Cerebra's Files

Neurotap


Real Name: Michelle Balters
Affiliation: None
Alternate-X Versions: None
Codename Etymology: Pronounced nŏŏ-rŏtăp [From Greek, neuron: "string" + Old French, taper]; A connection to the brain (fabricated word)
Powers & History: When Neurotap makes eye contact with another person and activates her power, she sends a neural shock pulse through their central nervous system, paralyzing their body and mind. Unfortunately, the first time her powers manifested, Michelle zapped both her parents, sending them into comas. This brought her to the attention of Martin Henry Strong, a wealthy entrepreneur whose company's mission is to find and eliminate the X-Factor that causes mutations. Strong promised to help pay Michelle's parents' bills and in return, she would work for him. While working for Strong, Michelle became involved with Adam-X (X-Treme), who was there looking for links to his past. Then Michelle ran away, and Strong sent X-Treme after her. X-Force, who were pursuing their own leads on Strong, got involved and rescued Neurotap, who then disappeared. Eventually, X-Force convinced X-Treme to help them against Strong, but when they broke into his main facility, Michelle was waiting for them and knocked them out. Her "escape" had been a setup Strong created to flush X-Force out into the open. After Cable fought Strong and destroyed his synthetic body, Neurotap was knocked out by X-Treme, having fought him because Strong had promised to cure her. More recently, Neurotap secretly called X-Force to help when Strong got involed with Hanna Verschlagen, a German mutant who bred eight children using her own DNA so they could catalyze her own mutant power. When Rictor and Shatterstar got involved with Hanna's second child Asahi, they ended up at Strong's company and hooked up with Neurotap to stop Verschlagen. While they were captured and hooked into Verschlagen's machine, some of the X-Force members showed up to rescue them. After Verschlagen was destroyed, Neurotap was given Xavier's card, in the hope that she might turn to him for help with her parents, and leave Strong someday. For now, however, she remains with Strong.
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