Turbo
(Michiko Musashi)
Context
- Turbo appeared in New Warriors vol 1, as a kind of revival of a high-tech character seen in Rom the Spaceknight.
- Turbo’s originality was that two characters, one female, one male, have shared the Turbo suit. The took turns at being a super-hero.
- As the lass — Mickey — was the main character, this profile focuses on her. The lad — Mike — will be presented as special sections.
If you’re not well familiar with the New Warriors, we suggest that you first read our team profiles for them.
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Background – female Turbo
- Real Name: Michiko “Mickey” Musashi.
- Other aliases: Torpedo Sue.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: Unnamed parents (both alive).
- Group Affiliation: The New Warriors, Excelsior.
- Base of Operations: New Warriors Crash Pad near the Brooklyn Bridge, New Warriors mothballed firehouse in The DUMBO, Holy Trinity Chu rch’s basement in Los Angeles.
- Height: 5’6″ Weight: 120 lbs.
- Eyes: Brown Hair: Black
Background – male Turbo
- Real Name: Michael “Mike” Brent Jeffries.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: Phillip Jeffries (father), Maggie Jeffries (sister), Brock Jones (aka Torpedo, cousin).
- Group Affiliation: The New Warriors.
- Base of Operations: New Warriors Crash Pad near the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown.
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Powers & Abilities
Turbo’s powers come from the Turbo (or Torpedo) Suit.
The suit’s helmet creates a cybernetic bond between the wearer and the suit. The suit creates powerful gusts of wind which the wearer can control to gain several effects:
- Flight at mach 2.
- Enhanced strength (about “Class 20”).
- Wide angled or tight beam of repulsing air currents.
- Attracting air currents.
- Powerful blasts of air.
The suit creates a low level force field to increase defense in combat, and allow flight at high speed without damaging the armor or its wearer.
The helmet carries a range of sensors. Particularly designed for Dire Wraiths, it can detect them whatever form they shape-changed into.
Additional assets for Ms. Musashi
Michiko’s cybernetic bond with the suit was even greater than the original wearer of the armor. She unlocked some extra abilities, like being able to make minor alterations to its shape at will.
She’s also a student in journalism, with a keen sense of observation.
History
The Turbo Suit
The Turbo Suit was formerly known as The Torpedo Armor. Michael Stivak designed it as a commission from his uncle, Senator Eugene Stivak. But it was secretly, Volx, the Dire Wraiths Queen, who had ordered Eugene to design this armor. She wanted it so she could defeat her enemy: Rom, The Space Knight.
When he found out, Michael kept the true prototype and, before dying, passed it to Brock Jones. Jones operated as the Torpedo for a while, as an ally of Rom. But the Dire Wraiths eventually killed him.
Guess who came for Halloween
Mike Jeffries was a distant relative to Brock Jones. When he searched his attic for costumes’ ideas for a Halloween party, he found the suit with the matching helmet. He lent it to his friend Michiko. He didn’t know he had inherited a very powerful piece of high-tech engineering.
When Michiko put the helmet on, it activated a tracking system, which allowed Dire Wraiths to locate the suit. The metamorphic aliens passed as human mercenaries and crashed the party. Mickey activated the suit’s systems and defeated them.
Now knowing of the suit’s abilities, Michiko and Mike agreed to share it. Michiko used it to go shopping all around the world, particularly for fashion in Paris. She had a much better understanding of, and connexion with, the suit’s systems.
Childhood
Michiko’s parent are Japanese. It’s not clear whether her family emigrated to the US, or she’s the only one who went to New York. She was a journalism student, at the Long Island University .
Crash with The New Warriors
(For further details of Turbo’s involvement in The New Warriors adventures, please refer to The New Warriors team’s profiles).
While coming back from a trip to Paris, Michiko witnessed a smuggling operation by Sea Urchin and Russian mobsters. They shot at her, so she flew away. The next day, reading the newspaper, she felt bad about letting this crime go on. She decided to investigate on her own.
That was when she met The New Warriors. She helped them stop Cardinal and Sea Urchin, but she decided she was not ready to be a super-hero yet.
During the Darkling episode, The New Warriors were introduced with the male version of Turbo. Mike Jeffries, using his time-shared possession of the Turbo Suit, was eager to become a super-hero. However, he lacked the skill of Michiko, and his performance was poor.
Afterwards, when The New Warriors needed reinforcements, they called upon the female Turbo. And even though she was reluctant to be a super-hero, she was responsible enough to never let them down.
From New Warriors reserve to active duty, part 1
Mike and Michiko trained with Nova to perfect their mastery of the suit. But Mike was making zero progress. During a training session, while Mike was painfully trying to fly straight, Cardinal and Air Force attacked them. Michiko showed remarkable cleverness and, though she was not wearing the suit, defeated Air Force.
Though they didn’t take part in any New Warriors missions during this period, both Michiko and Mike hanged out with the team. Speedball was constantly hitting on Michiko, always hoping for a date with her.
When the founding New Warriors were sent through time and space by The Sphinx, Hindsight Lad assembled Turbo and the reserve New Warriors to bring them back. And again, when Undertow had abducted The New Warriors, Nova called upon Turbo and Powerpack. Allied with Cardinal, they freed all The New Warriors but Kymaera.
Adora had confiscated the Nova Powers from Richard Rider. He desperately tried Night Thrasher’s trick: jumping from the top of a building for the stress to kick his powers back. It didn’t work this time. Alerted by Laura Dunham, Justice dispatched Turbo, the fastest New Warrior. She reached San Francisco just in time to catch Rider before he hit the ground.
From New Warriors reserve to active duty, part 2
The New Warriors stayed in San Fransisco to help Garthan Saal against Volx. The Turbo Suit’s unique abilities against Dire Wraiths proved vital to defeat the alien queen.
Michiko took a small part during The Clone Saga. She developed a minor romantic interest in Helix, helping him relearn the English language he had forgotten during his transformation. When he left The New Warriors, Michiko announced she was leaving too.
Meanwhile, Volx had tracked The Torpedo Armor to Mike Jeffries. Morphing into a distant cousin named Brock, she killed Mike, morphed into him and went to The Crash Pad to claim the armor. Once in its possession, Volx unlocked its original capabilities, and did feats far beyond what Michiko had ever done.
Though Mickey was powerless, she insisted in going after Volx with Garthan Saal and The New Warriors.
After Mike’s death, Michiko felt the need to continue super-heroing, to honor her friend’s memory and his wish for being a super-hero. She offered Hindsight to share the Turbo Suit with her. Howbeit, the book was canceled before this offer came to fruition.
In between days
The New Warriors had not officially disbanded. But they had drifted apart, leaving the super-heroes business, doing it on their own or with more prestigious people.
Michiko got back to a more normal life. She focused on her journalism studies to be the next Ben Urich. Her parents had been trying to find her a match with a Japanese husband. She took opportunities to use the Turbo Suit to help, for instance assisting firemen having a hard time with a warehouse fire.
Speedball had been missing the old days. He decided to reform the team. The initial roster declined his offer. Those of the reserve he managed to contact declined too. Nova and Namorita were feeling sorry for him. They showed up at the Crash Pad, who was still operational, hoping to cheer up Robbie. But they just argued over their past relationship.
Founder of The New Warriors’ second run
Meanwhile, at Genetech, Walter Rosen supervised a dimensional portal experiment. Blastaar came out through it and claimed to rule the Earth. Rosen called his favorite super-heroes team, and found Speedball on the watch. Robbie dragged Nova and Namorita to kick Blastaar’s butt. Turbo’s radio intercepted the conversation with Genetech and she joined.
They also got reinforcements from super-heroes wannabes: Aegis and Bolt. In the end, Justice and Firestar showed up. Together, they defeated Blastaar.
Justice and Firestar went back to The Avengers, but the rest of the crew formed a new New Warriors team.
Involved with a villain, part 1
That fire Michiko had previously helped the firemen with was an arson, performed by Firestrike, for Joe Silvermane. Part of the arms dealing branch of the Silvermane Maggia family, Joe was his father’s son. He also was the masked villain known as Blackwing, leader of Heavy Mettle.
The New Warriors interfered with Silvermane’s business. Aegis pushed them to stop a gang war: a war Joe Silvermane’s advanced weapons had fueled for some times. Silvermane took interest in the Turbo Suit. He wanted to reverse engineer it, to add it to his catalog. He missioned Firestrike to get the suit.
As Dalton Beck, investigator for the fire department, Firestrike got close to Michiko. He played it well, getting close to The New Warriors too. He offered them new headquarters, as the Crash Pad has been bombed during the gang war.
Involved with a villain, part 2
Michiko fell in love with him, and revealed her secret identity. But when he finally had the opportunity to shoot her while she was out of her armor, he realized he was also in love with her.
Later, by chance, Turbo witnessed Dalton putting on his Firestrike suit. So angry to have let him fool her, she kicked his butt from there to the The New Warriors. To prove he had switched sides, he offered them information on Silvermane’s next strike. With it, The New Warriors put Heavy Mettle in jail. Turbo also turned Dalton to the police.
Michiko eventually visited Dalton in Sing Sing . He told her they would never meet again as he was entering the Witness Protection Program to testify against Joe Silvermane.
Post New Warriors
Several years later, Michiko had moved to Los Angeles. She joined the L.A. Times , a position offered by Phil Urich. Urich formerly was the previous, would-be heroic Green Goblin.
She assembled several washed-out former teen super-heroes to found Excelsior: a support group to help young people who had wasted their childhood as vigilantes. She had great ambitions for this group, even if it started small, in a church’s basement.
An anonymous patron offered one million dollars if they could get The Runaways back to reason and to foster care. With the death of The Runaways’ parents, many villains had converged on Los Angeles to fill the power vacuum. The Runaways had felt responsible for this and had been busy fighting them.
Excelsior put back their costumes to chase The Runaways throughout Los Angeles. In the end, they had to fight Ultron, and let the teens escape in their Leapfrog. The benefactor was Rick Jones, mandated by Captain America. He offered Excelsior to fight the incoming villains. For that job, Captain America preferred more seasoned super-heroes over misguided young teenagers.
Civil War
Then, Civil War broke and with it, the Super-human Registration Act. Excelsior’s members were rather keen on putting their powered past behind, even though they were all registered, or supposed to be. But Julie Power relapsed and used her flying powers in public, confirming that they were just like addicts trying (or pretending to try) to get rid of their super-human powers addiction.
While the other members of Excelsior were slipping, each with his own rationalization, or his own agenda, Mickey held.
However, in the end, it proved too hard to stay out of it, and she put the Turbo Armor again. This was necessary to fight a delusional Phil Urich.
Description
Michiko Musashi is an attractive young woman of Japanese ascent, with long black hair.
During the first New Warriors run, her Turbo suit looked just like The Torpedo Armor before: a tight-fitting electric-blue body glove with metal gloves and boots that can transform into powerful propeller fans.
The metal helmet covered part of the face and the back of the head but left the mouth and the hair in the open. On each side, it had big flaps bent inward, up and behind the back of the skull. The helmet had a red, semi-transparent visor, opaque enough to hide the wearer’s identity.
After that, she used her better mastery of the suit’s abilities to reshape it. The body glove was of darker blue, the gloves and boots propellers were no longer looking like hand and foot held fans but more like reactors’ entry ports. The flaps on either side of the helmet looked more like big metallic sideburns. There was no longer a visor, the helmet metallic portion now covering the eyes.
While out of the suit, she dresses like young women of her age, mostly wearing tight fitting clothes.
Personality
Michiko’s adult life has been shaped by her mixed feelings. She aspired to a normal life, being recognized for her skills and education. But she also felt the responsibility of the ownership of such a powerful tool as The Turbo Suit.
She was never really convinced she was a super-hero. At first, she wanted to use the Turbo Suit for personal business: having fun, quickly traveling all around the world for sight-seeing or shopping. It stopped once she got involved with Sea Urchin’s smuggling operations.
She encouraged Mike Jeffries to train hard, to master the suit’s abilities. In this way he could become the super-hero, and she could drop out of it. But she was far better than him, and The New Warriors needed her skills, not his enthusiasm. So, even if she did it reluctantly, she always answered The New Warriors’ calls for reinforcements.
Once committed, she never let her doubts get in the way.
Other traits
Growing up to adulthood, her wish for a normal life grew stronger. She gladly moved to Los Angeles to get a job as a journalist. Even though she resisted the urge to become Turbo again, circumstances, happening close to her, made her do it again.
Throughout her career, she has been a really good team player. She was not very good at leading Excelsior, though. They recognized her experience, but she lacked the charisma required to be an efficient field leader.
During her New Warriors years, she had to constantly deflect Speedball’s attempts to date her. She had a thing for Helix, but never really expressed it. Later she fell in love with the act Dalton Beck was giving, pretending to be interested in Michiko and not Turbo.
Then, she had a relationship with Chris Powell (Darkhawk). They encouraged each other to resist the urge of using their powers.
Quotes
“This is my third trip to Europe since I got the suit… And I’m still amazed at how cool it is to fly.”
“The paper says the operation was screwed up by those New Warriors. Teenagers… Just like me. No, not like me. They don’t run away from their responsibilities. They don’t hide from their powers.”
Turbo: “Wow. Pretty major production. I’m not used to this kind of stuff.”
Namorita: “You’ll get used to it.”
Turbo: “Yeah ? I don’t know. I’m not really into this super-hero thing.”
Nova (watching her flying): “You’re doing good… Been practicing ?”
Turbo: “When I can find the time.”
Michiko: “Mike, The Warriors just called me. They need Turbo.”
Mike: “Cool ! I’ll get suited up and…”
Michiko: “No, Mike… They want me.”
Mike: “Aw, come on… It’s my week…. No fair…”
Michiko: “This isn’t a game, Michael ! Some of The Warriors are hurt, maybe killed. They need the Turbo that can help them, and they need her fast.”
“I’m leaving the team soon, Helix.[…] The only reason I’ve been sticking around is to finish tutoring you… And to get The New Warriors to accept my friend Mike as a replacement Turbo.”
Dire Wraith in disguise: “Don’t play stupid with us, punk ! Take off the suit ! The Torpedo Su…” (Whoosh: Michiko blasts them away)
Turbo: “Torpedo Sue, huh ? Looks like you boys just picked the wrong super-hero to mess with ! And now Torpedo Sue is going to punch your one-way ticket to Hell !”
“What was I thinking ? If I hadn’t tried to play hero, that kid might still be alive.”
“This is so nice, Dalton. Ever since I let you in my ‘secret identity’, I feel like this enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can’t tell you how nice it is being with you as Mickey Musashi, the college student, instead of Turbo, the super-hero.”
“I realized that I could do more good with my education than I could ever do with some hi-tech costume. That’s when I decided to get back to investigative journalism.”
“The whole point of our organization is showing young people there are healthy alternatives to dressing up in costumes.”
(Speaking about Lightspeed who just used her flying power in public)
“There’s only one thing we can do for her at this point… It’s time for an intervention.”
Michiko: “My name’s Mickey Musashi and I was a teenage super-hero.”
Rest of Excelsior: “Hi, Mickey.”
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Turbo (Michiko Musashi)
| Dex: 05 | Str: 02 | Bod: 03 | Motivation: Responsibility of Power |
| Int: 05 | Wil: 05 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Student |
| Inf: 05 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 05 | Wealth: 005 |
| Init: 015 | HP: 030 |
Skills:
Detective (Legwork): 03, Evasion (Aerial only): 08, Scientist (Observation, Research): 05, Weaponry (Turbo suit): 06
Advantages:
Credential (Media), Language (Japanese, Spanish), Sharp Eye.
Connections:
New Warriors (High).
Drawbacks:
Unluck.
Equipment:
TURBO SUIT [/STR/ 10 /BODY/ 06, Attraction/Repulsion: 10, Flight: 11, Force field: 06, Mental Blast: 08, Postcognition: 12, Radio communication: 12, Super breath: 07, Thermal vision: 09, True sight: 12, Limitations:
- /STR/, Attraction/Repulsion, Super breath and Mental Blast require an atmosphere (-1).
- Force field is Self only (-2).
- Postcognition is Contingent on True sight (-1) and only to analyze traces of Dire Wraiths (-1).
- True sight only to reveal Dire Wraiths (-1)].
Design notes
Though they could be modeled by Air Control, the Turbo Suit’s abilities do not quite fit that:
- Michiko showed some uses of Air Control, creating whirlwinds. But only a few times, and it seemed to come as a twist in the suit’s abilities. That’s a perfect spot for Power tricks of the Attraction/Repulsion power.
- Splitting in different basic powers allows for different AP values.
When Volx took control of the suit, she unlocked further abilities. These go beyond the scope of this profile. They should be whatever the GM needs, and he should feel free to revamp its history for any alien species that fits his campaign.
Turbo (Mike Jeffries)
| Dex: 02 | Str: 02 | Bod: 02 | Motivation: Thrill of Adventure |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 03 | Min: 02 | Occupation: Student |
| Inf: 02 | Aur: 02 | Spi: 03 | Wealth: 004 |
| Init: 07 | HP: 015 |
Skills:
Evasion (Aerial only): 03, Scientist: 04, Weaponry (Turbo suit): 03
Advantages:
Expertise (Super-heroes, Geek culture).
Connections:
New Warriors (High).
Equipment:
TURBO SUIT [see above].
Source of Character: Marvel Comics (New Warriors Vol. 1 from #28, New Warriors Vol. 2, Runaways Vol. 2, Loners).
Helper(s): Ethan Roe.
Writeup completed on the 23rd of May, 2017.