Whirlwind

The most dangerous and fanatical opponents of the new Danger Squad, The Whirlwind is Nightengale's group, bent on avenging themselves against Stormchild by destroying those who followed in his footsteps. The groups have met several times inconclusively, but one gets the feeling that each encounter is part of a larger plan—a plan slowly coming to fruition.

Nightingale
No one knows Nightingale's true origin, but we can infer some things from hints she has dropped. She is the child or grandchild of an enemy of the Danger Squad (or perhaps the grandchild of a Danger Squad enemy and the child of a Stormchild foe). She was born in America, but is at least partially Asian in her background. She was raised, or spent most of her childhood, in some from of cloistered religious institution, most likely in Asia. She has some form of variant ability, which has been heightened by constant physical and mental training. She has been trained to expert level in every known weapon. At some point she was involved in a war in Africa, and perhaps another in South America, for reasons unknown. She knows the secret IDs of the original Squad, and the link between the Squad and Stormchild. She arrived in London in 1984, after the appearance of the new Danger Squad.
     Oh yeah: and she wants them dead, the city they defend in flames, their exploits removed from history, their children disgraced then killed, and their only epitaph to be a remembrance of how thoroughly she destroyed them. While obsessed, she's also careful and patient. She's been working towards this her whole life, and is unlikely to make mistakes now. She is the founder and leader of Whirlwind, which she created from other legacy villains of Stormchild and the Danger Squad. The group stays together only because of her phenomenal charisma, but she can get them to act when and how she chooses.

Override 121
The original Override, Override 120, was an artificially intelligent android who could re-mold his body's components with a thought, taking on the form and function of any machine. He was a persistent opponent of Stormchild and other heroes, since his ultimate goal was the destruction of humanity and the creation of a machine era, an act he believed as inevitable as the death of the dinosaurs and the rise of man. Fortunately, he relied on brute power more than subtlety, and was always stopped in time.
     In his final conflict, Override 120's body was destroyed, but some parts survived. Years later a cyberneticist working on those parts used them as the basis for cybernetic muscle replacement, and an original piece was implanted in Tom Taylor, an engineer whose arm had been severely damaged in car accident. What he didn't know was that the implant was alive, and it began reworking his musculature and brain. Override, now 121, has already modified Tom so significantly that his future is unsure, and while the modifications are making him a better engineer, re-working the right side of his brain is having serious consequences on is creativity, intuitiveness and artistic ability. Tyler is fighting a losing battle, and he hasn't even realized the war has started yet.
     Override 121 has joined Nightingale's group Whirlwind because he needs allies and experience with his new abilities and limitations before he can break off on his own—getting vengeance on the legacy of his adversary appeals to him, but he questions who should be in control. Unfortunately for him, Nightingale's phenomenal charisma works just fine on his organic parts, and she is a skilled manipulator; he is unwilling to try and wrest control, no matter what he thinks he feels.

Tempest
Tempest is the legacy of the Duke of Epsilon 7, exiled to this island of Earth until he abandoned his techno-magery and his desires for the throne. Instead, he tried to conquer the Earth, only to be stopped repeatedly by Stormchild. He called himself Prospero, after the mage from the Shakespeare play, and eventually did reform, abandoning his techno-staff and returning to Epsilon 7 after twenty years of exile. Unfortunately, that staff was found recently by a down on his luck criminal; it bonded itself to him, and he has been figuring out its powers ever since.
     Tempest isn't an idiot; he's well read and knows where the staff came from and what it could once do (read: anything—Prospero could use the thing to transmute objects, fly, warp time, generate force fields and a plethora of other feats). He's working on getting it to do these things, but it's slow going. Of all the members of Whirlwind, he's the one with the least grudge against Stormchild or the older heroes; his beef is with the current Danger Squad, who bested him more than once before Nightingale offered him a place on her team.

Winterbourne, Emily
Emily Winterbourne is the daughter of Dr. Christopher Winterbourne, who was a persistent opponent of Stormchild. Dr. Winterbourne had developed a drug that gave him cold and ice related powers. The persistent chemical exposure changed his genetics and hideously mutated his daughter. Emily's mother abandoned her, and she was raised by her father, whenever he wasn't in jail. She blames Stormchild for her father's repeated absences and his eventual death in prison, and indirectly for her mutation (which she wouldn't have had if Stormchild hadn't been battling her father). With Stormchild dead before her powers manifested, she has joined Whirlwind, convinced by Nightingale that the best revenge is the destruction of the Danger Squad and its legacy, which included Stormchild.

| Top |