The TV was on the History Channel, and was currently playing a program about World War 2. It was an interesting show, or at least, it had been the first time I’d watched it. However, I’d seen the same show four times this week, including twice today, and could practically recite the entire thing from memory. I wanted to watch something else. Anything else. Unfortunately, the remote was on the coffee table, about five feet away, and was taunting me with its presence.

Since the remote was only a few feet away, it should have been easy to just get up and change the channel. However, it wasn’t that simple. Not for me. It wasn’t laziness that kept me from doing this, but something far worse. I would give anything…literally…to be able to get up and change the channel. To be able to turn the TV off and go outside to do some chores. ANYTHING. But for me, being able to pick up that remote, was about as likely as beating Champion in an arm wrestling contest.

My name is Nina Martinez, and I am a mutant. Some mutants have awesome and amazing powers, but I wasn’t one of them. Not anymore.

About three years ago, right after I’d turned thirteen, I manifested as a mutant. One day, I suddenly had powers, and could do things that I’d never imagined. I’d been so excited about that, and by the idea that I could become a superhero. Mom and Dad had even started talking about sending me to some school for mutants, where I could learn to use my new powers. Unfortunately, those dreams only lasted for two weeks before I went through a burnout, and my life turned into a living hell.

A burnout was a serious medical condition that some mutants had to deal with, where their bodies simply couldn’t handle the stress of their powers. It was serious enough, that a lot of people who went through a burnout, died as a result. They were the lucky ones.

My burnout had been a bad one, and I’d come extremely close to dying in the emergency room. I often wished that I had. Instead, I survived…if you could call it that. I might have survived, but my body had been severely damaged in the process, which burned out my awesome new powers, almost entirely. But even worse than that, was the fact that the burnout had also fried my nervous system, leaving me completely paralyzed.

For the last three years, I’ve been a prisoner of my own body, unable to do anything more than blink my eyes. I had oxygen tubes stuck up my nose, a feeding tube in my stomach, and I was even wearing a pair of diapers. I was a useless lump, who couldn’t even do something as simple as push a button on a TV remote. I was a horrific burden on my family.

I closed my eyes, since that was the only thing I could do to shut off that TV show, and silently screamed in frustration. Not a sound escaped my lips, but it would have been a huge improvement if one had. Any sound, even a moan or groan, would have been a miracle.

With my eyes closed, I carefully paid attention to the sounds of the house. Since I couldn’t turn my head to look around, and couldn’t even feel my own body, I’d learned to pay more attention to what I did have. I listened for anything that would tell me what was going on around me.

I heard a door being closed from upstairs, then the sound of someone coming down the stairs at a quick pace. That had to be my little sister Julia, who was ten old, and could barely remember when I hadn’t been like this. She was the only one who ran up and down the stairs like that. Unfortunately, she didn’t come over to talk to me…or change the channel. Sometimes, she’d sit beside me and read aloud, but it didn’t look like this was going to be one of those times.

Then, I suddenly caught a strong scent. It wasn’t one of the delicious smells that came from the kitchen, teasing and torturing me with ideas of food I could no longer eat. This was the smell of cologne, which had been applied a little too heavily. My brother Miguel was obviously trying to sneak up on me again. He seemed to think of it as a big joke.

“BOO,” Miguel suddenly exclaimed from behind me.

I rolled my eyes at that, then focused my thoughts and announced, “You got me again.”

Of course, I didn’t say anything aloud, since I wasn’t able to do that anymore. However, what I could do was project my thoughts. I was a low level, projective telepath, able to make other people hear my thoughts, as long as they were within five feet of me. This was the only thing left of my once amazing powers. My telepathy wasn’t very impressive at all, but it let me communicate with other people, and that was the important thing.

“Can you change the channel for me?” I asked Miguel. “Or better yet, turn the radio on instead…”

“Sure thing, sis,” Miguel responded with an evil grin. He turned off the TV, then turned on the radio…to a country station. “There you go.”

I would have turned to glare at Miguel, if I could. He knew good and well that I didn’t like old school country. I liked a lot of pop, and especially jazz, but definitely not country. The only thing worse, would have been polka.

“You’re an asshole,” I projected to Miguel, which only made him laugh. “Pendejo.”

Fortunately, Mom chose that moment to come into the room. She paused to look at us, then to the radio. She raised an eyebrow, knowing good and well that I wouldn’t have chosen this station.

“You,” Mom announced, fixing Miguel with a flat look. “Don’t you have studying to do?”

Miguel, who was big, strong, and not afraid of anything…immediately deflated. “I’m already done…”

Mom continued giving him the flat look. “Not if you want to get into a good college, you’ aren’t… Now shoo…” As soon as my brother was gone, Mom muttered, “That boy…” Then, she turned to me, and gave me a look of concern. “How are you feeling?” Mom was out of range, so even if I projected my answer to her, she wouldn’t have heard it. “Now, let’s put something educational on for you…”

With that, Mom turned off the radio, turned the TV back on to the History Channel, and left the room. I remained where I was, silently reciting every swear word and profanity I knew, and even making up a few new ones.

It was about an hour after this when the doorbell began to ring. I listened intently, because that was about the only thing I could do. Mom went to answer the door, and I could hear a little talking, but not enough to really make out what was going on. However, a couple minutes later, Mom came into the living where I was sitting, and she wasn’t alone.

The newcomer was a dark-haired man, in his late thirties or early forties. He had a short and scruffy looking beard, which looked like it might have grown, simply because he’d forgotten to shave for the last week or two. His clothes were a little rumpled, and didn’t quite seem to fit right, which added to the general impression of sloppiness.

“Hello,” the man exclaimed, giving me a nervous yet excited look. “You must be Nina…”

I glanced to Mom, not sure if I should tip my hand by talking to this stranger. I might have been completely and totally helpless, but some people disliked mutants enough that they’d even attack one like me.

“Mister Falkner wanted to talk to you, Nina,” Mom said, giving me a worried look. “He said… He said that he might be able to help you…”

I was a little startled at that, and more than a little skeptical. After my burnout, when we’d first learned that I was now paralyzed, Mom and Dad had taken me to a lot of doctors and so-called specialists. None had been able to do a thing for me. Over the last three years, I’d gotten my hopes up a number of times, only to have them smashed time and time again. I didn’t think that this would be any different.

Still, to be polite, I projected a cautious, “Hello.”

“I’m Gerald Falkner,” the man introduced himself politely, giving me a nervous smile. “I’m a mutant too. A devisor…”

“You’re a mutant?” Julia demanded from the doorway, giving Falkner a curious look.

Falkner smiled at that. “Yes I am. My power is to…invent things.”

“Oh,” Julia responded, sounding less than impressed. I couldn’t see her from where I was positioned, but I could imagine the disappointed look on her face. And even though I couldn’t read minds anymore, I knew my sister well enough to know that she was thinking, “Lame.”

Falkner didn’t seem bothered by Julia’s lack of enthusiasm, and continued his explanation. “I’ve developed a process, using cybernetic implants, to repair damage to a person’s nerves and spine.”

“And you want to use me as a guinea pig?” I asked, projecting my suspicion and skepticism.

Mom immediately asked, “Is this dangerous?” And though she didn’t say so aloud, I was pretty sure she was also questioning how expensive that kind of treatment would be. Our insurance didn’t exactly cover a lot of experimental treatments, and my family had already gone deep in debt while trying to fix me. All for nothing.

Falkner gave me a gentle smile, one that seemed both sympathetic and reassuring. “My implants have already been tested on a human subject,” he carefully said, looking my mom in the eyes. “And the results were a complete success.”

“How many test subjects?” Mom asked.

“Just one,” Falkner admitted, looking a little chagrinned at first. Then he grinned and added, “And you’re looking at him.”

“You used it on yourself?” Mom asked, giving Falkner a surprised look.

“Yes,” Falkner agreed, looking both proud and self-conscious at the same time. “About twelve years ago, I was in an accident that damaged my spine and left me paralyzed from the waist down. Obviously, I began researching ways to repair spine and nerve damage, for purely personal reasons. But regardless of my original motivations, I have succeeded…” He moved his feet around, even doing a brief but awkward dance, to prove that he could move.

“That’s…impressive,” Mom said, now staring at Falkner with greater interest.

I stared at him as well, as much as I could from my position. Could he really do it? Could he really fix me? I felt a stirring of hope, which was something I hadn’t let myself feel for a long time. Not since the sixth ‘expert’ had been unable to do anything for me.

“After repairing my own damaged spine,” Falkner said, gesturing down at his legs, “I continued to refine and expand on my technology, and then, I began looking for someone I could test it on.” He looked Mom in the eyes and stated, “Nina’s name came up during my research, and I believe that she’d be the perfect subject.”

“Why Nina?” Mom asked, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder, though I couldn’t feel it. “Surely there are other people, who’d be easier to fix…”

“Yes, there are,” Falkner admitted. “Nina’s situation is much more severe than my own had been. From what I’ve heard about her condition, the damage to her spine and nervous system is quite extensive, far worse than what I suffered. That is why I believe Nina is the perfect person for this treatment. If I can repair her damage, then I’ll prove just how effective my technology is. If I can repair Nina…then I can fix anyone with this kind of injury.”

Mom stared at Falkner, then asked, “How dangerous…”

“Please,” I projected out in desperation. “I have to try…”

I didn’t care how dangerous it was…or how much it would cost. The only thing that I cared about, was that I finally had a chance to get fixed. I finally had a chance to escape this prison…this hell my life had become. If there was even a chance that this would work, then I had to take it.

Mom stared at me for several long seconds, the pity and concern clearly visible in her eyes. She finally took a deep breath, and asked, “How is this going to work?”

------------------

Madison Wisconsin, Thurs Aug 30th, 2007

My eyes were closed as I focused all my attention on the music that was playing a short distance away. Shirley Horn was really belting out that song, sounding absolutely amazing. If I’d been able to, I probably would have danced along with the music, but since I couldn’t, I simply gave it my silent appreciation.

I’ve always wished that I could sing like that, but it wasn’t going to happen, and not just because I was paralyzed. Even before my burnout, my singing voice hadn’t exactly been anything to brag about. In fact, I’d once kept a tally of how many times people told me to shut up and stop singing, though admittedly, almost all of those tallies had come from Miguel.

Just then, a woman’s voice called out my name. “Nina…” I opened my eyes in surprise, realizing that my name had been called several times and I’d been too distracted to really notice. “Are you awake?”

There was a glass wall, less than two feet in front of my face, which was no surprise since I was inside a giant fish tank. My body floated in a slimy goo, that went all the way up to my chin. It was only a harness which held me in place, which kept me from sinking down into it and drowning. As it was, whenever I did go down, it was intentional, and I had a breather mask on.

When I’d first come to Falkner’s lab, three weeks ago, I’d spent my first two days going through a lot of testing. That meant, a lot of blood had been taken, and I’d spent hours inside several MRI machines. That had all been extremely boring, but I was used to that. However, it was when Falkner had finished with the testing, that the scary part happened.

Falkner brought out a bunch of giant needles, which would have made me run away at the very sight of them, if I’d been able. Fortunately, I couldn’t feel pain anymore, because he stuck those monster needles, all the way into my bones, especially into some of my vertebrae…and left them there. Every one of those needles was connected to a tube or cable, which made me feel like I was some kind of puppet or marionette. And then, I’d been dumped into the fish tank, with all those needles and tubes, still plugged into me.

While this was going on, Falkner explained what he was doing, though it was almost entirely in technobabble, so I couldn’t really understand most of what he said. He used words like nanotech, techno-organic implants, and a few others, which I was sure he’d made up himself.

From what I understood, Falkner planted ‘techno-organic seeds’ in my body, which were supposed to grow into the implants. Falkner told me that growing the implants in place, made each of them a perfect fit, and specifically matched them to my system. Of course, he also said a bunch of other things that went over my head, but he seemed confident that this would fix me, and that was the important thing.

After a moment of gathering my thoughts, I turned my attention to the woman on the other side of the glass. Mary Albright was a slender woman with dark blonde hair, who was in her late twenties. She was also a nurse, who was here to look after me. My parents never would have let me go off alone with Falkner, even if it was to get a cure, if he hadn’t promised a private nurse, who would look after me around the clock.

“How do you feel, Nina?” Mary asked with a cheerful smile.

“I feel like one of those heads in a jar on Futurama,” I answered telepathically.

Mary nodded at that. “Hopefully, you won’t feel like that for much longer. Doctor Falkner will have you fixed up in no time.”

“I’m not technically a doctor,” Falkner announced as he came over. “A brilliant devisor, yes, but I never earned a medical degree.”

“You probably shouldn’t have told her that,” Mary said, giving Falkner a flat look. “You’ll make her nervous.”

“Nonsense,” Falkner responded with a grin. “Doctors are limited by accepted medical knowledge and practices, where I am not. I am able to think outside the box, and therefore, am able to find a solution where traditional medical science has failed.”

Mary gave Falkner an amused look and said, “Now you’re sounding like a mad scientist.”

“Nonsense,” Falkner said again, looking quite amused. “I’m generally a rather cheerful scientist.” Then, he looked through the glass at me and added, “And I think that you’re going to be quite happy with this next step.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Falkner held up a finger. “Phase one was to implant the seeds, which grew into the cybernetic nodes. Phase two was to direct the techno-organic…infection…to spread from the nodes, into the rest of your nervous system. For the last week, this has been replacing most of your spine and nerves, and now, you’re ready for phase three.” He held up three fingers.

“Phase three?” I asked, curious, nervous, and excited, all at the same time.

“Phase three,” Falkner told me with an eager smile, “is to flip the switch and turn on your new nervous system.”

If I’d been capable of letting out a gasp of surprise, or jumping up in delight, I would have done so in an instant. Instead, I made do with giving a silent cheer, and then trying to watch Falkner, though he moved out of my range of vision.

I couldn’t see what Falkner was doing, but suddenly, I felt a strange tingling that quickly spread. I could feel it running down my spine, through my arms, and then all the way down my toes. At first, I was completely overwhelmed by these new sensations, but then, I realized what they meant, and began to cry tears of joy. For the first time in three years, I could feel my body.

--------------------

Madison Wisconsin, Fri Aug 31st, 2007

Yesterday, Falkner had turned on my new nervous system, so for the first time in three years, I could FEEL things. I could feel my body. I could feel the slimy liquid that I was still floating in.

After Falkner had started phase three, he’d left me in the tank overnight, so he could continue to monitor my progress and make sure that nothing had gone wrong. But now, he was about to take me out of the tank, and I was excited.

“Will I be able to play the piano?” I asked telepathically, feeling giddy from what was happening.

“I don’t see why not,” Falkner responded with a smile. “You should regain full mobility.”

“All right,” I responded, with a mental grin, since I still didn’t have the control to give a real one. Still, my mouth twitched a bit, which was a LOT more than I was able to do twenty-four hours ago. “I couldn’t play before, so that will be new.”

A minute later, Falkner began the process of lifting me out of the tank. I had a harness wrapped around my body, which was really uncomfortable as the machine it was connected to, pulled me up out of the goo. I savored that sensation, since even physical discomfort, was something I hadn’t felt in so long.

While I was held up in the air, suspended above the tank, Falkner used a ladder to get up and pull all the tubes from my body. Once that was done, he used the machine and harness, to slowly lower me into a wheelchair that was waiting below. Mary was immediately there, removing the harness and wrapping me up in a blanket.

“Now, to get you into the shower to get this cleaned off,” Mary announced.

“That sounds great,” I projected to her, already thinking of the hot water. I was SO looking forward to having a hot shower, or soaking in a hot bath. Hell, I’d be thrilled to even experience a cold shower.

I began bouncing with excitement, at least, as much as I was able. That meant twitching my fingers and toes, which was a novelty for me. I couldn’t wait until I could do even more.

“This afternoon,” Mary told me with a reassuring smile, “we’ll begin your rehabilitation, so you can learn how to control your body again…”

“That will be necessary,” Falkner said as he came over and looked me over with a proud smile. “I had to go through it myself.” He tapped the side of his leg, to remind me that he’d been through a less extreme version of the same process I had. “And your muscles have atrophied from lack of use, so those will need to be built back up too.”

“Come on,” Mary told me as she began pushing the chair. “Let’s get to that shower…”

Just then, Falkner’s cell phone began to ring. He picked it up, and a moment later, his cheerful expression turned to one of worry.

“Are you okay?” I asked, though Falkner was out of my telepathic range. But to my surprise, he seemed to have heard me anyway.

“It’s…the bank,” Falkner explained with a forced smile. “I’m a little late on one of my payments, so we just need to work out a few details…”

With that, Falkner turned back to his call, while Mary pushed me out of the lab. My thoughts were already turning to the hot shower, which I was really looking forward to, and this time, even managed a faint smile.

--------------------

Madison Wisconsin, Sunday Sept 2nd, 2007

I stared at the table in front of me, feeling like I was a little girl again. Of course, that was because the table was covered with toys for toddlers, such old school wooden blocks, and a contraption where you could try putting a square peg into a round hole.

“Great job,” Mary announced, after I’d successfully stacked five blocks, one on top of another. “You’re making amazing progress.”

“Thanks,” I projected to her, trying to push aside my impatience, since I didn’t want to play with little kid toys. I wanted to get up and walk around, but Mary, who was my physical therapist as well as my nurse, insisted that I focus on this.

“Use your words,” Mary told me.

With a roll of my eyes, I repeated, “Thank you,” this time doing so aloud.

It felt a little strange to talk again, not to mention a little awkward. Because of that, I had to go slow, and speak carefully, until I could get used to this. As it was, it was easier to simply project my thoughts into her head, though I really wanted to get back to talking normally again, so I tried to keep practicing.

“Your control and hand-eye coordination are improving at an amazing rate,” Mary encouraged me with a smile. “From total paralysis to this, in just a couple days…”

“Falkner is amazing,” I said excitedly. “Nobody else could do anything at all…”

Of course, I knew that there were other devisors out there, and magic users who probably could have fixed me too. However, none of them had done the job. Falkner was the only one who had both the ability and the willingness to help me, and I would never forget that. I owed him so much.

“I can’t wait to smack Miguel upside the head,” I announced with a grin.

“Why would you want to do that?” Mary asked me in surprise.

“I have lots of reasons,” I answered her with a smirk. A real, honest to God smirk. “A whole list of them.”

Mary chuckled at that, then asked, “So, you’re Mexican…?”

This kind of question could have been offensive, depending on how it was asked, but I knew that Mary didn’t mean anything by it. She just wanted to keep me talking, to give me practice at actually speaking aloud again, and she thought that asking me about my family might encourage me to talk more.

“My grandpa was Mexican,” I answered cheerfully. “Dad was born in NEW Mexico, which makes him American.” I paused for a moment before adding, “And I was born in Sacramento.”

“Really?” Mary asked, pretending a little more interest than she actually felt. “And what does that make you?”

“Totally awesome,” I responded with a broad grin.

Mary chuckled at that, giving me an amused look. “And what about your mother’s family?”

“Her dad was Scottish,” I answered cheerfully, “and her mom was Brazilian.”

“Scottish and Brazilian?” Mary repeated with a look of amusement. “That sounds like a rather passionate mix.”

I grinned at that. “Yep. Dad says that with her temper, she should be a red-head.”

After another minute of talking, Mary announced, “Okay, Nina. Let’s do a few exercises to help with your muscle tone…”

“Sounds good to me,” I responded, gesturing to the wheelchair I was sitting in. “You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to getting out of this thing.”

“At the rate you’re improving,” Mary told me, “I suspect that it won’t be long…”

“Not at all,” Falkner agreed as he walked into the room. He looked me over and gave me a broad smile. “How are you ladies doing?”

“I’m doing great,” I answered, matching that with a grin. I LOVED grinning…or at least…being able to grin.

“She’s making amazing progress,” Mary told him.

Falkner nodded, not looking the least bit surprised. “I was walking again, less than a week after my procedure. Admittedly, my situation wasn’t nearly as extreme, but I doubt it will take Nina much longer.”

“That’s…impressive,” Mary admitted.

“There are…side benefits of the process,” Falkner explained, looking rather smug. “The techno-organic infection not only replaces the damaged nervous system, but also integrates with the body’s immune system.”

“What?” Mary asked in surprise. “Why?”

“Primarily,” Falkner told her, “to keep the immune system from fighting the implants and attempting to reject them. This way, the immune system sees the implants and techno-organic infection, as belonging.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Mary responded thoughtfully.

Falkner looked quite pleased with himself as he continued. “One of the benefits of this, is that Nina’s immune system and healing should be much more efficient than normal. In fact, I estimate that she would probably qualify as a regenerator one now…perhaps even a regenerator two. Either way, her muscle tone and general health should improve quite rapidly.”

“Awesome,” I exclaimed, staring at Falkner for a moment, then down at myself. “Does this mean I’ll get other powers too? I mean, like super strength, or super speed? I mean, stuff like what the Bionic Woman can do…”

Falkner laughed at that. “I’m afraid not,” he told me, still chuckling. “While you are a cyborg now, a fusion of cybernetics and organics, your implants were designed to replace your damaged nervous system, not give you other powers. The only power they were meant to give you, is the power to tie your own shoes.”

I nodded enthusiastically at that. “You don’t know how amazing that power is, until you don’t have it.”

“I can imagine,” Falkner said, his expression turning serious as he absently felt one of his legs.

Of course, Falkner might not have mentioned it, but we both knew that his implants had given me powers. Or more accurately, my old powers, which I thought had been lost for good, were slowly returning.

My telepathic range had tripled, so that I could now reach fifteen feet, which was about what my range had been before the burnout. And along with being able to project my thoughts, I was now starting to hear them again. The rest of my powers were starting to come back too, though I wasn’t nearly as excited by all that, as I was by simply being able to move.

Though I was trying not to listen to Falkner and Mary’s thoughts, some of them still slipped through. I suddenly got one from Falkner, where he was thinking about the money he’d borrowed for his lab and research, and how he was worried about being able to pay it back.

“Why did I have to borrow the money from HER?” Falkner thought to himself. “I should have known better than to borrow money from a supervillain…”

That thought suddenly caught my attention, and wanted to ask him what he meant, but I was embarrassed about eavesdropping on his thoughts, even if I hadn’t meant to. Was there a good way to bring up the subject? Or, should I keep it to myself and pretend that I hadn’t heard anything? After all, it wasn’t really any of my business. However, I liked Falkner, and I owed him more than I could ever repay. If he was in trouble, then I wanted to help him.

Before I could think of what to do or say, Mary grabbed my chair and began pushing me away. “Come on, Nina,” she told me cheerfully. “Let’s get you a good workout, and see what we can do to get you on your own two feet as soon as possible.”

“All right,” I exclaimed, lifting my legs and shaking them about in excitement. “The sooner I can get out of this chair, the better…”

--------------------

Madison Wisconsin, Tues Sept 4th, 2007

“Just three more steps,” Mary told me.

I nodded at that, and bit my lip, but didn’t answer aloud. Instead, I focused on what I was doing, keeping my hands on the support bars on both sides of me, and moving my feet. I took one shaky step, then a second, and finally, I reached the end of the bars and was able drop down into the chair that was waiting for me.

For the last couple hours, I’d been learning to walk all over again. I felt like a toddler, who kept falling flat on her face if she didn’t have something to grab onto, but I was walking. I was tired from all the practice, but I grinned with excitement anyway.

“How soon before I can run a marathon?” I asked.

Before my burnout, I’d never been interested in running, but not being able to move at all, changes your perspective. Now that I was able to get up and move again, I couldn’t stand the idea of just sitting on a couch and watching TV all day. I’d done that kind of thing for three years straight, and was more than through with it. I wanted to get out and do something. I wanted to walk. I wanted to run. I wanted to savor the freedom of simply being able to move. That was something that I would never take for granted again.

“I don’t know about marathons,” Mary answered with an amused smile. “But you should be walking completely on your own again, in no time at all. You just need to build up a little more strength, and balance.”

“Practice, practice, practice,” I said, repeating something that Mary had told me on several occasions. Apparently, that was what I needed to not only build up my strength again, but also my balance and control. “There is something else I could practice too…”

With that, I took a deep breath and focused my attention. A moment later, I floated up right out of my chair, and simply hovered in mid-air. Then, I grinned at Mary.

“Very impressive,” Mary told me with a smile. “But you still need to work on your physical rehabilitation.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, sticking my tongue out at her. “But it’s cool being able to do this again…”

Though I’d only had my powers for a couple weeks before my burnout, I’d still missed them once they were gone. Of course, I missed simply being able to move and talk even more, but it still bothered me to have been given these awesome powers…and then to lose them before I could even do anything with them. But now, they were back. All my powers seemed to have returned.

Along with my telepathy, I also had what they called short range telekinesis, with a PK shell. Since I’d never gone through any power testing, I wasn’t really sure what I was truly capable of, but the specialists who’d come to check me out after my burnout, had some ideas. They’d all said that because I couldn’t use my telepathy and telekinesis at the same time, that I was probably some kind of package deal psychic. But because I’d never shown any kind of clairvoyant power too, that my powers might be incomplete, broken, or just not fully manifested yet.

“I can’t wait to get some real power testing,” I told Mary. “I mean, I can do this really cool stuff, but I don’t really know how it all works.”

“Then you can get an MID too,” Mary pointed out. “Have you thought about what codename you’ll use?”

“Not really,” I said. I hadn’t thought about it, at least not recently. Before my burnout, though, I’d come up with a whole list of codenames to consider. Now that I think back on them, some of them were actually pretty lame.

“How about Psyber?” Falkner asked as he stepped into the room. “You have psychic powers…and cybernetics.”

I gave Falkner a look of surprise since I hadn’t even realized that he was there. “I guess that makes sense,” I said, slowly lowering myself back into my chair and then turning off my PK shell. “And it sounds kind of cool…”

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 me a wink and a grin, adding, “I just love a good dramatic entrance.”

I laughed at that. “Well, you are good at them…”

“Thank you,” Falkner responded, holding out a tablet and announcing, “Just a moment while I status your implants…” He stood there for a minute, staring at his tablet and making a few ‘thinking’ noises, like ‘hmmmmm’ and ‘ahhhh’, before announcing, “Everything looks great.”

“Why don’t you go take a break,” Mary told me. “We’ll get back to work in about two hours.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, using the little electric control on my wheelchair to back up and roll towards the door. This was a LOT more freedom than I ever thought I’d have again, and soon, I wouldn’t even need this. Soon, I’d be able to walk entirely under my own power. I couldn’t wait.

A minute later, I arrived at my room, and not the one with the fish tank. This was a small, but otherwise normal room, which could have fit right in at a cheap motel. This was where I’d stayed during my first two days, before I got put into the tank, and where I’d been staying again once I got out. I had intended to get on the bed and take a nap, but instead, I found myself going to the attached bathroom. I didn’t actually have to go to the bathroom, since I’d relieved myself right before Mary and I had begun our last session, but there was something else I needed to do.

I wanted to check my appearance and neaten up, to make sure I looked my best for Falkner. Sure, that might be a little vain, especially considering my situation, but a girl still wants to look her best. Okay, so I was developing a little bit of a crush on him. Who could blame me? He was totally amazing.

With a little effort, and some help from my powers, I was able to get out of the chair and stand in front of the sink. My legs were still weak and wobbly, so I had to use the sink itself for support. Still, I managed to do it, and wondered if Mary would count this towards my therapy. Only after I’d done this, did I actually look into the mirror.

“Ugh,” I said, not exactly thrilled with my reflection.

I was a super cute Latina girl, with naturally tanned skin. That was a good thing, because I’d been in the sunlight so little in the last couple years, that I might as well have been a vampire. Some mutants had odd-colored or unique eyes, but not me. My eyes were the same dark brown that they’d been before I manifested. Admittedly, they were a little boring that way.

And then, there was my hair. My hair was dark, and used to be so long, that it almost went down to my butt. I’d been really proud of it too. But after my burnout, Mom had cut my hair short, keeping it as a pixie cut since it was easy for her to take care of…and since I didn’t really have anyone to show off for. It had been about two months now since the last time my hair had been cut, so it had grown out a bit, and in the back, it nearly touched my shoulders again.

All in all, I supposed that I didn’t look so bad, at least not considering my situation. I was still cute, though I could definitely use a new haircut and some makeup. Maybe even some earrings to accessorize.

Strange, though it shouldn’t have been, was the fact that my body was taller than what I was used to. I’d grown a few inches during the last three years, and I’d filled out. However, I hadn’t been in any position to really appreciate this fact until now. Even if I’d been able to suddenly move as well as I had before my burnout, I probably would have been clumsy and awkward anyway, just because I wasn’t familiar with my new proportions, which admitted, were pretty nice looking. I wasn’t some totally stacked chica, but I wasn’t about to be mistaken for a boy either.

Then, my eyes went down to my hands, which held the sides of the sink for support. Specifically, my eyes went to my lower arms, on the spot right before my wrists. On each arm, there was a round and rounded metal disk, about the size of a quarter, which grew right out of the skin. Each one was dark-gray, smooth, and glossy. These were the spots where Falkner and shoved those huge needles into the bones, and where he’d planted the techno-organic seeds. After he’d pulled the tubes out, the metal had grown right over the holes, sealing them up completely so that you’d never know they used to be there. These metal disks, were the only visible signs of those cybernetic nodes.

Of course, my lower arms weren’t the only place that Falkner had stuck me with those needles. I had cybernetic nodes, and those silver metal disks, in a number of places around my body, such as my shoulders, my hips, and my lower legs, near where my feet were. However, these were barely noticeable compared to my spine. My entire spine, from the base of my neck, all the way to my tail bone, seemed to be made from the same glossy dark-gray metal. Mary had shown me the implants in a mirror, and it almost looked like I had metal vertebrae, running down my entire back.

These pieces of metal, growing right out of my body, made me look a little bit like a freak, but I didn’t care. These metal pieces were the visible parts of my cybernetic nodes, the things that let me get up and move around. I wasn’t ashamed of them. I was proud. I was thankful. And there was no way that I’d ever give them up.

After a minute of looking myself over, I settled back into my chair and let out a sigh of relief. I might be eager to stand up and walk around on my own, but obviously, I wasn’t quite ready. At least not yet.

“I wonder if I can talk Mary into getting me some makeup,” I mused with a faint smirk. I wondered what Falkner would say, if he came in and saw me all dressed up and looking nice. Maybe once I was able to walk around on my own again. “Now that is some motivation to improve…as if I didn’t already have enough.”

For several long seconds, I let myself indulge in a little daydream about Gerald Falkner falling in love with me, but then I shook it off. Intellectually, I knew it was silly, since he was a lot older than me and would probably never see me like that. Still, a girl could dream, so I did.

With a sigh and a vague sense of guilt, I turned my attention back to reality. There was something that I should have done a couple days ago, but I’d been procrastinating out of nervousness. However, I couldn’t really put it off for any longer, and this was the perfect time.

I picked up the phone that Falkner had given me, and carefully entered the phone number. A few seconds later, a familiar voice answered, “Hello, this is the Martinez residence. Sophie speaking.”

“Hello, mama,” I said in a shaky voice that showed how nervous I was. “It’s me…Nina.”

There was a long pause before Mom carefully asked, “Nina? Is that really you?” Her voice was just as shaky as my own, and filled with emotion. This was the first time I’d spoken to her aloud since my burnout, and the first time she’d heard my voice in three years.

“Yeah, it’s really me,” I said, while tears began running down my cheeks. “Mister Falkner fixed me…”

--------------------

Madison Wisconsin, Tues Sept 11th, 2007

I was short of breath as I ran on the treadmill, but I was also grinning enthusiastically. I hated running. Or at least, I had before my burnout. But a month ago, I’d been certain that I’d never be able to walk again, much less run, and that kind of thing could change a person’s perspective. Now, I actually loved being able to run.

“Okay, Nina,” Mary told me from a short distance away. “You can stop now…”

With that, I came to a stop, then leaned against the bar to catch both my breath and my balance. I might be able to run around now, but it was obvious that my speed and stamina still sucked. But what could you expect, after three years of atrophy. As it was, it was a miracle that I was able to do as well as I was.

“You’re really doing great,” Mary encouraged me. “I can’t believe how fast you’re recovering…”

“Yeah,” I responded with a grin. “This is awesome…”

I carefully got off the treadmill, which had already come to a complete stop, and simply jumped up and down for a few seconds. I laughed in delight of this simple action, then rubbed my legs, which were a little sore from the running.

Mary nodded agreement. “This afternoon, we’ll do a little light weight training, to help build your muscles back up.”

“But not too much,” I warned her. “I don’t want to get all big and muscly like a guy…”

“I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” Mary assured me with an amused smile. “At least, not without a serious regime, and a lot of supplements…”

Going to the gym and lifting weights was another thing that had never interested me before, but which I now kind of enjoyed, not that I’d admit it. I didn’t want to become a bodybuilder or anything like that, but I liked being able to exercise my muscles and actually DO something with them. It all made me feel so alive.

We’d been doing the light weight training, in one form or another, since I’d first begun to move again. A lot of it was minor resistance training, as I simply lifted my arms or legs, but over the last couple days, Mary had shifted over to actually having me lift weights…even if they were really small ones. I could actually see myself improving a little bit each day, and it was amazing. Before long, probably in just a couple more days, I’d be in just as good a shape as I’d been in before my burnout. Admittedly, I’d been a bit of a couch potato back then, so it wasn’t a high bar, but it was one I was looking forward to reaching…and exceeding. After what I’d been through, I was never going to be a couch potato again.

“Let’s take a little break for now,” Mary told me.

“All right,” I responded with a grin.

A moment later, I reached out with my telekinetic powers and grabbed my bottle of water from where I’d set it, and brought it over to me. My telekinesis seemed to be back at full strength, which still excited me. My range wasn’t really very impressive, but it hadn’t been before my burnout. I could only reach my telekinesis out about fifteen feet at the most, and at that range, I couldn’t lift anything very heavy. It was strongest close to my body, especially when I pulled my power in as far as I could, and formed a PK shell. Then, I could do some really cool things.

“I used to be super strong,” I bragged, though that wasn’t quite accurate.

“You’ve told me that before,” Mary pointed out, giving me an amused look as I floated up into the air. “Every time we work with the weights.”

“Being super strong was cool,” I responded defensively.

Before my burnout, when I used my PK shell, it made me really strong, though it didn’t seem to work quite the same way anymore. I could make my PK shell again, and use it to levitate around the room, but it didn’t let me pick up heavy stuff anymore, at least not easily. However, it seemed to make me even tougher than it used to, and harder to hurt. Falkner said that this was probably psychosomatic, and that I was subconsciously adjusting my PK shell to give me even more protection, but at the cost of my strength. I did kind of miss the strength, even though I only had it for a couple weeks, but that was okay. Just having my powers back at all was awesome.

Mary watched me float around the room, as though I was swimming through the air. She had a faint smile on her face, though she still called out, “Don’t stay up there too long. Your body won’t get any stronger if you spend all your time moving around like that.”

“I won’t,” I promised her, before gently settling myself back down to the floor.

There was some clapping from the far side of the room, where Falkner had been watching me. He held up his computer tablet, to remind me that it was time for another ‘system check’ as he put it.

“It looks like you’re coming along great,” Falkner told me with a proud smile. Then he became more serious as he asked, “So, have you noticed any pain, twitches, or latency in your movements?” These were the same questions he asked me several times a day.

“Nope,” I cheerfully responded. “Everything feels great… I’m totally bueno.”

“Good to hear,” Falkner told me, staring at his tablet, which somehow read my cybernetics. He nodded after a moment, looking satisfied. “You’re looking good. Your implants appear to be completely stable, and are working smoothly with the rest of your body. No signs of conflict or rejection at all.”

“That’s good to know,” I responded wryly.

The truth was, I was actually terrified that something would go wrong with my implants, and I’d end up paralyzed again. Fortunately, Falkner was keeping a close eye on them, and there hadn’t been any problems at all yet. This just proved how great he was.

Falkner stared at me for a few seconds with a thoughtful expression. “You know, the return of your powers wasn’t something that I intended…or expected. My guess is, now that your nervous system is able to handle the stress that your powers put on it, your powers are able to reemerge. Of course, I may be a mutant myself, but I’m no expert in mutant powers or how they work, so don’t take this as gospel.”

“So, it’s a good surprise,” I pointed out with a grin. “At least, good for me.”

With a chuckle, Falkner said, “I’m happy for you. “

“From what I know though,” Falkner mused aloud, continuing with a lot of technical terms I couldn’t really follow.

I switched over to my telepathy, hoping to pick up a better idea of what he was saying. However, I wasn’t really surprised when I couldn’t get much from him. Ever since he realized that I could read minds now, he’d been doing some kind of mental trick that made it hard for me to read his. I might have been able to push through it and read his anyway, but that would have been really rude, and I didn’t want to risk accidentally hurting him. After all, it wasn’t like I’d had any real training with my powers, just some trial and error.

Mary nodded along at first, then took advantage of the opportunity to slip away. However, I knew that she intended me to meet up with her again after lunch for the weight training, so I wasn’t worried, only annoyed that she wasn’t there to translate some of what Falkner was saying.

When Falkner finished talking, I did manage to catch a flickering surface thought, though I didn’t really need that to tell me he was worried. He was putting on a friendly smile, but it was obviously forced. I remembered his money problems, and the thought I’d overheard last week, about owing money to a supervillain.

“Are you all right?” I asked in concern.

“I’m fine,” Falkner assured me with another forced smile. “I’ve just got a few things on my mind.” Then, I heard his thought, “She’ll kill me.”

I nearly jumped at that. “You know, I can read minds,” I reminded him.

“Nina,” Falkner started, obviously not happy about that.

“I’m not trying to,” I quickly told him. “But I sometimes hear bits and pieces. Like something about you owing money…”

“Maybe she can help,” Falkner thought, before he quickly cut me off, using his mental trick again.

Pretending that I hadn’t heard that thought, I asked, “Can I do anything to help?”

“I’m afraid not,” he started, though the look that crossed his face told me he was lying. “I don’t want to get you involved in my troubles…”

“I’m already involved,” I pointed out, standing there with my hands on my hips, in the same way my mom did when she was facing down Miguel or my dad. It worked really well for her, because both of them always did what she wanted, whenever she gave them that look. I just hoped that it work half as well for me. “You used all this to fix me… I’m part of this now, and I want to help you the way you helped me…”

“I’m afraid that there’s nothing you can really do,” Falkner sad with a sigh. He gave me a sad smile. “Several years ago, I borrowed a large amount of money in order to build my lab and fund my research. I found out afterwards, that the person who loaned me the money is actually a supervillain…”

“Really?” I asked, pretending to be surprised by that bit.

Falkner nodded. “She left me alone for the most part, until a few weeks ago. Now, she’s calling in her loan, and wants all her money back…with interest.”

“How much?” I asked. When Falkner told me, my eyes went wide and I whistled. “Wow. That’s a lot…”

“Unfortunately,” Falkner admitted, “I’m unable to pay it back. At least not yet…”

He stared at me for a moment, and though he was hiding his thoughts, he wasn’t nearly as good about hiding his expression or body language. Falkner had something in mind, maybe a way to deal with his problem, and he didn’t want to tell me about it. Why?

I adjusted my position, making sure my hands were on my hips as I looked Falkner in the eyes. “And what aren’t you telling me?”

Instead of being intimidated by my power stance, Falkner seemed amused. “There is something you could do…in theory,” he admitted. His expression quickly turned serious though, and even a little worried. “I’d never even consider this if I wasn’t so desperate, but…” Then he paused to shake his head. “It’s too dangerous… I can’t do that to you…”

That immediately caught my attention. “What is it?” I demanded. “Please, I want to help you… You saved me from something a lot worse than death. If I can do anything to help you…ANYTHING…I will.”

Falkner winced, and I could see he still didn’t want to tell me, but I could also see how desperate he was. He’d been hiding it really well until now. Then, he collapsed into a nearby chair and let out a long sigh. Then, he stared out with a fearful look in his eyes.

“I don’t have the money to pay her back,” Falkner said with a sad shake of his head. “But maybe, I can give her something else she wants.”

“And what would a supervillain want?” I asked, before giving a weak smile and adding, “Unless she’s in a wheelchair or something…”

Falkner forced a faint chuckle at that. “Unfortunately, it won’t be that easy.” He scratched at his chin for a few seconds, then explained, “I’d also considered selling my services to several wealthy people with damaged spines. Your success proves that my process will work on others beside myself, however, there are other considerations. I’d have to find someone with the correct type of injury, one that I’d be capable of repairing. I’d have to convince them that my implants could solve their problems, and I’d have to get the payment. And while I can do all of this, it will take time. Time that I don’t have.”

“So…you just need to buy some time,” I said. “Can’t you just ask this villain to wait a couple more months?”

“She’s made it very clear that she won’t wait,” Falkner said. “I might get a couple weeks, but nothing more. Not unless I can convince her…”

I frowned at that. “And how do you do that?”

“Not easily,” Falkner admitted. “I think that since she’s a supervillain, the only thing I might possibly be able to offer her, that she’d want…besides the money…is information. Specifically, information on the superheroes who might come after her. If I can give her information on them…on their strengths, weaknesses, and so on, then she might take that as a down payment, and give me enough time to get the rest.”

For a moment, I just scratched my head, wondering where I came in on this. Then, it came to me. “You think I can read their minds and find out this stuff…”

“That is what I was thinking,” Falkner admitted, looking ashamed.

“I’ll do it,” I blurted out, which made Falkner stare at me in surprise. “You fixed me,” I said, trying to make him understand just how much that meant to me. “You gave me back my life, and I’ll do anything to pay you back. If you need me to spy on some superheroes, so that this loanshark supervillain doesn’t come after you, then I’m your girl.” Then before he could protest or argue, I insisted, “Now, who am I going to spy on?”

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Wed Sept 19th, 2007

I’d never been to Milwaukee before, and was a little nervous to be walking around a strange and unfamiliar city, all by myself. Falkner had given me directions for where to go, and I even had a map folded up in my purse, so I didn’t really have to worry about getting lost, so that helped a little.

While I looked around, gaping at the scenery like some kind of tourist, I reminded myself that I didn’t have anything to be worried about. After all, I had some totally awesome superpowers, that I could use to protect myself if anything went wrong. Of course, I’d never really been trained in using them, but I was trying hard not to think about that fact.

“I’m only going to spy on some superheroes,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Then, it suddenly dawned on me that, not only was I getting mixed up with some supervillain loan shark, and a group of superheroes, but that this was also the first time I’d been on my own in three years. For the last three years, there had always been someone else looking after me, even if they were just a couple rooms away. This was the first time I’d had to rely on myself, in a very long time, and that scared me almost as much as what I was about to do.

However, I couldn’t allow myself to get cold feet now. Falkner was counting on me. And after everything he’d done for me, there was no way I was gonna let him down.

“I’m not some cobarde,” I announced, getting some odd looks in the process from a woman nearby. With that, I took a deep breath, mentally put my big girl panties on, and continued on my way.

A minute later, I reached my destination, right on time. I might not know the area very well, but there was no doubt that I was in the right place, because there was a small group of people standing out in the open, wearing brightly colored costumes. This was the Liberty League, the group of heroes I was going to spy on.

According to Falkner, the Liberty League was the local hero group, and the people who were most likely to cause trouble for the villain he’d borrowed money from. I wasn’t sure why he didn’t just ask them for help in dealing with this villain, other than that he didn’t seem to think they’d be able to protect him.

The Liberty League had been scheduled for some kind of publicity event here today, which was why I’d waited until now to try making contact with them. That, and the fact that I needed to finish up my physical therapy, before I was in any kind of condition to actually help Falkner.

I stood back and watched the heroes, remembering what Falkner had told me. Every once in awhile, they did this kind of event, where they showed up and signed autographs, just to stay on the good side of the local people…and governments. This is the kind of thing I would have expected of actors, rather than superheroes, but Falkner said that they had to keep everyone happy, just so they could do their real jobs more easily.

The heroes were too far away for me to read their minds, if I even could have done so with so many people present. So, I just continued to watch them, trying to remember what Falkner had told me.

Force Majeure was a black man, with a black and gray costume with some silver metallic trim. Falkner said that he was supposed to be some kind of avatar, which meant that he was possessed by some kind of spirit or something. And apparently, he was also the leader of the Liberty League, though he didn’t seem especially thrilled about being here since he had a serious and somewhat impatient expression, probably because he’d rather be doing something more important.

The Gentleman didn’t look much like a superhero, unless it was one from over a hundred years ago. He was wearing an extremely old–fashioned green suit, which included a long coat and a wide brimmed hat. And to top it off, he was using a gold metal cane. Falkner said he was some kind of magic user, so I briefly wondered if I could talk him into doing a trick for me. That would be really cool.

The woman who stood next to the Gentleman, didn’t look much like a superhero either. The Bronze Lady had a really old-fashioned dress, but she also had some leather belts and a lot of bronze bits all over her outfit. One look at her, and the odd weapons hung from her belt, was enough to guess that she was some kind of inventor with a steampunk obsession.

One of the heroes was definitely enjoying this whole PR thing more than the others. Adonis was a huge guy, six and a half feet tall and bulging with muscles. He was also really handsome, which was probably a requirement for that codename, and he was surrounded by women who’d obviously noticed that fact.

“Wow,” I gasped, wondering if this was how I could get in with those heroes. If I went over and started to hang out with Adonis… Then with a sigh, I had to remind myself, “If he wasn’t like, way too old for me.”

The last of the superheroes present was an Asian woman with a black and gold costume. Falkner told me that this would be Twist, the newest member of the Liberty League, and the one he knew the least about. In fact, he’d told me to learn as much about her as I could, since that information would probably be the most valuable to the villain.

I knew that I had to find a way to get close to these heroes so I could spy on them, but I wasn’t sure how. I felt guilty for what I was planning, and was tempted to turn around and walk away. However, I kept reminding myself why I was going to do this.

“I just have to get close and start reading their minds,” I told myself. “You can do this. You have to do this.”

After taking a deep breath, I finally moved closer. I went towards Twist, who looked a little uncomfortable with the attention. She was surrounded by people who were curious about her, so I didn’t get much attention as I approached.

When I was close to Twist, I was surprised and a little confused, to realize that I wasn’t really hearing her thoughts. I could hear the thoughts of everyone else around me, even if it was all too loud, and too much of a mess to make much sense of, but all I got from the hero was static.

Since I couldn’t get anything from Twist, I went towards Adonis, hoping that I could get something from him…and maybe get a better look at his muscles while I was at it. I wasn’t normally a girl who was that into big muscles, but wow, Adonis really lived up to his name. Unfortunately, like Twist, all I got from him was static.

I frowned, feeling even more worried than I’d been before, though for a different reason. The entire reason I was here, was to learn as much as I could about these heroes, so Falkner could buy himself more time from that villain. If I couldn’t find anything useful, than Falkner would be in real trouble.

“I’m not gonna let that happen,” I promised myself.

For several seconds, I remained near Adonis, wondering why I couldn’t hear either his thoughts or Twist’s, when everyone else nearby was so loud and confusing, that they were giving me a headache. Maybe it was because they have powers, and none of these other people did. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t give up now. I moved closer to Force Majeure, getting close enough that I should be able to read his thoughts. But as with Twist and Adonis, all I got was static.

By this point, I was starting to get really frustrated by all the mental noise and the headache it was giving me. For once, I was actually thankful that my telepathic range was so limited, or I probably would have been picking up so much noise, that it would have completely overwhelmed me. As it was, I was about to switch over to my PK power, just so I could shut off the telepathy and get a break from all the mental noise. However, before I could do this, I heard a thought, a really loud and clear thought, that immediately caught my attention.

‘I’m gonna kill Adonis! Just one shot, and that bastard will finally be dead…’

I jumped in surprise and immediately looked around for the source. It only took me a moment to identify the man who’d been thinking this. He was middle-aged, stocky, and balding, with normal looking clothes. This guy definitely didn’t look like someone who’d go after a superhero, or at least, not the kind of person who had any chance of succeeding. However, he was staring at Adonis with the same kind of expression that my sister Julie reserved for broccoli. The one that always said she wanted to throw it on the floor and then jump up and down on it. And while I was pretty sure that this guy couldn’t do that to Adonis, he was still thinking about killing him.

A couple seconds later, old, fat, and balding reached into his jacket and began pulling something out. I didn’t even need to hear his thoughts to know that he was going for a weapon, though they certainly confirmed it enough for me.

“Look out,” I yelled, pointing to the man. “He’s got a gun…”

That caused Force Majeure to look at me, and then the man I was pointing too. It also caught the attention of the people around me, who began looking around frantically. And, unfortunately, it also caught the attention the guy with the gun, who suddenly yanked it the rest of the way out of his jacket, revealing that it was some kind of fancy looking ray gun. I might have thought that it was some kind of toy or prop from a sci-fi movie, except that he was pretty sure it would work.

“THIS IS FOR MY DAUGHTER!” the man yelled as he pointed the strange looking gun at Adonis. “DIE YOU BASTARD!”

A beam of green energy shot out from the gun, and Adonis dove to the side, knocking several of his fans out of the way so that they weren’t hit from the attack. There was a flash of light, and Twist was suddenly beside the man, grabbing the gun out of his hand, or at least trying to. He sprayed her in the face with something from a small canister, which looked like pepper spray. She yelped in pain and jumped back, grabbing hold of her face and gagging.

For a moment, I wondered how a group of heroes could be having such a hard time dealing with some ordinary guy with a gun. However, I immediately realized that there were a lot of innocent people in the way, and if the heroes tried anything, they’d get caught in the crossfire. At the same time, the Gentleman was doing some kind of magic spell, or at least, that was what I assumed it was, since he was creating some kind of glowing wall between the gunman and a group of the fans.

“Drop the weapon,” Force Majeure commanded, as a ghostly bear appeared around him.

The armed man completely ignored Force Majeure and focused his attention on Adonis. He raised the gun for another shot, and was about to take another shot at the hero. He didn’t even seem to care that there were a lot of other people nearby, and that if he missed Adonis again, he’d probably hit some of them. Since I was close enough, I desperately reacted, doing the only thing that I could think of. I used my telekinesis to grab the gun and yank it out of his hands, where I sent it flying up into the air.

“Attacking me in public wasn’t very nice of you,” Adonis said, giving a smile, which seemed more than a little smug.

While Adonis calmly want to the man, who now seemed to be armed with only the canister of pepper spray, a lot of the people took advantage of the opportunity to run. One woman, who clearly wasn’t paying attention where she was going, ran right into me. This distracted me enough that I lost control of my telekinesis, and the floating ray gun dropped right back down into the man’s hands. He gave a look of surprise, then triumph.

“Oh no you don’t,” Adonis said, but it was too late.

The man fired his gun and a blast of green energy hit Adonis in the side, though only enough to graze him. Still, it was enough to burn his uniform, and obviously do some damage to the hero himself, since he yelped in pain and grabbed at his injury.

At the same time, the Bronze Lady had pulled out some kind of weird looking gun, that looked high tech, yet really old-fashioned at the same time, like something Jules Verne might come up with. But before she could do anything with it, Force Majeure charged right at the armed man. The gunman panicked and began shooting in Force Majeure’s general direction, nearly hitting one man. Then I saw the gun pointing in my direction, and I barely got my PK shell up before a flash of green hit me and sent me flying back.

“Damn,” I gasped, feeling weak and sore. I staggered a little, afraid and exhilarated at the same time. I knew that I shouldn’t feel any excitement for something like this, but at that moment, I just felt so ALIVE. “Cabron. That hurt…”

Just then, I suddenly realized that a lot of people were now staring at me with looks of surprise, including most of the heroes. Twist had vanished, probably to try getting her eyes washed out, and Adonis was distracted by his injury, though he was still watching as well.

“YOU,” the armed man exclaimed, staring at me as well. “You’re the one who interfered…”

With that, he looked to Adonis, obviously trying to see if he had a clear shot at the hero. However, Force Majeure was now between them, blocking the shot. Because of that, he apparently decided that I’d make a good target too, because he fired another shot at me. Like the last one, this blast hit me and sent me flying back until I slammed into a wall, then slumped down to the ground, feeling sore and dizzy.

I was vaguely aware of Force Majeure leaping at the armed man, while Twist suddenly appeared beside him again, this time successfully managing to snatch the gun from his hands. After I saw the heroes slam him into the ground, I closed my eyes, just to rest my eyelids for a moment.

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Wed late afternoon, Sept 19th, 2007

I was sitting up in a hospital bed, feeling more than a little annoyed, not only by the circumstances, but also by the location. I’d spent way more time in places like this than I wanted to think about, but here I was, in a hospital, getting poked and prodded by doctors and nurses…again.

“I’m fine,” I told the nurse, who wanted to take another look at my implants. I pulled my hand away from her and gave a flat look, which seemed to get the point across.

After that guy shot me with his ray gun, and knocked me for a loop, the Liberty League rushed me to the hospital so I could get checked out. I was perfectly fine, other than a little bruising, but once the doctors got a look at my implants, they all started to act like I was on my death bed or something, and they wanted to keep me here for ‘observation’. They kept asking me about my implants, but I didn’t say anything, since I didn’t want to get Falkner in trouble. For all I knew, they’d try to get him arrested for practicing medicine without a license or something.

Once the nurse finally left my hospital room, I looked around for my clothes, and was relieved to see that they were folded up on the other side of the room. But before I even get out of the bed, much less grab my clothes and make a run for it, the door opened up again.

Four people stepped into the room, and I was relieved to see that they weren’t more doctors or nurses. Unfortunately, three of them were members of the Liberty League. Force Majeure, Adonis, and the Bronze Lady came in, along with a girl about my own age, who actually had glowing blue hair and eyes.

“Cool hair,” I said.

“Thank you,” the girl said, self-consciously running a hand through her glowing hair.

“I’m glad to see that you’re all right,” Force Majeure said, giving me a curious look. “Without your warning, Adonis might have been killed…”

“I could have handled him on my own,” Adonis said, looking rather cocky. “He was just a baseline with a devisor weapon. No real threat.”

The Bronze Lady gave him a look of annoyance, pointing out with a posh British accent, “But it was a devisor weapon, that managed to injure you, even with a glancing hit.”

Adonis shrugged that off and complained, “The one time Super Star missed out on a public appearance, just happens to be the one time she actually might have been useful.”

“You know quite well that she was tracking Torment in Green Bay,” the Bronze Lady responded crisply. “And it seems that she had her own bit of excitement while she was at it.”

Adonis looked like he was about to say something else, but Force Majeure gave him a flat look and he want silent. Then, Force Majeure turned his attention back to me.

“You helped us deal with that attacker, earlier,” Force Majeure said in a calm tone. “I assume that you were the one who briefly disarmed him…” I hesitated a moment, then nodded, because there was no point in denying it. “But I am curious as to why you were there today. You clearly aren’t a normal baseline…”

The Bronze Lady stepped forward, saying, “I hope you weren’t there to try auditioning for our team…”

“No,” I responded in surprise. I’d never even considered something like that. Of course, the real reason I was there, was probably even worse. At least as far as they’d be concerned. “I just wanted to see more people with powers…”

“That would make sense,” the Bronze Lady told Force Majeure. “A young mutant, who may not have met many others, would probably be curious about others like herself…”

“Aren’t you kind of assuming that she’s a mutant?” the girl with the glowing hair pointed out. She pointed to the back of my hand and the implant that was clearly visible. “I mean, she might be a cyborg or something…”

“Can’t I be both?” I asked a little self-consciously.

“How did you know he was going to attack me?” Adonis asked, looking more than a little suspicious. Maybe he wondered if I’d been working with that guy for some reason.

I gulped, hoping they didn’t realize that I was there to spy on them. That would be bad. Really bad. I mean, not as bad as being paralyzed for the rest of my life, but still a lot worse than getting caught jaywalking.

Suddenly, I realized just how wonderful Adonis was. He was so big, strong, and handsome, that I just wanted to melt into a puddle of goo. At that moment, I knew that I’d do absolutely anything, just to earn a smile or a look of approval. Anything.

“He was thinking about killing you,” I said, answering Adonis’ question. “I can read minds…”

“Enough,” the Bronze Lady exclaimed, giving Adonis an angry look. “She’s a child…”

“Adonis,” Force Majeure warned him.

A moment later, my head was suddenly clear again, and Adonis was still huge and really handsome, but he was no longer…perfect. I didn’t feel like groveling at his feet, just for the hope of getting his attention, and I felt disgusted by the realization that had felt like that just a couple seconds ago. I glared at him with the realization that he’d just used some kind of mind control on me.

I glared at Adonis, opening up with my telepathy. If he wanted to use psychic power, I could play that game too, even if I had absolutely no idea how to mind control anyone. Again, all I got from the three heroes was static, though I could hear some thoughts from the girl. She was thinking that Adonis was a jerk, so I liked her already.

“Hey,” the girl with the glowing hair exclaimed. “Why don’t you guys go and let me do what you brought me here for.”

“Glow has a point,” the Bronze Lady told Force Majeure, before giving Adonis another look of displeasure.

Force Majeure nodded, gave me another curious look, then turned and left the room. Adonis and the Bronze Lady left right behind him, though the girl with the glowing hair…Glow remained.

Once the others were gone, Glow closed the door to give us a little privacy, and turned to give me a wry smile. “I’m Glow,” she said, coming over towards my bed.

“Nina,” I responded. “Or Psyber, I guess. I mean, I was thinking of using that as my codename when I get my MID.”

“Cool,” Glow said. Then, she added, “In case you haven’t figured it out, they brought me along, because they figured that since we’re about the same age, that you might relate to me a little more.”

Since all the guys were out of the room, I climbed out of the bed and took off the stupid paper hospital gown they’d made me wear, and went to where my clothes were folded. While I began getting dressed, I considered what to say to Glow.

“I guess that makes sense,” I finally said.

While I was getting changed, Glow cautiously said, “Your back…”

I paused to glance at her, finding it hard to read her expression at the moment since she was keeping it so controlled. Obviously, she was a bit surprised by the implants that ran all down my spine. I just grinned at that, feeling rather proud of them, even if they did make me look a bit like a freak. After all, without all that metal, I’d still be paralyzed.

“I was going to get a piercing, and I got a little carried away,” I announce with a broad grin. When Glow gives me a look like she doesn’t believe me, I shrug. “My powers really screwed up my body, when I manifested, and all the metal is just to fix it.”

“Really?” Glow asked in surprise.

With a nod, I finished getting dressed, putting my shirt on and covering up most of my implants. The only ones that were really visible now, were the ones on the backs of my hands.

“So,” I asked, giving Glow a curious look. “Are you with the Liberty League?” She looked a little young to be a hero, wasn’t wearing a costume, and I’d never heard of her before, but I never knew.

“My mom used to be,” Glow answered with a shrug. “But I’m not. I am home schooled though, and some of them tutor me…” Then she paused to stare at me for a couple seconds. “Like I said, they figured that I might not be as intimidating, and that you’d probably be more likely to talk with me.”

I gave her a wry look. “So, you’re here to interrogate me…”

With that, I looked Glow over again, trying to decide if she was a threat or not. I didn’t really know what her powers were, but from her glowing hair and eyes, it was pretty obvious that she had some. I just hoped that I didn’t have to fight her, because I had absolutely no idea what would work out.

“More like, just asking some friendly questions,” Glow told me. “I mean, you came out of nowhere and helped them against that guy, so they’re pretty curious about you.”

“And you’re not afraid that I’m going to read your mind?” I teased, really wishing that I hadn’t spilled the beans about my telepathy. I mentally stuck my tongue out at Adonis.

“A little,” Glow admitted, though her expression went dark. “But you wouldn’t want to read my mind anyway. It’s kind of messed up in there.”

“That’s okay,” I assured her. “I’m kind of messed up too…” I held up my hands to show the implants on the back of them, and to remind her what my back looked like. “And I only just got my powers back, so it’s not like I’m really good at using them… I mean, I couldn’t read anything at all from your friends, even when I was standing right next to them.” Then, realizing what I’d just said, I quickly added, “Not that I was really trying.”

Glow just chuckled at that, which relieved me since I was afraid that she’d get mad or something. “Gentleman made these magic charms for the Liberty Legion, to protect them from telepaths and mind control.” She paused and glanced at the door, and in an almost conspiratorial voice, added, “Personally, I think the real reason he did that, is to protect his wife from Adonis. As my friend Mel would say, he’s a total creeper.”

“Really?” I ask, not at all surprised, after the way he’d used that mind control stuff on me a little bit ago.

“Yeah,” Glow said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he became a hero, just because he thought it would impress the girls.”

That made me burst out laughing. “He’s really cute, but he does come off as a bit of a perv…”

Glow nodded agreement. “You know, that guy who tried to kill him earlier…?”

“How could I forget?” I asked wryly.

“Well,” Glow started to explain. “Apparently, he was after Adonis, because Adonis slept with his daughter or something. The Gentleman told me, that this guy spent his entire life savings, buying that gun from a devisor, just so he could shoot the guy who ‘deflowered his sweet and innocent daughter’.”

The two of us shared a look, then burst out laughing. “So all that, was because Adonis couldn’t keep it in his pants?”

“Pretty much,” Glow responded.

I shook my head, wondering how many problems had been caused by guys who only think with their little head, and how many more people Adonis might have coming after him in the future. Well, that wasn’t really my problem, though I still took mental note of it. This might be the kind of thing that Falkner’s villain might be able to use.

“Anyway,” Glow said, giving me a wry look. “I’m not here to gossip about Adonis, but to find out more about you.”

“What about me?” I ask innocently.

Glow doesn’t buy it. “Eliza…the Bronze Lady told me that you used some kind of telekinesis…and you said that you can read minds too. Are you a package deal psychic?”

I hesitated a moment before nodding. “The doctors think I am, but I’ve never been tested… I just got my powers back, and haven’t had a chance to do that yet…”

“Just got them back?” Glow asked, looking a little confused.

With a roll of my eyes, I explained, “After I manifested a couple years ago, I went through a burnout, and it totally fried my nervous system. I only just got these…” I held up my hand and tapped the implant on the back of it, “They fixed my nervous system, and gave me back my powers.”

Glow stared at me for a moment, commenting, “Wow.” Then she hesitated a moment, before asking, “And the reason you were there this morning?”

Since I wasn’t about to tell her that I was there to spy on her friends, I just shrugged. “The doctor finally released me from the clinic today, with the all clear, so I started wandering around. When I heard a bunch of heroes were gonna be out signing autographs, I decided to go check them out. I haven’t really seen many other people with powers.”

“You just got out this morning?” Glow asked with a look of surprise. Then she looked around the room, adding, “No wonder you’re so eager to get out of here.”

“You have no idea,” I responded with a sigh. Then, I asked, “And what about you? I told you about me, so turnabout is only fair…”

Glow hesitated, suddenly looking extremely self-conscious. She obviously wasn’t comfortable discussing herself, but since I’d already told her a bit about myself, it was only fair that she give a little something back.

“Well,” she started, “I’m a teleporter, and I can do a few things with energy.”

Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light, and Glow was on the opposite side of the room. Another flash of blue light, and she was standing near where she’d been to start with. However, she held up her hand, and had a ball of glowing blue light in it. After a few seconds, it sort of dissipated and faded away.

“Cool,” I said excitedly. This was way better than watching TV all day.

“And like I said earlier,” Glow continued with a wry smile, “my mom used to be a member of the Liberty League, so I get to hang out with them a little.”

“Used to be?” I asked. “Is she…?”

The other girl blinked, realizing what I meant. “Oh,” she responded with a chuckle. “She’s fine. She just took a leave of absence for personal reasons.”

I wasn’t sure what to say next, though I imagined it must have been really cool, growing up with a mom who was a superhero. I bet Glow grew up, spending a lot of time around superheroes. Heck, she probably never had to be afraid of anything in her life, because she had her very own superheroes looking out for her.

“You don’t seem to be a supervillain or anything,” Glow abruptly told me with a look of amusement.

“That’s good to hear,” I responded wryly.

Glow smiled back at me. “Well, I’m getting kind of hungry. Do you want to come have dinner with me and my sister?”

I blinked in surprise, because that wasn’t what I’d been expecting, at all. “Sure,” I told her with a grin since I was getting pretty hungry myself. “But if you don’t mind, can we eat somewhere other than this place? Hospital food sucks.”

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Wed early evening, Sept 19th, 2007

The Flying Stagg brewery and restaurant was designed to look like some kind of old-fashioned pub. Most of the walls were wood panels, and some of them included carved murals. The same kind of theme extended to the bar itself, not that I could get close enough for a really good look. Since I was sitting at a table in the restaurant part, rather than in the bar area, it didn’t matter that I was underage.

“My mom introduced me to this place a couple weeks ago,” Glow told me. “It’s mutant friendly, and strictly neutral, so I don’t have to hide my hair or anything…”

“I guess that would make this more convenient for you then,” I responded.

My eyes went to Glow’s hair and eyes, and I smiled wryly. On the way here, she’d worn a hoodie, with the hood up to hide her hair, along with a pair of sunglasses to conceal her eyes. I imagined that kind of thing would really old, really fast. After all, who wants to hide their hair and eyes everywhere they went? Then again, since I had all these implants sticking out of my skin now, so I might have to start covering them up, just so people didn’t stare at me. However, that would be a small price to pay for being able to walk again.

Glow nodded. “It’s a…fairly recent problem.”

I grinned at that. “It sounds like there’s a story there…”

“A bit,” Glow admitted, though it quickly became clear that she wasn’t about to tell me what that story was.

Just a minute after this, two more people came into the restaurant, and headed straight towards our table. One of them was a girl, of about fourteen, who had a strong resemblance to Glow. She didn’t have glowing hair or eyes, and looked pretty normal, but the resemblance was still there.

The other newcomer was a young Asian woman, who looked like she was about twenty. Though she wasn’t wearing a costume, it was pretty easy to recognize Twist.

Twist looked at me, though her expression was difficult to read. I could have tried reading her mind to find out what she was thinking, but even if she wasn’t magically protected, I didn’t want to do that. Poking around on other people’s thoughts was pretty tempting, because it was too easy to do, and that kind of scared me. I figured, it was like snooping through their underwear drawer, times a hundred.

The girl who was with Twist, was a lot easier to read, and that was without using my power. She gave me a look that was half curiosity and half suspicion.

Glow stood up and gestured to the younger girl, saying, “This is my sister, Dinah.” Then she looked to me and said, “This is Nina.”

“Hey,” Dinah greeted me, giving me another look.

“We met earlier,” Twist commented. “Sort of.”

I nodded at that, then glanced to Glow. “Is Adonis gonna show up next?”

“I hope not,” Twist muttered, which made me grin. Apparently, his own teammates weren’t exactly thrilled about having him around, or at least, the women weren’t. Kind of funny for a guy named Adonis.

Twist and Dinah sat down, and I found myself right next to Dinah. She kept giving me odd looks, as if trying to decide whether to like or hate me.

“So,” Dinah finally asked. “Who are you?”

I blinked at that. “I’m Nina. Nina Martinez.”

“Rachael told me she was bringing another mutant to dinner,” Dinah said, obviously referring to the brief phone call that Glow had made before we left the hospital.

“Rachael?” I asked, looking to Glow.

Glow smirked. “You don’t think my parents named me Glow, did you?”

“They didn’t name you Rachael either,” Dinah teased her, before she abruptly paused to glance nervously at me. Glow just glared at her for some reason.

Now, I was really tempted to do some mind reading, though I restrained myself. Intellectually, I knew that I shouldn’t, since this would be a great opportunity to learn some stuff, but it just seemed super rude to do that right now.

Dinah scowled, looking momentarily guilty, probably because she just spilled her sister’s real name. Then again, Glow told me Dinah’s name, assuming that wasn’t just a made-up name.

“So, do you have a codename?” Dinah nearly demanded me of me.

I squirmed a little uncomfortably and glanced at Twist. “I was thinking of using Psyber, when I get my MID.”

“Why Psyber?” Dinah asked.

Before I could answer, Twist said, “I was told that you have cybernetic implants…”

“And psychic powers,” Glow added with a look of amusement. “It looks like she’s a package deal psychic.”

Twist gave me a thoughtful look, which made me uncomfortable. “An uncommon power, but pretty versatile.”

“I guess,” I admitted with a self-conscious shrug. “I mean, I only just got my powers back, so I’m still trying to figure them out.”

“Got them back?” Twist asked, looking curious.

With a sigh, I explained, “I had a bad burnout, after I manifested, and it burned out my powers and nervous system.” I held my hand up to show the implant in the back of it. “These things fixed me, and gave me back my powers.”

“She says she just got released from the doctor this morning,” Glow offered for me.

I nodded agreement, while realizing how ironic the situation was. I’d come to Milwaukee to try spying on the Liberty League, but they were probably learning more about me than I was about them.

After this, we ordered dinner and chatted while eating. Dinah relaxed a little and became a little friendlier towards me, probably because she saw that I wasn’t some supervillain spy. I actually was, sort of, but she didn’t know that.

While eating, I got the impression that Twist had come, not to escort Dinah, but to keep an eye on me. It made sense, that if the Liberty League wanted to watch me a little more, that they’d pick her to do so. After all, she was the closest to my age and the one I would probably relate to the best.

By the time we moved on to dessert, everyone was really relaxed and having a good time. But that wasn’t a surprise. I mean, who can be unhappy when you’ve got a big slice of chocolate cake in front of you, or some really tasty ice cream.

“Wow,” Dinah exclaimed. “You’re realy scarfing down that cake…”

Twist just laughed. “It seems Nina goes after the cake, the same way Rachael goes after snickerdoodles.”

“Hey,” Glow protested. “Snickerdoodles are awesome…” Then, she stuck her tongue out at Twist.

I giggled at that, before saying, “This is the best cake I’ve had in like…forever.” Then I paused, adding “Actually, this is the first cake I’ve had in three years…”

“Three years?” Dinah asked in surprise. “Were you on a diet or something.”

“Something,” I answered wryly, before taking another bite of my cake. When I was done swallowing, I explained, “I was totally paralyzed, and had to be fed through a tube in my stomach…”

As I took another bite of cake, I realized that everyone at the table was staring at me in surprise. There was even a bit of pity, which was kind of annoying. I’d had more than enough pity to last me a lifetime.

“This cake is totally awesome,” I said, looking to Twist, who’d ordered apple crisp instead. “Nice and rich chocolate… Yum…”

“You were paralyzed?” Glow asked, still staring at me.

I nodded self-consciously, then held up my hand to show the implant again. “I told you, my nervous system was fried. Without these things, I’d be just a lump in a chair again.”

Dinah just stared at me. “That’s gotta suck…”

“You have NO idea,” I responded.

I let out a sigh, not wanting to think about how miserable I’d been, so helpless that I couldn’t even wipe myself after going to the bathroom…or even control myself. Gross, disgusting, and something I REALLY didn’t want to think about, especially when I was trying to enjoy my dessert.

“But Falkner fixed me,” I bragged, only realizing that I shouldn’t talk about Falkner, after the fact. Well, it was too late now. “He’s totally awesome…”

“I wonder what Mel would think of Nina,” Dinah commented.

Glow smiled at that, and her eyes seemed to glow just a little more brightly. “Maybe we can find out the next time Mel comes to visit.” She looked at me. “Do you live nearby?”

“Sacramento,” I answered with a sigh. Glow was kind of cool, and it would probably be fun to be friends with her. However, that would be pretty hard since I normally lived in California. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be here. Falkner, my doctor, wants to keep an eye on me for a bit longer, to make sure there aren’t any problems with my implants.”

Glow nodded at that. “I hope you’re around long enough to meet our friend Mel. I think she’d get a kick out of meeting you, especially if you show her your powers.”

Dinah laughed at that. “Yeah, Mel loves seeing people use their powers. At least, when they’re not being used on her…” Dinah and Glow shared a look, that suggested another story.

“Nina,” Twist said to get my attention. “I just wanted to tell you, that we appreciate your help earlier today. In the future, you shouldn’t get involved in that kind of thing until you’re trained, but your warning may very well have saved Adonis’ life.”

“Um…you’re welcome,” I responded awkwardly.

Twist gave me a look of amusement, before asking, “Would you be interested in a tour of Liberty Island…our headquarters, tomorrow?”

“What?” I asked, staring at her in surprise.

“If you’re interested,” she continued, “we could also do some basic power testing, enough to give you a better idea of what you have.”

“Sure,” I responded with a grin. “That would be awesome.”

“The place is different,” Glow told me with a wry look. “And your first time on the island should be a lot better than mine was.”

I gave Glow a curious look, but it was Dinah who cheerfully answered, “They thought she was a supervillain and locked her a prison cell.”

My eyes went wide at that, and Twist laughed. “That was before I joined, but I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about that.”

A short time after this, we finished up and left the restaurant. I practically had to waddle out the door, and if there weren’t other people watching, I might even have cheated and levitated myself out. Then, we agreed on a time and place to meet up tomorrow, before going our separate ways.

Once I was far enough away from the Flying Stagg and the others, and I was sure nobody was watching, I pulled out the cell phone that Falkner had given me. For a moment, I just stared at it, feeling guilty for what I was doing. However, I reminded myself of WHY I was doing this, and made the call.

“It’s me,” I told Falkner, trying to keep the nervousness and guilt out of my voice. “It didn’t work out like we’d planned, but I’m in.”

Nerves of Steel part 2

Author:

Morpheus

Audience Rating:

General Audience (pg)

Publication:

Fiction

Genre:

Character Age:

Teenage or High School

TG Universes & Series:

Whateley Academy by Maggie Finson, et al

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Thursday late morning, Sept 20th, 2007

I walked down the sidewalk at a pretty fast pace, not because I was in any particular hurry, but simply because I wanted to. Being able to walk or run, for no other reason than because I wanted to, was still exciting. In fact, I probably would have run down the sidewalk, if it wasn’t for the fact that people would stare. Even so, I was pretty tempted to break out running anyway.

Last night, I’d slept in the motel room that Falkner had arranged for me. It had been small, uncomfortable, and kind of noisy, but that didn’t matter, because today was going to be fun. I’d hang around with Glow, get a tour of the Liberty League’s headquarters, and hopefully, get Falkner enough information about them, so that he could buy himself more time.

A minute later, I reached my destination, or at least, I was close enough to see it. I came to an abrupt stop and just stared with my mouth open.

“No way…,” I gasped.

In the parking lot where I was supposed to meet up with Glow, there was strange looking machine, that looked like a cross between a helicopter and a jet…if it had been designed by Jules Verne. The thing looked like it was mostly made of bronze, and it had three helicopter rotors on top. I was so amazed by the machine, that it took me a few more seconds to realize that there were people standing in front of it, looking at me.

“Hola,” I called out to Glow, who wasn’t bothering to hide her hair or eyes.

Twist stood right next to Glow, and she was dressed up in her costume. She gave me a friendly wave as I approached. A short distance away, the Bronze Lady was busy talking to the tallest woman I’d never seen. She was nearly seven feet tall, and was dressed in normal clothes rather than any form of costume.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Twist said.

“Me too,” I responded with a grin. Then I looked around before asking, “Is Dinah coming?”

“She’s in school,” Glow told me, looking just a little smug. “I’m homeschooled now, so my schedule is a little more flexible.”

“Well, don’t expect this to be a day off,” Twist told Glow with an amused look. “You’ve got some work to do once we get to the island.”

Glow let out a sigh. “Yeah, I remember.” Then, she gestured to the towering woman, and said, “This is my mom.”

I just stared up at the huge woman, saying, “Wow, she’s tall.”

At that, Glow’s mom turned her attention to me and gave me an amused smile. “It’s part of my power,” she commented.

“This is Nina,” Glow told her mom.”

“So, you’re Rachael’s little friend,” Glow’s mom said with a smile. “I heard about what you did yesterday.”

Before I could say anything in response, the Bronze Lady said, “Everybody, please board the trithoptor.” I guessed that was the big helicopter jet thing.

“Is this thing safe?” I asked as I went aboard the trithoptor and found seat. The thing looked so unbelievable that it reminded me a bit of an amusement park ride.

Once I was seatbelted in, I looked to Glow’s mom, thinking that this was going to be a tight fit. But to my surprise, she seemed to shrink a little bit while she was putting her own seatbelt on. I was pretty sure that she was at least half a foot shorter than she’d been a few minutes ago, though it was hard to tell since she was now sitting.

Before I knew it, the machine took off and we began raising up into the air. I stared at the window, watching the ground get further and further away, and still being amazed by the fact that this thing really could fly.

“Pretty weird, isn’t it?” Glow asked me, gesturing around us. “El…the Bronze Lady really likes this steampunk style, but she’s pretty good at what she does. Most of her stuff works really well.”

“Most of it?” I asked, not feeling much better.

Glow just smirked. “Actually, Dinah has been trying to talk the Bronze Lady into teaching her how to fly it.”

“Not until she turns sixteen,” Glow’s mom said, with the same note of finality that my dad used to use when he announced that I wouldn’t be allowed to date until I was sixteen.

Suddenly, I realized that I was sixteen, which meant, that I was now allowed to date. For a long time, that hadn’t been an option for me, but now, thanks to Falkner, it was again. I grinned like an idiot for the rest of the ride.

I stared out the window as we flew over Lake Michigan, and after half an hour, we came to an island. From the air, it looked like it was shaped like a rectangle, which seemed pretty weird to me, until Glow told me that the whole island was actually some kind of big barge. Then, we landed, with the Bronze Lady setting the trithoptor down on a landing pad, right next to another one just like it.

“Welcome to Liberty Island,” the Bronze Lady said, giving me a welcoming smile.

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

After this, we went inside the building, which was the only one on this island. This was the headquarters, or at least, the entrance to the headquarters, which was mostly ‘underground’. It was a little weird, but exciting too. I nearly let out a ‘squee’ of delight, at actually being inside a real superhero headquarters. This was way better than sitting on the couch and watching TV for the entire day.

The Bronze Lady led the way through the building, until we ended up in a room where the rest of the Liberty League members were gathered. The room looked comfortable, with couches and recliners, so the place definitely came off more like a living room and less like some kind of formal briefing room. I guessed that this was where they hung out, when they weren’t off doing superhero stuff.

As soon as we entered, the Bronze Lady went straight to the Gentleman and gave him a brief kiss. Adonis, who was sitting back in a recliner with a drink in his hand, gave us a brief glance before returning his attention to the magazine in his other hand.

Force Majeure was standing up and talking with a beautiful and busty blonde woman, who was wearing a blue and white costume, with a blue domino mask and a star symbol on her chest. Though I hadn’t seen this woman before, I knew that this had to be Super Star. Falkner had told me that she was a member of the team, and a couple of the others had mentioned her in the hospital.

“Pinball is up to something,” Super Star told Force Majeure, raising her voice a little more than was necessary. She scowled, looking angry. “I think she’s working with Torment. And she even has a new minion, which looks like a possible clone…”

“We’ll talk about Pinball later,” Force Majeure told the woman, before turning his attention towards us. “Ginormous,” he said, looking at Glow’s mom. “So, when are you coming back to work?”

My eyes went wide and I stared at the tall woman. Glow had told me her mom used to be a hero, but I hadn’t known which hero she was, until now. Now, I knew she was Ginormous, not that this did me any good. I’d never even heard of Ginormous until that very minute.

“You know I’m out of costume,” the tall woman said with a smile. “You can call me Sarah.”

“I was trying to be conscientious of your identity,” Force Majeure admitted, quickly glancing towards me.

Glow’s mom…Sarah just laughed, though it was a bitter laugh. “After what happened last month, any secret identity I ever had, has been well and truly destroyed.”

Force Majeure nodded at that, though he had a rather dark expression. At that moment, I really wished I could read his mind, because I bet there was an interesting story there, one that might help save Falkner. Then, I glanced to Sarah, realizing that since she wasn’t an active member of the team anymore, she might not have that magic protection from mind reading. However, before I could verify that, Force Majeure started coming towards us.

“You know that Miss Martinez is too young to recruit,” he said, looking to Twist. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Yeah,” Adonis agreed, staring at me with an expression that made me want to cover myself up even more than I already was. “Definitely underage. You need to throw her back for a couple more years.”

“He doesn’t have X ray vision or anything, does he?” I whispered to Glow.

“Not as far as I know,” Glow responded wryly.

“I can’t stay the youngest member of the team forever,” Twist responded in a cheerful tone. Then, a little more seriously, she added, “No recruitment attempt here. Just showing our appreciation, and helping Nina figure out her powers a bit more.”

Glow leaned over and whispered in my ears, “Some seem more appreciative than others.” She glanced to Adonis, who was back to sipping on his drink and reading his magazine, seemingly forgetting about me entirely.

“Come on,” Twist said, gesturing for me to follow. “I’ll give you the nickel tour…”

“It should be fresh in your mind,” Glow commented wryly. “I mean, you just barely got it yourself.”

Twist chuckled, then began leading Glow and I down another hallway, while Sarah and the Bronze Lady remained behind with the others. The tour was pretty basic, and there were a lot of areas that I wasn’t cleared for, or at least, that was the impression I got. That wasn’t surprising though, since it would be silly to show all your secret stuff to anyone who just happens to show up. But on the other hand, those secret areas were probably ones I should look into, considering that was the whole reason I was here and all.

Eventually, we arrived at a large gym like room, where the Gentleman, Bronze Lady, and Sarah were already waiting. Glow immediately excused herself, then hurried through another door, leaving me with the four heroes. Or three heroes, and one former hero.

“This is one of our training rooms,” Twist told me. “I figure, this will be the perfect place to work with your powers.”

The Bronze Lady said, “I fear that we aren’t equipped for proper power testing, but we shall attempt to do what we can for now.”

“We should be able to manage some of the basics,” the Gentleman commented as he leaned on his cane.

By ‘the basics’, the Gentleman meant that they were going to have me show off what I could do, and then see if I could do other things. I started by showing off my telekinesis, then pulling it in real tight so that it became a PK shell, and I could levitate up in the air. That seemed to interest them more than anything.

It was around this point that Glow returned, though she’d changed clothes and was now wearing a blue and grey costume, that covered everything from her neck down. If I hadn’t known otherwise, I would have assumed that she was a superhero too, because she certainly looked the part.

“Cool costume,” I told Glow.

“It seemed appropriate,” she responded, glancing at the other people present, who were already in costume.

Now, I was feeling a little self-conscious, because other than Sarah, I was the only one who wasn’t wearing some sort of costume. And since she was currently nearly eight feet tall, her dressing ‘normal’ didn’t really count.

“We still have some more testing to do,” the Gentleman commented. “I believe telepathy is next.”

“Unfortunately, I know little about telepaths or how to test that ability,” the Bronze Lady said, looking at the others. The Gentleman had a look of agreement as he shook his head, while Sarah just shrugged.

“I had a telepath on my training team back at Whateley,” Twist offered, giving me a curious look. “I’m no expert, but I picked up a few things about how the power works.”

Twist had me try a few exercises, then tested my range, which largely meant that I had to see if I could read her thoughts, as she moved further and further away from me. Of course, all I got from her was static, but I could feel the static getting fainter and fainter, until she reached my max range and then cut off entirely.

Once we were done with that, Twist pulled out a deck of cards and we played the ‘guess which card’ game, as she tried to see if I could guess what the next card would be, without seeing it. I’d actually done this before, right after I first manifested, so I knew exactly what she was up to. She was trying to see if I had some kind of ESP power to go along with my telepathy and telekinesis. The answer to that, was a big fat no.

Next, the Bronze Lady and the Gentleman took their turns with me, though they were trying to see if I might be a devisor or magic user. The Bronze Lady gave me some kind of weird devise, and a pile of parts, and waited to see if I could do anything with them. Then, the Gentleman did a bunch of magic stuff, and tried to see if I could do anything too. Again, each of those tests resulted in a big fat no. In fact, the ‘no’ was so big and fat, that it reminded me of Miguel’s head.

When we were finished with all the tests, the Bronze Lady told me, “Unfortunately, we have neither the resources nor the proper experience to provide any further testing, or at least, not any of serious consequence. However, from what you’ve told us, and what we’ve seen here, it looks like you are probably some form of unbalanced Package Deal Psychic.”

“Unbalanced?” I asked in surprise, and feeling a little insulted. “Are you calling me crazy or something?”

“No,” Twist quickly assured me.

“Yes,” Glow responded with a smirk.

Twist rolled her eyes. “What the Bronze Lady means, is that most Package Deal Psychics have telepathy, telekinesis, and esper abilities in one form of another. Basically, these powers all share the same power source, so you can only use one of them at a time.

“Your telekinesis seems to be fairly strong,” Sarah added, surprising me a little since she’d just been watching most of the testing in silence. “You’ve got general telekinesis and you can shift that over to becoming a PK supergirl. You do have telepathy, but from what I can tell, it doesn’t compare to your TK abilities as far as strength goes, and you don’t seem to have any esper abilities at all. Your abilities seem…unbalanced as far as their strength goes.”

“Precisely,” the Bronze Lady said, nodding in agreement. “In fact, the only reason we have to believe that you are a Package Deal Psychic, rather than just being a combined telepath and telekinetic, is that you can only use one of those at a time.”

The Gentleman stared at me, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Psychic abilities are not my specialty, but I do have some thoughts on the matter.”

“You always do, dear,” the Bronze Lady said, giving him an amused look.

The Gentleman adjusted his collar for a moment, taking a few seconds to compose himself. “It’s possible,” he finally explained, “that the young lady’s powers were retarded by her burnout, or conversely, that their unusual condition is the cause of the burnout. Either way, there is always the possibility that her powers may be incomplete, and might potentially develop further in the future.”

“Did you hear that?” Glow asked me. “You might develop ESP.”

Twist nodded at that, giving me a thoughtful look, musing, “I used to have a roommate who was an esper. She wasn’t a very powerful one, but given enough time, she could learn just about everything about a person. The kinds of things she could learn with that power, was a little scary at times.”

The Bronze Lady looked at me and said, “I strongly recommend that you receive proper testing, at an accredited facility, with more experienced testers. Your abilities are unusual enough that you should see professionals to better understand them, and learn how they may interact with your implants.”

“Sure,” I replied with a grin. I was already looking forward to getting some real power testing, now that I had my my powers back.

“Now, how about some fun?” Glow asked.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked curiously.

She grinned, and suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light. A moment later, she appeared on the other side of the room, only to teleport again. When she reappeared, she was surrounded by a blue glow, which seemed to flow down to her hands, where it formed into a katana made of glowing blue energy.

“We spar,” Glow announced.

“Awesome,” I exclaimed, impressed by the sword. However, a moment later, I realized one small problem. “I don’t really know how to fight with my powers…”

“We’ll watch and make sure things don’t go too far,” Twist offered. “Think of this as practicing with your powers.”

“Do you practice like this very often?” I asked Glow.

“Fairly often,” she responded with a shrug. “Twist is sort of my mentor, and she’s been helping me get better with my powers.”

I felt a little jealous of Glow, and wished that I had a mentor to help me. So far, most what I did know about how to use my powers, was all trial and error. I could really use someone to help me figure out my powers.

“Well,” I reminded myself. “That’s what this is…”

With that, I focused on my telekinetic power and pulled it up close to me, so I had a PK shell. Then, I floated up into the air, where I hovered dramatically before flying right at Glow. She teleported away right before I reached her.

“You’ve got to do better than that,” Glow taunted me from the other side of the room.

Suddenly, Glow appeared beside me, and fired a blast of blue energy right into my chest. It tickled a little, but didn’t hurt. I grinned smugly and then tried to grab her, though she teleported away.

“Okay,” Glow said, watching me with a serious expression that was just a bit intense. Okay, it was seriously intense and scared me just a little. “You’re tough enough to take a little more.”

Before I could do anything, Glow teleported to the other side of me and suddenly threw some glowing blue throwing stars at me, right before teleporting again. Only one of the throwing stars hit me, and to my relief, it didn’t hurt.

“Her PK shell seems pretty solid,” Sarah commented. “But Rachael is keeping her in a defensive position.”

“Yeah,” Twist agreed. “If Nina drops that shell, she’s toast.”

Glow came at me several more times, doing hit and runs with her power. I got sliced with a glowing sword, hit with another blue energy blast, and even punched. None of that got through my PK shell.

Unfortunately, Sarah was right, in that I was stuck playing defense. Glow couldn’t hurt me, but I wasn’t fast enough to do anything to her. I kept flying at her, but she’d just teleport away. After about twenty minutes of this, I hadn’t been able to lay a finger on her even once.

“I think that’s enough, for now,” Twist said, calling our game to a stop.

I glared at Glow, frustrated at not being able to do anything. However, she seemed to be in a good mood.

“You’ll get a lot better with practice,” she promised me.

“I hope so,” I grumbled.

“Not bad, for a novice,” the Bronze Lady told me with a reassuring smile. “It takes time and practice to truly master your powers, much less learn to fight effectively with them.”

“Would you girls like a snack?” Sarah asked. “I brought some snickerdoodles.”

Glow’s eyes seemed to light up at that, even more than normal. From the look on her face, I guessed she really liked those cookies.

It was about an hour after this, that I left Liberty Island on the trithopter, and going back to Milwaukee. By this point, I’d had so much fun, that I’d almost forgotten the real reason I was hanging out with these heroes. Almost.

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Saturday afternoon, Sept 22nd, 2007

I stood out in front of the mall, nearly bouncing with excitement. I hadn’t been into a mall, in like, forever.

This was where I’d agreed to meet up with Glow. Of course, I knew that Glow’s real name was Rachael, and she’d even asked me to call her by that name. But since I knew her as Glow first, and her hair and eyes glowed so noticeably, it was hard to think of her as anything but Glow.

Then, I finally saw Glow walking towards me, right on time. However, she wasn’t alone, not that I’d really expected her to be. Dinah was with her, and so was another girl, who appeared to be the same age as Glow and me.

“Hey, Nina,” Glow called out to me, as though I might somehow miss her. She was wearing a hoodie with the hood up to hide her hair, but I could still see some of her glowing hair from beneath it.

“Hola,” I greeted Glow and Dinah with a grin, before turning my attention to the newcomer. She was cute and slender, with a natural tan and short dark hair that was in a pixie cut, not too different from the way my own hair had been for the last few years.

“This is my best friend, Mel,” Glow introduced the other girl, who gave a nod and smile. “I haven’t seen her in a couple weeks.” A moment later, she gestured at me and continued, “And this is Nina.”

“I think I figured that out, when you called her Nina,” Mel responded wryly, making me grin.

“Nina is a cyborg,” Dinah offered with a grin.

Mel gave me a look of surprise and sudden interest. “Really?”

“Oh yeah,” I responded with a grin. “I’ve got a prosthetic spine and everything.”

Dinah’s grin widened. “You’ve got to show her…”

I rolled my eyes, then turned around and pulled my shirt up, just enough so they could see my lower back. The metal implants running along the entire length of my spine were visible, or at least, the lower parts were. Still, from Mel’s gasp, I knew that it was impressive looking.

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

“That isn’t contagious, is it?” Mel asked, giving me a concerned look.

I shook my head at that. “Nope.” Then I paused for a moment before admitting, “Well, I don’t think it is. I mean, I’m not the expert or anything…”

Mel took a half step back, before Dinah began giggling. “Chicken,” Dinah teased the girl.

“Nina saved Adonis,” Glow told Mel. “Or at least, she warned everyone about a guy, who’d been about to shoot him in the back.”

“Pity,” Mel responded in a flat tone, which showed her own dislike of Adonis.

It probably said a lot about Adonis, that he had a lot of girls gushing over how handsome he was, but none of the ones who actually knew him, seemed to like the guy. I mean, I’d barely met him, but he kind of gave the impression of being a total jerk. He hadn’t even thanked me for what I did, so I didn’t feel the least bit guilty for spying on him for Falkner. Just for spying on everyone else.

Unfortunately, that line of thought reminded me that I was supposed to meet up with Falkner again this afternoon, so I could tell him everything I’d learned about the Liberty League. I hadn’t really learned a whole lot, but hopefully, it will be enough to buy him a little more time. As it was, while I was doing this, he was already trying to find a way of making the money, like getting customers for his implant process.

“So, what are we gonna do?” Dinah asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“How about a movie?” Mel responded, gesturing to the large mall theater. “The new Resident Evil is out, and that should be fun…”

Dinah looked at Glow, grinning kind of evilly as she did. “How about a nice romantic comedy. You like chick flicks now, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Mel agreed, also giving Glow an odd look, “You need to catch up on all the great romantic comedies…”

“No way,” Glow insisted, crossing her arms and giving her friend and sister a defiant look. “No chick flicks for me.”

Mel and Dinah both began to laugh, which really made me curious about what was going on. I was really tempted to read their minds in order to find out, but I was starting to think of Glow as a friend, and it would probably be super rude to read her mind.

“Um, can we NOT do a movie?” I asked a little awkwardly. After three years of sitting on my butt, I was completely done with that. “I’d rather walk through the mall and check out the shops.”

“That sounds good to me,” Dinah agreed.

“I’m not a big fan of shopping,” Glow admitted with a sigh. “But sure. Why not?”

“Yeah,” Mel responded. “I still haven’t had a chance to go shopping with you yet. At least not since…” She gave me a quick glance, then cut off with what she was saying, once again making me curious about what they were keeping from me.

The four of us went into the mall and began walking around, checking out any shop that caught our interests, though none of us bought much. Falkner had given me a little spending money, but not a lot. Considering his current situation, it wasn’t like he had a lot of money to give away.

Eventually, we ended up in the food court for lunch, much to my delight. I went around in circles, checking out each of the restaurants three times before I could decide what I wanted to eat. The Mexican place had cheap stuff, that wouldn’t be anywhere near like what my grandma makes, but it had been so long since I had an enchilada… But, it had been just as long since I’d had a chili dog, or even fish and chips, though I finally chose a gyro, just so I could get some baklava to go with it.

“It must be kind of weird, hanging around a bunch of superheroes all the time,” I commented while we ate, trying to get anything I could, that would help Falkner.

“It’s…a pretty recent thing,” Glow said with a scowl.

“But your mom is a hero,” I pointed out, a little confused.

Dinah snorted. When I looked at her, Glow quickly explained, “We live with our dad. Mom…wasn’t exactly around much.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Dinah pointed out, sounding a bit resentful.

Since I didn’t know what else to say, I commented, “Twist seems kind of cool…”

“She is,” Dinah agreed.

Glow just smiled wryly, and told me, “Twist is sort of my mentor. She’s been teaching me how to use my powers better.”

I couldn’t help but still feeling a little jealous of Glow again. After all, I could use help to figure out my powers too.

“She also took Mom’s place on the team, when Mom decided to quit,” Dinah added.

“So,” Mel said, giving me a curious look. “What about you? I mean, I know you’re some kind of cyborg and all, but how in the world did that happen?”

For a moment, I just bit my lip, wondering how many more times I’d have to explain this. Then, with a shrug, I repeated the story, “I manifested as a mutant about three years ago, but then, I went into a burnout and it totally fried my nervous system. I mean, I was completely paralyzed…”

There was a look of shock and horror on Mel’s face. “That sounds…rough.”

“It sucks,” I stated emphatically. “Imagine, not being able to do anything but BLINK for three years…” I paused at that and let the image seep in. “Then, about a month and a half ago, this guy…a devisor shows up, and says he can fix me. And he did. I mean, he used these techno-organic implants and sort of replaced most of my nervous system.” I showed the implants on the back of my hands. “It looks kind of freaky, but I can move again, so yay me.”

“Wow,” Dinah said with a visible shudder.

“And what are your powers?” Mel asked, staring at me eagerly.

That was an opening I couldn’t resist, so with a bit of concentration, a couple of fries levitated up from Mel’s tray and floated over to mine. Her eyes went wide, while I just grinned and ate my stolen fries. I really wished that I’d been able to do this while I’d been paralyzed, because then, at least I would have been able to use the remote control.

“We think she’s some kind of package deal psychic,” Glow explained. “She’s got a couple telekinetic tricks, and she can read minds.”

“You read minds?” Mel asked, suddenly looking a little nervous.

It was pretty obvious that there were some things she didn’t want me to know. In fact, all three of the girls had things that they didn’t want me to know, but I was too nice and polite to read their minds. Even if I really wanted to. After all, reading your friends like that was no bueno.

“I’m not very good at it,” I said, mostly to reassure her. “And most of the time, I don’t even have it on. I prefer to keep my PK shell up when I can. It feels…safer.”

“I can understand that,” Glow told me with a serious expression. “There are times that I would have given anything for something like a PK shell…”

Glow’s expression seemed to darken as I watched, as did Dinah and Mel’s. Finally, unable to bear the curiosity anymore, I shifted back over to my telepathy, just for a second. I wasn’t going to try reading their minds, but if they were thinking something loud enough, I couldn’t be blamed for overhearing, or at least, that was what I told myself. However, as soon as my telepathy was on, I caught a flash of images from Glow, ones of pain and suffering.

“Yike,” I cried out, nearly falling out of my chair in my shock and confusion.

I instinctively shifted back to my PK shell to protect myself from those images, and fortunately, I cut my telepathy off in the process. For several seconds, I just sat there, feeling dazed and confused. Then, I realized the others were staring at me.

“Sorry,” I blurted out, feeling teary-eyed as I stared at Glow. What in the world had she been through to have that in her head? “I didn’t mean to pry, but you were thinking so loud…”

Glow gave a faint smile, which was obviously forced. “I told you that my head isn’t a nice place.” Then she let out a sigh. “But it’s a lot better than it used to be.”

Thanks to my little outburst, the mood had changed, and not in a good way. Glow still looked kind of grim and Dinah gave me a cold look, obviously blaming me for this.

“I saw a cookie kiosk back that way,” Mel abruptly announced, gesturing down the main hallway. “Why don’t we go get some?”

Glow’s eyes lit up, even more than normal, and she began to grin again. “Snickerdoodles, here I come…”

That seemed to have been just the thing to turn the mood back around, much to my relief. A minute later, we were rushing across the mall, going straight for the cookies.

Eventually, it began getting kind of late, and it was time for me to take off. I still had to meet up with Falkner, though I rather would have stuck around with my new friends for a bit longer.

“I’ll see you guys later,” I said, waving to them as I left.

I felt a surge of guilt, though I tried not to let it show. I was just thankful that none of them could read minds the way I could, or I’d really be in trouble.

“Just a little bit longer,” I told myself as I caught the bus. “Soon, Falkner will be safe, and I won’t have to lie to Glow or Dinah anymore…”

Unfortunately, I’d gotten a bit carried away and was running late. I was probably going to be a few minutes late for our meeting, but that wouldn’t be a big deal. Or at least, it wouldn’t have been, if the bus hadn’t broken down. Between that, the time it took for the new bus to arrive, and the traffic, by the time I actually reached Falkner’s motel room, I was over an hour late.

“Sorry I’m late,” I called out as I approached the door. The door was wide open, so I was pretty sure Falkner would be able to hear me. “The bus broke down and…”

I rushed through the door, expecting to see Falkner, and I did. However, instead of standing in the middle of the room, or sitting comfortably in a chair while waiting for me to show up, he was sprawled out on the floor, right next to the wall. There was a huge dent in the wall above Falkner, and most of the furniture was broken and scattered.

“Falkner,” I cried out in shock and horror.

A couple seconds later, I was kneeling down beside Falkner, trying to feel his pulse. However, from the angle of his head, I already knew that I wouldn’t find one. Tears ran down my cheeks as I desperately reached out with my telepathy in the vain hope of hearing his thoughts. There was nothing.

“No,” I whimpered, feeling like my heart was clenching up painfully in my chest. “No…”

This was the man who’d fixed me…who’d given me back my life and freedom. I’d promised to pay him back, to help him deal with this supervillain, and I’d failed. I hadn’t been able to help him at all.

For several minutes, I remained where I was, crying over Falkner’s body. Then, it finally dawned on me that he’d been murdered, and if anyone found me there, they’d think that I did it. And just as bad, was the sudden fear that the villain who’d done this might come back.

With that, I gave a silent apology to Falkner, then hurried out the door as fast as I could. A few seconds later, I broke out running, knowing that I had to get away.

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Sunday morning, Sept 23rd, 2007

Last night was cold, wet, and miserable. And scary. It was really really scary.

After I’d found Falkner’s body, I’d run away in terror, not knowing where I could possibly go. I couldn’t go back to my own motel room, because it was just a few doors down from where Falkner had been killed, and whoever killed him, might have come looking for me there. Because of that, I spent the entire night looking for a place where I could stay warm and dry, and getting a taste of what it was like to be homeless.

I’d found a spot in an alley behind a store, that was nice, dry, and out of the weather. Unfortunately, it turned out, that this wasn’t as good a spot as I’d first thought. A couple drunk guys came through and saw me, then decided to have a little ‘fun’. Fortunately, with my powers, they hadn’t been able to hurt me at all. One of them even pulled a knife, but it couldn’t get through my PK shell, so I just pushed him into his friends and ran away.

Now, I’d survived a night of living on the streets of Milwaukee, and I REALLY didn’t want to have to do that again. Fortunately, I’d had time to calm down and think about my situation. I was in deep doo doo, but fortunately, I just happened to know some superheroes.

“Idiota,” I muttered to myself, slapping my forehead and wondering why I hadn’t thought about calling the Liberty League last night. Then with a snort, I reminded myself, “Probably because I’d have to tell them everything…”

I didn’t exactly know the Liberty League’s phone number, but I had the next best thing. I had Glow’s phone number. With shaking hands, I dialed her number, and silently prayed that she was awake.

“Hello,” Glow’s voice came from the other end a few seconds later.

Letting out a breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, I blurted out, “I’m in really big trouble… I think a supervillain might be after me…”

Our conversation was short, and probably confusing for Glow since I was still scared and had a hard time explaining what was going on. However, we still managed to agree that we’d meet up, so I could try explaining in person.

As soon as I hung up, I flew towards where Glow and I had agreed to meet. Actually, I couldn’t control my powers well enough to fly for very long, so it was more like making a lot of long hops until I reached my destination. Once I was there, I didn’t have to wait a whole lot longer before Glow showed up, suddenly appearing in a flash of blue. Normally, I would have been really impressed by her teleporting, but not at that moment.

“Nina,” Glow greeted me with a worried look. “What’s going on?”

“A supervillain killed Falkner,” I exclaimed in a rush. Tears were running down my cheeks again. “At least, I think it was the supervillain, though I didn’t see him.”

“Wait,” Glow told me. “Falkner? The devisor who fixed you?” When I nodded, she repeated, “Someone killed him?”

With an emphatic nod, I repeated, “That supervillain loan shark murdered him, because I didn’t help him fast enough…” At this point, I was in a near panic again, terrified that this villain would come after me next. “Falkner saved me, and they killed him…”

Glow stared at me for a moment, seeming both worried and confused. “Slow down a little,” she told me in a firm voice. “Tell me what’s going on.”

I took several deep breaths to try calming down again, then, I hesitantly repeated what Falkner had told me about how he’d borrowed money from a supervillain in order to fund his work, and how the villain called in the loan. Glow listened with a scowl, which only grew deeper when I shamefully admitted my own part.

Once I was finished, Glow just stared at me with a grim expression. “You were spying on us…”

“I was trying to save Falkner,” I protested weakly. “It was the only thing we could think of…”

Glow didn’t respond to that. Instead, she glared at me, with an expression that that radiated hurt, anger, and betrayal. But as bad as that was, it was nothing compared to the look she gave me next. Her expression turned cold, hard, and…terrifying.

“I’m sorry,” I said tearfully. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone…”

“Go,” Glow ordered me.

At that moment, my new friend, or was that former friend, was giving me a look that clearly said she wanted to hurt me. I took an instinctive step back.

“But…,” I started, though I didn’t know what I could say to make this better. I’d come to her for help, but now, it was obvious that she wasn’t going to help me, and I was pretty sure, that none of the Liberty League would. I was on my own. “Glow…”

“GO!” she commanded more forcefully, the blue glow in her eyes blazing more brightly.

For a moment, I remained where I was, thinking that I could explain myself to Glow, that I could make her see that I didn’t have any choice. However, the look in her eyes convinced me otherwise. I really was on my own.

With tears running down my cheeks, I turned and ran away. Then, I remembered my powers and activated my PK shell, lifting myself up off the ground and flying away, at least for a short distance before I couldn’t hold it anymore and came back down.

Once I’d left Glow a couple blocks behind, I finally stopped, landing on top of a building where I felt that I had a little privacy. Then, I collapsed to my knees and just cried myself dry, realizing that not only had I lost Falkner, but also my new friends.

I had no idea how long I stayed there, crying and feeling sorry for myself. I was scared, confused, and lost, with no idea of what to do next.

Eventually, my phone began to ring. For a moment, I felt hopeful that Glow wanted to apologize, or to at least talk. But then, I saw that the call was from Mary.

“Hello?” I answered quietly, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

“Nina,” Mary gasped from the other side, sounding relieved. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” I responded weakly. “But Falkner…”

“I know,” she said with a deep sigh. “I heard about what happened with him, and I was worried about you.”

I hesitated for a couple seconds, not sure what to say. “I found him… I found him dead, and when I tried going to the heroes…” After pausing for several seconds, I admitted, “They won’t help…”

There was another long pause from Mary’s side, before she said, “We should meet up and discuss what to do next. You should come here… It’s safe…”

“Okay,” I agreed, relieved that at least there was one person I could count on to help.

After Mary gave me the address, I hung up the phone and began making my way there. I didn’t know Milwaukee very well, and had absolutely no idea where that street was. Fortunately, if you ask, the internet can provide. Yay maps.

Even with my sort-of flying, it took me half an hour to reach the address that Mary had given me. It was a hotel, that looked quite a lot nicer than the motel room I’d stayed in. But I guessed, Mary was probably paying for it herself too.

I went to the room number that Mary provided and nervously knocked. When the door opened and revealed Mary, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Nina,” she exclaimed, grabbing me into a hug and then pulling me inside. “I’m glad to see you’re all right…”

“Me too,” I responded. “I mean, I’m glad that you’re all right…”

Mary gave me a gentle smile, though it was definitely on the sad side. “Did you see what happened?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But Falkner and I were gonna meet up, so I could tell him everything I learned about the Liberty League, but the bus broke, and there was really bad traffic, so I got there late…” I shuddered at that. “If I hadn’t been late… If I’d been there, I might have been killed too…”

Of course, there was also the fantasy that if I’d been there, I might have been able to use my powers to save him. However, I was realistic enough to know that even though I had powers, I probably wouldn’t have been able to beat a real supervillain. Heck, I couldn’t even beat Glow when we’d been sparring.

“Why don’t you sit down,” Mary told me, gesturing towards the couch in the living room area of her suite, “and I’ll fix you up some cocoa.”

I sat down, feeling the energy go out of my body as I did so. Since I didn’t sleep very well last night, if at all, I was ready to curl up and nap. Unfortunately, I was also too keyed up from everything going on to fall asleep, even if I tried. It was a weird mixed-up feeling.

A couple minutes later, Mary came out of the kitchenette with a pair of mugs and set one down in front of me. I immediately picked it up and began to blow on the cocoa before taking a sip. It was tasty. Not as good as my grandma’s, because she always liked to sprinkle a little cinnamon and sometimes even a touch of cayenne for spice, but it was still good.

“Now, tell me what happened,” Mary said.

After taking a long sip of the cocoa, I told her all about going to see Falkner and finding his body. Tears started to form, though I felt strangely calm and relaxed. Then, I told her about how I’d run away and had spent the night in the street.

“You poor thing,” Mary said, giving me a sad smile.

“It was really really scary,” I said, pausing to let out a long yawn. My eyelids felt really heavy, so I closed them for just a moment.

Then, as I began falling asleep, I vaguely heard Mary say, “Such a waste. If only you’d been there on time, she probably wouldn’t have killed Gerald.”

--------------------

Wisconsin, Monday Sept 24rd, 2007

I was in a hotel room, or at least that was my first impression of the place where I’d woken up. There was a big comfy bed, a dresser with a TV on top, and even a desk. Off to the side, there was a bathroom with a shower. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that something was really wrong.

When I tried to leave, the door was locked. In fact, not only was it locked, but it was metal, with some kind of weird keyboard lock thing built into the wall beside it.

“Um, not good,” I said in annoyance.

And then, when I opened the curtains so I could check the window, I found that there was no window, just more wall. This place looked like a hotel room, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t.

“Where am I?” I asked in confusion, and a bit of growing fear. “How did I get here?”

The last thing I remembered before waking up here, was talking with Mary. I gulped at that, hoping that she was all right.

While I was trying to figure out what was going on, and what I should do about it, the door suddenly began to open. I jumped in surprise, especially when I saw the figure that stepped through.

There was a woman, with shoulder length black hair. However, the thing that really caught my attention was that she was wearing a purple and white costume, with a long purple cape.

“Who are you?” I demanded. Then I gulped, suddenly realizing something. “You’re the villain who killed Falkner…”

“My name is Paradigm,” the woman said, sounding almost friendly. “And yes, I am called a villain by those who don’t understand what I am attempting, or who are invested in maintaining the status quo.”

I took a step back, watching her closely, though she didn’t make any threatening moves. “Where’s Mary?”

Paradigm smiled faintly, as though amused. “Mary is currently relaxing at the spa I sent her to.” At my look of disbelief, she said, “Mary works for me, and has for the last two years.”

I gasped at that, unable to believe that Mary could possibly work for this supervillain. Mary was my friend, and had been really nice to me during my treatment. “You’re lying…” However, I couldn’t help but remembering that the last thing I’d done before waking up here, was talking to Mary.

“No,” Paradigm responded in a pleasant tone. “I’m not lying. I asked Mary to keep a close watch on Falkner and his work, so I could see how my investment was progressing.”

My eyes widened at that. Mary was working for Paradigm… She’d been spying on Falkner the entire time. As I thought about it, my stomach knotted up, and I realized that this sense of betrayal was probably what Glow felt when I’d told her.

“Why…?” I started, before remembering that I could probably learn more simply from reading Paradigmn’s mind. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t feel bad about doing that to a supervillain. However, when I tried, I got the same thing as when I tried to read any of the Liberty League. Static.

“You are only wasting your time,” Paradigm said, looking me a patient expression. “I’ve spent years dealing with someone who had the ability to manipulate minds, so I’ve long since taken precautions to protect myself. You’ll find that I’ve also taken similar precautions on this guest room. You won’t be able to break through the walls. At most, you’ll merely destroy the furnishings, and then you’ll be left with nothing to sleep or sit on. I don’t recommend that.”

With a gulp, I nervously looked around. Until that moment, I hadn’t even considered using my telekinesis to break out of here. Now, I felt like fool for not thinking of it before now. But in my own defense, it wasn’t like I’d had a lot of time to think things through before Paradigm showed up.

Paradigm stared at me for several long seconds before saying, “I imagine that you’re wondering why I killed Falkner, and why you are here…”

“You could say that,” I responded, watching her warily. She seemed immune from my telepathy, but maybe my telekinesis or PK powers would work on her. “I just figured it’s because you’re a supervillain.”

“Yes,” Paradigm responded, actually rolling her eyes. “A title given to anyone who wants to change this failed and corrupt status quo…”

There was something in her tone, which for the first time since I’d seen her, actually came off as scary. She had an intense look in her eyes, and at that moment, I really wished I could read her mind to see what she was thinking, but at the same time, I was kind of glad I couldn’t.

“Several years ago,” Paradigm abruptly said, once again looking friendly, as if she was my gringo aunt or something, “I loaned a great deal of money to Gerald Falkner. At the time, I saw a lot of potential in his technology, even if it was devisor based. Being able to heal damages spines and cure paralysis… This could have improved the lives of many people…”

I gave Paradigm a suspicious look. “That sounds really nice of you.”

With a faint smile and an even fainter nod of acknowledgement, the villain admitted, “At the time, I also considered this an investment into achieving my own goals. If this process would one day allow me to override a person’s nervous system, and use it to control them like a puppet, that would have been useful to me. However, Falkner was less than interested in pursuing that line of research, and admittedly, controlling someone’s body was not my preferred method either.”

“Wow,” I said, feeling a little creeped out about the idea that my implants might have been used to turn me into some kind of puppet. I was REALLY glad that Falkner didn’t go that route, because that might have been even worse than being paralyzed.

Paradigm continued, “Then, not long ago, I suffered a…financial setback. My primary headquarters was severely compromised, and I lost a great deal of my assets as a result. Since I needed more funding to rebuild, I ended several of my investments and called in the markers.”

“Falkner,” I nearly whispered. Then I glared at Paradigm. “You killed him…”

“That was his own fault,” Paradigm responded. “I would have preferred him alive. Alive and in my service, working off his debt. Dead, he is no use to anyone.”

“Then why did you kill him?” I demanded.

Instead of answering immediately, Paradigm mused, “He had that silly idea of spying on the Liberty League to delay repaying his financial obligations. Honestly, I have little interest in them or what meager information you might discover. I have successfully stayed out of their reach for quite some time, and will have little trouble continuing to do so. No, what I was interested in, was the fact that he’d acquired a telepath.” She stared at me with an expression that really made me uncomfortable.

I took a nervous step back. “What?”

“I…convinced Falkner to introduce us,” Paradigm explained. “When you were late to our rendezvous, Falkner became increasingly upset, until he finally pulled a gun on me.” With that, the villainess let out a short and bitter laugh. “When I lost my headquarters, the same incident also resulted in my acquiring a great deal more power. Unfortunately, I’m still not completely used to it, and sometimes…overreact. I regret the devisor’s death, but he has nobody to blame but himself.”

I gulped at that, both scared and angry at the same time. Not only had Paradigm murdered Falkner, she went and blamed him for it as well. In spite of her friendly smile, there was something pretty twisted about this woman.

“Why me?” I asked, my voice shaking a little. “Are you going to kill me too?”

“Absolutely not,” Paradigm responded, almost looking offended by that. “You, my dear girl, may be the answer to my prayers...”

All I could say to that was, “Huh?”

“The world is in a great deal of trouble,” Paradigm explained patiently, at least on the surface. The look in her eyes was pretty intense again. “The climate. Overpopulation. Environmental devastation. Economic imbalance. The political, racial, and religious divisions. The people in power are greedy and corrupt, more interested in their own ambitions than in the good of the world, so I have spent years working to fix this.”

“So, let me guess,” I responded, trying to buy myself time to think. “You want to take over the world…”

“Certainly not,” Paradigm responded dismissively. “That would be far too difficult, and even if I managed, I would be forced to spend every waking minute merely trying to consolidate and maintain my control. I would never be able to achieve my true purpose in that situation.”

“And what is your true purpose?” I asked, feeling a little confused.

Paradigm smiled. “As I said, my goal is to fix all the problems of the world. And the best way to do that isn’t by conquering it…but by simply changing the perspectives of those who already control it. Imagine, if I could realign the priorities of those in power, so that solving these problems becomes much more important that profit or power. Imagine, if I can correct the way that these people think. Politicians would vote the way they should. Business leaders would turn their fortunes, and all the resources at their command, to rebuilding the world the way it should be. And religious leaders would decree that interfering with these works is a mortal sin, and that their people must support these works at all costs. Once I can make people think the way they should, then it will be a simple process of remaking the world into what it should be.”

For a moment, I just stood there, staring at Paradigm, trying to make sense of what she said. Then, I began to get a vague idea of what my part in all of that was.

“I can read minds,” I whispered.

“If I know what these people are thinking,” Paradigm said with a faint smirk, “then I can plan accordingly. If I know their darkest secrets, I can use that as leverage. And if I can have their thoughts and perspective changed…” She stared at me intently, and I did NOT like that look in her eyes. “Then I can finally make some real progress…”

“No,” I gasped, realizing what Paradigm wanted me for. She wanted a pet telepath, who would do her dirty work for her. I snarled in anger and desperation, calling up my PK shell. “Vete al infierno…”

Before I could make a single move, Paradigm seemed to glow and radiate power, enough to make my heart jump. I hesitated a second, just long enough for her to reach to her belt and hold up some kind of weird gadget. It looked sort of like a ray gun handle, including the trigger, but without the barrel. I had no idea what that thing was, and that worried me.

“I wouldn’t make any hostile moves, if I were you,” Paradigm told me, her voice once again sounding pleasant and friendly. “This will work much better for both of us, if we keep things nice and friendly.”

“What is that?” I demanded, still looking at the strange gun handle thing.

Paradigm merely smiled, though it wasn’t really a friendly smile. “Remember, I am well aware of Falkner’s techn-organic technology, and I’ve long since acquired a failsafe. It was relatively easy, finding another devisor who could create a countermeasure. Specifically, this devise, which generates an EMP…an electro-magnetic pulse, specifically designed to destroy the techno-organic implants within your body.”

I froze at those words, feeling a cold chill down my spine. “What… What do you mean?”

“I think that you understand exactly what that means,” Paradigm said. “I don’t want to start our working relationship off with any threats though, so I will promise you this. If you help me to the best of your ability, you will be well taken care of. You will have comfortable accommodations, great food, and even trips to the spa. You will live in luxury. But even better than this, is the fact that you will be doing something important. You will be helping the entire world.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” I gasped. I wanted to knock her aside and run out, but Paradigm still had that weird EMP thing in her hand.

“Your abilities are not ideal for my purposes,” Paradigm admitted, “but they will still be quite useful in advancing my cause.” Then, she turned and went back through the doorway, pausing for a moment before saying, “I always prefer to use the carrot when possible, but should it be necessary, there is always the stick.” With that, she held up the EMP and closed the door behind her, locking me in that room once again.

For a moment, I just stood there, feeling stunned, confused, and angry. Finally, I let out a howl of frustration and my powers responded. All the furniture near me was knocked back, with the wooden chair actually being flung into the wall, where it shattered. However, I barely noticed that, as I dropped down to my knees and began to cry

Nerves of Steel part 3

Author:

Morpheus

Audience Rating:

General Audience (pg)

Publication:

Fiction

Genre:

Character Age:

Teenage or High School

TG Universes & Series:

Whateley Academy by Maggie Finson, et al

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

Part 3

Wisconsin, Wednesday Sept 26th, 2007

I was sitting in my room, AKA my cage, which was where I’d been for the last couple days. The place was a lot nicer than any bedroom I’d ever had before, but not exactly a luxurious five-star hotel suite.

Still, I couldn’t complain about the food. I stared down at my dinner, which consisted of lobster, asparagus, and a rice dish, that was really good. And then, there was the dessert, a big bowl of banana pudding. I loved banana pudding, and suspected that Mary was the one who told them that.

I scowled as I thought about Mary and the way she’d betrayed me and Falkner. Then again, was it really betrayal when she’d been working for Paradigm the entire time? What I did know, was that it still pissed me off. If it hadn’t been for Mary, then Paradigm never would have found out about me, and Falkner would still be alive.

“He died because of me,” I whispered to myself, feeling guilty as I did so.

Falkner had fixed me…had saved me, and I hadn’t been able to do the same for him. He’d been counting on me, and I’d failed him. If I’d met him when I was supposed to, then he’d probably still be alive now.

However, in spite of how bad I felt about what happened with Falkner, I was even more concerned with my own situation. I’d been kidnapped by a supervillain, and I was pretty sure that she had no plans to ever let me go.

I looked around my room, remembering a conversation that I’d had with Paradigm yesterday. She’d promised that if I help her, I’d be rewarded with better accommodations and treatment. And though she hadn’t said anything that time, there was still the unspoken threat of that EMP thing, hanging over my head. I shuddered at the very thought of it.

Fortunately, Paradigm seemed to prefer the carrot over the stick. She’d come in to talk to me several times since I’d woken up here, and had been very polite and friendly, though she talked a lot about how I could help make the world a better place. The scary thing was, it would be so easy to forget that she was a dangerous villain.

This morning, Paradigm had even sent a masseuse in to give me a massage. I’d been pretty hesitant at first, but Tina, the masseuse, was really good, and I’d felt a lot better afterwards. While I was getting the massage though, I’d taken advantage of the opportunity to read Tina’s mind, or at least what she was thinking at the time.

Tina didn’t seem to know a whole lot about what Paradigm had planned, or if she did, she wasn’t thinking about it then. What I did get from her, was that she really respected Paradigm, and thought it was great that I was going to help ‘save the world’. It was almost enough to make me feel guilty for not wanting to help.

“She killed Falkner,” I reminded myself. “Paradigm is NOT a good person.”

Once I was finished with my dinner, I took the opportunity to walk around my room again and look for anything I could use to escape. I’d already tried escaping, but it didn’t do any good. Paradigm had told me that she’d protected the walls, and she hadn’t been lying. When I used my PK power, I punched the walls and door, without making even a dent. I tried using my telekinesis to see if I could just open the door from the other side, but my power couldn’t pass through the door, not that it would have worked, since I can’t move anything without seeing it.

After a few minutes of looking around and trying to get an idea, I flopped down on my bed in frustration. I could have turned on the TV, because I had cable with a LOT of channels, but if I was going to just sit here and watch TV all day, I might as well be paralyzed again.

A short time later, the door opened up, but I remained where I was, warily watching. At first, I’d thought that I could rush the door and get out, but then I’d learned yesterday, that Paradigm kept a guard outside, armed with that EMP thing. If I tried to get out that way, I’d only get zapped, which was the last thing I wanted. I expected Paradigm to come in again, but to my surprise, it was Mary.

“Nina,” Mary greeted me self-consciously.

I just glared at her, not saying anything in response. She’d betrayed me and Falkner, and Falkner was dead, partly because of that. I was locked up in here, because of her.

“I understand why you’re mad at me,” Mary said apologetically. “And I’m sorry that things went this way…”

“So, you’re sorry for drugging me and having me locked in a cage?” I asked sarcastically. “Or maybe for getting Falkner killed…”

Mary winced. “I wanted you to come to Paradigm on your own. She’s a good person and wants to make the world a better place…”

“A good person?” I blurted out in stunned disbelief. “Kidnapping, murder, and mind control aren’t things that a good person does…”

Mary’s expression turned into a deep scowl. “You don’t understand. You’re too young to understand, Nina.”

I glared at Nina, growing angrier at the way she was defending Paradigm. “What I understand is that she murdered Falkner and is trying to turn me into some kind of slave…”

“Gerald was an accident,” Mary argued. “He never should have pulled a gun on Paradigm…” Then she paused to stare at me for several long seconds. “Paradigm paid for Gerald’s research and your treatment. You owe her… All she’s asking is that you pay her back…”

“Falkner is the one who fixed me,” I yelled at Mary. “Not Paradigm. I don’t owe her anything…”

“You’re being selfish,” Mary accused me. “You have the power to make a difference and you’re refusing to do so…”

“ME being selfish?” I snarled angrily. Several smaller objects around the room began to float up into the air, though I barely paid attention. “You KIDNAPPED me…locked me up in a cage like some kind of criminal…and are threatening to make me paralyzed again…all so you can make me turn other people into your mind controlled puppets too… What is WRONG with you people? My powers don’t even work like that…”

“You just need training,” Mary stated, completely ignoring everything else I said.

I just glared at Mary for several seconds, getting control of my telekinesis in the process and dropping everything that I’d been levitating. Then, I made a show of turning my back to her, refusing to even look at the woman who’d betrayed me. Tears were running down my cheeks again.

“I thought you were a nurse,” I whispered. “I thought you helped people.” I wiped the tears away, adding, “But you’re just another bad guy.”

Mary didn’t respond to that, and a few seconds later, I heard the door open and close again. I didn’t even need to look to know that I was by myself again.

--------------------

Wisconsin, Wednesday late evening, Sept 26th, 2007

It was in the middle of the night and I was asleep, or at least, I was trying to sleep. I’d woken up a short time ago from a nightmare, where I’d been turned into a statue. It didn’t take a shrink to figure out what that one meant. While I was tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep, I heard the door open.

Almost immediately, I reached out with my telepathy and heard the thought “I hope I don’t scare her…”

A second later, I sat up in bed, pulling up my PK shell to protect myself. Then, the lights came on and I saw the woman standing at the doorway. “Mary,” I said, surprised and confused about why she’d be sneaking in on me in the middle of the night. “What do you want now?”

“I’m helping you get out of here,” Mary answered with a nervous glance behind her. “Hurry up and get dressed.”

I scrambled out of bed and began getting dressed, though that didn’t stop me from giving Mary a suspicious look and asking, “Why are you helping me?” After all, the last time I’d trusted her, she’d drugged me and turned me over to Paradigm. I was here because of her.

Mary grimaced, looking guilty. “I liked Gerald, and the last thing I wanted was for him to get killed. It didn’t have to happen. What I wanted, was for him to come work with us…” She shook her head sadly before giving me another look. “I think you can do a lot of good with your powers, and you can help us make a difference, but I won’t be a part of forcing you…or taking away your implants.”

I was actually pretty glad to hear those words, though I remained a bit skeptical. “And what does your boss think?”

After hesitating for a moment, Mary explained, “Paradigm is a great woman, and can do amazing things for this world. However, she tends to look at the big picture and sometimes loses sight of the individuals who make up the world. I just hope that she’ll forgive me for this.”

I nodded at that, not wanting to say anything that might make Mary change her mind. So, I bit my tongue and finished getting dressed.

“Your implants were the last thing that Gerald ever created,” Mary said, staring at me with a sad look, that suddenly made me realize that she’d really had feelings for Falkner, even if she was spying on him. Then again, I really liked hanging out with Glow, and I’d been spying on her too. I felt guilty at the memory, and sad at the knowledge that I’d lost my new friend for good. “I don’t want his last accomplishment to be destroyed, and…I can’t bear the thought of doing that to you. I know what you went through…and what your life was like before he gave them to you.”

With that, Mary led me out the door. I hesitated a moment before following, remembering that there was supposed to be a guard with that EMP thing waiting outside. Once I stepped out, I saw that there was a guard, but he was sprawled out on the floor, snoring. I was surprised by that and gave Mary a curious look. I would have read her mind, but I wasn’t about to drop my PK shell until I was safe.

Mary began leading me down the hallway, though we hadn’t gone far before we ran into someone. He was tall and thin, with thick glasses and badly receding hair. In fact, he looked more like an accountant than a supervillain’s henchman.

“Mary,” the man exclaimed, giving me a look of worry. “What’s she…”

Before he could finish, Mary held up what looked like a can of pepper spray, and blasted him right in the face. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the ground.

“Sorry for that, Charles,” Mary apologized to the man.

A minute later, we reached a thick metal door with some kind of key code lock beside it. Mary entered in some numbers and the door opened up, letting me see outside.

“This is the exit,” Mary told me, unnecessarily. “We’re just outside of Hartland, and Milwaukee is almost straight east of here.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling a bit awkward.

Mary nodded, then held out a small back pack for me. I took it from her, feeling a little confused.

“There are some things in there that might help you,” Mary explained. “Including a little money.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Are you coming with.”

“No,” Mary shook her head. “We’re doing important work here, and I’m not going to abandon it. However,” she gave me a wry smile, “just so you know, I am telling Paradigm that you mind controlled me and made me help you.”

“Of course,” I responded with a grin of my own.

For a moment, I just stood there, staring at Mary and remembering all that she’d done for me. Falkner might be the person who’d fixed my nervous system, but she’d been the one to take care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself. She was the one who taught me to walk again, and who pushed me through all that physical therapy and exercise, even when I was tired and frustrated, and had wanted to give up. Mary had helped me, almost as much as Falkner, and even though she’d betrayed me, I couldn’t forget what she’d done for me too, especially now.

“Gracias,” I told Mary with a nod, before I hurried out the door, then flew up into the air and away from that place.

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Thursday late morning, Sept 27th, 2007

I was sitting on a street corner in Milwaukee, looking at my surroundings and wondering why I’d come back here. I didn’t have anything for me in Milwaukee, not anymore. What I should be doing, was looking for a way back home to Sacramento. I hadn’t seen my family in way too long, and I missed them all, even that jerk Miguel.

“When I get back,” I told myself with a smile, “I’ll be able to read Julia a bedtime story.”

Of course, my little sister was a bit too old for bedtime stories, but over the last three years, she’d read for me a lot, and I wanted to return the favor. I wanted to tell her with my voice how much I appreciated what she’d done for me, and that I loved her.

With my eyes starting to tear up a bit, I turned my attention to the backpack Mary had given me. Mary had definitely thought ahead, because not only had there been some food and water bottles, but also a sweater and a hundred bucks in cash. That would definitely help me, since I could afford to buy a cheap cell phone and call home.

I let out a loud yawn and thought about my late night. Last night, I’d flown all the way from Hartland to Milwaukee, which wasn’t easy. For one thing, I could only fly for a limited distance before I had to stop and rest, though admittedly, all that practice was really making me better. By the time I got to that last hop, I’d been able to fly twice the distance of my first one.

“Maybe I should find a motel or something,” I thought aloud, though I knew I’d be really lucky if I could find a place that would let a girl my age stay there alone.

I still wasn’t sure why I’d even come back to Milwaukee in the first place. But when I thought about it a little more, I knew. I wanted to apologize to Glow, for hurting her the way I had. That hadn’t been my intention, but I’d still betrayed her. After Mary had betrayed me, I knew what that felt like. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to find Glow, since I didn’t know where she lived, and I hadn’t memorized her phone number. That had been saved on my cell phone, which I no longer had.

“Idiota,” I muttered in frustration, wishing that I’d bothered to memorize the number. Then with a sigh, I said, “The first thing I should do, is find a phone, so I can call home…”

After waiting another ten minutes, just long enough to finish off a sandwich and half a bottle of water, I finally got up and was on the move again. Flying was kind of fun, as well as kind of scary, but I didn’t want to attract attention, so decided to stay on the ground. Besides, I still got a huge kick out of just being able to walk again, and was quite happy to do so.

At first, everything seemed to be going great, but then, I noticed some guy following me. He was kind of short and stocky, not to mention way too old for me. He had to be forty, at least. This guy worried me a bit, because I didn’t know if he was a creeper who got his jollies from following girls around, or worse. Honestly, I kind of hoped he was just a creeper, because otherwise, I was in trouble.

When I turned the corner, this guy continued following me, which made me a bit worried. Unfortunately, he was too far away, so I couldn’t read his mind to find out what he was up to. So, my choices were either to slow down and let him catch up, enough that I could read his mind, or to try losing him completely. With a grin, I knew what my choice was.

“So long, perv,” I called out as I activated my PK shell and floated up into the air, leaving the guy behind.

I came back down again about two blocks away, where I figured that I’d gone far enough to lose him. With a grin, I continued on my way, cheerfully humming to myself in the process. At times like this, I REALLY liked having these awesome powers.

For the next couple minutes, I felt really smug and pleased with myself. However, I’d only gone about half a black, when I heard a familiar voice exclaim, “Ah, there you are…”

My heart jumped up into my chest and I snapped around, only to see Paradigm, floating in the air, about twenty feet above the ground. She was staring down at me with a firm gaze and an expression that seemed to be a mixture of annoyance and disappointment.

“My wayward young associate,” Paradigm said. “I’m afraid that your rebellious period has come to an end.”

“How did you find me?” I blurted out fearfully.

Paradigm smiled in amusement. “I suspected that you might return to Milwaukee, so I had my people searching here for you…”

“Great,” I grumbled bitterly. “That creeper wasn’t just a creeper…”

“Now, come along quietly,” Paradigm told me with a scowl, “and I’ll forgive your poor decision.”

“No way,” I responded, nervously backing away. “You’ve got another thing coming, chica, if you think, I’m just going to go back without a fight.”

Paradigm looked even more annoyed. “Let me put this another way,” she said, holding up a familiar looking gadget, the EMP thing. “You will come with me and fulfill your obligations, or I will repossess the technology that I paid for.”

I gasped in horror, unable to tear my eyes off that thing in her hand. With one push of a button, she could take away everything that Falkner had given me, and send me right back into hell. I couldn’t go back to that. Never. Even if it meant…

Then I froze, as something occurred to me. Paradigm wanted me…needed my power for that evil mind control scheme. Sure, there were other telepaths out there, ones who were a lot more powerful than me, and who probably had powers better suited for that kind of thing. However, I was the only one she had, and I didn’t think she’d throw that opportunity away just because of a little inconvenience. Once she fried my implants, I’d be completely and utterly useless to her, and I was pretty sure that she still wanted me too much to do that. But was I sure enough?

“I’d better be,” I muttered, deciding that I was sure enough to call her bluff. Or at least, I prayed it was a bluff, because if it wasn’t…

Before I could chicken out, I reached out with my telekinesis, grabbing a chair that was sitting right outside the small café I was standing outside of, and flung it right at Paradigm. She didn’t see it coming until it smashed into her.

Unfortunately, my moment of triumph turned into one of surprise and disappointment. Paradigm was surprised, but didn’t look like she was hurt in the least. She was a lot tougher than I’d thought.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, before I turned and flew up into the air, deciding that my best bet would be to just run away as fast as I could.

Suddenly, Paradigm was in front of me, and she certainly hadn’t flown there. I was caught by surprise, though not as much as I was a few seconds later, when I suddenly found myself stopped and being held in place.

“You’re a telekinetic too,” I blurted out, never mind the fact that she’d actually teleported in front of me.

“I think this has gone on long enough,” Paradigm said, looking as though she was out of patience with me.

“I don’t,” I argued, pushing against the invisible hand that seemed to be holding me as hard as I could. After a few seconds, I broke free.

“Enough,” Paradigm snapped. “I tried doing this the gentle way, but you leave me little choice…”

“You’re crazy,” I yelled at her. “Totally loco…”

“I dislike having to use brute force,” Paradigm said, “It’s so…uncivilized. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of doing so when pushed to it.”

Then as if to prove this, Paradigm held out her hand and fired some kind of force blast at me. It hit me like a giant hammer, and if it hadn’t been for my powers, I would have been splattered like a bug. As it was, I was sent flying back down to the ground, where I landed in the middle of the street, cracking the pavement. Even with my powers, I was gonna be bruised.

I barely got back to my feet when Paradigm appeared on front of me, then back-handed me. This hit nearly as hard as that blast, sending me flying back to where I slammed into the side of a parked car.

“Are you ready to come back with me now?” Paradigm asked me in a calm and even tone.

I just stared at the villainess, feeling sore and scared. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how powerful Paradigm really was, and now that I did, I kind of wished I didn’t.

Out of pure desperation and near panic, I stretched out my telekinesis again, which meant that my power was no longer concentrated close to my body. I lost my PK shell for the moment, and my protection, but this was my only chance.

With that, I grabbed Paradigm in my telekinetic grip and threw her back, right into the middle of the street, where an oncoming car crashed into her. She was knocked down, and seemed a little hurt, but not nearly enough. Instead, she mostly looked angry.

Pulling my power up close to me again and reforming my PK shell, I took advantage of Paradigm’s distraction to fly straight at her, and punched her as hard as I could. That knocked her back a little, but didn’t hurt her as much as the car had.

“Vete al infierno,” I spat out at her, which basically meant, ‘go to hell.’

Since I didn’t have any delusions about being able to beat a supervillain like Paradigm, I turned and flew off as fast as I could. But just when I thought I’d lost her, she suddenly appeared in front of me again, and blasted me with one of those force blasts, sending me flying into the side of a building.

I shook it off as best I could, but my heart was racing with fear and my body was really starting to hurt. Paradigm floated in the air, holding her hands out to fire another force blast. I saw it coming in time to fly away, but once again, she teleported in front of me, then punched me hard enough to send me flying back into another wall.

“You are the one who forced me into this,” Paradigm stated with a deep scowl. “Are you ready to give up this nonsense and come back with me, or will I have to drag you back, unconscious?”

This time, I didn’t waste my breath by responding. Instead, I simply tried flying away as fast as I could, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I couldn’t escape someone who could just teleport in front of me.

“Very well then,” Paradigm announced. “We will continue doing this the hard way.”

Just then, there was a suddenly flash of blue light, and a familiar voice exclaimed, “I don’t think so…”

“Glow,” I gasped in surprise, as she appeared in the air, right in front of Paradigm.

Glow used a glowing blue energy sword to slash at Paradigm, who actually yelped in pain. A moment later, Glow vanished in another flash of light, only to reappear on top of a nearby rooftop. She vanished again, teleporting back into the air near Paradigm, where she threw several glowing blue throwing stars, though this time, Paradigm was the one who vanished, before she was hit.

Paradigm reappeared in the air a short distance away while Glow teleported too, popping up back on that rooftop. Without a word, Paradigm fired a force blast at Glow, though Glow easily leapt out of the way.

“I’m the one you want,” I yelled out, terrified that Paradigm would hit Glow.

“Yes, you are,” Paradigm responded in a cold tone, as she turned her attention back at me.

Suddenly, I was afraid that I’d pushed her too far, and that she’d decide I wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. When that happened, she still had that EMP thing.

“Well, you aren’t going to get her,” Glow yelled out. “I won’t let you lay another finger on Nina.” She held out her hand and another sword made of blue energy appeared there.

“How amusing,” Paradigm commented. “Two children, who think they can overpower me… I haven’t been this entertained since I took Mouse Girl away from her mentor.”

“Then how about facing someone your own size?” a new voice called out.

I looked down and saw an enormous woman in a red and white costume with a mask that covered the top part of her face. She had to be nearly thirty feet tall, but as I watched, she grew even larger, only stopping when she was about forty feet tall.

“Or larger,” the woman added.

I was so surprised by this giant woman, that it took me a couple seconds to realize who she was. This was Ginormous, Glow’s mom.

“I have little interest in fighting the Liberty League at this time,” Paradigm commented, before looking at me. “We will continue this another time.” And with that, she teleported away.

With Paradigm gone, I lowered myself to the ground and let out a sigh of relief. I’d been pushing myself as hard as I could, and couldn’t keep it up any longer.

As soon as I landed, Glow appeared beside me in a flash of blue, giving me a concerned look. “Are you okay?” she asked.

For a moment, I just stared at Glow with tears starting to form in my eyes. I barely even noticed Ginormous shrinking down to a somewhat more reasonable height of eight feet tall. Then, I finally cried out, “I’m sorry…”

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Thursday afternoon, Sept 27th, 2007

I was sitting on a couch, in the middle of a nicely decorated living room. After Glow and her mom had saved me, Ginormous said that she knew a place where I’d be safe for the moment. To my surprise, she meant her own apartment.

Glow sat on the other end of the couch, which made me feel self-conscious, especially considering how mad she’d been at me the other day. However, she didn’t seem angry at the moment, or at least, not at me. Now, Paradigm on the other hand, still seemed to piss her off a bit.

A short distance away, Glow’s mom sat down in an oversized chair, that looked like it was built for someone who was eight feet tall. She was currently at six and a half feet tall, but still had plenty of room to grow. She took off her mask and let out a sigh.

“Um…Ginormous,” I said, feeling silly for calling her that, and a bit uncertain about proper superhero etiquette. “Thank you for saving me…”

“You can call me Sarah, since I have my mask off,” she responded with a smile. I was startled at that, until remembering that her secret identity had apparently been blown by some villains.

“Well, thank you,” I repeated.

“Rachael and I saw you were being chased by Paradigm,” Sarah said, giving me a sympathetic look, “and she ran off to help, without even waiting for me.” She gave her daughter a look that suggested they’d talk about that later.

I looked at Glow in confusion. “Thank you. But after the other day, I’m kind of surprised…”

Glow grimaced at that while her mom gave a curious look. Apparently, Glow hadn’t told her mom about what I was up to, or about how she’d chased me off.

“I was pretty pissed,” Glow admitted, looking almost guilty. She didn’t look at me as she continued, “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized you didn’t really have a lot of choice. I mean, I know what this Falkner guy did for you, and if he would have done that for me, I would have done just about anything to pay him back…”

I nodded sadly at that. “And now he’s dead…”

“Nina,” Sarah started in a gentle but firm tone. “What is going on, and why did you have someone like Paradigm after you?”

After hesitating a couple seconds, I let out a sigh, then stared at the floor in shame as I began to answer. I told her about my burnout and how Falkner had fixed me, which she already knew. Then, I quietly admitted that Falkner had asked me to spy on the Liberty League, so he could try to buy himself a little more time. Of course, that hadn’t worked at all, and instead of getting Paradigm off his back, she’d only become interested in me.

When I was finished, I couldn’t look Sarah in the eyes. I was too ashamed of what I’d done. If it had worked, and Falkner had still been alive, then I probably would have been able to justify it to myself a bit better. As it was, I felt like crap.

To my surprise, Sarah came over and gave me a hug, and I started to cry. I hugged her back, wishing that I could hug my own mom. I hadn’t been able to do that in three years, and at that moment, I wanted to do it even more than ever. Sarah’s hug was nice, but she wasn’t my mom.

“So,” Sarah finally said as she returned to her seat. “Paradigm wants you to try mind controlling people for her. I’m not really surprised.”

“You know that villain?” Glow asked.

“The Liberty League ran into her a couple times before,” Sarah answered with a look of annoyance. “Whenever we showed up, she just teleported away, without bothering to fight us. But some of the things she did today, I’ve never heard of her doing before. Somehow, she’s gotten more powerful.”

“She told me she recently got more powerful,” I responded. Then, I smiled faintly as I offered, “I know where Paradigm’s secret base is.”

That seemed to get Sarah’s attention, though her expression quickly turned to one of frustration. “That information could be useful, but we can’t do much with it yet…”

“Why not?” I asked.

Sarah shook her head faintly. “Unfortunately, the Liberty League is out of town today, chasing down a supervillain who kidnapped a boy.”

“Yeah,” Glow agreed. “And apparently, this villain is Super Star’s archenemy or something, because she’s taking it really personally.”

“She and Pinball do have a history,” Sarah agreed. “Though admittedly, I don’t know all the details.”

I nodded at that, though I also scowled in frustration. “By the time they’re back, Paradigm might have moved…”

“True,” Sarah agreed, and I could see that she didn’t like this either. “But there is absolutely no way that I’m going there alone, or even with two teenage girls. That would be a good way to get people killed…especially since we don’t know the extent of Paradigm’s new powers.”

“But,” I started to protest.

Sarah gave me a steady look. “Once the League finishes up their current business, we’ll deal with Paradigm. Until then, you need to keep a low profile and wait.”

After this, Sarah got up and went to make some phone calls, leaving Glow and I alone. We sat there for nearly a minute in silence, both of us being a bit self-conscious and hesitant to start first.

Finally, Glow broke the silence by saying, “I was kidnapped by a villain once.”

“What?” I asked in surprise, noticing the haunted look in her glowing eyes, and the way her voice shook just a little.

“When I was really little,” Glow continued, not quite looking at me, “a villain kidnapped me to get to my mom.”

“Oh my God,” I gasped, suddenly remembering that brief glimpse I’d had into her thoughts.

“He...did some horrible things to me,” Glow admitted, clenching her fists together as she did so. “He broke me…up here.” She tapped her temple. “I was really messed up, and after twelve years, I’m only just starting to get better.” Then, she gave me a wry look, admitting, “But I still have a long way to go.”

I stared at Glow for a couple seconds, really feeling for her but not being sure what to say. I wanted to give her a hug, but wasn’t sure if she’d really appreciate that at the moment.

Glow just gave me a weak smile. “I recently lost all the physical scars, but I’ll have the mental ones for the rest of my life.”

This time, I leaned over and gave Glow a big hug anyway. She looked like she needed one.

“Thanks,” Glow said a few seconds later, once we pulled apart. It was a little awkward, but not much. “I just wanted you to know, that I know what it’s like…and that things could have been a lot worse.”

“Gracias,” I told her, nodding my understanding. “I appreciate it.”

“No problemo,” Glow responded with a chuckle.

Since I didn’t know what else to say, I looked around and said, “So, this is where you live…?”

“Naw,” Glow answered, shaking her head and giving me a wry smile. “Dinah and I live with our dad, though Mom set up a guest bedroom for us here, for whenever we want to stay.”

“I’m glad my parents never got divorced,” I commented, thinking about how horrible it would be to have to choose between them. Then again, I’d probably end up with Mom, while Miguel would go with Dad, so I wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. As Mom liked to say before my burnout, there’s a bright side to everything.

“My family has enough drama for a soap opera,” Glow told me with a grin. “But enough of that. Let me give you the nickel tour.”

--------------------

Liberty Island, Friday Sept 28th, 2007

Adonis was dead.

It was hard to believe. Adonis was a bit of a jerk, and a total man slut, but he’d also been really strong and tough. In spite of that, someone had killed him, and it wasn’t just some angry father, brother, or husband, which is who I would have expected to have done the deed.

I hadn’t been there when it happened, of course, but I overheard enough to have an idea of what occurred. Apparently, yesterday, while the Liberty League had been chasing after the kidnapper, Pinball, they ended up in a fight with a whole group of supervillains. And then, as if that wasn’t troublesome enough, the MCO showed up and began shooting at everyone, hero and villain alike. In the end, Adonis had been murdered by the MCO, while the villains all escaped.

At the moment, I was at Liberty Island, for my own protection. I was sitting in some kind of briefing room, surrounded by the members of the Liberty League. Needless to say, they were all in a foul mood, and my admission of spying on them, wasn’t well received. I just sat there with my head hung low, feeling guilty and scared. I half expected them to throw me into jail, though so far, Super Star was the only one who’d actually suggested it.

“Nina was put into a bad situation,” Sarah, or Ginormous, since she was in costume, told the others. “She did what she thought she had to in order to save a friend.”

“Why are you even here?” Super Star asked her with a clear note of bitterness. “You aren’t even with the team anymore… You left, remember?”

“Star,” Force Majeure said in a warning tone.

Super Star glared up at Ginormous, who was currently seven feet tall. “Maybe if you’d been there, Adonis would still be alive…”

Ginormous winced at that, but before she could respond, Twist pointed out, “If Ginormous had been there with us, then she wouldn’t have been there to save Nina.”

I scrunched down a little in my seat, wishing that invisibility was one of my powers. Glow was sitting beside me and put her hand on mine, to remind me that I wasn’t alone.

“And what is she doing here?” Super Star asked, pointing to Glow. “She’s just a kid.”

“I’m here for moral support,” Glow answered in an even tone. Then, she leaned over to me and whispered, “Don’t mind Super Star. She’s just full of herself.” That was enough to make me chuckle faintly.

Ginormous looked around the room, stating, “I took my leave of absence, so I could spend more time with my family, and it’s because I was spending time with my daughter that I’m involved…” She put a hand on Glow’s shoulder. “Nina is my daughter’s friend, and she’s in trouble. If you think that Rachael is going to just ignore that, then you obviously haven’t been paying attention. And you can be certain, that I am going to help these girls however I can…”

“Of course we’ll help,” the Bronze Lady said, giving me a reassuring smile.

“Whatever Nina’s original intentions,” the Gentleman added, “she did save Adonis’ life…and she needs help.”

That made everyone go silent for a moment, as they remembered that Adonis was now gone. I’d saved his life, not that it had lasted long afterwards.

“She was spying on us,” Super Star argued. “She was working for Paradigm…”

“And this is why I protected everyone’s mind from intrusion,” the Gentleman said calmly. “She never read any of our minds…”

The Bronze Lady looked at me and pointed out, “And according to Nina, she never told Paradigm anything about us anyway… Not that she learned anything useful.”

“The fact of the matter is,” Force Majeure said, looking around the room. “Whether or not Nina was spying on us, isn’t important. What is important, is that she needs our help. And in case any of you forgot, Paradigm was already our problem.”

“Until now,” Ginormous commented, “she was more annoyance than active threat. However, she’s gotten a lot more powerful…and more daring.”

The Bronze Lady nodded at that. “From what we’ve heard, this new level of power she possesses, is emboldening Paradigm. Who knows what villainy she may attempt next, especially now that she’s made clear her goals…”

“There are a lot of telepaths and mind controllers out there,” Twist said. “Even if she doesn’t have Nina, it’s only a matter of time before she finds someone else.”

“Yes,” the Gentleman agreed. “There are also numerous devises, artifacts, and spells that might serve her needs as well. As Twist says, it’s only a matter of time before Paradigm finds what she needs to advance her plans. We must stop her mad schemes now, before they come to fruition.”

“Then it’s a good thing that Nina knows where her base is,” Glow pointed out, making me want to sink into my chair even lower. The truth was, I’d already told Ginormous everything I knew about the base, so they didn’t need me for that.

Force Majeure looked at Ginormous. “Then, I assume you want in on the raid.”

“Of course,” Ginormous responded with a deep scowl. She glanced to Glow, obviously wanting to see her reaction.

“Good,” Force Majeure said, not needing to point out that their team was currently short a member.

Super Star stood there with a scowl on her face. “After yesterday, I’m in the mood to hit someone really hard. It’s nice of that bitch Paradigm to volunteer.”

“Yes, it is,” Force Majeure agreed.

It was around this point that the Liberty League began to actually make their plans, and where Glow and I were politely asked to leave. I was happy to leave the room, though Glow was more annoyed by it.

Once we were out of the briefing room, Glow admitted, “I don’t like being cut out of things. I mean, I…we actually fought Paradigm, and that should count for something.”

I nodded my agreement, though the truth was, I was quite happy that they didn’t expect me to fight her again. “I’m just surprised that they didn’t ask me more about her base.” Then I shrugged. “Not my problem anymore.”

“That sounds more like you’re trying to convince yourself,” Glow pointed out. She might have a point.

“So,” I asked, partly to change the subject. “Is there a phone around here I can use?” With a sigh, I admitted, “I haven’t called home in almost two weeks, and I bet my mom is really worried…”

“Sure,” Glow told me with an understanding smile. “It’s this way…”

A minute later, I made the call and waited nervously for Mom to pick up. What was I going to tell her? I didn’t know how to tell her about Falkner being murdered, or about my being kidnapped by a supervillain. And then there was the whole thing about trying to spy on the Liberty League.

“I am SO dead,” I moaned.

When the phone picked up, a familiar voice said, “Hello,” from the other end. However, it wasn’t my mom’s voice.

“Paradigm,” I squeaked out.

“Since you’ve refused to cooperate,” Paradigm said in an almost pleasant tone, “I’ve been forced to find other means of motivation. I don’t like having to do this, but remember, you are the one who forced my hand.”

My eyes widened in horror and my stomach felt like it was trying to force its way up into my throat. “No…”

“You know what I want,” Paradigm told me. “Now, come back and do as I so reasonably asked, and my new guests will continue to remain comfortable.” With that, the phone went dead.

I just stood there for several seconds, horrified by this new development. Just when I thought I was done with Paradigm, she pulls this, making everything even worse.

“What’s wrong?” Glow asked, giving me a worried look.

With tears running down my cheeks, I blurted out, “Paradigm has my family.”

--------------------

Wisconsin, Friday afternoon, Sept 28th, 2007

I nervously looked out the trithoptor window, at the ground that was quickly coming closer. This wasn’t the first time that I’d ridden in one of these things, but they looked far too weird for me to feel comfortable in. They were part helecoptor, part plane, and looked like they were inspired from Jules Verne. Yes, they looked kind of cool, in a real old-fashioned, retro sci-fi way, but not exactly safe.

Ginormous was flying the trithoptor while Twist sat beside her, acting as the co-pilot. That left Glow and myself in the back, with the rest of the space all to ourselves. Of course, there was another trithoptor flying ahead of us, and carrying the Bronze Lady, the Gentleman, Force Majeure, and Super Star. There wasn’t quite enough space to fit all of us into one machine, so we’d been forced to split up and travel in two of them.

“How are you doing back there?” Ginormous called back.

“Fine,” I lied.

The truth was, I couldn’t stop thinking about my family, and wondering if they were all right. I didn’t even know which of them Paradigm had, or if she had everyone. What I did know, was that she’d answered my mom’s cell phone, which was a really bad sign.

“We’ll get your mom back,” Glow promised from beside me. She had a pretty intense look on her face, the kind that might have intimidated me a bit under other circumstances.

“There is no WE in this,” Twist said, looking back and giving Glow and I a look of warning. “You two are staying with the thoptor.”

I merely nodded at that, since we’d had this conversation before. The Liberty League hadn’t wanted me and Glow coming along on this mission, and it had taken a bit of arguing from both of us, to even get this much.

There were a lot of reasons for me to come along on the trip. I knew Paradigm’s base better than any of them did, and if they had any questions for me, it made sense for me to be close enough for them to ask. My family was probably in that place, and if I was close at hand, I could be reunited with them all the sooner. And most importantly, I wasn’t safe on Liberty Island. While they were gone, Paradigm could simply teleport there, and grab me while I wasn’t protected. At least this way, I was close enough that they could come running to help me if they had to.

When we landed, Ginormous and Twist climbed out of the trithoptor in order to join the rest of the Liberty League, who’d landed about fifty yards away. “Remember,” Ginormous warned us. “Stay here.” Then she looked to her daughter and added, “And look out for Nina.”

“I’ll keep her safe,” Glow promised.

I felt a little annoyed that Ginormous was asking Glow to protect me, as if I was helpless and couldn’t take care of myself. However, I had to grudgingly admit, that she did have a point. Twist had been training Glow, and Glow apparently had some experience in real fights against supervillains. I was a rookie, both with my powers, and when it came to serious fights.

Once the heroes were all gone, I glanced at Glow, wondering how I was going to get past her. In spite of what I’d agreed to, there was no way I was going to just sit back and do nothing, when my family was in trouble.

Before I could figure anything out, Glow said, “Here,” and handed me a bundle of clothing.

“What’s this?” I asked, unfolding the bundle and seeing that it was a costume, which seemed similar to what Glow was wearing, but all in grey.

“It’s a blank training uniform,” Glow explained. “It’s mostly kevra, with a little padding inside for extra protection. The League has a few of these in the supply room, and I thought this one would fit you.”

I blinked at that. “How’d you know…?”

I gave her a suspicious look, wondering which of us was the mind reader. As tempting as the idea was, of reading her mind, I already knew that would be a bad idea, not to mention, even worse than the whole spying thing.

“Last month,” Glow said with a grim expression, “Mel and my dad were kidnapped…by the same supervillain who took me…”

“No way,” I gasped. Whoever that villain was, I knew that he’d messed Glow up pretty good, so this had to be like a nightmare come true for her. “What did you do?”

Glow gave me a wry smile. “I went after them.” She gestured to the suit she’d just given me. “There was absolutely no way that I was going to just sit back and wait for someone else to rescue my family for me, and I figured that you’d feel the same way.”

“You figured right,” I admitted. Then, holding up the training outfit, I grinned. “Thanks.”

It took me about five minutes to change clothes, mostly because that one-piece training outfit was a little trickier than I would have guessed. Still, once it was on, it fit almost perfectly. Now, I had my own superhero costume, even if it was just a boring gray color.

“This is probably going to be a rough fight for the League,” Glow told me as I finished up. “They’re still all sore and tired from the big fight yesterday, not to mention, what happened with Adonis.”

“So, you think we should help them?” I asked.

Glow shook her head. “In spite of all that, they can handle themselves.” Then she grinned, though it seemed a little forced. “The way I figure it, while the adults are charging in the front and drawing all their attention, we can use that distraction to just slip on in.”

“Works for me,” I said, nodding my agreement.

We left the Trithoptor and hurried towards the large warehouse that served as Paradigm’s base. It was completely remodeled inside, with hallways and lots of rooms, so that I had absolutely no idea it was a warehouse until I was on the outside and looking back.

“I can see them,” I said, once we were a bit closer.

The Liberty League was in the middle of fighting Paradigm, though it was obvious that they were having a hard time of it. While I watched, Twist fired some kind of energy blast at Paradigm, thought the villainess vanished, reappearing right in front of Ginormous, and blasting her in the face. To my surprise, Twist’s energy blast, changed direction in mid-air, and came back at Paradigm, hitting her in the back. Not that it seemed to do much more than stun her for a moment.

“We don’t have time to watch the show,” Glow reminded me.

“Yeah,” I agreed, tearing my eyes from the fight and running towards the side of the warehouse, well away from where the fight was occurring. “This was the door I left from…”

“Good thing it wasn’t the front door,” Glow commented wryly, gesturing in the direction of the fight.

“Really,” I agreed.

I tried to open the door, but it was locked. There was some kind of fancy electronic keypad next to it, but I had no idea what the combo was. When I’d left, Mary was the one who’d opened it.

“Not a problem,” Glow said.

With that, Glow teleported away, reappearing an instant later about twenty feet away. She teleported two more times, before reappearing right next to me. Then, she held out her hand, and the glowing blue aura that now surrounded her, melted down into her palm, where it formed into a katana made of the energy. Glow swung it at the door and sliced right through it. With a smug look, she kicked the rest of the door open.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, definitely impressed.

“I can cut right through the engine block of a car,” she bragged. And with a smirk, she added, “And I have.”

While I’d been here as an unwilling ‘guest’, I hadn’t left my room, so wasn’t all that familiar with the layout. However, I was pretty sure that I could find my way back to my room from here, just by reversing the path I’d taken while escaping. If that was the area where Paradigm kept her ‘guests’ locked up, then there was a really good chance, that this was where my family was being held.

To my relief, the hallway was empty, and when I glanced through an open doorway, things looked…abandoned. It looked as though someone had packed in a hurry, then ran off, leaving the furniture and a couple half-packed boxes.

“I think they were already starting to evacuate the place,” I commented.

It made sense. Paradigm told me, that she’d recently lost her main base and had been forced to move into this place, as a backup. And then, after I escaped, this place was no longer all that secure either. I bet that pissed her off, almost as much as my escaping, if not more.

“Here we are,” I said when we reached the hallway where I’d been locked up.

There was an armed guard in the hallway, which I took to be a good sign that we were in the right place. Before he could do anything more than notice us, Glow teleported to him and began hitting him in the face and stomach. He dropped to the ground a couple seconds later, where he curled up and moaned in pain.

“Ouch,” I exclaimed with a wince.

A moment later, I focused all my power into my telepathy, and could suddenly ‘hear’ the thoughts around me. There weren’t very many thoughts within range of my power, and other than Glow and the guard, all of them were coming from one room.

“They’re here,” I blurted out excitedly.

As soon as I opened the door, I was immediately faced with the sight of my family. Mom, Dad, Miguel and Julie, were all there and scattered about the large ‘hotel room’. At first, they were watching me with nervous expressions, then recognition and surprise flashed over their faces.

“Hola,” I said, waving self-consciously.

“Nina?” Mom gasped in surprise.

A second later, Mom ran over and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I hugged her back, with tears running down my cheeks. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d hugged her like this.

“You look…healthy,” Mom said, looking me over in amazement.

“My Nina,” Dad said, grabbing me with a hug of his own. “You’re walking again…”

With a broad grin, I announced, “Falkner fixed me…” But then I paused, my good mood draining away as I remembered what happened to him.

Then, Julia came up and just stared at me for a moment, obviously unsure of what to do. She’d only been seven years old, the last time I’d been able to talk to her with my own voice.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” I stated, grabbing my little sister into a hug as well.

After I let go of Julia, I looked at Miguel, who was watching me with an odd expression. “I’m glad you’re better,” he finally said as he came closer, though he made no move at going for a hug. As soon as he was within range, I punched his arm as hard as I could. “Ouch,” he exclaimed, stepping back and giving me a look of surprise. “What was that for?”

“That was for all the times you were a jerk to me,” I pointed out.

Miguel just shrugged. “I probably deserved that.”

“You definitely deserved it,” Julia said with a grin. Then she looked me over and asked, “Are you a superhero now?”

I glanced down at the training uniform I was wearing. “Not really…”

“Of course she is,” Glow said from the doorway. “Her codename is Psyber…”

Everyone turned to look at Glow and gasped in surprise. Between her costume, and glowing hair and eyes, she was quite distinctive.

“Are you a superhero too?” Julia blurted out.

“This is Glow,” I said, introducing her to my family. “She’s kinda, sorta, a member of the Liberty League.” Then I gestured at my family and told Glow, probably unnecessarily, “This my mom and dad, my brother Miguel, and my favorite sibling Julia.” I stuck my tongue out at Miguel while Julia laughed.

“Nice to meet you,” Glow said politely. “But we should probably get out of here while we can.”

Dad nodded agreement but gave me a look that clearly said, that once we were out of here, he wanted an explanation about what was going on. I imagined they were all pretty curious about why a supervillain had kidnapped them. I knew Paradigm enough to know that she’d probably given them some kind of explanation, but there were doubtlessly a lot of questions anyway.

Glow and I led the way into the hallway while everyone followed behind. Both Dad and Miguel seemed offended by the idea that a couple teenage girls were protecting them, but they were too shaken by the situation to make a big deal of it, at least yet.

We hadn’t even reached the end of the first hallway when two guards turned the corner and came into view. Glow didn’t immediately teleport and take them out, the way she had the previous guard. Maybe she just wanted to give me a chance to show off in front of my family. Whatever her reason for hesitating, I took advantage of the opportunity. I reached out with my telekinesis, yanking the guns right out of their hands, and then, I used my power to throw them back until they slammed into the wall, then dropped to the ground.

“Holy...,” Miguel gasped in stunned disbelief. “Did you do that?”

“I have my powers back,” I bragged, feeling rather smug.

“I knew you were a superhero,” Julia blurted out, looking rather pleased with herself.

“We need to hurry,” Glow reminded us. “I don’t know how much longer the League will keep everyone distracted…”

Once we retraced our steps and were back at the exit, I let out a sigh of relief. We were almost out. After this, we’d just go back to the trithoptors, call the League on the radio, and let them know that my family was free. After that, the only thing they’d have to worry about, would be, catching Paradigm.

Almost as soon as we left the building, I suddenly realized that, while we’d been inside, the fight had moved. It was now taking place almost right in front of us, and we’d walked right into the middle of it.

“I should thank you,” Paradigm announced, from where she was floating up in the air. “For providing this opportunity to test the limits of my new power…”

Ginormous was currently living up to her name, and was about forty feet tall. She tried to catch Paradigm from behind, though the villainess turned and blasted her with one of those force blasts, knocking her back and onto her butt. Glow stiffened beside me, and I saw from the grimace on her face, that she really wanted to go help her mom.

“What’s going on?” Dad demanded.

“No way,” Miguel gasped, staring at the superheroes and the villain with a look of stunned disbelief.

“Come on,” I urged, wanting to get out of there before things got worse.

The Bronze Lady used some kind of weird rifle to shoot an energy blast at Paradigm, though the villain simply teleported out of the way. Force Majeure had the glowing image of an angel surrounding him, as he flew straight towards Paradigm, while Super Star flew at him from the opposite direction. At the same time, Twist was helping the Gentleman up off the ground, where he’d apparently been knocked.

“I’ve had enough of this fight,” Paradigm announced. “There’s no need to waste any more time fighting you. My people have had time to finish evacuating, so…” Suddenly, she paused and stared down at us with a look of surprise.

“Uh oh,” Julia whispered, hiding behind Dad. “I don’t think that’s good…”

“It isn’t,” I responded in a shaky voice.

Paradigm didn’t take her eyes off me, but she still used her telekinesis to fling Force Majeure and Super Star away. “You,” she announced. “You still refuse to cooperate…”

“She’s the one who kidnapped us,” Mom exclaimed as she grabbed hold of Miguel and Julia, and tried to push them back, further away from the danger.

Paradigm held out her hand, and suddenly, Mom floated up into the air and towards her. “It seems that I’ll have to use my leverage, here and now…”

“MAMA,” I cried out in horror.

At the same time, Dad yelled, “Sophie… Let her go, you puta…”

I began yelling a long stream of profanity at Paradigm, all in Spanish of course, because Spanish was the best language for swearing in. However, Paradigm only stared at me with a flat look, which pissed me off even more.

“What are you doing here?” Ginormous demanded with a look of worry. “I told you two to stay with the thoptor…”

At that moment, I wasn’t paying attention to Ginormous or any of the other heroes. I was focused entirely on Paradigm, while feeling a swirling mass of fear, worry, and rage. Finally, I reacted, without any real conscious thought.

Pulling my telekinesis back close to my body, I formed my PK shell and flew straight at Paradigm. There was no clever plan, only anger, fear and desperation. And as I reached her, she swung and punched me, putting her force blast into it at the same time. It hit me had and send me flying right into the ground, where I smashed into the concrete and left a body sized hole. My entire body hurt, even worse than yesterday. But in spite of that, I slowly got to my feet.

“Nina, no,” Dad cried out. Miguel just stood there, staring at me with his mouth open.

“Are you all right?” Glow demanded as she appeared beside me.

“No,” I answered honestly, staring up at Paradigm, and at my mom.

While this was going on, the heroes hadn’t been sitting on their thumbs. Force Majeure flew up high into the air, then the angel image vanished from around him, and one of a samurai appeared instead. He dropped right towards Paradigm, swinging his ghostly sword. When Paradigm turned to block him, Super Star flew straight at her, hitting her in the side and forcing her to drop her guard…and Mom. Ginormous caught my mom and returned her to the ground.

Paradigm teleported away from the heroes, only to reappear a short distance away from me. “You’ve become more trouble than you’re worth to me,” she stated, pulling out the EMP thing that she’d threatened me with before. The very sight of it sent a surge of terror through me. “Unfortunately, you’ll be more useful as an example.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Glow exclaimed, teleporting to Paradigm and throwing several glowing throwing stars right into her face.

The villainess yelped in surprise, but reacted fast enough to avoid getting hit by all but one of the stars. That one hit her shoulder, making her cry out in pain. Glow tried another attack, but Paradigm back-handed her, sending my friend flying back with a grunt of pain.

It took me a moment to shake myself out of my shock enough to react. I reached out with my telekinesis and yanked the EMP thing right out of Paradigm’s hands, then I tried to fling it away as far as I could. Unfortunately, Paradigm used her own telekinesis to catch it and pull it right back. But before it fully returned to her, Twist appeared behind her and blasted her from the back with an energy blast.

“Enough of this,” Paradigm exclaimed with an angry snarl.

She held her hand out, gesturing towards a small car that was parked next to the warehouse. I didn’t know if it belonged to her or one of her henchmen, but I suspected that she didn’t care. A moment later, she used her telekinesis to throw the whole car, right at the Bronze Lady and her husband. Super Star flew into the car, slamming into it in mid-air and knocking it off course.

Ginormous came up at full size, looking like she was about to stomp on Paradigm. However, Paradigm snapped around and blasted her foot with a force blast, knocking Ginormous back. Force Majeure and Twist tried taking advantage of this to come at Paradigm again, only to be flung back with her telekinetic power.

“How did she get this powerful?” Super Star demanded. “She’s never been this tough before…”

“Nina,” Ginormous called out. “Glow. Get out of here now…”

With that reminder, I turned my attention back to my family. It looked like they were already trying to creep back away from the fight, and the only reason they hadn’t tried making a real run for it, was because they were waiting for me. I felt guilty for that, for forgetting them for even a moment and risking their lives because of it.

“Come on, Nina,” Dad called out, frantically waving at me.

I ran over to join them while Glow suddenly appeared beside me in a flash of blue. “Come on,” she said with a nod. “If they can keep Paradigm distracted long enough, that is.”

A mere second later, Paradigm appeared in front of us, holding the EMP gun in her hand again. “Before I leave,” she said in a grim tone, “I have some unfortunate business I need to finish…”

But instead of attacking me, she held out her hand and Julia suddenly floated up into the air and towards Paradigm. “NO,” I cried out in horror.

I reacted almost instantly, out of desperation rather than any thought or plan. Using my PK shell, I flew straight at Paradigm as fast as I could, trying to reach her before Julia did. There was no way that I was going to let Paradigm grab Julia. NONE.

Paradigm snapped her attention back at me. There was a flash of light from the EMP thing in her hand. My entire body suddenly exploded in an indescribable agony. Then, I slammed into Paradigm like some kind of human cannon ball, and smashing her right into the ground.

I was sprawled out on the ground, completely dazed from what had just happened. I was only vaguely aware of what was going on around me.

“Paradigm is down,” Force Majeure exclaimed. “Secure her before she recovers…”

Twist yelled, “She’s getting up again…”

“Take that, you vile woman,” the Bronze Lady called out.

Then, the Gentleman announced, “This sleeping spell should take the fight out of her… It’s done.”

At this point, I’d recovered enough to realize that I didn’t hurt anymore, which was a good thing. However, a moment later, it suddenly struck me that not only was the pain gone…so was everything else. I couldn’t feel ANYTHING.

“Nina!” my mom cried out, sounding like she was right beside me. “My Nina!”

I tried to answer, but couldn’t. So instead, with a growing sense of desperation and panic, I screamed out in horror, inside my own head.

--------------------

Liberty Island, Lake Michigan, Monday afternoon, Oct 1st, 2007

Somewhere nearby, a radio was turned on, and I’d been trying to distract myself by listening to the music. At the moment, it was playing ‘Hell is for Children’, by Pat Benatar. I used to like that song, but now, it hit far too close to home.

After three years of being paralyzed, I’d finally been fixed. I’d finally been free of my own personal hell. And then, after only a few weeks, I was right back where I started from, and it was driving me crazy with frustration. If I’d been able to, I would have smacked my head against the wall. Then again, if I’d been able to do that, I wouldn’t be having this problem in the first place.

At the moment, I was strapped into a wheelchair, where I’d been parked in the middle of the room, right where I was in the way. I felt like I was on display, put here so everyone could see me. I screamed in silent frustration, though it all remained in my head.

There were plenty of people around, and not just the Liberty League. My whole family was here, though Miguel and Julia were on a tour of the island, being kept out of the way of the professionals, who’d spent the whole day examining me.

My parents were on the other side of the room, talking to the professionals, namely the Bronze Lady, the Gentleman, and Dr. Keller. Dr. Keller was a slender black man, who wore a nice suit instead of the usual doctor’s outfit. From what I understood, he was some kind of mutant doctor, who actually did house calls for various superhero groups. Fortunately for me, the Liberty League actually called him in to see if he could do anything about my condition.

“Well,” Dad demanded. “Can you fix Nina or not?”

My chair was positioned so that I could see them, and I paid close attention to what they were all saying. Dr. Keller had given me a pretty thorough checkup, and had then run me through an MRI and several other machines. I didn’t know what half of them were for, only that they probably would have been real uncomfortable, if I’d still been able to feel anything.

“I am a healer and a bio-gadgeteer,” Dr. Keller carefully explained to my parents. “And unlike some of the costumed types who call themselves ‘doctor’, I actually have a medical degree.”

“We’re well aware of your impressive credentials, doctor,” the Gentleman responded. I hadn’t been aware of them, and was pretty sure that my parents weren’t either.

Dr. Keller nodded faintly, and looked straight at Dad. “I’m telling you this, so you understand that I do know what I’m doing. I have an understanding of human biology and an ability to repair it, that most doctors can only dream of. If I’d treated Nina before she’d received these implants, I might have been able to do something for her condition. Unfortunately, I can’t tell for certain, because these cybernetics have fused with or replaced most of her nervous system.

“What are you saying?” Mom asked, looking worried. She’d heard a lot of different doctors and specialists tell her that there was nothing they could do, and she was obviously expecting that answer again.”

“Most of her body is in perfect health,” “Dr. Keller explained. “And from what I can tell, the current damage is entirely within these cybernetics. Unfortunately, my specialty lies entirely with biology, so there is little that I can do for her now.”

“My attempts to treat Nina with magic, has encountered similar problems,” the Gentleman admitted. “With this technology in her body, any spells I cast on her, would likely result in unpredictable and dangerous outcomes.”

“And so it comes to me,” the Bronze Lady stated. “As a devisor, I would seem the most logical choice to repair Nina’s implants, but unfortunately, they are of a technology I am not familiar with. You might as well ask an auto mechanic to repair her spine. I am very good at what I do, but this technology is beyond my skills.” She shook her head at that. “The truth is, as these implants are devisor technology, only the one who created them could truly be capable of the necessary repairs.”

“But, Mister Falkner is dead,” Mom said with a look of despair.

“Gerald Falkner is dead,” the Bronze Lady agreed with a note of obvious sadness. “However, the nurse who assisted him during the implantation process, has made herself available to answer any and all questions. She is quite eager to assist Nina in any way possible.”

If I’d been capable of nodding, I would have done so at that. The other day, Mary had contacted the Liberty League, asking if there was anything she could do to help. She’d told them everything she knew about Falkner’s techno-organic technology and the implant process, which wasn’t really all that much. However, she’d also volunteered to take care of me, the same way she had before I’d been fixed. No one was really sure if they could trust her, but she’d convinced them to let her help anyway. It was pretty obvious that she felt guilty, and blamed herself for my current situation.

“So, there’s nothing you can do?” Dad asked hopelessly.

“I’m afraid not,” the Bronze Lady said in an apologetic tone, while her husband and Dr. Keller made similar noises. “However, I will see if I can locate a devisor with a similar specialty. There is always the possibility they may find a solution we cannot.”

At this point, I wanted to insert my own comments into the conversation, mostly sarcastic and bitter ones, but it was no use. I couldn’t talk again, and they were all too far away to hear my telepathic projection, which was once again, all that was left of my powers.

My parents came over and gave me a quick hug, with Mom gushing, “I’m so sorry… We’ll keep looking for some way to make you better again…”

I didn’t bother responding to that, because I was pretty sure that there was no way to fix me. I’d been given one chance, and I lost it. The only thing that made this tolerable, was the fact that Julia was safe. I took comfort in the fact that I’d saved my sister, because that was about the only saving grace from this.

“At least we captured Paradigm,” the Bronze Lady said, though she didn’t sound very thrilled by that.

“Nina paid a high price for that,” Ginormous pointed out grimly.

I was startled at that, because she’d come into the room from the other door, and I hadn’t even known she was there until that moment. Once she walked over to join the Bronze Lady, I could see her, and I also saw that Glow and Dinah had come in with her. They all looked at me with pity in their eyes. I hated that look.

“I know,” the Bronze Lady responded with a sigh while her husband put a hand on her shoulder.

“I should be going,” Dr. Keller said. He came over to me and apologized, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you Nina. I truly wish I could.”

A few seconds later, the Bronze Lady and the Gentleman escorted Dr. Keller out, leaving with Glow and Dinah. They stood back for several long seconds, giving me looks of pity and obviously not sure of how to treat me. Then, they finally moved closer.

“I’m really sorry this happened,” Glow told me, looking guilty. “We should have stayed at the trithoptor like we’d been told. If we’d done that…”

“This isn’t your fault,” I projected.

Glow and Dinah both jumped a little at that, especially Dinah. This was the first time we’d talked since Paradigm had fried my new nervous system. She didn’t really know about my telepathy.

“What was that?” Dinah gasped.

“Projective telepathy,” I answered. “It’s the only way I can talk now…”

“Holy shit,” Dinah blurted out, giving me an odd look. “You seem to be taking this kind of calmly.” She looked a little skeptical.

“I was like this for three years,” I projected, trying to keep the despair and frustration out of my mental voice. “I’ll be like this for the rest of my life.”

“Don’t say that,” Glow insisted. “Eliza will find a way to fix you.”

“Yeah,” Dinah agreed. “She’s really smart, even if her fashion sense is WAY out of date.”

Then, in an obvious attempt to change the subject, Glow said, “Your brother is…something else.”

“I’ll say,” Dinah agreed with a snort.

“He hit on me a couple times,” Glow told me with a look of disgust. That was no surprise though, because I knew my brother. “I think he’s trying to get his nerve up to hit on Twist…”

“Probably,” I agreed.

“That might actually be pretty funny,” Glow commented with an evil chuckle. I wondered why, until she explained, “Twist isn’t into guys. She prefers girls.”

If I’d been able to, I probably would have laughed my butt off. Instead, I just projected, “Miguel probably would have gotten along really well with Adonis.”

We continued talking for a few more minutes, which was kind of strange. Before Falkner had fixed me, I’d barely talked to anybody for three years. A short time after my burnout, all my old friends had stopped coming by to visit, and I even made my own family too uncomfortable to sit with me for very long. Well, everyone but Julia.

The conversation turned to the members of the Liberty League, and I found myself asking, “What’s the deal with Force Majeure?”

“What do you mean?” Glow asked.

“Well, I thought he was supposed to have some kind of spirit,” I responded. “But it looks like he’s got more than one. I mean, I’ve seen a samurai, a bear, an angel, and some kind of lion or something…”

“I asked him the same thing,” Dinah told me. “He said he’s only got one spirit, but it likes showing different faces…”

“Personally,” Glow added with a strange expression. “I think his spirit might have multiple personalities or something.”

“You’d know,” Dinah teased her sister, before suddenly glancing at me and going pale.

“Dinah,” Glow said carefully. “Do you mind getting me something to drink?”

Dinah gave her a knowing look but shrugged anyway. “Sure. I’ll be back in a minute…or ten.”

“What’s that about?” I asked curiously.

Glow hesitated a moment, then blurted out, “I used to have multiple personalities.”

“What?” I projected, feeling a little confused.

“I don’t like to talk about this,” she admitted, looking embarrassed. “I told you that I was kidnapped when I was just a kid…” I tried to nod at that, momentarily forgetting that I couldn’t. “And I told you how he messed me up…” This time, I didn’t bother trying to nod.

“You mentioned that,” I said instead.

“Physically, I got a LOT of scars,” Glow continued, giving me a forced smile. “Even after the healers were done with me, I still had some pretty good ones. But mentally… Severe trauma, PTSD, and more issues than a magazine stand. The worst one though, was that my mind…broke. I developed another personality.” She paused at that to lick her lips self-consciously. “I spent the last twelve years as two different people…James and Rachael.”

“Your other personality is named James?” I asked, feeling almost amused by that. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like, having some other personality, much less one that was a boy.

“Actually,” Glow responded with a blush. “James was my original name…”

“What?” I projected in confusion.

“I was originally James,” Glow quickly explained. “And I was born a guy. When my mind broke…part of me became Rachael. Then, when I manifested as a mutant, Rachael was the one who got all our powers…and whenever that part of me took over, I actually turned into a girl physically too…”

I blinked at that, which was the only physical reaction I could give. However, I didn’t say anything since I was still trying to absorb this.

“Last month,” Glow said with a deep sigh, “when Dad and Mel were kidnapped, my two personalities…merged. I’m…James and Rachael both. I remember being both of them.”

Unable to think of anything else to say, I pointed out, “But you’re a girl... You said you were a boy…”

Glow still looked embarrassed, though she gave me a faint smile. “When I merged, I came out looking like this, instead of like James.” She shrugged at that. “My shrink think’s that it’s some kind of subconscious defense mechanism. That I felt weak and vulnerable as James, but was powerful and confident as Glow. So…” With that, she gestured down at herself and gave me a wry look.

“But what do you think?” I asked, getting the impression that she had her own ideas.

After hesitating for a moment, Glow answered. “I think that a part of me has always been a girl, and that when I…split…that part went with Rachael. That’s why she was always a girl, even before she had a girl’s body.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I responded, not sure that I really understood. “But why tell me all this? I mean, this is like, really personal stuff…”

For several seconds, Glow just stood there in front of me. And just as I was starting to think that she wouldn’t answer, she did.

“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.”

There were tears in Glow’s eyes, though I barely had time to notice them before she came in and gave me a hug. Unfortunately, I couldn’t feel it, though I still appreciated the gesture. If I’d been able to, I would have been happy to hug her back, and cry on her shoulder.

A moment later, without any warning, something seemed to switch inside of me. Suddenly, I could feel Glow’s arms wrapped around me. Somehow, I could feel her… I could feel EVERYTHING.

I threw my own arms around Glow, much to her shock, and even my own. I didn’t know what Glow had done, or how she could even have done anything. All I knew was that tears were running down my cheeks as I gasped, “Thank you…”

--------------------

Milwaukee Wisconsin, Saturday Oct 6th, 2007

“You can’t get past me,” Glow announced, giving me a look that dared me to even try. “You can’t beat us.”

By ‘us’, she meant her and Mel, while I had Dinah on my side. We were at the basketball court just outside Sarah’s apartment, playing a little game of two on two.

The four of us were the only ones playing at the moment, but we weren’t alone. Half the Liberty League was present for the little party. Ginormous, or Sarah, of course, since she was the one holding the party, but Twist and the Bronze Lady where there too, dressed in normal clothes.

Mom was there too. Two days ago, Dad went back to Sacramento with Miguel and Julia. They all still had work or school to go to, so Mom stayed behind with me, while I got checked out a lot more, to make sure I didn’t have a relapse.

The Bronze Lady thinks that when Paradigm’s EMP thing hit me and fried my implants, that they kept working just enough to keep me alive, and to begin some kind of self-repair. Apparently, the MRI and other tests probably caused them to ‘reboot’ and start working again.

I wasn’t sure why my implants started working again, only that I was unbelievably grateful that they did. Whatever the reason, I’d been given a third chance, and there was no way I was going to waste it.

With that in mind, I spun on my heels, did a fake-out, and then slipped past Glow enough to make a basket. A triumphant grin formed as the ball went in.

“Are you sure you didn’t use your telekinesis with that one?” Mel asked.

I just stuck my tongue out at her. “I don’t need my powers to beat you two.”

“Yeah,” Dinah added with a broad grin of her own. “We’ll kick your butts…”

When we finished playing a short time later, Mom came over and gave me a hug. “You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you playing like this…”

“And you have no idea how happy it makes me to be able to,” I pointed out with a grin.

As we went inside to eat, Mom said, “I’ve been talking with these heroes, especially Sarah…”

She smiled at that, reminding me that the two of them seemed to have been hitting it off pretty well. I guess that they had a lot to talk about, since both of them had daughters with a lot of problems.

“I know that you’ve made some nice friends here,” Mom told me.

“Yeah,” I responded with a broad grin.

I didn’t have any friends back home, not anymore. After my burnout, I lost all my old friends, which was no surprise since I wasn’t very fun to hang around with. But now, I’ve got Glow as a new best friend, but Dinah and Mel were both pretty cool too.

“And you seem happy here,” Mom continued in an odd tone.

Giving her a curious look, I wondered what she was up to. I was tempted to read her mind and find out, but that would have been really rude. Besides, if Mom realized I was reading her mind, I’d probably get grounded or something.

“It’s awesome,” I told her excitedly. “Glow is really fun to hang out with, and I get to hang out with real superheroes too.” Then I shrugged, “And there are other people with powers, so they’re helping me learn to control mine a bit better…”

Mom laughed at that. “And that is what I wanted to talk to you about. How would you feel about staying here, so they can help you with your powers?”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “Are you kidding me?”

Mom let out a long sigh and admitted, “I’m not really thrilled by the idea of leaving you here, but Sarah made some good points. You need to learn how to use your powers, and this is probably the best place for that. And, you also need someone to look after your…medical issues. Eliza promised that she’d do that…and that Doctor Keller would come back for regular checkups.”

This all came out of nowhere and kind of caught me by surprise. I’d been looking forward to going home, and to reconnecting with some of my old friends…if they still wanted anything to do with me. But on the other hand, I didn’t really want to go back just yet. All my friends were here.

“But where would I stay?” I asked, feeling a little concerned.

“My spare bedroom,” Sarah said, coming into the conversation. She gave me a gentle smile. “If you wouldn’t mind staying with me, that is.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise. Then I looked over to Glow and Dinah, wondering what they’d think of me staying with their mom, when they lived with their dad.

“That would be great,” Glow said, while Dinah seemed pleased as well.

“We could hang out all the time,” Dinah added with a grin of her own.

Sarah chuckled, commenting, “And it would give me an excuse to have my daughters visit more often.”

“You don’t mind me staying in your room?” I asked Glow, remembering that she and Dinah stayed in the guest room when they stayed with their mom.

“I have a third bedroom that I’ve just been using for storage,” Sarah told me with a smile. “It won’t take much to convert it into a room for you, so you’ll have your own.”

For several seconds, I looked back and forth between Sarah, Glow, and Mom. “You don’t mind?” I asked Mom and Sarah both, not wanting to intrude or anything.

“Of course not,” Sarah responded with an amused look. “If I did, I wouldn’t have suggested this…”

“Then, I take that as a yes,” Mom said, while I nodded agreement. “Of course, I expect you to call home, and I’ll be coming here to visit quite often.” Then she hugged me again, saying, “I do want you back home, but I think that this might be best for you, at least for now. You have opportunities here that you just won’t have back in Sacramento…”

“Yeah,” I said with a chuckle. “I can avoid Miguel.”

We began talking about how this would work, and how Mom would mail my stuff to me. Not like I really had a lot of stuff anymore. Being paralyzed kind of meant that I hadn’t had any hobbies, other than listening to music, and I hadn’t been able to do any shopping. I felt giddy at the realization that I could go shopping and finally get some new clothes.

But then, I was dragged out of my thoughts by Mom saying, “Of course, you’ll need to go back to school…”

“Wait,” I blurted out in surprise. “What.”

“Nina,” Mom said, giving me that parental look that said there wouldn’t be any argument. “You haven’t gone to school in three years, and now that you’re healthy, it’s time you go back…”

“But,” I protested, suddenly scared by the idea. All the kids I’d gone to school with before had moved on, leaving me behind. If I went back to school, I’d be in class with a bunch of kids a lot younger than me, and I’d look like I was stupid or something.

“We’ve been homeschooling Rachael,” Sarah pointed out. “And she has several tutors helping her…”

“Kind of hard to go to school with this,” she pointed out, touching her glowing hair.

“And this is any better?” I responded with a grin, turning around and lifting the back of my shirt up just enough to show off my metal spine.

“At least you don’t glow in the dark,” Dinah offered with a grin. “I live with a living night light.”

“I’ve already talked to Super Star,” Sarah said, looking at me. “She’s a PK Supergirl, and can help train you how to use your own PK abilities more effectively. She’s already agreed to mentor you.”

“Great,” I replied, without much enthusiasm. I hadn’t forgotten the way that Super Star had been pushing for me to be locked up, because of the whole spying thing.

While I was still dwelling on the idea of being ‘mentored’ by Super Star, Mom and Sarah had already moved on with the conversation.

“Okay,” Mom was telling Sarah. “I like this idea of hiring a tutor to work with Nina, and getting her caught up…”

“Rachael can use a classmate for her studies,” Sarah said, glancing over at her daughter. “Trust me, Nina will be in good hands…”

“It looks like we’ll be hanging out together even more,” Glow told me, looking rather pleased by that, while I nodded my agreement.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled by the idea of having to go back to school, especially with all the work I’d have to do just to catch up on everything I’d missed in the last three years. And then, there was the fact that Super Star was apparently going to be my mentor, and she was the member of the Liberty League I wanted as a mentor, the least. In fact, the only one I would have wanted less, would have been Adonis.

But in spite of these problems and annoyance, I couldn’t complain. Compared to what I’d already been through, and the challenges I’d already dealt with, this stuff was nothing. In fact, all of that and more, still would have been a small price to pay, just for the chance to really live again.

The End