Lauren Pennington (Wildstorm Universe)

## Fahrenheit

Gallery

**Fahrenheit** is a pyrokinetic superhero associated with several incarnations of StormWatch. She was the leader of Stormwatch Red.

## History

### Origin

Lauren's latent powers were revealed when she found herself trapped in a burning building as a young woman. The building was ravaged by the fire, reduced to ash and cinders, but when firefighters combed through the wreckage, they found her unconscious but otherwise unhurt. Hearing of her miraculous survival, Synergy tracked her down and activated her powers. After undergoing the rigorous training required of a Stormwatch operative, Lauren was offered a position in Stormwatch Two, the reserve team.

At this point, the UN was still under the control of the shadowy, paranoid group of multi-billionaires called the Special Security Council - and their claws were sunk particularly deep in Stormwatch. Thus, while they were heroes, the operatives of Stormwatch were quite ruthless and did not hesitate to violate the rights of a country in order to advance the agenda of the Special Security Council.

Fahrenheit, an old Stormwatch hand, served under Bendix's leadership, then Synergy's. When Bendix was put in charge again and modified the teams' lineup, Fahrenheit was appointed leader of Stormwatch Red, the heavy fire team designed for deterrent display and retaliation. But the kind of missions she was sent to perform were not making her very comfortable - though she acted as a good, moral soldier. For example, she was sent with fellow Stormwatch members Flint and Rose Tattoo to the island nation ruled by Kaizen Gamorra. This was in revenge for Kaizen's terrorist attack on Britain, including his initial attack, the destruction of a British passenger jet in the skies over the middle of England. Though Flint and Fahrenheit only damaged property, they had to watch as Rose killed 233 civilians, the exact number of British civilians killed on the jetliner.

Fahrenheit spent much time with her teammates and friends in various bars around the world, drinking and avoiding talking about work. Much of this was at Clark's Bar, a watering hole where only super-humans were allowed.

Bendix's insanity later revealed itself and in a fight with Jenny Sparks he was presumably killed. Fahrenheit stayed with the team under the new leadership of Jackson King. In later missions, she was forced to kill, though she did not enjoy it. She began a relationship with fellow Stormwatch Officer Hellstrike, which violated many Stormwatch rules.

Fahrenheit met her doom when the Stormwatch super-satellite was boarded by hundreds of Xenomorphs as it attempted to destroy an incoming celestial body before it would collide with the Earth. The courageous young woman was mourned as a hero by her few surviving team mates.

### Stormwatch: PHD

After the Wildstorm reboot, Fahrenheit along with Fuji, Hellstrike and Winter were brought back to life by The Authority's Doctor Habib bin Hassan after having discovered a way to resurrect Winter. Fahrenheit's memories indicated Monitors were involved. Though it could also be suggested that Fuji and the others were saved by a possible future version of Jackson King. She rejoined Stormwatch, but during the "Battle of First Avenue" she fell from a height of several stories. Fahrenheit survived the fall, but awoke without her powers. Jackson King placed her on the new Stormwatch PHD squad. Manipulating her though the grief of losing her powers, Lord Defile used Fahrenheit as a mole, but she sided with PHD when Defile finally came to kill the team. Her powers also returned at this point.

Jackson King told her that her betrayal was not her fault, but manipulation on Defile's part. He admits to her superior that this was a lie to keep Fahrenheit on the team.

After the universe was rebooted The Doctor (from The Authority) was able to restore Winter's soul to a cloned body and not entirely explained brought back to life not only Hellstrike, and Fuji but Fahrenheit as well, with little or no memories of how they died.

She quickly resumed her activies as part of Stormwatch but during a fight with Lord Defile and his minions she was heavily injured and her powers were lost. However she was offered a job as part of the Stormwatch PHD team due to her vast experience.

The fact Hellstrike was too busy or little interested on checking on her while she was in the hospital put an end to their romantic relationship.

Defile used her as a mole when he offered her to recover her powers. For a while Lauren provided Defile with some info, but ultimately she betrayed him and managed to regain her powers.

### World's End

Following Armageddon, Fahrenheit rejoined Stormwatch and helped in whatever she could to save what was left of Earth. She and her team went against all opposing odds such as an ancient Soviet doomsday weapon, Incubites, and an assault on Skywatch by the militant Knights of Khera. Fahrenheit participated in Earth's war on the Knights of Khera and was left critically wounded and hospitalized on Skywatch, but was slowly recovering from her injuries.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Unique Physiology**
	+ **Pyrokinesis**: Fahrenheit has pyrokinetic powers which enable her to agitate the molecules in objects, quickly heating them like a microwave oven. When used on combustible materials, they burst into flames. Her flame is hot enough to melt and mostly vaporize bullets, and she eventually learned how to lay streams of flame in front of her when fired upon.
		- **Flight**: When using it on the air surrounding her, she can create and control updrafts strong enough to let her fly at formidable speeds.
	+ **Enhanced Durability**

### Abilities

* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)**: In joining StormWatch, she also underwent a bit of combat training (from the hands of Backlash) to get a solid level of hand to hand fighting skill.

## Trivia

* After a fall from several stories while fighting the Cooler. Fahrenheit awoke to find she had lost her powers. She would eventually regain them, but no longer has the fine control she used to. [*citation needed*]
* Fahrenheit has appeared in the following non-WildStorm Image publications:  Savage Dragon #41.

## Related

* Appearances of Lauren Pennington (Wildstorm Universe)
* 7 Images featuring Lauren Pennington (Wildstorm Universe)
* Quotations by or about Lauren Pennington (Wildstorm Universe)
* Character Gallery: Lauren Pennington (Wildstorm Universe)

### Footnotes

1. ↑ *Stormwatch: Post Human Division* #5
2. ↑ *Wildcats* #23
3. ↑ *StormWatch* #9