Bionic Woman Rebuilt

''Tech. Tradecraft. Transhumanism.''

Bionic Woman Rebuilt is a fanfic that essentially redoes the 2007 series of Bionic Woman. The biggest difference to the series, style-wise, is the increased focus on quote-unquote realism. Large parts of the story are spent on describing the bionics as based on actual cutting-edge and in-development technology, and similarly, modern weaponry, psychology, tactics and information technology get their moments in the limelight. On the theme front, the story is about family, the limits of genius, the transformation of self and freedom.

Oh, and occasionally, it's funny. Here's how things kick off, in a nutshell:

Jaime Sommers's life is going quite well: living with her younger sister Becca in San Francisco, Jaime's got a job as a bartender and a college stipend paying the bills, she's dating medical prodigy and college professor William Anthros, and she's passed all the classes in her first semester at UC Berkeley. However, on the way back from a date with Will, their car gets into a serious accident, crushing Jaime's body and almost killing her. With no other option to save the woman he loves, Will pulls out his cellphone - and his first call isn't 911.

Jaime wakes up to find that much of her body has been replaced with bionic parts, developed in secret by Berkut, the Government Conspiracy William Anthros works for. Consequently, Jaime is inducted with little fanfare and told that she's now in the business of black ops and counter-terrorism. Soon, Jaime is in way over her head with other 'augments' gunning for her and Will, high-tech terrorists challenging Berkut and Becca wondering just what the hell is going on with her big sister...

The stories are:
 * Rebuilt (Covering the events of the pilot. Completed.)
 * Paradise Regained (Semi-covering the events of "Paradise Lost". Completed.)
 * Interlude (A short story that covers events leading up to Big Sister. Completed.)
 * Big Sister (Sorta-kinda-covering the events of "Sisterhood". In progress.)

This story contains examples of:


 * Action Girl (Jaime doesn't particularly want to be one, but between the built-in abilities of her bionics and the Berkut training, she's getting there.)
 * Alternate Continuity (Although based on the 2007 series, there are significant changes to the character backgrounds and the plot only roughly follows the aired episodes.)
 * AKA 47 (Averted, hard. The bionics tell Jaime *exactly* what weapons her enemies are using, annoying her to no end.)
 * Black and Gray Morality (Although Jonas Bledsoe does his best to isolate Jaime from it, Berkut is staffed by people who are, collectively, not very nice. Medical ethics and the law go out of the window frequently. Their only excuse is that the people they're fighting are so nasty that they must be stopped at any cost.)
 * Body Horror (Jaime seems to be okay with the bionics at first, but after experiencing what they're capable of, it starts to sink in.)
 * Cool Old Guy (Jonas Bledsoe, who brings experience, common sense and a humanistic perspective to his leadership in Berkut.)
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul (Double subverted. After the trainwreck that was Sara Corvus, Berkut tried their hand with 'stability enhancements' in Jaime's bionics, supposed to keep her calm and focussed when on the job. However, the heavy-handed way in which they work actually makes the problems worse.)
 * Dark Action Girl (Sara Corvus, full stop.)
 * Darker and Edgier (Taken farther than the series, which was already billed as Darker and Edgier than the original Bionic Woman. Mostly done by emphasizing the alienness of the bionic implants and the immense stress Jaime is suffering under from her new life.)
 * Deadpan Snarker (Nathan seems to genuinely enjoy putting down Jaime with snark whenever possible. He's more reserved with other people at Berkut, though.)
 * Ditzy Genius (Mostly the 'lack of tact' part. Will, while usually well-adjusted, has problems treating other people as equals. When he gets fired up, his behaviour ranges from giving rambling, on-the-spot lectures on whatever he's thinking at the moment to simply going over other people's heads.)
 * Enigmatic Minion (Antonio Pope. Seemingly Bledsoe's only true confidante, ex-special ops soldier, still not introduced to Jaime. Has minimal screen time to boot.)
 * Inspirationally Disadvantaged (Mild case. Becca has been deaf since her childhood, but poured her energy into becoming a serious robotics geek and learning to read lips to the point where she rarely needs to use sign language. On the other hand, she does run into realistic problems trying to read people's lips when they look away or eat, and she doesn't like being deaf, at all.)
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel (The 'Paradise Demonstration', both in and out of the story. Chemical weapons = nasty. Also, the intrusive nature of the bionics leading Jaime to question how much of her actions or even thoughts are actually still her.)
 * Mama Bear (Jaime's all about protecting her little sister.)
 * Mission Control (Provided by Nathan, who's not very happy about it. As of Interlude, Ruth Truewell has taken over for him. Bledsoe jumps in when needed.)
 * Playful Hacker (Becca, who likes to fiddle with tech and find out secrets on the 'It's there and it's fun' basis. Nathan probably was one before he came to work for Berkut, but doesn't have much time to play around anymore.)
 * Reasonable Authority Figure (Jonas Bledsoe tries very, very hard to be this for Jaime. He's much stricter with the other Berkut members, though - as he explains, they're there by choice.)
 * Reluctant Mad Scientist (Will wants to transform the world with bionics to create a transhumanist utopia. Instead, he's stuck putting together war machines for the US government. He's pragmatic enough to realize that his grand vision can't be realized at the moment, but he's not happy about it.)
 * Shown Their Work (Would you like to know how to handle a pistol, or how chemical weapons work, or how to hack encrypted Wi-Fi? In addition to the in-story explanations for Jaime's benefit, the second story introduces post-chapter commentary that talks at length about concepts featured in that chapter.)
 * Steel Ear Drums (Averted. The story likes to note how loud firearms are, especially indoors.)
 * Techno Babble (Spread over at least three characters, to boot. Mostly not made-up, though.)
 * There Are No Therapists (Averted. Ruth Truewell is the staff psychologist at Berkut, and keeping Jaime sane is her job. Not that it's an easy job, mind you...)
 * The Voice (The way the bionics communicate with Jaime. Goes from annoying to comforting to creepy, depending on the situation.)
 * Wrench Wench (Becca, falling on the 'electronics and computers' end of the spectrum.)
 * Techno Wizard (Nathan and Will, definitely.)