Meruda is an Inhuman who had a grudge against Storm of the X-Men, he blamed her for wiping out his tribe with a deadly sandstorm when she was a young girl. In an attempt to lure her into his trap, he killed an African girl and took Storm’s cousin Abuya as a hostage with the intent on using her to summon a demon to kill Storm herself. During their battle Meruda was able to hold his own against her in an elemental stand off. However, during the duel Storm realized that he was not actually manipulating the weather, but conjuring it as a secondary effect. This caused her to become angry, telling him that all elementals yield to the power of Gaea, and declared that the weather is her domain and overpowered his weather control and struck him down with his own lightning. It is later revealed that Storm herself did not cause the storm, even though she felt guilty about it, that Meruda just needed someone to blame.
Powers and Abilities
Meruda possesses Geokinesis which he used to battle against one of the X-Men’s more powerful members Storm, whom he thought wiped out his tribe, accidentally when she was a young girl with little control over her vast elemental powers. Through unknown means (more than likely magic) he was able to manipulate the winds and lightning placing his powers on par with hers and actually managing to harm her with the elemental assaults.