...A kiss, for good luck?....

Name: Kurt Wagner
Alias: Fuzzy Elf, Gainsborough
Family: Eric Wagner (assumed father, deceased), Margali Szardos (foster mother), Jimaine Szardos (Daytripper, alias Amanda Sefton, foster sister), Stefan Szardos (foster brother, deceased), Raven Darkholme (Mystique, shapeshifted into a man, biological father), Irene Adler (Destiny, biological mother), Rogue (adopted sister).
Martial Status: Seeing Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat)
Affiliation: X-Men (Current), Excalibur (Former)
Height: 5 foot 9 inches
Weight: 170 pounds
Hair Color: Indigo
Eye Color: Glowing yellow with no visable pupils
Occupation: Adventurer (Current), Priest (Former)
Location: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State (Current), Muir Island, Scotland (Former)
Vitals:
 

History: In the form of a German noblewoman, the shapeshifting Mystique married Count Wagner, who only shortly afterwards died under mysterious circumstances. A few months later, she gave birth to a child, however, the baby was born visibly mutated with blue fur all over, iridescent eyes and a prehensile tail. It has been theorized that Mystique's own shape-shifting cells were the instigators of this mutation's presence. Due to the shock and the strain of the boy’s difficult delivery, Mystique lost concentration and accidentally revealed her true form. Word spread of her and the baby's condition, and mother and son were chased by a torch-wielding mob. Trapped, Mystique morphed into one of the villagers and threw her own infant son over a waterfall to expedite her escape.

Miraculously, the baby survived and was saved by Margali Szardos, a powerful sorceress, who acted as a psychic at a local carnival. Kurt grew up with Margali and her two children, Stefan and Jimaine. As children, Kurt and Stefan played together often. Stefan knew that his magical heritage might lure him to evil, so he had his adopted brother promise him a blood-oath that if he ever killed without reason, Kurt would kill him as well. Reluctantly, Kurt agreed. In the carnival, Kurt grew up to be a trapeze artist, along with Jimaine, and the two of them forged a relationship as they grew older.

At some point during his childhood, Kurt developed a strong faith in God and the Catholic teachings. Years later, a new owner took over and wanted Kurt taken out of the trapeze act to be placed into the freak sideshow. Around the same time, Stefan's fears came true as he began killing people in a nearby town. These people were actually part of a hidden race of half-human creatures, but Stefan was still killing them without cause. Kurt attempted to stop his mad brother without using deadly force, but accidentally fulfilled his promise by snapping Stefan's neck. Kurt was discovered at the murder scene by the townspeople and they believed him to be a demon and that he had been terrorizing the village.

The mob chased Wagner through the streets of the village. Finally getting tired, Kurt was captured by them and they were prepared to drive a stake through his heart when the entire mob was psi-locked in place by Professor Charles Xavier. Returning to America together, Xavier asked Wagner to join his new team of X-Men to save the original team from Krakoa, the living island. Kurt joined the team as Nightcrawler, along with a number of other international mutants and Cyclops, the only member of the original team to escape. This new team succeeded in rescuing the X-Men from Krakoa. Afterwards, the original X-Men left to allow Xavier and Cyclops to train the new team. Nightcrawler chose to stay on with the X-Men because he felt that he had found kindred spirits, but also because he had learned that his foster mother, Margali, cursed him for causing her son's death.

Xavier gave Nightcrawler an image inducer, which would hide his true appearance behind a holographic disguise. Kurt often used the device to mimic the features of his favorite swashbuckler, Errol Flynn. Still, he felt demeaned by having to hide himself from others. When teammate Wolverine accused Kurt of being ashamed of his true appearance, he accepted a dare to walk down the main street of Salem Center without the image inducer. Much to his surprise most people treated him very friendly, thinking him to be an actor or a pantomime. Not before long, Kurt would eventually stop using the device altogether.

While celebrating his first Christmas with the X-Men, Kurt met an attractive stewardess named Amanda Sefton, and they often double-dated with Colossus and Amanda's friend, Betsy.

When the X-Men went to Ireland to fight Black Tom and the Juggernaut at Cassidy Keep, yet another mutant ability of Nightcrawler was discovered. When Kurt was knocked unconscious, he fell down in a dark corner and his body blended in with the shadows. Nightcrawler was found by the elves living in the castle and, when he regained consciousness, they told him about the strange effect. Up till then, Kurt did not know of this camouflage ability, which apparently came as a side-effect with his blue fur.

Months later, on Kurt’s twenty-first birthday, he received a surprise package from an unknown sender. Inside was a beautiful crystalline statue of Nightcrawler, but when he touched it the figurine exploded and Kurt’s soul was spirited away. With the help of Dr. Strange, the X-Men followed and found themselves in a simulacrum of Dante’s hell. In the last of nine circles, which is supposed to be the final punishment for those who committed murder, the team faced Margali Szardos, who held Kurt responsible for the death of Stefan. It turned out that the statue had been sent by Jimaine to arrange this confrontation, for she did could not let her mother punish the man she loved in a magical hell of her own creation.

When Nightcrawler explained that Stefan had gone insane and Margali was convinced of the truth of his words through Dr. Strange’s Eye of Agamotto, she forgave her adoptive son and departed. Jimaine, on the other hand, revealed that she had been at Nightcrawler’s side over the last months in the form of his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, having magically disguised her appearance.

When the neomutant Kitty Pryde met and later joined the X-Men, she was put off by Nightcrawler's demonic visage and tended to stay clear of him. Still, Kurt did everything he could to win her over and they eventually became the best of friends. When the X-Men learned of an imminent assassination attempt on Senator Kelly's life by Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the team went to Kelly’s hearing in Washington. During the resulting battle, Nightcrawler was shocked to discover how similar his appearance was to Mystique's true form. She neither confirmed nor denied any of his suspicions at the time, but told him to ask his foster mother Margali Szardos about it, leaving Nightcrawler confused.

During the X-Men‘s battle with Dracula, the extent of Nightcrawler’s religious faith became apparent. When Logan tried to use the symbol of the cross against their opponent, the Lord of the Vampires taunted the X-Men that it only worked for those who truly believe. Hearing this, Kurt formed a cross of two wooden stakes, placing Dracula in incredible pain.

A few months later, Mystique's foster daughter, Rogue, would come to Xavier for help with her powers and joined the X-Men, despite objections by nearly all the standing team about letting an "Evil Mutant" become one of them. Nightcrawler was one of the first X-Men to warm towards Rogue, tending to her illness as the team's doctor after a battle in Japan. Shortly after Storm was blasted by a Neutralizer gun which negated her powers, seemingly forever, she left the team to cope with this loss and leadership of the X-Men fell into Nightcrawler’s hands. Kurt saw it as one of his tasks to help explore the limits of the powers Rogue stole from Ms. Marvel.

Although Kurt performed well in this capacity, he was plagued by insecurities and self-doubts. Additionally, the Beyonder, whom the X-Men had encountered during the Secret Wars had come to Earth and the presence of a being powerful enough to create and destroy entire universes with the blink of an eye managed to shake Kurt's faith in God. He confessed to his friend, Father Bowen, that he even feared that the Beyonder might be God and, if he was, how he could continue to believe?

When both Cyclops and Storm returned to the team, Kurt was more than willing to step down and let them sort out leadership of the X-Men themselves. The duel was won by Storm, leading to Cyclops‘ departure. Only a few days later, the X-Men again met the Beyonder, who was curious about the Phoenix Force within Rachel Summers. The alien summoned the team away to test them, but, sensing Nightcrawler’s inner trouble, he left him behind to sort it out. Kurt later learned that the others were in San Francisco and he could have followed, but decided not to. Part of him was happy to not have to face the almighty opponent again. Thinking that his entire life was controlled by outside forces, Nightcrawler lashed out at Amanda in his confusion and even voiced concern that his love for her could only be the result of her magical manipulations. Amanda angrily left, ending their long-term relationship with a few hurtful words. The same day, Kurt recognized a young female in distress, as she was targeted by Arcade. Kurt followed them to Murderworld and, rescuing her, he found a purpose in life once more, by concentrating more on his swashbuckling, adventure-loving side.

During a three-way battle between the X-Men, the Lords Cardinal of the Inner Circle and the super-Sentinel Nimrod, Nightcrawler's teleportation ability was severely thrown out of whack when he attempted to damage the mutant hunting robot by teleporting away with a large chunk of it. However, Nimrod had been defeated by this move once before and now predicting the attack. Nimrod injured Nightcrawler with an energy signature disruption. As Kurt disintegrated, he was screaming in agony, and the X-Men had no way of knowing if he even survived the attack.

Kurt wound up near the harbor of New York, but his mutant powers was diminished. He could only manage a few jumps and, when the other X-Men looking for him, he was about to be killed by an angry mob, as he was too exhausted to teleport.

He was still in this weakened state when the Mutant Massacre began and, although Kurt managed to take out the Marauder named Vertigo, he failed to notice that Riptide was sneaking up to him. Wolverine tried to warn him in time but his teleportation power again failed and Nightcrawler was subsequently beaten and slashed by Riptide, leaving Kurt barely alive. Moira MacTaggert did her best, but Kurt was comatose for many weeks and, like his fellow wounded X-Men, Colossus and Shadowcat, he was transferred to the medical center of Muir Island.

fter a few months, Nightcrawler awoke only to hear of the X-Men's apparent death in Dallas during his absence.

Kurt and Shadowcat stayed on at Muir Island to continue their recuperation for the following weeks.

Nightcrawler discovered new limits to his teleporting, he was only capable of 'porting once in a 24 hour period without threat of seriously injuring himself.

Due to a series of events orchestrated by the Omniversal Majestrix, Roma, and her agent, Saturnyne, Kurt and Kitty were united with Captain Britain and Meggan in battle with Mojo's Warwolves and the bounty hunting Technet, both of whom were after the former X-Man, Rachel "Phoenix" Summers, who had just escaped from the Mojoverse. Deciding to remain together, these five heroes joined forces as the England-based team known as Excalibur and used Brian's lighthouse as a base of operations.

Almost from day one, Kurt was attracted to his teammate, Meggan, whose refreshing naivety and empathic shapeshifting made her look like the ideal partner. Meggan seemed to respond to his affection, especially after her lover, Brian, began drinking too much and spent more and more time with his former girlfriend, Courtney Ross. Although they almost kissed in a few occasions, Kurt and Meggan never gave in to temptation.

An early encounter with a Nazi version of Excalibur led the group on a journey through a variety of different realities. They lost Shadowcat during this Cross-Time Caper, but they all eventually made it back to Earth 616 and, not before long, Excalibur reunited. When Dr. Doom asked Excalibur for help, they accompanied him to a nether realm, where the Latverian monarch wanted to retrieve the soul of his mother. Yet, after they found out about Doom betraying them, Excalibur opposed him. During the battle, Nightcrawler's full range of teleportation was restored when the Latverian used an E.M. scrambler on Kurt to disrupt his power, but accidentally realigned it to its proper configuration.

Meanwhile, Kurt began to grow a little too close to Meggan for Captain Britain's comfort. Brian was suffering from a "blunder jinx" cast on him by Roma to keep Excalibur together, but its effects were creating a rift between he and Meggan so that she sought Kurt's shoulder to cry on. This all came to a head when Excalibur reluctantly allowed the Technet to bunk with them in the now-crowded lighthouse. Already at his boiling point after a series of innocent (but annoying) mishaps with the bounty hunters, the Captain chanced upon Kurt and Meggan in what appeared to be a compromising position. The resulting skirmish trashed the lighthouse and left Nightcrawler with a broken leg.

At this point, the various Excalibur members went their separate ways for various reasons, while Kurt stayed behind with the Technet to heal his wounds and supervise their activities. Kurt involved the aliens in the investigation of a series of robberies in order to keep them occupied and even took to giving them Xavier School-style uniforms and calling them his "N-Men." They made new allies with F.I.6 agent Micromax, the extra-dimensional Kylun and the extra-terrestrial Cerise. The Technet left Earth just prior to Excalibur's reunification, claiming the planet had only a few hours left.

Nightcrawler, Excalibur and their new members soon learned for themselves about the peril when they encountered Necrom and his Anti-Phoenix. This was the mission Excalibur had been gathered for in the first place by Roma and Saturnyne: the salvation of the Omniverse itself. To accomplish this, a convergence of realities gave Excalibur the once-in-a-lifetime power to "phase" into each other as a single being. Nightcrawler and the other four original members each brought something to the gestalt, enabling them to properly align the energy matrix which supported the Multiverse. Following the defeat of Necrom and the foiling of Merlyn's own personal plot, Excalibur relocated to Braddock Manor with the destruction of their lighthouse. It was around this time that Nightcrawler clearly assumed the role of team leader, though he had acted as such unofficially for quite some time.

Kurt also took it upon himself to initiate Cerise in the ways of Earth. When the alien had materialized at the lighthouse in the midst of Nightcrawler, Kylun and the Technet, asking which one of them resembled Earth’s dominant lifeform, Kurt had to confess that, of them all, ironically, Cerise herself looked the closest to a human being. The Shi’Ar was totally unfamiliar with Earth culture, so Kurt helped her getting settled in and began a personal relationship with her. She especially liked the Earth custom of "lip massages."

While a prisoner/guest of Nigel Orphington-Smythe and his Cloud Nine facility, Nightcrawler received an extensive research on the working mechanisms of his power. The staff of Cloud Nine claimed that a strange illness had befallen the Warpies and, with the test on Nightcrawler, they wanted to find a cure. However, Excalibur soon found that they had been lied to. After the following battle, one of the liberated children repaired Nightcrawler’s torn costume, though Silkworm, how the Warpie was called, made a few alterations.

Shortly thereafter, Excalibur began to fall apart. Captain Britain was lost in the timestream during a return trip from the future and Meggan fell into a comatose depression because of this. Other members also drifted away on a variety of personal matters. Worse for Kurt was the revelation that Cerise was a mass murderer, wanted by the Shi'ar for war crimes. Cerise proved guilty of the accusations (though she had just cause) and was relocated to the Shi'ar Empire to serve out her sentence as an emissary for Lilandra. With galaxies between them, there was no way to continue their relationship.

With only Shadowcat and Phoenix left, Nightcrawler moved the team to the Muir Island Research Center, where they would attempt a more proactive approach to "super-heroing." Excalibur would increase its membership in the following weeks, including the return of Amanda Sefton - Nightcrawler's long-time ex-girlfriend, who had taken the codename Day Tripper. Kurt and Amanda made peace and began attempting to rekindle their romance. Soon after, Nightcrawler was involved in a conflict with Mystique and Graydon Creed, which led to the shocking revelation that she was his mother.

Kurt barely had time to process this before having to deal with his new teammate, Douglock, and his progenitors the Phalanx, the revelation that Moira MacTaggert was the first human to become afflicted by the Legacy Virus and the W.H.O's splinter agency, Black Air, roping Excalibur into becoming involved in the Genoshan situation. Excalibur's time in Genosha led them unwittingly into the shadow world of Black Air and other secret agencies, especially once Pete Wisdom, the team's liaison to Black Air, quit his organization to join Excalibur. Kurt dealt with the repercussions of Wisdom's arrival, as well as the fallout from a mentally unhinged Colossus finding his way to Muir Island. Nightcrawler began to adapt a more fierce outlook, which was reflected in his new costume, buzzcut, goatee, and ever-present pair of swords.

Kurt and Amanda's relationship came to an abrupt end when she left the group all of a sudden to pursue her own goals. Nightcrawler carried Excalibur through a number of conflicts, including the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, Sidri Hunters and a resolution to the team's private war with Black Air and their allies in the London Hellfire Club.

Only shortly afterwards, Nightcrawler learned of the slaughter of his old circus friends. He came to investigate and found Amanda at the carnival. She claimed that Margali was held captive by Belasco and she needed the life-forces to breach the walls between dimensions for a rescue attempt. Kurt accompanied his lover, unaware that it was actually Margali, as she had traded consciousness with her daughter, who, now in her mother’s body, was tortured by the ruler of Limbo. Working together, Kurt and the two sorceresses finally defeated the demon and mother and daughter were restored. Although Margali apologized for the pain she placed her daughter in, Nightcrawler found it hard to forgive her and she departed. With Belasco too having vanished, Amanda was forced to stay behind as new ruler over Limbo. It was too dangerous to leave the magical dimension unguarded as demons and other forces could use it as the perfect launch point for an attack on Earth.

Back at Muir, Kurt felt like Excalibur had abandoned their American friends when circumstances forced the team to stay out of the battles with Onslaught and Operation: Zero Tolerance. So, when Professor Xavier was MIA following the dismantling of Bastion’s organization, Nightcrawler initiated a search for his lost mentor. Excalibur did discover a remnant Zero Tolerance base, but found the Mimic held captive instead of Xavier.

Shortly thereafter, Nightcrawler and Excalibur decided to disband, following the wedding of Brian Braddock and Meggan. The three former X-Men on the team - Kurt, Colossus, and Shadowcat - wound up returning to their alma mater and rejoining their fellows in Westchester. Nightcrawler soon fell back into his old role as the devil-may-care swashbuckler of the team and seemed more than willing to leave his leadership days behind him.

In the middle of the Magneto War, a battle between Magneto and his clone, Joseph, over the magnetic energies of the Northpole, the X-Men had to face Astra, the creator of Joseph. She managed to stun Nightcrawler with the revelation that he “grew up as handsome as expected.“ Apparently, she had some part in his birth or some past connection to Mystique, but during the confusion Astra escaped and Nightcrawler was left wondering.

During the Gathering of the Twelve storyline, Wolverine had been kidnapped by Apocalypse and brainwashed into becoming his first Horseman, Death. Nightcrawler worked with a group of Logan's closest friends in the X-Men, who succeeded in hunting their misguided friend down and undoing the damage done to his mind. Following the ensuring war with Apocalypse, Kurt was among the X-Men who were present when the High Evolutionary dictated that mutantkind was too volatile to work within humanity, and set off a chain of satellites that repressed the x-factor gene in every mutant on the planet. After a few weeks of this "new world order," the X-Men banded together once more to shut down the anti-mutation rays and returned the world to normal.

Nightcrawler decided to leave the X-Men shortly after that and formally enrolled himself in the seminary in order to become a priest [six months gap]. However, he occasionally met his teammates again, like when N’Garai demons switched personalities with the X-Men only to be rescued by Amanda Sefton, who, now fully accepting her task to guard Limbo, called herself Magik, like her predecessor, Illyana Rasputin.

Some time later, Amanda visited Kurt in his church, but an unexpected attack forced her immediate return to Limbo and Nightcrawler was sucked through the vortex to the magic dimension too. He helped his former lover to protect her realm and, even though their new roles placed them further apart than ever, Kurt and Amanda did get along very well.

Nightcrawler’s absence from the X-Men was short lived because, within six months, the mutant race fell under attack from the Neo, a side branch of humanity's evolutionary tree who blame mutants for the cataclysmic events triggered in their society by the High Evolutionary's actions. The Neo’s Warclan tracked Nightcrawler down to his church, where they critically injured him with a arrow shot in the back. An emergency visit to Cecelia Reyes' clinic soon had them both on the run from the Neo. After Cecelia and the X-Men's old ally, Charlotte Jones, became trapped in the Neo stronghold, Nightcrawler rejoined the X-Men, partially in order to help save them. After distracting battles with the Goth and Crimson Pirates, Nightcrawler and the X-Men managed to breach the Neo's defenses and save their imprisoned friends.

When various alien races decided to turn Earth into a Maximum Security prison for convicted criminals of different species, Kurt was briefly reunited with his old flame, Cerise. Though, like before with Amanda, they were unable to develop back into a full relationship, partially because of Kurt's new status as a priest in training. Once Nightcrawler had explained to Cerise what priesthood meant, she understood and no longer felt rejected by him.

All X-Men took it very hard when Colossus sacrificed his life to release the Legacy Cure into the atmosphere. In his anger, Nightcrawler lashed out against some innocent humans and, right then, was approached by Mr. Sinister. The scientist claimed to have the means to create a clone of Colossus, but Kurt thought that this would mean dishonor to Piotr’s legacy and so he smashed the vial containing Colossus‘ genetic material. Afterwards, he decided to take a leave of absence from the team in order to properly mourn for his friend and come to terms with his inner turmoil.

When Kurt returned in a few months time, he was a fully ordained priest and became an active participant in the X-Men's "Away team,“ based out of various hideouts provided by Worthington Industries in Manhattan. Already in one of their first missions, his priest training came in handy, as he helped a pregnant woman of the mutant society living in the sewers beneath London to deliver her baby.

Several weeks later, while the X-Men were investigating and fighting the Church of Humanity, Nightcrawler had a disturbing encounter with the Supreme Pontiff, the head of this troublesome organization. During the few minutes while they were separated from the other combatants, the Pontiff performed some sort of mental attack, taking away that "what means most" to Kurt.

Ever since, Nightcrawler has been acting strangely and has been experiencing doubts about his place with the X-Men and the church. The media frenzy surrounding the Catholic priests and Stacy X's stimulation of his libido have only furthered Kurt's confusion. On one occasion, he claimed that his days as man of the cloth are behind him and, during the team’s battle against the X-Corps in Paris, he teleported away and sought refuge in the cabin of an old friend from his circus days.

His teammates convinced Kurt to return with them and, pon returning home, Kurt officially left the priesthood, deciding that it was not the path that he wanted to take. Despite this, Kurt still remains a devout catholic, just as he always was. It's taken awhile, but he seems to have fallen back to his devil-may-care, swashbuckler attitude, and the weight carried by him from his questions about his priorities and place in life seem to have been lifted.