Betsy Braddock - Phase 1
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Character Journal: x_psylocke
Real Name: Elisabeth Braddock
Codename: Psylocke
Aliases: Betsy, Betts
First Appearance: May 8th, 2003
Date of Birth: May 10th, 1978
Place of Birth: Malden, England
Citizenship: British
Relatives: Sir James Braddock Sr (father - deceased), Lady Elizabeth Braddock (mother - deceased), Jamie Braddock (brother - loony tunes), Brian Braddock (twin brother)
Education: Former S.T.R.I.K.E operative, an offshoot of SHIELD
Relationship Status: Surprisingly in a stable tangle of a relationship with Xavier's own, David Haller.
Occupation: Officially known as the President of the Snow Valley Think Tank. Unofficially, a field operative for Snow Valley's X-Force.
Team Affiliation: X-Force
Biography
Childhood
Elisabeth 'Betsy' Braddock was born in Malden, England, the daughter of the noted scientist Sir James Braddock. Braddock was a researcher working at Biotech Labotories, along with Courtney Ross. He had observed the elements of the x-gene in his children, and had actually begun with testing them through a project called Namesake at the time that both he and his wife were abducted. The elder Braddocks were eventually presumed dead, leaving Ross in charge of Biotech and her eldest brother Jamie in charge of the family. Fortunately, the wealth of the Braddocks passed to their children, even if the research did not, and Betsy grew up with the best in schooling and opportunities.
She achieved a minor celebrity status at seventeen, making a name for herself in the modeling world. She began to present her more familiar look by dying her blonde hair purple, which she'd continue for the rest of her life. Despite her success, Braddock never intended to remain a model, and returned to university a few years later to finish her degree. It was there that her combination of intelligence and ability caught the interest of some of the players in Britian's intelligence community, who sent Dai Thomas to recruit her for STRIKE, the British version of the US's SHIELD.
Highly trained, Betsy worked as an agent in STRIKE emerging 'PSI Unit' for several years, showing a unique aptitude for intelligence work, as well as remarkable proficiency in the field. Responding to STRIKE's growing success, an unknown agency secretly baited a terrorist known only as Slaymaster to destroy the division. STRIKE's team took the bait, only to suffer a grievous loss against him, which led to the savage beating and blinding of Betsy. In the wake of the defeat, STRIKE's special division was broken up, and Betsy resigned to recuperate.
To her surprise, Charles Xavier, who had been a distant associate of her father's contacted her, offering her a position in his school. Betsy accepted, moving over to the United States and settling in the mansion.
Living At The X-Mansion
Betsy's first tenure at the school was as a teacher, using her telepathy to see through the eyes of others and counteract her blindness. She focused mostly on the humanities, teaching literature and serving as a strong staff member involved with the students, often taking over duties from both Scott Summers and Ororo Munroe when situations requiring the X-Men interfered with the school. Betsy was especially watchful over Sarah Morlocke, due to her difficult past.
Months after the seeming death of Jean Grey, Betsy and Scott began a quiet and difficult relationship, trying to help each other with the scars they carried. In an attempt to move past her former pain, Betsy consulted with Dr. Nathanial Essex, now a staff member at the school, about possible medical solutions for her blindness, which STRIKE doctors had pronounced as incurable. The collaboration would go on to have severe repercussions for Betsy.
Essex did have a plan to restore her sight, but as they moved closer to the potential solution, a dark emotional connection grew between the two teachers. With the assistance of Pete Wisdom, Betsy uncovered the fact that there were some physical similarities between herself and Essex' dead wife. Growing concerned about the relationship, she confronted Essex, only to have the tables turned as he refused to perform any sort of dangerous operation on her if she didn't feel her could trust him. Betsy reluctantly buried her concerns about Essex, but demanded total secrecy about the upcoming procedure from Essex in return. No one at the school was to know, forcing Essex to recruit Kitty Pryde secretly as his assistant.
Crimson Dawn and Kwannon
Betsy's surgery to replace her damaged eyes and optic nerves with new material was a success, but unexpectedly, she fell into a coma. Essex was forced to reveal what had happened to the rest of the school while he searched for a solution. In response, Essex was removed from his position, and Emma Frost contacted Brian Braddock to place her sister's care in Hank McCoy's hands. However, Essex convinced four of his former students, Kitty Pryde, Jamie Maddrox, Sarah Morlocke and Marie-Ange Colbert into kidnapping Betsy from the med lab and delivering her to a medical bay at Fort Dix.
Essex had developed a solution to Betsy's coma with a Japanese genetic program called Crimson Dawn. Through a complex and exhausting operation, Essex spliced new psionic receptive material into the areas of Betsy's brain damaged by her encounter with Slaymaster, saving her life. Betsy and the students returned to the mansion, where Betsy finally awoke from her coma. While many of the staff questioned her decisions to keep her surgery secret, she was slowly welcomed back to her place, and with her newly restored sight, added the role of X-Mae to her duties.
Psylocke would go on to lead several small X-Men missions, including the recruitment of Remy LeBeau, and establish herself as a valued member of the team. Her relationship with Scott had difficulties recovering, and Betsy began to suffer from side effects of her surgery, including blackouts and memory loss. Strange incidences began to occur around her, making some of the X-Men like Logan suspicious.
Over the next several months, more incidents occurred, and a disturbing situation was slowly revealed. Betsy's questionable actions were not simply side effects of her surgery, but another personality asserting itself. Calling herself Kwannon, she trapped Betsy's consciousness, and with the help of Manuel de la Rocha, kept her caged while she wrecked havoc on the relationships inside the mansion. Finally, she revealed herself as she attempted to escape, but the X-Men were able to stop her and Xavier's psionic powers trapped Kwannon behind powerful PSI shields.
As a result of the trauma suffered, Betsy took a long sabbatical. Unknown to the X-Men, she traveled to Asia with the help of Lennox, an old friend and former STRIKE. During her time there, she investigated a man named Devin Blaze, who led her to the head of the Hand, Matsuo. Matsuo supplied the answers she'd be seeking about Kwannon, enough that she was able to come to a certain level of personal closure, enough to move on and return to the X-Men.
Jean Grey's return dealt Betsy a personal blow, removing any chance of her salvaging her relationship with Scott, and she began to slowly withdraw from others at the school. As well, her eldest brother Jamie, long confined to a metal hospital, suddenly died, leaving her twin Brian to inherit the Braddock titles and fortune.
Back in the Field
With Pete Wisdom's apparent betrayal, the school faced the daunting challenge of trying to mitigate the damage he'd caused to their information networks. Given the job of trying to fix it, Remy recruited both Betsy and Jake Gavin to work with him as an intelligence arm of the school. Once again using her training, Betsy found a renewed sense of purpose and level of success over the next several months.
During a Hellfire Club party, Wisdom used a drug to successfully incapacitate Betsy without harming her, and as a result, unlocked a number of suppressed memories about her parents and the circumstances around their disappearance. Several of the staff and students were unwittingly drawn up into the mindscape, released only once Betsy was finally able to break free.
After rescuing Remy following his encounter with Malice, and the return of Wisdom following his successful betrayal of the Black Queen Selene, Betsy quietly withdrew from most of the mansion once again, although not in a destructive manner as before. She continued an association with the X-Men, becoming involved in the rescue of several students crippled by the mutant Masque. During that encounter, she also began a relationship with David Haller, the new student counselor at the school.
Once again, Remy brought Betsy back into the field with a request for help after Pete Wisdom's sister was kidnapped. She joined the bizarre team in England to help get her back, working side by side with them in a successful operation against the group known only as the EOE. Following the mission, Wisdom told her of his plans to leave Xavier's permanently, and presented the offer of helping him create a smaller team, focused on a different approach to dealing with potential threats. Betsy quickly agreed.
Snow Valley and X-Force
Betsy's role became twofold, as both the official president of Emma Frost's funded Snow Valley Memorial Center for Mutant Affairs, and as one of the three field leaders of X-Force that operated out of the center. Betsy's experience and training was a valuable asset, as X-Force completed several difficult but successful missions.
During the mission involving Xorn, Betsy found herself face to face with Essex once more, a meeting that brought out some of her darkest anger. In connecting with Xorn, Betsy found her mind drawn up with the others for a brief time, and returned without damage.
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2003
2004
2005
2006
Operation: Don't Leave Me With The Germans
2007
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E-mail: 120px
Player Icon Base: Rachel Weisz
