Kurt Wagner

Kurt is a full-fledged member of the X-Men under the name Nightcrawler, a respected and valued part of the team.

Details

Character Journal: x_bamf

Real Name: Kurt Wagner

Codename: Nightcrawler

Aliases: legally changed his name to Kurt Sefton in 2006.

First Appearance: May 14, 2003

Date of Birth: 24 December 1976

Place of Birth: Bavaria, Germany

Citizenship: German

Relatives: Szardos Clan: Margali Szardos (adopted mother), Ivan Szardos (adopted father - deceased), Stefan Szardos (adopted brother), Amanda Sefton (adopted sister), Jimaine Szardos (adopted sister), Meggan Szardos (adopted sister), Mystique (mother), Baron Eric Wagner (father).

Education: Limited to the basics - he can read and write in at least three languages, and is intelligent, but has never gained any formal qualifications.

Relationship Status: Single.

Occupation: X-Man, teacher of dance, German and gymnastics at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Team Affiliation: X-Men

Biography

Childhood

Kurt was left with the Szardos clan as an infant - his mother, the shapeshifter Mystique, gave birth to him in the guise of a homeless young German woman and vanished shortly afterwards, naming the blue infant 'Kurt Wagner' before she did. He had a mostly happy childhood growing up among the Szardos clan, and as a performer in their circus as soon as he was old enough - his physical agility and talent for acrobatics, given by his physical mutations, made him a natural. Kurt mastered walking faster than most children, once he learned to use his tail as an aid to balance, and began basic acrobatic training not long after, though those earliest lessons were more like games. He became known as "The Amazing Nightcrawler" for his ability as an acrobat.

There were tensions outside the immediate family brought on by Margali's adoption of him, and he has always felt a little set apart by his physical differences and the fact of his adoption, but these were minor issues and he was loved by most of the clan. As a child he was reluctant to wander far from the caravan, only going to places where there were likely to be no other people or when he was with a group of the clan. His elder brother Stefan was a near-constant companion during his childhood and adolescence, the two boys roaming the woods and fields. Stefan was Kurt's protector and champion as well - being much larger than the other children their age, and Kurt being smaller, Stefan regularly fought off prospective tormentors. Kurt in return tended to his brother's bruises and scrapes, in order to avoid getting into trouble with Margali and Ivan for fighting.

It was on one of these rambles that Kurt's teleportation power manifested, when he was thirteen. Having wandered too far and facing the prospect of being late home and incurring parental wrath, Kurt suddenly found himself back at the caravan, having instinctively teleported to the place he was thinking of. Of course, being the loyal brother he was, he immediately teleported back to Stefan and brought the two of them back - and promptly collapsed from the effort. He was a quiet, solemn child and this has persisted into adulthood, though he did and does have a playful side under the surface.

The worst point of his childhood was the abduction of his two-year-old sister Gemile by the magical practitioner Rack, when he was twelve. Kurt was not aware of what was going on until he heard Gemile screaming as Rack tried to get her into his car, and came running... only to be forcibly restrained by Stefan and their father, who were afraid of the boy attracting official attention and being the next on the list to be taken away. He didn't speak to his family for a week as a result of this, not understanding why they'd just let Rack take her.

Arriving and Living At The X-Mansion

In 2003, Kurt received the opportunity to go touring through the United States with the Munich Circus. Whilst in Boston, he was abducted by Stryker's men, the teleporting mutant having come to his attention via media coverage and been deemed perfect for his plan to wipe out mutant-kind. Using his brain-washing drug, Stryker sent Kurt to assassinate President McKenna. Fortunately, the attempt failed, and upon regaining his senses due to the bullet wound he received, Kurt instinctively headed back to the last place he remembered being - Boston - in a series of jumps, and holed up in an abandoned church there. It was there that he was found and recovered by Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe; he then assisted the X-Men in foiling Stryker's plans and rescuing Charles Xavier and the abducted children of the school.

Kurt was quickly accepted into the X-Men as a trainee after the incident with Stryker, when he chose to remain at the mansion rather than going back to the clan, and was raised to full membership sometime afterward. This choice was partly as a way to make up for the things Stryker made him do, partly because once he'd seen what good the team did, he found himself reluctant to walk away. He has been a team member ever since, and seemed to be happy and fulfilled in this.

However, the events on Youra, including Kurt being forced to severely injure the operative Radonic, and subsequently, especially the events of Bleeding with its echoes of Youra, contributed to a building pressure on Kurt, much of it self-inflicted. Another factor in this was his discovery that Mystique was his birth mother, which came about when Moira made a simple keying error in running his standard physical, though learning that Amanda was his sister proved to be a positive event, when she had come to accept it and their relationship improved. The loss of one of his few confidantes, Madelyn Bartlet (who he also had feelings for, before she chose Hank McCoy), on her departure from the school also caused him to withdraw further into himself.

Things came to a head with X-Men Mission: Alcatraz, where Kurt snapped and almost killed the terrorist he was meant to be securing after Rogue and Wolverine were badly hurt partly due to his freezing up at a critical moment. This led him to leave the mansion in search of Mystique and the answers only she could give him (Mommy Dearest Redux). When the X-Men realized where he was, a team was sent to his "rescue", only to see him help Mystique escape before returning to be taken back to the mansion. This led directly to his being cast out from the Szardos clan, once Margali learned what he had done. Following this, he was put on stress leave from the team and began regular therapy sessions with Jack Leary.

His casting out also led directly to his decision to change his name to Kurt Sefton, after Amanda announced that she had made Amanda Sefton her legal name.

Recovery and Starting Over

In December 2006, Kurt suffered a training accident, leaving him with serious chemical burns to the skin, eyes and lungs after he was caught in the dimension he teleports through. With the help of Cain and Logan and supervised by Jean, Amanda was able to heal him fully, with the unexpected side effect that all his scars were wiped away. After a few days to think, he decided not to put them back, and sealed the decision by throwing his knife into the lake. The next day, he asked for his position on the team back and got it.

In March 2007, during the Kaiten mission to Portugal, Kurt's hand was broken in the course of the Blackbird crashing after having holes shot in her (he was the pilot, but he was unconscious at the time). It quickly became clear that giving a teleporter heavy painkillers is almost as bad an idea as giving a psi go-pills, especially when that teleporter has an important anniversary to mark in Washington DC. Kurt almost made the trip to Arlington successfully, only coming unstuck on the last jump when he accidentally landed in the Potomac. His friends and family were not impressed, least of all Amanda.

He received another shock in May 2007 with the revelation that the anti-mutant politician Eric Wagner was his biological father. It will take him a little time to adjust to this knowledge and decide what, if anything, to do about it.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5'10

Weight: 154 pounds.

Eyes: Yellow.

Hair: Dark blue.

Other Features: He had a great deal of self-inflicted scarification all over his body, in patterns, as well as one straight scar on his face, inflicted by Marius Laverne during Bleeding, but these were removed as an unexpected side-effect of Amanda healing him in December 2006 (this also resulted in the regrowth of his natural blue fur, previously shaved to avoid patchiness around his scars). In addition, he has a pointed tail, blue skin and only three digits on each hand and two on each foot.

Powers

Kurt's primary power is teleportation - his particular method involves split-second travel through another dimension to arrive at another point in this one. The side effect of this is clouds of blue sulphurous smoke whenever he teleports. There are limits to how far he can 'port at a time, and how many passengers he can carry as well as the weight involved.

He can also draw shadows around himself, as a way to hide or to move in stealth (where it's already dark). This is done by halfway opening a doorway to the dimension he uses to teleport, meaning that light is drawn in but nothing else. He rarely uses this aspect of his powers, however.

His natural agility might also count as a power, since it's a result of his physical mutations. His ability to use his tail as a balance aid is one of several catlike aspects of his physical nature and abilities, though this does not carry across to his personality and he is not a feral. These include very good night vision, slightly sharpened hearing, excellent agility and the ability to 'fall on his feet', when for some reason he can't just teleport from a fall.

Equipment

Kurt's X-Men uniform has been custom designed to allow his tail to hang out and he doesn't wear the boots to enable him to use his prehensile feet for climbing.