her tutor on the PK supergirl stuff, rats, wish there was someone else. Homeschooling with Rachael and tutoring to catch her up, she has an interesting future in store.

Wonderful story from start to finish. Seeing Nina dealing with paralysis, the nightmare of being trapped inside your own body, and finally being given hope and a cure. Falling for Falkner and willing to do anything for him. Her relationship with Glow and everyone else, the ups and downs of it all. Plus seeing Paradigm again, learning how much of a zealot she is for her cause and the lengths she will go, and seeing her go down. My heart felt like it leapt into my throat when Nina was hit with the EMP and lost all feeling, subjected to that nightmare again so soon. I'm glad it was fixed and love she is going to be staying with Sarah and around Glow and her other friends for now. Can't wait to read more of their adventures.

And PSIs improve with training! ... Even the PDPs? I forget...

Mary! Yay! ... Could she ever have escaped by herself with mind control? Perhaps?

Yeah, I thought flying from the creeper would be too suspicious, but I didn't expect Paradigm to return.

Fighting a teleporter is really annoying, but can she teleport anywhere? And there seems to be a cooldown since she isn't chaining teleports, nor just holding her down constantly...

Glow! YAY! ... The best thing to fight another teleporter with, is another teleporter!

And more backup!

Then all of Nina's secrets are revealed!

.. How did I expect that calling her parents would be bad? Accidental glancedown, or something else?

Rescue op!

... So, no one else mutated. Huh.

... And more battles! Paradigm's close to a One Woman Battle Group. Could the League have won, eventually??

Glow's powers got through... Man, they should have just let Glow whale on Paradigm, 'cause it seems everyone else is stopped by Paradigm's defenses...

Why aim the EMP at her sister? Or does it have the ability to damage people, as well as electronics? ... Still don't wanna take the chance, I assume. ... Why hasn't it been busted yet, actually??!

And Paradigm falls, while Psyber loses her nanites...

At least for a little while... I wanna say Glow's energy restarted the implants. Hmm... If the paralysis continued, could they have made a better way to communicate? ... Her Telepathy Range and stuff haven't increased from last time? Aww.

Mutant Doctor worldbuilding!

*Looked at Comments* ... Horrid - "It tied up the Paradigm loose end from the ongoing saga of the Imp. What happens to the power gems?"

... Betting the Power Gems went to Glow's friend that had the other ones as well, and she's getting a collection.