-Author’s Note: Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know that this story is my thoughts on Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler’s life before he attacked the White House and joined the X-Men, so this is a movie version Kurt. I did my best to work with the common knowledge on his life (like he was born with his mutated appearance and then got his powers later), how Margali found him and stuff—now I know there are different stories on his heritage, but you’ll see that I used Mystique as his mother, but my version on her “happenings” with Kurt’s father are different. Plus, when it comes to Amanda, I know her name is Jemaine originally, but I twisted that a bit. And also, in the comics Margali has a son Stefan, but seeing as this is my own movie verse, he doesn’t exist. Sorry for those that don’t like that, but hey, its fanfiction, right?

I don’t think there’s anything else to say….so enjoy the fic. Please review too, but don’t be that critical. I believe that people are inclined to their own opinions, but if you have to much negative stuff to say about MY fic, then go right your own they way YOU want to see it if you don’t like it. With that out of my hair, enjoy!

-All German words/phrases are in italics—and their translations are at the bottom of each chapter….if they’re incorrect, blame the Google Translator…lol

-Disclaimer: Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Margali, Amanda, the X-Men do not belong to me; this story was just for my enjoyment and to share with others. The only person I could take claim on is Trent Brown, but he’s not that important to me….lol.

Introducing the Incredible Nightcrawler

Chapter 1

Birth of a Demon

It was extremely cold, but not cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground just yet. Light flakes fell from the dark sky above, melting the instant it reached any surface. The weather wasn’t unusual for this time of year; well, in Germany that is.

What was unusual was to see a small vehicle making its way along a dark, narrow, and very desolate country road in the city of Munich at one o’clock in the morning.

The car carried two passengers: a man in his forties and his wife-to-be sitting next to him. The man’s name was Eric Wagner, and although his fiancée gave a good hour or more of undying protests, he drove to a place where he was to meet someone from his very recent past. His curly salt and pepper hair was not being its normally tame self, especially at this time of night; his blue eyes looked through the small round glasses that rested on his nose with complete alertness. The only movement he mad other than driving the car was when he felt a sharp pain shoot through his left arm, making his face scrunch in a moment’s agony.

“Eric, I don’t see the point,” Carolyn, his thirty-seven year old fiancée repeated for what could be the hundredth time. “You haven’t seen her since last winter and now she wants to give you something that belongs to you? What the hell does that mean?”

For a moment the driver was silent. Then he took a large intake of air and raised an eyebrow. “Let me put it this way,” he said. “When Raven wants something, she gets it, one way or another. And if she wants to give me something, its either I meet her like she proposed, or she’ll hunt me down…” he paused for a brief moment, his Adam’s apple holding still in his throat. “And that couldn’t always be pleasant…”

Carolyn let out a frustrated sigh. She started to wonder just why she left the warmth of their home. She didn’t have to go with him, but it was probably because she didn’t trust this Raven woman any more than she could throw the nasty twit.

“This is it.” The car came to a squeaky stop in front of a large sign that held the fading painted letters reading: Füssen. He took another large breath and wiped the sweat away from his brow.

“The border? She wants you to wait at the border of Munich and Füssen?” Carolyn asked as she watched Eric unbuckle himself from the driver’s seat.

Eric didn’t answer. He opened the door of the car and paused as he watched the sly form of a woman holding some sort of bundle emerging from the shadows next to the wooden sign. Carolyn squinted, trying to make out the figure. She had only heard of this Raven woman, and she didn’t like her. When Eric was away on business he met this woman in a café in France. He had a brief affair with her, but quickly returned to his small home in Munich when he found out just who, rather say what, she was.

Carolyn was getting out of the car when she caught her first glance of what seemed to be someone naked and blue. Just as she opened her door and stepped out, the creature before her stopped and gave her a nasty glare. Carolyn had never seen anything like it. A full-grown woman, wearing nothing but what seemed to be pointy scales plotting her royal blue skin. Red, if not orange, hair was streaked back in perfection behind her head, and yellow eyes stared at the couple as they emerged from the automobile.

“What do you want, Raven?” Eric asked. He felt so weak. For a moment he thought the weight of his body was going to break his legs. And now that he thought about it, he wasn’t feeling that great.

Raven smiled, pearly white teeth becoming very clear through her blue lips. She gracefully walked up to her former lover, completely ignoring the presence of his fiancée. “I come bearing a memento for you,” she said. Her voice was almost scratchy as if she had been shouting for a long time.

“If this is some game of yours—” Eric started but was quickly silenced by the high-pitched cries from the bundle in Raven’s arms. “Nein…” he said through a quickened exhale.

Raven’s blue hands unfolded part of the bloodstained, white blanket that she carried. “He has your stupid nose,” she replied as she let Eric Wagner look upon what was clearly a newly born child.

Eric gasped. He had never seen something so hideous in his life. The baby in her arms resembled no infant he had ever seen before. Although they were only given the light from the car’s headlights and the moon above, Eric could see the demonic features of what was supposed to be his child. Dark blue skin—darker than Raven’s—and elf-like ears were the main features of its face, but it almost made him sick when he saw a small two-finger, one-thumbed hand yank itself free from the blanket.

“This is not mine,” he said, taking a step back.

Raven smiled, her yellow eyes flashing in the direction of Carolyn. “Think of him as a wedding gift. You always wanted a son, Eric.” She didn’t give the man a chance to reply when she shoved the baby into his arms.

The sudden movement of his left arm clutching the babe made Eric’s legs finally give way. His chest ached with such a throbbing pain he didn’t know what was happening around him. He let out a cry as he watched Raven walk elegantly towards his fiancée.

Carolyn took a step back and grabbed the side mirror of the car, as if to hold on before falling. She would’ve started to tell this freak off, but words were lost as this mutant creature suddenly changed her face to take on the features of her future husband.

“Happy years to come for you and your ailing husband,” she said as her face reverted back to its natural look.

Carolyn gasped as Raven walked away, disappearing into the darkness of the early November night. She could feel her heart pounding and her lungs trying desperately to catch her breath. When her senses finally returned only a moment later, she realized Eric was now laying on the ground, the child screaming next to him.

“Eric!” She yelled out and dropped to her knees next to him. She rolled him over to see his frozen face. His blue eyes stared blankly up at her. This merely made her lungs yell out even more, as she seemed to forget how to breathe all together. The only thing that was keeping her brain working normally was the cries of the wet, cold, and hungry baby squirming in its birth blankets next to her dead fiancée.

Carolyn calmed herself down and moved over to the baby. If this was Eric’s child, then the least she could do was take it back to the city and find it a home. She never wanted kids in the first place.

Her back to the headlights of the car, she didn’t notice anything unusual about the infant. Until, that is, she picked it up and felt something tapping against her knee. Carolyn held the baby away and screamed when she saw a tail with an arrowhead tip hang from the bottom of the kid. She screamed out and put it next to Eric again, only making the baby cry louder. Its yellow eyes looked up at her, pleading with her to take it to safety, but Carolyn could only yell louder. She had never seen such a monster.

There wasn’t even a pause or a second thought of running to the car and driving away as quickly as possible. She already figured it out; she’d go home and call the police, telling them everything. They could take care of Eric’s body and find a zoo for that beast. Between a blue woman that could change her appearance and an ugly little baby, she had had enough and was set on moving back to Berlin with her sister.

* * *

Margali Szardos could barely keep her eyes open. Whenever they failed her and started to shut once again, a bump in the road caused the truck to bounce and wake her back up. She was happy she wasn’t driving this time. She had had enough for one day. There’s nothing like packing up a circus in the snow.

Not only was it a long and tiring day with her circus crew and the equipment they carried from country to country, but her 1 ½ year old daughter seemed to be coming down with a cold and wouldn’t stop crying.

“Munich, one mile,” a man that went by the name of Chester told her as he drove slowly down the dark country road. “Damn, I can’t wait to get home. I’m tired, cold, and hungrier than the devil himself.”

“I feel the same,” Margali said. She reached up and pulled her hair out of its bun; long blonde locks draped across her shoulder and she let out a deep sigh. Her brown eyes peered over her shoulder to her sleeping daughter, Amanda, who had finally fallen asleep.

Chester’s bearded mouth slightly opened as he looked over his glasses. “You see that?”

Margali hadn’t been paying much attention to the road, but when he brought it to her attention she sat up from her slouching position and looked over the dashboard of the truck. “Looks like something in the road.”

Chester slowed the truck down and put it into park just as Margali opened the door to get out and see what was lying in their path. The trucks and vans following behind them stopped as well and each driver got out, wondering what was wrong.

“Something’s up front here,” Chester called back to them.

“Chester! Get over here!” Margali’s voice yelled in the blackness of the night.

Chester came running over and was appalled at the sight. A man, not much younger than him, lay dead in the road. “Poor guy,” he said. “Wonder what happened to him.”

Margali hadn’t paid him any attention. She was too busy picking up the bundle of blankets that lay close by. “Oh Heavenly Father…” She pulled down the uppermost blanket and was taken aback when she saw a very cold, very wet, and probably very hungry baby. “It can’t be very old,” she said.

“Its still alive?” Chester asked as Margali stood up and went to the trailer their truck was hauling. She flipped on the battery-operated overhead light to get a better look at the small infant.

The thirty-year-old woman gasped when the light washed over the small, innocent face of the baby in her arms. “Mein Gott,” she said as she studied the blue face. She set the child on the table and untangled the blue creature from the bloodstained blankets. She had never seen anything like it. A little baby boy with very soft, velvety blue skin, pointy ears, and a small tail that reminded her of Satan’s own.

“He’s a mutant,” Chester said coming up behind her.

“He’s not very old,” Margali said moving to the overhead cabinet and pulling down several heavy towels and blankets. “I’d say maybe a day at the most.”

“Whoever he belongs to obviously didn’t want a mutant child. I’m gonna go see who that fella is out there,” he said, leaving Margali to cleaning up the baby.

The baby had opened its yellow eyes and started crying rather loudly. And although Margali was tired of hearing her own daughter’s screams, she still couldn’t help but feel sorry for this little boy. Who could possibly be that cruel? She thought.

They waited several hours for the police to finally show up. A young kid that recently joined up with the Szardos’ Traveling Munich Circus volunteered to drive into town to the nearest payphone and call the cops. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew went on so they could finally see the homes they’ve been missing for two weeks. All except, that is, for Margali, Chester, little Amanda, and now the newborn baby that was found in the road.

With the truck running to keep the heat inside the cab going so the two infants could stay warm, Margali stood by the door with Chester until one of the cops came up to explain the story they created from the scene.

“Just looks to me like that the guy had a heart attack,” he said, rubbing his head. “Guy’s name was Eric Wagner. We’ve got his license and stuff, but there was nothing else on him. Not even any money. We called his apartment but there wasn’t any answer. My men are checking up to see if he has any family, but doesn’t sound like it yet.”

“So some guy had a heart attack in the middle of nowhere?” Chester asked, a little confused.

The officer shrugged. “Who the heck knows. We’ll look into it. We thank you folks for sticking around and contacting us.”

Margali and Chester didn’t wait around much longer, and although she felt guilty in a way because it wasn’t her child, Margali didn’t tell the police about the baby. With a body like that, there was bound to be nothing but trouble for the little guy.

“So now what?” Chester asked. “You gonna keep it?”

“Wouldn’t you?” Margali asked looking down into her lap. She held the baby mutant, feeding it some of her daughter’s own milk formula through a bottle. “Poor thing is starving.”

“Much longer and he would’ve been like that guy.” There was a moment of silence. Then Chester’s brown eyes glanced over at the blue mutant. “Think that guy was his father or something?”

“Dunno,” Margali said as she put the now empty bottle down. She held the mutant child over her shoulder to burp him. “Guess we should assume that much.”

The low rumble of the engine was the only silence-breaking sound they listened to for the rest of the way home. Chester pulled the truck and trailer up the driveway of an old farmhouse, nestled in the farmland outside of Munich.

Margali agreed to let the supplies they had in the trailer wait until morning when there was actually a sun to let them see things. She was more than exhausted now, but the mutant in her arms kept her wide-awake and thinking.

Chester carried in the one suitcase Margali would need into the house as she situated Amanda in the playpen set up in the small living room. Then she brought the baby mutant to the couch and set him on the soft cushions.

“So what are ya gonna name him?” Chester asked after allowing a large yawn to escape his mouth.

“You know, I really haven’t thought about that,” she said.

“Eh, name him Eric or whatever.”

Margali shook her head as she pulled a diaper out of the bag she kept for Amanda. “Not after his father. I’ll think about it. Right now I want to get them to bed and hit the sack myself. I’m ready to drop.”

“Need anything while I’m here?”

Margali thought for a moment, mostly because she was busy figuring out how to put a diaper on a baby with a tail. “Nein. I’m fine. You go home and get some sleep.”

When Chester had left and Amanda was in her crib fast asleep, Margali sat on her bed watching the small mutant baby squirm in his sleep on her bed. “Poor thing,” she said. She had heard about the mutants in the world, but never saw one that she new of. And she never knew that mutants would have such a human deformity. If you can call it that, she thought to herself. He looks human to a certain extent, but has the features of a devil. Thank God he’s not red.

Finally, after thinking about him for several minutes, Margali put him to bed in the crib with Amanda. There shouldn’t be any problem with the two of them together. She stood over the rails of the crib for a few extra minutes. Her daughter was the most precious thing she ever had.

She cursed herself for messing herself up with a screwball with the likes of Michael Sefton, her previous boyfriend. Only a few weeks after Margali found out she was pregnant, wonderful Michael decided he had enough of her and went off to England.

She didn’t think she’d ever be a good mother; but now she has two kids to look after. And what would she do when this mutant child grew older? Sure, she could hide him for a few years, but eventually he’ll want to go off and see things.

Her thoughts drifted away from Michael Sefton, to the past two weeks in Switzerland, to that night’s events, to the reason why she owned a circus in the first place. Her uncle had created the circus years ago when he was barely out of high school. She remembered the stories her father and uncle told her about how angry their parents were about it. They were constantly told it would never be successful.

Although Margali didn’t have the biggest house and the most money in Germany, she wasn’t a poor mother struggling for a loaf of bread. She had a good crew to work with, and a good life to live. All because of her Uncle Kurt.

She looked at the little mutant boy. “Kurt,” she whispered. It seemed to fit him, for whatever strange reason. “Kurt Wagner. Guess I’ll call you that, huh?” She said to the sleeping baby. A small smile crept across her mouth. He was a cute little thing, even if he was blue.

*********

Munich, Füssen, and Berlin are cities in Germany—Füssen is near the Bavarian Alps, which is the supposed place of Kurt’s birth. Munich, of course the city Margali’s circus is from (at least in the movie…. depending on where you read it might say the Berlin Circus for the comics???) and Berlin is the capital of Germany and honestly the only city I could think of quickly. ^_^()

German Translations: Nein-No

Ja-Yes

Mein Gott-My God

Author’s Note: (I know…you’re tired of my notes…but hey, it might need clarification), you’ll notice I always refer to Kurt’s age (of course) in most chapters. In my fic Kurt was born in 1984—mostly because when I was watching the deleted scenes on the DVD, I noticed when Mystique was searching through the computer files she came up on Kurt’s file—and if you pause you can see in very small letters what appears to be “DOB: 5/1984” (something like that….the exact numbers a little foggy now, but it does say 1984). I’ve seen in several places his birthday could be November 11^th, so I combined it to November 11^th, 1984. KK? ^_^