FLOODFLOOD
Real Name: Leann Butler
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-93060/Ultraverse) human mutate (ultra)
Occupation: Research
subject;
formerly student
Group Membership: None
Affiliations:
Hardcase, Prime,
Prototype (Jimmy Ruiz), Zip-Zap;
formerly Darkwave;
Droplet
(her imaginary friend)
Enemies: Darkwave, Stanley Leland, Ultratech
Known Relatives: Mr. Butler (father)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations:
An Ultratech base, presumably somewhere in the USA
formerly New York City, New York
formerly Des Moines, Iowa (all
Ultraverse)
First Appearance: Flood Relief (January, 1994)
Powers/Abilities: Leann can cause and intensify rainfall. She can manipulate water into spouts or semi-humanoid forms, which can be solid enough to grab or strike others, while otherwise maintaining a liquid composition that prevents others from striking or grasping back.
The wetware is sentient and has proven able to control Leann and her powers, at least once placing her in a trance-like state, in which she glowed and floated in the sky.When last seen, she was aging to adulthood at superhuman rate. Her body had been radically modified by the wetware such that she could extend a nanotech composed eye (at least her right one) on a long tendril. She could continue to see through this eye, and the tendril could move at rapid speed and discharge powerful energy blasts. It could strike with enough speed and force to knock armored guards to the ground.
History:
(Flood Relief (fb) - BTS) - Ultratech designed wetware (nanotechnology) that would allow mass transportation of tons of water to areas that need it. The wetware was stolen by unspecified criminals, and Prototype was sent to retrieve it.
(Flood Relief) - The criminals fought Prototype and in trying to stop them, he blew up their truck, and the wetware was lost. The wetware ended up in some branch of the Mississippi river.
The next day, Leann Butler went fishing. The wetware took the form of a fish, which she caught. As she pulled it close, it sprouted tentacles which bonded to and invaded her body. She passed out, awakening hours later and not recalling what had happened. When she got home her father, a poor farmer overwhelmed by bills, told her to hope that the light sprinkle that was starting would turn into a good rain so he could salvage his crops. Leann made the wish, and she was pleased to see the rain pick up significantly.
(Flood Relief - BTS) - The rain continued relentlessly, turning into a massive flood centered around Des Moines. The wetware (later called Darkwave) sent Leann into a trance-like state, and she floated high above the rising waters.
(Flood Relief) - Hardcase and Zip-Zap, who were already performing at a benefit in Des Moines, worked to help flood victims. Prime and Prototype also flew out to help. Prototype spied the floating and glowing Leann and flew up to help her, but the wetware (sentient and speaking) then formed into a giant water monster to attack the heroes. Hardcase realized that Leann was the power battery for the monster, and he had Zip-Zap form a vortex around the water monster, draining the power from Leann and causing the water monster to weaken. The heroes broke free, and Prototype and Hardcase used Prime's cape to catch Darkwave as it shrank, and then Prototype super-heated it, turning it into steam. Pained by the use of his cape, Prime threatened to attack Prototype, but backed up when Prototype picked up Leann and flew her to the hospital.
(Flood Relief - BTS) - Either remaining comatose or kept under anesthesia, Leann was brought to Ultratech laboratories. The scientists were unable to isolate the wetware from her body as it had become part of her genetic make-up; removal would possibly kill her, damage the wetware, or both.
(Flood Relief) - Informed of the above and asked what to tell Leann's father, who thought she had died in the flood, Ultratech head Stanley Leland replied, "She did." Indicating that they would not inform her father and keep her for themselves.
(Ultraverse Presents#6/3 (fb) - BTS) - Police gave up all hope of finding Leann as her body was never recovered.
(Ultraverse Presents#6/3 (fb) - BTS) - Still apparently comatose, Leann began growing at the phenomenal of nearly one year for every six weeks. Ultratech researchers were unable to determine how much she had been affected by the nanotech.
(Ultraverse Presents#6/3 (fb) -
BTS) - Gordon Bell returned to his position in charge of Ultratech,
replacing Stanley Leland. Bell was presumably unaware of Leann's
existence.
(Ultraverse Presents#6/3) - At the physical age of 16 (but still chronologically 7 years old), Leann was left alone in her room. Her right eye extended on a nanotech tendril and made its way throughout the facility until it found a computer terminal. It accessed her own files but was then discovered by a pair of nurses, who hit a security alarm. The security guards announced the breach to Bell, who sent Prototype to investigate. Dodging the security guards' fire, the tendril was caught by one of the guards but yanked free and knocked them off their feet before retracting back down the stairs towards Leann's room. It encountered Prototype who grabbed it, and she released a powerful energy burst that knocked him on his back. The tendril dodged Prototype's energy blasts and retracted the rest of the way back into Leann. The guards followed it into the room but were baffled to find only the still seemingly comatose body of Leann. As soon as they left, she opened her right eye again.
Comments: Created by D. Danko, Hank Kanalz, T. Mason, Aaron Lopresti, R. Pace, and J. Lowe.
Flood Relief was a limited edition special published in conjunction with the Red Cross to benefit the victims of the Great Flood of 1993, affecting the American Midwest along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Darkwave's name and additional details were revealed in the Ultraverse II: Origins trading card #37 (from 1994), and it was implied that it would return... (info provided by Grendel Prime)
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Flood has no known connections to:
Leann's father, he was a farmer whose poor crop yield was sending him further into debt. He told her to hope for significant rainfall, little realizing that she had been mutated by nanotech that made her able to control precipitation and that she would cause a massive flood. He believed Leann to have died in the flood.
--Flood Relief
Darkwave was initially an experiment to draw water from the atmosphere, but became sentient yet malignant, and used Leann's brainwaves to create a more powerful form than any it could craft on its own. It used Leann as a psionic syphon to generate flood conditions to feed its form.
Created by the wetware to stop the heroes from interacting with Leann, Darkwave's monstrous form grew larger and more powerful as the rain poured down upon it. Darkwave could grasp or hit objects or beings, but anything trying to grasp or hit it would just splash through it. It was weakened by a vortex (like a drainpipe?) and then evaporated via Prototype's energy beam.
--Flood Relief (Ultraverse II: Origins card #37
Leann's imaginary friend, she spoke to it when she carried her fishing bucket.
--Flood Relief
images:
(without ads)
Flood Relief, p2, panel 4 (with fishing pole)
panel 8 (assaulted by wetware fish)
p3, panel 4 (Droplet)
p8, panel 9 (face)
p21, (water monster)
Ultraverse Presents#6/3, p2, panel 3 (one eye open)
panel 4 (nanotech eye tendril)
Appearances:
Flood Relief (January, 1994) - D. Danko, Hank Kanalz, Tom Mason
(writers), Aaron Lopresti, R. Pace (pencilers); J. Lowe (inker), Chris
Ulm (editor)
Prototype#13/Ultraverse Presents#6/3 (August, 1994) - by Tom Mason
(writer), Brock L. Hor Jr. (penciler), Moose Baumann & Scott
Reed (inkers), Hank Kanalz (editor)
First Posted: 10/03/2006
Last updated: 10/03/2006
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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