Nightcrawler

"Odd how even in the face of tragedy, there are often such wonders--such miracles--to be found."

- Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler or Kurt Wagner, is the biological son of Mystique and the adoptive brother of Rogue. Growing up in a German town with his adoptive parents- not knowing who his real mother was, Kurt was shunned and hated because of his appearance.

Origin
Kurt Wagner was born to Baron Christan Wagner and Raven Darkholm AKA Mystique, the shape-shifter, during one of her aliases. When the union of the two spawned Kurt, as an obvious mutant, or rather a "demon" as the townsfolk believed from his appearance, the villagers began demanding that the Baroness and her demon baby be put to death. Mystique ran off with Kurt and literally sent him down the river, then took on a new guise and came back claiming to have killed the Baroness and her baby to placate the crowd before fleeing the baronage.

What no one had known, was that Mystique was not baby Kurt's only mutant parent and his biological father wasn't the Baron but in truth Azazel. Azazel was a mutant that had been sealed in a pocket dimension, titling it a region of Hell and him it's lord. Azazel could only make brief constitutionals to earth and had fathered Kurt with Mystique during his time there. Though far removed from the situation Azazel was keeping an eye on his son and found it unacceptable that he would be left to drown or die in the wilderness. Azazel sent his servant Margali Szardos to save Kurt and give him a proper upbringing.

Kurt Szardos
Margali Szardos found and recovered Kurt, tending to him and educating him. Margali spun for Kurt a different tale of his birth, telling him that she had happened upon him one day as she was passing by a house and saw that his father appeared to have had a heart attack and his mother was laying beside him also dead. Kurt was raised as Margali's foster child along with her own two children, Stegan and Amanda. Margali worked as a fortune-teller to hide her true mystical talents behind cold-readings and showmanship. Through Margali Kurt would be exposed to circus life and became a preforming acrobat, with his appearance being easy to justify whether as a whimsical make-up or part of the freak-show, and soon became the star of the show. Eventually the crowds came less and less and Kurt was cast off.

After leaving the circus Kurt traveled to Germany to Stefan only to find when he got there that Stefan had gone insane and was murdering children. Kurt attempted to stop his foster-brother but accidentally killed him in the process. Kurt was disgusted with himself, believing he was in-fact some form of demon, to whom killing came as a second nature and deeply guilt-ridden, Kurt made his way to a monastery to seek forgiveness. The monks of the monastery took Kurt in to seek forgiveness from God and Kurt found refuge there. Eventually Kurt was found by Professor Xavier through the use of Cerebro and The professor offered Kurt a place to be educated on how to use his powers, the nature of mutants and a chance to help others, all of which sounded exciting to Kurt. Wishing to further understand his true nature and seek forgiveness through action over that of prayer, Kurt accepted Xavier's offer and became part of his team of super heroes known as the X-Men. Upon signing-up, Kurt took on the codename Nightcrawler and has been with the X-Men ever since.

Scraped Origin
Though the above origin is cannon and would be slowly explored and revealed as the comics progressed the original planning for Nightcralwer by writer, Chris Claremont, creator for Mystique and collaborator on the story, was for Kurt's actual father to be Mystique herself, since while in the form of a man she/"he" is functionally male and can reproduce as one. Nightcrawler's mother was to be Mystique's lover, Irene Adler, AKA Destiny, as the one who actually gave birth to him, with Mystique passing the child off as Baron Wagner's. Marvel scraped the notion as it arose, wishing to avoid a lesbian angle and the writers instead attached Azazel to the story as a canonical stand-in.

Powers
Nightcrawler is a mutant with the ability to teleport from a distance of up to two miles. He also has enhanced agility, reflexes, and dexterity as well as the ability to stick to objects with the surface of his hands and feet.