BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Soon after, Rogue -- the team’s most recent addition -- was going through a difficult phase. Storm learned that her teammate was being chased by government agents because of a mistaken 
murder charge, and followed her to Mississippi, intending to help. To show Rogue that her mutant power was not just a curse, Ororo did what few had done before and voluntarily let Rogue absorb her power. Amazed by the way Storm saw the world, in energy patterns, Rogue was tempted to permanently absorb the weather abilities, but resisted, not wanting to betray the trust placed in her. Tragedy ensued when, suddenly, the federal agents tracked them down. Storm tried to save Rogue from their pursuers, but was shot instead by Henry Peter Gyrich wielding a new weapon. The weapon used was an untested prototype Neutralizer that instantly banished all super-powers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #185]
Storm was saved from drowning in the Mississippi River by the gun’s inventor Forge, who hadn’t meant for this to happen. Forge nursed the suicidally depressed Storm back to health as she came to grips with losing her powers. Having lost a hand and leg in the war, Forge could relate to being crippled and he made Ororo face 
the fact that she now was just like everybody else – the goddess had become human. Ororo realized that, without her weather powers, she no longer would have to fear her emotions overwhelming her. Eventually, both mutants began to fall for each other but, when Ororo accidentally learned that it was Forge who had designed the Neutralizer, she left him, angrily, despite his offer to find a way to restore her powers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #186-188]
Feeling she no longer had a place among the team, Ororo quit the X-Men and returned to Africa to find her place in the world. While on the ship she had a vision of some mountains she had never seen before, immediately followed by a ghostly image of her mother. Puzzled about the meaning of both sightings, Ororo decided to search out these mountains, hoping to realize her life’s purpose there. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #189, 193]
Wandering through the Serengeti Plain in east Africa, she ran afoul of the Struckers – white poachers who acted like colonial lords. She prevented Andreas Strucker from raping a native woman and humiliated both twins. As a result, Andrea later cowardly shot her at a distance with a rifle and left her to die. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #194, 196-197]
Concussed and delusional, Ororo wandered through a sandstorm, until she ran across a pregnant injured girl named Shani, the sole survivor of a bus accident. Ororo accompanied the younger woman back to her tribe and later helped her give birth, despite her own injuries. The same day, the tribe’s elder, Mjnari, sacrificed his life so that there would be room in the poor tribe for the newborn. Before he passed away, he taught Ororo a hard lesson - that the world needed both ancient wisdom and modern ideas to survive - that it was the same with humans and mutants and that she could be a bridge between both. Storm recognized that this was the metaphorical mountain she was meant to find. She finally came to terms with having lost her powers as, in her heart and mind, where it truly mattered, she could still soar higher than the stars. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #198]
Not much later, Ororo was sought out by Warlock of the New Mutants, who asked her to come to Cairo. The rest of the New Mutants had had been captured and possessed by their former teammate, Karma. Only Magik and Mirage had managed to escape through one of Illyana’s teleportation circles. Lost in time, they had temporarily ended up in ancient Egypt, where they’d met an ancestor of Ororo – a white-haired, blue-eyed sorceress named Ashake who helped them back into their own time. Ororo realized that the true foe behind Karma was actually Amahl Farouk – the Shadow King – and helped the New Mutants fight his influence. Together, they were able to free their other teammates, including Karma. [New Mutants (1st series) #32-34]
Ororo accompanied the teenagers to the Greek island paradise, Kirinos, feeling they deserved a break. Unfortunately, they fell victims to a plot by Loki. The Norse god of tricks and mischief wanted revenge for an earlier defeat at the hands of the X-Men and, honor-bound not to attack them himself, he had asked the Enchantress to capture Storm and her companions for one of his 
plots. However, unfamiliar with the team, the Enchantress mistakenly kidnapped the New Mutants in his name, believing them to be the X-Men. Meanwhile, Loki subtly brainwashed Ororo and gave her an enchanted hammer named Stormcaster similar to the one of Thor, intending to make her the new Goddess of Thunder – one that would be obedient to him. Naturally, the X-Men followed their friends to the mystic realm of Asgard but Ororo only managed to snap out of her trance after Loki forced her to use her restored abilities to almost kill Wolverine. Herself again, she rejected Loki’s gifts, thwarting his plans for controlling Asgard. [New Mutants Special Edition #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual (1st series) #9]
When Xavier had left the school in Magneto’s care, Cyclops objected to trusting the X-Men's oldest foe. He felt that he should return to lead the X-Men, as a powerless Storm clearly was unable to do the job. Storm challenged him to a Danger Room duel and, surprisingly, she won. She had been focused on the job while he was not, distracted by the troubles his rejoining the team would cause his marriage. Accepting his defeat, Cyclops left care of the X-Men in Storm's hands and returned to retirement. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #201]
Some time later, a group calling themselves the Marauders slaughtered the other mutant group Ororo led – the Morlocks. Learning of the attack, the X-Men quickly ventured into the underground tunnels only to find hundreds of the outcast community killed. However, they managed to save a few survivors, although several X-Men paid with horrific injuries when the team encountered the killers. Storm accepted the brutal nature of the conflict, dispatching Wolverine to find them a Marauder prisoner and kill any others he crossed. Instead, Logan returned with the Morlocks' Healer to save those who clung to life at the Mansion's triage center. Storm felt she had failed as a leader and wanted to give up until Callisto, the de facto Morlock leader, slapped her back into taking up her responsibilities again, reminding her of the effect this would have on the many wounded and dying. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #211-212]
With more and more enemies to mutants in general rallying against them, the Hellfire Club proposed an alliance with the X-Men, offering Magneto the seat of White King. After discussing this with Ororo, he accepted, with his own condition that he and Storm would jointly take the title of White King. [New Mutants (1st series) #51]
However, Ororo would not be available to the Club for much longer. The Marauder Malice trying to take over Dazzler, and the bombing of the house of Jean Grey’s sister, Sara, indicated that somebody was trying to get to the X-Men through harming their friends and families. As these enemies would apparently only stop once the X-Men were dead, Storm came up with the plan to go underground and fake the team’s deaths. Overall, she adopted a more aggressive style and decided the X-Men would have to be more proactive. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #217, 219]