Nicole Warren

**Nicole Warren** (née **Neese**) is one of the two main protagonists (alongside Dion Warren) of Raising Dion. She is portrayed by Alisha Wainwright.

## Summary

Nicole “is a former professional dancer who gave it up to raise her son Dion when her husband Mark died.” She is “a young, recently widowed African-American mother who discovers her son has magical powers. Her struggle with being a single mother is compounded by her need to teach Dion how to handle his supernatural skills and her search for answers about the source of his abilities, with help from her late husband’s best friend.” She must also “protect Dion from antagonists out to exploit him” and is “overwhelmed by raising her son alone while dealing with the loss of her husband”.

## Biography

### Pre-series and season 1

Nicole first met Mark Warren in the library of the Atlanta University Center, where she had a job to pay for her dance education (alongside anther job as a waitress). After only a few months of dating, they got married; something that greatly surprised Mark's friend Pat Rollins. After completing her dance education, she joined The Lewis Company as a dancer, and among other things gave a performance in the Fox Theater. She quit her job when she got pregnant.

Unbeknown to Nicole, Mark had started to develop superpowers after his journey to Iceland to see the Aurora Event. On August 12, 2017, Mark was killed in New Orleans by The Crooked Man, leaving Nicole a widow and a single mother. She and Dion were eventually forced to move to another apartment, and shortly afterwards Nicole lost her job after showing up late one time too many. It was also around this time that Dion's superpowers began to manifest.

After several failed attempts to get a new job, including one at the hospital where her sister Kat Neese worked, Nicole eventually returned to The Lewis Company, this time as a front office employee. With help of Pat, she tried to keep Dion's powers a secret and teach them how to use them properly. After finding a phone number of a woman named Charlotte Tuck in Mark's old jacket, she contacted her. From Charlotte, she learned Mark had powers too, and what truly killed him. She convinced Charlotte to help train Dion so he could hide from The Crooked Man.

When Dion was hospitalized after a failed attempt to use his powers to heal Pat's migraine, Nicole tried to convince Kat about his powers. She finally succeeded when Kat saw Dion levitate himself in his sleep. Thank to research data from Mark, which Nicole had found on an SD card hidden in his watch, Kat was able to save Dion, but afterwards Dion was taken into quarantine by Biona. Nicole confronted Biona's CEO Suzanne Wu, and was able to get Dion back by trading him for all Mark's research. Around the same time, her friendship with Pat was severely strained when Pat tried to take their relation to a new level, but she rejected him.

When The Crooked Man showed up at their apartment and killed Charlotte, Nicole took Dion to their cabin at the lake to keep him save. Pat followed them there, and revealed himself to be The Crooked Man. He followed Dion to his school when the boy teleported there, and the two got into a fight. Nicole helped Dion defeat him by using a metal pole and chain as an improvised lightning rod, taking advantage of Pat's weakness that, in his Crooked Man form, he could not see her.

### Season 2

In Season 2, set two years after Season 1, Nicole has taking up boxing lessons, and is now working closely with Biona to help powered people train and understand their powers. She even acts as a spokesperson for them. She is still concerned about Dion and him using his powers, and doesn't like it when he tries to perform heroics in his neighborhood before school starts.

In "ISSUE 201: A Hero Returns", she learns Dion has been given a new teacher, Tevin Wakefield, whom she initially does not get along with, but Suzanne Wu convinces her Dion needs someone like Tevin.

In "ISSUE 202: Sankofa", she learns from Suzanne that Pat Rollins is back, having survived his fight in Season 1, and is now being held captive at Biona. Nicole confronts him to give him a piece of her mind, but insists to Suzanne that Dion cannot know about this. She is unable to keep the secret for long however since Dion finds out in "ISSUE 203: Monster Problem" when Brayden Mills alerts him to Pat being at the Sinkhole outside the school. Nicole arrives just in time to calm down Dion while Pat is escorted away again by Biona scientists. That night, Suzanne ask Nicole to come to the Sinkhole, where Biona is detecting strange activity. Nicole falls into the hole and comes face to face with Gary Stafford, who has been transformed into a monster by the Parasitic spores from the plant in the sinkhole. She is able to fight him off, but he manages to scratch her.

In "ISSUE 204: With Friends Like These", Nicole and Tevin step in to prevent Biona Agents from detaining Janelle Carr after the teen causes another huge explosion, and Nicole offers to take over her training from Alonso Diaz. She is more succesful than Alonso was. Unfortunately, the scratch she got from Gary gets infected, and Nicole is thus at risk of becoming a monster like Gary. Not wanting to take any risks, she has Biona put her in quarantine. Since the energy of the spores is connected to the Crooked Energy still left in Pat, she asks Nicole to let Pat help come up with a cure. While in quarantine, Nicole convinces Janelle to take over her role as spokesperson for the powered people, since she feels they should be represented by one of their own.

Pat is able to make a serum using P-DNA, but it is as lethal to the host as it is to the spores. While it will prevent Nicole from transforming or infecting others, it will kill her in 36 hours. Nicole decides ot take the serum anyway so she can spend some last moments with Dion. Together, she teaches him how to make her special pancakes, records a video will for him, and finally allows him to ride his bike to school instead of her dropping him off. She also tries to gather people to look after Dion after she is gone, like Tevin and Simone Carr.

In "ISSUE 208: Who You Are", Nicole is down to her last shot of the serum, which she hopes to use to see Dion's musical at school, when the school is attacked by Brayden Mills (now possessed by the Crooked Energy) and his army of plant monsters. Nicole joins Dion, Tevin and Janelle to try and fight them off, but they soon find themselves overwhelmed. When Dion realizes the Crooked Man is now in full control of Brayden, he tries to make Brayden snap out of the Crooked Man's hold. Dion fails, but Nicole is able to reach Brayden by reminding him of his mother. Brayden incapacitates his army and repels the Crooked Energy, while he tearfully hugs Nicole. When the Crooked Energy tries to reach the sinkhole and make more spores, Nicole realizes that the serum she has left could kill the plant that caused the infection. She reluctantly allows Dion to teleport into the sinkhole and destroy the plant, which he manages to do. This reverts the transformation, and restores all infected people back to normal. It also undoes Nicole's infection, saving her life.

At the end of the episode, Nicole finally allows Dion to be his neighborhoods hero.

## Personality

Nicole is “effortlessly cool and maintains a positive outlook on life for Dion. But as most mothers do, Nicole can become stressed and upset and completely lose cool especially when dealing with Dion's powers. When thing are hard to understand, like Dion's powers, people can get overwhelmed as showed in the beginning of episode 3. As Dion’s abilities become more and more apparent, Nicole’s protective nature heightens as she starts to fear for his safety.”

## Relationships

### Mark Warren

Mark is Nicole’s deceased husband. She had a loving relationship with him and was deeply saddened by his death. She always talks about him to Dion. She talks to him to a video he recorded back when he was on his trip in Iceland on his research. In some episodes, there are flashbacks of their relationship. In “ISSUE #109: Storm Killer,” Mark was shown as a ghost. They kissed and had a moment together.

### Dion Warren

Dion is Mark and Nicole’s son. Upon finding out about Dion’s superpowers, she becomes very protective. She is always positive in Dion’s life and wants him to have a great life. She is a loving, protective mother. When he was in hospital, she was worried that the doctor would find out about his powers. When Dion faced the Crooked Man, she helped him defeat the giant.

### Kat Neese

Kat is Nicole's sister. She was the one who always went to Nicole’s performances, even when she saw her graduate and helped her when her husband died. Despite this, she can act strict towards Nicole when she believes Nicole to be irresponsible.

### Pat Rollins

Pat was Nicole’s husband’s best friend. When they first met, it wasn't a good start, but after Mark's death he became a loyal friend to Nicole. He was the one who frequently picked up and drove Dion to and from school. On a night at a pool hall playing pool, on their way back home, he kisses her. Pat feels uncomfortable and tries to apologize to her about it and she forgives him. However, when he saw Nicole dancing with Rashad, he was sad and jealous. He admitted to feeling like Nicole was taking advantage of him. Nicole didn't understand and told him to never come close to her or Dion. Pat didn't respect her wishes. When he revealed himself as the Crooked Man, she was afraid and took Dion to the cabin in order to protect her son. From there, the friendship between Nicole and Pat ended, and in season 2 she has become quite hostile and untrusting towards him.

### Tevin Wakefield

Nicole was at first not too thrilled about Tevin becoming Dion's new teacher at Biona, in particular because he had powers of his own, but Suzanne justified her decision by pointing out Tevin could keep up with Dion, and would be a good role model for him. Nicole decided to give Tevin a second chance, and at Kat's urge even began a relationship with him. It got to the point that she had Tevin take Dion on a camping trip while she herself was quarantined at Biona, and even asked him to look after Dion when it seemed she would have only 36 hours left to live.

## Other continuities

* In "the comic", Nicole is first seen helping Dion practice his powers at the cabin in the woods. The story then shows how she and Mark met while they both worked at Biona (Nicole had a job as illustrator and reception desk worker). Together, they spend valentines day 2010 at the cabin to watch a rare solar storm. It was here that Mark got exposed to this storm and developed powers. It was also during this stay that Dion was conceived. The story ends with Nicole discovering she is pregnant, and about to break the news to Mark.
* In The short film, Nicole is played by Upenda Morton. At this point in their lives, Mark is already gone and Dion has started developing his powers. Nicole does her best to give Dion a normal life, while learning him to control his powers responsibly. This includes making picture books specifically for him, and installing camera's in the house to keep an eye on him. She is helped in her efforts by this continuity's version of Pat Rollins.

Comic bookNicole in the short film
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "‘Raising Dion’: Alisha Wainwright & Newcomer Ja’Siah Young To Star; Seith Mann To Direct & Exec Produce". *Deadline*. June 27, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
2. ↑ "Netflix Gives Series Order to Michael B. Jordan’s Sci-Fi Family Drama ‘Raising Dion’". *Variety*. October 5, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
3. ↑ "Netflix Orders Black Superhero Family Drama ‘Raising Dion’ Co-Starring Michael B. Jordan From Charles D. King’s MACRO". *Deadline*. October 5, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "ISSUE #109: Storm Killer", *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 9.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 “ISSUE 105”. *Raising Dion*. Season #1. Episode #5
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "ISSUE #102: Fortress of Solitude". *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 2.
7. ↑ ISSUE #101: How Do You Raise a Superhero?. *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 1.
8. ↑ "ISSUE #104: Welcome to BIONA. Hope You Survive the Experience]]". *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 4.
9. ↑ “ISSUE #108: You Won't Like Him When He's Angry”. *Raising Dion*. Season #1. Episode #8