❧ stats/personality/history

[shadowblends]

Name: Kurt Wagner [Nightcrawler]
Age: 27
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 140 lbs
Personality: Nightcrawler is a devout Catholic and a very pleasant character. Generally polite, adventurous and cheeky, he is very protective of his friends and does whatever he can to help them - teleporting them to safety, helping infiltrate the Weapon X facility.

The blue mutant's friendliness and eagerness to interact with others sometimes leads to him being dismissed, notable when Beast (at first - they do share a greeting when Kurt introduces himself) and Mystique generally don't acknowledge him. However, he is seen to be respected by the other members.

Kurt is semi-socially awkward in the way that he does not always pick up on social cues - the tone of voice, a certain position of the body, invading someone's personal space ... He's not dumb to them at all, more-so naive and still learning about what is alright and what is not. To add to this, he can be inadvertently outspoken and blunt at times, which ends with him apologizing (sometimes profusely, depending on the situation) and making mental notes to learn from his mistakes.

He is proud of his mutation to the point of announcing to Beast that he is 'Blue' in response to Beast's surprise at Mystique not in her blue form. Kurt is extremely non-violent and dislikes fighting unless he is forced to do so.

Due to his forgiving and outgoing nature, not many characters dislike or hate him. Despite his pacifistic and timid side, Nightcrawler is a talented fighter and is shown to easily hold his own against most adversaries and is very courageous when necessary.

History:

SPOILERS FOR X-MEN: APOCALYPSE AHEAD. DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU ARE READY FOR THESE.


Kurt Wagner was a mutant orphan who was raised by kind circus folk in Bavaria, Germany. He had strong faith even though people were scared of him because of his devilish look. He took the name 'The Incredible Nightcrawler' for performances.

Kurt had been working in a Munich circus until he was captured and taken to a Mutant fight club in Berlin. He tries to escape, but the walls of the cage block his teleporting and he is forced to fight his opponent: Angel. Although initially he tries to dodge and avoid fighting, Angel tells him that if he doesn't fight they will both be shot; Kurt knocks Angel into the walls of the cage, severely damaging his left wing. Mystique has found the fight club and shuts off the power to the fences allowing Angel and Nightcrawler to escape. Angel fights his way out, but Kurt is taken by Mystique who brings him to Caliban in order to get a new identity to travel to safety. However, Mystique sees a news broadcast on Magneto and decides to go see Charles Xavier and she takes Kurt with her.

While at the school, Kurt becomes friends with Jubilee who gives him a tour of the mansion. During that, he also meets Scott Summers and Jean Grey. He tells Scott how he is unfamiliar with what a mall is, so Scott decides the four teen mutants should skip school and go out and have fun.

At the mall, Kurt gets to experience normal teen activities - he shops for records, sees "Return of the Jedi" and experiences "brain freeze" from a frozen drink at the food court. Scott then drives the four friends back to the mansion, only to find it has been attacked by Apocalypse and the Horsemen and Charles Xavier has been taken. Willam Stryker also arrives and kidnaps Mystique, Quicksilver, Moira MacTaggert and Beast. Kurt hides in the rubble of X Mansion with Scott and Jean, who manages to use her telepathy to keep them cloaked from Strykers soldiers. The trio sneaks into the jet with the captured X-Men that is headed to Alkali Lake (Stryker's base for experimenting on mutants) to rescue their friends. At Alkali lake the three are forced to hide from guards and encounter Wolverine locked in a cage, whom Jean sets free and he goes on a killing rampage throughout the base.

While teleporting in various locations inside, Kurt eventually finds the captured heroes and Scott use his powers to blast open their cell. Kurt, Scott, Jean, Mystique, Quicksilver, Beast, and Moira don armored suits and board a jet to fly to Cairo to save Professor X. The team is divided with Kurt tasked to retrieve Charles's body from Apocalypse before they transfer consciousness's, but he is attacked by Angel. Nightcrawler defeats Angel again and retrieves Charles, the X-Men return to the jet and are preparing to escape but the Horsemen attack and Kurt is forced to teleport himself and five others to safety, straining him and causing him to pass out. When he awakes, his fellow X-Men have defeated Apocalypse once and for all.

The mansion is rebuilt and Kurt stays on as a student permanently, also joining Mystique, Beast, Quicksilver, Cyclops, Jean, and a reformed Storm as the new X-Men. Under the watch of Professor X, the team gathers in the Danger Room to train against an army of Sentinels.


END SPOILERS.

Powers: Teleportation - He is able to teleport to any place, as long as he knows where he is going. His teleportation gives him the appearance of being vaporized into a very brief puff of blue-black smoke wherever he teleports to or from and the scent of sulfur is left behind. His limit is roughly 3 miles, however the further he teleports, the greater the risk of injuring himself by re-appearing within a solid object or straining his body. Nightcrawler's teleports have a side effect of weakening his passenger(s), especially those who are non-teleporters. Using repeated teleports, he was capable of re-positioning himself and Archangel until he wore down his adversary and trapped him in a concrete and steel block. Though, Archangel was able to recover and free himself, his teleports exhausted the winged warrior long enough for Nightcrawler to rescue Professor X. When Archangel and Psylocke had attacked the jet, Kurt proved the extensiveness of his ability by teleporting, Beast, Moira, Charles, Jean, Scott, and himself out of the war plane and into a nearby building. He had successfully gotten all of them to safety, but ended up unconscious because of it.

Shadow Camouflage - He has limited abilities to blend into and create gaseous, three-dimensional shadows. When he is hidden in the darkness, he shows that he is able to have great stealth.

Prehensile Tail - Nightcrawler's tail allows him to grab onto objects with relative ease. His tail is strong enough to not only support his body weight but also lift an adult man completely off the ground. It is deft enough to fight with like a sword or blunt object and its tip is sharp enough to be a stabbing weapon. The appendage was strong enough to catch Angel off guard and slam the winged mutant into the electric cage. However his tail strength was no match for Archangel's further enhanced powers.

Surface Adhesion - Kurt can cling to surfaces like walls, the ceiling, etc through micro-suction discs on the surface of his hands and feet.

Superhuman Acrobatics - Nightcrawler's agility, balance, reflexes, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.

Superhuman Senses - He possesses enhanced eyesight, enabling him to see perfectly in the dark and in infra-red light. His hearing is also super acute. Nightcrawler possesses an extra-sensory spatial awareness, when teleporting into an area that he is not looking at. Kurt claims there is a risk of re-appearing within a solid object, however his spatial awareness allows him to teleport, yet avoid re-appearing into an object that was moved or a person that is standing in what is normally open space. He has limited ability to predict other mutant teleports within his teleportation range.

Superhuman Reflexes - Nightcrawler's reflexes are enhanced to a point where he can effortlessly dodge automatic fire and decisively teleport before being shot at. His reflexes appear to be equal to Archangel's.

Superhuman Flexibility - His bones, muscles and joints have more elastic strength and durability, allowing him to easily perform gymnastic and contortionist maneuvers without damaging his bone structure. This is also why it is easy for him to stay in a crouched position for so long without harming his spine or damaging his posture.

Superhuman Resilience - Kurt is resistant to his own teleports, however teleporting with passengers continuously will weaken them (and himself) as they do not possess the resistance he does. He can use this to grapple and incapacitate his opponents. He possesses exceptional resilience; as seen during his first encounter with Angel, Nightcrawler got repeatedly electrocuted by the cage, however he was capable of avoiding Angel with acrobatic maneuvers and teleports, thus proving his adaptability.

Abilities: Hand-to-Hand Combat - Kurt was able to defeat Angel, a highly skilled mutant cage fighter.

Bilingual - He is fluent in English and German. Due to living as a circus performer, it is possible he is multi-linguistic in other European languages. (i've headcanon'ed latin and romanian into this)

Acrobat - Growing up in a circus, Nightcrawler is an extremely talented acrobat, contortionist and martial artist.

Weaknesses: Conscious Spatial Awareness - He must be able to visualize where he is teleporting, or he could end up in a dangerous position, such as inside a wall. Although, he manages to overcome this if he can visualize his destination in his mind, allowing him to teleport past an obstacle if he can imagine what is past it.

Telekinesis - Telekinesis, or at least Jean Grey's powerful telekinesis, can be used to keep him from teleporting, as well as to completely lock him in place.

Electric Field - If Kurt is caught in an electric field, such as an electrified chamber of any sort it will hinder his teleportation and limit it to the volume of the space he is in. This is evident as he could not escape the electrified cage or enter the Weapon Plus prison.